He's the pride of Norwich, Connecticut and an adopted son of Salt Lake City. After forty years with the Utah Jazz, there's no one better to talk some hoops. Richard Smitty Smith is back on the Drive on ESPN seven hundred.
Well, little breaking news about a commit for Utah football in twenty twenty six. Kelvin Obots the number nine overall recruit in the twenty twenty six class. This kid is legit offensive tackle. We'll see what that does to Utah's recruiting rankings. Of course that's not for two years. There's still football left to be played before we get to know these young men. It is day two of the NBA Free agency. Wimbledon's going on. It feels like a
great data Richard Smitty Smith, Liven Studio. You've been catching any of the tennis I have?
You know?
The Wimbledon started Sunday and today earlier today, Cocoa golf number two seed and the women's singles draw lost right after winning the Rolling Garrows in Paris and and so it's a big, big loss on the women's side right off the bat in the tournament. But that's a big different spence between playing on clay and playing on grass, it's a it's a major, major difference in the way
you play the game. And they they make that transition all the time in the spring, you know, from from the middle of June, you know, through the through the middle of July and going on grass over in Europe, and it's just it's a tougher game. It's a different game.
Cocoa Goff became the third woman in the Open era to lose in the first round at Wimbledon after winning the championship of the French Open, So or a pretty rare thing. Novak Djokovic just one of his ninety ninth Wimbledon match, which is third all time. So some fun tennis going on over at Wimbledon. Is that your Is Wimbledon your favorite major championship?
Well, no, I mean I I enjoy I just enjoy the tennis and you know it all. Had never been to Wimbledon. My wife Linda has been there, and you know, my brother on my nephew have been there. And I've been to the Australian Open and the US Open a one hundred times over the because we go back every year for the US Open. But Indian Wells of course the last several years. But I haven't been to Wimbledon. That's on my list, and I can never go Spence
because Wimbledon is always this time of year. So working for the Jazz, it was always the draft, going right into free agency, going right into summer league, so it was never a time we were able to go and travel and do that. So I'm looking forward to trying to do that in the next few years. But it's a fun, you know, traditional place. It's one of the one of the grand spots obviously in the sport of tennis for sure.
All right, let's do the jazz stuff this segment. We'll save the next segment for some of the big picture NBA free agency storylines. Of course, it's day two of NBA Free agency, and Smitty, you've been coming on the show now for a while and it feels like names like Colin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson have come up in potential tree talks and conversations. Well, we learned what the market is for those two players, and the answer is
not great. So let's start with the Sexton move. They had to attach a second round pick to the deal to get him to Charlotte in exchange for use of Nurkic, who is a VET that is a backup big at this point, what do you make of the deal?
Dude?
San Colin Sexton and a second to Charlotte.
Well, first of all, I'm a Sexton fan, and so I'm the wrong guy to ask, probably, you know, in that regard because he's even though I get, you know, they just drafted the Clayton kid and he's probably gonna take a bulk of those minutes, and they're still trying to figure out what can't they George is and and you know what the Williams kid is, and and a Collier and all that. So I get that that that part of it. But for me, Sexton is one of the guys who has proven he can play in this league.
He was He's gotten more efficient every year he's been in the league. This past year, I thought he was very efficient, played a very tight game during the course of the year on a team that wasn't winning, in a team that didn't really care about winning, and he was one of the few guys who would go out and compete every night, in my opinion, And so you know,
I understand they're trying to get off his money. And I understand they're trying to get the young guys, you know, the playing time, and I get that part of it. But when you see him moving a guy who's actually proven that that he's has some value in the league in terms of how he plays and his production level, that's that's sometimes a head scratcher to me. But you know, okay, that's that's the way they're they're choosing to do their business right now.
Were you surprised that they couldn't get more value for him or do you feel like they just wanted to, you know, find a new home for him and clear up time for the young guy.
Yeah, I'm not sure how to gauge that spence. You know, I think he's more valuable than that myself. But okay, they know, maybe they had their own time frame. They wanted to get out from under it before the free agency stuff started, so they could figure out where they were at money wise and whatnot. I'm not I'm not convinced that Nurkic is gonna be part of uh, you know,
what they're gonna try and do next year. I don't know if that was Yeah, I'm not sure what the play was there, to be honest with you, unless unless they like Nurkic for some reason that that I don't see, and yeah and uh you know, or they think he's gonna have more value to some playoff type team come February during the trade deadline, where somebody's gonna want, uh you know, a big that they can put in a lineup during rotations in the in the playoffs. Maybe that's
what the the the longer play is here. But of course he's on an expiring contract next year as well, so you know, a worst case scenario, they have him on the team for this coming season, they get off him next summer, They got that money to use next summer and free agency stuff, and they and they move on.
So I think the whole thing with the Jazz is just a big, evolving moving puzzle that they're going to constantly keep moving guys in and out of during the summer and into the fall and even during next season. I think these next twelve months are all to me going to be part of a big experiment under the Austin Ange direction to see how they set themselves up for the summer of twenty six and then moving forward. That's what it feels like to me.
So they essentially cut Jordan. They essentially cut Jordan Clarkson. Technically it was a buyout. If the numbers have in front of me are correct, that saved the Jazz about a million dollars in cash. So I have a couple of questions here. The reaction to the news that Jordan is no longer a jazz man has been really interesting to follow. People are genuinely sad that he's leaving. The trade that you guys made for him, in retrospect was
an excellent deal. You moved Dante Ax him a couple second rounders to Cleveland for Jordan comes here, wins six Man of the Year, played really well for Quinn, last holdover from that group. So just wonder what your thoughts are that they've decided to move on from him in the way that they did. He's going to be a nick and maybe you can provide some color and context as far as what he meant to the jazz organization.
Well, I think that I think it's not surprising to me. I think they've been trying to do that for a year now. I think they finally got to it. You know, they found away with Jordan. They couldn't do anything during the season last year. They couldn't find anybody to bite on this deal that had, you know, obviously last season in this coming season under contract, you know, added at an okay number in today's NBA terms, at fourteen million
a year. You know, I'm not surprised at all that they you know, they decided to move on from him. You know, it was just a matter of getting him, figuring out a way to do what. They couldn't find a trade partner they liked apparently, so they worked to deal with him to get a buyout so he could get the freedom to move to a team where he feels he can add something to a contending team and give himself a little bit more spark and a little
more life on the court. Fourteen that's trying to win and trying to be competitive night in the night out, and you know, and the Jazz get out from some money. And that's the whole play here. And look, that was the play really when they signed him to this deal that they did a couple of years ago, because they front loaded that deal at twenty four I think it was at twenty five the first year, and then fourteen
and fourteen. So the whole deal was set up so that they could move him at some point during the last two years. It just took him a year to figure out how to do it. They didn't get a trade partner, so they did the buyout thing. Saved themselves a little money. Clarkson gets to decide where he's going to go instead of just being put in the trade, so it kind of works out for everybody. I'm always surprised players are willing to give up, you know, any money,
you know, in some kind of a buyout situation. I've never understood why players would do that, but I guess that's what you do when you just get to some point in your life where oh, I have enough money, that's okay, I'll I'll just leave some on the table. You can take it, and I'm going to go out the side door. Okay, I guess.
And it really just begs the question as far as what's next, and to underscore the points that you're essentially making. It just it feels like Austin as the primary decision maker, has just decided they're going to clear the deck and next year it's weird, Smitty and we should acknowledge that Austin is a recent higher So some of the messaging from the front office last year probably is not the messaging from the front office this year. But one of
their cliched lines. And I heard Xanik say this, I heard Danny say this, I heard Will say this is they kept saying pups can't raise pups. Okay, so last year was kind of like Patty Mills, Drew u Banks will bring in some locker room vets to help these young players learn how to be pros.
Feels like there's a paradigm shift.
It feels like pups this year will very much be raising pups because it looks like what we're going to see is just all these young kids playing a lot of minutes.
Yeah, well, I imagine they will. And uh, you know, there's something that said to be said for veteran leadership. They're helping young guys learn how to do it. I guess. I mean, look, we just Joe Ingles is going to go back to Minnesota another three and we know Joe, you know, I'm not sure he has anything left in the gas tank, but but obviously Minnesota sees him as being a valuable member of their group. With this group of the Jazz, I don't know, you know, the Patty
Mills threw U Banks and I don't. I don't. I never got that anyway, especially when they're they're you know, they're everybody knows that they're not trying to win games. So that makes it difficult if you're a veteran to try and get to get the point across the guys about you know, this is how we conduct ourselves. This is how we go about our business every day, working hard in practice and staying late, arriving early in the
weight room, whatever it is. And and and guys are asking in the middle of the game like like, uh, you know, to do what what are we're doing? We're gonna lose by twenty anyway, what's what's the difference? So that that's a very tough, uh complex thing that I think is just very difficult for an organization to manage,
you know, and keep everybody going the right direction. You're either you're either trying to put your best foot forward and you're trying to to to to do the best you can every night, or or you got a different agenda and guys learn learn things differently, and they they certainly uh get can get into good habits and they also can get into bad habits depending on what your organization is is asking you to do from one moment
to the next. So you know, we'll see, I mean, the Jazz just they're they're in this great uh flux area right now, and they've got new new sheriff in town, as they say, and you know, we'll see again. But Austin ain't isn't trying to pull the Donald Trump thing. You know, he's not like what man on an island trying to run everything. You know, He's got valuable guys with him in the room, and not the least of which, of course, is his dad. And he's got a very
involved owner and so that plays into it somehow. And uh, but they got a lot of guys in there voicing, you know, opinions about what they should do and how
they should be handling their guys and all that. But it's no uh, it's no secret and it shouldn't be that that that they're gonna play their young guys a lot of minutes and have them in some kind of set rotation as the season starts in terms of minutes and responsibilities and and seeing you know what these guys can can figure out going forward.
So it brings us to John Collins.
That's the next name tone in on, and we'll get to some others because I honestly don't know how this is going to play out. Twenty six point five mil expiring this year. This is the first time they've had him with an expiring contract. I don't know how much of that plays into the ability to move on from him. You can make an argument, Smitty that last year was his best year as a pro, maybe second to the year he had in Atlanta before he got his big contract.
But if you're a GM and you're running a team and Austin calls you and says, what about John Collins, what do you say?
Well, first of all, you know John Collins has a big number for what John Collins does. Yep, right now in the NA Now, he played very well last year my opinion, on a team that wasn't trying to play well. So I give him credit for that. He's he's a big guy, he's a fluid guy who can play inside and outside. It depends on the team. It depends on who else they got on the floor with him playing. You know, I have to I have to admit I liked him better last year than I did the previous
couple of years. I was never a big John Collins guy. I always thought, you know, he played in second gear and never really was busting it out on the floor. But but last year I thought he played well, uh, you know, for for most of the year on a team where it was difficult to play well and to put your best foot forward. And so you know, they're gonna have to try and find a team that that is willing to uh to take on his money. I
don't know who wants to do that. The Jazz may have to try and do something, you know, where they're willing to take on keep you know, taking on some of the money and do some kind of a deal with that with somebody. It's gonna be difficult to move him, I think, merely because of the money that he makes. So they're gonna have to have something involving his money and how they handle that if they in fact want to move on from him.
I'm gonna ask you about the other transactions, just because they were made. We might have ten seconds for each of them. They wave Johnny, they wave Johnny Jews.
Come see now now that shows you're not being serious. What do you actuct like that?
What do you know?
Like?
I mean, well, I mean was there did you think there was a place for him at the end of the bench.
No, no, no, I've never been at Johnny Jusi and guy you know, all these G League guys they've been playing the last year or so. You know. Again, you know, we can debate that all we want about, you know, why they have a G League team if they're using the Jazz as their G League team. But okay, that's that's what they're the route that they're choosing to go, and so far the fans are going along with it because the fans are paying full boat money to come
see a G League team play on the floor. Okay, you know, you guys want to do that, go ahead. You know, I don't know how long that will last, you know, but that's that's what they've been doing. And guys like Jews and you Banks and Micah Potter and whatever, they're just you know, they're they're like seat fillers at the Oscar Oscars to me, you know, I mean, they're just not You're not getting anywhere. You're spinning your tires.
That's my opinion. Now that's probably why I'm sitting in the radio station instead of being over in their meetings, you know. So that's you know, that's the way they're they're they're going about their business.
Oh you just gave me ninety seconds on Johnny jew Zang. I didn't think we'd be able to do that.
Hey, you know, well, look he was very good. He had a very nice career at UCLA, you know, after transferring from Kentucky and and played himself well and got himself some NBA money. Okay, I don't know if he'll
get an NBA job. He's really a EuroLeague A type player to me, and where you can have a nice career, you know, as we've seen a lot of our local guys, you know, Jacon Carroll being one of them, having a terrific career Real Madrid for a decade, and Johnny Juzang should be over there, you know, with one of those teams. That's my opinion. But you know, I'm not his agent, and and I'm certainly not in an NBA team that might try and and give him another chance.
And equally compelling news they've guaranteed the deals FEMA Kai Luke this year.
Yeah, And I don't know what to say about that either. That's another that's another placeholder. I'm not I'm not sure what that what that's about. He's probably a good guy, you know. I mean again, I watched him play when he was fifteen sixteen over in Europe. He hasn't gotten any better. He's just you know, he's just a guy out there every now and then he makes a couple of shots in the game. Okay, and uh and again.
But he's a guy who could be having a much bigger career and a more substantial one if he chose to play over in Europe where he's from. And he may end up doing that at some point, but the Jazz have decided at least to guarantee his kind of Now, that may be something where they just want to keep his contract, you know, in their back pocket in case they have to use it as a filler in some kind of other move where they have to either take
back money or give money or something like that. So they could also be a play like that down the road as well.
All right.
So it brings us into this space where, you know, all we can do is read the riding on the wall here and try to read the tea leaves where Clarkson is gone, Sexton is gone every time I open up anything about what could be next. And the Jazzer mentioned everyone says they're talking to teams about John Collins. Do you think they're talking to teams about marketing? Do you think they're having conversations about Lowry? I don't know
if they're having any active conversations. I haven't heard anything from any of my sources around the NBA about that kind of stuff going on. I think they would certainly entertain any conversation about any guy based on the current status of the team, and that is something that there's still there's still at the starting line and they're still waiting, you know, for the gun to go off to start the race, and they're still trying to formulate what their
team looks like in that regard. So, you know, I don't think Marketing is untouchable. I don't think Kessel is untouchable. You know, any of their guys certainly would be in a conversation based on what other teams are looking at or what they would have to offer, and how the how the Jazz headed up now by the main decision maker being Austin age, how they view what they're trying to do in terms of the overall makeup of their group.
Hello, so I have the I have the Jazz payroll in front of me.
Okay, I got to ask.
I'm going to ask a question before I ask what I want to ask to make sure that my understanding is correct?
Is correct?
Is it possible that they have a team option on Taylor Hendricks after this year?
Yeah? Well yeah, Well, the way that the NBA contracts work, the rookie contracts are four year deals. The first two years are guaranteed, the third year is a team option, and the fourth year is a team option. So the team decid in the third and fourth year of a rookie deal whether they want to keep that rookie for another year or not. So that's how they work.
Is it possible to have a team option on Cody next year?
Yes? Yeah, again, because you're those contracts are for four years. The first two are guaranteed, the third is is not guaranteed, the fourth is not guaranteed, So the team has the option to pick up if they want to keep the player on. They can pick up that option early in the fall. H for the for the year ahead, so they can they can do that if they choose to
do it. This is the Jimmer for Debt deal Spence, where for Debt had was taken by Sacramento in the first round in fact ten, just like Cody Williams was, and Sacramento decided after the second year they they didn't think Jimmer was good enough, they didn't want to pick up the team option, so they just let him go and the year the summer after his second year in the league, he became an unrestricted free agent.
So in a wasteman because they also have team options on Keyante, Bryce Sensiba and Isaiah Collier.
That's correct, So five team options on these young players.
That's all just because they're all under rookie rookie scale contracts for the first four years they're in the NBA.
So this is kind of a bigger year for these five young players. And maybe we fully understand because the Jazz can make a decision on tho as early as next season.
Yeah, well they could have, like for example, they picked up the option earlier on Kiante George. Okay, so you're allowed to do that, but just say, in a hypothetical situation, they Isaiah Collier just finished his first year, so he's got this next year coming up as guaranteed the Jazz can pick up the third year option. They have certain dates that they can they can do that and get that under their belt. Sometimes you do that just to let the player know, hey, we're with you, we're gonna
work with you, or whatever. Sometimes if you know, in the Jimmer for Deck case, you know, just say, hypothetically, Collier comes in, he's out of shape, he's he's gained weight, he's whatever. They don't like the way he shows up in training camp in the fall, they decide to hold off on picking up his third year option. They go into the middle of the season, he's not getting better,
he's getting giving him some kind of attitude. Whatever. They can decide, hey, I'm not sure we got a guy we want to hang around with or keep, and so they can just wait it out and then the end of next year they could say, hey, we're not gonna pick up the third year team option and we're just gonna let him go, and then they get out of the obligation all together. And now they let the kid
move on and then the team can move on. So that's why it's set up where those third and fourth years on the rookie scale contracts, the team controls whether they still want you as quote part of their team or part of their development program, and they want to keep you around doing that. And then at the end of the fourth year you become a restricted free agent.
Now the team may give you an offer, you may accept it and extend that rookie deal, and you can do that into the fifth, sixth, seventh year, or the team can say, like they did the Jazz did with Gordon Hayward, you know we're gonna offer you just this amount. Gordon Hayward thought you should get more. The Jazz said, go out and get an offer from somebody and bring
it back if you can. Gordon Hayward went out, got an offer from the Charlotte Hornets for fifteen million a year, comes back, says, I got an offer from Charlotte for fifteen million. You offered me ten and the Jazz had seventy two hours to match it, and of course they
didn't want to lose him. So in that regard, the Jazz say, we're gonna match that because you're a restricted free agent, and they get to keep him and they said in this negotiation, in this moment in time, Gordon, you won the debate because we tried to pay you ten and you went out and forced us to pay you fifteen by getting an offer from someone else. That's
how it works. That's why we say in the current setup of the collective partying agreement, the first half of a player's career the minimum seven years, if the team wants you, they have control of you no matter what
you want to do as a player. The second half of your career, if you have a say, fifteen year career, like Gordon Hayward did, he's the perfect example of how it works, where the team controls the player's career the first half of it, and then the player controls what he wants to do in the second half of the of the career.
Do you think that made Gordon mad?
I don't know. I don't know if it made him mad, I would say this. Gordon and his dad are very smart guys. You know, Gordon is one of the smarter players that we've had through the Jazz over the years, just in terms of practicality, and you know, he was smart enough and and his agent, Mark Bartlestein, who's who's you know, a very well respected and very good guy and an honest guy. You know. He said, hey, we're gonna we're gonna go out and try and get an
offer to get Gordon more money. That's his job, okay. And Gordon's sitting there going yeah, okay, yeah, I'd like to get more money if I can. And they went out and they got Charlotte. Now Charlotte had to make that commitment. So there was a period of seventy two hours where Charlotte. If the Jazz say yeah, that's too rich for our blood, we're out. Now, Charlotte's got him. So Charlotte had to come to the table with that offer and make sure we want the guy in case,
you know, Utah turns it down. We got him at that number, and of course the Jazz ended up accepting that number and he stayed with the Jazz for another three years. But that's that's how the CBA works, and that's how that's how all these players. They're under contract to the team for those first four years with those third and fourth year team options. That's always that's the way it's been for for for many many years now.
So the team controls and they're looking at you in practice, and they're looking to see, Yeah, Spence, check its he is. Do we want to keep him around for third year? Do we want them a fourth year? And and the team controls that and uh and then after that then then you get into the restrictive free agent stuff.
All right, before we catch a break, we'll wrap up the Jazz portion of our hit with committee today with just to follow up based off of all of these players, Isaiah Callier, Rice s and Sabah Keantay, George Cody Williams, Taylor Hendricks are technically entering what could be the final year of their deal with the Jazz could be technically Yeah, do you think any of them are in danger of not being brought back?
That's a good question. I think, uh, I think those are probably guys that uh. Again, what's gonna be interesting player on it, Spence, Now, is that you know, even though there's the obvious you know, age family connection on that, you know, was Danny Ainge who selected these guys parenthetically in the draft. He's the final decision maker during those drafts. Now,
Austin Ainge is the one who's in charge. Maybe Austin Ainge says Hey, Dad, I love you, but the guy you chose last year he stinks, you know, and I don't like him. And so they have a disagreement about that. And so you know, there's always a scenario where they could they could you know, sit there in the room and go, I just don't think the guy's good enough,
and I think we made a mistake. And sometimes when you like the Sacramento Kings and the Gym of for debt example, sometimes you have to just step up to the table and admit to yourself and to everybody around, we made a mistake, we made the wrong call, okay, and we cut our losses and we move on. Sometimes teams don't to do that because teams don't don't want to admit they made a mistake, right, and they don't want to admit that, oh, I had an error in
judgment in that regard. And so a lot of times it's very rare that you see a team not pick up the third year option or the fourth year option on a player that they drafted, because the teams are trying to make sure that they squeeze all the water out of that stone, and they make guy a full run to show us whether he can contribute and continue
playing in the NBA. And you know, sometimes sometimes teams will hold on to guys longer than they should, just because they're trying to make sure they give the player every opportunity to improve and to get better.
All right, we'll catch a break coming up next, we'll move off the jazz and just talk more big picture stuff and of course, if anything comes down one we're on air.
We'll bring it to you.
Damian Lillard has been stretched and waved, and the Milwaukee Bucks have acquired Miles Turner. Some other interesting storylines, including Quinn Snyder being reunited with the player he had in Utah. We just didn't play Atlanta making some moves, Denver making some moves, Houston making some moves. We'll do some big picture NBA with Smitty coming up on the other side of a Tuesday edition of The Drive right here on ESPN seven hundred.
Miss something from the Shan O'Connell Show. No worries, Just visit ESPN seven hundred sports dot com or search The Shawn O'Connell Show wherever you get great podcasts. You are listening to a Drive with Spence Checkets.
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Breaking news, but don't get too excited. Duncan Robinson has agreed to a three year, forty eight million dollar deal with the Detroit Pistons.
What do you think, Sviny, Yeah, well, I can see I can see Dennis Lindsay's fingers all over that. Duncan Robinson a good play with length, and he's a very good open shooter. And the Pistons have money. So another guy that they're adding to the young group that can provide some spacing for Cave Cunningham off the pick and midpick and roll to get in the lane. And Robinson can be one of those guys spotting up on the wing or down in the corner, you know, having that
three ball threat. So you know, a good a good spot for them, a good way for them to spend some of the money that they have under the cap.
All right, So let's move over to what Milwaukee decided to do today with Damian Lillard, who played his college ball for Randy Rage.
Is up the way.
It's what's called a stretch provision and they waived him. And so from what I'm reading, and he'll be on the books for the next five years at about twenty three million dollars. Optically, when you see that Damian Lillard has been waived by an NBA team, you're like, wait, what that is a wild.
Wild decision.
Now, of course he will miss all the next year recovering from an injury. This way, he does get all of his money over the course of a certain amount of time, and he can pick where he wants to go next, whether it's his final act or the next act. But take us through the mentality of a front office. They also utilize the flexibility that they were able to get with this deal to acquire Miles Turner from Indiana
and the Bucks and the Pacers. Not a lot of love lost there, so kind of an interesting day for them.
Yeah, Well, what the Bucks do is they replace brook Lopez with Miles Turner. So a little bit younger guy, a little bit springier, a guy, a little bit livelier, a body in the middle, a guy you can shoot fairly decently from the outside, you know, about the same as brook Lopez, but he's a little more active and that allows them to plug in a guy basically is going to do the same stuff, you know, within reason that Brook Lopez did for Giannis to support Jannis, you know,
in that core in in Milwaukee, for Damian Lillard. This is a provision that's provided in the collective bargain agreement where teams make a mistake or if it's a mistake or something like this where where they have a guy who's gonna be injured and he's getting paid a lot of money and they just want to get out of
it somehow. Your teams can now have what they call the stretch provision where they can waive a guy and then they take his total salary ode and they can stretch it over any period of time from one to five years. So obviously teams are gonna usually stretch it out to five and that means they just chop it up in five equal segments, and that's what goes on their books in terms of salary cap purposes for luxury
taxes and penalties and all that kind of stuff. So they're gonna be paying Damian Lillard around twenty two twenty three million or whatever it is a year for the next five years to sit at his beach house in Portland or do whatever he's gonna do. He's gonna rehab, he's gonna take this next year off. He's one of the hardest working guys in the NBA, and I know that personally. I've seen him. I've seen him do it for years, and we knew that coming into the draft
when he got drafted. He's one of the guys you want with around your group because he is a true professional in every regard. So in that way, he's gonna work this next year. He's gonna work to get himself back as much as he can, and then he's going to try and find a team, whether it's the end of next year, depending on how quickly his rehab goes, if he can get into the playoffs with a team that can use his services in a playoff run type situation. If it's not, then it would be next summer when
he'd be full. You would think he would be fully healthy and then be able to look around and try and find a team that he thinks he can help, that he thinks he can add to their championship hopes. So he would be looking around at that point in time. I think for a select handful of teams that give him the best chance of maybe making a long run, you know, potentially to the NBA Finals and trying to
win a championship near the end of his career. So that's what I kind of would think would be kind of the game plan that he would try and mark out for himself.
All right, let's move over to the West for some teams that I think have made some interesting strides in the right direction. As we've already discussed the Utah Jazz and kind of what they're trying to do throughout the course of this offseason, I think we need to start with Houston, who of course acquires Kevin Durantz. They extended Jabbari, they gave him a five year deal. Van Vliet is locked in, and then I'm not sure what's happening in Los Angeles, but Dorian Finney Smith is a good player,
four years, fifty three mil Clint Capella. You know they already f Steven Adams on the roster. I mean the Vegas odds, and I know you love this second best team in the West as of now, and there's plenty of time between now in the fall, But what do you make of Houston kind of going all in to expedite their process.
Well, the the you know, what they're smart and is that they've got a guy who they know can can produce and be a lead guy in in tough playoff situations. So that's Kevin Durant. So now they got these young guys, you know, and you know, look, Steven Adams is a VET, Clint Capella is a VET. Dorian Finney Smith has been around,
he's a VET. So you've got these guys who have experienced playoffs experience to match up with the younger group of guys led by Shongoon who's twenty two years old, Jabari Smith twenty two years old, I'm and Thompson is
twenty two. Then you put that, you mix them in with Cam Whitmore, and then of course they resigned Fred van Vliet as well, and so you've got a good mix of veterans and young guys and they're trying to get something done the next couple of years while they've got Kevin Durant in the fold and still playing at the highest of levels. So that's that's what they've figured out. And they figured out the money that they can get
this done with. And so they they've gone all in on trying to figure to see if they can challenge the Okacs and the Denvers and the Golden States of the Western Conference the next couple of years.
I wonder, real quick, going back to this Turner deal, if you're a Pacers fan, you were in Game seven of the finals ten days ago, like Halliburton's also going to miss time. What do you think is going on with the Indiana front office? Are they kind of viewing next year the way Boston is without Tatum. It just it caught me off guard because I'm looking at what the Pacer just did. I'm looking at the East Wide Open.
No Halliburn changes their equation. Ten days ago, they were in Game seven of the NBA Finals and Miles Turner as a buck.
And you can look at it a lot of different ways. Spence. One is to say, hey, yeah, we got to Game seven, we had forty eight minutes to possibly win the NBA Championship. Didn't go our way. But we also have to be objective and look at how we got to Game seven, and that was with a lot of good play during the playoffs, but also a lot of good fortune during the playoffs and different series where the ball literally bounced
their way several times. They got them, you know, a win in a playoff series that propelled them to go on to the next round of the playoffs. So they may be looking at it and saying, yeah, we had a good run, we had a lot of things go our way. We had the tough injury in the last game. Yeah it didn't quite work out that way. But we can't fool ourselves into thinking we're really that good in that regard, and so we have to step back and
make sure we're assessing our team fairly. And that also, unfortunately involves in not having a Tyrese Haliburton next season on our playing roster. And so that's that's one thing we have to look at and assess in a way that makes sense for us in the short term but also going forward in the long term what it means to us.
Oftentimes, there's this debate that rages about, you know, who's the best local college player that has made his way towards the NBA and professional basketball. And I don't know who the best is, but I know who the richest is. As Jaka Pertle has signed the richest contract in the history of any player that has played his college ball here. One hundred and four million dollar extent for Yaka Perl.
I wonder back when he was here, how you scouted him, what sort of player you thought he would be in your thoughts that he continues to play at a high level, and Toronto obviously very values him.
Yeah, he's uh, you know, I thought he'd be a solid pro and I think that's what he is. I don't think he's an All star level player, but I think he's a good starting center in the NBA. He he works hard, he's a good teammate, he's he's a good locker room guy. You know, while this looks like a lot of money, basically twenty five twenty six million dollars a year for the next four years, you know, that's unfortunately, that's the going rate, you know for regular guys.
Now if you look across the landscape of the NBA and with this new TV contract, in the new salary cap, that's that's in play now, that's just gonna keep creeping up. And so guys like Yaka Pertle it can be in the right place at the right time and they can cash in on a deal like that that doesn't doesn't You know, people tend to interpret someone getting money with them going to come out the next year and give us an increased value of production. That's usually not the case.
What you're doing is you're just paying the guy because that's the going rate to keep him on your team for what your hope is is going to be some kind of uh, improved play by the group as a whole. Jaka Bertle is a very nice player. He's Toronto obviously likes him. Uh. They drafted him, they traded him, they got him back. Now they're now they're committing to him, uh, you know, with this new four year deal. And that's and again that's part of what they're what they're trying
to establish as a core group. They're in Toronto obviously now without Messaia Siri leading them in that regard, and with Bobby Webster the longtime general manager at the moment making those those decisions.
All right, let's do a quick I do want to talk about what the Atlanta Hawks have elected to do and our old buddy Quinn Snyder's coaching that team. And I told you this before San Antonio, Oklahoma City. You know, there are certain decision makers in the league where they do something and I'm just like, Okay, it makes sense because that's who they are and that's the reputation they've earned. Four years, forty one million dollars for Luke Cornette feels
like a lot of money. Though, Yeah, for this san Antonio Spurs, but they get a legitimate backup to Wembanyama insurance if wemban Yama has more health issues and san Antonio adds Dylan Harper via the draft, and they obviously have the back to back Rookie of the Year winners with weman Yama and Stefan Castle. But what do you make of san Antonio paying Luke Cornette forty one million dollars over four years.
I think that's a lot of money for what Luca Cornett does. He's an active player, He's long, he's can move somewhat not great, but he he plays hard when he's out there. He can he can hit an occasional shot, but he's more of a serviceable big man. Ten million dollars seems like it's a lot of money for someone like him. You can get guys like him, in my opinion, uh, you know, at a lesser number, but they they have some money to spend. They like him. It's not it's good.
It's not gonna be a big number. Two years from now, when he's in the third year of the deal, he's still making ten million, so it may look even better than so. But he's he's a player that they they wanted to go out and add to their core group. It's again, it feels like a lot of money for someone like him and what he does to me. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot of money to secure a guy that you think adds
to your group. Culturally. He's a good guy in the locker room, he's a good guy you know, on the practice floor, and he's someone who's gonna add to how you want to try and do things in San Antonio.
Another local story, but not involving the Utah Jazz. Anybody, anybody who knows anything, knows that the Bountiful Braves are known for developing good looking guys that can really shoot it. There you go, and so Sammy Merrill another contract four years, thirty eight million dollars for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
So they call that, I think in circles they call that the Bountiful Spence check. Its number, well said, so that's that's right around that area. But you know, happy for Sam. Look, he's bounced around on a number of teams. He was the last guy taking in his draft a year. He's had to go through the G league route a few times, he's been out of jobs a few times. He's been one of those guys who has one it in,
one foot out. He's stuck with it again, another guy that to me might have been I can't say better served because obviously he just got this deal now with a very competitive NBA team that likes him and that uses him in their rotation. So he's gonna be making nine million a year the next four years. You know, he could have a bigger role on a on a EuroLeague team and be very competitive playing in Europe, but he'd probably only be making two or three million. And
so you know, for him, he's stuck with it. He believed in himself, he worked at it. He's a great you know, he's an A plus guy as we all know, and you know he's a little bit of a one trick pony at the NBA level, but he's managed to figure out how to do that at a level that allows him to contribute to a very good team and to fit in with the group of guys that they have and spends all the time we talk about out the fact it's not just this isn't a one on
one tournament in the NBA. You got to be part of a group of a team that's trying to be on the same page to try and affect winning and trying to move your team forward. And Cleveland obviously values him as one part of their equation UH for playing winning basketball in the role that he provides them, and so it's a it's a great, a great moment for Sam. It couldn't be happier for him and his family because he's really earned it and really put himself in this position.
Denver, we should talk about Denver because I feel like, well, first of all, they had they have Jokich, so they're just going to be relevant because they have who I think is the best player in the world right now. But they have been criticized over the past couple of years for letting contributors walk instead of going into luxury tax or second Apron, whatever it is. And they made
three pretty interesting moves. First, they trade Michael Porter Junior in an other protected first round pick in twenty thirty two. Now it's twenty twenty five, so nobody knows. In twenty thirty two, YOKOI should be thirty seven, so we'll see what Brooklyn's able to grab. Their They bring in Cam Johnson, who was a son for a minute, and I think there's a lot to like about Cam Johnson. And then they bring back Bruce Brown, who was a key member
of their championship team a few years ago. And look, I'm not a huge Tim Hardaway junior guy, but if he's your ninth or tenth guy, I think you're doing all right.
What do you make of the three moves Denvers made?
Yeah, I think they they've done. They brought back a guy who they know and they can fit in seamlessly
with how they play, and that's Bruce Brown. They made the switch with Michael Porter and brought in Cam Johnson, you know, not quite as big as Porter, but maybe maybe does the same kind of stuff, you know, within reason for for how they their group operates, of course, and then you know, by adding those guys in the mix, you know, to to go with the guys they already have in Gordon and and Jokic, and Murray, those guys you know, you know, can fit in with what they
do and how they're trying to do it. And of course, uh, they've got the emerging player Christian Brown, who I think you know, it gives them something. And then also they you know, they brought in uh both Jonas Valentunis uh and they got him in the trade now, uh, to bring him in as a backup. He's a very good be a very good backup for Jokich and may be able to give him some extra minutes from game to game,
which would be interesting to them. And then uh, and and then I believe they're bringing out they bringing it back Russell Westbrook.
That's not official, what is officials. They've also traded Dario Sarriz for Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, They've traded Sharge for for Valentnish and they're getting him, you know, to be Jokicic's backup, which is smart because he can take extra minutes. He can meaning he can play you know, maybe more backup men than the Denver backups have been doing for Jokic, so can give him more time off the court during games, which you will extend him during the course of the season. So when he gets to April and May and hopefully
June for them. You know, he's played fewer minutes that year, and maybe he'll have more gas in the tank come playoff time.
Final one. Smiddy.
I think this is fascinating because the Atlanta Hawks have a coach named Quinn Snyder, and once upon a time, Quinn Snyder had a player named the kil Alexander Walker who could not get off the bench. Quinn seemed to prefer Royce O'Neil and some other players. The Kiel Alexander Walker goes to Minnesota, has a really good run playoffs Game two, three and four. You had like fifty two
points on nineteen and thirty two shooting. Once Minnesota brought back nas Reed and Julius Randall, it looked like Nikio was out of their price range, and the Kiel Alexander Walker lands in Atlanta to play for Quinn again. They make the deal last week for Kristaps Porzingis. Terrence Man goes to Brooklyn, George Niang former buddy around here, goes to Boston, and then they also bring in Luke Canard from the Minnesota or achieved me from the Memphis Grizzly.
So again as we've talked about, the East certainly feels like it is pretty wide open. I don't know if you think Atlanta has put themselves in the mix, but some interesting movement from the Atlanta Hawks.
No, they they've added some players that will help them, some guys who will be very good players, maybe starting, but certainly rotational type guys. And Nikiel He'll he'll come in. He'll give him good rotation minutes. He's a good role player who can play multiple positions. Of course, Luke Canard is one of the better shooters in the league. Then he has had that experience to be able to extend defenses.
They have the new draft pick that you know they got last week, Ason Newell out of Georgia, who I think has a chance to be a pretty good player if Porzingis is healthy. He's got one year left, so he's kind of like on a try basis with them to see what he can do during the course of the year and if he can stay healthy. And of course they had the number one pick two years ago, Zacharyache who's still a guy who's learning, who's developing. So they have a nice mix of guys there all around.
Trey Young who controls all the action from the point guard position. So you know, a nice mix of guys there. Of course, again Atlanta dealing with the front office change of their own, so they have some different decision makers there now, and we'll see how that plays out for Quinn Snyder and his group.
I'm gonna ask you one more question only because I just received my fifth text message of the day about this and I know the answer to it.
So don't get mad at me. Don't put me in my corner.
There's nothing that makes sense about the Jazz and Dame Lillard, right, there's nothing that makes sense about Dame Lillard signed with Utah Jazz for either the Jazz or Dame that.
Would be correct in my opinion. I mean there's no I mean, Damian lil is gonna he's gonna be taken next year to to rehab, to get his leg right, get all that stuff straightened out. He'll do that because
he's that kind of a worker. And then my opinion, I would assume that he would then be in a position to be able to look around the league and target three, four five teams that he thinks he could add to either as the starter, depending on what a particular team situation is or you know, as a valuable rotation backup guy to try and get somebody over the hump in a playoff situation, you know, is that you know,
might be too late for somebody like the Lakers. But just as a hypothetical example, maybe a year from now, if he's if he rehabs well enough and he's ready to go next March or April, maybe maybe he looks at the Lakers and go he says, hey, I can go with Lebron James and Luka Doncic and those guys, and I can help them in the spring, you know,
make something happen. Or maybe you know, he goes somewhere else for one of these other teams and and tries to give them some help again, either as their starter or off the bench, to try and help them make an extended playoff run towards a potential championship.
Well, Smithy, I think today was the day you finally became a pro at radio. You gave me five minutes on Johnny Juzang being waived and sphe m kay Luke's contract picking up that that's called filibustering. And if you can't do that, you can't do this job, so bravos sir, see that.
And you can throw any name you want to spends that meaning if I don't know it, yeah, I certainly will have two minutes that I just make up on the fly.
That's part of that's part of the job.
Man.
Hey, great to see. We'll get you back soon, okay, thanks, Thanks Richard Smith. Day two of NBA Free Agencies