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Enes Kanter promises an expanded game this year.
All the way out to the 3-point line.
The Turkish big man has attempted exactly one shot from beyond the arc in each of his first three seasons (sinking one of them). This year, Kanter says he's finally been given the freedom —more accurately the command — to fire from deep.
"I'm rehabbing in Chicago and Coach Quin [Snyder] came to visit me and he said, 'You know you're going to shoot some 3s this year,'" Kanter recalled Monday. "I was just shocked that the first time he met me, he give me that confidence. It means a lot."
And Kanter says that's just an example of his growing relationship with the new Jazz coach.
"It's so different than with my other coaches before," Kanter said. "He's taken like a big brother, young brother [role]. He's not like, 'Oh. I'm the coach. I know everything.' He's asking players. He's [asking] us sometimes what we should do, what we should not do. He's communicating with players. That's means a lot to me.
"When you're under stress it's gonna affect your game, too. But when you talk to Coach Quin, he gives you the confidence and he communicates so well that you just want to go for it and go out there and play for him. So much difference. It's going to be interesting this year."
Kanter said he's also gotten some help from another new Jazz hire: Mehmet Okur, who was recently named a team ambassador.
"The first day, he come and watch practice and he said, 'You need to use your legs more,'" Kanter said.
Fighting for minutes
Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said Monday that the team has "doubled down" on its youth movement. But while last year ended with the uber-young starting lineup of Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Kanter and Derrick Favors, Snyder stopped short of naming them the starting five already for this season.
"You have to have competition," Snyder said. "There are certain players that have obviously proven over time that they deserve to have you think of them [as starters]. That said, everybody has to come and compete. In that light, I think of Gordon Hayward or Derrick Favors — the guys who have had some success here. ... They would be the first ones to want competition. So individually and externally, competition makes you better. I think that's got to be true of lineups, of playing time, of all those things."
American rules
Some members of the Jazz were at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday to watching Utah's PAC-12 opener. For Australian rookie Dante Exum, it was his first taste of American football.
"I've never been to a football game. I said I didn't like it at first because I was sitting behind some glass and I couldn't hear any of the atmosphere," he said. "Then I went out to the field and it's such a different game. I'm starting to learn all the rules and what it's about."
Exum called the late collapse a "bit of a disappointment for the Utes."
But his Australian compatriot, Brock Motum, a Jazz training camp invitee and a Washington State alum, didn't seem to mind.
"Brock was loving it," Exum said. "He was trying to persuade me to go the other way."
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