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The Indispensable Man

Who is most indispensable?


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colton

All Around Nice Guy
Contributor
Who on our team do think is most indispensable in the coming year? I.e., if we had to lose ONE player due to injury, who do you think would MOST impact our win total? And why?

Hayward or Favors would probably be the most reasonable choices, but I can see arguments for a couple of the other players as well. Curious about your opinions.


(Thread title taken from this outstanding biography of George Washington: https://www.amazon.com/Washington-Indispensable-James-Thomas-Flexner/dp/0316286168)
 
I'll go with a dark horse choice.

I think Diaw's passing, shot, leadership, experience and calming hand will be huge for this team. It will free up lots of space in the paint and whole team will be better when he is on the floor.

He is not our best player but he will be the typical glue guy but on steroids.
 
Gobert, easily. He is that one cog that allows us to do what no other team can do and can't really be substituted for on the roster. JJ and Hood can fill in a bit for Hayward, Lyles and Diaw can cover for Favors in a pinch, but if we lose Gobert, nobody can bring what he brings from a defensive standpoint. Gobert may not technically be our best player, but he is the identity of the team.
 
Imo Gobert and Hayward are the only choices.

Favors just misses the cut.

Sorry stoked but I think choosing diaw is laughable.

If diaw gets a season ending injury tomorrow then I would be looking at the jazz and still thinking 3rd seed and 50 wins.

If hayward, Gobert, or favors suffer a season ending injury tomorrow then my expectations go down quite a bit
 
QUIN!!!

He has plenty of talent, flexibility, veterans, youth, and more... any given night our 'indispensable player' will probably change due to the balance we have. So, I think Quin's ability to see that, recognize mismatches, and play chess with the talent and the holes other teams have.
 
Imo Gobert and Hayward are the only choices.

Favors just misses the cut.

Sorry stoked but I think choosing diaw is laughable.

If diaw gets a season ending injury tomorrow then I would be looking at the jazz and still thinking 3rd seed and 50 wins.

If hayward, Gobert, or favors suffer a season ending injury tomorrow then my expectations go down quite a bit

Just trying to be different. I know it's a stretch (to be kind). Knew all the answers would be 2-3 guys over and over. So I figured, what the hell...
 
For our team as presently constituted with its defensive identity, Rudy. We become a very different team with him gone. We might still even make the playoffs, but our ceiling is lowered.


Biggest drop in games won if Hayward leaves, but our team dynamic won't change much. Joe will just fill his role & the hope would be for Rodney Alec and Exum to stand up
 
I voted hayward but would change my vote to gobert if i could simply because, like framer said, we have no one who is really like Gobert to take his place.

Hayward is the best player but JJ, burks, and hood could all kind of replace him to a certain extent.

Basketball comes down to basic things really. Who is best at getting the ball into the hoop and who is best at stopping the ball from going into the hoop? Hayward is our best at one of those things and one our best at the other so thats why i originally picked him.
 
I think Hayward's the best player on the team, but our wing depth of Hood, Johnson, Burks, and maybe even Hill seems much greater than our depth at the bigs. So I think I have to vote for either Favors or Gobert. I was going to vote for Favors but Gobert going out again is pretty scary to think about because I don't have any idea how good Diaw will be for us as a backup center. And Withey is OK, but that's a big drop off. Hmm.... OK, going with Favors still. Lyles has shown flashes, but I think Favors going out would lead to a lot of losses.
 
This is the order I would put it in:

1. Favors (I think I remember hearing that the team pretty much lost a ton when we has been injured the last two years)
2. Hayward (he is our best player, but has definite depth beneath him, so it might not hurt as much as Favors)
3. Gobert (If he turns out to be the player that we thought he was after the Kanter trade, he is probably #1. )
4. Anyone else
 
It's Hayward to me. He's our best player. We'd have to play different without Rudy but I think his missing minutes would be soaked up by favs, lyles, diaw, withey and playing small.

The step from Hayward to Johnson is big and I don't think hood and burks can guard bigger wings. Plus I don't have any idea what burks can give us.

Wing depth is hard to find league wise whereas there are many decent centers we could acquire if we needed to.
 
Rudy is #1 for sure IMO. Hayward and Favors tie for #2. Remember, this team started winning not just because of how good Gobert is on the defensive end, but because you could tell he expected to win, and that really rubbed off on the other players. Up until Rudy became the starter, this team was still filled with self-doubt as for their ability to win games. Rudy made them all believers.
 
I'll go with a dark horse choice.

I think Diaw's passing, shot, leadership, experience and calming hand will be huge for this team. It will free up lots of space in the paint and whole team will be better when he is on the floor.

He is not our best player but he will be the typical glue guy but on steroids.

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I've already made a thread on the Gobert impact before.

He has a superstar impact on the team's performance.
 
Hill (or Exum). Lose one of those two and Mack or Neto get major minutes. That's a HUGE step down.

Lose Hayward and Utah still has a 3-man wing rotation of JJ, Hood and Burks.

Lose Favors and Johnson takes his minutes (with some going to Lyles.

Gobert is 2nd on my list, but Favors would start at the 5, Diaw plays backup and JJ and Lyles split the PF minutes.
 
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Hill (or Exum). Lose one of those two and Mack or Neto get major minutes. That's a HUGE step down.

Lose Hayward and Utah still has a 3-man wing rotation of JJ, Hood and Burke

Lose Favors and Johnson takes his minutes (with some going to Lyles.

Gobert is 2nd on my list, but Favors would start at the 5, Diaw plays backup and JJ and Lyles split the PF minutes.


Good point ! Hoping to not see Neto on the court at all this season.
 
Hill (or Exum). Lose one of those two and Mack or Neto get major minutes. That's a HUGE step down.

Lose Hayward and Utah still has a 3-man wing rotation of JJ, Hood and Burke

Lose Favors and Johnson takes his minutes (with some going to Lyles.

Gobert is 2nd on my list, but Favors would start at the 5, Diaw plays backup and JJ and Lyles split the PF minutes.

I think it would have to be losing hill and exum at the same time. Having Mack play 15 minutes ain't all that bad.
 
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