Jazz Hold Players-Only Meeting To ‘Just Be Honest With Each Other’

The Jazz clinched a playoff berth on Tuesday without even playing a game, but that doesn’t mean its all rainbows and unicorns. Quite the contrary.

Instead, the Jazz have made a habit of blowing fourth-quarter leads, something that happened yet again in a weekend loss to the Warriors.

As a result, the Jazz held a players-only meeting on Monday, as relayed by Sam Amick and Tony Jones of The Athletic.

The purpose of the meeting was to sort of act as a reset and give everyone an opportunity to give some feedback, to “sit together and just be honest with each other,” according to Jazz center Rudy Gobert. 

“Everyone talked,” Gobert said. “That’s what was great about it. I think a lot of teams have those (meetings). It’s man to man. It’s great. We all need that, whether it’s your wife or your teammates or your friends, sometimes. It’s great to just express yourself.

“… For us, it’s about communication during the game when things go wrong. We felt like we were just getting disconnected. And other teams could see with our body language and everything. So for us, just embrace the moment and embrace the opportunity. And at the end of the day, we’re making the playoffs, and no matter who’s in front of us, we’ve got to give it our best shot.”

It’s been a little bit of a bumpy ride for the Jazz after finishing with the NBA’s best record last season. They are good, but hardly dominant. That has lead to lots of speculation, from trade rumors surrounding Gobert, to some chatter that coach Quin Snyder and the organization potentially parting ways.

It doesn’t help that the Jazz had lost six of seven entering Wednesday night. 

Of course, there are also the constant questions of the relationship between Gobert and Donovan Mitchell — not to mention the questions about how far a team with Mitchell as its “1A” can actually go. For now, though, Gobert indicated things are better.