Last Training Camp Bits (Updated)

** David Locke on Devin Harris, Mo Williams, and Tyrone Corbin: One thing is that, Devin and Ty’s relationship last year was pretty rocky. Devin was the one who shared that at the end of the year,* and maybe it was more rocky than we realized. And to that, Ty just seems so excited to have Mo Williams, to have someone playing the game and expressing his points of view and being the conduit of his thoughts on the floor and playing the game the way he wants to.

That is the other takeaway, that when Ty talks about Mo…it feels that way to me, that there’s this level right now where Ty just finally as a head coach with a full training camp for the first time and has a point guard who he has some connection to–I mean, remember, Devin came to the Jazz, in the first half of the year Devin was with the Jazz after the Deron thing, he was terrible.

So the Jazz come into a shortened training camp last year, and then I’m not sure Ty has a great deal of confidence in Devin. Devin doesn’t play very well, remember Ty kind of benches him a few times early in the year, and that relationship just never gelled. And I’m not putting blame, but you can just feel the difference that Ty feels right now having Mo. (David Locke)

* Must’ve been shared privately, unless Locke was referring to Devin’s comments on Corbin at locker room cleanout which were not really critical:

I think we understand one another. Communication got better as the year went on. He started to understand me more as a player; I started to understand what he wanted as a coach. [Is communication something that needs to be developed by him?] At times. He could be a little more open with players and express what he’s thinking and why he’s doing certain things, but that may not be the type of coach that he is.

** Derrick Favors on where his game needs improvement: I think I still got a lot of work to do if I want to be at the next level. Still gotta work on a couple offensive moves, just those little things.

** Al Jefferson on winning vs. minutes: It’s all about winning. If my minutes get cut and we winning, why would I complain? It’s all about winning. I’d rather get my minutes cut and win than play a lot of minutes and lose. Right now at my point of my career, it’s no more ‘I’ in team.
(DN)

** Mo Williams on Jerry Sloan: That’s one thing I loved about Jerry. People can say all they want about him cussing and whining and all that, but one thing he’d do is he’d pick you up. He’d tell you when you’d do something good, and he’s the best cheerleader. (DN)

TYRONE CORBIN:
** What do you want to see from the guys? We gotta make sure that we continue to get to thinking out of your play. And just trying to get the guys more comfortable on offensive sets, the communication on the defensive end has to continue to get better…we’ll still continue to grow and learn each other.

** How has Al evolved over the past two years? Jefferson? Oh man. He’s grown, in my opinion, so much of learning how to play to help his team win and not just for numbers, and understanding when he need to take over games at time on the offensive end, and how he have to continue to get better on the defensive end to be effective on the floor for his team on both ends of the floor. So he’s continued to work on his body, and his approach to the game.

[When does he need to take over games?*]

Well, when, you know, as you see a lot in the fourth quarter when we, things aren’t going well, and we need baskets, we need baskets close to the basket, he’s a guy we can put the ball in his hands, he can score by making plays for his teammates, make him more effective ’cause the opponent know he will pass the ball.

* Excellent follow-up question.

** On Gordon Hayward: When he shoot, if he miss one, it’s just one miss. Don’t let that miss take away from him taking the next open jump shot, and taking it to make it. So I think he’s getting better.

** On progress in training camp: One of the things we’re getting better at is execution. That’s one of the things we’re looking at to see growth in the stuff that we put in in practice…Each time we get together, we get a little better at our communication…I thought the effort, for the most part, of guys really trying to focus in on things we need to do to get better.

** On Hayward and Favors: They’re two great young players, man, that’s continuing to get better and learning each other, and we’re trying to play off of them at different times, and they play off each other at different times, so we expect them to continue to grow.

** On Foye and Burks potentially playing the point: They’re capable of playing it, and we’ll continue to give some opportunities to look at it in case we need them in crunch situation.

(All KALL unless otherwise specified.)