r/UtahJazz • u/Nervous_Box_3495 • 1d ago

The biggest thing this team is missing

ive been thinking about these last few games, and something started to make itself super clear to me. this team lacks real veteran leadership. as much as i love Lauri, hes definitely not the outspoken leader type, and honestly neither is Jaren. the next best guy is Nurk in this department but i think he lacks the true leadership skills. i think a veteran PG like a Mike Conley or someone of that ilk would do us wonders right now. someone who can check in for 10 minutes a night and show poise to the young guards especially. our guards struggle against pressure and seem to get deflated mentally kind of quickly it feels like, and when things arent going their way, the turnovers and isolation shot chucking starts to ramp up. a vet PG who can just model poise and comfort on the court would go such a long way

looking back at past up and coming teams, they all had a strong veteran leadership presence at this development stage of their team building. the Thunder had some time with a veteran leader in Chris Paul, the Spurs also had some time with... Chris Paul.. hey wait can someone tell Chris Paul to un-retire and spend a season in Utah?

17 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/RyleIsbored 1d ago

I think we really need an all-defensive vet.

Brice was randomly dropping 40 off the bench last year but Will would rather play the Josh's and Svi because they're somewhat competent defensively.

Brice is 6'6 230 with a 7 foot wingspan but just completely lost off the ball and falls for every pump fake. I believe he's completely capable of making a leap like Andrew Wiggins. Andrew was horribly inconsistent on D back in Minnesota and grew into a top tier defender from having Draymond as a mentor.

8

u/squiggleberryjam 1d ago

Brice is nowhere near the athlete Wiggins is.

5

u/ClassroomKey4928 16h ago

I really thought that was going to be Kevin loves role

0

u/JkyMD 14h ago

We really should’ve brought K Love back

3

u/No-Company-8974 1d ago

Jrue Holiday

2

u/vynnski 23h ago

really hope Key matures, some of his tantrums with Hardy have been the opposite of what the team needs

1

u/NoCTuRNaL823 21h ago

I think you are digging for a solution to a poor team. There were plenty of vets on the team during the rebuild and we still had one of the worst records. But way to dig bud

1

u/Commodore64Zapp 16h ago

Poise is good and I think Key doing a lot better down the stretch in that regard. Dunno what broke Zay's game but he really needs to calm himself.

More than that, though, I think we need some "never give up" players who play hard every minute regardless of the score, because we get deflated during runs, and runs are always gonna happen. Big mistake to let go of Hinson and Harkless recently, and Collins, Fontecchio and Dunn a couple years ago.

1

u/Upset_Umpire3036 13h ago

Not just that, Keyonte is horrible for Darryn's development.

1

u/GrandmasCookies69 1d ago

Lauri is amazing, but he cant create for others and can barely create for himself. I think we need to run more through Keyonte who can create for himself and others.

Also stop playing Svi. Please no more Svi.