We absolutely agree; it's embarrassing that the Utah Jazz gave up on the season at the NBA trade deadline

For the second straight season, despite having a good, young core that the team can build around and develop into a contender, the Utah Jazz opted to trade away key assets in favor of "letting the youngsters play". It was more accepted last season, as the team was a shocking success early but injuries brought them down to Earth. This year, not so much.

The Jazz were playing well over the last few months and could easily have made a few trades to make a real run at the playoffs. The West isn't so loaded that they couldn't force their way into the playoffs properly, and then, who knows what happens. The Miami Heat won the East last year as the 8th seed. A good team, with great chemistry can absolutely make up for a lack of top-end talent.

Just don't tell that to the Utah Jazz, however. GM Justin Zanik defended the decision to trade away key defensive players, Kelly Olynyk, Ochai Agbaji, and Simone Fontecchio, to the media last week (via Sports Illustrated) by saying;

"I want to win just as much as they [Jazz players] do. I don't think there's any question about that from Will, from Danny, from me — but I want to win for a long time. And so the definition of winning and success for me is a deep playoff run. And for us to get there, we need to have players that we can acquire that move the needle or continue to develop the players that we have here to see if they can be part of that.”

And Sports Illustrated took the Jazz to task for their moves, namely the Fontecchio trade, which netted them a highly coveted (sarcasm) second-round draft pick. They described the moves as "embarrassing" and you know what? We agree.

The Jazz didn't get much back from the trio, as they'll likely never use guys like Otto Porter for anything more than garbage minutes, and the draft picks will likely turn into bench guys more than likely. It's not like the Jazz set themselves up for great success with these trades. The picks aren't great and the talent coming back was just to match contracs.

So why, with an abundance of picks already, would you sacrifice the season for the likely scenario of finding an 18-minute-a-night role-player? It makes no sense unless the ultimate goal is to tank so hard that they re-acquire the draft pick that the Oklahoma City Thunder possess. Even then, why bother?

Look at how bad Taylor Hendricks has been this year, there is no guarantee that a Top 10 pick is going to turn into something worth ruining your team for. The Jazz needed to focus on building up and out, not tearing down key pieces of their team. It's maddening.