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Following Potential 2025 Draftees

jazznik said:
I think many posters on this site lost the meaning of what the sport is about. It is about competing hard, playing fair, doing your best and being proud of what you achieved with all your effort. Does it guarantee the ultimate win? Of course not, that's life. But watching it is so much fun.

Intentionally losing games, finding loopholes in the trading and drafting rules, treating players as disposable units of value for the indeterminate future gains is really about something else. It has been 3 years since the team I follow, the Utah Jazz played any honest, hard-fought basketball and I am missing it. I don't want to cheer for the team on how creative they are in finding different ways to lose and game the rules.
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Yeah, clearly something's jading you. I don't know what to tell you. The Spurs, Rockets, Thunder, etc. have been tanking for years to acquire high-value prospects and draft assets. This is just the reality of managing a team well.
 
jazznik said:
I think many posters on this site lost the meaning of what the sport is about. It is about competing hard, playing fair, doing your best and being proud of what you achieved with all your effort. Does it guarantee the ultimate win? Of course not, that's life. But watching it is so much fun.

Intentionally losing games, finding loopholes in the trading and drafting rules, treating players as disposable units of value for the indeterminate future gains is really about something else. It has been 3 years since the team I follow, the Utah Jazz played any honest, hard-fought basketball and I am missing it. I don't want to cheer for the team on how creative they are in finding different ways to lose and game the rules.
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It's understandable to hate tanking, but it's kind of crazy to hate the Jazz for it when it's league wide.

And it's even fine to hate the Jazz, but then why spend so much time on a Jazz fan site?
 
SoberasHotRod said:
This somehow comes up a lot on this board, but just a reminder that different people like different things. I grew up in Utah and would prefer not to live there again. Other people move there and love it in Utah. I never planned on moving to Indiana, but love it now that I'm here. Lots of players end up loving Utah once they get there, for example Deron Williams.

I think more important to high level draft picks is the Front Office, how they develop players, and most importantly if there is playing time available or another player at their position that would affect playing time.
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There are really only a few destination cities in the NBA that are real draws: New York, Miami, LA. Then there are some pretty decent setups for young black athletes: Houston, Atlanta, Chicago.

But other than that, most of the NBA cities aren't really attractive. Utah is in the same boat as Portland, Milwaukee, Cleveland, San Antonio, Denver, Sacramento, etc. These are really just Anytown, USA. Players spend a lot of time on the road and have several months off during the summer to do whatever they want. So I think they make do with wherever they are.
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
- First of all, almost no one wants to play in Canada unless they're Canadian, so you can cross Toronto off as a preferred destination. (It's also very, very cold there.)
- Second of all, players like Dylan Harper and Kasparas Jakucionis aren't going to want to go to Charlotte where they'll have to watch Lamelo play with the ball in his hands. Lamelo is also kind of an ***. You have to look at opportunity and role a team offers.
- Washington is a perpetually bad franchise, with a bad front office and some of the worst player development in the league. Players aren't going to line up to go there.
- Jazz probably have the best front office and the best coaching of all the teams you've mentioned.

I get that Utah is a mid-size city in the mountains with a boring, milquetoast atmosphere, but it's actually a good situation for a pro athlete to develop and start winning games in the next few seasons.
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That's a well-thought response. There are some things that I disagree with, though. Toronto is Canadian, which is probably as bad as the location of SLC. However, they have the appeal of a big city, have the most ready supportive cast of young players to be competitive immediately and one a championship fairly recently, i.e. they proved that they can get things done.
- The points on Kasparas is probably fair, while Dylan Harper can absolutely coexist with LaMelo.
- Washington has a collection of promising young players in Sarr and Bilal, and they are clearly prioritizing the young player development, while the playing strategy of the Jazz is confusing and contradictory. They are also a nice big city conveniently located.
- The Jazz have a front office that consists of the young inexperienced coach designing the historically bad defense and Ainge, whose strategy in both drafting and team direction is absolutely muddled and unclear (Are they tanking? Are they trying to compete? Are they trying to highlight Sexton and Collins to increase their trade value?) Also, don't forget that the Jazz has a brutal record of achievements in the last 25 years or so: they managed to get to the conference finals once because their opponent was surprised by the 8th place team. Realistically, in the last 25 years the Jazz and the Wizards achieved the least in the NBA (excluding any expansion teams). That's on the front office.
 
I think people around the league look at players who have come to Utah and been successful--guys like John Collins and Collin Sexton--and they respect the Jazz as an organization. As far as our young players are concerned, I think Walker Kessler and Keyonte George are becoming fairly respected. It comes down to being successful on the court. Isaiah Collier went to school in LA. He looks pretty happy with his situation. When the Jazz blow out teams like the Lakers and the young guys play well, people notice.

Kobe Bufkin was a guy who allegedly didn't want to come to Utah and preferred going to Atlanta. So far, he hasn't done anything in the league. Players notice these things.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
It's understandable to hate tanking, but it's kind of crazy to hate the Jazz for it when it's league wide.

And it's even fine to hate the Jazz, but then why spend so much time on a Jazz fan site?
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Well, I became the Jazz fan during the Jerry Sloan years because I liked what he and the Jazz stood for back then. I don't follow other teams. But it's true, the current Jazz are doing their best to turn off fans like me who embraced the Jazz team culture of the past.
 
jazznik said:
Well, I became the Jazz fan during the Jerry Sloan years because I liked what he and the Jazz stood for back then. I don't follow other teams. But it's true, the current Jazz are doing their best to turn off fans like me who embraced the Jazz team culture of the past.
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We can only pray they tank long enough to completely lose you.
 
Somehow Bilal and Sarr are two promising young players Cooper would die to play with but the Jazz are just awful.

Sarr is shooting 40% from the field as an elite athletic 7'er and Bilal is shooting sub 30% from 3. Players with great defensive potential, sure, but not good fits around Cooper.

Utah is tailor made for Cooper to fit in right away and win. Any argument that deals with personnel and fit, Utah is at the top of the list among the teams in top contention. They also have the best asset base to quickly build around Cooper.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Have you never watched him play?
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Correct. Duke hasn't played BYU yet.
I think the only players I have watched play that get a lot of discussion in this thread are Demin and VJ (he plays for Baylor iirc)
I have seen some highlights of Flagg on my tiny phone screen but haven't noticed excessive sweat in those highlights. Also haven't seen anyone in this thread like cy or you or Kqwin or anyone who probably has watched him mention anything about sweat before.

I did watch Patrick Ewing play a lot. Damn that dude could sweat

Back to my question though, Does he sweat excessively?

I guess I will take your question to me as an answer in the affirmative to my question.
 
fishonjazz said:
Correct. Duke hasn't played BYU yet.
I think the only players I have watched play that get a lot of discussion in this thread are Demin and VJ (he plays for Baylor iirc)
I have seen some highlights of Flagg on my tiny phone screen but haven't noticed excessive sweat in those highlights. Also haven't seen anyone in this thread like cy or you or Kqwin or anyone who probably has watched him mention anything about sweat before.

I did watch Patrick Ewing play a lot. Damn that dude could sweat

Back to my question though, Does he sweat excessively?

I guess I will take your question to me as an answer in the affirmative to my question.
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Yeah, he sweats a lot. Often his hair is completely drenched after a few minutes.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Yeah, he sweats a lot. Often his hair is completely drenched after a few minutes.
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Not sure of your age so dont know if you watched much Patrick Ewing? Is it that level?
Both wear/wore shirts under their jerseys iirc. I would never do that back in my playing days. Hell, I preferred to go skins whenever possible.
I hated playing against dudes that sweat profusely. On the other hand it did given them an advantage as I hated to box them out and whatnot.
 
fishonjazz said:
Not sure of your age so dont know if you watched much Patrick Ewing? Is it that level?
Both wear/wore shirts under their jerseys iirc. I would never do that back in my playing days. Hell, I preferred to go skins whenever possible.
I hated playing against dudes that sweat profusely. On the other hand it did given them an advantage as I hated to box them out and whatnot.
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I don't want to make too big of a deal of it, I was only commenting on it for fun. It's mostly the wet hair that I notice. I heard someone on a pod talking about how some people have said he turns the ball over more in the second half because of the sweating. I don't really know though.

It is pretty gross to play against heavy sweaters. I'm sure at this level they are used to it.
 
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