Every time that Danny Ainge has joined an NBA franchise, he has made drastic changes as soon as possible. The same has gone for the Utah Jazz, who underwent massive changes at every level of the franchise.
Head coach Quin Snyder, foreseeing the changes, stepped down as head coach earlier this offseason. He was replaced by Boston Celtics assistant Will Hardy, who was previously an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.
Next up was overhauling the roster. Royce O’Neale was the first player on the move, getting traded to the Brooklyn Nets. After that, the big moves came as Ainge pulled off two blockbusters.
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The first was sending Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the second was sending Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Recently, Ainge opened up more about why he made the moves that he did. While this has become his MO, he didn’t believe the group that the previous regime had put together believed in each other any longer.
“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.”
That is something that Mitchell has since spoken about as well. During an appearance on The Woj Pod, Mitchell was critical of Ainge’s assessment. Being there for as short of a time as he was, as Ainge had only been with the organization six months, Mitchell doesn’t believe he get a full understanding of what was going on.
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There was a lot of media hoopla about the relationship Mitchell had with Gobert, which he touched on as well. But, he didn’t believe it was fair for Ainge to make the assumption he did so quickly.
“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 belief in one another wasn’t as great as teams I’ve been on and around that I’ve seen.”
Those are certainly some stinging words and assessments from Ainge. Yes, the Jazz didn’t find the level of success that they were hoping to in the postseason, but something must have been working for them to be one of the best regular season teams over the last few years.
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Some changes to the chemistry and makeup of the team could have sufficed, but Ainge went into a full rebuild instead. It will take some time to determine if he made the correct decision, as he acquired a boatload of draft picks in the trades this offseason but is staring down what could be a lengthy rebuild, especially if Utah remains a difficult place to recruit players to.
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