The Utah Jazz have over 2,000 regular-season wins and made the playoffs 28 times since becoming a professional team back in 1974. The franchise was originally called the New Orleans Jazz before changing to its current name in 1979.
Plenty of Hall of Fame players and coaches have resided in Salt Lake City. For this piece, we'll be focusing on the best Utah coaches in its rich history.
Despite not having any championships to boast, the Jazz have still been led by some of the brightest basketball minds the game has to offer. Here are the top four head coaches of the franchise.
4. Tyrone Corbin
Corbin was appointed head coach of the Jazz in February of 2011. He went 8-20 to finish out the 2010-11 season.
The 2011-12 campaign was the lockout year, so the season didn't start until December. Corbin guided the Jazz to 36 wins and a trip to the playoffs, where Utah got swept by Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs.
Corbin won 112 regular-season games with the Jazz. He's got the fourth-most wins in franchise history.
3. Frank Layden
Under Layden's watch, the Jazz won a total of 277 games. Layden was able to lead the Jazz to the postseason five times. He won 18 games and lost 23. He's second in playoff wins and winning percentage.
During the 1983-84 season, Utah won 45 games and got to the second round of the playoffs. Layden was named Coach of the Year.
Frank was reassigned from his head coaching role in December of 1988.
2. Quin Snyder
Snyder has been with the Jazz since 2014. All he's done is help Rudy Gobert win two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, turn Donovan Mitchell into an All-Star shooting guard and develop the Jazz into one of the toughest teams to play on both ends of the court.
Quin has won 268 games since taking the Utah job. He'll pass Layden for second place once basketball starts up again. Snyder has got the second-best winning percentage in franchise history. His 10 playoff wins are good for third on the postseason wins list for Jazz coaches.
Snyder and the Jazz have lost to the Houston Rockets in back-to-back postseasons. Before the 2019-20 season was suspended, Utah was in fourth place in the Western Conference standings with a record of 41-23.
Snyder and the Jazz are hoping that Mitchell and Gobert will be able to co-exist moving forward.
1. Jerry Sloan
Sloan is not only the best coach in Jazz history but he's also one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. The Hall of Famer won a whopping 1,127 regular-season games with Utah while only losing 682. Jerry also won 96 postseason games.
If it wasn't for Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson and the Chicago Bulls, Sloan, Karl Malone and John Stockton would probably have at least one ring apiece. Sloan guided the Jazz to back-to-back Finals appearances but Jordan and the Bulls won both times.
Surprisingly, Sloan never won Coach of the Year, although he racked up a bunch of Coach of the Month Awards. The former Bulls guard was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach in 2009.
Odds are no Jazz coach is going to catch Sloan's 1,127 regular-season wins. Those '90s Utah teams will be talked about forever in Salt Lake City.
Sloan, Malone and Stockton are Jazz and NBA legends despite not winning a ring. They shouldn't feel too bad since Jordan prevented a plethora of Hall of Famers from winning rings.
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