So is there a plan or no plan?
Jazz trade Olynyk and Ochai to Toronto for Kira Lewis, Otto Porter, and a 2024 1st round pick
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The Jazz Wonderbra
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Fair analysis.
There is also a pattern here. Ainge is building value in players the first half of the season for a sell on value add. Meanwhile, draft picks get minutes in the G-League and after 4 months there, they get promotions to the full team for the second half of the season. Rinse and repeat. As the value game goes, it's not bad.
fishonjazz
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If hardy really wanted to he could avoid playing bryce, luka, and taylor.
You need 3 bigs in a rotation. Collins, Kessler, Markannen
You need 5 wings/guards in a rotation. Sexton, Key, Dunn, Clarkson, THT.
8 man rotation is doable.
However I think Hardy should and will play Taylor for sure. Nice thing about Taylor is that with simone he was being asked to space the floor, defend, and rebound a little bit. Don't pass. Don't dribble. What are Taylors strengths/skillset? Spacing the floor, defending and rebounding a little bit. Also don't pass, don't dribble
You need 3 bigs in a rotation. Collins, Kessler, Markannen
You need 5 wings/guards in a rotation. Sexton, Key, Dunn, Clarkson, THT.
8 man rotation is doable.
However I think Hardy should and will play Taylor for sure. Nice thing about Taylor is that with simone he was being asked to space the floor, defend, and rebound a little bit. Don't pass. Don't dribble. What are Taylors strengths/skillset? Spacing the floor, defending and rebounding a little bit. Also don't pass, don't dribble
This has been picked up and repeated a bunch when there's clearly a plan. Ainge and Smith have both stated that: "We have a plan." Rotation players in 2024 have nothing to do with the Jazz winning a championship later this decade. They need to match Lauri with a top 5 player and fill in the rest around them. That's why they're emphasizing financial flexibility (to secure a star when the market for one opens), collecting assets and giving young players a spin to see if and where they might fit into the future.
It's way more complicated than just "value deals." Of course you want to secure as much value as you can until you make the big move.
Ainge planned out KG's acquisition to Boston four years in advance. He had Wrigley Field welcome Hayward and his wife tweeted out the shamrocks well in advance of a decision.
Ainge is a competitor. Competitors plan and adjust those plans based on new information.
Just because the full scope of it hasn't come into play, and no one could even read through the front office's buyer vs. seller poker face, suggests to me that all the hand-wringing is premature.
Release the Kraken
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Bummer! A serious blow to our playoff hopes this year IMO.
GG Jazz Cabbage
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probably correct
Tanktastic
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Lauri has to want to stay with the Jazz long term. The star player X has to want to come to Utah, or at least not hate it enough to refuse it. There probably isn't a star that wouldn't refuse to come to this version of the Jazz. Yeah, sure, you've got picks to make moves, but the star is going to take a look at the roster as it is - not the mystery moves DA will make sometime in the future.
If you didn't catch it, I said that second part flipantly, precisely because what we are doing is hardly a "plan"... it's like what every single team should be doing as a default modus operandi. And this is why I don't really mind any of those moves in a vacuum. What I mind is the lack of any discernible direction or... you know... plan.
What constitutes a plan to you? This is all going to be semantics so until you clearly define what a plan is, I have no idea what you mean.
Probably as otherwise there are too many bench warmers. Is there some upside in Kira Lewis? Or he just warming the bench with THT...
Otto Porter is just a mystery. He can seem to be a super efficient and useful player at times, but too often seems just disconnected from the game and simply vanishes. If he had just a tiny bit of motor, he could be awesome. But these days he's probably just old (and has always been pretty injury-prone - or maybe it's just part of his low motor, I wonder). He can be a very useful player - if he chooses to.
He does.
Which is why Donovan Mitchell is on the Cavaliers and Lillard is on the Bucks. Now, a Giannis or Luka is certainly a higher tier, but Ainge has a history of convincing unconvinced players to join his teams. (Kevin Garnett being the most obvious example.)
Conjecture.
Ainge has just gotten started.
I don't know, the way DA has been trading lately he could be traded for a protected late round second and the Buck's equipment manager.
A GM has zero responsibility to reveal their internal, long-term strategy to fans and, given the value of strategic intelligence in the NBA, real harm could be done to team building by doing so. Which is exactly why none of the NBA teams do it.
There isn't a "Season Ticket Holder's Strategic Team Building Power Point Presentation" at center court before the season.
You might feel you deserve to know the rationale behind the trades, but you're only going to get something vague like: "Maintain financial flexibility and add assets"
HeatCheck
Well-Known Member
KO and Tecc are FA's after the season and therefore couldn't garner draft picks in this coming draft if they weren't dealt now.
As much as we like both guys neither was in the long range plans of the team. Like it or not DA is looking at the long game and not so concerned about making a play in game this season. It is what it is. After the Don/Rudy trades we all knew it would work out this way although the surprising play of the team does make it a tougher pill to swallow for us fans.
As much as we like both guys neither was in the long range plans of the team. Like it or not DA is looking at the long game and not so concerned about making a play in game this season. It is what it is. After the Don/Rudy trades we all knew it would work out this way although the surprising play of the team does make it a tougher pill to swallow for us fans.
The Britannica Dictionary:
Plan Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary
PLAN meaning: 1 : a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something often + for; 2 : something that a person intends to do often plural
Lets say the something we are trying to achieve is building a contender or championship team.
Make trades with good value is not a plan, because in a lot of cases such trades would hurt your chances of building a contender simply because trades can either aim at future or present day value. If you non stop trade your best players simply because there is a good value you are never going to build a contender... but you will always have 15 1st round picks in the next 5 years...
But again... I want to emphasize - I do NOT mind either of those trades in a vacuum. I just wish I knew what the braintrust of the Jazz is thinking. I have made my guesses known. Maybe I'm wrong and there is some elaborate "set of actions they are thinking about as a way to build a contender". I just don't see it right now.
The New York Knicks are gearing up for the stretch run of the season. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks are trading for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks and sending four players and two future second-round picks to the Detroit Pistons in the deal.
Knicks get:
- Alec Burks
- Bojan Bogdanovic
- Evan Fournier
- Malachi Flynn
- Quentin Grimes
- Ryan Arcidiacono
- Two future second-round picks
Hearsky
Well-Known Member
You've obviously never seen a picture of Kevin Knox,