2024-2025 Tank Race

[Saint Cy of JFC]

What? He was the engine behind the Jazz playing way above expectations.

Sure, he helped raise the Jazz's floor with his leadership, but I really didnt expect him to be that good with Minnesota. He shot 41/36 shooting splits in that last half year in Utah and that was following him being awful in the last Utah playoff series.

At most I thought it would help that year then he would have another sharp fall off. But he has improved the next year while playing 76 games. He kind of fell off this year, but he was still a positive. I expect the real fall off to happen next year and him not be in the NBA the year after that.

 

[Coach Ellis]

I still maintain the 2027 Lakers pick will be better value than whatever value we lost from giving the Wolves Conley/NAW (which will only have a positive benefit for the Wolves this year). 2026/2027/2028/2029 draft capital arent going to be affected by that trade.

Overall, I agree with this AND I think it’s reasonable to assume that there’s a decent chance that the Wolves will give Utah at least one decent pick during that time frame. They were on the razors edge of the lottery this year, and a handful of games that could swing either way kept them in the 20’s. I could easily see a major falloff for them - especially if AE ever gets hurt.

 

[homeytennis]

Overall, I agree with this AND I think it’s reasonable to assume that there’s a decent chance that the Wolves will give Utah at least one decent pick during that time frame. They were on the razors edge of the lottery this year, and a handful of games that could swing either way kept them in the 20’s. I could easily see a major falloff for them - especially if AE ever gets hurt.

Conley and Rudy also don't have much tread left on their tires either.

 

[Flc]

Seems like it would’ve been easy to tuck a 2nd into each of the Gobert and Mitchell deals as a closing cost and nobody would’ve batted an eye. Probably could’ve done some of the weird red paper clip stuff they pulled this year at some point over the previous two seasons.

Ainge got a great start on the rebuild and ever since has mostly been whiffing. Hopefully he finally starts landing on some moves because right now it feels like he should’ve been used just to clean house and then move on.

Don’t think I agree with you on this one. Here’s my sense of how things played out, some based on reporting and others conjecture.

The plan was to tank for Wemby, let the hodgepodge play to establish value for trades and collect data for analysis, deal vets at or before the deadline. Then Hardy coached his *** off, Conley was turning borderline bench players into serviceable starters, Walker was having an all rookie year, Clarkson was popping off, and Lauri spent the summer turning into a top 20 player.

That, and I imagine pressure from fresh owner Ryan who genuinely (bless his heart) thought he was going to turn Salt Lake into a destination for NBA stars. That led to two seasons of wind-twisting until a second summer of being unable to land a difference making trade. Spending a big chunk of assets for Jrue or Bridges would have been the wrong call, I think we know that, and I think Ainge knows it.

Ryan still doesn’t look thrilled about the tank, but it sounds like he convinced everyone to agree to a two-year, using the Favors debt as a justification for why this is the time to do it.

By and large, Ainge got us a ton of assets, improved assets when there was the option.

He insisted on Kessler, his picks of Keyonte, Collier, Powski were fantastic value. Hendricks and Cody have a lot of work to do but were always going to be projects. Brice will be a scary weapon as he matures.

The overarching narrative here I think is one of a GM who has taken the risk, and convinced the new owner to take the risk, of tanking to field a championship team.

He’s also established a culture where the vets didn’t cause any drama with the kids playing, and an all star player not only signed here longterm but was ok with the tank and talks about how much he loves it.

Worst case, his tenure is far too early to evaluate, but the big things - getting a ton for breaking down the team, getting commitment from the players in the long term vision, Hardy, getting the owner to agree to a tank - he’s done great on. Let him cook, skillet is still pre-heating.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

I'm fairly certain we aren't doing this same thing over again next year. We may lose, but not like this.

You’re in for a rude awakening. We may not get the worst record but we still are tanking. I expect one or both of Collins and sexton to be dealt, and I’m sure every option for Lauri will be analyzed, and he’s already down with another year of suckage just cook up some injuries after the allstar break. It’s happening bucko

Pick #31 feels like a pretty nice asset. When you’re tanking you shouldn’t throw in those extra seconds so flippantly.

I’d rather have LA’s first. Also at the time of the trade no one saw Luka all of a sudden being traded to LA. not really the Jazz fault.

 

[framer]

You’re in for a rude awakening. We may not get the worst record but we still are tanking. I expect one or both of Collins and sexton to be dealt, and I’m sure every option for Lauri will be analyzed, and he’s already down with another year of suckage just cook up some injuries after the allstar break. It’s happening bucko

I’d rather have LA’s first. Also at the time of the trade no one saw Luka all of a sudden being traded to LA. not really the Jazz fault.

Another year of sitting random starters every game will go over as well as the highlighter yellow Jerseys. Especially after we nab that 5 pick for our troubles. I still think we are in the lottery next year, but we will actually play ball. The West is brutal enough to keep us down organically.

 

[HermanG]

What a **** show. We had no business being the ones including second rounders in that deal, let alone two. Now we’ve traded something worth more than a late first. I remember a lot of people always dismissing the lack of value in second rounders picks in Ainge deals, jettisoning them or leaving them on the table in other deals. And to your point about it being nice to have other people’s seconds to play with… yeah. “They’re just second rounders. Why so upset lol.”

I agree on every point.

We actually need to come up with a new term on how we address late FRPs and early SRPs. Maybe use something like "mid draft picks" which refers to picks in (late) 20s and (early) 30s.

Fact is that you can argue that 31st pick is actually more valuable than 30th, because there is more contract flexibility with 2nd round prospects rookie contracts... yet one of them is addressed as "FRP" and the other "SRP" with massive mental devaluation attached to the latter term.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

Another year of sitting random starters every game will go over as well as the highlighter yellow Jerseys. Especially after we nab that 5 pick for our troubles. I still think we are in the lottery next year, but we will actually play ball. The West is brutal enough to keep us down organically.

Lauri is down for another year. He said as much.