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Everybody knows that he is lying, right?! Ainge is just hoping that trading away Collins, Sexton and Clarkson will make the Jazz so bad that there would be no need for any shenanigans. But if the Jazz unexpectedly start winning games...

The sad part is that if Lauri wastes the rest of his prime playing for horrible Jazz teams he will be quickly forgotten by American basketball fans, like Shareef Abdur-Rahim. And even the Jazz fans 15 years from now will vaguely remember him as someone like Al Jefferson 2.0. I hope that at least...

I think that Lauri definitely enjoys going all-out for the wins when all of his teammates are doing the same. He most certainly did not have the opportunity to do so on the Jazz last season or two - and will not have it in the upcoming season. It must be extremely demotivating and frustrating...

A professional player scores way above his averages playing against the competition two tiers down. Stop the presses! I bet he can also break Wilt's scoring record playing against a high school team from Iowa.

That's like... demonstrably false? The Stockton and Malone Jazz were not built with high draft picks, out of Deron, Boozer, Memo and AK only Deron was a high pick. Mitchell and Gobert were not high picks either.

Um, look at Chet's stats in the different rounds of the recent playoffs.

Lauri is certainly below SGA and above the current version of Chet. JW is his closest match.

That is a very valid observation. Unfortunately, the game style and financial framework in the NBA change every several years and nobody has the luxury of waiting for the sample size to increase and only after that start making moves based on the sufficient". Teams react and copy each other...

Yes and no. Indiana is in also a small market team that doesn’t attract free agents and they did not get exactly lucky in the draft but they had a very good chance of winning this year too. I think the blueprint for the teams like the Jazz do exist and it contains several key components: 1...

I just looked up the Pacers as another blueprint. They also had only two large contracts (Haliburton and Siakim), Turner on a very friendly contract and a bunch of very good role players on rookie deals. It is a very similar situation to OKC.

OKC just won a championship. They provided a very good realistic template for the Jazz on how to assemble a contender: OKC is a small-market team in a less-then-desirable city without a rich owner. They won by having an MVP-level player (SGA)+ 2 All-Stars (Williams, Holmgren)+ 3...

This is the April lineup.

My starters: Kessler - Markkanen - Bailey - Williams - Clayton. The reasoning: the Jazz will not be able to trade Lauri or Kessler and they will force-feed minutes to Ace, Cody and Clayton to see what they have and to secure much needed losses. The Jazz would love starting Hendricks but they...

Let's try and predict who will be starting for the Jazz at the end of the 2025/26 season ( in the late February/beginning of March) by factoring in the expected players development, injuries, trades etc. In 7 months we can review the predictions and crown our well-deserving prophet(s)!

I am a bit surprised that nobody picked him up. He seemed to fell off the facer of the Earth after the Jazz released him. I really hope he can find a new home in the NBA.

I like Flip and enjoy seeing his progress. However, I am still hesitant about his long-term future on the Jazz. Yes, he will be probably good as the third - fourth big coming off the bench. But ideally your 3rd/4th big should be able to step up when your starter get injured and hold the fort for...

With players like Springer if you have to ask yourself "should my team extend or guarantee his contract?" - the answer is always "no". Teams churn through these players looking for diamonds in the rough who could use the opportunity to rapidly improve and become clear rotation players. If they...

Well, Curry and Brunson are good examples of players who overcame their size limitations with immense skills. If you think that WCJ will be equally skilled then his future is very bright. His biggest hurdle is to develop a true PG skillset as he seems to be a combo guard, i.e. the shooting guard...

I disagree. Rubio had his own warts but he was a 34% 3PT and 80% FT shooter in his rookie year. And he was a much better passer as well (>8 APG on a team with many capable passers).

Athleticism by itself means nothing: it is just the tool allowing players to control a lot of horizontal and vertical space on the court. Athleticism is simply the ability to move your outstretched hands quickly up and down. And Clayton does have a problem there. His standing reach is the 5th...