As we spend the early offseason bantering back and forth on what we think the Jazz should or will do in the upcoming weeks, there’s one mental road block that keeps popping up, reminding me that for the first time in 37 years of being a Jazz fan, I probably have ZERO idea of what the Jazz will do.
I realize that while we’ve seen a few different FO’s during that span, we also haven’t seen a FO operate that wasn’t ran by the Millers. The fact of the matter is that the Layden’s and their philosophies weren’t any different than KOC and his philosophies. Hell, that’s EXACTLY why KOC was hired. He fit the Miller mindset to a “T” and it’s no accident that Lindsey was the next man up after KOC. As a fan base, we’ve been spoon fed the EXACT same philosophy from our Front Office for the last 40 years because that mindset was the marching orders handed down my Miller ownership.
I can honestly say that for the first time in 4 decades, we’re in uncharted territory. In looking into Ryan Smith’s business philosophies, he seems to really key on one major talking point: Complacency will kill you faster that anything. It goes hand in hand with the age old mantra that the biggest enemy to great is good. The truth is, we could come up with 100 reasons why Larry and Gail Miller were fantastic owners, but at the same time, it would be extremely easy to come up with just as many reasons why this team was never winning a title under Miller ownership. To put it bluntly, they were happy being really good, and were not willing to put that at risk for the chance at being great.
I’ll readily admit that I have absolutely no idea what Ryan Smith is about to do, but I feel extremely confident that for the first time in ages, it will be something different. I think it’s pretty clear that Smith didn’t give D-Wade a REALLY sweet deal to own a small chunk of the Jazz just so he could show him off sitting court side all season long. Smith realizes that the status quo isn’t gonna win us anything and that it’s also the quickest way to run Donovan out of town. D-Wade is going to be a major player in how this roster looks going forward and I’m pretty excited to see what that looks like.
I think it’s very feasible that the 2021-22 Utah Jazz roster doesn’t have Bogey, Jingles, Favors, and maybe even Rudy anywhere to be seen come opening night. Ryan Smith is absolutely terrified of complacency and if he runs his basketball team like he runs his business, we’re going to learn that very quickly.
