When Danny Ainge joined the Utah Jazz in December to oversee the team's basketball operations, he wasn't sure exactly how good the team was going to be.
At the time, Utah was 19-7 and a season removed from having the best record in the Western Conference. But as the season went on, Ainge saw something he didn't like. «What I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn't believe in each other,» Ainge told reporters at a news conference on Monday. «Like the whole group, I think they liked each other even more than what was reported, but I'm not sure there was a belief. »When we got to the playoffs I thought, well this is a team that has had some disappointing playoffs so I thought maybe they're just waiting for the playoffs.
I gave them that benefit of the doubt, but it was clear the team didn't perform well in the playoffs again." The fifth-seeded Jazz fell in six games to the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs, one year after the team jumped ahead 2-0 on the LA Clippers in the conference semifinals before losing in six games. «Like I believe every one of these guys went into every game believing they were going to win, don't get me wrong on that,» Ainge said. «I'm just saying when adversity hit, the resolve, you could see in a team that has a true belief in having each other's back or one another. »I think individually they have resolve, but I just don't believe collectively they did.
So you see a lot of players trying to do it on their own as the believe in one another wasn't as great as teams I've been on and around that I've seen." The response from Ainge, general manager Justin Zanik and the rest of the Utah front office was to hit the reset button this offseason with deals