This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin met with the media Thursday morning, about 15 hours after his team had been eliminated from the playoffs.Corbin touched on the busy summer that is ahead for the franchise, which has only five players under contract beyond July 1, including Marvin Williams. He owns a player option for next season.Of course, the problem with having so many pending free agents is whether they are more worried about the future than the present. According to Corbin, however, his players mostly kept their eye on the prize, despite missing the playoffs after an 86-70 loss to Memphis on the final night of the regular season."It was hard," Corbin said. "But we talked about it and this group of guys was really good. For the most part we hung in there and guys were playing for the team."Corbin understood players like Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson and Mo Williams looking to the future."... It's their livlihood," the Jazz coach said. "They have to stay healthy and they don't want to get hurt because if you get hurt at this point in their career it could hurt you. So getting them to stay on course is a juggling thing. [But] you have so many guys, it's hard to work around it times because the next guy was in the same boat. So it was a little difficult and it was a learning experience. But the guys were great. with so many guys being free."— Steve Luhm