FULL SHOW: Can’t blame Utah Jazz fans for thinking NBA draft lottery is rigged | NHL insider Sean…
The noon hour is here and you’re locked on to Utah’s highest rated, most listened to sports radio station. It’s my station. It’s my station. This is Hance Olsson and Scotty G on 975, the KSL sports zone. All right, folks. Let’s do this. Oh, come on. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like, I have had a wide range of emotions. I was on the air last night with Ben and Alex and JJ when the news came down and um and by the way Ben did a fantastic job of like he knew immediately after like picking nine that it was not going well and uh and sure enough by the time seven six rolled around he’s like yep Jazz are at five like there was no drama. He knew it and uh and again he was able to process it a lot quicker than I think we were. We knew something bad was happening because I kept looking at the order and when teams were not picking an order, you’re like, “Oh boy. Oh boy.” I gotta be honest though, that pill is still as jagged as one of Lloyd’s kidney stones to swallow. Like, yeah, Morset is not happy. Oh man, that is still a very jagged pill. Even though Ben’s projecting it and you’re seeing it, it’s still like swallowing one of Lloyd’s kidney stones. Yeah. But when Mark Tatum flips the card and it says five and it says Utah Jazz, it still was just like and we had uh when people glad I wanted to punch him like Oh yeah, cuz he’s got that smug look on his face. Get that smirk off your face. Yeah. No, I’m with you on that. You’ll be smiling with a broken jaw, will you? But I I Yeah, like you need to be spoonfed applesauce after I’m done with you. And I don’t know why I’m giving an Irish accent. I just do when I’m talking about hitting people. But it was and and I tweeted this out this morning. I’ve been do you’ve been doing sports radio for a long time in this market. I started in uh early 2003 doing sports radio here in Utah in some way, shape, or form. And I don’t recall a visceral reaction by a fan base over one singular moment than what I saw last night. Like I I And DJ goes, “What about July 4th?” I don’t think July 4th was as bad as what I saw last night. Gordon Hayward, that’s the only thing that I can that that comes close. Now, people will go 97 98. I wasn’t around for that. Okay. I got here in 03. So, I wasn’t here for the NBA finals. So, I’m just looking at Are you talking positive, negative? You’re talking about any No, mostly negative. Negative. Okay. But but mostly something that brought the fan base together with a collective anger and just sheer force of just despair and disgust. And disgust. Yeah. And I I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. I mean, I sent out a pretty simple tweet that we talked about yesterday how Danny A in Boston went I saw the tweet. Didn’t you send it out pre- lottery? No, I sent it out after the lottery. Oh, did you? And I all I said was like, “All right, guess what? Luck didn’t work out. So now you got to take matters in your own hands.” And people went nuts. That’s the one you referenced, Boston. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I thought that was pre. No, it was post. And it was pretty benign, but boy, people were angry. People came at you a bit. Came at me like you’re just a media shrill. I’m like, look, I’m not saying it’s going to work. I’m not saying he’s doing the exact same thing. I’m just saying that now you got to you got to earn your money a little bit because Lady Luck’s not giving you anything. So, you got to find a way to do it on your own. Oh, man. I uh she’s typical me. I I left my wallet and my notes at home today, but I I did this whole note breakdown. I wish I was here earlier to let you in. That’s kind of our our thing. I I know. I typically forget my badge, my wallet, and my notes. Um I do have Oh, you did have your badge. I got my badge, but uh I forgot my notes. Dang it. But what I did is I tracked uh every single team from the Western Conference and how many times they’ve been involved in the draft lottery. And then I did I I it’s it’s it’s really not scientific and it and it really isn’t even that important or informative because you know different records will lead to different percentages. But I did find this interesting Scotty. So the Spurs have been in the draft lottery nine times since 1985. The Spurs have been there nine times since 1985. And their average pick in those nine visits was a 6.4. Okay. The Nuggets have been there 14 times. Their average pick was a 7.7. The Mavericks have been in the lottery 17 times in 41 goes since going back to 1985. They’ve been there 17 times with an average pick of 7.8. The Utah Jazz have been in the lottery 11 times, which is tied for the second most that or the second least. The Lakers and the Spurs tied for the least. They’re both at nine. And then you’ve got the Utah Jazz at number three with 11. So, the Jazz have been in the lottery 11 times as you mentioned yesterday a couple times. Like, yeah, but the Jazz haven’t been there a lot. You’re right. They haven’t been there a lot. They’ve been there 11 times. So, thinking about the Spurs being there nine times, average 6.4. The Jazz have been there 11 times, averaging 10.3, averaging 10.3, never getting above a three. They’ve never been a two or a one. And like I said, out of 29 other teams in the league, there’s only two, the Jazz and the Denver Nuggets in the history, 1985, of draft lotteryies and all of its evolution. So when this stuff happens, it’s like no, it’s not just 14% chance. It’s not like if you want to get like really crazy statistics about it, you got to take into account 1985 on all the opportunities that the Jazz have had compiled in from 1985. And you’ve got to actually work out percentages. It’s going to tag on to top of that 14%. That’s why I went into that draft lottery with a different hope and expectation. It’s like, no, it’s it’s their time. Yeah. Sooner or later, it’s got to work out, right? It’s that time. And that’s why I think that and maybe Jazz fans were on that same page with me. But I’m going to tell you what took the wind out of me more than what the happened with the Jazz. Yeah. It’s who jumped them. Yeah. That See, that’s what took the legs right out from under me. It’s like the Jazz falling to five. It’s like, okay, there’s a one in two chance of that happening. Yeah. But if it went chalk above that, it’s like, well, shoot, dang it. You know, there were three people with 14% chance, but that’s not how it happened. No. The worst possible scenario, the Dallas Mavericks won. 18% chance. The Dallas Mavericks that were in the playin tournament. Yes, they finished as the 10 seed. They got bumped in the playin. And all of that had to do with Anthony Davis, the trade, the injury, and everything that went on with them. A bunch of stupidity. and they’re the ones that get the number one pick and it’s like no and you fall apart and then you’re like well yeah but number two and then the Spurs that just got winyama they jump into number two and then you look at the percentage chance it was like 0.043 of the three that finished in the top one two and three. Yeah. Yep. And you’re like okay no no no no percentages don’t matter anymore. This is complete stupidity. It’s broken. And that’s why you get all of the conspiracy theorists. Yeah, NBA is going to have to do something because last night for a moment, now look, if the Jazz get good, everybody’s going to be back. But the Jazz or but the NBA lost a good chunk of fans last night in Salt Lake City. Like everybody thinks it’s rigged. Now, I got a phone call last night. I got I got a phone call last night from somebody who um is not uh part of the jazz organization but was for a long long time and was a highle member of the front office and he told me he’s like look I’m as angry as you are. I’m as angry as anybody is right now. He goes I need you to know that I’ve been in that room with the lottery balls. I can’t see how it’s rigged. Like I want it to be rigged. I want to say it’s rigged. I’ve been in the room. I just can’t see how they would rig it. You know, this was the thing I dreaded the most about today’s show. This was the thing I dreaded the most because as much as I want to believe it’s rigged, I don’t believe it’s rigged. I don’t either. But I want to I do too. I because this is astronomical. the numbers, the percentage chance of this happening with Chris Paul getting traded and then New Orleans getting a pick and Anthony Davis getting traded and New Orleans. Yeah. And it’s like everything goes down the list and you’re like, “Wait a second. Luca Donuch gets traded in the Dallas Maverick and gets traded to the Los Angeles Lakers done in a midnight deal in the cover of night and Dallas lands the number one.” And you’re like, “It’s got to be rigged.” But I I can’t sit on air and tell anybody realistically that I believe that it’s rigged. I just I can’t imagine that it is because you talk to top officials. Yeah. I talk to people. We see the media reports and I know people want to go to Andy Larson and people want to go to anybody that was in that room or saw the the balls or see the way it works and they’re like, “Oh, you think you know they got you tricked?” Well, they might. I mean it there’s a chance it would be as crazy as faking a moon landing. Yeah, maybe. Well, yeah, it’ probably be as crazy because you’d have that many people involved. You have to have a lot of people involved to rig that. And it only takes one person out of hundreds that are part of a fix to leak it to bring down an entire league. It would bring down the league. Mhm. Oh, in in a second. I just don’t know why they don’t do it publicly. Like the thing that the behind and I know they invite members of the front office and select members of the media and and I get all that. Why don’t we just do it in front of everybody? Like why don’t the NHL they televise it like get I don’t know whoever like the lottery guy and the and the girl with the cocktail dress and and has that been asked about him Silva? Uh I I don’t know. Well I would like to hear asked like it and they’re always like well Ernston Young was here. Who cares about Ernstston Young? I don’t care about them. I want to see it up close and in person. Well, I was reading the whole story of 1985 and now that was rigged and the law firm Yeah. that was involved in putting the envelopes into the rotator, the frozen envelope that and it turns out the guy that was handling the envelope envelopes was one of the owners of the New York Knicks at the time. Yeah. And it’s like, oh jeez, it’s And even he said, oh, it’s cold. And it it it’s so ridiculous. Now, that one 10,000% was rigged. It it certainly feels that way. Patrick Huan changed the direction of the Knicks for the next 10 years. But Scotty, that what you just brought up, I was sit I was sitting in my bed 4:30 this morning. I just woke up and and started thinking of numbers and the draft lottery and just the complete improbabilities that I just watched and and I could not come to some type of internal agreement that it’s fixed because the risk of fixing something like that and the people that know the people that are involved it would leak and it would take one leak and that entire league would come down. Oh yeah. Because if I’m one of the 30 owners and I find out that really any one that I’ve got factual evidence that anyone was rigged as an owner, what do you do? You would come unglued. And you would want to know, did the Dallas Mavericks ownership group, did they know? Did they know it was rigged? Because here I am as a Utah Jazz ownership group. I’m doing everything right. Okay. So, maybe tanking’s not right, but everybody’s been doing it and I’m it’s I feel like with the CBA, it’s the only way that I can build my product. Yeah. Yep. And being in the in in Utah, it’s the only way I can build my product is through this draft. That’s how you built it with the CBA. That’s how you built it with these athletes and and my contracts and the way I can structure it, my cap space. You did this. So, I’ve got a tank to give myself the best chance to build through the draft. And you’re telling me that it’s rigged? You’re you’re tell it would it would melt the entire Oh, yeah. Well, and and am I wrong in that? No, not at all. And it’s bring the the the whole house of cards had come down. So Darren Rall sent out a tweet yesterday and it was funny because you and I were kind of trying to talk about it um in terms of u of value of programs and we were referencing a study done on Victor saying that he would bring x amount of dollars to the organization. Um yeah he said it was anywhere from 500 million to a billion dollars for Cooper Flag what he would mean to that organization. And I was talking about the number one overall pick, what it brings. Yeah. And he goes, we’re talking about when you look at ticket sales, jersey sales, uh, national TV opportunities, all of that, the value is could even be close to a billion dollars. So, if it ever leaked out, if Adam Silver ever got hit or the league found out that, oh, we may have rigged that, guess what? The Jazz could be there with a law firm saying, “We’re suing you for a billion dollars. It’s over.” Yeah, it’s over. And so would Washington and so would every anybody else. I don’t care. And and and maybe today, Jazz fans and Jazz Nation, maybe today they don’t need to hear any of that. And I know a lot of my tweeting leans into that because the more I look at the numbers, the more improbable it is what happened happened. But improbability always exists in crazy numbers that it always exists. Now to this level I I don’t know because 2025 1.8% chance grabs the number one. 2024 3% chance grab the number one. 2019 6% chance grab the number one. In fact, I I went and did the math on this. Out of 41 draft lotteryies, 41 of them, 25 of those have been won by a team with 14.29% chance or less. More than half have been won by teams with less than 15% chance. The numbers are improbable. So, you sit there and you’re like, something is wrong. Yeah. But then your good sense and your intelligence tells you that a professional logo risking it all to rig it. It just feels like it would bring it all down and it would be a worldwide scandal. If if Adam if I was working in the NBA front offices and Adam Silver said, “Hey, we’re having a special meeting with 20 of us.” and we sit down and Adam Silver is looking across me and okay, we’re figuring out the 2026 fix. I’d be like, I I need to excuse myself. I don’t want to be a part of this because if this comes down and my name is a part of this, I will be a part of the black socks. Yeah. I will be remembered as the despicable low-end wellpoo scum of the earth. And I don’t I can’t I don’t want to be that. Yeah. Am I off? No, you’re not. And the thing is, like last night, I was talking to Ben and Alex and JJ. I go, “Tomorrow at noon, I’m going scorched earth. I’m going conspiracy theory. I I’m just doing it. I don’t care.” I was mad. And it wasn’t like I’m not necessarily a Jazz fan, but I want to talk about a relevant NBA team. Like, if there’s one thing I found out last night, I thought that the passion for the Jazz had been waning a little bit. Nuh-uh. No, it’s still there. It’s still there. It’s just been kind of laying low and just kind of watching and waiting. And when that broke last night, it’s like somebody threw 10 sticks of dynamite on a uh on Hoover Dam and that well and that thing burst and that water came flooding through because people were pissed. Yeah. And I get it. I totally get it. I just don’t know how it happens. I just don’t think it does. But in fact, I even think Adam Silver, like Mark Tatum and that smuggy little punk smile of his, gets on the phone and goes to Adam Silver. He’s like, “Hey, uh, Adam’s like, “Oh, okay. So, who won?” Uh, Dallas won, San Antonio, too. And he’s like, “No.” Like that that was not a good situation for the NBA. It’s a bad look. You have people even as a non-Jazz fan. Exactly. You’ve got a lot of people nationally that think that it’s rigged now. Like this 1.8% chance and the team that was the most dominant over the last two months of the NBA season. This is not a Utah thing going on right now. This is national in terms of the level of people that are just like, nuh-uh, I can’t buy this anymore. It really is improbable. It’s the numbers are absolutely maddening. So, okay. So, to that point right there that you just brought up that even Adam Silver is like, “No.” Like, everybody’s like, “No, just don’t let it be the Mavericks.” Like, there were so many people tweeting pre-draft that were like, “Watch what the NBA is going to do.” They sent Luca to the Lakers for the big show piece and now they’re going to reward him with the number one pick. There were thousands of those tweets. Yes. Pre-draft lottery. and all of a sudden those all come flooding back hardcore because it happened. Like the worst case scenario, that’s worse than the Spurs winning it. Yeah. It’s worse than the Spurs getting the number one pick in in my opinion because the Luca Donuch attachment. It’s like it it feels like it’s such an obvious fix. John Erikson tweets in and he says it isn’t rigged. It’s just a poorly run and and designed thing. I agree with that. I now I agree with that. So the thought I had was where the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz have never hit on number one or number two and you’ve got the Mavericks that are sitting in that hopper and you got the Spurs that are sitting in that hopper and they had the number one with Dirk Noitzky and won a championship and Spurs had a couple number ones and they won championships. I think that that lottery needs to remove balls from teams that have multiple victories. Yeah. remove balls and remove percentages and then add percentages to those teams that haven’t had a chance to get the $500 million lottery ball. That’s only right. I’m not I’m not saying that I’ve got the fix for it. I’m just saying it’s only fair because the more I look at it that there are 28 out of the 30 other teams, there are 28 that have um that have gained more from the draft lottery than the Utah Jazz. 28 of them. Well, it’s the Utah Jazz turn. So, load their odds. Well, yeah, you want to keep them from tanking. I get it. But you still need to load their odds because the Jazz have to hit this once. Yeah. And this was the one they needed. Yeah. We’ll peel away from the NBA draft momentarily. Talk a little uh golf with Bob Casper next. 975 the EKSL Sports Zone. This PGA Championship update is brought to you by Mountainland Supply, Zion’s Bank, Black Desert Resort, Hoops Vision, and Sig Freed and Jensen. Now here’s Real Golf Radio’s Bob Casper. I know it’s been in May for a while, but some of us still making that adjustment to the PGA Championship coming up in May, and it’ll be this week at Quell Hollow Golf and Country Club. Bob Casper with us. Bob, how you doing? Hey, Bob. I’m doing great. You know, um BT and I headed out there tomorrow morning and uh I’m playing a golf course right now. It It’s the only course that I have played with you two guys on. Oh. Oh, up here at Cedar Hills in the Colani Satakei tournament. So, I feel like you’re kind of uh name dropping and rubbing our nose in it a little bit. I am. Absolutely. Absolutely. All the guys are here. Reno Mahi is the group in front of me. Colani’s behind me. Justin Nana’s up here. Chad Lewis. Brian Santiago. All the guys. Let me guess. You’re in uh you’re in Kehlani’s Forsome. No, I am not. I am playing golf. Brian and I are playing with Rob Bruff from Zans Bank. Jesus. Of course you are. Say Rob. Tell Rob hi. We like Rob. He’s a good dude. I appreciate them. I appreciate them letting you take a few minutes here with us, Bob. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Well, let’s talk about this. Give me your top three, top four golfers that are your favorites coming into the weekend. Um, you know, I I I just hope it’s a perfect storm. Hands. I hope it’s I hope it’s Sheffller and I hope it’s Rory and it wouldn’t be bad if Bryson was in the mix or Xander or Jordan Spe. There’s a lot of guys that I JT there’s a lot of guys that I would love to see in the mix coming down the stretch on Sunday. So tell me about Quail Hollow. Uh it it shows up on the rotation quite a bit, but what what do you like out of this course? Well, it’s a PGA Tour event. um the truest which was last week um they moved to Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Qriket Club because they were playing the PGA Championship this week at Quail Hollow. So, um the truest will will go back to Quail Hollow next year, but this this is like the second time that it’s played the PGA Championship. last time Justin Thomas won there. But the golf course will play about 75 to 7600 yards. Um where you where you really need to score on the back nine are holes 13, 14, and 15. Um you’ve got a par three and a short par four and then a par five. But then when you get to 16, 17, 18, that’s called the green mile. And uh and it averages about uh 1,500 yards for the three holes. So, um, yeah, that’s where it starts to really, really get tough. But Justin Thomas today in his media, um, interview said that this golf course is really nothing off the tea. You just go ahead and hit it as hard as you can with your driver. You don’t have to worry about stuff. You may get it a little bit in the rough and stuff like that, but that’s not where this golf course excels as far as um, difficulty. difficulty is it’s a second shot hole. It’s second shot course and then of course if you’re putting well you’re going to have a you’re going to have a chance. So it’s uh it’s a really fun golf course. I cattied for my dad there um back in 1978. Um I cattied for him there and also at Memorial the week after. Um and uh it’s just a lot of uh brings back a lot of memories. It’s really cool. So, I typically love to root for our American golfers, but we got an opportunity here with a master start from Roy Moy that broke a long curse and a guy from Hollywood, Northern Ireland that could potentially run off some great success and put together that big four that we are always looking for. What’s the likelihood that we see Rory return in M’s form and go out and grab this PGA championship? Well, you know, everything sets up really really well for him as far as like completing a grand slam and in in one year. He got the career grand slam at at Augusta. So now he has done what what he’s the sixth I think now that has done the career grand slam. Nobody’s really done it in one year, unless you want to count the Tiger Slam with Tiger. He won the last three in the first one of the next year. Um, but you know, it sets up well. This is a golf course he’s won four times on. Um, and and then you got to think about the US Open, which is kind of a driver’s golf course also, and then the P and then the Open Championship going to Northern Ireland to uh to the golf course where he plays at um there at Royal Port Rush where and he’s uh won a lot of golf tournaments there as a junior and stuff like that. So, he knows that one really well, too. So, um the other guy that’s played really really well here is Justin Thomas. Justin JT won the last uh PGA championship here at Quail Hollow and he’s won one other um truest championship there as well. Now, the one I would really think would be cool to see is Jordan Spie and that would give him his career grand slam if he wins the PGA this week. So, um it’ be pretty cool to have seven guys have won the career grand slam and get two in one year. Well, yeah. I gota imagine he watched Rory do it and now he’s like, “Well, crap. Now I’ve got to do it because the pressure’s on me now.” Yep. Yep. Exactly. So, I I I’m I’m He’s one of the guys that I I would love to see to see win. But, you know, Scotty would be a good one, too. Get his his uh his third major and second of the four. Um JT’s already won the PGA Championship twice. He won it there at here at uh at Charlotte and then also won it at uh um in Oklahoma and uh at Southern Hills. So, um there’s there’s a lot that could really really be fun this week. Bob, we appreciate your time as always. Looking forward to chatting with you throughout the week. Enjoy your time out there. All right, guys. We’ll talk to you soon. All right, Bob Casper, Brian Taylor on their way to North Kakalaka uh to see that, but they got to play in Colani’s golf tournament first. Wow. So, got to pull teeth. Yeah. Appreciate the sacrifice for Kehani. All right. When we come back, what does this mean for next season for the Utah Jazz? What direction do they go? What can they do? Well, we’ll talk about it coming up next. Hans and Scotty 975 DKSL Sports Zone. You’re locked on to Han Solson and Scotty Chin. Cheer cheer. That’s right. Yeah. On 975, the KSL Sports. It’s my second time being in the in the back room watching the lottery unfold. Uh it happens really quick. It actually happens in the reverse of, you know, how it’s announced on TV. And so it was over pretty quickly. And this was always the um most likely individual outcome that we expected and kind of prepared for given that the flattened lottery odds since 2019. So we were prepared that this is a very real possibility and you know we’re excited to add a good young player to our team. We’ve got you know the work we’ve been doing for the last two years on this particular draft. We get to kind of put plans in motion now and have a bunch of guys get into our gym and create a competitive environment to really evaluate these guys. Uh this week at the combine is going to be really really productive for our staff, especially our scouting staff to see these guys up close. Um we have Coach Hardy here and Danny and and myself along with our staff. So we have a bunch of interviews to do, get to see these guys and start talking to them in person and really start drilling down on the possibilities. Um, in reality, this is another young player, an asset that we can add to our team. And this is one of the main reasons that we have decided to stay flexible and have a bunch of assets here to be able to move up, move down, um, and really put together pieces and find the right combination of players to take this organization forward. And the number five pick is certainly a part of that. Oh man, that is a jagged little pill that we all had to swallow yesterday. You heard the Fiona Apple comment yesterday, Vod. Of course I did. I apologize for that. No, you don’t. I said because uh Alex and JJ, their producer, he plays all kinds of different hits coming. Yeah, he’s he’s an eclectic son of a gun. Yeah. And so I just said, “Oh, that’s crazy.” Because all Scotty and I ever get is like Fiona Apple and that’s about it. And I meant to ingest. No, you didn’t. It’s fine. Whatever. Totally ingest. I’ll I’ll try to be better. Whatever. So, Scotty, you tease. Yeah. Fiona Apple. Uh, outside of that one video, it’s like she’s only got like one song on here. Music’s horrible. It really is. It is. But Daydream is a good song. Yeah. But, uh, Oh, you can’t play the song and then when we talk about be like, “All right, move on. Come on. Okay, you had your fun. Now, let’s let’s get to the let’s get to the nitty-gritty.” You teased the future of the Jazz. Yes. Um, so I think last night went so poorly for the Utah Jazz. You cannot you cannot go Tinkathon in 2025 26. I don’t think you can because now look obviously you can and nobody tells Danny A what to do but last night was a big hit for the Jazz from a PR standpoint because everybody bought in and we talked about this yesterday. Everybody bought in. We all knew what was going on. We were wellprepared for it all year long. We Every loss, it’s like, “All right, one closer to Cooper, another one closer to Cooper. We lose 10 out of last 11. All right, Cooper Flag. Let’s go. It’s all worth it.” And then in the span of 10 minutes, not only do you lose out on Cooper Flag, you lose out on Ace Bailey, you lose out on Dylan Harper, you probably lose out on Vegcom. Uh, Edge come. It’s all gone. It’s gone. And Jazz fans are like, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We thought we were getting Cooper Flag. We thought we were getting Ace Bailey. We thought we were getting Dylan Harper. We thought we were getting all of this.” And guess what? You got nothing. So, you want to tell the fan base again in October, “Hey, this year’s all about development. We took this guy at number five. He’s super young. He’s only 18 years old. Uh, but he shows a lot of promise and once he get in gets into our development and our strength and conditioning in two or three years, he’s going to be great. Just just wait. Jazz fans are done waiting, man. They’re done. They can’t do this anymore. They can’t go down this path with you. Now, look, if the Jazz go down the path and and nobody’s around to watch it, then they’ll they’ll do it. If they’re fully committed to it, they’ll do it. But boy, last night everybody was all in until those lottery balls went against the Jazz. And now I think most Jazz fans are like, I’m out. I’m out. I can’t I can’t go through this again. I can’t do this again. Now whether that affects the Jazz and their mentality, I don’t know. But last night could not have gone worse for this rebuild process for the Jazz. Well, the reality is there’s a possibility that when the season opens next year, there are eight players that are going to be on the court that have been drafted in the last three years. Yeah. Yep. That’s because you got two this year. Yeah. It’s a real problem. We got the six that we’ve we talked to a high level of exhaustion about. Yeah, I mean you could throw in Walker Kesler who was a first round pick and and was it an addition I think was it three years ago or was it four years? Three years ago, wasn’t it? So, you know, you throw in the addition of Walker Kesler on the court and now we’re talking about everybody from Sensba to Kesler to Phil Powski to everybody in between and then you add two more. You know, you’re you’re exhausting yourself in just trying to develop this young talent that you’re taking. And I I know that everybody’s interested in this. The other Duke Blue Devil. Yeah. Con Nupal. Yeah. Is that Is that about right? Is that proper? Yeah. Con Nupal. All I know is the dude can shoot it. Dude can shoot it. 47.9% from the field, 40.6% from three. Averaged 14.4 points, four rebounds, and 2.7 assists. Okay. So, I’m intrigued. He gone in. It intrigues me, but I’m just not intrigued by another rookie. No. More development. No more de and and more tank. Yeah. No, it’s not the path that you can go down right now. Now you can. And Lloyd just texted me and said, “Well, if we’re going down the uh if we’re going down the path of conspiracy theories, maybe they said, “Hey, look, we got to do a solid for Nico and Dallas. We’re going to give him Cooper flag.” But this Debonsa kid, he’s playing in your backyard in Provo. You know, just just run it into the ground one more year. You’re going to get that guy. And if and and if Jazz fans were promised you will get the number one pick next year, they’ll be like, “All right, we’re ready to go.” But after you sold out and had the worst season in your franchise history, the worst. And you still got the fifth pick. Jazz fans like, “No, I don’t believe you.” Yeah. Not going to do it again. And And it’s not just this year. They have to take the collective because I’ve gone over the historical numbers. Just take the the Jazz Collective. The historical numbers tell you no. No chance. You’re going to get screwed again. Not a chance. Yeah. Done with it. Got to build it some other way because it’s not happening. Hasn’t happened in 41 drafts. It’s not going in 41 lotteryies. It’s not going to happen. So, move on. Okay. So, what does moving on look like? And this Okay, this is number three part of the Jazz getting screwed. Number one was Dallas getting the number one pick. Number two was a 14% chance wad up and thrown into the garbage can. Number three is you ended up with the fifth pick and it’s not a movable, you know, flashy shiny object that you can package with something incredible and get yourself a Giannis anti-tanko level player. No, if you were at three, maybe it stung you so bad. And I’m I follow all of the the top NBA minds and I and I love, you know, some of their thoughts and there’s a lot of NBA minds that think that this is a five deep draft and that Khan could be the pick of the draft, that he might be the steel, but I just am exhausted with Yeah. rookies and development and like I’m watching Isaiah Collier this year and you saw me every week I was tracking his assists and I was trying to get excited because he was setting an assist rookie record for the Utah Jazz and I’m like but but this is so cool. It’s like but then I go to sleep and I’m like that’s not that’s not cool. Hance is stupid and nobody cares. I I had to tell myself that. Yeah. Yeah. Like I’m I’m tricking myself like Isaiah Collier it’s a draft it’s a rookie record for assists and it’s like H that’s dumb and it doesn’t matter because the Jazz are losing and it’s dumb and and yeah you get excited because he’s a little ball of hate and he bounced his head off the court and he got up and a lot of NBA players don’t do that. And I’m like, “Oh man, may maybe Isaiah Collier is the answer.” And then it’s like, “No, look, he’s undersized.” And this draft just or this league eats up, chews up, and spits out most undersized athletes that don’t have the last name Brunson and can’t shoot. And can’t shoot. And it’s like, and Brunson can shoot. Yeah. Oh my gosh, you’re so good. And Isaiah Collier can’t. Yeah, exactly. So I have the thing that broke my heart was number one Dallas and you can include San Antonio slipping into two number two Jazz 14% chance watted up but number three it was like shoot man shoot what am I going to do with the number five pick I know what am I going to do I can’t I I I can’t package five and 21 and put it in a nice tidy thing and say hey 29 you get this and and 32, you get the Suns pick or 31, whatever this that’s the the Suns number one is. Is it 31? Yeah. Yeah. 2031. 2031. Yeah. Here’s your the Suns pick and we’ll be taking X and and we we’re going to pair him up with Lowry Markin. We’re going to go all in Walker Kesler. We’re gonna push Isaiah Collier. Collier isn’t up to the to the call, then we’ll we’ll figure out what we’re going to do in our back court and we’re going to package this front court. We’re going to we’re making it. We’re going to do something. And even then, I’m just like I I want to throw up in my mouth because it’s a seven spot, eight spot. You’re you’re a playin. Yeah. And probably bumped out of the playin. And it’s like, geez, man. This freaking draft lottery, it just cuts your guts out of you. Yeah. Because if you’re at three, you could get in the sweep stakes. I think you could. Four, five, not a chance. No, not a chance. With the assets you have and the roster. Look, Larry Markin. And that’s the other thing about marketin. He doesn’t fit in with this team. If I’m marketing, I’m like, “Oh my goodness, I’m 28, 29. I got to babysit two more youngsters. I can’t do this.” I honestly after last night I will be shocked if Markin is on that roster. Okay, I’ll be shocked. One of two things. I will be shocked if Larry Markin is on that roster if the two rookies are taken. I’ll be shocked if draft day comes and goes and the Jazz have held on to two more 20 25 picks. Yeah, I’ll be shocked. Yeah, because the last remember I’m now I’m going to go back to 2023 and I said we were doing draft night coverage and I was like, “Yeah, they got the three picks. They definitely aren’t going to keep all three.” Said the same thing. 2024. Yeah, they got the three picks. They’re not going to keep all three. Rinse and repeat. Okay, here we go. 2025. No, they’re a they’re not going to keep the two the two picks. Oops. Wait, wait for it. Wait for it. Okay. So, this that would be my guarantee. If they keep those two picks, you got to do something with Larry Markin. Yeah. If you’re going to keep Larry Markinet and you’re going to build on Lowry now is whatever you can do. You You’ve got eight picks over the last three years. Package them all together. Yeah. And give them next three unprotected first. Do something massive. Yeah. I don’t care. Look, it’s like we talk about with Ethan, how All right, I’m going to make the mother of all transitions here, okay? You can’t take it with you. Yeah. Right. You can have millions and millions and millions of dollars in the bank and then you die. And guess what? Your kids are going to fight over it. And what did you do? You did nothing. You never went on the trip. You never did all the cool stuff. Right now, the Jazz have this awesome portfolio. You got to do something with it. You got to do something. You got to take it for a test ride. You got to do something. It’s time. Yeah. Because take a thon 2026, tank for AJ, do it for Debansa, whatever you’re going to call, it’s not in the cards. It’s just not. In 1985, I’ve gone through the numbers. In 11 draft lotteryies, the Jazz have been screwed every time. Every single time. And you’ll get screwed again next year. and you will get screwed again next year. Yeah. So, it’s it’s No, it’s done. Shame on me or fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three, four, five, six times. Yeah. Yeah. Shame on me, man. This is 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Hansen, Scotty, 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Thanks for making us part of your day. We’ll talk a little hockey with Sean Gentelli, NHL writer, uh part of the uh Puck Soup podcast, and uh we’ll get his thoughts on what’s going on in the NHL playoffs. Uh and then we’ll get back to the draft lottery, the misery that is the NBA draft line. Yeah, it was a tough day. I I’ll tell you, in the world of sports though, it’s been incredible. I I I feel for Boston. Worst possible scenario, Jason Tatum going down. Have they announced that it’s a ruptured Achilles yet? I was just about to ask you that during the break if if we’ve seen an official I’m just pulling up. I I don’t know if they’ve made it official, but that’s MRI going today. They’ve not announced anything as of yet. It sure is. What it looked like to me was an Achilles rupture. Like ACL, you’re like, “Oh man, that sucks.” But boy, you hear Achilles and it’s just like you’re never the same. Yeah, those are still tough to come back from, but um we do have some examples of guys that have come back and still done amazing things. Klay Thompson and yeah, Kevin Durant, even though Klay’s game was much different after it. Kevin Durant got back pretty darn close to Kevin Durant. That one was a shocker. That one was a shocker and he got back pretty quick from it. But could you imagine the timing of seeing Jason Tatum hit the court in in this series against New York and you just slap your forehead and think, “Oh, I’d still take that over slipping from number one down to number five.” Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. All right. Joining us now, Sean Gentelli, talking a little NHL playoffs. The Oilers get the big win over the Golden Knights. Edmonton now up in that series 31. The Hurricanes also up three games to one as well. Sean, you surprised by either one of those two? You know, I uh I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. I I think I think a lot of a lot of different stuff was on the table in both of those in both those uh series. Um Carolina, you know, just the the degree to which they’ve dominated the the Washington Capitals in that one is probably probably a probably a bit of a shock. Washington was the best team in the league during the during the regular season. They obviously had some flaws. not a not a perfect hockey team. I I I’m not surprised to see see that they’re having trouble there, but the fact that they really have had their uh had their doors blown off the last couple nights is is uh is is at least something of a something of a surprise. So Sean, Scotty and I are fairly new to hockey. I mean, we’ve we’ve been invested over the last couple postseasons now, but and I’m watching things in the these postseasons that I didn’t really see the year before, but I might be watching just a little bit more closely. But like for instance, last night Edmonton against the Las Vegas Knights looked like one of the Oilers fired a puck right into one of the Golden Knights ankles and and he went down. You know, there’s been so many ugly hits and so many big brawls and so many big fights. Is it is it always this volatile or is there something going on between Canada and American teams that we haven’t seen in the past? No, this is pretty much part for the course honestly. If anything that this has been uh it’s been relatively tame. Like we haven’t seen a t we haven’t seen like a crazy amount of dirty hits. We haven’t seen uh we you know we’ve seen a suspension or two, but but none of that many. I I think it’s I think this is just kind of how it goes. the the physicality of the of of the game and of the sport gets uh gets dialed up at the at this time time of year. So, yeah, it’s it’s fun to see. It’s it’s entertaining at least. Um but it no, it’s it really isn’t it really isn’t any kind of surprise. This is just kind of how how things how things go. So, this business between Toronto and Florida with Max Doi and and what what he did at the end of that game and the way the way uh they’re they’re going at Florida, the way the way Sam Bennett has gone at them uh has gone back at Toronto or Reiner or a couple of these guys that are are so nasty like this. This is just typical, huh? Yeah. Yeah, Sam Bennett’s Sam Bennett’s done done this exact same thing three years in a row against three separate opponents, you know. I I don’t think it’s anything, it’s nothing uh nothing particular about the Maple Leafs. That’s just he he’s just a kind of a kind kind of a dirty player, kind of a physical player, a guy who’s always on the edge, and a guy who is uh made a rep for himself and and made a lot of money over the years doing, you know, this exact kind of stuff during the postseason. I mean, it it really is, you know, you can you can set your watch by it and whoever Florida ends up playing in in the in the third round or in in the second round rather is probably going to get some kind of some some kind of greeting from CM Bennett. That’s just that’s just how he rolls. C certain players are just kind of built that way and I think he’s kind of in that category. So, the Panthers get that victory, tie that series up at two games a piece. Uh, and there for a minute we’re thinking, oh, maybe Florida’s on the ropes. Do you feel like they’ll come back and still win this series or how do you think this one plays out? I think you still got to pick Florida to win this one for sure. We’ve uh you know, obviously they win the cup last year. They’ve went to the cup final the year before. That’s a battle tested team that’s come back from a whole lot of different scenarios. So, yeah, it’s tough to pick against them really under any circumstance. Uh Toronto on the other hand, you know, kind kind of famously uh famously soft, you know, there haven’t haven’t had a lot of playoff success. It’s always something with them. They’ve they’ve blown they’ve blown leads in series. They’ve they’ve done all sorts of stuff uh in in in that in that realm. So, I I think the fact that yeah, that uh that it’s that that it’s those particular teams that we’re talking about, I I I think that makes it pretty pretty uh pretty easy to pick Florida because they they know what they’re doing and and the Maple Leafs don’t. Well, this has been the best series by far for me, Toronto and Florida. It’s just been incredible. And now it heads back to Toronto and things were really nasty in Florida. But I feel like the one thing that they really have in Florida that separates them is Babrovski who went 23 and 0. 100% save percentage. When you don’t let a team score, I mean, it’s hard odds are pretty good. Yeah, it’s hard for that team to win. And I think what is this his fifth or his sixth career postseason shut out? He’s got multiple already in this postseason. What What is it about Bob Babski in the postseason that makes him so incredible? I with him, especially over the last few years, I I think uh what what he’s been great at is is uh shaking off bad games. Like he like he’s he’s not he’s not a a world beater night in night out. Like like you’ll you’ll catch them on off nights where where you’ll be able to slip a few past them, but it it doesn’t it doesn’t turn into a uh it doesn’t turn into a protract a protracted thing, right? Like you’re probably not going to get uh you’re probably not going to get him on on two nights in a row or or three nights in a row. He’s he’s a he’s a pretty mentally tough guy who’s he’s got a knack for uh for not letting bad games turn into turn into bad series. And I I think that’s definitely a part like part of what has made Florida, you know, such a successful playoff team over the last few years. Sean Gentelli kind enough to join us right here on 975 the EKSL Sports Zone. Hans and I are always kneedeep in the NBA and everybody always talks about the Oklahoma City model. Everybody tries to build a team like Oklahoma City and you just sometimes it just works out that it goes your way and sometimes you just can’t replicate that. Do people look at Florida and say we want to build a team like the Florida model and that’s what we want to build like. But is it just really hard to put together what they’ve put together with that level of physicality with those kind of characters? Yeah. I you’re I think you’re right. I I I think there is probably some similarities between them and Oklahoma City because there’s um for Florida to get where they are, there’s been a whole bunch of things that have had to go their way. Like they they had to have some high draft picks when when they were rebuilding a few years ago and that all paid off, right? They’re the their their best player is Alexander Barov and he was a top three pick. He’s like a franchise center, you know? He’s great at everything, right? like the the fact that they hit on him 10 years ago or or or whenever it was um did a bunch of the hard stuff for them. When when you have a guy like that as a building block, a lot of a lot of other stuff kind of falls into place. Um so he’s he’s kind of the foundational piece there. But they’ve also got a general manager who’s um who’s pretty fearless and and pretty open to shaking things up when when he has to. That’s he he goes out and trades for Matthew Kachchuck a couple a couple years ago was, you know, an all-star caliber player, you know, a a name brand, bigname player. It was that was a blockbuster deal that that that brought him back to Florida. They they sent they sent some serious pieces uh out when whenever they added him. So So that’s that’s part of it, too. And a big part of it for Florida also with with hockey players is a lot of them just want to play in South Florida. you know, there’s you you have a leg up whenever you’re trying to sell guys on on living in living in that weather, being able to golf year round, not not paying state income tax. Like all all that stuff is a major is a major factor that’s kind of in play for Florida and they take advantage of all of it and, you know, they’ve uh you know, around the margins, too. I’ve just built out a a really really strong team that doesn’t doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses. So, that’s that’s what makes them the favorite. All right, Sean, I know you’ve been watching hockey a long time, covered a lot of postseasons, and in your time watching and covering hockey, where does the Mo Rantan run sit for you? What he’s currently doing with the Dallas Stars is remarkable. Um, numbers that we haven’t seen since Wayne Gretzky. So, where where does the Miko Rentana run sit for you? You know, I think if I I think if Brandon were were just doing this in a vacuum, it would be incredible. Like like you said, he’s breaking Wayne Greski records and in and Mariel Lemieux records. He’s, you know, hat tricks in in in single periods and consecutive games. Like that’s that’s incredible regardless of the context. Whenever you throw in the fact that he started this season on the Colorado Avalanche, gets traded to Carolina because of contract negotiation stuff and then Carolina in turn also, you know, can’t hash out an extension with him. So, they send him to Dallas in in a matter of of a few weeks like that just that makes all the more incredible. The guy the guy got traded twice in a span of a month or or six weeks or or whatever it is. And then one of the teams that that he’s you know the the the team that Dallas faces in the first round is of course the Colorado Avalanche who’s that’s where he started started the year. It’s a team full of his friends. They they won a Stanley Cup together a couple years ago and he goes yeah he goes supernova against them and and uh and is and is producing points and scoring goals in in a way that we we pretty literally haven’t ever seen. So yeah, the the the fact you know the the the combination of just the the honesty performance and then the overall context the uh in which it all comes is is pretty pretty incredible. You a fan of the mammoth? I’m I’m like right down the middle on it. I think it’s I think it’s I think it’s good enough. I think the logo is good enough. I do like those colors a lot. Um, you know, I I I’m not sure. I I I don’t know if I loved any of the alternatives either. So, I I think they ultimately probably made the right choice. Like I I just I I look at the end result and just say, “Yep, that’s that’s fine. That’s that that’s good enough.” We’ve had quite the pendulum uh flip here in Utah where all of a sudden, you know, you got a hockey team that jumps up to number four in the draft and a team that we were hoping would pick number one in the NBA draft slips back to number five. But let’s talk about this NHL draft at number four. You know, what what’s the talent level look like? Is this a deep draft? Is there somebody that you can see at four that could come in and make a difference? Yeah, I think four is actually a pretty good spot to be in. It’s there’s no there’s no standout, you know, world beater franchise player at the top of the draft. I think the consensus is that there’s that there’s four pretty good ones. So odds odds are um you know the the the best player in the draft is is a defenseman. He’ll probably be off the board by by the time things that things uh things things get down to the mammoth. But there’s there’s three really good forwards on the on the board uh that that kind of make sense. Guys like guys like James Hagen and Michael Misa are are players who are players whose names you’re you’re going to hear a lot of. And what what you’re looking at really is um just talented talented scoring forwards. I I I think that’s I think that’s that’s probably what what it’s going to be and and and there’s probably three of them at the at the top of the draft. So, you know, I I think if if if everything goes right, the choice will be made for the mammoth, right? They’re they’re going to be able to say, “All right, we love these we love these four players. Here’s here’s the the you know, in the first three are gone.” So, you know, mission accomplished, choice made that they don’t have to worry about making the wrong choice. See, I I actually I actually really like them being in the in the four slot for this draft. So, um I want to give you I want to give you a couple names and I want you to tell me for the 202526 season. I want you to tell me how far this team can go and keep the four pick in mind and maybe what the Mammoth can do kind of exchanging and moving and maybe grabbing some other talent. But Clayton Keller, Logan Culie, Dylan Gunther, Mikuel Sherichev. Um, I’ll throw in Hayton Castle Ring. Uh, I’ll throw in their their goalie Vamela. Um, there’s a couple of others in there. I know Olly Malta. I know that he extended a contract. And then you throw in this four pick and and maybe a piece or two that the Mammoth can move. How confident are you that this is a postseason team next year? I I like them. I I like them a lot. I I think they made I think they made uh some major strides down the stretch last season. I I think I think Dylan Gunther’s a star. I think Clayton Keller’s an established, you know, high-end high-end piece. I think I think MueL Sergeev last season was really big for him. Um obviously getting traded from Tampa Bay in the offseason, he ends up in Utah. shows himself to be a pretty legit number one defenseman. I I think that’s I I I think that’s huge. Ultimately, I I think uh where stuff hinges for for the Mammoth is is is where is what they get from Logan Culie. Uh they there’s a lot of there’s a lot of wingers in in in Utah, that’s great. You love to have guys like Gun like like Gunther and Keller. That’s awesome. But where they’re going to need to make some strides is down the middle. and and you and I think a lot of that starts with Kulie. If if Kulie, you know, he’s in year three now, if if he shows himself to be a legitimate, you know, we’ll say top 25 or 30 center in in the league, I think that I think that solves a lot of problem for him. So, yeah, for for them. So yeah, I I think if he can if it if he can level up, and there’s certainly a ton of indications that that he can, he’s a he’s a really talented, really young guy, I I think uh I I think Utah’s absolutely going to be in in in the thick of the the the wild card discussion there. Not sure, you know, what the future holds for Connor Ingram, but you look at Vamela, would did you see enough from him near the tail end of that season to to lead you to believe he can be a primary goalie for a team? Um he’s been he would he had some good stretches with Arizona in the past. Um but he’s inconsistent. You know, that’s just kind of the way it goes. I think that’s I think there’s a lot of goalies that are in similar spots as him. That’s the difference between being a being a true starter um and and then in and a guy who who you would like to have some other starting option, you know, in in the mix. And to for for me that’s what Vamel is. He’s a he’s a guy who who can start some games. Um and and he can he can certainly perform, you know, over over a certain amount of time, but I I would I would absolutely want to have some other legitimate starting caliber option in the mix. I I wouldn’t want to rely just on him. All right, the last thing for me. Will it be a Canada team for the first time since 1993, or will the United States of America oyst the cup? I’d love to make up. Gota I gotta I I I gotta go with the American teams, man. We gota we got to say it’s going to be Carolina or Florida, right? I I can’t I can’t can’t bring myself to pick Toronto or or Edmonton at this point. So, yeah, let’s fingers crossed. Let’s keep it uh the cup. Winnipeg was dead to rights, man. Like, they were done. They look cooked. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see. It’s It’s amazing how things work whenever whenever your goalie figures it out. Con Connor Halabuk was a is is a fantastic fantastic goalie, but he he was he had a rough couple weeks there in in the first round. So, yeah, if if he’s if he’s got his head screwed on, right, I I I think I think they’re going to have a chance to. Sean, we appreciate it, man. Good conversation. Thanks for your time and hopefully we can catch up again here soon. Yeah, guys. Absolutely. Anytime. You got it. Sean Gentilly right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone breaking down the NHL playoffs. what the mammoth will look like coming up next year. All kinds of good stuff. Uh remember, get to uh wherever you get your podcast. Search Hands and Scotty and you’ll get the latest podcast sent right to you. Uh whether it’s full shows, individual interviews, whatever you like, it’s right there for you. Uh just search Hands and Scotty on that podcasting platform of choice, 975 DKSL Sports Zone. It’s time to saddle up and talk about the winners and the losers. This is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now, here’s the good. [Music] Hans and Scotty 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Hope you’re all having a tremendous day. I look, I know we’re all a little upset. We’re all in a bad mood. We’re going to get through this. And you know what? As a good way, you play a little golf. Make sure to join us. Coming up live on Thursday, we’ll be at the Dyslexia Center of Utah Golf Tournament at Cedar Hills. Bob Casper is there right now playing in Colani with a personal invite from Kehlani to play in his tournament. It’s a great course and I’ve just been in discussion with the dyslexia center just minutes ago actually in the last break because I was just checking to see what forsomes are available but they have uh they’ve they’ve closed it up so for forsomes are done but sold her out huh yeah but we want you to come out and be a part of it you know this is an incredible event that we put on the Hans Scotty show excited to be a part of it the Dyslexia Center of Utah need your help. You know, they need funding from people like you in order to get those scholarships out to kids that deal with dyslexia that don’t know how to get better. They can’t get the treatment because they can’t afford the treatment. But this tournament, 100% of this tournament goes to fund those scholarships for those kids that need it. Yeah, love it. Absolutely love it. It’s a great event for sure. Um the good got a text this morning from our good friend Steph Avis. Here’s our number. Now, we told you this wasn’t going to be overall a huge number because we were only asking for $2, but zone listeners came together in our two for one and we have a grand total of $1,184 that was raised in for the most part $2 increments. Tell me, tell me that number again. $1,184. Great job, people. And look, this was you were you know, sometimes we we do, you know, the uh the thing with the uh road home where you know there’s a chance to win prizes or you know this we’re giving this away or giving this away and we got all these matches and all this stuff. No, this was just all we were asking. You got nothing in return especially after last night. You you really didn’t get anything in return. All we were asking for was just a one $ two dollar donation from as many listeners as we could. And I went down the list and I would say about 85 to 90% of all the donations were just that $2 donations. So probably around 400. Yeah. 400 $2 donations. We got uh we got the big one from RGS and then a few $20 in there and things like that. And we appreciate that. We really appreciate it. But just know for all of you out there that just donated $2, all of that. We love you. We appreciate it. We’re gonna do a big uh little check presentation thing coming up a little bit later on. Uh but again, clap them up. I love it. Just it isn’t like in the grand scheme of things, is that a huge number? No. But it’s just a bunch of people donating two bucks. Yeah. Expecting nothing in return than some good karma and they Well, they didn’t get that. But that’s all right. You yourself got good karma. Yeah. Clap them up. Good job, people. Appreciate the uh participation. And it it really was a fun event. It really was. And and I I it was a fun thing to put together. Big thanks to everybody who helped it. Uh you know, Steph and Nate and everybody else putting it together, Lloyd making it happen as well. That was just something that hit me and an insomnia moment. I thought maybe we could have some fun with this and uh it turned out really well. So again, thanks to everyone for donating those $2. We wanted our $2 and we got our $2. All right, Lloyd. Now the bad. So, this is a breaking story. Scotty coming out of the NHL and big thanks to DJ for sending this over to me. We we’ve actually been going back and forth about this because the Florida Panther Panthers minority owner Doug Seiffue. Yeah. Did you hear about what happened after game four, Florida Toronto with this Doug Sefue? I heard something. I didn’t know the details of it. Yeah. a social media bonanza. And I I didn’t believe it, but I was going back and forth with a couple of different listeners and they were like, “No, have you seen the tweets? He’s deleted them.” Well, it’s official. The NHL has suspended Doug Sefue from any involvement with the team or the league after the series of offensive social media posts that all went down on Sunday night. And I apologize, I’m reading this for the first time because this story is just being released. Sefue will have an in-person meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bman at a later date, but he is done until that conversation. The offending messages were from a back and forth with a fan from Toronto, the Panthers current playoff opponent, that veered into statements about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as reference to Canada becoming America’s 51st state. It it it really devolved into a political Yeah. nasty back and forth. Sefue is the vice chairman and alternate governor of Sunrise Sports and Entertainment and he is the CEO of Virtue Financial and Financial Theology, which is a service company co-founded by Vincent Biola, who’s the Florida owner. When asked for comment, the Panthers pointed to a statement Seafood provided to Florida hockey. All it says is, “Two days ago, I posted a regrettable and inflammatory comment on social media. My behavior does not reflect the standards of the Florida Panthers organization and the Biola family. I sincerely apologize to all those affected by the comments.” Once again, man, Twitter polls people into complete stupidity. You’re commenting on the Palestinian Israel conflict. you you’re commenting on things that that are you know when you you’re talking about the world of NHL right now it’s like United States and Canada the back and forth that is kind of leaked into the political realm why as an owner of the Panthers why why and and look it’s not just 20-year-olds that do dumb things on social media they can be wildly successful businessmen that can do really dumb things and you know like a couple years ago uh a a group of I gave this like social media presentation to a group of kids and I said, “Look, I’m in the radio business. Would you say this stuff to me if Hans and I were interviewing you on the air?” And they’re like, “No.” Okay, so why would you tweet it out when actually with retweets and followers these days, you will have that same reach just as fast? So, why in the world? This guy would never hop on a talk to a newspaper guy or radio guy or TV guy and say this, but why do you think that, oh, I’m just going to put it on social media, but nobody’s going to see it. It’s going to spread like wildfire. And I just can’t figure out why people are so dumb when it comes to ruining any kind of goodwill they have with a community just like that. Are you interested in the tweets or do you want to me move on? No, I’m interested in the tweets. Okay. So, this started by a Twitter guy named Dr. Grizzo. I can’t even believe I can’t believe a man of this stature let Dr. Grizzo Dr. Grizzo get to him. Dr. Grizzo is a Toronto fan. Tweeted, “Hey, what’s worse? Using head shot to win a series or using starvation as a weapon to win a war?” Tweeted that at Sefue. Sefue responded with actually being a whiny dope anti-semite is clearly worse loser. This thing starts to devolve even further to where Sefue responds with eat 51st state anti-semite loser. Israel now and forever until ever last Hamas rat is eliminated. Oh geez. Now look, this is that’s a realm that I am not familiar with and I would never step into it because I don’t know it. So I stay away from it. For this guy to get involved in something like this, it’s like what? I I can’t even believe it. I just can’t believe that an owner, a CEO of a major organization would do this. Like you said, would you do this with a reporter? No. Million years. No. But here he is blowing it up. And and by the way, it did get even worse. But I’m not going to read some of these other ones. Yeah, that’s probably for the best. But he went at him. Unbelievable. Uh but the suspension is not I mean it is not determined. Just says he’s suspended from all team or league involvement. Yeah. And it might be for a minute. And frankly, it should be for a minute. I’m wondering if that uh is going to at some point lead to some type of stripping of duty. I don’t good. Hey, look, I I the NBA certainly has gone down that path. Yeah. Yeah. It’s and that’s a that’s a real slippery slope, too, by the way. Like I It’s horrible. Yeah. I mean, like, I don’t like the fact obviously what Don Sterling said when he was the owner of the Clippers was disgusting and horrible and just atrocious, but do we really want to live in a world it was racist comments where you can where essentially for saying something stupid and not breaking any laws, but saying things that are really stupid and horrible can make you force you to sell your team, strip you of possessions. Yeah. And I look, I get it, man. Horrible, disgusting things are a bad place. But I privately recorded. But man, I I I just don’t like when we get to a world where you’re forced to sell because you said something stupid. It’s a That’s a really scary It’s a scary world. It is. It is. And when that happened, it was like, geez, are you opening up? Yeah. Because people could get set up. Owners could get set up. I mean, you’re talking about, you know, forcing to sell. Yeah. They went to Steve Balmer and Balmer’s done he’s done good things. Oh, he’s done great things. Yeah. And and I think he’s improved the NBA with some of his progressiveness just with his buildings and and rosters and payouts. I have not been to that arena, but I hear it’s just incredible. I’ve heard it’s the best in the NBA. Yeah. But when you’re talking about forced sales, it does it freaks me out a little bit. Yeah. Um because you you could see somebody set somebody up and and I I still don’t know with that Stiviano thing and the whole recording and he was a puke obviously he’s an absolute puke but he thinks he’s in a private conversation with somebody and he gets the team pulled out from under him. Yeah. Granted he sold it for a massive profit now based off of his comments. It’s like you and I sit here in private discussion, we’re like, “Good.” But yeah, you’re right, man. That’s a it’s a crazy slope. But we’ll see what ends up happening with this part owner of the Florida Panthers who can no longer be a part of this. And this is one of the best series that you’ve got going. And Florida could potentially repeat and you’re not and you’re not allowed to be a part of it. I guarantee you they will not resolve this with him until Florida’s done with the playoffs. They’re going to make him sit out the entire playoff run. So whether it’s in two games or whether it’s in eight games, whenever they’re done, that’s when they’ll address this. All right, hands of Scotty 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Coming up next, another edition of Whole World News straight ahead right here on the Zone. It’s time to span the globe for the hard-hitting news you care about. Well, not really, but hey, at least we found it interesting. This is Whole world news on 975 the KSL sports zone. We’ve got the whole world in our hands. You got the whole world in our hand. We got the whole world in our hand. We got the whole world in our hand. We got the hands and Scotty 975 the KSL Sport Zone. All right. So, you told me that uh when you were young, you saw what was it ET that freaked you out? Yeah. Yeah. Was there any Was there any other things that gave you like an irrational fear growing up? Yeah. UFOs. Really? No. Okay. Yeah. Horrible. So, you didn’t like the movie Fire in the Sky? Oh, don’t No, that movie was awful. Yeah. No, don’t see that. Kid, I didn’t see that. Yeah. Mr. Topic, he got uh he got roughed up pretty good by the aliens. Yeah, he did. Um what was that guy’s name? I think uh DB Sweeny DB Sweeney. Yeah. I I think that I think that the UFO and the fear of ET was probably the most horrifying thing I dealt with as a kid. Yeah. But like I told you, we used to sleep the summers. We didn’t have AC in our in our West First home. So we’d sleep the summers on a back porch uh that was connected to the house and it was all screened and so you just looked out into space while you just laid there and which would be cool for a lot of people but for a kid that was driven by fear that he was going to get abducted and probed. I just I just sat there like well I just didn’t want to see that white little you know the the the images of ET when he’s like dying in fleshy white. Was it like what was it the opening scene where you see the house in the dark and when we like had the red the red on his end of his finger? Yeah, some of that. Uh when what what is uh the part where the part where the kid was he rolls a ball into like a Yeah. like a little shed and then the ball rolls back. Yeah. It’s like all of it. You a completely different experience. I know. That’s the thing. Like ET, everybody wanted to like riding a bike with ET in the front basket. I went and got Reese’s Pieces. Reese’s Pieces are actually my favorite candy because of ET. No way. ET loved them. Yes, absolutely. No, dude. You know what? The the one that got me, and this was a horror movie, but like I watched Friday the 13th. I watched a lot of horror movies, but man, for some reason, Freddy Krueger like scared the beebers out of me. Like, that dude got into my head big time. And I was always terrified. I have bad dreams all the time about that. Well, the reason I bring this up is a lot of times as kids, we have irrational fears. Mhm. Well, I’m going to take you to um uh let’s see, Virginia, and uh there’s a young girl, Laney Littton. She’s three years old. Well, her mom Cassie and the family, they took every they took all the family to Washington DC uh for Thanksgiving and they did all the trips around to see all the sites and they went to Ford’s Theater and she explained what happened to Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater and essentially said that someone named John Wils Booth had hurt the then President Abraham Lincoln. So Cassie then tells people, she goes, “She really held on to that.” Um, and we just didn’t know why she continued to hold on to that. She said, “There’s a statue downstairs in the museum part of the theater.” She said, “Is that him over there?” She said, “No, that happened a long time ago. That’s just a statue.” She was already on edge. So when we went to the presentation, they were talking about Abraham Lincoln and all all went down. Um, she would not stop talking about John Wils Booth. She said that uh that man shot the president. So we’re on church one one day one Sunday and the preacher was talking about how Jesus loves us. She looked at me and said, “Mommy, I love Jesus.” And she said, “That’s awesome. I’m glad you do.” She said, “Jesus loves us.” And she said, “That’s right. She loves all of us.” She goes, “She doesn’t like John. She doesn’t love or he doesn’t love John Willicks Booth.” Now she has to go in and she thinks John Wills Booth is under the bed. She thinks John Wills Booth is in the closet. She has this weird irrational fear of John Wils Booth coming out of nowhere and shooting her. That’s a good one. That’s a pretty uh unique fear. I guess we all do have those really I I don’t know what it was about ET and his fleshy kind of wet fleshy skin that he had, you know. I and and and I don’t know what it was about gremlins and that okay gremlins I get because they were you know well half of them were bad. Yeah. Or all of them except for Mway. Well after they eat after midnight was when they would go bad and or get wet or get wet. They the uh those are the two irrational fears that No, the getting wet that was that was when they’d separate. No. No. You can’t you can’t you can’t get water on them and they can’t eat after midnight, right? Yeah, when you get if you put water on them, they they would separate as magwa. But remember that’s how he that’s how he got multiple magwella. He put he put water on them and popped but then he fed them. Oh. And then they and then they turned into the Oh, okay. So they were cuddly and normal. Yeah. Until you fed them after midnight. Okay. All right. Which the which the Asian man that sold the Ma he did. He was very sure it was that guy. His name was Mwa. He was very specific about No, the little the cute one was Grizz Gizmo. Oh yeah. So Ma was that guy. No, no, no. Magua is the name of the the Gizmo. That that’s the name. That’s the breed. Yeah, that’s the breed. Oh, okay. It’s the Magua. Yeah. I I had to research it a little bit to come to understanding that it was fake. I mean, I was always I always felt bad more for Phoebe Kate’s dad getting stuck dead in the chimney for speaking of products. I always wanted the Barbie Corvette from that that stripe hit that jump on. Absolutely. Yeah, that Barbie Corvette drove him right into that fountain and to his death and didn’t I mean when he popped out and that flesh was hanging off his face. Come on, guys. Yeah. Gremlins and ET destroyed a lot of kids childhoods. Gremlins. Yeah, ET. Way more scary than John Wils Booth. Well, that’s true. She’s like, she said, uh, she cries in the middle of the night saying, “I think John Wils Booth is coming to take my stuffed animals away.” Hey, Ethan, did you have any irrational fears as a kid? As a kid? Yeah. Uh, yeah. I never faced the wall or No, I only faced the wall when I was sleeping. I would only face the wall because I was afraid something would come up in that little crack between your bed and the wall. Oh wow. I’d leave my back to the rest of the room, but I slept watching that little crack between the wall and the bed. That was my thing for years. For years. You thought something was going to come up between there and get you. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that I was facing it that I could defend myself. Oh wow. Clowns. Clowns and stuffed animals. They have to face the wall. Does after polter guys. Does every does every kid have that? Like does every kid go through that like this crazy fear? Like it it consumed me for probably four or five years. Yeah, it’s horrible. 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Number one, miss any part of the show. Every moment of every show is available in podcast form by searching Hans and Scotty on your favorite podcasting platform or online at kslsports.com. This is Hance Olsen and Scotty G on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. The fifth pick in the NBA draft will be made by the Utah Jazz. The second pick will be made by the San Antonio Spurs. And that means that the number one pick in the 2025 NBA draft goes to the Dallas Mavericks. So tired of looking at Mark Tatum’s smug face. Yeah, I didn’t like that at all. I’m screwing you guys over and you’re going to deal with it. H rough day here in Utah. Andy Bailey kind enough to join us, NBA writer for Bleacher Report. Andy, not a good day here in the 801, man. I imagine it’s a terrible one for Jazz fans. I I as soon as they were announced last night that I mean obviously your mind goes to them when you hear that name, but I just thought, “Holy cow, um what a rough three years it’s been since the Mitchellin Go Bear trades and this this felt like the best shot for them.” And um to not even stay in the top four is just crazy. So, we talk about this being a bad day for the Utah Jazz, but Andy, I know that you’re really connected through all 30. Um, how bad of a day is this for 27 uh or 28 other organizations? I Yeah, I think if anytime that you don’t um win the lottery or move up in it, it can be bad. But there are other implications here, which I think is what you’re alluding to. Exactly. Yes. Um, I mean, the San Antonio Spurs now seem like a prime candidate to go get Jiannis Takmpo. That was one of the first thoughts I had last night. Um, the Mavericks, who were already a fringe playoff team, now get the number one pick, which is just exceptionally unusual. Um, I think the Lakers, like, how do they always get so lucky year after year after year? they could be a fringe beneficiary of this because if Dallas adds another front court player, they might want to move one of those centers and LA needs a center. Um, so the Chips the Chips fell miraculously uh in very fortunate ways to a handful of teams. Um, obviously you got got to mention Philly too. I mean they they you know fell backwards into a top three pick despite I mean just an epic failure of a regular season. uh this obviously wasn’t their goal going in and so yeah, three, four, five teams are are probably pretty happy today and uh everybody else I I think is understandably probably ringing their hands. So if you’re the GM and you’re Danny A and Justin Xanic with the Utah Jazz and you just put this fan fan base was all in. I mean, Hans and I are at games. We we that that arena was packed more often than not because people knew going in, okay, there’s a reason why we’re doing what we’re doing. And they’d go home and they’d watch Duke highlights and be like, okay, all right, we we can we can work through this. This there’s an endgame here. And then to have it ripped away, it’s gonna be really hard to sell this again next year. If it’s like, well, hey, here’s AJ Debonsa or here’s, you know, it’s really going to be hard because this fan base got burnt. How do you adjust accordingly or do you tank it again with two more youngsters with Lari Markin right there in the prime of his career probably not wanting to be part of this? Like there’s there’s a lot of avenues here the Jazz can take and none of them seem to be very good. Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. I I think this was their out. I mean, if they had landed this number one pick in a draft where it looks like there’s a very very good top pick available, I mean, things obviously look look much much different. Um, I I think given the nature of being a small market team in the NBA, you probably have to just keep tanking until you get that generational star, as difficult as that is. And it’s I think it’s even more difficult to sell now than it was Oh yeah. five 10 years ago. Um because we’re seeing year after year after year examples of tanking doesn’t guarantee you anything. Um Charlotte, Utah, and Washington all moved down. Uh Utah, and Washington moved down pretty dramatically, four spots each. Um, I I hope I’m not misstating something, but I’m pretty sure I saw someone say that since they flattened the odds to the bottom three records all having a 14% chance at the number one overall pick. I don’t think any of those teams have ended up number one. I need to go back and double check that. That’s right. There’s confirmation right there. Um, it’s it’s just Yeah. So maybe maybe as I’m answering your question, I’m talking myself into can you really tank again? Um because just the traditional form of tanking just it hasn’t yielded results. But at the same time um it’s it’s hard to bank on any other form of team building if you’re a team like Utah or Charlotte or even Washington at this point. You build a team through the draft, trades, or through free agency. And free agency unfortunately is just not a great option for those smaller market teams. And even trades are risky because if if you bring in a guy who’s in his prime and it’s like a star level player, all you’re going to hear for the year or two that he’s there from the national media is how can so and so get out. I mean, it it even happened with Cleveland when they got Donovan Mitchell. um he he has signed an extension here fairly recently and I think it quieted it a little bit but between the trade from Utah to that extension it was just constant talk of how can we get Donald Mitchell to New York. Um just you and I who knows how much media influences what actually happens in front office is probably not very much. Um, but generally speaking in the NBA, at least relative to like the NHL or the NFL, it’s just harder to to be really successful as a small market team. So Andy, there’s something that kind of looms over my head and Scotty and I have talked about it over the last couple of years and it feels like it looms over the Jazz head to a large degree. And I’m excited to get your thoughts on this specifically because Scotty and I would really love to see the Jazz move on and make trades and do what they got to do to get themselves back in postseason play, but they’ve got this OKC top eight protected pick now that’s hanging around their neck. the 2026 conveyance is top eight protected. So if the Jazz, let’s say they even make the playing tournament, get bounced, they got to convey that lottery pick over to OKC. So how much does that top eight protected pick force the Jazz hand to maybe tank again? Uh I think a decent amount. uh to to answer it bluntly. I think if you’re in this uh point of a rebuild that Utah is in and it seems like they’ve kind of been stuck at the same point for three years. So, I don’t blame any fans for being impatient. Um but they still don’t have I I really don’t think they have a single guy who could develop into a franchise type of player. And when you’re in that spot, you have to just keep taking as many bites of the draft apple as you can. and every every opportunity is valuable. Um, and and they’ve had a lot of opportunities in the last few years. Like they’ve they’ve had decent shots at it. And I they’ve got several young guys on the roster right now and they’re, you know, varying levels of potential with them. Um, but again, it just doesn’t seem like any of them are going to be like they they don’t have the next Donovan Mitchell or the next Rudy Gobear on the roster right now. It just doesn’t seem that way. I mean, as I say that, maybe you could argue that Walker Kesler is is a bonafide defensive anchor. I think you could probably make that play, but you need a dynamic offensive player, too. And they just they don’t have that yet. So, they need they need to keep whacking away at this um draft strategy. As difficult as that may be to hear in the wake of what happened last night, um I I just I hon I genuinely felt gutted for Jazz fans as soon as that was announced last night and it was just such a wild wild lottery and they they may be the biggest loser of the bunch. It’s just awful. Um all right, so it is what it is. Jazz are picking fifth. Um, everybody is, you know, we’ve all talked about Cooper Flag. And then like, okay, well, if it’s not Cooper Flag, it’ll be, you know, Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey. Uh, all three of those are going to be out of the mix. So, um, does Edgecom fall like what what are we looking at at five? Edgecomb is a name that comes to mind. It seems like he’s probably going to go in the top four. Um, but I mean, there’s always some kind of a shakeup early in the draft. I think Cooper Flag is is really the only sure thing. Um I think Dylan Harper is is fairly sure thing at number two, but I also could see San Antonio trading that pick. So there’s a there’s a lot that could happen and I think BJO could fall. Uh I think Trey Johnson from Texas is is maybe kind of interesting from them. Um Coniple from Duke is a guy that I think could be interesting for them. Um I mean there there are interesting potential players still available. It’s just, you know, it’s just tough when you’re comparing it to the possibility of, you know, what might have been prior to last night. Uh, and there’s really no there is no draft. I mean, typically there’s no drafting for need when you’re in the top five regardless, but there truly is not for Utah. Um, so whoever they they settle on as the best player available, there’s there’s opportunities on that roster and in that rotation, whether it’s a guard, wing, uh, probably even a big guy, although I I I would that one would be the one that would most surprise me again because I think you can talk yourself into Kesler. Um, and I just and I think some of the guys in that five, six, seven range, um, that are more interesting or more guards and wings. So, there are guys that I think could maybe move the needle a little bit. I’m not certain that any of them is going to be a superstar, but like you said, it is what it is. They they’ve got to play this hand that they’ve been dealt. What kind of trade potential does the number five and number I think it’s 21 that they possess? what what is the the trade power of that and maybe packaging something with some of their other six picks that they’ve taken over the last two drafts or maybe that future 2031 Suns pick that they’ve got the unprotected is there enough there that they could do something powerful with any of that Andy to change their stars and and then again you’ve got that number eight protected pick that’s hanging around your neck. Yeah. Yeah. I think they could make a move for a veteran, uh, I’m I’m not sure they have enough, uh, to go enter the Giannis sweep stakes. Um, and then, you know, the other thing that’s just kind of tough in the NBA that I don’t I don’t follow other sports closely enough to know how much this exists. I I think it exists more in the NBA than anywhere else. Um, one of the big factors in trades is the the tra the player who is being traded just has so much say over what happens, you know, regardless of which team holds the best trade package. So, if Giannis does indeed say, I, you know, I think I need to find somewhere else to have a better shot at a championship, and here’s my list of teams, it, you know, we just haven’t seen Utah on one of those lists before. Um, so I’m not sure they can go after like the top top top end um, players that might be available this summer. I And then, you know, the next tier of guy, even if we assume that he wouldn’t mind going to Utah, I’m not sure someone like Kevin Durant would even make sense for the Jazz. I mean, he’s almost, if he’s not 37, he’s close and he’s got plenty of injuries um, in his past. One thing that I’m I you know I just pulled up contracts for next season. I’m scanning as I talk to you guys. One that could be interesting and he’s a player that I you know for years have actually thought is slightly overrated but I I honestly think there’s a chance he might become available this summer is Jaylen Brown. Um and maybe if you can piece together enough salary and enough picks and you can offer some financial flexibility to Boston that that could be interesting. and he’s in an I I I would think that he’d be kind of an interesting combo with Lorie Markin and then you have Kesler as your defensive anchor. Um so, you know, I think there are opportunities to go get a veteran and they still have a decent amount of draft assets to to be in the mix for a player like that. Um it’s something that they should at least explore. I think I everything has to be on the table for them at this point. Andy, are is the NBA dealing with a bit of a identity crisis? And and what I mean is the regular season wild with 128 132s and now we’re watching 86 to 92s. Games feel like they’re called different. Watching Steph Curry be draped over when they were going against Houston and it just feels like everything’s different in the postseason. Is there a bit of an identity crisis on what you want your league to look like? Yeah, the way you laid it out is exactly correct. Um, and I’m not I’m certain that the regular season version is is not the right identity. I’ll start there. I agree with that. I’m I’m I’m not a 100% certain that what we’re seeing now is the right identity either. Yeah. Um, I think if you could get maybe most of the way to what we’re seeing now, you know, if there’s some spectrum between typical February game and what we’re seeing now, I think you’d want it closer to what we’re seeing now, but maybe not all the way because like you said that some of the contact that’s being allowed is frankly crazy. And you you brought up an example that stands out to me every single time the Warriors are in the playoffs. uh for whatever reason and this guy’s one of the biggest stars in the history of the league. Uh he’s not even allowed to move off the ball. I mean, it’s just constant being held and grabbed and, you know, chipped off the screens and um it’s just it’s crazy to me. And so I I think the pendulum has swung a little bit too far in the postseason. I don’t know exactly how you recreate this, but I felt like the flow of the games, and I have felt this for a while, actually. It wasn’t just the Paris Olympics, but the flow and the physicality of the games in FIA basketball, I think, should kind of be the ideal. Um, flopping is actually penalized there. A lot of times it’s ignored, which is better than what happens in the NBA. Um, defenders are allowed to be a little bit more physical than they are in the the NBA regular season, but they’re also not mugging guys like we’re seeing now. And and the other uh you know factor to talk about on this point is um we we’re seeing a ton of injuries in the playoffs too. Yeah. And and who knows if it’s directly caused by the increase in physicality, but it’s you know it’s certainly a possibility to have two pretty high two very high-profile players really tear their Achilles in backtoback series is a pretty big deal. And you know, now Stephen Curry’s out with his hamstring thing. Um Cleveland doesn’t have a a bench or a backup. Yeah, Cleveland was missing two starters and one like their their sixth man um for a game in this series. Like yeah, there’s there’s certainly something to think about here. And it’s one one thing that I have to remind myself constantly is the NBA officials have an extremely difficult job. These guys are huge. They’re extremely fast. they are actively trying to trick the referees throughout games. Um, so it’s I almost feel bad putting more responsibility on them and saying, you know, it’s up to you guys to fix this. But we have seen over the course of recent history. They they can adjust. I mean, we’ve seen the points of emphasis and they they they’re a big deal for a month or two and then things just kind of regress back to where they were. Um, if I I think if the NBA allowed a little bit more physicality in the regular season, severely punished flopping, um, I I think things would start to look a little bit more like FIA and it would just be a better product. Well, we appreciate your time as always. Thanks for hanging out with us and uh, look forward to catching him again here soon. You’re the best, Andy. Thank you. Thanks for having me, guys. Always love coming on. You got it. Andy Bailey, we appreciate it. um one of your better NBA writers and he’s he was right there with every other Jazz fan just gutted. Not saying he’s a Jazz fan. I’m just saying like he sees it. He sees he sees the pain. He sees the anguish. I think that the bigger issue that we’ve got going on right now with the NBA is this identity issue. Yes. And everybody I talk to is like, “Well, got to get something figured out because players need to have an expectation.” Yeah. And what I’m worried about, Scotty, is you already put out a bowl of milk for the cat. They they already are used to it. They’re coming for the milk. They they’re used to it. How do you change this league? These guys have now grown up watching a certain brand of basketball. and you’ve recruited to and developed to and scouted to a certain brand of big that is unique now that stretches and it’s just the way you play and you know it’s positionless basketball and everybody’s transition threeing and everybody’s looking for the flop they there was a bit of European style that was brought by Manu Ginobi and kind of tweaked and torqued into whatever James Harden has done over the years and the league is a mess and then all of a sudden the postseason you swallow your whistle. Yeah. Except for on Shay Gilis and you got yourself a real mess. Yeah. It’s a PR nightmare. It’s a PR nightmare. And and like I was saying, that’s why I was so excited about the potential Cooper flag because however the NBA ends up figuring out which direction they want to go, I think you could say, “All right, Cooper, this is what we’re going to do.” And Cooper has the tools. Okay, I’m going to go be a defensive juggernaut, a defensive mastermind. I’ll defend one through four. I can even defend certain fives and I I’ll this is the physicality I can because he’s strong. I thought, man, you he’s so moldable. Yeah. Well, that’s that’s out the window. That was run over by a vehicle. Um well, you want to hear some uh some angry loud noises? Get ready. David Lock’s going to join us coming up next. 975, the EKSL Sports Zone. You’re locked on to Hans Soulson and Scotty Chin. Cheering cheer. That’s right. Yeah. On 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Hans and Scotty 975, the KSL Sports Zone. All right, folks. Coming up here in just a moment, you’re going to hear from David Lockach. I do not know what David is going to say. I do not know what path he’s going to take. All I know is that we’re going to tee him up and let him do his thing because there are certain days that uh that it just makes sense to talk to David. And uh you know David and I we exchange texts every now and then. Uh I purposely knowing that David was going to come on today. I purposely did not reach out in any way, shape or form because I wanted David unleashed. I did not listen to Lockown Jazz for that reason. The only time I didn’t listen to Locked on Jazz because I did not want to be influenced one way or another because I want David Lockach unfiltered, not knowing what direction he’s going to go. Is it going to be angry David? Is it going to be uh sorrowful David? I don’t know what we’re getting, but all I know is he joins us now, the play-by-play voice of the Utah Jazz. David, the floor is yours. I might be too rational for you today. Uh I mean, no. No rational, David. No. All right. Here here’s here’s the first rational aspects. Let’s go with the very few things. Okay, first thank goodness Oklahoma City didn’t get like the seventh pick. Cuz when I thought Oklahoma City was coming up seven because Dallas and Chicago had already jumped or whoever it was, was it Dallas and whoever had already jumped, I thought or Dallas and San Antonio already jumped. I thought Philadelphia was going to then get bumped out and Oklahoma City was going to get that pick. Then I really would have been pissed. Okay, I don’t want to hear about how great the Spurs are. This is too easy. like do something hard, win without a number one pick sometimes, then I’ll be impressed. Okay, so I’m just going to eliminate great Greg Papovich, greatest coach of all time. He’s now has no credit, no nothing else. And when Mitch Johnson’s the second greatest coach of all time, because they just traded the number two pick and Stephan Castle for Giannis and he wins a bunch of titles, I’m not impressed. Win without a number one pick. Win without winning a lottery sometime. Okay, that those two things are true. in regards to our fifth pick. Kind of sucks. However, it’s not like they changed the rules last week. We went into this process knowing there was a 48% chance that we were getting the fifth pick. Like, right. Like, it wasn’t like three weeks ago they said, “Oh, by the way, we’re going to change the rules.” Like, this part of the calculus that existed by the front office, by the Jazz, I hope. because if not then that’s negligent. I don’t think they’re negligent. Is that we’re going to do this probably do it for a few years and part of the in the risk is that there’s a 48% chance even if we had the worst record in the league that you get the fifth pick. That’s that’s like the way the rules have been written for a long time. So um that that part of it like it sucks. We would have it would have been great um to get the to get a guiding star, right? Like we didn’t get a guiding star if that like we’re going we’re still going to be a bit aimless here for a while because if you have Cooper Flag and probably if you have Dylan Harper the way when Detroit got Cade Cunningham, they have their guiding star, right? They’re everything’s building around Kade Cunningham. Houston doesn’t have a guiding star unless you think it’s Aman Thompson or Alfred Jenun then maybe they showed enough in the playoffs but maybe maybe they do now but they didn’t until this playoffs if you think either those two guys are that good Orlando got theirs yeah I’m not sure which one but they yes right or yeah I love him yeah San Antonio so I don’t but that’s he’ll get there I think he’s Carmelo um which is fine it’s going into the Hall of Fame But it’s might not win you anything. Um the San Antonio has their guiding star and Victor in Dallas now has a guiding star in Cooper. We we didn’t get a guiding star. That that’s that’s the impact. So now we got to go through this again. But we were going through it again anyway, right? Like like I’ve heard like oh this sets us back. Like here’s the truth. We’re probably going through this for three years. That’s kind of what everyone does. Your hope is that somewhere in those three years, you get the first pick, you’re probably getting the fifth pick, and you’re maybe getting the third pick, and then through that, you have three good young players. It’s unfortunate for us emotionally and mentally that we got the fifth pick first because it feels awful. Wasn’t this the third year of it though, David? I don’t think it feels that. Yeah. Then we timed it badly because there just last year there wasn’t a player that’s there. tonight. We did pull the plug on both the last two seasons, but it just took us a while to get to this point. But I do think we have two or three two more year. We didn’t lose enough in the year the last two years to be in the model that I’m talking about where if you go look at Memphis, Orlando, Houston, Detroit, seven of them made the playoffs this year who all had lost in the had one of the five worst records for three years in a row. Oklahoma City, I think. Um, and then that got them the young talent and then you make moves around that young talent. Orlando hasn’t made their moves yet or if they did was continue to call to a pope and was non impactful. Houston added Fred Vanble Vleet and Dylan Thomas and changed who they were or Dylan Brooks sorry. Um, and so that’s what you do. Like Detroit added Tobias Harris and Contavius and uh Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley and and pump their guys up a little bit further and they suddenly a really good playoff team. That’s that’s what you do unless you’re in New York or Los Angeles or your other choice to build a franchise is that you hope that you hit on one of the greatest draft picks in 50 years. And you two teams have done that, Milwaukee with Giannis and Nicole Joic in Denver. And if you believe in that model, go for it. But there’s no track record that that works unless you happen to draft like a miracle draft pick. It was told to me, I want to say back in March, that realistically we’re in the first quarter of the rebuild and uh that uh I would I would like to since hockey evidently can win lotteryies, um let’s go with we’re in the first period rather than the first quarter. All right, fair enough. Uh, but ultimately, um, this I’ve been doing sports radio here for 22 years, and I try not to be the, “Oh, that’s the greatest game I’ve ever seen, blah, blah, I I hate being that guy.” But the visceral reaction from the fan base last night was, and I get it, you’re being rational and you have every right, and everything you’re saying is true, but boy, that was a bad night last night. That was a really bad night last night. Sucked. So, what what So, what do you say? What do you say to Joe Makatelli right now? Interest here’s what I think so interesting about that. Okay. And I’m with you, right? Like I was disheartened too and literally I mean I did the traditional like walked in the pantry and just about had eight chocolate chip cookies cuz I don’t drink. But clearly if I drank that would have been going to the bar popping the whiskey, right? Like I was there. My version of that is find me my chocolate chip cookies and I’m going to town because I am going to eat some happiness right now. I most people want to drink it. I was going to eat it. I got it. Okay, I’m with them. But it is kind of weird that we’re feeling this way. We’re suddenly had a 48% chance. It was the single most likely I’m asking Halib Berry asking Halib Berry to the prom and her saying no and then being surprised. Well, I Okay, there’s two things. Berry bad reference right now. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Not great. All right. So, you’re you’re right. And Justin Xanic said, “Hey, look, mathematically, this was the likelihood and we’ve been preparing for it.” It’s not just that. It’s Dallas. It’s San Antonio. That’s what’s adding to everything. That’s where a lot of the anger’s coming from. San the San Yeah. Well, Nico Harrison can still screw this up somehow. So, we might be all right on the Dallas end. Uh, probably unfair. I mean, I’m sure Rob Pink has called already, right? The San Antonio thing. No, I I’m so tired of San Antonio. Like, and you know, I’ll stop. I have comments I cannot make because they’re not fair and I have enough of a um I can’t be a Twitter warrior because I actually have a job that I want to keep. Um but yeah, like yeah, San Antonio like I don’t know their karma shouldn’t be good. How’s that? Yes. Yeah. I think Scott I think Scotty kind of hit it, David. I mean for me it’s just the piling on and it’s the year after year. Uh, I went through some of the numbers of the Utah Jazz draft lottery history. They’ve been in the lottery 11 times. Their average pick is 10.3. Um, I went through Mavericks, they’ve been there 17 times. Their average pick is 7.8. The Spurs, they’ve been there nine times. Their average pick is 6.4. It’s the piling on. The Jazz have never won it. They’ve never even won the number two pick. There’s only two teams that haven’t won the one or two in lottery history, and it’s Denver and the Utah Jazz. and and and it just kind of feels like the Jazz, when are they going to get the win? I thought it might be this year, but it feels like they haven’t done any winning for a long time. And I I think fans are just it’s it’s all piled up on them. Yeah. I don’t I mean like I’ve read enough like Yeah, people’s emotions are real. Like I’m not trying to devalue them or um and I feel it too. Um, I’m not I guess I I guess I might be a little rational here. Like, one, it was a 48% chance. Two, like I’m not sure I get the I’m never watching again because of this. Like, it’s not rigged. Um, and then the final thing I would say is like it would have been way better if we got Cooper Flag or Dylan Harper. Okay, it would have been way better. I’m agreeing. We still would have lost 60 games next year. Like, it wasn’t changing our route if we got Cooper Flag or Dylan Harper next year. If that wasn’t changing our route. Yeah. But you, like you said, you have that uh you have that pillar. You have that pillar. Yeah. He gave you a guiding star. But we could get the guy we we may get the guiding star next year. We might get the we might get the guiding star five. I doubt I don’t I’ve watched the players. I don’t see it as obviously as I do with the others. But Trey Johnson’s pretty good. He very well may be a five. I’m a pretty big fan. Like he’s going to score 20 points a game in the NBA. Like he’s going to score 20 a night. I’m certain of it. If he scores 25 a night, he might be your guiding star. Yeah. Yeah. He’s really good. I just uh you know, I sent out a tweet last night that I thought was pretty rational and uh it was uh it was not wellreceived. And so I I like but I don’t like I don’t want to be like I’m with everyone. Like I I have the same reaction like I I think it sucks. I’m like, you know, I’m wearing black all day. I’m with everybody, right? Like, but let’s also understand like we’re part this is part it wasn’t like this rebuild process was not ending last night. Even under the best case scenario. Well, no. People know that. I mean, come on. People aren’t morons. Like like they know that Victor hasn’t been to the playoffs in two years, you know, since being drafted. They know the Spurs, but nobody doubts that the Spurs are on their way to a championship even before last night. Like they people knew that it wasn’t going to be a playoff team next year, but people feel like their guts just got spled out in front of them with not them just falling back to five, but Dallas, who engineered the worst trade in NBA history, getting rewarded and then San Antonio doing their thing. I mean, that’s what people are pissed about right now is not the fact that they didn’t get number one. These others two hopped him and that the Jazz have to go through this again. Like without that guy, without that pillar, without that thing to build around. If Cooper Flag is on this team and they won 24 games next year, people would be like, “That’s all right, cuz guess what? We’re right back in the lottery and we can add his, you know, Robin to our Batman and let’s go.” I mean, I get it. There are a whole big bunch of reasons why you can decide to be in a really bad mood about this and I’m not in a particularly good one about it. So, I’m with you about that. Like, yes. I mean, you really do you want me to add extra to this? Let’s go. You really want me to like you want me do you want me to like depress everyone or like how far do you want me to go? Yeah. See that? I don’t know if we want to get David going down that hole because I I mean, can we really talk about the real story of the year that like we’ve just decided to not address, which is Taylor Hendrick’s injury. Oh, is the real setback. Oh, the what injury? Sorry, Taylor. Taylor injury. Yeah. Yeah. The single most important piece of our rebuild up to this moment lost an entire year. Yeah. Like if you want to go get lose your mind about what set the rebuild back and is going to force the rebuild to be longer, that’s the issue. It’s not the fifth stick last night. That didn’t help. But truthfully, like not knowing what Taylor Hendris is probably for another two years is worse than last night. I don’t disagree with that. I do. I mean, well, I mean, losing out on Cooper, like if if it’s two or three. Yes. Cooper flag. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. Yeah. But the chances of getting Cooper flag was very little. That like was 14. the chance of your number nine pick who’s hopefully going to develop into something that’s one of your significant pieces being knocked out for a year because of a slippery floor is like seriously what the is going on. Yeah. No, I I get it, D. Right. Like I get it. Like you want the one that’s like you want to like lose your mind over feeling like the world’s against you there. Go there. Yeah. Was that a check? Was that a checkpoint by the way? You were really close to getting us into trouble. I was in control. Yeah, I don’t know. There there are there are debates about what I said on YouTube last night when we got the fifth pick. I vow I did not say what some people thought I did. There are some debates that I think the umpire looked at first base to see if you went all the way around on that one. I did not go all the way around on that one. Hey, hey, David. Um, how much is this top eight protected pick, this conveyance with OKC? How much does that force the Jazz hand in 2526? This is my point. We We were in the rebuild next year. Yeah. And that pick would have ensured it. Your choice is to draft in the top eight of the draft and give someone a second round draft pick in 2030 or to give them a top 10 pick. Yeah. Or give him a 10th more better pick. Yeah. With zero chance of winning a title. Giddy up, folks. All right. Thank you. Last night was not like So, last night was not like what we wanted. It’s bad. I was bummed. I’m not disagreeing with you on that. It It’s not catastrophically changing our route. And here’s what truly is the issue. And we’ll we won’t know this for three years. My guess is we’re going to be in a similar important lottery for each of the next two seasons. So, we’re gonna do three years of this having the lottery be as important a day as any day of the year. At the end of those three years, we can look back and understand what today was, what last night was. If we go 513, that was what the process was. We But right now, all we have is the five. Yeah. Right. It’s just it’s But if we had the one this year and the five next year and we let’s say we did the exact thing that happened next year, we already had the one. Nobody be like, “Oh, well, who cares? We got the one.” We just don’t have that item, that guiding star or that item that gives us the feeling of being right. That’s the problem. This is why David Lockach uh will go down as probably the greatest radio host in Salt Lake City history because you never knew what you were going to get. This is not the avenue. I thought this would be like I would be uh having you sit on the on the couch in my therapist office. Uh, David, I didn’t expect you to be the voice of reason today. I thought I knew eventually you would be, but I didn’t think today would be the day. I’m proud. I’m proud. No, you should be a little bit cuz I really hyped you up like we were going to have a meltdown of biblical proportions. Maybe I saw your wife already. Never mind. Could you please explain that comment to everybody? Hey, by the way, I did not Yeah, I know. No, thank you. Yeah. No, I I will say though that uh that we got we got grad school to pay for. So uh so we are accepting clients as we speak. So yes, and that is for therapy. Yes. That was a tribute to that was a tribute to Scotty’s wife who graduated, I believe, graduated last week with her advanced degree in the as a therapist. And so that was my shout out to Jenny and all of her incredible and what a star she is. And I am I am president of the Jenny Gerard fan club. If Scott allows me to be Suma Kum Lada and uh commencement speaker. Commencement speaker. Yeah. Yes. So that’s what that shout out was. It just didn’t It wasn’t a very It was evidently a sex swing. All right. Thank you, David. Appreciate it. Bye, David. See you. All right. We’ll wrap this up. Get you ready for JJ and Alex next.
Hour 1
• Hard not to think the NBA draft lottery is rigged after the Mavs land the #1 overall draft pick
• Real Golf Radio host Bob Casper previews PGA Championship
• What’s next for Jazz after falling to 5 in draft
Hour 2
• The Athletic NHL writer Sean Gentille
• Good, Bad & Ugly
• Whole World News
Hour 3
• Bleacher Report NBA writer Andy Bailey
• Utah Jazz play-by-play David Locke
7 Comments
It's clearly rigged that's why it behind door so media and fans don't notice anything
I think there at least needs to be an investigation into the NBA league, Polygraph the Nico Harris & David Stern.
One or two unfortunate drafts a franchise can process, but when there a whole entire history of this happening where these teams trade their best player and the following draft they receive the # 1 pick ? Where there is smoke there is fire 🔥
Fake NBA League
The Jazz are finished and it breaks my heart. I've been a die hard fan since the 1990's. I just feel empty and embarrassed that I allowed myself to believe for decades that one day the Jazz would get a break but now I finally understand and it hurts still but it's just not in the cards for us in Utah. Sorry Jazz fans.
David Locke doesn't care about the Jazz, he's too big now to really care about the Jazz's future his pay doesn't change regardless of what happens to the Jazz. I think there was a period early on in his career that he really lived and died with what happened with the Jazz's future. But with all his arrival of the Locked On podcast he has changed. It's sad because I was a "everydayer" with David Locke for years and I don't dislike him it's just sad that we don't have a passionate Jazz personality to follow and listen to anymore.
1:49:38 listen to David Locke try to pander to the Jazz Fans. If i hear him say " for one, it was 48% chance again, im going to lose it 😡 And he wont even give a ounce of validation to the idea that the Jazz always get screwed nor will he admit that the NBA is rigged against the Utah Jazz. I mean evidence is there, & look at all the smoke in NBA history "where there's smoke there's fire" and add together All the recent events it's pretty dang obvious. But he doesnt want to rock the boat so to speak, its pathetic and sad …
I don't think David locke is getting this it's not just that we received the 5th pick last night when we had the best odds for the number one pick or at least the top three picks in the draft, He's acting like our tanking started just this last season in actuality we've been tanking since we traded Donovan and Rudy and we have been screwed over every single time… In between then and now, This one being the most egregious, so we've been tanking for 4 years now and we have absolute zilch to show for it. We have one player on our team that holds any value being Luari M. So we can't package any good players with our terrible draft picks in order to take our own future into our hands we are screwed. And all Jazz were really hoping for is that we would have a chance between picks 1 and 4 this year But no, instead we could jumped by Dallas who just traded their best player to Los Angeles and we also get jumped by the team that recently won Victor wibenyama , then they got Stephen Castle, then they got Fox, and now you'll most likely end up with Victor wibenyama and this years 2 pivks in the NBA Draft. It makes it worse for the jazz more then any other team in the NBA because all the other teams that have been tanking over the last five seasons have been able to find their number one player except for the Jazz, look at Washington last year they got the number two pick look at Charlotte a year before they got a number two pick. And the fact that all the great top end talent has gone every way but jazz's way.