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The Jazz wave of love continues. On Friday, the venerable Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated dropped his Utah Jazz piece on Friday: The Start of Something Big?
Delving into the Jazz's second half surge, Mannix attended the game in L.A., and got some great quotes from Coach Q. If you don't already love the Coach, you will. Here's what he had to say about making mistakes:
"It’s incredibly important," Snyder says. "It may be painful at times, but that is how we get better. That’s how we process things, even the losing. Take in the larger context and stay focused on the process. Sometimes if a guy makes a mistake enough times, he may never make it again. In a lot of things the only way to learn is through experience."
Go on and read the whole article. It's got great bites from Hayward and Favors, as well as Coach Q.
One of the things stressed by both the players and coach is that the trade of Kanter is not what propelled them to the winning ways they've suddenly achieved. In Mannix's article, the reason for the improvement is simple: they got better(tm). Favors, Hayward and Snyder all make some sort of reference to things just starting to click. It would be extremely unfair to the hard work of this team to assert that the "addition by subtraction" was the cause.
For Kanter's part, he has helped the Thunder... sort of. From our sister sight Welcome To Loud City, here is how Kanter has helped OKC's offense explode.
But since the trade deadline, the team has become elite on offense – something that has continued even without Durant in the lineup – while seeing a significant drop-off on defense with or without Ibaka.
It's a great article, and it's great to see Enes contributing. In short, he's helping keep the flailing Thunder in that 8th playoff spot.
We've had some great positivity around the Jazz, recently. We all deserve it. The majority of Dunkers have been hoping for this team to push for 41 wins. Five hundred basketball would be something everyone can celebrate. It would make this year a resounding success. But what if that's not in the Jazz's plans? Fellow Jazz fan @jazzfernee posed this question on Twitter:
Any chance the jazz are just gonna rest Hayward to tank some games now or nah
— tony (@jazzfernee) March 22, 2015
The first response is one that I think many would agree with:
@jazzfernee Nah. They need to experience winning now. They don't need another young player.
— Dustin Stiglitz (@RealFansStand) March 22, 2015
Our friend and former colleague Clark, had this to say:
@jazzfernee @RealFansStand I don't think the Jazz will be trying to lose, but I think in April, he gets his minutes cut significantly.
— Clark Schmutz (@Clarkpojo) March 22, 2015
What do you think? If the Jazz do cut Hayward's minutes that much, it would be very close to tanking. The Jazz have been horrible offensively without Hayward on the floor.
Speaking of the man:
This will be sad news for a large portion of you: from another sister site, Nets Daily, AK to retire after this season