Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy recently spoke about strategy for the 2023-24 season.
(via Utah Jazz):
“The thing that we want to maintain, first of all, is that it’s a team sport and everybody’s involved in the game. That doesn’t mean that you don’t go to your best players when it’s time to go to your best players, and that Lauri [Markkanen] isn’t featured more than somebody else, but we never want to set the game up around one player. And that is partially through the lens of being adjustable and flexible as you get to a different place. As far as wrinkles, I’m not sure if I’d call them wrinkles yet, it’s more about we’re gonna have to adjust maybe some spacing thoughts as it relates to Walker [Kessler] and John [Collins] playing together. That may look different. I think areas that may look similar to all of you would be moments in the game where we may have Lauri, Kelly [Olynyk], and John, with John sort of in that role that Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt) played last year where he’s the roller. That may look more familiar to you guys and us from last year.
“But from a tactics standpoint, a lot of my thinking now is centered around two things. One, incorporating John into the group and how does it change when he plays with Walker. And then secondly, trying to view the backcourt as a backcourt. Last year when Mike [Conley Jr.] was here to start the year, it was pretty clear that Mike was our point guard. This year I think we have a lot of really good guards, and I don’t want to say, ‘You’re the point guard and you’re the 2.’ I don’t think that fits our group best, it’s more about viewing them as pairs. Which pairs play well together as a pair, which pairs play well with the other three guys, and how does that change our thinking in terms of offensive style when I’m not relying on one person to bring it up each time and sort of initiate what we’re doing? That flexibility is gonna be an adjustment for us because so much of last year was built early in the season on Mike being the person that started the action. We’re gonna have to get away from that for a little bit. It’s a little bit going back in time. It used to be backcourts, now it’s we’ve turned it into one guy dribbles a lot and the other guy spaces a lot. So it’s gonna be fun.”
