Are the Jazz exactly where they wan't to be??

[Coach Ellis]

Good post, but I differ from you on the DL observation. KOC was still in charge in 2012 and the Jazz had contracts on the books (and a coach with a contract). I think the rebuild was actually started with the DWill trade - and the Jazz FO has stated that. Not skipping steps means you don't make foolish trades and unload one veteran for another with a longer contract. It took a few years to unwind all the contracts.

I think the only question the Jazz had was whether or not to keep Mo, Millsap and Carroll. Mo was much beloved by KOC and the original intent was to welcome him back and keep him for a long, long time. But his play was underwhelming. Millsap was a tough, tough decision and, if you believe reports, it caused much debate and divide in the FO. Had the 2014 draft not been expected to be so good and so deep, I think Millsap (and Carroll) would have been re-signed. But, even if Lindsey couldn't have predicted a bottom-5 finish, I think he certainly saw the possibility of getting all-star level talent at a rookie scale contract in the top-10. On the other hand, Millsap was going to be expensive and he'll be on the other side of 30 if/when the Jazz are even ready to start challenging again in the WC.

I agree Jazz will likely be a lottery team again. Best case would be to have a Phoenix-type year where the Jazz are competitive, exciting, but still need a little more development, experience and a player or two to get back into 50-win territory. I'm as excited to watch this group as I was right after the DWill draft.

I actually don't necessarily disagree with that assessment. I'm pretty sure that KOC was still quasi running things in 2012 and it really hurt them that they had a coach under contract at the time. KOC did a pretty good job of setting the team up to have contracts all come off the books at the same time to give the team salary cap flexibility starting last year, but I don't think that they went into rebuilding mode until they officially decided to let Jefferson, Millsap, Mo, Foye and Carroll all leave and focus on the young talent that was coming up underneath them. IMO, 2011 and 2012 were definitely reload years instead of rebuild years. I believe that DL was finally given the go-ahead to build the team how he wants to last year.

Things that set this franchise back. . .

A. Losing Jerry Sloan midseason and then trading DWill. The direction of the team was a mess from that point on.
B. Having the lockout force all of the young guys to essentially lose a full year of development.
C. Deciding to "go lean" and let all of their young guys take bigger roles while letting key players walk - for all the crap that Jazz fans give them, Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Mo Williams and DeMarre Carroll all had a pretty good season in new roles for new teams. They probably wouldn't have done so well staying with the Jazz, but it was a lot of talent to just move on from.
D. Keeping Ty Corbin for 3 full seasons. Nice guy, and a decent assistant, but a terrible head coach. I think he set the young guys back in their development because his defense sucked, his minute distribution was sporadic and I just don't think that he really had a good grasp on his players strengths and weaknesses. I'm hoping to see a major improvement across the board now that Snyder is the head coach. Addition by subtraction, and then multiplied exponentially because I think that Quin Snyder is going to be a very good head coach.

IMO, last year is when they started the rebuild. Before then, they set it up for the possibility. . . but they just wouldn't commit to it. Last year they were finally willing to struggle in the short-term in order to get better in the long-term.

 

[fishonjazz]

pls stop.

How about "he has never consistently played against the level of players that wiggins, gordon, randle, etc etc have"?
Does that work?