Dennis Lindsey stepping aside as Jazz EVP of Basketball Operations

[Catchall]

Looks like there's some regime change happening with the Jazz under the new ownership. Dennis Lindsey moving over to an advisory role. That means the senior BB Operations role is now open.

A couple names that may be floating around: Danny Ainge and Shane Battier

Edit: Danny Ainge meeting with Ryan Smith to discuss an advisory role.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/263153/Danny-Ainge-Meets-With-Jazz-Could-Join-Team-In-Advisory-Role

Read on Twitter

[eminence]

Battier is a guy I'd like to get in. I hope it's not Ainge.

I'm also concerned this is a bit of a non-move depending on how much of an advisory role Lindsey has.

[AingesBurner]

Had to be done.

[AingesBurner]

Battier is a guy I'd like to get in. I hope it's not Ainge.

I'm also concerned this is a bit of a non-move depending on how much of an advisory role Lindsey has.

Think KOC his last year.

[Dn4sty]

Had to be done.

Curious as to why? I honestly have no idea

[eminence]

Had to be done.

Curious as to why? I honestly have no idea

Deserved to be canned for leaving the team like 2-3M over the luxury tax if nothing else. New ownership has money, but that's just unnecessary.

[Catchall]

Jazz made strides under DL, but change may be needed to take the next step. It's also expected that a new owner is going to bring in his guys.

[babyjax13]

Had to be done.

Curious as to why? I honestly have no idea

Deserved to be canned for leaving the team like 2-3M over the luxury tax if nothing else. New ownership has money, but that's just unnecessary.

I assume that he did that at the direction of ownership. He didn't have to add Matt Thomas at the deadline, and one of Oni/Hughes could have easily been moved to duck the tax.

In reality I think there are a few reasons:

1. New owners generally put their stamp on the franchise fairly quickly
2. Lindsey has had a pretty poor track record with picks not named Gobert and Mitchell, and while those were great picks, since then our draft decisions have been really confusing.
3. Apparently Snyder and he had a deteriorating relationship. I don't think this all-offense iteration of the team schematically sat well with Snyder, and I also think he may have been displeased with adding Matt Thomas rather than someone who we could have used (or who is even an NBA caliber player).

I also hope it is not Ainge. The amount of leaks that come from that FO and just the slimy way he seems to do business and attempt to inflate his competence through the media is really aggravating.

[Catchall]

Danny Ainge meeting with Ryan Smith to discuss an advisory role.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/263153/Danny-Ainge-Meets-With-Jazz-Could-Join-Team-In-Advisory-Role

[Big J]

I hope it's Ainge just from a comedy standpoint. Sorry Jazz fans.

[Catchall]

Read on Twitter

[Prospect Dong]

This seems pretty harsh - the guy built a borderline contender in Utah without tanking. It ought to take a lot of misses late in the first round to undo that. And Grayson Allen seems like an above-average 20-something pick, FWIW, even if they didn't keep him for long.

This sounds significant to me:

I assume that he did that [stayed just about the LT threshold] at the direction of ownership. He didn't have to add Matt Thomas at the deadline, and one of Oni/Hughes could have easily been moved to duck the tax.

The decision makers, whoever they were, must have believe the team was incredibly close to a championship, and that even a slight improvement at the 11th and 12th man spots was worth ten million plus in terms of championship equity. If you've set that standard, anything short of a hard-fought WCF loss is probably a huge disappointment.

But I'd add him to the Grizzlies' (pretty good) front office in a second. Drafting borderline superstars outside the top 10 is an incredibly valuable skill.

[babyjax13]

This seems pretty harsh - the guy built a borderline contender in Utah without tanking. It ought to take a lot of misses late in the first round to undo that. And Grayson Allen seems like an above-average 20-something pick, FWIW, even if they didn't keep him for long.

This sounds significant to me:

I assume that he did that [stayed just about the LT threshold] at the direction of ownership. He didn't have to add Matt Thomas at the deadline, and one of Oni/Hughes could have easily been moved to duck the tax.

The decision makers, whoever they were, must have believe the team was incredibly close to a championship, and that even a slight improvement at the 11th and 12th man spots was worth ten million plus in terms of championship equity. If you've set that standard, anything short of a hard-fought WCF loss is probably a huge disappointment.

But I'd add him to the Grizzlies' (pretty good) front office in a second. Drafting borderline superstars outside the top 10 is an incredibly valuable skill.

Honestly the last several years of draft decisions have been pretty poor.

2020:
27. Udoka Azubuike
At the time we had Bradley, but then we paid to dump him to draft another backup center? Then he gets moved for value? Then we sign Favors? And we also moved down from where Bolmaro and RJ were...then didn't pick McDaniels when we needed a wing?

2019:
traded out for Conley

2018:
21. Grayson Allen
Probably the dumbest draft pick of the bunch. Barely an NBA caliber player, was not highly regarded in the draft and likely could have been picked in a trade down, and did not fill any needs for us whatsoever.

I get that he deserves credit for Mitchell and Gobert (honestly, Walt Perrin may deserve more), but outside of that he has just been abysmal in the draft.

2017:
28. Tony Bradley
We had Gobert and Favors, so this made no sense, when the rest of the best players here were wings and guards.

And beyond that, it sounds like he just was not listening to what Snyder and the rest of the staff thought we needed to make it over the hump, so even if we thought we were close, trading for Matt Thomas was one of the most confusing moves I've ever seen - it was bafflingly stupid.

[Prospect Dong]

This seems pretty harsh - the guy built a borderline contender in Utah without tanking. It ought to take a lot of misses late in the first round to undo that. And Grayson Allen seems like an above-average 20-something pick, FWIW, even if they didn't keep him for long.

This sounds significant to me:

I assume that he did that [stayed just about the LT threshold] at the direction of ownership. He didn't have to add Matt Thomas at the deadline, and one of Oni/Hughes could have easily been moved to duck the tax.

The decision makers, whoever they were, must have believe the team was incredibly close to a championship, and that even a slight improvement at the 11th and 12th man spots was worth ten million plus in terms of championship equity. If you've set that standard, anything short of a hard-fought WCF loss is probably a huge disappointment.

But I'd add him to the Grizzlies' (pretty good) front office in a second. Drafting borderline superstars outside the top 10 is an incredibly valuable skill.

Honestly the last several years of draft decisions have been pretty poor.

2020:
27. Udoka Azubuike
At the time we had Bradley, but then we paid to dump him to draft another backup center? Then he gets moved for value? Then we sign Favors? And we also moved down from where Bolmaro and RJ were...then didn't pick McDaniels when we needed a wing?

2019:
traded out for Conley

2018:
21. Grayson Allen
Probably the dumbest draft pick of the bunch. Barely an NBA caliber player, was not highly regarded in the draft and likely could have been picked in a trade down, and did not fill any needs for us whatsoever.

I get that he deserves credit for Mitchell and Gobert (honestly, Walt Perrin may deserve more), but outside of that he has just been abysmal in the draft.

2017:
28. Tony Bradley
We had Gobert and Favors, so this made no sense, when the rest of the best players here were wings and guards.

I don't follow Utah's drafts at all, so I'm mostly happy to take your word for it.

But Allen's going to get a second NBA contract, I strongly suspect, and he's an ok shooter who can play acceptable D. You always need more of those guys on your roster. He's almost certainly never going to be a starter, but I think that's fine at #21. The other two are very late first rounders. With the best will in the world you're mostly not getting NBA quality players there.

I would take ten years of a guy drafting his own relatives and cartoon characters in the late 20s if it got me a guy who was half as good as Gobert.

[babyjax13]

We targeted Allen just about every play, so while I agree he is fine as a shooter off the bench, if you look at the five picks who went after in just about each of these drafts it looks really poor for Utah:

2017:
24. Tyler Lydon
25. Anzejs Pasecniks
26. Caleb Swanigan
27. Kyle Kuzma
28. Tony Bradley
29. Derrick White
30. Josh Hart
31. Frank Jackson
32. Davon Reed
33. Wes Iwundu
34. Frank Mason III
35. Ivan Rabb
Stars: 0
Full-time Starters: 1
Spot starts/key bench players: 2
Solid bench players: 2
Hit rate: 42%

2018:
24. Anfernee Simons
25. Mo Wagner
26. Landry Shamet
27. Robert Williams
28. Jacob Evans
29. Dzanen Musa
30. Omari Spellman
31. Elie Okobo
32. Jevon Carter
33. Jalen Brunson
34. Davonte Graham
35. Melvin Frazier
Stars: 0
Full-time Starters: 0 (so far, but Williams, Brunson, and Graham may jump up)
Spot starts/key bench players: 4
Solid bench players: 2
Hit rate: 50%

2019:
24. Ty Jerome
25. Nassir Little
26. Dylan Windler
27. Mfiondu Kabangale
28. Jordan Poole
29. Keldon Johnson
30. Kevin Porter Jr.
31. Nic Claxton
32. KZ Okpala
33. Carsen Edwards
34. Bruno Fernando
35. Didi Louzada
Stars: 0 (but KPJ may move into this group)
Full-time Starters: 2 (but Claxton may move into this group)
Spot starts/key bench players: 2
Solid bench players: 4
Hit rate: 67%

2020:
24. RJ Hampton
25. Immanuel Quickley
26. Payton Prichard
27. Udoka Azubuike
28. Jaden McDaniels
29. Malachi Flynn
30. Desmond Bayne
31. Tyrell Terry
32. Vernon Carey
33. Daniel Oturu
34. Theo Maledon
35. Xavier Tillman
Stars: 0 (but RJ may move into this group)
Full-time Starters: 2
Spot starts/key bench players: 6
Solid bench players: 0
Hit rate: 67%

Total hit rate: 56%

[Rauxcee]

This seems pretty harsh - the guy built a borderline contender in Utah without tanking. It ought to take a lot of misses late in the first round to undo that. And Grayson Allen seems like an above-average 20-something pick, FWIW, even if they didn't keep him for long.

He's traded 5 FRP's in 5 years on injury prone PG rentals- all of which who have missed significant time in the playoffs. He's drafted 2 centers we didn't need because we have Gobert. He wasted signings this year on Matt Thomas on Ilyasova when we were desperate for some type of perimeter defense. Neither of those guys saw the floor in the playoffs. Back in 2015 he drafted Trey Lyles over Devin Booker- no hindsight needed- Booker was BPA and Jazz needed shooting. They had guards, but none were good at long range. He dumps second round picks like they are day old trash.

Yes he has done a handful of nice things, but he has far, far more bad decisions than good.

[Catchall]

We targeted Allen just about every play, so while I agree he is fine as a shooter off the bench, if you look at the five picks who went after in just about each of these drafts it looks really poor for Utah:

2017:
24. Tyler Lydon
25. Anzejs Pasecniks
26. Caleb Swanigan
27. Kyle Kuzma
28. Tony Bradley
29. Derrick White
30. Josh Hart
31. Frank Jackson
32. Davon Reed
33. Wes Iwundu
34. Frank Mason III
35. Ivan Rabb
Stars: 0
Full-time Starters: 1
Spot starts/key bench players: 2
Solid bench players: 2
Hit rate: 42%

2018:
24. Anfernee Simons
25. Mo Wagner
26. Landry Shamet
27. Robert Williams
28. Jacob Evans
29. Dzanen Musa
30. Omari Spellman
31. Elie Okobo
32. Jevon Carter
33. Jalen Brunson
34. Davonte Graham
35. Melvin Frazier
Stars: 0
Full-time Starters: 0 (so far, but Williams, Brunson, and Graham may jump up)
Spot starts/key bench players: 4
Solid bench players: 2
Hit rate: 50%

2019:
24. Ty Jerome
25. Nassir Little
26. Dylan Windler
27. Mfiondu Kabangale
28. Jordan Poole
29. Keldon Johnson
30. Kevin Porter Jr.
31. Nic Claxton
32. KZ Okpala
33. Carsen Edwards
34. Bruno Fernando
35. Didi Louzada
Stars: 0 (but KPJ may move into this group)
Full-time Starters: 2 (but Claxton may move into this group)
Spot starts/key bench players: 2
Solid bench players: 4
Hit rate: 67%

2020:
24. RJ Hampton
25. Immanuel Quickley
26. Payton Prichard
27. Udoka Azubuike
28. Jaden McDaniels
29. Malachi Flynn
30. Desmond Bayne
31. Tyrell Terry
32. Vernon Carey
33. Daniel Oturu
34. Theo Maledon
35. Xavier Tillman
Stars: 0 (but RJ may move into this group)
Full-time Starters: 2
Spot starts/key bench players: 6
Solid bench players: 0
Hit rate: 67%

Total hit rate: 56%

The Jazz sometimes place an undue emphasis on workouts. Grayson Allen had a great workout with the Jazz where he outplayed Brunson and others. Trey Lyles had a decent workout with the Jazz. But these workouts don't always translate to in-game situations.

FWIW, I can see the argument for drafting Dok, even if it was just part of the front office's positioning to negotiate an extension with Gobert last summer. Also, the Jazz wanted continuity in their defensive scheme and wanted a rim protector and pick-and-roll defender when Rudy is off the floor. The Jazz can probably move Favors or Dok if they want to.