From a purist standpoint, nothing beats classic Utah Jazz.
The Beat Goes On For the Jazz
There is an old adage that says 'what's old is new and what's new is old' and there is no place that maxim applies more than the Utah Jazz who are looking to go one step beyond last season's loss in the Western Conference Finals. The Jazz haven't been to the NBA Finals since 1997-1998 and with the window closing on head coach Jerry Sloan, they would love to give him one last kick at the can.
While there is a movement in this new era of the NBA to try and play up-tempo, Sloan is content to try it but at the same time never venturing very far from the tried and true methodology that has produced a .500 or better record in 17 of his 20 seasons as an NBA coach. In Utah, Sloan has only had one "sub-Mendoza" campaign. The new style that most teams are trying to play is actually old if you harken back to the 1970's when teams regularly rang the cash register for more than 100 points a game and there was little defense played. Today teams are scoring more but they are getting help from rules that promote offence as a result of limiting contact by defensive players and the ugliness that prevailed from the late 1980's through the 1990's. But Sloan's Jazz play an old style that is something many coaches would readily adapt and like to drill into this new generation when the fast paced game doesn't produce the necessary scores.
Your daddy's Utah Jazz were about old school execution in the half court setting. You knew it was coming but you couldn't stop it. They played screen and roll with John Stockton handling the ball and Karl Malone setting bruising screens and, regardless of what you did to try and counter it, they found a way to beat you. Opponents always made a mistake in some way, shape, or form, as they could never take every option away from Utah's deadly tandem. If the screen and roll wasn't working, there was the shuffle cut off the high-post (commonly called the UCLA cut as it was popularized by John Wooden in winning his 10 titles at the collegiate level) combined with a variety of cross screens, back (rip) screens and precision passing that led to a score.
Fast forward to 2007-08 and although the game has evolved, Sloan still has his team rooted in precise half court effectiveness in the event all else fails. Yes, the Jazz are one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA thanks to Sloan emphasizing the running game more this season. Up-tempo is not new to Utah as running is something Stockton and Malone used to do regularly in conjunction with their screen and roll proficiency. Youngsters that don't believe me need only watch old Jazz games on classic TV to see Malone barreling down the wing and knifing in at a perfect 45-degree angle from the foul line, extended, and catching Stockton's passes in stride for dunks.
Not only do you not want to run with Utah this season, as Deron Williams has morphed into the role of Stockton, and Carlos Boozer's game bears a relentless resemblance to Malone's, you still don't want to get into a half-court game with them. Williams and Boozer have some help this year with Ron Brewer and a rejuvenated Andrei Kirilenko on the perimeter. Next time you happen to watch a Jazz game and it's close in the late going, keep an eye out for Jerry Sloan standing up and signaling for "C" cuts or the UCLA offence that will at least get them the shot they want.
"For many years it was the Stockton to Malone era that really carried this franchise," veteran broadcaster Ron Boon told The FAN 590. "They fit into Jerry Sloan's style of coaching. His philosophy was perfect for both of those guys and since then it's been the Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer show. Both of those guys complement each other and play a similar style to what we saw with John Stockton and Karl Malone."
On Utah's recent trip to Toronto they beat the Raptors the old fashioned way. Neither team could get its running game in gear and the offence, in general, was misfiring for both sides, but late in the game, the Jazz pulled out its trump card to leave town with a win.
So the beat goes on for Sloan and the Jazz as they draft young players that fit their system, and teach them, the old fashioned way. They are fun to watch not just for their scoring this year but from a purist standpoint, you have to admire how they carry out their half court sets with the precision of a surgeon. Watch the Jazz carefully because systems like Sloan's are rare and not being cultivated by many of the modern era's NBA bench bosses.
