Speaker 1: Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your
Speaker 1: NBA Daily assists.
Speaker 2: Van McMahon, Van McMahan batted old Land, Texas flood as tickets,
Speaker 2: mud He's Man, Van McMahon, Van McMahon the man Man.
Speaker 1: The Utah Jazz Summer League team back at action tonight,
Speaker 1: taking on.
Speaker 3: The Memphis Quizz Leaves. The debut of young As.
Speaker 1: Bailey happened on Saturday night at the John M. Huntsman Center,
Speaker 1: and the Jazz also made a trade today. Our next
Speaker 1: guest was in town, And did you lose my cell phone.
Speaker 3: Or did I just miss the call?
Speaker 1: Tim, because I know you never come into town without
Speaker 1: asking me to hang out.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I don't know. I had it and I
Speaker 4: school to it and said, no, I really don't want
Speaker 4: to see him. So that was that.
Speaker 1: Okay, well that's that's really rude. But anyway, how was
Speaker 1: your truncated Salt Lake City experience?
Speaker 4: It was quick, you know, and late on what was
Speaker 4: that Friday, and out very early on Sundays. There wasn't
Speaker 4: a whole lot of hanging out, but it was good
Speaker 4: to see a couple of Summer League games, see a
Speaker 4: lot of people at those games. You know, chit chat
Speaker 4: with a variety of folks, you know, the Jazz, from
Speaker 4: the Jazz and some other organizations. And see East Bailey's
Speaker 4: debut in the Jazz uniform. Not that it was too
Speaker 4: spectacular of a show, but the good news is it
Speaker 4: was made. And you know, he seems like he is
Speaker 4: just fine with being a member of the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 4: He's working hard and then you know, we'll see what
Speaker 4: that hard work produces.
Speaker 1: Wonder because look when it comes to Summer League production
Speaker 1: and we will talk about the game. It's just like
Speaker 1: I was a PR intern in ninety seven and watch
Speaker 1: Greg Gaster tag out played Tim Duncan. This stuff oftentimes
Speaker 1: means nothing, you know, but I want wonder if you
Speaker 1: could maybe share some of the conversations illuminate us a
Speaker 1: little bit as you spoke to people with Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: about what I perceived to be the noise surrounding whether
Speaker 1: or not he's originally wanted to be here, or his
Speaker 1: reps or whatever. It was, like, can you shed some
Speaker 1: light on what people in the organization have to say
Speaker 1: about how the process has been so far.
Speaker 4: You know, listen, it was a messy process. I think probably,
Speaker 4: well not probably certainly unnecessarily so, but again, you know,
Speaker 4: the Jazz decided to pick him because they had him
Speaker 4: number one player on the board at the time. They
Speaker 4: really need to be able to take swings at potential
Speaker 4: stars when they have a chance to do that. I
Speaker 4: think things could and should have been a lot smoother
Speaker 4: in the couple of days after the draft. But he
Speaker 4: showed up when he was supposed to show up. You know,
Speaker 4: he gets off the plane, he wants to get right
Speaker 4: to the gym. You know, got to the gym, got
Speaker 4: some more kid. Everything I've heard about his approach since
Speaker 4: he's been there has been positive. You know, the kids
Speaker 4: working hard. So I think since he's gotten there, they've
Speaker 4: been pleased with you know, his approach, with what they've
Speaker 4: seen from him, with his attitude. You know, I think
Speaker 4: that this is an eighteen year old kid who the
Speaker 4: good news is he will listen, and he will listen,
Speaker 4: and he will you know, he will do what the
Speaker 4: adults in his life thinks the right thing for him
Speaker 4: to do. And then we can get into who those
Speaker 4: adults are. And you know what, some of that advice
Speaker 4: has been not great. But I again, I think the
Speaker 4: good news here is he's going to be a coachable kid.
Speaker 3: So and that leads us to the debut.
Speaker 1: And again like, and I'm sure you have so many
Speaker 1: summer league anecdotes about this player who was awesome and
Speaker 1: didn't turn out to be much in the league, or
Speaker 1: this player who struggled and turned out to be incredible
Speaker 1: in the NBA. So I'm not making too much, nor
Speaker 1: would I ever about what you saw for ACEP through
Speaker 1: your own prism. What were your takeaways? And then in
Speaker 1: talking to people, how do you think the organization feel like?
Speaker 1: It feels like he is holding up so far?
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, maybe I'm not going to sit here
Speaker 4: and act like there was some kind of job dropping debut.
Speaker 4: I am going to coption against overreacting to a rough
Speaker 4: shooting night and a summer league opener. I'll remind you
Speaker 4: of the much anticipated Victor Woman Ya'm a Vegas summer
Speaker 4: league opener when I forgot was his exact shooting line was,
Speaker 4: but it was worse than three or thirteen. I think
Speaker 4: that guy's turned out to be a pretty good player
Speaker 4: for the San Antonio Spurs. But you know, honestly, the
Speaker 4: thing that I was getting, like I talked to Will
Speaker 4: hardy for a little bit, and will you know the
Speaker 4: first thing a point and I was, look, you see
Speaker 4: the link. You see the athleticism. You see his willingness
Speaker 4: to to rebound and rebound traffic. You see his ability
Speaker 4: to close big distances defensively. Then you know the fact
Speaker 4: that he's eager to do that kind of working. His
Speaker 4: thing was that stuff hasn't talked about enough. Uh, the
Speaker 4: offense will come. You know, the kids in a new system,
Speaker 4: new people around them. You know, four days of tough practices,
Speaker 4: they're not worried about the three or thirteen. They like
Speaker 4: the rest of the stuff that they saw. Now, it
Speaker 4: was interesting. He was bench or you know where you
Speaker 4: can say he was. He was on the bench, whether
Speaker 4: he want to say bench or not for the bad
Speaker 4: sjority of crunch time. And I'm not watching him because
Speaker 4: you know, obviously there's a lot of people who are
Speaker 4: there to see him. And you know this is he's hyped.
Speaker 4: And he was like, you know, supposed to be a
Speaker 4: pop three pick and DJ Edge comes out there on
Speaker 4: the other side, you know, getting twenty seven shots up
Speaker 4: and playing all those clutch minutes for the seventy six
Speaker 4: ers with the ball in his hands. Some watching them
Speaker 4: like is he can pout? He was standing up Jennifers
Speaker 4: teammates engaged in the game, and they put him in
Speaker 4: for the last defense possession and he grabbed the biggest
Speaker 4: rebound of the game in traffic. So little things like
Speaker 4: that I saw to be you know, encouraging signs. You know,
Speaker 4: I don't I think he's going to score some points
Speaker 4: in the workie, I don't think it's gonna be very efficient.
Speaker 4: I think there's gonna be a lot of work to
Speaker 4: do there. But that's fine. They're hoping through four five,
Speaker 4: you know, six eight years from now he can be
Speaker 4: a primary score on a good team, and there's a
Speaker 4: lot of time to grow and develop from now till then.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, obviously around here we're very intrigued about
Speaker 1: Ace and these young players.
Speaker 3: But VJ Edgecomb my goodness.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it was easy to see that
Speaker 1: athletically he'd belong, but I don't know that I And
Speaker 1: again we're going to caution everybody. This is one summer
Speaker 1: league game, but pretty impressive. What your court side, what
Speaker 1: were your takeaways watching Edgecumb.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the first time I've seen him live. I
Speaker 4: don't watch a much college basketball, just be honest with you.
Speaker 4: But I had seen him, uh play for the Bahamas
Speaker 4: national team Christa Marco, an assistant from the Warriors as
Speaker 4: the head coach that team and as a buddy of mine,
Speaker 4: So I was hoping that they were going to qualify
Speaker 4: for the Olympics. They came up a win short. But
Speaker 4: you know, that's last summer where obviously he's playing against men,
Speaker 4: right He's he's playing against pros, some NBA, some overseas.
Speaker 4: He's playing on a team that has Eric Gordon, Buddy
Speaker 4: heel Deandred and like you know, established NBA players, And
Speaker 4: there were times in those games where he was the
Speaker 4: best player on the floor. There were times in those
Speaker 4: games where you know, there is crunch time situations and
Speaker 4: he had the ball in his hands. So I wasn't
Speaker 4: I wasn't necessarily surprised to see uh, you know, to
Speaker 4: see what he did in the first Summer League game. Obviously,
Speaker 4: the spacing's much different in the NBA than it is
Speaker 4: in college, where you know, it was not the best
Speaker 4: year for him a band it from an efficiency standpoint,
Speaker 4: But if you're just talking about athleticism, I mean, he
Speaker 4: can Cook. He's got incredible acceleration, obviously unbelievable leap and ability.
Speaker 4: I mean even by NBA standards, he's an elite athlete.
Speaker 4: We'll see if the long range shooting comes along. You
Speaker 4: know that that's the biggest hole in his game right now.
Speaker 4: But man, he can get the spots and he can
Speaker 4: he can elevate over people, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Jazz also made a draft night move to move up
Speaker 1: a couple of spots to draft Wall Clayton Junior, who
Speaker 1: a lot of people I thought Brad Stevens line was
Speaker 1: funny when he heard the news. He said, I could
Speaker 1: have told you Austin was going to trade up for
Speaker 1: him two years ago.
Speaker 3: Right, you know, same deal one summer league game.
Speaker 1: But because you're the guy asked this, because you have
Speaker 1: the relationships, what are some of the pieces of feedback
Speaker 1: the organization has early on about this young man while
Speaker 1: Clayton Junior, Yeah.
Speaker 4: They're they're excited about him, and they're about uh, you know,
Speaker 4: his toughness, the fact that he comes in he's an adult, right,
Speaker 4: A fat he's a kid. War Clayton Junior comes in,
Speaker 4: he's an adult. He's a four year guy in college
Speaker 4: you know, he won in college and he really his
Speaker 4: path could not be much more different from Ace Faile.
Speaker 4: He's in the sense that he wasn't a big time recruit.
Speaker 4: He went to Siena for a couple of years, came
Speaker 4: off the benches first year there. It's just, you know,
Speaker 4: he went through the whole Rick Patino experience of you know,
Speaker 4: getting coached for transfer to Florida, helped Florida win a
Speaker 4: national championship, and obviously, you know they like him. You
Speaker 4: see what they gave up to move up a few
Speaker 4: spots to get him, and then the trade for Colin Sexton.
Speaker 4: I mean, we can sit and scratch our heads as
Speaker 4: to why the Jazz had to include a second round pick,
Speaker 4: But the idea there is, hey, they've got three young
Speaker 4: guards and those guys are going to get the playing
Speaker 4: time at those spots here. He's going to have a
Speaker 4: role immediately come in the league and it's going to
Speaker 4: be very interesting. I wouldn't be shocked if he's starting
Speaker 4: sooner than later. I think that's going to be an
Speaker 4: open competition going to the training camp.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I discussed and you
Speaker 1: touched on this a little bit with the answer that
Speaker 1: you gave after the question concerning Ace is if you're
Speaker 1: a fan of a team, well, hey, it's not great
Speaker 1: that half your regular rotation is playing in summer League.
Speaker 3: But we know the deal with the Jazz.
Speaker 1: But really what you want him, as you know, are
Speaker 1: the Bryce center Baz, the Isaiah Colliers, the Kyle Philipowski's,
Speaker 1: the Cody Williams. The veterans looking like, uh maybe almost
Speaker 1: they're annoyed to even be there, but showing that they're
Speaker 1: willing to step up and be the best players on
Speaker 1: the floor. So just give me some quick takeaways from
Speaker 1: the Jazz veteran pieces.
Speaker 4: Well, none of those guys have done enough to be
Speaker 4: annoyed to play in summer League. Sure, sure, you know,
Speaker 4: you know you start there. I want to see flashes
Speaker 4: from Cody Williams, and I don't you know, that's just
Speaker 4: being realistic there. He was also on the bench during
Speaker 4: plunch time the other day against the six Ers. I
Speaker 4: I can't say that I can send him out to
Speaker 4: be a great sign since the Bah. Honesty, man, if
Speaker 4: you're a third year guy and you're not just dominating
Speaker 4: the summer League, I got some concerns there. He was Okay,
Speaker 4: most of the fit memories when he threw behind the
Speaker 4: back path that landed in like the third row where
Speaker 4: the seats are elevated there at the Huntsman Center. Yeah know,
Speaker 4: I'm I don't know, man, I don't know if he's
Speaker 4: a guy who's going to be able to carve out
Speaker 4: a solid NBA career, I would say he's still got
Speaker 4: a lot of work to do. I think Philipowski was
Speaker 4: certainly the most impressive of those guys. You know, he
Speaker 4: definitely has some offensive skill, some offensives ability. I think
Speaker 4: that the questionaire is how is he going to be
Speaker 4: able to hold up defensively? And does he need to
Speaker 4: be able to play the five to be able to
Speaker 4: have an advantage offensively? But you know, I think he
Speaker 4: showed enough in that game to add a little bit
Speaker 4: of intrigue.
Speaker 1: I would say, all right, and now we move over
Speaker 1: to the latest trade the Jazz have made, tim and
Speaker 1: ultimately my guess is Kevin Love will be bought out.
Speaker 1: I don't know about Kyle Anderson, but potentially, and maybe
Speaker 1: this is just a second round pick, did you get
Speaker 1: for John Collins in addition to some financial relief and
Speaker 1: Bobby Martch did a great job as he always does
Speaker 1: about kind of educating us there. But Clippers Jazz Heat
Speaker 1: agrees to a trade where Norman Powell's a Heat, John
Speaker 1: Collins as a Clipper, and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and
Speaker 1: a Clipper second round pick come the Utah. So unpack
Speaker 1: this your take on the trade and what do you
Speaker 1: think comes next?
Speaker 4: Well, I think that this really accomplished a few things
Speaker 4: for the Jazz. Number One, they got worse, Like, let's
Speaker 4: just be honest, and that's part of the goal. Going
Speaker 4: to tank games. It's just not going to be good,
Speaker 4: and they're going to play a lot of young guys
Speaker 4: in a grown man's league and it's going to be
Speaker 4: a tough lead. But you know, you hope to see
Speaker 4: some development. But obviously, you know, getting off all of
Speaker 4: their veteran guys was a priority. So they got worse,
Speaker 4: they got significantly cheaper, and then they did create a
Speaker 4: twenty six point six million dollar trade exception, which you know,
Speaker 4: that's that's an asset in and of itself. Obviously you've
Speaker 4: got a year to use it. I would be surprised
Speaker 4: if that's something that they're using, uh during the season,
Speaker 4: unless you know, I guess you never know, maybe that
Speaker 4: maybe there's a situation where there's significant draft capital attached
Speaker 4: or or whatever the case may be. But you know
Speaker 4: that that's a tool, that's a roster building tool, and
Speaker 4: probably the most significant thing that they got in this trade,
Speaker 4: aside from you know, again just moving off Collins and
Speaker 4: open up minutes for young guys and not having to
Speaker 4: worry about John Collins accidentally winning some games for him
Speaker 4: like he did last year. You know, Colins sat out
Speaker 4: forty two games. Last year, he played forty games. Twelve
Speaker 4: of their seventeen wins came to Collins on the floor. Yep,
Speaker 4: he was He was good last year. He was honest.
Speaker 4: He was too good for the Jazz And I think
Speaker 4: he's a nice little piece for the Clippers. I anticipate
Speaker 4: they'll play him a lot with Lopez in their second unit,
Speaker 4: and you know, he gives them a you know, he
Speaker 4: can be a lob guy. He can be a pick
Speaker 4: and roll lob guy while Lopez spaces and Lopez obviously
Speaker 4: can cover up some mccollins deficiency on the defensive ends.
Speaker 4: I think that's a it's a nice move for the Clippers,
Speaker 4: given that you know, it was pretty clear that they
Speaker 4: came to the conclusions they were going to move off of
Speaker 4: Norman Collins instead of committing to him long term.
Speaker 1: So last Jazz thing, then we'll move on. I mean, Tim,
Speaker 1: as you know last year though, walking line from the
Speaker 1: front office and Will Hardy himself, they use this moniker
Speaker 1: over and over. Pups can't raise pups, and that's why
Speaker 1: they bring in Patty Mills, and that's why they bring
Speaker 1: in Drew you Banks, and they keep Colin Sexted. You know,
Speaker 1: Colin Section, Jordan Clarkson and obviously John Collins. Well, pups
Speaker 1: are very much raising pups. Now, So big picture, now
Speaker 1: that the dust is settled, what do you think this
Speaker 1: season will look like for Jazz fans here in Soliz.
Speaker 4: Well, and you know, we'll see if Kyle Anderson's on
Speaker 4: the roster. He definitely a bet who has had some
Speaker 4: real significant experience in the league, is a vocal guy,
Speaker 4: and you know, I don't know how thrilled he would
Speaker 4: be to be in next situation. I do think he'd
Speaker 4: be a good influence on the younger guys on the roster,
Speaker 4: But I mean, hey, we all understand, like this is
Speaker 4: not going to be a really fun year for Jazz fans.
Speaker 4: They need to have another swing high in the lottery
Speaker 4: next year, especially with that pick being top eight protected
Speaker 4: that they owe Oklahoma City. And you know, I think
Speaker 4: this year like they're not going to have to try
Speaker 4: to lose games, Like look at the Western Conference, it's loaded.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a tough year. But I think so
Speaker 4: that's double take care of itself. And then you're really
Speaker 4: you're just looking for growth and development and trying to
Speaker 4: figure out which of these guys are worth continued to
Speaker 4: invest in, and which of these guys, you know, are
Speaker 4: you gonna move on from sooner than later.
Speaker 1: I actually had one more thing for you, Tim, because
Speaker 1: you're the one that reported this. Our buddy Andy Larson
Speaker 1: followed up on it. And I don't know what Omar
Speaker 1: Cooper is. I don't know that he's an agent. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's a friend. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's an advisor. But according to what you were able
Speaker 1: to uncover, his son, Omar Cooper Junior was hired to
Speaker 1: be a guest coach, something that I didn't even know
Speaker 1: was a thing, and someone at the League office raised
Speaker 1: some concerns and so this young man was has to
Speaker 1: find something else to do with his time.
Speaker 3: Am I understanding this correctly?
Speaker 4: Hired is not the word I would use because it
Speaker 4: was an unpaid position. But he was going to serve
Speaker 4: as a guest coach during Summer League, which you know,
Speaker 4: I think the League office looked at as a favor
Speaker 4: to whatever you want to call Omar Cooper Senior. I'm
Speaker 4: not going to refer to him as he refers to himself,
Speaker 4: I believe as an agent. I'm not going to do
Speaker 4: that because my understanding is he does not have his certification,
Speaker 4: so he can't be an agent us your certifide, at
Speaker 4: least an NBA agent. But you know, Omar Cooper Jr.
Speaker 4: Just wrapped up his career at McNee State. My understanding
Speaker 4: is he's going to be on North Carolina State's coaching
Speaker 4: staff with Will Wade, the coach who went from McNeice
Speaker 4: to North Carolina State. You know, But the league officers
Speaker 4: looked at this, and I don't know what the exact
Speaker 4: conversation was, but basically said, hey, this is no fishy,
Speaker 4: it looks funny. We'd rather you not do this. And
Speaker 4: the Jazz designed to, you know, call off the plan fair.
Speaker 1: Enough, fair enough, all right, big picture style as we
Speaker 1: you know, look, it's still only July.
Speaker 3: Plenty of movement could happen.
Speaker 1: I don't think Donovan was traded until September or something,
Speaker 1: maybe late August. So I'm not saying it's done done,
Speaker 1: but it feels like most of the major moves have
Speaker 1: been completed. So the landscape of the Western Conference tim
Speaker 1: and will end on this before set you loose. It
Speaker 1: still clearly is Oklahoma City, but a lot of teams
Speaker 1: are going to be a lot better.
Speaker 3: I think Dallas is intriguing Denver.
Speaker 1: You know, I could keep going, but who do you
Speaker 1: think really has improved and can at least exist in
Speaker 1: the space where Oklahoma City clearly still is the team
Speaker 1: that's going to be expected to dominate once again.
Speaker 4: I don't think there's any question that the Rockets of
Speaker 4: the team that's really in terms of containders, has improved
Speaker 4: the most this offseason. And then they had a glaring
Speaker 4: void for a go to guy to bring in Kevin Durant,
Speaker 4: who at his age is still one of the best
Speaker 4: scores in the league. You know, they bring in during
Speaker 4: Finnish Smith to kind of replace Dyllan Brooks is a
Speaker 4: tough better three, not quite as good the guy Capella.
Speaker 4: Just to beef up there. Their center rotation. They want
Speaker 4: to play dual bigs a lot. They're big, they're tough,
Speaker 4: they're nasty, they're physical, they rebound the all out the ball,
Speaker 4: and now they've got a guy they can give it
Speaker 4: to when they really need a bucket. To me, they
Speaker 4: are the toughest challenger Dallas. You know, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to sit here and predict whether Kyrie is going to
Speaker 4: be able to be himself when he wins and if
Speaker 4: he comes back this season, obviously, if he can do that,
Speaker 4: they've got a chance to be a real threat. I
Speaker 4: do believe Valentiunis is going to play for the Nuggets
Speaker 4: this season despite all this stuff going on with the
Speaker 4: Greek team. I think Denver, with him bringing Bruce Brown back,
Speaker 4: signing Tim Mardaway junior, they've got the best bench they've
Speaker 4: had in the Joker era. That makes them a threat.
Speaker 4: I also really like Cam Johnson as a as a
Speaker 4: piece there, and I'll tell you look out for the Clippers,
Speaker 4: like don't don't write the Clippers off. They pushed the
Speaker 4: Nuggets to seven games in the first round. Kawhi is
Speaker 4: healthy now. Uh. You know, James Harden proved that that
Speaker 4: he can still be a driving force and winning last year.
Speaker 4: I kind of the way the wind is blowing. I
Speaker 4: think Prady Dealer's up there after his buyout. That's not
Speaker 4: a done deal, but that would be my best guess
Speaker 4: at this point. And you know, and if he's a
Speaker 4: fourth option on a bargain deal, bucket getter, third fourth option,
Speaker 4: you know, he's a pretty good player. They're bringing Brook
Speaker 4: Lopez like a good defense got better with him backing
Speaker 4: up Zubos. I think the Clippers are quiet, like quietly.
Speaker 4: I think the Clippers are one of the teams that
Speaker 4: needs to be considered as a real challenger to Okay, see, let.
Speaker 1: Me take advantage of this real quick and ask you
Speaker 1: what you're hearing that the future may hold for one
Speaker 1: of our local legends, Dame Lillard. A lot of conversations.
Speaker 1: Apparently he's going to rehab home in Portland. But are
Speaker 1: you hearing is he interested in going home or talking
Speaker 1: Warriors stocking Lakers?
Speaker 3: What do you think the future holds for Dan?
Speaker 4: You know what I anticipate happening there is that he's
Speaker 4: going to rehab at home for a while and then
Speaker 4: you know, we'll see if he feels like he can
Speaker 4: come back this season. If he does, like he needs
Speaker 4: to sign by March first for a team, there'll be
Speaker 4: a lot of interest in him. You know, obviously we're
Speaker 4: talking about at the minimum at that point, but he's
Speaker 4: got one hundred and thirteen million guaranteed coming from the
Speaker 4: Bucks over the next couple of years. He can play
Speaker 4: for the minimum, and you know, if it's one of
Speaker 4: those situations, my guess it would probably be a one
Speaker 4: plus one type of deal, probably the team option, and
Speaker 4: you know, he can sit there and choose, you know
Speaker 4: what interest to contender he thinks he's the best fit for.
Speaker 4: But hey, I could certainly imagine him like saying, hey,
Speaker 4: I think and come back this season and hopefully give
Speaker 4: you fifteen to twenty minutes a game off the bench,
Speaker 4: come playoff time, and a you know, a high score,
Speaker 4: an ins and offense six man type of role. I
Speaker 4: could see that happening for a variety of teams. It'd
Speaker 4: be pretty cool though, if it was in the Bay
Speaker 4: Area that he's coming off the bench behind Steph for
Speaker 4: his hometown team, Like, that's something I could definitely see happen.
Speaker 4: And by the way, one of the one of the
Speaker 4: bigger dominoes that hadn't fallen yet. I'm not sure why,
Speaker 4: but I think Al Horford ends up with the Warriors,
Speaker 4: and you know, if he does, that's like, that's a
Speaker 4: pretty significant addition for Golden State.