Definitely Ace. Plus minutes will be tough to come by and that could easily cause anger as well - whether it's a vet who feels he's better than a young player or a young player who feels he's not being utilized.
What are you most concerned about with the Jazz for the 25/26 season?
- Thread starter SoberasHotRod
- Start date
If I was ranking my concerns I think it would be:
1. Our young players don't progress - It would suck to have endured the last 3 years and not have one solids starter out of our last 3 drafts.
2. We are unwatchable - I haven't renewed my league pass yet. I might do month to month instead of paying for the whole year and see how it goes.
3. The Jazz lose their 2026 pick - The likelihood is very low, but the severity could be devastating.
4. G-League problems - I really want to see Harkless as part of the rotation and see if he can be that defensive stopper at the guard position we really need. I really hope that Cody is good enough to not play in the G-League.
5. Front Office Stuff: I would be sad to see Lauri get traded, I also hope we don't have to sell low on some guys. I would like to see a plan forming for the offseason and am hoping we start putting together a competitive team next year.
6. Vets playing too much: I'm not too concerned since I don't think it's super likely or super harmful if it happens. I definitely don't want to see Svi, but I think the other guys should only augment our young guys and not take possessions away from them.
1. Our young players don't progress - It would suck to have endured the last 3 years and not have one solids starter out of our last 3 drafts.
2. We are unwatchable - I haven't renewed my league pass yet. I might do month to month instead of paying for the whole year and see how it goes.
3. The Jazz lose their 2026 pick - The likelihood is very low, but the severity could be devastating.
4. G-League problems - I really want to see Harkless as part of the rotation and see if he can be that defensive stopper at the guard position we really need. I really hope that Cody is good enough to not play in the G-League.
5. Front Office Stuff: I would be sad to see Lauri get traded, I also hope we don't have to sell low on some guys. I would like to see a plan forming for the offseason and am hoping we start putting together a competitive team next year.
6. Vets playing too much: I'm not too concerned since I don't think it's super likely or super harmful if it happens. I definitely don't want to see Svi, but I think the other guys should only augment our young guys and not take possessions away from them.
I'm not concerned about Ace. Everything I've heard is that he is a good locker room guy. I think he will mesh well. I guess maybe the concern is that he gets vocal with the media if he isn't happy. I don't think any of our vets will be a problem. I think they are all known as good locker room guys who kind of know their role on a team.
I'm not sure I understand this part. Unless Luari gets hurt, I don't know how his contract becomes an issue, and even then, we have to pay someone? In other words, what opportunities are we missing out on because of Lauri's contract?
GunterD
Well-Known Member
I'm not looking at that part for this year. He's under contract at 46-53 million per year through 2029. If he dramatically underperforms that, the contract is untradeable, and we are stuck with it, or we have to jettison valuable resources to get rid of it. If Bailey and one of our other draft picks hit, we'll want to start seriously team building before then. Kessler, Hendricks, Williams, George, Clayton, if they are pieces need to be paid before then or traded or potentially let go for nothing. Makes some of those decisions harder. If we switch to compete mode we would want to start acquiring complimentary pieces, which is harder with a big cap hit.
Basically its just when you're trying to build up a team, if you're dramatically overpaying a guy it makes that really hard, and my hope would be that we would be serious team building before 2029 when his contract expires.
Now I don't actually think that's really going to happen, I think he's a really good player and isn't going to dramatically underperform. I'm saying though that he creates kind of a dilemma. If he's good enough to justify that contract, he's probably good enough to drag what we've got of a team up past 8th worst in a league where the bottom 10 are all trying to outperform each other for how bad they suck, unless we are getting "creative" about minutes and rest. If he isn't good enough to do that and is just a complimentary piece, at that price tag he'll limit what the team can do for team building in future years.
To be a little more clear his contract is up at the end of the 28/29 seasons, none of our rookies this year or next year will need to be paid before then. It would be a good problem to have if our other rookie contract players are good enough to demand contracts large enough we would be worried about the cap.
According to Spotrac Lauri is projected to be taking up 26% of the cap in 28/29. If he's healthy, I can't imagine that he wouldn't be useful to our team. I also can't imagine that he couldn't be moveable, especially if we attach one of our many picks. Obviously not ideal, but not killer to our rebuild.
GunterD
Well-Known Member
OK, that's not as bad. I did the math in my head on the RFA rules wrong. So catastrophic was too strong a word.
Still think based on his performance we go one of several ways
1) Lives up to the contract, stays on the team, no artificial minute or rest restrictions. Team wins more than we want to and we spend the year worrying about simultaneously losing our draft pick and missing the playoffs.
2) Lives up to the contract, stays on the team, weird tank stuff happens with minutes. Team loses plenty but the team is gross to watch again.
3) Lives up to the contract, gets traded. We get some stuff back that probably doesn't end up as valuable as he would be and he goes and does awesome with some other team.
4) Fails to live up to the contract. Team loses plenty without egregiously tanking, but his contract limits our team building ability through 2029.
I don't like any of those options.
I dunno, 8th worst was 34 wins last year? Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe you could convince me that playing peak Lauri normal minutes we could still duck that without being gross.
We are currently projected to win 18 games. I don't even think it's possible for an off ball player who is only an average defender to have the type of impact you are concerned about.
If we lose our pick it will be a combination of things, but the most likely would be that one or more of our rookie contract players has broken out.
Im not overly concerned about the young players looking good/bad. The jewel is going to be who we pick. I just hope Ace looks like a starter and Flip continues to grow. I'm not going to stress if Keyonte/Brice/Cody/Hendricks all end up being mediocre.
framer
Well-Known Member
If we are playing that well with what we have on paper right now, we have already won. Flirting with the play in with this roster is the second best alternative to winning the lottery.
GunterD
Well-Known Member
I do hope so.
Last year we won 17, while pretty egregiously manipulating lineups and rest days to lose on purpose. If we aren't doing that this year, I don't see how we just win 18. The year prior we won 31 and had the 8th worst record. The year before that we won 37. I think we were projected to the very bottom both of those years as well. I think Lauri's play was a big part of the reason we didn't end up there.
If we are lose-on-purpose tanking again despite what everyone is saying, then fine, I just don't want to watch it happen again.
cctrackstar
Well-Known Member
i was excited about lauri's oversea's production for about ten minutes before i remembered that the team has traded away every productive vet on the team the second they have positive value. tanking sucks.
Miggs
Well-Known Member
46-53 will look like peanuts in two years. The contract is fine.
rjfan
Well-Known Member
I mean, ain't the case that guys that should be available for a 5/6th pick in the 26 draft having a better projections so far than the ones by 5/6th this year ?
Not that I disagree with the notion that shooting for the worst record and getting the 5th pick doesn't suck, nor that I actually follow predraft stuff enough to feel confident discussing that, but ain't that something that maybe would be worse for this 25 class than for the 26 ?
This time last year I thought the 25 draft was deeper in top end talent than 26. I don't think that is true anymore, but goes to show that you really don't know until they start playing games.
rjfan
Well-Known Member
I know things as culture and locker room enviroment are important, both for the proper development of our younger guys, and maybe keeping Lauri.
But at this point in our rebuild when 3 years into It we still don't have a new face of the franchise (Lauri is a number 2 at best, not a FP), not even clear candidates for that (fingers crossed for Ace, the hopes are there, but not a clear one where you're banking on that before he starts playing actual NBA games), I'm much more concerned about each and every young player being good enough ball players that I actually care that they keep their status as a Jazz player (and not that I want them gone), than how well they mesh together.
But at this point in our rebuild when 3 years into It we still don't have a new face of the franchise (Lauri is a number 2 at best, not a FP), not even clear candidates for that (fingers crossed for Ace, the hopes are there, but not a clear one where you're banking on that before he starts playing actual NBA games), I'm much more concerned about each and every young player being good enough ball players that I actually care that they keep their status as a Jazz player (and not that I want them gone), than how well they mesh together.
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