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HOUSTON — Chris Paul had a message for Quin Snyder: “I ain’t no free agent no more.”
The tongue-in-cheek remark from Paul was in response to some flattering words by the Jazz head coach about the Houston Rockets point guard ahead of Sunday’s Game 1.
“Chris is probably a better coach than me,” Snyder said. “That’s not saying much about me, but I’m trying to give him a compliment.”
Snyder would know, too.
This is the third straight season Snyder has coached against Paul-led teams. Utah beat the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017 before losing to the Rockets last season. And the two are both on the NBA competition committee, which has meant some long hours together in meetings.
"You get a chance to see how coaches’ minds work," Paul said.
Those on-court battles and boardroom talks have helped them form if not a friendship, at least a relationship built on admiration and respect.
“I really like Quin,” Paul said. “That’s why this series right here is a big series because I know their team will be prepared every night.”
But being prepared is something that is hard to fully be against Paul-led teams. Paul has the unique ability to spot weaknesses in opponents and then adjust gameplans. That’s why Snyder referred to him as a coach.
Last season during the Rockets second-round series win over the Jazz, Paul often went against Houston's mantra of not shooting midrange shots. He went on to crush Utah with 15-footer after 15-footer. Those were the look the Jazz were giving up, and Paul made them pay.
And he’s not the only Rocket that can do that, either.
After praising Paul’s basketball IQ, Snyder quickly commented on the time during last season’s series when James Harden broke the Utah defense.
Maybe out of sheer luck or pure ingenuity, Harden discovered a spacing advantage when Houston players were in different spots on the court than they usually were. It was a set that the Jazz had never seen — and it led to an easy bucket.
So on the next possession, Harden moved his teammates back to the same spots — and it worked again. That forced Snyder to call a timeout and figure out a way to stop what Harden had just discovered.
“Those things make it really hard to figure out how to prepare,” Snyder said. “You do the best with what you know. A lot of it is going to be our ability to figure some things out.”
The Jazz tried to find a way to limit Harden in Game 1 by aggressively forcing him right. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn’t. But it was a just part of the chess game that will continue throughout the series.
“We have seen so many defensives over the year, every game we find a way to exploit and be great at what we do,” Harden said.
That’s just what Snyder expected him to do. But he’s going back to the drawing board and throwing something else at him. That doesn’t mean it will be a completely different approach than what the Jazz tried in Game 1, but there will be something new.
“You have to adjust to what he has figured out and then he’ll figure that out and it goes back and forth,” Snyder said.
That’s why this is series is more than a coaching matchup between Snyder and Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni. It’s one between Snyder and Paul and Harden, too.
That's why Snyder's praise of Paul wasn't a free-agent pitch. He just knows what he's up against.
