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https://www.ksl.com/?sid=30830654&nid=304&title=commentary-dennis-lindsey-is-the-nbas-billy-beane
SALT LAKE CITY — Everything I know about being a general manager of a sports franchise I learned from "Moneyball."
If you need 10,000 hours to master something, I’m at about 20 hours — reading, watching, and rewatching. I’m basically on my way to being an expert, I’m just a few credits shy.
I want to examine the dynamic between a GM and a coach. It seems fairly simple: The GM puts together the team and the head coach decides how to play the players. It seems to be more effective if the two are on the same page, but as Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) taught us in the movie with A’s manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a symbiotic relationship is not required.
For example, GM Beane and manager Howe had a continuous months-long debate over whom to play at first base. Beane wanted Scott Hatteberg, Howe wanted Carlos Pena.
This is how the debate ended.
Beane/Pitt: Can’t start Pena at first tonight. You’ll have to start Hatteberg.
Howe/Seymour Hoffman: I don’t want to go 15 rounds, Billy. The lineup card is mine and that’s all. OK?
Beane/Pitt: The lineup card is definitely yours. I’m just saying you can’t start Pena at first.
Howe/Seymour Hoffman: Well, I am starting Pena at first.
Beane/Pitt: I don’t think so. He plays for the Detroit now.
Next, Jeremy Giambi gets invited into the manager’s office and Beane informs Giambi that he’s been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Beane/Pitt: Art, I can do this all day.
On Tuesday, Lindsey made his seventh trade in less than two years as general manager by acquiring Carrick Felix, a future second-round pick and cash for John Lucas III, Malcolm Thomas, and Erik Murphy; a difference of 56 years and a million bucks.
After John Stockton and Karl Malone, the Jazz staved off rebuilding with great signings with Carlos Boozer and Memhet Okur; player development with Andrei Kirilenko; and a home-run draft pick with Deron Williams.
A decade later, the Jazz are in full rebuild mode almost exclusively through the draft. Lindsey has successfully torn the team down to its foundation and is in the process of building it up.
Last year Tyrone Corbin was Howe to Lindsey’s Beane. Lindsey had youth that needed to be developed and Corbin had veterans who would help him win.
Corbin played the vets, as Howe/Seymour Hoffman pointed out, “In a way that he could explain in interviews next winter.”
After the season, Corbin was searching for a new home. Player personnel decisions was not the only thing that got Corbin fired, but it played a role.
Lindsey has taken the vet bat out of new coach Quin Snyder’s hand. The Jazz have 13 players under contract and the average age is 23.4 years. Steve Novak is a fossil at 31 years old. Jeremy Evans and Trevor Booker are 26, the other 10 are 24 years old or less.
“We decided to go extremely young,” said Lindsey.
Uh, yah ... ya’ think?
Gordon Hayward has worn a Jazz jersey longer than anyone else, and he’s 24 and just finished his fourth season.
The Jazz are destroying the Bucks for the race to the league’s youngest team — Jazz lead 23.4 to the Bucks' 24.2. If the Jazz got rid of Novak they’d have to attach permission slips to their players' per diem.
Lindsey has this freedom because the team owner's have given him great autonomy. They’ve shown patience, spent money and supported drastic change.
It’s a tired storyline, but Enes Kanter, Alec Burks, and Rudy Gobert spent much of last season watching Richard Jefferson, Marvin Williams and even Brandon Rush steal their minutes.
Lindsey got rid of them and those that were playing them. Something tells me that Coach Q won’t be throwing 30 minutes at elder statesmen Novak (31), Booker (26), and Evans (26).
If he does, Lindsey might just give Snyder a wry smile and say, “I can do this all day.”
https://www.ksl.com/?sid=30830654&nid=304&title=commentary-dennis-lindsey-is-the-nbas-billy-beane
SALT LAKE CITY — Everything I know about being a general manager of a sports franchise I learned from "Moneyball."
If you need 10,000 hours to master something, I’m at about 20 hours — reading, watching, and rewatching. I’m basically on my way to being an expert, I’m just a few credits shy.
I want to examine the dynamic between a GM and a coach. It seems fairly simple: The GM puts together the team and the head coach decides how to play the players. It seems to be more effective if the two are on the same page, but as Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) taught us in the movie with A’s manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a symbiotic relationship is not required.
For example, GM Beane and manager Howe had a continuous months-long debate over whom to play at first base. Beane wanted Scott Hatteberg, Howe wanted Carlos Pena.
This is how the debate ended.
Beane/Pitt: Can’t start Pena at first tonight. You’ll have to start Hatteberg.
Howe/Seymour Hoffman: I don’t want to go 15 rounds, Billy. The lineup card is mine and that’s all. OK?
Beane/Pitt: The lineup card is definitely yours. I’m just saying you can’t start Pena at first.
Howe/Seymour Hoffman: Well, I am starting Pena at first.
Beane/Pitt: I don’t think so. He plays for the Detroit now.
Next, Jeremy Giambi gets invited into the manager’s office and Beane informs Giambi that he’s been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Beane/Pitt: Art, I can do this all day.
On Tuesday, Lindsey made his seventh trade in less than two years as general manager by acquiring Carrick Felix, a future second-round pick and cash for John Lucas III, Malcolm Thomas, and Erik Murphy; a difference of 56 years and a million bucks.
After John Stockton and Karl Malone, the Jazz staved off rebuilding with great signings with Carlos Boozer and Memhet Okur; player development with Andrei Kirilenko; and a home-run draft pick with Deron Williams.
A decade later, the Jazz are in full rebuild mode almost exclusively through the draft. Lindsey has successfully torn the team down to its foundation and is in the process of building it up.
Last year Tyrone Corbin was Howe to Lindsey’s Beane. Lindsey had youth that needed to be developed and Corbin had veterans who would help him win.
Corbin played the vets, as Howe/Seymour Hoffman pointed out, “In a way that he could explain in interviews next winter.”
After the season, Corbin was searching for a new home. Player personnel decisions was not the only thing that got Corbin fired, but it played a role.
Lindsey has taken the vet bat out of new coach Quin Snyder’s hand. The Jazz have 13 players under contract and the average age is 23.4 years. Steve Novak is a fossil at 31 years old. Jeremy Evans and Trevor Booker are 26, the other 10 are 24 years old or less.
“We decided to go extremely young,” said Lindsey.
Uh, yah ... ya’ think?
Gordon Hayward has worn a Jazz jersey longer than anyone else, and he’s 24 and just finished his fourth season.
The Jazz are destroying the Bucks for the race to the league’s youngest team — Jazz lead 23.4 to the Bucks' 24.2. If the Jazz got rid of Novak they’d have to attach permission slips to their players' per diem.
Lindsey has this freedom because the team owner's have given him great autonomy. They’ve shown patience, spent money and supported drastic change.
It’s a tired storyline, but Enes Kanter, Alec Burks, and Rudy Gobert spent much of last season watching Richard Jefferson, Marvin Williams and even Brandon Rush steal their minutes.
Lindsey got rid of them and those that were playing them. Something tells me that Coach Q won’t be throwing 30 minutes at elder statesmen Novak (31), Booker (26), and Evans (26).
If he does, Lindsey might just give Snyder a wry smile and say, “I can do this all day.”
