The Utah Jazz are now 3-9 over their last 12. They've won one game since the NBA Trade Deadline. The team isn't even trying some nights and the overall product has cratered. Gee, who could've seen this coming. It boggles the mind that execs could be so short-sighted with how they make moves, not even taking into consideration how this could affect them and their status with the franchise going forward.
It makes everyone's job more difficult when you announce after 3/5 of the season is over, "Welp, we're done. Have fun." Especially when everyone can see how good you are, and how effective you could be down the stretch. This was a playoff team, even without additions. Yet, whatever hopes the squad had were torn asunder at the deadline.
While the players have to find a way to get up now for each game, knowing full well that Danny Ainge and company wasted one of their prime seasons, the man who may have the most difficult task is Will Hardy. For all intents and purposes, he didn't make this call. In fact, Utah Jazz play-by-play announcer Craig Bolerjack recently spoke to The Bill Riley Show on ESPN 700 in Salt Lake City and formally acknowledge the tough situation Hardy is in.
Bolerjack put over the idea that Hardy has to essentially restart now, training up new guys to learn his system, and going on to say (via Sports Illustrated);
"For Will, it's been difficult. He's a good coach. He handles it as well as anybody I can imagine. but to restart for two consecutive seasons is a difficult task."
He's not just trying to fix the squad and get them to play well, he's also doing all this while replacing Quinn Snyder, who was one of the franchise's best head coaches ever. Hardy's task is just getting harder and harder and we hope that Ainge can finally stop making it more difficult to succeed.