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Are the Jazz Not Bad?

jazznik said:
For the Jazz to finish in the bottom-5 they need to be consistently losing to Detroit, Portland, San Antonio, Toronto and Charlotte because these are the teams can push the Jazz out of the top 5 and each win over one of those teams is +2 in the head-to-head results. And the Jazz need to start losing early in the season because later several of those teams will be tanking like there is no tomorrow ( like the Raptors did last season).

Unfortunately, the Jazz does not get to play many bad teams until the mid-December so it would be hard to gauge the record of Utah. The key dates are Oct 31 (vs SAS), Nov 4 (at Chicago), Nov 9 (at SAS) and Nov 21 (at SAS). If they play right in the beginning of the season the Jazz could at least ensure that the Spurs finish above them.
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I really don’t see that happening. Jazz management will be walking that fine line again between keeping butts in seats and not letting our pick convey. Our MO is playing hard and competing until the trade deadline and then Ainge selling a few more vets and then limping across the finish line.

An argument could be made that this is the deepest team we’ve ever had. Man have we got some three point shooting this year. Second youngest team in the league if # of players under 21 is your rubric. One way or another, it’s a fun team to watch and I’ll be watching and rooting for them.
 
But jazz public relations beat writers assured me we’d still get a top 5 pick if we re-signed Lauri. Sarah Todd told me I wasn’t ready for a true tank year. I’m glad we have folks looking out for the fans.
 
Ron Mexico said:
Youth movement ≠ tanking.
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This is true and its also something where people way too often read between the lines.

It will be very intriguing to see how this season turns out. I hope we still end up getting a top draft pick due to West being so damn tough. The current core looks super intriguing and I would love to add one blue chip prospect to it. So do like the OKC did when they got Chet essentially. We would probably be a playoff team next year if that happened and the guy coming in would be ready to play in the league from day 1.
 
HermanG said:
This is true and its also something where people way too often read between the lines.

It will be very intriguing to see how this season turns out. I hope we still end up getting a top draft pick due to West being so damn tough. The current core looks super intriguing and I would love to add one blue chip prospect to it. So do like the OKC did when they got Chet essentially. We would probably be a playoff team next year if that happened and the guy coming in would be ready to play in the league from day 1.
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Obviously just preseason, but the West doesn't look as tough as people are talking about, and is something I'm currently worried about as far as the tank race. People keep talking about how tough the West is and how we will lose so many games to the Western Conference, but I'm not 100% sure that' accurate. I think there are a lot of teams in the West that are in the Kings tier of good, which is still better than us, but not teams we will lose a bunch of games to.

- Clippers could be really bad this year if Kawhi sits a bunch of games, which is somewhat likely
- The Klay acquisition might have made Dallas worse
- San Antonio probably still not ready
- Houston overrated
- LAL an injury away from being bad
- NOP with no center
- MEM and Pho are still a question marks for me
- GS looks like they are struggling to figure out a rotation

I think there could be a lot more winnable games in the West than what we are thinking.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Obviously just preseason, but the West doesn't look as tough as people are talking about, and is something I'm currently worried about as far as the tank race. People keep talking about how tough the West is and how we will lose so many games to the Western Conference, but I'm not 100% sure that' accurate. I think there are a lot of teams in the West that are in the Kings tier of good, which is still better than us, but not teams we will lose a bunch of games to.

- Clippers could be really bad this year if Kawhi sits a bunch of games, which is somewhat likely
- The Klay acquisition might have made Dallas worse
- San Antonio probably still not ready
- Houston overrated
- LAL an injury away from being bad
- NOP with no center
- MEM and Pho are still a question marks for me
- GS looks like they are struggling to figure out a rotation

I think there could be a lot more winnable games in the West than what we are thinking.
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Yeah I'm also worried as you may have noticed. Just sipping some hopium every now and then, as I really like the position we will be in if we manage to get "our Chet".

Oh and add Denver to the list as I think they are more dependent on Jokic than they have ever been. If Jokic goes down I think they are a sub .400 team.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Obviously just preseason, but the West doesn't look as tough as people are talking about, and is something I'm currently worried about as far as the tank race. People keep talking about how tough the West is and how we will lose so many games to the Western Conference, but I'm not 100% sure that' accurate. I think there are a lot of teams in the West that are in the Kings tier of good, which is still better than us, but not teams we will lose a bunch of games to.

- Clippers could be really bad this year if Kawhi sits a bunch of games, which is somewhat likely
- The Klay acquisition might have made Dallas worse
- San Antonio probably still not ready
- Houston overrated
- LAL an injury away from being bad
- NOP with no center
- MEM and Pho are still a question marks for me
- GS looks like they are struggling to figure out a rotation

I think there could be a lot more winnable games in the West than what we are thinking.
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I agree with all of your bullet points but still think all of those teams are better than the jazz. I want a stud from this draft damn it!
 
Douchebag K said:
I’m just watching the Kings game now. I can’t see how we don’t win 30-32 games Oh well. Maybe one of the young guys is already gonna be a second star
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Kessler plays every game like he did last night, he’s a DPOY candidate. Gobert’s stock is nonexistent right now and Wemby is being benched for Collins because he honestly has some of the worst second year decision making ever seen in a #1 overall draft pick (never mind generational talents). Hendrix could also be on that all defensive list.

Break out years for Sexton and George predicted. Yeah Sexton is a bit of a late starter but damn if he doesn’t play the right way and now reaching his prime. If the Houston game is any indication, old man Clarkson still has some of that sixth man magic and if the flame goes out, we have the bigger bodied version in Sensabaugh ready to juke and jive and knock down some bowling pins. Look out League because Laurie has figured out how to score and get to the stripe. Williams will continue to grow and impress with his skills and prescient BBIQ.

Beyond the core with Eubanks, Mykhailiuk, Juzang, Flip and Collier, we’re built to keep rolling if the injury bug hits. If history repeats and Ainge lets Hardy do his thing till the deadline, letting our middling pick convey wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, with two firsts already and a chance to grow some more confidence for next year.
 
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fishonjazz said:
I agree with all of your bullet points but still think all of those teams are better than the jazz. I want a stud from this draft damn it!
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Yeah, I still think we are likely the second worst team in the West, but having a worse record than the tankers in the East was dependent on the West being so much better. It's better, but I'm not seeing as many auto losses in the west as people might have thought.
 
KqWIN said:
The only West team I feel down on in the Spurs. They could be a sleeper tank team.

Clippers could be in that conversation but they have zero incentive to tank.
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Since we play the Spurs 4 times in the first 20 we could really give them a shot of life by sitting one of the Good 3 and losing those games.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Since we play the Spurs 4 times in the first 20 we could really give them a shot of life by sitting one of the Good 3 and losing those games.
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Those games could be critical. The Spurs are somewhat similar to the Jazz where they have a lot of their talent concentrated in a small amount of players which makes it easier to pull the plug. If they beat us early on, that likely means they are moving through the play in tournament and also staying in the play in race. If they fall out of it, Pop will do as he did last year.

One of the reasons why I don't think we beat out all of those east teams is because so many of them will be hanging in around the play in race and they have to play each other in the in season tournament. Some of them are bound to rise up and stay competitive for awhile. The Jazz haven't had a problem doing this, but I think it is much harder for a team to pull the plug when they are in a real playoff race. At the very least, the potential for that team to become a buyer is much higher.
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
I still think the Spurs are one good, young player away. If they somehow acquired a PG like Harper or Traore, they'd be set. Meanwhile, the Jazz are probably 2 good, young players away.
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The Spurs actually having a superstar player gives them so many avenues to really try and contend though.

We need at least one more star level talent, preferably a potential superstar to pair with Lauri if the goal is to actually contend
 
YoungJefe said:
The Spurs actually having a superstar player gives them so many avenues to really try and contend though.

We need at least one more star level talent, preferably a potential superstar to pair with Lauri if the goal is to actually contend
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I don't really like the Spurs' backcourt that much. They still need a lead guard who can run the show and make reads. A 39 y.o. Chris Paul isn't a solution. If they get that solved though, there are all kinds of ways they can fill out the rest of their roster.

The Jazz need a lead initiator and a dynamic, unstoppable wing to go with what they have.
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
I don't really like the Spurs' backcourt that much. They still need a lead guard who can run the show and make reads. A 39 y.o. Chris Paul isn't a solution. If they get that solved though, there are all kinds of ways they can fill out the rest of their roster.

The Jazz need a lead initiator and a dynamic, unstoppable wing to go with what they have.
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Isn't Stephon Castle a potential solution to be their primary ball handler?
 
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