Which direction do you want the team to go the rest of the season?

[Handlogten's Heros]

It’s more complicated than just direction. I have no doubt that long term the best thing would be to have our pick land top ten with a shot at Wemby.

What I’d like to see is us move Beasley KO and Vando for the best draft comp and young prospects available. If you continue to fight your way to the play in through Lauri, JC, Kessler, Mike, and Collin then so be it. Manage some minutes so Conley is at least healthy at year end but you can’t ask the coach and players to tank… it’s on the front office to remove some options so the coaches are forced to rely on the young guys in a good chunk of minutes. With Kessler and Lauri constantly leveling up I just don’t see us falling without a bad injury… something I would not want.

The extra draft capital can give us another bite at the apple or some ammo to move up… also frees up development time for a few guys. So it’s not a direction per se… it’s complicated.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Also cheese

 

[HermanG]

Jazz still need a lot more on their team. Team is going to somewhat fall apart when Conley is done. Clarkson might leave, that's another talent hole to replace. KO is going to be done before too long, another talent gap to replace. JV could leave after next year, etc. This is not a team deep with long term potential as is. Need some higher draft picks

I see 4 separate bad takes in few lines of text. Must be a record.

Gonna fall apart after Conley - bad take #1 - Our record without Conley 5-7, and that came before Lauri was annointed as the #1 guy and Kessler was playing 15 minutes against 2nd string guys. It was the JC/Beasley show.
KO leaving a talent gap - bad take #2 - Our record without KO 6-3 including 4-2 vs 2x CLE, PHI, MIN, LAC, WAS.
Not a deep team - bad take #3 - Then why do we win and/or play close even with KO, Lauri and Sexton all out against teams like Philly and Wolves?
No long term potential - bad take #4 - Our top 3 players are 21, 25 and 30 years old. Vando, Ochai, THT, Sexton, NAW... all young and contributing.

 

[SoUjazzfan]

Trust Ainge should be an option. For how much I disliked him for the Haywood debacle, he knows how to build a team. Make sure he stays around and see how much more magic he can perform.

 

[HermanG]

This is how crazy the NBA has been this year:
If we win those two insane last second finish games vs the Kings and all other results stay the same... we would be the 4th seed right now.

 

[fishonjazz]

They should be losing.

Even if you up can't get into the top 6, 7-14 is probably a decent amount better than 15-19.

Jazz still need a lot more on their team. Team is going to somewhat fall apart when Conley is done. Clarkson might leave, that's another talent hole to replace. KO is going to be done before too long, another talent gap to replace. JV could leave after next year, etc. This is not a team deep with long term potential as is. Need some higher draft picks

Maybe the team will surprise if conley isn't there. As Tremendous Upside said, conley has sucked in a lot of games this season. Plus I remember you saying something about how important KO is to the jazz but we seem to be just fine without him. Maybe you will be wrong about a conley-less jazz too.

 

[gomretat]

This team isnt tanking and has never attempted to do so. I dont see us stockpiling more picks unless they are this year and next year. If we trade, we trade for young/proven talent and immediate picks. I dont think we move JC and I think he is back next year. Smith wants him for more than basketball reasons. It wouldn't surprise me if we turn down decent offers for Mike. If Mike gets traded we will be getting a lot back in return. Even when he is not scoring he keeps the team together with the way he runs the offense and what he teaches the young guys is worth a lot to Hardy.

 

[HermanG]

This team isnt tanking and has never attempted to do so. I dont see us stockpiling more picks unless they are this year and next year. If we trade, we trade for young/proven talent and immediate picks. I dont think we move JC and I think he is back next year. Smith wants him for more than basketball reasons. It wouldn't surprise me if we turn down decent offers for Mike. If Mike gets traded we will be getting a lot back in return. Even when he is not scoring he keeps the team together with the way he runs the offense and what he teaches the young guys is worth a lot to Hardy.

Pretty much most of the points I've been shouting at the clouds. Except I used 10000 words to make them and you used 100 or so.

 

[sip]

Honest question for most of you guys. Do you just want to be a good team going forward or do you want to actually compete against the griz, pelicans and thunder for the chance to go to the finals in the future?

 

[fishonjazz]

Honest question for most of you guys. Do you just want to be a good team going forward or do you want to actually compete against the griz, pelicans and thunder for the chance to go to the finals in the future?

I want to compete against the best. Thank god we have an mvp all first team nba caliber number 1 option on the roster that we just need to build around to get to that level. And we have the assets and financial flexibility to build a great team around Lauri, our superstar.

 

[Korisfani]

It's all gravy.

The Jazz's top assets are
1) Players on the roster
2) Other teams' picks
3) Their own picks

Before the season that wasn't probably many peoples view. But now Markkanen and Kessler are two super-solid future pieces and Ochai and Sexton seem like they might have a role as well. Also, the value of the Minny picks has gone up quite a bit.

Teams that go full-on, bottom-feed tanking usually only have their own picks and no other real assets = only option is to maximize the value of those. In that scenario they're also building up from pretty much zero. Whereas with the Jazz quite a few FA players might look at Markkanen and Kessler and think that's gonna be a good team to play for - instead of a 20-win team with all 19yos.

Doesn't mean suddenly trading picks away to get better this season. And if Ainge sees value in trading anyone away, go ahead and pull the trigger on those. However, I don't think an option to tank this season exists. It doesn't make sense and anything this "core" does together in terms of winning, competing, growing and maybe making it to a playoff round is more valuable to the future than upping the Jazz's own pick a couple of spots.

Markkanen has only ever played two play-in games, the rest not even that. In terms winning and competing for a championship some time in the future, you obviously need the right players. Then even if you think you now have the right players in two-three years time or whatevever, if none of them ever has been on a winning team or been to the playoffs, you're still a long way away from actually winning. And now is a good time as any to get that experience.

 

[Elizah Huge]

We are way ahead of where any of us thought we’d be. We already have an All-Star and borderline All-NBA player. We also have one of the best rookies from the draft who also looks like a building block for the future.

I would look at trading Beasley/KO/Vando. Those three could be traded for players and picks. I think we wouldn’t really miss a beat without them and we could potentially be even better with more playing time for the young guys. That is the best case scenario in my opinion.

Plus on top of everything we are going to get a lottery pick from Minnesota.