Utah Jazz lose longtime sports performance coach Mark McKown. Also – Jazz starters’ NBA 2K19 ratings purportedly leaked.
The dog days of summer continue, but we are inching ever closer to the start of the 2018-19 season as August draws to a close. Pretty soon, we’ll have the blessing of witnessing Donovan Mitchell scorch the nets on the hardwood and Rudy Gobert swatting shots into oblivion.
For now, though, you’ll have to settle for a simple Utah Jazz news update with a few tidbits on what’s going on in relation to the organization. Let’s kick it off with an intriguing announcement that involves ties dating all the way back to the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Mark McKown leaves the Utah Jazz
According to a recent article from the Salt Lake Tribune’s Andy Larsen, longtime sports performance coach Mark McKown has left the Utah Jazz organization. McKown joined the team prior to the 1997-98 season. He had a close relationship with both Karl Malone and head coach Jerry Sloan. Said McKown–
"“Making Utah home to my family, establishing friendships that will last a lifetime, and putting my family in position to enjoy life experiences beyond our wildest dreams has been the best part of this experience.”"
In 2015, McKown moved to the position of director of sports science/assistant coach when the Jazz brought in Isaiah Wright. Later, amidst several injury concerns for the Jazz, the organization hired Mike Elliot, former NBA strength and conditioning coach of the year in 2014 with the Phoenix Suns, to help curb those issues in 2017. Unfortunately, Utah still struggled with injuries last season, but Elliot’s hire was certainly intended to reverse the existing trend.
Mark McKown, the longtime Jazz strength/sports science coach, has left the Utah Jazz organization after 21 years, the Salt Lake Tribune has learned. https://t.co/ViIKLmGah9
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) August 29, 2018
McKown stepping down could definitely lead to some speculation about the direction the Jazz want to head to tone down their frequent injury issues. Then again, after 21 seasons with the Jazz, he very well could have simply been ready to move on.
According to Andy Larsen, McKown will now become an independent consultant in the field.
NBA 2K19 Rating Leak?
For those of you who put stock in NBA 2K ratings (honestly, I think they’re very much blown out of proportion), an interesting screen shot emerged on Twitter on Wednesday that could very well reveal a glance at the ratings for the entire Jazz starting five.
Check it out for yourself via this link here.
That tweet was later re-tweeted by Andy Larsen, who indicated that these marks seemed accurate.
Beyond that, Twitter user @IIRichill later claimed that the screenshot came from a live stream of an NBA 2K event, adding further credibility to the image.
There’s an event today where people are getting to play the game. I did a screen shot durning a live stream. They did Rubio dirty
— Richi (@llRichill) August 29, 2018
Time will tell if those five rankings hold true, but they honestly wouldn’t surprise me. Considering how often the Utah Jazz tend to be overlooked, it’s entirely possible that their starting five would be the victims of being underrated. Particularly Ricky Rubio, Derrick Favors and Joe Ingles are far too low, in my opinion.
Rubio showed just how potent he can be in the latter half of last season, Favors is a well-rounded beast whose numbers were only impacted by his lack of playing time and Ingles is a 3-and-D extraordinaire. Each of them were sold short when comparing their rank to their actual skills.
Hopefully, each one will see those ratings skyrocket as the season goes on as they dominate the real hardwood, forcing the creators of the game to make the fake digital versions of these players follow suit.