TUE POD @SpenceChecketts on NBA Offseason, Jazz Trades/Draft, 60 Days from CFB + more

a jam pack busy Tuesday show for you guys. As NBA free agency continues to roll along, we'll talk about what could be next with the Utah Jazz after moving on from Carlin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, and we'll give you the up to date news cycle on what's happened since you and I last spoke and said good night

last night at six o'clock. It's been a busy forty eight hours in the world of pro basketball, and today is the start free agency in the NHL and the Utah Hockey Club as the excuse me, the Utah Mammoth will get there. They've made some moves. We'll tell you about it, tell you about some of the new players, and keep you up to date on any of the movement around the NHL. Of no, there will not be as much NHL moving as there is in the NBA.

It's just the leagues are very different that way. But Bill Armstrong and his staff, Austin Ainge, his staff busy right now working the phones to see what sort of pieces to the puzzle they can put together, or in the Jazz case, puzzle might be complete.

for both pro and college football. We will be in Dallas, Texas next week for Big twelve Media Day.

go off Houston, They're getting everybody. Denver made a couple of moves that I like. We'll talk about the Nuggets move. San Antonio making some moves as well. So there are some teams in the West trying to make progress moving forward out east. Quinn Snyders, Atlanta Hawk suddenly might have something to say about the Eastern Conference next year. Milwaukee is very much not acting like a team that's going to trade Janna Sante to Combo, but they did stretch

and wave Dame. Lillard will kind of explain that scenario to you. On the surface, optically, it's not a great look for a Hall of Fame player and one of my favorite NBA players of this generation. Utah's very owned Damian Lillard played his college basketball up here.

So this is something where you know he's gonna have kind of one chance to find a good landing spot and have hopefully a little little last stand as a scoring guard, maybe a number one option. I don't know offensively, at least could still be a really, really good piece, and I'm excited to see where he lands.

let's start here. It doesn't make any sense for either the Utah Jazz or Damian Lillard for the Jazz to make it play for Dame.

I don't think once upon a time I would have said that about Yusuf Nurkic, but I certainly I would say that right now and surprised that they actually had to attach the pick to Colin to get the transaction done.

But what that does ultimately is give you an idea of what the market is now and has been for Colin, because if we're honest, whether it's Colin Sexton who they traded a Charlotte or Jordan Clarkson who they essentially cut, it was a buyout, and when you look at the details of the buyout, save the Jazz a little.

they would have done that deal. Now, a couple of years ago, after the decision was made to break down the Gobert Mitchell, Dennis Lindsay, Quinn Snyder nine year iteration of jazz basketball, the conversation turned from Okay, moved on from Donovan, moved on from Rudy, moved on from Bogdanovich, moved on from Mike Conley. Okay, you got rid of all these players. What does this mean for Jordan Clarkson?

And then after Colin Sexton is acquired via the Mitchell deal, the conversation kind of turned into, Okay, what does it mean for Colin? Because it felt like those two would have had some market value. They moved off of o Chaio Baji really quick, who, by the way, played pretty well in Toronto last year. Some of the other pieces nikile Alexander Walker, who ironically enough is going to Atlanta where he'll play for Quinn. And when Quinn had Nikhil

Alexander Walker here, he couldn't get off the bench. And I actually thought Alexander Walker was a better player than Royce O'Neil, who Quinn preferred.

off the court. He did become kind of like this leader. I believe it's painted in the locker room lead with love or show love or whatever. Jordan's thing is. And then you have Will Hardy wearing a hat that says show love at a press conference. That was Clarkson's thing and throughout the course of the worst stretch in the history of this organization under this ownership group. I think things like that actually endeared Jordan to the community and

he deserves that, deserves those flowers, as the kids would say. Now, unfortunately the reality is over the past couple of years, he has not been near the player that he was when he played for Quinn and won six Man of

the Year. You know, one of the coolest moments of that stretch of jazz basketball was Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson were two finalists for six Man of the Year a number of years ago, and they had this cool moment where Joe and Jordan were on television I think it was Turner after a game and they asked the trivia question how many players in jazz history of won six Man of the Year and Jordan said no, and then Joe held up his finger and said no, it's actually one, and they announced that won it.

So sad to see him go, But the reality is, over the past couple of years, he has been barely an average player, you know, barely a rotational player for a team that's actually trying to win.

Next year, I would imagine Jordan could play a role, but at the past two years or any indication of who Jordan Clarkson is now as an NBA player. I'm not sure that that's a huge loss for the Jazz on the floor. Okay, So ultimately what this does, Okay, it does one thing. So back to the Austin Ange dynamic, who did not acquire any of these players prior to this draft cycle, was not a part of drafting any

of these players. I just would imagine Austin Ainge is wired a little bit like his dad, where he just removes a motion from decision making and doesn't give a rip about players that he has not acquired. Now that the owner himself, Ryan Smith, has let us all know that he is the primary decision maker, so I just have to wonder whether it was Justin Zanik who was part of the trade, which, by the way, the Clarkson trade in retrospect, was a great deal by the Jazz.

The traded Dante exem and I think two second rounders for Clarkson, who stepped in here and became one of, if not the best bench player in the history.

a net negative. He's a veteran backup center that I suppose can provide some physicality and practice to Walker Kessler. He also was on an expiring d you, although expiring contracts don't have the value they once did, so maybe you can move Nurkic at the deadline. The net net of what I'm talking about is simply this. I don't know what else the Jazz are going to do this offseason.

I think there's there's potential because I do think John Collins, and if we're honest about John Collins, he is coming off a career year. Okay, So if you're a team like the Lakers, if you were a team that has kind of been passed by by some of your other conference peers, you could do worse than John Collins. The problem is twenty six point five mil got to match that salary coming back, and you got to figure out

what that looks like. And there is a world that exists that John Collins is kind of like a guy that you do want to pay because you do have to meet a salary floor. In the NBA, everybody talks about the second apron, the salary cap, you know, where you can't go over certain numbers because it's punitive in a way that we've.

to Oklahoma City. And at this stage in your roster construction, when next year's draft is thought to be a place where maybe four or five franchise changing pieces exist, you have to hold on to that asset. It would be moutheasance if you elected to go all in on trying to be mediocre and suddenly you fall to nine, ten or eleven, and that pick goes to the offending World Champs.

You're gonna see Ace Bailey. You're going to see Taylor Hendricks, You're gonna see Walker Kessler, Kyle Philipowski, etc. You are going to see these pups play. Now, last year they fed us the BS line pups can't raise pups. Well, guess what pups are raising pups. That kennel is full of children, and hopefully some of them provide steps forward and provide hope for what this team can look like in three or four years, because guys, the reality is that's how long this is going to take before they're

even kind of good. Yeah, Big twelve Football Media Days next week in Dallas, Texas will be down there as you're home of the Utes.

facing a seven game suspension. Just kind of unpack your thoughts on this whole thing, the whole process, and what you think comes next.

they agreed to kind of go their separate ways. And so what for Retsloft this means is that as part of his defense and maybe you guys to talk about this, is that he admitted to you know, his defense was that the encounter was a scent, was consensual sex, which of course, is a violation of uiu's honor code. We've seen a number of cases or instances in the past where you know, athletes you know, admitted to having sex and we're forced if they forced into a suspension or

kicked off the team. So as soon as as soon as this was I guess last Friday, when that defense publicly surface, I think it was pretty easy to kind of see that a suspension was coming. Then I was able to confirm that, you know, seven games was the expectation. And for Jake faced the seven games suspension in his final year of eligibility, a year that he hoped to develop into an NFL prospect. I think he made the decision pretty easy to ask uh to decide to transfer

from the UYU. And now we'll see, we'll see where he ends up. Right, There's a stigma now attached to him as a result of the accusations, right, and so.

as far as her accusations were, they were horrible. And then you know, Retz left is an attorney, and his attorney they filed kind of their side of things and they were very adamant that this was consensual and that included some pretty heavy language in the direction of this young lady as well. And then we have this situation where again the you know, it's kind of assumed that a settlement was reached, but we don't have any information in that direction. Now the judges is signing this to

kind of just dismiss the whole thing. Can you enlighten us in kind of how this process works and you know, how they kind of came to this resolution if that makes sense, Yeah, and I.

That's what happened last week. So Jake's hires an attorney, they file a response to why they think it should be dismissed or the or here's their defense that that's all standard, right is when and when you're talking about civil cases, it can go a number of ways. Right. It can be flat out dismissed by a judge like hey on its mayor we don't see anything here, there's

not enough to proceed there is. It can go to trial, right, you all move forward, and that could take a couple of years to wind through the court system to a

point where we actually have a jury trial. That was the demand, the quote unquote demand in the original complaint, which is all standard in the third like really common door to go through as a settlement, right, And I think that the based on the language that was included in the joint motion to dismiss, it's hard to come up with any other scenario to why they would have filed that unless they had come to some sort of

a settlement. It's likely a financial settlement. And the territory you start treading into there is like in those cases, both parties agree not to ever discuss it, right, it would violate that the terms of the agreement, So the woman and her legal team are not allowed to discuss it. I'm sure there's some sort of financial penalties if they were to do so, and I think it's probably the same on the other side, where where Jake or his legal team is also not at liberty to discuss the numbers, right,

And so it's easy to make the assumption. I think anyone understands that's probably what took place based on how it being unfolded. But there's just not going to be any more details just because of the kind of the way these things are structured.

that the sex was consensual. So by the time Friday rolled around, the university had already been able to discuss internally what the appropriate punishment should be, and like how they settled on seven games, it feels a little arbitrary to me, but you know, I don't have a great sense of how they determined that was the number, but

but it was relayed to him last week. I believe on Friday that the number would be seven and at that point, yeah, I think it was a very easy decision for him to move on, and like, I don't think he was caught off guard by it either. Right, there's the precedent is there at BUYU that like this

stuff is, this is how they deal with it. There there's the honor code that you kind of you know, you can we can have a longer conversation about the merits of it, but like that's what you signed up for when you go to that school, and so you kind of have to live with the consequences if you break the honor code. So that's and that's kind of where we are.

I said it when the story came out. I've been doing radio in this market coming up this fallow to be twenty years and my most unfavorite things to cover are BYU honor code violations from players when things like this take place, because there are so many angles where you feel, at least I feel that you need to be fair to everybody involved in you know, the community of people that decide to go online and take victory laps if you're a UTAH fan or accuse this woman

of extorting or lying, if you're a BYU fan, the thing. The whole thing feels really gross to me, Kyle, I don't enjoy it. But to your point about having a bigger conversation about whether or not the honor code is antiquated, whether or not it needs to be adjusted, I find that to be a moot point. You know what you get into when you go down there. I had five

siblings that went to BYU. I mean, and there's no ambiguity, by the way, Like it's there's no gray area, like if you're going to go there, you're expected to behave as and if you don't, you need to understand like things like this could happen to me.

and and and that didn't matter, right. I Mean we saw it, however, many years ago with with Brandon Davies, like getting suspended when the basketball team was twenty seven to two and right number two in the country, right, Like that's just that's that's how it works there and so you have to kind of accept it if you're

going to play it there. It does complicate things though, Uh you know that that he's not that he's not Mormon, right, that he's you know, there was you know, he had by J trademarked last year because he was such a unique uh you know, dynamic for to have a Jewish starting quarterback at BYU for the first time ever. Uh, it was you know interesting if nothing else, and so uh the fact that he's you know, not of that faith, but you know is being punished for you know, the

beliefs of that religion is also like the very interesting conversation. Right, it's not football related at all. It's it's it's society and it's uh everything that goes into that. But you know, from from a college football standpoint, you know, there would it would have been very easy to avoid this scenarios Thurgy Grepsop and now he's just got to deal with it.

the b YU experience. I wonder how you would articulate the reaction from somebody who's an outsider looking in and look, you've covered by you and maybe you're the wrong the wrong guy asked this because you do you are familiar with Salt Lake. You've covered Utah on the Pack twelve, mean,

you've covered BYU stories. But when something like this happens, how do you think it's kind of digested and optically it looks from the outside looking in from somebody who may not be familiar with how this stuff works.

quarterback wasn't having sex. Right, That's just that's just the reality of what the perception is nationally about about about that position. But but again, so I think, yeah, there's some people that of course are not going to agree with it, and they're gonna think it's weird, and and

that's just the way it is, right. There's no there's no uh, you know, there's there's no way, no other way to explain it, right, There's just cultural differences, and you know it's in you know, in the United States, there's so many different subcultures that are that are so different, and college football has a way of bringing them all together, which I think most of the time is actually a really good thing and exposed to you to different backgrounds

and areas of the country, which which mixes them all together. But certainly you're gonna have this, uh, you're gonna have some some shock at times when stuff like this this plays out.

freshmen in America playing in Provo next year. So the weird kind of dichotomy here is on one side, they've been able to find this lane with deep pocketed donors writing big time checks to pay what you need to pay to attract talent. Do you think something like this with the Jake stuff could have an adverse effect on the program when people kind of dig into it and to your point, might look at this as antiquated or weird.

shy away from it. But I do think that BUYU has benefited as much as anyone in college athletics by the way things have developed. From an analys standpoint, I mean,

look at basketball, look at football. Like you know, I and I talk to some people over at BUYU and they see it as look like YU is like the church is very like sees this as an opportunity to help sure, right, because the more high profile BUYU athletics is, the more front and center the LDS religion is, right, That's just it's it's pure marketing, right, And so there's an investment into football that benefits the church in that way. There's just like, look, you also want to be successful

in sports. This is an opportunity. There's a lot of money there that can be using and is be and is being is to help fund these programs. And so I think like on balance, BYU is benefiting from this, but certainly like this event if you're gonna have any negative rippercursions as well, but the laundromatic still be r So.

Bowl they go eleven and two. So now we move over to what could be next for them. You know, the interesting thing is Jake was eleventh in the Big twelve and QBR oftentimes they were able to win in spite of some really bad decisions he made. So when you look at you know, the quarterback room, McKay Hillstead is a Utah State transfer of tracing Boorgay and Bear Bachmeyer.

thought he was really good. I think there was a lot of uh, you know, a stock being in put into him coming back as the starter, right and not being the same quarterback that he was last year and being able to have that that year of starting experience under his belt where now he's able to kind of make the step next step and be it more just be a better player. Right with him gone, that it's

a it's a complete unknown. I mean, I think L J. Martin is actually a really good back, Like like, I think he's progressed pretty well in the last two years. Like so I think a lot more will be put on him than probably would have been expected if if rets Off was coming back. But yeah, it's it's it's a complete that noun with with with who the other quarterbacks are. You know, you got three different transfers, so

we'll see. Like I still think, you know, this is a team that won with defense last year, right They had the best defense in the Big Twelve if I'm not mistaken statistically, if not, you know, one of the best of the country really and so when you're making your money that way, I think a lot of that is Schematically they're very sound, and you know, they've got some really important players to replace. But at the same time, there's enough coming back to where I think the expectations

of the defense should still be very good. So with all those factors. I still think BUYU will will head into this year with really high expectations. But and we talked about this in the past, spense like it's just so hard to predict college football now with all the rosters turnover. Yeah, there's a lot Like reading the Telia, they should still be pretty good. But you know they were expected to come what like thirteenth in the conference lass year and almost won it. So what do we know?

Iowa State. Obviously we have to talk about Kenny Dillingham and the team that won the conference a year ago. But on July first, Kyle, what's your gut tell you about this conference. It just seems to cannibalize itself, just like the Pac twelve US too.

isn't the established powers. I like the parody and it doesn't it's not necessarily great, like for national prominence not to have just like a Bell Coal at the top. You can rely on to the top five or whatever. But you know, Arizona State was a great story last year. They were I think picked to come second to last in the conference and to go to the playoffs and showed well I thought in the playoffs. Yeah, so yeah, I'm gonna I think, I ask you, you know, for me,

they're very interesting. Of course they've got a lot of production to replays. But then the most intriguing team I think has to be Texas Tech because in this era of college football, money matters, right, like if you look at salary caps like an unsalary caps sports, but the teams with the highest payrolls are usually the best teams. Like it's a really easy correlation to make you have the most money, you get the best players. Texas Tech

is that team. Like we've seen reports that you know, maybe thirty forty million dollars on their roster, and whatever the exact number, it doesn't really matter. Like the takeaway is it's a lot, and it's more than most other programs, not just in the Big twelve, but it's among the elite spenders in college football. So that's gonna that's gonna help you out. The scheme and all that stuff matters too, But the talent, at the end of the day is the most important aspect of winning football games.

It's this guy who oversaw dynasty, coached the best quarterback in the NFL in NFL history at that point in Joe Montana and the steps aside reasons are different, and then decides he wants to get back into coaching and returns to college football. He had, you know, he had

been the coach at Stanford before. So it's not the same as Belichick going to the college game for the first time, but it is the same that you have the guy who is essentially the defining genius of the sport schematically at the I'm you know, becoming a college football coach and trying to you know, reverse engineer what he did in the NFL for the college level. They had a really good year in ninety two. They finished ranked in the top ten, which is obviously very difficult

to do at Stanford. I have a lot of really good anecdotes and stories in my piece that published today. You know, Tom Holmo, that you know, just obviously set down as the idea of BYU recently had a few of those. I mean, he talked about getting a call from Walsh we played for with the forty nine ers. He had just finished two years as a as a

grad assistant at BYU. He's trying to break into the next stage of his life, and Walsh calls the BYU facility in nineteen ninety at the end of ninety one or early ninety two, maybe January of ninety two, tells Tom, Hey, I'm going to Stanford and you're coming with me something like that, right, And Tom's like, okay, great. He calls his wife and she's asking them all sorts of questions like how much he getting paid, what position are you coaching?

All these things. HEAs, I don't know, I have no idea. I didn't I didn't ask him many of those questions. But it's Bill Walsh. It's my first job, full first full time job, you know, after playing for football. I'm gonna take it. He tells another story about going down to Louisiana on a recruiting trip with Walsh, and there it's the small town in Louisiana. They're after this big time defensive back, and the high school coach parades them

around town, stopping by all the establishments. Eventually it takes into a restaurant for dinner.

So your thoughts on the decision to move on from Jordan Clarkson.

it's if the Knicks took on a clutch client. But hopefully Clarkson can go there, and obviously I'll have a limited role off the batch bit. Hopefully we can give him a little jolt of some offense off the bench and it's a good situation for all involved. But him sticking around in Utah for another years didn't make sense for anybody.

about that and it's like, is that jewelry? Is that a violation of the rule? And then he just decided not to enforce no jewelry to practice for real quite as hard.

Ace Bailey was the selection at five. And you know a lot of reporting and I certainly can't coroborate any of it that maybe Ace's camp did not prefer Utah, there was a and we had your buddy Tim Bontemps on yesterday, so we unpacked this stuff. There was a report from Tim and others at ESPN that his camp had told somebody in the top five not to draft him. Uh, clearly it wasn't the jazz. I thought, Brad, Actually we'll

get to wal Clayton Junior in a minute. But Austin ainge, you know, you know, I kind of like, I don't know if this is the dynamic, but whether or not East want to be here. Austin just said well, we think you're the best player, so we're taking you. He reported on time, he could not have been better for the pressure, and he is ready to go. So your thoughts on the Jazz taking as Bailey at five, I.

which is just not the way the draft works. He's going to get plenty Like listen, if he wants to be a star, he's going to have that opportunity in Utah. There's going to be plenty of opportunity for him, you know, to get shots, to have the ball in his hands, you know, to be developed and and so you know, life could be a lot worse. I think this is actually a really good situation for him, and you know he's not He didn't show up pouting, he didn't show

up whining and crying or anything of that. Like I said, it seems like whatever disappointment there might have been on his end, he got over it, and he showed up ready to go to work and ready to be a pro, and that's all he can ask. You know. I think at some point he's going to have to really consider who he's listening to for advice and what their credentials are. It's it's very easy to be a teenage kid and have the wrong people in your ear and get steered

down the wrong path. So hopefully he's going to be able to evaluate that and make some clear head decisions about what voices he's valuing that are in his ear and move forward. But hey, shut up, ready to go to work and looking forward to seeing him in the saw Lake City Semmer League.

he hasn't been promised at one or two. So maybe Washington did have their eyes on him, and maybe they take him at six if the Jazz don't take him at five. But have you been able to learn why he's canceled all of his workouts?

if he's the guy, go get them right. So your thoughts on the trade they executed to go draft Wall Clayton Junior.

old Walt. You know, he's a guy who he went to Sienna and he got screamed at by a Patino for a couple of years, came off the benches freshman year. You know, I had to earn a starting spot there. Patino leaves, transfers to Florida. You know, four year guy, a total winner in college where obviously you know, Rutgers with with Bailey and Harper didn't win last year, won

a championship at Florida. You know, comes comes to Utah obviously much more mature, you know what I mean, just older, more mature, more experience, an adult, approven winner who doesn't necessarily have that jump off the page, you know, the measurables, the athleticism, all that kind of thing. But there's there are you know, I've seen them compared to Brunson. Not not identical as players, certainly, but in terms of some of the background stuff very learn.

it would have happened midway through last season. But you know, certainly, I think we all understand that where the Jazz are and they're rebuild, where Collins is in his career, that Collins being in Utah this year probably isn't in anybody's best interest.

They want to be able to have two bigs available at all times, and obviously Steven Mavams going to miss some time. Finney Smith though, here's the thing. The Rockets both went out and drastically upgraded the go to guy. They got a Hall of Fame go to guy, and they also leaned into the style of play that they want that big, just nasty, rough, physical defense, rebound, all that kind of stuff, bringing in Phinney Smith, bringing in Capella.

So I think they're the second best team in the Western Conference.

to Saling Tunas today. You know Hardley's a minimum guy, but you know Bruce Brown coming back to the minimum. I mean those are between Valan Tunas, Bruce Brown and Hardaway. Those are three proven vets for the bench. And if you know, if one of the young guys like plays hardly have a spot in rotation. Great, but it's not you know, the volume movement, shooters around jokers not a bad thing to have.

up being a disaster for Milwaukee. You know, they're still out draft capital in the future. It didn't produce a single playoff series victory, and now he's on their books for the next five years at twenty two and a half million per I get it. I don't think that bringing the Miles Turner just vaults the Bucks in the contender status. And he likes Kevin Porter junior starting point guard. They still got something to figure out there. I'm not sure what that answer is going to be, but they're

going to need a better answer than that. And as far as Dan goes like it's you know, it's a little smudge on his resume, but if he never scores another point, he's a Hall of Famer and for him, he gets his money. And it's not like he wanted to be in Milwaukee. He'd made the best of a situation he did not want to be in. So now he gets to choose his next spot and he gets

to choose. You know, probably does he want to sign with somebody this year in a two year deal and rehab under their watch, or does he want to kind of play it out, rehab on his own and be able to evaluate the situation. You know, maybe he's in late this season or next summer. So my understanding is Dame is not heartbroken about this development.

find this team really interesting this year. So I will ask you about what this transaction says to you and what you're expecting from the MAVs this year.

of a league guard. They're going to give Cooper Flag every opportunity to prove that he can handle a lot of the point duties as a rookie. And you know, basically, Daniel Russell his jobs to come in to get buckets in the starting lineups the first half the season and then hopefully transition to a six man role when Kyrie

comes back. You know, it's it is a little tough to make the Mantra defense wins championships kind of your repeat line as a general manager, and then your most significant moves of the off season, aside from drafting Hell with dependent number one overall, is signing D'Angel Russell. But again, this is a team that they needed shooting, they needed playmaking.

You know, they need a guy who can create his own shot, and Deangel Russell can do all those things that they at a price point where you're not going to get at all. You know, if he was a really good defender, he wouldn't be available at that price point.

I don't know how much of this is new ownership, but what's the what's the take on the Lebron Lakers stuff?

not even really possible. But in part because if you're going to trade a guy at that salary, a lot of guys gonna have to come back, and then it might not be a situation you want to be a part of anymore. There are people around the league who are like, is Lebron trying to bully his way to a buyout from the Lakers, And if you're sitting in Rob Lincoln jenie Buss's chair, the answer to that is just sorry, No, we're paying fifty two point six million dollars.

You'll be playing basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers this year, really looking forward to it, and then we're doing our best upbade the roster. I'll see you when training camp starts.

a great stretch of Minnesota. Luke Canard, in addition to Kristaps Porzingis, the East is wide open and the Atlanta Hawks might have something to say about it.

And the circumstances are much different because Alexander Walker has proven himself as a high level role player, not just a three and D guy, but a guy who can you know, make some plays off the dribble, you know, initiate, facilitate some and clearly was quite valued by the Atlanta Hawks. I mean, you know, he's coming in sixty two million over four years. And I agree with you. I think the Hawks have had a heck of a summer in a wide open Eastern Conference. I think they are the

most improved team. I think they've positioned themselves to, you know, potentially have home court advantage in the first round. And you know, you know, we can talk about the Knicks and the and the Calves. Is the favorites in the East going in the next year, but it's wide open and the Hawks are one of the teams. I think it positioned themselves to be in the mix.

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.

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.

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.

He was, He's gotten more efficient every year they 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.

what they're gonna try and do next year. I don't know if that was, you know, 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 well, 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 this 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 That's what it feels like to me.

an excellent deal. You moved on them a couple of 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.

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 could find a trade partner they liked apparently, so they worked a 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 for a team 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 buy out thing. Saved themselves a little money. Clarkson gets to decide where he's gonna go instead of being put in a 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 just leave some on the table. You can take it and I'm going to go out the side door. Okay, I guess.

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.

Mills thing that drew you 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, 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 doing? We 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 on what your organization 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 just 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, 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 seeing, you know, what these guys can can figure out going forward.

But if you're 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?

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 handled that if they in fact want to move on from him.

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 that's what they've been doing. And guys like juw Zang and U 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.

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, Jac 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.

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.

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 they're they're 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.

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 at the summer, after his second year in the league, he became an unrestricted free agent.

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 time, if you know, in the Jimmer for that 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, six, seventh year, or the team can say, like they did the Jazz did with Gordon Hayward, you know we're going to 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 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.

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 checkets he is. Do we want to keep them 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.

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 yea. 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 moved. Sometimes teams don't like to do that because teams don't don't want to admit they made a mistake, 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 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.

some moves. We'll do some big picture NBA with Smitty coming up on the other side of a Tuesday edition of The Drive.

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.

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.

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 is 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 gonna 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.

good player, four years fifty three, mil Clint Cappella. You know they already have 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.

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 who's 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've gone all in on trying to figure to see if they can challenge the Okcs and the Denvers and the Golden States of the Western Conference the next couple of years.

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 saying, yeah, we 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 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.

extension for Yakaperla. 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.

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. Yaka Pertle is a very nice player. He's Toronto obviously likes 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. Uh, But in the great 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 going to add to how you want to try and do things in San Antonio.

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 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 the fact that 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 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.

for how they their group operates. Of course in that you know, by Addie 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, 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 Valentunas 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 jo Kich 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.

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.

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 for Zeus, 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 Grizzlies. 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.

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 trial 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, Zacharysache,

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.

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 go somewhere else for one of these other teams 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.

It's been a while, but our good friend from the Destrat News, Sarah Todd, stops by on a Tuesday afternoon. Sarah, Happy Tuesday.

It's my understanding that the top five team that he was rumored to have his team to have not said that he would report to was not the Utah Jazz, But you know, that's neither here nor there at this point, right. But I think that the biggest thing that I can say is that the narrative that kind of started to formulate about maybe Ace being entitled and not really you know, knowing how this process works and being like an arrogant kid,

that it was expecting too much. That's the part that I didn't appreciate, because you know, we're talking about an eighteen year old kid. We're talking about a literal teenager who had people in his corner handling his business, and that they were the ones that were representing him and speaking on behalf for him during the pre draft process. And I think that that was all done in a very misguided fashion. And now we move on from it.

be a part of the future, no questions asked. Right, Even if we're talking about guys like Lowry, Markinen and Walker Kessler, those are not guarantees, like the Jazz are going to hear offers that come in for them and if one makes sense, they'll make it. And so there and like the young guys on this roster currently, like, yeah, there's been some flashes of potential, but there's nothing that we've seen at this point that says like absolutely no

questions asked. Isaiah Collier is a building block for the future, right, Like there's just not a player on the team, And so then Draft night comes in. Ace Dailey is someone that has potential to be a clear building block, So like, what could we see in the future. This kid could be really good. He has all star potential, and we don't don't know if he's going to reach that feeling. We don't know what's going to happen, and that's part of like the risk of all of this and building teams.

But if you're looking towards like what the Jazz are trying to do, he could be one of the certain building blocks.

You don't need to sit Jordan Clarkson out anymore because they've bought out his contract. You don't need to worry about sitting a healthy Colin Sexton because they've traded him. Now that you bring in use of Nurkic and a lot of fans see that and they think, why would you give up like a twenty six year old guy who's really efficient shooter for someone who's basically like a washed backup center. Well, because the Jazz don't want to win, that's why. And so they got what they wanted out

of that deal. They got the exact amount of expiring money that Colin Sexton would have been on, and they got someone that they don't have to worry about sitting on the bench when he's healthy. And so I think that you're yes, Jazz fans are absolutely in for another long season. It's not going to be very good, but at least you are going to see exactly what we have out of all of the young guys there is.

There will be no lack of opportunity for them to get on the floor and they're going to be competing against each other and competing for their next contracts.

Austin was going to go trade up for him. So this is a player Austin has liked for a long time, and so where I've landed on it is Look, only time will tell.

with you, like three seconds isn't nothing. But if it's three second round picks for a guy that you really believe in that then turns into somebody that could be like a full rotation player for a good number of years, then like it's hard to find those players in the second round, right, Like those are those are such like luck of the draw picks in the second round that you don't always know whether it's going to be you know, Nikola Jokic or some guy that you never heard of

even after Draft night because he never even played a day in the NBA, right, And so it's kind of

a this or that and time will tell. But I'm fine with it, you know, Like, like I like that the Jazz took Walter Clayton junior and even in the second round when they picked John Toanji, like a couple of guys that just aren't eighteen, Right, You've got a bunch of guys who came in off one and done years in college, and I just like that they have some guys that are going to come in and like actually can play some basketball and maybe don't need like

the maturation time that the others need. That doesn't mean that they're going to be great, but I just think that it's good that it's on the roster that not everybody is an actual teenager.

may have been the only motivation they wanted. A matching salary and a player that you don't need to play because Nurkich is no longer, you know, with anything other than a vet, they can give you ten or twelve minutes to night. But were you surprised there wasn't more value in return with that transaction for the Jazz.

that he will be at some point. Number One, these are guys that looked really good on the Jazz, and that is a bar that is very low in the NBA as of today. I mean, when you're playing on the absolute worst defensive team in the league and you're playing on a team that has the least amount of wins and the minutes that you play look good, that's relative.

And number two, the value of these players might not necessarily been the value of them in particular, but maybe just the value of the Jazz is negotiating power in these situations. The rest of the NBA knows exactly what the Jazz are doing. They know that they need to

get off these veteran expiring deals. They know that they want a runway for the young players to play, and so they the Jazz don't really have leverage here, it's like, well, you want us to take on a contract that you don't want, and you want a player that's also on expiring to come back, Like what's in it for us? Especially for like, let's look at Charlotte, Like, it's not

like they need a bunch of guards. And so it doesn't really really shock me once I start to think about it that the rest of the league is like, hey, UTAHD, what can you even show us that proves that the Ers are good players? That they played kind of good on the worst team in the league. That doesn't really say much.

of the Year. You know, in retrospect, the trade that that xanak and and and that group made for him was really good, sending Dante and a couple of second rounders to Cleveland for him. But I think you'll have better perspective on this than I do. As somebody who's on the beat, and I always say this, you should listen to the beat writers.

best way to operate. And you know, or another situation if you imagine, you know, Jordan's in an ISO situation on the right wing and he looks over and the guy that's open from three is Isaiah Collier who can't shoot threes, and I probably wouldn't want to pass the ball either, and so I think that it was just a really weird situation, and so that led to some bad numbers. Part of it is obviously what you said right, father Time is undefeated. He's not the man that he

used to be. All of that's true too, but I think that he was also like the last three and a half years really took a toll on him. I mean, even that last year with the Donovan and Rudy team, that took toll on those players, and he was the last player on this team that had ties to that team, and so I don't think that he ever really got to recover and move on from that because he was

still here. And so, yeah, it didn't look great. And I'm honestly really happy that he gets a chance to go play for a team that's actually gonna play for some meaningful basketball, like the game's mattering. Makes me happy for Jordan, and he was kind of a bright spot, and I think that's probably one of the reasons that the Jazz held on to him a little bit, is because he was a familiar face. He was a sellable name. He's somebody that could get butts and seats.

team and he was great for the fans. It is absolutely no surprise to me that someone was his personality and the amount of slagger that he has endeared himself so much to the fans so quickly, and it's going to really leave a hole for the Jazz. I mean, there's no one like Jordan Clarkson's.

rest of your assets. I mean, I think that it makes a little bit more sense when you're looking at Colin because there was more money involved there and they were able to get a backup center in the process.

But for Jordan, I think that it made a lot of sense to just like cut ties and just give him a chance to go sign with someone else who wants him and for those teams who you know, I think the Knicks are going to be putting him on a vat minimum this year, which is basically the amount of money that he gave up in the buyout, and so he doesn't lose money this year. The Jazz save a little bit of money and get his contract off

the books. I think that this is kind of a win win in a bit of a lose lose situation, if that makes sense.

one more year. You know, it doesn't necessarily distract or dissuade you from what you're trying to accomplish this season. But more noise around John Collins potentially being moved off of by the Utah Jazz. Any insight on what's next for the Jazz and John.

nets them a positive result. Looking at the same thing as collinsext and right, like, no one was going to give the Jazz good things to take on a contract that they didn't want anymore, and so they had to add a second and so then that's kind of a negative net, right, you got to give up something you get it, And that's not really what the Jazz wanted to do with John, considering how much he kind of

revamped his offensive games. That being said, the league still knows that he's not really a great defensive player, and he didn't really show that he was much better with the Jazz. I mean, it's hard to show that you're a great defensive player when you're on a team that is the worst defensive team. So I think that it's

been difficult. That being said, if he ends up being a player they keep and tell him he doesn't have to report if they want to buy him out, that's a possibility to U they could also keep him around, like they are not the Jazz are not opposed to just letting John Collins deal expiring, because once you've got, you know, John Collins, Colin Sexton, or use of Nurkic. Now Jordan Clark sends the money off the books for all those you know contracts at the at the end

of this upcoming season. That gives them a lot of wiggle room and a lot of cap space. And so I just I think that you're right if he ends up being here, I think that they can maneuver around that. But they've still got options to go and maybe they'll be able to pull something together and find a trade partner before the end of the offseason.

of these guys. Didn't draft him, didn't trade for him. Like I said, I have nothing but good things to say about both these players. I think they both have played well here. But your thoughts on the potential of the Jazz doing anything at all with either Lowry or Walker, Yeah, I think that.

to keep them. I'm a little bit still in that camp, but I think that now the way that I've changed is at this point it feels like it's kind of fifty to fifty if the right deal comes along and someone sweetens the pot for the Jazz in a way that makes it hard to say no. You're right, Austin is not married to this situation. He didn't pick these guys, he didn't make those deals, and if they get something that looks better for the future, then they're going to

do it. That being said, I know that the Jazz, the front office, everyone involved, they would love for Lowry and Walker to be a part of the future. They would love for them to turn into two of those building blocks and be a part of the next core of a great Jazz team, but they are not guaranteed, and they will be listening to phone calls that come in.

but it is something worth talking about. So those five players, Taylor Hendrix, Cody Williams, Keyante, George, Bryce Sensaba, Isaiah Callier, all playing on contracts this year. That could be a situation where the team doesn't pick it up next year. What are your thoughts on the calculations that have been done on those five.

there's not enough calculation at all. I think that you want as much time looking at those guys as you can possibly get, because both of them came in looking like Bambi, right, like skinny, a little bit like wonky eyed, not knowing where to go at times, and just the first summer after their rookie seasons were so so important, this one for Cody, last season for Taylor, and the unfortunate injury that Taylor gets then set him back a year.

And so I just don't think that you've had enough time to look at Taylor, to look at Cody and to know what you're going to be getting out of those players, for Isaiah, for Keyante, for any of the other young guys that you know, Bryce, anybody that else we might be talking about. It's it's difficult. I think that this summer is really really important for all of them. I would kind of be surprised if the Jazz decided to like just make this upcoming season their their last season.

A lot of a lot of them have. You know, these player options have to be decided like year in advance, right, and so like this summer, the place or the team options, it's not about this upcoming season it's about the following season, and so I would be really surprised if they didn't at least keep on keep a hold of everyone like through this, come this season and the next season to get like a full clear picture of what they have in those players. But yeah, this summer is really really important.

If guys look like they're disinterested or they haven't improved or or any of those things. Yeah, hard decisions are coming.

news coming in fast and furious. We tried to cover it as much as we possibly could on the program today. We'll see if the Utah Jazz do anything at all. There is a world that exists that they don't do anything else. They don't have to. They've got the rookies under contract, that've got some vets under contract, and this roster has presently constituted with the minutes that have been

cleared up for the young players. Seems like it could be exactly what you need to back up Austin Ange's assertion that they will not be manipulating minutes, but also be bad enough that you hold on to that number.

lot of complications there. So unfortunately, for one Damian Lillard, you know, probably not going to see him next year, and if we do, it'll be like a buyout real late or not a buyout, but joining a team real late in the year or even for a postseason run. I would say you're more likely to see him join a team on a one or two year deal this season following. We will see how that all goes out. But hope the best for him, man. I hope where he lands is as we've talked about, some more competitive.

Seeing Damian Lillard in meaningful basketball is a lot of fun, and some of us have forgotten about that because it's been quite some time since we've seen him play in meaningful basketball.

turn thirty four next month. Three goals, twelve points in twenty three games, help the Panthers winning Stanley Cup.

Belle Frasier joins the show live from the development camp of course, Utah, mammit there up in Park City for the week, so Bell will give us the lowdown from there, and then I think we're catching up with Pablo Mastruwinni on a Wednesday as well.

Store of the Google play Store. And then, finally, for what we do in our space every afternoon for four hours, check out the podcast page it's called The Drive with Spence.