I hope everybody read this. Terrific interview posted at
JazzFanatical and linked from the Mags/Romo/therawns
JazzNation blog.
I think it contains, if not immediately soothing balm, some clarification for why the season went down as it did, and even for Ty's player usage, which is a real sore point for some of us.
Lindsey: "...our books were
so clean and without mistake, for me to trick it up, and you know, acquire a very middling pick at best for the contracts associated, just to say, “Hey, Dennis can make a deal,” I think would’ve been, frankly, selfish."
I like that a lot.
Also, his response to this (GREAT) question: "
Our top five-man lineups weren’t good. Is that a sign of Corbin misusing talent, or Corbin adapting to matchups, or nothing?" was both discrete and honest. It WAS a matter of dealing with the fact of free agency, and hence, maybe to a greater extent that we have so far thought, of Corbin having to play the cards the FO dealt him. It would have been a decent hand had Marvin not been Marvin ("Where'd he go?") and Foye been better at any aspect of the game besides shooting 3s and Mo not been injured and Millsap not wanted 40+ minutes/game etc., etc...but that's what he got. Could've worked out better, didn't, and Corbin was stuck with it.
I don't know how he kept the team from blowing up*. If you were one of the younger guys (or DC, who is, we
seem to forget, only in his 3rd year), how hard would it have been to sit and watch other teams build up leads against our "starting 5" and then be asked to go in and bust ass to come back, over and over? Without
complaining? Without slipping up and saying something in an interview? Damn hard, I'd think.
I think the FO is aware the situation was more difficult than they could publicly admit and potentially much more volatile*, and this accounts for their loyalty to Ty. Simply, the FA situation, and the composition of the team was a much bigger factor than most of us, as fans, have allowed for.
There's a fine line between discretion and dishonesty, and I like the fact that Lindsey walks on the right side of it.
*-note his comment, in response to a later question: "But a lot of things
didn’t happen, that were positives…"