Jazz hire Celtics Assistant GM Austin Ainge as new President of Basketball Operations

[SoberasHotRod]

I'm not sure if I am. Don't recall what you said about it.

Just the idea that executives are going to tell us the truth on something that the league is going to want to punitively punish if they admitted to is crazy.

That's absolutely true, but not the vibe of the press conference or the answer to that question.

It didn't feel like GM speak, or trying to be careful to not get in trouble. The vibe of the conference was that there is a new decision maker in town who wouldn't have done things the way our FO have done things in the past.

 

[KqWIN]

TJ’s article echoes what we’ve all been saying. You have to pick a direction. It just so happens to be the case that one of the directions is a horrific option. The nepotism we have to worry about is not DA and AA, it’s Ryan hiring his buddy to do potentially stupid things.

I can choose to believe we’re not actually this stupid.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

A couple of other interesting things from the press conference:

- Ryan said it was his idea and not Danny's to bring in Austin.

Yeah, I'm sure it was.

I mean are they gonna say "Danny told me to hire his son"?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

That's absolutely true, but not the vibe of the press conference or the answer to that question.

It didn't feel like GM speak, or trying to be careful to not get in trouble. The vibe of the conference was that there is a new decision maker in town who wouldn't have done things the way our FO have done things in the past.

I just think it's a new GM who wants to endear himself to the fan base, much of which (on the casual side especially) don't like tanking.

I would bet good money we still see injuries lasting longer than one would expect, another segment of the season where Walker shoots 3s, the team not signing quality UFAs, and playing rookie contract players over vets on lower salaried deals.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

I just think it's a new GM who wants to endear himself to the fan base, much of which (on the casual side especially) don't like tanking.

I would bet good money we still see injuries lasting longer than one would expect, another segment of the season where Walker shoots 3s, the team not signing quality UFAs, and playing rookie contract players over vets on lower salaried deals.

Could be for sure.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

TJ’s article echoes what we’ve all been saying. You have to pick a direction. It just so happens to be the case that one of the directions is a horrific option. The nepotism we have to worry about is not DA and AA, it’s Ryan hiring his buddy to do potentially stupid things.

I can choose to believe we’re not actually this stupid.

Could you provide more details on the article? Specifically anything that wasn't said in the press conference. I don't have access to the athletic right now.

 

[homeytennis]

Could be for sure.

The forecast for next season could be mass contusions and hamstring tightness for the better players.

 

[KqWIN]

Could you provide more details on the article? Specifically anything that wasn't said in the press conference. I don't have access to the athletic right now.

There’s really not much beyond the idea that “team sources” back up the idea that it’s one or the other. TJ did not really say that one direction is more likely than the other, just that both are possibilities.

 

[infection]

A lot of people say retooling around Mitchell and Gobert was not possible because we didn't have enough future assets to make something happen. At the time we had owed our 22 FRP, which ironically ended up being Walker Kessler, and the OKC pick. It would be funny to give away that pick 4 years down the line so we can win 33 games.

We felt we had no assets, so we parlayed that first seed team into a bunch of assets but... most any of the assets in our chest of real value are... our own assets we would have had anyway. C'est la vie.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

There’s really not much beyond the idea that “team sources” back up the idea that it’s one or the other. TJ did not really say that one direction is more likely than the other, just that both are possibilities.

And by the two different directions you mean:

1. Ethically Tanking (AKA trading away vets)
2. Adding talent to try and win now.

 

[KqWIN]

And by the two different directions you mean:

1. Ethically Tanking (AKA trading away vets)
2. Adding talent to try and win now.

Yes, here is a passage that sums it all up:

Either way, team sources say, with whatever roster they have, the Jazz will try to win games next season. Whether the team is young and inexperienced, or whether the Jazz make impactful moves, there won’t be players sitting out chunks of games as we saw this past season, and they won’t be tanking.

 

[infection]

Anyway, I think the nepotism angle here is a real red herring. Imagine if it was announced that we hired some random guy from a front office who hadn't been a GM yet and all of the sudden he was supposed to be our decision maker. Would we not be asking WTF is going on? But now instead we're arguing whether AA is or isn't qualified for this position. The former situation would be a huge shock having us all wonder what any of this means but now it's swallowed up in the squirrel of "it's Ainge's son." Perhaps he's good. I have no idea. I've always argued that Ainge appears to be operating in a fashion where something falls out of the sky and works for your good, which may happen in Boston but doesn't happen here. I doubt the younger Ainge has that type of experiential bias to believe that, so for all we know this is a good thing. But bigger than this, we just took a team that's the closest we've been to a title in almost 30 years and cashed it in on Ainge-centered plans. If we needed to go in a different (assuming it is different) AA direction, then that time was two years ago. Not now.

But yes, KqWIN has a bit of a point about buddies, at least the way I interpret it. Ryan's connection to Ainge kind of reminds me of The Dude and Walter, where Walter gets him all riled up about a fake kidnapping and then screws everything up, but at the end doesn't have any skin in the game so tells the Dude to not worry about it when it burns to hell.

Spoiler for swears:

Spoiler

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDVrrZkUFeE

I don't know. This seems like we're distracted from the reality of what's happened to this franchise under Ryan's tenure. And all these people with the power to shape this franchise (save Ryan) have no long-term skin in the game, so they'll all be able to walk away like Walter and tell us not to worry about it.