Jerry Sloan’s style of basketball
// January 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Coaching Staff
My friends and I have coined a phrase we call “Sloan Ball.” Jerry Sloan is a “My Way or the Highway” type coach…and, I suspect, person too. He doesn’t put up with the players’ crap. The Jazz play his style of basketball and if you don’t play it then you’re in his doghouse. As a Jazzman, you don’t necessarily have to play well to stay in Sloan’s rotation, you just have to do it his way. His way involves running the plays he calls, making your screens, helping your teammates get open shots, not taking contested jumpers, making the right cuts on offense, making the right rotations on defense, playing physical without fouling, staying on top of defensive assignments, etc. (continued…)
Take a look at Matt Harpring, as much as I love Harp it has been a couple years since he was truly effective. Yet, he brought the one thing that Sloan wants: hustle. Sloan continued to give Harpring minutes well into last season even after all of his numbers declined. Another example is Jarron Collins. We like to call him Cash Money Collins because his elbow jumper was the Cash Money. Actually not really, he was pretty terrible all around and continually ranked in the bottom 5 of all NBA centers. Yet, Sloan loved him. Had the Jazz been financially able they would have kept him around as long as possible because, apparently, he hustled a lot in practice. As a fan, we don’t get to see those kinds of practices so we can only imagine how much the Cash Money really hustled. Personally, I doubt he did much. However, what can’t be denied is the amount of playing time Collins got when he was healthy, much to the anger of Jazz fans.
Take a look at the other end of the spectrum: Sloan’s doghouse. Remember how we got the 3rd pick of the ’05 draft and drafted a talented young PG out of Illinois? The Jazz were seriously lacking at that position and felt that they had the perfect guard to turn into a franchise player. Then the season started and Sloan was starting, none other than, Keith Macleod (who was awful and is now out of the league). Deron Williams recently talked about how tough it was his rookie year. He talked about playing only a minute or two in some games, getting 30 in others, and starting a couple of other games. He was in the dreaded Sloan doghouse. DWill probably thought he was pretty hot stuff and came into the team thinking he would be the king and Sloan put him in his place. Williams figured things out and now Sloan trusts him enough to have him call the plays on many possessions. That’s quite the swing.
Kyrylo Fesenko got into that position for much of last season. He showed up to camp having put on more weight, dyed the tips of his hair blond, and apparently not taking basketball seriously. When Boozer got injured last season, Kosta Koufos became a rotation player behind Millsap and Okur (Collins was injured too…those golf cart accidents can be rough) and made a few starts even though Fesenko had more time as a Jazzman. However, as the season progressed, Boozer and the Cash Money came back from injury which took away Koufos’ minutes. Interestingly, when spare minutes turned up towards the end of the ’08 -09 season, Fesenko started getting the nod. What happened? Koufos landed in the doghouse. Why? Koufos stopped playing Sloan ball.
Fast forward to this season. Fesenko showed up to camp in better shape, had dropped 5% body fat, and was working hard. It certainly seems like Sloan doesn’t hold a long-term grudge as Fesenko worked himself back into the rotation. Where does that leave Koufos? He’s the odd man out. As this season progresses he’s only getting the scrap minutes. His future is grim too. He has a team option after next season and I have a feeling the Jazz will exercise it and cut Koufos just as they did to Morris Almond (another recent occupant of Sloan’s doghouse).
CJ Miles is the most at risk to end up in Sloan’s doghouse as his play this season (and let’s be honest, EVERY season) has been shotty. Wesley Matthews is the team bargain right now and he has received quite a lot of praise from Sloan and the Jazz by his surprising defensive play. Matthews might take back his minutes from Miles and if that happens, I don’t see CJ getting the nod very often. I hope that day comes soon.
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