Speaker 1: Alrighty, what is going on? Drivetime?
Speaker 2: Wednesday afternoon, about thirteen minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It is kicky and the teeth cold today.
Speaker 2: About twenty two degrees right now, about twelve degrees early
Speaker 2: this morning, tried to take the dog out for a walk.
Speaker 2: He looked at me, He's like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: So we went back inside. But hey, happy Wednesday. Halfway
Speaker 2: through that work week, one day closer to the weekend.
Speaker 1: And as it is every single day, it's going to
Speaker 1: have you along for the ride.
Speaker 2: Spence checkets behind the mic. That's Porter Larson behind the glass. Today,
Speaker 2: the LA Lakers are in Salt Lake City. Luka Doncic
Speaker 2: is expected to play. He was listed as questionable yesterday,
Speaker 2: but mark Stein and others have reported today that he
Speaker 2: is now upgraded to probable.
Speaker 1: So the Jazz are not the storyline.
Speaker 2: Of course, as history continues to be made, this feels
Speaker 2: pretty seismic as far as what the Lakers have been
Speaker 2: able to do grabbing Luka Doncic. It's a continuation of
Speaker 2: what the La Lakers have done for a number of
Speaker 2: different years, grabbing stars at a premium price and allowing
Speaker 2: a franchise to be among the championship contenders pretty.
Speaker 1: Much yearned in, year out.
Speaker 2: So we'll do some NBA basketball on the show today
Speaker 2: with the Lakers in town to take on the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: University of Utah men's basketball team had a real shot
Speaker 2: last night. It was actually a pretty good game up
Speaker 2: until the very end where it escalated quickly.
Speaker 1: The game was tied at seventy two apiece.
Speaker 2: Cincinnati went on an eleven to zero run after that
Speaker 2: and took an eighty five to seventy five win over
Speaker 2: the Utes back in Salt Lake City. Now coming up
Speaker 2: on Saturday against Kansas and then Monday against Kansas State
Speaker 2: for a couple of big twelve basketball games for the
Speaker 2: Utah men, who, yeah, like I said, had a shot
Speaker 2: to get that win. Would have been a good win
Speaker 2: on the road, but went cold down the stretch. Some
Speaker 2: bad turnovers and some bad closing from the Utes. It
Speaker 2: allowed Cincinnati to take the win. Bring them Young with
Speaker 2: a quad one win on the road last night in
Speaker 2: Morgantown beating West Virginia a really good college basketball game.
Speaker 2: Diego Demon hit a big three and a couple of
Speaker 2: free throws, and BYU was able to get the win,
Speaker 2: and as of now they are one of the four
Speaker 2: last four teams in according to Joe Lonardi after getting
Speaker 2: a quad one win. As the Big twelve season continues
Speaker 2: to unfold, Utah Women taking on Colorado seven o'clock tonight
Speaker 2: here in Salt Lake City the Huntsman Center. So we've
Speaker 2: got some college basketball on the show today. Of course,
Speaker 2: we have some NBA basketball on the show today as well.
Speaker 1: Gets ready for the Jazz game tonight.
Speaker 2: Look back on the NFL season that was and behind
Speaker 2: us now with a Super Bowl finished, and we'll look
Speaker 2: at to the offseason in pro football already a lot
Speaker 2: of interesting topics. All the coaching vacancies have been filled,
Speaker 2: were high speed ahead to the NFL drafts. So we'll
Speaker 2: do some football on the program today as well. Tom Homo,
Speaker 2: after twenty years as the Brighamy Young Athletic Director, had
Speaker 2: his press conference today.
Speaker 1: Caught that earlier as I was doing some show prep.
Speaker 2: I thought Tom was very honest and very forthcoming about
Speaker 2: the challenges that he faced during his twenty years, and
Speaker 2: I thought it was a really interesting, interesting presser in
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. So Tom Homo steps aside
Speaker 2: after twenty years down at BYU and the nationwide replacement
Speaker 2: I should say the nationwide search for replacement is on.
Speaker 2: As the President bringing me on, was sitting next to
Speaker 2: Tom Shane, Reese and Shane talked about President Reese talked
Speaker 2: about the process that they will take take on now
Speaker 2: to try to replace what in many ways it has
Speaker 2: to be a very very successful twenty year stretch with
Speaker 2: Tom Homo at at the home. So a lot of
Speaker 2: topics today, a lot of things to get to on
Speaker 2: the program. Good guest list right out of the gates,
Speaker 2: mikey amb will stop by from the NFL Network. We'll
Speaker 2: do some college and pro football with Mike Neil Smith.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, something just flew directly in my mouth that
Speaker 2: felt like a Bugold, Nope.
Speaker 1: We're good.
Speaker 2: Hold on something like Seriously, you ever been on like
Speaker 2: a four wheeler a motorcycle and you're driving in like
Speaker 2: a June bug flies in like dumb and dumber style.
Speaker 3: I think the amount of times I ride the Jordan
Speaker 3: River Trail just on my bicycle, I've consumed more bugs
Speaker 3: than i'd like to count.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was really gross.
Speaker 3: We can hit the instant replay.
Speaker 1: No, we're good.
Speaker 2: If you're watching on YouTube, if there's a replay of
Speaker 2: what just flew directly in my mouth, go ahead and
Speaker 2: text in I'm not sure what that was, but man,
Speaker 2: it hit me right in the back of the throat. Anyway,
Speaker 2: moving on, so after Mike stops by, we'll bring in
Speaker 2: Neil Smith for a little Utah Hockey Club, little NHL
Speaker 2: conversation on the program today. Sean Sayed, who was a
Speaker 2: guest on this show last week and essentially called the
Speaker 2: Philadelphia Eagle blowout in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: So we'll let Sean come on from.
Speaker 2: Summer Sports and do a little bit of a victory lap,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk some offseason NFL in the program today,
Speaker 2: and then our guys Smitty Richard Smith live in studio
Speaker 2: for the four o'clock hour with Lebron James Lukadocs and
Speaker 2: the LA Lakers in town and the All Star Break
Speaker 2: upon us now in just a couple of days, Well
Speaker 2: look back on it's not the first half of the season,
Speaker 2: but now that we have the All Star Break coming up.
Speaker 2: Talked to Smitty about what he's seen from the Jazz
Speaker 2: so far and ultimately what he's hoping to see from
Speaker 2: these young kids as they move forward.
Speaker 1: Now for the final thirty ish games of the season.
Speaker 2: So Mike am, Neil Smith, Jean Sayad, Richard Smith, me
Speaker 2: Spence check its, I'll be the great listeners.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday.
Speaker 2: And that guy PORTERA Larson who did not have a
Speaker 2: bug flying Ito was throats.
Speaker 1: Just now you're a Lebron guy.
Speaker 2: Is it odd to think that the Lakers are in
Speaker 2: town and Lebron is not their best player? He's not
Speaker 2: now right now, Luka Doncic is a better player than
Speaker 2: Lebron James. Okay, yes, nobody would would refute that. I'm
Speaker 2: not talking about their careers. I'm talking about today right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's an odd feeling, and I think it's probably
Speaker 3: for Lebron welcomed at forty years old. And listen, this
Speaker 3: is no slight to Dwayne Wade, no slight to Chris
Speaker 3: Bosch or Kyrie Irving. He's never played with a Luka Doncic, right,
Speaker 3: A guy. That part of that is saying, well, we've
Speaker 3: never seen a player like Luca, But yeah, man, he
Speaker 3: does some things that Lebron does really well and kind
Speaker 3: of replicates them. And for the Lakers, that's got to
Speaker 3: be welcome when you're trying to maybe limit some of
Speaker 3: the minutes for a guy that's forty years old. Hey,
Speaker 3: why not get a guy that does a lot of
Speaker 3: the things he can do and might be doing it
Speaker 3: for the next ten to fifteen years.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 2: As I've been saying since that trade went down a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, the cruel part, if you're an NBA
Speaker 2: fan or not a Lakers fan, is there's not a
Speaker 2: player in pro basketball it's better equipped to take over
Speaker 2: this Laker team than Luca once Lebron retires because they
Speaker 2: do so many things that are similar. So Lakers in
Speaker 2: Town tonight, Jazz and Action tonight. Our first guest right
Speaker 2: out of the gates is going to be mikey Am.
Speaker 2: But before we get to my courtesy of our friends
Speaker 2: at Harmon's Valentine's Day coming up on Friday, it is
Speaker 2: time now for your opening tips, So don't blow it.
Speaker 2: Say it with Flowers is Valentine's Day with Harmon's Flower Shop.
Speaker 2: Every arrangement is crafted by a Harmon's floral designer, adding
Speaker 2: a thoughtful personal touch to your Valentine's gift. Partner with
Speaker 2: the best growers to bring you fresh, long lasting flowers
Speaker 2: to truly impress whether you need a last bit of
Speaker 2: Valentine surprise and want to plan ahead, Harmon's makes it
Speaker 2: simple with flower shops in every store and delivery available
Speaker 2: from our full service flower shop in West Valley. Classic roses,
Speaker 2: trendy blooms, Harmon's Aufer's a wide variety of flowers to
Speaker 2: help you find the perfect arrangement for your special someone.
Speaker 2: They've got double r ranch beef. You can do a
Speaker 2: little surf and turf. They've got prime, They've got choice
Speaker 2: wag you all available.
Speaker 1: If you need cooking tips, ask a Harmon's associate.
Speaker 2: Miss Kavanaugh's chocolate hearts available as well, made locally in
Speaker 2: North Salt Lake Choes from mint, caramel or peanut butter.
Speaker 2: If you want a custom heart, just ask a Harmon's
Speaker 2: Bakery associate. Locations and information online at Harmon'sgrocery dot com.
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna bring in Mike Yam, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to talk a little bit real quick, and we'll
Speaker 2: get back to some of this.
Speaker 1: I think Smithy will have some thoughts on it.
Speaker 2: After twenty years, Tom Homo has stepped aside as the
Speaker 2: athletic director down at BYU. The replacement is certainly not
Speaker 2: yet identified the president. Reeche, the president of Brigham Young,
Speaker 2: was sitting by Tom today during their press conference, and
Speaker 2: he said that they are going to have a national
Speaker 2: search and then laid out the criteria. You have to
Speaker 2: essentially lead with Jesus Christ in mind. It's a faith
Speaker 2: based institution. You have to align yourself with a mission
Speaker 2: of Brigham Young well at the same time leading the
Speaker 2: athletic department forward into whatever's next. And I think Tom
Speaker 2: probably did that better than anybody could have expected. It
Speaker 2: is a challenging task, and I've said oftentimes both on
Speaker 2: this show and other shows I've done in the market
Speaker 2: nearly twenty years now, being the athletic director of BYU,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's the hardest job in college athletics,
Speaker 2: but it is among the hardest jobs. And I thought
Speaker 2: Tom was very front facing and forthcoming and honest today
Speaker 2: during his presson, or maybe more so than I'd ever
Speaker 2: heard him before. And it's always funny when you get
Speaker 2: the guy that's just retired, or you get the guy
Speaker 2: that's just changed teams, then you get the real deal.
Speaker 2: Then you actually get the story right now that they're
Speaker 2: not tied down to actually tow the line and say
Speaker 2: the things that they're supposed to say every time they
Speaker 2: do media or every time they're front facing in public.
Speaker 2: Among the most interesting things I heard from Tom today
Speaker 2: during his presser is about four or five years into
Speaker 2: the job. Four or five years into I guess independence
Speaker 2: would be the better way to put that. He went
Speaker 2: home to his wife Laurie and said, I can't do this.
Speaker 2: This is too hard, you know, to navigate independence, and
Speaker 2: I'll continue to say this. To navigate independence, to navigate
Speaker 2: everything you have to navigate as the athletic director while
Speaker 2: aligning yourself to the values of a place as unique
Speaker 2: and as stringent, honestly speaking as Brigham Young, is a
Speaker 2: remarkable accomplishment that Tom should walk away feeling very proud of.
Speaker 1: I mean, of every department.
Speaker 2: In you know, in the ecosystem of that university, the
Speaker 2: athletic department is probably the one that does not naturally
Speaker 2: align itself with the values of a faith based institution
Speaker 2: more so than any other department. And that's a tricky
Speaker 2: dance to dance when you're Tom Homo leading that department,
Speaker 2: and most, if not all of his hires he knocked
Speaker 2: out of the park. Bronco was a great hire Kalani
Speaker 2: taking over from Bronco. You know, at times was a
Speaker 2: little tenuous and there were questions, but he settled in
Speaker 2: now and obviously he's the right guy for that program.
Speaker 2: He hired Dave Rose, which probably Dave is the best
Speaker 2: basketball coach in the history of Brigham Young. He hired
Speaker 2: Mark Pope, who would still be here if Mark didn't
Speaker 2: leave for one of the best jobs in all of
Speaker 2: college basketball University of Kentucky. I still have some questions
Speaker 2: about Kevin Young, but the early returns as far as
Speaker 2: talent acquisition for the basketball program with Kevin in charge
Speaker 2: have been nothing other than a Grand slam Yegor Demon
Speaker 2: Cannon catching's two NBA players. They probably have some other
Speaker 2: pros on that roster this year, and then aj Debontsa
Speaker 2: rolling into town next year is the number one recruit
Speaker 2: in the country. Under you know, Kevin Young, you cannot
Speaker 2: argue with the talent. I do think there's some questions
Speaker 2: about the coaching, but only time will tell. But ultimately
Speaker 2: Tom is a good and he did a great job
Speaker 2: down there for what I perceive to be one of,
Speaker 2: if not the hardest jobs in all of college athletics.
Speaker 2: Administration the athletic director at BYU. Man that's a tough gig,
Speaker 2: and whoever's next is taking over for a legend, which
Speaker 2: is always a tough thing. But having the big twelve
Speaker 2: landing spot, which I think is the crown jewel achievement
Speaker 2: of Tom Homo's tenure, will allow whoever takes over more
Speaker 2: of a runway than Tom had.
Speaker 1: So kind of the biggest story here locally.
Speaker 2: Tom Holmo stepping aside from a BYU athletic director, that
Speaker 2: gig that he had for twenty years, and they'll have
Speaker 2: a replacement in place by late August is what I understand.
Speaker 2: Jazz in action tonight taking on the LA Lakers. Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic was initially listed as questionable, but he was upgraded
Speaker 2: to probable about an hour ago, according to Mark Stein
Speaker 2: and others. So you will see Lebron, you will see Luca,
Speaker 2: and you know the Jazz will be there too.
Speaker 1: So we'll get to that game. We'll get you ready
Speaker 1: for the game tonight.
Speaker 2: But let's do a little pro football with our guy,
Speaker 2: Mike Yam formerly the Pac twelve. That's how we got
Speaker 2: to know him, and with the NFL Network. On a
Speaker 2: Wednesday afternoon Mike. Happy Wednesday, sir, how are you?
Speaker 6: I'm doing great. I feel like neither one of us
Speaker 6: should talk and we should just fade back up little
Speaker 6: pearl Jam better man.
Speaker 7: I'm okay with that, Mike.
Speaker 2: I've long said that NFL, or excuse me, fmdjs have
Speaker 2: the best gig in the world.
Speaker 1: They come in, They're like.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's thirty degrees outside, and here's Pearl Jam. Then
Speaker 2: they chill for like six or seven minutes. Unfortunately, what
Speaker 2: you and I do for a living, we actually have
Speaker 2: to fill the content.
Speaker 1: Although you're not wrong.
Speaker 2: All right, let's start with the uncomfortable stuff, which is
Speaker 2: a question I have for you about my freaking New
Speaker 2: York Football Jets. So it looks like they are going
Speaker 2: to move on from Aaron, which I applaud. He is
Speaker 2: a locker room cancer and he's not good at football anymore.
Speaker 2: So what do you make of where we find ourselves
Speaker 2: with the Jets? What do you think is next? Do
Speaker 2: you think they're going to bottom out and try to
Speaker 2: find their way through the draft.
Speaker 6: So this is a really big subject because if there's
Speaker 6: one team in the end l where there's a real
Speaker 6: case study on what to do, what not to do
Speaker 6: what direction if you're thinking about going down.
Speaker 7: And is it a good idea bad idea?
Speaker 6: I will give them a lot of credit in this regard,
Speaker 6: and you probably would agree with this. They went for it,
Speaker 6: and they had a really good team a couple of
Speaker 6: years ago that seemed to be deficient on the offensive side,
Speaker 6: so they said, hey, what's our best option right now?
Speaker 6: And they went and signed Aaron Rodgers. And I think
Speaker 6: there's a couple of different ways to look at this.
Speaker 6: It clearly didn't work out, and it's probably a good
Speaker 6: thing that both sides are free and clear of this.
Speaker 6: But I will say this, they just trade for Devonte
Speaker 6: Adams right and were willing to continue even as the
Speaker 6: wheels were falling off, and they had fired Robert Sala
Speaker 6: at that point. They said, hey, let's keep building, let's
Speaker 6: keep trying to make a push here. And clearly it
Speaker 6: wasn't enough, but I think the organization had to say
Speaker 6: it in themselves. This is what Aaron Rodgers does. This
Speaker 6: is the offense that he brings to the table. He's
Speaker 6: at a stage in his career two years ago where
Speaker 6: it's like, yo, he wants the guys that are comfortable
Speaker 6: in that system, understand where they need to be when
Speaker 6: they need to be there, and they're not going to
Speaker 6: make a bunch of play calls. And not to go
Speaker 6: on a tangent here, I was talking to a Polleague
Speaker 6: of Mind and NFL network Isaiah standback and he's down
Speaker 6: in that Dallas area. We were together for the Shrine
Speaker 6: Bowl a couple weeks ago when the Cowboys decided to
Speaker 6: go a shot and Himer and he turns to me
Speaker 6: and you see, you know why this is a really
Speaker 6: good move for Dak.
Speaker 7: It's because he doesn't.
Speaker 6: Have to worry about remaking an entire offense right and
Speaker 6: like learning things from scratch, there's some continuity that is
Speaker 6: going to be in place. Rich down to him are
Speaker 6: in the fold, and I think the same thing could
Speaker 6: be said Baron Rodgers. They try to make him as
Speaker 6: comfortable as possible. Look, it didn't work out the first season,
Speaker 6: gets hurt obviously, a couple snaps into the game, and
Speaker 6: we're now seeing where if you're coming off an Achilles injuries,
Speaker 6: sometimes you're just not going to look right, like as
Speaker 6: Kirk Cousins, the Kirk Cousins that I saw for most
Speaker 6: of this year, or is he closer to the one
Speaker 6: that I saw two years ago. When he's really healthy,
Speaker 6: I would argue, like it hurts not as bad as
Speaker 6: what we witnessed there. I just don't think he was healthy.
Speaker 6: And I think as Aaron Rodgers started to get a
Speaker 6: little bit healthy as the season went on, he did
Speaker 6: start to look a little bit better, but you know,
Speaker 6: a little too late, and they had to go and
Speaker 6: move on.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 6: I feel like I'm not even answering your question here,
Speaker 6: but it does feel like the Jets have two paths
Speaker 6: to go. Do we rebuild in this draft and I
Speaker 6: don't think that this is a great quarterback class, which
Speaker 6: is what they need. Do they find that bridge guy
Speaker 6: and insert him in in free agency to sort of
Speaker 6: piece this thing together. Maybe, but there's a part of
Speaker 6: me that says, you know, they might just try to
Speaker 6: pick this thing apart in the draft and rebuild.
Speaker 1: Do you think Aaron's done? Do you think that's it
Speaker 1: for Aaron Rodgers?
Speaker 7: No, I don't.
Speaker 6: I think there's going to be interests because of who
Speaker 6: he is, and I think we saw enough flashes late
Speaker 6: in the season where I think there's a team that's like,
Speaker 6: you know, maybe he's got got a little left here
Speaker 6: in the tank, and maybe it's good enough to bridge
Speaker 6: the gap before we go to either a young quarterback
Speaker 6: or we see what happens in the draft next season.
Speaker 7: There's god.
Speaker 6: I was talking with Brian Baldinger about this the other day.
Speaker 6: You look through the top ten, you make an argument like,
Speaker 6: sixty seven of those teams need a quarterback. There's not
Speaker 6: six or seven first round arms in this year's draft,
Speaker 6: and lord knows there's not six top ten quarterbacks in
Speaker 6: this year's draft. Last year, what we saw with the
Speaker 6: run of six guys going those first twelve picks, like
Speaker 6: that's not going to happen again this year. At least
Speaker 6: it's not my opinion that that's going to happen. And
Speaker 6: if that's the case, guys like Aaron Rodgers, I think,
Speaker 6: do find a home. And by the way, do you
Speaker 6: think he wants to finish out this way? There's a
Speaker 6: part of me that says no, like he's he wants
Speaker 6: to get back out there.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I tend to agree with you, and it only takes
Speaker 2: one general manager to believe that. And your point about
Speaker 2: going all in to at least give it a shot
Speaker 2: is very fair and as Jets fan who has for
Speaker 2: years wondered when they would actually do that. I will
Speaker 2: admit to having some sort of excitement about the endeavor.
Speaker 1: It just didn't work out.
Speaker 2: But let's move off the Jets, and that's actually talk
Speaker 2: about the game that was played, you know, just a
Speaker 2: few days back now and one hundred and thirty seven
Speaker 2: point seven mili at its peak, and then you add
Speaker 2: the streaming numbers and the Spanish broadcast numbers. So my
Speaker 2: first question, Mike is how has football captured this market share?
Speaker 2: And do you think we're just in for this ride
Speaker 2: where they're because every year it's a new record, it's
Speaker 2: not going in the wrong direction. Do you think we're
Speaker 2: on this trajectory where every year we're going to see
Speaker 2: the audiences grow.
Speaker 6: I'm going to say yes, because there's a huge, huge
Speaker 6: catalyst coming and in my mind, it's the idea of
Speaker 6: the international audience and the expansion that is happening and
Speaker 6: finding different markets in Europe, finding different markets in South
Speaker 6: America as well. They haven't even come close to tapping
Speaker 6: the Asian market, like I don't even think. I know,
Speaker 6: there's an effort and there's a lot of progress that's
Speaker 6: being made behind the scenes. But can you imagine globally,
Speaker 6: because we talked about the NFL at least in headquarters
Speaker 6: as a global sport, and I think there's a real
Speaker 6: argument for it. When you talk about these games that
Speaker 6: are selling out in Munich and Brazil and obviously we're
Speaker 6: going to get in Ireland right now, Like that's all great,
Speaker 6: but when they haven't even come close to tapping that market,
Speaker 6: like I haven't heard the conversations about a game in
Speaker 6: Japan or China or insert you know, in Asian country.
Speaker 6: So I think that there's still a ridiculous amount of
Speaker 6: legs for this sport.
Speaker 7: You think about flag.
Speaker 6: Football being included into the Olympics, I think there's a lot.
Speaker 6: There's a lot to be said where that audience is
Speaker 6: going to continue to grow, which is mind boggling to me.
Speaker 2: So I don't love the whole like what does one
Speaker 2: loss mean for a player's legacy? But I do want
Speaker 2: to ask you about the winning quarterback instead of leading
Speaker 2: the conversation with the Chiefs and Mahomes because I just
Speaker 2: and look, I am no NFL scout and I am
Speaker 2: comfortable being an observer and having an informed opinion because
Speaker 2: I've been doing this for a long time, but I'm
Speaker 2: not some expert. I just was never on board with
Speaker 2: the conversation about Jalen. I just wasn't like it felt
Speaker 2: like they were intentionally rushing the football because I had
Speaker 2: a great offensive line and they have probably the best
Speaker 2: running back of this generation, and a couple of years
Speaker 2: ago in the Super Bowl, Jalen passed for over three
Speaker 2: hundred Like he can throw the football. And yes, I
Speaker 2: know there are some numbers to be critical of and
Speaker 2: maybe the lack of accuracy from time to time, and
Speaker 2: he might have the best one two punch as far
Speaker 2: as receivers in the entire NFL. But I just I
Speaker 2: always believed that at some point that this dude was
Speaker 2: going to get it done. I've been a fan of
Speaker 2: his way back in Bama when he lost his job
Speaker 2: and stayed in college and stayed the course.
Speaker 1: What did this win do for the narrative surrounding Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 6: I think it changes it dramatically, and I think you're
Speaker 6: hitting the nail the head and it was something that
Speaker 6: was bothering me. I do a new podcast with Lamar Hurt,
Speaker 6: who I know is a buddy of yours and has
Speaker 6: probably been on the show a million times that we
Speaker 6: were talking about it last night actually on the episode,
Speaker 6: and I said to him, like, I got to the
Speaker 6: point where I was really disappointed with and it's partly
Speaker 6: my fault too, right, Like I could have spoken up
Speaker 6: on like the five hour Super Bowl Live show that
Speaker 6: I did last week, right, like you're doing all this
Speaker 6: coverage and I'm thinking to myself, like i'd get the
Speaker 6: low hanging fruit of legacy with Mahomes and going for
Speaker 6: a repeat and the tailor Show Travis Kelsey situation. But
Speaker 6: there was one point, Spence, like during the week, I
Speaker 6: was working with David Carr and in one of our
Speaker 6: commercial breaks, I turned to him and I just said,
Speaker 6: do you see it the way that I see it?
Speaker 6: And he looked at me and he's like, where are
Speaker 6: you going with this? And I said, I see a
Speaker 6: world where the Chiefs win small like, for sure they
Speaker 6: can win this game. I mean, look at the season,
Speaker 6: look at the team, look at my homes. Of course
Speaker 6: they can win the Super Bowl. But I see it
Speaker 6: where the Eagles can win a close game. But I
Speaker 6: got to tell you, I also see the Eagles mashing
Speaker 6: this team, and I don't see Kansas City being able
Speaker 6: to say the same thing. And he started to laugh
Speaker 6: and he said, I've been thinking the same thing, and
Speaker 6: I go, I'm not going to say that on air
Speaker 6: just because I'm the host, right, like he's the analyst.
Speaker 6: And he did pick Philadelphia in that game. They didn't
Speaker 6: think it was going to be a wrecking ball the
Speaker 6: way that he didn't say it was going to be
Speaker 6: a wrecking ball the way that it turned out. But
Speaker 6: as Jalen Hurts is on that podium, Spence I started
Speaker 6: thinking to myself, why not the Eagles being the new dynasty.
Speaker 6: And I'm not suggesting Kansas City is going away. All
Speaker 6: I'm saying is Jalen Hurts is young. Right, So they
Speaker 6: got a guy who's in place who two years ago
Speaker 6: was in the MVP conversation that we've built their coordinators
Speaker 6: two seasons ago off of that loss, and it was
Speaker 6: a bad year for Nick Sirianni.
Speaker 7: It was on the hot seat.
Speaker 6: People were talking about this losing his job. Now he's
Speaker 6: a Super Bowl winner. They get stay Kwon Barkley, they
Speaker 6: got a young defense, Like think about what Kansas City
Speaker 6: has done.
Speaker 7: They've built around the homes.
Speaker 6: Philly got Jalen hurts. They got skill position players that
Speaker 6: are in the fold. Kansas City kind of lost some
Speaker 6: of those dudes. But the reason why the Chiefs were
Speaker 6: in this game is because of their defense, fense and
Speaker 6: what they've done in this draft. Look at what Howie
Speaker 6: Roseman has done, their general manager, Eagles GM. But he's
Speaker 6: starting to build a team that's got young studs on
Speaker 6: the defensive side, on the front half of that, in
Speaker 6: that front seven and in the back end. I just
Speaker 6: look at that and go, hey, really, I don't think
Speaker 6: is going anywhere. And maybe I'm just being dramatic because
Speaker 6: it's they're coming off the Super Bowl win, but I
Speaker 6: really do think the framework.
Speaker 2: Is there for this team, and that's where I wanted
Speaker 2: to go next. And I know you got to go
Speaker 2: in a minute. So I have one Kansas City question
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 6: No got I got a couple. I get a couple,
Speaker 6: So whatever.
Speaker 1: You need, Okay, cool, Okay, Kennedy, I.
Speaker 6: Just got a text at a meeting, got canceled.
Speaker 1: Se Oh cool, okay, great more Mike am is better
Speaker 1: for us.
Speaker 2: So you know, we talk a lot about you know,
Speaker 2: Mahomes twenty nine Josh Allen Lamar twenty eight, Jalen's twenty
Speaker 2: six and Sequon's twenty eight, AJ's twenty seven, DeVante's twenty six.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, when you win at a high level,
Speaker 2: you are going to lose coaches, which they have again,
Speaker 2: and there are going to be players that need to
Speaker 2: get paid, so they're not going to run it back entirely.
Speaker 2: But the bulk of their team is in place and
Speaker 2: they are young. What are you willing to say about
Speaker 2: what is now possible after watching them just dismantle this
Speaker 2: modern day dynasty in Kansas City?
Speaker 6: So do I think they can get back and win
Speaker 6: another Super Bowl in the next two to three seasons?
Speaker 7: Yes, I absolutely do think that that is the case.
Speaker 6: We and you, and I don't want to put words
Speaker 6: in your mouth that I've been on with you enough
Speaker 6: to know kind of like we think similarly in terms
Speaker 6: of some of the personnel and the teams that are
Speaker 6: out there, Like, I don't think this is going you know,
Speaker 6: the hot take like the AFC has got better teams collectively.
Speaker 6: But if you said to me, who are the most
Speaker 6: complete teams in the NFL, two of them are in
Speaker 6: the NFC and one is in the AFC. And that's
Speaker 6: the Baltimore Ravens, and then I would throw the Lions
Speaker 6: in with the Eagles.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: And it's not to say that Kansas City is not good.
Speaker 6: It's not to say Buffalo is not good, or you know,
Speaker 6: the Houston Texans on the rise, whoever, you know what
Speaker 6: Washington is going to end up being in the next
Speaker 6: couple of seasons. I just think right now, based off
Speaker 6: of those rosters, those three teams, to me, are the
Speaker 6: most complete. And if you've got the most complete teams,
Speaker 6: I think you got a chance at the end. And
Speaker 6: to me, that's why I think Philadelphia because of some
Speaker 6: of those ages that you reference, and because they have
Speaker 6: a general manager willing to wheel and deal to get
Speaker 6: this team to this point. Like the Eagles always seem
Speaker 6: to be active, always seem to pull the right strings,
Speaker 6: and it's usually not a train wreck like they don't
Speaker 6: have like these god awful, you know, seasons where you
Speaker 6: just shake your head and go, what the heck happened?
Speaker 6: Like maybe they don't live up to the hype, but
Speaker 6: that's why I really do think like the Eagles absolutely
Speaker 6: are in the next the next couple of seasons.
Speaker 2: All right, Now, let's move over to the chief side
Speaker 2: of this, and you know, I don't know where you
Speaker 2: were at Will while you were watching the game.
Speaker 1: I was shell shocked.
Speaker 2: I thought Kansas City was going to win a close
Speaker 2: one because it just got sick of I thought Buffalo,
Speaker 2: I thought it was Josh's year, just get sick of
Speaker 2: picking against Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. So but actually,
Speaker 2: before we get to the Chiefs question, at what point
Speaker 2: during the game, Mike, did you say to yourself, all Right,
Speaker 2: that's it, that's a rap.
Speaker 6: So d hops drop made me think to myself, like
Speaker 6: this just might not be it. And obviously at the
Speaker 6: end of the first quarter, Patrick's eyes got I sound
Speaker 6: like so dramatic, dude, Like I don't need to be
Speaker 6: that guy. But they're like, like, am I the only
Speaker 6: one who saw that? Like you're you're sitting there and
Speaker 6: you're you're seeing Mahomes kind of run around, and you
Speaker 6: have flashes of the you know, a Todd Bowles defense
Speaker 6: in a huge game like the Super Bowl, Just like
Speaker 6: the dude's head was on a swivel and you look
Speaker 6: at the tackles on that offensive line and they weren't
Speaker 6: holding up, and they weren't holding up even when Philly
Speaker 6: wasn't think I think I saw this, God I should.
Speaker 6: You would think I would have gone through our postgame
Speaker 6: research package like eight hundred times. But I'm almost positive
Speaker 6: that Philly did not blitz in that game and still
Speaker 6: was able to generate that much pressure. So when I
Speaker 6: see Mahomes have that type of look, that's at that
Speaker 6: point I was like, oh, like this, this ain't going
Speaker 6: to be good for these dudes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you're You're right, And he was seeing ghosts
Speaker 2: and that's what happens where every time you drop back,
Speaker 2: you're running for your life. I mean, I don't really
Speaker 2: view this and I'm not a I don't think wins
Speaker 2: and losses are a quarterback stat That's just me. I mean,
Speaker 2: we kind of do the thing like Mahomes was eight
Speaker 2: to zero against Vic Fangio prior to.
Speaker 1: The Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: But moving over to the Kansas City side, I mean,
Speaker 2: Andy Reid's coming back next year. Mahomes is still in
Speaker 2: his twenties. We'll see what happens with Kelsey. This does
Speaker 2: feel a little bit like the diagnosis we all did
Speaker 2: after the Tampa Bay Super Bowl loss, where they couldn't
Speaker 2: protect Mahomes at all. They obviously have offensive line issues,
Speaker 2: but they're among the favorites in some sports books, the
Speaker 2: favorite to win it again next year because they have
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred center. What does the offseason look like and
Speaker 2: do you anticipate a recalibration and maybe a second or
Speaker 2: third act with this Kansas City Chiefs team.
Speaker 6: Look, I think they're going to be in the mix
Speaker 6: again next year because of the Mahomes factor, right, And
Speaker 6: I think it's even more magnified to me. Some people
Speaker 6: might say, Hey, that's a lazy take, but my pushback
Speaker 6: on it would be think about what Mahomes was able
Speaker 6: to accomplish this year when there were clearly flaws on
Speaker 6: that team, and I think they were magnified in the
Speaker 6: Super Bowl. And I think the one thing that Bert
Speaker 6: Beach is needing to sort to figure out here in
Speaker 6: the next couple weeks ahead of the draft is how
Speaker 6: do I fill some of these gaps? And there were
Speaker 6: gaps on that offensive line. People felt like the shift
Speaker 6: with Joe Tuni on that offensive line, moving him to
Speaker 6: the left tackle was going to be enough, and for
Speaker 6: eight weeks or so, it was, But I think we
Speaker 6: forgot what the first half of the season looked like
Speaker 6: for Mahomes, interceptions were piling up, sacks were piling up
Speaker 6: for him, and there was an unsteady nature around this offense.
Speaker 6: I think clearly they need a playmaker on that outside
Speaker 6: to go along with a new Xavier Worthy de hop Unfortunately,
Speaker 6: you know, wasn't that guy They had to do with
Speaker 6: injuries with Hollywood Brown. You know, they need to figure
Speaker 6: out that backfield, but Checko was banged up, you know,
Speaker 6: like they just never really got that production. But first
Speaker 6: and foremost is how do you solidify an offensive line
Speaker 6: in front of Patrick Mahomes? And then how do you
Speaker 6: add some depth and some pieces on the offensive side,
Speaker 6: And more importantly, because it's the defense that carried them
Speaker 6: these last two years, how do you make sure you're
Speaker 6: in a good spot. So I think you know, in
Speaker 6: no particular well actually in a particular order. Offensive line's
Speaker 6: got to be like first, second, and third, and then
Speaker 6: it's another playmaker, whether it's a running back or a
Speaker 6: wide receiver, and we got to add some depth to
Speaker 6: that defense.
Speaker 2: A couple of other just questions around the league. Then
Speaker 2: I'll set you loose, and if you need to hang
Speaker 2: up on me, Mike, you know you can in my feelings,
Speaker 2: so I'm good.
Speaker 7: They just swift.
Speaker 6: I know, I told Porter that I had an out time,
Speaker 6: but they just they shifted my meeting.
Speaker 7: So like, I'm good for a few minutes. Whatever you need.
Speaker 2: Okay, great, because I did want to ask you. I mean,
Speaker 2: Jayden Daniels was nearly a ute and then he ended
Speaker 2: up down at Arizona State, and you were with the
Speaker 2: network and we had him in the PAC twelve footprint
Speaker 2: and I remember watching him and being like, yeah, he's fun,
Speaker 2: Yeah he's exciting, but come on, man, like nobody saw this.
Speaker 2: And I've got a buddy who's a Commanders fan, and
Speaker 2: we kind of below our football misery with me being
Speaker 2: the Jets fan and him being the Commanders fan.
Speaker 1: And if you're a Commanders.
Speaker 2: Fan, now they've got some work to do because he
Speaker 2: was so good. I think he was able to cover
Speaker 2: up some real holes at Philly exposed. So what do
Speaker 2: they do this offseason to make sure they do not
Speaker 2: waste too clearly is a generational talent and attendant to that,
Speaker 2: how surprised are you to watch this kid do what
Speaker 2: he's doing based off the fact that you saw the
Speaker 2: start of his college career.
Speaker 6: I spent I was at his first start against Kent State.
Speaker 6: That was a game that was unpacked twelve Network. We
Speaker 6: were doing our road show there, the first, you know,
Speaker 6: true freshman to get a start in at the quarterback
Speaker 6: spot for ASU, and he played. I don't remember the
Speaker 6: exact numbers, but I know it through like maybe two
Speaker 6: touchdowns in that game and he looked good. And it's
Speaker 6: funny this time last year, as he's getting ready for
Speaker 6: the draft, Michael Robinson on one of my buzz and
Speaker 6: colleagues in NFL, kept telling me he's like, yo, man,
Speaker 6: I think I might like him better than Caleb. And
Speaker 6: it was so hard for me to boot the skinny,
Speaker 6: thin kid, who, by the way, you know, goes to
Speaker 6: LSU and has eyesmen. It's not like I need to
Speaker 6: see him play really well in his last stop, but
Speaker 6: it's hard sometimes to boot you those early perceptions that
Speaker 6: you have of a guy.
Speaker 7: He's been terrific.
Speaker 6: He's the reason why people watch the draft. He's the
Speaker 6: reason why there are, you know, a bunch of teams
Speaker 6: in the top ten who feel like they are just
Speaker 6: one player away from changing the fortunes of an entire franchise.
Speaker 6: And it's not to say that Caleb's not going to
Speaker 6: be good, but we saw bo Nicks have some great
Speaker 6: flashes for a Denver team that we didn't think was
Speaker 6: going to be able to play as well as they did.
Speaker 6: Kudos to Sean Payton in that regard as well. The
Speaker 6: only pushback and by the way, I'm not the only
Speaker 6: one saying this, and I'm not saying it's going to happen,
Speaker 6: but no, Cijo Strout took a little bit of a
Speaker 6: step back, I thought this past season, and how do
Speaker 6: you ensure that that's not the case for four or
Speaker 6: Jane and Daniels. I don't know what I would point
Speaker 6: to other than I think some teams figured out how
Speaker 6: to make CJ a little uncomfortable. They had some real
Speaker 6: injuries that they needed to navigate, and I thought that
Speaker 6: was a factor they were rushing him defenses. I felt
Speaker 6: like he was under more pressure this season than he
Speaker 6: was in his rookie campaign. But it feels like Jane's
Speaker 6: got a slightly different skill set because of his mobility,
Speaker 6: what he does with his legs, where he might be
Speaker 6: able to negate some of that stuff and be just
Speaker 6: as good, if not better, in year two.
Speaker 1: So you're referenced Caleb, and it's interesting.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of people that have dissenting opinions
Speaker 2: on who he can be, and I like him.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot there.
Speaker 2: I know that some people don't love the perceived Prima
Speaker 2: Donna stuff or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man.
Speaker 2: I think we saw a lot during his rookie year
Speaker 2: that indicated that he was getting better, and now they
Speaker 2: bring in Ben Johnson and I don't know, Mike, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I've never been one to like Nick Sirianni.
Speaker 2: His opening press conference made us all cringe and we're like,
Speaker 2: is this dude okay?
Speaker 1: And he just won a super Bowl.
Speaker 2: There just isn't anything about Ben's personality that I've seen
Speaker 2: so far that makes me believe he's like a Dan
Speaker 2: Campbell culture builder. But maybe you don't have to be
Speaker 2: because he's so brilliant offensively. How does this look now
Speaker 2: that Chicago has an offensive minded coach for a young
Speaker 2: quarterback who I still believe can be really special.
Speaker 7: Huge in such a meaningful way.
Speaker 6: I'm with you, and I think the people that I've
Speaker 6: talked to around you know that team that franchise, or
Speaker 6: at least know Ben. I think that's part of the concern, right,
Speaker 6: like and Ben get in a room and own it
Speaker 6: the way Dan Campbell can. And by the way, he
Speaker 6: doesn't need to be Dan Campbell. There's plenty of different
Speaker 6: personalities that are out there. By and large, I think
Speaker 6: there's so much optimism around getting an offensive guy who
Speaker 6: can really work and mold the guy that I thought
Speaker 6: was a generational type talent coming out of school in
Speaker 6: Caleb Williams. You know, I would give this context to
Speaker 6: Jared Goff was almost left for dead, and I couldn't
Speaker 6: be happier that this guy is balled out the way
Speaker 6: that he has. You know, they've had some great pieces
Speaker 6: in Detroit around him, but then was able to get
Speaker 6: the best out of Jared Goff. And now I think, hey,
Speaker 6: you've got a guy like Caleb Williams and there are
Speaker 6: pieces to that offense that are pretty talented. Can you
Speaker 6: get this team over the hum And there's a part
Speaker 6: of me that says, you know, they're one of those
Speaker 6: squads who, you know, I thought they'd be good this year.
Speaker 6: Obviously there were some real struggles for him and the
Speaker 6: wheels fell off for him, But I do think next
Speaker 6: year I would point to them as a team that
Speaker 6: would be one of the more dangerous ones.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you about another Pac twelve kid, because
Speaker 2: as a Jets fan, I actually thought the Jets had
Speaker 2: found their future when they drafted Sam Darnold.
Speaker 1: I did not work out, and maybe that's a Jets problem.
Speaker 2: I'm sure Zach Wilson's family online too, has something to
Speaker 2: add to that. But I was very happy for Sam
Speaker 2: to see what he did in Minnesota this year. Although
Speaker 2: it didn't end the way he was expecting, it feels
Speaker 2: like he's earned a shot somewhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, where do you think that is?
Speaker 6: I think the Raiders potentially are a good fit. I
Speaker 6: know there's a lot of people pointing in a Russell
Speaker 6: Wilson in that regard. I'm with you on Sam. You know,
Speaker 6: I made references. I said this the other day about
Speaker 6: say Kwan, and someone hit me up on social media
Speaker 6: and I'm like, oh my god, Like, you guys are
Speaker 6: so technical. I talked about how remember that Rulese bowl
Speaker 6: I said a couple of years ago it was twenty eighteen.
Speaker 6: You know, Sorry, my frame of reference sometimes, like I
Speaker 6: don't realize that I'm getting old and I'm forty three
Speaker 6: now and you know, like twenty eighteen wasn't just two
Speaker 6: years ago. I'd also argue college doesn't seem that long ago.
Speaker 6: But you remember that Penn State match against that Sea
Speaker 6: and you know, just kind of like the head to
Speaker 6: head stuff, and there were so much buzz around Sam,
Speaker 6: and I know it didn't play out great for him
Speaker 6: in his NFL career, but this resurgence has been has
Speaker 6: been remarkable. And I do think that while the ending
Speaker 6: was not great for Sam, Kevin O'Connell and like the
Speaker 6: position he was in at least in that last game
Speaker 6: raised a couple eyebrows for a few of us at
Speaker 6: NFL Network as we were doing some of our shows
Speaker 6: around it. It felt like there weren't like a ton
Speaker 6: of great adjustments in that game in that second half,
Speaker 6: and Sam obviously struggled. But Sam deserves another opportunity. I
Speaker 6: think he gets it, And you know, do I think
Speaker 6: he gets like a forty million dollar, you know deal somewhere.
Speaker 6: I don't know if that's the case, but you know, hell,
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, three weeks left in the season,
Speaker 6: it was looking like that.
Speaker 7: I don't know what he ends up getting, but.
Speaker 6: The Raiders certainly look like a team that could be
Speaker 6: one of those squads that that would do.
Speaker 7: Well with him.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean to make this a trip around nostalgic
Speaker 2: Pac twelve questions, But I have one more question for
Speaker 2: you before I say you lose, because we are in
Speaker 2: a market where we have a lot of Broncos fans
Speaker 2: and I was on the sidelines when Bonick rolled into
Speaker 2: town with the Oregon Ducks and they just dismantled the utes.
Speaker 2: But I was pretty skeptical about Bo's potential to playfl
Speaker 2: football at a high level, and I think he answered
Speaker 2: a lot of questions. So I'm going to ask you
Speaker 2: the same question before I said you loose that I
Speaker 2: asked you about Washington.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you about Denver.
Speaker 2: What do they need to do to make sure that
Speaker 2: this momentum continues to roll and make sure Bow's ready
Speaker 2: to go for your two.
Speaker 6: I don't think you're alone in your assessment and what
Speaker 6: you thought it was going to be. And you know,
Speaker 6: I think the two of us are sitting here going
Speaker 6: doing a double take, like damn they played that well,
Speaker 6: bow balled out like that. I do think another playmaker
Speaker 6: is solidifying that defense with some depth around there. There
Speaker 6: were times as I watched this team and I just wondered, like, hey,
Speaker 6: like what would they be with one of the more
Speaker 6: talented running backs in the NFL. Did feel like bow
Speaker 6: was under a lot of pressure to deliver, and by
Speaker 6: the way he did. You know, Jaden doesn't have Jaden season?
Speaker 6: Well next to the guy, I mean, it's sort of
Speaker 6: the same conversation, which is how good can Washington be?
Speaker 6: How good could Denver be? Well, it turns out pretty
Speaker 6: damn good. And while people wanted to see Cincinnati sink
Speaker 6: into the postseason, it was Denver grabbing that last spots.
Speaker 6: And kudos to that team for having that type of season.
Speaker 6: But to me, I really do think another playmaker. And
Speaker 6: I know we had to get to play with his
Speaker 6: college buddy in Franklin, but I do think there needs
Speaker 6: to be more of a conservative effort on the offensive
Speaker 6: side to build.
Speaker 2: A round Bow Mike, Before I set you lose, what
Speaker 2: is going on? Follow back? I just followed you again
Speaker 2: on Twitter. That's so weird. I just pulled up your
Speaker 2: Twitter page and said follow back. I've been following you
Speaker 2: for like five years. I don't know what the deal
Speaker 2: is anyway, Twitter. Twitter's weird. I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: been following the news cycle about the dude the team's
Speaker 2: down the company, but it's kind of a weird, weird
Speaker 2: spot for social media right now. I know they call
Speaker 2: it except Yeah, but before I set you lose fried
Speaker 2: Rice and Marinara, you've written a children's book and you
Speaker 2: also have a new podcast. So tell our listeners where
Speaker 2: they can go get your work.
Speaker 7: No, I appreciate it, by the way, Like I didn't
Speaker 7: even follow the guy who owns I.
Speaker 6: Don't want to make this political deal, but like it's
Speaker 6: almost like I'm on his timeline. Like it's kind of
Speaker 6: crazy to me, which is just wild. Anyway, appreciate it
Speaker 6: as always, man you mentioned in the book, it's a
Speaker 6: certainly a huge passion project for me, Privorus and Marinara.
Speaker 7: It is on Amazon.
Speaker 6: If anyone is purchasing a review would be amazing. I
Speaker 6: do have another one coming out at the end of
Speaker 6: the year. It was just corresponding with some folks about that,
Speaker 6: got some football ties on that one, and then all
Speaker 6: ball with Lamar Hurd, one of my best friends from
Speaker 6: my days at Pac twelve. It is obviously the TV
Speaker 6: analysts for the Blazers, we're doing a little West Coast,
Speaker 6: We're doing some NML. We're doing a little MBA conversation.
Speaker 6: It airs on the PAC twelve Conferences YouTube page and
Speaker 6: you can listen to.
Speaker 7: It as well.
Speaker 6: So I appreciate you a mentally man, even just bringing
Speaker 6: that up.
Speaker 1: Always good to hear voice my friend. Be well, well,
Speaker 1: chat soon.
Speaker 7: Okay, you're the best man. Take care the.
Speaker 1: Great Mike Yeam.
Speaker 2: We got to know him when the PAC twelve was
Speaker 2: a thing kids, look it up YouTube, and now I
Speaker 2: was with our friends at the NFL. Always appreciate Mike's
Speaker 2: time before we catch break out to tell you about
Speaker 2: my friends at Prize Picks, which is the best place
Speaker 2: to get real money, real money sports action. With over
Speaker 2: ten million members and billions of dollars and awarded winnings,
Speaker 2: Prize Picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all.
Speaker 2: All you have to do is pick more or less
Speaker 2: on at least two players for a shot to win
Speaker 2: up to one thousand times your cash. You can run
Speaker 2: your game all season along on Prize Picks all Star
Speaker 2: weekends almost here. Prize Picks is the best place to
Speaker 2: win cash while watching your favorite players during the game.
Speaker 2: On excuse me during the game and the Saturday night
Speaker 2: events like the three point Contest or the Dunk Contest
Speaker 2: as well. If you have not taken their free money,
Speaker 2: you might as well go do that and then play
Speaker 2: around see if you like it. Download the prize picks
Speaker 2: up today, use the promo code ESPN seven hundred and
Speaker 2: get fifty dollars instantly when you play just five dollars
Speaker 2: promo code ESPN seven hundred one. Prize Picks get fifty
Speaker 2: dollars instantly. When you play just five dollars, win or lose,
Speaker 2: you're gonna get fifty bucks for just playing. That's guaranteed.
Speaker 2: Prize Picks run your game all season long. A little
Speaker 2: bit of breaking news, only because we've been covering this
Speaker 2: story quite a bit, the Department of Education has recinded
Speaker 2: the It was not a ruling. It was just a
Speaker 2: memo sent around by the Department of Education prior to
Speaker 2: Joe Biden leaving the White House and Donald Trump taking
Speaker 2: over that NIL would be under Title nine guidelines, and
Speaker 2: that has been rescinded. We'll get back to it because
Speaker 2: there is some storylines applicable to our local scene here.
Speaker 2: We're also going to bring in Neil excuse me, Richard Smith.
Speaker 2: Neil Smith's on the phone. We're bringing him in right now.
Speaker 2: But Richard Smith live in studio. He gets ready for
Speaker 2: Jazz Laker Sean saiad for some DFL. But the aforementioned
Speaker 2: Neil Smith stops by for our weekly conversation about the
Speaker 2: world of professional hockey.
Speaker 1: Neil, Happy Wednesday, sir?
Speaker 4: How are you Happy Wednesday?
Speaker 7: To you?
Speaker 4: And there's too many Smiths, I mean, how do you
Speaker 4: keep them all straight?
Speaker 2: Well, especially in our state. Smith is a very popular
Speaker 2: name in the state of Utah.
Speaker 7: Neil.
Speaker 1: So we've got Neil Smith.
Speaker 2: Former NHL executive now Richard Smith spent forty years with
Speaker 2: the Jazz front office. I gotta know, did are you
Speaker 2: a Are you a Super Bowl guy? I know you're
Speaker 2: a hockey guy.
Speaker 1: Did you get not really?
Speaker 4: I you know what, Spence. I was driving eleven and
Speaker 4: a half hours on Sunday to go from New York
Speaker 4: back home to South Carolina. So the roads were quite
Speaker 4: good because most people that have life were watching the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl. But I was behind the wheel of a car.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, do you are you all hockey? Do
Speaker 2: you take it any basketball or anything else? Or is
Speaker 2: it just all hockey for you.
Speaker 4: You know, don't tell your dad that I don't watch basketball. No,
Speaker 4: I mean when I was at the garden, I used
Speaker 4: to love the Knicks and I and I really do
Speaker 4: appreciate the athleticism a basketball boy. When you say courtside
Speaker 4: and see those guys, it's it's unbelievable. And baseball I love.
Speaker 4: I don't know who could grow up in North America
Speaker 4: not sort of like baseball because it's, you know, the
Speaker 4: American game, and it's so easy to go to a
Speaker 4: game and just enjoy yourself. You don't need, you know,
Speaker 4: you don't need to really know the score, just going
Speaker 4: to enjoy the day. So but I mostly, you know,
Speaker 4: grew up in Canada. I'm a Canuck. I'm all hockey
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 1: Well fair enough.
Speaker 2: Well it's good that you're all hockey all the time
Speaker 2: because you are hockey experts, so we need your knowledge.
Speaker 1: So four nations face off.
Speaker 2: I know it's not something that moves the needle for you,
Speaker 2: but it does allow a little bit of a respite,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a reset right this time of
Speaker 2: year where the hockey clubs offer another number of days.
Speaker 2: So what do you think the boxes are they need
Speaker 2: to be checked around NHL front offices with this break.
Speaker 2: Are you using it to get healthy? Are you looking
Speaker 2: at your roster maybe to make some moves. What does
Speaker 2: this pause and action do for the world of the
Speaker 2: NHL new.
Speaker 4: Well, First of all, I think that the general managers
Speaker 4: that have players playing in the tournament are doing a
Speaker 4: lot of praying every night that their players don't get hurt,
Speaker 4: because these are their best players. And the one team
Speaker 4: who's actually up at the top of the league that
Speaker 4: has nobody playing in the tournament is Washington. It's amazing.
Speaker 4: So Chris Patrick the GM, and Spencer Carbury the coach,
Speaker 4: they're relieved, they go on vacation and they can just
Speaker 4: enjoy watching the four Nations. But the other gms, I
Speaker 4: can tell you, are just sitting there praying that their
Speaker 4: guys don't get hurt. I think for the gms that
Speaker 4: aren't involved, you know, it's all of the above. It's
Speaker 4: what you said. They're looking to see who they should add.
Speaker 4: Are they a seller, are they a buyer? Where have
Speaker 4: they got a realistic chance? And they're evaluating their lineup
Speaker 4: and they're evaluating their injuries. And this is a great
Speaker 4: break for a player who's got a nagging injury to
Speaker 4: get a couple of ten days to two weeks off
Speaker 4: to rest and heal.
Speaker 2: So, as we say here now only twenty six games
Speaker 2: left for the Utah Hockey Club, which, honestly, is I'm
Speaker 2: saying that out loud, that is wild.
Speaker 1: It feels like they just landed in our market.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I wanted to do a little bit
Speaker 2: of a kind of a reset and a look back
Speaker 2: on the fifty six games that have been played here
Speaker 2: for the Utah Hockey Club. And honestly, I'll give you
Speaker 2: a lot of credit because they are in a spot
Speaker 2: where you told us you thought they would be.
Speaker 1: They are right there for the wildcard.
Speaker 2: There are six points back of Vancouver, they're a full
Speaker 2: nine excuse me, eleven back of Colorado. But they're right
Speaker 2: where you told us you thought they would be, as
Speaker 2: we are now sitting here in February, and down the
Speaker 2: stretch we go. So before we look forward, let's look
Speaker 2: back on the fifty six games that have been played,
Speaker 2: the good, the bad, Your thoughts on the hockey club
Speaker 2: as we sit here right now.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, my good friend and partner on my podcast,
Speaker 4: Vic Morin, made up a great chart for me that
Speaker 4: we're going to use on the podcast showing all the
Speaker 4: teams and how many games they have left, how many
Speaker 4: home games, how many games against over five hundred teams,
Speaker 4: how many games against sub five hundred teams, playoff teams
Speaker 4: and non playoff teams, And it really gives you a
Speaker 4: great picture. I'll tell you with a quick statement about Utahn.
Speaker 4: You and I have talked about this all year. Nine
Speaker 4: to twelve and six at home is really not going
Speaker 4: to do it. I mean, the other there only have
Speaker 4: nine games at home. That's two less than Vancouver has
Speaker 4: at home. That's seven less than Calgary has at home,
Speaker 4: three less than Saint Louis has at home, and it's
Speaker 4: four less than Anaheim Ducks have at home. So if
Speaker 4: they were just five hundred, if they were twelve, if
Speaker 4: they were twelve, twelve and three, you know, that's a
Speaker 4: big deal. That's an extra three point so they would
Speaker 4: have in the standings, which would put them even closer.
Speaker 4: So that being not good on home ice, which is
Speaker 4: the opposite of where they were at Mullet Arena back
Speaker 4: in Arizona, has really cost them this season.
Speaker 2: You know, I know I've asked you this, But let's
Speaker 2: dig into a little bit more because there are a
Speaker 2: couple of things that I've noticed they really struggle with.
Speaker 2: And obviously the home ice and inability to capture maximum
Speaker 2: points here in Salt Lake is a big problem.
Speaker 1: They also don't close Neil.
Speaker 2: They went through the stretch where I think it was
Speaker 2: thirteen straight games were either tied or leading heading into
Speaker 2: the third period, and I think they had three or
Speaker 2: four wins during that thirteen game stretch.
Speaker 1: What gives it?
Speaker 2: Is it, Okay, a new market, It's not an expansion team,
Speaker 2: but it is a new home for these coaches and
Speaker 2: players in the staff.
Speaker 1: Is it youth? Is it inexperience?
Speaker 2: Like the inability to get points at home and close
Speaker 2: out What does that say to you?
Speaker 4: What that says to me is that it's a young
Speaker 4: group and they're a nervous group. Once the other team scores,
Speaker 4: they come out early in the games and do quite well.
Speaker 4: They're fast their score. I mean, look at their last
Speaker 4: game in Washington. They got a big lead on the
Speaker 4: best team in the league, and then they were able
Speaker 4: to come back and tie them in the last seconds
Speaker 4: of the game, and then Utah went on to win
Speaker 4: in the shootout, but they start what we call squeezing
Speaker 4: your stick tighter, meaning that you get all nervous, like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, here we go again. Are we going
Speaker 4: to lose again. We can't lose again. We can't lose again.
Speaker 4: That's what happens to an inexperienced team. An experienced team
Speaker 4: goes up to nothing, goes up to nothing, gets a
Speaker 4: goal scored on them. They go, so what you know,
Speaker 4: inexperienced team is so happy that they've got the lead,
Speaker 4: and then the other team scores and they go, oh
Speaker 4: my god, no, please, please, don't do this again. So
Speaker 4: it's it's just a maturation process. And yeah, you're right,
Speaker 4: this is not an expansion team. It's an established team,
Speaker 4: but it's a young team and we're going to have
Speaker 4: to get experience in how to handle and protect the lead.
Speaker 2: You reference, you know, general managers in front offices utilizing
Speaker 2: this little break to kind of look around. The trade
Speaker 2: deadline is March seventh, Neal, Is that right? Ver second
Speaker 2: week of March something like that?
Speaker 4: I believe.
Speaker 2: So yet okay, so so Bill Armstrong right now taking
Speaker 2: this opportunity to analyze his group, and as you and
Speaker 2: I have discussed all year, This is a club with
Speaker 2: clean books and draft capital. Should they want to make
Speaker 2: an addition to exibite the growth, they have the ability to.
Speaker 1: Do that now.
Speaker 2: Bill has also talked on the record often times about
Speaker 2: this process and how they've been implementing the process for
Speaker 2: a number of years.
Speaker 1: They're not going to stray from it.
Speaker 2: We had a general manager here named Dennis Lindsay from
Speaker 2: the Jazz who always said, we will not skip steps.
Speaker 1: We are going to do this the hard way. We're
Speaker 1: going to learn our lessons, we're going to grow.
Speaker 2: But just generally speaking, what sort of conversations you think
Speaker 2: Bill and staff are having about the potential of adding
Speaker 2: to the group for the stretch run.
Speaker 4: And all. Honestly, and I don't want to throw water
Speaker 4: on a playoff run, but I think that where they'll
Speaker 4: be right now is they'll be talking about whether or
Speaker 4: not they can get anything back to add to this
Speaker 4: group for the future. I don't think they'll be talking
Speaker 4: about trying to gout and get something to fortify them
Speaker 4: for this little last run here, because time is running
Speaker 4: out quickly. As you said, they got twenty six games
Speaker 4: to go, fourteen at home, twelve on the road. It's
Speaker 4: not going to be easy at this point, and Vancouver
Speaker 4: is the odds on favorite to get into the playoffs.
Speaker 4: And remember, they were really good team last year. This
Speaker 4: year they've hit a lot of different self inflicted roadblocks.
Speaker 4: But I think, you know, the GM Armstrong and his
Speaker 4: staff should be, you know, pre they should be moderately
Speaker 4: happy about this season. They've come into the market, they've
Speaker 4: had a decent year. They've kept themselves in the fight
Speaker 4: all the time. And I'm not saying Spencer out of
Speaker 4: the fight now. They should keep fighting right till the
Speaker 4: deadline comes, when they've got to make that buyer seller decision.
Speaker 4: But I would think that they're sitting around saying, what
Speaker 4: can we do to get a draft picks or young
Speaker 4: assets so that our team is fortified again for the
Speaker 4: next year and beyond.
Speaker 2: I know I've talked to you about the goaltending situation,
Speaker 2: but it just the numbers say Vimealka is the guy.
Speaker 1: The data says he is the guy.
Speaker 2: And Ingram was hurt for a while and then he
Speaker 2: came back, and they're they're kind of doing the thing
Speaker 2: where they're rotating based off of what that game needs,
Speaker 2: based off of what the Knight needs. But if I
Speaker 2: guess the way, I'll post the question, like if they
Speaker 2: found a way to make it into the postseason where
Speaker 2: it's like, all right, we have to have our best
Speaker 2: players on the ice. Do you think coach tourney simply
Speaker 2: goes Vimelka based off the numbers?
Speaker 1: Or because Connor was the uh, you know, the.
Speaker 2: Kind of the guy a year ago and he was
Speaker 2: the incumbent to win the jobs, you think he looks
Speaker 2: at potentially Connor because all of the data indicates Mamelka
Speaker 2: has been the better goaltender all year long. If they
Speaker 2: made the postseason, who do you think would be there
Speaker 2: in goal?
Speaker 4: I think the Milka just on what you said, because
Speaker 4: coaches are going to go in the numbers, and I
Speaker 4: also think that the Milka is going to be the
Speaker 4: guy they're going to turn to when they play the
Speaker 4: two games that they've got left against Vancouver and the
Speaker 4: important games like beating Calgary, beating Sonola's, beating Anaheim. In
Speaker 4: the games they've got remaining, that's when you want to
Speaker 4: have your best out there, and I think the Milka
Speaker 4: has been the best. Now having said that, here is
Speaker 4: a question for Bill Armstrong. The Milk is an unrestricted
Speaker 4: free agent at the end of the year, So do
Speaker 4: they get him signed and make sure that he's coming
Speaker 4: back to Utah, or do they see if anybody needs
Speaker 4: a real good backup that's going into the playoffs, that
Speaker 4: maybe has got an injury to their backup or maybe
Speaker 4: has a problem. You're not going to trade them as
Speaker 4: a number one going into the playoffs, but you might
Speaker 4: be able to find a team that needs a real
Speaker 4: quality backup. Do they move them or do they sign
Speaker 4: them and keep them in Utah. That's something I certainly
Speaker 4: can't answer, but I do know he has played. He's
Speaker 4: been the best go attender this year in my opinion,
Speaker 4: and I think he has You know, he's an unrestricted guy,
Speaker 4: so they got to decide what is the future for Tural.
Speaker 2: Curious as to moving away from Utah Hockey Club as
Speaker 2: we have this trade deadline now, you know, still a
Speaker 2: few weeks away, which teams, Neil, are you hearing that
Speaker 2: would be active and which players do you think are
Speaker 2: available that could be moved prior to that March deadline
Speaker 2: That actually could change the scope of the league.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's hard to figure out who's going
Speaker 4: to be active when the deadline comes, you know, coming
Speaker 4: up to the deadline, because it's always the best teams
Speaker 4: that are going to be the most active and take
Speaker 4: the biggest swing of the bat at the plate because
Speaker 4: they've got a chance to win it. And so I
Speaker 4: would think that the Washington Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets
Speaker 4: are going to try to fortify what they've got, which
Speaker 4: means that they could go, for example, and we're talking
Speaker 4: to Utah, so let's look at Utah. They could come
Speaker 4: to Utah and say, you know, Bukestad, do you have
Speaker 4: any interest in you know, what are I got to
Speaker 4: give you the buke Stad or what have I got
Speaker 4: to give you for Kerkfoot. Those are two guys that
Speaker 4: Utah has as unrestricted free agents at the end of
Speaker 4: this season. So that's you know, that's where those top
Speaker 4: teams and the playoff teams will be trying to fortify
Speaker 4: for this run right now. I mean, maybe if Fortuso
Speaker 4: comes off the ir he's a guy that won a
Speaker 4: Stanley Cup with Saint Louis back in eighteen, maybe he'd
Speaker 4: be a guy that someone would warrant as a depth
Speaker 4: defenseman because you can never have enough when the playoffs start.
Speaker 4: But that's that's what the teams that are in the
Speaker 4: mix are going to be looking to add. The teams
Speaker 4: that aren't in the mix are obviously looking to get
Speaker 4: whatever they can for their UFAs.
Speaker 2: All Right, I have a little fun question I want
Speaker 2: to end with, but before we get there, I'm going
Speaker 2: to ask you, if you had to pick right now
Speaker 2: in the East and the West, your two favorite teams
Speaker 2: to advance and play for the Stanley Cup, one team
Speaker 2: from the East, one team from the West.
Speaker 4: And why, oh boy, Well, from the West, I'm going
Speaker 4: to say Winnipeg only because they've had this unbelievable year
Speaker 4: and last year they got knocked out early and I
Speaker 4: think they've learned from that. They've got the best schoolie
Speaker 4: in the league. So I'll take Winnipeg in the West,
Speaker 4: even though Edmonton's a great team and we all know
Speaker 4: that Connor McDavid and Leon Tricedel and all that. And
Speaker 4: in the East, I'm going to go back to Florida,
Speaker 4: even though Washington's had this great year. I think Florida
Speaker 4: is a veteran team. They've been there, they know how
Speaker 4: to get there. I'd say it's going to come down
Speaker 4: to between Washington and Florida, And at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, I think Florida would win that last round.
Speaker 4: But that's that's splitting here. You know it's going to
Speaker 4: be one of those two, I think against Winnipeg, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Moving over to the question, I wanted to kind
Speaker 2: of kick the tires with you on before I set
Speaker 2: you loose.
Speaker 1: On a Wednesday, you know, the Lakers are in town.
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic, I can't believe I'm saying that, but Luka Doncic,
Speaker 2: Lebron James on the same team. Lakers are in town,
Speaker 2: and the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks is under
Speaker 2: a tremendous amount of heats after moving on from a
Speaker 2: generational player at the agent twenty five, I wanted to know, Neil,
Speaker 2: what one transaction that you made as a roster constructor
Speaker 2: in the NHL, Which one transaction gave you the most anxiety,
Speaker 2: Like there's a lot riding on this and you decided
Speaker 2: to go with it anyway because your gut told you
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: Is there one that comes to mind?
Speaker 4: I would say the one that was the one that
Speaker 4: was the most gave me the most anxiety, gave me
Speaker 4: the best results, and that was trading for Mark Mesia
Speaker 4: back in ninety one, who was a generational player who
Speaker 4: won six Stanley Cups. But I did trade two young
Speaker 4: players and Bernie Nichols, who was a seventy goal scorer
Speaker 4: for the LA Kings at one time, to Edmonton, and
Speaker 4: I trusted that Mark still had it at his age
Speaker 4: to lead us and to get us there. And did
Speaker 4: he ever. I mean, he did more than I would
Speaker 4: ever have hoped for. But it did. When you talk
Speaker 4: about that feeling that you get when you push the
Speaker 4: button on a big trade and you know, if it
Speaker 4: doesn't work, guess who's going to get their head cut off.
Speaker 4: It's going to be you. I mean, that's the one
Speaker 4: that probably caused me the most anxiety.
Speaker 2: And that one worked out just fine. Neil, There's no
Speaker 2: doubt about that. Before I say you lose, and it
Speaker 2: may be the answer to this question may include the
Speaker 2: player you just alluded to the best duo all time,
Speaker 2: two players playing together in NHL history, Because we have
Speaker 2: Luke and Lebron and I best best duo and you
Speaker 2: can give us a couple of examples. I mean, there
Speaker 2: are a lot of options here, but in your opinion,
Speaker 2: the best duo who played together in the history of
Speaker 2: pro hockey.
Speaker 4: I guess I got to say Gretzky and Missy in Edmonton.
Speaker 4: You know, they won four Stanley Cups together. I'm sure
Speaker 4: there were guys on the Islanders who won four Stanley
Speaker 4: Cups when you win Trotcy and pot Than and Bossy
Speaker 4: and those guys, and then the great Montreal teams at
Speaker 4: one four in a row at the you know, at
Speaker 4: the very end of the seventies there with Lafleur and
Speaker 4: the great defense they had, and Ken Dryden and net
Speaker 4: there's a lot. There's a lot there. Bobby Or and
Speaker 4: Phil Esposito in the early seventies when they won two
Speaker 4: Cups for Boston. There's been quite a few. You know,
Speaker 4: we have more players that are active during the game
Speaker 4: in hockey than you do in basketball. So two star
Speaker 4: players in basketball is probably like four star players in hockey,
Speaker 4: because you know, we're going on and off the ice
Speaker 4: a lot more than the basketball players are.
Speaker 2: All right, Neil, where can our new hockey listeners in
Speaker 2: our hockey market find that podcast to yours?
Speaker 4: Well, you can find it on any podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube,
Speaker 4: if you want to look at us you can read
Speaker 4: every edition of our show is on YouTube and everyone
Speaker 4: is on our website, which is NHL Wraparound dot com.
Speaker 4: I hope the good folks of Salt Lake will give
Speaker 4: it a try and subscribe and like it and all
Speaker 4: that good stuff. And I got to tell you, it's
Speaker 4: been fun doing this all season. I'm really looking forward
Speaker 4: to to going forward with it.
Speaker 2: Neil, thank you sir for the time. Have a great
Speaker 2: week ahead and we will get you on soon.
Speaker 4: Yep, thank you. Spince all right, the.
Speaker 2: Great Neil Smith general manager back in the day of
Speaker 2: the Rangers the Islanders, spent a number of years with
Speaker 2: the Red Wings as well. Got a great podcast. NHL
Speaker 2: Wraparound dot com is where you find it. LA Lakers
Speaker 2: are in town tonight to take on to Utah.
Speaker 5: Jazz.
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic will play.
Speaker 2: He was listed as questionable yesterday, upgraded it probable about
Speaker 2: two hours ago or so. So Jazz Lakers tonight, Lebron
Speaker 2: James intown, Luka Doncic in town and the Jazz.
Speaker 1: Will be there too.
Speaker 2: But obviously the storyline certainly is with the Lakers side
Speaker 2: of things. But we'll do some pro football now. Friend
Speaker 2: of the show joined us last week prior to the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl. Well, and now I'm bringing them on to brag.
Speaker 2: Sean Sayad Suomer Sports Sean, Happy Wednesday, buddy, how are you.
Speaker 7: It feels good.
Speaker 8: You know, it's not just about being right, it's about
Speaker 8: the process, it's about the analysis. I do feel good
Speaker 8: about you having to come on the show. Predicted that
Speaker 8: Eagles win. Certainly I think a little bit different and
Speaker 8: then most people would have expected in terms of how
Speaker 8: it looked. But for me, it was still a fun game.
Speaker 8: I'm not sure I who it was.
Speaker 2: For you, well, certainly you called it, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to bring you on to kind of reflect on exactly
Speaker 2: what you saw and then talk about the game, how
Speaker 2: it unfolded, and whether or not it kind of went
Speaker 2: into lockstep with what you were expecting.
Speaker 8: You know, it did in terms of the way that
Speaker 8: the Eagles defense approached the Kansas City Chiefs. Where the
Speaker 8: Eagles defensive plans, it was not particularly complicated. We're going
Speaker 8: to play a bunch of zone coverage. We're going to
Speaker 8: make you make the right decision over and over again.
Speaker 8: Just rush four guys, send zero total blitz is an
Speaker 8: entire game. I mean, that is Vic Banjo, the defensive
Speaker 8: coordinators approach two games in general, so I could feel,
Speaker 8: you know, how that was.
Speaker 4: Where I didn't.
Speaker 8: Expect was, you know, really Zach Bond interception that pick
Speaker 8: six from Cooper Dejene, where you're making the play that
Speaker 8: I mean, Mahomes is throwing that ball because you have
Speaker 8: no business being in that spot, just based on how
Speaker 8: everything played out. So I thought it was an excellent
Speaker 8: example of the Eagles really really just hitting the highest
Speaker 8: level of their people where I think at their best
Speaker 8: defensive line play this entire season. I mean, Josh What
Speaker 8: may have played the best game of his career. So
Speaker 8: I'm not going to pretend like I would have predicted
Speaker 8: all of that. I'm not going to pretend like I
Speaker 8: would have predicted the final score in that game. But
Speaker 8: the way the Eagles.
Speaker 7: Came in, I mean, it.
Speaker 8: Is what we talked about last week in kind of
Speaker 8: how they approached the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: At what point I've been asking all of my NFL
Speaker 2: guests so far this week the same question. When did
Speaker 2: you and again, I know you predicted Philly was going
Speaker 2: to win the thing, but while you were watching the
Speaker 2: game out, what point did.
Speaker 1: You say, Okay, that's a wrap, they're not coming back.
Speaker 8: So I think that when I started to get the thoughts.
Speaker 8: I mean, honestly, it wasn't until after the like kind
Speaker 8: of middle east of the third quarter, because you go
Speaker 8: into the half twenty four or nothing, and I mean,
Speaker 8: it's really really hard to come back from that. But
Speaker 8: Mahomes has literally done that before against the textans of
Speaker 8: fears out, so I didn't want to.
Speaker 7: Count it out.
Speaker 8: But you could start to feel it pretty early on
Speaker 8: just I mean the first third down or the Eagles
Speaker 8: are making it really hard on the Chiefs. Cooper degen
Speaker 8: is being super physical, kind of pushing around Travis Kelcey
Speaker 8: a little bit. You can start to feel it. You
Speaker 8: can start to see it. You see even when Sekwon
Speaker 8: Barkley is not brisen off big runs, Jalen Hurts, just
Speaker 8: getting rid of the ball, playing super comfortable, playing on time,
Speaker 8: start to feel but look, I'm back in the back
Speaker 8: of my mind, I need I need to see double zero,
Speaker 8: you know, to tle Patrick Mahomes out. So really it
Speaker 8: was once you got in that middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 8: I've had Devonda Smith touchdown. I was like, all right,
Speaker 8: I don't need to be silly anymore, there's no way
Speaker 8: these guys are going to be able to come back.
Speaker 2: So I know you've already touched on the defensive game
Speaker 2: plans schematically from Vic Fangio prior to Sunday, as you
Speaker 2: and I talked about last week, Patrick Mahomes eight and
Speaker 2: oh against Vic Fangio. So let's dig a little bit deeper.
Speaker 2: Did did Vic Fangio do anything different this time around?
Speaker 2: Or was it just kind of the classic schematic attack
Speaker 2: that he always likes to implement. But he has the
Speaker 2: horses now and Kansas City couldn't.
Speaker 8: Keep up, So it was a little bit of you know,
Speaker 8: some stuff was the same, some stuff was different. They
Speaker 8: play a little bit of a different coverage. They really,
Speaker 8: you know, prioritize having multiple people watching Travis Pelsey, even
Speaker 8: if they're not in a dedicated kind of bracket or
Speaker 8: a double team. And the way that the pass rush
Speaker 8: was working, where instead of you know, being a fast
Speaker 8: guy running outside that offensive tackle, they were running straight
Speaker 8: through those guys and that you know, closes the areas
Speaker 8: for Mahomes to be able to scramble a little bit.
Speaker 8: So I really enjoyed seeing that just from an overall
Speaker 8: pass rushing plan for the Eagles. I thought that was
Speaker 8: a good job. I mean, I actually I felt like
Speaker 8: Andy Reid didn't do the best job in the game
Speaker 8: where we didn't think of maybe an example or two
Speaker 8: where they're getting the ball a little bit further down
Speaker 8: the field. Obviously we have that drop the Hopkins. Of course,
Speaker 8: some of those touchdowns coming later in the game. I
Speaker 8: would have really liked to see him just literally, you know,
Speaker 8: pick the fat, throw the ball to the outside, make
Speaker 8: those warnerback to tackle over and over because the way
Speaker 8: that Fandia was playing, it would have required that. And
Speaker 8: we saw I think the future down thirty four to
Speaker 8: nothing by this time. But you know, zabywhere that you
Speaker 8: catch a quick throwing on Mitchell Tantaple, you you're able
Speaker 8: to get yards. I think, you know, maybe turning that
Speaker 8: a little bit earlier would have not won the game,
Speaker 8: but I think it would have made it a bit closer.
Speaker 2: I want to follow up, even though you just alluded
Speaker 2: to my follow up question, did you see because one
Speaker 2: of the reasons why I picked Kansas City in a
Speaker 2: close one like most of America, is Andy and Mahomes
Speaker 2: typically figured out. Andy Reid makes the adjustments Mahomes finds
Speaker 2: a way to win.
Speaker 1: Did at any point outside.
Speaker 2: Of what you just alluded to, because look, you know
Speaker 2: a lot of people say, well they didn't run the football. Well,
Speaker 2: you're down big, so you've got to get chunk plays
Speaker 2: and you have to rely on a generational talent in
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes. But was there anything specifically, Sean that you
Speaker 2: saw Kansas City tried to do that simply just didn't work.
Speaker 8: You know, it felt like every single thing that they
Speaker 8: were really trying to.
Speaker 7: Do didn't work.
Speaker 8: Where you can't throw the ball picked because the defensive
Speaker 8: is really good and coverage, you can't throw the ball
Speaker 8: in your immediate because guys are dropping passes. You can't
Speaker 8: throw the ball deep because your offensive line is not
Speaker 8: holding up enough from a home to be able to
Speaker 8: take that extra step and let that thing flop. So
Speaker 8: it really felt like none of that was able to
Speaker 8: work at all. And you mentioned, yeah, it would be
Speaker 8: nice if you could run the ball. You know, there's
Speaker 8: a clip of Nolan Smith putting Tray Smith like on
Speaker 8: his are really pushing him far back. I mean, the
Speaker 8: Eagles were more physical than the Chiefs were upfront. They
Speaker 8: really were able to push them around. I'm not really
Speaker 8: sure if any plan would have worked on that day.
Speaker 4: It felt like the.
Speaker 8: Eagles really came in so locked into a personal thing
Speaker 8: that the Chiefs were doing, So I'm not even sure
Speaker 8: like you see some of those kind of second and
Speaker 8: a half adjustments. I guess you call them that for
Speaker 8: the Chiefs, but I mean, when you're down that big,
Speaker 8: it's such a big hell to climb, and it just
Speaker 8: felt like, you know, the team or the better aster
Speaker 8: from top to bottom ended up winning here.
Speaker 1: Let's move over to the other side.
Speaker 2: What did Steve Spagnolo try to do defensively? Because look,
Speaker 2: Kansas City, over the course of their recalibration of just
Speaker 2: kind of changing their approach, they're probably based off personnel
Speaker 2: one a lot of games this year based off of
Speaker 2: Steve Spagnolo on that defense, it just did not do
Speaker 2: much of anything to provide pushback against Philly. What did
Speaker 2: Spagnolo try to do and how did Philly counter that
Speaker 2: to make it ineffective?
Speaker 8: Spagnola, I thought.
Speaker 7: Really approached this game in the exact right way.
Speaker 8: Sae Kwon Barkley was largely shut down. I think when
Speaker 8: you look at the Eagles how they's played the entire season.
Speaker 8: That is what you want to start with, and so
Speaker 8: for them to have that success is a really good thing. Now,
Speaker 8: the problem is that Jalen Hurts has had the best
Speaker 8: game of his career where the best two games or
Speaker 8: maybe two of three games in his career have been
Speaker 8: this game and then the NFC Championship game. So when
Speaker 8: you look at how the Eagles looked in week eight,
Speaker 8: in Week ten, you know, it didn't feel if Kirts
Speaker 8: was going to be able to do this.
Speaker 7: So I think the approach was.
Speaker 8: Really exactly correct. And as you got later and later
Speaker 8: you are able to get a blitz that ends up
Speaker 8: getting a sack. But for Hurts to play at that
Speaker 8: high of a level and really take everything that Stags
Speaker 8: is trying to do and throw it right back in
Speaker 8: his space by making those quick throws, by turning some
Speaker 8: of those escapes into throws to receivers instead of just
Speaker 8: you know, you're spinning around in a circle.
Speaker 7: You end up sack.
Speaker 8: And for him to be confident and quickness process I
Speaker 8: thought was super impressive. So I was, overall, you know,
Speaker 8: pretty fine, it's back as approach. I think the bigger
Speaker 8: takeaway it's Hurts really really stepping up to the moment,
Speaker 8: what sort.
Speaker 2: Of because a lot of the conversations, certainly around prior
Speaker 2: to the game was the questions that a lot of
Speaker 2: people had about Jalen and the questions that a lot
Speaker 2: of people had about Nick Sirianni.
Speaker 1: So I already asked you about the Jaalen portion of this?
Speaker 2: What sort of questions did Nick Sirianni answer as a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl winning head coach?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 8: I mean it is it's so fun to think about
Speaker 8: just his story. Fun for me to think about it
Speaker 8: from the outset. I can't imagine it was that fun
Speaker 8: for him going through it. There was like legitimate, totally
Speaker 8: like reasonable calls at the beginning of this year, like
Speaker 8: are they going to bring Sirianni back? What does he
Speaker 8: do for this team? After a week four, going to
Speaker 8: the bye week, you know thoughts of all, right, well,
Speaker 8: this guy's gonna get fired and be an offensive. It
Speaker 8: sits in somewhere next year where he's never going to
Speaker 8: be able to get his chance again. I just think
Speaker 8: that there are things that happen in an NFL locker room,
Speaker 8: in the NFL building that a head coach is responsible
Speaker 8: for that it is unquantifiable and you start to hear
Speaker 8: some of the stories come out, whether it's Who're on
Speaker 8: writing his handwritten note Siseeah Rodgers who mixed the season
Speaker 8: for a gambling subspension, whether it's you know, talking to
Speaker 8: na Kobe Dean after his injury and figuring out different
Speaker 8: things to get him in the best spot. And I
Speaker 8: mean you think about the locker room overall. Obviously these
Speaker 8: are incredibly talented players, there's still personalities right where Adie
Speaker 8: Brown had early in the game or earlier in the season,
Speaker 8: he had said out loud and he said the correct thing,
Speaker 8: like what's not working. It's the passing game. It's there
Speaker 8: for him to be able to navigate all that, for
Speaker 8: him to be able to navigate his relationship with Jalea
Speaker 8: hurts where you know sometimes in the media it hurts.
Speaker 8: Is like not that he is unfriendly to the media,
Speaker 8: but I think he's trying to, you know, get through
Speaker 8: his day. He's trying to get back to the real
Speaker 8: hard work of it all. So I just think Syriann,
Speaker 8: he does deserve credit. Now, what is it exactly for?
Speaker 8: I think it is some of those kind of human
Speaker 8: human aspects that we just don't get to see unless
Speaker 8: like you see that the way that he high fives
Speaker 8: his players on on the sidelines, or you see the
Speaker 8: way that the players do take on that personality a
Speaker 8: little bit where Suriani is gonna like almost like you
Speaker 8: have a shield for other players. Where there was a
Speaker 8: game last year against the Seahawks where Hurts and ager
Speaker 8: Brown make this kind of odd decision for a specific
Speaker 8: player ends up as interception and seriality just goes up
Speaker 8: to the media. It's like, look, that was my call,
Speaker 8: and how do I want people to lie to the media, know,
Speaker 8: not necessarily, but for him to take the fall on
Speaker 8: that and to kind of make himself look like a
Speaker 8: little bit of a fool in that situation for his
Speaker 8: players to be able to, you know, just continue to
Speaker 8: work on what they need to work on. So seeing
Speaker 8: that for Sirianni, it's got to feel awesome, because, look,
Speaker 8: no one can ever remove Super Bowl champion head coach
Speaker 8: from his resume.
Speaker 2: So when you win, you're gonna lose coaches and you're
Speaker 2: gonna lose probably players and want to get paid. So
Speaker 2: Kellen Moore bounces to take the Saints job. Uh, what
Speaker 2: what sort of hole does that leave? And who do
Speaker 2: you think do you just give me some candidates to
Speaker 2: take that gig.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and more leaving well, when Johns and Gannon had
Speaker 8: left over their last Super Bowl, if the Eagles were
Speaker 8: like kind of unprepared for it just based on a
Speaker 8: communication with Gannon for what they thought was going to happen.
Speaker 8: So they've been ready for this eventuality. So Kevin Patula
Speaker 8: is one guy in house that they certainly like. He'll
Speaker 8: get some sort of look. I think Dradd Johnson quarterbacks
Speaker 8: coach or Texan is a guy who will end up
Speaker 8: getting an interview if they're doing a full interview. I
Speaker 8: assudn't have to do in the interview process Jess because
Speaker 8: he was someone that also interviewed with them previously. There's
Speaker 8: a few other internal candidates, you know. For the situation overall,
Speaker 8: it's it's kind of a dream job. You have the
Speaker 8: best offensive line in the league, you have a super
Speaker 8: Bowl VT quarterback, and you have a very good running back.
Speaker 8: You have really good receivers. So all the things are
Speaker 8: there that I hope that they go outside the building.
Speaker 8: I think that's my initial leading just so you can
Speaker 8: get a little.
Speaker 7: Bit more creative.
Speaker 4: You can move that offense.
Speaker 8: Forward where look, the way that say Klon Barkley ran
Speaker 8: this year. I think he's going to be fantastic. It's
Speaker 8: not like he's older. He's asking to be able to
Speaker 8: do it. There is a chance so just based on
Speaker 8: variants that you're not able to hit all the home
Speaker 8: run So I would love to see even like a
Speaker 8: guy like Key Martin, the quarterbacks coach in Baltimore, who
Speaker 8: we've seen Lamar Jackson continue to evolve as a passer
Speaker 8: really and to bring in a guy like that, I
Speaker 8: think could be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: So one more thing on the Eagles, and I've got
Speaker 2: a couple of other big picture NFL questions, and I've asked,
Speaker 2: you know, the NFL guys who have stopped by this
Speaker 2: week kind of this similar question because when you look
Speaker 2: at the landscape of the league, we often talk about,
Speaker 2: you know, guys like Lamar and Josh Allen and Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes in their late twenties, Jalen's twenty six and Saquon's
Speaker 2: twenty eight. AJ Brown is twenty seven, DeVante Smith is
Speaker 2: twenty six, And yes, they have some decisions to make
Speaker 2: on other pieces, but the main portion of this roster
Speaker 2: is either in or entering their prime. And I'm not
Speaker 2: a hyperbolic radio host, but what are you willing to
Speaker 2: say about potentially the type of I don't know, era
Speaker 2: of Eagles football that we're in for. Should they be
Speaker 2: able to keep the ball this team together for a
Speaker 2: number of years.
Speaker 8: I mean, it really is looking pretty good, and I
Speaker 8: think that is for a few reasons. Then you look
Speaker 8: at the way that Howard Rosman, that Jeffrey Laurie as
Speaker 8: the owner, the way that they handle contracts.
Speaker 4: Is so so smart.
Speaker 8: They do pay guys a little bit early. I'm like,
Speaker 8: you have to hit on some of those, right because
Speaker 8: you know, you can pay a receiver ask for one
Speaker 8: good year. If they're not good in that second and
Speaker 8: third year, it really comes back.
Speaker 7: To bite you.
Speaker 8: But you know, Devonte Smith, Agri Brown are look already
Speaker 8: under contract, Jalen Hurt already under contract. So to be
Speaker 8: able to take care of those guys already and then
Speaker 8: pay Dickerson Jurgens like you're taking care of really really
Speaker 8: core aspects of your team pretty early. Their defensive spending
Speaker 8: is not that high. So I'm actually very interested to
Speaker 8: see what this offseason looks like for that where they're
Speaker 8: going to probably lose mill and Williams. There's a good
Speaker 8: chance they lose that bond. Darius Slaves getting a little
Speaker 8: bit older. I think when I look ahead to next year,
Speaker 8: I always think, well what about You know, a specific
Speaker 8: team is more likely to look a little bit closer
Speaker 8: to average, whether that's something that's not good or something
Speaker 8: that's very good. It's so hard to reheat as the
Speaker 8: top defense by statistics year after year. I love Vic Fangio,
Speaker 8: you know so much, and watching this defense. I really
Speaker 8: enjoyed going through this roster. You still have Dylan Carter,
Speaker 8: you have the genie in year two, you have Mitchell
Speaker 8: in year two. You have so much talent on that team.
Speaker 8: Sometimes fifty fifty balls just end up at touchdowns instead
Speaker 8: of interceptions or incompletion. So, you know, I just worry
Speaker 8: about this the coin flip and just appreciating how many
Speaker 8: things have to happen for you to be able to,
Speaker 8: you know, climb that top of the mount. And of
Speaker 8: course you know the commanders and Jayson Daniels, they're they're
Speaker 8: really going to be pushing. But this team is in
Speaker 8: like a good financial health situation where you will see
Speaker 8: things about people saying, oh, you know, like the bill's
Speaker 8: gonna come due eventually, and you know that can be true.
Speaker 8: Like players, we're gonna get a little bit older. It's
Speaker 8: not gonna happen for a little bit though, They're going
Speaker 8: to keep you know, you push that, you kick the
Speaker 8: can down the road in terms of having to, you know,
Speaker 8: have this kind of salary account blow up, You're able
Speaker 8: to kind of manipulate it in a few different ways
Speaker 8: that I just wish other teams would do that in
Speaker 8: the same way. You know, teams just should, like if
Speaker 8: you learn anything from the Evils model, it should be
Speaker 8: that because you're gonna have to pay multiple players a
Speaker 8: lot of money, it's not a league where you can
Speaker 8: afford to not do that. So I'm excited to see
Speaker 8: what the Eagles look like going forward. I really just
Speaker 8: want to see Gillen Hurt continue to grow. You know,
Speaker 8: he unfortunately is going to have another new offensive coordinator
Speaker 8: as you just mentioned. I want to see him as
Speaker 8: a really really positive passer going into next season.
Speaker 2: Certainly, it would be a fools out Aaron to believe
Speaker 2: the Kansas City is done, you know, with their quarterback
Speaker 2: in his twenties and a transcendent generational head coach Kelsey
Speaker 2: thirty five, Maybe it's it for you know, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe that's it for him. What does the offseason look
Speaker 2: like in Kansas City to ensure that they continue to.
Speaker 1: Capitalize on a generational talent under center?
Speaker 8: Well, a big thing is going to be what you
Speaker 8: do with that offensive lot where you had problems that
Speaker 8: both pfle stops the entire season. Your star right guard
Speaker 8: is going to be a free agent and is going
Speaker 8: to get paid a lot of money by someone that
Speaker 8: may be someone other than you. And as you mentioned,
Speaker 8: you know, Kelsey, whatever, even if he does come back,
Speaker 8: he's not a player that is going to be, you know,
Speaker 8: looking the same early in the season as he is
Speaker 8: later in the season. So he made a puge heart.
Speaker 8: I'm going to talk about what's gonna happen with Chris Jones.
Speaker 8: I do think Chris Jones still has a lot of
Speaker 8: good football played. And as you mentioned, it's so hard
Speaker 8: to like bet against Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 7: What are we doing here?
Speaker 8: We got not lucky or unlucky, but yeah, it happened
Speaker 8: in the Super Bowl. I do think they're going to
Speaker 8: come back. I want to see this team though, like
Speaker 8: get to kind of another iteration of their offense. I
Speaker 8: really like watching Xavier Worthy grow over the last few weeks.
Speaker 8: We saw it, you know, in kind of garbage time
Speaker 8: in that Super Bowl. This guy can run by every
Speaker 8: single player on every single team, and Patrick Maholmes can
Speaker 8: throw it exactly where it needs to be in no situation.
Speaker 8: So I actually want to see this offense get back
Speaker 8: to a little bit more of that downfield attack as
Speaker 8: opposed to like, you know, we're just gonna get five
Speaker 8: yards on the inside runs. We're gonna throw the ball
Speaker 8: quick and that, and you know it really starts with
Speaker 8: that offensive lick.
Speaker 2: So I will take advantage of having a smart football
Speaker 2: guy in the show to ask you about my Jets
Speaker 2: who it looks like they're going to move on from
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and thank goodness, he's a locker room cancer
Speaker 2: and he's bad at football.
Speaker 1: So what's what's next for my guys?
Speaker 2: Give me a little hope, and not even hope for
Speaker 2: next year, because they're not going to be in it
Speaker 2: next year, but maybe hope that there's a plan in
Speaker 2: place that at some point there'll be a competitive NFL
Speaker 2: football team.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I mean even on the just at
Speaker 8: the high level. I enjoy, you know, the hires that
Speaker 8: they were able to make. I think Aaron glennments definitely
Speaker 8: have the right kind of person that you want to bring.
Speaker 8: I really really like Ken Rank from the offensive coordinator
Speaker 8: they have there, the work that he did in a
Speaker 8: trout with Ben Johnson. I think that's the right direction.
Speaker 8: You have a very talented roster, like I don't want
Speaker 8: us to forget that where guys at Quinna Williams Safs
Speaker 8: Gardner on defense, of course, I think the offensive line,
Speaker 8: you know, but there are some some positive spots on there.
Speaker 8: I think that the decision to say, hey, like Aaron,
Speaker 8: like you know, we're moving forward. That's also to me
Speaker 8: a signal of a smart organization just based on where
Speaker 8: Rogers is, based on what it means for the Teamal
Speaker 8: is it you have to have a year of Tyrod Taylor.
Speaker 8: Everything's getting in solved, you know. I don't want to
Speaker 8: tell you to not watch football next season, like there
Speaker 8: is a chance that it's going to be a little
Speaker 8: bit of a tough ride. I grew up in the area,
Speaker 8: so I understan in how many times you have to
Speaker 8: hear like Jeff's rebuild Jeffs rebuild. I think when you
Speaker 8: look at some of the hires that they made up
Speaker 8: and down and even like the senior advisors and things
Speaker 8: like that, where you're bringing people with experience, I think
Speaker 8: just in the right areas, it gets me excited at
Speaker 8: that level. Now it really is gonna pend how things
Speaker 8: happen on the field where you're obviously in a division
Speaker 8: where no, you're going to be looking at Josh Allen
Speaker 8: a whole heck of a lot.
Speaker 2: So let me just kick the tires with little offseason stuff.
Speaker 2: Big names that you think could be on the move.
Speaker 2: I am curious as to your take on Sam Darnold,
Speaker 2: who once upon a time actually thought was the answer
Speaker 2: for my team under center. But teams out there that
Speaker 2: are maybe a piece or two away names that could
Speaker 2: be on the move and offseason ahead, what do you
Speaker 2: think it looks like.
Speaker 7: I mean some of the big tradens.
Speaker 8: Of course, Key Higgens is going to be a big
Speaker 8: one if the Bengals aren't able to figure it out.
Speaker 8: Tray Smith, as I mentioned though, I mean he's a
Speaker 8: really really good guard from the Tone City Chiefs. I mean,
Speaker 8: those are those guys I think the Patriots would have
Speaker 8: circle just because you're trying to fill so many holes
Speaker 8: on your roster. I think when you look at you know,
Speaker 8: DJ reads from your jet, there's a chance that he
Speaker 8: ends up somewhere else. Is he ending up in San Francisco?
Speaker 8: I think where Darnald ends up will be fascinating. He
Speaker 8: it feels like it could be a situation. I don't know.
Speaker 8: Maybe's it Las Vegas just a place where you have
Speaker 8: the kind of holdover quarterback another year. I think Josh Sweat,
Speaker 8: you know, is it Arizona. I think a guy like
Speaker 8: Milan Williams is coming off at Super Bowl is the charge?
Speaker 8: Adding agency is exciting even if there's not you know,
Speaker 8: one hundred names that you can't wait to look at,
Speaker 8: but like crazy, it's just so important, Like you want
Speaker 8: to fill your roster to the point where you go
Speaker 8: into the draft and can actually just choose the most
Speaker 8: talented player instead of choosing a player and say, hey,
Speaker 8: if we don't, you know, hit on our right guard
Speaker 8: in the draft, our team is totally foiled. I think
Speaker 8: it'll be interesting to see, you know, what teams are making,
Speaker 8: what mover in attatches to move that happened, you know
Speaker 8: immediately when kind of those transactions are able to start
Speaker 8: happening sometimes a little bit later in free agency as well.
Speaker 2: Last thing, shanat Sachelers, give me the coaching higher you
Speaker 2: like the most, and the coaching higher the left.
Speaker 1: Scratching your head.
Speaker 8: Okay, so this is this is a good and I
Speaker 8: think the easy one to point at as the scratching
Speaker 8: your head one is Dallas with Schottenheimer at the same time, like, yeah,
Speaker 8: do we expect Dallas to do? I guess anything that
Speaker 8: would would be like a process that we would love.
Speaker 7: Probably not.
Speaker 8: I think that maybe there were a few other names.
Speaker 8: I think that was more of a process based one.
Speaker 8: I would have liked to see, you know, interviews just
Speaker 8: kind of in different directions. I think that in terms
Speaker 8: of the ones that I like, you know, Ben Jonson
Speaker 8: is an easy I really do like Liam Collen in Jobson,
Speaker 8: But I think that one is a fun one. I
Speaker 8: think it's the right bet to make. I am a
Speaker 8: little bit biased. You know, you want the young offensive
Speaker 8: coordinator type person to be running your organization. I just
Speaker 8: still believe in Trevor Lawrence. I think what Cohen gave
Speaker 8: in Tampa Bay with Jaker Maseld and really Morphing his
Speaker 8: offense from a little bit more, uh, you know, in
Speaker 8: their run game that really really evolved over time. So
Speaker 8: I think that I'm excited about that now. I think
Speaker 8: one of my favorite things about head coaching hires, there's
Speaker 8: a chance that like Schoenheimer is the best head coach
Speaker 8: that ever existed. We just don't know until we're able
Speaker 8: to see it. So I'm excited for Colling as the
Speaker 8: chance it doesn't work out, but that's probably my favorite
Speaker 8: one where Ben Jonson think is also an easy answer
Speaker 8: as well, Sean.
Speaker 1: Where can people go find your work?
Speaker 5: Bud?
Speaker 8: You can follow me on Twitter at Science Teams and
Speaker 8: just put out a little article just about a big
Speaker 8: fan jo which he's meant to be, and my career,
Speaker 8: and also just about his entire season. So always appreciate
Speaker 8: the fallow. I'm gonna do a lot of free agency
Speaker 8: stuff with Zimmer Sports thee offseason.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. Appreciate the time. Be well with
Speaker 1: chat soon.
Speaker 8: Okay, so much appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Sean Saya joined us last week. He was the one
Speaker 2: NFL guest we had that was like this could get
Speaker 2: loose man, Philly could smoke him, and they certainly did
Speaker 2: so appreciate Sean time. Today, we're gonna bring in Smitty
Speaker 2: coming up on the other side for an entire hour.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little Jazz Lakers, we'll do a little
Speaker 2: NBA Big Picture stuff as we're high speed out of
Speaker 2: the All Star break, and then we'll launch you at
Speaker 2: the five o'clock hour of the program, We're going to
Speaker 2: say too night on a Wednesday at six o'clock. But
Speaker 2: it's time now for your chance to win Utah men's
Speaker 2: basketball tickets. Text youths right now. That's utes to three three,
Speaker 2: nine eight six. Text utes to three three and nine
Speaker 2: eight six for your chance to win tickets to see
Speaker 2: the Utah men's basketball program. How do you feel that
Speaker 2: most every NFL guest we have and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 2: which coaching hired do you hate the most, they all
Speaker 2: say shot and Ira.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm kind of with them just and it's not
Speaker 3: because I don't like Shoddy.
Speaker 1: Oh I forgot we call him Shotty.
Speaker 3: It's more because of what was on the table the
Speaker 3: last calendar two years and who the Dallas Cowboys are
Speaker 3: and should be. And that's that's kind of where I'm
Speaker 3: at with it. It's it's a lukewarm higher even though
Speaker 3: I have I would say cautious optimism that it'll be
Speaker 3: better than the McCarthy era, which, no, I don't know
Speaker 3: how high that bar is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's not a low bar. He wasn't
Speaker 2: a disaster wins at least. Yeah, he wasn't a disaster.
Speaker 2: I think you and I should be allowed to pick
Speaker 2: new football teams. Do you have any desires we're allowed?
Speaker 2: Do you have any desire? You're gonna ride with the Cowboys?
Speaker 2: I mean, because that's kind of a family thing for you, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I'll be I'll be complaining about the Cowboys offseason
Speaker 3: until the bitter end.
Speaker 1: When I was home for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Is fun because we were watching the game with like
Speaker 2: all my little nieces and nephews and my sister Lily,
Speaker 2: who runs sports issues. She's done very well. She turned
Speaker 2: to me and she said, do you really cheer for
Speaker 2: the Jets? Like, well, yeah, I mean they've always been
Speaker 2: my team since I was ten years old. She's like,
Speaker 2: you should be allowed to pick a new team. I'm
Speaker 2: considering the Rams.
Speaker 3: Okay, I like it.
Speaker 2: I like the Rams. I like the way they played.
Speaker 2: It might be a bad time because they're about to
Speaker 2: do a little pivot. I think Stafford's gone. They're trading
Speaker 2: Cooper cup. We got a little local flavor with Puca, right,
Speaker 2: so I'm considering the Rams some local flavor.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of local flavor in Denver, in Detroit.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't do the I can't do the Broncos. Dude,
Speaker 2: shout out to our guy, Garrett Bowles front of the show.
Speaker 2: But I you know, utah utah UTNFL kind of minor
Speaker 2: league system with Barton and everything. But I just I
Speaker 2: can't do the Broncos. There are too many Bronco fans
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake.
Speaker 3: You got to another option in New York. Not a
Speaker 3: great option.
Speaker 1: Oh man.
Speaker 2: I can't go from the Jets to the Giants. That's
Speaker 2: like the ultimate Benedict Arnold move.
Speaker 3: The Bills are a good organization.
Speaker 1: The Bills usually some good teams.
Speaker 3: They might win once.
Speaker 1: At Dalton Cole. Like the Bills.
Speaker 3: The Jets, Hey, Tyrod Taylor might be your starter.
Speaker 2: Did you stop it? There's nothing, It doesn't matter who
Speaker 2: it is, Okay. The Jets are one of these organizations
Speaker 2: that will simply never be good.
Speaker 3: They just want I'm you're not wrong, but Tyrod is
Speaker 3: your starter Week one next year? Maybe step up.
Speaker 2: I'd rather have Tyrod Taylor and Aaron Rodgers me too,
Speaker 2: so too.
Speaker 1: It's a tough scene.
Speaker 2: So I texted Border today and I said, look, the
Speaker 2: Lakers are in town, which means I only want stars
Speaker 2: on the show. I want superstars, I want celebrities. I
Speaker 2: want heavy hitters. When the Lakers are here, we have
Speaker 2: to bring in the heaviest of hitters, the biggest stars
Speaker 2: that we have in our rolodex. So, of course, for
Speaker 2: the next hour, the superstar himself, Richard Smith is live
Speaker 2: in studio.
Speaker 1: Hello, Smitty.
Speaker 5: So then so then Porter texted you back, said, no,
Speaker 5: we're all out. I got nothing else. So we're at
Speaker 5: the bottom of the barrel. This is all I got.
Speaker 5: You take it, or you leave it, or we're off
Speaker 5: the air or whatever.
Speaker 7: This is.
Speaker 1: This is the top of the barrel.
Speaker 5: So Spen's like you always do. You come through and go, hey,
Speaker 5: I'll take the last the last piece of candy in
Speaker 5: the barrel. I don't care whoever, it.
Speaker 1: Is not at all, not at all.
Speaker 5: How you doing, We're doing great, We're doing great.
Speaker 1: You watch the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: I did watch the Super bowl, you know, you know,
Speaker 5: we have a family thing we've been doing for years.
Speaker 5: My nephew has a great home where he has one
Speaker 5: of those big new theater rooms and all that, and
Speaker 5: you know, big heavy hitter type stuff, and and he
Speaker 5: put together a like a bingo card that everybody could play,
Speaker 5: and they were all different, you know, so that every
Speaker 5: square was like, uh, you know, missed field goal to
Speaker 5: the right, you know, or fumble recovered by the offense
Speaker 5: or whatever it was. And so everybody was engaged in
Speaker 5: that all all all all game long, and it came
Speaker 5: down right to the right to the end, and I
Speaker 5: had I had my whole card completed except for one
Speaker 5: one square and that was the missfield goal, which it
Speaker 5: wasn't any missfield goal, right, But we were arguing the
Speaker 5: fact that earlier in the game, if you remember, one
Speaker 5: of the long sideline passes resulted in a passing apference
Speaker 5: and and I said, well, the passing apference was because
Speaker 5: the guy grabbed his face mask. That's a face mask.
Speaker 5: And I have a square on my card that says
Speaker 5: penalty by face mask. I said, that's a penalty. No, no,
Speaker 5: it wasn't. They didn't call a face mask. They said
Speaker 5: it was passing apference. I said it was passing apference
Speaker 5: because he grabbed his face right. That was no, No,
Speaker 5: that that doesn't you know. So this is the kind
Speaker 5: of family arguments you get, you know, when the big
Speaker 5: candy bar is on the line for the winner.
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, No, I feel like you have a
Speaker 2: legitimate beef there. Oh, Dave mcmitiman's on TV's in Salt
Speaker 2: Lake front of the show. Uh, a consistent guest of
Speaker 2: the show. I'm sure he's not thrilled to be in
Speaker 2: saul Lake when it's ten degrees outside. You know, it's
Speaker 2: funny because I talk a lot about I'm fascinated by
Speaker 2: like ratings in the business of sports and how certain
Speaker 2: leagues and certain products have captured the market share that
Speaker 2: they have.
Speaker 1: It's always been interesting to me.
Speaker 2: And the NFL just set another record for viewership with
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Fox reported a peak in the second
Speaker 2: quarter when it was still close ish of one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty seven point seven million viewers on Linard television.
Speaker 2: Streaming numbers were close to fifteen mil. The Spanish broadcast
Speaker 2: got close to two. So some quick math, I mean
Speaker 2: that's north of one hundred and fifty million people watching
Speaker 2: one sporting event, which is pretty stunning so many when
Speaker 2: you think about it. I'm just curious as too, as
Speaker 2: somebody who made a career in pro sports, why you
Speaker 2: think pro football has been able to capture this market share?
Speaker 2: And you know, there are a few different reasons, and
Speaker 2: you know, totally, I was home with my family for
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl and I was watching with all my
Speaker 2: nieces and nephews, and we had our little square game
Speaker 2: going on and all the you know, nieces and nephews
Speaker 2: were allowed to pick a square and towards the end
Speaker 2: of the game, because at this point the kids were
Speaker 2: upstairs playing it was a blowout, they didn't give a rip.
Speaker 2: But my nine year old nephew, Teddy comes up to
Speaker 2: me and he says, Uncle Spencer, will you come and
Speaker 2: get me if Kansas City scores a touchdown but misses
Speaker 2: the extra point, because if that happens, I'm gonna win.
Speaker 1: The Gummy Bears.
Speaker 2: It just kind of hits you, like, this is a
Speaker 2: nine year old essentially gambling on a game of course, right,
Speaker 2: And in part part of the NFL's market share and
Speaker 2: the ability to capture it, I think they I think
Speaker 2: they were able to kind of create a space for
Speaker 2: gambling on their sport far before it was legal and
Speaker 2: befar before anyone else kind of leaned into it.
Speaker 5: Well, and you know, you know, Spence and my extended
Speaker 5: family does this as well. They you know, everybody from
Speaker 5: the from the eight year old all the way up.
Speaker 5: They're all involved in the fantasy football every fall, you know,
Speaker 5: and everybody they have a draft and they do all
Speaker 5: this stuff, and they check scores and have a you know,
Speaker 5: a thing online and get on and see who who
Speaker 5: got the most points this week or whatever. But that
Speaker 5: isn't done with any other sport, right, Nobody does it
Speaker 5: with you know, any other time of the year for
Speaker 5: anything else. Right, And so I don't know, I don't
Speaker 5: know if it's because it's the once a week thing.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's because it's the time of year,
Speaker 5: you know, in the fall. And I mean, I'm not
Speaker 5: I'm not quite sure exactly what the what the great
Speaker 5: great holders. I do know that I've always thought, you know,
Speaker 5: especially you know, the way technology is now in the
Speaker 5: last fifteen twenty years and the way they show slow
Speaker 5: motion and they and they do all this stuff, is
Speaker 5: is you know that it's gotten more to me of
Speaker 5: somewhat of the gladiator type thing, the Roman times, where
Speaker 5: everybody's in the in the arena and they're rooting for
Speaker 5: the get smashed on the on the on the block
Speaker 5: or whatever it is, or tackled you know, and and
Speaker 5: thrown up in the air and or whatever during the
Speaker 5: during the course of a game. So I don't know
Speaker 5: if that's it or what the you know, how they
Speaker 5: ended up marketing it this way, but part of it,
Speaker 5: I think, I don't know how far down the line
Speaker 5: it gets about. They have done a good job over
Speaker 5: the years with the salary cap stuff and the way
Speaker 5: they put their schedules together, you know, the you know,
Speaker 5: during the course of the season, the guys who played
Speaker 5: well last year play each other next year, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, outside of your division and stuff, and then
Speaker 5: they purposely do that so that you know, in week sixteen,
Speaker 5: seventeen eighteen, most of the teams are eight and eight
Speaker 5: or they're nine and seven or whatever, and so a
Speaker 5: lot of teams have a chance to get in the
Speaker 5: last week or two. And I don't know if maybe
Speaker 5: that's part of the stick that everybody's feels like they
Speaker 5: you know, their dog is still the race most of
Speaker 5: the most of the year. I'm not quite sure how
Speaker 5: that plays out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's interesting to compare because we're an NBA market.
Speaker 2: We've been an NBA market, you know, for a long
Speaker 2: long time now, And I often remind people of this.
Speaker 2: The highest rated basketball game in the history of the
Speaker 2: sport was played here in Salt Lake in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2: It was Michael Jordan's last game, and that was the
Speaker 2: last time during that era mid to late nineties was
Speaker 2: the last time that pro basketball was even in pro
Speaker 2: football stratosphere.
Speaker 1: It wasn't on the level, but.
Speaker 2: There was some data that indicated the ratings had improved
Speaker 2: in the NBA under you know, it was Magic and
Speaker 2: then it was Larry and then it was the you know,
Speaker 2: the Laker Celtics thing that Michael took over and David
Speaker 2: Stern was a master of his craft to manipulate the
Speaker 2: media to create this behemoth that was kind of making
Speaker 2: some inroads.
Speaker 1: As far as the progress with pro football.
Speaker 2: Again, it was never in that area, but it was
Speaker 2: making progress and now the gap could not be wider.
Speaker 2: The NBA still by most metrics, is number three behind
Speaker 2: the NFL and college football, then it's pro basketball. Any
Speaker 2: thoughts as to why the NBA has not been able
Speaker 2: to keep up on the domestic viewership. Now, I will
Speaker 2: add this, the NFL is now talking about trying to
Speaker 2: capture international audiences. The NBA doesn't really sweat the domestic
Speaker 2: stuff because their revenue streams internationally are far greater than
Speaker 2: pro footballs as far as the global sports, Soccer's won
Speaker 2: basketball's too, and so they are able to mitigate maybe
Speaker 2: some revenue or ratings or eyes or attention domestically because
Speaker 2: of what they bring in internationally. But as far as
Speaker 2: the attention span of the American sports fan, why do
Speaker 2: you think basketball has not been able to keep up?
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know. I think that the game itself
Speaker 5: part of it. To me from my perspective is having
Speaker 5: seen rules changes over the years, is that I think
Speaker 5: maybe the NBA has gone too much, you know, toward
Speaker 5: trying to make your offensive heavy, you know, by putting
Speaker 5: in all these defensive rules restrictions, and you can't you
Speaker 5: can't put a hand on somebody, you can't level somebody off. You.
Speaker 5: You know, you have an arm bar, but you can't
Speaker 5: you know, turn them one way the other and so
Speaker 5: it's all, you know, relegated to trying to legislate the
Speaker 5: game so that we have these one forty you know,
Speaker 5: one thirty five games, you know, where where the good
Speaker 5: games back in our day, Spence used to be the
Speaker 5: you know, you know the Knicks Pacers, Uh, you know,
Speaker 5: grind them house. Yeah, you know, you know, eighty nine,
Speaker 5: eighty five and whatever, and you know. But but but
Speaker 5: I just think that that some of it is it
Speaker 5: looks it looks to me a little bit a little
Speaker 5: bit like there's too much offense. We we don't do
Speaker 5: enough to help the defensive guys. Everybody wants to score
Speaker 5: and dunk and and no, and nobody plays defense, you know,
Speaker 5: per se, you know, because you can see how the
Speaker 5: scoring is. And some of it's because the way the
Speaker 5: game is legislated and the way that the rules are,
Speaker 5: and maybe the fans look at that and go, I
Speaker 5: don't know, feels a little bit like wrestling or something
Speaker 5: like where they're just it's a little bit artificial because
Speaker 5: they're not really playing a whole game. They're only playing
Speaker 5: on one side of the court, that makes any sense.
Speaker 2: Also, I noticed this last night because it's funny, you
Speaker 2: referenced Nick's Pacers. They played each other last night, and
Speaker 2: I was watching and flipping back and forth. I was
Speaker 2: watching the utes and BYU both tipped at five, and
Speaker 2: then checking out nick Pacers later on. There's not a
Speaker 2: lot of urgency in pro basketball until the final five minutes.
Speaker 2: And when you're watching an NFL game, almost every single
Speaker 2: play feels like life or death. There's just like, and
Speaker 2: I don't this is anecdotal. I don't really know how
Speaker 2: to like where to grasp this issue to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's this or that or whatever. But you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of possessions Halliburton dribbles the ball down the floor,
Speaker 2: puts it through his legs three times, takes a step
Speaker 2: back three and you're.
Speaker 1: Kind of like, what are we doing? Yeah, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of urgency possession by possession.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, in the NFL two spence, a lot
Speaker 5: of the players, not everybody, you know, the big names
Speaker 5: are are secure and and they're they're situated, you know,
Speaker 5: financially and and spots on the team. But a lot
Speaker 5: of the players on NFL teams, you know, don't have
Speaker 5: the so called guaranteed contracts or the big money deals,
Speaker 5: and and a lot of them are week to week.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you don't perform and you don't play
Speaker 5: your position, you know, you could be you know, the
Speaker 5: ones obviously that A publicized, the most of the kickers
Speaker 5: who miss a crucial kick or two extra points in
Speaker 5: the game, and you see on Monday they cut the
Speaker 5: guy and on Wednesday they're having tryouts for a new
Speaker 5: guy who's going to be the kicker on Sunday, you know.
Speaker 5: And and there's a lot of the other you know,
Speaker 5: other players, offensive, defensive linemen, linebackers who some guys have
Speaker 5: guaranteed contracts, but a lot of them are you know,
Speaker 5: might be you know, could get cut or they or
Speaker 5: they they you know, they get hurt, you know, they
Speaker 5: go on the injured list and you don't see them again.
Speaker 5: And I don't know if has anything to do with that,
Speaker 5: you know, relative to like the NBA, where virtually every
Speaker 5: guy on the roster has a guaranteed contract, and especially
Speaker 5: after you know, the early January date this year, I
Speaker 5: think it was January sixth or January eighth or something,
Speaker 5: which is a guaranteed date. So if you had a
Speaker 5: non guaranteed contract and you're on the roster after that date,
Speaker 5: then your your contract's guarantee for the rest of the year,
Speaker 5: even if you don't play a minute, you know. So
Speaker 5: I don't know. I've always thought there's some problem with
Speaker 5: that in the NBA, where there's too much quote free
Speaker 5: money and nobody really has to go out and earn
Speaker 5: it per se. Once they get it and you know it,
Speaker 5: and there's something to the sense of urgency that if
Speaker 5: I don't perform tonight and I don't I don't play hard,
Speaker 5: and I don't dive on the floor, and I don't
Speaker 5: step in and try and take a charge or whatever
Speaker 5: it is, that I may not be on the team
Speaker 5: on Friday. You know, that's not a that's not a feeling,
Speaker 5: you know, because you know, you know, even if they
Speaker 5: let you go, they don't like you for whatever reason
Speaker 5: you're not playing well whatever, Well, I made it past
Speaker 5: the guarantee date, so I'm getting my MI in your mind,
Speaker 5: all that kind of thing. So I don't know if
Speaker 5: there's something to that that all those a link together
Speaker 5: and people are going, yeah, well, these guys are getting
Speaker 5: paid a lot of money and they don't really look
Speaker 5: like they're playing hard. I don't know why I should
Speaker 5: invest my time in that, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now there's some good points, all right. I was
Speaker 2: excited to have you in because I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: to you about this dynamic. And I this is going to
Speaker 2: be a very loose parallel because I don't think there's
Speaker 2: anything where we can be entirely analogous.
Speaker 1: But but follow me for a second. So Lakers are
Speaker 1: in town tonight.
Speaker 2: Obviously, it has been a crazy news cycle surrounding the
Speaker 2: decisions made by roster Constructions in pro basketball to do
Speaker 2: some things that feel a little bit unprecedented to me
Speaker 2: and feel a little bit noteworthy, if I could use
Speaker 2: a jazz phrase. Patrick Dumont is the part of the
Speaker 2: new ownership group in Dallas, and it's been a rough
Speaker 2: week for our guy. He walked into a Mavericks home
Speaker 2: game to a tremendously loud courus of booze and he
Speaker 2: turned to a security guard and he said, are they
Speaker 2: booing me?
Speaker 1: And he said, yes, they are.
Speaker 2: Nico Harrison has been kind of revealed as like the
Speaker 2: rogue decision maker here that is behind the Luka Doncichs
Speaker 2: decision because he simply didn't believe, as you outlined last
Speaker 2: week in his off court habits, and do you want
Speaker 2: to invest three hundred and fifty five million dollars in
Speaker 2: a player who you don't think takes care of himself.
Speaker 1: We've been all over the things, over all the things.
Speaker 2: This is a decision that could cost Nico's job, and
Speaker 2: it feels like it is already costing Dallas a tremendous
Speaker 2: amount of goodwill in that community. Can you recall whether
Speaker 2: it was Scottie or whether it was Kevin or Danna
Speaker 2: personnel decision that you guys had to make as a
Speaker 2: front office where you went, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: We just made a.
Speaker 2: Call on Darren or whatever, and now it's on. Now
Speaker 2: it's it's it's gonna be on us as to whether
Speaker 2: or not this works out. Is there anything that even
Speaker 2: comes to mind as far as the same type of
Speaker 2: heat they're kind of facing in Dallas.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, you know, the the the profile
Speaker 5: of the players involved in this, this Dallas Laker trade was,
Speaker 5: you know, was at the top of the heap. So
Speaker 5: that's that, That's the first thing. The secondly, you know,
Speaker 5: these these aren't unusual and we've talked about that before.
Speaker 5: Spence too, and across across all sporting lines. Whether it's
Speaker 5: a Babe Ruth or whether it's a Wayne Gretzky, or
Speaker 5: whether it's a Wilt Chamberlain, you know, whoever it is.
Speaker 5: You know, these guys have all been traded, These things
Speaker 5: have happened before. The thing that that that I don't uh.
Speaker 5: I you know, if I was the guy overseeing and
Speaker 5: I was just you know, you know, waving a magic
Speaker 5: wand whatever that means. You know, in this scenario, I
Speaker 5: would I would advise Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont to
Speaker 5: instead of running away from what's going on. In other words,
Speaker 5: Nico doesn't show up in his usual seat for the game,
Speaker 5: He doesn't show up for the first game after the trade.
Speaker 5: You know, wasn't there at all. You know that To me,
Speaker 5: if I'm a fan, I look at that and go, okay,
Speaker 5: that that even makes me a little more, you know,
Speaker 5: upset about this or there's something else you know that
Speaker 5: I'm like, I would rather see them turn around and
Speaker 5: do just the opposite, just hit it head on, you know.
Speaker 5: And and I was just saying to to James Peterson
Speaker 5: before we came on the air, Hey, if I was them,
Speaker 5: I'd say, hey, you know what we should do. We
Speaker 5: should have we should have a town hall meeting tomorrow
Speaker 5: at noon. Anybody who's upset at this, come on down,
Speaker 5: let's go. You know, and you know you you guys
Speaker 5: pay the bills. You guys are investing in this like us.
Speaker 5: We'll answer the questions. Now. If I get a question
Speaker 5: and I don't feel like, you know, revealing you know,
Speaker 5: corporate you know, secrets or things that I think, you
Speaker 5: know should stay in the house, then I'll say so.
Speaker 5: But I'm going to give you the opportunity to vent
Speaker 5: to me and for us to talk it through, and
Speaker 5: to give you, you know, as much as I can
Speaker 5: the rationale of why, you know, we don't just do this.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, if I'm if I'm playing Nico
Speaker 5: Harrison for a minute, I don't just wake up in
Speaker 5: the middle of the night and say, hey, I think
Speaker 5: it's a good idea if we get rid of one
Speaker 5: of the best players in the league, and I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna tell anybody why We're just going to do it
Speaker 5: like that doesn't really wash with a lot of people.
Speaker 5: So you know, you have to explain to people. You know,
Speaker 5: you don't explain all of your business, obviously, but but
Speaker 5: you tell people as much as you can about this process,
Speaker 5: and you have to ask people to think for a minute,
Speaker 5: to step back and say, do you think we would
Speaker 5: trade a top five player who's not even in his
Speaker 5: prime yet age, why, who's performing the way he has
Speaker 5: performed so far for us for for just just to
Speaker 5: do it and just to get a different look on
Speaker 5: our team. I mean, I hope you think that we
Speaker 5: have more than that in our substance in making these
Speaker 5: decisions to to to be able to exercise something that
Speaker 5: we know is going to be difficult, you know, to
Speaker 5: deal with. You know, we didn't think this was just
Speaker 5: going to go in a twenty four hour news cycle
Speaker 5: and then everybody's onto the next thing. And so, you know,
Speaker 5: give us some credit or at least have some substance
Speaker 5: to thinking that that there's a rationale, there's some reasoning
Speaker 5: behind why we would make such a move, you know,
Speaker 5: in the benefit of our organization, of you, our fans.
Speaker 5: That's that's where our responsibility is. And I would just
Speaker 5: hit it head on, you know, in that regard, because
Speaker 5: that's usually if you look in the pass in any
Speaker 5: scenario of this nature spence where there's an uproar. But
Speaker 5: any decision, is it a a sports decision, is it
Speaker 5: a governmental decision? Is it something you know that affects
Speaker 5: our culture or our life. People who are in those
Speaker 5: positions that when times when they've just faced the music
Speaker 5: head on and took it on and said, hey, let's go,
Speaker 5: let's go, what do you got, Let's talk it out
Speaker 5: and and and do that. Most of the time people go, yeah,
Speaker 5: but what if what if this thing? And you go, well,
Speaker 5: you know, because of A B and C whatever, and
Speaker 5: and and then you find out people realize, okay, I
Speaker 5: don't know, you know, and and but they but they
Speaker 5: start backing down because they understand that you're in a
Speaker 5: difficult position and you wouldn't make a decision like this
Speaker 5: unless you actually felt somewhere that this made sense, uh,
Speaker 5: for the for the overall business that were running. You know,
Speaker 5: whether you understand what those things are or you don't.
Speaker 5: I can communicate some of them to you, some of
Speaker 5: them I might not be able to, but at least
Speaker 5: rationally look at it, you know, for what it is,
Speaker 5: instead of trying to find you know, some underbelly or
Speaker 5: some you know some you know, there's gotta be some
Speaker 5: secret thing that's going on that nobody's telling us, you
Speaker 5: know whatever, And you know, it's just I think people.
Speaker 5: You have to give people credit, you know, for for
Speaker 5: trying to help you to overall understand what this overall
Speaker 5: situation is. If that makes any.
Speaker 2: Sense, yeah, it does. I just don't personally see the rationale. Now.
Speaker 2: Bob Myers made a really compelling point because about an
Speaker 2: hour after the trade was announced, he was on the
Speaker 2: dais for the NBA on ESPN coverage and he said, look,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that Anthony Davis is Luca, but what
Speaker 2: I am saying is peak Anthony Davis and peak Luka
Speaker 2: doncis if you can get like a seven game healthy
Speaker 2: peak Anthony Davis, he is still one of the elite
Speaker 2: talents in all of the lead. Well, he affects the game, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: And so now the problem is he's hurt now, and
Speaker 2: he might be shelved for four or five weeks, and
Speaker 2: so as we react to what's in the moment, if
Speaker 2: you're Nico Harrison, the worst case scenario happened where he's hurt,
Speaker 2: and so even you know, if he's able to come
Speaker 2: back and at some point maybe make a difference, in
Speaker 2: the postseason. Where we are in the news cycle right
Speaker 2: now is these guys are getting killed. The only thing
Speaker 2: I could think of is when Kevin decided to trade Darren,
Speaker 2: as far as trying to be analogous here in the
Speaker 2: market now, the circumstances were much different, and that's what
Speaker 2: I think confuses a lot of people, because Darren and
Speaker 2: Jerry had their thing, and so Kevin had Jerry's back
Speaker 2: and said, we don't want this male content.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit the reset button.
Speaker 2: There are no indications like it's been interesting seeing the
Speaker 2: look on Jason Kidd's face whenever he's been front facing.
Speaker 1: He didn't do meet the other night.
Speaker 2: I would be very curious to hear what Jason Kidd
Speaker 2: had to say in a very honest moment about as
Speaker 2: a coach losing a guy like that. But this is
Speaker 2: different because it doesn't appear that Luca had issues with
Speaker 2: a coach or his teammates. From what we know, this
Speaker 2: was a executive making a decision almost on his own.
Speaker 1: But Kevin never struck me as a monolith.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: You guys were very uh up front officely would communicate
Speaker 2: together and come up with ideas. Was did you guys
Speaker 2: feel the heat when you decided to do the Darren thing.
Speaker 5: No, you know, I it was a different set of
Speaker 5: circumstance because I think the I think the general Jazz
Speaker 5: fan uh back at that time, if you remember, had
Speaker 5: the had the the blow up between Darren, Darren Williams
Speaker 5: and and Jerry Sloan and the prompted you know, Jerry
Speaker 5: to to to uh step down and resign and then
Speaker 5: uh shortly after that, Kevin made the move, you know,
Speaker 5: to trade Darren because he thought that was in He
Speaker 5: also thought it was in the again similar to the
Speaker 5: d Aaron Fox situation Sacramento a few weeks ago, where
Speaker 5: Fox came out and said, you know it didn't say
Speaker 5: it directly, but but there were all indications internally that
Speaker 5: he's gonna he's not gonna come back here when he's
Speaker 5: a free agent, right, whether it's Aaron Fox, that was
Speaker 5: the so called scuttle. But with Donovan Mitchell, I'm not
Speaker 5: sure if that was if that was totally uh accurate
Speaker 5: or or or a truism, but that's that that that's
Speaker 5: what the general perception was, uh with Darren. With Darren Williams,
Speaker 5: it was the same similar type thing we don't know
Speaker 5: if Darren Williams is gonna come back when he's a
Speaker 5: free agent in a year and a half. And so
Speaker 5: let's you know, we we we put that together with
Speaker 5: the discord or whatever's going on, you know with uh,
Speaker 5: with coach Sloan and that kind of stuff, and you go, Okay,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe it makes sense to to do something now,
Speaker 5: you know, while your value is high and in terms
Speaker 5: of that that player. But but again, Spence, uh, Kevin,
Speaker 5: Kevin O'Connor, you know, did I wouldn't say exactly the
Speaker 5: same because I obviously I wasn't wasn't in the room,
Speaker 5: you know, with Nico Harrison and and and and all
Speaker 5: that stuff. But but but Kevin, you know, in a
Speaker 5: similar fashion, did you know, handled it in uh kind
Speaker 5: of the same framework that Nico Harrison did with Darren Williams.
Speaker 5: He didn't tell any of us what was going on,
Speaker 5: uh in his in in our so called in their circle,
Speaker 5: whatever that was. You know, I didn't know what was happening.
Speaker 5: You know. Kevin did it with his good friend Billy King,
Speaker 5: who was the general manager in New Jersey Nets at
Speaker 5: the time. They had worked together in Philadelphia ten years
Speaker 5: earlier become very good friends, very good colleagues. They felt
Speaker 5: they could trust each other in terms of doing some
Speaker 5: kind of a deal that didn't get out in the media.
Speaker 5: A Lah, the Jimmy Butler Miami Heat type thing, and
Speaker 5: uh and they they they put a package together and
Speaker 5: discussed it, and then Kevin went to, uh, you know,
Speaker 5: the Miller family and said, hey, I think you know,
Speaker 5: for reasons A, B, and C, this is this is
Speaker 5: a good time to make a move like this, even
Speaker 5: though it's our best player and it's gonna hurt us
Speaker 5: in the short term, but I think it'll help us
Speaker 5: somewhere down the line the long term. Okay, the Miller's
Speaker 5: bought bought into that. Okay. And I'm sitting in my
Speaker 5: office on the day that they know it was leaked,
Speaker 5: and I see a scroll on the TV in my office.
Speaker 5: It says, you know, breaking news Darren Williams Trade at
Speaker 5: the you know, I'm going, what is that? You know whatever?
Speaker 5: And then and then Kevin literally like walked through my office.
Speaker 5: I said, Hey, what is this thing on the on
Speaker 5: the on the TV. And he looks and he goes, oh,
Speaker 5: is that out already? And I looked at him I said,
Speaker 5: is that a real thing? He goes, yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: typical Kevin fashion. He shrugged and then kept walking. You know,
Speaker 5: so now I got to go chase him down the
Speaker 5: hallway into his office, what's going on whatever? And you know,
Speaker 5: but he did a similar thing where he played it
Speaker 5: close to the vest because he didn't want to be
Speaker 5: on the public, didn't want to have to deal with
Speaker 5: media and all that kind of stuff in the similar
Speaker 5: fashion what happened with Dallas and Lakers last week. And
Speaker 5: sometimes front office people in those decision making roles will
Speaker 5: will handle things in a particular way because they feel
Speaker 5: that's the best way to handle it with the least
Speaker 5: amount of noise going on around it, and it doesn't
Speaker 5: really affect, you know, the decision making process that they're
Speaker 5: going through.
Speaker 2: Lebron James Luka, Doncic rolling down and I the LA
Speaker 2: Lakers taking on the Utah Jazz. We got Richard Smith
Speaker 2: live in studio for one more big segment, all right, Smitty,
Speaker 2: Thirty games left for the Jazz. I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people that don't maybe file the league closely feel
Speaker 2: like the All Star break is the halfway point. It's
Speaker 2: very much not past halfway point about two and a
Speaker 2: half three weeks ago, So thirty games left for the
Speaker 2: Jazz and the Lakers come into town tonight. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's interesting a lot of the national guests that we
Speaker 2: have on to talk Pro basketball all some of them
Speaker 2: will text me before the interview like dude, I got
Speaker 2: nothing on the Jazz, or just like you don't ask
Speaker 2: me about it. And with this entire boom of the
Speaker 2: media attention surrounding Luke and Lebron, I've listened to a
Speaker 2: lot of podcasts, watch a lot of coverage, and they
Speaker 2: all say the same thing, like, well, we can't learn
Speaker 2: anything about them yet because they're only playing the Jazz,
Speaker 2: not a serious team about winning this year. With thirty
Speaker 2: games left, what would you say to Jazz fans about
Speaker 2: some takeaways you've had that are positive that they can
Speaker 2: just kind of latch onto. If there's anything there to
Speaker 2: indicate that this thing is moving in the right direction.
Speaker 5: Well, that's it's a difficult question, defense because there hasn't
Speaker 5: been a lot. I mean to be honest, you know,
Speaker 5: they're in the third year of this tear down, rebuild, reboot,
Speaker 5: whatever however you you'll label it. Their overall team. Defense
Speaker 5: hasn't gotten any better, hasn't gotten appreciably better. Whether that's
Speaker 5: by schematics, whether that's coaching, whether that that's the players
Speaker 5: who aren't aren't executing what the coaches want, whatever it is,
Speaker 5: it hasn't gotten anybody. There's still a bottom five defensive team.
Speaker 5: Larry Markinen, you know, had a very good first year
Speaker 5: with the Jazz, obviously played to an all star level.
Speaker 5: He's gone down a little bit. You know. Some of
Speaker 5: that I think is just because he's he doesn't have
Speaker 5: a good team around him, and so there's you know,
Speaker 5: the other teams are leaning on him a little bit.
Speaker 5: But how about this little little tidbit which is which
Speaker 5: is interesting more than anything that that's really helpful to
Speaker 5: the cause. But John Collins through you know, two thirds
Speaker 5: of the season, after they play these two games, it
Speaker 5: will really be two thirds of the way through the season.
Speaker 5: John Collins is playing close to a one eighty clip.
Speaker 5: He's shooting over fifty from the floor, he's shooting forty
Speaker 5: four from three and eighty seven from the line, so
Speaker 5: he's almost close to you know, you know, touching up
Speaker 5: on that that that fifty forty ninety line that we
Speaker 5: talked about Lowry Markinen last year. You know touching John
Speaker 5: Collins is playing official now. He hasn't played a lot
Speaker 5: of games. He's been out a bunch of games. He's
Speaker 5: been out like fourteen to fifteen games. He's only started
Speaker 5: half the games that the Jazz have played. But the
Speaker 5: other guy who's been playing very efficiently and is out
Speaker 5: currently with an ankle injury is Colin Sexton, who's played
Speaker 5: very well, and again he's played much more efficiently than
Speaker 5: Lowry Marketing is. If you look at their numbers, you know,
Speaker 5: Sexton to market In, you know, field goal percentage forty
Speaker 5: eight to forty two, three point percentage forty one to
Speaker 5: thirty five, field goal free throw percentage eighty nine to
Speaker 5: eighty six. I mean, Colin Sexton has played very efficiently,
Speaker 5: very well. So he's he's played better this year. So
Speaker 5: he's a guy that I'm excited to see if they
Speaker 5: hold on to him in the offseason because I think
Speaker 5: he can really continue to play well and play efficiently.
Speaker 5: He's really grown into his game and his body and
Speaker 5: and the way he plays aggressively on the court. Walker
Speaker 5: Kessler has shown to me that that he's a he's
Speaker 5: a rim protector. He's a natural rebounder. He's a guy
Speaker 5: who can who can uh can get you a double
Speaker 5: digital rebounds. He's gonna average a double double. I think
Speaker 5: he's never gonna be a great score, but he's gonna
Speaker 5: be able to get mop up points and easy rim
Speaker 5: runs and stuff like that. And you know, I think
Speaker 5: he'll always be like a you know, a twelve and
Speaker 5: twelve type guy. And then if he can average a
Speaker 5: couple of block shots, I think he's someone who's who's
Speaker 5: a keeper for them with marking in with maybe sext
Speaker 5: and how they see that. John Collins again, I've never
Speaker 5: been a big John Collins fan, but he's played, he's
Speaker 5: played better this year. He's got a year left on
Speaker 5: his contract, which is a big number twenty six for
Speaker 5: really for what he does. But John Collins is also
Speaker 5: the same age as Lowry Markin. He's not an old guy.
Speaker 5: You know, he came in young. So so these are
Speaker 5: guys that that you think they I don't know if
Speaker 5: they'll all be with them, you know, next year, but
Speaker 5: I think they're guys who can be guys that that
Speaker 5: that are somewhat of a foundation. Now you still have
Speaker 5: to have a couple of these young guys show up.
Speaker 5: The one guy who's who's played better. Uh, still don't
Speaker 5: know if I really like his game that much, but
Speaker 5: he has improved somewhat in this these first fifty games
Speaker 5: is Isaiah Collier. You know, he's he's a natural passer.
Speaker 5: Sometimes he gets too deep into the defense, into the
Speaker 5: paint and then and predetermines where he's gonna throw the pass,
Speaker 5: and and and he's turned over prone that way. But
Speaker 5: he's he's really looks like he's got a good feel
Speaker 5: early in off in the offense to to where the
Speaker 5: balls supposed to be. And the other thing I like
Speaker 5: about him is that he'll get it and he'll push
Speaker 5: it aggressively from free throw line to free throw line.
Speaker 5: So instead of walking it up like Kante George does
Speaker 5: and and saunter into an offense, Collier will really push
Speaker 5: it and he'll he'll he'll he'll make a quick speed
Speaker 5: pass to somebody up ahead to try and get something early.
Speaker 5: And that's what I just like, that mindset that, you know,
Speaker 5: trying to push it, push it, to be aggressive that way.
Speaker 5: He's a young guy. He's two years removed from high school,
Speaker 5: so he's got a ways to go. But I like
Speaker 5: some of his natural tendencies when he has the ball
Speaker 5: in his hand to get it to teammates. That that now,
Speaker 5: his issue, obviously is he can't shoot, and so does
Speaker 5: that get appreciably better or at least better enough that
Speaker 5: that he can stay in the lineup and stay on
Speaker 5: the floor late in games and make some things happen.
Speaker 5: But I like his game a little bit. It's one
Speaker 5: on me a little bit. But a lot of the
Speaker 5: other guys, you know, the jury still, I'm not sure
Speaker 5: how many of them, if any of them, will be
Speaker 5: be here long term.
Speaker 2: So let's let's dig in a call here a little
Speaker 2: bit more, because I agree with you there are a
Speaker 2: lot of things to like seven plus or seven games
Speaker 2: with ten plus assists. No jazz rookie's ever done that. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm sure John could have pulled that off if he
Speaker 2: played a little bit more as a rookie was behind
Speaker 2: Rocky Green. But you reference the splits, the shooting splits.
Speaker 2: He's twenty one percent from three, So it's not like, yeah,
Speaker 2: he can't really shoot it, No, he can't shoot it
Speaker 2: at all. But there are some things about him that
Speaker 2: are in eight that he has that I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: that would translate to pro basketball because we didn't see
Speaker 2: a ton of him in college and only saw one year.
Speaker 2: And your point, it's important to reiterate two years out
Speaker 2: of high school is he's a puppy.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's so young.
Speaker 2: But there are some things that he has that you
Speaker 2: can't necessarily teach, and then there are some things that
Speaker 2: he has to work on, namely shooting. If he puts
Speaker 2: in the work, Okay, tap into your knowledge forty plus
Speaker 2: years you know with the Jazz, do you have a
Speaker 2: success story that we can point to as a young
Speaker 2: player that I mean, I can remember Carl as a
Speaker 2: rookie shooting free throws and you're like, dude, just hit
Speaker 2: the rim, so maybe we can get the rebound. He
Speaker 2: turned into a seventy five percent free throw shooter. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can learn to shoot it, right, Like you think
Speaker 2: Isaiah can learn to be a thirty five percent three
Speaker 2: point shooter.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, time will tell. I don't know what kind
Speaker 5: of a worker he is. I don't know if he's
Speaker 5: a guy who's determined to do that. You know again,
Speaker 5: you know, we'll we'll see that bear itself out as
Speaker 5: we go forward. The one thing about him, he's got
Speaker 5: elite speed. When he gets the ball out of bounds,
Speaker 5: he can really push it, and he can really push
Speaker 5: it quickly. And he also has a great first step
Speaker 5: when he gets the ball in a half court off
Speaker 5: and he sees that he has a slight advantage on
Speaker 5: his guy, he can really he can put it on
Speaker 5: the floor and he can get two steps really quickly
Speaker 5: right to the dotted line. And and then he's got
Speaker 5: that powerful body. He's got like a Marcus Smart type body,
Speaker 5: and so he can he can get it. He can
Speaker 5: get it with speed he sees the floor. Uh, he's
Speaker 5: gotta he's gotta smooth out those rough edges. Will he
Speaker 5: ever be a serviceable shooter? Okay, well, we'll see that.
Speaker 5: That was also a concern with Marcus Smart when he
Speaker 5: came into the league. And obviously he made himself into
Speaker 5: a bona fide uh A player in this league and
Speaker 5: and and obviously was a defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 5: a couple of years ago. You know, this kid has
Speaker 5: the chance to be something like that with his innate speed,
Speaker 5: uh feel for the game. Now, can he can smooth
Speaker 5: out the other the other parts of his game to
Speaker 5: make him himself more valuable and someone who gets more
Speaker 5: extended time as he goes along. But he's a guy
Speaker 5: who I would I would if I was a fan,
Speaker 5: I'd be keeping an eye on to see how he
Speaker 5: improves because he has he has the body and he
Speaker 5: has some of the innate athleticism that you need in
Speaker 5: this league as a lead guard to to have some success.
Speaker 5: Can he can he grow into that three years from
Speaker 5: now when he's twenty three years old. Is he appreciably
Speaker 5: better and is he one of the guys you're counting on.
Speaker 5: That's one of the things that you want to take
Speaker 5: into account.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough, man, you know, it really is tough
Speaker 2: to make this team interesting when they're not trying to win,
Speaker 2: and even the people to cover them day to day
Speaker 2: or just kind of doing everything they possibly can to
Speaker 2: try to come up with topics that are interesting. I
Speaker 2: do think there are some things to like about Isaiah.
Speaker 2: I do think Walker shown a very real step forward.
Speaker 2: It was tough to see Taylor Hendrick go down. It
Speaker 2: would have been nice to analyze his growth. The rookie
Speaker 2: year of Cody Williams. Okay, now, Cody's had some injury issues,
Speaker 2: I'm pulling up his numbers right now. So Cody right
Speaker 2: now has played in twenty seven games.
Speaker 1: He started twelve.
Speaker 2: You know, when you pick a guy in the top ten,
Speaker 2: I just think you hope it looks a little bit
Speaker 2: better than it has. I know he's had some moments
Speaker 2: in the G League. But you know, as we're trying
Speaker 2: to analyze who these young players are, whether or not
Speaker 2: they can be part of winning basketball, we've got to
Speaker 2: talk about these rookies. I mean, do you think behind
Speaker 2: closed doors they're a little bit concerned even though he
Speaker 2: is still just a kid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I don't know. It's that's that's hard
Speaker 5: to say just because of you know, without being there
Speaker 5: every day and being in practice, being in film sessions
Speaker 5: talking to those guys one on one to get a
Speaker 5: real feel for who they are, what their mindset is,
Speaker 5: what their what their desires are to be a a
Speaker 5: top level professional. It's hard to say. For me. This
Speaker 5: year for for Cody Williams has been a wash out.
Speaker 5: He's he's been a bust uh for me as far
Speaker 5: as showing any kind of potential. You know, he's long,
Speaker 5: he's thin, okay, whatever, you know, so what does that
Speaker 5: mean you know and uh uh you know my old
Speaker 5: colleague and and and obviously one of the one of
Speaker 5: you guys on on the radio station here weekly or
Speaker 5: Coach Cheese, you know, would always would always come back with,
Speaker 5: you know, if you brought up a guy that that
Speaker 5: he didn't he didn't like, or question about what he
Speaker 5: could what he could do to help you, he'd always
Speaker 5: come back with just this three word question, which was
Speaker 5: always very salient, you know, as succinct as it could be.
Speaker 5: You'd bring up a guy and you'd say, Cody Williams, Cordy, Cody,
Speaker 5: Cody Williams. He'd go to do what do what? Yeah,
Speaker 5: to do what? You know? And and and that's what
Speaker 5: I would say about him. You know, somebody brings him up,
Speaker 5: I go to do what? You know? What does he do?
Speaker 5: You know, he doesn't guard anybody. He doesn't use that
Speaker 5: length athleticism, he doesn't hasn't shown any toughness. He doesn't
Speaker 5: have any kind of offensive game that he could go to,
Speaker 5: whether it's a dribbled drive game and use his athleticism
Speaker 5: to get up and over guys and do that or
Speaker 5: around guys with quickness or can't shoot it over the
Speaker 5: top of guy. You know, I don't know what he does.
Speaker 5: So so this has been an interesting year for him.
Speaker 5: I think he I would I would label it as
Speaker 5: a disappointment myself. I don't know what they see in
Speaker 5: him going forward. If if it's just he has to
Speaker 5: get his mindset, he has to get some toughness, he
Speaker 5: has to get some strength his body, he has to
Speaker 5: get a skill level up. Although you know, for me,
Speaker 5: for him on that if you're grading him out on
Speaker 5: a on a report card, you know, all those things
Speaker 5: are things that he has to get better at or
Speaker 5: he's not gonna you know, graduate to the next class.
Speaker 5: You know, that's that's just the way it is. And
Speaker 5: so you know, they have quite a few of those
Speaker 5: guys for me, but he's one that sticks out that
Speaker 5: you go, yeah, he just to me, it looks like he's,
Speaker 5: you know, not sure what he's doing out there and
Speaker 5: doesn't doesn't play with a lot of confidence and doesn't
Speaker 5: play with any you know, like Collier. He makes a mistake, okay,
Speaker 5: he throws up in the fourth row, whatever, but he
Speaker 5: plays with a certain amount of confidence and and and toughness,
Speaker 5: at least offensively aggressiveness. I should say but but Cody
Speaker 5: Williams for me is uh is a is a big,
Speaker 5: big question mark? All right?
Speaker 2: I just look, there's just nothing to talk about with
Speaker 2: the rest of the roster. They're not serious about winning.
Speaker 2: We all know what time it is, we all know
Speaker 2: what they're trying to do. It makes it really challenging
Speaker 2: day to day to try to even make it somewhat fascinating.
Speaker 2: Jazz fans continue to show up. Jazz fans rule, and
Speaker 2: I think the building will be packed tonight. But when
Speaker 2: it comes to what JJ Reddick has now at his disposal,
Speaker 2: I was listening to media after the Jazz game and
Speaker 2: then he did some media I want to say it
Speaker 2: was yesterday maybe after practice. Made a point that with
Speaker 2: their roster now, the third best defender on the opposing
Speaker 2: team as to guard Austin Reeves. Now, Austin is not
Speaker 2: Luca Lebron, but he's a good player. You can run
Speaker 2: stuff through Austin Reeves. He's a capable ball handler, he
Speaker 2: passes it pretty well and when he gets going, he
Speaker 2: can really score. But obviously the headline is Lebron and
Speaker 2: it's Luca. How do you think this is going to
Speaker 2: work and what do you think JJ is going to
Speaker 2: try to implement to make sure because they now have
Speaker 2: the opportunity to play forty eight minutes of pro basketball
Speaker 2: with either Luka Doncic or Lebron James. I still think
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City is head and shoulders above everybody. I will
Speaker 2: not bury the Denver Nuggets, even though a lot of
Speaker 2: people have. Jamal Murray's been better as of late, but
Speaker 2: they have the best player on the planet, Nicola Jokic.
Speaker 2: But when it comes to what JJ Reddick has at
Speaker 2: his disposal, Jazz fans going to the game, what do
Speaker 2: you think this Laker attack is going to look like
Speaker 2: right away? And what's best case as far as what
Speaker 2: it looks like when it's.
Speaker 5: Fun, Well, I think that you know it's it's you know,
Speaker 5: they have two and a half guys. Uh if you're
Speaker 5: talking about being a serious contender, whether it's donc James
Speaker 5: and and Austin Reaves, who I like some You know,
Speaker 5: Austin Reeves is a beneficiarya of having played with two
Speaker 5: great players so far in his career in Davis and James.
Speaker 5: Now he's playing with James and Doncic, and so he
Speaker 5: gets to do some things and maybe he's you know,
Speaker 5: if he's with the jazz team, I don't think he's
Speaker 5: as effective because he'd be asked to do too many
Speaker 5: things that he's not used to doing it at a
Speaker 5: high volume level. But but I like the way he plays.
Speaker 5: I liked him at Oklahoma. You know, he played well,
Speaker 5: you know in college, was an all around kind of guy.
Speaker 5: But he's a guy who who plays off of the
Speaker 5: strengths of his teammates. And he's been playing with a
Speaker 5: couple of great teammates, you know, so far in l
Speaker 5: A and and that's been switched out. But we'll see what,
Speaker 5: you know, how it is going forward. But they still
Speaker 5: have a big problem with their roster. You know, Mark Williams,
Speaker 5: the trade didn't go through, and now the other kid
Speaker 5: just got hurt, you know, the other big guy that
Speaker 5: they have the name of Caseman at the moment with
Speaker 5: the Lakers, and so now you know, they're they're really down.
Speaker 5: You know, they're short. Big guy whether it's Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 5: is going to try and plug in there. It's gonna
Speaker 5: be tough. Their roster is not very good beyond those guys,
Speaker 5: and so they have to rely when they get to
Speaker 5: the playoffs, they have to hope that Doncic and James
Speaker 5: are healthy, that Reeves is healthy, which you know he's
Speaker 5: been for the most part. But Doncic and James are
Speaker 5: gonna be playing, you know, forty two forty three, forty
Speaker 5: four minutes in playoff games. And we've seen both guys
Speaker 5: be able to lift their teams up with the way
Speaker 5: that they play. And so I wouldn't put anything past
Speaker 5: a team that has a healthy Lebron James on it
Speaker 5: because he's he's always proven that he's that good, you know,
Speaker 5: when the when the real lights come on. So can
Speaker 5: they get past Okay, see, can they get past Memphis,
Speaker 5: which is a very good team when they're healthy? Can
Speaker 5: they get past a healthy Denver team? You know these guys,
Speaker 5: these are tough uh teams that that are going to
Speaker 5: give them a lot of problems. You know, is Golden
Speaker 5: State gonna be better uh towards the end of the
Speaker 5: season when when Jimmy Butler gets in the in the
Speaker 5: flow and if those guys are healthy, you know, with
Speaker 5: Green and Curry, you know, can they make some kind
Speaker 5: of noise in in the in the playoffs? It's you know,
Speaker 5: as we always say, Spence, the old worn out adage, right,
Speaker 5: the best players best ability is his availability. And so
Speaker 5: that's what it comes down to when you get to
Speaker 5: the to the playoffs, is who's who's on the floor,
Speaker 5: who's healthy and and can they can they carry a
Speaker 5: team over a seven game stretch, you know, and and
Speaker 5: that kind of an atmosphere.
Speaker 2: He referenced the Mark Williams trade being rescinded, which meant
Speaker 2: the Lakers had to tell Dalton Connect they actually liked
Speaker 2: them a lot all along. And same thing on the
Speaker 2: other side. That has to be a unique challenge when
Speaker 2: a trade is done. You were telling a story off
Speaker 2: air about the Ronnie Cyclic deal back in the day.
Speaker 2: It really, you know, would have given you guys a
Speaker 2: very talented center. My understanding of the story is Ronnie
Speaker 2: did not want to live in Salt Lake City. What's
Speaker 2: it like when the trade is actually consummated and then
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, it falls apart, then you have to
Speaker 2: remind the guy who trade to wait, no, we actually do.
Speaker 5: Like you well, you know back then, you know, spence
Speaker 5: to refresh memories of our fans. I mean, maybe some
Speaker 5: haven't even heard this story, but in ninety eight February
Speaker 5: of ninety eight, near the trade deadline, the Jazz decided
Speaker 5: to try and get an offensive threat in the center
Speaker 5: position to go along with Karl Malan, John Stockton, Jeff
Speaker 5: Horniseck making another push toward a second NBA Finals. So
Speaker 5: they got a deal done with Orlando where they were
Speaker 5: willing to trade Chris Morris, Greg Foster, and the first
Speaker 5: round pick to the Orlando Magic for Ronnie Cyclely. And
Speaker 5: Ronnie Cyclely was an offensive center, was a good player
Speaker 5: and would have fit in well with what the Jazz
Speaker 5: are doing at that time, and the Jazz in Orlando
Speaker 5: actually made the trade. Chris Morris and Greg Foster went
Speaker 5: to Orlando, they did their physical, they actually attended an
Speaker 5: Orlando practice, and then they were pulled off the court
Speaker 5: after practice, and Ronnie Cyclely was balking about coming, balking
Speaker 5: about coming, something about you know, whether he wanted to
Speaker 5: play here or he wanted his contract extended, if he
Speaker 5: was coming something something, And so finally the traders just
Speaker 5: called off, and the parties involve said, you know what,
Speaker 5: there's too much heavy lifting going on here. We're just
Speaker 5: going back to what we had. And so Greg Foster
Speaker 5: and Chris Morris come back to the Jazz. They have
Speaker 5: a meeting with Jerry Sloan. You guys got a problem.
Speaker 5: You know, this is the NBA, this is the business.
Speaker 5: Both guys are like, now, you know, we get it whatever,
Speaker 5: And we ended up. The Jazz ended up that year
Speaker 5: going on and making another run to the to the
Speaker 5: their second NBA Finals in ninety eight, with both those
Speaker 5: guys playing minutes in rotation and and uh and Greg
Speaker 5: Foster doing his famous throat slash and and at near
Speaker 5: the end of Game four in La to to help
Speaker 5: the Jazz go get over the hump and and then
Speaker 5: get to the NBA Finals again. And you know, that's
Speaker 5: just part of the business. You know. You hope you
Speaker 5: got guys who who understand that. I got a young
Speaker 5: guy like Dalton Connect. You know, he's a rookie. Okay,
Speaker 5: you know he's a little bit of an older rookie.
Speaker 5: But you know, you know, guys, Jerry Sloan will always say,
Speaker 5: you know, are your feelings hurt? You know? Okay, well,
Speaker 5: you know you got about ten minutes to get over that,
Speaker 5: and then we got we got work to do. And
Speaker 5: and that's just the business, you know. And it's an
Speaker 5: unfortunate part.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: And it's a difficult part because sometimes you know, people's
Speaker 5: families are involved and and those kinds of things and
Speaker 5: you have to deal with that, and that's all part.
Speaker 5: That's why the trade deadline being in the middle of
Speaker 5: the season like that is really is really uneasy for
Speaker 5: everybody because nobody wants to have to go through that
Speaker 5: and and be in situations like that.
Speaker 2: What's one thing before I say you lose that you
Speaker 2: find interesting about tonight because it's, like we've talked about,
Speaker 2: it's tough to cover a team that's not trying to
Speaker 2: win and you're reaching for storylines and maybe Isaiah Colliers
Speaker 2: this or that. Before I set you lose, one interesting
Speaker 2: tidbit for tonight's game.
Speaker 5: Well, I just got one that's way out in left field, Spencer,
Speaker 5: but he doesn't doesn't make any difference about anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I was talking to Coach Waiting about this the other day.
Speaker 5: First time I can ever remember, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 5: this would be right that the Jazz are playing the
Speaker 5: teams from LA four games in a row. Think about it.
Speaker 5: They played the Clippers in LA, play the Lakers in
Speaker 5: LA play the Lakers in Salt Lake play the Clippers
Speaker 5: tomorrow night. They never used to whenever you'd go to LA.
Speaker 5: You never used to play both teams on the same trip.
Speaker 5: They always split it up for whatever reason. So you'd
Speaker 5: always go there, play the Lakers, go back, go to Phoenix,
Speaker 5: go to Sacramento, go somewhere else. Three weeks later, go
Speaker 5: back to LA to play the Clippers. Whatever. Now they've
Speaker 5: got this thing where, you know, an unusual quirk in
Speaker 5: the schedule where they're playing the LA teams four times
Speaker 5: in a row, which is unusual. That's about the best
Speaker 5: thing I can come up with for any interesting storyline
Speaker 5: about the game tonight, Spence, because otherwise, really, let's be honest,
Speaker 5: it's just game fifty one out of eighty two in
Speaker 5: early February that nobody really cares much about other than
Speaker 5: maybe Luca Doncic and Lebron James both play. Maybe they both.
Speaker 2: They're both playing, according to what we've been telling more
Speaker 2: more Laker fans or Jazz fans in the building tonight.
Speaker 5: Well, that's always been a question, uh forever. Any time
Speaker 5: the Lakers come, there's there's always a large contingency of
Speaker 5: Laker fans in the Delta Center building. And which is uh,
Speaker 5: which is always uh? Uh? We always would have a
Speaker 5: big bone to pick with. You know a lot of
Speaker 5: the season ticket holders who would sell their tickets to
Speaker 5: some people they knew were Laker fans and try and
Speaker 5: make a bunch of money off them and stuff, and
Speaker 5: and the Laker fans always show up. They always show
Speaker 5: up in Lake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Smittiewell, great to see you. As always,
Speaker 2: we'll continue to make NBA basketball and interesting, even though
Speaker 2: the Jazz are tough to cover.
Speaker 5: Hey, hey, that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1: Indeed, enjoy the game. We'll see you, say man.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The great Richard Smith forty years with the Jazz front
Speaker 1: off