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 duding old Land, Texas
Speaker 2: flood as it gets mud. He's man, Van McMahon, Van McMahon,
Speaker 2: the man Man.
Speaker 1: He is, indeed, Van McMahon. Two hundred and twenty thousand
Speaker 1: X followers. That's a large number. You are a celebrity reporter, Man,
Speaker 1: There's there's no, there's no at this point you are
Speaker 1: on that level.
Speaker 3: Tim, you are a celebrity reporter officially.
Speaker 4: Well at least one hundred ten thousand of those people
Speaker 4: I wish would just go away and not follow me
Speaker 4: based on someday some of the comments I get on
Speaker 4: that particular hellscape of a of an.
Speaker 3: App fair enough. Well, it obviously means you're doing something right, buddy.
Speaker 4: I don't know that we should equate social media following
Speaker 4: to any sort of value, but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about basketball.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Alex Jedson, who,
Speaker 1: according to a number of different reports, including John Rothstein
Speaker 1: from his CBS and our very own Sean O'Connell, is
Speaker 1: high speed ahead. To take the head coaching job at
Speaker 1: the University of Utah. You covered the Dallas Mavericks, Tim
Speaker 1: and the inside here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously when that job came open, Alex immediately became
Speaker 4: the number one candidate. And you know, it's my understanding
Speaker 4: be essentially he could have had that job the last
Speaker 4: time that it came open. Now, I think one of
Speaker 4: the big differences between the last time and this time is,
Speaker 4: you know, Alex's pats of the different head coaching job
Speaker 4: in the NBA is not nearly is a lie at
Speaker 4: this point, but he you know, look, he had a
Speaker 4: great run as a player for the Utes. Obviously, you
Speaker 4: know it was on a final four team there. Obviously
Speaker 4: he has a strong feeling of loyalty to that university.
Speaker 4: And you know, in some cases he said, well, can
Speaker 4: an NBA guy succeed in a college job? I would
Speaker 4: say that Alex is a Utah guy with significant NBA experience.
Speaker 4: You know, there's also concerns, well, you know, a guy
Speaker 4: who's an assistant coach, can he move in our head
Speaker 4: coach and seat. Look, it was for the Canton Charge
Speaker 4: and the G League. But Alex has been a very
Speaker 4: successful head coach. You know, this is not going to
Speaker 4: be his first time in that seat. Now, Look, d
Speaker 4: n I l the recruiting, all the things that come
Speaker 4: along with college basketball. Obviously, you know he's going to
Speaker 4: have to get up to speed on all that stuff quickly.
Speaker 4: Shouldn't take that job, But I think it makes way
Speaker 4: too much sense for this not to happen.
Speaker 3: Only because you're very plugged in.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you a follow up, because nobody around
Speaker 1: here seems to know what sort of timeline we're looking at.
Speaker 3: It's ironic.
Speaker 1: Utah Basketball plays a game tonight and they do have
Speaker 1: an interim head coach, and the MAVs are and we'll
Speaker 1: get to the poor Dallas Mavericks in a moment, but
Speaker 1: they still technically are playing basketball. Do you tim have
Speaker 1: any insight as far as how far along they are
Speaker 1: in the process to get this deal done.
Speaker 4: I don't I know that. You know, I know that
Speaker 4: Alex had had conversations with people at the highest level
Speaker 4: of the university. I don't know I could. I'd just
Speaker 4: be guessing if I said this is something that could
Speaker 4: happen and become an immediate type of deal. You know,
Speaker 4: obviously he's still in a contract with the Mavericks. I
Speaker 4: don't know if they would expect him to finish the
Speaker 4: season if he accepts his job, all all that stuff
Speaker 4: I'd just be doing guessing.
Speaker 3: On and I would imagine you'd be guessing.
Speaker 1: So I'll just ask and if there's nothing there, we
Speaker 1: can move on whether or not the MAVs badly want
Speaker 1: him back, and whether they would, you know, try to
Speaker 1: retain him despite an offer from Utah.
Speaker 4: I think that I know Alex is valued by the Mavericks.
Speaker 4: I don't think they would stand in the way of
Speaker 4: him taking this job, gotcha, And so you know, I
Speaker 4: would just leave it at that.
Speaker 3: Fair enough, fair enough, all right?
Speaker 1: Man? Like oh man, I just I'm not a Mavericks fan.
Speaker 1: I am a Kyrie fan when he is focused on basketball.
Speaker 1: And this could not be worse if you're a Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks fan. First of all, you trade away a generational
Speaker 1: talent at the age of twenty five, and the guy
Speaker 1: you trade him for it goes down. And now the
Speaker 1: guy that kind of stepped in as your leader and
Speaker 1: the ball dominant lead guard goes down.
Speaker 3: Kyrie with a torny a CEO. How's it going down there?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 1: What's the reaction and kind of what's next for the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm in scenees right now, so I can't tell
Speaker 4: you exactly what the reaction is on the ground in Dallas,
Speaker 4: but you can imagine. I mean, this is just a
Speaker 4: devastated franchise, a franchise that has been through so much,
Speaker 4: some of it of their own decision, make some of
Speaker 4: it just medical misfortune this season, and there was still hope.
Speaker 4: And the hope was a Kyrie's plane at it all. Ada,
Speaker 4: if you can get any from the Davis back, if
Speaker 4: you can get Dereklively back, you know, get a two
Speaker 4: or three weeks into the regular season, go into what
Speaker 4: it wouldn't have to probably be the play in scenario,
Speaker 4: but maybe catch lightning a bottle builds up them innum.
Speaker 4: They were still hope they can make a run this year.
Speaker 4: That obviously is completely gone at this point. At this point,
Speaker 4: it doesn't make sense to bring back Anthony Davis and
Speaker 4: Derek Lively. I mean, you know, it wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be surprised at all. Often Iver just decide
Speaker 4: to prioritize a lot of odds at this point, and unfortunately,
Speaker 4: man this is something that's going to have an impact
Speaker 4: on next season, right an ACL. You know we've seen
Speaker 4: like Jamal Murray be Coerceps buzingis when the stuff at
Speaker 4: ACL injuries around this time year, they missed the entire
Speaker 4: next season. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen
Speaker 4: with Kyrie, but I don't think it it's reasonable to
Speaker 4: have the expectation that he's going to be back from
Speaker 4: the beginning of the next season. It's uncertain at best.
Speaker 4: And you know, a fan base that has just had
Speaker 4: its guts ripped out by the trader. Luka Doncic, you know,
Speaker 4: has developed his great love and appreciation for Kyrie too.
Speaker 4: Frankh was the was a phenomenal leader throughout all the chaos.
Speaker 4: Was the one person prominence in the organization that I
Speaker 4: would say was completely on point with his messaging in
Speaker 4: the aftermath of that train. His performance has been at
Speaker 4: all NBA level all season long. You know, such an
Speaker 4: emotional moment last night where you can like, if you
Speaker 4: saw the replay, you knew, like this is the best
Speaker 4: case scenario was probably going to be a season ending thing.
Speaker 4: There's not that much season left. Clearly the knee buckle,
Speaker 4: you know, like you know, his mentor and Idol Kobe
Speaker 4: with the Achilles the limbs out of the three the
Speaker 4: line you know, gets his showered appreciation from the crowd
Speaker 4: makes the two three throws in that moment, though he knew,
Speaker 4: he could tell, he knew that his season was over.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's just, I mean, another heat of
Speaker 4: misery on top of what's just been a brutal month
Speaker 4: plus stretch. And I've expanded to that franchise.
Speaker 1: How safe is Nico as far as his job goes?
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously he had the backing of the new
Speaker 1: ownership group or he would not have done the deal.
Speaker 1: And I know this is kind of unfair because we're
Speaker 1: analyzing it in a vacuum, and I guess you'd give
Speaker 1: it a year to see if these guys get healthy
Speaker 1: and they do something together. But based off of just
Speaker 1: how catastrophic the last couple of weeks I've been in Dallas,
Speaker 1: do you think he's safe as far as his job goes?
Speaker 4: What I can tell you is Patrick Dumont, the governor
Speaker 4: of the franchise, his voice strong public support or Nico Harrison.
Speaker 4: But you know there's no guarantees that come along with that.
Speaker 4: I'm you know a lot of people around the league
Speaker 4: are asking me that question, and that's the answer that
Speaker 4: I give. He has a support of the ownership group
Speaker 4: as of now. If that changes, I'll report it. But
Speaker 4: that that that's where it stands right now. But hey,
Speaker 4: everybody understands this is a very results or into business.
Speaker 4: There was a massive risk with it with the trade
Speaker 4: that they made. The reward so far has been nothing
Speaker 4: and but backlash. And I don't think the ownership group
Speaker 4: understood the financial ramifications of trading Luca Dontags like they did.
Speaker 4: I really don't. You know, there's this fear of the supermacs.
Speaker 4: From a financial perspective, this is going to cost him
Speaker 4: a lot more than what a Supermax contract would have been.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's no doubt. There's no doubt. And you
Speaker 1: just you just you just feel feel bad for Mass fans.
Speaker 1: I saw the story that, uh, the Mass have raised
Speaker 1: ticket prices, and look, I'm a I'm an adult, I'm
Speaker 1: a grown up.
Speaker 3: I know the deal.
Speaker 1: This is a front facing, revenue generating entertainment product and
Speaker 1: more off of the not ticket prices are going to
Speaker 1: go up. I just wasn't on board. I guess with
Speaker 1: the timing of that announcement, I think you probably sit
Speaker 1: on that maybe until the offseason.
Speaker 4: I mean, again, there's been one pr misstep after another
Speaker 4: in the wake of what you knew was going to
Speaker 4: be probably the most unpopular trade that an NBA team
Speaker 4: has ever made, if not a professional sports team. So
Speaker 4: you can add the ticket price hike on top of
Speaker 4: a lot of other things.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, all right, Golden State eight and two since
Speaker 1: the Butler trade, and you know, every time you hear
Speaker 1: Draymond or whoever talk about what and Steph has been
Speaker 1: next level as well. I wonder how much of that
Speaker 1: has to do with Jimmy Bean in the fold. But
Speaker 1: are you buying kind of this resurgence. They've beat some
Speaker 1: pretty good teams with Jimmy, and we'll see what they
Speaker 1: do against the Knicks on the road. But your your
Speaker 1: thoughts on the latest with the Warriors after that Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler di.
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, you mentioned eight too. One of those losses, obviously, Leaves,
Speaker 4: was when Jimmy took a night off and I believe
Speaker 4: this was sore back. You have to kind of, you know,
Speaker 4: respect the the category of the players that are the
Speaker 4: core guys there, and you know, have your eyes open.
Speaker 4: It's a very small sample size, but it's clicked quickly.
Speaker 4: I do believe that step has been rejuvenated by this deal.
Speaker 4: Jimmy Butler has not won a championship, but it's proven
Speaker 4: in the driving force in playoff success. Obviously, when you
Speaker 4: talked about Draymond and and and Steph, you know, we're
Speaker 4: we're talking about guys who have won four titles, and
Speaker 4: and and one as recently as just a few years ago.
Speaker 4: I think you have to at least acknowledge that the
Speaker 4: Warriors are going to you know, I don't think it's
Speaker 4: to have a great chance to come out of the West,
Speaker 4: but I think at least have their knowledge that they
Speaker 4: are on the list of beams that has some sort
Speaker 4: of a chance there, yell.
Speaker 1: Laker, as long as they don't face the upstart Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz and Salt Lake City with Luca on the roster. Obviously,
Speaker 1: tongue in cheek, but my goodness, Tim, if it's gonna
Speaker 1: look like this now, look if like Jokic shall go
Speaker 1: for ninety, if you're gonna guard him with Alex lenn
Speaker 1: and Jackson Hayes, or whatever. So certainly the front court
Speaker 1: issues are still there. But when you have those two,
Speaker 1: Mark Dagnold has to be looking at what the Lakers
Speaker 1: are doing, and at least, you know, at least they
Speaker 1: have to have his attention. And you're the guy for
Speaker 1: this covering Luca, writing the book on Luca. What do
Speaker 1: you make of the early returns, how it's worked when
Speaker 1: those two have been on the floor together, when JJ
Speaker 1: staggers the minutes and your thoughts on them winning six straight.
Speaker 4: Now, well, you know you mentioned Joker. They played the
Speaker 4: Nuggets and blew them out, and Joker only got seven
Speaker 4: shot attempts in that game, which was a game plan win.
Speaker 4: Plus that was you know, Luke had actually a good
Speaker 4: offense performance in that game. So I'm fascinating to see
Speaker 4: I don't have to look the schedule see if they
Speaker 4: have the Nuggets again and the regular see in the
Speaker 4: horse that they meet in the playoffs, but kind of
Speaker 4: the the adjustments to the game playing and the chess
Speaker 4: match there. But the Lakers for a span of over
Speaker 4: a month and a half, now I have the number
Speaker 4: one defense in the NBA, and that obviously was before
Speaker 4: the Luca trade during eighties injury absence and then coming
Speaker 4: out of the Luca trade, and you're gonna give JJ
Speaker 4: Redditt credit. Man, he's doing a great job coaching. He's
Speaker 4: come up with a you know, with this scheme that
Speaker 4: makes up for the lack of the traditional 'm protector there.
Speaker 4: And he's got buying. The most important thing is he
Speaker 4: has bying from forty old Lebron James on down to
Speaker 4: that roster. Luca's fully bought in. You know, when he's engaged,
Speaker 4: he can be as a help defender, a good defensive playmaker.
Speaker 4: Then you get obviously protect him, you know when he's
Speaker 4: on the ball and trying to keep him out of
Speaker 4: those situations and protect him when he is. But they're
Speaker 4: having this success and Luca, by his standards, has only
Speaker 4: had a couple of decent scoring performances. You know, he's
Speaker 4: every twenty two points on some shooting. The guy's going
Speaker 4: to give you thirty points on good efficiency when once
Speaker 4: he gets a rhythm. And as far as like to
Speaker 4: sit with him and Lebron, it's been phenomenal. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, Lebron said that he's a natural boor and
Speaker 4: wide receiver. Luke's a natural born quarterbacks and you know,
Speaker 4: Lucas spoon seed Lebron easy bucket after easy bucket. Lebron's playing.
Speaker 4: You know, I think Lebron might play his way on
Speaker 4: the MVP ballants at the page of forty, which is insane.
Speaker 4: But tell me five better players, five guys are having
Speaker 4: better seasons than him right now in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's it's pretty remarkable. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Aunt Edwards sixteenth technical, so he will be suspended and
Speaker 1: Minnesota continues to kind of be up and down. It's
Speaker 1: been an interesting week regarding Anthony Edwards when asked about,
Speaker 1: you know, being the face of the league, he kind
Speaker 1: of pumped ficked on that Lebron with his comments on, well,
Speaker 1: why would you want to be the face of the
Speaker 1: league when everybody talks about our game just takes a
Speaker 1: bleep on us all the time. Where are you at
Speaker 1: right now with the growth of who a lot of
Speaker 1: people believe is the best young domestic player in Minnesota?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and look the technical stuff, like, he's got to
Speaker 4: get that under control. I thought what Chris Finch said
Speaker 4: before the game he served that answered for suspension in Utah.
Speaker 4: Actually I thought what he said was on point where
Speaker 4: like ant has to get the outburst under control, but
Speaker 4: he's not an angry guy. He's not a guy who's
Speaker 4: berating the officials. You know, from the opening tip to
Speaker 4: the final buzzer. You know, he has to get his
Speaker 4: emotional outbursts under control. But he doesn't want Anthony unfairly labeled,
Speaker 4: you know, as a you know, just an angry, malcontent
Speaker 4: type of guy, you know, the face of the league stuff. Honestly, like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, what you know, what is the
Speaker 4: face of the league. Is it a polished spokesperson. Well,
Speaker 4: that's not going to be Ann Edwards. And honestly, like, dude,
Speaker 4: his team's in the play in right now, you know,
Speaker 4: coming off with a Western Conference Finals trip last year,
Speaker 4: he's focused on trying to get the Minnesota timber writing it.
Speaker 4: He doesn't need to have the weight of the lead
Speaker 4: on his back if he ends up reeling off a
Speaker 4: few titles and all those things and kind of organically
Speaker 4: becomes to face the league. Cool, but I don't know, again,
Speaker 4: I just think this is kind of like this media
Speaker 4: pigment that is, it's it's like a it's like a
Speaker 4: fictional beast. It's like a like a unicorn, like the
Speaker 4: face of the league. I don't know, man, right, you
Speaker 4: do you do? You grows things somewhere. It happens organically,
Speaker 4: so like it's not it's not like you're not running
Speaker 4: for may or if what's supposed to do have a
Speaker 4: campaign speech.
Speaker 1: As someone who talks about the league on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: what did you make of Lebron's comments of folks such
Speaker 1: as yourself? Up, I'm not sure who you're talking about,
Speaker 1: but taking a bleep on on the league every day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think he had me in mind, but
Speaker 4: I've certainly been accused of being critical of guys and look,
Speaker 4: man like, the NBA is a multi billion dollar business
Speaker 4: in the media plays a role in that, and I
Speaker 4: think that it's the media's job to appreciate greatness when
Speaker 4: appropriate and to criticize, you know, shortcomings or you know,
Speaker 4: when that's appropriate, And those can be with these same people.
Speaker 4: You know, I covered Luka doncons for his entire career
Speaker 4: in Dallas. I wrote and talked a lot about all
Speaker 4: the awesome things that he did, and then you know,
Speaker 4: I pointed out and wrote and discussed the very obvious
Speaker 4: flaws that he has There are Laker goals. Those are
Speaker 4: the cheerleaders, right, there are fans. Those are people who
Speaker 4: you know are I don't know. I don't even think
Speaker 4: fans should be expected the cheer regardless of the circumstances.
Speaker 4: But it's not the media's job to kiss guys. But
Speaker 4: regardless of the circumstances, it's also not the media's job
Speaker 4: to go out of our way looking to rip guys.
Speaker 4: There's a blend. There's a lot of nuance and those
Speaker 4: there's a lot of gray. There's it's not just surely
Speaker 4: you know you're you're either on their side or or not.
Speaker 4: I'm not on anybody's side. I'm on the side of
Speaker 4: the truth and explaining. You know, we'll explaining and reporting
Speaker 4: and discussing what's actually happening in the league. Good bad
Speaker 4: and ned wives.
Speaker 3: Well said, hey, before I said you loose.
Speaker 1: You recently wrote about Darius Garland the Cleveland Cavaliers. Look, man,
Speaker 1: they're fourteen and one in their last fifteen and they
Speaker 1: went into Boston last weekend and Donovan, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: Donovan was so good and that was such a great comeback,
Speaker 1: and Boston played well. It's not like Cleveland capitalized on
Speaker 1: the Celtic scrumbling. But at what point do we just
Speaker 1: start to say, like, look, maybe it's not Boston and
Speaker 1: everybody else and we have to look at Cleveland in
Speaker 1: a way that maybe we haven't started looking at them yet.
Speaker 4: Well, you need to start looking at Cleveland as a
Speaker 4: legitimate challenger. They're going to be the number one seed.
Speaker 4: You know that they won fifty of their first sixty games,
Speaker 4: you know all the stuff about does that core full
Speaker 4: fit together? Absolutely it does. I mean we've seen that
Speaker 4: they've proven that. Can they beat the Celtics in a series?
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I think it's going to be
Speaker 4: all of a series. I think they're going to get
Speaker 4: the opportunity. I think it's going to be a hell
Speaker 4: of a series. And you know, I know there's there's
Speaker 4: mixed feelings about Donovan, I'm sure in Utah, but I
Speaker 4: you know, I've covered Donovan since the beginning of his career.
Speaker 4: I wrote about this rising star when he was a
Speaker 4: couple of months in his rookie season in Utah, covered
Speaker 4: everything that happened there, and you know, I've kept up
Speaker 4: with things in Cleveland. I think Donovan is a perfect
Speaker 4: point of his career. Where he is mature. You know,
Speaker 4: he has grown. There was certainly some diva stuff with
Speaker 4: him in the past, caring about fats and fats and
Speaker 4: all those things. I think he's grown past that. He's
Speaker 4: in his prime, but he's not worried about stats and status.
Speaker 4: You know, in that story, even acknowledges like, hey, his
Speaker 4: stats dipped as part of empowering Garden, as part of
Speaker 4: empowering Mobile, you know, playing a few little bit fewer
Speaker 4: minutes in the interest of the long term health of
Speaker 4: trying to keep them from for the playoffs, and he
Speaker 4: acknowledged that's something that he couldn't have he wouldn't have
Speaker 4: been okay with in the past. He's gotten to that point,
Speaker 4: and I think the Cavaliers, his co stars have benefited greatly.
Speaker 4: The Cavaliers is an organization, have benefited greatly. And I
Speaker 4: do think that part of Donovan Mitchell's case for being
Speaker 4: on MVP ballots, I mean, he's not going to win MVP,
Speaker 4: but for being you know, if you want to put
Speaker 4: him fourth or fifth on an MVP ballot, part of
Speaker 4: his case is that he's the leader of the team
Speaker 4: with the best record in the NBA and as part
Speaker 4: of his leadership. He's been willing to see his stats
Speaker 4: dip a little bit in the greater, you know, the
Speaker 4: interest of the greater.
Speaker 1: Good tim You're the man. Appreciate the time today, have
Speaker 1: a great week.
Speaker 3: Enjoy Phoenix. We'll chat soon, all right.
Speaker 4: Appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Troyler and McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN covers the Jazz.
Speaker 1: Not as much this year because you know, get him
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Out of yes being underscore. McMann is where
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