From Deseret News archives:
Utah Jazz: Sloan was less than impressed in Jazz win
Seasoned coach finds plenty of faults with his team's play
Perhaps that is because he has such high hopes for a team that has won more than 50 games each of the past two seasons.
And maybe it's because he has high expectations, no matter what his team's recent track record might be.
In either event, it's clear he was less than impressed with Utah's 98-94 victory over a Denver club that was missing suspended All-Star Carmelo Anthony.
Shortly after the win, Sloan railed on his club's loose defense, saying, "We can't be a factor if that's the way we're gonna play."
Thursday morning brought more of the same, plus some other revealing insight from Sloan as the Jazz — who are off until playing host Saturday night to the Los Angeles Clippers — embark on a nearly six-month, 82-game campaign.
"There were some things I think we definitely have to improve on to be a competitive team," Sloan said prior to practice Thursday.
His concerns centered chiefly on unnamed players who "have a tendency to break plays and not stay in our offense and then not be able to get back and defend as well as we'd like to."
"We gave up too many layups," Sloan said. "I mean, you've got to defend the basket in basketball."
Some other thoughts from Sloan one day after the opener:
• On the play of reserve point guards Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight, who played 34 and 13 minutes, respectively, because would-be starter Deron Williams was out with a sprained left ankle:
"I thought those guys tried to get us in our offense pretty well. Those weren't the things I was concerned about as much as I was concerned about our other people."
• On 21-year-old C.J. Miles, who logged just 13 minutes, starting at small forward and 2004 All-Star Andrei Kirilenko, who played 35, coming off the bench:
"I didn't have any problem with that. ... As we move forward, I hope C.J. can stay out of foul trouble and get a couple more minutes. Andrei, I think, got a little bit tired at the end of the game. He was a little sick. We extended him, maybe, just a minute or two too long. As time goes on, we'll get over that."
• And on dressing rookie big man Kosta Koufos, who did not play, instead of second-season center Kyrylo Fesenko, who was healthy but on the Jazz's inactive list for the opener:
"He (Koufos) has worked harder and deserves an opportunity to get thrown out there. 'Fes' has been here for a year, and he's gone through training camp again, but if he's gonna play in this league he has to learn how to work. We can't make him do anything.
"Our coaches work with him, but sometimes he still doesn't work as hard as he's capable of. Consequently, when you don't work hard, you're not in great shape. ... We've tried to make that an important part of what he needs to work on, but, for some reason or another, his conditioning has not gotten better."
Sloan said he wasn't sure whether or not Fesenko would dress Saturday against the Clippers, but he did suggest that for the foreseeable future he was not locked into having one young big guy or the other sitting at the end of his bench.
"Now maybe the next game I'll go a different route," the Jazz coach said. "But this whole business of stepping out and having somebody give you something? You've got to work for it."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com
