It's Time for Jazz CEO Danny Ainge to Stop With the Shenanigans
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck — it’s probably a duck. When one doesn't have all the facts, the benefit of the doubt is the path of least resistance, but enough is enough.
The roadblocks that the Utah Jazz front office continues to throw up, seemingly in an attempt to improve the team's lottery odds, need to end. To be clear, I have no inside knowledge of the extent of Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Collin Sexton’s injuries, but let's examine the facts.
Sexton injured his hamstring back on February 15, and if we’re being fair, it’s not unusual for this type of setback to linger for four weeks or longer. But apparently, the injury was so severe that the Jazz brain trust had no problem with Sexton being a part of the All-Star Game Skills Challenge competition on February 22.
Clarkson just missed his sixth consecutive game, and eighth of the last nine, with a sprained finger on Monday night, despite logging a full practice three days prior. Let’s call it what it is. It’s very unusual to practice in full with no reported setbacks and continue to miss games.
Markkanen led all scorers with 28 points in a 118-117 victory over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. Utah’s best player finished the game and even showed up at the post-game press conference, only to pop up on the injury report the following day. To nobody’s surprise, Markkanen missed Monday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, in which the Jazz emerged victorious.
After unloading four rotational pieces at the trade deadline and missing three starters, Utah defeated the second-seeded Kings 128-120. With only 11 games remaining, Utah is tied for the No. 8 seed and is only one game removed from holding a bonafide playoff spot.
I was all in on 'Team Tank' to begin the year, but the Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson ship sailed a long time ago. It’s unprecedented to orchestrate a tank this late in the season when a playoff spot is literally within striking distance. This doesn’t happen in other sports, but for some reason, it’s accepted in the NBA.
The Houston Texans beat the Indianapolis Colts in the last game of the 2022 season and in the process, lost the rights to the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft. The competitive integrity of the NFL is sacrosanct.
It’s no coincidence that the NFL regular season viewership crushes the NBA. In fact, on Christmas Day, the most-watched NFL game (Miami Dolphins vs. Green Bay Packers) had 26 million viewers compared to the six million that tuned into the NBA's most-scrutinized game (Bucks-Celtics). That is something the NBA needs to process.
So why is Utah’s front office hell-bent on taking the foot off the gas while being on the fringe of making the postseason? Of course, lottery odds play a big part in it, but there’s another problem.
The Jazz front office has no skin in the game this season. Utah has already exceeded expectations, so CEO Danny Ainge and the front office are motivated to stack the deck in their favor moving forward, but it’s gone too far.
Is it fair to pull the rug out from under a fan base that’s emotionally invested this late in the season? How about the players and coaches that have worked their whole lives to get to this moment?
This is really happening when Utah's best-case scenario is the No. 8 spot in terms of lottery odds? Enough with the shenanigans. Let’s see how far this Jazz team can go without the front office getting in its way.
Follow Inside The Jazz on Facebook and Twitter.
Subscribe on YouTube for breaking Jazz news videos and live-stream podcasts!
