Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily assists.
Van McMahon, Van McMahon, that is being old Land, Texas flood as tickets Mud, He's man McMahon.
Van McMahon, Oh man, it's been too long, but the triumphant return of the legend himself. Some may say the goat when it comes to covering the Utah Jazz. Van McMahon Tim McMahon back on the Drive on a Tuesday, Tim, how you been.
Man Hoday partner, How are you?
We're well, We're well. Thanks for the time. We've missed you on the show.
And of course it means basketball season is here when you make your appearance.
Around these parts. We appreciate the time.
And it is a dark and rainy day in Salt Lake, which matches the mood Tim. Because Taylor Hendricks, after spending a number of hours in the off season improving his body and was off to a pretty good start, suffers a catastrophic leg injury that sees him lost for the year.
What's your reaction and what are you hearing about? How he's doing?
Yeah, and you know, I was in the building last night and it was gruesome and guaranging. I mean the second you saw the direction that his leg was turned, you knew like, oh no, this is a really bad thing. And you know Will already summed it up when he said,
this is bar of sports. It sucks. I mean, the kid did everything that they asked him to do and everything they hoped he would do over the summer, got significantly stronger, you know, really showed an incredible work ethic, earned the right to be in that starting lineup, was guarding the other team's death player, whether it's John Morant or Luca Donaldcicch or you know anybody in between on a nightly basis. You know, really major strives in his development.
And again the bar from Will Hardy all to put on pause right now his season's over. You know, typically in these cases there's going to be served or acquired that you know, the further tests in the day is to determine the severity of it, you know, specifically like the ligament damage, that kind of thing. But I mean, really just Poy, what a gut punch and then what a tough thing for a twenty year old kid who had a rough look year and responded the right way to now have to deal with this.
Yeah, he according to people I've talked to over there, I'm sure you hear the same. Like, in order to develop as a young player, the main thing you have to show people you can do is work. And he showed everybody this offseason that he can work. I mean,
you know the deal. Like I oftentimes joke that in pro basketball, it's kind of the same thing as kind of national signing dan college football, where every coach says, well, we got every prospect we wanted, like, well your rank seventy second, Like he didn't get everybody and everybody NBA training camps talks about, oh, it's gain, it's muscle gain season. This guy put on twenty pounds, this put this guy
put on ten. But Taylor walked into the building and went, oh my gosh, like he looked different, and he was off to a good start to the season. And certainly, I guess before we move on a thought on you know, I'm not a doctor. I don't try to play it on the radio. You know, the Jazz certainly will not rush this, nor do they have to. Are you hearing anything about you know, is this going to be a full year situation?
Any knowledge in that direction.
You know, what I can say is that a typical recovery process from this sort of injury is right about that year. So you know, I don't have specifics from the Jazz quite yet on you know, IMRI results and plans for surgery and that sort of the thing, but yeah, it would not be surprising giving them the severity of this injury if he's not ready for the startup camp or even start of the ring season next year. I mean, he's really this is a tough one. It's a really, really tough one.
Yeah it is.
And you know, Jazz have a great medical staff and he's only twenty, so certainly leave a lot of space for a long term recovery that gets him back on track. But I mean, it's hard to focus on anything else.
You know.
I'm not sure if you heard last night, so obviously Will Hardy spoke, but then Keyante and Walker on. I didn't see video, but I listened to the audio. It sounded like they were by crying, like emotional. I mean, this is not just something that will affect Taylor. This locker room's gonna have to move on from, as kyant I said, losing their brother.
Yeah, I mean listen Kiante as as the stretchers coming out for Hendrix on the floor, he was covering his face of the towel and clearly you know, tearing up.
I mean, it's again, it's the emotional thing. And then I visually seeing this guy who you're in a locker room with, who you're on playing with, who you're you know, playing with on a daily basis, who you helped this bond with, especially like Conte coming in the same rookie class and he's sitting there in shock and his his ankle is pointed outward like that is a just an extremely difficult thing to process on an emotional basis.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
All right, it feels, you know, kind of a little uptuse or whatever to talk about other dynamics, but we can't just hone in on that. So I wonder and we just had Smittian studio and I was asking him the same question, because you.
Know, the Keyante stuff.
At at Baylor, he played in thirty three games, he shot thirty three percent from three thirty seven percent from the floor. His rookie year for the Jazz, you know, seventy five games, he shot thirty nine percent from the floor thirty three percent from three, and he's off to even a worse shooting start this year with splits that are under thirty for three and just barely I mean twenty seven percent from the floor, twenty three percent from three.
So ultimately, he's only twenty. He played a year of pro basketball, it's only or excuse me, a year of college basketball. It's only a second year on the pros. But he's never proven to be an efficient shot makerer. What point is that kind of an issue?
And I always say you have to consider it a concern now, and you also have to have patience with a want and done player who is learning to play point guard at the NBA level, didn't play in high school, didn't play in college, so and you know him playing aside from you know, aside from a few guys playing with a bunch of young guys. So again, you're gonna have to have some patience with him and understand it. There's gonna be a lot of bumps in the road.
And you know, maybe he becomes legitimate starting point guard in the league, and maybe he doesn't. There's no guarantees.
Here, there's not And you know, while justin Zannik and Danny Ainge talk a lot about development and the youth, and that's probably what we're going to see this year. I do wonder how Will's going to handle this, because, look, Patty Mills is thirty six. Okay, I'm not trying to make him anything that he's not at this stage in his career, but Will knows him from San Antonio, and I just wonder if Will's gonna let Keyante go through a bunch of mistakes or if he's going to rely
on the veteran. Game one against Memphis, in Patty's sixteen minutes they were plus ten, and Keyante's thirty one, they were minus eleven.
Patty didn't take a shot, he didn't take.
A free throw, he only had one board, one assist, but he came in and the ball started popping, the ball started moving. So there is this dynamic of that's sitting behind these youngsters, and you know, I know they want development, but Will wants to win.
How do you think he traverses that space this year?
Well, I think what you don't want is bad habits to develop, and if bad habits are developing, that's going to cost Keante Jorgs minutes. If she's doing the right things and getting the wrong results, I think it's a
completely different kind of conversation. So you know, but listen, Keyante's development is a priority for the organization, and there's also understanding that you know, from a wins and losses and standings perspective, this is probably not going to be a phenomenal season in the history of Utah Jazz.
Basketball, which, as you know, I'm totally fine with, Like, if this is the situation, because the the other thing is, you know, it is a protected pick. If it's outside of the top ten, it goes to OKC. How much of the early losing do you expect to continue, and if it does, how much of that is intentional?
Sorry, I was going through the I was trying to stink my way through security without interrupting.
You get to repete question, I'll ask you a much shorter question. Does it feel like they're actually tanking intentionally this year?
I don't necessarily know that they're going to have to be intentional about it. I think there's I think the level of competition in the Western Conference and the quality and lack of experience of the players on the Jazz roster. I think the results that take care of themselves, I think they will be well positioned to participate in a lottery. Bets obviously is expected to produce not just one, but potentially a handful of franchise type of talents.
Give me your best guess rotationally what it looks like with Taylor out? You think they go John Collins, I think it's Price's sense about there's about twenty eight minutes available rotationally.
How do you think we'll handles it?
Yeah, you know, Cody Williams might get some more time. My guess is probably he would air on the side of going with the VET in the starting the lineup to open things up. But you know, I'll be honest with you, I really wasn't kind of poking around about that last night. There were, you know, obviously, other things, particularly the severity of Hendrick's injury that I was quick focused on more of my reporting.
Yeah, for sure, before I say you loose, if this is about development, then a year three Walker Kessler will give us a peak as to whether or not they're developing players through three games. He's I think it's been an a plus start points, eleven boards, almost three blocks, the shooting percentage is close to seventy. So really good first three games for Walker. You think it's going to continue.
Listen, he had great summer, and you know, I think in hindsight, playing fourteen YUSA in the World Cup was a mistake for him. He needed to be you know, in a weight room. He needed to be you know what was some of his game at gym and last he was kind of a humbling thing for him. He went on an all rookie season to being you know, let's be honest. I would considered a disappointment as a sophomore. But again he talked about the way people respond to disappointment.
And I can I can tell you know, when I ran into Will hard in the preseason, he said, waiting till see Walker. You know, he's he's bigger, he's stronger like he looks good like he you know, he came in ready to compete this year. So I can tell you Will it's not a guy who plows a lot of smoke. You know. If he if he's pumping the guy up and saying he's happy for what he's been doing, I mean he's doing the right things. And you know, I think he talked about it. He had you know,
hashtag muscle watch. But he is bigger, you know. He did add about twenty pounds and I think he's humbled and came in with he to prove that all the optimism about him during his rookie season was accurate. And you know he's ready to back that up.
All right, brother, Well, good to hear your voice, Glad to have you back. We'll set you loose and look forward to catching up soon.
Sorry to rushing on this one. I got an early tip tonight, but we will we will make up for it in the weeks to come.
All good, All good.
There is Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. He is the ESPN beat reporter on the jazz beat, so we like to bring him in to get the latest with the Utah Jazz. Yeah, it feels a little insensitive or I don't know, futile at this point to talk about anything other than the horrible scene we all saw yesterday and just thinking to Taylor and man, Jazz have
a great medical staff. He's twenty, so I'm sure he'll get back and he'll be fine, but probably won't be for a year, which does hinder the development of what he could be.
But step one, get healthy. Hopefully he's doing all right.