David Locke: Utah Jazz extend Will Hardy, thoughts on NBA playoffs + MORE
Joining us now, I’m not exactly sure where, but uh it sure looks scenic. David Lock joining us. Hi, David. How are you? Hey, David. I’m I’m actually back in gorgeous Utah today. Oh, okay. I took a 24-hour jaunt to the great Pacific Northwest. Oh, okay. To celebrate a birthday. And so now we’re now I’m back home and I actually uh did a little May skiing today. Wow. Uh yeah. Fresh powder today, right? Yeah. Yeah, if that’s what you want to call it. It’s a little bit of a stretch in May. It doesn’t last very long. It was fun. It was super fun. Buddy and I had a great time. What’s What’s need to get need to get a May day. Better to get off the mountain in one piece in May. Can you recall the last day the the record for the latest you’ve ever skied in a season? Uh July 4th. Wow. I did July 4th at Snowboard once. When was that? Uh well, I’ve done it a bunch of times. They’ve when they’ve had a lot of snow, they’ve done that a few times. So, I’ve probably done it. I mean, I did it back when I lived in Utah the first time in the ’90s. I have stupid pictures of myself in shorts and a tie. Um, like wearing a tie and a big hat with stupid hat cuz we didn’t wear helmets then and wearing shorts and being an idiot. Um, and then I went with my kids recently. So, yeah, I think two or three times. Well, you’re in the Pacific Northwest. You get the news that Will Hardy reaches an extension. you jump on video, Dave, and and you give a nice breakdown. Kind of take us through what your your thoughts and feelings were as you saw that news. So, I mean, there was this little murmur all year round in the NBA about whether Will Hardy was going to San Antonio. Um, I mean, that was the murmur like you got I got asked that a lot. Now, I don’t know if there was any truth to it, if there were any legs to that at all, but I can just tell you like this is my experience that people asked me, coaches on other teams, people around the league, reporters, you know, had even had people tell me that Will Hardy was going like, you know, had people say to me, I didn’t check their sources or trust them, but so, you know, I think that that’s to me it was a really great sign. I mean, I think that would have been that would have been really too bad that we’re building this seem to have this young coach who’s building with it and then and then he gets scooped away. That would have been that to me would have been really that’s the disaster averted. Um, I have a lot of thoughts on it. Hands, I don’t want to over I mean I did a 30-minute podcast on it today, so like I don’t want to go on a 30-minute monologue, but I mean the first thing is it’s really good. Just on the simplest terms, it’s a good young coach. two, I think it’s very important that as we now draft these important pieces coming up here, hopefully with the first pick of the draft, but we’ll see. Um, excuse me, no, with the first pick of the draft, um, because we’re manifesting it, um, you know, so that Cooper Flag comes to Utah and he understands that this is Will Hardy’s show and and he’s got to be a part of it. Um, and it’s not like Will Hardy’s a tyrant. Like these players like him. He cares about them. They care. They know he cares about them. And so this is not a hard thing for them to buy into um in that sense. So um I think I I think that that’s really good. The one I do think that I haven’t heard a lot of other people talk about is I think we’re still learning about Ryan Smith and Ryan and Ashley Smith’s governorship. And in a league where Phoenix is learning an awfully large amount about Matt Ishpia’s leadership and new ownership there, right? Yeah. And there’s some other, you know, Sacramento’s learned an awful lot about VC, their new owner, uh, or new governor. Like, you don’t choose your governor as a fan. And it’s pretty important to see. And I think this is a really important moment in learning a little bit about how Ryan and Ashley Smith are going to run this organization and what’s important to them that they’re not caught up in, you know, just they’re they’re searching for stability and if they have somebody who seems to have a lot of talent, they’re they’re rewarding them. So I think that’s I think that’s as as to me that might actually be the biggest story line here is in is that this is an insight into you know just another data point insight into the in the new governorship of of Ryan and Ashley Smith. Well, I also think that it’s nice to uh acknowledge that even if a coach, you know, has leverage and let’s just say that, you know, that that San Antonio was a possibility in some way, shape, or form, uh that this is an organization that says, okay, not only a do we acknowledge that, but even if that wasn’t the case, even if, for example, he didn’t have leverage, but to reward him in saying, hey, look, we know what we’ve done to you and what we put you through over the last couple years and we love the development that you’ve been working with and how these guys have handled themselves and how they’ve grown and developed. You’ve earned that right to get this extension and I think that’s a big statement by this front office, right? I think that’s super important. And you know, I think, you know, I think you want to know, you know, Brent Brown ran the 76ers through the process. And then he did get, I don’t think he got enough time cuz he’s really good and they’ve never been as good as they were since he was their head coach. So maybe they should look back and think that was a mistake. But if you look back, he ran through four years of the pro four or five years of the of the really bad process and then did was the coach that built him into a 50- win team. And so I think there’s some valuable to, you know, Will Hardy has to have had thoughts. I mean, I think he had great security from the organization. So let me make sure the these might have been ill. Like if you ask Ryan Smith and Justin Sic and Danny A, they would say these were ill-founded thoughts. But I don’t think that Will Hardy is like such a mental magician that he didn’t at some point in time think, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to do this for like 5 years, have a record that has a 27% winning percentage, and I’m never going to get a chance to like take it to the when we’re actually good and my career’s over, right?” Like, like he finished, if if the Jazz like terminated him after five years of a rebuild and they never got good and his winning percentage is 27%, he’s not hireable. Yeah, no one can do that in a press conference. So, I’m sure like I don’t think that was, you know, we all have nervous worries, right? Rightfully so. And so, I think you you know, you just alleviate that too, right? You let Will Hardy know like, oh, no, you’re you’re going to get the opportunity like stay with this. You’re going to be the benefactor of this. I think that’s really important too like that that Will Hardy knows like Yeah. Because you know what? We’re probably like it doesn’t you don’t have to put a lot of dots together here. Like our picks top eight protected next year. Every single team that’s been successful on the back end of some losing seasons have had significant losing seasons for two or three or four years. Like that’s how this works. Ask Houston. Ask Orlando. Ask Detroit. Like these teams all made the playoffs after doing this. This this works. You make you you actually do this for three or four years and you actually make the playoffs. It works pretty well. Um, and your other choice, if you don’t like this choice, is to just draft Jokic with the 47th pick in the second round. So, just keep trying that and see how often you pull that off. Um, or you know, draft Giannis with the whatever 16th pick like that happens once. So, yeah, maybe maybe again, you know, Lightning will strike. Um, and so, yeah, I think for Will Hardy to know like, yeah, we’re probably doing this again next year and you’re going to be the benefactor on the back side, um, I think is really important. So David, the other thing that’s really important is coming up on Monday and we’re going to have the entire staff down at JCWs and Haramman. It’s kind of an all hands on deck. Lloyd’s put together a pretty sweet show and we’re all going to be out there. It’s a big day and after the Jazz land the number one and after they get Cooper flag, how far away are they from from contention? I mean, we’ve seen Victor Wyama with with San Antonio and they shut him down and I know that they’re trying to work their way through, but let’s just say the Jazz do land him. How far away are they from? Still really far. Yeah, still really really far because because Cooper Flag, let’s say he’s all everything. Let’s say, you know, there’s a lot of comps, so let’s say it’s Jason Tatum. So then Jason Tatum was four or five years until he was ready to compete, right? Yep. Like really, he was on some good teams with some good players, but yeah. No, it takes takes some real time in this league. It’s really hard. I thought Will Hardy made an interesting comment about noticing the about the playoffs. Like one of the things that jumped out to him was that the guys aren’t like aren’t physically at a stage in their development, not skills-wise, just physically where they could play in these games. They’re just not strong enough. Like we’re just watching Ben Carroll get there, but I think Ben Carroll’s got to be incredible. Yeah. Right. He’s 610, 245 lbs. Like, right. like he’s and Cooper’s going to, you know, so Cooper’s going to if we get when we get Cooper, he’s two or three years away from physically being ready. And he’s still 18 years old. That’s what makes him so incredible. So, no, we’re still, you know, we’re still two, three years away, but also hopefully we’re adding two or three young other players to couple with him. And then you add the veterans around in in two or three seasons. Just give the people the idea of the steps. You got Kate Cunningham back in 2021 and he just took his postseason step and Anthony Edwards in 2020 and he’s taking his postseason step. I’m going through the number one overalls and you’re you’re watching these guys develop and grow and you see him taking steps but it’s steps and it’s baby steps sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you win a title. I mean if Anthony Edwards goes and pulls this thing off Minnesota Beach, Golden State and somehow gets either Denver, Oklahoma City. I love the fact that that’s an or now. Um gosh, last night was so terrific. Yeah, it was. Um, can I see that three more times, please? Please. Um, I can’t even watch. I want them to lose so badly. I just want to let you know that. I like literally can’t watch cuz I want them to lose so badly. Um, and then the other thing that’s a real pain about them is that like Shay’s a good dude and Mark Dagnel’s a good dude and I want them to lose so badly that I have to like make it like Yeah. Okay. Personal problems. Um, anyway, what were we saying before I need a therapist? Look, I know this horse wants to run, man. I was just letting you go on that tangent. No, stop. That horse That horse needs a therapist. Got caught in a lock typhoon right there. If only I if only I knew somebody. Hey Jenny, how are you David? Good to talk to you again. Yeah, we got we got more college to pay for, David. So, uh, can we talk about scars that are You know what I have, by the way, unless somebody screws this up, I have no more college to pay for. Yes. Okay. Sorry. All right. That’s nice. Yeah. I know. Paid for the last tuition check after college. How great is that? Yeah. We go to graduation and celebrate the kids. This is not the celebration, by the way. Yeah. The celebration is that this institution is not getting another check and we’re fired up about it. Okay. This is a tangent show, man. This is awesome. Uh, how excited are you for Golden State Minnesota? There we go. Um, I’m super super excited for it though. I mean, on the lodge, last night’s lodge, it gets busted. Um, I mean, I can’t imagine that Golden State has an ounce left in the tank, but I didn’t think they had an ounce left in the tank for game seven, and I certainly didn’t think Denver had an ounce left in the tank last night. So, you know, again, let’s go to Will Hardy’s press conference yesterday. He just talked about the mental strength, right? Like, there is just, and I don’t even know how you equate this. I like to equate things, but the mental strength you saw out of the Denver Nuggets to win game seven and then to win game one and the mental strength you saw the Warriors. That team’s terrible. Have you seen the players they have on the floor? Yeah. Not great. I mean, Buddy He like had an out-of- body experience, which is cool, but like he didn’t score the night before. Yeah. Like the night before I was he did not look like he was an NBA rotation player and Kon Looney I’m not sure is an NBA rotation player and he was like key to winning that game because he actually had that mental fortitude. Yep. But Timmy Butler’s been the key. Yeah. I mean he really helps him a great deal. He can’t even he can’t even move right now. Like I don’t I think it’s the because he took the fall but I I would say like he has no burst. He has no explosion and no burst at all. like he’s like his I’ll be really curious to see his shot window because I don’t think he can do anything inside 15 ft right now unless and and that’s either cuz he’s 36 or that’s because he fell on his backside. Yeah. But man, you’re right about Buddy Heield. You know, it goes 911 in game seven, but when are you going to see 911? Never. Never again. At least not this year. But you know what that signing was like, you know, here’s what’s really interesting by the way. There’s a whole transformation going on in the NBA. tangent. The teams that have paid the most for their top two or their top three are pretty much out of the playoffs. Yeah. And the exception to that is now Golden State with Jimmy Butler, but they weren’t there when the year started. And and so I don’t know how they fit into that. And then the other exception is Minnesota, but Minnesota reduced that number, right? They they had Carl Anthony Towns and the brilliant of the the Carl Anthony Towns trade is they traded 36 minutes of action for 58 minutes of action by getting Julius Randle and Dante Devenenzo and now they’re a complete roster. But there’s really something Golden State’s defying this a little bit by surviving that and Denver maybe defying it a little bit though. playing six players that there’s something to be said right now for these franchises that went and tried to roll up the three stars or the two stars in this new model and the first apron, second apron, all these weird things. It might not work. And what’s nice for the Jazz is they get to watch this for another year or two or three and figure out, okay, what is the model that’s going on here? The only downside is if the Jazz ever won move Lowry, I think that’s going to be very difficult now because I think teams are going to be really cautious of having thin just being thin and having too much money in their top three players being too topheavy. Um, who uh if if you were nervous because I I still think Oklahoma City wins and I still think that Boston wins, but who should be more nervous out of those two? Probably Oklahoma City. Do you still think Cleveland wins by the way? Uh I yeah I think so because my easy answer is Cleveland should be the most nervous because of the Daryus Garland injury because their team’s just fundamentally not the same right now. Yeah. Um the I think Oklahoma City should be most nervous because they don’t have anything to fall back on historically. Yeah. And Denver does. That’s now that’s that’s not necessarily like what I always like with analytics. And also I’m not sure the best player on the floor is on Oklahoma City. Yeah. In fact, I’m pretty certain the best player on the floor is on Denver. Yeah. And I still think that I mean he was that was Can we like Why are we unwilling to talk about the fact that this is one of the five greatest fiveyear stretches in the history of the NBA? I’m not afraid of it. I literally saw an ESPN thing like is he a top 20 player? like what what are you what are you talking about? I saw one guy try to compare him to Westbrook when Westbrook was Mr. Triple Double and they’re like well we didn’t we didn’t say Westbrook was the top five or this was the greatest. It was like that’s a totally different thing man. These are championships. Yeah. Like Jokic fiveyear stretch he’s on right now is one of the five greatest fiveyear stretches in the history of the NBA. Maybe better than that but five’s conservative. you to be in the pantheon of all-time greats, you have to do it for 10 years. That’s if you actually go look at LeBron, he actually did it for like 13. You go look at Michael and you go look at Larry and you go look at Magic, like the incredible thing is they were in the top five and MVP voting for like 10 straight years, which is incredible. Jokic has been there for five, but he really has been the first or second best player in the NBA for five straight years, probably the best. And the only other player that’s ever done that is Michael and then he took a break. And Kareem Abdul Jabbar. How long was Tim Duncan in that conversation? I don’t think Tim I mean Tim Duncan I think you’d have to go I think Tim Duncan has a 10-year run probably and I’m a huge Tim Duncan believer of where he goes and I think Elajan’s close to a 10-year run like um but top five MVP voting is hard to stay there every year by the way. It’s just nearly impossible, right? David, we got to cut you loose, man. We appreciate it. Any more tangents? Uh, I love your tangents, but Lloyd’s uh barking at us and we got to go to break. So, and hands missed. What did you call it, by the way? That was a great phrase. Lock ornado. Loch NATO. Yeah, a lockato to like cuz hands missed last week’s Yeah, that was that was fantastic. I did play it for him. We we got a couple segments out of that actually. Oh, okay. Recycling content. Oh, yeah. Scotty played that for me, David. It was It was very lively. I’m right, by the way. It’s terrible to watch. They just decide to hold Steph Curry every single play. It’s ridiculous. Let’s go bang on that h wrist a little bit more. Dylan Brooks, you are not missed. No, no, not at all. See you, David. There he is. This is the great David Luck.
• Utah Jazz pxp David Locke
