There’s not much to say about what the Jazz did on Wednesday, a couple fistfuls of hours before the NBA trade deadline that wasn’t already suspected, wasn’t already obvious.
The Jazz do not care about winning this season.
That the Jazz had been gobbling more victories than most observers expected meant nothing. Somewhere along the avenue to playoff contention, some fans in Utah had managed to forget what was really happening.
To quote Inspector Clouseau, “Nooooot anymoooore.”
Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker sent to Minnesota, along with some future second-round draft picks, and Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt to the Lakers. In return, the Jazz get Russell Westbrook, who likely will never play for the Jazz, instead being bought out in preparation for free agency, and Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones and a protected 2027 first-round pick.
There are those who will attempt to polish the trades up, saying they provide more room for other Jazz players who weren’t good enough to take a whole lot of minutes away from the dearly departed, but, competitively speaking, it’s all BS.
Wednesday’s deals are about two F-words: flexibility and the future.
That’s it.
But everybody already knew as much.
Did we mention, the Jazz do not care about winning this season?
They do give two F’s — flexibility and the future — about setting the path forward for themselves through another expletive, the D-word: development.
2023 is a runway for Lauri Markannen, Walker Kessler, Ochai Agbaji, and Collin Sexton. Their progress en route to more losing is imperative. If improved draft positioning happens, too, all the better. No matter what anyone says publicly out of Jazz camp, that’s the deal here.
Winning is a non-factor.
It’s fine entertainment to watch Jordan Clarkson perform his whirling-dervish routine night after night, but, no matter, the Jazz have stripped themselves and their intentions bare.
And maybe that’s a good thing, in the case of those who couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
Enjoy, then, the rest of the season, as it is refinement for the few, and a reward for four or five seasons on.
The plan might work, as has been seen by a small smattering of teams in the past. It was seeded deep in the dirt that the Jazz couldn’t get to the Western Conference finals with the stars they had in recent seasons, and an egocentric trader like Danny Ainge, brought in by Ryan Smith last year, had no financial room to make his mark on a club that will desperately depend on Ainge’s advanced acumen moving forward.
He has the two F’s in abundance now. It’s up to the players’ conscientiousness and the coaching staff’s doggedness to do the developing, and it’s up to Ainge to make the most of a thousand draft picks, to keep or to trade.
Will Jazz fans between nah and nyah play along?
They have no choice. Well, they have two options — take cover for a couple of years, bailing on the team at present or, at least, stopping to care so much about its shortcomings, or watch the growth, taking what they can get and liking it, and expect Ainge will work his wonders.
There, for sure, are many variables in “the process.” And nobody knows, nobody can know, at this juncture what the Jazz future will look like.
But there’s one more expletive in play here — the H-word: hope.
The Jazz have been living off — and dying on — that word for a long, long time. Optimists live longer, they say, than pessimists. Where realists fit in that equation is anybody’s guess.
Will draft picks turn into championship-level All-Stars? Will those picks be utilized in effective trades? Will top-drawer free agents be willing to come here, allowing the Jazz to take advantage of their newfound financial flexibility?
Careful before you answer. Long live Jazz fans, one and all.
