Speaker 1: Part of gold just doesn't feel like the right song
Speaker 1: for our next guest.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna laugh.
Speaker 3: Andy's got a hard of gold.
Speaker 2: Do you think Andy has a heart of gold? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Andy Larson, Salt Lake Tribune, Andy accurate statement, heart of gold?
Speaker 2: Would you concur I come on.
Speaker 4: The show every week the kind out of the kindness
Speaker 4: of my heart, even helping you out tomorrow, and I
Speaker 4: get this from you.
Speaker 2: That's fair?
Speaker 1: Now, that's fair, Irish sin Andy, you have a heart
Speaker 1: of gold. The guilt trip worked? My friend Happy Thursday?
Speaker 1: How you doing?
Speaker 4: I was good before then, I'm but yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 4: How about you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Come on?
Speaker 1: You know that I'm teasing you. It's a little good
Speaker 1: fun banter back and forth. Uh do you want to
Speaker 1: start with your anger at the lack of additions made
Speaker 1: by our local soccer club?
Speaker 4: You know what's sure? Why not?
Speaker 5: Look you can't it's just a It's terrible what.
Speaker 4: You've done to the fan base, to Diego Loon, to
Speaker 4: Mecca and Nelly, to the other good players on this roster,
Speaker 4: to only have one designated player on it. I mean
Speaker 4: you learned about Chico Arongo's misdiscretions ten months ago. Now
Speaker 4: you sold Gomez for eleven million dollars eight months ago,
Speaker 4: now to only sign.
Speaker 5: Willie Gotta, who I like as an addition actually, but
Speaker 5: for five hundred thousand dollars, not a designated player. Oh
Speaker 5: and by the way, you're actually only designated player on
Speaker 5: the roster. Isn't actually even very good at the MLS level.
Speaker 4: In the year that you've made the Concacash Champions League
Speaker 4: for the first time in a decade. Is dis horrible.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's horrible. I think David Blitter should
Speaker 4: be a villain in local fans' mind. I'm disappointed in
Speaker 4: the Miller group for getting nothing done. I'm disappointed in
Speaker 4: the Miller group for not trying to get more done
Speaker 4: over the last month and months plus since it's been
Speaker 4: clear that they're going to buy the team. And yeah,
Speaker 4: just you know, I just feel really bad for the
Speaker 4: Diego Lunas and the Meccanelli's and the other players, you know,
Speaker 4: even Pablo masseronnies of the world, because they have not
Speaker 4: been supported with adequate talent on this roster to really compete.
Speaker 1: Williegata known around here as Willy Goles. He's the addition,
Speaker 1: don't know, much about him, But what does that do
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 4: Honestly? Like, you know, for a cheap signing, I think
Speaker 4: it is a really good cheap signing. I guess, you know,
Speaker 4: a trade but whatever, you know, five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 4: a game plus maybe three hundred and fifty thousand next year.
Speaker 4: If he sticks a round and has always had really
Speaker 4: good like kind of underlying numbers right where, gets himself
Speaker 4: in really good positions and as a result has a
Speaker 4: lot of straws and chances on goal, has been kind
Speaker 4: of up and down at finishing them, and you know,
Speaker 4: which is what ends up happening. Answer if you look
Speaker 4: at kind of stock Aroundalytic's OK in the long term,
Speaker 4: is that those kind of even out. So it's a
Speaker 4: player is kind of bad at finishing you're on his career.
Speaker 4: You may see that as a sign of potential because
Speaker 4: they usually do figure that out and start to finish
Speaker 4: at kind of the league average or above rate, or
Speaker 4: you know, kind of try to find some consistency. And
Speaker 4: so you know, I think given that, I think Williagotta
Speaker 4: is a significant upgrade over every striker that RSL has
Speaker 4: right now and be a nice addition for the team
Speaker 4: that you know will make them better. It's just not
Speaker 4: you know, he's not one of the fifteen best strikers
Speaker 4: in MLS right now. So as a result, you know,
Speaker 4: you just don't have the kind of attacking talent that
Speaker 4: the actual teams of the top two, including some small
Speaker 4: market franchises by the way, like Columbus and Cincinnati and Nashville,
Speaker 4: and you know, teams that are the same size as
Speaker 4: Salt Lake as a market, are going after significantly better
Speaker 4: players than RSL is right now.
Speaker 2: They're able to get Johnny Russell across the line. What
Speaker 2: does that do for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's thirty five and was kind of washed for
Speaker 4: a really bad Kansas City team. He might be better
Speaker 4: than time Wolf though, So hey, you know, I you know,
Speaker 4: I don't hate it. It gives you another depth option,
Speaker 4: but and this team really does lack depth right now.
Speaker 4: But it's it doesn't change the upside of the team
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like one more thing here, because I
Speaker 1: talked to Ck about this yesterday, does it feel like
Speaker 1: this is now potentially a lost season for RSL?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean, look, the summer transfer window is with eight
Speaker 4: games left in the season, so you can miss the
Speaker 4: playoffs based on what happens over the next you know,
Speaker 4: the first twenty five games of the year. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean it, there's absolutely that potential. And you look
Speaker 4: at what's happened in the last few games, and you
Speaker 4: know what happened last week in losing that game, you know,
Speaker 4: I know it's it was bad red card, and you know,
Speaker 4: I am very angry at the referee. But like in
Speaker 4: the end, just rfl lack of attacking quality showed again
Speaker 4: and as it has time and time again early on
Speaker 4: in the season. It's just such a waste of opportunity
Speaker 4: for this team to be cheaped out on as much
Speaker 4: as they have been over the last ten months.
Speaker 2: Is it I actually wanted to ask you one thing.
Speaker 1: Is there any sort of space to allow a little
Speaker 1: bit of I guess I'll say, grace. It sounds really
Speaker 1: cheesy as a result to what happened with the Bosanique deal,
Speaker 1: because apparently Robert Bosanik from Boa Vista was done and
Speaker 1: then I didn't know any of this, but boa Vista
Speaker 1: sounds like doing business with your second cousin. It probably
Speaker 1: is not up to business acumen as far as the
Speaker 1: way that they operate. I don't know much about this,
Speaker 1: but he was set to be the second DP and
Speaker 1: then apparently this Portuguese club caused issues.
Speaker 2: What's your take on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, first of all, I mean I did not love
Speaker 4: that as a DP Senning just because his record in
Speaker 4: Portsbowl this year has not been very good, right Like,
Speaker 4: he scored four goals in twenty nine games. That's not great.
Speaker 4: It certainly did have a better season the season prior though,
Speaker 4: and of course aren't no perfect players, but look, it
Speaker 4: sounds like the reason that it didn't go to you know,
Speaker 4: because Boavis to ask for more and kept kind of
Speaker 4: changing the terms of the negotiation. And I totally get that.
Speaker 4: So a, you know, do something before the season so
Speaker 4: that you don't have to wait ten games into the year.
Speaker 4: The second, most importantly, it was still going to be
Speaker 4: a relatively cheap DP, right like, this was going to
Speaker 4: be a designated player that RSL could buy down with
Speaker 4: TAM and open up a DP spot for somebody else
Speaker 4: later on down the road. Well, I think that's like
Speaker 4: the right thing to do. It ultimately, is not the
Speaker 4: designated player of the of the quality of a Chicho
Speaker 4: Aroango or carlosandrascom As kind of a like for like replacement.
Speaker 4: You're talking about a tammable DP that you know, again
Speaker 4: you can buy down. It's just not the same level
Speaker 4: of player that RSL sold in the last ten months.
Speaker 4: So yes, that would have been you know, look, I
Speaker 4: understand and you're were negotiating with a weird club it
Speaker 4: doesn't pay money, and was desperate and was uh yeah,
Speaker 4: you know it was problematic. I get it. There are
Speaker 4: just it's even in ambition, it just wasn't up to
Speaker 4: par with what you lost earlier on in the year.
Speaker 2: All of that is fair and I share in your disappointments.
Speaker 1: And now I guess we'll see what Pablo can do
Speaker 1: with the cast of characters that he has.
Speaker 2: It is disposal.
Speaker 1: But let's move on now and do a little NBA
Speaker 1: so Andy, after it was pretty clear that Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: was the class of the West, I would ask you
Speaker 1: and my other NBA guests, who are the other teams
Speaker 1: that we should be paying attention to? Who keeps smart dagnal?
Speaker 1: The up at night is does anybody have a chance?
Speaker 1: I mean, did we overthink this is Oklahoma City just
Speaker 1: that good?
Speaker 4: I think some people did overthink that, Like I certainly
Speaker 4: saw them as the Western Conference favorites. And when you
Speaker 4: win a conference by that many games and show, you know,
Speaker 4: have the best point differential of any team in the
Speaker 4: last few years, like, yeah, I think you have to
Speaker 4: be considered the favorites. And I think they are considered
Speaker 4: the favorites and have shown it's certainly in the first
Speaker 4: two games that they're just capable of blowing out teams.
Speaker 4: I don't think like it's a done deal yet, you know,
Speaker 4: I think that it's totally possible that like a Lakers
Speaker 4: give them problems Denver even Minnesota, like, but I do
Speaker 4: think that ultimately, like this is, you know, the thunder
Speaker 4: should be considered the favorites, and rightfully so it's kind
Speaker 4: of funny, like I understand why the NBA is putting
Speaker 4: them on national TV tonight and putting the Nuggets and
Speaker 4: Clippers on NBA TV. You know, you want to market
Speaker 4: the team that's going to be in the finals down
Speaker 4: the road, so you get great finals ratings. But I
Speaker 4: totally expect them to beat the Grizzlies by you know,
Speaker 4: double digits tonight and it should be a really, really
Speaker 4: great game. I'll get the Clippers one. Why, I you know,
Speaker 4: probably rather watch instead.
Speaker 1: Weird jazz related question to this, I mean, and look,
Speaker 1: Sam Pressy might be the best of what he does
Speaker 1: in the world, and maybe he's been the best of
Speaker 1: what he does for quite some time. But you know,
Speaker 1: oftentimes you'll hear jazz fans, as you know, talk about, oh, well,
Speaker 1: the Lakers got Luca, they're gonna be great again, the
Speaker 1: Celtics or this the heat or that or whatever. Is
Speaker 1: there any sort of positive spin that we can put
Speaker 1: on the fact that Sam Presty has built a juggernaut
Speaker 1: in a city like Oklahoma City juxtaposed to what the
Speaker 1: Jazz are trying to do in a city like Salt Lake.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, I mean, I think it's clear that the draft
Speaker 4: is a really incredibly viable way to build teams, right, Like,
Speaker 4: I don't think you need a free agent superstar. I
Speaker 4: don't think you need to like win. I obviously they
Speaker 4: got say in a trade, but I think you've got
Speaker 4: him earlier enough in his career that it was just
Speaker 4: kind of a flyer on a on a rookie with potential.
Speaker 4: So yeah, look, I think it's totally possible. And you
Speaker 4: look at Denver winning the title and kind of look
Speaker 4: at it in the same way and what Cleveland's done
Speaker 4: up there right, like small markets to a reasonable degree,
Speaker 4: are are the best teams in the NBA this season.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, I think you can have total optimism that,
Speaker 4: like you know that the Jazz's past could work. I
Speaker 4: don't think that there is a ceiling on the Jazz's
Speaker 4: path at all.
Speaker 1: Outline a blueprint for the Jazz to follow over the
Speaker 1: next whatever timeframe you want to before you believe that
Speaker 1: they can be competing. Because here's the thing, man, Like
Speaker 1: I'm watching these games, and obviously, for what you and
Speaker 1: I do for a living, I always try to bring
Speaker 1: it back to some sort of local prism. And the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is this is not breaking news
Speaker 1: when it comes to any of these top teams in
Speaker 1: the West. The Jazz are a marathon away, a marathon away,
Speaker 1: and they're not one Cooper flag away.
Speaker 2: They're not one or two pieces away.
Speaker 1: What does the path back to legitimate consistent competitiveness in
Speaker 1: the West look like from the Andy Larson viewpoint for
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean they are eight out of ten players away,
Speaker 4: They are four out of five of a starting lineup away.
Speaker 4: They are as far away as it can be. Obviously,
Speaker 4: they are the worst team in the NBA. I think
Speaker 4: ultimately you look at the path and it's, you know,
Speaker 4: you hope for good luck and getting a star in
Speaker 4: this year's lot, and I think the best chances of
Speaker 4: that are are Cooper Flag and Dylan Harper. And then
Speaker 4: if if that does work out, then you probably still
Speaker 4: need even a second star in next year's draft, and
Speaker 4: that's an aj De Bonsa, Darren Peterson at cam Boozer
Speaker 4: or someone like that. I mean, you're looking at you
Speaker 4: need multiple all stars to be the best team in
Speaker 4: the league, right, like to actually win an NBA title,
Speaker 4: And and you know, certainly the Jazz had that five
Speaker 4: years ago. We're the number one team, didn't make it
Speaker 4: through the playoffs due to various weaknesses and injuries and
Speaker 4: blah blah blah. But nevertheless, like you just need that
Speaker 4: top level talent and then you need the role players
Speaker 4: around them. And I you know, while I think it's
Speaker 4: possible to be optimistic on the Jazz is youth turning
Speaker 4: out to be good roles, I think it's very hard
Speaker 4: to believe that they become kind of the star level
Speaker 4: players that actually drive the drive the boat a little bit.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean you're you're talking multiple drafts, and
Speaker 4: then you're also talking time for those guys to develop,
Speaker 4: kind of wreck ignizing that like, hey, you know, say
Speaker 4: Gildeth Alexander wasn't an MVP level candidate on day one,
Speaker 4: you know, and neither it is Cooper flag to be.
Speaker 4: It took him three, four or five years. It's going
Speaker 4: to tick Cooper that amount of time. It's probably gonna
Speaker 4: take a to the bouncer whoever that amount of time.
Speaker 4: So really you're looking at a window you hope three four, five,
Speaker 4: six years down the road.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hone in on Well, we'll just stick
Speaker 1: with the top two and let's just be hopeful and
Speaker 1: optimistic and positive that the Jazz don't fall further than two. Now,
Speaker 1: the Pistons, who are back in the postseason and an
Speaker 1: interesting case study, but they have Kate, and Kate is
Speaker 1: really really special. They were the worst team in the
Speaker 1: league last year. They had the best chance in the
Speaker 1: number one pick and they fell to five. Now that's
Speaker 1: the Jazz floor. They can't fall past five. Here's what
Speaker 1: I'll ask you for Jazz fans that are really curious
Speaker 1: is there one comp for Cooper that you like more
Speaker 1: than the rest, Like, if it is Cooper Flagg, what
Speaker 1: sort of players should Jazz fans expect.
Speaker 6: I don't hate the Kawhi comp kind of a like
Speaker 6: poor man's peak Kawhi if you will, where like, I
Speaker 6: don't expect him to be that difference making on offense
Speaker 6: or defense, But I kind of expect him to be.
Speaker 4: Such a good all around player that you know, he's
Speaker 4: a no doubt or star, no doubt or all star
Speaker 4: every year, you know, kind of maybe in like the
Speaker 4: Paul George realm of impact. You know, just can do
Speaker 4: everything right. Like he's at six eight, He's does defend
Speaker 4: really well, He's both on ball and help. He can shoot,
Speaker 4: he can He's kind of developed a pretty impressive mid
Speaker 4: range game, got better getting all the way to the
Speaker 4: rim this year, got better getting fal this year, and
Speaker 4: then was one of the youngest players in college basketball
Speaker 4: this year as well, and may have been its best
Speaker 4: player at eighteen years of age. So look, I think
Speaker 4: he is absolutely the real deal. I think you can
Speaker 4: maybe question, like, hey, you know, does he have number one,
Speaker 4: number two best player in the in the NBA kind
Speaker 4: of potential, But heck, I wouldn't have thought that about
Speaker 4: Shake Gildess, Alexander or Nikola Yochis certainly when they were
Speaker 4: drafted either. And I do think you have to look
Speaker 4: at Cooper's rate of development in his career and kind
Speaker 4: of his work ethic and whateveryone says about him as
Speaker 4: real plus is like this kid could be really, really great.
Speaker 4: I think kind of no doubter is as a franchise
Speaker 4: piece at franchise superstar. You know, kind of moving forward
Speaker 4: could absolutely make all the difference.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to Dylan Dylan Harper, who
Speaker 1: at the start of the year it was kind of
Speaker 1: a conversation, well, it was a conversation about whether or
Speaker 1: not this draft was the Cooper Flag draft, and it
Speaker 1: clearly is. And now it feels like Dylan has moved
Speaker 1: into the consensus number two. Just kind of same question
Speaker 1: for jazz fans, aren't familiar? Is there a comp out there?
Speaker 6: You like?
Speaker 2: What sort of player is he?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I kind of a James Harden isn't the right comp?
Speaker 4: You know, you may want to even go further back
Speaker 4: to the nineties and two thousands for a comp for him,
Speaker 4: but you're you're looking at like a six five, really
Speaker 4: talented scoring guard who also makes all the right decisions
Speaker 4: on offense. Kind of the most eye popping part of
Speaker 4: his statistical profile is how he finishes at the rim,
Speaker 4: where he I believe he was seventy seventy two percent
Speaker 4: last year on and on shot that the rim, like
Speaker 4: layups like that is incredibly elite for college competition, would
Speaker 4: be incredibly elite in the NBA. Just finishes so well
Speaker 4: around the around the basket, but has the other parts
Speaker 4: of the game too, you know, can shoot from the
Speaker 4: outside again, can pass, can defend well? Is is you know,
Speaker 4: there aren't a lot of weaknesses. You know, maybe isn't
Speaker 4: the best athlete in the world, and so that's why
Speaker 4: you know he's He's not you know, Michael Jordan, Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 4: so on and so forth, but he's he's a really
Speaker 4: good smart player. So I think, yeah, probably has kind
Speaker 4: of again that same kind of level of all star upside,
Speaker 4: with maybe less of a higher stealing than Cooper Flag does,
Speaker 4: just with the size limitations and you know, kind of
Speaker 4: output production that he showed in his freshman year wasn't
Speaker 4: where Cooper was at an older age too, But is
Speaker 4: just looks like a really good player, and even his floor,
Speaker 4: you know, is kind of a no doubt starter in
Speaker 4: the league.
Speaker 1: I think, Andy, you truly have a heart of gold
Speaker 1: for our listeners that will be tuned in tomorrow for
Speaker 1: four hours in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: Do you care to give us a little tease.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got fellow Beat writer Sarah's Todd joining us,
Speaker 4: so we'll talk some jazz and NBA too. That's always fun.
Speaker 4: Sarah and I always after we finished writing at the
Speaker 4: end of jazz games end up talking for like half
Speaker 4: hour to an hour just in the jazz's media room
Speaker 4: about what's going on. So we may do a little
Speaker 4: bit of that on on the air tomorrow. We've got
Speaker 4: Zach Harper as well. Used to host a radio show
Speaker 4: with him here in Salt Lake on this very radio station,
Speaker 4: so that'll be a cool reunion. Also, we've got Paul
Speaker 4: Pugmyer golf wise, and I believe we got one other
Speaker 4: special extra guest that I'm not announcing yet because I
Speaker 4: don't think we've booked him yet. But uh well, we'll
Speaker 4: have a lot of fun tomorrow and I'm looking forward
Speaker 4: to it.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, my friend, not just for filling in tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but for stopping by and dealing with a little banter
Speaker 1: back and forth. So have a great show tomorrow. We
Speaker 1: got to get out and swing your golf club soon. Okay, thanks,
Speaker 1: n Larson will be on the program with that guy,
Speaker 1: order Larson. Is he leaving a guest out that you
Speaker 1: like to throw out there today?
Speaker 2: Kyle van Noy? What oh? Here we go again? This
Speaker 2: was fences out of town?
Speaker 1: Is Eric Weddell Hockey written Covey stopping by tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Here we go again.
Speaker 3: You just spoke for twenty minutes to the number one
Speaker 3: running back in program history.
Speaker 1: You know what, I realized you booked Zach today to
Speaker 1: ease the news that you're bringing van Ney on tomorrow
Speaker 1: when I'm out of town.
Speaker 3: I actually, just to be clear, didn't even book Kyle
Speaker 3: van Noy. Are our sales guy. Austin Rich did for
Speaker 3: a sales tournament.
Speaker 1: So you know what, I will be okay because I'm
Speaker 1: going to Black Desert to play in Kyle's golf tournament.
Speaker 2: Here you can interview Kyle. I'm gonna play in his
Speaker 2: golf turn.
Speaker 3: And we're gonna set you up with Patrick Manning to
Speaker 3: get your tea times yeah, otherwise, yeah, we please send
Speaker 3: me a cell phone number whenever.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, I can connect you so tomorrow Porter
Speaker 2: Larson and Andy Larson.
Speaker 3: Larson and Larson.
Speaker 2: Why didn't that dawn on me until just now? That's
Speaker 2: really weird.
Speaker 3: Funny thing is we have very old like Mormon ancestry
Speaker 3: back to Central Utah.
Speaker 2: Not related, very interesting. I think if you have LDS lineage,
Speaker 2: you just keep going back.
Speaker 3: At some point you're related, which, coincidentally, I asked John
Speaker 3: Kimball about that yesterday. He and I are not like
Speaker 3: distant cousins at all. We're actually fairly closely related.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that sounds about right. So Porter and Andy
Speaker 2: tomorrow