FULL SHOW | Utah Jazz Finish Their Summer League Schedule | NBA Free Agency Moves | Is Utah Reall…
Welcome back to the Saturday show 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Good morning. Happy Saturday. Thank you for making us a part of your weekend. Hope you’ve got great plans out there. Happy to be back, Alex. Happy to be back. Another beautiful Saturday here with you, Christian, where we get to recap everything and talk about everything that’s happened this past week. And you know what? It was probably the first really slow week that we’ve had. It was this summer. No, it really was. There was um I mean obviously we had you know media days last week. There were still Mountain West Conference uh media days this week, but I mean aside from that, you had a little bit of news coming out of the SEC media days, but in all in all reality like it was it was pretty slow. Uh especially compared to the week before where it was like drinking out of a fire hose. Like so much news and information coming down the pipeline every single day. Uh and then yeah, this week was just it was slow. And it’s good. I mean it’s good to have a break. I know Scotty G put a tweet out this morning. Six weeks, six weeks left. We’re almost there, man. Oh my goodness. Until college football kicks off. So, it’s coming up, bro. We’ll enjoy the slow times while we can, but uh not to say that nothing happened because a few things happened, including summer league. Summer League wrapped up. We’ll start off there um with what we learned. But first, I mean, we’ll talk about our weeks as we always do. Alex, what did you have a highlight of your week? Highlight of my week, bro. I downloaded uh College Football 26. Awesome. The new one. Um and I’ve just been playing that a lot this week. Probably probably a little bit more than I am proud to admit than that I’ve that I’ve been playing. Oh, I’m sure many of our listeners probably relate. Yeah. Uh, you know, I’m glad to see that the excitement and hype is still there. I mean, last summer, that was honestly one of the biggest stories of the summer that that game was back because, you know, anybody from probably age 22 to like 35 grew up playing the NCAA games, right? So, to have that game return after more than 10 years, uh, was big. I was interested to see what the hype would look like after the first game came out. And there were some mixed reviews on it, right? But, uh, you know, the second year in a row that it’s out, plenty of people were invested. So, not to get like too deep and technical into a video game, but like the last one, um, I felt like was a good base and they made some really good improvements in the second on on the second one. So, good year year-over-year improvement. It’s good. There you go. I have seen that they like ramped up the transfer portal in the dynasty mode. Like, it’s ridiculous. People are like, I had 51 players after the trans man. I I same here. my first year with my dynasty with Delaware. Um I had about I probably had about 4550 guys leave Delaware. Yeah. Oh, that’s great. Awesome. Uh we’ve got Sean behind the glass. We’ve also got Alma back there learning the ropes. You guys got highlights of the week. Mine was uh Shane Gillis ES at the SB. Oh man, that was hilarious. Yeah, that’s that’s pretty much all I got this week. How about you, Elmo? So, for me, it’s it’s very similar to Alex. I’ve just been spending so much time on that college football game, but I’ve spent more time on the road to glory side. I just want to see how many times I can transfer and how many conference championships I can win along the way. So, you know, CUSA, Mountain West, uh, Sunb Belt, we’re just racking them all up. There you go, man. What are you a quarterback? Uh, so I did one for quarterback. Uh that one I scattered from BYU to UTEP, then Boise State, then Miami. Uh Florida Miami that is. Uh and then for my running back, I went UNLV. Uh then I went to San Jose State, uh then to Delaware, then to Charlotte, just because you know what? Why not? Why not? What’s with you guys in Delaware? It’s the new team, man. I guess it’s the new FBS team. Everybody’s excited about it. The blue hands. Yes. Uh highlight of my week. Uh let’s see. Monday was my second anniversary with my beautiful wife. Hey, congratulations, man. Thank you. So, we made it two years. Hopefully, uh many more to come. I made actually I I got to brag about this. I made a really nice steak dinner. I killed it. Uh Hansen Scotty would be proud. I absolutely killed it. How do you take your steak? Oh, a nice uh probably about medium rare. Okay. Yeah. I always say you can over you can you know if it’s undercooked you can put it in the microwave a little bit. Uh if it’s overcooked you can’t you can’t undo it. That’s true. You know. Yeah. No, I 100% agree. Um so yeah. And then last night I went and saw Superman. Oh, I saw that last week. Yeah. Did you like it? It was pretty good. It was good. Yeah, it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Okay. Enough enough with that. Let’s jump in. Uh again, the Jazz wrapped summer league last night. They uh lost to the Chicago Bulls 105 to 92, but it’s not really about the wins and losses, Alex. It’s about how do the guys play and what do we learn? And unfortunately, a lot of the Jazz young players that we were excited to see didn’t play. Ace Bailey only played two games. Walt Clayton Jr. missed several games. Uh Kyle Filipowski played himself out. Bryce Sensib played himself out. Um, Cody Williams and Isaiah Collier, actually Isaiah Collier missed last night, but up until then, he had played every game. So, Cody Williams, I think, played every single game of summer league. So, we can start with Cody Williams just because we saw the most of him. I think the biggest takeaway from Cody is that number one, he didn’t regress. And that’s a good thing. That’s a great thing. And I would say number two even I mean last night and even the the previous game he looked like the best player on the floor for the Jazz. And I mean you look at the guys he’s playing with. No offense to these guys but like John Tani, Elijah Harkas are really the only two other guys on last night’s roster that are probably going to see any minutes this year for the actual Jazz team, right? Uh, so you would expect Cody Williams to uh to be the best player out of that squad, but I mean it would be a huge red flag if he wasn’t, but last night 26 points for Cody. Um, nine of 17 shooting. He had a five rebounds, three assists, two steals. So solid performance, I think. And that’s exactly what you want to see as a Jazz fan, right? Because the the reality is Cody Williams rookie season was not it was difficult. It was not good. um there, you know, people online, I saw it all the time questioning whether or not Cody Williams was going to be an actual NBA prospect, but I think that we saw some some steps taken from Cody Williams in summer league. I know it’s summer league and, you know, take it with a grain of salt because it’s really not NBA competition. You’re playing against other first year guys, other second year guys, other rookies. And so, I mean, take it with a grain of salt, but it it bodess well for Cody Williams that you do see significant improvements in his game in summer league and now you just hope that translate over translates over to the NBA level once the season actually kicks off or tips off, right? And it’s it’s more than just putting shots up and they’re going in. It’s how he gets to his spaces. Like, he’s playing with the confidence that he should have because he was what was he ninth overall pick or eighth overall? um you know, and he’s going against summer league players. And again, you look at the Bulls roster, how many of these players are going to be playing for the Bulls on opening night, right? Not many, right? So, you would expect Cody Williams to come out and dominate. And I like that he’s at least playing with that mindset and that confidence. And that’s what he needs because it’s probably going to be a really tough regular season for him. Again, one thing I want to point out, guys, is that first off, I hate the comparisons to his brother Jaylen, right? You don’t you don’t always have to talk about Cody Williams while bringing up Jaylen. They’re two different people. They are two different people. And the reason that I’m bringing this up, Jaylen Williams was 22 years old when he was drafted by the Thunder and he went 12th overall. He was 22 years old. He played four years of college. 22 years old. Cody Williams was 19. So that that’s an extra three years of physical de development that Jaylen had. Uh there’s no telling what Cody’s going to look like in three years, but I promise he’s going to be more of a grown man than he is right now or more than he was last year, I guess, right? If you add an additional two years, because he’s already had one. But um Jaylen, the older brother, came in a lot more physically prepared to deal with the NBA and he didn’t have to struggle with what Cody’s struggling with and what Cody really struggled with last year. So, it’s it’s really hard to draw comparisons between these two brothers and what they’ve done in the NBA so far because it’s just two vastly different situations. And it is nice to have kind of the the older brother template and say, “Okay, genealogy-wise, you know, they’re similar. They’re built similarly. You would hope that Cody can fill out that way.” And it’s kind of like a projection of what Cody Williams might look like one day. But again, you also got to remember Jaylen came in a lot more experienced. 100%. And like you mentioned, Christian, he’s 19, 20. I think he’s 20 now. and Cody Williams, right? And and so you would hope that having an older brother who who has had success in the NBA at the NBA level like a Jaylen Williams um that he’s a just a good mentor and kind of helps Cody guide himself through the waters of the NBA. Yeah. Right. But in in all reality, they’re different players. They’re different people. And so I know I hear the comparisons like people talking about, oh well, if Jaylen Williams was able to do this, maybe Cody Williams can do that. But they’re different people and I think people need to stop trying to compare the two all the time. It’s hard because Jaylen just made a third team allNBA, right? And just won a championship and was the second best player on a championship team and he got paid. And he got paid. It would be awesome if Cody turned out to be that. But you don’t draft Cody Williams because his brother got because of who his brother is. you draft Cody Williams because he has the prototypical size and length that you would want in an NBA wing and he just happens to have a brother who does the same thing. Um, overall though, I I liked what I’ve seen so far from Cody in summer league. I think he did a lot of great things. More importantly, I I don’t think he did a lot of negative things, and I think that’s probably the more important takeaway. Um because again, you’ve got a top 10 draft pick going against guys that aren’t going to see the floor. So obviously they’re going to look really good no matter how physically immature they are. Um so yeah, he baldled and that was great. Um but the biggest positive is the fact that you saw like physical improvement from Cody Williams. Yeah, he still needs to improve physically, but phys like what you saw on the floor, you did see improvements. Um his shooting in his rookie season wasn’t the best, but I felt like he was shooting a lot better in summer league. He doesn’t look timid. He does. No, absolutely not. He doesn’t look timid. And again, that might change in the regular season, but uh you know, baby steps. Uh Walt Clayton Jr. I think was probably my second favorite player to watch. I mean, Ace was great, but we only saw two games of Ace. We’ll get to him in a second. But Walt Clayton Jr. immediately came out of the gates and I was like, “Okay, this guy is going to push for the starting point guard spot.” And I don’t know, you know, you assume they’re going to be starting ace. I don’t know if they’re going to be wanting to start two rookies, but I think he outplayed Isaiah Collier. And not to say not to say Isaiah Collier played poorly, but he just the shooting wasn’t there. And you could tell there were times where he was maybe a little frustrated that that the shot wasn’t going in. He still has great speed and he has chemistry with some of the player. I’m talking about Collier right now. He has some of the chemistry right with Philipki and you know you get in the regular season Kesler and some of those guys because he’s been on the team for a little bit. So you might give him the edge because of that uh because he was the starting point guard last year. But I think eventually Walt Clayton is going to come in and and push for that because he offers a lot of the playmaking. not all of the playmaking that Kier does, but he’s a much better shooter, and we’re talking like legitimate shooter, like deep threat. I feel like with with Clayton, um despite him missing missing out on some games, um being held out due to injuries and whatnot, they you you did see you saw some good flashes out of out out of Walt Clayton Jr. Um, like you mentioned, the thing that took that stuck out to me the most was probably that playmaking ability. Similarly to Isaiah Isaiah Collier and what we saw with him do last season. Um, that’s kind of what stood out to me uh with with Clayton. And I think you have two two guys who can play the point who who can really dish it out. Um, obviously there’s still a long way to go in their development, but they’re they’ve both started off well. two guys that can play the point, but then you throw in Kee George as well, um, who obviously didn’t play the summer league because they believe he he’s above that already, which he has the ability. I think he can be a really good player. So now you talk about basically three players fighting for two spots and it’s it’s tough, but that’s the way the NBA is and that’s almost what you want because you get the whole iron sharpens iron, right? you’ve got these all of these young young players that are going to be demanding the absolute best out of each other and ultimately at the end of the day you’re going to end up with the two players that win those spots. Um not to say that whoever doesn’t win the point guard spot can be in the shooting guard rotation, right? But you get into size and all of these guys are kind of on the smaller side, 6’3 or shorter, you don’t really want to be playing two of them at the same time. But then with, you know, the size that you have with Walker Kesler, Kyle Filipowski, Ace Bailey, Larry Markin, maybe you do have the ability to play two two shorter guards. So, we’ll see. I I really am curious to see what Will Hardy’s rotations look like come regular season. Um, I think we’re going to get a lot of fun rotations. I think Ace Bailey can obviously play anywhere from the two all the way to maybe even the four. Um, so they could go really, really big. I mean, if you’ve got Ace Bailey at the two, you can put Lowry at the three, Kyle Filiposk at the four, and Walker Kesler at the five, it’s a very tall lineup, and then like a Walt Clayton Jr., your tallest point guard. Like that that’s pretty crazy. Um, and I think we’re going to see that lineup. I don’t know when, but uh I would imagine if they were trying to win as many games as possible, I would imagine that that would probably be the starting lineup, but who knows? I Anyways, back to Walt. I think he showed what he’s known for, right? Hitting big shots and he hit big shots throughout summer league and he he did some playmaking which was great and encouraging and uh I liked I liked Walt Clayton. I think I’m excited to see uh you know Ace Bailey was a huge draw but don’t sleep on the Walt Clayton pick. I think he’s going to be huge. I agree. And I think the best thing for me that stood out about Clayton was you mentioned a little bit earlier is the fact that they a guy like him will push Keonte George. Yeah. And I I feel like Kee needs that push. Absolutely. We’ve talked about it multiple times on the show, Christian. He’s the one that I think we need to see the most improvement out of. and having Clayton and having Collier kind of push him for those minutes and pushing push him pushing him at that spot. I think that will be really well for really good for Keonte George. And I don’t want to speak for coach Will Hardy, but I would assume that’s his same thought process in the front office as well because you know you have looking at last year, well going back to his rookie year it was pretty good, right? But then his second year there was basically no improvement. who was essentially the same player he was as a rookie, which you’d like to see some improvement. Um, and then coach Hardy responds by starting Isaiah Collier, moving Keonte George to the bench. And once that happened, you saw some ups and downs, but you started to see kind of almost a switch flip in his mind like, okay, I’ve got to step my game up, otherwise I’m going to lose my spot and I’m losing playing time. Um, and now with the addition of Walt Clayton, again, like you’re pointing out, that’s just even more competition, even more of a wakeup call. And going back to what I was kind of saying earlier, yeah, you’ve got three guys gutting it out for two spots essentially. So, we’ll see. I’m excited, man. I’m excited to see how Clayton can push Keonte because he needs it. Uh, Kyle Filipowski led the summer league in scoring. 29.3 points a game on uh he averaged 10 of 19 shooting. He shot 56% from the floor, 39% from three, while also averaging 7.7 rebounds per game, which is not bad at all. Um, offensively, he’s everything you want in a modern day big. I think he he is the blueprint. He is what you hope that you get when you draft somebody at the end of the first round, start of the second round. He’s a project, but man, he’s so good on offense. But the issue is defensively, he’s borderline unplayable. And it it’s it’s so hard to talk about this because you see the offensive stats, you see, you know, NBA uh Twitter posting his highlights and all these places posting his highlights and his stat lines and his score lines. And it’s like, “Oh, that dude is a great player.” But then you you watch the game and you see on defense and he gets bullied by centers and then by other wings he’s not fast enough to keep up with them. And it’s like you got to figure that part out to at least be serviceable on defense. Because if you can be not a net negative on defense while still producing like you do on offense, yeah, you’re going to lock up a starting spot for 10 years. Uh, so again, I loved his game offensively. I think he can help out everybody in the in the offensive lineup, especially when you’ve got Walker Kesler who’s a non-shooter. If you’ve got, you know, your one through four spots that can shoot from anywhere, that’s the modern day NBA. That gives you an advantage over almost everybody. Uh, but the defensive issues, I think, stood out to me and worried me a little bit. I think it bodess well that he’s come out and he’s shown his strong offensive play and his strong offensive shooting and and those strong numbers that I think that bodess well for Philip for Flip but like you mentioned defensive need the defense needs work that’s what needs to step up the most in his game and and you know kind of thinking about this long term and looking at the Jazz at a roster from a long-term perspective if Philipky can can fix that defense and improve better on defense. You got Walker Kesler and Phil and Flip long term. That can be a really really great combo, especially considering the fact that we are seeing how well of a shooter this guy is. Yeah. But the defense needs to improve. I brought this up last week and it was such a good point. I want to reiterate it. Right. If you’ve got a guard that can score but can’t shoot, you can build around that with the interior defense and kind of make yourself make life a little easier for you. If you’ve got a big that can score and can’t shoot, you can’t really hide that on defense. You’re going to get eaten for lunch. And so we’re talking about if he can improve defensively, we’re looking at like a 10-year starter, which is crazy 100%. um if he doesn’t improve defensively, I mean, he’s still got the offensive chops to warrant a spot in the league, but now you’re talking about more of a rotation player. And I mean, you look at a 30 second overall pick, right? That’s a that’s best case scenario anyway. Or not best case, but like that’s a that’s a really good scenario. You’re getting a solid rotation player for a very long time. But to have a skill that’s so valuable, to be so good at something, you would hope that he turns into that he raises the floor on the other end just so he he can really hit his potential. That’s what I’d like to see because I think he’s a great story. Um, and he he really is just such a dynamo. So so much fun to watch offensively. And at the at the end of the day, this is a guy who got picked in the second round and the Jazz and he slid. He was supposed to go first round. He was in the green room. Exactly. This is a guy I think the Jazz got incredibly they got a huge value at at in the second round in the early second round. What was it? 32 Christian. Yeah. And we’re seeing that he has a a a high ceiling to play at a high level in the NBA. Now he’s just got to continue to develop that defensive side of the ball. the shooting is there and and like you mentioned, this this is a guy who has the potential to be a 10 plus year player in the NBA. If he just can fix that defense, he’ll be he’ll be all right. Speaking of shooting, Bryce Sensib played himself out of Vegas. Uh we talked about him a little bit last week because he dominated Salt Lake. Yes. Uh he had the highest scoring performance of summer league, 37 points, shooting over 40% from three. And it was like, “Okay, yeah, you’re you’re good. You’re good, Bryce.” Um, and you know, sometimes you you hear about players that are like almost frustrated that they’re asked to play in summer league. And so it’s almost like a prove it thing, like, oh, you’re you don’t want to be here. Okay, go prove it. And that’s what Bryce No, he proved that what I would think that’s what I would think Bryce did. Um, I don’t know the conversation that went on behind the scenes, but ultimately Bryce is a third-year player, right? And similarly to what we’re talking about with Cody, like yeah, you would expect him to come in and dominate these games. He’s been in the NBA already for a couple years. He should be better than everybody. And he was early on. It was a very early sign. Um, I think Bryce Sensib is really underrated. I think that a lot of people get caught up in all of the other players that the Jazz have drafted kind of forgetting how valuable Bryce is. And even if all he ever is is a really good 3 and D player, that’s valuable. Anybody in the NBA would trade for that. That’s how guys get paid. That’s how guys stick around in the league for a very long time. You can find a guard that has the potential to score 30 points a night by dribbling the ball around and taking 30 shots a game. Right. Right. finding a guy who shoots 40% from three. There’s not many of those in the NBA, Alex. And I think it kind of got lost in in the, you know, youth development season last season for the Jazz, but there was a time there in in January where Bryson was playing hot, man. that Florida trip that Florida trip he could not miss and then went out was held out for a couple of games came back but he and he was still shooting well and I think like you’re absolutely right I think people get caught up in the Keonte Georgees and and the Philippowskis and the Williams and people sometimes kind of forget that Bryson is there and he’s playing a phenomenal role when it comes to shooting and if he he’s someone that we cannot overlook because he went out in in summer league, prove that he belongs. And now again, we just hope that that continues to we continue to see development from him as we get to the NBA season because he is um he’s a fun guy to watch when he’s on when he’s hot. When he’s hot, he can’t miss literally. Yeah. Uh and then Ace Bailey again only played two games. Uh but I think we saw improvement from even from game one to game two. So I mean there’s not much to say there. I think he showed exactly what made him the fifth overall pick. He made some extremely tough shots. He got in there, he gutted out some rebounds, which is a extremely positive sign. Um, you know, he has what you can’t teach. He has the size. He has the athleticism. You’re talking about a true six, seven and a half guy that can shoot over anybody. He has the length. Uh, and again, he’s a phenomenal athlete, too. So you you factor in his athleticism with his long arms and his height, he can outrebound anybody else that’s going to be guarding him. And he can outshoot I mean he can shoot over anybody that’s going to be guarding him, too. I really am interested to see, I brought it up earlier, he can play anywhere from two, three, four, right? So, I think he is a very a chess piece that can be used in many different ways. And obviously, he’s a rookie, so there are going to be rookie growing pains. And he’s not going to come in and be an all-NBA player right off the bat. He’s not going to be the best version of Ace Bailey right off the bat, but there are flashes. And when you see those flashes, it’s like licking your chops. Like, oh my gosh, that guy fell to five. By far he’s the most exciting guy right now on this roster in for in for me. Yeah, he’s the most exciting guy. But and the only knock I have on him really is it’s not anything against him. It’s just the situation that he that he was in. But the knock I have against him is that we just didn’t see him more in summer league. I wish I wish we could have seen him more. Initially it was called a a groin injury and then it got changed to I believe it was a hip is what they were calling it. Um soreness if I’m not mistaken. that limited him to only a couple couple summer league games. But uh yeah, training camp here in a couple months and then uh a couple weeks I guess. I don’t know. I’m lost in the summer. Uh real quick before we go to break, I wanted to throw this out. Hans Olsson had a tweet ranking Jazz players in terms of his interest. I put out my own version. You can tell me what you think of this, Alex. Real quick, my own interest ranked. I’d go Ace Bailey, Walt Clayton Jr., Taylor Hendris, Bryce Sensiba, Kyle Filipowski, Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, County George. Yeah, I agree with that. Um, obviously you got two first round picks, one and two. Got to you want to see what they have. Taylor Hendris slept on. Uh, when he’s healthy, I think he’s he has the potential to be one of the best defensive players in the league. Uh, so that’s why I have him so high at three. Again, going back to Bryce Sensibah, he has the potential to be one of the best shooters in the NBA. And then you’ve got Flip, you basically know what he is. Cody Williams, I think it’s going to be a little bit before we see him hit anything close to his potential. That’s why he’s kind of lower. Then Isaiah Collier and Kante George, you kind of know what they are. So, yeah, I think for me, Bryce would be a little bit small, a little bit lower because I feel like with Bryce, you know, a little bit more of what you got with him. and Cody Williams might have been higher on my list because he’s the one I had the most question marks about going into into summer league, but for the most part pretty spot-on list. Yeah. So, let us know what you think uh at the KSL Sports Zone on Twitter. How would you rank the Jazz young players in terms of who you’re most excited to see this season? Alex, let’s take a break. Coming coming up next on the other side, we’ll talk some big free agent moves. Damen Lillard back with the Portland Trailblazers. Can’t wait to hit that next. Stay with us. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napoulos here by my side. As always, thanks for making us a part of your Saturday morning. Is it still gloomy outside? It was like cloudy on the way in. It was uh it was rainy and gloomy last night, man, on my way home. It was a little weird. I was driving home and and you could see like lightning strikes happening over the Ochre Mountains over here on the west side. It was pretty cool, man. Yeah. I uh you know, it’s nice to get some overcasted. We all have yard work to do. Yeah. It sucks to do it when it’s 95 degrees out and hot. I’ll take 82 and cloudy. There you go, man. Uh Alex, let’s talk some more NBA free agency. I think there have been some really really great moves uh in in NBA free agency and we did some kind of winners and losers a couple weeks ago. Uh there were still some dominoes to fall and this week we saw it. The Phoenix Suns buy out Bradley Beal and he signs immediately with the Clippers. The buyout thing was funny because like the Bucks bought out Damen Lillard’s contract, who we’ll talk about in a second, and they spread the money out over like five years. They’re paying him 21 whatever million over five years. The Phoenix Suns saw that and said, “Oh, we’ll do the same thing.” The Suns should not have done that because they’re still paying they’re paying Bradley Beal tons of money. Yeah. Tons of money over the next several years. The difference between them and the Bucks though is the Bucks have Giannis Antakmpo in a wideopen Eastern conference. If you have a top three player on your team in a Eastern Conference that is that weak and that vulnerable, you have a chance to win. I don’t care. I don’t care what the rest of your team looks like. Giannis is that good. The Suns are not that good. They’re not that good to hamstring themselves with Bradley Bill’s contract. And I get that they’d have to pay him over the next he still had I think two or three years left on his deal. So, they have to pay him anyways. The buyout is what you do, but eat the cost upfront and free up money as soon as you can. I don’t get why you would spread his cap head out. Uh, so that was a little silly to me that the Suns were the Phoenix Suns are in desperate need of a reset, which you can’t do. Exactly. They moving on from KD this this summer. Um, you resigned Book as kind of your your centerpiece uh to lead you into what’s what’s essentially going to be a rebuild for the Phoenix Suns. Um, you get a lot of you got a lot of players in that 17 trade, 17 team trade, excuse me, with uh by sending KD to the Rockets, right? And then you get you got a bunch of That was silly. A bunch of new young guys coming in and and so I mean it is it is a rebuild time for for the Suns. But I feel like you kind of hurt yourself by taking the hit on Bradley Bill in during a rebuild. You can’t. It’s so hard because that’s just money you can’t use to rebuild. The thing that’s weird though is they’re we all know they need a rebuild, but they don’t know that because they just paid Devin Booker a ton of money, right? He’s going to be making $70 million a year towards the end of the decade. Uh so they spread out Bradley Bill’s buyout. I found the numbers. $19.4 4 million of dead cap hit over the next five years, which we’ve we saw the Jazz take some dead money, right, during their rebuild. But if you’re trying to flip the roster and turn around and compete, why are you taking We’ll round it up to 20 because I like that number. Why are you taking a $20 million cap hit over the next five years? That’s essentially you can’t be competitive while paying $20 million to Bradley Beal. So, either rebuild, tear, tear the roster down, trade Deon Booker away, and go full rebuild or go all in now and eat the money and then be competitive in two years, right? I I I don’t get what the Suns are doing. Um, obviously the Jazz hold their 2031 pick, so that’s good news for them. So I think so for reference, Cam Johnson who just got traded to the Nuggets, his cap hit is also 20 million. Yeah, that’s the type of player you can get at 20 million. He’s a really good player. He’s a great player. And the Nuggets just got him in that trade. So just to kind of give you like a guys a visual picture, that is the type of player you can get at 20 million in on your cap. And you’re losing that now because that 20 million is going to Bradley Bill. And that’s spread out over what, five years, you said? Yeah. Wow. Uh, players on the Suns roster that have a cap hit over $20 million this year, Dylan Brooks is at 21 million, Jaylen Green is at 33 million, and then Devin Booker is at 53 million. So, essentially, Bradley Bill has the fourth most expensive contract on this team over the next five years. Yeah. Anyways, uh, I get you want to move on from Bradley Bill, right? It didn’t work out. Bradley Bill was supposed to come out and and link up with with KD and Booker and this Unseam was supposed to be championship contenders, but the they were far from it. Yeah, it didn’t work. It was a failed project. I get you have to move on from Bradley Bill, but I don’t know if this was the best way to move on from Bradley Bill. Well, Bradley Bill joins the Clippers. Yeah. Immediately, two years, $11 million. Uh, and this is the potential Clippers lineup. Okay. James Harden, Bradley Bill, Kawhi Leonard, John Collins, and Ivita Zubots. Off the bench, Bogdon Bdonovich, Chris Dunn, Dererick Jones Jr., Brook Lopez, and Nick Batum. It’s a pretty good That is on paper, that’s a dang good lineup. And this again, these guys without the additions of John Collins and Bradley Beal, this team pushed Denver to seven games last year. And Denver pushed OKC to seven games last year. I think the Clippers have the potential to make some noise as long as they stay healthy. And that’s that’s the big one. Right now, you throw Bradley Beal into the mix. Basically, your top guard line, you know, they’re all injuryprone and they’re all old, but they have potential. Um, again, John Collins being added to this team, I think, is great. I think he has the opportunity to to it’s like one last harrah with these guys, right? Um and Bradley Beal, I know that we talk about him as such a negative cost for the Suns over the next two years. Bradley Beal on a $50 million per year contract obviously is a net negative. Bradley Beal for two years, $11 million is a steal. No way no way around it. I mean, he’s still a very serviceable player. Uh, I think the Clippers could be a dark horse in the West, but we’ll see. The Western Conference as always, right? This is how it’s always been. The West is so deep, so many teams. Uh, in the East, it’s just like who who’s going to step up? The Western Conference is going to be exciting because you have I think you have multiple teams right now on paper that can win it. The Nuggets, the the Thunder, the Clippers. Throw the Clippers in. Yeah, I would 100% throw the Clippers in there. Who knows what the Mavericks are going to look like when they’re fully healthy? Who knows what the Lakers are going to look like? I know there’s some turmoil there. Uh the Rockets obviously adding KD was huge. So that’s the real Rockets. That’s already six teams. Like um so yeah, could be fun in LA for the Clippers. Real quick, Damen Lillard back to the Portland Trailblazers. three years, $41 million contract for Dame. Obviously coming off the Achilles tear, the expectation is he’s going to miss all of next season. Cool for Dame that he gets to return to Portland. We know that he didn’t really like Milwaukee. He didn’t like being away from his family. He gets to go back to Portland where he is a legend. He has established himself as one of the greatest players in Portland Trailblazers history. Um, they love him there and I’m I’m glad that he gets to return there. He could have done it for free. I don’t know why Portland would do this. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Uh, especially after they just traded for Drew Holiday, right? So, you’re two years down the line before you ever see Dame. when he comes back, are you gonna have Dame and Drew playing together who are both in their late 30s at that point? What about Shaydon Sharp? What about Scoot Henderson? How are those guys going to see the floor with these two veterans that you just brought in? And three years 41 is not expensive, but it’s not cheap by any means. I I have no idea what why Portland would do this. I know why Dame would do it. Yes, for Dame, it’s a phenomenal move. You’re getting paid 14.1 million next season from the Portland Trailblazers to do to rehab plus 21 from Milwaukee. Plus, yes. Plus another 21 for for Milwaukee. So, I mean, you’re getting a big old paycheck to to plan out your rehab and and, you know, get back to full health. For the for the Trailblazers, it doesn’t make sense. No. But he also gets the third year, which is the thing. I’m sure that nobody else was even considering giving Dame a third year, right? You think, “Okay, we’ll give him a two-year contract. One year to rehab, one year to see what he looks like.” Portland’s like, “Hey, we’ll give you a third year just because we love you and because you did so much for us. Retire with us.” And now you’re locked into that. Yeah. It makes no sense for the Trailblazers. Um, I guess I mean a positive out of this, you get Drew Holiday and and Damen Lillard to coach up Scoot Henderson. Um, but that’s They are good veteran mentors, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean that that’s a positive, right? But in all reality, you’re tying up a lot of money to two guys who are over 30, well over 30, well over 30 and a guy who’s now coming off an Achilles and who knows where he will be when he gets back. And there were still rumors that they could flip Drew still. Um, and I I I mean that would make the most sense. They’re both 35, Drew and Dame, by the way. Oh man. But it’s a it’s a very convoluted guard line. Yeah. Because again, you’ve got the two young guys that you would assume Portland thinks are their guards of the future. And bringing in two guys 35 and older. Again, Dame’s not going to be 37 until he’s playing again. Uh, and Drew Holiday is, let’s just say he’s not aging well, right? He’s still serviceable, but he’s not even the same player he was two years ago when Portland had him or last year when Portland had him the first time, right? So, I I did see some funny things like the total, you know, you go back to the original Damen Lillard trade and basically what the Trailblazers have netted since then and it’s like, oh, now they have Dame, now they have Drew, they’ve got the assets that they got. They got Danny Aia that they burned some assets to get yada yada yada. Yeah, but you’re also paying Dame now. I mean, you would have had to give him that the extension before, right, and paid him more, but it’s just it’s it’s not the same. It’s not like they just won the trade because they ended up with both Drew and Dame. Now, they’ve created a problem for themselves that is going to hurt them for a few years, and I I don’t think it’s going to pay off immediately. I don’t know what what the thought process is. Even the Drew Holiday move was a little strange because it’s like, okay, do you think you’re ready to win now? We just named six teams in the West that could win it. We’re not even talking about winning a playoff series where you bring up like the Warriors and teams like that. I would pick the Warriors 90 times out of a 100red over this Trailblazers team. I agree. I don’t I I don’t think Portland could win a a playoff series within the next two years or three years. So, I don’t I don’t get what these two moves are talking about the Drew Holiday and Damen Lillard trade sign. It’s confusing. It is confusing. And I I think you know the Portland Trailblazers haven’t been contenders in a minute. No. And I don’t think that this puts him anywhere near that either considering I mean you’re not you’re probably not going to see Dame for another season. Right. So it this move is a head scratcher for sure for the Portland Trail Trailblazers. But I think at the end of the day it is funny that back in 2023 when Dame Ler got traded for Drew Holiday and now both of them are with the Portland Trailblazers even and you know even moving having both of those guys back even though you traded uh them for each other a couple years ago. So now you have now you have both. Was that 2023? It was 2023, man. Okay. Time flies. Yeah. It’s only been two yearsish. Yeah. Well, I guess glad for Dam he’s back in Portland because we know how much he means to that community, right? And I’m sure he’s going to be making appearances and stuff still because he is a legend there. So, and I I think at the end of the day that’s important for the fans. Yeah. You it’s important for the fans to to have him back. Um I a lot of the reaction I saw on social media um a lot of people who are fans of the Portland Triple Aers are are happy to have Damen Lard back. So glorified assistant coach for a year. That’s that’s what it is. That’s what that’s what he’s going to be. But yeah, you bring up the mentorship. He’s he’s going to be a good mentor to to Scoot. And I think that’s that’s that’s an important piece of this. Yeah. Okay. Uh let’s take a break, Alex. Coming up next on the other side, we’ll get into technical files. Let’s just Here’s my tease. Okay, be careful what you use for an expense on your company credit card. Okay, we’ll hit that next. It’s the Saturday show 975DKSL Sports Zone. [Music] That’s a technical foul. If you touch the thermostat, you’ll get hit with a bat cuz that’s a technical foul. You will feel my wrath. That’s a technical foul. Personal foul 69 offense. He was giving them the business. A technical foul. Welcome back to the Saturday Show. 975 the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napoulos with me. It’s time for technical fouls. One of our favorite segments every single week. We had a good one last week. That golf fight heard round the world. Oh, I forgot about that. It was awesome. Yeah, it’s hilarious. Hard to top that. That’s gonna be I went and rewatched the video after the show and and it’s funny. It’s hilarious. That’s going to go down in technical foul hall of fame. Oh, yeah. We’ll get a a shrine for that one. This week we’ve got some good ones, though. I’ll start us off here. Uh earlier in the week, there were reports that the NFL PA boss Lloyd Howell Jr. was resigning. And at first, I’m seeing these tweets, these notifications, and I’m like, “Okay, why do I care?” Like, I cool, awesome. And they’re like making a big deal out of him resigning. And then yesterday, this sort of bombshell article comes out about why he resigned. Alex, um, Lloyd Howell Jr. was under investigation because there were some interesting expense reports for the Players Union, including a 70 $738 charge for a car service that took him from an airport to a strip club. Then a year later, uh that was in 2023. A year later on the expense report, a total of $2,426 in charges, including cash withdrawals ranging from $200 to $500 from a different strip club ATM. Uh documents show they use two VIP rooms. So this was flagged by the person that you know goes over the expense reports and they conducted an investigation and on the expense reports it was noted that this was uh oh I just told you in break and I lost it. Essentially bonding team bonding team bonding is essentially I’m paraphrasing what it said on the expense report. Uh yeah, you can’t. Oh, player engagement event to support and grow our union. Look, if that’s what you’re going to do in your spare time, whatever, don’t expense your company’s credit card, especially something as forward- facing as the NFL PA. Um, so yeah, I I thought that was funny and he has since resigned. There was an investigation that was conducted and they were like, “Yeah, that’s that’s not okay.” If you’re going to I mean, whatever you do in your private life, you know, you do you. Yeah. You do you, boo. Just don’t put on the company credit card. Um especially something like this that is going to cause mass scrutiny and will essentially lead you to having to resign from your job. The employee flagged the receipt to the union’s travel department for a higher level of review. Basically said, “Hey, you might want to check this out. Uh, according to ESPN, the union travel forwarded the documents to compliance for review by lawyers and then uh yeah, it was it was all investigated and this guy’s stepping down.” So, I thought that was hilarious. It’s like, dude, what what even goes through your mind when you’re like, oh yeah, I’ll just expense it. We’ve, you know, the PA’s got us on this. It’s on on the house. That’s crazy. For team bonding. Team bonding or what was it? Player player uh engagement. Hey, player engagement. Oh man. Uh like I said, if you know, whatever you’re going to do in your personal time, that’s on you. Uh, but be smart about using your company credit card, I guess, is the lesson we can all learn from this. Don’t expense trips to strip clubs on your on the company credit card. No. Yeah. Uh, there were some statements from some other people basically saying, “Yeah, that’s pretty horrible. That’s pretty messed up.” Yeah, I agree. All right, Alex, what do you have for us? Uh, the SPS, first of all, I don’t think I don’t really care too much for the SPS. Um, but they got Shane Gillis to host this time and Shane Gillis is a funny dude and he says funny things and he’s a comedian. He’s a comedian and and sometimes, you know, he he’s he stirs the pot a little bit. Um, definitely stirred the pot. And what I mean by that is he says things that, you know, are kind of out of pocket sometimes. But the one that I want to focus on is one that has a little bit to do with BYU because they played against Colorado um in the Almo Bowl. And this is what Shane Gillis said about Shador Sanders and the Alamo Bowl. Shador Sanders had his jersey number retired at Colorado this year and people are saying it’s because of nepotism because of his father and it’s not. It’s because he went 13 and 12 over his career and he almost won the Alamo Bowl. Definitely not nepotism, right? All right. 13 and 12 and he almost won the Alamo Bowl. Remember remember the almost Alamo victory. And I think throwing almost in there is kind of a jab is I mean it’s not a jab, but it’s it’s not what happened because almost Well, you’re right. It it it wasn’t almost. It wasn’t even close. No, it wasn’t even close. And so I mean BYU kind of sort of mentioned at the SBS but most importantly uh Shane Gill is taking a jab at at Shraor Sanders and I thought that was hilarious because 13 and 12 and you have your jersey number uh uh you got your jersey uh retired at Colorado 36 and 14 was the final uh and yeah it wasn’t even that close by dominated 20 to zero at halftime. Yeah. Uh, and Shador Sanders did not play particularly well either if I remember correctly, which I do. And if I remember correctly, Dion, um, guys were coming out in the postgame press conferences and saying, “Yeah, they kind of they kind of took us to the woodshed.” Yeah. Yeah. One team was clearly ready and that team was not all around. But yeah, yeah. 13 and 12 over over your college career. Uh, no playoff appearances, no playoff games, no Heisman, no conference championships. I mean, your biggest accolade was Big 12, what was it? Offensive player of the year, I think he was, I think. So, yeah. And and your jersey getting retired, right? But that I’m saying that’s the only accolade that he had, right? And then, yeah, they they retire his jersey. Uh I’m sure nepotism isn’t a factor. So, technical foul for that. And of course, just a technical foul in general for Shane Gillis. Um because he he started the pop, man. Yeah, he made a lot of people unhappy this week, but it’s all in it’s all in good spirit. He’s a comedian. It’s his job. He definitely uh he stirred the p. He got a reaction. Uh all right, let’s take a break. Coming up next, let’s talk some Utah football because after media days, there was a sense that there wasn’t really a favorite to win the conference, but we’ve seen some weird shifting in the past several days even. Uh, so I want to talk Utah football next. It’s the Saturday Show 975 DKSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Christian Esparza and Alex Napoulos. Thanks for making us part of your Saturday morning. Hope you have great weekend plans smack dab right in the middle of summer. Let’s get it. It’s one of the best times, man, as far as like going out and um exploring and seeing nature and and being out grilling and whatnot. Not necessarily the best sports time, but it is a good time to go out and and relax a little bit. Let’s talk some Big 12 football, Alex. uh specifically with Utah because there were a couple things that came out this week. Um this is for entertainment purposes only. We do not endorse betting. I don’t bet. But as far as you know, it’s it’s part of sports now. It is. And whether it’s right or wrong, there are a lot of people that bet and makes a lot of money. And it always shows an indicator of what people think. And I think that’s why we’re bringing this up. Uh specifically when you look at odds to win the Big 12, right? Leaving media days, even just last week, it was like, oh, this is wide open there. It could be anybody’s anybody’s league. And it there still is a sense to that, right? But we’re seeing more and more over the last several days, a lot of these sports books all of a sudden have Utah as the favorite to win the Big 12. And I’m looking at FanDuel and uh Bet MGM specifically, two of the bigger ones, right? And that kind of caught me off guard a little bit because it’s like, is this not the same song and dance that we had last year? Kind of feels like it. And I know that last year Utah had Cam Rising supposedly coming back. And he did come back. He played a game and a half or was it two and a half games? No, he played a game. Yeah, a game and a half. again. That SEU game was crazy. Uh what was he? I think he was 10 of 15 with five touchdowns, right? Um and then there was the Oh, the cooler the Gatorade cooler incident. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He did come back though. Don’t forget he did play against Arizona State and that I’m convinced that wasn’t even Cam Rising. That was a body double. Someone that just looks like him. I think a lot of and you know, fairly so. I think a lot of Utah fans kind of try to erase that game out of their memories because it was not uh it was not fun. But then you get so so you understand why they were ranked so highly last year, right? This year with how much they were returning last season um from the year before, right? Everybody made a a grand, you know, everybody made a big deal about Cam Risen coming back. Yeah. And because they were coming off backto back Pack 12 championship essentially, right? And and obviously there was still that injury that the the the knee injury that Cam Rising was dealing with the year before where they went um what was it nine and four with with Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson, right? There was that year in between. Yes. But Cam was coming back and you thought he was healthy and you thought you were getting back. So yeah, that’s why people were high on them last year. This year you bring in Jason Beck as the new offensive coordinator with Devin Dampier. He was Mountain West player of the year. Led one of the highest scoring offenses in the country last year. So you you would expect that the offense is going to be a lot better, but it’s like are I’m not ready to talk myself into Utah football winning the Big 12, right? And of course, if that happens, wonderful. That’s great for us. That’s great for our jobs. It’s great for the local market. It’s great for Kyle Winningingham. Great for the program, but I just I don’t know where this is coming from. Again, I you I think it shows the respect that Kyle Whittingham has, the respect that the defense has because it it shows that sort of group mentality. They’re all thinking no way that Kyle Whittingham doesn’t get this program back on track. So when you start thinking like that, then it starts kind of rolling and rolling into convincing yourself that they can win the conference, I guess, right? That’s the only way I could imagine that you get here. Um I don’t think Devin Dampier is going to be the best quarterback in the Big 12. And I I would argue that you probably need that if you’re going to win the conference. Who would it be for you then? I think there are a handful of guys. I think if you tar them off in the first tier, you’ve definitely got Sam Levette and Sawyer Robinson. Uh maybe Roco Obeck, maybe. It’s hard to say because Deon Dampier was in the Mountain West and I don’t want to poo poo on them, but it is a step up in competition. Right. Right. It is a step up in competition and I do think that Devin Dampier can play. I think he can ball out, but I don’t think he’s going to come in and be one of the top three or four quarterbacks in the league. And maybe he does. Maybe he does. I think that he is in the tier right below that, right? I think I think that he has the chops to lead a very good offense, one of the better Utah offenses that we’ve seen in the last several years, although the bar is not high. But it’s like, I don’t know, and maybe that is serviceable enough when you have the defense that Utah has, when you have the coaching staff that Utah has, they know how to get it done. But I I I I’m a little hesitant to crown them already because we saw how badly it went last year, right? I would like to know why exactly the sport books all of a sudden have Utah rocketing to the top. And a lot of that is because it follows the money. A lot of times the lines follow the money. So that could mean that a lot of people are betting on Utah, which is funny because I mean I know there’s people that bet in the state of Utah even though it’s not legal. That doesn’t happen here. Come on, Christian. So that would insinuate there are a lot of people outside of the state of Utah that are picking them, which is interesting. But uh I think that’s why I mean that’s that’s the like on paper reason, right? Right. Because people are betting on it. It’s what is leading everybody to think that all at once. And that’s the part I’m trying to figure out. I think it kind of goes back to one of the conversations that we had a couple weeks ago when we were trying to figure out and and rank these teams. Man, there’s there’s tears. There’s levels in this conference. You you have teams that I think are are pretty much going to be the bottom feeders and there’s teams that uh are in contention to win this tour this this conference. Yeah, I think Utah is in contention with this conference, but I don’t know if I’m ready quite there yet to say that they are a favorite. I think for sure they’re probably the most interesting and the most intriguing team. Yeah. With with how much has changed on offense and like you mentioned the respect that Kyle Whittingham has earned. Um he demands it at this point. Yeah. 100%. And and even he said like look I I can’t go out on the a disappointing season. Yeah. and he’s back and and he’s obviously the perfect guy to lead to lead this program right now. I think they’re the most interesting team because of how much they’ve they’ve been able to rebuild that offense, but I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready to crown. So, that’s what’s interesting to me is like rebuild the offense. We have no idea. That’s just That’s true. That’s 100% true. We have seen them play a game. Um, you would think that of course with the way last year went and the year before with Cam Rising being down and all of the other injuries that they suffered all over, literally all over the defense, um, you kind of tell yourself and I’m telling myself, okay, we haven’t seen real Utah football in like two years and what happened, right? They won the Pack 12. So, I think there’s that sort of thought playing into it, but again, you have a new offensive coordinator. It’s a completely different offense than anybody on the team ran last year. I mean, of course, it’s nice where you have this is what Devin Dampier was running at New Mexico. It’s the same offensive coordinator. So, it’s nice to have them together and having the quarterback on the same page as the OC is the most important player. Um, but everybody else on the offense, I mean, the line, that’s huge for them. and getting used to playing with a a quarterback that uses his legs. I know Cam Rising got out and ran a little bit, but it’s it’s different. It’s not the same as a true mobile quarterback. And as a lineman, that’s so hard to block for. And I know that I mean few weeks ago we brought up the sack numbers from Devin Dampier and he really barely got touched at New Mexico. He was he did a very good job. So yeah, you hope that that continues now in the Big 12 and obviously Utah has a great offensive line and hopefully they get all on the same page, but it’s not a it’s far from a guarantee that this offense is going to produce. Um they’re likely going to outproduce what they did last year because that was essentially nothing, right? Um and then yeah, you you talk about the defense and the defense is so great. So, it’s like with that good of a defense, you really just need a serviceable offense, but I’m really hesitant to crown them as anything. I’m I’m right there with you. We got to We have to see it first. Um, and I don’t I think you have a really great test right out of the gate. You have to go to the Rose Bowl and play UCLA. That’s a a Big 10 team. May maybe not, you know, your top tier Big 10 team. and and UCLA has their struggles, but uh you know, they have Nico uh who came over from Tennessee and I thought Nico last season was was a serviceable good quarterback. He was a good quarterback. He was a good quarterback. They went to the playoff. They Yeah, man. They went to the playoff, got beat by Ohio State and and now he’s at UCLA. And so, I mean, you have you have a really good leader in um at UCLA now. But it’s a it’s a huge test for Utah and I think we’re going to learn a lot about Utah after that first game against UCLA. Not only that, but they also play Texas Tech. They also play Arizona State. BYU, no matter what their quarterback situation looks like, that’s always going to be a tossup. I mean, Utah almost beat BYU last year with a a freshman quarterback and Brandon Rose. And you’re right, Brandon Rose. Uh they play Baylor, they play Kansas State. That’s what is that five of the top teams in the Big 12. Yep. It’s not an easy schedule by any means. Um, but I I think that if Utah hits their ceiling, yes, I think that is a very real possibility. But what are the odds that they hit their ceiling when we just haven’t seen that the last two years? And I I don’t know. It’s It’s nice to talk about potential and it’s nice to be excited about it, but you’ve been let down the last two years. And I don’t know, I’m I’m more of a wait andsee sort of thing. be, you know, before I make any sort of judgment. If they start winning games, I’ll buy in. I will. How How much do they have to win before you buy in? Well, I mean, if they come out of the gates and they’re kicking butt, I mean, you expect them to beat UCLA, Calpali, and Wyoming, right? Um, even that game in Laram though, you you never know how that can go. Nobody likes to go play in Laramie. Texas Tech is their first true test, so we’ll see how that goes. And then Arizona State is another that’s the biggest game I think of the season beside obviously BYU. Um so I think if they come out of the Texas Tech and Arizona State games with two wins with wins against both of those teams I think that’s when you can point as like yeah they are the favorite to win the Big 12. Um if they’re one and one then they’re still contenders right? If they’re 0 and two against those two teams I think you can cool it pretty quickly. So for you to buy in, this team has to go five and0 out of the gate. Six or six and0 could be I sorry I forgot about the West Virginia game right there in the middle. Yeah, I would say so. Wow. What about you? It’s a high bar, Christian. To to talk about them as the favorites to win the conference. Yeah, it’s a high bar. I I think I think you can get away with with I think you can get away with a loss of one of the two. You can lose to Texas Tech, you can lose to Arizona State. Yeah, you can get away with a loss uh there. It’s early in the season and you can make you have uh you have games down the road that where you can make that up, right? There’s a game at Rice Eye against Kansas State at the end of the season uh where you can make that up. Then obviously there’s a game at down in Provo where you can make that up. Yeah. Um and you have a trip to Waco. So there’s there’s there’s games down the road where you can make up an early loss to a Texas Tech or an Arizona State. I think you can get away with a loss in one of those games. The nice thing is is Texas Tech and Arizona State are both home for Utah in Salt Lake City. So that’s huge. I don’t think 6 and0 is out of the picture. I think if you’re talking about, you know, midseason, you’re talking about favorites to win the conference. If Utah is 6 and0 at that point, then yeah, that’s a pretty easy answer. But there’s also some sneaky games though right there in between that you can’t overlook. Like like you mentioned, there’s the Laram trip that you should not overlook and there’s a trip to Morgantown that you should not overlook. It’s a tough schedule. It is. And that’s why I’m Yeah, that’s why I’m so hesitant. And especially I mean that BYU game is tough. That’s going to be that’s going to be a really tough game. Uh they barely lost in Salt Lake last year. Now it’s down in Provo. Of course, we don’t know what BYU’s situation is going to look like at quarterback. They could be a complete disaster by then. Who knows? But Utah was a complete disaster and it was a close game. It came down to the final drive. Um, and then, yeah, later in the season, you wrap up Baylor, Kansas State, and Kansas. Kansas ruined the season for BYU, and Colorado last year. I think that’s a very brutal three-game stretch to end the season on. And by then, the thought there is that you’re beat up, right? every you you’ve got injuries that have begun to pile up. So, if you already have one loss by the middle of the season and then you face that tough threeame stretch to end the road or to to end the year, that’s basically what BYU looked like. And, you know, with three weeks left, we’re all talking about, oh yeah, they’re going to be playing for the Big 12 championship. And then crap hit the fan. Kansas said no in the final few weeks. And so, it’s it’s always tough. And that’s why my mentality is if you want to win the conference, you want to be undefeated by mid-season. You want to rack up all the wins you can, especially the ones at home. I agree. Um, but I think the nice thing is though, even if Utah makes the Big 12 championship game, I think their schedule is hard enough. You talk about quality losses that the SEC likes to bring up. There’s a chance that the Big 12 could get two teams in the playoff. Uh obviously Utah would need to have one maybe two losses at the most. Yeah. Uh including the Big 12 championship game at that point, but I think their schedule is hard enough on paper. We’ll see what it looks like throughout the season. There’s a chance. I think, you know, I you lose one game, there’s a very very high possibility you’re in the Big 12 championship game. Yeah. Um, if you just lose one of those games throughout the course of the season, two, it gets a little irky, but once you get into the three, you can, again, it’s still a little bit early because you don’t know how clogged up the conference is going to be. We saw last year, there’s a lot of parody in this league. Yeah. But once you get to three, the College Football Playoff might be out of the picture. And if you have two losses and one of those is the conference championship, I would think you’re in the That’s a different story. Yeah. Yeah. That you you might be able to get away with it. But look at us already talking about a playoff for Utah when they still got to go through UCLA. They still got to go through Laramie. They still got to go through Morgantown, Texas Tech, Arizona State. It’s a brutal schedule. Um, but I do think I I do think that, you know, for me, they’re not by any means favorites. They are contenders. Yeah, they are 100% contenders. And that’s what I’m trying to get at is they I could see it happening. It wouldn’t shock me in this like last year when BYU was playing like that. That was a shock to everybody. If Utah does that, we’re not going to be surprised. No. Um but I’m not going to sit out here and say that it is going to happen because we’re talking about how tough of a schedule that is. I think it’s very tough. They are they are absolutely 100% contenders. Um like and like I mentioned with with this coaching staff with Kyle Whittingham at the helm, uh this team is always going to be in contention to compete and if they can find any sense of of staying healthy this season, they’ll be in the mix up until the very end of the season. And if, like I said, if they can if they can go through this gauntlet of a schedule and and try to sneak away with two losses, I think you gave yourself a pretty good shot with at at making that Big 12 championship game. The staying healthy, man. That’s that’s that’s the biggest thing. And and you know, some of that you can control and some of it you can’t. You talk about the last two seasons getting away from them and it’s so hard to talk about those two years without bringing up all the injuries. I mean, literally everybody you can think of, like all of their key players miss time. And I get that that’s football and it’s a physical sport, but it just it feels like Utah got hit with it a little harder than most. It re it does. And and I mean, you had two years where you went two years in a row where at the end of the season, you’re having to start Luke Bari at quarterback. Yeah. Because you’re just out of options. The Ferrari. Yeah, man. Literally out of options. Yeah. They ran out of quarterbacks last year because everybody was hurt. They did the year before, too. Cam Rising to Isaac Wilson to Brandon Rose. You ran out of quarterbacks uh because you were so injured. And the the defense, I mean, they had how many last year? Five on the roster, I think. I think it was five. Yeah, we’re leaving out somebody that played maybe. But at the end of the day, you started Luke Petari. Yeah. And you get if if this Utah team can stay anywhere near 80% healthy, right? You only lose a couple guys here and there that they’re absolutely in the picture to contend. Well, even just keeping your quarterback, which they haven’t done, right? Like that is I think that’s where you start, right? So, we will see. We will see. Six weeks out, Alex. not favorites, but for me they are they’re they’re contenders and so and and so is BYU even without a you’re a QB1 to be named yet. I’d push back a little bit. We’ll talk about that next week. Yes. There you go. Uh we got to take a break. Coming up next on the other side, we’ll get five minutes of Utah State has an interim athletic director. Seems like the state of Utah is split on that. We’ll hit that next. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. It’s almost lunchtime, Alex. I know, man. I’m I’m my You can hear my stomach grumbling over the radio, man. Geez. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza, Alex Napols. I was just telling Alex my secrets to an amazing state. I’m learning over here. Reverse sear is the way to go. You know, I’ll share it with with with the listeners, all the glorious listeners. Don’t go buy a New York strip. Don’t go buy a ribeye. You don’t need to to buy those expensive cuts. Try tip steaks. Not the roast, the steak. Try tip steaks. Bake them in the oven at 200° for like a half hour, 45 minutes until the internal temp is like 100 degrees, right? You need a thermometer. Bust out the cast iron. Get a nice sear. Raise the internal to 130. Beautiful. You baste it. No, you don’t even bast it. You can. Okay. But that’s work. All right. You can, but like I’m talking as simple as it gets. It takes some time. It takes some love with the the the baking and a little bit, but I promise you like you’ll eat that steak and you’ll never buy a New York strip again. I’m I’m going to try it, man. I’m going to try it. It’s good. I’m I’m We’re We We’re talking about steaks during the break. I’m hungry and uh I I’ll try it, bro. I’ll try and I’ll report back, but I might baseeast it because I I need I need my butter. Oh, yeah. You totally can. I’m unhealthy. I need my butter. Uh speaking of unhealthy, yeah, let’s talk Utah State’s athletic department. Uh they announced an interim athletic director, Alex, and I’d say unhealthy as a joke, but uh there was a lot of split on here because I think Sandy Barber, interim AD, the school has announced she uh former state, former Penn State athletic director. She’s part of Huron, this uh what’s it called? Like a search committee, a search firm, right? So that she is the person that the search firm has established as the interim AD obviously while the school searches for a president and a long-term athletic director. And the thought process is you hire the interimm AD to take care of things now until you hire the president and then when the president comes in they can bring in their own athletic director so everybody’s on the same page. Everybody in Logan was pumped from this move because obviously you see Penn State uh you see that she comes from a big background, has done a lot of great things. Statement says championship level D1 athletics including NIL operations, finance, recruiting, facilities management, and marketing. That’s from interim president Alan Smith. Uh a lot of interims. A lot of interims. It’s a tough summer. It always is for the Aggies. Yeah. But then locally, I mean, I was listening to Hans and Scotty yesterday. Even Jake and Ben got into it a little bit. I’m sure JJ and Alex had some thoughts, but from from what I heard, Hans and Scotty and Jake and Ben’s thoughts were like, “Okay, who cares about the interim? You need a president. That’s what matters most.” And it’s I agree with that. And I think there were some listeners that maybe took it the wrong way, saying that Salt Lake doesn’t know how to cover Logan and yada yada yada. Look, I’m pumped that there’s an interim athletic director because you need somebody to take care of like that’s not a position that can be vacant, right? That’s simply not. Especially not right now. No, never. I mean, you have a Pack 12 move coming up next year, man. You just had media days. you’re moving to the Pack 12 next year. Football is right around the corner. Yeah. And with the way that athletics have changed, even in the last couple years, you constantly need basically you constantly need your hand out getting money and that’s part of the athletic director’s job is raising every single penny that you possibly can. So yeah, you need somebody in the interim. I think my biggest takeaway is that I’m glad the seats filled for now. I don’t think this person is going to be the long-term answer. Who cares? Get me a president. That’s what I want because once the president is in place, then you get the full-time athletic director rod. The problem is I don’t know how long that’s going to take. Is this is the president search going to go for another month, another two months, another six months? Because as long as you’ve got these temporary people in the positions, nobody’s comfortable, nobody’s comfortable coaching uh coach Calhoun, Coach Menhal are not comfortable about their futures. Donors, boosters are not comfortable giving money when there’s no long-term stability. Nobody’s comfortable. So, get the president position filled, get your full-time AD, and let’s move on. I don’t I don’t understand what the holdup is. And that’s my biggest takeaway from this. I’m sure that Sandy is going to come in and do a fine job. I don’t know if she’s in consideration for the temp or for the permanent position uh once they get a president in. I don’t know what the dynamic is there. Obviously, she has experience. It’s a pretty big jump going from Penn State to Utah State. Yeah, it’s a lot harder to get money in Logan, but there are some some avenues there that she will, I’m sure, take advantage of, but uh look, it’s temporary. And I think that’s the biggest thing is the fact that it is temporary. Um, like you mentioned, I with how much is happening with Utah State and with college athletics in general, like it it is vital that you fill those roles as soon as you possibly can with non-inter, right, long-term solutions. Um, and and to me, the biggest thing is is right now is a crucial time because you have to start setting up your foundation and your building blocks to make that transition to the Pack 12 um to join a new conference and, you know, whether that be and and kind of make yourself a contender in that Pack 12 in the in the Pack 12, right? I think building blocks have been laid out to make this athletic department good. Now you just need the final pieces and the most important pieces which is going to be that president and the athletic director. Yeah. Um so the sooner you fill it, the better. I’m just looking at Utah State’s website. They have like a page Utah State University presidential search. Search is now open. yada yada yada presidential search and timeline. The board anticipates the next president at Utah State will be named during the 202526 academic year. Sorry, bumped my mouth. Uh because I was like holding up a Yes. Who knows how long that takes, right? It could be August, it could be January, December, it could be July when the the 2025 2026 academic year is over or ends. So there is a committee in place and they are searching. I know there are a lot of back and forth about search firms and committees and whatever. It’s what everybody does. I don’t know if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, they’re going to do it again. I don’t know. There’s no guarantee that somebody hired from an inside search would be better than a committee, right? There’s no ev like I’m sure that the fail rate or the hit rate is just the same. I don’t think any one is better than the other. I don’t think there’s any I don’t think you need to get upset about them having a search firm or whatever. But like I don’t know, maybe you do because I I that’s kind of how Utah State and the Logan community is, right? It’s so tight-knit. You want to feel like the person that’s coming in is really invested in the community. And I get that and ideally that would be the case. But with everything that’s gone on the past couple of years, I think Diana Sabbo laid out kind of a great blueprint on how to do it. I mean, looking at their fundraising numbers over the last couple years, what they were doing, even in the last six months, they raised more money than they probably ever did for that athletic department. Yeah. And not not just in the six-month period, but I’m saying that their their revenue streams continued to grow and grow and grow under Sabo. And again, her getting this program into the Pack 12, a seat at the table, that’s huge. And you’ve got the coaches in place. You’ve got all the hard stuff in place. You’ve just got to bring somebody in who knows how to connect to the community and raise money. And yes, it would be cool if you could find somebody local to do that, but it doesn’t have to be. Whoever’s best at the job is going to be best at the job. I don’t care if they’re from Logan or not. So, we’ll see. I I am excited for this search. I think it’s getting kind of tiring because what they hired Sable like two years ago. Yeah. And President Canwell around the same timeline. So, it’s like they’re bringing in a new president, athletic director, football coach, basketball coach every other year. And it’s just I’m I want some stability in Logan. And I think I think a lot of Utah State fans would like some stability. I’m sure. And I don’t know if we’re ever going to get that just because of the way things are and it’s so tough. Who know? Maybe that changes in the Pack 12. Maybe I mean, who knows what’s going to happen, you know, in the next year or and even 5 years down the road, but maybe there’s a little bit more stability now that now that they’re heading into the Pack 12. If they can reestablish the Pack 12 as a true Power Five conference, which I don’t know if that will ever happen, but that is the hope. That is the thought process, then yeah, Utah State will theoretically not be a stepping stone program anymore. But again, you’ve got two incredible coaches in place in Bronco Menal and Coach Jared Calhoun with the basketball team. So, which a little bit off topic, but after hearing stuff from from Menal and then from Bryson Barnes during media days this week in the Mountain West Conference, sign me up. I’m pumped for Aggie football, man. I’m pumped. They’re always fun. I think Bronco Menhal has the track record of building programs, right? That’s why they brought him in. He was phenomenal at BYU. Um he he took off with Virginia a little bit and you know, had he had more time at New Mexico, they were turning in the right direction. Um I’m very excited about Brock Mahal and Aggie football. Man, yeah, I think they’re they like I said, they’ve got all the hard things in place. It’s very hard to find a good football coach. It’s very hard to find a good basketball coach. it’s even harder to have them both at the same time. Utah State has that. So, you would think strictly for that reason alone, there’s going to be a lot of really good applicants for the athletic director role. Um, Logan’s a beautiful town. I love it. I’m from up near there. It’s great up there. I think it’s a great community and when the athletics are rolling, the people really buy in and I think that that I think people are ready to jump back into Aggie football. I need to make it up there, man. And I’ve still yet to travel up and take a look. Logan, yeah, it’s great. The Spectrum is on my list, man. Got to hit it. I I kept telling myself last year I was going to I was going to make a couple of, you know, I was going to try to make some basketball games. Didn’t happen. That’s fine. But this year it is like on my for sure this needs to happen. I got to go experience the Spectrum, man. You do? Yeah. Nothing like it. Oh, yeah. All right. Uh let’s take a break. Coming up next on the other side, Utah Mammoth announced their regular season schedule. Can’t wait to hit that next. Stay with us. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Sparza. Alex Napoulos with me, Alex. Let’s talk some Utah Mammoth. In the middle of July, the NHL announces their regular season schedules. We know when the Mammoth are going to be playing. They open the season October 9th at the Colorado Avalanche home opener because of the Delta Center renovations and Mr. Benson Boon, etc. Benson Boon, I don’t know who he has three shows in a row. Anyway, because of that, I don’t know who that is. The Mammoth do not play at home until October 15th when they will host the Calgary Calgary Flames. You really don’t know who Benson Boon is? No. Huh. It’s a pretty big deal around here. Never heard of him. He’s a singer. I haven’t heard of him either. He’s a singer. He does back flips. You’ve heard his song Beautiful Things. You have. I promise. Uh looking at the schedule because of the renovations and stuff, it you know, you get a little bit of a a little bit more stacked away schedule to start off the season it looks like. But I mean, in turn, that kind of bodess well as you get closer to the end of the season where I’m sure there will be some push for the playoffs where you get to have uh a nice chunk of games at the Delta Center in front of your fans in in your own barn um as you try to push that play try to make that push for playoffs in April. And so I think that’s that’s a good thing, right? You can it’s it’s kind of a glass half empty, glass half full type situation where you’ll you’ll be on the road a lot to start the season, but you kind of you you kind of end the season with a a lot more games at your barn. There are I want to bring up this portion of the schedule in specific because it is absolutely brutal. Yeah. Starting October 21st, you host Colorado, which is nice that you’re at home. Then uh October 23rd, you start a long road trip. You go at St. Louis at Minnesota, two uh playoff teams. At Winnipeg, another playoff team at Edmonton, they were just in the finals. Then you come back, you host Tampa Bay for a game, very good team. Then you go back on the road at Buffalo, at Toronto, at Montreal, at Ottawa. So you’ve got eight road games across a nineame stretch. That’s insane. And more than half of those games are against playoff teams from last year. That is an absolutely brutal uh stretch. Yes, that is undoubtedly the hardest stretch of their season. If they can make it out of that alive, that’s all they need to do is come out alive, right? They’ll be in good shape. Uh the last on the contrary, like I said, glass half empty, glass half full. You have eight of your last 13 at home. Yeah. With Anaheim, the Kings, the Oilers, Washington. And then you go on a little bit of a road trip to the to the Kings again, um Seattle and at Vancouver. Then you come back home, another game against the Oilers, you get the Predators, you get the Hurricanes, uh you go to the Flames for your final away game, and then you go back to back at home with Winnipeg and St. Louis. Looking at that St. Louis game in particular, I mean, that could be a huge game. Hopefully Utah has a a uh a playoff spot locked up by then, but it could again very well come down to the last game of the season essentially as it did last year for the Mammoth. Of course, we saw St. Louis go on that amazing How many games did they end up winning in a row? Was it like 11 or something? Might have been more than that. Uh to make the playoff push and jump Utah in the standings, but again, yeah, you’d like to see them lock up a playoff spot before then. Um, and if they don’t, it’s nice to have that many home games in a row. Looking at they they do have a very long home stand. At the beginning of January, January 7th, they host Ottawa. Then they host St. Louis, Columbus, Toronto, Dallas, Seattle, Philadelphia. So January 7th to 21st, almost the entire month of January, you are at home. Um, and I’m sure, you know, you talk about mid-season form, that might be a good time to go see The Mammoth. and the entire month of February, you are at home. Obviously, there’s a big break there in the middle. Um, but you you play four you four you play four games in the month of February and they’re all at home. So, yeah, I think I think it’s a very interesting schedule to say the the least. I am excited that they’re opening at Colorado. I think, you know, you want to start a rivalry with either Colorado or Vegas, one of these regional teams. And last year, I mean, Utah shut Vegas out 6 in Vegas. Um, Colorado, they’re back to full strength with Landis Cog back in the lineup and they’re always going to be contenders as long as they’ve got him and uh, Mar and Nate McKinnon and all those guys. So, that could be a very fun game to start the year. Um, excited to get back into hockey. It’s been a fun offseason. Made some big moves and they’re going to be good. I’m excited, man. Always happy. I’m I’m I’m happy we have hockey here. I’m happy for the Mammoth and I’m I’m very much looking forward for year two. Yeah, I think everybody is. I think the community has definitely embraced this team. We’re a hockey town, man. Rest of the schedule today on the station, we’ve got Royale, Salt Lake coming up later. Pre-match show is at 6:30. Then coming up at 7:30, first kick versus Cincinnati. RSL coming off a 10 win against Portland on Wednesday night. So, uh, make that three in a row. Three wins in a row for RSL. They have five straight unbeaten. Yeah, they have not lost in five games. So, kind of finding their footing as the season rolls on. And then, uh, that’s 975 on the 1280 signal. You’re going to have the Bees taking on at Sugarland Space Cowboys. Our guy Steve Clowkey uh, always refused to say Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s Tony Parks on the call. No, Stephen Clkey refused to say Space Cowboys because he hated that name. I think it’s an interesting name. I loved that about Steve. I like it. Yeah. Space Space Cowboys. It’s a unique name, man. We need more unique names in sports. Bees on 1280 at 6. Yeah. All right. Uh any closing thoughts? No, man. It’s just another Saturday in the books. Um I’m very much looking forward to get closer and closer to football season, man. It’s right around the corner and and once football starts up, we’re right back to full steam because it goes football. Uh you have Major League Soccer playoffs, then you have basketball starting and then you have hockey and then it’s right back to a non-stop circle, man. It just keeps going around and around and around and it starts in a couple weeks. Circle of life. And we we spent a lot of time talking uh Utah today. We’ll hit BYU next week. We’ll go through kind of BYU schedule and of course a lot of leadup coming into the season. We’ll talk about both teams a ton, but stay tuned. Thanks for listening.
Full episode of the Saturday Show with Christian Esparza and Alex Napoles on July 19, 2025
• Takeaways from the young Jazz players in Summer League
• The Suns buyout Bradley Beal, he signs with the Clippers; What is Portland doing?
• Technical Fouls
• Sportsbooks are starting to favor Utah to win the Big12, will it happen?
• 5 Minutes Of – Utah State search for a new President & AD
• Utah mammoth Schedule drop; What’s coming up this weekend
