Hanginthere
Member
i'm happy with the win tonight, but i think that some people are too happy about it. It might not be good enough against the contenders.
Btw, those heat and laker wins were when those teams were not at their best. Utah's performance tonight probably wouldn't have beaten either of those teams. Just curbing enthusiasm here. If you want to enjoy your win better, then stop challenging my arguments.
And yes, i do focus very heavily on sloan's coaching, because i look at the game through a coach's (manager's) lenses. Many fans prefer to follow the game more from a player's or gm's perspective. I'm not gonna let sloan's first-quarter disaster or the starting lineup's sluggishness be swept under the rug despite the favorable outcome. Okur and hayward were very promising tonight, and so was jefferson--when he got around to it.
i'm happy with the win tonight, but i think that some people are too happy about it. It might not be good enough against the contenders.
we've beaten the lakers, magic, heat, hornets, and thunder over this 32 game stretch... And we beat the heat, magic, and thunder in their backyard... You can't win them all ingame..
btw, those heat and laker wins were when those teams were not at their best. Utah's performance tonight probably wouldn't have beaten either of those teams. Just curbing enthusiasm here. If you want to enjoy your win better, then stop challenging my arguments.
actually when the jazz played the lakers, they were playing their best basketball at the time, now they've tapered off and have been losing games in the month of december... And actually, the heat weren't playing bad at the time either... It was our comeback victory that kind of sent them into a tailspin, or at least it seemed that way... I would also say we destroyed new orleans and they haven't been the same since... And we played them when they were red hot!
and yes, i do focus very heavily on sloan's coaching, because i look at the game through a coach's (manager's) lenses. Many fans prefer to follow the game more from a player's or gm's perspective. I'm not gonna let sloan's first-quarter disaster or the starting lineup's sluggishness be swept under the rug despite the favorable outcome. Okur and hayward were very promising tonight, and so was jefferson--when he got around to it.
yeah, okur scored some points and he's still got the prettiest shot for a big man that i've ever seen... But he looked as if he took boozer 101 on the defensive end of the court... It was funny because boler asked tyrone corbin at half about a couple of players, and of the players mentioned, he said they were playing physical defense, and then when it came to okur, he kind of fumbled his words because he knew he couldn't say that about okur...
Jefferson has come through for us when it mattered down the stretch in many games this year... I would rather have a player like that then somebody who scores 18 in the 1st quarter just to fizzle out and choke in the 4th... :cough: Boozer :cough:
Oh and by the way... A good coach uses games like this in the regular season to experiment with lineups that are going to help him in the more important games down the stretch... This is good coaching and right now, sloan is trying to figure out some favorable lineups with memo back in the mix... Hey, at least he isn't letting gordon rot on the bench like he would 10 years ago... So give the guy a little credit, he's expanded his coaching philosophy over the years and is still one of the best strategic coaches in the league... I swear, every time this guy calls a timeout or we go to half i can tell that serious strategic adjustments were made... Either we come out in a zone (which okur is horrible in), or we expose a matchup, etc that gets this team going and before you know it we're on an 11-2 run or something like that...
Did you see how he completely took griffin out of the game in the 3rd and 4th (all the way up until the end when the game was over and it really didn't matter)... That is coaching... He stuck 3 guys in the vicinity of griffin, and counted on other guys to miss shots... You live and die by the 3 pointer, and even though guys like amino were red hot from 3 in the 1st half, he went ice cold in the 2nd... And the clippers missed quite a few threes which led to easy jazz baskets at the other end... He also shored up our rebounding in the 2nd half and we did better...
That, ingame, is coaching... I've seen a lot of bad coaches being a vikings fan, so i know a little bit about this... You can always tell when adjustments are actually made, or more importantly, adjustments that are effective are made... Not to mention, sloan has got to be one of the best motivators that i've ever seen... To get a team to work hard to come back in games is not an easy thing to do... He has them believing they can come back, because if they didn't they would flounder towards the end and fizzle out...
Say what you want about jerry sloan, but i say he's solid and easily the best coach in the league right now... And yes, i know you're probably going to want to throw phil jackson at me... But tell me... When has that guy ever took a job in which he's had to rebuild a team from the ground up?? Did he really even build the bulls?? I think they may have already been up and comers before he got there... Players like michael jordan rarely emerge because of good coaching, it's usually god given talent... Yet sloan turns garbage into fine wine time and time again... Shandon anderson, chris morris, jeff foster, greg ostertag, antoine carr, maurice williams, deshawn stevenson, etc... I could go on and on here... When these guys left the jazz, most of them did little to nothing! Does phil do that?? No, he's a coach that knows how to keep a bunch of egos playing together without it blowing up into one big brawl between them... Which is also not an easy thing to do, but honestly, i think sloan could do it too if given the chance...
jmo
