Jazz/Rockets Will Be the 4th/5th Seed Matchup Again

[Handlogten's Heros]

Royce is a very good defender, but asked to do too much at times because he lacks size to be a 4. He hasn't been playing well recently but it happens even to the best. And why shouldn't we extend him? You would prefer to lose him in free agency?

He's not been very good lately, but he has generally been excellent. I really think dude may be nicked up. Maybe he's a bit fatigued... hasn't seemed like himself lately. Extending him was the right thing to do... taking him out of the starting lineup was the dumb thing to do.

 

[LogGrad98]

We are when we are because of the jazz FO motto for the past 8 years or so... Play it safe. TB was the safe pick. Even the trades for Mitchell and Gobert were really luck more than anything else because packaging minor assets to move up 2-5 spots is hardly a bold move. Conley was the safe move as it was obvious he was on the outs, so easily attainable, yet most everyone questioned the wisdom of the move. But it was a safe move. The g league guys are the epitome of safe and cheap.

But by playing it safe they get what they want, a mostly competitive team (that won't make a splash) at a reasonable price, yet maintain ticket and merch sales. Money ball, but without the brilliant analytics.

Think about where we would be if even just one of Mitchell or Gobert hadn't panned out. Or neither. Ouch.

 

[infection]

I think DL is kind of like a baseball player that swings when he's behind in the count because he watch a couple strikes come down the pipe... now he has to "protect" and swing at bad stuff rather than making the pitcher come to him or swinging at the perfectly good pitches he had earlier.

Probably the best analogy. Of course the “lol couch GM”ers could look at each pitch in a vacuum and say “well he had to swing because _____” or “he didn’t need to swing at that pitch,” etc. but nobody cares about the context.

 

[LogGrad98]

Really we would be better off at the 6 or 7. I think we match up better with the nuggs or clips than we do the ****ets. Better chance to get out of the 1st round if we can avoid the ****ets.

 

[Michaelr]

if they keep playing like the last 3, probably end up 8--6th seed.

 

[Jingled]

We are 30th in steals per game and 29th in blocks... this is a huge drop from where we were last year. The defense is mediocre now the offense is good... last year the defense was elite and the offense was mediocre.

We don't put any pressure on opposing offenses and don't turn them over at all... add this to our own turnover issues and basically on the nights we don't shoot really well we don't have much of a chance. Also 29th in offensive rebounds. To me I just think a lot of this boils down to Ricky, Favs, Rudy didn't work well enough to continue... but you might have gotten away with keeping one and replacing one of those pieces with a great shooter. We didn't pivot quick enough and then had to change everything. Now we are in the same spot standings wise, but gave up a bunch of assets to get there and have limited places to pivot.

the next 10 games will be telling. Lose the next game we have with OKC and I legit think we end up in the 6th seed, which may not matter because 5th or 6th we ain't getting home court advantage. Would rather not play the Rockets just because I hate them. This season is headed to a really bad place.

We definitely needed to add more offense to the roster but it's starting to feel like maybe we overcompensated and gave up too much defense, physicality and toughness. If we could've just kept Favors and Crowder and still added Bogey and Clarkson that would have given us a much more balanced roster and would've given us a huge offensive boost without giving up our defensive identity. Its obvious at this point that the Conley trade was a huge mistake.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Probably the best analogy. Of course the “lol couch GM”ers could look at each pitch in a vacuum and say “well he had to swing because _____” or “he didn’t need to swing at that pitch,” etc. but nobody cares about the context.

My son has been playing a lot of baseball the last few years... he's really a good hitter. He's generally a free swinger, but I've noticed when he watches a good first strike with the bat on his shoulder he overcompensates and gets himself in trouble swinging at balls in the dirt. He's a pretty good 2 strike hitter too... something about taking that first good pitch breaks him mentally.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We definitely needed to add more offense to the roster but it's starting to feel like maybe we overcompensated and gave up too much defense, physicality and toughness. If we could've just kept Favors and Crowder and still added Bogey and Clarkson that would have given us a much more balanced roster and would've given us a huge offensive boost without giving up our defensive identity. Its obvious at this point that the Conley trade was a huge mistake.

Like I think seeing how good the lineup numbers with Crowder (a poor but willing shooter) would have lead me to believe add a stretch 4 and maybe Ricky's issue will be okay. Like I think Ricky brought some things that DM needs next to him... big guard who is good on the defensive end (he was a little spotty, but was disruptive) and he got to loose balls. Like would Ricky work if we had Bojan? I think it was likely still not an ideal fit.

Or maybe you switch out Ricky and add a three and D guy and see if Favs maybe still works... like there were a few somewhat obvious adjustments many thought we should make... and we just didn't do it... and then we make all the changes at once and pay a tax for poor planning... and now we are soft AF.

 

[l Abach l]

Royce is a very good defender, but asked to do too much at times because he lacks size to be a 4. He hasn't been playing well recently but it happens even to the best. And why shouldn't we extend him? You would prefer to lose him in free agency?

So Royce is a good defender, but when you ask him to defend somebody that's a 3/4 who is bigger than him, he gets cooked. How is that a good defender? He was cooked by Eric Gordon, Cooked by Harden, Cooked by Derozan... he's cooked a whole lot to be considered a "very good defender". And yeah, I would prefer losing him in free agency because he doesn't fit the long term plans since we have Ingles/Bogey locked in.. we need athletic 4s, not more undersized niche defenders.

 

[Jazzmix]

So Royce is a good defender, but when you ask him to defend somebody that's a 3/4 who is bigger than him, he gets cooked. How is that a good defender? He was cooked by Eric Gordon, Cooked by Harden, Cooked by Derozan... he's cooked a whole lot to be considered a "very good defender". And yeah, I would prefer losing him in free agency because he doesn't fit the long term plans since we have Ingles/Bogey locked in.. we need athletic 4s, not more undersized niche defenders.

He had plenty of very good defensive games during half of the season, c'mon. And he is in the top of the league in 3 pointers percentage (yes, I know he does it only when wide open but it's still very valuable). And you think that a team from a small market which struggles to attract free agents should just let one of its few potential trade assets walk through the door?

 

[infection]

Is Dennis the kind of guy to go down looking? I think I may have even made that analogy previously.

“Yeah, I’ve got two strikes, but I don’t want to strike out swinging at a bad pitch! 0-2 all the more reason to take the next pitch! Make the other guy throw a strike!”

This is the kind of stuff he learned from KOC.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Is Dennis the kind of guy to go down looking? I think I may have even made that analogy previously.

“Yeah, I’ve got two strikes, but I don’t want to strike out swinging at a bad pitch! 0-2 all the more reason to take the next pitch! Make the other guy throw a strike!”

This is the kind of stuff he learned from KOC.

KOC and DL are "protect" guys... they'd be trying to foul the **** out of something once it got to two strikes... extend the at bat... get as much data as possible.