Speaker 1: All right, you do realize now at this point we're
Speaker 1: thirty minutes into the show, and if you count cross talk,
Speaker 1: the two bumps that I've heard so far are popa
Speaker 1: Roach and now Pitbull. I've got four hours ahead of
Speaker 1: me to do. What are you setting me up to fail?
Speaker 1: I claim no responsibility for the popa roachs thing, and
Speaker 1: Zach Harper can take responsibility for.
Speaker 2: This one so well.
Speaker 1: I know Zach's on the show, so I mentally and
Speaker 1: emotionally prepared myself for the worst bump that we play
Speaker 1: all week. But on the heels of the popa Roach,
Speaker 1: I just the compound interest isn't sitting well?
Speaker 2: Zach? Happy Wednesday? How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm great? Can you just do me one favor when
Speaker 3: it comes to the stuff?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, what is it?
Speaker 3: Don't stop the party?
Speaker 2: Okay, alright, that's enough. That's enough.
Speaker 1: But Zak, I want to start our interview today with
Speaker 1: some really good news and I want to see if
Speaker 1: you are interested in joining the ESPN seven one hundred
Speaker 1: high excuse me. The ESPN seven hundred side us has
Speaker 1: been created because our midday host is a guy named
Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell, and I think guys like you and I.
Speaker 1: We've been waiting for a guy like Sean to help
Speaker 1: us launch our business. Sean is a former college football
Speaker 1: player and he's also a championship MMA fighter. He want
Speaker 1: a belt and a million dollars, and he's agreed to
Speaker 1: use these things, these things that he's accomplished as part
Speaker 1: of our platform to join the MANI sphere to help
Speaker 1: young men become better men. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, I mean that feels like that feels like
Speaker 3: that could go a lot of different directions.
Speaker 1: Well, ultimately, if we're if we're doing this as a society,
Speaker 1: then we need a piece of it. Okay, we need
Speaker 1: a piece of it. We've got to jump on the trainer,
Speaker 1: get off board. So things, you know, like really good
Speaker 1: solid advice, because Sean's pedigree will allow us to attract
Speaker 1: a legion of young men when we can tell them
Speaker 1: to take cold plunges, drink black coffee, live with gratitude. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maximize your potential. I don't know, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of spitball some other pieces of advice we could
Speaker 1: use on our new platform.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I wonder if here's something that I've been trying
Speaker 3: to get off the ground for a little bit. As
Speaker 3: I've noticed this shift to the internet, could everyone just
Speaker 3: be bleeping normal for once? Could we try that as
Speaker 3: a society. Could we just chill out and just try
Speaker 3: to relax and get through life? Or is that too much?
Speaker 3: Do we just have to be extreme in everything we do?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Oh a, ready, that would be my coaching is just relax.
Speaker 3: This whole idea that ooh, life's a movie. I have
Speaker 3: main character energy all that stuff. No, you're an accountant,
Speaker 3: you're a you're like a business owner, you're a basketball writer.
Speaker 3: None of this is a movie. Just get through life
Speaker 3: and let's enjoy basketball, or enjoy whatever our vices are
Speaker 3: within reason.
Speaker 2: Somebody hasn't been red pilled?
Speaker 3: I don't Is that? Is that? Tyler All? I don't
Speaker 3: know what the red pill is, but I yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't take a lot of you know, painkillers.
Speaker 1: You had to have seen this stuff floating around where
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's it's the alpha bros teaching all
Speaker 1: these young men how they can maximize their potential.
Speaker 2: I just figured you'd want a piece of the Pies Act.
Speaker 2: That's all.
Speaker 3: I always I try to live by this rule, right,
Speaker 3: because there are people who want to like want you
Speaker 3: to know that they're smart, or want you to know
Speaker 3: that they're funny, or want you to know they're alpha's
Speaker 3: and all this stuff. And I feel like the people
Speaker 3: who actually are those things never have to tell anybody.
Speaker 1: So just one follow up, It sounds to me that
Speaker 1: you have no interest in defying the cultural elite that
Speaker 1: has destroyed your life.
Speaker 2: You have no interest.
Speaker 3: That is a sequence of words that I do not
Speaker 3: understand them in that order. Okay, yeah, but like, yeah,
Speaker 3: maybe I don't know. Do I do I have to?
Speaker 3: Can I wear sweats? Beta? If I can wear sweats,
Speaker 3: I'll do just about anything.
Speaker 2: All right, Zach.
Speaker 1: We can move on because look, yesterday I woke up
Speaker 1: with an extra pep in my step and I realized
Speaker 1: it was time for the NBA Cup. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a big deal. Went down to the Delta Center. The
Speaker 1: courts are cool. Yeah, I guess, like, what's I don't know,
Speaker 1: what's the level of exciting here Now that the NBA
Speaker 1: Cup is back.
Speaker 3: The courts are better than they were last year. There's
Speaker 3: not that weird runway. I don't know if you saw
Speaker 3: any of the any of the games that had non
Speaker 3: great courts but the Blue ones and the Green ones
Speaker 3: are crazy. They look insane on TV. The Great ones
Speaker 3: like we're fine, those are fine. But yeah, I'm in,
Speaker 3: Like I've throw myself into this NBA Cup. I'm I'm
Speaker 3: super into it. I'm I'm here to like celebrate it.
Speaker 3: I'm here to trying to make it more of a thing,
Speaker 3: because I do I do believe it breaks up, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of the monotony of the of the first half
Speaker 3: of the season, and and maybe you shouldn't have that
Speaker 3: in the first half of the season, but it's funny,
Speaker 3: like I, you know, we I see all these people
Speaker 3: and look, if I'm about to offend anybody, get over it.
Speaker 3: I think anyone discussing awards at this point is just
Speaker 3: out of ideas. Like it's just out of ideas, right,
Speaker 3: Like we're not even at Thanksgiving. People like what is
Speaker 3: this person higher on your MVP ladders? Like I don't
Speaker 3: have an MVP ladder, Like it's it's November, Like that
Speaker 3: doesn't exist to me until maybe mid January. And so
Speaker 3: I feel like once we get fast, you know, past
Speaker 3: the first couple of weeks of the season, and it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, I think this team's good or right that
Speaker 3: team hasn't lost yet, This is good. I think we
Speaker 3: then get into just like all right, well, it's gonna
Speaker 3: be a while until Christmas, and it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: while until the trade deadline. I think this breaks this
Speaker 3: up perfectly. I don't know that everyone is bought in
Speaker 3: who's playing in it yet, but I do. I like it,
Speaker 3: like I'm in on this.
Speaker 1: Well, it's certainly and I've always liked this about about
Speaker 1: pro basketball. And sometimes they don't get a ride, sometimes
Speaker 1: they do, but at least they'll try new things, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things I've always liked about
Speaker 1: the NBA. And I think Adam Silver is a forward thinking,
Speaker 1: front facing commissioner in a way that David Start maybe wasn't.
Speaker 1: And we could debate, you know, which approach is better,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to get from you, like, when you
Speaker 1: talk to people around the league, is there buy in
Speaker 1: with this, players, coaches, teams or is it still kind
Speaker 1: of like this weird new thing that people are trying
Speaker 1: to put their arms around.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't think it's universally bought in yet. From
Speaker 3: what I can see, I think there's some people that
Speaker 3: are like, yes, this is great, and there's some people
Speaker 3: like this just feels like another game on a court.
Speaker 3: I think once you get into this position of the
Speaker 3: teams who do advance to the single elimination tournament portion
Speaker 3: of it, I think that's when it takes off. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's when people are bought in because they're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: trip to Vegas, extra money, all this stuff. But until
Speaker 3: that happens, I still think the group play is a
Speaker 3: foreign concept to a lot of the people participating.
Speaker 1: So went down to the game last night, and you know,
Speaker 1: the Suns were without Kevin Durant, which didn't matter at all.
Speaker 1: Really wasn't all that uncomfortable. Booker got going in the fourth,
Speaker 1: and obviously he's a tough cover. Grayson Allen hit like
Speaker 1: three straight threes in one point. Phoenix rolls the Jazz
Speaker 1: one twelve, or excuse me, one twenty to one twelve.
Speaker 2: The building continues to be full.
Speaker 1: I don't have anything interesting really to ask you about
Speaker 1: the Jazz outside of as will continue to kind of
Speaker 1: try to understand whether or not these young players are
Speaker 1: coming along for the ride. And one of the undeniable
Speaker 1: bride spots has been Kyle Philipowski. You know, after Taylor
Speaker 1: Hendrix went down, it opened up about thirty minutes or so,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, Will has elected to go
Speaker 1: with younger players. Now, not every single game, like John
Speaker 1: Collins played thirty four minutes. If you want to know
Speaker 1: where we're at, John Collins has probably been the best
Speaker 1: player on the team this year.
Speaker 2: That sentence is kind of all you need to know.
Speaker 1: But Philipowski eighteen points, six boards, a couple assists, two blocks,
Speaker 1: And I had a really good seat, so I was
Speaker 1: watching him pretty closely. He matches up with the physicality
Speaker 1: certainly in NBA basketball, I mean, you know, the late
Speaker 1: pick certainly. Is there a chance maybe they found diamond
Speaker 1: in the rough year with Kyle Philipowski playing well early on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe I'm trying to like not have any any
Speaker 3: bias in this because I just going into the draft.
Speaker 3: I thought last year at Duke he was terrible, Like
Speaker 3: I really did, Like I just was, this is not
Speaker 3: the prospect we thought he was going to be. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I thought he underperformed. I thought he played soft. I
Speaker 3: thought he wasn't prepared to be a you know, a
Speaker 3: big man in the NBA. And I'll admit, like I've
Speaker 3: been impressed, Like, I didn't think he would play this
Speaker 3: well over the last week or so. And I do
Speaker 3: think there's something there. I think maybe last you know,
Speaker 3: last season at Duke aside, I do think maybe we
Speaker 3: should look at the whole of like, all right, he
Speaker 3: was pretty highly regarded in in high school and and
Speaker 3: you know, first moments at Duke like looked pretty good.
Speaker 3: And last year, you know, really really struggled it just
Speaker 3: in terms of looking like he was progressing. But you
Speaker 3: get him in the NBA system them, you get on
Speaker 3: with his Jazz coaching staff, and yeah, I can't deny
Speaker 3: that he's looked really good. I'm still not buying it,
Speaker 3: just because I want to see more. It's such a
Speaker 3: small sample size, but it's been at least for someone
Speaker 3: who didn't think much of the pick at the time,
Speaker 3: like I, it's very encouraging so far.
Speaker 1: So look, I just there's nothing. There's nothing to talk
Speaker 1: about with the Jazz. I can't in good faith continue
Speaker 1: to ask you.
Speaker 3: About Cooper flag Well, you know this is it's a.
Speaker 1: Long way of me getting exactly to where you just landed.
Speaker 1: I could keep asking you why Kiante can't make shots
Speaker 1: because he continues to shoot horribly for the most part.
Speaker 2: He'll have a good game here there.
Speaker 1: But so you know, we keep talking about Cooper Flag,
Speaker 1: and we keep talking about the potential of maybe that
Speaker 1: actually happening and Lady Luck shining on Salt Lake in
Speaker 1: a way that it never has And there's no guarantee here.
Speaker 1: There's no guarantee ever. I mean, ask Detroit, Atlanta. I
Speaker 1: think had the ten thoughts, they move up to one.
Speaker 1: So the underlying fear here is a fan base who
Speaker 1: has been spoiled, never have had a championship. But usually
Speaker 1: the rebuild here goes two years, maybe three, and then
Speaker 1: they're kind of back to going in the right direction.
Speaker 1: They're really bad, and seeing it up close last night,
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, this is It's going to be such
Speaker 1: a long year.
Speaker 2: And the permeating fear is they go through this.
Speaker 1: And then the ping pong balls pop up and it's
Speaker 1: like seven or eight, right, But if it is one,
Speaker 1: and if it is Cooper Flag, what are you hearing
Speaker 1: from scouts who actually know exactly who they think this
Speaker 1: kid could be should he land and saw Lake? What
Speaker 1: sort of player fully baked will Cooper Flag make in
Speaker 1: the NBA?
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I don't think I don't think we're
Speaker 3: looking at like a Zion situation, right, Like, I don't
Speaker 3: think you're looking at a dominant player in the traditional
Speaker 3: sense of like get that guy the ball thirty forty
Speaker 3: times a game, get out of the way. I don't like,
Speaker 3: maybe his game gets to that, but I think we
Speaker 3: saw the good and the bad of Cooper Flag last
Speaker 3: night in that Yeah, there were times where he was
Speaker 3: just completely overwhelmed, and then you get to end a
Speaker 3: game situations like hey, Cooper, go create and like, yeah,
Speaker 3: his handle's weak, his jump shot form is not clean, right, Like,
Speaker 3: there's there's a lot to clean up within his game.
Speaker 3: But defensively, he's a monster. I Mean I've kind of been,
Speaker 3: you know, discussing this with people, and I've come to
Speaker 3: the conclusion of I think he's you know, white Shawn
Speaker 3: Marian with more of a kN act for scoring, right,
Speaker 3: and and people are like, oh, but that's still a
Speaker 3: really good play. Like, yeah, I'm not saying he could
Speaker 3: be a bus I just don't think he's going to
Speaker 3: be as of what we've seen so far. I don't
Speaker 3: think he is this like absolute number one on a
Speaker 3: championship team, Like, you see that progression, you see all that,
Speaker 3: and I'm not saying it can't it can't get there.
Speaker 3: Like he can develop a ton He's super talented, he's
Speaker 3: super athletic, he's got great instincts for the game. There
Speaker 3: are just certain ball skills that he doesn't have cleanly
Speaker 3: that at the college level that I look at the
Speaker 3: NBA level, I'm like, I if he can't, like he
Speaker 3: can't really cleanly dribble into a jump shot, what does
Speaker 3: that look like? Like? Right, Like, what are you creating there?
Speaker 3: The good news is that, all right, let's say they
Speaker 3: don't get one, it's like five or six dudes. Right,
Speaker 3: there's a deep it's a deep pool for trying to
Speaker 3: get a franchise guy. I'm actually got I'm gonna butcher.
Speaker 3: His name, the big kid from the Sudan maluac or.
Speaker 3: I can't remember how to say his name, But to me,
Speaker 3: I look at this and I'm like, all right, this
Speaker 3: reminds me a little bit of twenty fourteen, where we
Speaker 3: had Andrew Wiggins, we had Jabari, we had Gordon, we
Speaker 3: had Dante Exit, we had all these dudes, right, and
Speaker 3: then Embiid, who was a highly regarded prospect, but still
Speaker 3: very raw, ended up being the guy. And I'm not
Speaker 3: saying he's gonna be Embiid, but it kind of reminds
Speaker 3: me that I, like, you have all these guys like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that guy's really good. This guy's really good at that.
Speaker 3: But this guy's so raw and so big and so
Speaker 3: athletic and still has skills. I wonder if he's gonna
Speaker 3: end up being the best player.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Embiid was four.
Speaker 1: I think I think he was a fourth pick if
Speaker 1: I remember that correctly, in that draft something like that,
Speaker 1: and certainly ended up doing something like that. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: let's expand the conversation because the fact of the matter is,
Speaker 1: unless Cooper Flag is awesome day one next year, they're
Speaker 1: still so far away, right, and so if you look
Speaker 1: at their books, I mean, essentially after next year, Collins
Speaker 1: breaking news, John Collins has a player option for twenty
Speaker 1: seven milk.
Speaker 2: He's gonna go ahead and snag that they've got. I
Speaker 2: would love it. If he didn't, he'd be like, dude.
Speaker 1: I had a I just had a baller year for
Speaker 1: a team that won nine games.
Speaker 2: Okay, sign me to a long term deal.
Speaker 1: But my guess is he's snagging that they've got one
Speaker 1: more year with Sexton, one more year with Clarkson. The
Speaker 1: long term contracts are all the young guys. It's Hendrix,
Speaker 1: it's Williams, it's Keyante, it's you know, Philipowski, Walker Kessler,
Speaker 1: since Isaiah Callier.
Speaker 2: So they've got all their young players.
Speaker 1: You want to throw Johnny Juzeng in there, fine, spot
Speaker 1: up shooter money. All those guys are under contract for
Speaker 1: at least the next four some five years, depending on
Speaker 1: options and such. So let's let's have fun here on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, because jazz fans are depressed, and say, Lady
Speaker 1: Luck shines on the Jazz throw a Cooper flag next
Speaker 1: to Lowry marked in who is the only long term
Speaker 1: piece built in? And then you bring back all the
Speaker 1: young pieces. You do the thing where you figure out
Speaker 1: what you have. They're still probably not close. So how
Speaker 1: long do you think Generally speaking, jazz fans should expect
Speaker 1: this team to continue to lose games intentionally to try
Speaker 1: to find talent. So at some point, yes, they are
Speaker 1: ready to at least compete for a playoff spot.
Speaker 2: How long do you think this is going to take?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think like from all accounts, like the
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six draft might be loaded too, right, Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you've got the Boozer Twins, but I mean there's a
Speaker 3: bunch of dudes in that class who look like they
Speaker 3: could have real, real high potential, And so I think
Speaker 3: the Jazz most likely will be really bad this year
Speaker 3: going into this twenty twenty five draft. Right as we've seen,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's some big turnaround happening, and then
Speaker 3: I would expect them to be better next year, but
Speaker 3: still very young and losing games and frustrating ways. Hopefully
Speaker 3: I get blown out, But yeah, like I think it's
Speaker 3: too I think it's you know, two more seasons counting
Speaker 3: this season as one of those of what to expect.
Speaker 3: But that's you know, you're like, you're right, like deaf
Speaker 3: fans are spoiled in the sense of like they don't
Speaker 3: really have down times, right, they have like a year
Speaker 3: or two here and there, but they don't really have like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you're probably looking at between the last two seasons where
Speaker 3: it was all right, this is fine, you know, there's
Speaker 3: some talent here to this season and probably next season,
Speaker 3: going wow, these tickets are expensive for such a bad team, Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you're probably going through that, but I would expect, you know,
Speaker 3: right after the twenty twenty sixth summer, this team should
Speaker 3: be primed and ready to like really ascend, almost maybe
Speaker 3: in kind of what we've seen from Houston the last
Speaker 3: year and a half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Scott Laden, Kevin O'Connor, and Dennis lindsay all masterfully
Speaker 1: worked their way through a very quick space of a
Speaker 1: rebuild to at least get you. And look, I was
Speaker 1: never a huge fan of the whole like Al Jefferson
Speaker 1: situation where you know, you give him the ball for
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes so he can get you, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty six points and eighteen boards.
Speaker 2: But that team was never gone anywhere.
Speaker 1: But you know, Scott Layden, you know, and then Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connor and then Dennis lindsay was the one who decided
Speaker 1: to break that team down. And the last time we
Speaker 1: were kind of dealing with a team like we have
Speaker 1: now is that twenty thirteen twenty fourteen year, which was
Speaker 1: Ty Corbyn's final season and Dennis lindsay's first real season
Speaker 1: taking over from Kevin O'Connor. And that year it was
Speaker 1: kind of the same thing where they brought in some
Speaker 1: overpriced vets just to make sure they're following the rules
Speaker 1: to pay players guys like Andres Biedrin's and Marvin Williams,
Speaker 1: Richard Jefferson at the end of his career, Brandon Rush.
Speaker 1: But then you know, Trey Burke didn't work out. Alec
Speaker 1: Burks had a he's still in the league. He's had
Speaker 1: a good career. Derek Favors worked out, and his Freedom
Speaker 1: excuse me, and his Canter now known as Ennis Freedom
Speaker 1: was on the roster, never fully baked. Go Beart was
Speaker 1: a rookie. We know what happened there. Gordon Hayward of
Speaker 1: course on that team, we know what happened there. So
Speaker 1: it was kind of like a similar thing. But within
Speaker 1: a year or two, even losing Hayward, they draft Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Go Bear kind of grows and suddenly they're back to
Speaker 1: forty five fifty wins. And that took about two or
Speaker 1: three years. So this is the first time Zach and
Speaker 1: I've been around this team since the eighties, right, This
Speaker 1: is the first time where I think in the past
Speaker 1: we can look at this and say this has taken
Speaker 1: two or three years. It's already been two. This is
Speaker 1: year three. It's probably three more years. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be the first time. That'll be like a six seven
Speaker 1: year old. Now, it happens in a lot of places,
Speaker 1: so I'm not painting that will only happen here. But
Speaker 1: is that more of a indictment on the new leadership
Speaker 1: or is it more of a commentary on how to
Speaker 1: build a roster in the modern day NBA in Salt
Speaker 1: Lake City?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't think it's I don't think
Speaker 3: it's commentary on the new leadership. I think they're doing
Speaker 3: much like you know, we've talked about as a bunch
Speaker 3: of yeah, you should have sold out the year before, right,
Speaker 3: like you should have just bailed on any wins and
Speaker 3: gone after Wemby. And you can make the argument of like, yeah,
Speaker 3: but look at Detroit and look at these teams where
Speaker 3: they tried that and didn't work. It's like, yeah, but
Speaker 3: look who sin Antonio tried it in it work, rightI
Speaker 3: wasn't trying to win games the year before Wendy. They
Speaker 3: knew like, all right, we got a fourteen percent chance
Speaker 3: or whatever it is of this kid. That's good enough
Speaker 3: for us. And so that's my only criticism of them,
Speaker 3: is they let pride get in the way for that
Speaker 3: one season. But I say, like they're doing smart things.
Speaker 3: They acquire picks, they they're drafting, well, like they're not
Speaker 3: drafting stars, but they're drafting guys. We'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that guy should be in the rotation for ten years,
Speaker 3: twelve years, right, And so I think it's just part
Speaker 3: of it is bad timing. And I know that's a
Speaker 3: very unsatisfying, you know, answer for this stuff, because it
Speaker 3: can't really be explained or fixed. But sometimes like you
Speaker 3: just miss out on a trade, or you just miss
Speaker 3: out on a draft pick, or you just miss out
Speaker 3: on a lottery chance, and that's part of rebuilding. And
Speaker 3: I don't think you'll you know, you're you're talking like, yes,
Speaker 3: this thing gets pushed maybe to five, six, seven years
Speaker 3: of an actual rebuild, But I don't think you're twenty
Speaker 3: wins a season in those you know, every year for
Speaker 3: those like I think it's you know, maybe nine this year,
Speaker 3: she said, and then it's you know, twenty, and then
Speaker 3: it's twenty eight, and then it's thirty four, and by
Speaker 3: like the third year of that, you see it and
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, this team's competing for a play in tournament.
Speaker 3: I also don't know that you look at the landscape
Speaker 3: of the West and it's crazy this year. I don't
Speaker 3: know that it's crazy every year moving forward, things change
Speaker 3: so dramatically and so rapidly in this league that the
Speaker 3: landscape that the Jazz are facing in two years in
Speaker 3: the West might look, you know, pretty easy compared to
Speaker 3: thinking you've got, you know, thirteen teams ahead of you
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: So I thought last night was maybe.
Speaker 1: And I haven't watched you know, with this this job
Speaker 1: in this sport, or excuse me, this job in this marker.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of football, a lot of college football.
Speaker 1: So I've watched a lot of Jazz and then some
Speaker 1: other marquee games. I haven't watched every single NBA game,
Speaker 1: not even close, but in a vacuum, I think the
Speaker 1: scene in Golden State last night with Clay coming back
Speaker 1: and Steph being Steph was probably the marquee NBA game
Speaker 1: of the early calendar so far.
Speaker 2: I've always been a Clay guy. I don't know how
Speaker 2: you're not.
Speaker 1: But I wonder how you kind of digested that scene
Speaker 1: and then Steph doing Steph things down the stretch, which
Speaker 1: is always so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3: It was cool man like, It's just it was pure entertainment, right,
Speaker 3: Like I don't have a dog enough. I don't care
Speaker 3: about the Maps. I don't care about the Warriors. I
Speaker 3: appreciate the good players on the team. I want those
Speaker 3: teams to be successful because I think that it is
Speaker 3: good for the league when teams with these types of
Speaker 3: stars are successful. But ultimately, if they don't make the playoffs, no,
Speaker 3: you know, no skin off me, Like, I think it's
Speaker 3: gonna be fine. And so watching last night, I thought
Speaker 3: the Warriors, and you kind of knew they were gonna
Speaker 3: do this, but I thought the Warriors did just a
Speaker 3: first class job of welcoming Clay back, right, like, didn't
Speaker 3: try to play it cool, like like, no, you mattered
Speaker 3: to us. You still matter to us, and we want
Speaker 3: you to know that, right, And so they like they
Speaker 3: love bomb him and all this stuff, and then and
Speaker 3: and then he comes out and he plays great, and
Speaker 3: he played great in the fourth quarter and they build
Speaker 3: you know, a seven you know, a seven point lead,
Speaker 3: and a six point lead with like three minutes left,
Speaker 3: and then it's just Steph Man like Stef You know,
Speaker 3: I thought Clay's comment afterwards talking about being on the
Speaker 3: other side of the flurry for once and and all
Speaker 3: ending it was like, yeah, on the other side of it, it sucks.
Speaker 3: It's like it's a fun reminder of just yeah, like
Speaker 3: Steph is that guy, Like we all you know. One
Speaker 3: of my favorite quote Clay quotes ever was this. I
Speaker 3: mean there's years ago and someone had asked him as
Speaker 3: Curry was like really taken off, you know, you know
Speaker 3: he's such a humble guy and you know about and
Speaker 3: Clay just cut him off and was like, you see
Speaker 3: the shots he takes, Like there's nothing humble about that, right,
Speaker 3: Like it's just such a it's such a great line.
Speaker 3: And to like watch him process that. He watched him
Speaker 3: do the shimmy Steph shaking his head Steph, you know,
Speaker 3: hits him with the night night and everything like that's
Speaker 3: just like that's basketball, that's the NBA and entertainment. And
Speaker 3: we can get so cynical and granular about all this stuff,
Speaker 3: but ultimately, like, if you love basketball, last night was
Speaker 3: one of the best shows you could have in the
Speaker 3: regular season.
Speaker 1: What has Denver figured out, at least for now, I
Speaker 1: mean I hesitate to really buy into what they've been
Speaker 1: doing as of late, because we do see a positive
Speaker 1: effect of Russell Westbrook on their bench for now, and
Speaker 1: Christian Brown is playing a lot better. But I've just
Speaker 1: I've been out on Westbrook for a long time when
Speaker 1: it comes to having him on your team to play
Speaker 1: winning basketball and come playoff time, he still thinks he
Speaker 1: can shoot her from three.
Speaker 2: Like if any coach.
Speaker 1: Could be like, dude, just don't do that, please, just
Speaker 1: don't do that, and you can do some other things
Speaker 1: maybe at some but no, I've been saying this for
Speaker 1: six years, Like he still thinks he's the ball dominant
Speaker 1: MVP from OKAC and he's not. But they have one
Speaker 1: five straight to get back on track, including some good
Speaker 1: wins over the Thunder and the MAVs and such.
Speaker 2: Have they figured something out here?
Speaker 3: I mean, look, they were probably already is gonna beat Miami,
Speaker 3: but they played a Miami team that, you know, six
Speaker 3: minutes in Butler got hurt, right, Like, so now they're
Speaker 3: on the flight, Like that's not a very good team
Speaker 3: without Jimmy Butler. Two good wins there, you know, but
Speaker 3: they also they've kind of barely been winning. They barely
Speaker 3: beat the Raptors twice, right, Like they struggled against a
Speaker 3: team that I think is two and ten, but they
Speaker 3: did get wins. I mean, just it's Jokics. Man Like
Speaker 3: Joki is just unreal. Like they're dealing with injuries. You know,
Speaker 3: Aaron Gordon's out to wail. Murray had a concussion for
Speaker 3: a couple of games. I actually thought Russ played pretty
Speaker 3: decently in those games. Michael Porter Junior's turned around a
Speaker 3: little bit, as you mentioned, Christian's turned around a little bit.
Speaker 3: Michael Malane is actually let Peyton Watson play, which is weird.
Speaker 3: You know, you're probably your best defender with Aaron Gordon
Speaker 3: out comes in and makes some clutch plays. What a
Speaker 3: novel idea to have him on the floor. But man
Speaker 3: like Jokic is on this crazy tear. He's hitting like
Speaker 3: fifty eight percent of his three pointers, and you know,
Speaker 3: he's just he's that good. They can't defend at all,
Speaker 3: but their offense is is gold right now. And so
Speaker 3: that's that's what's working right now.
Speaker 1: All right, before I say you loose, and I asked
Speaker 1: you this last week, so I'm going to pose it
Speaker 1: in a different way. The only Cavs game I've seen
Speaker 1: so far is the win they had over the Warriors,
Speaker 1: and Donovan was actually not good that night. It was
Speaker 1: more of like Darius Garland played really well, so do
Speaker 1: Devan Mobley, Ty Jerome came off the bench. You couldn't miss.
Speaker 1: But you look at Donovan's numbers, and he's been doing
Speaker 1: what Donovan does in the regular season. And those of
Speaker 1: us that are out here and watch Donovan have some
Speaker 1: good moments in postseason, it's incorrect to say that he's
Speaker 1: never played well in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: That's not correct.
Speaker 1: But there have also been so many moments when there's
Speaker 1: so much on the line where he just puts blinders on.
Speaker 1: What are you willing to say about what you think
Speaker 1: maybe Cleveland can do come in playoff time? Because he
Speaker 1: has twelve to oh is impressive, But and Donovan knows this.
Speaker 2: He said it last year when they lost in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Again, He's like, at some point I got to break through,
Speaker 1: and he is such a talent that you do leave
Speaker 1: space for maybe that potential learning curve to take place.
Speaker 1: What are you willing to say today about who Cleveland
Speaker 1: could become playoff time?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think they can get to the conference finals.
Speaker 3: I don't know how much of that is them and
Speaker 3: how much of that is just a weak Eastern Conference
Speaker 3: that you know, who knows that the Sixers get it together?
Speaker 3: And who knows that the Bucks get it together? And
Speaker 3: those are two teams we're counting on. I'm not convinced
Speaker 3: that Cleveland is better than New York in the seven
Speaker 3: game series. I don't think they'll I think it would
Speaker 3: still be a quick out against against Boston for them.
Speaker 3: But their offense looks great. They're shooting the lights out.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know if the shooting is
Speaker 3: sustainable for them. That's the that's the big questions. Those
Speaker 3: shots don't follow them. What does it looks like? I
Speaker 3: love what they're doing with Evan Mobley though. I love
Speaker 3: what Kenny Atkinson has done with Evan Mobley, like he's
Speaker 3: he's using him more. He's using him more almost as
Speaker 3: a as a point big man, and he's making good decisions.
Speaker 3: He's been such a monster defensively. And it's good to
Speaker 3: see Darius Garland back to playing at an all star level.
Speaker 3: You know, this could be the sign the start of
Speaker 3: them being the new Celtics with how they play. They
Speaker 3: could also be you know the Hawks are you know
Speaker 3: you're mustless jazz fans or the Jazz from a few
Speaker 3: years ago where they kill in the regular season and
Speaker 3: then it just falls flat in the postseason. I don't like.
Speaker 3: I don't I didn't really answer your question. I don't
Speaker 3: know what to expect out of them, but I do
Speaker 3: like what I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 1: Yep, fair enough, fair enough, all right, man, appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: NBA Cup time. Try to control your emotions, and if
Speaker 1: you have any other advice. Are you taking a cold
Speaker 1: plunge tonight?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, cold plunge. I'm eating nothing but raw liver.
Speaker 2: That a guy.
Speaker 1: That a guy, and set the house to sixty two
Speaker 1: degrees when you go to sleep.
Speaker 2: Remember that.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know if I can have it that hot.
Speaker 2: Fair enough. Thanks for the time, dude, chat too, Hi, buddy,
Speaker 2: appreciate it.