Speaker 1: Well, he lives, he lives. It's been way too long.
Speaker 1: I thought he ditched us. I thought he decided that
Speaker 1: he was done with the media portion of his long
Speaker 1: and prosperous, well decorated career. But after weeks and weeks
Speaker 1: and weeks abroad with a little sunshine on the ocean,
Speaker 1: Richard Smith has triumphantly returned live in studio for the
Speaker 1: next hour. You look tanned, you look rested, You look
Speaker 1: twenty five years younger.
Speaker 3: Really, where you been, man? Really? Where you been?
Speaker 2: First of first of all, I don't know what Porter
Speaker 2: is doing with this with this intro.
Speaker 3: Is that Johnny Cash? Is that old old Johnny Cash?
Speaker 4: That was uh, it was you two with Johnny Cash,
Speaker 4: the Wanderer.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 5: It's appropriate, it's it's appropriate.
Speaker 3: It was a reach.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, I think it was perfect.
Speaker 3: Where you been, man, Where you've been? What's going on? Man?
Speaker 2: No, I've been out of out of town spends. We
Speaker 2: had a great, uh, great cruise in the in the
Speaker 2: Caribbean for a few weeks. I had a terrific time.
Speaker 2: And it was nice to see sunshine and eighty degrees
Speaker 2: and and you know, one of the best parts of
Speaker 2: having a trip like that is, uh is every now
Speaker 2: and then you're you're sitting near the pool, You're sitting
Speaker 2: up in the sunshine. You look at your phone and
Speaker 2: you get on the weather rap and says Salt Lake
Speaker 2: snowing and twenty three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now you yourself, anyone around here. This is why
Speaker 3: I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now. Now the flip side is you get off the
Speaker 2: ship to go to the airport to come home, and
Speaker 2: you say, what am I doing?
Speaker 3: Why am I Why am I going back to do this?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but for me it was because I
Speaker 2: missed the Spence check Its show on the Drive with
Speaker 2: Porter Larsen and and my I was I had to
Speaker 2: get back here because I was getting a little anxious.
Speaker 2: I was starting to twitch a little bit. And uh,
Speaker 2: but here I am here, I am back with you.
Speaker 2: So everything's normal, everything's calm, and and we're back to it.
Speaker 1: So you expect me to believe the only reason you
Speaker 1: left the Caribbean the warm weather so you could come,
Speaker 1: you know, slepping on.
Speaker 3: Air with you.
Speaker 2: I have no other reason to do it but to
Speaker 2: come back and talk to you fair enough. So this
Speaker 2: is and we can talk about the jazz and the
Speaker 2: trade deadline and all the other and and and maybe
Speaker 2: even get in a vote to vote for what the
Speaker 2: name of the hockey team is supposed to, because I'm
Speaker 2: so I'm so.
Speaker 3: Engrossed in that I can't believe it.
Speaker 5: Do you have?
Speaker 3: Okay, let's start there.
Speaker 1: Porter and I educated the people yesterday, mostly Porter because
Speaker 1: he loves the genealogy, on the fact that Utah actually
Speaker 1: does have a very rich history when it comes to Outlaws.
Speaker 1: Of course, Order's third cousin is Jesse James or Butch
Speaker 1: Cassidy or who is it again, but Cassidy. There you go, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I do now it's turning into a bit so. Butch
Speaker 1: Cassidy is literally Porter's third cousin. He has tremendous knowledge
Speaker 1: of Outlaws in the past. So we have the Outlaws,
Speaker 1: we have the Mammoth, and we have my preferred name,
Speaker 1: which is the name they already have, which is the
Speaker 1: Utah Hockey Club. I think it's a classy I think
Speaker 1: it's clean. I don't think it's corny. I don't need
Speaker 1: an abominable snowman as a mascot. So I like the
Speaker 1: current version, but I'm kind of out an island. What
Speaker 1: do you think well, first of all, I'm wondering any
Speaker 1: other hockey fan around the country, anybody who's involved in
Speaker 1: the NHL, would they accept a team that's called the
Speaker 1: Utah Outlaws relative to what most people's view of the
Speaker 1: state of Utah is around conservatism and the LDS church
Speaker 1: and whatever whatever, clean cut people and.
Speaker 3: All that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And then they're sitting there in North Carolina or Florida
Speaker 2: or wherever, and they're going now they name their team
Speaker 2: the Outlaws, the Utah oh am, I supposed to believe
Speaker 2: that the Utah Outlaws, Well.
Speaker 1: We have a team named the Jazz, and we don't
Speaker 1: have any jazz music in the city that there's nowhere
Speaker 1: you can go to listen to jazz, and so like,
Speaker 1: yet our basketball team is.
Speaker 2: The Jazz, I know, our you know, the one that's
Speaker 2: the most egregious to me, Spencer never gets mentioned is
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 3: Sure, exactly, you know and so but you.
Speaker 2: Know, obviously, but having said all that, I I'm with you.
Speaker 2: I'm in your camp one hundred percent. I said this
Speaker 2: back back when whenever, and I still I'm still in
Speaker 2: that camp that if I had a vote, which obviously
Speaker 2: I don't I would be voting.
Speaker 3: For Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 2: I love it that it's it's nice and clean, and
Speaker 2: I like the logos they've gotten, the color scheme and everything.
Speaker 2: And I don't know, I've heard you say this before,
Speaker 2: and I'm and I'm in complete agreement with you for
Speaker 2: for once in a while, that makes me feel good
Speaker 2: that the that they seem to me to be overthinking
Speaker 2: the whole process, you know.
Speaker 5: So no, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: And if you go to the next two home games
Speaker 1: for the Utah Hockey Club, starting tonight against Columbus, you
Speaker 1: can go through the exercise where you can pretend to
Speaker 1: vote on this situation and simply give your data to
Speaker 1: qual Tricks. And they're gonna do whatever they want behind
Speaker 1: the scenes anyway. But they are presenting the facade of
Speaker 1: a fan vote. It's not a real thing. But we'll see,
Speaker 1: we'll see. It's been fun to have the hockey team here, said,
Speaker 1: the kid was in town the other night scoring a
Speaker 1: game winning overtime goal. And you know, we're not going
Speaker 1: to do a lot of hockey, but I do find myself,
Speaker 1: you know, could she kind of laugh and shake in
Speaker 1: my head when the Rangers coming to town. Or the
Speaker 1: Blues coming to town, or Alex Ovechkin is here, Sidney
Speaker 1: Crosby is here, Like, it is pretty remarkable that they
Speaker 1: were able to get this thing done with only a
Speaker 1: few months turn around.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the miracle. Spence and Ryan Smith and
Speaker 2: his group at SEG like how they came to an
Speaker 2: agreement with the NHL from from March, putting in a
Speaker 2: letter of intent that they wanted to try and purchase
Speaker 2: an expansion team at some point to the next month
Speaker 2: in April, with Gary Bettman coming to Ryan Smith saying, hey,
Speaker 2: can you do you want to get involved, like next Tuesday?
Speaker 2: What are you talking about? And the Arizona team comes
Speaker 2: here and bing bang boom. They're in the middle of
Speaker 2: a season this year. With all of that, that to
Speaker 2: me is nothing short of a miracle of just getting
Speaker 2: it off the ground and getting it going and all
Speaker 2: the stuff they've had to do, all the people who
Speaker 2: I know behind the scenes over there at the Delta
Speaker 2: Center who have scrambled and done the very best they
Speaker 2: can to get this thing going, and the fans are responding,
Speaker 2: and the team is competitive and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: It's just it really is a.
Speaker 2: Marvel that they've gotten it to this point so quickly,
Speaker 2: and you have to give them a lot of kudos.
Speaker 3: For that, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1: All Right, since you and I last spoke, several interesting
Speaker 1: scenarios haven't folded, not just in Jazz LAMB, but in
Speaker 1: the world of pro basketball.
Speaker 3: You know, you were one of the.
Speaker 1: First people I thought of when the alert came down
Speaker 1: on my phone that the Jazz had made a trade.
Speaker 1: Now players are not involved, but it's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: to consider. There are six teams smitty in pro basketball
Speaker 1: that own a tremendous amount of draft capital moving forward
Speaker 1: over the next five to six to seven drafts. Ok See,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City's at the top, San Antonio, It's Utah, It's Brooklyn, and.
Speaker 3: I think it's Detroit.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's one other team that has So there are
Speaker 1: six teams total. They control multiple picks throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the next five to six to seven drafts.
Speaker 5: So let's dig into the deal.
Speaker 1: Then let's talk about whether or not you think this
Speaker 1: is going to become commonplace. So Utah sends three picks,
Speaker 1: three first round picks to Phoenix. All three picks are
Speaker 1: the least favorable of their picks, Minnesota's pick and Cleveland's pick.
Speaker 1: So they obviously have done their calculation on the Cavs certainly,
Speaker 1: and they've said this year that's going to be twenty
Speaker 1: nine to thirty. Two years from now, they're probably going
Speaker 1: to be really good. Then four years from now, nobody
Speaker 1: really knows. But the least favorable of all three might
Speaker 1: be in the twenties as well. So they're saying, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're sending three picks to Phoenix that we think are
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, not necessarily great value in
Speaker 1: the late twenties, on the off chance that in twenty
Speaker 1: thirty one, Booker's in his thirties, Durant's probably in a
Speaker 1: retirement home, Beal's done. Anyway, in the off chance that
Speaker 1: Phoenix is pivoting and rebuilding in twenty thirty one, we'll
Speaker 1: take that chance. So we'll trade you three assets for
Speaker 1: one that we perceive to be as worth the risk,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll say, so break this down for us,
Speaker 1: and do you think this is something we're going to
Speaker 1: see in pro basketball moving forward with all these teams
Speaker 1: with so many picks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you're exactly right, Spence, And the reason you
Speaker 2: do that the reason you have, you know, this famous
Speaker 2: phrase of assets accumulation is because you're trying to get
Speaker 2: as many many chips in the pile if you will,
Speaker 2: that you can.
Speaker 3: And then when.
Speaker 2: Something like this comes up, and we've talked about this
Speaker 2: before on the show, you never know. You can control
Speaker 2: some things within your purview of how you want to
Speaker 2: do things, who you want to take in the draft,
Speaker 2: how you want if you want to move up in
Speaker 2: the draft and move down, whatever it is, sign a
Speaker 2: free agent, and those kind of things. But then there
Speaker 2: are other things that affect your organization along the way
Speaker 2: that you have no control of that just come at you,
Speaker 2: and you have to be ready to be able to
Speaker 2: react in a way that you feel can benefit your organization.
Speaker 2: And this is one of those times. So the Jazz
Speaker 2: accumulated a bunch of draft picks over a bunch of years.
Speaker 2: You know, when are they going to use them, How
Speaker 2: are they going to use them? Who are those picks
Speaker 2: going to be? You know, some people look kind of go, boy,
Speaker 2: we got like three draft picks in the first round
Speaker 2: in a year, you know, five years from now. Where
Speaker 2: the kid we're gonna pick right now is in seventh grade?
Speaker 2: Or whatever you know, and it's so it's like that
Speaker 2: part of it is goofy, but you have those in
Speaker 2: place in case something like this comes about. So what happens,
Speaker 2: Phoenix is desperately trying to figure out a way to
Speaker 2: get Jimmy Butler from Miami. Big roadblock is because of
Speaker 2: Bradley Beal, who is the most tradeable ASCID or at
Speaker 2: least the one that they would like to be able
Speaker 2: to move, who has no trade clause, which is very
Speaker 2: unusual in the NBA. Very few players get that in
Speaker 2: their contracts. But that was something he negotiated when he
Speaker 2: was in Washington. Why they would do that, who knows,
Speaker 2: but that was a decision they made. Now Phoenix has
Speaker 2: it and they have to deal with it. So they're
Speaker 2: trying to figure out a way to move Bradley Beal. Well,
Speaker 2: they have to have some other assets because Phoenix has
Speaker 2: backed themselves into a corner so deep with their roster construction,
Speaker 2: they have no draft picks to speak of. They have
Speaker 2: nowhere to move. This is what they built. They went
Speaker 2: all in on this group, and this group showed last
Speaker 2: year they get beaten the first round by Minnesota.
Speaker 3: This year they're struggling to just.
Speaker 2: Hopefully get out of the playing thing if they can
Speaker 2: get in the top.
Speaker 3: But that's not what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: They believe they're supposed to be one of the top two,
Speaker 2: three four teams in the West. It's not working out
Speaker 2: to this point in time. So they're struggling like, Okay,
Speaker 2: now what do we do? So they the only thing
Speaker 2: they can figure out at that moment is can we
Speaker 2: use an asset way in the future, meaning the twenty
Speaker 2: thirty one unprotected first round pick, and get multiple assets
Speaker 2: for that. The Jazz are waiting in the in the weeds.
Speaker 2: They come up, they raise their hand in the classroom. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we have three draft picks. We'll trade you, and Phenix
Speaker 2: goes okay, three for one. Okay, we'll do that. So
Speaker 2: the Jazz figure, Okay, we've got all these picks. That's
Speaker 2: why we have them, so we can roll it into
Speaker 2: something else. So we think might be more valuable way
Speaker 2: down the road. Will it be? We have no idea.
Speaker 2: Is it something we might use two years from now
Speaker 2: in another move? We might do that, but we've got
Speaker 2: that's something we feel is a little more valuable than
Speaker 2: what we have right now. Phoenix is in a position
Speaker 2: where they need multiple assets to try and get someone
Speaker 2: else in their trade scenario with Butler and Beal, and so.
Speaker 3: They want to make that move.
Speaker 2: So you take advantage of that and you take that
Speaker 2: pick and you put it to the side, and then
Speaker 2: you move on if you're the Jazz, and you wait
Speaker 2: in the wings and you see what happens with those
Speaker 2: other teams in their potential trade scenarios.
Speaker 1: So there are constant rumors surrounding the Jazz, as there
Speaker 1: are this time of year with a lot of teams.
Speaker 1: But I referenced, Oh, by the way, the team I
Speaker 1: forgot with additional draft capitals Houston. Then it's Charlotte, So
Speaker 1: there are sixteen. Charlotte has eight, first, Houston has nine.
Speaker 1: The Jazz still have eleven even after the trade. Then
Speaker 1: you're looking at Brooklyn that has fifteen, You're looking at
Speaker 1: San Antonio that has twelve, and Oklahoma City has ten
Speaker 1: thirteen incoming picks, ten that are trade and they're awesome.
Speaker 1: So that's that's difficult. Sam Presty's done a hell of
Speaker 1: a job. But every time somebody talks about this trade deadline,
Speaker 1: they talk about John Collins potentially to Sacramento.
Speaker 3: They talk about Colin Sexton.
Speaker 1: You know, the Lakers are the worst because every player
Speaker 1: that's available that might fit in say, like, hey, the
Speaker 1: Lakers in on Colin Sexton. I don't know, no idea.
Speaker 1: And then obviously Jordan Clarkson's another name. What are the
Speaker 1: conversations behind closed doors Jazz front office right now? Wigne
Speaker 1: what to do with some of these pieces with twenty
Speaker 1: seven million in cap space and a bunch of draft
Speaker 1: capital too, Like, what do you think they're discussing prior
Speaker 1: to February sixth.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, they've gone in this season right
Speaker 2: with the idea that they're going to try and develop
Speaker 2: all these young players.
Speaker 3: And whether you.
Speaker 2: Believe they're doing that or not, whether they're making progress
Speaker 2: or not, you know, everybody has an opinion about that.
Speaker 2: The bottom line is they're not winning, and they're not
Speaker 2: going to win this year. So they recognize that. So
Speaker 2: they're going to try and do anything that need to
Speaker 2: help them moving forward in terms of a draft asset
Speaker 2: or maybe a good young player if one comes available,
Speaker 2: or to try and shed some more money. So they
Speaker 2: don't care if they have John Collins on the roster
Speaker 2: a week from now. They don't care if they have
Speaker 2: Jordan Clarkson on the roster a week from now. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter to what they're doing now. So if they
Speaker 2: can find a place, a landing spot for any of
Speaker 2: those kind of guys, I've become I was partially, but
Speaker 2: now I'm all in spence on being a Colin Sexton guy.
Speaker 2: He's the most efficient player the Jazz have this year
Speaker 2: to this point. He's played the best, he's played the
Speaker 2: most consistent. He plays with force, he plays with energy.
Speaker 2: I like the way he carries himself on the floor.
Speaker 2: He's one of the few guys who brings energy and
Speaker 2: some level of tough to the roster. So for me,
Speaker 2: you take market In, you take Kessler, you take sext
Speaker 2: Then you put those three guys to the side.
Speaker 3: Okay, anybody else is fair game.
Speaker 2: Anybody else, especially if you can make a move to
Speaker 2: get rid of some money, whether that's Clarkson who's making
Speaker 2: fourteen this year and fourteen next year, or whether that's
Speaker 2: Collins who's making twenty six. If you can move those
Speaker 2: guys to some team that wants them to values them
Speaker 2: in a way that they think they could help them
Speaker 2: somewhere in some kind of a playoff drive. Then you
Speaker 2: look to do that kind of thing to get some
Speaker 2: kind of an asset, a future draft pick or another
Speaker 2: young guy or something that's making whatever it is, you
Speaker 2: do that kind of a move to set yourself up
Speaker 2: for the kind of stuff that you want to do
Speaker 2: this coming summer and beyond, because this year you're not
Speaker 2: going anywhere, so it doesn't matter. So you're trying to
Speaker 2: figure out something that makes sense to add to what
Speaker 2: you're trying to build in terms of opportunities going down
Speaker 2: the road.
Speaker 1: Let me follow up, since you reference Colin Colin Sex
Speaker 1: and you like what he's bringing. He's twenty seven years
Speaker 1: old or excuse me, twenty six years old, and I
Speaker 1: always kind of chuckle because we talk about Colin and
Speaker 1: John as if they're in their late thirties, because they're
Speaker 1: not Keyante or Isaiah or whatever.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 1: He's still very much a young player that's entering his prime.
Speaker 1: His splits on the year about eighteen and a half
Speaker 1: points three boards for assists, and when you look at
Speaker 1: the shooting percentage, he shoots forty eight percent from the floor,
Speaker 1: he shoots forty two percent from three, and takes almost
Speaker 1: four to threes a game, which I never thought it
Speaker 1: would be his deal. So he's put in the work,
Speaker 1: he's improved a lot, and we always have this debate
Speaker 1: and I have a couple of other names. I want
Speaker 1: to kick the tires with you on. But like the debate.
Speaker 1: Anytime I go on another show, another podcast and they
Speaker 1: want to talk jazz, they all ask me the same question,
Speaker 1: who's around when they're good?
Speaker 3: And I've always said, well, market In for sure.
Speaker 1: If you know, if they can with Pete Lowry's part
Speaker 1: of the future.
Speaker 3: I think Walker is too.
Speaker 1: Is there a debate in that front office room, like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe Colin is part of this too, based off of
Speaker 1: what you've seen.
Speaker 2: Sure, I would say definitely, because what he's done, He's
Speaker 2: always been a tough guy.
Speaker 3: He's always brought energy.
Speaker 2: His issue early on in his career was his his
Speaker 2: turnover rate and also his susceptible shooting. Now you look
Speaker 2: this year, and again it's half a year, so we
Speaker 2: see how the rest of the year plays out. But
Speaker 2: on a team that's struggling, a team that's having trouble
Speaker 2: with winning games, a team that's having trouble finishing games
Speaker 2: when they're in the fourth quarter, and it's still, you know,
Speaker 2: in the balance, and they have trouble doing those things.
Speaker 2: Sexton is the one guy who has shown during this
Speaker 2: year so far that he can be counted on to
Speaker 2: make good decisions, can be galunted on to make a
Speaker 2: play when you need to make it.
Speaker 3: He's one of.
Speaker 2: Those guys who just plays hard every night, and his
Speaker 2: improved his shooting to the point where you say, well,
Speaker 2: now that's serviceable, meaning he can help a good team
Speaker 2: in terms of how he plays. He's not gonna be
Speaker 2: the main guy, but he can be a third or
Speaker 2: fourth or fifth guy on a team that is trying
Speaker 2: to trying to have some level of sustainability of winning.
Speaker 3: So you might be able to move him.
Speaker 2: Maybe you do, but at his age, the way he's improved,
Speaker 2: he looks to me like a guy that's the kind
Speaker 2: of guy I would want to have around, not only
Speaker 2: because he's shown that he can get better, but because
Speaker 2: of the energy he brings. Jazz don't have a lot
Speaker 2: of guys on their roster who when they come on
Speaker 2: the floor, you go, okay, now now we're.
Speaker 3: Gonna see something that's for sure.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get up into a guy We're gonna run
Speaker 2: a guy down from behind. We're gonna step in and
Speaker 2: try and take a charge. We're gonna push the ball
Speaker 2: down the floor from end to end, full blast. They
Speaker 2: don't have many of those guys, and Sexton is one
Speaker 2: of those guys, and he's always been that. Now you
Speaker 2: put in this component that if his shooting, if that's
Speaker 2: if that's a real thing, and he can keep it
Speaker 2: around that forty mark from three, and he's an excellent
Speaker 2: free throw shooter and he's making better decisions, then he's
Speaker 2: a guy who's who's increased his value and has increased
Speaker 2: his ability to be able to help you in a
Speaker 2: winning effort. See, that's what they're trying to see about
Speaker 2: all these other young guys they've drafted last two years,
Speaker 2: or any of those guys, whether it's a Kiante George
Speaker 2: or a Sensaba or a Collier, they're all young guys.
Speaker 2: Can any of them show that they can make those
Speaker 2: incremental steps of improvement like Sexton has here in the
Speaker 2: first part of his career, to show that they can
Speaker 2: contribute to winning. That's what they're trying to find, you know,
Speaker 2: with this younger group guys. But to me, they've got
Speaker 2: a guy they've found who has shown he can do
Speaker 2: that in Sexton, and I would I would be surprised
Speaker 2: if that's someone that they didn't want to keep around.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let me kick the tires with you on
Speaker 1: a rotational decision Will has made that I think actually
Speaker 1: means something. I mean oftentimes like maybe Drew you Banks
Speaker 1: gets another ten, I don't give a rip. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter if like Walker's out, is it going to
Speaker 1: be Philip Telapowski is going to be? You bet like
Speaker 1: you know Sphie makay Luke against Johnny ju saying all
Speaker 1: right whatever. But over the past four games, Kyant is
Speaker 1: coming in off the bench and Isaiah Collier has started
Speaker 1: now thirteen times. So I want to break this down
Speaker 1: on a couple of different angles than give you the space,
Speaker 1: because I do believe if you're Will Hardy, if you're
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz, you have to figure out who Kyante
Speaker 1: George is really as a rotational piece in this league,
Speaker 1: if he's going to be around when you're trying to win.
Speaker 3: And I believe Keante's.
Speaker 1: Role in pro basketball is going to be a lot
Speaker 1: like Jordan Clarkson's has been. Collins ex is in this,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of same type or of role for
Speaker 1: a good team, a guard you can bring it off
Speaker 1: the bench that can score. Kyante is one of the
Speaker 1: worst defensive players on the team and their second worst
Speaker 1: in defense it all of pro basketball, and Will has
Speaker 1: been very front facing about we need more from Kyanty
Speaker 1: on defense.
Speaker 3: He's just not a lead guard.
Speaker 5: He just isn't. He doesn't make great decisions.
Speaker 1: His shots profile isn't great as percentages are down, but
Speaker 1: we do have a bit of a sample size. So
Speaker 1: in four games as a reserve, Kyante is at about
Speaker 1: fourteen point five points, about four boards, five assists. The
Speaker 1: shooting splits are just not good, no matter if he
Speaker 1: started coming off the bench, about forty percent from the
Speaker 1: floor twenty three percent from three. And on the other side,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to like what I'm seeing from Isaiah in
Speaker 1: a way that I don't think I was expecting. So
Speaker 1: thirteen games as a starter now for Isaiah Collier, he's
Speaker 1: at eleven points, eight assists, three and a half turnovers,
Speaker 1: which was way too many turnovers, twenty three percent from three.
Speaker 1: He's got to improve the outside shot forty three percent
Speaker 1: from the floor. But you like eight assists you like
Speaker 1: eleven points and almost five boards. He's a big kid
Speaker 1: that can get downhill and makes better decisions I think
Speaker 1: than Keyonte does.
Speaker 5: So attack this from both angles.
Speaker 1: What we've seen now from Isaiah as a starting lead guard,
Speaker 1: and what Will's trying to do by bringing Kiante off
Speaker 1: the bench.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think that first of all, the Collier kid,
Speaker 2: he's a young kid, but he's always been a point guard,
Speaker 2: so he's always had the ball in his hands.
Speaker 3: He's always been making decisions. Now.
Speaker 2: When he was sixteen seventeen eighteen, he was the bully
Speaker 2: on the block. He was bigger than the other kids,
Speaker 2: so he could blow by guys, he could overpower guys.
Speaker 3: You could get in the lane, you could get.
Speaker 2: To the rim, and he's always had a decent feel
Speaker 2: for finding guys on the move. Early on in this year,
Speaker 2: he's been very turnover prone. He makes wild passes. Sometimes
Speaker 2: seen him make numerous passes that go right over guys
Speaker 2: heads into the fourth row of the stands literally, and
Speaker 2: he makes some questionable decision and when he gets in
Speaker 2: traffic trying to get a bounce pass in a pocket
Speaker 2: pass that's not going anywhere because there's three sets of
Speaker 2: legs there and it's not going to get through. But
Speaker 2: he has a feel for trying to move the ball.
Speaker 2: He's not a shooter at the moment. Can he can
Speaker 2: he improve that? Can he get to a Colin Sexton scenario.
Speaker 2: You know, he's only twenty years old. Can he improve
Speaker 2: that by the time he's twenty three, twenty four and
Speaker 2: be something that's serviceable in that in that area Because
Speaker 2: he's a big guy, he can hold his own. I
Speaker 2: don't like the way he is postured on defense. He
Speaker 2: needs to get more impose himself more defensively. I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's his mindset. That's one of the things
Speaker 2: that I'm sure they're trying to flush out is whether
Speaker 2: they can get him up to that that kind of
Speaker 2: levels he's.
Speaker 3: Learning on the fly.
Speaker 2: He's got the size, he's got a feel, can't they? George,
Speaker 2: I agree with you. He feels to me like he's
Speaker 2: you know, his his role in the NBA, if he
Speaker 2: sticks in the NBA long term, is going to be
Speaker 2: as an off the bench scorer. Jordan Clarkson the Vinnie Johnson,
Speaker 2: the Jamal Crawford type guy who can get a shot,
Speaker 2: who who isn't going to defend for you, and so
Speaker 2: that's gonna be a problem. If he's not gonna do
Speaker 2: that part, then the other part, the offensive part, he
Speaker 2: has to do really well in order to make up
Speaker 2: for that. So I don't think he's a point guard.
Speaker 2: I think they're they're they're they're giving Collier some run
Speaker 2: because that's what they're trying to do right now. They're
Speaker 2: in the developmental stages of their team. So the only
Speaker 2: way we find out is if we throw him out
Speaker 2: there to the Wolves and we see what they got.
Speaker 2: And so far, Calier looks like he's improving some. I
Speaker 2: still don't like some of the decisions he makes, but
Speaker 2: he has a little bit better feel than George does
Speaker 2: at the point. And that's one of the things that
Speaker 2: Jazz are in the process of trying to feel.
Speaker 5: Out quick follow up before you catch a break.
Speaker 1: Is it possible to be either a league guard or
Speaker 1: a complimentary wing and play big minutes for a team
Speaker 1: that's trying to win if you can't shoot it from.
Speaker 3: Three in the modern day and night of the NBA.
Speaker 2: No, that's that's a good point and that and that's
Speaker 2: one of the things that he's uh he's gonna have
Speaker 2: to improve on.
Speaker 3: He's gonna have to show because because the.
Speaker 2: Teams are gonna sag off, the teams are gonna go
Speaker 2: under on that pick and roll.
Speaker 3: They're gonna flatten it out at the line.
Speaker 2: They're gonna say, hey, you make that eighteen footer, You
Speaker 2: make that twenty three footer. You know, you put it
Speaker 2: up over the top and show where he can do it.
Speaker 3: So far, he's unable to do that.
Speaker 2: That's one of the things he's gonna have to get
Speaker 2: better on if he's gonna get any kind of sustained run,
Speaker 2: you know, as as a lead point guard in this league.
Speaker 1: All Right, we will catch a quick breaks Many's Liven
Speaker 1: Studio coming up next.
Speaker 5: Some old friends were in town last night.
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles, Mike Conley, Ni Kiel, Alexander Walker.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the Jazz t Wolves game, look add
Speaker 1: to the schedule that lies ahead, and maybe do some
Speaker 1: other NBA trade deadline stuff.
Speaker 3: All right, Porter, I want you to I want you
Speaker 3: to get Trey on the.
Speaker 1: Phone and just tell him that he's dead to me.
Speaker 5: That's all it just you can you can tut him,
Speaker 5: just say.
Speaker 3: Hey, you're dead, Dispench. Can you do that real quick?
Speaker 5: I'll give him you a pick.
Speaker 1: So some breaking news that should have come through us here,
Speaker 1: but RSL will add Nick Romando's name to the stadium
Speaker 1: Ring of Honor at America First Field against DC United
Speaker 1: on June the fourteenth.
Speaker 5: Nick he started his career. I think no, he just
Speaker 5: played for DC.
Speaker 1: Then RSL traded for Nick Romondo after their starting keeper
Speaker 1: Scott Garlic retired to take a real estate job.
Speaker 4: I'll just say it wasn't the story. Yeah, he got
Speaker 4: a real estate gig, Scott Garlic.
Speaker 1: Yes, no, I'll never forget it. This was kind of
Speaker 1: my intro to MLS. We're in a staff meeting and
Speaker 1: the general manager of the time gets attacked since like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're starting keeper Scott Garlic has decided to retire because
Speaker 1: he got a job in real estate.
Speaker 5: I was like, wait, what, MLS come a long way.
Speaker 1: It has, but we had to pivot trade for Nick Romondo,
Speaker 1: who became the Wall of the Wassatch and so he'll
Speaker 1: have his name on the Ring of honor.
Speaker 5: So excited for Nicky.
Speaker 3: You got a hot Nick Ramondo tek that is so
Speaker 3: well deserved.
Speaker 2: He was such a stable force for rsself for over
Speaker 2: a decade and you know what a great guy and
Speaker 2: still in the community, active in the community.
Speaker 3: And that's a great and deserving honor for Nick.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine sitting in a meeting with Scott Laden
Speaker 1: and the brain Trust back in the day and suddenly
Speaker 1: you get a message that Antoine Carr is retiring because
Speaker 1: he got a good job selling homes hey Now.
Speaker 2: But the question would be, well he got into Scott
Speaker 2: got into real estate? Was that making more money than
Speaker 2: he was making for RSL.
Speaker 5: And this was MLS in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: I mean absolutely, and I believe it's worked out very
Speaker 1: well for Scott, who's a very smart, very nice guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so, you know, hey, that's all that's
Speaker 2: all part of the real world stuff. And you know
Speaker 2: it was another generation ago, of course. But you know,
Speaker 2: back in Jerry Sloan's day, when he was playing in
Speaker 2: the sixties and seventies, most of the star players in
Speaker 2: the NBA had other jobs in the off season that
Speaker 2: they did to supplement their income because they didn't make
Speaker 2: that much money at that time. You know, it's weird
Speaker 2: to think of guys like Oscar Robertson Wilt Chamberlain and
Speaker 2: Jerry West And what those guys would be making now
Speaker 2: and what the NBA is paying is.
Speaker 3: A whole nother world. It sure is.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine getting a phone call and
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, would you like to buy some car
Speaker 1: or life insurance? This is Larry marketing from the Utah right.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to supplement my income.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, hot Rod, hot Rod left the Lakers and
Speaker 2: retired in order to go work full time for Converse
Speaker 2: in the mid sixth because he could make more money
Speaker 2: working for convert.
Speaker 3: That's wild, man, That's wild. All right.
Speaker 1: We won't do anything on the All Start Let me
Speaker 1: just ask you this the new All Star game format
Speaker 1: where it's gonna be these all Star players from either
Speaker 1: conference broken up into three teams and they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a little mini tournament and the fourth team will be
Speaker 1: the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge? Does this do
Speaker 1: anything at all? Do you think it raises the interest?
Speaker 1: I only bring it up because for NBA fans of
Speaker 1: a certain age, All Star Weekend once upon a time
Speaker 1: was awesome. You know, you had Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins
Speaker 1: going up against each other and slammed down contest, you
Speaker 1: had Larry Bird winning three point shoo shooting contest. You
Speaker 1: had two All Star teams that played hard, and when
Speaker 1: the greatest basketball players on Earth show up and play hard,
Speaker 1: I am of the opinion that it's the greatest game.
Speaker 3: We just don't see it like we used to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's I don't know what this new format
Speaker 2: is going to do. I don't know if any you know.
Speaker 2: One of the things is when when I was younger
Speaker 2: and you'd watch the All Star Game, there was some
Speaker 2: of fini for the guys in the West or the
Speaker 2: guys in the East, and you actually rooted for them.
Speaker 2: Now it's just a mishmash of guys. It's in uh,
Speaker 2: you know some you know, level of exhibition that's not
Speaker 2: you know, really compelling. I don't think to the average
Speaker 2: basketball fan, you know, I think, you know, more attention
Speaker 2: is probably going to be made, you know, at the
Speaker 2: current moment right now about who didn't make the All
Speaker 2: Star team right whether you whether you want to argue
Speaker 2: for Trey Young, you know, who should be on the
Speaker 2: All Star team, or you want to argue for Demonta Bonus,
Speaker 2: who's for the second year in a row has been
Speaker 2: the biggest snub to me like that, that's just unconscionable
Speaker 2: by the coaches, you know, not to put somebody like
Speaker 2: him on the All Star team for the way he
Speaker 2: works and the kind of guy he is and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 3: But but it's.
Speaker 2: That, you know, a few of those guys will get
Speaker 2: in any way because some of the guys who got
Speaker 2: voted in, as always happens, somebody has an injury, somebody
Speaker 2: decides at the last minute, I'm not gonna play because
Speaker 2: I got a rest for the second half or whatever.
Speaker 2: So a few of those guys will probably get in
Speaker 2: any way at the last minute. But it's always an
Speaker 2: interesting argument at this moment in time, after several days
Speaker 2: after it's announced all the reserves, like who didn't make
Speaker 2: it and who should be in.
Speaker 1: So the Minnesota Timberwolves rolling to town last night, whenever
Speaker 1: one of our former players comes into town, it's fun
Speaker 1: to kind of talk about in reminiscent or six former
Speaker 1: players or several that former players, certainly, but let's kind
Speaker 1: of go down the list here, and you know, when
Speaker 1: the Rudy Gobert trade went down, the narrative around the
Speaker 1: NBA was like, wait, the Jazz got what for Gobert,
Speaker 1: And I felt like I was the only voice pushing back, saying, well,
Speaker 1: hold on a second, Let's just let's wait and see,
Speaker 1: because you know better than anybody the way Rudy impacts
Speaker 1: winning when he's healthy. When he's right, Minnesota over the
Speaker 1: past couple of years has had a team that's like
Speaker 1: right there, kind of like you guys did with Gobert
Speaker 1: and Mitchell, but not necessarcessarily a team that's broken through.
Speaker 3: They're been better as of late.
Speaker 1: Rudy, when you look at the numbers, more or less
Speaker 1: has been the same player for them as he was
Speaker 1: for you. A little bit of a dip, but you know,
Speaker 1: as somebody that was there when you drafted him and
Speaker 1: got to know him and watched him evolve from this
Speaker 1: gangly kid who could barely run up and down the
Speaker 1: floor to the best defensive player of this generation.
Speaker 5: How should we look back on the nine years when
Speaker 5: we had Rudy here?
Speaker 2: Well, you know that was a team that that grew together.
Speaker 2: You know, Rudy came in, he spent two different stints
Speaker 2: in the G League, like your little known Trivia Spence.
Speaker 2: His first G League coach when when and one of
Speaker 2: my jobs at that time was with the Jazz was
Speaker 2: to go with our players if they got assigned to
Speaker 2: a G League team, to make sure they assimilated. Okay,
Speaker 2: and they were the team was going to use them
Speaker 2: the way the Jazz wanted to see improvement and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah and.
Speaker 3: All that stuff.
Speaker 2: But he went to Bakersfield and his coach there was
Speaker 2: Will Void, who is now the lead assistant for b
Speaker 2: YU men's basketball with Kevin Young, and he was the
Speaker 2: guy who who helped Rudy a lot in some of
Speaker 2: his footwork and post work and stuff uh at Bakersfield
Speaker 2: at that time. But Rudy, you know, Rudy worked his
Speaker 2: way up the ladder. We talked about that before and
Speaker 2: and earned his place in the NBA that he has
Speaker 2: now his standing, and that was through a lot of
Speaker 2: his own determination and and hard work and and UH
Speaker 2: and wanting to be as good as he could be.
Speaker 3: And that team grew together.
Speaker 2: Dennis Lindsay did a great job of piecemealing, putting one
Speaker 2: one guy after another, whether it was Rudy, whether it
Speaker 2: was Uh. Drafting Donovan was bringing in Joe Ingles who
Speaker 2: had just gotten cut from from the Clippers, whether it
Speaker 2: was getting boy on Bogdanovich. You know, all these guys,
Speaker 2: you know, piecing together into a team that for a
Speaker 2: stretch over five year period, had the best the most
Speaker 2: wins of any team in the Western Conference, won two
Speaker 2: division titles, and one year I had the best wreck
Speaker 2: in the NBA. Okay, stumbled in the playoffs, but I
Speaker 2: had a team that was built to win at that time,
Speaker 2: and Rudy was a centerpiece of that. And then when
Speaker 2: Ryan Smith and his group came in, they decided that,
Speaker 2: you know, in their way, that they didn't think it
Speaker 2: was good enough, and so they traded everybody and broke
Speaker 2: it all down and got all these draft picks and
Speaker 2: assets that they're now trying to work through and trying
Speaker 2: to figure out how to rebuild the team. But those
Speaker 2: got you know, Rudy and that group, that was a
Speaker 2: great group to work with. They were all great guys,
Speaker 2: and they all grew together into a unit that was
Speaker 2: really one of the top top five teams in the
Speaker 2: NBA at one point in time.
Speaker 1: All right, let's keep going down the list. And I
Speaker 1: thought one of the really fun moments last night was
Speaker 1: at the end of the game because joe ingles at
Speaker 1: the age of thirty seven with a surgically repair I
Speaker 1: even said postgame last night, after four minutes, my knee hurt.
Speaker 1: Like he is probably at the end of his career,
Speaker 1: and you know, he really will go down in history
Speaker 1: as one of the more beloved, kind of like cult
Speaker 1: figure players we've ever had here. As I often say,
Speaker 1: he looks like he lives in his car, but he
Speaker 1: turned into a really good basketball player, broke the Jazz
Speaker 1: record for three point shots made, and really endeared himself
Speaker 1: to the fan base because you know, I remember when
Speaker 1: that team started to evolve and people would say, hey,
Speaker 1: what do they need, and I'd be like, you know,
Speaker 1: they need a player like Gordon Hayward when he s
Speaker 1: heut dude, like the small Ford spot.
Speaker 5: I'll always look back. You know, we can't do it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean anything, but you needed somebody to fill
Speaker 1: that spot. And Joey, I think, became a better player
Speaker 1: than ever thought he could be. And the OKC series
Speaker 1: where he's messing with Paul George and shutting him down
Speaker 1: a little bit. So he rolls back into town last
Speaker 1: night as he probably exits stage left after this year
Speaker 1: to go down his wife and kids.
Speaker 3: When thee and the kids are in Orlando.
Speaker 1: They stayed there as he's he is in Minnesota. Can
Speaker 1: I ask you the same question as you watched Joe
Speaker 1: go from who I called on air Dante Exem's babysitter,
Speaker 1: when you signed him to a legitimate starting, very good
Speaker 1: small forward for you guys, what was that process like?
Speaker 3: No, he was Joe. Joe came in.
Speaker 2: He was a very good player, you know, one of
Speaker 2: the main stays of the Australian national Olympic team. UH
Speaker 2: for a lot of years. I played over in Europe,
Speaker 2: was you know, had had a few good years over
Speaker 2: in Europe. I played actually with one of the Jazz
Speaker 2: front office guys U now Sean James. They played together
Speaker 2: over and over in Tel Aviv and and UH had
Speaker 2: a couple of great years and they're great friends. And
Speaker 2: Joe came over, tried to get in the NBA, got
Speaker 2: cut by the Clippers. Dennis liked him, brought him in
Speaker 2: new kick shoot. Knew that he was a good passer,
Speaker 2: but he had to get his body in better shape.
Speaker 2: And Joe's credit, he looked at himself and realized, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is my shot. I gotta take advantage of this,
Speaker 2: and he took full advantage of it. Got in better shape,
Speaker 2: got himself able to move better, and because of his
Speaker 2: length and his size at six ' eight, could pass
Speaker 2: from the wing, could make open shots, and he did
Speaker 2: that for a number of years for the Jazz.
Speaker 3: The other thing about.
Speaker 2: Joe is that he brought an unusual mixture of toughness
Speaker 2: on the floor and getting into guys heads on the floor,
Speaker 2: but then coming off and getting on the bench and joking,
Speaker 2: having fun and making light of situations on the bench
Speaker 2: with his teammates to keep everything loose and fun for them.
Speaker 3: And he was that way in the locker room, on
Speaker 3: the road, what have you.
Speaker 2: But it's an unusual mixture when you have both of
Speaker 2: those things that one guy can do and do effectively
Speaker 2: for your team, and then be a guy who's willing
Speaker 2: and is smart enough to understand I have a certain role,
Speaker 2: I'm going to fit into this slot here, and I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna do that and I'm gonna let the other
Speaker 2: guys do what they do to help us to affect winning.
Speaker 2: And that's that's one of his great characteristics was recognizing
Speaker 2: that and be able to put that into effect on
Speaker 2: the floor for a team that was a constant winner
Speaker 2: while he was here.
Speaker 1: Let me ask a follow off about Joe because and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you off air where this came down, but
Speaker 1: somebody with the organization heard me on air talk about
Speaker 1: what a locker room leader he seemed to be, what
Speaker 1: kind of like a glue guy he seemed to be.
Speaker 1: And I can remember somebody asked Gordon Hereward who his
Speaker 1: best friend was on the team, and he said Joe,
Speaker 1: which I found kind of interesting. And then during the
Speaker 1: whole Rudy Donovan thing, it felt like Joe was kind
Speaker 1: of the only one that was kind of like, dude,
Speaker 1: can we not do this please? What's real about the
Speaker 1: type of locker room guy Joe was?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, Well Joe, Joe, remember people forget that that
Speaker 2: in the Gordon Hayward summer when he left, Joe was
Speaker 2: also a free agent, right, and Joe went to Joe
Speaker 2: was in l A and uh Dennis and a couple
Speaker 2: of guys went to l A met with Joe and said, hey,
Speaker 2: we have.
Speaker 3: A meeting with Gordon uh In in a couple of days,
Speaker 3: you know, but we want you to come back.
Speaker 2: We want you to make sure, you know, uh, you
Speaker 2: know what what we're trying to figure out here, what
Speaker 2: we're trying to keep together. And Joe told them, hey,
Speaker 2: don't worry about me. Okay, you got to go worry
Speaker 2: about Gordon, get him figured out, make sure he's okay. Whatever,
Speaker 2: and my my thing, you know, will will be good.
Speaker 2: You know, don't worry about it. And he was that
Speaker 2: kind of guy who's you know, who was always a
Speaker 2: team guy. He was always in on what's going to
Speaker 2: help us as a group, to help us to be
Speaker 2: able to sustain winning, uh, you know, on a regular basis.
Speaker 2: And whatever that's gonna be, is that me starting and
Speaker 2: playing thirty six minutes, Is it me coming off the
Speaker 2: bench and playing eighteen minutes, Is it me coming in
Speaker 2: the second quarter and just trying to rattle the other
Speaker 2: team's leading score defensively and then come down on offense
Speaker 2: and make a play here, whatever it's gonna be, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be that guy who's gonna try and do that
Speaker 2: for our group, not only for the benefit of the whole,
Speaker 2: but also because he felt that that showed some leadership
Speaker 2: to the other guys, that that's how they should be playing.
Speaker 2: That was part of Joe's value to the group that
Speaker 2: sometimes I think goes unrecognized and that he doesn't get
Speaker 2: enough credit for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've always just kind of wondered exactly what's
Speaker 1: real and what's not, because I know at times maybe
Speaker 1: he could great on people with the ability I suppose
Speaker 1: to be very witty and sometimes very sharp. And we
Speaker 1: live in a state where some passive aggressive tendencies exist
Speaker 1: and sometimes people get their feelings hurt.
Speaker 3: Was Is there anything there?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: But but Joe was great. Joe was you know what
Speaker 2: you saw out there on the floor, That's who Joe was.
Speaker 2: In the locker room, on the plane, you know, at
Speaker 2: the hotel, on the road, whatever. You know, Joe is
Speaker 2: a genuine guy and that's why everybody, everybody on the
Speaker 2: team liked him. The coaches loved him, they loved working
Speaker 2: with him. He understood and he was a good connector
Speaker 2: between the coaching staff and the players. If there was
Speaker 2: ever anything going on, the coaches, you know, Quinn Snyder,
Speaker 2: his staff, Alice Shenson, they could go, you know, to
Speaker 2: Joe and go, hey, Joe, you know, we think it's
Speaker 2: such and such as a vibe.
Speaker 3: So no, I got it.
Speaker 2: I got it, and Joe would go and Joe would
Speaker 2: you know, would wait to day or later in the
Speaker 2: day or whatever, would be on the plane and and
Speaker 2: and he was a guy who could talk to the
Speaker 2: other players and and and uh rationalize with them about
Speaker 2: what was happening and and you know what, what they
Speaker 2: needed to address as a group.
Speaker 3: But he had that status, right, he had that standing.
Speaker 2: You know, people people know him as a guy from
Speaker 2: Australia and you know, a good player for the just
Speaker 2: but he's a big time guy and a big time
Speaker 2: name in Australia and you know, he's he's one of
Speaker 2: those guys in Australian basketball lore. And for him to
Speaker 2: be able to come here and assimilate himself into this culture.
Speaker 3: Meaning the NBA, and then be able.
Speaker 2: To have that kind of a standing within a team
Speaker 2: and within a team that was good and a team
Speaker 2: that was competitive every night, and to be able to
Speaker 2: find that niche where he he created value for himself
Speaker 2: both as a player on the floor in the middle
Speaker 2: of the game and also off the floor as a
Speaker 2: team leader, recognized you know, by by his peers as such.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a big deal for us at
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 1: One more player with all due respect in Aikil Alexander
Speaker 1: wat talker who's actually played well in Minnesota, really could
Speaker 1: not get off the bench while I was here very
Speaker 1: much on a Quinn. Let's talk about Mike by Conley,
Speaker 1: who did not play last night and who sadly, this
Speaker 1: is the first year I've watched him, and I've thought, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, it might be time. But you know, as
Speaker 1: I always say, play till somebody tells you. You can't if
Speaker 1: somebody wants to sign you and page, just keep playing.
Speaker 1: And I can remember Dennis because Dennis used to come
Speaker 1: on the radio show every week. It's hard to believe
Speaker 1: in this day and age of NBA teams being so
Speaker 1: clandestine that we had that access.
Speaker 5: And I can remember Dennis always.
Speaker 1: He used to say one line he said, at some point,
Speaker 1: we'll want to expedide the process with the right vetro right.
Speaker 1: And Mike was the guy you guys decided to go get.
Speaker 1: And I loved it because I love him. Who doesn't
Speaker 1: not just as a guy, but he when he was
Speaker 1: at his peak, he was among the elite decision makers
Speaker 1: with a ball in his hands, pick and roll such
Speaker 1: you got you you know the deal you guys made
Speaker 1: the trade. Take us through that when you realize like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we've got something. If we can find the right vet
Speaker 1: to expedite the process, will do it. And then how
Speaker 1: you landed on him.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: And Mike was a was a very good player obviously
Speaker 2: in Memphis for over a decade. UH, there was an
Speaker 2: opportunity to to to go ahead and get him. The
Speaker 2: price was we thought at the time it was a
Speaker 2: little high, uh for.
Speaker 3: What it was.
Speaker 2: But but we had to we had to look at
Speaker 2: everything and to put everything on the table, and we
Speaker 2: had to recognize that we had a unique opportunity at
Speaker 2: that moment in time to add a top level point
Speaker 2: guard and a veteran who had been through some wars
Speaker 2: uh to our group that we.
Speaker 3: Thought was the one piece that was missing. He came in. Oh,
Speaker 3: our group made that move.
Speaker 2: He became He became an All Star his only All
Speaker 2: Star appearance while while he was with the Jazz.
Speaker 3: UH.
Speaker 2: He instantly became a leader. You know, we we we
Speaker 2: knew his reputation around the league. We knew that he
Speaker 2: was one of the all time great guys. UH that
Speaker 2: that all the players just rallied around and he just
Speaker 2: had that certain low spoken, kind of low energy charisma,
Speaker 2: if that makes any sense, that people gravitated to and
Speaker 2: and and he was just one of those guys that
Speaker 2: fit right in seamlessly. And it was a great move
Speaker 2: by Dennis. It was we We gave up quite a
Speaker 2: bit to get him and probably overpaid, uh for what
Speaker 2: you would would say was what you were getting in return,
Speaker 2: but not in our judgment at that time. What he
Speaker 2: brought to the group and finished a piece of that
Speaker 2: puzzle that we had been working on for years to
Speaker 2: try and get us, you know, over the hump. And
Speaker 2: we believed at that time and and and stuck by
Speaker 2: our guns, that he that was the move to make
Speaker 2: and uh and Dennis was able to pull it off.
Speaker 3: And and he had an all.
Speaker 2: Star year for the Jazz and and we were right
Speaker 2: there and had a couple of stumbles and the playoffs. Okay,
Speaker 2: you don't like that. Okay, that's why you didn't like
Speaker 2: to you know, whatever it is. But you know, to me,
Speaker 2: I've always felt that you can't discount what a team
Speaker 2: or a group did over an eighty two game, six
Speaker 2: month season relative to what happened in three games in
Speaker 2: one week in the spring.
Speaker 3: It just you know, you can't do that. Some teams
Speaker 3: get hot.
Speaker 2: Okay, Miami got hot a few years ago out of
Speaker 2: the eighth spot and had a couple of things fall
Speaker 2: their way, and all of a sudden, they're in the
Speaker 2: NBA finals.
Speaker 3: Okay, they did that.
Speaker 2: The Jazz had had better teams, had winning teams, had
Speaker 2: best reckon in the league, blah blah blah whatever, and
Speaker 2: they stumbled a few times in the playoffs and and
Speaker 2: then other decisions were made from there about that. But
Speaker 2: Mike Conley played such an important role in stabilizing that
Speaker 2: team at a time when that's what that group and
Speaker 2: he was really good for us in that period of
Speaker 2: time that he was here.
Speaker 1: You know, to your point, and I discussed this all
Speaker 1: the time, And it's not just an NBA thing.
Speaker 3: It's an NFL thing.
Speaker 1: It's a Major League Baseball thing, it's a hockey thing,
Speaker 1: it's a soccer thing. Like winning is fleeting, success is fleeting,
Speaker 1: and you have to enjoy when you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to just get Like in the NBA that always saying do.
Speaker 3: You have a shot? You have a shot this year?
Speaker 1: In the years that you can answer that question clear eyed, yes,
Speaker 1: are the years that are really fun. But when they're
Speaker 1: gone and you're in this space where jazz fans are
Speaker 1: driving to the stadium most every night, at the arena
Speaker 1: most every night saying we have no shots, and we
Speaker 1: know we don't have a shot, and we know the deal,
Speaker 1: we know why they're doing this, it just makes you
Speaker 1: look back on years like you guys had with Gobert
Speaker 1: and Mitchell and Quinn and obviously all the way back
Speaker 1: to John and Carl and some Darren and booz Year's too,
Speaker 1: is really fun years that you probably didn't appreciate as
Speaker 1: much because we can be spoiled here.
Speaker 2: Well we you know, and I can tell you Spence
Speaker 2: those of us who are privileged enough and lucky enough
Speaker 2: to be on the inside and be part of those
Speaker 2: things as they were happening. Our group never took those
Speaker 2: things for granted, and we never we never thought that
Speaker 2: we were smarter than the next.
Speaker 3: Guy or knew more than somebody else. You know.
Speaker 2: We recognize that it was all about getting the right
Speaker 2: players in getting the players to work together, getting the
Speaker 2: right coaching group, whether it was Jerry Sloan or whether
Speaker 2: it was Ty Corbyn, whether it was Quinn Snyder getting
Speaker 2: the right guys and with a group to work together
Speaker 2: to try and work in the same direction.
Speaker 3: That is a difficult thing to do in.
Speaker 2: Pro sports, and one of our our responsibilities going all
Speaker 2: the way back to when Frank Laden was both the
Speaker 2: general manager and the head coach in the eighties, was
Speaker 2: was the notion that we have to get the right
Speaker 2: kind of guys in the spots and they have to
Speaker 2: have talent, they have to have skill, but they have
Speaker 2: to be the right have the right mindset to want
Speaker 2: to work together as a group, and if you can
Speaker 2: piece that together and do those things, then you're gonna
Speaker 2: have a better chance at some level of sustained success.
Speaker 2: And we had a lot of that over those years,
Speaker 2: and a lot of it was because of all the
Speaker 2: work that was done uh in the background, behind the
Speaker 2: scenes to try and get the right kind of guy,
Speaker 2: whether it was a Jeff Horni sec to plug In,
Speaker 2: or whether it was Carlos Boozer or Memeto core to
Speaker 2: plug In and their their skill sets and what they
Speaker 2: brought to the group with their personalities, or whether it
Speaker 2: was you know, a young Gordon Hayward or later of
Speaker 2: Mike Conley, guys Joe ingles, guys who brought other things
Speaker 2: to the table that helped you as a group uh
Speaker 2: to be able to have a chance every night. And
Speaker 2: that's what the Jazz are looking for now with their
Speaker 2: young guys. They're trying to figure out. And we've used
Speaker 2: this analogy before, Spence, but it's just like the old
Speaker 2: guy mining for gold in the river and you put
Speaker 2: a bunch of you put the big pan in the water,
Speaker 2: and you sift it and you sift it and all
Speaker 2: the rocks and the sand and everything comes through, and
Speaker 2: you hope that at some point you get a couple
Speaker 2: of gold nuggets that end up in the pan and
Speaker 2: that you can use going forward. And that's the process
Speaker 2: that the Jazz currently find themselves in.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do have a couple of recent examples of
Speaker 1: smaller markets, being your cousin who drove up to Idaho
Speaker 1: and bought a lottery ticket, came back and won the
Speaker 1: thing with Jokicicen Denver and Giannis and Milwaukee, and we'll
Speaker 1: see what Luca does in Dallas.
Speaker 5: And we'll end with this.
Speaker 1: You know, Lowry is not any of those players, but
Speaker 1: he's the best player on this roster. And we've talked
Speaker 1: about this over the past couple of weeks, and Tom Haberstrow,
Speaker 1: who joins Ushow every mondays some data on this. When
Speaker 1: teams and OK, so he did this with Shay and
Speaker 1: Lowry's not Shay. I'm not saying that, but when teams
Speaker 1: ask legitimate star players to be part of this process?
Speaker 1: Which part of it is you're not playing every night?
Speaker 1: And part of it is, hey, Lowry has your back.
Speaker 1: Oh it's great. No, it's not. Sorry, it hurts, you know.
Speaker 1: And what's undeniable is Lowry's numbers are down.
Speaker 5: Across the board.
Speaker 1: They just are shooting percentages splitch you can get into
Speaker 1: the weeds on Basketball Reference. He's doing nothing better this
Speaker 1: year than he did last year or certainly the year
Speaker 1: before when he was an All Star. What's the danger
Speaker 1: of asking a twenty seven year old franchise pillar to
Speaker 1: be part of this? And is there a danger that
Speaker 1: you're wasting part of his prime before I set you.
Speaker 2: Loose lender, Yeah, but it's the danger is if you
Speaker 2: have a guy who's not buying into what's going on
Speaker 2: right right, and with Lowry marketing and all signs point
Speaker 2: to the fact that he understands you know he was here.
Speaker 3: He had a chance to play out.
Speaker 2: As a as a free agent and choose where he
Speaker 2: would want to go the second half of his career.
Speaker 2: That's how the Collectibar agreement works in the NBA. He
Speaker 2: chose to sign the long term extension because he likes
Speaker 2: playing in Salt Lake. He likes the community, he likes
Speaker 2: living here. It's a lot of it has to do
Speaker 2: with his background and his upbringing, you know, in Finland,
Speaker 2: and some of the similarities of living in Salt Lake
Speaker 2: and outside of Helsinki and all those kinds of things
Speaker 2: which are real life things. But his family likes being here.
Speaker 2: He knew what the deal was when he signed the extension.
Speaker 2: He knew that it was going to be some growing
Speaker 2: pains and he bought into that. And that's what you need.
Speaker 2: You need a guy who who understands the landscape and
Speaker 2: is willing to be part of that with you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: his numbers are down this year. I attribute that just
Speaker 2: to being the fact that he doesn't have as much
Speaker 2: help and the other teams are playing are now gearing
Speaker 2: on him and they know, hey, if we slow marketing
Speaker 2: and down some then those guys aren't going to have
Speaker 2: much of a chance to win.
Speaker 3: Because of the limited help he has.
Speaker 2: And so part of that is on h is on
Speaker 2: that cause for for other teams, you're targeting him and
Speaker 2: and him not trying to do too much. He's just playing,
Speaker 2: playing his game, and and and he'll be fine. He'll
Speaker 2: be fine, and if they can get him some help
Speaker 2: then he'll be able to also go along with that
Speaker 2: and hopefully be able to see a light down somewhere
Speaker 2: at the end of that long tunnel.
Speaker 5: Smitty, great to see, my friend.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the real world where it's not he
Speaker 1: greas and sunny every day and you don't have little
Speaker 1: drinks with umbrellas and all you can eat food.
Speaker 3: So welcome back to Islam and it with the rest
Speaker 3: of us. It feels like that Spence whenever I'm with you.
Speaker 3: That's that's the vision I get. The Great Richard Smith