My man's been busy today. He was on Sports Center earlier Hoop Collective.
Of course.
I got Tim bontemp saw on a Thursday afternoon prior to Game one of the NBA Finals, Timmy, Happy Thursday.
Man, how you doing? Sorry, I'm good. I've got to start here. I don't know, man.
Six seven weeks ago I was listening to as a fan of the Hoop Collective of course, having you and mcmahonnon quite a bit, and it felt about like a month and a half ago. You said something on the pod that you felt like there's a chance that Tom Thibodeau could be in some trouble, and I just went what it didn't make sense to me, and I will admit my bias right out of the gates. Tom was Jeff's assistant back in the day, as you know, and as a fan of this team since I was a kid,
enjoying them being relevant has been fun. And I feel like they were ahead of schedule this year going to the Eastern Conference finals. Yet he's out in New York. So obviously you were on a some set that most people weren't.
Six seven weeks ago.
You say that then, and what's your understanding of how this all went down today, I mean.
I just think ultimately, this is a situation where, you know, I think the irony of it is you had all these people who were saying things about, you know, Tom's usage of players and votation stuff and all this other stuff, and I don't think any of that stuff is why the Knicks are going to be finding a new coach.
I think it's you know, if you look at Tom's history, and I like you, I also personally like Tom a lot, but if you look at his history, you know, both in Chicago and Minneapolis, after a while, he you know, wore people down and they eventually decided they wanted to have a different voice leading the team. And I think that's really along and short of what happened here, and you know, it's it's certainly going to be interesting to see what the Knicks do. They obviously had a really
good season. They have made it clear by letting Tom go now that the only thing that's acceptable next year is making the finals. Anything short of that will be a disappointment. And it is not clear to me that they're a going to be the favorite to make the finals next year and b that they're going to find a coach will be better over the course of the eighty two games in the playoffs, and Tom Thibodau is
this year for the Knicks. But that being said, they clearly decided they wanted a different voice to be around the team and to try to get it to the next level. And there have been times in the past when this has worked, like when the Raptors went from doing case it didn't it Nurse, and when the Warriors went from Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr. And then there's been times when it really didn't work, like when Milwaukee went from Mike Budenholzer and Adrian Griffin and when the
Bulls went from Tom Thibdau himself to Fredeiberg. So only time will really tell whether this is going to be, you know, one of those two paths. But you know, you have to say that for the Knicks to do this right now, it certainly puts them in a position where there's not a lot of room for them to
succeed with it. And you know, there was already going to be really high expectations in New York after the way the season went, and I mean, as you know from personal experience, like how much people are desperate for this now fifty two year title drop to end, and there's only going to be more pressure and more expectations now that the Knicks have made this move and made it clear what the acceptable outcome is, and if it's not that, then there's going to be questions about what happens next.
So Tim, it just reeks of the kind of emotional, knee jerk move that that kazoo blowing, fedoro wearing idiot makes all the time as the owner of the organization, And to me, it's a testament as to why they have been so irrelevant for basically twenty five years. Was this a Dolen thing? Was it a Leon thing? I've heard all the rumors that it's a cat thing, CAA whatever, But Tom's the CAA guy as well, rumors that he didn't get along with Worldwide West. My guess is Tom
probably doesn't love guy that calls himself Worldwide West. I don't know how did this go down, Why was this decision made.
It's probably gonna sound like a duck. I don't think it really matters, honestly, Like I think at the end of the day, like I said, I think it if you come, if it comes if you look at the way this played out. If you fire Tom, now it's not because of the results, right, So it's because of other stuff. And the first line of the release from the Knicks, because Leon Rose is not going to do media because he's done one interview in five years and
it was four years ago. The first line of the release said, our goal is to bring a championship to our fans. So the Knicks have made it clear that whoever they hired to be the coach, like the expectation is they're gonna have to win a title or they're gonna have to be in the finals. And you know, I think they decided as a group that Tob wasn't
the guy to get him there. And you know, I think, I mean, there's always been all sorts of different bases of power at MSG, but I don't at this point, I just don't really think the the why is all that relevant other than to me, you better get this higher, right.
I thought McMahon said it well on the pod we did today, Like, if you're going to make this move and you're going to fire Tom, you can't mess it up because like whatever you want to say three you know, again, if you want to argue that it was time for a change with Tom, like, that's all well and good, But if the Knicks hire or some coach went forty five games next year, or you know, losing the first or second round of the playoffs, then there's going to be posles to do a lot more than just change
the coach. And that's why this is a pretty high wire act for everybody. And you're about the long standing dysfunction of the Knicks, like, this is the first time the Knicks have won three a playoff series. Three is in a row. The nineties brought a level of ability and structure to the organization that was not there before. And you know, like, I think there's a very good chance that whoever they hire will not do as good
a job as it. But I think the basic way you can look at it, I think is if you fire a guy after getting to the conference finals for the first time in twenty five years, you're not firing him because of the job he did.
So this is a much more attractive job than it has been probably since Jeff was fired. And you pointed this out earlier, and to be fair, I think ninety nine percent of Dolan's tenure as his you know, being the steward of both the Knicks and the Rangers, have been pathetically embarrassing on his part, but the one percent that he has always done and will continue to do as he writes checks, he spends on front office, he spends on coaches, he spends on players, and it's a good roster.
It is. This is a good job.
I was.
I was surprised to hear McMahon say that he does think there's a little traction of this Jason Kids stuff, Johnny Bryant who played his college ball out here and was a developmental coach with the Jazz before going to New York and then Cleveland, Jay Wright, you know the names. So who do you think gets the job?
Tommy?
I really don't know, And I think that's part of what makes this so interesting is that there isn't an obvious choice. It was just not and I don't That's what makes it so interesting to see ultimately what the Knicks decide to do and how it's going to go, because it's a great job. Like they have a ton
of talent. The East is wide open, The thunder are not sitting there, like these players are under contract, they have runway, they're all in their prime, right, Like there's there are a lot of things about this nick job that are really attractive. It is the Knicks. You're at the garden. They're going to pay, like they're going to attract players, Like there are a ton of positives and Leon Rose has done a really good job since taken over the team five years ago. Like again, like you've
got on the list. There's a whole bunch of stuff like yeah, man, like this Nick's job is as good a job as you can find, really, But at the same time, there's not a guy sitting there where you go, oh hey, like this this is the number one guy to go get this job and it's just slam Dominican and they're going to slide him right in it. It's going to be great. So that's why I say, I mean to me, I do think there's a very real chance that whoever the Knicks hire will not do as
well as Tom did. But that is why it's such a fascinating decision, and it's why what they do and how it goes is going to be an awfully, awfully interesting thing to watch over the next year or so as they make this decision over the next few weeks, and then we see how the roster looks next year and how the team performs with the new coach.
All Right, moving out this way, it was, it's been kind of a surprising busy news cycle here and saw like city. So the Jazz hired Austin Ange as their president of basketball ops, and during the presser, Ryan Smith had a couple of very interesting lines, namely, this is Austin's show.
He will be the loudest voice in the front office.
Ironically enough, Austin's dad is reporting to him, as is Justin Zanik and I continue to say a penny for jay Z's thoughts in an honest moment. But nonetheless, he's an NBA GM. He'll be part of this brain trust. This comes on the heels of Ryan and Ashley locking up Will Hardy despite winning thirty four percent of his games.
So it's been interesting.
It's kind of the anti James Dolan approach. So what we have out here is a front office locked in for a long time, a front office with a lot of smart basketball decision makers whose pedigrees and resumes speak for themselves. Fourteen years for Austin and Boston and then he knows Will Hardy and Will gets a contract extension, so they have everything they need outside of players that are good at playing basketball, which of course needs to
be figured out. What's your reaction to the news that Austin not only has been hired but appears to have been given the keys to the kingdom.
Yeah. I mean I was the one who broke that news on Monday, so I would say that is that is the that is the case. I mean, he is going to be the president best Operations. He is going to be the voice there. I do think he and Justin Zannak will get along really well. I know both in a long time. I think synergy wise, that'll be good. I thought getting Ryan are getting Will Hardy locked up for a long time was a very smart move. Will
is a great coach. It is not his fault. The team has won thirty four percent of its games while he's been in charge, easily. You know, I think he's already proven to be one of the best coaches in the league with just the limited abilities he's had to show. You know, in the first half of the first couple
of years, he was on the sideline. So, like you said, I think if you look at the Jazz holistically, there's a lot to be excited about in terms of the direction of the franchise and the people that are in place to lead it forward over the next several years. But the hardest part is getting the talent, and to do that in part, you need luck. Right obviously the Jazz to not get luck in the lottery last month, but there are a lot of ways to get players.
I think, as Austin also said on Monday, if you look at the teams that are playing in the finals, there are not a lot of super high draft picks on either team. I think there's one pick in the top five on both teams total. So certainly you can get down a lot of different ways, and they've got a lot of smart people, and you taugh to do that. And I think if you're just talking about the management structure of the team, between Danny and Austin and Justin and Will, I think that's it's not as good as
any team in the league. It's certainly in the conversation with any elite coach in front office group in the league. So I think from that standpoint, and if you're a fan of the team, you should feel pretty good about the brain trust Blian Smith is put together. Now they've got to go get players. And when you know, I'm in Oklahoma City, you look at this Thunder team which is set up to be arguably in my opinion, that that's dynastic force in the league. If you're measuring yourself
against them. It is a long long way to go to get from where the Jazz are to be anywhere within the same realm as that Thunder team. And that work has got to start this summer in terms of starting to get some players in there to start turning things around.
So one of the most interesting tidbits of Austin's presser a couple of days ago is Sean O'Connell, who does our midday show and works for our station, asked Austin his personal opinion or philosophy on tanking or manipulating minutes in. Austin, with a little bit of a mic drop moment, just said, you will not see that this year, which is all
finding good tim But here's the problem. As you know, the Jazz have a draft pick next year that's top eight protected, and if they're not in the top eight, it goes to you guessed the Oklahoma City Thunder, who, in my opinion, are about to win the World Championship.
So there's a way you can do this, right.
But you know, you know, to me, looking at what Washington did this year, you know, watching.
Washing, can I cut you? Can I cut you off?
Yeah?
Go ahead, this this is very simple, right. I appreciate often answering that question the way he did. I would also just say, if you look at the NBA standings, right, and you look at the rosters of teams around the league, it's pretty easy to see a world where the Jazz try to win every game and have one of the five worst records in the league. So I think that you could both say we are not going to try to win seventeen games and also wind up winning twenty
seven games and keeping the pick. Anyway, So I think, you know, I will be curious to see when you see that comment, the first thing you think is, well, there's one like guy who's in the vicinity of an All Star galliber player on the team, right, Loarry Marketing. What is Larry Marketing's future in Utah? I think that's an interesting question. But if you look at the rest of the team, like I think it was a terrific coach.
But if you're playing your young guys a ton of minutes, and you know they've got two more first off pics this year, hopefully Taylor Hendricks is back healthy next year, there's you know they've got Chanta George that got well, you got all these young players they can play. The Wizards are a good example. They played a bunch of young players this year. They didn't necessarily, like you know, manipulate minutes, and they won twenty games. So I would just say that you can both lose a lot of
games and not be quote unquote pinking. And I would bet a lot of money that the Utah Jazz are not giving up their draft pick to Thunder next year.
So and ultimately, I was gonna land the plane where you landed it in a more salient way, because when I do look at this roster, you know, let's say lowry marketing Walker Kessler, they'll they're gonna try to move off the other vets Clarkson Collins and and Colin Sexton, and they'll probably be able to do that because finally
those contracts are expiring this year. But if you look, you know, if you look at this roster, and they do put their best forward to best foot forward to compete, and Marketing is playing sixty five seventy games and Walker is playing sixty five seventy games and he's not shooting seven threes a night.
You know, when they after they got fined.
You're you're not wrong, Tim about the scenario that could be in play. My point is, I feel like that's really close to like thirty thirty five wins, and if we're sitting here, okay, okay, But but if.
We're sitting and that's and that's because of how good the West.
Is, and that's that's not wrong. That's not wrong.
Your point about Will though, he's maximized every group he's had, and maybe they maybe market In play seventy five games with twenty two minutes a night. My fear is we're sitting here next spring and Mark Tatum pulls up the ninth pick and says the Utah Jazz are picking ninth, and it goes to OKC, that would be a massive step in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I don't think that's going to be a problem. I really don't. And like I said, I think if you look at you know, look and like I said, I think the better I think the better question to ask us in general is what's the future allowed marketing?
That's where I was going to go next. Yes, that's where I was gonna go next.
I just don't if you look at where the Jazz are right, they have all these guys on rookie scale contracts, they have all these young players and need to develop. Hendricks, you know, started to show some flashes early last year, and then obviously I had the unfortunate injuries. So hopefully he comes back healthy. But if you just look at where the Jazz are at, like Ray, marketing just doesn't
really fit with the timeline of the team. So, you know, I think, especially if Larry Margnon is not on the team next season, I don't think there's any chance of them finishing with the record outside the bottom eat and there or out at the bottom five. And even if he and even if he's on the team, honestly, Spence, I still think it's extremely unlikely that they are going to lose the pick because there's just the Jazz have a long way to go, and the competition is stiff,
and you have a lot of teams. There are very few teams that are going to be really in the business of trying to be bad next year. So, like I said, I maybe stranger things have happened, but I would be very surprised if we're having a conversation next spring April, you know, March April May about going into the lottery with the Jazz, you know, really being in danger of losing track.
So I'll double down on the narrative in the area we're in. Do you think they move off of Lowry? And if so, what sort of return would he receive?
I don't know, And I don't know, and I say that because I think a lot of things are going to happen this offseason, and it's just very hard to know right now what the overall market in the league is going to look like, because you have a lot of teams that are motivated to make trades and to do stuff, and you have I think a lot of teams that are going to be actively trying to do stuff, and you have a lot of players that could actively move.
And in terms of figuring out what a guy like Lowry is going to deliver in a trade, in theory, some of that comes down to, like is Kevin Durant traded. What is Kevin Durant traded for? Is the adestetic coupo traded? What is the aesthetic cupo traded for? What did the Celtics do with their team after the very unfortunate Jason Tatum injury? Like do they decide to make wholesale changes? Do they trade a bunch of guys? What are those guys get traded for?
Right?
Like a lot of this stuff all has knock on effects, and you know, it's just I think, very difficult to know what these teams are going to do. Like another one like, what are the Brooklyn Nets going to do? Like are they going to be content to you know, because they have control their draft again next year? They could be content to you know, play young players next year in draft high and you know, be okay having another season whether high in the lottery or are they
going to try to feed things up? Like There's just a lot of stuff like that that's very hard to predict right now. The amount of uncertainty and action that I think is going to happen around the league, and I think for the Jazz some of it's going to be a matter of seeing where all that stuff plays out. But look, if it was me and you're looking at
where the Jazz are at in general. Like it's like I said before, if you just look at the roster and the timelines of where Lowry is at and where the Jazz are at, you know, it is sort of you know, it's not going to say it's the Golden Say Warriors two timeline situation, but it is two very different timelines. And you know, that makes for a very
interesting offseason. And I think a very interesting question for Austin Age and Justin and Danny and everybody with the Jazz to decide, like what is the plan going forward and how do we want to handle things? And if we decide to go in that direction, you know, what is the return we're looking for? Like would would the Jazz want more draft picks in the future, Would the Jazz want bona fide young players? Would Jazz want both?
Like?
You know, I think all that stuff, I think is sort of up to up to them to try to figure out what exactly the course they want a chart is. And again I think a lot of it is what are these other teams in the league going to do? And what's gonna happen with these other star players, because I do think this summer has a chance to be very active across the board because there's a lot of disappointed teams and a lot of teams looking to do stuff.
But we've also seen a lot of teams already empty the clip on a lot of trades, and so that makes for kind of a weird middle ground where, yeah, there might be a lot of teams itching to do stuff, but it's unclear what they have the ability to do from an asset standpoint to make a team like Utah are these other teams looking to most our players happy? All?
Right, before I set you loose, you know there's the NBA Finals that start tonight, so I will save my breakdown for I already gave it, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna unpack it for you. There's no reason to do that. So before I set you loose, I know your pick. I heard it this morning on Sports Center. But give it to our listeners. Who wins the NBA Finals? And why do you think that happens?
Tim?
I like thunder and five. I think it's more likely to be four than six, So I think six is possible better if Indiana can hit some shots in the Thunder don't both which are possible. Oklahoma City, I think it's got a chance to be an all time great team going forward. They had an all time great season this year. They have the best player in the series. They have extraordinarily they have an extraordinarily deep team. They can play virtually anyway, and Indiana has been extremely impressive
in these playoffs. They are a much much better team than I gave them credit for during the year. However, the things that they do that make them extremely difficult for teams to play against, the speed at which they play, the depth that they have, the amount of shooting and spacing they can create on offense, you know, the versatility they have across the board. Oklahoma City does all of
those things better, and they have the best player. So I just and the things that Oklahoma City struggles with. The two main things are they foul every trip down to court. So if a team can get to the foul line, they can get some advantage there because the Thunder don't really get to the foul line themselves, and the Thunder are not a great rebounded team, but Indiana's worse. So the two places where you can really attack them on the boards of that the line Indiana can't really
take advantage of. So I think it's going to be a super fund.
See.
I think Indiana has the ability with the way they move the ball to potentially give the Thunder some problems offense with their offense, and the Thunder could certainly get cold from three, So I you know, I do think that they're going to be fun, competitive games. I think in a lot of ways it could be like Thunder Heat back in twenty twelve, where it's a competitive five game series and every game is pretty close, and the
Heat just won four of them. But it's just very hard for me to see anybody beating this Thunder team. I've felt that way other than Boston for most of the year, and the one other team I thought could
beat him was Denver. And you know the way these things go in the playoffs, like I thought that Oklahoma City won the title in Game five of the second round when lou Dirt in the fourth quarter of Game five at home, when the Thunder were down by eight going into the quarter and potentially on their way out of the playoffs. Lou Dort, who neither hit eight threes in a row or missed fifteen in a row. It's
three four threes in a row. After not playing late in Game four, we got properly benched in the whole fourth quarter, and because of that, It's Thunder won that game and went on to win that series in Game seven at home, and I think won the title because of it. And it's just a reminder that for as good as a team is, to win a title, you've got to get really lucky from a health standpoint and
from a on court play standpoint. And I just don't think Indiana has the horses to really take these guys down. But I do think if you're a basketball fan, you should tune in and watch because I think it's going to be super fun to watch and two really fun styles of play with a bunch of exciting young players, and I think it's going to be an entertaining series, just one that I don't think has a chance to.
Go all that long.
Well said Tim, Thanks so much for the time on a busy day. Enjoy the game, enjoy the series, and safe travels my friend.
Okay heany tas bench. Thanks having me man.
I talk to you soon, Timmy good time bond temps from ESPN Prior to ESPN, he was with the Washington Post and the New York Post.
Get him on social media.
Tim Bondi temps is where you find them interesting take on the Jazz current roster. I think I'm higher on Lowry and Walker and who the Jazz have if they play their better players seventy five eighty games this year, which nobody does anymore. Uh, the Tim is but some interesting perspective there. Tim stops spot today courtousy of our
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