SALT LAKE CITY — At today's practice, media had the opportunity to interview Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw, and coach Quin Snyder. I requested to speak to Alec Burks (hopefully to get more information on his injury from the man himself), but he was not made available to the media.

Here are the main storylines of day 3 of Jazz training camp:

Who's standing out?

I asked Snyder about which players have stood out in training camp so far. His first instinct was to talk about Gordon Hayward, who has "continued to be consistently good." I suppose that's not a surprise.

Then he mentioned Frenchman Rudy Gobert. "Rudy's found a little groove as far as being focused on doing the things he can do to be successful," Snyder said. "He's made some plays. He's been really efficient on offense, and he's his same old self defensively, and I've liked what I've seen from him."

Next up on Snyder's list? Newcomers George Hill and Joe Johnson.

"George gives us something different: pushing the ball up the court and his shooting," Snyder said. "And Joe's presence, although understated, can't be overstated. Just his strength, and even the way he plays with such poise is something you don't really have a feel for until you get out on the court with a guy. I think our players feel that too."

Record-scratches

Snyder's talked a lot about connectivity in this training camp, and understandably so: it's a key characteristic of successful teams. Look at San Antonio, for example: their defensive unit was uniquely great last season because they worked together to take away opponents' strengths as a group. Sure, they had defensive player Kawhi Leonard, but they also had more questionable defenders like Tony Parker or Kyle Anderson playing too.

Offensively, connectivity is key too: the Warriors are especially adept at passing the ball around to get an easy shot, making pass after pass to get the defense off balance. The opposite of that is the "record scratch", when an offense works to get an advantage, but allows the defense to catch up by stopping the ball. That's bad.

"For us, we didn't get a lot of advantages early in the clock. And it wasn't because we were scratching," Snyder said. "We had the (insert Quin Snyder making a slow, warbled record noise here), because guys didn't want to attack. We encouraged, but guys usually gravitate to what they're comfortable doing."

This year, though, Snyder says the team has players who are much more comfortable with attacking, especially at the point guard position. That should make the Jazz's offense faster in the half court.

Confident Trey Lyles

Lyles was the star of the Jazz's summer league experience, using 33 percent of the Jazz's possessions and averaging over 23 points per game in the five contests he played in.

He's not likely to get those sorts of opportunities with a full roster, though. Snyder says that the majority of Lyles' scoring chances will continue to come through spacing situations, when he gets a ball kicked out to him and he has a chance to either shoot the open outside shot, or pump-fake and drive for a layup opportunity inside.

Snyder does, though, want Lyles to have more chances at rebounding the ball and bringing it up the court himself.

Lyles says it's about "Just being able to make plays." His goal is to "either be able to score quickly, or get the point guard the ball. Just see if there's any openings when I have it up there."

Defensively, he says his summer will help. "During the offseason, working out and training, I got faster and stronger, of course." We'll see if Lyles' confidence bears fruit in the season.

Boris Diaw's athleticism

Maybe the most famous Diaw story is from Marc Stein's profile of the new Jazz big man from two seasons ago. Here's an excerpt.

"Boris walks into the gym one day wearing flip-flops and holding his customary cappuccino, which was a staple for him every morning," Griffin recalled. "It was during pre-draft workouts, so he sees the Vertec [machine] and asks what it is. We tell him it measures your vertical leap by determining how many of the bars you can touch. He asks what's the highest anyone has ever gone, and we tell him Amare' [Stoudemire] cleared the entire rack."

"Boris puts down the cappuccino, takes off his flip-flops and clears the entire rack on the first try. Then he calmly puts his flip-flops back on, picks up his cappuccino and walks away, saying, 'That was not difficult."

Today, Diaw was asked if he remembers that experience. "I remember that day. I don't know if I set a record. I don't remember anybody that day saying 'Oh, that was the record of Amare that you beat.'"

Is he still that athletic? "No. Obviously, no."

Diaw continued. "I have some (athleticism), but you see it twice a month, maybe. I get a block or something, and people are like 'Where did that come from?' You'll see it every now and again.

Quincy Ford fine

Quincy Ford, the wing from Northwestern, received a blow to the head in Wednesday morning's practice, meaning he didn't participate in Wednesday night's session. However, he was cleared by doctors today to practice this morning, and was a full participant.

Ford's likely to end up in the D-League when the Jazz make cuts due to roster size limitations before the season. The Jazz guaranteed him $75,000 as part of his NBA contract, to incentivize him to stay and play in the states with the Stars rather than go overseas for a bigger salary.

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