SALT LAKE CITY, UT - JULY 5: Utah Jazz coach Johnnie Bryant draws up a play during the game against the Boston Celtics on July 5, 2016 during the 2016 Utah Summer League at vivint.SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)
Utah Jazz Notes: Assistant coaching staff remaining intact, 3-on-3 tournament
From assistant coaches, to Joe Ingles banter, to a Utah Jazz 3-on-3 tournament, it may be the offseason, but there’s still plenty of news to go around!
Am I the only one that feels like it’s been months since we last saw the Utah Jazz play? The team was so much fun this season that it definitely feels like a void has been left from them now that we’re in the offseason.
Nevertheless, there’s still a good amount of Utah Jazz news making the rounds, beginning with some details on Utah’s assistant coaching staff:
Assistant coaching staff staying intact
When it was announced that Jazz assistant coach Igor Kokoskov would be taking the head-coaching job with the Phoenix Suns, there was somewhat of a fear that he may take other Jazz assistants with him. Fortunately, it appears that fear was ultimately unwarranted.
According to several reports, including the tweet below from the Salt Lake Tribune’s Tony Jones, aside from the departure of Kokoskov, the Jazz bench will stay intact.
While losing Igor’s brilliant basketball mind will certainly be a blow, all things considered this is great news! This should help the Jazz to maintain continuity and stability within their coaching ranks. It’s particularly good to hear that assistant coach Johnnie Bryant will be staying put in Utah as he’s been credited with much of the team’s impeccable player development.
Donovan Mitchell backs Quin Snyder for COY
The NBA End of Year Award finalists were announced this past week and the Utah Jazz were well represented with Donovan Mitchell up for Rookie of the Year, Rudy Gobert up for Defensive Player of the Year and Quin Snyder up for Coach of the Year.
Rather than toot his own horn, though, rookie phenom Mitchell instead presented his case for Quin Snyder as Coach of the Year, as you can see in the tweet below:
https://twitter.com/spidadmitchell/status/996915817370529793
It will be fun to see what comes of the final awards. He may not be the favorite, but I truly do think Snyder has a chance to take home the end of season hardware.
Joe Ingles roasts troll on Twitter
Death, taxes and Joe Ingles being hilarious – three constants you can always count on. Recently a Twitter user decided to use the social media platform to call out Joe Ingles’ purported lack of NBA 2K skills:
I mean, come on, man. NBA 2K wouldn’t even be a thing if it weren’t for talented basketball players like Joe. This is like someone thinking they would be cool for beating Jimi Hendrix in Guitar Hero. As always, though, Joe Ingles had a quick reply to the trash talk:
https://twitter.com/Joeingles7/status/996868511493382144
He’s clearly joking, but Joe might have a point. I could actually see him secretly being a wizard at NBA 2K without any of us knowing.
The interaction didn’t stop there, though. Instead Ingles’ good friend then proceeded to challenge him to a game. Or at least I think that’s what he was trying to say:
Rather than ignore the troll, Ingles responded with the same reaction that I’m sure most of us would’ve had to the odd challenge:
But Hawksrule25 wasn’t done. Apparently before even officially competing with Ingles in…whatever it was he wanted to do, he named himself the winner:
To which Ingles fired back with a quick response:
I couldn’t help but chuckle upon seeing Ingles actually refer to his new friend by his self-proclaimed “young god” title. And, of course, the little jab about his followers was pretty funny as well. In Hawksrule25’s defense, he is up to 10 followers now, so he must be doing something right.
Imagining what this interaction would have looked like if it took place in person is even more entertaining. On the court or on social media, Joe Ingles remains the GOAT of trash talk.
Utah Jazz 3-on-3 tournament
On Friday, the Utah Jazz announced the first-ever 2018 Utah Jazz 3-on-3 Tournament, which is set to occur during the 2018 Utah Jazz Summer League on July 2nd. There are several different divisions that fans and ballers of all ages and skill levels can sign up for.
For details on registration, be sure to check out the link in the tweet below:
Per the website above, each winning team will receive four tickets to a Jazz game in October or November. However, my favorite prize tidbit was the following that stated, “The Top Gun men’s division will also receive free registration for the Salt Lake City Stars open tryout.”
Talk about a sweet chance to get a really cool opportunity. Show off your skills at the 3-on-3 Tournament and you could get a chance to be the next member of the Salt Lake City Stars. How awesome of a story would it be if the Jazz found a diamond in the rough that worked his way up from this tournament, to the G-League, all the way to the Jazz roster?
OK, so maybe I’ve seen a few too many sports movies, but it’s still cool to dream about, right?
As far as it relates to the Utah Jazz, the two most exciting upcoming dates are the NBA Draft on June 21st and the NBA Awards Show on June 25th. Be sure to stay tuned to TheJNotes.com for updates on those events and everything else Jazz related.
