Utah Jazz alums: Hayward joins Lyles in grumbling about 3-hr practices

Apparently former Utah Jazz forward Trey Lyles isn’t the only alumnus who has some negative feelings toward Quin Snyder’s practice routines.

Ask any Utah Jazz fan who one of the most unpopular players to suit up in the blue, green and gold is, and pretty much all of them will likely bring up Trey Lyles. Although Jazz fans did their best to give him a warm welcome and bring him into their fold, things ultimately didn’t quite pan out.

However, even once he was traded, few looked at Lyles with outright disdain. Sure, his work ethic and attitude were somewhat in question, but it wasn’t like he had done enough to completely outrage the Utah faithful. That was, at least, until he hopped on the Road Trippin’ Podcast hosted by Lyles’ former Nuggets teammate and former Jazzman Richard Jefferson.

In that episode, Lyles did not hold back in his criticisms and obvious disenchantment with the Utah Jazz organization, fanbase and community. By so doing, he went from an afterthought to a villain in Salt Lake City.

Among his comments that has received the most scorn has been one where he complained about having to undergo three-hour long practices under head coach Quin Snyder. Apparently, working to improve his craft to that degree was too taxing on the young forward who never neared his ceiling in Utah despite playing for a team that excels in player development. Real head-scratcher there, right?

Ironically, though, Lyles isn’t the only former Jazzman to apparently take issue to the way Snyder conducts his business in Utah. Another unpopular former player recently expressed a similar sentiment. Who am I referring to, you ask? Well, who else but Gordon Hayward.

Now let me be clear on something here. Like any Jazz fan, I was pretty bummed by Hayward’s decision two summers ago. However, after the initial shock wore off and especially after he suffered his gruesome season-ending injury last year, I’ve been a proponent of cutting the guy some slack and letting by-gones be by-gones.

After all, it turns out the Jazz bounced back just fine without Hayward and may very well be in a better contract situation with him gone and rookie Donovan Mitchell in his place.

However, while I’ve been all for moving on from the Hayward incident for quite some time now, you’d hope that he would have a similar sentiment towards Utah. Instead, in a recent interview with Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take Podcast, he effectively bad-mouthed his former team and essentially threw Quin Snyder under the bus, taking exception to lengthy practices just like Lyles did.

Here’s what the former Jazz All-Star had to say on the matter, comparing coach Brad Stevens to “past coaches”–

"“[Stevens] wasn’t going to scream at you or yell at you, he seemed pretty logical with how he did things as far as practices were concerned. You know we’re not going to run you into the ground for three hours because you have to play this weekend and then I also want you to be good in March, too, which I thought was pretty cool.”"

He later went on to insinuate that the Jazz are likely to be dominated by LeBron James this upcoming season in response to a silly fan video in which Hayward was told he was about to become “LeBron’s little B-word” (and yes those were the exact words).

In other words, rather than take the high road (which admittedly, several Jazz fans have done a poor job of doing themselves), Hayward has run his mouth and laid some pretty blatant disrespect on his former coach and team.

Fortunately, current and loyal Jazzmen Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell were quick to back up their coach and the hard work ethic that it takes to fit the Jazz mold with a pair of on-point tweets. No description could do them justice, so I’ll leave them below for your viewing pleasure–

https://twitter.com/spidadmitchell/status/1045329040729497600

Those are my guys right there! Hopefully Gordon Hayward enjoys a lighter practice schedule while the Jazz will continue to put in work to become the best they can. Admittedly, the Boston Celtics figure to be an incredible team this year, but I don’t believe Utah will be that far behind (if at all).

Not only that, but if Utah continues to weed out players whose work ethic doesn’t fit with the grinding, determined mentality that it takes to be a Jazzman, their culture will be firmly ingrained and effective for years to come, making the Utah Jazz a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.