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Back in the starting lineup the next 30 are important for Walker Kessler



Back in the starting lineup the next 30 are important for Walker Kessler

Year two has been a success for Walker Kessler so far but the next 30 really matter in the starting lineup we’ll talk about it as we continue on locked on Jazz you are locked on Jazz your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day how are you I’m David lock radio voice Utah jazz jazz NBA Insider and this is locked on Jazz today Walker Kessler’s year 2 has not been as massive a growth and surprising as year one but it’s still been filled with growth and success and the next 30

Really matters for Walker and the Utah Jazz we’ll talk about what he’s done so far and why those are so important altitude strikes again no LeBron James tonight as the Jazz get ready for the Los Angeles Lakers will’ll break down the LeBron lak Lakers and what to expect

From the Jazz and and then either I’m misreading the room or we need a moment of perspective we’ll do that as we wrap this up on today’s show I Am David lock radio voice the Utah Jazz Jazz MBA Insider this is locked on Jazz your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz giving

You Insight expertise geeky numbers and hopefully making it way better to be a jazz fan each and every day thank you so much for making lockedown Jazz your first listen of the day and to the every dayers out there you’re awesome we’re free we’re available on all podcasting

Apps and on YouTube so hit that subscribe button the follow button on YouTube hit the sub follow subscribe button they free and hit the Bell button so you get notified every time thumbs ups are greatly appreciated thumbs up if you’re a walker kler fan today um appreciate it very very much Today’s

Show uh coming to you on this Wednesday all right uh let’s talk about Walker so the start of the season with Walker was not great he looked kind of overwhelmed he actually looked um like lacked a juice um he looked the word I want to use is depressed but that has such over

Different feeling to it so I I don’t I don’t mean that medically but he just didn’t look like he happy enjoyed it and frankly you know it was a super interesting moment for me because I’m watching him he’s the same age as my kid and my kid at that time was like abroad

Studying quotes uh in Europe and like that’s kind of as I’ve talked about a lot like that’s what kids are supposed to be doing and Walker was kind of doing the opposite which was you know playing under incredible scrutiny and then he just didn’t he didn’t start well he got

Hurt on the first game of the year um and lost lost a little bit of his zest and then when he came back he he was better but his lack of offensive skills seemed to be impacting the team and then he moved into the started coming off the bench where he’s

Then been impactful and his defensive numbers have been great so let’s dig into that um and he and he really has he started the last two games again having really not started since November 6th so let’s and some of that was pairing and lineups and then we obviously clicked in

Um shortly thereafter when Colin moved in the starting lineup and he played Off the Bench and his plus minuses have been have been really good so here here’s the bottom line on Walker for the year um the first one with Walker is that we’re 8.8 points better per 100

Possessions defensively when he’s on the floor than off okay that’s what his job is that’s if Walker is a piece of the foundation for the future it’s because he’s a great defensive player teams shoot five percentage points less well when he’s on the floor than compared to

When he’s off the when he’s on first off and we don’t foul what’s inter interesting is Walker is not at a stage yet in his career where he’s altering shot distribution by the opponent Rudy generally has been that way throughout his career I mean Rudy’s going to the

Hall of Fame as one of the two greatest defensive big men in the history of league with Ben Russell Bill Russell Ben Russell is our audio engineer but with like that’s that like we should stop comparing it’s so insulting to Rudy to compare him to Walker we should stop

Doing it in the sense that Rudy’s going down is truly one of the the greatest of all time and when Rudy’s on the floor there’s six percentage less shots are taken at The Rim the most of any when in the NBA people just don’t even try so

Walker’s not there yet what he’s doing really well is when the shot goes up at The Rim he defends it great but he is not at the point yet in which teams just don’t shoot at The Rim when he’s on the floor route inside six feet which is

Kind of the metric the NBA uses a lot um well or cleaning the glass uses the rim and we’re 10 percentage points better defending the rim when Walker’s on the floor than off the floor so he’s having a great defensive impact on the team so let’s look at him compared the league

Because this is really exciting so inside six feet the best in the NBA is Rudy minus team players shoot 15.5 percentage points less well when Rudy’s the closest Defender than they would on League average number two is pringus at 15.1 why Boston’s so great funny they

Like number one and two seeds in the in have these defensive players in a league that only talks about offense uh maybe the offensive rise is actually making defensive players more important H thought uh kesler’s third at 14.0 here and let’s stay on this for a second because then we’re going to get

To what Walker’s next stage of his development is so prior to dece November 24th when he gets hurt so that’s short right that’s just the first like eight games of the year starting but he’s got the elbow injury and he’s he’s he’s only defending six shots a game and teams are shooting six

Percentage points below League average when he’s at The Rim so not not nearly as good since November 24th when he comes back and now plays mostly Off the Bench so not against the top guys that’s an important note he’s he’s defending 6.8 shots a game so that’s great that’s up from six

That’s I think that’s a that’s one of the things we’re going to touch on here that that’s an important change for Walker is that he gets to S he’s got to get it up to a higher number of shots he defends a night now maybe that’s going

To be time on the floor but that’s you know that’s going to be part of his next step so when you he he’s up to 6.8 he’s teams players are shooting 15.6% % less than average when he’s the closest offender so the first eight games year was 6% he wasn’t right we saw

It since he’s come back it’s 15.6% only goar is better okay that’s awesome elite elite Rim defense since January 1 I was trying to see if there’ just been any swings I it’s dropped a tiny bit felt like it and it’s down to 14.4 which is still great

Only porzingis and zubac are better interesting that Zub box in that list well part of the reason why the Clippers are probably so good funny that’s how that works again um so 6.6 shots per game the last two games Walker’s back into starting and he’s defended seven shots a

Game and holding teams at 13 percentage points below their average so it’s nice that’s six early year six shots we’re up to seven it’s really that’s a nice stretch here’s if if we want to get in into kind of so where Walker is and what you’re looking for out of him the next

Step would be he’s got to play more but defending more shots so Joel embiid Chad Homan Brook Lopez Evan Mobley all defend nine shots a night inside six feet that’s the highest rate of anyone in the league now some extent like people are challenging Chad homr at Min

– 11 embiid at – 11 moies at-2 so those are those are important p uh pingis and goar are at 7.7 and as we mentioned Walker for the season is in the middle of the pack at about a six point something shots defended uh 6.7 shots so can he defend

One or two more shots a night and some of that may just be minutes on the floor but or getting there faster just having a bigger impact that that would be that would be the next step defensively but generally it’s there pretty exciting the next 30 games are really

Really important for Walker in the starting lineup or it’s less than 30 now I think um maybe that’s right no it’s might be 30 no it’s 28 um because he’s playing against the best guys and we need to see two things we need to see that number stay the same and number two

What’s his offensive impact so right now we’re 3.6 points less good when Walker’s on the floor offensively now overall for the year when walkers on the floor were dead even offensive rating of a 114.4 which is in the 40th percentile and a defensive rating of 68 68 this is

114.4 he’s played about 2100 possessions there is a narrative out there that he and John Collins don’t fit particularly well together it’s why the Jazz separated them and played them at Center both at Center and why Walker came off the bench it see seems Seems like a somewhat Fair narrative the basing gets

Clunky it’s not as like okay so they’ve played about 25% of their minutes together so let’s eliminate those 25% of those minutes and Walker suddenly looks lot more impactful plus six but again most of this is against bench players plus 6.1 instead of even the offense goes

From the 40th percentile to the 59th not great like that’s can we get this is a pretty good offensive team Will’s a pretty good offensive coach can we get the offense better than 59th when Walker on the floor but the defense now goes to 89th and the real question to me on

Walker Kessler in the next 30 Games is can you be an elite defense because Walker Kessler’s just on the floor right so if you look at the best defenses in the NBA right now over the last few years Milwaukee was an elite defense because it had Brook

Lopez Oklahoma City is becoming an elite defense because of the fact it has Chad hungr Philadelphia is an elite defense because it generally has Joel embiid Minnesota is an elite defense because it has Rudy goar Boston’s become an elite defense because that’s Chris ABS porzingis can Walker Kessler become

Someone where the Jazz who are currently 25th in the league defensively can become a top highlevel defensive team because Walker Kessler is playing for them that’s the eventual step on him now Rudy’s an 10year veteran and pringus is about a 10-e veteran and Chad Homen is incredible as a rookie doing this and

Joel embiid’s about a 10-year veteran and so there is some element where like let’s let Walker develop into this I think Walker the bottom line here is I think Walker’s actually made progress this year but players who have a very good year one as a rookie rarely have a

Better year two that’s a really big misnomer what they do usually is have a better year three and this is the beginning to me a little bit of Walker year three is whe whether or not Walker can continue to impact the game uh both offensively in a positive manner and

Then a little bit more aggressively defensively let me add one more piece that might be the single most important piece on Walker time will tell but Walker is 11 of his last 13 from the free throw line that’s great growth and that’s vitally important because if he

Is confident going to line I think he begins to have a larger offensive impact a LeBron lless Lakers team tonight is it a chance for the Jazz to get well we’ll talk about it as we continue here on lock on Jazz Wednesday edition of lock on jazz

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Locked on Jazz today we have launched the first ever 247 National Sports channel on YouTube it’s called locked on sports today it runs 247 it’s really cool throw it up put it on the TV set you can also get it on Amazon Fire TV I think you’ll be really pleased and find

It a really enjoyable non people screaming and yelling at you way to catch the biggest stories of the sports day it’s always fun for me to see to jump in I always come into my office didn’t do it this morning honestly come into my office and check to see like oh

What do we have on and then you realize like yesterday was Minnesota crushing the Clippers and Ben peum giving me the breakdown of of the whole game and I was way more knowledgeable and it wasn’t people who didn’t watch the game or didn’t talk about then I got locked on

NBA right afterwards with Matt Moore and David rill talking about the various other games was kind of great so go check it out at locked on uh sports today on the first ever 247 YouTube channel tonight Jazz and the Lakers that game will be on KSL Sports on Utah Jazz

Up and also of course on Sirius XM all your hometown broadcasts are on SiriusXM so go check that out uh along the way all right Lakers LeBron lless Lakers tonight LeBron not playing in the back and the back G same thing Could Happen Wednesday with Steph um and uh to be

Just if we’re being completely transparent I don’t I talking to the Warriors people their feeling was that they are so they need wins so badly that that probably will not happen um but it is a back in the back that would be really surprised if we see clay um at

All so our let let’s obviously it’s a bummer because LeBron is you know one of the greatest of all time and you certainly want to see LeBron um play but from a jazz standpoint this is the exact same way they beat the Lakers the other night here’s the impact

Of no LeBron on the Lakers who have won five straight have totally clicked in they changed their starting lineup to D’angelo Russell Austin Reeves along with um ruy hashimura LeBron and Anthony Davis and they and they’ve clicked in there here’s what’s really interesting about LeBron’s presence and it doesn’t

Totally make sense they’re way better defensively when he plays and offensively they’re kind of the same they’re 1.2 points better offensively when he’s on the floor than off so not massive but defensively they’re Five Points better per 100 possessions the other one that’s really weird is they’re work defensively with Anthony Davis on

The floor than off the floor this year the Lakers numbers are super strange so yeah they’re better off the floor with than on the floor with anony Davis defensively this has kind of been a reoccurring theme in Anon davis’ career it’s why I always wonder like why

He’s a defensive player of the year canny so they’ve won five of six they’ve beat they got a good win against New Orleans but and a great win against in Boston to me what actually looks and this isn’t obviously who we’re going to see is if you go back and look at their

15 games they only have one stinker they lost at home to Brooklyn 130 to 112 and kind of the signature of the Lakers has been these like stinkers that they put out there at times and we have not seen those stinkers from them in a while in

Fact they play The Warriors in that amazing double overtime game in which they win and then they lose in Houston they lose in Atlanta I actually don’t care about those losses they were so tired from that other game they then came and I think they even rested

Everyone in Atlanta I think they finally or nobody they rest everybody and they won in Boston so the first thing is I think they’re for all the talk and Darin ham this it was just a great dude and all the other stuff is I actually think they’re they’re fairly

Well plugged in right now and playing really really good basketball and and it may you know we may look back at the night in Boston where they go to Boston at the Garden and start D’Angelo Russell toian Prince Austin Hayes Jackson Hayes and Jared Vanderbilt without Davis LeBron they basically concede okay these

Guys are too tired after that double overtime game we can’t play them anymore and they win the game and so then they come back and beat the Knicks they obviously beat the Hornets they lose to Denver fine and then they beat the Pelicans and the Pistons game last night

Was like an exhibition game it was kind of a joke um to watch let’s go back to January 13 the Jazz win at home against the Lakers and the starting lineup is different than what we’re going to see tonight Toran Prince starts cam reddish Austin Reeves off and Davis and D’Angelo

Russell and D’Angelo Russell goes for 39 against the Jazz and the Jazz Trail this game by eight early and then they work their way back in the third quarter they win at 132 125 in just the modern scoring game Colin had 27 Lowry had 29

Both lived at the free throw line we won the free throw line battle against the Lakers which was interesting because if I remember correctly it was two nights prior when they had beat Toronto that Darko had Gone Bananas on the officials and then all of a sudden the Jazz won

The free throw game 39 to 24 against the Lakers which is completely unheard of because you’re generally going to beat them in the three-point game which we didn’t they had 13 we had 12 and you’re going to lose the free throw game they take the most free throws and they allow

The least that’s just how they’re built it’s not a whole Laker conspiracy theory thing that’s out there um so it’ll be interesting to see Walker by the way to our opening segment played Just 13 minutes that night he was really a non-factor he had a minus 12 it’s one of

The worst games he’s had in a while um so John Collins played 34 Lowry 33 Colin and then we’re going to have to replace 23 minutes of Simone along with 15 minutes of Kelly and 18 minutes of oai so there’s a bunch of minutes to be replaced tonight in this matchup the

Lakers of at Ru hashimura has jumped in his importance as he’s now starting recently and so when again this is a little hard to look at because of the fact that there’s no LeBron but if you this is what I prepped last night before I knew LeBron was going to not play so

Therefore you’re kind of getting this because this is what I have for you and because I think it’s relevant um if you look at their last five games their minute distributions interesting LeBron is playing 37 Austin Reeves 35 D’Angelo 35 they’re kind of all in on D’Angelo

Right now he’s playing very well Anthony Davis 34 Spencer dinw he played last night played 30 minutes in his first game but Hashim MOA is at 31 torian Prince at 26 and then Jackson Hayes is getting a bunch of time Christian Wood has kind of been minimized a little bit

Which is probably good for them so they’re to kind of zero in on a rotation I think it’s why they’re playing so much better and I mentioned I feel like they’ve been kind of plugged in now for 15 straight and that’s kind of a similar circumstance LeBron D’Angelo Russell

Playing 37 in that stretch Anthony Davis 34 Reeves 34 torian Prince 28 ruy hashimura 26 they lost uh Jared Vanderbilt in the midst of it but that’s that’s kind of where they are is they’ve they’ve narrowed down who they are what’s playing what they’re doing and

They look a great deal better for it um and we’ll be interest to see the key thing here tonight is Anthony Davis Anthony Davis in that game in which the Jazz won was five of 21 from the field and what’s kind of Anthony Davis is outstanding but there’s two things that

Make Anthony Davis live and one of them is offensive rebounding and the other one is fast breaks so in that game if you move Anthony Davis outside of like six feet he shoots one of eight from the field that night one of eight he actually doesn’t shoot very well around

The rim either but what makes Anthony Davis so great is he usually gets two or three possessions a night in transition he goes to the free throw line a bunch and he goes and gets some offensive rebounds and then you play around the rest of his game and

Honestly if you can it’s really hard to take those things away so don’t misunderstand me but it’s a little flawed like honestly it’s it’s a little flawed if you look at his shot types and what he does as a player his jump shot he shoots 36.6% on jump

Shots if you can get him to be playing a jump shot game you’re kind of fine he’s a his Rim shooting is great because he dunks it a lot but his layup shooting is 59% that’s not super like he’s great don’t misunderstand but he gets 10% of his offense in transition where he’s

Brilliant he’s incredible he gets another 10% of his offense and offensive rebounds where he’s brilliant and he shoots like 65% on transition and 60% on offensive rebound putbacks and so if you can kind of minimize that kind of stuff from him get him into spot up shooting

Get him into an isolation player make him play with the ball in his hands make him play he’s then he’s not as dynamically awesome as he can be otherwise and so that’s the key tonight on how you deal with Anthony Davis but that’s also like easier for me in this

Seat to say than it is otherwise all right little perspective check on things here um and maybe I’m wrong next as we continue on lockdown Jazz it is time now for one of my favorite things it is time for the eBay Motors day it’s I I stuttered I just buffered

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Word here but the tone I’m getting from Jazz fans and this like includes going on with Hansen Scott and listening to 97.5 and 12 walking around town and I’ve not actually been on the Tweety thing very often so I’m not sure it’s from that I think it’s just around town is

This like anguish about the trades and what it’s done and I don’t know if it’s just people waned to be angry or what people were expecting but let’s just take a moment and just kind of for a second so we were playing really really

Well we we were 19 and 11 we we’d won a lot of games um we were outperforming our differential quite what did we really think what did everyone really think we were like I I I guess that’s like I’m reading and listening and hearing people talk about like this incredible playoff

Run we’re in the midst of like so if we had kept the roster the same Sacramento is 30 and 23 they were four and a half games ahead of us did we think we were catching Sacramento the Lakers were a game ahead of us do we think we were catching the

Lakers the warriors were half a game behind us did we think they were catching us let’s we had just stayed the same the rest of the season no trades don’t trade play for April 15th which does not seem like a great idea but let’s go with it

If we had played for April 15th with our roster as it was what do you feel free to put this in the YouTube comments or hit me on on the X what do you really think we were doing that that’s like I’m having a hard time with

That because I don’t think we were catching Sacramento and I don’t think we were catching Dallas who’s won five in a row and I don’t think we were catching the Pelicans for sixth and getting home court or getting playoff ex you guaranteed playoff so I think our best case scenario was

Road playin game okay been super fun I would love to call Road playing game I don’t think it’s out outlandish that it could still happen that would be my second perspective Point here so that would be so that’s my first just question like in all honesty like

What do we think we were playing for like what do we think we were doing like I loved it we were we started the year terribly we were 19 and 12 I think 1911 since we we’ve gotten really fortunate we played Milwaukee twice without once without Dame once without

Brooke both times without Brooke both times without Middleton like yeah we’ve placed embiid twice Philadelphia twice without embiid like we’ve gotten somewhat fortunate team 40% I don’t know if you guys have seen this number but 40 NBA star caliber players Miss 40% of their games in Utah either because Al and then second

Most is Denver like the altitude they don’t like playing here it’s hard it’s really really hard it’s a great advantage us we’re 17 and eight at home we’re vastly outperforming our record our home record compared to our road record we always do might be why we can never

Tank it’s fine okay so that’s like so that’s my first question might I I agree we have not looked great in both the last games we were within nine on the Warriors and then we just kind of made some silly mistakes and frankly we made mistakes on

Plays there were guys that weren’t um that weren’t like young so if we went to Phoenix prior to the trade deadline and played the Suns what do we think we would have done like Durant beer healthy Booker not because we opened the year we lost by 22 when we were there the last

Time and then Golden State fully healthy and clicked in what do we think we would do against Golden State losing by 22 we let go of the rope that was bad but we were within like we were like they were better than we were but weren’t they better than us anyway

Like I I I don’t I don’t want to M the Oklahoma City game was awesome and I don’t want to minimize who we were what we were doing but like if you look at us kind of since the 40th game of the year we beat a Toronto Toronto team we waxed a Toronto

Team that was kind of in the midst of like their Pascal SE yakum trade rumors and everything else and just got an RJ Barrett we killed him it’s great we beat a LeBron L Laker team we beat an Indiana Team without Tyrese halberton we beat Washington we beat Charlotte we beat Milwaukee without

Lopez Middleton and we beat a full strength Oklahoma City team played great like in the last that was it kind of right in the meantime we lost OKC we lost to Houston we lost to New Orleans by 29 we lost to Brooklyn by 33 we lost to Knicks by 15

We lost to EMB L Philadelphia 761 something happened at least in my perspective that the day we made these trades our previous performances became way better than they were seems to me there was like a lot of logic that like oh we’re nine or 10 at best probably 11 let’s get some

Assets I don’t know if we don’t I mean might not like it and and I’m pretty curious to watch when we come back from break of whether or not we’re not the exact same team we got Charlotte we got Washington we got the Spurs let’s go beat

Them so I think that’ll be super interesting to see what takes place and how this all plays out but I I feel like the perspective has gotten really wacky in the last 20 48 hours all right that is locked on Jazz today thanks so much for tuning in thank you

Very much for being a I love your comments on that feel free to hit me on X or put them up on the on the on the Google YouTube uh comment section thumbs up or appreciate if you can do that before you head out the door it’s time

Now to send you the first ever 247 National Sports channel locked on sports today have a great one it’s also available for you on Amazon Fire TV

Year 2 for Walker Kessler started slow but since the early injury he has been a dominant force defensively and continues to improve his game. David Locke, radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider takes a look at Walker’s defensive impact, team impact and offensive impact as he moves back into the starting lineup.

Lakers are without LeBron James tonight as the Jazz play the Lakers. How does this impact the Lakers and how do you slow down Anthony Davis the same way the Jazz did last time.

Locke takes a second on perspective after the first two losses after the trade deadline.

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26 Comments

  1. Walker needs to have an outside shot the floor spacing when he's on the floor is not great . Shoot the ball kid

  2. Tbh if they are so committed to the future core then they should bench collins and let hendrix start so he can practice his true role which will be playing elite off ball help defese off of Kessler and Lauri. That trio building defensive chemistry together is far more vital in my opinion than appeasing johns ego, plus i think the bench is the only place you can extract positive impact out of john collins on a consistent basis. Hes far too game-plannable? as a starter. Same prolem we had last year starting olynyk despite him being a good player individually. KO had a positive impact as a bench player this year.

  3. Speaking facts D locke!! I’m glad you had the perspective talk it was needed I’m tired of being average to mediocre we were not doing anything great this year look towards the future Jazz fans

  4. Thanks David for the reality check. I agree with you totally. Fans need to realize we are in a full rebuild and that takes time. Expectations were high because last year we started better than expected. Yes, they traded fan favorite players but that happens in a rebuild. You have to look at the end goal and not the here and now. Justin and Danny told us this would be a 3 to 5 year process. This is only year two and I think we are in a better spot than anyone expected. That being said, assets are needed to make the next leap and you have to give up something good to get something great. I trust what the Jazz front office is doing. Danny is the master at rebuilding. He has a proven record. Jazz fans, let’s get behind them and support them. Yes, it painful to see them lose but it’s also fun to see the growth of the young players. No one is perfect and it takes time to get there. Enjoy the journey with all the bumps in the road. The end result is going to be great! Go Jazz!!

  5. Lolz…. James sits in UTAH to protect his legacy. He knows UT is an automatic L and doesnt want to take one.

  6. You like to sometimes use private sector analogies. In this case, imagine you and your locked on podcast team working together to achieve a goal. You make progress but don't get to #1. Your investors are like nah, not good enough, fire 1/3 of the team. How is your morale going to be if ownership says move Ron Boone? I think Sarah Todd has a better bead on this one. This is like the movie Major League right now with ownership cutting the team off at the knees. Either full tank or let them grind it out. Don't tell me that a late first and early second are moving the needle. Olynik had more value as a mentor on top of ball mover. At some point, you start to see you are just a cog in a machine and then no one buys in to selflessness anymore.

  7. If you haven't seen the Andy Larsen tweets after the Warriors game, that might help you understand some of the negative fan feelings at this time. I think you're limiting that perspective to simply wins and losses this season. While I understand the trades, I am feeling a bit down about the trades because: (A) feeling bad for the humans involved, (B) concerned that we will no longer be playing fun, competitive basketball to watch, win or lose, and (C) worried that we will lose the buy-in from players like Lauri and Sexton who seem important for our future.

  8. The feeling was if we add a guy like DeJounte Murray we could be fighting for a top 6 spot. Because the DJ rumors were that you could get him for 2 picks and THT. That would leave our team rotation and add DJ. What the Jazz are missing is a real point guard. DJ is a real point guard. This move doesn't make the Jazz contenders. But it makes us good and the Jazz would still have ~12 first round picks over the next 5 years to use to get more talent this summer.

    Instead, the Jazz ripped the heart out of this team and fanbase by deciding to make the team less competitive. Now I question Lauris willingness to stay. We just told these players that we don't care how they play, we're looking for a shiny new toy instead.

  9. Kessler, George, and Markkenon are allstar caliber players and clearly part of our future. Hendricks hopefully becomes our starting forward alongside Markkenon. Jazz need to find their starting SG. Clarkson needs to go. Sexton needs to be the 6th man.

  10. if will hardy can right the ship AGAIN for this season. he will be the GOAT of coaching and I will never question anything he does again.

    I cannot imagine that is a fun locker room to manage, "give a shit about the utah jazz" trades away players who undoubtedly played the right way also, we are gonna start playing rookies more… AND good luck trying to win games with no real small forward on the roster.

    Will going through trial by fire for these first 2 years.

  11. Jazz would have been 7-10 seed and got 1-2 playin game with possible chance to make playoffs which has more value IMO then a late first round pick especially since we gave up Abajgi who is worth more than the late first round pick IMO. Should have done Tech trade to allow Hendricks time to play and not done KO/Abaji deal. If you didnt want to make playoffs should have simply just played young guys from the beginning. Season made no sense after trade deadline!

  12. As a STH, I was expecting to make the play-in and make trades that would mildly improve the team now and in the future – or stand pat. I only expected to be the 9 or 10 seed. But to have a chance against Dallas, Sacramento, or New Orleans. All teams we have and can beat. Worst case scenario – we've freed up our draft by giving the pick to OKC.

    Instead, we punted on this season 50 games later than we should have. It became apparent to me that they management changed plans for the 2nd season in a row. It's extremely frustrating and almost caused me to cancel my season tickets. If they do it again next year (load up in the offseason with players, just to dump and tank at trade deadline), I will 100% cancel my season tickets.

    Last year, I expected to tank, and was glad they did at the end. Nobody predicted they would start so hot. This year, it was clear from day 1 they would be able to compete for a play-in spot. So they should have either tanked and played Hendricks to start the year. Trade KO before the season started, not traded for John Collins, etc. Or stayed committed to being their best for the entire year.

  13. The only thing I was upset about is losing Agbaji. In my estimation, if we were to get an Agbaji type player with that pick we'd by ecstatic. So why are we potentially throwing away another year of not conveying the OKC pick? If we stay out of the bottom 10 I'm fine with what went down

  14. David, come on this is not fair to Walker Kessler comparing him and his defensively challenged team to Gobert or Porzingis who have a bunch of other really good defensive players around them (McDaniels, Edwards, NAW, Holiday, Tatum, Brown, White). Great NBA defenses aren’t due to one single great defensive player. Be fair to Walker here – he won’t make the Jazz a top defensive team by himself (let alone as a sophomore) and it’s delusional to expect that from him

  15. 100% agree with you on the delusional Jazz fan base being unhappy with trading expiring contracts we weren’t retaining for AT BEST one single elimination game. Nuts how delusional this fan base is. It’s like they have no clue what a rebuild done well actually looks like

  16. I think the entire plan and system is like the Titanic. Arrogant Smith and his farsical Jazz leadership that basically has failed now wants to own another professional team? He has already destroyed the Jazz. I wish the Millers still owned the team. They are bordering on being a parody and a joke.

  17. We will need playoff experience, and still may this season, but it is important to give our young guys playing time. My bigger concern is coaching, specifically when it comes to defense – transition and communication are reoccurring problems – notably our veterans. Maybe we scrap the zone defense…

  18. Jazz fans who don't know anything about Danny Ainge's history are the ones who are surprised by the trades.

    An example would be the Isaiah Thomas trade. Look it up if you don't know. Ainge is cold and calculating. If you want Jazz players to get participation trophies, Ainge isn't the right guy.

  19. Anthony Davis secret is getting lots of fts. Good acting and refs buy it in every game. My bet is 14 fts tonight. Lauri will get 4 if he is lucky.

  20. I couldn't disagree more on Walker. You can even see in his own reactions that he is behind where he hoped to be. Kessler is a great shot blocker, but a poor defender. He can't defend in space, he can't defend past a few feet from the rim as Rudy can. He rarely can guard his own man a few feet from the rim. He goes for every pump fake on earth. He might be less than a offensive threat than Rudy was. We are back to playing 4 on 5 offense when he is on the floor which was what knocked us out of the playoffs when Rudy was here. Another reason why it would have been nice to make the play in to see if we can even play playoff basketball with Kessler on the floor or if teams can scheme to get him off like they did with Rudy.

  21. I agree with you on the trade deadline moves. I predicted before the season that this squad's ceiling was 9th or 10th in the West and Will Hardy maximized them to reach that height.

    We need to look long-term at the trades we've made. We sent out a protected 2nd round pick to get John Collins. Then, we got a much better 2nd round pick for trading Fontecchio. We are winning these trades.

    The fit with Collins wasn't excellent at first, but we've seen much better performances from in the second half of the season. I'd love a breakdown of his impact in the first 25 games vs. the most recent 25 games. He's regained much of his shooting stroke and is playing much better than he did last season with the Hawks.

  22. The trade that frustrated me a bit was Simone as he was such a useful piece and on the right timelines. We would have had to pay him at the end of the season, but the fact he'd settled well locally felt like it would have put us in a good position to get him on a sensible contract.

  23. It is frustrating when you see the Jazz having some great Success then they trade some of the player that have some key plays for wins in order for someone Else to replace them and give them 30 minutes a night who is awful as far as pro ball for now with the hopes they will develop in the next 3 or 4 players into a franchise player which probably not happen. Singe is great at his job and I am no way saying I know better. It just seem we could have tried to get someone better to help then team now! And build to get better. Too many times you see us stop trying to add the pieces to the puzzle and we never see the end goal except when we got Horneck which fit John and Karl perfectly and we hAd back to back finals.As a fan very Frusratimg.

  24. Stop making us worse if we are better a head of your scheduled time.I don’t see this kid becoming a franchise player? Kiroliko we put to much pressure on he went to hell. Boozer and Williams were not good enough to put us over the top Gordon Hayward. We will not say anything about him. No loyalty the grass is greener perfect example of someone looking back at Utah seeing how green the grass was. We need to build through draft and through trades

  25. The reason is this it`s rough being a fan of this club. The reasons why to me are as follows.
    1. This organization is not putting a quality team together to win games. But it is focused on collecting assets. While, I understand why this is happening it`s hard to get excited about this team when it loses games on purpose.
    2. It hard to be a fan of the players on this team knowing that anyone of them could be traded away every year. I mean why learn about these guys, or buy there jerseys, posters when they could be gone next off season or mid season.
    3. It hard to be fan of this team with the arrogance that going in the tank is the always the right move. If you want to win a championship one day you have to earn it. Every team that has won a title has chosen to stick with their players even when they hit a bump. How many titles would the Bulls win if they decided to trade Jordan and Pippen because they lost 3 times in a row to the Pistons. I mean according to your logic that would make sense right. If our focus is just on getting the best draft position possible, then you have to make you team bad enough to get those picks. What would happen if we tanked to get Victor form this last draft. You do realize that there was only 1 winner the other 3 teams lost out. Now they are a bad team and by the way the worst team did not get the 1st pick it became the 5th pick. When Phily got Embiid how many years in the tank did they have to go through to get him? It took Sacramento nearly 20 years to get in the Playoffs. And please spare me the Ainge knows what he is doing. If your honest you know that luck plays a big part to find your guy for the future. Until then you are stuck in the pits. That is the reality for most teams that try to do what we are doing.

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