Utah Jazz head coach called out the NBA media during a rant about Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert relationship. The Jazz coach insisted that both players are in good terms despite media suggesting the opposite and basing the notion on stats.
Snyder addressed the issue before Utah’s game vs Memphis on Tuesday. The veteran coach, defended Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert — who have been the subject of criticism lately.
“Let’s just not try to drive a wedge between some of these players and especially using numbers,” Snyder said, per Yahoo Sports as transcribed by the Salt Lake Tribune. “We should be more responsible than that … We’re not playing great all the time. We want to play better. But you don’t get there by trying to say that one player’s not passing to another.”
According to a stat that made the rounds around Twitter lately, Mitchell is averaging 2.0 passes per game to Gobert this season. Assuming the stat reference is correct, that’s a pretty low number for both Mitchel and Gobert.
“I don’t know. I mean, we have the No. 1 offense, you know what I mean? So clearly, we’re doing something right as a group, as a team … I’m not going to lie. I see it. I’m on Twitter or whatever, but I don’t think it has an effect on us, the group,” Mitchell said, per Yahoo Sports as transcribed by Salt Lake Tribune.
Still, Snyder is not happy with the narrative. The notion that Mitchell does not pass enough even when Gobert had a miss match down low leads to other issues as a people assume the two players are not in good terms.
“When it gets to the point where Donovan’s answering questions [about it after shootaround], the inference there is that he doesn’t pass to him and there’s a problem between the two. So those aren’t illogical jumps,” Snyder stated.
“I haven’t seen that. I haven’t seen that at all. They sit at the same table when they eat sometimes.”
The Jazz bounced back with a huge win over the no.2 seeded Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday as they won 121-115 in OT. Gobert had his first 20/20 double-double of the season with 22 points and 21 rebounds.
”A week ago, we probably don’t win that game, don’t win in overtime,” Gobert said, via NBA.com. ”There’s a trust and communication that we had, an intensity that we had down the stretch. You get a chance to win every night when you do that.”
Utah continues on Wednesday facing the Oklahoma City Thunder. After clinching their playoff spot, the Jazz will have to make their offense and defense work in the postseason. That’s the biggest challenge for Snyder after the Jazz failed to make a deep playoff run the last two seasons.
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