Because people like lists, I'll do this argument bullet point style.

1. Enes Kanter has never had a positive VORP. What does this mean? It means that he is not more valuable than the average NBA player at his position. So replacing him with Gobert as the starter/Booker off the bench is not a step backwards. Lindsey (and every other NBA team) didn't overvalue Kanter, like we all did. Myself included. I thought Kanter would take a big step forward this year. Instead he basically played like he did last year. The advanced stats say that Kanter really hasn't improved since his rookie season. So what if he's 22? We've waited four years for him to take the step from being an average NBA player, to being at least above average. Drafting Kanter at #3 wasn't bad, because we picked up a guy who was NBA ready from the start. The failure is that the NBA ready guy never really took a step forward.

2. Steve Novak's salary dump was brilliant. Enough said.

3. It's clear that the rebuild is going to need some help outside of the core players we drafted. We can be serious players in free agency now. What? Players coming to Utah? They will if we seriously overpay (See Boozer, Carlos, Okur, Memo), and we can do that now, without limiting our ability to retain young players (See OMSW).

4. Gobert.

5. Getting a coach that would start Gobert.

6. All the draft picks. We can use them to move up in drafts (See Burke, Trey), or trade for other players, or whatever we want.

7. Maintaining flexibility while growing a team. Look at Phil Jackson/Billy King in New York/Brooklyn. The men ignored flexibility and now they're stuck with teams pieced together worse than the car Homer Simpson designed for Powell Motors. Lindsey has managed to maintain flexibility, while having a nicely fitted team start to emerge. Losing Kanter helped both goals.

8. So calm down y'all. Kanter wasn't improving, and there is no sign he ever would. We had guys improving behind him. Kanter was going to get a deal that vastly overpaid him for what he brings to the table. So the idea of match and trade is flat out stupid. (We couldn't trade after matching because high salaries make an average player un-tradeable). However, we can go after a top shelf free agent this off season now, and the current team has not been weakened at all. And please don't say that BS about Utah never getting free agents. It's not true, it's unfounded, and thinking that way doesn't help.

In conclusion, whatever Lindsey is smoking is working.