Hot Takes or Toast: What was your impression of the Utah Jazz rookies from the first Summer Leagu…

Hot Takes or Toast: What was your impression of the Utah Jazz rookies from the first Summer Leagu…

Question of the morning. What was your impression of the rookies from the first summer league game? Everybody out there on the floor at the Huntsman Center. Travis, my impression is they are one and0. Casey got a W. That’s new for this team. That don’t matter. It really doesn’t. No, it really don’t. I mean, Edgecom, yeah, he looked awesome. Obviously, he looked like the best player on the floor and good for them. They drafted him third. You have high expectations for players who are drafted third. There’s no question about that. We understand that. And he looked great. Very smooth, confident, like I got this guys. This is not a transition. And maybe it isn’t because it’s not real NBA basketball. And so for him, you know, he’s played at a high level probably for four, five, six years now. And so he didn’t bat an eyelash. And two, I think that if you compare him to Ace Bailey, it seemed like the Philadelphia people said, “Okay, VJ, this is yours. Go do it. Whereas the Jazz have got veteran younger guys that the pecking order was ahead of it. Everybody had a place. Everybody had a role. And VJ’s role was to dominate and to star. Yeah. And so they must have told him, “Here you go.” Right. But Philly hasn’t been sitting on three first round draft picks, right? And then two years in a row. Two first rounds and a second and three first rounds in other I Yeah. I consider Philip Powk a first round. I He’s he’s the one that’s not. But uh so yeah, with that in mind, there’s a different I wouldn’t compare the two because there was a difference. And then the Jazz didn’t have an opportunity to draft Edgecomb. So you can’t say they blew that uh based on one single game, but there was nothing that happened that I didn’t think would happen. I can see why you would say that and I was fine with everything that did happen. Daniel says, “Bryce sensib was amazing. Philipowski played great, too. I think a lot of people were disappointed in Ace Bailey’s performance. Honestly, I thought he did okay.” I was not disappointed at all. I would agree that he did okay. I thought he I thought he came out I thought he came out and was exactly who he was. And I mean, we had people on who said, “Well, it’s going to be a process with this guy. He’s wildly talented. His shot selection isn’t always great. He is not an efficient shooter, but his athletic ability, you just can’t miss it. It’s just awesome. And that’s what we saw. Awesome. He He drove to the hoop, missed the shot, but he was like some kind of I don’t know, Gumby rubber band. I don’t know what it was, but just the way he stretched, he was going to get a shot block and somehow he kind of hung in the air and threw it off the glass and went and got it and missed again, but went and got it a third time and scored. There are many guys who are going to hit the floor and and get back up like that again and then again. So yeah, he was three of 13. We’ve been hearing that uh you know he’s bubbly and he’s uh you know a good teammate and all that and that was on display in the post game. I don’t want to go along the lines of that he was raised right though. Let’s get away from that crap. Let’s forget. We did that with other guys and then they leave. Yeah. And then we’re mad at them because they’re bad people but they were raised right and I get confused. Let’s stay away from all that stuff. I would advise one guy in particular to stay away from it. Uh it just uh if Philip sets them up for disappointment if they do leave. Yeah. If Philipowski and Sensiba are going to play well and contribute this season, they need to dominate in the summer league. In game one, they did. And to the point you made in the last segment, you know, at what point do they just tell these guys, okay, you’re done with your summer league. We want to see some uh see some other guys here and they do tend to rotate through and not play every night anyway. But we’ve seen other guys who’ve come through when they’re ready to play in the NBA. They dominate in the summer league and at some point the team which granted was under different management so maybe it’s a different philosophy but those guys were told all right we’ve seen enough you can you can go now you don’t need to play more go three of 20. Well my guess is he’d go I’d rather have him go 10 of 20. I was going to say five of 20, but the opportunity there, the point being I want to see and and uh who’s the Morrison? Is that the guy’s name? They got I don’t even know who these assistant coaches are anymore. Uh he was saying that well we didn’t there was no featured plans for him offensively essentially. So he was just do what you can and I get that and and so Edgecom there was but now maybe as we move along here locally and then down in Vegas maybe feature him uh a little bit more and that’ll be easier to do if they wrap things up for Philip Powski and Sensa right yeah and those guys they’re players I mean they’ve already had two seasons one season and Flipper got a ton of minutes that was Right. He got a ton of minutes in the last season. So, and plus he what do he play two years? Three years in college. So, I think two. So, he’s got he’s got advancement to his game and it and it wasn’t just brand new. Uh every everything was new for Ace Bailey. He heard all the hype and the fans. There was a buzz in the arena. I thought the lighting was little little I would I it needed more light. I was having a hard time seeing it on television. I don’t know what was going on there. But uh I think you’ll see him be even in this very summer league, you’ll see him get more acclimated and refinement in Ace Bailey’s game is literally years away. But along the way, I think we’re going to see tanalyzing opportunities for him to show us what he’s got. And we’re going to come away thinking, “Oh yeah, just give it time, man. When it gets there, it’s going to be something.” Well, that’s the one thing nobody wants to do, but we have to do it. Give it to When you’re 18 years old, you have no choice. I know. I know. Short list short list of teenagers are going to look really good in the NBA. Yeah. I don’t think the tanalyzing was there though. Like the first time he tries to take a guy off the dribble, he gets right to the bucket, right? It’s like he’s right into the paint like you’re not staying in front of me. And they didn’t. And I think he’s tentative. He’s coming into a a summer league team which, you know, they’re they’re one of the youngest teams in the league, but they’re one of the oldest summer league teams in terms of experience, one of these old summer league teams. Yeah. Right. So, that’s did have that asked about, you know, have you been told to be a leader and all that? And says, “Yeah, trying to help these guys out.” I remember when I was Ace’s age and I my head was What am I getting into? My head was just spinning. You know, I can only imagine. Yeah. You’re coming out here in a new environment, a bunch a bunch of people you just met last week, new coaches to impress, new teammates to impress, and then you know there’s a buzz in the building. You know you’re the number five pick and you know people are here to see you. Yeah. Yeah. I think you have to factor all that in. Vernon does. Nobody should expect the Ace to come out there and get 40 points. It’s baby steps. Please remember he’s only 18 years old. Let the kid grow and mature. He has the skill set to be a future star. That’s why I’m excited for this season is because these kids will be force-fed and I like it. No hiding it now. No, they’re going to have to play. Yeah. And I think that will help the development. I I I’m not surprised next year Vase Bailey doesn’t even play summer league. Yeah, but the second I mean Philipsky’s playing in his second year. You’d have to really dominate. I don’t know if you have to really dominate. Tony says the second year guys need to take a big step forward and prove they belong. This year’s class is going to be fun to watch. Here’s my hot take. Cody Williams is three years away from NBA ready. Well, hopefully he gets NBA ready. I’m still not sure that that is uh a conclusion that I want to draw. I I mean I want to, but will I? I have to see so much more from him. It’s Cody Williams who is still very young and is a puppy is like he’s sort of lost in the shuffle already which is crazy to think of. I mean and we can’t lose him in the shuffle because they expended a high pick on him top 10 pick. So yeah, I I didn’t really focus on him. I thought he was okay. He he looked more like he belonged rather than wideeyed as he was last season. So, you have to let players develop on their own level. Just because one player may be advanced, uh doesn’t mean it’s a knock on the one dude. But, I mean, they’ve got to come along because decisions have got to be made and important decisions, too. Even though they’re not expected to win very much in the 2526 season, that doesn’t reduce the level of importance of the 2526 season. In some ways, it makes it even more important because you have got to come to conclusions on guys. And that’s what’s hard to do is because they’re still in the development stage, but you have to make decisions in terms of being able to foresee two or three years down the line based on the evidence that you have now and all those things that Austin A is going to have to figure out as he gets more comfortable with the personnel and they get in literal game conditions which are real and the other team is trying to bite your head off too and it’s you it is the this every man for every team for himself base itself. So all those things will come and that makes it extremely difficult but it also makes it fun for us because we all get to evaluate. You get to oh I like Cody Williams. Oh, I’m not so sure Joe down the street. Yeah, I think he’s my guy across the street. What are they doing with Williams? You know that’s that’s sit around talk about this team and that’s what we do. That’s the essence of sports radio and next year we’ll get to see that and I think the fans if you certainly if you compare it to the 2425 season will come away with a lot more enjoyment and I think we’ll see more and and then we got Hendrickx out there who’s not going to play in the league here but we’ve been told they’ll be ready when the season starts. So we’ve got that’s like getting a brand new first round pick in a sense. They they had three first round picks this year. There is that whole out of sight out of sight, out of mind thing and he was out of sight most of the year. Yeah. Well, he’s out of mind completely and he didn’t do a whole lot. He was in a G-League for half the time two seasons ago. So, it’s uh for in my not completely totally starting from scratch, but I think you have to give him some slack to grow because last year didn’t happen for him because of the injury. Now he can get his body stronger. he can learn more about the game sitting there. I’m sure that last season wasn’t a complete and total waste. We see that with football players when they have season ending injuries that there’s still things that they can do to pace and development. There’s nothing like playing. I understand that. But you could still not have it be a waste and just sit there on the couch eating Twinkies. And I don’t think that was the case. So, there’s so much newness to this team. Even though they’re in year three of the rebuild, for some reason, it just seems like it’s more about now than it has been the last couple years cuz they’re moving veterans. Yeah, I still expect Collins to be gone. Uh, marketing, I don’t know. This is what I was told two weeks ago is that the other these these guys the three guys including Collins will be gone and Clarkson and and Saxon are already gone. I get why they didn’t know about marketin. I get why it’d be easier to move some of these guys than others because with marketing, you know, there’s some real value. Can they get the real value now? Whereas the other guys, if you don’t think you’re getting full value, well, how much value was there and would you really give up? Well, and you’re not going to get more next year. The longer you wait, you’re not going to get more. You’re only going to get less. Whatever they’re going to get for Collins, he’s coming off an awesome year shooting the ball. So, now would be the time to get the most. and the market, whatever it is, is not going to be given away, right, for a second round pick. He’s too good and maybe he ends up saying I I don’t know. I don’t I don’t have any new news as far as what his status is. And if he stays, then he can help you be a better team. I don’t know that they know. I don’t know that they know or don’t know. I mean, other moves and are teams going to want to make that move. Are they going to use their assets to make another move? You can’t, at least from my perspective, is if I’ve got a couple guys that I talk to, I don’t want to hit them up all the time because then they get annoyed. Yeah. And I don’t want to hit them up for little things because they get annoyed and then they feel like they’re being used. Yeah. Because I don’t like I don’t like the word for me source. It’s not a source. It’s a friendship exchanging information. And I’ve had these sources come to me and say, “Can you help me with this and this?” And so it’s a little bit of a trade-off there. It usually is. Yeah. I don’t know if people always realize that, but a lot of times when people give someone in the media information, it’s because they want that information out there. They need it out there. And it might not sound great coming from them, right? But they want out there anyway, right? So, it’s a little bit of a give and take uh there. And you have to have a personal relationship in order to feel comfortable with the give and take because I don’t want to be used nor do I want to use for that. But the market thing has to shake out. What is the market for other players in the league? And is something going to happen? And are people waiting on A before they pivot and say, “Okay, we’ll make move B.” I think what you said about marketing is true. There’s too much value there to give it away. If you get if you get a little less value on the other guys, you probably weren’t giving up that much, right? Their value isn’t going to increase, right? The differential here could be could be big and his value might just it might just be a case of wait a little longer, get to mid-season, somebody with an injury or need could make a move. Plus, then you’re just half a season away from the cap going up again. And the league knows what the Jazz are trying to do. So, they’re not completely dealing from a position of strength. And there’s probably someone around the Yeah, right. There’s someone around the league waiting them out thinking, “Well, you can’t wait forever. You got to move them. I know what you want, but I’m not giving it to you cuz I think you’re going to crack and give it because I understand your plan and what you’re trying to do as a program, so to speak, and how you’re trying to move the program forward. And it’s going to be through these seven, eight, nine guys that you’ve just drafted the last three drafts. There’s nothing there’s nothing new or unexpected about this plan. This plan has been done for more than 100 years in multiple sports and for the dra the Jazz now it the plan is in overdrive fully committed to the young guys. Yes. Right. Which is why we won’t be surprised if Sensiba and Philip Powski end up not playing in summer league games at some point in Vegas. I’d have them just maybe play some pickle ball. Get ready for that tournament in Naples, Florida. You told me about I did get an email about some pickle ball championship said Florida’s in your future. You didn’t get that. You thought I thought you No, your wife’s going to be down there dominating. I played three three straight days of pickle ball a week two weeks ago. Uhhuh. And my back has not been the same since. I have been icing. I have been on medicine. It’s it’s negatively affected my golf game. I will never do that again. Not three consecutive days for three hours. I will not do it. I need a break. Yes. I Now you But now you’ve got a you got an excuse and a plan going forward. Unless it’s something else, but I mean, gosh, it’s really really been hurting and uh I’m going to take Well, it’s not like it was perfect before. I mean, you did occasionally have issues, right? But I’ve got four full days of not playing this week because we’re uh taking off to go to Dallas today and obviously football the next two days. So I’ll be working all day tomorrow and Wednesday is we’ll have live coverage starting bright and or early with DJ and PK. You’ll be here sort of monitoring it and chiming in. But uh we’ll have that extensively on the KSL Sports Zone and I’m jacked for that. DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. Big 12 media days coverage brought to you by Window World. High quality without high prices. That’s the Window World way. Window World where they promise no baloney. Window World bringing you Big 12 media days tomorrow and Wednesday right here on the zone. Shannon J is going to join us to talk college football at 8:30. Stay with us. It’s DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone.

DJ & PK reacted to the Utah Jazz rookies in their Salt Lake City Summer League debut Saturday night and what to take away from Ace Bailey, Walt Clayton Jr. etc.