In this new ongoing contribution to SLC Dunk I'll be breaking down the Offense and Defence of the Jazz. This piece highlights a single play run by the Jazz during the Lakers game of January 11.

The Jazz are renowned for their baseline inbounds plays. No less than Hubie Brown said that under Jerry we were the best team in the league at running plays to get open shots from inbounds plays, and they have been that way for many years. The good news is that under Coach Corbin this shows no sign of changing. After the jump I'll break down our first quarter inbounds play against the dreaded Lakers.

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We all know too well of the struggles that the Jazz faced in the second half of last season. We collectively as a fan base went from being cautiously optimistic, to wildly so, to watching the team seemingly fall apart before our eyes. The sudden retirement of our head and first assistant coach and the trading of our cornerstone player saw the second half of the season turn out much differently than even the most pessimistic Jazz fan would have dreamed.

I've read some very good arguments from the Jazz press and Inernet-o-sphere as to why the second half of last season -- to put it bluntly -- sucked, but I've not seen anyone put forward the X's and O's theory as yet, or relate this X's and O's theory to this season's signings and team actions. What's this X's and O's theory, Tazz? Read on after the jump for all the details...

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With apologies to Tarantino, Avery and Rodriguez, and all the Jazz peeps that I know and love online that I've rolled into each character.

A COFFEE SHOP. EVENING. 2 JAZZ FANS ARE EATING POST GAME. PEACEFUL IS SIPPING A FLAT WHITE AND PICKING AT A BLUEBERRY MUFFIN, WHILE UPSET IS ATTACKING A STEAK AND FRIES WITH ANGRY DETERMINATION. BOTH ARE WEARING JAZZ FAN GEAR.

PEACEFULL: At least we tried something.
UPSET: What?
P: At least we tried something! A lineup change! They tried some...
- UPSET CUTS HIM OFF:
U: Well woop-de-do. Closing the gate after the horse has bolted.
P: Would you rather they did nothing?
U: No, I'd rather they did what we all want. The lineup changes I want
P: Yeah, well we are all 'experts,' right?
U: Are you getting snippy?
P: No. I'm not being snippy. I'm Peaceful. I'm merely stating fact. They tried SOMETHING.
U: Yeah, but we have all been screaming out for proper changes! Not benching Mr Consistent for the Golden Rook!
P: Will you concede that it was at least *something,* right?
U: Wasn't enough.
P: Ok, so first you are saying that we needed to make a change, now we do make one and it's not enough? I wish you would make up your mind, man
U: Oh look out, Mr Cool is losing his... cool! In fact, why are you taking this so well? we lost 4 games in a row, 3 of which were against teams we should murder!
P: I've got a new perspective on things. It's all well and good to be passionate, and discuss the ins and outs, but at the end of the day, really, what can I do about it?
U: Bahhh! Copout. It's a weak argument. Be passive, right? *GOADING LOOK*

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I've noticed a common theme appearing in many posts this preseason. With all the changes in the roster in the past few months there's a feel of uncertainty and excitement surrounding starters and playing time. I've read many posts that articulately argue for Player X or Y's inclusion in the starting lineup, or that player Z will get n Minutes Per Game. We are all forgetting one very important thing in all of this: Jerry.

Jerry doesn't listen to anyone but Jerry. OK, maybe Phil, but nobody else. We all should know by now that Jerry doesn't let player ego, public histrionics, detailed quantitative analysis of player minutes or the desires of Internet-savvy Jazz fans stand in the way of HIS Jazz team playing HIS way, dammit. Read on for my thoughts on the 2010-11 Jazz lineups and rotations from a 'X's and O's' perspective.

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(Payton, "You guys gonna run the pick and roll again?")
 Otto Greule Jr. /Allsport/Getty Images

The Flex offense has been around since the 1970's and is a patterned (meaning 'set movements') offense featuring passing, screening, ball-reversal, options and counters. The Flex offense is most effective against man-to-man defenses. Most scoring opportunities come off the "flex cut" inside, or a jump-shot from the elbows, but you can run various options, counters, and post plays from the Flex patterns. Size mis-matches often occur due to the screening and defensive switching. Advantages of running the Flex offense are that it is a "continuity" or patterned offense, it is somewhat flexible, and it is relatively easy to teach. Disadvantages are it's predictability, and that it can be defended to some extent by switching the screens. To effectively run the Flex offense most coaches will not exclusively run Flex sets, which then discount the predictability factor. And if the defense switches screens you can actually exploit this and take advantage of big-little defensive mis-matches.

Most casual NBA fans (and even some so-called expert ones) are stuck on the thought that the Jazz rely on the Pick and Roll; nothing could be further from the truth. The Jazz team of the DWill era actually run less Pick and Rolls than 90% of the NBA, but we are still thought of as a P&R team. Why? Stockton-to-Malone.  But even in those days we didn't JUST run the P&R. We ran the Flex, with a Pick and Roll as an option play, for the reasons above; less predictability for the defence. Yet we also had perhaps the 2 best exponents of the P&R in NBA history but we still ran the Flex, again because of the reasons listed above. However if you cast your mind back you can remember plays other than the P&R:

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via cdn.bleacherreport.net

Something that I keep reading recently has been bugging me. Almost every Jazz article (mainly in the non-Utah press, I have to add) keeps going on about how Big Al may struggle in our offence, as he's not known for running the Pick and Roll. 

Lies.

We actually use the P&R the LEAST of any team currently. Don't believe me? Read this: NYT article on the P&R (from 2009)

Especially:

 

The Synergy analysis created a statistical portrait of the play’s use in the N.B.A. and revealed the following:

The Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers used the play the least in the N.B.A. last season. Only 11 percent of their offensive plays originated with the pick-and-roll.

 

I'm hoping someone can come out with newer stats, but there you go. And for those who watch every Jazz game of the season (like me) you quickly get to know the offence. I have an advantage that I played a fairly high level of Hoops as a younger man, and the club I played for ran 2 sets: 'Carolina' against the Zone, and 'Flex' against Man, so I know the Flex well. I know it so well that I can tell without the stats that we run that much more than the Pick and Roll.

So, what other misconceptions are out there that you don't like? One thing: keep it nice. No need to go THERE, we all know that misconception, kids.

This post is for the Twitter crew. Those who don't get Twitter feel free to skip on by.

Anybody else disturbed by this? Generally, if an account is labelled as 'fake' I can handle it, but when they try and pass themselves off as the real person when pushed or say things that are just plain wrong it p**ses me off. Social Media is a fantastic tool when used well; it allows us to interact with people who we would normally never get to (OMG CJ TWEETED AT ME #whatupdoe) but stuff like fake accounts that claim to be real only weaken the platform.

Discuss, Dunkers?

A few times during game threads I've been asked how an Aussie became a Jazz fan. I've given a quick answer but I think I've got enough to make a fanpost from, so... *deep breath*

I hail from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, the triangular island state below the mainland of Australia. Most people know of Tasmania as the home of the cartoon creation Taz, who is actually based on a real creature, the Tasmanian Devil. Tassie, as we locals call it, is a beautiful place, full of World Heritage listed wilderness and native creatures and not overburdened by people - only 600,000 odd Taswegians live in the whole state. Life moves at it's own pace here, and for years we (unfairly IMO) copped the 'backwards' tag from 'mainlanders' - but in this post-modern world where everyone is an internet connection away that's rapidly changing.

I grew up playing the traditional Australian sports - Cricket and our unique game of Aussie Rules Football. Basketball was a fringe sport here in the 80's. My neighbourhood friends, however, were into this Basketball thing in a big way; the kids all played it, the parents played it, even the Mum and daughters instead of Netball! So it was natural for me to get exposed to Ball in the course of normal after-school and weekend neighbourhood hanging out. Then the ABC(national government-owned broadcaster, like the BBC in the UK) started showing an NBA game once a week on Friday nights, and the Hobart team in the fledgling NBL started getting more popular, so soon Basketball became my sport of choice. It also helped that I went from being one of the shortest kids in Grade 5 to one of the tallest (at nearly 6 foot) in Grade 7. 

So, one Friday night I stayed up the road at the Beattie household to sit up and watch the NBA with the crew. It was pot luck, we never knew who was going to be on (we did get an awful lot of TBS Atlanta games at one point, I can still hear Skip Caray announcing "Rick Barry and Skip Caray...at the Omni, in Atlanta" and I was sad to hear of his passing) but we were starting to see some Hoops publications in the newsagents, albeit months old, so we (thought we) knew all about the League by now, and most of the guys had allegiances (Detroit, Portland, Chicago, New York) but I was yet to find a team. My Dad always used to say "you pick a team, or it picks you, but once that happens it's like a marriage, it's for life son!" so I had to choose carefully, 

This Friday night in early January I was treated to a Jazz game, in the Salt Palace, against this Michael Jordan bloke and the Bulls. Everyone else suddenly became excited, because it was His Airness and Da Bulls. Me, I'd got the Streets and Smiths season preview magazine for Christmas, and had POURED over it, trying to strike some light of fandom in me, and was massively excited to see this John Stockton guy I'd read about for the first time. 

Let the records show that the Jazz won that night, and John Stockton got 17 assists. Also let the records show that a young man who was learning to be a Point Guard fell in love... with a style of play, with fundamentals done well, with team oriented play, with a logo, colours and name that made little sense. I wore out the VCR recording of that game - it was the only Jazz game I got to see for another year. The Jazz chose me that night  and I've lived and died by them ever since.

I hate to sound like an old fart, but we truly don't know how lucky we have it these days. Back then the only daily exposure I had to the NBA was a tiny writeup of the previous days scores in The Australian newspaper, which I read every day in my School Library, and the Game of the Week. Luckily about that time the popularity of Basketball exploded in Australia, so over the 90's we gradually got more exposure and got better and faster coverage; pay TV started here so we got more NBA games to watch, a weekly Basketball newspaper started up with actual boxscores and full stats, and then finally this Internet thing happened in the late 90's. But back when I started following the Jazz the only things we had were those bits in the paper and Friday nights at 10:30, so it was tough. Even merchandise was impossible to get; for years all that made it out here was stuff for 3 or 4 teams, and it wasn't any of the small market ones (hell, it was easier to get expansion team stuff here than it was to get anything Jazz!) So for years all I had was this purple Jazz baseball hat and a replica home Malone jersey that didn't have a player name on the back. Christmas 1996 was a watershed one, because through some sorcery only known to her one of my sisters managed to get me road Malone and Stockton jerseys (I still have and treasure them and I squealed like a schoolgirl when I opened the paper on the gift.)

I lived through the Finals, too - my best mate (still is to this day) is a hoops junkie and a Bulls fan (he's not jumped off, and he was going for them before they won anything, to his credit... he's still an arsehat Bulls fan though) so he kindly taped all the Jazz Playoff games for me and then we watched tapes of the finals together... except for Game 3. I refuse to watch it to this day. I said I'd watch it after Jordan retired, but I lied. I can't bring myself to watch it. He did call me at work after the end of Game 6 of the 98 Playoffs though... I was that upset I went home. And cried. I honestly thought it was our year.

So, here I am now, League Pass enabled, watching every Jazz game, getting news and tweets from fans, journalists and players alike and seemingly an even bigger Jazz fan than ever. I've finally found a Jazz online community that I'm happy to stay and contribute too (have another idea for a Fanpost about some striking similarities between my AFL club, Essendon and the Jazz) - in fact I'm happy enough here to admit that I cried when I watched Stock's Hall of Fame speech. 

Go Jazz!

Mathew, AKA TazzJazzFan