Speaker 1: Hello, how are you jive toime?
Speaker 2: Wednesday afternoon, fourteen minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It is another great day, man. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's about seventy degrees and sunny, little breezy outside on
Speaker 2: this Wednesday afternoon, and as it is every day, it's
Speaker 2: going to have you along for the rides.
Speaker 1: Spence Check.
Speaker 2: Its behind the Mike Porter Larson back in downtown Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City, behind the glass and we got a lot
Speaker 2: to do on the opening night for the Utah Jazz
Speaker 2: this evening. The NBA opened last night with a couple
Speaker 2: of not so awesome games. A couple of takeaways from
Speaker 2: those games. Momentarily, the Celtics ran away from the Knicks
Speaker 2: and the Lakers handled the Timberwolves pretty easily. So two
Speaker 2: NBA games last night. Now tonight it is the turn
Speaker 2: of the Utah Jazz. They welcome in the Memphis Grizzlies,
Speaker 2: who had a chaotic year last year. Most of our
Speaker 2: best players didn't play a whole lot, including John Morant
Speaker 2: who only played nine games. Memphis is still dealing with
Speaker 2: a ton of injuries. Jaron Jackson Junior, maybe their second
Speaker 2: best player to Joe.
Speaker 1: He's out tonight. Luke Cnnard out tonight.
Speaker 2: Cam Spencer, the rookie out of Yukon out tonight, and
Speaker 2: Gig Jackson out tonight as well. For the Jazz, No
Speaker 2: Johnny Juzang or Isaiah Collier, two young players that are
Speaker 2: probably are not going to play all that much either,
Speaker 2: so we'll get some Jazz hoops.
Speaker 1: Get you ready for Opening Night tonight.
Speaker 2: Always love when the NBA is back and NBA basketball
Speaker 2: is back, and we got some good guests talk NBA
Speaker 2: hoops today on the program on this Wednesday afternoon, one
Speaker 2: day closer to the weekend, halfway through your work week,
Speaker 2: one day closer to football, one day closer.
Speaker 1: To week eight in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Getting going now, it's am interesting NFL storylines. Apparently the
Speaker 2: Rams are looking to move Cooper Cup who is awesome
Speaker 2: but can't stay healthy. It's going to be the Vikings
Speaker 2: and the Rams from SOFI coming up tomorrow Thursday Night
Speaker 2: Football and we will get you ready for some pro football.
Speaker 2: We are your home of the NFL here in the market,
Speaker 2: so you can hear Thursday Night Football at ESPN seven
Speaker 2: hundred after we say goodnight tomorrow just about six o'clock.
Speaker 1: Prime Video is your home for that game.
Speaker 2: So Viking rams Minnesota one of the surprise teams in
Speaker 2: the league. They're five and one overall after losing last
Speaker 2: week to the Lions. They're a three point favorite on
Speaker 2: the road and so far so that that's how your
Speaker 2: NFL weekend will get going. Obviously, continuing to monitor the
Speaker 2: situation for Utah football is they're going to try to
Speaker 2: get right again. You know, I've said it, this feels
Speaker 2: I could get right game for the past three weeks.
Speaker 2: It has not been a get right, get right game yet.
Speaker 2: Maybe Houston is the anecdote. Houston not a great Big
Speaker 2: twelve football team. They did beat TCU, who quin snelionoff
Speaker 2: b Utah. Utah is a three point five point favorite.
Speaker 2: That line has stayed level now for about twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: After moving the way of the Utes, BYU hits the
Speaker 2: road to Orlando to take on UCF, of course, bringing
Speaker 2: me on with a dream season so far, although the
Speaker 2: spread has flipped interestingly enough. It opened up BYU is
Speaker 2: a one point favorite, and then it moved towards BYU.
Speaker 2: They were minus two and a half a one point.
Speaker 2: UCF is a full two point favorite now to beat
Speaker 2: BYU coming up on Saturday at one thirty Mountain time
Speaker 2: on ESPN. I will remind you that BYU is beatn
Speaker 2: SPREAD in every single game. If you're into such things.
Speaker 2: My advice to U is to never gamble on sports.
Speaker 2: But some people enjoy it entertainment purposes only here on
Speaker 2: the show, so.
Speaker 1: A lot to do.
Speaker 2: The Utah Hockey Club humbled last night at home. The
Speaker 2: Senators hung four goals in the first period and neither
Speaker 2: team scored the rest of the way. Anton Forsburg with
Speaker 2: thirty one saves and the Utah Hockey Club only shut
Speaker 2: out for the second time.
Speaker 1: All year long.
Speaker 2: They're back at it against the Avalanche coming up on Friday.
Speaker 2: RSL off until next week. The MLS playoffs will start
Speaker 2: at America First Field on Tuesday night at seven o'clock
Speaker 2: as Minnesota is in town to take on RSL best
Speaker 2: of three, with RSL maintaining that home field advantage. So
Speaker 2: great time of year, a little bit of everything going on.
Speaker 2: Excited for this Grizzlies game tonight. The Jazz are going
Speaker 2: to open up their season tonight after the NBA opened
Speaker 2: up the season last night, so we're gonna get to
Speaker 2: some Jazz is gonna get some college football, gonna get
Speaker 2: to some NBA big picture stuff and everything we can
Speaker 2: fit in. By the way, it's Big Twelve media days.
Speaker 2: As far as the basketball side, so youte basketball pick
Speaker 2: to finish last. Oh, it's been a rough couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: rough couple of months for you fans. You basketball pick
Speaker 2: to finish last in the Big Twelve. BYU pick to
Speaker 2: finish ninth, which is a statement of a couple of things.
Speaker 1: Just how deep the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: Is in men's hoops, and you know, ultimately how many
Speaker 2: good teams with a ton of talent are in this conference.
Speaker 1: BYU is gonna be really good.
Speaker 2: They're picked to finish ninth, a ton of Big Twelve
Speaker 2: teams in the top twenty five. So yes, we can
Speaker 2: add college football to the Nicks.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: By the way, the World.
Speaker 2: Series starts on Friday, so a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2: Here's how we're gonna roll today, Mark Harlan, Utah athletic
Speaker 2: director will stop by. This is an interesting time for
Speaker 2: Mark since he took over, Since he took the job
Speaker 2: a number of years ago.
Speaker 1: Youth football has more or less in a really good space.
Speaker 2: But the football team is down the basketball team pick
Speaker 2: to finish last in the Big Twelve. So we'll get
Speaker 2: with Mark today, see how his world is. Right out
Speaker 2: of the gates. To two thirty NBA Daily Assists was
Speaker 2: Zach Harper. Zach makes his trump for a return of
Speaker 2: the program from the Athletic in the Cinafold podcast, My
Speaker 2: buddy Blake Murdoch will stop by. I got a bunch
Speaker 2: of great deals going on at the Murdoch Auto Group,
Speaker 2: and I'm driving a great car right now.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about Coming up at three thirty, it's a.
Speaker 2: Little behind the glass with Neil Smith, source some NHL,
Speaker 2: the latest on the Utah Hockey Club and what's next.
Speaker 1: And then Richard Smith's Smitty.
Speaker 2: Live on site to get us ready for Jazz Grizz
Speaker 2: tonight and talk some NBA basketball.
Speaker 1: We're live today at the Dish. Professionals. Come on buy
Speaker 1: and say hi.
Speaker 4: It's eight oh one.
Speaker 1: Four to two four dish.
Speaker 2: That's eight oh one four two four dish. A bunch
Speaker 2: of great deals on Internet, bunch.
Speaker 1: Of great deals on cable. We'll let you know what
Speaker 1: we have going on.
Speaker 2: So Mark Carlin, Zach Harper, Blake Murdoch, Neil Smith, Richard Smith,
Speaker 2: me spent check ats all of you the great listeners.
Speaker 2: All right, Porter, The good news is the Knicks don't
Speaker 2: have to play the Celtics every single game. The bad
Speaker 2: news is all they did is put kat and pick
Speaker 2: and roll like I thought they would.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think the issues with the Knicks are going to
Speaker 5: be exactly what you expect, right, You had a star
Speaker 5: of that caliber and you're gonna have some benefits on
Speaker 5: the offensive side. But you also see why there are
Speaker 5: some detractors on Karl Anthony towns.
Speaker 1: Well we'll see.
Speaker 5: But yeah, after one game, looking like the Celtics might
Speaker 5: be class of the East again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and probably the entire NBA. So our first guest
Speaker 2: will be Mark Harlan right out of the gates. But
Speaker 2: before we get to Mark, courtesy of our good friends
Speaker 2: at Standard Restaurants Supply. On a Wednesday afternoon, it's time
Speaker 2: now for your opening tip.
Speaker 6: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check. It's on Utah's
Speaker 6: number one Sports Talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 6: seven hundred to set the scene for the show.
Speaker 1: The opening tip of.
Speaker 6: The Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply,
Speaker 6: your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town.
Speaker 6: Standard Restaurants supply thirty five hundred south West Temple.
Speaker 1: Opening night tonight for the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: It's something that I've always loved all the way back
Speaker 2: when I was a kid in the eighties watching jazz basketball,
Speaker 2: and definitely Jazz fans NBA fans waking up with a
Speaker 2: little different pep in your step. Couple of games last
Speaker 2: night neither really all that, you know, you know, interesting
Speaker 2: to get into.
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you this.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know Tom Thibodeau had Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 2: in Minnesota. All the Celtics did was put cat and
Speaker 2: pick and roll with either Tatum or Brown. Get the
Speaker 2: switch they wanted, beat them one on one, swing it
Speaker 2: side to side, take a three, or get a bucket.
Speaker 2: They had twenty nine threes. Joe Mizula talked about them
Speaker 2: shooting even more threes this year, and they averaged twenty
Speaker 2: nine attempted threes last year, or excuse me, thirty nine
Speaker 2: attempted threes. They shot sixty one last night. The Celtics
Speaker 2: are the class of the league. They're probably gonna win
Speaker 2: the championship again. I know that's one thing that bumps
Speaker 2: people out about the NBA, you can kind of predict
Speaker 2: how this stuff is gonna go. That's gonna change, though,
Speaker 2: and we'll get to that in a moment. Minnesota has
Speaker 2: a Mike Condi problem, and I love but he's just older.
Speaker 2: That's probably why they traded for Dante dian Vincenzo. They
Speaker 2: could not get back in transition, and Anthony Davis did
Speaker 2: whatever he wanted to do. I mean, the Lakers at
Speaker 2: some point will be AD's team. And Ad had thirty
Speaker 2: six and sixteen last night, had a big block on
Speaker 2: Gobar at the rim. So a couple games neither are
Speaker 2: all that consequential. But the NBA is back now for
Speaker 2: the Jazz Tonight, Memphis is in town now. The Grizzlies
Speaker 2: come off just a catastrophic chaotic year last year, where
Speaker 2: the majority of their best players didn't play very much,
Speaker 2: including Marcus Smart, who they traded for from the Celtics,
Speaker 2: and obviously including John Moran, who's still is box office
Speaker 2: man when he's healthy. When he's right, he's must see TV.
Speaker 2: And joh is back, but they will be without. Memphis
Speaker 2: will four rotational pieces, including Luke Canard, Cam Spencer, Jaron
Speaker 2: Jackson Junior, who might be their second best player and
Speaker 2: Gig Jackson.
Speaker 1: The Jazz will be without Johnny Juzeng, who shot really
Speaker 1: well in the.
Speaker 2: Preseason, and Isaiah Collier, their rookie, who did show a
Speaker 2: little bit of an ability to be elite guard in
Speaker 2: a way maybe some of the other players on the
Speaker 2: roster have not shown so far. Memphis is your favorite tonight,
Speaker 2: two and a half point favorite on the road. Get
Speaker 2: used to that if you're a Jazz fan. So ultimately,
Speaker 2: when it comes to what you're watching for from the
Speaker 2: Jazz this year, if we take the front office, that
Speaker 2: there word. We have had a couple of media sessions
Speaker 2: with Danny Ainge, Justin Zanik, one with Ryan Smith.
Speaker 1: We've heard from Will Hardy a little bit.
Speaker 2: This is going to be a year where you're going
Speaker 2: to get to know these young players, including the young
Speaker 2: players they had on the roster a year ago, but
Speaker 2: maybe even a little bit more so with the second
Speaker 2: year guys. And we'll see what happens with the rookies.
Speaker 2: My guest is Kyle Philipowski is going to start the
Speaker 2: year in the G League. Don't panic, That's fine, That's
Speaker 2: what the G League is for. Rudy Gobert spent some
Speaker 2: time there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see
Speaker 2: Isaiah Collier and maybe even at some point. I don't
Speaker 2: know what the plan is for Cody Williams, but all
Speaker 2: these young players may spend.
Speaker 1: Some time in the G League. But if the front
Speaker 1: office is.
Speaker 2: Telling us the truth, and we can only take them
Speaker 2: at their words starting tonight, if you're a Jazz fan,
Speaker 2: you better get accustomed to seeing these young kids play.
Speaker 2: We'll already is saying all preseason long. Pups can't raise pups.
Speaker 2: Hence Patty Mills, Drew You Banks and such. Look, they're
Speaker 2: not very good. Okay, I can't tell you on anything
Speaker 2: other than the Jazz or building. It's gonna take some time,
Speaker 2: but I'm excited the MBNBA basketball is back. I'm excited
Speaker 2: to be out here at the dish professionals once again
Speaker 2: with my guy Ryan.
Speaker 1: How are you buddy?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: Look, let's try that again. How are you right? Nope?
Speaker 2: Let's see eight oh one four to two four dish
Speaker 2: is the number. It's eight O one four to two
Speaker 2: four dish. I can tell you right now. They've got
Speaker 2: great deals on cable. Of course, they've got great deals
Speaker 2: on internet as well. Ryan, let's try that again. No,
Speaker 2: we can't here, Ryan, take my headset and tell the
Speaker 2: people the truth. Let's pretend my wait oh wait, wait
Speaker 2: wait wait, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Hi Ryan, how are you? Yes?
Speaker 2: She always does you know, Luckily she's here, else we'd
Speaker 2: just be driving back to the studio. All right, So today,
Speaker 2: let's talk to customers that either have Dish TV or
Speaker 2: Direct and tell them about the specials that you have
Speaker 2: available for them.
Speaker 1: If they don't take advantage of now, they're just going
Speaker 1: to expire.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they're gonna miss it. This merger is pretty interesting.
Speaker 7: That's gonna happen. And you know, this is an opportunity
Speaker 7: where you we still can get customers all the new
Speaker 7: customer benefits, and you know you're gonna end up in
Speaker 7: the same place when it's all said and done, but
Speaker 7: you can take advantage of these credits and there there's
Speaker 7: so much money out there and new customer incentives, and.
Speaker 4: That's where we specialize.
Speaker 7: It's just getting people the best offers and best promotions.
Speaker 4: And guys, that thing is is prices go up.
Speaker 7: And with this offer with Dish especially, it's got a
Speaker 7: two year price guarantee. We saw a cable rate increase,
Speaker 7: we saw an internet rate rate increase.
Speaker 4: Most everybody had fiber.
Speaker 7: Their bills went up, guys, what like was it almost
Speaker 7: like sixteen percent or something.
Speaker 4: It's a pretty massive increase.
Speaker 7: So if you call us, let us see what we
Speaker 7: can do and lower the bill. And you know, we've
Speaker 7: had so many customers and it's I say the seventy
Speaker 7: to like one hundred and ten plus, but almost seems
Speaker 7: more like I hear more one thirties, one hundred and
Speaker 7: thirty dollars a month cheaper than what they're currently paying.
Speaker 7: And you know that's that equates to you know, almost
Speaker 7: three thousand bucks in a couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hone in on internet. Because you are Ryan
Speaker 2: from the Dish pros and so when you hop on
Speaker 2: the show, people think cable. But I can tell you, you know,
Speaker 2: I go out and I get my Internet bill and
Speaker 2: I look at it every week and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: paying too much, you know, because it does continue to rise.
Speaker 1: So how can you help people save money on Internet?
Speaker 7: Well, so Internet has changed so much in the past
Speaker 7: three years, especially in this market. Kind of a lot
Speaker 7: of people like, well, the only option was maybe the
Speaker 7: cable company, and that's not the case. Now there are
Speaker 7: so many different providers available that offer very, very good services.
Speaker 7: We have this five G product that I've been using
Speaker 7: for over two years and there's a two hundred dollars
Speaker 7: gift card if you get set.
Speaker 4: Up on that. Guys.
Speaker 7: It is lightning, lightning fast, and it doesn't have a
Speaker 7: commitment or a contract, and i can actually get fiber
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Speaker 7: I'm paying less money for this five G product. And
Speaker 7: the true test is the kids and the wife happy
Speaker 7: and there, because if it breaks, it's always my fault,
Speaker 7: right right, yeah yeah, and you know, never have any
Speaker 7: complaints and no buffering. It works perfectly, And so you know,
Speaker 7: those options out there are are ways that we can
Speaker 7: save people just a tremendous amount of money and it's
Speaker 7: so painless. We come out, we set everything up. You know,
Speaker 7: if you've had Dave as the experience, you know, if
Speaker 7: you have a TV that you want to mount on
Speaker 7: the wall, if you want help with the home theater system,
Speaker 7: We'll program one remote to run everything for you. Plus
Speaker 7: with Dish you get that game game Changer remote which
Speaker 7: has the remote locator on it, and Dish now has
Speaker 7: not only all the TV options, but streaming options all
Speaker 7: built into one.
Speaker 2: Look, the easiest thing to do because we hit you
Speaker 2: with a bunch of information during our conversation. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: number one best thing to do is make the phone
Speaker 2: call and ask some questions.
Speaker 1: Right, That's that's the thing.
Speaker 7: No, that's what the goal is to say, like to
Speaker 7: tell you kind of like, hey, this is the possibility
Speaker 7: this can happen, but just call up and go.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 7: I hear Ryan on the radio. I keep saying I
Speaker 7: want to do this all right, this is what I have.
Speaker 7: This is the number of TVs, of the channels. I'm
Speaker 7: looking for what can for us, and we'll lay out
Speaker 7: the very best promotion offer out there, guaranteed plus because
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Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 7: This is this We're not going to have one of
Speaker 7: these for a while, So call us and get one
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Speaker 1: Is it a mistake to play an emotional song for
Speaker 1: Mark today?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make my guy cry because I
Speaker 2: was appreciate what he takes his time, uh to spend
Speaker 2: it with us on a Wednesday afternoon. The athletic director
Speaker 2: of the University of Utah, Mark Harlin, is our guest.
Speaker 4: Mark.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, sir, How are you hey?
Speaker 3: How you doing?
Speaker 8: Man?
Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. I appreciate your time, and let's
Speaker 2: just get right into it. You know, the football program
Speaker 2: has really been on incredibly stable footing for the majority
Speaker 2: of your tenure.
Speaker 1: And I'm not implying that they're not.
Speaker 2: It just the foundation feels a little looser than it
Speaker 2: has from my prison ever since you've taken the job.
Speaker 2: How have you have you digested the last three weeks
Speaker 2: for Utah football and the news that coach a lot
Speaker 2: of step decide.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's certainly been a tough It's tough, really four
Speaker 9: weeks to you count the buy in there, you know,
Speaker 9: obviously some unexpected results and some disappointing play, and especially
Speaker 9: when you consider, you know, two of these three in
Speaker 9: this losing streak, you know, being at home. It's something
Speaker 9: that's obviously really disappointing, but no more so than for
Speaker 9: anybody more than this football team and this incredible staff
Speaker 9: that surrounds them down there at the Echos Football Center.
Speaker 9: So you know, in times like this. You got a
Speaker 9: few choices. You either wallow in it and listen to
Speaker 9: all the outside noise of negativity, or or you do
Speaker 9: the complete opposite and you just really get back to
Speaker 9: work and increase your effort and increase your enthusiasm. And
Speaker 9: what I'm really excited about is what I've seen, particularly
Speaker 9: in the last forty eight hours with our football program
Speaker 9: practice yesterday. It was spirited, it was physical, It was
Speaker 9: a lot of energy on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 9: and it just reminds me we got a great coaching staff, Spence,
Speaker 9: and I have no doubt that they'll get this thing back.
Speaker 2: On track, a coaching staff that has a track record
Speaker 2: of turning around slow starts, as I continue to talk about,
Speaker 2: and so certainly coach Wit deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2: But Mark, if you could, and obviously there are plenty
Speaker 2: of things that you'll keep between the walls where they happened,
Speaker 2: but if you could take us in inside the decision
Speaker 2: making process that ultimately led to coach led stepping aside
Speaker 2: and coach but Jaki and stepping in now calling the place, well,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 9: I think you know when you go through kind of
Speaker 9: the last few weeks that we've been going through. Like
Speaker 9: Witz said after the game late on Saturday night early
Speaker 9: Sunday morning to the media, you know, he was going
Speaker 9: to look at every everything, and that also meant not
Speaker 9: only he looking at it, that every single coach was
Speaker 9: going to look at their position group and and the
Speaker 9: things that need to do better, because this is isn't
Speaker 9: just one player, it's not one coach, it's not one
Speaker 9: you know, position group. It's a collection. It's a collection
Speaker 9: of people that all have to to raise their game.
Speaker 9: And you know, out of that, Andy, who is just
Speaker 9: a remarkable coach, a remarkable man, just felt like, you know,
Speaker 9: a new voice was needed, and he, you know, he
Speaker 9: stepped aside. He and I had a great conversation on
Speaker 9: Sunday that that will remain private except to say how
Speaker 9: grateful he was for the opportunity to come back here
Speaker 9: for a second stint, and I gave me an opportunity
Speaker 9: to tell him that that he is a legendary figure
Speaker 9: uh and arguably been around some of the greatest moments
Speaker 9: of this football program, and that will never change. I
Speaker 9: really appreciated him for everything that that he did. But
Speaker 9: you know, we move forward and I'm really excited about
Speaker 9: you know what I've seen. Uh, And there's great leaders
Speaker 9: on that team, and this time, when you go through
Speaker 9: these kind of times, I should say, you got to
Speaker 9: lean on your leaders. That starts with all Hall of
Speaker 9: Famer and Coach Wit and seniors in the upper classmen
Speaker 9: of this team to pull it together and you know,
Speaker 9: get out there and play Utah football.
Speaker 2: Have any other changes been considered when it comes to
Speaker 2: the staff at this point, because, as you outlined when
Speaker 2: you answered my first question, the issues, it's not in
Speaker 2: one silo, it's not one coach, it's not one player.
Speaker 2: Like you know this, it hasn't been good enough all
Speaker 2: the way around with the standard that year program has
Speaker 2: set and Coach Wits program has set.
Speaker 1: Have you considered any other changes at this point?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm not going to go in the direction of that.
Speaker 9: I think that's up to Coach Wit to continually analyze
Speaker 9: that and we talk and we bounce things off each other.
Speaker 9: You know, let's not forget we're in the middle of
Speaker 9: a season. We're not in a bye week. The best
Speaker 9: thing that we can do right now is to get
Speaker 9: the minds right to play a great football game in
Speaker 9: Houston Saturday, night and prepare for that like it means everything,
Speaker 9: and it does mean everything to those guys. Get back
Speaker 9: on the winning track and take this thing step by step.
Speaker 2: So I exist in a stratosphere mostly of you'd fans
Speaker 2: as far as my social circle, and these are boosters,
Speaker 2: these are alumni, these are season ticket holders. And if
Speaker 2: my inbox says what it says, I have to imagine
Speaker 2: your inbox says something that you know. And I'm not
Speaker 2: talking about the internet where cowards go to feel brave, Mark,
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about the social media feedback. When the
Speaker 2: football team struggles, What does the athletic director's inbox look like?
Speaker 9: You know, it's always going to be up down, and
Speaker 9: I've just chosen not to really even consider that kind
Speaker 9: of noise. It's the same thing we encourage our student
Speaker 9: athletes on any teams, and that includes when we're playing
Speaker 9: at a really high level, right, because if you buy
Speaker 9: into that stuff, then you're probably not spending your time
Speaker 9: on the right thing, right. You know, we know the
Speaker 9: work that goes in and we know the strategy that
Speaker 9: you have to deploy for each contest football in any sport,
Speaker 9: and where you can really find yourself extremely lost is
Speaker 9: if you start listening and all those kinds of things listen.
Speaker 9: At the end of the day, we appreciate the incredible
Speaker 9: support this football team gets for every incredible victory we've had.
Speaker 9: The losses are probably even more painful than victory, and
Speaker 9: I respect that. I mean, anything less than dominance from
Speaker 9: this football program is hard to tolerate, and I totally
Speaker 9: understand that. But in terms of listening and reading and
Speaker 9: that stuff, it's just a waste of time.
Speaker 2: And certainly I understand that when it comes to comments
Speaker 2: on an article or tweets underneath you know, mentions on
Speaker 2: a tweet or what have you. But do you feel like,
Speaker 2: because look, the lifeblood of college football right now, certainly
Speaker 2: with nil, you need revenue from boosters, you need support
Speaker 2: from the community, do you still feel like the people
Speaker 2: that you need as part of your program or steadfast
Speaker 2: in that support.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean, why would I think otherwise? I don't
Speaker 9: think folks that are invested in a deep way that
Speaker 9: we have so many folks here going to take three
Speaker 9: weeks of a football game we decided to walk away.
Speaker 9: You know, they are concerned. I'm concerned. What's concerned? The
Speaker 9: players are concerned? Right, but we also talk about being
Speaker 9: a family, and the family is not you know, is
Speaker 9: a group that's investing in us, in a group that's
Speaker 9: working hard to get it fixed. So I am in
Speaker 9: no worry of worrying about donations that help support our
Speaker 9: football program. We have incredible fan base. We're going through
Speaker 9: a tough time. They'll help us get out of it,
Speaker 9: and and I'm looking forward to them doing just that.
Speaker 2: Well, this is as a result of the expectations the
Speaker 2: football team is set. I mean, you understand that when
Speaker 2: I was in school, it wasn't this. When I was
Speaker 2: in school four and three, it was like, sweet, maybe
Speaker 2: we can get to a bowl. Like there's just a
Speaker 2: different expectation with Utah football over the past, you know,
Speaker 2: really twenty years or so. That didn't exist once upon
Speaker 2: a time. So the reaction of the community, the downtrodden field.
Speaker 2: Because I'm in the stadium, Mark, I can feel it.
Speaker 4: It's different.
Speaker 2: The muss is the muss, and you need good football
Speaker 2: to cheer for. But I think the at least from
Speaker 2: my prism, I mean, we all come at this from
Speaker 2: our own echo chamber.
Speaker 1: I think the.
Speaker 2: Downtrodden emotion in the fan base right now and the
Speaker 2: folks that care about Utah football as a result of
Speaker 2: what they're accustomed to because of the standard that's been set,
Speaker 2: and when the standards not met, people are are not
Speaker 2: going to be thrilled, if that makes.
Speaker 9: Sense, of course, and I have every right net to
Speaker 9: be thrilled. I mean, like I said earlier, this this
Speaker 9: has been a program that has been dominant, particularly since
Speaker 9: the twenty eighteen season, much less the historic seasons and
Speaker 9: moments that happened previous to that. One of the highest
Speaker 9: winning percentages in the country. I mean, even this season
Speaker 9: we were ranked tenth at one point. I mean, I
Speaker 9: totally understand. I'm very empathetic to that feeling, and I
Speaker 9: and you know, and what I also say is that
Speaker 9: no one feels worse than the guys that are out
Speaker 9: there playing and the guys that know that they want
Speaker 9: to succeed not only for themselves and their families, for
Speaker 9: their school, but also for all the folks that.
Speaker 4: Come to cheer.
Speaker 9: So all of that's there, and all of that's part
Speaker 9: of college football, but when you're in a moment like
Speaker 9: this is the leadership position I'm in, and coach and
Speaker 9: all the coaches and staff surrounding those student athletes is
Speaker 9: to make sure they remain confident or make sure they
Speaker 9: have the space to work and prepare and get on
Speaker 9: to the next opponent. And that really has been our focus.
Speaker 2: And also, Mark, it's a chance to see what you're
Speaker 2: made of, because I'm often and folks who listen to
Speaker 2: the show, and I know you're an every day So
Speaker 2: thank you for that. You know that I have any
Speaker 2: sports as it reflects real life guy, And these are
Speaker 2: the times in life, and these are the times in
Speaker 2: sports where you find out what your group is made of.
Speaker 2: Because look, and I've been called a lunatic for this,
Speaker 2: I've been called a lunatic for several things. But there's
Speaker 2: actually still a path there really is. Now you have
Speaker 2: to get creative. You have to be overly optimistic with
Speaker 2: you goggles because you have head to heads with three
Speaker 2: of maybe the four best teams in the conference with BYU,
Speaker 2: Colorado and Iowa State, and they're actually now you have
Speaker 2: to hope that the other teams get got a little
Speaker 2: bit because they're gonna have to enter this with three
Speaker 2: losses as well. Are you willing to stress your imagination
Speaker 2: on this day after a three game losing streak. For
Speaker 2: something special to be salvaged this year, you do have
Speaker 2: to get creative, but it is out there.
Speaker 9: I appreciate your thoughts, and I'm sure there's folks thinking
Speaker 9: that way. I would just tell you straight from this office,
Speaker 9: throughout the Eccles football and beyond, it's all about Saturday
Speaker 9: at Houston. It's about winning a football game. And all
Speaker 9: of those other things are out of our control. And
Speaker 9: the teams you mentioned may win, they may lose, but
Speaker 9: right now it's all about Houston. That's where we're at
Speaker 9: and that's our singular focus within the football program.
Speaker 2: Help us understand if you can. And look when I
Speaker 2: was eighteen, if I put on matching socks, I won
Speaker 2: the day. So I'm going easy on Isaac Man Like
Speaker 2: he enrolled in April. He was trying to throw touchdowns
Speaker 2: again Skyridge High School a year ago. But help us
Speaker 2: understand the dynamic between Mike Bajakian, the new play caller,
Speaker 2: and Isaac. You know when Isaac was interviewed on Tuesday
Speaker 2: after practice and he said he's signed here to play
Speaker 2: for coach Love, you just felt bad for the kid
Speaker 2: because I think, well, I'm reminded of how young he
Speaker 2: is when he takes his helmet off, and I'm like.
Speaker 1: Dude, he is so he's just like so young.
Speaker 2: So what's the dynamic like between those two And what
Speaker 2: do you anticipate seeing now that there's a different, different
Speaker 2: guy in charge of playing a call in plays.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I really appreciate the entire team, and
Speaker 9: the team is made up of so many incredible young men.
Speaker 9: You know, we have some grizzled vets and then we
Speaker 9: have our freshman group and certainly our sophomore And I
Speaker 9: think it's been a little on a report how many
Speaker 9: young players have really been making impact this year. You
Speaker 9: look at our tackles, just how amazing they are, how
Speaker 9: young they are, and I think both being named, you know,
Speaker 9: on all American lists midway through the year. You know,
Speaker 9: Isaac has just been just been terrific. You know, it
Speaker 9: was a blessing for all of us that he was
Speaker 9: able to get here in the spring and we'll early
Speaker 9: and you know, do all the work, assimilate with the
Speaker 9: team in that period of time and obviously not expected
Speaker 9: for him to carry the kind of load he is,
Speaker 9: But he's a mature young man. He's got a great family,
Speaker 9: He's obviously got an older brother who's been through a
Speaker 9: lot of pressure situations that he gets to lean on.
Speaker 9: And you know, it's been fun to watch his growth.
Speaker 9: You know, I was so impressed with him. It's still
Speaker 9: water the way he handled that crowd and the way
Speaker 9: he made decisions. And we're seeing him, you know, come
Speaker 9: of age quicker than we probably all thought. But I
Speaker 9: give him a lot of credit. As far as as
Speaker 9: coach Pajenkian, and you know, I've known.
Speaker 3: Him for a while.
Speaker 9: We actually lived close to each other in Tampa, of
Speaker 9: all places, when he was coaching quarterbacks with the Bucks,
Speaker 9: and I was the athletic director there at South Florida,
Speaker 9: and so I've really admired him, and he's been great,
Speaker 9: and I think, you know, he's ready to take on
Speaker 9: this challenge. He certainly has the experiences called plays, but
Speaker 9: more importantly, you know, the connectivity of the offense and
Speaker 9: the things that he's done getting everybody on the same page. Obviously,
Speaker 9: helping Isaac is a big part of that, but it's
Speaker 9: beyond just the quarterback position, right, everybody has a part
Speaker 9: in this, and everybody has to lean in and lead,
Speaker 9: and that's really the work that's being done as we speak.
Speaker 2: One more football question then when a couple of minutes left.
Speaker 1: There there's a lot going on right now.
Speaker 2: It's like the busiest time of year, which makes it
Speaker 2: fun and probably a little chaotic. But since you and
Speaker 2: I last spoke, and look, my bottom line here is
Speaker 2: the worst possible luck for Cameron Rising.
Speaker 1: I just my I'm gutted for him.
Speaker 2: I feel horrible for him because of course he wanted
Speaker 2: to come back and play against ASU. He probably was
Speaker 2: hearing some noise and feeling some pressure. Then he gets
Speaker 2: rolled on the third play and if you watch that
Speaker 2: replay in slow motion, I don't know how he's even
Speaker 2: walking after that play, but he got up and gutted
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately didn't work out.
Speaker 2: But if this is it for Cameron, because the future
Speaker 2: will figure itself out, there's going to be a time
Speaker 2: for that conversation, but today's not that time. If this
Speaker 2: is it for Cameron Rising, how should we view him
Speaker 2: as he walks out the door?
Speaker 9: Epic game changer for this program? Leadership Alpha Dog? You
Speaker 9: know all of all of those things, And I just
Speaker 9: I have so many memories and interactions with Cam through
Speaker 9: the years, and you know, I remember when he didn't
Speaker 9: get we had applied it was like years and years
Speaker 9: ago now when we had applied to have him play
Speaker 9: immediately after he transferred in from Texas and we got
Speaker 9: the word that he couldn't, right, he didn't satisfy those requirements.
Speaker 9: And I remember telling him, and he had that goofy smile, like,
Speaker 9: all right, I'll just get to work, you know, And
Speaker 9: he just went up in the in the in the
Speaker 9: in the booth and just helped Andy and and and
Speaker 9: you know, just all the things he's done. It just
Speaker 9: really disappointing for him and obviously for all of us.
Speaker 9: But he worked really really hard to get back. He
Speaker 9: had the unfortunate injury in the Baylor game, and then
Speaker 9: of course, you know all the work he did and
Speaker 9: just you know, right in the beginning of the Arizona
Speaker 9: State game, he just he just got hurt again. So
Speaker 9: you know, the ending is tough for him, and feel
Speaker 9: bad for him. That's the nature of sport. But doesn't
Speaker 9: take away the championships, the Rose Bowl, the Rose Bulls,
Speaker 9: you know, think about that with an s Nothing takes
Speaker 9: that away.
Speaker 2: And forever grateful, all right, lost in the shuffle, because
Speaker 2: there's so much going on is Big Twelve media days
Speaker 2: for the basketball team, both the men's and the women's.
Speaker 1: Let's start on the men's side.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the Pac twelve at times was
Speaker 2: a solid basketball conference. It you know, it went up
Speaker 2: and down like most conferences do. This is a different challenge.
Speaker 2: There are five Big Big twelve teams in the top ten,
Speaker 2: which is a record. Six are ranked five in the
Speaker 2: top ten, So this is going to be quite a
Speaker 2: challenge for Craig. And you know, I think what we've
Speaker 2: learned on the football side of things is, don't ever
Speaker 2: listen to the media. We don't know anything better. Pick
Speaker 2: to finish last in the Big twelve. Not a lot
Speaker 2: of chatter around Utah hoops as of now. What can
Speaker 2: you share about what's going on behind closed doors with
Speaker 2: the preparation.
Speaker 9: Yeah, just a lot of really solid work. You know,
Speaker 9: with the new rules in this transfer portal era, you know,
Speaker 9: most teams are adding seven to ten new players across
Speaker 9: the country, and you know, being able to that summer
Speaker 9: work and then stretching into the fall has been real
Speaker 9: blessing for us. You know, we had a scrimmage with
Speaker 9: a really solid Big ten team here on Saturday, we
Speaker 9: played fantastic. I was able to watch the whole game,
Speaker 9: really impressed. The outcome was terrific. You know, the individual
Speaker 9: players that I haven't seen in game conditions, was really
Speaker 9: really impressed. I mean, the scrimmage was run just like
Speaker 9: it was a game, with the exception of the fans
Speaker 9: had a little COVID look in there, the referees, the
Speaker 9: whole thing. So it was the first time to see
Speaker 9: them play. They're very connected this early, very physical, very athletic.
Speaker 9: Really really impressed with what I saw. You know, our
Speaker 9: two guards are just big and smart and really impressive,
Speaker 9: and and so I'm excited about it. You know, I
Speaker 9: think they have a real chance to to you know,
Speaker 9: to do some things that will be really really excited about.
Speaker 9: They're really excited about that competition.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 9: I think that that's what's you know, student athletes at
Speaker 9: this level, that's what they want. They thrive in that competition.
Speaker 9: It makes them work even harder. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker 9: And then the women, you know, they have Gianna back.
Speaker 9: It's just just gigantic for the program. I mean, the
Speaker 9: loser last year was just devastating, and to see her
Speaker 9: back smile and running around is fantastic, along with Jenna
Speaker 9: and some other incredible returning players. And they just got
Speaker 9: back from media day yesterday and said it was terrific. So,
Speaker 9: you know, both programs are really excited to get started.
Speaker 9: It is amazing that we start in the next few weeks,
Speaker 9: really excited about having our fans back. We're actually up
Speaker 9: in season tickets on men's basketball. Really really appreciate our
Speaker 9: fans for that, and we look forward to everyone coming
Speaker 9: out and watching both teams play.
Speaker 1: Before I say you loose, I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: you a couple of minutes.
Speaker 2: I saw that the golf team is climbing, and as
Speaker 2: a old man, you can't play pickup hoops anymore. I
Speaker 2: swing a golf club quite a bit, so excited about that.
Speaker 2: But football and basketball from a meat and potato sports
Speaker 2: stock radio standpoint kind of gets a lot of bandwidth
Speaker 2: around here. What are some of the other happenings around
Speaker 2: the athletic department right now?
Speaker 9: Mark, Well, I appreciate that because obviously football takes a
Speaker 9: lot of headlines, but the other sports are just having
Speaker 9: some of their best balls they've had in years. You know,
Speaker 9: you mentioned golf, the highest ever rating today at tenth,
Speaker 9: when two tournaments already cross country highest rating in their
Speaker 9: program history at six in the nation and volleyball, you know,
Speaker 9: twenty two in the country. Off for a big weekend
Speaker 9: the rink sixteenth in the NCAA Pull, which means we
Speaker 9: host the tournament, and women's soccer is fighting for the
Speaker 9: buy in the tournament coming up here in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 9: Just having a fantastic year. All those teams head and
Speaker 9: ride at postseason play, so you know, excited about all
Speaker 9: the work that's going on the transition in the Big twelve.
Speaker 9: We're all learning new faces, new places, but really really
Speaker 9: proud of a lot of teams here and appreciating all
Speaker 9: the fans sticking with us as we go through this,
Speaker 9: and rest assured we're doing the work on the football
Speaker 9: side to get this thing back to the level that
Speaker 9: we all.
Speaker 4: Know it can be.
Speaker 2: Better days ahead, Mark, And you know you're not always up,
Speaker 2: as you know you've been in this business a long time,
Speaker 2: So thank you for the time on a tough week,
Speaker 2: and I'd love to have you on again soon.
Speaker 4: Okay, appreciate it. Thank you all right.
Speaker 2: Mark Carlin, Athletic director for the University of Utah. He
Speaker 2: is on social media. He has his own podcast. You
Speaker 2: can find it at Mark Carlan Underscore Ad. All right,
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Speaker 2: four West seven hundred South Sweet four oh one in
Speaker 2: Pleasant Grove, NBA. Started last night, the Utah Jazz open
Speaker 2: up their season this evening against the Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: Pitbull is on my radio show.
Speaker 2: It must mean the triumphant return of one Zach Harper
Speaker 2: on a beautiful Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Zach, I love you, I hate you.
Speaker 4: How are you?
Speaker 10: I'm great? I love you and I love you. You know,
Speaker 10: no hatred here, even though you're wrong about Pitbull. The
Speaker 10: concert happen yet in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't know if it did, Buddy. That's where I'm
Speaker 2: at with pit Bull the perfect cover. How you been Man,
Speaker 2: I'm good man.
Speaker 4: I you know.
Speaker 10: I try to take time and not get excited about
Speaker 10: the season until like opening night, and yesterday I was
Speaker 10: geeks for it. I was so excited that everything was
Speaker 10: back and I'm here for well. Tonight's games are terrible,
Speaker 10: but for the most part, I'm here for the return
Speaker 10: of everything.
Speaker 1: For sure, and I follow you, follow you on socials.
Speaker 2: So you had a rather eventful off season, mister world traveler,
Speaker 2: tell us give us the cliff notes.
Speaker 10: You know, much like much like Pitbull, I was trying
Speaker 10: to be mister worldwide.
Speaker 4: Indeed, I went to Europe.
Speaker 10: I went to Amsterdam, I went to Copenhagen, I went
Speaker 10: to Prague, I went to Paris, I went to London.
Speaker 10: That was everywhere.
Speaker 1: Now has your palette changed?
Speaker 2: That's the number one thing that changes when you're traveling
Speaker 2: travel internationally.
Speaker 10: I mean, I like, I learned about some you know,
Speaker 10: Czech or Czech Republic chech food, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what.
Speaker 10: I don't know what you call it, check food, prog food.
Speaker 10: I learned about some stuff, and I wasn't a huge fan.
Speaker 10: I was reinforced on all things French cooking, and then
Speaker 10: just very surprised how into Italian food that Amsterdam was
Speaker 10: ah a lot of and also in Copenhagen apparently known
Speaker 10: for hot dogs.
Speaker 1: I did not know that.
Speaker 2: I've only been to the airport in Amsterdam, so I
Speaker 2: haven't really sampled the cuisine.
Speaker 1: But we can move on. Nobody gives a rip outside
Speaker 1: of me, but it's my show, Zach, as you know.
Speaker 2: So indeed, so we sit here opening night for the
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz. We'll start locally and then we'll expand it
Speaker 2: to some other topics and conversation around the NBA.
Speaker 1: They essentially ran it back with three new rookies.
Speaker 2: Justin Zanik for his preseason media availability, when asked about
Speaker 2: the big game hunting Moniker, he said, we tried and
Speaker 2: there was nothing out there. Well, I'll leave aside the
Speaker 2: fifteen really good players that actually did move. I guess
Speaker 2: what he's saying is there was nothing out there that
Speaker 2: was worth it to sacrifice. You know, the assets they
Speaker 2: have Vegas over under is twenty nine and a half,
Speaker 2: so they think we're in for another year of maybe
Speaker 2: some decent basketball, but mostly mediocre basketball. Their pick is
Speaker 2: top ten protected. If it's out of the top ten,
Speaker 2: it goes to OKC. I know this sounds like we're just,
Speaker 2: you know, replaying an interview we did last October, but
Speaker 2: we're kind of in the same spots, Ac, What are
Speaker 2: you expecting from the Jazz.
Speaker 10: I feel like we're the two radio guys and in
Speaker 10: the movie groundhog Day, just yelling in the Groundhog Day.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, uh yeah.
Speaker 10: I mean this is where this is where the jazz exists.
Speaker 10: They don't want to do a full tank. They want
Speaker 10: to be competitive. I expect a lot of like the
Speaker 10: the same as the last two years. Like I think
Speaker 10: they'll be surprisingly good to a lot of people outside
Speaker 10: of the Salt Lake City market, right, I think a
Speaker 10: lot of people are expecting, oh, well, the jazz they're rebuilding,
Speaker 10: they'll be bad, and in the first couple of months
Speaker 10: they'll be pretty competitive, pretty good, and then at a
Speaker 10: certain point, I don't know it's called January, it's called February,
Speaker 10: you'll see them turned towards quote unquote development. I think
Speaker 10: part you know, the rosters. The roster's good, like if
Speaker 10: they if they stayed healthy, like that roster could compete
Speaker 10: for a playing tournament spot in most years, except this
Speaker 10: year it's going to be like thirteen teams competing for
Speaker 10: a playing tournament spot. So it's it's a little more crowded.
Speaker 10: But you know, especially like last year is whatever, right,
Speaker 10: Like the rookie class was terrible. The year before you
Speaker 10: and I had talked about that, and I kept quoting
Speaker 10: Marcellus Wallace from Fault Fiction saying, and like that feeling
Speaker 10: in the back of your head when you try to
Speaker 10: win this thing that's pride bleeping with you. Like that,
Speaker 10: it feels like we're in the same spot because this
Speaker 10: draft class has four or five six guys who could
Speaker 10: be franchise players at some point. I mean it's you know,
Speaker 10: it's probably don't all pan out that way, but it's
Speaker 10: pretty deep with possibilities, and so you know it has
Speaker 10: You're trying to rebuild, and you're trying to do it,
Speaker 10: you know, the right way, but stay cant. You just
Speaker 10: got to let you gotta let it go at some
Speaker 10: point and just be bad.
Speaker 1: And that's where I've been at.
Speaker 2: But they disagree and they run the show, and they've
Speaker 2: yet to hire us as their consultants even though our
Speaker 2: business is out there.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and hit us.
Speaker 4: Up on the social too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, man, And they're blowing it by not
Speaker 1: bringing us in.
Speaker 2: But ultimately, since you and I last spoke, they did
Speaker 2: bring back marketing on a Max Steal and that's who
Speaker 2: he is in the league, and that's who he is
Speaker 2: to this team. Do you have any insight as to
Speaker 2: whether or not they were ever close to actually pulling
Speaker 2: the trigger on a move with him, And what do
Speaker 2: you make of who they perceive to.
Speaker 1: Be And look, he's really good.
Speaker 2: I don't want to come across like I'm knocking on
Speaker 2: marketing because he's awesome. They talk about him as if
Speaker 2: he's a legitimate cornerstone. I think he's more like the
Speaker 2: third best player on a title winning team, but they're
Speaker 2: not close to that.
Speaker 1: So do you have any.
Speaker 2: Insight as far as how close they were to movie
Speaker 2: him and what are your thoughts on them committeing a
Speaker 2: big portion of their cat to him in the future.
Speaker 10: I don't think it got particularly close, you know, I know,
Speaker 10: I know Sacramento called in, I know you know the
Speaker 10: Warriors were heavily involved, but you know, some other teams
Speaker 10: were definitely interested. But you get into this negotiating standoff
Speaker 10: and it happens a lot. It's not just the Danny
Speaker 10: Aingeer jazz thing, but you get into the standoff where, hey,
Speaker 10: this is our guy. We like him a lot, We're
Speaker 10: gonna max him out. He you know, he's he's an
Speaker 10: all star, he's an all NBA level player. We want
Speaker 10: all these assets, we want all these things in return
Speaker 10: and the other team looks at him like him, but
Speaker 10: he's not our number one. We're not going to give
Speaker 10: up all that. You know, you just get into this,
Speaker 10: this just ping pong negotiation. And I think because of
Speaker 10: what Utah was asking for. And I don't blame them,
Speaker 10: you should ask for a lot, especially in the summer
Speaker 10: when deals are more, you know, are easier to get done.
Speaker 10: I just I don't think it ever really got close.
Speaker 10: He is a really good player. I'm with you, Like
Speaker 10: I think he's probably a number two on a title
Speaker 10: contending team. I don't. I definitely don't think he's a
Speaker 10: number one. But he's he's awesome, Like he's so good.
Speaker 10: And so they bring, you know, they bring him back
Speaker 10: on this max deal and it and it eliminates all
Speaker 10: the trade chatter for this year, and we'll revisit next
Speaker 10: summer and see, you know, when when the dust starts
Speaker 10: to settle, who who really wants to go get him?
Speaker 2: So xanik Ames, even Ryan Smith, the owner, whenever they're
Speaker 2: asked about kind of the plan for this season, they
Speaker 2: refer to the youth and they talk about development, and
Speaker 2: they've all said with some small variation with each like
Speaker 2: the only way to develop our young players is to
Speaker 2: play them. So there are seven players twenty three or under.
Speaker 2: It's Walker Kessler is the oldest, and obviously all these
Speaker 2: rookies all the way down.
Speaker 1: To Isaiah Callier.
Speaker 2: The question is Will Hardy right, because ultimately the rotation
Speaker 2: is going to be up to him, And so do
Speaker 2: you anticipate Will leaning into simply developing young players? And
Speaker 2: on the night that Isaiah Colliers one for seventeen and
Speaker 2: isn't going to impact winning, will he allow these young
Speaker 2: players to play through mistakes? Are we gonna have to suffer?
Speaker 2: Hearing David Locke breaking down the Patty Mills Drew Eubanks
Speaker 2: pick and roll ratio in the third quarter because he
Speaker 2: goes to the vets, I mean, I'm wondering how Will's
Speaker 2: going to handle this?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean I think Will. I think, you know,
Speaker 10: like I do think they empower Will from what I hear,
Speaker 10: and I think they should. I think at a certain
Speaker 10: point it won't be up to Will as much, right
Speaker 10: in terms of like, hey, you know, we're five ten
Speaker 10: games under five hundred. It's the middle of the season.
Speaker 10: We're good, but we're not terrible. You know, we maybe
Speaker 10: we start focusing. Maybe this guy is a little injured,
Speaker 10: maybe we trade away this guy. But I think eventually
Speaker 10: you it's just a lot of what happened last two years,
Speaker 10: Like you go towards that. I think I think will
Speaker 10: would you know, we saw it with Chanta George. Actually
Speaker 10: think Chanto George is a perfect example.
Speaker 11: Last year.
Speaker 10: There were times where he showed glimpses early on. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 10: this kid is good. This kid deserves to be on
Speaker 10: the court. And there were times where he played and
Speaker 10: you don't. I don't know why he's out there, right.
Speaker 10: I mean, it was more good than bad, but he
Speaker 10: was a rookie. He was a rookie point guard, and
Speaker 10: I think it led to that kind of ebb and
Speaker 10: flow and he's stuck with him. But I don't think
Speaker 10: everyone gets that same luxury as Kante George gotten, nor
Speaker 10: should I do. I think they should, because I don't
Speaker 10: know how many of these guys are are ready to
Speaker 10: kind of deal with the lows when also going through
Speaker 10: the hives. And so that's a long winded way of
Speaker 10: saying I don't know, but I think it will be
Speaker 10: taken out of his hands at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's uh let's dig into Kiante a little bit.
Speaker 2: So the fact of the matter is you brought this
Speaker 2: up a couple of times. He was not a great
Speaker 2: shot maker in college, and he was not a great
Speaker 2: shot maker his rookie year, even though he had some
Speaker 2: volume in some usage. I mean, he averaged eleven field
Speaker 2: goal attempts at night but shot thirty nine percent, shot
Speaker 2: six threes a night, but only shot thirty three percent.
Speaker 1: You like the body you like to build.
Speaker 2: I still am a little bit skeptical about his ability
Speaker 2: to lead a team as a lead guard. Will continuously
Speaker 2: talks about not using labels and it doesn't matter who
Speaker 2: initiates the offense. That's fine, but somebody still got to
Speaker 2: make a play. So your two keyante, George, what do
Speaker 2: you think it looks like?
Speaker 10: I mean, I think I think it looks you know,
Speaker 10: I think it looks a lot better I you know,
Speaker 10: he it's it's weird. It's with him, everything looks good
Speaker 10: in terms of creation and ability, Like he creates a
Speaker 10: shot that I think is like, that's a good shot
Speaker 10: and it just doesn't go down. I don't look at
Speaker 10: his shooting form and think, God, it needs an overhaul, right,
Speaker 10: Like I look at him, like, yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 10: Like his shooting force is pretty good. He seems pretty comfortable,
Speaker 10: he seems comfortable attacking the basket, he seems comfortable in
Speaker 10: the middle of the floor. But the results aren't there
Speaker 10: in terms of shot making. I like their approach with
Speaker 10: him of just kind of letting him figure it out.
Speaker 10: But you probably only have another season until that's the problem, right, Like,
Speaker 10: he's he's good, Like he has great poise for being
Speaker 10: a you know, going into his second years as.
Speaker 4: A lead guard.
Speaker 10: He he's he's got a good build, like he's you know,
Speaker 10: everything is everything looks like he's a player. But if
Speaker 10: that shot doesn't start falling and isn't progressing, and the
Speaker 10: finishing at the rim isn't progressing, like all that stuff
Speaker 10: isn't progressing as this season goes on, yeah, like early
Speaker 10: on next season, if that's still an issue, you have
Speaker 10: to be concerned. I don't think there's anything to be
Speaker 10: concerned about right now, but it is weird that everything
Speaker 10: looks so good and the results in terms of just
Speaker 10: accuracy don't come close to mirroring that.
Speaker 2: So it's a big year for Walker because ultimately, you know,
Speaker 2: year three rookie deal. They did pick up his option,
Speaker 2: which isn't a surprise so beyond the team next year,
Speaker 2: but second Rookie of the Year voting shout out Andy Larson,
Speaker 2: who voted for him for Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: Oh Andy, God bless you.
Speaker 2: He was never gonna be that uh And the year
Speaker 2: one to year two jump was not there. All of
Speaker 2: his numbers dipped outside of blocks per game, but the
Speaker 2: opponent's field goal percentage at the rim actually improved a lot.
Speaker 2: So he was blocking shots but not affecting them in
Speaker 2: a way that he did as a rookie. So for
Speaker 2: Walker to convince the organization that he's not just a
Speaker 2: guy in a rotational piece, but a guy that you
Speaker 2: can start and roll with, what does this year have
Speaker 2: to look like?
Speaker 10: I mean, you know it starts with health obviously, but
Speaker 10: he he just has to be someone. Can he run, dribble,
Speaker 10: handoff stuff. Can he you know, be alone on the
Speaker 10: perimeter with the ball. And it's not a complete minus.
Speaker 10: It doesn't mean he has to shoot threes, but he
Speaker 10: has to be able to, like, you know, kind of
Speaker 10: dribble into some action. Find you know, find a guy
Speaker 10: coming off the screen with a crisp pass like. All
Speaker 10: that stuff has to happen. He has to finish at
Speaker 10: the rim. He has to be a lob thread at
Speaker 10: the rim. He has to be great kind of orbiting
Speaker 10: that circle and getting into the dunker spot, all that
Speaker 10: stuff offensively. I think he'll be fine because of that.
Speaker 10: He can't foul. He has to rebound at a at
Speaker 10: a you know, almost an all star rate. I mean,
Speaker 10: he just has to be a guy where there's no
Speaker 10: doubt you want him on the court in big minutes,
Speaker 10: and there's no doubt you want him on the court
Speaker 10: when things are going poorly, like that's the guy that
Speaker 10: can help calm things down. And we saw it develop
Speaker 10: with Gobert, you know, pretty quickly once they turned the
Speaker 10: keys over to him. I don't think that's fair to expect.
Speaker 10: I think everything like that we talked about, that was
Speaker 10: talked about in general after that trade and in that
Speaker 10: first year post trade, I think it actually did him
Speaker 10: a lot of disservice because he was good. He was surprised,
Speaker 10: but he wasn't Gobert right, If this whole thing like
Speaker 10: that became this is the worst trade ever to Now, Hey,
Speaker 10: that's a good trade for both sides. I think he
Speaker 10: just has to go in with sticking on the floor
Speaker 10: and they they got to trust him, like they have
Speaker 10: to trust him early on to make mistakes even as
Speaker 10: they're being competitive, because if they start yanking his minutes
Speaker 10: and they start pulled him off there, now you just
Speaker 10: get into a very complicated situation of what the future
Speaker 10: of him on that team and his contract and everything.
Speaker 10: Looks like.
Speaker 2: We had local media members saying after two weeks that
Speaker 2: he was better than Gobert when he was a rookie.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's kind of how we roll around here.
Speaker 2: I suppose I should ask you, is there any player
Speaker 2: on this roster that reminds you of a young Manu Ginobili.
Speaker 10: You know, one that actually does Maybe Cody Wallents. I
Speaker 10: love Cody Williams, like that rookie the year. I'm a
Speaker 10: big Cody Williams guy. I don't know if that's Manu territory,
Speaker 10: but you know there's time for that to develop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one step at a time.
Speaker 2: Let's move into the Cody space, because, like you, I
Speaker 2: like him a lot, and I do think he's going
Speaker 2: to get run out of the gates.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to play right away.
Speaker 2: I don't think the other two will Isaiah Collier has
Speaker 2: hurt tonight and he might crack the rotation. I think
Speaker 2: Philip Palace. He's going to start the season in the
Speaker 2: G League, which is fine. He's a late first round pick.
Speaker 2: But I, like you, I'm pretty enamored with Cody, so
Speaker 2: I hope to see him quite a bit starting tonight.
Speaker 2: What do you like most about this young lottery pick
Speaker 2: rookie for the Jazz.
Speaker 10: I just I think he's feel for the game, you know,
Speaker 10: I don't. I don't think it's fair to compare him
Speaker 10: to his brother for those who don't know, you know,
Speaker 10: Jayalen Williams and the good One and okay, see the
Speaker 10: guy who's a borderline All Star, Like they they have
Speaker 10: similar games, but it's you know, his brother was just
Speaker 10: so much further along than he is at this point.
Speaker 10: But I think, like, I think the SHOT's good. I
Speaker 10: think his feel for, you know, just doing things with
Speaker 10: the basketball. I think has great instincts. I think his
Speaker 10: great size, his athleticism is good. Like I just every
Speaker 10: box is ticked for me in terms of what I
Speaker 10: think he can be as a just a really really
Speaker 10: good role player. I don't think he's a star, but
Speaker 10: I think, you know, in terms of everybody else in
Speaker 10: this draft class, I would take his stock over anybody's.
Speaker 10: He was my probably my third favorite prospect in the draft,
Speaker 10: and I just love everything I see from him. I
Speaker 10: think he'll earn minutes early on, and he'll be someone
Speaker 10: that you just flat out can't take out the rotation.
Speaker 10: The only thing is, you know, if he has injury
Speaker 10: problems like he had a little bit last year, then
Speaker 10: maybe he's not getting the time. But I I just, man,
Speaker 10: I think he's such a can't miss prospect in terms
Speaker 10: of becoming a really good role player.
Speaker 1: Last Jazz thing.
Speaker 2: Then we'll move on to some other topics before I said,
Speaker 2: you loose for this Wednesday hit. And you know, Dennis Lindsay,
Speaker 2: the prior iteration of the Jazz front off is Quinn Snyder.
Speaker 2: Those guys, and they often talked about both on and
Speaker 2: off the record, by the way, kind of calculating their
Speaker 2: build to coincide at its peak with the rest of
Speaker 2: the league, kind of going down a little bit with
Speaker 2: Age with Lebron, aging with Steph Age, aging with Durant
Speaker 2: aging and things like that. And you know, Donovan's still
Speaker 2: really good, although it's hilarious that he loves Cleveland so much.
Speaker 2: New York didn't watch you, so you love where your
Speaker 2: feet are at. Bottom line, go Bear is still good
Speaker 2: in his prime. I mean, most of those guys outside
Speaker 2: of like Ingles and Conley are still in their prime.
Speaker 2: So you can see what Dennis was talking about with
Speaker 2: his calculation of making them at their peak when some
Speaker 2: of the league his aged. Now, the problem is the
Speaker 2: league has reset, but the Jazz if not so Oka
Speaker 2: is good and young, Minnesota and still a kid, and
Speaker 2: I could keep going, you know the deal Wembin, Yama,
Speaker 2: san Antonio. I could continue. There are five, six, seven
Speaker 2: very good teams that are still very young. Lucas still
Speaker 2: in his twenties, yokiches too. So what does the calculation
Speaker 2: look like now as far as the next window that
Speaker 2: could be open if the Jazz actually build something special
Speaker 2: over the next few years, because it doesn't seem like
Speaker 2: it's anytime soon.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I don't think you can look at
Speaker 10: it that way anymore. Right, There's so many different timelines
Speaker 10: throughout the Western Conference, And again, like if the Spurs
Speaker 10: can be just solid all season and not go through
Speaker 10: those big dips like they did last year, they'll be
Speaker 10: in the mix of the playing tournament too, because I
Speaker 10: don't know how many wins it's gonna saey, Like, there's
Speaker 10: just too many good teams in the Western Conference to
Speaker 10: believe that, you know, you're gonna have a forty seven
Speaker 10: to forty eight win team in the ten spot. Like,
Speaker 10: I think it's gonna be much more close to to
Speaker 10: you know, five hundred teams there because the winds there
Speaker 10: are only so many wins available. With that said, like
Speaker 10: I just I think you just have to get good.
Speaker 10: And I know that sounds super simple, but you like
Speaker 10: you got to go get your guy, whether that's you know,
Speaker 10: Cooper Flag or Ace Bailey or Dylan Harper or whoever,
Speaker 10: like you know, the big kid from Duke.
Speaker 4: Like whoever that is.
Speaker 10: They're like, there's just so many prospects in the next
Speaker 10: couple of years. Maybe you're maybe you're gunning for, like,
Speaker 10: you know, one of the Boozer twins, you know, the
Speaker 10: year after, Like I don't know what that plan is,
Speaker 10: but you have to go get those guys and just
Speaker 10: start building and knowing that you're not walking into you know,
Speaker 10: a battle Royale with just like four teams that like, yeah,
Speaker 10: you're probably like trying to jockey for position with with
Speaker 10: eight nine teams that are on a similar timeline or
Speaker 10: a close enough one that you don't feel like, oh
Speaker 10: yeah when that when that dip happens, we will be
Speaker 10: on the way up. I just I don't think the
Speaker 10: West is built that way anymore. And in order to
Speaker 10: have that kind of approach, I think you have to
Speaker 10: be in the East, and it's pretty difficult get Salt
Speaker 10: Lake City into into the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've applied, I've not heard back, So we'll see
Speaker 2: kind of how.
Speaker 1: That plays out.
Speaker 2: Hey, before right, I know we do, I know, I know,
Speaker 2: I mean we are worldwide to speaking of pitbull, I
Speaker 2: mean prestige worldwide. You know, hit us up last thing,
Speaker 2: then I'll set you loose. Since Memphis is in town tonight,
Speaker 2: I'm wondering what you expect now. Jared Jackson Junior is
Speaker 2: not playing. Neither's Lukenard, neither's Gig Jackson, their rookie cam
Speaker 2: spencer from Yukon. They're without four rotational pieces, but they
Speaker 2: do get job back, who only played nine games last year.
Speaker 2: What what do you expecting to see from the grizz
Speaker 2: starting tonight all year long.
Speaker 10: You know, I've been anti Zachi Edie just I don't.
Speaker 10: I didn't. I haven't thought it's gonna work in any way.
Speaker 10: I'm you know, it's just preseason. But like I was,
Speaker 10: I was impressed with how he moved, sure, impressed with
Speaker 10: with how they used him and how John him played
Speaker 10: off each other a little bit. So I do think
Speaker 10: that adds a really interesting just presence, and especially if
Speaker 10: you're talking about a jazz team that has Walker Kessler
Speaker 10: is the other guy. Well, it's one of the few
Speaker 10: instances in which Walker Kesler isn't going to be bigger
Speaker 10: and longer than the guy who's going Y's right. So
Speaker 10: I think that actually presents a very tough matchup where
Speaker 10: he can just plant, he can roll, he can just
Speaker 10: do a lot of things. And it's because you have
Speaker 10: to have your focus on Jaw.
Speaker 11: You have to have focus on.
Speaker 10: Deszon Vane, just Jaw in those nine games he was
Speaker 10: back with the Grizzes last year, which just a reminder
Speaker 10: of oh, yeah, that guy is so good. I get
Speaker 10: all the nonsense he's been through, but that guy just
Speaker 10: galvanizes a team in a way few can, and so
Speaker 10: I expect them to be up and down the floor.
Speaker 10: I expect them to try to play at a really
Speaker 10: fast pace. I think the defense is going to be
Speaker 10: very aggressive. I think the Jazz can take advantage of
Speaker 10: that because it's still kind of new getting everything back
Speaker 10: into it. But I think Nty George is in for
Speaker 10: a tough night. I think the back court is in
Speaker 10: for a tough night. And how they respond to dealing
Speaker 10: with a Marcus Smart at John Moran, any of those guys,
Speaker 10: I think will show you know just how resilient or
Speaker 10: how I know, it's just one game, but you want
Speaker 10: to start off with a with a good, lasting impression,
Speaker 10: and I think this is their chance to go up
Speaker 10: against a better backcourt and still hold their own and
Speaker 10: feel pretty confident going into the next day.
Speaker 1: Great to have the NBA back, Zach. Great to have
Speaker 1: you back. Have a great weekend. We'll chat soon, Buddy, okay, dolly,
Speaker 1: Oh goodness.
Speaker 2: Pitbull fan NBA expert Zach Harper on the show Jazz
Speaker 2: in Action tonight taking on the Grizzlies today. The Dish
Speaker 2: professionals give him a call it eight to one, four
Speaker 2: to two four Dish eight to one, four to two
Speaker 2: four dish. So I'm currently driving around a Genesis GB
Speaker 2: eighty and it is awesome. I was in a G
Speaker 2: eighty before, which is kind of their luxury sedan, and
Speaker 2: then I traded it in because my friends at Murdoch
Speaker 2: were good enough to take care of me for the winter.
Speaker 2: We have traded Blake and a protected second round pick
Speaker 2: for the more athletic, better looking Murdoch and that is
Speaker 2: Ben Murdoch live on site.
Speaker 4: Ben.
Speaker 1: How are you man?
Speaker 3: I'm great? How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good.
Speaker 2: All I want to know is why you were working
Speaker 2: and Blake happens to be golfing.
Speaker 1: How'd you get how'd you get? The rhynd of the deal?
Speaker 4: There, we're not supposed to say.
Speaker 3: That out loud in case he's case, he's listening. No,
Speaker 3: he's he's a little trip with my dad out with
Speaker 3: some good friends of theirs, and hopefully they're enjoying their
Speaker 3: time down in South Carolina.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm a big fan of the Murdoch family.
Speaker 2: Our fathers were at BYU together. You were at BYU
Speaker 2: with my brother Nate, and I was a teammate of
Speaker 2: Blake at Bountiful High. We both played for Mike Maxwell.
Speaker 2: You played college basketball, but we won state.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Does Blake ever throw that at you?
Speaker 3: No, he doesn't because he could never play. I mean
Speaker 3: he played a little bit. But yeah, my senior year actually,
Speaker 3: you know, let's go back to some Uncle Rico days.
Speaker 3: We were ranked number one in the state pretty much
Speaker 3: all year and lost a lone peak in the semi finals.
Speaker 3: We had good good my senior we had a really
Speaker 3: good high school team. H and uh, you know, we
Speaker 3: just didn't have it that last game they beat us.
Speaker 2: You know, we we put together a little video for
Speaker 2: Mike Mike Maxwell as he stepped aside, I wonder what
Speaker 2: your experience was like playing playing for coach Maxwell and
Speaker 2: now that he's done a Bountiful high.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I loved it. I thought Coach Maxwell was awesome
Speaker 3: back then. He was a great teacher, he was a
Speaker 3: great team guy. I loved the system that we ran
Speaker 3: at that time. And same as when you were their spences.
Speaker 3: You're pressing the whole game, you're up and down, you're
Speaker 3: shooting threes, which back then, shooting the amount of threes
Speaker 3: that we shot was an outliner. Yeah, yeah, right, pull
Speaker 3: up threes on a fast break that's what we did. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and uh so I loved it. And Mike's a great guy.
Speaker 2: It's funny with the modern day because we we're gonna
Speaker 2: go full Uncle Rico for a moment. Okay, because your
Speaker 2: boy here said a record for three points shots made
Speaker 2: in a half.
Speaker 1: I hit five against Leyton.
Speaker 2: It stood for like two years because now I think
Speaker 2: at one point the record for threes made. I think
Speaker 2: it was wilbur who said it with nine for Bountiful
Speaker 2: back in the day. And now you look at box scores,
Speaker 2: these kids are making nine, ten, eleven threes every single game.
Speaker 1: The game has completely changed.
Speaker 3: Every game, and they shoot it from anywhere. It was
Speaker 3: a terrible shot, right in some cases still is a
Speaker 3: terrible shot.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3: But you know they make thirty percent of them, and
Speaker 3: they think their world beaters sometimes for sure, because they're
Speaker 3: making it from ten feet behind the three point line.
Speaker 2: And even if they bank it in, they're strutting back like,
Speaker 2: oh I meant to do that, And it's like ward ball.
Speaker 2: It's not like everybody plays that way. Now, you played
Speaker 2: for Dave at b YU, Dave Rose, Yeah, what was it?
Speaker 2: I mean, I sent my son to Dave's camps for
Speaker 2: a couple of years. I went to BYU camps when
Speaker 2: Roger Reid was was there coaching. What was your experience
Speaker 2: like playing for Dave.
Speaker 3: Coach Rose was awesome. I loved him. I had the opportunity.
Speaker 3: I played in junior college first actually for John Judkins.
Speaker 1: Oh now to Dixie.
Speaker 3: Jutty was awesome. He was so fun and that he's
Speaker 3: a great coach. And then going up to BYU. I
Speaker 3: loved coach Rose back then. Once again, our style of
Speaker 3: play was so much different. We had Trent placed it
Speaker 3: and we had Keena Young in the post. So everything
Speaker 3: we did half court wise was through the post because
Speaker 3: we had some unbelievable post players.
Speaker 1: Was an NBA guy here, Yeah, but it was still up.
Speaker 3: And down and we still you run and gun, you
Speaker 3: get the rebound. Dave Rice was the who's now at
Speaker 3: Sally Community College is that head coach? He was kind
Speaker 3: of the offensive coordinator force who came from UNLV and
Speaker 3: so it was early offense, run, open shot, you shoot
Speaker 3: at your open off the break, and if not, then
Speaker 3: then we feed the post and work off of that.
Speaker 3: But coach Row is awesome. He was a great motivator
Speaker 3: and and you know he did a great job for BYU.
Speaker 1: You played football and soccer Bountiful, I did. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you were a three three sport athlete.
Speaker 2: You have kids, Yeah, yes, So it's interesting now because
Speaker 2: when also, as we go full on Uncle Rico, when
Speaker 2: I was young, it was baseball, it was lacrosse, it
Speaker 2: was football, it was basketball. I mean it dependent on
Speaker 2: the seasons. Now, I feel like as you raise kids,
Speaker 2: the pressure is to get them into the comp stuff
Speaker 2: when they're like six or seven. Spend ten grand a year,
Speaker 2: if not more, to make sure they're in this pipeline
Speaker 2: to play one sport. You talk to a lot of
Speaker 2: college coaches, and coach Wit talks about they like the
Speaker 2: multi sport athletes.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed a change?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how old your kids are,
Speaker 2: but to kind of pressure them to play one sport,
Speaker 2: even if they only want to play high school.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So my oldest is fifteen, he's a sophomore. Work's cross.
Speaker 3: Youngest is five. He's kind of going towards golf now,
Speaker 3: not the best basketball player, and he's really small sophomore anyways,
Speaker 3: ninety pounds.
Speaker 1: I could put a golf club in his hand.
Speaker 3: But when we lived in Logan, and obviously Logan's a
Speaker 3: lot smaller than down here on the wasatch front. It
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, we're going to go trout for this
Speaker 3: Blue Sox team. And I was coaching his basketball team
Speaker 3: and he wanted to play soccer two and a really
Speaker 3: competitive soccer team that was really good. And this baseball team, like,
Speaker 3: we're going to practice twice a week. We got double
Speaker 3: headers every Saturday, and this has got to be your
Speaker 3: main parative. It's like, well, what if we want to
Speaker 3: play other sports? He's like, this is not your team.
Speaker 3: And it's like, man, that is so unfortunate for some
Speaker 3: of these kids. I mean, because unless you're just the
Speaker 3: best athlete out there, like you got to pick when
Speaker 3: you're eight years old or nine or ten years old.
Speaker 3: And it's really unfortunate because playing multiple sports it helps
Speaker 3: you to developed so much. Playing soccer and basketball, they're
Speaker 3: so similar in so many ways, and the feel, the spacing,
Speaker 3: the you know, the quickness. Yeah, basketball's footwork and a
Speaker 3: lot of obviously had that coordination where soccer's or just
Speaker 3: your footwork, but they go hand in hand with each other,
Speaker 3: and so it's it's actually really unfortunate that they have
Speaker 3: to pick and they don't get the opportunities that we
Speaker 3: had to be able to switch sports and actually not
Speaker 3: get burned out either.
Speaker 2: That's a great point because you don't know what Look,
Speaker 2: you're eight, you only know your parents. You're lucky if
Speaker 2: you don't pee the bed at now. You don't know
Speaker 2: what you like it eight.
Speaker 1: And so Malcolm Gladwell kind.
Speaker 2: Of did this disservice to people with the outliers thirty
Speaker 2: thousand hour rule. Okay, because people view that as gospel
Speaker 2: that has been dispelled, and what's found now is yes
Speaker 2: you need reps and yes you need probably that amount
Speaker 2: of hours. But what Malcolm Gladwell didn't teach what we're
Speaker 2: learning now is the athlete has to love what the
Speaker 2: athlete does. So Tiger Woods is the best example, because
Speaker 2: there was always this feeling that Earle forced him to
Speaker 2: play golf Tiger If you read his document if you
Speaker 2: read his biography and watch the documentary, he loved golf
Speaker 2: from the time he was too.
Speaker 1: He that's all he wanted to do.
Speaker 2: So what we see now because I coached my son's
Speaker 2: junior jazz team for a few years and the parents
Speaker 2: are just the worst. These parents are forcing kids to
Speaker 2: get their thirty thousand hours whether or not the kids
Speaker 2: like the sport.
Speaker 1: And to your point, if.
Speaker 2: They don't like it, they're gonna get burned out. They're
Speaker 2: gonna want to do something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's as I said, it's it's it's frustrating sometimes
Speaker 3: as a parent too. And you know, for my kids,
Speaker 3: some of them, you know, it's like I want to
Speaker 3: play basketball. I'm like, hey, just so you know, like
Speaker 3: you don't have to play. Don't do it for me.
Speaker 3: I don't want you doing this for me because actually
Speaker 3: my life is a lot easier if you don't do it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I have more time to golf myself, I
Speaker 3: have more time to But if you want to do it,
Speaker 3: then I will be there to help you, support you,
Speaker 3: train you, all those types of things and so. But
Speaker 3: but I wish we could go back in some ways.
Speaker 3: Sure because of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now you reference golf, and I'll give Blake a
Speaker 2: little credit here because he was honest that you're a
Speaker 2: better player than he is now.
Speaker 1: He said he's improving now.
Speaker 2: Right, So if you and Blake go head to head,
Speaker 2: what does that look like if you're just playing against
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: On a golf course.
Speaker 3: Well, the way it is right now, we usually play
Speaker 3: just basically best ball. I would love to play strokes.
Speaker 3: He won't ever play strokes. Ok he's a nine and
Speaker 3: a half handicap right now. Some days obviously it's with
Speaker 3: amateur golfers like us. You can go and you know,
Speaker 3: shoot even every once in a while and just kill
Speaker 3: it and then the next day you're shooting at ninety.
Speaker 3: But we play best ball. It's competitive. I give him
Speaker 3: five or four to six strokes, depending on how it
Speaker 3: flows during that week, and it's usually fairly even. He
Speaker 3: got the best of me last year as far as
Speaker 3: money wise. This year, I'm up on him. If we
Speaker 3: played strokes, it wouldn't be close.
Speaker 1: Now, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 2: It feels like you're giving your older brother a little
Speaker 2: bit of a break there, because what's your index right now?
Speaker 3: I'm a five point three round Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm a seven six five to three? Is your stick?
Speaker 1: Where'd you like to play there? Are you a member anywhere?
Speaker 3: I'm a member at Oakridge?
Speaker 1: Love Oakridge and.
Speaker 3: Oakridge is a phenomenal course. I think this this year
Speaker 3: is maybe the best shape that it's been in since.
Speaker 3: I remember because my dad was a member when I
Speaker 3: was growing up, and I didn't play very much golf
Speaker 3: growing up.
Speaker 1: Neither did I thought it was boring.
Speaker 3: And I regret it. I was playing baseball and soccer
Speaker 3: and football, so I never played golf. But it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I love the Logan Country Club too. I lived up
Speaker 3: there for thirteen years. So they've basically just redone the
Speaker 3: whole course up there, and it's unbelievable. The Junior, the
Speaker 3: the stateium is there next year if they get it
Speaker 3: all finished.
Speaker 4: Very nice.
Speaker 2: So Blake does this sneaky thing where he pretends he's
Speaker 2: a youth fan in addition to a BYU fan, and look,
Speaker 2: it's like the old Michael Jordan line. Republicans buy sneakers too. Okay,
Speaker 2: So I understand you want to take care everybody. You
Speaker 2: guys work with coaches at the up. You're your b
Speaker 2: Why you blue though, Big Big Blake played football down there.
Speaker 1: You know, my pops is a BYU basketball player.
Speaker 2: So everything that I thought Utah football would be is
Speaker 2: taking place forty miles down south.
Speaker 1: Right now, Klanie's my guy a Rod.
Speaker 2: They joined the show What do you make of this
Speaker 2: magical star for BYU football.
Speaker 3: It's very exciting actually for BYU, for their fans, for
Speaker 3: everything BYU right now, and it is Utah is really disappointing.
Speaker 3: I myself, Yes, I'm a BYU fan.
Speaker 11: Played there.
Speaker 3: I love the Witninghams though Kyle is you know, assault
Speaker 3: of the Earth guy, and so we're we're Utah supporters.
Speaker 3: That's what I say. I'm a BYU fan, but I'm
Speaker 3: a Utah supporter. I like that, And but it is
Speaker 3: it is frustrating, kind of feels like Utah just isn't
Speaker 3: meshing very well. Is that because the play calls? Is
Speaker 3: that just because one thing? Miscommunications between players? But at
Speaker 3: by you, Yeah, everything has just kind of come together
Speaker 3: and they talked a lot about it in the off season.
Speaker 3: We've worked harder. Everybody always says that, sure, we worked harder.
Speaker 3: We're as close as we're ever been where this where that,
Speaker 3: But it's shown on the field right now. And the
Speaker 3: talent that they have that was so so last year
Speaker 3: and obviously they've got some more talent. Man, it has
Speaker 3: really shown and they obviously put the work in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been fun. I mean I always say because
Speaker 2: we're the home of the utes. But people always ask me,
Speaker 2: you know, who do you cheer for? And I say everybody.
Speaker 2: My job is better when everybody's winning. And I've got
Speaker 2: a dashboard I can show you segments I do. When
Speaker 2: BYU football wins, it's a rising tide because their fans
Speaker 2: come out and they listen to the radio and they
Speaker 2: read the newspaper. So I wish you taught football was better.
Speaker 2: But I'm thrilled the BYU football is doing this because
Speaker 2: it actually maintains interest in the sport. One more question
Speaker 2: about football, then, I want to talk about this GV
Speaker 2: eight and what you have going on at the dealerships.
Speaker 2: You reference coach Witt, who I.
Speaker 1: Believe played with your dad at BYU.
Speaker 3: They were there together, right, Yeah, Kyle was a fresh
Speaker 3: when my dad as a senior, and then Kyle's dad
Speaker 3: was my dad's linebacker coach. My dad went on a
Speaker 3: mission after four years, came home and then coached Kyle
Speaker 3: as a grad assistant.
Speaker 2: Ah, that's right, so they're very close, very close. I
Speaker 2: really don't love if this is the end. I wish
Speaker 2: it was a different final chapter. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it is, but I just don't want to see him
Speaker 2: going out like this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent. You always
Speaker 3: want to see people go on top that you have
Speaker 3: their back, you root for and uh and it is.
Speaker 3: I I hope they can kind of turn it around
Speaker 3: against every team but b YU.
Speaker 11: For sure.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I hope, I hope it doesn't end this
Speaker 3: way because Kyle's been so great for so long for
Speaker 3: the university, for the state, for his players, you know,
Speaker 3: and and so hopefully they can they can turn it around.
Speaker 2: What sort of parallels if any? Because your dad was
Speaker 2: a great athlete, you blake, there are.
Speaker 1: Seven girls and three boys, because you.
Speaker 2: Guys used to host family dinners for our basket team,
Speaker 2: and I would I would always get your dad's hire
Speaker 2: because I'd walk in and I'd pretend your mom was
Speaker 2: one of the daughters. I'd say, oh, it's nice to
Speaker 2: have you know, your oldest daughter here, like you know,
Speaker 2: and your dad, which you know, so spending a bunch
Speaker 2: of time up at the house back in the day.
Speaker 2: Obviously your parents are salted these people. But your dad's
Speaker 2: an athlete, you blake, like you're all athletes? Are there
Speaker 2: parallels to running a business as far as lessons you
Speaker 2: learned coming up playing sports, If that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. I think your mindset, your winning mindset,
Speaker 3: is your growth mindset as opposed to you know, a
Speaker 3: fixed mindset is we got to go from here to here.
Speaker 3: How are we going to do that? Setting plans. That's
Speaker 3: all what sports are about, obviously, and then the discipline
Speaker 3: that it takes. You got to have discipline to do
Speaker 3: the right things over and over and over again to
Speaker 3: be successful in business. We're fourth generation in the car
Speaker 3: business right now. Yeah, yeah, so grateful for those that
Speaker 3: have gone before us and given us the opportunities and
Speaker 3: and uh, you know there's not a lot of businesses
Speaker 3: that last one hundred years. That's not because of Blake
Speaker 3: and I. That's because of those that have gone before us.
Speaker 3: Now we're trying not to screw it up. Sure, And
Speaker 3: so the discipline that it takes to in sports get
Speaker 3: up early, work out, get your shots up, eat right,
Speaker 3: all those things translated into business. Just different metrics that
Speaker 3: you're looking at.
Speaker 1: It were really coming up on one hundred years or
Speaker 1: have we passed it?
Speaker 3: Next year? Is our one hundred year?
Speaker 2: Yes, that's insane to think about, you guys, have been
Speaker 2: doing this in the state for one hundred years, all right.
Speaker 2: So a few months back and we'll end on this.
Speaker 2: But a few months back I was driving around. I
Speaker 2: had an A six that I loved. I loved the car,
Speaker 2: had it.
Speaker 1: For a couple of years.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, a very eager Utah college student came barely out
Speaker 2: of her driveway and branded inside of my car. It
Speaker 2: totaled my A six, which she had been good right.
Speaker 2: Luckily she was at fault. Insurance took care of it.
Speaker 2: But I called Blake. I'm like, look, I need a car,
Speaker 2: and I said it's totaled. I need a car, like
Speaker 2: next week, right, So he said have you heard about
Speaker 2: Genesis And I said no, and he said it's a
Speaker 2: Hundai line. And I was like, well, I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: and he said, well, just come down let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: Then he helped me understand, like, so Hyundai is doing
Speaker 2: with Genesis what Toyota did with Lexus. Correct, So essentially
Speaker 2: Genesis is the luxury brand for Hyundai.
Speaker 1: Yes, And within five minutes he put me in the
Speaker 1: G eighty.
Speaker 2: I was like, dude, this is the one, right, And
Speaker 2: so I drove around the G eighty and then Blake
Speaker 2: had me turned it in for the winter, and now
Speaker 2: I have the GV eighty, which is the suv.
Speaker 1: As we talked about off Er, it's an awesome car.
Speaker 2: So essentially, the way I describe it is it feels
Speaker 2: like you're driving any luxury brand that comes your mind
Speaker 2: when I say luxury car. The Genesis feels just like
Speaker 2: any one of them. And I come from a BMW family,
Speaker 2: Like I've driven, you know, top shelf cars. This feels
Speaker 2: like you're driving that, but the price point is insanely lower.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the Genesis. What do you want
Speaker 1: our listeners to know?
Speaker 3: So, yeah, Genesis is Hyundai's luxury brand. Just as you
Speaker 3: said as Lexuss to Toyota. It became a brand officially
Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen itself. The way the company is structured
Speaker 3: is Genesis is one hundred percent its own brand, and
Speaker 3: the cars that they build are top notch. As you said,
Speaker 3: you sit in the car, you fill it, the technology
Speaker 3: in it. Many of their cars over the last couple
Speaker 3: of years, whether it's the GV seventy, the small suv,
Speaker 3: the g seventy, the GV sixty, which is their electric
Speaker 3: small suv, they've all won Motor Trend Car of the Year,
Speaker 3: Motor Trend Suv of the Year, and so the tech
Speaker 3: that you get, the quality, fit and finish, and then
Speaker 3: the price point. There's nothing better out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah than that. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2: So I'm telling you, if you're in the market for
Speaker 2: a new car and you want luxury, you want a
Speaker 2: luxury experience with a much better price point, check out
Speaker 2: Genesis of Linden.
Speaker 1: It's a luxury brand for the Murdocado team.
Speaker 2: All right, before I set you loose seven locations, the
Speaker 2: one hundred year anniversary is coming up. What else do
Speaker 2: you want our listeners to know about what you have
Speaker 2: going on at all your locations ben.
Speaker 3: Obviously coming in the end of the year, whether it's
Speaker 3: a Chevy truck, a GMC truck, whether you want an
Speaker 3: electric vehicle, whether it's Chevy, Cadillac, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Genesis, all
Speaker 3: of those things obviously major discounts right now. And so
Speaker 3: we can be your one stop shop. And as far
Speaker 3: as used cars are concerned, we can. We can get
Speaker 3: fined sell you any use cards you're looking for out there.
Speaker 1: That's the way to go. Website real quick. For say
Speaker 1: you lose there's.
Speaker 3: A couple, but the Murdoc Auto Team dot.
Speaker 2: Com Murdoch Audo Team dot com. Yeah, Ben, good to
Speaker 2: see you man. Let's hope YU keeps it up and
Speaker 2: hopefully Kyle can.
Speaker 1: Figure it out. All right, that's right, thanks. Ben's all right,
Speaker 1: Ben Murdock.
Speaker 2: I am telling you I've been in this GV eighty
Speaker 2: for about two months now, and it is it's awesome
Speaker 2: and the price point is great.
Speaker 1: Check it out.
Speaker 2: It's Genesis of Linden. It's the luxury brand for the
Speaker 2: Murdoch Audo Team. They have seven locations serving the Oasatch front.
Speaker 2: In addition to Genesis, Murdoch Auto Team has three Hundai stores,
Speaker 2: two Chevy stores, one GM store Volkswagen. Check it out
Speaker 2: Logan Lynden, Murray woods Cross. Murdoch has a dealership near you.
Speaker 2: They've been the number one Hundai dealer for nineteen years
Speaker 2: running and has Ben just reference.
Speaker 1: They've been in business for one hundred years.
Speaker 2: So check it out. Tell me you heard it on
Speaker 2: the drive with Spence. Check its telling me you heard
Speaker 2: Spence talking about the GV eighty or the G eighty
Speaker 2: and gone down to that luxury spot. It is the
Speaker 2: Genesis of Lyndon. Check him out online and they'll hook
Speaker 2: you up.
Speaker 1: With a great deal.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, it feels like you're driving any of
Speaker 2: the high end brands, but it's like forty fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars less out with my good friends at Genesis of Lindon.
Speaker 12: This is Neil Smith, former president and GM of the
Speaker 12: New York Rangers and the New York Islanders. Join me
Speaker 12: and my co host Vic Morn for our podcast NHL
Speaker 12: Wrap Around for all the important news and views around
Speaker 12: the NHL.
Speaker 2: A little Neil diamon on a Wednesday. Wow, wasn't expecting this.
Speaker 2: Nothing wrong with it, though. We're going to get back
Speaker 2: to little college football later on and some NBA as
Speaker 2: the Jazz are starting tonight. But let's do a little NHL.
Speaker 2: Let's do a little Utah Hockey Club. You just heard
Speaker 2: his voice there in the intro. It's great to have
Speaker 2: Neil Smith back on the program.
Speaker 1: On a Wednesday. Neil, Happy Wednesday, sir.
Speaker 4: How are you.
Speaker 11: I'm I'm great. I was at the game last night
Speaker 11: and then trying to keep track of fifteen more on
Speaker 11: my phone because last night, as you know, it was
Speaker 11: a sixteen. Every single team in the league playing last night.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. I was actually going to ask you,
Speaker 2: is that is that a new initiative for the Frozen Fury?
Speaker 2: I believe they called it, Is that a new initiative
Speaker 2: for the league?
Speaker 11: The Frozen Frenzy? And I think it's yeah. I think
Speaker 11: I think they do it in conjunction with the ESPN,
Speaker 11: and they staggered the times. They start them at six
Speaker 11: pm Eastern and run them all the way through till
Speaker 11: eleven o'clock at night, that you know, starting every fifteen minutes.
Speaker 11: I think it's just done once a year, and I
Speaker 11: think that in conjunction with with ESPN. But you know,
Speaker 11: it's it's hard to night. I got to keep track
Speaker 11: of sixteen games going on, no I can imagine.
Speaker 1: I can imagine.
Speaker 2: So we'll start with our local club and then we'll
Speaker 2: pan out a little bit from a thirty thousand foot
Speaker 2: view to get your thoughts on the start of the season.
Speaker 2: We've got to talk about Winnipeg. They can't lose at
Speaker 2: this point. But really the.
Speaker 1: First game, and I've watched all of them.
Speaker 2: I was there for the opening night and the Devils
Speaker 2: did blank the Utah Hockey Club. But last night they
Speaker 2: just looked like they were over their skis a little
Speaker 2: bit as they got smoked pretty good four zero by
Speaker 2: the Senator.
Speaker 1: So give me your thoughts on both the.
Speaker 2: Start of the season so far and what we saw
Speaker 2: last night is the Utah Hockey Club suffered a four
Speaker 2: zero loss.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think their start has been has been real good.
Speaker 11: I think last night they laid an egg. But I
Speaker 11: think Connor Ingram letting in four goals and nine shots
Speaker 11: really put them in a hole. And so you can
Speaker 11: start with that. And I don't want to throw all
Speaker 11: the blame on the goaltender, but he can't allow four
Speaker 11: goals on nine shots, and so In came to Milica
Speaker 11: and did a good job after that. He didn't let
Speaker 11: anything in. So I think that was just, you know,
Speaker 11: as I said, they just laid and egg. They've played
Speaker 11: well against Boston. The two to one overtime win was
Speaker 11: really good. And you know, they they had a loss
Speaker 11: in Anaheim five for and overtime, but they still got
Speaker 11: a point out of that. So the you know, the
Speaker 11: only game that they haven't since I was on last
Speaker 11: time that they haven't got a point in was last night.
Speaker 2: They're there fourth in the in the central and you know,
Speaker 2: it's been a it was a super super fast start.
Speaker 2: Then they've leveled out a little bit with the dynamic
Speaker 2: of how young the team is. Neo, would you tell
Speaker 2: our hockey fans out this way to probably expect the
Speaker 2: season that will have and flow a little bit like
Speaker 2: it has so far.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think it is.
Speaker 11: And you know, I was today when I read the
Speaker 11: news about Jersey and Mary Marino not being able to
Speaker 11: come be back in the lineup for a number of months.
Speaker 11: That's scary because those two right handed defensemen are you know,
Speaker 11: in the top six obviously. And now you've got to
Speaker 11: go down to the Miners, and I think they're going
Speaker 11: to call up a twenty year old kid, six foot
Speaker 11: seven defenseman from the Miners whose name is escaping me.
Speaker 11: I knew it ten minutes ago and I've forgotten now.
Speaker 2: Maverick lamarrea Maverick Lamaro.
Speaker 11: That's right, They're going to bring him up. He's a
Speaker 11: twenty year old, he's he was the first round pick
Speaker 11: for them for the for the former Arizona Coyotes late
Speaker 11: in the first round. But he'll be a big body
Speaker 11: out there and he'll he'll do his best to fill
Speaker 11: in for these guys. But when when you lose defense,
Speaker 11: when it's a big hole, they're lucky. They when I
Speaker 11: say they're lucky, they're smart. They signed Bortuso, who's a veteran,
Speaker 11: won a Stanley Cup with Saint Louis, so he's up.
Speaker 11: He can certainly put in some minutes. So that's going
Speaker 11: to be good the season for a team like this.
Speaker 11: For every team ebbs and flows, but for this team
Speaker 11: in particular, because they've got some of the young guys,
Speaker 11: it might you might have to suffer through a losing
Speaker 11: streak and then a big winning streak and so on.
Speaker 11: But I really think from what I've seen of them,
Speaker 11: and I said this Tea Spence in the offseason, I said,
Speaker 11: I think you should expect them to be fighting for
Speaker 11: a wildcard spot. Well, I'm even stronger about that now.
Speaker 11: I think that Utah has a chance to be definitely
Speaker 11: in the playoffs this year. So I'm looking for them.
Speaker 11: I would be disappointed if they were on the outside
Speaker 11: looking in without having at least, you know, scratched the
Speaker 11: surface of the of the wild cards. I think they're
Speaker 11: going to get a wildcard spot though. That's what I
Speaker 11: really do think.
Speaker 1: Well, that's exciting to hear. I hope you're right.
Speaker 2: We love a little playoff hockey, little Stanley Cup action.
Speaker 2: First year on the market, so Neil, they scored twenty
Speaker 2: two goals, that's good for third in the Central Division,
Speaker 2: but they've allowed twenty four, which is good for second
Speaker 2: to last. So they're scoring at a high clip, but
Speaker 2: their leaking goals on the back end. And one of
Speaker 2: the things that as far as what I read, I
Speaker 2: didn't watch a ton of Coyotes hockey last year, apologies,
Speaker 2: but part of what I read with season previews and
Speaker 2: listening to people that know the club kind of outline
Speaker 2: that that's what they struggled with a year ago. High
Speaker 2: powered offense, but a defense that forced Connor Ingram to
Speaker 2: stand on his head to try to make miracles happen.
Speaker 2: What do you attribute their defensive issues to the most?
Speaker 2: Is it the you know, the Jersey and Marino injuries.
Speaker 2: Because they bring in Michael Sergachev, they're bringing a couple
Speaker 2: of other defensemen in the offseason. They utilized their cap
Speaker 2: space to go defense, and they utilized their draft assets
Speaker 2: to go offense, but it has not worked defensively.
Speaker 1: What do you see there.
Speaker 11: Well, you go back to the two injuries. For sure,
Speaker 11: you got Sergachev who's there, who's a really dynamic player
Speaker 11: on defense, but he is going to cost you from
Speaker 11: time to time being weaked offensively. And you go back
Speaker 11: over these three games they just played this past week
Speaker 11: that the including the the Leo Carlson overtime goal in Anaheim,
Speaker 11: where you know, Serghev was badly beaten. So I you know,
Speaker 11: but that's going to happen with him because he's a
Speaker 11: high risk, high reward type guy. I think Connor Ingram's
Speaker 11: got to play better than he has played as of
Speaker 11: late because you can't allow, as I said before against Ottawa,
Speaker 11: four goals on nine shots, You're not going to win
Speaker 11: any games with that. Now, again I'm not trying to
Speaker 11: put it all on one guy, but the goaltender is
Speaker 11: your last line of defense, and he has to be
Speaker 11: at least in the NHL a nine hundred save percentage,
Speaker 11: and Connor Ingram is not at nine hundred save percentage.
Speaker 11: She's in the eight hundreds. So he's got to get
Speaker 11: his game up.
Speaker 2: So before we move on to some big picture NHL topics,
Speaker 2: I was asked this question, I do a TV hit
Speaker 2: here in the market on a weekly basis, and now
Speaker 2: of course with hockey here. Believe it or not, I'm
Speaker 2: the one they ask hockey questions to wrong dude, But
Speaker 2: I do the best I can.
Speaker 1: Follow the sport.
Speaker 2: So they kind of they asked me, like, what's the
Speaker 2: personality of this club through the early parts of the
Speaker 2: season with what we've seen so far? Is it reasonable
Speaker 2: to expect, you know, high powered offensive club that can
Speaker 2: really score goals in bunches and continues to struggle on defense.
Speaker 2: What would you what's your response if I asked you
Speaker 2: what's the personality of this club so far?
Speaker 11: Well, I think it's an exciting offensive team, and they're
Speaker 11: going to have to start to play a lot more responsibly,
Speaker 11: especially because they've lost two veteran defensemens. So it's a
Speaker 11: very exciting team. They love to play, run and gun.
Speaker 11: They score a lot of goals, but they can't you know, obviously,
Speaker 11: they got to get less scored on them than they score,
Speaker 11: and so they're going to have to tighten the thing
Speaker 11: up defensively, and I think play a lot more disciplined
Speaker 11: with these injuries that they have, and as I said,
Speaker 11: and their goaltenders have to step up because they are
Speaker 11: going to get more scoring chances when you've got injuries
Speaker 11: on defense, it's just a fact of life.
Speaker 2: Do you think they're deep enough to survive a season
Speaker 2: where injuries are certainly commonplace with a sport like this,
Speaker 2: because certainly top end with Clayton Keller and Dylan Gunther
Speaker 2: and Logan Cooley, Nick Smaltz has seven assists.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, their top end guys are playing
Speaker 1: really well.
Speaker 2: Are they deep enough in your opinion, to survive the
Speaker 2: long season or do you think there's something going on
Speaker 2: with Bill Armstrong in the front office that they've got
Speaker 2: like eight and a half mil in cap space and
Speaker 2: a bevy of draft picks and capital to play with.
Speaker 2: Do you anticipate potentially any additions or do you like
Speaker 2: their depth as it is?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 11: I think that the GM is always looking to try
Speaker 11: to improve his team, make his team have more depth
Speaker 11: and stronger and be able to withstand injuries, for sure,
Speaker 11: And I'm sure Doug Armstrong's doing that. Sorry, Doug arm
Speaker 11: I always do that, don't I see Doug arm Rest,
Speaker 11: And I'm sure he's doing that to try to bolster's team.
Speaker 11: You can never have enough defense. And that's I mean,
Speaker 11: we're seeing it already this year with those two guys out.
Speaker 11: So yeah, do I think they're deep enough. I think
Speaker 11: they're deep enough. Every team's going to get hit with injuries.
Speaker 11: This is a good young team. I do think they
Speaker 11: are deep enough. But again, they're going to have to
Speaker 11: strengthen the team up defensively and tighten it up and
Speaker 11: be even more responsible now than ever because of the injuries.
Speaker 2: So Colorado rolls into town nil on Friday, and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of buzz around this game because regionally, there's
Speaker 2: like this natural potential rivalry fit. In my opinion, rivalries
Speaker 2: are made in the playoffs, and the Abs started out horribly,
Speaker 2: but they've rided the ship as of late. They've won
Speaker 2: three straight over the Ducks, the Sharks, and the Kraken,
Speaker 2: and the Abs are the favorite to win here in
Speaker 2: Salt Lake. Tell us about this Ava.
Speaker 1: Lance team, What do we what do you? What do
Speaker 1: you expect them to see coming up on Friday night?
Speaker 11: Well, where they've really struggled as in goal they they
Speaker 11: have just not been good at all and then played
Speaker 11: pretty well in their last game. He's and he's usually
Speaker 11: their backup goalie. Yorgia is their number one, but he
Speaker 11: has just had an awful start to this season, and
Speaker 11: Colorado has had some losses. They've got some injuries also,
Speaker 11: the guys that aren't back in the lineup yet. Taves
Speaker 11: On defense is a real good player for them, and
Speaker 11: he's not back in the lineup yet, So they've they've
Speaker 11: got their their injuries, but they've got such superstars and
Speaker 11: guys like and McKinnon of course, and Cale mccarr on defense,
Speaker 11: and then Nico Ranton, and I mean, they're extremely strong
Speaker 11: up front, and maybe they're finding their way now. They're
Speaker 11: They're a good team no matter what. But you know,
Speaker 11: you've got to hope that your Utah that they haven't
Speaker 11: fixed their goaltending issue, because that is one place that
Speaker 11: Utah could take advantage of them. So that they've had
Speaker 11: some pretty weak goaltending.
Speaker 1: All right, moving over to some other big picture of topics.
Speaker 1: I will admit ignorance.
Speaker 2: If Winnipeg was supposed to be this, I just didn't
Speaker 2: know about it. But they have not lost through six games.
Speaker 2: They've captured all twelve points. They have the first spot
Speaker 2: in the Central Division, which is where we lie here
Speaker 2: with the Utah hockey club. What stands out most about
Speaker 2: this hot start to the Winnipeg season and is it
Speaker 2: something that we should have seen coming.
Speaker 11: No, it's not something you should have seen coming because
Speaker 11: I didn't see it coming, and I wondered if how
Speaker 11: good they would be to start the season. But they've
Speaker 11: got a tremendous goaltender in Hellibuck, and their guys up
Speaker 11: front are playing like Sisley and that are playing really well.
Speaker 11: They got a new coach and Scott O'Neil, who's paid
Speaker 11: his dues as an assistant around the league. He had
Speaker 11: a previous opportunity to coach Columbus as the head coach,
Speaker 11: and then he served with a lot of other teams
Speaker 11: as assistants. So he's doing a real good job there.
Speaker 11: Obviously they're buying into his game plan. And you know,
Speaker 11: as I said, they've got excellent, excellent goaltending and Colnnor Hallibuck.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: In addition to let's stay in the division, just kind
Speaker 2: of interest out this way, the Minnesota Wild have also
Speaker 2: not lost now they've got a couple of overtime situations.
Speaker 2: They have ten points through six games played. They're sitting
Speaker 2: at number two in the division. Kind of same question.
Speaker 2: What do you make of their hot start and was
Speaker 2: this something we should have anticipated?
Speaker 11: Again, I didn't think they had I didn't think they
Speaker 11: make the playoffs, So I was saying that they weren't.
Speaker 11: They weren't going to be any better than they were
Speaker 11: last year. But having said that, they have had a
Speaker 11: real hot start, why have they had a heart hot start? Again?
Speaker 11: Their goaltenders playing great. Gustafson has been really good for them,
Speaker 11: and the coach is getting a lot out of them.
Speaker 11: So you know what, these are the things that come
Speaker 11: to surprise you when you think that it's automatic that
Speaker 11: Colorado is going to be one of the heavyweights. They
Speaker 11: start out the way they do. Edmonton, who goes to
Speaker 11: Game seven of the final, starts off laying eggs all
Speaker 11: over the place again this season like they did last year.
Speaker 11: They're only two four and one and lost their first
Speaker 11: four home games. You know the problem is with this
Speaker 11: is that's why we play the games because it's really
Speaker 11: not predictable. It is something that we can say we're
Speaker 11: experts and we think we know what's going to happen.
Speaker 11: But a lot of different things happen than I predict,
Speaker 11: that's for sure.
Speaker 2: So I certainly my heart lies with the Rangers and
Speaker 2: always will. But there's a piece of my heart that
Speaker 2: I left in Saint Louis because of our experience there
Speaker 2: as a family. And I smile when I see the
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club next to the Saint Louis Blues in
Speaker 2: the Central Division. It's something I never thought i'd see,
Speaker 2: certainly in this business, being able to cover a hockey
Speaker 2: club here locally that goes toe to toe with a
Speaker 2: club that I was very close to for a number
Speaker 2: of years.
Speaker 1: Give me your thoughts on the start of the season
Speaker 1: of the Blues.
Speaker 2: They just had a pretty bad injury unfortunately, and are
Speaker 2: you expecting more from them as we kind of traverse
Speaker 2: our way through the year.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I'm you know what, I like the Blues. I
Speaker 11: like what they did in the summer, and Doug Armstrong's
Speaker 11: the GM there and he did those two offer sheets
Speaker 11: and got both the players from the Edmonton Oilers that
Speaker 11: really bolstered his lineup. He re signed the Snevitch to
Speaker 11: a long term contract, who's one of their best players.
Speaker 11: So you know, I think they're going to be fighting
Speaker 11: with Utah. To be honest, they're about the same meaning
Speaker 11: in the standings, UT hasn't much younger club than the
Speaker 11: Saint Louis Blues, but I expect Saint Louis to be
Speaker 11: in there in the fight certainly this season. Now, today
Speaker 11: was that bad announcement about Robert Thomas, who broke his
Speaker 11: ankle and will be out for a while. He's their
Speaker 11: number one center. That's a loss that you're not going
Speaker 11: to be able to replace her easily. You're going to
Speaker 11: have to just substitute other people in there.
Speaker 2: You know, one more thing before I say you lose,
Speaker 2: because I don't think I've asked you about our coach
Speaker 2: out this Way, Andre Torney. I guess they call him Bear.
Speaker 2: He's a very entertaining interview. He's fun to listen to,
Speaker 2: and I think a lot of people are pretty excited
Speaker 2: about He's only fifty and you know he's been around
Speaker 2: for a little bit. What do you know about coach Torny?
Speaker 2: What sort of coach is he?
Speaker 1: The guy that's kind of running the club out this way?
Speaker 11: You know, I know most people in the nhl'll spend
Speaker 11: but I don't know him. But I have watched him
Speaker 11: for his years in the Phoenix, and he's got to
Speaker 11: be a player's coach. He's got to be a guy
Speaker 11: that's well liked by the players to have survived all
Speaker 11: those frustrating seasons that they had in Phoenix where they
Speaker 11: didn't they weren't spending money, and they were continually just
Speaker 11: trying to use young guys and do the best they could.
Speaker 11: And he hung in there and hung in there and
Speaker 11: played in a college building last year, and so on
Speaker 11: and so forth. So I do know, or what I've heard,
Speaker 11: is that he's very good with his players, and you
Speaker 11: know that they play for him, and they play hard
Speaker 11: for him, and it appears that they're doing that again
Speaker 11: this year.
Speaker 2: All right, Neil, before I set you loose, we have
Speaker 2: a lot of new hockey fans out this way, thirsty
Speaker 2: for hockey content.
Speaker 1: How can they find the pod?
Speaker 11: Well, I hope they will give us a try on
Speaker 11: NHL wrap Around. You can find it on Spotify, Apple
Speaker 11: and everywhere else, and you could find a podcast. I
Speaker 11: think you'll learn things on there that you didn't know
Speaker 11: before you started to listen to it. So give it
Speaker 11: a chance. And I appreciate that, Spence.
Speaker 1: It is quality, Neil. Thank you for the time, sir.
Speaker 1: What chat next week?
Speaker 11: I can't wait, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Neil Smith, former general manager of the New York Rangers
Speaker 2: when they want to Stanley Cup in ninety four, former
Speaker 2: general manager of the Islanders. He was the chief scout
Speaker 2: for the Red Wings. My man knows hockey probably the
Speaker 2: best hockey. Yes, you're gonna hear in the market. The
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club got spank last night. Back an action
Speaker 2: against Colorado coming up on Friday. All right, are you
Speaker 2: watching the Utah Hockey Club games? Are you watching the NFL?
Speaker 2: College football, NBA? You can get it in one place
Speaker 2: with Dish, but today we're taking care of everybody. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: All right, we're live today from the dish Professionals.
Speaker 2: I just got the last pack of peanut Eminem's and
Speaker 2: Cynthia doesn't think panot eminems are an elite candy, so
Speaker 2: she's wrong. The Utah Jazz are in action tonight. Our
Speaker 2: next guest usually is live on site. He must be
Speaker 2: very busy today, so we'll give him a pass. Richard
Speaker 2: Smith forty years with a jazz front office, good enough
Speaker 2: to give us some time on an opening day.
Speaker 1: Smittie, Happy Wednesday. How are we doing?
Speaker 11: Thanks?
Speaker 8: Thanks for doing great on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. How
Speaker 8: about this weather?
Speaker 2: I know it's perfect, but enjoy it because it's going
Speaker 2: to be thirty five next weekend, so we'll enjoy it
Speaker 2: while we can.
Speaker 1: Smitty, what's what's your opinion on Pean and M and M's.
Speaker 1: I say they're elite. My tech disagrees.
Speaker 8: We Eminem's are right at the top of the list.
Speaker 8: That's that's that has to be one of the go.
Speaker 8: You're in the dire straits and you have five minutes
Speaker 8: to get something going.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm glad we're on the same page, SMITTI.
Speaker 2: All right, Opening night for.
Speaker 1: The Utah Jazz.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Take us behind the scenes on what opening night is
Speaker 2: like in the arena, in the front office. All the
Speaker 2: hard work that most people never see and never will
Speaker 2: see behind the scenes culminate in the actual show.
Speaker 1: So what's what's the buzz like down at the arena?
Speaker 1: What's the feeling like typically when opening day is here.
Speaker 13: Well, it's always a day of renewal, Spencer, because everybody
Speaker 13: starts the season, oh and oh nobody's lost the game
Speaker 13: yet everybody thinks they're gonna be better than they probably
Speaker 13: are or as other people are saying they're.
Speaker 8: Going to be. But there's always optimism because you always
Speaker 8: feel like, you know, we can get something more done
Speaker 8: than people think we can. We're gonna work hard, we're
Speaker 8: gonna be organized, we're going to be better in our
Speaker 8: player development this year than we were last year. So
Speaker 8: when we roll the ball out you start the season,
Speaker 8: you know where everybody has that same feeling. It doesn't
Speaker 8: matter whether you were the worst team in the league.
Speaker 8: Last year you were the best team. Everybody's got that
Speaker 8: that sense, uh that they can be better. And then
Speaker 8: then you roll it out and obviously you hope for
Speaker 8: good fortune and the uh, minimize injuries and all that
Speaker 8: kind of stuff, and and you see where it goes.
Speaker 8: But it's it's always a time where everybody's upbeatn positive
Speaker 8: about what's in front of them.
Speaker 2: Let's stick with that theme of positivity. What's your Jazz fans?
Speaker 2: What what are the positive elements of what the season
Speaker 2: could bring? If you're a Jazz fan, what are the
Speaker 2: reasons for positivity?
Speaker 8: Well, I think they're just, uh, you're just going to
Speaker 8: be looking at whether you see any kind of incremental development,
Speaker 8: uh in a plus way with all your young guys
Speaker 8: and that and that's what that's the system they've set
Speaker 8: up this year. Obviously, they brought back lowry marketing in
Speaker 8: on a big number contract and and they in my opinion,
Speaker 8: they should have done that. That was a smart But
Speaker 8: now you've got to add some other guys. So who
Speaker 8: are the other guys, Well, we don't know yet. That's
Speaker 8: why we're gonna be playing different lineups, We're gonna be
Speaker 8: playing different combinations. You're gonna see guys out there where
Speaker 8: you're gonna say, oh, this, I'm not sure these guys
Speaker 8: know how to play together. I'm not sure how this
Speaker 8: is gonna work. But they don't know that either, and
Speaker 8: that's why they're out there. And it's not a year
Speaker 8: of whether they're gonna be trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 8: how to win games and then how to get into
Speaker 8: the last two playoff spots or anything of that nature.
Speaker 8: It's all gonna be about developing the players, seeing who
Speaker 8: can who can improve enough that we think that that
Speaker 8: guy can can be a positive contributor to a winning effort.
Speaker 8: That's gonna be the next thing. Of course, they've had
Speaker 8: their woes on defense last year and those have been
Speaker 8: well documented. They're going to be looking to see if
Speaker 8: they can improve in that area, and they're gonna have
Speaker 8: to improve in that area if they're gonna want to
Speaker 8: see anything that even scraps the surface of trying to
Speaker 8: be better and trying to prove to their fans that
Speaker 8: they are improving with this young group of guys.
Speaker 2: So ultimately, I agree with you when it comes to
Speaker 2: the development side of this, and when we've heard from
Speaker 2: Jazz brass. When we've heard from the front office, namely
Speaker 2: Danny and Justin and then Ryan Smith too, the owner
Speaker 2: of the club, most of them all say that this
Speaker 2: will be a year of development, as you just outline,
Speaker 2: meaning if you translate that literally, the young players are
Speaker 2: going to play a lot of minutes. Seven players under
Speaker 2: the age of twenty three. But what about from Will
Speaker 2: Hardy's standpoint, you know, because ultimately the coach decides the rotation.
Speaker 2: And look, let's just call it how it is. There
Speaker 2: will be Knights when Isaiah Collier is one for eleven
Speaker 2: and he's not impacting winning, or you know, Cody Williams
Speaker 2: shows his I like Cody, I'm excited to watch Cody,
Speaker 2: but he shows his age and he's not impacting winning.
Speaker 2: And look even the second year players, you know Bryce
Speaker 2: sen Siba Keyante, who I like a lot. There were
Speaker 2: plenty of Knights last year where Keante just couldn't make
Speaker 2: a shot. He kept shooting, and because of those dynamics,
Speaker 2: you end up losing the game. Coaches only want to win, period.
Speaker 2: So do you think Will is going to lean into
Speaker 2: the message that we hear from the front office about
Speaker 2: young guys playing or will we see a little bit
Speaker 2: more Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Drew you Banks, Patty Mills,
Speaker 2: When when Will believes playing his veteran players is what
Speaker 2: actually leads them to winning basketball games?
Speaker 1: Like, how do you think Will handles this entire thing?
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I think the main thing is going to
Speaker 8: be that he has to be in lockstep with the
Speaker 8: with the front office and the ownership about where they're
Speaker 8: at and what they're trying to get done. And I
Speaker 8: believe from everything I've heard and talked to some of
Speaker 8: those guys individually, it seems like they're all on the
Speaker 8: same page, which means that takes a little bit of
Speaker 8: the weight off of his shoulders. Where, yeah, he's a coach,
Speaker 8: he wants to win every time he steps out there.
Speaker 8: The players want to win every time they step out there.
Speaker 8: But let me tell you, Spence, there's not a player
Speaker 8: I ever worked with in all my years and with
Speaker 8: the Jazz organization who didn't think that they were going
Speaker 8: to win every single game they walked out on the
Speaker 8: floor before the start of the game. That's just the mindset,
Speaker 8: and that's the mindset you have to have as a
Speaker 8: competitive athlete. Having said that, my own personal opinion, and
Speaker 8: I don't know this at all, but I believe that
Speaker 8: the front office will have certain demands of Will and
Speaker 8: his coaching staff about what they want to do with
Speaker 8: their with their players, how they want to what kind
Speaker 8: of rotations they want to have, who they want to
Speaker 8: see in certain positions with certain lineup combinations. Whether it's
Speaker 8: we're winning or we're not winning, is going to be
Speaker 8: a second nate, a second level thing to whether we
Speaker 8: think we're able to get something out of these players.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 8: They tell us that they're getting better, and so some
Speaker 8: of that I believe that the weight will be taken
Speaker 8: off Will's shoulders by by having the backing of the
Speaker 8: front office group to say, Hey, don't worry about it.
Speaker 8: We don't need tonight, Clarkson and Collins in the game
Speaker 8: in the fourth quarter. If it's a two minute, two
Speaker 8: point game with five minutes to go. We want to
Speaker 8: see how those three young guys up front, how they play,
Speaker 8: and how they figure out how to win the game
Speaker 8: or not win the game. And that gives us more
Speaker 8: uh information to go on as we try and get
Speaker 8: this whole thing figured out in the long term. So
Speaker 8: I think there's some of that that will be in
Speaker 8: play as a season unfolds, I don't think Will's on
Speaker 8: his own that again my own opinion, just running the
Speaker 8: lineups the way he wants for forty eight minutes. I
Speaker 8: think they discuss things a lot before the games about
Speaker 8: what the rotations, what lineup, who's going to start, that
Speaker 8: kind of stuff, and then he has to play off
Speaker 8: that stuff as a particular game unfolds.
Speaker 2: Just continue with the theme of development and incremental growth,
Speaker 2: and all this stuff is brick by brick and step
Speaker 2: by step. I mean, it's pretty rare you see some
Speaker 2: rapid ascension, but you do see it. Usually those guys
Speaker 2: are unicorns, rookies that actually impact winning or even second
Speaker 2: year players to learn how to do that so early on.
Speaker 2: But let's start with some of the second year guys.
Speaker 2: And the way I'll phrase it, Smitty is what, as
Speaker 2: a jazz fan, what should you hope to see as
Speaker 2: far as growth from Keante George this year?
Speaker 8: Well, you hope that he becomes more of a playmaker.
Speaker 8: He seems to be when he when he's in a
Speaker 8: playmaking mode. To me, it seems to be like it's
Speaker 8: a little he's a little too much in second gear
Speaker 8: for me that he has to be a little more
Speaker 8: forceful uh when he's trying to distribute, when he's trying
Speaker 8: to get get guys in certain positions. I think he
Speaker 8: has to be a little more demonstrative with his teammates
Speaker 8: on the floor, uh to make sure they're getting in
Speaker 8: spots where they should be uh to to run an offense.
Speaker 8: And also his you know, he has a penchant for
Speaker 8: sloppy turnovers uh, and that's gonna be one thing that
Speaker 8: they're gonna be looking at early in the season to
Speaker 8: him to shore up. He's got to be more of
Speaker 8: a sure handed uh ball handler, and he's got to
Speaker 8: be able to to be able to distribute, to find
Speaker 8: the right shot in the right sequence, and be able
Speaker 8: to to get the ball to guys without having these
Speaker 8: loose handle, sloppy, lazy turnovers that he was prone to
Speaker 8: last year. So that's gonna be that's gonna be a
Speaker 8: big thing I'll be looking for in the first month
Speaker 8: or two of the season to see how he's coming
Speaker 8: along in that regard.
Speaker 2: All Right, So, you know, Bryce Sensiba made a living
Speaker 2: in college at being a shot maker, and somebody who could,
Speaker 2: you know, really find a way to get a shot
Speaker 2: off in college at Ohio State and he scored it
Speaker 2: a very high clip. I've used this parallel before. There's
Speaker 2: a little like Dennis Scott to his game. You know,
Speaker 2: he needs to be in better shape ultimately, and I
Speaker 2: don't think he's ever gonna be anything other than a acceptable,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, team defensive player. But this is
Speaker 2: a team last year that badly needed better shooting among
Speaker 2: other things. And we'll get to the other things as well,
Speaker 2: but Bryce is a shot maker. What should Jazz fans
Speaker 2: hope year two look like looks like for Bryce Sensiba, Well.
Speaker 8: You hope that his body is better, which I think
Speaker 8: it is is somewhat better what I saw him in
Speaker 8: the fall, during training camp, in the preseason games. But
Speaker 8: he's got to continue to get that body in better shape,
Speaker 8: get it more toned up. He also has to play
Speaker 8: with with more with more punch, with more force when
Speaker 8: he gets the ball. You know, he can't just be
Speaker 8: a one trick pony in the NBA unless Spence, You're
Speaker 8: at the top of the list of whatever that trick is.
Speaker 8: So you can be only a three point shooter, but
Speaker 8: you better be the best three point shooter in the league,
Speaker 8: and it better be by a wide margin if you
Speaker 8: don't do anything else. A sense of bought for me
Speaker 8: is a little bit of a sporadic shooter. He's more
Speaker 8: a little bit more of a scorer. But he's gonna
Speaker 8: have to be more dynamic, uh in that regard on
Speaker 8: the offensive end and then defensively. He just has to
Speaker 8: show that he's that he has the willingness and the
Speaker 8: desire to man up. You know, when he gets in
Speaker 8: iso situations on the wing, he has to be able
Speaker 8: to get on top of guys. I don't know if
Speaker 8: he has that in him. You know, that's something that
Speaker 8: that he'll I think he'll get opportunities to show whether
Speaker 8: he has it or not. And that's gonna be the
Speaker 8: interesting thing with him. He he really has to start
Speaker 8: showing that he has some skill that is the skill
Speaker 8: that he can rely on night in and night out
Speaker 8: to be able to contribute to the group. And and
Speaker 8: so that's one thing I think that they're going to
Speaker 8: be looking for the first half of the season for
Speaker 8: the minutes that he gets in there.
Speaker 1: Let's move over to Taylor Hendrix.
Speaker 2: So I find the most I don't know interesting Year
Speaker 2: three project only because I do believe he OSes potential
Speaker 2: at times, and the way he's built just indicates if
Speaker 2: he works and if he's coached and developed. I mean,
Speaker 2: with those measurables, if you can combine it with a
Speaker 2: good skill set, I think he could play in the
Speaker 2: league for a long time, maybe at a really high level.
Speaker 1: So it was up and down last year.
Speaker 2: Injured, missed Summer League, which is a big deal when
Speaker 2: you're a rookie to not have that experience, and then injured,
Speaker 2: you know, incrementally throughout the course of the year. Looks
Speaker 2: like he's going to start and get minutes. What should
Speaker 2: we all hope this thing looks like this year for Taylor?
Speaker 8: Well, he's he's a young guy, Spence. He's not only
Speaker 8: young age wise, of course, but but he's young playing wise.
Speaker 8: And you know, having only played one year at a
Speaker 8: mid major in Central Florida and then coming in last
Speaker 8: year playing mostly in the G League. He you know,
Speaker 8: that was a year of development of his body. He's
Speaker 8: still in that phase. He's you know, guys like that
Speaker 8: usually come in we would usually want to have them
Speaker 8: on what we would consider some kind of a three
Speaker 8: year physical development program where they get bigger, stronger, faster,
Speaker 8: uh and and they show those kind of increments that
Speaker 8: are measurables and things you can test and train and
Speaker 8: development uh all all year long. So he's just in
Speaker 8: the beginning part of that. He's had one year of that,
Speaker 8: you know, under his belt, fifteen months at the most,
Speaker 8: if you will, uh, since he was drafted last year.
Speaker 8: So he's got a ways to go. He's not going
Speaker 8: to come out gangbusters this year and and start lighting
Speaker 8: it up and everybody going whoa, whoa, he's a he's
Speaker 8: the next coming of some some great wing player. But
Speaker 8: I think he's he's got to be able to show
Speaker 8: that he's getting stronger. He's got to show that he
Speaker 8: can uh commit uh to uh to playing long stints uh,
Speaker 8: you know, with a certain a certain amount of intensity
Speaker 8: and and and uh and and confidence. You know, that's
Speaker 8: one of the things I thought he lacked last year
Speaker 8: sometimes when he didn't play with a level of confidence
Speaker 8: you would want young guys to do, because when they
Speaker 8: do that sometimes they make they make errors, and they
Speaker 8: make mistakes. But we would always call those errors of
Speaker 8: co mission when you're trying to do something, rather than
Speaker 8: errors of oh mission, where you're just not trying at all,
Speaker 8: or you're afraid that you're going to fail. So he's
Speaker 8: a guy who's got to show them that as he
Speaker 8: continues his development here in year two, that he's getting stronger,
Speaker 8: that he can play with some more commitment when he
Speaker 8: has the ball in his hands, and then to try
Speaker 8: and be some kind of a presence defensively with not
Speaker 8: only his length but his agility to be able to
Speaker 8: guard both out on the wing and then in the post.
Speaker 8: That's what they're going to be looking for him in
Speaker 8: year two. But he's not going to fly off the
Speaker 8: page of Spence. He's not going to have a Donovan
Speaker 8: Mitchell type rising in the first two months where everybody's going, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 8: this is a guy. But you want to see incrementally
Speaker 8: in him because he's young and you got to give
Speaker 8: him time to get his feet on the ground.
Speaker 2: So, as we've discussed, and I continued to maintain that
Speaker 2: I was a little bit surprised that the Jazz used
Speaker 2: all three of their draft picks last year. But they did,
Speaker 2: and maybe it's because the three guys that were available
Speaker 2: that they wanted were available. Maybe it's because, as Justin said,
Speaker 2: they tried to make a lot of deals and couldn't
Speaker 2: get anything done. I don't know, but we do have
Speaker 2: three rookies on this team, and we'll go in order here.
Speaker 2: Cody Williams the.
Speaker 1: Lottery pick at only nineteen.
Speaker 2: He's got a big bro who's a really good NBA player,
Speaker 2: and like Taylor, he's built really well for the modern
Speaker 2: day wing, although probably could use to put on a
Speaker 2: little weight, but at only nineteen, that will come with time.
Speaker 2: Looks like he will be a part of the rotation
Speaker 2: pretty quickly. We'll see what it looks like tonight. You're
Speaker 2: one expectations for young Cody Williams.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's got to just show some consistency in knowing
Speaker 8: what's going out on the floor night in and night out.
Speaker 8: He's got to be able to be in the right spots.
Speaker 8: He's got to know rotations. He's got to understand what
Speaker 8: the physicality of the NBA is all about. His brother
Speaker 8: is a is a tremendous player, uh and really getting
Speaker 8: better for okayc and he's and you know, if he
Speaker 8: can play, you know at that you know, approach that
Speaker 8: kind of a level, uh, in terms of intensity, in
Speaker 8: terms of how he approaches the game every night. Then
Speaker 8: he's gonna get more minutes and he's gonna get more
Speaker 8: opportunities to show what he can do. But this none
Speaker 8: of the spence. And I know it sounds like we're
Speaker 8: beating a dead horse because we've been saying it for
Speaker 8: a while now, but but it's it's really true. This
Speaker 8: is not gonna be some overnight fixed thing and an
Speaker 8: overnight sensation with these young guys. They're gonna get minutes,
Speaker 8: they're gonna make mistakes, they're gonna have bad nights, and
Speaker 8: it's gonna be frustrating for fans, But you're gonna be
Speaker 8: looking for how guys like Williams are getting better from
Speaker 8: game to game. Are they getting stronger, Are they getting
Speaker 8: a little little bit more savvy about how the NBA
Speaker 8: game is played, especially on the defensive end, in terms
Speaker 8: of being able to stay in front of guys or
Speaker 8: understanding defensive rotations. And he's a guy that's that's gonna
Speaker 8: he's gonna get chances, and he's gonna have little glimpses
Speaker 8: of what he can do, and then he's gonna make
Speaker 8: a bunch of mistakes and he's either gonna be overwhelmed physically,
Speaker 8: or he's gonna be overwhelmed by his lack of of
Speaker 8: NBA game maturity, if you will. So they but he's
Speaker 8: gonna get a lot of run with this team to
Speaker 8: show what he might be able to do in the
Speaker 8: long run for them.
Speaker 1: All right, two more young players.
Speaker 2: Isaiah Collier is not available tonight due to injury or illness.
Speaker 2: I didn't check out the injury, but it looks like, uh,
Speaker 2: he might start in the G League. We'll get to Philipowski,
Speaker 2: who I heard is going to start in the G League,
Speaker 2: and that's what the G League's for.
Speaker 1: That's fine.
Speaker 2: Isaiah was one of the best high school players in
Speaker 2: his class. He was one of those players. It was
Speaker 2: a little bit like my Michael Porter junior who got
Speaker 2: hurt at Missouri. But if he came out of high school,
Speaker 2: he may have been the number one overall pick. Isaiah
Speaker 2: would have been like a top three pick if he
Speaker 2: was able to come out of high school. Goes to
Speaker 2: Southern cal for a year where the situation was how
Speaker 2: shall we say, not awesome, and then falls to the
Speaker 2: Jets and they end up going with him with the
Speaker 2: number twenty nine pick. There's a lot to like about
Speaker 2: his skill.
Speaker 1: Set as elite guard.
Speaker 2: But again, when you're that young, without the experience, he's
Speaker 2: not getting the keys of the car. So incremental growth,
Speaker 2: step by step. What does it look like for Isaiah
Speaker 2: Collier this year.
Speaker 8: Well, he's going to have to show that again like
Speaker 8: we mentioned earlier with the George kid, he's got to
Speaker 8: be able to show that he has tighter handles, that
Speaker 8: he can control an offense. He is a natural point
Speaker 8: guard in terms of feel, in terms of court vision,
Speaker 8: the way he plays sometimes I think he takes too
Speaker 8: many chances with the ball, and then at USC he
Speaker 8: had a lot of un force turnovers. I thought. In
Speaker 8: the summer League and in the in the few preseason
Speaker 8: games that he was available and played minutes in the
Speaker 8: same thing, he showed flashes of being able to see
Speaker 8: the floor, being able to find guys cutting baseline, find
Speaker 8: guys on the opposite wing, make something happen that way.
Speaker 8: But too often he's a little loose with his his
Speaker 8: passing and with his reading the play and then trying
Speaker 8: to make something happen. So he's got to probably dial
Speaker 8: it back half a notch in terms of his aggressiveness
Speaker 8: just trying to force the issue let plays come to you.
Speaker 8: Let make the easy play, make the easy skip pass,
Speaker 8: whatever it is, just getting a flow, get a feel
Speaker 8: for what's going on. Again, being a young guy first
Speaker 8: year in the league, he's going to get opportunities with
Speaker 8: this team. He's going to make mistakes, he's going to
Speaker 8: be frustrating nights, you know, with him, but you're gonna
Speaker 8: see some flash of things that he has a natural
Speaker 8: ability to do, and then it's a case of him
Speaker 8: growing through those mistakes and learning. And that's what's gonna happen. Spence,
Speaker 8: You've got so many young guys who are gonna get time.
Speaker 8: What's gonna happen in the first half of the year,
Speaker 8: in my opinion, is that one of them is gonna
Speaker 8: start rising to the top. In other words, one is
Speaker 8: gonna look better than the other guys in terms of
Speaker 8: how he's progressing, how he's improving from night to night,
Speaker 8: and fans are gonna be able to see that. And
Speaker 8: I think then what's gonna happen is that fans are
Speaker 8: gonna start locking on to that guy as one of
Speaker 8: their fan favorites and they're gonna say, Okay, he's the
Speaker 8: next guy who's gonna help market in get this thing
Speaker 8: going in the right direction. But who is that going
Speaker 8: to be? Who knows? That's that's why they're gonna be
Speaker 8: throwing them all through the sister and trying to see
Speaker 8: if they can find a gold nugget somewhere along the way.
Speaker 2: All right, may last thing, then we'll set you lose.
Speaker 2: So men, this is in town tonight. And they had
Speaker 2: excuse me that a chaotic year. Last year, Job played
Speaker 2: nine games, Marcus Smart played twenty. They sat I think
Speaker 2: Desmond Baine played half the year. They sat a lot
Speaker 2: of players down the stretch to get healthy this year.
Speaker 2: Now tonight, there's no Jared Jackson junior, or he might
Speaker 2: be their second best player. There's no Luke Canard, there's
Speaker 2: no Gg Jackson, Cam Spencer their rookie from Yukon, and
Speaker 2: Vince Williams. They're a little banged up. They're a slight
Speaker 2: favorite at home. What do you see happening tonight? What
Speaker 2: do you you know?
Speaker 1: What are some of the matchups you'll be looking for?
Speaker 1: Do we see a little.
Speaker 2: Taylor Hendrick's not Job Moran? What do you expect them
Speaker 2: to see? Is the Jazz take on the Grizzlies tonight?
Speaker 8: Well, I think that, you know, they lean a lot
Speaker 8: on John Moran and him having a solid year coming
Speaker 8: back is going to be key for how Memphis season
Speaker 8: goes on. You know, coming out of the blocks, having
Speaker 8: several guys including Jackson, who's who's one of their main
Speaker 8: guys not in the lineup, that that gets you off
Speaker 8: to a little bit of a bumpy start at the
Speaker 8: beginning of the year. But they have all the makings
Speaker 8: of being a good team. Uh, Zach Edie is going
Speaker 8: to be a better NBA player, I think than people
Speaker 8: are expecting of him. He's he's a smart kid. Uh
Speaker 8: He's a kid who will play within himself and their
Speaker 8: team will learn how to play off of him and
Speaker 8: his size. You know, he's going to be an interesting
Speaker 8: guy to watch as the season unfolds for them. But
Speaker 8: their team goes as Moran goes. And if he's healthy
Speaker 8: and he's got his bounce going and he's got his confidence,
Speaker 8: his swagger going, which is a big part of his
Speaker 8: skill set, then Memphis is going to have a very
Speaker 8: good chance to be back in the mix where they
Speaker 8: were two years ago when those guys were healthy and
Speaker 8: they and they had an excellent year.
Speaker 2: A Timeddy, Thanks for the time, man. Enjoy the game
Speaker 2: and look forward to seeing you assume.
Speaker 8: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right, the great Richard Smith.
Speaker 2: All right, five o'clock hour of the Drive starts right
Speaker 2: now on this lovely Wednesday evening.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday to you. You're halfway through your work week.
Speaker 2: You are one day closer to the weekend Thursday at
Speaker 2: football in the NFL gets rolling tomorrow. So NFL news,
Speaker 2: by the way, looks like New Copkins is on his
Speaker 2: way to Kansas City. The Chiefs are reportedly trading at
Speaker 2: fifth round pick Tennessee in exchange for DeAndre Hopkins. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the Chiefs having a ton of injury issues at that position,
Speaker 2: and my goodness, I think the potential of Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 2: and New Copkins is pretty exciting. Janis Winston is going
Speaker 2: to get the start for the Browns against the Ravens
Speaker 2: on Sunday. Jayden Daniels held out of practice today. He's
Speaker 2: questionable for the weekend. He's having a great rookie year.
Speaker 2: So your pro football weekend will get rolling tomorrow. The
Speaker 2: NBA opened up last night, and the Jazz get going tonight.
Speaker 2: Jazz take on the Grizzlies coming up at the Delta Center.
Speaker 2: Going to be down there to check out opening night.
Speaker 2: John Morantz will be in action.
Speaker 1: He is back on the team.
Speaker 2: He is box office, although hopefully he's learned some lessons
Speaker 2: so he stays on the floor this year.
Speaker 1: Only played in nine games.
Speaker 2: Last year, John did and Memphis had a chaotic season,
Speaker 2: but they're thought to be among the contenders, certainly for
Speaker 2: a playoff spot. I think they're over under in Vegas
Speaker 2: is forty seven point five, while the Jazz are I
Speaker 2: think twenty eight point five. So should be a fun
Speaker 2: game tonight. Hopefully guys are heading down to the arena.
Speaker 2: If you're driving down right now, we appreciate you tuning
Speaker 2: in on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Memphis a two point five point favorite.
Speaker 2: They will be without four rotational pieces in Jaron Jackson, Junior,
Speaker 2: Luke Canard, GG Jackson, Cam Spencer as well. So look,
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people were knocking on Cam
Speaker 2: Rising for not playing after well being a paid athlete. Well,
Speaker 2: NBA basketball where load management happens. And it's already been
Speaker 2: announced that the league is going to investigate the Philadelphia
Speaker 2: seventy six ers over Joel Embeid sitting out the first
Speaker 2: week of the season. Paul George also will not play.
Speaker 2: Kawhi is out for an extended period of time. Yes,
Speaker 2: injuries suck, but this dynamic of this league will never
Speaker 2: be something I'm totally comfortable with.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what the Jazz are able to do.
Speaker 2: I'm expecting the same starting five they used throughout the preseason,
Speaker 2: and as Justin's Danny Ainge Ryan Smith have told us
Speaker 2: during their.
Speaker 1: Media availability, this is going to be about development.
Speaker 2: It's going to be about incremental improvement, brick by brick,
Speaker 2: step by step, and that's how this stuff works unless
Speaker 2: you are a unicorn, and I hate to say it,
Speaker 2: there's not a unicorn on this roster. We're not going
Speaker 2: to see some sort of burst on the scene, kind
Speaker 2: of like what we saw from Donovan when he had
Speaker 2: that forty point game against the Pelicans' rookie year. But
Speaker 2: we'd seen signs of that from Mitchell during summer league.
Speaker 2: You know, he had a great summer league. I don't
Speaker 2: think anybody thought he was going to be what he
Speaker 2: was as a rookie. Should have been a Rookie of
Speaker 2: the Year. It went to a second year player, which
Speaker 2: is a weird rule. Ben Simmons won it. So we've
Speaker 2: seen spurts from Keyante, but I don't think we're going
Speaker 2: to see some massive step up where we're going to
Speaker 2: view him as some superstar. AM excited to see how
Speaker 2: Will Hardy ingratiates the young guys into the lineup. Starting
Speaker 2: lineup for the Jazz during the preseason, Kyante, George, Colin,
Speaker 2: Sexton Lowry Marketing, Taylor Hendricks and John Coyle excuse me,
Speaker 2: Walker Kessler in for John Collins. So that was kind
Speaker 2: of your one change. John Collins goes to the bench,
Speaker 2: Walker Kessler. We'll get the start, at least that's what
Speaker 2: I anticipate, and I guess we'll only know when Will
Speaker 2: rolls out the lineup as far as rotationally, what does
Speaker 2: it look like. So if the deal is development, if
Speaker 2: the deal is playing and learning about the young players
Speaker 2: to see what sort of hand you've been dealt, you know,
Speaker 2: and Justin Zanik has said we're not going to go
Speaker 2: seven for seven. They have seven players under the age
Speaker 2: of twenty three, So if the goal is to learn
Speaker 2: more about the second year guys, to learn more about
Speaker 2: Kyante and Bryce and potentially, you know, seeing how it
Speaker 2: goes with Taylor Hendricks, who I do believe we'll start
Speaker 2: and play big minutes, and then you know the young
Speaker 2: players as well, the rookies who were all going to
Speaker 2: learn about. I do believe Kyle Philipowski will start to
Speaker 2: league out of the rotation, start the season, I should say,
Speaker 2: out of the rotation, and potentially spend a lot of
Speaker 2: time in the G League. I don't love it when
Speaker 2: people get upset when rookies are in the G League.
Speaker 2: It's literally why it's there, and it doesn't matter who
Speaker 2: you are. You know, top picks come back from injuries.
Speaker 2: They kind of get their rhythm back in the G
Speaker 2: League before they're ready to play with the varsity. As
Speaker 2: Gordy Chiasa would say, so the second year players, Kanta, George, Taylor, Hendricks,
Speaker 2: Price Sensiba, like I said, Kyle Philipowski, I think, will
Speaker 2: start in the G League, which is fine.
Speaker 1: Isaiah Collier is out tonight.
Speaker 2: He is not going to be available, which means Patty
Speaker 2: Mills will probably be the first guard off the bench.
Speaker 1: He or Jordan Clarkson. Patty will back up Keyante. They're
Speaker 1: interested to see what that looks like, though.
Speaker 2: If the task is to learn about the young players,
Speaker 2: and there's a night and it could happen as early
Speaker 2: as tonight where Keyante is two of thirteen with five
Speaker 2: turnovers and you're down.
Speaker 1: Twelve fourteen points.
Speaker 2: Will will lean into the veteran that he has on
Speaker 2: his team and give Patty Mills more minutes.
Speaker 1: I mean, my initial reaction is for what, like why?
Speaker 2: But Will is whired just like all these other coaches.
Speaker 2: All they want to do is win every night. And
Speaker 2: if he thinks playing Jordan Clarkson a little bit more
Speaker 2: or Patty Mills instead of Keyante, George or Isaiah Callier,
Speaker 2: Will will do that because the goal is to win.
Speaker 2: Or will he let these rookies ride with their mistakes
Speaker 2: because the goal is to develop. I honestly don't know
Speaker 2: the answer to it. You know, if Taylor Hendrick has
Speaker 2: a game where he's losing a little focus like we
Speaker 2: saw last year, or simply as a twenty year old
Speaker 2: it looks overwhelmed. Will we actually see a little bit
Speaker 2: of Drew Eubanks, you know, coming in and providing that veteran,
Speaker 2: grown up presence. If Walker Kessler, as he is wont
Speaker 2: to do from time to time, plays with less than
Speaker 2: acceptable physicality and force. Are we going to see Heaven
Speaker 2: forbid big John Collins minutes again? I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2: I can't really make that assertion. I mean, you know
Speaker 2: where I stand with his team. Ultimately, I don't agree
Speaker 2: with the approach of existing in the middle and hoping
Speaker 2: for Lady luck to shine upon you. But I will
Speaker 2: say this, The Athletic did a really good five part
Speaker 2: piece NBA preview, and really it walks you through and
Speaker 2: the modern day landscape of pro basketball, the collective bargaining agreement.
Speaker 1: And Adam Silver's quest, even though he won't say.
Speaker 2: It out loud, to bring parody to pro basketball in
Speaker 2: a way that they have in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Now, the Boston Celtics last year.
Speaker 2: Became the sixth straight NBA champion six years, we've had
Speaker 2: six different better way to say that, we've had six
Speaker 2: different NBA champs in six.
Speaker 1: Years the Celtics wanted a year ago.
Speaker 2: Let me pause and say this, Boston just might spoil
Speaker 2: Adam Silver's plan to try.
Speaker 1: To find parody. At least for now. I have a.
Speaker 2: Feeling that this is the best team in the league
Speaker 2: by far. It's not a hot take. That won the
Speaker 2: championship last year. But if you watched the game last night,
Speaker 2: and the Knicks are going to be in trouble because
Speaker 2: they have a Karl Anthony Towns problem, and they have
Speaker 2: a Karl Anthony Towns problem with out.
Speaker 1: Of defensive center behind Cat.
Speaker 2: That's why I worked in Minnesota because Gobert was there
Speaker 2: to provide the rim protection. Maybe the Knicks get Mitchell
Speaker 2: Robinson back and he helps out a little bit. But
Speaker 2: all Boston did it wasn't even creative. And this is
Speaker 2: why Cat only played twenty four minutes. Joe Mizzoula essentially said, look,
Speaker 2: whether it was Tatum, whether it was brown, whether it
Speaker 2: was white, whether it's Holiday, whoever the primary ball handler is.
Speaker 2: They walked the man the Cat was guarding up to,
Speaker 2: said the screen, they got the switch, they beat him
Speaker 2: one on one for buckets, or they beat him one
Speaker 2: on one, swing pass, swing pass, three point shot wide open.
Speaker 2: Boston averaged I think forty nine threes per game last year,
Speaker 2: which was an NBA record. They shot sixty one threes
Speaker 2: last night. They only made twenty nine, but they missed
Speaker 2: their last thirteen because twenty nine is the NBA record.
Speaker 2: No one's ever got to thirty, and so they were
Speaker 2: trying to break the record, but they could not hit
Speaker 2: the shots.
Speaker 1: When it was Sam Howser, who's a good shooter. Peyton
Speaker 1: Pritchard was one of nine, but they shot sixty one threes.
Speaker 2: Made nine, and they just smoked Who a lot of
Speaker 2: people believe is the second best team in the East,
Speaker 2: and that's the New York Knicks. So maybe the Knicks
Speaker 2: get Mitchell Robinson back, but the Celtics are the team
Speaker 2: that might just spoil this entire parody situation. But I
Speaker 2: would encourage you to go read through it if you're
Speaker 2: curious about where the league's at right now, because there
Speaker 2: is a case to be made with a bit and
Speaker 2: I know you're gonna roll your eyes if you're a
Speaker 2: Jazz fan, you're sick of hearing about this.
Speaker 1: But they do have a treasure trove of picks.
Speaker 2: The Gobaar and Mitchell picks start to convey this year
Speaker 2: from Cleveland and Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Their books are incredibly clean.
Speaker 2: They have a bunch of young players, and there will
Speaker 2: be teams that are strapped and as a result of
Speaker 2: the second apron and now computitive that is even for billionaires.
Speaker 2: We've already seen the Clippers lose some talent because of
Speaker 2: the second Apron. We've already seen the Nuggets lose some
Speaker 2: talent because of the second Apron. There's gonna be a
Speaker 2: team this year that has a payroll that's super high,
Speaker 2: that gets off to a bad start and they're gonna say,
Speaker 2: we got to shed someone, we gotta get rid of salary,
Speaker 2: and they might want to get rid of a really
Speaker 2: good player because they're not performing up to expectations that
Speaker 2: you as are one of three or four teams that
Speaker 2: will receive those phone calls first because they have the
Speaker 2: draft assets, they have the cap space, they have the
Speaker 2: young prospects.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: The bad news is the other teams that are also
Speaker 2: still in a great position at talent. Oklahoma City, who's
Speaker 2: awesome now, is gonna be awesome for like a decade
Speaker 2: in San Antonio, who has the best building block in
Speaker 2: pro basketball, and Victor women Yama.
Speaker 1: So they're not alone, but they're in the mix to.
Speaker 2: Acquire talent when that talent becomes accessible and available. The
Speaker 2: key continues to be as I've said all along and
Speaker 2: I'll continue to say, but you probably get exhausted. You
Speaker 2: got a draft, you got to develop, and then what
Speaker 2: you got to do. You got to retain, So you
Speaker 2: got to acquire talent, you got to develop talent, then
Speaker 2: you have to retain the talent. The Jazz have still
Speaker 2: been unable to figure out the last piece. In the
Speaker 2: modern day and age of the NBA, we've seen the
Speaker 2: talent the Jazz have developed play well for other teams. Well,
Speaker 2: I should say, leave for other teams like Gordon Hayward,
Speaker 2: or play well for other teams like Donovan Mitchell. I
Speaker 2: think Rudy wanted to stay here, but he was part
Speaker 2: of the breakdown. So now the Jazz have to hope
Speaker 2: they have something in Keyante or Cody or whoever, and
Speaker 2: then watch them develop the way Donovan did, and they
Speaker 2: just hope for once one of these developed, fully baked,
Speaker 2: good young players actually stays in Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. So the Jazz are back tonight, excited
Speaker 1: for pro basketball. Is back to that. I excited for
Speaker 1: wrapping it up from the dish professionals at oh one.
Speaker 2: To four to two four dish, aightoh one four to
Speaker 2: two four dish, give them a call one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: cash back to save.
Speaker 1: A grip of money.
Speaker 2: Jazz in action tonight bevy of NBA basketball going on
Speaker 2: right now. I'm gonna head down to the arena. We'd
Speaker 2: love to see you come down and say hi. So
Speaker 2: there you go, All right, Porter, are you gonna venture
Speaker 2: down to the Delta Center tonight and joy some basketball downtown?
Speaker 5: I may just do so, obviously. It's it's been a
Speaker 5: long time waiting for some hoops. I usually get heavy
Speaker 5: into it in the winter and spring, but with tip
Speaker 5: off here and with a market that's pretty excited about
Speaker 5: hockey and hoops right now, I think we should give
Speaker 5: them the support. So I'll try to head down there
Speaker 5: and see what the atmosphere is like, at least on
Speaker 5: a tip off Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club back in action on Friday against Colorado
Speaker 2: live in Salt Lake, RSL. It's their turn next week
Speaker 2: for some playoff action jazz basketball tonight. Of course, the
Speaker 2: bevue of college football will continue to get you ready
Speaker 2: for yous taking on Houston and of course BYU on
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Speaker 2: porter what comes our way? On a Thursday edition of
Speaker 2: The Show.
Speaker 5: Back in studio on a Thursday, we'll catch up with
Speaker 5: our friends Craig Bullerjack and Gordon monson a big hour
Speaker 5: on the program. We'll also have another friend in studio,
Speaker 5: JP Chunga, the former producer of this here program, a
Speaker 5: guy you joined on the round Ball Roundup this week.
Speaker 5: And then, of course, as we do each and every week,
Speaker 5: talking some soccer, talking some college football, whatever else comes
Speaker 5: about with our friend Kyle Bonegera of ESPN.
Speaker 1: Hi, there you go.
Speaker 2: That will be an excellent Wednesday show. Excuse me, Thursday show.
Speaker 2: We're done with the Wednesday show and we move on
Speaker 2: to Thursday. That'll do it special. Thank you, Mark Harlan,
Speaker 2: Zach Harper, Ben Murdoch, Neil Smith and Richard Smith ur
Speaker 2: In the sound you may miss we did college football,
Speaker 2: NBA basketball, NHL hockey, getting ready for the Jazz tonight.
Speaker 2: If you want any of it, head on over to
Speaker 2: the website which is ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.
Speaker 2: Make sure to download our mobile app and take us
Speaker 2: on the go. And then finally, for what we do
Speaker 2: in our space for every afternoon, four hours of radio
Speaker 2: every afternoon, check out our podcast page. It's entitled to
Speaker 2: Drive with spence check its, and that's available wherever you.
Speaker 1: Get your shows.
Speaker 2: Hit that subscribe or follow button, give us a rating
Speaker 2: and a review, say nice things, give us all the stars.
Speaker 2: It actually does help for Cynthia my onside tech. Our
Speaker 2: good friends here, the dish Bros. Porter Larsen, the producer
Speaker 2: of this program. My name is Spence check it saying,
Speaker 2: and I enjoy your Wednesday evening. Talk to you on
Speaker 2: a Thursday Drive. And as always, you can find it
Speaker 2: right here on ESPN seven hundred