Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Ahead of Sunday night's game at the Delta Center, new Bucks coach Doc Rivers was asked to what degree he intended to imprint his style upon the team.
He replied that the veteran Milwaukee roster already had its own established identity and culture, so he would be looking to sharpen and enhance rather than make wholesale changes.
His counterpart on the Jazz side, Will Hardy, right now can only imagine the day when that's the case with his own players. He's hoping they'll take some steps in that direction sooner rather than later. Their 123-108 victory against Milwaukee was a decent start.
A few nights after appearing tentative defensively and getting lit up by Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, the Jazz held Milwaukee's Damian Lillard to 12 points on 5-of-18 shooting, and made Giannis Antetokounmpo at least work for his 33 points (even if going 11-of-15 from both the field and the free-throw line was pretty efficient).
"The thing right now that we're trying to work on is almost freeing players' brains up a little bit," Hardy said following Thursday's practice in the aftermath of Maxey's explosive performance.
He explained that there are simply too many times right now that Jazz players blindly adhere to what they think the "correct answer" is — to what was noted in a film session, or discussed at shootaround — at the expense of simply reacting to what's taking place before them on the court.
"There's a lot of decisions that are made on the fly, and very rarely does a game unfold exactly how the plan said it would. ... Sometimes the players don't give themselves enough credit — they know what's going on, they've played basketball for a long time," Hardy said. "But, instead of trusting their own instincts, they become frozen because they're trying to follow a set of rules or guidelines."
Forward/center John Collins explained it more succinctly.
"His message has always been to be basketball players … for us to not just be robotic," the big man said.
Against Maxey, for instance, the first-time All-Star got rolling early, stepping into three straight 3-pointers. Then, with a screen set 35ish feet from the hoop, Jazz guard Collin Sexton went under, Maxey pulled up and fired away, and buried his fourth triple.
"In that situation, technically, yes, go under," Hardy explained, "but when we do the walkthrough, he hasn't made three (of them) already."
Those are the kinds of situations and scenarios the coach believes his players must be equipped to react to in the moment. Yes, there is a game plan; and yes, it does include some non-negotiables.
But …
"The rest of it is a little bit of a gray area," Hardy said.
He's cognizant that sometimes the plan put in place just may not be practical at a certain point in time. He wants his team to feel empowered to go off script, to color outside the lines when it is appropriate.
They found some of those moments vs. Milwaukee.
The help defense against Antetokounmpo was "relatively aggressive, in a good way."
Forward Lauri Markkanen explained the approach against one of the league's most talented stars.
"We knew if we showed that level of player the same thing over and over, he's gonna figure it out (easily). Obviously, he's seen all the coverages, so you try to make his life difficult, make adjustments mid-game, and at least shift from one assignment to another," the Finnish sharpshooter said. "But when we bring the effort on defense and just fly around, if we make a mistake (at least) it's an aggressive mistake. That's when we are at our best on defense."
Rookie guard Keyonte George earned universal praise for his fourth-quarter scoring, as the Jazz pulled away from their short-handed and weary opponent, but he noted that one of his biggest contributions to the ultimate outcome was recognizing when he could leave his man defensively and go be a double-teaming nuisance to Antetokounmpo.
Furthermore, on a team that sometimes lacks a definitive locker room hierarchy and is populated by introverts, George's ability to take command as the game progressed was also a positive development.
"I'm trying to grow myself to be a leader," he said. "So, I just try and get out of my comfort zone and use my voice as much as possible."
Beyond the rotating onto Antetokounmpo and the vocal orchestration, there were other encouraging signs.
Second-year center Walker Kessler, whose second-half surge in energy, effort, and efficiency vs. the Bucks was a catalyst for the victory, added that the subtle nuances the Jazz deployed against Lillard represented serious progress from their failings against Maxey.
"We knew that we had to stop his off-the-dribble 3s, because he's such an unbelievable shooter off the dribble," Kessler said. "So, trying to press up on those ball screens and just trying to limit those, because we'd rather have him going downhill against all our guys than shooting off-the-dribble 3s."
Hardy noted that the team was far from perfect schematically against Milwaukee, which will happen — when you encourage players to freelance at times, to cast off the shackles of "the plan" and to do what they think is right, well, they won't be right all the time.
The point is getting them to a place where they are thinking the game through, rather than being automatons acting out their programming.
"They get a little bit constricted at times by trying to do exactly what they saw on the board earlier," Hardy said. "And so we're just trying to help them recognize the moments where their instinct is correct, and they need to trust themselves a little bit more in those moments."
Collins added that it can be hard for some players — particularly younger ones — to not get "stuck" in a pattern of unyielding adherence to the game plan.
But those who can strike the right balance between following the rules and following their own instincts are ultimately the most successful.
"It can be hard to get yourself out of that mindset; it takes awhile for you to understand that making basketball plays sometimes is more right than what the scout says. ... It's a fine line between being a basketball player and following the rules," Collins said.
