You're the GM this offseason. What do you do?

[Jingled]

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

This goes against my better judgment but what if we ran it back with the same core?

A 1+1 with Rubio.

Retain Faves. (And hire the world’s best shooting coach to work with him 2 hours every day).

Renounce Udoh.

Renounce Sef

Knowing how pissed off our guys are at having been bounced in five in the first round, and how unhealthy Mitchell was for a month or two at the beginning of the season, and what Rudy said in his exit interviews.

Convince Korver to stay one more year...hear me out.

We gotta win at least 53 games with that squad, right? 55 seems very possible based on what I said which would put us with a good seed too.

Knowing that, why not run it back? By retaining these guys, it continues the chemistry and then gives us salaries (Rubio, Favors, Korver, Exum) to use in a trade to really upgrade before the deadline.

Moreover, if we signed Sef to a one year deal, wouldn’t we be over the cap, and therefore have the BAE to use?

Dennis... is that you?

Hiring a shooting coach... I'm sure Favs has not thought of that... Pissed off matters when winning games?

We did this exact plan last year... do it again and get better results? When we could potentially take a shot at getting a third wheel or at very least churning some of the roster to find something better and more long term.

Thabo is washed... we would have the MLE and BAE to use but not a lot of roster spots.

This plan sucks.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I really think we end up doing the Conley deal... unless they get Zion I don't see them wanting to keep it together. I think part of the reason they kept him was to try and be good enough that their pick goes to Boston so they can rebuild unencumbered.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

I think you're in luck because I think DL would value getting Love over signing Niko.

I don’t want hum either.

 

[LoPo]

I'm not a huge fan of Gobert and Favors together. I've been saying that for years. However, this team needs Favors. I'm not 100% sold that we can win a title with Gobert playing 36 mpg at C in the playoffs. The versatility Favors provides off the bench is massive. Even if Favors is an overpaid Aaron Baynes, so be it. We need that guy.

And nobody wants to talk about it, but there is a chance that Favors is our starting center if Gobert demands a number we dont want to pay in two years. I don't like to think about it, but we need to. Bradley aint our guy.

I think the most critical move DL could make would be to extend Favors to a long term deal making around $12 per year. Lock him up, secure the front court for the next few years and find 2 scorers (one starter quality and one for the bench).

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[Handlogten's Heros]

Something that doesn't get talked about enough is that the Jazz have yet to figure out a sure-fire best 5-man lineup. So many of our players are good in certain contexts and not others. We need a real starting/closing lineup.

I think Royce's ultimate destiny is as a small ball 4 (he can play 2&3 of course). But if we added Conley having Royce or Jae at the 4 with DM, Ingles, Rudy seems like it provides enough of everything. If you had Niko you could add him to that mix. You ideally want all 2 way players and shooters.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'm not a huge fan of Gobert and Favors together. I've been saying that for years. However, this team needs Favors. I'm not 100% sold that we can win a title with Gobert playing 36 mpg at C in the playoffs. The versatility Favors provides off the bench is massive. Even if Favors is an overpaid Aaron Baynes, so be it. We need that guy.

And nobody wants to talk about it, but there is a chance that Favors is our starting center if Gobert demands a number we dont want to pay in two years. I don't like to think about it, but we need to. Bradley aint our guy.

I think the most critical move DL could make would be to extend Favors to a long term deal making around $12 per year. Lock him up, secure the front court for the next few years and find 2 scorers (one starter quality and one for the bench).

Sent from my VS995 using JazzFanz mobile app

I understand what you are saying, but we can get a good backup center with MLE, BAE, or sometimes at a minimum. That player won't have everything that Favs offers, but pivoting to a shooter at the 4 makes DM, Rudy more effective.

It'd be nice to have redundancy at every position... but that is a luxury and assets need to be allocated appropriately. If we landed Conley by some math miracle without giving up Favs, then sure keep Favs... he's been good, but his backup center minutes are something we can replace.

 

[LoPo]

I understand what you are saying, but we can get a good backup center with MLE, BAE, or sometimes at a minimum. That player won't have everything that Favs offers, but pivoting to a shooter at the 4 makes DM, Rudy more effective.

It'd be nice to have redundancy at every position... but that is a luxury and assets need to be allocated appropriately. If we landed Conley by some math miracle without giving up Favs, then sure keep Favs... he's been good, but his backup center minutes are something we can replace.

Sure, we could spend $4-6 million on a decent backup C. But that guy couldn't start in the unfortunate situation that Gobert gets hurt. I also dont think that guy could play next to Gobert for a handful of minutes like Favors has.

The answer at PF is Royce, Ingles, Crowder and Niang. And we would also have Favors there too. Outside of the extremely unlikely scenario we lure Tobias Harris, we need a dynamic scoring wing or maybe PG. Conley isn't the answer. He would be a really good overpaid bandaid. He isn't getting us past Golden State or Houston.

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[NUMBERICA]

I’m not that into Kevin Love, but he’s someone you could play at both PF and C and could resemble an answer for most of the Jazz’s most glaring issues right now. If you can jettison Exum in the deal, that’s really quite good for the next two years.

After that, you’re probably in a nightmare but maybe not.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Sure, we could spend $4-6 million on a decent backup C. But that guy couldn't start in the unfortunate situation that Gobert gets hurt. I also dont think that guy could play next to Gobert for a handful of minutes like Favors has.

The answer at PF is Royce, Ingles, Crowder and Niang. And we would also have Favors there too. Outside of the extremely unlikely scenario we lure Tobias Harris, we need a dynamic scoring wing or maybe PG. Conley isn't the answer. He would be a really good overpaid bandaid. He isn't getting us past Golden State or Houston.

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Sure that guy could start... GS start Looney and Bogut at center... Milwaukee starts Brook Lopez... Boston starts Baynes. We don't want to play Favs and Rudy together... I see that a negative rather than a positive. Favs has earned the right to start but the Rudy, Favs, Ricky pairing has hurt the team... adding an average player like Crowder in for Favs has opened up the offense.

I mean if Rudy gets hurt we are screwed... just like if KD gets hurt GS is screwed... Harden, Giannis, etc.

I like that Conley isn't the answer but retaining the same group is? If the answer at PF is Royce, Jae, Niang (ingles isn't a 4... doesn't rebound and gets abused in the post)… then why play a guy there that isn't the answer? So we can have a super sub backup center. Go pay Ed Davis, Robin Lopez, Kyle O Quinn, etc... for that good backup. If one of Rudy or Favs could shoot or playmake it would be different... Favs as a backup center is overkill and committing resources there that should be used to address other needs is exactly what will stagnate us long term.

I'd rather have a guy younger than Conley, but of the realistic options he is the best player for the price that we can pay imo. Bandaid or not... the guy is an all star level pg. I'd prefer to land Tobias but that is a long shot. There isn't one player that pushes us over Houston or GS... unless those teams lose players to FA or injury.

Conley
DM
Ingles
Royce/Jae
Rudy

With MLE or remaining cap space to fill out the bench is a great start.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Sure that guy could start... GS start Looney and Bogut at center... Milwaukee starts Brook Lopez... Boston starts Baynes. We don't want to play Favs and Rudy together... I see that a negative rather than a positive. Favs has earned the right to start but the Rudy, Favs, Ricky pairing has hurt the team... adding an average player like Crowder in for Favs has opened up the offense.

I mean if Rudy gets hurt we are screwed... just like if KD gets hurt GS is screwed... Harden, Giannis, etc.

I like that Conley isn't the answer but retaining the same group is? If the answer at PF is Royce, Jae, Niang (ingles isn't a 4... doesn't rebound and gets abused in the post)… then why play a guy there that isn't the answer? So we can have a super sub backup center. Go pay Ed Davis, Robin Lopez, Kyle O Quinn, etc... for that good backup. If one of Rudy or Favs could shoot or playmake it would be different... Favs as a backup center is overkill and committing resources there that should be used to address other needs is exactly what will stagnate us long term.

I'd rather have a guy younger than Conley, but of the realistic options he is the best player for the price that we can pay imo. Bandaid or not... the guy is an all star level pg. I'd prefer to land Tobias but that is a long shot. There isn't one player that pushes us over Houston or GS... unless those teams lose players to FA or injury.

Conley
DM
Ingles
Royce/Jae
Rudy

With MLE or remaining cap space to fill out the bench is a great start.

End of March Conley put up 35/8/5 with one turnover against the Rockets on a night where they played CP and Harden a ton and Harden scored 57... Memphis won the game. He did that with Bickerstaff as his coach and guys like Bruno Cabocalo starting. If he stays relatively healthy he may in fact be the guy that could put us over the top against Houston and the next iteration of GS. Would need some additional role pieces and development from our young guys.. but he is a high, high quality player and is only available for cheap because of his age. It's a relatively low risk high reward move.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Jrue Holiday is likely a better overall player than Conley and it is universally agreed that we would all love to have him... but he is currently not a better offensive player than Mike. More versatile and better defender... and younger... but he's had health issues too.

Jrue likely can't be had for 2 firsts, Grayson, and whatever else we offer. Conley can... It's nice to add guys that can be part of the core for 3,4,5 years but guys that can give you great value the next 2-3 shouldn't be ignored either. Rudy ain't got forever... Hayward grew impatient... How long is DM going to wait?

 

[infection]

It's nice to add guys that can be part of the core for 3,4,5 years but guys that can give you great value the next 2-3 shouldn't be ignored either. Rudy ain't got forever... Hayward grew impatient... How long is DM going to wait?

I think the “be patient” people fail to recognize this. This isn’t your grandfather’s NBA. Gone are the days of 7 year max contracts. Bringing up “we didn’t make the finals until 12 year into Stockton and Malone” isn’t a great comparison because there’s absolutely nothing about the fluidity of the league that’s similar, at all. Windows are now much smaller. If we had Donovan and Rudy on seven year deals, it’d be one thing. But we don’t.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I think the “be patient” people fail to recognize this. This isn’t your grandfather’s NBA. Gone are the days of 7 year max contracts. Bringing up “we didn’t make the finals until 12 year into Stockton and Malone” isn’t a great comparison because there’s absolutely nothing about the fluidity of the league that’s similar, at all. Windows are now much smaller. If we had Donovan and Rudy on seven year deals, it’d be one thing. But we don’t.

You can still keep 2 key pieces together long-term, but the stuff around them has to rotate... we aren't saying trade Stock or Malone... we are saying the other pieces need to move around. Roster continuity is really your top 2-3 guys but keeping everyone together 4-5 years doesn't work. San Antonio needed Duncan, Manu, and Tony Parker to each take a little less and sacrifice to stay together.

Having burned assets to acquire Hill and Ricky sucks, but should not factor into our future thinking... those are sunk costs. Conley is much better than those guys... I don't think he is a band aid or stop gap but would have a shorter shelf life than I would have hoped with our third piece. Have to hit a home run in a draft or have guys coming up behind Conley/Ingles or be able to pivot as they decline.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

One thing to keep in mind with Favors. He is non-guaranteed... it isn't a team option. So to clear his space he would need to be waived. To sign him long term to a smaller deal he would have to clear waivers... so a team may very well pick up that option before we could sign him. This is per Dan Clayton on twitter.

 

[NUMBERICA]

By the way.

At some point, we are going to have to get serious about figuring out how to replace what Joe brings to the table because he is and has been the third most-important player of this era. It's no mystery that the Jazz looked like **** when the Rockets keyed in hard on him, the only mystery is why no one else had figured out how important he was to making everything work.

Joe's obvious mortality is a reason to make win-now moves.

 

[infection]

You can still keep 2 key pieces together long-term, but the stuff around them has to rotate... we aren't saying trade Stock or Malone... we are saying the other pieces need to move around. Roster continuity is really your top 2-3 guys but keeping everyone together 4-5 years doesn't work. San Antonio needed Duncan, Manu, and Tony Parker to each take a little less and sacrifice to stay together.

Having burned assets to acquire Hill and Ricky sucks, but should not factor into our future thinking... those are sunk costs. Conley is much better than those guys... I don't think he is a band aid or stop gap but would have a shorter shelf life than I would have hoped with our third piece. Have to hit a home run in a draft or have guys coming up behind Conley/Ingles or be able to pivot as they decline.

I think Conley catapults you into a different level where it makes it more feasible to continue with talent. For instance, if two years of Conley keeps you at 1-3 in the west, it's pretty easy to get people to buy-in and fill in around that, or even sign larger guys, when we're making trips to the WCF. As we will see this summer, it's kinda hard to do that when you get bounced speedily in the first round. So even though he may have a short shelf-life, it pays other dividends that people don't recognize. (Not to beat a dead horse but this is one reason I've said we needed to cash in those first rounders for someone like Niko -- we'd have won more regular season games, positioned ourselves better for the post-season, and have been more attractive).

 

[Jingled]

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

So here is my offseason plan...

Get Conley using Exum a 1st and Favs (and Bradley for cap fodder if needed) or cap space.
Still leaves around 10-15M (depending on Kyle) to make a 4/50 offer for Niko.
Use the room exception on a quality backup center unless there is a wing that misses big money and is a good value... Ideally I think Taj Gibson on a 1 year 4.5M deal would work... other candidates Noah Vonleh, Kyle O Quinn, Dedmon (may not have Jazz DNA doe), Koufus, Lopez... could also move Jae for a backup center and use this exception on something else.
Buy a good second round pick to add a prospect to the pipeline.

 

[Jingled]

So here is my offseason plan...

Get Conley using Exum a 1st and Favs (and Bradley for cap fodder if needed) or cap space.
Still leaves around 10-15M (depending on Kyle) to make a 4/50 offer for Niko.
Use the room exception on a quality backup center unless there is a wing that misses big money and is a good value... Ideally I think Taj Gibson on a 1 year 4.5M deal would work... other candidates Noah Vonleh, Kyle O Quinn, Dedmon (may not have Jazz DNA doe), Koufus, Lopez... could also move Jae for a backup center and use this exception on something else.
Buy a good second round pick to add a prospect to the pipeline.

This is really good. I'd be very pleased with this type of an offseason.