Does anyone still like this team?

[Sean]

Utah is lost because they don't have a leader - and no, I don't mean a player leader. That helps but there's a reason every team has a head coach and that's ultimately their job - lead the team and Utah doesn't have it. You can blame the roster but these issues are consistent and a reflection of their head coach. The blame falls entirely there and nothing is going to improve until he's gone.

Give this team to a half-decent coach and they're contending for a top-three seed. But Quin is a mess of a coach with zero understanding how to coach a team to a strong end result.

We saw this with that Denver series, then the Clippers series and now all season.

It's a shame we have one of the best players in the League with one of the most overrated coaches coaching him. But boy, at least he has that February Coach of the Month award!

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'm trying to think if falling into the play in and losing would be humiliating, or mercy. Either way, I'm positive they will find the most painful exit possible. This team is special, no doubt about it.

Just you wait… we got some **** ready… no idea what it is but it will be special. Like we lose in the play in after a huge lead and every player demands a trade in the post season presser and Quin thinks we should just “execute harder with more juice and flow”.

 

[KqWIN]

Just you wait… we got some **** ready… no idea what it is but it will be special. Like we lose in the play in after a huge lead and every player demands a trade in the post season presser and Quin thinks we should just “execute harder with more juice and flow”.

I could see us offering Eric Paschall the qualifying offer, him taking it, and then us using a pick we got from Quin trade to salary dump Paschall and we keep Doke instead. That would be very Jazz like.

 

[oneye]

I like a trade of Donovan for SGA + something from that OKC pick warchest.

Sending Donovan to OKC would just be rude though.

This isn’t a conversation worth having. Management would never have the stomach to move Donovan in the absence of a trade demand. That would go against the entire ethos of the franchise, which is letting fear of not being good get in the way of pursuing greatness.

Candidly, I just don’t believe the talk of “big bad things are gonna happen if we don’t win in the Playoffs.” I don’t think brass will trade Clarkson, Bogey, or Conley this offseason, let alone Rudy or Don. It’s just not how they’ve ever operated.

They will make a tiny incremental change like moving Royce and will justify keeping this roster largely together until it organically falls apart and we are left with nothing. They will sell this small change as the panacea for all problems, some Jazz fans will buy it, and we’ll wash, rinse, repeat this approach until Don demands a trade and we are in an endless, assetless “rebuild,” which is a polite way of saying a multi-year free fall.

And we’ll be wearing that godawful bumblebee color scheme all the while (side note: at the Clips game a few weeks ago my wife asked me why everything in the arena was black and yellow. I explained the rebrand. She thought the new color scheme was awful).

Just watch this all unfold.

From national reports, don’t expect what you’re explaining here to be how Ainge approaches a group that he has no attachment to in any way. He will try to clean up this mess in what he wants it to look like.

 

[oneye]

Nah, there is going to be a big change next year. At least one of Mike/Rudy/Bogey will be moved. I'm 99% sure it's going to be Gobert unless they make the Conference Finals this year.

I think Ryan Smith's main goals are: be a playoff team, don't pay the LT for years on years, and keep Mitchell in Utah. So the obvious move is trade Gobert. It will make Mitchell happier in some aspects because he won't have to deal with Gobert anymore (tho long term he and Gobert are going to look back on this time period and be sad they didn't put more effort into making their relationship more positive).

The wild card is if someone swoops in with a Godfather type offer for Mitchell and Ainge is able to convince Smith that they can be better without Mitchell if they do the trade.

I see close to zero chance that Smith/Ainge blow it up and trade everyone.

There’s been several national reporters who have hinted at or said, don’t be surprised if Ainge trades Mitchell. I agree with you that it would have to be a God father offer, but I think you could get it, and I think you could definitely get a desperate FO like the Knicks to give you everything they’ve got for him. If you could bring several first round picks in and use them further trades it’s a path forward.

 

[Jingled]

This team could win all 6 of their remaining games by 20 points or more and I would still have zero confidence in them doing anything in the postseason.

 

[FrenchJazzFa]

Utah is lost because they don't have a leader - and no, I don't mean a player leader. That helps but there's a reason every team has a head coach and that's ultimately their job - lead the team and Utah doesn't have it. You can blame the roster but these issues are consistent and a reflection of their head coach. The blame falls entirely there and nothing is going to improve until he's gone.

Give this team to a half-decent coach and they're contending for a top-three seed. But Quin is a mess of a coach with zero understanding how to coach a team to a strong end result.

We saw this with that Denver series, then the Clippers series and now all season.

It's a shame we have one of the best players in the League with one of the most overrated coaches coaching him. But boy, at least he has that February Coach of the Month award!

Totally agree with that. We all know that Don and Clarkson have a tendency to play the team saviors when score remain close with little success.... a coach is here to put the right guys at the right time, set up the good system...and he is not good at all for that. Changing the coach may be enough to make this team great.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

It's funny how yall brag about this incredible offense but also push for going scorched earth.

It reminds me of that line in A Few Good Men - "if your soldiers follow orders or people die, then why would Santiago be in grave danger?"

If we are so good built around Rudy, why do we struggle when it matters most?






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Maybe because you have a coach that can't adjust?

How many times has this team blown double digit leads going into the 4th quarter? The lack of adjustments is mind-numbing. This team needs different options in the clutch. Quin seems to think hero chucking is the answer.

I think a coaching change and keeping the core is the best first step.

Don't forget how bad Quin's defense was before Rudy came along. And the offense wasn't great either. I still think you can have a dominant team with Rudy.

 

[LoPo]

Maybe because you have a coach that can't adjust?

How many times has this team blown double digit leads going into the 4th quarter? The lack of adjustments is mind-numbing. This team needs different options in the clutch. Quin seems to think hero chucking is the answer.

I think a coaching change and keeping the core is the best first step.

Don't forget how bad Quin's defense was before Rudy came along. And the offense wasn't great either. I still think you can have a dominant team with Rudy.

I agree. Our main issue is coaching. Followed by a front office that hasn't addressed perimeter defense at all.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

I agree. Our main issue is coaching. Followed by a front office that hasn't addressed perimeter defense at all.

I also believe that a team needs a more active off-ball offense that wears down your opponent. Quin's sets generally let defenders (especially offball defenders) stand and recover for their offense. Making your opponent work on both ends, especially when you prepare and execute this all year, will pay dividends in a drawn out series. Instead, as we have seen, our opponents tend to recover from the rest we provide them, and Quin's lack of adjustments, to beat the Jazz in comeback fashion.

I agree with the front offense comment, but I also believe what we have could work if you create a true defensive mindset, and run defensive sets that funnel to the baseline and not to Rudy.

I love Popovich, and the Spurs, while lacking talent, are a cohesive unit, that run an offense and defense that works. I don't see Quin as a product of the Pop system. He coached a D League affiliate. Almost akin to saying Ryan Smith is part of the LHM tree because he played Junior Jazz.

I am a long-time Jazz fan, and will always love the Jazz, but I dread watching this group.

 

[LogGrad98]

This team could win all 6 of their remaining games by 20 points or more and I would still have zero confidence in them doing anything in the postseason.

If this season has proven one thing, it is that a 20 point lead for this iteration of the Jazz is equivalent to a tie game. Hell a 25 point lead cannot be maintained. Even a moderately effective coach and players that give half a **** would figure out how to hold onto at least a slim lead and win that game. But we have shown that we will do nothing but lay down and show our belly in the face of any kind of adversity. We have no guts, no heart. No one seems to care. Mitchell wants everyone to know he is the man. Gobert wants everyone to know he is the only one playing defense. No one is talking team, or what we do to rally, or how we get on track as a group. Not even Quin. No one has any answers either. The platitudes in the post-games have worn threadbare. Saying "I have to do better" is tantamount to saying "I don't have any idea what to do differently, I just have to work harder".

It makes me think of the tv show of the Flash. Every single problem they encounter, the answer is always, and I mean ALWAYS, "you have to run faster Barry". If only he can be a little faster he will solve all their problems. Until the new problem comes along and now guess what? He has to run even faster! Of course this isn't TV, but this is essentially everything anyone is saying. We just have to run faster.

Zero strategy, zero tactics in the moment. Just run faster. Do better. Be better.

But obviously no one knows what that really means.

It's like this...



All of our guys are the "with honors" guy. And they also have no ****ing clue what they are doing.

 

[LogGrad98]

What happened to the days of the cerebral Mitchell, who voraciously devoured game-tape and made adjustments to his game on the fly? He was kind of amazing for that fact, we saw him grow in front of our eyes his first few years in the league this way. Now it seems like he figures he has it all down and doesn't need to watch the film or learn anything new, just run faster Barry! Run faster!! I think if he were still watching the tape he would start doing some things differently. But every single game is a repeat of the crappy game before. No adjustment, no new moves, no new way to look at the end of game situations. Just keep beating your head on that wall, eventually the wall will move, right?