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Good morning DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. Welcome in on a Friday morning. We are heading into the weekend with the PGA Championship. Game sevens in the NBA. Uh game sixes in the NHL. Maybe a game seven by the time we get to Sunday. We’ll have to see how all of this plays out. NBA playoffs last night. The Denver Nuggets finally finally get a contribution from the bench. And they had multiple starters who are really really good. I mean, really shot the ball well. Joker, Murray, Christian Brawn, 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists having a game. And their bench, their bench was good. I mean, legitimately good. The bench had 27 points and eight boards. Are you kidding me? Payton Watson, Russell Westbrook, and Julian Strawther. They went on a 100 run in the second half. Strawther had eight of the points. hit a couple threes, got a bucket in transition. They need something out of the bench. The bench is getting blown out. 22 to 10 one game, 35 to another. The bench came through. I mean, were they beaten in this game? Sure. But 3227, your starters are so good. If it’s just even close, if it’s close to a game on the bench, then the starters will probably go out and win it. And they did. Now having said that, you know, a major break in this game was Shay Gilis Alexander getting four fouls in the first half and he did end up playing 35 minutes, but man, it’s got to make you more tentative. It’s got to affect your your mindset and your aggressiveness. I can’t imagine that’s going to happen again in game seven, but we get a game seven, so that’s a positive. And I don’t know the Nuggets can shoot it that well. They’re not going to have their crowd and all that energy. Thought Jeff Hornosk said it well. And I think true for Jeff, but I think true for a lot of players that the veterans get on the road and the crowd’s against them. They don’t care and they might even feed off it a little bit. But he said when you’re at home, that wave of energy of 15 to 20,000 people pulling for you. He said, “When when you’re a little low on energy, it really does push you through those tough moments when you’re feeling fatigued. It is just a jolt of adrenaline.” He said, “That part’s real. That’s that’s what the home court’s all about. The road team may or may not get it. There are guys and you know the Nuggets have Russell Westbrook. So if anybody’s wired to thrive on thrive on some negativity and play with some more adrenaline, it’s that guy. So we’ll see how it goes. I mean game sevens historically have been heavily in favor of the home team and the last few years road teams have done much better. Uh neither one of these teams has deal one on deal done well on the road. But, you know, when you see a trend like that, you’ve got to look for, okay, the trend isn’t 100%. Why are there exceptions, you know, and and one that hits close to home and hurts here is, you know, the Jazz won game one in the finals against the Bulls and the team that wins game one wins more than 80% of the NBA final series. Okay. So, why would this be one of that 15 or 20%. Michael Jordan? That’s why that’s it’s the greats who do it. It’s the great who overcome. Did Magic do it? Yeah, there was the Memorial Day massacre and Boston lit up the Lakers in the garden 148 114. Everybody thought it was was going to be a trouncing like when the Celtics had beaten the Lakers. Well, they hadn’t trounced him, but they had beaten him a couple years uh a year earlier actually. And sure enough, the Lakers come storming back and win the series. Um so, you know, the great players, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, yeah, they do it, but most people don’t. Now, Oklahoma City doesn’t have playoff experience. Denver does. Denver’s been in a lot of game sevens. This is nothing new to them. So, if it’s ever going to be pulled off, you would think this is the time. Now, this group hasn’t done it. They haven’t won a game seven on the road. They’ve been in a lot of game sevens. Some of them were on a neutral floor because they played multiple game sevens in the bubble. Um, so I’m I’m intrigued by this game. Super intrigued. We’ll get into it more later this morning, but I thought there were a lot of one-offs. You know, is I mean, Strower at home, okay, you’re a young player. you’re you’re a role player, you’re a bench guy, you’re more likely to perform at home on the road. So, Nuggets aren’t likely to get that from him. Now, maybe Westbrook goes crazy. You know, who knows? Maybe the guy has six steals in this game and is is running down court throwing down dunks and just going berserk. Who knows, right? I mean, it’s Westbrook returning to Oklahoma City. Now, he’s played there multiple times, multiple teams, multiple jerseys, but he’s never played there with this kind of stakes. It’ll be interesting. Who knows? It’s a wild card. total wild card. Uh meanwhile, over in the NHL playoffs, this is the reason that uh they just have to get in the playoffs. The Mammoth have to find a way to get in the playoffs. Another division champ goes out in the second round. All of the division champs made it out of the first round. Two of them are gone in the second round and the other two are on the ropes. The Maple Leafs are playing tonight. They’re down to Florida three games to two. Florida can close them out. Now, the Winnipeg Jets are still on the ropes. They’re still down 3-2, but they were down 3-1. And they got the win in game five. They beat Dallas, so you know, it’s 3-2. They got to feel a little better about themselves. There’s still a long way to go, but they got the four zip win last night. Three goals in the third period to break it open. This is crazy how, you know, we’ll have to see how this breaks out, but there’s a there’s a chance here that of the um of the nine teams that scored a 100 points or more in the regular season that we could be down to to just two of them. Seven of them could be out in the first two rounds and only two advancing. I mean, whatever happens in Dallas Winnipeg, Winnipeg has the best record in the league at 116 points, but Dallas had 106. So, you know, they’ll they’ll be a team there. And the Oilers are already through with 101. But it’s just it to me it’s really interesting. You know, I mean, the the Oilers with 101 points, that’s ninth best in the league. So, the Stars Jets winner um will provide one of the top eight teams will advance. But if Toronto loses, then it’s only one of the top eight teams advancing. Pretty wild. The NHL playoffs are wide open. The Mammoth have to get good enough to get in. And you don’t want to go in as number 16. But, you know, you don’t have to be one of the top three or four teams in the league. If only one of the top eight is going to make it out of the second round. Can you imagine that happening in the NBA? Holy cow. Now that I mentioned it though, this this one’s pretty wide open. But I mean, three and a four seed in the East with the uh the Pacers having already made it and the Knicks are up 3-2 with a chance to get through, you know, tonight. So, we’ll see how that plays out. Now, the Timberwolves, you know, sitting on 49 wins. They were the six seed in the West and they have the 11th best record. So, it is an example of a team advancing with a less than glorious regular season and they were only one game behind Denver. So, we’ll see how it plays out. regular seasons seem to be meaning less and less. They’re there for the hardcore who like to watch night in and night out, but how much do they how much do they really mean? And having said that, the NFL has released its schedule, and we talked about this a little bit yesterday, but for you early risers, and especially for you people who complain, a certain TV station always shows the Broncos, uh, I think you’re being hurt by the NFL. But the answer isn’t what you think it is. The answer is not to ban the Broncos. What the NFL is doing is slowly finding more and more TV windows and they are breaking out the teams that they know have a strong brand or that they know have a store star quarterback and now even teams that they think are ascending because obviously the Chiefs, okay, strong brand, strong quarterback. Dallas Cowboys, best brand. Now, might be the 10th or 13th or 18th best team in the league, but super strong brand. So, I was looking at this. The Cowboys, they only have seven games scheduled for Fox and only three games for CBS. And they got a bunch of games, seven games spread around different windows, prime time, Thanksgiving Day, actually Christmas Day. Um, where the whole country can watch them, which means more games can be regionalized. Now certainly a market like Salt Lake where there’s a lot of people want to see the Broncos but there’s a lot of people want to see other teams although you know for somebody it’s the Raiders or somebody else it’s the 49ers somebody else it’s the Packers for somebody else it’s the Bears or the Steelers. So the Broncos, nobody has a majority of the fans but the Broncos have the biggest slice of the pie. But this happens in other markets. I mean and it’s different everywhere right? Columbus sits halfway between Cincinnati and Cleveland. And I’m sure some fans want to watch one and some of the other. And let’s be honest, it’s not that far from Pittsburgh, right? So, I think you see this play out in other markets. San Antonio, I’m and I’m sure and San Antonio and Austin are big TV markets and I’m sure there’s a gazillion Cowboy fans there, but people are migrating to Texas from all over. So, somebody wants to see everything. You put the Cowboys in prime time where the whole country can watch them. Now, you can regionalize other games into these markets. And I was looking, the Cowboys only have seven games on Fox. The Chiefs only have eight games on CBS. We can’t show the Chiefs all the time on a Sunday afternoon. Can’t do it. Um and if you look at um the Broncos, they only have eight games on CBS. So the whole channel 2 only shows the Broncos. No, most this year we’re going to show them as eight times. And then depending how the season goes and you have a quarterback injury and you know how do things shake out at the end of the year, you know, we’ll have to see. Most of these numbers are with the final week TBD. You know, the final week’s to be determined. If you’re not split out to it, and actually the next to last week is for a lot of teams. Some teams are playing on Saturday in a separate TV window, but most teams are TBD. Um, and if you look at NBC Sunday night schedule, super strong, and they got marquee brands, marquee matchups. There’s just no chance that they want to put those games on um, you know, two o’clock in the afternoon, but have to regionalize it with a couple other games and have people complaining. So, they have really and and they’ve given up some other things, you know, that I wonder why they haven’t done this earlier to be honest with you. Why didn’t they do this a few years ago? Like, they didn’t have some of these numbers a decade ago. They didn’t have as many windows. They didn’t have streaming deals. Um, so, you know, there there are some other factors. They weren’t playing two games on Monday night. Not every Monday night, but some Mondays they played the two games. That enables them to break out more games. Um, and the international games are growing. So, that’s another opportunity to break out more games. you know, I mean, the Friday night game in Brazil on the season opening week, um, and I I just can’t believe we’re not going to see him play on Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, Sunday, and just the opening week is going to turn out to be eight days with games spread out. Um, I think that’s where we’re headed slowly over time. And so, as you look at this, I think that um they’re willing to give up other things. We’re seeing more teams play three games in a row on the road or three games in a row at home. That didn’t used to happen, and that was raising some eyebrows, but you can’t do everything. And I think they prioritized putting the best teams, the biggest brands, and the teams they think are on the rise in these other windows, whether it’s Thanksgiving, it’s Christmas, it’s um Black Friday, it’s the Friday night opener, it’s the international game super early in the morning here, but you know, on the East Coast, it’s a decent time slot. It’s absolutely a decent time slot on the East Coast. So the NFL, they’re ahead of everybody and they are maximizing their dollars. There’s no doubt about that. All right, DJ and PK, we got to take a break. Coming up, got to take a uh a spring football tour without question. We have to have a little bit of the uh spring football tour this morning. So, uh coming up later this hour, um you’ll hear from Chris Karman, who covers uh Arizona State, the defending Big 12 champs. Are they finally uh are they finally going to be that sleeping giant everybody has said they should be for you know more than 50 years and they haven’t been. But I do wonder if a combination of you know the transfer rules and NIL how much this is opening things up you know and we’ll get into that with him and also next uh West Virginia football super interesting so many transfers nobody knows what’s going on at West Virginia for better or worse. I wonder if Rich Rod does you know he’s coming in and he is shaking things up. We’ll get to that next. Stay with us. DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. DJPK, it is time to continue our spring football tour with Chris Anderson, owner and publisher of Ear Sports, covering the West Virginia Mountaineers. Chris, good morning. Good morning. How are you guys? We’re good. How are you? I’m doing just fine, thanks. How’s the hype for the West Virginia football team? Uh hype, I guess, good. Confusion on who’s actually on the team and how many new players there are. Uh is might be higher. Um we’ll see. I I think fans are excited uh maybe even anxious a little bit, like just uncertain of what’s going to be going on in Morgantown with so many new players, new coaching staff, new everything. Yeah. and doing my research for these teams because I always go down and do media day. We broadcast there so try to get a jump on it in the spring. I started counting up uh the players from the existing roster from the prior uh coaching staff that were in the transfer portal and normally I can come to uh total but I got up to like 2530 and it seemed like I still had 2530 or to go and uh I got uh tired and I needed to rest. I thought this is ridiculous. I mean it just seemed like well over 40 close to 50. The best I could come up with was 47 players, but you know, that could have been yesterday or last week and things changed dramatically all the time and all that stuff. I I thought the number was 52, right? The best I came up with was 47 as I counted, but I probably my eyeballs were blurry and I missed some or what have you. So, this is a massive amount of turnover and obviously it’s a new coaching staff and it is impossible to get any kind of read on this team since we’re on the other side of the country with all these new players. Now, they kept the quarterback, a kid out of Phoenix. I know that and I’m a Phoenix guy. Uh, so they got that going on for them, but how do you make any type of assessment on what the team is about when there’s that many kids coming and going? I’m not sure you can to be quite honest with you because you mentioned it Nico Mario the quarterback, you got Jaheim Wright White the running back and that’s about it, right? Like everything else is going to be brand new. And even guys, even guys that this coaching staff brought in in December during the winter portal, there are guys who showed up in December and were gone by April and a whole new a whole new crew of guys coming in after the spring during the spring portal period. I mean, especially when you look at the offensive line, and I know that’s not the sexy position to talk about, but West Virginia lost, I think it was seven of their top eight from last year, including every single starter, and then brought in six new guys in the winter portal of transfers. Brought in a couple high school kids that enrolled early, and then lost a couple of those guys, brought in six, seven more new transfers after the spring. So, it’s just like what you you could pick any combination of five guys and nobody I don’t even think the coaching staff knows who would be your five guys for the offensive line right now for for an example. Um, and on your numbers part right now there are 116 players set to be on the roster for the fog. And I guess we’re just doing away with the roster limits. Who knows what’s going on? But 116 players, whether returning or enrolling soon for 2025, and I think it’s close to 80 will be new. Like we’ll will be guys who were not on the team in 2024. At least 80. So is a big deal when Deion Sanders turned over a whole roster, but you know, everything Deion Sanders does is a big deal because he’s Deion Sanders. He’s prime time. He’s coach prime. Are people just rolling with this in in West Virginia? Is this I mean, is there anything they hang their hat on at running back, wide receiver, tight end? Yeah, I mean, yeah, everybody’s in on it. Uh because quite honestly, when you when you have a handful of years where it’s just five and seven, six and six, five and seven, five and seven, you know, fans like, hey, we’re done with that. Like, let’s either go all the way in or all the way out kind of thing. and uh you know you’re going to go you’re either going to go down fighting or you’re going to win you’re going to win 10 games or you’re going to go down fighting changing everything. So I think the majority of fans are in. I think it helps that Rich Rodriguez has been here before has done this before has won here before. I think that helps quite a bit even if it ended poorly with him leaving and a lot of fans being upset. But, uh, for the most part, I think fans are in on it. And I think they see, hey, the two pieces that the fans know, well, they don’t know because we don’t know who the starting quarterback is. It’s Nico Mario or Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson. One of those two. And Rich Rodriguez feels comfortable enough with both of them that he said quarterback was the only position they would not recruit in the transfer portal because they felt comfortable about those two. So you feel good about quarterback and in a Rich Rodriguez offensive system which is run run, you have your running back and Jim White. So you feel good about that. So I think if you’re asking me what’s going on in 2025 in my mind, I think you can safely say that West Virginia will be able to move the ball. They will be able to score points. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. We watched Rich Rod when he was at Arizona obviously uh in the conference with Utah and and I’m an ASU guy. So I I watched him too, even a little closer. And I always thought the guy does have a brilliant offensive mind. I have to give him that. I was always entertained by him. We would laugh here watching him with his uh at least quarterly, if not multiple times a quarter, his explosions that looked like his head was going to pop off on the sidelines. So, he was entertaining that way. And then he got himself in some off the- field stuff. And uh so he has some baggage, but he does know what he’s doing here. and he’s coming from Jacksonville State which had success obviously and he’s brought some players and coaches with him as it usually is the case these days when coaches leave. So we do have a little bit of track record. So you got he’s bringing I I don’t know the exact t uh count but I know he’s brought multiple players with him uh defensive back like Fred Perry receiver Cam Vaughn. How much do you think those guys who are a little bit of a proven commodity at least with Rich Rod at his prior stop can come in and give some stability to the program? Yeah, I think some of those guys are going to be relied on to be a major part of the team this fall. And I think it helped this spring. You we heard some stories behind the scenes about as you noted like Rich Rodriguez is coming in with a kind of different attitude. Neil Brown was the guy like the players coach who was the nice guy, you know, he he of course as any coach would lose it every once in a while. Rich Rodriguez is a scream first, scream second, scream third kind of guy. He’s he’s I mean he he’ll say it himself. He’s joked about it during his press conferences. I think one of his jokes about why he didn’t want the spring practices open this spring was because it was going to be kind of, you know, something that people hadn’t seen before of him. the way he was going to yell and he was going to yell at everyone including the other coaches. So, I think also having those guys that know that help like, hey guys, like we’re not going to be able to lolly gag through from one drill to another. It’s going to be run run. Uh, you know, the old play with your hair on fire saying that he had. So, I think having those guys, bringing those guys from Jacksonville State, not just the onfield production, but to help kind of bring that attitude and and that way of looking at the game and the way of looking at practice is going to help this game. Not only was he really good offense, he was really good with the running game. When he was in Arizona, he had games where they just ran through the youths and nobody runs through Kyle Whittingham teams. And if you do it one year, you certainly don’t come back and and beat him again the next year and do the same thing. So when I was looking at the running backs that were bringing in, he’s bringing in LJ Turner from Kataba. I don’t even know what Kataba is. What how does he find these guys? He’s I say Turner’s already gone. He’s one of those guys that showed up. He got He got brought in, went through a couple spring practices, gone. Like why? I don’t know. Um that’s but you know he yeah he’s he’s been going out and getting other guys he brought in Kzer who’s from uh Canon Kanzer is the name. Yeah from Ferris State. Yeah you’re like hey where’s this Ferris Far State Kataba College that kind of stuff. So it’s he’s he’s just looking for guys that produce even if it’s at the smaller levels. So like you mentioned LJ Turner he was a guy that was you know over a thousand yards at a D2 school. Um, cans are over a thousand yards out of D at Fris State, another small school. And they went out, I think the one guy they got that’s really kind of a bigger name, if you will, was Jaylen Knight, the guy who star running back who started at Miami, had some success, but couldn’t kind of get out of the split backfield look, shared carries, went to SMU, now he’s coming to West Virginia. So I I think pair him, pair somebody like the one guy they liked that was with the previous staff, Dior Huard, he’s, you know, sticking around. So there’s three guys that you can kind of rely on to maybe carry the team this year with those two and Jim White. How about Jamar Robinson? He was the AAC um what defensive player of the year at San Antonio. Uh I think that uh if he’s still on the team anyway when I looked last night he was uh that he might can be he can be a significant contributor. Yeah, he’s he’s a guy that they’re expected to come right in and make a difference. As I think anybody that follows college football knows there’s some positions that are more important than others. Quarterback, your offensive tackles, those edge rushers, those guys that can get to the quarterback and create havoc on defense. And so getting him was a priority, let’s say. Um the um budget was sufficient enough to make that a priority for West Virginia. Uh he wasn’t the only one that they’ve kind of targeted for that position. You know, added Eddie Kelly Jr. from Missouri. That was more recently. You know, Robinson went through spring ball. Kelly’s coming in after spring ball. He’ll be here next month. But that that’s kind of a spot that they really needed some help. really wanted to get some guys to create havoc in Zack Alli’s defense. So, if you don’t know the players, can you at least look at Zack Ally and say, “His defense looks like this. This is what it’ll probably look like.” Does that help? Yeah, I think it does. I mean, he’s had success everywhere he’s gone. he was at Oklahoma and I think you know he just wasn’t going to be I mean it wasn’t it was his defense but when you have a coach like you all know like Brent Venibals who is known as a defensive coach is known as a defensive coordinator you’re always kind of going to be under him and so with Rich Rodriguez as you know the de facto offensive coordinator West Virginia has not named any offensive coordinator because it’s going to be Rich Rodriguez is he knew he’s smart enough to know, hey, I need defense. Need defense. Let’s spend the money to go get defense. And they went out and got Zack Alli. Spent the most they’ve ever spent on an assistant coach to get him to take him away from Oklahoma. It was not not contentious is the right word, but it was kind of, you know, trying to sweat in and out because West Virginia made an offer. Sounded good. Oklahoma came back with a higher offer to keep him. West Virginia came back with a third offer to kind of take him away. So, I I think that was a big win for West Virginia and they’re hoping that just him, you know, and his scheme can give them a leg up where they might otherwise not have the talent on the field. Yeah, last year they ran the ball well. Uh, we’ve already mentioned White and I I can assume under Rich Rod that he’s probably going to go over a thousand yards if he stays healthy. Uh but CJ Johnson, who I believe has gone to Ohio State if I remember, uh he he was a very good running back there. Uh so they did move the ball well on the ground last year. Uh who else can help them in the running game because under Rich Rod usually has multiple and and also the quarterback too uh should be expected to run in his offense. Yeah, absolutely. say whether it’s Henderson or whether it’s Marquo, somebody you can basically chalk up for having 500 yards at minimum. Um, just the way the offense is run. Um, again, they were they were really excited about the Oy Hubard. That was a guy that was from the previous coaching staff that Neil Brown and his staff recruited. And when Rich Rodriguez and the staff got there this spring, he was one that they were like, “Holy wow, this guy’s good.” You know, I think he he he was a freshman last year. He red shirted, so he’s young and was unknown. He hasn’t actually been out on the field, but they saw him like, “No, this we’re keeping this kid.” So, I think they have expectations for him this year. Is it Is it 2025? We’ll see. Um, they brought in Tai Edwards, who’s that bigger back who has that same build as CJ Donaldson? You know, last year, West Virginia would run Jahem White a lot of the time, and then bring in CJ Donaldson, who would, you know, pound it in for the touchdowns, who would get the short yardage. and Ty Edwards is uh the transfer that’s got that kind of build. Um I mentioned Jaylen Knight and I think he’s probably going to be in that mix to kind of share Carrie’s uh SMU Miami history. Um we’ll see about Canon Catser. I just again some of these small school kids like he’s from Fair State had a lot of success there but is I just don’t know how that’s going to translate speedwise to the Big 12 conference. So we’ll have to see on that one. Rich Rod was very open when he was in Arizona. He preferred a non-conference schedule of nobody, nobody, and nobody. Uh, he’s got Robert Morris in Ohio, so presumably two tuneup games there. But then there’s the rivalry game with Pit. Is he trying to kill the backyard brawl? Is that thing signed up for the future? U, how does that work? No, I think that’s that’s going to stick around. But I do think there’s going to be more. West Virginia was already trending this direction even before Rodriguez got there because I infamously I don’t know if you guys were in on this news cycle at WVU, but Neil Brown made a mention of basically trying to get out of the non-conference game with Alabama um in and a couple of these tough ones. And two, you know, I’m not saying it’s it’s good to kind of run away from these big games, but we all understand, hey, it’s a lot better to go 3 and 0 against the in non-conference these days. And Neil Brown had to face off against Penn State, Alabama, Tennessee, you know, all these tough non-conference opponents to start the year. And it can really set you back when you open the season like that. So, you know, Neil Brown had already been pushing for that. West Virginia behind the scenes has already been working to try to, let’s say, lighten the load on the non-conference schedule. This was going to be the first year where it seemed to be what the new plan was. An FCS school, a lower level group of five school, and then one regional opponent, say Pit, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Penn State. So, there’s still going to be one tough game in there, but you make it game three and you get the other two cupcakes in there. Well, Utah and BYU will be seeing West Virginia on back-to-back weeks at the end of September and the start of October, games five and six. So, some of this should have been sorted out by then. Certainly, the Pittsburgh and Kansas game film ought to help the local coaches figure out who’s who and what’s what with West Virginia and constant turmoil. Yeah, I we’ll see. Was that halfway through the year? So, maybe we’ll have a couple answers. Who knows? You guys might see West Virginia as much as I have considering uh the media. I don’t know how it works for spring ball out there. Eight total eight total minutes, not sessions, not days. Eight minutes of access during spring ball. No word on what kind of access anybody’s going to get during fall camp. So, we all could be going into the season blind on this one. All right. Well, Chris, we appreciate the time and the questions to answer all of our questions. Thank you. Hey, appreciate it. There’s Chris Anderson from Ear Sports covering the West Virginia Mountaineers. Get it? Yeah, exactly. It’s a West Virginia thing. All right, when we come back, Chris Cartman on Arizona State. Stay with us. Chris Cartman covers Arizona State for the Sunundevil Source. He joins us right here on 975 The Zone as our spring football tour continues with the champs. Chris, good morning. Good morning. How you guys doing? Good. Is it a blast to cover Dillingham because he’s so different and he’s so unpredictable? I I read this guy’s quotes and I think it would be fun just because you don’t know what he’s going to say. I mean, one day he’s out there talking about he’s not running a hostage situation. Who talks like that? Yeah, he’s uh he’s a character and it’s really enjoyable covering ASU football. you know, all the practices are are almost fully open to the media. We’re there for uh two plus hours every practice. He talks to the media twice a week. He lets his coordinators talk every week. His players talk all the time to media. They have all kinds of fun things that they do sprinkled throughout their practices. because they have offensive linemen running routes against defensive linemen, catching the ball on fades in the end zone. They wheel a a basketball hoop out onto the practice field. They have shooting contests. They have dunking contests. They play video games. They’re saying that they want to have more fun working harder than anyone else in the country. And the players have bought into that. These these guys love playing for Dillingham. None of ASU starters transferred uh in the spring portal, in the winter portal. They have almost all of their top starters back. In a world in which that is increasingly rare, ASU stands as sort of an exception. Yeah, I’ve adopted my motto, Chris, as a Sunundevil grad myself. I show up on time. I be the best person that I can be and then I repeat every day. That’s his motto. That’s what it’s all about. Yeah. I mean, he he’s a listen, he’s a he’s a process driven person. He’s not resultsoriented. The results flow from the process. And it’s hard for young people, I think, to really get that, but until they see results, which is sort of an oxymoron, but when ASU had all this success going from a three- win team to an 11- win team, people were like, “Oh, wait a second. this guy’s on to something and then that forces them to focus even more on the prop. Yeah, for sure. So, obviously the big thing is Scataboo’s gone. I mean, they they’ve lost some other guys, receivers and some DBs. I think uh what Simmons is a very nice player they had in the defensive backfield, but the focus for the start is going to be on the running back. And uh I know they had uh what was it? Brown had an opportunity to play a little bit. Uh uh and then um the what what’s the kid’s name from SC? The small kid who got hurt. Uh he’s another Brown. Relique Brown. Yeah, that’s right. Relique. There I go. I know they were both Browns. Uh but they were both there and then they got the transfer from uh the Naval Academy who ran for something like,00 yards. Uh I’m not expecting to be able to equate what Scataboom. He might be one of a kind there for a good long while, but I do think at least judging from the outside, they still have an opportunity to move the ball. Maybe not just with one featured guy and all that stuff. Exactly. So, Marcus Aoyo, AC’s offensive coordinator, said that 500 plus yards that that were scattered yards are going to have to be distributed across the rest of the roster. And that should be a little bit easier when you have a quarterback now going into a second year as a starter, second year familiarity with the scheme. Sam Levit, he’s very good. He’s going to be a first or second round draft pick in my opinion uh when he’s done playing college football. Uh Jordan Tyson over 11 over 1100 yards as a receiver uh last season like one of the best receivers in the country. He’s also a top NFL prospect. uh Jama tight end is is an all league player. ASU has four offensive line starters back and those are the things coupled with some other additions that they’ve sprinkled in that they hope will be able to offset the loss of Cam Scatteroo who obviously had a very outsized impact on ASU success last season. Um the best running back in ASU history in my opinion uh given what he accomplished. But, uh, Kaisen Brown, um, he looks, uh, the game’s slower and he looks more fluid out there to me. He’s a very good athlete. Relique Brown had a hamstring injury, cost them all last season. He’s back looking at 100%. Kanye Udo, who you mentioned, the transfer, who had,00 rushing yards. Uh, he’s a more physical, bigger, downhill kind of running back. So there’s a contrast unlike what’s happened in the last several years where ASU’s had one bellcow back who’s had a lot of production you know Benjamin Xavier Ballad Rashad White Cam Scott who all thousand yard rushers I don’t think that ASU will have that this year uh you never know but it seems to me like more of a of a a group uh sort of a running back by committee approach is more likely this season and we’ll see if ASU has enough firepower and experience to overcome that loss of Scatterville. On the list of bizarre answers we get from a coach, I don’t remember many coaches saying, “I need more snappers.” How good is the O line and his center the weak spot? Is that a real concern or does he know that sounds fun and he’s providing a sound bite and there’s a little bit of truth in it and a lot of entertainment? Yeah, I think it’s I think it’s real. Uh Lee Fanu might be ASU’s second biggest loss after Scataboo. He was a all league uh player last season. Extremely reliable. The ASU has moved Ben Coleman from left guard to center. He’s never played uh center despite already being six years in college. Uh he was the top pass protector at guard in the Big 12 by PFF last season. He’s a very good player. The snapping got quite a lot better from the beginning of spring to the end, but there’s just more responsibilities. And ASU added uh Wade Helton from Iowa State via transfer as another option to give themselves some more possibilities that they could look at there. But, um, I think that, uh, Coleman’s got a big task ahead of him because Falcon was so good at setting protections and understanding, uh, how to get everybody on the same page and communicate uh, across the line. They had more false starts in in the spring than we saw at all last year in practices. And part of that was what the defense is doing with more movement up front, but part of that was just the what Saanu provided that now is going to have to be replaced. You’re telling me, Chris, that you think Scataboo is better than Benny and Art Malone out of Eloy High School? I can’t believe that. Well, listen, he is uh one of only 20 FBS players in history to have more than 2300 yards from scrimmage in a season. And he accomplished that while also setting ASC single season rushing records and rushing touchdown records for an 11- win team. So, uh, yeah, I think Cam Scadibu is, uh, he’s, you know, he you can etch him on the Mount Rushmore of ASU offensive players. You’re going to upset Woody Green and Gerald Riggs. I’m just telling you, those are great players. Trust me, I I’ve I’ve studied them closely and yeah, it’s a it’s a fun debate actually. And he’s had a bunch of good running backs o over the years. I just think that nobody has a better case than than Scaboo. if if he had been two years, right? If he had been a three or four year player, this would be a no-brainer. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, he was fun to watch. Uh, defensively, I really expect them to get in the face of the quarterback uh probably more than they did last year, and it literally might be the strength of that defense. Respond to that. I think you’re right. It’s almost as if you were watching the spring practices instead of me. Um, I read your stuff and I listened to you on Biggley and Marada, too, for that matter. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Um, Clayton Smith, uh, had maybe 13, 14 quarterback hurries last year and he looks like he’s taken another step forward. As I was saying earlier, uh, Brian Ward, ASU’s defensive coordinator, uh, he was more conservative last year with some calls and some things than than typically would be the case. He sets a goal every year of 40 sacks and 30 takeaways. And ASU, uh, despite being a very good defense, um, leading the Big 12 in in run stopping and and among the top turnover generators in the conference, didn’t didn’t get to those numbers. So, I think that uh just given the trust that they have on the back end with um all their starters back except for Shamari Simmons, who you correctly said was their biggest loss on defense um as their nickel. Uh but that the trust that they have in their safeties and their corners, several of whom are are allconer caliber players. I think that’s going to allow him the confidence to dial it up a little bit more with some pressure pressures and do some exotic things to try to get to the quarterback. And their individual performers between Clayton Smith, Prince Dorba, uh Justin Watley, CJ Fe, and others are, I think, just going to be a little bit better. There are crazy stories in the portal, and once in a while, a lot of times the stories are just the stories and but sometimes it leads to production on the field. And uh Utah had Caleb Loner, former basketball player, multiple schools, comes out, plays football. He’s going to be a big target in the red zone. I thought he got wildly underused. He caught four passes and they all went for touchdowns. And now ASU’s landed a 67 JC transfer. And crazy story, of course, he transferred somewhere and just did spring ball there and then left Northern Illinois and came to ASU. So he’s a double transfer in the offseason. He’s 67 190 Ake Lenu I’m not sure I’m pronouncing that right. Uh are they going to use him in the red zone? Is he a project? He only had 20 catches in J ball. I don’t know you know if he had a good quarterback and a good offense. Maybe they couldn’t get him the ball. What do you know about him? Yeah, from watching the film he looks like uh a guy who’s fast at that size who can stretch the field. Not developed as a route runner. Uh doesn’t have a lot of sophistication to what he’s doing right now. And so that’s going to take some time. As you guys are aware, the junior college eligibility thing is enabling those guys to not have those years counted against them if they want to stay in college longer, which uh one of ASU’s defensive ends, Elijah O’Neal, is taking advantage of this year. Um, ASU’s done a good job with its junior college evaluations, and I feel like they want to have more size, length, and speed to help uh make sure that opposing defenses stay honest uh when they’re when they’re figuring out how they’re going to defend Jordan Tyson. And so when you add a field stretching 67 guy on top of the other uh transfers that they added who were division one guys, Jaylen Moss, Darren Hamilton, Noble Johnson, I think they they accomplished that. Uh they have size now. They have better size and they have more speed. I think more pure raw uh ability to to uh threaten the defense vertically than they did last year. especially Jared Hamilton who did a very good job of uh of connecting on deep balls with Sam Levit in uh in spring ball. Both of uh Kenny’s years they’ve sucked at uh placekicking. I don’t know how else to say it. So tell us about I’m going to say the guy that they got in and all I could say on this transfer is praise Jesus. Yeah, exactly. Um yeah, I I was doing some some word play puns with that like saves. Um he was really good at Eastern Michigan. Matter of fact, uh two years ago uh or three years ago now, he uh kicked against ASU in Herm Edwards last game, the infamous game in which people thought that he got fired on the sidelines after the game by Michael Crow, Ray Anderson. In fact, he didn’t. But he but he they that was the last game. He stepped down within the next 24 hours. So, um so now Gomez is in is practicing with ASU already. He was great in spring ball. Extremely consistent, big leg, a lot of 50 plus yard kicks in practice. I think that’s going to be a significant upgrade from what ASU experienced last year when kicking really cost the team a loss at Cincinnati. and um and negatively impacted a lot of decisions throughout the year where ASU was going for it on fourth and mediums for the longs when it otherwise should have been able to have uh uh field goal of 45 yards or 50 yards and didn’t even attempt some of those. So in summary here has the sleeping giant I think I was in junior high the first time I heard that Arizona State’s a sleeping giant. So, that’s been going around for decades, but is it is it finally about to happen? Is it a combination of maybe some rule changes that are helping them and getting the right coach in with his local ties and knowledge? Does it feel like ASU can put together multiple great seasons? Certainly seems like they’re set up for that. Uh they they have twothirds of their starters back from last season. They have a quarterback who turned the ball over less than any other regular starter in the Big 12. Uh they were great at stopping the run and almost all those guys are back and they ran the football extremely well. That was scaven, but that was also scheme and their offensive line and tight end which they have almost all those guys back. Uh so there’s no reason to expect that ASU will have a significant backslide even with Scaboo’s departure. You still need luck with injuries. Uh they they avoided uh major injuries last season. Their top players only missed a game, maybe two games uh in a couple cases and and then they’re going to have to uh continue to take care of the ball and live by their their credo. But if they if they do those things and I expect that ASU will be competing at the top of the the food chain in the Big 12 in November and with a chance to uh repeat as conference champions and and return to a CFP birth. This is uh the best I’ve been following ASU um for over 30 years and covering ASU professionally for over 20 years and this is the best uh that I’ve ever seen a uh returning roster in spring ball. uh in that in that span. So, uh the expectations are high and they should be. The one thing that does concern me and it’s not not necessarily specific to ASU, but they’ve had a ton of success. They had a ton of success last year in one score games. And you wonder if that stuff might even out. I think they were six and two in one score games. Absolutely. But they won the turnover battle in all those games except for one. And again, um, they just didn’t they just don’t have guys that put the ball in jeopardy and they make it such an emphasis and they have, uh, in Sam Levit, uh, a guy who can close out games because he scrambles for first downs when you’re playing man coverage on third downs. And he just, there’s just something about him that’s different. He’s just a different kind of a person as a quarterback than I would say anybody in the the Big 12 that’s back. I think Tior Sanders had that last year, but nobody else. And uh other quarterbacks and other teams are going to have to elevate because in the fourth quarter uh ASU is going to be a very dangerous team. Yeah, he’s he’s this generation’s version of Jake the Snake, I think. Yeah, exactly. Well, Chris, we appreciate the time. Thanks for coming on. And PK will continue to read and listen to you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. There’s Chris Cartman covering Arizona State. The spring football tour continues. Coming up later this morning, David Lockach on the Utah Jazz, the draft, the NBA playoffs, RSL head coach Pablo Mastone, and Brian Taylor from the PJ Championship. That’s all on the way. DJ and PK proudly presented by our title sponsor, Black Desert Resort, Utah’s premier golf resort. What is trending is next. It’s time to get your morning started with the news you need to know. News of This is what’s trending with DJ and PK #NBA. Gordon peels off to the right wing, throws out Murray for three. Yes. 11-point lead for Denver, 93- 82. Murray behind the three-point line, back over to Joic. Joic for three. Yeah. 12-point lead for Denver, their big lead of the night. And the Denver Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City 119 107. They win game six. They force a game seven. Shay Gildas Alexander getting in early foul trouble. That didn’t help PK. It’s going to limit your aggressiveness, put you on the bench with four fouls in the first half. They need to change that rule. Don’t take the best players off the floor for that long. Two minutes in hockey is long enough. I don’t know how to address it, but the fact that you could foul out of a game, it’s ridiculous. I mean, there’s so many fouls that just happen in the course of a game, particularly in the postseason. Do I really want to see that as a consumer of the game? Some rule that states, you know, let’s go sit down. That’s so dumb. Denver Nuggets bench was able to score it after getting absolutely dominated in multiple games in this series. 15 points for Julian Straw there. Eight during a 100 run gave him a boost. They were outscored but only 32-27. So the bench looked good and Christian Braun supported the Joker and Murray with 23 points. Brown with 23 points. Doesn’t make any sense. I know. With 23 points and 11 rebounds and five assists. Look at him go. I tried to derail you from getting in his statline, but I couldn’t. No, you really couldn’t. That was derail. That’s That’s three guys posting allaround numbers. Are they going to be able to do that again in game seven? That’s what got them through game six. Can roll guys like Christian and Julian. Can they do it again on the road in game seven? Because if it’s just Joker and Murray, odds are that won’t be enough. Rats. Tonight, the attention shifts. Tonight, can the Knicks close out the Celtics? Game six in New York 6:00 on ESPN with New York up 3-2, trying to finish them off, trying to avoid the game seven that got him eliminated last year in the second round. I have no memory of that whatsoever. Phoenix Suns director of safety, security, and risk management, Gene Taylor, sued the team in US District Court in Arizona, citing allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Fourth lawsuit filed against the Suns by a current or former member of the organization in the past seven months. Piling up, Cleveland Browns owner Dan Gilbert paid more than $500,000 to install fake snow machines at Rocket Arena. Yeah, I don’t think he owns the Browns. No, that’d be Cleveland Cavaliers owner. Avalanche, he says when they go on a scoring run, they’re going to have a patented Cavalanche. That’s clever. Machine turned out to be a dud. They went off just once in their playoff run. Rats, DJ and PK #NFL. Think Caleb Williams didn’t want to go to the Bears. Now, Chicago Bears quarterback so concerned about being drafted by the Bears in 2024 that he and his family waited circumventing the entire NFL draft, consulting with lawyers to figure out a way around the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Yeah, but they didn’t. They didn’t thought about signing with the United Football League. A million things I thought about just this morning, but you didn’t do them. Yeah. Top 10 things PK could have done instead of coming here this morning. Chicago’s the place quarterbacks go to die. I don’t want my son playing for the Bears is the quote attributed to Carl Williams, Caleb’s dad. Carl, he is playing for them. There he is. NFL owners will vote next week on a resolution that would allow players to participate in flag football during the 2020 Olympics. Proposal will introduce a limit of one player per NFL team on each national team participating. Permission for any player They need permission for any player in NFL contract to participate in these triyouts. You want to see NFL players playing flag football in the Olympics? Would that intrigue you? I’d have to see how you just shrug and look at a clip and go, “That’s kind of odd.” Okay, fine. Would be college players then. College players would be fine. Uh would be I I have to see it first before I can uh comment on it because obviously it hasn’t been done. Yeah, sitting here right now, I find it hard to believe I would sit down and watch some I don’t know how long it’s a flag football game. I don’t even know what they’re pretty quick. It’s a summer Olympics and you watch the Olympics. I mean, I Tyreek Hill cooking some dude in flag football I’m here for. There’s plenty of stuff that that I that I don’t watch ever, but it’s the summer Olympics. Why wouldn’t I watch that? Some rando Italian. Some dude from Germany’s getting cooked by Tyreek Hill. Sitting here right now, I can see myself watching it. of all the stuff that I watched last winter uh summer Olympics. Sure, why not DJ and PK # Major League Baseball. One, two again to Brandon Laauo with a runner at second. Swinging a high-fly ball belted deep to center field. Straw back to the wall. Gone off the batter’s eye. Brandon Laauo with his first multih homer game of the season. His seventh home run makes it an 83 Rays lead in the ninth. The one-1 swing and there’s a drive. Well hit ball deep up the alley in right center. This one’s got a shot. It’s gone. Jake Burgerer opposite field home run. Here’s a 3-1 pitch and Otani just hammers one to center field. It is back. It is gone. His second home run of the night. Show Otani getting it done. Dodgers getting it done 19-2 over the Athletics. Are they bound by the same uh laws of physics and rules of baseball? You have all these runs in one game, then you probably go out and get one run on three hits in the next game. Or they are so loaded with talent that that doesn’t apply to them. Well, it already appi applied to them. They had uh what uh 13 runs last Friday and then on Saturday they had zero. They’re already applies. Clayton Kershaw will make his 2025 debut for the Dodgers against the Angels tonight. He’s had surgery on his shoulder and on his foot. 37y old has been with the Dodgers for 18 years. Doesn’t seem like he’s been a part-time pitcher for the last five years. Yeah, but everybody is. When was the last time that guy threw 150 innings? You heard the highlights in there. The Rays hammer the Jays 8 to3. The Twins have won 11 straight games. Best in Major League Baseball. Anything about the Twins you would think would say, “Hey, they’re going to sustain this. They’re going to be really good.” Or this is a team on a hot streak. It happens over 162 games. Well, it’s an open division, so yeah, I think they can uh continue to find success in that division and get themselves in the playoffs. They’ve won 11 straight and currently sit in fourth place. They started from a poor position, but look at them now. Seven and 15, I think, is what it was. Salt Lake Bees shut out the Sacramento Sacramento Rivercats 6 nothing. Game four tonight, first pitch 7:45. Tony Parks will be on the air at 128 to the zone at 7:30. DJ and PK # RSL Ral Salt Lake headed to Colorado to play the Rapids tomorrow. First kick set for 7:30. Colorado’s winless in their last five. They got off to a good start, but it has been rough lately. They’ve lost three in a row, outscored six to one in those games, so this could be a good time for RCL to be playing Colorado. Both teams will be playing their third game in eight days. So, we’ll see about roster rotation, all that. Jazz, the Arsel gets Justin Glad back from his suspension and William Magata back from his. So, there’ll be a couple guys who didn’t play midweek in there with fresh legs. Pablo Mestroni will join us coming up at 8:30 this morning. And Utah Royals are in Washington DC. They play the Spirit tomorrow at 5:30. That game will be on the zone at 5:00. Royals will be on 1280 and RSL will be on 975 the zone. DJ and PK #N NHL he’ll get it right back from Walker and he scores a sharp angle Andreetchnikov he beats Thompson and Carolina with a minute 59 to go takes a 2-1 lead follow back in the corner on in front of Mexico shoots scores [Applause] for Dallas Slam Domestic. Most of the action, at least most of the goals coming in the third period in a couple of playoff games last night. Washington won the division and they are sent home in the second round. Carolina beats them three to one, 1-1 going to the third. Carolina with a couple leg goals. They win. They win the series in five. They’re on to the Eastern Conference Finals. And the Winnipeg Jets hold on, win game five. They’re still down three games to two, but they shut out the Stars four to nothing, scoring three times in the third period to wrap that thing up. Most of the top teams in the league out. I guess we’re going to have one or two 100 point teams will advance to the conference finals out of the four. Just get in. Get in and play great. And everything seems to be a pretty level playing field at that point. Tonight, Maple Leafs Panthers game six. Toronto won their division, but they’re in trouble down three to2. Florida trying to wrap it up tonight. 6 o’clock on TNT. That is what is trending. Brought to you by Shamrock Plumbing. There’s no job too big or too small. Get the personal touch with Shamrock Plumbing. David Lock, radio voice of the Utah Jazz, is going to join us at 8 o’clock. Pablo Masone, RSL head coach, will be here at 8:30. Brian Taylor, real golf radio co-host at nine o’clock. DJP PK it’s 975 the zone accessing this is H Olson and Scotty G Kurt Healing from NBC Sports and Pro basketball talk.com ultimately if you’re in a market this size you need a break and this lottery did not give it to you and it hasn’t under this new system I mean look turned it around this year cuz they’d gotten the number one a few years back with Cade and they made some smart moves around him. But this is the third straight year the team with the worst record has fallen to fifth. The league has to reconsider how they’re doing this lottery. I get that this was a reaction to the tanking of the 76ers and and the process, but if the team that’s got the worst record keeps landing this deep, it’s not okay. They need to do something to give these teams like Utah that are not perpetually trying to lose and give them a chance. Catch Hans and Scotty weekdays from noon to 3 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Join Hans and Scotty Tuesday from noon to 3. Sound sleep medical. They’ll be there. 8941 South 700 East in Sandy. Question of the morning. Do you want the Jazz to make a move to get Igor Demon? Should they get the BYU product? Brian. Absolutely not. The Jazz need to package both those first round picks in a trade and bring in a solid, proven player with experience. Brian’s tired of the youth rebuild. Give him some veterans and start winning now. A solid proven player. Exactly. To go with most of the youngsters who will be playing. Exactly what Brian wants to do. Tired of the youngster playing. No more young guys. But they will they will bring in a youngster. Yes, I believe they will, too. No, they will play the youngsters. No, they will play the youngsters. I believe that too. They’re already here. They will play. So, whoever you bring in, you can bring in as veteranish as you want. And that man will play with first, second, and third year individuals. Travis. Oh, Ryan Smith will do it for sure. Does it really matter what we think? No, it does not matter what we think. Yeah, but most of what we say here doesn’t matter. Every owner in that same Governor. Governor, I’m sorry. Gosh, I hate when I’m racist. Governor, my bad. My bad. My bad. DJ, I know that gets you hot under the collar. My bad. Yeah, I’m on fire. governor. Uh, put them every single one in the same box because no one is doing what fans think or media thinks. Governors, owners, general managers, coaches, not not very worried. Not very worried about what the local morning shows spouting about. So, that doesn’t change anything. Here’s one for you. When you posted that, you I don’t think you thought you’d get this one. You ready? I am. Brent, I would be shocked if he gets drafted. Oh, that’s ridiculous. Thank Thank you. Excuse me. Prepare to be shocked. He’s moving up. I said this before the workout started. He will get there and they’ll look at his measurables and they’ll be incredible. And the shot, I don’t think it’s broken. I think he was an 18, 19 year old kid who came all the way on the other side of the world trying to fit in, trying to figure it out. Now at the pro level, especially in these workouts when there’s nothing to figure out. It’s simply go play. You don’t He’s shooting guard with no one guarding him. He doesn’t have to worry. Am I making the right play? The the play the drill is to shoot. and he was going to rise up big time. I believe he’ll be a lottery pick. I believe you’re right. But David says, “Deon, is he really that good?” He’s not a lottery pick. I don’t think he is. I would think he is. The NBA will think he is. When there are 14 picks and they are all done, I believe his name will have been called. I’m gonna go top 10. I might even go top eight. Really? This is no surprise to me that he’s rising. Get that Babcock. See if you can get that Matt Babcock who was on there talking about uh he’s got Phoenix roots, too. I think he grew up in Atlanta, but his family, his uh it’s a real big-time success story. He’s a scout and puts stuff out there or does some NBA stuff. his uh dad and uncles wanted to get in the NBA and they just he started the the uncle I think started sending stuff to NBA teams just out of out of West Phoenix very well known in the Phoenix area and and uh ends up his he his uncle his brother his uncle’s brothers and then they all got in the they’re all doing this NBA stuff and he’s been tweeting about uh Jaor just rising up the stock level as far ladder I could say as far as that goes. And that that’s zero surprise to me. You put there’s there’s no guard better than he is right now on a Utah Jazz. No guard better than him. Nope. You really like Collier? I do. You like Demond better? Yeah. I mean, you’re the big thing on tall players. Yeah, I know. But you don’t necessarily go for that. So, well, they both have shooting issues, so why wouldn’t he go with someone who’s seven in taller, but I don’t think he’ll have shooting issues. Another reason to go with him then. If he doesn’t have shooting issues, go get him now. I mean, he’s not going to be Steph Curry. I understand that. But I I don’t draft guys or project because I don’t draft anybody, but project guys on what they can’t do. That doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m far more worried about what they can do because once I assign they can’t do it, you assume they’re not You assume they’re not getting better and they’re done there. Yeah. And all these guys are going to have stuff they can’t do, right? They’re drafting guys so young. Yeah. And there was stuff guys couldn’t do when they were drafting 21 and 22 year olds when the draft was all third and fourth year players, right? Those guys still needed time to adjust to the NBA. are the what they can do so positive that I can live with the other stuff understanding that the other stuff what level of improvement can they make maybe they can’t maybe some of them don’t and so that’s one of the reasons why I back off or the what they can do is not good enough for me but I think you need to look at what they can do and and what can they work on? And it’s a tricky proposition because you’re basically asking yourself to be some form of a a sear, a revelator, those types of things to be able to figure out what do you don’t give me that look. I don’t need that look. I don’t need that look. Seer revelator. Yes. Can’t just be a general manager. No. What about a prophet? in a sense general manager. I mean, that that takes on such a wide term when it comes to the draft. You have to be able to look into the future. That’s why it gets so dang tricky is because it’s not all the facts aren’t presented in the moment. Nope. You have to look 7 to 10 years down the road and think, what is this player going to be doing at 26, 28, 30 years old? That is so hard to do, man. to be able to figure that out, to think about that and and go, you can’t just go gut and you just can’t go analytics. You got to have all these things. And then I I think when it comes down to it in the especially, you know, if you’re drafting one, two, or three, you got a pretty good idea right now today. So, you got weeks to figure that out. Well, when you start drafting a little later, you’re wondering who’s going to be gone? You got minutes. Is somebody going to trade in front of you? And no matter what you project, that messes up all the project. So, your work is literally being done right now. All those folks are in Chicago. They’re doing all this work, right? And they’ll do it. The draft is, I think, the 25th of June. So, that is uh five weeks in a day, right? and they’re doing a lot of work that in the end won’t really matter if you’re ranking. If they don’t trade ranking guys 10 through 15 or whatever, great. But they’re probably all going to be gone before you pick maybe. So, but you’re still going to spend time evaluating those guys up and down. What if you have a chance to trade up? Yeah, you have to, right? And you get access to these guys now. What if they’re available later? You want to have have interviewed them and done all that stuff. And then I think that you do all that work, you’re doing this tremendous amount of groundwork, and then you’ve got five, 10 minutes to make a gut decision because you’ve already done if if you’re thinking about analytics when the Utah Jazz are now on the clock. Well, you know, this guy that stuff has already got to been done. No, you already have to have the list. You have to know who you’re probably picking and you’ve got to feel the phone call that inevitably is going to come, hey, what about this deal? and then decide if you want to make it or not. And then I think in the end you got to go gut, but you don’t go gut exclusively. If you’re going gut right now, that means you’re lazy. And none of these guys are lazy. They all want to win worse than the fans, I think. I would I would assume that. And so they do all that stuff and in the end, okay, what do we think? Nope. And hopefully that there’s a strong conviction. I was talking about a few weeks ago that they have this conviction. know this is the way to go and then they do that. But to try to anticipate and then you don’t know what’s really really in that guy’s heart, the player once the money starts flowing in and how bad does it burn. It it it has to burn, man. It just has to burn so freaking bad for you to be able to succeed at a high high level. If you’re any form of casual about your development, that’s exactly what you’re going to get. You’re gonna get casual development. It’s it’s got to be a passion above all other passions, particularly at this young age where most likely, you know, you don’t have a family. You have a family, but I mean, the family that you have when you’re 30, 40, 50, that type of thing. Obviously, that’s extremely important, but at that age, you shouldn’t be involved in that, right? You maybe have a girlfriend or whatever. Uh, and this is where something the point I’m making is this is something that you can just devote as much time as possible to this and still have a little time for the other stuff. So, it’s a crazy job, but yet that’s that’s the job. That’s what they got to do. Landon says, “Watch BYU turn into the Jazz pipeline like Lone Peak was for BYU in the Quincy Lewis era. It won’t work out well, and I hope Smith and A are smart enough not to fall victim to it. overrate your guys because you have personal relationships. Well, and you also don’t have control of just bringing them in if you want to. Yeah. I don’t know that that’s the same. I mean, obviously BYU’s recruiting has changed dramatically. It used to be get the best LDS guy. Now the LDS guy, it’s not an afterthought, but it is not foremost on the mind anymore. and and may maybe Kevin Young and his folks will bring that back, but so far in his year plus tenure at BYU. That hasn’t been the case. He’s simply going after the best player and it seems like it’s irregardless of uh religion. I think that if there’s a player who happens to be LDS that they think is good enough, they’ll go after them hard. But it it’s the LDS influence on BYU basketball is being reduced as we speak. Caleb says, “Eiggor Demon, that only makes sense with the lower pick. If he’s available at 21, it makes absolute sense. I don’t think he’d be available at 21.” Doesn’t seem to me if he was 63. Maybe they’ll have to trade to get him. They have to make some maneuver. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because they’re not going to use him with the fifth pick. I don’t think they’re going to draft him with the fifth pick. I don’t think they’ll use the fifth pick on him is what I was trying to stumble towards. I got you. But I’m not sure that’s right. I think it’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t eliminate it because in my conversations with Travis Hansen weeks ago when he kept saying he’s going, he’s going. I I gave Yak the story. I wanted him to tweet it out and he didn’t. And some some other ding-dong. I told you the night before. Don’t tweet that out. But I told you to. I said here’s the story, young buck. I’m giving it to you. You’re not as young as you used to be, by the way. I don’t know that I can call you that anymore. You’re a veteran guy now in this business. So, uh, but I gave you the story. I gave you the story the night before and I said, “Here it is.” And you went you went Twitter silent and you tweet about what hamburger you ate the night before and I I gift wrapped you the story that he was going and they felt that it was utilized. Oh, just in your other stuff. Yes. Okay, there you go. My bad. uh that it was utilized middle-aged at that time before the workouts started. Yeah, but you nailed it. That it’ be 5 to 15 and that’s where he’s projected right now by almost everybody. So you’re saying there’s a chance at five. I think there is. I wouldn’t bet on it though right now, but that could change. We still got five weeks to go. True story, right? So stuff does change. This is a five seems high. I I I thought your earlier analysis of there’s a group of players in that four, five, six and he you didn’t have him in it. Yes. And I thought that group and given there’s it’s time for it to change, right? Guys can have interviews. Yeah. Now, I would think every agent is talking to their player about don’t tank interviews. Did you see what just happened in the NFL draft? Don’t do that. Maybe some thought that that Sanders wanted to do that, but uh yeah, I don’t think that I don’t think these kids will tank interviews. I think they’re sophisticated enough these days that they know what’s at stake as much as an 18 19 year old can have the maturity to understand it. But I think it’s I think the all the kids that they will interview, Edgecomb, Johnson, whomever it might be, I think they’ll all be fine. So I I would so I get that group and he’d go that high that Edgecomb and Trey Johnson are going to go in front of him. I would too. But your whole point about hey can he get up to eight? Yeah. We see people moving the draft all the time. Plus by the time you get to eight there’s always someone who oh they must really like him. They take him there. The consensus sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. And exactly and the consensus can be right. Most teams would have taken him at 12, but it just matters what the team picking eighth or ninth does and then suddenly somebody’s moved up three or four spots. Mhm. So anywhere in the second half of the lottery, seven seems high. And I don’t know, maybe I’m just drawing some arbitrary line. Okay. And midway up the lottery, but I I don’t see how you can know if he’s going to go unless you’re on the inside and you’re talking to people, you know. Well, they don’t know either. The inside people don’t know. Not yet. But down the line, you may have a feeling that, okay, whoever’s drafting 10th really likes him. I always hear that on the draft shows, his back stop is Chicago at 12 or And sometimes it sometimes it works. Sometimes that’s true. Some some Yeah, sometimes they get uh the handlers get word if X player is available at 9, we will take him and we’ll see how that plays out at nine. So, we hear that all the time and and these kids got uh a lot of handlers to be able especially now when they can have handlers legally in college and it’s not viewed as uh against some rules, right? They can they can I’ I’ve had literal kids say I’ve got to talk to my agent and that that took me a little bit getting used to you know so to tell me just to my face whereas I knew it was out there before but it was like unspoken stuff blurted out when you’re sitting there with a tape with a old school tape recorder going right and why not you know why not why not have an agent at because uh some of these kids a lot of them particularly in the sport of basketball. They know at 161 17 there’s a legitimate possibility that I will be playing professional basketball whether it’s in the NBA or somewhere else and if you play it other places on this planet you still need an agent. So by by 17 they’ve got a really good idea of that they will be able to make a living for an extent because it’s all just an extent. uh they don’t go for 25, 30 years like the rest of us do that they will be playing ball. So why not have that contact and work with people who can uh guide you along the way, find out who has your best interest and who’s just trying to cop a buck off of you, that type of thing. So yeah, they’ll have a better idea in the weeks to come. But I would agree with you on the five. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he goes in the top 10. And the kid is so freaking lovable. What we saw here is real and that’s going to help in the draft, right? Everybody wants to know if somebody is coachable, right? That is of all the things they dig into when they talk to all the people around somebody, they’re trying to figure that out. And his closest American confidants are two NBA people. So that’s gonna happen. Travis Hansen and Kevin Young. Those are two NBA people. So, there’s relationships and trust there. And when they give the glowing report that they’re inevitably going to give, and those are two those two guys are two grinders had had to overcome significant odds to get where they got right. So, they know about work ethic. They know that it you have to bleed it. Travis Hansen bled it. We saw that when he played at BYU. We just literally saw it. The kid had all sorts of passion, intensity, fire, whatever. And Kevin Young, this kid out of Atlanta be able to work himself to the level that he worked himself in. I mean, clear. He talked about that. He talked about basically living in a van with his wife. I mean, I’m I’m poetic license here, but what he had to do to get into No, he lived by himself. This was with his down by the river. But yeah, but nobody cares about yourself. That’s he was with his spouse. And what they what Kevin Young had to do to get to the point where he was going to be a head coach in the NBA, he chose college and now he’s off and running with a high-flying program. But those guys understand what it takes. and to have those two uh be able to give recommendations. I man I could see him going eight. I would think that’s the high end of where he’ll go to seven six. There’s work to be done. It’s too early, right? But right now early early prognostications know we still have five weeks to go and they’ve got individual they still have the Chicago thing. They’ve got individual workouts. They got all that stuff that they’re going to do over the course of the next several weeks. That seems high to me. But if there’s somebody like Toronto at nine and they really love him and they want to move up to six or seven to get him, I suppose you could be right. I’d be surprised. There’s just a group of players there that has consistently been in front of him and maybe they’ll fall. But you’re drafting on potential, man. This draft is potential, right? I I look at the stuff that’s said and u here’s one of the reviews. This is the ESPN.com mock draft. He’s a polarizing prospect, right? Yeah. And it goes on about his shooting, right? So, it’s a lot of what we know. But listen, you listen to that and then you listen to Derek Queen from Maryland. He’s perhaps the most skilled big man in this class. Terrific target and pick and roll. Can create his own shot facing the basket with a wide array of moves and his intriguing passing ability. his conditioning, occasional apathy defensively, and lack of shooting range are things NBA teams picking this area picking in this area or earlier will want to get a better handle on in the pre-draft process. Those are some huge red flags. Conditioning, occasional apathy, it’s got to burn. Okay, Jokic was a doughboy when he came into the league. I can see him moving past, right? But see, Queen, these guys are going to move, right? This is the difference between drafting 12, 11, 10, 9. The guys in this group are all gonna move. If you decide that his conditioning is a problem, Queen falls. If you decide that you think Edgar Demon’s gonna shoot it better, he’s going to climb. But there are some of those guys he’s going to climb past Trey Johnson. No. Exactly. And I just think there’s a group of guys there that he’s just not going to pass up against that whole 456 thing. But I that’s I said seven. Okay. I said seven, eight. I’m looking at eight. I said top 10. That’s not five. That’s top 10. I get that. You think you can pass those uh the other Duke kids, not named Cooper Flag, Maluchcci, and Canipple? Well, maybe not Kips. Uh the other putting a seventh or eighth player in front of him, you know, and Mama watch. Yeah, I mean he’s a big dude, but you’re drafting him on potential, too. Enormous potential. all sorts of potential. Yeah, he’s like flagged. He was like 17 when he enrolled. Yeah. You The only reason you’re drafting him is at 25, not now. When I say 25, not spot, I’m talking age. And you got to the the Maryland kid that you just mentioned, you got to be careful. You can’t fall into the Ed Oannon syndrome where he had the great NCA tournament. Now, he who’ he beat when he hit that shot. Who was it? He hit that phenomenal shot in the NCA tournament at the buzzer and uh they won. Maryland won. I can’t remember the I can see the shot, but I can’t think of the game. Right. Was it CSU? I think it might have been. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was CSU. Yeah. Yeah. And I because I was rooting for, you know, the the Mountain West team and all that stuff. And they had a good team, that Clifford kids a player. Uh so uh you got to be careful on that uh that you don’t look at in the moment because it in the moment really has nothing to do with it because a the moment’s gone and b you’re looking at the moments ahead. Everything is about the future. It is the past gives you a form of a foundation to make some judgments. That’s why they’re there. The past is why they’re why they’re in Chicago right now going through all that stuff, right? But you can’t get too caught up in the past for good or bad. And that’s this is a tough job that these guys have to be able to project. Uh and then and then when they get money, uh who is involved with them? Who are the hangar honors that are going to come out of the woodwork? I told you I had lunch with Harper once and he’s telling me about one of his teammates calls him up and asks him to buy him a car. See, I like the way you phrase that. Who are the hanger runners? Not will there be hang no there will be. Right. But who is that? How does that work? Right. Yeah. And you got to know all that crap as much as you can. And you can’t ever really really know it. You know, some guys money, what do you do? It goes over here. I’m not I’m not interested in the money now. That’s, you know, I I’ll buy my parents a car. I’ll pay off their mortgage. We all see that. And that those are heartwarming stories. Uh but you know, Steve Young, he didn’t cash the checks. They said Jay Leno, he never cast the Tonight Show checks. He lived on his standup stuff that he did outside of the freaking 30 million and it’s still over there. So that’s why he’s got all those cars in that garage and very careful. The guy was a grinder. You know what I mean? Oh, he was. Yeah. And so I think most of the people who get to the top like that, there’s very few. If you get to the top and you stay there a long time, stay there a long time. But how does money affect people? And it’s not and and maybe it’s not necessarily a a negative. You want to help all these people. Absolutely. So it doesn’t it’s not just you just turning some sloth. It could be I’ve heard stories. You must have heard stories. Now that Yak is middle-aged, maybe he’s heard stories that the person has a big heart and wants to help these people and and the people around them in the club are like that person’s going to be out of money within two to three years of leaving the NBA. Yeah. Not because they’re a bad person, but they can’t say no and they’re helping and there’s a long line of people coming up with their hand out and they bring that baggage with them when they enter the arena. There’s two things I want to say is I got a tiny heart. I had to work for every freaking penny. You ain’t getting any of my money. Get out there and work your butt off. And how can you call Yach middleage? Suppose he dies in two years. I don’t think he’s going to. But you don’t know that. That’s the point. I don’t know where the light is. Avoid the lightning Yak group. We’re not middleage or old age or young age because we don’t know how long. What’s the If you’re middleage and get run over by a truck, what difference did it make? Well, I don’t want to say that. Never mind. I got ahead of myself there. You don’t have any idea. Yeah. Thanks. That’s why I savor each moment that I’m able and fortunate to live in the state of Utah and hopefully I have many, many years to come in the state of Utah because this state means everything to me. It’s my home. It’s where I built my nest. We got to go to break and I continue for as long as God will allow me to. So, you went on too long. He’s gonna play the drop and embarrass me, but we’re out of time. DJ PK, it’s 975 the zone. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present This is JJ and Alex. Now, every team has been assigned a Heisman contender. Here’s the dirty secret about BYU. Its best offensive player barely got to play last season. LJ Martin has serious ability when healthy. Is BYU is Aaron Rodri comfortable enough having a guy who will carry the ball 23 times? And I love this pick because that means that BYU will be centered around the run first and then everything else can come from that. And I think that’s where they’re going to have a ton of success. The best thing that can happen to Jake Rutz’s career 100% is LJ Martin not just being healthy, but the run game being healthy and the run game getting 5.5 per. That’d be amazing. Your first best friend is a tight end, but another best friend is that running back because if he’s doing his thing, makes things a lot easier for you. It’s a lot easier to find guys open because defenses are keying on the run. So that would be very important for BYU. Catch JJ and Alex afternoons from 3 to 6, presented by G2G bars on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. The artist of the day today is Janet Jackson. She’s celebrating her 58th birthday. Artist of the day brought to you by Live Nation. For all the live concerts and events in 2025, check out livenation.com. Yeah. What do you think about her her uh boyfriend Alex Gordon? I don’t think about her boyfriend, Alex Gordon. Yeah, they go by JJ and Alex. Okay, nice. Does he actually have a boyfriend named Alex Gordon or uh No, I just made that up. That’s what I thought. I get paid for this. PJ Championship continues. PK, were you surprised by the leaderboard, the absence of uh power brokers and big names? I was surprised Sheffller did all that whining about uh clean lift and replace or lift clean and replace. A lot of mud in that fairway. A lot of guys hooking the ball. He’s got mud on his golf ball. Lot of guys hooking the ball into the water. Preferred lies. Lot of double bogeies. Uh but I mean it’s it’s even across the board when there’s that many double bogeies. I did wonder if like Vegas played later in the day and he went low and did the course dry out a little bit over the course of the day or something. Or did he just get lucky and not land in some mud pudds out? That’s a big deal on Thursday and Friday. Yeah, Vegas has already given he got to the back this morning. Yeah, he has. And then what what do you do son with the lead and how do you handle it on Sunday and when all the pressure is on? So I don’t know that that’s that big of a deal in the moment. I was surprised Sheffller made his voice so well pronounced on that very issue. He’s not out on the course yet. Two under. So he’s within range. He didn’t shoot himself out. Mroy. Now that’s a long way to go. Three over. Yeah, that that’s typical though. Masters hangover. He’s still basking in the career grandson. The fact is if Roy Moy never played golf again, it wouldn’t matter. He’s done it. He’s done he’s done the biggest thing he can do. This there’s only smaller boxes left to check along the way, right? and he’s and he may check them, but and he’s not going to move way up the the majors list and all that other stuff and he’s got a kid now. Life is getting in the way. We see this frequently with LPGA players. Life gets in the way. Yeah. Jack Nicholas said it would happen in Tiger Woods that he would have kids. Yeah. And life would get in the way. Boy, did life ever get in the way. Life got in the way more ways. So, uh, that those things happen. Uh, so Mroy, he’s not playing with house money because in the moment you’re still trying, but this is golf and and things happen round to round, hole to hole, shot to shot, and the margins are slim. 72 holes, one shot, right, routinely. I mean, I certainly think Mroy will win again and probably win maybe even multiple majors, but the fact that he had a a subpar round is not that shocking to me because it happens in this game. Things and some sometimes, you know, putts just drop. It’s like a a baseball player, the the objective is to put a good swing on it, right? And then after that it’s hard to control and you can hit a screaming mimi right at somebody or that person makes a diving catch and then the Diamondbacks win the World Series on a bloop that doesn’t even get out of the infield but the infield was in so won the game. Yeah. So and the series and sometimes putts drop. You hit a great shot and it just it doesn’t bounce the way you want it to. and and Sheffller talked about that too when so much of it is to the fates of the game how things go. Now those guys obviously are very very good but you get a bounce here or there so we’ll see how that plays out and you know Sheffller to the surprise of no one would be in the mix on Sunday. Max has gone out and is on fire six under. He’s playing the back nine for started the 10th hole, but six under through his first nine. So four under for the tournament. So he was only one shot in front of Mackoy. It is possible to go low and get back in it. Home is just two shots off the lead. Oh yeah, he’s the he’s the guy moving this morning the most. If you can go and do your thing for three days in a row. Homer, if he ever won at a high level, would be good for the game because he’s got personality. The two people will have the most personality on the PGA tour now are Homer and Hadwin’s wife. She can be funny on social media. But who dropped the quote of the week? Hunter man. Yes, that was a brilliant quote. Quail Hollow is like a Kardashian. Okay, you’ve got everybody’s attention in the media room now. Go ahead, Hunter. Yeah, but I didn’t understand. It has no soul. I mean, I I can tell you this through uh secondhand experience, Khloe Kardashian has a soul. I don’t know if we want to pursue this line of questioning. Yacht shaking his head. No. My godmother, her granddaughter, her granddaughter’s agent is Chris Jenner, the mother. And there’s your connection. Yeah. Hunter Man describes Coil Hollow like a Kardashian. Very modern, beautiful, and well-kept, but it lacks a soul or character. And that’s just wrong. Now, I don’t know about the Kardashians character, but I know about their souls. No, you do. Oh, you do. I’m this close. My godmother’s grand my mother’s sister that we lived right next door to in H East Hanover, New Jersey. her and she was my godmother, my aunt Rose, her granddaughter, the agent is go, you can go look it up. Give me something to do during the break. David Lock, radio voice of the Utah Jazz joins us next. Pablo Master at 8:30. Brian Taylor from the PGA Championship at 9:00 right here on the zone. DJPK, proudly presented by our title sponsor, Black Desert Resort. We are joined now by David Lockach, radio voice of the Utah Jazz. David, good morning. What could be better than a little DJ and PK in the morning getting to chat with two of the legends of the business? There’s one thing that could be better and that’s Janet Jackson as the leading when you’re talking to DJ and TK in the morning. You know, having and not having the fifth pick of the draft. There it is. The number one pick in the draft would be better. And yet again, number one slides to number five. And there is outrage. But David, the reason we have a lottery is so that the team can’t dump games, lose games, and get the number one pick. This happened literally for the reason that it was designed to happen, which everybody’s okay with until they’re the one sitting in the number one slot. Then it’s terrible. That’s so funny. I just ended the podcast today and that’s literally the last thing I said is for all you out there that are like, “This is fixed. The NBA sucks. I’m no longer following the NBA.” No. No. The whole point for the NBA is they do not want you to do what the Utah Jazz Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets did last year and they built an entire system to try to not make it advantageous and it wasn’t as advantageous as it could have been. So, yes, the NBA has no idea what they’re doing. It’s completely wrong. No, no, it’s exactly what they wanted to do. Well, yeah, but I don’t know about that because the argument is to pre prevent it or make it stupid to tank and next year we’ll have the same teams tanking again. So, why is it so great? Right. Yeah. No, 100%. Right. I I don’t know the answer here. And there’s some landscape things in the league that are changing that are making it so with free agency really no longer being a viable way to build a roster other than really rare occasions. So then all of a sudden there’s really only two ways to build your roster. One is you trade but since you’re good you don’t want to trade your good players. So, you’re trading your draft assets for players, and the only other thing you do is you trade your players, if you’re not trying to be good anymore, to those teams who are trying to be good, for draft assets, which then makes your draft asset more important. These are the only two ways right now to build a roster in the NBA. And so, I I I don’t have a good answer for you. I I’m not I’m not saying they’re right. I’m just saying the argument that the league is fixed. This is all this shows how. No, this is exactly what the league wants to have happen. This is exactly it. Then throw it open and there is no lottery. All 32 teams are in the lottery. Well, there are only 30 30. Um, who’s anticipating Vegas and Seattle? Put them all in. That would be a TV show. That would be interesting. Are you weighing it at all or are they all even? No, everybody has the same equal chance and television. Why not just go to the wheel? Whatever whichever way you want to whatever word you want to use and televis. Don’t do it in some other room. Televise it live as it happens. Can you do um could you build a system? I’m making this up as we go along where you cannot have the same pick within x amount of year without x amount of years. I I was going to say 30, but then by the end of it at the end on the 30th year, you just have everybody slotted into a pick they haven’t had and basically by the 29th you have the same thing. So I it would probably not work. But you have something where every 10 years you cannot draft in the same position you’ve already been drafted in. I’m not so concerned about that because we’ve seen players get draftwami Brown Ola Candy Wiseman here by the Warriors recently. Just because you have a high pick caner with the Jazz doesn’t mean you’re going to get a good player. They can screw it up. Yeah. I mean there’s a real catch 22 here, right? That on one level you don’t want people taking. So you’ve made it disadvantageous or less advantageous. And then on the other side, you go present this model of everyone has equal chance in the draft and came say how do we possibly rebuild? So there’s a total catch 22 and that no answer seems to be a good one. Didn’t Detroit isn’t Detroit one of the teams that dropped from one to five one year? I mean, it’s happened multiple times. Maybe multiple times to Detroit, right? And they rebuilt anyway. Look at them now. They’re a playoff team. They’re they’re good. They’ve got good young players. No, virtually everyone that goes and tanks for two or three years ends up in the playoffs. Almost everyone goes the teams that we quote talking about not doing it didn’t actually go down far enough. Sacramento lived between six and 10 all those years, but Washington has been an incompetent franchise in regards to winning did make the playoffs with John Wall and Bradley Beal for a few years. Almost every single team that has had a top five pick or finished in the bottom five in the standings for three years in a row makes the playoffs. There were seven of the 16 teams this year that were would fall under that qualification in this year’s playoffs. Do you think they’re going to draft fifth or do you think they’re going to trade up into the uh well not the first spot but second or third and get somebody that they really value? So I think there’s something really interesting. Three, four, five all have I mean there’s five really good players in the draft. So the Jazz are getting a really really good player and in my opinion at this and I’m not this is not universal. I don’t have Jeremiah Pierce in that list and I don’t have Coniple on that list. So I have Trey Johnson, Ace Bailey and BJ Edgecom as the three players after Cooper and Dylan Harper. And so if the Jazz have one of them that they think is dramatically better than the others and they offer Philadelphia the 21st pick, can they get the three? That seems like a reasonable trade to me. I’m Philadelphia and I’ve got tax problems and I don’t have one of the three guys that I think is dramatically better. That’s the key right there. Philadelphia can’t believe the same thing. and I can get another player 21 and as Philadelphia’s got some roster money issues, maybe I’m willing to do that. If I’m Charlotte and there’s a, you know, let’s say Ace Bailey goes and we really believe that BJ Edgecomb or Trey Johnson or Jeremiah Beers is an elite elite elite level player and we offer the 21st pick to Charlotte. the other guy and Charlotte doesn’t believe the same thing. Seems like that’s a really reasonable trade. H yeah, I can buy that. I don’t know that we necessarily needed the results of the lottery to confirm this, but since it was the fifth pick, what’s your level of uh I don’t know if confidence, but maybe conviction that the record and the playing time and all that that we saw in the 24 25 season will reflect almost the same point in the 25 uh 26 season. Who are you? I’m not I didn’t follow who were I thought you were heading toward our draft pick. Who were you referring to in regards to play? Oh, I think our draft pick will play 30 minutes tonight. Right. So, the results that we saw on the floor this year will mirror what we see next year. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Meaning they have to go through at least one more draft before they can start to think about making a move. Yeah. People get really mad at me when I say this. Hopefully two more. Two more. What? I’m about to get really mad at you, David. I mean, my point is if you start down this road, the worst thing you can do is bail out. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So, the teams that have bailed out is that has not that that almost has never worked. Um, so you do this for a few years and you start adding pieces around with veterans that are ready to play and bring support and then the next step is the really hard one. The one after that is then you got like Houston did this for three years. They have a bunch of pieces now. They Fred Bimbley Dylan Brooks are probably not championship pieces. I’m not sure. I think Almond Thompson’s pretty special. I think he’s going to be like Giannis. So, they probably have their guiding star for the future, but they’re that step of building really hard. Detroit J has Jaden Ivy. They have Jaylen Durren. They have Kate Cunningham. They have a sore Thompson. They’ve got their four guys. They need to buy shares. Tim Hardaway Jr. That’s not an answer. They got to do something different and build this thing around their guiding star, Kate Cunningham. They’re in this now. They’re in the most difficult stage. Orlando’s done it with Paulo and Fron Vagner and Jaylen SS. They added Caldwell Pope fairly unsuccessfully. We’ll see what they do next. They need to do something and they’re pretty inactive. Memphis did it with Desmond Bor Jar Jackson Jr. and then they screwed up went after Marcus Spart might have derailed the whole dang thing. So it’s that’s the that’s the model. It’s difficult and it gets harder as time goes on. When you say two more years of this, do you mean sitting resting 23 year olds because they’re good enough to help you win and they’re afraid they might win the game or are you talking about being super committed to young players and that just naturally leads to, I don’t know, 25 and 57 seasons? I mean I mean the latter. Okay. I mean, I think if we start a roster next year, if our starting lineup next year is Kee George, Trey Johnson, [Music] um Taylor Hendris, he’s back. Lowry marketing and Walker Kesler. That’s where we start the year. That probably doesn’t win a lot of games. Understood. Is there anything that can be done now? I mean, the the having the lottery for everybody is probably extreme and they’ll never really do that. But can they do anything that can wait because they’re not going to eliminate tanking? It’s the curse of basketball in that all these other drafts, maybe football is the exception, too, but football is such a big numbers game that a fourth round pick can be extremely valuable to you. And if you have multiple third round picks, they get all excited because of the number of bodies that you need to compete. But in basketball, guys can come in at the top of the draft or wherever they’re drafted if they’re good enough and make such a huge difference that the draft it takes on such a level of importance that I’m not sure is there in the other sports. Uh, but you wonder because it’s it’s it’s so arbitrary and then you can have big time results that can last forever for a long time. And I’m looking at San Antonio. They win the lottery when you got Robinson and Duncan there and then they get a number one pick and then two years later they get a number two pick and it’s so random in a sense but yet it could be so helpful to the franchise and devastating to the people that are the teams that are competing with them. Can there be anything done that like you were talking about that you can’t get another pick so high or can they weight the system differently to somehow make it I don’t know that there’s any answers to it but it just seems that I don’t want San Antonio to luck into Robinson and Duncan and then get one Bama and then two years later get a second pick and who knows if Dylan Harper might be the greatest thing since whatever and we’re looking at another great run by them and what did they do to get that? They lost. that just doesn’t seem right. So, I agree with you. Um the Spurs propensity for luck is a little overwhelming. Um we’re in the epicenter of it right now. So it feels very very you know I think for us what I kind of keep going back to from a league like if you’re the league and you’re trying to fix something and we keep going back to that kind of concept as though something’s broken and has to be fixed like it’s broken to us right now as Utah Jazz fans because of the fact that we didn’t get the number one pick. It’s probably broken to Washington Wizards fans, but I’m not sure it’s actually a broken league at all. It doesn’t have to be broken. Can’t they improve it though? But I but I think you’d have to get them to understand why they’re what are they like I don’t think it’s bad for the league the Cooper flag went to Dallas. No, it’s great for the league that he goes to a big market team. That’s the point. They have a 1.8% chance. it it’s actually good for the league that he went to a good team. Like he could go to Washington DC, which is a mammothly big market, but if he’s just dueling on a team that’s not any good, that’s not great for the league. Yeah, I don’t know that this was great for the league. I don’t know that this was great for Dallas. I mean, in the short run, sure, but he’s teamed with a 32 and a 33 year old. The 32y old is routinely injured. The 33y old just tore his ACL. I think this could lead to Dallas being stuck in the middle and we got new ownership. We don’t know how wellrun that franchise is or isn’t going to be. We got the Donich trade which seems like a pretty big red flag but it’s still just one moment. Yeah. I just So I mean back to PK’s point I guess you have to like we’re from a league standpoint you got to figure out what you really think is broken. And I I just don’t think that it’s like even this year when we were going through whatever the tank, whatever you want to call it. And like everyone was like, “Oh, they can’t have this. It’s terri.” Like, not sure it was that bad for the league, right? It’s not great for the Utah Jazz on that moment. And certainly the lottery wasn’t very good for the Utah Jazz, but when we talk about trying to fix something or change it, it has to be bad for the league. And I don’t think that what’s going on right now and any of this is actually that bad for the league. Then why’d they find him if it wasn’t so bad for the league? Um I think that was a shot over the bow to make sure it didn’t get any worse. Okay. Well, if it’s worse, that means it’s got to be bad. Yeah. No, it f the league. Okay. So, that was not good for the league and the league find them, right? So, that’s that’s an example of Yes. The league deemed that as bad and they took action. I’m not sure the league sees what we’re talking about as bad and worthy of keep taking action. I think in these discussions it’s best to just follow the money and the TV networks and streaming services just gave the league 76 billion dollar over 11 years. So, the league’s doing just fine. And I would say for people and I would say for people worried about the whole how does a small market rebuild. Oklahoma City, uh, Indiana, Minnesota, these are not glamorous places or massive markets and they’re doing just fine in the playoffs. I mean, we really like we’re about to have Indiana, Oklahoma City, and I mean, hope not. Go Denver. Um, but we’re about to have Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota as the four of the three of the four final teams. It’s pretty hard to argue that market size is dictating performance. Yeah, I’m not I don’t know that people are arguing that. I mean, that that then you get into the real big- time uh conspiracy theory. I mean, I I don’t know that they’re just fine is good enough. They want every last dollar. That’s true. Yes, they do. But but but to the to the dollar point which I don’t disagree with at all. The TV networks gave all the money or the I don’t they’re TV networks anymore. Right. Like streaming services. Yeah. The ser the services gave the league all this money. If Charlotte, Washington, and Utah losing lots of games, that has zero impact on the streaming services. Yeah, understand that. But you’re still you’re still trying to grow. You don’t want to stagnate. Absolutely. I mean, there’s going to be another negotiation one day and there’s already a commissioner and there there multiple clubs thinking about that. And you want to win. Winning’s fun. It’s just great. I’m like, hey, I’m like literally texting Alan Horton, the Timberwolves playbyplay announcer, last night asking if I can do snaps for them if Denver beats Oklahoma City. Like I like Allen a lot, but I don’t like him enough to go to Oklahoma City. So, I’d go to Denver. Um, but like I’m literally trying to figure out how I’m going to Western Conference Final game if Minnesota’s playing Denver. It’s amazing. I’m watching that game last night just going, “God, I want to be there so badly.” So, I mean, I’m with you, but like we’re trying to have a reasonable conversation about fixes and this and that and broken. We got to get out of the lens of just looking at it from the Utah Jazz. We’re trying to fix the league. We got to look at it from the league. I don’t think it’s broken. Do you like any of these players more than others at five? Um, so I really think Ace Bailey has a chance to be really, really, really good. Um, I really like Trey Johnson. I got to tell you what, watching this year versus last year is just an incredible difference. I mean last year literally you’re watching players and you are trying to you are you are grasping for the tiniest littlest. If you remember I came on the air with you last year talked about how much I like Cody Williams. The two players I liked best by Cody Williams were turnovers. Literally turnovers. He burst through a double team, split the double team with an explosion. One threw the ball into the third row of the stands across the way and the other way he lost control of the ball on the dribble. And I thought those were signs of like that he was better than other players in the draft. That’s literally how brutal watching players was last year. This is so different. These guys are all like and the numbers are so different. The numbers on there’s very few players that red flag uh the BYU kid red flags on shooting, but very few kids red flag. Last year, folks, every Stephen Castle red flag and I’m still not sure. Stephan Castle won rookie of the year. I’m still not sure. Like if I’m San Antonio, I’m off him. They can’t play like they can’t have Dearron Fox and Stephan Cast in their back court. You can’t have two guys shooting 30% from three. So like this is such a different ball game. This is Trey Johnson is going to score 20 points a game in the NBA. I’m certain of it. Um I VJ Edum’s just a world class athlete like the cop is Victor Olipo and I don’t think it’s a terrible comp. Um cops are never right, but it’s not a terrible cop. So, I I think those three kids, Ace Bailey, BJ Edgecom, and Trey Johnson are all terrific. And so, one of them’s going to be there at five. Um, I probably like Trey Johnson and Ace Bailey a little bit more than I like BJ Edgecomb, but like BJ, you guys saw him. I mean, he torched BYU. Everyone saw that one up close and personal. That’s that’s a fifth pick. That doesn’t seem too terrible. Well, David, we’re going to leave it right there for now. We will talk to you again next week. let you take a deeper dive into some of the draft possibilities. We’ll talk to you then. Have a good week. Thanks. Uh talk to you soon. Bye. DJPK when we come back. Pablo Mastery, RSL head coach, joins us next. Stay with us. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson. I will say I do think the Jazz probably do need to make a shift away from what they have been doing the last three years which is this scattershot acquisition of talent hoping to get the number one guy and not really having any path forward towards team building of just let’s try a little bit of everything which is I think of what they’ve been doing and I totally understand it like we said you’ve just kind of got a couple of chips on number six and a couple of chips on nine and one on black and whatever you’re just trying to win somewhere if that is what it looks like again next year I think you’re really going to test the fan base and I’m curious if they have the stomach for it. Which again, I think you can accomplish what you accomplish this year in a different method that might win over the fans a little bit better. I might narrow that down and reorganize my gamble or my investment approach. Here, Jake Scott and Ben Anderson every day from 10 to noon on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. We’re joined by RSL head coach Pablo Mastery. Pablo, good morning. Good morning, guys. Pablo, congratulations on calling your shot. You have done it again. Early this season when the team was giving up three, four goals in in different games. And you were asked about the defense. You said, “Well, there’s some things working against us right now.” And uh we’re going to get that ironed out. And sure enough, you don’t have some of the schedule problems you had earlier. And you’ve only given up five goals in the last five games despite injuries and suspensions and all that. Whoever goes out there seems to defend pretty well. So, congrats on that. That that’s no no small feat. And at a goal a game, you know, that would put you in the elite in the league if you could sustain that. So, that that’s really good. But then to the other end of the field, you’ve not made any bold proclamations about uh fixing the attack and how many goals are scored and I assume that that is just much more complicated and maybe you aren’t convinced you have all the pieces of the puzzle to fix that in the way the fan base would really like to see it operating. Yeah. I mean that that’s a great point. I I think defensive is really a collective mindset mentality, right? And I always talk about defending starts with the guys up front. And when you got 11 guys committed, it’s very difficult uh you know to score goals. And when what you need to score goals are are are are players to unlock defenses, right? And so I I think to your to your point, you know, I I think we’re still, you know, trying to get Willie up to speed. I think Willy’s a guy that can create goals um for himself and for his teammates both by his movement in the box for himself and the movement in the box to create space for his teammates. And then the other part is um you know we’re just uh still in the process of of putting Diego in the best position to to be able to to get more goals and set up more plays. um and you know being more selfish in around that area where it doesn’t always have to just pass the ball across the top but we need to shoot and take more shots and and those are personal characteristics of players. You know, I think last year we had, you know, two guys in Chicho and Andreas that were just it didn’t matter where the where where they received the ball, they were putting it on frame. And more times than not, last year we we ended up scoring goals. And so I think it’s a combination between game model, which is basically how we play in the attack and and how we want to find our players in dangerous areas. But at the end of the day, you have to execute and you have to you have to be able to play in really really tight spaces to score the goals. And at the moment, you know, we’re we’re we’re getting, you know, last game we were inside, they’re 18 quite a bit, but nothing came out of it. And so, just that polish on on the on the tip of the spear that that that we need to get right. Um, but but a lot of that has to do with individual characteristics. And so, um, you know, that’s something that we’re all we’re always talking about. We’re always in conversation about. Um, and uh, you know, I think that might take a little bit more time, but in the meantime, if you can hold a sturdy defense, you put yourself in any game. And the other part too, uh, DJ, is you know, this year we haven’t scored a an offensive setpiece goal. And and you know, that’s that’s an area where regardless of who we have as as a poacher up front, um, we’ve got to be able to find mechanisms to to unlock that statistic. How successful can you be in this league if you built the team around defense? Um, well, you know, I think uh I think you can be successful. I I think you can, but I but then you have to build it differently. Uh PK, you know, I think Minnesota is is a good example of this where they’re a team that have 30% possession, which is something that I couldn’t do um because I think the game is really enjoyed with the ball. But they do their they go about it their way. They they get 11 guys behind the ball. They defend for large periods of time, but their their their roster is full of, you know, players that are 61 and and taller. And so all they they do is they set up for set pieces and they got, you know, two two jets up front that are really fast that can play in transition. So that you almost have to build your team that way, right, if you’re going to say we’re we’re not going to have the ball. Fortunately, we’re not. We’re a team that’s built to play with the ball to create a lot of chances. Um but unfortunately we just haven’t had the guy up front this year other than Diego Luna who’s who’s gone beyond his reach uh of scoring goals, right? Like this is not his normal space. We need one or two other guys. Uh and unfortunately at the moment we don’t have that those players, but but that’s what we’re working towards. When you said William Mata is going to create space, I couldn’t help but think of the goal that Diego Luna scored in Dallas, which was great. in a moment of individual brilliance, right? A shot is blocked and the ball falls to him. But the thing I noticed is there were three guys there. The third one wasn’t totally committed to defending him, but there were three guys in the area and two guys definitely knew who he was. They knew what he wanted to do. They knew which foot he wanted to do it with. And the fact that he went to his less preferred left foot and, you know, kind of prodded and poked and tried to figure out, okay, where is the space here? And then got that shot off, that was incredible. But you just you can’t expect that. And the fact the other team this isn’t a game where you know you can you got to play a zone and then have like man principles inside that because there’s so much space. So I can’t say that they’re going to double and triple team him everywhere he goes. And yet they’re often two or three people not far away. So you got to do something else because this isn’t you can’t keep counting on this from him, can you? No. No you can’t. And and that’s why, you know, last game as well and the last few games is, you know, so we’re set up to break down the middle and then once we get down the middle, obviously your wide areas are going to be free to to to play balls in. And and I think you’ve seen it in the last couple games, whether it’s Go or Alex or or Dom, is we get in good crossing positions. And so the the the just based upon our game model, the the the the easiest way for us to score goals is breaking them down the middle, sucking them in, playing it out wide, and then getting into the box. But what’s been happening, uh, DJ, is either the timing of the run is a split second off, or the delivery isn’t in the correct spot to be able to take advantage of that moment. So, the last couple weeks, we’ve been working on that literally the last 20 yards of the field and how we want the runs in the box to be. um and how you know and and how we want those crosses delivered or not not how we want them delivered but how the players should think about delivering the ball. Is it behind the defense because the defense is turning towards their own goal and there’s there’s space to play it in behind or is it getting to the end line and then cutting it back to to a trailing midfielder or trailing 10. So that that that is the the way that you know we can score goals. And the other part too is when you put in dangerous crosses, it can rebound off people’s legs and backs and whatever and because we have numbers in the box, regain percentages as far as scoring goals. So that’s really been an area of focus because you’re absolutely right. It’s impossible to continue to rely on Diego making plays like he did in Dallas in order for us to score goals. So you mentioned Go multiple times. He’s 18 years old. Wow, that’s so young. How do you coach him to make sure everything’s okay? You know, at this moment, PK, I I I’ve I’ve stayed away, right? You know, I’m not one of these guys that has to be involved and and all these different things, but when I see the characteristics of what a good pro looks like, I just stay away and let him be. Right? It’s the moment that either, you know, his ego starts grows, you know, doing something that’s a little bit different, then I’ll help like bring him back in and do these things. But right now, you know, and go went through one of those times or, you know, LA late last year in preseason where, you know, he thought he made it because he’s with he was with the first team and he was training with us and we were in preseason. Had a conversation with him about just being humble and the reason why you’re here is because you’re an unbelievable athlete and you’re a great teammate and you work your tail off and and so don’t think of it anything bigger than that. And what we’re going to do in the next couple years is really refine those those those tools uh the 1v one aspects, the crossing aspects, the shooting aspects. And so he’s been all in on those three uh parts of his game and has has improved drastically, but he’s done that whilst giving the team a great effort, you know, commitment, great defending, uh great speed, and a threat behind. So he’s he’s he’s a he’s a bright young man. He’s a hungry young man. Um, and now he’s getting, you know, his real first feel of of first team football and and doing great with it. But, uh, you know, for as much as I’d like to credit, you know, it’s it’s always about the players, PK. These guys either you you know, you have that ability to to overcome those moments when you’re not playing and stay in the game and stay focused and stay committed so that when your opportunity comes like his did against San Diego, you know, he takes it and he runs. And now now we have player decisions to make with him and Dom, right? And so now we’ve created competition. And when we talk about, you know, uh, winning through development, this is exactly what it looks like is one guy was flying, the other guy wasn’t even on the radar. All of a sudden, this guy’s on the radar. The other guy said saying, “What about me?” And when you say, “What about me?” is when you start teaching about, you know, mental fortitude and how to overcome these moments and and what what you should focus on as opposed to why why well when am I going to get my chance? It’s it’s to double down on the work Tuesday through Friday. And and to be fair, Dom has been fantastic at that as well. So, there’s there’s a lot of good things going on. Um, but there’s a lot of teaching that has to go on as well with these younger players. you have a habit of giving the answers to the test and I always wonder how much players see and and how much they hear and really absorb whether it’s a film session, a training session during the game with Go and you always talk about I want the attackers to defend. I want the defenders to attack, right? You got to be a complete team and and an attacker who doesn’t defend. I don’t know if it bothers you as much as it bothers Jason Christ, but it bothers both of you a lot. I mean, it bo it bugs you both a lot. So, there’s a moment late in the game and everybody’s tired, right? They’ve been running for 75 minutes and Colorado ha or not Colorado um Portland has a throwin right in front of your bench and everyone’s I don’t they’re kind of standing around quite frankly and they throw it in and go runs at the guy and he takes a bad touch and Gooo runs at him some more and the guy basically just kicks it out of bounds. It it wasn’t it wasn’t the most glorious moment for whoever it was. I don’t remember. And Gooo’s momentum carries him out of bounds. As he turns and runs back in, you reach out and slap him on the butt. Do you think that players in that moment like he’s not kidding? That 18-year-old is running and defending like it’s the fifth minute of the game and it’s the 75th minute. It’s like you gave them the answer to the test, but do you think how many people get that? Yeah. Well, that’s the whole thing. And that’s because again I think the what I’ll say about defending in in pro sports is it’s the one thing that is team. It’s the most selfless act because everyone enjoys playing soccer because we have the ball. Everyone enjoys the ball. Everyone hates def not not everyone hates defending but it’s like secondary tertiary. Like you don’t play soccer to defend. You play soccer to attack and win games. However, what I’ve learned in my experience as a soccer player is that defending the right way kills morale. It it stifles attacking plans for your opponents. It breeds doubt into their game plan. And so the more repetitive actions we have defensively where we’re winning balls, the players don’t realize it, but they’re gonna our team’s now gonna uh dictate the game with the ball, with how they like to play, with the spirit that they like to play with. But it doesn’t come without the grasp. And so you can’t, it’s like everything else in life, like you got to work hard to enjoy life. Like it you just don’t vacation is not vacation unless you’re grasping, right? So like that those are the things that I’m trying to and I think that’s what we’ve done in probably the last five or six games is double down on the defending piece. One, we were giving up a lot of goals. So we you know we weren’t changing any mindsets for our opponents and on top of that we weren’t scoring any goals either. So, if we can just focus in on as a team, everyone doing their job in this particular phase of the game to win the ball back and and and what I’ve learned as a player too, uh, DJ, was if you know how you’re going to win the ball back, then it’s then the game is always easy defensively. It’s it’s easier to buy into. When it’s like, ah, you guys you guys win the ball and there’s no instruction as to how what our what our principles are. then it just becomes this this game where you’re just getting rotated left to right, left to right before the team penetrates you down the middle. So defending is a very huge aspect of the game. It’s probably the most boring aspect from a fan perspective, but it’s so critical to affecting psychology for both teams. So when that’s going against you though and the other team is doing all the things that you just said and critical and psychological and all, how do you get your guys from the offensive standpoint not to get down? Yeah, that’s a that’s a great point. You know, I think there’s there’s moments and we talk about oftentimes uh PK, you know, we we’ll do a video session and it’s not about a particular play. It’s more about the feeling of these five minutes, right? And what’s the feel look like and and how do we, you know, there was a game uh a couple weeks back where um it was it was uh they they turned up the screws in in in the second half. I forget what game it was. And they were putting a lot of pressure on us and they kept, you know, running after the ball. And what we kept doing is playing into the speed that they wanted to play at. So we started, you know, they pressed us, the ball went out of bounds, we did the quick throw, and then they pressed us again, and then we kicked the ball long. And and so in in in that little five minute segment, we talked about how do you slow the game down? If they want to speed it up, we have to slow it down. Right. If they want to slow it down, let’s speed it up. And so that’s it’s like golf, right? It’s a game of opposite. You want the ball to go up in the air, hit down on the ball. Yeah. Um, and so it’s these it’s these it’s these same principle, the universal principles that happen in all sports and in life and and they become teaching moments as to how we’re going to get momentum back when a team is defending us really well. If they’re if they’re defending us and they’re going really slow and and they’re being really, you know, they’re they’re willing to rotate, well then let’s rotate them three or four times before we penetrate down the middle. It’s, you know, if they’re coming at us fast, let’s slow the game down, look for our pivots, switch the point of attack, and make them run, right? So, it’s just identifying moments and and more importantly, it’s not about one individual. It’s about the collective understanding how to overcome this moment when momentum is not on your side. So, you think I should hit down on the ball? Huh? Huh. I think you should. Yeah. Well, only if you want it to go up. Only if you want if you want to go up. If you want if you want to skull it, just try to hit under it and the bounce will hit the ball and you’ll blade it across the uh like I often do. That’s always fun. That’s always fun. I love to be off the back of the green with another downhill chip line four thinking how am I going to make double B and then as that ball is just skulling across which is a second and a half seems like it’s 20 minutes. Yeah. Oh my god. It doesn’t stop. It’s never going to stop. I might as well write down an eight now and get to the car. Yeah. That’s right. It’s always tough when you yell in four from the back of the green. All right, Pablo, we appreciate the time. Good luck in Colorado. We didn’t ask you about facing your old team. You’ve done it enough. We just let it go. You’re welcome. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Pablo Mastone, RSL head coach, former Colorado Rapid star and former Colorado Rapid head coach, but done this a few times now. Brian Taylor, real golf radio coast, is going to join us at the top of the hour. PGA Championship. He’s at Quail Hollow. We’ll talk with him in about 15 minutes. Stay with us. Accessing. This is H Sen and Scott and G. Kurt Healing from NBC Sports and Pro basketball talk.com. Ultimately, if you’re in a market this size, you need a break and this lottery did not give it to you and it hasn’t under this new system. I mean, look, Detroit turned it around this year cuz they’d gotten the number one a few years back with Cade and they made some smart moves around him. But this is the third straight year the team with the worst record has fallen to fifth. the league has to reconsider how they’re doing this lottery. I get that this was a reaction to the tanking of the 76ers and and the process. But if the team that’s got the worst record keeps landing this deep, it’s not okay. They need to do something to give these teams like Utah that are not perpetually trying to lose and give them a chance. Catch Hansen Scotty weekdays from noon to 3 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. I’m going to try to do this without cheating, but I got it right here just in case. Nominate the youth sports volunteer that you know for the Hercules Hero of the Week. Submit your nomination at kslsports.com/contest and then listen every Thursday afternoon to JJ and Alex for the winner. Help us celebrate the efforts of those volunteers making an impact with the Hercules Hero of the Week. And it’s sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. It’s an admirable effort. I give it a B minus. I got work. I’m never satisfied. I’m such a perfectionist. Oh my gosh. Question of the morning. Do you want the Jazz to make a move to get Aigor Deon? I do. Travis, I don’t like BYU, but I absolutely love I don’t like I’d love for the Jazz to get here. I don’t like Jagor, but I love BYU. Travis is on board. Yayore. Yayor. I want to see literally Deon has bust written all over him. No, he don’t. I want to see him stacking paychecks. Eric, depends on which pick. Definitely not with a fifth pick. Now, if they can move up with that other pick, then I’m not opposed. Okay. Can they turn 21 into 11 or 13 or nine or something? I think they can if they really want to. To what what spot? I’m not sure obviously, but I know that they can move up if they were so inclined to do it and felt like it was very important to do that. Yeah. Monica. Yes. And whoever we get needs to like Utah. We lost Goar because he didn’t like Utah. Donovan Mitchell too. That’s Travis. You do realize Rudy still has a place in Utah, right? And he absolutely loves it here. He does. And no, Monica does not realize that. She just assumed that Mitchell was another story. He had bright lights. He was He was Hayward. He wanted the bright lights. Bright lights. Yeah. Big city mega team. Yeah. And he didn’t really get it. Uh but I mean, what’s you’re in the NBA making millions? I don’t want to hear it. So now people are posting pictures with Goar around town where Gober is smiling. He’s got his arm around him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Goar talked about it when he was here. He did it in his media interview thing that the whole team went to his place the night before the Wolves played the Jazz. Yeah, we understand that. Yeah. So yeah, I saw where Jaor uh said that he can see himself living here. Let somebody else draft him and then bring him back. Well, next door next door to Travis Hans. Yeah, he said he mentioned Travis, this guy. And he and Travis, their families are tight. Yeah. I mean, Travis might as well be his uncle for sure. Yeah. If they were Polynesian, he would be. Well, they’re not. As our good friend Jack when he says that’s my uncle. Everybody I can’t keep track. Uh so yeah, that I don’t think that’s an issue. And if if we got Jor on a Jazz this year, you Delaney Gibb would be cover would be at the games. Oh yeah, Lee Kamard might have to come up now. You’re just random name dropping people, seeing if you get the coach random name because you’re dropping names here trying to get to see if you get people to text you during the show. You’ve done it before and it works. It’s hilarious. Everybody’s like P is a grump. Nobody likes PK. Yeah, except a bunch of people in power. bunch of athletic directors, a bunch of assistant athletic directors, a bunch of head coaches, coordinators, and assistant coaches, but other than that, nobody likes you. And you have name drop people until they text you, and they do. I’m just looking for ways to help the ball club and the experience. You are so full of it. It would be great for BYU, too. You were looking for ways to entertain you. Why not? And you got to entertain yourself to get through life, right? I agree. It’s hard enough. Let’s not pretend you’re doing anything else. It would be a shot in the arm for BYU’s basketball program. Hey, look at one of our guys. Look what we did our first year and right up the street and then he’d be in the news. I think he has the potential to be a heck of a player, which is what matters the most. All the all the jokes and all that over size. If he can shoot and it’s not the whole boomer bus, you know, if he shoots 25%, yikes, right? And if he shoots 40% he’s going to be an allstar multiple times. But like could he just get to where he shoots I don’t know 36% from three. Just kind of a keep you honest kind of shot. That’s the goal. Yeah. Right. And if he if he has that then with everything else he’s got he’s going to be helping you. Whoever whichever team has him. You can’t deny the 69 the vision. And the thing I try to double team guys. The way he got his hands on deflections and stuff. Yes. He shrinks the court at the defensive end. Just you just play defense. You just stick your arms out and you start taking away passing lanes, right? And then when they try to double him, if he if he can’t be guarded, you try to double him. He just passes over the top. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so It’s so easy when you’re that tall. There’s so many easy answers that aren’t available to mere mortals. Now, he’s got to be able to shoot it. And that’s But but we’ve seen other players figure that out. Shooting for him becomes the word enough, right? He’s got to be able to shoot it and make it enough. He can’t be a brick layer out there. Reed, sure, draft him. Then send him to the miners at BYU. He’s a Cougar fan trying to get him back. Option him back to the college. Loaned him back to Provo. I loaned him back. Optioned him out. Oh, they’ve already stacked paychecks on another guy. Jared, he’s not even ready. So, the Jazz will probably go for it, man. So down. Well, Coop Cooper Flag might be ready. But beyond that, but beyond that, everybody, even Dylan Harper, who everybody’s in love with. That’s why we wanted the number one pick for the team because we believe that Flag can come in and whatever Flag does, he’s still going to be a better player in five years. So, even that. Yep. Brian Taylor, Real Golf Radio. He is at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship. We’re going to talk with him next. Got some big names buried on the leaderboard day one, but big names making moves day two. We’ll get to that next. Stay with us. DJ PK and Brian Taylor joins us. Real Golf Radio co-host at the PGA Championship, Quail Hollow. Brian, good morning. Morning, boys. How are we? Good. You getting fed around the uh course in a cart? They taking care of you? Uh, no. You know, I don’t quite have the same poll that uh, you know, that I had uh, down there at Black Desert. Sorry about that, man. I, you know, I wasn’t I wasn’t feeling very well uh, that day. So, otherwise, I would have stopped and walked and chatted with you, but I didn’t want to be around you. So, just trying to trying to lay low, man. No, I felt fine. And I saw him down there and I still didn’t want to be around him. I I just was like I’m sure he’s like, “Hey, good to see And the next thing I pass him in a cart like waving at him like I’m hiking up the hill. He’s steaming up the hill carrying batteries and waters and all stuff for his cameraman and I’m just like out there on a leisurely stroll. No, I I get I get the optics of it. I felt bad. Yeah. Well, no worry. The optics of PK were uh me following the photographer the 10th hole and PK’s up there on the balcony with all the high rollers in the uh you know the luxury suite thing that they put up there and he’s waving people like he’s you know like he’s the new pope coming out greeting the masses. Is that why you’ve been calling me Leo this week? The Basilica. Yeah, that is why I’ve been call DJ and Leo. Uh yeah, I was hobnobbing with the owners of Reef Capital. I consider myself having spent a very productive week end down in St. George a couple weeks ago. I love that for you. Let’s do it more often. Yeah, for sure. What do you think of That’s pretty cool, though. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. I LPGA. I I watched the gal make the albatross. She dropped one in from uh 212 on 18. And you ever made an Albatross? No. Heck no. No. Yeah, me neither. I uh Bob has I last week in my men’s league and the guys joke keep joking I you know we play from the whites as seniors and um I was on in two on a par five and then promptly four putted. Wow. Ouch. I mean I would consider the three putt par to be one of the one of the more egregious things but the four putt bogey that’s even worse. Yeah. Wow. I know. I know. I know. Was it a big green? Did you have like 130 ft or something on the first P? I smoked for me anyway a three-wood so I was way long. Mhm. And uh it was probably 40 ft and I probably hit I I thought I I don’t know what I was thinking but I was like 20 ft behind and that was a sucky putt. The second putt I thought was a decent putt and it rolled about six, seven feet past and then you know how sometimes when you uh you’re putting your putter will hit the green so you sort of scuff it and it doesn’t go anywhere. That ah that’s what happened. So I was two over for we only play nine. I was two over on the thing but uh and one of them was a four putt uh par five. Dang. So anyway, that’s golf. Little lack of concentration there, PK. Speaking of Albatross, speaking of Albatross though, how about Max Homeman nearly made one hole in one on a par4. Uh that was that was pretty impressive. Uh on the 12th uh no 14th hole today. He’s making he’s making him out to about two feet. Knocks it in for eagle. I mean, that’s pretty good stuff. You know what I love about golf is just what you’re talking about, right? You know, one day you’re four putting. Max Max has basically been four putting his way through this season and all of a sudden he seems to have found something and um you know it it’s hard isn’t it? I mean golf is hard and it’s kind of cool like it was we watched Mroy come overcome all the demons at the Masters. Not that we felt bad for him like his game was out of sorts. It was just a tough thing to do and then to see who’s just kind of gone from you know RDER Cup hero and and contender and winner on the PGA Tour to you know obscurity and now he’s bouncing his way back and u and having a day. So, here’s hoping he has a weekend. Uh, and Tony Feno the same way, right? I mean, I think I think Tony could use that a little bit. I’d love to see Tony have a nice day today. We visited with him yesterday after his round. And, you know, he just he seems he seems pretty determined. He he wasn’t really wasn’t really there for the experience like he’s he he knows he’s got some things he needs to do and prove and um we’ll see. I thought his ball striking was much better yesterday as the round went on. Colin Morawa was making a move this morning and then a double bogey at 18. We’re seeing a lot of double bogeies. Uh you have a theory on why so many double bogeies? Well, I think that’s the nature of this golf course. And by the way, if I’m not mistaken, he doubled he made double bogey on 18 yesterday uh as well. And and he really tried to pull off a a dumb shot that led to that. And you know, there’s a lot of criticism about this golf course u with the mud balls and with the you know, Hunter Mayhem called it a soulless golf course. the Kardashian comparison continues to raise its head. But, you know, um I I think these what I’m what I’m taking away from this is these guys are wanting to hit the perfect shot every time, not really wanting to get their clubs too dirty. And they’re you kind of have to around here, especially if you get out of position. And uh so I was a little surprised that some of these guys haven’t just taken their medicine, you know, put it where they needed to make their bogey and move on and eliminate the double bogeies. I think they’re just uh determined to hit the hit the great shot every single time and and that’s kind of the nature of I think with the soft golf course. Uh, also I think it it gave all of us the the idea that everyone is just going to go boat race this thing, right? We’re going to see 20 21 under. The difference being that the Greens were able to with that subair system were able to maintain their firmness. And so guys were coming off, you talked to Tony about it, talked to Patrick Fishburn about it. You know, it’s this weird feeling of soft underfoot, but then watching it bounce like a concrete up on the greens. And so a lot of guys going long shortsiding themselves, that kind of thing. So I think the golf course surprised a lot of people yesterday and how difficult it played. And um yeah, I think I think there’s going to be some adjustments made. I’m surprised Morava doubled the but I mean there’s look 18th is a long hole. It’s 500 yards. It’s uphill. It’s got water down one side. It’s got bunker strategically placed in the other. So yeah, you get a little too uh you get a little too uh after it and you’re going to get in trouble on that hole. I think what Sheffller was complaining about is if you hit it where you want to and then it’s all sloppy when you get there. And so he’s talking about, well, let’s make an adjustment in this situation if you hit it where you want to. I can understand his point, but the rules are applying for everyone, so it should all to flush out. This one’s a tough one because it kind of is the same thing as a divot in the fairway. And I’ve been pretty vocal about the fact that I think you got to have relief if you’re in a divot in a fairway. I agree 100%. I mean, it’s Look, here’s the thing. People say, “Well, it’s rub of the green. Golf should just be played. Sometimes you get good bounces when you hit Sometimes you get bad breaks when you hit good shots. You get good breaks when you hit bad shots. It happens. Look at Black Desert. How many guys hit a bad drive, it goes in the lava and bounces straight across into the fairway. So people people that would argue that you should get relief from the divot would also be saying, “Well, if you hit it in the lava and it bounced back in the fairway, should you have to go back and put it in the lava?” Yeah. And I I I guess I I I see their point, but when you hit it, what Scotty is saying, when you hit it exactly where you’re supposed to hit it and you get penalized and it cost you a couple shots, that doesn’t seem equitable because the ball does. Not everybody’s golf ball picks up mud equally in the same spot, right? And so I think that’s what he’s trying to say. I get it. Is there going to be more bad weather? or is this course going to dry out and we’re going to have less of this in the uh everything will kind of flush out here over the weekend? You know, as far I think there’s a chance of some some showers coming in tomorrow um tomorrow morning, but otherwise it’s supposed to be pretty good. I don’t think it’s severe like it has been leading into the tournament. Uh there’s a little bit of breeze and the sun has been really bright. So, it’s amazing how much the golf course has dried out. Even just watching this morning from yesterday, balls are rolling out in the fairway a little better than they were yesterday. So, I I think the golf course is going to be okay. I’m hoping we don’t take on any in too much more water, but um here you see making a move. Um I think we just need to see some guys come out today. I mean, that leaderboard, sorry, but if you’re like the PG of America trying to sell everybody on this weekend, that’s not exactly the leaderboard you were hoping for, right? So, no, you know, I I also kind of blame it on the pairing. Whenever we see one, two, and three in the world get paired together. I go back to Tory Pines when it was Tiger, Phil, and Adam Scott. I mean, it wasn’t good, right? I mean, Tiger did end up going on to win, but that pairing was uh was was kind of a debacle. So, I think back on Tiger and Phil getting paired to the Ryder Cup. I don’t know if I like that pairing, that one, two, three pairing just seems to I don’t know. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll go out and shoot fireworks today and change my mind. Well, yeah. I mean, you go down to you can roll down to like tied for 24th or something. There’s a couple of big names, but I mean, they hit a bonanza in the Masters with TV ratings, and this thing might be in the toilet if it continues. Yeah. I hate to say it that way, right? But I mean, I think this is where the proponents of limited field events and no cut events, I think this is where they’re coming from when they’re saying, “Hey, look, as sponsors, we spend a lot of money, you know, to have the best players in the world here, and we don’t want them to miss the cut and be gone for the weekend.” Um, not not to take anything away from, you know, the Gerards and the Vegases and all these kind of guys, but they don’t exactly move the needle. That said, I mean, I I love it for Johnny Vegas. If Johnny Vegas, uh, you know, Ryan Gerard, one of these guys, if they get hot this week and they win the PGA, good for them, right? Like that’s to me, I I love the idea that, you know, it doesn’t matter what your resume is coming in, you play the best that week and you’re a major champion, you can change your life. I I actually love that about golf and so I don’t want that to go away, but it it is a little a little tough to little tough to sell the, you know, hey, look at this leaderboard. You should definitely not play golf Saturday and stay home and watch this. So, what you’re saying is get invited, no cuts. It’s about time you’re endorsing Liv. Yeah. No, that’s I appreciate you trying to go there. Um, you know how I feel about that. And it was awesome. In the middle of your answer, he sat up straight, her head perked up, and there was no doubt in my mind. Here comes a live a live remark. Well, it’s just he just described a live right there. The live tour. That’s what he I do. I knew deep down he was appreciating it. He just can’t say it because Casper’s always running his mouth. Yeah, I’ve been I’ve been beholden to Bob for 25 years now. I can’t say anything that I of my own opinion. So, the PGA does tend to have this happen more often. You can’t have a career slam for Rory without Rory winning a PGA. So, it doesn’t always happen at the PGA, but it does seem like we have more one-time major winners. Somebody who was living around, I don’t know, 50 or 75 on the money list who comes out and wins this. You got any theory on why? Yeah, you know, we talked about this coming in. Um, and I was actually surprised to learn if you go back, I mean, at least in recent history, what you’re saying is true. You’re looking at Shawn McKill, Rich Beam, you know, even we’re going back for those names. We’re going back. The last decade, it’s been more of a 50/50 proposition. It’s even been a little better than that. I at least according to the the stat that I saw since 2015 and Jordan Spe Masters win. Um the the last one to win a major outside the top 50 was Phil uh when he was 50 almost 51 years old. So, it has kind of lend itself to the top 50 in the world. But I hear what you’re saying and I don’t know why that is. I the the PGA of all the majors feels like it struggles a little bit with what what is its identity, right? What what is the what is it that makes the PGA unique? And in some some of the criticism is that it looks a lot like a PGA regular PGA Tour event. And some suggest that we in order to help thwart that you shouldn’t play it at a golf course that regularly hosts a PGA Tour event. So, you know, I I don’t know about that. I mean, I think Quell Hall is a fine test. It’s unfortunate that the weather got him how it was. Otherwise, they’d be playing firm and fast and tough. And I think Justin Thomas won at what, 7, eight under par back in 2017 in August when it was that way. So, um, but but yeah, I mean, the Masters the Masters has it down like it’s a that recipe is baked. Like they have got that figured out. It’s going to be drama. It’s a limited field, great golf course, everybody loves it. And, you know, and the the US Open is just going to be hard. You know, you’re just going to see train wrecks. That’s just their identity. And then the open championship is less golf, which is awesome to see, you know, and and the PGA is like somewhere, you know, where is it? And yet when you look back on it that man, there’s been some amazing finishes, some great drama, you know, over the years. And so every time I want to discount the PGA, the weekend tends tends to deliver. So we’ll see what happens this weekend. We appreciate the time, Brian. You’re the man. You can go back out to uh riding around in golf carts and looking down on the little people. You know, they don’t not only Excuse me. Sorry about the voice. Uh, not only did they not give us golf carts, we don’t even get inside the rope lanyard. So, we’re just amongst the people. We’re the PKs of the week uh out here at the PGA. Disrespected once again. No, man of the people. Isn’t that the highest? Is that what you would say? I mean, even the Pope’s a man of the people, right? He’s out there. Yeah. All I know is he was hobnobbing with the billionaires. That’s all I know. Right. There you go. There you go. Well, they asked me to come up there. What am I going to do? Tell them no. Come on, PK. They were hobnobbing with you. Let’s get it straight. that actually, you know, there was probably a little bit of that going on because before they were billionaires, they listened to DJ and PK. So, that worked on their way up and they were inspired. Maybe I probably just just helped them kill 20 minutes getting to work. That’s more our role in life here, Brian. All right, you guys do it well. We appreciate it, Brian. Enjoy the weekend and the show’s tomorrow morning and we will talk to you again down the road. You got it. Thanks, boys. Brian Taylor, Real Golfer Radio. He and Bob Casper are live tomorrow morning right here on the zone. All right, DJ PK, when we come back, everything you missed in this show, including the NBA playoffs. Stay with us. Hey, bro. You hear us every day with our crazy opinions. Hey, how you doing? Well, now it’s time to hear from you. Hey, great show. Download the KSL Sports app and fire off your thoughts with the call-in tab on the bottom of your screen. This show is fantastic. It’s the one that captivates me the most. You can tell PK to stop singing. Cheap. Let Jake and Ben know what you really think of the jazz. Tell Hans and Scotty about your favorite barbecue spot or what color of tie JJ should be wearing on TV. The best entries will be played on the air. Download the KSL Sports app now and hit the call-in button to let your voice be heard. I think you guys do an incredible job. This is 975, the KSL Sports Zone. None of Slacker headlines brought to you by Trajan Wealth. Call Trajan today your local trusted financial fiduciary. Trajan Wealth 8018997600 or visit their website at trajunwealth.com. Oh yeah. Initial consultation complimentary. I mean the fiduciary advisers of those folks man I’m telling you they really rock your world. Things we’ve been talking about this morning. David Lock came on all sorts amped up over the draft. He loves himself the draft. Still narrowing down what to do at number five. Not sure how to fix the problem that quite honestly can’t be fixed. And if everyone’s making this much money, is it that big a problem? Well, the league doesn’t view it as a problem apparently. Then why’ they find them? We do cuz we’re here. I think the problem is if you’re trying to eliminate tanking that becomes a perpetual needle in a haystack thing. I don’t know that you can do it. I I One player is so valuable for so many years. If you get the right one, it’s worth losing some games. How many games did the Jazz lose this year on purpose? 10, 15, 20. Oh, I would say certainly 10. They could have 60. Okay. They weren’t going to win 75 games. I mean, some of those games they just got beat, right? But they still lost on purpose. I don’t think it’s 60. I do. I think they had they set out they they knew what it took. It’s not by accident. They did know what it takes. They definitely set out to do it and some nights they accomplished it. That was a very wable game. More often than not, we dodged We dodged one right there. Dodged a W. I think the question is how many games did they want to win? Very, very few. 15 maybe. They were fine with winning 15. They knew what the results needed to be. You know what the results need to be virtually every year. There’s a pattern. If you have this amount of wins and this amount of losses, you will finish in this spot. So, I would say darn near every one of them. You go listen to David Lock, wherever you get your podcasts, everything’s posted, all the uh hour the show hourby hour and all the interviews. I think the most important thing to take from all this, you know, you can’t change what you can’t change obviously. So, you draft in fifth and the most important thing is that you have the opportunity to get a high quality player in the end. That’s really all that matters. And who is that high quality player? Yeah. And obviously flag is the is the uh kingpin there, but I mean that’s over with. So, uh you can’t worry about that now. Now you got to worry about getting yourself a quality player. And I see no reason why they don’t get a quality player. They may not get the highest quality player. Probably not. All right. That didn’t work your way. The reason the reason to tank this year is that there were a lot of good prospects available. So go get one and help them develop. I believe that they can do that and possibly even get two. Aha. The 21st pick. Need the diamond in the rough. If they draft at 21st, right? Maybe they move up. Maybe there’s somebody that’s committed to at 13 or 10 or whatever. Yeah. All the stuff that they had at their disposal, they still have so many draft picks. Do you want the Jazz to make a move to get a Demon? That is the question of the morning. Many people are weighing in on that. We talked about Deon and his uh his size, all the measurables. Uh you were pointing out that you pointed out a long time ago, he’s going to interview. Well, so this is the time of year he got to be crushing it and moving up in the mock drafts, right? Look and see where he is today, then look and see where he is, you know, three weeks from now. Yeah. He blows you away with his life experience. He’s a teenager. Which language would you like me to speak? Maturity matters, though. There’s no question. How you interact with older people, right? You’re going to be playing with veterans who are 10, 15 years older than you. uh how you’re gonna handle the money, how you’re gonna handle the fame, how you gonna handle all the the travel, just the attention that he’s I assume had in Europe that he had here without question he had here and the way he gave his press conference with when he was leaving was full of humility. You have to be impressed with the kid to be this far away from home. Uh, and any comfort that you’ve ever had is long since gone. He’s comfortable in the uncomfortable. Well, that’s what you get. Leaving home and moving halfway around the world, right? And that’s good because the NBA is going to make you uncomfortable. It’s not a normal life. He’s going to go who knows where he’s going. We have no idea where he’s going to go, but he’s unless it’s here, he’s going to go to a place where he hadn’t spent a whole lot of time. And so that shouldn’t be an issue. He has the ability to adapt. We’ve already seen that. And we’re we’re asking for the minimum of effectiveness in shooting. We’re not asking for just a dead eyee Jeff Hornosk type player. Got to keep them honest. Yeah. Because you can do all those other things. If the Jazz had an opportunity to get him, man, I would be 100% on board. The Denver Nuggets win game six. You got a game seven. You ready? Sunday 1:30. ABC’s got it. Game seven, Nuggets Thunder. Yeah, feel the tension, the drama. Well, I intend to watch the game. Denver’s bench was much better at at home in game six than they had been throughout the series. Can they do it again? Also, uh Christian Brown came out with a big game. Yeah, you know, anything can happen in in a single we say anything can happen in in a game seven, but really anything can happen in a singular game in the postseason. You can have I mean look at Indiana over Cleveland when Cleveland had its guys. They had a 40-point lead at halftime and that stuff doesn’t happen. You would it literally had never happened before and so that that’s why coaches just have uh their stomach turning. They are just full of Ajida between now and Sunday because who knows who’s hot, who isn’t, we saw BYU, the one kid for Alabama just lighten it up and then the next game not so much. It happens. Now, for all the people complaining last weekend, the quick turnaround from an overtime game Friday to a Sunday afternoon game, this is Thursday to Sunday, so there’s plenty of time. The game seven, we ought to see their best stuff. Oh yeah. Charter and Denver to Oklahoma City is not much. Not that far. Shouldn’t see a 17 to8 first quarter again. I wouldn’t think so. Game six tonight, Knicks and Celtics. If New York wins, they’re on to the conference final. If Boston wins, it’s back to Boston for game seven Monday night. So, there are the stakes at MSG, the arena of your youth. I wouldn’t mind seeing a game seven, but it’d be kind of fun to have the Knicks do it. But I mean, New York, you know, when that thing gets going, man, and we we’ve all seen it. If you haven’t been there, you still seen it. You know what it’s about. That is an awesome place to go for sure. Obviously, we talked to Pablo Masani. He came on to talk about this weekend’s game with Colorado. They’re defending better. Where are they going to find the goals? They’re hoping Aata is the guy that he can finish. I think in Aata, Dvita can be the guy. And then you got go Zo. I mean, they can have a field day with that kid’s name. There goes Go Zo. Go Zo. Go go go go go go go. That was pretty good. I know you know it cuz it was I can feel it in my soul. Yes, it was awesome. And you are much like the Kardashians. You’re soulless. That was an awesome line by Hunter Mayan. I just cannot congratulate him enough. How often do PGA golfers uh rip off quotable lines and all that? Seems like it’s uh like the driving a golf ball down the middle. Get up there, do your do your five or 10 minutes, get out of there. Uh yeah. Yeah. They they may not be the most glib people. Yeah. John Daly would drop a line here or there, but on the whole, but that was good work by Hunter Mayan. You got the PJ championship on over there. Anything good happening? Anybody making a move here? It seems like we’re getting guys stringing pars together now here the last hour or so. It actually uh logged me out. What I can tell you right now, Jonathan Vegas still seven under. So, we got that stroke back. JJ Spawn five under. Ma Matthew Pavon, uh, Gerard all at five under as well. One back at four under. I can tell you right now, right now, there’s nothing more permanent and evident. I have it up on the TV than right now. I’m going to go home and watch it. Get locked into the second round. I just see what’s up, man. A lot of players. I mean, they were golfing all day long yesterday. That was awesome. Felt a little bit like the British Open. Get over there for the Open Championship and they’ll they’ll give you 14, 15 hours of golf. Just keep going. I like D Shambo yesterday. Hit his seven iron, 230 yards over water. He’s an animal. He just is, man. He is. And he knows it. Yeah. It was like the way he holds his arms when he putts. Doesn’t it feel It looks awkward. It looks like you’d be stiff. Stiff. Stiff and awkward. Those are two words. Yeah. Uh but but I did see that shot as seven iron 223 yards. Got to carry the water. Bang. Yeah, it was like a half an inch, two inches away from a hole in one. Yep. Very close. All right. Anything else we talked about with the people today? Just had Brian Taylor on. If you want a little PGA, you can go back and listen to that. A beautiful sports weekend here at a time of year that we need it. Little basketball, a little hockey, little golf, a little baseball. Yeah, you can mix it all up. The rivalry weekend in baseball with the lot of cross town interstate. Yeah. Yankees, Mets at the top of that list. Dodgers, Angels. Angels aren’t really holding up their end of the deal. Yeah. For But it’s not every day the Mets sign a free agent away from the Yankees and then they get together again. Let the booze cascade. Yeah, he’s going to have to face that. But he knew that going in. He’s got millions that ought to cushion cushion the blow. Oh yeah, he has the Swansto literally has more money than he can ever spend. Unless he was the most irresponsible spender of money in the history of irresponsibility of spenders of money. $765 million. It’s a nice check. Yeah. Amazing. It’s going to be 50,000 against one. They’re gonna try to get on me. You know, it’s part of it. Whatever they do, they have a right to do it. Man, it’s not even didn’t care about the other uh the other I don’t know what it’ll be 30 people in the dugout by the time you got all the players in the Yeah, but he’s in right field, though. So, he’s out by himself out there. Yeah. And when you’re in the batters box, you tend to feel alone. Nobody can help you then. That’s the great equalizer. Once you step in that batter’s box, doesn’t matter what your daddy did, doesn’t matter anything. It’s it’s a it’s a team game to an extent, but it’s one-on-one and no one can do anything. No one can really help the pitcher. And I mean, you play defense behind him, but no one can really help the batter in that moment. You remember when I was coaching youth at, you know, young age and that guy kind dad comes up to me, you know, why do you have my son so low in the batting order? I said his left foot. [Laughter] The kid was deathly afraid of the ball. He was bailing in the box as soon as the pitcher would start his warm-up. I said, “He’s afraid of the ball. Look at his left foot. He wants no part of it. This is This game isn’t made for everybody.” What’ the dad say? Well, how can we fix it? Take him out there and chuck it to him a 100,000 times. I mean, how can you get better at anything over and over? He’s in order for that kid to hit, his number one issue is overcoming a fear of the ball. Till you get past that, everything else. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. You got to start with the foundation. Yeah. And first thing you got to be able to do is dig in. It sounded cold, but don’t you want truth? There it is. I didn’t say your kid sucks. Why in the world is he out here? You’re wasting my time. I didn’t say that. That would be worse. You give him something constructive. It’s like this is the problem. You fix that problem and then you can move on. Next thing next thing will be well look at his hands. Where where are his hands? Yeah. But when when you do that, that’s a sign of being afraid of the ball. And that was the great thing. Once you step in that box, it it shows exactly where you’re at. That’s why it’s such an awesome sport. Did you see the story about the 49ers selling minority share of the uh 6% was it? Yeah. And the quote uh it’s a family asset allocation decision. Wow. You got got some money there based on the wants and needs of various family members. I want some money. It’s tied up in the team. I don’t care about that. Just sell 1% of the team and give me the cash. So, it’s money, but it’s not liquidated money. Family asset allocation decision. That’s that’s a mouthful. I’ve never had So, what do you get? I always wonder what these owner and I suppose it depends on the team and the whoever the majority you know owns the majority of the of the franchise like what do you get for that? I mean you get to sit there and make decisions. You get to sit in the draft room. Yeah. You’re not going to get to make decisions, right? But you get to sit in the draft room during games. Okay. Why don’t you just buy a box? What do you need to buy the team for? Now I guess the team to have an ownership to say your ownership. You buy the box your money doesn’t go up. You buy the team goes up. You do. That 2% is growing as these teams get to be worth more and more. Yeah. I was told that Hatback went to Sarver wanted like a hundred million in. What do I get? And he said good seats. Yeah. Uh I want a little more than that. Right. I mean, it’s a for the for the folks buying in, I assume it’s an investment and I it would be cool to say you own a piece of the Niners. Yeah. And apparently this is going on with other clubs. The Chargers are looking to sell an 8%. They’re worth so much money now, right? They can pull some money out, get some of the the cash and go on. And it costs so much money. Can one individual really buy it? Seems like that’s a a big ask, right? And it seems like nobody wants that kind of I think the pandemic did this. It’s like everybody wants to be diversified, right? I mean, we just heard with the uh with the sale of the of Ral Salt Lake. Yeah. Right. There’s and somebody owns 70%. Well, yeah, but in the pre case of the previous ownership, that 70% was split among people, right? So, and then you spread your money out across eight teams, eight leagues, eight different countries and park your park your millions in different clubs. So far out of my league. That’s strategy most of us don’t have to think about. Right. Right. All right, DJ PK, when we come back, your feedback. A lot of people weighing in. Edgar Demon, should the Jazz draft him? He’s not really slotted to go fifth. Maybe that’ll change. He’s not really slotted to go 21st. They probably have to make a move. Should they do it? We’ll get to that next. Stay with us and it’s all over almost here. Don’t go nowhere. Don’t miss your chance to win big every week on the zone. This week on Win Ticket Wednesday, you can win tickets to Judith Priest and Alice Cooper live at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater on October 12th. Tickets are on sale now liveation.com. Listen to the zone all day Wednesday for your chance to win. Judas Priest, you got another thing coming. Question of the morning. Do you want the Utah Jazz to make a move to go get Aigor Demen Scott? No. I love Aigor and I don’t want him on the Jazz. The reality is any player coming out of Provo will face overwhelming criticism from half the Jazz fan base. No matter what happens, I want him to go somewhere else and develop. Average homeboy. Nobody cares about that half of the fan base anyway. The rivalry and all things, including the NBA draft. I love the Cougars and their fans. Come on, they’re decent people. Zack at five. Absolutely not. If he’s available at 21, and he won’t be, then sure. Yeah. No one’s saying five. That would surprise me. The question is make a move up there that second half of the lottery and see if you can get them there. Yeah. But it’s interesting in that these picks that they’ve had the last two years, nothing has changed. They were slotted to draft this position. They drafted that position. Trader Danny not living up to not living up to the rep. Where’s the move? Where’s the What does surprise me that there was nothing. Maybe this year’s the year, right? It’s got to happen at some point, right? Yeah, it does. It does. Yeah, I agree. Totally agree. That’s that was the premise of the question is we’re getting reports that he’s doing well and they’ve been not stagnant, but they’ve just kept what they’ve had. But are we looking in the right place? In what way? I mean, I get your logic. Okay, let’s uh let’s move from 21 to 12 or whatever. What about moving five to three or two? They’re not taking a Jagger with two or three pick. I know. That’s why we’re looking in the wrong place. They’ll be looking over here at a couple kids at Ruters. Even better. I wonder what the odds are of that. I would think slim. I think two is very slim. I think if anything happens there, then let’s see if there’s a Giannis deal. That’s what to me that’s what the that’s where the two pick is headed. If it’s moving. Yeah, you’d have to really really love him almost to the point of Cooper Flagl like because my thought would be you’d have to give up a lot. Not obviously the five pick but two or three other things too. They’re coming for Kesler. Yeah, I’d be hesitant on that one. Yep, I hear you. You’ve invested a lot of time developing a young guy. How about you enjoy enjoy some of that now? Now that he’s at the point where he’s good enough, I mean, they can say whatever they say. Actions speak louder than words. And they sat him because they were afraid he was good enough to help win games. Well, think Danny Ray sort of blasted him at the exit meeting, but Danny Ray didn’t show up at the exit meeting this year. We have not heard from him yet. No. I may go over to his house. That should help. That should make a difference. Danny. Danny. Someone else answers the door. Can Danny come out and play? I just I I got a question for Danny Ray. Maybe I’ll go over to Riverside when the weather gets better and just sit there. Now you’re talking. Sit there all day. Gotta show up at some point. Sit there at the first tea. Yeah, you gotta show up at some point. Coming into the grill at some point. Guy’s gonna get hungry. I was invited to play there. Yeah, I played there a few times and I got there way early and I thought, uh, well, I’ll just stay off to the side over by the gym and, you know, just kind of be do what you do. Try to stay low profile. It’s so funny. Your public persona and your private persona are so different. You confuse so many people. And so I’m standing way over to the side there. guy comes on, PK, if you want to come over, you can hit some balls. And he announces it on the speaker on the line. Not yelling at you from the deck speaker like first. PK, if you’d like to come hit some golf balls. I know. That’s awesome. Kind of blew my undercover. You try that. You always do that. You’re like, “Oh, so and so doesn’t know me.” like, “Yeah, they do.” The worst one. You’re worse for all your gut instincts and all, you know, Spenc doesn’t know who I am. He knows. He does, too. He absolutely does. I don’t. Spence is way into sports. He knows so many media people. He knows so many. And he absolutely knows you. Yeah. That big You wrote about Utah basketball for a decade and he didn’t know who you were. He doesn’t know. It didn’t even have to do with you being on TV. No, you don’t know me. You are so You are so wrong. You’ve never been more wrong. And you’ve been wrong. Oh, I’ve been wrong. I’ll be wrong again. Man, people are so down. Not that Hunter. Oh, why not draft Aigor? They’re going to suck regardless. Might as well go full-fledged homer. BYU will just be the new Jazz G-League team. People are just so down right now. It is going to turn around. I don’t know how quickly, but it’s going to turn around. And and admittedly, this, you know, this this sucks. But that’s why that’s why Ryan Smith’s tweeting out, “Had to go out for a run.” I literally yelled, “You think he swore?” Uh, I I don’t know. Let’s find out. Why don’t you go over to his house, knock on the door, and ask him? Oh, I can’t get past the guards. You got bigger money. He’s actually one of the most available people in the in the whole organization. It is hard to speak to some people, but not not him. He he he’ll be out there. How many and I think we have Larry H. Miller to thank for that. You know, that’s the role model. He saw how it works. He thinks that’s what an owner supposed to do and he does it. Yeah. Well, ju speak to the people. You own the team, man. Exactly. How many BYU players have played for the Jazz? Not very many. I know Andy Tolson did. Uh did our W was Arou here for a minute? Yeah. I think he might have been here for a minute. Yeah, but but I mean seriously, I don’t think he played 50 games. I don’t even know if he played 10. It was very quick. Has there been anybody else? And Tulson, uh, man, going back, I don’t know. Up those early 80 teams, two guys. I mean, there haven’t been that many NBA guys, so understood. Not Jimmer. No. Sean Bradley. No. I was thinking way back like before. Yeah. Yak, you’re our historian. Yak, I’m currently looking, but the two I know of are Hafa and Andy. Yeah, that might be it. How many youths have played for the Jazz? Obviously, Pace. Oh, yeah. Pace. Tom Chambers did. Yep. You’re right. I don’t know. Before I mean, back in the 80s when they were drafting a lot, maybe somebody made it. Maybe it’s two and two. Maybe it’s tied. Oh, two two depending on who’s keeping records. They have that big debate on football. Yeah. Get uh get Jagor and Debbonsa. Robbie says, “If they draft Demon, I’d buy tickets to go watch him play. Otherwise, I’ll probably not go to a single game.” Okay. Well, we got one fan. There it is. Do it. Make the uh financial investment. Nolan, no. Don’t draft him. I live in San Antonio and I’m hoping he goes to the Spurs. Ah, the Spurs. Dallas. Don’t ask dumb questions. Yes. Draft Demon. [Laughter] We have one more entry in to the BYU guys who played for the Jazz. Kevin Durant. Nope. Fred Roberts. Fred Roberts. Okay. So, Doug Doug, thanks for the assist on that when you texted that. All right. So, that’s three. Now, can you find any more youths or or is it a two? I’m I was looking for BYU as a Utah right now. Did Jeff Judkins come through for a minute? Yeah. Did he? That would be three. I just thought of that. I think he did, but again, a guy who played in the 70s and would have been here in the 80s before we got here. Yeah. But I I think he did briefly. I think he briefly came through, but I’m not positive. Judy did play for the Jazz. Bang. There it is. It’s three to three. All right. All right. There’s probably somebody else out there. We don’t know. Wouldn’t surprise somebody in the 70s or 80s, right? Maybe even the 60s. No, you just weren’t good in the 60s. I thought they were in the final four. Well, the Jazz didn’t get here till the late 70s. They went to two final fours in the 60s. Oh, then that’s a problem. Yeah, I just don’t think those guys played long enough to get to the Okay, how about the Stars? That could happen. Ron Boon went to Idaho State. Do we get to count that? No. Nope. Nope. It’s not Utah. No, it’s Northern Utah. Southern Idaho. It kind of is. I understand that. But it’s it’s close enough. I get it. Yeah. I can’t be bothered to look that up. He’s moved on. I’m still researching. Yeah. I don’t know if you’d be able to find that. I suppose you could. You might have to go through every single person on the team. They They had to have had some players, you would think. Probably somebody out there. Something to work on this weekend. Yeah. Maybe Jake and Ben will have it for you next. They’re coming up right here on the zone.
The entirety of DJ & PK for May 16, 2025:
HOUR ONE
• Recapping the night in sports
• Chris Anderson, Eer Sports
• Chris Karpman, Sun Devil Source
HOUR TWO
• What is Trending
• Hot Takes or Toast
• PGA Championship leaderboard lacks stars
HOUR THREE
• David Locke, SEG Media
• Pablo Mastroeni, Real Salt Lake
• Should the Utah Jazz draft Egor Demin?
HOUR FOUR
• Brian Taylor, Real Golf Radio
• Slacker Radio Headlines
• Feedback of the Day
