DAUNTING – Utah Jazz ROUTE to TOP laden with scary combinations | Utah Jazz Podcast
Oh dear. Did anybody else have the same reaction last night? What a daunting task. If even all goes right AHEAD OF US. AH, IT’S NEXT ON Locked on Jazz. You are locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. >> How are you? I’m David Lock, radio voice, Utah Jazz, Jazz NBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz. It’s your daily podcast in the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. Thank you so much for making Locked On Jazz your first listen. And thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Today’s show, we will get our wills Wednesday. Interesting comment about why some guys play sometimes and sometimes don’t others. Um and he kind of very humble comment um as well. Uh we’ll talk about Lowry and Keonte have really been incredible in regards to their consistency. It’s not a hot take or anything, but it’s worth kind of shouting out. Last night was an example of the new NBA math. We’re going to start looking at the landscape of the Western Conference and the mountain we’re trying to uh to climb here. And honestly, I felt last night was like, oh, that was literally my reaction last night. Um, today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And first off, a quick shout out. Welcome to the Everydayer Club to Adam Curtis. Glad to have you aboard. To Andrew, uh, my type face is small, but I think that’s Lufusa. I don’t think I have that right. Um, apologize. I should have had that right, but I didn’t. Um, and to Adam Lavine and as well to uh, Knife Dog and our fifth member yesterday, Matt Larson. So, good sign up yesterday for the Everyday Club. So excited about that group. I’ll tell you more about it. Uh, you did get the part two of the Kevin Pelton interview yesterday. Was exclusive just to the uh, Everydayer Club uh, where we talked about league trends. Um, maybe I’ll circle it back here at some point, but anyway. All right. So, did anybody else watch the Spurs last night and suddenly go, “Oh crap, Victor Webbyama, Dylan Harper, and Stephen Castle?” Yeah, that’s their core. Victor’s going to break the game. Stefan Castle can’t shoot yet, but it’s coming. He’s really good. I got to give a friend of mine, who’s a scout out there, I don’t know if he’s listening to the show today, who was like, “Yeah, he’s gonna be really good.” And I didn’t buy it. And I’m wrong. Stephan Castle is gonna be really, really good. He’s Dwayne Wade kind of, honestly. like really good. And Dwayne Wade never figured out how to shoot. Um, but he figured out. But Victor’s 21. Stefan Castle is I’m not even trying. I I I I just want to share this. It’s just like I need like I’m having therapy with you, is 21. And Dylan Harper, who I think’s going to be really good, too. I mean, maybe it’s one night and, you know, hits a bang down three and looks like he’s fearless. And he’s 19. So, the core of the San Antonio Spurs is two big guards and a monster. And yeah, time will tell, contracts, things like that. Obviously, this league sacramento can attest to you, but they have pretty good leadership. Oklahoma City’s got Shay Jaylen and Chad. It’s kind of the same model. It’s two really good wings and a monster in the middle who can move and do all sorts of things. Like we’ve got we’re trying to build this thing up right now. And if we’re really building it to try to win a championship, which I admire and love Ryan and Danny and Justin and Austin for, and I understand that’s your title. I’ve always thought it’s impossible. Like I’ve always said like just build me for a top four team in the West and like hope I get two sprained ankles. Um and maybe that’s the answer here is let’s you’re not you’re going to have to just get lucky with San Antonio and um Oklahoma City, but we’ve got to like how are we what is the route? I’m not TRYING TO MAKE YOU JUMP OFF A CLIFF. I’M SORRY. But what is the route where we have to get three guys better than WBY, Castle, and Harper? And we got to get three guys better than Sheay, Jaylen, and Chad. Shay and Victor are going to be the number one and two players in the NBA with Joic and and Luca who’s also in the West. It’s interesting that ESPN did the top 25 under 25. They did it wrong. They didn’t include Keonte and they did include other players who shouldn’t be on there, like seven of them. But most of the guys are Eastern Conference guys except for the fact when you like suddenly dig into it, there’s enough Western Conference players. So here’s the mountain. Here’s what we’re trying to do. Like this is hard. It’s daunting. So first thing is we’ve got to build a roster where our core guys, and we’re going to have to do it with depth and creativity, but like Oklahoma City’s done that very, very well. That’s a hard thing to be better than Oklahoma City at. that’s got a core guys that are better or as good as Shay, Jaylen, and Chat. And they’re in, you know, Shay’s a little older. Um, and by the way, it is worth noting that only one of those is from tanking. Um, you know, like Sheay came is 27, so Shay’s Shay’s in championship age right now, and that is obvious because they just won one. And Jaylen and Chad are younger. Um and obviously injuries a lot could be derailed like not everyone’s staying right but okay then the next group is Castle and Harper are all 21 or they’re going to be right there with us no matter what we do in Wigro we’re going to have to get better than WBY Castle and Harper. Houston’s interesting to me because they just keep winning and they’re playing the NBA new math and they’re doing it really really well. I’m not as daunted by their group. Now, Alvin Jingun is 23 and Aman Thompson’s 22. And I guess we’ll see if Yeah, I don’t I don’t think Reed Shepard’s the next one. I don’t think Jabari Smith’s really actually the next like he’s a player. So, that’s good. I mean, that we’ve got to get someone who’s 23, Alfred Jingun, 22, I’m on Thompson. It doesn’t daunt me the same way the Spurs do. They’re going to be good. Alfing’s going to be good. flags sitting there at 19 in Dallas. They don’t have any other pieces of it. They’re gonna have to build it and figure it out and trade Anthony Davis. They’re going to go through the process and they’re going to be nipping at her heels with a 19-year-old Cooper flag the whole time, but they don’t have another piece. Luca’s 26. Honestly, the Lakers have Austin Reeves, who’s 26 also, 27, but they don’t have another piece. I mean, they have LeBron, which is, but they don’t have another young piece. So, and and they’ll have to acquire they’re going to try. They’re not acquiring young pieces. That’s not how the Lakers are doing it. So, you look at this landscape now. Luckily, Sacramento seems somewhat helpless. New Orleans, I just can’t buy into the Clippers are disaster. Portland, actually, Shaden Sharp, I guess. I just maybe like Shaden Sharp and Keonte are probably somewhat similar at this point in their career projections and where they are. Sharp still doesn’t shoot it great. Um, but he is averaging 225 and two and he’s seemingly making a little bit of a jump this year. Also, if we’re being honest, he’s shooting percentage is up. His three-point shooting is still at 30%. He’s just still not particularly effective. He’s gone from three free throws to five. Maybe we should give Sharp that. And then they have Denny Avida who’s kind of their Lowry who’s 20 now just going to turn 25 in January. So maybe I need to include Portland in there too. They’re probably on more equal footing to us. And who knows with Scoot. They’ve just been hurt so much and I don’t think they really have a next one after you know Scoot hasn’t even played this year and they have some nice pieces but Kamar so it’s like really literally if you’re trying to get to the top four in the west of the future maybe they’re that’s the route Joic is 30 Jamal Murray’s 28 they’re going to be hanging around for you know but if you’re talking about four or five years ago from now how are we in the top five in the four years from now how are we in the top four in the west like Castle and Harper holy crap Shay Jaylen and Chad they’re gonna I mean I just can’t see that falling unless somebody leaves and then you’re going to have to be better than whoever Dallas puts around Cooper flag an old Denver team whatever Giannis and Don Luca Donuch combination exists in LA Shangun and Aman Thompson at 23 and 22 and whatever they build around that it that’s going to be tougher than I think people realize Reed Shepard’s really got to come together and then the wild card in all this is where’s a hand I don’t think it’ll Minnesota. So, where’s Ant? Ant’s going to be the next one. The minute Giannis decides what he’s doing, everyone’s going to be talking about Ant. I don’t think he’s going to be in Minnesota. And Minnesota does not have a great future. Minnesota, we could actually end up losing the last draft pick to Minnesota. They could be top three protected by that point. Minnesota feels like that is about to run out um quickly. I could be wrong, but um I mean, they’re very, very good. could end up in the Eastern Conference Finals again, but Julius Randle’s in his 11th year. Mike Connley’s in his 18th. Rudy’s in his 12th. Like, I think that one’s running. That one’s about to run out. And then Ant looks around and says, “I’m I’m out.” So, four years from now, the Jazz have to build something that’s better as good as because I don’t think I mean, if you’re going to win a championship, you got to be better than, but as good as Webby, Castle, Harper. That feels impossible. I’m I’m not lying because of Webby, Jay, Jaylen, and Chad. That doesn’t feel impossible because it the game can change. But that feels like a lot. Whatever Dallas builds around Cooper Flag’s going to be awfully hard to combat because the only question watching Cooper Flag the other night, as I said on the broadcast multiple times, was not whether he’s going to go to the Hall of Fame, it’s whether he’s going to be an MVP. So, this is hard. Wow. I don’t know what I thought it was going to be, but it just struck me last night watching San Antonio as a Jazz fan. Holy crap. Wendy’s 21, Castle’s 21, Harper’s 19. And I promise you, Austin, Justin Xanic, Ryan Smith, Will Hardy, everyone else had the same reaction last night. You couldn’t have watched that last night and not been like, “Oh gosh.” So, it’s going to be hard. Like, Ace is going to have to hit. He’s got to progress and I don’t know like the question leads right to Lowry’s timeline. He’s 28. Like I think you keep him because at 32 he’s still valuable to you. You can handle his contract and we need good players. Unless you think you can make a trade with Lowry that gets you another 23 or 22 year old and then frankly also you leads right to our traffic. Like we’ve we really we really need something significant out of this draft. Significant. And right now we don’t have draft pick. Time will let that go. That can get fixed. All right. Consistency of Ke of uh Lowry and Keonte. We’ll touch on that. The new NBA math was on display last night. Um, and some other things before we get into Will’s Wednesday on Locked on Jazz. The Wednesday edition of Locked on Jazz is brought to you by our good friends over at Intercap Lending. Steve Carter is our guy. He’s our own personal loan officer. He’s been amazing. I love sending people there. Interest rates are kind of working their way down. And Intercap Lending is there for you. They’re not just a mortgage lender. 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I’m sending you all my notes, extra access, insider information like what the shooting, not like insider, but like shooting percentages of the catch and shoots and off the bounce of our opponents. All this prep that I do, I send over to you. We’re interacting throughout the game as well. So, it’s all the all access program. That’s $15 a month. Plus, you get a daily newsletter. Plus, you get empty the noggin. Plus, you get 15% off at the team merch store. a lot of stuff there. Go to locked onjazz.supcast.com. That’s locked onjazz.supcast.com to get to sign up for that. That’s the everyday club. Locked onjazz.supcast.com. All right. Such an interesting conversation kind of on this now that you’re like done with the daunting aspect of like how do you what do you do? Like what’s the right window? you. There’s nothing we can do as a franchise that’s not going to have us have to deal with WBY Castle and Harper. Like the two draft lotteryies that San Antonio won, like basically with Harper 2 and WBY won like we’re we’re like that happened. There’s nothing we can do about it. Like it we’re kind of like right. There’s nothing we can do about the fact we’re not always going to be competing with the Lakers who are going to take in major market talent and we’ve got this Oklahoma City juggernaut. So then the other question is like what’s your timing and maybe timing now is as good as any frankly you know Shenoon and Aman Thompson and Houston have to develop but I think that’s going to be tricky. You’re going to be dealing with whatever Dallas does with Cooper Flag and there’s going to be another one and you know all this changes of New Or New Orleans is I’m not sure capable of winning frankly. They just have not they’ve had Zion they’ve had Anthony Davis I’m not sure like if they got AJ De Jansa tomorrow I’m not sure that I’d be suddenly worried about New Orleans until honestly ownership changes or something. the same way you feel about Sacramento. If they suddenly get AJ Deamata, they’ll be good, but like yeah, like something’s got to change there. Um, so that’s the landscape. Like what do like it’s an interesting question of like understanding that landscape and how daunting that is. Does it change anything we’re doing? I mean, I just do think it probably puts more we need another piece really really badly, right? We need we need this thing to be kee ace and somebody. And then the question is like where Lowry fits and I think Lowry fits because then he’s your top player and you’re paying him and it works and you’re and you’re accelerating. The other one about Lowry and I think this is really important and Keante is the consistency this year. Now, I’ve been a little we the TV staff has this um the TV staff has this really cool note that Scott Rogers, who does amazing work, puts out every day and Tyson Euing, who does amazing in-game stats for us, puts out all the time right now, which is this, you know, guys, the the scoring duo that is Keante and Lowry. And on I’ll be honest, on one level, I have been reluctant to jump aboard this stat. doesn’t ring to me quite the same way as some others because to me we don’t have a third scoreer. So we have no other choice. And so they have no other like route by which we’re going to score. And you just score. But you start to look at it like Lowry’s been over 39 times this year. Key’s been over 36 times this year. He’s been over 12 in his entire career. There is a pure necessity of all of this that like nobody else on our roster can go put up big 20 point games with any consistency. It’s all based on opponents. So, but Lowry’s averaging 28 points a game in incredibly efficient matter in an effective field goal percentage that’s pretty good at 54%. And it’s not the 58 he was his all-star year 59 when he won most um I think it was 59 that year 58 the next year but it’s really impressive and you suddenly stare down Lowry’s game log and yeah we need 25 out of them every night and sure like but it’s 33 26 30 29 yeah 18 against New York and 18 against Houston we’re going to lose 17 against Golden State we’re going to lose 28 it’s pretty impressive. aggressive and Keant’s doing it too. And the burden on them each and every night with the scouting report there I think might outweigh my original kind of eh to this stat. Like I’m kind of saying I’m wrong. I I’m a little lukewarm on the excitement over this because of who else is possibly scoring for us. So yeah, they score over 25. They’re the number like they’re the number two scoring duo. All these kind of things in the league like but like teammates with 25 in the same game, they now I think have done it 10 times. Luca and Reeves have done it eight. Jaylen Johnson, Alexander Walker have done it five. I think that’s actually a larger indictment on the where the rest of our roster isn’t necessarily a huge, oh my god, they’re amazing because nobody else is scoring, so they kind of have to. But the thing that’s jumping out to me about that is the level of general efficiency by which they’re doing this. You know, it used to be about 30 40% of the games Kee would shoot 33% or below. It’s not like it’s gone. He’s still done it, I think, six times this year. Five times this year. Five or six times this year, which out of six out of 25 games is still a little over 30% or right. Is that right? I think so. Um or maybe it’s over No, six. Yeah, right. It’s right around there. Um but it’s it’s so different, right? I mean, he has done it one night he went to the free throw line 11 times, so that hides it. Two of the other times he went to the free throw line seven times, so that hides it. In the double overtime game, he went to free throw line 10 times, ended with 33 points on 27 shots, which isn’t great, but at least he’s scoring more points than shots taken. And his overall just per night in and night out is just pretty incredible right now. So, the tip of the hat to the level of consistency, yeah, I mean, Keonte had two absolute bombs in there. Oklahoma City and Houston just took him out. But other than that, if you look at Keonte’s last, I think 12 games in the midst of in midst of two bombs, he’s been over 25 in all but three of them. That’s pretty incredible. In Ke’s last 13 games, he’s averaging 26 points a game, and he’s doing it on 48% shooting and 41% shooting from three. That’s real. That’s just bonafide real. All right. Last night was new NBA math that has changed the game. Three-point shooting was the answer. Things like that. There’s a new NBA math and last night was that plus Wills Wednesday when we continue here on Locked on Jazz. Today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at Game Time. When you get want to get into the action, game time makes it easier, more straightforward. And this year with the World Cup coming back to North America for the first time since 1994, 48 teams, first time ever, going to be massive. Let’s be honest, getting tickets, it’s usually the hardest part. 1994, I think I biked to Stanford Stadium, got a ticket, and walked in to see Brazil play somebody or Colombia or something like that. Yeah, we’re not doing that anymore. And that’s why Game Time app is clutch. Finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. Game time. You can track prices down in real time. Get alerts when great seats open and buy tickets the moment they hit the app. It’s puts the power back in your hands and makes going to World Cup realistic instead of impossible. Plus, pull up the app and the layout is so simple. You can just look through the matchups, compare seat views, you pick a game, tap a section, you have seats locked in within minutes. The seat view features a game changer. You literally see what the pitch looks like from the exact seat before you buy. Take the guesswork out of buying World Cup tickets, every match, every concert event with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase at Game Time. Game Time 20% off with Locked On NBA. Today’s show is also brought to you by Robin Hood. Nobody knows your money goals better than you. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money with tools that work as hard as you do. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and crypto all in one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood’s Legends advanced tools or take advantage of new Robin Hood strategies. With a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts, you can expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at Robin Hood, your money.com. Robin Hood.com/yyoumoney. That’s Robin Hood.com/yyoumoney. Again, that’s robinhood.com/yyoumoney. Your money your move with Robin Hood. All right. NBA new math. Last night, the New York Knicks uh won the game on offensive rebounding. And this is kind of where the league is now. You win the possession battle. So, the Knicks last night, neither team turned it over at all. The Spurs turned it over eight times. The Knicks turn it over two. So, the Spurs 10, excuse me. So the Spurs were plus two, but then the Knicks had 23 offensive rebounds and the Spurs had 18 offensive rebounds. So the Knicks were plus five and that gave them the plus three and they end up winning the game that extra possessions. That that’s literally where the math is now because everyone’s shooting the same amount of threes in the game now. So there’s obviously if you have a hot shooting night, you just win. We know that. But the one the the way you’re trying to win the percentage in the math game is you’re trying to win it by grabbing more possessions. That game had an incredible pace to it last night. Um each team I think played 94 possessions. The offensive ratings were high. I think Knicks were up at 132 and the Spurs were at 120. So there was not a lot of defense in that game. But the incredible one was that the Knicks grabbed 49% of their misses. And then on Mitchell Robinson specific offensive rebounds where there were 10, they averaged like two points a possession on all the Knicks last night averaged 1.5 points off each of their offensive rebounds. It’s pretty crazy number. So, their half court offense last night and clean the glass seems to be having some problems today was not elite, but their putback and their off live offensive rebounds game was incredible. And that’s where you kind of win these games now. And that’s the new NBA math. That’s what Houston’s doing, grabbing 40% of their offensive rebounds. We’ll get into it more and maybe I’ll do Pelton’s going to be in town for the uh stack cast and Pelton and I maybe we’ll sit down and and just do an audio uh shot while we’re hanging out because he’s going to stay at the house. Um about this, but it just changes everything. Like when you start thinking about taking an off a shot offensively and you start thinking about we’re gonna get a 33% chance for an offensive rebound on it, it really changes the game. If you’re suddenly taking shots in transition and you get less offensive rebounds when you miss in transition than if you do in the half court, then maybe you’re better off getting in the half court. Like, I mean, there’s just crazy math equations here on all this. All right. On Wednesdays, we like to do Will Hardy’s Wednesday. This week, there hasn’t been as many press conferences, so I’ve only got one piece for you. Um, and I thought, but I thought this was really interesting. um where Will was talking and I asked Will about playing Isaiah Collier the other night when I really thought I had said on the broadcast maybe either on the air just to Will or to Ron I don’t think we’re seeing Isaiah for a while. He had thrown two really bad crosscourt passes that were intercepted for fast breaks the other way and it looked to me like he just was out of it and he hadn’t played the second half the night before and Clayton was playing better and I I really thought um that we were we he was going to be benched for a while and instead he comes out plays the second half plays great kind of finds his vibe leads us to the win in Memphis and plays great again the other night helps us leads us to the win in Dallas and Will’s found this guy now. He’s impactful and looks great and what a turnaround. So, I asked Will before the Dallas game like how do you decide how do you know when you’re benching, when you’re not benching, all that kind of stuff. His answer is super interesting and think about when he starts talking about the spacing and some of those mistakes that he actually puts on himself. Think about the two passes I mentioned that were just terrible. Seemed to me watching like those are terrible passes. What are you doing? Well, there’s a different opinion on this. Here’s Will Hardy on this. you know, the results are are up and down and you know, there have been moments where I haven’t gone back to Z and usually those are because of the the process on the court, some of the decisions, >> um it might not be a game from a lineup standpoint where it’s made sense, but you know, against Memphis, I felt like he didn’t have a great first half, but I didn’t feel like it was his fault. You know, I I was looking at it thinking, hey, there are things that I can do better to put him in a better position to be successful to try to help us. Um, you know, I I never want to be overly critical of our players in terms of the result. Like, if we’re if we’re getting good shots and they’re not going in, that’s one thing. If I think that our process is screwed up, that’s a different thing. And I felt like against Memphis, the first half as it related to Zay was more of a me problem than a Z problem. Um I felt like when we we changed our spacing a little bit and put him in, you know, some of those empty side pick and rolls, I felt like he really showed his ability to get in the paint. Um, so it’s it’s it’s always you’re trying to understand what’s actually happening. Um, and believe me, sometimes the problems are because of me. >> Couple of injuries. >> I thought that was pretty interesting to hear him say that that and you know, you wonder sometimes guy has a bad game. Well, maybe maybe it’s actually he wasn’t put in position to have success. Interesting thought. I’ll leave you that one. All right. I did not mean today to be like I’m just sharing with you guys like that’s where I am what I thought while I was watching the Spurs last night like oh god we got two monsters we’re going to have to get through to get this thing done. But it’s a process. It’s fun to watch it happen. Uh you can thank you very much. Tomorrow on the show we’ll get ready for the Lakers game. We’ll look at some other items as well. All prepped up some Lakers stuff. So we’ll look at that. A we’ll probably dig into Austin Reeves. Is he really a free agent target we want to look at in the off season uh on tomorrow’s show. You can follow me on socials at Dlock9. I’m doing a lot of my work. I’ll be honest with you, my socials are really, if it’s national stuff. If it’s jazz ccentric, it’s going to be on the Everydayer Club all access either in the Discord, which is there for all the Everyday Club members uh who get Discord, they get ad free, and they get locked on Sports Today exclusive audio content. That’s for $5 a month or $50 a year. Or join the Everyday or All Access Club, one-on-one interactions with me. Get my inside prep stuff for the game. Uh get empty the noggin after games. 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Utah Jazz face a daunting rebuild as Western Conference powerhouses like the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder stockpile elite young talent. Can the Jazz find a path past the rising cores of Victor Wembanyama, Stefan Castle, and Dylan Harper in San Antonio, or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren in OKC? David Locke spotlights the challenges ahead, questioning what it will take for Utah to assemble a roster that measures up in today’s NBA.
Key discussions include the impressive consistency and efficiency of Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George, the new “NBA math” centered around possession battles and offensive rebounding, and thought-provoking insights on team-building timelines. Will Hardy offers a candid look at coaching decisions and player development, underscoring the need for creativity and a bold approach in a competitive Western landscape. Will the Jazz secure the foundational pieces needed for championship contention?
0:00: Western Conference Challenge
David Locke reacts to the daunting future landscape of the Western Conference and what it means for the Jazz.
15:50″ Jazz Core Consistency
Spotlight on Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George’s (Lowry & Keonte) scoring consistency and what it means for the team’s future.
26:45: NBA Math & Will Hardy Insights
Breakdown of new NBA “possession math,” the Knicks-Spurs example, and Will Hardy’s thoughts on coaching accountability
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16 comments
Youre making me more upset that we aren't talking good enough.
We need to tank harder
No one in the front office should have a job if we lose our pick… this draft is looking like a REALLY great draft (and that might be an understatement). As hard as for some reason people make it sound you have to sit guys more… the teams below us have been doing it all year. The wizards have not played sarr or Middleton or McCollum. The nets are milking the cam Thomas injury and MPJ has been in and out and so on. The jazz aren’t tanking hard enough and it’s beyond disappointing
Locke is right there is nothing we can do about what has happened but we can do something about what's going to happen
We should not win another game the rest of the season… We know what we have already and it's not enough.
Spurs probably need another top four pick to really reach their potential…is there any way the NBA can still have them win a lottery top 4 pick even though they make the playoffs.
Exactly. I couldn't believe how many delusional Jazz fans thought we could start competing in the west because we are barely above the rest of the blatant tankers. And that's only because their front offices are smarter than ours. Even Dallas knows they need more talent than Cooper flag to compete and so they are likely going to trade ad and tank again
I think Will Hardy should be running half the offensive possessions through Ace Bailey and not through Lauri. We are not going to win that way in the future, we are not going to win with Lauri being our number offensive option. It's just facts. I like Lauri Markkanen but we need to start thinking about our future and we won't have one without Ace's development and right now he is being "Frozen Out" of the offense.
Everyone needs to go blow up Jazz social media. They've already told us that Ryan Smith bases his entire front office decisions off of individual experiences with random fans. Maybe we can put it in poll form so he understands he's ruining our future by throwing away this pick.
Cason Wallace was OKCs 10th pick and he’s awesome. How would they be if they took Keonte George instead?
Will Hardy thinks he is preserving his job right now by winning these games. But I think he might be doing himself more harm because after this year he won't have the excuse that "well were just tanking" so in order to be successful he really needs to coach to lose this last year he's able too because after this year and if he misses his last chance to grab a player in the draft that helps him actually compete in the West and he's losing 75% of his games. He won't be given this grace period anymore. So he might end up being the next Willie Green all because he didn't understand that you need to have talent to compete in this league and this is last year to acquire meaningful talent at least in Utah because we can't get meaningful free agents.
If it isn’t going to be difficult then why be proud of it. The good teams should be good challenges that motivate our guys.
I think Jazz fans generally believe that we are a well-ran organization….HOLY FUCK WE ARE FUCKING NOT…the two lost seasons…the fact we LM is still on this team…the fact we have won even one game this year…It's pathetic how we can't decide wtf we're doing. Ryan Give Me One Chance And I'll BitchSlap Him So Hard His Hat Will Be Facing The Right Direction Smith is going to(has already) bless us with a Mediocre Fucking Average Basic Middling OK team for the next 20 years until he sells… honestly the tank race, cheering for the loss, checking the standings, the anticipation on Envelope Day…it's better than knowing every year you're good but KNOW you're not good enough. I want to go to a parade before I die…fuck
Jazz have self defeating behavior
I think Austin Reeves is over rated. He’s scored 50 points in a game but he could be one of those players that isn’t as good once he gets a big contract. He’s a 3rd or 4th best player on a good team.
This is why winning to much this yr is just stupid. The Jazz need to be bad this yr to get another top pick. We need to trade Nurkic, Svi, Love, Anderson and let the young guys loose will getting minutes.