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A few thoughts on this season...

JazzFever

Well-Known Member
Curiously, this has been a renewing season for me as a fan, even as they have gotten much worse, record wise.

This season is a reminder that it is about the struggle and walking that path proudly and well, rather than the W or L.

I accept DA's tear down, because the franchise is seeking excellence instead of just competence- and that is what we are seeing. Excellent coaching, excellent decision making by the front office, excellent competitive spirit from the players, and excellent improvement/development of those players over the course of the season. Doing things the right way may or may not end up with a championship over time, but it is how one pursues it as an organization, and makes it a reachable goal despite the structural issues facing the franchise.

Proud to be a fan this season as much as any season I've followed them, which goes back to their first year in Utah. Yes, I'm getting old.

Noticed that the current scoring differential of the team is exactly 0 right now. Incredible achievement for a group of guys written off as a bunch of scrubs, destined to be in the bottom 2 or 3 of the league- and that is before ripping out the veterans at the trade deadline. Just insane the heart of this team.

And just because every Jazz fan should enjoy some Laker tears as a palate cleanser:


View: https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1636955846533091328?s=20
 
Here's my contribution to this topic. The Jazz have lost only 5 games by more than 15 points. Only 7 by more than 10. The Nuggets, currently #1 in the West, have lost 9 games by more than 15 and 13 by more than 10. I won't even tell you what these numbers look like for say, the Rockets, as this is a family forum.

This is a young, fairly inexperienced team who has somehow managed to be competitive in 90% of the games they've played. I don't know the numbers for how many games the Jazz were at least within 5 in the 4th, but it feels like it's almost every game. That's pretty awesome and bodes well for the future, even without the massive haul of picks(which I personally hope get traded at some point for a star with 2-3 years left on the contract). The kids are developing and are generally more talented than any of us had thought. We seem to have a great coach on our hands, as well. I don't know if this will all work out, I don't know if there's a championship on the cards, but man, I'm excited to see what happens one way or another.
 
Its been an awesome season. The future is so bright. The Gobert trade was one of the best trades in the history of the nba and the Donovan trade was probably a top 10. Those two trades set us up much much better than i could have ever imagined. Love the coach. Love the young talent. Lauri is already approaching an mvp level player and is better than Donovan imo. Love the draft pick stash we have. Love that we have a GM like Ainge.
 
The grade for me this season is still TBD …

I hope finish strong tank wise and grab at least a top 8 pick.

Then I would give this season an A.
 
Hopefully won’t ruffle any feathers, but this season just isn’t for me. It’s not horrible, but something that might be nice for a change of pace but ultimately shows the flaws of the NBA as a competitive league. I don’t like the ongoing dilemma between winning and wanting to lose instead. Some people enjoy this, the feeling of “we win or we win”. I can’t knock them for that….but it does also feel like “we lose or we lose”.

When a basketball game is played, I like there to be more incentives to win and not to lose. The rewards for losing are nice but the enjoyment of watching Jazz games where we want to lose is gone. It was a crazy exciting comeback last game and yet we’re dealing with dread of what that win caused us.
 
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Hopefully won’t ruffle any feathers, but this season just isn’t for me. It’s not horrible, but something that might be nice for a change of pace but ultimately shows the flaws of the NBA as a competitive league. I don’t like the ongoing dilemma between winning and wanting to lose instead. Some people enjoy this, the feeling of “we win or we win”. I can’t knock them for that….but it does also feel like “we lose or we lose”.

When a basketball is played, I like there to be more incentives to win and not to lose. The rewards for losing are nice but the enjoyment of watching Jazz games where we want to lose is gone. It was a crazy exciting comeback last game and yet we’re dealing with dread of what that win caused us.

You don't have to deal with any "dread." Just be happy for wins, and then be happy for more wins next year, and enjoy the way the team plays. The future is freaking bright. Moving up 3 or 4 picks in this particular draft isn't the difference between ultimate success or failure.
 
This has been a good season overall to watch. Mostly because they aren't tanking out there. God knows Ainge tried at the end, but it didn't really work. These guys actually like to go out there and compete.
 
You don't have to deal with any "dread." Just be happy for wins, and then be happy for more wins next year, and enjoy the way the team plays. The future is freaking bright. Moving up 3 or 4 picks in this particular draft isn't the difference between ultimate success or failure.
Im hoping for a higher pick but I cringe when people say that 1 pick at 8 over 11 is somehow a deciding factor. 8 is better on average for sure, but Ricky Rubio was also guaranteed to be better than and had to come off the board before Steph.

Staying mediocre is not even possible unless we whiff all our picks, dont make any good trades/signings and everyone stops developing... all at once.

Lauri, Kessler, Sexton, THT and Ochai alone are likely gonna develop us into a playoff team if we add one solid frontcourt guy and some better rotation guys around them. And we have ammo to add a whole lot more.
 
I really loved (still mostly do) until the trade with NAW, Beasley, Vanderbilt, and Conley. I do t e en care that NAW and Conley got trade, it's the other 2 and what we got back. Which could be 2 2nd round picks
 
You don't have to deal with any "dread." Just be happy for wins, and then be happy for more wins next year, and enjoy the way the team plays. The future is freaking bright. Moving up 3 or 4 picks in this particular draft isn't the difference between ultimate success or failure.

Anyone can enjoy whatever they want, I'm not the fun police. I see people who enjoy the win last night and are maybe even excited for a playoff push. I get that and I also feel that excitement. I see other people dread the fact that we one and how continued winning hurts the franchise long term. I also get that and feel the dread. I wish the NBA did not have this dilemma, but that is how the league is structured. I think both points are valid, but it I think it sucks that wanting your team to lose is such a valid POV.
 
This may turn out to be entirely false. Many would claim it is likely to be entirely false.

Yeah....I've always been one to say that tanking is the silver bullet people make it out to be. I don't want to fire up that debate again, but it's undeniable that there are incentives to lose and not amazing incentives to win. However you weigh that in your mind will change person to person. IMO, there should never be a conflict with trying to win and it shouldn't even be a question that winning a game is beneficial, but that's not how the NBA works.
 
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.
 
Jazz have gotten the most out of the talent on the roster, and they've been promptly decisive about which players they want to keep and which they want to ship off. The fact that both rookies, Kessler and Agbaji, are showing some promise is encouraging. It's looking like a front office that knows what it's doing.

I'm intrigued to see how they handle this upcoming draft and offseason considering how active they were with limited options available.
 
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.
Well said.

Its sad we have so much bickering and in-fighting right now over single game results, when we should be ecstatic.
 
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.
Fantastic post - we’re actually tied with Minnesota in the standings, they just have a slightly better winning percentage than us. But that just further supports your point.

It was one thing when we were hovering around .500 with legit NBA guys like Mike, JC, Beasley, Vando, etc. playing major minutes, but for Hardy to be continuing that with end of bench and young guys is absolutely incredible. It’s impossible to be mad with Ochai/Kessler are major reasons we’re winning games right now.

It feels to me like there’s going to be multiple guys picked in the mid/late lottery that will become multiple time all stars - we should have two picks there, I just hope we can get one of them to hit. We should have the assets to move as high as #3 overall if there’s someone that we absolutely love
 
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.
You have a good take there David Locke. :D
 
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