We should have taken Austin Ainge more literally

Good morning. The new Jazz GM said the team wasn't doing "tanking" any more. Correct! Let's basketball.

The biggest clue as to the Utah Jazz's near-term plans was revealed in a small comment from Austin Ainge upon the occasion of his hiring earlier this summer. When asked about continued tanking in Utah, Ainge said "we're not doing that any more." Some of us questioned whether that meant that the Jazz, burned by the Lottery Gods multiple times, would try to build a competitive roster going forward.

Since those comments, the Jazz have traded Collin Sexton for Jusuf Nurkic, bought out Jordan Clarkson and now traded John Collins for Kevin Love (who will be bought out) and Kyle Anderson. Three of the key "veterans" blocking the path of younger players and potentially contributing to a higher floor for the team when everyone dresses, gone in about a week.

Anderson remains quite useful and affordable, so we'll see how quickly the Ainges find a new home for him. If he stays, it's plausible that he could be on light bench duty due to the vagaries of his game. Nurkic could either stick around and be subjugated to an uncontroversial bench role, or get moved. (If the Nuggets let Jonas Valanciunas decamp to Greece, perhaps Denver can bring Nurkic back to support Nikola Jokic as the Basketball Gods once intended?)

This is all to say that Austin Ainge said the Jazz aren't tanking any more, and there are two ways to read that – the team will compete or the team is going to be so bad as to no longer need to "tank" to secure a high lottery pick – and some of us, myself included, missed that second, far more literal meaning. The Jazz should no longer need to tank, because they are increasingly all in on the kids.

Sexton was third on the team in total minutes last year; Collins and Clarkson each missed more than half the season, but were third and sixth in minutes per game respectively when they did suit up. Clarkson had a down year, but the Jazz were significantly better – still mediocre, but better – when Sexton and Collins were on the floor. Taking them out without heavy-minutes replacements means more playing time for players who are objectively not as productive, which is awesome if you're trying to lose games without making up phantom ailments for your veterans, which is what it appears Ainge meant by "tanking" and what the Jazz got in trouble for doing last season.

The Jazz aren't going to tank. They are merely going to suck more naturally.

There's one 7-foot Finnish fly in this ointment, though.