Kinda crazy his dad would just come out and say this. It’s not even close to draft time.

In Ainge we trust 🛐

So tonight's game was a rough one. After Hardy's game-losing TO, there are a lot of questions, frustrations, narratives, and armchair-coaching-savant opinions flying around--mostly evaluating the situation at face value and not digging deeper to understand what happened. For anyone interested, I've linked the post-game pressers (which are annoyingly difficult to find, thanks NBA app) from Collin Sexton (HERE) and Will Hardy (HERE). If you don't want to watch, I'll do what I can to provide a quick summary without putting spin on the situation. Please note that I'm not defending or attacking anyone here, just saying what was said:

• Hardy began trying to call the timeout when he saw Collin stepping back and dribbling away from the basket
• There was a delay between when the timeout was requested and when it was called. Exactly how long is tough to say
• The ATO play afterward was not executed properly. The ball was supposed to get to Lauri
• Collin was frustrated on the court, but was more compassionate toward Hardy in the locker room
• Hardy told Collin in the locker room that he had "robbed [Collin]"
• Collin said that he understood Hardy's call to ask for the timeout
• Hardy said that if this situation comes up again in the future, he'll let Collin play through it

It's important to recognize that we as fans are on the outside looking in. We don't see what happens in the locker room, and we don't know what complex dynamics exist between coaches and players. Both will obviously be more PR-friendly and diplomatic in these post-game press conferences, but personally, I feel like the broad strokes of what they say can be trusted. According to everything that we know, Collin is very coachable and has a good relationship with Hardy, even if they don't always see eye-to-eye. Even more than that, he just seems like a good dude. I'll leave discussion about the Xs and Os of the situation to another post, but as far as how this has impacted player-coach relations and overall locker room sentiment, I don't think that there's too much to be worried about. Both seem to agree that they wish things had gone differently, but that there's also a lot to be learned from moments like this.

We may not be the most talented team in the league, but I do feel strongly that we have some great people on the team. If you're having a hard time rooting for the Utah Jazz, maybe you'll have a better time rooting for these guys as a group of humans all working to be their best selves, through all of the peaks and all of the valleys.

It’s been more corporate seating, less working class prices, more losses, and still only 14% chance of the #1 overall pick.

I like that he’s a Jazz fan. I hate how he isn’t basketball-sound. I hate tanking it’s a waste of time. Mark it: We’re getting a #7 pick or lower.

Box Score

[Game link](https://www.espn.com/nba/game/\_/gameId/401704877/lakers-jazz)

What are inside jokes or catchphrases that only true Jazz fans would know? Is it possible to do in 6 words or less? The best ChatGPT could come up with is: The Push’ was an offensive foul. We can do better.

Dude is unplayable. Defense is garbage. Taking bad shots. No awareness or effort. Weak fouls. Jacking up three pointers.

Get rid of him before it’s too late.

[Game link](https://www.espn.com/nba/game/\_/gameId/401704870/mavericks-jazz)

Just curious if there are any tips out there. So disillusioned with the organization’s pricing and the SeatGeek style secondary markets. Just want decent seats to a game without taking out a second mortgage.

Link: https://bsky.app/profile/fearthebrown.bsky.social/post/3lc6xgcz7xc2w

1. Jazz are once again easily the worst transition defense team in the NBA, allowing 24.8% of their possessions to be in transition. They are massively worse than the 2nd worst transition team, the Portland Trailblazers, who only allow 21.7% of their possessions to be in transition. Jazz also allow the 5th worst points per transition possession so teams aren't just running on the team and not getting rewarded.

This is likely a combination of the Jazz being the most turnover prone team in the NBA, attacking the offensive glass a lot, playing a lot of bigs who may be slow at getting back on defense, and a general lack of effort due to tanking.

2. The Jazz are average at giving up fouls, below average at defensive rebounding, but really fall apart in terms of allowing high eFG% and being the 2nd worst team in the NBA at forcing turnovers.

3. In terms of plus or minus, no one really stands out that positively. The Jazz have played much better defense with Collier, Patty Mills, or Drew Eubanks on the court, but these guys have played so few minutes that it's hard to tell how much of that is real. Disappointingly, the Jazz are barely any better with Walker Kessler on the court.

4. Keyonte George probably has the worst defensive on/off I've ever seen that can't be explained by having a stud defensive backup or something.

Here are some numbers

League average DRtg: 113.4

29th ranked Wizards DRtg: 119.8

Jazz DRtg: 119.9

Jazz DRtg with Keyonte off the court: 109.7

Jazz DRtg with Keyonte on the court: 126.7

This is obviously not all on Keyonte (the Jazz other than Kessler, Collier, and Filipowski may have no other even average defenders on their active roster), but these are pretty catastrophic numbers that must improve.

Ainge needs to take action to prevent any potential damage to our lottery chances

TL:DR before the post: I think Utah could probably be closer to playoff contention than anyone really thinks and the team hiding depth has to do with it.

I watched a lot of Utah's bad years, 2013-14 comes to mind where games felt helpless. You had no star on that team or anyone near it, Hayward was far from the player he'd become and Favors was probably your best piece.

This current team doesn't feel like a 'bottom of the league" team, when healthy they're very competitive and capable to compete with anyone, in fact it feels like they play evenly across the league when healthy. They're missing pieces and inexperienced sure, but I think Lauri is becoming really underrated, as is Kessler and even Collin Sexton.

That's just the start though, because tonight Micah Potter played his first game of the season and started, and he looked like an NBA player, he moved the ball, shot it well, and even wasn't too bad on defense against a good nuggets team.

Svi has been imo one of the most underrated pieces in the league for awhile, in Boston he didn't need to play because they were deep, but he can shoot the absolute lights out and he also seems to have just an overall good feel for the game, he's a bit rusty at times with some of the ways he loses the ball but even then, he's a vet, and if we're going off of raw talent it's hard not to put him above some of the young guys. Yet he really doesn't get minutes.

When they're actually trying to win games, and I'm not saying coach isn't but he's often dealt a hand with 2 fingers, they look really good, the new York game comes to mind, and it doesn't feel like fluke wins either, it feels like a hard fought game a lot. Even tonight with all of the injuries, Utah led by 13 in the first at one point.

What I'm getting at though is this just absolutely screams of a team that's purposefully being handicapped for a tank and not one that's actually "that bad", and it really seems like management has a plan to turn things around soon, to the point where I'm not sure Utah will be in the AJ Dybansta/Cam Boozer sweepstakes (though the pick protection says otherwise)

I'm not trying to cope here really either, been rooting pretty hard for the other team on a nightly basis because I love this draft class, but this is more of a long term observation. I do think there's a chance that Utah makes a gargantuan trade after this season to go get x superstar who's unhappy, and I'm really hoping Minnesota falls apart entirely this year and misses the playoffs as well so that the options open up.

But yeah, as ugly as some of the games are and will be, I like the "secret depth" that this team seems to have that prior tanking teams didn't. Also I'm a huge Oscar fan and have been since Indiana, guy deserves a real chance. Peace

Seems like this season every Utah Jazz game involves some NBA history being made, by an opposing player.

https://www.si.com/nba/nuggets/news/nikola-jokic-makes-nba-history-in-nuggets-vs-jazz-01jdrgqdhw6c

Yep

I always knew the big dog was a Jazzman 🥺

[Game link](https://www.espn.com/nba/game/\_/gameId/401704864/nuggets-jazz)

I feel pretty confident the Jazz will trade at least one of the two players by the deadline. Both seem valuable right now with their skill and hustle to contending teams looking to upgrade their rosters.

Box Score

Just wanted to see if the tv broadcast of the game was super laggy and stuttering for anyone else? Mostly just the sound. Don’t think it’s on my end as other tv channels and commercials are just fine…