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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz general manager Justin Zanik is confident in the Jazz's plan.
Yes, it hurt to trade three rotational players; and, yes, he wishes there was a quick route to contention, but he believes the two deals he and Danny Ainge pulled off at the deadline will eventually lead to a championship window for coach Will Hardy, Lauri Markkanen and the Jazz.
On Saturday, Zanik met with the media to explain the plan.
Here are some of the highlights:
How long will the Jazz be in asset accumulation mode?
"It's not a binary thing to be an asset accumulation mode or asset spending mode," he said. "Our plan has always been the same — to build a championship competitive team that can go deep into playoffs, and accumulating assets to identify opportunities and be ready, and have that capital to spend and deploy when those opportunities become available.
"This particular trade deadline — when you look at all the other various trades — there wasn't an impact player available that moves the needle in our timeline. And our timeline is one where we want to build around the core that we were able to keep intact. And so when you can't do that you also want to stay flexible. The strength of our team this year has been, I think, we have a lot of depth, and some of it's young depth that needs to be developed."
What deals are the Jazz are looking for?
"Players that we can add to our core that meaningfully move the needle, in terms of our level of competitiveness and our ability to compete in a deep West for a long time," Zanik said. "You guys have seen the meme 'There have been zero days since drama in the NBA.' You want to make predictions about who's available and who's not. We are a team that is always going to be positioned where we are in this stage of our build to jump on that no matter what. But we're not going to do it just so people feel better for a year or two.
"There's always a part of an opportunity cost, so you give up assets to get what you want. You want to make the appropriate bet. Making bets is part of this; some of them work out, some of them don't. The big bets that you want to make — and that's what we have this capital for and flexibility, and I think a core group of guys that guys will look here and will want to play with and play for our coach and play for this city and organization with how we do things. So every moment that there's an opportunity to look at one of those opportunities to come up, we're going to be ready to do it. Just in the deadline, as much as I would love to do that, it just wasn't available that made sense for us."
Is there a preference for when the Oklahoma City pick conveys?
"It's going to be a reflection of how we finished," he said. "Danny and I and our group, along with coach, we're not trying to design an outcome. We're trying to know more about our team and put them in a competitive environment, which Will (Hardy) has done an outstanding job of doing, and I want to continue that. So if that means that we convey the pick this year, then we covey the pick this year; if we don't convey the pick, then we don't. But this 30-game period of growth for our players to see what we have to continue to learn more about our team is the most important."
On potentially losing buy-in from veteran players following the deadline deals
"I want to win just as much as they do. I don't think there's any question about that from Will, from Danny, from me — but I want to win for a long time. And so the definition of winning and success for me is a deep playoff run. And for us to get there, we need to have players that we can acquire that move the needle or continue to develop the players that we have here to see if they can be part of that.
"I've had those conversations with Lauri, I have them with JC (Jordan Clarkson), I have them with Collin (Sexton) — I know they want to win when you can see it every day with how they compete and with coach. I don't think anyone isn't bought in here about trying to win. When you talk about winning — making the play-in or making the playoffs — I'd love to do that this year, I think that should always be the goal. But at what cost?
"We didn't trade anybody of our core. We traded one starter … the other two were rotation players. We traded three starters last year, and that was to find the right mix of players and try to calibrate. This is the second kind of calibration around our core. And sometimes that takes time. I wish that was quick, and then all of a sudden we have a long and prosperous run right now. We'd do that in a second. It's just not available.
"I'm not going to compromise the long-term joy and success because we want to avoid short-term pain or short-term disappointment. ... The trade deadline is hard. It's hard on all of us. I'm human. It's not the funnest part of the job. but the job for for Danny and I is to act in the long-term interest of the Utah Jazz, which is to win an NBA title and open up a championship window where we can have a long deep playoff run."
On building around Lauri Markkanen
"Lauri's development was a great, great thing for this organization. ... He's a player that you can easily build around, because he's so easy to play with. He can play with many different combinations. I think that the revelation of him becoming a primary player and how competitive we can be with that allows us to continue to add players around him either by trade, free agency and (draft) selection.
"The picks that we acquired with Donovan and Rudy's trades allows us to have bets on other teams and their picks for the next five years. That allows us to continue to build. We don't have to do it one way like other teams have done and be terrible. I think our goal is how do we build a four-to-five-year actual championship window? All of us want to win; I want to win for a long time. I don't want to just have a one-off year — 'Hey, this was nice' — and then go back.
"The goal isn't to make a play-in or don't make the play-in, keep your pick, don't keep your pick — those aren't the goals. The goals are: let's see what we've got in the assets that we've invested in … so that we know where our team is. And where our team is it's a growing team that we need to add to, but we need to add in an appropriate place
"We need to be able to develop this so it's sustainable. And we have all the flexibility and assets to be able to do that. We just need the opportunity to present itself."
On extending Markkanen this summer
"We want to build a team around him and continue to do that, and so that makes sense; however, he's under contract this year and next year no matter what, but I think there should be opportunities to engage in that and really see what's best for him and what's best for us."
On the opportunity for the young players
"We also have an opportunity to see about Taylor Hendricks to see about Brice Sensabaugh, guys that we think have a chance to be a part of our long-term core both in terms of age and development as we continue to build the team.
"We do want to give them an opportunity now to have a chance to play in meaningful games, games the matter. I want them to go and try and win every game. That's great experience for them. And then the results be what they what they may.
"In the calculus of who is going to have a chance to be with us going forward three, four or five years from now, we need to know more about the assets that we've already acquired and players that we have with Taylor and Brice.
"How's Luka Samanic's development going? How's Johnny Juzang's development going as he's continued to improve in the G League? This is an opportunity for them to be in a competitive environment with tough games, with coach, with our program, and sort of in the next phase of our rebuild."
