History repeats itself, this time in such a similar fashion that I am legitimately very concerned that I might be living in a sort of “Groundhog Day” repeating timeline that is inescapable. Am I cursed to see Royce O’Neale step up in elimination games against the Rockets for all time? Remember, “all time” is a SERIOUSLY long time. There’s something called apeirophobia, or the fear of infinity. That’s what I’m feeling right now. Last year, O’Neale had a pair of 17 point-games in Utah’s series against the Rockets. One, in game three, where he was their leading scorer. And another, in game five, the elimation game. Those performance were combined, in a way, in this game. He was the leading scorer for the Jazz, and it was an elimination game.
Let’s get down to (buck) business: there’s no way that O’Neale should be the leading scorer for a team in the playoffs. That’s not how you win games. Maybe you can steal a game that way in the regular season against the Suns or something, but against the Rockets in the playoffs? No way. Obviously, it’s a very good thing for him to score 18 points. What’s not a good thing is that all the other “better” players fail to show up. Was Donovan Mitchell even playing this game? Oh yeah, because I remember all those bricks and turnovers.
That might be the problem with how the Jazz are currently constructed. If Mitchell has an off night, there’s not really a secondary bucket-getter who can pick up the slack. Everyone else relies on the movement of the offense to get their shots, and the offense isn’t always working harmoniously. Especially when the defensive intensity ramps up and every action becomes slightly harder. The Jazz season is over now, so I can issue my OFFICIAL DTB VERDICT on what they should do this offseason to give themselves a better chance next year, and given the points laid out in this paragraph, it should be clear what I’m going to say.
OFFICIAL DTB VERDICT: The Jazz should sign Carmelo Anthony.