Mock Draft 3.0 (Full Draft)

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

just speaking for myself, this season I wanted Ochai, sexton, kessler, simone, etc playing big time minutes from day one and wanted conley, KO, clarkson, gay to ride pine. Because I thought the goal was to lose and develop.
Next year I think the goal is to win so I would be fine with Cam, Black, Bufkin having to earn their minutes and ride some pine while vets get the bulk of the minutes..... if that is what is best for winning. I got no problem bring rookies along slowly next year.

I have no idea what the front office actual plan is but if its to tank again then I say just trade Lauri. I dont think that is the plan though. I think the plan is to make the playoffs and use cap space and draft assets to get as good as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe im wrong though and everyone in the jazz organization is cool with slow playing the rebuild and tanking another year.

With the potential of having 3 rookies the goal should not be to win but to get the young guys more experience, even Markkanen as a #1 in a low pressure situation. If that gets the jazz into the playoffs or the lotto so be it.

 

[fishonjazz]

With the potential of having 3 rookies the goal should not be to win but to get the young guys more experience, even Markkanen as a #1 in a low pressure situation. If that gets the jazz into the playoffs or the lotto so be it.

Eh, I think the goal should pretty much always be to win. I felt this year was an exception because we LITERALLY traded away the entire starting lineup. I want to get back to winning. I hope that is the goal. Also, there is no rule that we use all 3 draft picks. Maybe we consolidate them or trade one or two for a player. No idea. I dont want to tank next year though. If that is the route we take then we better trade lauri or bench him somehow and we better get rid of hardy too. We will be too good to tank if those two are involved. Probably should bench kessler and sexton too. Ya, that doesn't sound fun to me. No tanks.
Also, rookies can now go to the G-league for development. Trying to win doesn't necessarily mean that we cant also develop the rookies. Let them play in the G-leauge, and let them cover for injuries and foul trouble. Or if they pull a kessler and are amazing very quickly then play the **** out of em.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

Eh, I think the goal should pretty much always be to win. I felt this year was an exception because we LITERALLY traded away the entire starting lineup. I want to get back to winning. I hope that is the goal. Also, there is no rule that we use all 3 draft picks. Maybe we consolidate them or trade one or two for a player. No idea. I dont want to tank next year though. If that is the route we take then we better trade lauri or bench him somehow and we better get rid of hardy too. We will be too good to tank if those two are involved. Probably should bench kessler and sexton too. Ya, that doesn't sound fun to me. No tanks.
Also, rookies can now go to the G-league for development. Trying to win doesn't necessarily mean that we cant also develop the rookies. Let them play in the G-leauge, and let them cover for injuries and foul trouble. Or if they pull a kessler and are amazing very quickly then play the **** out of em.

I mean you can try and win, but development should be the top priority. We need to know if Simone is part of our future, and continue to develop Kessler and Agbaji, and and THT if still here, then we are going to potentially have 3 rookies, do you want them riding the bench simply because we want wins in a year we have no shot to go far in the playoffs? I mean I could be wrong but if we have three rookies on the team I don’t think we will be contenders. We need to primarily focus on development. Regardless of what you or I want we as of next year are in the developmental stage.

 

[fishonjazz]

The worst thing would be to go tank like or whatever again and miss the playoffs and give our draft pick to OKC. **** that noise. If we gonna be bad then lets be real bad.

 

[fishonjazz]

I mean you can try and win, but development should be the top priority. We need to know if Simone is part of our future, and continue to develop Kessler and Agbaji, and and THT if still here, then we are going to potentially have 3 rookies, do you want them riding the bench simply because we want wins in a year we have no shot to go far in the playoffs? I mean I could be wrong but if we have three rookies on the team I don’t think we will be contenders. We need to primarily focus on development. Regardless of what you or I want we as of next year are in the developmental stage.

Why cant we be contenders and have three rookies? I mean lets say we have a lineup of Sexton, Clarkson, Grant, Lauri, Kessler and have kuzma, ochai, KO, tht and 3 rookies coming off the bench. I could see that team contending. Think of how bad it would suck to miss the playoffs and lose our draft pick.
Most likely no matter what route we go we wont win a championship. even if we develop the hell out of the young guys and dont get any vets at all. We probably still dont win a championship in the future. I want to get back to going to the playoffs and hoping to get lucky. I love playoff games even when we dont win championships.

Having 3 rookies doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Doesn't mean you cant be a contender. If you swapped out the end of the bench guys on the bucks with a couple lottery picked players and a late first round picked player i think they would still be contenders. The rookies just get moved back in the rotation which is fine. That is typically what is done with rookies.

 

[sip]

If that played out then I think our win total is still closer to 36 than 26. I am not saying we can't end up worse. But OKC is starting two rookies and a sophomore. They also added Dieng who developed in the G League.

I don't know that gifting guys major minutes is great for development and think 20-25 minutes to the best guys is plenty... if they show they deserve more then they aren't counterproductive to winning. If they aren't good enough 1 gets the G League dev path. If we did that and Black and Whitmore were getting 25 minutes a nigh and Bufkin is getting 10-15... and they are supplemented with Lauri, Walker, Dunn, KO, Ochai(hopefully he is a bit better), Sexton... it isn't the end of the world.

I think the old adage of rookies don't help you win is a little bit over-used. Rookies have very little shot helping a contender... which is why its hard for GS to find time for their guys, but Keegan Murray is starting for the Kings... OKC's young guys are helping... I think if they are so bad they hurt our chances of winning significantly that Hardy won't ride with them for major minutes. We saw it this year with two very competent and solid rookies.

I don't think you are putting enough focus on the rest of the west. Even if we are a better team I think we could have a worse record simply because the rest of the west has improved even more.

Griz- Between injuries to key guys and the Morant chaos they underachieved this year in my opinion. Next year I think we see a 60 win level dominance with the high end talent and depth that they have.
Nugs- I think we see a similar level of play next year.
Suns- I think they are a 50+ win team next year with the upside of 60 with really good health
Kings- I don't know if they have more wins next year but I think they will be a better team with Murray getting better in his second season and their core guys entering their prime.
Warriors- I think they snap back next year and are in that 50 win range with Wiggins and Payton back and some of the young guys ready to take on bigger roles.
Mavs- I have a feeling Luka and Kyrie are pretty frustrated right now so as long as they can re-sign Kyrie then I would expect both guys to come into next year ready to ball. At worst I think they are a .500 team next year with 50 win upside if things really click.
Clippers- With their depth and Ballmers willingness to spend to maintain that depth I think they are at worst a .500 team with 55 win upside if Kawhi and PG can play 65+ games together. Kawhi may have started slow this year but he played the best ball of his career offensively once January hit.
Thunder- 40 wins this year and there is no way that aren't at a minimum a 40 win team next year. They just have so much upside with their young guys so I think 50 wins is a pretty reasonable expectation.
Pelicans- 42 wins this year and that was with Ingram missing 37 games and Zion missing 53. If they are even somewhat healthy next year along with improvement from guys like Murphy, Jones and Daniels then 50 wins is certainly a possibility.
Wolves- With KAT missing 53 games and a little bit of locker room disfunction they still won 42 games this year. With their depth and star power I think that is probably a minimum number next year for them as well.

Out of those 10 teams I think there is a good chance that we see an improved win total from 8 out of 10 of them which obviously means more losses for other teams. The only team in that group that I see possibly cratering is the mavs because of the lack of quality depth but you are still talking about 9 good deep teams. That isn't even mentioning the lakers who will definitely still be in win now mode and the blazers who will be in that same mode if they keep Lillard.

The bottom line for me is we could improve quite a bit as an overall team with better depth and still take a pretty big step back in the win column even if we are relatively healthy. I think we are entering an era of depth in the nba that we have never seen. Even the bottom 4 teams this year which were the pistons, rockets, spurs and hornets already have some solid young building blocks not including this years picks. All 4 should be much better teams next year even if it doesn't lead to a lot more wins. I think the rockets upside becomes scary if they luck into Wemby. A frontcourt of Sengun, Wemby and Smith is some crazy length and skill.

 

[cowhide]

I don't think you are putting enough focus on the rest of the west. Even if we are a better team I think we could have a worse record simply because the rest of the west has improved even more.

Griz- Between injuries to key guys and the Morant chaos they underachieved this year in my opinion. Next year I think we see a 60 win level dominance with the high end talent and depth that they have.
Nugs- I think we see a similar level of play next year.
Suns- I think they are a 50+ win team next year with the upside of 60 with really good health
Kings- I don't know if they have more wins next year but I think they will be a better team with Murray getting better in his second season and their core guys entering their prime.
Warriors- I think they snap back next year and are in that 50 win range with Wiggins and Payton back and some of the young guys ready to take on bigger roles.
Mavs- I have a feeling Luka and Kyrie are pretty frustrated right now so as long as they can re-sign Kyrie then I would expect both guys to come into next year ready to ball. At worst I think they are a .500 team next year with 50 win upside if things really click.
Clippers- With their depth and Ballmers willingness to spend to maintain that depth I think they are at worst a .500 team with 55 win upside if Kawhi and PG can play 65+ games together. Kawhi may have started slow this year but he played the best ball of his career offensively once January hit.
Thunder- 40 wins this year and there is no way that aren't at a minimum a 40 win team next year. They just have so much upside with their young guys so I think 50 wins is a pretty reasonable expectation.
Pelicans- 42 wins this year and that was with Ingram missing 37 games and Zion missing 53. If they are even somewhat healthy next year along with improvement from guys like Murphy, Jones and Daniels then 50 wins is certainly a possibility.
Wolves- With KAT missing 53 games and a little bit of locker room disfunction they still won 42 games this year. With their depth and star power I think that is probably a minimum number next year for them as well.

Out of those 10 teams I think there is a good chance that we see an improved win total from 8 out of 10 of them which obviously means more losses for other teams. The only team in that group that I see possibly cratering is the mavs because of the lack of quality depth but you are still talking about 9 good deep teams. That isn't even mentioning the lakers who will definitely still be in win now mode and the blazers who will be in that same mode if they keep Lillard.

The bottom line for me is we could improve quite a bit as an overall team with better depth and still take a pretty big step back in the win column even if we are relatively healthy. I think we are entering an era of depth in the nba that we have never seen. Even the bottom 4 teams this year which were the pistons, rockets, spurs and hornets already have some solid young building blocks not including this years picks. All 4 should be much better teams next year even if it doesn't lead to a lot more wins. I think the rockets upside becomes scary if they luck into Wemby. A frontcourt of Sengun, Wemby and Smith is some crazy length and skill.

This isn't about next year, this is about 2 or 3 years down the line.

 

[framer]

Blazers select Maxwell Lewis.

That is a damn good pick up at that spot.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I don't think you are putting enough focus on the rest of the west. Even if we are a better team I think we could have a worse record simply because the rest of the west has improved even more.

Griz- Between injuries to key guys and the Morant chaos they underachieved this year in my opinion. Next year I think we see a 60 win level dominance with the high end talent and depth that they have.
Nugs- I think we see a similar level of play next year.
Suns- I think they are a 50+ win team next year with the upside of 60 with really good health
Kings- I don't know if they have more wins next year but I think they will be a better team with Murray getting better in his second season and their core guys entering their prime.
Warriors- I think they snap back next year and are in that 50 win range with Wiggins and Payton back and some of the young guys ready to take on bigger roles.
Mavs- I have a feeling Luka and Kyrie are pretty frustrated right now so as long as they can re-sign Kyrie then I would expect both guys to come into next year ready to ball. At worst I think they are a .500 team next year with 50 win upside if things really click.
Clippers- With their depth and Ballmers willingness to spend to maintain that depth I think they are at worst a .500 team with 55 win upside if Kawhi and PG can play 65+ games together. Kawhi may have started slow this year but he played the best ball of his career offensively once January hit.
Thunder- 40 wins this year and there is no way that aren't at a minimum a 40 win team next year. They just have so much upside with their young guys so I think 50 wins is a pretty reasonable expectation.
Pelicans- 42 wins this year and that was with Ingram missing 37 games and Zion missing 53. If they are even somewhat healthy next year along with improvement from guys like Murphy, Jones and Daniels then 50 wins is certainly a possibility.
Wolves- With KAT missing 53 games and a little bit of locker room disfunction they still won 42 games this year. With their depth and star power I think that is probably a minimum number next year for them as well.

Out of those 10 teams I think there is a good chance that we see an improved win total from 8 out of 10 of them which obviously means more losses for other teams. The only team in that group that I see possibly cratering is the mavs because of the lack of quality depth but you are still talking about 9 good deep teams. That isn't even mentioning the lakers who will definitely still be in win now mode and the blazers who will be in that same mode if they keep Lillard.

The bottom line for me is we could improve quite a bit as an overall team with better depth and still take a pretty big step back in the win column even if we are relatively healthy. I think we are entering an era of depth in the nba that we have never seen. Even the bottom 4 teams this year which were the pistons, rockets, spurs and hornets already have some solid young building blocks not including this years picks. All 4 should be much better teams next year even if it doesn't lead to a lot more wins. I think the rockets upside becomes scary if they luck into Wemby. A frontcourt of Sengun, Wemby and Smith is some crazy length and skill.

Many of these same things would have been said last year my friend. Not every team will improve and many will have injuries. Any worried about who we got to leap frog.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

@Chargers Jazz Angels

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

Why cant we be contenders and have three rookies? I mean lets say we have a lineup of Sexton, Clarkson, Grant, Lauri, Kessler and have kuzma, ochai, KO, tht and 3 rookies coming off the bench. I could see that team contending. Think of how bad it would suck to miss the playoffs and lose our draft pick.
Most likely no matter what route we go we wont win a championship. even if we develop the hell out of the young guys and dont get any vets at all. We probably still dont win a championship in the future. I want to get back to going to the playoffs and hoping to get lucky. I love playoff games even when we dont win championships.

Having 3 rookies doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Doesn't mean you cant be a contender. If you swapped out the end of the bench guys on the bucks with a couple lottery picked players and a late first round picked player i think they would still be contenders. The rookies just get moved back in the rotation which is fine. That is typically what is done with rookies.

We going to sign or trade for role players, not a star?? Seems like a waste. Are we trying to contend or just be a good regular season team like the last 25 years? We need to add a star not tier 2-3 guys. I don’t want to see 2-3 more rookies ride pine all year next year. Why not just ride what we got next year then trade for a starour rookies and second year players are then ready to role then we would have a truely formidable team at that point. We’ve rushed our rebuilds the last 25 years, it’s time to be patient, and build the right way.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

We can’t properly develop 3 rookies and win a lot of games. If we build too fast then those rookies won’t get on the floor unless we get lucky and they’re ready by day one, I doubt that. If we want to be serious contenders we need to develop and get these rooks ready to role the following year. If we trying solely to win they don’t get the experience they need. That’s what doomed the core four

 

[fishonjazz]

We going to sign or trade for role players, not a star?? Seems like a waste. Are we trying to contend or just be a good regular season team like the last 25 years? We need to add a star not tier 2-3 guys. I don’t want to see 2-3 more rookies ride pine all year next year. Why not just ride what we got next year then trade for a starour rookies and second year players are then ready to role then we would have a truely formidable team at that point. We’ve rushed our rebuilds the last 25 years, it’s time to be patient, and build the right way.

Eh, I have really enjoyed the last 25 years. Grant and kuzma are all star caliber dudes. No guarantees that not going for wins next season results in anything better than going for wins does.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

Eh, I have really enjoyed the last 25 years. Grant and kuzma are all star caliber dudes. No guarantees that not going for wins next season results in anything better than going for wins does.

So you don’t care if we win a chip?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Eh, I have really enjoyed the last 25 years. Grant and kuzma are all star caliber dudes. No guarantees that not going for wins next season results in anything better than going for wins does.

Yeah, if we can get one of these upper tier free agents that changes stuff. Im not sure we can though, but we will see.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We can’t properly develop 3 rookies and win a lot of games. If we build too fast then those rookies won’t get on the floor unless we get lucky and they’re ready by day one, I doubt that. If we want to be serious contenders we need to develop and get these rooks ready to role the following year. If we trying solely to win they don’t get the experience they need. That’s what doomed the core four

The core four not being nearly as good as we hoped is what doomed the core four.

We won't be contenders but we can win 40ish games and develop our young guys. Not sure why we think a late first round rookie is someone that needs to play a lot in year 1... if they can then great but they can also hang in the G league or get fill in duty. Can we have 2 guys drafted in the 9-17 range play 20-25 minutes and win 40 games? Yes.

Can we add 1 or 2 vets to the mix with $50M in space and still play the rookies enough? Well again

Lauri
Kessler
KO
Sexton
Ochai
Dunn
THT?
3 Rookies - 1 likely does not play at all.

7ish rotation guys a couple rookies... you could easily parlay the $50M into a good young vet through trade or signing and move off of KO/THT. Injuries will happen so you will have spot duty. There is a path to playing time if they are showing promise. If you signed someone and they are blocking the good rookie from playing then you can trade them for value.

I just don't see DA clearing $50M in space so he can thumb his hole and find salary dumps. I think his ambitions are a bit higher.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I don't think you are putting enough focus on the rest of the west. Even if we are a better team I think we could have a worse record simply because the rest of the west has improved even more.

Griz- Between injuries to key guys and the Morant chaos they underachieved this year in my opinion. Next year I think we see a 60 win level dominance with the high end talent and depth that they have.
Nugs- I think we see a similar level of play next year.
Suns- I think they are a 50+ win team next year with the upside of 60 with really good health
Kings- I don't know if they have more wins next year but I think they will be a better team with Murray getting better in his second season and their core guys entering their prime.
Warriors- I think they snap back next year and are in that 50 win range with Wiggins and Payton back and some of the young guys ready to take on bigger roles.
Mavs- I have a feeling Luka and Kyrie are pretty frustrated right now so as long as they can re-sign Kyrie then I would expect both guys to come into next year ready to ball. At worst I think they are a .500 team next year with 50 win upside if things really click.
Clippers- With their depth and Ballmers willingness to spend to maintain that depth I think they are at worst a .500 team with 55 win upside if Kawhi and PG can play 65+ games together. Kawhi may have started slow this year but he played the best ball of his career offensively once January hit.
Thunder- 40 wins this year and there is no way that aren't at a minimum a 40 win team next year. They just have so much upside with their young guys so I think 50 wins is a pretty reasonable expectation.
Pelicans- 42 wins this year and that was with Ingram missing 37 games and Zion missing 53. If they are even somewhat healthy next year along with improvement from guys like Murphy, Jones and Daniels then 50 wins is certainly a possibility.
Wolves- With KAT missing 53 games and a little bit of locker room disfunction they still won 42 games this year. With their depth and star power I think that is probably a minimum number next year for them as well.

Out of those 10 teams I think there is a good chance that we see an improved win total from 8 out of 10 of them which obviously means more losses for other teams. The only team in that group that I see possibly cratering is the mavs because of the lack of quality depth but you are still talking about 9 good deep teams. That isn't even mentioning the lakers who will definitely still be in win now mode and the blazers who will be in that same mode if they keep Lillard.

The bottom line for me is we could improve quite a bit as an overall team with better depth and still take a pretty big step back in the win column even if we are relatively healthy. I think we are entering an era of depth in the nba that we have never seen. Even the bottom 4 teams this year which were the pistons, rockets, spurs and hornets already have some solid young building blocks not including this years picks. All 4 should be much better teams next year even if it doesn't lead to a lot more wins. I think the rockets upside becomes scary if they luck into Wemby. A frontcourt of Sengun, Wemby and Smith is some crazy length and skill.

So thinking on this... there is almost no way 8 out of 10 of these teams improve... its partly a zero sum game. I will address a few teams...

Nugs - its now stale... they have nothing to trade. MP Jr. is a walking red flag of injuries.
Suns - CP old, Cash strapped, KD is injury prone, they have no depth to cover their injuries
Kings - One of the healthiest teams all year... could improve but likely snap back to earth a bit.
Warriors - Major cap crunch coming. Green or Poole are on a different roster next year... They old AF... not sure why they are a whole lot better.
Mavs - Kyrie lol... they are relying on Kyrie...
Clips - Another year and another early exit. Injuries and aging. Just as likely to fall apart as to improve.
Thunder - Implementing a couple rookies with a bunch of other young players. who knows.
Pelicans - Zion is fat AF and his max deal kicks in. We will see but they could very well be exactly where they are right now.
Wolves - Bipolar team. Rudy is aging. Naz likely walks... Maybe they change it up.
Lakers - Running on fumes and no real ways of making big improvements.

I think the West will be closer to Meh than you think.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Warriors - Major cap crunch coming. Green or Poole are on a different roster next year... They old AF... not sure why they are a whole lot better.
Clips - Another year and another early exit. Injuries and aging. Just as likely to fall apart as to improve.

I was just looking up 2024 free agents on teams that might look to save money in case the Jazz don't use all of their cap-space by signing free agents and want to punt on the space they have by absorbing bad, short money.

Might the Warriors want to save a bajillion dollars by dumping Green into someone's space? Would we want him? The Clippers also have a bunch of aging and perhaps superfluous pieces expiring next year too (Morris, RoCo, Batum, Gordon).

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I was just looking up 2024 free agents on teams that might look to save money in case the Jazz don't use all of their cap-space by signing free agents and want to punt on the space they have by absorbing bad, short money.

Might the Warriors want to save a bajillion dollars by dumping Green into someone's space? Would we want him? The Clippers also have a bunch of aging and perhaps superfluous pieces expiring next year too (Morris, RoCo, Batum, Gordon).

Green has an option… but yeah I said before the punch this was his last year in GS… maybe they move Poole instead though.

We will sign at least one FA and trade for one player imo. Or they make one acquisition and keep JC… though I think he may be gone.

 

[sip]

So thinking on this... there is almost no way 8 out of 10 of these teams improve... its partly a zero sum game. I will address a few teams...

Nugs - its now stale... they have nothing to trade. MP Jr. is a walking red flag of injuries.
Suns - CP old, Cash strapped, KD is injury prone, they have no depth to cover their injuries
Kings - One of the healthiest teams all year... could improve but likely snap back to earth a bit.
Warriors - Major cap crunch coming. Green or Poole are on a different roster next year... They old AF... not sure why they are a whole lot better.
Mavs - Kyrie lol... they are relying on Kyrie...
Clips - Another year and another early exit. Injuries and aging. Just as likely to fall apart as to improve.
Thunder - Implementing a couple rookies with a bunch of other young players. who knows.
Pelicans - Zion is fat AF and his max deal kicks in. We will see but they could very well be exactly where they are right now.
Wolves - Bipolar team. Rudy is aging. Naz likely walks... Maybe they change it up.
Lakers - Running on fumes and no real ways of making big improvements.

I think the West will be closer to Meh than you think.

Come on man you have to put in more effort than that. There is a very good chance that 8 out of the 10 teams I mentioned improve. The vast majority of them were slaughtered by injuries this year. The odds of that happening next year are relatively low.