In today’s “B.S. Report,” Grantland’s Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe reviewed storylines from the first week of the NBA regular season and while discussing which coaches are likely to be fired soon – Lowe recounted an interaction he had with Jazz head coach Ty Corbin today in Brooklyn.
The entire podcast can be listened to here with the discussion on Corbin starting at the 52:10-mark.
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Lowe retold his encounter as such:
Zach Lowe: “I saw Ty Corbin today, by the way, it was an unpleseant interaction at their shootaround in Brooklyn.”
Bill Simmons: “Oh no is it my fault?”
Zach Lowe: “No for once it was not your fault. Here’s what happened with Ty Corbin. I asked him…I said I watched your team the other night in Houston. It seemed like you know – I asked him a question about their pick-and-roll defense basically it seemed like Derrick Favors and Kanter were coming out pretty far on pick-and-rolls, and is that their strategy every night, are they going to change it by opponent, and he looked at me and is like ‘What you ask me to tell you our scouting report? What – like what are you crazy?’
And I said ‘Well some coaches are willing to talk X’s and O’s with me’ and then he just said ‘Well why don’t you talk to those other coaches then don’t talk to me.’
I said ‘Okay, see you later coach!’”
Bill Simmons: “Wow, Ty Corbin…”
Zach Lowe: “It did not go well for me and Ty Corbin today – it was basically-it did not go well.”
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For the record, I don’t fault Ty Corbin for refusing to divulge coaching strategies to the media although (based off Lowe’s version of the encounter) I do think it could have been handled more tactfully.
Zach Lowe does great work and it’s unfortunate he didn’t get to ask Ty anything substantive regarding Utah’s screen-roll defense. For now, the standard “Ty what went wrong in the second half?” postgame questions will have to suffice.
so many eyerolls. I don’t know why he was unwilling to answer. there are ways to answer without “giving up your game plan” coaches do it all the time.
Exactly, coaches discuss defending the screen-roll all the time. Phil Jackson essentially had “We’re always going to push the pick&roll baseline” tattooed on his chest.
Even so, if a Jackson or Gregg Popovich ducked the question with a defensive/short response like that it’s not a big deal but for a “lame duck” coach whose in-game adjustments have previously fallen under scrutiny – it’s certainly not a confidence builder.
yes and Jerry Sloan and Phil Johnson could have had the opposite tattoo of we will force everyone into the middle.
Exactly if you are a HOF coach say what you want but if you are Ty then I think its disrespectful. Zach was just trying to do his job. It reminds me of his comments to Jody and the other reporters last season when he said “They probably haven’t never did anything at this level in their life”
I wonder if Corbin feels slighted by Lowe after Lowe slammed him pretty hard in his article last year. Maybe Corbin’s thinking, “I don’t want to end up looking stupid on another one of his articles, better to keep quiet”.
I doubt Lowe has any fans inside the Jazz organization, regardless of what some may say publicly.
I don’t think Corbin knows how to read so I really doubt this is the case.
They play 82 games; it’s not exactly top secret. I seriously doubt many games come down to our s/r defensive gameplan. Also we’re so bad good teams probably aren’t even scouting us.
The scouting report on the jazz: “none of their players are good”.
1. Can’t sit there and say x-amount of “Games come down to our s/r defensive gameplan.” Games won/lost on variety of things and defending screen-roll is one key ingredient.
2. Every NBA team has advanced scouting reports on their opponents. Only effect bad teams can have is how seriously opposing players take the reports.
Lowe even gave Corbin a way into answering the question. “I asked him a question about their pick-and-roll defense basically it seemed like Derrick Favors and Kanter were coming out pretty far on pick-and-rolls, and is that their strategy every night, are they going to change it by opponent”…Ty could have talked about adjusting to the opponents, and figuring out how it will work with what is focused on in practice.
Agreed – I definitely got the vibe that beyond disclosing a “scouting report,” Ty simply didn’t want to discuss something that’s been a trouble spot for him as a head coach.