Speaker 1: Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your
Speaker 1: NBA Daily assists.
Speaker 2: Van McMahon, Van McMahon, that is being old Land, Texas
Speaker 2: flood as tickets Mud, He's man McMahon.
Speaker 1: Van McMahon, Oh man, it's been too long, but the
Speaker 1: triumphant return of the legend himself. Some may say the
Speaker 1: goat when it comes to covering the Utah Jazz. Van
Speaker 1: McMahon Tim McMahon back on the Drive on a Tuesday, Tim,
Speaker 1: how you been.
Speaker 3: Man Hoday partner, How are you?
Speaker 4: We're well, We're well. Thanks for the time. We've missed
Speaker 4: you on the show.
Speaker 1: And of course it means basketball season is here when
Speaker 1: you make your appearance.
Speaker 4: Around these parts. We appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: And it is a dark and rainy day in Salt Lake,
Speaker 1: which matches the mood Tim. Because Taylor Hendricks, after spending
Speaker 1: a number of hours in the off season improving his
Speaker 1: body and was off to a pretty good start, suffers
Speaker 1: a catastrophic leg injury that sees him lost for the year.
Speaker 4: What's your reaction and what are you hearing about? How
Speaker 4: he's doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, I was in the building last
Speaker 3: night and it was gruesome and guaranging. I mean the
Speaker 3: second you saw the direction that his leg was turned,
Speaker 3: you knew like, oh no, this is a really bad thing.
Speaker 3: And you know Will already summed it up when he said,
Speaker 3: this is bar of sports. It sucks. I mean, the
Speaker 3: kid did everything that they asked him to do and
Speaker 3: everything they hoped he would do over the summer, got
Speaker 3: significantly stronger, you know, really showed an incredible work ethic,
Speaker 3: earned the right to be in that starting lineup, was
Speaker 3: guarding the other team's death player, whether it's John Morant
Speaker 3: or Luca Donaldcicch or you know anybody in between on
Speaker 3: a nightly basis. You know, really major strives in his development.
Speaker 3: And again the bar from Will Hardy all to put
Speaker 3: on pause right now his season's over. You know, typically
Speaker 3: in these cases there's going to be served or acquired
Speaker 3: that you know, the further tests in the day is
Speaker 3: to determine the severity of it, you know, specifically like
Speaker 3: the ligament damage, that kind of thing. But I mean,
Speaker 3: really just Poy, what a gut punch and then what
Speaker 3: a tough thing for a twenty year old kid who
Speaker 3: had a rough look year and responded the right way
Speaker 3: to now have to deal with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he according to people I've talked to over there,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you hear the same. Like, in order to
Speaker 1: develop as a young player, the main thing you have
Speaker 1: to show people you can do is work. And he
Speaker 1: showed everybody this offseason that he can work. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know the deal. Like I oftentimes joke that in
Speaker 1: pro basketball, it's kind of the same thing as kind
Speaker 1: of national signing dan college football, where every coach says, well,
Speaker 1: we got every prospect we wanted, like, well your rank
Speaker 1: seventy second, Like he didn't get everybody and everybody NBA
Speaker 1: training camps talks about, oh, it's gain, it's muscle gain season.
Speaker 1: This guy put on twenty pounds, this put this guy
Speaker 1: put on ten. But Taylor walked into the building and went,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like he looked different, and he was
Speaker 1: off to a good start to the season. And certainly,
Speaker 1: I guess before we move on a thought on you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor. I don't try to play it
Speaker 1: on the radio. You know, the Jazz certainly will not
Speaker 1: rush this, nor do they have to. Are you hearing
Speaker 1: anything about you know, is this going to be a
Speaker 1: full year situation?
Speaker 4: Any knowledge in that direction.
Speaker 3: You know, what I can say is that a typical
Speaker 3: recovery process from this sort of injury is right about
Speaker 3: that year. So you know, I don't have specifics from
Speaker 3: the Jazz quite yet on you know, IMRI results and
Speaker 3: plans for surgery and that sort of the thing, but yeah,
Speaker 3: it would not be surprising giving them the severity of this
Speaker 3: injury if he's not ready for the startup camp or
Speaker 3: even start of the ring season next year. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's really this is a tough one. It's a really,
Speaker 3: really tough one.
Speaker 4: Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jazz have a great medical staff and
Speaker 1: he's only twenty, so certainly leave a lot of space
Speaker 1: for a long term recovery that gets him back on track.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's hard to focus on anything else.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you heard last night, so obviously
Speaker 1: Will Hardy spoke, but then Keyante and Walker on. I
Speaker 1: didn't see video, but I listened to the audio. It
Speaker 1: sounded like they were by crying, like emotional. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not just something that will affect Taylor. This
Speaker 1: locker room's gonna have to move on from, as kyant
Speaker 1: I said, losing their brother.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean listen Kiante as as the stretchers coming
Speaker 3: out for Hendrix on the floor, he was covering his
Speaker 3: face of the towel and clearly you know, tearing up.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's again, it's the emotional thing. And then
Speaker 3: I visually seeing this guy who you're in a locker
Speaker 3: room with, who you're on playing with, who you're you know,
Speaker 3: playing with on a daily basis, who you helped this
Speaker 3: bond with, especially like Conte coming in the same rookie
Speaker 3: class and he's sitting there in shock and his his
Speaker 3: ankle is pointed outward like that is a just an
Speaker 3: extremely difficult thing to process on an emotional basis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, it feels, you know, kind of a little
Speaker 1: uptuse or whatever to talk about other dynamics, but we
Speaker 1: can't just hone in on that. So I wonder and
Speaker 1: we just had Smittian studio and I was asking him
Speaker 1: the same question, because you.
Speaker 4: Know, the Keyante stuff.
Speaker 1: At at Baylor, he played in thirty three games, he
Speaker 1: shot thirty three percent from three thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: the floor. His rookie year for the Jazz, you know,
Speaker 1: seventy five games, he shot thirty nine percent from the
Speaker 1: floor thirty three percent from three, and he's off to
Speaker 1: even a worse shooting start this year with splits that
Speaker 1: are under thirty for three and just barely I mean
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent from the floor, twenty three percent from three.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, he's only twenty. He played a year of
Speaker 1: pro basketball, it's only or excuse me, a year of
Speaker 1: college basketball. It's only a second year on the pros.
Speaker 1: But he's never proven to be an efficient shot makerer.
Speaker 1: What point is that kind of an issue?
Speaker 3: And I always say you have to consider it a
Speaker 3: concern now, and you also have to have patience with
Speaker 3: a want and done player who is learning to play
Speaker 3: point guard at the NBA level, didn't play in high school,
Speaker 3: didn't play in college, so and you know him playing
Speaker 3: aside from you know, aside from a few guys playing
Speaker 3: with a bunch of young guys. So again, you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to have some patience with him and understand it.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be a lot of bumps in the road.
Speaker 3: And you know, maybe he becomes legitimate starting point guard
Speaker 3: in the league, and maybe he doesn't. There's no guarantees.
Speaker 1: Here, there's not And you know, while justin Zannik and
Speaker 1: Danny Ainge talk a lot about development and the youth,
Speaker 1: and that's probably what we're going to see this year.
Speaker 1: I do wonder how Will's going to handle this, because, look,
Speaker 1: Patty Mills is thirty six. Okay, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: make him anything that he's not at this stage in
Speaker 1: his career, but Will knows him from San Antonio, and
Speaker 1: I just wonder if Will's gonna let Keyante go through
Speaker 1: a bunch of mistakes or if he's going to rely
Speaker 1: on the veteran. Game one against Memphis, in Patty's sixteen
Speaker 1: minutes they were plus ten, and Keyante's thirty one, they
Speaker 1: were minus eleven.
Speaker 4: Patty didn't take a shot, he didn't take.
Speaker 1: A free throw, he only had one board, one assist,
Speaker 1: but he came in and the ball started popping, the
Speaker 1: ball started moving. So there is this dynamic of that's
Speaker 1: sitting behind these youngsters, and you know, I know they
Speaker 1: want development, but Will wants to win.
Speaker 4: How do you think he traverses that space this year?
Speaker 3: Well, I think what you don't want is bad habits
Speaker 3: to develop, and if bad habits are developing, that's going
Speaker 3: to cost Keante Jorgs minutes. If she's doing the right
Speaker 3: things and getting the wrong results, I think it's a
Speaker 3: completely different kind of conversation. So you know, but listen,
Speaker 3: Keyante's development is a priority for the organization, and there's
Speaker 3: also understanding that you know, from a wins and losses
Speaker 3: and standings perspective, this is probably not going to be
Speaker 3: a phenomenal season in the history of Utah Jazz.
Speaker 1: Basketball, which, as you know, I'm totally fine with, Like,
Speaker 1: if this is the situation, because the the other thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, it is a protected pick. If it's outside
Speaker 1: of the top ten, it goes to OKC. How much
Speaker 1: of the early losing do you expect to continue, and
Speaker 1: if it does, how much of that is intentional?
Speaker 3: Sorry, I was going through the I was trying to
Speaker 3: stink my way through security without interrupting.
Speaker 1: You get to repete question, I'll ask you a much
Speaker 1: shorter question. Does it feel like they're actually tanking intentionally
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily know that they're going to have to
Speaker 3: be intentional about it. I think there's I think the
Speaker 3: level of competition in the Western Conference and the quality
Speaker 3: and lack of experience of the players on the Jazz roster.
Speaker 3: I think the results that take care of themselves, I
Speaker 3: think they will be well positioned to participate in a lottery.
Speaker 3: Bets obviously is expected to produce not just one, but
Speaker 3: potentially a handful of franchise type of talents.
Speaker 1: Give me your best guess rotationally what it looks like
Speaker 1: with Taylor out? You think they go John Collins, I
Speaker 1: think it's Price's sense about there's about twenty eight minutes
Speaker 1: available rotationally.
Speaker 4: How do you think we'll handles it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Cody Williams might get some more time.
Speaker 3: My guess is probably he would air on the side
Speaker 3: of going with the VET in the starting the lineup
Speaker 3: to open things up. But you know, I'll be honest
Speaker 3: with you, I really wasn't kind of poking around about
Speaker 3: that last night. There were, you know, obviously, other things,
Speaker 3: particularly the severity of Hendrick's injury that I was quick
Speaker 3: focused on more of my reporting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, before I say you loose, if this
Speaker 1: is about development, then a year three Walker Kessler will
Speaker 1: give us a peak as to whether or not they're
Speaker 1: developing players through three games. He's I think it's been
Speaker 1: an a plus start points, eleven boards, almost three blocks,
Speaker 1: the shooting percentage is close to seventy. So really good
Speaker 1: first three games for Walker. You think it's going to continue.
Speaker 3: Listen, he had great summer, and you know, I think
Speaker 3: in hindsight, playing fourteen YUSA in the World Cup was
Speaker 3: a mistake for him. He needed to be you know,
Speaker 3: in a weight room. He needed to be you know
Speaker 3: what was some of his game at gym and last
Speaker 3: he was kind of a humbling thing for him. He
Speaker 3: went on an all rookie season to being you know, let's
Speaker 3: be honest. I would considered a disappointment as a sophomore.
Speaker 3: But again he talked about the way people respond to disappointment.
Speaker 3: And I can I can tell you know, when I
Speaker 3: ran into Will hard in the preseason, he said, waiting
Speaker 3: till see Walker. You know, he's he's bigger, he's stronger
Speaker 3: like he looks good like he you know, he came
Speaker 3: in ready to compete this year. So I can tell
Speaker 3: you Will it's not a guy who plows a lot
Speaker 3: of smoke. You know. If he if he's pumping the
Speaker 3: guy up and saying he's happy for what he's been doing,
Speaker 3: I mean he's doing the right things. And you know,
Speaker 3: I think he talked about it. He had you know,
Speaker 3: hashtag muscle watch. But he is bigger, you know. He
Speaker 3: did add about twenty pounds and I think he's humbled
Speaker 3: and came in with he to prove that all the
Speaker 3: optimism about him during his rookie season was accurate. And
Speaker 3: you know he's ready to back that up.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, Well, good to hear your voice, Glad
Speaker 1: to have you back. We'll set you loose and look
Speaker 1: forward to catching up soon.
Speaker 3: Sorry to rushing on this one. I got an early
Speaker 3: tip tonight, but we will we will make up for
Speaker 3: it in the weeks to come.
Speaker 4: All good, All good.
Speaker 1: There is Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. He
Speaker 1: is the ESPN beat reporter on the jazz beat, so
Speaker 1: we like to bring him in to get the latest
Speaker 1: with the Utah Jazz. Yeah, it feels a little insensitive
Speaker 1: or I don't know, futile at this point to talk
Speaker 1: about anything other than the horrible scene we all saw
Speaker 1: yesterday and just thinking to Taylor and man, Jazz have
Speaker 1: a great medical staff. He's twenty, so I'm sure he'll
Speaker 1: get back and he'll be fine, but probably won't be
Speaker 1: for a year, which does hinder the development of what
Speaker 1: he could be.
Speaker 4: But step one, get healthy. Hopefully he's doing all right.