Game 57: Utah Jazz (26-30) vs Charlotte Hornets (13-41)

[Cappy_Smurf]

Problem is that last trades are very definitely not a "rebuild". DM and Gobert trades defintely was. Vando and Conley it is not easy, but you can convince yourself.

This trades - no, it is not a rebuild moves. at least not in the sense building better team, not in any foreseeable future.

It is designing of perennial looser, the team which will be confident bottom feeder for next 15-20 years and provide a lot possibilities of drafts, PT for some initial developing of boys (they will learn teamwork only later, in some other teams) and continuous shuffling sets of mediocre players. Some fun and players will be happy with that, other not, but it was FO decision, so.

You sound emotional.

The recent trades were made to weaken the team in the short term in order to get a higher pick and hopefully a better player for the future.

I have no idea what you are on about with your 15-20 years prediction. It's impossible to predict 5 years from now, let alone 20.

As frustrating as it is to see the FO scrap the rest of the season, it's understandable as a strategy. The only issue I have with it is if it causes Markkanen to sour on staying in Utah. If Danny Ainge feels confident on being able to keep him, then this route is a more likely route to being a better team in 5 years, let alone 15-20.

[Inigo Montoya]

No disrespect but I don’t think you can put this one on the fans and the complaint isn’t that the team is not good, on the contrary. The complaint is that 2 years now we have seen a team outperform itself and rather than rewarding this at the trade deadline, our FO prefers to punish them.
Last year u could still argue that the strong draft warranted such a move, this year u can’t. This particular draft is weak, we owe OKC a protected pick anyway and u could sense a mile away this team was actually having fun, which is a rare thing in the NBA. Maybe they could have gotten to the play ins, maybe not but either way it would have been a valuable experience.
The FO kept players that wanted out and ousted players that wanted to stay. They left us with an unbalanced and unmotivated crew. We hear about a narrowly missed trade that would have made us stronger but simultaneously read about how our trades allow ups to look at our rookies as part of the “masterplan” and it’s ok we are weaker for now.
My issue isn’t “patience or lack there off”, my issue is that I don’t have faith in this masterplan, IF it exists.

And I don’t think the organisation can blame me for my doubts…

I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying but I'm talking about a much longer process spanning decades, where you're only complaining about the last two seasons. You're saying what I've been saying for years now. I've been critical of the Jazz for ages and somehow I'm defending them now. How the tables have turned.

I don't know about a 'master plan.' I think this is something fans throw around. The Jazz have a new owner who got rid of the previous front office, put in a new one headed by probably the coldest and most ruthless executive I can think of in Ainge, and gave them the goal to put together a championship team, which is something Ainge has done before.

While I think the return on the deadline trades was fine, I also don't think they should have been made and I don't like what they've done, I've written on it before. But I see comments here and elsewhere about how people are disinterested, that they don't like watching this team (their prerogative, of course), about how they haven't watched this team since X, about how they're not interested in a rebuilding team and that they'll be back once they are competitive again (while at the same time complaining that the young players don't get to play), or that they'll be a losing team for the next 20 years. Like I said, to each his own. All those stances are valid. But if that's how Jazz fans feel, why are we surprised that this team never fully tanks, or that for decades they roll out the same team with the same ceiling that wins 45-50 games and never makes it past the second round, which they get to once every blue moon?

I could understand this if the Jazz were like Charlotte, or Sacramento and were having losing records for decades. When you lose so long it is natural that fans lose interest. But that's not the case with the Jazz and the fans still show extremely low tolerance for losing, even when it is was made clear that this team is in rebuild mode. Maybe we should consider that the reason this team never goes full rebuild mode is the fanbase's low tolerance for losing and if that's the case it makes it that much harder to get top-level talent without bottoming out.

We hear about a narrowly missed trade that would have made us stronger but simultaneously read about how our trades allow ups to look at our rookies as part of the “masterplan” and it’s ok we are weaker for now.

I've addressed it on a different thread. I don't think the two things are in conflict with each other. The Jazz tried to get better via trades and when they didn't work out they decided to go the opposite direction for the season while picking up some assets because as it stood they were kinda stuck in the middle--fringe play-in with a tough schedule ahead. Not saying I like it but it's not illogical or rudderless. The Jazz have been rumored to try and trade for Porzingis, Jrue and Lillard so it's not like they aren't trying to improve when the situation presents itself. But when things don't work out they are willing to go the other way to get some assets that may help in the future. It's not a 'masterplan', it's just asset management and keeping the powder dry for the next opportunity to come along.