#love the joe/quin hills difference

[silverskye13]

Quinn: How are you both alive and dead?

Joehills (from Nashville TN): ................ practice?

[flauntpage]

Quin Snyder's Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA's Top Coaches

It's December and the Utah Jazz are getting waxed by the Golden State Warriors. Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, and George Hill are all out. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson are all in.

Down 31-9 late in the first quarter, Dante Exum sprint dribbles up the right sideline with Raul Neto and Joe Ingles standing in opposite corners. Trey Lyles and Jeff Withey jog into position on the weak side. As Neto flies up to gather Exum's handoff, Ingles darts toward Lyles and Withey who pose as cinder blocks on the wing. Right when the ball travels from Exum to Neto, Ingles emerges wide open behind the three-point line.

As the ball pings across the floor, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder sits on the sideline with his hands flat on his knees. He cranes his neck for a better view as Ingles' shot soars through the air. It falls through the net. Snyder clasps his hands, leans forward, and mentally prepares for the next possession. Utah would lose this game, but only by seven points, and not before they outscored Golden State 53-41 in the second half.

The sequence described above sounds mundane, and, to be fair, at first glance it is. But the timing, discipline, and altruism within it are exquisite examples of a methodical system that doesn't bludgeon the defense so much as wait for it to deteriorate on its own. With zero players who are able to create their own shot, the Jazz manufacture a wide open three against one of the best defensive teams in league history.

"I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague," Snyder told VICE Sports.

Five fingers ball up into a fist that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Through meticulous planning and creativity, dead ends turn into onramps. Such has been the serpentine journey of Snyder, whose career has seen its fair share of unscalable road blocks that suddenly give way to euphoric successes. For Snyder, every experience, philosophy, and memory picked up along the way—all across the world—is valuable. Without them, he wouldn't be the leader he is. And the Jazz, a team he's coached since 2014, would not be as formidable as they are.

Snyder's road took a left turn about four years before he landed in Utah, when, as an assistant coach on Mike Brown's staff with the Los Angeles Lakers, he unexpectedly accepted a job with CSKA Moscow, a historically triumphant club that competes in Russia's VTB United League and the Euroleague.

The Euroleague is second only to the NBA when it comes to global influence and sheer talent. But for American-born players and coaches alike, it remains—perhaps unfairly—more detour than destination. Relatively young coaches who shuffle through the NBA ranks hoping to one day lead a team don't typically flee to Europe in the middle of their ascent.

CSKA Moscow was fresh and unique, a personal and professional odyssey that would help influence Snyder's intellectual approach after the sport he loves led him to various positions all over the country.

By his side during that fateful 2011-12 Lakers season was Ettore Messina, a four-time Euroleague champion who's now an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs. At the time Messina had plans to go back overseas for his second stint as CSKA Moscow's head coach. When he did, he asked Snyder to join him.

"I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague," Snyder told VICE Sports. "I followed the Euroleague for quite some time, and when [Messina] decided to go back to CSKA, he asked me if I wanted to join him as an assistant. So, I don't know if it was difficult as it was unusual to try and think about what that would be like. My wife, Amy, was really supportive. We had two young kids. So on a personal level, we were doing something that was a little unusual, but we were excited to have the life experience, to be honest with you."

Photo by Chris Nicoll - USA TODAY Sports

You can look at moving halfway across the world into a foreign culture with young kids as an unnecessary challenge. Or you can look at it as an opportunity. For Snyder, it was a chance to get up close and personal with a style of basketball that always intrigued him.

"I was looking forward to all the exposure I knew I would get to different teams in the Euroleague," Snyder said. "Whether it's Panathinaikos or Barcelona, Madrid, there's so many high level teams with terrific coaches. Partizan, you name it. There were just lots of opportunities for me to learn, and I relished that chance."

As a guard at Duke University, Snyder played for three Final Four teams and was an Academic All-American his senior season. At 26, he was one of three assistant coaches on Larry Brown's staff with the Los Angeles Clippers (the other two were current Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford and Orlando Magic General Manager John Hammond). Snyder quickly returned to his alma mater and eventually became Mike Krzyzewski's associate head coach in 1997.

He then spent seven seasons as head coach at the University of Missouri—hired over John Calipari and Bill Self—before a scandal-fueled resignation led him on a harsh and sudden detour down to the NBA Developmental League's Austin Toros (where his salary dropped from $1.015 million to about $75,000 per year) in 2007.

"There's innovation going on with this game all over the world," Snyder said. "And you don't have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we're doing."

From that job sprung an opportunity in player development with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, followed by the assistant coach position in Los Angeles that helped Snyder form a relationship with Messina. (A pitstop as an assistant with Mike Budenholzer's Atlanta Hawks fills in the gap between Russia and Utah.)

Once he familiarized himself with the numerous differences between FIBA and the NBA, Snyder couldn't stop hunting for new information. He soaked everything up in conversations with new faces who often provided a fresh way of doing things.

"There's innovation going on with this game all over the world," Snyder said. "And you don't have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we're doing."

The one season in Russia shouldn't be weighed as more vital than any other Snyder endured to get where he's at, but the impression it's had on him and, notably, the Jazz, is undeniable.

Snyder spent the 2012-13 season studying matchups, substitution patterns, the way players move without the ball, and how tight half-court action can be executed, in a league that approaches offense and defense differently than the NBA or NCAA. But he also grew as a teacher. He was hands on with players who otherwise had trouble understanding the words coming out of his mouth, physically demonstrating drills on the floor and transferring his own shorthand to guys who were unmistakably unfamiliar.

"I swear to you, he had a booklet of about a hundred three-letter [acronyms] where you'd be like 'What?'," former CSKA Moscow guard Aaron Jackson told VICE Sports. "European players were like 'What is this? What is he talking about?' And he had to explain it from literal scratch."

The entire experience forced Snyder to overcome language barriers when communicating with players who didn't speak English. And to those players who did speak English, Snyder served as a translator for players who had trouble understanding directions from the rest of the coaching staff. The ability to instruct despite a language barrier is extremely valuable, if not required, no matter where you're illuminating professional basketball today. Utah's roster last year and this upcoming season was/is populated by players from Brazil, France, Australia, Ukraine, Sweden, Spain, and Switzerland.

It's a Spurs-ian approach, one that Jazz General Manager Dennis Lindsey and Snyder have adopted over time, an outflowing of their close ties to the league's most familial and diverse organization.

Photo by Russell Isabella - USA TODAY Sports

"I think in any situation as a coach you try to treat your players with respect, and that, to me, is the most effective way of communicating," Snyder said. "No different than guys I've coached in the D-League or guys I've coached in the NBA. I think if players know that you're trustworthy in some sense and you do what you say, they know there's an earnestness about you trying to help them improve. That's the foundation of the relationship."

Transmitting information in an efficient way is a crucial, oft-overlooked requirement if you want to be a head coach in the NBA. But keen decision-making—the ability to execute tactical adjustments on the fly, and install logical schemes on both sides of the ball, also matter.

Snyder checks all these boxes, and he's helped turn Utah into a program that—even after Hayward's departure in free agency—holds meaningful nightly advantages over its competition.

Unlike a majority of the NBA, European teams don't aspire to revolve around making life easier for their best player. There is no one star who bears heavy responsibility on each possession. Offenses strategize with more egalitarianism. The ball zips around the perimeter. It goes in and out of the post as players whirl around, screening and cutting. It's the same sport played with a different rhythm.

"It's seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads," said CSKA Moscow's Aaron Jackson. "It's: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it's: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don't give many possessions to the other team."

The gyms are a sensory overload. Flares glow in crowds that sing, chant, and curse, while plumes of smoke waft towards the roof. Jackson has played professional basketball overseas for nearly a decade, and to him the atmosphere, intensity, and passion rival an NCAA game, except the student section is filled with adults who aren't shy about hurling random objects onto the court. Cigarettes are puffed by the pack.

"It's hard to breathe," Jackson said. "After your first two sprints up and down the court, it's literally like you can't even breathe. It's totally different."

The stands are rowdy, as they tend to be at professional sporting events across the world. On the floor, though, dueling orchestras turn the game of basketball into a series of complex, crafty sequences that vaguely approximate fine art.

"In Europe it's totally different. Basketball is literally from the west side of the court to the east side of the court to the north side of the court to the south side of the court. Every angle is trying to get attacked in a half-court offense," Jackson said. "It's seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads. It's: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it's: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don't give many possessions to the other team.

"The NBA is more up and down, into the flow, let's get our stars involved, let's get as many possessions as we can. And when I watch European basketball at a high level, like Euroleague, or when I watch the World Championships or the Olympics, it's beautiful to see that kind of basketball. And I think Quin, when he got here he saw it. He kind of appreciated it more when he was here. He realized how it can give teams problems if they do it correctly. Like, I think the Warriors do it perfect. They run off counter reads, read, read, read. But they have great superstars with it that dial in so it looks amazing."

The NBA has different rules, a higher talent level, and Snyder knew long before he journeyed to Russia that, as far as offensive and defensive systems go, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that's effective regardless of personnel. Players are human. They have strengths and weaknesses that can be maximized and masked. It's his job to compose an appropriate game plan that best suits whoever's on the court.

"You can't be married to a certain style of play if your players don't fit that style," he said.

Snyder and the rest of CSKA Moscow's staff had a wide array of individual skill-sets at their disposal. There were pick-and-roll maestroes, playmaking stretch fours, and speedy point guards. Viktor Khryapa—a 6'9" forward who was part of the 2006 draft day trade that sent LaMarcus Aldridge to the Portland Trail Blazers (Snyder likens him to Blake Griffin)—was able to bring the ball up and operate in space, so the coaches trusted him to do so.

They had Miloš Teodosić, a Serbian sorcerer with unparalleled court vision who's now on the Los Angeles Clippers. Teodosić is surgical running a pick-and-roll, but he can also attack defenses from the post, so they let him operate with his back to the basket when it made sense to do so. CSKA Moscow methodically worked the ball through former NBA big man Nenad Krstic down low, but also zipped up and down the floor when Jackson was in the game.

It seems obvious to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible, but basketball can be a rigid game where conformity overrules adaptation (go watch almost any college basketball game from the past 10 years if you disagree). Snyder, clearly, is not one to acquiesce the status quo.

One key difference between professional basketball in Europe and the United States is the schedule. Teams in the former only play about twice a week, with games spread between the Euroleague and their own national league. It allows coaches to make dramatic game-to-game adjustments, convenient changes to a starting lineup that sometimes involve transferring a player from one position to another, based on the specific matchup.

Photo by Kyle Terada - USA TODAY Sports

This is common practice in the NBA playoffs, but not so much the regular season, where lineup changes are more the result of rest, bumps, bruises, and organization-wide mandates than to gain any strategic advantage. But Snyder is as flexible and proactive as any coach in the league. During last year's playoffs, it took exactly zero minutes for him to realize Boris Diaw made no sense in Utah's starting lineup for its second-round matchup against the Warriors, even though Diaw started all seven games in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. (Diaw was replaced by Joe Johnson.)

In his war against convention, Snyder is also unafraid to use strategies that are fairly outside-the-box to give his team an edge, or even flip teacher-student hierarchies on their head.

"One of the most enjoyable times I had [with CSKA Moscow] was learning from the players themselves," Snyder said. They discussed different ways to guard the post, stifle pick-and-rolls, and attack switches." It was daily access to priceless details his colleagues in the NBA either weren't familiar with or couldn't seek out for themselves.

But above all else, that one season reinforced a staple long held by successful franchises, programs, and clubs all over the world: Ball movement is boss. It's the most identifiable similarity between those European teams and today's Jazz, a squad that's shaded against the NBA's white-knuckled obsession with speed, spacing, and the three-point shot. Some of that has to do with who they employ.

Utah's stanchion is Rudy Gobert, a 25-year-old perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate who strikes fear as one of the game's great rim protectors. The best way to enjoy his impact is to keep opposing teams in a half-court setting. The best way to keep teams in a half-court setting is to deploy a structured offense that carefully stalks healthy looks at the basket while preventing the opposing team from attacking in transition.

The Jazz finished the 2016-17 regular season third in defensive rating and last in pace. According to Inpredictable, Utah isn't in a hurry regardless of the situation, whether they just grabbed a defensive rebound or forced a turnover. Their offensive possessions are patient and calculated, a choreographed five-man marathon that takes place inside a 47-foot long sand box.

"I think just more on a macro level, wanting to see the ball move," Snyder said, when asked if any specific principles from Moscow have been implemented in Utah. "If there was one thing that I think just, philosophically, that we want to do and believe in, is ball movement and man movement. At least to the extent that that makes sense from a tactical standpoint."

In Snyder's first two seasons with the Jazz, they finished first in passes per game. They were fourth this year. Utah hovers near the top of the league in the percentage of their attack that's devoted to hand-offs and cuts, progressions that stab defenses from all sorts of angles and through various avenues.

Per data provided to VICE Sports by STATS, the Jazz also led the league in ball screens, averaging 74.2 per game during the 2016-17 regular season. They had several large humans (Diaw, Derrick Favors, Gobert) who could erase on-ball defenders from their teammates, flip screens, utilize decoys, and forever make the opposition over think itself into a panic.

The Jazz finished 12th in offensive rating, which is spectacular considering how much easier it is to score early in the shot clock as opposed to against a set defense that's able to communicate and execute their scheme. A league-low 8.4 percent of Utah's shots were launched with 22-18 seconds on the shot clock (deemed "very early" by NBA.com). On the other side of the spectrum, 10.5 percent of their shots came with four or fewer seconds left, which, unsurprisingly, led the league.

It's impossible to know what the Jazz would play like if Snyder had not spent that season in Moscow, but the degree to which he's actualized the experience makes the impact clear. On one hand, the Jazz have gone against the grain. On the other, they're simply functioning inside a system that accentuates their strengths.

Either way, Snyder has helped re-establish the Jazz as one of the NBA's most resourceful franchises, a respectable outfit that's headed in the right direction. Hayward—Utah's leading scorer and lone All-Star a year ago—is gone, but the team's identity is not lost. Snyder is adaptable, yet also embraces a style that not only best suites his current roster, but has timeless value in a trend-happy league that's filled with constant player movement.

Now Snyder is 50 years old. In 2016, he signed an extension that locks him in for the foreseeable future. Salt Lake City is a long way from Moscow—geographically, and culturally—but Snyder's time in Russia still helps dictate his approach to leading the Jazz. The curious path that led him to an NBA head coaching job is one few will follow. But for Snyder and the players who've evolved beneath him in a distinct environment since his first day on the job, nothing beats it.

Quin Snyder's Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA's Top Coaches published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

Quin Snyder’s Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA’s Top Coaches

It’s December and the Utah Jazz are getting waxed by the Golden State Warriors. Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, and George Hill are all out. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson are all in.

Down 31-9 late in the first quarter, Dante Exum sprint dribbles up the right sideline with Raul Neto and Joe Ingles standing in opposite corners. Trey Lyles and Jeff Withey jog into position on the weak side. As Neto flies up to gather Exum’s handoff, Ingles darts toward Lyles and Withey who pose as cinder blocks on the wing. Right when the ball travels from Exum to Neto, Ingles emerges wide open behind the three-point line.

As the ball pings to Ingles, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder sits on the sideline with his hands flat on his knees. He cranes his neck for a better view as Ingles’ shot soars through the air. It falls through the net. Snyder clasps his hands, leans forward, and mentally prepares for the next possession. Utah would lose this game, but only by seven points, and not before they outscored Golden State 53-41 in the second half.

The sequence described above sounds mundane, and, to be fair, at first glance it is. But the timing, discipline, and altruism within it are exquisite examples of a methodical system that doesn’t bludgeon the defense so much as wait for it to deteriorate on its own. With zero players who are able to create their own shot, the Jazz manufacture a wide open three against one of the best defensive teams in league history.

“I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague,” Snyder told VICE Sports.

Five fingers ball up into a fist that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Through meticulous planning and creativity, dead ends turn into onramps. Such has been the serpentine journey of Quin Snyder, whose career has seen its fair share of unscalable road blocks that suddenly give way to euphoric successes. For Snyder, every experience, philosophy, and memory picked up along the way—all across the world—is valuable. Without them, he wouldn’t be the leader he is. And the Jazz, a team he’s coached since 2014, would not be as formidable as they are.

Snyder’s road took a left turn about four years before he landed in Utah, when, as an assistant coach on Mike Brown’s staff with the Los Angeles Lakers, he unexpectedly accepted a job with CSKA Moscow, a historically triumphant club that competes in Russia’s VTB United League and the Euroleague.

The Euroleague is second only to the NBA when it comes to global influence and sheer talent. But for American-born players and coaches alike, it remains—perhaps unfairly—more detour than destination. Relatively young coaches who shuffle through the NBA ranks hoping to one day lead a team don’t typically flee to Europe in the middle of their ascent.

CSKA Moscow was fresh and unique, a personal and professional odyssey that would help influence Snyder’s intellectual approach after the sport he loves led him to various positions all over the country.

By his side during that fateful 2011-12 Lakers season was Ettore Messina, a four-time Euroleague champion who’s now an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs. At the time Messina had plans to go back overseas for his second stint as CSKA Moscow’s head coach. When he did, he asked Snyder to join him.

“I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague,” Snyder told VICE Sports. “I followed the Euroleague for quite some time, and when [Messina] decided to go back to CSKA, he asked me if I wanted to join him as an assistant. So, I don’t know if it was difficult as it was unusual to try and think about what that would be like. My wife, Amy, was really supportive. We had two young kids. So on a personal level, we were doing something that was a little unusual, but we were excited to have the life experience, to be honest with you.”

Photo by Chris Nicoll – USA TODAY Sports

You can look at moving halfway across the world into a foreign culture with young kids as an unnecessary challenge. Or you can look at it as an opportunity. For Snyder, it was a chance to get up close and personal with a style of basketball that always intrigued him.

“I was looking forward to all the exposure I knew I would get to different teams in the Euroleague,” Snyder said. “Whether it’s Panathinaikos or Barcelona, Madrid, there’s so many high level teams with terrific coaches. Partizan, you name it. There were just lots of opportunities for me to learn, and I relished that chance.”

As a guard at Duke University, Snyder played for three Final Four teams and was an Academic All-American his senior season. At 26, he was one of three assistant coaches on Larry Brown’s staff with the Los Angeles Clippers (the other two were current Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford and Orlando Magic General Manager John Hammond). Snyder quickly returned to his alma mater and eventually became Mike Krzyzewski’s associate head coach in 1997.

He then spent seven seasons as head coach at the University of Missouri—hired over John Calipari and Bill Self—before a scandal-fueled resignation led him on a harsh and sudden detour down to the NBA Developmental League’s Austin Toros (where his salary dropped from $1.015 million to about $75,000 per year) in 2007.

“There’s innovation going on with this game all over the world,” Snyder said. “And you don’t have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we’re doing.”

From that job sprung an opportunity in player development with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, followed by the assistant coach position in Los Angeles that helped Snyder form a relationship with Messina. (A pitstop as an assistant with Mike Budenholzer’s Atlanta Hawks fills in the gap between Russia and Utah.)

Once he familiarized himself with the numerous differences between FIBA and the NBA, Snyder couldn’t stop hunting for new information. He soaked everything up in conversations with new faces who often provided a fresh way of doing things.

“There’s innovation going on with this game all over the world,” Snyder said. “And you don’t have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we’re doing.”

The one season in Russia shouldn’t be weighed as more vital than any other Snyder endured to get where he’s at, but the impression it’s had on him and, notably, the Jazz, is undeniable.

Snyder spent the 2012-13 season studying matchups, substitution patterns, the way players move without the ball, and how tight half-court action can be executed, in a league that approaches offense and defense differently than the NBA or NCAA. But he also grew as a teacher. He was hands on with players who otherwise had trouble understanding the words coming out of his mouth, physically demonstrating drills on the floor and transferring his own shorthand to guys who were unmistakably unfamiliar.

“I swear to you, he had a booklet of about a hundred three-letter [acronyms] where you’d be like ‘What?’,” CSKA Moscow guard Aaron Jackson told VICE Sports. “European players were like ‘What is this? What is he talking about?’ And he had to explain it from literal scratch.”

The entire experience forced Snyder to overcome language barriers when communicating with players who didn’t speak English. And to those players who did speak English, Snyder served as a translator for players who had trouble understanding directions from the rest of the coaching staff. The ability to instruct despite a language barrier is extremely valuable, if not required, no matter where you’re illuminating professional basketball today. Utah’s roster last year and this upcoming season was/is populated by players from Brazil, France, Australia, Ukraine, Sweden, Spain, and Switzerland.

It’s a Spurs-ian approach, one that Jazz General Manager Dennis Lindsey and Snyder have adopted over time, an outflowing of their close ties to the league’s most familial and diverse organization.

Photo by Russell Isabella – USA TODAY Sports

“I think in any situation as a coach you try to treat your players with respect, and that, to me, is the most effective way of communicating,” Snyder said. “No different than guys I’ve coached in the D-League or guys I’ve coached in the NBA. I think if players know that you’re trustworthy in some sense and you do what you say, they know there’s an earnestness about you trying to help them improve. That’s the foundation of the relationship.”

Transmitting information in an efficient way is a crucial, oft-overlooked requirement if you want to be a head coach in the NBA. But keen decision-making—the ability to execute tactical adjustments on the fly, and install logical schemes on both sides of the ball, also matter.

Snyder checks all these boxes, and he’s helped turn Utah into a program that—even after Hayward’s departure in free agency—holds meaningful nightly advantages over its competition.

Unlike a majority of the NBA, European teams don’t aspire to revolve around making life easier for their best player. There is no one star who bears heavy responsibility on each possession. Offenses strategize with more egalitarianism. The ball zips around the perimeter. It goes in and out of the post as players whirl around, screening and cutting. It’s the same sport played with a different rhythm.

“It’s seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads,” said CSKA Moscow’s Aaron Jackson. “It’s: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it’s: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don’t give many possessions to the other team.”

The gyms are a sensory overload. Flares glow in crowds that sing, chant, and curse, while plumes of smoke waft towards the roof. Jackson has played professional basketball overseas for nearly a decade, and to him the atmosphere, intensity, and passion rival an NCAA game, except the student section is filled with adults who aren’t shy about hurling random objects onto the court. Cigarettes are puffed by the pack.

“It’s hard to breathe,” Jackson said. “After your first two sprints up and down the court, it’s literally like you can’t even breathe. It’s totally different.”

The stands are rowdy, as they tend to be at professional sporting events across the world. On the floor, though, dueling orchestras turn the game of basketball into a series of complex, crafty sequences that vaguely approximate fine art.

“In Europe it’s totally different. Basketball is literally from the west side of the court to the east side of the court to the north side of the court to the south side of the court. Every angle is trying to get attacked in a half-court offense,” Jackson said. “It’s seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads. It’s: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it’s: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don’t give many possessions to the other team.

“The NBA is more up and down, into the flow, let’s get our stars involved, let’s get as many possessions as we can. And when I watch European basketball at a high level, like Euroleague, or when I watch the World Championships or the Olympics, it’s beautiful to see that kind of basketball. And I think Quin, when he got here he saw it. He kind of appreciated it more when he was here. He realized how it can give teams problems if they do it correctly. Like, I think the Warriors do it perfect. They run off counter reads, read, read, read. But they have great superstars with it that dial in so it looks amazing.”

The NBA has different rules, a higher talent level, and Snyder knew long before he journeyed to Russia that, as far as offensive and defensive systems go, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that’s effective regardless of personnel. Players are human. They have strengths and weaknesses that can be maximized and masked. It’s his job to compose an appropriate game plan that best suits whoever’s on the court.

“You can’t be married to a certain style of play if your players don’t fit that style,” he said.

Snyder and the rest of CSKA Moscow’s staff had a wide array of individual skill-sets at their disposal. There were pick-and-roll maestroes, playmaking stretch fours, and speedy point guards. Viktor Khryapa—a 6’9″ forward who was part of the 2006 draft day trade that sent LaMarcus Aldridge to the Portland Trail Blazers (Snyder likens him to Blake Griffin)—was able to bring the ball up and operate in space, so the coaches trusted him to do so.

They had Miloš Teodosić, a Serbian sorcerer with unparalleled court vision who’s now on the Los Angeles Clippers. Teodosić is surgical running a pick-and-roll, but he can also attack defenses from the post, so they let him operate with his back to the basket when it made sense to do so. CSKA Moscow methodically worked the ball through former NBA big man Nenad Krstic down low, but also zipped up and down the floor when Jackson was in the game.

It seems obvious to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible, but basketball can be a rigid game where conformity overrules adaptation (go watch almost any college basketball game from the past 10 years if you disagree). Snyder, clearly, is not one to acquiesce the status quo.

One key difference between professional basketball in Europe and the United States is the schedule. Teams in the former only play about twice a week, with games spread between the Euroleague and their own national league. It allows coaches to make dramatic game-to-game adjustments, convenient changes to a starting lineup that sometimes involve transferring a player from one position to another, based on the specific matchup.

Photo by Kyle Terada – USA TODAY Sports

This is common practice in the NBA playoffs, but not so much the regular season, where lineup changes are more the result of rest, bumps, bruises, and organization-wide mandates than to gain any strategic advantage. But Snyder is as flexible and proactive as any coach in the league. During last year’s playoffs, it took exactly zero minutes for him to realize Boris Diaw made no sense in Utah’s starting lineup for its second-round matchup against the Warriors, even though Diaw started all seven games in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. (Diaw was replaced by Joe Johnson.)

In his war against convention, Snyder is also unafraid to use strategies that are fairly outside-the-box to give his team an edge, or even flip teacher-student hierarchies on their head.

“One of the most enjoyable times I had [with CSKA Moscow] was learning from the players themselves,” Snyder said. They discussed different ways to guard the post, stifle pick-and-rolls, and attack switches.” It was daily access to priceless details his colleagues in the NBA either weren’t familiar with or couldn’t seek out for themselves.

But above all else, that one season reinforced a staple long held by successful franchises, programs, and clubs all over the world: Ball movement is boss. It’s the most identifiable similarity between those European teams and today’s Jazz, a squad that’s shaded against the NBA’s white-knuckled obsession with speed, spacing, and the three-point shot. Some of that has to do with who they employ.

Utah’s stanchion is Rudy Gobert, a 25-year-old perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate who strikes fear as one of the game’s great rim protectors. The best way to enjoy his impact is to keep opposing teams in a half-court setting. The best way to keep teams in a half-court setting is to deploy a structured offense that carefully stalks healthy looks at the basket while preventing the opposing team from attacking in transition.

The Jazz finished the 2016-17 regular season third in defensive rating and last in pace. According to Inpredictable, Utah isn’t in a hurry regardless of the situation, whether they just grabbed a defensive rebound or forced a turnover. Their offensive possessions are patient and calculated, a choreographed five-man marathon that takes place inside a 47-foot long sand box.

“I think just more on a macro level, wanting to see the ball move,” Snyder said, when asked if any specific principles from Moscow have been implemented in Utah. “If there was one thing that I think just, philosophically, that we want to do and believe in, is ball movement and man movement. At least to the extent that that makes sense from a tactical standpoint.”

In Snyder’s first two seasons with the Jazz, they finished first in passes per game. They were fourth this year. Utah hovers near the top of the league in the percentage of their attack that’s devoted to hand-offs and cuts, progressions that stab defenses from all sorts of angles and through various avenues.

Per data provided to VICE Sports by STATS, the Jazz also led the league in ball screens, averaging 74.2 per game during the 2016-17 regular season. They had several large humans (Diaw, Derrick Favors, Gobert) who could erase on-ball defenders from their teammates, flip screens, utilize decoys, and forever make the opposition over think itself into a panic.

The Jazz finished 12th in offensive rating, which is spectacular considering how much easier it is to score early in the shot clock as opposed to against a set defense that’s able to communicate and execute their scheme. A league-low 8.4 percent of Utah’s shots were launched with 22-18 seconds on the shot clock (deemed “very early” by NBA.com). On the other side of the spectrum, 10.5 percent of their shots came with four or fewer seconds left, which, unsurprisingly, led the league.

It’s impossible to know what the Jazz would play like if Snyder had not spent that season in Moscow, but the degree to which he’s actualized the experience makes the impact clear. On one hand, the Jazz have gone against the grain. On the other, they’re simply functioning inside a system that accentuates their strengths.

Either way, Snyder has helped re-establish the Jazz as one of the NBA’s most resourceful franchises, a respectable outfit that’s headed in the right direction. Hayward—Utah’s leading scorer and lone All-Star a year ago—is gone, but the team’s identity is not lost. Snyder is adaptable, yet also embraces a style that not only best suites his current roster, but has timeless value in a trend-happy league that’s filled with constant player movement.

Now Snyder is 50 years old. In 2016, he signed an extension that locks him in for the foreseeable future. Salt Lake City is a long way from Moscow—geographically, and culturally—but Snyder’s time in Russia still helps dictate his approach to leading the Jazz. The curious path that led him to an NBA head coaching job is one few will follow. But for Snyder and the players who’ve evolved beneath him in a distinct environment since his first day on the job, nothing beats it.

Quin Snyder’s Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA’s Top Coaches syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[eliottweetsill]

The Daily 30th: Utah Jazz

Mood: Debating whether to haul boombox all the way home or pitch it after standing in rain blasting love songs only Gordon Hayward would understand — and getting rejected.

Best thing going: They made the playoffs without having a top 20 player, which is exactly what they'll have to do this season.

Best player: Rudy Gobert

Worst player: Dante Exum

1-year core: Rudy Gobert, Ricky Rubio, Rodney Hood

5-year core: Rudy Gobert, Rodney Hood, Donovan Mitchell, Dante Exum, possibly a sad amount of lotto picks

People make jokes about Boston, but Gordon Hayward's whiteness made him perfect for Utah, too. Ever since Jerry Sloan left town, the Jazz have been a bastion of mediocrity, their lack of overt dysfunction and ignominious draft picks helping them surpass league sadsacks Minnesota and Sacramento in this targeted middling. Hayward slowly but surely turned into a player worth building around, and the Jazz slowly but surely built around him, and Utah slowly but surely thawed out from the dark cold brought about by years of finishing just above .500 and out of the playoffs. Hayward was teammates with Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, and Devin Harris in 2010. Hayward seems younger than that, but has impressively increased his points per game average for six consecutive years. It's weird to expect him to keep getting better, knowing how time works and all, but usually guys will plateau long before their seventh year, or at least have a dip or a down year or get a teammate who takes more of the scoring burden and causes a misleading statistical regression. Hayward was made in Utah, and everything wholesome that comes with being the face of an NBA franchise was bestowed upon him. None of that was good enough, a heartbreaker for anyone who can relate to getting in after years of being on the outside looking in. It was all fleeting and, if it wasn't meaningless, its meaning was interpreted differently by the fans and the player who shared the connection. That's where anger comes from in the wake of these decisions. The fans believed in a consensus between they and their star player, only to find out they were quite easily defected from. Hayward's confession in the Players' Tribune (for which he was properly derided by those tired of this already-stale gimmick) was eloquent and not enough to save him from the vast majority of scorn headed his way from what he'll come to find out is still a dustmite on the NBA scene.

Utah is one of the more forgettable and therefore insular franchises in the league. It's never “a matter of time” until the Jazz are back in contention like with the Celtics, Lakers, or 76ers. They don't have the constant sideshow component present in small market and large market forms in Minnesota, Sacramento, Brooklyn, and New York. They don't have cutting edge leadership like Dallas, Houston, or Golden State. They don't have the blue-collar grit of Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Indiana, or Cleveland. They don't have the sexy nightlife of Miami or Los Angeles. They don't play in an important American city like Washington D.C. or in a state with basketball pedigree like the Charlotte Hornets. They're Oklahoma City without the appeal of newness. A flavorless New Orleans. A colder Phoenix. Atlanta with no rap scene. Denver without weed. Portland without music. Milwaukee without beer. If San Antonio didn't click anymore, it would become Utah. Utah is the home Orlando goes back to after its done with its winter migration. There are many other franchises Gordon Hayward would have left in this situation, but there are several he would have stayed with. Utah brought in a player Hayward specifically asked for, Ricky Rubio, and he passed anyway. Boston was calling. Sorry, Utah, but it's Boston.

Now, Utah, is left a family with an empty seat at the head of the table. Players like Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw are left wondering what's to become of the rest of their NBA careers. George Hill already moved forward after being something of a catalyst for a team that had climbed very slowly toward relevance, with increasing uncertainty as to whether it would get there. As of this moment, the trigger hasn't officially been pulled on Hayward's move, and it could be a trade that nets them someone productive, like a Jae Crowder or a Marcus Smart. Hayward provided many things though that one role player can't possibly replace: scoring, defense, creativity, identity, leadership. The Jazz can try and limp through what's become a more rugged playoff picture in the West, but likely won't be able to either break through or do the simple thing and tank. The Utah Jazz have never tanked. Utah is the kind of place where someone like Sam Hinkie should receive free reign to do those types of experiments, and yet Utah sinks on the ship of its integrity, fighting for each win that was needed to earn them the 10th seed.

Fortunately, even with things messy in the wake of the breakup, the Rubio signing makes sense, Donovan Mitchell is an intriguing young prospect, Rodney Hood has shown potential as a wing who can develop into something promising, Dante Exum is only 21 years old, Rudy Gobert is still growing his game, and the Jazz own all their future draft picks. Players like Alec Burks and Derrick Favors can safely be turned into assets via trades with teams looking for an extra bench scorer or post body, respectively. Quin Snyder still looks more like a young Ludwig van Beethoven than any other NBA coach.That’s probably a good thing, I think.

Even as Gordon Hayward goes East to likely fall short of his goal of reaching a championship, Jazz fans have to see the silver lining here: Hayward probably won't win in Boston, but he almost definitely wasn't going to win in Utah, either. Beyond a run mirroring that of the Deron Williams-Carlos Boozer Jazz, who topped out at winning one game in the conference finals against San Antonio, the Gordon Hayward Jazz weren't likely going to be anything special. As the team stands now, it isn't farther away than it was, say, three years ago; and three years after being where they were three years ago got the Jazz into the second round of the playoffs. Losing Hayward doesn't change the essential trajectory of the team — that of a slow, roiling development. It just changes the altitude at which that development occurs. Instead of moving the needle in the playoffs, they're back to moving the needle toward the playoffs. A bad season or two could help Utah. After seeing firsthand the might of Golden State, it shouldn't feel wrong to redefine the timeline of the prosperous future Utah is building toward. Hayward and the Jazz likely would have been first-round fodder in a revamped Western Conference, anyway. It will be very easy to tank in the West next season. No matter what the results, next season can be good in Utah as long as the young pups stay the course and Rudy Gobert's knees stay healthy. Utah will be back. But it needs to get over Gordon Hayward, or “back” will signify hanging in the middle of the pack with no shot at a title.

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Green Light: The Best of The Week

Lorde. Photo: Paradigm Agency

  Well, it’s that time of year again, when downtown becomes the backdrop for FPSF. While the likes of Lorde, Solange, and more will all be in town for the festival, that doesn’t mean that it’s the only game in town. Performances from JMSN, Dressy Bessy, and Deicide will all be here as well while locals like Cool Moon, The Cops and more fill in the gaps. Houston, here’s what you should be doing this week.

  On Wednesday you could get started over at Discovery Green for the Party on The Plaza series, this time featuring the music of Nick Gaitan. Gaitan has been the leader of bands like Umbrella Man, as well as bassist for Billy Joe Shaver and most recently Nikki Hill, and he’s a not to be missed act. The jazz infused Latin rock of Nico Diaz will be on hand as opener for the free and all ages show getting started around 5 pm.

  The Cops. Photo: Trie Blair Fulco

  If that’s not your thing then you could head to Walter’s for VHS Night: Cop Night with The Cops. That’s right, a live set from Houston punks The Cops will take place after two cop movies are shown on a big screen. There’s also a VHS swap meet of sorts, free donuts, and more for the all ages event getting going with doors at 7 pm and more information, here.

  Over at Continental Club, the high energy rockabilly of The Delta Bombers will swing by to perform. These guys are known for their crazed live sets, and their latest release The Delta Bombers sounds like a time warped infusion of rock, swing, and rockabilly. The four piece will be playing without a support act for the 21 & up show with doors at 9 pm and a $10 cover.

  Nathan Quick. Photo: Sherita Perez

  Thursday you could begin at Presidio when Houston singer songwriter Nathan Quick will stop by to play on the big patio. Quick has been changing up his sound as of late, returning to a more intimate and bluesy sound with last year’s The Sound. The show gets going around 6 pm, it’s all ages, and it’s 100% FREE.

  There’s something crazy happening at Improv where Val Kilmer will be on hand to introduce his one man play, “Cinema Twain.” I know, that sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Often referred to by many myths, Kilmer has been acting a long time, and this film covering his one man play about Mark Twain should be nothing if not interesting. The one night only event is 18 & up with doors at 6:30 pm and tickets between $30 and $70.

  You might rather head to Nightingale Room when Houston’s Hescher swings by to drop his dark electronica. Hescher is definitely different, but not a stranger to the Houston scene, and while I’ve only heard good things about his live shows, his single “Scarlet Shell” is definitely worth checking out. The electro pop jams of Rex Hudson will open the 100% free show for 21 & up patrons with doors at 7 pm.

    Deicide. Photo: Continental Concerts

  Down at Scout Bar, the heavy and brutal death metal of Deicide will be here to play their scary sounds. The controversial band has been blowing ear drums since the early nineties, they’re pretty intense to see live, and their latest release In The Minds of Evil from four years ago still holds up. There’s no word of openers or direct support, but that should change on the all ages show with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $12 and $17.

  Walter’s will have the anti-racist Oi Skinhead punks, Booze & Glory by to drop a set. These guys have been making London shake for a good while, and they’ve become well known for their crazed energy when they play live. Their mix of rock, punk, and Oi music is pretty impressive, and their latest Chapter IV is London through and through. Houston’s The Velostacks will bring their leather punk on as direct support while the Skinhead hardcore of Houston’s Thug Boots will open the all ages show with doors at 8 pm and tickets between $10 and $12.

  On Friday you can get started with the Summer Breeze festival when it gets kicked off over at Splashtown (the DIY Venue, not the water park). The kickoff party will have some epic performances from the likes of Austin’s Nosferatu, Enemy One, Houston’s Narrow Head, LACE, and more for the all ages show with doors at 7 pm and a $10 cover.  More information is available here.

  Trout Fishing In America. Photo: Don House

  Mucky Duck has the funny antics and fun sounds of Trout Fishing In America over to the intimate venue. The acoustic folk rock duo from Houston has been delighting audiences since the late seventies, and their shows are a mix of funny songs and serious licks. Their newest album, The Strangest Times returns the band to their original duo sound. The 21 & up show has doors at 7 pm and tickets between $25 and $28.

  Rudyard’s will have Houston’s The Dead Rabbits over to perform their blend of Irish folk meets punk. While the band plays in the vein of bands like Flogging Molly, their Celtic punk sounds are pretty fun and full of energy. The bluesy stoner sounds of Stonework will be on as direct support while the punk of The Unconvicted will go on prior. The insane one man band intensity of D. Kosmo will open the 21 & up show with doors at 7 pm and a TBA cover.

  Kimi Kent. Photo: Rachel Lynn Photo

  Over in the Foundation Room at House of Blues, you can catch the folky sounds of Houston’s Kimi Kent and Tyler Lucas. With both backed by a full band, each has a sound that’s worth making it out for. Kent has a more blues pop sound full of lush vocals all over her debut, Wayward Child EP, that really showcases her larger than life sound. Lucas has a more singer songwriter sound that’s impressive as well. The 21 & up show has doors at 8 pm and it’s 100% FREE.

  The Armadillo Palace will host the birthday party for Houston guitar slinger The Mighty Orq when he headlines a set with his backing band The Unusuals. Orq is definitely an act that every person in this town should check out. While his skills on a six string are fairly unmatched, the good time jams from his latest release To The Bone are hard to deny. Deep voiced singer songwriter John Egan will be on hand as direct support and opener, and he’s a guy you shouldn’t sleep on. His latest album, last year’s Magnolia City sounds like it was recorded on the Delta, complete with some guitar that’d make Muddy Waters proud. The 21 & up show has doors at 8 pm and tickets for $10.

  Lil Uzi Vert. Photo: Paradigm Agency

  Things on Saturday could begin with an early morning trip to Eleanor Tinsley Park for this year’s FPSF. Opening with sets from Houston’s Camera Cult and Kay Weathers on different stages, the two day festival has a pretty stacked day one. Performances from Deep Cuts, -Us, Rose Ette, and Khruangbin will fill up the early hours of the festival before sets from Hurray for the Riff Raff, Cashmere Cat and Lil Uzi Vert happen later. The first day of the festival is capped off with performances from Grouplove, Post Malone, Cage The Elephant and more for the all ages event that has gates at 11 am and tickets between $148 and $999.

  If you’d rather keep things on a more grassroots scale, then the Summer Breeze fest over at Walter’s is probably more your thing. With performances from a slew of punk bands, the technically second day of the fest should be a doozy with a headlining performance from Olympia punks Gag. These guys have been called everything from magnetic to hardcore heroes, and tracks like “Locker Room” should give you an idea of their intensity. Sets from Sexpill, The Secret Prostitutes, The Pose and many more will also be on hand. The whole lineup is available here for the all ages show with a $20 cover or two day pass for $30 and doors at 4:30 pm.

  Over at Mucky Duck, the jazz infused Americana of Austin’s Phoebe Hunt will be in town to bring her energy heavy tunes to life. Here to support her newest album which doesn’t get released until the day prior to this show, you can get a feel of her twangy goodness from her last release Walk With Me. The 21 & up show has doors at 7 pm and tickets between $20 and $22.

  JMSN. Photo: Orienteer PR

  Later on at White Oak Music Hall upstairs, the sexy jams of Detroit’s JMSN will swing by to melt hearts with his sultry tunes. Possibly one of the tightest performers I’ve seen in a good while, this guy dropped It Is last year only to follow it up with Whatever Makes You Happy this year, both of which are full of killer tunes. The soulful jams of Quin will be on as direct support, and she is rumored to be amazing to see in person. The R&B of Canada’s alcordo will open the all ages show with doors at 8 pm and tickets for $15.

  Satellite Bar will have the folky electro pop of DC’s Pueblo by to perform. These two make songs that sound like if Dusty Springfield and Air made tracks together. They’ll be here in support of their latest Boring The Camera from this year. Houston’s Alex Riddle will be on as direct support while the folk rock of Grisbee will open the 18 & up show with doors at 8 pm and tickets between $8 and $10.

  On William Street, Terraform will return with another unofficial after FPSF party. This edition will feature sets from BRKCHK, gonner, Kunai, and many more. With sound and lights from Lynchpin Audio and an open bar all night, the event should be a banger from start to finish. The doors are at 9 pm, there’s a $10 cover, with address info and lineup here.

  Charli XCX. Photo: Paradigm Agency

  On Sunday day two of FPSF will get underway with a closing set from New Zealand’s Lorde. The singer songwriter has been turning heads since her dissociative single “Royals” blew up and rocketed her to stardom. Lorde brings a lot to the table, as David Bowie was and the remains of Nirvana are all fans of her work, and with a new album on the horizon, this performance should be full of new songs. That shouldn’t overshadow the fact that Solange will also bring her lovely tunes to the festival, as will The Shins, Portugal The Man, Cheat Codes, and Charli XCX alongside others. The day gets kicked off with early sets from MIEARS, Bang Bangz, The Wheel Workers, Hiram, and Night Drive as well. The all ages event has gates at 11 am and tickets between $148 and $999.

  Discovery Green and Wonky Power will team up to bring you a new concert series called Sundays in The Park. This opening edition will feature the indie rock sounds of Houston’s Vodi. Full of lush tones and energy, Vodi is a great way to chill and get excited at the same time in the Summer sun. The all ages show gets going around 4 pm and it’s 100% FREE.

  You might want to swing by Walter’s for day two of the Summer Breeze fest, as the second day is just as stacked as the first. With a headlining set from Austin d-beat punks Impalers, Houston’s Skourge, Dress Code and more, things should be insane from start to finish. The whole lineup is here for the all ages event with doors at 4:30 pm and a $20 cover, or a $30 two day pass.

  In the studio at Warehouse Live, the hip hop meets pop sounds of San Antonio’s Austin Mahone will be here to drop a set. Mahone makes the kind of songs that stick in your head, while having a personae that he takes to the stage. His latest, For Me+You from last year has gained plenty of steam, and his live show is worth checking out. The R&B of Atlanta’s The YRS will be on as direct support and openers for the all ages show with doors at 6:30 pm and tickets between $25 and $27.50.

  Monday you could head over to The Secret Group to catch a set from Houston rapper Kay Jay. since running through a rough patch that included a little time behind bars, this guy has turned his life around and kind of makes moves that’ll make your head spin. With his latest release Seize The Day, Kay Jay has features with Devin the Dude while his last single with Paul Wall “Live For Today,” hits hard. New Trill will open the all ages show with doors at 7:30 pm and a measly $5 cover.

  Walter’s will be bringing the no frills and straight ahead rock of The Split Squad to town. Featuring members like Clem Burke of Blondie, this five piece makes music that’s reminiscent of the past without sounding dated, and their debut Now Her This… is pretty epic. The highly energetic and fun sounds of Denver’s Dressy Bessy will be on as direct support and their latest Kingsized sounds better live. There’s no word of openers for the all ages show with doors at 8 pm and tickets between $12 and $15.

  Gouge Away. Photo: Zack Rogers

  Tuesday you can head to The White Swan to catch Florida’s Gouge Away. Possibly one the most impressive sets I’ve seen from a direct support band before, their last time in Houston opening for Ceremony was amazing. Their newest release, Swallow is hardcore greatness, and their intense show is worth making it out for. Houston’s History Repeats will be on as direct support with Shallow going on beforehand. Things get opened up by DAZE for the all ages show with doors at 8 pm and and $8 cover.

  Over at Walter’s the sunny bedroom pop of New York’s Adult Mom will swing by to perform. With critical acclaim and a rumored energetic show, this four piece should be worth making it out for. It doesn’t hurt that their latest release, this year’s Soft Spots is catchy and fun. The indie pop of Philadelphia’s Free Cake For Every Creature will be on as direct support while the energetic indie rock of Houston’s Cool Moon will go on beforehand. Things will get opened by the indie folk of Greg Cote & the Real Life Friends for the all ages show with a $10 cover and doors at 8 pm.

  That’s about all that’s happening this week. No matter what you decide to do, please be mindful of others and remember that a safe ride home is just an app away.

Green Light: The Best of The Week this is a repost

[flauntpage]

Quin Snyder's Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA's Top Coaches

It's December and the Utah Jazz are getting waxed by the Golden State Warriors. Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, and George Hill are all out. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson are all in.

Down 31-9 late in the first quarter, Dante Exum sprint dribbles up the right sideline with Raul Neto and Joe Ingles standing in opposite corners. Trey Lyles and Jeff Withey jog into position on the weak side. As Neto flies up to gather Exum's handoff, Ingles darts toward Lyles and Withey who pose as cinder blocks on the wing. Right when the ball travels from Exum to Neto, Ingles emerges wide open behind the three-point line.

As the ball pings to Ingles, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder sits on the sideline with his hands flat on his knees. He cranes his neck for a better view as Ingles' shot soars through the air. It falls through the net. Snyder clasps his hands, leans forward, and mentally prepares for the next possession. Utah would lose this game, but only by seven points, and not before they outscored Golden State 53-41 in the second half.

The sequence described above sounds mundane, and, to be fair, at first glance it is. But the timing, discipline, and altruism within it are exquisite examples of a methodical system that doesn't bludgeon the defense so much as wait for it to deteriorate on its own. With zero players who are able to create their own shot, the Jazz manufacture a wide open three against one of the best defensive teams in league history.

"I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague," Snyder told VICE Sports.

Five fingers ball up into a fist that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Through meticulous planning and creativity, dead ends turn into onramps. Such has been the serpentine journey of Quin Snyder, whose career has seen its fair share of unscalable road blocks that suddenly give way to euphoric successes. For Snyder, every experience, philosophy, and memory picked up along the way—all across the world—is valuable. Without them, he wouldn't be the leader he is. And the Jazz, a team he's coached since 2014, would not be as formidable as they are.

Snyder's road took a left turn about four years before he landed in Utah, when, as an assistant coach on Mike Brown's staff with the Los Angeles Lakers, he unexpectedly accepted a job with CSKA Moscow, a historically triumphant club that competes in Russia's VTB United League and the Euroleague.

The Euroleague is second only to the NBA when it comes to global influence and sheer talent. But for American-born players and coaches alike, it remains—perhaps unfairly—more detour than destination. Relatively young coaches who shuffle through the NBA ranks hoping to one day lead a team don't typically flee to Europe in the middle of their ascent.

CSKA Moscow was fresh and unique, a personal and professional odyssey that would help influence Snyder's intellectual approach after the sport he loves led him to various positions all over the country.

By his side during that fateful 2011-12 Lakers season was Ettore Messina, a four-time Euroleague champion who's now an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs. At the time Messina had plans to go back overseas for his second stint as CSKA Moscow's head coach. When he did, he asked Snyder to join him.

"I was always curious about basketball over there in the Euroleague," Snyder told VICE Sports. "I followed the Euroleague for quite some time, and when [Messina] decided to go back to CSKA, he asked me if I wanted to join him as an assistant. So, I don't know if it was difficult as it was unusual to try and think about what that would be like. My wife, Amy, was really supportive. We had two young kids. So on a personal level, we were doing something that was a little unusual, but we were excited to have the life experience, to be honest with you."

Photo by Chris Nicoll - USA TODAY Sports

You can look at moving halfway across the world into a foreign culture with young kids as an unnecessary challenge. Or you can look at it as an opportunity. For Snyder, it was a chance to get up close and personal with a style of basketball that always intrigued him.

"I was looking forward to all the exposure I knew I would get to different teams in the Euroleague," Snyder said. "Whether it's Panathinaikos or Barcelona, Madrid, there's so many high level teams with terrific coaches. Partizan, you name it. There were just lots of opportunities for me to learn, and I relished that chance."

As a guard at Duke University, Snyder played for three Final Four teams and was an Academic All-American his senior season. At 26, he was one of three assistant coaches on Larry Brown's staff with the Los Angeles Clippers (the other two were current Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford and Orlando Magic General Manager John Hammond). Snyder quickly returned to his alma mater and eventually became Mike Krzyzewski's associate head coach in 1997.

He then spent seven seasons as head coach at the University of Missouri—hired over John Calipari and Bill Self—before a scandal-fueled resignation led him on a harsh and sudden detour down to the NBA Developmental League's Austin Toros (where his salary dropped from $1.015 million to about $75,000 per year) in 2007.

"There's innovation going on with this game all over the world," Snyder said. "And you don't have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we're doing."

From that job sprung an opportunity in player development with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, followed by the assistant coach position in Los Angeles that helped Snyder form a relationship with Messina. (A pitstop as an assistant with Mike Budenholzer's Atlanta Hawks fills in the gap between Russia and Utah.)

Once he familiarized himself with the numerous differences between FIBA and the NBA, Snyder couldn't stop hunting for new information. He soaked everything up in conversations with new faces who often provided a fresh way of doing things.

"There's innovation going on with this game all over the world," Snyder said. "And you don't have an opportunity to be a part of that or see it or watch it sometimes because everything from the time change and the fact that we, in the NBA, are immersed in what we're doing."

The one season in Russia shouldn't be weighed as more vital than any other Snyder endured to get where he's at, but the impression it's had on him and, notably, the Jazz, is undeniable.

Snyder spent the 2012-13 season studying matchups, substitution patterns, the way players move without the ball, and how tight half-court action can be executed, in a league that approaches offense and defense differently than the NBA or NCAA. But he also grew as a teacher. He was hands on with players who otherwise had trouble understanding the words coming out of his mouth, physically demonstrating drills on the floor and transferring his own shorthand to guys who were unmistakably unfamiliar.

"I swear to you, he had a booklet of about a hundred three-letter [acronyms] where you'd be like 'What?'," CSKA Moscow guard Aaron Jackson told VICE Sports. "European players were like 'What is this? What is he talking about?' And he had to explain it from literal scratch."

The entire experience forced Snyder to overcome language barriers when communicating with players who didn't speak English. And to those players who did speak English, Snyder served as a translator for players who had trouble understanding directions from the rest of the coaching staff. The ability to instruct despite a language barrier is extremely valuable, if not required, no matter where you're illuminating professional basketball today. Utah's roster last year and this upcoming season was/is populated by players from Brazil, France, Australia, Ukraine, Sweden, Spain, and Switzerland.

It's a Spurs-ian approach, one that Jazz General Manager Dennis Lindsey and Snyder have adopted over time, an outflowing of their close ties to the league's most familial and diverse organization.

Photo by Russell Isabella - USA TODAY Sports

"I think in any situation as a coach you try to treat your players with respect, and that, to me, is the most effective way of communicating," Snyder said. "No different than guys I've coached in the D-League or guys I've coached in the NBA. I think if players know that you're trustworthy in some sense and you do what you say, they know there's an earnestness about you trying to help them improve. That's the foundation of the relationship."

Transmitting information in an efficient way is a crucial, oft-overlooked requirement if you want to be a head coach in the NBA. But keen decision-making—the ability to execute tactical adjustments on the fly, and install logical schemes on both sides of the ball, also matter.

Snyder checks all these boxes, and he's helped turn Utah into a program that—even after Hayward's departure in free agency—holds meaningful nightly advantages over its competition.

Unlike a majority of the NBA, European teams don't aspire to revolve around making life easier for their best player. There is no one star who bears heavy responsibility on each possession. Offenses strategize with more egalitarianism. The ball zips around the perimeter. It goes in and out of the post as players whirl around, screening and cutting. It's the same sport played with a different rhythm.

"It's seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads," said CSKA Moscow's Aaron Jackson. "It's: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it's: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don't give many possessions to the other team."

The gyms are a sensory overload. Flares glow in crowds that sing, chant, and curse, while plumes of smoke waft towards the roof. Jackson has played professional basketball overseas for nearly a decade, and to him the atmosphere, intensity, and passion rival an NCAA game, except the student section is filled with adults who aren't shy about hurling random objects onto the court. Cigarettes are puffed by the pack.

"It's hard to breathe," Jackson said. "After your first two sprints up and down the court, it's literally like you can't even breathe. It's totally different."

The stands are rowdy, as they tend to be at professional sporting events across the world. On the floor, though, dueling orchestras turn the game of basketball into a series of complex, crafty sequences that vaguely approximate fine art.

"In Europe it's totally different. Basketball is literally from the west side of the court to the east side of the court to the north side of the court to the south side of the court. Every angle is trying to get attacked in a half-court offense," Jackson said. "It's seriously day and night. NBA is so much space, not as many reads. It's: a read makes a basket. And in Europe, it's: read, read, read, counter, read, make the basket. Don't give many possessions to the other team.

"The NBA is more up and down, into the flow, let's get our stars involved, let's get as many possessions as we can. And when I watch European basketball at a high level, like Euroleague, or when I watch the World Championships or the Olympics, it's beautiful to see that kind of basketball. And I think Quin, when he got here he saw it. He kind of appreciated it more when he was here. He realized how it can give teams problems if they do it correctly. Like, I think the Warriors do it perfect. They run off counter reads, read, read, read. But they have great superstars with it that dial in so it looks amazing."

The NBA has different rules, a higher talent level, and Snyder knew long before he journeyed to Russia that, as far as offensive and defensive systems go, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that's effective regardless of personnel. Players are human. They have strengths and weaknesses that can be maximized and masked. It's his job to compose an appropriate game plan that best suits whoever's on the court.

"You can't be married to a certain style of play if your players don't fit that style," he said.

Snyder and the rest of CSKA Moscow's staff had a wide array of individual skill-sets at their disposal. There were pick-and-roll maestroes, playmaking stretch fours, and speedy point guards. Viktor Khryapa—a 6'9" forward who was part of the 2006 draft day trade that sent LaMarcus Aldridge to the Portland Trail Blazers (Snyder likens him to Blake Griffin)—was able to bring the ball up and operate in space, so the coaches trusted him to do so.

They had Miloš Teodosić, a Serbian sorcerer with unparalleled court vision who's now on the Los Angeles Clippers. Teodosić is surgical running a pick-and-roll, but he can also attack defenses from the post, so they let him operate with his back to the basket when it made sense to do so. CSKA Moscow methodically worked the ball through former NBA big man Nenad Krstic down low, but also zipped up and down the floor when Jackson was in the game.

It seems obvious to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible, but basketball can be a rigid game where conformity overrules adaptation (go watch almost any college basketball game from the past 10 years if you disagree). Snyder, clearly, is not one to acquiesce the status quo.

One key difference between professional basketball in Europe and the United States is the schedule. Teams in the former only play about twice a week, with games spread between the Euroleague and their own national league. It allows coaches to make dramatic game-to-game adjustments, convenient changes to a starting lineup that sometimes involve transferring a player from one position to another, based on the specific matchup.

Photo by Kyle Terada - USA TODAY Sports

This is common practice in the NBA playoffs, but not so much the regular season, where lineup changes are more the result of rest, bumps, bruises, and organization-wide mandates than to gain any strategic advantage. But Snyder is as flexible and proactive as any coach in the league. During last year's playoffs, it took exactly zero minutes for him to realize Boris Diaw made no sense in Utah's starting lineup for its second-round matchup against the Warriors, even though Diaw started all seven games in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. (Diaw was replaced by Joe Johnson.)

In his war against convention, Snyder is also unafraid to use strategies that are fairly outside-the-box to give his team an edge, or even flip teacher-student hierarchies on their head.

"One of the most enjoyable times I had [with CSKA Moscow] was learning from the players themselves," Snyder said. They discussed different ways to guard the post, stifle pick-and-rolls, and attack switches." It was daily access to priceless details his colleagues in the NBA either weren't familiar with or couldn't seek out for themselves.

But above all else, that one season reinforced a staple long held by successful franchises, programs, and clubs all over the world: Ball movement is boss. It's the most identifiable similarity between those European teams and today's Jazz, a squad that's shaded against the NBA's white-knuckled obsession with speed, spacing, and the three-point shot. Some of that has to do with who they employ.

Utah's stanchion is Rudy Gobert, a 25-year-old perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate who strikes fear as one of the game's great rim protectors. The best way to enjoy his impact is to keep opposing teams in a half-court setting. The best way to keep teams in a half-court setting is to deploy a structured offense that carefully stalks healthy looks at the basket while preventing the opposing team from attacking in transition.

The Jazz finished the 2016-17 regular season third in defensive rating and last in pace. According to Inpredictable, Utah isn't in a hurry regardless of the situation, whether they just grabbed a defensive rebound or forced a turnover. Their offensive possessions are patient and calculated, a choreographed five-man marathon that takes place inside a 47-foot long sand box.

"I think just more on a macro level, wanting to see the ball move," Snyder said, when asked if any specific principles from Moscow have been implemented in Utah. "If there was one thing that I think just, philosophically, that we want to do and believe in, is ball movement and man movement. At least to the extent that that makes sense from a tactical standpoint."

In Snyder's first two seasons with the Jazz, they finished first in passes per game. They were fourth this year. Utah hovers near the top of the league in the percentage of their attack that's devoted to hand-offs and cuts, progressions that stab defenses from all sorts of angles and through various avenues.

Per data provided to VICE Sports by STATS, the Jazz also led the league in ball screens, averaging 74.2 per game during the 2016-17 regular season. They had several large humans (Diaw, Derrick Favors, Gobert) who could erase on-ball defenders from their teammates, flip screens, utilize decoys, and forever make the opposition over think itself into a panic.

The Jazz finished 12th in offensive rating, which is spectacular considering how much easier it is to score early in the shot clock as opposed to against a set defense that's able to communicate and execute their scheme. A league-low 8.4 percent of Utah's shots were launched with 22-18 seconds on the shot clock (deemed "very early" by NBA.com). On the other side of the spectrum, 10.5 percent of their shots came with four or fewer seconds left, which, unsurprisingly, led the league.

It's impossible to know what the Jazz would play like if Snyder had not spent that season in Moscow, but the degree to which he's actualized the experience makes the impact clear. On one hand, the Jazz have gone against the grain. On the other, they're simply functioning inside a system that accentuates their strengths.

Either way, Snyder has helped re-establish the Jazz as one of the NBA's most resourceful franchises, a respectable outfit that's headed in the right direction. Hayward—Utah's leading scorer and lone All-Star a year ago—is gone, but the team's identity is not lost. Snyder is adaptable, yet also embraces a style that not only best suites his current roster, but has timeless value in a trend-happy league that's filled with constant player movement.

Now Snyder is 50 years old. In 2016, he signed an extension that locks him in for the foreseeable future. Salt Lake City is a long way from Moscow—geographically, and culturally—but Snyder's time in Russia still helps dictate his approach to leading the Jazz. The curious path that led him to an NBA head coaching job is one few will follow. But for Snyder and the players who've evolved beneath him in a distinct environment since his first day on the job, nothing beats it.

Quin Snyder's Russian Detour Made Him One of the NBA's Top Coaches published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv