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The Utah Jazz have not been quite the same since Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell left. There have been flashes of possible glory with the rise of guys like Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Keyonte George. But, having a play-in tournament ceiling is not quite what most teams in the league are gunning for. This squad obviously wants to compete and Danny Ainge wants exactly that to happen starting in the looming NBA offseason.
The Jazz have not quite captured the Larry O’Brien trophy. They have fielded some really strong one-two punches to make it deep into the postseason like Karl Malone’s partnership with John Stockton, Deron Williams making it work with Andrei Kirilenko, and the aforementioned Gobert-Mitchell duo. But, the same cannot be said in the past two seasons. Danny Ainge outlined how they plan to execute on this idea, via Marc Stein.
“We’re ready to go big-game hunting and that hasn’t happened in the last two years. Our mindset is that we’re doing only what we can to try to win… That’s our only objective until we get to July,” the Jazz’s Chief Executive Officer said about their plans.
The Jazz’s perfect star player
So, what will the Jazz be looking for when it comes to the trade market? Well, it largely has to do with hunting for players who are transformative for their franchise. While there is not much specifics as to what this means it could equate to a player who is a capable leader, has a winning mentality, and an individual they can build guys like Lauri Markkanen or Jordan Clarkson around on.
“And that’s what we’re looking to do. We’re looking to find one of those,” he concluded.
Danny Ainge does realize that these types of players are hard to come by. However, the Jazz have the assets to pull it off. This year, their pick in the NBA Draft had top 10 protections. This would have been owed to the Oklahoma City Thunder. But, the Jazz entered at eighth and then rolled back to tenth. All of which posits that they will keep the pick. This is an asset that Jazz fans can look out for. The front office can either press the win-now button with a star to pair up with Lauri Markkanen or develop a player alongside Keyonte George for the future.
Nonetheless, it’s great to see that Danny Ainge is bringing the Jazz out of their competitive slump after just two seasons of failures. They have finished fourth in their division twice already and have been good enough to be a middle-of-the-pack squad but never a constant playoff contender. Their last appearance in the postseason came when Quinn Snyder was still a head coach and they lost in the first round to a Dallas Mavericks team led by a young Luka Doncic.
With this new plan for the Jazz and the addition of a new NHL team in Utah, great things are on the horizon. Hopefully, they can stay competitive and find the perfect star in the coming NBA offseason.
More must-reads:
- Three stars from Monday’s NBA playoffs
- Derrick White makes unique history in Eastern Conference Finals
- The 'Most three-pointers made in the playoffs' quiz
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