Quin Snyder adapts to Jazz's slow pace


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SALT LAKE CITY — Quin Snyder came into Utah with grand plans: he wanted to execute a new, modern offensive system built around the three legs of playing with a pass, playing with pace and playing with purpose. In short, he wanted to copy the offensive success of the San Antonio Spurs, an organization both he and Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey spent years at before joining the Jazz.

Pace was a critical part of Snyder's three-legged stool: that speed would put the defense on its heels, opening up the gaps for the Jazz's offense to exploit. As Lindsey explained, "Any time you get defenses to change body position, usually there's somewhere inside the defense that there will be a breakdown." Playing fast was a great way to do exactly that.

But instead of killing opposing defenses with their speed, the Jazz's offense lulled them to sleep. The Jazz finished dead last in pace last season. Their slow-it-down style of offense much more heavily resembled that of the Memphis Grizzlies than the Golden State Warriors. At season's end, Snyder noted the difference: "At the beginning of the year, I felt, as you guys know, that we were going to play faster than ironically it turned out. And my initial reaction to that was 'Gosh, we're failing in some way by not playing faster.'"

But the Jazz's offense significantly improved last season, bumping from the 25th-best all the way up to 17th in the league. Ultimately, Snyder began to question whether pushing the tempo was worth the battle, especially with regards to the development of his young point guards.

"It was more important for me right now to make sure that Trey [Burke] was defending on the level I wanted, rather than being in his ear about pushing the ball, pushing the ball. I'm not sure that would have been the best thing for our team," Snyder explained. Those dividends came in the Jazz's wildly improved defense, which was ranked as the very best in the league after Utah traded Enes Kanter at the trade deadline. In the 2013-14 season, the Jazz ranked as worst in the league.

There's no question, though, that coaching a slow-it-down style of offense has been a difficult transition for Snyder as the head coach of the Jazz. Teaching young players how to make the right read against a set defense is a difficult task, significantly more challenging than just telling them to outrun their opponent on the offensive end.


We're like a running team in football with a good defense.

–Quin Snyder


As Snyder acknowledged, "For me personally, it's been an adjustment. It's harder, frankly. It is harder for me."

The Jazz, then, have a difficult choice going into the offseason: do they embrace the core philosophy of their coach and acquire players who will be able to run-and-gun? Or do they keep building in the half-court slowdown style, forcing their coach to adapt and acquiring players who will succeed in such a system?

Trey Burke is perhaps the leading candidate for a player for the Jazz to move if they choose to go high tempo. While fellow point guard Exum didn't run with the ball last season, he has the natural speed to be able to push the pace if he becomes more comfortable in his second season. Burke, on the other hand, has limited speed on the ball. Furthermore, he's been groomed to slow it down and manage the offense: even his team at the University of Michigan was one of the slowest in the NCAA.

But it's certainly no guarantee that Burke will be moved, as Snyder seemed to become increasingly enamored with his team's new style: "We're like a running team in football with a good defense. That's kind of what it's evolved into in my mind. We can still be efficient offensively doing that.

"I was adamant about pace, pass and purpose. We got the pass, and I think we're getting the purpose." This offseason will signal if the Jazz will play their tune at the rapid allegro.

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Andy Larsen

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