My thoughts:
I am utterly stunned to be sitting here in late March, seeing that as of today there is only a 1 game difference between us and Minnesota and if the season ended right now, we’d have 2 lottery picks. The day that trade was made signaled the day that the Jazz were gutting the roster in a complete rebuild and the T’Wolves were pushing all of their chips in to the middle of the table to go after championship contention. Now, the Jazz sit as the authors of what is already being labeled as the worst trade in NBA history (or best for us) and that’s before they’ve used a single freaking pick from the Minnesota draft haul.
I know initially that there were Jazz fans pretty bummed when it became clear that we weren’t gonna be in a neck-and-neck race for the worst record in the NBA, but I just can’t fathom how any self respecting Jazz fan can be upset with what we’ve seemed to come up with thus far:
- Will Hardy is most likely an AMAZING basketball coach and could truly become an NBA great. My feelings on this were cemented by this teams performance after the trade deadline. Once Conley was gone, I thought we’d surely see awful PG play and the team plummet down the standings. What Hardy and this staff have managed to squeeze out of this roster is simply something I thought impossible until it actually happened.
- What has happened with Lauri/Kessler/Ochai in less than 1 season. After the Rudy and Donovan deals were done, it certainly didn’t seem like the Jazz had come out of either deal with any future franchise cornerstones and would have to depend on hitting on our new bevy of draft picks in order to land one. Now, Lauri looks to already fit the mold of a star, Kessler might not be far behind, and even Ochai could be a major part of this team moving forward. All of this happening before the Jazz could use a single one of their newly acquired draft picks is HUGE.
The fact that the Jazz have already found so much of the ingredients needed for a successful rebuild is absolutely insane. If Ainge does a good job managing all of our future assets, this is setting up to be a seismic shift for this franchise, the likes of which Jazz fans didn’t even dare to expect/dream of.
I am utterly stunned to be sitting here in late March, seeing that as of today there is only a 1 game difference between us and Minnesota and if the season ended right now, we’d have 2 lottery picks. The day that trade was made signaled the day that the Jazz were gutting the roster in a complete rebuild and the T’Wolves were pushing all of their chips in to the middle of the table to go after championship contention. Now, the Jazz sit as the authors of what is already being labeled as the worst trade in NBA history (or best for us) and that’s before they’ve used a single freaking pick from the Minnesota draft haul.
I know initially that there were Jazz fans pretty bummed when it became clear that we weren’t gonna be in a neck-and-neck race for the worst record in the NBA, but I just can’t fathom how any self respecting Jazz fan can be upset with what we’ve seemed to come up with thus far:
- Will Hardy is most likely an AMAZING basketball coach and could truly become an NBA great. My feelings on this were cemented by this teams performance after the trade deadline. Once Conley was gone, I thought we’d surely see awful PG play and the team plummet down the standings. What Hardy and this staff have managed to squeeze out of this roster is simply something I thought impossible until it actually happened.
- What has happened with Lauri/Kessler/Ochai in less than 1 season. After the Rudy and Donovan deals were done, it certainly didn’t seem like the Jazz had come out of either deal with any future franchise cornerstones and would have to depend on hitting on our new bevy of draft picks in order to land one. Now, Lauri looks to already fit the mold of a star, Kessler might not be far behind, and even Ochai could be a major part of this team moving forward. All of this happening before the Jazz could use a single one of their newly acquired draft picks is HUGE.
The fact that the Jazz have already found so much of the ingredients needed for a successful rebuild is absolutely insane. If Ainge does a good job managing all of our future assets, this is setting up to be a seismic shift for this franchise, the likes of which Jazz fans didn’t even dare to expect/dream of.
