Building around Donovan or Gobert

[SoberasHotRod]

- Donovan does one thing at an elite level, putting up shots, and he's become more and more efficient at it every year. It is definitely an extremely valuable skill and something many good teams are lacking to become great. He's short, a bad defender, and only an average playmaker. In order to have an elite team around him you would need: Good size at every other position, good defenders at every other position, good shooters to open the floor for him, good rebounders, and at least one other player on the floor who can make plays.

- Gobert is an elite defensive player at all levels, but is hall of fame level at defending the rim. He's an elite rebounder, rim runner and great screen setter. He can't create his own shot. He's not a good distributor. In 5 out basketball a lot of his super powers are negated. In order to have an elite team around him you would need: Players that can get their own shot, good shooters at every other position, average defenders, and ideally multiple pnr ball handlers that can throw lobs. At $40MM per year, you don't have a lot of cap space to find those players.

Ironically Gobert and Donovan fit really well next to each other, but they needed better size/defense around them and at this point I don't think our current assets can get us there. They also don't trust each other, creating multiple on the court and off the court issues that has kept the team back. I don't think keeping them together is really an option.

Building around Donovan seems more difficult to me than building around Gobert, but neither really seems that probable to me.

 

[Avery]

The correct answer is neither, but they’re going to try with DM as he has the balls of this franchise lovingly placed in the palm of his hand.

 

[KqWIN]

There really isn’t a player in the league that is enough on their own. Jokic is incredible, and DEN still got completely blasted because his team is awful. IMO, it’s not really a useful exercise to think about players on their own because they can’t win on their own. Every player in the league needs shooters, playmakers, and defenders around them.

Don and Gobert are a good combo. They need each other, not necessarily because they fit perfectly together (they are decent considering strengths/weaknesses)….but because they are really good players and you need really good players to win.

I still think the off court stuff is overblown. I do think they dislike each other and there’s truth to the idea that they cannot play together anymore. But one thing that’s been consistent in their relationship is that it’s good when their winning and terrible when their losing. The partnership fell apart when their belief in winning together disappeared. The personal stuff would have been brushed aside if they could just win.

They had reason to believe they could win. The FO kept nearly the exact same team with the exact same weaknesses and expected something different. This was a colossal failure by the FO. Things would be a lot different if they actually addressed their weaknesses instead of refusing to believe they exist. Same goes for Quin.

This franchise has largely ignored any weaknesses they have, instead choosing to believe that they can win anyways. The results speak for themselves, and the consequence of their inaction is a premature breakup of the Don-Rudy combo. Chances are neither player will have a better chance to win while in their prime and the Jazz as a franchise will likely have to wait decades to have this chance again. It’s a rare and privileged position to have two players of this caliber on the same team.

 

[LoPo]

If we would have been this desperate and upset 3 years ago, we would have seen the signs and addressed the roster accordingly.

We didn't.

 

[416Klawzz]

Do not bring them both back that would be a compromise changing the supporting cast around those two is just a water down retooling.
It will only result in disappointments again!

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I'd be interested to see what's the best "win now" package we could get for Mitchell.

Tyler Hero/Max Strus/Duncan Robinson/Caleb Martin/Two First Rounders (their 30th pick this season and like a 2026 unprotected pick)

I wouldnt be shocked if Hero could replace 110% of what Mitchell does, then everything else is icing on the cake.

*That's probably one player too many at the least. Would most likely have to take out Martin or Strus*

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

To piggyback off my last post, basically any Miami Heat deal that includes Herro and picks could end up being a huge win for Utah.

It's a gamble. I dont 100% think Herro >= Mitchell, but I think it's definitely possible that if you put Herro in Mitchell's spot, he'd play better.

 

[Elizah Huge]

I'd be interested to see what's the best "win now" package we could get for Mitchell.

Tyler Hero/Max Strus/Duncan Robinson/Caleb Martin/Two First Rounders (their 30th pick this season and like a 2026 unprotected pick)

I wouldnt be shocked if Hero could replace 110% of what Mitchell does, then everything else is icing on the cake.

*That's probably one player too many at the least. Would most likely have to take out Martin or Strus*

To piggyback off my last post, basically any Miami Heat deal that includes Herro and picks could end up being a huge win for Utah.

It's a gamble. I dont 100% think Herro >= Mitchell, but I think it's definitely possible that if you put Herro in Mitchell's spot, he'd play better.

I would go as far to say as I guarantee with the type of looks he would get with our spacing and shot creating he could at minimum replace 90% of what Mitchell does. I’m all for that kind of deal. He’s bigger than him and younger too which is just an added bonus. Add in Robinson plus other pieces and picks then it’s a home run.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I would go as far to say as I guarantee with the type of looks he would get with our spacing and shot creating he could at minimum replace 90% of what Mitchell does. I’m all for that kind of deal. He’s bigger than him and younger too which is just an added bonus. Add in Robinson plus other pieces and picks then it’s a home run.

I actually really dont want Robinson, but you have to take back Robinson to make any kind of Mitchell deal work.

If you are just replacing the two, it's going to end up pretty much just like the Mitchell/Gobert from this year (but maybe a bit better because team chemistry could be better).

Ideally I would include some third team where Robinson goes, and maybe we deal 1-2 of Bogey/Clarkson/Conley.



Had this brain fart of an idea, but I kind of hate the idea of trading Conley. I don't want to make Tyler Herro my starting PG and there just arent that many good starting level PG's left. Conley was *** in the playoffs, but he was still overall very good in the regular season. I think he has at least one more year left in him and then he becomes more tradeable the following year.

I think Caruso/Clarkson could be swapped, especially if LaVine leaves the Bulls. That would give the Jazz some kind of starting PG placeholder until they find a better option (maybe Jared Butler gets good).

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Jazz would have:

Caruso/Butler/Forrest/Smith
Herro/Royce
KCP/
Bogey/Kuzma/Gay
Gobert

Jazz would have to address backup center. Work to add another wing (would probably have to play Kuzma at the 3 more than ideal).

I dont know. Would kind of be a rough team as far as shot creation goes. Ideally Butler takes some kind of massive step as a shot creator. Maybe the Jazz can hit a homerun at the 30th pick and get some sort of immediate contributor (Christian Braun/EJ Liddell/Wendell Moore/Jabari Walker).

 

[416Klawzz]

I'd be interested to see what's the best "win now" package we could get for Mitchell.

Tyler Hero/Max Strus/Duncan Robinson/Caleb Martin/Two First Rounders (their 30th pick this season and like a 2026 unprotected pick)

I wouldnt be shocked if Hero could replace 110% of what Mitchell does, then everything else is icing on the cake.

*That's probably one player too many at the least. Would most likely have to take out Martin or Strus*

Who would you want for Gobert?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Who would you want for Gobert?

To compete around Mitchell or be bad for draft picks?