Watch Will Hardy on the league fining the Jazz $500K: “I sat Lauri because he was on a minutes restriction. If our medical team puts a minutes restriction on Lauri I’ll try to keep Lauri healthy”
“Our medical team determined that the most effective way to prevent injury is to not play basketball.”
Severe case of Tankitis
DNP - Allergic to basketball court
“Hardwood gives me hives 🥺”
⏸️
He’s up there looking like Pam Bondi…
The salary cap is at an all time high why isn’t anyone talking about that?
APOLOGIZE TO ADAM SILVER
YOU’RE NOT EVEN A REAL HOOPER!
if the jazz had legitimate reason to rest their players could the jazz file a grievance for the fines to be rescinded? not that i think there is any truth to this but could they?
Probably, but 10% goes to the church either way. Soaking tax.
Imagine how much root beer and soda a 10% tax could buy
Their owner is crashing out on Twitter apparently. He probably will
“crashing out” is a wild call lol
I mean, honestly counter and file a grievance? Can the NBA bring forth reputable evidence that Lauri was sat while being at full health vs the need for “minutes restriction” as put forth by the medical team. Also id tie the OKC beginning of season run into it somehow. It’s just as damaging to have SGA and rest of starters to sit for as many 4th quarters as they did if all were taking into account is viewership of games like the league is.
Way to get your case thrown out in 4 seconds by adding the part about OKC
Im a law student. That means fuckall here, I concede.
But.
It feels like the issue (legally) is intent, which is very difficult to prove. Like the league would have to show that:
There was no minutes restriction; AND
There was no medical guidance that even suggested it might be best for Lauri to play less minutes generally; AND
The Jazz played Lauri the amount they did exclusively to circumvent conduct that is prohibited.
Its just a LOT.
(Im not saying that this analysis is about how this dispute would play out, idk the league’s process. Im saying more normatively, proving something like this is a really high burden).
Why would the league need to prove intent? this isn’t a criminal case. I think of it more like traffic infringement, doesn’t matter if you did it on purpose, you ran a stop sign, you’re not getting away with it
Yeah I worded this sloppy. I tried to disclaim that the league’s process likely wouldnt require proving up these things.
It was a nerdy epistemic thought. IF the league wanted to prove the Jazz were intentionally breaking the rules, consider the depth what theyd need to demonstrate
If I still make no sense, my bad.
he really replied to a tweet of the fines with “agree to disagree” lmao i fucking hate billionaires
“Hey Bobby… maybe sit this one out. You have no clue what paying this is like and your amnesia this week is comical.”
A good ole kerfuffle ehh
Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey
He fixes the cable?
Gotta provide evidence if you’re filing a grievance. I don’t think the Jazz want to do that.
I mean the official statement specifies JJJ as one of the players they think we should have played and then he had season ending surgery to fix an injury two days after the games they mention. Plus one of the two games they singled out for sitting players with the game on the line we won.
did Nurkic get injured as well? man hit like 3 triple doubles and then got DNPs
Dunno why so few people mention this- he’s got a DNP for like 50% of their games since Jan 1st while he’s having the best season of his career
Played himself right out of the rotation
And risk him getting a fourth?! Not on Danny Ainge’s watch!
Didnt played tonight.
In the Hawks game recently, Onyeka Okongwu was out recovering from his Dental Surgery, The Hawks just traded KP and Jock Landale drove 5 hours to get to ATL to play the same night. Will Hardy said Nurkic wouldn’t start that game, he end up not playing and they lost.
They hit John Collins with the DNP - Too Good most of last year too
Jazz need to learn what ethical tanking is. Trade away all your good players and play gleague talent from day 1. Screw the fans and their hard earned money. 3 quarters of legitimate nba talent playing and pulling them in the 4th ruins the integrity of the league
Actually be a bad team. Yeah, thats how should draft work. Bad teams need to get higher picks not the ones not playing their good star players.
Yeah jazz and the pacers are legitimately good to great teams, teams like nets and kings are not
And siakam played at almost every game. Nembhard played at almost every game after missing 7 games at the start of the season.
Pacers arent healthy
The Pacers have had legitimate injury issues this season. They probably have done some amount of unethical tanking, but they aren’t benching their starters for entire 4th quarters in a game they are winning level tanking. I’m pretty sure in the recent Raptors game(where they lost Furphy for the season to an ACL tear) our broadcast mentioned they were in the top 3-5 for minutes lost to injuries before that one. And Siakam has played in the majority of their games.
Bro I’m not here to defend everything the Jazz have done but claiming that they’re a legitimately great team is ridiculous
Even if we played Lauri, JJJ, and Keyonte every game and we pretend Walker didn’t go down for the entire season, I think we’d be play-in level in the West.
Quit being hyperbolic
The problem is we’re not tanking to have a high pick, we’re tanking to have a pick.
While I don’t disagree with what you’re saying entirely. The NBA has a high salary floor now that needs to be met, that era is gone at this point and teams need to actually spend money on a roster otherwise they get penalized.
Vast majority of Jazz fans want to tank
It feels like most of them also say they aren’t
Pretty sure virtually every Jazz fan knows we’re tanking, the argument is why they’re being singled out
Because you just can’t have a league where teams are openly throwing games. We saw the league let the Raptors slide on this last year, and now Utah is taking it to a new level.
It’s an existential threat to the league. You can’t remove the illusion that games matter entirely and still expect people to care about the games
While I do agree with you it’s crazy that only the Jazz are being scrutinized to this level. Other teams have done the exact same with basically zero backlash. Like literally bring out the entire G-League to do jack shit but tank.
You already see plenty of teams throw games and get away with it. Or do you really believe Trae and AD are incapable of playing at all this year? Or when a team site 5 starters that those guys actually all need to rest the whole game?
You say that what Utah did removes the illusion that games matter, but both games Utah sat guys in the fourth were extremely competitive towards the end with Utah splitting them 1 and 1. Is it better to sit your starters for fake reasons and just lose by 20 each game? Does that make the games appear to matter more?
All it takes is one leaked text from an assistant coach to a gambler at the half that “we’re going to pull the starters in the fourth” and the league has the worst gambling scandal since Donaghy on their hands.
Nobody is saying the other forms of tanking are good, but the fig leaf actually does matter
That has nothing to do with what Utah did though. You are going to punish them because of the possibility of an inside source texting information?!? We’ve already got investigations going on regarding exactly that and they had nothing to do with sitting a guy in the 4th. That possibility exists for every single team in the league, tanking or not, so do you punish every team for having phones?!?!
Really living up to your username here
Utah are being unfairly singled out, at least they are playing Lauri 25 mins a night. It would be in their best interests to shut him down already.
It’s sort of funny that a team that plays their good players on a minute restriction get infinitely more scrutiny than those who trot out literal G League rosters and shut down anyone decent for half the season.
They aren’t normal restrictions lol. Play them less minutes throughout the game. Benching them for the 4th of a close game after not saying they had a minutes restriction is odd
Who are you referring to with that? The Wizards with Trae and AD? Or is there someone else who’s slipping my mind?
Who has been doing it more egregiously? The Pacers mass resting against the Nets was crazy and worse than anything Utah has done, but the Jazz have been doing it for a while already. I think the Wizards (Trae and AD aside) have done some unnecessary resting with guys like Kyshawn George or Coulibaly, but those names don’t have the kind of recognition of Lauri
For the third year in a row? Yeah that’s super cool
A minutes restriction for what injury though?
Injury: Playing too good.
He legitimately had an illness a few weeks back IIRC. Wasn’t disclosed what it was, but when he came back it looked like be has lost like ten pounds and he looked off.
Now IDK if that’s the reason and I don’t doubt they’re being very conservative with the rest recommendations, but it did seem like he was legit sick a few weeks back.
And with JJJ there is a legit injury, so hey.
A legit injury where every single person who saw that trade said JJJ would be shut down at the all star break is pretty convenient.
If you think that the Jazz doctors would make a fake diagnosis and risk their licenses and livelihoods, and if you think that JJJ, his agent, and his personal doctors would risk his health and livelihood by going through with an unnecessary surgery to help a team tank, you are legitimately ignorant af.
I don’t know about you, but I’m always down to voluntarily go under general anesthesia for the sake of tanking, absolutely no risk involved there /s
I don’t think the injury is fake, I think it is either much less serious than a season shutdown, probably something that he COULD play through and they’ve chosen not to for obvious reasons, or it’s come up in the medical from the trade, and the Jazz have said “great! Now we want him even more.” Or all of the above. Everyone knew they were looking for an excuse to shut him down, and they found one. I don’t know how you can watch the lengths your team has gone to in order to throw games, and still defend it.
I’m not pretending we’re not tanking. The team can’t say it out loud, but the fans have been saying it from the start.
As to the injury, your initial comment pretty strongly implied you thought it was made up.
And sure, it isn’t super urgent, and if we were going into the playoffs as a contender he’d absolutely play through that shit. But having the surgery now and not rushing him back to play meaningless end of season games makes more sense for everyone.
I feel like I missed the sudden freaking the fuck out about the Jazz tanking and I’m genuinely so confused why they’ve become the #1 scapegoat lmfao. Like seriously, why are people acting like this Jazz team invented tanking?
Because they owe a protected pick to OKC, Presti is spreading stuff, and Bobby Marks has made it his agenda to amplify it
That’s pretty outrageous coming from OKC lol considering they did this exact same thing
Oh snap, with the Clippers owing OKC their pick, could Presti be one of Pablo Torre’s inside sources on the Clippers illegal deals too?
With the Sixers owing OKC their pick, did Presti tip off the league about PG’s drug use? How deep does this go?
I mean if you think The Athletic hires credible sources maybe you would curb your sarcasm
I was playing up the absurdity of the situation but Michael Winger, whose comments Pablo Torre somehow got a hold of, is a Sam Presti protégé, I wasn’t being sarcastic.
It’s that internet fandom thing where will people will actively invent new reasons to be outraged at things.
Theres a difference between being an actually bad team and being a decent team sitting all your stars to lose on purpose.
3 years of egregiously tanking will do that to you.
Unethical tanking. Wizards tank but it’s everyone INCLUDING the coach that is trying to win.
Hardy isn’t trying to win.
Jazz team are better than every team is not in play-in today. They can be easily a play-in team if they try. Draft is there for worst teams to improve not the ones not playing their good star players.
Draft is there for worst teams to improve
Unless of course you’re the Mavs with 3 future hall of famers on your roster coming off a finals, the Sixers with Embiid, Maxey, and PG, the Spurs drafting 3 consecutive top 4 picks including a “generational talent”, or the Pacers who just went to game 7 of the finals last season.
But yeah, let’s all be outraged about the Jazz.
I will say Pacers losing two of their top 3 players and dealing with injuries gives them a fair separation from the 76ers/Mavs/Spurs.
I stand by what I said. You can make a fair argument that the Pacers poor record is a lot more natural with all the injuries to key players but that still doesn’t make them a bad team. They’re a good team with an injured roster. If the draft is truly there to serve bad teams which is what the person I’m replying to said, then I’m not sure a team coming off a competitive game 7 finals appearance with most of their core intact qualities.
For what it’s worth I think the Pacers fine is every bit as stupid, Zubac not playing and all. These are rational decisions both Jazz and Pacers are making in a system the NBA itself has endorsed when they gilded any other number of executives for the same strategy.
No, there is no team out there shamelessly tanking like jazz. Last season paul george missed half of the games, embiid played only 19 games. Wemby had a blood clout. They were not resting/conditioning or sitting the 4th quarter.
There is a lottery. The point of tanking increase your chances of getting a higher pick. Be an actual bad team if you are tanking, dont pretend like a bad team. You were at the last place last year and ended up with fifth pick, yeah there is like %50 chance thats happening. Dont act like a victim. Stop the bullshit
Somehow all the worst takes on this have come from Lakers flairs lol.
This is rich, coming from a Lakers fan
Lol, you guys cant even say what i said is wrong.
Jazz lost their starting center 3 weeks into the season and the all star they traded for has knee tumors. You’re seriously dying on the hill that Lauri Markkanen playing 35 instead of 25 minutes makes this team a playoff contender?
Stay in Lala land.
Jjj is not part of this argument. He just missed one game as a jazz player. Jazz were sitting their best players way before that. Markkanen missed 12 games this season with illness/conditioning/rest. Nurkic started perform at some point and even nurkic doesn’t play now. And they are sitting their best players at 4th quarters just for losing.
Jazz easily could win more games than dallas, memphis, chicago and bucks. They can be around 25-30 win team right now if they try to win.
[deleted]
It is definitely true. They could easily win 25 games if they try. Sure, being in the middle is worst. Trade away your good players for future assets and tank. Not playing your star players with bullshit excuses or sitting them at 4th quarter is not okay.
Yeah, some gets gifted wemby
Crazy how nobody wanted to claim Lauri or Keyonte were all-star caliber players this year before the all-star break but now that we’re past all-star voting they’re suddenly enough to lead a bad bench into the playoffs
All of it.
Gg ez
What the fuck you blabbering about
This sub has never cared about the Jazz more. It’s cute.
Just happy to be part of the conversation again
Ainge is out of control and has ruined Lauri’s career. The man should be lighting it up on League Pass.
The Jazz don’t have to be irrelevant anymore, this is just fishing for assets in a supposedly big draft.
shocker that people pay attention when things are happening
A Will Hardy press conference. Wow riveting. So many things.
lol my bad I’ll go back to never thinking about Utah
Putting his docs and staff in a bad position by lying.
If u think will hardy is doing this on his own accord, u r dumb. He is clearly being forced by the FO to tank.
Also absolute bullshit because a team trying to win would spread those minutes out so those players could play in the fourth quarter.
Your best players play the clutch minutes if youre trying to … win
Please walk me through the logic on this sentence.
If Hardy is telling the truth here, then he just opened the team up to a fine for not disclosing Markannen’s injury on the injury reports.
I mean what is he supposed to say? “Yeah my bad, the owner and GM told me to lose games on purpose”
Jason Kidd had the balls to tell us straight up. Yep. The call came from the top.
Right right that should be 500k more
I’d fine this Celtic $3m for lying through his fucking teeth
Tanking is only okay if the Spurs and Thunder do it. Okay.
ruining the integrity of the league is only ok if the clippers do it
The thunder where really bad when they had a bad record, it was shai and dort and the rest of the guys are out of the leauge. The jazz are not great but do have to sit star players to not win more games then they want to. The spurs last year did some tanking once wemby went down and should have been punished for it, but they had no shot to be in the playin once wemby went down, which I think if the Jazz tried to win every game they would be a playin team.
I remember the thunder sitting Shai when they were winning games, people just didn’t make a stink about it
Why don’t you root for your owner to improve the team rather than rooting to get away with cheating.
That’s what they’re doing
It’s always the Lakers flairs with the worst takes lol.
I feel bad for the legit fans man. Just keep on getting lumped in with the clueless bandwagon fans.
We’ll happily take Luka for a packet of chips.
If they actually had a min restriction on him and were trying to win you would play him less in the 1st half and save his mins for the 4th qt instead of the opposite. Like the spurs did with wemby.
Damn. This makes Silver look like a shitty commissioner for acting bossy by giving fines to my innocent Jazz
Innocent Jazz /s *
Utah, home of 5% ABV beer and innocent jazz.
Innocent Jazz sounds like a jazz subgenre they play in preschools or some shit. Or church idk. Like Starbucks background music but somehow even more bland.
This dude looks exhausted.
Doing all the tanking and his stock dropping to get that high pick and to be replaced soon after.
As a competitor it got to hurt. Financially still earn millions so…
It’s the Jazz vs the press and the commission. Let’s go, Jazz Nation. You can’t force a team to win games.
Half a million is a drop in the bucket for this organization, they’ll pay it with a grin and continue the tank. Slap on the wrist like this won’t stop a thing
Imagine the Jazz getting #1 pick so they can bench AJ Dybantsa behind JJJ-Lauri-Ace.
idk how Lauri is on a minutes restriction you’re paying the guy 250 million didn’t adam silver put in the 65 game rule to avoid this?
Last month he lost 15 pounds due to an extreme illness….
Not saying tanking wasn’t involved but it’s not coming out of nowhere in this and seems just as legitimate as struggling AD and Trae down for the year…
Soooooo the minutes restriction only popped up after he played 29, 33, 39 minutes in the 3 games after getting back from injury ? Now why wasn’t there a restriction then, Will ?
Rriigghhtt
Not a serious coach. He knows what he is doing and I dont blame him but dont come here and act innocent. The jazz has been tanking for a while now. John Collins got the same treatment last year.
Tf is he supposed to say?
I think as penance for tanking Utah should give us our hockey team back
Is this guy a good coach or just a convenient scapegoat right now? I mean is he still gonna be around in 2-3 years when this team potentially has some young talent?
Sure dude
Famously the best way to ease someone in is to play them heavy minutes for 3 quarters instead of smaller shifts for 4
Lauri’s minutes restriction always kicks in in the 4th quarter of close games that Jazz are at a risk of winning.
The old Tankus Abdominus minute restriction
Riiiiiiight
Soooooo save some minutes for the end of games. Any more brainbusters?
FREE LAURI
They were just so damn blatant about it. Weird that he’s only now mentioning Lauri’s minutes restriction AND why would you play him all of his minutes before the 4th quarter?
C’mon man. We all know they were trying to tank while also trying to get some of their guys some minutes together to figure things out. Maybe next time don’t be so obvious and nonchalant about it.
It’s also funny seeing some Jazz fans also trying to sell these things as legitimate.
Damn a 0 minute restriction?
Hopefully they won’t have to sell their team and let it be run by a league appointed fucking idiot, and the worst they deal with is being “singled out” for tanking lol
This guy saying it with a straight face is priceless 🤣
Follow-up should have been: Why did you hit the minutes restriction in the third quarter instead of spreading them out so he could play the fourth?
“We’re actually just lying on our injury reports” is one goofy defense
It’s not a minutes restriction it’s a wins restriction
They really turned the best offensive coach in the nba to the CFO at a manufacturing firm thats about to lay off an entire segment after the acquisition is completed. Legacy Ainge manipulation moment. You can see him committing psychological suicide and being hallowed every day.
uhuh, sure
Riiiiight
“It wasn’t me”
Why not rest him in the third then so he’s available to play crunch time?
What a bunch of bs lol
Oh so you have a corrupt medical staff?
Was it this guy who when asked how close he to playing his starters in the fifth said “not at all”? If so - nothing to complain about my man
Will Hardy is 100-192 as a head coach. So maybe he just sucks?
Lies. It’s so funny cuz u know jazz will def fire him once they become good again
Sacramento, Brooklyn, and Dallas got to be the only dogshit teams that are genuinely ass but are at least making an effort to win
What Utah, Indiana, and Washington is doing is plain disgusting tho…hope all 3 drop in the lottery for not playing their starters
This poor guy won’t even be around to reap the benefits of this disaster class of tanking.
Isn’t it also a problem if your players have undisclosed injuries that require minutes restrictions. You know, the other thing teams get fined for.
He had conditioning, resting and illness. Those 3 can be very risky to play high minutes with
Fuck off Will
Bro starting to piss me off. Really smarmy for a guy who has won absolutely nothing.
Save it Hardy!
He didn’t call a timeout when his team was losing a 17 point lead and I saw him benched a guy who put his team up 2 vs The Magic with a min to go, lol
I’ve seen Chris Finch do that no less than 50 times
Yeah no one is actually buying this, because it’s a lie. If a player has minutes restriction and he’s your best player or one of your better players, you don’t use those minutes by the 6 minute mark in the 3rd quarter.
Jazz deserve the fine and much more. While other teams are tanking, Jazz continue to do it in the most egregious ways and for multiple consecutive years.