I think with all the injuries to start the season and all of the poorly run teams we have this year, it is going to be very difficult to lose as many games as we want to if Hardy is allowed to play it straight all year.
No one is catching BrooklynThere are only 3 winless teams remaining:
- IND
- BKN
- NOP
Brooklyn is the only 4 loss team in the league and looks like the clear favorite to be the worst team in the league.
I think with all the injuries to start the season and all of the poorly run teams we have this year, it is going to be very difficult to lose as many games as we want to if Hardy is allowed to play it straight all year.
I would be pretty hesitant to trade Lauri. He's a star. Jazz need to figure out how to get worse on the margins and lose with him. Jazz could be a 50 win team next season if they get Boozer and use that cap-space to sign a legit rotation piece
Trade Nurk and Svi, play Ace/Hendricks/Cody more minutes
Trade the 2nd worst of Jazz/Cavs/Wolves/LAL in '27 (worst is already going to Suns) to OKC for that '26 pick, make playoffs, watch Wolves plunge to lottery behind injuries, swap pick with Wolves, draft star, win title.
I would be pretty hesitant to trade Lauri. He's a star. Jazz need to figure out how to get worse on the margins and lose with him.
I agree with this, we have pieces and need to add to them, but it would be awful to miss out on our 2026 pick.
I don't want to sit Lauri and Kessler on purpose like last year, but whatever we can do around the edges should be done.
Whether or not you want to call the role players "critical pieces" or not is entirely irrelevant. The critical pieces are replacing those players with young guys who will lose you games.The margins are already pretty meaningless. This strong start is mainly the product of Lauri, Kessler, Keyonte and Hardy. Nurk , Flip and Svi have been adequate but none of them are critical pieces.
Tanking with this team would necessitate either trading or sitting Lauri (who's playing like a legit All Star but has a massive deal) and Kessler (who's playing for his first big contract).
Both things are much, much easier said than done.