Last Sunday when the Jazz played the Kings in Sacramento, head coach Quin Snyder moved his team around, and interchanged players in positions at various times. He said that he was more pleased than anything, with the outcome and that collectively as a group, the team was able to play well.
Today after shoot-around, when Snyder was asked if there was a possibility that individual players were having to prove themselves, he steered away from using the word “proving” and proposed a more thought provoking approach to success in the NBA.
“I think it’s dangerous to try to prove something- because by definition it’s about you. It’s very possible that you are doing things you don’t need to do. You end up hurting yourself in trying to prove something individually. I think the guys that are able to compete and do the things that they are good at doing, are the guys that generally are successful and play well in those situations,” said Snyder.
Players that focus on other teammates, and using their talents and capabilities to build a team are the players that tend to have success in the NBA, and they aren’t taking unnecessary steps to advance.
The success that the Jazz have seen thus far this season, isn’t based solely on wins or losses, but by the efforts distributed equally among the team. A stronger defense has evolved that took less time than expected, free throws are improving, and essentially these things paved the way for players to have opportunites to score more points as well.
Jazz power forward Gordon Hayward has mentioned a couple times that he is impressed with how quickly the team’s defense has come together.
“I like our defense and how it’s grown. It’s gone from one of the – “in the bottom in the league defenses” to one that I think people don’t want to play or compete against,” said Hayward.
By the way of passing, Snyder mentioned that they will always be working on less turnovers when playing any team because that’s how they are moving the ball. Having more turnovers was something that he predicted early on in the season when he stated that the team would be playing with “pace and purpose.”
LISTEN TO COACH SNYDER TALK WITH THE MEDIA FOLLOWING SHOOT AROUND HERE:
The Utah Jazz host the Sacramento Kings tonight, Wednesday April 8th 2015 at EnergySolutions Arena at 7:00pm.
