The Most Intriguing Utah Jazz Players for 2025-2026!

The Most Intriguing Utah Jazz Players for 2025-2026!

Welcome to Assult City Hoops podcast. Who are the most intriguing Jazz players on the 2024, sorry, 2025 2026 roster for the Utah Jazz? We’re going to debate it. We’re going to argue. It’s going to get ugly. We’re um we’re we’re surrounding the state of Utah. We have three Salt City Hoops podcasters. Um none of us are in the state in which the team we’re about to talk about resides. Um, from the Mile High City in his lovely home near the home of the Denver Nuggets is Mark Pereira. Mark, how are you doing? Look, I I’m great. I’m sporting double uh alumni things here at the University of Buffalo today. Uh, it is Yeah. Interesting. None of us are are here in Utah. And thank you for the compliment that my home is lovely. My three kids would like to make that as unloly as possible any given day. Um, but right now I’m sitting here in my cozy office and feels okay. They’re not allowed in here. That’s that’s their that’s their purpose in life is to make uphill battle. And from the balmy climbs of Phoenix, Arizona, a guy I share one of my three names with, Ken Clayton. How are you doing, Ken? Balmy is an understatement. It was 111 today here in Phoenix, Arizona. And uh it was pretty miserable. I took the g I took the garbage out and I was done. I saw a thing today about mailbox lasagna. Have you heard about this? No. That if you get a like a frozen lasagna from the freezer aisle of your supermarket, you can put it in your box at like 10 in the morning and by 5 or 6 you can eat the lasagna. Um I I think you’re in a good pretty good position to test that out. So I’ll have to give that a shot. Okay. I can’t tell if that’s more or less repulsive than dishwasher chicken. I don’t know if you guys have have heard of that one before. Um, but that’s uh that is also a trend I will not be trying. Just boil some water, people. It’s really not difficult. Yeah. And I am Dan Clayton coming at you temporarily from an undisclosed nondescript hotel room in the fine state of Idaho, not far up the road from the Idaho Potato Museum where outofsters get free ters as Ken and I know. Uh so anyway, we thought we’d get together in the this uh most doldrum part of the NBA off season and think about another way to process this this roster and where the Jazz are. And uh there’s going to be even more of a youth focus in this upcoming season. And uh what that means is there’s a lot of intrigue. So who’s who’s most intriguing? Who are we most interested in learning more stuff about in the 2025 2026 season? I got it right that time just for fun. Um, so, so Mark, this was your uh this was your baby. I I should I should I toss it to you and let you kind of set the parameters for our discourse or do you just want to like jump in and and start talking? I think I think it’s a pretty easy consensus at least. I I I think we know some of the names that all of us are going to have at the top. Yeah. Look, and and of course the idea of talking about who is most intriguing, especially on young developing teams, is not from the front of my brain. I’m people have done this before and in different formats. Um you know, implicating Idaho. I was wondering if the Idaho Stampede like where where they were playing because I was reminded of Sundiata Gaines and his G-League uh experience and I was like ah that was before the Stars and I was in Idaho. So realize that you’re probably nowhere near whatever the 2000 seat Ford Idaho center was or whatever it was that they were playing in Idaho. Yeah, they played in Nampa, right? They they or somewhere somewhere up in the Boisee Metro. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I’m on I’m on the other side of I’m on the other side of the fine gem state. Look, as we know, Jazz Plus extends up into that market. Hopefully, we got a a few dozen fans over in Nampa who really appreciated that shout out to the uh Ford Idaho Center. Um, but when it comes to intriguing players, I think the number one thing I think of is who are the players that are could really change the trajectory of this team from just what we all understand is like progress is not linear. Improvement is not linear. We get surprising seasons both in in a positive and negative direction from players, both veterans and young players alike. So, as the Jazz go forward, we can kind of think like, okay, this is going to be a bad 20- win team, but what kind of season are we setting up for 2026? Is this a surprising 35 win team? Like, where is the the uh the gaps in knowledge of what we know that these players can do uh on this iteration of the Jazz? So, that as we’re setting up for the next playoff team, well, it started from this conversation we’re having here. And I think if we all mention two players that we’re we feel are the most intriguing, it it sets up a good conversation of what people can talk about over the water cooler over the next week. I think that’d be fun. These are not the six best players. These are not the six players most likely to make an allNBA team, but rather players that have the biggest gaps in knowledge from what we’ve seen on the court so far versus what they could be uh and how they could change the Jazz future. We’re going to run the gamut here on a whole bunch of things. So, um, you can’t I can’t wait until we hear Kyle Anderson’s name. You look, it’s Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love. These guys, total mystery quantities as to who they are. And I can’t wait to see Yousef Nerk’s 22 minutes a game. Um, who knows if we’re going to get into a game in April. How many three-pointers, what will be the most amount of three-pointers that Nerkich takes in a game this year? I actually think could be like over six. I’m going to put it at six and a half for most in a game that he takes. It’s going to happen March 17th. We don’t have the schedule out yet. I’m going to say it happens March 17th. Bold prediction from the Bosnian beast. Look, you see you see the Instagram clips. I’m already following him, man. I got to see what they’re up to. The only clips he he posts on Instagram right now are him shooting three-pointers. So, uh that’s that’s what we’re going to get. And of course, if he’s going to be on the team at all, he probably’s got to play a little bit of four and everything. Anyways, that’s enough. That’s way, way too much Nerkage talk on a podcast that we all promise each other to finally keep it under an hour for once. So, uh, Dan, who should start off with, uh, with the most intriguing player that Well, in our little in our little pre-show rundown, we let we let Kenneth go first. So, let’s um you know, age before beauty. Let’s let let’s let Ken lead us off just so we don’t have But I’m both Well, you know. Okay. Go figure. Okay. Uh All right. Well, when I when I think of intriguing, I think of new faces. I think of youth. I think of talent. And I think of development. And so, this shouldn’t be a shock to probably many of our viewers, listeners, or readers. although they won’t be reading this podcast, um that somebody would vote for Ace Bailey as the most intriguing figure on the Jazz this year. Uh we only got to see two games of him in the summer league and then sadly he was uh injured or seated or whatever happened there, but uh it was enough to see there was going to be some excitement there. I don’t expect that intriguing means he’s going to be perfect. I think he’s going to have a learning curve just like any other player, but he’s certainly bouncy and he, you know, seemed to be working hard and having fun and that’s going to be maybe a change from this last year. Not that nobody was working hard and but fun seemed to be in short supply at least down the stretch of the season. So, I’m looking forward to to seeing that and hopefully the fun sticks around even if the wins aren’t piling up because uh you don’t get top five picks very often and the last two this franchise had didn’t really go very well. So, um as our dad used to say, I think we’re due. Yeah. And and one thing I would would like you to expound upon a little bit here, Ken, is that there were so many detractors after the first game and even after the second game over shot selection? Oh, this is the same stuff we saw at Ruckers. He doesn’t know what shots are appropriate, not appropriate. I Is this who he is in your opinion? Do you think this is something that can get coached out or Will Hardy’s also pretty big on empowering players to be who they are? Right. And and I think that is a significant negative to his current game. And I’m sitting here saying like, I don’t care. I don’t care. But do I have blinders on? I you know, I I think that’s part of why it’s intriguing because we we there’s something we don’t know and we’re going to find out if that is part of it. I mean, I think to date for sure that is part of who he is. But now the second question is, is he coachable? And then the third thing that’s a caveat about watching his behavior in summer league is there’s a whole lot of guys out there who are gunning like George Castanza in summer league. They’re just, you know, in fact, it’s hard sometimes for front court guys to even get touches because guards tend to swallow up a whole lot of summer league usage. So I think what we saw in summer league, that’s great. I would think slashh hope that we’re going to see a little less of the wild stuff when he’s sharing the court with a Lowry Markin and with a Walker Kesler with with other well maybe there aren’t a whole lot of other veterans that he’ll be playing with. We’ll see. But I would hope that we’re going to we’re going to see a little less of that. But to some extent that is who he is and that is who he’s going to be until he embraces another alternative. But again, I’m intrigued to see that process as he as he develops both on the court talent-wise, but also just mentally and finds the ways he can be most effective. Yeah. I don’t even care how much the ball goes in so much. Like obviously you want it to be better than the Cody Williams line of all things, but you do like it’s more about the decisions that get made and how how does that change over the year because you don’t have the the credibility as like a Jordan Clarkson has even even to just kind of be out there doing whatever. That’s intriguing to me because I, as I mentioned in my podcast and that I did most recently before this one is people wildly overestimated how much like coaching and practice time he or anybody got between the draft and the first summer league game. It’s it’s like you’re still out there in your first summer league game. You know a few plays. you’ve just met these guys for the first time and you get the ball and you kind of do what comes naturally to you over the past four, five, six, eight years of your basketball life. I I I’m not going to sit here and be like, “Oh, there’s bad shot selection ace.” I It’s intriguing to see what could happen, especially because a lot of it looked really good. Yeah. Yeah. As someone who listened to the uh Mark Pereira solo podcast throughout summer league, um you know, I got excited too. You did a good job, Mark, of explaining to people why just e even the the aggression and like for for someone at his age and experience level and and like you say, the the the small amount of coaching and direction he’s gotten since the Ruters season ended pretty early. Um, you know, Ruckers did not go to the big dance. Um, I I think it is a good sign that he was willing to to not just participate in the offense, but but really willing to assert himself on the game. And I think that’s a good sign. Um, I do think there will be nights where it’ll feel forced this the same way it feels that way for any young player who’s trying to kind of test their limits. And that’s okay. If it doesn’t feel that way, I think that’ll kind of be a failure. Um, I think I think he needs to play at the edges of his comfort zone sometimes, and Will Hardy and the Jazz are going to need to be willing to exist at the fringes of what they’re comfortable with him trying as well. I I think he’s going to be Carmelo Anthony for all the good and bad things that come with that. I think this is an allNBA guy. I’m so sold on it, but I also just want to see it. I want I want my convictions to be confirmed. Um so I’m going to put my stake in that as like the kind of player I think we’re getting. It’s going to be really really cool. Um Okay. So let’s let’s go. All right. Dan the obvious number one pick is out. So So we’re I I think we would all pick Ace Bailey the most intriguing, but I think there’s a lot more intrigue to come. Do you want to hear what uh Carmemelllo Anony’s rookie season looks like then? Just as a point of reference. Yeah. Like that that we’ll move on. And and again, as a Western New Yorker, I who did not I currently hate Syracuse because I went to Buffalo and I like the whole okay I I went to a state school that costs uh one ninth as much as a Syracuse private school education does. So I have this bias against Syracuse now. But as a kid like S like that that mellow season was incredible, right? like just unbelievable moment for Western New York. And he I I have a lot of affinity for Melo. Uh I think a lot of it kind of goes up and down throughout his career. Um but it I I remember what he was like as a prospect and I’m seeing a lot of that now. 21 points for me for for rookie Melo, six rebounds, three assists. His shooting splits weren’t great. 43 32 and uh 78 from the line. So you’re basically to, you know, if that’s the best case scenario for for Ace’s rookie season, which I agree would be phenomenal. Yeah. That means you’re that means you’re living with a lot of painful, you know, three for 17 nights. So that occasionally you you can have a a really good interesting night. He was also second in rookie of the year voting that year behind a pretty familiar name. And he even got a single solitary MVP. uh ballot appearance like voted to mostly that was when voting was like unserious. No, he was on someone’s he got one MVP vote point. So I think that means he was third place on someone’s ballot because MVP voting top three. I think I don’t know. I don’t care. Point point is he was nowhere close to the 14th most valuable player. I is just some fun trivia for you that Carmelo got he was on someone’s MVP ballot in his rookie season. It was in what 2003, right? 2004. Yeah. Um 2003 to 20. So I can just picture someone on like an outdated dialup internet connection that they should have upgraded many years a before then accidentally clicking something that they thought was for like rookie of the year and they clicked MVP. Yeah. Um and like old school gray radio buttons or something. Um, as I say, old school about something that happened in this millennium. Oh my god. Um, so like that that sounds exactly right. I don’t think he might he’ll get the usage for 21 points a game, but like that I’d be surprised if he was below 16 points per game on those percentages. And like that Yeah, I’m I’m putting my flag down. That’s it. Oh, hey. Well, my my my next guy with ace off the off the board. Um, and and this this is because this is a guy who is a total unknown at this point. I mean, like there there’s a scenario in which this season he could average 33 minutes a game and be a huge part of the Jazz’s rotation. And there’s also a world in which he plays 20 games and kind of starts to disappear from the from the collective consciousness and that’s Taylor Hendricks. Um, obviously missed all except for two and a half games last season. Um, but he’s someone who if if he has this coming season the type of season the Jazz were hoping he would have last year um could could really start to open up some interesting optionality for the Jazz positionally because he’s, you know, at 69 with his set of defensive skills and the defensive versatility. He could he could give you the ability to think about constructing a roster and a rotation in a lot of different ways. Um he he looks as though he has uh been in the weight room a lot during his rehab process for the leg injury. Um but more important I mean you know like at a level who cares about that if it’s not if it doesn’t functionally contribute to his game. Um I I just think he’s someone who the difference between his best case and his worst case just for the season, let alone career. I mean, all of these guys were the nature of of how the Jazz roster looks. All of these guys are almost all of them are at a point where, you know, like they they could be, you know, Keonte George could be Trey Burke or he could be Anthony Simons, right? Like the all all of the Jazz young players have kind of this best case, worst case, and a and a thousand gradations in between. Um, but Taylor’s version of that, even just for the season that’s coming, like I I could picture him being massively important and I could picture him being, you know, kind of an afterthought. It’ll be an interesting one for him. Yeah, he was second on my list, too. And, uh, I think it’s because he was high on my list a year ago, and then on that night in Dallas, we just pressed the pause button. and sometime soon we’re gonna unpress that pause button and start playing again. He played 40 games as a rookie and three games in his second year before that nasty injury. And so he’s played half an NBA season. Now he’s gotten the benefit of being around an NBA team for two full years. NBA nutrition, NBA weight rooms, NBA knowledge. um to go back to this sounds like I’m talking about the old Ben Simmons, Donovan Mitchell, who’s a rookie debate, but you know, so hopefully he’s learned and and gained from all those advantages he’s had. But yeah, as far as an on the court NBA player, he’s half a season into his career. And that’s why to me, he’s he’s super intriguing to see which direction he’s going to go. I’m I’m pretty bullish on him at the moment. But you’re right, he he could be he could be a real standout or he could end up being a wallflower just depending on, you know, tentative from his injury. How how much does the team try to rein him back? It’s a different injury. But you remember they they really reigned Colin Ston in in the year after his injury because they didn’t because the because the statistics told them that if they didn’t if he made it a year, he was going to have a better outlook going forward. Different injuries. So, I don’t know that the same same uh facts apply, but yeah, Taylor Hendricks to me is a guy I’m looking forward to see seeing on the court this year and seeing how his development has been, even though he hasn’t been doing so much work on the court. Although, we did learn this week he is back to five on five in his in his pickups and things. And so, he’s he’s on the court and it’s only July. So, that’s good news. Yep. There’s no reason for him to play more than 30 minutes a game this year, especially with the different front court options Utah has and like their trajectory and everything. Not just even for injury management. It’s just like, all right, let’s let’s be normal about these things, right? Like there’s no reason for him to be a 35minut a game guy. for anyone who’s thinking who’s listening who’s in a fantasy and all these types of things. I don’t think that’s going to mute his actual output though because I think like this I’m I’m also wildly bullish on this guy because I think he is what he looks like in his attitude. I think he’s going to average two and a half combined steals and blocks a game this year. I think it’s going to be he’s going to be all over the place. I think he’s going to foul a shitload. I think he’s going to be a complete mystery out there as far as like he’s going to foul out in 17 minutes sometimes. But I’m seeing the idea of the first couple years of Jonathan Isaac kind of a player and what that player could be. And that’s a top end outcome for Hendrickx to be sure. Like Jonathan Isaac without the injury issues or maybe a normal thing is for him so far is Jonathan Isaac with the injury issues perhaps is is a frankly reasonable outcome. But that is the type of player that I I would be wildly excited for. It’s part of the bullishness and again this is just total casual fan speak but I I eat this stuff up and I like to talk about it because it’s part of the fun part of it is we’ve see a lot of these players have injuries or whatever and the way that teams approach but also the player approaches it. You don’t hear from them ever and maybe you follow them on social media or whatever but they their social media presence is like uh they’re always posting like like very odd things. You get you get no basketball content. You just get like the occasional fit or awkward dimly lit photo like you get nothing. You get a whole lot of Taylor Hendris basketball when you follow everything about Taylor Hendricks which is very cool. You get a lot of also his mom and his brother like you get some cool they went to France like they had a good time. You get some fun stuff too. Um and uh the other part of it is part of like the team media aspects of it. We heard so much from Taylor Hendrickx during his recovery last year when a lot of teams and players would just be like, “You don’t got to talk to anybody and we’re not going to let you talk to anybody.” There were a lot of moments where Taylor Hendrickx opened up about his recovery. And it just it looked like a guy who wasn’t like insane chomping at the bit to get back out there. It was mature, reasoned professional who was like, I am going to do the best that I can to do what I can do and you’ll see me out here again next year. Almost had like a jovial approach to it. And I was like, wow, this is a guy who’s ready to work in in in a way that’s that’s going to be responsible for him. Um, and it’s a it doesn’t mean anything as far as can he play basketball, but it’s that sort of thing that gets you a little excited when the inverse could happen where he could say the wrong things or the team could take a different approach. And in instead, I just see a guy who he’s going to immediately know his role on the team versus his role at Central Florida. And and that’s going to be really really encouraging to see, which is why I think uh I’m I’m I’m buying the intrigue on Taylor Hendricks. This is not a mystery that I’m scared to open. I’ I’ve always actually quite liked the Jonathan Isaac comp for him. I I think there’s probably a world where he is um you know, a better catch and shoot guy than Jonathan Isaac is or or has consistently been. Um but but I but I like that comp and and more than anything, Mark, I like that you’re not afraid to play the comp game tonight already. You you’ve dropped Carmelo, you’ve dropped Jonathan Isaac. Like I love it. Two Hall of Famers. Yeah. I mean, you know, let’s Where did Jonathan Isaac go? Where did Where Jonathan Isaac was a Okay, that’s right. I don’t know if he’s from Florida. I think um Hrix is uh but yeah. And any closing thoughts on Hendrickx? What you’re what you’re excited for or is perhaps reasons for pessimism? Where where do you want to take it? I mean, I’d like to see him dribble, you know? I’d like to see if that’s something he can ever reliably do. Even, you know, not like, “Hey guys, everyone clear out Taylor Hendricks has the ball,” but just, you know, can he put the ball on the deck when someone closes out bad? Um, you know, can can he make the the smart basketball play in a in a quick, you know, bang bang read. Um th those are things that I think will will define, you know, how good he is. But but even if he’s just, you know, sarcastic air quotes around just even even if he’s just the um you know, multi-positional defensive guy that that we think he can be and he can make 37 38 39% of his threes. Like that’s a really valuable player even if you never want to see him dribble the basketball. and and I still have some hope that he he might be able to, you know, be someone who could do some second side attacking or, you know, bring the ball up on a fast break or something like that. And and what I’m hoping for his offensive skills, too, is he is now burgeoned up in size where can you set nasty screens and do things on a slip? Can you play above the rim? He’s got a great dunk package that we saw from college that we really haven’t seen very much in the pros so far. This is a player that can do offensive rebounding. Like these are things that and he can do offensively that doesn’t necessarily have to involve an in-n-out dribble or anything like that. It’s just simple play like a big man on offense, right? And and and we saw those sorts of things that guy like Jada McDaniels can do, right? And that makes the Minnesota offense work functionally versus if he’s just Andre Robertson out there. Like Andre Robertson with a working three-pointer is still like a useful starter. A guy like Jaden McDaniels is useful because he can do a little bit more than just stand in the corner and and make or miss a few things. Another comp, another certified comp. I’m full full of the hall. Someone mentioned Robertson the other day and I and in a positive context. I just remember him being like the reason Oklahoma City didn’t go over the top in a few of those years. Like I don’t know why there’s such an affinity for him. I think it was in a CU context like I think he went to Colorado, right? So, I I hear about all the CU basketball players. Maybe we’ll talk about one later. Um, so, uh, I’m Let’s move along here. I got to I got to pick my most intriguing one. Taylor Hendricks was my most intriguing cuz with Ace Bailey, I just know he’s going to be an allpro superstar, so I don’t have any intrigue about him. Um, for for for me, my my number two most intriguing player is Lowry Markin. Everyone is like, “Okay, he’s the veteran. He’s been around. Like, we already know who he is.” I don’t think we know who Lowry Markin is. I I don’t I don’t know. I don’t think And I think you’re lying if you do know where the next five years of Lowry Markin will go. Last year, everyone’s going to say like the numbers, huge disappointment. And yes, I agree that the numbers are obviously disappoint. Everyone can read the numbers and say, “Oh, he didn’t shoot very well.” I just thought that the okay even with the added responsibility the double triple teams at at times I was really really disappointed in the speed that he was playing the game. It felt like he was, you know, you do all this offseason prep of knowing that you’re going to come in and be the guy and you’re not going to have there’s going to be so much attention on you to perform that seeing him unprepared on how to handle double and triple teams. Uh, not kind of improving any sort of passing that makes you feel like, okay, this is a guy who can dribble out of trouble and make a a an interesting read or something or a dump off pass or something like that. nothing seemed to really develop for me that and it felt disappointing. That being said, you know, I also think he’s worth $50 million. I do think he’s worth that because of the skills that he provides offensively and defensively. He’s such an underratedged defensive player. I think everyone is totally sleeping on that. U does he need Walker Kuster to perhaps maximize that? Sure. But I think he’s a fine defensive player. It’s to be worth that $50 million. We have to see if he is an allp pro player when he has competence around him or does he merely just need a normal structure. Last year Utah had no normaly to their structure. So maybe they had a few better players. You have Ston and Clarkson and John Collins around. But this the substance and how the team was being run really didn’t make a whole lot of sense night to night and you just saw catastrophes game after game. I think the team is obviously demonst demonstrabably worse this year and I’m really hoping this team keeps Kyle Anderson because they are in desperate need of competent passing. But I’m hoping that an additional year out of Keonte George, an additional year out of Isaiah Kier can help with this as as well as um Kyle Anderson and frankly some decent playmaking abilities out of Ace Bailey. Maybe Walker Kuster has a little bit more improvement. Whatever. I think there’s going to be more competent team structure even if the team is worse. That seems like an oxymoron, but it’s it makes sense in my head. Maybe one of you two can explain that better than I can. And if Lowry marketing can return to two, three years ago form where he’s not asked to dribble ever. He’s not asked to pass. That aren’t his those are not his skills. but he just returns to that A+ level of everything else that makes him so wildly dangerous. Okay, now we got a $50 million player. But if the team is actually doing okay and he’s just like, oh, he’s a 37% three-point shooter. He’s not like a lethal guy. Um hm, it doesn’t seem like he’s dunking as much as he did three years ago. The above the rim stuff was very important to the quality of the team for for him for a couple years. it’s that becomes more of a really really nice starter and that’s not a $50 million player which as we talk about intrigue for the team going forward I I’m firmly and keep marketing for as long as he’s really good but there will be a time next year two years four years from now if he’s not a $50 million player and you’re trying to build around the future Hall of Fame Ace Bailey type situation like Maybe you have to do something different with Lowry Markin, right? And so I want him to be that $50 million player. Need to see a how it looks in a different team construct where he’s frankly asked to do something a little bit differently. And two things on that though. This could take the last things I’ll say. He’s playing in Euro Basket this summer for team Finland where he will be the guy, right? And could last season be a total The reason I think there’s intrigue was last season just a total catastrophe and he’s just going to computer process all those bad memories and situations and be like after team Finland I I know what I’m supposed to do now. All I I I’m sorry I I sucked so bad last year. I now have figured it out. and he actually does become more of a reliable onball, not creator, but just on ball facilitator and a guy who can just say, “Here’s a ball, man. Please, please do something with it to help us.” There’s also that little angle is not slam shut for me like I thought it might be. I I think Euro Basket will will hype me up a little bit on this point. I think um what do you guys feel about Lowry? Am I too pessimistic about him? I think you’re appropriately realistic about him. I mean, I I I balk a little bit, particularly this last season when people say we already have an all-star because yes, it is a fact that Larry Markinham was an all-star now three seasons ago. But I’m always a little bit, I don’t know, skeptical about calling a guy an all-star when he was a one-time all-star. And now it’s been and now we’re a few years removed from that. I’m fine calling him an all-star in that season and maybe even the next season, but then I’m like, is he still? And I think that’s the question we still have to find out. I’m not even talking you get a more solid base because he’s not like a Jamal Mclau type all-star selection. He was like a a very firm all-star selection, but point totally valid. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even even when you think of other guys who we know and like or or knew and liked. I mean, Andre Koleno was an all-star. totally deserved in that season. Although that’s another Carmelo Anthony connection there. The story about Carmelo being pissy that Caroleno made it and he didn’t. Anyway, well, we give Well, we give all-star selections because of rebounds now. Yeah. So, he was an all-star, but by four years later, if we’re still seeing we have an all-star, it’s like, okay, right, whatever. Uh, you know, Memo made it one time. Um, not for the Jazz, but Jeff Hornosk was an all-star one time, but five years later, we weren’t saying all-star Jeff Hornosk, you know. So, we just have to watch that. I mean, I personally watch that. I’m not telling anybody else how they whether they have to watch it, but so so I I I’m curious to see and I am intrigued um to see how the team ends up enabling Lowry to either return to a former level or not. I think a lot of that came around came out of having better a better team environment in the in the via both Mike Connley and Kelly Olen. You know, we don’t we don’t love everything he did, but Kelly Oolen was a guy who moved the ball around and did a good job with that sort of thing. So now I guess the question is do do maybe a Walter Clayton Jr. and a Kyle Anderson help do the same sort of thing and help enable Lowry to return to that all-star form. And if they do and he’s an all-star in 2026, great. I love it. A two-time all-star is more than two more than twice as good as a one-time all-star in my book. I um so first of all I love the pick and and I also think that Lowry is um you know that that there’s perhaps more variability to Lowry’s season and his short-term trajectory than people realize. Um I’m not at all worried about last season. You guys have both heard me say I I think last season’s production was mostly a function of what the Jazz were trying to engineer. And so they told him, “Yeah, what h let’s see what happens if you just shoot the ball every time you touch it.” And I don’t think that the way Lowry Markinham behaved last year is how he will behave in a mature basketball environment. I think they were frankly just trying to lose games. Where I will push back on you fellas just breaking news. Yeah. You know, if if you weren’t sure about that, I’ll just show you some April and March lineups lineup data. Um, I’m I’m less insecure about Lowry’s quote unquote all-star credentials. And by that, I just mean, and again, I’ve had this conversation with each of you guys on and off the air. So, this will not be a surprising narrative for either of you to hear me say, in that All-Star season, he wasn’t just an all-star. He missed AllNBA by two spots. He was 17th in AllNBA voting for 15 spots. Yeah. Um, and that was really the first time in his career he had ever played with like a true table setting guard. Um, and he only had a half a season with Mike Connley. He also played, like you mentioned, Ken, he played that season with Kelly Olen, not a guard, but a ball mover and just kind of a guy whose natural tendency is to create and facilitate and and be a connector. Um, I I I mean I I agree that like you can’t just you can’t just call Jamal Mccclure an all-star forever, but but I I I guess I find it easier to believe that Lowry isn’t that far from the version of himself that earned him that honor. Like you said, Mark, pretty solidly in in that 22 23 season. and and I and in fact I think mostly his selection that season and and his placement in the allNBA voting as well was a product of the team’s unexpected success. Like I think if the Jazz were to win another, you know, h have another 35 win season unexpectedly, which I don’t super duper expect, but like I don’t think it would take that much for Lowry to be right back in the conversation about like, oh yeah, remember how this guy was an all-star and remember how he’s still a sevenfooter who can like tear down the rim whenever he wants to, but also shoot 40% from three and like, oh, and the Jazz are kind of good. Oh, well then yeah, Larry Markin should be an all-star. I I I think as I don’t know I think we might be demeuring on that as Jazz fans collectively more than we need to. I think it’s okay to say like Gordon Hayward was a wild one time all-star. Mhm. And like I I felt I feel fine in retrospect saying that the Jazz had an all-star caliber player in in in Gordon Hayward too. So yeah, Hayward is a very interesting case because if he had stayed in Utah and played with the Donovan Mitchell teams, I think he would have had the usage and quality to make multiple all-star teams uh coming out of Utah, he would have had the team success the and he would have had the usage to to do so. And and you know, again, I’m I’m not I’m not like finding a semantic bone to pick just for shits and giggles. I I agree with you guys that like being a four-time all-star is different from being a one-time all-star. But I also don’t think that this is a guy who this isn’t like when Deontay Murray snuck in as an injury replacement. And so now when we refer to Dejonte Murray, we by the laws of basketball have to call him all-star guard Deonte Murray. like Lowry Markin was pretty effing legit in that season as not just an all-star but as a guy who was kind of crashing the you know what we what we think of kind of that elite scorer echelon of guys who can combine um you know high usage and just unreal efficiency and and I I I for one am not ready to just assume that was a flash in the pan whether or not this is turning into a real remembering some guys session of guys who made one all-star game. We’re going to start talking about D’Angelo Russell and everything. Um, yeah, D’Angelo Russell made it. Wow. Yeah. Like, and it’s less about the one All-Star game. It’s more about just the salary going forward for me of like, okay, what is what is the quality of player we’re dealing with here and how does that help the team build and improve from here? And this is a guy a ceiling raiser. Yes. And and I I don’t think even as bad as last season was the the two seasons after he made the All-Star game, I love Lowry Markin. I love what he does out there. Like he didn’t his physicality hasn’t reduced. He just I I think he failed with way too much pressure on him. He didn’t struggle. I think he This is where I’m more pessimistic. really think that I I was disappointed with how bad it got at certain times with decision-m something that’s where you and I are always going to be kind of a little little different on this. Yeah. I I just don’t think I in fact I think almost exactly the opposite. I think there was no pressure on him. I think they were just like [ __ ] it just shoot the ball like just cross midcourt and let it fly. And and so I don’t I don’t look at as as though he failed under pressure. I don’t I think the stakes were so low last season that I’m kind of just throwing out the sample size. What I mean by pressure is more like possession to possession pressure like okay here’s the offense. It’s you buddy and it’s like okay uh what do we do next? And and it was there were just decision- making and speed processing things that I was like I I thought you’ve been in the NBA for a bit. I thought you would have kind of picked this stuff up by now. But everything else that he’s good at, it’s probably nomenclatur. Yeah, it’s Oh, sorry. Yeah, it’s potato to potato on on some of the stuff. Um, I don’t think his like shooting form is worse. I don’t think his phys I think he’s still a remarkably physical player. I thought his defense didn’t slip um in as much as one should expect it to slip uh in a team not trying to win. Like, yeah, I’m not going to excuse the guy for not giving a [ __ ] on defense sometimes. and and especially he only played what like a very limited amount of games last year. So there’s also okay if he played 78 games would things have turned around a little bit where the numbers don’t look as bad either way. This is why it’s intriguing. I want to see another season. We have to see more of what it is. We saw enough to plunk a huge fat extension on him and I don’t think he has to go out there and prove it for me. He’s not on his second contract. He didn’t just get a rookie extension and restricted free agency or whatever. I He doesn’t have to prove that contract to me. I think the past three years I think he’s worth it. It’s more is he 100% worth it? Is he 150% worth it? Or is he more like 80% worth it? That’s intriguing to me. Um so those are I think everyone agrees those are three. Well, I don’t know who who knows what you think about Lowry Markin as an intriguing guy. Some people are still beating the table that they want to trade him yesterday for one and a half first round picks to that. Okay, I will not talk about that. Um, so from here we can go perhaps this team is just full of intrigue. We had like 93 summer leaguers. Everything is a a mystery going here. a player that I think has perhaps a narrower band of outcomes than than someone perhaps fitting for this discussion, but just someone I need to see in an NBA context right now. I need to see Isaiah Collier on this team like with NBA players around him. Uh I there were so many things in summer like that made me like just do like some excited movements and oo and a’s like this is a guy who’s really figured out some things. Um they are just they’re not coupled by oh he went one of seven from three like some just poor performances. He does real preposterously dumb things out there. And in a summer league environment, it was still like the throwing a pass directly at an opponent’s face, dribbling off your foot, having a wide open, nobody around you lane to the basket, and because his his brain is on passing mode or following the scripted play, he passes it to the corner. By by the way, when he did that, the the three went in. Um, and I think it was Cody Williams who made it. So, it’s like, “Oh, you got some benefits out of that.” But if you have a wideopen layup, you you have to take it. So, like there’s there’s these boneheaded things that happen. And just like with Ace Bailey’s uh shot selection, are these the type of boneheaded plays that we see very, very, very frequently out of young point guards that just playing another full NBA season, just get it out of your system? I think he played one G-League game last year and just was the best player on the court by several tiers. I think it was a 30 point. 8 assist game or something like that and he never played in the G-League again. Maybe he played one other game. This is all off the top of my head, so go ahead and fact check me on G-League stats, but I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. Um, and it summer league was this weird disappointment because he still couldn’t shoot. It’s still not going to be part of his thing. I’ve been very loud that I care way more about shooting at the rim and drawing fouls than I care about three-point shooting. He still couldn’t shoot at the rim. He was awesome at drawing fouls. He cannot make free throws, which is alarming on multiple perspectives, especially for uh projecting three-point shooting. He was below average at both of those in college. So, seeing him being absolute atrocious at that in the NBA is is bizarre to me. Um it’s not like the free throw line extended like the three-point line does. Anyways, Isaiah Kier is intriguing to me and why he’s so highly intriguing is because I think his ability to play competent NBA point guarding, that’s a verb I just made up, affects how the rest of the team’s progression will go. How everything I just said about Lowry Markin, what can Lowry Markin do on a competent structure of a team? needs a real ass point guard and I love Colin Sexon. I think that trade is still bad for Utah. I don’t love the return they got. Colin Sexon is just not a real point guard and Isaiah Collier is more in that archetype. Ace Bailey is going to need someone to pass him the rock. That’s going to have to come from a guy like Isaiah Collier. And Walt Clayton, as much as I’m excited about perhaps what he could be as a third guard, shooting type, he’s not gonna be you got I people who are expecting him to come in and be like starting pass first point guard. Oh, he’s our new point guard. Put Ker to the side. That’s not Clayton’s game yet. And it might not ever be. We’ll get to him perhaps, maybe. Sneak preview. Um Isaiah Ker is the point guard and I don’t think he projects as a starter long term in the NBA. I think he projects as a rotation point guard on a playoff team. I think that is his ceiling uh as like a 20, 15 minute, 12 minute backup point guard. Uh not the same player at all, but a player like Ty Jerome, you’ll never want Ty Jerome starting, but you are okay having him in your rotation in a playoff series. That’s the rest of the team now depends heavily on Isaiah Kier for the rest of their progression. And I think he’s also got a good attitude. He’s a bulldog. He’s cool and he fights really hard and he’s a player easy to root for. And that’s why I get excited about him. But I understand all of his problems though. Yeah, I uh I’m probably he was lower on my own personal intrigue ranking, but that does not that doesn’t mean I don’t like him. It my intrigue ranking was largely a function of what you mentioned at the top of the Isaiah Collier section, which is just narrower band of outcomes. like I I do think you’re right that he probably projects in the long term as um like the change of pace off the bench guard, but some of that is because I think you know he he he’s got a really innate passing and and court vision and you know anticipating defensive reactions kind of piece to him, but still more even though even though I still believe that I I think that manifests itself way more in kind of battering ram contexts where like Colin Ston he’s just like forcing his way inside and then reading the defense and then kicking and and less of like a pure organizer. Um, and and that’s kind of why it’s easier to think of him as as, you know, just just someone who’s going to come in and like pound his way into the paint and then dish. If if he starts to look more like someone who can actually like orchestrate the offense for x minutes a game, then that’s when his ceiling starts to get, you know, you you start to rethink that ceiling. I I don’t I always kind of make a rule for myself that I’m not going to be in too much of a hurry to to decide what a guy’s ceiling is when he’s still, you know, 20 21 22. But but I do think that he needs to progress as kind of a game manager before we think of him as even a potential long-term starter. And I see you both nodding, so maybe I’m rightish. always you’re always at least close enough to be right-ish. Um except when you’re wrong. Yeah. I my my worries about Collier too and I didn’t have him in my top six intriguing when we when I thought we were going to go with kind of the draft format are just you know between the shooting and the turnovers are those things that he can correct. And that’s what that’s why why I view like to use your words that narrower range of outcomes. Um and and he was throwing the ball all over the gym in in the Salt Lake portion of the of the summer league. And so we’ll we’ll we’ll see what comes out. Not because he’s trying interesting passes and learning how to be a game manager. They were just like, “What what is that?” Yeah. Yeah. There were there were several times cuz Dan and I attended all three of those games and I remember times when we just kind of like stare at each other quizzically like what what was he trying to do because it wasn’t even obvious from the outcome that that there was a good possibility you know a reason for making the pass or whatever to begin with. Um but that said I in fact he came up today on uh on locked on jazz which I am not usually current on many things these days but I happened to listen to that because I had a longer drive than expected today and somebody the assumption the question that somebody asked was you know he hasn’t even improved and the the answer which which I think was accurate from David Lockach was you talk about improvement from the season to summer league that’s not a real barometer and so we don’t know yet if he’s improved. Summer League wasn’t really promising as far as showing improvement, but I, you know, I’m not there’s no I don’t have the hammer out to put a nail in his coffin either. I’d love to see him come out and and, you know, he’s got now from summer league to the season, he’s got three months to, you know, work on his game, step away from the game, whatever, however that timetable works, and come back. I mean, again, uh I I if I had to guess today, and this might be unpopular because I think there’s a lot of there’s always a lot of rookie love out there, I would pencil him in as the starting point guard. I think because of the rookie love, there’s a lot of people who are penciling in Walter Clayton Jr. and some people who are even kind of bouncing back to Keonte George. I don’t know what if I had to gun to my head if I had to put a an online bet on it today, I’d go with Kier, but that’s that’s just that’s just where I’m at. So hopefully this podcast is not sponsored by any nefarious no online gambling agencies yet. So if if uh if you’re a eighth tier rate gambling website, our phones are open. And if we’re sponsored by one, give us an offer, man. Like and if it were sponsored by one of them coke sponsorship I know I I I’ve done enough uh on on camera drinking of four noses brewing beers here in uh in Colorado that uh maybe they should give me a call. Um yeah it’s a it’s a lot of words on Isaiah Kier but I do think u his improvement or lack thereof will affect a lot of other players too which is part of the intrigue for me. Um, so Dan, what you what what do you have next? Yeah, I was gonna say if we’re if we’re snaking back to me, I I think the the guy that I the guy that I did have ranked higher and and again, ranked higher doesn’t mean I think he’s going to have a better season, but I but I am pretty intrigued about what we’re going to see from Walter Clayton Jr., Um, I don’t I don’t think we’re going to know at the end of these next 82 Jazz games what he’s going to be, but he’s he’s someone who much in the same way that, you know, when Keante came into the league, the Jazz drafted him where they drafted him because they were curious to see if he was someone that they could kind of beat into a 6’4 point guard Devin Booker type of mold. Um, I I don’t think they really have, which is part of why I I think now there’s a little bit more of a feeling about what Keante probably looks like in a in a contending context. And it’s maybe less exciting, at least to me, than than what I might have thought or hoped or dreamt of a couple years ago. But with um but with Clayton, you know, I do think there’s still a world where like put it put it this way at his 40% best case scenario outcome, which means like you know that’s still a good outcome. 40 like middle of the road, top of the bell curve, he’s like Seth Curry, right? At the 70% best case outcome, he’s He’s they they’ve they’ve made him a little bit more of a point guard mentality and he’s Jir Nelson. Um one time all-star Jir Nelson by the way. Back to back to one time all-stars and at his 95% outcome where we’re just really thrilled and everything’s going perfect and he’s fully optimized. Then I I really I really do think so much about how he moves and shoots and and uh looks reminds me of Jamal Murray. So the fact that like those are your identical haircut. Identical haircut. Uh zero time all-star Jamal Murray. Yes. That’s true. That’s true. You beat me to that one, Mark. He’s a bum. Not even a single all-star selection. Jamal Jamal Mcloire and Jamir Nelson combined have more all-star appearances. Anyway, um yeah, bottom line is I I think I think his outcomes in the in the medium to long term are really interesting and they boil down to that same question that the Keonte George question boiled down to until it didn’t, which is can this guy actually behave like a point guard? I do not think they’re going to hand him the keys to day one. And I agree with you on that, Mark. I think it’s it’s going to be a slower, longer burn. But I was encouraged that there were there were times in summer league where despite the fact that his personal statistics didn’t always look great, where he would go to sit down and you just felt like, wow, the Jazz were more organized during the last six or seven minutes that Walter Clayton Jr. was running things. I think that’s a good sign. I don’t think that that means he’s guaranteed to come out towards the Jamal Murray end of his trajectory. Um, but that’s just that’s a fascinating player to me. I I don’t I don’t think I I when you think about like who Ace Bailey needs to play with to really optimize him, for that matter, who Lowry Markin needs to play with to optimize him. I don’t I think there have been times when it hasn’t felt to me like Lowry Markin and Super Duper has loved playing next to Keante. Um I think part of the reason they changed the starting lineup last year to put a rookie guard who can’t shoot into the starting lineup is just as like a way to throw their one-time all-star a bone and say, “Yeah, let let us just play you with a guy who can move the basketball and, you know, get you some looks.” And so if Walter Clayton Jr. can um develop in that specific way. Um then you can then you can and if he’s not if if he’s not a point if he just doesn’t have like the point guard bone in his body then he still has a chance to be you know Seth Curry and that’s fine. I mean that’s a good player. There are a lot of 62y shoot first shoot second shoot third guards who are you know like Monte Ellis uh zero time all-star Monte Ellis um you know there’s another guy who like I we don’t love Monte Ellis stylistically or I think a lot of people don’t in the kind of modern game but like there are there are 62 63 guards who um who are kind of shooting guards trapped in a point guard’s body who bec who had fun careers. I just think he’s really interesting if he can continue to develop in in that in that vein of like being able to run the show. I said that in the longest way possible. The the one thing that I tend to forget already about Wall Clayton Jr. is a a combined fact of he was drafted 18th, not in the early second round. and that the Jazz traded up to get him. I easily forget that this is a player that has a little bit higher pedigree that a lot of teams were interested in and that team Utah felt like had enough competition that they needed to trade up to get him. There is a lot of belief in his skill set and I walked away from summer league thinking, “Ah, he’s nice. We’ll see.” And I forget that there I should probably carry a little bit more optimism about it. I am more optimistic for his NK scenario than Isaiah Collier. I do think he’s going to be a better player that fits in more constructs than Collier. I just there there’s something about his play style, who he is, whatever, that just kind of leaves me feeling, okay, let’s see it. Let’s see it in the NBA context because right now it’s okay, you were a nice nice college player. some amazing college moments. Uh I I just don’t know enough about him, which is why he’s intriguing. Yeah. Yeah. And go figure that a Clayton picked Clayton as the uh as the Clay Clayton picked Clayton Jr. as a most intriguing candidate in the in our little draft. But yeah, I think the one thing that stands out to me is something that I’ve seen from the team. And so, you know, is it a PR thing or is it is it real? But they’re saying that back into his history, I think this was in the Keith Smith notes that he shared from Vegas, was the Lord that they feel like Clayton is going to be a leader, that he already is being a leader, even though he’s a rookie. Um, he’s he’s older than several of the Jazz re draftes, honestly. and if that, you know, is that going to help him maybe a little faster become a point guard because I do feel like that’s been something that was lacking. For example, a year or two ago, they were asking Keonte to be more of a leader and I’m not sure he was really ready for that or maybe it’s a personality type or whatever. So maybe that helps him get to that point. I don’t I don’t know. But I am well we we heard it from Kee’s comments to the public where he he kind of defined his leadership as I just want to be respected by the other team on the court and the way he can see himself improving and really earning that respect is being a lot better at taking those pull-up jumpers in the mid-range. Like it’s like, okay, you were clearly seeing what the allp pro guys do and the allNBA guys do and that’s your definition of leadership rather than what do what does the Utah Jazz need from you right now, man? Right. And so I don’t know if you know obviously there’s you can be a great leader but still not be able to play the point guard position long term at a high level. So, we’ll see if we’ll see if that ends up really truly impacting Walter Clayton Jr.’s career trajectory, but it’s something that this the team is certainly bullish on slashpring about. Uh, but I mean, it’s not just PR. I mean, they were telling this to a reporter who then reported on and so we’ll we’ll we’ll see what how that comes. But I am in intrigued to see how he comes. Again, part of it is the thing I just kind of made fun of on the last guy we talked about was the rookie love. We’re always I’m I’m I’m I’m a sucker for the new shiny toy as much as anybody. Yeah. Yeah. And also a little disappointed we haven’t seen a lot of uh Tom J and RJ Louise either. So we we kind of got sapped out out of those experiences. So preseason was right around the corner. We got the preseason schedule was released by the way this week if you haven’t seen that yet. Um bring us home. TJ is still unsigned, right? He is still unsigned. So, we don’t know if So, we don’t know if it’s going to be a two-way or a full roster um position for him still. So, real quickly, off topic, Oscar Sheway has the qualifying offer still outstanding, but he’s apparently like this close to signing in Europe, but it hasn’t happened yet. So maybe as soon as that clears up, Tanj takes that spot, unless they want to give him a full roster spot, then they’ve got to clear up either the Kevin Love or some other or the or the KJ Martin situation. All right, back on topic. I really waffled over two guys and somehow I feel a little weird about it, but I’m because I pulled up the summer league stats. I feel a little weird about the fact that I’m not picking the summer league MVP as my next most intriguing guy. Um, but I’m going to go with another guy who played well in in summer league and it and it almost snuck up on me how well he played because there was a lot of negativity about him earlier in the Salt Lake stuff, but that’s Cody Williams. Some people listening are now their eyes are bulging out of their heads. They’re scratching their heads saying, “What is he even talking about?” Because this was the worst player in blah blah blah in the NBA last year. I just from the time they drafted Cody Williams, I could look at his body and tell that he was going to need some time. And one year isn’t enough time. And by the end of this year, I don’t think that will be enough time either. But it’s but it is moving along. I just think he came out in the summer league in the Vegas summer league after he maybe got I don’t know what was going on in Utah. Well, well, for one thing, there were more guys playing. Sens was taking a whole lot of usage and and and Ace Bailey was kind of the certainly the fans were all watching Ace Bailey. Cody Williams came out in the Vegas summer league and just scored 20 points a game on 4634 shooting splits, which isn’t stellar, but it’s certainly a step up from anything you did in the regular season. And I know that’s not apples and oranges. Um, grabbed four and a half rebounds and dished out three assists a game. That’s not that’s not bad. Now, that’s summer league stats. I don’t expect he’s going to have similar line at all in the regular season, but I am intrigued. Uh, the thing I was talking about with somebody earlier was just I am intrigued to see how a year of physical development he also is getting an advantage of being around the team and getting some mental development. But the third thing that he got that very few other players get, if any, is he also got to watch his brother win an NBA championship this year. And I would like to think that that’s going to like put a little fire in his gut because and he’s a guy who can use that. He’s a guy who needs to maybe try to, you know, push himself a little harder. People talk about how he’s a little lackadasical or looks a little lacadasical on the court. I’d like to see that kind of light a fire underneath him and get him see if it changes how he appears on the court as far as his gumption. So that’s that’s why he that’s why he narrowly edged out Kyle Filipowski is someone I’m really intrigued to see what this off season does and what his second season looks like after a disappointing first season. Part of it for me is just Philipowski after a summer league. I feel like he’s more of a known quantity. like we know what he I think we kind of have a good idea on this projection as and who he is gonna be on the Jazz this year. Maybe who he is on the Jazz this year surprised us a little bit and he ends up on our most intriguing list next year. But Philipsky’s like, “All right, I know what’s happening right now.” Uh yeah, Cody Williams, man, if you actually stuck through and watched all of the Utah Jazz summer league games, it was that those last two games, especially the last game where it didn’t take him time to warm up like the engine, it felt like he was being aggressive right from the jump. almost like he was it it almost this is all perception watching [ __ ] on TV but it felt like he was bored of being out there so he just said fine I’ll just play hard if this is this what you want I’ll finally finally give a crap to be out here and then he ends up averaging one of the uh summer league high in steals like he averaged over two steals a game which is uh one of the highest marks of any of the non rando players that kind of got out there um there were some other players who had some significant and steal rates, too. But like he he was definitely on the higher end there. Um you’re drafting him for defense and shooting, right? Like they we when you’re drafting him 10th, you’re not saying like, “All right, man. We want you to be out there dribbling and initiating action, everything.” The problem was when he was out there last year as a rookie, nothing happened and you can’t be you can’t do nothing. And so exploring what it means to be aggressive in a summer league context, it’s more about can you continue to move and have your heartbeat kind of going instead of just running um you know three-point line to three-point line. I starting from the very early goes of last season. Will Hardy asking him to defend the opposing team’s best ball handler was it went poorly, but I thought it was Will Hardy’s not a guy to just do that if there’s not wasn’t something there to begin with. So, there is a credible outline of something that could possibly happen in the right context. The shooting just has to happen because we can’t have a non-shooter if you’re just going to be a a situational defender. a situational defender has to be otherwise you’re just Shaq Harrison, right? It was like okay like situational defender for a certain position didn’t really shoot whatever you are who you are and and you’re out of the NBA um because you can’t do anything else. So it’s I I am one of those down people on Cody Williams. The eyes did not bulge out of my head because I’m trying to remain professional to my friend. Um, but it’s if if just like Lowry in a different context, if the team structure makes a little bit more sense around him and his rookie season isn’t filled with like, hey, we’re all trying to like lose in the dumbest way possible, guys. and and we’re not going to have Lowry out there for 50 games and John Collins isn’t going to play 30 games and Jordan Clarkson is sitting there uh at the end of the bench moping because he’s healthy and can’t hoop. Like it if there’s more of a everyone gets to play, everyone’s healthy, we’re not bullshitting you around. And if he gets to play 70 games, we could have a different story here. Uh, I just I’ve lost all intrigue on his highest end outcomes and I’m just hoping for competence at this point, which kind of makes me feel like a sad wet fart sometimes. But I think there is some openings to competence that I didn’t see before summer league. Yeah, I I mean what I like about his summer league, I I think there was a slipperiness to his drives that we haven’t seen before or or just really to anytime he was handling the ball. Um, there are different ways for creativity to kind of show up in a guy’s game. Like there like there are guys like Manui who are who are so creative about finishing or or about, you know, how a how a drive or how an attack develops. And we’re not seeing that yet. But I but there was a lot of creativity almost kind of at the beginning end of his attacks and drives where like I’m gonna I’m gonna get you leaning this way and then I’m going to go the I I don’t know. I I liked I liked his summer league. I particularly like the last couple games when he had the ball in his hands a lot and I just think you started to see kind of the toolsy nature that made the Jazz interested in him um in the 2024 draft. That said, and I’ll only say this because I know we’re bringing it in for a landing and and we there are guys we haven’t talked about as much like I I you know, flip is still interesting to me mostly because the positional question, right, Mark, you’ve talked a lot about that in recent podcasts. I won’t belabor the point here. And then I did want to mention Sensibot. I I had Sensiba higher than I think either of you guys did mostly because I think Sensabot is going to like actually kind of be featured on this team. I think Sensibot is going to have the ball in his hands a lot. I think there’s a chance that he kind of inherits the role of like bench scorer. Um, frankly, there’s a chance he might start, but I kind of hope he doesn’t. I kind of hope he’s like a a a different meteor version of Jordan Clarkson who just, you know, go in and cook for 14 straight minutes. Um, you know, in the in the straddling the first and second quarters again, straddling the third and fourth. I like I think we’re going to see a lot of Bryce cent spot possessions. And I don’t, you know, I don’t know that that’s going to change anybody’s mind about best case or worst case trajectory, but I think he’s going to have a lot to do with the Jazz’s season. I just wanted to mention him and passion. I I had sensib above Cody Williams on my intrigue ranking because anytime he had a a surprisingly effective end of last season during a again a team situation that is not just trying to lose, but they’re trying to lose in really stupid ways by benching random players and playing nonBA players minutes. And maybe a bunch of guys in the Jazz right now are nonNBA players, but at least they’re all just we’re not going to [ __ ] around with it. At least that is the story so far. Um but and then from there, anytime a third-year guy goes into summer league, which Utah tends to play around with more than other teams, um I don’t think Bryce Sensall would have played in summer league for 29 other teams, but Utah said, “Hey, home court, go in there.” And he immediately had a couple [ __ ] you performances that immediately raised my eyebrows of like, “Oh, he’s he’s been he’s still at it. this he hasn’t shaken everything that makes him special and this his defense is going to determine whether he’s a playoff contributor on a team or not. Like he is right now a incredibly negative defender. But right now his offense all of a sudden I’m turning my head going is this a B+ Alevel offensive player that has has arrived. If so, okay, now now we’re talking about what an interesting rookie extension might look like. Um, or something like that. So, that there’s some intrigue there for me and a ball and hand scorer at that. But anyway, I’ll I’ll let I’ll let Ken weigh in before I do another fivem minute tangent. No. Yeah, I’m I’m I’m very bullish on what Bryce Sensib has. I guess from some point in time surprisingly become for me um because for a while I wasn’t really sold but I think he has really uh improved at the things they’ve asked him to improve at. He’s to me he’s less intriguing for the same reason what you said a minute ago about Kyle Filipowski is I think I see where he’s going to fit and I think whether that’s I don’t care about bench or starting. I just think I see that he has a role and I don’t think there is a lot of doubt left there. I think he can now he he he steps into that probably bench scorer role and looks like he’ll do a hell of a job at it um going into his third season. So that that’s why I didn’t have him is so much intriguing. It’s a success story already. And I guess in my mind I think of intriguing more of of watching the development. Yeah. Or what the next step is for a guy like Lowry or like you know some of these other guys we talked about. That’s all that’s all very fair. It’s It’s the same reason, frankly, why we haven’t really talked about Walker Kesler. Like, I’m sorry, Walker Kesler. You are too good of a player to be on the intriguing rankings. Um, so, so we’ve just talked about the Jazz for 70 minutes and not invoked his name. Even though I mean, he is interesting. It’s just I don’t think he has the same, you know, star level ceiling. And we already know that his floor is pretty safe. And so, anyway, well, we also I saw you I I don’t think we’re going to get surprising skills out of him, right? Like we we we know pretty clearly that the the few three-pointers he was able to take in Auburn, those aren’t going to happen. And if they do, it’s going to be like they happened last year of like, oh, they designed a play for Walker because it’s fun and stupid. Like, okay, it’s it’s not going to happen anytime. Passing. Okay. He he he is a traditional big man who learned how to pass the traditional big man way. He didn’t start out as a jitterbug and then exploded in height randomly where he’s got these weird passing skills that haven’t been developed yet. There’s there’s nothing unknown about Walker. It’s just going to be a progression of consistently one of the best defensive players in the league and with solid offensive skill. There’s Sorry, you’re too good. Yep. Like you said. Yeah. Yep. Well, like I said, we’re over an hour now uh talking about the intriguing Jazz players. As as you can tell, there’s a lot to be intrigued by. Um, we went deep on sticks guys, two each from this uh trio, this panel of uh Salt City Hoops podcasters. I don’t want to be just a trio. I think I think we’re the big three, not just a trio. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Um, so anyway, parting thoughts before we uh put this thing to bed. I just want I I if you’ve listened this long, I want you to reply on Blue Sky, Twitter, on the Spotify comments, whatever, wherever you’re listening or watching this on YouTube, wherever. Please tell us your favorite one-time all-star. I love it, Ken. No, just I I have no parting wisdom. I think you started out by saying we were in the most doldrmy part of the year. I think that’s not true. I think the most doldder memy part is to come. August to me is there’s no summer league. It’s not the month training camp is going to start. So, you know, maybe listen to this podcast four or five times because uh you got there’s not going to be a whole lot to talk about for Look, we’re going to have the FIA Asia Cup in Euro Basket. Like that that’ll that’ll get you and and a lot of NBA players are playing, so it’ll be fun. Yeah, true. True. It’s true. All right. Well, this has been another Solid City Hoops podcast. Mark Pereira is over there in Colorado. Ken Clayton is down in Arizona. I’m Dan Clayton. Thank you for listening and uh we’ll have more for you as the offseason continues uh at salt city hoops.com. Thanks.

It’s a three-person pod day! Join Dan Clayton (⁠@danclayt0n⁠), Ken Clayton (⁠@k_clayt⁠) and Mark Pereira (⁠@markrussellpereira.bsky.social⁠) for Salt City Hoops as they select the 6 most intriguing players for the Utah Jazz this season. Who are you most excited to see develop with this young team?

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