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Dennis Lindsey's Biggest Error

^Favors has been on the trade block every year for at least the past four. Lindsey didn't let Favs' trade value diminish. It was never very high. Favs is NOT an integral part of a contender. Jazz are seen competing in spite of what he offers at the 4, not because of it. It is Favors himself who hasn't wanted to be seen as a 5. But that's where he'd need to play anywhere besides Utah.

I think Lindsey could have gotten something for Millsap. That's it. Kanter had no trade value. Jefferson had no trade value. Boozer had no trade value, unless Utah were to take back bad salaries. In Boozer's case, they couldn't; Jazz had gone into the luxury tax to keep Millsap and needed to get back down. For Jefferson and Millsap, it's a moot point. The cap space was used in the GS/Denver deals. Had DL taken back salaries, the GS deal and picks would have never come our way. And really, that's what Lindsey wanted in exchange for those two. He didn't want any good young players. He wanted future picks so he could tank and get our franchise player with the pick. Mission accomplished: he was able to draft Dante instead of some scrub like Smart or Randle.
 
I think Lindsey's biggest error is his arrogance.

1. He believed his way to evaluate talent was far more advanced than any other GM (his balance test).
2. He believed he could hire player development coaches to make silk purses out of sows' ears. Dennis...you just can't 99 out of 100 times.
3. He believed fostering a culture of losing would not wear on the player he chose to build the team around.
4. He believed having a stable of young, good talent or decent FA's with tradeable salaries was just not that important. He squandered away pick after pick chasing a PG. Andc while other teams can sacrifice talent to get stars, the cupboard is bare in Utah. Mitchell and Gobert are the only players a rebuilding team would really want.

No one is clamoring for Ingles or Favors or Crowder, unless it is a contender looking for depth. Jazz weren't in the market for Irving or Kwahi because they didn't have any decent assets they could trade. Lindsey has done very poorly in terms of asset management. For YEARS he had tons of cap space available and didn't want to get any of those mid-level guys that could have been used in trades. And he lathered, rinsed and repeated the same mistake AGAIN this year. We got Niang and kept Udoh when other teams were using the MLE to sign 1-yr contracts.
 
Jack Strop said:
^Favors has been on the trade block every year for at least the past four. Lindsey didn't let Favs' trade value diminish. It was never very high. Favs is NOT an integral part of a contender. Jazz are seen competing in spite of what he offers at the 4, not because of it. It is Favors himself who hasn't wanted to be seen as a 5. But that's where he'd need to play anywhere besides Utah.

I think Lindsey could have gotten something for Millsap. That's it. Kanter had no trade value. Jefferson had no trade value. Boozer had no trade value, unless Utah were to take back bad salaries. In Boozer's case, they couldn't; Jazz had gone into the luxury tax to keep Millsap and needed to get back down. For Jefferson and Millsap, it's a moot point. The cap space was used in the GS/Denver deals. Had DL taken back salaries, the GS deal and picks would have never come our way. And really, that's what Lindsey wanted in exchange for those two. He didn't want any good young players. He wanted future picks so he could tank and get our franchise player with the pick. Mission accomplished: he was able to draft Dante instead of some scrub like Smart or Randle.
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Correct, Favors is not on a contender. I disagree with you, at least somewhat, on the finer points. Bigs are simply too easy to acquire in the offseason so their trade value has been diminished for over a decade.

That doesn't change that DL didnt let it diminish = DL wasn't creative or innovative or forward looking soon enough to get a higher return than watching a contract drop to zero at expiration.
 
Another nice move by DL that hasn't yet been mentioned is choosing Royce over Bolomboy. Perhaps it was partially due to Snyder's urging but it turned out to be a good choice.
 
I still don't get the love for Royce. Yeah he's a scrappy player but there are several minor leagues filled with guys like that. I don't see what makes him special over say R.J. Hunter or Naz.
 
homeytennis said:
I still don't get the love for Royce. Yeah he's a scrappy player but there are several minor leagues filled with guys like that. I don't see what makes him special over say R.J. Hunter or Naz.
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Even tho Royce largely sucks he's already exceeded his expected career contributions just by being good vs. OKC. It's all found money from here.
 
RickyStan said:
Even tho Royce largely sucks he's already exceeded his expected career contributions just by being good vs. OKC. It's all found money from here.
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And don't forget the SA game last season when he denied the Spurs from getting a decent shot off twice in the closing seconds. Royce is definitely having a sophomore slump. I still have faith he can be a decent reserve. He has the intensity. i'd like to think he could develop a la DeMarre. Just needs the outside shot and to play within himself. He tends to do too much (like thinking he's got PG dribbling ability).
 
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DL had to cut Dante and keep both Royce and Joel. I hope Exum will become better player, but now it is only in my dreams.
 
David Ginola 14 said:
Re-signing or holding Favors, Exum, Tabo, Udoh and Niang is not proving a big move ... about 35 million for players who are on the edge of the team.
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Lindsey keeps "punting." He declines to sign FA's because internally Utah's core just isn't there. Well, guess what, Dennis? The core ain't good enough. You need to make some moves. You don't need to be in the luxury tax...just be in the top half of the league.

I think Dennis would love for the team to miss the playoffs. It gives him another shot at getting an impact player in the lottery. Trus the Utah process where Lindsey tries to find great players outside the top-10. It's more fun that way.
 
Biggest error this offseason was not going after Julius Randle or Jabari Parker. Both looking great.
 
We, myself included, are often pretty hard on DL. And for the most part, I feel that he hasn't been aggressive enough with expirings, free agents, assets, etc.

HOWEVER, I must give credit where credit is due. DL is brilliant at identifying guys who can play in the league. Even more impressive is that he has identified guys who can play in the league while also fitting together well on and off the court. This roster has a number of quality players. And think about it, we had to make our #16 guy Jerekbo walk away. The same Jerekbo who is now playing 15+ minutes per night for the 2 time defending champ.

When you watch Houston last night, it was obvious they had about 4 or 5 quality players and the team seemed fractured on and off the court. It was also obvious that we had 12-13 capable players who enjoyed playing together. Part of it was the winning, but most of it was fit in their role. Quin gets some credit too, but DL is responsible for the roster.

We will continue to hold DL responsible for putting together a contender, but he has been pretty brilliant building a roster of capable players.
 
LoPo said:
We, myself included, are often pretty hard on DL. And for the most part, I feel that he hasn't been aggressive enough with expirings, free agents, assets, etc.

HOWEVER, I must give credit where credit is due. DL is brilliant at identifying guys who can play in the league. Even more impressive is that he has identified guys who can play in the league while also fitting together well on and off the court. This roster has a number of quality players. And think about it, we had to make our #16 guy Jerekbo walk away. The same Jerekbo who is now playing 15+ minutes per night for the 2 time defending champ.

When you watch Houston last night, it was obvious they had about 4 or 5 quality players and the team seemed fractured on and off the court. It was also obvious that we had 12-13 capable players who enjoyed playing together. Part of it was the winning, but most of it was fit in their role. Quin gets some credit too, but DL is responsible for the roster.

We will continue to hold DL responsible for putting together a contender, but he has been pretty brilliant building a roster of capable players.
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Not true. Giving up Jerebko is an obvious mistake that hurts the team. Both Allen and Niang are currently questionable at best for solid rotational minutes in this league, whereas Jerebko is a proven player who we could count on for 15 min every night last season.
And last night's game against a 11-13 Houston team is insignificant because they've simply got one of the worst benches in the entire league at the moment. Our bench players are better than those garbage, sure. But are they any good by playoff team standards? I'd always think twice before giving our bench any praise after seeing them getting torched by opponent's bench on multiple occasions this season.

Will Thabo, Royce, Niang, Neto or even Dante see any playing time on playoff teams like OKC, Indiana, Philly, etc? Not to mention elite teams like Toronto and Golden State. I know Jerebko will.
 
all i gotta say is,

thank god none of you are NBA GMs or else your franchise would be in the toilet bowl for ever...LMAO.
 
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