[爆料] Chemistry more vital than talent

[BryonRussell (喔耶羅素)]

One of my fondest sports memories came during my junior year of high school.
During the fall intramural basketball tournament, my good friends Howie and
Jim and I put together a basketball team we called Mo's Hawks.

We won four or five games in the junior class tournament, then were matched
up against the best senior team for the school title and beat them also. It
was a huge upset and I still remember how mad the seniors were, that a bunch
of juniors had knocked them off for the school championship.

The following year, when I played on the school's varsity, we thought we had
a pretty good team and had dreams of taking state, which our school had done
a few years earlier.

However, we had a poor season and never came close to making the state
tournament. We did come close to winning nearly every time we played, but we
lost a bunch of games by less than five points and ended up with one of the
worst records in school history.

So what was the difference between the two aforementioned teams?

The first had chemistry.

The second did not.

Our team that won the school intramural championship didn't have the best
overall talent in the school, but we were a group of good friends who liked
each other, rooted for each other and played well together, allowing us to
beat all comers.
The varsity basketball team, on the other hand, had different factions that
never melded well and a coach that couldn't bring us together. The result was
an underachieving season.

Which brings me to the Utah Jazz.

We keep hearing about how this player is better than that and how certain
players absolutely must be kept in order for the Jazz to go forward. But my
question is this: Are the Jazz going to be any better next year with everyone
back, even if everyone is healthy?

You could argue that the Jazz were better last year when certain players were
out of the lineup rather than the end of the season when everyone got healthy.

A decade ago when the Jazz went to the NBA Finals two years in a row, not
only did they have a couple of great players in Stockton and Malone, but
those two had great chemistry — nearly 20 years worth in the end.

Bryon Russell was a second-round draft pick who fit in well with Stockton and
Malone, and the Jazz took off when they traded Jeff Malone for Jeff Hornacek,
who wasn't any more talented than Jeff Malone, but one who fit in much better.

Players such as Shandon Anderson and David Benoit fit in well with the Jazz,
but never did much once they left the franchise. Chris Morris, a No. 4 draft
pick with loads of talent, joined the team for a couple of years, but didn't
fit in well. I never felt like Greg Ostertag fit into the mix well, either,
and perhaps if the Jazz had found a center who blended better with the
others, the Jazz might have won an NBA title or two.
Because I don't cover the Jazz on a regular basis, I can't say which players
get along with whom. But I watched a few games late in the year and know when
a more-talented Jazz team can lose to the likes of Golden State and Minnesota
on their own home floor with a higher playoff seed on the line, something is
missing.

Like chemistry.

If a certain player — let's call him CB — doesn't get along real well with
the rest of his teammates, then perhaps he isn't that valuable. If another
player — let's call him AK — only gets real motivated when he's starting
and involved more in the offense, how important is he to the club?

Look at Jazz rival Denver, which went all the way to the conference finals,
despite moves that on paper made them weaker. The Nuggets unloaded Marcus
Camby and his big contract for a second-round draft choice in the offseason,
then added Chauncey Billips in a trade for all-star Allen Iverson. They
picked up a couple of others, such as Chris Andersen, and suddenly they're
among the league's final four.

Perhaps the Jazz might be better off letting one of their high-priced players
opt out without trying to re-sign them, or sign and try to pick up an
energetic young player, who is willing to work hard and be part of the team.
Someone like Paul Millsap.
The problem is, there's no way to predict how certain players are going to
play together, although some are obviously more team-oriented than others.

But in looking at next year's roster, Jazz officials should be more concerned
about trying to put the right team on the floor, rather than the best
collection of players.

http://ppt.cc/DONT

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