BOMBSHELL: “It’s Austin’s Show” Austin Ainge TAKES CONTROL of Utah Jazz | VJ Edgecombe breakdown

BOMBSHELL: “It’s Austin’s Show” Austin Ainge TAKES CONTROL of Utah Jazz | VJ Edgecombe breakdown

Ryan Smith said it. It’s Austin’s show. A major change at the top of the Utah Jazz. Next on Locked on Jazz. You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. How are you? I’m David Lock, radio voice, Utah Jazz, Jazz MBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast in the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. A mammothly huge day for the Utah Jazz. Ryan Smith said, “We got better today as Austin A becomes the new president of basketball operations. A major change on top of the Utah Jazz and we will delve into it today. Thank you to the everydayers who’ve tuned in as always on this mammoth day for the Utah Jazz and thank you for making Locked on Jazz your first listen of the day.” Here’s the plan. We had planned and we will we’ll do a VJ Edgecom deep dive. Raphael Barlo of locked an NBA big board will join us to break him down and then Cam Stewart of locked on Baylor will join us to break down VJ Edgecom possible number five pick for the Utah Jazz out of Baylor. But the day starts with Ryan Smith. It’s Austin’s show now. This is a major change on top. My understanding is that Justin Xanic reports now to the president of basketball operations. Austin H is the general manager. The basketball decisions will be made by Austin H. So this is not Austin H sliding in with Danny and Justin. This is Austin’s show. And that is a massive change to who the Utah Jazz are and what’s going forward. And Ryan Smith has built Will Hardy, Austin A. That’s where Ryan and Ashley Smith have built it and that’s where it is. Let’s start with a few things. The I’m going to go through about three things. What I know about Austin H, why is he qualified? And what it means for the Utah Jazz. So, I don’t know Austin H. I’ve actually never talked to him. Uh, look forward to it. The NBA phone rings on days like yesterday. The consensus I got from multiple conversations all day. One is just a super high quality human in a business of where friendships are false, where interactions are inauthentic, where everyone’s conniving and looking for something. That’s not Austin H. That was the number one thing that came back to me yesterday from people about Austin H. Just, you know, sought me out and said hi to me when we were in Boston this year. authentically. So that was number one. Number two, always has had an incredible ability to recognize talent at early stages, early ages of who are going to be the important talent and what’s coming. That that has always been a massive strength for Austin is that ability to kind of understand who is in the mix and who’s supposed to be there. Payton Pritchard, one that he seems to have been very heavily involved in. It’s very hard inside organizations to know who you give credit to. And Aaron Nesmith, who’s now in Indiana, was another one that seems to be heavily in his role. Okay, let’s get let me just actually address number two on this that probably matters a great deal to everyone. Is he qualified? Is this a nepotism hire that Danny A orchestrated? And is Austin A qualified to be the president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz? So he starts his basketball non-playing career in 2007 as an assistant at Southern Utah and then in 2008 n becomes the first head coach of the main redclaw. Now Danny, his dad is definitely is obviously involved I think at that point as the president of Boston. In 2011, so 14 years ago, he becomes director of player personnel of the Boston Celtics. If you want to criticize his resume and say it’s a nepotism hire, then the criticism is is that he’s only been in one organization his entire career. On the other end, it’s one of the best organizations there is in all of professional sports. And the fact that he’s been there for 14 years, was never moved out, that he didn’t get thrown out when Danny left, it’s pretty telling. So his resume is 14 years as a player personnel in the NBA. That is ready to be president of basketball operations somewhere. Having worked for one of the best organization that won a title in that time period and been a part of that, it qualifies you to run a president of basketball operations somewhere. And the fact that he’s done it under both his father and under Brad Stevens, I think adds to the depth of that resume. Again, if you wanted to be critical for the sake of being critical, your comment would be that he’s only worked for one organization, only seen one way things are done in his entire career. Okay, I’ll take that. On the other end, one of the better organizations in all of professional sports kept him for 14 years. Why now? That’s not entirely clear to me. Is this a reaction to last season’s tanking in the lottery and the disappointment of the year and Ryan’s like, “I’m done with it. We’re moving on.” I don’t entirely think so. Is it we’re done with tanking is was kind of said in this press conference and we’ll address that and so we’re moving on in a disgust of what happened. I don’t get that vibe. The vibe I got was that at some point in time there was going to be a president of basketball operations of this nature and that probably in Ryan’s mind he’d known Ryan and Ashley that it was going to be Austin H. And there began to be there was one little line. I always think in press conferences the most important thing is what was not asked and what was said where Ryan Smith kind of said well there had begun to be percolation that other people were interested. So I think Ryan saw someone he really wanted to have come and run his basketball operations and began to get worried that somebody else in the league was about to hire him. And with new ownership in Boston, frankly, now is a good time to ask someone of whether they want to trade something new. So there is a fair, if you speculation, if someone wants to, that’s a reaction to last season. But it wasn’t like there wasn’t, let’s not misunderstand this. Everybody was on board to what was taking place last season. Obviously, the lottery didn’t turn out well, but the the rules didn’t change the day before. What does this mean for the Utah Jazz? So, the big headliner out was when Shawn Oonnell asked whether basically you’re willing to manipulate minutes, games, tanking, and he said no to let’s not. That’s great to hear. I do not necessarily think that that means that we’ll be great next year. I still think we’re probably have the 15th best roster in the Western Conference right now. And honestly, the fact that Oklahoma City has the rights to our pick if we’re not one through eight and if we don’t give it to if we do not give it to him, if we’re one through eight next year, it becomes two second round picks. Almost puts us on a point where it’s negligent if we’re not one through eight picking next year. We’re not going to win a title. I don’t think I don’t think unless we really pull some incredible moves, we’re going to be massively better or we’re going to be a 45 to 55 win team competing for the first final four of our conference. So, it’s almost negligent for us to be not to be picking one. The one thing we have not done over the last three years is been willing to take a deal to clear roster. We may be willing to do that. That might be the first change. We have wanted extreme value for any deal we were ever going to pull. And there’s some argument that at times we should have moved some players simply just to clear them off the roster to clear space to avoid some of the awkwardness of what took place. I think we might do that. His philosophy was really interesting just in how simple he was. It’s stacking good decisions. Indiana really is a great example of this. They’ve just stack good decision. They went and got Obie Topham and turned him into what they wanted him to be and they got Aaron Nesmith and they made a good decision on Tyrese Hallebert and Dana Sabotus and they made a good decision maybe fortunately to not trade Miles Turner and they made a good decision on the Pascal Seakum trade a great decision. So, I think it’s I might change what Austin said and say, “Okay, it’s some good decisions along with some great ones.” I asked Austin about the new collective bargaining agreement. I thought this was interesting. He said, “You’re going to be tighter in negotiations.” In other words, you used to go give some of their bird rights and just give an extra 5 million or you give them the extension. You’re not doing that anymore. Every million counts now with the first apron and the second apron. two, you used to think bird rights really mattered to have them and they don’t anymore, which is interesting. A little bit that used to be, well, we’re just going to pay more for our guy and keep him for bird rights. Probably not going to do that anymore. One of the ones that’s going to be really interesting coming up here is Carl Anthony Towns in New York. They really can’t afford to just extend him and pay him all of his money. And it’s going to be interesting to see when he they say no to that and he says no to that and then do they just let it run out. There’s going to be a player here pretty soon who wants his big money. The team says no and then the team just lets it run out. It’s going to be a massive moment. He also said that expiring contracts used to matter. We used to hold on to expiring contracts. We’re not doing that anymore. And that making trades is easier. I’ve been murmuring about this on this show for the everydayers that I want to do this thought exercise with you. I’ll probably do it tomorrow of how we rebuild fast. There is a route out there where because of the way the league is right now, you can rebuild really fast. And I thought this was maybe the most important thing and maybe the comment of the day that I don’t think will get the highest. Players want hope and they want to win. We have in fact ripped hope out of the players the last few years and Will Hardy’s had to navigate that with our half season halfway through each season and then last year there was not hope and there was not they they did not you know it was clear we weren’t trying to win. It was obvious to them. That to me seems to be now what the roster construction is and what the team’s capable of doing may mean that it’s not going to be a lot of wins. But if it’s a group that is moving forward that has hope together that one day maybe it’s not by April 15th of 2026 but it’s by April 15th of 2028 we’re going to do this together and and we’re all going to be a part of it. That’s hope. And that to me I thought was the most telling comment of the day was the comment that players want hope and they want to win. I think you can see a group being formed here that then by 20 is thinking about winning together as a group in 2027 2028 and we’ll see obviously a John Collins at that point might not be a part of that group or Jordan Clarkson might not be a part of that group and so you make some of these moves in reaction. That’s my take on it. Ryan Smith calls it a day the Jazz got better. It’s a massive change. It’s Austin’s show. VJ Edgecom deep dive coming up next on Locked on Jazz. Tuesday edition of Locked on Jazz is brought to you by Murdoch Hyundai located at 46 46 South State Street. Also in Lynon and in Logan. I just spent a bunch a day with Jake Banks, our uh Locked On expert salesperson for you at Murdoch Hyundai in Lyndon. Uh, my dad bought the Ionic 6. It’s light blue, kind of sky blue. It’s super good looking. It’s in the garage right now. Here. Um, I’ll drive it out to him at some point here. Um, but yes, so my dad just bought the Ionic 6, so we got that taken care of. Customer service was great. I talked Jake and Blake’s ear off for like an hour afterwards, so that was to their detriment, but that’s what they had to do because I’m buying a car. And it was great. And I’m super fired up for it. And the six was wild driving. Wish I could drive it more, but it’s not, you know, it’s dad’s car. Don’t want to like crash dad’s car at 50 years old. That’d be really bad. 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All right, for the next few days, I’m still here till Friday and then I’m off. I want to do deep dives on our top picks so you really feel prepared and then Leaf’s going to take you for the next week plus um and really dive into all the players for you and give you the breakdowns and everything like that because he’s awesome at this draft stuff. So, what I did is I had Raphael Barlo come by and he’s going to break spend some time with us on the draft picks. And so, we’re going to hear Raphael Barlo on VJ Edge and then we’ll come back and we’ll hear Cam Stewart locked on Baylor. So, you’ll get our locked on NBA big board draft expert and you’re going to get the local expert who was with the kid for the entire year last year. We’ll start it off with our locked on NBA big board expert Raphael Barlo. VJ Edgeham, Baylor, Guardwing, super athlete. I had a super interesting experience watching him that I’ll share with you in a bit. But let’s kind of start with just overall viewpoint of your scouting breakdown of VJ Edgecom. Really, really good athlete, but a very tricky eval for me. very tricky simply because he had a just an absolutely phenomenal summer last year or last summer representing the Bahamas national team in the Olympic qualifiers. He had a team with DeAndre Aton. Eric Gordon was on that team in Buddy Heield and there were times where he looked like the best player on the floor which he came into the league with or came into the season with top five buzz. The season at Baylor was up and down. Really struggled at the beginning of the year against some of the ranked opponents. showed some flashes, then he finished strong. So, why he’s a tricky evaluation for me, and Jazz fans will probably understand this, is because he was in a similar situation to Kee George at Baylor. Keonte came in with a lot of hype. Did not have the best year at Baylor, but he was playing a little bit out of position. Wasn’t in the best position to succeed. Goes to Utah, slims down, and I think in a reddraft, he goes a lot higher than where he was than where he went at at number 15. So with Edgecom, he played his best basketball when Baylor had some injuries and he was playing more so of his natural position, but despite him being a phenomenal athlete, he was inefficient as a finisher around the rim. And while he’s a capable shooter, he shot about 34% from three. So there are some concerns about what is the one skill set he can hang his hat on on the offensive end in the NBA. He become, we’ll kind of do the same thing we’ll do with all these guys. his best NBA skill that makes you say absolutely yes sir I’m jumping up and down I got VJ Edgecom that he develops more as a like an onball creator and scorer and he he becomes a better finisher at the rim. The part that is tricky is that if is is the shooting is streaky and the inefficiency that he showed finishing at the rim despite again being a phenomenal athlete, maybe the best athlete in his class. And if those numbers are are real, especially against NBA level rim protectors, then that could be the reason why he doesn’t live up to the hype. So your your biggest concern on him is just that his game can’t get to the rim and suddenly becomes 15 foot jumpers and 30 foot and 25 foot jumpers and he’s not as good a shooter as he needs to be. Yeah. What’s the skill set on the offensive end that he can hang his hat on? That’s that’s my concern. Yeah. I mean there’s I I do the a numbers breakdown on him and if I remember correctly the off the-bound shooting’s a bit unnerving. 20 I think he’s 21st percentile in off the bounce dribble shooting 13 of 52 for the season. The only player that is worse than that I think that is uh Liam McN was Nelly was worth worse than that. Derek Queen was worse than that. I think that’s the those are the only two that come out worse than that um in the draft. So there’s an interesting concept there. Here was my thing. Arizona game. I’m watching him quiet quiet. Like I’m like, “Wait, where are you?” And then all of a sudden they’re down seven with like seven minutes left. He like completely took over the game. Went to the foul line like eight straight times or eight free throws straight, four straight trips and just had this massive impact and it was like, “Oh, there it is.” But then what do I think about that stretch of time where he was just playing and is that just Baylor? Because sometimes I watch Baylor with all their guards and feel like, “Yeah, that’s what happens.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that’s why he’s a a a difficult eval for me because there are the flashes where you see it, but then there are times, especially against ranked opponents, where you’re like, he’s just blending in. He’s blending in more than he’s standing out. I think for him, it’s probably more beneficial for him to fall as opposed to going within the top five where there is maybe franchise changing expectations. and I don’t think he’s that type of player, but then again, he looked like it last summer when he played for the Bahamas in the Olympic qualifier. So, he’s he’s a tough eval for me. My best case on him, tell me if I’m just This is what I watched him. I thought was Victor Olipo. Yeah, I agree. I agree. But I heard an NBA scout told me last week, he’s Benedict Mathan. And he said Benedict Mathan was a really good athlete in college, but once he got to the NBA, there are times where he plays and there’s times where he doesn’t play. And that was his comparison for VJ Edgecom. All right. So, we did the same thing with we’ll do this with all of them. The numbers say there’s like there’s three, right? You become just a regular player. You become an all-star or frankly you can bust. Like that’s the reality here. The script by which he becomes an all-star. The script by which he busts. The script where he becomes an allstar is that he has more game as a lead ball handler than he was able to show. And similar to Victor Oladipo, I think it took him his third team. Like he went from Orlando to OKC to to Indiana and then he kind of broke out there. So that could be it. If he struggles, it’s just the outside shooting. His outside shooting. And he’s a little straight up and down as far as and just how he when he’s attacking the rim and sometimes I think that turns that that and it doesn’t allow him to turn a corner consistently. That is our good friend Raphael Barlo. Interesting takes there. A tough eval he calls him for your fifth pick. None of us want a tough eval. We want to believe. We’ll hear from Locked on Baylor’s Cam Stewart getting more insight on VJ Edge next on Locked on Jazz. Today’s show is brought to you by BetterHelp. 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At is the largest online therapy provider in the world. Better Help can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of experience. Take it, talk it out. Take it out with BetterHel. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/lockedonba. That’s betterhelp hp.com/lockedonba. Let’s do it with a local expert. more on VJ Edge. You’re going to know him as well as you possibly can. So, here’s our local expert, Cam Stewart, on VJ Edge. We heard from our NBA draft expert, Raphael Barlo. So, now we hear from our local expert, the Locked On Baylor host, Cam Stewart of Locked on Baylor, to hire about his year with VJ Edgecomb from the Bahamas to Baylor. That’s not a usual route. Not usual. Um, nil probably has something to do with unusual routes these days, but uh, Cam, thanks for taking the time. Let’s just start overall thought on the VJ Edgecom experience and what he what what V8 VJ Edgecom was at Baylor. Yeah. Well, I mean, first off, he was a real bright spot for what was a pretty disappointing season for for our Baylor Bears, which was what we’ve not come to expect over the last few years. They’ve obviously solidified themselves as one of the great programs the last half decade or so. But the thing that comes to mind with me with VJ and that come it’s for Baylor and for the next step he’s going to be worth the price of admission like the dude is just he’s anytime he steps on the floor there’s a chance at a Sports Center top 10 play like the blocks the dunks he’s got this unbelievable explosiveness like a a very much kind of like a a kid of the be like Mike generation um you know incredible athleticism and hops and he’s making these plays that don’t even look physically possible, David. Not like, oh, he’s an 18-year-old. What a play. Like, I didn’t know anybody could make that play. And so, he comes in, you know, he he improved on a couple of different things in his offensive game throughout the year. He was not the most polished coming in as an 18-year-old um with with obviously a ton of athleticism. Like I said, you can rely a lot on that uh even at the high levels of high school basketball. Um, but he’s got a great size, unbelievable hops, and he became a better shooter in his time at Baylor. Like, if you if you’re putting this kid in the NBA lab, so to speak, and you’re not sending him to class a couple of times a day, he’s just going to become an allaround great basketball player in my opinion. Let’s go off the court. We’ll get back to on the court. Let’s go off the court. Um, one of the games I watched of him, they did a nice thing about the uh scholarships. He gave back to the Bahamas and the kids there. Tax breaks are important when you have nil, but it’s let’s give him also credit for doing what he’s doing. Let’s do it. What was he what was what was the persona or the aura about him off the court um as a person? Yeah. I mean, in a lot of ways, kind of the model guy you’d want leading your basketball team. I mean, you mentioned, you know, how he donated his earnings to a bunch of scholarships back home in the Bahamas and was always giving back to that. like that says something about a kid who’s 18 years old, doesn’t come from a lot of money and gets a lot of money to play college basketball. Um, and that really speaks volumes. But he was really kind of unassuming. Uh, you know, in the times that I saw him off the court, like he’s 6’5, so you know, he’s a big guy, but you you don’t necessarily bump into this kid and think this he’s going to be making millions and millions and millions of dollars here in the next couple of months. uh not because he doesn’t look athletic, but because he doesn’t walk around like he’s about to make tens of millions of dollars here in the next couple of months. Super nice guy, very much cared about his community. Um even in the short time that he was at Baylor, gave back in in Waco and into that community. So, in terms of a guy, I mean, he’s he’s going to check all the boxes like no ego, did a lot of things that were for the betterment of the team and maybe not VJ Edgecomb’s draft stock. Um, so I know that goes back to on the court, but kind of that model player that you want to bring into your or organization. I think Buddy Healed came from the Bahamas. He’s very happy, you know, like always in a pretty good mood kind of guy. That’s kind of the persona him. DeAndre Eaton came from the Bahamas. The persona is him. He might not like the game. Yeah. Some questions. Michael Thompson, I know, as a broadcaster, not as a like what’s how much of his essence is that? like that he’s a from the Bahamas and he’s a and and that’s a part of who he is or is he Americanized because of his high school time in the US and I and I don’t know which is positive or negative in that question. Yeah. Yeah. I think there’s a lot of that Bohemian in him and I’ll tell and I’ll I’ll say this is why because he played high school basketball in New York and he’s not a jerk. So, you know, he’s actually he’s still very nice. So, me I come from the Northeast so I can say that. Um, so he he doesn’t he didn’t adopt kind of that Long Island, right? He’s a very nice kid. So I think there is a lot of that. And Bayer actually played in the Bahamas when when he was here and so that was a huge deal. Uh he had a lot of family members there and everything. So I think that is still a like a huge influence on him both, you know, in the way he expresses himself on the court, but definitely off the court too. I think it’s a lot more towards the the buddy healed love for the game, big smile on his face every time. I think he’s very still very behemian in that aspect. Let’s go onto the court. So, he starts his career somewhat quietly. They bounce around that Bahamas tournament. I don’t think he was great. If I remember correctly, I think four of 15 against St. Joe’s in that game might have been too much. He’s 18. We’ll give him a break. But it doesn’t like circle back much either. Like the preseason, I think he shoots about 20% from three. Then he gets kind of hot. But then at the end of the year, he goes dead cold again if I remember correctly of three-point shooting. And obviously, you can highlight that, but it is pretty important. And I think he has a stretch where, if I remember correctly, he’s about one of 15, maybe even worse than that. What is your vibe on kind of that roller coaster aspect to the season he had? Yeah. So, I I And you’re right. Exactly. Right. On his three-point shooting, like in the middle of the year, he probably became Baylor’s best three-point shooter. Um, which wasn’t saying much on a team that didn’t shoot the three very well, but like that 34% he ends up at from three is pretty indicative. Like there were times where you shoot 20. There was times where he was shooting 45% for, you know, a couple of games. He really kind of became a huge factor for them in that in the middle of the year, but it definitely tailed off and it was something that I think he needed some confidence at the beginning. Like he was making a lot of small plays. He was out there at the end of big games and close games. So Scott Drew really trusted him, but it felt like they Bore was a totally different team when he was taking command of the offense. And with a VJ Edgecomb offense, it wasn’t three-point shooting. It wasn’t high ball screen. It’s a lot of like, “Hey kid, get to the basket here or put a jam back on a putback.” You know what I mean? Just get involved. Take on a couple of guys. Get involved in the paint. So, he needed a bit of a push at the beginning in terms of just getting that confidence and taking more shots. But then towards the end of the season, it was VJ doing a lot of the dirty work um for Bayor to get them into the tournament and to and to continue that streak of making the NCAA tournament. So, yeah, it was definitely up and down, but I think from watching every game that he played uh in college basketball, it was you could see him kind of becoming a more well-rounded player as the season went on, even though, as you say, the three-point shooting definitely took a dip because of that. It’s interesting you what you said because I asked Raphael Barlo about this as well. I watched the Arizona game and I’m watching a lot of this game and there’s just not a lot of VJ Edgecom and like I’m I’m watching it in May and June. I don’t care about anybody else. Like, Robert Wright’s nice and he’s going to BYU and I’ve now seen that he shoots an awful lot and passes very little. I don’t need to see any more of him. I don’t care about him because I don’t care if BYU wins. I care. Sorry fans. I care about whether the Jazz draft VJ Edge come in. And there’s just not a lot of VJ Edge in next game. And then all of a sudden there is. Yeah. Like then all of a sudden they’re down seven with like seven minutes left and he like goes to the line four straight times, takes eight free throws, makes a play or two. is that like why wasn’t there more VJ Edgecom through the first 30 minutes of games like that one and it it’s a great question that I was wondering all season long because it would feel like in those games you’re like oh Scott must have really got into him in that media timeout tell him to you know take the ball and get it to the basket. Um there was a lot of locker room problems and not like they were throwing chairs at each other at Baylor, but just in terms of chemistry and meshing and it took far too long. So I was wondering in that same thing watching those games in the middle of the year, I’m like, are they trying to get too many guys involved? Are they trying to make Jaden Nun a 40% three-point shooter? Are they trying to make Nord Chad Omir a 25 point a night guy? You know, instead of just telling telling them VJ’s our best player, give him the ball. Get out of the way. let him cook a little bit. So, I never really got an answer there, David. I never really if watching this whole team, this whole season um with that team, never really got an answer on why he would go quiet for so long. Most of the time I chocked it up to being 18, but I mean, you know, following this sport every year, specifically at draft time, a lot of 18-year-olds that don’t need that push, right? They they don’t need to be told to shoot the ball a little bit more. Um, so for all the the attributes there, I think there is still, you know, more of like getting his confidence up and and letting him know that even in a three-point shooting world, he could still be a really darn effective offensive player. It’s interesting. It’s funny that that’s how I felt when I watched Baylor with Keonte was that the veterans had no interest in letting the young like if I remember correctly on Keonte, he scores about 25 28 and 25 in his first few games and then all of a sudden doesn’t get any shots for a while. I felt like watching Baylor two years ago that it was the seniors are like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, youngster.” So, I don’t know if that’s, you know, that’s that’s the modern world and it’s hard sometimes to assimilate. Yeah, it could be. And and you talk about some of these guys that came in this year made some big time money too. Um, but which Baylor’s gone in on the last few seasons in the transfer portal. So, maybe that had something to do with it. Cam, thanks so much. Appreciate the analysis on VJ Edge here on Locked on Jazz. Catch, if you want to catch more, Cam, he’s over at Locked on Baylor. It’s the local experts of Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day on who we’ve got. We’re looking at the fifth pick. Austin A is in charge of this pick now. It’s his time. We’ll get your thoughts on all that. Give me your We’ll ask your comments in the YouTube comments section today. If you don’t follow me on socials, DLock09, thanks very much for tuning in. Thanks for being an everydayer. You’re the best. We now send you the first ever national 247 all NBA channel on YouTube. Locked in NBA. Plus, check out Locked in NBA big board with Raphael Barlo.

Austin Ainge takes the helm as the new president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz, marking a significant shift in the organization’s leadership. David Locke, radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider, explores the implications of this change, including Ainge’s qualifications, his vision for the team, and what it means for the Jazz’s future. The episode delves into Ainge’s 14-year tenure with the Boston Celtics and his reputation for identifying talent early.

The podcast also features an in-depth analysis of potential draft pick VJ Edgecombe from Baylor. Experts Rafael Barlow and Cam Stewart provide insights into Edgecombe’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential impact on the Jazz. They discuss his explosive athleticism, streaky shooting, and off-court character, drawing comparisons to players like Victor Oladipo and Benedict Mathurin. The episode raises intriguing questions about Edgecombe’s fit with the Jazz and his potential to become a franchise-changing player.

0:00 Intro: Major change for Utah Jazz
5:12 Austin Ainge’s qualifications and experience
10:18 New CBA impacts and player negotiations
21:17 Edgecombe’s potential and NBA comparisons
26:32 VJ Edgecombe’s off-court persona and background
30:09 Edgecombe’s roller coaster season at Baylor

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