Speaker 1: Next on the drive.
Speaker 2: Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA daily assists.
Speaker 3: Fan McMahon Vanmen. That is duding home Land, Tectis Blood
Speaker 3: as tickets, Muddy and Man. Fan McMahon, Vanman the Man.
Speaker 2: All right, we're live today. Arup Blood Services ninety seven
Speaker 2: eighty six out five hundred West in Sandy. Come on,
Speaker 2: buy to donate blood. They're the sole provider for the
Speaker 2: University of Utah in the Huntsman Cancer Center. And you
Speaker 2: get megaplex Megaplex movie passes, and then you're also qualified
Speaker 2: to win tickets for Utah BYU football coming up on
Speaker 2: Saturday night. We'll get back to little college and pro
Speaker 2: football in a moment. But let's do some NBA because
Speaker 2: the Utah Jazz on a tear Jazz got to win
Speaker 2: last night. So first win, Baby steps. Tim McMahon Tuesday Afternoon, Tim,
Speaker 2: Happy Tuesday, Buddy, How are.
Speaker 1: We doing, Lody Partner, how are you?
Speaker 2: We're good, We're good. And look, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: going to be a difficult year for the fans. It's
Speaker 2: going to be a difficult year for our conversations because
Speaker 2: we could be very reductive and say they finally have
Speaker 2: a plan that plan is to lose all year. So
Speaker 2: let's just start big picture, because I feel like the
Speaker 2: best time to do this would have been two years ago,
Speaker 2: but the second best time is now. It does feel
Speaker 2: like they're leaning into a full rebuild. So from an
Speaker 2: overall standpoint, where are you at with the Jazz right now?
Speaker 1: Well, I can just tell you it's been a difficult
Speaker 1: year for our conversations every year that we've been hap
Speaker 1: toche Well said, Look, the Jazz are just as good
Speaker 1: as the Milwaukee Bucks. They're just as good as the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six ers. I don't know why you want
Speaker 1: to put this kind of spin on things. They are
Speaker 1: just as good as two teams that were expected to
Speaker 1: be contenders of the Eastern Conference. So, you know, let's
Speaker 1: pump a little sunshine here. In all seriousness, I do
Speaker 1: agree with you, like, hey, the rebuild was you know,
Speaker 1: there were two good for their own good for the
Speaker 1: first fifty plus games. For the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: you know, we understand that. Again, we've talked before. I
Speaker 1: do think there was some value that first year of
Speaker 1: will Hardy's ten you were in allowing himself to kind
Speaker 1: of prove and establish that he is a bona fide
Speaker 1: head coach. Is interesting because I think what you're seeing
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn might be something pretty similar. And I would
Speaker 1: say there should be even more than seeing Brooklyn the
Speaker 1: bottom out this year given their take situation. Still own
Speaker 1: a swap to Houston a couple of drafts from now.
Speaker 1: But this is to get the kind of talent that
Speaker 1: it's going to take for the Jazz to really turn
Speaker 1: this thing around. It's going to take a really rough
Speaker 1: year or two, and you know certain this is going
Speaker 1: to be one of those. Now, having said that, you
Speaker 1: don't want to You don't want to be in a
Speaker 1: situation where you know you're opening this season with a
Speaker 1: double figure losing streets. You don't want to double figure
Speaker 1: losing streets. You know, you do want to be able
Speaker 1: to sprinkle and wins just because you don't want just
Speaker 1: to be some kind of extraordinarily, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better word, depressing situation. You do want the development of
Speaker 1: the young guys to occasionally be rewarded. And you know
Speaker 1: last night was certainly an example. Now, although you know
Speaker 1: John Collins might have been the best player on the floor.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you know I actually wanted to talk to
Speaker 2: you about some of these dynamics here, because you know,
Speaker 2: there are people that are wondering whether or not the
Speaker 2: Jazz are going to make any moves, and if they
Speaker 2: do make moves, it won't be to get better this year.
Speaker 2: And John Collins might be like the perfect guy to
Speaker 2: have on the roster because you have to pay somebody
Speaker 2: and he can give you big minutes and he's making
Speaker 2: twenty six points five mil and he's not very good
Speaker 2: most of the time. But whether it's Collins or Sexton
Speaker 2: or Clarkson or any of these vets outside of Patty Mills, Okay,
Speaker 2: they're not moving Patty Mills. But do you do you
Speaker 2: think there's any value with the vets on the Jazz
Speaker 2: roster and you anticipate them maybe making any movement or
Speaker 2: is this kind of like the perfect type of veteran
Speaker 2: group to have on a team that's really not serious
Speaker 2: about winning right now?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, they're going to be listening to offers,
Speaker 1: and certainly that stuff's not really intense right now. Obviously
Speaker 1: it picks up the close you get to the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: You know, the one thing I can tell you is
Speaker 1: they're not going to incentimize anything and Collins is probably
Speaker 1: tough pregnant for them all. He still I believe he
Speaker 1: still has another year left in that contract.
Speaker 2: Because of that, it is a player options him.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm not breaking news here,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to suggest the strong possibility that that
Speaker 1: player option will be picked up.
Speaker 2: So probably correctly.
Speaker 1: But you know, like, hey, I could see a guy
Speaker 1: like certain Sexton clarkson teams that are looking for you know,
Speaker 1: scoring punch off the bench. Good teams come you know,
Speaker 1: around the time before the tread deadline. I could see
Speaker 1: those be being a couple of guys who might have
Speaker 1: some interest in the market. Like I said, the Jazz
Speaker 1: will absolutely be listening, you know, probably even shopping those
Speaker 1: guys as that time comes. But you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like they are in the way right now. And Collins, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they do kind of need his minutes. And the plan
Speaker 1: coming into the season was he was going to basically
Speaker 1: be the backup center. And unfortunately Taylor Hendrix, who is
Speaker 1: going to play a lot of minutes, is not going
Speaker 1: to play anymore this season. You know, lowd marketing is
Speaker 1: not a long term thing. But he's out right now.
Speaker 1: So Collins played a lot of power forward, and I
Speaker 1: would say Colin's playing well at power forward. It doesn't
Speaker 1: hurt the possibility that he might be moved for the deadline.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm I don't think it's likely, just because
Speaker 1: of the contract them.
Speaker 2: We'll get back to the Jazz because I want to
Speaker 2: ask you about Taylor, but we have some breaking news
Speaker 2: that I'll get your reaction to tim in real time.
Speaker 2: Joel Mbid has been suspended for three games by the NBA.
Speaker 2: He's gonna cost him just over a million bucks. The
Speaker 2: suspension will start with the first game that mb can play.
Speaker 2: This is according to a tweet I'm seeing from Bobby Martz.
Speaker 2: Obviously it's the situation with the reporter in the locker room.
Speaker 2: So what's your take the NBA suspending Embid for three games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, the NBA had to issue a suspension. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I am surprised that it's three games.
Speaker 1: I wasn't obviously in the locker room, you know, But
Speaker 1: like you have to sit the precedent. The players, no
Speaker 1: matter how up said they are, can't put their hands
Speaker 1: on reporters. But I don't think this was some extremely
Speaker 1: violent situation. And you know, frankly, I can empathize with
Speaker 1: Embiid as far as why he was so upset. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, this was one of those situations where nobody
Speaker 1: was right. You know, the columnist wrote something that was
Speaker 1: you know, I understand why I Embeid felt like it
Speaker 1: was a completely unnecessary and out of bounds personal shot.
Speaker 1: You know, to bring up if you're going to be
Speaker 1: criticizing a player, you know, to bring up family, especially
Speaker 1: a deceased younger brother his young son. You know that's
Speaker 1: that's poor taste. But you know, the old the two
Speaker 1: wrongs they'll make the right thing certainly applies here. I
Speaker 1: thought one game would have set a press in and
Speaker 1: gotten the message across. I thought three games is pretty strong,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know that's what the league officer came
Speaker 1: down on.
Speaker 2: So moving back over to the jazz and as you referenced,
Speaker 2: just the just the horrifically sad scene that you and
Speaker 2: I talked about last time you joined us real quick
Speaker 2: with Taylor going down for the year. Uh so I
Speaker 2: already asked you about that, and there really is any
Speaker 2: new information. You just sort gutted for the kid, But
Speaker 2: I was curious to see what will would do with
Speaker 2: essentially twenty eight to thirty minutes at his disposal, and
Speaker 2: he has gone to Cody Williams and Kyle Philipowski. He's
Speaker 2: not upping. We're seeing a little bit more you banks time,
Speaker 2: but in the starting lineup and the guys that are
Speaker 2: playing the majority of the big minutes, it's Cody Williams,
Speaker 2: it's Kyle Philipowski. You reference marketing, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: a day to day thing. I just anticipate that we're
Speaker 2: going to deal with that all year long because I
Speaker 2: believed him this is all intentional. Obviously you were tongue
Speaker 2: in cheek about the bad starts from Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: But do you believe that now the plan is very
Speaker 2: very clearly in place where it is. And look NBA
Speaker 2: front offices. They'll sometimes say things and you get a
Speaker 2: little hint like they're not going to say we're trying
Speaker 2: to lose. They're going to say we're trying to develop
Speaker 2: young players. So do you believe the losing is by design?
Speaker 2: This year?
Speaker 1: I believe that the Jazz have recognized that floating around
Speaker 1: the ninth or tenth picking the lottery is not a
Speaker 1: way for them to really turn this thing around, so
Speaker 1: you know it, call it what you want, you know,
Speaker 1: real hard. He is not out there coaching to lose games,
Speaker 1: but with this roster he can coach his butt off
Speaker 1: and they're not gonna win a lot of games. I mean,
Speaker 1: just look around the Western Conference. You know, that's just
Speaker 1: the way it is. I mean, they're not going to
Speaker 1: win thirty something games with this roster. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's also likely that one of their better players will
Speaker 1: probably be gone before the trade deadline obviously, which just
Speaker 1: happened the last couple of years as well. So you know,
Speaker 1: is it tanking? Is it losing by design? Is it
Speaker 1: you know, just being in a situation Again? My thing
Speaker 1: is this. I don't necessarily there was definitely a direction
Speaker 1: chosen here, but if they chose to try to be
Speaker 1: as competitive as possible last summer, like what moves would
Speaker 1: what moves would they have made? Right? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like, you know, the Paul George thing was
Speaker 1: a pipe drain that honestly never made any sense to me.
Speaker 1: I think this is a combination of choosing a direction,
Speaker 1: you know, really committing to the full blown rebuild and
Speaker 1: not kind of the half measures of the of the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, and also just the reality of
Speaker 1: the situation kind of smacking me in the face.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, well said so the last time that it's
Speaker 2: been this bad. And look, although there's not a championship
Speaker 2: banner hanging in the Delta Center, we are a spoiled
Speaker 2: market because we've had front offices who have been really
Speaker 2: smart at making measured decisions, Scott Laden, Kevin O'Connor, Dennis Lindsay.
Speaker 2: And so when Dennis took over, he moved on from
Speaker 2: Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. I mean, Millsap's still a
Speaker 2: jazz legend and Al played here for a couple of
Speaker 2: years and played well. So twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen jazz
Speaker 2: basketball is when they started. It was like one in thirteen,
Speaker 2: and the young players on the rass Trey Burke rookie,
Speaker 2: Alec Burke's second year, Derek Favors third year, Enniscanter second year,
Speaker 2: Rudy Gobert rookie, Gordon Hayward third year, and I'll just
Speaker 2: stop there because those are kind of the Cody Williams
Speaker 2: Keyante Philipowski hopefully eventually Taylor, Bryce sen Saba group. And
Speaker 2: then which one of those players popped. Obviously, Gobert did,
Speaker 2: Hayward did, Favors did, Alec kind of did, Trey never did.
Speaker 2: So they went like four for six, we'll call it. So,
Speaker 2: out of these young players, who do you think has
Speaker 2: the best chance of popping the way Hayward and Gobert,
Speaker 2: those guys did. That could be around the next time.
Speaker 2: The Jazz are actually really good.
Speaker 1: Well, you didn't mention Walker Kest in the young group?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1: You know the Jazz do include him in that group.
Speaker 1: You know, I think he's twenty three years old, obviously
Speaker 1: a third year guy. He's also the guy who I
Speaker 1: think has shown the most and has the you know,
Speaker 1: I had the best odds of becoming a you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, foundational piece. Might be a little strong,
Speaker 1: but maybe not. I think he's going to be a
Speaker 1: really good, you know, starting big in the NBA. Is
Speaker 1: certainly a defensive banker. You know, we've talked about, Hey,
Speaker 1: the guy did not build on a strong rookie year.
Speaker 1: You know, last year, could argue he regressed a little bit.
Speaker 1: Certainly he didn't take strides forward. But the way he
Speaker 1: responded to that was by working his butt off. I
Speaker 1: think he you know, feels a lot better physically. I
Speaker 1: think his confidence is much higher, you know. I know,
Speaker 1: Will and the coach and Seffer are extremely happy with
Speaker 1: the work that he's done going back to the end
Speaker 1: of last season. And I think, you know, although they're
Speaker 1: not winning games, you know, I think he's played well
Speaker 1: this season. And then honestly, the rest of the guys,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, you know, I mean, Kanty George
Speaker 1: is in the starting line last night, played really well.
Speaker 1: It's been a pretty rough go for him so far
Speaker 1: this season. Before that, I am skeptical on him being
Speaker 1: a full time point guard. Maybe he ends up being
Speaker 1: a you know, a Jordan Clarkson type of a bench score.
Speaker 1: We'll see. But look, this year, even next year, a
Speaker 1: lot of this is going to be about figuring out
Speaker 1: which one, you know, which ones of these guys are
Speaker 1: potentially part of the long term future, and which one
Speaker 1: of them aren't going to pan out, because like you said,
Speaker 1: they're not all going to pan out nobody. You know,
Speaker 1: if you shoot fifty percent in the drafts, especially these
Speaker 1: pics that are you know in the teams, you know,
Speaker 1: some of them have been in the twenties. That's doing
Speaker 1: pretty well, so you know, player development is also you know,
Speaker 1: it's figuring out which ones aren't worth continuing to invest in,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be part of the process over
Speaker 1: the next couple of years.
Speaker 2: For sure, And certainly Hayward favors both third year players
Speaker 2: on that team, so Walker should be included in the group.
Speaker 2: Uh ten points, twelve boards, three blocks. So to me,
Speaker 2: his start is one of maybe two or three bright spots.
Speaker 2: And I cannot come on air every day and blow
Speaker 2: smoke when this is just going to be a rough season.
Speaker 2: But you reference Keyante now. The last time tim that
Speaker 2: Kyante made shots at High Cliff he was a high
Speaker 2: scorer because he didn't in college. He didn't his rookie year,
Speaker 2: and he hasn't so far this year. He was really
Speaker 2: good last night. But essentially we have two and a
Speaker 2: half years where the splits are like thirty eight percent
Speaker 2: from the floor in like thirty percent from three He's
Speaker 2: only twenty. But at what point does that sample size
Speaker 2: become so big where you're concerned about simply his inability
Speaker 2: to make shots, As simple as that sounds, I mean,
Speaker 2: you can.
Speaker 1: Be concerned about it now, but you're not going to
Speaker 1: pull the plug on you know, you're not going to
Speaker 1: pull the plug on him, like you're going to at
Speaker 1: least see it through this season, you know, I would
Speaker 1: think in the next season, you know, in fairness to him,
Speaker 1: he didn't come into college or the NBA with like
Speaker 1: a physically mature body. I do think he's improved his sazique,
Speaker 1: you know, over the summer, you know. And another thing
Speaker 1: is he's learning to play point guard in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Not just how to play point guard in the league,
Speaker 1: but how to play point guard period, you know, and
Speaker 1: that's a pretty massive challenge. So I would give him,
Speaker 1: you know, it'd be a different situation if he was
Speaker 1: if he was drafted by a good team. If he's
Speaker 1: drafted by a good team, he's probably not getting minutes now.
Speaker 1: But that's not the situation he's in. So I think
Speaker 1: you've got to be patient and give him a little
Speaker 1: bit of grace.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And to your point, they're only going
Speaker 2: to play youngsters, all right. Moving away from the jazz here,
Speaker 2: let's talk about your take on the latest. Everyone hates
Speaker 2: Rudy's story, Kristin brown smashes on him, and you know,
Speaker 2: I have always been a stand up for Rudy guy,
Speaker 2: just because I saw how great he was in this community.
Speaker 2: I was over there when he you know, I was
Speaker 2: working for the Jazz Radio Network when he was with
Speaker 2: the Jazz But there are some times where you just
Speaker 2: kind of ant stand up for him and you start
Speaker 2: to make allowance. I still think it's bullying. I still
Speaker 2: think it's rude, and I still think he's a good dude.
Speaker 2: But it seems like this time around, most of the
Speaker 2: people were not necessarily backing him up, even the ones
Speaker 2: that typically do. Is that fair?
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't think he was honestly that huge
Speaker 1: of a deal. I was actually at that game. I
Speaker 1: talked to Rudy afterwards. I talked to Christian Brown afterwards.
Speaker 1: Neither one of those guys were really a bit too
Speaker 1: worked up about it. It was a competitive moment. I mean,
Speaker 1: Christian Brown absolutely dunked the hell out of the ball
Speaker 1: and then put a highlight on Rudy's head. There's no
Speaker 1: question about that. He was amped up. You know, he's
Speaker 1: kind of flexed and celebrated by you know, stepping into
Speaker 1: Rudy's space and hollering a little bit. Rudy gave him.
Speaker 1: I don't know, if you'd call it a club, but
Speaker 1: it was like a little pass rush, move to Decatur
Speaker 1: to the neck there, and there was some wolfing, you know,
Speaker 1: Russ came in and did Russ type of stuff and
Speaker 1: you know, and that was that. But his game, you know,
Speaker 1: Rudy's like, hey, I get it. He was fired up.
Speaker 1: He stepped my space and then you know, a whole
Speaker 1: lot of nothing happened. You know, he said, I actually
Speaker 1: think he's a really good player and a good kid.
Speaker 1: And you know Christian Brown, who, by the way, he
Speaker 1: got Rudy a couple of times last year or too.
Speaker 1: I mean, Christian Brown, for all that's going wrong with
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, he's a pretty promising young player. Deceptively athletic,
Speaker 1: he might say. But you know, he said, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I got so fired up because he's Rudy Gobert is
Speaker 1: one of the best rim protectors in the league. He said,
Speaker 1: the best REMP protector in the league. And you know,
Speaker 1: his take was, actually he was he regretted his celebration,
Speaker 1: not because of you know, the disrespect or whatever, but
Speaker 1: he's like, dude, I cost my team momentum. They're on
Speaker 1: an eleven zero run and then they end up blowing
Speaker 1: a ten point lead, and he said the devil technicals
Speaker 1: cost his team momentum. So you know, look, anytime Gobert
Speaker 1: gets dunked on and Matt's attack or it is going
Speaker 1: to be a thing, right, It's going to go viral.
Speaker 1: People are gonna hoot and hohorrah. As far as the
Speaker 1: celebration and his reaction and all that, neither one of
Speaker 1: those guys thought it was a real big deal. So
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be two up at arms back.
Speaker 1: I will say I didn't think Rudy should have been
Speaker 1: in the game at that point because I thought he
Speaker 1: should have got kicked out. It was a flavorant one
Speaker 1: when he elbowed Joke on the job boy during that review,
Speaker 1: I thought Rudy was about to head to the locker room.
Speaker 1: But look, man, I was in the Maddis locker room
Speaker 1: a couple of nights before that, perfect nice before that,
Speaker 1: when they played the Wolves, I was in the Nuggets'
Speaker 1: locker room. Like it's no secret I wrote the whole
Speaker 1: thing about this last year. Players around the league do
Speaker 1: not like Rudy for whatever reason, and that's just, you know,
Speaker 1: that's just the reality of the situation. I think he's
Speaker 1: the most disrespected star caliber player in the league. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not always in the right But I didn't think
Speaker 1: this was some like major international incident here. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was a spectacular play that you know, they
Speaker 1: got a little huffy and puffy afterwards.
Speaker 2: So I'm asking you about the Timberwolves intentionally and the
Speaker 2: Calves intentionally because the Jazz draft capital returns begin this
Speaker 2: season and it doesn't look like I mean, when when
Speaker 2: Ruy Hotcha Mura said their scouting report on Julius Randalls
Speaker 2: that he just stands there on defense and therefore they
Speaker 2: were just going to backdoor cut, I'm like, Okay, you
Speaker 2: don't love that fit with Minnesota. Maybe they're not going
Speaker 2: to be great this year. Mike does look old, But
Speaker 2: how real is this eight n O start from the
Speaker 2: Calves with a new coaching staff and a team right
Speaker 2: now that looks really connected.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think they're going to go eighty
Speaker 1: two to zero, but how many games do they win?
Speaker 1: Last year? Correct me? I mean it was right round fifty,
Speaker 1: and that was with all kinds of health problems. You know,
Speaker 1: Darius Garland had a broken john and really ruggle last Sea.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously break your dry or johs waershit. There's
Speaker 1: a bunch of time, there's a bunch of weight to
Speaker 1: believe they had a rhythm. Donovan had all kinds of
Speaker 1: knee problems. Uh, you know, they're if they're healthy, they're
Speaker 1: going to be good. I don't know that they're going
Speaker 1: to be number one seed in the East good. But
Speaker 1: right now, if you told me the Cavs finish the
Speaker 1: season with fifty five wins, fifty seven wins and then
Speaker 1: the number two seed in the East, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised at all. And I still think Minnesota is the
Speaker 1: top three team in the Western Conference. They've got some
Speaker 1: things to figure out defensively, but I like their odds there.
Speaker 1: And you know, they're happy with Julius Randon. They're especially
Speaker 1: happy with kind of a dynamic between Randall and uh
Speaker 1: and and Edwards. And I feel like Randall takes a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, he eases the burden on an
Speaker 1: while also setting them up. You know, Ant's catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes are way up. That's a large part because
Speaker 1: Rangell sets them up. For man, it can take a
Speaker 1: lot of the uh, you know, the the attacking, initiating,
Speaker 1: facilitating responsibilities off Hans play and you know, Finn Sho
Speaker 1: tell you. The hope there is that at can wrestle
Speaker 1: a little bit on offense instead of taking some possessions
Speaker 1: off defensively.
Speaker 2: Fifty one wins for the Calves last year, so you
Speaker 2: were close to knocking that out. Tim. Yeah, I appreciate
Speaker 2: your time. Have a great week. It's great to have
Speaker 2: basketball back and we'll chat.
Speaker 1: Too, all right, appreciate it, brother, all right.
Speaker 2: Great. Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. He covers
Speaker 2: the Jazz for ESPN. That's why he is on our
Speaker 2: NBA Daily Assist. He's on Twitter at ESPN Underscore McMahon
Speaker 2: is where you find him.