Will the Utah Jazz’s Quin Snyder be Coach of the Year?

There is a lot less intrigue for Jazz fans surrounding the draft lottery than there was just two years ago, which is of course a good thing. It’s still worth mentioning though because you never know what kind of trades or movement might happen on draft night. Plus it’s alway fun speculate who might go #1 overall. Reply in the comments, who would you choose if you were the Phoenix Suns and you had the #1 pick: Luka Doncic or Deandre Ayton and why?

The disappointment of season being over is starting to wear off for most Jazz fans. This is when it starts to get exciting to think about what kinds of free agents the front office might be able to sign. There are a few big name free agents on the market this year and I think every team not named the Spurs are anxious to see if there is any possibility of prying Kawhi Leonard away from the San Antonio Spurs. Other than that, there are a lot of unknowns right now. A lot of Jazz fans would probably agree with GM Dennis Lindsey that we need to add one more big wing who can defend and shoot the 3 consistently. A lot of fans immediately think of Paul George, but if he signs elsewhere, who do we get? What about Derrick Favors? It would be hard to replace him in my opinion but if we can’t re-sign him, I am confident that Dennis Lindsey has a backup plan in place. It will be interesting to see how all those decisions play out. The nice thing for Jazz fans this year is that we don’t have to worry about the possibility of our 4th of July being ruined because we have a wishy washy unrestricted free agent who can’t make up his mind.

Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images

After the relatively short and non-competitive 2nd round of the NBA playoffs. I was hoping for a more compelling conference finals series from both sides. Even though the loss to the Houston Rockets still stings a bit, it is interesting to see them go up against the Golden State Warriors. Honestly, I would like to see the Warriors get dethroned and humbled a little bit but it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out that way after game #1. If you don’t have a horse in the race anymore(or even if you do), who ya got to win it all?

I would say I am pulling for the Celtics if not for the fact that I don’t want Gordon Hayward to get a ring ever(especially not after playing a total of 5 minutes all season). So I am pulling for the Cavs at this point, not necessarily a Lebron fan but I like Rodney Hood and Kyle Korver and I wish them success.

There was a subtle hint yesterday that the Jazz might be playing on Christmas this year…….

Personally I think this would be awesome! If true, I like the change to let all of the previous year’s playoff teams play on Christmas. It’s not as abitrary and it give the fans a little bit extra of something to look forward to. Of course, there may end up being teams that are good one year and then are awful the next. Other than that I see no downside to this. It would be interesting to hear what most players think of the change.

Some “breaking news” regarding NBA awards today, which has already been covered with separate posts on SLCDUNK. I use the quotes because it’s not really breaking news that Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are nominated for Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year respectively(Now if they both win then that would be some pretty awesome news for Jazz fans). But it is notable that Coach Quin Snyder was selected as one of three finalists for Coach of the Year. That is remarkable considering that when the season started Quin Snyder and COY weren’t a part of the same conversation for anybody. If you look at this season in a vacuum and don’t take into account any variables, then Brad Stevens is probably the most deserving of the award honestly because the Celtics are playing like legitimate title contenders. But let’s not forget that even though Brad Stevens is a great coach who has a reputation for being able to get the most out of his players; he has a lot of lottery talent on that team. Most national “experts” had the Celtics possibly getting to this point, and most of the starting lineup are top 10 picks plus you have an all star like Al Horford as an anchor The Jazz have two stars on the team also to be fair, however, if you look at the adversity the Jazz faced combined with the fact that they play in the Western Conference, the choice has to be Quin Snyder. The most compelling argument for me is that I think any other team that was 19-28(including the Celtics) after being more than halfway through the season would have packed it in. It’s truly amazing and inspiring that Quin was able to keep his guys focused and help them get better over the course of the season. In the words of a recently retired NBA superstar who may or may not have played for the Los Angeles Lakers “It’s not about where you start the season, but how you finish”. Even though the Celtics went farther in the playoffs this year, the Jazz exceeded expectations by the widest margin in my opinion and a lot of credit for that has to go to their coach.