Boom Bitches and We Aren't Very Good

[Stifle Tower]

Koufos I could understand, still not a productive player post trade. Kris Humphries had years to develop and in my opinion never did. His highlight is banging a Kardashian broad. The rest we could have at least made an effort.

There have been many drafts that we have failed on more than we won.
1999 Scott Padgett was drafted ahead of Manu Ginobili
2001 Raul Lopez was selected in front of Jamaal Tinsley, Gerald Wallace, Samuel Dalembert, Bobby Simmons, Mehmet Okur, Gilbert Arenas and Tony Parker
2002 Curtis Borchardt was selected in front of Luis Scola, Nenad Krstic, John Salmons, Matt Barnes, Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer
2004 Kris Humphries was selected in front of Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin and Anderson Varajeo
2007 Morris Almond was selected in front of Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo, Tiago Splitter, Carl Landry Glen Davis, Ramon Sessions and Marc Gasol


Keep in mind that even though DL is the GM, KOC is pulling the strings behind the scenes as President of basketball operations. The same guy that failed to recognize talent while these drafts were taking place that I listed above.

The same KOC that is "working from home?" KOC is barely involved with the Jazz; he certainly isn't making major decisions today; he's a consultant, nothing more. As for the draft, ANY team can make a list like you did. How about getting maybe the 2nd best player at #9 in Hayward. Sure we missed out on George, although GH's stats are arguably equal this year to what PG had last season. But GH - amidst a round of boos at the ESA - was selected over others such as Babbitt, Henry, Aldrich, etc.

Also, how about the swindle of the century when KOC traded up from the #6 to get Deron instead of standing pat and taking Green or Felton? If you're going to point out misses, you also have to acknowledge the very good and great picks. Oh, BTW, was KOC the genius behind drafting Gobert at #27?

 

[latin jazz]

There have been many drafts that we have failed on more than we won.
1999 Scott Padgett was drafted ahead of Manu Ginobili
2001 Raul Lopez was selected in front of Jamaal Tinsley, Gerald Wallace, Samuel Dalembert, Bobby Simmons, Mehmet Okur, Gilbert Arenas and Tony Parker
2002 Curtis Borchardt was selected in front of Luis Scola, Nenad Krstic, John Salmons, Matt Barnes, Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer
2004 Kris Humphries was selected in front of Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin and Anderson Varajeo
2007 Morris Almond was selected in front of Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo, Tiago Splitter, Carl Landry Glen Davis, Ramon Sessions and Marc Gasol

Keep in mind that even though DL is the GM, KOC is pulling the strings behind the scenes as President of basketball operations. The same guy that failed to recognize talent while these drafts were taking place that I listed above.

So many guys on that list I wouldn't like on my team: Arenas? JR Smith? 2001 Tinsley? really? You see those guys playing for Sloan?. Bobby Simmons? C'mon. Remember that the Jazz drafted in the low 20s all those years (except for the 2004 draft). Finding talent there is extremely difficult, so many factors determine whether a pick pan out or not. Every NBA team has a list like this. Every year there is player in the 20s or the second round who turns out to be stater or even a star.

He wasn't the best in the draft but what about aknowledging the good picks? Kirilenko, Millsap, Mo Williams?. Also, he was good at acquiring talent that could fit the team (snatching Boozer, Okur, moving up for DWill, Korver, Big Al...). In a span of a couple years we went from having Guggliota as starter to being contenders for 3 years. IMO his biggest mistakes were on keeping talent . He should have kept Mo and Wesley, who signed reasonable offer sheets at the time. The mammoth Kirilenko contract ruined us (perhaps he should have pushed harder on that rumored Marion swap). We needed to go further over the cap, which you should do when you are a contender and want to keep talent (see how OKC screw it up with Harden by cheaping out).

All in all, he has done a good job. We were a really good team until the DWill debacle. Then, he acquired valuable assets in the DWill trade and managed the cap quite well until DL was on board. I'm quite optimistic about the future.

 

[fishonjazz]

So many guys on that list I wouldn't like on my team: Arenas? JR Smith? 2001 Tinsley? really? You see those guys playing for Sloan?. Bobby Simmons? C'mon. Remember that the Jazz drafted in the low 20s all those years (except for the 2004 draft). Finding talent there is extremely difficult, so many factors determine whether a pick pan out or not. Every NBA team has a list like this. Every year there is player in the 20s or the second round who turns out to be stater or even a star.

He wasn't the best in the draft but what about aknowledging the good picks? Kirilenko, Millsap, Mo Williams?. Also, he was good at acquiring talent that could fit the team (snatching Boozer, Okur, moving up for DWill, Korver, Big Al...). In a span of a couple years we went from having Guggliota as starter to being contenders for 3 years. IMO his biggest mistakes were on keeping talent . He should have kept Mo and Wesley, who signed reasonable offer sheets at the time. We couldn't afford them thanks to the mammoth Kirilenko contract (perhaps he should have pushed harder on that rumored Marion swap).

All in all, he has done a good job. We were a really good team until the DWill debacle. Then, he acquired valuable assets in the DWill trade and managed the cap quite well until DL was on board. I'm quite optimistic about the future.

This

 

[NUMBERICA]

The Jazz totally ****ing fumbled on Koufos. Bench him INDEFINITELY in favor of Collins for no apparent reason? Get the **** out of here.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

I too am curious why Evans and Novak get literally zero burn. I guess coach has seen enough in practice to know what he has, and apparently he doesn't think he has very much there.

Jazz are loaded in the front court Booker is the 4th front court player in the big rotation. Can't play everyone

 

[framer]

The Jazz totally ****ing fumbled on Koufos. Bench him INDEFINITELY in favor of Collins for no apparent reason? Get the **** out of here.

You mean Jarron Collins the #11 Ranked Jazz center of ALL time!

 

[franklin]

The Jazz totally ****ing fumbled on Koufos. Bench him INDEFINITELY in favor of Collins for no apparent reason? Get the **** out of here.

Koufus sucked *** when he was here.

 

[latin jazz]

Koufus sucked *** when he was here.

And he wasn't that good afterwards. Took him 2-3 years to develop into a decent backup C in the league. Losing him was not a big deal.

 

[Stifle Tower]

And he wasn't that good afterwards. Took him 2-3 years to develop into a decent backup C in the league. Losing him was not a big deal.

Quibbling over Koufos is like bemoaning the fact we let Humphries go. Decent backups, but not going to make or break the team. In fact, it was likely getting dumped that served as teh wake-up call for both. And, IINM, KOC didn't "dump" Koufos. Minnesota insisted he be included in the deal for Al Jefferson. Was Big Al better than Kosta? Um, yea, just a little bit.

As for Mo, KOC acknowledges that was the biggest mistake he made. But you look back at his rookie season and it wasn't all that impressive. Jazz already had two quality PG's in Arroyo (played in 71 games) and Lopez (played all 82 games). You can't look into a crystal ball and see injuries to Raul and an undersized combo guard breaking out. Wesley Matthews wasn't KOC's fault. It was a financial decision. Millers simply weren't going to pay $9M PLUS lose out on tax sharing to keep him. Again, he had a nice rookie season, but not spectacular.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

The Jazz totally ****ing fumbled on Koufos. Bench him INDEFINITELY in favor of Collins for no apparent reason? Get the **** out of here.

He was softer than soft and scared ****less. Maybe that was because of Sloan's coaching style, but he was complete *** in Utah.

 

[latin jazz]

He was softer than soft and scared ****less. Maybe that was because of Sloan's coaching style, but he was complete *** in Utah.

Yes, softer than toilet paper. The opposing bigs smelled blood when he was on the court.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Koufus sucked *** when he was here.

After getting benched indefinitely in favor of Collins for no apparent reason. Then left to rot there instead of being sent to the D-League. Koufos had a good rookie year to that point. Then after year two was dumped (which at that point he was damaged goods and played like it).

You can sit there and say that he needed to just fight through that, and in an ideal case, you'd be right. But human-success is rarely binary, and the Jazz showed no real faith in the kid and gave him almost no real chance to succeed or grow here after they yanked him for a savvy scrub.

Koufos wouldn't have substantially changed the Jazz's fortune one way or another, but bungling your assets is never a positive either.

 

[latin jazz]

Quibbling over Koufos is like bemoaning the fact we let Humphries go. Decent backups, but not going to make or break the team. In fact, it was likely getting dumped that served as teh wake-up call for both. And, IINM, KOC didn't "dump" Koufos. Minnesota insisted he be included in the deal for Al Jefferson. Was Big Al better than Kosta? Um, yea, just a little bit.

As for Mo, KOC acknowledges that was the biggest mistake he made. But you look back at his rookie season and it wasn't all that impressive. Jazz already had two quality PG's in Arroyo (played in 71 games) and Lopez (played all 82 games). You can't look into a crystal ball and see injuries to Raul and an undersized combo guard breaking out. Wesley Matthews wasn't KOC's fault. It was a financial decision. Millers simply weren't going to pay $9M PLUS lose out on tax sharing to keep him. Again, he had a nice rookie season, but not spectacular.

Both decisions were difficult. Yes, Mo was the third PG but he was really good when given minutes. You can make an argument that Lopez was injury prone and keeping Mo at around 1.5 mill/year was good insurance (if I recall correctly he signed a 5mill/3 year offer sheet). At the end we got DWill a few years later and we were set at the point. Wesley was a great find. Damn Blazers, keeping him was costly at the beginning but a bargain at the end (like Millsap's contract). Perhaps our mistake was not including a team option for those players. You can see that we learnt from those decisions. We do our best to keep good young talent (or not letting them walk away for nothing...Kanter's situation is quite interesting) and when we found players who we think can contribute, include team options for year 2 and/or 3 (like Clark or little Millsap). Overall, KOC did a great job while being the GM. He put together a contender and when we stopped being one, he flipped our best player into valuable assets. He made a few mistakes but who doesn't. We are in good situation now.