Dennis Lindsey's Biggest Error

[Coach Ellis]

But it hurts worse that he was picked one slot after us. It's like Bowie/Jordan, Oden/Durant.

28 pts, 10 rebs, 8 assts, 2 stls in 26 minutes tonight. If you've watched the Bucks at all recently you'll know that Giannis is clearly the best player in the NBA right now. Absurd dominance both offensively and defensively.

The thing that makes me most sad is that DL was one of the first to go over to Greece to look at him in person ahead of the draft. I remember watching an interview with DL somewhere after Giannis played in a game and his hype was getting established - and that was what made me look into the skinny kid from Greece that nobody could spell or pronounce his name in the first place. Was so irritated that they traded up for Burke.

There’s a lot of “what if’s” with the draft, but getting Giannis and Rudy both out of a weak draft has to be the biggest miss of DL’s career. He was a big part of the think tank that grabbed Kawhi Leonard based on his insane measurables. Giannis had that same vibe. Jazz absolutely should’ve been in “swing for the fences” mode. . . instead of saving that decision for Exum the following year.

 

[yamers]

lol so we're going to say igor was the real pupper master?

get over your selves. fools are getting dumber here by the hour.

 

[Tak]

Quin Snyder and the Utah Jazz...

Life with Igor. 99 Wins and 65 losses (.60), and two trips to the conference semis.
Life without Igor. 87 Wins and 98 losses (.47), and two trips to the lottery.

Yeah, Igor is now 4-17 for a whopping .19 as a Head Coach, I think he misses us more.

 

[idestroyedthetoilet]

Lindsey's biggest error will clearly be letting the trade value for Favors diminish after Rudy Gobert emerged. He's a $20,000,000, integral piece of a contender but Utah cant get value out of him.

He'll walk like so many valuable bigs have done over the past 10 years.

 

[Jack Strop]

^Favors has been on the trade block every year for at least the past four. Lindsey didn't let Favs' trade value diminish. It was never very high. Favs is NOT an integral part of a contender. Jazz are seen competing in spite of what he offers at the 4, not because of it. It is Favors himself who hasn't wanted to be seen as a 5. But that's where he'd need to play anywhere besides Utah.

I think Lindsey could have gotten something for Millsap. That's it. Kanter had no trade value. Jefferson had no trade value. Boozer had no trade value, unless Utah were to take back bad salaries. In Boozer's case, they couldn't; Jazz had gone into the luxury tax to keep Millsap and needed to get back down. For Jefferson and Millsap, it's a moot point. The cap space was used in the GS/Denver deals. Had DL taken back salaries, the GS deal and picks would have never come our way. And really, that's what Lindsey wanted in exchange for those two. He didn't want any good young players. He wanted future picks so he could tank and get our franchise player with the pick. Mission accomplished: he was able to draft Dante instead of some scrub like Smart or Randle.

 

[Jack Strop]

I think Lindsey's biggest error is his arrogance.

1. He believed his way to evaluate talent was far more advanced than any other GM (his balance test).
2. He believed he could hire player development coaches to make silk purses out of sows' ears. Dennis...you just can't 99 out of 100 times.
3. He believed fostering a culture of losing would not wear on the player he chose to build the team around.
4. He believed having a stable of young, good talent or decent FA's with tradeable salaries was just not that important. He squandered away pick after pick chasing a PG. Andc while other teams can sacrifice talent to get stars, the cupboard is bare in Utah. Mitchell and Gobert are the only players a rebuilding team would really want.

No one is clamoring for Ingles or Favors or Crowder, unless it is a contender looking for depth. Jazz weren't in the market for Irving or Kwahi because they didn't have any decent assets they could trade. Lindsey has done very poorly in terms of asset management. For YEARS he had tons of cap space available and didn't want to get any of those mid-level guys that could have been used in trades. And he lathered, rinsed and repeated the same mistake AGAIN this year. We got Niang and kept Udoh when other teams were using the MLE to sign 1-yr contracts.

 

[idestroyedthetoilet]

^Favors has been on the trade block every year for at least the past four. Lindsey didn't let Favs' trade value diminish. It was never very high. Favs is NOT an integral part of a contender. Jazz are seen competing in spite of what he offers at the 4, not because of it. It is Favors himself who hasn't wanted to be seen as a 5. But that's where he'd need to play anywhere besides Utah.

I think Lindsey could have gotten something for Millsap. That's it. Kanter had no trade value. Jefferson had no trade value. Boozer had no trade value, unless Utah were to take back bad salaries. In Boozer's case, they couldn't; Jazz had gone into the luxury tax to keep Millsap and needed to get back down. For Jefferson and Millsap, it's a moot point. The cap space was used in the GS/Denver deals. Had DL taken back salaries, the GS deal and picks would have never come our way. And really, that's what Lindsey wanted in exchange for those two. He didn't want any good young players. He wanted future picks so he could tank and get our franchise player with the pick. Mission accomplished: he was able to draft Dante instead of some scrub like Smart or Randle.

Correct, Favors is not on a contender. I disagree with you, at least somewhat, on the finer points. Bigs are simply too easy to acquire in the offseason so their trade value has been diminished for over a decade.

That doesn't change that DL didnt let it diminish = DL wasn't creative or innovative or forward looking soon enough to get a higher return than watching a contract drop to zero at expiration.

 

[kabenac]

Another nice move by DL that hasn't yet been mentioned is choosing Royce over Bolomboy. Perhaps it was partially due to Snyder's urging but it turned out to be a good choice.

 

[homeytennis]

I still don't get the love for Royce. Yeah he's a scrappy player but there are several minor leagues filled with guys like that. I don't see what makes him special over say R.J. Hunter or Naz.

 

[RickyStan]

I still don't get the love for Royce. Yeah he's a scrappy player but there are several minor leagues filled with guys like that. I don't see what makes him special over say R.J. Hunter or Naz.

Even tho Royce largely sucks he's already exceeded his expected career contributions just by being good vs. OKC. It's all found money from here.

 

[Jack Strop]

Even tho Royce largely sucks he's already exceeded his expected career contributions just by being good vs. OKC. It's all found money from here.

And don't forget the SA game last season when he denied the Spurs from getting a decent shot off twice in the closing seconds. Royce is definitely having a sophomore slump. I still have faith he can be a decent reserve. He has the intensity. i'd like to think he could develop a la DeMarre. Just needs the outside shot and to play within himself. He tends to do too much (like thinking he's got PG dribbling ability).

 

[416Klawzz]

Drafting Exum ...