Special thanks to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News for allowing me to use his tweets to contribute to this article. All tweets are from @DJJazzyJody and are being used with his permission. Follow him for all up to the minute information regarding Trey Burke’s comments and other Jazz news!
The talk among Utah Jazz fans over the course of the season has been summed up pretty easily, if the Jazz win games, it hurts our chances in the lottery. As most know, the more losses you have on your record, the more ping pong balls you get going into the lottery. That means that the more ping pong balls a team has, the better chance at landing a top pick in the draft.
If you ask Jazz rookie point guard Trey Burke how he feels about the Jazz needing to lose more to better their chances in the lottery, you would find that he doesn’t like that question. In the following tweets from Jody Genessy, Utah Jazz beat writer for the Deseret News, you will see what Trey thinks about the whole situation.
Trey Burke was asked about how some fans are disappointed when the Jazz win games because it hurts lottery chances. His response follows...
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) March 24, 2014
TB "I think that’s just selfish for a fan. We play hard, practice hard every single day. Why would we want to go out there and try to lose?"
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) March 24, 2014
Burke: "Wherever we do land in the lottery, that will be great for us, but to try to tank games and lose games, I think, is just absurd."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) March 24, 2014
TB: "You want to win ... I’m sure if (fans) were in our shoes and experienced the losses we’re experiencing they would want to win as well."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) March 24, 2014
As much as I personally want to see the Jazz land a top three pick in the upcoming draft, I also hate to see the Jazz lose. I want to see them play as hard as they can every single night, and when you do that, good things tend to happen.
The experience that the young guys will gain by playing through this stretch of games will be huge later on into the next few seasons. I compare it to the first round series the Jazz had against the San Antonio Spurs a couple seasons ago. The Jazz were swept by the Spurs in the first round, but guys like Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, and Alec Burks all gained that playoff experience. Not only did it gain playoff experience, but guys like Favors and Burks have really started becoming better players because of the in game experiences they get from games like that.
We have talked about how the Jazz are basically one or two players away from being a really, really good team. One of those players could be found in this upcoming draft. More losses doesn’t always mean things are going to work out in your favor though. Think about when the Charlotte Bobcats had the worst season in NBA history a few seasons ago. They tanked the whole year and still didn’t get the number one pick.
There are no guarantees when it comes to tanking, but when you watch the Jazz, there is nothing that tells me that they are trying to lose games. A lot of nights they have looked sluggish, but a lot of that was in part to the other team just being better than the Jazz were. Marvin Williams already stated earlier in the season that this Jazz team was not trying to lose games. Now Trey has came out with a similar statement. I, for one, will continue to root for the Jazz to win games and when the lottery time comes, to let the chips fall where they may because I believe that Jazz management will figure out a way to get us back to a playoff caliber team, and hopefully more.
Take a second to watch Richard Jefferson’s comments at today’s shoot around, as he best describes the situation. Richard Jefferson Shoot Around.