The trade winds are a'blowin'...

[David Hume]

Two years ago we were the number three seed and 20-7. Ainge took over and we’re since 74-84 and falling. We’ve got a lot of picks, though.

I recall a lamentable transaction Sir Dennis made, in which he traded Derrick Bernard Favors to Oklahoma Settlement AND a future “1st round draft pick” for a future second round pick which was essentially nihilistic, nothing, nothingness. The repercussions of this misadventure loom over the Jazz til this epoch. I have much more confidence in Daniel Ray Ainge.

 

[Lauri fan from HK]

He didn't have a market before we traded for him and he doesn't have a market now.

Fans always talk about "showcasing" players to "improve their trade value", which usually means giving a dude lots of undeserved PT so he can rack up some meaningless counting stats. NBA GMs make mistakes now and then but they're not THAT easily fooled. Everyone knows who John Collins is.

Collins' value bottomed out in Atlanta, but not because he couldn't make perimeter shots for a while with his wonky finger. It happened because he's not good enough to play in the kind of role he needs to maximize his skills. He needs a super spaced interior, constant involvement in high pick and rolls, rim protection around him, and a genius of a PG to get him the ball when he dives. He was always undersized for a "big", but for a few years he was also hyper athletic because he was juicing. That helped.

In the modern NBA game, a player who needs to roam the interior like that to function well also has to be much more of a hub type. The straight line, pogo stick rim runner still exists, but that's not a $25 million per year player... or an automatic starter. On the Jazz, Collins has looked lost because he still doesn't have his old "comfort zone" role. He's trying to be an opportunistic scorer and spending much more time on the weak side, but that's just not him. And almost nobody's trading for Collins to play like that while dhe makes 25 per year.

The trouble is, he's not the old alley-oop monster anymore either. He's lost just enough athleticism for it to matter. So what is he? Ideally, the ultimate luxury bench player who you play when the matchup is exactly right. The market is very small for guys like that.

Very well said. That's exactly my take on Collins. The cost of trading for him is low, but you make a trade to make your team better, and he doesn't. If we truly view Lauri and Kessler as two key big men going forward, we need a forward who excels in defense and offers some shooting and offense, like OG.

 

[infection]

I love how you ignore the fact that the jazz looked like crap the 2nd half of that season before he did much of anything. The Mitchell/Gobert era was dead at that point and you can thank Dennis Lindsey and his incompetence for that.

I’ve registered numerous complaints with the DL era, long before it blew up.

I recall a lamentable transaction Sir Dennis made, in which he traded Derrick Bernard Favors to Oklahoma Settlement AND a future “1st round draft pick” for a future second round pick which was essentially nihilistic, nothing, nothingness. The repercussions of this misadventure loom over the Jazz til this epoch. I have much more confidence in Daniel Ray Ainge.

That was Zanik.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

Gizmoduck sucks.

Gizmo sucks duck?