Hour 1: Ryan Smith revealed who will represent the Utah Jazz at the NBA Draft Lottery | Top 3 Sto…
And now it’s 10:00 a.m. Let’s just get down to it and it’s time for your sports picks. Strap yourselves in, folks. From two guys who have covered the teams you’re passionate about for years, we are professionals. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. It is Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jake Scott, Ben Anderson, thank you for uh making us a part of your day. What’s going on, Ben? You having a good one? Doing well. How are you? Uh I’m good. Although uh I do want to start the show this way if you don’t mind. Uh the passing of one Tom Wharton. I don’t know if you saw that news today. Uh passed away at 74. And uh I had a little bit of a connection to Tom. I I knew him a little bit. His late wife, uh, Gaan was my sixth grade teacher. Okay. Yeah. And Ben, you know, like I had I had a lot of great teachers, but some, you know, really like impact you. You you just stick with it. Like anyway, she was one of those teachers for me. And uh I actually did coincidentally got to know her two sons too of well their four sons in college and uh they’re a great family. He was a great man and I was really sad this morning when I uh when I saw that news. 74 74. So uh if you’re not familiar with Tom, he was an outdoorsports reporter for the Tribune for mostly preps forever. did preps on the sports side for the most part. I think he was an editor briefly. Wrote some books. I could be wrong about that. Wrote books. Yeah. Um and uh was a was a great dude. Was uh randomly active on Twitter in his later years. Quite I uh looked up my interactions with Tom uh that I had had on social media and the one I found was he and Kyle Gunther arguing which was it. It fit both of them perfectly and honestly like it made me feel good because that’s what Tom did is he argued on Twitter and that’s what my friend Kyle Guthther did as well. It just like honestly like it gave me a warm feeling in my uh in my chest. He was a pretty respectful Twitter arguer. No, as as Twitter arguers go. Yeah, he was he was pretty respectful. No, the world needs more Toms, man. Great dude. Uh has a bunch of grandkids. like was a great uh terrific grandfather. So, uh our sports community hurts uh a little bit today with the passing of uh Tom Warden. Yeah. A staple within our uh community. Okay. So, I wanted to start there so we could we could uh be bright and cheerful today because I’ve been accused of being moody this week and I don’t want to do that. Okay. So, there is shout out Tom. Shout out to Tom. Yeah. But I want to be sensitive to Russ too and not Moody. So, but let’s talk about the big news. There’s actually lots to talk about today. Obviously, playoff basketball uh on and off the floor as uh as we will get into, but uh the big news that broke on this very station, no big deal. In fact, Ben, I feel like we did the perfect leadup yesterday to that news because a big topic on our show was who was going to represent the uh the team at the lottery. Now, I suggested JP. Yes, I was obviously ignored, which is fine. I’m used to it. It’s all right. I think JP would have done a terrific job, but we did find out who is representing the team at the lottery, Christian. And luckily Christian was uh producing yesterday so he was the one you know manning the ship and making sure everything was in the right place because you need your top guys on that sort of thing when you’re breaking news. Uh here is Ryan on with Hansen SC Ryan Smith that is sorry on with Hansen Scotty yesterday. Right or wrong? I mean we just we’ve never moved up. Why not this year? Why not us? I think we’re due. I think this is a good draft and you know we’re in a good position. You know, we’re guaranteed a top five pick and you know, obviously everyone wants number one. My lucky charm, Ashley’s going to go represent Jazz. I think she’ll be the first first the first woman who’s ever done that. I just broke that to you guys right now. Whoa. Right. I’ll probably get in trouble for that because I’m sure the league’s going to come out with who’s representing us. But look, she’s always been good luck for me and she was down for it. I haven’t been able to grab it. A didn’t get it. So, let’s break the mold. and um you know she’s a big part of this. So that is the news. Ashley Smith will represent the team at the lottery. Now I do think that JP would have been the perfect selection, but if they didn’t go with JP, all jokes aside, I actually think that’s pretty perfect in this way. Like whether the news is good or bad, and I don’t know her well. You actually know her a tiny bit. you you know her better than me, but like I bet her reaction will be appropriate either way. Does that make sense? Like she won’t stink face it like Kevin Oconor. You saying JP would have thrown a fit? Yeah. Broken his glasses. Oh, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Some sort of, you know, JP understands when he’s on camera. He would have understood how to become part of the story. But I think whatever she does will will come off as appropriate because what you really are is the poster for the news, right? You’re the you’re the first one associated with the club who gets to react or is going to react. Like that’s what it’s kind of how it goes down in history. You know what I mean? So it actually is a randomly important decision to make and I think they made a a a pretty good one actually. So, there are two things with this and Ryan actually didn’t clarify it, but we have since learned what is actually going to happen. So, there are actually two lotteryies. There’s the actual lottery which is held behind closed doors and it has representatives from all 14. In this case, it’s 13 teams. It actually might be 14 because some of the teams have traded picks, but they’re protected. So, like if Sacramento jumps up into the top four, they will get the pick. If it stays where it is now, it goes to Atlanta. There are a couple of those situations. So, I don’t know if like I don’t know if Sacramento and Atlanta have a represent representative there regardless, but there are representatives from every team in the lottery behind the closed doors. And there’s media members locally for every outlet if they want to go and some national media members, Zack Low, etc. is going to be there. Uh that watch the actual lottery to confirm that Adam Silver isn’t behind the scenes being like the Spurs with Cooper flag would be great. So, to confirm it’s not rigged and then they release the video actually of the drawing after. But what Ryan didn’t tell us if if that’s where Ashley’s going to be or if she’s going to be on stage because when Ryan says, “I went and I didn’t get it and Danny went and he didn’t get it.” They were behind that. Oh, interesting. Okay. They were not. Ryan and Danny have never been on the stage for the Jazz. It was Colin Ston and Thor Bailey, if I remember correctly. However, Ashley will be on the broadcast. Okay. She will She will be on the broadcast. So, I that’s where I was confused. He didn’t really because when he talked about how he did it, he did it differently. He was not on the broadcast. Okay. But Ashley will be. So, to your point, I do think you’re right. She will offer a great response regardless of what happened. Yeah. Good news or bad, like I bet she’ll do it. I mean, not that like if it’s bad news, she’ll be doing handsprings or has to force like a uh like a a a uh what’s a like a TV guy like smile? What’s a what’s an occupation where you have to smile all the time? Like a greeter at Walmart. Yeah. Right. You know, like one of those forced like I’m being forced to smile at you. No, no, no. You don’t have to do that. But you can’t like like I don’t I’ll never forget Kevin Oconor. You don’t want to be that. And again, as we have said, the Jazz have an 86% chance of not getting the number one overall pick. And while I think you’re happy top two, like you’re really happy if you get top two, there’s a huge drop off from one to two. So there’s going to be some natural frustration because most likely the Jazz are not going to win the lottery likely. So Ashley will have to respond. Well, I have spent a little bit of time with her. I was very surprised at how authentic and how much I liked her. Now I do think that if they win, this is what she should do. Although I don’t think she will. She should be doing like kicks and like rubbing it in everybody’s face and being like, “Yeah, yeah, pace that.” Like I don’t think she should go full shack where he was like rapping at Kobe or whatever, but D Reynolds style celebration like really rub it in everybody’s face. Okay. But I don’t think she’ll go that route. I think if the Jazz get the number one overall pick, it’s going to be very hard to contain the excitement. Oh, I’m sure. Big smile like probably like really excited face. You know what I mean? I hope we got that. Oh, she should scream like that. Like that. Oh, he played it at the same time. That was good. Uh-huh. Yeah, it would be. She would be very excited. That would be awesome. Yeah. Well, maybe she’s the good luck charm. Or maybe it’s just Utah’s year after moving up, you know, what should have been the second overall pick in the uh hockey draft, but because you can only move up 10 spots, they jump to to four. Would be very cool if the Jazz won it this year as well because Ryan’s right also there. He talked about how the team has really never moved up. They did move up from six to three with the Nennis Caner pick in 2011. That did not end up being a great pick, but that does count though. But it counts. You moved up. Yeah, absolutely. You moved up three spots. You won part of the lottery. So, I think the Jazz again would be very happy to be in the top two. You’re ecstatic if you’re number one because you get the best prospect you’ve ever landed as far as prospect. Not, you know, the odds of Cooper Flag being better than Car Malone are slim. um being better than John Stockton or Slim, but no players ever had a higher expectation than Cooper Flag would have coming to Utah. To those numbers nerds out there, I wonder if there’d be a way to quantify the odds of what San has happened to San Antonio from the Tim Duncan draft on the fact that they tanked and one season and got the first pick. And I realize they didn’t tank just one season in this latest iteration, but to have WBY roll around and you get that hit the luck on that particular year. I wonder what the actual odds of their batting average. Yeah. Like what would that be to land those two particular number one picks? Yeah. This is like and in in like an island of Yeah. extreme victory. It’s not like it was the process where they sucked for 10 years, right? And got the number one pick. They were snipers. They were not a hose. Yeah. You know, they were the odds of that are if you if you calculate in the blind luck, like the the lottery luck, all of that stuff. You know, Ryan talking about how the Jazz have really never moved up. That’s that’s pretty much true, right? That that should be true for most everybody again. Yeah. By the odds, that should be true for pretty much every team, right? Because the odds suck. Even when they were weighted more heavily towards the teams that were the worst teams in the NBA, when you had a 25% chance of winning versus 14, still not good. Yeah. Yeah. Still not a good percentage that you’re going to get it. So to get it twice in two monumental drafts, not just, oh, you accidentally won Zachary Reese. No, you’re getting a Hall of Famer. And we’ll see what happens with WBY. But I mean, he’s on that trajectory. The train is on the tracks, right? So what are the actual odds of that? It’s got to be one in a zillion. Yeah, it’s not high. It’s not high. They’ve had a lot of luck. So here’s where the the the bribes come in. Oh, I mean, because that’s There’s no way that they didn’t. I’m just kidding. We talked about hockey, though. Like hockey when they were in Arizona had 15 years of lottery picks that never moved up once. Like that’s the thing. There are teams that have randomly, you know, the Penguins randomly win and get Sid the Kid. Yeah. You know, the Capitals randomly win and get Ovuchkin. Like franchise changing players out of nowhere. And the the the Arizona Coyotes had never moved up despite the always being in the lottery. And not just 10th, 11th, like the third worst team, the second worst team and never won. And to rub it in, Gary Bman literally tells Ryan Smith, “Good things happen to good people.” Yeah, that was tough. A tough blow. It’s It’s just It’s wild how much that plays into it, you know, and I know it’s kind of designed that way, but I It is It is crazy how much that does indeed play into it. The luck or the luck? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. and why it it should be so offensive when teams like Philadelphia and the Clippers and Sacramento and Phoenix just and Cleveland just boot these number one picks are these these high lottery picks where they don’t even get players. You know what I mean? Like the the Clippers in the Do you remember the Clippers in their run in the late 90s and 2000s in the draft where they got like the number one pick and they picked Michael Ola Candy? Yikes. That stiff lasted like three years. Yeah. You didn’t get I mean it’s crazy. Charlotte, it’s crazy these these franchises that just boot these opportunities that just don’t come your way. You know what I mean? Like don’t come the Jazz way because the Jazz aren’t bad that often. And when they are bad, they don’t get have good luck. Yep. Yeah, it’s true. It should just be offensive these franchises that just are so bad at decision- making. Um, so yeah, we’ll see. Monday, one of the bigger days in uh recent memory for the Utah Jazz. You can get Ben’s live reaction on the afternoon show. I will. I’ll be uh at JCWs. Will uh will Ben react that way? Scream. Yeah. I don’t I don’t think he would. No, because I’ve got to multitask and I’m going to be coordinating getting an article up really quickly. So, you can work while screaming. Ralph was working. It’s true. I’m not a good multitasker. I can’t have sound on in the background when I’m writing or anything. Some people can really do that. I can’t. So, that’d be hard for me. Yeah. That’s the argument I always try to make with my parents as a kid, right? Like, I can study with the TV on. Yeah. No, I cannot. I could have I I could have a game on getting plenty of work done. Instrumental music maybe, but I don’t seek it out. Some people like want to have music on while they’re working. Not me. I find that distracting, too. Yeah. But then again, distracting could be good when you don’t know what to write. But you don’t seem to encounter writer’s block all that often. No. And this, you know, writing Monday night’s very easy. In fact, you know, are you going to have it made? Of course. Yes. I will have if the Jazz win the number one pick, this is what it means. If the Jazz win the number two pick, this is what it means. If the Jazz win, you know, fall to three, four, five, this is what it means. I If they get fifth, I want the headline to be the shaft. That’s it. It’s not going to do good. How do the Jazz do in the lottery? Well, they got the shaft. It’s going to do bad SEO. We got to worry about that. Number one pick rolling in it. Yeah. What should the headline be there? I don’t want to do like jazz capture flag. Like that’s that’s what everyone’s doing. Lane, I agree. Yeah, it’s got to be something more just epic. Transformational, you know? Jazz flag their guy. Yeah. I was trying No, that’s terrible. Don’t use that. I was trying to use a like a different way to use the word flag. Jazz planted a top draft lottery. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t do that. No. I’ll have to work on I’ll workshop it this weekend. You should we should have headline writers here. That’s like a special skill. There’s a lot of bad headlines out there. Not that yours are. Sorry, that’s not what I was implying. But like again, the game has changed. Somebody should be able to make a make a living cracking out good headlines. It’s not about what looks awesome for the kids selling the newspaper on the corner anymore. It’s about when I type something into Google, how am I going to be the top search result on Google? Yeah, right. That’s all headlines. How are you? So, they’re super boring. It’s name, number, question mark. Your headline should all be provocative words. Okay. I mean, nothing but Yeah. I mean, can we say these words on the I It should be really provocative like I know. I don’t know where you masterpiece of dog. Oh, if you could spell the five. Maybe that like masterpiece and dog s are both provocative words. Yeah. Yeah, like exact. Great example, Christian. That would actually be really good if they fall. Yeah. Yeah. Like masterpiece always lands. You should use that all quote unquote power word, which is an SEO thing. Yeah. And and dog. Yeah. Who isn’t Googling dog ass? Utah fans vote Cooper flag sexiest man alive. Like something like that. That’s how you’re going to get clicks. There you go. You get some traffic. We should work on that. No, honestly, if you want to get traffic, which is as stupid as it is, and it’s not something we do at KSL at all. So, and I’m glad we don’t, but it would be like, check out Cooper Flag’s girlfriend, you know, Jazz Land top pick, check out his girlfriend. Like, that’s how you if you want to get a ton of traffic to your site, you can just do that. Could you lead every headline you write with huge scandal breaking, right? Huge scandal, Jazz win by five. Yeah. Jazz lose again. Conspiracy. Actually, that’s a good way to falsify. There you go. Conspiracy colon lose by lose by six. Yeah. Why? This has nothing to do with what he wrote. Yeah. Oh, you still clicked on it. But anyways, if uh if the Jazz win this pick and win Cooper Flag, Ashley Smith, who is the co-principal of SEG, like she’s very involved in everything they’re doing at my understanding. And like I said, she’s very intelligent. Oh, that doesn’t matter in this case, but she will be infamous if the Jazz win the number one overall pick. Infamy in a good way. You know, she’s not just a face and not just a wife. And I think a lot of people don’t understand that. I think there is the assumption that that’s what she is. Uh and I No, I know that and you know that. But in this case, it doesn’t matter. I mean, like owners have sent family members and things like it’s it’s about putting a good face on it. It’s about the TV show. Yeah. Like even if she were not involved or whatever, that wouldn’t matter. Now, the actual sitting in the lottery behind the scenes, which we talked about, is apparently quite boring. And one of the reasons they don’t do it that way, I got asked about it today on Twitter, is because they do it in reverse order. They decide the number one pick first because why would you do 14? You don’t draw 14 times. You only draw four times to figure out the top four picks. So, they figure out the number one overall and then Sarah Todd from the Desert News told me that like the she was in she’s been in the the room before the year the Spurs won. They also won the number two overall pick because they don’t pull your combinations out after you win. You’re given you know there’s a thousand one combinations and you just have a number code. They got number one and then they also got number two. Number two. That’s funny. But you can’t win twice, right? So you have to go do the drawing all over again. So it’s boring. The Spurs, dude. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Exactly. But that’s the thing. Yeah. I was going to bring that up that the fact that not only did they win the number one pick that year, they also got the second. What are the odds of that? Stack that on top of everything else we’re talking. Just don’t give them Cooper flag. That’d be boring. Did I yell there? Don’t want to see that. No. Okay. You got close. Yeah. All right. Careful. Pin head. I’m sorry. No need to insult me. Jeez. All right. Top three stories of the day. KSLports.com. Coming up next, Jake and Ben. 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Hey, bro. You hear us every day with our crazy opinions. Hey, how you doing? Well, now it’s time to hear from you. Hey, great show. Download the KSL Sports app and fire off your thoughts with the call-in tab on the bottom of your screen. Your show is fantastic. It’s the one that captivates me the most. You can tell PK to stop singing. Let Jake and Ben know what you really think of the jazz. Tell Hans and Scotty about your favorite barbecue spot or what color of tie JJ should be wearing on TV. The best entries will be played on the air. Download the KSL Sports app now and hit the call-in button to let your voice be heard. I think you guys do an incredible job. This is 975, the KSL Sports Zone. It’s time to break down the biggest stories of the day. This is the top three stories of the day on kslsports.com 975 KSL sport. Jacob Ben, how does it feel, Ben? How does it feel? Want to remind you you can nominate the esports volunteer you know for the Hercules hero of the week. Submit your nomination kslports.com/contest. Listen, every Thursday, the JJ and Alex for the winner. Help us celebrate the efforts of those volunteers making an impact with the Hercules Hero of the Week. Sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. That was the song you see. I do. I saw I heard that. Okay. You didn’t respond. Googling things. Oh. Uh, time for the top three stories of the day. KSLports.com sponsored by our friends at Jbrooks Jewelers. Cherish your love with Jbrooks Jewelers. explore their expertly crafted engagement rings made from the finest materials. Jay Brooks Jewelers. All right. Uh Christian, where do you want to start today? Number one, lot of playoff action. The Timberwolves tied things up last night and then tonight, the Cavs have an opportunity to go down 300. Have an opportunity to go down three-0. I like how you were. Yesterday’s game was awful. Not even worth talking about. Uh predictable though. Yeah, exactly what you thought. And I guess what was what what it did highlight is how surprising it is that both Boston and Cleveland are down 02 because traditionally we saw it with Oklahoma City as well in the other series. You lose that first game at home and you’re the favorite and in a lot of these cases kind of the overwhelming favorite and Minnesota certainly is now since Steph Curry has gone down with a hamstring injury. You just come back and you lambast these teams in game two. You just absolutely blow them off the floor. It was like again 30 to 15 in this game early. Golden State just could not score in the in the first quarter and then really throughout most of the game. But it’s what OKC did to Denver. The fact that it’s actually what Boston did to uh New York as well. Cleveland did not do I guess Cleveland did do it. They were up 3215 after one and then everyone has come back since. But not being able to hold on to those leads in those other series is surprising versus what we’ve seen in the Western Conference. um the off the court controversy and then we can we can jump further into the Cavs though. Draymond Green picked up his fifth tech Ben. He uh fed his elbow to Nas Reed. He said, “Uh here you go. Eat this for uh for breakfast or dinner, I guess.” Uh after Reed just fouled him, here’s uh what Draymond had to say after the game. Look like the angry black man. I’m not an angry black man. I’m a very successful, educated black man with a great family and I’m great at basketball. I’m great at what I do to the agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous. Now, Ben, I wanted to play that sound because I actually think it it leads to an interesting topic. I I think Draymond is not being honest with himself about his own anger. Um, do we need to offer some background on the stereotype of the angry black man? I don’t think so. You think people understand that? Yeah. I mean, it’s just it’s a trope that has been used. It’s a racist trope that has been used to define like that that right, black people are unwieldy, but in this case, uncontrollable. I think he is not acknowledging his own situation. I think he’s I don’t know what he’s doing, but he does have an anger problem. And honestly, I have people in my life who have anger problems and and don’t get me wrong, not like abusive stuff. I’m not talking about that. But have issues controlling their anger. I used to work with a guy. I was telling you his stories about it off the air the other day. People have a white guy. Yes. if we need to know his uh his race. Um who deals dealt with real anger problems and it really worked against that particular guy. You know, put himself in some some circumstances that were not necessary because he had issues with anger. It’s a it’s a real thing. Now, here’s where I will defend Draymond a little bit, but I this is where it’s it’s complicated. Draymond is an angry player. Yeah, he he plays better when he’s angry. He’s angry when he plays. Uh we were talking to David James off the air. Again, if we want to go with another white guy example, John McEnroe was an angry tennis player. Yeah. And his behavior was terrible. Yeah. And he was divisive. If you want to look at Draymond Green and his anger being divisive, but he would throw these tantrums and then just whoop the opponent right after because he was better when he’s angry. Now 90 I would say like 90% of athletes anger totally ruins them. Right. Again, I identify with this topic because I was an angry tennis player and it really sunk me. Yeah. Like it made me a way worse. Hurts more players than it helps. It it absolutely does and I I learned lessons from from that. Certainly in life when I was angry when I was a golfer. I didn’t like the sport. I didn’t like myself when I was playing the sport. And one day I had to be like I I got to just enjoy this and realize that I’m not on the PGA tour. So not all my shots are going to be good. Most of them in fact are going to be bad. Do I want to enjoy myself or not? Right. And after that epiphany, I really enjoy the game a lot more. But Draymond is an angry basketball player and has anger issues. You’re choking out other players, right? You’re caving in and faces at practice. You know, a dozen different examples. You have Ramona Shelburn who has to write career rehabbing fluff pieces, right, for you to be unsuspended by the NBA only for you to act more egregiously days after your return. What year was that? 2022 or last year. Was it that recent? And yeah, elbowed Nerkach. Yeah. Last year. Like those are angry Yeah. issues. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so to take the the whole trope thing out of it, I don’t think he’s being honest with himself when his anger actually is a tad bit justifiable because it’s how he competes at a high level. And how do you, you know, Steve Kerr’s challenge is how do you harness that without hurting the team because it’s hurt the team in the past, right? That’s the problem is with with Draymond is there are too many occasions where it goes overboard. It’s okay to get texts. It’s okay to get angry. It’s okay to play that way. You have to draw a line though where it no longer hurts your team. Otherwise, it’s a negative. And too often Draymond lets it become a negative. That’s his problem. He got suspended in the finals. That’s the most egregious example. It lost him in the finals. It did. He got so angry he was kicking guys in the groin and it cost them a he got suspended because he picked up his whatever fifth flagrant or sixth technical whatever it is and had too many points as they call them and was suspended a game that was a must-win and they had to face LeBron in game seven and lost. But yeah, choking Rudy Gobear, getting suspended and then elbowing Nerk in the face or whatever which whichever one happened first, like that’s too far. You’re getting suspended, you’re hurting yourself. Jerry Sloan was an angry person and at times when he bumped the referee went too far. Yeah. And got suspended for it and that hurt the Jazz. That’s not good for the Jazz. Michael Malone was an angry person. It hurt him. It broke the culture in Denver. It’s why both he and Calvin Booth, now maybe Calvin Booth just sucked at his job, but it’s why they’re both unemployed right now. He’s an angry person. Um, if you know, you often get angry at Christian. If you were to walk into the next room and start choking him or kick him in the groin, I would pull you aside and say, “Ben, I think we’ve got some anger stuff we really need to get a hold of.” Yeah. Meanwhile, Christian is writhing on the ground with a a sore groin and a what? Like like sore larynx. Bruised neck. Bruised neck. Yeah. Collapsed larynx. Um yeah, Cavs Pacers tonight though. Pacers a chance to go up 03. Yeah. How about that? Very fun game. I would love to see them go up three. And then the late game back to Denver Nuggets Thunder. Um I don’t want to use the term that you always make fun of me for using, but this is an important game for Denver. If Denver wants to be able to some momentum in this series, I would highly recommend they win this game. Now, the series doesn’t end if they lose this game tonight. So I can’t say Mhm. and it’s the ultimate value that they win this game. This is not a game seven. No. But I would very highly recommend that team win this game tonight to hold on to homecourt advantage that they have stolen after winning game one. Well, first of all, I appreciate the the great effort to not say must win. I do. I It shows me that you you are a courteous person. So I I would like to thank you. But then you go right to the importance of homec court advantage. What are you doing? Well oh it’s like it like it matters. So to justify your must-win take you go right to another thing that I don’t really believe in and that’s homec court advantage. It would be nice for Denver to not have to win on the road again. And technically they don’t have to win on the road anymore. All right. You can’t apply must win to a take followed by it would be nice for them. I didn’t say it was really nice for them to have home court. I didn’t say Yeah, it would be nice. You really wanted to say must win and then that take is Oh, well, it would be nice for them. But I didn’t say that. It It would be nice for me to find $100 on the street. I think regardless, it would highlight. I don’t need it to feed my family. The momentum Oh, I yelled there. of the series would highly favor or at least stay somewhat even if Denver wins this game. Stay somewhat even. If the Oklahoma City Thunder win this game, the series tilts heavily in their favor. Okay, that’s way better. Stay somewhat even. Very funny. All right, what is next? Christian number two. So much has happened in the past week, we may have forgot. Will Hardy got expended extended. Ryan Smith opened up about that. He signed up to do what is in some ways a little hard where we’re rolling with I don’t know what is it, nine guys under the age of 23 and he’s going to develop these guys. We like Will more today than we did when we hired him. He’s a gamer. He’s all in. It’s how a culture and a vibe should feel between my position and Danny and Jay-Z and Will. You know, we’re going to win with Will and we’re going to win in Utah and I want him to be able to see the work pay off as we start pulling out of a rebuild. Good synergy, Ben. That’s important. We were just talking about angry white man Michael Malone and Calvin Booth and the lack of synergy they had in Denver. And that doesn’t even involve the Crunksies who are notoriously horrendous owners. But you have the owner in Ryan Smith. Uhhuh. Who we know is tight, synergistic with Danny A and also has Will Hardy’s back. And I I believe him and I have gotten the same sense. Now he’s saying it. I don’t need to interpret what he’s saying, but even if you don’t want to believe him, I I do think that Will has added equity to his job performance and the belief in him by what he has done over his first three years versus, oh, we liked him as a prospect there and we kind of recognized his warts. I don’t think that’s the case. Not that he doesn’t have warts, but that they like him more now than the day they hired him. I want to talk about uh the and I know this is a buzz word but Ryan referred to it the culture he’s he’s building in a second but just to comment on your your Denver Calvin Booth Michael Malone and not that I am defending Michael Malone by any means but I think the only thing Calvin Booth had synergy with was the bottle of rubber cement in his top drawer cuz the guy that built it in Denver went to Minnesota right Yeah. And that’s when Calvin Booth got the got the gig. Uhhuh. And it’s been rough. Every move they’ve made since then has been rough, right? He was not good at his job. The owner made a good decision there. I don’t know about the the Michael Malone and the timing thing, but firing both of those guys at the same time. Probably the first I don’t mean sniffed. I mean smelled rubber cement in a while. It’s a good smell. I never huffed it, but I It smells good. I just don’t use rubber cement in my life anymore. Well, all I know is it was it was screaming at Calvin Booth. Top drawer. Top drawer right there. Calvin, before you make this call, how are you? I’m going to put you on mute for a second. Okay. By the way, obviously just joking. Satire. Uh, but I do I do like the vibe that uh that Will Hardy is creating within that building. I mean, you get to probably look at it a little closer than than I do, but seeing the relationships and accountability and that sort of thing, it seems to be pretty healthy to me. Um, because he’s not like he’ll have tough conversations with his players. He’ll he tells the media about it. He’ll he’ll do those things. They had tough conversations with John Collins before the year last year. I mean, he’ll he’ll level with you, but at the same time, there there is he’s not a like cold person. You know, cold people who love to tell you how it is. You ever have those people in your life like just oh, I’m just dying to cut you to the bone. He’s not that. There is warmth to it. And uh I I think it is pretty healthy what what he’s building over there. Having talked to Ryan, I know he’s good at not putting himself in between the decisions the team makes and Danny A. I know Danny A where it could have gotten weird is he really gives a lot of or I don’t want to say gives Justin Xanic has a ton of responsibility. Yeah. And I think he has cart blanch to do his job uh and to do it responsibly without Danny A like looking over his shoulder. I haven’t gotten that sense uh talking to the people I’ve talked to. And Will Hardy is not trying to power struggle and overtake the front office to say you got to do it my way. So those things that could go wrong, those relationships and those dynamics that could go wrong don’t seem like they have it all. Everyone really does seem to feel like they’re on the same page. So what’s next? Number three. This was just announced this morning. The ballpark at America First Square is going to host the MLB’s Home Run Derby X Finals this September. Do you want to describe what that is? Can you explain what that is? Apparently, it’s some new format of the home run derby. They sent out a press release this morning. Uh, basically it’s like a home run derby with defense in short. It’s like a game kind of. Each team has uh four or the tour features four teams and it’s kind of like the old shooting competition in the NBA All-Star game. Remember they used to have a WNBA player, an NBA player, and a legend. Yeah, that’s what they have. They have a major league baseball legend. They have a uh softball player and a women’s baseball player. Oh. So, that’s cool. Yeah. Go see the balls. Well, you know, cool at altitude, too. And then Yes. I think the reason why they’re happy to come to Salt Lake is the balls are going to fly. Oh yeah, they’re going to be mashing over say Salt Lake, but yeah, to Utah. You’re all right. I still call the Hurricanes to Whalers. So, we’ll forgive you there, Ben. So, yeah, you get points for home runs and points for uh for defensive stops. Threeon-ree co-ed competition built around power hitting and athletic catches. In all honesty, with a new facility, like show it off any way you can. This is great. I mean, this will this will get it out there. It’ll get video out there. It’ll get pictures of it. It’s that’s a great thing. Yeah. And check it out. I don’t know who’s the legend in like will we get one through Utah or is it all MLB affiliated teams, but like conceivably Dale Murphy could head this up, right? Oh, you think Dale can still mash? He is joining Hansen Scotty today at 205. That’s awesome. How coincidental. What a coincidence. Think Dale can still m I saw him in person maybe a couple years ago still look pretty good. Uh it’s like 75y old guys who can still swing the clubs. Yeah, right. Like there’s something about that swinging motion that you know how to do it or you don’t. So yes, I bet Dale can still mash. He could mash back in the day. Yeah. Tickets for this go on sale May 22nd, 9:00 a.m. at slbs.com. Awesome. All right, there you go. We’ll have more Jake coming up next. Stay tuned. 975 DKSL Sports Zone. This is This is DJ and PK. Joined now by BYU athletic director Tom Homo. Look forward over the next five, six years. Is BYU going to get boxed out in whatever realignment is coming or do you think the Cougars a decade from now are going to be competing at the highest level with the biggest schools? Right now, we’re planning to be in the game. If there’s a situation that football pulls away and they take the 60 top schools, are BYU going to be in that? We’re going to look at that and we’re going to see what it’s going to take right now to get into that 60. But it might not be 60. It might be 40 or it might be 80. And so as we learn, we’re at least we’re on the trail. We’re in the game and we can adapt as we go. If we can continue that, we’ll be in a good shape no matter what the decisions are that are made external to BYU. [Music] Catch DJ and PK mornings from 6:00 to 10 on 975. The KSL Sports Zone. The sports you love. The teams you can’t live without. You have sense of urgency. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone Jake Scott Ben Anderson. That being said, Ben playoff or not playoff uh basketball playbyplay very difficult on the really fast game. Really uh very difficult to do. Um and we’re lucky to have uh people around here who are very good at it. Not that uh people know the genesis of that conversation, but uh and uh play I would imagine especially uh at uh the uh what what was uh Van Gundy calling the greatest uh environment he’s ever been in there at Cleveland. Yeah. Very difficult to do. Yeah. Uh, but do you think the Cavs really I mean what a disappointing ending that this would surpass if if the Cavs were to get even gentleman swept in the second round by the Pacers. This would surpass that Clippers series as bigger disappointment Donovan’s experienced in the playoffs. Right. Enormously. I would think so. Even though they did have the best record in the league that year. They did, but the gap between the Jazz and that Clippers team that had Kawhai, and I know by the end of the series, they didn’t have Kawaii, but had Kawawaii and Paul George, nobody believed it was that big. The gap between this Cavaliers team and what we thought this Pacers team was throughout the season is quite a bit larger. And that’s not that there’s not a lot of respect for the Pacers, but but your disrespect for the Pacers incredibly good all season long and seem to be quite complete. Now, you and I have pretty intimate knowledge of watching Donovan Mitchell’s career and the flaws that can come out of it and they have been on full display. And look, the reason they are down 02 is a huge largely due to injuries or at least partially due to injuries. Darius Garland hasn’t played. Evan Moley didn’t play the last game. DeAndre Hun didn’t play the last game, but no, that this Cavs team has much higher expectations and also though we didn’t realize it at the time with the Jazz how short their their leash was. Like this gets ugly quickly in in Cleveland. Next year they already have 217 million on the books. It’s over the second tax apron projected to be about$ 160 million $170 million the luxury tax next year. They have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine players on on the roster. Yeah. So, you’ve got to add six more players that are all going to be veteran minimum players, and you’re losing Ty Jerome, Sam Merrill, who are like rotation level guys for them. So, it’s really hard. Um, well, I know what I’d do if I were Cleveland. I’d moved Darius Garland yesterday, but agreed. There’s so much overlap with Donovan. You could use that money in so many better ways. They should have previously. And that’s not because Darius Garland isn’t a good player. He’s a very good player. That’s the thing. He’s a very good player. You should have used that to find somebody who would come in and cover up more of your weaknesses. It never made any sense. and and me it makes a lot of sense coming from the general manager that made the decisions, but it never made any sense to put Chris Paul next to James Harden. It never made any sense to put Rusty Westbrook next to James Harden, right? There’s so much overlap there. And remember the argument, the argument always was, well, we’ve got a Hall of Fame point guard on the floor the entire game. Okay, great. Yeah. Well, twothirds of the game that other Hall of Fame point guard is standing there with his redundant. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you could use that with better players that could perhaps make James Harden a better player. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn’t make any sense for Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland to be on the same team. Again, it’s almost a compliment to Darius Garland. It’s like, you’re really good, but you’re also really good at the same stuff that he’s really good at. Uh, yeah, they they need a rangy defensive wing. You’ve talked about it. Yeah, they could use Pascal Seakum. There’s a lot of guys they could use. Oh, yeah. Ben, get some hot wings. Uh uh. So, they’re they’re regardless of what happens this year, I think they run it back. I think they try and fill out their roster with minimum guys and maybe a couple of veterans who are like, “Well, I’ll be happy to fill in. I’m a minimum guy. I’ll just take whatever.” I think I would use the I mean, and we’ve already buried Cleveland. Kind of funny. Watch him come back. But, um it I would use the disappointment as a excuse to do something drastic like we just got creamed by the dang Pacers in the second round. We’re trading this guy. I I think they could. I think what front officers generally do, especially when there are injuries like there are in this series, they use that as an excuse to not do anything. Yeah. Which is so cowardly. I watched honestly and and I’m not trying to call anybody, I guess, cowards, but um I watched the Jazz do it with Mike Connley’s hamstring. Yeah, exactly right. He gets hurt the last game of the gentleman’s sweep over the Memphis Grizzlies. Like the last play doesn’t get to play at all against the Clippers, the Jazz loses. And they say, “Well, we’re Mike Connley away. You weren’t.” No. Yeah, that No, that didn’t in fact. They did it with Donovan, right? Donovan’s ankle. Yeah. And you know, injuries are are certainly legit, but don’t let it cloud your judgment. Yeah. like Cleveland, we can agree, even with the injury issues, Cleveland still should probably beat the Pacers. Even though honestly the Pacers, all they did was go to the conference finals last year. When are we actually going to buy into the Pacers being being really good? But the Cleveland still should win this series. I mean, the best team in the East with a couple injuries should still beat probably the Pacers. The reason they will run it back though is because they have one more year. I talked about $217 million with nine players under contract and I don’t know if they have a first no I think their first goes to the Suns this year you know to the Jazz Jazz traded the Suns that might actually even be in Charlotte now regardless I don’t think they have a first round pick because they made one last year uh in 2026 27 so a year from now if they don’t win next year they have 1 2 3 four five six seven players under contract and they’re at 230 million they go up$15 million million and they lose two more players. Like they’re not going to be able to keep this unit together. Nope. At all. I think they’d be foolish to run it back, but we’ll see. I I like the Pacers tonight. I don’t know if the Pacers are going to sweep the Cavs. Do we know availability of any of those guys? I haven’t seen it, but I just honestly haven’t looked. Here’s the other problem with the Cavaliers. Not to get too far in the future, but Donovan Mitchell has a player option in 2027, 2028. So, they have two more years with him guaranteed under contract. you don’t let him go into his player option year because he becomes an unrestricted free agent if he opts out. So, you either have to extend him next summer or you have to trade him that year, which is what the Jazz wanted to avoid. You know what’s funny? I mean, they they have had to choose between Garland and Mitchell the since the day they traded for Mitchell. Yeah. And you remember Darius Garland wanted to get traded. Hello. Yes. And they convinced him to stick around. That was the origin of that drop. Yeah. Adele was making moves. By the way, I had someone DM me and say, “I’m a tax preparer and I love to listen to your show, but if I tune away for 30 seconds, I come back and you’re talking about a Somalier and you’re talking about Adele and you’re talking about Flatface and I don’t know who you’re talking about.” So, when we’re talking about Adele, we’re talking about Clutch Sports, the uh representatives. Rich Paul. Rich Paul. Because Rich Paul is his girlfriend is Adele, right? Adele. Now, to be fair, flatface is something my four-year-old called uh a guy in the parking lot. So, that’s not a thing. But if you’re saying all these nicknames, which we are heavy at nicknames, while I do think we have a group of dedicated listeners who probably like that they’re on the inside track of our inside language, we should probably explain it once in a while. I will make sure I do a little bit better job of when you say the Somalier, I will say JJ Reic. For example, Ben, to this will be a good exercise. For example, Ryan Smith came on the Hansen Scotty show and broke news yesterday. Yeah. About Ashley Smith going to be the representative at the lottery. We were We were pretty excited about that because Ryan had been on Armpit’s show 15 minutes earlier and uh did not break the news. Chose instead to break it here on the KSL Sports Zone. Armpit is Pat McIn. Armpit is Pat McIn. What are you doing? Sorry, I’m reading this guy’s post because yeah, there’s even more names. I said we’re doing an exercise. I got it. I wasn’t hearing and Christian filled in. Here’s the example. I apologize. That was my fault. He says, “I like the show. One minor issue. I’m filling out some corporate tax and listening to the show. Sometimes I tune up briefly. Then I find myself wondering who is Rusty? Who’s the Somalia? Who TF is hot dog? Who why are we talking about Adele hot dog?” And I said, “That’s good advice. It’s our special charm.” I’m sorry I tuned you out for a second during the exercise because he’s right. There’s six different nicknames there. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. Let’s start from the top. Okay. I I love that that you got this message cuz he’s right. We should I I should be better at explaining some of these things. All right, let’s go. I find myself wondering who’s the Somalier JJ Reick. Who’s Rusty? Uh, which one exactly? There’s Rusty Wilson. Yeah. And also Rusty Westbrook. And now we added a new Russ who’s a dedicated listener to the show who thinks Jakeo. He’s Russ though, not Russ. He doesn’t like that you yell. Which is why we did a Russell draft. We did on Wednesday. Hot dog. That’s uh Tenon Horton Tucker. But also that’s THT. And if you don’t listen regularly, there’s a new version of THT whose name is VHTVHT who’s an entirely different person but still plays for the Jazz, right? Not hot dog, but plays a lot like hot dog. Okay. And then Adele, uh, that’s code for Rich. And I, uh, in all honesty, I find agents and things like that really interesting behind the scenes stuff. And if you’re covering in the NBA, Adele comes up a lot. So, Tam Bro, thank you for the Thank you, Tamro. We’re happy to explain anything. And I apologize for not uh participating in the exercise. I blew it. All right. Steve Bartle, which is in fact his name, is next. 975 the KSL Sport Zone.
Hour 1 of Jake & Ben on May 9, 2025
• Ryan Smtih revealed that his wife Ashley will be the representative for the Utah Jazz at Monday’s Draft Lottery.
• Top 3 Stories of the Day: NBA Playoffs, Ryan Smith comments on extending Will Hardy, America First Ballpark to host MLB Home Run Dirby X Finals.
• Nicknames and inside jokes are a large part of our show, so it’s time we explain some of them to get listeners up to speed.
