On New Year’s Day, when most of us were likely recovering from New Year’s Eve, Danny Ainge sent out a tweet that had a lot of meaning to the rebuild of the Jazz. It was a response to a post about the importance
of patience. Here’s what Ainge said:
The biggest message here is the importance of attaining impulse control. Something that has been a calling card for Danny Ainge as a GM, but also a major part of this Jazz rebuild. For three years, the Jazz have been mired in losing seasons, hoping for some luck in the lottery. It’s easy to see this tweet as a response to the frustration of the fan base, and also the owner of this team. It’s been well-documented that the owner of the Jazz was frustrated after the bad lottery luck last season, the one season the Jazz truly tanked to get the #1 pick in the draft. After the Jazz fell to 5th, we got some changes that looked like they lacked impulse control and were more based on emotional instability.
Austin Ainge came in and told the fan base that there would be no more tanking (which apparently got some sort of applause in the press room… talk about impulse control…), and the Jazz sent the message that they would build around fringe all-star, Lauri Markkanen. The team mentioned that the frustration of so much losing took a toll on the team and the front office. And even with the emergence of Keyonte George, the Jazz find themselves outside of the play-in but also at risk of losing their top-8 protected pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Utah is already repeating the sins of the first two years of the rebuild post-Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. They are in no-man’s land, at risk of finding themselves in a long-term position of mediocrity, the likes of which teams like Sacramento and Chicago achieve. It certainly feels a lot like what Ainge says, “Those unstable emotions often choose immediate gratification.”
That said, it looks like the Jazz have finally started making decisions based on impulse control. Yes, it would be nice to win some games and maybe even push for the play-in. But Utah would then miss out on another piece to build around this young core. Making sure they keep their pick will lead to the “longer-term rewards.” If Utah keeps their pick, and maybe for once gets lucky come lottery night, they would have a core truly capable of building towards championship contention. For years, Utah would win games at an elite level, even better than when they had Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. And since they’ve filled their asset pool with picks and young players, Utah will be able to fill their roster with low-salary, young talent around their stars for years. It’s the type of rebuild that could lead Utah to something they’ve never had before, a title.
It’s great advice from Danny Ainge who knows what it takes to win a title. That’s what the whole point of this was, right?
