Richard Smith in-studio on NBA latest, Lakers @ Jazz, trade deadline fallout + more

My nephew has a great home where he has one of those big new theater rooms and all that, and you know, big heavy hitter type stuff, and and he put together a like a bingo card that everybody could play, and they were all different, you know, so that every square was like, uh, you know, missed field goal to the right, you know, or fumble recovered by the offense

or whatever it was. And so everybody was engaged in that all all all, all game long, and it came down right to the right to the end, and I had I had my whole card completed except for one one square, and that was the missfield goal, which there wasn't any missfield goal, right. But we were arguing the fact that earlier in the game, if you remember, one of the long sideline passes resulted in a passing apference, and I said, well, the passing apference was because the

guy grabbed his face mask. That's a face mask. And I have a square on my card that says penalty face mask. I said, that's a penalty. No, no, it wasn't. They didn't call a face mask. They said it was passing apference. I said it was passing apference because he grabbed his face That was no. No, that doesn't. You know. So this is the kind of family arguments you get, you know, when the big candy bar is on the line for the winner.

you think about it. I'm just curious as too, as somebody who made a career in pro sports, why you think pro football has been able to capture this market share. And you know, there are a few different reasons. And you know, anecdotally, I was home with my family for the Super Bowl and I was watching with all my nieces and nephews, and we had our little square game going on and all the you know, nieces and nephews

were allowed to pick a square. And towards the end of the game, because at this point the kids were upstairs playing, it was a blowout.

But that isn't done with any other sport, right, Nobody does it with you know, any other time of the year for anything else. Right, And so I don't know, I don't know if it's because it's the once a week thing. I don't know if it's because it's the the time of year, you know, in the fall. And I mean I'm not I'm not quite sure exactly what

the what the great great holders. I do know that I've always thought, you know, especially you know, the way technology is now in the last fifteen twenty years, and the way they show slow motion and they and they do all this stuff is is you know that it's gotten more to me of somewhat of the gladiator type thing the Roman times, where everybody's in the in the arena and they're rooting for the guy to get get smashed on the on the on the block or whatever

it is, or tackled you know, and and thrown up in the air and whatever during the during the course of a game. So I don't know if that's it or what what the you know, how they ended up marketing it this way, but part of it I think. I don't know how far down the line it gets.

But they have done a good job over the years with the salary cap stuff and the way they put their schedules together, you know, the you know, during the course of the season, the guys who played well last year play each other next year, you know, you know, outside of your division and stuff, and then they purposely do that so that you know, in week sixteen, seventeen eighteen, most of the teams are eight and eight, or they're nine and seven or whatever, and so a lot of

teams have a chance to get in the last week or two. And I don't know if maybe that's part of the stick that everybody's feels like they, you know, their dog is still in the race most of the most of the year. I'm not quite sure how that plays out.

football stratosphere. It wasn't on the level, but there was some data that indicated the ratings had improved in the NBA under you know, it was Magic and then it was Larry and then it was the you know, the Laker Celtics thing. Then Michael took over and David Stern was a master's craft to manipulate the media to create this behemoth that was kind of making some inroads.

capture international audiences. The NBA doesn't really sweat the domestic stuff because their revenue streams internationally are far greater than pro footballs as far as the global sports, Soccer's won basketball's too, and so they are able to mitigate maybe some revenue or ratings or eyes or attention domestically because of what they bring in internationally. But as far as the attention span of the American sports fan, why do you think basketball has not been able to keep up?

the other. And so it's all, you know, relegated to trying to legislate the game so that we have these one forty you know, one thirty five games, you know where where the good games back in our day, Spence used to be the you know, you know the Knicks pacers, uh, you know, grind them house. Yeah, you know, you know, eighty nine, eighty five and whatever, and you know. But but but I just think that that some of it is it looks it looks to me a little bit,

a little bit like there's too much offense. We we don't do enough to help the defensive guys. Everybody wants to score and dunk and and no and nobody plays defense, you know, per se, you know, because you can see how the how the scoring is and and some of it's because the way the game is legislated and the

way that the rules are. And maybe the fans look at that and go, I don't know, feels a little bit like wrestling or something like where they're just it's a little bit artificial because they're not really playing a whole game. They're only playing on one side of the court. That makes any sense.

to week. I mean, if you don't perform and you don't play your position, you know, you could be you know, the ones obviously that that are publicized, the most of the kickers who miss a crucial kick or two extra points in the game, and you see on on Monday they cut the guy and on Wednesday they're having tryouts for a new guy who's going to be the kicker on Sunday, you know, And and there's a lot of the other you know, other players, offensive, defensive linemen, linebackers

who some guys have guaranteed contracts, but a lot of them are you know, might be you know, could get cut or they or they they you know, they get hurt, you know, they go on the injury list and you

don't see him again. And and I don't know if has anything to do with that, you know, relative to like the NBA where virtually every guy on the roster has a guaranteed contract, and especially after you know the early January date this year, I think it was January sixth or January eighth or something, which is a guaranteed date. So if you had a non guaranteed contract and you're on the roster after that date, then your your contract's guarantee for the rest of the year, even if you don't play.

on the team on Friday. You know, that's a that's not a feeling, you know, because you know, you know, even if they let you go, oh they don't like you for whatever reason, you're not playing well whatever, Well, I made it past the guarantee date, So I'm getting my mind in your mind, all that kind of thing. So I don't know if there's something to that that all those a link together and people are going, yeah, well, these guys are getting paid a lot of money and

they don't really look like they're playing hard. I don't know why I should invest my time in that.

a Wilt Chamberlain, you know, whoever it is. You know, these guys have all been traded, These things have happened before. The thing that that that I don't I you know, if I was the guy overseeing and I was just you know, you know, waving a magic wand whatever that means. You know, in this scenario, I would I would advise Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont to instead of running away from what's going on. In other words, Nico doesn't show up in his usual seat for the game, He doesn't

show up for the first game after the trade. You know, wasn't there at all. You know that to me, if I'm a fan, I look at that and go, okay that that even makes me a little more you know, upset about this or there's something else you know that. I'm like, I would rather see them turn around and do just the opposite, just hit it head on, you know. And and I was just saying to to James Peterson before we came on the air, Hey, if I was them,

i'd say, hey, you know what we should do. We should have we should have a town hall meeting tomorrow at noon. Anybody who's upset at this, come on down, let's go, you know. And you know you you guys pay the bills, you guys are investing in this, like us. We'll answer the questions. Now. If I get a question and I don't feel like, you know, revealing you know, corporate you know, secrets or or things that I think, you know should stay in the house, then I'll say so.

But I'm going to give you the opportunity to vent to me and for us to talk it through, and to give you, you know, as much as I can the rationale of why, you know, we don't just do this. I mean, you know, if I'm if I'm playing Nico Harrison for a minute, I don't just wake up in the middle of the night and say, hey, I think it's a good idea if we get rid of one of the best players in the league, and I'm not gonna tell anybody why we're just gonna do it Like

that doesn't really wash with a lot of people. So you know, you have to explain to people. You know, you don't explain all of your business, obviously, but you tell people as much as you can about this process. And you have to ask people to think for a minute, to step back and say, do you think we would trade a top five player who's not even in his prime yet age wise, who's performing the way he has performed so far for us for for just just to do it and just to get a different look on

our team. I mean, I hope you think that we have more than that in our substance in making these decisions to to to be able to exercise something that we know is going to be difficult, you know, to deal with. You know, we didn't think this was just going to go in a twenty four hour news cycle

and then everybody's onto the next thing. And so, you know, give us some credit or at least have some substance to thinking that that there's a rationale, there's some reasoning behind why we would make such a move, you know, in the benefit of our organization, of you, our fans.

That's that's where our responsibility is. And I would just hit it head on, you know, in that regard, because that's usually if you look in the pass in any scenario of this nature spence where there's an uproar, But any decision is it a sports decision, is it a governmental decision? Is it something you know that affects our

culture or our life. People who are in those positions that when times when they've just faced the music head on and took it on and said, hey, let's go, let's go, what do you got, Let's talk it out and and and do that. Most of the time people

go yeah, but what if what if this thing? And you go, well, you know, because of A B and C whatever and and and then you find out people realize, okay, I don't know, you know, and and but they but they start backing down because they understand that you're in a difficult position and you wouldn't make a decision like this unless you actually felt somewhere that this made sense, uh,

for the for the overall business that were running. You know, whether you understand what those things are or you don't. I can communicate some of them to you. Some of them I might not be able to, but at least rationally look at it, you know, for what it is, instead of trying to find you know, some underbelly or some you know some you know, there's got to be some secret thing that's going on that nobody's telling us, you know whatever. And you know, it's just I think people.

You have to give people credit, you know, for trying to help you to overall understand what this overall situation is.

talents in all of the lead. Well, he affects the game, yes, yes, and so now the problem is he's hurt now and he might be shelved for four or five weeks and so as we react to what's in the moment. If you're Nico Harrison, the worst case scenario happened where he's hurt, and so even you know if he's able to come back and at some point maybe make a difference in the postseason. Where we are in the news cycle right

now is these guys are getting killed. The only thing I could think of is when Kevin decided to trade Darren, as far as trying to be analogous here in the market now, the circumstances were much different, and that's what I think confuses a lot of people, because Darren and Jerry had their thing, and so Kevin had Jerry's back and said, we don't want this male content.

struck me as a monolith, right. You guys were very upfront office. They would communicate together and come up with ideas. Did you guys feel the heat when you just added to do the Darren thing?

to to to step down and resign. And then uh, shortly after that, Kevin made the move, you know, to trade Darren because he thought that was in He also thought it was in the again similar to the d Aaron Fox situation Sacramento a few weeks ago, where Fox came out and said, you know it didn't say directly, but but there were all indications internally that he's gonna

he's not gonna come back here when he's a free agent. Right, whether it's Aaron Fox, that was the so called scut But with Donovan Mitchell, I'm not sure if that was if that was totally uh accurate or or or a truism. But that's that that that's what the general perception was, uh with Darren. With Darren Williams, it was the same

similar type thing. We don't know if Darren Williams is gonna come back when he's a free agent in a year and a half, and so let's you know, we we we put that together with the discord or whatever's going on, you know with uh with coach Sloan and that kind of stuff, and you go, okay, you know, maybe it makes sense to to do something now, you know, while your value is high and in terms of that

that player. But but again, Spence, uh, Kevin, Kevin O'Connor, you know, did I wouldn't say exactly the same because I obviously I wasn't wasn't in the room, you know, with Nico Harrison and and and and all that stuff. But but but Kevin, you know, in a similar fashion, did you know, handled it and kind of the same framework that Nico Harrison did with Darren Williams. He didn't tell any of us what was going on in his in our so called in their circle whatever that was.

You know, I didn't know what was happening. You know, Kevin did it with his good friend Billy King, who was the general manager in New Jersey Nets at the time. They had worked together in Philadelphia ten years earlier, become very good friends, very good colleagues. They felt they could trust each other in terms of doing some kind of a deal that didn't get out in the media, Allah the Jimmy Butler Miami Heat type thing. And and they

they they put a package together and discussed it. And then Kevin went to you know, the Miller family and said, hey, I think you know, for reasons A, B and C, this is this is a good time to make a move like this, even though it's our best player and it's going to hurt us in the short term, but I think it'll help us somewhere down the line in the long term. Okay, the Miller's bought bought into that. Okay.

And I'm sitting in my office on the day that they know it was leaked, and I see a scroll on the TV in my office that says, you know, breaking news, Darren Williams traded. You know, I'm going, what is that, you know whatever? And then and then Kevin literally like, walked through my office. I said, Hey, when is this thing on the on the on the TV. And he looks and he goes, oh, is that out already? And I looked at him, I said, is that a real thing? He goes, yeah, you know, typical Kevin fashion.

He shrugged and then kept walking. You know, So now I got to go chase him down the hallway into his office. What's going on whatever? And you know, but he did a similar thing where he played it close to the vest because he didn't want to be in the public, didn't want to have to deal with media and and all that kind of stuff in a similar

fashion what happened with Dallas and Lakers last week. And sometimes front office people in those decision making roles will will handle things in a particular away because they feel that's the best way to handle it with the least amount of noise going on around it, and it doesn't really affect, you know, the decision making process that they're going through.

like the All Star break is the halfway point. It's very much not past halfway point, about two and a half three weeks ago, So thirty games left for the Jazz and the Lakers come into town tonight, and you know, it's It's interesting a lot of the national guests that we have on to talk Pro Basketball, some of them will text me before the interview, like, dude, I got nothing on the Jazz, so just like you don't ask

me about it. And with this entire boom of the media attention surrounding Luca and Lebron, I've listened into a lot of podcasts, watch a lot of coverage, and they all say the same thing, like, well, we can't learn anything about them yet because they're only playing the Jazz, not a serious team about winning this year. With thirty games left, what would you say to Jazz fans about some takeaways you've had that are positive that they can

just kind of latch onto. If there's anything there to indicate that this thing is moving in the right direction.

gotten anybody. There's still a bottom five defensive team. Lowry markin you know, had a very good first year with the Jazz, obviously played to an all star level. He's gone down a little bit. You know. Some of that I think is just because he's he doesn't have a good team around him, and so there's you know, the other teams are leaning on him a little bit. But how about this little little tidbit, which is which is interesting more than anything that that's really helpful to the cause.

But John Collins through you know, two thirds of the season, after they play these two games, it will really be two thirds of the way through the season. John Collins is playing close to a one eighty clip. He's shooting over fifty from the floor, he's shooting forty four from three and eighty seven from the line, so he's almost close to you know, you know, touching up on that that fifty forty ninety line that we talked about Lowry markin and last year, you know, touching. John Collins is

playing a fishing now. He hasn't played a lot of games. He's been out a bunch of games. He's been out like fourteen to fifteen games. He's only started half the games that the Jazz have played. But the other guy who's been playing very efficiently and is out currently with an ankle injury is Colin Sexton, who's played very well, and again he's played much more efficiently than Lowry market Is.

If you look at their numbers, you know, Sexton to market In, you know, field goal percentage forty eight to forty two, three point percentage forty one to thirty five, field goal free throw percentage eighty nine to eighty six. I mean, Colin Sexton has played very efficiently, very well. So he's he's played better this year. So he's a guy that I'm excited to see if they hold on to him in the offseason, because I think he can

really continue to play well and play efficiently. He's really grown into his game and his body and the way he plays aggressively on the court. Walker Kessler has shown to me that that he's a he's a rim protector, he's a natural rebounder. He's a guy who can who can uh can get you a double digital rebounds. He's gonna average a double double. I think he's never gonna be a great score, but he's gonna be able to get mop up points and easy rim runs and stuff

like that. And you know, I think he'll always be like a you know, a twelve and twelve type guy. And then if he can average a couple of block shots, I think he's someone who's who's a keeper for them with marking in with maybe sext and how they see that. John Collins again, never been a big John Collins fan, but he's played, he's played better this year. He's got a year left on his contract, which is a big number of twenty six for really for what he does.

But John Collins is also the same age as Lowry Markin. He's not an old guy. You know, he came in young. So so these are guys that that you think they I don't know if the lall be with them, you know, next year, but I think they're guys who can be guys that that that are somewhat of a foundation. Now you still have to have a couple of these young

guys show up. The one guy who's who's played better, Uh, still don't know if I really like his game that much, but he has improved somewhat in this these first fifty games is Isaiah Collier. You know, he's he's a natural passer. Sometimes he gets too deep into the defense, into the paint and then and predetermines where he's gonna throw the pass, and and and he's turned over prone that way. But he's he's really looks like he's got a good feel early in off in the offense to to where the

ball is supposed to be. And the other thing I like about him is that he'll get it and he'll push it aggressively from free throw line to free throw line. So instead of walking it up like Kant George does and and saunter into an offense, Collier will really push it and he'll he'll he'll he'll uh make a quick speed pass to somebody up ahead to try and get something early, and that's what I just like that mindset that, you know, trying to push it, push it, to be

aggressive that way. He's a young guy. He's two years removed from high school, so he's got a ways to go. But I like some of his natural tendencies when he has the ball in his hand to get it to teammates. That that Now, his issue, obviously is he can't shoot, and so does that get appreciably better or at least better enough that that he can stay in the lineup and stay on the floor late in games and make some things happen. But I like his game a little bit.

It's growing on me a little bit. But a lot of the other guys, you know, the jury sort, and I'm not sure how many of them, if any of them, will be be here long term.

And your point, it's important to reiterate two years out of high school is he's a puppy. I mean, he's so young, but there are some things that he has that you can't necessarily teach. And then there are some things that he has to work on, namely shooting. If he puts in the work. Okay, tap into your knowledge forty plus years you know with the Jazz, do you have a success story that we can point to.

it quickly. And he also has a great, a great first step when he gets the ball in a half court offense, and he sees that he has a slight advantage on his guy, he can really he can put it on the floor and he can get two steps really quickly right to the dotted line. And then he he's got that powerful body. He's got like a Marcus Smart type body, and so he can he can get it. He can get it with speed. He sees the floor. Uh, he's gotta he's gotta smooth out those rough edges. Will

he ever be a serviceable shooter? Okay, Well, we'll see that. That was also a concern with Marcus Smart when he came into the league. And obviously he made himself into a bona fide uh A player in this league, and and and obviously was a Defensive Player of the Year a couple of years ago. You know, this kid has the chance to be something like that with his innate

speed feel for the game. Now, can he can he smooth out the other the other parts of his game to make him himself more valuable in someone who gets more extended time as he goes along. But but he's a guy who I would I would if I was a fan, I'd be keeping an eye on to see how he improves because he has the body and he has some of the innate of athleticism that you need in this league as a lead guard to have some success. Can he can he grow into that three years from

now when he's twenty three years old? Is he appreciably better and is he one of the guys you're counting on. That's one of the things that you want to take into account.

now Cody's had some injury issues. I'm pulling up. There's numbers right now. So Cody right now has played in twenty seven games.

You know, he's long, he's thin, okay whatever you know,

So what does that mean? You know? And uh uh you know my old colleague and and and obviously one of the one of you guys on on the radio station here weekly or coach Cheesa, you know, would always would always come back with, you know, if you brought up a guy that that he didn't he didn't like, or question about what he could what he could do to help you, he'd always come back with just this three word question, which was always very salient, you know,

as succinct as it could be. You'd bring up a guy and you'd say Cody Williams, Gordy, Cody, Cody Williams. He'd go to do what do what? Yeah? To do what? You know? And and that's what I would say about him. You know, somebody brings him up, I go to do what? You know?

a disappointment myself. I don't know what they see in him going forward. If if it's just he has to get his mindset, he has to get some toughness, he has to get some strength his body, He has to get a skill level up. Although you know, for me, for him on that if you're grading him out on a on a report card, you know, all those things are things that he has to get better at or he's not gonna, you know, graduate to the next class.

You know, that's that's just the way it is. And so you know, they have quite a few of those guys for me, but he's one that sticks out that you go, yeah, he just to me, it looks psych he's you know, not sure what he's doing out there and doesn't doesn't play with a lot of confidence and doesn't play with anyway. You know, like Collier, he makes a mistake, okay, throws up in the fourth throw whatever, But he plays with a certain amount of confidence and toughness,

at least offensively aggressiveness, I should say. But Cody Williams for me is uh is a is a big, big question mark, all right.

I think the building will be packed tonight. But when it comes to what JJ Reddick has now at his disposal, I was listening to JJ's media after the Jazz game and then he did some media I want to say it was yesterday maybe after practice. Made a point that with their roster now, the third best defender on the opposing team asterguard Offs Reeves. Now Austin is not Luca Lebron, but he's a good player. You can run stuff through

Austin Reeves. He's a capable ball handler, he passes it pretty well, and when he gets going, he can really score. But obviously the headline is Lebron and it's Luca. How do you think this is going to work? And what do you think JJ is going to try to implement to make sure because they now have the opportunity to play forty eight minutes of pro basketball with either Luka, Doncic or Lebron James. I still think Oklahoma City is head and shoulders above everybody. I will not bury the

Denver Nuggets, even though a lot of people have. Jamal Murray's been better as of late, but they have the best player on the planet, Nicola Jokic. But when it comes to what JJ Reddick has at his disposal, Jazz fans going to the game, what do you what do you think this Laker attack is going to look like right away? And what's best case as far as what it looks like when it's fully baked?

career in Davis and James. Now he's playing with James and Doncic and so he gets to do some things and maybe he's you know, if he's with the jazz team, I don't think he's as effective because he'd be asked to do too many things that he's not used to doing at a high volume level. But but I like the way he plays. I liked him at Oklahoma. You know, he played well, you know in college, was an all around kind of guy. But he's a guy who who

plays off of the strengths of his teammates. And he's been playing with a couple of great teammates, you know so far in l A and and that's been switched out. But we'll see what, you know, how it is going forward. But they still have a big problem with their roster. You know, Mark Williams. The trade didn't go through, and now, uh, the other kid just got hurt, you know, the other big guy that they have the name of Caseman at the moment with the Lakers, and so now you know

they're they're really down. You know, they're short big guy, whether it's Jared Vanderbilt is going to try and plug in there. It's gonna be tough. Their roster is not very good beyond those guys, and so they they have to rely when they get to the playoffs. They have to hope that Doncicic and James are healthy, that Reeves is healthy, which you know he's been for the most part. But Doncic and James are gonna be playing, you know, forty two, forty three, forty four minutes in playoff games.

And we've seen both guys be able to lift their teams up with the way that they play. And so I wouldn't put anything past a team that has a healthy Lebron James on it because he's He's always proven that he's that good, you know, when the when the real lights come on. So can they get past Okay, see, can they get past Memphis, which is a very good team when they're healthy. Can they get past a healthy

Denver team? You know these guys, these are tough, uh teams that that are going to give them a lot of problems. You know, it's Golden State going to be better, uh towards the end of the season, when when Jimmy Butler gets in in a flow. And if those guys are healthy, you know, with Green and Curry, you know, can they make some kind of noise in in the in the playoffs? It's you know, as we always say, Spence, the old worn out adage, right, the best players best

ability is his availability. And so that's what it comes down to when you get to the to the playoffs, is who's who's on the floor, who's healthy and and can they can they carry a team over a seven game stretch, you know, in that kind of an atmosphere.

did not want to live in Salt Lake City. What's it like when the trade is actually consummated and then for whatever reason it falls apart, then you have to remind the guy who trade to wait, No, we actually do.

So they got a deal done with Orlando where they were willing to trade Chris Morris, Greg Foster and a first round pick to the Orlando Magic for Ronnie Cycally. Cyclely was an offensive center, was a good player and would have fit in well with what the Jazz are doing at that time. And the Jazz in Orlando actually

made the trade. Chris Morris and Greg Foster went to Orlando, they did their physical, they actually attended an Orlando practice wild and then they were pulled off the court after practice, and Ronnie Cyclely was balking about coming, balking about coming, something about you know, whether he wanted to play here or he wanted his contract extended, if he was coming something something, And so finally the trade was just called off and the parties and Bob said, you know what,

there's too much heavy lifting going on here. We're just going back to what we had. And so Greg Foster and Chris Morris come back to the Jazz. They have a meeting with Jerry Sloan. You guys got a problem. You know, this is the NBA, this is the business. Both guys are like, now, you know, we get it. Whatever,

and we ended up. The Jazz ended up that year going on and and UH making another run to the to the their second NBA Finals in ninety eight, with both those guys playing minutes and rotation and and UH and Greg Foster doing his famous throat slash and and at near the end of Game four in LA to to help the Jazz go get over the hump and and then get to the NBA Finals again. And you know, that's just part of the business. You know, you hope you got guys who who understand that I got a

young guy like Dalton Connect. You know, he's a rookie. Okay, you know he's a little bit of an older rookie. But you know, you know, guys, Jerry Sloan will always say, you know, are your feelings hurt, you know. Okay, well you know you got about ten minutes to get over that and and then we got we got work to do. And and that's just the business, you know, And it's

an unfortunate part. Uh. And it's a difficult part because sometimes you know, people's families are involved and and uh, those kinds of things, and and uh, you have to deal with that. And that's all part. That's why the trade deadline, being in the middle of the season like that is really is really uneasy for everybody because nobody wants to have to go through that and be in situations like that.

play the Clippers tomorrow night. They never used to. Whenever you'd go to LA, you never used to play both teams on the same trip.

four times in a row, which is unusual. That's about the best thing I can come up with for any interesting storyline about the game tonight, Spence, because otherwise, really, let's be honest, it's just game fifty one out of eighty two in early February that nobody really cares much about, other than maybe Luca Doncic and Lebron James both play. Maybe they both.