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All Aboard The Official 2022-23 Championship Tank Thread

I'm an old fart at this point. I've been a Jazz fan for almost 30 years now. Looking at it realistically, it's been a good, and more importantly fun, ride. Sure, there was heartbreak along the way. Sure, if you're from the zoomer generation and shout "Rangzzzz!" to end any basketball-related discussion, you might say it's been disappointing overall because there was no championship.
I second all of this. Well put!
 
I've held out for a long time. But I think it is time for a stance change.

There are 20 games left in the season, Jazz are a .500 team with a positive differential, and they are very entertaining. Two games back of the four seed, and the middle of the West is a mess. Let the Jazz get in on the fun, I see nothing from these other teams that makes me think the Jazz aren't as good. I can't be against winning on the home stretch, when good playoff positioning is right there to fight for.

I know most 'tankers' would say that has been their outlook all season. But I kept hope alive for really good lotto odds longer than most. That is dead now, and it's going to take a ton of luck no matter what. I would much rather keep pushing the TWolves down, and see what this Jazz team can do in the stretch run.

Been enjoying the league a lot since the ASB. I think we're in a for a great last couple months. And I'll be rooting for my team to emerge from the muck of those Western standings. Will be fun to have rooting interest in almost every game in the West. I want all of those middle teams to play their best, and get ahead of the Wolves. Should the Jazz falter, I want to quickly drop a handful of spots.

Good lotto odds dream is dead. Let's have some fun, and keep the Wolves down. Those are the lotto balls I am praying to now.
Playing 10D Chess
 
The Jazz have a long road trip coming up where we are bad on the road and still banged up. The competition isn't great, so every game will still be winnable, but also loseable. Going to be interesting, probably a lot more awful basketball ahead of us.
 
The Jazz have a long road trip coming up where we are bad on the road and still banged up. The competition isn't great, so every game will still be winnable, but also loseable. Going to be interesting, probably a lot more awful basketball ahead of us.
jazz are 11-19 on the road (20-13 at home) and banged up and some of those road wins came when we had Conley, Beasely, Vando, and NAW. Im think we wont be winning much of these road games even though the teams we play aren't great.

Speaking of home vs road. Holy crap the warriors are crazy different. At home they are 25-7. Right near the best home team in the league. On the road they are 7-23. Basically the same as the pistons and spurs.
 
jazz are 11-19 on the road (20-13 at home) and banged up and some of those road wins came when we had Conley, Beasely, Vando, and NAW. Im think we wont be winning much of these road games even though the teams we play aren't great.

Speaking of home vs road. Holy crap the warriors are crazy different. At home they are 25-7. Right near the best home team in the league. On the road they are 7-23. Basically the same as the pistons and spurs.
Well if they can get home court in any way they can win all the home games and end up champions. But at the rate they are going they won't have home court in any round at all. Does not bode well really. I mean, with Steph you just never can count them out, but still the evidence this year isn't good.
 
I'm an old fart at this point. I've been a Jazz fan for almost 30 years now. Looking at it realistically, it's been a good, and more importantly fun, ride. Sure, there was heartbreak along the way. Sure, if you're from the zoomer generation and shout "Rangzzzz!" to end any basketball-related discussion, you might say it's been disappointing overall because there was no championship.

I have no complaints, though. I do hope the Jazz win the championship before I die, but it's not the be all and end all. Some of you are older than me so you'll appreciate the little table below. I was born a few months before the 83-84 season started. The current season is the 40th season since. These are the Jazz records over those years. I've pro-rated all the shortened seasons and I've prorated the current one assuming that the Jazz stay at .500.

The Jazz have won fewer than 41 games only five times and fewer than 38 only twice. That's pretty freaking amazing. Only two seasons in 40 years you could say were objectively and horrifyingly abject. And I gotta confess, those two are the seasons where I watched the least Jazz basketball. One of them led to Willy and the other to DedEx so it's kinda 50/50 as to whether the horrible stuff was even worth it.

What was worth it was that the Jazz provided something to cheer for in 38 out of the last 40 seasons. 38 out of the last 40 years, there was something to play for and something to hope for in March. That's pretty special, I'd say. In a league where only a dozen teams have won it all since I became a Jazz fan, that's not bad. I get the appeal of hoping for a generational star you can build a dynasty around through tanking, but that's happened how many times?

Once again, a Jazz team supposed to win about 20 games has far exceeded those expectations. The team is having fun, Lauri is balling, rookies are showing more promise than I thought they would, and there is a veritable treasure trove of picks. How could this season possibly not be a success?

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Insane to think in all that time we have had exactly 5 losing seasons. Unreal.
 
The Jazz are playing with house money at this point. Somehow, they are in a position to make the playoffs while having gutted the team for future value. I was all for doing the Tankiest Tank to ever Tank (talking Char 1b type of job here), but Utah has some high value pieces in position and rolling. At this point, I'm good with using some of the future assets to build around Ochai, Lauri, and Kessler. If we make the playoffs? Sweet, more experience for them. If not, better lottery odds. A downside fails to occur to me here.
 
The Jazz are playing with house money at this point. Somehow, they are in a position to make the playoffs while having gutted the team for future value. I was all for doing the Tankiest Tank to ever Tank (talking Char 1b type of job here), but Utah has some high value pieces in position and rolling. At this point, I'm good with using some of the future assets to build around Ochai, Lauri, and Kessler. If we make the playoffs? Sweet, more experience for them. If not, better lottery odds. A downside fails to occur to me here.
true but there is minimal incentive for this front office to claim any benefit to the playoffs, when they cannot even put a good product on the floor as many rotation players are not in the future plans. Example is the turnstyle of guards filling in for the still injured Sexton.
I was good with seeing what they had and if they win so be it, but they cannot do that without seeing a longer stretch of games with a fully healthy core.
I don't think they are making the playoffs now or even trying to do so, barring some fast recovery from Sexton and some rooks being ahead of the curve
 
Funny to look at the standings and see us within 1.5 games of:

Mavs - desperate win now Kyrie move
Warriors - defending champs deep in tax
Wolves - sell the farm to go All-in
Lakers - All-in with 2 superstars
Hawks - win now DJM trade
Raptors - minor win now move on the DL
Bulls - win now moves for past 2 years

Meanwhile we have invested nothing into this season and have basically just piled picks, cleared cap and trimmed roster for the future.
 
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