Speaker 1: We launching at the five o'clock hour of the program
Speaker 1: coming up in just a little bit, we'll say goonight
Speaker 1: at six. Don't forget Big twelve Media Days coming up
Speaker 1: tomorrow and Wednesday, about six to seven hours of live
Speaker 1: coverage with myself and Sean O'Connell live in Frisco, Texas.
Speaker 1: Kind of the unofficial start of the college football calendar.
Speaker 1: But we'll do some more NBA, some Summer League. The
Speaker 1: Jazz make a trade forty years with the Jazz Front Office,
Speaker 1: Radio Celebrity now Celebrity and Sugarhouse for the July fourth parade.
Speaker 2: Richard Smith's made Happy Monday.
Speaker 3: How are you hence?
Speaker 4: We're doing great? You know, I just I'm putting on
Speaker 4: these headphones. I go, these don't feel right whatever here
Speaker 4: in the studio. When I'm missing around with them for
Speaker 4: a few seconds, I realize we have new equipment. We're
Speaker 4: using new equipment here at ESPN Studios, and so I
Speaker 4: don't know if that's correlated with the new NBA league
Speaker 4: year that started yesterday, that we're using new equipment here
Speaker 4: in the studio, but this is this is fascinating, Okay,
Speaker 4: that you guys are breaking down shelling out another twelve
Speaker 4: bucks for a new pair of headphone.
Speaker 2: Shell out twelve bucks. And this is not correlated with
Speaker 2: the new NBA league calendars.
Speaker 5: And spending limit you have now our spending limit was
Speaker 5: was hit the day we cracked this this microphone. Uh
Speaker 5: did you were you stopped at all over the weekend
Speaker 5: and asked for an autograph as a result of your
Speaker 5: your birth radio care.
Speaker 4: No, you know, you know who I had to take
Speaker 4: heat from of all people is their guy Dave five.
Speaker 2: Don't ever take any heat for who.
Speaker 4: I ran into at the at the beautiful North Salt
Speaker 4: Lake July fourth celebration that was on Thursday night where
Speaker 4: they have big band and my my buddy tom Hewitson
Speaker 4: and his band where they're playing and then they had
Speaker 4: the fireworks show and all this. But I had to
Speaker 4: sit there for five minutes and and uh and saying
Speaker 4: hello to to Dave and listen to him rake on
Speaker 4: me about you know, oh, mister celebrity, now, mister TV,
Speaker 4: mister radio, you know, you know, you know you're getting
Speaker 4: a little over over exposed here in the Salt Lake
Speaker 4: market where we're getting a little tired of you. And
Speaker 4: I said, hey, you know what that's what my wife said.
Speaker 3: All the time.
Speaker 1: So there's no such thing as no such thing as
Speaker 1: too much Smitty.
Speaker 2: All right, a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Let's do a little summer league here, Smitty, And you
Speaker 1: know every year I kind of share this anecdote nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven pr intern working for Dave all Red Kim Turner,
Speaker 1: shout out to those guys worked for the Jazz Forever.
Speaker 1: Summer League nineteen ninety seven featured well, a lot of players,
Speaker 1: but for the sake of this anecdote, two centers they
Speaker 1: were drafted that year. One was named Greg oaster Tag
Speaker 1: who played for the Utah Jazz. The other was a
Speaker 1: guy named Tim Duncan who played for the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 2: And Smitty.
Speaker 1: They went head to head and Tag battled them and
Speaker 1: some games got the best of them. And all due
Speaker 1: respect to Greg, those two careers worked out a little
Speaker 1: bit differently. I wanted you to give us a little
Speaker 1: like Smitty experience anecdotal, because you know, fans Acet goes
Speaker 1: three to thirteen, so he's never gonna be good.
Speaker 2: Vj Edge comes an next Michael Jordan, So.
Speaker 1: Tell us about summer league your experience, and then help
Speaker 1: us understand when we're watching this, what to actually look for.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Spence, you're talking to a guy who,
Speaker 4: just by circumstances was I was there when the current
Speaker 4: iteration of the Salt Lake City Summer League started way
Speaker 4: back in nineteen eighty two, and at that time the
Speaker 4: Jazz called it the Utah Pro Am Summer League, and
Speaker 4: it was a mixture of pro players both the NBA
Speaker 4: and some overseas players, and also amateurs, guys who maybe
Speaker 4: played in college and weren't quite good enough at the
Speaker 4: pro level but could still really compete. In the first
Speaker 4: couple of years, the pro am teams were made up
Speaker 4: of players from the local college teams. They each had
Speaker 4: their own team. So the u of U had a
Speaker 4: team that was led by Pace Manion and Danny Vrains
Speaker 4: and Tom Chambers and b y U had a team
Speaker 4: that was led by Fred Roberts and and I can't
Speaker 4: remember if Danny if Danny Ainge played in it or not,
Speaker 4: Greg Kite, you know, Devin Durant. Uh. The Jazz had
Speaker 4: their team and the primary purpose of the of the
Speaker 4: league as it still is today was to get the
Speaker 4: the Jazz young guys. Uh and the first or second
Speaker 4: year of players extra playing time during the summer in
Speaker 4: in live scrimmages and in competition. Utah State, Weaver State
Speaker 4: had a combined team of players with UH. Bruce Collins
Speaker 4: and I'm forgetting his name down. Number five was the
Speaker 4: UH anyway from Utah State. Those guys, those guys UH
Speaker 4: put together a really good team. And so there was
Speaker 4: a collect of these college teams along with the jazz team,
Speaker 4: and that was the setup of the of the Summer
Speaker 4: League for the first several years. Over at Westminster College,
Speaker 4: we played for three weeks in August and the in
Speaker 4: the the old gymn Paine Gymnasium on the campus of
Speaker 4: Westminster College UH. And the Page Gymnasium still to this
Speaker 4: day has no air conditioning. It still doesn't know, so
Speaker 4: you had to remember, well, I'm gonna say that, I'm
Speaker 4: not sure if i haven't been there in a few years,
Speaker 4: but but for the longest time didn't have air conditioning.
Speaker 4: So you were sitting there, whether you were playing in
Speaker 4: it or you're sitting there as a fan watching, and
Speaker 4: you're watching these games and it was stifling hot and
Speaker 4: humid in the gym, and you know, you can't open
Speaker 4: any doors or windows and nothing to open whatever, and
Speaker 4: so it was it was a heat box and and
Speaker 4: and it went on for but we had it initially
Speaker 4: it went on for three weeks, if you can imagine.
Speaker 4: And and that that then, you know, morphed into going
Speaker 4: to games over East High School for several years. And
Speaker 4: the famous summer where we had the big the big
Speaker 4: cloud burst one night and the rains came off of
Speaker 4: thirteenth East down the stairs at East High right onto
Speaker 4: the gym floor and it looked like the blob in
Speaker 4: that movie. And it was coming right down and it
Speaker 4: was crawling right onto the floor, and you know, and
Speaker 4: it was also that was also the the the year
Speaker 4: that that we had Corey Crowder playing for the Jazz
Speaker 4: and went off like thirty eight in a summer league
Speaker 4: game and then got got taken a side by the
Speaker 4: GM of a team in Greece who was at the
Speaker 4: game scouting and talked Corey Crowder into signing on the
Speaker 4: spot right there with the team, yeah, in the hallway,
Speaker 4: and and Corey, hey, these guys are offering me whatever
Speaker 4: they were offering, I can't remember a time, and I
Speaker 4: remember Scott Layden's and hey, I think I think you
Speaker 4: better do that, you know, and to go okay, thank
Speaker 4: you very much, and Corey Carter signs, you know, agrees
Speaker 4: in the hallway with the team and and went over
Speaker 4: and had a nice career over in Europe and and
Speaker 4: uh and uh. Then it morphed into going to the
Speaker 4: Delta Center for a little bit and then out to
Speaker 4: Solid Community College for for many years, and which I personally,
Speaker 4: to me, I still think was the best Summer League venue, uh,
Speaker 4: that we've had over the years. I just think that,
Speaker 4: you know, when you have four thousand people and they
Speaker 4: cram into a gym like that and they're standing on
Speaker 4: the sidelines, and and there's plenty of easy parking and
Speaker 4: it's easy to get to off of two fifteen and
Speaker 4: and uh and Redwood Road, I think that's a great
Speaker 4: venue to have it. But now we were we find
Speaker 4: ourselves this this year up at the Huntsman Center because
Speaker 4: of the renovations going on to the Delta Center. But a
Speaker 4: lot of history there for the Jazz Summer League and
Speaker 4: a lot of iterations of it and and a lot
Speaker 4: of of a lot of changes over the years and
Speaker 4: and how it's operated as well.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to jazz fans, sitting down and
Speaker 1: watching a game. It's just it's I pulled up the
Speaker 1: list of the all time leading scorers in Vegas Summer
Speaker 1: League history Archie Goodwin, Kobe Carl Vander Blue, Rashad Vaughan,
Speaker 1: Glenn Rice Junior, Bobby Brown, Andre Blasch, and look, I
Speaker 1: could keep going. I mean, for two years, I was
Speaker 1: a valet at Westchester Summer League, where the Knicks used
Speaker 1: to have way back in the day.
Speaker 2: They don't do it anymore.
Speaker 1: Greg Anthony's first Summer League game he had like forty
Speaker 1: and twenty you know, so and Greg got a good
Speaker 1: and be a career like probably not the best example
Speaker 1: in the world, but you know, these are inexperienced officials,
Speaker 1: these are young coaches, and these are children when it
Speaker 1: comes to players actually playing. So for fans looking for
Speaker 1: pieces of good news or things that are act actually
Speaker 1: real when they're watching the Jazz on Saturday, then they're
Speaker 1: gonna watch them tonight, like help us understand what's actually translatable?
Speaker 4: Well, it's it's it's very difficult to really look at
Speaker 4: any of it with any hardcore feeling for what it's
Speaker 4: gonna partend down the road.
Speaker 3: The uh, but you're exactly right.
Speaker 4: The whole purpose of the Summer Leagues is for everybody
Speaker 4: who's involved. Everybody you see on the front lines are
Speaker 4: all people who are trying to quote, make their way
Speaker 4: through the league in some regard, whether it's as a player,
Speaker 4: whether it's as a coach, as a as an athletic trainer,
Speaker 4: as a referee, as a game official working the UH,
Speaker 4: the scorers table, whatever. Everybody involved is UH is trying
Speaker 4: to get better what they do or trying to prove
Speaker 4: they they belong, you know, in there that little niche
Speaker 4: that they're that they're involved with. You know, for the teams,
Speaker 4: they really have three main goals and being involved in
Speaker 4: the Summer League program. The first is to get their
Speaker 4: player just to get him acclimated to the whole process
Speaker 4: of what the organization is about. So for the Jazz players,
Speaker 4: they're just trying to get them to understand what living
Speaker 4: in Salt Lake is about. How to get around town,
Speaker 4: how to maneuver, how to set up a bank account,
Speaker 4: how to find an apartment or or where you're going
Speaker 4: to live for the next year. You know, all those
Speaker 4: kinds of things that just get them acclimated to the
Speaker 4: process of being a member of the Utah Jazz Organization UH.
Speaker 4: The second the second goal. The second level is for
Speaker 4: the players UH to get used to the coaches and
Speaker 4: the people around them, to support staff, whether it's the
Speaker 4: way the strength training staff UH, the equipment staff, the
Speaker 4: the UH, the massage therapist, the doctors, the training, everybody
Speaker 4: involved in the process. To get them familiar with them,
Speaker 4: to understand what the process is of being a professional,
Speaker 4: how the Jazz go about their business on a day
Speaker 4: to day basis. That's really the second level of what
Speaker 4: they're trying to learn in the summer instead of trying
Speaker 4: to learn it on the fly when the season starts
Speaker 4: in the middle of October. This is a good chance
Speaker 4: without any pressure and without anything that's really meaningful in
Speaker 4: terms of games involved. It's their chance to find out
Speaker 4: how that ebb and flow goes, who those people are,
Speaker 4: and what I'm supposed to be doing with each of them,
Speaker 4: so I can figure out how this job actually is
Speaker 4: supposed to work. And then the third level is really
Speaker 4: getting familiar with the coaches and you know, the general
Speaker 4: level of the type of play they want they're gonna
Speaker 4: expect of them when the regular season comes. In terms
Speaker 4: of the offense that just the general basics of it,
Speaker 4: or our defensive philosophy, those things, so they have a
Speaker 4: feel for what those are, what the terminology is, what
Speaker 4: we call this play. Some other team calls it different,
Speaker 4: different nomenclature. We call it this Just to get used
Speaker 4: to that stuff, so when you come in in the
Speaker 4: fall and you get ready for training camp in late September,
Speaker 4: you're not blindsided by all these things that are new.
Speaker 4: They're all things that you've been exposed to already the
Speaker 4: previous three months. You've been around it, You've gotten used
Speaker 4: to it. It's kind of starting to feel like home
Speaker 4: a little bit, and now you can enter training camp
Speaker 4: with your feet under you a little bit and with
Speaker 4: a little bit of confidence about Okay, now I know
Speaker 4: a little bit of what's expected of me, and now
Speaker 4: we're getting ready to really get to work here in
Speaker 4: the fall.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about a couple of dynamics here.
Speaker 1: And the juxtaposition I find interesting is what to expect
Speaker 1: from rookies, and certainly what to expect from an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old rookie in Ace Bailey. I pulled up the
Speaker 1: list earlier today of eighteen year olds to play in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and even the eighteen year olds that went
Speaker 1: on to play really well typically struggle in the NBA
Speaker 1: when they're that age.
Speaker 2: There are exceptions.
Speaker 1: Lebron was a twenty point guy, Dwight Howard had a
Speaker 1: good rookie year, but Cobe struggled.
Speaker 2: And I've got the list.
Speaker 1: We can go over all the names, right, So when
Speaker 1: it comes to what to expect from Ace who's eighteen
Speaker 1: years old in a rookie I want you to kind
Speaker 1: of walk us through what to expect from a player
Speaker 1: that young, even at the summer league level. And then, certainly,
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of a team, what has to happen.
Speaker 1: Are the softs and above really have to dominate the
Speaker 1: whole thing, and if they don't, that's a bad, really
Speaker 1: bad sign. If you've had a year of NBA basketball
Speaker 1: under your belt and then suddenly you're in the summer
Speaker 1: league and you can't get anything done, it's like, okay.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of pressure on Bryce and Cody
Speaker 1: and Kyle and Isaiah guys that we've seen, and then
Speaker 1: there's the Ace factor too, So compartmentalize that a little bit.
Speaker 1: What do you expect from an eighteen rookie in summer league,
Speaker 1: and what do you hope to see from I'll call
Speaker 1: the veteran players, Well.
Speaker 4: The new guys are really you're just looking to see
Speaker 4: what their level of engagement is. In other words, do
Speaker 4: they understand the basic concepts of what we're trying to
Speaker 4: get done during a particular game. Do they understand the
Speaker 4: flow of the offense? Are they are they in the
Speaker 4: right spots? Are they communicating well with their teammates? Are
Speaker 4: they learning from their teammates during dead ball situations? Are
Speaker 4: they engaged with either the coaches on the sidelines or
Speaker 4: their teammates on the floor about what's what's going to
Speaker 4: happen next? Are they do they appear to be to
Speaker 4: have a positive vibe about them in terms of approaching
Speaker 4: what they're trying to do on the floor. You're not
Speaker 4: worried about what shots they're making. You might be worried
Speaker 4: a little bit about what shots they're taking during the
Speaker 4: course of a summer league action, because that cantle tell
Speaker 4: you a little bit about where their mindset is. But
Speaker 4: you're just concerned about how the assimilating themselves into the
Speaker 4: overall team dynamic and and how that how that's coming
Speaker 4: together for them with the second and third year guys,
Speaker 4: you're looking for them to be kind of the leaders
Speaker 4: on the floor, to understand what's going on, to be
Speaker 4: able to lead by example on the floor, and to
Speaker 4: be able to show that they they belong, you know
Speaker 4: there with that team and they belong you know, uh
Speaker 4: in greater terms that you get into the uh into
Speaker 4: the fall and the regular regular camp uh A situation.
Speaker 4: But the those guys, you know, Philipowski the other night
Speaker 4: played well you knew he just you know, knew where
Speaker 4: he was supposed to be and when he was supposed
Speaker 4: to be there and how he was supposed to play.
Speaker 3: You know, the.
Speaker 4: Guys like that, really you really kind of get a
Speaker 4: feel for what their level of understanding from what they've
Speaker 4: already been through, and then how can they bring that
Speaker 4: to the floor but also help the new rookies to
Speaker 4: assimilate into what's going on during the course of the game.
Speaker 1: So let's go over a couple of names here, and
Speaker 1: just you already talked about Philipowski, so we'll leave him aside.
Speaker 1: He had seventeen in the second half, looked like the
Speaker 1: grown up you know in the room twenty two to six,
Speaker 1: twenty two and six. He was eight of eleven, hit
Speaker 1: a couple of threes. Isaiah, Isaiah, call your look, it's
Speaker 1: just the same deal with him. There are moments of
Speaker 1: he had a great pass to Philipowski, a great bounce
Speaker 1: pass that led him to a doll. It was an
Speaker 1: amazing pass, I mean, and there are glimpses where like,
Speaker 1: oh man, he's really he's got some vision. He can
Speaker 1: see the floor. He just can't shoot it. He didn't
Speaker 1: shoot it well the other night. So let's start with Isaiah.
Speaker 1: You know what you saw the other night and what
Speaker 1: you would say to Jazz fans that they should hope
Speaker 1: to see during the rest of the summer league experience.
Speaker 4: Well, again, you know, you're hoping he has a little
Speaker 4: more of a controlled floor game. You know he sees
Speaker 4: the floor. Well, you know he can get the ball
Speaker 4: to certain places. I'll be honest with you. That pass
Speaker 4: he made the other day was was a three quarter
Speaker 4: court bounce pass through traffic. You know, a terrific play.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see that play. If Magic Johnson is
Speaker 4: making it or Jason Kidd is making it, if Isaiah
Speaker 4: Collier is throwing it, I'm not as excited because I
Speaker 4: don't know if it's gonna if it's gonna get to
Speaker 4: the end result which you did in that play, Okay,
Speaker 4: he gets credit for that, or if it's gonna bounce
Speaker 4: off somebody's knee and go up into the fifth row
Speaker 4: or something. So you want to see him a little
Speaker 4: bit more of a control floor game. And then, of course,
Speaker 4: as we've been talking about since day one last year,
Speaker 4: you know, he has to show some level of improvement
Speaker 4: in his shooting ability because if that does not start
Speaker 4: coming along at some point, you know, teams are gonna
Speaker 4: that's the first thing on the scouting report, and teams
Speaker 4: are gonna be laying off, and teams are gonna be
Speaker 4: crowding the lane, and teams are gonna be you know,
Speaker 4: sagging off on to wing guys and he's going to
Speaker 4: be on his own on an island to figure out
Speaker 4: how to start making shots. And it's still he does that,
Speaker 4: that's going to be you know, really the big stumbling
Speaker 4: block for him in terms of showing the kind of
Speaker 4: progress that I think the Jazz want to see from him.
Speaker 1: Bryce sense about looks like he's in better shape, So
Speaker 1: that's good. Yeah, obviously that was the deal coming out
Speaker 1: of Ohio State and Will Hardy himself during his postseason
Speaker 1: media just a few months back. Now mentioned not just
Speaker 1: with Bryce, but but Keyante and Isaiah, they all need
Speaker 1: to be in better shape. They need to be in
Speaker 1: better condition. He looks like he is seven to thirteen,
Speaker 1: five of eight from three to nineteen points, seven boards,
Speaker 1: So a good night for him, did have five turnovers.
Speaker 1: But what do you see from Bryce sents?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, and to that point, Spence, Jerry Sloan always
Speaker 4: used to preach to the players that being in shape
Speaker 4: is an actual skill that some players possess and some
Speaker 4: players don't. And he always to tell guys that you
Speaker 4: have to be in the optimum shape you can be.
Speaker 3: And because as.
Speaker 4: Long as you're not in shape, while you're on the
Speaker 4: floor playing, your mind is always drifting somewhere else other
Speaker 4: than the basketball play in front of you. In other words,
Speaker 4: you're thinking about, Oh, I'm really winded, I got to
Speaker 4: really catch my breath here, or I'm really tired. I
Speaker 4: don't know if I can backpedal and get back on
Speaker 4: defense right now. And so your mind us in thinking
Speaker 4: about the basketball play. Your mind is thinking about what
Speaker 4: your body is doing. And so that takes you out
Speaker 4: of being an effective player. Once you get yourself in shape,
Speaker 4: and once you're not thinking about those things, then the
Speaker 4: basketball part comes into play and it makes it easier
Speaker 4: for you as a player to perform. That's what those
Speaker 4: guys really have to be about. They all have to
Speaker 4: be in great shape. It sounds like it's a redundant
Speaker 4: or it's a second grade thing that your professional athlete. Hey, look,
Speaker 4: you need to be in better shape. Like it seems
Speaker 4: like you shouldn't have to say that. Unfortunately, you have
Speaker 4: to say it to a lot of guys because a
Speaker 4: lot of guys as they climb up this ladder and
Speaker 4: get to this pinnacle, which is the top professional basketball
Speaker 4: league in the world, the players just keep getting better.
Speaker 4: The talent just keeps increasing. Your competition is getting better.
Speaker 4: And if you don't recognize that and you don't take
Speaker 4: that to heart in terms of what you do every
Speaker 4: day to get yourself in the best shape possible, then
Speaker 4: you're doing yourself a disservice and you're gonna leave yourself
Speaker 4: short in terms of being a competitive player who can
Speaker 4: help a team. Jerry Sionan always used to tell guys,
Speaker 4: the stuff you do outside of the game, getting in shape,
Speaker 4: working on your game, doing all the things that prepare
Speaker 4: you to play in the game. That's what you get
Speaker 4: paid for. That's what the job is. When you get
Speaker 4: up there on Friday night at seven o'clock and we
Speaker 4: tip the ball off. You may not get in the game,
Speaker 4: you may be on the end of the bench, and
Speaker 4: you may not even play, but you're still gonna get
Speaker 4: paid right on the first and the fifteenth. So the
Speaker 4: job is really getting in shape, being prepared, getting ready
Speaker 4: to be able to play. And if you take care
Speaker 4: of those things and do it the way you're supposed
Speaker 4: to be prepared, then when your name gets called during
Speaker 4: the game, then you'll be able to go in and
Speaker 4: contribute to the best of your ability.
Speaker 1: We'll save your thoughts on both East Bailey and Walt
Speaker 1: Clayton Junior for the next segment, but the last name
Speaker 1: for this segment will be the other VET.
Speaker 2: After a really roughie rookie.
Speaker 1: Year, and I really am not piloting on this kid,
Speaker 1: like he's so young, and I feel like so many
Speaker 1: people were so down on him. It's like he never
Speaker 1: has a chance to develop. But Cody Williams is going
Speaker 1: to have to show more as a saw certainly than
Speaker 1: he did as a rookie. I would imagine it's a
Speaker 1: pretty low bar. So game one Summer League takeaways with Cody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's you know, he's still thin. But you know,
Speaker 4: it takes a while to get your body in shape.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you can get stronger, and it doesn't appear that
Speaker 4: way when you look at a guy. You know, some
Speaker 4: guys just don't buff up, you know, like Arnold Schwarzenegger
Speaker 4: or Sylvester Stolone. They don't get those kind of bodies.
Speaker 4: They can be stronger, but maybe they don't show it.
Speaker 4: He's got to continue to fill out his body, he's
Speaker 4: got to continue to get stronger, and his game has
Speaker 4: just got to be played with more confidence right now
Speaker 4: to me, and again, it was just one Summer League game.
Speaker 4: He'll have a bunch of games here coming up in
Speaker 4: the next couple of weeks to show what kind of
Speaker 4: progress he's made during the spring, you know, but he
Speaker 4: really has to show that he can play, uses athleticism
Speaker 4: in length to his advantage and play with a level
Speaker 4: of confidence that the Jazz are gonna want to see
Speaker 4: out of him.
Speaker 1: All Right, we will catch a break coming up next
Speaker 1: Smidy's takeaways from a Bailey's first Summer League game. And
Speaker 1: in addition to wal Clayton Juniors for Summer League game
Speaker 1: and the Jazz have made a trade. John Collins is
Speaker 1: a Clipper, and we'll tell you about the return if
Speaker 1: there's anything at all, I would imagine Kevin Love will
Speaker 1: be bought out. But Smitty joins us for one more
Speaker 1: big segment before we launch into the five o'clock hour
Speaker 1: of the program right here on ESPN seven hundred. All right,
Speaker 1: another segment with the local legend, the local celebrity who
Speaker 1: stars rising Richard Smith forty years with the Jazz front office.
Speaker 1: Don't take any guff from Dave Fox about being overexposed,
Speaker 1: by the way, speaking of overexposure in the market for
Speaker 1: like thirty years.
Speaker 4: Hey, you know, if Dave Fox says something to me,
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna sit there and listen. You know, he's
Speaker 4: he's a he's a local legend, even if.
Speaker 2: It is in his own mind. There you go, you
Speaker 2: landed the plane.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Before we get to the trade, Smitty, let's wrap up
Speaker 1: the conversation we were having last segment about the Jazz
Speaker 1: Summer League roster. We got your takes on the veteran
Speaker 1: players Isaiah call your Kyle Philipowski, Cody Williams, Price Sensiba.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Walt Wall. Clayton Junior came off the bench,
Speaker 1: played twenty five minutes, had six assists, nine points, three
Speaker 1: of age shooting, knocked down a couple of threes.
Speaker 2: He look comfortable, do you know?
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, he looked like he he belonged again, spent
Speaker 4: the difference between being an eighteen year old and being
Speaker 4: twenty two for sure, playing four years in college, you know,
Speaker 4: playing tough, big time games in college, and and obviously
Speaker 4: coming through with the national championship this this past April
Speaker 4: with the with the University of Florida in the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: And but he looks like a guy who's you know
Speaker 4: that the moment doesn't get to him. And again it
Speaker 4: was it was a summer league game, but he just
Speaker 4: looked like he had a feel of you know, you know,
Speaker 4: calmness and just getting the ball up, seeing the floor,
Speaker 4: moving it to the right spots, you know, and just
Speaker 4: doing the things you know, just so called staying in
Speaker 4: his lane and doing the things that he was supposed
Speaker 4: to do, you know, from his position, So a good
Speaker 4: good h by him in terms of summer league action.
Speaker 4: We'll see how that progresses as uh as these games
Speaker 4: go along here in Salt Lake tonight and tomorrow and
Speaker 4: then and then later in the week when they get
Speaker 4: down to Vegas.
Speaker 1: As you compare and contrast Walt with Isaiah, the assumption
Speaker 1: is Isaiah will start out of the gates a point.
Speaker 1: I'm uh, you know, Kyante is not playing on his team.
Speaker 1: There's a legitimate conversation to have about Kiante's NBA future.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's a chance Walt grabs that starting spot?
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's the certainly there's a chance because
Speaker 4: he's shown that he can make shots and the Collier
Speaker 4: kid has has struggled to do so.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: The Colia may be a little bit uh stronger in
Speaker 4: the upper body. He may be a little bit quicker
Speaker 4: with the ball from end to end or from free
Speaker 4: throw line the free throw line, Uh, the way he
Speaker 4: can get up and down the floor. I think the
Speaker 4: Clayton kid, you know, might again might have a maybe.
Speaker 3: More sound all around game.
Speaker 4: Uh when it comes to uh, you know, just mixing
Speaker 4: in with his teammates in terms of moving the ball
Speaker 4: and finding guys just making the play that's in front
Speaker 4: of him.
Speaker 3: Uh, And so we'll see. I think I think this is.
Speaker 4: A good uh, a good spot for both those guys
Speaker 4: to be in, you know, having another six, seven, eight
Speaker 4: games whatever, it's gonna be here the next couple of
Speaker 4: weeks against competition, you know, for the front office and
Speaker 4: the coaches to look at and and kind of see
Speaker 4: what they what they think each guy is doing well,
Speaker 4: what their notes are about what they need to to
Speaker 4: improve on, and of course then those will be things
Speaker 4: the players will be working on the rest of the
Speaker 4: summer heading into fall camp. But I certainly think that
Speaker 4: he would have every chance uh to uh to be
Speaker 4: a potential starter on a team that is uh looking
Speaker 4: for anybody to contribute consistently in meaningful ways. And being
Speaker 4: an older guy, rookie coming end at age twenty two,
Speaker 4: and the experience he has, maybe that will give him
Speaker 4: some kind of an edge.
Speaker 1: All Right, we'll finish the Summer League portion of the
Speaker 1: conversation with Ace Bailey, who, of course everybody is excited
Speaker 1: about in his potential as the eighteen year old top
Speaker 1: five pick.
Speaker 2: I had a really nice week side.
Speaker 1: Block had a couple of good boards, but three of
Speaker 1: thirteen didn't make a lot of shots, didn't play much
Speaker 1: during crunch time. There was kind of a feel as
Speaker 1: to whether or not he was being included in the
Speaker 1: offensive flow. I don't know how much is there there.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are veteran players. Maybe you're looking at
Speaker 1: rookies like, hey, you'll learn from us type thing. But
Speaker 1: what were your impressions our first chance to get a
Speaker 1: glance at Ace Bailey.
Speaker 4: Well, he's obviously he's you can see the physical attributes
Speaker 4: he has. He's a lively body, he's long's he can
Speaker 4: be active defensively. You know, he got a key rebound
Speaker 4: at the end of the game and traffic. You know,
Speaker 4: I did like the fact that that when he was
Speaker 4: out of the game coming down to crunch time in
Speaker 4: that game on Saturday night, you know, look to me,
Speaker 4: you know, when they showed flashes of him on the bench,
Speaker 4: that he was engaged with his teammates and even the coaches.
Speaker 4: It wasn't like he was sitting there either staring off
Speaker 4: into the stands, which sometimes happens with young guys, or
Speaker 4: not paying attention or sulking because he wasn't in the game.
Speaker 3: Or whatever whatever it might be. He looked like he.
Speaker 4: Was genuinely engaged in what was going on and and
Speaker 4: rooting for his teammates. And that's what you want to see.
Speaker 4: And those are the reports Spence really that we heard
Speaker 4: by and large, you know, from the people at Rutgers
Speaker 4: and the people who played with him and also against
Speaker 4: him during the year this past college season, that that
Speaker 4: that's the kind of guy he is. That he is
Speaker 4: an upbeat, positive vibe guy, and the people like being
Speaker 4: around him, and he carries himself with a certain a
Speaker 4: certain energy in.
Speaker 3: A good way.
Speaker 4: And and and that might be almost as important as
Speaker 4: how he played on the floor the other night, was
Speaker 4: seeing when he was on the bench, what he's what
Speaker 4: is he doing, How is he handling himself? You know,
Speaker 4: what does he do when they call a time out?
Speaker 4: Does he just you know, drift to the end of
Speaker 4: the bench or in the back of the huddle, or
Speaker 4: does he come off the bench and agreed his teammates
Speaker 4: coming off the floor and that kind of thing. Those
Speaker 4: are all little things that the coaches in the front
Speaker 4: office will be looking at to just gauge, you know,
Speaker 4: what the type of what type of vibe mentality and
Speaker 4: engagement he has with his group.
Speaker 2: No reason to panic obviously.
Speaker 1: The first game of Sudden League, did he look the
Speaker 1: way you expected for an eighteen year old?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean he carries You can just tell that he
Speaker 4: has a certain bounciness and he has a certain air
Speaker 4: of confidence about how he he runs the floor, how
Speaker 4: he sees the floor. When he when he's off the
Speaker 4: ball on the weak side, is he's looking, He's looking
Speaker 4: for an angle to cut to. He's looking to, you know,
Speaker 4: tie to get open with his hands ready. Little things
Speaker 4: like that, you know, give you a you know, just
Speaker 4: a little bit of a glimpse into you know, what
Speaker 4: kind of player he can be. And look, it's gonna
Speaker 4: take him a lot of reps, and it's gonna take
Speaker 4: him a lot of you know, getting knocked around a
Speaker 4: little bit, and you know, maybe you know, some guys
Speaker 4: are gonna come at him in some games, you know
Speaker 4: where where they think, oh, oh, this is the guy
Speaker 4: I was hearing so much about. Okay, let me let
Speaker 4: me see what he's got. And so he may have
Speaker 4: to deal with some of that out on the floor,
Speaker 4: and how he responds in both skill wise and also
Speaker 4: in terms of his professionalism. Uh, you know, may tell
Speaker 4: you a lot about how he's going to be able
Speaker 4: to carry himself.
Speaker 1: All right, Smitty, let's move over now to the space
Speaker 1: of the news that broke I think this morning. Uh,
Speaker 1: of course it is not official to the league approves,
Speaker 1: but John Collins has been traded. He is now a
Speaker 1: member of the Los Angeles Clippers, the Miami Heat and
Speaker 1: Land Norman Powell and the deal and the Jazz get
Speaker 1: Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and a twenty twenty seven second
Speaker 1: round pick via the Clippers. My guess is both Kevin
Speaker 1: Love and Kyle Anderson are bought out or moved. I
Speaker 1: mean Kevin Love, for sure, I think that's probably already done.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have a different opinion on that, is this
Speaker 1: essentially getting off John salary and grabbing a second round
Speaker 1: pick for the tries that all this is sure?
Speaker 4: Well, Spence, Look, they apparently have taken care of the
Speaker 4: big elephant in the room that everybody's been talking about
Speaker 4: since the last trade deadline, and that is okay. If
Speaker 4: they're going young and they're going to play all these guys,
Speaker 4: then we've got some big money guys over here in
Speaker 4: Sexton and Clarkson and Collins. So what are we doing
Speaker 4: with them? Well, they've answered that question with Austin Ahe
Speaker 4: coming in, they've been able to move all three guys
Speaker 4: out right. So whether you like what they got for him,
Speaker 4: whether you think it was you know, a quarter on
Speaker 4: a dollar or whether you know, whatever you think the
Speaker 4: value was, what they did was they moved all three
Speaker 4: of those guys, and they moved them to you know,
Speaker 4: just not only alleviated themselves from those contracts and and
Speaker 4: and those those players being on the roster, uh, but
Speaker 4: they moved out of that money and so they're gonna
Speaker 4: have more money available when the dust settles.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: But what it really says is that that we're we're
Speaker 4: dedicated to playing all these young guys next year. It's
Speaker 4: not going to be as you know, as Austin Ainge
Speaker 4: had said in his introductory press conference, we're not gonna
Speaker 4: play like that. We're not gonna tank on purpose. And
Speaker 4: of course i'm paraphrasing, but you know, now what they're
Speaker 4: gonna do is all you know, we're gonna play these
Speaker 4: young guys because that's what we got. You know, now,
Speaker 4: marking In is the one guy standing standing there going, well,
Speaker 4: I'm still here and he may still be here in
Speaker 4: October and maybe not.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, time will tell.
Speaker 4: Uh but they're gonna play all the guys that they've
Speaker 4: talked about, that they've drafted that you know, maybe there'll
Speaker 4: there's still guys that there and they're gonna be in
Speaker 4: the hunt for during the summer. Maybe there's still something
Speaker 4: else that's gonna come down the pike for them. But
Speaker 4: but moving those guys really makes a statement to me
Speaker 4: that this is the direction. With all these young guys,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go and we're gonna play them, and we're
Speaker 4: gonna play the guys we got here now and that's
Speaker 4: who we're gonna run with, and we're gonna see see
Speaker 4: how this starts taking shape. So uh so, kudos to
Speaker 4: them for if nothing else, you like their draft, You
Speaker 4: like the guys they got. You have some questions about
Speaker 4: the guys last few years whatever. The guys that were
Speaker 4: hanging around and we're making the big money and you
Speaker 4: didn't think we're gonna be part of their future going
Speaker 4: forward are now all out of the picture. So they've
Speaker 4: taken that care of that part of the equation. So
Speaker 4: now they can move forward with what their what their
Speaker 4: plans are for these guys, and that'll be very intro
Speaker 4: see for Jazz fans to see.
Speaker 2: Any chance Kevin Love or Kyle Anderson is on this roster.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think Kevin Love. I think that's I
Speaker 4: think that's a no brainer. I believe on both sides.
Speaker 4: Kyle Anderson I probably would bet against it. You know,
Speaker 4: he's not quite the profile or the guy that the
Speaker 4: Kevin Love has been in his prime. Uh, but Kyle
Speaker 4: Anderson is a serviceable and and a versatile player. So
Speaker 4: you know, the money he makes, it's not it's not great.
Speaker 4: You know, I could see him on the on the
Speaker 4: team next year. I doubt they would want to have
Speaker 4: him just because I think they they would want that
Speaker 4: those minutes eating up by some of the younger guys here.
Speaker 4: They've already got into contract. But you know, if I
Speaker 4: had to bet on it, I would bet that both
Speaker 4: guys wouldn't be on the team come October.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. All right, before I set you loose, Smiddy, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll end on this. You mentioned marketing. He's still on
Speaker 1: the roster. We'll see if that lasted.
Speaker 2: Donovan was traded in September.
Speaker 1: Yeah, next summer, all right, Yeah, so there's still plenty
Speaker 1: of time for transactions. Walker Kessler still on the roster,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Callier, Wal Clayton Junior, Taylor Hendricks, Kiante, George A. S. Bailey,
Speaker 1: Kyle Philipowski, Brice Sense about what do you think this
Speaker 1: is gonna look like next year?
Speaker 4: Well, it's not gonna be pretty. I mean, you're gonna
Speaker 4: have young guys. You know a lot of those guys.
Speaker 4: The jury is out about whether they're uh A NBA
Speaker 4: players at all?
Speaker 3: Uh B? Can they be rotation players for an NBA team?
Speaker 4: Uh C? Can they be contributing players on a competitive
Speaker 4: or successful team? Uh can they be leaders on a
Speaker 4: very good team? All these different tiers that you slot
Speaker 4: guys into, you know these guys are they're all over
Speaker 4: at the moment on the sideboard. In other words, you
Speaker 4: haven't had a real good feel to take any one
Speaker 4: of their names and put them over on the board
Speaker 4: under a certain heading and say this is where this
Speaker 4: guy belongs in terms of the hierarchy of the team
Speaker 4: or how the team is going to start playing and
Speaker 4: gelling that kind of a thing. So I think all
Speaker 4: that stuff is uh is evolving, it's changing. You've got
Speaker 4: the you know, basically the same coaching staff with a
Speaker 4: few tweaks to it now that uh see Boljahowski is
Speaker 4: going to join the coaching staff from the G League team,
Speaker 4: So you're going to get his experience and his knowledge
Speaker 4: on the bench now having coached in the G League,
Speaker 4: but also obviously being a high level coach of both
Speaker 4: Marquette and Duke, uh and and of course being a
Speaker 4: terrific player at Duke during his years in college. So
Speaker 4: you're going to get his experience in the coaching staff.
Speaker 4: And now you've got the new perspective of Austin Ainge
Speaker 4: uh in the front office UH to to look at
Speaker 4: these guys and try to assess where they think their
Speaker 4: team is and what direction it's heading in. I mean,
Speaker 4: by no means is the team you got now the
Speaker 4: team I think you're gonna see in October, or the
Speaker 4: team you're gonna see in February when it comes around
Speaker 4: the trade trade deadline. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 4: maneuvering still to be had and uh and I think
Speaker 4: this is just the movement of these veterans who they
Speaker 4: who they just moved in the last few weeks. Uh, Sexton,
Speaker 4: Clarkson and Collins. Now those guys are out. Now we
Speaker 4: see what they think the next move is in the
Speaker 4: formation the evolution of this team going forward.
Speaker 1: So zake to say, we're all going to be sitting
Speaker 1: on our couches next spring watching ping pong balls bounce
Speaker 1: around to see where the jazz is.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what's gonna be interesting, Spence is no
Speaker 4: matter how it plays out, I would be surprised and
Speaker 4: we're somewhat shocked if the level of that anticipation that
Speaker 4: we had this past May would be duplicated next May.
Speaker 3: In other words, everybody.
Speaker 4: Had put pushed their chips in the Jim fossil, you know,
Speaker 4: comparison to the middle of the table, hoping they would
Speaker 4: have Cooper flag and some people, I think, maybe even
Speaker 4: within the Jazz organization, we're counting on getting the number
Speaker 4: one pick and it didn't happen, And maybe some people
Speaker 4: learned a lesson, you know, through that, and you know,
Speaker 4: maybe next time they'll pay attention to what real numbers
Speaker 4: tell them and what the reality of the situation is.
Speaker 4: And above all else, the the you know, the the
Speaker 4: understanding that winning and building teams is not easy, and
Speaker 4: it takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of coordination,
Speaker 4: takes a lot of making the right decisions at the
Speaker 4: right time. But then it also takes a certain amount
Speaker 4: of luck and circumstances happening that that fall your way
Speaker 4: that you can't control, but you have to be able
Speaker 4: to react to them when they do. And so that's
Speaker 4: what makes that part of it, can make it exciting
Speaker 4: for jazz fans. The losing will not be fun and
Speaker 4: and jazz fans may get start getting a little uh
Speaker 4: antsy about that part of it.
Speaker 1: About to enter year four of what's been characterized as
Speaker 1: a rebuild or a pivot or a breakdown and build up.
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on how you asked. Hey, great
Speaker 1: to see my friend. I know you get you got
Speaker 1: a trip next week, Safe travels and chat too, Spence,
Speaker 1: have fun in Dallas. Thank you, sir, Go get him.
Speaker 1: We're only how many how many football days away? Fifty
Speaker 1: four days?
Speaker 3: Unbelievable. I believe it's right around the corner.
Speaker 2: It is man. Good to see okay, thank you. Richard
Speaker 2: Smith will