And here’s your weekly Utah Jazz wrapup

One. I have no words about Jerry Sloan battling Parkinson’s. I’m devastated. 💔

Quin Snyder on Jerry Sloan: I’ve been fortunate that, you know, as he’s remained with the club and helped on a lot of levels that, you know, I’ve had a chance to interact with him. He’s been unbelievable with me. So supportive, and you know, careful to not overstep although I don’t really think that’s possible. But he’s aware of that just ’cause of the type of person he is, and you know, his respect for the profession and understanding it on the level he has.

So, obviously we have the same sentiments that, you know, you wish all the best and support that you can for Coach and for Tammy, his wife, and hope that, you know, that things go well. And that’s, you know, that’s the message that I think is circulating through our team, our players, our coaching staff, and, but obviously, you know, some level of shock, and, but after that, just, you know, wishing him all the support that we can from the position that we’re in.

Two. Idaho Stampede –> Salt Lake City Stars. Uni and logo:

Three. Gordon Hayward on how his hair stays soooo perfect during games: Blow dryer is the most important thing. So after you, you know, wash it and get it wet, you gotta use the hair dryer, which I think some guys are afraid of.

I always thought that you only use the blow dryer on hot. Like, I never thought that you would go back and do it with the cool setting. I didn’t even know what that little blue button was for until [my hair stylist] told me. …

[The media] needs to [give] a Best Hair [award], ’cause that’s a no-brainer…I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I got the best hair in the NBA.

Hayward on Joe Ingles’ hair: He’s definitely jealous. I told him he only has about, maybe, six months left of haircuts, and he’s gonna have to shave the whole thing.

Flashback to Ingles talking about Hayward’s hair last year:

Gordon will probably spend the whole seven days working on his haircut and make sure it looks good for when we come back. … It’s terrible, isn’t it? It’s terrible. …

I’m gonna give you a little insight on his haircut, and how long and silly it is…In this last trip, we were rooming right next to each other. Our rooms were basically joined. We had an adjoining door which we opened a couple times to talk to each other. But yesterday, he went to sleep for his little pre-game nap.

I got up, and it was half an hour before we had to leave, and I went to the bathroom and as I was passing through the little corridor to get to my bathroom, I could hear all this noise in his room. And I thought, like, I hope he’s all right. Like, he’s been away from his wife for a while, hope he’s not sad, and he sounds upset, whatever.

And I put my ear kind of next to the window, just — the door, sorry, to hear what it was, and it was the hair dryer going, so. I’ve never seen a man use a hair dryer before, and I knocked on the door to try and see a man use a hair dryer. So, he was in there. I don’t know what he was doing.

I did see the day before that he had, like, seven different hair products and a little comb and the hair, obviously now, with the hair dryer. So, it’s pretty obvious how much he likes his hair. And I think, if you watch during the game, it doesn’t move. I don’t know how it’s possible, but it actually doesn’t move.

Four. Gregg Popovich on Quin Snyder before the Spurs game: He’s smarter than the rest of us. That boy is like a bubble machine.

He’s got stuff — you know, it’s like a cartoon with little bubbles coming off his head all the time with ideas about lots of different stuff. I’m serious. And some of it I understood, some of it I didn’t.

But, great guy, you know, great friend and guy to be around, and you know, is intelligent, but isn’t full of himself, and enjoys people.

Five. Quin Snyder, asked after the Spurs game if he feels “snakebit”: We can look at it two ways. “Snakebit” implies that we’re not doing anything. We’re doing great. And we’re not doing quite enough because we didn’t make a shot.

Like, if Rodney Hood makes that shot, if Kawhi Leonard misses that shot, you know — we’ll watch it and see if there’s anything more we can do, but you know, I’m not gonna get — we can do better. We can play better. We can make more threes throughout the course of the game, but our guys are really, really competing…

I don’t wanna go there on the good side or the bad side. I just wanna keep — I don’t wanna be lucky, and I don’t wanna be snakebit. I just wanna be better.

Six. Rodney Hood on falling in the draft: Going into the process, you know, I got to the 10s [in mock drafts], and you know, they was telling me I could go from late lottery to mid-first round. So, between 10 and 20, which is a [wide] range, and I thought I was good enough to go through the, in that area, with the workouts and proving myself and everything. And you know, going into draft night, I thought the same thing, you know, but it didn’t pan out.

Do you know why you fell?

To be very honest, I really don’t know. You know, I haven’t even tried to look into it. You know, after that time passed, I just moved on. But you know, I wonder about it all the time.

Did you have a chip on your shoulder in your first year because you fell in the draft?

Yeah, I was real disappointed that night, but you know, as I sat down and just thought about it, you know, I got my foot in the door and I’m going to a great situation. And that’s how I looked at it from that point forward. You know, I was going to get a chance to play, and just because, you know, guys got picked in front of me, you know, they might be going to a team where they might not get the opportunity.

So, you know, it was, like I said, it was a blessing in disguise, but I definitely had a chip on my shoulder, and I wanted to prove, just to myself and to my peers, not necessarily to the GMs, but to prove to my peers, that you know, I belonged in, you know, the top, especially a lottery pick. I deserved to be a lottery pick. But it just drive me to be where I am today, you know, trying to prove, still trying to prove that.

Does falling in the draft still tick you off?

No, not really, ’cause I think I’ve proved that to a certain extent that, you know, I was better than some of the guys that were picked before me, you know, so I kind of moved past that. I’m trying to just be the best player I can be now, you know, and, but I still, it’s still in the back of my mind.

But that’s not what drives me anymore. I’m trying to be, I’m trying to help this team get to where it needs to be, and that’s at the top of the West.

Do you still know the names of all the guys picked before you?

Yeah, I know them, the order. I know everyone. Yeah.

Seven. Joe Ingles on the Americanization of Ben Simmons: He’s probably one of the only, obviously, main guys that has [gone the route of prep school and college in the States] if you look at the seven other [Australian players] that play [in the NBA] now [or] guys that have played in the past. No one’s done it the way he’s done it. I think he went three years to high school and then college for a year, and now, obviously, professionally. He’s been around our national team for the year 20–I think it was 2014 when we had world championships, and got cut from that team. I think he was the last one cut.

So it’s, yeah, I, he was, at that point, he would’ve been 16, 17, I think, and super talented then. Obviously, he’s still got a long way to go with development. I think he’s shown glimpses of, obviously, being a superstar. I still think there’s a lot that he needs to work on, and I think he knows that.

But in saying that, I mean, we would welcome him with open arms back into the national team. I think he could bring something that we haven’t really seen, not with our team anyway, not since I’ve been involved since 2007. And we don’t want him to be Americanized. We want him to stay as Australian as possible.

I think it’s the same, like Dante [Exum]. Dante’s got American parents, and you talk to him, and you think he’s been there his whole life and his parents have been there their whole lives. It’s a pretty special thing. So, hopefully, for them, we can keep them as Australian as possible. Obviously, he spent so much time over here at a young age as well, that he’s growing up in the American culture. So, hopefully we can keep him on our side.

Eight. Joe Ingles on his role with the Jazz this year: Came back in this year and obviously everyone was healthy, and probably went back to the role that I originally thought I was gonna have last year. And same thing. Guys got injured. Me and, I mean, Chris Johnson’ve been battling, kind of, not against each other, ’cause obviously we’re all in the same thing together, but one game it’s him, one game it’s me.

And so, there’s times that I feel like I’ve, like, yeah, I could be here for the rest of my career, and then there’s days it’s like, holy shit, like, maybe I won’t be here tomorrow. And obviously being over here now, you see the day-to-day business of it too…

I think the thing that can help me is that I am versatile to different situations, different positions. I’ve shown that I can start and hold my own, and I’ve also shown that I can come off and, come off the bench and do what I have to do. I’ve, I’m gonna be the same guy if I play five minutes or 30 minutes. I’m not gonna change. I’m not gonna change off court. I’m gonna talk to the guys and tell them what I see and what I believe in…

You never know what can happen. I mean, you don’t know who they’re gonna draft, who they’re gonna sign. It’s just a lot of unknowns, I think, too. So, like, I do love it here. I love the guys. I love being a part of a young team that’s building towards something, and I’d love to be a part of it a long time.

Nine. Alec Burks has returned!

Root Sports wasn’t impressed tho.

Ten. Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Week (UDQM)
** Craig Bolerjack on Trey Lyles: Trey’s got a great set of, uh, skillset.
** Quin Snyder on Chris Johnson and Trevor Booker against the Suns: Those two guys, you could just feel them when they came in.
** Root Sports Keys to the Game (H/T @Velociraptees):

** Ron Boone on what Quin Snyder wants from Rudy Gobert on defense: Stay big and vertical.
** Steve Brown to Derrick Favor on his knee: Is it mostly stiffness, then, that you’re dealing with?
** Boone: Booker may have put the lower part of his body into Tim Duncan.
** David Locke: Joe Ingles long balls in the 4th quarter were mammoth. (H/T @JazzJargon)
** 1280 to Joe Ingles on Craig Bolerjack: Holy cow, you had him screaming when that second one went in.
** Snyder on Alec Burks’ shots in his first game back: He got a couple big ones, but, the one in particular in front of our bench. But, so, I was pleased.