By Sam Amico
ProBasketballNews.com
I would not want to play against a Jerry Sloan-coached team in the playoffs.
And if you’re talking about Sloan, you must be talking about the Utah Jazz -- as Sloan has coached the Jazz longer than any current coach in any pro sport anywhere (20 years).
As always, the Jazz are methodical, extremely disciplined and rely heavily on their point guard (Deron Williams) and power forward (Carlos Boozer).
I know. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. But if everyone already knows it, how come so few teams can do anything about it?
Credit belongs to Sloan, who has always coaxed the most out of his talent. He always gets his team to keep games close and never let you forget that they‘re there.
That sounds simple, and a lot of coaches like to break out those clichés -- often talking about how their guys “battled until the bitter end.” But Sloan’s teams actually DO IT.
I remember the 2002-03 season, the final for the Hall-of-Fame combo of John Stockton and Karl Malone. The Jazz entered the playoffs as the seventh seed and faced heavily favored Sacramento in the first round.
In one of those games, the Kings broke open a tight game in the final moments, building close to a double-digit lead with less than a minute to play. Still, Sloan instructed the Jazz to foul … and foul … and foul again.
Sure, the Kings were about to win. But Sloan refused to go quietly. He kept dragging out the game, then dragging it out some more. It wasn’t poor sportsmanship or a of denial that victory was out of reach. It was simply Sloan’s way of saying, “You want to beat us? Fine. But we’re gonna make you as miserable as possible.”
Of course, that was back in the days when Stockton and Malone were showing their age. Today, the Jazz are young and spry and play their roles to near-perfection. Again, none of that is a shocker when you’re talking about a team coached by Sloan.
Also, anyone who saw Sloan as a player knows this team really has adopted the image of its coach. The Jazz are always working, sweating, hustling, overachieving.
And as we saw when they reached last year’s Western Conference finals, the Jazz have the talent to make all of that stuff mean something.
AS GOOD AS EVER
Remember before the start of the season, how everyone was giving Williams the edge over Chris Paul when it came to young point guards destined for greatness? That’s changed, but not because Williams has gotten worse. Paul just got better.
But Williams is still very good, as he directed the Jazz to yet another first-round win over poor Houston. In fact, Williams is just as good as he was last season -- as he’s still a guy who can direct Sloan’s offense like a pure, pass-first point guard. But he also has the ability to break down defenders off the dribble when the Jazz are desperate for a basket.
Meanwhile, Boozer is the same old working man’s All-Star he became last season. He chases down each rebound as if its worth a contract extension, and continues to prove that he’s a scary one-on-one scorer.
And just like in the era of Stockton and Malone, the Jazz’s two stars are complemented by a nice blend of role players, guys who may not be big news in another town, but understand and sometimes flourish in Sloan’s system.
Among them is forward Andrei Kirilenko, who has seemingly come to accept the idea of being just another on option while becoming the team’s one true defensive stopper.
And let’s not forget Mehmet Okur, a center who shoots as well from behind the 3-point arc as Kyle Korver, the Jazz’s other 3-point marksman (they both finished the regular season at 38 percent).
Nor should we overlook the maturation and underrated contribution of shooting guard Ronnie Brewer -- considered by some to be a disappointment as a rookie. In reality, it had more to do with Sloan’s tradition of breaking in first-year players slowly (unless, of course, that rookie‘s name was Karl Malone). Either way, Brewer made great strides this year, improving his rookie scoring average of 8.0 points per game to 12 per game. And he did it on a team-best 56 percent from the field this season.
Brewer is also like so many of Sloan’s guys of the present and past, in that he may not be as productive if he played for another team. Heck, you could even say the same about Williams and Boozer.
Korver, forward Paul Millsap and veteran swingman Matt Harpring add passion and ability off the bench, and again, it’s obvious they are products of Sloan’s overall scheme.
I mostly like Sloan because he’s a no-nonsense guy who seems to savor his role as the league’s least-known respected figure. You can tell he’s unimpressed with the modern NBA, the blaring music, the fireworks and the hype.
He’s a driven man, but also a simple man. He wears John Deere ballcaps and collects toys. I once asked him about his coaching philosophy, and he responded sharply, but with a smile.
“Philosophy? What philosophy?” he asked. “I don’t even know how to spell it.”
Maybe not. But as we’ve seen with Sloan and the Jazz, he sure does know how to implement it.
Sam Amico is the editor of Pro Basketball News. Contact him or sign up for his free e-mail newsletter at amico@probasketballnews.com.
NBA: May 3, 2008
Sloan coordinates another Jazz march
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