Taylor Jenkins is undoubtedly a role model for many assistants. Unknown when the Grizzlies went to look for him on the bench of the Bucks, he managed in his first year to give an identity to a group that we thought was in full reconstruction. Ime Udoka or Becky Hammon in the WNBA have also demonstrated that an assistant or an assistant could immediately impose his mark and be successful.
It’s all the harm we wish for Will Hardy, trained at the Popovich school, and hired by the Jazz to manage the reconstruction of the team. Exit Rudy Gobert, Quin Snyder, Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic. The team leaves with a largely overhauled workforce, with no real pressure for results, but Will Hardy warns that he is not there to learn how to lose.
“Are you saying we’re going to lose? » he asks the press. “We haven’t lost yet… I think there are times when you have to accept change and things change. We can continue to read his old notes, but it may be time to change course and move on. »
To motivate his players and keep them under pressure, he gave them a nickname “Team 49” as the 49th season in franchise history. A way to make them unique and welded.
“It’s the only thing that matters to me: Team 49. I don’t care about teams 1 to 48, even if I respect them. I don’t give a damn about Team 50. Team 49 is our goal. These are the players we have, and this is what we are. »
“All we care about is this team”
A speech that passes to the players, for the most part arrived through exchanges. They must learn to play together, with a new coach. Difficult in 15 days to create a collective.
“We arrived with the right frame of mind, very fresh and ready to work” testifies Stanley Johnson. “We arrived at the camp like sponges. A lot of teams don’t come to camp like sponges, and I’ve been on a few teams like that. But when you are also available and open to coaching, you make great strides, great and long strides. »
So that everyone adheres, Will Hardy chose to be very “cool” in his method. There is a lot of free play and very few interruptions in training. There again, it is perhaps a way of deciding with the Jazz of before, whose playing has never been the most “flashy”, nor the most attractive.
“There always have to be stories, intrigues, plans for the future, memories of the past and all that. It’s all great.” recognizes Will Hardy. “That’s what strengthens your audience base. It gives us common experiences on which we can rely. But as far as my staff and I are concerned, all we care about is this team. »
