David Locke - Utah Jazz are NOT tanking

[ONE LOVE]

Posted this in the tank thread but feel it deserves its own thread. Video below. He is responding to Andy Larsen's article that the Jazz had started tanking.

Locke's reasoning for why he believes we're NOT taking starts at 13 min. mark.


View: https://youtu.be/Jg5KWsxzCM0


Thoughts?

I just keep rolling my eyes back and back and back.. and they did a full 180.

His reasoning for why we're NOT tanking were:

- that the Org's message had always been that we're not tanking

- we needed to play Dok and Juzang to see what they've got going forward

Here's my question:

Would a team hunting for playoffs spot and guaranteed seeding trade away Conley, Vando and Beasely just as we enter the playoff race?

Do we see any other teams chasing playoff spot in the League trade away 3 starters at the trade deadline?

And we ended up playing the likes of Juzang 15 minutes last night?

C'mon now..

I watch Locke sometimes for ***** and giggles and some small nuggets of insight, but this was just too much for me to handle to be honest witchu.

 

[infection]

Posted this in the tank thread but feel it deserves its own thread. Video below. He is responding to Andy Larsen's article that the Jazz had started tanking.

Locke's reasoning for why he believes we're NOT taking starts at 13 min. mark.


View: https://youtu.be/Jg5KWsxzCM0


Thoughts?

I just keep rolling my eyes back and back and back.. and they did a full 180.

His reasoning for why we're NOT tanking were:

- that the Org's message had always been that we're not tanking

- we needed to play Dok and Juzang to see what they've got going forward

Here's my question:

Would a team hunting for playoffs spot and guaranteed seeding trade away Conley, Vando and Beasely just as we enter the playoff race?

Do we see any other teams chasing playoff spot in the League trade away 3 starters at the trade deadline?

And we ended up playing the likes of Juzang 15 minutes last night?

C'mon now..

I watch Locke sometimes for ***** and giggles and some small nuggets of insight, but this was just too much for me to handle to be honest witchu.

I think there's a third option. I think it's truthful (to an extent) that they can say they're not tanking and shooting for the playoffs. They probably have fish's "everything is a win" approach. They'd like to see the team do well, but they're not putting anything into it to make the team do well, and they're not going to not make a move that's better in the long-run because it compromises this year. In that sense, they may have seen opportunity in the Lakers move and didn't see parlaying those guys into other long-term assets as being as feasible down the road. They may be in the camp of "if it happens, it happens." This way they can also truthfully answer questions pertaining to any side of this issue.

 

[Hearsky]

If Lockeheim says they aren't tanking, then they are CLEARLY tanking.

 

[vegas]

I think they are rebuilding. DA has rebuilt through young assets and draft capital. A tank is an effort to get as many high picks as possible and let them develop at all costs with blatant disregard to all other considerations.

I don't think DA is hyperfocused on winning or losing this year. I think he is focused on maximizing each opportunity to the end goal of a championship.

I think recent moves were what he saw as the best value he would get and it was the sell high moment. I also see an added benefit of increasing the value of our own pick.

Sent from my SM-G996U using JazzFanz mobile app

 

[ONE LOVE]

If Lockeheim says they aren't tanking, then they are CLEARLY tanking.

Ding ding ding!

 

[sojodave]

We'll know we're tanking when Laurie gets some mysterious reason he has to sit out a few weeks.

 

[Step-Back Hook]

Locke is right but his reasoning is wrong.
We just gutted the team enough so if some our starters will be out - winning is hard.
Then again if JC and Collin could be in most of these games for the rest of the season and we make it to the post-season - then fine. In that case the core is deserving it.
Starters are not intentionally sat in the bench for extended minutes. So no tanking.

The goal was clearly improve odds for the lottery ticket without an active tanking in game time decisions.

 

[Bawse Dawg]

Locke would not say or do anything that wasn't what the organization wanted him to say or do.

His job is to carry water for the franchise.

 

[fishonjazz]

A tank is an effort to get as many high picks as possible and let them develop at all costs with blatant disregard to all other considerations.

I just want to say that I dont think this has actually ever happened in the history of the nba.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

This is all semantics, but I agree with Locke.

If you are tanking you dont have Lauri in to end the game.

Winning isnt the top priority, neither is losing. The Jazz are somewhere in-between. If they wanted to truly tank, they would have traded JC and KO.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Locke would not say or do anything that wasn't what the organization wanted him to say or do.

His job is to carry water for the franchise.

I really dont think the franchise tells him what to say. Of course Locke is going to have a favorable opinion, but his spins are generally respectable and not blatant homerism.

 

[homeytennis]

I would say that Juzang was horrible last night. To not play Frank Jackson a second tells me what I need to know.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We just lost to the team that is playing the worst in the whole league. My experience in this market is Andy will tell it like it is... the "insiders" will tell you the message they want to disseminate. Andy will follow tea leaves like all of us... he is not an infallible oracle. Some of the stuff is Meh... but some definitely has some merit.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Also the idea from @andylarsen that it's tanking because Sexton played in the ASG skills challenge but isnt playing now is so dumb.

Hamstring injuries dont affect you if you arent playing at a high intensity level. The skills challenge is a walk through the park. That's why he was able to participate. If the challenge was a 40 yard dash, he would not be doing that.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I really dont think the franchise tells him what to say. Of course Locke is going to have a favorable opinion, but his spins are generally respectable and not blatant homerism.

Its not like they have some insider email chain where they share the message of the day. Locke knows and shares what FO folks and coaches tell him. There is not one FO or coach that is brazen enough to say... "we tanking the effs outta this B". Locke and Jones will tell you what they know from reputable sources... those sources don't always want the truth out there in its most base form.

We are experimenting with youth. Letting guys expand their game. Seeing what we have in player X and how they will respond to pressure situations. We need player X healthy going into the offseason... cuz you know if they had to sit an extra week or two in May it throws everything off...

Its all true... Its all coded though. The only guy that ever blatantly tanked and said he was tanking was Hinkie... and Sam ended up being replaced by the league basically... because he didn't disguise it at least a little.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Also the idea from @andylarsen that it's tanking because Sexton played in the ASG skills challenge but isnt playing now is so dumb.

Hamstring injuries dont affect you if you arent playing at a high intensity level. The skills challenge is a walk through the park. That's why he was able to participate. If the challenge was a 40 yard dash, he would not be doing that.

I agree... but it is a little funny that JC sits with a hand injury (they do suck) and Rudy Gay we are like "get you *** out there in the mid post and show these fans sumthin".

If we were tanking harder KO probably sits with various ankle injuries. I just think its funny that we declared the tank dead cuz we beat OKC and SA at home.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

Has anyone ever heard of a team that starts tanking after it stumbles on 3 new building blocks for the future, one of whom is a young All Star?

Me neither.

You'd think that would be the desired end result of a tank, not the starting point. But I guess Ainge is just built different.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Has anyone ever heard of a team that starts tanking after it stumbles on 3 new building blocks for the future, one of whom is a young All Star?

Me neither.

You'd think that would be the desired end result of a tank, not the starting point. But I guess Ainge is just built different.

You've heard of OKC right? Now to fit your very specific criteria there it obviously isn't perfect. Nothing would be.

But you can just use your eyes and brain here. Ever heard of a GM offloading 3 starter quality players for no returning players and draft assets when they were in the middle of a playoff race because the value of one protected first was just too much to pass up? Ainge has showed his hand.

 

[Korisfani]

Locke was mainly, at least in my mind, responding to Larsen on Hardy tanking. On which I think he was absolutely right.

Locke would not say or do anything that wasn't what the organization wanted him to say or do.

His job is to carry water for the franchise.

He freely admitted that the difference between him and Andy is that he's a team employee.

 

[ONE LOVE]

@han

He freely admitted that the difference between him and Andy is that he's a team employee.

LoL .. so? Isn’t that just agreeing to an indisputable fact?