NBA Coach Will Hardy offseason ✅ CHECK IN ✅ | UTAH JAZZ

NBA Coach Will Hardy offseason ✅ CHECK IN ✅ | UTAH JAZZ

round ball Roundup on utahjazz.com JP chunga here with the head coach of the Utah Jazz will hardy taking in some Mountain views pretty cool never gets old when you came here as an intern Ryan Smith put this on social media did it take a little bit of time to get used to the mountains and all that this place is about the views the scenery yeah I mean this is very different from where I grew up I grew up in Virginia um where you know the Appalachian mountains are in the western part of the state but that was not like a part of my life um you know to be able to just like turn around and see a view like this um you know Virginia’s pretty it’s green and um has four seasons but you’re not getting any type of wow factor when you just look around like you do here so yeah coming out here that summer uh between my Junior and Senior year at College it was definitely a a shock just to kind of see the city kind of set right into the mountains um how close it is you know because like other places you go like even Denver for example like the mountains are an hour away 45 minutes away um so yeah we’re we’re spoiled to have it all right here but you know at age 21 when I came out here it was definitely a uh a little bit of a shock for for me this place is so convenient when it comes to switching up where you are you could be in the desert 15 minutes that way you could be in the mountains 30 minutes that way it’s it’s interesting that you can have this hiking and everything around it and also of the city yeah I mean whatever you are into there’s a good chance we can provide it um you know I think the the blending of the city being here um and then you know there’s always all these conversations about the outdoors and being in nature and what that can do for your mental health and all those things and I mean 15 minutes away from where we’re sitting right now you can be in the middle of the canyon with no cell phone service um totally detached from kind of your day-to-day life um and you can get that separation and then you jump back in your car in your 15 minutes you’re right back at it uh I think that that to me has been a huge blessing um I’ve used the mountains and hiking in the canyon uh as a place where I can just kind of get away even if it’s for an hour and a half um you know my phone doesn’t go off I don’t even have the Temptation because there’s no service so um yeah we’re uh we’re in a really unique place in terms of what your day-to-day life can actually be I think it probably takes a lot of people it took me and a you know a little bit to adjust to that because you’re not your brain’s not used to thinking about those things as like a possibility um but I think it gives you a very different version of kind of like a work life balance if you want it what was it like to get up there with [Music] low man uh we had a great day um the weight vest you know was I’m glad that I don’t weigh 20 lbs more than I do at the moment it was uh definitely an adjustment Lowry’s really pushing himself this off season um we had some segments I think they only showed the very end where we got to the top but we probably ran for the last five minutes well the camera people had to run with you too yeah we had some uh there was some medical attention that was almost needed for some of the crew um we won’t name any names but Carlos had a moment there uh it felt bad for them yeah I did too because I felt bad for me at moments I was like because I’m trying to keep up with Lowry um but we had a great day we talked about a ton of different stuff but I think it was fun to to do that with him and then at the end when he was trying to sort of push his conditioning and he took off running it was one of those moments where I I didn’t want to do it I thought about stopping a lot uh but we pushed through and got it done um and had an opportunity to hang out at the top and take a few photos it was good you’re wearing the new gear I am what do you think of the new look Mountain basketball for the Utah Jazz I’m a huge fan um I think the the purple obviously is something that we’re leaning into um I love the black jerseys that we saw I think the white ones are really clean um the other piece that I think is awesome is the this sort a baby blue accent color coming back um I owned a pair of jazz shorts in high school uh baby blues I had the baby blue ones nice the Darren Williams baby blues uh they were sweet so it’s uh it’s cool to sort of see some of those uniforms kind of blending um with the purple and the baby blue uh I think the they look great um I’ve actually gotten stopped by a couple of people in the last week um and they have said to me you know without me asking that they’re really excited about the new uniforms and think they look great so I think they’re getting a really good reception from the fans also I’m glad that the baby Blue’s being embraced again because that’s the era that I I grew up watching yeah Darren Williams Carlos Boozer AK memo those are the guys that I grew up with looking at the team last year what did you learn though year two as a head coach and trying to figure out the group because there was a point during January where you guys were playing some pretty good basketball yeah I think we had gotten ourselves to a pretty good place um in January and we had added some new faces obviously we had a rookie in keante who had you know made a push in training camp and was a part of the rotation we bring John Collins in and we’re trying to acclimate him and more than acclimate him I needed to continue to do a better job of figuring out how to use him best j’s got a a wide ranging skill set as a really good player um and so it took me a minute to sort of figure out how he best fit and how I could best use him um but I think you know for me the biggest learning was that it’s always going to be a living breathing thing the team um whatever you think in the summer whatever you think going into training camp um you know you have to have the ability to to change your own mind to disagree with yourself to say hey what I thought was going to happen or what I thought was going to work is not and that doesn’t mean that you’re flimsy um but you have to be able to recognize the moment when the team the game all of it is telling you like this isn’t it um you know my first year I felt like I was really in that mindset the entire time because I was a new head coach and I sort of gave gave myself this grace of like hey you don’t really quite know what this is going to look and feel like and so take it as it comes at you and be willing to to change a little bit um going into my second year I took some of the things I learned from the first year and I I went into it thinking okay like I feel firmly about this and I feel firmly about that and I learned quickly again that um you’ll be right about some of that stuff but you have to be willing to change and I think going into this next year that’s going to be you know the number one thing for me is while we’re trying to establish an identity as a team U as a program I still have to keep my flexibility as it relates to how our players best fit together um our style of play on both sides of the ball and that’s ultimately what’s going to give us the best chance to to compete for what we want was there a moment that you can point to where you did change I even think to when you guys had preseason you played the four guard lineup M and then you immediately scrapped it you were humble enough to to do that sort of thing right uh yeah that was that’s one of many examples of it makes sense when I explain my reasoning it makes sense maybe in a practice setting um you you see the the good in it like I try to look at all of our players and our team for like what they are and what they can do and what they can bring um I generally don’t try to think about like what they don’t do um if that makes sense and so I think with that four guard Lina for example like I saw what were the potential positives of it and yeah it didn’t play out at all how I thought and it was pretty glaring and for a lot of reasons and so I just immediately had to make the decision like hey that that thing that we worked on for 10 days it’s not going to work and that’s okay and we just moved on to the next thing um you know I think there were some times where I felt certain lineups were going to perform better than they did and you get in the game and you see it and you have to be willing to see the trend um you know from a stat standpoint people are always going to talk about sample size like oh we haven’t seen enough of it to really know but that’s why we have jobs um we’re not just waiting on the sample size to get to a certain point you have to have the feel to be able to look at it talk to the staff the trend of it all and just go maybe that lineup shouldn’t play together anymore um so yeah there there were a bunch of moments this year where I had to be honest with myself that um things that I had worked hard on and prepared a lot on didn’t work the way I thought they were going to it willn’t change how did you change your thinking on calling Saxon because you had an amazing quote before I believe it was Indiana in January about how you you changed in the way that you viewed him and what you thought about him preconceived before you actually saw him on the floor yeah I I fell victim like we all do to narrative um to things that other people say um you know like I’ve said before it’s if you were going on a date with somebody you wouldn’t call their ex and ask about them but that’s what we do in the NBA a guy comes from a team people on our staff call people on their staff you know friends of theirs and go hey what’s this guy like and you get this very cluttered you know whether it’s true or not it’s their version of the truth um about the player and then that seeps into your brain and so you’re already looking at him through a certain lens and um colins’s taught me a lot he’s he’s taught me how to let go um he’s taught me to continue to lean into like what somebody does well what their positives are um because he’s a really productive player and he cares as much as any player I’ve ever been around works extremely hard he’s very coachable very respectful but like he’s had as much of an impact on me as any player that I’ve ever been around because he like really kind of put the mirror up to me where I had to have a moment of like dude you’re the problem like you’re you know these things are going to happen you know who Colin is how he plays and then you’re shocked when he plays like that and it was creating tension that was unnecessary and so you know Colin and I have a really good relationship and we have a very good understanding about kind of what the boundaries are and um you know I I think I did a much better job as the season went on of giving Colin some breathing room um and then Colin continued to do a good job of when I was really frustrated or really upset or I felt something really needed to change and I got on him hard he was great about it um and so that’s a credit to him like he he never held it against me kind of the early stages of our relationship not that it was ever bad but I was probably overly critical of colum um and so he let our relationship evolve as well um you know I had to have enough self-awareness to say like hey in this case like I’m wrong and I need to continue to do what I say I do which is focus on the positives of the players and try to maximize that piece and we’ll try to tidy up and clean up all the other stuff at practice and in the workouts but in the game um you know we all want the same thing we all want to win and there’s moments where I have to really coach and I have to direct and guide and lead the team and there’s also part of my job where I have to get out of the way and let them do their thing did you coach Colin to follow Jaylen Brunson into the tunnel so Colin uh has a free spirit and um he maybe took the box and one instructions too literally and he did take Jaylen Brunson into the tunnel which is the first time I’ve ever seen that um I think everybody was shocked including Jaylen Brunson um yeah that was an alltime moment that’s following a game plan though yeah sure um I think that’s where you know like yeah Colin you did what I said that’s not exactly how I meant it but um was a good win for us was yeah yeah early in the season December I believe yeah uh when you look at having so many rookies on a roster and trying to challenge each individually and trying to see all of them grow how do you feel that things went for them during the season and where they ended up at the end of the year I think the most important thing is that they all ended up when the season finished going into this summer they learned that the NBA is really hard each of them in their own way um keante played for most of the season um he was coming off the bench a lot playing 20 to 23 minutes-ish sometimes a little bit more if he was playing great and then his role changed late in the year and he was a starter and he’s getting more of a primary defender on him he’s getting more of a game plan and he finds out how hard it really is Bryce and Taylor had an amazing season in the g-league they got better they worked really hard wjo did an incredible job with them and then when they came to us they’re thrust into the starting lineup and it was a massive change in level and I think they got humbled a little bit um in a good way and it’s driven them into this summer I mean I wish everybody could see the work they’re putting in every day like those three have been in the gym constantly and you know the thing I’m most proud of is their bodies look great they understand the length of the season now the wear and tear no matter how old you are they need to get stronger they need to get faster they need to become more durable their conditioning can improve and the three of them have all leaned into that and that only happens by playing in the games um it’s one of those things where it’s like you can warn them as much as you want you can tell them it’s going to be hard you can explain all those things but these guys have been the best players in pretty much every basketball game they’ve ever played in their lives until they get here and so getting that game experience feeling it um in a way that I can’t explain to them has given them an opportunity to have a great summer what benefit can Taylor and Bryce get from playing in Summer League this year I think it’s number one can’t replicate a game there’s no workout there’s nothing we can do in our gym that can replicate a game um secondly it gives them an opportunity to be a little bit more Primary in those games um when they play with our team let’s say they’re on the court with Lowry and Colin and they may not be as primary as they will be on the summer league team so I think it’s an opportunity for them to get game reps some of the things they’re working on in the gym now um which is really important for them um they have to get a lot better and they know that and they want that and so this is an opportunity to play and go compete there’s no reason not to take it what’s the benefit for Walker who at the end of season availabilities you identified as someone who would also be at summer week yeah same thing um it gives Walker an opportunity to be a little bit more primary it gives him an opportunity to be a little bit more aggressive um you know Walker is a really smart conscientious kid and at times that can make you a little careful especially when you’re not getting a ton of opportunity like on the offensive side of the ball for example and so I think this will give him a chance to kind of breathe a little bit and let it rip some and that’s what I’m hopeful for for him is that it’s just some game reps where he can be really really aggressive and not have to worry about um only getting six or seven shots um The Hope is that he gets a lot of opportunity in these Summer League games and is able to similar to the rookies start to get some game reps some things he’s been working on how do you go about helping him after a really standout rookie year and see how he did his second season and try to get that confidence built right back up yeah we just try to shorten the view um I think players humans you know we’re all sort of conditioned to like think about how it’s going to end and like how successful am I going to be or not be and like what’s it going to look like way down the road and so I think in order to get that positive momentum back it’s about shortening The View and just saying like hey I want to have a great summer let’s not worry about next season yet let’s not worry about the next three years of your life let’s not start thinking about you know at the end of your career what do you want it to look like it’s when you come to training camp if you’ve accomplished these five or six things it was a great summer um um and I think by kind of like knocking down some of those little victories and checkpoints along the way the confidence will come back I mean he’s already in a really good head space um he’s also been really focused on his body this summer um but I think he knows you know we’ve put together a really clear plan for him and met with him and um you know he gave us some feedback on some things in the plan uh we want it to be something that he feels like he has a over and is invested in so you know we had a really good meeting and went through the plan and uh you know he knows and understands what the goals are for the summer inside two weeks from the draft being involved in that process what do you want to hear from some of these rookies what do you want to learn from players that will be coming into the NBA next year yeah I’m interested in who they are as people um you know just Austin and his group and Danny they do such an amazing job of the talent evaluation um so they give me a a smaller group of guys to focus on and watch film but you know whenever I meet with these draft prospects I’m interested in getting to know who they are what makes them tick um do I think they’re going to be able to adapt do I think they’re going to be able to change do I think they’re willing to change are they willing to be coached do they have some mental toughness are they going to be able to push through failure like they’re going to fail um every rookie every young player has a moment of Doubt where the NBA humbles you and you start to think like oh my gosh am I good enough um and so it’s kind of just starting to see the who they are as people because ultimately that’s what we’re doing we’re betting on people and um you know human behavior which is tough to predict when they’re 19 but I do think that when you sit down with somebody and you look them in the face and you get to have real conversation with them or share a meal with them um there’s some things that will jump out pretty quickly is there a go-to question that you asked no um no I I uh you know I researched them a little bit before I meet with them just to kind of learn about their story but you know you know I usually try to start with something pretty Broad and let them talk try to listen to them and then we go from there um you know for me it’s always trying to steer the conversation to a place where they’re speaking about something they’re interested in that’s when you’re going to get the most out of them um I mean that’s what you do for a living JP you do it too you did uh shoot your shot I think it was shoot the shot oh my my bad no it’s okay branding right uh yeah it’s but it’s fun like it’s you want to say give them something and just let them go um and so that that’s where the research kind of kicks in a little bit I’m always getting information from our front office on these guys and where they’re from kind of their backstory if they played other sports they have interests outside of basketball um but they’re oh like it’s amazing to me how sharp and mature and um ready for some of this media attention that this generation is it’s crazy like I would not be ready for it yeah 19 if you had talked to me at 19 I would have been a disaster um and they’re just I don’t know if it’s because of social media because of you know the YouTube videos you know these the Highlight like highlight videos weren’t even a thing when I was in high school like like it just wasn’t even there’s so much access to these kids at a young age now that you meet them and you’re like wow like you’re 19 that is crazy to me um like they’re all really really impressive yeah are you watching the playoffs I am seeing these two teams right now as we’re recording it’s 3-1 Boston having your experience with the Celtics what were the indicators that this team not only could make a Deep Run but could make it again to the finals where you were last time that you were coaching it I mean they’ve got really really high level players they have so many guys that can dribble pass and shoot um defensively they take such pride in guarding the ball there’s so many possessions that you watch and there’s no scheme needed there’s no rotation needed because they just guard the ball um you know Joe is an amazing coach um I think he does an such a good job of putting them in like a very clean game plan where they know what they’re supposed to do and then he’s he’s really good at adapting in a game um I think they’ve shown as a team over the last couple of years the ability to change defenses on the Fly change coverages change matchups because of their versus versatility their size um their physicality so you know when you couple those things with their offensive Firepower their ability to shoot the ball their ability to drive the ball one-on-one and then you know they’re a really high level decision-making team um I think it was pretty clear early in the season that they were the best team in the NBA um and a lot of credit to them and Joe and his staff for how they’ve maintained that Focus well there on the pre precipice Dallas went through a really impressive Western Conference run to get through to the finals did you see this out of them they clearly have one of the best players in the world with Luka donic yeah it’s hard to say if I saw it um we didn’t get a ton you know when you only get a small snippet of the season after the trade deadline you know PJ Washington and uh Gafford have had a really big impact on their team there’s no doubt about that but I also think you see Luca is just unbelievable Kyrie is mesmerizing like those two guys are playing at such a high level and when you couple that with role players playing well um you know I think that’s something that stands out with both Dallas and going back to the Boston question is to win the whole thing you have to have role players play well yeah and it can’t just be the star players and both those teams have that um did I see Dallas coming out of the West maybe not you know if you would ask me at the beginning of the playoffs that may not have been my pick but if you had asked me why would you bet against Luca and Kyrie and you know Jason’s a great coach I would have said yeah I don’t know why I would say that um so I may not have picked them but I’m not shocked you’re going to be busy after summer league after things continue in this off season working with USA basketball right what’s that role going to be like for you and what are you looking forward to getting with that group yeah um Steve invited me to come be around for training camp um be with their coaching staff so I’m just excited because I love USA Basketball I’ve had such an amazing experience with them in the past um to get to be around the best players that we have watch them up close learn from them up close is is always a special opportunity um also like those coaches meetings are like Pinch Me moments for me um when you look around the room and you’re like this is the room of coaches that I’m sitting in and we’re bouncing ideas off each other and you know you’re listening to Steve and Eric spola and you know tyo and Mark I mean like the list goes on when I was on the staff it was you know Jay Wright and um Steve was on that staff as well um you know eeme Lloyd Pierce like we just had such a great staff that you’re learning so much from all these coaches that you’ve studied from afar and you watch them on film and um we’re all competitive but you have such like a deep level of respect for who these people are to be in a room where you’re all kind of like working at the same thing and throwing ideas out there um you you know I just look forward to to sitting in those meetings and trying to soak it all up um that was my Approach when I was on the staff the last time and to get an opportunity to be there for a week with them this Summer is uh really special do you get to pull a coach that you’ve admired from a far aside and say and get like basketball sicko brain on with them and talk about a specific thing that you really appreciate about what they do and what they coach yeah I mean we get in the weeds yeah um in a fun way like we all sort of get to nerd out on basketball a little bit um but yeah like there’s there’s so many things to learn from all these coaches um that I find myself asking a ton of questions um you know the one-on-one conversations are always fun when we go to dinner together at night those conversations are great because a lot of those coaches you know that I just named like they have been and have accomplished things that I want our team to accomplish and you know I was fortunate in San Antonio to be a part of a a championship and was there for 11 years with pop um and then you get around coaches like SPO and Steve Kerr and you know their championship coaches and they do it a little differently and Jay Wright you know obviously his resume speaks for itself in college like he does a little differently and so you get to see and sort of pluck Little Things from these coaches um and then I try to frame it against like my own personality and who I am and you know I’m I’m still always trying to sort out um you know exactly who I am as a coach like I’m not a finished product yet and I think that’s a a strength but um you know I’m still in learning mode like massively and there’s so much to be taken from asking these guys questions but there’s also probably just as much to be taken just observing them up close one Show You observe Arrested Development oh my favorite I want the Mount Rushmore of Arrested Development bits in your mind bits Bits Chicken Dance The Chicken Dance is a classic um Jean parmesan is my favorite yeah J Walter Weatherman that’s why you always write a note uh I like there’s always money in the banana stand too okay yeah that was a classic yeah um and there’s something about Job sinking that boat it just will always make me laugh I don’t know yeah Will Arnett is one of my alltime the guy just makes me laugh like they’re why I listen to smartless him and Jason baitman like I’ve just been such a fan of their sense of humor forever um a rest of development maybe my favorite show of all time so you named job is there there’s nothing else that stands out as far as bits that’s it God there’s like too many to pick from um Tony Wonder dude would you like prep for this just watch all the no I watched a lot of Arrested Development as a kid that was my go-to show in High School really yeah oh yeah I did not see that coming you have a great sense of humor I didn’t know you were and curb that in curb yeah curb is special yeah there’s a lot of curb bits that we can’t talk about in this podcast to get us all get us all tied up but man H I know what I’m going to do tonight all right he is the head coach of the Utah Jazz Will Hardy on round ball Roundup on Utah jazz.com will thank thanks much appreciate it

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy talks Mountain Basketball, the team’s offseason, and USAB on this video edition of #RoundballRoundup.

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