This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
So the Jazz have gathered for coach Quin Snyder's first training camp, and everyone recognizes that this new arrangement is going to require some unselfishness.
That's not even counting Gordon Hayward's negotiations regarding how much time he's allowed to spend playing video games.
Hayward's a dedicated gamer, but he's married now. He knows that. The Jazz are not a very good NBA team at the moment. We all understand that.
Where the buzzwords from Media Day come into play is in holding this team accountable, giving the rest of us some genuine guidelines in judging the Jazz. The hope is that they will be much more fun to watch offensively and far less horrifying to watch defensively. Those are starting points, right?
"It's going to be a really fun year to see how things unfold and how this team comes together," said Jazz president Randy Rigby.
Just how much fun it will be and how long the novelty lasts with a new coach and a cleared stage for the Jazz's young, core players is the question.
Monday's optimism aside, this team may not even match last year's 25-57 record. The Jazz remain a long, long way from even the middle tier of the NBA's Western Conference.
But here's the thing: The consumer product can become significantly better this season, even if the record is about the same. That's not a contradiction.
If the Jazz are running, sharing the basketball and stopping opponents in transition, whatever outcomes they produce will be more tolerable than last season's painful display.
"We want to play very unselfish basketball," said general manager Dennis Lindsey. "Especially with how our team is constituted, the ball has to move."
Yeah, it does. The Jazz have a bunch of good players and no great ones — not yet, anyway, if any of them ever will rise to that level. They can improve individually only by growing together, at both ends of the court.
In that sense, there's one simple way to assess whether the Jazz are getting anywhere this season. Whether they're dunking or making layups, they have to score more easy baskets and give up fewer of them. That reflects unselfish offense and good transition defense.
"If we stick to those fundamental things," Lindsey said, "I think we'll surprise ourselves with the result at the end of the day."
That's the plan, anyway.
"There are things right now," Snyder said, "that we have to tell ourselves and our team that, 'We're gonna do that.' How quickly we get better, it's hard to say. You just don't all of a sudden say we're going to do this — boom — and all of a sudden, you're a top-10 defensive team. We've got a long way to go, but it's OK to want to be that, as a first step."
There's nothing wrong with talking a good game, in other words. This was Media Day, after all.
Second-year point guard Trey Burke was dealing with his own issues, after his nude photos surfaced on the Internet. Burke huddled with media relations personnel prior to his interview session, but he used his own words in apologizing, not relying on a script. "They were my actions, I own up to 'em," he said. "You can hide; you can run from it, but you have to own up to certain things. I'm looking forward to gaining the trust back from the community."
On and off the court, the Jazz know they're accountable. The NBA standings have a way of enforcing standards. So, just as importantly, do the fans. The folks who occupy those seats at EnergySolutions Arena deserve more than they got last season.
The message of Media Day is the Jazz have provided the material for judging them in 2014-15, with this intention: They may lose a lot of games, but they'll look better doing it.
Twitter: @tribkurt