Speaker 1: Let's get it drivetime Monday afternoon. We are looking at
Speaker 1: about seven minutes past the hour or two o'clock.
Speaker 2: Really hot weekend.
Speaker 1: But it settled a little bit to start the week.
Speaker 1: It's about seventy six degrees and sunny. It's a beautiful
Speaker 1: day here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, and as
Speaker 1: it is every single day, it's good to.
Speaker 2: Have you along for the ride. Spence check.
Speaker 1: It's behind the Mike, Porter Larsen beyond the glass today
Speaker 1: producing the program, booking the program. We have a lot
Speaker 1: to do on this Monday afternoon. When we said goodbye
Speaker 1: to you on Friday afternoon, we wondered if we'd be
Speaker 1: previewing a Game seven in the Eastern Conference playoffs tonight
Speaker 1: in New York at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2: But ATMSG will be dark tonight.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe they have a concert, no basketball as the Indiana
Speaker 1: Pacers got it done.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: It's an impressive group led by their head coach Rick Carlisle,
Speaker 1: who's a Hall of Famer, and after taking Dallas to
Speaker 1: the championship in twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: It was a really weird Mavericks.
Speaker 1: Team, dark waste Dirk, but they were able to win
Speaker 1: a championship that not a lot of people saw it coming.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the odds for Indiana to
Speaker 1: be in the NBA Finals, it was twenty nine.
Speaker 2: To one, twenty nine to.
Speaker 1: One to start the playoffs. They started the season ten
Speaker 1: and fifteen, and now they're going to the finals and
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna get smoked. We'll talk about it
Speaker 1: as Okac has been waiting, So we'll get into NBA
Speaker 1: playoff basketball. We'll preview the NBA Finals. We'll also preview
Speaker 1: the Stanley Cup Finals. Can Edmonton be the first Canadian
Speaker 1: hockey club to win Lord Stanley's Cup in thirty two years.
Speaker 1: It is a rematch of the Stanley Cup final from
Speaker 1: a year ago where Florida won three games and Edmonton
Speaker 1: won three games and Florida got done in game seven.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk some Stanley Cup Finals in some NBA finals.
Speaker 1: Both of those, by the way, series can be heard
Speaker 1: here on ESPN seven hundred, so kind of keep that
Speaker 1: in mind where your home of the NBA finals in
Speaker 1: the Stanley Cup, Fiitols hockey gets going on Wednesday and
Speaker 1: then basketball gets going on Thursday. We have turned our
Speaker 1: calendars to June that's important around here because that means
Speaker 1: it is the NBA Draft and the NHL Draft coming
Speaker 1: up in just a few weeks. We'll have great coverage
Speaker 1: for you Draft night here on the station. We'll do
Speaker 1: a show comprehensively covering the first round, then the second round,
Speaker 1: ironically enough, will be taking place during our show the
Speaker 1: next day, so we'll be able to react to that
Speaker 1: in real time. The Utah Jazz made a surprise hire today.
Speaker 2: Nobody saw this coming.
Speaker 1: Austin Ainge has been hired as the Utah Jazz President
Speaker 1: of basketball Operations. Of course, Austin is Danny's son. Austin
Speaker 1: worked for Danny in Boston. He was hired to be
Speaker 1: the G League head coach, did some scouting, and he
Speaker 1: has spent a total of seventeen years working for the Celtics.
Speaker 1: Justin Zannik remains in his role as the general manager.
Speaker 1: Austin is going to address the media in aut an
Speaker 1: hour from right now. We're going to replay those comments
Speaker 1: for you coming up.
Speaker 2: On the four o'clock hour.
Speaker 1: So what does this mean for the front office structure.
Speaker 2: We'll get into it a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, I've known Austin a long time I've known
Speaker 1: the Ange family a long time, so we'll.
Speaker 2: Kind of get into this and what does this mean.
Speaker 1: About the role of his dad and how will it
Speaker 1: work with he and Justin's antik day to day. So
Speaker 1: we'll get into that story on the program today. RSL
Speaker 1: just you know, maybe we should just start giving our
Speaker 1: guy ck credit because he seems to call these things
Speaker 1: pretty early.
Speaker 2: He said, it feels like a last year.
Speaker 1: Probably is the Galaxy had not won a game all year,
Speaker 1: and then RSL rolls in and they smoke them to nil.
Speaker 1: A bit of a break for the soccer club and
Speaker 1: badly needed because they're really bad. It's not even fun
Speaker 1: to watch right now. So do a little soccer on
Speaker 1: the show today too. Of course, of local interest, Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball is kind of moving into the consciousness now
Speaker 1: and Big.
Speaker 2: Twelve meetings took place over.
Speaker 1: The weekend in Orlando, so a lot of things to
Speaker 1: get to, including the potential expansion of not just the CFP,
Speaker 1: but how about the NCAA basketball tournament. Charlie Baker with
Speaker 1: some interesting comments in that direction. So we'll get to
Speaker 1: some offseason college football stuff. NFL shit time allowed, We've
Speaker 1: got a good college football guest on the show as well,
Speaker 1: So a lot to do on a Monday afternoon. Kyle
Speaker 1: Bond of Gurro will start things off from ESPN. Kyle
Speaker 1: wrote a piece for ESPN dot com two weeks ago
Speaker 1: after the civil suit was filed against Jake Rhet's Laugh.
Speaker 1: No up to date information regarding anything there. If anything,
Speaker 1: of course drops while we're on air, we'll bring it
Speaker 1: to you. So we'll talk to Kyle about the rets
Speaker 1: laugh stuff, and we'll talk to Kyle about the expansion
Speaker 1: of the CFP Big twelve storylines and such. Tom Haberstrow
Speaker 1: NBA Daily Assist Style. On a Monday afternoon, we'll bring
Speaker 1: in Tom to preview the NBA Finals. We'll do some
Speaker 1: drafts and jazz offseason. Richard Smith that about Smitty live
Speaker 1: in studio for an entire hour today starting at three
Speaker 1: point thirty, and then we will bring you the Austin
Speaker 1: Ange Conference after Smitty bounces in studio and we'll go
Speaker 1: from there. On a Monday afternoon, Happy Monday to you.
Speaker 1: Hope you had a great weekend. The weather was beautiful,
Speaker 1: it was hot, but it was fun. Hopefully got outside.
Speaker 1: Kyle Bonaguerra, Tom Habershaw Richard Smith Austin Ah's press conference.
Speaker 2: Me spence check it to all of you the great listeners.
Speaker 1: Oh, Porter, I give you so much credit for your
Speaker 1: optimism on Friday when I asked you are we going
Speaker 1: to do?
Speaker 2: You have sunglasses on in the studio?
Speaker 5: What are you doing? It's bright in here. You have
Speaker 5: to have the shades.
Speaker 2: Up, so I like natural light.
Speaker 1: Do I have to remind you the Larry David Lyne
Speaker 1: on people to wear sunglasses inside. There are only two
Speaker 1: types of people to wear sunglasses in side? Porter her,
Speaker 1: can you say it on the radio? I think blind
Speaker 1: people an a hole. I can't say the whole thing,
Speaker 1: but you can say.
Speaker 6: That I'm not blind. I am a little light sense
Speaker 6: that I have a lot of concussions. Okay, I get
Speaker 6: like a little shaky when I get like stressed out usually,
Speaker 6: but also with some lights sound sensitivity, so sometimes I
Speaker 6: maybe wear sunglasses.
Speaker 1: Look at our YouTube channel, Porter looks like the lead
Speaker 1: singer from the Lumineers right now.
Speaker 6: The Lumineers. Yeah, Wesley, you've got a lot of Joe Walsh.
Speaker 5: I've never gotten Lumineers before.
Speaker 1: He's got the long hair like you have, and he
Speaker 1: wears a song graud. But anyway, I applaud you for
Speaker 1: your optimism. When I asked you on Friday, will we
Speaker 1: be previewing the NBA Finals or Game seven? You said
Speaker 1: game seven? Yeah, didn't go didn't go our way? Didn't
Speaker 1: go our way?
Speaker 5: It didn't, it didn't. It's a it's a bummer.
Speaker 6: It's a bummer, but it gives Nicks fans like almost
Speaker 6: like a out of your misery moment, like a just
Speaker 6: move on. It's uh, it was, it was what was
Speaker 6: going to happen at some point, so stop putting it off.
Speaker 6: The old the old Yeller. We got old Yeller this weekend.
Speaker 6: But other than that, the weekend was fun.
Speaker 1: Was that a reference to a dog being shot and
Speaker 1: put down? Is that what that was?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You taken edible this morning. You're good?
Speaker 5: No, I'm great, all right? Old Yeah, old Yeller might
Speaker 5: not be the right reference.
Speaker 1: I understand what you're saying because a little visual. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about it. Like, if you're a Nick fan, you
Speaker 1: have to view this year as a total win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if for no other reason, you blocked Boston from winning
Speaker 1: another championship.
Speaker 6: And Old Yeller had a great, awesome life. Hitty, lovely
Speaker 6: yellow lab on a big farm out living in the grass.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, and then it came to a screeching halt.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it does, it does, and it happened on Saturday.
Speaker 1: All right, Kyle Bonagura College Football, our first guest right
Speaker 1: out of the gates. But before we get to Kyle
Speaker 1: on a Monday afternoon, courtesy of our good friends and
Speaker 1: your good friends too at Prize Picks, it's time now
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Speaker 8: Welcome to the.
Speaker 9: Drive with Spence check its on Utah's number one sports
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Speaker 1: All right, quick thought on the Pacers nixt series, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's interesting looking at where the Knicks
Speaker 1: are now and really understanding that this is ahead of
Speaker 1: schedule for where they were supposed to be. Nobody thought
Speaker 1: they were beating Boston. And if Jason Tatum doesn't get hurt,
Speaker 1: they probably don't, that's my opinion. Or if Joe Missoula
Speaker 1: decides to do anything other than continue to jack up
Speaker 1: contested thirty two footers, Boston probably wins.
Speaker 10: It.
Speaker 1: My guess is Boston was watching Indiana New York and
Speaker 1: they were livid at themselves for not taking advantage of
Speaker 1: this opportunity, because Boston really was built for one more
Speaker 1: run based off of how their books are structured now
Speaker 1: because they have new ownership, and according to Bobby Marks,
Speaker 1: their luxury tax bill next year just to have their
Speaker 1: roster will be north of five hundred million dollars. I
Speaker 1: don't care how much money you have, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of money just to pay for the right to have
Speaker 1: the team, let alone what you're actually paying the players.
Speaker 1: So my guess is the new ownership is going to
Speaker 1: task their front office, which no longer includes Austin Ams.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the Austin News in a bit two
Speaker 1: make some hard decisions, and that probably means may Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's available, maybe Derek White, maybe Drew Holliday. Are there
Speaker 1: takers for Drew Holliday at this stage of his career,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown is making a lot of money. Anybody would
Speaker 1: pay Jalen Brown that money because he's that good. But
Speaker 1: no one's gonna take Tatum. I mean, Tatum's out for
Speaker 1: an entire year. You gotta wait to see what that
Speaker 1: looks like. So Boston was really built to win this
Speaker 1: thing again this year, and they should have. I mean,
Speaker 1: they were my pick to win it, certainly the East.
Speaker 1: And then I think a lot of people thought we
Speaker 1: were just in for Boston OKC in the final because
Speaker 1: they were both so good when they were healthy in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Of course, Oklahoma City lives up to
Speaker 1: their side of things, and Boston with an unexcusable loss
Speaker 1: to a team that they're just better than. So the
Speaker 1: fact that the Knicks were able to advance to the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference finals, like, if you're a Nick fan at all,
Speaker 1: it's a win. It doesn't make the end better, and
Speaker 1: it certainly stings even more that it's the freaking Pacers
Speaker 1: who I just can't stand and have not been able
Speaker 1: to stand for a number of different years.
Speaker 2: And I have a lot of respect for Rick Carlisle.
Speaker 1: I think this is a really, really good basketball team,
Speaker 1: and Rick himself has been pretty front facing and honest
Speaker 1: about how good they're playing. It's kind of interesting to
Speaker 1: hear him both after the Cavs series and now after
Speaker 1: the Knicks series basically say they ran into us when
Speaker 1: we were playing our best basketball. The year by far
Speaker 1: Indiana started out the year ten and fifteen, there were
Speaker 1: people wondering if they needed to break up Siakam and Haliburton.
Speaker 1: Side note, how is how is Tyreese Saliburton not the
Speaker 1: MVP of that series?
Speaker 2: Siakam was awesome?
Speaker 1: And this isn't like a andre Iguidala wins the finals
Speaker 1: MVPs over Stephan Curry. I mean, that was historically stupid
Speaker 1: for anybody who voted for Iguadala over Steph, like Steph
Speaker 1: was the only reason they were in that series in the.
Speaker 2: First place and able to win it.
Speaker 1: Yes, I know, Iguadala guard Lebron save it like that
Speaker 1: was such a crime.
Speaker 2: It was so atrocious. This wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: But if you go if you go back and watch
Speaker 1: the postgame stuff, as Ernie Johnson is about to announce
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference Player of the Series, I think it's
Speaker 1: the Larry Bird Award now.
Speaker 2: And the league is doing this thing where they've created.
Speaker 1: More awards so they can attach historical, you know, special
Speaker 1: names to the awards. And that's great, it's all good.
Speaker 1: You should respect the history of the league in the game.
Speaker 1: But when Ernie said, and the winner of the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference Finals MVP is Tyrese Halliburton took a step towards
Speaker 1: the stage, like he started walking towards Ernie and he said,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam, And if you look at Halliburton's face, he's like,
Speaker 1: wait what.
Speaker 2: It was wild? I mean, And the vote was five
Speaker 2: to four.
Speaker 1: There were only nine voters, but he was ready to
Speaker 1: go take the trophy and then Ernie announces it with Siakam.
Speaker 2: Hey, look like I said, this is not.
Speaker 1: Like an atrocity of historic proportions like the staph at
Speaker 1: wadalas stuff thing. But Tyres Halliburton makes them go. He
Speaker 1: dictates pace in a way that very few lead guards
Speaker 1: in the NBA can do right now. He was more
Speaker 1: or less really really good all series long. His worst
Speaker 1: game was the game that the Knicks gut in New York.
Speaker 1: But he makes everything go for them, and Siakam did
Speaker 1: a really really good job because and we'll get to
Speaker 1: the cat stuff. I think the Knicks have a cat problem.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. And for listeners that are confused, that's
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns. They don't literally have cats everywhere, but
Speaker 1: I think they've got an issue with cat I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: What you do with it, but Karl Anthony Towns eight
Speaker 1: miles Turner's lunch. And then when they tried former jazz
Speaker 1: man Tony Brawdley, that didn't work either.
Speaker 2: And also another.
Speaker 1: Side note like ultimately, like if Thomas Bryant is knocking
Speaker 1: down threes, we can go home.
Speaker 2: There's nothing else to do.
Speaker 1: Like their third string center who could barely get on
Speaker 1: the floor, is knocking down threes, you know, like he's
Speaker 1: Ray Allen all of a sudden. It's that was a
Speaker 1: wild side note. Former Nikovi Topham was really good. But
Speaker 1: I said this after Game five in preparation for Game
Speaker 1: six six, I'm like, the one way the Knicks can
Speaker 1: get this done is if they replicate the defensive effort
Speaker 1: and intensity in game six then we saw in Game five,
Speaker 1: and they didn't.
Speaker 2: They just didn't. The closeouts once again were horrible.
Speaker 1: Kat defensively was a sieve and Indiana feasting on him.
Speaker 1: It was just a decent Jalen game, not a great
Speaker 1: Jalen game. OG was awesome. Michel Bridges has taken a
Speaker 1: ton of crap in the New York media today because
Speaker 1: the Knicks traded all their draft capital for him and
Speaker 1: he was just okay, not great, but for an elimination game.
Speaker 1: The fact that like Landry Shammitt may have been one
Speaker 1: of your best players and at least was out there
Speaker 1: giving effort. And we saw, you know, twelve minutes from
Speaker 1: Delon Wright. They got ran off the floor in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. And what happened at the start of the
Speaker 1: game is exactly what we've been talking about all along.
Speaker 1: The Pacers want to push it. They want to get
Speaker 1: up and down, and they want to get up and
Speaker 1: down off of makes. And if you're Tom Thibodeau and
Speaker 1: you're watching tape of Game six and you see four
Speaker 1: runouts for Dunkster layups off Nick makes, that is going
Speaker 1: to haunt you your entire offseason. This was an effort lost.
Speaker 1: Do I think the Pacers are better than the nixt
Speaker 1: I do. I think it's a deeper team. I think
Speaker 1: they have more variance in which they could play. And
Speaker 1: New York is so isolation heavy. It's not just Jalen,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it is. Jalen Kat is more
Speaker 1: of an ISO big. You know, they throw it to
Speaker 1: Cat to the top of the key and if he
Speaker 1: can dribble by you, he will because he's a big
Speaker 1: that can move pretty well and can dribble it.
Speaker 2: Okay, and shoots it well from the outside.
Speaker 1: But even if it's og or Michel like, they get
Speaker 1: the ball and they just go one on one isolation
Speaker 1: and ultimately that to me has a natural ceiling. And
Speaker 1: also as far as the natural ceiling goes, this is
Speaker 1: something that we've seen for a number of years, like
Speaker 1: a good team will manifest itself with their best player
Speaker 1: being a small point guard. One example that comes to
Speaker 1: mind is the Chris Paul Clipper team, you know, lob
Speaker 1: City with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and ESPN playing
Speaker 1: a fricking siren every time Blake dunked it. But Chris
Speaker 1: Paul was their best player. CP three made them go
Speaker 1: and they were really good. They won a lot of
Speaker 1: regular season games, but they could never fully get past
Speaker 1: their Western Conference piers who had superior offensive ball in
Speaker 1: hand initiators that were just bigger players and better athletes.
Speaker 1: And the last team to win NBA Championships while their
Speaker 1: best player was a smallish ball in hand point guard
Speaker 1: was the Detroit Pistons of the late eighties with Isaiah Thomas.
Speaker 1: It has not happened since don't give me Steph Okay,
Speaker 1: Steph is a unicorn, all right, and Steph is not
Speaker 1: this smallish ball in hand offensive initiator. You know, Steph
Speaker 1: does not fit the bill, okay. And by the way,
Speaker 1: generationally special and unique. So when it comes to a
Speaker 1: team built for success, the Knicks I think may have
Speaker 1: hit a ceiling with this group in my opinion. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do, because when you look
Speaker 1: at their books, they're paying mkel og Kat and Jalen
Speaker 1: and Josh Okay. So those five players are under contract
Speaker 1: for a few years at big money. There's already rumors
Speaker 1: that the Phoenix Suns would like to make a run
Speaker 1: a cat because Kat played with book Devin Booker at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So do the next look at a cat Durant swap
Speaker 1: and you go into next year with Mitchell Robinson as
Speaker 1: you're starting center, and you get rid of the Cat,
Speaker 1: and then you get rid of the cat experience all together.
Speaker 1: Like Kat to me is a little bit like Donovan
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, but kind of in the
Speaker 1: vein of you have a natural expiration date and a
Speaker 1: natural ceiling if you're gonna play your basketball through him,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna play him big minutes.
Speaker 2: He is a sieve on defense.
Speaker 1: He doesn't move well, and Indiana did a really good
Speaker 1: job of confusing him.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it was dropped, sometimes.
Speaker 1: He would blitz, and then every game two or three
Speaker 1: just brain farts where he commits fowls and then he
Speaker 1: looks at the reft like what did I do? And
Speaker 1: then you see the replay and you're like, you literally
Speaker 1: grabbed the guy. It was so obvious that you committed
Speaker 1: the dumbest fowls and the Knicks needed more from him,
Speaker 1: you know. And it kind of sounds weird to criticize
Speaker 1: Kat after honestly a spring where he played better than
Speaker 1: I really ever thought he could in the playoffs, but
Speaker 1: game six, the problems with Kat as your starting center
Speaker 1: that plays thirty five to thirty eight minutes tonight were
Speaker 1: magnified in Game six, and Indiana deserves a lot of
Speaker 1: credit for the way they attacked him. They deserve a
Speaker 1: lot of credit for the way they attack Jalen. And
Speaker 1: this whole narrative like Jalen's not a good defensive player.
Speaker 1: It's not only that Jalen's not a great defensive player.
Speaker 1: It's that Rick Carlisle knows New York relies so much
Speaker 1: on Jalen offensively that if you make a work on defense,
Speaker 1: he won't have the same energy to close out offensively
Speaker 1: that he would otherwise. And when the game started and
Speaker 1: it was up and down, back and forth, back and forth,
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing, like, Okay, it's working
Speaker 1: now for the Knicks, but come fourth quarter, comes second half,
Speaker 1: they're going to be tired again. Indiana is going to
Speaker 1: be rested because Indiana is used to playing eleven players
Speaker 1: fifteen plus minute tonight, and this is not sustainable for
Speaker 1: a team like New York. It's not built to get
Speaker 1: up and down for forty forty eight minutes like Indiana is.
Speaker 2: And sure enough, second half starts and.
Speaker 1: You see the Knick's legs start to go and Indiana
Speaker 1: just runs them off the floor. And the lack of
Speaker 1: effort was pretty stunning. But I think a lot of
Speaker 1: it was fatigue. And New York's got decisions to make
Speaker 1: this offseason as the Indiana Pacers are marching on to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals only the second finals appearance for the
Speaker 1: Pacers last one was twenty five years ago when they
Speaker 1: beat the Knicks in six and went to the finals
Speaker 1: and lost.
Speaker 2: So so there you go.
Speaker 1: Also, and we'll get to more of this coming up
Speaker 1: with a couple of guests.
Speaker 2: Smitty, He's gonna be live in studio.
Speaker 1: The Utah Jazz have hired Austin Ahe the son of
Speaker 1: team CEO and alternate governor Danny Age away from the Celtics,
Speaker 1: and now Austin is the team's president of basketball operations.
Speaker 1: When you read through some of the Ryan Smith statements
Speaker 1: in some of the comments, it sounds like Austin and
Speaker 1: Justin will report to Danny, not you know, Justin reports
Speaker 1: to Austin.
Speaker 2: Austin report.
Speaker 1: It sounds like Justin Zantik and Austin Ainge are kind
Speaker 1: of linear on their place in the ORG chart or whatever,
Speaker 1: and we'll report to Danny, who then of course reports
Speaker 1: to Ryan. So we'll get into this. Austin spent seventeen
Speaker 1: years with the Boston Self explained as college basketball Brigham
Speaker 1: Young college football.
Speaker 2: Right out of the gates, though with our buddy.
Speaker 1: Kyle Vonnagura, who covers college football sometimes a little soccer
Speaker 1: as well for ESPN.
Speaker 2: Kyle, Happy Monday. It's been a minute. How you been, Bud.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm good. I'm good.
Speaker 1: So some interesting offseason college football storylines. Let's start with
Speaker 1: the new CFP expansion proposal, the five plus eleven model,
Speaker 1: which of course has support in some areas and detractors
Speaker 1: and others. The Big twelve media or excuse me, the
Speaker 1: Big twelve kind of summer meetings were held this weekend
Speaker 1: in Orlando. Heard a lot from Brett Yormark. But what
Speaker 1: say you about what's on the table? Five plus eleven
Speaker 1: in sixteen? You think that's right? With the AQ bids
Speaker 1: four for the Big ten, four for the SEC, two
Speaker 1: for the a CC, two for the Big twelve. Do
Speaker 1: you do you like that model? Do you think that's
Speaker 1: where we're headed?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think it's where it's headed. As far as
Speaker 11: I like it, I kind of felt like sixteen was
Speaker 11: the right number from the beginning. The buyers or it
Speaker 11: felt like the NCAAs takes small steps right, they're not
Speaker 11: willing to you know, you're willing to go from two
Speaker 11: to four from four, then you jump ay, I guess
Speaker 11: they did jump out the eight to twelve. But it's
Speaker 11: filled for me, like if you're gonna have if you're
Speaker 11: gonna have a real playoff, sixteen. It makes it nice
Speaker 11: and tidy. Right, There's the problem you have with twelve there,
Speaker 11: and there was a lot you know, there's problems with
Speaker 11: all these different formats. Was that you continue to devalue
Speaker 11: the bulls, right and so now, and that's always gonna
Speaker 11: be the case whenever you cut it off. But I
Speaker 11: think once you got to twelve, like when you get
Speaker 11: the thirteen through twenty five, those Bowl games, like we're
Speaker 11: essentially meaningless, right, and so you have the trickle down
Speaker 11: effect on how it impacted Bowls was problematic. So I
Speaker 11: thought you might as well just add more playoff games,
Speaker 11: make those other teams play meaningful games.
Speaker 7: At the end of the year.
Speaker 11: I mean, I really like the FCS model that's even
Speaker 11: bigger than that of these twenty four teams. Like for me,
Speaker 11: that you could do buys with early round byes and
Speaker 11: include more teams. It doesn't necessarily add too many games
Speaker 11: in total for the whole country, right, but you get
Speaker 11: to have meaningful games at the end of the season.
Speaker 11: So yeah, like sixteen, like I think it's there's more football,
Speaker 11: and I like having more football than matter, And I
Speaker 11: think it's the simplest way to look at it. That's
Speaker 11: why it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: As far as the multiple automatic qualified spots for the
Speaker 1: Big ten in the SEC essentially taking half the spots
Speaker 1: and then the Big twelve in the ACC getting two
Speaker 1: and then leaving one for the group of five and
Speaker 1: then you know the at large stuff. Do you think
Speaker 1: that's where we're going as well? Or do you think
Speaker 1: there's enough pushback from people that aren't in the big
Speaker 1: ten in the SEC to maybe just make get a
Speaker 1: straight sixteen sixteen team with eleven plus five.
Speaker 2: How do you think that plays out?
Speaker 11: I think it should be eleven plus five. It would
Speaker 11: be kind of a bully You feel like it would
Speaker 11: be bullying the other conferences if they added more automatic
Speaker 11: bids for the SEC and the Big ten, because like
Speaker 11: the thing is like they don't need the automatic bids.
Speaker 11: There's not going to be You can game it out
Speaker 11: however you want to do it. Like, it's just I
Speaker 11: don't see a scenario where that would even really come
Speaker 11: into play, right. Maybe you can get get creative with it,
Speaker 11: but yeah, like make it. Give it for me. The
Speaker 11: five is what makes sense one one for outside of
Speaker 11: the power conferences. Give the champions a bid, but at
Speaker 11: the same time. Also, you know, if you're a champion
Speaker 11: of one of those conferences, like you don't even need
Speaker 11: the automatic bid at this point, Like it mattered more
Speaker 11: at twelve. It certainly mattered at four where they valued
Speaker 11: conference championships to a degree, but at sixteen, like if
Speaker 11: you were in one of those leagues, like you're going
Speaker 11: to get in. So it's almost kind of a point.
Speaker 11: It's just to see how they'll use that to determine
Speaker 11: you know, seating or home util those sorts of things,
Speaker 11: is I think is where it gets more interesting. But
Speaker 11: as far as like getting in the field, like, I
Speaker 11: don't think that is ultimately going to make that much
Speaker 11: of a difference. However they decide the structure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with that, well said, So the sixteen
Speaker 1: team expanded model will come our way twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: This year, we will have the twelve team format, but
Speaker 1: it will be straight seeding. I don't know why they
Speaker 1: didn't do this initially, Kyle. This seems to be one
Speaker 1: of those like very common sense type things that should
Speaker 1: have been done right away. But you know, we've already
Speaker 1: got your thoughts on the sixteen team thing. But that's
Speaker 1: in a year. So what do you think about the
Speaker 1: twelve team format moving just a straight seeding this fall.
Speaker 11: Yeah, so I I mean, I think, like you said,
Speaker 11: for me, it was like another obvious move. And as
Speaker 11: you know, I do like the bolt productions during the
Speaker 11: regular season, and this is something that I identified the
Speaker 11: first week. I did it the first week after games
Speaker 11: are played. Where the impact, Like I understand like the
Speaker 11: idea of it, Like they wanted to reward those like
Speaker 11: the Big twelve champion and the ACC champion, right, they
Speaker 11: wanted to give them a reward for winning their conferences.
Speaker 11: And like in theory, like I could understand the logic,
Speaker 11: but how it played out, Like it didn't play out
Speaker 11: that way because it effectively punishes the top seed, Like
Speaker 11: any playoff format should be designed to give an advantage
Speaker 11: to the number one seed. That's why you're valuing the
Speaker 11: regular season, right, Like, that's that's very basic with competitive sports, right.
Speaker 11: But by getting buys to you know, the you in
Speaker 11: the three and four spot for teams that weren't actually
Speaker 11: the third and fourth best teams, it created inequitable matchups
Speaker 11: in the second in the quarterfinal round, and it ended
Speaker 11: up punishing you know, Oregon, like Oregon ended up playing
Speaker 11: Ohio State, a team that would have been seated differently,
Speaker 11: so it really messed up with how it should have
Speaker 11: gone and punished the team at the top. So I think, yeah,
Speaker 11: this is a I wrote. I wrote this almost every
Speaker 11: week during the season, you know, kept hammering it at
Speaker 11: the point home because it was just it just it
Speaker 11: just never made sense when once you went and kind
Speaker 11: of saw how it was going to play out. So
Speaker 11: I'm unhappy that they were able to act quick and
Speaker 11: restore kind of restore order in that respect.
Speaker 2: Do you still think you know?
Speaker 1: Coach Witt was on a podcast a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and he continues to talk about the super league potential
Speaker 1: possibility that you and I have discussed for years now
Speaker 1: and college football writers have written about for years now,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, man, like it feels like this
Speaker 1: has become more fluid, in my opinion than actually something
Speaker 1: concrete that I believe is inevitable. At one point, I
Speaker 1: was convinced that we were high speed ahead to something
Speaker 1: that looks a lot like the NFL with two conferences
Speaker 1: whatever you call them, big ten sec grab you know,
Speaker 1: a number of schools that they want, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: that's AFC, NFC and we have like a miniature NFL
Speaker 1: model in college football. I don't know how convinced I
Speaker 1: am that we're headed there now, Kyle?
Speaker 2: What about you?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 11: I think I'm still like pretty confident eventually it we'll
Speaker 11: get there. I think for me, the question is is
Speaker 11: like how long is it going to take. It's not
Speaker 11: going to happen in five years. It might not happen
Speaker 11: in ten years, but you know, eventually, you know. Once
Speaker 11: and I think too, is like you have to kind
Speaker 11: of get people to cycle out right the current admitted
Speaker 11: like the leadership in place across the country, conferences and schools.
Speaker 11: You know, you can kind of get a sense of
Speaker 11: what they want right now, and that's going to hold
Speaker 11: court for for a while, right, but those people will
Speaker 11: only be in those jobs for for so long, and
Speaker 11: then eventually you'll have, you know, an SEC commissioner who
Speaker 11: doesn't care about Vanderbilt, or an Alabama athletic director or
Speaker 11: a president who pushes for hey, like why is Vanderbilt
Speaker 11: still in our like why are we still on equal
Speaker 11: plane fields with them?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 11: Why are why are we peers with them as opposed
Speaker 11: to creating a larger pie and less less people to
Speaker 11: pull from or less schools to pull from. So I
Speaker 11: think like eventually it still gets there, but it's just
Speaker 11: a matter of waiting to see how how long that
Speaker 11: will take. I mean, in hindsight, it's kind of remarkable
Speaker 11: that this didn't all happen faster, Like you've seen how
Speaker 11: it has all played out so quickly, Like there's just
Speaker 11: so much money at stake that eventually money will always
Speaker 11: drive this. You know, once these once the kids are employees,
Speaker 11: like that's going to change things. Like there's eligibility questions
Speaker 11: that are still kind of up in the air and
Speaker 11: kind of fluid. So there's so many things that are
Speaker 11: going to change. I think eventually there'll just be too
Speaker 11: much money for the schools at the top not to
Speaker 11: be attempted to take a bigger slice.
Speaker 1: So we've all been waiting for the House VNC DOUBA settlement,
Speaker 1: and you know, we continue to wait, and it's been
Speaker 1: kind of wild to watch what has unfolded surrounding this dynamic,
Speaker 1: with certain states passing laws kind of behind closed doors
Speaker 1: where it's like, yeah, our schools do not have to
Speaker 1: adhere to whatever that settlement says, and then the P
Speaker 1: four programs are all writing contracts to say, well, actually
Speaker 1: you do if you want to hang out with us.
Speaker 1: And so you have this interesting juxtaposition in dynamic where Tennessee,
Speaker 1: among others, have literally passed legislation saying that their member
Speaker 1: institutions are residing their state don't even have to do
Speaker 1: ad here to what House VNC DOUBA has to say
Speaker 1: about nil distributions and so much the NCUBA has already
Speaker 1: been told like you're not allowed to essentially put any
Speaker 1: sort of restriction you can enforce any of your rules like.
Speaker 2: It all continues to be very fluid.
Speaker 1: I think maybe I was a little bit hopeful in
Speaker 1: Pie in the Sky and maybe naive believing that the
Speaker 1: House VNC double A settlement would suddenly give us guardrails
Speaker 1: and guidelines we've been looking for.
Speaker 2: So how is this going.
Speaker 1: All play out and what you're understanding about where we're
Speaker 1: aut in the process of the House VNC double A.
Speaker 11: That's a great question. I wish I had a nice
Speaker 11: tidy answer for you, because it's I mean, it's just
Speaker 11: so messy, And I think what's difficult right as you
Speaker 11: have you know, fifty states or you know, not that
Speaker 11: not quite that many in the NC DOUBLEA that are
Speaker 11: are kind of in play here. But the point is
Speaker 11: you have all these state governments, you have local governments,
Speaker 11: you have private schools, you have public schools. There's so
Speaker 11: many different parties that are governed by different entities. To
Speaker 11: get them all on the same page, it's just so
Speaker 11: hard to do, and so ultimately it's still unclear who
Speaker 11: gets I don't say right. I mean, you've seen every lawsuit.
Speaker 11: It's anytime the NC double has been challenging law or
Speaker 11: the last you pick your time period, like they've lost right,
Speaker 11: whether it's eligibility, whether that's you know, name anything they've
Speaker 11: they've always sided with with with the players, and they're
Speaker 11: kind of chase to have to get more money and
Speaker 11: more uh you know, more distribution from from the n
Speaker 11: C double A. And so it's I just don't see
Speaker 11: how that's ever gonna like it's going to change while
Speaker 11: you're still dealing with student athletes. And I think like
Speaker 11: that's for me, like out in the out in the distance,
Speaker 11: like it just seems inevitable that eventually they become employees.
Speaker 11: And once you're employees and you're not students and you're
Speaker 11: not kind of governed by Title nine in the same way,
Speaker 11: then you can say, okay, like then salary caps become
Speaker 11: a little bit more real, right the n C, Like
Speaker 11: then you operate like a professional league and the government
Speaker 11: isn't going to be able to step in and and
Speaker 11: govern in the way it is, you know, effectively do
Speaker 11: or not now with that with the House settlements, So yeah,
Speaker 11: I don't have a great answer for you, but it
Speaker 11: could because there's just so many moving pieces that until
Speaker 11: you get until you knock one dominant dominant down, like,
Speaker 11: it's really hard to say what's gonna happen with the
Speaker 11: next one.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the walking lines you hear a lot,
Speaker 1: and I'm guilty of using it too is and sometimes
Speaker 1: maybe if you do what you and I do for
Speaker 1: a living, this is just like a smoke screen when
Speaker 1: really what you're saying is I don't understand any of this.
Speaker 1: So you land on, Well, Saturdays in the fall will
Speaker 1: always still feel like Saturday is in the fall. Well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel that way for Washington State anymore or
Speaker 1: Oregon State, and honestly, Kyle, Saturdays in the fall around
Speaker 1: here still feel a little bit different based off of
Speaker 1: the conference affiliation change where for years it was Oregon
Speaker 1: and sc and the PAC twelve West Coast brands and
Speaker 1: Washington and do respect to the Big twelve because it's
Speaker 1: at least a home for the University of Utah. The
Speaker 1: brands and teams that rolled through. Last year, it felt different,
Speaker 1: It just did. So my question is, well, Saturdays in
Speaker 1: the fall still always feel like Saturdays in the fall
Speaker 1: or is it just for a select you now?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I hope so, And that's probably the best I
Speaker 11: can do. I mean, I do think that there is
Speaker 11: a novelty about the conference realignment that was interesting this year.
Speaker 11: You have to see new schools and new teams and
Speaker 11: and that part had had some a lure. But I
Speaker 11: do think that all were off, you know, pretty quickly,
Speaker 11: at least for me. And eventually, when you're playing these
Speaker 11: games that you don't have strong regional or historic ties to,
Speaker 11: it won't it won't be as fun. I mean, you
Speaker 11: talk benefits because it's you know, in the same conference
Speaker 11: with by US. I think for a lot of people
Speaker 11: that like localized it in a way that was like,
Speaker 11: you know, you gain the rivalry back and it's like
Speaker 11: in a meaningful way. So there's there's there's given cake
Speaker 11: to some degree. But but but I do still feel
Speaker 11: like as long as they're playing these games on campus,
Speaker 11: as long as the you know, there's a those ties exist,
Speaker 11: like attending the game is still going to feel pretty similar.
Speaker 11: I mean, it's the uniforms that are going to be
Speaker 11: the same. Cheering for football at the end of the day,
Speaker 11: like at its core, like that's that experience. A lot
Speaker 11: would have to change for it to be, you know,
Speaker 11: so different that it wouldn't be worth like participating or
Speaker 11: paying attention to anymore. But the evolution is definitely going
Speaker 11: to keep happening. And in to a degree, right, it's
Speaker 11: that's been college football for a long time. But if
Speaker 11: you look over one hundred years, like there's been so
Speaker 11: many different iterations of what the sport has looked like
Speaker 11: that you know, even you know ten years ago, twenty
Speaker 11: years ago, you know, that looked very little like it
Speaker 11: did you know, thirty years before that. And so I
Speaker 11: in a way like changes is part of the sport,
Speaker 11: and I guess that's what it can continue.
Speaker 1: To expect one more thing in this space, And I
Speaker 1: apologize if you feel like you've gone on Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: on a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: But I do want to ask you about another storyline.
Speaker 1: Brett Yormark, among many things he's had to say over
Speaker 1: the past seventy two hours, is the Big twelve has
Speaker 1: elected to not accept private equity money for an ownership
Speaker 1: stake in the conference. And you know, about a year ago,
Speaker 1: I think it was Mark Lazry if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: the owner of the Bucks, who in a public form
Speaker 1: said he planned on making an offer at Ohio State
Speaker 1: football to try to buy like forty nine percent of
Speaker 1: the Buckeyes. And they are rumors around here that some
Speaker 1: of the powerful folk that have deep pockets wanted to
Speaker 1: get involved in Utah BYU football and potentially have an
Speaker 1: ownership stake. And now the momentum is going the other direction.
Speaker 1: Folks are now saying no to private equity money. I
Speaker 1: am no finance major, but my gut tells me this
Speaker 1: must mean that conferences and programs have done their own
Speaker 1: valuations on what they can make and understand that they
Speaker 1: don't need that money.
Speaker 2: Now, if they needed the money, they would take it.
Speaker 1: But it must mean that they don't want to sell
Speaker 1: any ownership in either conferences or teams because of how dumb.
Speaker 2: The money continues to be with live TV rights.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's where my antenna goes when I keep
Speaker 1: hearing these stories that now go the other way. As
Speaker 1: far as people not accepting private equity money, what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on that?
Speaker 11: So, I think it's like everything is a negotiation, right.
Speaker 11: I think what happened was the Big Twelve, you know,
Speaker 11: realized that they weren't going to get enough money that
Speaker 11: they were there was like the the idea the offer
Speaker 11: wasn't big enough. Right, if you had whatever the number is,
Speaker 11: say say like, we'll just throw at a number that makes
Speaker 11: no sense, but you would have to accept, right, if
Speaker 11: the number was fifty billion dollars, right, of course they
Speaker 11: would have accepted private acty money at that at that number. Right,
Speaker 11: But at a certain point, at a certain point, it's
Speaker 11: worth it and they you would have to say yes.
Speaker 11: But they just didn't get to that point. And so
Speaker 11: eventually could that change, Like, I think absolutely it could change.
Speaker 11: But right now they've made the determination that that that
Speaker 11: sort of investment isn't in their best interest. And you know,
Speaker 11: if and when that changes, like I think they'll be
Speaker 11: open to revisiting it. But for now, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 11: it hasn't It hasn't happened yet, but just the idea
Speaker 11: that so many people are looked into it, are considering
Speaker 11: it makes me think that eventually it'll probably happen. It
Speaker 11: just and it'll just be a question of what the
Speaker 11: circumstances looked like for that for that to be the case.
Speaker 2: Let's move over here.
Speaker 1: You know, Brian Santiago hired his BYU's athletic director, taking
Speaker 1: over for Tom Homo. So before I expand to the
Speaker 1: second part of the question, let me get your thoughts
Speaker 1: on that. And mostly I'm quite sure you don't know, Brian,
Speaker 1: but covering Tom Homo as BYU's athletic director, I think
Speaker 1: he did a remarkable job. Traversing through independence for a
Speaker 1: decade was a tough ask, but they were able to
Speaker 1: find a landing spot. Their basketball team is insanely good
Speaker 1: and their football team is coming off a really nice
Speaker 1: year in the Big Twelve. So Brian inheriting an athletic
Speaker 1: department in really good shape as a result of the
Speaker 1: work that Tom did. So your thoughts on Tom Homo
Speaker 1: as he goes to spend the rest of his days
Speaker 1: on a beach somewhere, probably yeah, No, I mean, as
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 11: I live here in the Bay Area. So my first
Speaker 11: kind of experience with Tom Holmo as he's the coach
Speaker 11: at Cal, he's the coach or assistant coach of the
Speaker 11: forty nine ers before it, So I was kind of
Speaker 11: like always generally aware of him in the space, and
Speaker 11: then you know, I had a chance to get to
Speaker 11: know him a little bit this past year with a
Speaker 11: few stories I was working on about BUYU. And like
Speaker 11: I think with those interactions like with with Tom that
Speaker 11: I had, I really enjoyed all of them. For me,
Speaker 11: he was really good to work with. He was he
Speaker 11: was candid, he was open, he was a good storyteller.
Speaker 11: And then you can't argue with with the results of
Speaker 11: where the program is right now. I mean, I mean
Speaker 11: you you, I mean you said it. Basketball football, both
Speaker 11: are in a really good spot position to be good
Speaker 11: for a long time.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 11: Getting into the Big twelve was a big win after
Speaker 11: the kind of the obviously of independence for for so long,
Speaker 11: and so he leaves BUYU in a spot where you know,
Speaker 11: for Brian you can hope to build off that. Obviously,
Speaker 11: the I think Buyu, you know, more than a lot
Speaker 11: of schools has really benefited from the ANL shift. They
Speaker 11: have a lot of people who are willing to help
Speaker 11: out with with those programs to help them stay competitive.
Speaker 11: And so yeah, I have only only nice things to
Speaker 11: say about Tom and kind of the way he handled
Speaker 11: himself in personal actions with me, and just kind of
Speaker 11: the big picture pomplishments that he had in his time
Speaker 11: done in provo.
Speaker 1: I think the Santiago News became official on May nineteenth,
Speaker 1: and then on May twenty first, the Salt Lake Tribune
Speaker 1: reports that Jake Rerhetz Laugh is being sued by a
Speaker 1: woman here in Salt Lake. It is a civil lawsuit
Speaker 1: and we've talked about it on the show.
Speaker 2: These are not criminal charges.
Speaker 1: So the Tribune reports on it, and then you wrote
Speaker 1: on it for ESPN.
Speaker 2: You were actually able to uncover some new details.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I have a question, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to make this a football story because it isn't.
Speaker 1: He is the starting quarterback for BYU and coming off
Speaker 1: a really good year. But I wonder throughout the process
Speaker 1: that you went through to kind of have the discovery
Speaker 1: for what you wrote on the dot com for ESPN,
Speaker 1: what you would like to share about this story and
Speaker 1: if you have any insight on what the next steps are.
Speaker 11: Yeah, these are always tough to report. And you get
Speaker 11: into this industry hoping to write about sports and you
Speaker 11: end up reading a civil case about a really gruesome
Speaker 11: allegation of rape. Right, I've read a lot of these
Speaker 11: sorts of civil filings over the years, and this is
Speaker 11: this is one of the worst ones that I've read,
Speaker 11: just in how graphic it was. That's all part of
Speaker 11: the public domain at this point. You know, you don't
Speaker 11: know if these are Again, I can't stress the stuff.
Speaker 11: It is an allegation, but when I read it, you know,
Speaker 11: if if the allegation is true, it's it's it's it's
Speaker 11: as serious a case of of rape and sexual assault
Speaker 11: that I've that I've read covering sports. So you know,
Speaker 11: beyond that, you know, it's it's It's tough to say
Speaker 11: much other than kind of like the news. Right, he's
Speaker 11: he was never arrested. The pro Goo Police Department, uh
Speaker 11: did deny the women's the women's claim that that she
Speaker 11: was told that sexual assault victims never seek justice. They
Speaker 11: had a pretty lengthy statement about that. They'll, you know,
Speaker 11: they'll there'll be some time before Retslaus lawyer will reply
Speaker 11: to the lawsuit. It sounds that we are pretty adamant
Speaker 11: in their comments that it didn't happen, and so they'll reply.
Speaker 11: We'll see what they're kind of rebuttal is I'm sure
Speaker 11: they'll try to get the keys dismissed. But other than that,
Speaker 11: there's not a lot to say it's especially without a
Speaker 11: police report that documents anything from the time that it
Speaker 11: allegedly took place.
Speaker 1: All Right, Kyle, before I say, you loose, and I
Speaker 1: always kind of chuckle when I do this to you,
Speaker 1: because it's early June and we have no idea what
Speaker 1: these teams are going to look.
Speaker 2: Like come fall.
Speaker 1: But I will ask you about the University of Utah
Speaker 1: because we're a mile away from Risco Stadium and we're
Speaker 1: the home of the youth. So Vegas has set the
Speaker 1: over under at seven point five. That's mid table for
Speaker 1: Big twelve. I think most of the preseason prediction stuff
Speaker 1: I've seen has Utah anywhere between like four and seven.
Speaker 1: So I think it's probably better for them not to
Speaker 1: have these lofty expectations like they did a year ago.
Speaker 1: And of course the health stuff with Cam Rising and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that went down has been something we've
Speaker 1: covered at nauseum. So it's a new quarterback, it's a
Speaker 1: new offensive coordinator. PFF has them ranked as the number
Speaker 1: two offensive line of the country behind Bama. So they're
Speaker 1: going to be stacked where they need to be in
Speaker 1: the trenches like they always are. So I won't ask
Speaker 1: you about specifics because I'm quite sure you're not grinding
Speaker 1: on Utah's too deep in June, but just you your
Speaker 1: thoughts on what a potential bounce back season could look
Speaker 1: like for the U two year two in the Big twelve.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's it's I certainly expect going to be much
Speaker 11: much better than a year ago. It's hard to you know,
Speaker 11: two and seven, it's hard to be worse, as they say, right,
Speaker 11: I think like the schedule is, you know, it's manageable.
Speaker 11: I think non conference UCLA, Cal Poly, Wyoly, those are
Speaker 11: all winnable games. So you expect to be three to
Speaker 11: zero headed in the conference. And then if you go
Speaker 11: then if you go four and five, even the conference,
Speaker 11: that puts it at seven wins, which would be a
Speaker 11: two win improvement. And you know, like you said, it's
Speaker 11: just have to break it down right now and field
Speaker 11: any sort of level of confidence. But I think having
Speaker 11: you know, dam Pier come along, you come over with
Speaker 11: with Jack. You know, he knows the offense, he knows
Speaker 11: the system. That's a model that's worked at a number
Speaker 11: of places over the years, moving a quarterback with the
Speaker 11: coach as opposed to just kind of grabbing someone or
Speaker 11: even just matriculating someone on the roster. So I think
Speaker 11: there's like a reason to be optimistic that they can
Speaker 11: be successful. It's going to be a different look. You know,
Speaker 11: Dampier ran a lot more than Utah has expected its
Speaker 11: quarterbacks to do in recent years, and so I think
Speaker 11: there will be a lot more of you know, that
Speaker 11: quarterback run game will give them a new look, new
Speaker 11: fresh look that they probably needed after things got stale.
Speaker 11: So yeah, I think Utah will be better in terms
Speaker 11: of how much better, you know. Let's wait and see.
Speaker 1: You allow, my friend, Well, I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 1: Hope all is well with you, have a great week,
Speaker 1: and we'll chat too. And thanks Kyle, all right. Thanks
Speaker 1: Bona gir covers college football and a little soccer from
Speaker 1: time to time for our friends at ESPN. I'm noticing
Speaker 1: that he never tweets anymore. But his work is up
Speaker 1: on his Twitter page at Bonagra ESPN is where you
Speaker 1: find him.
Speaker 2: So appreciate Kyle's temp.
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Speaker 1: IFA dot co op. Well, we were hoping on a
Speaker 1: Monday edition of the program to be previewing a game
Speaker 1: seven tonight between the Knicks and the Pacers at Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden at Midtown, Manhattan. But that MSG is dark
Speaker 1: tonight unless they have a concert or whatever is going on.
Speaker 1: There's no basketball. NBA Finals begin on Thursday. Let's do
Speaker 1: some NBA with our next guest on a Monday. Tom
Speaker 1: haverstro Buddy, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm good.
Speaker 1: So let's let's be let's be reductive right off the start.
Speaker 1: Why are we not previewing eight game seven tonight between
Speaker 1: the Knicks and the Pacers.
Speaker 12: Well, the defense of the Knicks just couldn't keep up
Speaker 12: with the Pacers. Carl Anthony Howe and Mitchell Robinson as
Speaker 12: your rim protectors, it didn't bode well for the Knicks.
Speaker 12: They've got Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns, who are
Speaker 12: two one way superstars. They are superstar offensive players, but
Speaker 12: defensively Josh hart og Annobie mckel bridges and Mitchell Robinson
Speaker 12: to a lesser degree, he was coming off the bench
Speaker 12: for most of the season. Those three wing guys were
Speaker 12: supposed to be more than enough defensively to cover up
Speaker 12: and hide Jalen Brunton and Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 7: But you can't.
Speaker 12: Excuse Karl Anthony Towns having one block in that entire
Speaker 12: conference finals.
Speaker 7: It just can't happen.
Speaker 12: And it's the first time that we've seen a player
Speaker 12: that size in the conference finals, play that many minutes
Speaker 12: and have that few number of blocks. It's just very
Speaker 12: difficult to win when your best center is is not
Speaker 12: a rim protector and a good defender. Now Nikolie Jokic
Speaker 12: gets away with that. He's not as soft as Karl
Speaker 12: Anthony Towns is as a rim protector. The defense for
Speaker 12: the Knicks was really their undoing is that they just
Speaker 12: were not able to get enough scoring in order to
Speaker 12: compensate for that end of the floor. And the Pacers
Speaker 12: they move the ball, they'd exploit matchups. Pascal Siakam Tyree's
Speaker 12: Halliburn were excellent at creating mismatches and taking advantage of
Speaker 12: the knicks slow defense. You know, like Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 12: How many times was he jogging back on defense or
Speaker 12: complaining about a foul call on his back and the
Speaker 12: Pacers just ran him out of the gym and ultimately
Speaker 12: oj Ananobi Josh Hart mckel bridges had two hit shots
Speaker 12: had to be not just d but also the three,
Speaker 12: and they couldn't do it. So the Indiana Pacers move
Speaker 12: on after being the This is the crazy sat Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 12: Before this season, sportsbooks had projected that the New Orleans
Speaker 12: Pelicans would ever better shot at making the NBA Finals
Speaker 12: than the Indiana Pacers. So that is how much of
Speaker 12: an underdog this Pacers team. Even though they went to
Speaker 12: the Eastern Conference Finals, they were just I think it
Speaker 12: was plus twenty five hundred to win the East and
Speaker 12: make it to the NBA Finals, and when you compare
Speaker 12: their title ods, they had the same or worse title
Speaker 12: odds than the New Orleans Pelicans. So this really is
Speaker 12: one of the most unlikely NBA Finals matchups, and that's
Speaker 12: mostly coming from that East side with the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 1: Your point about the next defense is spot on. And
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing that I've been talking about on
Speaker 1: the show because the two games where they guarded, they won,
Speaker 1: but they only guarded for two games, Tom. And you know,
Speaker 1: I said on Friday before we signed off, prior to
Speaker 1: that game six on Saturday, like, I know that the
Speaker 1: Pacers were getting, you know, a lot, a lot of credit,
Speaker 1: a lot of love for their shot making. The game
Speaker 1: one comeback where Nie Smith went crazy. You go back
Speaker 1: and watch the final few minutes. The Nie Smith shots
Speaker 1: were practice shots. He was stepping into mostly wide open threes.
Speaker 1: Given credit for turning into Ray Allen Circing nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: eight or whatever. But I don't fully understand how a
Speaker 1: team who's head coach is all defense was such a
Speaker 1: sieve on that side of the floor more often than not.
Speaker 1: And I do think it comes down to cat. I
Speaker 1: do think you have a cat problem.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 1: I also will say the Cat was better in this
Speaker 1: playoff run than I've ever seen him play in playoff basketball.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make this like I'm only crushing Cat,
Speaker 1: but you look at their books, Tom, They've got their
Speaker 1: five mini guys signed for a while.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think you do need to figure something out with
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns because he just does not play defense
Speaker 1: and commits some of the dumbest fouls that I've ever
Speaker 1: seen watching NBA basketball.
Speaker 2: So if you're Leon.
Speaker 1: Rose and you look at a season that I think
Speaker 1: a little bit is twenty dollars in the back pocket
Speaker 1: of jeans that you pull out of the dryer because
Speaker 1: you did get to the Eastern Conference Finals. You did
Speaker 1: block Boston from winning a championship. But I don't know
Speaker 1: that this group has more in them than what we saw.
Speaker 1: I don't know that this is an NBA finals group.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would pick him to make
Speaker 1: it back to the Eastern Conference Finals next year.
Speaker 2: What does the offseason look like in New York time.
Speaker 12: Well, the tough thing here is a couple of things. One,
Speaker 12: they put in five first round picks and cleaned out
Speaker 12: their cover to first round picks tradable first round picks
Speaker 12: to get mckel bridges, and he just wasn't good enough
Speaker 12: to justify that price tech.
Speaker 7: He just wasn't.
Speaker 12: He was softer defensively, not as physical as you would
Speaker 12: want someone point of attack defender. He's a guy who
Speaker 12: loved the mid range and hit a bunch of mid
Speaker 12: range shots, but became kind of Ben Simmons esque yips.
Speaker 12: He and Josh Hart just did not want to take
Speaker 12: a layup, and for that you gave up five first
Speaker 12: round picks. And the only tradable first round pick that
Speaker 12: you have is Washington's top eight protected pick next year,
Speaker 12: and that's almost certainly not going to convey. And then
Speaker 12: it becomes two second round picks. So really the Nicks
Speaker 12: don't have any tradable first round picks. They have a
Speaker 12: couple swaps that they can do. But when let's say
Speaker 12: you're offering the Milwaukee Bucks Karl Anthony Towns and two pickswaps, well,
Speaker 12: when you're acquiring Giannis Atatakumpo, how valuable is a pick
Speaker 12: swap if you're offering it to you know, Milwaukee as
Speaker 12: a as a.
Speaker 7: Carrots in that trade.
Speaker 12: Milwaukee looks at that and says, I really how much?
Speaker 12: What are the odds that we're going to say, Yeah,
Speaker 12: the Knicks with Jalen Brunson, Michel Bridges, ogn andob and
Speaker 12: And and Jannis ended Akompo are going to have a
Speaker 12: worse team than the Milwaukee Bucks with Karl Anthony town
Speaker 12: So it's like you look at potential blockbuster trade, you
Speaker 12: put it on the on the table for Jannisana d Kompo.
Speaker 12: I Jianis even wants out of Milwaukee. Leon Rose has
Speaker 12: to a convince Janni Sanda da Koumpo that the New
Speaker 12: York Knicks are the team for him. He's not a
Speaker 12: CIA client. And we've talked about this before, is that
Speaker 12: the New York Knicks have aligned themselves with Leon Rose's
Speaker 12: former agency CIA. He used to run the basketball side
Speaker 12: of CIA, and his rolodex is super deep in terms
Speaker 12: of the clients that he had in the NBA, including
Speaker 12: Lebron James and Dwayne Wade. You go on down the list,
Speaker 12: he had an incredible stable of NBA players on his list.
Speaker 12: Karl Anthony Towns might have been the most lucrative. One
Speaker 12: of all is that when you look at the contract
Speaker 12: that he signed, Leon Rose was the big biggest benefactor there,
Speaker 12: and it was his largest client when he was on
Speaker 12: the agency side.
Speaker 7: But Jannis is.
Speaker 12: At Octagon and so the CIA link that he has
Speaker 12: with Jalen Brunson, his son, Leon Rose's son is Jalen
Speaker 12: Brunson's agent at CIA, Sam Rose. If you look at
Speaker 12: og Ananobi CIA, if you look at Josh Hart CIA,
Speaker 12: Karl Anthony Towns CIA, the New York Knicks have allocated
Speaker 12: one hundred and thirty million dollars of their payroll this
Speaker 12: year to CIA clients. That's the largest sum in the
Speaker 12: NBA for any team an agency. So it's very closely aligned.
Speaker 12: The bonds between CIA and the Knicks are very strong, right,
Speaker 12: So you got to convince Jannis a we are the
Speaker 12: team for you. If you want out of Milwaukee, we
Speaker 12: are the team for you. But that's not the hard part.
Speaker 12: I wrote for Yahoo Sports yesterday in a column The
Speaker 12: hard part for Leon Roose are you really going to
Speaker 12: portray Karl Anthony Towns like that? He was Karl Anthony
Speaker 12: Towns' agent.
Speaker 7: Before he was picked number one.
Speaker 12: Oh for all, he was close with Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 12: and war Why West when Karl anton Town's decided to
Speaker 12: go play for the national team, the Dominican national team.
Speaker 12: The coach was John Calipari, who then coached him at Kentucky.
Speaker 12: Like they're they're very close and they go way back, right, So,
Speaker 12: now that you're on the Knicks, is Leon Rose going
Speaker 12: to be able to look at Karl Anthony Towns and say,
Speaker 12: we're going to trade you to Milwaukee for Yiannis. That's
Speaker 12: going to be a tough proposition. Even if Joannice is like,
Speaker 12: I want to go to the Knicks, leon Rose has
Speaker 12: to just like say, all right, this is a tough
Speaker 12: decision for me, but I am going to send you
Speaker 12: to Milwaukee.
Speaker 7: That's gonna be tough.
Speaker 12: The other thing is like KD. What happens with KD?
Speaker 12: You know his rich Climban, his agent is the New
Speaker 12: York guy, and KD if everyone expects him to be
Speaker 12: on the market this summer, whether it's Minnesota or somewhere else, Houston, Miami,
Speaker 12: New York, New York again, Karl Anthony Towns would have
Speaker 12: to go. As as that trade money wise, you have
Speaker 12: to bring in a three team deal and that might
Speaker 12: be a possibility. And the way that you might you
Speaker 12: might argue if you're the Knicks, all right, we get
Speaker 12: KD and we get off of Karl Anthony Towns's long
Speaker 12: term money. We're going to able to get a better
Speaker 12: center to go next to KD, who probably can't guard
Speaker 12: four as consistently.
Speaker 7: At this age.
Speaker 12: But you get up the long term money because right
Speaker 12: now he's going to be an expiring deal next year.
Speaker 12: If Leon Rose looks for this and says, all right,
Speaker 12: maybe I don't trade you to Milwaukee, but you get
Speaker 12: to reunite with Devin Booker and Phoenix, he gets to
Speaker 12: take care of his client. There there's other options for
Speaker 12: the Knicks.
Speaker 7: They run it back.
Speaker 12: Maybe they move mckel bridges to Dallas or somewhere else where.
Speaker 12: They can move mckel and try to get maybe Daniel
Speaker 12: Gafford and Caleb Martin from Dallas and Dallas upgrades on
Speaker 12: the point of attack defense next to Anthony Davis.
Speaker 7: And we know so.
Speaker 12: Nico Harrison, we know he wants defense wins championships, and
Speaker 12: right now their point of attack defense is like Klay
Speaker 12: Thompson and Cooper Flack. I don't think that that's going
Speaker 12: to work out for them this year if they want
Speaker 12: to win. And so maybe you propose that trade. But
Speaker 12: even then it's very likely Spence that the Knicks just
Speaker 12: decide to run this back.
Speaker 7: I think Knicks fans would love to have Giannis.
Speaker 12: I think they would love to have KD. But it
Speaker 12: requires a CIA team to trade away their top CAA
Speaker 12: guy in Karl Anthony Towns. And that's it matters more
Speaker 12: than people realize, is these relationships over time. And Leon
Speaker 12: Rose has always been a very loyal guy. Jalen Brunson's father,
Speaker 12: Rick Brunson, was his first client, NBA client, and now
Speaker 12: he's the coach for Tom Thibodeaux, another CIA client, So
Speaker 12: this and of course gets his son to be the
Speaker 12: star in New York. These bonds are very strong, and
Speaker 12: if they are going to upgrade next season, it's gonna
Speaker 12: mean that the CAA link is going to be tested.
Speaker 12: And with Karl Anthony Towns, the CIA client, Josh hart
Speaker 12: ogn Andobi and Jalen Brunts and all CA guys, I mean,
Speaker 12: are they going to be willing to move one of
Speaker 12: those guys to upgrade the roster or are they just
Speaker 12: gonna say, look, we're gonna run it back next year
Speaker 12: and we're going to improve. Everyone's got to improve in
Speaker 12: different ways. And that's what the Knicks are looking at,
Speaker 12: is I mean, is Karl.
Speaker 7: Anthony Town's the guy?
Speaker 12: Or do you move him to try to get a
Speaker 12: superstar in kd And and Giannis? So that's really what's
Speaker 12: on the table for them, is I mean, we don't
Speaker 12: know that Giannis is going to be a trade target
Speaker 12: this summer, but I can tell you every team does
Speaker 12: these contingencies after this season. Is if we're going to
Speaker 12: upgrade this roster, how do we do it? And I
Speaker 12: wonder how willing they are in moving Karl Anthony Towns considered.
Speaker 12: I mean, he wore that jersey with so much pride
Speaker 12: and playing through that visibly playing through that that knee injury.
Speaker 12: But is the ceiling maybe Eastern Conference semifinals and finals.
Speaker 12: If you have Karl Anthony Towns as you're starting four
Speaker 12: and maybe you're starting five, that's I mean.
Speaker 7: That's good. That's better than the Knicks have had in.
Speaker 12: The last couple of decades. But is it enough to
Speaker 12: win a championship?
Speaker 2: And I say no, Do we talk enough about how
Speaker 2: elite Rick Carlisle is.
Speaker 1: I mean I was going over some of the stuff
Speaker 1: this morning, and look, I'm a big Tom Thibodeau guy,
Speaker 1: and Tom was an assistant for Jeff and so was
Speaker 1: able to get to know him. And to your point
Speaker 1: about where the Knicks find themselves now, it's so much
Speaker 1: better than anywhere they've been for decades that if you
Speaker 1: run it back and Tom's the guy, then I think
Speaker 1: most Nick fans would say, Okay, like sign me up.
Speaker 1: It's at least nice to have a team that's relevant
Speaker 1: as opposed to what it's been for a while. But
Speaker 1: I think I think Rick took him, took him to
Speaker 1: the cleaners. I thought this was a series where Tom
Speaker 1: was out coached. I thought some of the challenges didn't
Speaker 1: look great early on. I don't know what sort of
Speaker 1: adjustments you make when it comes to Indiana's ability to
Speaker 1: up and down. But I'm just imagining Tom watching tape
Speaker 1: of Game six and seeing four runouts off of makes
Speaker 1: for dunks and layups, and he's going, what, like, what
Speaker 1: are we doing?
Speaker 2: So you know, Rick.
Speaker 1: Gets his championship with a twenty eleven Dallas Mavericks team
Speaker 1: that was interesting with Dirk being peaked Dirk. That was
Speaker 1: Jason Terry sixth Man of the Year Award, That was
Speaker 1: Tyson Chandler Defensive Player of the Year. But they won
Speaker 1: a couple of series where they were underdogs and they
Speaker 1: beat the Heat in the finals. And now he has
Speaker 1: this group that nobody thought was gonna be relevant outside
Speaker 1: of maybe winning a series, and they're in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, man, I feel like the
Speaker 1: maybe the public conversation surrounding Rick Carlisle needs to start
Speaker 1: sounding maybe a little bit different.
Speaker 2: Give me your thoughts.
Speaker 12: Well, the best ones always adapt. And it reminds me
Speaker 12: of Greg Popovich and how he regarded the three point line,
Speaker 12: or regarded zone defense, or regarded different styles of play.
Speaker 12: And Rick Carlisle that twenty eleven team. I covered that
Speaker 12: NBA Finals in Miami, and it was amazing to watch
Speaker 12: this veteran team rally together. Sean Marion, derk Noviski, Jason Kidd,
Speaker 12: Corn Butler, Like this is a very old team. This team,
Speaker 12: the Indiana Pacers, couldn't.
Speaker 7: Be more different.
Speaker 12: They're They're led by Tyrese Haliburton, only a few years
Speaker 12: into the NBA, and the average age on this team
Speaker 12: is barely twenty six years old. Or that that Dallas
Speaker 12: team in twenty eleven was a bunch of dudes whore
Speaker 12: at the end of their careers.
Speaker 7: And so the ability to.
Speaker 12: Adapt in the NBA as a coach is something that
Speaker 12: I think is in direct contrast to Tom Thibodeaux this series,
Speaker 12: where you know, you look at Tibbs and TIB's TIBs
Speaker 12: for better force. But he played that five man lineup
Speaker 12: all season long about forty minutes a game, basically the
Speaker 12: Brunson Michel Hart and Nobi and Karl Anthony Town started
Speaker 12: them and played them into the ground and they never
Speaker 12: got to a good defense. They never did and then
Speaker 12: in Game three he had to switch up and put
Speaker 12: Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup. And I gotta give
Speaker 12: it to tips like he did expand the rotation and
Speaker 12: he did make that lineup change, but it did feel
Speaker 12: like a little bit too late, a little not enough.
Speaker 12: When you talk about how stubborn Tom Thibodeau is, or
Speaker 12: I guess just hard headed when it comes to who
Speaker 12: his guys are and what his beliefs are, it seemed
Speaker 12: like Brick Carlo in the opposite direction.
Speaker 8: All year.
Speaker 12: It was like, we're gonna win by playing up tempo
Speaker 12: and running teams out of the gym with a deep roster,
Speaker 12: and we are going to no matter what, stay tued
Speaker 12: or our playing style and not rely on two guys
Speaker 12: to win us games. We're going to rely on Nie
Speaker 12: Smith is gonna win us games. Nemhar You saw him
Speaker 12: in game six, how well he played in Game six,
Speaker 12: and how well he played in previous series.
Speaker 7: This is a team that really just.
Speaker 12: Believed Rick Carlyle believed in these role players to play
Speaker 12: like stars when they needed to. And unfortunately, on the
Speaker 12: Nick's side, the role players just fell apart. I mean,
Speaker 12: Deuce McBride, the og McHale, Josh Hart, they did not
Speaker 12: step up, whereas the Indiana Pacers and the belief that
Speaker 12: Rick Carlo imbued in these guys. It really did seem
Speaker 12: like two very different coaches on different ends of the
Speaker 12: ends of the spectrum. And you know, fourteen years ago
Speaker 12: when the Dallas Mavericks are winning the championship, and I
Speaker 12: told you that in twenty twenty five, the Indiana Pacers
Speaker 12: are going to win the East. I can't imagine you're
Speaker 12: gonna say Rick Carlisle is gonna be the architect of
Speaker 12: one of the best offenses in the NBA with a
Speaker 12: team that just runs teams out of the gym like
Speaker 12: seven seconds or less. But that's what Rick Carlisle did,
Speaker 12: and I really appreciate how he's been able to adapt
Speaker 12: as a coach.
Speaker 1: Indiana's consolation prize for making the NBA Finals is a
Speaker 1: matchup with a team right now, Tom that just feels
Speaker 1: like they've found a little something, well, not just found something.
Speaker 2: They've been historic all year.
Speaker 1: But I was resident, or I should say hesitant and
Speaker 1: reticent as I combine those two words in one question
Speaker 1: to just anoint them because I'd never seen them make
Speaker 1: a long playoff run, and then jokes on me because
Speaker 1: they're just they're everything you want and they've been able
Speaker 1: to stay healthy, which this time of year is a
Speaker 1: massive thing. So what sort of chance do you give
Speaker 1: Indiana to make the NBA Finals?
Speaker 2: Interesting? With Shay the MVP.
Speaker 1: On one side, I am blown away with how many
Speaker 1: players Mark Dagnold has at his disposal. I heard somebody
Speaker 1: use the term he's like a starting pitcher with six
Speaker 1: different pitches. I mean, he can he can bring whatever
Speaker 1: the night needs. He can say, how do you want
Speaker 1: to play? Okay, that's fine, we'll beat you playing that
Speaker 1: way too. So can Indiana make this interesting or does
Speaker 1: it feel like it's pretty overwhelming in Oklahoma City's favor.
Speaker 12: Barring injury, they have a slim to none chance of making.
Speaker 7: This a series.
Speaker 12: Okay, See, it's.
Speaker 7: Just that good.
Speaker 12: When you look at the regular season point differential between
Speaker 12: these two teams, it's one of the largest we've ever seen,
Speaker 12: if not the largest in NBA history. And in terms
Speaker 12: of finals matchups, like the Thunder had one of the
Speaker 12: biggest point differentials. Meeting they outscored the opponent by over
Speaker 12: twelve points a game in every game this season, on average,
Speaker 12: about twelve points a game. The Pacers were good this
Speaker 12: regular season, winning fifty games. But when you look at
Speaker 12: what the Pacers like to do, the Thunder are well epped,
Speaker 12: well equipped to match that. You know, the Thunder do
Speaker 12: not turn over the ball. And the Indiana Pacers are
Speaker 12: a team that really likes to run out, like he said,
Speaker 12: get out and transition and take advantage of a team
Speaker 12: that can be careless with the ball. And the Thunder
Speaker 12: just do not turn over the ball. And they're well coached.
Speaker 12: And I just think that this is a team, the
Speaker 12: Thunder with all their weapons and how much rest they've
Speaker 12: gotten coming into this series, how healthy they are coming
Speaker 12: into this series, how confident they are coming into this series.
Speaker 12: They just dismantled the Minnesota Timberwolves that were a top
Speaker 12: three defense in the NBA this season. I just think
Speaker 12: that the Indiana Pacers are a really good story, a
Speaker 12: really good team. But the Thunder, and I've been hammering
Speaker 12: this and beating this drum all season long. This Thunder
Speaker 12: team is all time good, like all time.
Speaker 7: Good, like one of the ten best teams.
Speaker 12: We've ever seen put together. And of course that final
Speaker 12: chapter of winning the NBA Finals will seal that. But
Speaker 12: everything I've seen from this season has told me that
Speaker 12: this is one of the best teams we've ever seen.
Speaker 12: I mean, they've already won eighty games this year and
Speaker 12: there's only three other teams and it be a history
Speaker 12: who have won more in a at this point, and
Speaker 12: it's like peak Jordan and peak Warriors. So this team
Speaker 12: is so good. I'm going with okac in five. But honestly,
Speaker 12: my brain is telling me heat and four. I mean, uh,
Speaker 12: okay see in four. Yeah, Like my brain is telling
Speaker 12: me okay, see in four, but like my heart is saying, okay,
Speaker 12: see in five. But I really do believe that this
Speaker 12: could end up in a sweep. I just if I'm
Speaker 12: name eight to paper, I'm probably gonna go okay, see
Speaker 12: in five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you, man, all right before I set
Speaker 1: you loose. Kind of a surprising piece of news. I mean,
Speaker 1: I hadn't caught wind of any rumors in this direction.
Speaker 1: But Utah Jazz have fired Austin Age as their president
Speaker 1: of basketball ops. Uh so, of course, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear Austin speak here coming up in a bid. According
Speaker 1: to the statements that were made by Ryan Smith, Danny
Speaker 1: no statements.
Speaker 2: He stayed completely out of it.
Speaker 1: Sounds like this is going to be a scenario where
Speaker 1: Xanik is still the GM and he works with Austin
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis, and both those two
Speaker 1: report to Danny, and then of course Danny reports to
Speaker 1: Ryan as the owner. So what we have here is
Speaker 1: a team that's locked up their head coach through twenty
Speaker 1: thirty one potentially, and now has a front office that
Speaker 1: they've locked up for the foreseeable future as well, without
Speaker 1: a lot of results so far. And yes, they're three
Speaker 1: years into a rebuild. We'll see what the coming years bring.
Speaker 1: But what are your thoughts on the direction of the
Speaker 1: club out here, bringing in Austin ae as the president
Speaker 1: and kind of having their front office and their coaching
Speaker 1: staff locked in for a while.
Speaker 12: Well, this is NBA front offices and power structures across
Speaker 12: the league. If people want to say nepotism, then I
Speaker 12: would say this is very common in the league. The
Speaker 12: Lacubs and Kirk Lacub in the front office, the owner's
Speaker 12: son in the front office.
Speaker 10: There.
Speaker 12: You look at the Colangelo's and Phoenix and in Toronto
Speaker 12: you look at you look at the Airsons in Miami,
Speaker 12: similar story.
Speaker 7: You look at across the league.
Speaker 12: You're gonna have this this And I'm not saying that
Speaker 12: Danny Age is the owner, but I think people are
Speaker 12: crying foul at the idea that the CEO, Danny Ainge
Speaker 12: would hire his son to run basketball ops.
Speaker 7: And I'm just like, I mean, this has been.
Speaker 12: The NBA for a very long time. Is We've seen
Speaker 12: this kind of relationship, and it's just another one of
Speaker 12: these father son combos in ownership and in front office.
Speaker 12: Austin comes very highly regarded in the Boston front office
Speaker 12: of course from Danny Ainge, of course, but I would
Speaker 12: also say that I think it's important to have a
Speaker 12: younger GM or someone who has a lot more ties
Speaker 12: to like the grassroots level NBA when the league is
Speaker 12: getting younger, and in order to draft these guys you
Speaker 12: don't have as much tape because and all the transfer portals.
Speaker 12: You need someone who has their boots on the ground
Speaker 12: and have a lot of intel, and that typically comes
Speaker 12: from a profile of like Austin Ange, who's younger and
Speaker 12: has a lot more relationships on the younger side than
Speaker 12: maybe Danny Ainge did. And you see this in the NBA.
Speaker 12: A lot is in the Charlotte Hornets organization with Michael Jordan,
Speaker 12: Mitch Cupcheck with the GM for Michael Jordan, Like Mitch
Speaker 12: Cupcheck isn't going to every gym and going to all
Speaker 12: of the European and going to every AAU tournament because look,
Speaker 12: the guy is the guy had a.
Speaker 7: Great run with the Lakers.
Speaker 12: But you need someone younger to burn that midnight oil
Speaker 12: in ways that Austin Ange will be doing that for
Speaker 12: the Utah Jazz. So it's a People might say that
Speaker 12: this is kind of a corrupt thing to do because
Speaker 12: the CEO just hired his son to run basketball ops
Speaker 12: but Danny Ainge has earned that right. And I would
Speaker 12: also say that this is nothing new in the NBA
Speaker 12: and that you see these types of things all across
Speaker 12: the league and that is a story as old as
Speaker 12: time in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Well, Tom appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: Was hoping to talk Game seven at MSG tonight, but
Speaker 1: hopefully the NBA Finals carry some intrigue. Where can everybody
Speaker 1: go get that great work of yours?
Speaker 7: Yeah, Yahoo Sports.
Speaker 12: You can check out that column about the three trades
Speaker 12: that I wrote wrote out about the New York Knicks
Speaker 12: where they go from here. And also you can check
Speaker 12: out Basketball Illuminati, the NBA podcast that we do account
Speaker 12: the things with the me and Al Hassen and of
Speaker 12: course Top Chef. You're a big fan of that show.
Speaker 12: I get my Pack Your Knives podcast as well as
Speaker 12: my newsletter Tom to find. Are lots of places, but
Speaker 12: it's always great to spend time with you.
Speaker 1: Spence the Great Tom Abers Jrow. Monday afternoon, we'll catch
Speaker 1: a quick break. We're gonna bringing Richard Smith live in
Speaker 1: studio Austin h currently is speaking to the media.
Speaker 2: We'll bring you some sound in about an hour from now.
Speaker 1: But Tommy stops by today, courtesy of our friends in
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Speaker 1: is addressing the media as we speak. Border is going
Speaker 1: to grab that sound and we will bring it to
Speaker 1: you coming up.
Speaker 2: In about an hour from right now.
Speaker 1: Richard Smith is live in studio for an entire hour
Speaker 1: on this beautiful Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Smitty, Happy Monday, sir, How are.
Speaker 10: You Ben's We're doing great? How are you doing?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 2: Good? Great to see Scottie Schaffron A little heater, isn't he?
Speaker 10: How about that another man? He was?
Speaker 13: He just he is so laser focus man here a robot, yeah,
Speaker 13: you know, and and the very little emotion. Everything's just calm,
Speaker 13: you know, whether he it's one bad shot around or
Speaker 13: whatever it is, but he just kind of he just
Speaker 13: kind of dials it in and just keeps going.
Speaker 10: He's, you know, he is, He's that guy at the moment.
Speaker 10: He is.
Speaker 2: He is impressive to watch.
Speaker 1: But the big news of the day today, Smitty the
Speaker 1: Jazz have announced they've hired Austin h. Danny's son uh
Speaker 1: and Danny's the CEO an alternate governor of the Jazz
Speaker 1: now and Austin was with the Boston Celtics for seventeen
Speaker 1: years when Danny was there. He hired Austin to run
Speaker 1: the league team. I've known Austin for years. I've known
Speaker 1: Danny my entire life. They're good people, you know they are,
Speaker 1: And a higher like this will always be met with
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of skepticism. Porter, real quick, why don't
Speaker 1: you remind Smitty what the official stances of the drive
Speaker 1: on nepotism. Can't can't deal with them, can't win with them. No,
Speaker 1: we are strictly anti nepotism on this program. Okay, I
Speaker 1: just want the community to know, like where we stand,
Speaker 1: right so you know the deal like but but you know,
Speaker 1: we just had Tom Aberstrow on the reality of the
Speaker 1: situation is, whether it's pro sports or real estate or whatever,
Speaker 1: most people find jobs based off relationships. This, of course,
Speaker 1: is a direct line between Danny and Austin. Ryan with
Speaker 1: a statement today saying he didn't even tell Danny that
Speaker 1: he was hiring Austin, which you know, come on, right,
Speaker 1: but what are your thoughts on the decision of the
Speaker 1: Jazz to bring in Austin Age And what do you
Speaker 1: know about Austin Age.
Speaker 13: Well, I've known Austin for a long time and know him,
Speaker 13: you know, and not know him personally, But watch them
Speaker 13: when you're down to BYU. Most people people don't don't,
Speaker 13: don't realize it unless you're a real hardcore BYU fan.
Speaker 13: He played four years at b YA and uh and
Speaker 13: and his senior senior year he led the Mountain West
Speaker 13: Conference in three point shooting, shot over fifty percent from
Speaker 13: the floor from three, was one of the top three
Speaker 13: point shooters in the country in college basketball his senior year.
Speaker 13: Didn't get drafted. I don't think he was a pro player.
Speaker 13: He could have played overseas, you know, but I think
Speaker 13: he wanted to get into what his dad was doing
Speaker 13: on the basketball side, and he ended up going down,
Speaker 13: actually went down for a year to work at Southern
Speaker 13: Utah as an assistant to Roger Reid when Roger was
Speaker 13: down at Southern Utah for that little brief period and
Speaker 13: then and then from there, Danny hired him to come
Speaker 13: back and work with him in Boston, and he got
Speaker 13: assigned to be the head coach of the main Red clause,
Speaker 13: which is the G League team or at that time
Speaker 13: the developmental team for the Celtics. For two years he
Speaker 13: did that and then he moved into a personnel job
Speaker 13: scouting and working in the front office with Danny and
Speaker 13: then progressed up the ladder. And Austin Ange is a
Speaker 13: hard worker. He's a good guy. He's very diligent about
Speaker 13: his job. He works hard. I think if you talk
Speaker 13: to him about it, I would think one of the
Speaker 13: things he might say is that, you know, being the
Speaker 13: son of Danny Ainge, and especially in Boston where Danny
Speaker 13: had a prominent role in the eighties as a player,
Speaker 13: and then obviously he was running the front office at
Speaker 13: that time, if you get hired, you know, by your dad,
Speaker 13: to do something like that, you know you got pressure
Speaker 13: on you to not only deliver in the job, but
Speaker 13: a lot of times you have to go above and
Speaker 13: beyond because everybody's looking to see what your faults are
Speaker 13: and what your shortcomings are. Well said, because everybody wants
Speaker 13: to get on your case, right because of how they
Speaker 13: perceive you got the job. Well, you know, Austin worked,
Speaker 13: you know, is very diligent. I would see him a
Speaker 13: lot on the road at college games. I would see
Speaker 13: him a lot overseas scouting over the years. And you know,
Speaker 13: I think this is a great hire for the Jazz.
Speaker 13: I know they didn't have a person in that position.
Speaker 13: That's just a position they created. I assume for Austin
Speaker 13: to get him into the fold with the Jazz, and
Speaker 13: he'll do I would assume. Don't know it is direct
Speaker 13: responsibilities are or if they've talked about that at all,
Speaker 13: but my guess is that they hired him to be
Speaker 13: one of the main guys on the personnel side and
Speaker 13: running the scouting department and doing all the stuff that
Speaker 13: that analyzes, evaluates and procures players, whether it's the draft,
Speaker 13: free agency, trade situations. And then Justin zanik As still
Speaker 13: as the GM will be a tend to be as
Speaker 13: he has been, more on the side of the business side,
Speaker 13: if you will, working with agent, working with the day
Speaker 13: to day grind in the office with employees and and
Speaker 13: uh and the team in terms of the coaching, coaching
Speaker 13: staff and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 10: And uh So.
Speaker 13: I think it's I think it's great for the Jazz
Speaker 13: to get someone like like Austin, a younger guy who's
Speaker 13: had a lot of experience and uh, and knows what
Speaker 13: it takes to win and it's been around a winning
Speaker 13: environment and uh. You know, I'm excited for him because
Speaker 13: I know he's a he's a great uh, a great person.
Speaker 13: You know, I don't know him real well, but I
Speaker 13: know him well enough to to to you know, comment
Speaker 13: that he's Uh. I think it's a great get for
Speaker 13: the for the Jazz at this point in time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Between my freshman and sophomore year in college at
Speaker 1: the U, I did a customer relations internship at Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden, which entailed answering phone calls from angry New
Speaker 1: Yorkers that were mad about the Elton John concert because
Speaker 1: they couldn't get a hot talk. It was interesting work,
Speaker 1: and during that time I became friendly with a guy
Speaker 1: named Dave Snowden. Ironically enough is his name. He found
Speaker 1: the wheelchair Nicks. He's in a wheelchair himself, and he
Speaker 1: was like the one person in that building that was
Speaker 1: nice to me. I think everybody else was like afraid
Speaker 1: to talk to me or whatever, because you know, your
Speaker 1: dad is your dad. And I went to dinner with
Speaker 1: Dave one I'm like, dude, I don't understand why no
Speaker 1: one in the building like wants to.
Speaker 2: It feels like everybody ignores me.
Speaker 1: And he said a line to me that I've never forgotten,
Speaker 1: he said, Spence, I was nineteen years old the.
Speaker 2: Time he said, you need to learn this lesson.
Speaker 1: Now, nobody cheers for the son of a famous father, right,
Speaker 1: and so this will be met inevitably with the nepotism
Speaker 1: this And okay, as he really qualified that. But what
Speaker 1: you're outlining, committe, it sounds like you believe regardless of
Speaker 1: what his last name is, he has put in.
Speaker 2: The groundwork for this opportunity.
Speaker 10: Well, he's been.
Speaker 13: He's worked in basketball ever since he got out of BYU.
Speaker 13: He's been doing it in the NBA for seventeen years.
Speaker 13: He started with a brand new develop Mental League team
Speaker 13: UH in Maine, so they had to build that from
Speaker 13: the ground up. He was the head coach. He learned
Speaker 13: coaching philosophy and approached for two years doing that as
Speaker 13: a twenty five twenty six year old I think he
Speaker 13: was at that time, and then moved down to Boston
Speaker 13: to work with his dad more directly in personnel and
Speaker 13: scouting and has been doing that ever since. And hey,
Speaker 13: Danny Ainge left the Celtics four years ago or five
Speaker 13: years ago, whatever it was, he retired, you know, and
Speaker 13: Austin has been there since then, working with Brad Stevens.
Speaker 13: And and they promoted him, I think a few years
Speaker 13: ago to be an assistant GM along with Frank Zannin
Speaker 13: Frank Frank Sannon, I forget yeah, Mike zann I'm sorry,
Speaker 13: Mike's Aaron and and uh those guys.
Speaker 10: You know, they could have.
Speaker 13: Gotten rid of Austin Ange if they didn't like him
Speaker 13: or he wasn't doing the job or whatever in Boston
Speaker 13: once his dad went away.
Speaker 10: But Austin's Austin's a hard worker. He's a good guy.
Speaker 13: He'll he'll, you know, take some lumps on the the
Speaker 13: nepotism thing whatever, which I which to me is just lazy.
Speaker 13: I mean, you know, Ryan Smith isn't going to hire
Speaker 13: somebody that he isn't thinking can help them.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 13: I do think maybe they have to consider changing the
Speaker 13: name from the Utah Jazz to the BYU Jazz, you know,
Speaker 13: because that's you know, they're top loaded with BYU guys
Speaker 13: now and the ownership and in the front office.
Speaker 10: You know. But but Austin's a good guy and.
Speaker 13: He's a hard worker, he knows what he's doing, and
Speaker 13: it'll be interesting to see how that how the group
Speaker 13: works in terms of how they realign stuff internally going forward.
Speaker 1: So, and let's be clear, I know you're not behind
Speaker 1: closed doors over there anymore. But when you read the
Speaker 1: release in some of Ryan's comments, and we'll hear from
Speaker 1: Austin coming up in about forty five minutes, it sounds
Speaker 1: like Xanak is your GM, Austin is your president of
Speaker 1: basketball ops. They're gonna kind of work in lockstep together,
Speaker 1: and those two report to Danny as the CEO, and
Speaker 1: Danny then reports to Ryan, who's the owner. Sounds like
Speaker 1: that's the dynamic. Any thoughts on how like, if you're
Speaker 1: justin Xanak today, sure you're happy you're still the GM,
Speaker 1: but any thoughts on how this dynamic could play out?
Speaker 1: And there will be disagreements because there always are, and
Speaker 1: one voice has to make final decisions.
Speaker 2: That's kind of how it goes. Yeah, No, I don't know.
Speaker 13: I would assume that that you know, they were on board.
Speaker 13: I mean, Austin, you know, will come in and they'll
Speaker 13: all work together, you know.
Speaker 10: I don't know how they work over there, now not.
Speaker 13: Being in the room so to speak, but but it
Speaker 13: seems like they're very a collaborative group that everybody has,
Speaker 13: you know, a say in the room, and you know
Speaker 13: you have to listen also to your personnel people. You know,
Speaker 13: Bart Taylor is over there, has been there since it
Speaker 13: came with Dennis Lindsay from San Antonio, and it's still
Speaker 13: there as as the vice president of player Personnel and
Speaker 13: heads up all the scouting stuff. And you've got Sean James,
Speaker 13: and you've got Stephen Schwartz over there, who's the who's
Speaker 13: the the cap guy and in charge of all that stuff.
Speaker 13: And and you've got Marquise Newman who heads up to
Speaker 13: the Salt Lake City Stars and also does a lot
Speaker 13: of personnel scouting, and Brian Powger and Lane Odom all
Speaker 13: those guys who are on the front lines of doing
Speaker 13: the scouting. And then the overseas, they've got a group
Speaker 13: headed up by Rigas Dartleus and and Vierian Bosniak over
Speaker 13: there and in Europe and and Alex mcdude in Paris,
Speaker 13: and then so they've got a big group that it
Speaker 13: all works together on the personnel stuff. And I would
Speaker 13: think Austin would be doing a lot of the coordinating
Speaker 13: and working with those guys on the personnel front, and
Speaker 13: and uh uh take some of that that burden off
Speaker 13: his dad.
Speaker 10: Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 13: And then uh and Justin Zanik Will would probably concentrate
Speaker 13: more on the day to day minutia with the agents
Speaker 13: and the office stuff and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 13: And you know, but they'll all be in the room,
Speaker 13: they'll all have a say. Again, don't know what the
Speaker 13: who the final voice is. I'm guessing it's Ryan Smith
Speaker 13: on the advice of Danny Ainge. That's just my guess
Speaker 13: because that would make sense to me that the owner
Speaker 13: is listening to the guy who's been there, done that,
Speaker 13: you know, as a player, coach, you know, GM everything,
Speaker 13: so you know, and he obviously implicitly respects and listens
Speaker 13: to Danny. And now Austin will be another voice in
Speaker 13: the room that we'll be able to lend some perspective
Speaker 13: and and and help them try to get back on
Speaker 13: track for what they're trying to build.
Speaker 1: So what we have here is something that is rather
Speaker 1: unique in the ecosystem of NBA basketball, where a team
Speaker 1: for three years has stumbled through what I articulate as
Speaker 1: a very awkward rebuild with some decisions I think are
Speaker 1: very questionable, and the jury is still out on most,
Speaker 1: if not all of them. Probably outside of Lowry and Walker,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Keante George even makes Oklahoma City's
Speaker 1: roster or Isaiah Callier, to be honest. So we have
Speaker 1: a team that has not won at all, and we
Speaker 1: have a future that's very murky based off the lack
Speaker 1: of talent on the roster. But what we have is
Speaker 1: a front office and a coaching staff that now appears
Speaker 1: to be locked in for a number of years, which
Speaker 1: you don't see when there's no data to indicate these
Speaker 1: people are good at what they do.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying they are or they are not.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, But what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the decision to let's go ahead and lock in
Speaker 1: our coach, let's go ahead and lock in our front
Speaker 1: office when the results, which is what this business is
Speaker 1: and what it always will be, have been mixed at best.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 13: Well, you know, part of it is, Spence, is that
Speaker 13: teams always talk about trying to get some level of continuity,
Speaker 13: so to trying to build something that has some sustainability
Speaker 13: but also has some natural flow to it. And the
Speaker 13: other way you can do that is when you have
Speaker 13: people in place that you believe know what they're doing,
Speaker 13: that can make some good decisions.
Speaker 10: And and you you don't.
Speaker 13: You don't, you don't shake the tree, and you don't
Speaker 13: change things up when you hit a bump in the road.
Speaker 13: And I think that's what they're trying to do. Now,
Speaker 13: you're you're right. They've They've been three years into this
Speaker 13: tear down whatever they want to call it, haven't made
Speaker 13: any headway. The last two years, they've been the worst
Speaker 13: defensive team in the league by all metrics.
Speaker 10: Haven't hasn't gotten any better.
Speaker 13: But we've also talked Spence about the idea that when
Speaker 13: you do these kind of things, there's a certain amount,
Speaker 13: certain percentage of the moves you make that that you control,
Speaker 13: that you make decisions on. You have the tenth pick
Speaker 13: in the draft last year, and so when when your
Speaker 13: when your turn comes up, you make a decision about
Speaker 13: you know, you're taking Cody Williams or you're taking this
Speaker 13: guy or the other guy or whatever, and you decide
Speaker 13: on this guy and then you now you have to
Speaker 13: live with that, and you know the guy does well, develops, doesn't.
Speaker 13: Whatever that is. You're living with those things. But then
Speaker 13: there's a certain percentage of this process that is beyond
Speaker 13: your control. It's stuff that either falls in your lap,
Speaker 13: like a trade opportunity, you know, whether it's something like,
Speaker 13: you know, Phoenix wants to get rid of Kevin Durant, say,
Speaker 13: or Yannis decides for whatever reason, he wants out of
Speaker 13: Milwaukee and he's decided, I'd like to go live in
Speaker 13: Salt Lake City.
Speaker 10: You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 13: So that falls in your lap, and you have to
Speaker 13: have the ability to respond to make something happen, like
Speaker 13: having draft picks or having players that the other team
Speaker 13: wants or whatever. And so that's something that happens can
Speaker 13: happen to you. And then the other part of it
Speaker 13: is the equation that we just saw a few weeks
Speaker 13: ago that went against the Jazz, which is you have
Speaker 13: have to be lucky when you do something like lose
Speaker 13: all year long in the hopes of getting a number
Speaker 13: one draft pick at a fourteen percent chance, and it
Speaker 13: doesn't fall your way and it goes the opposite way
Speaker 13: and instead of getting one, you get five. So that's
Speaker 13: something you can't control. And when you're relying on that
Speaker 13: and you're you're you're putting some of your eggs in
Speaker 13: that basket and it doesn't work.
Speaker 10: Now now you're scrambling. And so that's what they're gonna do.
Speaker 13: Uh, they're gonna get a good player at five if
Speaker 13: they if they keep five, and there's all kinds of
Speaker 13: scenarios they could get into and trying to move up
Speaker 13: or even move back, or try to parlay it into
Speaker 13: a couple of players if they like a couple of
Speaker 13: different guys or what have you, and all those kind
Speaker 13: of things that we'll be talking about in the next
Speaker 13: few weeks heading up to draft day. But that's that's
Speaker 13: the stuff that you have to be able to deal with.
Speaker 13: And you have to understand that some of the things
Speaker 13: you can control, and then some of the things you
Speaker 13: have to just wait for the bus to come by,
Speaker 13: and you hope it's the right bus, and if it's.
Speaker 10: Not going down the road you want to go down, then.
Speaker 13: You got to just keep sitting on the bus stop
Speaker 13: and waiting for the next bus. And as we've said before, Spence,
Speaker 13: there's no time frame on that. You can't say you
Speaker 13: have a five year plan. You can't say you have
Speaker 13: a six year plan because you have no idea what's
Speaker 13: going to come around the corner next week that might
Speaker 13: change your fortunes, and so what you're trying to do,
Speaker 13: you're always trying to improve your situation and improve your
Speaker 13: group in the way that you think is going to
Speaker 13: make sense. And some of that you control by taking
Speaker 13: your draft picks, which we know the guys they've taken
Speaker 13: the last few years, and have opinions about those guys,
Speaker 13: and then stuff that you can't control, like not getting
Speaker 13: Cooper flag and having to go to Plan B. So
Speaker 13: that's all part of that process, and that's why it's interesting, really,
Speaker 13: I think, to be if you're an NBA fan or
Speaker 13: Jazz fan, just to you know, remove yourself from your
Speaker 13: fandom in terms of rooting and wanting your team to
Speaker 13: go eighty two and zero every year, to look and see, wow,
Speaker 13: this is gonna be interesting and really can be fascinating
Speaker 13: to see what happens in the coming weeks and months,
Speaker 13: because I think there's a chance that a lot of
Speaker 13: things could change and be different between now and the
Speaker 13: start of training camp at the end of September.
Speaker 1: We should also reference that Austin, while in Boston that Ryan,
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to do that work with Will Hardy,
Speaker 1: who's an assistant coach for emy Udoka with the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: So there are synergies there as well. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you this though, many because you had a front
Speaker 1: row seat and still have a front row seat to
Speaker 1: a father son combo that originally built the best teams
Speaker 1: we had here with Frank and Scott.
Speaker 2: So you know, Frank was the coach.
Speaker 1: He also had a lot of say in player personnel
Speaker 1: decisions than Scotty was the general manager eventually, and of
Speaker 1: course you draft John Ocarl you got something special. You
Speaker 1: make trades for Hornisak and a bunch of other moves
Speaker 1: that's got made.
Speaker 2: Clearly did a good job here.
Speaker 1: What did you witness with the dynamic of that father
Speaker 1: son combo? What made it so successful early on running
Speaker 1: the Jazz Well, one of.
Speaker 13: The things that people will tell you who had the
Speaker 13: opportunity in the eighties and nineties to work under the
Speaker 13: Frank Laden and his leadership as the general manager, then
Speaker 13: the head coach and then the president of the team
Speaker 13: of during the nineties is that Frank was great at
Speaker 13: getting people in position to do certain responsibilities and then
Speaker 13: allowing them to do their job. You know, you've heard
Speaker 13: the often quoted phrase from Bill Belichick, the great Patriots coach,
Speaker 13: who would say, just do your job right. And Frank
Speaker 13: was great about hiring people and then letting them do
Speaker 13: their job. He was the ultimate macro manager and that
Speaker 13: he stood back and he if you were the PR person,
Speaker 13: he let you handle the PR stuff. And if you
Speaker 13: were the marketing guy, you did the market If you
Speaker 13: were the physical trainer guy or the head trainer, he
Speaker 13: lets you, you know, do your job. And and that's
Speaker 13: why everybody. Frank is so beloved by any everybody who
Speaker 13: worked for him all those years, because they all felt
Speaker 13: that he honored them and what they were trying to
Speaker 13: do for the organization by giving them the ability to
Speaker 13: make decisions and do what they thought was best. And
Speaker 13: you know, none of us are perfect, and we all
Speaker 13: make mistakes. But when you have the top person relying
Speaker 13: on you and letting you make decisions and letting you,
Speaker 13: you know, run your show, so to speak, you get
Speaker 13: all kinds of ownership from people, and you get all
Speaker 13: kinds of support because everybody wants to rally behind you,
Speaker 13: especially in the tough times because they go, you know, no,
Speaker 13: that's my guy.
Speaker 10: You know, he supports me. I support him. You know.
Speaker 13: Jerry Sloan was the same way. I remember, you know,
Speaker 13: more than a few times would be in a in
Speaker 13: a practice and and at the end of practice, Jerry
Speaker 13: would say, Okay, we have a we have a community
Speaker 13: event tomorrow with three and so make sure you remember
Speaker 13: that we're gonna do something downtown for for some charity
Speaker 13: or whatever. And you know, obviously there'd be some always
Speaker 13: some kind of player pushback.
Speaker 10: Or do I have to show up? I have to
Speaker 10: do this? And he goes, uh, well, I don't know,
Speaker 10: that's uh.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 13: Patty Ballely was our longtime community relations person. You go, Patty,
Speaker 13: what what what? What's the thing tomorrow? Well, we're doing
Speaker 13: this or whatever, and and guys would want to complain
Speaker 13: or something, and he would go, hey, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 13: Patty told you what the deal is. That's the deal.
Speaker 13: It's not a big deal. We just do what we're
Speaker 13: asked to do and then we move on. And and
Speaker 13: so someone like that, Patty Valley would have all the
Speaker 13: support and respect to Jerry Sloan because she knew that
Speaker 13: he had her back when they had to, you know,
Speaker 13: when she had to do something and Frank was the
Speaker 13: same way. And uh, that's how you build, uh from
Speaker 13: from internally a sustainable organization because you have people working
Speaker 13: with you and for you who all feel like they
Speaker 13: are part of the process, that they are valued and
Speaker 13: what they do every day.
Speaker 10: That's how you get people to to work.
Speaker 13: Late, right, to stay after hours, to work on weekends,
Speaker 13: to work on holidays, to be away from their families
Speaker 13: or whatever, because they want to. They have a feeling
Speaker 13: that they're they're they're from doing something and having some
Speaker 13: input for the greater good of the of the entire organization.
Speaker 13: And and that's how the Jazz built what they had,
Speaker 13: along with the support of the Millers as the owners
Speaker 13: all those years and in that kind of an atmosphere.
Speaker 13: And you know, but what what what makes it ultimately
Speaker 13: tick Spence, really, when you get down to it, is
Speaker 13: you have to have players and in the players, and
Speaker 13: the players have to have success. And when the players
Speaker 13: have success and your competitive year after year, all that
Speaker 13: stuff trickles.
Speaker 10: Down, you know.
Speaker 13: And and and let me tell you, it makes a
Speaker 13: lot easier to go to work every day if that's
Speaker 13: the atmosphere around your building, you know, day in and
Speaker 13: day out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, before we catch a break.
Speaker 1: Chris Finch after the t Wolves lost, during his postgame presser,
Speaker 1: he said something along the lines there are thirteen teams
Speaker 1: in the West next year, they'd all think they have
Speaker 1: a shot for home court advantage.
Speaker 2: I went, all right, Well, he's.
Speaker 1: Leaving the Jazz off the list, and he's leaving probably
Speaker 1: the Blazers off the list.
Speaker 13: Right.
Speaker 1: San Antonio will probably think they've got a shot with
Speaker 1: Oneman Yama healthy and another pick. So it's clear that
Speaker 1: it's no secret. It's no secret to them down who's
Speaker 1: running like, we all know what the score is, we
Speaker 1: all know what the deal is. We all know what
Speaker 1: they did a year ago to manipulate lineups to lose
Speaker 1: intentionally for more bites of the apple. Didn't work. So
Speaker 1: before we catch a break. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: Austin Hire indicates a different direction. We'll have to wait
Speaker 1: and see what this hierarchy looks like. Whose voice is
Speaker 1: the loudest, what's the approach this year or is it
Speaker 1: very similar to what they did last year? Based off
Speaker 1: they've got a top eight protected pick. It goes okase,
Speaker 1: and you can't lose that asset, not at this point
Speaker 1: in your process. Many you have to do everything you
Speaker 1: can to hold onto that pick. So what do you
Speaker 1: think this year looks like?
Speaker 12: Well, it was.
Speaker 13: It's gonna depend spense on what happens between now and
Speaker 13: and training camp, and there's a lot of things that
Speaker 13: could happen. You know, in a worst case Jazz scenario,
Speaker 13: you know, they end up taking their picks that they have.
Speaker 13: They have four draft picks in the upcoming draft. They're
Speaker 13: picking five and twenty one in the first round, and
Speaker 13: then they're picking forty three and fifty three in the
Speaker 13: second round, So they have a potential to add four
Speaker 13: more young players. I don't think that will happen, but
Speaker 13: that's what's on the books at the moment. And if
Speaker 13: they don't do anything, then they'll be trying to get
Speaker 13: something happening and free agency in the summer, they'll try
Speaker 13: and get something going in the trade market with somebody somewhere,
Speaker 13: something crops up during the summertime. You know, those are
Speaker 13: the things you just don't know about. That's what we've
Speaker 13: been talking about all along, is the idea that they're
Speaker 13: hoarding all these draft picks and have all these so
Speaker 13: called assets just in case something comes up, like what's
Speaker 13: the something. I don't know, Phoenix wants to get rid
Speaker 13: of Devin Booker in his prime to start over as
Speaker 13: an example, Uh, you' honest, the honest thing whatever. I
Speaker 13: don't know if that's gonna really be a thing, but
Speaker 13: something like those types of things where the Jazz can
Speaker 13: at least get in the conversation.
Speaker 10: Does it happen? Who knows, you know, but those.
Speaker 13: Are all the things that they're positioning themselves to at least,
Speaker 13: you know, get in the room or get on a
Speaker 13: telephone and talk to somebody about something. Because when you
Speaker 13: get to September and you get into training camp and
Speaker 13: you walk going through your your preseason games and getting
Speaker 13: ready for the season in the middle of October, if
Speaker 13: things are pretty much the same as they are now,
Speaker 13: and you've added a few draft picks from thiscoming draft,
Speaker 13: and you've got the same players, and then you've got
Speaker 13: guys like Collins and Sexton and Clarkson who are all
Speaker 13: going to be on the last years of their of
Speaker 13: their deals. So are you going to be trying to
Speaker 13: trade them to some team that wants them, wants an
Speaker 13: expiring contract. Uh do you hold on to those because
Speaker 13: you think you can make a big splash and next
Speaker 13: summer in the free agent market. Uh, And then you're
Speaker 13: gonna use this next season as another tank season?
Speaker 10: Can you do that? And and and uh and.
Speaker 13: Incur the wrath of your fans who want to know,
Speaker 13: you know, well, why is this year gonna be different
Speaker 13: than last year?
Speaker 12: You know?
Speaker 13: Why do you think we're gonna have a different outcome?
Speaker 13: And you know, and all of that, and that's that's
Speaker 13: that's gonna be difficult to deal with and very painful
Speaker 13: if that's what is happening in uh, December and January.
Speaker 13: And you know, the Jazz don't want that. The Jazz
Speaker 13: want to put together this summer a whole different team
Speaker 13: and and move some guys around and bring in two
Speaker 13: all stars and get a draft pick like a Donovan
Speaker 13: Mitchell or Rudy Gobert that hits and right out of
Speaker 13: the box and all of a sudden, they're an exciting
Speaker 13: new team and whatever. That's what they're hoping for. But again,
Speaker 13: they can control some of that, and some of that
Speaker 13: they can't control, and they have to hope that something
Speaker 13: comes their way. That's what's gonna make this next several months.
Speaker 13: I think very intriguing if you're a Jazz observer or
Speaker 13: a Jazz fan wondering what's gonna happen for next year.
Speaker 1: All Right, we'll catch a break and coming up on
Speaker 1: the other side, the NBA Finals start on Thursday, so
Speaker 1: we should give some flowers, as the kids would say,
Speaker 1: to the team still playing basketball. So we'll do that,
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk about the Western Conference in the
Speaker 1: NBA and kind of try to figure out where the
Speaker 1: Jazz can fit in. As Chris Finch pointed out, thirteen
Speaker 1: really talented rosters reside in the West next year, so
Speaker 1: we'll see how it goes. Richard Smith live in studio
Speaker 1: for another big segment, and then we'll let you hear
Speaker 1: from Austin Aine, who addressed the media earlier. We got
Speaker 1: Smitty for another big segment here, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: play you some common It's made by Austin Ainge earlier.
Speaker 2: Austin has been hired.
Speaker 1: By the Jazz as a new president of basketball operations.
Speaker 1: Our friend Sarah Todd Frond of the program a couple
Speaker 1: of tidbits real quick. Austin was asked about his philosophy
Speaker 1: on tanking manipulating minutes to improve lottery odds. His answer was, quote,
Speaker 1: you will not see that this year. Ryan Smith has
Speaker 1: said that Austin Ainge will have final say and will
Speaker 1: give recommendations to him. So s many we'll hear the
Speaker 1: comments later. You and I have been on air, so
Speaker 1: we couldn't hear them live. Austin is saying tanking is
Speaker 1: off the table next year, and Ryan himself is saying
Speaker 1: Austin Inge is now calling the shots to build his roster.
Speaker 13: Where your thoughts, so, well, what knee jerk reaction would
Speaker 13: be if he if he made the statement and use
Speaker 13: the phrase tanking is off the table, if that was
Speaker 13: accurate or however he phrased.
Speaker 2: It as quote, you will not see that this year.
Speaker 13: That's so so that to means there's some some admission
Speaker 13: that that's what they were doing, even though they've never
Speaker 13: said that, and obviously it was all under the guise
Speaker 13: of player development and trying to figure out which I
Speaker 13: see some of I can't. I can't get on board
Speaker 13: with the whole thing because, as we've talked about before, Spence,
Speaker 13: that's why you have a G League team, You have
Speaker 13: a G league team to get guys forty minutes a
Speaker 13: night and get them used to playing an NBA game
Speaker 13: and all that, and they're gonna say that, well, it's
Speaker 13: best if they're doing it against NBA guys, which I I, okay,
Speaker 13: I understand some of that, but again, you've got fans
Speaker 13: to consider and people who are paying money and sponsors
Speaker 13: and all that kind of stuff. But anyway, if that's
Speaker 13: if that's what he's saying, if that's the intent, then
Speaker 13: it's gonna be interesting that that would even lean more
Speaker 13: into our comments in the previous segment about the Jazz
Speaker 13: then really wanting to or needing to get in a
Speaker 13: lot of action this summer with free agents or with
Speaker 13: trades or something to reinvent the group they have, because
Speaker 13: the group they have right now, even if those guys
Speaker 13: are playing, those guys are gonna win, you know, maybe
Speaker 13: they win thirty games, thirty four games, something whatever. And
Speaker 13: if if that is what you think or you believe
Speaker 13: that's that's the worst case scenario. That's the worst place
Speaker 13: to be because you don't you never spence want to
Speaker 13: be in the gray area in the middle of the league,
Speaker 13: because you don't get anywhere you're picking you're picking fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, whatever.
Speaker 13: And so you want to be one of the top
Speaker 13: five teams who has a legitimate chance to do something
Speaker 13: like Indiana, okac you're still doing, or you want to
Speaker 13: be one of the bottom five teams like the Jazz
Speaker 13: were this year and have a chance at the top
Speaker 13: lottery prize, which they didn't get.
Speaker 10: Next year's draft is going to be, by by most people's.
Speaker 13: Evaluations, is going to be a very good draft also,
Speaker 13: and so if that's the case as well a year
Speaker 13: from now, uh, the Jazz would have another opportunity and
Speaker 13: at a good prospect and a good talent. But you know,
Speaker 13: if if Austin Ainge is saying that's off the table,
Speaker 13: that's not what we're gonna do, then that's gonna be interesting,
Speaker 13: because that would mean to me, then we're gonna see
Speaker 13: a lot of stuff happening or at least attempting to happen, uh,
Speaker 13: in the in the coming months. Because you can talk
Speaker 13: all you want about signing free agents and you know,
Speaker 13: and we beat to death the famous Danny Ainge quote
Speaker 13: of big game hunting and all that, but that's what
Speaker 13: you're doing all the time, Spence and sometimes you don't
Speaker 13: get the big game, and sometimes you come home and
Speaker 13: you don't have anything on the hood to the car
Speaker 13: because you didn't get anything, and when you went hunting,
Speaker 13: and and so you can try all those things, but
Speaker 13: you have to get be able to get something done.
Speaker 13: That's gonna be the trick for the Jazz because if
Speaker 13: they're not gonna do this other thing, which I can
Speaker 13: I can understand that. You know, Austin Dane is. You know,
Speaker 13: I don't think he's coming into to say, yeah, we're
Speaker 13: gonna we're gonna try and lose and get another take
Speaker 13: another swing at that thing and next year.
Speaker 10: I don't think he could say anything different.
Speaker 13: He wants to come in and give people hope that
Speaker 13: you know, I'm here to help us get better and
Speaker 13: improve and and help us come along with us, and
Speaker 13: we're gonna get this done and whatever.
Speaker 10: That's that's what part of what his job is.
Speaker 1: Here's another quote from Ryan Smith when asked about Austin
Speaker 1: Ryan and this is Andy Larson's Twitter profile quote. Austin
Speaker 1: will be running the program. He's got final recommendation to
Speaker 1: myself on any decisions that need to be made. I
Speaker 1: think it's the job of justin Danny myself to plug
Speaker 1: into him. So that is Ryan still saying that he's
Speaker 1: making final decisions.
Speaker 2: So he's saying Austin.
Speaker 1: Will be running the program, but the way he's characterized
Speaker 1: it is he's got final recommendation to myself on any decisions.
Speaker 13: Well if that, if that's the case, then you know,
Speaker 13: I'd be interested to hear how where Danny, Danny Ainge
Speaker 13: fits in all this and whether Danny is is this
Speaker 13: a precursor to Danny, you know, getting one foot out
Speaker 13: the door, and is Danny and and uh, you know,
Speaker 13: on the verge of you know, saying, hey, Austin can
Speaker 13: take it from here.
Speaker 10: And you know, I originally retired you know, five.
Speaker 13: Years ago or six years ago, whatever it was, from
Speaker 13: the Celtics, and that was my intent. And then Ryan
Speaker 13: Smith talked me, you know, back into coming back in
Speaker 13: and helping the Jazz, and I've done that. But I'm
Speaker 13: you know, I'm you know, we put this new person
Speaker 13: then just happens to be my son. He's in a
Speaker 13: position of authority within the basketball operations. And so does
Speaker 13: that mean Danny's going to have a lesser profile going forward?
Speaker 13: And does that mean that he's going to have less
Speaker 13: and less involvement. If that's If that's the case, that's
Speaker 13: that that would be interesting for me to hear something
Speaker 13: in that regard.
Speaker 2: Good point.
Speaker 1: Here's a Will Hardy quote on Austin Age quote. During
Speaker 1: my time with the Celtics, I really enjoyed working alongside
Speaker 1: Austin and was able to gain a great appreciation for
Speaker 1: his basketball inside and acumen. Having Austin health guide our
Speaker 1: group as we continue to grow as huge for our program.
Speaker 1: Are you surprised we haven't heard anything from Daniel from
Speaker 1: Danny himself, So again.
Speaker 10: I don't know.
Speaker 13: It's it'll be interesting Spence, how you know if that
Speaker 13: comes out in the coming weeks or months.
Speaker 2: Or maybe he's just finding out about this today.
Speaker 13: You know that while that part I I'm that's I.
Speaker 13: I can't put any any credence in any of that.
Speaker 13: That doesn't make any sense to me, But you know,
Speaker 13: be that as it may. If if that's what what
Speaker 13: Ryan Smith is saying, If that's what Will Hardy is saying,
Speaker 13: it will be interesting to hear from the CEO who
Speaker 13: has had the final say, or at least was the
Speaker 13: point man up to this point, and is he is
Speaker 13: that is that in the offering of of changing, you know,
Speaker 13: after the dust settles, after the draft and free agency,
Speaker 13: and does Danny, you know, in August, say hey, guys,
Speaker 13: it's been fun.
Speaker 10: I'll see you around.
Speaker 13: You know, the George Harrison quote, you know, hey guys,
Speaker 13: it's been fun. I'll see you around the clubs when
Speaker 13: he quit, the Beatles walked.
Speaker 10: Out and you know.
Speaker 13: So, I don't know, I don't know. I not saying
Speaker 13: anything bad. I don't know anything about that. It's just
Speaker 13: it is interesting that if Danny's been the guy and
Speaker 13: now other people, the owner and the head coach alluding
Speaker 13: or making direct comments to Austin Aine is now the guy,
Speaker 13: then that, you know, just brings up the question that
Speaker 13: I would have like, and so what happened to the
Speaker 13: other guy? What what is the deal with the guy
Speaker 13: who was the guy?
Speaker 10: You know what I mean?
Speaker 13: So, I don't know that that'll be interesting to hear
Speaker 13: how that how that plays out.
Speaker 1: I wonder if the George Harrison in this dynamic is
Speaker 1: their current general manager, who also has not been prominently
Speaker 1: featured in many of these press releases.
Speaker 2: Because I don't know how this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: I really don't And Xanik at one point was thought
Speaker 1: to be the next general manager of Milwaukee before that
Speaker 1: went to Horst.
Speaker 10: I think.
Speaker 1: And Zanik is a very well respected person across the
Speaker 1: landscape of basketball and all levels of ecosystems. As a
Speaker 1: former agent, he could probably get another job if he
Speaker 1: wanted one. Maybe he just likes living here. And again,
Speaker 1: we all want to stay employed. So you're not gonna
Speaker 1: hear anybody say anything out of turn. That's why I
Speaker 1: always remind listeners you listen to these press conferences and
Speaker 1: then you actually try to dig in to translate what
Speaker 1: they're saying, because they rarely give you the truth when
Speaker 1: they're talking to the public or talking to the media.
Speaker 1: You reference the Danny Ainge Big Game hunting, then it
Speaker 1: was Drew you Banks and Patty Mills, and everybody's like,
Speaker 1: wait what. And so it's Austin today saying we will
Speaker 1: not be tanking next year. But if we play that
Speaker 1: tape forward, Smithy, and if we look at who the
Speaker 1: Jazz have on their roster, and we don't know what
Speaker 1: the roster will look like in the fall, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go out out of lamb and say John Collins picks
Speaker 1: up that thirty million dollar option.
Speaker 2: That's my best guess.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 2: Wow, take today, Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith on the program, I'm going to go out out
Speaker 1: of lamb and say Collins, now if he doesn't, but
Speaker 1: he's going to. If he doesn't, they'll have some money
Speaker 1: to work with. But if he does, which he will,
Speaker 1: they will not have cap space, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Even though the books moving forward are clean, most of
Speaker 1: the expirings, like John and JC and everybody that's next
Speaker 1: off season, so they don't have a ton of avenues
Speaker 1: to add to the group. They'll have the draft picks
Speaker 1: as you referenced, and then we know the group as
Speaker 1: it is. But if we go off what Chris Finch said,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he's wrong that there are thirteen
Speaker 1: rosters in the West that are good and young and developed.
Speaker 1: If we play the tape forward and we take Austin
Speaker 1: at his word and they're going to put best foot
Speaker 1: forward and try to win this year, and they win
Speaker 1: like thirty two games and get the ninth pick and
Speaker 1: that goes to Oklahoma City, that's a massive step in
Speaker 1: the wrong Directionsmittie.
Speaker 2: It just is yeah.
Speaker 13: Well, and again, Spencer, they're going to have the guys
Speaker 13: you just mentioned, the so called veterans Sexton and Clarkson
Speaker 13: and the Collins are all on one I have one
Speaker 13: year left on their deals coming up this next season.
Speaker 13: So those are an NBA parliams referred to as expiring
Speaker 13: deals that a lot of teams are interested in because
Speaker 13: they feel like maybe a player in that situation can
Speaker 13: help them in the short term without that tea making
Speaker 13: any kind of commitment pass that current season. And so
Speaker 13: those might be guys who you know, might start the
Speaker 13: year on the Jazz, but then the Jazz find a
Speaker 13: home for them somewhere else where they can get either
Speaker 13: another player that they like or or some other draft assets.
Speaker 13: You don't know again how that would play out. A
Speaker 13: lot of teams, people forget, but a lot of teams
Speaker 13: are over the salary cap. And if you're over the
Speaker 13: salary cap into the luxury tax, then you become Then
Speaker 13: you have to have all these these mathematicians and these
Speaker 13: numbers guys who tell you who you can trade and
Speaker 13: who you can't trade because you can't trade, you know,
Speaker 13: John Collins to a team that's in the luxury tax
Speaker 13: and take back two first round picks because they're they're
Speaker 13: taking in twenty six million dollars in that scenario that
Speaker 13: they can't take on because they're in the tax So
Speaker 13: you have to trade twenty six million for twenty six million.
Speaker 10: So you have to have some kind of balance there.
Speaker 13: And so a lot of those trades that you'd like
Speaker 13: to do, you can't do just because the rules don't
Speaker 13: let you do it. So a lot of those things
Speaker 13: you get, you get hampered by. So it's it's it's
Speaker 13: not an enviable position to be in, other than the
Speaker 13: Jazz have a lot of flexibility to do a lot
Speaker 13: of different things, but you have to be able to
Speaker 13: get those things done, you know.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 13: Part of me also says and and again I don't
Speaker 13: know what their their their final iteration and setup is
Speaker 13: going to be, but I would think looking at most
Speaker 13: teams and how they operate and the teams the guys
Speaker 13: I know are on the league who are still in
Speaker 13: front offices and in those kinds of positions. Uh, not
Speaker 13: to take anything away from him, because I'm a I'm
Speaker 13: an Austin Ainge fan, and and I really like him,
Speaker 13: and I know he works very hard. But you're taking
Speaker 13: a call from Austin Ange or you're taking a call
Speaker 13: from Danny Ainge. Danny Ainge has a track record, and
Speaker 13: Danny Ainge has more clout and more umph and so
Speaker 13: you're more likely to, you know, to to take a
Speaker 13: call from him in terms of trying to you know,
Speaker 13: discuss something or whatever. Now, you know, maybe maybe Danny's
Speaker 13: still going to be doing that.
Speaker 10: We don't know. Uh, maybe he's the guy who makes
Speaker 10: those kind of phone calls.
Speaker 13: I don't know that. Uh, maybe that stuff is going
Speaker 13: to be turned over to Austin. If Ryan Smith is
Speaker 13: accurate or you know, if that's the way they're setting
Speaker 13: it up for for Austin to be the final guy. Uh,
Speaker 13: then that that that's That's the thing that's intriguing to
Speaker 13: me at the moment is is where where Danny uh
Speaker 13: is in all of this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would be very curious because Danny I do
Speaker 1: not believe was made available during this press or. I'm
Speaker 1: not seeing quote spill in from him looking at the
Speaker 1: beat Riders covering it. We will play a portion of
Speaker 1: this press conference coming up in a little bit. Look, man,
Speaker 1: uh like Oklahoma City. There's a stat that just flashed
Speaker 1: on ESPN. They're the youngest team as far as average
Speaker 1: age to play in the NBA Finals since nineteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: their average age is twenty four point seven years old.
Speaker 1: And I could go down the list. You know, the deal,
Speaker 1: the West is a bear.
Speaker 2: It is tough.
Speaker 1: I just don't know what's a realistic expectation. If if
Speaker 1: the new guy in charge is Austin Age and he
Speaker 1: is telling the community today last year's approach is nothing
Speaker 1: we're interested in this year and you add two first
Speaker 1: round picks to this roster and maybe you find the
Speaker 1: guy in the second round you think you can play
Speaker 1: for you and those are your off season maneuvers. Because
Speaker 1: to the points that we've been talking about, there just
Speaker 1: aren't a lot of other avenues this offseason for them
Speaker 1: to get something done.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's impossible.
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's hard for me to see based off
Speaker 1: the real game changers that may leave their teams. And
Speaker 1: I'm talking Jannis in Durant and maybe New York does
Speaker 1: something with Kat, Maybe Boston's new ownership says I'm not
Speaker 1: interested and riding a five hundred million dollar check just
Speaker 1: to have the roster. Jay like none of those players
Speaker 1: will agree to be traded to the Jazz to play
Speaker 1: for the Utah Jazz based off of where they're at
Speaker 1: right now. The reason you guys were able to trade
Speaker 1: for Mike Conley is you had a ready made team
Speaker 1: that was ready to win. Mike looked at your group
Speaker 1: and said, yeah, I'll go join Mitchell and Gobert and
Speaker 1: I'll be coached by Quinn. That's a good team. You've
Speaker 1: got to build up a good team before any vet
Speaker 1: is going to look at your group and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to join them. What's generally speaking, your thoughts
Speaker 1: on what this could look like if this is your
Speaker 1: group with some other rookies added to it and they
Speaker 1: try to put their best foot forward and compete in
Speaker 1: a Western conference that is just stacked right now.
Speaker 13: Well, it's it's a very daunting task. You're going to
Speaker 13: have to have your young guys really develop and really,
Speaker 13: you know, make a turn a corner. And what they've
Speaker 13: been able to do so far in the NBA caun'te George,
Speaker 13: for example, if he's going to be getting minutes next year,
Speaker 13: he's got to figure out how to play some defense.
Speaker 13: He plays no defense right now, but he's got to
Speaker 13: get better at that. The Collier kid he has to
Speaker 13: learn how to make some shots from the outside. He
Speaker 13: has to show improvement in that area. They those two guys,
Speaker 13: Philipowski I think can be a rotation guy for a
Speaker 13: decent team because he's a little bit. You can move
Speaker 13: him around a little bit, have some flexibility with him. Hendrix,
Speaker 13: we still don't know because he had the terrible tragedy
Speaker 13: with the broken leg and so the jury's out on him.
Speaker 13: Cody Williams, I don't know what his deal is. I'm
Speaker 13: not sure he's even an NBA player. That's just my
Speaker 13: personal opinion. But it's interesting that they're gonna have They're
Speaker 13: gonna have to rely on several of these guys to
Speaker 13: turn a corner in terms of their development, to show
Speaker 13: that they can improve, move and be part of, you know,
Speaker 13: a winning effort going forward.
Speaker 10: We know Marketing can be that.
Speaker 13: We know that we know Kessler can be a standard
Speaker 13: bearer in the middle, to be a rim protector, to
Speaker 13: be a shot blocking threat, to be a rebounder in traffic.
Speaker 13: We know he can do those things. But again, having
Speaker 13: said those things, Spence, I don't think any of those
Speaker 13: guys are protected or are untouchable because you're trying to
Speaker 13: build a team that wasn't very good the last couple
Speaker 13: of years, and no matter what improvements guys make, they
Speaker 13: have to really show that they can be contributed, contributing
Speaker 13: members of a winning effort and a positive growth spurt
Speaker 13: in terms of how they play. Is that going to
Speaker 13: take place this next year? Are they're going to add
Speaker 13: some other guys to the to the mix that are
Speaker 13: gonna help them. That's a tall task. That's a lot
Speaker 13: to ask. And you know you're talking about okay See Spence.
Speaker 13: When you look at it, okay see is going to
Speaker 13: be interesting because they're not only set up right now
Speaker 13: to be successful in the present and for the long
Speaker 13: term going forward, but they also should have had a
Speaker 13: whole different team in place still because they had this
Speaker 13: set up Spence over a decade ago when they drafted
Speaker 13: in successive drafts Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook. They
Speaker 13: hit on three draft picks. Boom, boom boom. They went
Speaker 13: to the twenty twelve NBA Finals. They should still be
Speaker 13: together really, when you think about it, they should still
Speaker 13: be running the show in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 10: But what happens.
Speaker 13: You get a taste of a success and all of
Speaker 13: a sudden, money egos getting the way, and now none
Speaker 13: of those guys are there. They're long gone their history.
Speaker 13: Oklahoma City brought in Paul George. That didn't work. He
Speaker 13: begged his way out, forced his way out. Sam Presty,
Speaker 13: who's one of the smartest gms going, you know, he said, Hey,
Speaker 13: the guy doesn't want to be here. I don't want
Speaker 13: him here if he doesn't want to be here, and
Speaker 13: so he moved him to the Clippers. He wanted to
Speaker 13: go to the Lakers. He moved them to the Clippers.
Speaker 13: He got Gilgess Alexander after his rookie year. He's a
Speaker 13: nice player, but he wasn't that player until he got
Speaker 13: to OKAC and Sam, I think would be one of
Speaker 13: the first guys to tell you, well, we thought he'd
Speaker 13: be a nice player, and he was part of the deal,
Speaker 13: and because we were kind of forced into doing a deal,
Speaker 13: and we got lucky.
Speaker 10: Okay.
Speaker 13: So we're gonna say that thirty percent of it was
Speaker 13: us being smart and seventy percent of it was us
Speaker 13: being lucky. Okay, And that's the deal. Well, Sacramento. Sacramento
Speaker 13: Drafteddaron Fox. Three years later, they draft Tyreese Halliburton. Now
Speaker 13: they've got two very good point guards on their roster
Speaker 13: and they're trying to figure out what do we do
Speaker 13: with these two guys and what happens Spence. We fast
Speaker 13: forward to today, they don't have either one of them.
Speaker 13: Isn't Sacramento. They've gotten rid of both of them, right,
Speaker 13: And so the point being that you can have these
Speaker 13: grand plans and you can have this thing laid out
Speaker 13: to what you want to do, it doesn't always work
Speaker 13: the way you want it to. You have to be
Speaker 13: able to shuck and jive and be able to make
Speaker 13: adjustments as you go to build your group. Sam Presty
Speaker 13: has done a great job not only in building his group,
Speaker 13: but in the fact that he has been able to
Speaker 13: not only develop guys, but he's been able to draft
Speaker 13: the right guys for how they're playing. And they're really
Speaker 13: a testament to how you can build a team if
Speaker 13: you're smart and diligent and kind of have your head about.
Speaker 1: You all right before I set you loose because we
Speaker 1: ran out of time. This is just going to be
Speaker 1: really fascinating to watch play out. I am of the
Speaker 1: opinion based off of the fact that there's a top
Speaker 1: eight protected pick in the draft next year.
Speaker 2: You need that asset.
Speaker 10: You have to.
Speaker 1: And look, I know that the whole losing intentionally and
Speaker 1: manipulating lineups is a really difficult thing for a fan
Speaker 1: base to ask for and or to ask from your
Speaker 1: fan base. And I have legitimate questions about because the
Speaker 1: culture thing, I mean, it's real. You want to build
Speaker 1: a culture in sports and business in life.
Speaker 2: I know it's real.
Speaker 1: But can you build a culture well, you're unseerious about competing.
Speaker 1: I have real serious questions about that. So it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a juxtaposition. It's it's an interesting paradox
Speaker 1: that they're faced with because I do think you need
Speaker 1: that asset next year. I think you need that pick
Speaker 1: nex year, and I think you need to put yourself
Speaker 1: in a similar position that you were in this year
Speaker 1: to at least have chances. But you're also spinning your
Speaker 1: wheels if you're unserious about competing when you're trying to
Speaker 1: build culture. Right, So, from the perspective of the Isaiah
Speaker 1: Calliers in Keante George's and Cody Williams and Bryce Sensibaz
Speaker 1: and Taylor Hendrix, like the grip of Philipowski's the grip
Speaker 1: of young players they have.
Speaker 2: On their roster.
Speaker 1: What are you hoping for this offseason for them to
Speaker 1: come into training camp in the fall to indicate that
Speaker 1: they are ready to develop in a way that quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I just haven't seen so far.
Speaker 13: Well, you're you're spot on about the culture thing, because
Speaker 13: what's interesting, Spence's is at the professional level, it's it's
Speaker 13: very difficult to build a culture when everyone in the
Speaker 13: in the room is accepting the idea that we're not
Speaker 13: really serious about winning. That is a difficult thing because
Speaker 13: what happens is you start builduilding those habits yep, about
Speaker 13: not winning and that the guys next to me are
Speaker 13: okay with that and who else, Oh, my bosses seem
Speaker 13: to be okay with that. And that is a tough
Speaker 13: deal because when you get if, you if you turn
Speaker 13: the corner and you get better and you are in
Speaker 13: a position to challenge for playoff positioning or playoff seating
Speaker 13: or whatever whatever it is as a competitive, serious team,
Speaker 13: you have to learn how to do that, and you
Speaker 13: have to learn how to break through the wall to
Speaker 13: be able to have a level of success. And it's
Speaker 13: hard to learn how to know how to do that.
Speaker 13: If you haven't done it to that point in time,
Speaker 13: and you know, we see that, you know, I heard
Speaker 13: that from some of the New York Knicks players, you
Speaker 13: know after the series with the Pacers that you know,
Speaker 13: you know, making progress, but we're you know, learning these
Speaker 13: steps about what we have to do to get better.
Speaker 13: And these are all star level competitive guys in the
Speaker 13: middle of their careers, right, and so you're asking a
Speaker 13: young group that hasn't won to all of a sudden
Speaker 13: have that kind of approach and culture it is. It
Speaker 13: is a difficult thing. You really have to get at
Speaker 13: some point be able to lay on your group and
Speaker 13: to be able to say we expect this, we expect
Speaker 13: this kind of production. If we're not getting it, then
Speaker 13: we're moving on to the next guy. That's what made
Speaker 13: Jerry Sloan's such a great play. Hey, the Jazz had
Speaker 13: great players. Okay, that's step one. Whether you have Stockton Malone,
Speaker 13: whether you add hornerseeck, you draft of Brian Russell in
Speaker 13: the second round, you get a Greg Oster tag, a
Speaker 13: serviceable big guy, a rim protector. At the end of
Speaker 13: the first round, whatever it is, you get Darren Williams with.
Speaker 10: A top pick.
Speaker 13: Whatever you have to get guys, but then they have
Speaker 13: to create the culture of winning based on the fact
Speaker 13: that we're not accepting less than that. And to this point,
Speaker 13: the Jazz seemed to be accepting that this is their
Speaker 13: lot to be down at the bottom, and we're not
Speaker 13: worried about the winning. That scares me because that's something
Speaker 13: that is hard to manufacture and fabricate, you know, without
Speaker 13: going through the hard work of doing it.
Speaker 10: So this summer is gonna be big for the Jazz.
Speaker 10: Young guys.
Speaker 13: It's going to be interesting to see how they come
Speaker 13: back in the fall, how many of them are still
Speaker 13: on the roster. That's gonna be an interesting thing because
Speaker 13: if Austin Angels is a truder's word about we're not
Speaker 13: doing that again, then I would think that there's got
Speaker 13: to be a lot of changing and a lot of
Speaker 13: different dynamics that go on between now and next October.
Speaker 2: Oh dear, well, we'll have to see.
Speaker 1: I mean, I continue to remind our listeners, we just
Speaker 1: were self spoiled so long with just incremental quote unquote
Speaker 1: rebuilds two to three years, then boom, we're back to
Speaker 1: having a good team here. And when you look across
Speaker 1: the landscape, of the NBA. There are plenty of cities
Speaker 1: and plenty of organizations that have found themselves in a
Speaker 1: perpetual state of where the Jazz are now decades, not three, four,
Speaker 1: five years, Charlotte. I think it's been twenty one years
Speaker 1: since they won a playoff series. I don't remember the
Speaker 1: last Washington had a little something with Beale and Wall
Speaker 1: for a second, but like.
Speaker 13: I don't know, man, it's Sacramento sacramental, and to me,
Speaker 13: that's an owner thing. They had a little blip a
Speaker 13: couple of years ago. They had a good young team.
Speaker 13: They had a Coach of the Year Mike Brown, then
Speaker 13: they fired him, then they fired the general manager, all
Speaker 13: within a twelve month period. Like, you can't, you know,
Speaker 13: you can't do things like that and expect that you're
Speaker 13: going to get a continued traction. You have to believe
Speaker 13: in what the courses you've laid out, and then you
Speaker 13: have to be willing to take the hard knocks to
Speaker 13: go along. And maybe that's you know, the Jazz are
Speaker 13: adding a guy like and As to their group, and
Speaker 13: maybe that's the next step in the progression that they're
Speaker 13: looking for.
Speaker 2: Would help if you had players, But.
Speaker 13: You gotta have play That's always. That's always the thing.
Speaker 13: You have to have players. I remind people all the time.
Speaker 13: Pat Riley said a great thing when we were playing
Speaker 13: in the Lakers in the eighties and in a playoff series,
Speaker 13: and they asking about all these different things they were
Speaker 13: doing scouting wise, and he finally looked at the reporter
Speaker 13: and said, well, I don't know if we have any
Speaker 13: advantage that way.
Speaker 10: I think our advantage is that we have Kareem and magic.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 13: You know, if you have Kareem and magic, yeah, I
Speaker 13: think that's a good place to start.
Speaker 1: Okay, for sure. It's many great to see is always.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, and we'll chat SAE. All right,
Speaker 1: the great Richard Smith. All right, we'll watch out of
Speaker 1: the final hour of the program coming up in just
Speaker 1: a bit.
Speaker 2: NBA Finals begin on Thursday.
Speaker 1: The battle for Lord Stanley's Chop will begin on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: But big news, kind of unexpected news here in the market.
Speaker 1: Austin Ainge has been hired as the new basketball president
Speaker 1: of basketball Operations for the Utah Jazz. Just wrapped up
Speaker 1: his comments from earlier, So in case you didn't have
Speaker 1: a chance here, it is Austin Ainge, the new President
Speaker 1: of basketball Operations for Utah Jazz.
Speaker 8: Bid Too.
Speaker 14: Announced that Austin Ange will be the new president of
Speaker 14: Utah Jazz basketball operations. We will open with remarks from
Speaker 14: Governor Ryan Smith and then turn the time over to
Speaker 14: Austin before we open up four questions, right.
Speaker 8: Yeah, thanks everyone for being here.
Speaker 3: Today is a great day for Utah Jazz Basketball. It's
Speaker 3: an awesome opportunity to welcome Austin Age is our president
Speaker 3: of basketball operations. We've we've had this role open for
Speaker 3: some time and we've been very methodical about it, and
Speaker 3: we're super excited that Austin and his family made a
Speaker 3: decision to come to Utah. Another bright, brilliant executive that
Speaker 3: we're bringing to the state and run our basketball program.
Speaker 3: So we couldn't be more excited. Ashley my elf our
Speaker 3: group and having him run basketball for the Utah Jazz
Speaker 3: and specifically not anyone else.
Speaker 8: So we're excited to have you here.
Speaker 3: I think before I kick it over to Austin, I'm
Speaker 3: sure O there's probably a lot of questions around organizational
Speaker 3: structure and design. And you know what I've learned in
Speaker 3: business and also in the NBA that every organization is.
Speaker 8: Set up a little different for us.
Speaker 3: Austin will be running the program. He's got final recommendation
Speaker 3: to myself on any decisions that need to be made.
Speaker 3: I think it's the job of both Justin, Danny and
Speaker 3: myself to kind of plug into him, and so hopefully
Speaker 3: that alleviates quite a few questions of who kind of
Speaker 3: has the final decision on roster and management and personnel.
Speaker 3: His resume speaks for himself, speaks for itself for seventeen
Speaker 3: years kind of growing up either playing hoops, scouting, coaching,
Speaker 3: and particularly on roster management.
Speaker 8: I think it couldn't come in a.
Speaker 3: Better time for what we're at as an organization, and
Speaker 3: we're just thrilled. I'm super excited that he's chosen to
Speaker 3: come back here after playing in Utah for four years,
Speaker 3: and we're.
Speaker 8: Super lucky to have you. So excited to get to work. Man.
Speaker 8: Thanks I'm so excited. Thank you so much. Ryan.
Speaker 4: I just I wanted to kind of explain why I
Speaker 4: chose to do this, why I'm so excited about this opportunity.
Speaker 4: The first thing is people Brian and Ashley, their passion,
Speaker 4: their leadership, their energy, their drive, They really really want
Speaker 4: to do this right and I couldn't think of better
Speaker 4: people to partner with. So and then the management of
Speaker 4: the team and the coaching staff of the team. Obviously,
Speaker 4: I used to have a share a wall with Will
Speaker 4: in Boston. We've known each other for a number of
Speaker 4: years and talked to a lot of basketball. I'm a
Speaker 4: big believer in Will Justin I've known since too thousand
Speaker 4: and nine. Very excited to work with him and lean
Speaker 4: on him and learn from him. My father and I
Speaker 4: worked together for fourteen years and had a lot of
Speaker 4: fun and a lot of success.
Speaker 8: I'd love to try to take that success right now.
Speaker 4: And there's a whole great group of management people here.
Speaker 8: Some of them are right here with us.
Speaker 4: A lot of people I've known for since they were nineteen,
Speaker 4: Avery Bradley and other others. Anyway, a lot of great people.
Speaker 4: The next thing is the state and specifically the fans.
Speaker 4: The passion here it's not common, it's not everywhere in
Speaker 4: this NBA, and that passion is so infectious, and it
Speaker 4: pushes a team, it pushes a franchise, It holds us accountable,
Speaker 4: it puts pressure, good pressure to succeed. And that was
Speaker 4: a huge, huge draw for me. And then lastly, the
Speaker 4: situation of the team. We have a ton of optionality,
Speaker 4: a lot of future picks, lot of things we can do.
Speaker 4: It's going to take a lot of work, but I
Speaker 4: can't wait to get started.
Speaker 10: To pull the thing.
Speaker 14: But gets a question, please raise your hands and then
Speaker 14: also announce your game and outlets of Austin.
Speaker 15: You get to know you, Ryan millerksel dot com Austin.
Speaker 15: You're coming in in the middle of a rebuild kind
Speaker 15: of how do you approach that? On how they've done
Speaker 15: things in the past and how firstus how you want
Speaker 15: to do things in the future.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm learning a little bit how they did things
Speaker 4: in the past, but and I'll just try to add
Speaker 4: what I can. But it's really, uh, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of ways you can execute it, but mostly it's just
Speaker 4: making a lot of good decisions over and over and over.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 4: Two ways, second round picks, first round picks, trades, free agency.
Speaker 4: It's just making good decisions, stacking up good players so
Speaker 4: you have more to work with. That's really the job.
Speaker 4: And so whether you're in the middle, the beginning or
Speaker 4: the end of building a team, that's what you're doing
Speaker 4: every day, trying to make good decisions and so that's
Speaker 4: what we'll.
Speaker 8: Try to do.
Speaker 16: Dana Green with ABC for Ryan just said, you're gonna
Speaker 16: have final say and personnel decisions, but how will you
Speaker 16: consult Justin and your father about making those decisions and
Speaker 16: then maybe just discuss the dynamic you have with Danny
Speaker 16: and how you've worked together and what that dynamic.
Speaker 8: Is Like Yeah, I mean you know it.
Speaker 4: I plan on including da Justin, Will and lots of
Speaker 4: people here, everyone like this is a This is a
Speaker 4: team sport, both downstairs and upstairs, right, this is this is.
Speaker 8: A team thing. Ryan will be super involved in everything.
Speaker 8: Of course.
Speaker 4: This is where we're gonna have millions of conversations and
Speaker 4: argue and fight and research and work and watch and
Speaker 4: then get in a room and figure it out, you know.
Speaker 4: And that's that's really how it works in all these
Speaker 4: world organizations. And I mean, you know, specifically with my father,
Speaker 4: we've we've been doing this since I you know a kid,
Speaker 4: even you know, working with together or separate teams, or
Speaker 4: before either of us were working with teams, talking about players,
Speaker 4: talking about ball.
Speaker 8: That's that's life. That's fun.
Speaker 17: Ben Anderson KSL Sports. Do you have austin an approach
Speaker 17: to how to build teams in the NBA of what
Speaker 17: you think is winning right now, where the league is headed,
Speaker 17: and how attainable that is.
Speaker 8: Well, I can't tell you all the secrets.
Speaker 4: No, I mean, I really believe that It is kind
Speaker 4: of a boring answer, but I really believe it's just
Speaker 4: stacking good decisions one on top of the other. And
Speaker 4: you know a lot of times people see the big
Speaker 4: trade or the you know, big move, that big free
Speaker 4: agent signing or something as the end, but really that
Speaker 4: requires lots of diligent management to build up to that point, right,
Speaker 4: And so it's just about stacking good decisions together.
Speaker 8: And that's what we're gonna try to do.
Speaker 15: Ryan Miller KSL dot com. Uh, what was the process
Speaker 15: like of getting this job? When did you get first
Speaker 15: contact each other? Well, yeah, kind of just take take
Speaker 15: us through that whole thing.
Speaker 8: Brian, Do you want to do that one you want
Speaker 8: me to do? We can both do it when it
Speaker 8: can start.
Speaker 4: I got a text from Ryan it said, hey call
Speaker 4: me or hey I got a question.
Speaker 8: Can you call me? You know, and uh, actually I
Speaker 8: was in a meeting with.
Speaker 4: New Celtics ownership for two hours planning their entire offseason
Speaker 4: and I got I gotta I got a text, so
Speaker 4: I couldn't respond for a while. When I got out,
Speaker 4: I called him and it was kind of an interesting conversation.
Speaker 8: I'll even let you take it for yeah, Like I.
Speaker 3: Think for me, it's something that that we had always
Speaker 3: thought about within the organization with with this role. You know,
Speaker 3: when Danny came in, he was very clear that he
Speaker 3: did not want to be the president of basketball operations,
Speaker 3: and that's.
Speaker 8: The role that he had.
Speaker 3: He wanted to be able to choose his spots at
Speaker 3: this phase of his career, but still had a lot
Speaker 3: to offer and value. And Danny can play business with
Speaker 3: us till he's eighty five, and Michelle doesn't want him
Speaker 3: in the house anymore. Whatever it is like, And you know,
Speaker 3: when you have a Hall of Famer that's around, you know,
Speaker 3: whether it's last week watching him post up Cody Williams
Speaker 3: down there, or like whatever it is where he wants
Speaker 3: to go. You know, I've always kind of wanted to
Speaker 3: get him in that role. And I would say that
Speaker 3: over the last two years, I think Justin and Danny
Speaker 3: have operated probably about as lean as any team in.
Speaker 8: The organization in the NBA, just with their roles and
Speaker 8: how they did it. So it's been something that had
Speaker 8: been on my mind. But really it came to.
Speaker 3: A conversation with me and Ashley and some of the
Speaker 3: folks in our group and said, you know, who would
Speaker 3: you go get?
Speaker 8: What would you do?
Speaker 3: And I kept coming back to Austin the challenges. I
Speaker 3: had no clue how Austin well. And you know, they've
Speaker 3: been in a pretty epic championship window.
Speaker 8: It's clear where his role was and when he meant
Speaker 8: to that organization.
Speaker 3: It was also very clear that not only at the
Speaker 3: beginning of last year, but this summer, his name was
Speaker 3: starting to float around and a lot of these other
Speaker 3: opportunities to run teams. And you know, kind of had
Speaker 3: to pit my stomach last year when I saw that
Speaker 3: because I always.
Speaker 8: Had this back of my head.
Speaker 3: He really needed to know that I felt that way,
Speaker 3: and I don't think that he'd ever known that. So
Speaker 3: I called him and told him how I felt and
Speaker 3: how I saw this, and he called me back after
Speaker 3: that meeting, said he can't get this out of my head.
Speaker 3: Was this something that you would think about now? I
Speaker 3: was like, whenever you're ready, And called me back the
Speaker 3: next morning and.
Speaker 4: Said he was kind of said, like, if we're going
Speaker 4: to do this like now, is that I.
Speaker 8: Want to be a part of.
Speaker 4: These are big decisions coming up, and if this is
Speaker 4: something we want to talk about, it.
Speaker 3: Now feels like the right So the biggest the biggest
Speaker 3: challenge for me was I had to call Danny, who
Speaker 3: was not and down said I hired your son, and
Speaker 3: Danny I had built a lot of trusts over the
Speaker 3: last fifteen years and I didn't know at that point
Speaker 3: whether I had completely lost all trusts or he was
Speaker 3: going to say that was the right move. But well,
Speaker 3: here we are, and so I couldn't be more excited.
Speaker 3: And then just knowing jay z and and how much
Speaker 3: of a team player and how how great their skill
Speaker 3: sets compliment each other. You know, I think from the
Speaker 3: outside oftentimes in the NBA, you know, you see that
Speaker 3: someone made that trade or someone did this.
Speaker 8: I've never been part.
Speaker 3: Of the decision in the league where it's not a
Speaker 3: group and a team effort, just like we're trying to
Speaker 3: build on the court.
Speaker 8: And so I'm really excited.
Speaker 3: We got better, the Jazz got better with this move,
Speaker 3: and I'm really excited for.
Speaker 8: It going forward. So that's kind of how it happened.
Speaker 3: You know, Fortunately Austin felt as good about our situation
Speaker 3: as I felt about him, and things happened quick, and
Speaker 3: so I also would be remissed if I didn't think
Speaker 3: Brad Stevens and the Celtics because when I called Brad
Speaker 3: just the way he handled it, knowing that that was
Speaker 3: probably not an easy call for him to receive, given
Speaker 3: where they're at and what Austin into that organization.
Speaker 8: He was also so excited and saying that it.
Speaker 3: Was the best part of his job that he gets
Speaker 3: to see this and that that was a super smart move.
Speaker 3: And he hopes that Austin still feels as strongly about
Speaker 3: the trades with you doz he did from this side.
Speaker 4: So he tried to negotiate with me on like immediately
Speaker 4: great great, as Da did when he left and came here.
Speaker 17: Yes, Ben Anderson KL Sports, you mentioned big decisions coming up,
Speaker 17: like in the next three weeks. You've got a top
Speaker 17: five pick and you can start negotiating extensions for some
Speaker 17: of the players.
Speaker 5: Are you it's three weeks enough.
Speaker 17: Time to have intopend knowledge of like what going on?
Speaker 17: They said, you know, the Celtics are picking what twenty
Speaker 17: eighth or whatever it is, correct, Yeah, how familiar with
Speaker 17: a fifth pick and then the players already on this roster.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean luckily, you know, I've always believed and
Speaker 4: we've always done it where you evaluate everyone, you know,
Speaker 4: the whole draft it is. You never know what trades
Speaker 4: come in on the clock, and so I've definitely spent
Speaker 4: a lot of time.
Speaker 8: I interviewed most of these young players at.
Speaker 4: The combine already, I've put in the time all year
Speaker 4: on these guys.
Speaker 8: So I feel prepared.
Speaker 4: But certainly, well, we'll crunch and I can't wait to
Speaker 4: learn from all the great people in the jazz organization
Speaker 4: and get their input and think through it big decisions.
Speaker 4: There'll be trade conversations, all all these things. It's a
Speaker 4: very active time of year, so we got a lot
Speaker 4: to prepare for.
Speaker 8: David Lockjazz Radio. Seems as though this season may have been.
Speaker 18: The first time where the new collective barging griment really
Speaker 18: began to put a stamp on the league and roster building.
Speaker 18: What did you learn from watching how the first season
Speaker 18: of this new collective part agreement had an impact on
Speaker 18: how you roster build now.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a great question, David it's it's subtle differences.
Speaker 4: You know, it's still talent and teamwork and you know,
Speaker 4: all the same things there. I think some extensions and
Speaker 4: other contracts will be negotiated a little stronger. Bird rights
Speaker 4: used to matter a little bit more, to get a
Speaker 4: little bit.
Speaker 8: Into the weeds on this stuff. But I think.
Speaker 4: There's uh, it's a it's a firmer cap, right, and
Speaker 4: so every dollar matters a little more.
Speaker 8: We used to care a lot about expiring contracts.
Speaker 4: We used to care a lot about holding on to
Speaker 4: players for potential trades, and really now the trades are
Speaker 4: easier and it's more about the space and the room
Speaker 4: under the aprons. So that's the short answer.
Speaker 10: Dana Green, ABC four.
Speaker 16: Perception of this current jazz team and how far away
Speaker 16: are they from becoming allegitate playoff contender.
Speaker 8: It's a great question.
Speaker 4: I you know, it'll just depend on how these guys
Speaker 4: develop and what other moves we make, right, It's a
Speaker 4: it's a hard thing to predict.
Speaker 8: I think it's fair to say we got a lot
Speaker 8: of work to do.
Speaker 19: Hi, Austin Lauren Green, sideline reporter here at the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 19: It's nice to meet you. You mentioned the situation of
Speaker 19: the team, a ton of optionality as well in the
Speaker 19: upcoming years. What excites you about that and just being
Speaker 19: in that battle with the different people who are in
Speaker 19: this room and just in this organization.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's a lot of moves right when
Speaker 4: you have a treasure trove of assets, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of things you can do. And we have young players
Speaker 4: we're excited about and see how they develop.
Speaker 8: There. There's a lot of different ways to go hopefully up.
Speaker 20: Sean O'Connell ESPN seven hundred, as someone correctly stated, seems
Speaker 20: like a team in a rebuild, and some things were
Speaker 20: done this past season to potentially manipulate where the team
Speaker 20: would end up in the draft lottery odds, and unfortunately,
Speaker 20: some of that is dependent on luck, and the team
Speaker 20: got a little bit unlucky. So do you have a
Speaker 20: philosophy what is your philosophy on for lack of a
Speaker 20: better term, to be in delicate tanking or you know,
Speaker 20: manipulating minutes and player performance in order to achieve better
Speaker 20: lot of reodds.
Speaker 8: Won't see that this year.
Speaker 2: Jb JP Chuga Utah Jazz dot com.
Speaker 7: Ryan.
Speaker 17: When you look at the front office editions, Austin meant
Speaker 17: mentioned Avery Bradley bringing in Danny.
Speaker 2: How have you seen the front office.
Speaker 15: And the executive part add to the pool of talent
Speaker 15: that you already inherited with ownership.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think anytime, and just like they're
Speaker 3: going to go through and in Boston, any you kind
Speaker 3: of come in, you're you're starting over a little bit
Speaker 3: because you kind of sit down. It's actually a weird
Speaker 3: experience when you come in for the first time and
Speaker 3: take over because you really didn't choose anyone that's there.
Speaker 3: And you know, fortunately for us, I mean, jay Z
Speaker 3: and and a couple of the other folks, we're just
Speaker 3: true team players, and they came in and said, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, jay Z was a little bit
Speaker 3: of a mentor to me as we came in and
Speaker 3: was like, hey, I got you, Like, this is going
Speaker 3: to be crazy. We're not going to do anything rash.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of school of thoughts here.
Speaker 3: And then you know, when Danny was able to come in,
Speaker 3: it was just another step in that process. And this
Speaker 3: is a really big step because ultimately, you know, this
Speaker 3: is Austin's show and we're all part of it, and
Speaker 3: you know, we're truly working as a team. But if
Speaker 3: I look at Will and his contract extension, I look
Speaker 3: at where Austin's come coming in continuity is really really
Speaker 3: important to me. And I think the one thing that
Speaker 3: Jazz fans can take away from this is we're sitting
Speaker 3: in a really good spot up top. We've got to
Speaker 3: go match that on the court.
Speaker 15: With your connections to utub and put at b yu,
Speaker 15: is this a dream job for you?
Speaker 4: And what was that first conversation with your father after
Speaker 4: you accepted the position? This is a dream. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've worked for a lot of years to to have
Speaker 4: the opportunity to lead lead a team, right.
Speaker 8: This is kind of was the next evolution for.
Speaker 4: Me in my career and it it we always, you know,
Speaker 4: in the basketball business, we always say ownership is the
Speaker 4: most important advantage and so be able to do this
Speaker 4: in Utah with Ryan and Ashley is very much a dream.
Speaker 19: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know, Da and I have talked, you know, many
Speaker 4: multiple times a week forever and he just I can't remember,
Speaker 4: said something like this is awesome.
Speaker 8: It's gonna be so fun, you know. Kevin round Stelly tribute.
Speaker 8: This one's to Ryan with how the draft lottery played out.
Speaker 17: Does that change your approach to the rebuild and change
Speaker 17: your thinking on the rebuild at all, or are you
Speaker 17: guys gonna stick the course.
Speaker 8: I think Austin kind of answered that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, we've got smart people
Speaker 3: around the table and they'll look at all the optionality
Speaker 3: that's that's in front of us, But you know we're
Speaker 3: gonna get a great player if we draft at five.
Speaker 3: So I think that I think that's kind of missed
Speaker 3: and all this. As disappointed as everyone was not to
Speaker 3: get the number one pick, I think, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: something that.
Speaker 8: Isn't talked about enough as the.
Speaker 3: Talent that's in this draft, and we'll be prepared if
Speaker 3: you look at the playoffs and look at all the
Speaker 3: best players in the NBA and how many of them
Speaker 3: went number one.
Speaker 4: It's it's better to have number one, but there's a
Speaker 4: lot of other stars that came from all over the draft,
Speaker 4: and certainly the Jazz have a long history of second
Speaker 4: rounders that have become All Stars, and you know, so
Speaker 4: it's not the only way to do it.
Speaker 21: James Peterson, ESPN seven hundred. There's a perception Austin that
Speaker 21: there's certain ways you can't build a team in Utah,
Speaker 21: which I'm sure you're aware of that perception. You obviously
Speaker 21: had a lot of success building it the way you
Speaker 21: did in Boston, you and your team there. That said,
Speaker 21: how much of how you went about roster construction there?
Speaker 5: Do you feel like you can dupicate here in Utah?
Speaker 4: I think it's the same, Honestly. I think this is
Speaker 4: a great place, and I think you build it the
Speaker 4: right way, like I said, stacking good decisions.
Speaker 8: Over and over and over.
Speaker 4: And players want hope, they want to win, they want
Speaker 4: great culture, they want great coaching, they want great teammates.
Speaker 4: So that's what we have to give them.
Speaker 16: Dane Degreen, ABC four for Ryan, can you define Justin's
Speaker 16: Annix's role with the organization?
Speaker 19: Now?
Speaker 3: After this, Justin's the GM of the organization. His role
Speaker 3: hasn't changed at all. And you know, I actually think
Speaker 3: that if you think about the skill set that Austin
Speaker 3: has and you know jay Z's skill set, they actually
Speaker 3: work really well. I mean Austin, Austin came up from
Speaker 3: player coach heavily, heavily in the scouting and talent evaluation
Speaker 3: and roster construction. I think jay Z came up as
Speaker 3: an attorney or lawyer into talent much more managing players
Speaker 3: on that side, and it's kind of come over to
Speaker 3: this side together and if you look at where they
Speaker 3: meet up, and then you combine that with with DA
Speaker 3: who hopefully can pick his spots a little bit more,
Speaker 3: you know, and have a little bit more depth there
Speaker 3: as well as the demands on the league. I mean,
Speaker 3: we're supposed to be everywhere once. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: we're supposed to be here watching our team while also
Speaker 3: tournaments are going on in the Big East and the
Speaker 3: Big twelve, plus you know, overseas. I mean, I was
Speaker 3: just talking to Austin today about all the trips that
Speaker 3: he spent all over Europe, all over Australia, and and
Speaker 3: you know, we're all supposed to be everywhere, and so
Speaker 3: I think that, as I mentioned earlier, we got a
Speaker 3: lot better. I think the one commonality that you have
Speaker 3: between everyone is like there's truly, truly a good vibe
Speaker 3: and teamwork, and I think Will's a big piece of
Speaker 3: that as well as the other parts of our organization,
Speaker 3: which is what I'm excited about.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, did I hear applause after Austin's opening comments
Speaker 1: were people clapping?
Speaker 10: Correct?
Speaker 6: I think there was like a some sort of like
Speaker 6: a Friends of the Jazz or maybe some sort of
Speaker 6: gallery I've been Unless that was Tony Jones and co, I.
Speaker 1: Would Tony's just given him, just giving him, like the
Speaker 1: Arsenio Hall. I've been listening in NBA press conferences for
Speaker 1: thirty years, if now more. I don't know that I've
Speaker 1: ever heard applause after. I don't know that's an It
Speaker 1: was a little.
Speaker 6: Weird Alex Jensen like intro that was like a presser
Speaker 6: in an event like that. Stuff like that for sure.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I thought the jazz thing was the immediate event.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, there uh ESPN seven under sports dot Com.
Speaker 1: If you missed any of Austin Age's comments or Danny
Speaker 1: Ainge's comments, excuse me, h Ryan Smith, Danny Ainge not available.
Speaker 1: Justin Zanik not available. Penny for Justin Xanix's thoughts is
Speaker 1: all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2: All right, really pumped for tonight.
Speaker 1: Game seven, Knicks, Pacers, Madison, Square Garden who wait.
Speaker 5: In some reality?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what man like not like not
Speaker 1: like it went down, you know, like not don't lay
Speaker 1: an egg with an elimination game in front of you,
Speaker 1: where in a building we know you can win in
Speaker 1: we've already seen it and the team that look, you
Speaker 1: just have to give it to the Pacers.
Speaker 2: They were a better They deserve to march on. I
Speaker 2: don't know what.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the Knicks do, because I do
Speaker 1: think it's a good group and they're signed. I think
Speaker 1: Kat's eligible or no, Michael's eligible for an extension. I
Speaker 1: know he's taking a lot of heat. But with how
Speaker 1: desolate it's been there for so long, I think I
Speaker 1: think it was fun.
Speaker 2: I just didn't. I did not love the way they
Speaker 2: went out. I thought it was very disappointing.
Speaker 6: Now the way the way the way they went out
Speaker 6: was ugly in the basketball Number one, the sloppiness they
Speaker 6: played with the comeback loss. Right, Obviously, it was cool
Speaker 6: they did it on the flip side against the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 6: But when you go out the way they did it
Speaker 6: always going to leave a bitter taste in your mouth,
Speaker 6: and for me especially, it hurts a little more when I,
Speaker 6: you know, I look at the NBA, look at the
Speaker 6: landscape of the league, and while I think that OKAYC
Speaker 6: is going to be here for the next decade. This
Speaker 6: was maybe the most open opportunity for a like a
Speaker 6: non dynasty, non you know, a team that doesn't have
Speaker 6: this big championship window. This was maybe the best year
Speaker 6: for one of those teams to sneak in and win
Speaker 6: one that we've seen in a long time. And you know,
Speaker 6: you know, when when do you get another opportunity where
Speaker 6: the East Coast's best team has their star go down
Speaker 6: where you know you I don't want to say back
Speaker 6: into the Eastern Conference Finals, but man, without a lot
Speaker 6: of the things that went down, the Knicks aren't in
Speaker 6: the Eastern Conference Finals, and they had a real opportunity
Speaker 6: spence fully healthy twenty point lead in Game one of
Speaker 6: the ECF, and uh, well, now we sit here.
Speaker 1: And you know there's a reason why after Game one
Speaker 1: I cracked the mic and the first thing I said
Speaker 1: about that game was that's.
Speaker 2: Really hard to come back from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that game one loss was not a close battle
Speaker 1: where it could have gone either way. You had that
Speaker 1: so in your back pocket. And when you lose a
Speaker 1: game where it's a soul crushing defeat, I mean, losing
Speaker 1: home court is one thing, but these two teams are
Speaker 1: both really good on the road, so I wasn't necessarily like, oh,
Speaker 1: they lost home court. I was like, wow, because the
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson will be eighty five years old and he'll
Speaker 1: be trying to sleep one night and they'll be like, dude,
Speaker 1: Game one, Eastern Conference Finals, twenty twenty five. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know that's not a loss that you shake off easily.
Speaker 6: I think I mentioned it the night after, right I
Speaker 6: And I actually mentioned it the night after the nixt
Speaker 6: one Game one against the Celtics. If you recall, I said, I,
Speaker 6: you know, Spence, I think we won the series based
Speaker 6: on how we beat Boston in that game, in that comeback,
Speaker 6: and I also mentioned that day.
Speaker 5: Cleveland in the in the finals.
Speaker 6: Right, you go back to what twenty fourteen, twenty and
Speaker 6: twenty seventeen, Actually j R. Smith forgets that they missed
Speaker 6: a free throw, and you know, Lebron has a fifty
Speaker 6: whatever point triple double and they lose because Smith just
Speaker 6: forgets time to score. Situation, and the way they lost
Speaker 6: that game, I thought they lost the series. Those three
Speaker 6: game one moments to me stand out in situations where
Speaker 6: although you never take too much stock in one of
Speaker 6: game sevens or one of a seven game series. Those
Speaker 6: three situations stand out to me where I thought to
Speaker 6: my head, oh, they just lost the series.
Speaker 2: And they did yep. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 1: So big news of the day today, Austin Ange has
Speaker 1: been hired as the new president of basketball Operations for
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz. If you missed Austin's press conference, where
Speaker 1: he received a standing ovation after his intro, you can
Speaker 1: go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Stanley Cup
Speaker 1: Finals begins on Wednesday. NBA Finals begin on Thursday, and
Speaker 1: we are your home for both of those events in
Speaker 1: the market here on ESPN seven hundred. All right, Porter,
Speaker 1: what comes our way? On a Tuesday edition of the
Speaker 1: radio show.
Speaker 6: On a Tuesday edition of The Drive, we will of
Speaker 6: course recap the Austin Age press or, the debut of
Speaker 6: the new Jazz president of basketball operations, and talk some
Speaker 6: NBA finals with Tim McMahon for the NBA Daily Assist
Speaker 6: on the Jazz side, Sarah Todd stops by the program
Speaker 6: fresh off a good old long sabbatical. Dave Fox stops
Speaker 6: by on a Tuesday and talking tomorrow as well as
Speaker 6: well as that's been not great.
Speaker 1: Ooh ooh, not great, Bob, not great. Hopefully they can
Speaker 1: turn it around. All right, we'll say goodnight special thank
Speaker 1: you today, Kyle Bonnagura, Tom Haberstrow and the great Richard
Speaker 1: Smith for any of the saund you may have missed
Speaker 1: from the show today. ESPN seven hundred Sports dot Com
Speaker 1: is your home for that. Also, downloader mobile app ticus
Speaker 1: on the go so I listen to our astation. ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred app is available App Store, Google play Store
Speaker 1: for free. And then for what we do in our space,
Speaker 1: specifically for four hours every afternoon. It's all up digitally
Speaker 1: for your consumption and disposal with our podcast page. It's
Speaker 1: called The Drive with Spence. Check its that's available wherever
Speaker 1: you get your show. Subscribe, rate reviews, Sandi's things in
Speaker 1: the comments, give us all the stars.
Speaker 10: It helps.
Speaker 1: Reporter I'm spent saying tonight. Enjoy your Monday evening. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to you on a Tuesday edition of The Driving.
Speaker 1: It's always you can find it right here on ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred and ninety two ANDFM. We are proud to
Speaker 1: be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.