SoCalJazzFan wrote:KqWIN wrote:Inigo Montoya wrote:The Nuggets beat us without Barton and they lacked Harris for several games too so it's not like we were the only ones missing players. And we did manage a 3-1 lead without Bojan, so I don't think missing him is why we lost. Also, our biggest problem was on defense, where he wouldn't have helped that much. Our offense was fine.
And this version of DEN just beat the title favorites. This season is wide open. Jazz missed their greatest opportunity to compete for a championship. Even without Bogey, you can't say this team couldn't compete with the best.
This was 10000% the year to go all in...Just major failure on Conley and major fail on the prioritizing winning. The Jazz won't have this opportunity again for decades. The combination of the Warriors dynasty ending, "green" superteams like the Clippers, and the cap situation where our two best players cost less than one max will not happen again.
Good on DEN for capitalizing, massive blown opportunity for UTA.
You have consistently held the position that this season would be wide open, at least since the bubble. Every sport is a game of inches or seconds, and the Jazz (as well as the Clippers) lost their series by a thin margin. For the Jazz, it could have been the difference of an odd-ball 8 second violation or just one more Jamal Murray stop. If they would have had Bogey, I think it would have made a big difference. Conley, with the exception of game 7, showed up in the playoffs. The Jazz might have the worst bench in the NBA, which is another factor. Next season could be another odd ball season with Covid and a weird time frame, bubbles, teams over-reacting to their playoff losses, etc.
I’ve really felt this way since KD got injured in last year’s playoffs. I think we were all so used to the Warriors dominance that we forgot what a normal league was like. The combo of no super teams and Mitchell+Gobert costing less than one max combine was truly a great window.
I suppose we have one more year of this, but Conley still isn’t the right guy and I’m not sure we have the right coaching/chemistry. I don’t think we need to hit on another Mitchell/Gobert to keep up with the West next season...but we probably need to hit on a Bogey level player who is good at all the things Bogey isn’t great at.
IMO, you have to move on from Conley/Bogey. There’s just too much overlap in guys who want to dribble/shoot the ball every time they touch it. We need to add some size, athleticism, and defense on the perimeter.
Obviously you can try to address this without trading one of those guys...but it’s going to be hard to hit on a guy using the MLE. That might just be what needs to happen though.