Those years where we paid DWill, Boozer, AK and Okur only to go out in the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs....I guess those were wasted years too?
From my point of view, I can see why it would seem a bit pointless to even make the playoffs if we don't really have a chance and if 4/5 of our starting line-up won't be with the team next year, notwithstanding the fact that the other 1/5 we wish weren't with the team. Basically, Al and Sap hug each other again, then leave through free agency. Every sports franchise deals with this though. If the Jazz were the Yankees or the Lakers, I could see why fans' expectations would be high, but lets look at the recent years' performance:
last year - swept in the 1st round
2 yrs ago - wheels fell off, missed the playoffs
3 yrs ago - lost in the 2nd round after beating Denver
4 yrs ago - DWill and Boozer miss time, we get the 8th seed, lose in the 1st round
5 yrs ago - lost in the 2nd round (because Brewer and AK can't shoot)
6 yrs ago - snuck into the WCF, but really should have gone out in the 2nd round
Most sports fans just kick back, relax and enjoy the game even if they don't win much.
What you're essentially highlighting is what's known as "the Greg Miller era" or "the Greg Miller effect". Larry has always run a great club. Though there's always talk of him being frugal, it wasn't simply frugality. It was frugality coupled with intelligence, with a lot of passion sprinkled in. We've always preached consistency, but what's translated since Larry stepping away is a poor understanding of those principles and thinking that frugality and consistency alone were the independent variables to our franchise's long history of success.
After Stockton and Malone left, we made a swift rebuild. Our team was flawed, but we were good. We still had a lot of potential and we were, despite how it's painted and how it collapsed, contenders (referring to our WCF appearance and when we lost to LA the first time). There were a few minor adjustments in there, such as getting Korver (but this was a move made after we had to get rid of Giricek). Anyhow, it was apparent after the SAS series that it was time to move on from AK, it's just unfortunate we kept dragging it out for another 3 or so years. Then, after our first defeat at the hands of LA, it was apparent that it was time to move on from Boozer, but again we dragged that out another two years. This was when Greg transitioned in. I stated numerous times that Greg and KOC were passively driving the team into rebuilding (unintentionally). I wasn't crazy about getting Al, but it was a worthy experiment. The whole time with Boozer many suggested we just run with Millsap but of course conventional wisdom was "lol you don't just get rid of your best player." Ironically, we see the same thing repeating itself this year. Obviously we see in hindsight that we would have been just fine sans Boozer with Millsap starting.
The point I return to is that the recent past your suggesting in some ways relates to now, but in other ways certainly doesn't. For those first few years with Williams/Boozer/Okur we really were on the upswing. You can't even say we have anything close to that. I'm afraid we think that Sloan was good with consistency and that somehow that translates into being the only variable separating Corbin from being Sloanlike is "patience" and "consistency" (two things of which, coincidentally, we're not giving our young guys).
The past two years have been failures precisely because nearly anyone knows we're not even contenders for winning a couple games in a series, but yet the same line spun to the media is that "hey, make the playoffs and anything can happen". We're keeping the guys on the bench, a major sacrifice (despite how we spin how great the development is going), so that we "maybe" could win a few post-season games and generate a little excitement? There's no clear benefit in that. Imagine how bad you think we'll be next year without the vets. Now imagine how much better we'd be if during these past two years the young guys were actually getting consistent minutes? Now, since that future is not a possibility, this summer we'll be scrambling to fill the gap between those two possibilities because the young guys "aren't ready" (primarily because they haven't been given any playing time). So, again, what is more beneficial? Was it beneficial to not give playing time to Favors and Hayward after the Deron trade? Was it beneficial to give minutes to Jefferson, Howard, Bell, Miles, et. al. so that we could get swept by the Spurs? Has it been beneficial to play Foye, Watson and Tinsley all this time while Burks racked up DNP after DNP? Has it been beneficial to play Williams and not move Millsap to more minutes at SF? How much worse off are we for next season because of these decisions? Oh, that's right. Not much worse off, because we'll simply go out a sign some other rent-a-vets that will be able to bring the experience that the young guys don't have so that we don't have to feel the effect as much next season. Grand idea.