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Game Thread Dec 26, 2025 07:30PM MT: Detroit Pistons @ Utah Jazz

Added to Calendar: 12-26-25

I didn't watch the first half so I have no idea, but I think the injury to Ace might have just thrown Hardy for a loop and changed his rotations. Svi played really well too from the stats, but he also got benched.
Yeah one less guy doesn’t mean you mothball Taylor. He literally had just blocked a shot then caused a turnover. On offense he made two nice drives off of close outs and dropped a nice pass to Nurk. Then he’s not heard from again. Ace not being there means more minutes imo.

I think Brice maybe is getting the showcase treatment.
 
Enough people mentioned tanking and the Jazz last week that I think they got scared. Whether it was direct contact from the league office or just the narrative… who knows.

Either way it feels like malpractice to let Taylor sit. He was really active that 4 minutes and came off a career high. We bench him for KLove. One of the funny things this year is my teenage daughters come in the room during games and immediately go “who is the old guy?”. That is who we are prioritizing lol.

Those reports just makes it more clear that what we're doing is wrong and we know it. It's not some 200iq plan to build some kind of winning culture that sends our development to the moon. In the real world things take time. I can forgive a short period where we were better than we thought as long as you act quickly. And they did that! No complaints about recognizing their mistake and owning it. It gives me more confidence that they know what they're doing.

But now what are we doing? We don't have this fake "winning culture" guise, and we're also not doing what we know is best for the franchise.

The thought crossed my mind, but I'm not sure I believe that it's real or at least I don't believe it really works.

Not real. Gotta give Brice some credit. He made the big mistake at the end (though it could be argued his teammates are also responsible), but he played really well.
 
Yeah one less guy doesn’t mean you mothball Taylor. He literally had just blocked a shot then caused a turnover. On offense he made two nice drives off of close outs and dropped a nice pass to Nurk. Then he’s not heard from again. Ace not being there means more minutes imo.

I think Brice maybe is getting the showcase treatment.
I think he waa just riding a hot lineup
 
Hardy was coaching with desperation for the W. He only made one sub in 4th which was to put Key back in. Collier played like 18 minutes straight. Lauri the last 15 minutes and skipped his rest in between what is normally is second and third second half shifts.

Brice was very good in the second half. He wasn’t being showcased, Hardy just didn’t want to play Cody or Hendricks and potentially lose.
 
Hardy was coaching with desperation for the W. He only made one sub in 4th which was to put Key back in. Collier played like 18 minutes straight. Lauri the last 15 minutes and skipped his rest in between what is normally is second and third second half shifts.

Brice was very good in the second half. He wasn’t being showcased, Hardy just didn’t want to play Cody or Hendricks and potentially lose.
And this is where I think we are making a mistake still. If Svi and Love are going to play that much more than Cody and Taylor the GM needs to intervene through trade or other influence. It obviously can’t be left to Will.

I do think our ownership FO is a bit thin skinned with the league office scrutiny… if that is real.
 
Hardy was coaching with desperation for the W. He only made one sub in 4th which was to put Key back in. Collier played like 18 minutes straight. Lauri the last 15 minutes and skipped his rest in between what is normally is second and third second half shifts.

Brice was very good in the second half. He wasn’t being showcased, Hardy just didn’t want to play Cody or Hendricks and potentially lose.
I'd imagine as a coach it would be hard to pass up a chance to beat a top team from a pure ego perspective.
 
And this is where I think we are making a mistake still. If Svi and Love are going to play that much more than Cody and Taylor the GM needs to intervene through trade or other influence. It obviously can’t be left to Will.

I do think our ownership FO is a bit thin skinned with the league office scrutiny… if that is real.

When Hardy he has restrictions, he abides by them. The difference between last night and the LAL game (where he let Clayton play and lose the lead) is FO influence. I do not think he had a sudden idea that WCJ was amazing against LAL, nor do I think he believes a very tight rotation is actually the key to development. He's going to do the tanking stuff when he's told and when he's not he's going to go all out for the W. That's perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned, you just need to give him the right instructions.

We know what's best for the franchise and the FO does too. It really comes down to pride and if the NBA is actually intervening it comes down to cowardice. The league coming down on the Jazz feels extremely far fetched though. All the league cares about is gambling and national TV games.
 
When Hardy he has restrictions, he abides by them. The difference between last night and the LAL game (where he let Clayton play and lose the lead) is FO influence. I do not think he had a sudden idea that WCJ was amazing against LAL, nor do I think he believes a very tight rotation is actually the key to development. He's going to do the tanking stuff when he's told and when he's not he's going to go all out for the W. That's perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned, you just need to give him the right instructions.

We know what's best for the franchise and the FO does too. It really comes down to pride and if the NBA is actually intervening it comes down to cowardice. The league coming down on the Jazz feels extremely far fetched though. All the league cares about is gambling and national TV games.
There's a lot of noise about the NBA increasing its focus on tanking, and implementing measures to prevent it. They clearly care.
 
There's a lot of noise about the NBA increasing its focus on tanking, and implementing measures to prevent it. They clearly care.
They should focus on the teams actually resting healthy players. Or teams that don’t lead the 4th quarter in scoring. It feels like someone (OKC) saw what was coming and bitched about it.

Lauri had a groin injury. If they want to send their own groin injury experts they are welcome to.
 
They should focus on the teams actually resting healthy players. Or teams that don’t lead the 4th quarter in scoring. It feels like someone (OKC) saw what was coming and bitched about it.

Lauri had a groin injury. If they want to send their own groin injury experts they are welcome to.
If I was OKC I would complain about it too.
 
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