Donovan’s last day as Jazzman

[kabenac]

Y’all love throwing this aside but it’s absolutely what is thought more widely around NBA circles. The NY thing is something everyone, it’s not nothing. And he is mounting excuses to say “I’m out” as soon as he can. Watch the last couple minutes of this convo from today with Jay Williams. Quotes towards the end “he just never seems happy in SLC” “it just sounds like to me he’s trying to go to NY” There’s a reason people are baffled by the current drama, because it’s ridiculous. They’re being extra cautious not telling him to go hurt himself.

I like J-Will and think he's a good basketball mind but I think he's overreacting here - especially without any source(s).

If it's an issue aside from frustration of wanting to play then nothing will cure this faster than winning the series - which will happen.

 

[oneye]

I like J-Will and think he's a good basketball mind but I think he's overreacting here - especially without any source(s).

If it's an issue aside from frustration of wanting to play then nothing will cure this faster than winning the series - which will happen.

You think he's over-reacting because its the best player on your team he's talking about.

 

[Getting Traded]

J-Will is merely expressing an opinion that it's better to be safe than sorry, as the saying goes. And perhaps the Medical Staff felt it better to err on the side of caution. But look at Chris Paul, LeBron, AD -- they're all injured and probably worse than Donovan, and they are playing. We don't really know why they decided to keep him out; they didn't give an explanation, and to me, that is the problem.

 

[Dbgii77]

This may be the dumbest post I have ever read on this site.

This is dumb, but have you read he-who-must-not-be-named say his team won because they won 3 quarters when the finals score shows the jazz won with a higher final score?


Sent from my iPhone using JazzFanz

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Raja Bell on The Ringer podcast: "Donovan's coming out and making it public. That doesn't have to be anything anyone has to know, even if you are frustrated like Donovan. If you really care about that organization and your relationship is really healthy.......It doesn't come out, even if you are upset and it got ****ed up, I think there's something there, I'm not sure how much, but it shouldn't get out."

Yeah, this is my main issue with Donovan. The past two public incidents (Rudy and now trainers) show Donovan is making huge power moves to gain control of the organization. I'm not a over-reactionary moron like oneye, so I don't think it's part of a master plan to force his way to NYC,.

All I think it is is simply Donovan has to control the narrative at every possible turn for his brand. The league has to know that he is being held out against his will and he isn't soft. "Oh the training staff called the injury minor to protect my medicals and do me a solid, but wait, what if people think Im soft because I've been out so long, better let everyone know it's actually not minor and I'm totally not soft at all."

Honestly I think Donovan knows Utah is going to win this series without him and that would crush his narrative of being the alpha/best player on the team and shift it to Rudy. There's no way in hell Donovan is going to let that happen, so he threw the medical team under the bus to pressure the organization to play him.

 

[Jazz Spazz]

Yeah, this is my main issue with Donovan. The past two public incidents (Rudy and now trainers) show Donovan is making huge power moves to gain control of the organization. I'm not a over-reactionary moron like oneye, so I don't think it's part of a master plan to force his way to NYC,.

All I think it is is simply Donovan has to control the narrative at every possible turn for his brand. The league has to know that he is being held out against his will and he isn't soft. "Oh the training staff called the injury minor to protect my medicals and do me a solid, but wait, what if people think Im soft because I've been out so long, better let everyone know it's actually not minor and I'm totally not soft at all."

Honestly I think Donovan knows Utah is going to win this series without him and that would crush his narrative of being the alpha/best player on the team and shift it to Rudy. There's no way in hell Donovan is going to let that happen, so he threw the medical team under the bus to pressure the organization to play him.

I don't always say this, but here it is.

Listen to Cy, not cyclops on this one.

Donovan is good at brand management and is active out there and uses social media and other means to get his message out there.

I don't think this is all about his brand though. I think DM is a competitive person and he really really wants to win. I think he felt he was well enough to play in the Playoffs because that's the whole reason they play the regular season is to get here. Now that it matters he wants out there even if he's not 100% yet. We all know usually the Jazz will be conservative in favor of stars health for the most part lately, at least that is my impression. I think DM wants to win so bad and he felt that if he was playing we would have won game 1. We really should have swept this series, but one loss is acceptable too, but losing the first one with home court really is frustrating.

My hope is that this loss lights a fire under the whole team and the come out and destroy for the next 4.

In the words of coach Yoast " Run it up Herman, leave no doubt"

 

[kabenac]

You think he's over-reacting because its the best player on your team he's talking about.

No... it's because he's making assumptions with zero sources. Do you think J-Will knows Mitchell and would know exactly what he's thinking? Did J-Will speak with Mitchell about this? lol

Some of the people on this board are so melodramatic because Bordomn Haywood screwed us over. Not every player is a POS like Haywood.

 

[Jazzbot]

No... it's because he's making assumptions with zero sources. Do you think J-Will knows Mitchell and would know exactly what he's thinking? Did J-Will speak with Mitchell about this? lol

Some of the people on this board are so melodramatic because Bordomn Haywood screwed us over. Not every player is a POS like Haywood.

Also, I think one eye misheard what was said there. The guy on the left of that video is Alan Kahn and he works for MSG Networks and is a huge Knicks fan. His entire shtick in that segment is “the Knicks are watching this closely” and saying he’s never happy in SLC. Yeah because he wants him on the Knicks, and the guy in the middle actually calls him out on what’s pretty obvious he’s trying to do. The guy in the middle says “it sounds like you’re trying to get him to go to New York” to the Alan Kahn guy, not it sounds like he wants to go there.

Yeah, this is my main issue with Donovan. The past two public incidents (Rudy and now trainers) show Donovan is making huge power moves to gain control of the organization. I'm not a over-reactionary moron like oneye, so I don't think it's part of a master plan to force his way to NYC,.

All I think it is is simply Donovan has to control the narrative at every possible turn for his brand. The league has to know that he is being held out against his will and he isn't soft. "Oh the training staff called the injury minor to protect my medicals and do me a solid, but wait, what if people think Im soft because I've been out so long, better let everyone know it's actually not minor and I'm totally not soft at all."

Honestly I think Donovan knows Utah is going to win this series without him and that would crush his narrative of being the alpha/best player on the team and shift it to Rudy. There's no way in hell Donovan is going to let that happen, so he threw the medical team under the bus to pressure the organization to play him.

I think this is pretty much correct, I actually think it’s Donovan simply trying to gain a lot of power over the organization. Tony mentioned this on the radio yesterday essentially saying he thinks the Jazz are somewhat uncomfortable and haven’t had a star like Donovan and they need to adjust to that and get used to it. The only reporter who actually knows anything making a huge deal about it is Windhorst. Tim McMahon wrote the original article with him and has said “this is a totally salvageable situation” and when Spence asked him if Kawhi comparisons were a little aggressive McMahon said “First off they’re extremely aggressive and this is the polar opposite situation, and it’s a drastic over-reaction to think things are crumbling over this disagreement”.

The place I think one eye is kind of right is, Donovan is a bit of a diva, and the organization is learning he is not an “in house” kind of guy and more of a “keep my happy or I’ll publicly air my issues” kind of guy. I don’t love that but it does seem like that’s what it’s going to be.

 

[fallenchicken]

It was a really stupid thing the medical staff/organization did holding out donovan. Sometimes the jazz org does really stupid, bizarre things and of course it blows up in their face. They are always just getting a little too cute. I was hoping that would change with the new owner. If we lost this series, the fallout from this would be catastrophic. I don't know how you'd keep the team together tbh. Trades would be made, probably not Donovan but i could see it leading to his eventual trade in a couple seasons. I really think it would be that bad...

That being said, everyone really needs to calm down. Because we are not going to lose this series. We're going to win it in 6 and everything will be fine. We could have won it in 4, I really believe we would have swept them, but now it'll be 6 and it won't be the end of the world.

And we're going to beat the Mavs, or the clippers, too.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

Random fact, I know the girl in this photo.

KNOW as in the biblical sense?

 

[LogGrad98]

Yeah, this is my main issue with Donovan. The past two public incidents (Rudy and now trainers) show Donovan is making huge power moves to gain control of the organization. I'm not a over-reactionary moron like oneye, so I don't think it's part of a master plan to force his way to NYC,.

All I think it is is simply Donovan has to control the narrative at every possible turn for his brand. The league has to know that he is being held out against his will and he isn't soft. "Oh the training staff called the injury minor to protect my medicals and do me a solid, but wait, what if people think Im soft because I've been out so long, better let everyone know it's actually not minor and I'm totally not soft at all."

Honestly I think Donovan knows Utah is going to win this series without him and that would crush his narrative of being the alpha/best player on the team and shift it to Rudy. There's no way in hell Donovan is going to let that happen, so he threw the medical team under the bus to pressure the organization to play him.

Everyone has these ideas there is some conspiracy afoot whether to force his way to NY or to stage a coup gangland-style. I think that's all ********. I think he's a kid, reacting as a kid would when he didn't get something he wanted. He vented, and frankly it was kind of a light vent at that. There is no grand power-play, there is no conspiracy to force a move to NY. There is a player who chose to use his own team to rehab, the Jazz medical team gave them the benefit of the doubt when they said he was ready to go before practices, so they removed him from the injured list. Then when he showed some signs that concerned the Jazz's own medical staff, they scratched him trying to protect their $200 million investment. They didn't handle it well so it pissed everyone off, and rightfully so, so Donovan vented then made it clear he wanted to play no matter what and the Jazz realized they screwed the pooch on the whole thing so they relented and said he is playing tonight.

That's it.

Now the jazz org needs to do some damage control and, at least behind the scenes, iron **** out. And we can only hope they do this, since they refuse to ever provide any public info, instead for some reason preferring to let the cess pool of the internet fester rather than release a 3-sentence statement that could literally clean it all up. Yes they are dumb as **** when it comes to communication, apparently both internally and externally.

Either way Donovan plays tonight and we find out, if he's fine and does well then his medical team was likely right, and if he aggravates the ankle causing more missed time then the Jazz medical team was right.

Either way he's here under contract and not trying to force his way out and not trying to stage a coup. He just wants to play. And he's a kid so he sometimes does stupid **** on social media as everyone does. Social media is the great idiot equalizer. Makes everyone look stupid at one point or another.

 

[Jazzbot]

Everyone has these ideas there is some conspiracy afoot whether to force his way to NY or to stage a coup gangland-style. I think that's all ********. I think he's a kid, reacting as a kid would when he didn't get something he wanted. He vented, and frankly it was kind of a light vent at that. There is no grand power-play, there is no conspiracy to force a move to NY. There is a player who chose to use his own team to rehab, the Jazz medical team gave them the benefit of the doubt when they said he was ready to go before practices, so they removed him from the injured list. Then when he showed some signs that concerned the Jazz's own medical staff, they scratched him trying to protect their $200 million investment. They didn't handle it well so it pissed everyone off, and rightfully so, so Donovan vented then made it clear he wanted to play no matter what and the Jazz realized they screwed the pooch on the whole thing so they relented and said he is playing tonight.

That's it.

Now the jazz org needs to do some damage control and, at least behind the scenes, iron **** out. And we can only hope they do this, since they refuse to ever provide any public info, instead for some reason preferring to let the cess pool of the internet fester rather than release a 3-sentence statement that could literally clean it all up. Yes they are dumb as **** when it comes to communication, apparently both internally and externally.

Either way Donovan plays tonight and we find out, if he's fine and does well then his medical team was likely right, and if he aggravates the ankle causing more missed time then the Jazz medical team was right.

Either way he's here under contract and not trying to force his way out and not trying to stage a coup. He just wants to play. And he's a kid so he sometimes does stupid **** on social media as everyone does. Social media is the great idiot equalizer. Makes everyone look stupid at one point or another.

I think everyone's main issue with Donovan's periodic drama is mainly how public he makes it. I think in most the instances Donovan has been upset, we can all understand why he would be upset, I just think a lot of the drama could be avoided if he simply went to the front office and told them how upset he was instead of telling ESPN how upset he is. I can assure you Ryan Smith has an open ear and phone line for Donovan to voice concerns he has. I hope he can mature into that and handling himself better in tense situations or when he's upset.

As for how the Jazz handle things, I get we would like them to comment, but the Rudy/Donovan stuff ended up being worked through internally. Had they came out and said something it could have offended both of them. If you say something here you could offend Donovan or your entire medical staff. You don't need either, especially right now. You can't publicly comment every time a player has an issue. It's why it would be much more beneficial to everyone if Donovan pitched his fits internally instead of running to the media and causing the problem to get worse. This didn't have to happen, both from a staff perspective and a Donovan perspective. I would be more concerned of it being long lasting if the Jazz staff were pushing him out there when he didn't want to go like the Kawhi stuff. But they were literally trying to protect him, obviously to a fault almost. The Jazz staff want to win the game, they want Donovan to play, they just want him to be okay short and long term as well.

As an FYI, Joe was asked about Donovan not playing game 1 today after shoot-around and his quote was "It was a bit of a surprise, but I wasn't going to question the medical staff's decision".

I tend to agree this isn't a big deal at all really. Give Donovan a huge welcome back at introductions for anyone going to the game tonight everyone!!!