When Quin Snyder became the head coach of the Utah Jazz in 2014, no one knew quite what to expect. In their 39 year history, Utah has only employed a total of 5 head coaches. It isn’t very often that a new HC walks through those doors in Salt Lake City. Prior to Snyder’s hiring, the team had some good, young talent but was headed in the wrong direction. The Jazz won 25 games before he took over, starting off that season 1-14. They were the laughingstock of the NBA. A regime change was necessary, but who could right the ship?

Enter Quin Snyder.

With the help of GM Dennis Lindsey, Coach Snyder took a team full of young talent and developed them into perennial playoff contenders. From raw players like Rudy Gobert, undrafted rookies like Royce O’Neale, and older veterans like Joe Ingles, Quin has proven that his coaching staff can develop NBA talent. Just look at the player talent development of some Jazz players during Snyder’s tenure in Utah:

It’s not just Snyder’s players, however, that improved. He’s progressed as a coach as well. He continues to learn how to optimize the talent on hand and put guys in a position to succeed. As an example, here are his defensive talent optimization percentiles over the past 4 seasons:

• 2014-2015: 65.8%
• 2015-2016: 75.8%
• 2016-2017: 80.7%
• 2017-2018: 96.3%

Utah owns a strong defensive identity, thanks in large part to Snyder’s system and creating a scheme around his players’ talents. Despite how elite they are on that side of the ball, Quin frequently says he thinks they can be better. Improving on a league-best 102.9 defensive rating from last year will be challenging, but can I really doubt him at this point?

Last year Quin Snyder helped engineer a near-impossible season turnaround. After falling to 19-28 in a loss against the Atlanta Hawks, they went on to win 29 of their remaining 35 games and finished as the 5th seed in the tough Western Conference. Instead of hitting the offseason early, they fought back and made it to the conference semifinals. This despite losing the face of their franchise in free agency just months prior. That performance earned Snyder runner-up honors for Coach of the Year at the end of the season.

With that type of success, expectations are raised coming into a new season. How much more talent can he squeeze out of this roster. Can he help push this team to a new level and break into the conference finals? What more can he change to increase their chances of success?

There were two areas of focus that Quin Snyder mentioned on the first day of training camp: Offensive rebounding and turnovers. The Jazz were 7th worst in terms of turnover percentage last year at 15.1%. They also played at a very slow pace, so possessions were even more valuable and turnovers that much more costly. Utah graded 24th overall for playmaking talent, so those turnover concerns are real. Quin tries to make up for them by having a motion heavy and ball movement heavy offense. He’s hoping his players get more comfortable and exercise better ball security. He’s not expecting drastic change, just incremental progress, “Turning the ball over, Rudy [Gobert] can turn it over 0.5 percent less. Ricky [Rubio] can turn it over 0.3 percent less. All of a sudden, you’re shaving your turnovers down.”

The offensive rebounding aspect is really interesting to me. In the past, Snyder put a strong emphasis on fast break defense, which meant sacrificing offensive rebound opportunities. Utah gave up the fewest fast break points in the NBA last year at 9.5 per game, so his scheme clearly worked. Now that the culture is set, he wants to open up the aggression on the offensive glass. Not surprisingly, Utah has some pretty good offensive rebounders on the roster. Among all NBA bigs, Derrick Favors graded as an A (90th %tile) and Rudy Gobert as a B+ (77th %tile) in offensive rebounding. The belief is that attacking the offensive glass will help exploit the trend in NBA defenses to switch on everything. Will it work? We’re about to find out.

Utah got themselves a good one in Quin Snyder. Each year as a coach he adds to his playbook and opens up his arsenal a little more. Sure practices might be 3 hours at times, but his players are better for it. It will be fun to watch how much more his players can progress under his watch and what the Jazz ceiling will be this season.

Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of BBall-Index.com, NBA.com, or Basketball-Reference.com.