Richard Smith In-Studio talking NBA Playoffs, pre-draft process, Jazz No. 5 pick + more

and then you have nowhere to go but downhill. That's what That's what it was like for me.

the thing just took off. Yeah, and none of us knew where it went, and we just saw it fly over the over the trap and over the trees and over the next box and then it disappeared. And we looked at each other like that ball must have gone like two twenty thirty yards or something. I don't know where it went, but sir, I turned I turned to you, Spence. I don't think you hear it. Heard me when I said, Spence, they moved the green. It's over here. It's over here. Yeah.

and uh it's still acted in that. And it was good to to hang out with him on the golf course.

teasing Tim on the air. But he he did a great job for us, for the for the organization all those years he was involved. Yeah.

of golf for so long. But you know that that that kind of reminds me that that the semantics in the language spence is a little bit like when you and I play golf, I know that there's you taught me a great phrase to use along with my buddy Chris Lino, who told me this a couple of years ago, said when he when he's walking to the cart off the green, and he said, there's a difference when the guy tells you I got a five, or he says to you, I'll take a five, and I know that's

that's uh that in the same vein spence, I know you you walk off a lot of greens and just yell over and I'll take a four. I'll take it for I.

have fun with it. And people who get all wrapped up in what their score is or what the technicalities are when they're playing a fun round, you know, on on a Saturday morning, or losing sight of what it's supposed to be all about. You know, yeah, and it's one of the great people to be reminded of that lesson about right. We had a great time on Friday. We did fun to hang out with you guys. Thank you, no, thank you for the invite. Last thing on this and

then we'll move on. Was one thing really changed my.

out here to have a good time. We're not out there like during the round because you can drive yourself crazy with every single minute adjustment you feel like you have to make while you're playing, But then you lose sight of the fact that we're outside for four hours in the sunshine having a good time.

on separate flights and fly to the LA area. And then they spend last week about a four or five day period prior to the Memorial Day weekend getting going to agent workouts in Thousand Oaks, in Santa Monica, in Huntington Beach, and in various places on north of LA And they're all in different gyms, and you always they're coordinating with each other about you know, who's gonna have a workout at ten in the morning and with their five guys and all the all the people from the

teams want to be there, and so they don't want to miss the workout for a guy who's who's working out in another gym, and so the agent says, well, we'll do ours at one o'clock. So all you guys at the ten o'clock workout in Santa Monica can then jump in your car and get on the four oh five and drive up the Thousand Oaks and get to the gym in time for the one o'clock workout there.

And then some of you got to come back to U. C. L A. At four o'clock for the workout that one one agency is going to have with their three guys. And I mean it's really it's really a jumble, and sometimes you have to divide your forces because you have a lot of guys from your organization that are there watching the workouts, maybe conducting some interviews at hotels, sometimes right there at the gym, you know, on the side of the gym, while guys are walking out of the gym.

It really becomes a hodgepodge sometimes depending on who's available and who you want to talk to and who you want to reach out to. And then you're also working with the agents at that time about guys they represent who you may have an interest in bringing to your market for a more full scale workout with your coaches in tow running the workouts and being able to do interviews and and and do a player profiles and and

those kinds of things. And so they've got all that stuff, all that so called travel stuff is in the bank. So now they're starting to invite players uh to their to their their home market. So the Jazz are working on scheduling guys to come in for workouts. They're working with other teams, so they're calling their their counterparts in Denver and Phoenix and and Sacramento and Golden State. Hey, you bringing in the kid from Rutgers on Thursday. Can you send them here on Friday so we can get

a look at them and that kind of thing. So you're coordinating with the teams as well as coordinating with

the agents. So there's a lot of moving parts. For a lot of years, our point man on that was Walt Perrin, who is our vice president player personnel for a long time, and and Walt was always going crazy this time of year, mixing and matching and moving all the chess pieces around and and and it never works out the way you want to because a guy always drops out, or a guy missed a flight, or a guy twisted his ankle yesterday in Denver and now he can't work out for you today. And so she got

all those moving parts going on. And then add on top of that, you've now got also a contingency that's going to go over to Treviso, Italy in the next week to watch European guys do the same thing that was done in Chicago here at the NBA pre Draft camp.

So the European pre draft camp will be held in Treviso, which is just outside of Venice, Italy, and a lot of guys trying and draw the long straw so they can get a trip over Italy for a week to watch some of the Italian players and get some good food, you know, in the early June before they're really cranking out the draft, which, as you mentioned, is the last week of June.

you because you have a top five pick. So I would imagine that opens up avenues and doors that the Jazz wouldn't have if they were only at twenty one. Right, So you have a top five pick, people will answer your phone call, they want to talk to you. What are you trying to accomplish throughout the process of these individual workouts, some player.

draft camp for all thirty guys. They put it in a big, big binder. You would have a meeting with all of your decision makers, with all your your people within your organization, usually about a week before the draft, and you and you sit down for a whole evening with your doctors and you go through every player page by page. You start with the a's and you go all the way through disease, and you go through how

is this guy in Chicago. Yeah, he's okay, he's he's an orange, he's a red flag depending on how his physical came out. But when he comes in your market, if there was something, there was a question, then you have a chance to follow up on that kind of thing. The workout itself is probably the last thing on the priority scale of things that you do, because you've been watching him play all year. You watch them in Chicago

with the other guys. The workout you may have. There are specific rules to the workout in your market, So for example, you cannot work out more than six guys at one time. So the perfect workout is when you have six guys who were all playing similar positions and all who are are projected to be in a similar space of the draft. Because now you can you can kind of look at apples to apples and see how

they play against each other. But it's always you're always couch that with, you know, with a degree of aiguity, because you're not sure, you know, if if what you see good bad in the middle in a workout is really who the guy is and and and those are the things that really temper you know, your what you come away with on those Uh you know, we've had uh, we had Carlos Boozer, who's who was you know, obviously had a terrific career and had great years for the Jazz,

came in for his first workout with us and and was not very good at all the second round. Yeah, but but but we we get him in the interview and we say, hey, uh, Carlos, how was how'd you feel out there in the court. It looked like you a little sluggish you were you didn't work you know, it didn't quite what we were expecting, you know, And and he said, well, yeah, I know. I apologize. I am probably because I don't have a lot of energy today. And we said, is there a reason for that and

you know, or something we should know? And he goes, well, I don't know. I haven't eaten in twenty four hours, and and we said, when wha you haven't eaten in twenty four hours? What do you mean? Goes well, I got up yesterday morning and Durham and I had to get the flight and I don't have I don't have

a credit card, so I don't have any money. And when we traveled with Duke on the road for our games, we were we were supplied food by by the team, but we're always told that we couldn't we couldn't order any room service because they weren't allowed to pay for that. And so so I got here in the hotel and I didn't have a credit card, I don't have any money, so I haven't we go what are you talking about?

You know? And and so we actually had him come back for another workout like two weeks later, you know, and Kevin O'Connor told him, look, Carlos, you're going to Golden State tomorrow for another workout. You're going to you make sure you eat properly, you do all the tuff, and look, if you ever have a problem, here's my credit card number. You just keep it in your wallet and charge it to me. He goes, don't don't be

doing that. You're you're you're playing with your career. And Carlos was just being honest, you know, with the prom. You know, I don't have any money, so I'm not you know, that's you know, that's just a situation, you know.

And so and then you flip the other end and you have guys like Donovan Mitchell who had a nice a couple of years at Louisville, nothing spectacular, nothing on the All American level or anything like that, and he came in and doesn't work out for us, and and we're going, okay, all right, hold on, was this like just happened to be his day or is that something we didn't see at Louisville for whatever the reason, or are we what we're seeing is that really, you know,

to be believed or so you're you're measuring all those things, and it's always all over the scale.

or whatever it is. And he came in and and for us anyway, you know, really showed that he could move or could run and move his hips and we thought there was something there and and you know, but even then, he still slid to twenty seven in the draft, you know, And so these things go all over the scale.

You have to have a One of the things you really need in your room as a team is to have some guys who have been through that process, you know, many times, and understand what it is and don't get caught up and the things that don't look really really look bad or the things that look really good and don't get swayed either way. But you have, you know,

some kind of experience doing that kind of thing. Obviously the Jazz do with with Danny Ainge and guys like Bart Taylor who had been through that for you know, ten fifteen years now and and have a good handle on those kind of things. So that's that's the stuff you're looking for when you get them in, you know, for a for an on site workout and trying to figure out, you know, mostly who is this guy and is he someone that we want to seriously consider adding to our group.

and if you do, you will lose your job. I don't know if it was that dramatic, but and then it's interesting because Summer League this year will be up at the Huntsman Center as they're renovating Delta Center and the last time Summer League was at the Delta Centers when Donovan went head to head against Jason Tatum and gave it to him, And that's when everybody's like, wait, wait a second, because Tatum. I mean, I'm not taking

a victory lap. I thought Tatum was the best player in that draft, all due respect to Markel Folks who went number one and couldn't stay healthy and had some weird stuff happen. Unfortunately, that's part of the NBA journey sometimes. And when I watched Donovan just I remember he slapped the floor and he picked Tatum's pocket, went down and dunked it with Forst and started doing things that I

didn't know he could do. What was it about that workout that motivated Dennis to be so adamant, like we just found something special here that maybe we didn't know that we were going to find.

And as we did all of our background work and all that kind of stuff, he became a player we were interested in. But we also felt like, you know, enough other teams are going to see what we see and he's not going to get to us. But okay, we like him to some extent. Okay, we put him up on the wall and our board and whatever. And then Dennis was able to do his magic on draft night, you know, and be able to move up to thirteen.

And because we are everything we had, we all of our research showed that he probably wasn't going to get past fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, something like that. So you know, sometimes those things happen and they fall in your lap. Now, you know, will we the only team that you like Donovan Mitchell will be the only ones who saw, you know, what he might be able to know. And that's that that narrative is is just it's just not true. You know,

a lot of teams liked him. A lot of teams had some concerns about why he didn't play that way when he was at Louisville. You can, you know, look at a lot of different things, whatever, and and and some of it really Spence just goes to the fact that you know, he has you know what what I would I determine now looking back on it, he just has more of an NBA type game in him than you're allowed to show in college. And we see guys who can do that from time to time. You know.

As far as the process itself, you know, we're we're we're always looking for different guys who can try and add to your group. You know, it's everything you have upon on the board, everything that you're looking at, Everything is monitored, is recorded in terms of what teams you've talked to. If you're trying to move you know, I know the Jazz are picking five and twenty one at

the moment. Those are the picks they have. We always would be careful about saying, you know, the picks we have at the moment are these because you never know if you're gonna move up, you're gonna move back, we're gonna move out of the draft depending on all all kinds of things that can be going on. Of course, this year for the Jazz, you know, they're in a situation where where everything, in my opinion, is in play.

There is nothing that's not you know, either discussable or something where you say, yeah that we're just not gonna do that kind of a thing because they don't have a team that's in a position, you know, to to to act like that. So there they'll have everything open. Everything's i would think is in play as far as moving and trading and and trying to compile picks and whatever,

blah blah blah. And that's gonna be the interesting part for this next month is all the all the stuff that might be going on leading up to draft day.

on to play well elsewhere. You know, we'll use Oklahoma City as an example because they're just kind of the shining stars of now, you know, Lou Dort six five two twenty, Alex Caruso six five, I feel like he's bigger than that.

think they need more length than athleticism on. THE perimeter i Feel like Larry and walker are the only two Players where i'd feel, Confident, like okay we've got, those two and then everybody else has a tremendous question marks in, my opinion WHAT sort i know you said everything's on, the table but, at five What'sh your jazz Fans hope as far as best case That the jazz could walk, away.

and a lot of. The, scuttle butup, you know as you get closer to, the draft is GOING to, i think is gonna start getting some steam Behind what yiannis's Situations in milwaukee and what's gonna happen, with that because those, would be, to me would be very. Interesting discussions if You're in Dallas Or san antonio and, you know and Somebody from milwaukee calls you, and, says hey you got, a minute, you know because for, you yeah and, so uh anything could happen in that regard and that in.

Those slots but then, you know when you get, to, three, four five there's some discussion about who these guys could be and and what teams are gonna need and and, you know look at a team Like. The jazz if they don't do, anything else and if they just stay at five and they end up picking a guy, at five they're they're really, their responsibility in, my opinion is to pick the guy whoever they think is the best talent and has the best chance.

an evaluation of guys in. Your room that's always, you know ends up being, you know when all when all the, dust settles the guy who's your decision maker in this case For, the, jazz UH it's i Believe It's danny ainge has the. Final word, you, know, he'll uh he'll make an assessment based on everybody's input and how everybody has, has seen uh seen these guys and determine what would be the make the most sense For the jazz in terms of adding skill and talent to. Their base what position?

Is that who knows is That the, fears kid who you know may have a good career as as a. Point guard is That the johnson Kid, from texas who's who's a flat out score and has, good size, you know has has a pro game and a, pro body uh to go with it at, that part at that point is that somebody like the Kid From duke nipple who's who measured u shorter than than everybody thought he Was in chicago but is a true playmaker out on the floor with, the ball is really a. Smart guy

so do you need do you want a guy like that to add to? Your mix because as we're seeing with these teams that are still alive in, the playoffs they all have guys that fit in round pegs into, round holes meaning they put team a. Team Together Right Shay gilders alexander is an M V, p okay the home grown kid is not far behind in terms of just how he affects, the game what he brings on.

The floor but now you're talking about two key contributors to, their team where guys who are not even drafted In lou Dort, And caruso and so you have to figure out as an organization who the big, guys are who those guys are going, to be, you know. Going forward but then you also have to plug in those holes somewhere along the line with guys that you determined can add to your group and fit in and be part

of that puzzle you're trying to. Put together that's what makes doing this such a difficult task, for teams and That's. Why spence you see some organizations they're just always spinning their wheels and can never get any traction because they don't have the patience to be able to put a few pieces together and then wait till the next cycle and put another, piece together and then wait for the next cycle and try and see what they're doing long

term and. Big picture and that's that's. The Situation the jazz are in, right now.

to try to lock it up at two. Games Apiece the pacers will try to take a three to one lead over the. Next Tonight aaron nesmith available to play after spraining his Ankle in. Game three he left for the, locker room did come back and finish off. The Game richard smith is live In, STUDIO smithy i wanted to get one more quick jazz thing IN because i haven't asked. You This walker kessler is, extension eligible so the date is.

Coming up as far as, you know the decision To Extend walker kessler fourteen point six mil free agent whole That Got bobby march's notes in front.

out and they don't have To Extend walker kessler. This year they can they can go another year on the last year what would be, next year his, fourth year the last year of his, rookie contract and then he would become restricted. Free, agent uh they can give him a, qualifying offer and, then uh they can wait. And See, because spence if if you're if you're not holding onto a guy who's helping you to get to a mountaintop

that you're. Right, near okay if you're just still trying to build, your foundation there are a lot of moving parts and pieces that that that could change between now and. Next summer he could have a bad. Fourth, year uh he could, heaven forbid blow a knee out and have. Something happen so there's not an urgency On the jazz

is part to. Extend him sometimes you want to do those things as a good faith measure and to show, the, player yeah hey we, want you and here we go and and so those are the decisions that you have, to make and those are the business decisions that you talk over with your group and your owner and then you're also you're talking with his his agent and and and trying to understand what all the ramifications are around uh extending him right away or waiting, on it or, you, know,

explaining hey, you know we want to wait because next year we might have. More, money uh he might play himself into a. Better deal, you know there's a lot of that jockeying around and and uh negotiating behind. The scenes so there's a lot of ways That the jazz could. Play it but just for, our listeners for them to understand it in general business and and team, building Terms

the jazz do not have to do anything. This summer if they choose, not to they can ride it out for, another year where then next summer they would still have uh the final say As with kessler being a restricted

free agent in terms of whether they want to bring. Him, back now that's, what happened going back To The gordon, hayward scenario, you know And, the jazz, you know we're playing it out and then they offered him a, you know a deal that he wanted to go get, another offer which he did and he won that one and

whatever and all that that kind. Of stuff but, you know so IN, the nba as long as you like a guy and as long as he's your guy going forward and you think he's a good part of, your future, the team no matter what, it does always has the control for minimum of the first seven years of the player's career because you have that restricted free agency tag on them where you can always match an offer that

someone else would. Give him so you're also playing that game because, you, say well if we wait and next year he could earn some. More money but maybe next year we get, him cheaper or maybe next year, you know some team that has a whole bunch of money really loves him and they just throw, a big, you know wopping lowry market and type deal, at him and, you, go,

whoa whoa we can't, do that you. Know whatever so there's a lot of a lot of dancing around behind closed doors that the team has to figure out is he going to be one of their guys that they want to make that kind of financial.

that was too much of a pull. FOR him I think i do also think that again my, own opinion my own gut tells me that he was more comfortable playing here in this market because he's more Of A Salt lake city type guy off the floor than he Is a boston type guy off the. FLOOR there i mean, his personality he's a, quiet guy he's a. Family Guy Salt lake city really fit him to a t in terms of what uh he wants to be just in

his life. In general AND so i was a little bit surprised when he Went to boston ONLY BECAUSE, i i, you know coming coming from that that read growing up there in that region of, THE country i knew that it wasn't something that that would really fit, his, personality uh outside of the basketball stuff and so the real life stuff as we. Call IT so i knew that would be a major adjustment for for for he and,

his family his. Young family but, you KNOW but i think that, the poll again just, my opinion the poll to Play For brad stevens and Go to boston and do that was too much of a storybook thing. For him, and look he he ended up leaving at, That, time Uh the jazz had had the finance ability to pay. More money, you know he left in the neighborhood of forty million dollars on the table to Go. To boston That the jazz would have guaranteed him more because they

could give him that fifth year that that other. Teams couldn't that's how the, rules, Work right and and he, chose to, you know leave that on the table. And go and, you know BUT again i think it was more of an emotional thing for him and on the personal side than it was a. Business Thing, all right a.

for the second, straight game. Just disappeared watched the game in the fourth quarter from the Bench After chris finch decided to go in a. Different direction all that's finding good and we Can. Talk Minnesota this minnesota that they hung forty one points in the fourth quarter on one of the best defenses in. Pro basketball, to me last night Was who. Okasee Is mark dagnoll was asked after, the game what you learned about your, team tonight and, he,

said nothing it's who. WE are i thought last night was MORE about Okc the minnesota what's?

all those things that can happen in the. Tight game with under two minutes, to go a couple things go their way and it's two Two and randall has a bad Game and aunt has just a, pedestrian game and, everybody, goes, look see you see these guys are, for real, because look the two main guys were just, so so and they still won the game against the team that had the. BEST record, i mean that would be, the, Narrowest right so so you know it was it was a. Close

game it was a fun game. To watch, YOU know i do think it's gonna be Hard for minnesota to to ratchet up now because now they're gonna in order to get out of the series and and move on to, The finals minnesota's gonna have to, be okay see three.

on you, never know somebody comes out of. The woodwork Like if minnesota pulled that Game, out spence you'd you'd be talking about how good they can play, against, okay see how well rounded, they are and that you had a Guy Like Nikhil, alexander walker, you know have a GAME like, va game have A tray man game, right right and so you'd be talking about that kind. Of thing and so the narrative always changes depending on when

you get. Close games just, what happened and and, you know a bounce of a ball here and there, or whatever and the whole tone and what everybody's talking about changes from one thing to. The next and and when, you lose and it's a, tough game then you're looking at your main guys and trying to point the fingers, at them which is which is always the lazy way out in.

Can go he did come back in and close. The game But When nie smith, went down it kind of changed the way that you know they Were. Guarding jalen jalen gets in foul trouble when you were in studio last week and when we're on the golf Course, ON friday i said, to You can tom find ten Minutes For? Landry shammitt can he find ten to fifteen minutes for A precious atua who did not get off the bench.

Former You delon wright Got some ron played really. Good defense it's Weird see delon play with so little, confidence offensively like he wasn't looking to attack at all, on offense but did guard Well and shaman gave him some good run. As Well mitchell robinson in the, Starting Lineup josh hard to. THE bench I give josh a lot of credit for the way he played coming in off the bench with ten. Big rebounds he's as good of

a REBOUNDING wing i think as there is in. The league no part of Me Believes new york is gonna win. The series that's Just where. I'm at we'll see what. Happens tonight pacers are a two point five. Point favorite so before we end our hit, this week your thoughts On the knicks come back and what do you think? Happens, tonight, YEAH well i think the first, of all for all of the talk all.

up to Play At Madison. Square Garden the knicks don't play as fluidly maybe or as easy because they got all those the expectations and everything on them that they're supposed to win when they're At the garden And The new york fans are gonna get them across the finish line or. Whatever whatever The mantra is and then they

go on the road and, they play, you know whatever. They, do now they've had several games that they've won in the six and one road playoff run of theirs where it's been a one minute game and it's been whoever makes this shot or whoever gets, the stop or whoever makes a defensive play or whatever it's. Gonna be And the knicks have been able to do it several times

in these playoffs to to, to uh to. Their credit and then the, Other night towns just went went on a heater, and uh, you know he had one of those three. POINT shots i thought he was just throwing up to hopefully get. A foul they didn't call, the file but he banked.

Back To? New york, YOU know, i, Say gee i'm looking at the playoffs, so Far and i'm looking at the record on the road. AND home i don't KNOW if i don't know If the knicks want to go. Back home maybe they they just want to keep saying on, THE road i mean the way. They're playing but it's, a fun entertaining series they, both Are and i'm, expecting nothing nothing less than. THAT tonight i think. IT'S uh

i think it's fun. TO watch i think both teams really get, after it and both teams spends to your, earlier point have done things with their roster where it's not just, you know top draft picks that are that are pulling, the wagon it's other guys that they've brought in and pieced together to have a full team effect that that can help you.

helps foster kids In The. Adoption foundations kyle was adopted as, an infant so this cause.