Rewards of the tank:2014 off-season!

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Sixers owner Josh Harris told reporters Friday that he's proud of what the 19-63 Philadelphia 76ers accomplished this season despite losing 26 in a row. "I think the season has been a huge success for us," Harris said in an Associated Press story on Friday. Give Harris credit for his honesty. The Sixers hold two lottery picks (one via a trade) and never were shy about admitting they had to tank -- make that, rebuild -- this season in order to start their hopeful championship track. "We don't use that word," Harris said of tanking. CBSSports.com

Proud? What a joke! Things have to change!

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[QUOTE]General manager Dennis Lindsey willingly admits the Utah Jazz, days removed from the conclusion of a 25-57 season, have taken a step backwards.

On purpose.

With the ownership

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Should the Jazz offer contract extensions to Kanter and Burks, who showed flaws but had moments when they flourished in their third seasons? Or let their contract situation play out another year?

Of course you offer them extensions. Why wouldn't you? If you can get them at at good price you do it.

Did Favors, Hayward and Burke show enough leadership potential and enough firepower to be considered a true go-to guy on a team that only averaged 95 points?

Burks and Kanter maybe. Burke maybe. Favors and G aren't destined for that kind of role.

Or does Utah need one or two more high-load scorers to carry the offensive burden?

Probably.

And how will they get that league-worst defense to improve?

New coach and personnel maybe. Considering Favors wasn't that great and he's supposed to be the stopper they might need to overhaul the whole thing.

Can Rudy Gobert find a more consistent role his sophomore season after his 7-foot-1 frame spent most of his rookie campaign on the bench?

Hopefully they get there own D-League team in St. George so they can send him there if he needs more time.

How about the athletic Jeremy Evans and fringe players with non-guaranteed contracts like Diante Garrett, Ian Clark, Malcolm Thomas and Erik Murphy, can they find a niche?

Evans found a niche. The others are cheap roster filler right now at best.

And, with the amount of salary-cap space the Jazz have (only $32 million accounted for now with non-guaranteed guys), could the team attract a game-changing, max-contract-type free agent to "speed up the timeline," as Lindsey mentioned?

Who is this max contract guy they are going to be able to get? I see the money spent on frontloaded G contract, vet pg/combo guard mentor, possibly Neto and Tomic.

While questions are flying, who should the Jazz pick come June 26?

Maybe wait for the lottery first?

[QUOTE]Lindsey, who spoke to media for 42 minutes about these topics and more Thursday, doesn

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Adam Zagoria: Aquille Carr has officially declared for the Draft, his agent tells @SNYtv . Not projected on @DraftExpress Mock. Twitter

undrafted

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[QUOTE]Multiple sources tell The Salt Lake Tribune that Corbin and General Manager Dennis Lindsey are scheduled to meet on Monday, and an announcement concerning Corbin

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Louisiana-Lafayette junior point guard Elfrid Payton is heading to the NBA. Multiple sources told ESPN that the 6-foot-3 floor leader, who could be taken late in the first round of the NBA draft, will make an official announcement on Monday afternoon. ESPN.com

[QUOTE]Playing point guard for NCAA men

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Kentucky officials have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 ET, at which point sources told CBSSports.com that freshman basketball player Julius Randle is expected to formally announce his decision to enter the 2014 NBA Draft. CBSSports.com

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[QUOTE]The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has elected not to offer head coach Tyrone Corbin a new contract. As a result, a search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/jazz/57...ltrib.html.csp

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Former University of Utah head coach Jim Boylen has emerged as a leading candidate to replace Corbin, according to sources. Boylen, who is the first assistant on Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs staff, worked closely with Jazz general manger Dennis Lindsey when both were with the Houston Rockets from 1996-2003 and are close friends.

Sounds like he could be the guy. As much as people didn't like Corbin if he doesn't win he'll really get it from Ute fans. Might have to wait to interview him.

The decision was finalized after Corbin met with Jazz management on Monday, five days after Utah finished a rebuilding season with a 25-57 record and following what Lindsey described as a "short decompression period to reflect on the season."

Let him enjoy his Easter holiday basically. The decision had been made long ago.

Corbin had been the Jazz's coach since taking over for Jerry Sloan on Feb. 10, 2011, after the Hall of Famer surprisingly resigned during his 23rd season at Utah's helm.

The Jazz will now commence a search for only the fifth head coach in 35 years since the franchise relocated from New Orleans in 1979. Since 1974, the Jazz franchise has only employed seven head coaches.

Corbin is the first Jazz coach to be let go (technically, he has until the end of June) since then-general manager Frank Layden fired Tom Nissalke, the original Utah-era coach, early in the 1981-82 season.

Utah made the playoffs in 2012 to the surprise of some outsiders, but didn't qualify for postseason play in the three other seasons that ended on Corbin's watch. The Jazz went 112-146 under Corbin, whose tenure included the departure of All-Star Deron Williams at the end of the tumultuous 2010-11 season, a variety of mix-and-match rosters from 2011-13 when Utah went 79-69, and an all-out rebuilding project this past season.

Layden proceeded to coach until he called it quits early in the 1988-89 season, opening the door for Sloan's legendary Utah career. Sloan, like Corbin, was tabbed as the successor as an assistant on the Jazz staff.

The Jazz will have a wide variety of candidates to choose from, and it wouldn't be surprising for general manager Dennis Lindsey to hire somebody with whom he's had previous working experience with in San Antonio or Houston.

In addition to Boylen, other possible candidates to replace Corbin include former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy (Lindsey's old boss with the Rockets); Suns assistant Mike Longabardi, a defensive specialist who worked with Lindsey in Houston; Bulls assistant Andy Green (also at Houston with Lindsey); well-respected college coaches Fred Hoiberg (Iowa State), Tom Izzo (Michigan State) and Larry Krystkowiak (Utah); current Jazz staffers Brad Jones and Alex Jensen (both highly regarded up-and-comers); and international coach Ettore Messina (an Italian currently coaching CSKA Moscow). Former NBA coaches George Karl, Stan Van Gundy, Lionel Hollins and Nate McMillan could also be intriguing possibilities.

The Bulls assistant they might have to wait got as well. No mention of Ollie who they supposedly like. Van Gundy would be a big hire. Need an offensive assistant though. Not his specialty.

Lindsey was asked last week what qualities he's looking at in a coach for the 2014-15 season.

"The head coach of this program has always been and stood for the right things, so I’d say a continuance of what Ty and Jerry and Frank Layden have started and built over the years," Lindsey said. "You guys heard the discipline and the development and the defense (themes) because this iteration needed all three characteristics, not only from coaching and playing but ownership and management."

Lindsey added that if the Jazz stay young the organization would require "clearly an improved emphasis in the defense" as well. Finishing 30th in team defense this season could have been the ultimate deciding factor against bringing Corbin back.

EMAIL: jody@desnews.com

TWITTER: DJJazzyJody

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[QUOTE]Greg Miller

@GregInUtah

Best wishes to Tyrone Corbin for success in the future. He is one of the classiest people I have ever had the privilege of working with.

@slcdunk

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[QUOTE]"This has not been an easy decision, but after a thorough review process, we as an organization feel that this is the best decision for our franchise moving forward," Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said.

Corbin coached the Jazz to a 25-57 record this year

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Tom Nissalke has always said he was "relieved" when that happened to him.

Corbin, in contrast, wanted to return. Having delivered the news, Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey described Corbin’s reaction as ranging from "disappointment to anger and everything in between."

Angry eh? Sounds like it may not have been a pretty scene. Easy to understand. He's been with the Jazz a long time.

Having hoped Corbin would survive, I made my concession speech in early April, recognizing there was no compelling reason to keep him. His job was challenging from start to finish, but the coaching change is completely defensible — with the Jazz’s lousy defense among the biggest reasons.

It also means the Miller family, the team’s owners, can’t claim the Jazz are different from any other franchise. The Jazz have joined the "blame-the-coach culture" that Lindsey once said they rose above, and the next coach will be subject to scrutiny like everybody else in the league.

Then again, the late Larry H. Miller wanted to fire Sloan after losing his first playoff series in 1989, only to be talked out of the move. Sloan lasted for nearly 22 more years, defying the NBA’s coaching turnover.

Through two 1st to 3rd finishes and many playoff disappointments with two of the greatest ever.

Corbin was not hired by Lindsey, who arrived two years ago and now will conduct the Jazz’s first coaching search since 1979, when team started playing under Nissalke in the old Salt Palace. The hiring will become the Jazz’s biggest decision since the trade of Deron Williams, which came two weeks after Corbin’s promotion.

The potential for Corbin’s keeping his job peaked in late February, after the Jazz recovered from a 1-14 start by going 20-22. But when the team lost 21 of its last 25 games — never mind that many fans were more unhappy about those four wins than the 21 defeats, in the interest of draft positioning — Corbin’s fate became inevitable.

Corbin made his share of mistakes, in terms of both personnel and strategy, but he deserves credit for holding his team together during some tough times. What’s unclear is whether Corbin is losing his job because he lost too many games, or because he tried to win too many games at the expense of playing time for the Jazz’s youngsters.

He was gone regardless. Lindsey wants a yes man.

Both, probably. Lindsey cited "a lot of different criteria over multiple years." Asked about philosophical conflicts, Lindsey said it would be fair to "assume that there were different thoughts." Yet he also said he was "completely comfortable with the minutes our young guys got."

So that answers absolutely nothing. The good news is there should be no confusion about the evaluation of the new coach. It’s all about wins and losses, starting now.

I wouldn't say that. They are still young. They should expect to be better next year but if G leaves and they fall in the lottery and have injuries who knows? Let's not forget the last time they sucked it was coming off a near playoff finish and everything went wrong the next season.

In any case, the moment I realized a change was inevitable came in mid-March. In the second half of a Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game in Las Vegas, Cal State Bakersfield guard Tyrell Corbin, the coach’s son, drove into the lane. Corbin had scored seven straight points for his team. With the 35-second clock running down, he desperately floated a shot over Sim Bhullar, New Mexico State’s 7-foot-5 center.

The shot had maybe a 25-percent chance of going in, and the ball bounced off the rim. Bakersfield’s run ended, and the Aggies went on to win convincingly.

That scene summarized Tyrone Corbin’s challenge this season. He had a shot at succeeding, but not a very good one. I’ll never fault him for trying to win games. In the process, though, he allowed himself to be judged by his record, and it all crumbled on him.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com

Twitter: @tribkurt

He is judged by his record despite not having a starting caliber pg and only one rotation caliber pg?

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[QUOTE]"You never want to see this happen to Ty, because he

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[QUOTE]it