What's new
By:

What's the point of keeping Lauri anymore?

While Lauri might already be top 20 player in the league, having one top 20 player is NEVER gonna make you the #1 team. And it doesnt matter if you add 10 guys who are top 100 but outside of the top 20 into the mix, you will not be a contender still. You are gonna end up using your assets and cap space for a team that is good but not good enough.

The goal for the FO, for Hardy, for the team AND FOR LAURI, is to win a championship. To have even the slightest chance to do that, we need to either get another guy who is AT LEAST as good as Lauri. ONLY guy who has been traded since the start of 2022-23 season who is on that level is Dame really. And arguing we should have gone for him in hindsight would be silly as he and his new team are not looking great.

Until "that guy" becomes available, we can do nothing better than to walk the line between developing our own players and adding prospects while taking care of our assets and cap space. I think the FO is actually taking a risk FOR LAURI, by staying in the middle and not bottoming out. They are making sure we are in position to make a jump without wasting time building up.
 
HermanG said:
The goal for the FO, for Hardy, for the team AND FOR LAURI, is to win a championship.
Click to expand...
To my knowledge, and I don't think I've missed many interviews from him, Lauri has never stated that. Or even talked about winning a championship. What he has actually said, in numerous interviews, is wanting to make the playoffs and compete in them. That was Lauri's goal for this season as well.

Sure, he'd like to win a championship, every single player in the league does. But all of Lauri's statements have been far, far away from this "win or bust" mentality.
 
"Classic Adages of the NBA", #4838:

The best way to keep your cushy front office job in a rebuilding, losing franchise is to push success-related goals so far into the future that they lose all tangible connections with the present.

This is also the way all moves, failures and aborted projects can be explained away as integral parts of a plan too complicated for simple-minded, win-hungry fans to understand. Usually this part is handled by the armchair GM's of the fanbase who want to feel that they're on another level of understanding strategy.
 
Last edited:
Tanktastic said:
To my knowledge, and I don't think I've missed many interviews from him, Lauri has never stated that. Or even talked about winning a championship. What he has actually said, in numerous interviews, is wanting to make the playoffs and compete in them. That was Lauri's goal for this season as well.

Sure, he'd like to win a championship, every single player in the league does. But all of Lauri's statements have been far, far away from this "win or bust" mentality.
Click to expand...
What you say here has two major issues.
  1. If Lauri's goal wasnt to win a championship but just to get to the playoffs, should the Jazz as an organisation cater to his goal over their own? Of course not. They want to keep Lauri because they try to build a championship team and believe he is a core piece... which leads me to the next point
  2. Lauri said this to Sam Amick when we were at the bottom this season and he was in the trade rumors: "I look at that as a compliment to you that teams are interested in you and it’s a credit to what you’ve done in the past and how you work...I’ve kind of learned to just go day by day and really put the work in and try to play to the best of my abilities and whatever happens happens, really. Like I said, I love being in Utah and it’s a compliment of what you’ve done in the past (that teams have interest). We’ll see. But yeah, I just want to emphasize that I really believe in what we’re building here with the Jazz. Go day by day. Do your best. That’s all you can do."
So if Lauri WANTS TO EMPHASIZE that he "believes in what we're building here with the Jazz", then doesnt that suggest he knows what the organisation is trying to do here? And also that he knows they are building and not there yet.
 
Tanktastic said:
I said nothing of the kind. I was responding to you saying that playing Hendricks, Sensa and (more) Keyonte, raises the ceiling vs. the guys we traded. It doesn't. It lowers it, a lot.

I get it. Everyone is going through the stages of grief and most haven't got past the "bargaining" phase. But let's not kid ourselves. Playing Hendricks instead of KO doesn't raise the ceiling. That's just silly.


The Mavs traded for Kyrie Irving at the deadline. That's the exact opposite of trying to tank, that's going all-in.
Click to expand...
They did get Kyrie, but when the question was try for the playin or tank the end of the season and retain the draft pick, they tanked.
 
Tanktastic said:
What he has actually said, in numerous interviews, is wanting to make the playoffs and compete in them.
Click to expand...
Thats cool. We were a 10 seed before the trade, we are still a 10 seed, and now have 10 straight winnable games in a row coming up. I guess he is probably super stoked then.
 
Okay, I'm sorry I opened a thread like this, it was trade deadline frustration,partly. But as the article suggesting I posted in another thread, about rest of the season plans... This approach last Feb. and now, holds also threats - players under contracts might grow tired of breaking a good thing going, and it might make incoming players wonder if and when the Jazz fo actually gonna let them cook. Or will they all just end up to some Charlotte or Detroit for assets. 2025 still has a good chance to be a third season like exactly this, and at some point it might become too taxing mentally.
 
Step-Back Lauri said:
Okay, I'm sorry I opened a thread like this, it was trade deadline frustration,partly. But as the article suggesting I posted in another thread, about rest of the season plans... This approach last Feb. and now, holds also threats - players under contracts might grow tired of breaking a good thing going, and it might make incoming players wonder if and when the Jazz fo actually gonna let them cook. Or will they all just end up to some Charlotte or Detroit for assets. 2025 still has a good chance to be a third season like exactly this, and at some point it might become too taxing mentally.
Click to expand...
We all get frustrated at times. I was frustrated last February, especially as we improved Minnesota who'se draft we own. Later I realized that helping the Lakers and Wolves hurt the Mavs (in addition to helping us get a higher pick and add talent), so it was actually not that bad. Mavs are nearing the end of their rope and if they are a 1st round exit or miss the playoffs entirely, it could be that the 4D chess worked.

I still dont like that LA trade... but mainly because I just dont like the value of it especialy with the protection. I feel like DA could have negotiated a better deal for those guys. This time around we did a lot better, and got very good value for two 20 mpg backups and one guy who was breaking out in a contract year. With guys like that, there is always a risk they get paid more than they deserve as someone is willing to gamble with them. Now that risk belongs to Detroit, who were likely gonna offer him a bag anyways in the offseason, which we would have had to match.

Time will tell if we did the right thing in giving up on Ochai and Simone, but I'm pretty confident they wont turn into some star level players, so what we gave up was two perennial role players.
 
HermanG said:
  1. If Lauri's goal wasnt to win a championship but just to get to the playoffs, should the Jazz as an organisation cater to his goal over their own? Of course not.
Click to expand...
No-one has suggested that.

But you were putting some words in his mouth, when it's clear that is not his view.

Lauri (and all players on the roster) have some goals overlap with the FO's goals. And some that don't. If the FO is working towards something quite different than what the player is, then it might become a problem.
 
Tanktastic said:
No-one has suggested that.

But you were putting some words in his mouth, when it's clear that is not his view.

Lauri (and all players on the roster) have some goals overlap with the FO's goals. And some that don't. If the FO is working towards something quite different than what the player is, then it might become a problem.
Click to expand...
You are putting thoughts in his head and that is your whole argument here. You say he might become unhappy now because his goals for this season were not catered to.

My whole argument is based on Lauri being extremely happy to be living and playing in Utah, which he has repeated so many times I've lost count.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top