Here's a controversial statement. Rudy and Mitchell are the most insignificant problems of this team. We can handle one player who cannot create offense for himself. We can handle one small guard who cannot defend. What we cannot handle is having defensive sieves throughout the whole roster and relying only on Gobert to cover for everybody else. What we cannot handle is stagnating offense in the clutch, the ball stopping moving, hero ball. We need our GM and FO to do their job and fix the fundamental problems of this team's construction.
We knew what some of the problems were last year and we did nothing to address them. We needed big, athletic defensive wings and instead we got a small center who can't guard, a homeless man's Gobert and another small guard as our main additions. What we needed was for Quin to force some accountability and defensive habits, maybe even sacrifice some of the regular season to develop a more versatile defensive system... but no - we continued relying on the exact same thing that had been destroyed the previous season by the first serious team we faced.
We need the FO and Quin to do their jobs!
I agree. We certainly needed more from both Don and Rudy this playoffs, they played horribly as individuals and did not show any sort of leadership. But as far as our plans going forward, they are the solution and not the problem. The FO failed miserably to put a team around them that makes sense. Quin completely failed to rise up to the playoff challenge and make necessary adjustments and game plans. The gross inaction by both the FO and Quin is the weak point.
It looks like the Don-Rudy combo will end soon because of personal grievances, but I don’t think this would have been the case if they had a better team and were doing better on the floor. Their relationship never may have been good to begin, but it was always fine when they winning. No professional relationship in the NBA is going to last if expectations aren’t met on the court.
It’s important to that the Jazz are able to mend that relationship, at least to the point where they agree to play together again. Having two players of that caliber on the same team is incredibly rare. It is significantly better than having a “clean cap” or being in a position to tank. The other options are available for eternity . You can always clean your cap and start tanking. The option to have two star players in their prime on long term deals is not. I don’t think people quite understand how much more of a power position it is to have them both versus one, the other, or neither.
It may be tough to retool the roster around them, but the Jazz have already blown several good opportunities to do so and I’m sure there will be more to come. Simply acquiring Powell and Covington, who LAC got for nearly nothing, would have dramatically changed the on court product and outlook of this team. We picked up House and Juancho out of the bargain bin and they were instant contributors because we needed their skill sets so badly. If we focused on better players who actually fit with Don and Rudy it would go a long ways.
Whatever the Jazz do, I hope they hold strong and don’t cede into the interests of Don’s camp or the lure of tanking. Trading Rudy for Don’s personal interests would be rash as would trading Don for the purpose of tanking sooner.
