Jazz/Rockets Will Be the 4th/5th Seed Matchup Again

[jom2003]

Houston is just a horrible matchup for Rudy. Even when they had Capella he always struggled against them, he had the worst plus/minus on the team against them in the playoffs each of the last two seasons. They're an even tougher matchup for him now that they play so small.

we no longer have the small ball 5 in Crowder or low post threat in Favs to punish Hou for playing small. their small ball lineup will neutralize Rudy's D every time and rudy cannot punish them or anyone on offense. so ironic enough, despite getting gentlemen swept by them two years in a row, this year's Hou will be an even tougher matchup for us.

 

[carolinajazz]

We were the 5th seed the last two season's with Rubio, Favors and Crowder and completely got our asses kicked by Houston in the playoffs. Your shtick is tired and not funny, go troll somewhere else.

Well, we wouldn't have been the 5th seed with those guys this year especially if we had added Clarkson and Bogey! We were basically the hottest team in the league at the end of last season and would have continued hot with the addition of those two guys! Instead were paying 30 million a year for a guy that can't shoot or pass worth a lick! I'm not trolling just stating FACTS! We won 20 of our last 25 games at the end of last season and were jelling nicely! Our improvement would have continued this year and we would be in better shape than ever! We just lost 2 home games to two chump teams and are sliding down a slippery sloop to oblivion!

 

[NAOS]

Has any team blueprinted us better than Houston, like, ever?

 

[gandalfe]

The explanation is we made some bad trades and let Rubio, Favors and Crowder go! We now depend on 3 point shooting when before we had more dunks and layups! We should have kept Rubio, Favors and Crowder and just added Clarkson and Bogey and we would have dominated! You can't depend on 3 point shooting all the time. When it goes south you even start losing home games that should be easily won.

Is there a sale on exclamation points at the punctuation store?

 

[Jingled]

We need to avoid the Rockets at all costs, even if that means tanking at the end of the season to drop to 6th.

 

[Getting Traded]

We need to avoid the Rockets at all costs, even if that means tanking at the end of the season to drop to 6th.

Yes. Our best draw would be Denver, if we finish 4th or 5th, our likeliest position.

 

[Keefe]

Like the sun coming up, the Rox will be the 4th, us the 5th, and we’ll lose in five. Maybe four.

 

[Jazzta]

We need to avoid the Rockets at all costs, even if that means tanking at the end of the season to drop to 6th.

If the Jazz were really contenders they wouldn’t give af who they have to play against. I’m already disappointed in this season and the FO should suck it up, admit that it was an error not to just build on last season’s more physical roster and really reconsider what new direction to take next season if they really want to build a 1-2 seed contending team.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Not worried about 4/5 matchup with Houston... we headed towards a 3/6 matchup with the Clips or Denver.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We are 30th in steals per game and 29th in blocks... this is a huge drop from where we were last year. The defense is mediocre now the offense is good... last year the defense was elite and the offense was mediocre.

We don't put any pressure on opposing offenses and don't turn them over at all... add this to our own turnover issues and basically on the nights we don't shoot really well we don't have much of a chance. Also 29th in offensive rebounds. To me I just think a lot of this boils down to Ricky, Favs, Rudy didn't work well enough to continue... but you might have gotten away with keeping one and replacing one of those pieces with a great shooter. We didn't pivot quick enough and then had to change everything. Now we are in the same spot standings wise, but gave up a bunch of assets to get there and have limited places to pivot.

the next 10 games will be telling. Lose the next game we have with OKC and I legit think we end up in the 6th seed, which may not matter because 5th or 6th we ain't getting home court advantage. Would rather not play the Rockets just because I hate them. This season is headed to a really bad place.

 

[Release the Kraken]

I'm not going to base any predictions on our last game because we're just an awful back to back team and we don't have to worry about that in the playoffs. That being said, I think there's some truth to the growing sentiment that we are a soft team. I had hoped that we might pick up an enforcer or at least a hard nose interior defender 4/5 in trade or buyout but it looks like that ship has sailed. Still I think that our 3 point efficiency makes us a threat in any series.

 

[NAOS]

We are 30th in steals per game and 29th in blocks... this is a huge drop from where we were last year. The defense is mediocre now the offense is good... last year the defense was elite and the offense was mediocre.

We don't put any pressure on opposing offenses and don't turn them over at all... add this to our own turnover issues and basically on the nights we don't shoot really well we don't have much of a chance. Also 29th in offensive rebounds. To me I just think a lot of this boils down to Ricky, Favs, Rudy didn't work well enough to continue... but you might have gotten away with keeping one and replacing one of those pieces with a great shooter. We didn't pivot quick enough and then had to change everything. Now we are in the same spot standings wise, but gave up a bunch of assets to get there and have limited places to pivot.

the next 10 games will be telling. Lose the next game we have with OKC and I legit think we end up in the 6th seed, which may not matter because 5th or 6th we ain't getting home court advantage. Would rather not play the Rockets just because I hate them. This season is headed to a really bad place.

May as well sticky this post or even make it the main page of JFC. It’d be nice if everyone had to read it before clicking to advance to the forums.

In all the years we’ve been with DL and Q, there’s never been such a clear batch of evidence of their limitations. The only hope I can see from an organizational standpoint is that Zanik might be able to change the culture in some important respects (quicker pivoting, improved analytics); and maybe Q didn’t burn up too much of his wick in the past couple of years (hello amphetamenes), and gets a good second wind/inspiration.

They’re also going to need to get another big boost of internal improvement from Gobert (just flat-out need more individually created offense from him in order to diversify our weaponry and stave off the repetitive looks we give) and Mitchell (probably at the PG, with greater efficiency) plus hope like hell that they can rebound from this Conley debacle.

And ****ing please stop trading for guards like we have. Sheesh.

 

[l Abach l]

We are 30th in steals per game and 29th in blocks... this is a huge drop from where we were last year. The defense is mediocre now the offense is good... last year the defense was elite and the offense was mediocre.

We don't put any pressure on opposing offenses and don't turn them over at all... add this to our own turnover issues and basically on the nights we don't shoot really well we don't have much of a chance. Also 29th in offensive rebounds. To me I just think a lot of this boils down to Ricky, Favs, Rudy didn't work well enough to continue... but you might have gotten away with keeping one and replacing one of those pieces with a great shooter. We didn't pivot quick enough and then had to change everything. Now we are in the same spot standings wise, but gave up a bunch of assets to get there and have limited places to pivot.

the next 10 games will be telling. Lose the next game we have with OKC and I legit think we end up in the 6th seed, which may not matter because 5th or 6th we ain't getting home court advantage. Would rather not play the Rockets just because I hate them. This season is headed to a really bad place.

Is this really a surprise to anybody? Let's see... when you have Niang playing 15 mpg, Conley playing 28 mpg, Ingles playing 30 mpg, and Bogey playing 33 mpg... that's a whole lot of minutes going toward turnstiles on defense. None of these dudes are athletic enough to guard wing players. O'Neale is an average defender, yet we extended him.

At what point do we really start to question DL and company in evaluating talent and putting together rosters. They lucked into getting Gobert and Mitchell and are SQUANDERING away this golden opportunity while having Donovan on a rookie deal. Did they honestly think we'd be able to defend at a high level with Conley, Ingles, and Bogey as starters? It really makes me question their competence.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

May as well sticky this post or even make it the main page of JFC. It’d be nice if everyone had to read it before clicking to advance to the forums.

In all the years we’ve been with DL and Q, there’s never been such a clear batch of evidence of their limitations. The only hope I can see from an organizational standpoint is that Zanik might be able to change the culture in some important respects (quicker pivoting, improved analytics); and maybe Q didn’t burn up too much of his wick in the past couple of years (hello amphetamenes), and gets a good second wind/inspiration.

They’re also going to need to get another big boost of internal improvement from Gobert (just flat-out need more individually created offense from him in order to diversify our weaponry and stave off the repetitive looks we give) and Mitchell (probably at the PG, with greater efficiency) plus hope like hell that they can rebound from this Conley debacle.

And ****ing please stop trading for guards like we have. Sheesh.

One random thing I find irritating that Rudy and the team can improve on is he ducks in and gets good position on a smaller guy... he can't hold that forever and sometimes struggles to hold it at all, but they rarely throw it to him at all. I'd love for them to try it a few times when teams switch say Austin Rivers sized guys on him. If he's able to make the catch its two free throws or a dunk (usually).

They hardly ever throw it... it likely results in some turnovers, but we turn the ball over doing less stupid stuff than that... why not throw the big guy a bone. Instead he sits there for a few seconds before they kind of wave him out and go about their day. He needs to be stronger going to the ball and holding the guy off, but if we throw that pass when it is supposed to be throw it should work.

I can't see us pivoting away from Mike because we make every move 12 months after we should... but he's not as good as JC as a bench scoring spark plug... and he's not the floor general that opens up stuff for other guys. He's a sometimes creator and solid spot up shooter that is a defensive liability.

Its crazy because its Mike "effing" Conley, but its very possible a guy like Joe Ingles is a much better compliment to DM in the backcourt. Even just a straight up 3 and D type of wing might be better... though I don't think you want to go too crazy with the usage you give DM. Right now it is so much your turn my turn and I don't feel like the team is really connected at all.

 

[Jazzmix]

Is this really a surprise to anybody? Let's see... when you have Niang playing 15 mpg, Conley playing 28 mpg, Ingles playing 30 mpg, and Bogey playing 33 mpg... that's a whole lot of minutes going toward turnstiles on defense. None of these dudes are athletic enough to guard wing players. O'Neale is an average defender, yet we extended him.

At what point do we really start to question DL and company in evaluating talent and putting together rosters. They lucked into getting Gobert and Mitchell and are SQUANDERING away this golden opportunity while having Donovan on a rookie deal. Did they honestly think we'd be able to defend at a high level with Conley, Ingles, and Bogey as starters? It really makes me question their competence.

Royce is a very good defender, but asked to do too much at times because he lacks size to be a 4. He hasn't been playing well recently but it happens even to the best. And why shouldn't we extend him? You would prefer to lose him in free agency?

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Is this really a surprise to anybody? Let's see... when you have Niang playing 15 mpg, Conley playing 28 mpg, Ingles playing 30 mpg, and Bogey playing 33 mpg... that's a whole lot of minutes going toward turnstiles on defense. None of these dudes are athletic enough to guard wing players. O'Neale is an average defender, yet we extended him.

At what point do we really start to question DL and company in evaluating talent and putting together rosters. They lucked into getting Gobert and Mitchell and are SQUANDERING away this golden opportunity while having Donovan on a rookie deal. Did they honestly think we'd be able to defend at a high level with Conley, Ingles, and Bogey as starters? It really makes me question their competence.

I've questioned them a lot... and get a lot of "lol the internet couch GM knows better than tha god DL"

Let's just start with the drafting of TB. In a league that was clearly going positionless you could draft a backcourt guy or wing that could get playing time at 2-3 positions if they are okay. We drafted a vanilla *** center that had no positional flexibility... and at the time it was the only position where we had the clear current and future answer. Hart, White would have been huge, but even if you took Semi who hasn't been good it is acceptable imo… because the line of thinking was correct. But we went Bradley... didn't even get the best vanilla center in that draft range.

To be a contender you have to nail a lot of moves... we've nailed some... we've punted a lot... and we've had some ****ing whiffs. I think DL is kind of like a baseball player that swings when he's behind in the count because he watch a couple strikes come down the pipe... now he has to "protect" and swing at bad stuff rather than making the pitcher come to him or swinging at the perfectly good pitches he had earlier.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Royce is a very good defender, but asked to do too much at times because he lacks size to be a 4. He hasn't been playing well recently but it happens even to the best. And why shouldn't we extend him? You would prefer to lose him in free agency?

He's not been very good lately, but he has generally been excellent. I really think dude may be nicked up. Maybe he's a bit fatigued... hasn't seemed like himself lately. Extending him was the right thing to do... taking him out of the starting lineup was the dumb thing to do.

 

[LogGrad98]

We are when we are because of the jazz FO motto for the past 8 years or so... Play it safe. TB was the safe pick. Even the trades for Mitchell and Gobert were really luck more than anything else because packaging minor assets to move up 2-5 spots is hardly a bold move. Conley was the safe move as it was obvious he was on the outs, so easily attainable, yet most everyone questioned the wisdom of the move. But it was a safe move. The g league guys are the epitome of safe and cheap.

But by playing it safe they get what they want, a mostly competitive team (that won't make a splash) at a reasonable price, yet maintain ticket and merch sales. Money ball, but without the brilliant analytics.

Think about where we would be if even just one of Mitchell or Gobert hadn't panned out. Or neither. Ouch.

 

[infection]

I think DL is kind of like a baseball player that swings when he's behind in the count because he watch a couple strikes come down the pipe... now he has to "protect" and swing at bad stuff rather than making the pitcher come to him or swinging at the perfectly good pitches he had earlier.

Probably the best analogy. Of course the “lol couch GM”ers could look at each pitch in a vacuum and say “well he had to swing because _____” or “he didn’t need to swing at that pitch,” etc. but nobody cares about the context.

 

[LogGrad98]

Really we would be better off at the 6 or 7. I think we match up better with the nuggs or clips than we do the ****ets. Better chance to get out of the 1st round if we can avoid the ****ets.