Jack Strop
Well-Known Member
Add that both deals were done with the intention of maintaining a winning team and convincing Utah's star player to stay.It's funny how similar the deals for Al Jefferson and Ricky Rubio were.
-taking back a large multi-year deal and sending back little/no salary
-Minnesota enjoys addition by subtraction
-Utah gets worse by adding a player that has a reputation for being a good player but has a number of catastrophic flaws
Can we just make it a point to not do a deal with the Timberwolves when they leave one of their stars on the curb for pickup?
I don't think either deal was necessarily bad.
1. Deron really liked the Jefferson deal. But the roster never really had a chance to come together. Jazz were likely playoff-bound at 31-23 until Deron & Sloan had their spat, Sloan quit and then Williams was traded. Imagine the very next season had Utah just brought in a SG (Williams, FA, Millsap, Jefferson and Hayward). Once Deron was traded, there was a good deal of roster mismanagement, bad drafting and poor coaching.
2. Rubio was brought in under the assumption Hayward was returning. This would be a vastly superior team with Gordon at SF. The inside would be more open for Gobert and Rubio would be dishing out assists to both, not trying to be a scorer.