FanPost

Jax conundrum

By now, everyone knows that Steven Jackson was waived by the Spurs after 78 games of regular season. Jackson had a horrible season, but he was expected to contribute again in the playoffs. He was the only legit back-up SF on the Spurs roster. Now, what does this move mean for us. Here I consider different possibilities. I don't want to blame anyone, whatever happened happened. I just want to analyze possible impact this move makes on our playoffs hopes and expectations. Of course, we don't really know why the Spurs did it, and what is the story behind the official story. But we can speculate about various possibilities.

Scenario 1. The Spurs found some diamond-in-the-rough SF, and they would like to run dice with him.

This is the best case scenario. It would mean that PATFO wants to improve before the playoffs, and the only way they could do it was to waive someone, so they waived Captain Jack. If this is true, we should hear very soon about someone signed. The problem about this story is that there is so far no evidence that it is true. It would be nice, but it seems highly unlikely.

Scenario 2. This is a classic case of an "addition-by-subtraction".

Evidently, if this scenario is true, Jax's behavior got so distractive for the team preparing for the playoffs, that PATFO needed to let him go. We all know that Jax have collected a lot of baggage during his career, so this scenario is far from being unthinkable. The problem with this scenario is that no evidence from the players seems to confirm the story. If you believe the players, Jax has been a good teammate, and decision to let him go was a surprise to the players. Pop claimed however that the decision was made in the interests of the team. It is very hard to see however how it makes any sense, if other players didn't have a problem with Jax. It seems, his only problem was with Pop, and Pop evidently decided that he doesn't have time, energy or ability to deal with Jax without being too distracted. It sounds in the end that Pop let Jax go to make his job easier. I don't know if you can call it "interests of the team", but I can easily see how it was in the interests of Pop.

Scenario 3. PATFO is panicking.

Jackson was waived at the same time when Diaw got surgery and Manu is weeks from coming back. This timing is rather peculiar if you think about it. It was like the worst possible moment to let Capt. go, and this is exactly the moment they chose. The worst case scenario I see is that PATFO understands that they have no chance in the playoffs, and basically just throwing the towel. It would assume a collapse of the team beyond our worse predictions, but we cannot exclude it, because we don't really know what's going on and the timing of the decision is so terrible that it suggests something terrible is hidden behind it.

Scenario 4. Force major.

Speaking about terrible, there might be some non-basketball reason why the Spurs decided to severe their ties with Jax. May be they found that Jax killed someone and was eating the corpse for last three years piece by piece, or may be he is running a large human trafficking operation or may be he didn't pay any Federal taxes in last 10 years. Whatever it is, it must be something really horrible, so that non-basketball reasons dictate the decision.

So, what is it? Does PATFO plan a brilliant move? Have they grown too tired of dealing with Jax? Are they panicking? Are there non-basketball reasons to let Jax go? I am as puzzled as the next guy. Let me hear your opinion.

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