David Locke: The Utah Jazz rebuild needs to follow Oklahoma City in knowing what players to move …
The artist of the day is Dirks Bentley, brought to you by Live Nation for all the live concerts events in 2025. Check out livenation.com. Joined now by David Lock, radio voice of the Utah Jazz. David, good morning. Good morning, DJ in the morning on a Friday to wrap up a fabulous week in Utah and the vastly underrated summer in Utah. Just doesn’t get and the other guy’s not here, right? Uh PK is enjoying his summer right now. He’ll be See, it doesn’t get any better than this. DJ Solo in the morning. How are you? Next next Friday, it will be PK solo in the morning. So, as we all enjoy our summers, what are you doing? Gosh, I have a bad cough cold coming on. I think it’s going to be super bad by next Friday. Okay, stop. Okay. Okay. All right. Damen Lillard, back to the Blazers. 3 years 42 million. He gets a no trade clause and he’s got a player option in 2728. I am at all. I am very surprised. And the first thing I thought after this sunk in was everybody in life needs to find somebody to love the way Portland and Damen Lillard love each other. Holy cow. From a strictly basketball perspective, this seems to me that somehow they’re going to end up stuck in the middle. I don’t see c the course this plots to them being an elite team. Maybe I will be really surprised in a couple years, but I don’t quite get it. However, his kids are in the Portland area. He’s comfortable there. You only got one life to live. If this is what makes him happy, well, go do it. Go do it. And he did. And from the Blazer situation, I wonder he’s so beloved there. I know they’re going to they need new ownership. Apparently, there’s a desire slash need for a new arena and to the degree this PR helps with it. I know what Tony Gwyn meant in San Diego. If Damen Lillard means that in Portland, maybe this is a brilliant business move by the Blazers no matter what it does on the court for the next three years. Your thoughts? So, it’s a super big bummer when Portland can’t get the arena in Dame Sling in Seattle. Um, no. Okay. Um, that was a joke, right? You’re being sarcastic there. Or not. Maybe, maybe not. Okay. Part of the reason I think the NBA owners aren’t that bullish on expansion is because if you fill up all the cities, then you don’t have the leverage to get your new arenas. Well, certainly that’s a factor, but they’re also not bullish. Let’s go to Let’s go to I was just I derail this. Okay. So So this doesn’t make any sense to me at all. So let’s let’s go with that. there. Let’s go with the storyline that Dne is coming back to Portland because he loves Portland because I believe he went through a divorce last year. He was completely miserable. He was separated from his family. He wants to get back to be around his kids. He’s a super guy and he wants to be back in the community. And so he comes to Portland, says, “Hey, I want to do this. I’ll rehab and then I’ll be there and I’ll be a veteran leader in my backstage of my career and I can finish out my career and it’ll be hunky dory danty.” Right? Okay. Then then why did he take why did he get all the money? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me either. So don’t ask me for answers. Right. Okay. And then why did he get a player option? I don’t get why he had that much leverage at this point in his career with an Achilles injury. He’s 35 with an Achilles. Right. So if that scenario was the case, then Dane should have been coming back having get paid all his money by Milwaukee. help Portland out and sign a three-year like small deal, maybe even veteran minimum, so that they had all the flexibility they needed so they could be better, so he could be the veteran. And frankly, you’re going to pay him back that money difference over the next 20 years when you’re paying him a million dollars a year to be an ambassador for the organization, right? Like this one’s easy. Like it’s not hard. You could have circumvented the salary cap in ways that everyone’s circumvented the salary cap a hundred times. very like Durk Nitzky did this in Dallas and then they’ll pay him to be a suit, you know, like that was the theory. Now there’s new ownership so who knows but like like that to me I I don’t quite understand why. So then the other scenario is you’re signing him as a basketball player and you’ve got this NBA allstar who you’re going to get for a year rehabbing and then maybe comes back for the last month of the season but pretty unlikely and then you’re going to get him for the last two years at 36 and 37 coming off an Achilles and the whole reason you traded him in the first place is cuz you had Shaden Sharp and Scoot Henderson and You needed to clear the deck to give them time to play. Well, I think you still have Scoot Henderson and you still have Shaden Sharp. So, I What are we doing? I have no idea. Okay. No idea. Yeah. I I didn’t know either. I thought I’d ask you then. Uh yeah, I don’t I don’t get it. I mean, then there’s the other question is like should have Utah done this and like as a veteran leader to be around, but it it’s like they’re kind of in a middle ground where he’s he’s not quite a veteran leader because he’s taking up salary cap space and he’s got a player option so that if he actually turns out to be good, you’re going to have to really pay him 20 or 30 million at some point. Like it’s Yeah, I didn’t get it either. I don’t get it. Unless they can leverage him into the arena and he’s happy to be in Portland, then I guess that would be the upside for both. That’s the best that each side can get out of this, right? But to me, that’s where you sign whatever the veteran minimum is. Yeah. Yeah. I got to have a handshake agreement that you’re going to be the Portland Trailblazer ambassador for the next 20 years and we’re going to pay you, you know, a million, half a million dollars a year to be an ambassador over the next 20 years and you’re going to get that. So, I I don’t really get it. summer league. You’ve seen a lot of basketball now and we have watched the Thunder and the Pacers both go through three lottery seasons and then go back into the playoffs and then the next year go to the finals and play each other. Now, clearly the Jazz aren’t on that kind of arc. That was some serious talent evaluation and some serious luck in the draft that uh got those teams uh where they are. Maybe not luck, but they were both good and they were fortunate, right? They were fortunate that good players dropped to them. They were fortunate they they picked number two when there was a good player there. So, there’s always a little bit of good fortune mixed into this. You don’t you don’t get to control all the levers. What do you see from the Jazz? Do you see anybody who could be the guy or at least the sidekick to the guy? Are you got any anticipation? Granted, it’s still, you know, probably a ways off. What are you thinking? because we’re watching these other teams rebuild and Jazz fans want to rebuild as fast as everybody else rebuilds obviously. So that was pretty wide open questions. Yeah, I’m giving you the whole freeway. Drive wherever you want. Really, really dangerous for me to do to you or you to do to me. Um, so I think the landscape in the NBA will allow for a faster rebuild than we’ve seen in years past. Mhm. I think 240 minutes of depth on your roster will be more important than the third star. I think you’ll have to have two really fabulous players and then your depth after that, maybe one really fabulous player and really good depth after that um is going to be the new model. And so that’s easier and faster to rebuild. And so if Keonte can become a rotation player and Taylor Hendris is a qu good rotation player and Walker’s a good rotation player and one of your young kids pops, now all of a sudden you’re not that many pieces away. Um, what I will say that I think has been the least trying to give the listener something unique that on a topic that’s been discussed a lot. I think what has not been talked about enough is how good a job OKC did of getting off players. Mhm. So OKC drafted Terrence man. Gone. Drafted Poker Schevky. These are Terrence man was like you can pull him up for me but like I’m off the top of my head but Po Kashev man was like 14th pick Kashevsky was like 18th pick gone boom gone off them. Um there’s five players if you go back and look that Oklahoma City like drafted early first round like or early second round Jeremiah Robinson Earl and they got off all of them fast and I think that’s as important as anything else. I mean, obviously you’ve got to get the guy, but you’ve got to decide on your guys whether they’re actually gonna hit or not and do it and whether they have a role. And I also think the other thing I would give Oklahoma City immense credit for is Aaron Wiggins, who’s a part of their rotation and important, was the 58th pick of a draft and they drafted three other players that year ahead of him and got rid of all three of them. Kendrick Williams was a free agent that they signed from New Orleans and he’s a part of their rotation and important and they got rid of players to let him. Isaiah Joe they went and got from Philadelphia for free and they got rid of their other guys. I do not the key to one of the key things Oklahoma City certainly Shay is the key thing of all of it. Jaylen Williams was their hit. Chad Homegrren was the draft was there for them. Yep. But the other key thing they did is they got off guys and I think that’s as important as anything else. And then Indiana did something that I think the Jazz can do, which is Indiana did an unbelievably great job of recognizing players on their second draft. So Obie Topam, Andrew, um, uh, Aaron Kneesmith. So Topham Drafted by the Knicks, Nmith drafted by Danny and the Celtics. and you run through their roster and they have a bunch of guys who were drafted somewhere else. It didn’t fit. They went and found them, got them, gave them this kind of midlevel contract that allows them to have 240 quality minutes on the floor and filled their gaps there and obviously made a great Tyrese Hallebertton trade. And um but that to me those are the two things that you that are important here as you build your depth is you know if you have a player that has a deficiency and it’s not going to get solved get off them. And also to the credit of Oklahoma City Pushepski is not in the league anymore. Terrence man’s kind of bouncing around. Uh Trey man not Terrence man sorry Trey man’s bouncing around but not really in the league anymore. and the three the two or three other guys whose names are totally Jeremiah Robinson Earl is not really in the league anymore like they’re they’re not really around anymore like so they not only did they get off players but they got off the right players and frankly we should be able to do that because with our roster where it is we’re getting a lot of data points on our young players and we should be able to decide quickly with the amount of time they’re getting on the or whether they’re a part of our future or not. Was that a You gave me the whole poo poo platter. Did I adequately choose the right areas of interest? Oh, they’re all areas of interest. I mean, you know that you could probably go for another hour on this topic. Easy. I I I think it’s fascinating. It’s just I I can’t I am so happy that they moved the veterans and I thought they might only move two and I was kind of hoping they’d move three, but I didn’t really know if they would and they moved three. Couldn’t be happier. Let’s find out. They they weren’t going to win with those guys. Those guys may go win somewhere else. And some Jazz fans may think that sucks, but you know, if if John Collins, you know, hits a lot of shots and wins a playoff series, am I going to be surprised? Not completely. Maybe a little bit. I mean, we didn’t see him do it in the playoffs here. We saw him do it in the regular season. Um, but they had to they got to find out what these young guys are and they got to let them develop. Can I interject here in the area that I think this has not been talked about enough? I actually wanted I wanted to talk to some people at summer league about this and I didn’t get an opportunity. So, I’m going to take a gamble that my intuition is correct. Okay. There was a weird atmosphere around the team at the end of for a lot of last year where you’re Yeah. On one level, the coaches are coaching the young guys who are going to play that night and on the other end there’s four guys that are sitting around who are not going to play that night. Yep. And no one ever said this to me, but it always seemed to me like it’s really hard to tell Isaiah Collier he’s got to go do something when those four guys are just standing there and it’s kind of clear what’s going on. Yeah. And so I actually think this opens the door for the coaching staff to coach more. Oh, 100%. Don’t talk to anybody about that other than me. 100%. I couldn’t agree with you. Those guys had handcuffs on last year. They had handcuffs on and it was a bizarro. It had to be totally healthy guys sitting there like I can play. No. I mean it’s nothing you go through in your career. The best guys playing you try to win in the game. It’s basic. It’s simple. It’s never discussed. Everybody understands it. And then you have a year where that’s not true. That’s got to impact practices. That’s got to impact video sessions. That’s got to impact the locker room at halftime. It was bizarro world. I I would think the coaches are so excited. Go win as many games as you can. Play whoever you want. Oh, thank goodness. I’d be pumped if I were them. I would be pumped. And I do think like a minor thing, these are minor, but like let’s use Washington last year as the example. They they’ve done some weird things where they’ve added some veterans since. We’ll see what they do with Marcus Smart and Chris Middleton. But like the final game of the year, Buck Carrington hits that like fade away to win it and the young guys are all jumping on top of each other. Like those are the moments where Austin A said players want to play to win and they want to have hope. Yep. The hope doesn’t have to be for April of 2026. It can be for April of 2028, but it’s important that you have hope so that like when Ace Bailey goes off for 28 and Ke’s like, “Oh, I I can play with him. Oh, that’s going to be okay.” Like, I mean, I think they’ve all already had their Ace Bailey moment. Ace Bailey’s skill set is so elite that they’ve already all I promise you in a week of practice had a moment where like oh god if that comes together right oh wow we have something and that’s hope like it’s interesting the player I’ve got the most hope for right now is Kee like I still I I’m I’m still a little bullish David you took us right to the water. Man, you’re thirsty. You’re looking at the lake. You have to stay 12 feet away from the lake. I can’t stay 12 feet away from the lake. He can’t walk us to the edge. Dave, David, David, David, you cut out. We missed the best part. Go back to the player you had the most. The best What? What? The Oh, sorry. The player I’m still pretty bullish on is Kee. Okay. All right. That’s an interesting discussion because I had that with Ben and he’s way more than me, but we both agreed that moving Sexton, even though Sexton’s energy is awesome and fans love him, like, okay, now it’s wide open for Keante. Go right. There’s no one competing for me. You’re the You’re the guy. Do it. Can you do it? I I think the script Ke’s first two years he’s responsible for a lot of the failure. I don’t want to give him a total pass, but I also think there’s been a lot of script for by which for him to fail. So, he’s going to have to change his attitude toward defense. There’s no question. And I think we’ve seen great maturity out of him in this off season with his work ethic and sticking around here to his quest to be great. And I don’t know that he totally knew how to do that before or that it would be this hard, but like he’s really skilled and he’s he’s really talented and if he could just take three of the bad shots and move them into something else and get to the rim one more time a night, he actually increased his free throw rate at a pretty good rate for year one to year two last year. He his problem offensively is that in over 33% of his games last year, he shot below 33%. Okay, that’s death. But the fact is, and I don’t want to bore everyone with this, I did on my podcast recently or maybe even today is if if he actually because of where he takes his shots from, if he has an average day, if he makes one extra shot, he has a decent day. If he has misses one extra shot, he goes to 33%. That’s why it happens to him so often. So, he’s got to just move his shot distribution into better spots. And I think he can do that. And if he does that, then Andy plays a little defense, then he’s really good. He’s really good. You know, I mean, not like all-star good, but like NBA rotation player. And then you’ve got Walker, Castler, and Keonte George that are NBA rotation players. I have no idea what’s happening with Taylor Hendricks, obviously, right? I I think we saw, you know, I think then the question is going to be on last year’s rookies whether or not they can smooth out their deficiencies. Will Hardy last year had a great line, I think it was Will, who basically said like you can have weaknesses, but you can’t torpedo it the system. So, in other words, you if you have if you’re not a great defensive player, that’s one thing. But if your defense is so bad, Yeah. that the other team comes up the floor every single time and goes at you and no matter what system we’re trying to run, it’s irrelevant because you’re so bad. Yeah. Then you don’t get to play. And if your offense is so bad that every single time we in the corner and they’re sagging in the middle, so our entire offense doesn’t work, then you don’t get to play. And so with Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, and Kyle Philippowski, all of which are showing great signs of development, the question is going to be whether they can smooth out their deficiencies enough that they’re not prohibitive from them being on the floor. David, we got to run. Excellent take. Excellent segment. And I will also say this about all the young guys, probably Keonte at the front, but you and I, our kids are between the ages of 20, 27. And the amount of growth and maturity you can see, he’s had a lot of problems, a lot of flaws. I could do segments on it. I also totally believe the amount of mental and emotional development that happens to people at that age is huge and if he comes in and turns the page and something clicks, that’s not impossible at this age. It’s not. It’s totally possible. So, you can be we can all be as down as we want, but we should also leave the door open for improvement because for any one of these guys, when it clicks, all of a sudden you go, “Wow.” And that moment might be out there. Might be. I know you need I know you need to jump. So Jake, I will do this uh concisely and they’re in a life position that is not conducive for that development. My kids, my kids are 20 and 22 having enough difficulty figuring out how to develop correctly in a perfect environment for them to be able to develop. This is NBA life where you cannot make new friends, where your bank account is too large, where you’re in a spotlight, where you’re being criticized every minute on Twitter or being praised every second around you, where nobody will tell you the truth is not an environment by which to naturally develop. All right, David, we do have to run. Thank you very much. We’ll talk to you. Okay. All right. There’s David Locky, a voice of Utah Jazz. Pablo Mastroni, RSL head coach, next right here on the zone.
David Locke joined DJ for his weekly visit to talk about the Utah Jazz and NBA as they discussed the ongoing Jazz rebuld, how they can model themselves after the Oklahoma City Thunder and what Damian Lillard and the Portland Trailblazers are doing.
