Speaker 1: Utah Jazz. Welcome in an old friend tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Quinn Snyder in the Atlanta Hawks in town to take
Speaker 2: on the Jazz. The red Hot Utah Jazz. Don't mess
Speaker 2: with Utah. I'm talking to you, Florida. Two straight wins
Speaker 2: for the Jazz, little road trip action and they sat
Speaker 2: like half their team and still beat the Magic. A
Speaker 2: lot of interesting NBA storylines as we have turned our
Speaker 2: calendar to the new year, and it's time for NBA
Speaker 2: Daily assists. Whether buddy Tom Haverstrow on a Monday afternoon,
Speaker 2: tom Happy Monday.
Speaker 1: How are we doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, man, can't complain.
Speaker 2: All right, let's see, we'll do just a tiny bit
Speaker 2: of jazz here, because you know, it's just it's been
Speaker 2: interesting ever since they hired Will will Hardy to watch
Speaker 2: him coach up a group that clearly does not have
Speaker 2: as much talent as the team on the other side
Speaker 2: to relative competitiveness.
Speaker 1: Now we know the deal.
Speaker 2: We don't need to relitigate the past as far as
Speaker 2: the past couple of years where they've had good records
Speaker 2: to start and then they've broken everything down.
Speaker 1: But they played a good Orlando Magic team.
Speaker 2: Orlando was without pieces as well, and the Miami team
Speaker 2: that certainly is dysfunctional, and they sat a grip of
Speaker 2: players against the Magic, including marketing, including George, including others.
Speaker 2: And it's Bryce Sensiba who has a couple of career
Speaker 2: nights in Orlando and Miami as the Jazz won a
Speaker 2: couple of games. I mean, again, is it really something
Speaker 2: that's all that urgent to break into and dig into
Speaker 2: topically as far as what it could mean when they're
Speaker 2: actually good again, Probably not, but in a vacuum, a
Speaker 2: couple of impressive games, I think from a coaching standpoint
Speaker 2: from Will Hardy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cent of Bosmen on fire. What a great find.
Speaker 3: I didn't see him at Ohio State too much, but
Speaker 3: a late first round pick that coming in to this
Speaker 3: game or this week, had some good nights but nothing
Speaker 3: great like this. And now he's averaging nineteen points and
Speaker 3: six rebounds per thirty six minutes while firing up about
Speaker 3: nine to three pointers every thirty six minutes. Had a
Speaker 3: really nice clip. The second year guy is really impressing
Speaker 3: as of late and taking advantage of his opportunities. You know,
Speaker 3: like this is a next man up mentality for every
Speaker 3: team in the NBA, including the Orlando Magic that I've
Speaker 3: dealt with really tough injuries from to Jalen Suggs and
Speaker 3: Franz Wagner and Palo Bankero, but they have a really
Speaker 3: tough time scoring even with those guys. But to see
Speaker 3: the Utah Jazz win the game that they were supposed
Speaker 3: to with Orlando having so many of those guys out
Speaker 3: while being also shorthanded, that is really impressive. And they're
Speaker 3: playing the right way, They're getting to the free throw line,
Speaker 3: they take the right shots from the floor, and Will
Speaker 3: Hardy's really coaching them up and you love to see it.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's a drag. The NBA season is
Speaker 3: eighty two games, and you're hoping that they can kind
Speaker 3: of turn you know, some fans into you know, coming
Speaker 3: into the games and seeing some wins. And this this
Speaker 3: East Coast swing, I think a lot more fans are
Speaker 3: more willing to go and watch the Utah Jazz now
Speaker 3: that they've got some wins under their belt.
Speaker 2: And I do think there's something there as far as
Speaker 2: what the fan base here just wants to see. There's
Speaker 2: nobody here that's under any premonition that this team has
Speaker 2: built to win now. And I don't think there's anybody
Speaker 2: here that believes this team is even a year or
Speaker 2: maybe two away.
Speaker 1: But you know the deal.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're covering the Blazers now, You've covered the
Speaker 2: league forever. If you're an organization and a team that's
Speaker 2: in the middle of a very blatant pivot and a
Speaker 2: very blatant rebuild, you have to at least give your
Speaker 2: fans something tangible to hold on to. And if you
Speaker 2: don't have the talent to keep up with the best
Speaker 2: teams in the league, things like effort and things like
Speaker 2: you know, showing up and playing hard and things like,
Speaker 2: you know, exhibiting the right habits.
Speaker 1: And Will talks about this all the time.
Speaker 2: I mean, I do like listening to his postgame pressers
Speaker 2: because Will's one of those coaches. You know, he's pithy,
Speaker 2: and he's sarcastic the way Popovich is, and he's a
Speaker 2: little dismissive and stuff like that. But when he talks
Speaker 2: about basket ball, when he talks about his team, he
Speaker 2: will give you some things here or there. And this
Speaker 2: is still the very early stage of what they believe
Speaker 2: is a very long game. So from the fan base perspective,
Speaker 2: I think all you're looking for at this point, certainly
Speaker 2: incremental steps from the young players, but also a team
Speaker 2: that's willing to show up and play hard even if
Speaker 2: they're up against it with the talent on the other side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you look at the way that they won
Speaker 3: and just put a beat down on Miami, a team
Speaker 3: that was hungry to show that they didn't need Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3: You know, this is a team that has a lot
Speaker 3: of pride. Eric Spolstra is the best coach in the NBA.
Speaker 3: Pat Riley just makes a huge statement against Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 3: and it seems like the Miami Heat would respond in
Speaker 3: a way that would show solidarity with the front office
Speaker 3: and the coach and be like, Yeah, we're going to
Speaker 3: come out and play really hard and prove that we
Speaker 3: don't need Jimmy Butler to win. And then he Jazz
Speaker 3: came in and beat the pants off of him and
Speaker 3: sense A bog with thirty four off the bench and me,
Speaker 3: the thing that jumps off the page to me is
Speaker 3: the offensive rebound rate. Build the Miami Heat on the boards,
Speaker 3: kill them. Thirty seven percent offensive rebound rate against the
Speaker 3: Miami Heat where they were getting second chance opportunities, making
Speaker 3: sure that, yeah, if we're gonna miss a shot, we're
Speaker 3: gonna go and make sure we get those second chance opportunities.
Speaker 3: Because that for me, like when you have a team
Speaker 3: that has Walker Kessler on it, you have to own
Speaker 3: the boards. And then the next game they do the
Speaker 3: same thing. They out rebound them Orlando knowing that, like
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a lot of misshots in this game,
Speaker 3: Orlando is a ute right offense and making sure they
Speaker 3: clean up the boards. And they did that. They won
Speaker 3: the offensive rebound battle offensive rebound rate in both games.
Speaker 3: And that's what you got to do with Walker Kessler.
Speaker 3: And I think when you do that, you know they
Speaker 3: say that rebounding is all that effort and all this stuff.
Speaker 3: It's probably a cliche at this point, but you have
Speaker 3: to play to the strengths of your team, and when
Speaker 3: you have Walker Kessler on the squad, you have to
Speaker 3: win the rebound battle. And they have been doing that.
Speaker 3: They've owned the rebounds, they've owned the free throw battle,
Speaker 3: and it's just a matter of trying to figure out
Speaker 3: a way that they can limit these turnovers because if
Speaker 3: they can do that, they're last in both offensive turnover rate,
Speaker 3: and defensive turnover rate. It's the worst turnover margin in
Speaker 3: the NBA in terms of how often they turn the
Speaker 3: ball over compared to their opponent. Once they clean up that,
Speaker 3: they'll be in good shape. But this is what happens
Speaker 3: when they don't have a pure point guard on the roster.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get a lot of really careless coughing up
Speaker 3: the ball. And as long as they keep that and check,
Speaker 3: they're going to be competitive on most nights.
Speaker 2: One more jazz thing, then we'll move on and we'll
Speaker 2: just revisit whenever there's a report out there. Because I truly,
Speaker 2: and I've been in this space now for maybe a
Speaker 2: month or so, I feel like Walker has played his
Speaker 2: way into the nucleus of what this team not only
Speaker 2: is now but moving forward into the future. Because he's
Speaker 2: still so young and so many of his habits have
Speaker 2: improved this year.
Speaker 1: The rim protection stuff is real.
Speaker 2: He's improved, He's got a way to go offensively as
Speaker 2: a screen setter, but he's been better. He to me,
Speaker 2: has been the number one success story of this team
Speaker 2: when it pertains to what we've been trying to learn.
Speaker 2: We know who marketing is that we've already talked about
Speaker 2: Will They're head coach, who I think is dynamite, But
Speaker 2: there are these reports that his name continues to surface. Now,
Speaker 2: the modern day and age of reporting is tough to
Speaker 2: ascertain what's.
Speaker 1: Real and what's not.
Speaker 2: But I'm starting to believe, you know, and we've talked
Speaker 2: about this, nobody is completely unmovable. But I don't know
Speaker 2: that Danny and Justin are interested in taking phone calls
Speaker 2: on Walker Kesler right now.
Speaker 1: I guess at my point, yeah, it's going to take a.
Speaker 3: Couple first round picks for them to get rid of him.
Speaker 3: I think that's the asking price is going to be
Speaker 3: pretty seep, especially with the really strong play of late.
Speaker 3: As we draw closer to the February sixth trade deadline,
Speaker 3: I suspect that Walker Kestler will get at least a
Speaker 3: big price of a first round pick. And the question
Speaker 3: is whether the Utah Jazz decide that that's enough for
Speaker 3: this twenty three year old shot blocking you know, defensive anchor.
Speaker 3: If they can do that, we maintain keep him in
Speaker 3: the fold and continue to build around him and market in.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of teams are gonna want a
Speaker 3: guy like Walker Kessler. We're talking about one of the
Speaker 3: top block rates in the NBA, the top offensive rebound
Speaker 3: rate in the NBA, and he is a dunking machine.
Speaker 3: So you get a rim runner, screen setter, a guy
Speaker 3: who knows his role and is going to protect the rim.
Speaker 3: And if they get some perimeter defenders in Utah. They
Speaker 3: don't have them right now, but if they get some
Speaker 3: perimeter defenders in Utah both at the point of attack
Speaker 3: and also guys you can really create turnovers and chaos
Speaker 3: on the perimeter and get in the passing lanes, You're
Speaker 3: you've got a pretty good nucleus right there. So I think,
Speaker 3: you know John Collins, he's been out for quite a bit.
Speaker 3: He's out for personal reasons right now, but I suspect
Speaker 3: that he will be a hot at the trade deadline
Speaker 3: as well. I think he's played himself into a borderline
Speaker 3: first round pick, probably a protected lottery protected first round
Speaker 3: pick potentially for John Collins, who's having a career year
Speaker 3: in the shooting percentages and still productive. You know, a
Speaker 3: really good scorer and a guy who's shown that he
Speaker 3: can move the ball well and he's more capable than
Speaker 3: I think just as a dunker that you know, John
Speaker 3: the Baptist is nickname coming out of college. We know
Speaker 3: that he's a big time highlight reel dunker, but he's
Speaker 3: more than that. And both of these guys, Walker Kessler
Speaker 3: and John Collins, have really played themselves into being hot
Speaker 3: commodities in the trade market. And that's a tough thing.
Speaker 3: Is the more the better they play, the more you
Speaker 3: start talking yourself into them as being a foundational piece.
Speaker 3: And for John Collins is a little tougher because he's
Speaker 3: a lot older than Walker Kessler. And a team like
Speaker 3: the Sacramento Kings, you know, with the ownership already firing
Speaker 3: Mike Brown, I think they're gonna be a little bit
Speaker 3: more leveraged at this point to go after someone like
Speaker 3: John Collins. And that's the type of advantageous deal that
Speaker 3: I think a team like the Utah Jazz would be
Speaker 3: interested in. It is like a team that is very
Speaker 3: desperate right now for a quality veteran to shake some
Speaker 3: things up and bring some excitement to the team. I
Speaker 3: think John Collins the acting price is justifiably a lot
Speaker 3: higher now than it was before the season.
Speaker 1: John the Baptist. That's called knowing your audience.
Speaker 2: Here in Salt Lake City, a lot of people probably
Speaker 2: appreciate that drop there, Tom, well done, well done, all right,
Speaker 2: moving off the jazz now, and you reference Miami, you
Speaker 2: reference Jimmy Butler. He appears to be the name that
Speaker 2: most people are. It feels untenable. I mean, you don't
Speaker 2: mess with pat Riley, that's just the deal. And so
Speaker 2: Pat sat him and now we kind of wait to
Speaker 2: see how this thing plays out. The hard part, Tom is, honestly,
Speaker 2: I understand if Miami's like, no, we don't want to
Speaker 2: move you, because there's a world that exists that it's
Speaker 2: more benefit for them to actually get the cap flexibility
Speaker 2: if he ends up bouncing. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Then essentially you're saying this is a
Speaker 2: wasted year. And I'm sure there are conversations with agents
Speaker 2: behind the scenes as well to try to get him
Speaker 2: in another spot. You know, in a way, there's a
Speaker 2: little Chris Paul here, because Chris Paul, for all of
Speaker 2: his brilliance, just seemed a great on teams and players
Speaker 2: and teammates and coaches, and after four or five years
Speaker 2: he needs a new place to play, and Jimmy kind
Speaker 2: of feels like that same player.
Speaker 1: But anyway, how do you think this thing plays out.
Speaker 3: I think he gets moved at the trade deadline. I
Speaker 3: think Phoenix is the most logical landing spot. The tough
Speaker 3: thing with Phoenix, they're thinking faster than the Titanic. Right now,
Speaker 3: you're looking at a team that is in twelve in
Speaker 3: the Western Conference standings. They're out of the playing game.
Speaker 3: They've decided to bench Bradley Beal and Yusuf Nurkic after
Speaker 3: getting to a really hot start with some clutch scoring
Speaker 3: and some hail Mary's that went their way. To start
Speaker 3: the season. This team was nine to two and now
Speaker 3: they're fifteen and eighteen with Bradley Beal coming off the
Speaker 3: bench with a fifty seven million dollar player option in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty seven, and he has a no trade clause. Okay,
Speaker 3: it is an untenable situation for them. So you have
Speaker 3: the Miami Heat on one side, who are dealing with
Speaker 3: a very disgruntled superstar playoff Jimmy who you know, for
Speaker 3: my money, over the last six years with the Miami
Speaker 3: Heat has been maybe the second best playoff per former Barnine.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying most improved in the playoffs. I'm saying
Speaker 3: the best playoff player, maybe to Luca or Nikola jokicch
Speaker 3: He's been sensational in the playoffs, and then he got
Speaker 3: a very desperate Phoenix Suns team that in order to
Speaker 3: get a guy like Jimmy Brother, they have to move
Speaker 3: Bradley Beal. The Miami Heat. I don't think want to
Speaker 3: take back Bradley Beal. I don't think they want to
Speaker 3: touch that contract or that no trade clause. I think
Speaker 3: the move would be a three team deal involving the
Speaker 3: Miami Heat sending Jimmy Butler to the to the Phoenix Suns,
Speaker 3: and then Phoenix Suns sending Bradley Beal to Detroit. The
Speaker 3: Detroit Pistons just lost Jade and Ivy. They have clean
Speaker 3: tat books for the next two years that they can
Speaker 3: take in a veteran guy like Bradley Beal as a
Speaker 3: placeholder contract, and Bradley Beal has a big incentive to
Speaker 3: go to a market like Detroit. Not from a lifestyle standpoint,
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding about, you know, players, I'm not kidding
Speaker 3: you about players really want to play in Phoenix and
Speaker 3: La because of the climate and just it's a lot
Speaker 3: nicer to live and set up shop there than say Detroit.
Speaker 3: But this guy is coming off a couple of years.
Speaker 3: In two years, he's gonna have to revitalize his player
Speaker 3: value on the trade market and try to get another contract,
Speaker 3: another big contract in the NBA. He's not going to
Speaker 3: get that in Phoenix the way things are going. So
Speaker 3: the interesting part of this spence you know how incestuous
Speaker 3: the NBA can be. And the front office of the
Speaker 3: Detroit Pistons is led by arn Tellum, super agent, longtime
Speaker 3: agent for a bunch of big name superstars and call
Speaker 3: all kinds of sports. Arles was drafted off of him.
Speaker 3: Allegedly the show from the nineties about that superagent was
Speaker 3: drafted off of arn Tellum. He runs the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 3: He's a vice chairman of the board for the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 3: And he had an assistant a few years ago named
Speaker 3: Josh Bartelstein who rose to become an assistant GM and
Speaker 3: they got hired to be the CEO of the Phoenix
Speaker 3: Suns under matt Eshpia. That guy is now Josh Bartlstein
Speaker 3: is now the CEO for Bradley Beal, whose agent is
Speaker 3: Mark Bartelstein. His father is the agent for Bradley Beal
Speaker 3: and Josh Bartlestein came from Arn Tellum as it seems
Speaker 3: like a favor by Mark Bartelstein to hire Josh Bartostein
Speaker 3: as part of the Detroit Pistons front office. And then
Speaker 3: of course this past summer, who to the Phoenix Sun
Speaker 3: Tire aren't Tellum's son, Matt Tom. So the Phoenix Sons
Speaker 3: are basically Detroit West and they have a lot of
Speaker 3: familial ties to Detroit. And I do think that the
Speaker 3: Bradley Beal no trade clause can be negotiated amongst you know,
Speaker 3: very influential ears, I mean voices into Bradley Beal's ear.
Speaker 3: And so I do think that the Detroit Pistons will
Speaker 3: grease the wheels for Miami Heat to make the trade
Speaker 3: of Jimmy Butler to the Phoenix Sons and then Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 3: I mean, Bradley Beal goes to Detroit and then draft
Speaker 3: picks go to Miami. They're gonna get some salary filler
Speaker 3: in Tobias Harris and Tim Hardaway Junior. But really what
Speaker 3: the Miami Heat want is not a big time, longtime
Speaker 3: contract like Bradley Beal's. And I think they want to
Speaker 3: keep their coffers ready for the twenty twenty six offseason,
Speaker 3: and this trade would accomplish that with some draft picks
Speaker 3: that they can move and try to get some more pieces.
Speaker 3: I think the Miami Heat are going to move Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3: I think it's an untenable situation. I don't think they're
Speaker 3: gonna let it get to this summer where you have
Speaker 3: a James Harden with Philly situation where he's gonna opt
Speaker 3: in and then force a trade that way. I just
Speaker 3: think they're gonna do a refresh and the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 3: are desperate enough to make them move.
Speaker 2: My goodness, Porter, real quick hop on the mic, because
Speaker 2: that's quite a story with a lot of ties between
Speaker 2: a lot of families, and whenever we have a topic
Speaker 2: like that or content like that, I just feel it
Speaker 2: necessary to remind our hosts and the community what the
Speaker 2: official stances of the drive on nepotism.
Speaker 1: As you know, as you know, we don't do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't win with them, yep, can't win with them.
Speaker 2: Not into it, not a fan, so I understand all
Speaker 2: the dynamics there, but we're anti that on this show.
Speaker 2: Let me move over into the reports though, because I
Speaker 2: think I've heard Memphis is involved potentially, that feels like
Speaker 2: it makes sense. I don't know if Butler would want that,
Speaker 2: and then Milwaukee as well. All of your reasoning is sound.
Speaker 2: But before I say you lose, because I know you
Speaker 2: got to get to it. If it is in Phoenix,
Speaker 2: what are the other potential landing spots for Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think it's Memphis playing style wise.
Speaker 3: I think it's intathetical to Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler at
Speaker 3: this age thirty five, he doesn't want to play in
Speaker 3: a running gun system that is the fastest team of
Speaker 3: the player tracking era. They move the ball constantly there.
Speaker 3: They have this offense, egalitarian offense where they move the
Speaker 3: ball crazy. They don't set pick and rolls, and it's
Speaker 3: just not I don't think a great fit with Memphis.
Speaker 3: I know they have a hole there at the three position.
Speaker 3: I just don't think Jimmy Butler is going to play
Speaker 3: a high octane offense at this point in his career.
Speaker 3: I do think that the Golden State Warriors, if things
Speaker 3: can continue to go south, that's an interesting landing spot
Speaker 3: for them, especially if they want to maximize this roster
Speaker 3: for Jimmy Butler. But Jonathan committing cominga getting hurt really
Speaker 3: hurts those odds of a deal getting done. Outside that,
Speaker 3: I don't see Jimmy Butler going back to Chicago. Some
Speaker 3: people have said, hey, you know, bring him back to Chicago.
Speaker 3: I don't see that. And I also don't see him
Speaker 3: going to San Antonio. To me, it's it's all about Phoenix.
Speaker 3: I don't see the Milwaukee thing happening just reeks of
Speaker 3: you know, throwing good money after bad. But I do
Speaker 3: think that the Memphis Grizzlies, while they are being connected
Speaker 3: to Jimmy Butler, it makes a lot more sense for
Speaker 3: me from my perspective that he ends up with Kevin
Speaker 3: Durant and Devin Booker and try to make a run
Speaker 3: in the West.
Speaker 2: All right, man, Well, I appreciate the time. Some good
Speaker 2: stuff there. Have a good Tom on the broadcast night,
Speaker 2: will chat soon, Okay, thanks, bench have a good one,
Speaker 2: Tom habershow mba daily a sist On a Monday. The
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz are back in action tomorrow against the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 2: Quinn Snyders in town. The Jazz went down to Florida
Speaker 2: won a couple of games. They beat Miami and they
Speaker 2: beat Orlando. See if they can keep it going tomorrow
Speaker 2: against Atlanta.