The Utah Jazz have been getting routinely criticized for their new approach to tanking lately. They are playing their guys, but have been resting most of their starters in the fourth quarter. It’s highly questionable, but it’s legal, and more importantly, this isn’t new because the Warriors did the same thing to the Jazz years go that the Jazz are doing to the Thunder.
They are blatantly tanking their season and not just because they want a high pick, but because they don’t want to give it up to Oklahoma City. Golden State faced a similar conundrum back in 2012, and they did everything in their power to avoid giving up their pick to Utah.
Full context: As part of the Deron Williams trade, the Nets gave up a first-round pick they acquired from the Warriors in a separate trade that was top-seven protected to the Jazz. When the Warriors realized they had the chance to keep it if they played their tanking cards right, they did everything in their power to do so.
They traded Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut (who was out for the season), then lost 17 of their last 20 games to give them the seventh-worst record in the league. The strategy worked to perfection. They kept the pick, used it to draft Harrison Barnes, and three years later, Barnes and Bogut played a vital role in the Warriors’ first title in the Stephen Curry era.
It’s not like they were Golden State’s best players, but it’s fair to suggest that they wouldn’t have won without them. So, their shamelessly tanking not only prevented the worst-case scenario but also got them a title.
Oh, and guess what? One of their former executives, Travis Schlenk, later admitted that the Warriors did this. It’s easy to forget because this happened a long time ago, but it still happened. There’s also no telling what would have happened if Utah had kept the pick then.
The 2012 NBA Draft didn’t exactly boast the best group of talent after the No. 7 pick, but Barnes, who has had a pretty solid NBA career, could have still been available. Barnes probably wouldn’t have vaulted Utah to a title, but any Jazz fan who remembers the Gordon Hayward era should remember how good the team was once they paired him with another wing scorer, Joe Johnson.
For the record, the Jazz didn’t lose the pick the Warriors owed them, as it conveyed the following season. TLDR: it led to Trey Burke, who didn’t amount to much in Utah.
Moral of the story: Everyone needs to chill out
For what it’s worth, even Jazz fans can agree that this strategy is disgusting, but they also understand that it’s for the greater good. With that said, it’s getting annoying that everyone is acting as though Utah is some sort of disgrace all of a sudden when all they’re doing is protecting themselves, much like the teams who have been in similar positions.
The Warriors did the same thing the Jazz are doing, and even if it wasn’t exactly done in the same fashion, that strategy kicked off a dynasty. The ends justified the means for the Warriors, and the Jazz may be going down the exact same path not too long from now.
This would likely be an entirely different story if Utah had never traded with Oklahoma City in the first place. Because that trade put them in the danger zone, they are pulling out all the stops to avoid the worst-case scenario. The NBA may very well pull some strings to ensure no NBA team will ever try what the Jazz are doing, but it’s not Utah’s fault that the league has this loophole for them to exploit.