I'm not sure the game has passed Sloan by. Given his success compared to most other coaches in the league, I'd say it has not. He's not won a championship lately not due to bad coaching but due to inferior talent, IMHO.
That said, my beef with Sloan always has been that he appears unaccountable. Can't win on the road last few years? Doesn't Sloan share at least some of the blame for failure to prepare and motivate? Lose winnable games down the stretch last two years that would have improved our playoff seeding? Doesn't Sloan share at least some of the blame for choking down the stretch? (Ok, last year it was a lot on Boozer for skipping the final game with Phoenix that he cold have played in, albeit with some pain.) Can't muster any kind of serious challenge against Lakers last few years in playoffs? Doesn't Sloan share at least some of the blame for team's failure to show up?
The patter seems to be that when the Jazz fail, the organization looks at everyone and everywhere for a solution, but never at Sloan. Is HE to blame? Well, if we think coaches and coaching matters, how can he not be at least part of it? Is it possible that he's a major part of it? I don't know, but I'd like to think that the Jazz organization is at least willing to consider the possibility, but it does not appear to be so.
Heck, other iconic coaches have been shown the door: Tom Landry (who won titles), Bud Grant (another underachiever who couldn't get over the hump), Bobby Bowden (who won titles), etc. Why is Sloan untouchable and unaccountable? I don't think that's a healthy position for the franchise to be in. Again, I'm not advocating that the Jazz dump him, but I AM advocating that it be willing to consider it, and that it look at Sloan as objectively as it presumably does at the players.
