The Official 2023-2024 Utah Jazz Season Discussion Thread

[Crunch 99]

The Jazz have a shot at finishing in line for the eighth pick. The Jazz are tied with Brooklyn with 29-47 records. Brooklyn picks at 8 ahead of the Jazz if they remain tied, but Brooklyn still has Toronto and Detroit on their schedule. There is a good chance that one of those games produces a Brooklyn win. The Jazz have a tougher remaining schedule and are favored to lose out.

[Inigo Montoya]

Locke went through some names that will be available in free agency. The list was quite depressing. I forgot who the poster here is but I'm sure he'll like that Futlz's name was floated as a possibility. Locke's conclusion was that Miles Bridges is the best free agent available on the market this offseason (who is also likely to actually become a free agent), which reflects it's slim pickings out there.

[vryadli]

Keyonte showed nice progress under the tutelage of KO, but after trade he regressed remarkably. Other youngsters had some nice games just after getting big minutes, but currently they look to be regressing too.

So much for rebuilding through development.

[Hoops Addict]

After trading Oly and Agjabi. the talent level dropped a lot....they are terrible....its finally a full rebuild. They may be really bad next year.

[dr0welf]

This was a brutal year to watch. Someone please tell me why we didn't full tank mode last year to get wemby but we do at the end of this year? Which was too late to do much good. This ownership group failed tanking worst then they failed jersey designing (which was horrible).

[vryadli]

With good example/tutoring from veterans and in properly competitive games all 3 rookies - and definitely Kessler would be pretty good players. But they were treated like a trash and there they going. You put good quality products in trash bin, guess what they will turn into

[Inigo Montoya]

Avery Bradley hired by the Jazz as VP of Player Development. He has a connection with Ainge as a player on the Celtics.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2024/04/14/avery-bradley-joins-utah-jazz-front-office/

[AGE1207]

We have better players in our FO than on our roster. Can someone please explain to our owner this isn’t how it works usually?

[D Rog]

We have better players in our FO than on our roster. Can someone please explain to our owner this isn’t how it works usually?

He is too busy trying to buy one of the worst hockey teams to match is investment in one of the worst NBA teams.

Wish it were an NFL team.

[vryadli]

Avery Bradley hired by the Jazz as VP of Player Development. He has a connection with Ainge as a player on the Celtics.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2024/04/14/avery-bradley-joins-utah-jazz-front-office/

Good for Celtics!

[D Rog]

We have better players in our FO than on our roster. Can someone please explain to our owner this isn’t how it works usually?

He is too busy trying to buy one of the worst hockey teams to match is investment in one of the worst NBA teams.

Wish it were an NFL team.

Per KSL, plan on a .5% sales tax increase to fund Ryan Smith bringing an NHL team to SLC. That tax increase will be in place for the next 50+ years. Does the gov't ever reduce taxes?

[Inigo Montoya]

An interesting end of the season Q&A with Ainge. Says it's hard to find franchise-altering players in this year's draft. Also says it's not a goal to start next season with six players under 20-years of age because it's not good option for anybody but can't say it won't happen, but that's it's not plan A or plan B. Also says there is no plan, which is not very reassuring. Having watched the whole thing, I can recommend watching it in its entirety. Ainge gives pretty candid answers (imho) to a lot of questions that were brought up in this board, and seems candid and realistic in his evaluation of things.

Watch on YouTube

[D Rog]

An interesting end of the season Q&A with Ainge. Says it's hard to find franchise-altering players in this year's draft. Also says it's not a goal to start next season with six players under 20-years of age because it's not good option for anybody but can't say it won't happen, but that's it's not plan A or plan B. Also says there is no plan, which is not very reassuring. Having watched the whole thing, I can recommend watching it in its entirety. Ainge gives pretty candid answers (imho) to a lot of questions that were brought up in this board, and seems candid and realistic in his evaluation of things.

Watch on YouTube

Good Listen - Thanks Inigo.

After listening to Danny, it sound like he wants to complete something similar to what he did in Boston by acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. I wonder if anyone can come up with one or two game changers right now that honestly may be available. (You can say maybe Luka, but I don't think so.) (You can say Trae, but I say no thanks) ... Just curious

[AGE1207]

I listened and watched this a few times now but not entirely sure what to make of it…
On the one hand, Ainge would very much like to take the lead and make things happen, ie. he does seem to have a plan or at least a general idea of what is needed, but on the other hand he seems savvy enough to know that Utah is a small market player and he will need to wait and see what happens in other franchises before he can pounce.
We have maximum flexibility to grab opportunities but we just don’t know what these opportunities will be (yet).
In any case, it’s fairly clear he would prefer not to have to tank anymore so next season should be more exciting than this one.

[SoCalJazzFan]

Will the 2027 LAL pick end up being worth not being in the Wemby sweepstakes last draft?

Will the late first and early second round picks be worth not picking higher this year?

Will the Jazz go big game hunting this offseason and miss out on what appears to be a very good 2025 draft class?

I like Danny Ainge, however, their approach to these drafts while trying to rebuild is a bit of a headscratcher for me. Either tank and place yourself in a position to get a high draft pick with the odds of that player being a transformational player that come with it or start trading your picks for players that will make the team better. Jazz history shows that they don't end up trading for their Batmans and Robins, but rather they usually draft those guys and then build around them (e.g. Stockton/Malone, DWill/AK47 (Boozer's situation was an anomaly), DM/RG). I get that you can't have a defined plan to select at a certain draft pick or trade for a particular player, but not having a plan when it comes to the draft, which you can in large part control at least with respect to the top 4, is frustrating for me.

[bkohler]

I like Danny Ainge, however, their approach to these drafts while trying to rebuild is a bit of a headscratcher for me. Either tank and place yourself in a position to get a high draft pick with the odds of that player being a transformational player that come with it or start trading your picks for players that will make the team better. Jazz history shows that they don't end up trading for their Batmans and Robins, but rather they usually draft those guys and then build around them (e.g. Stockton/Malone, DWill/AK47 (Boozer's situation was an anomaly), DM/RG). I get that you can't have a defined plan to select at a certain draft pick or trade for a particular player, but not having a plan when it comes to the draft, which you can in large part control at least with respect to the top 4, is frustrating for me.

I don't disagree, but it does strike me as interesting that every player you mentioned besides D-Will was actually a late lottery or worse pick. Not attempting to get deeper into the Wemby sweepstakes was probably a mistake (although I think they thought they'd be deep in it and were 100% surprised by Lauri and the crew). But with a draft like the one we're coming into right now, I'm not sure getting a top-3 pick is as valuable as having multiple swings per draft.

The logic for going for a deeper rebuild makes a bit more sense for 2025 with what seems to be a pretty decent crop of high-end prospects and in 2026, where you have (at least right now) a projection of high-level players coming out.