Dennis Lindsey, you needed to build a roster with more flexibility. Look at the Clippers: they have different types of players for different situations. Need a game-reader? Play Rajon Rondo. Need a defensive ball pressure guy? Play Patrick Beverley. Need shooting? Play Luke Kennard.
Your roster lacks good options for Snyder to use. You have no point guard options behind Mike Conley besides two-way Trent Forrest — a point guard is exactly what this Jazz roster needs right now, as they struggle to execute a hint at an offense when the going gets tough. Point guards are useful for that, but the Jazz don’t have any right now.
It also would be nice if you could play switchable basketball, just some small-ball to give the Clippers another look. But who would play the five in such a situation? Ersan Ilyasova, I guess? It’s a reach to play him playoff minutes when he was out of the NBA for most of the season.
Instead, you used a first-round pick on Udoka Azubuike and your trade deadline acquisition was Matt Thomas — in a season in which you said your goal was championship contention. Neither of those players filled holes on the roster, instead only tripling down on facets of the game your team already excelled in. Phoenix, meanwhile, showed how to use the end of the roster on potentially playable players, guys like Cam Payne and E’Twaun Moore and Torrey Craig.