Speaker 1: Welcome back here Drive time on a Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2: No spend checkets today.
Speaker 1: I am Porter Larson, Andy Larson alongside me. Well not
Speaker 1: right now, he's actually stepping out. He took a call
Speaker 1: from his boss. Sometimes you gotta sometimes you.
Speaker 2: Gotta do that.
Speaker 1: So we'll await Andy Larson. The reason he is not
Speaker 1: the Utah Sports Caster of the Year is because he's
Speaker 1: making me wait while the Utah sports caster or sports
Speaker 1: writer of the year rather is on the line, Sarah Todd,
Speaker 1: the two time Utah Sports Writer of the Year. How
Speaker 1: are you, Sarah, I'm doing great.
Speaker 3: I wish that Andy was actually sitting next to you.
Speaker 3: Go listen to this.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Andy talking to his boss on the
Speaker 1: phone outside. He's running inside as we speak, so I'm
Speaker 1: doing a little play by play. But no, beautiful, we
Speaker 1: have the two time sports writer of the Year on
Speaker 1: the line, Sarah Todd, and the I think the one
Speaker 1: time sports writer the year, Andy Larson.
Speaker 2: No, I've never won it, Sarah never won.
Speaker 3: Don't give him award that he hasn't won.
Speaker 4: I could have sworn you got it the COVID year,
Speaker 4: but no, I was pandemic Reporter of the Region.
Speaker 2: Let alone the state of Utah, but that was it
Speaker 2: was an odd inter mountain region. There we go. Okay,
Speaker 2: well that's all I got, though I'm bad at basketball.
Speaker 1: As long as his career lasts longer than Sarah's, he
Speaker 1: might win one of those Utah sports writers. She's got
Speaker 1: a stranglehold on him at the moment.
Speaker 2: Sarah, how is your Friday?
Speaker 3: It's not too bad, you know, the when the basketball
Speaker 3: season ends, not that it's over. I'm watching playoff every night, obviously,
Speaker 3: but what it ends for me, uh man, I'm just
Speaker 3: getting so many things done that I ignored throughout the year.
Speaker 3: So there's just not a lot.
Speaker 1: Of you.
Speaker 2: Be a DMV.
Speaker 1: You've been to the post office, You've done all those
Speaker 1: things in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: I soon, Yeah, absolutely, Sarah.
Speaker 2: Did I tell you I bought the car and like
Speaker 2: that's exciting?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw the car because at the exit interviews. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I and I told you how crazy it was
Speaker 3: to have a car that people couldn't get into the
Speaker 3: back seat.
Speaker 4: Listen, that's only if you need to drive more than
Speaker 4: one person around, which I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't, I don't have a family or whatever. That's
Speaker 2: you know, that's great.
Speaker 1: I've almost always driven a like a two seater or
Speaker 1: something of the like because I got a small circle.
Speaker 4: Sarah, what do you I only have one friend, Sarah,
Speaker 4: what do you drive?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: I have I have a lot of friends, So I
Speaker 3: want to be I drive a Subaru cross track.
Speaker 2: Okay, I like that.
Speaker 4: I like that with Harry Potter bumper sticker or I
Speaker 4: don't know, dcal what would you call it on the back?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's used to have a Harry Potter Why. I
Speaker 3: used to have a Harry Potter one and then a Paradise,
Speaker 3: California sticker And the Harry Potter sticker has died and
Speaker 3: fallen off and so it lives no more.
Speaker 1: Also, what is your license played in home address? Just kidding? Well, Uh,
Speaker 1: we're the reason I asked if we're at a car dealership.
Speaker 1: We were talking cars a little bit to start. But
Speaker 1: your off season, of course started as the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: offseason has started. What is your since you mentioned it there,
Speaker 1: what is your consumption of the NBA playoffs? You're an
Speaker 1: NBA reporter, but you're obviously a jazz beat writer. How
Speaker 1: dialed into these games are you and how much of
Speaker 1: you enjoyed what is meaningful basketball? Postseason basketball where the
Speaker 1: stakes are not to do with the NBA draft.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a junkie, So I've seen every single game
Speaker 3: so far. I've played on watching every single game of
Speaker 3: the playoffs one hundred percent. I'm an absolute junkie when
Speaker 3: it comes. And I think that, you know, even if
Speaker 3: it doesn't have to do with the Jazz, Like, there's
Speaker 3: so much perspective and information that you can glean from
Speaker 3: watching the postseason, right, Like number one, I'm thinking often
Speaker 3: while I'm watching these games, like how many players on
Speaker 3: the Jazz would be allowed to play any minutes on
Speaker 3: these teams?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: And so kind of giving myself a little bit of
Speaker 3: reality check because we spend Andy and I spent so
Speaker 3: much time watching the Jazz that you know, sometimes you
Speaker 3: can forget like what top level basketball feels like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like playoff basketball too. I Mean I had
Speaker 4: the same conversation with Spence yesterday, but like, yeah, you're
Speaker 4: you're right that the Jazz's young players are so far away,
Speaker 4: you know, they can contribute at a regular season level
Speaker 4: a little bit. I mean, let's be honest, they were
Speaker 4: still the worst team in the NBA last year.
Speaker 2: It's not great, but they are.
Speaker 4: Extremely like miles in min files and space ages away
Speaker 4: from like actually helping an NBA team in the playoffs,
Speaker 4: which is what Will Hardy and Danny Ainge are actually
Speaker 4: focused on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's hard to imagine. I mean, like you can,
Speaker 3: like I'm going through currently and I'm writing like my
Speaker 3: annual grades for each player on the Jazz roster, right
Speaker 3: and that has to obviously be like in context of
Speaker 3: what was expected of them, But it's hard not to
Speaker 3: think about the fact that like, yes, like Isaiah Collier
Speaker 3: deserves a lot of credit and like a good grade
Speaker 3: for the season for improving compared to how he started
Speaker 3: the season. But like, I'm not sure that there's a
Speaker 3: single team where he would even get minute as a
Speaker 3: backup point guard that's in the playoffs right now?
Speaker 4: No, absolutely not, Like he can't he can't be on
Speaker 4: the floor, like, and he's not a good enough defender,
Speaker 4: right like the assisting you would want the ball in
Speaker 4: someone else's hands on every other playoff team. And look,
Speaker 4: he's also twenty years old, right, like, so there's room
Speaker 4: for the development and maybe he learns how to shoot,
Speaker 4: and maybe he learns how to defend and kind of
Speaker 4: all these other things that he doesn't have right now.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean it is just far away in
Speaker 4: a way that you know, like rookie Donovan Mitchell was
Speaker 4: actually ready to contribute, you know, and that's not a
Speaker 4: fair bar for for Isaiah Khllier or any other rookie.
Speaker 4: But it does show kind of, like, you know, the
Speaker 4: difference between a good rookie class and a bad one.
Speaker 4: And ultimately, I think what you hope is a good
Speaker 4: draft pick and this year's draft to top five draft
Speaker 4: pick versus what the Jazz have really kind of been
Speaker 4: dealing with over the last couple of years, which is
Speaker 4: ninth pick, tenth pick, sixteenth pick, twenty ninth pick, thirty
Speaker 4: second pick, soone, you know, like it just these guys
Speaker 4: are fringy guys who may work out and may not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think a lot about you know, I
Speaker 3: don't want to like sound like I'm always so pessimistic
Speaker 3: about this team, because like, you know, we I'm around
Speaker 3: these guys like all the time, more than my family,
Speaker 3: more than my friends, and so like you get to
Speaker 3: a point where like you do want them to succeed.
Speaker 3: It's not like you're I'm a fan, but like I
Speaker 3: want good things for good people just in general. And
Speaker 3: so when you get to you know these guys so much,
Speaker 3: and so it's not that I don't want them to succeed,
Speaker 3: but like I do want fans to like temper their
Speaker 3: expectations because some people will see, you know that you know,
Speaker 3: Bryce is kind of turning into a more like specialized player,
Speaker 3: or that Isaiah you know, was racking up so many
Speaker 3: assists and looks like a good point guard. But I
Speaker 3: want the expectations to be tempered a little, just so
Speaker 3: that people understand, like, even if you were to get
Speaker 3: Cooper Flag, the supporting cast currently on this Jazz team
Speaker 3: is not one that can do anything well.
Speaker 4: So let's you and I talk about that for a second,
Speaker 4: because we had an interesting conversation with the Jazz veterans
Speaker 4: after the last game of the season, and I don't
Speaker 4: know that we can share all of that, but right,
Speaker 4: we had a conversation about what happens if the Jazz
Speaker 4: get Cooper Flag versus what happens if they get the
Speaker 4: fifth pick and the draft and you know, let's call
Speaker 4: it Try Johnson or Jeremiah Fears or whatever. Right, what happens.
Speaker 4: What do you think the Jazz's plan is in those scenarios.
Speaker 4: Do you think it's different. Do you think they still
Speaker 4: want to rebuild next year, or is there any scenario.
Speaker 2: In which they try to put a team together and
Speaker 2: really go for it next year?
Speaker 3: Right? I think there's two possibilities. I think that the
Speaker 3: Jazz get Cooper that then they try to capitalize on
Speaker 3: any chaos around the league that's happening, right, whether that's
Speaker 3: hoping that the Sun's implode, hoping that the Bucks implode,
Speaker 3: hoping like just hoping on something that creates possibility for
Speaker 3: a really big blockbuster trade to get a guy who
Speaker 3: would be like a number one on a team that
Speaker 3: is trying to build Cooper Flag into a number one, right,
Speaker 3: And so I think that that's one possibility, is that
Speaker 3: if they get Cooper, they would try to go for it.
Speaker 3: Whether they strike out on that or not is remains
Speaker 3: to be seen. And that all depends on getting Cooper.
Speaker 3: But if they are not able to land someone huge,
Speaker 3: I think that the plan is to tank again because
Speaker 3: they don't want to give up a top eight pick
Speaker 3: and have it go to Okac, who is could very
Speaker 3: well win everything this year and then end up with
Speaker 3: a top eight pick next year, and they really really
Speaker 3: like the top three in next year's draft as it
Speaker 3: is kind of it's expected to be right now, that's
Speaker 3: aj Debanza. Garon Peterson can't boozer, and so I think
Speaker 3: that the idea of having a top pick from this
Speaker 3: year's draft, even if it ends up being trade Johnson
Speaker 3: or a top pick, and adding a top pick from
Speaker 3: next year's draft, is the ideal situation for the Jazz Brah.
Speaker 4: Do you think that you know, so last year they
Speaker 4: had kind of a scheme in mind where they would
Speaker 4: trade and I don't want to call it a scheme
Speaker 4: plan whatever picks, or if they would trade for m
Speaker 4: Kel Bridges and then go out and sign Paul George
Speaker 4: and that would be a core around lowry market and
Speaker 4: that would be interesting in.
Speaker 2: The Western Conference.
Speaker 4: Now, I think the strategy that obviously did not pan out,
Speaker 4: and even if it had panned out, I don't know.
Speaker 2: How good it makes the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 4: Do you think that there's been any kind of like
Speaker 4: reckoning that, hey, look, this is just going to happen
Speaker 4: through the draft, that the idea of using.
Speaker 2: The draft picks as trade assets.
Speaker 4: As maybe gone from the primary strategy to hey, maybe
Speaker 4: but probably not kind of strategy.
Speaker 3: It really it depends that you talk to, right Like,
Speaker 3: I think that there's a number of conversations that I've
Speaker 3: had with you know, Jazz front office people or even
Speaker 3: people around the league that really believe that the Jazz
Speaker 3: are going to eventually like use some of the assets
Speaker 3: to make a big blockbuster trade. But I think what
Speaker 3: I'm hoping is that there has been a little bit
Speaker 3: of reckoning that like getting some sort of an aging
Speaker 3: star is not the route that should work, could work,
Speaker 3: or that they should go because you're kind of seeing
Speaker 3: how that has happened around the league and that it's
Speaker 3: not working out as well as it might have it
Speaker 3: used to. And maybe you know five or ten years removed,
Speaker 3: like Kevin Durant to Phoenix didn't work. James Harden is
Speaker 3: kind of working in LA right now. But I think
Speaker 3: you'd be hard pressed to find people that think that
Speaker 3: the Clippers are actually like a title contender this year.
Speaker 3: And Paul George to Philly absolutely did not work out.
Speaker 3: And so when you look at kind of like the
Speaker 3: aging stars that are getting traded around the league, that's
Speaker 3: not what is working, and so I think that the
Speaker 3: Jazz that they're looking at, like we want to use
Speaker 3: our trade assets, it's it's for a younger star, and
Speaker 3: so there's a tiny bit of reckoning there. But I
Speaker 3: think that they also it's not some it needs to
Speaker 3: happen to the draft, but that they want to capitalize
Speaker 3: on two of the best drafts that we've seen in many,
Speaker 3: many years.
Speaker 1: Sarah, kind of along those same lines, I do want
Speaker 1: to ask, if let's rewind a little bit, the Jazz
Speaker 1: have I think wisely avoided using the term from last
Speaker 1: year the big game hunting, you know, at least this
Speaker 1: offseason now, they haven't changed the roster flexibility, the fact
Speaker 1: that they have the options to basically do whatever they
Speaker 1: want roster versatility wise, strike when the iron is hot,
Speaker 1: right whenever one of those situations comes up across the league,
Speaker 1: the Jazz are, along with OKAC and maybe two or
Speaker 1: three other teams, really the only ones that are are
Speaker 1: positioned and prepared to put out some godfather type offers.
Speaker 1: You look at across the league, what are during this
Speaker 1: offseason the most likely scenarios in which that.
Speaker 2: Comes into play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at Milwaukee and maybe a falling out there
Speaker 1: or in Phoenix. Obviously Denver just replaced their coach with
Speaker 1: stars and still on the roster there. Just looking across
Speaker 1: the league, what's the most likely scenario where teams that
Speaker 1: have built up this, you know, this war chest could
Speaker 1: strike while the iron's hot across the league?
Speaker 3: I mean, most likely, I think is obviously Phoenix. I
Speaker 3: think the problem there is that Phoenix is probably going
Speaker 3: to want to hold on to Devin Booker if they can.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's going to work for them, though,
Speaker 3: because they literally have like no way out of the
Speaker 3: hole that they're in right now. They don't have assets,
Speaker 3: and they need to get them back, and so I
Speaker 3: don't know that they're going to be getting back as
Speaker 3: much as they want or they think they can get
Speaker 3: from deal or even durant to like make their future
Speaker 3: as good as they want it to be while holding
Speaker 3: on to Devin Booker. And so there might be a
Speaker 3: moment where the most likely situation is that they actually
Speaker 3: have to get rid of Booker and bottom out in
Speaker 3: order to have assets at a chance at building something
Speaker 3: different in the future. And so when I look around
Speaker 3: the league, like that feels like the most likely also,
Speaker 3: there's so much dysfunction happening in Memphis right now like
Speaker 3: that that would probably be second on the list. We've
Speaker 3: seen a little bit of upheople in Atlanta, and so
Speaker 3: then you then you start looking at you know, Devin Booker,
Speaker 3: Trey Young, John Morant as kind of the most likely
Speaker 3: young players around the league that could have an opportunity
Speaker 3: to like be moved this summer and not not just
Speaker 3: like exploring free agency, like intentionally moved to create different
Speaker 3: opportunities for the team long term. But you know, Andy
Speaker 3: and I have been talking about the possibility of Phoenix
Speaker 3: imploding years at this point, and so, uh, it's really
Speaker 3: a guessing game because the NBA is the Wild West
Speaker 3: right now. Like you know, Luca Dodge just could be traded.
Speaker 3: We have no idea what can happen these days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it's tough because I think the
Speaker 4: Jazz's assets are you know, they certainly have a lot
Speaker 4: of picks, but they're the good picks that they have
Speaker 4: are in their own And then you know, if you're
Speaker 4: talking about trading a future you know, a twenty twenty
Speaker 4: nine pick, maybe you're more willing to do that, but
Speaker 4: that's a long way down the road for a team
Speaker 4: with an owner like Matt Ishpia who wants to win
Speaker 4: right away and would see would if he were to
Speaker 4: trade Devin Booker, which he's already kind of said that
Speaker 4: he won't that that he's going to want to find
Speaker 4: some way to reconfigure it and go through that rebuild faster.
Speaker 4: So it's just it's just tough. Like I think the
Speaker 4: Jazz are. You know, they're not in the worst place
Speaker 4: in the world. They do have their own picks. They
Speaker 4: do have a number of picks that at the end
Speaker 4: of the that look like they're going to be at
Speaker 4: the middle or end of the first that they can
Speaker 4: use to.
Speaker 2: Build role players around those players.
Speaker 4: But they're just so far away, you know, like you're
Speaker 4: going to have to draft. You hope you get a
Speaker 4: Cooper Flag or a Dylan Harper in this year's draft.
Speaker 4: You hope you get a Debonsa or Peterson or a
Speaker 4: Boozer in next year's draft, and then it's going to
Speaker 4: take a few years for those guys to develop and
Speaker 4: for you to build a core around those guys. That's
Speaker 4: it's going to look pretty different than what this roster
Speaker 4: looks like right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and another reason for fans to temper expectations because
Speaker 3: it's the likelihood of having literally the number one pick,
Speaker 3: not just in one, but both of those drafts. The
Speaker 3: jazz is really low. So yeah, and so you know
Speaker 3: it's not like, oh, we get Cooper, we can just
Speaker 3: go this year like it just even if you get
Speaker 3: one of those like, it's going to take time. I
Speaker 3: try to use the comparison all the time with people
Speaker 3: like is Cooper flag better than Victor Wimbanyama, And I
Speaker 3: would say, no, he's not. And Victor Wimbanyama did not
Speaker 3: take the San Antonio Spurs to the Promised Land or
Speaker 3: even near it in the first of the two years.
Speaker 3: Understand the injury of the blood clot situation came into
Speaker 3: effect this year, but what even if he's able to play,
Speaker 3: are they a play in team this year? And so
Speaker 3: even after they get like the guy who they think
Speaker 3: is the number one, you're still looking at two three
Speaker 3: years before you're really even starting to play.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, yeah, and and you know then you're hoping
Speaker 4: for the best, even you know, with like you's pointed
Speaker 4: out those odds, what do you I've been trying to
Speaker 4: talk with people around the league about this and what
Speaker 4: happens with the Jazz veterans, you know, not even just
Speaker 4: Lowry market but Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Colin Sexton, Like,
Speaker 4: how how do you find spots for them?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that depends a lot on if
Speaker 3: you get Cooper or not, right, Like, how much would
Speaker 3: a Cooper flag raise the ceiling or raise the floor
Speaker 3: for the team rather next season? And if you aren't
Speaker 3: able to get a star, are you trying to bottom
Speaker 3: out like we've seen this year that even with Lowry, John, Colin,
Speaker 3: Jordan to an extent, like on the team, you can
Speaker 3: sit them as much as you want, and you can
Speaker 3: tank with all of those players on the team. And
Speaker 3: so if you get a Trey Johnson, you have a
Speaker 3: rookie that maybe isn't as explosive right out of the gate,
Speaker 3: you might be able to keep those guys, let them
Speaker 3: expire and just end up with like a lot of
Speaker 3: space moving forward. That being said, like you might have
Speaker 3: to start attaching second rounders or take back less than
Speaker 3: you and originally anticipated. I think there's probably still a
Speaker 3: little bit of value with Colin. I think there's a
Speaker 3: lot of teams that would really like having him on
Speaker 3: their team, just because he's so competitive and works so
Speaker 3: hard and has such a good reputation for that around
Speaker 3: the league. I think that John Collins probably like raised
Speaker 3: his value a little bit after coming from Atlanta. He
Speaker 3: had a good season despite not playing much, but that
Speaker 3: really wasn't his fault. Like, we both know that a
Speaker 3: lot of the guys that didn't play much this season
Speaker 3: were not as hurt as many people might think that
Speaker 3: they are. And people run the league. I don't know
Speaker 3: people run the league know that.
Speaker 1: What you're talking about now, Sarah, before we get you
Speaker 1: out of here, we'll go back to what we started
Speaker 1: on a little bit of NBA playoffs. What series has
Speaker 1: kind of kept your attention the most? Which one has
Speaker 1: been most entertaining for you? I think Cleveland Pacers Celtics.
Speaker 1: These are some series that are pretty well in hand,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City over Memphis, especially after last night. But which
Speaker 1: one has caught your attention the most has been most entertaining?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that the Rockets Warriors series is probably
Speaker 3: the most entertaining, just because of how incredibly different the
Speaker 3: teams are going into this, the history of them like
Speaker 3: fighting each other in the playoffs, even though they're like
Speaker 3: in different iterations, But I just like the idea that, like,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm in Thompson guarding Steff is one of
Speaker 3: the most competent players we've seen guard stuff in a
Speaker 3: long time. And it's against this Warriors team that comes
Speaker 3: in as a narrative of like, this is a dynasty team,
Speaker 3: this is how you build teams, this is how you
Speaker 3: win championships. Like that's that's the history and kind of
Speaker 3: vibe of that Warriors team, and that's playing against a
Speaker 3: team that's like ragtag group of misfits. There's not really
Speaker 3: a star on the team. Like you know, you have
Speaker 3: Albert and Segun who was an All Star, but like
Speaker 3: that doesn't scream like superstar NBA player, and it's you know,
Speaker 3: if the Warriors win, then it's kind of proof that
Speaker 3: you need those elite top ten, top fifteen players on
Speaker 3: your roster in order to win. And if the Rockets
Speaker 3: win this series, it's more like, no, you can do
Speaker 3: it with just like two handfuls of guys who are
Speaker 3: just absolute dudes on the on the roster. You don't
Speaker 3: have to have the earlie players. You can win this way.
Speaker 3: And so it's just it's telling a different NBA story
Speaker 3: on either side of the court.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very cool, Sarah, tell us what you've got coming
Speaker 4: over the next couple of weeks, and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got all the player grades that are coming out,
Speaker 3: so I'm I'm kind of diving into how each player
Speaker 3: how how they can be evaluated based on what the
Speaker 3: expectations were for them. So those are going to be
Speaker 3: coming out. And then with Andy, I will be in
Speaker 3: Chicago at the Combine and the lottery here actually coming
Speaker 3: up not too far away.
Speaker 4: Now I know it's it's close. I'm excited to go
Speaker 4: to Chicago. I'm excited to actually talk to these guys.
Speaker 4: I've been watching as much fill On as I am.
Speaker 1: Yeah, be fun, and I think I agree with Sarah.
Speaker 1: Rocket's Warriors has been a lot of fun. The contrast
Speaker 1: of of what those two teams are, how they how
Speaker 1: they're constructed is is really fun.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned that the.
Speaker 1: Rockets the second seed, but folks really hesitant to treat
Speaker 1: them as a two seed. That that'll that'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to watch. Sarah appreciate your time. Of course, the deserted
Speaker 1: News is where you find are at NBA. Sarah on socials,
Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: And and all your weekend.
Speaker 3: Thanks. Like I talked to me,