Thank you, Quin Snyder

After eight seasons of coaching the Utah Jazz, Quin Snyder is saying goodbye. Before stepping down, Snyder was the fourth-longest tenured active head coach in the NBA, behind only legends Gregg Popovich, Erik Spoelstra, and Steve Kerr. In his eight seasons, Snyder managed an impressive 372-264 record. That record is even more impressive when you remember that when Snyder began coaching the Jazz, they had just come off a 25-57 season.

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

“Coach Q” quickly turned that rebuilding team into a playoff threat. In his third season as head coach, he led the Jazz to 51 wins, a playoff berth, and a series win.

Of all Quin Snyder’s accomplishments, perhaps none are as impressive as his belief in and development of a young Rudy Gobert. When Snyder was hired, Gobert had completed his rookie season in which he played fewer than 10 minutes per game and was widely seen as a longshot to be an effective NBA player. Coach Snyder saw potential in the young center and made the controversial decision to start him over the more established and more statistically productive Enes Freedom (then known as Enes Kanter). Two years later, Gobert earned All-NBA 2nd team honors. Currently, Gobert is well on pace for a Hall of Fame induction, and one has to wonder what his career would have looked like if Quin Snyder hadn’t been his coach.

Other successes of Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz tenure include his discovery and development of Joe Ingles, his trust in a rookie Donovan Mitchell, and his orchestration of elite defenses and elite offenses. When given a roster full of scrappy defenders, he maximized them and posted the best defense in the NBA. When dealt a hand of shooters, he organized them into the best offense in the league.

Snyder was a significant part of the three-point revolution in the NBA. While he didn’t start it, he did push it forward with enthusiasm. The 2021-22 Utah Jazz shot 43 three-pointers per game, good for third-most all-time behind only the Houston Rockets in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Quin Snyder developed an offense built on utilizing drive & kick movement, rim gravity, and ball movement. “The Blender”, as it was called, is the engine that kept Utah’s offense running despite losing their best offensive player in free agency.

Quin Snyder’s playbook was famously, or maybe infamously, difficult to learn. When NBA veteran Mike Conley was acquired by the Jazz, he joked about the complexity of Snyder’s system.

As it turns out, the steep learning curve was worth it. Conley found his role in Snyder’s system and earned his first All-Star appearance. When guys buy in, Quin Snyder can maximize their talents.

Despite never attaining the postseason success that he had aimed for, Quin Snyder’s time in Utah can only be described as a success. He took a young, reeling roster and pushed it into consistent success. He successfully developed all kinds of players, from star lottery picks to unknown fringe players. The Utah Jazz were brought back into NBA relevance mainly on the back of Coach Quin Snyder.

Thank you, Coach. Signed, the Utah Jazz fanbase.