Jazz clean out lockers and face uncertain offseason


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SALT LAKE CITY — The uncertain future of Utah Jazz head coach Ty Corbin will be resolved "in short order," according to general manager Dennis Lindsey.

The Jazz wrapped up the disappointing 2013-14 season with locker room clean out and exit interviews Thursday, but several questions remain. The body language of a glum Corbin showed a man exhausted but defiant — and unsure whether he'll be back with the team.

"It's the end of a year," said Corbin. "There've been some ups and downs. I haven't had a chance to sit back and really reflect on it; just trying to get organized for the day, you know, and visit with all the guys before they disperse and go wherever they're going, and trying to have some semblance of where we go from here."

"But the guys, I'm proud of. They've made some great strides this year. I like the character of the guys on the team. For all the adversity that we've been through, for the most part they stayed together. So those little things are positive."

Corbin went on to review the much chronicled youth and inexperience of the roster. He acknowledged that he understood the choices and direction of the front office would make it difficult for him in a contract year, but seemed to imply that he was put in an impossible situation.


I played in the league, I played on an expansion team, I've played on young teams. I understand and have a feeling for it. That's why a lot of coaches who've been in it a long time won't put themselves in that situation where they have a young team — because of those things.

–Tyrone Corbin


"Anything can happen in this league. I've been in it a long time," Corbin said. "You want to have a fair shake. You want the best opportunity you can have to win. We just... the organization just decided to go in a different direction from the guys we had the year before. I knew it would be difficult from the beginning. In no way when you change the roster like we changed is it good for the coaching staff, especially in the last year of a contract. It brings a lot of questions in everything you do with young guys.

"I played in the league, I played on an expansion team, I've played on young teams. I understand and have a feeling for it. That's why a lot of coaches who've been in it a long time won't put themselves in that situation where they have a young team — because of those things. It doesn't matter how you scheme things; when you have young guys, young guys make mistakes in this league. And the consistency of play, that's why they're young — understanding what it takes to play 82 games. I understood those things going into it."

"I would've liked for things to have been different, been handled differently, but they weren't. So it is what it is. So we'll see where things go and afterward we'll move on."

Later, Lindsey was asked about a timeline on a coaching decision:

"So, a couple things with that. One, we won't have much of a further comment, you know, past this initial thing. When we spoke to Ty and his representation during the year, we laid out that we wanted take the full season. We wanted to take a small period for all of us — Ty included — to decompress, so we aren't making a decision based on the last possession, the last game, and make an emotional decision.

"We laid out the process that Ty and Steve [Kaufmann, Corbin's agent] agreed to. We'll take a short decompression period to reflect on the season and what we saw and in short order we'll come together with Ty and work it out."

---

After the questions for Corbin, the locker room doors were opened and each player spoke with the media scrum.

A quiet Gordon Hayward talked called it "a season of growth," adding halfheartedly "We'll all be better basketball players for it."

NBA Summer Dates
April 27: NBA Draft Early Entry Eligibility Deadline
May 5: Conference Semifinals begin
May 20: Conference Finals begin
May 20: 2014 NBA Draft Lottery
June 5: The Finals begin
June 16: NBA Draft Early Entry Withdrawal Deadline
June 26: 2014 NBA Draft

After the company line, he briefly gave a more realistic assessment. "Frustration. A lot of frustration... " He quickly returned to his talking points. "At the end of the day, I think it was good for us as individuals to have these experiences."

When asked whether his upcoming free agent status affected his play this season, Hayward was quick to answer. "Not at all," he said. It remains to be seen if front offices around the league agree.

Besides contract negotiations with teams around the league, Hayward has a big summer ahead. He and his fiancée have a marriage date for sometime "very soon." Next week, though, he heads to the Philippines to help with a Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA youth basketball camp in Manila.

The rest of the player exit interviews are available at utahjazz.com.

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