Live in studio.
After very successful johnts down to spring training, where he was in eighty degree weather every day, looking very tan and very rested. Forty years with the Utah Jazz Richard Smith Onday Wednesday afternoon, Smitty, Happy Wednesday, Sir?
Are you same to you? Spence?
It's good to be back in Salt Lake for a few days anyway.
And you got something else coming up?
Well? I always making a priority to stop by the drive, you know, whenever I'm in town and and make sure that I can I can bring your show down to the h down to the depths where it usually isn't isn't used to being when I'm on the air.
Well, that's not true, as we all know. But what are you? Are you out again? You have another trip planned?
You know what? You know what doing? Spence?
I last year I volunteered to work at the UH the Indian Wells Tennis tournament down in Palm Springs, and that's coming around starting on Monday, and so we'll go heading back down there. I'm gonna work down there as a bombluntier and uh, I love you know, you know me, Spence. I love being out among the people, you know, and I'm a guy of the of the people, and so anything I can do to to help out the cause, uh,
that that's where you'll find me. So so last year we did it, and and the first few days I worked. The first day, who walks right by me? And I do one of those double takes with Steve Nash and I go, is that Stevens? And then like the minute, lady, he walked back, you know by. And then next day who walks by Derk Novitski you know, just cruising, cruising, uh, cruising along the plaza there. So it's it's a it's
a fun event. It's considered by tennis officionados as the fifth major, and so everybody plays both the the A t P and the w t A play uh, and so it's a fun tournament to be be part of. And so so we're heading down there, uh this week.
Yeah, good for you, good for you.
Well, while you were away, we had some news drop here locally where the University of Utah is now looking for a new head coach, Craig Smith relieved of his duties in his fourth year. It's a six year contract. He's due roughly five mill a little less than that. I think they're still paying Larry, So it's a lot of dead money to make coaches that you decided to move on from. Before we get into these kind of the nuts and bolts of but what was your reaction when you heard the news?
Well, I was, first of all, I was very surprised that happened during the season. I was at the at the Kansas game the week earlier where they played well and and and be beat a good Kansas team that's been not not playing very well lately. But but we all know what they're about. And then they had the uh, the tough uh, the tough game against Central Florida the other day. Tough, tough way to lose a game at the end. But I'll tell you one thing, Craig Smith is is a very good coach.
Uh.
He works extremely hard at it. His teams really get after especially defensively. I'm surprised they did this. I don't know if it was a move made because of the coaching or they expect more. I don't know what you would expect more out of this roster. I don't think it's it's a great roster. I think it's what it really is. When you look at the standings is that they're a middle of the road Big twelve team at the moment. I don't know if it was an indictment
on recruiting and not getting better players. I don't know what the thinking was behind the scenes, but I think it was, for me, my own personal opinion, very premature and very shortsighted. When you have a good coach like Craig Smith at the helm of your program, I think there are other ways to go about trying to strengthen and increase what you're trying to do.
With that some good points there, and you know, let's kind of dig into some of the elements of this conversation before we get into what could come next and what that looks like. You know, my instant reaction was just kind of gutted for a good man, right, There's a personal side of these things that I don't think we cover very well on the media side, you know, And as you know, you know, my father was never a coach, but he was an executive and we uprooted
several times because of his career. There's a family that has things, you know, kind of thrown into a little bit of chaos when a father loses a job and you've got to figure something out. The money, obviously, is a nice parachute in college sports. The reason why coaches negotiate buyouts like this is you're hired to be fired oftentimes. But like you, I was a little bit surprised. I kind of raised my eyebrows a little bit. So let's talk about the timing of it and why this could be.
I've heard people say this gives the program some runway to retain some of the players, to get them back next year. I honestly don't know on this roster who you really want back next year.
That's just my opinion.
Because Gabe's a senior, so is Loss, and I think Jake Wallen's a nice player. I think Ezra Asar has shown some nice things. But I've heard that's one of the reasons I can't coroborate that. I really don't know why, because they had just be the two Kansas schools. This cannot be made just because they had a road loss to UCF. And if it's made because of that, that's like in a vacuum, which is unfair. So why do you think they decided to do this when there are still games left to be played?
Well, I think One of the things is probably the notion that behind closed doors, if they thought, and they being the Athletic Department, Mark Harlan and whoever advises him or works with him in those kinds of things, if they were talking about this and it was something they had decided in their minds, we're going to do this anyway.
It's an eventuality that we've come to the conclusion of doing, then you might as well do it, you know, when you feel comfortable that that's the decision and we're going to make anyway, you cut it clean, you cut it early. And then it also gives it gives you a chance a leg up on maybe other coaches who are either out there or coaches who might be uh interested or and or available, uh to get a head up on on maybe getting in with them in terms of conversations
about about the job. The flip side of it for me, Spence is when you do this in the college ranks, it really in some regards, it really smacks of a little bit of uh urgency by the program. Uh, you know, a little bit of maybe excitability by the by the decision makers that they're uh, they're nervous or they're anxious about what's going on, and they're not They don't quite like what's happening now, so they're just gonna they're just gonna cut the cord. Uh. With that, I don't I
don't like that feeling. I don't like the fact that that that you're not letting that coaching staff and those players see through the end of the season to see what could happen. You know, they've had some good wins, but but hey, you know, the the other part of it also is there they're one in seven on the road, uh, you know, in the Big twelve.
But but you know.
They look at the standing and say, well, do you the Big twelve or sixteen teams and their tenth and they're right in the middle. To me, we talked about that spence when the season began. That's what I expected them to be. I didn't expect them to be any world beaters in the in the Big twelve. Uh. They got a lot of heavy hitters in this league. And you know, if they want to make something, they want to make something happen now and get ahead of the curve.
That's probably what I would assume they're they're thinking. I'm not sure it's a good look for the university when you do that, you know, during a season, Because to me, then it would say if I'm a coach, if I'm a perspective coach and I'm looking at that as a possible landing spot for me, the first thing I would say would be, Okay, who are the people calling the shots? Is it the the booster club, is it the athletic director? Are there other people involved in that decision making process?
And who are they that I'm going to be working with that would make this kind of a decision during a season with the current coaching staff, That's a thing that would would come back to me as a question I would want to have answered, you know, as a perspective candidate, because that tells me that that you know, maybe the you know, the people you're working for aren't with you in the row boat when it's sinking and aren't willing to stay with you when it's not going
as well as they want it to that they jump ship on you. And that's a concern that I would have as well.
For four years of data with Craig and you know, some good moments, some good wins, I just I'm sitting or shaking my head that we haven't had an NCAA tournament team here since twenty sixteen. I mean, it's it's nearly been a decade. And ultimately, I you know, I think a lot of this, from what I've been told, was booster driven. I don't know how much of this was just Mark making a call.
Uh, you know.
I could foresee a scenario where the Huntsman's of the world, the Echoes of the world, the Garths of the world, called Taylor Randall and say we're not with this. It's not working. It's not it's not moving the direction that we want. I know, you're out of town. Josh Grant came on the show two days ago and just went scorched earth on the entire thing, and he even said he was excited.
Did they decided to do this?
I can't coroborate any of this, but Josh's claim is several alumni tried to contact Craig to off for help, and Craig wasn't open to that, which I'm conflicted about if I'm honest, Because if I'm Craig, I say I'm running a program. I have a team to coach. You know, his job is not to uh, you know, kind of cout out or whatever the alumni want him to do. But when the heavy hitters, the guys that are writing
the checks aren't happy with the directionsmittee. If you're Mark Carlin, you probably are kind of forced to do something.
Well, I mean, and and that's the thing.
If you if you're the head guy, you know, Mark Carlan is the athletic director, then who are you answering to?
And and who who is your your constituency? You know, Look, if you know anything about basketball, if you're if you're a student of the game, if you profess to love the game and watch it, and you're sitting courtside and you're you're watching these players, and you're watching the teams that come through and who you're playing against, you cannot look at You could not look at the roster, you know, for the for Utah this year and and say, oh,
that's a highly competitive team that's gonna be you know, you know, battle for a top four spot in the conference standings.
Uh.
They they don't have that kind of personnel. Souh. You as the athletic director and the people making those decisions, is that what you're basing your your your response, your your knee jerk reaction to h Are you doing it because you don't like the way the coach handles his team? You do it because you think they're not running the right offense, their their defense is it's stout enough in tough circum you know, whatever it is that that you
that you think you're hanging your hat on. But but this team, you know, this program the way it is at the current time, and and and I can see some of this. You know, I'm a Craig Smith fan because I know him somewhat not great, but I know that he's a very good coach, and I know that he works extremely hard, you know, at it, and he's got a sincere will uh with his team and gets his team to buy into his approach and what he's
trying to do. His issue this year has been that he just doesn't have the horses to stay in the race. That that's just that's a fact if you study basketball, if you know anything about it. They also had what, to me Spence was a very soft pre conference schedule, and so that makes their record look maybe a little bit better than what the team really is. And I
understand that also in terms of college scheduling. Every college team tries to get you know, what they call built in wins in November and December to get your team, you know, positively affected and get them confidence for for
going into their conference uh seasons each year. But if they made this decision based on boosters and based on you know, people who are paying you know, the money into ni L's or whatever it is, and they're letting those guys you know, have a loud voice in the room, then then that's really a major problem for the whole program in my opinion, because now you're you're expecting a coach to do miracles with a limited roster and limited resources that they have available to them.
Yeah, I agree with you on the talent level of this team. I just every and I watch every game. I watch every minute of every Utah basketball game, and I've been to a grip of them this year, and I just felt like Craig did not have the same amount of talent as his peers did. And Big twelve plays specifically, you know, teams kind of rolling into the Huntsman Center with better players, or you know, Craig going
out on the road and going into gyms. That Houston game, it wasn't even fair, Like, it wasn't even a fair fight. At one point, I think they had eight turnovers in three baskets because Houston defensively overwhelmed you. They could not even get a shot off. So I do believe that there is a talent issue with the current roster. Do respect to the young men who are working, young men who were working hard to get better. But the problem, tommitdt is in that's on the coach too, you know.
So like of course, ultimately I am with you when it comes to, you know, being gutted and seeing a good man losing his job. But there is part of me that doesn't mind this statement that this is not good enough. We are a basketball community that once upon a time had a team at the University of Utah not just make the NCAA tournament, but make deep runs
and almost win national championships. And I don't think it's a bad thing to want a different standard while at the same time feeling bad for a good man who's lost his job. I think two things can be true there.
Yeah, well, I think again, I think there's other forces that get involved in that.
I don't know.
Again, I don't know, pretend to know what the University of Utah scenario is in that regard, I'm just surprised that it happens, you know, during the course of the season, when you've been watching this team and you just came off, you know, where you saw that a team that's not as talented can go out and uncertain nights, you know, give Arizona a run for the money. You know, play Kansas very well. You know, play b YU very well, which is a very you know, so you know, yeah,
it's been an uneven season for them. I understand that, I have to. I have to guess that they wanted to get ahead of the curve on a decision that had already been made at some other point, and they were just trying to figure out the best way to do it and to maybe, uh, you know, get up ahead of the pack on a new hiring.
All right, before we catch a break, we'll do pro basketball coming up on the other side, Let's talk smitty about what could come next. So, you know, one of my favorite things about March Madness and the NCAA Tournament is watching coaches that get an automatic you know, qualifier spot after winning the Hurriz or something, win a couple of games and their life changes because they parlay that run into a bigger job at a bigger school where you get paid in a way that you never have
to work again. I mean, your life literally changes if you're one of these coaches that rises up through the ranks. So there's that direction, and Jeff Bordella from ESPN to put together list of these young coaches that are in line to get a bigger job u Se San Diego, Eric Olsen, Colorado State, Nico medved South Dakota State, Eric Henderson,
Boise State, Leon Rice u c Irvine, Russell Turner. Those are the four coaches he lists as candidates for Utah that fit the mold of younger coaches at smaller schools that are kind of rising through the ranks. Now on the other side, the community seems to have latched on to this idea of Alex Jensen as your head coach
and Andre Miller as your assistant. And five years ago when Mark fired Larry Kascoviak, I was asked about Alex as a possibility, and I thought smitty at the time you were working with him, he was Quinn's lead assistant with the work he did with Rudy and how many games you guys want. I thought Alex would get a look and get an MBA job. Five years later, he still hasn't out an NBA job. Maybe he views this as I am labeled as a lifetime assistant in the pros, and maybe he looks at the Utah job.
What are your thoughts?
Well, I don't know. I can't speak for Alex. I don't know what his you know, what his druthers would be. I think, you know, the whole idea of the concept of trying to bring trying to bring back your uh your former heroes, you know, to resurrect and save the day and and and get you right on top at the mountaintop. I think that's I think that's a little preposterous to expect that, you know, type of reaction.
Uh, you know.
I think people are just grasping it thrust. Now, these guys might have an interest, they may come and do it. I don't know any of that. I think what you're trying to do as a program is you're trying to find the best coach that you think can get you
good players where you can compete. And and again, I'm going back to what I think and in my my own opinion as to what they were probably looking at in this regard with Craig Smith, is that is that they probably looked and said, hey, we just don't have We got to have someone who can recruit and get in better players to be able to compete, you know, the way that we think we should be because his basketball knowledge is acumen, his approach, all those things have
proven to be successful. Do they think someone else they they have on their radar can bring in those players? Do you bring in those It's not like the old days, Spence, where you're recruited and you just tried to recruit on reputation and coaching and and the things that you can give to a player to help them along their path. Uh, and then you know you didn't have to worry about nil stuff. Now it seems to be all related to
how much money you have available. And and you know, the whole college thing to me is so out of whack, and it's so so way out out there in space, because this is really not college athletics. This is now just another version of a pro approach because you're in fact, it's it's really even you can even look at it and and as you study it say that it's even more so another step beyond like the NBA, for example,
which has salary caps in certain restricts. In in college you can just get offer guys whatever you can you have to offer them, and there's no there's no contracts. So the player can come, he can come for a freshman year. It doesn't work, it doesn't you know, whatever it is, he's playing better than what you thought he was or the nil that you have available for him. So he goes to another school the next year. You know, he does don't have to sit out a year. He
doesn't have to, you know, get out of conference. You can just do whatever he wants. And so you know this, this notion of the wild wild West in college basketball is really true.
And if you if you.
Want to be one of those one of those guys that is competing, if that's your thing, then you have to do like the approach the b YU is taken, which is jumping all in and saying we're gonna set it up like an NBA program, or we're gonna we're gonna get a lot of money in the n i L and we're gonna start recruiting guys and you know, there's no way a b YU program gets in with a conversation, even with an AJ debanza.
Uh, you know five years ago, there's no way.
So so if your if that's what your goal is, if that's what your aim is toward, then you jump all in. And maybe that's what this is about, is about the you saying, Okay, we gotta we gotta get we gotta get some some headway here. So we gotta get a new start, and we had to figure out how to redirect the program from where it is at the current time.
Josh Eiler your interim head coach. His first task is McHale's center against Arizona tonight.
That's an easy one.
Six thirty pre game seven o'clock coverage here on ESPN seven hundred. Coming up next, we will talk some pro basketball. The Jazz are in action tonight. Luca Doncers put up a triple double against his old team, Smitdie Liven Studio is brought to you by Burt Brothers. With over thirty years of experience and nearly thirty locations. Burt Brothers AC certified technicians bring expertise and professionalism to every interaction industry,
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All right, we got one more big segment with Richard smith live in studio.
We're gonna bring in Josh Furlong, who covers the University of Utah for our friends at KSL Smitty, Let's bring an off air conversation on air because when Alex Jensen was Quinn's lead assistant, you were with the Jazz, so you got to know Alex, Alex was G League Coach of the Year, and you were outlining why it is such a tough league to coach and what kind of strictly basketball wise, what kind of coach is Alex Jensen.
Well, the first thing is he's very organized, He's very you know, he he learned a ton and worked for a lot of years, you know, with a very a good coach, but a very tough coach in Rick mcgarretty. And so he took a lot of the good things, you know, the the rec would bring to the court every day in terms of how they approached uh their their workouts, how they approached their player development, how they
approached their attention to detail. You know, those those are the things that that he really has has taken as part of his his playbook so to speak, you know, in the in the coaching ranks. But but all you have to do is look at any coach and and the and the coach right now with Oka see is a good example. Mark Dano, who coached the G League team for ok C. They hired him as a young coach. I think he was the youngest coach in the NBA at the time they.
Hired that's right.
But they hired him because they felt confident that he knew what he was doing as a coach, how he was approaching the job with with with his team. And obviously they've gotten players and they been able to build their team up to what it is now and and but just think of it this way, Spence and we used to talk to the guys about this all the time who are on our various G League teams over
the years. The the the tough part about coaching in the G League for a coach is is that nobody who's there wants to be there.
It's a good way to put it.
Yeah, okay, everybody who everybody, the players, the coaches, the trainer, the pr guy, you know, whoever it is, they all want to be somewhere else, meaning they want to be in a higher profile job, they want to be in the NBA or they you know whatever. However you would you would uh uh determine that. But at the same time, they're also everybody who has chosen to be there. In other words, you know, we would speak to the guys all time. Hey, Spence, check its you you're player, you're
our backup point guard. Well I'm giving you some leeway just being a backup on the team period. Yeah okay, yeah, but you look at a guy and you say you have chosen to be here, even though we all know you want to be somewhere else. And so just think
of it from a coaching perspective. You've got twelve guys, thirteen guys, however many they have on their rosters now in the G League, and you're trying to coalesce those guys and get them all moving in the right direction and trying to trying to get something done in a positive way in terms of learning, in terms of playing, in terms of executing, and.
Ultimately trying to win games.
At the same time, as a coach, you know, all these guys not only want to be in another situation, but they're all trying to look out for their best interest.
Good, right, really good.
So they're all moving, you know, in different directions, with different motivations, et cetera. So as a coach in that league, it's very tough. That's why you get I think Spence, if you if you're paying attention to G League games. You get these wild swings during games where one team goes on a twenty one to two run and then the other team calls a time out whatever, and they come out, and then the next four minutes the other team goes on an eighteen and zero run or whatever
it is. And it's because you're as a coach, you're trying to keep all your guys moving in the same direction and trying to get the same result, and it's a very difficult job to do. So if you have done that and you've shown you have success there, then to me, that's always been a big factor in looking at someone as a potential candidate for some other coaching job that they might be interested in.
What about Alex as a person his personality, He's always truck me as very level headed, very measured, very even keel. You reference working for Rick, he also worked for a good yet tough coach in Quinn Right, And I would imagine, and I'm sure you have insight into this, being an assistant coach for Quinn Snyder probably at times was great and probably at times you went home not feeling awesome
about yourself. Right, He's a tough guy to probably work for and work with, even though I respect him, he's a good coach. So Alex as a person as opposed to a basketball coach, tell us about.
That, Well, he's just a he's a quiet guy.
Yeah, he's.
You know, very a very friendly guy. But he's not an exuberant, you know person, So he doesn't he doesn't get out of his element very often. When I've seen him in practices where where things aren't going right and someone's not doing what they've been asked to do or been instructed to do and doing it a certain way, he can be very stern and very direct. Uh, but but he does it in a in a manner that
is respectful to the people around him. And in other words, it's not a yelling match, it's not a shouting match. It's not a you know, waving your hands all over the place kind of making a spectacle type of thing.
You know.
He does it in a very succinct, very matter of fact, step by step process to try and get to where you're you're you're trying to go. And Uh, in that regards, he's a very calming influence, you know, for them, I think with the jazz staff for the several years that he was working with Quinn. He was a good balance to Quinn's fiery nature, uh, both on the court and and and you know, off the court, in practice and
and meetings and that kind kind of thing. I think he brings a certain a certain resolve and a certain uh steadiness.
Uh that that is uh, that.
Is needed in a lot of situations, especially in the pro game, when you have so many games coming at you and and you have so much stuff, you know that that's changing almost every day. You need someone who's organized, someone who thinks through things, someone who has an approach uh that that is a step by step approach that makes sense to get you to where you want to go. And he's, uh, he's that kind of guy.
One more thing here, because I didn't get to ask you about another candidates. I'm using air quotes as candidates because I don't know. But it's another guy that you know, and that's Johnny Bryant, who currently is the associate head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And they are awesome.
And Johnny was with Tom in New York, right, And I think a lot of people believe Johnny an up and coming young coach. Maybe at some point we'll get a head coaching opportunity. I don't know that this is something he would be interested in based off of just where he's at in his career, but that's the name people have thrown around, you know, Johnny as well, what do you what do you think?
Well, again, I think it spends a lot for me in my opinion. A lot of that is because Johnny's got the ties to the University of Utah, you know, from from many many years ago. You know, he's proven himself as a very good player development guy, as a very very good again, Johnny is a very organized coach. He's also somewhat like Alex and that he's more of a quiet voice in the room. Uh. He's he's not a an exuberant guy. He's not a yeller. He's not a you know, a high energy type of personality in
the room. He's more he's he's more laid back, he's more succinct. He gets his point across very directly. He comes from a background where he was in from a lot of years in the player development world. Where he was he had to be organized, you had to have a certain plan of attack, you had to do things in a structured manner. Uh, in order to try and see results. Uh. And that's what he's that's what he's
done at the pro level. Paul millsap aknew him, and coming out of the last NBA lockout year, Paul talked the Jazz into bringing him in as a player development guy, working with players individually and skilled development. And and Johnny worked his way on onto the NBA bench and as an assistant coach, uh and that kind of thing. But he's he's always been a very structured, organized guy with a quiet leadership.
And and and.
You know that would be somebody that that would be interesting for because he also has ties. You know, he's from the Oakland area originally, so he has ties outside of Utah. Uh. You know that would potentially in that kind of scenario, Uh, possibly help in terms of recruiting and and uh, you know, having contacts with people, you know in other parts of the country.
Give us some perspective on how hard it is to play at McHale Center, where Utah is playing tonight.
Well, you know, the mccale Center is an older facility where the fans are right on top of you. It was built at the same time as the facility at Arizona states. They're identical to each other. The fans in Tucson, they are. They're very rambunctious. It's funny because the students show up, the students get rowdy. But then there's a section of the of the of the spectators who are older retired folks who live in Tucson who go to the games because they have a lot of money and
they don't have anything else going on in Tucson. And so the Arizona the University of Arizona men's basketball team for years has been like their pro team, and so all of those people come and they invest a lot, not only you know, financially, but also uh, you know, with their activity at the games. And so it's an interesting crowd. But it's a tough, tough place to play, you know, partly because of the.
Crowd, but more more more.
Importantly because Arizona always has very good teams and very good talent on the floor.
Yeah, no doubt.
So.
Our pregame coverage for Utah Hoops tonight begins at six thirty and then tip off for Josh Eilert's first game as the coach is at seven against Arizona and the McHale Center. I'm sure Josh is like, couldn't you wait, couldn't you wait?
Well?
And and think of it too, Spencer, the Arizona's coming off that that brutal loss UH to BYU a few days ago. I was watching that game, and you know, the BYU, to their credit, got the benefit of two calls at the end of the game on the road in the Kale Center, which which you you you wouldn't put that in a movie script because you'd say, well, that wouldn't that would never happen.
But it happened.
UH to b what he's benefit, But they took advantage of it, and UH and made a payoff with those two Richie Saunders free throws at the end and UH and held on for for a big win for them and and UH a great win for their program in terms of where they're trying to go.
You think Richie's a pro, You think Richie can make money play?
I do.
I like I like him, you know, I like him Spence because he's got good size as a guard six five sixty six. He plays with intensity, He's he is not afraid. He comes off those screens and is ready to catch and shoot he's gotten better this year, you know, under Kevin Young and his staff. And again we're talking about skill development. But but what Richie brings for me is he brings an intensity on both ends of the floor. He really plays hard, and he really plays with a
certain level of fearlessness, which I like. I really think he's he's been been a terrific player for them. I think he's been their MVP this year. Totally agree, you know, and I really like him as a pro prospect.
Because we were debating this earlier, back to the whole talent thing, and this is not a hard exercise to do. I mean, if you're at home or at work, he can just google past National champions or Final four teams. Almost all of them, Smitty have at least two or three NBA guys in one or two like European pro types.
The Duke team that won the National championship with John Shire and the zu bec kid maybe your only exception, right, I know John got a little bit of a look to be a pro and I think zu Beek got a couple of contracts. But even our teams here, you know, Rick had teams with Van Horn Metala, you know, Hanno of course, and then Doliak Britten obviously, Andre multiple b A guys, multiple pros, not just NBA guys, but European
pros as well. How many pros do you think Kevin has on that b YU roster right now?
Well, well, totally. There will be a few guys who will play overseas.
You know.
I think he's probably got four or five guys that will play uh professionally somewhere.
I like the demon kid, he's uh.
It'll be interesting to see if he's if he stays another year, you know, I think he could use that personally. I think he's uh. Sometimes he doesn't play full speed to me. Sometimes he really shows his skill level and shows the things that he's capable of doing. For me, he doesn't seem to do it enough. He doesn't seem to Sometimes he seems to me to be playing in second gear.
But I like him.
I like his skill level, and I like his his feel for the game, you know, and his size obviously is is an nb A type uh type size for that for that position.
You know.
The other kid, the catching's kid, it just has had such an uneven uh season, you know, I I would assume he'd be coming back. You know, there was a lot of talk at the beginning of the year that he was a one and done kid. I haven't seen that personally. I think he's played, he's paid too erratically during the course of the year. Uh to uh to warrant coming out in the draft. Uh you know, but again who knows. In this day and age, you never know, Spence.
It's one of the things that is set up and for these kids, uh that that helps them is that they can always go into the draft and do workouts for NBA teams, and then there's a certain date where they have to make a decision I'm staying in the draft or I'm pulling out. And the smart kids every I've always said this for years, every every college kid should enter the draft, no matter what year of school they're in, because then that gives them a window in
the spring to go and do pro workouts. You go to the Jazz, you go to the Denver Nuggets, you go to the Phoenix Suns. You get a workout, you a see where you measure up against the other guys who they happen to have in a workout that day. But more importantly, you get direct feedback from the NBA personnel people who say, Spence checkets, you have no left hand. You cannot go left. Everybody knows it. It's in a bold lettering and the top of it. So you need
to go back to school and work on that. That's what's going to help you in a potential program. So they get this kind of feedback, and then you can always you can take that and go wow. I got a lot of good feedback from these workouts and from the pro personnel guys telling me what I need to work on. Now I'm pulling out of the draft and I'm going back to school. I don't know why every
college player doesn't do that. You know, it really makes a lot of sense for them, and it's there for them to help them make rational decisions about what they want to do with their you know, their careers going forward. So BYU has some guys who will who will be in that position I think in the spring, and will be interesting to see how it plays out for them.
All right, let's do a little jazz here, you know, yazz.
You know finally, well, I mean, ultimately we all know the deal and we're all just kind of riding this thing out and hoping for a little lottery luck and maybe a little Cooper flag action. So it's tough to make it all that interesting. But the latest Jazz young player who has played pretty well is Kyle Philipowski, who over the past six games, he's fifteen points, he's seven boards, he's sixty two percent from the floor, and he had his first two twenty point double doubles during you know,
the past six games. So he's looked pretty good as of late. He's the latest young player. We talked about Kyante and Isaiah kind of the the rotational decision Will is made to start Isaiah and bring Kiante off the bench last time. But what are you seeing as of late now The Kyle's getting some minutes.
Well, and he's going to continue to get minutes. And again this is this is all in the area of player development and trying to find out which guys you think have a chance to continue progressing, continue moving up the ladder, might be able to do something for you down the road somewhere, you know, in a more meaningful setting. And and Kyle Philipowski his his turn is up. And so I heard tonight that you know, again, marketing isn't going to play again tonight, so you know, Philipowski will
probably get some good run again. And and that's the way they're playing it. And it's you know, you can say they're not trying to win games. You can say that they're trying to uh develop guys, you know, give them opportunities, and that's where they that's where they get them. That's what they've chosen to do. Instead of a Kyle Opowski, who in a so called normal NBA setting would be doing this in the G league situation, he's now doing
it in the NBA situation. So there's arguments both ways, because you say, well, you know, he really should be at the G League and they should be working on specific things with him in terms of his improvement and development. But then you say, hey, he's now he's playing in the NBA and he's being able to to play with against NBA guys and so he's getting that kind of experience that you can't get anywhere else. And so that's where you find how how the guys can can get better,
how can they improve? I think the Collier kid has improved this year. Yeah, sure, you know, he's he looks like you know, I mean there's a lot of holes in his game, not the least of which is his decision making at times on the fly and the and the passes to go into the fourth row and the stands and or where he tries to make a pocket pass with his three defenders in the lane, and it's it's just ill advised. And and and he and he's and he's, uh, you know, he's having a tough time
shooting the ball. So that's something that he's gonna have to get get better at. But but he looks like he has a feel for the game and maybe that's something that uh uh that will continue to improve for him. And and these will be a couple of guys that they can work with uh during the summer on certain things that they see. And it's just part of that developmental package that that the Jazz have chosen to go in that direction.
All right, Smitty, before I set you loose, Uh, let's end with this because everybody in the NBA world is talking about it. As Luka Doncic faced his old team last night put up a triple double uh Oklahoma City. But every measurable metric isn't just the favorites in Vegas they're the favorite, but you know, their net differential is flirting with all time and they're still on pace to win north of seventy games even though they're forty six and eleven. They did lose just the other night, but
they're the favorite with Luca and Lebron. How much of a legitimate threat this year are the LA Lakers?
Well this year?
Yeah, we always we always say this Spencer and it becomes a passe. But it really depends on their health. I mean, because they're gonna have to, you know, lean on Doncic and James to play forty one forty two minutes a game in in playoff games, and those guys are gonna have to be one hundred percent and they're gonna have to be able to to.
Go full bore.
If they're able to do that, if they're able to play in in in games where they're not playing back to backs and they don't have the travel issues that you have during the regular season, and they're and they're healthy, Uh, then you surround them with some some complimentary role players, whether it's Hachimura or whether it's the Reeves kid or whoever you got to help you in that regard. But those guys will have to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Now you can also do that in playoff situations, Spence, because playoff games tend to be slower, they tend to be less possessions, they tend to be more controlled possessions. And with James and Doncic, you know, those are things that could help them during the course of a potential six or seven game series where where they're able to to save some energy and be able to play at
a pace that that suits them a little bit better. So, you know, I've always said this, any team that has Lebron James on it and at least another guy, meaning a top level guy. He had Anthony Davis for years. Of course before that had Dwayne Wade and and Chris Bosh. But with this team, if Doncic is healthy and James is healthy, I don't put anything past him because don Chic is a special talent, and James has shown that he can he can do this, you know, against anybody
at any time. And it's still is still getting it done at age forty, So you know, is it possible. Yeah, yeah, it's possible. You know, will it happen, Well, you know, we'll see. There's a lot of good teams in that mix. I think there's a lot of teams in the West that could come out if they're healthy and playing the way that they expect to play. I think it'll make for the playoffs to be exciting.
All right, my friend. Always great to see you. Welcome back for a moment. If I don't see you, enjoy the tennis tournament. It's good to be Richard Smith.
There you go. Hey, I can't I can't deny that spent