And in the case of the 2022 Jazz, a wide-open three can mean either a gutsy, season-saving win or an offseason filled with difficult questions.
The Jazz’s season ended Thursday, as Bojan Bogdanovic’s clanked three as time expired in Game 6 allowed the Mavericks to clinch their first-round series.
In this era of an insatiable appetite for player movement, it can sometimes feel as if people are trying to will trades into existence before letting events occur as they should.
Can people really be sure the best path forward is to break up the band? Or is it too much fun playing with the trade machine and Photoshopping Mitchell into various jerseys? I don’t mean to be flippant.
Only two years ago, the Suns were a team more likely to be the butt of a joke than title contender.
And while guys like Booker or Stephen Curry may not be in the DPOY conversation, they have worked hard enough on that end of the floor to not crater their teams at the end of games.
The Phoenix center was a controversial pick until he fine-tuned all the little parts of his offensive game to become someone who can take advantage of teams in the postseason.
Does that make him a little more movable? Could Jordan Clarkson—who, to be fair, brought it in Round 1—possibly be moved for a defense-first wing? Bogdanovic, who has been an instrumental part of this team’s success, is also on an expiring deal and could be a legitimate chip to bring back an impact player.
Maybe the hardest thing for a team to do is to go from very good to great.
While his flaws were exposed against Dallas, he’s a 25-year-old who—while having room to improve—is a perennial All-NBA candidate who helped keep the team afloat after the departure of Gordon Hayward.
Does Utah really want to go down a route like the Thunder? Is it that much better to collect lottery tickets and throw years of competing away when you already have two accomplished players on the team? That plan is based entirely on luck.
All I know is if Bojan Bogdanovic hit that wide-open three—a shot he hit 40.7% of the time during the regular season—the conversation following Game 6 would have been how Utah bounced back from a crushing defeat and showed incredible resolve in forcing a Game 7.
