#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Digiskunk: Ahem. Thank you and welcome to yet another exciting Utah Jazz preseason press conference. Unlike seasons past, this upcoming season is poised to be a new and exciting experience. As you're all well aware, we decided to do a complete overhaul after last season. Prepared to rebuild this team, we decided to give it one more go before heading into the dark, unknown abyss that is otherwise known as the future, which we feel looks promising regardless of what the critics say.

During the offseason, we decided to trade away all of our biggest pieces in anticipation of a dramatic rebuild, very similar to the one that I first kick-started when I came here as the Utah Jazz general manager. Joseph Kight, James Gebhart, CJ McCollum—all of them were traded away for prospects and future picks, although I didn't realize how distant into the future they were given that I was intoxicated when I made the trade. Nevertheless, we have high hopes for these prospects: both Simon Pheonix and Glenn Irvine look like future studs, even if they are raw at the current moment.


When free agency arrived, we decided to bring in some big names, including former Jazz player Paul George, who had spent 7 years here before I shipped his ass off for some picks. We also brought in Rudy Gobert to replace big man Joel Embiid. Furthermore, we brought back Boyd Cox who was instrumental for us in the past. He's going to be seeing a lot of playing time this upcoming season.

There's probably a bunch of other stuff I didn't mention, but ah, I forget to be honest.

But overall, we're excited to see what happens this upcoming season.

And now, I'm ready for questions.

Walk us through the decision to move on from Juicy James and Joseph Kight.

IamQuailman wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:06 am Walk us through the decision to move on from Juicy James and Joseph Kight.

Good question! As much as I loved having them, the tax burden became too much to bare, along with the fact that despite numerous playoff appearances, this squad was unable to win the Finals. Last season's squad was the best we had ever assembled, and we would have been unable to recreate that entering this season due to being unable to pay our luxury tax. Furthermore, we figured it would be more fun to just start fresh, like we did when I first entered the league. I figured it would be a fun challenge, so we decided to pull the trigger on that move.

Do you feel you were one Rubio away from winning the championship?


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NOLa. wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:23 am Do you feel you were one Rubio away from winning the championship?

In all honesty, that may be the case—perhaps not Ricky Rubio though, perhaps another reliable shooter off the bench. J.R. Johnson was incredibly reliable all season long despite taking a major hit in training camp earlier that season, and he was actually the first player to record a triple-double during my tenure (I think?). Our bench wasn't exactly the strongest, though they weren't the worst neither. But I feel if we had another good shooter to come off the bench, we could have won it all.

But in retrospect, we went 7 games. We easily could have won it. We just didn't...

What is the goal for the Utah Jazz this year?

garbageman wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:31 am What is the goal for the Utah Jazz this year?

We're actually hoping to make the playoffs this year and see how far we can go, regardless of the fact that our team isn't nearly as good as last season's. And after that, that's when the real fun begins. Rebuild time, baby!

If you had to pick one, what is the most important single attribute or skill of any lone player on your team?

Soundwave wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 12:18 pm If you had to pick one, what is the most important single attribute or skill of any lone player on your team?

That's a tough question considering how crappy my team is, but I think Paul George's versatility as a scorer really stands out. I know that he's older now and didn't have the greatest preseason, but he knows how to get to the basket and score. That's going to be vital heading forward.

Looking back on past moves, do you have any regrets in trading for C.J. McCollum?

false9 wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:02 pm Looking back on past moves, do you have any regrets in trading for C.J. McCollum?

This is a very good question and now that I think about it, perhaps it wasn't the right move at all. Although we were in a "win now" situation—and sincerely believed at the time that this move would put us over the top—it put us in financial duress, and that really came back to haunt us a season or two later. So it was probably a bad move on my part...

Did the team's performance in the preseason make you feel any better about the decision to blow the team up?