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Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA daily assists.
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All right, we're live today. Arup Blood Services ninety seven eighty six out five hundred West in Sandy. Come on, buy to donate blood. They're the sole provider for the University of Utah in the Huntsman Cancer Center. And you get megaplex Megaplex movie passes, and then you're also qualified to win tickets for Utah BYU football coming up on Saturday night. We'll get back to little college and pro football in a moment. But let's do some NBA because the Utah Jazz on a tear Jazz got to win
last night. So first win, Baby steps. Tim McMahon Tuesday Afternoon, Tim, Happy Tuesday, Buddy, How are.
We doing, Lody Partner, how are you?
We're good, We're good. And look, I mean, this is going to be a difficult year for the fans. It's going to be a difficult year for our conversations because we could be very reductive and say they finally have a plan that plan is to lose all year. So let's just start big picture, because I feel like the best time to do this would have been two years ago, but the second best time is now. It does feel
like they're leaning into a full rebuild. So from an overall standpoint, where are you at with the Jazz right now?
Well, I can just tell you it's been a difficult year for our conversations every year that we've been hap toche Well said, Look, the Jazz are just as good as the Milwaukee Bucks. They're just as good as the Philadelphia seventy six ers. I don't know why you want to put this kind of spin on things. They are just as good as two teams that were expected to be contenders of the Eastern Conference. So, you know, let's
pump a little sunshine here. In all seriousness, I do agree with you, like, hey, the rebuild was you know, there were two good for their own good for the first fifty plus games. For the last couple of years, you know, we understand that. Again, we've talked before. I do think there was some value that first year of will Hardy's ten you were in allowing himself to kind of prove and establish that he is a bona fide head coach. Is interesting because I think what you're seeing
in Brooklyn might be something pretty similar. And I would say there should be even more than seeing Brooklyn the bottom out this year given their take situation. Still own a swap to Houston a couple of drafts from now. But this is to get the kind of talent that it's going to take for the Jazz to really turn this thing around. It's going to take a really rough year or two, and you know certain this is going
to be one of those. Now, having said that, you don't want to You don't want to be in a situation where you know you're opening this season with a double figure losing streets. You don't want to double figure losing streets. You know, you do want to be able to sprinkle and wins just because you don't want just to be some kind of extraordinarily, for lack of a better word, depressing situation. You do want the development of the young guys to occasionally be rewarded. And you know
last night was certainly an example. Now, although you know John Collins might have been the best player on the floor.
Yes, and you know I actually wanted to talk to you about some of these dynamics here, because you know, there are people that are wondering whether or not the Jazz are going to make any moves, and if they do make moves, it won't be to get better this year. And John Collins might be like the perfect guy to have on the roster because you have to pay somebody and he can give you big minutes and he's making twenty six points five mil and he's not very good
most of the time. But whether it's Collins or Sexton or Clarkson or any of these vets outside of Patty Mills, Okay, they're not moving Patty Mills. But do you do you think there's any value with the vets on the Jazz roster and you anticipate them maybe making any movement or is this kind of like the perfect type of veteran group to have on a team that's really not serious about winning right now?
Well, I mean, look, they're going to be listening to offers, and certainly that stuff's not really intense right now. Obviously it picks up the close you get to the trade deadline. You know, the one thing I can tell you is they're not going to incentimize anything and Collins is probably tough pregnant for them all. He still I believe he still has another year left in that contract.
Because of that, it is a player options him.
I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm not breaking news here, but I'm going to suggest the strong possibility that that player option will be picked up.
So probably correctly.
But you know, like, hey, I could see a guy like certain Sexton clarkson teams that are looking for you know, scoring punch off the bench. Good teams come you know, around the time before the tread deadline. I could see those be being a couple of guys who might have some interest in the market. Like I said, the Jazz will absolutely be listening, you know, probably even shopping those guys as that time comes. But you know, it's not like they are in the way right now. And Collins, unfortunately,
they do kind of need his minutes. And the plan coming into the season was he was going to basically be the backup center. And unfortunately Taylor Hendrix, who is going to play a lot of minutes, is not going to play anymore this season. You know, lowd marketing is not a long term thing. But he's out right now. So Collins played a lot of power forward, and I would say Colin's playing well at power forward. It doesn't hurt the possibility that he might be moved for the deadline.
I'm just I'm I don't think it's likely, just because of the contract them.
We'll get back to the Jazz because I want to ask you about Taylor, but we have some breaking news that I'll get your reaction to tim in real time. Joel Mbid has been suspended for three games by the NBA. He's gonna cost him just over a million bucks. The suspension will start with the first game that mb can play. This is according to a tweet I'm seeing from Bobby Martz. Obviously it's the situation with the reporter in the locker room.
So what's your take the NBA suspending Embid for three games.
Yeah, look, the NBA had to issue a suspension. I'll be honest with you. I am surprised that it's three games. I wasn't obviously in the locker room, you know, But like you have to sit the precedent. The players, no matter how up said they are, can't put their hands on reporters. But I don't think this was some extremely violent situation. And you know, frankly, I can empathize with Embiid as far as why he was so upset. Uh. You know, this was one of those situations where nobody
was right. You know, the columnist wrote something that was you know, I understand why I Embeid felt like it was a completely unnecessary and out of bounds personal shot. You know, to bring up if you're going to be criticizing a player, you know, to bring up family, especially a deceased younger brother his young son. You know that's that's poor taste. But you know, the old the two wrongs they'll make the right thing certainly applies here. I thought one game would have set a press in and
gotten the message across. I thought three games is pretty strong, but uh, you know that's what the league officer came down on.
So moving back over to the jazz and as you referenced, just the just the horrifically sad scene that you and I talked about last time you joined us real quick with Taylor going down for the year. Uh so I already asked you about that, and there really is any new information. You just sort gutted for the kid, But I was curious to see what will would do with essentially twenty eight to thirty minutes at his disposal, and he has gone to Cody Williams and Kyle Philipowski. He's
not upping. We're seeing a little bit more you banks time, but in the starting lineup and the guys that are playing the majority of the big minutes, it's Cody Williams, it's Kyle Philipowski. You reference marketing, you know, kind of a day to day thing. I just anticipate that we're going to deal with that all year long because I believed him this is all intentional. Obviously you were tongue in cheek about the bad starts from Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
But do you believe that now the plan is very very clearly in place where it is. And look NBA front offices. They'll sometimes say things and you get a little hint like they're not going to say we're trying to lose. They're going to say we're trying to develop young players. So do you believe the losing is by design? This year?
I believe that the Jazz have recognized that floating around the ninth or tenth picking the lottery is not a way for them to really turn this thing around, so you know it, call it what you want, you know, real hard. He is not out there coaching to lose games, but with this roster he can coach his butt off and they're not gonna win a lot of games. I mean, just look around the Western Conference. You know, that's just the way it is. I mean, they're not going to
win thirty something games with this roster. And you know, it's also likely that one of their better players will probably be gone before the trade deadline obviously, which just happened the last couple of years as well. So you know, is it tanking? Is it losing by design? Is it you know, just being in a situation Again? My thing is this. I don't necessarily there was definitely a direction chosen here, but if they chose to try to be as competitive as possible last summer, like what moves would
what moves would they have made? Right? You know what I mean? Like, you know, the Paul George thing was a pipe drain that honestly never made any sense to me. I think this is a combination of choosing a direction, you know, really committing to the full blown rebuild and not kind of the half measures of the of the last couple of years, and also just the reality of the situation kind of smacking me in the face.
Yeah no, well said so the last time that it's been this bad. And look, although there's not a championship banner hanging in the Delta Center, we are a spoiled market because we've had front offices who have been really smart at making measured decisions, Scott Laden, Kevin O'Connor, Dennis Lindsay. And so when Dennis took over, he moved on from Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. I mean, Millsap's still a jazz legend and Al played here for a couple of
years and played well. So twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen jazz basketball is when they started. It was like one in thirteen, and the young players on the rass Trey Burke rookie, Alec Burke's second year, Derek Favors third year, Enniscanter second year, Rudy Gobert rookie, Gordon Hayward third year, and I'll just stop there because those are kind of the Cody Williams Keyante Philipowski hopefully eventually Taylor, Bryce sen Saba group. And
then which one of those players popped. Obviously, Gobert did, Hayward did, Favors did, Alec kind of did, Trey never did. So they went like four for six, we'll call it. So, out of these young players, who do you think has the best chance of popping the way Hayward and Gobert, those guys did. That could be around the next time. The Jazz are actually really good.
Well, you didn't mention Walker Kest in the young group?
Yes, yes, and.
You know the Jazz do include him in that group. You know, I think he's twenty three years old, obviously a third year guy. He's also the guy who I think has shown the most and has the you know, I had the best odds of becoming a you know, I don't know, foundational piece. Might be a little strong, but maybe not. I think he's going to be a really good, you know, starting big in the NBA. Is
certainly a defensive banker. You know, we've talked about, Hey, the guy did not build on a strong rookie year. You know, last year, could argue he regressed a little bit. Certainly he didn't take strides forward. But the way he responded to that was by working his butt off. I think he you know, feels a lot better physically. I think his confidence is much higher, you know. I know, Will and the coach and Seffer are extremely happy with the work that he's done going back to the end
of last season. And I think, you know, although they're not winning games, you know, I think he's played well this season. And then honestly, the rest of the guys, like I don't know, you know, I mean, Kanty George is in the starting line last night, played really well. It's been a pretty rough go for him so far this season. Before that, I am skeptical on him being a full time point guard. Maybe he ends up being a you know, a Jordan Clarkson type of a bench score.
We'll see. But look, this year, even next year, a lot of this is going to be about figuring out which one, you know, which ones of these guys are potentially part of the long term future, and which one of them aren't going to pan out, because like you said, they're not all going to pan out nobody. You know, if you shoot fifty percent in the drafts, especially these pics that are you know in the teams, you know,
some of them have been in the twenties. That's doing pretty well, so you know, player development is also you know, it's figuring out which ones aren't worth continuing to invest in, and that's going to be part of the process over the next couple of years.
For sure, And certainly Hayward favors both third year players on that team, so Walker should be included in the group. Uh ten points, twelve boards, three blocks. So to me, his start is one of maybe two or three bright spots. And I cannot come on air every day and blow smoke when this is just going to be a rough season. But you reference Keyante now. The last time tim that Kyante made shots at High Cliff he was a high scorer because he didn't in college. He didn't his rookie year,
and he hasn't so far this year. He was really good last night. But essentially we have two and a half years where the splits are like thirty eight percent from the floor in like thirty percent from three He's only twenty. But at what point does that sample size become so big where you're concerned about simply his inability to make shots, As simple as that sounds, I mean, you can.
Be concerned about it now, but you're not going to pull the plug on you know, you're not going to pull the plug on him, like you're going to at least see it through this season, you know, I would think in the next season, you know, in fairness to him, he didn't come into college or the NBA with like a physically mature body. I do think he's improved his sazique, you know, over the summer, you know. And another thing is he's learning to play point guard in the NBA.
Not just how to play point guard in the league, but how to play point guard period, you know, and that's a pretty massive challenge. So I would give him, you know, it'd be a different situation if he was if he was drafted by a good team. If he's drafted by a good team, he's probably not getting minutes now. But that's not the situation he's in. So I think you've got to be patient and give him a little bit of grace.
Yeah, for sure. And to your point, they're only going to play youngsters, all right. Moving away from the jazz here, let's talk about your take on the latest. Everyone hates Rudy's story, Kristin brown smashes on him, and you know, I have always been a stand up for Rudy guy, just because I saw how great he was in this community.
I was over there when he you know, I was working for the Jazz Radio Network when he was with the Jazz But there are some times where you just kind of ant stand up for him and you start to make allowance. I still think it's bullying. I still think it's rude, and I still think he's a good dude. But it seems like this time around, most of the people were not necessarily backing him up, even the ones that typically do. Is that fair?
You know, I didn't think he was honestly that huge of a deal. I was actually at that game. I talked to Rudy afterwards. I talked to Christian Brown afterwards. Neither one of those guys were really a bit too worked up about it. It was a competitive moment. I mean, Christian Brown absolutely dunked the hell out of the ball and then put a highlight on Rudy's head. There's no question about that. He was amped up. You know, he's kind of flexed and celebrated by you know, stepping into
Rudy's space and hollering a little bit. Rudy gave him. I don't know, if you'd call it a club, but it was like a little pass rush, move to Decatur to the neck there, and there was some wolfing, you know, Russ came in and did Russ type of stuff and you know, and that was that. But his game, you know, Rudy's like, hey, I get it. He was fired up. He stepped my space and then you know, a whole lot of nothing happened. You know, he said, I actually think he's a really good player and a good kid.
And you know Christian Brown, who, by the way, he got Rudy a couple of times last year or too. I mean, Christian Brown, for all that's going wrong with the Nuggets, he's a pretty promising young player. Deceptively athletic, he might say. But you know, he said, hey, you know, I got so fired up because he's Rudy Gobert is one of the best rim protectors in the league. He said,
the best REMP protector in the league. And you know, his take was, actually he was he regretted his celebration, not because of you know, the disrespect or whatever, but he's like, dude, I cost my team momentum. They're on an eleven zero run and then they end up blowing a ten point lead, and he said the devil technicals cost his team momentum. So you know, look, anytime Gobert gets dunked on and Matt's attack or it is going to be a thing, right, It's going to go viral.
People are gonna hoot and hohorrah. As far as the celebration and his reaction and all that, neither one of those guys thought it was a real big deal. So I'm not going to be two up at arms back. I will say I didn't think Rudy should have been in the game at that point because I thought he should have got kicked out. It was a flavorant one when he elbowed Joke on the job boy during that review, I thought Rudy was about to head to the locker room.
But look, man, I was in the Maddis locker room a couple of nights before that, perfect nice before that, when they played the Wolves, I was in the Nuggets' locker room. Like it's no secret I wrote the whole thing about this last year. Players around the league do not like Rudy for whatever reason, and that's just, you know, that's just the reality of the situation. I think he's the most disrespected star caliber player in the league. You know, he's not always in the right But I didn't think
this was some like major international incident here. I just thought it was a spectacular play that you know, they got a little huffy and puffy afterwards.
So I'm asking you about the Timberwolves intentionally and the Calves intentionally because the Jazz draft capital returns begin this season and it doesn't look like I mean, when when Ruy Hotcha Mura said their scouting report on Julius Randalls that he just stands there on defense and therefore they were just going to backdoor cut, I'm like, Okay, you don't love that fit with Minnesota. Maybe they're not going
to be great this year. Mike does look old, But how real is this eight n O start from the Calves with a new coaching staff and a team right now that looks really connected.
I mean, I don't think they're going to go eighty two to zero, but how many games do they win? Last year? Correct me? I mean it was right round fifty, and that was with all kinds of health problems. You know, Darius Garland had a broken john and really ruggle last Sea. You know, obviously break your dry or johs waershit. There's a bunch of time, there's a bunch of weight to believe they had a rhythm. Donovan had all kinds of knee problems. Uh, you know, they're if they're healthy, they're
going to be good. I don't know that they're going to be number one seed in the East good. But right now, if you told me the Cavs finish the season with fifty five wins, fifty seven wins and then the number two seed in the East, I wouldn't be surprised at all. And I still think Minnesota is the top three team in the Western Conference. They've got some things to figure out defensively, but I like their odds there.
And you know, they're happy with Julius Randon. They're especially happy with kind of a dynamic between Randall and uh and and Edwards. And I feel like Randall takes a little bit, you know, he eases the burden on an while also setting them up. You know, Ant's catch and shoot threes are way up. That's a large part because Rangell sets them up. For man, it can take a lot of the uh, you know, the the attacking, initiating, facilitating responsibilities off Hans play and you know, Finn Sho
tell you. The hope there is that at can wrestle a little bit on offense instead of taking some possessions off defensively.
Fifty one wins for the Calves last year, so you were close to knocking that out. Tim. Yeah, I appreciate your time. Have a great week. It's great to have basketball back and we'll chat.
Too, all right, appreciate it, brother, all right.
Great. Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. He covers the Jazz for ESPN. That's why he is on our NBA Daily Assist. He's on Twitter at ESPN Underscore McMahon is where you find him.