Following the Jazz‘s 129-107 loss to Golden State on Monday, Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that the team’s locker room was as frustrated as he’d seen it following a regular season game. As Larsen explains, Utah players weren’t just upset about the loss but by the trade-deadline deals that sent out three rotation players (Kelly Olynyk, Ochai Agbaji, and Simone Fontecchio) and returned none.
Asked prior to the 2023/24 season about Lauri Markkanen‘s desire to make the playoffs, Jazz CEO Danny Ainge said the front office shared that desire and was on board with it, Larsen notes. But with the team in a play-in position in the West entering last Thursday’s deadline, Ainge essentially sold off players for draft picks, leaving the remaining players feeling as if “they were sold a bill of goods,” Larsen writes.
Jazz general manager Justin Zanik explained the front office’s thinking in a post-deadline press conference last week, essentially saying that the goal is to build a roster capable of legitimate contention in the long term rather than focusing on sneaking into the play-in tournament in the short term.
“All of us want to win,” Zanik said, per Tony Jones of The Athletic, pointing out that Utah hasn’t won more than a single playoff series in a season since 2007. “But I want to win for a long time. We don’t want to just have a year where we had a good run. The goal isn’t the play-in or the first round of the playoffs. Those aren’t the goals. The goal is to win a championship.”
Since the trade deadline, the Jazz have gone 0-2 while the Warriors have gone 3-0, pulling ahead of Utah by 1.5 games for the No. 10 seed in the West.
Here’s more on the Jazz:
- The primary focus for the rest of the season in Utah will be the ongoing development of Markkanen and rookies Taylor Hendricks and Keyonte George, according to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. Todd takes a look at what to look for and what the Jazz will be expecting from those three players down the stretch.
- There has been some confusion over the health of newly acquired forward Otto Porter Jr., Todd writes in a separate Deseret News story. Zanik said during last week’s presser that Porter is “not fully healthy right now, which we knew,” and the veteran forward was ruled out on Monday due to left foot soreness. However, when asked on Saturday how he was feeling, Porter stated that he was “OK, health-wise.” Informed of Zanik’s comments, the former Raptor replied, “Just got to figure some things out as far as my health. There’s some things that I just can’t go into detail with, but with the new training staff here, they should be able to get me back.” As Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca tweets, Porter wasn’t on Toronto’s injury report and was active for several games prior to the trade sending him to Utah. He’s not on the Jazz’s injury report for Wednesday’s contest vs. the Lakers.
- As we wrote on Tuesday, Utah is one of many teams around the NBA that currently has an open 15-man roster spot. The Jazz could create a second opening by waiving either Porter or Kira Lewis if those newly acquired players on expiring contracts aren’t in their plans, but there has been no indication yet that such a move is coming.
Danny making room to bring up Romeo sometime soon…
Romeo was waived or traded awhile back. Forget who they traded for Jason Preston, the triple double machine. Likely partly why they traded Olynyk, but we’ll see.
Referring to the SLC Stars trades.
Lauri asking for a trade this off-season. He’s not going to want to start over AGAIN and go through another rebuild
It’s been one and a half years. That’s an on-going rebuild, not another rebuild. He never dealt with rebuilds in Chicago or Cleveland. If he’s smart, he’ll wait it out because he’s finally found a system that’s perfect for him.
As a fan of a team that thinks losing by 68 in the play in game 1 is a successful season, it’s actually refreshing to see Utah refuse to accept that mediocrity, but you would imagine Ainge would’ve had Markannen on board with this, 2 years in a row where they’ve literally just quit on the year at the deadline is tough
Agreed. Lauri should just stay put. Jazz have 3 1st round picks in 2025. Have cap room after this season to sign a big contract. Have a decent nucleus to build on Markkanen, Clarkson, George, Sexton, Collins, Kessler, Hendricks and Lewis.
Of course the players were offered a bill of goods. But they didn’t have to buy it. Not last year, and (certainly) not again this year. Ainge pulled the same stunt last year at the deadline. They were in the play-in field at that time, and he pulled the rug out from under the team (leaving it without a PG to collapse down the stretch). It appears that despite Silver’s assurances, the play-in games haven’t eliminated UTH’s desire to tank. Zanik should consider that players have shorter careers than most FO people, and that most guys want to win during their prime.
They still didn’t have what anyone would consider a even decent starting point guard at the start of the season. They off to slow start then started having more success after the schedule got easier. Zanik is right, getting a play-in spot doesn’t help the team long term.
Why would they be tanking? If their pick this season is a top 10 pick it goes to OKC. Are they going to try to strategically get exactly the 11th-14th pick? The trades were about getting something for players that weren’t in the long term plan as well as getting Keynote George and Taylor Hendricks more playing time.
They keep the pick if it lands in the top 10. OKC gets it if it’s between 11-30.
UTH keeps the pick if it’s 1-10, and that is likely why they’re tanking.
Tanking (wanting to lose now for draft benefits) is tanking. Of course it’s with the goal of winning later. Every tanking team can say the same, and nobody would argue their desire to eventually win. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re tanking now (and have been tanking for 2 years). Tanking was the motivation to dump Conley last year, and not replace him then or at the start of this season. Zanik’s belief (and yours) that a play-in spot doesn’t help the team long-term may be right or wrong, but either way it doesn’t change the fact that they’re tanking.
say tanking one more time.
What the players want should not dictate how the front office operates. There’s no reason Utah should be going all-out for a shot at the play-in game.
The plan didn’t suddenly change. They still try to win. They just don’t keep the players that don’t fit the long-term championship build. Hopefully, they can do that before we all die. Lol
Besides, the ones that sulk and complain probably won’t be in their long-term plans either. I mean, did you ever hear of Stockton sulking? Jerry Sloan never allowed it. He’d call it out every time. Coach Hardy should probably reign that in but still be somewhat sensitive. It is a different era of players.
They the players will try to win but the tank comes from upstairs and now they have upset “thee “ in particular Lauri
Incorrect. Zanik, the GM himself, said they want the team to win every game. The trades don’t help, but it’s never been their intention to tank. It’s a unique situation.
Why would they tank this season anyway? To get OKC a better pick?
So if he said he had dinner reservations on Saturn you’d believe that too ?
Ofc he’s tanking and ofc he says he wants to win
Q- When was the last time someone said try wanted to lose ?
Pessimism seems to make you blind to the obvious. They don’t own their own pick this year. So your emotional trigger, aka Danny Ainge, doesn’t apply. Moving on…
Danny Ainge is a total rat, if you don’t want to compete be honest about it, just say we wanna lose, just be a man!
Again, the Utah Jazz owe this year’s pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as long as it’s outside the top 10.
Add to the fact that this year’s draft isn’t that good. That equals a strong desire to convey the pick this year.
Next year, however, is supposed to be a strong, or stronger at least, draft. I still don’t see them full on tanking on purpose. They could through playing mostly young players though. We’ll see what happens.
Strong desire is trading 2 rotation players out ?
Odd words
You had the same take last year pre deadline and I told they would sell
You said tht had value and I told you he was useless , hell you actually suggested tht would test the market he was sooo good – laughable , all of it