Sloan: Expectations too high? News Utah Jazz

LOS ANGELES ? He's never been one to burden his team with unfair expectations. Yet at the start of this NBA 2008-09 season, Utah coach Jerry Sloan sensed he might have something special on his hands. So he pushed his own rule to the limit, then added a key caveat for safe driving.

And now ? with the Jazz facing stacked odds against the Western Conference's top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in a first-round playoff series that continues with Thursday night's Game 3 at EnergySolutions Arena ? he almost sounds as if he wished he hadn't. That's because the caveat kicked in, and now he senses his club simply cannot live up to what its own fans have come to crave. "I know they still expect us to win a championship, (even) if we win 30 (regular-season) games. That's the city we're in," he said on the morning his Jazz went into Tuesday night's late-starting Game 2 down 0-1 in the best-of-seven series. "We have a tremendous following with our fans, and they've been great to us and to this team. That's just how much they want us to win. Nobody feels any worse than I do ? because I said this team would be a very good team at the beginning of the year, if we could stay healthy. "Most people didn't hear that (last) part of it," Sloan added. "They take the first part of it. But that's OK." The Jazz, as it happened, were anything but healthy this season. They lost 149 regular-season man games to injury and illness, and played both Sunday's Game 1 and Tuesday's Game 2 with starting center Mehmet Okur sidelined by a strained right hamstring. Point guard Deron Williams missed 13 early season games due to a sprained ankle, small forward Andrei Kirilenko lost 13 to an ankle that needed surgery and ? because of a knee that was arthroscopically repaired ? power forward Carlos Boozer missed more than half the season. "First of all," Sloan said when asked Tuesday morning what he had to say to Jazz fans, "you've got to realize we're playing against one of the best teams in the league ? and we're playing them a little shorthanded. "But that's the way this business is. We can't do anything about injuries ? and they've, unfortunately, had to hear that all year long." Factor in all the injuries, and Sloan considers the fact the Jazz even qualified for postseason play an under-appreciated achievement. "I think these guys have done a heck of a job to even be where we are," he said. "But I know the expectations are really built high. And that's what destroys franchises." Therein lies the aversion to actually acknowledging expectations, or even hunches, about his teams. Sloan never predicts how far he thinks his clubs can go. And he never, ever, makes known how many games he thinks they can, or should, win. "You can't do that," the Jazz coach said. That's because thinking it is one thing, but living up is quite another. "I learned that from Frank Layden years ago," Sloan said with reference to the Jazz coach he succeeded. "If you go out there and start expecting a team to be something they aren't, now they're gonna be frustrated, you're gonna be frustrated, and you're gonna be fired. "I've seen too many franchises destroyed because they didn't get to that level, and then they start changing this thing, they start changing that, and they're doing all this stuff," he added. "Now what do you have? You're right back to (being like an expansion team), and then you have to get some luck getting to the playoffs." E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com