Utah Jazz Coaching History: Quin Snyder isn't the only guy who bounced around

The Utah Jazz are a franchise that almost became TOO comfortable with stability. General Manager Dennis Lindsey, new blood from outside of our tribe, has shaken a lot of things up. It's not just the on the court issues from the old regime that are going, but individuals inside the other LHM Group of Companies owned businesses have told me change is happening all over. So maybe it's not just due to Lindsey. Well, at least the Utah Jazz stuff is all Lindsey, because NONE of this is the old Kevin O'Connor way.

KOC drafts best player available, DL uses his draft spots to move to get the player he wants.

KOC hired the next most senior head coach currently drawing a pay check. DL took a guy who had no ties to the franchise.

I could go on and on listing the differences between KOC and DL, but that's not the point. The point here is that changing is coming, and stability -- monotony -- is no longer the default option for the Utah Jazz.

New blood has joined the franchise in first time NBA head coach Quin Snyder. One criticism of Snyder is that he hasn't had that long-term stability. If you look at his history the longest stretches were with Duke (10 seasons there in a 14 year stretch), and then with Missou. Recently he has bounced around a bit. But that's not indicative of some problem. After all, Tyrone Corbin had been in Utah for a decade straight and we know how well that ended.

Change is good, and not to be feared.

And in terms of Utah Jazz head coaches, Quin isn't the only guy who has bounced around. This is a list of every team our last five coaches have been a part of (either as a player or coach).

Note: This does not include the time Elgin Baylor has spent with the Los Angeles Clippers (he was a front office guy / General Manager there), the time Layden spent as a General Manager, or the time Nissalke spent as a radio guy FOR the team. Also there is no record of Nissalke going to High School, so maybe that explains a lot.

But back to Coach Snyder -- he's up there with 10 different franchises. But part of that is due to the change in the game -- everyone is on a shorter leash and loyalty for its' own sake is no longer a thing. Another part of it deals with the changes to the way the game is played. Advances in medicine have prolonged player's careers, they can play longer, and play for more teams. They can be involved in the sport longer, and end up coaching more teams as well. This is a bigger issue if you are counting the years someone is active in basketball (guess what my next post will be about?), but also a factor when you look at their bounce index.

Quin has bounced around a bit, but he's 4th bouncy out of our last 6 coaches. And yes, people forget that Sloan coached in the CBA for a year, and I didn't include the team he agreed to coach, and then resigned after 5 days. (Btw, Sloan's decision to quit the job is all the evidence you need in the world to know that ESP exists, and Jerry Sloan has command over it.) (Which also explains why Kyrylo Fesenko didn't get a lot of playing time, he didn't have a mind to read, so it was a gamble to put him out on the court.)

Getting back to the point, I guess the concept of a "Journeyman" player is seen in a higher regard than a "Journeyman" coach. Ty got a pass because of his recent stability as a long-term assistant with one club. Q, on the other hand, has the opposite experience. Both guys bounced around a lot. Both are a little behind Nissalke who coached in the NBA, ABA, CBA, High School, and NCAA. Nissalke even went on to be some big basketball guy in a league in Canada, IBL? I don't even remember.

Having a lot of work experience matters. Moving beyond that, having workplace performance matters most. And you don't get job after job unless you are good at it. I guess we're just really spoiled because Jerry Sloan coached for SO LONG; the most unusual thing in the world became normal to us. And we're still trying to break out of those "good old days" ideals. Dennis Lindsey is right on track to modernize the franchise we love. And a 'bouncey' guy like Snyder is a legitimate step in the right direction.