Resetting Expectations -- Looking at the 7-year rebuild process

[Cappy_Smurf]

You got so much information wrong! There was never an opportunity to get Lillard or Barnes. And the Jazz got Rodney Hood with a Warriors pick. As long as your are listing missed draft picks (which is a stupid thing to do) why not mention they missed on Leonard twice?

The rebuild was pathetic. It shouldn't have taken 7 years. They tricked the fan base into believing in the rebuild and were cheap cheap cheap as long as they could be.

Not much in this post is right. There were some fans who could see a rebuild was inevitable back during the lockout year. The ceiling of that team was scraping into the 8th seed only to become roadkill. We had the dubs top 6 protected first rounder, and we also would lose our first rounder if we made the playoffs.

WORST mistake this team has made in 20+ years, was deciding to try and make the playoffs that year, instead of starting the rebuild. We could have traded away Millsap and/or Jefferson, and ended up with 2 top 10 picks in a draft with Lillard, Barnes and Drummond. We also would have been frontrunners to trade for Harden. It's possible we could have had a team with Lillard, Harden and then later, Gobert.

Either way, that was a sure chance to rebuild within a year or two. A handful of us argued back then, that the alternative was a long, drawn out rebuild. Sure enough, the next year we miss the playoffs and end up losing Millsap and Jefferson for nothing. Yeah, we used the cap space on some middling/late picks, but this was a huge opportunity lost, and the fact is that the only thing stopping it from being a complete disaster was drafting Rudy Gobert.

Those 2 picks that would have likely been top 10 picks that year, end up being traded for Trey ****ing Burke.

IMO, the colossal mistake of not starting the rebuild when they should have, is the reason KOC stepped down and why the Millers agreed to a ground up rebuild when they never would have considered such before.

Depending on how this season goes, we could end up in a tear down and rebuild situation again soon. I expect DL to have a short leash on running the treadmill. If nobody has a breakout year and Utah looks to be missing the playoffs or barely getting in, I wouldn't be surprised to see DL pull his best Hinkie impersonation.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I think the slow down offense was built for Hayward. It also emphasized the defensive side of the ball with Rudy as rim protector. We should speed it up now, but can play slow when the occasion suits it. We have two good low-post players in Favors, who I expect to fully recover, and Joe Jesus. Maybe Diaw too if we keep him.

The slow offense was built for the defense and because we had no damn PG or reliable scoring threat (which include Hayward at the time). I think over time, even as Hayward improved, it just became a habit to be slow.

 

[framer]

Naw, one of the biggest problems was having to wait seven damn years for Hayward to finally be an All Star. The thing is, that if that loopy *** actually went to Charlotte, he would have topped out as Chandler Parsons. No other team would have built around him like we did. Congrats, Haywood, you are an all star, but you will be the most expensive one in the NBA, worth your contract, but not a dime more. That isn't good enough to contend.

Let's see where Gobert, Hood, Exum, and Mitchell get with 7 freaking years of painstaking development.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

The slow offense was built for the defense and because we had no damn PG or reliable scoring threat (which include Hayward at the time). I think over time, even as Hayward improved, it just became a habit to be slow.

This. Originally the slow pace with the side-to-side passing and hand-offs was an attempt to manufacture looks for a team that lacked an offensive player who could break a defense. The Celtics do the same thing.