SNAPPING – Locke tries to bring REASON to FRUSTRATION of Utah Jazz fans

SNAPPING – Locke tries to bring REASON to FRUSTRATION of Utah Jazz fans

It’s funny how what was said a week ago prior to emotion overriding everything might actually have been accurate. It’s next on locked on jazz. You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hi, I’m David Lock, radio voice of the Utah Jazz Jazz NBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a jazz fan each and every day. Thank you so much for making Locked on Jazz your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all podcasting apps as well as as on YouTube. Please hit that bell button and not get notified every time we launch an episode. On today’s show, it is a locked on jazz ask edition. We’ve got angry people after Monday. We have some illogical people. We have some people that have pissed me off. We’ll see if I can keep it together. It’s a nice beautiful Friday morning where I’ve been cooped inside because it’s been cold and rainy in Park City. We’ll see if I can hold it together. I’m kind of pissed. Uh why I’m allowing the Twitter verse to bother me, I don’t know, but it is. I’m just not going to lie to you. It is. That’s true. So, we’ll get to your questions, do all that. We’ve got some stuff about whether Tanke is worth it, some thoughts on the draft, trading up, future roster building, angry people, that all coming up. All right. Today’s show is brought to you by Prize Pick. Prize Pick. Download the app today. Use the code locked in NBA to get $50 instantly when you put your $5 lineup. Prize Picks run your game. I’m really biting my tongue today. um which I’m not usually for those of you who followed me my whole career I’m not actually particularly good at u but I’m going to try to be somewhat reasonable rather than go off but I I think I’ll I’ll it’s unlikely 28 minutes of audio I cannot keep together this question how does the lottery I order impact your idea for the future of the Jazz was asked last week and if you go back to last Friday’s Joe, my answer was if we got the fifth pick, I would cry. Okay, we all did that. But that it didn’t really change what the Jazz were doing and h what they were about and where this process they were in this process. That there is a 48% chance of getting the fifth pick, which sounded just fine when I said it last Friday. and that that’s the most realistic scenario and that then you’re probably in this for another year or two and you hope to not get the fifth pick on those times and it sounds so reasonable then and when I say it to you today I get a bunch of from people that I’m just being a homer or I’m just supporting the or and I’m just a sell sellout. I’m pissed. They didn’t change the rules two weeks ago. They didn’t change the rules two months ago. They didn’t change the rules four years ago when the Jazz embarked on this multi-year rebuilding process by trading Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobear. And we certainly can go back and rehash whether that was as good an idea as it seemed at the time. Whether that team had really run its course, whether there’s something else that could have been done, what the moves made that means that that team at that time didn’t get through it. Remember, Donovan and Rudy were much younger. We I’m fine with that. But specifically getting the fifth pick did not mean that anyone became incompetent overnight. unfortunate, sucked, hate it, piss me off. Yeah, with you on all that. San Antonio again, Dallas. Really? Yeah, I’m with you. But let’s not go to the next piece of this puzzle. That doesn’t make any sense to me, right? like the angry people route. The like this one’s weird to me. My trust in the NBA is diminished over time. The lottery didn’t help. We need a new, more transparent draft process. No, no, you just need your team to get the number one pick. That’s all that is actually. Like, what are you talking about? We literally have Ernest and Young and people doing it and they’re sitting in the back room and if you’ve seen the video like they’re all there. Media’s been there. Andy Lars was there. Zack Loe’s been there. Everybody’s been there. It’s not fixed. How about you do a show about how bad Ames Xanic Smith have been in the last few drafts? Oh, wait. They didn’t. Oh, but you can’t say anything. Okay. Really? You want to go there? We’ve been terrible in the last few drafts. Cody Williams may not have been a good draft pick. Early indicators are not good. Of the top 10, nine players drafted ahead of him. Zachary Rees went one is pretty good. Alex Sar, we’re not sure. Reed Shepard had a terrible year. He played 600 minutes. Stephan Castle won rookie of the year shooting 28% from three. Ron Holland was not good. Tjan Salon was not good. Donovan Klingan and Zack Edy are pretty questionable. Rob Dillingham played 500 minutes. Is there a chance this was not a very good draft? Is there a chance that the player who played the six most amount of minutes of anyone in the draft was drafted 29th? Is there a draft chance that the guy who averaged the seventh most amount of points was drafted 32nd? Sure, there was. Yeah, right. In the 2023 draft, Keonte George was drafted by the 16th pick of the draft by the Utah Jazz. I’m not sure I’m sold on whether what Keant is. I’m a little bullish. Tell me who Tell me of the next players who’s wildly better. Jaylen Hoodino was next pick. He’s out of the league. Jaime Hawz, be careful. He shot 31% from three. Now Brain Pajki, maybe. Cam Whitmore, Nola Clowney, Tariq Whitehead, Chris Stop just pontificating for the sake of pontificating stuff. Actually back it up. Taylor Hendricks ninth pick of the draft. We’ll see. That’s a real blow. We’ll see. But the picks between Taylor Hendricks and co ke George, which you would be choosing otherwise, are Kay Wallace, Jed Howard, Derek Lively, Grady Dick, Jordan Hawkins, and Kobe Buffin. I’m not sure you really wish you took any of those guys other than Taylor Hendricks. We’ll probably draft another like it’s incredible. So my point here is that last Friday I got asked this question. How does the lottery order impact your idea of the future of the Jazz? And the answer was I would cry if we got the fifth pick. I cried basically. I was super bummed. I went did TV in all black. I had a funeral. Yeah, I felt I felt it, too. But let’s not lose our head. How does it impact the future of theirs? It means we don’t have a guiding star. We don’t have the player who we know is going to be our cornerstone number one player. So, this leads to this question. Is it worth taking? the day we decided to trade Rudy Gobear for five first round draft picks, which then led to trading Donovan Mitchell, either because he didn’t want to stay or because it just didn’t gonna who knows. The first thing the the next thing we had to do as an organization was try to go get a guiding star. I don’t know if we think that thought Lowry was that for a little while or not, but that’s the next thing you have to do as an organization is find the piece of the puzzle in which you build everything around. York Cade Cunningham. I’m not sure Houston has it yet. Charlotte thought they had it in LaMelo Ball. We’ll see. San Antonio has it in Victor. Who’s right? Indiana acquired it with T with Tyresese Hallebertton. I would suggest at this point it’d be a dynamic guard. Jaylen Brunson, Tyresese Hallebertton, Anthony Edwards, Shay Gil Alexander likely to be the final four players leading their teams. But that’s the first thing we have to go get. And we didn’t get it. So, is tanking worth it? We could say for the 2024 25 season, it did not yield us the number one or two pick the way we had hoped, which we knew coming in had about a 27% chance of happening. We’re going to get a hell of a good player. I mean, the way I see it, and I talked about it yesterday, we’re either going to get Ace Bailey, we’re either going to get Trey Johnson, or we’re either going to get VJO. They’re all pretty special talents. See what they turn into players, but they’re pretty special talents. So, is tanking worth it? We’re trying to find the guiding star. How else do you presume we do that? I presented trades this week in which you go try to get a damaged asset like a Trey Young or a Zion Williamson. No one seemed to like those. So, is tanking worth it? Yeah, probably. Is tanking fun? No. Is tanking fun when you get the fifth pick instead of the first pick? No. But let’s not lose our heads. I get it. And I shouldn’t react to a bunch of people typing a bunch of things who I know nothing about. I agree. But I did. I’m generally pretty good at not doing that. So, the show’s a little angry today and that’s not as much fun to listen to. I’m with you. Unless you’re laughing at me and then it’s great. So, do that. All right. We do have some really good questions that came along with that. And then someone tried to give me What was the first word that came out of your mouth when the Jazz fell to five? Well, it’s live on YouTube and you can see it if you’d like to. Um, I knew we were in trouble. You when Dallas jumped and then San Antonio jumped, you knew you were in trouble, right? Um, and then I was really concerned that Oklahoma City was getting Philadelphia’s pick. And then when Philadelphia didn’t show up, then I suddenly realized three of the team three of the four teams had had been pulled. And so your chances now were really like you were down to at that point to me we were down to 12% chance of I don’t know if that’s the right math but in my head there was only one of the minute Oklahoma City didn’t show up at seven I immediat was like oh my gosh there is an 88% chance that we’re fifth now. That was how what went into my head. I I think I said something. Who knows? Yes. It’s a bummer. All right, we have some really good questions coming up here on the show. Is what I’ve how much longer Hendrick’s injury impact gaps. I love this question. Gaps in draft position two big lineups in the NBA changing draft strategy. What about trading up? We’ll hit all of it and I’ll be friendlier and more loving and more caring. Next on Locked on Jazz. Friday edition of Locked on Jazz is brought to you by Murdoch Hyundai located 4646 South State Street. Also in Logan and in Lynon, the Murdochs have been in Utah for over 80 years. The Hyundai get you more bells, more whistles, more deals for your dollar than any other car out there. with all the advancements they’ve made over the years, whether they were the first ones with the door that doesn’t open if a car is coming for safety for your kids in the back. All the inside camera uh when you change the turning signal, all these advancements have come from Hyundai and brought to you uh over at Murdoch Hyundai. Check them out. The Equinox five and six are the electric cars. The SUV lineup, fabulous. I’m driving the Santa Fe right now and absolutely loving it. Email me at [email protected]. We’ll give you that VIP treatment. That’s Dlock09 atgmail.com for the VIP treatment you deserve as a lockdown listener. Get you over to Murdoch Hyundai in Logan and Lynon and in Murray. Go check it out. See what’s going on this weekend. If you’re looking for a car, add Hyundai to the list and see whether you want the most bang for your buck. Today’s show is also brought to you by Prize Picks. What a fun way to get the weekend going with prize picks. All sorts of great deals going on with basketball still in season. And the playoffs heating up. Time to put your sports knowledge to work with Prize Pick. It’s the top platform for daily fantasy sports. Prize Pix makes it easy. You just pick more or less on at least two player projections and you’re in. Whether it’s points, rebounds, or assists. You’ve got a shot to win it to 2,000 times your entry. This week, you’re looking at Nicole Yokic, Shay Gil just game seven. Will we have a Boston New York game seven? Are you going to play game six tonight? The app takes less than 60 seconds to use. How can you mix and match basketball players with other sports like esports, even esports in that lineup if you want to? Taco Tuesdays. Player projections are discounted 25%. Download the app today. Use the code locked in NBA and get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Play $5 lineup. Code locked in NBA to get $50 instantly after play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. It’s really kind of crazy how mentally weak I am. It really is cuz literally what just happened in that opening segment that was supposed to end the show and I built the show and that was the last thing I had done before I came on and all those comments there’s like eight of them. My feed was a mess and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Meditation might be good. Call map here I come. God, I’m a loser. Uh, so funny. All right. Um, David, you’ve displayed tanking reliably helps get teams into the playoffs. Was it really a high enough standard to justify years of suffering? That is a great question. Um, two things to that question. I mean, this is right. So, if you tank for three years, you generally make the playoffs, but Orlando, Detroit, all of them are out of the playoffs right now. Um, we’ll see where they go in the years future. I I do think the league the landscape of the league is changing a little bit since there’s really no free agency. There’s really only two things you can do to build a team right now. One is you while you’re good, you trade your future draft assets to acquire talent. And then while you’re not very good, you acquire draft assets for the future. I mean, it’s literally all we got right now. And then you have those draft assets, you can make trades when you’re good. Um, and the league’s super divided. So, there’s two comments to this is I I don’t know the answer to your question. It’s really up to each individual. And two, I don’t know what other route there is right now. Um, there’s a great question here. I’m going to jump ahead. The show is not going nearly the way I thought it was going to today. I try to organize these things really play it out. Is it better to be competitive and use the Pacers model instead where you trade your established players like Saboniser for Hallebert and tanking hurts Lowry’s value because you’re not making him an all-star NBA on a tanking team. Okay. Um, Indiana is really interesting. Uh, Indiana’s owner is the Simon Malls. Um, and they can’t afford, according to the stories I’ve heard, going down to the barrel. Um, and so to some extent they never really emptied the barrel of tanking. Now they went 25 and 57 one year and 35 and 47 another year and they bounced it back up when they got Hallebertton and they had Victor Oladipo but they’ve you know they had five I don’t know how much people are going to like the five you know let’s be Indiana’s doing great they also had five straight first round exits and they won a playoff series last year in for the first time in 10 years um and now they’re in the conference finals for the second straight year. It’s pretty great. Um, and Rick Carell is a hell of a coach evidently. So, their roster builds really different, right? It’s in They ended up with Sabonis and they trade Sabonis for Hallebertton. They got Sabonis by having the eighth pick of the draft. I think that’s what Sabonis was. He was the 11th. Um, they’ve drafted some, you know, Benedict Maverin. They’ve drafted, they’ve done a brilliant job of, um, kind of adding pieces along the way. They’ve butchered a bunch of drafts, too. Um they tra they signed Pascal Seakkum which I think was a great move when he was available for a player that size of market. They’re an interesting model of whether or not that’s the actual better approach than than tanking. Um and I don’t I don’t have an answer to it but I think you know it’s a great question. I don’t know how many people can rep not very many people have been able to replicate what Indiana has replicated and the Sabonus for Hallebertton trade was one in a million. They did a great job with it. Um, and then they have Miles Turner who they drafted and they’ve held on to like the I think he was an 11th or 12th pick. Um, so yeah, they’ve gone they’re going to their second straight Eastern Conference finals and they deserve a world of credit. And is that somehow better because your talent’s better? They also picked up N Smith. They got Nabar. They did just really good. Kevin Pritchard has hit on the margins and on the big on everything. It’s very impressive. Um, how much longer would you tank if you were the Jazz? Like, if I’m being honest, I don’t see any of our young guys as yet as building blocks around. Could you tank next year? But like, um, so I’ve said this whole time that if you’re going to do what we did last year, I hope you’re fully pot committed for two or three years of it. Doesn’t mean I enjoy it. Don’t misunderstand this, but the data says that if you’re going to do it, do it. But if you’re going to do it, it’s a multi-year process. It’s my point about the lottery sucked, but it didn’t change. Like, we knew that was a possibility. It still sucks, but it didn’t alter the route of where we were going. The fact is, we really can’t evaluate the lottery and the whole process of tanking unless we do it for three years and then you evaluate, right? So right now we’re evaluating let’s say there’s three years of top five f top fiveish picks and so let’s say we go 526 is it worth it if we go 514 is it worth it if we go f the only thing we know is we have five if we go 555 is it not worth it probably not if we go five seven7 right but if we go 526 and we get our guiding star, it’s probably worth it. So, I think you’re in for a three-year process. I thought we were the whole time. The problem is our first data point we have is not great. And so, it feels worse because we don’t know the future. If you factor the Hendricks injury in at least mildly disappointing year of development by young players and a devastating lottery result, that’s friendly. No, this is accurate. Can you assume that we any rebuild has been set back? I thought the Hendricks injury set us back a year. The day Hendricks got hurt. If you go back and listen to the show the next day, you want melancholy. I was far more melancholy after the Hendricks interview than I injury than I was after the lottery. If you go back and listen to that show, because that’s not expected. But I do think like from Taylor Hendricks is the most important player we have drafted up to this point. I don’t think he’s going to be a future star. I think he’s just a really good NBA player. He’s the ninth pick of a draft with limited basketball background. I don’t think he’s suddenly going to become Paul George at all. I think he’s going to be hopefully Jaden McDaniels um type player. But Taylor Hendrickx, I don’t think you can give him any evaluation next year. Like he’s coming back from an injury. I don’t know if he’ll be ready for opening day. Maybe. And then he plays, but you got to be super careful with him and he’s got to regain his confidence and he’s still got to learn the game. I mean, if you still just go back to even the three games he played this year, there were a bunch of times where he’s in the wrong spot on the floor and he doesn’t feel it quite right. And so I’m not I can’t really evaluate. Then we got to make a decision on him moneywise, which going to be super difficult. then you probably can start to evaluate him in the 26 27 season. Yeah, that’s a full setback. Um that’s a full setback. So yes, but let’s go to the other part of the question. The devastating lottery result I don’t think changes the years of the process. Um, I am also on the individual player development. Keont is still a question mark. Cody was disappointing. Um, but I’m not sure that I think we’re having disappointing player development. Taylor super disappointing. He’s ninth pick of the draft and he didn’t get to play this year because he’s hit a wet spot on the floor. So, I agree with that. Cody was disappointing. I mean, he just was I mean, he’s the one of the worst players in the database of players in NBA history. Like, let’s not hide it. Hopefully, he comes back. Was just such seems like such an outlier. But Keonte, I thought, got better and is a 16th pick of the draft. He’s really pretty good for the 16th pick of the draft. Collier and Philippowski outperformed their draft position. Sensib shot 43% from three after shooting 28% from three. That’s pretty good player development. Is there a bigger gap between Johnson, Ace Bailey, and VJ Edgecomb, or between VJ and everyone else? Great question coming from Nathan. Next on Locked on Jazz. Today’s show is brought to you in part by our friends over at Game Time. That’s right. Download the Game Time app today. Use the code locked on NBA and get $20 off your first purchase. It’s nothing like the NBA playoffs. The intensity, the buzzer beaters, fans losing their minds. I was dying to be there last night. That was incredible. Denver, Oklahoma City. If Denver wins, I’m going to go do stats for Alen Horton if he lets me in Denver. Uh price of the app actually on the t tickets on the game time app drop closer to tip off with killer last minute deals and panoramic seat views. There’s no surprise fees. Game time is a total game changer. If you’re on the app looking for zone deals sometimes you can get as much as 60% off in great sections. I love that I can see the exact view of my seats and the game time guarantee means I’m don’t have to be searching three different apps because I know I’m getting the best price. If not, they’ll credit me 110% of the difference. NFL schedule release this week as well. So you find great seats as low as $100, including exclusive discounts and the game time guarantee. Your tickets are 100% authentic and will arrive on time. And you always get the best price with fees included. So you see what you pay. If you’ve never used Game Time to grab NFL seats, now is the time. It’s seriously a game day upgrade. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Create an account. Redeem locked on NBA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app. Last minutes tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Thank you for enduring D grumpy David today. I appreciate it. Um, is there a bigger gap between Trey Johnson and Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecomb or between VJ and everyone else? It’s a good question. I actually think the top five in this draft that there’s a drop. Some people have Jeremiah fears there, but I think there’s a drop after the five to fears, Canipple, Malawich, there’s someone else I’m forgetting. I think that’s a drop. Um, at least what I’ve seen. I don’t know that I think there’s a huge drop inside of Trey Johnson, Ace Bailey, and VJ Edgecom. I could see that you like one of those players more than the rest that like you could as a talent evaluator, something about Trey Johnson, something about Ace Bailey or something about VJ Edgecom could say to you, “Oh, that’s that’s a much that’s a better player.” Which leads to the number one question. Could the Jazz trade their way to the top three of the draft? Yeah, I think those three, Bailey, Edgecomb, and Johnson are all eye of the beholder enough that if you had a guy you really liked and you offered the 21st pick of the draft, I think you might be able to move up two spots because I do think that the five pick is on the right side of the gap to the previous question that the that the gap happens after the fifth pick of the draft. So, if you really think Ace Bailey could be something special and you’re the Jazz, yeah, you probably call up Philly and say, “Hey, by the way, we’d like the third pick. We’ll give you the fifth and the 21st.” And Philly might say yes. Because Philly might decide they like Trey Johnson or VJ Edgecom and they know they’re gonna get them and the 21st pick gives them a low salary team on a team that’s tough against the luxury tax. You might call Charlotte and say, you know, you really like Trey Johnson and Johnson and Edgeco [ __ ] because Bailey just went three to Philadelphia. You might call Charlotte and say, here’s the 21st pick. I really want to make sure I get my guy. I think Charlotte says yes to that. That’s good. That’s a very good trade for them to get it. 21st pick of an NBA draft in exchange for one spot. So, yes. Do you think Dylan Harper fits the San Antonio back court? No, I don’t. Well, I think Dylan Harper is better than Stephen Castle, who is rookie of the year. Um, I just think they have De’arren Fox, and I think that’s a problem. Um, but I don’t think you can have D’Angel in the back, same back court. I’ll just say that De’Arren Fox is a well below average shooter. I mean, Darren De’arren Fox is 31 32 33% three-point shooter. Stephan Castle is 28%. You cannot do that. So, that’s not like that’s not a great option for San Antonio. Dylan Harper can at least shoot it. So, I I actually just don’t think San Antonio’s backourt fits. Do I think Dylan Harper fits? Well, Dylan Harper might fit because he’s good, but he fits better next to Dearan Fox and Stephan Castle does. I was not a big Stephen Castle guy in the draft. He won rookie of the year. I still think I’m right. Tony Jones said today he felt the Jazz needed a veteran point guard did not lose out on development of the young players. The thought process is 100% logical. I I’m impressed that a Nuggets reporter knows the Jazz as well as Tony Jones does. Oh, TJ, did someone tell you I said that? Just giving you crap. Uh, The Athletic doesn’t cover teams anymore. They cover regions. So, he’s covering the Nuggets all the time. That was the joke. Um, there’s only one network out there that actually still has a local person covering every team, just to point that out. Um, yeah, I get it. I mean, but who is that? Is it Curtis Joseph? Um, is it like who are these vet? Patty Mills was an example last year. I I I I don’t disagree at all. Like I think that’s a reasonable concept that I I mean I think some veteran presence you can’t let the the inmates run the asylum as the saying goes. Um I do think having I thought Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills were really good examples of this last year. I thought John Collins Colin Ston uh and the guy in Jordan Clarkson were total pros last year. Total pros. Colin’s not even that old. Um so there is some Yes, there’s something to that. Do Collins, Clarkson, Sexton have standalone trade value or are they just salary fillers to facilitate other assets? They’re not either of these two things actually. So if Collins, Clarkson, or Sexton had adequate standalone trade value, I think the Jazz would have traded them by now, right? Like just logically that if there was a real demand on Collins, Clarkson or Sexton, the Jazz probably would have moved them. They’ve moved everyone else that they had other than Larry that they had. But they’re not just salary fillers to facilitate trades. They’re pretty darn good basketball players. John Collins really had a great year last year. His plus minus numbers are incredible. Um, so I think there’s like a little bit more to that to them than that. But they are not high demand players or people giving him first- round draft picks. You said Cody Williams was the best player in the draft last year. Um, I don’t think I said that. Um, I was high on Cody Williams. Not going to dump that at all. Um, I had conversations with people in the league of whether Cody Williams should go one. So, but I’m not sure there was a best player in last year’s draft. Um, there certainly was not I liked Reed Shepard a lot, too. He played 600 minutes last year. Um, if you recall, my comment last year on the draft was there were five guys who had a unique skill. Reed Shepard shooting, um, Ryan Dunn’s defense, Isaiah Collier’s burst, Zack Edy and Donovan Clling in size, but it wasn’t like we were talking about great players anywhere in that draft last year. Um, Cody had flashes that made me really like him, much more flashes than I saw out of other players. the kid who may turn out to be the real surprise in last year’s draft, unfortunately, is the kid drafted after Cody Bizoulis. Let’s see what he did. Everything he did this year, he did better. Um, and I liked Jared McCain an awful lot in last year’s draft if you recall. Um, and we’ll see whether he keeps it up. But you go run through last year’s draft and Bulus may turn out to be really good and that will be the mistake the Jazz made by not drafting him at 10. But if you run down after Cody in this draft, it’s not like there’s anyone who’s knocking the doors down yet. Would it make sense for the three worst teams to be guaranteed a top three picks since they are the most in need of difference makers and most likely won’t attract top level talent again? So, this is the reform of the lottery because we got screwed after the mammoth uh couldn’t move 10 spots. I honestly have never thought about these ideas before until we didn’t get the pick, which leads me to believe I don’t think they’re that necessary. Um, and the league’s point is they don’t want you to tank. The league doesn’t want you to tank. The league is trying to deincentivize the value of tanking, which is ironic that everyone’s mad at the league. And like that first comment we had like, I don’t believe in the league anymore. No, no, the league is literally trying to make it so that what we did last year as a team winning 17 games is not beneficial. That’s the goal of the league. Think about that. Chew on that when you think there’s a conspiracy theory. All right. Happy David Returns Monday. Have a great one. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for tuning in. We send you You’re great. Thank you for being an everydayer. I appreciate you. Send me text messages and tell me that I was mad and that I wasn’t You were mad at me for I shouldn’t have gotten frustrated. I agree. Have a great one. This is Locked on Jazz. We’ll send you out to the first 247 ever NBA channel. Locked on NBA on YouTube. Also check out Locked on NBA big board. Raphael and James have got it all for you covering up to the draft.

David Locke, radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider, tackles the aftermath of the NBA Draft Lottery and its impact on the Jazz’s future. He addresses fan reactions, analyzes the team’s draft position, and explores the value of tanking in the current NBA landscape. Locke examines the development of young players like Keyonte George and Taylor Hendricks, while considering potential draft prospects such as Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecombe.

The episode dives into the Indiana Pacers’ successful rebuilding model and questions whether it could be replicated by other teams. Locke discusses the challenges of evaluating young talent, the importance of veteran leadership, and the potential for future trades. He also touches on the upcoming draft’s depth and the Jazz’s options for roster improvement, offering insights into the team’s long-term strategy and the balancing act between developing young talent and pursuing immediate success.

0:00 Intro
5:12 Analyzing recent NBA draft results
10:50 Is tanking worth it for NBA teams?
15:28 Comparing tanking to Pacers’ competitive model
20:36 Impact of Hendricks injury on Jazz rebuild
25:43 Evaluating young Jazz players’ development

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