Jazz Head Coach Tyrone Corbin -- Patience is the key

Tyrone Corbin, a 16 year NBA vet who played on 9 different teams, is currently the Utah Jazz head coach. Let's look at some facts about the coach though. First, he had a field promotion in the middle of the worst season in modern Jazz history. A few days after his promotion the front office traded away his best player for a collection of future talent. After the season ended he had to deal with an NBA lockout where he couldn't even TALK to his players. After a truncated training camp, and 2 whole pre-season games, a 66 game schedule that did not allow for practices further hampered his opportunity to actually figure out a game plan, coach close games, have practices, and catch his breath. It's not easy following a legend. But the situation that Corbin was given was really "hard mode." He had players who didn't know the team, didn't know the plays, didn't know each other, and in some cases, didn't know the NBA speed as they were too young.

And he still made the playoffs on his first full season as an NBA Head Coach.

He's not perfect, and I am quite vocal with my displeasure with him at times -- but it would be absolutely hypocritical of me to preach patience and playing time (enough to even make mistakes without worry of being replaced) for the youth, and not afford the same to our coach as well. Seriously, this isn't like we hired Mike Fratello who has coached since the 70s, and he was failing. We hired a guy who had never been the head coach before on any level, and he made the playoffs last year.

Tyrone Corbin has coached 98 total games in his career -- 94 in the regular season. He's only a few games under .500. (44-50 in the regular season) Do you know what Jerry Sloan's coaching record was after two seasons? Jerry finished 75 and 89 after his first two seasons. That's a winning percentage of .457. What is Ty's after two seasons? Ty's winning percentage (in the regular season) is .468. So . . . yeah . . . Tyrone Corbin's first two season's as a head coach have a greater winning percentage than Jerry Sloan's first two seasons. Sloan was then FIRED in his third season after starting off 19-32.

But hey, Sloan made mistakes and learned from them and became a Hall of Famer. Tyrone may have that in him, but we're not going to know unless we a) give him the opportunity to make decisions, b) learn from his mistakes, and c) watch him grow. I'm not asking for people to all of a sudden find that there is no legit reason to criticize Corbin. I think we worry about his offensive game plan, his substitutions, and even who he gives DNP-CDs to. But he should be allowed to make mistakes. If I can be okay with Gordon Hayward not shooting when he's open, or Alec Burks driving into a congested lane, or Derrick Favors getting baited into early foul trouble, or Enes Kanter get his shot blocked the same way twice in the same half - - - then I should be okay with Tyrone also making mistakes.

Do I expect Ty to be perfect this upcoming season? No. Will I get upset with him at times? Yes. Does that mean I think he's the wrong coach for the Jazz? No. Do I think that he COULD be a good NBA coach down the line? Yes.

Would I be a hypocrite if I wanted patience and on court experience for the C4 while trying to get rid of Tyrone so early into his career?

Yes.

I don't want to be a hypocrite, so I'm going to expect slow improvement from our Head Coach and trust that he will improve with more experience . . . just like the rest of our youth core.