“F— the talk” said Rudy Gobert after the Jazz tied up their first round series against the Dallas Mavericks at 2 games a side. The Jazz followed up that emotional game 4 win with a stinker in game 5 getting blown out 102-77, looking disengaged and sloppy throughout the game. In game 6 they had a chance to win it at the buzzer but Bojan Bogdanovic missed the buzzer beating attempt and Utah’s season ended too early yet again. What went wrong, how can they fix it, and can the duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert be successful?
Utah could not guard a soul on the perimeter throughout the series. It was not even like it was Luka killing them the entire series as he missed the first 3 games of the series. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie took turns picking a Utah defender to attack off of a pick and driving to the basket where they would make Rudy Gobert make a decision on whether he wanted to stop the drive or prevent a potential 3. Now, Dallas did run some other sets too but it felt like every time they ran that simple play they would get an open 3 in the corner. It was tough to watch and it shined a light that Utah’s biggest issue was never that they could not go small, it was that they could not keep guys in front of them, when your best perimeter defender is Danuel House Jr., you need some help. It has been a big issue even going back to the Clippers series where they got exposed when Ty Lue went small and Terrence Mann could not miss in game 6. The issue was not that they could not guard Terrence Mann in the corner, the issue was they would let Paul George and Reggie Jackson get by them every single time.
They have to get better on the perimeter defensively, what they have now is not good enough. One way to do this is to move Donovan Mitchell to point guard full time as Tony Jones of The Athletic reported he might. That would lead to a Mike Conley trade. Conley just signed a 3 year extension to remain in Utah last offseason that has 2 years left on it at $22.6 million and $24.3 million though in the 2nd year only $14.3 million is guaranteed. That is about $37 million dollars guaranteed left on his contract and I am not sure there are a lot of teams that would be thrilled about taking on that contract. A few names I would look at to possibly acquire are Malcolm Brogdan in Indiana (though that price might be too rich), Josh Richardson in San Antonio, Jerami Grant in Detroit (again would be costly and he would need a new contract), Jae Crowder in Phoenix (this would be a return to Utah), along with some players that are free agents like Gary Harris, Taurean Prince, and Derrick Jones Jr.
The Jazz also need to evaluate if they can win the West with the duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. It’s not about winning in the regular season, they have done a lot of that. It’s not about winning in the first round, they have done that. It’s about making a real deep playoff run to the West Finals or later and with the Warriors coming back and the Clippers and Nuggets getting healthy I am not sure this duo is good enough. The roster around them clearly is not good enough and I am not sure where the Jazz go to upgrade their 2 stars. So the new team Alternate Governor and CEO, basically lead basketball executive, Danny Ainge has some decisions to make. You cannot trade Mitchell, he is their star and they should try and continue to build around him so a Gobert trade it would be. Some teams that could be interested are the Mavericks, Raptors, Bulls, and Hornets. However, I do not think Utah pulls the trigger and trades Gobert.
The Utah Jazz have disappointed in the playoffs over the last couple of years and need to retool this roster. How big those changes are is the question, are they minor tweaks in the rotation or are they a big trade moving one of their stars? It will be an interesting offseason in Utah to see what Ainge and company do.
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