u/Relative_Donkey_1826

But if anybody is making you feel crazy for thinking that the team is going to the playoffs next year, they're crazy. In my opinion, the jazz are undoubtedly a top 10 team in the west and I'd argue you may even avoid the play in or be a top 4 team if you have a very favorable season.

And yes, to some that may sound crazy because you finished last in the west last year but take it from someone who was saying that the spurs were a 55 win, second round+ team before the season began (I could have never seen 60 wins and a finals run) it can always be your teams year to ascend and typically every year there's one or two that do so there's no reason why it couldn't be you. I see the jazz as very ready to take that next step up as a team and if there are any of you in here that feel uneasy about your prospects for next year, I'm here to tell you as a fan of a rival team that you guys have a real shot at being a dangerous team next year.

They extended offers to both, making them restricted free agents but you would think that they would need & want the extra run and that the spurs would like to see them play so I don't really see a reason to not include them in the squad.

I wouldn't imagine DJG is getting offered more than a minimum, standard contract and I'd be surprised if the spurs don't match it. Ingram is almost certainly not getting standard contract offers.

The other thing that confuses me is that I read something (which may not be true) which said that the spurs offered Ingram a standard contract but DJG only a two way, so maybe I'm not seeing what they're seeing but DJG looks like he can at least be a 3rd stringer in the league, whereas Ingram doesn't really look like an NBA player to me.

Anyways, the summer league roster looks very solid, I think we'll put together some fun games, just wish we could see those two play

If you all remember, Jules wasn't necessarily a rebounder coming into the program but they challenged him to be and he's turned into a good enough one to get himself a starting spot. In the same way, Rui has similar measurements to Champagnie and is a relatively poor rebounder now but if challenged, has a chance at being pretty decent, same goes for defense. If we can polish up his game in those areas, he's certainly the best offensive option available and would be great off the bench. I'm confident in the coaching staff to be able to bring the best out of him so I hope BW can get it done

Coming into the offseason, we had 9 players coming back under contract: Wemby, Harper, Castle, Fox, Vassell, Champagnie, Bryant, Johnson and Kornet. Their salaries total $152.8M. We re-sign Champagnie to a deal worth $12M/year more and we re-sign Barnes to a $8M deal, bringing us to $172.8M.

We then draft Quaintance and Reed, who's salaries total $5.9M. Which brings us to $178.7M.

We were likely always going to use a vet min on the 3rd string PG, besides McLaughlin is everything you'd want out of a 3rd string PG anyways so bringing him back would be a solid signing in and of itself. That'd be another $4M, which brings us to $182.7M.

Let's also assume we will use the full $15M MLE, just to be safe. That brings us to $197.7M and the luxury tax is at exactly $201M, giving us $3.3M of room and the following depth chart:

Harper/Fox - McLaughlin

Castle - Johnson -

Vassell - Bryant - Barnes

Champagnie - MLE - Quaintance

Wemby - Kornet - Reed

Once the MLE is brought in, our roster will balance out and you better believe some good player is going to poke his head up to try to play with Wemby on a championship caliber team. We would still have options at $3.3M but I'd honestly just offer DJG a full contract, which I believe is something like $2M but certainly not over $3M, leaving us comfortably under the luxury tax.

This would mean that the only additions this offseason were our 2 first rounders (one of whom may not play for a part of or the whole season) and the MLE signing. This would be something I'd be completely fine with. As long as the MLE signing fits well then I think we'll have just as strong of a team as anybody else. We have chemistry, continuity, depth and talent, you can't ask much more out of a team heading into the season

But part of me thought, if Christian Anderson fell to us, he would've been the perfect backup point guard of the future for Harper & Castle. I know it doesn't matter now and we may not have even drafted him if he was there because we probably would have had to move Fox this summer if we did but those 3 guards playing together in the same way that the trio played last year is fun to think about

Harper - Possibly 2027 FRP

Castle - Champagnie

Vassell - Johnson

Quaintance - Bryant

Wemby - Reed

I wouldn't doubt it for a second if it did, it would all fit together really well. As soon as 2028, this could be a viable rotation. The summer of 2028 seems like the ideal time to move Fox. It also gives time for JQ to rehab this season and have a rookie season after if needed, our 2027 FRP could also have a year under their belt. This draft pick is Atlanta's and the East looks like it could be much more competitive than people think, I would not be surprised if we got an equal or higher position next year. Might be a crazy thought but DJG may even turn into a solid depth piece. Vic & Steph would also be the only large contracts on the books and everyone would be 28 and under

McLaughlin is pretty much exactly what you're looking for out of a 3rd string PG and he'll take a vet min again if offered.

Barnes is likely not looking at anything over $15M for 2 years or something similar to that on the open market. I think he'd even come back for $10M for 2 years if offered. At that price point, with his vet presence in the locker room and his ability to still shoot it very well, if nothing else in the regular season, it would make sense to me.

I would not be upset at all if we decided to offer DJG a full contract as the last roster spot. He can clearly score and he genuinely looked pretty decent on defense at times, his injury isn't really something that affects a player long term either so I'm not concerned about that. We could go ahead and sign a guard like Josh Okogie instead, who plays tough defense and shoots it well but part of me also looks at the chemistry the team had last year (and how important it was to our success) and thinks that it may be better keeping things in house, considering DJG is genuinely promising as well.

This would mean that the team would run it back with 12 of the same players (I count DJG as one since he was our best two-way player and probably even deserved a full contract last year, he also really seemed to bond with the team) in addition to two first rounders who the franchise can start leading in the right direction immediately and help get ingrained into the already established culture. I think this would really be huge not only for the team culture and chemistry now but for the years to come as well.

We would still need to find someone to sign or trade for with the MLE but that's another discussion.

Basically it was a guy talking about how with Quaintance, the injury itself isn't what's most concerning for him but rather that he has certain habits on the court that put enormous pressure on his knees and that he may be injury prone more so because of those habits than just bad luck. To be honest, I didn't watch the whole thing because at the time, I didn't think we'd take him but now it's something that I'd like to watch well this time around. Does anybody remember a video like that or who made it?

Anyways, if not, does this concern anybody? I mean I'm sure the trainers and coaching staff will work with him on these sorts of things and they'll get better but I'm not sure if those movements that at this point must feel so natural to his body ever go away completely. I could be completely and totally wrong though

Champagnie is arguably already better as a "4". I woukd definitely not let the MLE signing affect our wiggle room for his extension, especially someone who may not even be a better player at the same position (the fact that this isn't even Champagnie's natural position makes it a bit worse honestly). I'm not crazy about John Collins either but he'd at least be a better argument if he should start over Champagnie or not, though I'm very much still skeptical. I know it's kind of slim pickings this year in free agency but I would not give Rui the MLE, he's probably going back to LA anyways but even if he didn't, I'd pass on him and possibly look to trade someone into the MLE instead

Find a way to trade for Bobby Portis, find a way to trade up in tonights draft and take Morez Johnson Jr, draft Alex Karaban, sign Nick Richards to the BAE and re-sign Barnes & McLaughlin:

Fox - Harper - McLaughlin

Castle - Champagnie - Johnson

Vassell - Bryant - Barnes

Portis - Morez - Karaban

Wemby - Kornet - Richards

Or trade Fox for Portis & Wiggins, draft Christian Anderson & Alex Karaban, Re-sign Barnes & McLaughlin and sign Nick Richards to the BAE:

Harper - Anderson - McLaughlin

Castle - Champagnie - Johnson

Vassell - Wiggins - Barnes

Portis - Bryant - Karaban

Wemby - Kornet - Richards

This is just a side note but I'm kind of disappointed in BW for not getting involved in that trade. I would have liked to come away with Bobby Portis, in my opinion, he'd be one of the best solutions to our frontcourt in the entire league. If Miami has him now, I'd find it hard to believe they'd move him but I'd even be willing to give up a future first if we got the deal done before the season begins

During the dynasty years, we were almost always drafting at 25+ and it doesn't make much sense to trade up at that point. Then when we were selecting at around 20, we weren't really good enough then for it to make a whole lot of difference anyhow. But right now we're in a position where if we trade up, we could actually get a sizeable leap in talent and we're good enough and far enough along to know exactly what we need to compete and how to use that player correctly. It also just so happens that there's 2 forwards in this draft, Morez and Yaxel, who fit pretty much exactly what we need. Our draft picks are also not going to get any better and yes I know we have some that may pan out, like the Wolves pick but that's not in our hands and generally speaking, we're probably not going to be in such a good position to trade up in a long time, let alone the probability that there's 2 great talents who just so happen to be exactly what we're missing from a finals run team. If trading a future first (not one of the more valuable ones) means going and getting Morez or Yaxel, I'll take that any day of the week

He's clearly massively respected by all his players. This guy was Wemby, Vassel, Champaigne and KJ's development coach (and I guess Castle's as well the summer leading up to the season) he was the one in the gym with them at all hours and you can tell the respect and the bond that he has with the team by the way they talk about him and how hard they play for him because we do run a very demanding style of basketball. He started as an assistant on our G-League team and worked his way up to HC. He was personally selected by Pop and RC. He's won 62 games in his first full season as a HC and has taken us to the WCF. He's proven every step of the way that he's earned being here

For all of you blowing up these narratives that Keldon sucks, our bench sucks and Mitch sucks: You're all pathetic fans and wrong. I won't be elaborating. Thanks.

Castle would really have to limit the turnovers.

Vassel - Champagnie - HB as a group would have to shoot lights out.

Keldon goes crazy on offense / CB goes crazy on defense.

Covering for Vic after his initial defensive efforts. I think the 12 blocks made it clear that Minnesota is completely uninterested in how many times Vic can block their shots and will keep attacking the rim regardless, I have a theory that part of the reason for this approach is to essentially take him out of the play for half a second after his contests or blocks. Gang rebounding has been important all season because we are slightly undersized in the frontcourt and because Wemby does contest so many shots but it'll be even more important this series given that Minnesota has arguably the biggest and most physical frontcourt in the league and that on top of that, the strategy seems to be to make Wemby contest alot more shots than normal, which seems counterintuitive to go after maybe the best rim protector of all time but if you think about it, could pay off for them if they win the overall battle for loose balls because if Wemby is contesting or blocking a shot, he's less likely to be there for the rebound or for another blocked shot and they have the frontcourt to be able to win that battle. I thought we were pretty solid in game 1 besides that and shotmaking but "make more shots" isn't really an adjustment, other than shot selection but I think that will get cleaned up a bit too

Shai, Tatum, Brown, Luka, Ant is a sort of best case scenario tier. For what Flagg projects to be, he would probably be there too. I guess you can argue for players like Maxey, Haliburton, Mitchell and whoever else you might put there but ultimately I think Wemby, Harper and Castle will end up as 3 of the 10 best draft picks from 2016-2025