Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — "Culture" has been a buzzword surrounding the Utah Jazz for the better part of two seasons now.
The conversation around the word got a revival Wednesday night with Victor Wembanyama's latest visit to the Delta Center. The French phenom racked up 19 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and five blocks, as the Spurs held on for a 118-111 victory.
The Jazz, meanwhile, racked up their seventh consecutive defeat. And Utah now boasts the NBA's worst record since the trade deadline at 3-18 — and was officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss.
For the second consecutive season, Utah has belatedly embraced the tank. And so, for the second consecutive season, Utah should have another top-10 draft pick.
Soooooo … Taylor Hendricks and the 2024 version of someone Taylor Hendricks-adjacent? OK, or Keyonte George and someone Keyonte George-adjacent?
Does that move the needle on the team's quest to become championship-competitive?
Wemby, of course, represents the path not taken. But was that on account of odd circumstances, or was it because of "culture?"
In the 2022-23 season, the Jazz got off to an improbable 10-3 start, only for the front office to pull the plug midseason with a massive trade that decimated both the overall talent level and locker room morale.
There was some speculation the team bolting out of the gate caught the front-office brass by surprise, that they anticipated a group of newcomers playing for a young first-time head coach would inherently struggle. And when that didn't happen, the decision-makers had to take drastic action to maximize draft positioning.
Whatever the rationale, the late-arriving tank job wound up feeling like a half-measure. It's the same with this season, when the Jazz actually did get off to a bad start but then started finding their way, only for Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik to ship out some key rotation pieces midseason, thus facilitating another late-season collapse.
Why so wishy-washy?
There have been whisperings that Ainge and Zanik are under orders from team owner Ryan Smith to not allow the team to fully bottom out, to not allow the team to be in a position to become a league-wide punchline (this current stretch notwithstanding).
Why? "Culture."
The alleged rationale is that none of Smith nor Ainge nor Zanik wants losing to become commonplace or expected or acceptable. That they don't want negative vibes to permeate the locker room and take root.
Admirable goals.
But were they pointless worries?
The reward for San Antonio's blatant badness is a 7-foot-3 franchise centerpiece who, while not consistently dominant yet, is already excellent and has the tools to potentially be epic. Sure, the three teams with the league's worst records last season had only a 14% chance apiece to land the No. 1 overall pick, but hasn't what he's shown thus far proven the risk was worth it?
Yes, the Spurs remain a bad team this season. But that's on account of the overall talent surrounding Wembanyama being substandard, not because Gregg Popovich allowed some horrific, irreversible, gangrenous rot to take hold.
Does anyone look at the Spurs now and believe them to be unsalvageable?
Didn't think so.
No, San Antonio hasn't become an instant championship contender. And yes, they have a lot of work still to do.
Wemby is a tremendous building block, though.
The Jazz went another way. We'll see if their way ultimately works out.
But on Wednesday night at least, it was hard to watch what Wembanyama did, and to come away feeling like sacrificing a chance at him in the name of "culture" was the best way to go.
