FRI POD @SpenceChecketts on NYK-BOS G6, NBA Playoffs/Draft, RSL vs COL, PGA Champ + more

ESPN seven hundred and ninety two NFM. We are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network. Happy Friday to you. Congratulations, you made it. Weekend time. Take a big old deep breath. You showed up all week, you did the things, and now you're rewarded with a weekend.

Hopefully have something fun planned. We have a really weird PGA championship going on at Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where this course is causing a lot of problems for some of the best golfers in the world. Yet some of the lesser known players are actually playing really well, so we'll give you an update here. Certainly

some heavy hitters in the mix. As we have a major championship in the world of professional golf going on, we'll keep you up to date on where Tony Fenow is. He is right now one over for excuse me, he's even, but he's one over four today, so he's all the way down tied for fifty third with some good company. So is Colin Morrikows, so is Cameron Young, Danny McCarthy,

Maverick McNeely, so a lot of good golfers struggling. The projected cut line is one over par and Jordan Speith, who's having a pretty good day today, is at two over par. So unless there's some movement in front of him, Jordan Speith will not even play the weekend. And of course, Jordan Speith with an opportunity to capture the Grand Slam, a feat only accomplished by five golfers before him. Of course, Rory McElroy accomplished that earlier this year, getting his green jacket.

So major champion chef Golf going on a massive, massive basketball game in midtown Manhattan tonight as the New York Knicks will attempt to close out the Boston Celtics at the world's most famous Arita in downtown New York City. So we'll get you ready for that game at six o'clock Mountain time. So right when we say good night, it's time for some NBA basketball. A gut check performance for the Denver Nuggets last night, and boy did they

answer the bell. A lot of respect for Jamal Murray, who had his own version of the flu game last night. Didn't look like he was going to go for a minute, but he played, and he played really well, specifically right out of the gates. Of course, Denver's brand is buttered with one Nikola Jokicic, and once again he was great. Denver was able to hold off OKC in the fourth despite Russell Westbrook looking like he was point shaving when he played. And now we've got a game seven on

a pre dramatic NBA weekend. Certainly, depending on what happens tonight one thirty on Sunday Mountain time on ABC, will be the Nuggets in the thunder and then we'll advance on to the conference championship around next week. So we've got some playoff basketball on the program today we'll give you the update from the NBA combine and some rumors

that the Jazz are ready to get aggressive. Our own Sarah Todd, friend of the program on her podcast which you should listen to called Unsalvageables, and Sarah is very plugged in. Sarah is one of the few beat writers that actually gets information from the team. They seem to trust her and sometimes utilize hers and outlet for what they want you to know. And she's hearing that the Utah Jazz are ready to make some pretty tough decisions. Who knows what it means, but we'll talk about some

of these possibilities. With the way the NBA draft settled in, it's actually an interesting thing to consider about what the Utah Jazz could do to move up to potentially move up to maybe even number two, where san Antonio is reportedly shopping that pick. And look, let's be honest, I think it's safe to say, like, what do we know about Ryan Smith. We'll talk about this kind of out of the gates for opening tip. Well, we know that he's a bold dude, we know that he is unafraid.

You can say what you want about his method, You can say what you want about the lack of direction with the team under his stewardship. But he is a bold dude, and I think it's time to be bolden, be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid. Porter Larson, write that down, young man. Well that's that's the idea. Hopefully, be bold, and mighty forces will come your aid.

fire all of a sudden. Brian Dunseth will preview tomorrow's RSL match and we'll answer the question, how does RSL you know score goals or maybe a goal? A goal would be nice. Let's start with a singular goal. One goal for the club tomorrow is it is the Rocky Mountain Cup. Then we're gonna move over to Dave mcminnamon. One of the celebrity NBA media members we have on the program. So our first guest today Howard Beck. But before we get to Howard, on this front afternoon, Happy

Friday to you. It is time now for your opening tip.

a lot of depth. Julian Strather provided them with maybe the best game of his young career, certainly in the third and fourth quarter when they needed somebody to make shots. Russell Westbrook entered the game and I swear he was point shaving like three straight turnovers, two horrible shots, a three point shot that barely hit iron, and that swing nearly actually cost Denver the game. And Tim Legler, By the way, Tim Legler might be the best analyst out

there right now. He was It was really interesting to hear him break down those five minutes. Westbrook came in. I think it was the end of the first to early second when Denver was up double digits, and by the time he was done with his handiwork, the game was essentially tied, and then OKC actually went up and took the lead. It took Denver a minute to kind of recalibrate after Westbrook came in and truly looked like he was trying to get Oklahoma City to win. But

last night, I mean Jokic was Jokic. OKC actually adjusted their drop coverage to take away a lot of Jokic's individual offense. He didn't have a ton of looks from three. He only took three three point shots. He did knock down one of them, but it left a lot of room. And you understand why Mark Dagnol had done that because Denver other players outside of Jokitchen Murray really for the most part, have just been unable to hit shots. Michael Porter Junior, at least he showed a Poltz last night.

He has been nowhere to be found. It was not a great Aaron Gordon game, but Christian Brown finally knocked down some shots. He also had eleven boards. It was a really good Christian Brown game. And like I said, Julian Strather, that's like a twenty dollars bill in the back pocket of your jeans when you're doing laundry. Career playoff by twenty minutes, knockdown three or four. Three's had fifteen massive points to help Denver hold off OKC. And

you know it's interesting. We talked to Zach Harper about this yesterday. Game Seven's they rule in so many different ways, and the crazy thing is you just never know what is going to happen. So there's a feel out there that Denver, because of their lack of depth and because of all of the energy they've had to exude to hold off this young, dynamic, fast athletic OKC team that guards in a way that many teams in pro basketball just don't, there's a feel out there the Game seven

on Sunday could be a thirty point OKC blowout. I'd be really interested to see where coach Adalman has in store to try to just temper the pace that OKAC tries to force you to play with, because Denver can't play that way. They just can't. They don't have the bodies, they don't have the depth. And Jokich is not a guy that can get out in transition. He's a guy that can advance the ball in transition with some incredible

passes up the court. But outside of Aaron Gordon and Christian Brown, this is not a team with athletes that can get up and down. Now, Westbrook can provide some of that, but after how embarrassingly bad Westbrook was last night. I just wonder if they're gonna use him in just bit moments here there to get Jamal Murray some rest. Jamal Murray deserves a lot of credit. All the reports were he woke up extremely ill, he was vomiting, he

was running a temperature. You could see him on the sideline after they took him out of the first quarter with his head and his towel. There were a couple of plays in the first half where he could not even run back on defense and allowed OKAC some runouts and some open threes. But he started the game out, hit some shots, came back into the second half, and did a really good job doing other things even outside of scoring. He had eight rebounds and seven assists in

addition to his twenty five points. So Denver Nuggets, this is a championship team with championship medal, and they're pushing this young OKC team to the brink. As I've talked about with Oklahoma City, my only reservation with them is they do not have a deep playoff run together. And more often than not, not all the time, but in the ecosystem of NBA basketball, if you're gonna win a championship, you've gone to conference finals a couple of times before,

like Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum five conference finals. They went to three conference finals before they sniffed even the NBA finals, and they went to four conference finals before they won their championship. OKC won one round last year, then they lost to Dallas round two. So should they go on to win the title, it wouldn't surprise anybody because of

their talent and their depth in the coaching. But what kind of kick the trend aside that you kind of have to have these deep playoff runs before you win the thing. All right? Tonight Madison Square Garden, Midtown, Manhattan, the Boston Celtics, sans Jason Tatum, will try to go into the heart of New York City and send this series back to TD Garden on Sunday for Game seven. The New York Knicks are a two point five point favorite the over unders two ten, which honestly seems high.

Game five without Tatum was pretty fascinating. And I'll go back to what Joe Mazzula said pregame which caught which really caught my attention, you know, as I as I reference after the show a couple couple days ago, rushed home so I could watch the game, and I intentionally recorded the pregame stuff so I could listen to both coaches. And I would encourage you, by the way, always listen to coaches, and certainly the guy we have here, Will Hardy.

If you listen to Will's postgame presser, he will give you information. He is a very effective communicator. He comes from the Popovich tree, so he thinks he's funnier than he is. He's not. He's a little snarky, but he will give you information if you're looking to learn about what he's trying to do with the Jazz. And when Missoula said we are gutted about what happened with jat meaning Jason Tatum, however, it opens up a schematic opportunity

for us. What he meant after watching the game was simply the ability to get the ball popping and moving left to right, north southeast west in a way that at times with Tatum you don't get because he is a bit of a ball stopper, even though he's awesome, and you know, in pro basketball you actually need one, if not two, if not multiple guys that can be

ball in hand offense initiators. When the shot clock breaks down, you got to have somebody that can go get theirs or get a shot for other people, and Tatum is great at that. But without Tatum, it was really a situation where they were able to share the basketball, and it was one of the best Jalen Brown individual playoff games that I'd seen. Even though Jalen Brown is your

igning Finals MVP. It'll be interesting to see what Missoula does out of the gates with the starting lineup, because if something is not right with Porzingis, I have no idea what's going on with him. He had that weird illness that kept him out of eight games I think in March, then came back and looked okay here there, but he was so disconnected and not ready to play in Game five that Missoula just threw Luke Cornett in, and Luke Cornett, you know, just gave him a career

playoff game. It was and it will go down in Celtic Gloria's the Luke Cornett Game. I wonder if Cornett gets the start, because they're going to they're gonna bring Peyton Pritchard off the bench. He's the rating six Man of the Year. He initiates a lot of offensive sets, has a change of pace, ball and hand guy in their second unit, even though he played thirty nine minutes

and Cornett played twenty six. If I had to guess, I think Porzingis goes to the bench, and I would not be surprised if he doesn't play at all, and they put Cornett in there, and that kind of neutralizes the Mitchell Robinson effect. And on the next side of things,

this is about one player. In my opinion, this is about Jalen Brunson, and Jalen Brunson tonight has a chance to be a Nick legend, to be the guy in crunch time, the ball and hand offense initiator to send Boston home and send New York on to their first conference finals since the year two thousand. This is on Jalen. I say this all the time. If you're going to be a superstar in the NBA, this is the time of year you get it done. And Jalen has been

able to get it done all year long. He's already proven a lot of naysayers completely incorrect who were a little bit skeptical that the Knicks decided to go in that direction in Game five. This is another tip of the cap to Jalen Brown. Whether this was Joe Mazzula or Jalen Brown himself, he said, Jalen Brown said, I've got Brunson and essentially had him all game long and

did a really good job on him. Because Brunson is they list him at six to one, I don't know that he's even that, to be honest with you, I've met Jalen and seen Jaalen a couple of times. He looks like he's maybe six feet and that's with shoes, Okay, not without shoes, and Jalen Brown is all of six seven sixty eight. Like when he's guarding Jalen Brunson, you

can see that discrepancy. Just a much bigger player. And even if it's not Jalen Brown, Drew Holliday a great perimeter defender Derek White typically is, but Jalen such a bowl He's been able to handle Derek White in post situations and kind of beat him up a little bit. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out tonight, how Tom Thibodeau handles his rotation for a team in Boston that simply is much deeper than what the New York Knicks have to offer. If we're honest, the Knicks

are seven deep. All due respect to Cameron Payne. I hate the Cameron Payn minutes. I cannot stand we plays. It is Mitchell Robinson and Duce McBride off the bench, and that's really about it. This is a seven team that's seven deep, and Joe Mizula can go eight, nine, ten deep if he wants to depend on how he handles the Chris DAPs porzingis stuff all right? Got Craig Bowler Jack joining us, the TV voice of the Utah Jazz. We'll bump over to Paul Pugmyer for some golf as

the PGA Championship is going on. Brian Dunseth will preview tomorrow's RSL match. We'll finish things off with Dave mcminnimon. We'll bookend the show today with two great NBA riders, two great NBA media memory Orange Crush because you know Nicks, Howard Beck, How clever is that?

is rigged. Four teams that don't necessarily need it as bad as we do in Salt Lake Your thoughts.

me to. But the fact is people will believed what they want to believe. But let's make it very very clear. There is no proof that anybody has. There's no reason to believe this other than suspicion, and suspicion alone, as you have just noted alluding to some other events of the recent past, including an election, you don't have to prove anything. You can just say it with stolen an election was stolen and believe it, and you don't need

any proof. So if people want to say that the lottery was fixed and they have no proof, and they have nothing but their suspicion, I can't do anything about it. All I can tell you is I've been in the

lottery room twice. I was not there this year, but I've been in there for this exact version of the lottery seizure where there are all the balls that go in the machine, and there's a thousand combinations or one thousand and one combinations, and there's a guy in the back of the room with his back turned who every I think thirty seconds puts his hand up and that is the signal to the person running the machine to then hit the button that sucks up one of the balls, like,

there's no way to fix this thing, and if there were, it would be a fraudulence of epic proportions. It would involved probably multiple felonies. And everybody who works for the NBA and for Ernst and Young, like global accounting and finance firm, they would be implicated in this. All these people are putting their careers and their lives on the line so that Cooper Flag can go to Dallas. Come on,

people like, grow up, get a grip. This is stupid and the amount of ink and time that has been spilled and spent on it this week is astounding and just foolish. It's wasted. And I'll just close with a couple of other quick thoughts on this. When people think it is fixed, is it fixed by the NBA itself, the league office, in which case it's a fraud perpetrated on the thirty owners, the same people who employ Adam Silver,

who hire and could fire Adam Silver. If the owners on themselves are in on it, why would they be in on it? Why do the other owners want to reward the idiocy that happened in Dallas this year where they gave away their franchise star. Why do the Memphis Grizzlies in Indianapolis, Indiana Pacers and everybody else, why do they want to participate in this? Why are they participating in a fraudulence in felonies to help the Dallas Mavericks get a player who, by the way, by all accounts,

is going to be very, very good. But according to scouts I've talked to, they're not absolutely certain he's going to be a superstar. So none of this makes a lick of sense.

City to acquire talent is via the draft. Now there's a lot of irony. Six years later, we're sitting here watching potentially the most talented team in the league reside in Oklahoma City, but we do live in Salt Lake City, where the best and sometimes only way, not always only way, but sometimes only way to acquire talent is through the draft. So do you like the way the league does this? There's a lot of other ideas, like do you just

give every team in the lottery the same odds? All fourteen teams have the same odds, and therefore you do away with any sort of tanking. Now you know, tanking, of course, guarantees nothing. We have six lotteries since twenty nineteen, and the worst team in the league has never received the number one overall pick. And the reality is, and I'll credit justin' zana Jazz, general manager the Jazz. As far as the lottery odds go, the percentages the Jazz

were most likely to land four or five. Okay, so forty seven percent chants at five, fourteen percent chance at one. For all the hand ringing and you know, pearl clutching, the Jazz actually landed where they were most likely to land. But is this the best way to do this, Howard in your opinion?

and a lot of the public did. And it's it's a really interesting kind of case study in the way we as a public react to things, because ten years ago, a lot of people were crying out that this system is unfair. You know, you should not be able to game the system, even though the worst record still in the GATCHAA twenty five percent chance at the number one pick.

People didn't like the idea that it incentivized losing, that it perverted the entire enterprise because if you weren't a good team, then it was too alluring to just be really really bad for the possibility of getting a great pick. And so that was the consensus opinion out They're ten years ago, and in the wake of this week's lottery, I feel like everybody has flipped around to, well, this system's unfair and the teams that needed the most help

aren't getting it. Well, okay, but yeah, this is the problem when you go to a strictly reverse order draft draft. If you had no lottery, then there's ultimate incentive the tank. So you bring in a lottery, and the first lottery was just you know, however, many teams in the hopper with an equal chance. But that wasn't the best system

as far as the NBA was concerned. And if we went back to that, then you would have a different trigger point where teams would be opting out of the playoffs and the play in saying, well, if I've got as good a chance as the worst team in the league of getting the number one pick, I'm better off being the sixteenth best team in the league rather than the fourteenth best team like I or excuse me, the fourteenth best and wow, whatever it is. You see my point.

I'd be better off out of the playoffs than in the playoffs. You don't want that either, So it's a quandary, and I am not I don't have any strong beliefs on what is the quote unquote right system, Spence. I don't know that there is a right system. I'm not particularly upset about anything that's happened in this lottery or the last several, but I have no rooting interest.

fourteen percent chance. We'll take our chances. It's still better than only having a ten percent or eight percent chance. Maybe teams will keep doing that in perpetuity, but I think the collected results of the last several years should suggest to teams, don't do this. It's probably not going to pay off. You're better off just trying to be respectable.

year long. But you know the message that Adam Silver and the league send in twenty nineteen is if you don't approach this with integrity, to put your best foot forward and compete, we don't believe you should be rewarded. In a bunch of articles making the rounds this week that people in the league were actually glad the Jazz and the Wizards did not get the number one overall pick and therefore be rewarded for their unseerious approach about competing.

So do you think we see something different from pretty much everybody, Like, at the very least, don't make up injuries for lowry marketing, and when you get fined, don't then have Walker Kessler shoot eight threes a night, like, maybe put your best foot forward and try to compete. You think we'll actually see that.

that year. So right off the bat, there was an indication that, ooh, you know what, this is a risky gambit for teams that are just trying to lose in order to game the system. You can't game the system, and that again, that should be enough to discourage tanking. But here we are six years later. Whatever it's been, and it's it, it hasn't changed behavior. The Jazz and

the Wizards are proof of that. And you know, the Sixers did a different version of this right where they were supposed to be a great team, they you know, fell apart and they decided to lean in a tank because they owed a top six protected pick to Oklahoma, and so even though they weren't taking it at the same level or for the same purpose, they were tanking to protect the draft pick because they wanted to keep it. And they succeeded, and they even moved up. And you

could say, well that rewarded them. Well, okay, that's a lottery.

right now. And you know, I don't know what this means for Cleveland, but it's more of a compliment to Indiana for just the way they fought. And you know, I like Tyree Saliburton. I know you've always been very high on him. Where is he in the ecosystem of stars, I don't know, but they have got a deep team with a bunch of perimeter players that really get down and guard you. Your takeaways from Indiana SENDI in Cleveland home.

never really been in the running for MVP. I think he's gonna make thirt team All NBA this year, that's my best guess, but we don't know yet. We'll find out, I think probably next week. But you know, he hasn't put up monster numbers every night. He does lead the league an assists or is always near the lead and assists. He's just a guy who's got an incredible amount of of tragger and confidence about him. I think that that helps lift up the rest of his team and you know,

his his running mate. You know the two stars. Halibert and Siakam are two guys that I think everybody would like and go, yeah, really great players, but they don't have a g Honest, they don't have a Luca, they don't have a Lebron or as Steph in their prime. But they they just they beat you up a little bit defensively, like they really get after it for a team that wasn't known for their defense, like Neee Smith

and Nemhard really get after you. Turner's obviously a great shot blocker, and they really locked down in the playoffs. And then on offense, the pace is really high. They shoot threes at a high rate. They're they're just it's they're the classic ensemble where there is no one who leaps off the page, but collectively they're just really really good. And they have now you know, they've sent the Calves home and sent the Calves into an offseason where they've got a lot to think about.

the Indie Indiana Pacers. As you know, you know, Howard, I've been talking about this because before Game five, I made it a point to record the coaches Missoula and Thibodeau to see what they had to say before the game,

and Missoula said something that really caught my attention. He said, we're gutted about what happened with JT Jason Tatum, obviously, but it opens up a schematic opportunity for us, and I went, oh, okay, interesting, And then watching the game, essentially what that meant is Tatum, for all of his brilliance, and I love Jason Tatum. He's a bit of a ball stopper, and he's like the only one kind of on that roster that is, And so the ball was moving.

I don't know who the hell Luke Cornett thinks he is, but my goodness, poor Zingis is not ready for this. I don't know what's going on with him. So as somebody who's trying to objectively analyze this game, I do certainly believe that the Knicks have an opportunity to get it down a home. As somebody who has been cheering for this team that has let me down ever since I was ten, I am nervous and scared that the Celtics will continue to do what the Celtics are able

to do. What do you think happens coming up in just a few hours in midtown Manhattan.

all of next season. It's also just that they kept blowing twenty point leads and they're clearly the team with the better array of talent and with the championship experience, and they should have never found themselves in this position, is certainly one way of looking at this. But credit all credit to the Knicks for being the team that's always steadier, grittier in fourth quarters, Jalen Brunson in particular. And here we are, it's three to two Knick's home game,

second chance for them to close it out. They absolutely should given everything that we know, including the fact that Jason Tatum is not playing, including the fact that porzingis apparently still having issues with whatever the viral infection or whatever he had was. They said he didn't he wasn't breathing well the other night, like they could have used him in a emergency in the second half, but they

decided not to. I don't know if you're getting another seven block Luke Cornett game, but the Celtics, I will say this, and this is the one reason why I think that this is going to be a true battle tonight. I don't know who will win, but you know, Jalen Brown was the finals MVP and the Conference finals MVP last year for a reason. Maybe he's not quite a Adams level, but he's just a slight bit below, but he's really capable of doing a lot, and sometimes it

simplifies things for NBA teams. When you lose your star, it's you know, everybody, you know kind of rallies around. If you've still got a star, which they do in Brown. Now it's clear we've got to ride this guy. And then if that guy in Jalen Brown's case, you know, remembers their best principles of basketball, which is like, I've got lots to carry, but I can't do it alone. I got to make sure to leverage my teammates. I got to move the ball around. I've got to you know,

draw to to the ball and pass. You know, this is the simple basic basketball principles, right, And you've got guys like Derek White and Drew Holliday who have been and Al Horford who have all been there and done that, and Peyton Pritcher who was six Man of the Year, Like, you have plenty of talent still, Like I actually think this is not a knock on the Knicks, but without Tatum, I don't think there's some massive talent gap between these

two teams. Because Jalen Brown's that good, and because Karl Anthony Towns is that unreliable, and because The Celtics have a bunch of guys who, if they haven't been, you know, all stars are at least like right there a cut below it, Like Drew Holliday could have been. He's been an All Star I think once he could have been multiple times. Derek White could have been multiple times. They

have that kind of talent. But they've played roles because that's what they needed to do and that's how they're built. So I think this selfis have a real chance to win this and send it back to Boston for a Game seven. I think what I would expect is the Knicks to close it out. But in this postseason, I'm through trying to figure out anything.

keep an eye on Minnesota. Now, of course, Stephan goes down and you know, for as connected as Boston looks during Game five without Tatum, the Warriors are just screwed without Steph. I mean, it changes everything. I was kind of waiting to see a Jimmy Butler from a couple of years ago, playoff Jimmy that carried Miami to the finals. We never really saw that. And I don't know how much of that has to do with the injury Jimmy

picked up. I don't know how much of that has to do with all the big, strong wings Minnesota has, but they dispatched the Warriors in five. What do you make of it?

talent was always there. And like Julius Randall, you know this as a Knicks fan like, he's a very frustrating player at times like high highs and low lows, and

he can be a ball stopper. By the time we got to the end part of the season, it seemed like he had really found his place with them not forcing it and certainly in the playoffs, like Julius Randall's been fantastic for them, And so you know, we already knew they had great wing defenders McDaniels and Nick Kayle, Alexander Walker and Anthony Edwards himself can be, you know, great defender on the perimeter, like they had all the

requisite stuff. I think we just weren't sure what to make of them after swapping Towns for Randall and Evincenzo, and because they had a rough start. They did beat a more than wounded Warriors team, Like you know, there are a lot of teams would have beat the Warriors without Steph. The Rockets would have beaten the Warriors without Steph. So you know, you don't place a ton on that.

But Minnesota earned their way here, just as I was saying with Indiana and and again Minnesota was in the conference finals a year ago, and that they're doing it now with a different core, you know, I mean, same basic group, but you know those were significant changes. Is a real testament to them and to their coach Chris Finch, and whoever they get, Oklahoma or Denver, we'll find out after that game seven. You know, Minnesota's gonna give him a tough time. Like it's like the conference finals in

the West. I would be shocked if it were any fewer than six games, and it's not going to surprise me if it goes seven, no matter who they draw.

And I give Denver a lot of credit for showing some championship medal. I thought Russell Westbrook was trying to point shave last night when he came in. I mean, Denver overcomes what appeared to be just a intentional sabotaging of that game, and we get a Game seven. It's in Oklahoma City. I will not ride off a team with Nikola Jokic, but I wonder what you make of what we've seen so far and your thoughts on of exciting games having come Sunday.

And the Nuggets have been written off I don't know how many times in the last couple of years since they won the championship, and they've they've lost players, they fired their coach, they fired their GM and yet here they are in the verge of the conference finals, and we've got the two MVP candidates going against each other, still waiting for that announcement from the NBA it's gonna

be awesome. The game is gonna be awesome. The thunderneath Jalen Williams, you know, the guard Jason Williams, or the guard forward Jason Williams, not the taller one. They need him to come through. He's obviously had a bit of a shaky series. On the Nuggets side of it, you know, there's the roller coaster that is Russell Westbrook because you just never know. He can shoot you in and shoot you out of a game, and their rotations not particularly deep.

Julian Straw the great game last night, but can he repeat it? That's that's you know, they may need it. And there's one thing to flag. There's one other thing to flag on the Nugget's side, which is that late in the game, there was a point where it looked like Aaron Gordon might have pulled his hamstring and was he was, He was rubbing it, went out, came you know, went to the bench, came back in, finished the game. But I'm just putting a little flag there because I

don't I don't know what that might mean. Right, we haven't heard anything. I'm not saying, you know, he's not gonna playsunder or anything. I'm just that kind of thing is concerning this deep in a playoff series, because if he's at all limited or for some reason, if it's if if it's really a pull and he can't play, obviously, like the Nuggets have no room for error, they.

your already hit. It's the ultimate lawn owner power move at IFA. At IFA Dot co Op NBA Playoffs roll along tonight, Midtown Manhattan is the scene. It's gonna be chaos, probably already is. It'll be six o'clock mountain time. The New York Knicks will try to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the year two thousand, when they played the Hat of Pacers, who, ironically enough, are awaiting the winner of Next of Nick Celtics. All right,

big day for our next guest. I understand that Craig Bowler Jack is turning forty five years old today, on this Friday afternoon. Bowler, Happy birthday, sir. How are we doing?

frozen draft card. If I'm not mistaken, It's been a while run Man a lot of a lot of basketball, a lot of players, a lot of have come and gone, but to what a pretty good team. I think with Tatum out, this has got to go w Man at the Garden, I would think. But we've been proven wrong before.

worse than Jazz franchise history. Dallas trades away Luca in the dark of night, Kyrie blows an acl fans nearly riot in Dallas fence, as you know, and they end up getting number one, and the Jazz dropped down, you know, to number five. It just doesn't make sense. But in a way nothing does. You take a chance when you alleged, or you go the tank position, you know, let's tank it.

And what's interesting, two spents. All three of the teams that had the first the top three worst records in the league all fell back in this in this in this draft selection. And I find that intriguing. If there is a lesson learned, you just go play, you know. I'm I'm like you, I'm old school, and I just think you go play and just do what you can with what's given. But you know, you take a chance,

you roll the dice, and you come up empty. Now you have to wait and see what the next the next step, the next direction is for the Jazz.

chance possible at getting number one overall. But the other point of it was to not fall past five because the top five pick Craig is very valuable in every single draft, and it's going to be valuable in this draft. So the bottom line is they're still going to get a really good player at five if they stay at five.

My question to you is are you hearing anything about where their heads are at, because we've heard a couple of reports over the past twenty four hours that they're still going to be bold to try to do something to up the bottom line of this team, and to me, that indicates maybe stand at five is not on the table because san Antonio has to look at moving too. Now. The problem is there's a Yiannis component out there there's

a durant component out there. What does Boston's new ownership group do with a luxury tax bill of five hundred million dollars next year? Maybe is Jalen Brown available? So if you're San Antonio, you probably have a lot of options. But any insider intel as to where the head of Danny Ainge is the head of Justin Zanik is what you think the approach will be?

he did in Boston in prior years. And you know, Jazz fans are going to have to sit back and go that worked or it didn't. But you're right, the five spot still gives you a player that you can slide in. But I don't think that's where the Jazz are ever thinking personally. I mean, all indications were, you know, it's Cooper, it's Cooper, it's Cooper. If Harper's there, and by chance it goes too, that's a possibility and.

right in front of us. They're underway now, and you know, the Olympics around the corner, and you also have a new competitor in town and Ryan Smith owns that team. It's it's you know, what was the Utah Hockey Club but the Utah Mammoth. And you know, I think that's

the most intriguing thing for me, Spence. You know, it's how do you handle, you know, to have both teams financially fiscal and making money and getting return on the investment, but also is there enough advertising dollar to go around. Does someone peel off to join hockey that was a Jazz fan. That's interesting to me because this has never really happened ever in Utah. You know, sports is to have that type of competition, and they own the fourth pick.

Letty Luck shine down on the Mammoth, unlike the Jazz. So I think had some of the most intriguing conversation over the next month and a half on how this plays out. And you know how aggressive Danny and Justin and Ryan truly are going to be. And you brought up some names that are gonna move. You know, injuries are going to force it. You know, in Boston that's kind of a quiet, unknown, big story because new ownership.

I got a college buddy of mine who had some interest in financial interest and investment in Boston, and you know we've talked a little bit about you know, he's very quiet on the up and up. But yeah, it's it's they're interested in Boston about what the changes will be. And now it's been accelerated with the Achilles tear to Jason Tatum, right, they may have to make a move quicker than they may have thought and maybe not play this again. Maybe won't play it forward. So, man, there's

a lot of stuff going down. What do the Lakers do? What about Lebron? What about Phoenix? What about Steph Golden State's era of greatness? Man, it's it's interesting in Milwaukee again with Dame Lillard's achilles, that puts him kind of in the driver's seat on what he wants to do and how how this may play out for not only the Bucks, for multiple teams though around the league, East and West.

So let's move over to two, where the San Antonio Spurs find themselves in an interesting spot because they made the trade for Daron Fox, and they have the reigning rookie of the Year in Stefan Castle. So if the second best player in this draft is Dylan Harper, the reality is there's a lot of redundancy on San Antonio's roster. So what if you call san Antonio and you say, send us two, Okay, send us two, and then send us fourteen. They've got two lottery picks, Send us two

and fourteen, Send us Keldon Johnson and Harrison Barnes. We're gonna send you five, and we're gonna send you marketing. Lowry marketing the number five pick for the number two pick, the number fourteen pick in exchange for Harrison Barnes and Kelton Johnson is only twenty five and a really good player. What do you think?

Draft night. But you know, I think the other part of the equation in Spence is at the timetable for Lowery and the sense of how many years in the league, his age and how do the Jazz look at him in the future and is he now going to be past his prime when this all comes to, you know, fruition of being a major player in the Western Conference. I think, you know, it's an intriguing idea, I really do. I think there's a lot of them out there, and

you know, you still have a John Collins. I believes the player option, Uh, you know, jac there's a lot of players that Jazz had. There's some talent even you know, the talent of the last two draft class could be moved if necessary, some of them. So I think Will Hardy said it back best in his pressure last summer was you know, this is not an easy league. It's not easy to make a roster, it's not easy to

stay on a roster. And this past year I think they got a really good insight of who can actually I think play under pressure, deliver under pressure, and who wants to be a part of this of this build. Obviously there's a few that probably may want to go someplace else. They may not have a choice, but that's just the way the life is in the NBA. I think there's gonna be a lot of names out there, Spence, I really do, uh And I think it goes beyond Giannis.

You know, what does Golden State want to put on the table? Are they players?

It really is. This will go down again in jazz Loar is another year where you wanted to develop and you did. You had the worst record in basketball, the worst in franchise history. But it didn't work out, and you have to move on and find a way. One thing specially cannot take this. You cannot allow this, and through your idea of a trade, that idea is moving forward. The one thing you don't want to do under the circumstances to make you move backwards. In this situation, So

anything Justin and Danny probably do. They've got to be forward thinkers on what will get them past this disappointment, this bump that didn't occur for Cooper Flag, and can you survive it and move on without missing a beat in the rebuild. I think that's the biggest challenge of all.

him have been very pleasant. One thing we can all agree upon is the dude is bold. I mean, he's a bowld guy. And you know, I would imagine that an owner like Ryan who at least front facing says he wants to win and wants to win soon. I think you put everything on the table at this point, because sure Larry wants to be here, But you know, Larry Marketing is making max money for the next four years.

He he you know, he's fine no matter where he's at, and yes, when players want to be here, it's important. But if he doesn't fit the timeline, I actually think they might put him on the table, on the table to move up or grab a couple of young pieces that are a little bit more exciting because they have to have done their calculation by now to understand that there really is not many avenues to improve the team to make next year look different than this year unless

they're going to be bold. And Ryan's a bold guy. So I wonder if we're going to see finally some bold movement from this ownership group and from this from this front office. What do you think?

back up. Uh. But there's a lot of great players are on the cusp of the end. And that's what the jazz I think, probably in the back of their planning, in the in their mind of planning all this, is that they would be setting in a position where in the West especially it was aging rapidly with you know, Hall of Famers, first ballot Hall of Famers, and now injuries hit the East and you wonder, you know, who's going to accelerate the process even more. That to me

is is so intriguing. But also it's the future of downtown. It's it's it's a competition with the with the Mammoth and the Jazz. The Jazz have always been, you know, top dog, and it's interesting to see to me what Ryan wants to do on how competitive they can be

a against each other but yet still profit. And that to me intrigues me a ton, because again, Salt Lake's growing, but when it comes to multimillion dollar deals, you know in advertising packages, yeah they're out there, but just how many and is there enough to sustain and profit off of two young franchises that are looking to make their way through the NBA and the NHL spent to tell you. I mean, you know, this is where you earn your money.

Danny's experience has got to shine through. Justin's been an agent, he knows players and tendencies and all this all has to come together to get the right decision on the table and to pulled string on it and make sure that it's the long term. You know. Going back to Lowry, you know he's intriguing, but not so if he doesn't have the right players around him. I think we saw that this year is either second or third best on a great team.

and so that comes into the equation. I think too, Spence is you know, how long do you hold a player, how long do you want to give the development, give him time to development, to develop, because look back in the day of Sloan and look that's going back, I know it, but guys were three and four years they were twenty three, some twenty four. Big t was a senior national title seventh player Taken. Was the NBA ready, he says he was, and I think you know, he.

around for years. But he said something that kind of shout out, Gordon, we love you. I said something that kind of I don't know, maybe smile because alemas such a sweet guy. He just said, look, we all as a collective jazz community, and whatever part of the ecosystem you're in, you're part of the jazz community. Whether it's fans, media, we all want to see the jazz win and do well. We all just have to find our own way to

enjoy the ride. Yeah, how do you do that when the team is not close to what we're accustomed to? How do you enjoy the ride as a media member, as a fan, as somebody who cares about the jazz? How do you do that?

what's rough over Channel four forever. But I think it's the people that I see on a night basis, but the fans who are wide eyed, and also the newer fans that come into that building and just embrace, embrace a franchise. Now fifty one years and you old and you go wow.

keep your focus. But that's my job, and we try to prepare the best we could this year to find a positive an Isaiah Collier, Kyle Philipowski, you know, even Will Hardy's growth as a coach, Spence as you and I talked with, you know during the year, and Walker caster Man, he could have totally tanked after a sophomore slump, and the guy busted through in the minutes given and he matured and became a legitimate big In my opinion, He's got a long ways to go, but I think

the Jazz see that there is definitely hope and growth with Locke and others. So that's what I try to hang on to. You man, But you go to the arena of the energy in that building, is it just takes you.

them alone? Well, look, if those days are over, and that's hard to accept, but at the same time you have to also say thank you for those days with Jerry and Hotts and John and Carl and Horniseck because it built the foundation of where we are today. I know this sounds probably like you know it's over over the top, but you ask the question, and honestly, this is what pours out of me, is that the past

does help explain or at least guide the future. And there's nothing more than what jazz fans want to taste and Ryan and Ashley want to taste. Is another opportunity to go back and win a championship, or have the opportunity to win a championship for Salt Lake, stay to Utah. In fact, now it's more regional than ever. So you know the people that are involved. Man, I'd say I love walking through the hallways and the fans are there

and they are ready to roll. They love the NBA, they love the jazz, but they also are intrigued with the rest of the league as well. They're there to see superstars, they're there to see to Lebron. They're there to see you know, Steph Curry, and so it's it's kind of a combination of everything, but man, it's hard not to love it. Even though you're losing, You're trying to find some positive spent along the way. I'm hoping

some positives hit because jazz fans deserve it. They've been i'd say, strong, durable for a long time and it'd be great to have an opportunity to see them enjoy postseason play at a high level again.

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the soccer team learn to score goals? I'll go it would be nice. Dave mcminniman stops by later on. But time now for a little golf on a Friday afternoon with our guy, Paul Pugmeyer. Paul, Happy Friday, sir. Apparently golf is hard.

the green Mile. They are brutal, really tough holes. Number eighteen has a creek running on the left ish side. There's fairway on the other side of the creek, so it's kind of in the middle of the fairway the whole length of the hole and the driving area is narrow. You end up going uphill to the hole. There's a false front on the green. It's like four hundred and seventy yards. As a part four, finishing out a wind on this course is really really hard. It's just a big course.

a young golfer. He just, for whatever reason, besides golf is hard, okay, he just was not able to continue the way he started, which was going to be tough to follow up anyway. But the cut line just moved from one over to two over. How is that determined.

cut line until they're done. It's pretty common for the cut line to move at this point on a Friday afternoon, and we've seen them bounce all over the place. This one's been pretty stable at plus one all day. But yeah, it just moved, which means that the afternoon wave is slipping a little.

has not been the same. How much of it is his help, how much of it is golf is hard, how much of it is just whatever you would attribute it to.

that the great champions who sustain excellence always do. The magic was his wedge game, both in terms of imagination and execution, and the thing about it is it's not sustainable. You just you just can't live like that all the time, and that has caught up with him as well.

to say? And what do you make of the way he's played so far?

it was there. Another big hitter big and Tony Finale is one of those. I would have been unsurprised to see him more firmly in the mix higher up the leader board still has a chance to make a climb, but the te's spending holes right now, just making pars.

course this year. Better day today three under through fourteen even par so he'll play through the weekend and we'll get to because the low number is eight under right now, and we'll get the guys that are actually at the top of the leaderboard in a moment, but we'll focus on the big names for now, so look, I guess if there's a guy that could put together two very low rounds on Saturday and Sunday, it might be Rory.

But are you surprised to see his relative struggles through the first round and a half so far?

and you don't have that on a shotgun start. You add it all up, and I don't think live prepares people to play at the highest level. Now there's going to be one offs here and there. Of course, brooks Kopka has won a major championship since they've started. Of course Bryson de Chambeau has done the same. We're talking about two of the great players of their generation who are athletic freaks, and yet there we're also talking about it. It's not as sustained as it is with other players.

You mentioned DJ. He has largely disappeared. The one who has done the same that is really just sad to me is John Rahm. Ram has become invisible almost and it's for those reasons I just rehearsed lived doesn't create championship play.

the game that I didn't necessarily know. Is like it's pretty rare, Like I could never imagine Ray Allen changing his jump shot, Like I could never imagine Reggie Miller being like I got to go back to the drawing board. But Tiger Woods, even after his dominant performance back in the you know, two thousand, you know, eight to twenty fifteen or whatever, was constantly tinkering. And so Max Holma has a new caddie, Joe Grinder, I guess is a good buddy of his, is no longer on his bag.

He changed sponsors, he has a brand new set of golf clubs. He changed coaches, going for Mark Blackburn to John Scott. I believe this is what I'm reading. And you know, Max is a guy that's one on tour. Max is a guy that's played in Ryder Cups. But Max is also a guy that, for the past year or so has not looked like Max Olma. How much do you do you attribute his willingness to look at what is going on and make all these changes to

what we've seen so far? He carded a seven under sixty four, which is the low ran of the day today, and he puts him right in the mix at five hunderd part what do you make of what we seen from Max so far?

at one time to manage it. With the absolute razor thin margins that exist between PGA tour level golf, championship level golf, and not championship level golf.

the leader of vhas and then Pavone Fitzpatrick. What do you make of those three the way they played so far, and tell us a little bit about him.

he gave his time. I was so impressed with him. He's won four times on the tour. He's won the Canadian Open twice, and they always play the Canadian Open on great courses. It's a hard, hard tournament to win. So he's got game. But he never has done anything in a major. He's never led a major. He's never had back to back under par rounds in a major. It'll be interesting to see at this point in his career how Johnny can hold it together going into the weekend.

This is unplowed ground for him. I don't know. We'll see Fitzpatrick. We know he can win a major. He won the US Open at Brookline. Pavone has won on Tory Pines. He won the Farmers a couple of years ago, so he has shown that he can win on a big, hard gull. Of course, this is going to be an interesting weekend.

but that is four back. So if the low numbers eight, based off of what you know of Vegas and based off of what you know of the field, how far behind eight are you willing to go to indicate who we can still look at as players that could actually win the thing?

Sean o'caddle Show, and The Drive with Spence Check. It's for your chance to win each day from ESPN seven hundred and the Utah Golf Association. Details can be found at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. So the leaderboard PGA Championship Quail Hollow Golf Club, Charlotte, North Carolina. Jonathan Vegas is your leader at eight under PARR, Matthew Pavone, Matt Fitzpatrick at six hundred. Fitzpatrick still on the course, Max Holma card at a sixty four to find himself

at five under along with Alex Smalley. Some names of note, JT. Postin and Scottie Scheffler are four under par Bryson the Shambos, three under parr, Sam Stevens, My Guy three hundred par has his ox Shapetia. Let's find you a Tony Victor Hoblin two hundred par Is Bobby Fleewood and John rom Keegan Bradley just birdied to go to two hunder par, and Wyndham Clark is at one under. Some notables here. Tony must have just made a bogie.

We're gonna pick two winners. One winner is gonna play eighteen holes for free at Mountain Dell oh Man, congratulations to you. A secondary winner is gonna go see a stand up comic who's not very funny. His name is Matt Rife. But here's what we're gonna do. Porter. I have in my possession your weekly bonus. Now we're operating off a budget, so I have in my possession your weekly bonus. It's sitting right here, which is very much appreciated.

It is very much appreciated. So I want the Texters to text in, does Porter deserve his weekly bonus this week? Has he done a good enough job? If you listen to the show consistently, you know Porter's contributions. Does Porter deserve his weekly bonus? Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, Text in yes or no? And why? And it's a very valuable weekly bonus. Should we tell the listeners what the bonus is? Or should we lead them to believe you're actually getting paid some money?

rather play golf, all right. We got two hours in the books. We've got two hours to go. We're gonna switch gears a little bit. RSL Rocky Mountain Cup Crapids, don't call them the rapids crapids. Will RSL score a goal, Brian dun Seth will enlighten us and inform us. This is a team that right now just it might be the worst offensive soccer team we've ever had here besides two thousand and five when like Dipsy Sealawani was the leading scorer with like three goals. It's a rough scene.

We'll see if Donny has any confidence that RSL can put it together. By the way, some breaking news, the forty nine ers have finally signed Brock Party five years, two hundred and sixty five million dollars for Brock perty Man. Business of the NFL when you got to pay your quarterback got NHL playoffs Tonight here on ESPN seven hundred. The chase for Lord Stanley's Cup continues. Such a great tournament.

for the rebuild of the Utah Jazz. So we'll see if they can actually kind of get their stuff together. But NHL playoffs on our radio station tonight, and then we have Nix Celtics on the fan. Nick Celtics less than two hours away from tip at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Dave mcmindman is gonna roll by later on. But time now talk a little soccer club legend friend of the program, Brian Dunseeth. Happy Friday, Donnie, how are we doing?

outside of Gozo. Is the twenty twenty five version of what the twenty twenty three, twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three version of Diego Luna was, which is a young kid that utilized the US under seventeen experience, the US under twenty experience, going to be a part of the Olympic team experience and turn that into opportunity when

other guys weren't performing. Because at the end of the day, no matter the apparent or the equivalent value of players coming in, if statistically you're not affecting the game in a consistent level, it's going to open up the door. And that's why Diego Luna is going to be a full US men's national team player under Mariso Pochettino, and Gozo is going to be a weekend, week out starter in Major League Soccer.

to pronounce his name exactly. But Bosney the kid that was playing the Slovakian International, the kid was playing in Portugal, and that fella fell apart at the last minute. Where I commend Kurt and all Phone Rail Salt Lake for holding their ground and not allowing people to change the agreement on the deal and the dying moments. And boy Vista Is is long recognized for some really unsavory things.

I believe whether it's Reggie Cannon in Dallas or Albert Ellis in Houston, they still owe those two teams significant sums of money having not paid on previous transfers in Major League Soccer. So there was always already a kind of a general awareness. But the reality is the risk versus reward. Right, The risk is as you continue to negotiate to get a fair price that you think is doable for your club. The reward is if you get

it over the line. The risk is if you've pushed it to the final moments of a window and that Herbie Hancock still isn't on the piece of paper, well, then you've you've royally pushed, you know, a moment in which you now are punished because that window was closed.

I think Willie Gotta coming over at twenty five, twenty six years of age, a guy that can score ten plus goals in the season is a smart and savvy move because everything had gone sideways in Kansas City, pulling off both off and off the field that had led to the departure and firing of the most tenured manager

in Major League Soccer at the time, Peter Burns. Johnny Russell is at the end of his career, but I think a great addition in terms of the locker room, He's got a ton of presence, a ton of leadership, still got a great left foot, and we're just waiting for him to be fully fit enough after you know, being out of contract for a little bit to step

on the field. But you know, the reality is again when you lose and you make the decision to cash in on Andres Gomez, which was really for me a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think the right decision, and then the surprises of Chicho a Rongo effectively wanting to leave and he's flying right now, but he becomes a distressed asset.

like Clint Mathis was built. He's got that feel. He's also kind of built like Guatimot Blanco for those that remember back in the day the Mexican International and spent some time in Chicago. The thing about Diego is his center, bounce, technique, monster mentality, all of those things, but most important for me is that he's a kid that bet on himself.

And I don't know how you could ever bet against a kid who's willing to bet on himself and to walk away from the San Jose earthquakes and go to El Paso as a teenager, to work himself into a moment where he's got the opportunity to come to real Salt Lake. You know to get punched the teeth on a few occasions of understanding what that next step look like, whether you talk about dietary, whether you talk about physical, whether you talk about the work off the ball on

the defensive side. He has done everything that has been asked of him. I covered the usman's national team in January down in Orlando when he got his nose broken, and Mariso Pochettino said what he loves best about him. He said, quote big balls in the post game on T and T in our coverage, and I don't think there's a better description of what he's got. There's a just a from a competitive standpoint, a killer mentality. I still can't understand to wrap my head around why he

was left off the Olympic team. In the summer, he was justly rewarded with an All Star spot as well

as an MLS Young Player of the Year. He was the best performer down at the Nations League when had the opportunity against Canada to step on the field for Marisa Pozatino in that third and fourth place game, and Spence I fully expect him to be gone for a good chunk of the from Real Salt Lake because I think this kid is going to be one of the main featuring playmakers for the game against Turkey, the game against Nashville, and then heading into the Gold Cup this summer.

He's been fantastic, and I know, in a position where there's a lot of great number tens in Major League Soccer, I would never want to see him overshadowed by the bigger names, because I think the amount of respect that he's earned from the players around this league speaks volumes for what he's done in his short career so far.

him down is God forbid any type of injuries. He is as long as Mauricio Pochettino as of right now, Mauricio Pochettino, He's going to be involved.

return a few days later. I again, I think, I think Pochattino and his staff love everything that they're seeing because there's there's no how do I say this correctly, With all due respect to the guys that are cutting their teeth overseas and continuing to push the envelope for some of the biggest clubs and Champions League competition, there's there's not an ounce of entitlement that comes along with

Diego Luna. He recognizes every moment that he has to work and earn every chance that he gets, and there's something to be said about to your point, you know, we're we're we're about to turn into that final twelve months before the World Cup comes to the United States, and god forbid we have any similar type of performance that we saw at the Nation's League or Copa Livergeadoras last summer. So I think Gigo's is fully cognizant of

what these chances mean. And I would never ever bet against Diego Luna.

and influence that Diego has. He's looked more like a complimentary piece as opposed to a pure designated player and

statistically dominic. Marchuk hasn't shown me anything anywhere near enough, and I can't be the only one if Pablo Mastroni continues to give Gozo the runout, because on both sides of the ball, Gozo has looked the much more dangerous player that's willing to leave it all on the field as opposed to march Of that in moments has looked dangerous, but far from the consistent product that we expected after betting down for the better part of the last twelve months.

Mammoths whatever we're calling it now. In the transition of the Millers, you know, taking over a majority ownership and David Blitzer and company kind of stepping down in their ownership, that there was going to be behind the scenes and infrastructure change as well as probably concern about how much

was invested. I mean, I think that's kind of incredibly obvious, and I'm speaking I'm not to be clear, Like I'm not a team employee, you know, Like I do some voiceover work and i do some hosting stuff, but my main gig is covering the US men's national team and covering Major League Soccer. So I'm coming in from it from more of a national coverage perspective for MLS and

Apple TV. There is a way around this and it has to be very similar to what we saw with Chicho Rongo two summers ago, where if you've identified your guy, get that deal over the line. And my hope is that with the Millers completely settling in that there will be a significant amount of funds that are now made available now that everybody has clarity about what this looks like.

Notoriously more easy during the summer transfer window to sign players or have better conversations because players are out of contract as opposed to coming out of contract and having to buy players out of contract. The cap hit is half of what it normally would be because effectively half the season. But similarly, what they did with Chicho Rongo is get him in the market a good month before

he's even eligible to step on the field. Get whoever you're deciding to have be a part of it, Get them in market, get their families settled, get their kids registered from school, get the player training with the team, and then the moment that the availability in the paperwork is through on registration, get this player or play yours on the field and hopefully they have a similar impact that Chicho did. You cannot afford to have what happened

last year. With Diogo, where whether it was the inability to get the done, the deal done as early as it needed to be, the negotiation snags, snapoos, Diogo never settled, and at that point Pablo was really concerned with keeping the momentum and keeping the kind of starting eleven matchups in play while trying to get Chicho back on track after the suspension earlier in the summer. So there is a way around this. But to your point, yeah, I mean, if you are not really tight on your timelines, you

could have actually even less than eight games remaining. Because it's it's a dirty little secret right now that it's very difficult to get paperwork through, you know, from a registration, work permit, visa situation than it ever has been before.

it was a real trophy. Egotistically RSL players, Hopefully they understand that the fan base it really matters to we also late fans, so hopefully they put in a performance worthy of the fans' approval.

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or online at Cortland Roofing dot com. All right, we are ninety minutes away ish from Nick's Celtics in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Tried to advance to their first Eastern Conference finals in twenty five years, where they last played the Indiana Pacers, who are awaiting the winner of this series. Up Porter, were you awarded your weekly bonus by our textures? Were you given? You were giving the unanimous thumbs up that you deserve your week bonus? I was.

having a little snack, usually postgame while I'm writing. But if I can't, if I don't beat the Laker girls there first, there's no chance to get the one.

one hundred years apart. Like that's crazy, right, that's actually crazy what happened in the NBA Draft lottery where even the teams with the best chance of ending up in the top three only had what fifteen percent chance of getting there? Like that still means eighty five percent chance you're not going to get those picks. We want to,

you know, put a positive spin on it. Hey, maybe a j Devance is going to be a better than Cooper flag anyway, and jazz fans can get to know them watching them play in provo this year for BYU, and I hope that the lottery works out for them next year.

up with the top two picks. And that's kind of what the NBA wants to happen, because they don't want teams to do what Sam Pinky and Philadelphia did and try to bring the system and basically set a blow towards to your fan base for half of a decade while you try to take advantage of the lottery talent.

The Jazz end up with a fifth pick, their most likely pick they were going to get going into the lottery, and you know the odds are published and there for everybody to see is that they were end up with a fifth pick. So like that was it actually was. It didn't buck the information that the team or the fan base had going into last week's lottery.

they make the trade for Darren Fox. They have Stefan Castle, who's Rookie of the Year, and the Jazz could very much use Dylan Harper. It fills a need and if he's as good as everybody says. Do you think san Antonio entertains the notion of the Jazz sending five and Lowry Markeden in exchange for two fourteen and then Keldon Johnson and Harrison Harrison Barnes to make the contracts match.

Do you think there's anything kind of generally speaking in that direction, because we're hearing multiple ports that the Jazz will try to move up, but we know that one is off the table after Tim McMahon reported that MAV's ownership said, no, Nico, you can't trade it. We're keeping it. We're drafting Cooper flag.

how valued am I? You get to remove that scenario by looking to trade the pick. Obviously getting two first rounders is valuable and markten is a win now ready player. And listen, I think a reminder of what we saw this year in the playoffs, not only of course Victor Minowman not.

I mean, Bobby Marks, I think calculated it's a five hundred million dollar luxury tax bill as this team continues to become expensive. So maybe they have decision to make. Maybe it's Jalen Brown. I don't know. Tatum is going to be on the show for an entire year. The Shams report about Giannis, There's Phoenix and Durance. How real do you think this kind of alleged reported big time player movement in pro basketball will be this offseason?

They've been able to win when he's missed time this year because of that strange viral and refection, but more so because they Why would you pay that much money for a team that will be by default in a rebuild mode next year with Jason Tatum surely to miss

pretty much the entire year with his recovery. And then the question becomes Jalen Brown at this stage of his career, does he want to commit a year for a team that is getting rid of assets and has its best player or second best player depending on how you viewed Jalen Brown out for the year.

level team. That's interesting in itself, But Dennis, it becomes okay, Jalen Brown wants out, and then if the SCOOPO wants out and Kevin Durant wants out, Now you're talking about like three or four franchise changing players on the market, and yeah, that can lead to all sorts of chaos beyond it. So I do think that we have a potential for a pretty busy summer with the landscape to lead changing a bit.

for Indiana. He basically acknowledged, like, they're better than we are right now, and they've got Indiana has so many like win want to fight you like Benedict Matheren wants to fight everybody, so Doesnee Smith Nemhard. I mean they're going to be a tough out for anybody. What stood out most about the way the Pacers dispatched to the Calves.

have wings that would get into you. Kendrick Perkins, my friend and colleague, did a hit earlier this week basically saying that the Calves weren't tough enough, and sometimes like that's hyperbolic and that doesn't really tell the story. But I do think that's part of what this Calves team was. Thing is there's not enough grit there. You have basically a bunch of nice guys and you need some sort of mix to that group of guys who want to mix it up, or guys who you know are going

to play than the other team. And I don't think that's means that this Cat's team should be dismantled, But yeah, I do think you look at like Jared Allen and Evan Mobley both are gentle giants. Can you have two tental giants on your team or do you it's you know, it's kind of hard to play two bigs in the

playoffs as it is. Do you split them up? All these there's a handful of contenders that are looking for a big that would you know, offer you up a lot for someone like Jared Allen and then use those assets that you get from that trade either to find a guy with more of an edge or make that trade about finding the guy morphine edge. I think it's a tweak that they that they need, not like an

overhaul obviously. And then you talk about Indiana as they sit in the catbird seat and watch the Knicks and Celtics play things out, like they should feel confident about their chance to make it back to the first and mean a finals. Parison's Reggie Miller.

get Luca Can the Lakers make okay See uncomfortable? But over the final few weeks of the season, we did start to hone in on Minnesota a little bit. Obviously, the stept factor is the step factor, and we'll get to Boston and New York in a minute. But as connected as Boston looked in Game five without Tatum, Golden State is just lost without stuff. They just are Spacing's completely different. I was waiting to see playoff Jimmy. We

never really did. That's probably more of a credit to Minnesota than anything, as in a diamond on Jimmy Butler. But what did you make of just how easily it seemed for Minnesota to take care of the Golden State Warriors sans, of course Stephen Curry.

a major part of it. And I think it was the mental blow of like they gave them their best shot in Game three, didn't get it done, and like they recognize at that moment that like even the task of just trying to get to win one, to try to extend the series, to get it to a game six to step and comeback, was not going to really be possible. On the Minnesota side of things, it's a really good basketball team that is not unstoppable by any means.

When they had twenty one turnovers in that Game three, you can't be croffing the ball up that many times expected to win the playoff game, and even in the close out Game five, it was a blowout and had seven turnovers like that, that type of stuff is going to hurt you as you get further along the ride against the more disciplined team, and that's why their story could end in the Western Conference Finals against Denver, Okay see because I think both those teams that have a

little more structure to what they do. At the same time, though they're deep, they're big, they're physical, they have a little bit of the ship on their shoulder from them flating out last year against the Mavericks and the conference finals, And like, I think I'm kind of biased as I evaluate them because I have covered.

Jade McDaniels is a different player than he was last year and last year he looked like shades of Scottie Pippen, and Anthony Edwards is still the incredible singular talent that is showing a little bit more recognition of defenses and making the hockey assists and making himself harder to guard. So I like I will most likely pick them, Like if OKC was to win, I would say I think I will I will pick them in the next round.

If Denver somehow beats. Okay, see, then you're probably talking about the best player in basketball and Jokic thinking that he has another chance to get a ring, and that could be pretty tough. Plus Tendrille have the revenge factor because they lost last year to the Wolves.

So you know, that's kind of tough. Every single flight you're taken is a connecting flight for of two weeks. It wears in you a little bit.

bet against Nicola Jokic. What do you think happens Sunday Game seven?

don't do it on the road. So that's said, I mean, listen, like I expect should be great. Aaron Gordon, we'll see. You know, there was some talk about his calf bothering him last game. He's another guy. Generally, I would say, I know what I'm gonna get out of him. He's going to be great. It's kind of like the swing players Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray is capable of coming and dropping thirty five and winning the game and making every

shot they need in the fourth quarter. Jaal Murray is also capable of, you know, kind of having a game where his shots off and that affects the type of defensive energy brings on the other end. I just think, like, okay see is more in line to have things go their way to advance, So I'll go okay See. But I certainly wouldn't be.

at home tonight in Mintown, Manhattan. The long suffering New York Nick fan in me, as this team has let me down multiple occasions since I was ten years old, has visions of Charles Smith missing three layups and Patrick Ewing missing a finger roll and John Starts shooting three of eighteen and pat Riley refusing to just even take Rolando Blackman off ice and I could keep going Anthony Mason's inbound pass to Greg Anthony it was stolen by

Reggie Miller. As you can tell, it's been a rough life for your boy, cheering for the team that's gonna play for in an hour from right now. What happens tonight at MSG? Do my Knicks finally get it done?

not going to have that game on the road. If he does, God bless him.

Spring is in the air, and the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming. Is your home and backyard sanctuary ready to enjoy the coming season. We'll go check out the new Daybreak Home and Garden Show coming to the ballpark at America First Square May the sixteenth through the eighteenth. The new show will have something for every member of the family. Vendors galore, home garden and patio, free games for the kids, free day seminars and hourly prizes.

Come toward the exciting new tiny home from Boxable, and tour the new Bees Ballpark. All vendor booths are indoors so the weather will not be an issue. Get your tickets now. This will be the most exciting, fun educational home show ever and it's in daybreak. Get tickets and information at the Best home show dot com. Answered by a friends at Bullfrog Spots. Do I allow myself to get excited? Do I allow myself to approach tonight with

some optimism? I was listing the moments of holy bleep over my course of cheering for this damn basketball team since I was ten years old. Charles Smith misses three layups against the Bulls. It was not a foul. Let's see. Anthony Mason basically throws it to Reggie Miller who scores eight points in zero point four seconds or whatever it was. Patrick Ewing misses the finger roll against the Pacers. John Starks cannot shoot straight against the Rockets in the finals.

I could keep going I feel like we're doing I feel like Lady Luck is on our side tonight. I feel like the New York Knicks get it done in a close game at Madison Square Garden.

Smith Jumper. We'll we'll maybe leave that for the folks who want to go and revisit it on YouTube, but it is left a sour taste in my mouth since that game against the Indiana Pacers, and I just I want to get back there. I want to get back to a place where we could have some fun. The Eastern Conference Finals would certainly be that.

Tony Parks is visiting once again. We've got some stuff going on with the Bees next week. We'll tease when he gets here. So two weeks in a row, we're blessed with his presence.

It's called The Drive with Spence check its It's available wherever you get your show. Subscribe, rate reviews, saying nice things in our comments, and give us all the stars. It actually helps out for porter. I'm Spence Saga and I have a great Friday evening and have a great weekend. Begod to yourself and Begod to each other. We'll talk to you on the Monday show. Is always going to find it right here on ESPN seven hundred ninety two and FM. We are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.