What’s a big move? Moving Ingles, Clarkson, and/or especially Bogey doesn’t strike me as that “big” of a move. Swapping out a starter and rotation guy or two is just what you do when you flame out in the playoffs early. Tinker with it. Try something new.
Unless we knock the draft out of the park, or you think a couple aging, budget 3&D guys that likely won’t be in Quin’s playoff rotation if Bogey, Ingles, and Clarkson are still here (but that could reduce the regular season wear and tear) is going to be enough to push us to title contention, then by all means, let’s just see if we get lucky. I just don’t think we’re as close as many think.
I think our overall lack of athleticism and length kills us in certain matchups. The hydra gets flummoxed by even bad teams with a lot of length. I think we need a starter level long athletic dude that can guard 1-3, and a playoff rotation guy that is also long and athletic that can at least guard 3-4. I think we should add budget guys that do those things too, but that budget guys (whether vets, draft picks, or UFAs) alone are not going to make a big difference.
People may disagree, and that’s fine. I think we need more than just a reliable bench guythat we can throw in against certain matchups. I think we also need to improve the length and athleticism of our starting lineup and regular rotation, especially if we are trotting out two undersized guards as our starters every night.
We need the closest thing to a Mikal Bridges or a RoCo that we can find to start in Bogey’s place, and maybe a Delon Wright or Taurean Prince to come off the bench. Wanting to keep Bogey is just sentiment. He is a valuable player, but I think we can easily replace everything he does by committee. He is a worthy sacrifice for some defense.
Just advocating for a calculated risk or two when we know that things are going nuclear next year if things go poorly in the playoffs again.
Even if nothing comes to fruition, I’d appreciate at least hearing it reported that “the Jazz are exploring all avenues to improve perimeter defense in the starting lineup and bench.” Instead the headline is basically “We runnin’ it back, please come back Mike, does anyone that can shoot and play defense want to live in Utah for a minimum contract and maybe a couple minutes a night?”
Sorry to be so negative, but I truly believe this approach leads to a trade request from Don next summer.