SLC Dunk - Could the Utah Jazz make the playoffs after the NBA Trade Deadline?

[jazzyman]

46 games into the season, where will the Jazz end up?

We are now 46 games into the Utah Jazz season, and these are the current NBA standings: (courtesy of nba.com)

The Jazz are currently 4.5 games behind the 8-seed LA Clippers, and 5.5 games ahead of 15-seed Sacramento Kings. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the team changes after the trade deadline. Either we will have new players to integrate into the system, or even if no moves are made we will have players returning from injury such as Rudy Gobert and hopefully Dante Exum. With these players returning—especially Rudy—it will be interesting to see the impact on the team’s defense in particular. Right now according to ORtg and Drtg, the Jazz are about as middle-of-the-pack as you can be, but take into consideration we’ve been missing our best player for the majority of the season (he has only played 20 games so far), it gives me a little hope for an actual playoff push.

After 686 games:

76ers are now tied for the 3rd-best defense in the league. Clippers making a run toward Indy’s placement pic.twitter.com/7OJd4kFqez

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) January 22, 2018​

On the other hand, giving Dennis Lindsey a higher lottery pick would be very intriguing. ESPN has our chances of making the playoffs at 12.7%, but I don’t know how much I trust that number. I’m not saying we should tank, but if we ended up losing a lot, I probably wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

Remember those green seats that used to be oh so visibly empty on the tv screen during some of the rougher past seasons? Well it looks like we’re still trying to fill them, by sending them to Ogden Pioneer Stadium.

OGDEN — Expect some extra Jazz at the Ogden Pioneer Days rodeo next summer.

The northside fans at Ogden Pioneer Stadium will sit in former Utah Jazz arena seats.

The Jazz organization this week delivered 7,500 green stadium seats to Pioneer Stadium as a gift to Ogden. The seats were leftovers from renovations to the Vivint Smart Home Arena, home to the Utah Jazz.

“I don’t know if there will be a finer outdoor stadium in the United States,” said Alan Hall, Pioneer Days committee chairman. “It will be terrific.”

...

“When you are talking as many seats as we are trying to deal with, it’s a monumental undertaking,” Rodeo Director Dave Halverson said.
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I love how the Jazz didn’t just send loads of chairs to the dump, but rather are still putting the chairs to good use. In this era of “if it’s obsolete, it’s garbage”, it is refreshing to see a large organization recycling and repurposing in ways like this.

If you haven’t heard, the Spurs are the center of some Kawhi Leonard drama. Yes, you read that right. “Spurs” and “drama” don’t usually fit in the same sentence, or even the same paragraph. However, with Kawhi Leonard’s injury and continued rehab, there are rumors that the situation is creating a rift between Kawhi and the Spurs organization. ESPN reports:

Months of discord centering on elements of treatment, rehabilitation and timetables for return from a right quadriceps injury have had a chilling impact on San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard’s relationship with the franchise and coaching staff, league sources told ESPN.

Under president and coach Gregg Popovich and general manager RC Buford, the Spurs have a two-decades-long history of strong relationships with star players, but multiple sources describe Leonard and his camp as “distant” and “disconnected” from the organization.
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However, whether in attempts to keep things under wraps, or simply because ESPN might be incorrect, Spurs GM R. C. Buford responded in an intervew, “There is no issue between the Spurs organization and Kawhi. From Day 1 all parties have worked together to find the best solutions to his injury.”

Whether this is manufactured drama, or real drama, I cannot say. However, if Kawhi decides the Spurs are not for him, I know another team with a genius for a coach and a strong team core that is looking for a long-term solution at starting SF.

Dante Exum Sighting!

Dante Exum runs through a drill after practice. pic.twitter.com/vR6A3zNduS

— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) January 22, 2018​

Today, according to Kyle Goon, Dante Exum was running through a drill after the team’s practice. He’s looking like he might actually be ready to come back after the all-star game like was reported. This is exciting to see.

What do you think?


What are some trade machine ideas that you have?

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