I think the #1 record was legit and these would all be very different conversations had everyone been healthy, imo. But it might be better this way as if we had seen success, even if that just meant getting bounced by the suns in the WCF, maybe we would have stayed at status quo and never had the impetus to fix what sounds like a rotten situation.
I wonder why Smith was pissed at DL? Could it be that he’s sloppy and barely had us in the luxury tax because he felt ****ed up the math? Remember all teh lolz when I suggested that @infection ? Because “bruh... like these pros would do that?”
Yep. You and I were following that pretty closely. We were questioning why DL didn't do more to avoid the luxury last year. How close were we after all was said and done? $2 million or so?
Bummer. Not a fan of Ainge and not a big fan of Smith getting into the day to day basketball decisions.
I am happy to be the outlier on this one and own my comments. I still dont believe for one minute that DL or anyone in the Jazz FO did bad math or lost track of the luxury tax. Way too many people involved crunching numbers for that to happen so flame away. However, it does seem very possible that DL simply didn't care and/or thought Smith was fine with spending more and didn't check in.
He was dead… dead wrong on my main man Bolomboy!!
Actually, it all makes sense now. This fracas explains so much.
I think they ****ed up the math... other front offices have had similar **** ups. It happens. Call it what you want but they failed to give themselves the wiggle room necessary to get out of the tax and barely dipped their toes in it. When I say they ducked up the math I’m not saying the spreadsheet was pulling the wrong cells or that they didn’t carry the 1.... I’m saying they gave out money that made it impossible to get under the tax without dumping a key rotation player. It was clear they were trying to avoid the tax after handing out some deals... and it was never going to work without a bigger move. That’s a math **** up... sorry.
I went back and looked at what Bradley gave us last season and what Favs gave us this season, and statistically it was a wash. So we paid Favs a zillion dollars, gave away all our draft picks and Matty Ice, Dok and Hughes are what we have to show for it. Pure genius, What if the Jazz just stood pat, let Davis contract eventually expire, kept Bradley, kept Tucker, kept NWG, didn't sign Shaq, didn't sign Ersan didn't trade for Matty Ice. I think you could argue the Jazz would have been better off standing pat and letting Bradley develop or not develop and use that draft pick for something else.
DL drove the Jazz backwards this past season. No way around it. If I'm Ryan Smith or Donovan Mitchell, I have every right to be upset. We'd be running away with the no.1 seed and cruising to the final had DL made even one useful move. The possibility of Conley departure only makes the matter worse.
I'd even date back to when DL cut Jeff Green and signed Tucker in his place. Niang almost fell out of the rotation when Uncle Jeff was here. Had we kept Jeff Green on the team we'd have won that clippers series, while keeping all of our second round picks.
Honestly would welcome him in an advisory type role. The biggest issue with him was his relationship stuff... and that he's annoying. I think he's worth having in the brain trust.
I can't think of a circumstance where this has gone well. Balmer maybe... but he seems to just be really present and not a Cuban type that is the real decision maker.
