Deseret Morning News <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For some NBA players, pregame warm-ups are a time to socialize. For others, it's time to actually warm up, often rather casually. For the Jazz, it has always been time to get serious, from instructional work with assistant coaches to a regimented series of shooting drills lasting roughly a half-hour. This season, though, look for the Jazz to scale back their routine. "We'll cut back on a lot of it," coach Jerry Sloan said before training-camp practice Monday. "I just think I let that get out of hand a little bit at times, because we spent a little too much time there on the floor. "We still have to play the game. I want guys to go work hard, but I don't want them to work long," he added. "If a guy's playing 40 minutes, I don't think he should go through the whole routine." One of the Jazz coaches always running the drills for Sloan in the past has been Gordie Chiesa, who left Utah this summer to become the top assistant in New Jersey. He has been replaced by Scott Layden, the former Jazz and New York Knicks front-office boss now back on the bench as a Jazz assistant. But altering the pregame schedule, Sloan said, is not "a knock on Gordie." "It's just that some guys are playing more (game minutes)," he said, "(and) I don't think they should be out there. And that's a mistake I made." What Sloan will not allow, however, is for pregame warm-ups "to turn into a zoo." "I told our coaches, 'I don't want them out there visiting with the other team,'" he said. "I want to be fair ? but I don't think it looks good for our game if guys are out there (socializing) before the game like it's old home week."</div> <div align="center">Source</div>
