[Will Hardy] chews out his Jazz players during a timeout: “I’m tired of fucking doing this every game. Fucking play harder.”
being a coach for a tanking team has to be miserable
The GM is literally setting you up to fail on purpose
You are getting a lot of money to fail though.
Also doesn’t look good on your resume, and some coaches actually want to be successful.
Most coaches and players in the nba are very competitive and hate losing regardless of the circumstances
As an owner or team commissioner, I would want that. It is why when watching college sports and you see ridiculous numbers like 80-7 in the last quarter, but the players on the losing team still working hard to get points. They know recruiters are looking for that fortitude because in the big leagues even slight doubt will spead and make the whole team sadden and play less hard and remove the chance of possible winning as the leads in the pros are much less.
The losing team that has 7 points isn’t working hard because they know recruiters are out there. They have no future in ball. They’re working hard because they are competitive and love the game and don’t want to be embarrassed further. Your comment reads like some old school fan fic tho lol.
I think we’ve seen plenty of evidence that records matter less than connections and personality. It’s a good ol boys club
I still can’t believe we hired Derek Fisher.
The great Phil Jackson tarnished his legacy a bit with that Knicks run. He should have retired as soon as we got our asses handed to us by the Mavs.
It’s crazy that Kerr could’ve taken the Knicks job instead of the warriors job and he would’ve went from HOF coach to one and done coach and back to a commentator.
Just from a casual observation, it seems really hard to climb back up the head coaching ladder once you have a fall from grace within a 4 year window. But I also kinda see that with the NFL too, so it must be a pro sports thing.
Unless you are Doc Rivers
Yep… start in 2005-2010, and look at the worst teams every year. Someone like Jacque Vaughn got his first job at 37 with the Magic, they were tanking post Dwight Howard, and it took him 10 years to get another chance with the Nets
You’re a public figure in the city and you’re known for losing at the thing that makes you that public figure. Yeah I’d care too
This is what I want to know… how many coaches who step into “tank job” coaching spots and lose all those games get head coaching jobs afterwards? How many get chances after that?
Just looking from 2010 onwards:
Generally speaking, you’re not going to get another head coaching job for another 5-10 years. Even then, there’s no guarantee that it’s a great opportunity like Atkinson in Cleveland. You’re not taking that job thinking “Okay, I’m going to lose games”…. You’re taking that job because you’re expected to find ways to win games with the roster you have. If you aren’t able to flip the script then they’ll replace you with another coach.
Brett Brown is the example of where the coach finally flipped that switch in the 4th season, so he kept his job. If he had continued to lose they would’ve fired him and found a different guy.
You’re missing the rare best-case scenario: Mark Daigneault. HC of two tanking sub-25 win seasons. Got to keep the gig through the turnaround and lead them to a title.
If I’m being honest, I kind of stopped around 2018-2019ish because I was more curious about the future of guys who didn’t turn it around… like how long would it be before they found another job. If a coach got fired in 2022 or later, then him not having a head job wouldn’t really be surprising.
As you mentioned, he’s a rare best-case scenario which I briefly touched on in the bottom of my comment. Teams will give you 2-3 years, and if you’re not showing signs of turning things around, they’ll fire you and say the talent is there to win.
Flip Saunders (23-59 Wizards) got another season with the wizards, immediately on to the 16-66 Timberwolves, nothing afterwards
I mean, he died after 1 season on the 2nd Timberwolves run. Of course there was “nothing afterwards”.
Yes but maybe he actually cares about having a successful coaching career
Guys don’t become NBA head coaches because they’re okay with losing.
The money helps but it’s still psychologically draining.
Bet you they don’t look at things like that at all. They want to improve fast and compete, it’s a sport.
It’s gonna have to last you because your next job won’t be as good.
Such a outsider and poor person perspective to look at things.
And if you’re too good he’ll disassemble the team mid-season like Ainge has done twice
His success isn’t being measured by wins…so failing for him doesn’t necessarily mean “losing”. If young players aren’t developing, if they aren’t at least competitive most times out, or if he loses the locker room….then that’s when his objectives aren’t being met for the current directive of the team.
It’s a terrible system
Bill Simmons said “how does Will Hardy explain his job to his wife” and its fcking hilarious.
“I yell at kids”
Hardy Wife: “And just how old are these kids may I ask?”
Will: “Age ranges from 19-37.”
Hardy Wife: “Oh. They sound like babies.”
Will: “They are.”
Doesn’t. He’s divorced.
She had to leave that loser!
That does give me the giggles. Heh
I don’t much care for Bill’s opinion on things anymore, but the man does have a way with words.
Doesn’t have to be. In a healthy dynamic with the coach and GM on a tanking team, you just make sure you develop the key players you want to keep and showcase the other talent you want to trade. Wins and losses don’t matter. For the Jazz, play their young guys and get them experience.
These guys didn’t get to this level by accepting losing. They are competitive. It has to hurt.
And an exceptional coach at that. Will Hardy and Jordi Fernandez should hold a group therapy session every week.
That’s what the money is for
What happens when the contracts over and the Jazz dont re-sign and then you cant get another team to hire you because your career record is 113-215
I mean I don’t know then he can take his 20+ million dollars and do anything else he wants.
That Celtics job would have been his in 2022 if he didn’t take the Utah job. Hardy was definitely considered the better coach over Mazzulla at the time.
Man, I get it.
He’s a good coach for a team that’s tanking/rebuilding so it obviously sucks for him and the players and the fans. They need to keep their pick this year which is top 8 protected which is why they need to lose. This should be their last tanking season. By the way, the pick goes to OKC if it’s not in the top 8 so you’re welcome to the rest of the league. Jazz will tank to help keep the OKC hoard at bay.
Not that i disagree with keeping the pick but if this is the last year of tanking do you expect the Jazz to suddenly compete from 1 year to the next with how theyre playing currently
My question is do you think whatever this pick is will elevate the jazz to playoff contention? And is that where the team feels happy to be at? Or do they want more chances at picks later down the road to be stronger.
They won’t compete next year but with Kessler back and no need to sit players to lose games they might knock on the door of the play in.
Keyonte has shown some nice improvement this year and Lauri is an all star level player and Kessler is a rock solid rim protector. If Ace improves on his impressive season this year and we get another decent rookie in the draft we could be competing in 3 or so years. That’s the plan I think. And Hardy is a good coach and leader. They also have a Suns first rounder and a Lakers first rounder coming up. One more brutal year and Jazz fans can start feeling better I think.
Keyonte looked really good when we played you guys. Out of all your players he’s the one I would love to have on the Wolves the most. Kid has a bright future and totally see him being an all star in the next couple years.
AJ/caleb Wilson is on the way!
AJ feels like it was written for him to stay in Utah 😆
Him and Ace Bailey as the teams’ wings with Lauri at the 4 is how you want a core. TBD on the rest
What about Taylor Hendricks? How has he been?
I mean that’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility, the pistons were legit just the worst team in the league and now are one of the best.
Crazy how far distant the Monte Williams days feels but in reality that man’s still getting paid to sit at home
His only winning seasons were his first with CP3 as the PG in NO and then CP3 as the PG during the Suns turnaround. This guy owes CP3 millions of dollars.
What happens when you give cp3 the right amount of leeway
Yeah it was only 2 years ago when they lost like 30 games in a row
The Jazz will probably be a play-in team next year. It all hinges on their young players developing, but even without massive jumps, a core of Lauri, George, Bailey and Kessler is an above .500 group next year. Obviously this requires that none of these core players,. especially Lauri and Kessler, are injured for any significant amount of time. And them being a playoff team on future again requires development from several of their current young players.
The pick next year is irrelevant, it’s just a much better outcome to have it themselves than give to OKC when the Jazz have no chance of winning this year.
With the expected development of their young roster, getting a low pick is going to get really hard from next year. They’re going to have to start offloading talented players, in the hope of getting better ones in the draft. I very much doubt that they even consider this.
The issue is that teams like the Jazz and Hornets have been rebuilding for years now. You would think they would get enough pieces by now, but it just never works. As a coach, this would drive me mad.
Teams with much better lottery luck have JUST NOW started to bloom (Pistons, Rockets). You don’t get a good AND young team through just one draft.
Well…
It’s a fun joke but people sometimes forget the 20-22 seasons. Took us 3 years as well.
Clumping the Jazz and Hornets together is completely inaccurate. The Jazz last won a playoff series in 2021. The Hornets last win was back in 2002.
Fucking OKC gonna go back-to-back AND have two lottery picks.
Problem is they still aren’t bad enough.
There’s 7 teams with a worse record right now - if the season ended today there’s almost a 40% chance that pick drops below #8.
should be wearing a suit
Too big of a cutie patootie for the suit
He would be too handsome therefore distracting everyone in attendance.
Yeah, totally get why he snapped there
Yeah kinda feel bad for him ngl
Just playing devil’s advocate but the NBA is a players league. Coaching like this when he’s a relatively new coach with no accolades/resume or and not being a former NBA player is a quick way for guys to tune you out
Yeah but it’s the Jazz and he has been there for a good while. Also their biggest star is finnish dude with little to no ego so they might need to be yelled at from time to time
Euro players are used to being yelled at. Its why they are able to play incredible team ball more then in the US. I’m deadserious. No room for ego’s.
This very much. Source: I am finnish and played a lot of sports and been yelled at a lot
Is there a cultural reason why Euro players are more accepting of being yelled at?
I think it’s more a system and development thing.
European collegiate and semi-pro systems stress practical skills, development, and team ball. The American system prioritizes playing twenty games in a weekend with fifty different squad mates so Nike, Reebok, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola can fight over the rights to sponsoring your Instagram highlight reel.
You get yelled at all the fucking time in American sports I have genuinely no idea what’s going on here lmao. It’s also not the magical solution people seem to think it is
Hmm Euro players used to being yelled at, incredible team ball, no room for egos, wow that sounds like it could lead to success if an American team tried it out. I wonder if Gregg Popovich’s 5 championships have any comment about that.
And man, imagine if the Spurs landed a generational Euro player that’s willing to be coached that way and wants to win above all else.
He’s overachieved each season with piss-poor rosters each time.
And for every clip like this one where he’s tearing into guys (there are many such clips) there’s also one where he’s taking the blame for a botched playcall or something similar.
I think the locker room consistently buys in because he seems authentic.
I hope we hang onto him long enough to see what he can do with a talented roster, at least
well JJ also had zero coaching resume and is a psycho, just have to hope the players trust in his coaching decisions to win
Ehh, it’s not really the same. JJ is an all-time great college player (for Duke of all teams) and he had a super respectful, long career in the NBA.
Plus he made the transformers movies
Well in JJ’s case as long as Lebron is on his side there’s probably not much else to worry about.
That’s the case on vet teams. A young coach can absolutely get away with coaching like this on a team with a bunch of kids on it.
Spo did it, but Riley had his back when certain player(s) pushed back against him. Gotta have the whole org on the same page
100%
This style goes down well in Europe where the coach is king and the star player will be shifted in an instant, but we all know that as soon as they get a superstar on the roster, that star play better love you as a coach because if he don’t, your ass is gone!
Man what lol none of the players on this team has done anything to feel entitled to any kind of sensitive treatment.. yell at them everyday until they play harder
I hate this mentality. I agree that it’s likely to not go well for him for the reasons you stated but to think a guy doesn’t know ball because he wasn’t blessed to be 6’10” and athletic is sad
This dude is too good of a coach to be dealing with this bullshit, the Jazz have been bad for too long
At the same time, he’s in no danger of getting fired.
Until he is
He signed an extension, he knows the deal
I love when Spurs fans bitch about tanking. Not every team tanks for a couple years and gets a generational #1 and then lucks into the #2 pick.
Fuck off you lucky bastards. Let’s talk when Darryn suits up for the Jazz next season
They got top 3 picks for like 4 years in a row lol
They haven’t been bad for THAT long. The mitchell/gobert era wasn’t that long ago. There are multiple franchises with far greater playoff droughts
Not to mention the two decades of Jerry Sloan before that. Could be a lot worse. Look at the Timberwolves. They’re doing okay now, but they have like a .416 all-time win percentage. Utah actually has the 6th highest win percentage in NBA history.
It was 4th before we imploded the mitchel/gobert teams.
Wolves had the worst win percentage of any team in all major American sports before they drafted Ant.
I feel like ainge is such an overrated gm who just got lucky with those Celtics teams.
I don’t think he got lucky with those Celtics teams I think teams back when Ainge was arguably the best Gm in the league were built different from now and Ainge has not adapted to modern team building methods.
Also, it’s a lot easier for aGM in Boston. Situation like the league is in now, I would bet if the Celtics were rebuilding and had young guys/draft assets like the Jazz have now you would be hearing rumors of Giannis going there with another star. Nobody wants to play in Utah.
In fairness, when Ainge took over nobody wanted to play in Boston either. We would get mid tier players on big contracts at best. Things have changed a lot since then, but much of that was Ainge doing some nice work to change that perception.
Utah certainly even less desirable than Boston was, but its not a huge difference especially when you think of the teams histories comparatively.
Bro, stop.
The Celtics at their worst aren’t even close to a bad free agent destination compared to the Jazz, lmao.
“In all fairness”, there is no weaker free agent destination in the league than Utah.
I dunno man, he was responsible for the big three and then flipped them for a fresh pair of franchise cornerstones. He deserves credit even tho the Irving thing didn’t work out.
Also the whole gordon Hayward broken foot thing
Kevin McHale basically gave KG away as a wink to Boston and his friend Ainge. The Nets robbery was wild though.
Well he’s not even the GM, so…
Ainge is literally a .500 record GM with one championship. He does not deserve to have such a good reputation.
Cuz he put together the team for the 2nd title; hired a genius coach; and went to ECF when his teams weren’t supposed to be good yet. GMs also take part in building out staffs; and he had doc/Thibs + Stevens/Ime/Crazy Joe/Will Hardy.
Guy is an elite GM. It’s so fuckin hard to win just one ring. Raptors just fired their guy who put together the winning team we see now. Oh, and he outsmarted the league & didn’t fall into groupthink and traded down to get Jayson Tatum who he had #1 on his board.
Don’t try and use logic with Lakers fans. Bros think AD for Luka was fair value
What is your definition of too long? There are teams that go like a decade without being in the playoffs. Utah was the one seed five years ago, and were the five seed the year after.
Hey, now.
Y’all haven’t even been in the playoffs in the 2020’s yet. Your playoff drought is literally double ours right now, lmao.
Fucking stop tanking
“I’m gonna start tanking harder” - Danny Ainge probably
“But I’m never fucking trading Markannen.”
I’m going to draft another Cody Williams even harder
Any alternative is worse
At least don’t lose that much
Give it a month or two. They will shut Lauri down and the tank will commence.
Players: but danny told us….
“We don’t care son, put it away or tuck it in your waistband”
I know this is a joke, just hijacking to reiterate this point in case others in this thread don’t understand.
Coaches and players don’t tank. Their front office does.
Nearly every player and member of a coaching staff in the NBA is trying to win every single game, regardless of team or draft pick implications.
Lol. Go watch some raptor games last season and tell me that isn’t tanking to the fullest
Friendly reminder that our coach, the one who won coach of the yeah and has become one of the best coaches in the league, was also our head coach during the 24 and 20 win seasons. You don’t just act like you don’t care and tolerate low effort because your team is tanking. You try to develop that mindset at the very beginning so that when you’re team gets talent, they already know that nobody’s allowed to coast.
Never seen Mark like this in a huddle lol
I have seen games in our tanking seasons, there might be a lack of talent, there were a lot of losses, but the effort was definitely always there.
I was going to say the same thing. Mark D doesn’t strike me as the play fucking harder type.
What’s crazy is I actually remember him yelling at Darius Bazley one time in the tank era and that is exactly what he said to Bazely. Word for word. “Play fucking harder.” I’ll see if I can find a clip
Bazely was such a head case he probably didn’t even register what Mark was saying
I remember this. Bazley started clapping while getting chewed out and Mark was like “cut that shit out.”
I also remember him chewing out Poku pretty bad one time . I think Theo Maledon fucked something up and Poku was pouting/visibly frustrated while in the game and Mark tore him a new one (“you fuck up all the time”).
I don’t even particularly remember him talking in a huddle or at time out. I know he does, but all I remember is that look of a disappointed parent that makes you have the whole conversation with yourself snd then apologize.
Yeah you don’t want to breed a losing culture, just because the talent level isn’t there to generate wins.
There’s a visible difference in teams who don’t give af but aren’t good and teams that are phoning it in and just cashing a check and chasing girls in their DM’s.
Me to the mirror after an hour of Rocket League:
Me after allowing one goal in rocket League
What a save!
Kinda feel bad for him. Ainge pulling Lauri at the last minute is diabolical.
The Jazz have a good squad when healthy, with Ace’s development, they could easily compete for the play-ins.
They really don’t. It’s Lauri gravity making them look better. They look like bunch of undrafteds when Lauri doesn’t play.
I legit think Key and Ace will be stars one day. Dunno about Clayton tho his shooting is kinda in the dumps.
I dont agree. This team can’t defend a nose bleed. You can’t play defense like them and compete
No Walker Kessler hurts that significantly.
It’s still pretty bad when he plays, our perimeter guys have never fought through a screen in their lives
They’ve lost their last two by 64 points combined
wdym danny pulled him
I guess because he’s DNP-illness all of a sudden today. OKC owns their pick but top 8 protected. They had to lose lol
bruh okc owns both the clips and jazz. Lol incredible
Homie in the foreground needs to unclench those cheeks
I’m sayin. That wedgie looks sum vicious
lol
I hope darko’s son is a redditor so he can show this video to his dad
Edit - Also want to mention his team is going up against OKC. I feel at that point, even trying your hardest, your team would still get blown out
While we did blow them out, we also didn’t have Shai, Dort, hartenstein, Caruso, and Joe for this one.
Darko needs to coach harder.
I counted all his out of timeout plays in the 2nd half of todays game vs Celtics… 0 pts
You think darko doesn’t yell at the team? Dudes a psycho.
tough love
Constantly tanking creates this low effort culture
That’s a REAL COACH right there demanding his players to play hard and be accountable.
Sadly this is also the type of coach that NBA players quickly tune out from then he gets s*it-canned.
Hard to be this type of coach unless the organisation has your back 100% (like Spo does in Miami even in his rookie year) and for a younger team where they are still willing to learn and don’t have inflated egos yet.
I wish he was my coach
Is it really worth it to tank in 2025? 14% percent odds at #1 and you have to deal with the pain and misery of being on a terrible ass team.
Lose lose.
If their pick isn’t top 8 it goes to OKC. Tanking for Utah is particularly worth it
This draft class is supposed to be so deep than even choosing at 4 would still put you in a really good spot
With a bad roster and when you have your own pick? Yes.
Utah’s main concern is that OKC owns their pick if it falls outside of its top 8 protections. A top 8 pick vs no pick is a big difference.
I mean the players he has do need to play harder lol.
That being said, the team has literally been god awful his entire time there, might be time to get the axe
They are terrible 100% by design, Will Hardy has zero blame.
I mean yeah it’s not his fault the league fucked the Jazz and gave Cooper Flagg to the Mavs because Nico’s a moron
Bro is a good coach. They often overacheave and then the front office has to get them to tank more. Most allways think they’ll be the worst in the league, but most times they overpreform. He’s done a great job and often they lose since the team purposly rests a lot of players to tank.
The bill Simmons bit where he was like how do you think Will Hardy explains to his wife what his job is was hilarious
Send him to the Bucks. Right now.
I’m sure you would have fire Coach Dags in OKC too lmao. Danny Ainge loves Will Hardy and just gave him an extension. Everyone in the front office knows they are handicapping Will right now and its for the greater good of the Franchise.
Future assistant-coach of somewhere, Will Hardy.
Why would the Jazz fire him though? He’s a solid coach with one of the league’s worst constructed rosters that Danny Ainge compiled simply to tank and take on bad contracts for draft picks. 100% not his fault his team is complete garbage.
When you get brought in to coach for a team that’s going to tank for like, 5+ years they don’t plan on keeping you once they’ve done what they want.
Mark Daignault says hi.
okay but how do we know he is a good coach?
I guess they had a 40 win year with Lauri a couple years ago or something so that means he’s good?
Get em, buncha millionaire kids need put in there place sometimes to do their jobs
The Jazz are just bad, especially without Kessler. When I watched them live vs LA a few weeks ago it was like parents (LA) chasing their toddlers (UT). They were SO much faster than LA and the age showed, but LA basically played them to win while taking as few steps as possible. Coach hardy had them playing hard and moving a ton on offense but they can’t defend one bit. Keynote George is the ultimate tank player and Nurkic just means free buckets for your opponents all game.
Bailey seems to have star potential, and we’ve seen with Cunningham and others that ideally it takes a couple years for that to show so you can draft a few other studs. I
Assistant coaches’ ass was clinched hard. Stressful times.
Seems like he ought to be directing this at Danny Ainge instead of his players. This team is literally designed to lose. The players aren’t stupid, this team was assembled to get a top 5 pick, not to compete for wins.
This was a valid crash out. The effort from the jazz at certain points was non existent.
The closeouts looked like a pickup game, just daring guys to take open 3s cause you know they can’t. The difference is that if you give NBA players (even bench guys) 5 seconds to shoot, it’s going to result in a record number of 3s in a quarter.
Pretty much the entire thunder starting rotation was out and they still got crushed by 30.. brutal
This is close to my dialogue to the TV whenever I watch most teams in the league. I wish most coaches said this to their teams.
It’s almost like losing on purpose creates a losing culture and losing mentality.
Lucky for them, they’re in irrelevant Utah with a media darling GM and nobody cares, otherwise they would be called a laughingstock organization with a clown show front office.
I can’t wait to watch the Jazz again, one day when ownership has decided it’s time to stop sucking on purpose
I’m having a hard time believing why players in this day and age would even bother playing harder for their coach. They’re making significantly more money than the coaches, and it’s a player’s league where they have all the power. I’m sure most of these guys just tune out the coaches.
I hope that wasn’t a home game, cause if Jebadaiah heard that, there will be heck to pay!!
As a Jazz fan I’d totally defend Hardy losing his shit IF he was playing the young guys
How the fuck do you expect Svi Mykhailiuk, SloMo, and Jusuf Nurkić to play harder?
That’s good coaching
Quality coach, learnt from Popovich.
Ainge should be replace.
He’s not wrong. Sometimes men acting like children need to be spoken to like children.
Anyone know which player he is looking and presumably looking at? Whoever is sitting left of Ace Bailey?
TyLue would never.
Now that’s a coach right there
Well, he’s not wrong
this man has had enough.. lol..
Guy is going home to the girl from Laguna beach/the hills now. That’s the real win
I thought the video was about the dude who’s asshole was devouring his pants
It’s fitting Hardy wants them to play harder
forwarded to billy donovan