All right, let's get it.
Drivetime Thursday afternoon, nine minutes past the hour of two o'clock. Our spring like week of weather continues today. Sunny, beautiful, fifty degrees here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, as we are preparing to say goodbye to February and good riddance in my humble opinion on the program Thursday afternoon, a lot to do, jam packed evening of basketball last night, both in the college ranks and.
In the professional ranks.
University of Utah took an l it's against Arizona down to McHale BYU was able to get it done against Arizona State. Tough loss for the Utah State Aggies and the Utah Jazz with a loss, but a historic night from one Walker Kessler. Get into it on the program today, talk some college basketball, talk, some NBA basketball, as we are high speed ahead to March and the madness is right around the corner. Utah Hockey Club is back in
action tonight. Minnesota's in town, minnsot's a good team. Utah Hockey Club in n of points down the stretch and we are about one week away from the trade deadline in the National Hockey League. Bill Armstrong now friend of
the program. We had Bill on this week. I asked him about the potential of making a move or a couple of moves potentially prior to that March seventh deadline, and Bill was very honest about how they are making their assessments and whether or not they need to do something prior to the trade deadline.
It's a littify this roster for the stretch run.
Utah Hockey Club finds themselves right in the mix for a wild card playoff spot, and all year long, that's what we've been talking about as far as the expectation for this team. Will they be able to finish it off, make the wildcard round, make the playoffs, and tell you what, man, if you've ever experienced Stanley Cup hockey hockey in the pro ranks, it's a lot of fun. Right now, the Utah Hockey Club finds themselves four points behind Vancouver. Colorado's
been really good as of late. They're a full nine points behind the Avs, three points beyond the Calgary Flames, one point ahead of the Saint Louis Blue. So we'll do some hockey on the program, do a little NBA basketball, college basketball, in the program as well, and of course the Combine rolls on prior to the NFL Draft.
We'll give you some storylines and the combine.
A lot of players both locally and nationally participating in drills today and a lot of rumors about what could happen at the top of the draft. Junior Tafuna, Brandt Keithy and karn A Reeder are three University of Utah local reps. So we'll do some basketball on the program today as excuse me, some football on the program today in addition to the basketball stuff, of course the hockey stuff.
Do a little RSL.
RSL did RSL things last night and was ousted in the Cockycat champions Tournaments after making that tournament, making that kind of that situation for the first time in basically a decade or so. That run was very short lived as Aradiana from Costa Rica rolled into town and was able to get a couple of goals and beat RSL two to one. There is a striker on the way,
so hopefully reinforcements. So three games for oursel this year in one goal so far, and that's what happens when you decide to move on from the majority of the players that were good and your attacking third.
So we'll do a little soccer as well.
We're jam packed on this Thursday afternoon here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The hooligans are back outside. Wow, the skateboarding hooligans have return once again. It's becoming a theme here in downtown Salt Lake right outside of our Broadway Media studios. All right, Our first guest right out of the gates, Neil Smith from the NHL Wrap Around podcast, former general manager of the New York Rangers, high level scout for the Detroit Red Wings. Also Randy Islanders for
a while. Neil's gonna stop by right out of the gates today. We'll do some basketball and some soccer with Andy Larson, some jazz and tomorrosl with Andy Larson from the Salt Lake Tribune. Tim McMahon stops by for your NBA daily assists, latest on the Utah Jazz, big picture NBA stuff. We'll get a little sports card in as well with our friends from Handy and Handy on this Thursday afternoon. Neil Smith, Andy Larson, Tim McMahon little sports
court on a Thursday and me Spence Check. It's all of you, the great listeners Happy Thursday almost to that weekend right around the corner, and that guy Porter Larson on a Thursday afternoon, I might need you to run interference. I'm gonna have to ask you to maybe play a little security guard if we keep having these hooligans skateboarding outside of our studio.
I'll do that, will, really, I'll go handle business.
Will you pull a Karen un So you will?
I mean, if I'm getting express written consent from my employer, I think we're I think we're good. I think we're covered. I'll kick some skaters.
Asked, Well, I'm not the guy to give you the express written consent, so we're gonna have to run that up the pipeline, all right, James. But it's a new thing, you know, James or Steve can sign off and you can go take care of it outside.
It's a new thing.
Looks like they're creating content for potentially a YouTube channel.
Because I'll give you some content.
That's kind of the deal.
You could go viral if you go out and start complaining, maybe go viral.
Change your life, get hit with a skateboard.
Maybe how much NFL combine do you find yourself consuming.
I don't consume much of it. I follow a lot of it obviously, the numbers, the you know, checking in on results and whatnot. But having been there, done that, seen that stuff in, you know personally it's it's the same thing, and you're you're just there for the results, or you're there to get an interview, to get a talk one on one with a player where you can find something out about him that none of us are going to see on the cameras. And that's really what
the NFL Combine is about. So well, I don't really follow it live too much, but I'll usually check in every few days and make sure we're up to date on the numbers.
So as numbers kind of spill in, as it pertains to what our local guys are doing to the combine, will kind of give you it update, even though most of these things I don't know. Kind of silly, but a lot to do. On a Thursday, Neil Smith's gonna be our first guest. But on this Thursday afternoon, Curtis Art good for a prize picks. It is time now for your opening tip.
Welcome to the Drive with Spence. Check its on Utah's number one Sports Talk Now into the studios of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run your game with prize Picks.
All right, sorry, jam pack night last night in the world of both local and college or excuse me, local and national college basketball, in addition to what's going on in the world of pro basketball with Utah Jazz and the NBA. So let's run down a couple of storylines last night. So, the Sacramento Kings were in town. They swept the Jazz this year. They won all four games against the Jazz this year, and ultimately it's not really
germane to anything that's real. So it doesn't matter if the Jazz winner lose these games, or excuse me, it doesn't matter if the Jazz are losing all these games.
We know what time it is, we know what the Jazz are trying to do.
But when something happens that is of note hashtag take note see what I did that is actually real, it's important to kind of dig into what it could mean for the future of this basketball team. As the theme on our show when we cover the Utah Jazz is more of an eye to the future about what it will look like when they're actually good again, and it's more interesting to watch a team that's actually trying to win. This is a tough deal when it comes to the
ecosystem of pro basketball. It's a really odd thing that there's a good portion of the league every single year where the fan base is encouraged to cheer for them to lose. Now, nobody says that out loud, right, but that is the business of basketball. That's the way the NBA ecosystem has kind of manifested itself over the years as the game has changed, as the players have grown. You could, I was gonna say evolved, but I'm not
sure if that's the right term. It's a different day and age that we're not necessarily all that used to here in the market when it comes to the Utah Jazz. For a number of different years, we are used to having very good competitive teams, and the way that those teams were built by savvy roster constructors. It's kind of
hard to do it that way anymore. With players' ability and willingness and desire to leave more often than we're accustomed to here in the market, right and we've experienced it a ton really, John and Carl kind of spoiled everybody for the better part of two decades. But you know the stuff with Darren got loose, he was traded, We know the deal with Hayward Donovan. In addition to go Bear like, a lot of these teams are really really good, were broken down or players just decided to bounce,
and so it's a tough thing. And I keep drawing the parallel of this essentially being a project like building a home, where this is only the foundation. You can barely see anything above ground. Right now, yeahs are fourteen and forty four. They're the worst team of the Western Conference. They're the second worst team in Pro basketball. The Washington
Wizards have that honor right now. And there's not going to be a lot of winning down the stretch, and there is going to be a lot of minutes available for young players. But what happened last night at the Delta Center, with the game that Walker Kessler had is important to kind of acknowledge as far as how historically special it was. There are two players in NBA history who did what Walker did last night. Those players in Nicola jokicch and Wilt Chamberlain. Walker Kestler in thirty four
minutes was ten of ten from the floor. He made every single shot, mostly layups and dunks. He had fourteen boards,
He had twenty five points. He had five assists, two steals, no block shots, which was odd, but two players in NBA history have had games where it had gone for at least twenty five points, at least fourteen rebounds, They've had at least five assists while making every shot they took from the floor with at least ten field goal attempts, and now Walker is on that list with Wil Chamberlain and Nicola Jokicch. He was five of seven from the line, so you'd love to see the improvement from the line.
Didn't have any block shots officially, but changed a ton and was a menace in the paint. But my favorite part about what happened last night is that it was against Demo Sabonis. Okay, so Sabonis is is a three time All Star. You could have made the argument that he should have been an All Star this year, and oftentimes when Walker's had really good games this year, if we're honest, it's a bit. It's been against teams that don't have great bigs, and Walker should be out playing
some of these bigs that he's going up against. But Demanas Sabonis has owned the Utah Jazz over the past four or five years, and Walker outplayed him by every measurable metric. And if you watch the game, soa Bonus looked frustrated because Walker was doing everything that Will has
asked him to do. It was kind of a rows on top of this thing, right, because Walker's been good all year long, and last night, I think was a game that got Walker a lot of national attention as a result of it being historic and a lot of people talking about it as far as what Walker was able to do. Now, of course it came in a losing effort, but if you guys listen to this show, you know that I'm on board with this endeavor to lose because that's the necessity. Even though it's really weird
to ask your fan base to cheer for losses. It's counterintuitive to what we do and who we are as sports fans.
Actually want your team to lose.
I hope at some point the NBA finds their way out of this where, like I said, every single year, like a third of the league isn't even trying because what it does is it dilutes some of the greatness at the top. So Cleveland and Oklahoma City are both on pace to win more than seventy games this year.
That's never happened in pro basketball. But when you look at the landscape of the league, we have elite teams at the top, but it's hard to tell just how elite they are because the Jazz, the Pelicans, now the Spurs they've joined in. Speaking of the Spurs, they've lost four straight games. Greg Popovich addressed his team last night and said he is not coming back. The Blazers have actually put some things together. But in the West, you at least have three or four teams that are completely
unserious about winning. And in the East it's kind of the same deal, and you have other teams that have joined the fray. Like, what does Philly do at this point? My guess is they probably just allow mb to have surgery. They've lost nine straight games. Paul George cannot look less interested in playing basketball. But Washington unserious, Charlotte unserious, Toronto unserious, Philly now has joined that mix, and Brooklyn is also in the same spot where they're just simply not trying
to win. Now, occasionally teams will rise up and start playing a little bit better here or there. I don't know what to make of the heat. What are they doing? Are they trying to get in the lottery sweepstakes? But you have basically a third of the league unseious about winning, and what it does is it makes it really hard to analyze just how good the top of the league is,
Like is Oklahoma City, is the Cleveland Cavaliers? Are they really historically special or are they just essentially capitalizing on the modern landscape of pro basketball where a lot of teams aren't even trying to win, right? And so when it comes to what the Jazz are trying to do, the only way to kind of cover this thing that makes sense in my mind is to analyze who could be around when they're good again, and then talk about when certain moments manifests that are pretty exciting with the
young players. Moment that manifested for Walker Kesher last night at the Delta Center was really cool, really happy for him because he's had a great year and he's answered a lot of questions after a down year when it comes to what he did during his sophomore campaign. All Right, So University of Utah was at McHale last night, and you know, this is a tough place to play. It's a really difficult, difficult venue. But it's also a really,
really good basketball team. And of course, the storyline surrounding Utah basketball isn't one game against Arizona. It's the situation with Craig Smith, who has been let go from his job as the head coach of the University of Utah men's basketball team. So this was the first team, first time we saw that team without Craig, and you know,
I kind of drew the parallel yesterday. This feels a little bit like the Mike Bajakian stuff when Mike Baijakian took over for coach Lud and Mike was very honest during his first media availability, essentially said, look, this is this is Andy system, this is coach Luedwig system. I'm not going to come in and try to change everything. And it's like, well, what exactly was Mike supposed to
find the coach lud could not find? And it feels kind of the same thing with coach Eiler right now as the interim head coach, and of course he's hearing all the rumors about Alex Jensen and whether or not ultimately he even has a chance to get this job. I don't think that he does, but that's just me. I could be wrong. Arizona won the game eighty three to sixty six. A couple of takeaways, it looks like maybe coach Eiler, Josh Eiler, is a little bit higher
on Keana Daz than maybe Craig was. Keana got a lot of minutes, and he was the one ut that looked like he belonged athletically. He had eighteen points, he had ten boards, He was six of eight from the floor, hit all five of his three free throws. You know, Gabe couldn't really get any space. He was two of ten.
Ezra just struggles against teams with length because while he is very savvy and crafty with great footwork and can finish with both hands, he's just not very tall and so when you run into players that are just simply longer than you, as was going to struggle. That's why I don't think he's an NBA guy. But really cool scene after the game and we'll play this sound a little bit later on before we get out of here.
If you miss Tommy Lloyd on Craig Smith's sons showing up, and if you didn't know, Craig's oldest son, Landon is the team director of operations and his middle son, Brady is currently a walk on for the Utes. His youngest son, Carson, is at North Dakota State. Carson played basketball for Mike Maxwell at Bountiful, so got.
To know him a little bit.
But it was a really, really cool moment because if you have been listening to the show as far as how we've handled the news that Craig has been let go from his job, I really when it comes to stuff like this, I try very hard, even though you as the listener and you as a Utah basketball fan, you're your interest is simply what's next for the program I care about, and who's going to be the coach
and is it the right hire? And I get that, and obviously that'll be the bulk of the coverage, but there is a human side of this stuff that we just don't do a good enough job covering in the media in my opinion, and Craig and his wife you know, of course the five million dollars parachute helps out. But these are good people, right and their kids, their children are going to be affected. But what Tommy Lloyd had to say about Craig's kids showing up last night is worth your time.
He got emotional, I mean he was.
He had to compose himself as after they found out their father lost his job. Landon still still have a job to do. You're the director of operations, Brady. You got to show up. You're a walk on with the utes, you know. So they showed up, they did their job and I'm sure there you know, there was a lump in their throat probably all week long. So that to me was the coolest moment last night. What Tommy Lloyd had to say about Craig's kids showing up.
We'll play that sound for you a little bit later on.
BYU was able to get a win last night against Arizona State. Arizona State had five scholarship players available. They only had eight players dressed on the bench, and essentially they were short handed, but BYU could not miss. They had seventeen threes, they had twenty one assists, and Richie Saunders continues to play his way into consideration for probably first team All Big Twelve. Quite frankly, twenty six points for Richie, had six threes, trevennel five of six from three.
They went seventeen or thirty four as a team from three. You're gonna beat everybody if you do that. So BYU was able to get the win. They've won five straight games now. They've gone three straight games with ninety plus points, with more than twelve three point shots, made less than twelve turnovers, while shooting fifty percent from the floor. You know when the last time that has happened. Not this century, It's been that long. So BYU is playing really good basketball.
Utah stay with a tough loss against Boise State. With that loss, according to Joe Lonardi, has to remove Utah State from the quote lock line on his bracketology. So a lot of basketball last night, fun basketball night last night. Jazz are off tonight. We'll get to what's next as far as the game's coming up. Of course, we are going to do a little hockey on the program because the Utah Hockey Club is in action tonight, so we'll
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When you just play five bucks, you do not even need to win your bet. After a very busy, busy night last night in the world of college and pro basketball, locally kind of quiet tonight, but we do have a hockey game and it is a big one. Bill Armstrong joined the program this week and essentially said, we've got twenty three game sevens left. Try to qualify for the postseason.
The stretch run is on our Next guest joins us on a weekly basis to educate us on the world of pro hockey, Neil Smith on a Thursday afternoon.
Neil Happy, So Thursday, sir, how are you.
I'm good things Spence House, things out there.
Things are good. Things are good. This little hockey club is making some noise, you know.
And by the way I buried the lead, you should know that Bill Armstrong just had the kindest things to say about you when he joined us this week. When I told him that you stopped by on a weekly basis, he was very effusive with his praise and said he'd looked up to you quite a bit when you were doing your thing back in the day.
I thought you'd like to.
Know that well, that's very kind of him. I'm not sure if we've met personally or you know, everybody in hockey knows each other in some way, shape or form, but no, I admire that job that he's done with Arizona and now with Utah. Soho, it's nice. It's always nice to hear something nicely said about you, isn't it?
For sure? For sure?
And this club, you know, as of Laid, we've got five and two in the last seven, three and one in the last four. And Neil, I'll give you the credit, man, they're right where you said they would be. But you know, as you've kind of watched them and study them, what what do you think is clicked as of Laid that's allowed them to kind of run off this five wins in seven games stretch or is it just kind of getting healthy and kind of you know, just jelling at the right time.
Well, the one thing that I think with this team is that they've gotten as they've gotten older, as the season's gone on, as we all have. But as they've matured as a team, they're a lot more disciplined than they were at the beginning of the season. Do you remember how we talked about early in the year, but they were taking undisciplined penalties, and they were blowing leads
and and things like this. What I think now is that they're much more disciplined team coming down the stretch, and that's a credit to the coach that's then the coaching staff that's gotten them to that point where we know they're a young team, but they're staying more disciplined, I think than they were earlier.
So Bill was very honest when I asked him about the trade deadline, which is just about a week away, and he essentially said that, yes, there are deals out there that he's having discussions about, and we don't know
if they're going to do anything. One thing that he certainly said that stood out to me is they will not be in the market for a rental, right, So meaning even though they're close to the wildcard, they're not going to sacrifice this long term plan in the name of bringing in a player just to get them into the wild card this year. But as a guy that's been in the rooms where it happens, right, tell us kind of what you believe the conversations are right now
with Utah Hockey Club. Is they weigh out the pros and cons of either making a move or standing pat.
I think probably the GMS are calling, uh, Bill and saying, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to trade some of your older guys or one of your older guys and build up some chips for later down the road, or are you going to be looking to do nothing and just stay pat and see what happens, or are you gonna I would doubt very much that Bill would want to bring in a player
at this point. That would be silly because even if you can make the playoffs and last one round and you've lost the drastick or a young player, it's just not worth it. So yeah, I would I would say that there's calls coming in for his guys, for his you know, for his guys is unrestricted at the end of the year.
We've talked quite a bit about the goalie situation because I do find it pretty interesting where Connor Ingram was the dude last year, the first choice goalie last year, and then started the season as the first choice goalie, didn't work out great and then he got hurt. And I think I read that Vimalica has now started three straight games. That's the first time that either of the two have had three straight starts ever since they went
to the back and forth dynamic. Does it feel like Vimeilica is kind of locked in that first choice goalie spot at this point?
I think so. That's what I think that he has, and that's credit to him. And unfortunately, you know, he has played really well, and his partner there, Connor Ingram, who was slated to be number one, as you said, hasn't played as well. So now you've got a situation where I think that the Milka is the go to guy from my advantage point.
All right, before we get to tonight, because Minnesota is in town and that's a good team, I want to do a little exercise here where we find ourselves with the Utah Hockey Club on sixty one points, three point shy of Calgary, four point shy of Vancouver, nine shy of Colorado.
Only one ahead of Saint Louis.
So I want to talk about the teams that they're kind of existing with right now in this ecosystem and whether or not you think that the Utah Hockey Club can rise up and maybe get enough points to pass them.
But let's start with a team that's right behind them.
One point behind Utah is Saint Louis and they've just kind of been okay all year. And you look at the home record, the road record the last ten and if you stretch it back even to the last twenty, it's about a five hundred club. But they're on Utah Hockey Club's heels. Is this a team you think that the hockey club needs to be concerned about when it comes to the wildcard race.
I think they've got to be concerned about everybody, but they've got to concentrate mostly on just winning their own games and not watching the scoreboard, the other town scoreboard, because if you start doing that, you'll throw you off of what you're doing from day to day. I think Saint Louis is a team that I don't see making it, and I know that their plan is Doug Armstrong his plan to have a really good team in a couple
of years from now. So he's not going to do anything to try to bolster's team to get into the playoffs this year. He's going to be like just like Bill Armstrong. I think that he's going to ride it out and if they're not able to make it, well, they're still they're closer to being what they want to be than they were a year ago. So I don't think that they're a team. I don't want to say they're a team you don't worry about. You got to
worry about everybody. But it'll take a winning streak and a little bit of a collapse for Utah to get in. And what I mean by a little bit of a collapse, you know, if Calgary's winning right now, Vancouver's you know, sort of win one lose one type thing, one of those two teams has got to sort of start to fall.
And at the same time, Utah has got to win, win their games, especially especially their games against Vancouver, Calgary, Saint Louis Anaheim, those teams that are clumped in there with them trying to get into those wild card positions of the two.
I'll ask the question this way.
So Calgary has a three point lead on Utah Hockey Club, but they also have two games in hand. They played fifty seven games, Utah has played fifty nine. Vancouver has a four point lead with one game in hand. They've played fifty eight. Utah's played fifty nine of those two Vancouver or Calgary who do you think is more likely to kind of fall for the hockey club to take advantage of.
You know, I think I would say Calgary. They weren't even thought of to be They were thought of to be in a total rebuild this year. But they started off the year really well and they've done a cove accomplished this year is really good. Vancouver is an anomably because they won their division last year. They were supposed to be again really better this year. They've had some internal problems. They ended up trading JT. Miller away to solve their locker room problems. You know, be either one.
Quinn Hughes's health is in question. He's a He's their best defenseman, maybe their best player Norris Trophy last season. He just came back into the lineup yesterday. They had a big win after being down to nothing. They beat Los Angeles Kings and in overtime, So that that's big for them. Anytime you know you can get those two
points and not just get one, you're better off. Let me mention one other thing is that when Utah plays these teams like Calgary, Light Bank, whover like Saint Louis, they got to make sure they win in regulation and not let that team even get a point because it's a slow slog. If teams around you were always getting a point in every game, you want to make it so that they don't get anything and you get two. And I know that's hard to do, but that's that should be the goal.
I'll ask you about two more teams kind of in this area, because both the Avs and the Kings are on seventy. Now that's a that's a tough fast because that's a nine point gap with about twenty two to twenty three games left, depending on who we're talking about.
But give me your thoughts on where we find ourselves with the Avalanche and the Kings, and you think either of those two might come back down to earth a little bit for any of the teams behind them to catch them in either the wild card or in the in the divisional race.
My honest opinion is that the top seven are locked in Okay, and that at Colorado is there are just a couple of years from a Stanley Cup. LA Kings have had a real good season. I don't see them slowing down. I really don't see anybody coming back in that in this mix, even Minnesota wild who I know is there tonight in Utah. The only thing I can say is that Utah's got to jump over Calgary and Vancouvery. Those are the two that you mentioned, and you're right on.
They got to They got to jump over those two. The one good thing, by the way, is the home record is getting better. They you know, they won their what was it they won their last home games, which was which was really good? Where was I had that up there? But anyway, that didn't they just win Yeah, their last ye they've.
They've won three straight. If we go back to the Flyers game, they've won three straight.
Yeah, right, which is great because you know, you need to get that home record better. Not to say that you can afford to lose on the road. You can't. It was a huge win against Washington. I listened to that game that was on Super Bowl Sunday. They played Washington. They ended up winning in a shootout. They should have won during regulation. But the Caps are a great team. But that was a big win and a big shot of confidence for those young guys to beat the best
team in the league, Winnipeg and Washington. As we've talked about, best in the East. Is Washington best in the West is Winnipeg. That that was that was big. And they didn't embarrass themselves in l A either. The following you know, the following Saturday, they played pretty well, and you know, they won two games that they had to win. They beat Vancouver, they beat Chicago. If they can win tonight,
it's great. They just got to keep it going. And Minnesota's banged up, so this may be an opportunity.
So that's where I wanted to go next. You referenced Minnesota coming in with some injuries. They're on seventy two points, and as you reference, and you're probably right if you just do simple math, it feels like the top seven locked in. But tell us about this wild team. What is the U Talkie Club up against tonight.
Well, they're very good defensive team and they can shut you down and they've got some great offensive weapons. But they have had injuries, and Capriso is injured. He's not he hasn't been playing for a while now. He was an MVP candidate, So that's that's a tough break for Minnesota, who's so good defensively, and then had that sniper as well to use in the games and was really playing well this season. Minnesota, as I said, is if they're
well coached, there they've got they can shut you down. Now, it's going to be hard because Utah's a pretty good scoring team. They've got a lot of weapons at their disposal. But as I said, they've got Caprice off is out and Joel ericson Eck is also out, and Brian Hartman is suspended from something he did a couple of weeks ago. So you know what, Utah's got an opportunity here and they got to take advantage of it.
All right, So let's just talk big picture now, trade deadline stuff. On January the thirty first, the league and the NHLPA announced an agreement to create what's called increased predictability. I've never heard that before about the salary cap over the next three seasons. They're looking for a new collective bargaining agreement, which expires after twenty five to twenty six.
So the CAP's going up. I don't know how much of this has.
To do with the recent buzz created by four nations, but ninety five point five next year, then it's one oh four and then one thirteen point five. These are predictions, not set in Stone. So do you think the new numbers are going to motivate you know, executives, guys that did the job you did once upon a time to make more moves prior to the March seventh deadline. And if so, which teams and players do you think could be involved.
I don't know that that that uh predicting that the cap going up is going to unpact the trade deadline. I think that that's going to impact the free agency that they in the summer when they depend upon the cap going up so they can give a longer term deal or a deal with more money in it than perhaps is reasonable if the cap doesn't go up. But I would say for Utah, I would I would look at these guys to perhaps be moved because they're unrestricted.
And that's Alex Kerfoot, Nick Bukstad who's been around a while. He's thirty two, but he's he would be a good, you know, centerment on any playoff team. Car Cone is, you know, maybe a fourth line center. He's a he's a total free agent. And then a couple of guys that have been around a while, Ian Cole who's also one of Stanley Cup and Oly Matta. Both of these
guys are free agents. So what's gonna happen is Bill Armstrong's going to say at the trade deadline, if I can get something for Cole or Mada or Bukestat or somebody else, that I got to do it, because I may get nothing for them as they walk away in the summer. So if he doesn't feel that he can sign, for example, Kerfoot, he doesn't feel that's going the right way, you might see him move Kerfoot to get something so that he doesn't lose him for nothing when the summer comes.
So as far as the teams you would consider like fringe contenders, and I've got the odds up the current odds to win the Stanley Cobb. And when it comes to teams that are like right on the outside looking in, it looks like at this point Edmonton is your favorite, Carolina is right behind them. Then it's the Panthers, the Stars, the Capitals, and the Jets in that order.
So when you look at the group.
Like among the favorites or fringe favorites, who do you think potentially could make a deal and are there big names out there available to be had?
You know, I think you'll see Florida do something going into the playoffs because they're you know, they're primed to try to win it again and they and they certainly do have that opportunity. I think Vegas is always they're always making deals, and they seem to be making the right ones at the right times. Kevin Chevalteoff is a conservative guy in Winnipeg, you know, the general manager, and he's sitting pretty right now. I don't know how much
you'll want to change. You might want to just fortify what he's already got. And Washington Dallas has already done their job when they got when they made the trade with San Jose to get Grenlin and they get see the defenseman. So they're fortified right now. But you know, anything is possible that guys could still make moves just to give themselves some fortification going forward. Don't count Carolina out either of making another deal, even though they made
the biggest deal in a couple of years. They've already made during the season. Caroline is always going for it, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them do something.
Tell me, let's do a couple more big picture things for us, all youlerse give me the most surprising team, the Neil Smith, most surprising team in the NHL this year, and the most disappointing team in pro hockey this year.
I think that's an easy question. I got to tell you. The Washington Capitals have gone from getting into the playoffs by the skin and their teeth last year and then losing four straight to the Rangers in the first round to now being, you know, right up there as we've talked about with Winnipeg and a chance to win the
President's Trophy first of the thirty two teams. So that team has been absolutely amazing, the turnaround that they've done from last year this year and set coming in second, of course is Winnipeg because they've had as tremendous year, but they're not as unexpected as Washington. On the other end of the scale is the Nashville Predators, who everybody
thought had fortified their team. They'd spent a ton of money in the summer, they got people like Steven Stamcos and Brady Shay and Marciusso and this, and they have fallen on their face and they're not going to make the playoffs. They're just a huge disappointment as far as what the experts would have expected that they were going to do after the summer they had.
We oftentimes talk about and I started the show off with this today. You know, we have a situation currently with our basketball team where they're not trying to win,
and they're not alone. About a third of the NBA every single year, neil as a result of just the structure of the league and how it's built and you know, the ability to find talent via the draft, about a third of the teams in pro basketball when you look at kind of the landscape of the league, roughly a third of the teams just not even trying to win and not even you know, hiding it. Quite frankly, Nobody comes out and says we're tanking. Nobody says that he
comes out and says we're trying to lose. Instead, they say things like we're leaning into development and we're playing young players. Is that as commonplace in pro hockey? Like when there's an elite prospect available in the draft, do
you see a good portion of the league. Because NHL players are wired different than NBA players And we've talked about it a bunch after the Four Nation stuff, but is that a thing in hockey the way it is in basketball, where teams try to position themselves to lose on purpose to draft a high level prospect.
Well, that doesn't go by individual game in the NHL, for sure, because you can't control the players. The players are always going to try to win. The coach is always going to try to win. That they're that's inbred into them, and you wouldn't want it players that didn't have that in them. But organizations will start to do things like San Jose this year traded Michael Granlin and Cody cec As. I said to Dallas, those are two
of their top players. While they're doing that for their future and they're they're down in the bottom of the league, and they're happy to be down in the bottom of the league as a management, as an executive level, because they want to build up towards something very special down the road. Chicago is sort of in the same boat. Those two teams, I would say, are the two that really they're not trying to lose, but they're They're game plan was tear it down and then build it back
up with young players through the draft. But in the NHL, i'd say they're the only two this year that you can point to. Anaheim is is down there a little bit, but they you know, they've they're they've been respectable. But you've got some other teams. I should have mentioned, by the way, the Pittsburgh Penguins, to put them in with Nashville as the most disappointing team in the league. Here's a team that has Sydney Crosby, Malcolm Lettang, and Eric
Carlson for future Hall of famers. You can bet on that they are all going into the Hall of Fame. And yet Pittsburgh's in last in the Eastern Conference and just had some horrible performances this season. So they are another big disappointment in the league. But as far as your question about tanking or not trying to win, that doesn't go on a night to night basis, but it can be the game plan of the management, as you said,
to play young players, trade away their veteran players. You're not going to win a lot of games if you don't have guys that have been around for a while. So that does happen in the league, but not a lot of teams. So not like you're talking about I asked.
If I asked you to pick right now, your favorite to come out of both conferences, the East and the West.
I'm still gonna lean. I'm going to glean with Florida still. I just think there's such a playoff team and I think Winnipeg. And I know it's crazy, maybe because Winnipeg's never been in the final, but boy, I watched them again last night and they are really really good there. You and I have talked about it many times. They're a great team. So I'll just call those two Florida and Winnipeg. Yeah.
I mean they've won eleven straight. They're differentials plus seventy three. I mean, that's got to mean something. It's wild nil, it.
Does, it does. The problem. The problem is that it went out in the first round last year to Colorado, and so now everybody's going, well, that's great, you're having a great regular season, but let's see what you can do in the playoffs. Come you know, they've got that sort of hanging around their neck right now, so we'll see.
I hope for them for Scott Arneil, the coach has done a great job and the Mark seife Lee and his crew there that that they are able to do something and they got the best goalie in the world and Connor Hellibuck, the US goalie in the Four Nations, and I hope for their sake they're able to really put together a good playoff run.
Where can our new hockey fans in the market go find that good podcast to yours, Neil.
It's called NHL Wrap Around, and I'm called wrap Around because we wrap around the entire league and talk about all the teams in the league and what's going on and player injuries, player movements, anything NHL we're talking about, plus a little bit of history built in you. But get it on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you go to get a podcast, you can find it there. Give us a chance, give us a subscribe if you will, and you know what, We're going to keep going with it.
We're having a lot of fun and hopefully a lot of people are having fun listening to it.
Neil, thank you for the time, sir, I appreciate it. Have a great week and weekend. We'll chat too.
I look forward to talking to you next week.
All right.
The great Neil Smith general manager for the New York Rangers in nineteen ninety four when they lifted Lord Stanley's Cup. He was a high level scout for the Red Wings and I always appreciate his time on this Thursday afternoon. All right, time now for your PGA Tour leaderboard update, brought to you by our friends that you went to golf check them out online at Worldwide Golf Shops dot com located at five sixties twenty one hundred South, Randy and got me a new putter. Yeah, you went to
last week. We're also in Sandy Riverdale and Orum. This update is brought to you by Titleist.
The new pro V.
One and Nope and new pro v one X brings you more speed and control than ever now available. You went to golf shops by world Wide Golf. I got Vam McMahon on the show today, Tim mcmantal stop by later on. Busy night at basketball, both in the pros and in college last night locally quiet tonight, but the hockey club is in action. Let's welcome in our guy from the Salt Lake Tribune. Do little jazz and we'll do a little rsl T. Here's falling down the cheek,
Andy Larson on a Thursday. Andy, Happy Thursday, buddy, how we doing good? I'm good, I'm good. So we all know what time it is for the Jazz. We all know the deal. Okay, but when cool things happen, let's go ahead and lean into cool things when they happen. And let's lean into what happened last night with Walker Kessler. And you know, it's not just the numbers, it's not just the history. I mean, historically speaking, that is a
very special stat line. It's also andy that he did it against Elmo Sabanis right, like Sabonus excuse me, like Sabonas has eaten the Jazz up. And he's a really, really good player. And so the Jazz lost, which you and I have talked about. Let's go on board. But when cool things happen, let's talk about the cool thing. And what happened with Walker last night was a cool thing.
Yes, yeah, And look.
I mean I think what's really great about Walker as an offensive player right now is that he's taking advantage of what the defense gives them. And you know, we've seen, uh, there have been a couple of matchups. I think most of teams against the Jazz is ye are kind of protecting the paint most of all because most of the Jazz shooters aren't you know, aren't efficient ones, but Walker. You know that the Kings protected the perimeter and allowed
Walker to get dunks and lay ups inside. And so yeah, to go to you know, a perfect one hundred percent go ten for ten, do something that only two guys in an NBA history have done, Nikola Jokic and Wil
Chamberlain before is pretty cool. And look, he's you know, he's not Wilt, he's not Jokic, but he is a really you know, useful and good player that I think is a real building block for this Jazz team and maybe one of the only building blocks for this Jazz team is like again they look to put together at their next good contending team, you know, like I think to have someone who brings the level of m protection that he does and you know, is a responsible offensive
player at that center spot. You know, certainly not wildly talented, but his ads, you know, is is more of an is adding more than he takes away. I think is a great thing. So, you know, props to Walker for kind of figuring out how to get better after that, you know, rough second season and do what he's done this year because it's been really good.
Let's stay in the space and your answer to this question might include a portion of how you just answered my original question. But if we remove the in a vacuum against the Kings and panned back to all year long with Walker Kessler, forty five games played, forty five starts, and you know, you know the numbers, it's about twelve points, it's about twelve boards, it's over two blocks. What growth have you seen specifically, not just against the Kings last night,
but all year long from Walker? Is it more of a approach off the court? Is it adding strength? Is it just growing as an NBA player? What do you attribute this growth to year three for Walker Kessler?
Yeah, I think mentally, honestly is a big for him.
I mean, there were a lot of people who were really kind of down on him mentally even within the organization last year, right, Like found that whenever something would go wrong for Walker, that would compound itself into not only kind of the next play, but the next quarter, the next half, the next game, and kind of things spiraled a little bit, right And I think the rough team in the USA performance led to a bad season, And I give him a lot of credit kind of for
kind of working on that game mentally and you know where if he has a bad first half against the Lakers like he did three weeks ago, then he comes back with a really good second half. And that's been really really different than what he did last year. I think the strength is kind of the biggest physical and on court thing that you can actually see where he
just is getting. You know, again, where last year loose balls were kind of fifty to fifty, well, you know, he kind of tip them and honestly lose them in a lot of cases, He's ending up using his size and strength to really protect.
That ball and to get more of those rebounds.
He is the leading offensive rebounder in the NBA from an offensive rebounding percentage point of view, right, Like for him to be number one in the league in that category on a bad team, uh, And you know in a way that he's tasked with a lot from an offensive rebounding responsibility point of view, like I think is really really impressive. So, yeah, tremendous season from him. I think you can make a legitimate case he's been the
best Jazz player this year. I'm not sure that I would totally go that direction, but there certainly is that case, and he you know, again, I think he's a he's a building block, and you have to be impressed with kind of how he rebounded from that from that really pretty ippy year or two.
So I've had a couple of guests on including McMahon who's going to join us later, and then I think it was Zach Zach Harper this week that have basically echoed my sentiment, which once upon a time it felt like there was a lot to like about kJ Martin.
And look, man, I don't I'm not trying to stretch here to make make a topic that's not a topic, but based off of some of the underwhelming performances slash injuries with some of the younger jazz players, it feels like kJ Martin is a player that is worth taking a long look at to not just keep around at the end of the season, but maybe hold on to through the next you know, at the end of next year, because he is under contract and at times I feel like,
as I've watched him as he's grown throughout the course of his career, there are some things that feel like they're real.
So he got the start last night.
I put thirty four minutes in at sixteen points five boards for assist knocked down a couple of threes. What do you think about this young player and maybe is he somebody that we should talk about that they're talking about as part of the future.
Yeah, I mean he's twenty four, right, so, like he is in a different kind of age class than the rookies and sophomores. And I think you see that in kind of the maturity of his game a little bit, right, Like he is he chased in zac Lavine around screens or Demarcarro around screens yesterday in a way that none of the rookies and sophomores are capable of. But they're also twenty and twenty one years old compared to twenty four, right, and so I'm kind of curious to see, like kind
of how their body changes. kJ is probably the most athletic player jazz player right now. I mean it's probably between him and maybe John Collins, but John has lost a lot of athleticism, and then I you know, I think that frankly, just like he does play harder than I think the rookies and sophomores do right now. So I think there's some growth for them in that spot. You know, eight million dollars a year, I would be
I'm interested. You know, you can kind of go either way on his contact, right, Like, I think that's not a ton I don't think that's like a crazy contact for him. The shooting continues to be the actual worry of like, hey, can he be a legitimate role player?
Is he just like connects her? Right?
But if you have something else to do with that eight million dollars, if you can use it to trade, you know, trade for a bad contact and get first round pick and return, I'd probably go that direction personally. But like, I don't think kJ is nothing either, right, Like, I think that he can be a role player on a decent team. So, you know, I think it's it's a good thing that the Jazz have kind of acquired this this really flexible contract and can kind of see
how he develops over the last twenty four games. But yeah, you know, I think I do kind of put kJ in kind of the just the guy category because he has been moved around so much, because the numbers haven't been great, and because you know, again it's just hard to play around a guy who's struggles with shooting the
ball when you do get the good players. But again, like I don't think like he's overpaid, and I do think like there's he can be kind of a connector if you do get other good players around him.
So let's do the latest on your thoughts. We haven't done this in a while, but let's just kind of talk about, you know, where we find ourselves with the young players, the growth, and you know your current assessment on what you think they can be as we move forward, and whether or not you think they're around when the Jazz.
Are serious about winning again. Excuse me.
And the latest player that I'll ask you about is Kyle Philipowski who prior to last night and look, Walker came back last night, so he had fourteen minutes. But prior to last night was getting some starts, was getting some minutes, and he was putting up some real nice numbers. And I think his game against the Blazers may have been one of, if not his best game as a pro. So what's your current assessment of where we find ourselves with Kyle Philipowski.
Yeah, he's useful. I mean like his ability to be seven foot and play center and can kind of hang on the glass. He struggled last night on interior defense against the Bonus and Yona Salentunas, which makes sense because those guys are just a lot stronger and thicker than
he is. But he can be on the perimeter and do a lot of you know, like we I mean, he was drafted a lot of Kelly Olynics stuff, right like where he can hit threes from outside, where he can create offense, where he can you can kind of use him as an offensive hub up at the top of the key and then have a lot of off ball stuff going, some split action, which Will Hardy loves. Like if if there's a trademark of a Will Hardy offense,
it's kind of the off ball split action stuff. Uh, and Kyle can deliver those passes on time and non target and make great reads, and I think that's a really really useful thing in today's NBA. I mean, you see, like what Al Horford does for the Boston Celtics offense, Like it is an incredibly useful thing to have a big man who can kind of create on off ball stuff.
I mean, Draymond with the Warriors says a lot of that same stuff too, right, Like, you know, I think there's kind of the the Al Horford kind of upside with him, and then I think there's also a lot of games where he disappears and isn't useful, and you know it is overmatched a little bit, and so like I think there's like some Frank k. Minsky downside where like in the end, he's probably you know, right now too thin to hang on the defensive end. So we'll
see what happens with him. But I gotta say, like a player that you can like really kind of plug in a as a someone you know has an identifiable role on the offensive end, is is really something that a lot of the other young jazz players don't have, And it kind of leads me to believe that he's going to have a I feel pretty optimistic about him having a good NBA career.
We'll kind of just go down the list here, you know.
I feel like Keyante wants the sting of going to the bench kind of wore off, and then the pressure of having to be an initiator when I don't think that's who he is. I think we've seen more good than bad defensively. It's just going to be a process, and you and I have discussed it. But the numbers as of late have been better and the splits of Bed been a little bit better. Are we seeing Key improve in his new role a little bit?
Yeah? I mean I think he's taking advantage of lower quality defense that's coming off the bench. I mean you look at like kind of what's changing not a ton man like this minister are exactly the same, The points are exactly the same, but he's a little bit more
efficient because he's getting to the line more often. And that makes sense, right, Like if you're playing bigger, smarter defenders, they aren't going to, you know, go for your foul drawing stuff compared to the bench guys, right, And I think we've seen that with Keante, and you know, he's he's put up some good performances, he's also put up
some really bad performances. You know, I still have some questions on essentially, like if he's not a point guard, then it becomes tough because he is relatively small for
a two guard. He's not a defender, and he's not all that efficient, so like, yeah, you know, like kind of he does have to be a sixth man a little bit, right, Like in kind of the Jordan Clarkson mold and from his like Jordan is a better defender than right now, and so you hope that Kiante can develop at least to become a Jordan Clarkson defender, which
is not a good one, but a passable one. Yeah, you know, I think he shows again a lot of kind of the same Jordan Clarkson, like can catch on fire on stuff, and obviously at certain point, points are the name of the game, and that's that's great. He's got to tune the efficiency to be up four or five percent across the board and then all of a
sudden he becomes a really viable player as is. Yeah, you know it it's just is going to need improvement because it does get you know, it's so up and down some night tonight.
Can he become a Jordan Clarkson level defender? As a sentence, I never thought i'd hear anybody say, Andy.
Jordan's a little underrated defensively, Like I think he is a three out of ten defender, where people think he's a one out.
Of ten defender.
Maybe even I would even put Jordan clarks in a four out of ten defender. Yeah, I know, high praise, but yeah, I mean Kanty is a one out of ten defender, right, Yeah, right, I think it's moving to the bench. Maybe he's been a two out of ten. It does need to jump a couple levels.
All right.
I haven't asked you about Bryce Senciba in a while, and he went he had a rough stretch there. I think I saw on the broadcast at one point he was like two of his last twenty five from three or something. And I don't know, like I've always thought, maybe when it's fully baked, he could have like this little Dennis Scott role in the league. And there are some nights where he's knocking down shots and he looks good.
Another night's where he just looks completely lost, and you're expecting that from a player, certainly who is young at twenty one years old. But what's the latest Andy Larson take on the progress or lack thereof Bryce Sensible?
Yeah, I mean, he's got a thinner and stronger body than he used to, which means he doesn't look as tired as he did in his rookie season, which is a good thing. He's still not making an impact on the defensive end. He's a better passer and rebounder probably than he gets credit for. And then again, like it does for so many NBA players, especially role players, especially you know, twos and threes. It's about whether or not
he can shoot. And if he shoots, if he makes thirty eight percent of his threes, he's a useful player, and if he makes thirty two percent of his threes, he's not. And I mean that's where we are in the NBA. When fifty percent of the shots are threes and so much of your job is providing spacing for the stars, it's hard for me to imagine like him, uh, finding a role if he's not able to kind of
consistently keep those shooting percentages high. That being said, like I kind of believe in his shot more than any of the other young players like it. He showed an ability to shoot in college. He shows an ability to shoot and practice and warm ups at a really high level. I kind of believe in him as a thirty eight percent shooter, and so then like, okay, then all of a sudden, his makes sense as a eighth, ninth, tenth guy off the bench who can can kind of hang around.
But you know, it actually has to be that way an NBA games, and him avoiding those shooting pumps as long as possible is huge for his career.
I go back and forth with Isaiah Callier. I do think there's a lot to like, and more than anything else, I just didn't expect him to grab the starting job and get minutes. So it's been I'll call it a pleasant surprise. It's the same stuff though, that you and I have talked about for for all the assist numbers there are, and he was clean last night, no turnovers last night, But if we expand back, there are three
or four possessions every game. I'm like, what exactly did you see there when you decided to make that pass?
And then it's the shooting stuff. It's nothing new.
I mean, you cannot be a lead guard or a guard period, a wing period, or maybe even a player period in the modern day and age NBA if you're gonna be a twenty five percent three point shooter. But your latest take on the progress of Isaiah and how he's responded to getting the nod as the starting lead guard.
Yeah, I mean, I'll give him this. He has made this season much more watchable than it was sure to have a jazz player who is not looking for his own shop but looking up to set up other others who is looking to push the pace, who is looking to and is capable of making kind of highlight reel passes and setting up It's it's just so much better to watch than it was earlier in the season. So, uh, you know, infinite props and will always remember as a
collier for at least that. Yeah, and then you know, it becomes okay if teams actually do start to scout the Jazz, are they going to hang ten feet off of Isaiah? And I think at this point they would. And then you know, so next year, can he become a thirty to thirty two percent three point shooter rather than just a twenty five percent one? You mentioned the turnovers, Like the turnovers have to improve. I honestly think like over the last month, month and a half, the turnovers
have been largely fine. So that's been really impressive to see as a again as a starting point guard. I bet you know, I believe in him to be a setup man in the NBA, as you know as that it's just like, yeah, you know, if you want to play in the playoffs, then you have to be able to shoot, and we'll see how that goes. But I
think there's a lot of other stuff to like. I think you have to like kind of his demeanor about how he's attacked this rookie year, despite being the number one overall recruit, to be as kind of selfless as he has been is really impressive. There's a lot of good stuff there, and so I'm kind of inclined to give him the benefit of doubt, the doubt on the shooting, or at least give him the chance to see what he can do, because the other stuff in his game has been really good.
I will ask you about Taylor, but only what you're hearing Taylor Hendrix about the recovery and how he's attacked. It's impossible to analyze his game because he hasn't played in forever and he's heard. But what are you hearing about the progress off the floor the Taylor Hendrix is making in his recovery.
Yeah, talk to Justin Vanik actually about him today at jazz practice. Sounds like he is really attacking the weight room and growing his body in a significant way. So I believe before the season or maybe lastly and I think he was at tuner seventeen pounds and then I heard today that he was at two forty five or thereabouts. So you know, that's a significant gain, and you know, I think maybe some of that's because he hasn't playing, but from what I hear, it's because he's changed his
body and become much more muscular. I mean, I think we saw that even in the first three games, he had gained I think he said seventeen pounds and so now we're up to twenty seven to twenty eight or so. Like that's that's a that's a big jump, and I think that kind of weight gain, that strength is is
really good for him. But yeah, you know, then the rest of the game is a question mark, right, Like, so I think I feel pretty good about him being a good NBA defender, you know, like from what I saw early in the season, Like, I feel good about him being a we're using that one to ten scale of seven or eight out of ten NBA defender, and
maybe he can get even better than that. The offense has to come along, right, Like he's either got to be able to shoot the ball really well at that point or do a little bit more off the dribble to take advantage of closeouts and things like that. So we'll see how that happens. You know, he hasn't been able to practice any of that. He just barely got out of a walking boot. But yeah, well we'll see. You know, he's probably not going to play in summer League.
It's going to be a waiting process. And then obviously I think there's gonna be kind of a recovery, you know, knocking out the RUSS process at the beginning of next year, of year three. It does remind me a little bit of the Dantex some situation a decade ago.
So just out of respect, I will ask you about jus Ay and Svie. They do not have any guaranteed money, so technically their contracts do go through next year and even beyond that, but no guaranteed money. Do you think either of those two are around for more than another year or even if that.
I mean, I don't see any reason why you would necessarily keep them. I mean, Johnny, I think you would probably,
I don't know. Johnny's younger, and you may keep oversee as a just again, maybe you can convince some team of his upside v as an okay role player, but like it is getting dmpcds on the team when they have four regular starters out, Like I my personal preference would be probably to rotate through other end of the bench NBA guys and see if you can get someone who pops more than those two guys.
Happen, all right, final one, I'll ask you about Cody. I mean, look, he's twenty, so I don't know that it's fairer just to completely dismiss, but man, Andy like just waiting for something for these fans to latch onto, to indicate that a pick that you made in the top ten might pay dividends at some point. Like I said, I'm not trying to be overly critical. I'm not trying to say he's never going to evolve in anything because
he's a kid. But at this point, is there anything that has excited you about the play of Cody Williams this year?
He had two good games after the All Star break where and again good in an extremely low expectation zone, but where he attacked the basket a little bit more, and then was good defensively, where he stayed in front defensively and forced his player his matchup to pass the ball. And you know, he's so far away from a body point of view, he's so far away from a skill level point of view. Right like, he is shooting twelve percent from ten feet to the three point line this year.
Twelve percent to make twelve percent of your shots as an NBA player in any zone is insane, right Like, it's it's been really bad. I think the lack of kind of star flashes I think is really concerning, right Like, he just has not shown even kind of the high
end of things. And so to me right now, like my kind of hope is Okay, if you developed from a body point of view, then all of a sudden kind of makes sense where you can defend and maybe developed the shot as well, and you can be kind of a three and D guy, kind of a connector guy. I think he is a smart player. I think he makes the right read most of the time. I think he's in the right place on defense. Well at the time, he just doesn't do.
Anything with it.
And I think a lot of that might be the body, but I think a lot of that might be who he is as a player a little bit. And so yeah, I'm certainly definitely worried about Cody. You know, you don't want to write him off after you're one. He is still young again, he's so skinny, but you know, if you had the tenth pick back at this point, you probably would like to make a different slunch.
All right, before we get to RSL, And we do need to get your thoughts on the lads.
It has not been great.
I have your Twitter pulled up and there is a report from Mike Florio Pro Football Talk that Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports verbally Acosta I in rapaport of the NFL media at Indianapolis, ironically, and off at a Starbucks.
And Jordan's dad owned Starbucks, at least he used to.
And you say, you quote, and you say, I've been witnessed to a few reporter on reporter yelling matches during my career, and I'll tell you what, every single one of them has been extremely funny. Because of that tweet, I've been like scratching my brain a little bit to try to figure out what you're talking about. And if any of that has happened locally. Do you have any good stories that you can share on air about any of this stuff?
Some of them have.
Happened locally, I am going to you can guess certainly the members involved in some of the local ones. I will send you even video of one of them. Oh, hell yeah, and I will decline comment further for a public audioce.
What did did any of these happen like out in public or was this like in the media media room type thing?
I'm trying to think. I don't think I've seen any screaming, yelling or well, no, that one happened on a street, yeah, walking from the Delta Center back to the Tribune office. That that's the greatest detail I'll give again, and I'm happy to send you video of of more.
Do any of them involve Gordon?
No?
Actually I don't, I can't. I you know, Gordon got a disagreement with our guy Eric Walden once, but I wouldn't even call it a verbal altercation of yelling or you know, it was a back in the day, Eric Walden used to be Gordon's editor at the Trips and they got into a disagreement over a column. But even that wasn't a yelling match. That was you know, of of reporter disagreements that I'm tweeting about, that certainly wasn't one of them. That was That was the point, pretty tame.
Do any of them involve me?
No? I don't. I don't think have you have you yelled at another reporter before.
That's none your business, Andy, Do any of them involve you?
I'll say this, I don't think I've ever yelled at another reporter before, but I have gotten into a disagreement to at one point, so I slammed my beverage down in the Jazz press room and it kind of it was it was it was its kind of spilled over the top, you know, and then got all over Tony, And so I feel bad about that.
Is there one member of the local media you would like to verbally accost Ooh, that's a good question.
You know.
The answers, Yes, I know the answers, Yes.
You know.
Right now, Sunshining, I'm such, I'm in a great place mentally, Okay, I'm I'm great right now.
Okay, Well, let's ruin your great place mentally and talk about our local soccer club. Look man, like, it's it's
a very fair point to make that. And I've seen some people make this point, like they raised season ticket prices this year, and they sold off half their team, and they got rid of half their team, and they got rid of most to their great attacking players and Elias or Leis Manuel whatever, however you pronounce his name, maybe he was going to be the guy to step in and make a little bit of a difference trade compared him to like a young Anderson Julio.
That's not going to move the needle.
So it's very fair at this point to look over and say, what are you doing?
We got one goal through three games.
And they lose to Aradiano and COCKACAFF Champions round one after making the tournament for the first time ELEC a decade. And look, it is a really fun tournament if you could advance. I remember that team in twenty ten nearly winning the whole thing. So I'll just ask you for your take the Andy Larson take three games in two CONCACAFF one mls on where we stand with RSL and what you think needs to happen next.
I don't get how you acquire Elias Manoel and don't ask him if he wants to play for rself.
Yeah, Like that'sin.
That's bad management, right, Like if you're not asking that guy, you know a if before you make that trade, that if he's willing to play for RSEL, Like what do you you know? Again, that's just a step you have to check off the list, right, Like you got to
talk to his agent man, and maybe they did. I don't know what exactly happened there, but from what has been said publicly and frankly privately, like it sounds like he, you know, wanted to play in New York but didn't want to play in Salt Lake, which I understand as a young Brazilian human being. But like you got to find that out first before you trade as. That's for him, come on now and then look, the bigger issue is you sold Gomez for eleven million dollars, You sold Codel
for AHAs for four million dollars. You sold Chicho for one point five and gam which is more more than that in cash in kind of the MLS trade world. Uh, And you've bought a three million dollar player and a one point five million dollar player in return, right, and you have just so far pocketed that twelve million dollars at the same time the rest of MLSS is spending eight figures, you know, over ten million dollars on the likes of Wilfrid Zaha and Latte laugh and Marco Royce
and obviously Lionel Messi. And like it's just you can't compete in this league if you're not going to spend money. And I was really supportive of the Gomez and Chico and Baja sales because I figured you would use that money to improve the club. And in the end they haven't. So far they have pocketed it. And even their outgoing kind of pr on this has been, Hey, we would
like to sign a striker if it is cheap. What they told Tom Bogert yesterday, Hey we want Duncan McGuire or Brian White or Olio fam Like those guys are like four million dollar strikers.
Pony up and pay.
For a ten million dollar striker already, right. Like in the end, if you want to compete in current MLF, you can't be cheap. If you want to be at the bottom of here of MLS. If you want to just sneak into the playoffs every year, cool, If you want to lose in the first round of Conker Cash Champions Cup every year, then by all means spend nothing
on your team. But in the meantime you're letting a lot of fans down and then to then go around and ask those fans to pay for higher season ticket prices and a eighteen dollars years, Like, it just is pretty bad management. It's not cool, and I think it's fair for them to get an a ton of criticism.
So, look, the.
RSL season ticket member found town Hall is tonight. I'm not going to be there. I know a lot of angry season ticket fans are, and I hope that ownership is going to be there as well. And I hope they hear those complaints from fans because, quite frankly, like what they've done to the club over the last nine months isn't right, isn't fair, isn't good.
Yeah, I you know, typically I'll try to provide context and push back, but I'm not sure that I can in this scenario. You know, you kind of just alluded to the fan base. I wonder before I say you loose, I will ask you this, because you have a poltse on these fans in a way that I don't. Is the good will of you know, the early returns of this ownership group willing to invest and spend money and all that is, do you feel like it's starting to
wear off? And now there's more questions about this club than there was, you know, prior to.
Yeah, and I don't know that it's more questions about them than prior to right, Deloitte sucks. I do think that the you know, the fans are cognizant of what's going on, and you know, I don't want to use the word fickle, but I want to use the word like attentive. And while the team had investment and while the team was playing well, yes, the fans are going
to be on board. And when the team is being thought of as a third priority in an ownership group, or while the team is not being invested in, and while the team is at the very bottom of MLS standings and when they lose to a Costa Rican team, then yeah, the fans are going to be up set about it. Like you know, I think sometimes sports managers see the fans as like these completely unfair people who don't understand the realities of the business. But like I
disagree with that. I think Salt Lake fans and Utah fans in general are actually pretty smart about what they're seeing on with their sports teams and on RFL field especially, And uh, it just has not been anywhere close stup to stuff so far, so you know, I certainly hope that changes and again, I'm I'm someone who has supported their moves in the past with the understanding that the
investment would continue to be there. Given that it hasn't been uh that that has been you know, then my my understanding and my support of them is dependent on them continuing to make good decisions.
Will you be there Saturday, will you be on your feet, and will you shout it out on Saturday?
I absolutely will, right like And and yeah, I'm I'm in like, I'm not going to do a uh, you know, boycott or anything like that. This club means a lot to me and I get a lot of enjoyment out of these games still. And you know, look, if it's if that's all RSL wants from me is my money, I'm going to continue to give them my money. If
they want my support. And you know, I think I think for a lot of fans in this way then uh and you know, and there in my positivity, then it's gonna have to be better in terms of results, in terms of what we see in the transfer market.
It's hard to argue with that.
Man.
It's been a rough start, right Andy, Thanks for.
The time, brother, I have a good weekend, all right, Hey man, thanks all right, Andy Larson, Salt Lake Tribune. All right, we got Tim McMahon rolling by Little NBA today will NBA Daily assist on the program.
Good stuff for Neil Smith to start things off.
The Utah hockey club is back in action tonight against Minnesota, and then Andy Larson stopped by as well.
So a lot to do on the program.
Last night, University of Utah men's basketball team at Michale Center against Arizona, and they got worked, they got smoked, thought that they would. Arizona's really good and obviously the youth turnflux. But Tommy Lloyd, the head coach of Arizona, after the game, had some really cool comments because as we talked about, the news came down the Craig had lost his job at the University of Utah has decided to fire Craig Smith, no longer the head coach of
the men's basketball program the National Search. According to for the releases on and coach Tyler the interim head coach, his first task was to take on Arizona mchel, which is just impossible. So Arizona won the game, no surprise there. But we've tried to cover this to the Prism of the human element of it, because the media oftentimes ignores that, and consumers and fans kind of want want to know, like, hey, what happened, why did he get fired?
And then what's next?
And I thought Tommy Lloyd did a great job of putting some context and color around the conversation. So if you missed Tommy Lloyd post game last night, here's that sound.
Brady and Landon Smith are Craig's kids, and one's the director of operations, the other's a walk on and both those kids showed up today and which is pretty amazing. I mean, I know, you guys, this is a business, and it's a hard business, and I get all those things, but like we all have families, we all have kids, And for his kids to show up today, and you know, and and Craig I talked to him today and had not didn't have one bad word to say, straight class.
For his boys to show up today, inmates, it says something. This stuff's hard, what we go through, even.
When it's going good, it's hard.
And and and I know you guys have opinions and this and this isn't against the media. This is the society in general and in US guys that decided to coach.
There's a lot of.
Really cool things that come with it, but there's a lot of tough stuff. There's a lot of tough days, and you know what, there's a lot of times your family gets neglected because what we're doing to try to, you know, to prove our work as a coach, to prove our value, to prove that that we belong at this level. And and so I got a lot of respect for those two young men.
Yeah, the video of that, he's emotional, he's trying to hold back tears as he's describing this. And look, when it comes to coaches, certainly in pro sports, but college sports too, a lot of people, you know, they see buyouts and after you know, you, Jimbo Fisher lost his job at Texas A and M, and he got paid a cool like ninety million just to go find something else to do. I understand that the way this stuff works,
these guys are hired to be fired. And because of that, the ecosystem of coaching in college athletics and in the pros is if you are fired, there's a nice golden parachute to take you into your next phase of life. So that's kind of what everybody focuses on. But I can tell you there are a lot of people I know that I have a lot of money that aren't very happy, right. And so when it comes to Craig and his family, there's a human element here with his
wife and I think they have four children. So Lance is the oldest and this is his first year is the Utah men's basketball director of Administration and Operations. And his other boys a walk on Brady played at Sali Community College.
And I thought that was a really cool thing for.
Tommy Lloyd to do, you know, ultimately, to kind of point out that because I'm sure it's hard on on those young men. Can you imagine if your father was fired and you're asked to just go to work the next day at the place who fired him.
Probably would be a tough thing.
So men's basketball, they take the l against Arizona last night at Michale. Arizona's probably the second best team in the conference. BYU might have something to say about that. The youths will have Arizona State and West Virginia at home before they close the season in Provo on March the eighth, a BYU all Right special guest live in studio. I've been telling you guys about my friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology.
They've got a bunch of deals for you going on right now.
So just to review the deals that they have currently, then we'll kind of get to our guests and see what we have to say about the latest. You can get twenty percent off of botox. You also have twenty five percent off of laser treatments. They have injectables in addition to the free consultation to check out your entire body to see where you're at. If you're like me and the sun is about to shine consistently, you're going
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How are you.
I'm good? Thank you for having me.
Let's turn your mic up just a little bit. Thanks for coming in live in studio. I always appreciate it, and like I said, I prefer you over certainly Jason or Michael.
Thank you.
So it's great to see it, all right, So I'm going to give you the floor here. Last time you were here we talked about the deal on Boatox or Valentine's Day, yep, And today you've got something else in mind, Christine, So let's.
Here about it.
Well, this is something I see a lot of patients for this time of year, especially, is dry itchy skin.
We're in Utah, we have a dry climate.
It's cold, low humidity, and a lot of people will come in with just a lot of itching. And there's a few tips and tricks that you can do to avoid this. But then there are some things that you probably should know that if those aren't working, maybe there's an underlying problem that should be worked up. So one of the easiest things is to take shorter, cooler showers.
And this is a tough one because long, hot showers just feel so good right now, but it actually pulls a lot of moisture out of your skin and it tends to make you feel really itchy.
Yeah, I don't want to hear that. I like my long hot showers, I know.
And the second that's really easy is put on moisturizer, okay, and doing that right when you get out of the shower is the easiest time. It helps to seal in some of that moisture that you've lost.
So shorter, cooler showers and then as soon as you get out of the shower, moisturize, moisturize. Do you have a moisturizer you would recommend.
We typically all recommend fragrance and die free products see to fill seravey userine have been some of my go to's, but I'll take whatever people will apply.
Okay, but the best are fragrance free, diy free, and die free. All right, So let's say somebody's listening that is experience and the symptoms that you're describing, and they've tried things to prevent it and it's not working. How can you guys help them in the clinic?
Well, seeing what they have on their skin is also helpful. So if they're doing these and it's not getting better, or if they're so itchy that they're causing either cracks or bleeding, it puts them at risk for an infection. There may be an underlying problem like exzema or psoriasis that they don't maybe know about yet. So it's good to see that because then there are prescriptions we can do that will help them through that.
Okay, so we've got dry skin, all right, So if you guys are dealing with that, definitely check out Hadley Ogden Clinic Athley Dermatology. Let's reset some of the other deals that we've already kind of outlined so you can kind of help us as the expert here. And as I said, when Mike was in and he dropped the whole like we are the leading state in the country in skin cancer diagnosis per capita, it blew me away.
I didn't know that.
So if you know, for our listeners, I keep talking about this if they're like me and you right, like you get outside all the time when the sun is about to shine consistently, it's been a beautiful week. If there are listeners out there that have been golfing, hiking, biking, whatever for years and haven't been checked out, why should they get checked out?
And what is that process?
Like?
Well, typically it's the exposure you get when you're younger that will show up later in life. So as you get older, these things might start showing up and it may not be something that's on your radar yet. So just even getting a baseline to see, are there any spots that are maybe starting to change or maybe not healing and going away, it's much easier to treat those before they progress.
And that is just something where people come into the clinic and they see someone like you or someone like Jay, and you go into a room and you check about and then you go from there.
Pretty much, Yeah, we look at whatever skin you want us to look at.
Is there anything people can do themselves to Like, let's say somebody's listening and they are curious about a mole. Now, this is not my world, so I'm just guessing, is there anything that you could tell them, like, if your mole looks like this, or if there's a spot on your stomach that looks like that, you need to get in.
That makes sense.
Absolutely, Anything that looks different from what you have is always kind of something we want you to come in for.
The ugly duckling is not something we want to see.
So if you get a new spot but it looks like another spot that you already have, that's probably okay. Okay, But if you get a new spot and you're like, well, gosh, this looks different than anything else, we probably want to see that. Or if a spot has been the same forever and it starts changing, especially in an asymmetric way with either shape or color, interesting to look at those two.
Okay, let me reset.
Last time you're going, we talked botox, and you know, if any of our listeners, if your wife, your girlfriends, or men get it too. But you know, if you've got a birthday comet up and your wife has always talked about wanting botox, let's talk about what that process entails and what sort of benefits it has.
Botox helps with fine lines and wrinkles. It can actually be a preventative for resting wrinkles. So if there's just an area a lot of times around the eyes, in between the eyes and the eyebrows, forehead, these are all really common areas that people like to have done. It prevents the muscles from moving in those areas.
You don't get a wrinkle created by motion.
Then, Okay, you were laughing when I said men come into they do.
It's not funny, but they do well.
What was funny? No, not funny? Okay, I was just genuinely curious.
So men or women, botox is on the table, all right, final one laser treatments probably is exactly what it sounds like. If you have hair and you don't want hair there, you can laser the hair off.
Correct, it can be removed. Yes, is it that simple.
It can be a process.
But even after a few treatments you notice a big reduction in hair.
Okay, all right, there you go.
So we've got a we've got a menu for people to choose if you want the deal on the free consultation to check you out to make sure that your spots are good. That's that's good. We've got twenty five percent off of laser treatment. We've got a discount on botox, and you now have the tips that you need to make sure that that dry skin will go away. Short colder showers, moisturizer after the shower, easy stuff, sunscreen before
you go outside. Absolutely, and you guys have a deal on your sunscreen at the at the clinic as well. All right, so there you go, give them a call right now at eight oh one six five seven five sixty six four.
Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily Assists.
Van McMahon, Vanman batted old Land, Texas flood as tickets, Muddy's and Manvan McMahon, Van mcman the man.
You got jazz are off tonight. Welcomed in the Sacramento Kings last night. They lost, but Walker was really good. Minnesota. Rigobert old Buddy back in town tomorrow night, speaking of our old buddy signed out for the NBA Daily Assists. Thursday afternoon, I got Dan McMahon, Tim McMahon, Tim Happy Thursday, Sir, how.
Are you, preddy partner? How you doing?
I'm well.
I have to say, uh, I thought about you today when news broke that Ian Rappaport and Jordan Schultz had a heated exchange at a Starbucks.
I've got it. I've got a note. Tim. At some point you got a little fire in you.
Dan McMahon, have you ever had a intense back and forth with a fellow reporter throughout your career?
Oh, I've had. I've had a handful. To say the least I had. There's one, and I'll protect I won't say the name to protect you not so innocent. But there's one particular gentleman who we got into a confrontation that termed mildly physical, but just mildly and uh, things blew over until he got a rough performance review and he brought it up his performance review and his boss called my boss. And that won't get a little bit sticky. But it's been a while, I like to think kept growing to Maturd.
You have calmed. You're even kind of nice to me. Not entirely nice to me, but kind of nice to me. Wait this this actually got a little like are we talking pushing, pushing and shoving, you know.
A little pin against the wall type of thing, Wow, against the wall type of thing.
You know, no, no.
Harm, no foul, Probably a foul, but I think it was not the flavor one.
Okay, all right, fair enough, So Tim, you know, the jazz stuff has been tough all year, as we talked about, but when cool things happened, let's talk about cool things. And you know, Walker last night was he was special. It was historic. I mean, two players in the history of pro basketball put up the stat line have put up the stat line Walker put up last night, and it was against a really good big and demot the bonus. Who's just eaten the jazz launch over the past few years.
Walker ten of ten from the floor, twenty five points, fourteen boards, five assists, steals. Only Nicola Jokic and Will Chamberlain have done that in an NBA game. So again they lost, we know the deal, but a really cool night as it pertains to Walker Kessler.
Yeah, and honestly, I think Walker Kessler has been the
best thing about the Jazz season this year. You know, you can say it's damning him with faint praise, but you know, a great rookie year last year, I think, you know, he was even qualified as disappointing, and then you know, this year has been able to re establish himself as he's a quality starting big and you for a team that is searching for long term foundation pieces, long term core pieces, I think he's the one guy from the last three drafts that you can say, hey,
he absolutely fits that bill. There's no question that Walker Kessler can be a quality started big man in the NBA for you know, a decade or so to come. So this was a highlight of what's really been a very good season for him individually. You know, despite the fact that obviously overall is a team they have not won much and are not trying to win that much.
And I don't know Tim, that they're going to try to win even next year. So your guy Jonathan Gavoni, Jeremy Woo as well, piece today really good in depth, Well wasn't today, but a couple of days ago really an in depth piece about the class next year. Nate Emmett, Cameron Boozer, AJ Debansadarren Peterson. AJ is going to be playing his college ball here, But after reading what Cavoni had to write about, like he thinks Peterson's the number one prospect in AJ's two, then it's the Boozer board.
Cambe will be three and then Nate amm at four. But based off of what Caavoni's saying about these top four players, I don't know if this fan base will see a serious approach next year. And who knows what will you know the offseason will bring. But it feels to me, Tim that we're in for another year of what we just experienced. Is that kind of what your gut's telling you.
I mean, I think the best way to put it is the Jazz are early and rebuild, and that's typically not like a you know, QUICKI type of process We'll see what kind of lottery luck they have, you know, we'll see if they are able to get a guy like you know, let's say they win lottery, they get Cooper Flag. You know, does Coop of Flag come in and drive winning immediately? I think the fasking an awful lot of a guy who, you know, if he didn't skip a great, if he didn't reclassify, would be a
senior in high school right now. So I think it's just kind of part of the natural process. But yeah, I if I'm a Jazz Dan, I'm not expecting like some jump and wins next year for sure.
All Right, so let's move let's move off it, and let's talk about the things that are a little bit more exciting and a little more pertinent to the world of pro basketball. First of all, from a macro standpoint, Tim, don't look now, but the past week I've watched NBA games and I'm seeing NBA players playing really, really hard. And maybe that's just this time of year. It is a reminder of how great this game is when the
best players take it seriously. I think the narrative of you know, lacka days ago play is starting to go away here with some pretty intense high level basketball since the All Star Break.
Yeah, well yeah, and then look, there's teams like you don't have to worry about whether the Detroit Pistons are playing hard. You know that that's a franchise and a bunch of guys, young guys on the roster who have a bunch.
To prove and you know, it's a pretty cool story.
The Detroit Pistons have one more games so far of the season than they did the last two years combined. The Detroit Pistons woke up a year ago today with eight wins on the season. They are on an eight game winning streak right now. So and look, you know, if you're again you're in Salt Lake City, it's a it's a rebuild. You know, there's obviously pain that comes along with that. This is a team that's been through the pain and has been able to make that jump
this season. You've got to find the guy to build around, and they've got that with Cad Cunningham, and then it's about surrounding him with the right pieces. So, you know, they got to a point where they had a guy they wanted to build around. They brought in some vets to fit and gave him just some room to breathe.
And you know, the Pistons, like, I don't know if they're going to win a playoff series this year, but the fact that they're going to be in one and that they're going to be a tough matchup for somebody is pretty amazing progress considering they won fourteen games last year and set of them being erected for the longest losing streak.
Former Jazz DM Dennis Lindsay helping out over there, which is pretty cool.
Happy for him. And you know, when we.
Always try to draw parallels between teams that are further along in advanced rebuilds, I try to bring it topically as far as what the Jazz are doing here, But you referenced it right, like they have Kate and Orlando has has Bankara, Like it's it is just the one thing that somehow, some way the Jazz need to find. As good as Lowry is, I just don't know that he is the guy to build around when it comes
to eventually being back into contention. It is the one outlier that all of these advanced rebuild teams seem to have that the Jazz just right now have not been able to find.
And that's why you tank to be honest with you because where picked right? Where was Kid Cunningham picked right? That the easiest way to get that level of talent is to pick very very early in the draft. You know, it's hard to do. It's hard to trade for those kind of guys as a rebuilding team especially, and let's just be blunt, like in a market like Salt Lake City where you're in rebuild, it's impossible to sign that kind of guy in free agency.
Yeah, that's the bottom line, all right.
We were all gathered around our television sets on Tuesday night, and obviously is the guy that wrote the book on Luca, You're the guy to talk about this. And I feel like, at least through the television tim it felt like there was a lot of buzzs in that arena. Of course, with Luca taking on the mats for the first time, I wasn't sure if Nico was going to show up. He did the over under I said on the show for Luca points was forty. He didn't touch that, but
he did get a triple double. I'm really curious is to see what it looks like when they go down to Dallas. But what was it like to be in the building and what was your takeaway as we saw Luca play his former team for the first time.
Yeah, and you know, I thought Luca played well. With the exception of shooting the ball. I thought he played a very kind of poised and focused games. The Matters were determined not to let him go off. They're they're obviously trapping and double him a lot to you know, to make sure he even had that forty point type of performance. And he doesn't have his legs right now. He had He's had one good offensive performance, one good scoring performance, I should say, uh for the Lakers. You know,
since the trade. You know, he doesn't have his legs. You can tell when when you know, when he's not making threes. The thing that I think surprised me was I thought this would be a full Luca Rage type of performance, and he saw a little glimpse of that. Like midway through the fourth quarter, he knocks in that three of the time out, he looks at the mass dance, he's glaring and he's yelling all that kind of stuff. But there wasn't a whole lot of back and forth.
You know, he made a point like he pretended, oh I didn't know, I didn't see me, Okay, Like he made a point not to have any level of interaction with Niko Harrison or with Jason Kidd, which tells you that, you know, Luca didn't quite by because j Kid wasn't aware of anything until the eleven dour stuff, and that would put myself in that same boat. But the prevailing emotion from Luca in terms of the Matticks, I don't
think his anger right now. I think it's more sadness, and you know he's I think he will find joy with the Lakers. I think he's he's searching for it right now, and it's not feel like, Look, they're gonna win games. He's got a good relationship with JJ Reddick, you know, looked up to Lebron his entire childhood, loves doing Phinney Smith at timmdy Hand Dallas. Like, I think Luke is going to be just fine, is gonna, you know,
have a great run here with the Lakers. Well, he's still getting over basically getting dumped publicly and shamed out his way up the door.
You reference the Jason Kidd element here, the Jason kidds side of this and look, you know far more about this situation than probably any medium member, let alone me. I just thought, as a head coach, it would be really hard to see a player like that traded away because if you have Luca, you got a shot, and these guys are wired to win. And Jason Kidd, once upon a time was as fierce a competitor as a
player as anybody as you know. So now that a few weeks have passed, have you been able to kind of uncover exactly what he knew when he knew it in the hand he played in this decision, if any at all.
I can't tell you what he knew in terms of like the trade discussions and all that. I can just tell you he was absolutely as frustrated with Luca as Nico Harrison was in terms of the diet, the conditioning that, you know, all the stuff that I've talked about I've report has been reported by other people. Nico was not on an island with that. Jay Kidd was right there with him on that. And I can also tell you that Jason Kidd was right there with Nico in terms
of his fondness for Anthony Davis. Nico obviously had a you know, decade long relationship with Ad. You know, from Nico's time at Nike, aside from Cobe Bryant, he was probably closer to a d than any other player that he worked with there. But Jason Kidd also has a really good relationship with Ad. Remember j Kidd, it's been a couple of years as an assistant coach in LA before getting hired as a head coach in Dallas. And one of those years they won a championship in the bubble.
You know, Ad was his guy. So again, I I don't I'll put it like this. I don't think Jason Kidd was disappointed by this trade. I'm very confident in saying that.
So you know, I always hesitate to, you know, bring things on the internet into real life because I don't know how real it is. It just seems like there is a bit of a smear campaign going on from the Mavericks because every time I fire up NBA Twitter, it's smoking a hookah and drinking beers, and then there's pictures of Luca and you know a lot of people are It's just it's a different era in a lot
of different ways, not just in basketball, but society. Like you know, we could talk about back in the day, the party habits of a Michael Jordan, the party and habits of a lot of players back then.
Certainly I saw it, you know, I was around a lot of it.
And the younger generation just doesn't seem to They seem to have a different relationship and the fundamental understanding of the DERs of maybe alcohol and drug use and such. So maybe it's a different mindset just overall. But is this Dallas behind the scenes trying to because I don't look, I'm just have the opinion you can't spin this.
It's a bad trade. You don't make no matter what.
But is this Dallas behind the scenes trying to spin it to help people understand that maybe this is something they needed to do.
And you know, I don't know if it's so much even trying to spin it, but just like what that what were you thinking? Well, this is why they made the trade. And look, it is not breaking news that Luka Dontch likes to have a Bruce ski or two scheme, right, Like, did you know that before he was traded?
I was aware of I was aware.
Of course, you knew that before he is traded. It is not breaking news that the man's got a voracious appetite and sometimes can get pretty pudgy. Like you knew that. You've watched him throughout his career. You know you've seen him like I reported going back to Jay Kids first year, Rick Carlisle's last year, Luca was tipping the scales over two sixty back then. And of those seasons, this has
been something that's been, you know, a constant issue. It's just for all those concerns, you say, well, okay, he also made five straight first team All NBA squads. He also led the league in scoring last year, almost averaged a triple double, and you know, took your team to the finals. So I don't necessarily think I don't think it's like a whole lot of Hey, here's new stuff, here's new stuff, because dude, the hookah stuff. The hookah.
At first, I honestly, the hookah thing I don't think was a big concern, like did he have hook on vacation, Sure, okay, whatever. The beer drinking and all that stuff, that's much more of a concern simply because it gets to the weight and it gets to you know, all those all those uh, the concerns about his body breaking down but it's not like people just realize that that Luca likes to drink a beer.
Do you feel like it's weird, because I guess there's no way of fully no. I mean, I can tell you that I saw firsthand myself the past iteration of the jazz with Donovan and some of those guys. They like to have a good time in certain areas here in Salt Lake City and certain places where Donovan lived, there were a lot of parties that were being thrown. But is there a different approach with the younger generation
juxtaposed to kind of the old guard. Look, I know, nobody's smoking heaters at halftime like lott I was, But is there right, is there like a different like cultural approach in pro basketball to taking care of their bodies in a way that maybe it wasn't a thing back.
In the day.
I mean, there's obviously a lot more science involved in it, and you know, I think it's a much higher priority for teams, so it becomes a higher priority for players. But like, if you think Luke is the only guy in the league that enjoys having a drinker six, then I don't know what to tell you. You know, and like
you know there's a big wine culture in the NBA. Like, Okay, I don't know, man, I just again, I get like the fact that he gained weight during the season last year while leading the league and usage rate and playing thirty eight minutes per game, is you know, with a full time quote unquote body team. Like, I get it, that's pretty alarming. But I just, you know, I don't. I don't think the guy's like waking up and pouring
beerd his cheerios or anything. Okay, Like I you know, I'm like, I understand the concerns with the beer drinking because it's it becomes a conditioning thing. I I would be cautious on portraying this guy as having like a serious alcohol problem. I just I just think that Luca's postgame routine is very similar to mine.
Right, And I've experienced that routine.
It's a fun routine, yeah, you know, and and unfortunately a lot of times I think his off seasonta overt of mine too. Certainly the all Star break routine at times.
For sure, And there's nothing wrong with it. You know, you work hard, you should enjoy life, you know. I'm not a lived to work guy. I'm a work to live guy, and I think people should approach you that way. Nothing wrong with it at all, especially when he went to the finals a year ago, Like it couldn't be that big of a deal. So Dallas obviously tim right now with her grip of injury issues with their bigs.
You know what's interesting, Kyrie is kind of coming out on the other side of this is like this hero right for Dallas fans. And this is a guy that was a lightning rod for criticism not that long ago. A lot of people didn't even want to touch him, someone as far as to say he shouldn't play pro basketball anymore.
But what do you make of like the Kyrie side of this?
And whenever he locks in the way he did against the Lakers, I'm reminded that once upon a time I did enjoy watching him, maybe as much, if not more than any player in the league.
But you cover the team, what do.
You make of like the Kyrie kind of coming out looking like maybe a hero for Dallas and this whole thing.
Well, I don't think that is something that's a sudden development. I think that was the case last year too. Now since his you know, he's he's like it's kind of his team now, right, And he's the guy who's probably handled this the best in terms of like empathetic towards Luca, and you know, like, you know, they still have a relationship, they still got a brotherhood. But and hey, like you
can find in private, Luca's not coming back. Kyrie's got a team to lead, he's got games to try to win, and you know, he's been handling his business as far as that goes. But you know, I don't think there's been a sudden shift in the Kyrie storingline. I think he kind of earned his way into the hearts of the Mavericks fans, certainly last year and especially during the playoff run, but even before that. And you know, the simple fact is Kyrie has been the leader of this team.
He wasn't their best player last year, but he was absolutely the leader. He was the the primary voice in the locker room. And you know, despite his track record of chaos and his previous stops, he has been a constant source of like calm for the Mavericks and that's something they obviously really really needed after the NBA much less the franchise was rocked by this shocking trade.
Well, my take remains, do not make that trade.
There actually is a lot to like about the Mavericks roster if they can get right Lively, Gaffer and obviously a D.
So where we at with those three?
Do you think they can get back in time to be in shape for the playoffs? And if so, what's the ceiling for this Mavericks team this year?
And you know, talking to my people with the Mavericks, the hope is that they're going to get two or three weeks of AD and liveing together at the end of the regular season. You know, how much rhythm and rapport and you know, kind of chemistry can you establish. And I don't know if it's going to be eight games, ten games, whatever it may be, I don't know, But that's the reality of the situation. That's what they're going
to have. There's not as much optimism the Gaffer is going to be able to get back and be a significant part of this. He you know, grade three spraying of the MTL basically means he towards MCL so he definitely has the toughest injury of the three to deal with. But so Gafford and I'm sorry, live L and AD is supposed to be reevaluated next week. They're not returning next week, but they will if things continue progressing as they are, get back at some point in March.
Are you buying the optimism in Golden State? I think they're seven and one with Jimmy Butler and a lot of people. And look, Jimmy has shown us that he come playoff time. He's one of those dudes you just have to admit that he is. So I'll ask you the same question, are you buying that optimism? And what's best case scenario for Golden State this year?
Splash and crash splashes, Steph crashes Jimmy, you like that?
I like that's really good.
Yeah. Uh, They're definitely better than they were before the trade. And obviously it looks Stephon. I mean, they've got some guys who are big time champions that you have to respect. Jimmy Butler's you know, really had two overachieving heat teams make the finals in large part because he is one of those dudes who can just absolutely dominate playoff series. Yeah, I don't think they were gonna win the West, Like,
is it within the realm of possibility? Sure, but I don't think they have like even a double figure percentage chance of putting the Western Conference.
Who keeps Mark dagnalld up at night? Is it Denver more than anyone else?
Uh? Yeah, I think I think Denver, And honestly, yes, Denver is the one who's the who's the biggest challenge. I don't think there's any question about that. But you know, I don't think anybody's like just super excited about seeing a Luca Lebron tandem in a playoff series. The Lakers have a hole in the roster. I mean, clearly they thought they needed a starting rim running center, and you know, they flunk Mark Williams on a physical so that didn't happen.
But the Lakers, they've been playing, they've been playing good basketball even before the Luca trade, you know, even without a d and Luca's not himself quite yet, but we've seen what that guy can do in the playoffs for sure.
A reminder of how fleeting this stuff is. Since you and I last spoke, Victor wemen Yama shutdown for the year. In Greg Popovich will not coach the Spurs this season. I'm anticipating them losing the rest of their games and drafting Cooper flag to play an extra Victor wemen Yama. But what are your thoughts him on the latest happenings in San Antonio.
Yeah, and I was there and often the day the Wimby stuff came out, so you know, I was able to talk to people with the Spurs. They are very optimistic that he's going to be fine long term, that he's going to be able to be back to start the next season. It's not going to be an issue
throughout the course of his career. So that obviously is you know, it's it sucks that he's not playing the rest of the season, but you know, it's good news that they don't think this is something that's going to be a lingering issue or you know Chris Bosh type of saying, where it ruins a guy's career, in some guy's career. I thought the news today with Pop and that he's not going to coach to us the season.
We knew that it's that he plans to coach next season, you know, and we'll see how his recovery goes and how things progress. But you know, the short statement that he that he left or that he sent out, you know, it ended with you know, the hope to return to coaching, and you know, that's making it very clear that Pop is not is not limping off in the sunset all right.
Before I said, you lose some very inspirational news that Paul George is putting his podcast on pause to focus on the rest of the season for Philadelphia. What they do, man, Like, how do you get out of this? What happens next in Philadelphia?
The Philadelphia top sixers? You know, can they keep that top six protected pick? That's the big quest, that's I mean, and be it's about to get shut down. We know that, so that that's the first big question. The second big question is, you know, does Inbeid try to get out of there? And then if he does, what kind of market is there for him? With almost yeah, I guess after this year will be like with almost two hundred fifty million O to them over the next four years.
You know, I don't know the answers those, but clearly a team that thought they won the summer. You know, they had a little free agency parade, but it's a complete mess up there in Philadelphia. And the the big question is who's gonna who's gonna lose their jobs? Who is going to pay for this mess by losing their jobs. Is Darryl Moore going to get a chance to clean this up?
You know?
Is Nick Nurse a proven championship coach? Is he going to be the fall guy? It's it's not going to be a celebratory summer in Philadelphia.
The media member that you got physical with, was it mcminnimon. That's my best guess.
No, it wasn't. It wasn't davel though. Listen, I am here in La right now. Let's go over on a little while here to the arena for Little Wolves Lakers, and you know, we'll see what happens tonight. I'm not gonna rule it out, that's for sure.
Get after him. I want to beaf between McMahon and mcminnimon. Did our one of our two of our favorites on the show, all right? Tim enjoyed the game man, Thanks for the.
Time, all right, all right, appreciate it. Broth.
Andy Larson claims he has a video of two local media members going at it.
I need to see that it wasn't me, by the way, it wasn't me.
Uh, to quote Shaggy great song. I'm going to think about my best guess now, don't sing it. I'm going to think about my best guess and I'll give it to you before the end of the show. Two Salt Lake Media members on video going at it outside.
Oh you know what. One of them is Tony.
It might be Tony.
My one guest is TJ.
All Right, wrapping up the program here on a Thursday afternoon, some breaking news. I guess Travis Kelcey is gonna play in twenty twenty five. So shout out to all the Swifties who love football. Now I know who Travis kelsey is. He announced it earlier today on the Pad McAfee show. Because that's the deal, I guess. So Travis kelce back with the Kansas City Chiefs next year. Light Night of local action. The Utah Hockey Club is in action tonight
against Minnesota. So good NBA games, Warriors and the Magic are going on right now. We've got Nuggets and Bucks. That's your early game on Turner and then the Timberwolves and the Lakers from Crypto dot Com Arena and the t Wolves will be in town tomorrow. Rudy Gobert and Nikhil, Alexander Walker, Mike Conley back in action in town for the team well against the team they played here, played for here once lot of time. They're all jazzmn At some point the Hornets and the Mavericks are also in
action Pelicans suns as well. So yeah, light night on the local hoop side after a jam pack night last night.
So there you go.
The hooligans have cleared the area. So no skateboarding going on. Good outside, which again is a little bit nerve racking when you're leaving and there's a bunch of young people skating with cameras obviously creating content for YouTube. We live in a society. There are rules here. Can we just respect the rules? Is that too much to ask?
Are saying no skateboarding? Is that your rule?
No?
Not no skateboarding, but not like right outside in traffic that's obnoxious.
That's fair. They're stopping cars.
Yeah, you have a fair point, all right.
Before we say good night, news broke today that Jordan Schultz, two NFL insiders got to fight in Starbucks verbal altercation.
Also just some context here. One of them is an heir to Starbucks.
Jordan Schultz father Howard Schultz. Does he still own Starbucks or do you sell? Yeah?
Wow, at least I mean I don't know how much equity he's got in it at the moment, or ownership, whatever it is. But there's a let's just say there's some there's some pennies.
Leanter, I'm sure he's doing just fine. Jordan Schultz is pop, Howard Schultz owned Starbucks.
Maybe this was intentional.
And then Ian Rapaport from the NFL Network reportedly got into it at a Starbucks as a result of conflicting reports of a story that Tom Brady took Matt Stafford's scheme. So yeah, very mature behavior from these two. And so Andy Larson said that he has video evidence of two reporters from our market getting into it after a jazz game physically. Well did he say physically.
It was Tony and Sarah?
Oh wow? Oh wow wow.
He didn't say physically, right. I think he said they were just kind of nosed and nose yelling at each other.
I think.
So, I'm ready to give you my guests.
Ready, I'm ready, Tony Jones, Eric Waldon, Okay, that's a that's my guests.
That might be actually it And it's funny because we are just kissing. I have I have seen Tony like in those press rooms get I'll say bothered. Uh, So we'll see maybe that's maybe that's the one. Maybe we'll bring Tony on grilling.
I know Tony was mad at me once. I came in here, and Tony was mad at me once. I don't know what I could just tell. Do you know why he was mad.
At me that one day?
Oh?
In here?
No, he was doing I don't know if he was filling in for Bill.
It was me and Tony for Bill.
I think that's what it was.
And I don't know because sometimes I will call Tony out for what I perceive to be lack of entire transparency, if that's fair to say, Like when he tweets out that he's five eleven or whatever, I'm like, dude, if you're five eleven, I'm six four. Our guys like five six, five seven. So I know Tony can get a little emotional. He's my guy, love him. But and then I think
at some point Tony and Eric outside. So my guess is it is Tony Jones and it is Eric Walden as the two media members that got into it.
I I can't disagree there. I don't have any like guesses off the top of my mind, but It wouldn't put me past it, put it past them. I do know that. Like, if that is the case, Tony and Eric are like buds, they'll, you know, they'll make up, they'll be buddies afterwards. But I could see them getting after it as well.
Is there one media member you'd like to verbally accost in our market?
Uh?
One, that's my of course, there's one. I've got a nice list.
Yeah, I've got a list.
You said that with like a vindictive tone. Is there is there something you want to talk about air out on live radio right now?
I don't know if on air is the place to air it out. Okay enough, but.
Before we saying, can you imagine being junior tafoonis size and running a five zero three forty?
No, that's impressive.
No, uh yeah, if you can get anywhere near the fives right when you work with those guys there, they would love to see a four pop up on that screen. But that is really rare for any sort of defensive lineman offensive, especially the interior guys. That's a good number for junior, it will at least, and the little inside baseball here is that the scouts aren't gonna look at that number. They're gonna go in and say, oh, he ran the forty. Now let's go look at his first
ten yard split. That's the number they want to look at. And for Junior it's it's a pretty good one. So they'll at least get some attention, some eyes on his film. And that's that's the goal. A combine week.
Yeah, good stuff for Junior to foo today. Karanny Reid as well as Bran Keithy Tyler Batty is there for bringing me young. So the combine rolls along for u NFL fans that are just starving for NFL contents. All right, time to Sagan I Porter what comes our way? On a Friday edition of the radio show, we'll.
Finish off the week with a little bit of everything. Howard Beck stops by for your NBA Daily Assists. We'll talk some golf, of course with our friend Paul Pugmyer of Utah Golf Radio, some RSL with one Pablo Mastro any the gap for Gordon Monson might stop by, and then I'll probably shoot a text at Jordan Schultz please do we'll go in that direction.
I've had Jordan on the show before. We'd love to have Jordan on the show or Ian rap Aport either one. So stay tuned for a Friday edition of the program. We'll get that weekend started out the right way, But for now we'll say goodnight and a special thank it to Neil Smith, Andy Larson and Tim McMahon for to the sound. You may have missed from the show today. Go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile app and take us
on the go. It's a great way to listen to the station. But the best way to listen to what we do is by becoming a supporter and a subscriber to our podcast page.
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