Jake & Ben: Full Show | Utah Jazz are hiring Austin Ainge as President of Basketball Operations |…
And now it’s 10:00 a.m. Let’s just get down to it and it’s time for your sports pick. Strap yourselves in, folks. From two guys who have covered the teams you’re passionate about for years. We are professionals. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jacob Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Happy Monday. If it sounds like I’m shivering, it’s cuz I am. They have uh turned up the AC in the studio. I’m so cold. So, if people don’t know this, uh, and there’s not as I don’t know, are the compressors in here or whatever the things are called? Yeah, they are. Um, Mike studios, radio studios have a lot of machinery and the machinery gets extremely hot. So, they counter it by turning these things into ice boxes so the uh, compressors and whatever don’t blow out. Um, but there’s no hot equipment in this room to counterbalance. That’s what I’m wonder. Yeah. I’m wondering if there’s obviously some like under our tables, but kind of like a computer, but not enough to warm it. No, in Christian’s room, there’s a ton of equipment. You can make that argument. But Christian’s room is actually the thermostat is tied into the main room, like the bullpen out there. So, which is huge. Christian’s room is actually quite pleasant. Yeah. And we can’t do radio with the door open. And I I don’t know. We don’t need to start the week off on a complaint. Look at Look at your shirt, Ben. Everybody should go to uh YouTube.com or kslports.com or kslsports.com and uh check out the video feed of the show. Ben is wearing a uh I hate Danny A t-shirt. Now, do you want to explain because I actually did not know this. I did not remember this. Do you want to explain this t-shirt? Yeah. You dislike the man personally? No, actually you’ve been uh quite surprised by how enjoyable Danny A is a person to be around. Um, now there’s a kind of infamous playoff series, uh, it’s like 1987, right around the year I was born. Okay. Um, against the Pistons, and Pistons fans hated Danny Age because I’m sure a lot of our listeners know, but if you don’t, Danny Age was the guy you hated on the other team, Joe Engles. Oh, I I’m old enough to remember certainly Danny A’s playing career. Oh, yeah. And I remember it later even in Phoenix. I certainly don’t remember the Celtics. Uh, I remember the Celtic. I remember the Blazers. Remember his years with Terry Porter and the Blazers? Anyway, he was the league villain. Like that was his villain was that everybody hated Danny A. So, not a surprise that Detroit would make Pistons fans made I hate Danny H t-shirts and Danny got one and then wore it during shootound, which is hilarious to get ready for the game. Yeah. And there’s like some great photos, historic NBA photos of Danny wearing it before before a game. So, I thought it was a funny shirt if uh and then I thought today it it honestly it showed up at my doorstep on Friday and then I saw this news today and I thought, well, that’s serendipitous. Um yeah, and we’ll get into Austin age being hired certainly. Um, uh, I’m trying, how can I put this? Carl Malone, if he would have leaned into his nar narrative or whatever, would have been so much more infamous in the NBA. I don’t know if he would have won more, but he would have been more popular isn’t the right word. Yeah. necessarily, but Carl was so he wanted to be liked so badly and wanted to be embra like loved by the overall culture because he was a great basketball player, right? You know, that’s what the wrestling and stuff was all about, right? Uh Monson always told the story cuz he was uh sent to cover the Carl Malone wrestling event by the trip, which is funny even in and of itself. But um Gordon was watching as Carl climbed up onto the I don’t know what do they call it the the ropes I got not the ropes but the post or something I think whatever who cares. But everybody started to boo him. Yeah. And Gordon said the look on his face on Carl’s face was like no guys you’re supposed to cheer. No, you’re supposed to like me. No, you’re supposed to like me. I’m the one with DDP. You’re supposed to boo uh Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan. he’s the villain and like anyway Carl always wanted that was the the radio show in LA you know always wanted to be loved and you know what that wasn’t his rep and there’s actually a lesson here for the the Jazz are never going to be popular their great players are not going to be popular players and I think that maybe is something that Donovan Mitchell and Darren Williams and all that re you know wrestled with because they’re just not their franchise as part of the overall NBA story is not the good Absolutely. I’m totally with you. Uh you can see it right now with what the Pacers are doing and and the fun they’re having. Not that they’re necessarily villainous, but they’re not out there to make friends. They’re not playing like, “Hey, we’re just happy to be here.” That’s actually kind of the OKC model, which is, hey, we’re friendly. It’s a cool environment. We’re all doing their postgame, you know, interviews together. I don’t think that’s what the Pacers have done. And I don’t think if you’re a small market team, as much as the Jazz have tried to sell like we’re friendly, this is a player welcome place. And I understand why they do it and there are racial issues behind some of those decisions from the Jazz historically that they’ve wanted to make sure that hey, you can come and play here. Your family’s going to have a good time here. You’re going to have a good time here. This is a safe place for you guys. I think that is part of it. But you can just be the bad guy. You can also do that and be the bad guy. Oh, absolutely. Because the narrative doesn’t have to reflect reality, right? Carl Malone should have been one of the most popular players in the NBA, but the narrative wasn’t that. It wasn’t based on the time he played, where he played his personality. Quite frankly, you know, he just it wasn’t in the cards for him, right? If he would have leaned into the more like the Pistons leaned into being the villain. They did. They leaned into that. And clearly had that, right? Clearly. Yeah. Clearly. But tried to fight it. And John was not a John didn’t care what the narrative was. He was so bland and like introverted, right? at least publicly it didn’t matter you know but Carl couldn’t couldn’t do that long way of of talking about Ben’s shirt but kind of interesting you know Donovan Mitchell his personality didn’t lean into being a villain certainly that he wants to be friends with everybody and he wants yeah he did and I don’t know if you can get that in Utah agreed that’s why maybe a lot of people were hoping that they would land the top pick for Cooper flag because he doesn’t appear to have a lot of that no he doesn’t at all and Maybe he does cuz Donovan showed up one guy and left a whole different person, right? So, who’s to say, right? Darren Williams is a better example. He showed up one way and by the time his run had ended with the Jazz, he was a totally different person. Yeah, he was. Which is honestly understandable because you’re going from a 20-year-old to a 28 or 29 year old. You know, we all change. But so, we’ll see what happens with Cooper Flag. But yeah, there’s kind of a lot of maybe he wouldn’t need the love from everybody. Yeah. And it is relevant, of course, because if Sheay needed the love from everybody, Shay Gilis Alexander, he wouldn’t be playing in Oklahoma City. Correct. He embraced what they’re selling and the small market aspect of it and seems fully engaged and and bought into it. And then they drafted a bunch of guys who fit it as well. So, they’ve done a good job with that. That’s an interesting wrinkle that a president of basketball operations will have to take into account. going forward. Um, that’s the big news. Uh, the Jazz named Austin A the new president of basketball operations on Monday. So, um, Danny A will continue on as CEO. Yeah. Justin Xanic will continue on as general manager. Yeah. But now there’s a president of basketball operations, which was what Dennis Lindsay’s title was when he was here. When he was here. So Dennis because the Jazz didn’t have a traditional basketball CEO at the time. I think Steve Starks might well he was president. He was the president. He was Jim Olsson’s. Correct. Yeah. I don’t know if the Jazz had a CEO the way Danny A plays the role of CEO now. They did not. So that’s a new role for Danny that he has had for the last couple of years and Austin assumes the role that was held by Dennis Lindsay. And truly it’s monumental. Your VP of basketball operations or in this case, president of basketball operations is the culture of your team. Mhm. These are the people who truly build the rosters. Now, there’s everyone’s involved. And we should talk about Justin Xanic for sure coming up here in a moment, but these are the people who make the ultimate decisions, have the final say. You know, Danny A is still going to have a huge input on the team while he’s here. But I do think this is a clear sign that Danny A’s time in Utah is probably not for long. Yeah. Well, I mean, look at his age. That’s not a shock. Yeah. Right. And Austin age is what? 43. 44. 44. So, he’s got just like his dad’s number. Uh, he’s got the reigns and he’s going to be in charge of it for a while now. So, I think he’s going to be someone that Jazz fans are going to get to know very well. You know, uh, understand what he prefers, what he doesn’t prefer, what type of things he likes to see on the basketball court, and what type of team he tries to build. And the Jazz are a pretty huge ball of dough right now. The Jazz do not have a lot of direction. So Austin Angel is going to be able to come in and make his impact felt probably pretty quickly. A they have a very high draft pick at number five. They’ve got a bunch of trade assets still. They’ve got a bunch of young players. So he’s going to be able to come in and the fear that everyone had was Danny A was going to be the Grim Reaper and he kind of was. Came in, made a bunch of trades, bunch of guys were gone. Coach left. Dennis Lindseay obviously was gone. He replaced Dennis Lindsay and Gustin H has that same opportunity to do that if he wants to. Where is Dennis now? He’s in Detroit. Detroit. Yep. After last year in Dallas. Yep. Yeah. Probably a good idea to get somewhere other than there. But anyway, uh Okay. I I once uh I once had a co-host that well I once had a co-host that liked to write out some like portions of his part of the show, right? And people ask me like, “Is that weird?” Because that’s not our style. Certainly, it’s not my style. My response always was, “I don’t care. As whatever you got to do, you know, whatever you got to do to hit a home run that day, no big deal. If you got to gather your thoughts and put them out in that form before you jump on, and he didn’t do it with everything, you know what I mean? Then great. I don’t care. What the Jazz have important decisions to be made. whatever you got to put in the room to make the right decisions. What I don’t care. Yeah. You know, Austin has a good resume and we can we can dive into what he brings to the table. Danny, as we’ve talked about a zillion times, is uh he would be a what, a Hall of Famer for a GM alone. I mean, he’s been that good. He’s pulled off some of the best trades in NBA history. I think Boston’s title last year had a lot to do with Danny and for that matter, uh, Austin. Yep. So that is what it is. And Justin, we’ve seen his body of work for how many years now? Yeah. Twice. You know, he’s been in Utah. We know him well. Yeah. And Ryan’s going to be involved. You heard Tim talk about that. Ryan’s in the room. Yeah. So there’s your brain trust. I don’t care how many they are. I don’t care whatever. You could be in the room, Ben. You got to figure it out. And do you have confidence in these people to figure it out? Uh, obviously the job is twin. That’s that’s the most important thing. And that’s what Austin is going to be tasked with doing. and he’s going to have to figure out how to turn this thing into a uh a winning program again, which it’s not right now. And it doesn’t feel like it’s particularly close. I don’t know how hard it is to build a winner in the NBA right now. We’ve seen teams make dramatic turnarounds. Allah the Houston Rockets and the Detroit Pistons in recent years. So, or the Thunder. Or the Thunder, obviously. Yeah. So, we’ll see how quickly the Jazz get back to uh to that uh that direction or to that level and then how high they can get it. And that’s what Austin Ang is going to be charged with. Uh, I think the nepotism angle is obviously there. Uh, it’s how he got his job in Boston. It’s how he got this job in Utah. I mean, I don’t think that’s unfair to say that when your dad is the CEO of a team and you come in as the president of basketball operations and you have the same last name. Obviously, that plays a part and yeah, you probably skip steps somewhere along the way to get those opportunities. However, he has been doing this for 17 years with the Boston Celtics and has seen a championship team. Probably came in right after the last championship team. If I’m doing the math right, this is his 17th year. He came in right around 2008, which is when they won their first title under Danny, unless he came in right after. So, he’s seen these uh this team through the highs and lows uh and has seen how these trades are made. And you would hope he was able to replicate the success his dad had. And if that’s the belief you have that him being trained in that environment is a positive, I think you understand why this is a good hire. Uh I think the nepatism thing is uh is interesting. By the way, I I love the term nepo baby. Mhm. We can’t use that enough. Um, but I think people complaining about that are being naive. Okay. You want to explain? Nepotism happens all around us. And if you you know what, in basketball in particular, it is rampant. It is. And some people get criticized for it and some people don’t. I mean, uh, what’s his name? Adelman in Denver. Is anybody complaining about that? Right. Right. Flip Saunders kid. Yeah. I mean, there’s there’s what at least half a dozen Nepo head coaches in the league right now. Yeah. And some are good and some are not. Yeah. That’s how you get the nice thing is that is ultimately how you get judged. Doesn’t matter who your dad was. It’s did you win or not? Now the argument is well the other someone else didn’t get a chance because you did get that opportunity. But that’s everywhere. That’s the whole world. This isn’t the first time this has happened in this franchise, right? Frank Leaden hired his son Scott. The Millers were running the team. Not ever at this level, but Greg Miller at one point was making decisions for the Utah. Well, after his dad passed. That’s I think that’s a different story a little bit, but he wasn’t making basketball decisions. I think he was in the room. He might have been in the room. He had input, but uh different when it comes to ownership though. It just like it’s a different thing. If you are the one he was Greg was calling the shots for the whole right for the whole company at that point which included the jazz, right? And yes, you get passed down familially. I get it. So in like it’s worked sometimes and it hasn’t worked others. Scott didn’t do a bad job. I didn’t think he did a great job if you went back and examined it. I think Kevin Oconor was actually better, but Scott didn’t make bad decisions. The finals team, right? Well, his dad kind of built well and Jerry, but the point being like it happens. So, what do you do with it? Like I think it is a good sign that the Celtics didn’t run Austin out of town the day Danny left cuz that happens. Yes. A lot. You’re right. So, if they they must have seen some value there if they kept him there cuz they didn’t owe Danny anything at that point, I wouldn’t think. Right. Yep. So, that’s probably not a bad sign. Like Brian Kangelo though was so bad at it and that job that he actually got the old man fired. You can look at all these different examples of of nepotism and how it works and how it doesn’t and you just hope the person making the hiring in this case has good judgment because there are successes and there are failures. If if people are complaining about nepotism just because of the concept, which I don’t love either. My dad wasn’t a giant radio celebrity, you know, I’ve had to, you know, do the whole thing. But think about our friend Tim for um uh uh uh outdoor rain gutters. Uh why am I going RGS Exteriors? Thank you. God, I didn’t know why. You can hear the ad. He’s like fifth generation. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You know, passing down the company. My kids are are working. We see value in that when it comes to certain industries, right? Like Tim grew up dreaming about being a rain gutter guy and has worked his way, you know, through the company for his entire life until his dad retired. And we put value into that, right? Uh I’m sure you’re a a big fan of uh let me think here. Uh why am I forgetting all this stuff today? Uh senator from Massachusetts. I know uh I’m sure you uh Liz Warren. Oh, I thought you were talking about the Kennedys, which another petition. Yeah, right. But, you know, people know that Liz Warren’s dad was Justice Earl Warren, but the people in Massachusetts keep electing her. They must think she’s doing a fine job. I mean, probably other people don’t. It’s it’s your foot in the door. It’s how you get in the door for the most part. Now, there are still guys who probably are unqualified to have jobs that are there because it happens all the time. It does happen. But for a lot of people, it’s just your opportunity to get in the door and then what do you do with it? And that’s still what Austin A has to prove. He’s never been the lead decision maker. and now he’s going to have to do that in Utah as what’s pointed to as the lead decision maker. My initial thought when I saw this was I felt bad for Justin Xanic. That was honestly my initial thought when I read the news this morning because Justin Xanic’s been in this spot for a while. He was in the sim a similar spot with the Milwaukee Bucks and did not get promoted to the lead guy and again has been not promoted to the lead guy which I think you would assume says something about what the Jazz like about what he does right now and maybe what the Jazz don’t want him to do. But I’m a fan of Justin Xanic personally. I’m happy to see him around the building and I really like Justin Xanic and I hope he does stick around continually with the Jazz because uh I would I personally I would feel like it was a loss if uh if he left to go try this opportunity somewhere else because I like Justin quite a bit. Um but that’s an aside. Um I I hear you. I wonder some people don’t want it. No, some people don’t. You know what I mean? And I don’t know this about Justin. I I have no clue. But uh Phil Johnson didn’t want it, right? He passed on opportunities to interview for head coaching jobs. He liked he liked it here. He liked working for Jerry, but specifically he liked his role as an assistant coach. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. There are some people that I I mean Andy Lewig kind of went out on a bad note with Utah fans I know. But that dude had no aspirations to be a head coach at all. Right. He was not for it job. No. He’s like, I want to nerd out and come up with some wacky stuff and watch it play out on the field. That was kind of his that’s why he did it. That’s why he was in the job. He didn’t want to do press conferences. He didn’t want to decide when to call timeouts. He didn’t want any of that stuff. He just liked the gig. So, I don’t know about Justin. He got a um you know, he did at one point when he left the first time to go to Milwaukee. Yep. He did want that gig, too. Uhhuh. But I don’t know if he decided, you know what? Maybe I’m just better at being Well, they pass on him. Yeah, they did the same thing. They brought him in to be number two. When the guy who was in charge left, they hired somebody else, right? And the Jazz the Jazz hierarchy was weird because when they promoted quote unquote promoted Dennis Lindsay, I don’t know how much of a promotion that really was, honestly. Yeah. And if you remember, it was because Dennis didn’t pull a mid-season trigger on a mid-season trade to get Mike Connley. And then the coach thought Mike Connley was the answer. And then there was kind of an internal back and forth. Yeah. And then they decided that, okay, let’s go get Mike Connley and that was Xanax deal. That was his thing. So, I don’t know. Dennis technically was still there. Yeah, Dennis was definitely still there, but all of a sudden Justin was making decisions, you know, and so I don’t know, maybe got a taste of it and that’s not his thing. This is from Justin. This is a press release. This is going to be Yeah. Uh, you know, positive. Positive. He says, “Austin’s one of the most respected executives in the NBA uh because of his basketball prowess, experience, and work ethic, and I’m excited to partner with him in our shared goal of success for the Utah Jazz. Once again, Ryan and Ashley illustrate their commitment to the to Utah as they strive to build the best franchise in the NBA. This is the third Celtics hire the Jazz have made. Obviously, Will Hardy being the first as the assistant under Emma Odoka. Danny A followed shortly after. Or did was Danny here first? Danny was here before Will. Danny was here before Will the half a seasonish then Will. Even though Danny and Will didn’t work together at all in Boston. They did not cross paths. But I’m sure obviously he had good intel on Danny from one Austin, the latest Celtics hire the Jazz have made. And we got to bring up the Celtics aspect of it. Probably don’t have time right now. The Celtics are about to enter the most precarious offseason of maybe anybody in the NBA because their youngish their young superstar isn’t going to play next year and they’re going to have the most expensive roster or one of them in the NBA and can probably cannot compete for a title and they’re probably going to trade some players and Austin is going to be very well verssed in who those players are and what type of value they might have on a team going forward and how many years they have left and if he thinks Jaylen Brown’s the type of guy who might want to play in Utah because I would imagine the Jazz would kick down the door to get He’s taking a lot of of uh incoming there in Boston. Old Jaylen. The fans are turning on him a little bit. Have you been following that? Yes. Saying he’s just not good enough. The guy who won the finals MVP two years ago. Great. See if he see if he likes Utah. Yeah. Last year. Well, yeah. I guess it was last season. You’re right. We haven’t crowned a title yet. I I’m not saying I necessarily agree with him, but that is a thing. Yeah. No, he’s not a perfect player. People are saying he’s underskilled, which is true. He’s also the reigning finals MVP. So, well, he’s also big, strong, and fast, which is nice. And like 27 years old. Yeah. And a two-way guy. Like, there are a lot of things to like for sure. But he’s he is taking some incoming there in Boston. Yep. Uh, all right. Stay tuned. Top three stories of the day. KSLsports.com. Coming up next is Jake and Ben 975 KSL Sports Zone. Acting. This is Hson and Scotty G. Roger Goodell is the most powerful man in sports in America. I think Greg Zeni is number two. Brett Yormark has got to be as aggressive and sly and underhanded as he possibly can be trying to find a way to keep your conference as close to those other two as you possibly can. That is why we’re seeing BYU be so aggressive financially because BYU wants to send a message to your mark to Phillips to Seni saying we want to be in it. We want to win championships. We’ll spin to do it because BYU is a valuable logo. Utah’s become a valuable university. Go into a couple Rose Bowls and their recent success is big. That’s why Utah’s got to get back into it this year because there’s a chance that all except for a few get excluded if you don’t find a way to get your foot in this door and make it a valuable product. Catch Anen Scotty weekdays from noon to 3 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. So, it’s time to break down the biggest stories of the day. This is the top three stories of the day on kslsports.com 975b kslports. Jacob Ben nominate the youth sports volunteer you know for the Hercules hero of the week. Submit your nomination at kslports.com/contest and 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 sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. Ben, you’re a Bear Lake guy. I am. You know that feeling where you’re just sitting in the water holding the tow rope with the water skis sticking out of the water and you’re thinking, “For the love of everything, holy, hit that throttle and get me out of this water.” This is horrible. That’s how I feel sitting in this studio. It is cold. That’s how I feel. Right. I’m really glad I brought a sweater. I almost was late to work cuz I ran back inside to grab one and I thought, “No, this was the right decision.” Time for the top three stories of the day at kslports.com. Brought to you by Jbrooks Jewelers. Cherish your love with Jbrooks Jewelers. Explore their expertly crafted enga engagement rings made from the finest materials. Jbrooks Jewelers. All right, Christian, where are we starting today? Number one, gentlemen, the NBA finals are set. Oh, I’m drinking Christian’s tears today because the Knicks lost. Because the Knicks lost. and did bing bong in particularly crappy fashion because that was a winnable game. They had a chance to send this back to New York for a game seven which a everybody would have loved to have that what that been Sunday night maybe it would have been tonight right didn’t they play on Saturday so that would have been tonight which would have been very fun to see that game but they just kind of no showed they were just they sloppied their way out of the out of the season which is pretty crappy pretty lame um but really shout out to the Indiana Pacers who are having one of the most enjoyable seasons I remember from a basketball team in a long time and I’m ready to place them in the grind house, grind city, Memphis, Grizzlies kind of era of teams or or tier of teams that were just like really cool teams, just like fun players, cool players. It was Mike Connley, Zebo, Zack Randolph. Yeah, there was nothing cool about Zack Randolph. No, Zack Randolph was cool. He was kind of like a castoff, right? He’d been with the Jailblazers, he’d been with the Knicks, and I was like, “This guy’s not good at basketball.” He just needed to find the right place. But Marcus was there. I think Bonsie Wells was probably gone at that time. Um, but anyways, a lot of like kind of cool players on that team that were fun to watch and never made it to the finals, but you know, beat the Spurs in an 8-1 upset and made the conference finals once at least. Um, and this is what the Pacers are, but they have actually reached a new level. They have reached the finals for the first time since I was quite a bit younger when they uh lost to the Lakers in the first of their three Pete, if I could, if I remember correctly. I think you’re selling them short by comparing them to the Grizzlies. They’re better than that team. I just hope we like people love that team. Never sniffed the finals, but they got to the conference finals. And people love that team. Like it that’s like a cool NBA team historically. Regardless of what happens in these finals, and I hope the Patriots win. I would love to see the Pacers win the series. I don’t think they’re going to, but I would love to. I’m going to hold them in the regard of like, oh, this is just a very cool team. back-to-back conference finals, now made the finals, and I’m rooting for all these guys. Yeah, I’m I’m definitely rooting for the Pacers. Uh I love it that they gave uh Pascal Seakum the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals and he was like, I didn’t even know we did that. Yeah, the Larry Bird trophy. I didn’t even know that was a thing. Uh Tyrus Halbertton did because he thought he was getting it past not so fast. Well, he had a bad like he wasn’t awesome throughout the entire series. Yeah, notoriously bad. Game five, he had a really good What was it? I mean, game two was Game four was awesome. Off the charts. Yeah. Uh, I think Seakkum absolutely is the key to this finals. If Indiana stands a chance, I mean, they’re going to have to have a consistent performance from Tyrese Hallebertton, but Seakum’s going to have to dominate. We have talked about the Jazz’s all-in trade for Mike Connley and it being the wrong player. Uhhuh. The Pacers made an all-in trade for Pascal outcome and it was the exact right player. is exactly who they needed. Yep. Good for them. That’s great general manager work. That’s great front office work. That that again, as we talk about what our next story will be, you have to make those tough decisions when it’s your time to push your chips in. Are you playing the right hand? And the Pacers are showing they played exactly the right hand because regardless of what happens, this is an absurdly successful season and run from the Pacers to make back-to-back conference finals, including a finals run with this core. the moves they have made since trading Sabonis for Tyresese Hallebert and getting Pascal Seakum, signing Aaron Nesmith, not trading Miles Turner. It’s actually not like a It’s an overhaul. It didn’t take 15 years, right? It was a few trades over a few seasons at timely moments and they paid a good price, but not a not a cheap price. There wasn’t a discount on any of these guys and they nailed it. They hit it out of the park. They turned an expiring Paul George contract into Tyrese Hallebertton. It only took him a couple of years. It did cuz it was Olad Depot and Sabonis and then Sabonis for Hallebertton, right? It was pretty quick. It It’s what we’ve talked about. You have to keep asset value alive. Yeah. Whether you you know, you trade Donovan Mitchell, you get Lowry Markin. That doesn’t mean Lowry Markin has to be the payoff. Maybe the guy you trade Lowry Markin for is the payoff. That’s the asset value you have to keep alive, though. and you can’t let it drop too much, which is why I think there’s absolutely a good chance that Lowry gets traded this summer. I remember the specific show when uh the day after Paul George demanded his trade out of Indiana and people were blasting away at Paul George and it was like he’s doing them a favor. He’s doing them a favor. And he did them the favor that Gordon Hayward didn’t do for the Jazz. The irony that fans were probably happy in Utah that Paul George demanded a trade before Gordon Hayward was because Jazz fans always wanted to prove that Gordon was a better player than Paul George, which clearly was not the case, but that the Jazz made the right decision to draft Gordon over Paul George. So when Paul George asks out, the Jazz fans can say, “See, we were right.” But in truth, Paul George saying, “My time here has come to an end. Get value for me was very good from Paul George for the Pacers.” Yep. It was a noble move. It’s where I It’s why they are where they are today because Paul George went to the front office and said, “I want to trade.” Yes. And Hayward was bitter. And the Jazz got zero value for that asset. We’re not going to tell you anything. And then we’re going to leave you holding the bag and then not even give you a trade exception. Yep. I would love to talk to Danny A about why he like the only way that Danny wouldn’t be willing to give a trade exception because it doesn’t cost Boston anything, right? because they have the cap room to sign Gordon in the first place. So, they just send a trade exception back in a quote unquote sign and trade. It’s what happened with Carlos Boozer and the Bulls, right? And nope, no signing trade. That had to be because Gordon requested it. Yeah. Don’t give them anything. That had to be absolutely not. Don’t give them a trade exception for me. I am not right signing and trading. Right. I would love to talk to Danny H about that. Yep. For sure. Because that’s sheer bitterness right there. Absolutely. Gordon carried it. That is sheer bitterness. Y that’s a guy who played three years with hate in his heart. Uh finals game on on Thursday. Thursday night at OKC obviously. All right. What’s next? Number two, more on the Jazz hiring Austin A operations. I assume we’ll carry that press conference today at 3:00. You’ll be able to hear it here. Uh the Jazz hiring Austin A, Danny A’s son, 44 years old, to come in and be the future face of team building here in Utah. And I that that’s what’s so monumental about it because of Danny Ang’s age, because of the role he was already doing, which we kind of knew was not full-time. You know, Justin Xanic was doing a lot of the work that I think otherwise a VP of basketball operations or president of basketball ball operations would also handle. Uh it was clear that Danny A was not going to be doing this for the long haul. And this now is handing the baton over. Now whether that actually happens today or before the draft, probably not. But over the next season or two, that will be the case. He’s got a very good rep. So, uh, I’m eager to hear that press conference. Have you interacted with Austin at all? I’ve never met him. Uh, I did. Okay. Uh, I’ve met him a few times, but mainly I’ve interacted with him because he PK was covering BYU at the time. I was producing PK’s show at the time. And this was when Austin was like underassman, like freshman, sophomore, but he would jump on their show because PK’s down there every day and like, you know, interviewing all the players. He knew who the talkers were, right? And so he lined it up with Austin. I think if memory serves, we cut out the sports information department, which I can’t remember how that went over, but uh he would come on and he came on a lot. Like he would call in from road trips and stuff like that. Yeah. And so I interacted with him in that way. Uh which by no means makes me qualified to uh make a judgment on his ba basketball acument. But I can tell you this, he is very smart. You know, you interact with people enough you can tell, you know, if they’re smart or not. And I’m not saying that he’s splitting the atom, but I’m pretty confident in saying he’s not a dumb guy either. So that’s my interaction with him. If you were to take the name off the back of the jersey, obviously he’s not going to wear a jersey. He has a real legit resume to be in this role. He is not skipping steps today to get this job, right? He played five years of college basketball, won at BYU, was a G-League head coach, been a scout, worked his way up through Boston, you know, as a scout. uh probably very low-level scout when he first got there, which I promise you there are some incredibly low-level jobs in the NBA that you’d be shocked that probably how somewhat meaningless they are or or untalented people there are. Lots of those and cuz I see them and they come and go, you know, I remember Sheldon Williams had a job. Do you remember seeing him around here for a while? He was like the regional scout for Charlotte or somebody at the time and was just like at a lot of Jazz games. uh and clearly did not love it. So Austin worked his way up to that through whatever his official role was before leaving the Jazz or the Celtics for the Jazz. He’s the ex-husband of what’s her name on TV, right? Candace Parker. Yeah. Yeah, that would they would have tall children. Yeah, if they had children together. I always thought he looked like the quite tall the Ken Griffy Jr. in the Simpsons episode after he drinks all the cough medicine. Oh, that’s hilarious. He looks gigantism. He looks just like that. Nice guy. talked to him a few times over over dinner. The nerve tonic or whatever. Yeah. But neither here nor there. Uh Austin, if you removed his name, does have the resume to do this job, right? But obviously there’s a reason why he’s coming back to Utah even though he had ties here in the first place, but the reason he went to BYU was probably because of his father. What are his ties? His brother ran for Senate also. That Yeah, the ages are one of are a Utah family as well. Didn’t he get elected to something else too and decide like okay politics is not for me not for me not going to do it what’s next number three this just in from Sham Shirania former youth player and Jazz assistant Johnny Bryant is one of two finalists for the Suns head coaching job Suns have updated every step of the way how many people are officially in this in the running for this okay I’ve got a comp controversial opinion I suppose for you or at very least let me tell you if if Johnny Bryant were asking me for advice I would tell him to pass. And I realize that there are only how many NBA head coaching jobs? I’ve heard all that. But you know what? You’re you’re being hired to be fired. Like there is so you are set up so much for failure in Phoenix for so many reasons. There’s going to be other jobs. You know what I mean? And I think Johnny Bryant’s a pretty good coach. Yeah. He’s I mean I don’t know. I don’t I don’t ever know if anyone’s going to be a good coach. I’ve talked to Johnny a lot. He used to coach summer league teams and I’d go to Vegas. Obviously knows how to develop players like his he awesome story. He started here as a player development guy and not even that he was purely like a private trainer for the milsaps I think is what it was was for Paul and worked with Paul on his shooting even though the Jazz never let him shoot threes and the coaching staff realized like hey there’s something there like this guy’s really well respected the players really respond to him and Quinn brought him in right. Yep. and as a player development guy and then turned him into an assistant coach and then he got hired as the Knicks lead assistant associate head coach and has been doing the same thing now for the uh for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So, and Cleveland had the best record in the Eastern Conference. So, maybe the iron’s hot and he’s got a strike and this moment won’t come again, but I kind of doubt it. Um yeah, I think he’ll be up for jobs in the future. I if I had my choice, I would stay an assistant instead of taking the Phoenix job. Ask Igor Kakoskov, who took the Phoenix job for a year and hasn’t been heard from since. Basically, first of all, the team is obviously on the the downslope. Like, they’re going to collapse before they rebuild. So, he’s taking over a losing program that’s only going to get worse and the coach isn’t going to fix it because they’re on they’re going to be on their fifth head coach in five years, right? Am I right on that? Monty Williams, Frank Vogle, Buden Hoer, I think. And obviously before Monty Williams, whoever that was. So, this will be at least their fourth coaching. I just said it. Kakoskov. Was it Eigor before Monty Williams? Yeah. Really? I think so. I thought there was somebody in between regardless. Yeah, it’s a it’s a nightmare. It’s a joke to to the point where I can’t remember who the head coaches were because they’ve cycled through them so quickly. Uh I mean Jeff Hornesk was there before. Speaking of Monty Williams, didn’t he pass on coaching LeBron to take that Phoenix Joe because they paid him a fortune, right? No, that was Detroit. That was also Detroit paid him a fortune, but they’re still paying Vogle and Monty Williams, I believe, there. So, it’s not a good job. I’m with you. If Johnny Bryant felt confident he could get a job next year, he should wait or even this year or even this year. Uh the other interesting tie here is, you know, we’ve talked about Will Hardy leaving for the Jazz job only to have Eme Udoka leave and Joe Missoula inherit a championship contender and if Will Hardy would, you know, prefer to be in Boston. Kevin Young left this job that might have been his as the lead assistant in Phoenix to take the BYU job and might have had an NBA head coaching job now had he stayed. Oh, he absolutely made the correct decision. And he may have made the right decision. I think he absolutely made the correct decision. Y cuz no, it’s it is a sinking ship. Yep, it is. With a bad owner and somehow Zeke is a Rasputin again and that’s just not going to end well. So yeah, if you’re a Ute fan or just a Johnny Bryant fan, root for Jordan ought to get this son this job and let uh let Johnny catch the next bus. Take a better one. All right, more next. Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present This is JJ and Alex. Tim Reynolds joining us on the program. He writes for the AP. It’s 11 conference champions in the last seven years, too. 11 out of the 14 have been different. So, not only has there been a change in who wins it, there’s also a change in the teams that get there. I mean, we’ve had a new CBA and rule changes within it. The the aprons, they changed a lot of things for a lot of teams. It’s really tough for teams to get good now from the middle. You’ve either got to bottom out or you’ve got to get super lucky or you’re stuck in the middle. I think it’s great that legitimately 20 of the 30 teams can honestly say we have a chance. The NFL doesn’t have that. Major League Baseball doesn’t have that. It’s great for the league because the league didn’t have this for a while. Now we just have new things to complain about. We complained about how boring it was when it was Cleveland Golden State every year. Now we just complain about other stuff. Catch JJ and Alex afternoons from 3 to 6 presented by G2G bars on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Who’s got it better than us? Your home for the best sports coverage in Utah. You’re listening to Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 KSL Sports Zone. Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Some bad days in radio. Not today. No, today’s fine. These are the days. These are the days you work for. Yeah. Ben was talking about some of my worst days in radio. Like my least favorite memories of my entire career. Like literally two of the worst days of my life. Ben brought up Ben brought up in the break. During the break. So thanks. And I’m in tears laughing. I needed I needed that on a Monday. Like you’re already having a hard time. Severe PTSD. Career PTSD. Anyway, some of the hardest situations I’ve had to navigate in my entire life. Ben brings it up and just laughs at it, but you know, you’ve been through a couple of doozies. There’s some days I’ve had some days, too. Some days in this job, but yeah, gratefully, yeah. Uh today is not one of them. In fact, we’re very excited to talk to Keith Smith coming up uh in the next segment. We’ll get his uh insight on uh Austin Age. He’s covered the league for a long time. He currently lives in Orlando, but he’s got uh he’s got Boston ties. Boston ties. So, we’re excited to talk to you. Let’s talk about the finals as well. Excited to talk to Keith. Are you excited for the finals? Um I think it’s probably going to be a quick series, unfortunately. I think it’s probably a fivegame series. I think Indiana might steal one. I worry it’ll be like game four after they’re already down three 0. But I I I would love to be proven wrong. I did not think the Pacers were going to be in this spot certainly. I didn’t know if they were going to beat the Cavaliers and they did. So, uh yeah, they did. I knew they were going to beat the Knicks. Yeah, I thought they were better than the Knicks, too, once they got to that spot. So, um but I would not predict them to beat the Thunder. But, you know what? That’s what I’m saying with with Seakum big and physical. you know, he can make the Thunder adjust, which I think Minnesota was unable to do. The Pacers are a legitimately really good team. They have good players at every position. They have depth. They don’t have a lot of obvious weaknesses. They have some You can target Tyresese Hallebertton defensively and, you know, it’s going to be a flaw. He is still 6’6. You know, actually, if you can get him to lock in, which if he’s not going to lock in in the finals, he’s never going to lock in. this is his opportunity to at least kind of put that leave it all on the floor. There’s no next series. There’s no tomorrow. Go out there and lock it as best you can. He’s got the right body type to defend Shay. I just don’t think he’s going to be good at it. Well, maybe not. But the thing about big and long is it’s still useful even when you’re dogging it. He goes and blocks an Ojanobi three while the Knicks were amid a run uh that ended up leading to a turnover because Ojanobi got the ball back and then got an offensive foul. Like, yeah, that that’s the difference of 66. might just be one or two plays throughout the game, but you have to make those. Well, you can hide 66. Yeah, that was big part of the reason I think Jimmer Fet also didn’t have a very long NBA career is because you can’t hide 6-1. If you’re 61, you have to guard one guy on the floor. You know, you can only guard one guy on the floor. Yeah. But you can’t hide 61. 61 is going to be guarding the other team’s point guard, right? Every possession. Yes. Or if you’re Donovan Mitchell, the two guard. But still, you’re extremely limited on who you you can’t hide 61. You can hide 66. It’s why easily Tyresese Hallebertton has surpassed Jaylen Brunson. It’s why he’s surpassed Trey Young, who are good players, similar players, like offensive juggernaut players that are really super talented with the ball in their hand, but are so bad defensively that you can’t win with them at the highest level. and Tyresese Hallebertton might just be three inches or four inches taller than those guys and just gives you that little bit of edge a couple of times a game. They’re going to blitz him though. He’s going to have to move off the ball. I wonder I wonder what the Pacers counter is because Minnesota didn’t have one. Yeah, but I think Carile’s a terrific coach. But I would I would bet you, Ben, they’re going to be doubling and blitzing him right out of the gate just like they did Anthony Edwards. And it’ll be what do the what’s the Pacers answer? Yeah. So, it is one of the best offensive teams though against one of the best defensive teams. I mean, the best defensive team for sure and and one of the most exciting offenses. So, it’s a cool matchup. It is a cool matchup. I like it. The markets are are bland. I saw a funny uh gif of uh David Stern rest his soul like with a with a kind of uh disappointed look on his face. Yeah. which was so I thought was so funny because he was always rumored to be the puppet master and the big market thing and all that was all a David Stern thing. I didn’t realize how close those these two cities are. Oh, really close. Yeah, not far at all. 10-hour drive. All right, stay tuned. Uh Keith Smith going to join us uh coming up next. 975 DKSL Sports Zone. The sports you love, the teams you can’t live without. You have sense of urgency. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jacob 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Big news day today here on the show. The Jazz have hired Austin A uh to be their next president of basketball operations. Uh let’s get a national reaction. Uh joining the show now, we welcome him back. Of course, he makes the magic happen at Spa Track. is our buddy Keith Smith. What’s going on, Keith? Uh, a lot. We’re, you know, we got the finals coming, the off season cranking up. This is the best time of the year. Uh, what do you know of Austin? I know you live in Orlando. I know you’ve covered the Celtics closely because you’ve covered the NBA throughout, but but what do you know of Austin and your interactions? Yeah, he is someone who has been preparing for this for a long time. you know, cut his teeth in the G- League initially is where he started running Boston’s G- League uh team there. So, that that he did that for a while, was a big part of the team’s draft prep for a very long time. And then in more recent years, has taken over and been really the guy uh for the team as far as their draft prep and their international scouting goes with all that stuff, both collegiate and international. uh he’s big part of this why they’ve hit several times on late draft picks in the first round and even a handful of second round guys and undrafted players and then some international guys that they’ve brought over uh from overseas or guys who were former NBA guys that have gone overseas and come back. So big big big part of their success over the years. So overall, what’s your evaluation of the Jazz Brain Trust now? Because Justin Xanic Stain is general manager uh and Danny A is staying on as CEO. Uh so your thoughts on kind of what the front office looks like? Yeah, I I think it’s really kind of an unknown like I think you’ve got a lot of people there who do good stuff uh with both Angan. But my question is, you know, who really is running things? who has the day-to-day responsibilities of working with other uh GMs, working with other folks in the uh you know course of you know um trade discussions who’s working in organizing the scouting and all those things that happen and then of course the most important thing who has final say on these transactions. It’s very odd to have a president of basketball operations and then someone else above them that isn’t the owner of the team. So is you know is this a Danny Ang you know suns setting on his career and moving into a different direction in Austin now it’s final say you know where does that go Justin Xanax the guy who’s been around for a long time done a lot of the day-to-day heavy lifting of the of the uh team’s front office work is the GM you know what is his say in the organization that’s all stuff that I think will eventually get clarified and that’s something that’s going to need clarified for everybody to understand how this is really working Keith If Austin’s last name wasn’t A, would he have still ended up with a president of basketball operations job somewhere in the NBA if it wasn’t with the Jazz? I think so. I I think I don’t know that it would have been quite this immediate, but I do think he would have got there um at some point because he’s been kind of knocking on the door of that for a while now. Um there there was rumors over the last uh handful of GM openings that he could have been a candidate for any number of teams uh there and just never kind of went that way. It’s the teams have had for a hard time a hard time over the years getting people to leave the Boston front office because they’ve been so successful over you know any number of years. So that’s something that that I think they’re going to be um you know really kind of uh you know looking at you know down the line. But yeah, I mean, you’re going to get the whole nepotism stuff that comes up and all the things that happen there, but I don’t know that that’s is cut and dry, but I understand why people are going there, but I think he would have been a candidate at some point. All right, let’s talk a little bit about uh the finals and matchup of two obviously monster market teams. Uh, but your thoughts on the Pacers? A lot of people see them as the big underdog. Do they have much of a shot in this? I think they do because I think they counter the things Oklahoma City does really well in some unique ways. The Thunder, one of the things that they do better than just about any team in the league is they start turning you over. They’re they’re the best team I can ever remember of turning a five-point deficit into a 15-point lead in like the blink of an eye. So, I think with the Pacers, the fact that they rarely play any minutes without two or three real ball handlers on the floor, they don’t turn it over very much. they tend to stay more poised um in the way they work offensively. I think that is a big counter uh to the way the Thunder want to play. The Thunder are a better team uh don’t get me wrong. They’ve got more things they can go to. They’ve got more versatility, I think, in their lineups than than Indiana does, but I think Indiana has a chance simply because Hallebertton’s that good and he’s gotten to the point where if he wants to play fast, you play fast. If he wants the game to be slowed down, he slows the game down. Looking at uh at what the Pacers have done, this has kind of been a big talking point on our show. Are we just going to see more teams like this kind of what we would assume is a random team or perceive as a random team making a run to the finals versus, you know, kind of the who’s who of the NBA who seems to be in the finals most years? Is it going to be more varied like this? Yeah, I don’t think so. I think people are way overreacting to this and everybody’s, you know, oh, the new CBA and, you know, it’s ruined, you know, dynasties and all these things. it it’s harder to build a team that’s going to be around for five, six, seven, eight years like we’ve seen with a handful of teams over the recent years, but I I think you’re still going to see more often than not teams will get there and then they’ll kind of sustain. It just might be for a little bit of a shorter window. You you will get surprises like this. Don’t get me wrong, you’re going to see some teams kind of hop in there that you weren’t really expecting, but I think this has just kind of been a weird year a little bit for the NBA with some teams uh that have been traditional powers stepping back in a handful of other teams. Um, you know, stepping forward like the Pacers, like the Thunder did in some ways, the Knicks, you know, having a much better year than they’ve had in previous years. So, I think we’re just in a spot now where where we’re starting to look at it being, you know, let’s not overreact to what we have going on immediately, but I I think, you know, we will see a little bit more parody in variance in the years to come. Why do you think the Knicks came up short? I think they’re just, you know, I think the big thing for them is they’re not they weren’t good enough defensively in the end to really uh, you know, slow down the Pacers at all. And in the games they won, they’d outscore the Pacers, which is a weird place for a Tom Tibido team to be, but that’s where you’re at when you’re anchors on both ends of your team or Jaylen Brunson at point guard and Carne Towns at center. You’re going to have to find ways to get stops, you know, with other guys and through scheme things. And Indiana just had too many things they could go to, too many good players. and the fact that the Pacers are able to turn a lot of these games into trackmates getting up and down. That’s not how the Knicks want to play and they, you know, they just weren’t able to keep up, you know, no pun intended, they weren’t able to keep pace with the Pacers and they they also just weren’t able to score enough in the end or get enough softs and that’s that’s why ultimately they lost. Keith, these gets really interesting this offseason because Milwaukeekey’s obviously run into some turmoil and there’s talk that maybe they finally are willing to move Giannis Antmpo and he’s open to the idea. The Celtics are going to be without Jason Tatum all of next year. The Knicks look like they’re close, but probably aren’t good enough to get there. The Magic need to add another piece. They’re just seems like there’s a lot of movement that’s going to happen with the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got uh you know, everybody’s kind of wondering where what are the Cavs going to do, right? They had this incredible regular season and then fell in the second round. I think they’d be best served to kind of run it back. I think the Knicks should do that as well. I don’t think those teams should feel that they’re that far off the Pacers. All credit to Indiana, of course, but I would not feel like, oh, we’re miles behind those guys as far as catching them to move forward. And then, yeah, you’re right. Boston’s going to take a sip back. If Milwaukee trades Giannis, that’s going to be a whole different thing there for them. Who knows what Philadelphia does? They finally hit that, you know, magical healthy season and make a real run or are they going to kind of continue to go through it? So yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of turmoil in the East and you know, it’s one of those things where the East continues to put good teams at the top, the top, you know, three, four, five teams and then then behind them the rest of the way it gets really, really rough. You hearing anything out there, Keith, about Lowry Markin and his future and would you be surprised if the Jazz uh moved him? I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s I think, you know, there’s certainly teams that have interest. I think for some teams it’s great that he’s on this long-term contract now because they don’t have to worry about him leaving. There’s other teams that I think would look at that and say, “Eh, not really.” You know, where we want to go longterm with our money. He can be a little bit of a difficult guy to build around because he’s a great offensive player, but not anybody who’s going to anchor a defensive spot as a big that can be a little tough like we talked about with Towns. When you have a big that can kind of be picked on a little bit, that can make things hard. But there’s certainly going to be opportunities where teams would love to have Larry Markin in um in the fold. And then I think for the Jazz themselves, they’re really in a tough spot. You know, not staying in the top couple picks in the lottery. That that’s just so big because there’s such a blow to the franchise that you’re still going to get a good player at five, of course, but it’s just not going to be a transformational type guy like you were hoping for out of this draft class. and that have to put them in a spot where they say, “All right, do we do it again? Do we, you know, run it back with Darren Peterson and AJ Debansa and handful of really Cam Boozer, other good players at the top of this coming draft or do we have to really start to move things forward towards winning?” Because I know there are some frustrations uh within the fan base. I see them on social media all the time, you know, complaining about, hey, we just kind of threw away three years in a row and we’re no better off than than we were, you know, when we started this whole process. And that can be the tough thing when you’re trying to build through draft picks and through the draft. Suns are in the news today. Johnny Bryant, former Jazz assistant, former University of Utah player, uh, a finalist for their head coaching job, one of two finalists there. What What do you think is the best case scenario for the Suns this summer? And I don’t mean with their coaching hire. I mean with Kevin Durant. I mean with Devin Booker. I don’t think they’re going to be able to move Bradley Beal, though. I’m sure they’re going to try again. What what’s a good situation look like for Phoenix entering next season? I’m going to give you two different answers. A good situation would be blow it up as best you can. Trade Durant, trade Booker, start all over. Uh get as much draft capital in the door as you can since you’ve traded almost everything you can possibly trade draft pickwise and and hope it looks better moving forward. Then I think the other piece um though the realistic path is going to be they’re going to try to get guys back in a Kevin Durant trade that can win. Now you’re absolutely right. They’re going to do the best they can to try to find a Bradley Deal trade. I don’t know that they’re going to and they’re just going to try to be as good as they possibly can around Devin Booker. They’ve made it clear through ownership and the front office that they don’t have any real appetite uh for rebuilding. They you know what we just talked about it with the Jazz can be kind of hard if you don’t hit in the draft. um they’ve basically said, “Yeah, that’s not what we want to do. We want to be competitive. There’s no they don’t believe that building through the draft is something that necessarily will always work.” So, I think they’re going to try to shortcut this a little bit. I think it’s going to end up being similar results to where they’ve been, you know, this year, which is, you know, probably battling around the playing tournament line and and probably an easy out in the first round. What are your thoughts on this year’s draft? The Jazz are at five and we’ve had several pundits say this is a four player draft and the Jazz sit at five. But any thoughts on what this year’s draft looks like? Yeah, I mean you’ve got obviously Cooper Flag in his own tier at the top. Then I’ve got Dylan Harper kind of in his own tier at number two and then things flatten out a little bit. VJ Edcomin Ace Bailey are the two next guys, but not every team is sold on both of those guys. Uh, so there is a chance you could see some movement there. But I think Utah’s got a chance to come away with a really good player. You know, almost no matter what they do, there’s going to be a lot of talent still on the board. Even if those four guys are the first four off the off the board at the draft, you’ve still got guys like Keniple and you’ve got uh Casper Shonus and Kan Ma. Uh really good players that that are going to be available for them if they want to go that way. Um, you know, it kind of gives them a little bit of optionality, too. I think the way the roster is coming together, it feels like they’re maybe a little guard heavy. Um, but none of those guys, I think, are so locked in that it’s like, wait, we we can’t go get another guard. If they feel like there’s a better guard in this draft class, go get him. And same thing with the big man position. If you feel like it’s, you know, someone’s going to be better than Walker Kesler, you go get him. And then maybe explore the trade market for Walker Kesler. the it’s massive disappointment to have slipped as far as you could possibly slip in the draft of course, but they’re still going to come away with a really good player because I I think it’s a pretty deep draft, you know, through 8 10 players and then it kind of levels out from there. Keith, thank you as always. We appreciate you jumping on with us. Appreciate it, Keith. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All right, there you go. That’s our buddy Keith Smith uh from Spa Track talking about all things NBA melting away in uh in the Orlando heat right now. Had really good things to say about Austin H. I don’t think you’re going to hear bad things about Austin H. The weird thing about it is just that, you know, his dad is Danny H. his dad works for the Jazz and people are going to assume that’s the only way he got the job. And Keith, that’s why I asked him, you know, would he have gotten this job otherwise somewhere? He said probably eventually, maybe not this early, which I think will be the question and maybe why, you know, Danny A sticks around for a year or two until it feels like Austin’s going at full speed, you know, has the full lay of the land and is ready to go and, you know, make his own hires and bring other people in that he wants to a scouting staff. Like that’s the other part of that that comes in with this is that when you hire a new president of basketball operations, they bring in their people. You know, you look at when uh Kevin Oconor left, like a lot of the Jazz people left. You know, you wanted to see or Dennis Lindsay wanted to see his own people come in. You look across the the NBA landscape, like Walt Pin was the former lead scout for the Jazz. He got hired to go do the same job for the Knicks and they hardly rose and Walt was out of a job. It’s like that’s how it works. So, there’s going to be a lot of turnover for the Jazz, but probably doesn’t happen immediately. It might happen over the next 12 months or 24 months. And I would imagine maybe Danny A stays in his spot until some of those things are finalized. If I’m Austin, this is exactly what I do. Okay. All right. I create a uh separate social media account specifically created to defend me on social media. Can’t go wrong. probably leak some maybe potentially uh you know juicy injury uh information in the process of defending myself online. But here’s the brilliance of it, Ben. If you get caught, all you have to do is throw your wife right under the bus. Sure. I mean, Brian Kangelo laid it out. Mastered it. I mean, just a just a masterclass. Yeah. I mean, you you you’re so thin skinned that you can’t handle a bunch of social media bozos. So, making fun of your shirt. Yeah. Right. So, you got to get in there and really defend yourself. Yeah. But again, the last line of defense is throwing your wife under the bus. I don’t know Austin’s uh his marital if she would go along with with such a plot, but it really is brilliant. I do think it’s smart to have somebody who’s 44 years old coming in. Wasn’t that the stupidest story? That whole situation. The Sixers are the worst franchise. They are so bad. Yeah. for a team that has had reasonable luck in the draft historically. I know they tanked a bunch to get it, but they did get the number one pick several times in that run and ended up with Joel Embiid and drafted Tyresese Maxi. They’ve done some things very well. Uh yeah, I think they only got it once actually, didn’t they? And they had to trade for it and they traded up to get Markeel and they got Ben Simmons. But they had good to so to be in that spot. Yes. Anyway, I’m just comparing nepatism hires. Sorry. I agree. No, I I totally understand. Probably a fireable offense at all. And that that that story is so ridiculous. It will never not be funny. But uh I think having a 44 year old is probably the right age for the job. I think you need to be in your prime. Okay. Your your dad is a prominent uh professional. Do you think you could ever embarrass him so badly that he has to fall off the map? Like I don’t think we’ve heard from Jerry Kangelo since because his son is such an embarrassment. Yeah. I think Jerry was even like done running the he he put together the Olympic teams and now it’s Grant Hill, right? I honestly think he’s very involved in Grand Canyon University and what’s going on down at that. So I actually think that’s what he’s doing. But the joke still is out there. Like could you embarrass your father so bad that he would have to leave his profession? I definitely have the the the megaphone to do it. I know. Yeah. So yeah. So you could, but the nice thing, no that would be a big mistake. He’s a, you know, he’s an artist now. He’s a He’s a retired artist now. Retired person who is now an artist. Like the value of his work goes down just because he’s associated with you. Sure. Very possible. Christian think? I don’t think so. No. No. His his job is pretty uh not connected to this at all. Yeah. Pretty insulated. Okay. I mean, that’s the nice thing about being an artist, too, right? Other than it is purely public opinion. So if they were like, you know, his son, they’d be like, he can’t we can’t even bring him into the arts festivals anymore. You being a degenerate though might actually make his go like if he has an infamous son, it might actually make his the value of it go up, right? George Bush Jr. W like his paintings sell. He’s he’s actually a pretty good painter. I don’t think he does sell his paint. Does he sell them? I don’t think he does. He sells them. He actually donates the money to veterans. So this isn’t this isn’t a Hunter Biden thing where No, I don’t think so. putting half a million dollars a pop right in his pocket. I haven’t seen uh Hunter’s work, but George Bush is actually a pretty good painter. I always thought that was a cool hobby for a former president. And uh but they probably do sell in part A, because the proceeds go to a very good place, but B because the president painted it, not because Oh, that’s painter available to buy. Yeah. No, that’s 100% of the value. Yeah. Right. That’s not like part of the do that for my father a little bit. All of the fame or infamy. Exactly. Well, your dad’s kind of infamous in a way. He is. He went viral again over the weekend. Can’t get away from that. Yeah. See you on Monday. Bundy. Yep. Went back. Well, that’s good. Who picked it up? I saw some other Internet Hall of Fame, which is might be the biggest that’s ever retweeted it. Internet Hall of Fame has like four million followers. They have a gold check mark. They have a gold check mark. Yeah. On Twitter. How much do you have to pay for that? Yeah. It’s like $14 a month. You have to you have to be given it. Oh, do you? So, it was they got rid of the blue check mark to sell the blue check mark only to create a gold check mark. That’s the actual original blue check mark. It This is so like the sneeches. It’s a cat in the wall. Yeah, right. It’s a golden cat in the wall. Oh, man. All right. Big thanks to Keith for jumping on with us. Stay tuned. We’ll have more coming up next. Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone with our crazy opinions. Hey, how are 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. 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. What’s up? Whether it’s the Jazz, Utes, Cougars, or Aggies, these guys have got you covered. Time to eat fellas. You’re locked on to Jake Scott and Ben Anderson. 1 2 3 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jacob Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Uh I want to remind you about Win Ticket Wednesday. Win big every week on the KSL Sports Zone with Win Ticket Wednesday. This Wednesday uh you can win tickets to Aerof Fest with Sticks. Kevin Cronin, the former lead singer of Rio Speedwagon, and Don Felder, formerly of the Eagles. That’s coming up June 11th, so very soon. Ben, at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater. Tickets on sale now at livenation.com or you can listen to the KSL Sports Zone all day on Wednesday for your chance uh to win. Ben, uh the Knicks have been out of the playoffs for how long? Like 48 hours. Yeah. And already uh reports are coming out about uh people complaining about Carl Anthony Towns. He had a bad final game. Numbers looked okay, but he had a bad final game. Really some horrendous defensive uh possessions, but that’s who he is. You know, the Knicks and the Timberwolves both traded really flawed players and in the most important games of the season, you saw their flaws. Like that’s just the truth. And they actually thought that ended up being a pretty successful trade. Both teams went to the conference finals despite swapping what was probably their second best player on their roster. Maybe Julius Randle’s third or fourth, but you know, maybe you still think Rudy Gobear is better than he was. But in in the actual playoffs, Ant was their best player. Julius Randle was probably number two. And Cat’s probably the second best player on the Knicks behind Jaylen Brun at least the second most well recognized. Make all NBA was an all-star this year. Like but he has real flaws. I think, you know, speaking of great NBA stories, the Jimmy Butler, the way it ended in Minnesota should have ended the careers of Andrew Wiggins, Carl Anthony Towns, and pretty much did end the career of Scott Leighton. Speaking of Scott Leighton, yeah, uh if you’re not familiar with it, uh Jimmy Butler was basically holding out of camp because he was disgruntled. and uh he was disgruntled by the effort of the star players of the team that were making all of the money in Carl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins at the time. So he flew in to training camp with the Timberwolves, picked the worst five guys on the roster, scrimmaged against the starting five, beat him, and walked out of the gym yelling at Scott Leaden. And that was the last time he would uh appear in that facility. Yeah. and then uh was shortly traded to Philadelphia coincidentally enough only to be let go via free agency to go to Miami. Right. But that story because he was talk the his whole point was is that Wiggins and Cat don’t have heart and they’re not going to do the hard things it takes to succeed at a high level in the NBA. And he was 1,000% correct. Yeah. About really everybody involved. And I know Andrew Wiggins kind of bailed it out with a um I don’t know what would you call it? I know Golden State, but like a a role player in Golden State, right? Not a not a star player. And I know we made the All-Star team once in Golden State, but that was just a Yeah. a vote thing. So, it it tells you everything you need to know about Carl Anthony Towns. You can’t tell me he he’s not capable of being a good defensive player. And in fact, if you look at what the the Knicks players are are complaining about, uh, quote, “Too often, Cat executed incorrect coverages without communicating why after it became a theme, players worried Towns didn’t grasp the importance.” Yeah, cuz he doesn’t want to. He’s not good at it. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to. Yeah. It was always a red flag that Minnesota traded for Rudy Goar. It was all to play Kate Carl Anthony Towns who didn’t want to do hard things like body up and rebound. Yeah, that’s red flag stuff in the NBA. Shots. Yes. Yeah. It’s no shock that it’s been a day and teammates are like, “Yeah, this Carl Anthony Towns guy, you know what? Jimmy Butler might have been right all those years, all those years ago.” And it’s interesting. You know, we’re talking about Austin A and we’re talking about the direction of the Jazz and what the next step is. You know, who the next step is. Well, listen. You’ve got to have players that are fit a culture that Will Hardy’s trying to create. And you got to avoid people like Carl Anthony Towns, even though he’s so talented, very talented, ultimately flawed, and he’s best offensive big man in the league. Never going to win. Yeah, he’s probably the best, you know, other than Jokic, obviously, but yeah, he’s up in that conversation. His ability to shoot the ball is truly ridiculous. It’s awesome. He is so flawed at the most important thing big guys do. You know, you can You can overvalue what Walker Kesler brings to the Jazz and how valuable he actually is and and and you know misread that. The truth is though, Walker does the thing that you need your big guy to do most, which is makes it hard to score in the paint. He just does. He’s a really good shot blocker. He dissuades players from even driving to the paint because he’s in there. He’s not as good as Rudy Gober was at his prime, but he’s really good. He might be the best rebounder in the league. Yeah. And right now, he’s one of the best, if not the best rebounder in the league. So, there’s a lot of value in that. and cat does none of it and it may not help you win very much. You know, certainly nice to have and the threat of it and creating floor spacing and being able to play five out, which is why the Jazz do want to get a guy who can step out and shoot threes as well and are trying to get Walker to to dabble in it because the the value is there for it, but you can’t do it at the cost of all the other more important things you do, which is being a good defensive player. Beware, and this may play into your conversation, which interestingly enough, Keith Smith didn’t really agree with, but about the cap and how it’s changing things and that sort of thing. You know, we talk about the old maid, the bad contract, right? Nobody wants to get stuck with the old maid. Beware of highly flawed, highly paid players. Yeah. Yeah. You can’t be that highly paid and have a fatal flaw. Not to pick on David Lockach, but he has kind of advocated in recent months. not advocated. That’s too strong. But brought up the the possibility of trading for Trey Young. That is the player you have to avoid. James Harden. James Harden. That’s a a a great example. I mean, players that are so I would even throw Luca Donuch into this, honestly. Yeah, he might be. This this is the Nico Harrison argument. You’re exactly making the argument that Nico Harrison had, which is, yeah, we could have paid him five years and $300 million. He doesn’t do the thing you have to be able to do to win. His flaw is so bad that he can’t make up for it with his other stuff. Carl Anthony Towns can’t make it. That’s why Minnesota was so intrigued in getting Rudy. Okay, we’ll get a big that wants to do the hard things and then we’ll let Carl do what Carl wants to do. And it’s like it didn’t work when speaking of Anthony Davis. He that’s exactly what he wanted in New Orleans, right? And they traded for Boogie Cousins. Disaster for years in LA. It was like Anthony Davis wants to be the four. Let’s bring in all these stiffs at five so Anthony Davis doesn’t have to do the hard things. No, they won the Mickey Mouse title when they made Anthony Davis play center and he’s basically been their center since because that’s his position. Yeah, it’s really hard to do. It’s really hard to get perfect players and there just aren’t perfect players, you know, and to be able to overcome your defensive weaknesses or your offensive weaknesses on the other end, it it’s hard to do when you make 30 plus million dollars. You know, Joic is so good offensively and at least talented enough or smart enough defensively to be in the right place and to be huge that he makes more of an impact on that end certainly than Cat does. And what does he do? Well, he’s a really great rebounder. That’s probably the thing that Joic doesn’t get enough credit for. He’s an awesome rebounder. Cat won’t sit in there and rebound. Cat won’t do it to that level. Yeah, you’re right about Joic at least being big. Lateral quickness is Joic’s fa uh problem obviously, but he still finds a way to be big. How often does he get 20 rebounds? Like every third game. Shaq is actually the best example of this that he found a way to be big even though he was super vulnerable defensively because of his his lateral quickness. But won’t even do that. Yeah. Now, here’s the wrinkle to the convo, and I’ll use Evan Turner as an example because it’s a relevant one. Right now, Evan Turner is a flawed guy. On the other side of CAT, he does all the hard things and he does it really well, but he’s flawed offensively, right? Yep. But at $19 million, he’s a steal and a key component on that team. At $40 million or 30 or whatever he’s going to get this off season, he’s an overpaid, flawed player. Yeah. He goes from being the most important, not arguably most important or at least X-factor on a title contending team to anchor on another team’s franchise. If he leaves in free agency and signs a big deal somewhere else, he will be an anchor on that franch franchise because if you’re going to pay someone, and I don’t think he’s a max guy by any means, but he’s going up from 19. Yeah. If you pay somebody, you know, you can make an argument to pay J Jason Tatum and J uh and Jaylen Brown max deals because their flaws really aren’t that, you know, okay, you say Jaylen Brown, the big complaint in Boston right now is he doesn’t have a ton of wiggle. Yeah. Well, you know what? He can still score 30 a game and take the other team’s best player out of uh on the other side of the uh on the other side of the ball. Yeah, you can overcome. Oh, okay. So, he he lacks a little creativity. So, what? Wiggle has quickly become the most overrated skill in the NBA. Amen. Who cares? Jokic doesn’t have any. Well, he does have a little, but LeBron doesn’t have any. Giannis doesn’t have any. LeBron has never had any. Yeah, Luca doesn’t really have any. Lucas really strong. Giannis is really strong. LeBron’s really strong. I don’t care if you can go side to side. Who cares what? Yeah, whatever. But Jaylen Brown’s Yeah, right. Does Jay Brown get 20 points a game? And yeah, does he lock you up on the other end? Okay, there’s value there. I don’t care if he goes side to side. Who cares? Is his lack of wiggle going to cause you to lose basketball games? Probably not. Yeah. You know who doesn’t have a lot of wiggle? Uh Isaiah Collier. You know what he is? He’s the fastest person in the league and he’s really strong. There’s value there. I don’t care that he doesn’t cross you over. Who cares? But oh to this is this is a great point. If but you can’t pay him a third of your cap. No, absolutely not. He’s too fatally flawed to pay that much money. Cuz I can hear people yelling at their radio like there’s only like five of the guys you’re talking about. It’s like, yes, that’s why the supermax is not a good move unless you have the right. It’s one of those five guys. And the teams that have got tempted into maxing out or more appropriately, super maxing out players just because those players end up being the old maid, the best player tax. I’ve always said that you can’t get caught paying your best player a max salary just because they’re the best player on your team. Are they actually good enough? And this will be a question for Lowry Markin and why the Jazz might be willing to move him because the Jazz are paying him a high salary. Now, it’s not so exorbitantly high, even though it’s a max deal, that they can’t afford it or that he can’t earn it, but he is a flawed player. He’s not a good defender. Yeah. Um, he’s not a lead number one offensive scoreer, though he can lead your team in scoring. Can you get a player who has fewer flaws at a same price range, who maybe is not as good as any one thing as Lowry is as a shooter scorer? And that might be the trade the Jazz have to make. The Jazz, you know, this is an interesting discussion because the situation is a little different. The Jets have to pay somebody. There’s a league minimum. I mean, they they have to pay somebody. They were also in danger of losing what became a significant asset for nothing. And I don’t think if you gave Danny A truth serum, I would guess that they when even when they signed the deal did not forecast him finishing the deal in Utah. Just a guess. I don’t know that. But I bet. But I agree with you. Even then, they thought the likelihood of him finishing in Utah was quite low. Plus, the TV deal is going to kick in and all that stuff where all of a sudden it’s not quite as painful as it was. But if I was another another team that was pretty capped out and trying to make one more move, I’d be a little skeptical of Lowry. Now, maybe right fit. It’s the perfect move for somebody like you’ve brought up what Houston a lot. Houston. Yeah. Which maybe that makes a ton of sense and that’s what uh what they’re lacking and it’s a good fit, but I would look at it with a little bit of a side eye going, how’s this going to go if we give him what is he at? 40 million. I know, but what percentage of the cap is that? I’d have to get in and do the math, but it’s what is it? 30%. Yeah, because supermax is 35. It’s 25%, but whatever. I think he’s might be 25. Whatever. Is that Yeah. Is that too much? Is that too much? I mean, you got to really look at that sort of thing for Carl Anthony Towns. Way too much. It is. Yeah. The money he makes, which is Is he not the highest paid player in the NBA? He’s one of them. He’s up there. Yeah. It’s just too much money for a max guy who has that many flaws. Too much. Yep. Bradley Beal. way too much. Yeah, way too flawed. And that’ll sink you. Phoenix is in the position they’re in because of Bradley Beal. Now, it’s not his fault, just like it wasn’t Andre Karolinko’s fault when he became the old maid here in Utah, but he is the reason that they can’t maneuver and do anything to make themselves better. It’s just a good lesson to learn. And looking at the draft, it’s the same way and apply it. If you don’t play defense, you can’t be the best player available. If you’re that fatally flawed on one side of the ball, especially in the top five, you can’t be the best player available. Even if your one offensive skill is better. Look, Pascal Seakum, and he’s been awesome, don’t get me wrong. Like, he can score 30 in a playoff game, but he’s awesome because he can really play both sides of the ball, right? Defensive player, switchy, you know, can defend multiple positions. Great. You like to have him. Tough. But he’s not going to go out and score 30 points a game and average a night. But he’s more valuable right now than Carl Anthony Towns was in this series. Way more valuable. But he’s always been more valuable. That’s see that’s the trick. You know, we we fall in love with one-sided players that are extremely limited and primadanas who think that they’re something that they’re not. I mean, have you I I could tell you from my childhood several examples of this, but have you ever played in a pickup game with somebody who’s big who doesn’t want to be? Yeah. The like the like 66 guy at the sports mall who’s threes. He wants to shoot threes the whole time cuz he doesn’t want to like that doesn’t work, right? That guy is so guardable now. You make yourself go from unguardable to guardable. Anyway, we we fall in love with these things and we ignore the flaws. And the thing is, dumb general managers fall in love with it, too. And especially with number one picks and like, oh my gosh, this guy’s our franchise. And he’s not. Yep. Yeah, he’s not. And you can’t pay him like he is. And we’ll see if they shop him around. And maybe they will. Oh, no. I think he’s becoming the old maid. He might. He might. He might. Yeah. No thanks, Leon. I’m not taking that problem off your hands. Hard pass. Whereas Julius Randle, I think, actually is more tradable than he was going into the playoffs. Yeah, he’s only got one year left on his deal. Absolutely, man. Both those players should flip again. Yeah, they easily. If both teams know what’s good for him, but there’s a chance that they could. Yep. Well, the Knicks should fire their coach, trade Carl Anthony Towns, cut Jaylen Brunson, lose their entire identity. probably trade Josh Hart. Okay. Good two-way player. Can’t move off Bridges. You spent too much to get him. Yeah, you did pay a lot. Pay a lot to get Bridges. And then change ownership. And maybe they’ll get to uh the finals eventually. Yeah. Cut Jaylen Brunson just out of spite. Oh, you got to fire his dad at the same time. Speaking of nepotism. Yeah, that one’s kind of going the other way though, right? You look at uh Brunson stand be like, “You think you’d be here if your last name was uh Anderson?” Yeah. Right. Would you still be here? Would you still be on the staff? Hey, he might be a tips guy. He’s been a Knicks guy for a while, right? Yeah, since uh a month before they signed Jaylen. Well, he played there, right? Didn’t he play for the Knicks? I have no idea. Nor do I care. But they hired him right before they signed Jaylen. Way to go, Dallas. Was that Nico, too? Who didn’t reup Jaylen? It was That wasn’t Donnie. That was Nico. Way to go, Dallas. He was going to sign for a bar. Uh uh 40 million. Yeah. All right. Stay tuned. Four years 40 million. They said that’s too rich for us. Oh my goodness. No, not you. Stay tuned. More next. 975 DKSL Sports Zone. This is This is DJ and PK. The Jazz have added to their front office. Austin, president of basketball operations. double A coming home. I had covered Austin. I was beat writer for the Watchdog at the time and he has an excellent mind. He used to discuss stuff with me that it was obvious to me he’s going to be in basketball at some point. Austin has trained for this for many, many years. Of that, I’m assured. Obviously, he’s got the same last name, but beyond that, I can speak to he’s got an excellent mind for the game, which I think is important these days. You have to present a message and it has to be presented in a manner that reflects well on your entire franchise and your organization. And I think he’ll do that. And I like they did it now because he’s got basically a whole month to get on board with what the line of thinking is going forward here. [Music] Catch DJ and PK mornings from 6:00 to 10 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Who’s got it better than us? Your home for the best sports coverage in Utah. You’re listening to Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 KSL Sports Zone. [Music] loves his tie guy. Ben’s got style with his star. Oh my [Music] Jacob Ben 975 VKSL Sports Zone. Uh this segment brought to you by Peach Doors and Windows. Amazing home transformations begin with Peach where fivestar reviews are the norm. Call them today for your free inhome estimate. 8015661255. Ben and I were having a a chat. Maybe we have more of a long form chat about this at some point, but the the flaw in stats and analytics and you know, sometimes you should just believe your own eyes. Think about that terrible movie uh the the Jonah Hill analytics vehicle with Brad Pitt. Uhhuh. Uh that team never won the World Series. Sure. They got to the playoffs and then they lost to the Yankees because at some point the 65 guy that mashes it out of the park still has value is going to beat your wonky math formula. You know what I mean? Like because this is still sports bigger, stronger, faster and frankly more skilled is you know like you would you would tell me and and you made a a great point. You would tell me that Nicola Joic and Carl Anthony Towns were kind of in the same neighborhood. They’re probably both players. 12.7 rebounds per game. If we’re talking about rebounding, if you look at their stats statistically, you know, Joic is better, but it’s not if you only country mile. You watch those two play and you go, “Oh, yep. Well, this guy in Denver is significantly more impactful, totally different caliber than Carl Anthony Towns.” Yeah. You know, you just can’t get the whole story with stats. And that’s where, you know, to bring the show full circle because, you know, we started talking about Austin A and basketball people where you go, “Oh, that guy’s a basketball guy or these are basketball people.” It’s such a subject subjective business. There’s no definition of that. You know what I mean? You want a basketball guy who’s going to who knows basketball, is going to make the right decisions because they know the game, not because they looked at a spreadsheet. I don’t think you have to have played at a certain high level to understand basketball. You know what I mean? I think it helps if you’ve been on a basketball court in a five on five situation and understood what is valuable and what’s not valuable. And Danny A has done that and Austin H has done that. And I think those things do translate. Will Hardy’s clearly done it. You know, he played at Williams College. I think knowing what some of those things work and they just scale up. It’s not like it’s a totally different game in the NBA than it is even at the lower levels. Like the it’s the talent is obviously enormously different, but knowing what works on an NBA court and what what generates advantages on a court is something you can know from playing at BYU or playing in high school and take to the next level that I think might be hard to replicate fully if you never played. Yeah, I yeah, 100% agree. And stats and analytics can be a tool but people well and the hard part about stats and analytics is that they are adoptable by everybody. What is not adoptable by everybody is 6’5 masher right? That’s that’s ultimately the problem. I can teach Aaron Judge the analytics and I can put Aaron Judge within the analytics. I can’t take Aaron Judge’s physical advantages and drop them on six foot one Tim Elco or what you know what I mean whatever and say but also do that also have the amount of of power that you can mistakenly hit a ball out you know that’s that’s an advantage you still get from from judge that you can’t teach you know it’s the cliche you can’t teach size that means more than just actual height so sorry I’m a a little distracted. I found a story that Rudy Gobear’s ex-girlfriend is shading him on the Snapchat. Well, he’s had a rough month. Uh, let’s see. Uh, she reposted a text graphic that says, “You have every right to speak your truth, to share what happened and how it affected you. Their discomfort discomfort isn’t your responsibility. If they wanted to be seen in a better light, they should have treated you better.” Rudy, if you don’t know the story, um, had a baby with this fiance. Is that what they’re saying? Is that No, they were married. They were married. Uh-huh. Okay, good for Rudy. I think they got married. Um, regardless, he had a baby and then she got pregnant again and the story is he kicked her out or at least that’s kind of the short short story. I don’t think that’s fully what happened obviously, but they are no longer together as she’s pregnant with their second child. Not a great look for No, the personal lives of children in Minnesota has not been No, not been good. It’s been At least the headlines have been terrible. Yeah. Well, noisy personal I’ve been. Rudy’s noisy. Rudy. Rudy. He’s a noisy person. He’s always been noisy. And apparently it’s noisy everywhere. That’s why what’s his name? Punched him in the face. He and Kyle Anderson punched each other. I’ve never seen anything like that. No, that was crazy. We’ve seen contentious teams. We’ve seen teams that don’t like each other. We’ve seen Every team doesn’t like each other. Lots of players that don’t like each other. Never seen one just say, “You know what? Screw it.” And throw down. punched the other right in the face. That in the playoffs or was it just late regular season? It was in the playoffs and then Jane McDaniels broke his hand punching the wall on his way out in a different noisy. Yeah, real noisy. That’s what seriously Oklahoma City superpower might be. They’re not noisy at all. And you know what? Indiana isn’t noisy at all either. The Knicks should trade Cat for Rudy Gobear. Swap. Oh man. All right. Stay tuned. Honesty G are coming up next. Thanks Christian. 975 the KSL Sport Zone.
Jake & Ben Full Show from June 2, 2025
Hour 1
• The Utah Jazz are hiring Austin Ainge from the Celtics to the President of Basketball Operations.
• Top 3 Stories of the Day: NBA Finals are set, more on Danny Ainge’s son Austin joining the Jazz as President of Basketball Operations, Johnnie Bryant is a finalist for Suns Head Coaching Job.
• Do the Indiana Pacers stand a chance against the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Hour 2
• Spotrac’s Keith Smith joined the show to talk about the Utah Jazz hiring Austin Ainge as President of Basketball Operations. How qualified is the son of Danny Ainge?
• The Knicks took a big swing on Karl-Anthony Towns, and it didn’t work out.
• Analytics have become so overrated.
