Utah Jazz, Fans Move Into Team Building Phase

Feb 20, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke (3) and forward Joe Ingles (2) and forward Derrick Favors (15) and teammates react to defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 92-67 at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

For three years it’s been a steady stream of asset accumulation by the Utah Jazz, as they rebuild in earnest from the ground up. While the Enes Kanter trade may have felt like yet another step back for some, it’s come to signal something entirely different for many others: Moving into the team building phase.

Dennis Lindsey recently intimated on his weekly radio visit to 1280/97.5 The Zone that he already had a free agent target in mind for this summer. Singular

The emergence of Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert as a legitimate Big Three — with Kanter it just never felt like a legit Big Three. With Gobert it does — and subsequent 7-3 record in their last ten games, has Utah Jazz fans adjusting their thinking. No longer are fans only talking about the development of the young players.

Now, fans are beginning to look to the next step: the acquisition of a piece or pieces that can help the Jazz move on up the ladder and make the next step in a wild Western Conference where a team typically has to have a minimum of 48 wins just to sneak into the postseason.

"On the face of it, the Jazz appear to be starting over again, just as they did when they onloaded Deron Williams. Kanter and Williams were both No. 3 picks in the NBA draft, six years apart. They are tied with Dominique Wilkins (No. 3 in 1982) as the second highest draft picks in team history, trailing only Darrell Griffith in 1980.In other words, the Jazz haven’t had many lottery picks in the draft, and now they’ve traded away the last two (actually, they’ve traded every No. 3 pick they’ve ever made, but that’s ancient history).In Oklahoma City, they’re wondering what the Jazz were thinking when they traded this guy for relatively little in return. Fans are wondering the same thing in Utah. But given this recent turn of events, there’s this question: Is it possible that Dennis Lindsey knows what he’s doing after all?–Doug Robinson, Deseret News"

Dennis Lindsey recently intimated on his weekly radio visit to 1280/97.5 The Zone that he already had a free agent target in mind for this summer. Singular.

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That generally signals that thinking by Jazz brass has shifted to the next step of construction as well, the filling in of gaps and weak spots on the roster in preparation for making a playoff run in earnest.

I sure hope Wesley Matthews wasn’t the targeted FA, though. Too soon?

Reports that the Jazz may be trying to buy out and bring over Ante Tomic after drafting him nearly seven years ago only lend credence to a supposition that where there’s smoke there’s fire when it comes to phasing out of asset acquisition into the team building part of a rebuild.

Certainly, Jazz fans are weary of losing — gratuitous amounts of that — and are ready to move on to a more palatable chapter in franchise history going forward. Thinking surely seems to have shifted to the next level.

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