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The Utah Jazz are once again looking for the first victory of the season. Coming up fruitless on a four game road trip the Jazz look to change their fortunes at home tonight against the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets are not a powerhouse, in fact they are quite bad this year, but they do have something we don't, they have one win.
It looks like the company stance on the Jazz's losing ways is that its NOT Head Coach, Tyrone Corbin's fault. I've seen quite a few tweets today and comments here at SLC Dunk how 1280 this morning and how David Locke in his tipoff are saying Corbin is not to blame for the losses.
My question is why? If we give credit to Ty for squeaking into the 2012 NBA playoffs, if we give Ty credit for winning 43 games last season with a roster full of "expiring contracts" and "youth", if we give Ty credit for all the wins why can we not blame Ty for the losses?
This is not to say that Ty is the ONLY one to blame but he has some responsibility in how the team performs right? I mean why even have a head coach if he is not responsible for team performance? If coaches didn't matter then why did we hold onto Jerry Sloan for 23 years? Wouldn't it have been much CHEAPER for the Jazz especially with a conservative owner like Larry Miller to hire a new cheap young coach after the "glory years" were over?
Coaching does matter.
The wonderful columnist Kurt Kragthorpe at the Salt Lake Tribune wrote an article about Ty's coaching adventure with the Jazz. Please go read it. Kurt is fair and makes a lot of good points. This line stood out to me:
Corbin definitely deserves an opportunity to coach Trey Burke, who broke a finger during the preseason. But to say Corbin is exempt from firing just because the Jazz think of themselves as different from other pro sports franchises would be ridiculous. All disclaimers aside, there’s a point in the proceedings when keeping the coach is counterproductive to any team’s growth.
We do not want to stunt the growth of our players. The Jazz media can scream that Ty is the best coach of all coaches that ever existed in the history of NBA coaches till they're blue in the face; but, if his coaching greatness doesn't show in how the players play it's all moot.
Tonight the Jazz have the opportunity to get their first win. Its probably the best chance they have to get a win until maybe after Thanksgiving and they play the Phoenix Suns again. Speaking of the Suns (5-2) remember this from the summer...
The Nuggets aren't having that much better of a season than the Jazz so far. Tonight they'll be looking for their first road win and they'll be doing it without Javale Mcgee. Mcgee is out with a stress fracture in his left tibia.
In their last game the Denver Nuggets lost to the Phoenix Suns. This is what Coach Brian Shaw thought about the game:
Coach Brian Shaw was disappointed in the effort from some of his players against Phoenix, and he shared his views with the team at practice Sunday.
"As coaches, we can’t coach effort," Shaw said. "We can coach everything else on the floor, but we can’t coach effort. That’s something they have to take pride in and they have to bring every single day."
Shaw also had nice things to say about former Jazzman Randy Foye:
Shaw is depending on Foye for leadership after the eight-year veteran was acquired as part of a sign-and-trade with Utah and the Golden State Warriors this past summer.
"We have young guys who need direction," Shaw said. "We’re giving as much direction as we can from a coaching standpoint, but sometimes they need to get it from their peers. He has been providing that."
Foye, averaging 10.6 points so far this season, happily accepts the added responsibility.
I imagine we'll see a tough fought game. I know I keep saying that but I really think at some point the Jazz will turn it around so, why not tonight?
The Jazz will be wearing special Navy uniforms today to honor Veterans and Marvin Williams will be addressing the crowd before the game (his dad served in the Navy)
I hope the Jazz have their fan support tonight. Losing is hard and I am not going to tell people how to be a fan, be upset, be happy, be numb whatever works for you! Losing is hard but lets hope its for the greater good and lets hope that the players give us reason to continue to support the Jazz.
Go Jazz!