Am I nuts, or has this whole season sort of felt like a “farewell tour” for the Dennis Lindsey-built and Quin Snyder-led Jazz era?
Quin seems like a dead man walking and has since last year’s Playoffs exit. Smith and Ainge will give him the courtesy of waiting until he fails again in the Playoffs, but he’s gonna get the axe this year unless we make it to the finals.
This core of players seems cooked. Most of the rotation is aging, know they are aging, and know the team doesn’t have the defensive versatility to win it all right now. They know deep down this means one of two things — either they are inevitably going to fail in the Playoffs again or that them or their teammates are going to be traded. They are currently playing like they know one of these two outcomes is inevitable.
I don’t see how this gets better enough for us to win a championship this year. We are re-branding next year, and the oft-repeated word is Smith, Wade, and Ainge want to put their mark on this franchise. Tony Jones has repeatedly stated to expect big changes in the offseason. Whether you think that’s wise or not, I think that’s where things are going and where things will go barring some Playoff magic.
That being the case, I wish we’d be realistic and approach this deadline as the beginning of a re-tool that sets us up well for a bigger pivot in the offseason if the Playoffs predictably go as most of us think they probably will, but that also, could improve or at least not materially impact our chances this year.
I think this means we need to start getting off longer-term un-useful or geriatric salary while it still has positive trade value for other teams (see Bojan, Conley, Clarkson). We waited too long to cash in on Ingles, and he’s now a guy you’ve gotta attach picks to to move.
I would definitely try to move one of those guys at the deadline if I were Ainge if I could get an asset and a younger player like Smart that could be part of the next core with Mitchell and Gobert. Conley for Smart and first would be fine. The rumored deals around Bojan are fine.
Just seems like too big of a lift to try to get off all of Bogey, Conley, etc. in the offseason and too big of a risk that in the meantime their trade value goes from positive to negative. Gotta start now. Nothing drastic, just a first step.