Utah Jazz: Quin Snyder notches 150th career victory

Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder hit the 150-win mark with the victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night in his fourth season with the team.

There were a lot of reasons for celebration last night among Utah Jazz fans. The Jazz earned their first victory in Toronto (against a very good Raptors team, no less) since the 2012-13 season. It came thanks to a dagger three from none other than Ricky Rubio. It was Utah’s first consecutive win in nearly two months. Donovan Mitchell logged yet another 20-point game (he finished with 26) and Rudy Gobert looked like his old self.

Yep, all in a day’s work for an exhilarating Utah Jazz team that is hopefully starting to right many of its prior wrongs. But amidst all that excitement, there was yet another reason for celebration that might not have been quite as heralded as the aforementioned occurrences. Namely, Quin Snyder logged his 150th career win as head coach of the Utah Jazz.

The win over Toronto put Quin’s all-time record as an NBA head coach at 150-145. He was able to climb above .500 with an impressive 51-31 record last season and if Utah can keep up their recent play from the past two contests, then he may very well be able to maintain that trend of a winning record through yet another season.

While 2017-18 has been somewhat discouraging for Quin Snyder and the Jazz as the team finds themselves at a record of 21-28 after dealing with numerous injuries and working to adjust to the loss of their two leading scorers from last season, there’s no questioning that he has enjoyed incredible success overall during his tenure with the Jazz.

The year before Quin took over as head coach, the Jazz finished the 2013-14 season with a dismal 25-57 record, good for dead last in the Western Conference. Since then, though, the Utah Jazz have improved dramatically each and every season. In 2014-15, Snyder’s first season at the helm, Utah improved to 38-44, which included an excellent finish to the year. Then in 2015-16, Utah missed the playoffs by the narrowest of margins due largely to numerous injuries as the team went 40-42.

Of course, last season, Quin was able to up his win total yet again to reach upwards of 50 wins, with a final season record of 51-31. After an exciting 2016-17 season, there were hopes that Quin would be able to pull off the unbelievable task of taking a team from 20 wins to 30 wins to 40 wins to 50 wins, all the way up to 60 wins in consecutive seasons. However, the Gordon Hayward departure all but erased any chance of that occurring.

Nevertheless, Snyder is still viewed as one of the brightest young basketball minds in the league and certainly deserves acclaim as being among the NBA’s finest coaches. He has a lot of work to do to get his squad back to where they want to be this season, but with Rudy Gobert finally healthy and back in action, and with potential shake-ups at the trade deadline looming, there’s a good chance that Quin will be able to maximize the talent on his roster and finish out the year strong.

Next: Utah Jazz: Are two straight wins a sign of turning things around?

Whatever comes of this season, 150 wins and a winning record with a team that had struggled so mightily before he came on board is an amazing milestone for the Utah Jazz head coach. He’s helped improve this team dramatically and he’s likely far from done both this season and well beyond.

Congrats on hitting the 150-mark, Coach Snyder! And here’s to many more Utah Jazz wins ahead!