ESPN’s Mark Jones Talks Knicks Offseason, Mike Brown, Jordan Clarkson & More!

ESPN’s Mark Jones Talks Knicks Offseason, Mike Brown, Jordan Clarkson & More!

All right, salute to Nicks Nation live here in Las Vegas, CP the franchise. Here I have with me one of my favorite people across the NBA landscape. He is a long time ESPN broadcaster. Over 35 years now in the business, the elder statesman, if you will. Also, uh the play-by-play announcer for the Sacramento Kings for NBC Sports California. The incomparable Mark Jones in the building. Appreciate you, CP. Thanks again for the time. appreciate. You do great work, man. I love watching you and uh following Nick’s Nation from close and afar. And uh man, summer league’s fantastic, man. This is my favorite time of the year to be able to come here and, you know, hang out with my NBA brethren and chop it up a little bit and get caught up and, you know, see what’s happening around the league and see who’s moving and shaking. What What’s the evolution been like of summer league? Because I mean, you’ve been doing this a long time here. Yeah. Um, it’s been fantastic to see it grow from just a handful of teams, you know, six to eight teams and the different venues and then landing here in Las Vegas and as of a few years ago being able to have all 30 NBA teams be present here. And the great part is being able to uh you know run into a lot of coaches, general managers in this informal type of setting and to solidify relationships and uh you know it’s just grown and grown and it’s taken on so many different tentacles you know just like this wonderful broadcast school here and um to be able to be a part of the growth and it really kind of runs parallel with the growth of the NBA right and it’s a worldwide not just something here local or domestic, but you know, you come here and you realize, oh, there’s coaches from the Turkish League, the Greek League, Euro League Championship teams, NBA, uh, Asia, China, Japan. So, you get a real kind of big picture view of the state of basketball now, not just domestically. Yeah, no question about it. And, and I remember some of my fondest memories coming here to summer league. I came to the Zion game, Zion against the Knicks and the earthquake and it wasn’t, you know, it felt like the earthquake came from Zion when he ripped the dunk, ripped the rim down off of Kevin Knox. Then the earthquake came and that was just insane. That was one of the most memorable nights here. I mean, there’s been a few of them. Uh Lonzo Ball’s debut for me was another one, but the Zion earthquake game was amazing. I remember uh calling the game and it was during a sideline inbound and I’m looking down at my Jordans and they’re moving but my feet weren’t moving with them. I tapped Doris Burke on the leg. I said, “Folks, I think we’re having an earthquake right now.” You know, and uh yeah, that was uh and then they had to, if you remember, the scoreboard was swaying a little bit too much. So, they had to call the game off that night after just 11 memorable minutes by Zion Williamson and the Pelicans. But, uh, yeah, this is always, this venue is always going to provide some kind of thrills and just to be able to see the new players come into the league and watch them in their infancy and then, you know, years from now CP will be saying, geez, I remember seeing Cooper flag and struggling going five for 21 that first game and look at him now he’s all NBA. Yeah. and second game he blossome but 29 points against the Spurs. What’s been your overall impressions of Cooper? I love him. I love the fact that uh more than anything his motor is really high. Oh yeah. Um and you know like a lot of players that come into the league, people focus mainly on their offense. This guy plays both ends of the court extremely well. Uh a couple of the buckets that he got on opening night were off his own uh manufactured steals defensively and able to take it the length of the court. He’s so skilled for a guy his size and uh I love what he does at both ends of the court. Uh he didn’t shoot it particularly well, but um that that’ll come, you know, that’ll come for sure. For sure. Now, as it relates to my my New York Knicks, someone that you’re familiar with, they they made the hire, hiring Mike Brown, the former NBA coach of the year, two-time coach of the year, and former coach of the Sacramento Kings. What did you think of the hiring of uh Mike Brown? I love the hire. I think Mike is uh a perfect fit for New York City. Uh Mike can hang in the boardrooms and he can get it on the gritty too, you know. Um he can be honest with players and he is a lot of the time. Uh sometimes brutally honest when he has to be and um the players, the Knicks roster will find out that uh he’ll coach them hard. Uh, but it will come from uh interpersonal relationships and a place of love. And that’s what I saw from Mike in Sacramento up close and what I knew about Mike before as well. We actually worked in television together when he was out of the league for a little bit. Uh, he worked at ESPN and he and I did the uh, NBA Finals in 2011 together on ESPN 3D back then. But, uh, the thing that will strike, uh, a lot of Knicks fans is his attention to detail. Uh, the thing you need to know about Mike Brown, CP, is that this man still irons his own shirt. He irons his own shirts before games. And, you know, they don’t have the dress code anymore, but he he’s still very meticulous. Um, you know, and his degree of honesty will be something that will be appreciated in New York, too. And you know, I think offensively a lot of people think of Mike still as a defensive-minded coach, which he is. He, you know, he hung his hat on that end of the court as a coach early in his career, but his time with the Golden State Warriors helped serve him very well at the offensive end, and that’s where I think he’s going to take the Knicks to that next level. So, he had the Kings as a number one rated offense in that first season, and and became the coach of the year. How much was that? Because at this moment they’re still looking for an offensive an assistant coach who I believe they’re looking for more of an offensive coordinator type of mind. They were not allowed to speak to James Burggo who’s with the Pelicans. You have Jay Triano who’s with the Mavericks and now Darvin Ham is not allowed to speak with the Knicks. What do you make of because some people say well you know Jordy Fernandez is really kind of the architect of that offense. What do you make of Brown’s ability to to help this Knicks offense that that’s in due Mike had his hands all over the offense. Jordy ranted in Sacramento when we were there, but uh Mike had his finger in a lot of the input and um a lot of the design as well. Um I I think that if they don’t get anybody to his liking, he would be more than comfortable and more than able to be able to do it himself. But uh either way, when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be a pace and space type of offense. And you know, he’s got another left-handed point guard to run it all. Yeah. Um, you know, a lot of what they call five kind of a spread five offense and, you know, DHO actions with the big and, you know, Cat is good enough to be able to, I think, skill-wise do what Sabonis does in Sacramento and he adds a perimeter threat that maybe Domas doesn’t have. So, um, he can supercharge that offense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Knicks up around an offensive rating of about 120 next year. Yeah, that’s what I would like to see. I mean, for the most part in the regular season, they were around top five in offense. Now, second half of the season, things started to slow down a little bit. Some theories were that, especially with Towns, opposing teams would put uh smaller wings on it, and that would limit his effectiveness. That’s always the counter. Yeah, that’s always the counter. And then in the playoffs, things just it just seem to be a grind against Detroit, against the Celtics. The offense was just seemed to be hard to come by. So, what I’m hoping for with Mike Brown is that he can supercharge the twoman game, especially with Brunson and Towns because I feel like there was a lot left on the bone there that they didn’t take advantage of. You know what, CP? It’s going to be a lot more, I think, read and react as opposed to uh some of the set calls that maybe New York ran, a lot of the elbow actions that you saw um with Coach Tibs. Um and I think we see the way of the NBA right now. you’ve got to have uh versatile, multi-skilled players uh that can play concept basketball. And I think that’s what served OKC and the Pacers even more so um uh in in that sense being able to get to the finals. So, um there’ll be pace and space. Um I I think Brunson probably will play off ball a little bit more to the benefit of the entire offense. Yeah. Yeah, that would be interesting because off ball he’s as efficient as they come. And then look, when it comes to crunch time, I call him captain clutch. Get it to him and let him go to work. Well, he’s got he’s got another lefty point guard, right? So, a lot of times with Mike in his uh spread five, he would put De’arren in the right corner and have one of the bigs, DHO, and have Fox coming to his left getting downhill with his strong hand. And that was pretty much an unbeatable play, you know, and I I think Brunson’s more than capable of kind of replicating the same things. Yeah. I’m also curious to see what he gets out of the wings now. He’s got some wings that he didn’t have in Sacramento, in particular, Macau Bridges, because I think there’s some more there in terms of his shot creation ability to be able maybe running a second unit, but just getting more out of Macau Bridges offensively. It seemed like it was a little bit of a struggle. had an up and down season with the Knicks during the regular season trying to adjust to a new role, especially being an onball defender with the opposing team’s toughest uh toughest guard. So, I’d like to see what Mike Brown does with Yeah, that takes a lot of juice out of your uh your offense when you’ve got to guard the other team’s best perimeter player. Uh Mike will find a way to to maximize him. Mh. Um, you know, it may look a little bit more of a collective next year and, you know, Cat’s numbers might be a little bit off, they might not. Um, Brunson’s numbers might come down a little bit, but I think you’ll see more of a a balanced attack overall because of the type of offense that they’ll be running and and Bridges will benefit from that. the pressure on head coaches as it relates to this league. I mean, you’ve seen a lot in this league. No patience. Yeah. Here’s Mike. Three years, he’s coach of the year. One minute and next minute he’s he’s on the chopping block. Tom Tibido, Eastern Conference Finals, gone. Mike Malone championship gone. What have you made of that? It’s It’s great. You First things first, you don’t want to win coach of the year. Right. Give it to that guy. He deserves it more. I I um I don’t like seeing it. I I don’t like seeing coaches being as disposable and dispensable as they are right now. When you have ownership that is willing to walk away from, in Tom Gora’s case, in Monty Williams, some $60 million, that’s mind-blowing. Yeah. Um but it discounts the profession, I think, a little bit. And you know, at some point, uh, I think ownership has to be a little bit careful about not always putting the finger on the coach. You’ve got general managers that are accountable in not sometimes providing resources for that coach. Uh, coaches working with imbalanced rosters are limited. So, you’ve got to temper those expectations when that happens. Um, I would love to see that trend slow down, if not stop overall because there’s a lot of great coaches that uh really didn’t get a fair chance. I look at Phoenix right now and they’re going to go on their fourth coach as many years. Um, at some point it’s the players, you know, and, you know, I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to realize that, but um, you know, they they shifted their roster a little bit, so maybe they’re tending to some of those shortcomings. Yeah. And there’s an opportunity cost with that, right? Yeah, when you trade for towns and you gut your depth and you trade for Macau Bridges and you gut your your draft capital, now it’s on the coach to get the most out of those players. But it was clear that there was an imbalance. It was a topheavy team and it put more pressure on a guy like a Tom Tibido to use guys who he may not trust and he’s a big big trust guy. And so for look, Landry Shamid, he came on played well and finished well, but for the Cameron Paynees and some of the other guys that they had on the bench, I’m not so sure that’s going to get it done. But it put a lot of pressure on Tips there when he didn’t use him. And I I um I would anticipate, you know, what I saw up close with Mike in Sacramento for the the three and a half years we were there together uh was he’s willing to pluck somebody off the bench and trust that they’ll be professional in their approach and be ready to go. Um he’s not afraid of going 8 n 10 deep. I saw that very frequently from him in Sacramento. So, you know, 7 through 10 on the Knicks roster should be ready to participate. Um, even if it’s just spot duty on from time to time, uh, I think the Knicks have the roster to win the East next year. I really do, especially when I look at the incremental improvements that Mike can make. One thing that I think goes under the radar radar CP with um Mike is his ability not just to run the the pace and space but what he was in the process of doing in Sacramento and I’ll give him an incomplete grade on it because I think they could have waited a little bit but you know ownership sees it the way they see it but he was evolving the Kings offense to be able to take advantage of situations in the playoffs like the Knicks ran into where it grinds a little bit and you have to be able to take advantage of mismatches a little bit more and um it it was a work in process at the time in Sacramento. Um I think Mike, knowing him, he’s way ahead of the game in New York. He’s already done his homework and sees what that next incremental improvement has to be and I’m sure he’s already got it down on paper. Once again, we are talking to the incomparable Mark Jones, CP the franchise, live here from the Thomas and Max Center in Las Vegas. Salute to everybody in the chat. Make sure you guys are hitting the like button, the share button, and subscribing to the channel. Uh, when you look at the way that the Knicks exited the Eastern Conference Finals, man, I was there at the Garden game one, Hallebertton’s theatrics, the choke, everything. I It was flashbacks. My trauma came back to my my kid years with Reggie Mark. Those two games, man, it it really hurt them in terms of the momentum of this series. And it did. Indiana was great, but those that was tough. Yeah. Yeah. You It’s tough to drop games at home like that in in the conference finals. And you know, um Indiana was I felt almost a team that was pre-ordained to get to the finals this year. It just things kind of fell their way up until the the game seven tragedy with Hallebertton. Um, you know, sometimes you have to accumulate scars to be successful at the end. And I think if the Knicks take the glass half full approach, they’ll say, you know what, that’s just something that we had to go through to get to the next step. And um, you know, the guys inventoried that, I’m sure, uh, Cat, Jaylen, Muel, the rest of the guys. And, uh, I think they’ll come back more motivated than ever. I ran into uh Josh Hart uh last week down in Miami as a home in South Florida. Spends a lot of time there in the summertime. He was working out at uh Ronnie Taylor’s gym down there. I hang out there a lot and uh he’s more than motivated to come back and uh put this past season behind them and take it a step further next year. He did notice he did tell me that he was uh going to get his finger fixed. Oh. Because CP showed it to me, man. was making his this finger the ring finger was making a left turn right turn and then a left turn again. I was like, “Man, put that thing away. I want to see it.” Yeah. The war wounds that these guys accumulate, some that you don’t even know about over the course of a 82 game plus playoff grind. Man, it’s incredible that they’re able to come out every night and uh and give it 100%. What did you make of the the acquisitions of Jordan Clarkson and Gershon Yabiselli as their free agent uh pickups? Anytime you have a guy like Clarkson that at the end of the shot clock, at the end of the period, time winding down, can go get his own bucket, you flatten it out in a four set and let him work out. You don’t have enough those guys on rosters. And I think especially come playoff time, you need guys like that. Um, at times people question his shot selection in Utah where he didn’t have a lot of resources around him. So, it’s going to be a lot easier for him. I love that acquisition. And then Yabuselli is a guy that will he’s a typical New York player, man. He’ll roll up his sleeves. He’ll go to work. He’ll rebound. Much more skilled than given credit for as well, too. So, those those were great additions, I think, uh that’ll help the Knicks get to the next level. Yeah, especially with Clarkson. I I thought the shot creation off the bench was missing with the departure of Devenzo and the bench got a lot weaker. Second units are going to be a lot more important these days. Yes. Yes. We see that more often than not. I mean, you look at OKC, they’re they’re 6 through9. They come in and they get buckets. Wiggins and and guys like that. So, you know, uh I think listen, Tibs did a great job. But were there times maybe he could have gone a little deeper? Maybe. Right. Maybe. And I think Mike will take that off the table. He’ll he’ll be using that personnel free and easy. As you look at the East landscape now, injuries of most likely going to take Boston back and and departures, Pacers injuries, departures, and so there’s opportunity. There’s opportunity. What What do you think? Do you think it’s uh it’s a Knicks Cavs at the top or have Orlando and Atlanta caught up here a little bit? I’m intrigued by Well, first of all, I I think it’s Cleveland, then probably uh a healthy Cleveland, then probably the Knicks a notch below. And um the thing that’s the wild card for ECP is the Trey Young Christophs Porzingis dynamic. Two man game. Yeah. Um I’m curious to see what that looks like. Uh on paper it’s a prolific pick and roll dynamic because I don’t think there’s a better lob passer in the league than Trey Young. Uh his float game is 1002. But I don’t know that Porzingis is a roll guy. He’s more of a pop guy, you know. So, they’re going to have to work that out a little bit, but they’ve got some great pieces there and they’ve improved defensively. They put Nquil Alexander Walker and Dyson Daniels. So, that’ll compensate. That’ll allow them to protect Trey Young a little bit defensively when he’s called up in pick and roll actions. So, that’s the wild card, but I would say it’s Cleveland, uh, New York, um, and in the East, it’s it’s the next group pretty much. Yeah. you know, and uh and Jaylen Johnson for the Hawks, man, before he got hurt. He he was a monster. He was on track to become the most improved player. Yeah. And he’s been out in uh in California working out with his trainer, Chris Johnson. Uh spoke with Chris a couple of days ago and he’s ready to go. He’s ready to go. So that Yeah, that’s a great point. That’s another guy that I I forgot about that was out of sight with Atlanta last year. We’re with We’re within the third year now of this new CBA, the Second Apron. We’re seeing how it’s impacting teams, the Celtics. And so, you know, on one hand, you say, “Okay, we’ve had seven different champions, seven different years. The parody is here.” What do you think about that concept versus the dynasty years? How do you how do you weigh those two? I I think that dynasties sell. I really do. Um, from a sex and sizzle standpoint, um, you have them on the billboards, you have them on the marquee, the the Warriors dynasty, the Lakers dynasty, the Heat going to the finals four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013, uh, that’s sexy. But in terms of like a little bit more fan engagement, parody is never a bad thing. Mhm. I think there’s OKC and everybody else right now. But yo, we were saying the same thing about the Celtics of Euro this time and look what happened to them. So, it’s a tenuous situation anyway you slice it. You can all it takes is one injury and then it’s wide open again. I think that parody is good for the league. I like it. Yeah. Because when the ball is thrown up in the middle of October when the regular season starts, CP, a lot of people think they have a chance to win it. I mean, if you had asked Pacers fans back in October if you thought they’d make it to the finals, they’d have said yes. But in the back of their mind, they’d have been saying, “I don’t know if I really believe that.” Um, I think being able to manage the salary cap with a GM is the most important thing. Sam Prey has been able to thread the needle so finely and so precisely to set his team up to where they are right now. But even with them, hey man, the mortgage note is coming due. That’s right. You saw the checks that they’re going to be writing, right? Oh yeah. So it’s going to be interesting to see what it looks like. And that’s why I think it’s going to be more of a as opposed to a big three and everybody else. um you’re going to have max players having to or willing to take 85% of the max instead of 100 or 80% so that those stars can get players around them to help them keep winning. Yeah, I agree with you in that the storylines of the dynasties, they were tremendous for the league, you know, the buildup, right? That that road to glory and then as they keep winning those championships, who’s going to knock them off? I did think there was something there and then the star power but I also first off I love that SGA is now getting his justice the MVP the conference MVP I mean all of it I think it should have backto-back MVP I thought he should have won last year as well so I do like the highlight that it’s the spotlight that it’s putting on the younger stars where the whether it’s at the NBA cup or now with the finals I do like where where the parody is coming into yeah I think overall we’re going to OKC fans probably don’t want to hear me say this but I think there’s going to be a different champion next year. I can’t tell you why. I just, you know, I figured Boston was a lock, like I said, for a repeat championship. And look what happened to them. The Knicks knocking them off and nobody saw that one coming. Well, maybe some New York people there. I’ll take that back. I didn’t I McConnell part shot him. But yeah, I uh I never saw that coming. So yeah, I think parody is great. Yeah, the the league they are meeting this afternoon as a matter of fact and expansion will be on the table. Now, there was an article in the Athletic that came out and said a lot of owners are not as on board with potentially expanding to two more teams given the new uh League TV deal and their hesitancy to kind of split that pot up with two expansion teams. People always want to bring Seattle back. We’re here in Las Vegas. That’s a potential. What do you think about uh league expansion? I I think there’s, you know, listens, you see the competition out here, right, at summer league, there’s a lot of elite basketball players that are not in the NBA. Yeah. Sure. So, when people say you don’t want to water down the product or the basketball on the court, I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen David Jones Garcia from the San Antonio Spurs and guys who people have never heard of are out here lighting up for 25 points a game. So, I think two more teams, 30 more roster spots, um whether it’s three ways, uh two-way, three two-ways or whatever, I think it’d be great. I’ I’d love to see Seattle back in because you get that Seattle uh Portland corridor going again and I would love to see Vancouver get back Canada. Yeah, that’d be nice. You know, I I remember going to games there in Vancouver, Canada and it was a great basketball atmosphere and then you add another international component so that potentially is more uh international revenue for the league. So it has a financial benefit. you get Vancouver, Seattle, uh, and a whole, you know, Portland, and all the way down the West Coast, uh, and you get a chance to balance things out a little bit. So, you know, the I’ve heard people say that Mexico City is deserving of a team because the Capitan in the G- League, they play in a fantastic arena and the fans there are really ravid. So, um, and then Las Vegas, but yeah, I’d like to I’d like to see expansion. I’d like to see it. We we’ll see which direction they go in. And now is that as it relates to your career, man, you’ve done it all. You’ve covered a ton of sports. Is there anything left for you? Like, do do you set goals for yourself as as you approach each season or each sport? Man, CP, I uh I’m I’m blessed, man. I’m I’m I get to talk about basketball, the game that I love more than anything else on television for ESPN and for the Sacramento Kings. And um you know back in 2021 in the midst of co um I had a chance to call two NBA finals games between the Warriors and the Celtics and uh that for me was a big box to get checked. Um I’d called the finals on NBA 3D before. Um so that was another box that got checked. I don’t I I’m in the moment, man. You know, I I’d love to be able to uh call basketball games for the rest of my career. I love coming to some of the venues, Madison Square Garden, and interacting with the fans and the players. I love the players, and that’s what keeps me going. I I spend all my summers in the gyms um in Miami at Stan Rey’s gym and Ronnie Taylor’s gym, and I’m getting out to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks to sit in a corner and and uh go to some of those Rico Hines runs. And I love talking to the players and being able to uh tell their stories when the broadcasts come on because in my chair doing playbyplay, that’s what we are. We’re glorified storytellers. The game comes first. You document the score, the time, the situation, but you want the viewer at home to be able to cheer for their favorite player. And part of that is being able to tell their story. So, I I I just love it, man. I I love this game. Coming here and being around folks like yourself uh keeps me energized on a daily basis and hanging out at the gym uh keeps me going too. Well, one thing I always admired about you, you know, I I had a student yesterday, I I was presenting yesterday at FBC on on building a brand and kind of telling our brand story to to the audience and uh I had a young man who who had a question in regards to authenticity, right? you know, how to be himself, but at the same time still be able to get opportunities and it does he need to code switch, right? Just keeping it real. But I look at you as an example where, you know, you found that medium to still do it your way, right? I uh I I’ll be honest with you, early in my career, um I learned that, uh mainstream America is going to be a couple years behind it. a lot of the afroamericanisms, so to speak. Um, it’ll heat hit Main Street, Wall Street, two years after you and I have been saying it in the barber shop, right? Um, but that’s okay cuz they ultimately catch up. And I learned that midway through my career that just just let it fly, man. And I’ve learned to, I think, in terms of authenticity, be my authentic self. That’s who I am. when I’m sitting at home with my wife or my kids watching games, the same things you hear me say on TV, it’s hotter than 50s, whatever, I’m yelling that at my wife and and but and my kids. So, I just let it I just let it fly. And um I think that’s probably the best thing that you could relate to um folks about being your best self. Be yourself. And then, you know, the other half of that equation is I have a love for the English language because my grandfather was an English professor and he used to quiz my older brother and I who worked for the Raptors on the dictionary whenever we visited him. Wow. So, and my father was very fluent in Latin, Spanish, and English. So, language runs big in the Jones household. So when I say, you know, I like to use bold descriptions, you know, uh, ubiquitous or whatever the word is. And people say, “Oh, why is he using big words?” Well, because that’s who I am. That’s who you are. And I think as a professional, you should use the most profound and bold descriptions at your at your disposal. So, um, I balance off some of the, “Oh, he’s a little too ghetto for me,” right? With your SAT word. So, now what are you going to say? That’s right. That’s right, man. I I would love to see you and Clyde do a uh do a broadcast. That’s a box I need to check. That’s it. That’s a box I need to check. That’s it, man. As you uh as you’re here on your off time, I’m sure you’re hitting the gym. What’s in your playlist right now? What is in Mark Jones’s playlist? I got a little uh Boss Man DLO. Uh Chef Curry. Okay. Um I got a little Moneybag Yo. All right. And uh some Afro beats. There you go. There you go. Have you bumped that new Clips album yet? No. It’s hot. No, I got to get to that. You got to get to it. Thanks for looking out. You got to get to it, man. Well, listen, man. I definitely appreciate the time. TP, you keep up the great work. I love what you do on Nick TV. Keep it up. Yes. Thank you so much. The great Mark Jones, ladies and gentlemen. Salute to everybody back home. Once again, do me a favor, hit the like button, hit the share button, subscribe to the channel. We’ll have more from you from Las Vegas Summer League here at the Thomas Max Center. But I’ll check you guys next time. Blowing orange.

ESPN’s Mark Jones joins CP The Fanchise live from Las Vegas Summer League! The veteran broadcaster chops it up with CP on the evolution of Summer League, his favorite memories from past events (including the legendary Zion earthquake game), and the state of the NBA today.

Mark gives his take on the Knicks’ hire of Mike Brown, how the new coach can elevate the offense, and what he expects from stars like Brunson, KAT, and Mikal Bridges. Plus, the duo dives deep on:

Coaching turnover across the league 🧠

Why Jordan Clarkson & Yabusele are great fits 🧩

Expansion rumors, CBA impact, and league parity

Building a career with authenticity in sports media

His dream of calling a Knicks game with Clyde Frazier 🎙️

Big-time insights, real talk, and love for the game from one of the most respected voices in basketball.

📍Live from Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas
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📚 Chapters
00:00 – CP introduces Mark Jones live from Las Vegas Summer League
01:00 – Mark reflects on the growth of Summer League & global NBA presence
03:30 – Zion vs. Knicks earthquake game memory 🌍🏀
06:15 – Early impressions of Cooper Flag’s performance
07:30 – Mark Jones reacts to Knicks hiring Mike Brown
09:10 – Mike Brown’s coaching style: gritty, honest, detailed
11:00 – What Brown brings offensively from Golden State & Sacramento
13:00 – Assistant coach search: Can Brown run the offense solo?
15:00 – Can KAT replicate Sabonis in a spread offense?
17:30 – Adjustments for Brunson and Mikal Bridges under Brown
20:00 – Why the Knicks could have a top-tier balanced offense
22:00 – NBA coaching turnover: no patience, unfair firings
25:00 – Knicks depth vs. Tibs’ trust issues, how Mike Brown may approach bench usage
27:00 – Mark believes Knicks can win the East next year 🗽
29:00 – Knicks playoff scars & Hart’s summer motivation
31:00 – Thoughts on Knicks additions: Jordan Clarkson & Yabusele
33:30 – Second units matter more than ever in today’s NBA
35:00 – East contenders: Knicks, Cavs, Pacers, Hawks
38:00 – KP & Trae Young: Boom or bust combo in ATL?
40:00 – New CBA & “Second Apron” era: Why dynasties might fade
42:30 – OKC’s rise vs. sustainability under new cap rules
45:00 – Mark says “new champion” coming in 2026 👀
47:00 – League expansion: Seattle, Vegas, Vancouver?
49:00 – Mark’s personal goals and love for storytelling
52:00 – Mark on authenticity in broadcasting & career longevity
55:00 – Language, culture, and staying real on air
57:00 – Mark’s gym playlist & summer hoop routines 🎧
59:00 – Final thoughts: Knicks expectations and energy moving forward

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