Jeffrey Joseph Bzdelik () (born December 1, 1952) is an American professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
coach who most recently served as associate head coach for the
New Orleans Pelicans
The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...
of the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
(NBA). He was head coach of the
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...
in the NBA for slightly over two seasons, from 2002 until he was fired near the end of 2004. He also served as a college head coach at UMBC, Air Force, Colorado, and Wake Forest.
Early life
Bzdelik earned four varsity letters while playing basketball at the
University of Illinois-Chicago
The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...
, and was named team MVP in 1975β76. He also spent six years in the Army National Guard.
Coaching career
Early career in college basketball
Bzdelik began his coaching career in 1978 as an assistant at
Davidson College
Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowanβ ...
in North Carolina.
[Nuggets have nothing to lose with Bzdelik By Marc J. Spears, ESPN]
/ref> He moved to Northwestern University in 1980, where he spent six seasons as an assistant, helping the Wildcats to their first NIT appearance in school history. He then took the head coaching position at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for two years.
Move to NBA as assistant
Washington Bullets
The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...
coach Wes Unseld
Westley Sissel Unseld Sr. (March 14, 1946June 2, 2020) was an American professional basketball player, coach and executive. He spent his entire National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets. Unseld ...
hired Bzdelik as an assistant in 1988. He stayed there until Unseld resigned in 1994. He then took a scouting position with Pat Riley
Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, former coach, and former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, and he also se ...
and the New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
before moving with Riley to the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Southe ...
the next season as an assistant coach and advance scout. In 1997, Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
named Bzdelik the NBA's best advance scout. In 2000, ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' named him one of the NBA's top five assistants.
Denver Nuggets
Bzdelik was hired in 2001 by the Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...
to be their East Coast scout. He was promoted to assistant coach in July 2002 and impressed team management by going 6β0 in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league and motivating the team's young players.[ He was named the head coach of the Nuggets on August 21, 2002.] The team struggled in his first year, winning just 17 games. They bounced back in his second season to finish with 43 wins, reaching the postseason for the first time since 1995, before losing in the first round to eventual Western Conference finalist Minnesota. The Nuggets improved their win total by 26 games β the most ever by a team that won less than 20 games the year before and at the time the sixth-best single-season improvement in NBA history. His team also became the first in the history of the NBA to go from less than 20 wins to the playoffs the next year (since going to an 82-game schedule in 1976).
The team had high expectations in his third year after signing Kenyon Martin
Kenyon Lee Martin Sr. (born December 30, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a power forward, he played for the New Jersey Nets, Denver Nuggets, Los An ...
as a free agent. The Nuggets, though, struggled out of the gate to a 13β15 start and Bzdelik was fired on December 28, 2004.
Air Force Academy
On May 18, 2005, Bzedlik signed a multiyear contract to become the head coach at the US Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Unit ...
. The team made a first round NCAA tournament appearance β just the fourth in school history β his first year after finishing with the best record (24β7) in the program's 50-year history. The Falcons have not appeared in the NCAA tournament since. The next year, they surpassed the record from the previous year by winning 26 games and made it to the NIT semifinals.
Colorado
Bzdelik left Air Force on April 4, 2007, to become the head basketball coach for the Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
Buffaloes for three seasons. In his third and final season at CU, Bzdelik's team finished the regular season with four wins in its last six games. A first-round loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament ended the Buff's season and left the team with a 15β16 record, their third straight losing season under Bzdelik.
Wake Forest University
On April 13, 2010, Bzdelik left Colorado to become the 21st head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...
, inheriting a successful team that was 21β12 the previous season, and had made back to back NCAA Tournament appearances. He resigned from Wake Forest in March 2014. His records at Wake Forest were 8β24 (2010β11), 13β18 (2011β12), 13β18 (2012β13) and 17β16 (in his final season in 2013β14).
Memphis Grizzlies
On July 31, 2014, Bzdelik was signed by the Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...
to be an assistant coach. The Grizzlies completed the regular season 55β27, tied for the fifth-best record in the entire NBA. During his 19 years in the NBA, Bzdelik served as a head or assistant coach for 12 teams that advanced to the playoffs.
Houston Rockets
On June 1, 2016, Bzdelik became associate head coach of the Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...
, joining the staff of newly appointed head coach Mike D'Antoni
Michael D'Andrew D'Antoni (born May 8, 1951) is an Italian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is a coaching advisor for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
While head coach of the Ph ...
.
"It stood out to us that he had so much head coaching experience," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey
Daryl Morey (born September 14, 1972) is an American sports executive who is the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He co-founded the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conf ...
said. "That level of experience and gravitas really helps when you are explaining the battle plan. Second, the coaching tree he comes from is second to none. And there was a lot of respect from being the primary guy with the Memphis defense."
One of the least-discussed plots was the fact that head coach Mike D'Antoni willingly accepted a "defensive coordinator" with the addition of Jeff Bzdelik. D'Antoni brought the glitz, the glamor and the stats to Houston, while Bzdelik has helped keep the team from having a one-track mind.
"Players hear one voice offensively and one voice defensively," D'Antoni said recently when talking about Bzdelik's role on the NBA A-Z podcast.
Jonathan Feigen of the ''Houston Chronicle'' wrote, "It adds up to (Bzdelik's) place on D'Antoni's right, with respect and freedom to more than run the defense, but to change the mindset of the team happy to fire away but that has come to understand it must do more."
"We discuss everything, how we want to do things, how we want to present it," D'Antoni said. "He has a great connection with players. He has to be the little pest to get them to pay attention to detail. He's great at it. It works for me because I trust him completely. It allows me to concentrate on relationships, the offensive side, dealing with (media). I knew he was thorough. He's perfect."
In 2016β17, the Rockets were the best team in the NBA at defending the handler in ball screens. They ranked second in charges drawn, second in defending the screener/roller in ball screens, third in forcing a second action in ball screens and third in defensive 3-point field goal percentage.
According to the ''Houston Chronicle'', "the Rockets improved in the ways they needed to most, in defending the arc and in transition. But Bzdelik knows that changing mindsets takes more time."
"The first thing we talked about when we got together in the summer was 'If you don't defend, you're not going to win,' " Bzdelik said. "History shows that. It's that simple. You're not going to run around scoring a lot of points, getting open shots in the playoffs. You better guard. And you can't just turn it on and turn it off."
"All year long, we've worked on our habits for this moment. There needs to be an understanding that it takes all five players on the court to get stops. Through the whole course of the year, we've been on players to understand we need to have the right habits. When you talk about championship cultures, teammates don't just play with each other, they play for each other. They refuse to let each other down. That's the culture we're trying to create defensively."
In 2017β18, the Rockets won a franchise record 65 games, posting the NBA's best record for the first time. Bzdelik coached under D'Antoni in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The Rockets lost the Conference Finals to the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...
in seven games. Star guard Chris Paul missed Games 6 and 7 of that series with a hamstring injury.
Defensively, the Rockets were "inconsistent in the first half of the season, but had the third-rated defense in the NBA since Harden and Luc Mbah a Moute returned from injuries in mid-January at roughly the mid-point of the season."
During the season, Bzdelik was profiled by VICE Sports. "In over a dozen interviews with coaches, players, and basketball executives who have worked with Bzdelik, the portrait of a hyper-driven, beloved, and tactically adept coach who has stockpiled inestimable reams of information over the course of an astounding career emerges." Hall of Fame coach and executive Pat Riley, who worked with Bzdelik in both New York and Miami, said, "I can't think of a man in the NBA that has more experience, more knowledge, more wisdom about how to defend in the contemporary game today, than Jeff. I was just always impressed with his scouting reports. He was very detailed. Very neat. Things were logical and coherent. He had all the right calls. We knew what the other team was gonna run."
On September 17, 2018, Bzdelik announced his retirement from coaching in the NBA. On November 23, 2018, Bzdelik agreed to return to the Rockets. At the time, Houston was ranked 21st in the league on defense after being sixth the year before.
On May 18, 2019, Bzdelik was let go by the Rockets during the off-season. Prior to this, he had publicly been noncommittal to returning in following seasons.
New Orleans Pelicans
On July 8, 2019, Bzdelik was hired by the New Orleans Pelicans as associate head coach. On November 16, 2020, Bzdelik was not retained by the Pelicans.
Head coaching record
NBA
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*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
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Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
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College
References
External links
Official Air Force basketball profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bzdelik, Jeff
1952 births
Living people
Air Force Falcons men's basketball coaches
American basketball scouts
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Illinois
Basketball players from Illinois
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball coaches
Davidson Wildcats men's basketball coaches
Denver Nuggets head coaches
Denver Nuggets scouts
Houston Rockets assistant coaches
Memphis Grizzlies assistant coaches
Miami Heat assistant coaches
New Orleans Pelicans assistant coaches
New York Knicks assistant coaches
New York Knicks scouts
Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball coaches
People from Mount Prospect, Illinois
Sportspeople from Cook County, Illinois
UIC Flames men's basketball players
UMBC Retrievers men's basketball coaches
Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball coaches
Washington Bullets assistant coaches