Gone, but not forgotten

It’s Sunday, but Jerry Sloan continues to lament over the losses the team absorbed Thursday morning when Sundiata Gaines, Othyus Jeffers, Demetris Nichols and Ryan Thompson were waived.

It’s remarkable that an NBA coach with a tough-guy reputation is so candid while opening up about the misery of making those cuts and about missing their contributions.

It’s certainly been most difficult on him to cut ties with Gaines and Jeffers, both of whom won over many people in and out of the franchise last season through this fall.

Sloan admitted he’s still trying to figure out what type of a bench he has now that those four guys’ services aren’t available to the Jazz.

And he gave the hard-workers yet another compliment Sunday – for the fourth interview in a row. Deservingly so, too.

“They were really raring to go and they had a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm,” Sloan said. “You get into cutting your team down (and) some of that drifts off because those guys helped us practice better, they helped us play better and now we have to try to keep that going with the guys we’ve got.”

Consider that a combination of high praise for the cut players and a kick in the pants for his non-cut guys.