Utah Jazz play-by-play David Locke talks ECF & WCF and Jazz offseason
Joining us now, he is the play-by-play voice of the Utah Jazz, David Lock. David, how are you, David? I’m great, guys. I you know, I kind of um Yeah, I try. Yeah, the fly fishing thing doesn’t work for my brain. No surprise. Too busy. Yeah, that that’s that’s not a shocker. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s great and it’s neat and that’s super. But as I once said to someone when they asked me my perfect activity is it’s either when I fly down a mountain as fast as I can on skis that seems to bring me zen or if I’m on a road bike with a podcast or something in my ears and scenery and speed and then I seem to get to my equilibrium of zen. So those are the things I need to get to where I need to. So, you need physical exertion and then you need some type of mental entertainment and then you need to throw in a little bit of God’s majesty. Yeah. And then that equals to whatever speed my brain is going. It makes me feel like I’m in a total zen of like comfort and calmness, which seems really contradictory. Maybe something I should need to be talking to someone about. That’s okay. Uh I have somebody who can help you there. Yeah, seemingly she comes up on every show I’m involved in. Maybe I should take note. Hey, we’re trying to get that clientele list up and going. Hey, uh I don’t think that’s gonna last time I checked the Miss Society, that shouldn’t be that hard. Yeah. No, there there’s no doubt about that. Hey, uh by the way, uh a blast from the past came up today on the show and I’m like, you know who was a big fan of that guy was David Lockach. Shane Badier. No way. How did he come up? I don’t even remember how he came up. We had a Duke guest on and we were talking about great dookies. One of the most controversial things I ever did like in my days as a talk show host on whatever station we were on at the time um was I did my top 100 NBA players and I had Shane Badier ahead of Carmelo Anthony. That is pretty controversial and people like freaked and I was like yeah one helps you win. I didn’t and I also even brought up like you talk about the Mount Rushmore of David Lockach of affection towards players. Kevin Martin was on that list too. Yes, he was quite an efficient player though. He never won so there was something wrong with him on the other side of things probably. All right. Uh Shay Gilis Alexander uh obviously has been a bit of a lightning rod with the fouls, but Hans stumbled on some numbers earlier in the show that uh you know actually it’s not that remarkable of a run that he’s on in turning trips to the free throw line. Where are you at on the he’s being uh treated differently by officials than maybe other players? It feels to me like Jaylen Brunson and Shay Gilders Alexander, the two players that have somehow not been impacted by the league rule change midFebruary last year where they changed the way that you you couldn’t dive into, you know, the way Luke and some of these guys were diving into players. It may be because they’re both so ground and hesitationbased and balancebased that they’re getting their defenders. I mean, they’re very similar actually if you get into it. And so it it may be that what they’re doing is getting their defenders off the ground and and you know, getting them in some manner in which they’re offbalance and so then they’re losing their plane. It’s not the same thing as just when you drive and dive your shoulder into somebody. And so maybe that’s what these two guys do because there are some real similarities to them and they do seem like the players who have been have not been impacted by the rule change of a year and a half ago, February. Hey David, I want to take you back to 2019 when the big trade comes down. Paul George and OKC soon’s Shay Gilis and I think it was six or seven picks at that at that time. What was your thought on that trade? Oh, that Oklahoma City had taken the Clippers to the cleaners because they had all the leverage because Kawhi Leonard, if you recall, was telling the Clippers he would sign with them if they traded for Paul George and everyone knew it. And so Oklahoma City knew that to for them to be able to get the deal done to get Paul George in LA, they they had to give it all up. Shay Gilbert Alexander had had a really good rookie year. Did seem like another one of these Kentucky products who was going to prosper when he got to the NBA. I don’t think anyone knew he’d be the MVP at that point, but you knew he was going to be really good. An all-star didn’t seem outrageous actually at the time. An MVP probably did. So, and then you couple I mean the play of the night last night Shay’s isolate at the top swings it to Jaylen Williams and he hits the three or two of them probably two or three of those late you know those are both from that trade. Jaylen Williams pick comes from that trade too. Um so you know and and they hit on that Jaylen Williams pick beautifully. He’s Sam Prey deserves credit for that. But I mean I think at the time everyone knew that that was they had Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City had the Clippers by the barrel. David Lock. Ways to phrase that, but we’re on. Yeah. No, no, I like appreciate that. Over the barrel. It was really nice. That was that was a good job by you. Uh David Lock joining us, play-by-play voice of the Utah Jazz right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Uh you mentioned and you may have given us a good indication that this Pacers Knicks series was going to be a good one. And boy, it is not disappointed. By the way, I haven’t I’m not very accurate when I’m on your shows very much, but I I don’t know if I texted you this, but I may not have because I thought it was briefly too arrogant. Um, my appearance last week could not have been more accurate. Like, we should just replay what I said last week because I’ll never be that right again on another show. Um, you Oklahoma City Minnesota series and I said it was going to be just dreadfully boring and OK and the Indiana New York series was the one that was going to be amazing and it has been. And it’s just been incredible. And there’s so many layers to it. And the coaching between Carile and Tibido. I mean, the one that I noticed most, if you go to the end of game two, Carile’s running, Carile was the first one to bring false action into the NBA. And what I mean by that is like where you just would run a bunch of stuff before you actually dug into your play, just have movement. Quinn was kind of the master of this, too. And Carlile was the first one who started it kind of in the NBA where they ran a bunch of stuff on top before actually getting to the action they wanted to get to rather than going straight into the action. And it was just to have defenses moving and particularly with an age where everyone started switching everything is well let’s make them make just you know in the course of a possession let’s make one guy make five different decisions and might miss one. Well the other night in game two New York just kept missing them. they just kept missing them. Like they would just guys would and then you know give Nebard and knee Smith and Turner and everybody else great credit is every time they blew a switch they just cut to the basket like their recognition was perfect and everyone found him and they got what three or four layups late in the game. Then last night what I thought I saw was that Tom or two nights ago Tom Tibido goes and starts picking Hallebertton up way earlier and so Indiana’s getting into their offense under pressure and later so they can’t run the same false action. So now all of a sudden the defenders are only have to make one or two switches correctly and they really styate Indiana’s offense. So it’s going to be interesting to see tonight. Can Indiana get into their sets quickly, get that false action running, or was that a case just that Indiana got selfish and individualistic a little bit more than they usually do and tried to find Seakum on the mid post or Hallebertton on the one-on-one instead of kind of running their stuff to get to it. because in the set offense, Indiana was only okay, but what they were getting were so many breakdowns by New York that they were getting be able to take advantage of a ton of that stuff. So, David, maybe you can help me with my fears a little bit and and hopefully you can be as accurate as you were last week with this the NBA is going to go out of business when Indiana plays Oklahoma City in the final shut all the doors, all the windows because the TV ratings are going to be so bad and you’re only going to have one professional sport to talk about anymore. Is that your fear? Okay, so something along those lines actually. Okay. Yes, that and throw on top. By the way, let me take that back there. You’d have still two professional sports to talk about. Real and the NHL and college football. Oh, okay. Okay. Go ahead. Oh, there you go. Okay. So, Okay. So, that what you just said, David, and then could either New York or Indiana even give OKC a real fight or would it just be a 4-1 or Next topic? Next topic. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t talk about it. The Dodgers won the freaking World Series and I had to deal with that. There cannot be a worse sports year in my life if the both of these things happen. It’s almost been 20 years. David, come on. It’s okay. We can talk about it. Why? Because they’re going to win an NBA title. That’s why. Scotty, you speak such blasphemy. You Voldemort you. Come on. It’s uh you know, look, the Starbucks has come and gone. It it it’s time to move on. You’re saying my 17-year one person boycott of Starbucks is not having an impact on their company? Uh probably not. They felt it over the last couple years. Well, you do drink a lot of coffee, but uh I do actually. If there was ever a customer who would have a singular impact on a worldwide entity, I would have been the one if it’s involving coffee. Can either one of them give him a game? No. Yeah, I didn’t think so. I think that the the sweep is or the gentleman sweep is completed tomorrow. Here’s what’s crazy. You start next year in the Eastern Conference. Who’s your favorite? Uh cuz Boston’s going to get ran through the mud. Uh Cleveland is not playing next year. Cleveland’s going to try to improve. Cleveland’s not playing next year. Cleveland’s going to try to improve with Donovan. So, it’s probably Cleveland. Okay. So, it’s probably Cleveland. Their second best team is going to be Indiana or New York. Okay. Those are the three teams. So, what do we have? Nine teams in the Western Conference. Better than any. Yep. And now you just threw Cooper Flag into Dallas. Now, Kyrie will be out, but still Dallas will be knocking on the door for the playoffs. No, it’s crazy. Hey, uh, Shams, uh, said in an interview earlier today that, uh, he thinks this off season could be quote the craziest off season in NBA history. Are you hearing indications that this thing could get weird this week, this, uh, this summer? So, I did not hear that from Shams, but here’s what I do think has happened. I think that everyone in the NBA thinks there’s just been a quantive quantum shift on how you build a team. We talked about this I think I talked about this with you last week, right? That Yeah. the top two players on New York, Indiana, and Minnesota make 85 million combined. All three of them, they’re the exact same number, 84, 85 million. And that if you go and look at Milwaukee was at 100 and Phoenix was at 100 and their top three players in Phoenix were making 150 and Philadelphia’s top three players are making 150. Well, that was the old model. That doesn’t work anymore. the top the top players in these teams are making 80 and the third best players making and then you add the third year somewhere between 110 or so and Oklahoma City’s at 65 with like 80 being their top three players because they’re so young. So I think you’re going to see this massive change on how teams are being built and if that’s the case with everyone’s pivoting on how teams are being built then you could really see a tremendous amount of player movement. And so if that is in fact true that there’s an entire the collective baring group has had its impact, the aprons are having their impact and there is now a brand new way to build a basketball team, there are a bunch of players that are going to need to be moved and franchises are going to have to pivot and that could lead to madness. So I remember when you and I started hanging out and doing radio together, uh there was the Oklahoma City model in terms of Kevin Durant and Harden and uh and Westbrook with that team being Bill. Everybody’s like, “Everybody’s got to find the Oklahoma City model.” But this model that they’ve done via trade and then some good depth around him probably is a more impactful way that people are looking at that they could replicate a model. Okay. Without trying to be wh why would okay without trying to be boastful but like being boastful I guess. Well I’ve decided not to be. It hasn’t stopped you yet this interview. So So yeah. New window. I mean I’ve been talking about 240 for a long time. Right. Yeah, like we told this interview before and if anyone follows me, like I talked about 240. 240 is the new magic number and it might actually not be 240. It might be 260 or 280 now. and that is that you’ve got to have 240 minutes of viable NBA rotation players on your roster or you are in trouble in this league now because the talent has gotten so good across the board and the way the game is being played now that if you have gaps if you’re playing non-NBA players in or rotation players and 240 is 48* 5 it’s the it’s the it’s the amount of minutes played by a roster. What what these teams all have is two it’s what Boston we thought had and it was surpris why it’s so surprising they lost is that you’re going to have to find a way to have 240 viable minutes on the floor. Well, if you’ve got 150 million in your top three players, you can’t have 240 minutes on the floor, right? You just you have to play three or four guys that aren’t good enough players. And so I mean it’s where I do think Philadelphia should really consider trading the fifth pick or the third pick for the fifth pick and the 21st pick if the Jazz wanted to because it would give Philadelphia who’s beholden the Paul George Joel and beating Tyresese Maxi the ability to get possibly a decent rotation player at 21 where they’ve got to take a swing at some of these guys. It’s where what Kevin Pritchard’s done in Indiana is so genius. He’s got me smith at 11 or you know I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head but Nebard’s at like 12 and McConnell’s at like nine. I mean he’s got just all these guys. He’s got 240 minutes of action every single night. It’s a little But what’s interesting is that Tom Tibido tried to hide that they didn’t have 240 minutes and then won game three by actually playing a bunch of other guys and getting them to 240 minutes and got Landry Shamat to play well and got now whether those guys could do that at home, you know, or on the road every time I think is really questionable. But that that’s what he did a little bit is he went to the model of like actually I’m going to try to play guys reasonable minutes and play 240. So, I think the new way you’re building your rosters, you’ve got to have you can’t do what Denver’s done and Milwaukeekey’s done and Philadelphia did and Phoenix did. It didn’t work. And that’s that’s the lesson here is if you don’t have 240 minutes on your roster in trouble. David Lockach, he is the voice of the Utah Jazz. David, question. Yes. Wait, question. Locked on NBA mock draft. I’m engaged in serious dis Uh oh, we’re losing you. You cut out on us. What was that again? Oh. Uhoh. We lost him. Well, this is what I got from it. Locked on something about the fifth pick. Yeah, I think uh I think what he’s referencing is the same thing. The fifth and the Do you give up the fifth and the 21 to move up to three if you’re the Jazz? I would not only not in this year’s draft. Only if you identify Ace or whoever. All right, David, clarify that trade. I actually thought you were just playing them because I said locked on and I thought you Oh, you just joke me. Um, so locked on NBA box draft in serious discussion to the Pelicans. The core of it is the fifth pick for Zion Williamson. Oh. Uh, yeah, I do that 100%. I do that. Yeah, I’m 100%. You as well. The reason you The reason you lost 65 games or 60 whatever games was to get a top 10 talent. That’s a top 10 talent. Yep. Yep. Yep. Thank you,
• Utah Jazz play-by-play David Locke
