Daily NBA Fix 6-7-14: From Russia, With Whiteboard
By Phil Watson
Welcome to the Daily NBA Fix for Saturday, June 7, the day the Utah Jazz are expected to introduce Quin Snyder as their new head coach.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, the Jazz have come to terms with Snyder, currently an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks, on a three-year deal with a club option for a fourth year.
Wojnarowski also cited a source that Snyder will be introduced today:
Once upon a time, Snyder was considered one of the rising stars in the college coaching ranks. Snyder was a three-year starter at Duke and played on three Final Four teams, graduating with a double major in philosophy and political science.
After going undrafted in 1989, he went to training camp with the Indiana Pacers that fall and returned to Duke to enroll in graduate school. He did play one year with the Raleigh Bullfrogs of the Global Basketball Association before taking a year off from school in 1992-93 for his first coaching job as an assistant for Larry Brown with the Los Angeles Clippers.
That was followed by six years as an assistant for Mike Kryzyzewski back at Duke, during which time he completed both his law and MBA degrees.
In 1999, at the age of 32, Snyder was named to replace the legendary Norm Stewart at Missouri and led the Tigers to four straight NCAA tournament berths, including a run to the Elite Eight in 2002. But the heyday was short-lived. Snyder resigned in 2006 after the program was investigated by the NCAA, even though only minor infractions were found.
Snyder was out of coaching for a year before landing as the head coach of the Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League from 2007-10, where he was Coach of the Year in 2008-09.
In 2010, he went to Philadelphia to be the player development coach under Doug Collins. After a year, he took a job on Mike Brown’s staff with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Then his career took an interesting turn, as he went to Moscow to become head assistant coach—yes, head assistant coach—for the Red Army team—CSKA Moscow—in the Russian Professional Basketball League.
After a berth in the Euroleague Final Four, Snyder returned to the NBA to be the lead assistant for Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta.
Snyder was well-received in Atlanta, with forward DeMarre Carroll—a former member of the Jazz—singling him out during his exit interview.
“I have to give a shoutout to Quin,” Carroll said. “This is the first year a coach really worked with me on my footwork, my shot, spent time with me. That’s a credit to coach Quin. That shows me that he cares about me as a person, cares about my career.”
The 47-year-old Snyder was 128-96 in seven seasons at Missouri and in four years with Austin in the D-League, his teams were 94-56 and made the playoffs each season, reaching the NBDL Finals in 2008 and losing in the semifinals the next two seasons.
The Daily NBA Fix will focus on the happenings around the Association. But first, a minimovie from Game 1 of the NBA Finals: