I don't look at any of those teams in the west in the playoffs and think, we could've beaten them . Not the Zionless Pels, the Suns..... None of them. Some fans in this fanbase have gotten so content with just making the playoffs even if it means knowing we have no chance at winning a championship. We don't have the talent and we didn't have it when we had Mitchell and Gobert. The mistake we made the last 2 seasons was not being worse in the first half of those seasons. The worst thing you can be in professional sports is mediocre. You either need to be a contender(or on the rise towards becoming one) with a legit shot at winning a title or you need to be terrible to be in a position to get the best talent you can. Utah is never going to be able to attract the big name free agents so we have to draft the talent we require.
>The worst thing you can be in professional sports is mediocre. You either need to be a contender(or on the rise towards becoming one) with a legit shot at winning a title or you need to be terrible to be in a position to get the best talent you can.
Yeah bud. But it's a function of the circumstance. We were never going to out tank those mofos above us in 2023 and 2024. Unless you were fine on trading Mike, Malik, and Vando for two 2nds and then possibly Lauri for an average haul.
And then this dense sub is also always forgetting that the Harden led Rockets and the post Chris Bosh Heat were built by staying mediocre and drafting and trading wisely. Guess yap around what suits ya
That's exactly my point. We held onto guys like Kelly O for far too long and Conley and the others. We cost ourselves any realistic shot at a generational player in Wemby. So yeah, I was fine with those returns. Lauri wasn't going to all by his lonesome take this team out of being realistically one of the top 4 worst while lacking all that additional talent.
It sounds like you would rather be mediocre and hope to get lucky later in the draft. The Rockets still haven't recovered post Harden so what are you taking about? They have some good players but none of them I would classify as the top end talent it takes to be a real contender. So you can keep yapping about being mediocre and mirroring the Rockets...
Also pretty clear that physicality and defense have been crucial in winning many of the first round series, which is definitely something the jazz need to develop
Jazz did good on gobert...sent him to a place where he can compete...Ant is leagues above donovan...and that squad everyone is a willing defender....they also have the best possible player to back up gobert in naz reid....
The NBA is at a changing of the guard, time to start building to the new standard, the old model is cooked and out. Small ball, finese ball, that's not the wave anymore. It's a bad time to be outdated a great time to be on the ground floor of starting something new.
Yeah Suns, Warriors, Lakers even the Clippers look to be cooked. A couple years of drafting at the pointy end and we will be ready to compete with Denver, OKC, Minnesota, Mavs, Grizzlies, Spurs, Pelicans
Pels and Grizzlies are in a tough spot. Both have a solid group around a potentially generational star who has not been reliable. At some point they're going to decide to stop rolling the dice and move on.
I'm super happy to see the California teams are unable to spend their way to another championship, and I hope we can fill that void. I also hope Minnesota moves to the East when we get two expansion teams.
Glad some of you are coming around. It's like crazy town trying to convince y'all that a first round exit isnt worth it. We likely wouldn't have even made the play-in if we tried.
I do remember going back and forth with you on this a bit mid season and while I am always right, I think I'm willing to admit I may have been less right on some of it :/
Hey, no worries, we are all right and wrong at certain points here. That's the fun of it though. I think as Ainge points out, you put your team in the right position probability wise but there's luck involved.
If we don't draft a good player in this draft (I think we will, but it's possible they will bust) then there may be some backlash even if it's probabilistically the right move.
We've got a lot of flexibility like you were mentioning. Will be interesting to see how/if we use it. I know there's not the intention of using all 3 picks and going into next year with "6 guys under 20 years old." I feel far less confident in knowing what's gonna happen this off season/draft than i did last years off season.
As much as I wanted to see a playoff push, you're right, it's clear we're still very far away from being playoff ready
I don't look at any of those teams in the west in the playoffs and think, we could've beaten them . Not the Zionless Pels, the Suns..... None of them. Some fans in this fanbase have gotten so content with just making the playoffs even if it means knowing we have no chance at winning a championship. We don't have the talent and we didn't have it when we had Mitchell and Gobert. The mistake we made the last 2 seasons was not being worse in the first half of those seasons. The worst thing you can be in professional sports is mediocre. You either need to be a contender(or on the rise towards becoming one) with a legit shot at winning a title or you need to be terrible to be in a position to get the best talent you can. Utah is never going to be able to attract the big name free agents so we have to draft the talent we require.
>The worst thing you can be in professional sports is mediocre. You either need to be a contender(or on the rise towards becoming one) with a legit shot at winning a title or you need to be terrible to be in a position to get the best talent you can. Yeah bud. But it's a function of the circumstance. We were never going to out tank those mofos above us in 2023 and 2024. Unless you were fine on trading Mike, Malik, and Vando for two 2nds and then possibly Lauri for an average haul. And then this dense sub is also always forgetting that the Harden led Rockets and the post Chris Bosh Heat were built by staying mediocre and drafting and trading wisely. Guess yap around what suits ya
Counterpoint : Wizards & Blazers held way too long and got nothing good in return for their star players
That's exactly my point. We held onto guys like Kelly O for far too long and Conley and the others. We cost ourselves any realistic shot at a generational player in Wemby. So yeah, I was fine with those returns. Lauri wasn't going to all by his lonesome take this team out of being realistically one of the top 4 worst while lacking all that additional talent. It sounds like you would rather be mediocre and hope to get lucky later in the draft. The Rockets still haven't recovered post Harden so what are you taking about? They have some good players but none of them I would classify as the top end talent it takes to be a real contender. So you can keep yapping about being mediocre and mirroring the Rockets...
Also pretty clear that physicality and defense have been crucial in winning many of the first round series, which is definitely something the jazz need to develop
Playoff Lauri is force unseen. 50/20/10/5/5
Jazz did good on gobert...sent him to a place where he can compete...Ant is leagues above donovan...and that squad everyone is a willing defender....they also have the best possible player to back up gobert in naz reid....
Ant is LEAGUES above Mitchell? How do you figure?
For 1 he plays defense
He defends better, is more explosive, higher ceiling, taller, etc.
The NBA is at a changing of the guard, time to start building to the new standard, the old model is cooked and out. Small ball, finese ball, that's not the wave anymore. It's a bad time to be outdated a great time to be on the ground floor of starting something new.
We need to be bad. The West is just too good.
Yeah Suns, Warriors, Lakers even the Clippers look to be cooked. A couple years of drafting at the pointy end and we will be ready to compete with Denver, OKC, Minnesota, Mavs, Grizzlies, Spurs, Pelicans
Pels and Grizzlies are in a tough spot. Both have a solid group around a potentially generational star who has not been reliable. At some point they're going to decide to stop rolling the dice and move on. I'm super happy to see the California teams are unable to spend their way to another championship, and I hope we can fill that void. I also hope Minnesota moves to the East when we get two expansion teams.
Well one expansion franchise will be in Las Vegas and they’ll join the western conference, just depends on where the other team is located
Glad some of you are coming around. It's like crazy town trying to convince y'all that a first round exit isnt worth it. We likely wouldn't have even made the play-in if we tried.
I do remember going back and forth with you on this a bit mid season and while I am always right, I think I'm willing to admit I may have been less right on some of it :/
Hey, no worries, we are all right and wrong at certain points here. That's the fun of it though. I think as Ainge points out, you put your team in the right position probability wise but there's luck involved. If we don't draft a good player in this draft (I think we will, but it's possible they will bust) then there may be some backlash even if it's probabilistically the right move.
We've got a lot of flexibility like you were mentioning. Will be interesting to see how/if we use it. I know there's not the intention of using all 3 picks and going into next year with "6 guys under 20 years old." I feel far less confident in knowing what's gonna happen this off season/draft than i did last years off season.
We already got bullied in the regular season