All throughout the past months’ team activities and training camp and preseason and practices, the Utah Jazz have constantly made mention of trying to erase the bad vibes of how last season ended.
When the ball goes up at center court of Vivint Arena on Wednesday around 7:10 p.m., “last season” will finally, officially have a new season to supplant it.
There will be more reason to look forward than back. And disappointment can once again be overtaken by hope; bitterness can be re-applied as useful knowledge, if only of what not to do.
“Obviously, we’ve got more experience — you always learn from those previous years. We try to use those losses; every loss is a lesson. Every year that we came up short in the playoffs, we were able to come back better the next year,” said center Rudy Gobert. “And obviously the next step for us is to be able to go past the second round and try to get a chance to win a title. We have a group that’s — I wouldn’t say as good as we’ve ever been, but as experienced as we’ve ever been. So it should be an exciting season for us.”
Coach Quin Snyder said after Tuesday’s practice that there was a growing sense of anticipation just to get out there and get going.
“At this point, guys are ready to play,” he said. “It feels like a longer preseason because the last two preseasons we had were pretty short. So having this stretch after our last preseason game before the regular season … we’re just trying to balance execution and continuity and things with health and rest, and I think we’ve done that and we’re ready to go.”
Indeed, with the Jazz’s four-game exhibition slate having wrapped a full week ago, Snyder found himself with an abundance of time to continue drilling in fundamental tenets of his program before turning his focus exclusively to the incoming Oklahoma City Thunder.
And he’ll continue to do so throughout the regular season, he added, touching on those core principles perhaps not daily, but at least frequently and regularly, so that it becomes “an emphasis and something that we commit to on a level that’s above what we did last year.”
Finding another level has been another constant theme for this group.
And it extends beyond the macro and obvious goal of going from excellent team to legitimate title contender.
Indeed, explained Joe Ingles, it’s been instilled on a far more granular level for as long as he’s been with the Jazz.
“One of the things that sticks out to me, which [Snyder] said to me [when I was] coming over at 27 was, there should be no age on it. Like, why can’t I get better at 27? Or 34? Or whatever age you are?” Ingles said. “I think he’s passed that through the staff — to whoever’s been here throughout the eight years — just that dedication to getting better and obviously allowing us time prior and post-practice every day. Obviously, the players themselves have to want to get better and want to work on it.”
And, he confirmed, they do, noting that there’s been universal buy-in from the players, who all show up well in advance of practice to get shots up, and who all stick around long afterward to do more of the same.
There’ll be plenty more of that to come.
For now, though, there’s the excitement of finally getting things going. Well, from some quarters, anyway.
“I just think about, like, ‘You’ve played basketball your whole life. So this is just another day,’” said Jazz newbie Eric Paschall. “Obviously, it’s different. You have different coaches. But it’s still the game of basketball. So that’s one thing I always try to remember going into any game, whether it’s the most important game or least important — I treat it all the same.”
