Patrick Kinahan: Repeated Jazz late collapses may force significant changes

SALT LAKE CITY — The more the Utah Jazz struggle, repeatedly squandering big leads late in games, the easier they make it for team management.

Continuing to plummet down the Western Conference standings, with only a handful of games remaining, the Jazz do not appear poised for a long playoff run. More postseason disappointment, coming on the heels of last season's second-round exit, almost certainly is a forerunner to a major roster shake up.

The Jazz have been a frustrating tease over the last several weeks, good enough to build double-digit leads in many games only to wilt on the way to suffering demoralizing losses. The latest collapse was perhaps the most stunning, as the Golden State Warriors overcame a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to hand the Jazz their sixth loss in the last seven games.

Overall, the Jazz have blown double-digit leads in 15 of their 32 losses this season. One year removed from posting the NBA's best record in the regular season, the team needs to hold off the Minnesota Timberwolves to avoid finishing in seventh place.

None of it makes any sense, not from a team with this much talent that has two perennial all-stars (Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert) earning a combined $63 million and two others (Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic) making almost a total of $40 million. For considerable stretches, the Jazz are strong enough to contend for a championship only to fall completely apart late in games.

"We'll figure it out," said Mitchell, echoing a phrase he repeated multiple times during his postgame availability after the Warriors loss.

Overwhelming evidence aside, his assessment is possible. After all, miracles happen.

Credit Mitchell for keeping the faith, expressing his frustration publicly at the same time refusing to adopt a doomsday attitude. Trouble is, at this point, seeing is believing.

And no way management, led by Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik, can like what is sees. The two executives probably don't even believe what they see.

An early summer likely would put the entire team on notice, including coach Quin Snyder and his staff. Far from solely the coach's fault, the Jazz have not advanced beyond the second round in any of Snyder's prior seven seasons as coach.

Snyder has done a marvelous job in rebuilding the Jazz into an annual playoff team, but over the last two seasons his teams have blown a 3-1 and 2-0 series leads, respectively. Ownership and front-office leadership also have changed during his tenure, which could lead to a mutual separation in the offseason.

Any major personnel move likely would involve either Mitchell or Gobert. Other moves around the periphery probably would not bring back enough to change the team's direction.

Speculation may center around Gobert's future with the Jazz, especially considering management has gone to great lengths to satisfy Mitchell. As the losses have piled up, Gobert has come under fire for his postgame comments that for some have appeared to criticize his teammates.

For his part, Gobert maintains he only speaks the truth regarding the team's failures. Hard to argue with him given the recent results, ruffled personal feelings aside.

"It's always about winning," he said. "It's always about us trying to play the best basketball we can play. Those things, I've been saying them in the locker room, too. It's not like we say some things here that we don't say to each other. We all know the things that we can do better."

Amen, brother. Who cares if he breaks some long-held code that demands everybody play nice in the media and avoid the obvious? As a collective, to date this team has underachieved and needs to be held accountable.

Time is running out.

"It we sit here and feel sorry for ourselves we'll be home," Mitchell said. "We'll figure it out."

Tick tock.

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