Explaining Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey’s ‘Don’t Skip Steps’

You’ll hear it a lot when talking to Utah Jazz brass. It’s a phrase used in conjunction with the rebuilding refrain “We don’t want to skip steps.” Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey in particular might drop the line several times in a single interview. It seems to be a mantra he lives by in many facets of his life and employment.

Jazz fans began hearing Dennis Lindsey’s predecessor Kevin O’Connor drop the “don’t skip steps” line back in 2012 as O’Connor transitioned from full-time general manager to team consultant, gently handing the reins over to Lindsey a little at a time.

O’Connor and Lindsey had known each other for some time as colleagues, occasionally sharing a meal or a chat on the phone. When Lindsey arrived in Utah to begin managerial duties for the Jazz they were attempting to recover from the retirement of Jerry Sloan and stay competitive in the wild Western Conference.

"Kevin has always had a great reputation around the league and is very well-respected. In my opinion, Kevin and the Jazz organization have done an outstanding job in transitioning the team from the John Stockton/Karl Malone days to Deron Williams/Carlos Boozer and now to a team that has some very good young veterans and several talented younger players while maintaining flexibility and remaining competitive.The biggest advice I can provide is to work hard, be honest and treat people the right way. There are opportunities out there that will present themselves if you are willing to put in the work and pay your dues. You can’t skip steps and expect to succeed. No matter what the level, take pride in what you do and do it to the best of your abilities.–Dennis Lindsey, Kevin O’Connor interview, ussa.edu/alumni circa 2012"

The Jazz looked something like this when Dennis Lindsey took over:

A nice, middle class place, not fancy, not a junker, in decent shape, but not going to stand out in a crowd.

For years after the John Stockton, Karl Malone era ended in Utah the Jazz worked to get back to the upper tier of competition, finding some success with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. When Boozer left in free agency O’Connor made a move to replace him with Al Jefferson, adding a piece to the construction of the team.

An analogy for Dennis Lindsey and Kevin O’Connor remodeling the Utah Jazz

Big, cool, kind of flashy.

When Deron Williams was traded away to the New Jersey Nets, O’Connor plugged the hole left behind with veteran former All-Star Devin Harris. This was how the Jazz had always done it: Lose a piece, plug in with another. Stay competitive, relevant to the NBA playoff picture every year you can.

Add another piece to the remodel.

An analogy for Dennis Lindsey and Kevin O’Connor remodeling the Utah Jazz

And another, in Derrick Favors.

An analogy for Dennis Lindsey and Kevin O’Connor remodeling the Utah Jazz

The problem with constructing the team this way was that, while it would remain competitive year in and year out, it was never likely to compete at the highest level where Utah Jazz fans demand it be.

Any of these pieces of the remodel are attractive enough by themselves. But the Jazz, in adding all these pieces to the project had ultimately ended up with this abomination:

An analogy for Dennis Lindsey and Kevin O’Connor remodeling the Utah Jazz

Sure, it’s functional. But not very pretty and requires very specific taste to appreciate. It was time for Dennis Linsdey to call in the bulldozers and start all over again.

Dennis Lindsey had to level the Utah Jazz roster in a rebuild

The Utah Jazz were now under construction almost from the ground up, and they knew they were going to be shoveling, umm, crap for a while. It was going to be a process, a long one. A necessary one.

And Dennis Lindsey wasn’t going to skip any steps along the way.

When building a home, if you want a lasting, quality product that pleases both the eye and the senses, leaving you feeling content and safe, you can’t skip steps. First, you must have a solid foundation.

Dennis Lindsey’s rebuild of the Utah Jazz required a strong foundation

The Utah Jazz’s ownership, philosophies, management and a couple of players in Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward made for a pretty stout foundation for Lindsey to build on. Skip a step in this part of the process and the whole thing becomes a huge house of cards. It might look pretty awesome, but it’s highly unstable underneath the facade.

Next you begin adding key structural features.

Adding key components to Dennis Lindsey’s Utah Jazz rebuild

You need a something solid to stand on, something sturdy to protect you from the elements. This is Quin Snyder, Dennis Lindsey’s first head coaching hire as an NBA general manager.

Quin Snyder is the walls that protect players from the elements

Skip any steps in this part of the process and you’re going to have big problems down the road, both in terms of repairs and value.

Once your foundation and framework are in place you can begin adding those things that make the project recognizable as a real thing, a thing with substance. Something you can visual as a finished product at some point in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.

These are your complementary players, those parts of the build maybe not destined for individual standout stardom, but essential to the finished product nevertheless. These are your Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Enes Kanter, Joe Ingles and Ian Clark parts of the build. They are absolutely necessary to the whole.

You’ve got a roof, but it requires shingles. You have windows and doors, but they require hardware to work properly. Again, you can’t skip any steps in the build, because if you do now, your structure may function, but it won’t last very long or function very well for very long if you don’t put in the time and labor required to complete each necessary step in turn.

Once you reach this point you can begin adding those pieces that really make the whole thing come together.

Hopefully your pieces in the Utah Jazz rebuild don’t lay too many bricks

Hopefully they don’t lay too many bricks… Okay, I’m sorry. That was horrible. Couldn’t help myself.

These are your Rudy Gobert and Dante Exum parts, pieces that are new, parts that help bring the whole thing together. Sure, you could just drop some siding on it, but let’s do it right and lay some nice stone instead.

Let’s take the time to put this together correctly, because if you have to tear out a wall or cabinet later, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s downright disruptive.

Taking the time to build it right. Like with Dante Exum

This is where the Utah Jazz currently are in the building process, taking the time to pay attention to each piece and part in turn.

And if everyone does their job right, one day in the relative not-too-distant future they could end up like this:

Not skipping steps is just generally good advice for building anything in life from a relationship to a basketball team, a doctrine Dennis Lindsey ascribes to many different aspects of his own, not just the Utah Jazz. Lindsey is very thorough in everything, and pays great attention to detail, a trait that pays bigger dividends over time than simply adding a piece here and there, hoping for the best.

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The images for the rebuild were screen shots from an awesome time lapse build of a home by Weaver Companies, Inc. “Original footage was captured at 1 photo every 30 seconds over a 6 month period resulting in 45 days of capture and over 70,000 photos.” Here’s the full video. It’s pretty cool.