On Monday, two days after they blew yet another fourth-quarter lead en route to a loss in Golden State, the Jazz held a players-only meeting in their practice facility, center Rudy Gobert told Sam Amick and Tony Jones of The Athletic.
According to Gobert, the meeting was the first of its kind for the team this season and gave the players a chance to “sit together and just be honest with each other” after losing six of seven games. “Everyone talked” during the meeting, Gobert said.
“That’s what was great about it,” he said. “I think a lot of teams have those (meetings). It’s man to man. It’s great. We all need that, whether it’s your wife or your teammates or your friends, sometimes. It’s great to just express yourself.
“… For us, it’s about communication during the game when things go wrong. We felt like we were just getting disconnected. And other teams could see with our body language and everything. So for us, just embrace the moment and embrace the opportunity. And at the end of the day, we’re making the playoffs, and no matter who’s in front of us, we’ve got to give it our best shot.”
On Tuesday, prior to Utah’s game vs. Memphis, head coach Quin Snyder – who has been the subject of plenty of speculation himself – came to his media session armed with a stat sheet and attempted to push back against a pair of narratives that have recently plagued the Jazz — the perception that the team can’t hold a fourth-quarter lead and the idea that Donovan Mitchell rarely passes to Gobert.
As Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune details, some of the stats Synder cited weren’t entirely accurate and not all of his arguments were convincing. A couple of Snyder’s comments perhaps even raised more questions than they answered, including his statement that Gobert and Mitchell “sit at the same table when they eat sometimes.”
Still, Gobert believes Monday’s players-only meeting will help the Jazz move forward and pointed to Tuesday’s result – an overtime win against the Grizzlies – as one that might not have happened a week ago when the team was struggling to communicate and to play for one another.
“I think we both realize that it’s about helping each other out and embracing the moment,” Gobert said of his relationship with Mitchell, per The Athletic. “If we do that, we know that good things will happen. Once again, it’s never going to be perfect. But if I do things to try to lift him up, and he does those things to try to lift me up.
“Some nights, things can go wrong. It’s basketball. You don’t win every game every night. Sometimes you have some bad nights. But if the trust is there, you’re in great shape. And that’s what we pretty much told each other.”
Drop defense is trash against a great 3pt shooting team.
Figure it out for the playoffs lads!
Can someone who watches the Jazz confirm Donovan rarely passes to Gobert? Just curious especially from a Jazz fans perspective
He does average about 2 passes a game to Gobert so yeah while true he rarely passes to Gobert it’s more a product of their offense. Mitchell splits ball handling duties with Conley and Clarkson which leaves less opportunities for Mitchell to pass to Gobert in the 1st place.
Here’s a typical half court scenario. Gobert sets a pick, Mitchell uses the pick to either drive or shoot. When Mitchell drives he collapses the defense which means there’s a lot of arms and legs in the paint, Gobert isn’t a shooter so he’s not going to drift out to the perimeter, often the safer pass for Mitchell who is still developing as a playmaker is to kick it back out to a shooter. Conley who is a better playmaker will thread the needle or lob it up for Gobert as he’s a great passer.
Another reason is that their offense is predicated on getting open 3s so as Gobert doesn’t shoot the opportunity just isn’t there.
Yeah he never passes him the ball and I’m not going to try defend him. Sometimes in a half court offence, Gobert will have a guard on him alone under the rim and gets ignored. It’s ugly.
I’m not sure if that’s cause Donovan wants to play Quinn’s Syndyers 3 point shooting offence. Or it’s because he doesn’t like Gobert or whatever reason. But if your a professional and your goal is to win games and your passing up getting easy buckets consistently, your the problem not the guy under the rim.
I don’t really even like Gobert that much but this whole situation looks terrible on Donovan and yes he has a lot of fans that’ll defend him but it is what it is. Definitely setting themselves up for a big offseason ahead
Never passes yet averages 5.3 APG when it’s literally his job to score the ball. Mitchell does need to step up on DEF though.
Read somewhere that Fournier has more assists than Mitchell has passes to Gobert. I believe it.
This is all a bunch of BS, made up by sportswriters who want to create a controversy when there is none.
Lol it’s a direct quote from Gobert
Don’t see what the fuss is all about, UTA is not a team meant to go beyond the R1WC, so I don’t see what their expectations are!
Rudy is a somewhat limited center, but a pretty good one.
Mitchell is nothing more than a volume scorer with low %.
Snyder is so very overrated as a coach, I am always wondering why hasn’t he been fired by now, puzzling!
They noticeably passed the ball more. A defense can’t move as fast as the ball. Just make sure to make good passes and don’t dribble into traffic and just stop. Always stay moving, even if you don’t have the ball. Keep the bench rotations fresh and wear the other team out. Don’t have to be elite to win championships. Just have to play the best team basketball. That’s what makes basketball my favorite sport. Any team can beat anyone else. It’s unpredictable. Even with terrible refs. Lol