Welcome back here Drive time on a Friday afternoon.
No spend checkets today.
I am Porter Larson, Andy Larson alongside me. Well not right now, he's actually stepping out. He took a call from his boss. Sometimes you gotta sometimes you.
Gotta do that.
So we'll await Andy Larson. The reason he is not the Utah Sports Caster of the Year is because he's making me wait while the Utah sports caster or sports writer of the year rather is on the line, Sarah Todd, the two time Utah Sports Writer of the Year. How are you, Sarah, I'm doing great.
I wish that Andy was actually sitting next to you. Go listen to this.
I'm looking at Andy talking to his boss on the phone outside. He's running inside as we speak, so I'm doing a little play by play. But no, beautiful, we have the two time sports writer of the Year on the line, Sarah Todd, and the I think the one time sports writer the year, Andy Larson.
No, I've never won it, Sarah never won.
Don't give him award that he hasn't won.
I could have sworn you got it the COVID year, but no, I was pandemic Reporter of the Region.
Let alone the state of Utah, but that was it was an odd inter mountain region. There we go. Okay, well that's all I got, though I'm bad at basketball.
As long as his career lasts longer than Sarah's, he might win one of those Utah sports writers. She's got a stranglehold on him at the moment.
Sarah, how is your Friday?
It's not too bad, you know, the when the basketball season ends, not that it's over. I'm watching playoff every night, obviously, but what it ends for me, uh man, I'm just getting so many things done that I ignored throughout the year. So there's just not a lot.
Of you.
Be a DMV.
You've been to the post office, You've done all those things in the last couple of weeks.
I soon, Yeah, absolutely, Sarah.
Did I tell you I bought the car and like that's exciting?
Yeah, I saw the car because at the exit interviews. Yeah, and I and I told you how crazy it was to have a car that people couldn't get into the back seat.
Listen, that's only if you need to drive more than one person around, which I don't.
I don't, I don't have a family or whatever. That's you know, that's great.
I've almost always driven a like a two seater or something of the like because I got a small circle.
Sarah, what do you I only have one friend, Sarah, what do you drive?
Well?
I have I have a lot of friends, So I want to be I drive a Subaru cross track.
Okay, I like that.
I like that with Harry Potter bumper sticker or I don't know, dcal what would you call it on the back?
Uh?
Yeah, it's used to have a Harry Potter Why. I used to have a Harry Potter one and then a Paradise, California sticker And the Harry Potter sticker has died and fallen off and so it lives no more.
Also, what is your license played in home address? Just kidding? Well, Uh, we're the reason I asked if we're at a car dealership. We were talking cars a little bit to start. But your off season, of course started as the Utah Jazz offseason has started. What is your since you mentioned it there, what is your consumption of the NBA playoffs? You're an NBA reporter, but you're obviously a jazz beat writer. How dialed into these games are you and how much of
you enjoyed what is meaningful basketball? Postseason basketball where the stakes are not to do with the NBA draft.
Yeah, I'm a junkie, So I've seen every single game so far. I've played on watching every single game of the playoffs one hundred percent. I'm an absolute junkie when
it comes. And I think that, you know, even if it doesn't have to do with the Jazz, Like, there's so much perspective and information that you can glean from watching the postseason, right, Like number one, I'm thinking often while I'm watching these games, like how many players on the Jazz would be allowed to play any minutes on these teams?
Right?
And so kind of giving myself a little bit of reality check because we spend Andy and I spent so much time watching the Jazz that you know, sometimes you can forget like what top level basketball feels like.
Yeah, and like playoff basketball too. I Mean I had the same conversation with Spence yesterday, but like, yeah, you're you're right that the Jazz's young players are so far away, you know, they can contribute at a regular season level a little bit. I mean, let's be honest, they were still the worst team in the NBA last year.
It's not great, but they are.
Extremely like miles in min files and space ages away from like actually helping an NBA team in the playoffs, which is what Will Hardy and Danny Ainge are actually focused on.
Yeah, it's it's hard to imagine. I mean, like you can, like I'm going through currently and I'm writing like my annual grades for each player on the Jazz roster, right and that has to obviously be like in context of what was expected of them, But it's hard not to think about the fact that like, yes, like Isaiah Collier deserves a lot of credit and like a good grade for the season for improving compared to how he started
the season. But like, I'm not sure that there's a single team where he would even get minute as a backup point guard that's in the playoffs right now?
No, absolutely not, Like he can't he can't be on the floor, like, and he's not a good enough defender, right like the assisting you would want the ball in someone else's hands on every other playoff team. And look, he's also twenty years old, right, like, so there's room for the development and maybe he learns how to shoot, and maybe he learns how to defend and kind of all these other things that he doesn't have right now.
But yeah, I mean it is just far away in a way that you know, like rookie Donovan Mitchell was actually ready to contribute, you know, and that's not a fair bar for for Isaiah Khllier or any other rookie. But it does show kind of, like, you know, the difference between a good rookie class and a bad one.
And ultimately, I think what you hope is a good draft pick and this year's draft to top five draft pick versus what the Jazz have really kind of been dealing with over the last couple of years, which is ninth pick, tenth pick, sixteenth pick, twenty ninth pick, thirty second pick, soone, you know, like it just these guys are fringy guys who may work out and may not.
Yeah, and I think a lot about you know, I don't want to like sound like I'm always so pessimistic about this team, because like, you know, we I'm around these guys like all the time, more than my family, more than my friends, and so like you get to a point where like you do want them to succeed. It's not like you're I'm a fan, but like I
want good things for good people just in general. And so when you get to you know these guys so much, and so it's not that I don't want them to succeed, but like I do want fans to like temper their expectations because some people will see, you know that you know, Bryce is kind of turning into a more like specialized player, or that Isaiah you know, was racking up so many
assists and looks like a good point guard. But I want the expectations to be tempered a little, just so that people understand, like, even if you were to get Cooper Flag, the supporting cast currently on this Jazz team is not one that can do anything well.
So let's you and I talk about that for a second, because we had an interesting conversation with the Jazz veterans after the last game of the season, and I don't know that we can share all of that, but right, we had a conversation about what happens if the Jazz get Cooper Flag versus what happens if they get the fifth pick and the draft and you know, let's call it Try Johnson or Jeremiah Fears or whatever. Right, what happens. What do you think the Jazz's plan is in those scenarios.
Do you think it's different. Do you think they still want to rebuild next year, or is there any scenario.
In which they try to put a team together and really go for it next year?
Right? I think there's two possibilities. I think that the Jazz get Cooper that then they try to capitalize on any chaos around the league that's happening, right, whether that's hoping that the Sun's implode, hoping that the Bucks implode, hoping like just hoping on something that creates possibility for a really big blockbuster trade to get a guy who would be like a number one on a team that is trying to build Cooper Flag into a number one, right,
And so I think that that's one possibility, is that if they get Cooper, they would try to go for it. Whether they strike out on that or not is remains to be seen. And that all depends on getting Cooper.
But if they are not able to land someone huge, I think that the plan is to tank again because they don't want to give up a top eight pick and have it go to Okac, who is could very well win everything this year and then end up with a top eight pick next year, and they really really like the top three in next year's draft as it is kind of it's expected to be right now, that's
aj Debanza. Garon Peterson can't boozer, and so I think that the idea of having a top pick from this year's draft, even if it ends up being trade Johnson or a top pick, and adding a top pick from next year's draft, is the ideal situation for the Jazz Brah.
Do you think that you know, so last year they had kind of a scheme in mind where they would trade and I don't want to call it a scheme plan whatever picks, or if they would trade for m Kel Bridges and then go out and sign Paul George and that would be a core around lowry market and that would be interesting in.
The Western Conference.
Now, I think the strategy that obviously did not pan out, and even if it had panned out, I don't know.
How good it makes the Utah Jazz.
Do you think that there's been any kind of like reckoning that, hey, look, this is just going to happen through the draft, that the idea of using.
The draft picks as trade assets.
As maybe gone from the primary strategy to hey, maybe but probably not kind of strategy.
It really it depends that you talk to, right Like, I think that there's a number of conversations that I've had with you know, Jazz front office people or even people around the league that really believe that the Jazz are going to eventually like use some of the assets
to make a big blockbuster trade. But I think what I'm hoping is that there has been a little bit of reckoning that like getting some sort of an aging star is not the route that should work, could work, or that they should go because you're kind of seeing how that has happened around the league and that it's not working out as well as it might have it used to. And maybe you know five or ten years removed, like Kevin Durant to Phoenix didn't work. James Harden is
kind of working in LA right now. But I think you'd be hard pressed to find people that think that the Clippers are actually like a title contender this year. And Paul George to Philly absolutely did not work out. And so when you look at kind of like the aging stars that are getting traded around the league, that's not what is working, and so I think that the Jazz that they're looking at, like we want to use our trade assets, it's it's for a younger star, and
so there's a tiny bit of reckoning there. But I think that they also it's not some it needs to happen to the draft, but that they want to capitalize on two of the best drafts that we've seen in many, many years.
Sarah, kind of along those same lines, I do want to ask, if let's rewind a little bit, the Jazz have I think wisely avoided using the term from last year the big game hunting, you know, at least this offseason now, they haven't changed the roster flexibility, the fact that they have the options to basically do whatever they want roster versatility wise, strike when the iron is hot, right whenever one of those situations comes up across the league, the Jazz are, along with OKAC and maybe two or
three other teams, really the only ones that are are positioned and prepared to put out some godfather type offers. You look at across the league, what are during this offseason the most likely scenarios in which that.
Comes into play.
Yeah, looking at Milwaukee and maybe a falling out there or in Phoenix. Obviously Denver just replaced their coach with stars and still on the roster there. Just looking across the league, what's the most likely scenario where teams that have built up this, you know, this war chest could strike while the iron's hot across the league?
I mean, most likely, I think is obviously Phoenix. I think the problem there is that Phoenix is probably going to want to hold on to Devin Booker if they can. I don't know if that's going to work for them, though, because they literally have like no way out of the
hole that they're in right now. They don't have assets, and they need to get them back, and so I don't know that they're going to be getting back as much as they want or they think they can get from deal or even durant to like make their future as good as they want it to be while holding on to Devin Booker. And so there might be a moment where the most likely situation is that they actually have to get rid of Booker and bottom out in order to have assets at a chance at building something
different in the future. And so when I look around the league, like that feels like the most likely also, there's so much dysfunction happening in Memphis right now like
that that would probably be second on the list. We've seen a little bit of upheople in Atlanta, and so then you then you start looking at you know, Devin Booker, Trey Young, John Morant as kind of the most likely young players around the league that could have an opportunity to like be moved this summer and not not just like exploring free agency, like intentionally moved to create different
opportunities for the team long term. But you know, Andy and I have been talking about the possibility of Phoenix imploding years at this point, and so, uh, it's really a guessing game because the NBA is the Wild West right now. Like you know, Luca Dodge just could be traded. We have no idea what can happen these days.
Yeah, and I think it's tough because I think the Jazz's assets are you know, they certainly have a lot of picks, but they're the good picks that they have are in their own And then you know, if you're talking about trading a future you know, a twenty twenty nine pick, maybe you're more willing to do that, but that's a long way down the road for a team with an owner like Matt Ishpia who wants to win right away and would see would if he were to
trade Devin Booker, which he's already kind of said that he won't that that he's going to want to find some way to reconfigure it and go through that rebuild faster. So it's just it's just tough. Like I think the Jazz are. You know, they're not in the worst place in the world. They do have their own picks. They do have a number of picks that at the end of the that look like they're going to be at the middle or end of the first that they can use to.
Build role players around those players.
But they're just so far away, you know, like you're going to have to draft. You hope you get a Cooper Flag or a Dylan Harper in this year's draft. You hope you get a Debonsa or Peterson or a Boozer in next year's draft, and then it's going to take a few years for those guys to develop and for you to build a core around those guys. That's it's going to look pretty different than what this roster looks like right now.
Yeah, and another reason for fans to temper expectations because it's the likelihood of having literally the number one pick, not just in one, but both of those drafts. The jazz is really low. So yeah, and so you know it's not like, oh, we get Cooper, we can just go this year like it just even if you get one of those like, it's going to take time. I try to use the comparison all the time with people like is Cooper flag better than Victor Wimbanyama, And I
would say, no, he's not. And Victor Wimbanyama did not take the San Antonio Spurs to the Promised Land or even near it in the first of the two years. Understand the injury of the blood clot situation came into effect this year, but what even if he's able to play, are they a play in team this year? And so even after they get like the guy who they think is the number one, you're still looking at two three years before you're really even starting to play.
Well yeah, yeah, and and you know then you're hoping for the best, even you know, with like you's pointed out those odds, what do you I've been trying to talk with people around the league about this and what happens with the Jazz veterans, you know, not even just Lowry market but Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Colin Sexton, Like, how how do you find spots for them?
I mean, I think that depends a lot on if you get Cooper or not, right, Like, how much would a Cooper flag raise the ceiling or raise the floor for the team rather next season? And if you aren't able to get a star, are you trying to bottom out like we've seen this year that even with Lowry, John, Colin, Jordan to an extent, like on the team, you can sit them as much as you want, and you can
tank with all of those players on the team. And so if you get a Trey Johnson, you have a rookie that maybe isn't as explosive right out of the gate, you might be able to keep those guys, let them expire and just end up with like a lot of space moving forward. That being said, like you might have to start attaching second rounders or take back less than you and originally anticipated. I think there's probably still a
little bit of value with Colin. I think there's a lot of teams that would really like having him on their team, just because he's so competitive and works so hard and has such a good reputation for that around the league. I think that John Collins probably like raised his value a little bit after coming from Atlanta. He had a good season despite not playing much, but that
really wasn't his fault. Like, we both know that a lot of the guys that didn't play much this season were not as hurt as many people might think that they are. And people run the league. I don't know people run the league know that.
What you're talking about now, Sarah, before we get you out of here, we'll go back to what we started on a little bit of NBA playoffs. What series has kind of kept your attention the most? Which one has been most entertaining for you? I think Cleveland Pacers Celtics. These are some series that are pretty well in hand, Oklahoma City over Memphis, especially after last night. But which one has caught your attention the most has been most entertaining?
Yeah, I think that the Rockets Warriors series is probably the most entertaining, just because of how incredibly different the teams are going into this, the history of them like fighting each other in the playoffs, even though they're like in different iterations, But I just like the idea that, like, you know, I'm in Thompson guarding Steff is one of the most competent players we've seen guard stuff in a
long time. And it's against this Warriors team that comes in as a narrative of like, this is a dynasty team, this is how you build teams, this is how you win championships. Like that's that's the history and kind of vibe of that Warriors team, and that's playing against a team that's like ragtag group of misfits. There's not really
a star on the team. Like you know, you have Albert and Segun who was an All Star, but like that doesn't scream like superstar NBA player, and it's you know, if the Warriors win, then it's kind of proof that you need those elite top ten, top fifteen players on your roster in order to win. And if the Rockets win this series, it's more like, no, you can do it with just like two handfuls of guys who are just absolute dudes on the on the roster. You don't
have to have the earlie players. You can win this way. And so it's just it's telling a different NBA story on either side of the court.
Yeah, very cool, Sarah, tell us what you've got coming over the next couple of weeks, and yeah.
Yeah, I've got all the player grades that are coming out, so I'm I'm kind of diving into how each player how how they can be evaluated based on what the expectations were for them. So those are going to be coming out. And then with Andy, I will be in Chicago at the Combine and the lottery here actually coming up not too far away.
Now I know it's it's close. I'm excited to go to Chicago. I'm excited to actually talk to these guys. I've been watching as much fill On as I am.
Yeah, be fun, and I think I agree with Sarah. Rocket's Warriors has been a lot of fun. The contrast of of what those two teams are, how they how they're constructed is is really fun.
And you mentioned that the.
Rockets the second seed, but folks really hesitant to treat them as a two seed. That that'll that'll be interesting to watch. Sarah appreciate your time. Of course, the deserted News is where you find are at NBA. Sarah on socials, I always appreciate your time.
And and all your weekend.
Thanks. Like I talked to me,