Utah Jazz notes: Snyder a tough nut to crack, Gobert ready to crack skulls

Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder is apparently indecipherable on the sidelines. Also — Rudy Gobert will knock you into next week.

At this point, it’s hard to deny that Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder is one of the best coaches in the league. Over the last two years, his team has won 60 percent of its games and advanced to the conference semis in back-to-back seasons. And the Jazz have done so despite running the West’s gauntlet with massive injuries.

That’s no small feat, and Snyder’s game management and Xs and Os have definitely played a key role in the success. So, too, has the 51-year-old’s intensity, which manifests itself in every aspect of his job and often makes it look as though he could burst at the seams on the sidelines. His ticks and gyrations are apparently so intense that opposing scouts have given up trying to read him.

In a piece for The Athletic, Ethan Strauss broke down some of the inside dirt he got from advance scouts around the Association. When he asked them which head coach was the most difficult to read, Snyder’s name came up more than most.

Writes Strauss —

"When you ask scouts about the toughest coach to observe, one name keeps popping up: Utah coach Quin Snyder. “With all that twitching it’s tough to see what’s even a play call.”"

He continues —

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"Snyder’s calls seem of another tradition, another language. Many of his mannerisms defy simple explanation."

It’s always been clear that Snyder’s brain is functioning on another level where basketball is concerned; that the machinations of his hoops mind are ever-churning and not to be understood by the layperson. It probably should come as no surprise that his gestures on the sidelines are also indecipherable.

On most nights, the Jazz have a definite coaching edge. Clearly, that extends to those tasked with spying on the team’s head coach.

Gobert’s got a nasty jab

Make no mistake about it — Rudy Gobert can be a maniac in the gym. On Thursday, the Jazz center took to Twitter with video of his moist recent workout, a late-night boxing session —

Gobert looks very comfortable with his fists up in attack mode, as well he should. Before he was bitten by the hoops bug, he spent time boxing and training in karate as a kid in France.

I’ll say this about the footage: I would not want to encounter an angry Stifle Tower in a dark alley.