Defensive collapses wear on Jazz coach

[RonnieBrewer (Ronnie Brewer)]

Defensive collapses wear on Jazz coach
By Tim Buckley
Deseret Morning News 
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

      AUBURN HILLS, Mich. ─ As the Jazz wheel through a revolving door of
starting shooting guards this season, each with defensive liabilities of one
sort or another that prompt coach Jerry Sloan to keep making switches, and as
Utah continues to watch a merry-go-round of perimeter players score 50-plus
point against them, Washington's Gilbert Arenas on Monday joining Michael
Redd, Kobe Bryant and Ray Allen, perhaps there is a lesson to be learned by
flipping through the ol' history book.

      Jeff Hornacek, who hobbled through the late stages of his seven-season
Jazz career on a bum knee whose cartilage was so worn that bone rubbed on
bone, wasn't exactly the greatest defender in NBA history.

      "But very few people got by him," Sloan said, recalling his starting
off-guard from Utah glory days of the mid-to-late 1990s.

      How did Hornacek see to that?

      Sloan doesn't have to close his eyes to see the vision and picture his
foot-speed-challenged sharpshooter finding other means for getting the job
done on the defensive end of the floor.

      "He always kept his body between his man and the basket ─ with one
leg," the Jazz coach said.

      "He had great technique," Sloan added. "He knew how to use his hands.
If a guy was dribbling the ball with his right hand, he'd have his hand down
there and try to stop him. Or at least make him turn."

      Standing in an arena hallway in Washington, where Arenas' Wizards beat
the Jazz 114-111 to send Utah to the Detroit area for tonight's meeting with
the Pistons riding a four-game losing streak, Sloan shows the motions.

      He does so with passionate animation, so much so he practically knocks
the notebook and tape recorder out of a reporter's hand.

      "Say you're dribbling toward me," Sloan said. "(Most defenders), they've
got their hand up. And all (the ball-handlers) do is dribble under your arm."

      So simply put it down, Sloan instructs.

      "We work on that and talk about it a great deal every day in practice,"
he added, "but we have a difficult time to get guy to be able to challenge
the basketball, see if they can get a piece of the basketball."

      If Sloan can get at least that much from one of his shooting guards ─
forget, for the time being, actually knocking down shots ─ perhaps he can
finally settle on a starter.

      Instead, youngster C.J. Miles (now assigned to the D-League), rookie
Ronnie Brewer and veterans Derek Fisher and Gordan Giricek have all taken
turns. Fisher had the job for a while, lost it to Giricek for four games, then
was starting again Monday. Small forwards Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring
also have had stints at the 2 spot, though Sloan seems hesitant to start
either out-of-position.

      The Jazz, meanwhile, have talked about adding a veteran to their roster
ever since waiving undrafted rookie Roger Powell Jr. earlier this month.

      But even with the likes of Los Angeles Clipper Corey Maggette,
Toronto's Morris Peterson and Minnesota's Marko Jaric all rumored to be on
the trade market ─ and even with solid shooters, if not terrific defenders,
like Luke Jackson (recently signed to a 10-day contract by the Clippers) and
currently out-of-the-NBA Casey Jacobsen available on the market this month ─
there were, as of earlier this week, no immediate plans for Utah to make a
major acquisition that would shore up its 2 spot.

      "We haven't talked about any trades to speak of," Sloan said as
recently as Monday.

      All of which leaves the Jazz's current cast having to solve what their
coach understatedly calls "a little bit of a problem."

      If at least one would simply be willing to try a new technique or two,
Sloan suggests, the problem may even take care of itself.

      Otherwise, super-scoring guards around the league ─ Richard Hamilton,
it's your turn ─ can continue to lick their chops.

      "If you're going to try to play the guy the same way every single time,"
Sloan said, "he's going to figure you out. He's going to know who you are,
and he's going to have a book on you.

      "If you're going to be the same person every day you go to work,
they're going to figure you out ─ and everybody in the league knows you."

      They'll remember, all right.

      Though probably not in quite the same vein Sloan so fondly recalls a
certain hobbling shooting guard from back in the day.

E-mail: [e-mail] 


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