Tyrone

Corbin

The Jazz have worked out Dennis Schroeder, C.J. McCollum and Michael Carter-Williams, among other prospects, but it’s a stretch to think they’ll find a starting-caliber rookie PG with the No. 14 pick. “If it don’t happen in the draft you’ve got the free agency to look at,” said Tyrone Corbin. “And then there could be trade situations, too.” At the moment, Utah doesn’t have a single PG under contract.

Of course, Lindsey then followed that up by saying “the gloves will come off when he and Corbin would meet next week to evaluate the Jazz going forward. While votes of confidence are worth almost nothing, the Jazz played with an extraordinary number of pending free agents this season, including big men Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. It wouldn’t be a total shock to see Corbin get the axe, but we think he’ll survive at least another year.

Corbin enters the final year of his contract as a lame-duck coach with a rookie PG (Trey Burke) and an untested starting frontcourt (Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter). Favors and Gordon Hayward are the most likely guys to lead Utah in scoring this season, and Corbin’s staff will be focused as much on player development as winning games.

Most recently, Jensen was named the D-League’s Coach of the Year for the 2012-13 season. Prior to that, he was an assistant under Utah coach Rick Majreus when Majerus was coaching at the University of St. Louis. The Jazz are shuffling their staff a bit following the departure of Jeff Hornacek, who was named head coach of the Suns.

They would be replacing Lakers coach Luke Walton. Corbin did not have a great run with the Kings two seasons ago before George Karl took over, and he didn’t make any noise with the Jazz earlier in his career.

Coach Earl Watson is putting together a solid bench for his young team. Corbin was being pursued by the Warriors, so it’s unusual for the Suns win the competition for a coach over them.

It is believed to be in the “very early stages.” Corbin was fired by the Jazz last month and he’ll need to prove himself again as an assistant. His Jazz team really struggled last year, but mostly due to their inexperience.

Corbin is coming off a four-year stint as Utah’s head coach so he’s no stranger to player development, which will be critical on the Kings’ young roster.

Corbin’s tenure was only four short seasons, including his stint as interim coach in the 2010-2011 season. Still the decision was not easy for general manager Dennis Lindsey. “This has not been an easy decision, but ... [we] feel that this is the best decision for our franchise moving forward,” Lindsey said. According to Yahoo!, Jim Boylen is a candidate to take over as the head coach, but nothing is imminent. The Jazz have some young pieces and will likely pick high in the draft, but they have their work cut out for themselves to be a playoff contender.

“When we spoke to Ty and his representation during the year, we laid out [that] we wanted to take the full season,” Lindsey said. “We want to take a small period now for all of us — Ty included — to decompress so we’re not making a decision based on the last possession of the last game.” The Jazz finished with the worst record in the Western Conference and Corbin has been on thin ice since September.