DorO wrote:Jadoogar wrote:ConSarnit wrote:
What from the past 2 years makes you think you’ll end up bottom 5? In the last 2 years you’ve had to tank just to get into the bottom 10. The only way you’ve been able to effectively tank the past 2 years has been by shutting Markkanen down. The terrible teams are going to be terrible out of the gate and you won’t be able to catch them through late season tanking. We’ve seen this story before: Markkanen + good coaching gives you some level of competence. Is Markkanen going to agree to shut it down after 40 games, because that’s what you’ll need to do.
Since trading Mitchell/Gobert, Jazz have finished with 37 and 31 wins. Not good obviously but far from bottom 5. They are returning with a similar team. I think there is a clear bottom 4 in Portland, Nets, Pistons and Wizards. Utah could get bottom 5 but it's not guaranteed since there will be a lot of competition.
Just wait and see, it is not the same team without Olynyk and Dunn - it is a lot worse.
You have to assume that Keyonte George and Taylor Hendricks will continue to be two of the absolute worst players in the NBA for the Jazz to be awful.
Otherwise, the Jazz will be giving most of their minutes to Markkanen (great), Sexton (good), Kessler (good), Hendricks, and George with Collins off the bench where he shouldn't be as bad as he was as a starter. Jordan Clarkson is toast and will get a lot of minutes and make them a lot worse and Sensabaugh and Cody Williams should play pretty horrible basketball this year, but that's like 50-65 bad minutes in the entire rotation if Hendricks and Keyonte are NBA caliber this year.
And if they aren't, that's really really bad for the Jazz.