Danny Ainge Airs Jazz Dirty Laundry: "Didn't Believe In Each Other"

This offseason, Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge has led a complete tear-down of the team that's had a number of successful regular seasons, but playoff disappointments. Gone are stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, with more to come. Today, he held a news conference to explain why he saw fit to blow it all up.

And it says plenty about the guys that are no longer there.

"I wasn't sure how good the Jazz were going to be. I was curious & optimistic, but what I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn't believe in each other."

Danny Ainge on coming to Utah midseason & what he observed

(via @utahjazz)pic.twitter.com/BJ9Z4RW2I7
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) September 12, 2022

"I wasn't sure how good the Jazz were going to be," Ainge began. "I was curious & optimistic, but what I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn't believe in each other."

He tried to sugar-coat it a bit by not mentioning names, and saying that it was a bit overstated how much they did or didn't like each other, but, bottom line, the disappointing performances in the playoffs were what really triggered his assessment. And those thoughts about the players not believing in each other were pretty incriminating.

It's pretty striking how far out of his way Danny Ainge is going to *repeatedly* talk about last year's Jazz not having each other's backs/not supporting each other. He's using soft-ish language, but it's still some pretty damning stuff.
— Ben Dowsett (@Ben_Dowsett) September 12, 2022

And in the end, after many front office discussions, Ainge and Co. made a firm decision about blowing it all up. "It was unanimous this was the direction we needed to go."

Patrick Beverley, obtained in the Gobert trade with Minnesota, has already been moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers. Several other Jazz players are next up on the block.