Speaker 1: Let's continue the athletic portion of the radio program with
Speaker 1: our next guest. It's pit bull in the background, so
Speaker 1: you know, it's Zach Harper time on a Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: All right, thirty degrees.
Speaker 1: It is dumping snow, our biggest snow storm of the year.
Speaker 2: What's it like where you're at?
Speaker 3: Well, it was really cold this morning when I went
Speaker 3: and got coffee, still rolled the windows down because the
Speaker 3: dog loves the window down the car, but it was
Speaker 3: like fifty. I think it's it's I mean, it's really
Speaker 3: sunny outside, but I think it's like it's deceptive. It's
Speaker 3: got to be like sixty six, decept little windy, little wendy.
Speaker 3: Yeah here, I mean I walked to the store a
Speaker 3: little bit ago.
Speaker 4: Definitely needed a hoodie.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: I was in Florida a week and a half ago,
Speaker 1: down to the golf tournament, and the first day of
Speaker 1: the golf tournament it was sixty two and windy, and
Speaker 1: I could have been nude and have been happy, but Floridians,
Speaker 1: as it.
Speaker 2: Were, were like bundled up. Are you soft like that?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: Like if anything blows seventy you gotta have a hoodie?
Speaker 1: On a and a beanie.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's a softness.
Speaker 3: Like there's a litany of reasons why that's not acceptable,
Speaker 3: whether it's like being shorts and everything. Like, it's just
Speaker 3: like cold is cold. It doesn't matter where you are.
Speaker 3: There's colder, but it's still cold. So like, yeah, I've
Speaker 3: got to put you on if it's below seventy because
Speaker 3: why would I want to expose myself to those elements.
Speaker 2: I think that's softness. I think you've become soft.
Speaker 3: I think if you were if you're in seventy five
Speaker 3: degree weather all the time and then it drops to
Speaker 3: sixty five, you get colder.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, by definition, sixty five degrees is colder than
Speaker 1: seventy five degrees, but sixty five degrees in no way,
Speaker 1: shape or form is legitimately legitimately cold, Zach.
Speaker 4: It's colder than the surface of mercury.
Speaker 2: I cannot collide.
Speaker 1: That sounds like something Trump would say with no way
Speaker 1: to even back that up.
Speaker 4: So I had that it's one. It's closer to the Sun,
Speaker 4: So that's just scientifically true.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: Trust I've been on.
Speaker 3: Space TikTok a lot over the last couple of months.
Speaker 4: I'm learning a lot about space.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know that I'm learning a lot about space,
Speaker 3: but I'm I'm finding out like I'm having a lot
Speaker 3: of information thrown at me.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, fair enough, fair enough. I just know
Speaker 1: you lived in our market once upon a time. Then
Speaker 1: you left us for la and it feels like you've
Speaker 1: become soft. That's that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But no, I hated the cold there too. Like it
Speaker 3: was fifty five was still cold to me in Salt
Speaker 3: Lake City. Was still cold to me when I lived
Speaker 3: in Minneapolis.
Speaker 4: Like fifty five, sixty sixty five, that's still cold.
Speaker 1: Minneapolis winters make this look, you know, warm, so you
Speaker 1: can't complain. And I grew up in the Northeast. I mean,
Speaker 1: Northeast winters are hell. They just it's March eighteenth and
Speaker 1: there's six feet of snow outside, so I'm just bummed out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like, look, I feel bad for you,
Speaker 3: but also you know your taxes aren't as bad.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, all right, that's enough. That's enough. That'll do, Zach,
Speaker 2: that'll do all right.
Speaker 1: Only because it's topical, and I would imagine at some
Speaker 1: point throughout the course of your career you covered Alex Jensen.
Speaker 1: You were able to get to know Alex Jensen. And
Speaker 1: after nine years is Quinn Snyder's lead assistant, one year
Speaker 1: with Will and three years in Dallas with Jason Kidd,
Speaker 1: Alex Jensen leaves the NBA ranks to take over the
Speaker 1: University of Utah as their head coach. I just wonder
Speaker 1: what sort of context you have with this kind of
Speaker 1: big piece of news that's dropped over the past forty
Speaker 1: eight hours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was one of those guys where like it
Speaker 3: was him, there was like who was it was Lamar Skeeter,
Speaker 3: there was there was Johnny Bryant, right, like there was
Speaker 3: these these these assistants under Quinn who were just renowned
Speaker 3: as like these great development guys, right and it was
Speaker 3: part of the reason why the Jazz are so good
Speaker 3: at developing players is they just have these incredible coaches.
Speaker 3: I think I was a little shocked, like he never
Speaker 3: he never seemed to get much buzz around head coaching
Speaker 3: positions in the NBA, which was weird to me because
Speaker 3: he was so well liked within the organization and even
Speaker 3: outside the organization. People talked about him in a very
Speaker 3: high regard. But you know, some guys just just have
Speaker 3: those just have those situations where they don't get that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's an agent thing. I don't
Speaker 3: know if that's an interview thing. I don't know what
Speaker 3: that is is. But the idea of him going and
Speaker 3: being the head coach at a major program, it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Like if he's as good at at development and you
Speaker 3: never really know this stuff, you know, kind of from
Speaker 3: the outside looking in, you just kind of go off
Speaker 3: what you see and what you hear, you know, second
Speaker 3: and third hand. But if he's as good as or
Speaker 3: even half as good as they as they would rave
Speaker 3: about him with, like you throw him into a college
Speaker 3: environment with young players who need that skill development and
Speaker 3: need to prepare for the NBA, he's he's going to
Speaker 3: be as good as anybody at the college level.
Speaker 1: I wonder since you were around here at the time,
Speaker 1: because you hear these stories and look, the bottom line
Speaker 1: is what a player is able to improve in such
Speaker 1: a stark, rapid fashion. Most of the credit does go
Speaker 1: to the player. But Dennis Lindsay on My show use
Speaker 1: the term circus freak to describe the way that Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert was treated at the NBA combine, and then Rudy's
Speaker 1: rookie year. I remember what, like, can he run up
Speaker 1: and down the floor without snapping a leg and half
Speaker 1: like it didn't look like it was going to work
Speaker 1: at all. And then throughout the course of really one
Speaker 1: off season, Rudy went from like a two way G
Speaker 1: League guys that's going to work to a defensive star,
Speaker 1: wart Hall of Fame player, multi time All Star, and
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year. And most people that watch
Speaker 1: that development up close talk about Alex's hand in that.
Speaker 1: Alex also worked with Walker Kessler for a year and
Speaker 1: then went on down to Dallas and worked with Lively
Speaker 1: and Gaffer and those other big So do you have
Speaker 1: any insight as to kind of the developmental side of
Speaker 1: what Alex Jensen has been able to bring to a
Speaker 1: lot of really good players in the pros?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think you know, if you can
Speaker 3: be especially in today's game, because we have seen this
Speaker 3: resurgent resurgence of big men, if you can be kind
Speaker 3: of a big man whisper of sorts right and at
Speaker 3: the college level, it's going to be very important.
Speaker 4: It's a big skill.
Speaker 3: Like I always laughs because like just one of the
Speaker 3: things that drives me the most crazy, is like is
Speaker 3: like basketball influencer trainers on social media, right man, Like
Speaker 3: like just I have a real, real hatred and that
Speaker 3: just the entire culture and everything. And I'm not saying
Speaker 3: they don't do anything, but yes, you work for someone,
Speaker 3: you work with someone for like a certain amount of
Speaker 3: time over two three months, maybe four months, considering how
Speaker 3: long yourross season is, and you sure you learn skills
Speaker 3: and you learn things or whatever. But to me, I
Speaker 3: never look at that as like actual development. What I
Speaker 3: look at is like, what were you like that eight
Speaker 3: months you were with your NBA team? And so when
Speaker 3: you see someone like Rudy, like I bet ruty. First
Speaker 3: of all, like you said, like the player gets the
Speaker 3: majority of the credit, and they have to be willing
Speaker 3: to work, but they also have to be taught what
Speaker 3: to work on. I can go shoot a thousand jumpers
Speaker 3: in the gym all day and get pretty decent at it.
Speaker 4: But if I'm not.
Speaker 3: Being taught the proper way to apply all this to
Speaker 3: an NBA game or to a basketball game, it doesn't
Speaker 3: really mean anything. Right, Like the application of that, and
Speaker 3: I think from what I heard, the application of not
Speaker 3: just the skills, but the awareness on here's what you
Speaker 3: need to do in these situations and how you.
Speaker 4: Need to adapt.
Speaker 3: That's where Alex Jensen seemed to like really shine with
Speaker 3: Rudy in particular, because that's what you know, what I
Speaker 3: was around for a couple of years, and so that
Speaker 3: that application of it, which I think is the biggest
Speaker 3: skills set. Like I was, I was thoughting this is
Speaker 3: this is gonna sound like a name dropping and it
Speaker 3: is a little bit. But I was talking to Dominique
Speaker 3: Wilkins years ago before a game in Atlanta, and he,
Speaker 3: you know, he was talking about, you know, yeah, all
Speaker 3: these guys learn all this, all these basketball skills, but
Speaker 3: they don't learn how to play right, Like, they don't
Speaker 3: learn how to play and the off season, you know,
Speaker 3: these veterans in the eighties and nineties, like they would
Speaker 3: just go and actually play basketball, and that's how they
Speaker 3: learned how to get better at basketball. And so learning
Speaker 3: the application of the skill matters way more than learning
Speaker 3: the skill itself. And I think Alex Jensen is the
Speaker 3: guy that teaches you how to adapt to the game
Speaker 3: of basketball.
Speaker 1: Do you think we'll see more because you know, college
Speaker 1: basketball now has moved into this space where it does
Speaker 1: mirror of pros in a way that it didn't even
Speaker 1: four or five years ago. And it was always a
Speaker 1: rare thing for a coach to give up the pro
Speaker 1: life to go back to college. And the only time
Speaker 1: it happened is if you didn't really have any other choice,
Speaker 1: like a John.
Speaker 2: Calipari or Rick Patina or what have you.
Speaker 1: And you know, ultimately, the days of taking a flight
Speaker 1: with two stops in a layover, then renting a car
Speaker 1: to drive to the outskirts of Iowa to see a
Speaker 1: prospect aren't necessarily the deal in college anymore. In the NBA,
Speaker 1: you know, the deal, you fly in the sky in
Speaker 1: a five star hotel, you eat lobster and steak, and
Speaker 1: you land and you check in your five star hotel
Speaker 1: and life.
Speaker 2: Is pretty good even when you're on the road.
Speaker 1: But the way the college game is going, it feels
Speaker 1: like there's been a little bit more of a willingness
Speaker 1: from pro coaches to look at, you know, college gigs.
Speaker 1: Do you think this is the beginning of a bit
Speaker 1: of a trend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately there are just so
Speaker 3: many more jobs, right, Like, there's thirty teams in the NBA, right,
Speaker 3: and there's what one hundred and something one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty one hundred and thirty D one schools or maybe
Speaker 3: that's even low. There might even be more important that
Speaker 3: in terms of the programs and so one, the opportunity
Speaker 3: is greater, but two, like, yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 3: It is becoming such a business, like an overt business
Speaker 3: at the college level. I do think guys that are
Speaker 3: if you don't get that shot in the next few years,
Speaker 3: if you're not that hot name like a you know,
Speaker 3: like Charles Lee was before he went to Charlotte or
Speaker 3: Darvin ham was before he got the Lakers gig and everything, like,
Speaker 3: if you're not that hot name, you do have to
Speaker 3: start looking to the college level, and the money's going
Speaker 3: to be there, and it's gonna look a lot like
Speaker 3: at least in terms of the business of it all.
Speaker 3: It's getting players, it's gonna look a lot like the
Speaker 3: NBA level.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I knew that the number you dropped was low, and
Speaker 1: based off of the knowledge that you dropped of the
Speaker 1: temperature of the surface of mercury. I know numbers are hard,
Speaker 1: but three hundred and fifty two D one program, Zach,
Speaker 1: that's wild.
Speaker 4: I mean good ones.
Speaker 2: No, that's fair, that's fair, but it's fine.
Speaker 1: But you're point about just employment, right, like is well taken.
Speaker 1: You got to get a gig and if at some
Speaker 1: point if you run out of NBA opportunities, I guess
Speaker 1: the college game these days maybe is a better fallback
Speaker 1: option than it was back in the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're looking okay, if there's your three fift yard,
Speaker 3: you're looking at more than ten times the amount right
Speaker 3: right in terms of employment, Like yeah, that's you know,
Speaker 3: they're not all going to be a Utah or a
Speaker 3: Kentucky or whatever. You know, these major programs that can
Speaker 3: that can spend money. But I mean we we've seen
Speaker 3: so many times these guys make their way up through
Speaker 3: the ranks. Like you're not using this as necessarily this
Speaker 3: is my you know, next twenty years, like it might
Speaker 3: just be your next four or five. You know, I
Speaker 3: think plenty of coaches have that in mind of I'll
Speaker 3: make a name for myself and then we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: What's uh, what's the difference in the dating scene La
Speaker 1: and Salt Lake?
Speaker 3: Oh man, that's the whole, that's the whole.
Speaker 4: Different show. I mean they like it's it's a it's
Speaker 4: a cesspool.
Speaker 5: It's just the worst it is.
Speaker 4: It's so weird.
Speaker 3: I can't even begin to tell you, Like, it's such
Speaker 3: a it's such a weird place to be, like just
Speaker 3: talking to people like like and I just think I
Speaker 3: think society in general is broken in terms of communication,
Speaker 3: but there are I think, because there are so many
Speaker 3: options here that people just don't know how to interact
Speaker 3: with each other anymore. Like it's almost like like we
Speaker 3: weren't meant as a as a as a being to
Speaker 3: have this much information in these many things and in
Speaker 3: front of us. I actually saw this this video online
Speaker 3: the other day that I thought was perfectly put there,
Speaker 3: Like we were meant to see our reflection maybe four
Speaker 3: times in our life, like in a pond, and now
Speaker 3: we see each we see ourselves constantly, and we're not
Speaker 3: meant for this kind of information. I actually think it.
Speaker 3: I think we've gotten to a point because of technology.
Speaker 3: It has broken everybody and so just everywhere you are,
Speaker 3: You're like everyone in this side away is broken, but
Speaker 3: LA is just a different kind of broken.
Speaker 1: More success Zach Harper as a single male and and
Speaker 1: success can be defined on however you define it.
Speaker 2: I'm not here to judge, but Salt Lake or La.
Speaker 3: Oh well, I wasn't a single man in Salt Lake,
Speaker 3: so that that wasn't.
Speaker 4: That wasn't the scenario.
Speaker 3: I moved there with somebody and moved out of there
Speaker 3: with somebody.
Speaker 4: But I would say.
Speaker 3: Pre COVID in La was fish in a barrel. Couldn't
Speaker 3: have liked, couldn't have been easier to to get dates.
Speaker 3: Since then, it has definitely gotten to be jumping through
Speaker 3: more hoops, and these days it's it's I mean, it's
Speaker 3: just it's just getting people out of their homes. It's
Speaker 3: difficult in general, right, even the people I know who
Speaker 3: want to.
Speaker 4: Date, like they're just like, ah'd be bothered.
Speaker 1: Well, And I can't even blame anybody because I don't
Speaker 1: want to leave my house either. I mean I just
Speaker 1: kind of think it's where we're at now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I just you know, you keep waiting for
Speaker 3: that like that hot postal worker like door dash person
Speaker 3: to like, you know, fall in love with I just
Speaker 3: not here.
Speaker 2: Keep waiting, pal. I don't know that you're gonna run
Speaker 2: into the hot door dash. I mean, look, it is LA.
Speaker 1: I think My experience is most people in the service
Speaker 1: industry are there to try to find some dreams.
Speaker 2: So maybe who knows, Zach.
Speaker 1: And in Los Angeles, maybe the door dash dating community
Speaker 1: is more vibrant than I understand.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you the service industry in terms of waiters, waitresses, bartenders,
Speaker 3: that's still that's still the spot to go. The apps
Speaker 3: and all that other stuff is just crap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, not fair enough.
Speaker 1: And I just because you brought up the whole like
Speaker 1: basketball trainer, influencer culture and yeah, my favorite, Like I
Speaker 1: think influencer culture is a pathetic thing that needs to
Speaker 1: go away, period. But I think my favorite drifters are
Speaker 1: dating coaches, right, I think those are my favorite drifters
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, you're so right.
Speaker 5: And and just to influence the culture because.
Speaker 3: I go to this like very I don't I don't
Speaker 3: necessarily buy anything there. I just go to like check out,
Speaker 3: you know, the Devorces with my dog every day. But
Speaker 3: I go to you know Arawon sure, yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 3: I'll go sit outside. There's like this beautiful area outside
Speaker 3: of Arawon. Every day I'll go and hang out there
Speaker 3: in the morning with my dog. It's one of the
Speaker 3: places we go to just get him outside of the
Speaker 3: house before we have to be inside while I work
Speaker 3: all day. And recently there's been this thing in Arawon
Speaker 3: where there's this Japanese strawberry. They sell a single strawberry.
Speaker 3: It's nineteen dollars for one strawberry. And so I've seen
Speaker 3: all these people like instagramming it and put it on
Speaker 3: their phone and like everything. And I saw these two
Speaker 3: women this weekend, these these two hot Russian women who
Speaker 3: were like doing some kind of instagram thing for it,
Speaker 3: and they were just like, yeah, it wasn't worth it.
Speaker 4: I'm like, this is where I live.
Speaker 5: This is the worst, absolutely the worst.
Speaker 2: Jeez man, how far we have fallen.
Speaker 1: Goodness, gracious, anyway, let's talk more basketball.
Speaker 2: We can move on.
Speaker 1: Let's see here, there's just nothing really interesting to talk
Speaker 1: about when it comes to the jazz. I do wonder
Speaker 1: you know, you're a guy that pays attention to prospects
Speaker 1: in the draft, and I don't know if we're high
Speaker 1: speed ahead to you know, I've talked to you about
Speaker 1: this before, like with the Wamba Yama year, when you
Speaker 1: would hear a couple of like guys trying to be different, Like, well,
Speaker 1: I kind of like, Scoot, You're like, don't do that, right?
Speaker 1: Are are we in an area at all where there's
Speaker 1: any doubt about the top of the draft or is
Speaker 1: it Cooper flag and everybody else?
Speaker 3: I think it is Cooper flag and everybody else. But
Speaker 3: I do think I think you'll get some of that,
Speaker 3: especially like if Duke gets knocked out early or or
Speaker 3: Cooper Flagg. You know, he hurt his ankle, So if
Speaker 3: he doesn't have a good showing or something, you might
Speaker 3: start getting some people going Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey whatever.
Speaker 3: I do think Dylan Harper's awesome. Ace Bailey people have
Speaker 3: kind of cooled off on He was maybe more of
Speaker 3: a contender for this a year ago, and you know,
Speaker 3: Rutgers just just didn't have the year I think people
Speaker 3: thought they were going to have, and so Ace Bailey
Speaker 3: maybe can grab some momentum at some point leading up
Speaker 3: to the to the NBA Draft. But I do think
Speaker 3: it's Cooper flag or bust. I think there's still you know,
Speaker 3: Edgecomb's interesting. He might he might put on like a
Speaker 3: show if if Baylor can make a decent run, which
Speaker 3: I actually think they would have to go through Duke probably,
Speaker 3: I think if I remember the bracket correctly, so you know,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe Edgecomb makes a name for himself. I really
Speaker 3: like the big guy from Duke Malwac Like I think
Speaker 3: I think he's someone that I'm not saying he's this
Speaker 3: type of player, but he reminds me a little bit
Speaker 3: of Joel Embiid in the sense of, like, here's a
Speaker 3: guy that we don't really know a whole lot about.
Speaker 3: He's super skilled, he hasn't played basketball that long, and
Speaker 3: he's kind of come out of nowhere for a major program.
Speaker 3: Like I think he could really make a name for himself,
Speaker 3: but it's it's still Cooper.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it feels like that's the consensus among people that
Speaker 1: cover the draft on a daily basis in a way
Speaker 1: that I just don't right. So here, here's uh interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic of the market. Sarah Toad desra News Front of
Speaker 1: the Show wrote a piece last week and it kind
Speaker 1: of felt like she was talking to somebody in the
Speaker 1: organization to further an air where now the whole thing
Speaker 1: is like, hey, we're just starting the rebuild, because the
Speaker 1: past three years was a tear down.
Speaker 2: It was not not a rebuild.
Speaker 1: We're just starting the rebuild because the past three years
Speaker 1: was a tear down. I find that hard to stomach
Speaker 1: because the Spurs were able to pull off a rebuild
Speaker 1: right away. Like really, I don't know, and Sarah's great.
Speaker 1: I'm not knocking on Sarah at all. It just kind
Speaker 1: of felt like the organization trying to get this narrative
Speaker 1: out there, like, hey, now the rebuild begins, not in
Speaker 1: the past three years we've been tearing it down. And
Speaker 1: even Zach, if they luck into that number one pick
Speaker 1: and grab Cooper flag, there's a feel in the market
Speaker 1: that next year is going to feel a lot like
Speaker 1: this year, right, So what what do you make of that?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: I'm not even necessarily saying it's the wrong approach, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of this new narrative out this way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting marketing, right, Like, and I don't even
Speaker 3: I don't I wouldn't fault Sarah either for running with that,
Speaker 3: Like I think if that's if that's the message they
Speaker 3: went out there, that's that's news worthy, noteworthy, Like I
Speaker 3: think that's I think that's interesting. It's fun. To me
Speaker 3: kind of feels like the rebel started when you traded
Speaker 3: Rudy and Donovan in the same offseason, right, that kind
Speaker 3: of feels like that's when the rebuilt started. To me, Now,
Speaker 3: how you weren't a fifteen win team that season, But
Speaker 3: I don't know. That's when you trade your two All
Speaker 3: NBA guys, that's kind of when that begins. But yeah,
Speaker 3: like I you know, you look at you look at
Speaker 3: even the Spurs last year, the first year with Wemby,
Speaker 3: they won what twenty two games? This year, obviously things
Speaker 3: went differently because he had the blood clot but they
Speaker 3: were still under five hundred when he went down, Like
Speaker 3: they weren't. They were in the mix for the plan,
Speaker 3: but they weren't definite to make it. Like I that
Speaker 3: even when you hit a home run with that that
Speaker 3: number one pick, that's it's It still takes time to
Speaker 3: build this whole thing up. And so I would expect
Speaker 3: another couple of years of bad basketball. I don't think
Speaker 3: it should be this bad, right, But also.
Speaker 5: That twenty twenty six draft class looks.
Speaker 3: Pretty good, So maybe you want to be really bad
Speaker 3: next year and and get another one of those guys.
Speaker 3: But I'd like, man, that's tough to stomach. If you're
Speaker 3: if you're telling the fan base this is you know,
Speaker 3: this is just the start of this after what you've
Speaker 3: had to watch this season. And look the last the
Speaker 3: previous two years were not great, but they were still bad, right, Like,
Speaker 3: it's still a bad team. It was better a lot
Speaker 3: better than this. But that's, man, that's tough marketing. Like,
Speaker 3: you better, you better be dropping those those ticket prices,
Speaker 3: which I'm sure they won't do.
Speaker 2: No, they't raise them. That's the deal.
Speaker 1: And you know, you know what's wild, Zach, Like I
Speaker 1: just you know, I watch every game, watch every minute
Speaker 1: of every game, and I just don't see pieces in
Speaker 1: place that indicates this team is one or two pieces
Speaker 1: away from being close to anything other than maybe a
Speaker 1: play in right, And if that's your deal, then maybe
Speaker 1: the right thing is to you know, and again operated
Speaker 1: off the premise that they're able to get lucky and
Speaker 1: grab Cooper Flagg at one and he's eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: he reclassified, he should be a senior in high school.
Speaker 1: Does that reset your timeline where you look at trading
Speaker 1: marketing and you look at maybe even moving off of
Speaker 1: like a Walker Kessler and you say, like we are
Speaker 1: going all in. Cooper is the centerpiece and we're moving
Speaker 1: off of these veteran players are any good. The problem is,
Speaker 1: like Keyante continues to be so maddening, and there's some
Speaker 1: stuff to like about Isaiah Callier, but you can't be
Speaker 1: a league guard and shoot twenty five percent from three
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I mean, maybe Taylor Hendricks gets healthy
Speaker 1: and we see something that we have and Cody Williams
Speaker 1: is our top ten pick and he has been horrible.
Speaker 1: Like there is a case to be made that they
Speaker 1: are as far away right now as they were when
Speaker 1: they started this thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think you're spot on there, Like
Speaker 3: there's there's no one on this team. And there are
Speaker 3: a lot of players I like on this team, there's
Speaker 3: no one on this team that I think, yeah, they
Speaker 3: have to be a part of this in the future,
Speaker 3: even markmen right, Like I don't think like he's still young.
Speaker 3: He's what twenty seven ish, twenty eight ish, somewhere in
Speaker 3: that range, but like he's not someone who needs to
Speaker 3: be a part of this. And here's the thing, Cooper
Speaker 3: Flag could be one of the best rookies we've ever
Speaker 3: seen that might add five wins. Yeah, Like that's that's like,
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean they're going to be any kind of good,
Speaker 3: it means they'll be more rewatchable. But I also, you know,
Speaker 3: my first year as a credential media member, I was
Speaker 3: covering the King's team that had Tyreek Evans as a rookie.
Speaker 3: Now it was great. We got to focus on the
Speaker 3: twenty five and five campaign and him battling Brandon Jennings
Speaker 3: and Steph Curry for Rookie the Year and all this stuff.
Speaker 3: That was still a horrible team that was really bad
Speaker 3: all season. Like it like, you can distract with little
Speaker 3: things here and there, but ultimately the product is still
Speaker 3: it's still bad. And so those distractions only last so long,
Speaker 3: and you still have to put players around these guys,
Speaker 3: and and there's just it doesn't matter how good Cooper
Speaker 3: flag is, Like he's he's not going to fix this
Speaker 3: in a year. If this is you know, with what
Speaker 3: they've shown this year. Like I'm with you, Like there's
Speaker 3: there's no real light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3: It doesn't look like an oncoming train.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: All right, before I say you loose, let's do our
Speaker 1: weekly revisit. What is keeping Mark Dagnold up at night
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference if anything at all? Because all
Speaker 1: these teams they continue to jockey for this, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: can they up? And Okac have serious souls. I mean,
Speaker 1: Houston's run off seven straight, but they're the number two seed.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody believes they're gonna beat.
Speaker 2: Okay See in a series.
Speaker 1: And I still probably lean towards Denver just because I've
Speaker 1: seen them do it before. Golden State just ran off
Speaker 1: seven straight and I think they are thirteen and two
Speaker 1: with Jimmy and then the Lakers have those two players.
Speaker 1: Is there a team out there that can give Okac fits?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean I still think you have to worry about
Speaker 3: yokis right, but even like I still have questions about
Speaker 3: okay See and tight games. But that game against Boston
Speaker 3: was pretty good. Yeah, it was like they handled that
Speaker 3: pretty well. Like for all of the questions I have,
Speaker 3: they didn't fully answer them, but that was something where
Speaker 3: I sat back and thought.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's a pretty good step towards towards answer that question.
Speaker 5: And so you know, I think, man, it still feels
Speaker 5: like the Warriors are a player away. And maybe that's
Speaker 5: just Buddy Heald shooting like Buddy Healed again, not shooting
Speaker 5: like a league average shooter. And if that happens with
Speaker 5: everything else they've got going on, I could see that.
Speaker 5: I do think they're like on the verge of contending,
Speaker 5: but there might be a difference, you know, with the
Speaker 5: way the Thunder are playing, there might be a difference
Speaker 5: between being on the verge of contending and actually contending
Speaker 5: with this team, I mean, their defense is just so special. Like,
Speaker 5: I know, the offense has been great lately, but.
Speaker 4: It's fueled by that defense.
Speaker 3: They score like twenty two points a game off turnovers,
Speaker 3: an insane number of points off turnovers for a team
Speaker 3: to do. And so like, I'll still you know, I'll
Speaker 3: still give respect Yokich, I'll give respect to the Warriors.
Speaker 3: You know, I guess you technically put the Lakers in
Speaker 3: by default. But the I mean, the Thunder looking pretty
Speaker 3: good right now.
Speaker 1: Well, Zach, I can promise you tonight around eleven eleven thirty,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be laying in bed wondering what does a.
Speaker 2: Nineteen dollars strawberry taste? Like, So I appreciate that apparently disappointing.
Speaker 4: Go look up the surface of mercury right now.
Speaker 3: And by the way, because I live in LA I
Speaker 3: know it's in retrograde, which whatever that means.
Speaker 1: You know what, Now you gotta go, Now you gotta
Speaker 1: go for so many different reasons, some I'll explain off air.
Speaker 1: Oh triggered, I am triggered, and I can't even tell
Speaker 1: you why is it also the summer solstice yet?
Speaker 2: Because I know that.
Speaker 4: There was a lunar eclipse and Everybodyeah.
Speaker 1: Well that means you better get to swiping because the
Speaker 1: lot is ready for Zach.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the time, it would be good. Zach Harper
Speaker 2: NBA Daily. His style