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Revisiting Lindsey's Three D's: How's Quin Doin'?

As a reminder, Dennis Lindsey talked about judging the coaches on the three D's, as quoted from Moni's blog, Jazz Fanatical

[We] are gonna evaluate the coaches on building a defensive foundation. You know, building a disciplined level of play. And development, individual development, of the young guys in a team setting.

So how about we evaluate Quin after his first 60 games as Jazz coach by those metrics?

Defense

This was an area that looked pretty bad at the beginning of the year, but has methodically improved in a clear trend since that awful start.

Our DRtg by month from NBA.com is sufficiently instructive. Over the entire season, the Jazz are at a 104.0 DRtg. In comparison, a 108.4 by Minnesota is the worst defense and 97.9 from Golden State is the best defense.

Oct. 121.6

Nov. 107.2

Dec. 107.1

Jan. 102.1

Feb. 97.0

Mar. 93.7

If the last two months are any indication, the Jazz should be a top-5 defense next year. This is a huge turnaround from the beginning of the season and is a clear sign of success for coach Quin and the team.

Discipline

This is a bit nebulous to evaluate. Is the "level of play" disciplined?

Booker has the most technical fouls for the season with 3, followed by Kanter and Ingles.

The free throw rate for opposing teams has dropped from 0.227/FGA to 0.198/FGA.

There are a lot of turnovers (14.6%, 26th) and our offensive shot selection is middling. However, given the youth of the ball-handlers, it isn't surprising that we aren't great in these categories.

Development

Are our young and inexperienced players developing?

Rookies minutes (MPG)

Exum - 1233 (20.6)

Ingles -1179 (20.7)

Millsap - 568 (21.8)

Hood - 554 (17.9)

Sophomores minutes (MPG, rookie MPG) [Rookie PER, Sophomore PER]

Burke - 1838 (31.2, 32.3) [12.6, 12.7]

Gobert - 1386 (23.1, 9.6) [12.9, 21.8]

Quin's hand has been forced in playing rookies big minutes by injuries in the backcourt. It is hard to evaluate Exum and Hood as the counting and advanced stats aren't super-kind to their production. Ingles and Millsap are elder-journeymen rookies, so they are also a bit different than their Hood-Exum counterparts. Nonetheless, they are all playing.

Gobert has obviously been the big revelation this year in terms of improvement. Some of that is playing time, but a lot of it is clearly year-to-year improvement as well.

Burke hasn't made the leap forward everyone hoped for from his rookie campaign. His minutes are stable, as is his production.

So the only player making a giant leap forward is the one who has had his minutes restricted by having to play at the deepest position on the team. I'll have to wait and see if any of our other rookies or sophomores turn into above-average players before I praise the Quin too much for playing the players he has available.

Anyone, my grades are:

Defense: A+

Discipline: A

Development: B

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.