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The recent addition of Kyle Korver to the Jazz has solidified a line of thought I’ve been pondering for the last year or so, and hopefully I can express it logically enough to be understood, if indeed it’s worthy of understanding.

I call it ‘Team Dynamics’, a term more expressive than the more commonly used phrase, ‘Team Chemistry’.

It’s the explanation of why the Jazz have been struggling this year, why they did so well last year, why teams like the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs do well on a consistent basis, and why the simple addition of a player so undervalued by one team as to become an afterthought can elevate another team into elite status. I suspect it can even be evaluated by statistics, despite my underlying disdain for the cult of stats to provide all the answers for sports fans.

The first thing you should understand about Team Dynamics is also the most simple and basic tenet of team sports. You must score one or more points than your opponent to win. Just one more point, regardless of how it’s accomplished.

I mentioned the Suns and the Spurs for a reason, for they are diametric opposites on how they go about winning games. The Suns run and gun, with little emphasis placed on defense. The Spurs play great defense, and score just enough to win. Both the Spurs and the Suns are great teams, despite the wide divergence of philosophy.

The individual players on each team are selected with great care to fit into that scheme, and it’s how they ‘fit’ around the great players of each team that determines how much they win.

We all know Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Steve Nash, Amarie Stoudamire, Shawn Marion, we know what they can do, what their strengths are, how their teams work like a fine watch, because those teams have been together for years, have been fine-tuned by experimentation, trial and error….

That’s what team dynamics is. It’s the way each part of the team, the individual players, interact with each other and play off their strengths forming a whole that is greater than their individual talents.

It’s also why a team like the Jazz has been struggling, because despite great talent, the team dynamics have been flawed. It’s also why a team like the Jazz can add one player, and completely change that dynamic, without adversely affecting the rest of the team.

That player is Kyle Korver, and it’s how he changes the Team Dynamics of the Jazz that will illustrate and explain my theory.

The first thing you must understand is that the Jazz depend on a complicated offense that is very structured and dependent on adherence to the system. If it breaks down, players are not in position for rebounding on the offensive side and it throws the defensive scheme off, for it leaves the Jazz vulnerable to the fast break, as the court becomes unbalanced. The shots taken when the offense breaks down are less than optimal, and shooting percentages drop. Like every offensive scheme in basketball, the Jazz want to open up the middle to penetration by the judicious use of outside shooting. And that, in a nutshell, is why the Jazz have been struggling thus far in the season.

Somewhere, somehow, there must be at least the threat of outside shooting to open up the middle for cuts and screens, double downs and back cuts. Deron Williams is a very good outside shooter, but having the point guard who runs the offense shoot too much from the outside is counterproductive, because it is the point who needs to be running and overseeing the inside game. Deron’s assist numbers have dropped, and it is no coincidence. Last year, Memo was shooting wonderfully from outside, and that created space to run the offense.

It is the interaction between the Two and the Three position that has forced this reevaluation of the Jazz personnel. In this Jazz offense, either the Two or the Three has to be able to light it up from outside, forcing the defensive team to play man to man and making the Jazz offense productive.

Ronnie Brewer is a terrific slasher, an improving defensive player, and a very unimpressive outside shooter at this stage of his career, though he’s improved a great deal from last year. Overall, his improvement has been stupendous.

Andrei Kirilenko is a wonderful defensive player, a fantastic passer, a great offensive rebounder, and a very unimpressive outside shooter, although he’s displayed much improvement in the area as well. Last year teams were routinely daring him to shoot.

Notice the common thread. Both Andrei and Ronnie are not considered threats from the three point line, and teams have learned to zone the Jazz when crunch time comes, pack the middle in, and disrupt the Jazz offense that is so good against the man to man.

Back to Team Dynamics, every team that wants to win consistently must....

One, have an unselfish player to distribute the ball and run the offense. If he can score, that is a big bonus.

Two, have an athletic defender who makes plays on either side of the court. This includes steals, blocks, and deflections.

Three, have at least one outside shooting threat that demands constant attention, making zone defenses a liability.

Four, have a dominating post up player who can be relied on to score in the crunch. This player should be an adequate rebounder.

Five, have a player who can play adequate inside defense, have good size, rebound, and score when needed. This player must be able to force the other team to defend him.


The important thing about these five rules is that it doesn’t really matter what position is which, just that these rules are met. They don’t even have to be starters, and can even share skills and just be available when needed. I suspect that most of you reading this were assuming that I was talking about positions 1-5 on the court. Not necessarily. The outside shooting can come from the Two, Three, Four or Five position, just so it’s there to open up the middle. When Memo is firing on all cylinders, that works just fine and the Jazz can play Brew and AK at the same time without it hurting the team. When Mo Almond can play the Two, or CJ Miles gets to the point where teams are forced to guard him constantly at the Two, the Jazz can afford to play a Three that isn’t a great outside shooter like AK or Ronnie Brewer, and not be afraid of zone defenses. Playing Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver at the same time makes a lot of sense and should work very well.

This isn’t rocket science. Simply stated, a good team must have an adequate balance in the different aspects of the game. The Jazz have not had an adequate outside shooting threat because of injury and personnel changes. When Memo was a constant three point threat, and Derek Fisher was hitting threes and keeping the Jazz within their offense, the Jazz were a very good team, because they had everything else a team needs, and teams were forced to play the Jazz straight up.
Also, when teams have multiple players with similar skills, like having a shot blocker at center as well as one like AK, or having two great shooters on the court at the same time without sacrificing the necessary other skills, then it makes a team more dangerous and makes up for deficiencies at other positions.

The addition of Kyle Korver is a brilliant move by the Jazz front office. By this simple addition of one player who was considered a throwaway by the Sixers front office due to the deep talent they possess at the Three, the following five things will more than likely happen.

One, the Jazz will not be zoned against effectively. Field goal percentage should go up, and the Jazz should regain their effectiveness in offensive rebounding, once again becoming the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA.

Two, the Jazz will take and make more three point shots, and not only from Kyle Korver. This should help Andrei, Memo, CJ and Deron in this respect. The shots will be more open, and better looks will lead to higher three point percentage.

Three, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer will be more effective at the pick and roll. Deron’s assist totals will rise due to better offensive execution. Other players such as Matt Harpring, Memo Okur and Paul Millsap who depend on execution to get their shots will be particularly benefited.

Four, the much maligned Jazz defense will improve. The reason for this improvement is that the Jazz will score on the offensive end with greater efficiency, forcing the opponent to actually play defense for forty eight minutes a game. The importance of this can not be overstated. When teams cannot pack in a zone and wait for the Jazz to self destruct, turn the ball over, and the Jazz can actually set their defense up at half court after scoring, it makes an entirely adequate Jazz defense that much better. This is not to say that the Jazz are a great defensive team, and that would be a gross overstatement. The Jazz have only adequate defensive players in Carlos Boozer and Memo Okur who need a total commitment from the rest of the team to play team defense. This is a case where Carlos and Memo have shown that they can make up for those deficiencies by playing well at the other end of the court. Great Jazz defense will not be achieved by one man like Tim Duncan and Shack O’Neil swatting shots away right and left. It must be approached by committee and each team member must do their part.
It is a cop out and an oversimplification to blame one man, or two men, in this case, for the lack of Jazz defense.

Rather, the failure of the Jazz to maintain leads and collapse in the fourth quarter has been a team effort. Even Deron Williams, perhaps the brightest young point in the game, hasn’t played to his standard.

When a team has to score to catch up, the pressure mounts and suddenly it isn’t quite as easy as getting a fast break or converting a turnover. The three shot looks longer, execution becomes more critical, and it takes just that ounce more of guts to get over the hump.

The Jazz have the personnel right now to be a championship team, even without the addition of Kyle Korver. It would have taken a little juggling of lineup and CJ and Mo would have had to grow up in a hurry to provide that elusive three point shot, but it would have happened this year, perhaps a little later in the year. And rather than a shooter like Kyle taking minutes away from other players, suddenly minutes are opened up because different combinations can actually work. Remember those lineups where Jazz fans wondered who could actually score with the five men on the court? No more.

And lastly, certainly, this team can be improved in the future.

For years Jazz fans have campaigned for a shot blocker in the middle, an aircraft carrier to swat shots away and shut the middle down. Ky Fesenko may be that man, once he has enough experience to be comfortable on the NBA court. Perhaps a trade with a team like Seattle to bring in a Mohamed Sene, for example, though he still is learning the game much like Fesenko and currently in the D-league. Jazzhoopsters are probably grinning evilly at my bringing up Sene, who I’ve championed ever since the draft two years ago. He’s just an example, but I’d trade for him in a heartbeat.

The Jazz also could use more consistency at the backup point. Jason Hart has had his ups and downs, lately more downs than ups. I think the answer is sitting right behind him in the form of Ronnie Price, perhaps one of the most athletic and exciting basketball players in the world today, who only needs playing time and improved point guard skills to be a more than adequate backup. I say give it to him, let him learn on the floor. Perhaps he is the ultimate Two stuck in the body of a One, but damn it would be fun to watch.

A team with great ‘Team Dynamics’ runs like a smooth Swiss watch, it’s whole is greater than it’s parts, and it is a treat to watch, for it makes a basketball fan’s heart feel good. And unlike football, where physical talent is of utmost importance, sometimes a player or two with lesser talent but great skills and a greater heart can make a tremendous difference. It’s one of the things I love about basketball. Jazz fans know exactly to whom I’m referring. Kyle Korver is right out of that mould.

You thought I forgot about five, didn’t you?

Five, the Jazz will start to consistently win those games they’ve been losing because of this imbalance. Surely, the Jazz will lose games, because no one team in the NBA can be so talented to utterly dominate every game, not even the greatest teams in NBA history, like the Wilt, West, Magic, Shack and Kobe teams of the Lakers, Scotty Pippen and Micheal Jordan’s great Chicago teams, or the Bird, McHale, Russell and Havilcek teams of the Celtics.

So if any Jazz fan wondered why Jerry Sloan left a player in the game at crunch time who barely knew how to get to the arena, it’s because Jerry Sloan knows a good thing when he sees one, much less whacks you upside the head on the way to a very important victory.

Someday, basketball fans will look back on the NBA of the late 2000 and early 2010 decades and remember the Spurs teams of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. More importantly for Jazz fans, they will remember the Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko, and Carlos Boozer led teams of the Jazz. I’d start to stock up on memorabilia right now, turn on the memory cells and enjoy NBA history in the making. Remember this moment, in particular, this last game. It's not often you can point to a pivotal point in history with such certainty.

The last day of the year, December 31, 2007, and the day the Jazz Dynasty was founded.

And you thought I was merely an optimist.