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Whiteside Is Going to Be Good

Add Alex Len and Dwayne Dedmon to that list.

I will say that Whiteside is so big that he stands out a little from the rest of the group. I think if you search for what like 4-5 years for a good solution... why not... IDK just pay a little more for the known solution. I doubt he gets more than the minimum... he likely gets BAE at most... if that is what it takes then pay it... its a difference of $1m or so. Its totally worth investing that amount. Go ahead and sell off Udoka and replace his spot with a second round guy... BAM!!! you saved the money to keep him.
Gay was TPMLE, right? So we'll still have BAE? I think we've had it open for a couple years. How much is it these days, anyway? $4.5M?
 
Gay was TPMLE, right? So we'll still have BAE? I think we've had it open for a couple years. How much is it these days, anyway? $4.5M?
Its like 3.7M. I honestly don't think he gets more than the minimum.
 
And I posed this question in the game thread but will ask again here: if you entirely take the cost out of it, would anyone still prefer Favors to Whiteside?
No.
 
And I posed this question in the game thread but will ask again here: if you entirely take the cost out of it, would anyone still prefer Favors to Whiteside?
I'm a big Favors fan, but no. He has health issues and clearly can't be counted on to give a full off the bench contribution on any given night.

If you could tell me that Favors would be at full physical health, pain-free and full energy for at least 15min a game then yes, Favors. But that's just not who he is right now.
 
This is why we needed to evaluate what we needed from that spot a long time ago. I'm actually in the camp that we didn't have to evaluate that at all as it was painfully obvious. But we got lost on focusing on nostalgia, feel goods, and total overall talent rather than fit. We could have dodged all the nonsense by making Udoh a primary backup a long time ago and showing that you don't need high level talent, just very specific talent, to exceed in that role.

But what do I know?
Yup. I think Ekpe was the solution all along for our backup C.
 
Yup. I think Ekpe was the solution all along for our backup C.
Which is really tough because he could have filled that role for cheap and as good of a basketball player as he is... he is a much better person and locker room dude. Talk about value.
 
I'm a big Favors fan, but no. He has health issues and clearly can't be counted on to give a full off the bench contribution on any given night.

If you could tell me that Favors would be at full physical health, pain-free and full energy for at least 15min a game then yes, Favors. But that's just not who he is right now.
I can't believe we gave him full MLE for 3 years... wild.
 
I think Ekpe was pretty unique in that he was a legit, high level defensive C but his offense was not NBA level. I would have been fine with riding it out with him as the backup on a min.
 
Whitesides has been such a pleasant surprise, as has Paschall. I really think in attitude alone, these 2 change our competitive make-up out there on the floor come playoff time. It’s also nice to see Rudy Gay fully engaged and jumping up and down on the bench while cheering his teammates on. The dude is obviously very excited and fully engaged before he’s even been able to step on the court.

When these 3 players were added to the Jazz roster, I think Jazzfanz let out a collective “meh” as each one comes with some positives, but as a group doesn’t really do much to address the perimeter defense issues. I think this could be the classic scenario of a group being greater than the sum of its parts. Specifically with Hassan. I get so frustrated when the Jazz are unable to punish opponents down low when they go small. I think this year, we can finally see some of that.
 
There's a lot of Udoh love in here, but my recollection is that he was practically a toothpick, and there is no way he'd have been able to face front-line centers in the NBA, which means he would not have been able to play with our current rotation pattern.
 
There's a lot of Udoh love in here, but my recollection is that he was practically a toothpick, and there is no way he'd have been able to face front-line centers in the NBA, which means he would not have been able to play with our current rotation pattern.
6'10" and 245 lbs. What front-line centers would he be having trouble with? And, of those, how well did TB or Favors fare? Udoh's issue is that he's poor on offense and they can go 5-on-4, on top of bad rebounding. Other than that, he could handle 1-5 on switches, and he protected the rim better than anyone I've ever seen not named Rudy Gobert.
 
I hate to say it but I don't get the Epke love. Dude was an amazing human but he was absolutely unplayable during the playoffs... kind of like Niang. This current team is built more for the playoffs with guys like Whiteside and Gay.
 
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