This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Since camp opened, Quin Snyder's mantra has been the same.
Play with pace.
Play with purpose.
Play with a pass.
Five games into the season, his young Jazz team is certainly doing that last part. According to the NBA's tracking data, no team is moving the ball as much as Utah. The Jazz average 396.6 passes per game. Charlotte, the next closest team, is averaging 348.4.
"I think we're lucky as far as the guys we have," Snyder said before Friday night's game against the Dallas Mavericks. "We have a really unselfish group. That's a credit to [general manager Dennis Lindsey] and the guys that he's brought in."
It's also a credit to the Jazz's floor spacing, Snyder said.
"If you want to pass, you ache to have someone to pass it to," he said.
On more than one occasion, Snyder has mentioned in post-game press conferences that his team has been almost too unselfish at times, passing up great looks for simply good ones.
Still, the coach would rather have that than a stagnant offense.
"We call it advantage basketball," Snyder said. "Try to get an advantage and then keep it, and the way you keep it is with a pass."
While the Jazz lead the league in passes, assists have not followed at quite the same clip, something Snyder believes is a result of missing some open 3-point looks. Utah's 107 assists are ninth most in the NBA.
Overall, though, the numbers are encouraging for the Jazz, who are creating the fourth most assist opportunities a night (46.2) while logging the fifth most secondary assists (6.2), according to the NBA's data.
"We've emphasized it, but as a coach you say a lot of things that don't resonate," he said. "So I think our guys deserve all the credit for making it something that's important to them."
— Aaron Falk