Next on the drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily assists.
Van McMahon Van McMahon that is duding old Land, Texas flood as tickets Mud, He's man.
Van McMahon.
Van McMahon.
Then gonna help you fill out your brackets today. Ken Pomeroy, the legend himself Kenpalm dot com is live in studio during the four o'clock hour. We're gonna go region by region. We'll previews some of the local stuff and get Ken's reaction on the hiring of Alex Jensen, which became official yesterday. Excuse me on Monday, I was there. Should know Chris
Comaraddie from the Athletic later on. But there is a massive game tonight here in Salt Lake City at the Delta Center as Washington rolls into town to take on the Utah Jazz.
Our next guest covers the Jazz.
And the NBA as a whole, and Tim McMahon, If Wizards Jazz can't get you to Salt Lake, I don't know what to do, man.
Yeah, well, I would say if things go the Jazz is way tonight and then again in the lottery, I'll probably make it a lot of trips to Slick City next season.
All right, there you go, there you go. So what what are we expecting?
Tonight? The Jazz released injury report.
Lowry is out with quote personal reasons, Walker is available, John Collins out. Neither of these teams obviously want to win this basketball game. They're both stuck on fifteen fifteen wins. The Jazz have two more losses than Washington. But what sort of game are we in for here in Salt Lake?
You know, it's crazy. The Wizards actually haven't been playing terrible basketball, no true, since the trade deadline, and they got a couple of vets in there. They got Chris Middleton, they got Marcus Smart. How about the Wizards sweeping the
season series with the Denver Nuggets. It's incredible, But like they made up some and they were in danger of like historically horrendous territory, and you know, there is kind of thing of like do you want to have lose and just seep into every pore of the culture of the franchise and those habits, and so they've been playing better basketball, but tonight, you know, obviously this is a this is a tanker to loser type of game. And I don't know that it's one that I would purchase
tickets to see. Perhaps some you know, lean pass drive bys just for comedic, comedic reasons, you know, listen. I enjoy the Walker Kessler really leaning into the player development aspect there, and maybe he can get up ten or twelve threes to night eleven in the last two games after I think six all season before that, something like that. So I enjoyed, you know, Walker Kesler Stretch five.
That's gotta be the Jazz trolling the NBA right after they find them for city and marketing. They're like, oh, okay, if you're gonna find us, we're just gonna let let our big guys shoot threes all game.
Well, I was controlling the NBA, don't I don't know that that's that's aggressive. What I would say about it in all seriousness is this Walker works on his threes every single day. He would love to be a Brook Lopez type of Stretch five, And at this point in the season, I would say there's no downside and letting
him fire away. Maybe he stumbles into something and becomes comfortable and it's actually a tool in his tool belt at some point moving forward, certainly he's likely to do something like go one of eleven from three point range over two games that quite frankly, are in their best interest to lose. So there's not a downside there. But it is like he it's not like, you know, the guy's never walked out to the three point line and
fired one up. He does it every single day. I mean he's trying to develop that, so you know, give him a shot. Hey, I remember when the Mavericks are tanking trying to get Luca suddenly Solemn Measure. I don't know if you remember the mah wow, but but Solid Measury was firing up some threes. And the funniest thing is there was a total tank up to lose a game late in that season in Memphis, and the Mavericks will want it because Solid Measuring got hot from three point rate.
That's a good pull. I haven't heard that name in a while. And you know, like Walker has a decent stroke. It's not like I can remember the Jazz used to every preseason there would be a video on social media of like go Bear hitting a corner three, and they'd be like, hey, stay tuned.
I'm like, don't do that.
Like that's not like you like, don't do that with Rudy. But Walker actually has a decent stroke, you know what I mean. It doesn't look like it's aesthetically unpleasing, it's pretty fundamentally sound. Maybe someday he can develop it to a point where occasionally when it makes he'll be able to knock one down.
Well, you know, unfortunately, the counterpoint to that would be he's not a good free throw shooter. That's typically guys who are able to stretch their range out. It's like, hey, they're good free throw shooters, and then you know that that's an indication that's the three point ball is a possibility. However, you know, I mentioned brook Lopez. Brook Lopez was a prototypical back to the basket score for the first half of his career. It wasn't until Kenny Atkinson got to
Brooklyn pretty deep into Brooks time. There was his last season in Brooklyn. I believe that he started marching his butt out to the three point line and firing away and then they just leaned all the way into it. You know. A couple of siths later for him when he got to Milwaukee, and now he's like the epitome of a rim protecting stretch five, which I mean, that's absolutely a new archetype of big man in the NBA.
And if you've got a guy who can protect the rim and then you have to guard him on the three point line, like, that's a big time weapon. I don't I don't think it's necessarily likely that Kesler becomes that, But why not, like, at least at this point of the season, when you know you're trying to stacking lottery house as high as possible, why not lean all the way into it?
For sure?
I mean, at this point, you know, try whatever you need to try, because we all know what time it is. But since I referenced the Jazz being fined tim for city marketing, can you help us understand this? I mean, ultimately it feels like teams sit players every single night and star players every single night.
We like, why the Jazz? Why would larry what happened here?
Because it was an extraordinarily aggressive, uh tanking measure? And there's if we're being real honest, this is three straight years this time that the Jazz were extraordinarily aggressive with tanking measures. I mean, that's the simplest reason. And then what was it like nine straightnesss correct. Yeah, so I'm so look, I mean, let's just be real. It was pretty flagrant violation of the player participation policy, and so
they had them with one hundred thousand dollars fine. And look, if you end up with Cooper flag, you'd pay ten million dollars in fines to get there. So, I mean, it's it's not pretty, it's not fun, but it is in the best interest in the Jazz to be tanking aggressively, and the league called them out on it because what they were doing marketing it was pretty flagrant.
Yeah, and there's no no debate as far as how, you know, how they were handling it. It just feels like it happens across the landscape of the league. So I don't know, I thought it was odd that they on the Jazz.
Well, but there's been an investigation in Philly. They're investigating. I mean, they investigated the player participation policy violations for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the number one seed in the Western Conference, for a game that they won by double figures because Portland despite sitting there like top six players. So it's not only the Jazz. But again, I really like the real honest answer is the Jazz have been pretty aggressive tankers, at least late season in each of
the last three years. I mean, I don't know if I've told you this before, but when the Mavericks tanked the last couple of games a couple of years ago, when they had that top ten protected pick and post Kyrie trade, like, things did not go well and they couldn't win, and they're at a point where, hey, they had a small chance of being a playing team. But the most likely scenario that have kept their foot on the gas was they land the eleventh pick, which would
have gone to New York. So they tanked. You know, I called the League office and I'm talking to make the League office and I'm like, hey, like, are you guys gonna make any kind of comments? They're going to be a kind of punishment. And this person said, have you called me about the Jazz? And my response was, has Ryan Smith been fine six hundred one thousand recently for publicly discussing tanking measures? Has that happened in the
last few years? And so you know, the Mattericks will repeat violators of flagrant tanking and you know had actually been fined before. And this is the first time, and look, one hundred grand is a slap on the wrist. Let's just be real. But they got slapped on the risk and because they've been very aggressive over multiple years now.
So you reference something with Washington, the concern of allowing, you know, losing to permeate throughout the culture of your organization. And with Washington, we're a little late for that conversation. I mean, my goodness, that organization. Whenever Jazz fans getting their feelings, I'm like, dude, you look around the league for a little bit, namely Washington. But I always believed tim when there's a team that has leaned into simply
losing consistently. While I understand and agree with oftentimes the approach, there has to be a little bit of a danger for the Kyle Philipowskis and the Isaiah Colliers and the Caante George's the world to get.
Accustomed to this.
Now, what I will say is the past month, month and a half, there have been several games where the Jazz have been close at the end against good teams, which I think is valuable experience. But is there is there a danger to leaning into this when you are trying to develop young players and teaching them how to be professionals.
Well, there absolutely is. And that's why I think that this is an extraordinarily tough task for Will Hardy because ultimately, like he's responsible for establishing the standards and the you know what's unacceptable and you know, really instilled in the
kind of culture that he wants. And look, let's like that's why you know, there have been instances, for example, where he's publicly called out the complete lack of effort defensively and young players have lost minutes because uh, you know, they haven't had the level of the acceptable effort defensively. So it's a it's a it's a really no pun intended to kind of a no win situation, uh for
a coach. But the challenge is you understand the organizational uh path right, and you've got to get high in talent to ever have any chance of getting that thing turned around. And you get what the easiest way to get there is. But you just can't let bad losing habits seep in. And and you know, honestly, that was a huge issue in Houston during their three years of blatant tanking after the James Barden trade. You know, Emiodoko was able to come in and fix those problems really quickly.
You know, I do think that Will Hardy's got a very bright future as a head coach. I do think that he has a level of authority, uh and and respect in that lockeroman. And the other thing is like, hey, if these guys don't live up to those standards, they won't be there very long. And so if they if they don't respect what he's trying to, you know, the standards he's trying to enforce, then you know, they'll probably be looking for a job somewhere else.
Sarah Todd des Red News, friend of the Show, wrote a piece last week that has received a lot of traction, and we talked about it with her on the show, and essentially it felt like she was talking to somebody at the organization, and I think she probably was.
That has now kind of coined the term of uh.
The last three years were a tear down and the rebuild starts now.
All right, Like I, you know, you and I have talked about I've.
Got a pretty good idea who she takes to go on fair.
Enough, fair enough, And I guess that's a spin you can put on the situation three years later when you didn't handle it the right way from the start, is my opinion on that.
But if the rebuild starts.
Now, tim, does it feel like next year is going to feel a lot like this year?
You know what? I think that depends on a lot of factors. And frankly, one of those factors is do they win the lottery? And if so, the second factor would be how ready is Cooper Flag to make an immediate impact? You know? Now, look, are there is there going to be like some massive jump and wins next year? Are they going to you know, be a sixth seed
in the Western Conference? I mean highly unlikely. But again, if if Cooper Flag is as good immediately as people think he might be, who knows, yeah, And then like say they win the lottery, how do they approach the rest of the summer? You know? Are they are they aggressive to kind of get veterans in there, to put a you know, realistic competitive team on the court. Stranger things have happened. The Deroit business won fourteen games last year.
They're in sixth place in the Eastern Conference right now. So I'm not saying it's impossible. I am saying one the West is a lot tougher than the East and two, you know, the for that reason and others, it's it's pretty unlikely, you know, typically rebuilds our multiple year processes.
So interesting though, because according to what Sarah Road, let's operate off the fun hypothetical that Lady Luck shines on us here in Salt Lake in a way that it hasn't so far in the jazz.
It's wild.
The Jazz have only been a lottery nine times, but they've had nine chances. They've never moved up outside of a trade that they've made. That's how they got d Will. But if it actually goes down and Cooper Flag is a jazz man, Sarah kind of pontificated on the possibility of actually that being the start of the timeline for what they're trying to build, meaning do you move on from Lowry now that you're going to be able to once this offseason comes down, do you even considering move
on from Walker Kessler? Which pontificated about in her piece for the d News, like if they get the prize of Cooper Flag. The tone and tenor of the piece was, Okay, now we start our rebuild and maybe we move on from everyone, because Tim, if we're honest, outside of Lowry and Walker, I don't know.
I just don't. I think there are a moment good go good.
I would say it's fair to say you don't know. I think it's premature to say, you know, none of these guys can be contributors to a competitive team.
Oh sure, I wasn't saying that now, But.
Look like the Lowry thing, Hey, you've got to consider all options. And if you're building around me, slide is going to be eighteen next season, so like prominably unlikely that he's going to be able to drive winning right away. And like, you know, I think you have to be open mind to do all possibilities, and you have to just like they did last summer, Lowry, you have to be willing to listen to conversations. You know, you have to be, you know, even willing to begin conversations, to
initiate conversations. He's not untouchable. You can't. You know, you can't win fifteen, sixteen, seventeen games and consider somebody untouchable. Now, having said that, I would be pretty hesitant to move Walker Kessler because he's twenty three years old. He's going to be you know, he's the type of guy who I think can be a high, high, high quality role player on a good team. And I think he's got at least a decade long runway in front of him.
And again we're basing this on like they win the lottery. It's Cooper Flagg, who's supposed to be just a potential, like tremendous impact defensive player, like a like a andre Kirolinko type of defender. You know, if you have that type of defender with one of the two or three best rim protectors in the league, that's the you know, the foundation of potentially an elite or an elite defense.
For a long time, the asking price was very high for Walker Kesspher, you know, even going back to last summer when people thought the Jazz might be down on me, maybe he could be at for a discount. And I don't see any reason that would change were.
They ever close moving on from Walker, either last offseason or prior to the trade deadline this year.
That's to my knowledge, I've not heard, you know, I know there's been a lot of teams that have inquired about him. I to my knowledge, there's never been anything that was a serious consideration.
So let me revisit what I said.
And I didn't mean to imply that none of these guys are ever going to turn out. I just very much have questions about all of them. But if I removed Lowry, and if I removed Walker from the equation, who do you think, based off of what you've seen, has a chance to be here when they are good again.
Well, unfortunately, we barely have seen Taylor Hendriws and you know, we'll see if he's even ready for training camp next year. I know they're very encouraged by the progress that he made last summer after a tough rookie season for a kid who was a teenager at the time. You know, Isaiah Collier has has definitely had stretches of really endearing himself to Will Hardy this season. You know, Keante George is in some ways it's kind of like Walker, where
the second season has been disappointing. I think he's more of a you know, of a Jordan Clarkson then he is a Darren Williams. You know, I don't think he's ever going to be a league art for somebody. Can he be a benchbucket Ginner? I could see that and then honestly, this year's rookies like, let's let's see, let's see summer league. Let's see how they handle the summer. I mentioned Collier, but I'm talking about like Cody Williams, Philipowski.
Philipowski's shown a little something. I don't you know. I think he's a bit player if he's able to part out a long career. And think Cody Williams, like, let's be honest, he's more of an idea than a player at this point. This summer is gonna be huge for him.
All Right, one more jazz thing, then we'll move on from this. And like you, I don't do the you know, draft grind on tape every day thing the way that people do it that have it as a full time gig, like your guy Jonathan Cavoti or others that cover the draft. But it does feel like, I mean, even when wem ban Yama was there to be had, you had hipsters and NBA media say things like well, I kind of
like Scoot and you're like, all right, dude, whatever. But it feels like we've moved into a space where at the start of the season you would hear Dylan Harper, you would hear Ace Bailey, you'd hear Edge Common after what Cooper's done? Is it safe to say that, like wem Banyama, this is Cooper on his own level than everybody else after him.
Based off your understand.
That's my understanding. And you know, I've talked a little bit to scouts and executives and I if it Cooper flags not the number one pick people throughout the league, it's going to be absolutely shocked and dumbfounded. So you know, I would say that would put him very much on his own level.
You brought up the Detroit Pistons. Do you still stay in contact with Dennis? With Dennis Lindsay and I wonder what sort of role he's played in kind of this resurgence.
Yeah, you know what, I'll be honest with you. I have not been in touch with Dennis this season. I have not. I don't get East a lot, and I haven't run into him this season. But I would say that he had his fingerprints all over a very productive off season for the Mavericks a couple of summers ago, and you know, the Pistons made it a priority to hire him with a rookie general manager in trading Langdon.
They obviously also had a very productive off season, and so look, you know, you start to cry with a guy who's in charge and making the decisions in Trajan Langdon. But Dennis Lindsay's got an off the good track record, and this is two straight, too straight summers that he's been part of a front office that's made some moves that really paid immediate dividends, and you know, you gotta think he had something to do with it all.
Right before I set you loose.
The big news story regarding the local sports scene is that it is official as of Monday afternoon, that Alex Jensen is the seventeenth head coach in Utah men's basketball history. The Jazz played the Tea Wools a few nights ago. Go Bear post game was asked about the higher and Rudy gave a great answer. It's up online. It's up on the Utah page, the Jazz page. Will Hardy was asked about Alex. I mean, everybody said everything that you
would expect. And I know that you know Alex, and this is a bit redundant because I did ask you about it last week, But now that it is official, as somebody who covers both the Jazz and the MAVs tell youth fans what they should know from your experience about their new head coach.
Yeah, I didn't actually see Rudy's comments. I would be interested to see those because, look, I've said it before, like other than Rudy Gobert, Noga deserves more credit for that raw, ganglely, goofy young French guy developing into a future All of Famer than than Alex Jensen. And you know, Alex, I think it has a great feel for player development. He has been a very successful head coach at the
G league level. I think that his style of very you know, direct communication is I think it's a great approach. You know. I think that the recruiting stuff, like you know, his hires as assistant coaches are going to be very important because he's not necessarily a naturally gregarious type of guy. I also think that the alumni, uh, you know, the alumni donations to the Nile Fund are going to be
even more important than that. If Alex Jensen is a heck of a coach, if he has the support, if necessary to win in the in college basketball, I think he's going to do so.
Is the all right March twenty fifth, tim the book is on its way here the next little bit, and so two questions where can people go get it? And number two is based off of this next iteration of Luca's career. Are you considering additions to this book? I mean, there's a lot of Luca Danch's basketball left in front of us.
Now listen, the last edition of this book. There's actually eight thousand copies were printed before the trade. Every other copy, the e book, the all your book, all those they've got. The last chapter that I wrote in the two weeks after the trade, and it's kind of a perfect end to the story. It's his entire run, all the drama, all of this function, all the chaos, all the success, and the shocking plot twist at the end of his tenure with the Dallas Mavericks. There'll be another Luca book?
Would there be a Luca Laker's book. That's a great question to ask when you have Dave mcmaniman on. Ah. Okay, I've handed old mac Tima baton, but no, I appreciate you mentioning that. As far as where to get it, you know, everywhere you get books, you can, you know Amazon right now? You can get the you know, hey, if you want to go for the triple Crown, you can get the book. You can get the audiobook, and you can get the hard copy. You know, an old
school pretty covering all that. So, you know, some people in Dallas are Bullycott in the book. It's actually pretty humorous. There's a there's a conspiracy theory that I was colluding with Nico Harrison over the last few years. We're on Luka doncis out of Dallas.
Oh my gosh. All right, well, you never.
Never underestimate the creativity of the angry Internet.
Bob that well said, well said, thank you, my friend. Have a good week with chat soon.
Okay, all I appreciate you, brother.
H the great Tim McMahon.
Yeah, his book comes out officially on March the twenty fifth, called The Wonder Boy.
It's about Lukadocic.
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