Salt Lake Tribune - Jazz youth learn roles on the bench
With the rapid improvement in his game, Deron Williams is more than the Jazz's starting point guard these days. He's a handy example, and a willing mentor. Mostly, he's the poster child for the Jerry Sloan Rookie Treatment.
The Jazz's young shooting guards are living through the coach's approach these days, and they can tell you, it's not easy. Ronnie Brewer has never been through anything like this, so he wasn't quite sure what was going on. C.
J. Miles understood Sloan's actions, but needed to be reminded how to respond. Both began the season with strong games.
Each earned a spot in the starting lineup, and had some big moments. Then both began making mistakes and annoying their coach. Now they are banished for the moment, stuck sitting on the bench and watching the veterans, hoping for a minute or two at the end of already-decided games.
"It's tough," Brewer said. "I can't say I expected this." Well, that's another mistake.
Because this is what most rookies go through, and not just on the Jazz. They tend to get thrown in the deep end, and when the water rises over their heads, they are fished out and
eventually takes them away. "Hey, get out there and see if you can get it in your hands.
All these guys had to go through this, figuring out what's going on. It takes time, but eventually they learn." Williams did.
In fact, the second-year point guard might be the most successful graduate of Sloan's rookie system. "The reality is, you've got to be able to perform. You've got to be making a positive contribution to the point where you can stay out there, whether it's on the defensive end or making shots," Sloan said.
"Look at Paul Millsap - he's not just making baskets, he's guarding people. He's not playing like a rookie; he's showing some understanding of what the game is about. Deron did that, too, in the second part of last season.
That's what we're looking for, but it takes most young guys a while to figure it out." Now Brewer and Miles are trying, too. So when they suddenly found themselves at the end of the bench, up stepped their teammate with a message: Sloan makes you earn your minutes.
So go earn them, same as I did. "I told them, the same thing happened to me last year," Williams said. As the third pick in the draft, Williams had played right away as a rookie, but Sloan, increasingly disturbed about his commitment to improving his game, finally benched him.
Williams' minutes dwindled, even falling into single digits several times while Sloan watched for a change in the guard's approach to his game. The move paid off huge. "He was a different player" after committing himself to working harder, Sloan said.
Now Williams is "close to [All-Star] level," he added on Sunday. "Deron came and told me, 'The thing about coach is, when your time comes to play again, if you're ready, he'll say, 'Well, last game he played hard, maybe he's got something going." And he'll play you again,' '' Miles said.
"He sees when you're working hard, too. He sees if you're going hard in practice, and he'll give you a chance in games because he figures if you practice hard, you'll play the same way." Miles returns to the Jazz's practice center every evening the team is in Utah, he said, to do extra drills and take extra shots.
Brewer, too, has increased his practice time, arriving early every day to get more work. "To go from starting and playing a lot to not playing hardly at all, it's different," Brewer said. "It was a surprise, but talking to Deron, it helped.
He told me to try to come to practice early, get some shots up there, then work with the coaches afterward, make the extra effort.
News RSS