2 weeks Ago
The Utah Jazz held an unusual practice on Saturday afternoon. Nary a ball was dribbled, nor a shot taken. Instead, after a 41-point shellacking at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in just the second game of the season, head coach Will Hardy chose to spend the entire practice in the film room.
But even that wasn’t standard. Rather than highlighting clips to show where the Jazz had gone wrong, the team watched the entire game together from front to back, taking pauses to get feedback from the players on what they were watching. “It was a really healthy day of everybody, myself included, sort of taking their piece of responsibility for last night,” Hardy said afterward.
The Jazz coach didn‘t yell at the group at any point — “lecture style coaching gets really stale,” he said. Instead, it was the team’s players who brought the criticism. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody (4) drives on the basket wile pressured by Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks (0) and Utah Jazz forward John Collins (20) during an NBA basketball game, Friday, Oct.
25, 2024, in Salt Lake City. “Conversation always starts a little bit slow. People are sort of tiptoeing, and I think for us to get where we want to go, we’ve got to strip some of that down and have the ability to openly communicate with each other where we don’t feel like we have to make every message neat and tidy,” Hardy said.
“It’s definitely good for the introverts of the group to speak up in front of their teammates and to see that speaking up is okay and you don’t get cracked for doing it.” There was certainly a lot to discuss. Among the mishaps noted by Hardy and the team on Saturday: a stretch where noted sharpshooter Buddy Hield was allowed to take three consecutive wide-open threes, the way the team dealt with the Warriors‘ point-of-attack defense, and the entire third quarter — when the Jazz allowed the Warriors to score 38 points but somehow didn’t even commit a single foul while trying to stop them.
“We committed no fouls in the quarter. That’s almost impossible. Like, we didn’t bump into one person, we didn’t chop one person’s arm,” Hardy said.
“Like, that’s really hard to do in a 12-minute stretch, especially when they score 38 points.” As the team broke down play after play, there were three commonalities the team chose to focus on: competitiveness, urgency, and body language. “The body language piece is a big deal for us as a group.
We do not want to be a team that complains, or begs for calls, or is constantly feeling like you’re being wronged. This league has an element to it where it’s you got to go and take it. Nobody’s going to give it to you,” Hardy said.
“Nobody’s going to roll out the red carpet for you. We need to develop that mindset as a group every night, that we should not expect anything, we shouldn’t ask for anything.” Rookie Cody Williams , who also spoke after the film session, noted that he wanted to improve the tenacity of his game, saying he needed to be “more physical,” and get into his opponent’s bodies first before they could shove him off of his spots in the offense.
Hardy agreed — and also called back to his playoff experience with the San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics in discussing Friday night’s loss with the team. “We need to be able to navigate the hard moments because, ultimately, to go where we want to go as a team and as an organization is ugly. The playoffs are nasty, and nobody feels good physically, and you’re tired and you’re emotionally drained, and the stress goes up when you’re physically exhausted,” Hardy noted.
“So how are we going to deal with the tough moments? This is very small scale. In the middle of the second quarter, we have two turnovers, and it looks like the world’s ending. We need to adjust our body language as a team, and so we’re trying to address that now.
” The team now heads to Dallas for a Monday matchup against the Western Conference champions last season. After that, it’s two home games against the Kings and Spurs, both of which could be winnable contests for the Jazz. That is, if they play better.
“We’ve got to hold ourselves to a much, much higher standard,” Hardy said. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson (00) makes a shot on basket past the Golden State Warriors forward Kevon Looney (5) during an NBA basketball game, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
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