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Good morning DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. Welcome in on a Wednesday morning, game one of the Stanley Cup finals tonight. Greg Washinsky joined us uh late in yesterday’s show, senior writer for NHL, for the NHL on ESPN.com. And Greg previewed the series for us, answered a few of our questions. Here’s Greg with PK and Me on the Zone. Greg, good morning. Good morning. How are you? I I’m I’m in Edmonton now. Uh, I’m looking out at a beautiful vista, which is a parking lot filled with construction vehicles. Uh, I am very much not in Fort Lauderdale yet, uh, which I will be later in the series, but I am definitely in Edmonton. That was quite the vista you painted. I’m glad we can all share in sharing the view there. It’s not Hawaii, but what the heck? It’s not It’s not the Maui Classic, that’s for sure. All right. So, we obviously have a new NHL team here and it’s going through a rebuild. So, let’s look at the Stanley Cup final through the lens of a team that would like to get there one day, but is still probably a few steps away. What lessons should teams that are building learn as they watch this uh final? What can the Oilers and Florida Panthers teach us all about building a quality team in the NHL? It’s a really good question. I mean like the these two teams are a little dissimilar in in how they were built. So Edmonton Edmonton was in the tank for like a decade. Like they had a lot of first they had so many o first overall picks that they actually changed the rules on how many first overall picks you’re allowed to have in like a three or four years span. That’s how many they had. A lot of those guys aren’t on the team anymore, but Conor McDavid and and Leon Dryside are. And they also drafted their best defenseman Evan Buchard. and uh their goalie Stewart Skinner and and uh their you know second best defenseman Darnell Nurse like there’s a ton of players on this Edmonton team that are homegrown that they then augmented with veteran players like Matias Eholm and Cory Perry and Evander Kane and and others. So that’s one way to do it, which is to be horrible for 10 years and then eventually you land on a core that is as good as, you know, any we’ve seen maybe since Osbby and Yennetti Malin in Pittsburgh. Florida, you know, their best player is is Sasha Barkov, their captain, and he was drafted uh and their top defenseman Aaron Ecklad was drafted. But then so many other players that are on this team that won the cup last year were imported through really smart trades by their GM Bill Zto. Um you know you think about Sam Reinhardt their topline winger, Sam Bennett, Matthew Kachchuck, uh now Seth Jones, Brad Marshian, Sergey Babroski famously was a a huge money signing as a free agent. So the the core Paul Maurice, their coach, called Bararkov kind of like the sun around which all of the other things orbit. So it still comes back to how you draft in both cases. But for for Florida, it it really was kind of um a different way of going about things I think in in so in so far as like augmenting uh through the through trades and through free agency versus what Edmonton did. You already brought brought up McDavid. You know, his resume is extremely impressive. It reads like that partridge in a paratree song. He’s got five Arts Ross trophies, three Hart memorial trophies, a Rocket Richard, and even a Khan Smith, but he doesn’t have the Stanley Cup. So, you can argue, you know, a Canadian team, I don’t think they’ve won it what, since 93 or something like that, maybe in I think it’s like 32 years. And you can argue that, oh, the NHL needs him to win it and he’s got to have a coming out party. I don’t necessarily go that strong because he still is only 28 years old and has time. But as far as his legacy and how good he is, he probably needs to get one. Is the time now? Um, so for the legacy part of it, it’s undeniable that, you know, the truly legendary players in this league have won the cup. I mean, that’s just how it is. It’s unfortunate in many cases. It’s not a player’s fault if his, you know, he’s on an organization that can’t figure it out or what have you. But, I mean, this is two two trips to the Stanley Cup final. Um, he nearly won it last year in a game seven. You he you’d expect if you make back-to-back trips, you’re going to you’re going to raise the cup at least once. Um, and and the fact of the matter is is that a lot of his peers have. I mean, Alex Ovuchkin got his cup. Uh, Nathan McKinnon got his cup. Sid’s got a couple. like all of those players don’t have the caveat when they go into the Hall of Fame of you couldn’t win the big one. And for a player like Connor who is one of the most talented hockey players that’s ever lived and and will go down as as maybe being close to a Gretzky level of of talent and statistical accomplishment when it’s all said and done. Um he’s got to win one or else there will always be that caveat of you couldn’t get the ring. Um, will it happen this year? I don’t know. I just wrote a piece on ESPN.com with my uh justification for picking the Florida Panthers in six games to repeat as champion. Uh, I want to see Connor lift the cup more than anything. I covered him last year when he lost in game seven and was named MVP in a effort and I saw the soul sucked out of somebody’s body. He was so sad. So, I don’t want to see him sad again. I want to see him win. I want to see that caveat go away. But I just think that the Florida Panthers are built to beat the Oilers and and and to win another cup. Can they play their Stars more minutes? Now, games one and two are are a Wednesday, Friday, but they both had a big layoff here and then there’s a lot of two days off, play on the third day, two days off, play on the third day. Does that enable them to eliminate the minutes for um well, let’s just say some of the guys and put more minutes on the stars. It’s less it’s less about the the time between games in the final than the time it took some of these teams to win their series. Don’t forget like both of the reason we’re playing the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday is because both these teams won one in five games in the conference final. So that’s really where the determination of ice time and the rest and and how these guys are feeling is going to come into play is what what did you do before you got here and in the case of both teams they’ve had some short series which will certainly benefit their legs coming into this this final round. But but when it comes to McDavid and Dry Saddle in particular uh they’re going to play in until their their bodies fall apart uh in this series as far as their ice time goes. And you know, the key for for having home ice advantage in hockey is you then get to determine the matchups on the ice. You get the last line change and and that’s going to be a real key thing. It’s the biggest difference between this year and and last year in this in this matchup is that Florida had home ice last year, Edmonton has it this year. they’re going to be able to find ways to get matchups that are uh that are beneficial to McDavid and Dry Cidle, meaning that they can get, you know, one or both of them as far away from Barkov’s line as possible because that’s really the one that you want to avoid if you’re if you’re Edmonton. So, you’re going with the Panthers as you just said, and I was looking and they had a panel of like 23 people with ESPN and 14 of the 23 picked Edmonton. Uh, so you’re going against the grain in a sense. I am. I I think I didn’t I didn’t know what my my colleagues would do as far as their picks. I’m actually surprised it’s not more people picking Edmonton. The whole thing kind of feels like their season. The you know, the fact that Connor and Leon didn’t win last year and, you know, have gotten this team back to where it is. It’s a better team than it was last year. They’ve really figured out how to play uh championship quality defense in a way that they hadn’t last season. Um, I mean, they limited the Dallas Stars to four shots on goal in the third period for three consecutive wins. Like, that is that’s something that is that is a a significant improvement defensively for this team. Um, and so there’s a like they’re due, right? Um, but again, I I just look at this matchup and and the Panthers are better, too. I mean, they added Seth Jones and Brad Marshand. Um, they’ve become more confident in what they do. I mean, winning a Stanley Cup is is incredible proof of concept. Uh, and the most important thing in this matchup for me is that, you know, Ed Edmonton has a way of of making you feel pretty bad about yourself when things aren’t going right. Like Dallas kind of fell apart when they would get down one- nothing in a game and they kind of fell apart in the third period when they couldn’t do the things they wanted to do. Florida’s got a real unique talent. Uh, and it’s it speaks to their their veteran core and and their confidence in their game that they’ll just take what what you give them and then they’ll take advantage of it. in against Carolina in the Eastern Conference final, they scored consecutive goals within four minutes in every one of their wins, meaning that they just pounce on you when they’re given the opportunity. So, I think they’re patient. I think they’re smart. I think they’re great defensively. And I think all that adds up to them winning the cup again, but I’d love to be wrong because I’d love to see Connor lift the cup. Florida on 98 points and Edmonton on 101. And you know, the Jets were such a story with the way they started and they finished on 116 points and the Capitals pretty much went with them at 111. But does that ever matter in the NHL? I mean, is the is it just get through the regular season and just get some half season seating and that’s good enough. I think it used to matter more under the old playoff format like when it was, this might be a history lesson here, but it used to be uh one through eight in the in the NHL. So like you the number one seed in the conference would play the number eight team and and sometimes that syncs up now and sometimes it doesn’t. But but it also, you know, means that you would have an easier path in the second round than you might have now where you’re kind of locked into playing whoever is the next team in your conference. So if you look at the Atlantic division for example, you’re looking at the Boston Bruins, the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Like these are three teams that have all won cups or played for cups over the last like decade. and and so that’s really rough. It’s a lot easier to come out of the Pacific Division maybe or the the the Central than it is sometimes uh the the the Atlantic. So, um the seating used to matter more uh I don’t disagree with you and I also think that you know no matter what the playoff format looks like the bottom line is that it’s a sevename sprint and a sevename sprint with a goalie that gets hot uh all of a sudden can lead to upsets. It’s one of the reasons why the Stanley Cup playoffs are, I think, the best postseason in sports. Not only the physicality and the quality of play and and just the the blood, sweat, and tears that go into this thing, but also the the unpredictability of it where it’s not always and traditionally has not been the best team in the regular season that that goes and plays for the cup at the end. So, is Edmonton’s Steuart Skinner hot? I think he’s he is. I I I think his his play last round was overrated a little bit. Dallas was I don’t know what the hell Dallas was doing last round, but I mean like there was there was a game they’re like Skinner’s great and you know it was a game where Dallas missed the net 40 times and you know turn the puck over more in two periods than they had in any single game in the in the playoffs. Like it was it was uh you know definitely them them falling apart versus anything Skinner was doing. But you know they’re playing good defense in front of him and the bottom line for Storer is that they don’t need him to to win a series. they just need him not to lose a series. And I think he’s playing well enough right now where he’s not going to be the reason that they lose this series. Um, and for him, that’s all you can really ask for. But, but as I pointed out in my piece on ESPN.com this morning, like the difference between the two goalies is that Sergey Babrovski, the Florida goalie, could win a series. Like he could be the reason they win. He could be a guy who puts a team on his shoulders for two games and and and and wins and they win because of that. and and I think that’s a that’s a tactical advantage for Florida in the series. We can talk a lot about the physical matchups, but the the mental part of the sport. I mean, Edmonton got down 03 last year and then forced a game seven. Do you think either one of these teams can dominate the other or break them mentally? Or is this just a total grind to get to four wins game by game, period by period, shift by shift, and it really is just going to be just a battle of attrition here? Yeah, I mean that’s a really good point. Like I mean Florida is is extremely mentally tough. Like they’re a veteran team and and they’re not going to be rattled by really anything. But you bring up a really good point about Edmonton, which is that even if they do get down in the series, I mean, they just it’s less than a year ago where they rallied from a 3-0 deficit and nearly pulled off a game seven win against against Florida. So yeah, I I don’t think either of these teams are really going to get rattled. like if it’s if it’s 20 for one of these teams after the first two games, I don’t think that the other team is going to fold up their tents and and uh and start thinking about vacation. Um it’s it’s going to be a a really interesting series between two teams that that are playing with a lot of confidence. I think Edmonton is is there’s a ton of belief in their room right now about what they’re doing. And for Florida, I mean, they’re the cup champion and and they’re arguably playing better now than they did last season. So, it’s going to be it’s going to be fascinating. So, are they a dynasty if they win again? It’s a really I mean I’ve had that debate about several teams over the last like 15 years. But it’s hard to really define what a dynasty is in the sal under the salary cap. Like I mean is it do you have to win four straight cups like the Islanders did in the 1980s or a bunch of cups in in in a in a decade like the Edmonton Oilers did? Or can you look at a team like the Tampa Bay Lightning for example who won back-to-back Stanley Cups but then and but then made the final again and then before that made the conference final a few times. I mean like that’s the closest thing to being dynastic that we have. But in the Panthers case again, you know, it’d be backtoback cups plus the trip to the final where they lost to Vegas. It’s three straight trips to the Stanley Cup final. Like when you think about this league and the constraints by the salary cap and and what these teams are able to do and not do in so far as keeping their teams together, like it’s the closest thing you’re going to get to something that resembles Dynasty, I think, is is what the Panthers are doing. And if nothing else, I mean, the the more interesting conversation might be how does this team stack up against the the ones that we’ve seen win multiple cups in the last like 15 years? Pittsburgh, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay. like you could make the argument that that this Florida team is the best of a lot. I mean, they’re they are such an impressive group and and so well put together. Um, and there’s not a whole lot of flaws on this team and that that’ll be an interesting debate to have if they if they end up winning again. PK brought up the Canadian streak. Uh, this is uh that’s to the negative, to the positive, man. Florida and Tampa Bay, a lot of Stanley Cup finals happening in the Sunshine State. When’s the rest of the East going to uh break through and handle these guys? Well, first off, the the drought since 1993 has been beautiful as an American hockey fan. Like, nothing has warmed my heart more than seeing those those people miserable about their teams not winning. Um, but uh but it might come to an end pretty soon, I think. I mean, especially if Edmonton wins. Um but but you your point about the Floridaian teams is an interesting one because there is an ongoing debate in the NHL right now about the income tax benefits that teams in Florida, Nashville, Vegas, um and and others have that the Canadian teams don’t have. And and there’s a sense of, you know, these players take less money to play for these teams because they get more money in their pocket because of the tax situation and and is that fair? Um, and it’s a whole lot of crying about teams in non-traditional markets winning the Stanley Cup over and over again. If if if you ask me, I think there’s a reason why players play just want to play in Florida versus play in, you know, in Canada. And it’s beaches and lovely weather and golf and also these organizations are really well-run and also they don’t have, you know, a small army of of media people like in Torontoounding them at all times about how they stink. uh it’s it’s it’s a lot happier life to be in those media markets, too. So, it’s a good point you brought up, which is that, you know, there’s a reason why people believe that these quote unquote non-traditional market teams keep winning. Um, but I think there’s other reasons why these franchises have been successful other than the the economic advantages that they have. Well, Greg, we appreciate a few minutes. We want to let you get back to you probably like Bob Ross just painting a picture uh looking out that window and uh we’ll let you get back to your art. Oh, dude. I appreciate it. Yep. You know, stale hotel coffee uh trying to make out the the the the signs in front of fast food places I’m unfamiliar with in Canada. It’s it’s really living the dream right now, boys. But, uh it’s media day. It’s media day today. Should be a lot of fun. And then tomorrow we we get this thing going for real. And it’s going to be I mean I think it’s going to be a hell of a series between these two teams. They’re they’re just they are the best two teams in the league and and it’s great to see them advance as far as they have. He’s Greg Washinsky. He is a senior NHL writer for ESPN and you can read his work throughout the Stanley Cup finals. Thank you, Greg. Anytime. Thanks. Here’s Greg Winsky from ESPN. All right, we’re going to take a break. When we come back, Bill Seals from covering Iowa State. Man, how good are they going to be? They got some key pieces of the puzzle back. They’re coming off a good year. They got a thirdyear starting quarterback. We’ll talk with Bill as the spring football tour continues next. DJ and PK, it’s 975 the zone. We are joined now by Bill Seals covering the Iowa State Cyclones for Rival Cyclone Report. Our spring football tour continues. Bill, good morning. Good morning. How are you guys doing? Appreciate you having me. We are doing well. Uh we do a spring foot uh spring football tour cover the whole Big 12. And as we talk to teams, there are so many schools, so many teams are optimistic right now. And I know it’s that time of year, but there’s real optimism based on who they have back. And I’m assuming, and correct us if it’s wrong, I’m assuming that given the fact that Iowa State’s gonna have a thirdyear quarterback here, uh they and they’re coming off a good year, that there is a ton of optimism that this is Iowa State’s year. Is that the way everybody’s feeling? Well, I think they’re feeling good right now. Um yeah, you you can’t argue Roco Beck thirdyear starting quarterback. They love what they have back with him. uh the depth behind him shaping up very nicely as well. You know, as as you guys know, in this in this era of the transfer portal, it’s hard to build any kind of depth at the quarterback position, but I think Iowa State feels very good there. I think the biggest question mark though is who’s catching passes from Roco Obeck this year. And they lost a couple of uh guys to the NFL, both to the Houston Texans surprisingly. Both Jaden Higgins, uh Jaylen Noel, they got into uh the transfer portal themselves and added Chase Soell from uh East Carolina, Xavier Townsen from UCF. I think they think they think they’ve got uh some able replacements there as well as some returning players. So, yeah, I think love what they have out of Roco, but uh we we’ll see once they get into the season if the this new receiving core, those those two guys can contribute at near the level that they got out of Higgins and Nell. You got Tyler Miller and Brendan Black along the offensive line, but three starters have to be replaced. They ran the ball fairly well next last season. I think that they’ll continue to run it well if the offensive line is good enough as it was last year. Speak to that. Yeah, I think uh they’ve got some they’ve got some able replacements there along the offensive line. I I think they they even with those two starters gone, they they like what they’ve got coming back. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see Brendan Black shift over to play center this year uh to replace Jared Huffford. Um they’ve got Dylan Barrett coming back. He kind of dealt with some injuries a year ago. Um they like his polling ability at guard more than they do Brendan Black. That’s why I think you’ll see uh Brendan settle in at center. They like what they’ve got with Barrett. Uh Trevor Boore is one that uh probably gonna slot in. On the other side, uh he he got some extended uh time last season. They they like plugging him in. Um on the outside, wouldn’t surprise me to see James Neil settle back in at left tackle. He had kind of been that heavy uh that heavy formation tackle, that uh tight end eligible guy that never never threw it to him. But I think you’ll you’ll see Neil probably settle back in on the left side. That’s that’s your starting five right now. And then they’ve got a couple of other ones as well. They did add an experienced uh red shirt well, he’ll be a red shirt sophomore now. Uh Austin Barrett played five games at Indiana a year ago and then we saw what Indiana uh finished record-wise. So I think a very good uh case could be made for him as a future player along that offensive line as well. So they like the depth there. Probably uh seven seven eight guys deep. At running back, it looks like the top three backs are all back and Carson Hansen and Boo Sama. Jaylen Jackson did have an arrest in December. Are they all back? Anything added to the transfer portal? It’s kind of a three-headed monster there with those three going for about 16 almost 1,700 yards. Yeah, Jaylen Jackson actually was a uh like a grad transfer type from Eastern Michigan. So, he’s exhausted his eligibility, but they still do have Carson Hansen, Abusama. Uh, what we’ve seen out of this coaching staff the last couple years, they’re kind of going the way that it seems like a lot of backfields are going in college football anymore. And it’s maybe a by committee approach or, you know, one guy will dominate the carries if he’s kind of the the uh the guy uh maybe on the on the heater that night, they’ll they’ll ride him. But for the most part, you’ll see Hansen and Sama uh splitting the carries. Hansen will be the goal line back. Uh Boo Sama maybe the home run hitter, the home run threat there. All remember what he did at Kansas State that season, a regular season finale uh two seasons ago, had like over well over 200 yards and four or five touchdowns I believe. A big game in that. So he’s the home run hitter. they uh were able to red shirt Dylan Lee. Um they I think in in limited action he kept they kept him under that uh fivegame uh threshold was able to red shirt him. Dylan Lee probably going to be the number three guy. Um they did add River Peppers uh a freshman. He he was here in January but also really like uh someone about to join the program in another week here. Jaden Jackson signed him in the February uh period out of uh uh the uh Lonear State. So did a little recruiting down there. He put up huge numbers. So they like uh I think the depth behind Hansen and Sama at running back. Everybody likes to throw the ball. So you got to defend the throw. Safeties bro uh Bo Freeler and Malik Verden top two leading tacklers. I believe they’re both gone. But as I look at this secondary with guys like Trey Bell, Jontes Williams, uh Jeremiah Cooper, seems like they’re pretty good position to be decent in that defensive secondary. Yeah, the uh it’s a big loss for Freeler losing him. Uh they they’ve got a ton of safeties in the pipeline. I think numbers wise they’re fine, but leadership uh wise with Freeler, a multi-year starter, that’s a big loss. Malik Verdon, he uh he also started over multiple years. Kind of battled injuries though and was in and out of the lineup, but they were able to cultivate some depth there. Jeremiah Cooper um one of the leaders in the country in interceptions in uh 2023. Kind of took a took a step back though last year and he’s hungry to kind of put things back together for his senior season. So, uh, Cooper going to be the, uh, be the guy, the leader back there. They’ve got some other, uh, possibilities, uh, to to go in, um, opposite, uh, well, the two spots they go that 335, the three high safety look. So, you uh, Jame Patton, uh, Taan James, Marcus Neil, Drew Sergis, those are four names they’re probably looking to fill those other two starting roles. Um, at cornerback they love Jontes Williams. He’s back as a a as a junior. Uh, they played three guys, a ton of of snaps last year. Uh, Darien Porter, he’s in the NFL now, was drafted. Uh, Miles Purchase was a multi-year starter. So, it there there’s a void there with with those two guys moving on. They had three guys kind of split those uh snaps across two positions. So, Williams going to be the clear-cut leader there. You me you mentioned Trey Bell a little bit in the lead end. I think he’s probably the guy that that starts at that second corner spot, but they also like Quinton Taylor. He’s another one younger player in the program, red shirt freshman. And David Coffee, he’s another name we’ve we’ve heard a lot about as well. So, four guys for two spots. Uh coaching staff, I think, still feeling pretty well at corner. When it comes to the pass rush, uh, 16 sacks a year ago, J.R. Singleton had four of them and he is now in the NFL with the Seahawks. So, where does the pass rush come from? Well, it’s been, to be honest, it’s it’s been a struggle. It it’s not this has not been the uh pass rush team that they were uh when they had Will McDonald coming out I believe in the 2022 class uh or uh draft class he’s with the Jets now and then really they have not been able to replicate that production in the the uh the two full years since. So, and and they lost a couple lost one in the portal in uh uh Tyler Onetum ended up at Texas A&M. That’s a big void on the kind of that strong side defensive end and a threeman front. Um so they they’re without him. Uh Joey Peterson graduated. He’d have been the starting like a Leo uh defensive end, pass rushing end. So they look to replace both ends at uh in that threeman front. Uh, so I Kenna Ike Aziagu uh played only 255 snaps last year. So his his production dropped, but I think you’ll probably see him step into a starting role, but they still want to see the best version of him, and he hasn’t been able to put it all together just yet, looking to do that going into 2025. They added a couple out of the uh transfer portal. uh Canon Butler out of you and I, Tomatoa, Mcdana, uh Von Troy Malone, all three of those guys came in uh v via the portal. Two two came in January. Uh Mcdana will be here in another week to join the program. So, they’re hoping out of what they added in the portal and then Ike Eziagu coming back that they’re going to be able to uh put together a better pass rush than they have the the past couple seasons. linebacking core. You get Caleb Bacon and Will McGloin. Now, Bacon missed all of last year. McLaclin uh got hurt, I think, more than half of the season. So, with those two guys coming back, uh maybe you need some more help, but you got a good start. Yeah. Yeah. Bacon played five snaps. He was uh he was a break that every the whole the whole off season, the whole training camp, he was going to this was going to be his breakout year. gets hurt on the fifth snap that he played in the season opener was out. So, I think they’re again expecting big things out of him. He’s he’s ramped it back up. Um I Mclofflin Yeah, he had he had back surgery uh going I believe in August last year and also had been dealing with one other injury as well. So, uh, they they had got Mclofflin back and I think they felt good where he was, uh, trending towards the end of the season. He was starting to, uh, show signs of being his old self. So, I think between Bacon at the mic, uh, Will Mclofflin at the SAM, there’s going to be a, uh, uh, probably a training camp battle that we uh, cover. Uh, Cooper Eel at the Will, um, he star, he played the most snaps of anyone. uh kind of was the one guy that didn’t get hurt at linebacker it seemed like a year ago. Um and then they’ve got Carson Willich. Uh he had he last spring he tore his uh tore his knee up and he to go going into spring was going to be the projected starter at will. So he’s back now well looking good. So I think between Eel and Willich there’ll be a training camp battle there to see who starts. So, uh, and then in lie of just all the injuries that they had, I think they feel good about really a three deep even at linebacker right now, just with all the players that were pushed into action a year ago and then those ones coming back off of injury. It sounds like the questions are at wide receiver as far as position groups, wide receiver, defensive line, and linebacker. Is that true? And if so, whi which one which one looks like a weakness because there’s never a perfect team. So which one’s the biggest concern? Yeah, I think def defensive line most definitely. I think they feel good about what they brought in out of the portal at wide receiver. Um if if there’s anything about this coaching staff we’ve seen under Matt Campbell is that they can identify talent at wide receiver in the transfer portal and even as transfers. uh Xavier Hutchinson, a name uh they added out of a a Jo and uh that Jaden Higgins was a was a transfer portal guy. So, they’ve shown that they can evaluate players out of the portal and as as Jo transfers. I think they they’re happy with what they’ve got there. We just haven’t seen it on the field yet. Um linebacker, I think that’ll that’ll return to actually being a strength, I think, assuming this position stays healthy. uh Bacon is going to be a big- time uh player for them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing on Sundays here in another uh year. So, big- time player there and they’ve got some experience. So, but yeah, again, defensive line that’s in in a 335, you’ve got to be really good up the middle and then you’ve got to be able to get some guys that can generate some pressure against the quarterback and they have not done that. Um they’ve tried to address it out of the portal. Um, you know, on the interior of the the defensive line, we didn’t talk about Dominic Orange. Um, he’s a guy they’re looking for more uh more snaps out of this season, and when when he’s been on the field, he’s been really good, but they want to get more out of him going into his senior year. He’s another guy, and you’ll see him get drafted, I think, next April. So, they want to get more out of him, and they got to stop the run. and in a 335 it all starts in the middle and they’ve got to be really strong and they’ve got to be better uh a better pass rushing team. So I think most definitely it’s the Dline that remains the biggest uh question mark. All right. Well, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech, ASU, BYU, and Utah. There’s optimism everywhere. We’ll see how it all pans out. Bill, we appreciate an early look at how things are shaking out for Iowa State. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, appreciate it, guys. Have a have a good day. All right, Bill Seals covering the Iowa State Cyclones. When we come back, we shift gears from college football to the Utah Jazz. Austin A, the new president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz joined us on the show yesterday in the 8:00 hour. We’ll play him for you early risers. You’ll hear that conversation next. All right, DJ and PK, time to welcome in Austin Ames, Utah Jazz president of basketball operations. Austin, good morning. Good morning, guys. Does that sound weird? Have you adjusted to that yet? It does. It does feel weird. It does feel weird. I’m I’m just happy to hear you guys are still on the air all these years. Congrats. It’s amazing. So, we get that a lot from people come back. I went over to talk to him after the press conference and told him that. And seriously, PK looks at me goes, “No.” Like, “Yeah, here we are.” I was surprised you guys were both alive. A nice hair still. Thank you. Hey, we’re younger than your father, big guy. And you look great. How much? So, you made the news. You answered the question everybody wanted to hear and but that leads to a whole series of questions. Are the Jazz going to tank again? You’re very definitive in your answer there. It’s already clipped in in our system and I think Yaks already played it like three times this morning. So, that you’ll just you’ll hear that over and over. won’t see that this year. There it is. You won’t see that this year, but people wonder what that means. And I know you can’t show all the cards right now, but the team could get younger. You know, you could make moves and younger teams don’t tend to win a lot. The team could win a lot more games. When you say that, what are you thinking? Where do you want to see the team to go this year? How is this how is this likely to play out? is taking you at face value, it could still play out several different ways. Yeah. And I think we have to keep all of those different ways on the table. Um the optionality, we have to find value and we have to make smart moves and so I don’t know how it’ll play out to be honest. It’s it’s still too early. Um we’ll have to see what opportunities present themselves to us. Um, but if if you you know go back to the question that was asked before that sound bite, it was a it was asked in a specific way and I responded to that. Um, you know, we’re going to we’re going to fight to the end. We’re going to let the group that whatever group we end up with fight and we’re going to let Will Hardy fight and and try to win and improve and we’re going to do everything we can um every night. So, that’s kind of the the question I was answering. It seemed like that you had had prior conversation. You said it so definitively that it wasn’t something that just popped into your mind that you had had previous discussions maybe along the hiring process. Is that accurate? For sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously these are the things you discuss um when considering taking a job. Are you worried about losing the draft pick? much has been made of the fact that Oklahoma City, depending on how things shake out, could get that pick. How how important is a pick in a draft that’s supposed to be this good uh coming up in another year? And I realize it’s, you know, a year beyond the one year you’re scouting on right now. How big a factor is that when you’re making these decisions? It’s it’s a huge factor. It’s a huge factor, but you know, there are many other factors to consider, right? um the toll it takes on a team um to in an organization to only think about that pick, right? Um the the effect it has on all the other moves and decisions you make. Um it it can, you know, so there are a lot of other things to consider besides the pick. The pick is really important and and obviously um you know it’s no one wants to just give away first round picks. I um but there are uh there are a lot of other things to consider and that’s what we’re trying to do. The last two years the Jazz have had three picks. I say three first round picks each. I know Philipowski was early second round but it’s barely in the second round. Plus he played like a firstrounder. I’m sure you already know that. And you know, we were anticipating leading up to each draft that there were would be moves, but the organization chose to keep the picks, take the players. Uh, by and large, I think they’ve been good. And we know Taylor Hendrick’s had the injury. Cody Williams, he needs to literally grow up and get more phys uh just get his body in better condition to be able to compete bigger and stronger, all those things. So, it looks like you got those six players. Now, you got a couple of picks this year in the first round. And I believe you have two in the second and you can’t provide any definitive answers, but do you have an idea of whether those picks will be kept or maybe there’s an opportunity to make moves? I mean, I’m I’m going to listen to everything. I I just got into this job. Uh so, it’s all kind of moving fast. Um PK, but I believe um you know, by far the most likely scenario is we draft the picks. Um but you never know what offers come in. Got to stay ready. Yeah, you’ve got a lot of young guys here. Have you followed these guys yourself for a long time? I know team scout each other. You’re preparing for trades and all that. How how deep a dive have you taken on Jazz players and how much do you think you still have to learn about the current roster? I follow them pretty close and um you know obviously even before they were members of the Jazz uh followed them but there’s nothing like working with people every single day. So I will spend a lot of time talking with the people in the building on what they see and and talking with the players themselves. Right. So there’s more information to be gathered for sure. Drafting is a lot like recruiting in college to where a coach and his staff, they have to project because you’re taking a 17, 18 year old and you want to develop him into a 20, 21 year old and that could be a significant difference. Same type of concept here with the NBA draft. you’re drafting maybe an 18, 19, 20 year old, but the idea is to project it down the road when he’s 24, 25, 26, and so forth. For you, how much of a challenge is that to be able to look at a kid now and have some ability to see the future and what that individual can become? It’s really hard. It’s really hard. We We all do as much work as we possibly can and it’s an educated guess. certainly uh a difficult thing. I I usually tell the story of when Doc Rivers was our coach in Boston and his son Austin Rivers was in the draft and a highly rated player and we our whole organization knew Austin since the time he was four years old all the way up. We’d seen everything and we still weren’t sure. You know, that’s how that’s how hard this is. Um and and that’s why building an NBA team, you have the draft, which is hard. You’re going to have some misses. It’s kind of like uh like hitting in baseball, you know, the the worst is 250 and the best is 350, right? It’s can be that narrow. Uh uh anyway, it can be that difficult. Um but you have trades and you have free agency and so you have to kind of use all the tools um to build the team because the draft is so uncertain. Um, this is, you know, an odd one-of-a-kind situation here with you, uh, following your dad and already so many people have moved from one organization to another, but are you coming by yourself? Are you bringing other people with you? Uh, should we expect more staff changes? No. No. Really happy with the staff here? Um, and we got a drafted free agency just a, you know, few weeks away here. So, um, I’m going to jump in with this group, uh, of which I I do have a lot of previous relationships with, you know, you know, there’s only 30 NBA teams, so we all know each other really well, um, and deal with each other, and there are, um, some people I’ve worked with previously, obviously, Will Hardy, who I’m super excited to partner with. Um, and he has a few people on his staff that, uh, that I worked with in Boston, including, uh, Joe Misoula’s brother, um, uh, the assistant general manager of the Jazz, Shane Fensky, I worked with for many years in Boston. So, anyway, there there’s a lot of people, um, and a lot of great people to work with that I’m going to just roll with this group and figure it out. Do you look for specific things when you’re drafting a player, whether that be height, length, uh, jump shot, I don’t know, whatever. whatever goes into it. Is there some things that are just musthaves when you look to take a player? There there are a lot of things that that you look at. I I try everything I can, this is a boring answer, to not have hard and fast rules because there are just players that break them, right? Uh there are short players that do great, there are slow players that do great, there are non-shooters that find a way to to do great, but it’s really the the combination. It has to add up, you know, but character, um hard work, competitiveness, I I would say those types of things, the the less physical uh measurement items I I would focus on more and have a little bit stronger rules on. Are you as patient as your dad? I I I don’t know how much time you spend with him. I’m not sure I would call him patient. Um he in regard in regard to making moves, he’s got a reputation for waiting people out on trades and that kind of stuff. Let’s just stay there. Yeah. I mean, look, we worked we worked together for 14 years. Um I I I find him to be I found him to be pretty aggressive. Um uh but yeah, I mean, look, he he drives a hard bargain in the past and all of that. And look, there are lots of things to learn there. Um trades are difficult. Uh it has to work for both teams and I’m but I plan on being um on the more aggressive side. Um but that that could that can mean nothing happens for a year. It could mean something happens next month. It’s just you never know. Got to stay ready and and find the right opportunities and the right value. What’s your confidence level in being able to find guys that are, you know, not stars? You look at what the Oklahoma City Thunder have those role players coming off the bench, Caruso and maybe even Alude Dort was an undrafted free agent. I know he starts, but those types of guys, you need to have them. And I’m wondering, you know, I’ve read some stuff since you got the job that you were a part of that and bringing in guys that could help you that weren’t necessarily bigname guys. So, I’m wondering your confidence level and be able to add that to the Jazz. That that’s that’s a huge part of the job. And, you know, the other part that that you didn’t mention is the development by the coaching staff. You know, it’s it’s you work together with them and you you do your best to find the diamonds in the rough and the guys who are undervalued or underdrafted and um and you work with them and the coaching staff and see if you can’t develop them into being players and but that’s that’s the job. That’s the job. It’s not just drafting the fifth pick overall. It’s drafting the 43rd pick or the undrafted guys or the two-ways and seeing if you can’t find some guys. That’s we have a big staff of really smart people. We’ll be doing everything we can to do that. Does the world of NIL and the way things are changing college basketball, does that help you prepare? I mean, a lot of these guys are handling a lot of money and as much as drafting is about physical. You got to get people with the right mental makeup to handle the money and the celebrity and spotlight. And college players are getting that in a way, well, let’s just say they didn’t get that a couple decades ago, as you well know. Yeah, it’s an interesting question. I’m not sure I’ve noticed a big difference yet, but we’re early in this process uh with NIL in this era. Um I I I haven’t seen it, but it’s possible. It’s possible they could come in a little more prepared. Back in my beatw writer days when I was with newspapers and covering teams on a daily basis, I would see guys like uh as you call them, DA, they’d show up in the press room, whether it be in Las Vegas or wherever, and you’d see that they would be inperson scouting. How much do you intend to do that as far as being on the road to get your own eyewitness view of potential players? It’s it’s what I’ve lived the last 17 years of my life and I plan to continue. I I I believe in um in both. You have to watch a lot of film. Um but I I believe in seeing in person. I think it helps. It helps me anyway. So I I will do a lot of that um all over the world, pounding the pavement, uh shaking the bushes, finding any anything I can to find an advantage. The Pacers were in the lottery just a couple of years ago and obviously we haven’t had um you know had six different champions in six years. You have been doing this for more than a decade, but do you feel like the rules have changed how quickly teams are being built and how short their window is to win and how quickly they’re being taken apart? Yeah, a lot of that has to do with the collective bargaining agreement. it um it kind of forces quicker uh rebuilds and and quicker uh kind of dismantling. You just can’t uh spend into the tax and they have these aprons now. So everything is a little bit different. It all happens quicker. Well, this is a is it fair to say it’s a dream come true for you? Because I know you’ve worked about it worked at it for a long time and I remember talking to you when you were a player that this is something that you wanted to do. It’s really cool to see from our perspective that you got it and you put your nose to the grindstone, so to speak, and got the job done. I’m wondering if you’re looking at it like that. Absolutely. No, absolute dream come true. I’ve I’ve been been grinding in the G-League and in, you know, uh uh gyms in Serbia and Lithuania, finding guys that this has been this is this is what I love. This is my passion. I’m so excited to do this with with, you know, Ryan and Ashley Smith and the and Will Hardy and all the people in the jazz. Like, you know, I’ve been interviewing for these jobs um uh the last few years. Um I actually had uh some others to talk to um this summer actually. Uh anyway, I I’ve been exploring and looking at these opportunities and uh this one just felt right um because of the people involved and um and the timing in my life. Well, Austin, congratulations and good luck. And uh later this month, we can’t wait to see what you do with the draft. Thanks, guys. Good to talk to you again. There’s Austin A DJ and PK. Proudly presented by our title sponsor, Black Desert Resort, Utah’s premier golf resort. Coming up next, what is trending, the headlines. Stay with us. It’s time to get your morning started with the news you need to know. News of the day. News update day. This is what’s trending with DJ and PK. #NBA. You know, the day market, the small market has been over. Social media will carry it. The way the guys play will carry it. Shay versus Tyrese is a good matchup. Got two young teams. London teams, teams that shoot a lot of threes. You know, everybody wants it to be at New York and LA. Well, apparently those teams ain’t good enough for it to be there. So, you know, this is the way the cookie crumbles. It’s the way it’s always been. So, small market, big market. We want to see the best teams there and the best players. Shaquille O’Neal dismissing the whole, “Oh, wo is me. Small market, NBA finals, best players, best teams.” Who’s got woe? people who want to see Lakers Knicks or Lakers Celtics or Warriors over a of a basketball series. Yeah. Really? He doesn’t want to hear it. Pacers delayed in arriving in Oklahoma City. Severe weather had to land in Tulsa, refuel, finally fly into Oklahoma City. Well, they’re there and game one is tomorrow night and we’ll get that thing going. I once was coming back from Mexico and had to go through Denver and we circle circle circled because it was high winds and they were running out of gas. So we had to go to Albuquerque to gas up. Got back to Denver and went through customs and then of course missed my connecting flight. Then they say, “Oh, you can go to Las Vegas like this like 9 10:00 at night and we get in Las Vegas and there’s no flights to Salt Lake. There were never was any. They totally screwed us. They just fle to Las Vegas and lift you there. So, I get there and I’m at the counter and I tell the guy, he says, “Well, we got a flight at 6:00 a.m.” And I said, “Why did you guys fly me to to Las Vegas?” And he said, “Oh, we didn’t. You just wanted to come down here and have a free night on us in Las Vegas.” Oh, yeah. That was the plan. I went nuts. Nice. Lit him up, huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I I did. and he took off and I was right in his face and he says, “And you know what, too? Since you’ve been doing this to me, I’m going to take you off the list on the 6 a.m. You’re not going to be on that flight.” And I I just I was probably the maddest I’ve ever been. Uh excluding a couple times with you, of course. And uh I I went nuts. this at this point it’s like 1:00 in the morning and uh sleepdeprived you was pretty rational and ready to go. Let’s go. Yeah. And so I said, “Well, screw that.” I went, we got a car, drove to St. George, slept there, and then drove home the next morning. And this would have been like uh Saturday or Sunday. Monday morning, first thing after the show, I called the airlines and I was livid and I don’t know what they did to the guy. Uh, but you aired him out pretty good. Yes. And then they gave me all the money back. Oh, nice. And I paid for the rent a car. And then the next time I was in Vegas and had a layover, I went looking for him. You did that? I did, too. The only thing I regret Come out. come out. Take out my phone and took a picture of him at the time. Ah, yeah. I I I wanted a free night in Vegas. I’ve only been to Vegas probably 1400 times. You’re over it. And I need another free a free night in Vegas. You’re over it. I don’t gamble anyway. Hey, the New York Knicks are gambling. They fired their head coach Tom Tibido. Five years on the job. They’re in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. Well, yeah, we just had our best playoff run in 25 years. Let’s let’s fire the coach. Does that make any sense to you? No, but a lot of times firings don’t. So, this is an extreme example, but he was probably going to get fired anyway at some points. What? Name me a coach in New York outside of Red Holesman who didn’t get fired. I hear you. But maybe you brought it back one time and the East I we still got a whole offseason to go, so who knows? But right now, the East looks pretty wide open. This team, that team, who knows? It seems like you ought to give it another shot. That’s the Knicks for you. Now, I can’t remember the uh who was it? Detroit fired Rick Carile and brought in Larry Brown and they won the Yeah, it could happen. Sure, you could hit gold. Seems like the exception to the rule, but okay. Well, why would they? Doug Collins was fired and they were doing well and look what happened at Chicago. Not to say this is happening or to justify it. I’m just saying it’s a crazy business. Shams is reporting on ESPN. The Kevin Durant mutual interest for a potential trade. Phoenix and Houston, Phoenix and Miami. The Knicks, Minnesota, San Antonio. What will happen? Those are teams that have been mentioned in other places. Seems logical. Okay. Sure. See how that shakes out. Yeah. So, I never thought I’ve never bought that. Phoenix just is so bleak. Blah blah blah. Cuz all you got to do is make one deal and away you go. It could happen. You can restore what you given. Not to say that they’re going to be a contender, but all that they lost, they can quickly get back. DJ and PK #NFL. One of my favorite players of all time is probably my favorite player all time is Barry Sanders. So, probably similar to that. Maybe one day like it’ll be out of nowhere. I’ll probably be balling and just be like, “Yeah, call it quits.” That’s Saquon Barkley, the Eagles star running back on possibly retiring early. Sanders is zero. Maybe he’ll walk away like Barry did. Well, Barry, no, he he he cut left, then he cut right away. That’s how he walked. Okay. Heard of the general manager. Cut away. That guy, the way he could run, man, that was something. Dallas Cowboys corner Trayvon Diggs could lose out on half a million dollars. He did not participate in the team’s offseason program. He’s opted to rehab his surgically repaired left knee in Miami. He’s missed the first two phases of the team’s offseason program. Excessive absences could cost him the 500 grand. Seahawks coach Mike McDonald made it clear the team plans to start Sam Darnold despite rumors emerging he could be some planted some up and down performances in offseason practices lately. Seems a little early to be worried about that, but quarterback speculation the NFL makes the world go around, I guess. Well, I thought that he was going to be the guy. Yep. This story sort of caught me by surprise. I mean, I thought that that was the plan. You got rid of Smith, you brought in him, and away you go. Gina wanted more money than you wanted to give and they gave Sam Darnold three years. Although the way the guaranteed money is stacked up, they don’t have to give him three years. But this year, he seems like the guy. Vikings legend Jim Marshall, part of the fame Purple People Leaders, passed away yesterday at the age of 87. He held the record for consecutive games played, 282 in a row until Brett Favre broke that record. 282 straight games on the D line in an era when they were playing 14 games a year. That’s remarkable. That’s unbelievable. 20 years. DJ and PK # Major League Baseball. Jazz Chisum to lead things off here in the seventh. Drive to right. It’s deep. Going back. Goodbye line drive. Home run Jazz Chism. It’s 2-1 Yankees. Not played since that first inning on the 27th. Now he drives the O2 deep to right field. Barger at the wall. It’s gone again. Solo homer for Harper in his first at bat back and the Phillies go back to back to make it three nothing in the first. Here’s Jake Croninworth. First pitch swinging ground ball to the right side. Base hit through. Jackson Merrell is going to score. Pounds have a 3-2 lead on the two out single by Jake Croninworth. Little two out magic. Pitch swung on and hit deep left. Back goes NMO. Still going back. This ball has off the wall. Around third is Edmond. The Dodgers are going to win it. Freddy Freeman with a walk-off double. And the Dodgers win it six to five in 10 innings. Dodgers taking down the Mets. The two teams right behind him. Padres’s and Giants squaring off. And you hear Jake Cron drive in the winner there. Manny Mado four hits. Padres’s win three to2. Bryce Harper back from his back injury. He returns. He’s got a home run. Your childhood team, the Philadelphia Phillies, beat the Blue Jays 8 to3. Well, mid childhood. Early childhood was the Giants. Early childhood with Willie. Yeah. Then you moved on. Well, he moved on, so I had to move on. Next. Give me Mike Schmidt and go. I did like Mike Schmidt. I bet you did. Dave Cash, the bull, Greg Luzinski. Nice. That was the game that when we had moved to Phoenix and my sister, her husband, and my mother and I drove from Phoenix to San Diego. San Diego saw the game and didn’t go to the beach. No. Got up like left at 4 in the morning on a Sunday. Went to the game because it was a Sunday day game as most of them are. And then right after the game, drove home. I was furious. The Rockies won a series 22 series ago. They won a series. They’re back, baby. No, they’re not. No, they’re not. They just got them. They got They got the Marlins and they each one went out 3-2. They beat the Marlins. Already have their 50 losses. Far and away the worst team, but 11 and 50 now. Look at them go. Winning 18% of the games. That is something special. Boston skipper Alex Cora lamenting the Red Sox. We’re not getting any better. Red Sox lost to the Angels 4-3. Both those teams under 500. Either one of them getting any any better. Write them off and watch somebody else. We have seen turnarounds. You know, it’s early June. There’s a long way to go. Yeah, I’m not following the Red Sox that close. I think the Angels have been a little bit better. I mean, they still got a long way to go, but I think they’ve been better to relative to where they’ve been. Bees lost to the Round Rock Express six to3 coming off a week where they lost six in a row. Take another L here. They’ll try again tonight. Ballpark America First Square. Game two in this series. First pitch set for 705 and the zone will be on the air. Tony Park 650 #col. If I know my Patrick Kahan, he is completely bored with all stories about the house settlement. You bored with all the stories about the house settlement? House settlement. Good. Another extension pushed back. I hate the house. Was going to be June 6 deadline. Now it’s June 27. The expectation was the new terms of the settlement would go into effect July 1st, but that’s likely to be delayed as well. Everybody, all the ads sitting waiting around, all the coaches, how much money are we going to have? What are the rules going to be? What do we have to do? Nobody knows. Stinking house settlement. Yeah, frustrating. But what are you going to do? Bill Bichc has passed his uh deal for his buyout to lower from uh 10 million to $1 million. Where would he go now? Now that his buyout’s down at 1 million. I mean, he’s still going to do a year at North Carolina, isn’t he? After that, all bets are off. But uh I think he’s going to Paradise, if you get my drift. Hey, now Ty and set his son up for the next job. What’s her name? I haven’t heard her. She hadn’t been in the news in a while. Jordan Hudson. She has not been in the headlines. What is she doing, man? Get going. Get your name out there some more. Promote, promote, promote. DJ PK #NHL Stanley Cup finals start tonight. The rematch, the Panthers, the Oilers. Game one in Edmonton. Puck drop set for 6:00 on TNT. who will get it done. You know, you hear the phrase home ice. How come you don’t hear the phrase visiting ice? Same side of a different different coin. Yeah. Well, they went uh about as exciting as you could have a year ago. Overtime in game seven, threeame win streaks both, and then in double OT. I don’t know you can get much better than Matt if you’re looking for publicity towards your league. We’ll see what they can do. My guess is it wouldn’t be that because the odds of that happening seem overwhelming. You can go to triple overtime in game seven. Wow, that would be something. But we’ll see. I’m going to go with Edmonton. Yeah, take Edmonton and Edmonton’s power play. Florida with twice as many uh minutes penalty minutes over the course of this postseason as Edmonton far more likely to give you the man advantage. All that firepower, will that make a difference? Yeah, fire on ice. DJPK, that’s what’s trending. It’s brought to you by Shamrock Plumbing. There’s no job too big or too small. Get the personal touch with Shamrock Plumbing. Brian Guilt is going to join us at 8:00. SiriusXM NBA radio host, NBA TV contributor. His thoughts on Austin A making the move from Boston to Utah. What impact is that going to have? to talk with Brian Gueltzer and Justin Spears, Arizona Wildcats beat Rider for the Arizona Daily Star. Our spring football tour continues at 9:00. Also, it’s a win tickets Wednesday. We’re giving away a fourack of tickets to Aerof Fest in the 8:00 hour. So, look forward to that one. Coming up next, the question of the day. Stay with us. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present This is JJ and Alex. Austin announced as the president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz. They’ve got a lot of work. Obviously, there’s not just a lot of work to be done. There’s a lot of years to have to figure some things out. This is not a business like position. This is a personnel position within the within the organization. And that is to say, hey, look, we have got to get the right personnel in the building. We’ve got to figure this thing out. We’ve got to find exactly where it is that we want to put ourselves. This is a big loss for the Celtics. He played a big role in helping assemble the roster that they currently have. Brad Stevens runs the day-to-day operations of the Boston Celtics. And it says a lot that Brad could have sent Danny’s son packing a long time ago if he didn’t have value. Instead, he made him the assistant general manager. He helped build that roster that won an NBA championship last year. He has earned the place where he’s at in the NBA today. Catch JJ and Alex afternoons from 3 to 6 presented by G2G bars on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Oh, I’ll come back and your customers will come back. They will flock to your business if you do this one thing. I want to be your endorser. PK. Yes. Yeah. All you got to do is text PK to 575000 and the sales staff will be in touch and we you and me can have pretty much the rest of our lives a professional business relationship that will blow your mind. You understand what I’m saying? Of course you do because I’m saying it. So you text PK to 57500. You got a business you want to advertise and away we go. Question of the morning. Austin H says the Jazz most likely will keep this month’s draft picks. What were you hoping for, Eric? It’d be a miracle if they could trade their five for anything meaningful. Nobody like Giannis or KD wants to play in Utah for a team with no direction. They have to hope to get lucky with number five. Lots of great players drafted a five or later. They got to get lucky. Yeah, I don’t think they get lucky though. I I disagree on the luck category. I think a lot of work goes into it. You have to reduce luck as much as possible through preparation. And I think that’s extremely important because if it’s luck, then I can do it. You can do it. You’re not just rolling the dice, right? You got to go to that gym in the middle of nowhere in Europe and find that player. or figure out or figure out sitting at the combine that this player while talented doesn’t have the drive to get a lot better and all these 19 and 20 year olds they got to get a lot better. Yeah. I I think that high in the draft it’s not some discovering. Yeah. To some gym in Siberia. I think that’s that’s how you find your later pick. Yeah. And guys that can develop, you know, that’s the thing that you go with Jokic. Well, he was a second round pick. So I think at the fifth spot, this person, this young man is well known throughout basketball circles and Austin has researched that of infinite amount of times and then you know you don’t really know until you’re on the clock because you can’t guarantee what Charlotte’s going to do. Now I’m looking at one right now. I mean it’s fun. I think we all do this. We look at these mock drafts just for the heck of it and we’ve seen them a hundred times now. But we still if if 101 comes out, we look at it, right? And what are they saying? And especially now with you and us and Yak because it’s our business and so we want to be and ourselves as prepared as possible to be able to discuss what we’ve seen and whatnot. So clutch points, I just literally just five minutes ago. Obviously I know what we’re talking about. So, Clutch Points comes up with a draft mock a mock draft, right? And so, they’ve got obviously they’ve got Flag and they’ve got Harper. That seems to be virtually I mean maybe not maybe just remove the word virtual that everyone you look at has flag one um Harper 2, right? So, I look at this one saying, “All right, well, what do we see?” Well, they got flag one and Harper two. They got Bailey two. That’s where I’m going with this. I had seen I’d seen those but not really since I don’t know. That’s why I bring up early to mid-conference season was the last time I saw because if it was standard then you would bring it up. Okay. So flag one everyone’s got that. That’s a that that’s unanimous. And uh so you look at this and here’s one clutch points for whatever it’s worth. And the writer says almost everyone has Dylan Harper above Ace Bailey. I am fine being the outlier here as I am sold on Baileyy’s upside to become a star and his long per long perm long-term potential as a beast on both ends of the court. Well, if you can get a beast, you better do it. Yes. And then he’s got Harper three. And then also too, this is a surprise. Maluch the big and I saw Duke play 50 times obviously everybody’s watching flag so you see all these other Duke guys. Yeah. So he he’s there at four and I don’t see that man. That would surprise me. I don’t see that he’s been more 678 guy. Yeah. I You don’t even think he’s that big? I’m not sure. I wasn’t impressed. But uh you’re you’re not drafting for 25 26, you’re drafting for 28 29. And then he’s got Edgecom at five. So uh this one Yeah. I mean he’s got Trey Johnson at seven and uh let’s see what’s you said. What did you say come? Five. Five. Yeah. So he’s available. That would excite a lot of Jazz fans. I think a lot of Jazz fans are very interested in him. I’m not sure he’s going to be on the board. Um, I called up another mock draft over here and they have Edgecomb going number three to the Sixers. They have the standard one, too. They have Harper, too. And then the draft starts at three. Yeah. Well, bang. Edgecom’s gone. The draft’s over for him. According, this is Associated Press. Never trust AP. Never trust AP. No. Ace Bailey dropping to four. And they have the Jazz taking Trey Johnson at five. And I think the two names most Jazz fans are rallying around for whatever that is worth are VJ Edgecomb and Trey Johnson. I like Johnson a slight better. Yeah. Not that that means anything, but I just do. Phillip, take Trey or VJ and tank on. There’ll be no tanking. Phillip tank. They may be losing, but there will not be tanking. Hey kids, rock and roll tank on. So, uh, that has a lot of intrigue there at number five because there’s there’s all sorts of directions on which double A can go. And so the stuff that that I was talking about last week and trying to get some information from jazz people is they were real high on Jeremiah Fears, but I don’t know if that information was based on what Austin is thinking because he’s new man now. Maybe maybe everything you were told a week or two ago is old news now. Or they knew this was coming. And they know double A likes fears. I don’t know. I don’t know. The question with him is the three-point shooting. Everybody’s fixated on that because he didn’t shoot. He didn’t he didn’t even shoot 30% from three. But if you think that can improve, then have at it. I I you know, I’ve heard they really they’re high on fears. I’m thinking what why would I go with Jagor then? He’s he’s five, six inches taller. The the shooting percentage is virtually the same. Uh he scored more points and all that because my guess is speaking of fears, he had far more FGAs than uh Jagor did. And you know, he’s an American. He didn’t have to make the adjustments. I think we underestimate Jaor’s all the adjustments that he had to make. I mean, going around the world and knowing one person, Travis Hansen. Yeah, I can relate to that. Uh, I moved to Arizona from New Jersey and knew one person, my sister. That was it. My parents didn’t even come. They came later. Uh, she they sent me to live with her because she’s much older than I am. And because they wanted me to start school at the start of the school year rather than, you know, sophomore year or in the middle or what have you. Uh, so I I think not not to say that he should be drafted five, but I think he’s his best ball is way down the line and he’s going to be much better than we saw in his one season at BYU. But as far as what the Jazz got. Yeah. I see. Back to that that comment. Take who take Trey? Trey or VJ and tank on for But they will they will tank on but just not on purpose. They won’t tank. They will lose. Well, it’ll be the same. The result is the same. The result may be the same, but the process battling to the end will be different. Yeah. There’ll be uh opportunity to win games trying to win and playing their best players. And and and so what if you win 10 more? And San Antonio won 10 more, probably won more than that, and they still got ahead of you. So, you tried it. You gave it your best effort to suck and you literally did. You never have been worse in terms of winter. First 60 loss team in Jazz history, right? So you literally did your best to be your worst worst record ever and it didn’t pan out. Nope. So now what’s the point? There is no point. We learned our lesson. And then you move on from that and now you have these young fellows and you run with them. And yeah, so you will they may not even get I would think they would get to at least 20 wins, but I can’t guarantee that at all. Let’s see what the roster is for we Well, I think I they even with the young guys ought to get to 20. They’re not going to trade that many vets and the young guys ought to be better. Yeah, but they could be injuries. Sure. So, if there’s injuries, uh, who knows how that’s going to play out. Uh, but get yourself get yourself a bonafide player, man, that that everyone from Austin to his father to the owner to Jay-Z to all the other scouts, all those folks that are there doing all the heavy lifting that they do that everybody feels great about and bring him in. And yeah, I’m not expecting him to just take the world by storm, but who’s to say that he couldn’t be on the all rookie team? I would assume Flag would be rookie of the year. Seems like a safe bet, right? But when they do the odds for the rookie of the year, you know, his odds are going to be way better than everybody else’s, of course. And wherever he goes, he’s going to get immediate playing time and and get shots and get all the stuff as if he’s a four or five year veteran. Uh so he’s got that. But shoot for somebody who’s on the old rookie team. That would be a a nice level of accomplishment. And yeah, so I’m excited about the opportunity that they have. What is it uh three weeks from tomorrow to uh get going here and and get somebody. Austin said yesterday when he came on that a high probability that we keep these picks and we we focus on five and then when five’s done we’ll focus on 21 or you know he didn’t say uh that they keep the picks but he didn’t say that they wouldn’t maybe trade up. He said everything was open. Yeah. But the most likely thing is that they drafted five and 21. But I I think you can have it’s easier to move up from 21 than it is five. Yes. Because you only got four spots to go. So simply math would tell you you got more spots. And it looks like two of them aren’t budging no matter what. So really only one or two. Yeah. Yeah. One one and two aren’t. I mean one or two spots, right? Yeah. The one and two picks aren’t moving. So at five, you can really only trade up to three or four, right? And then at 21, well, we’ll see who they like. Seem like you can you have more maneuverability there. And there’s players out there at 21. We’ll we’ll see about that when that comes about. Uh but yeah, I think they have an opportunity to get a bonafide rotational player. To what level, you know, remains to be seen. Uh but there’s some good some good players there. I think Trey Johnson can be a player. I like him more over Edgecom. fully acknowledging that I’m not draft expert here, but you know, I watch these guys play, right? But you might change your opinion if you got to sit there and talk to guys. You’re the king of that. And these teams value, they value that in every pro sports league. It’s in there finding out the maturity level, finding out the drive, the level of preparation they bring to those meetings. That matters a lot to No question. Yeah. That’s Yeah. We don’t get to do that. And I think that’s key when you’re trying to project. Okay, yeah, we can look at film and decide who’s better now, but we know all these guys have to improve. So, who’s going to be better in three years and five years and 10 years? I still think it’s going to be Trey Johnson. That’s the guy. You’re feeling it. Yeah. Right. Compared to Edgecom, I just I think he’s a they’re about the same size, so that there’s no big distinction there. Uh but maybe they go maybe they go with fears. Maybe they think hey this is a kid that in you know he’s better than Collier and uh he’s going to develop uh blah blah blah remains to be seen uh what what they think there and if they take him then then we’ll see you know away we go on that uh as far as that goes. This clutch uh clutch points has uh Jagger at 11 for those who are interested in that. And it starts off, it says, “Jagor Demond has done wonders for his draft stock over the last month and now solidly finds himself as a lottery projected prospect, which I believe that would happen. I felt that once he got free and was trying to can just play in these workouts that they have rather than trying to fit in and see what Kevin Young wants and all this stuff. Uh that they would play to his style and his ability to cut loose. Yeah. Plus that adjustment thing you’re talking about which is absolutely real. I with every passing month you can be more comfortable, right? Language skills get better. Yeah. blah blah blah, right? And so I felt you just adapt. I felt his best ball was so far out ahead of him. I I think he showed 40% of what he could do in college because everything was so new. I think he would be much better if he could come back next year, but obviously go go chase it. If the pros are going to take you in the top 15, you know, you probably ought to go. The agent has him somewhere working with people and they’re already working on the three. Oh, yeah. Obvious. It’s obvious what he needs to work on and and what his strengths are. And as long as he stays 69 and can pass it like that. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think he’ll shrink. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. And he can. And that that’ll get better because they didn’t they played one season but really they only played about a half a season because the first half was so disjointed who’s on first. The guys are coming in and out of the lineup left and right. They couldn’t figure out and not not not this isn’t a knock but it not that they couldn’t figure it out. It just took a lot of time to figure out. And I don’t think that NBA people pay that much attention to that portion of the season. But we there’s a lot of blowouts in there, right? There’s a lot of blowouts in there, a lot of overmatch and plus he was injured for most of December there was that. Yeah. So you factor all those things in there and I think under all those circumstances, he did okay. And now that’s over and now he can be loose and just go do his thing. and then when he gets drafted, he’ll have to fit into a team concept. But as far as these workouts and all this stuff that they’re doing, who wouldn’t, right? I remember Dave Rose telling me a kid showed up in his office at Dixie College when he was a junior college coach and he says, uh, so he’s got his head down and he says, kid walks in the office, says, “Coach,” and he looks up and so naturally he sees his feet and he looks up, he looks up, looks up, he looks up, he looks up. It’s Keon Clark who played in the NBA, played here, right? And so I said by the time he got to the top of uh Keon’s head, his eyes were as big as basketball as practically. Yes, young man. What can I do for you? And he wanted to come and Tark had the UNLV had the thing there where they would uh send guys over and all that blah blah blah. And so uh that that I think that’s the way you would look at uh Jagor. You cannot deny his height when he walks in and he can get so much stronger and all. So, he’s a he’s a player. I wonder if the if the Jazz had an opportunity to trade up. It seems like he’s worked himself beyond the late first round, the 20s that he’s going to go much closer to 10 than he is to 20. We’re also getting into the time of year where they start to have interactions, you know, interviews and maybe the combine. There was some time for people to get to know him. And we’ve always said that, well, he’s going to help us draft stock when he gets to that. Some people just have that charisma, whatever they come across and and that stuff matters and that can bump you up. And I think Edgecomb and Trey Johnson will do that too because these guys have known for at least three years that the NBA was a likely destination and so they had to play the game and go to college. It’s required of them, right? So they did it and especially now with the NIL, there’s no need to go overseas or go to these other places where you can make money because you can make money right here. Uh in, you know, Texas and Baylor, they both got money. And he they uh what’s his face? Or they asked him last year, “Wow, it looked like you had your best recruiting class.” He’s a football coach at Baylor. You had your had a real good recruiting class. Yeah, we’re paying them now. That’s exactly what he said. Remember that? So implied in there is I want to get these guys all along. We weren’t paying them and other people were. Yeah. So we’re giving them money so these guys can stay in college for that year. At least now I think that I think they they ought to do with it away with it. And if you want to go out of high school, you can go. But at least now they’re being compensated to where they’re not missing out on a year’s worth of earnings. And then you can argue they can get more in that one year than they would have gotten in the NBA salary wise. But I think both those guys will show well in all the interviews too. Is everybody cooled on uh Casper’s uh Jackonus? It appears to that level. Yes. And I did too. I was really enthralled with him early in the season. Uh, I not to say that I think he’s gonna stink, but I cooled on him a little bit myself. Yep. As I watched and made it a point because it’s the winter. I got nothing else to do. This is work. And to watch um Illinois as much as possible. Uh, but I do think he’s he’s a he he can be a player in this league, man. But his shooting was not nearly good enough. Uh, 20% I think it was from three. Now, his field goal percentage was much better. I think he was over 50. He was in love with off the dribble threes, and he was not good at shooting off the dribble, and that really drove down his three-point percentage. But it’s But he took him. Yeah. The way I was watching him, it’s like he was playing to show NBA people. It wasn’t necessarily within the framework of Illinois trying to win games. It was this is what I have to work on because he’s a strong, rugged kid, you know, he’s already got an NBA body. Yes. And Cody Williams will have to work a couple years to get that well built. Yeah. Yeah. And uh he is a player that, you know, he came here to go coach be coached by Underwood over there at Illinois because he’s an excellent coach. She’s highly regarded in coaching circles from what I understand in my conversations with people who know way more about it than I do. And so I think that was a conscious decision in the way that Jaor was with Kevin Young and in the way it appears that some of these other guys that the Cougars are getting uh Debons and these guys that okay, he can prepare me during this short time we’re going to be together to get going for my professional career. And I think that’s the same thing with Underwood over there in Illinois. And so, uh, I still think he can be a player. Uh, it’s so hard to to to just slap like longstanding reps on these youngsters and you don’t know how, excuse me, you don’t know how they’re getting coached. And I wondered that watching Illinois games because he was physically developed and at the times when he did attack the hoop, I thought, why are you taking off the dribble threes? You can you can beat these guys. You can get into the pain and beat these guys. And now maybe they’re college kids. I know. So I know. And and so but it’s like you said about Igor if you if you put him in these scrimmages they do whether it’s two on two, three on three, whatever. I think they very rarely go five on five this time of year if at all. But you know does he attack the hoop more? Can he be coached to do that? And maybe he won’t have that advantage in the NBA as Lach loves to point out. you know, top 200 players in the world. Everybody’s a lot bigger and a lot better. But watching those games, I just kept thinking, put your imprint on the game. Let’s go. And off to dribble three, Clank. But he just turned 19 last week. I hear you. I hear you. Last week full season as 18. But I I think all these things are why he’s not going to go top five, but all the points you talk about is why he’s still going to go in the next five. Yeah. And Hallebertton and SGA didn’t go at that point. They didn’t go in the top 10. They didn’t go in the top 10, right? And here they are with their team in the finals. So, one’s a superstar already and the other’s on the way. DJ PK, it’s 975 the zone. Brian Guilter, NBA radio host, coming up at the top of the hour. We’ll talk with him about Austin, the move to Utah. What does it mean for the Jazz? Stay with us. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson. Tyrese Hallebertton absolutely is having a coming out party for sure. But is he a traditional great player on a great team? I don’t think so. And I love Halbert. And I wonder if that’s just where the NBA is headed and we’re going to have few of these true superstars which I think you take on that label because you win a lot over a sustained period of time and I just wonder if it’s not going to be sustained period of winning for anybody because it’s basically impossible. Like the Nuggets are finished. The Pacers are not going to be in the finals next year because they’re gonna lose Miles Turner or they’re gonna pay him a zillion dollars and can’t pay anybody else. Probably. Yes. You know, we talk about windows and things like that. This is the window for the Pacers randomly. This is it. I said this is going to be the playoff run that Donovan Mitchell laments for the rest of his career because the window is open and these other teams are letting it get away. Hear Jake Scott and Ben Anderson every day from 10 to noon on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Artist of the day, obviously Bruce Springsteen. Born in the USA, the album debuted on this day in 1984. And it’s brought to you by Live Nation. For all the live concerts and events in 2025, check out liveation.com. Yeah. Then it was on at that point. Although he had been on the cover in time and Newsweek in the 70s. Yeah. That was more like the peak of his career right there. the peak of his popularity. Then yeah, then it was it just exploded to that’s that’s when he moved from arenas to stadiums, right? Yeah. Just incredible uh heights at that point. There was no turning back. Got more people weighing in on the Utah Jazz. Austin H is going to keep this month’s draft picks. What were you hoping for, Chris? Truly a miracle or just almost anything right now? Chris just wants some hope. I gotta admit, I was hoping for a little bit of an a faster pace that they would uh make a make a blockbuster, but how many how many blockbusters actually happen? And how many blockbusters actually work? I was about to say it depends on your definition of if they happen or not. I mean, was Durant moving to Phoenix a blockbuster move in your mind? Yes. Okay. So, did it work? No. No. How many times has Harden moved and how many times like this going to be a big deal? They were big deals, but his success was in Houston. She never really recreated that. I mean, they had the second best team in basketball. They couldn’t beat the Warriors. Yeah, I got it. I’m with you. I hear you. Uh, yeah. So, it’s more of a fantasy to to see that there’s a blockbuster deal out there. Uh, it just it doesn’t happen as much. What what what is funny is that you look at Hallebertton and SGA, both of those youngsters have already been traded and it wasn’t thought of to be wow man, but here we are. It’s wow man, you know, so you don’t you get if you get the best player, you win the deal. But usually, but you don’t know who’s the best player sometimes. Yeah. Historically, it’s been the star has been the best player. And now we couple got a couple recent examples where getting a young guy and again back to they’re 19 years old. I mean, they win 11 and 12. People know these guys are good, but they don’t know they’re going to be that good. You would take Paul George I think is a very good player, but I would take and they’re both in their prime. So, put them both at 28. You know, we in in a alternate world, I would take SGA. I can see why. I think most people can see why now. The trick is to see why. Yeah. Then, you know, three years ago and OKC and Prey, the GM there, he did. Way to go. You made the move, man. You got it right. How do you hit on that when nobody else sees it? And how much of that is luck and how much of that is good fortune? Not luck necessarily, but good fortune. And how much of that is, you knew it? I mean, the Jazz hit on Stockton Malone. That’s why they had their glory years. They hit on them in the middle of the first round. And the Bucks were in basically the same territory in the draft when they hit on Giannis. You know, half the league passed. And there’s some other teams that probably could have traded up and didn’t. And you got them. So, good for you. You You get to go on the uh you get to go on the ride. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you deserve all the credit because you’ll take all the heat and all the crap if it doesn’t work. All right, DJ and PK coming up next. Brian Gelzyler with Springsteen the music. That lined up pretty well for you right there, Yak. It’s good when the plan comes together. Gelzyler’s next. Stay with us. DJ PK, it’s 975 this zone. What do we got like three weeks to the NBA draft now? We got finals, we got draft, it’s on. Feels like there’s been there’s been a lull here, but we’re emerging from the lull. Thank you, Ryan Smith, for hiring Austin A. Excellent timing. Very well done on multiple levels. Thank you for hiring Austin. I could not have placed that on the calendar better. Yeah. Way to bring in another guy that we knew when he played, right? He’s one of our own. I know. Him and Keelani and A-Rod. Alex Jensen, Jay Hill, and Alex Jensen and Morgan Scally. Yeah. Uh, Share Shaw. I love it. All people I saw play. And now, yeah, it was I actually I actually saw Kyle play. I just didn’t know. He played in a game when he was at BYU at San Diego State and he was in a game and I was in high school. Oh, how how would you notice him? He wasn’t a very good player. They weren’t on the field very long. They kept getting three and outs. Actually, I think he was defensive MVP, right? He was the conference player of the year. Yeah, but his 63 to 14. I did not see him play. It was horrific. It was horrific. Oh, man. All right. So, you get the finals, three weeks to the draft, 22 days, I guess you point out, and 23, right? Because it’s a two-day draft now. Regroup for the second round. Do your homework, make some deals. Yeah, that’s probably a smart idea. you don’t need to go well into midnight our time, let alone back east, right? Uh so I understand that that’s the point. Uh yeah, but actually yeah, and I I I do wish that they let us talk to some of the kids that they brought in, but that this administration has stopped that. Yeah, it was fun when we did it. It was interesting. It was interesting to get a feel. I mean, I still remember some of the guys who made it. I remember Stephen Adams coming through. Yeah. It was interesting to talk to him and then and watch him and then talk to Walt Parin about the guys. Yes. And Walt Parin was always hilarious, right? You know, he’d always have some hilarious jab and he knew who we were and so Oh, he knew everybody. Yeah. He knew everybody in the media, right? So, he felt like he was talking to people he could trust. Yeah. It was an easy conversation. It was uh there was And you learned some basketball. He was always he never really gives stuff up on the you could look back at what he said about players and you could say well he he rode that line. I I see why they took who they did based on what he said but at the time I could have never figured out who they were going to take. He was a good he’d wiggle his way through it. But I guess now the world being what it is that it’s like spring ball. They don’t want to let stuff get out. And I understand it. That was always Kevin Kevin O’ Conor had a good line about that one day before he turned everything over to Walt and stopped doing it. It’s like, well, you’re letting us see all this and uh and and he goes, “So, we were like arguing reverse positions. The media was arguing to be shut out and he was arguing to let us in.” He’s like, “So,” he says, “Wait, I I don’t want other teams to know players have been here and all that.” And then I I don’t even remember who it was. There’s some player there, you know, Bob or whatever. Hey, Bob, where you been? Uh, I worked out for the uh the Cloopers and the Warriors and I got to work out for the uh Spurs in the Rockets the next two days. And after that, my agent will tell me. He goes, he looks at goes, “Yeah, it’s not hard to figure out. You just ask them and they tell you they’ve worked out for.” Well, as we saw with Austin A when we interviewed him that he knows this guy and this person and this woman and blah blah blah cuz it’s they’ve all had some interaction with each other. And so, uh, it’s the same type of deal that everybody knows what everybody’s doing in terms of bringing in players. Now, when it gets down to crux time, who do they really like? Who are you taking? What conversations have you had with other teams that you might not know? So, uh, you’re thinking I don’t want you to sell out your team, but will you sell out this third team over here and tell me what they’re thinking? Right. And then they might make a deal, uh, that you don’t know about because they’ve been talking this and that and a lot of stuff goes on and they’re they’re aware of it. But I was thinking about this, agents are all in the loop there, too, because they know who who do you think they really like. You can get all this type of information and then it comes down to on the night of the draft when decisions have to be made and there are no more secrets and the player that you take is is there for everybody to see and evaluate. DJ PK and we’re joined now by Brian Gueltzer, SiriusXM NBA radio host and NBA TV contributor. Brian, good morning. Good morning. How we doing guys? Good. Welcome back to the show. Thank you. Your name came up. The Austin A uh deal happened and and obviously uh you know when you’re on NBA TV and uh satellite NBA radio, you’re hip deep in this stuff all the time. What was your reaction and what was the reaction of the people you worked with when they heard the news that Austin H was moving to Utah to be the president of basketball operations? Generally ear to the ground stuff and no one really had a huge reaction to it when you talk to people around the league and certainly colleagues. I mean, it’s it’s kind of not totally surprising. What did strike me as odd, and I’m not the only one that was struck as odd, is you would think if Danny A is going to put a succession plan in place, which is kind of what it reeks of, he would wait till he’s got the Jazz up and running and like rebuilt into a contender, and the Jazz are really very far from that right now. So, I did find the timing of it odd, but the move in and of itself is not all that surprising. You know, Austin, you know, spent his time with the Celtics. Danny has has liked him, you know, obviously in terms of his capability for a long time and feels like he’s earned the opportunity. He’s going to give it to him. But again, it feels like a succession plan for Danny A. And I would, you know, you’d like to see the Jazz be on much more solid footing with having, you know, a direction to where they’re going to go in the future as opposed to making this kind of move when they’re at rock bottom. Yeah. I was talking with Austin the night after the press conference and he was saying, “Man, we got a lot of work to do.” And and they really do. I mean, they literally had the worst season that they’ve ever had with uh the winning percentage being so low and all that stuff. And then obviously the lottery didn’t turn out the way they wanted in terms of order, but away you go. You got the fifth pick. The thing that comforts me for, and obviously our listeners are Jazz fans, I’m not from here so I don’t live and die by him, but it’s fun to cover a winning team as you know that that he speaking of Austin was going to get whether it’s a general manager or president of ops, however, whatever title. It seemed like he was on the track to get that because he’d been interviewing for these positions for leadership positions with other organizations uh last year, this year. So, I get your response to it as far as his capabilities. It wasn’t just his father who thought that he had this capability. It was other teams in the league. No, but I think it’s also fair to ask the question. And listen, we’re dealing with some stuff NBAwide, a situation in New York where frankly nepotism is playing a role in a lot of the dysfunction there. And I’m not making I’m not saying that Austin he’s, you know, listen, he’s an accomplished executive. I’m not saying he was hired through a nepotism hire, but it is also fair to ask the question, is Danny A worried about other opportunities he’s getting and keeping him from those if he doesn’t have the last name? And I and I I think it’s a fair question. I do. And listen, I’m sure he’s going to be able to add plenty of value to what the Jazz do. If he’s not capable, Danny’s not bringing him in. Danny certainly is is all in on building a winner. But I just I I I think it’s it would be irresponsible from a journalistic standpoint to not point out the fact that, you know, the fact that he is Danny’s son shares a last name that that would have something to do with this. For sure. Yeah. I actually I write a column about it. I I literally wrote that very thing. It’s that that’s that’s the reality of the situation. Uh but now he’s going to be judged on his ability, not his last name. And he’ll sink or swim based on what he does. That’s correct. And and listen, the Jazz need a lot of work. And I will tell you, I I I’m interested to see what the Jazz do this year if they change their approach about playing for lottery ping pong balls because this was a full-blown tank. I did not like how they handled Larry Markin this year, and I actually think it was to the detriment of the franchise because he went from a guy that was really in demand on the open market to a guy that with the year that he had this year in the new contract he signed to in a second apron era that all of a sudden teams kind of want to stay away from. So the whole purpose with the tank has devalued their best player asset. And so to me, I I’m interested to see if the Jets say, “Okay, winning some basketball games is not the worst thing in the world for us. We’re still going to have to go draft well and let’s kind of see if we can get this thing pulling in the right direction.” Because you see in Philadelphia how bad a multi-year tank can go. It guarantees nothing in terms of what you get in the lottery. And that multi-year tank which guaranteed nothing was in a different era of lottery odds. We are in the era of flattened lottery odds right now. So listen, this next year, this coming draft later this month is going to be a great draft. Next year’s is going to be even better. It’s more topheavy. It’s deeper and I’m just curious to see how the Jazz approach this season because I’ve never been a proponent of thinking that you can lose games intentionally. And I don’t mean intentionally on a player level or even a coaching level. I mean, on a management level, you can lose try to lose games intentionally with the the purpose and the goal of building a winning culture. I just never believe it works that way. If you listen to the press conference, Austin halfway through gets a question about that and and gives an answer and then the a lot of what you said is in that answer that that you gota you got to you got to fight, you got to battle the end. You know, there’s some there’s some negative things that go with uh with losing on purpose and you know, they’re drafting fifth. So, you didn’t get the ultimate reward you really wanted, right? Fifth pick, guys, in a three-player draft. And I say a three-player draft, it’s more of a three star draft. Maybe a two star draft, but you know, this whole tank this year was in the name of Flag, Harper, or Bailey. And none of those three guys are likely to land in a Jazz uniform. Certainly not the first two. So it’s again what at you got the fifth pick and you had this year and it came at the expense of something because again marketing’s value is nowhere close to what it was and the league finding the Jazz and investigating them sitting market and healthy. It was an ugly look. It was an ugly look for a proud franchise and I just I I’d like to see I I would like to see them approach things differently this year. Listen, Danny A. Well, and and I heard him say this, and I’m not sure when it was recorded, but he said it in the Celtic City documentary that I’m first getting to now, and I’m almost all the way through it, but Danny A said something, and it’s interesting on some levels, and and on other levels, it’s a little scary. What he said was that his blessing is being a basketball executive is he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about criticism. He doesn’t care about what outsiders in the media and the fans think. He cares solely about building a championship team. If he thinks the best route is to tank again and have the team be intentionally bad, no matter what people like me say, he doesn’t care. He’s going to do that. I don’t think it’s the right approach. Now, I will say this, Danny A has built championship rosters before and I haven’t. So maybe he, you know, he knows more in this particular situation and but by the same token, I would be surprised not to see some kind of decisive shift in how the Jazz approach this season just because I do think that you didn’t get one of the top two or top three picks in this lottery and you devalued your most valuable player asset in a way that if you want to move them right now, you won’t get anywhere close to what you were being offered a year ago. I know you had a busy day. on uh Tuesday with the firing of Tibido. I listened to you and Eddie Johnson on the satellite series in my car driving around and uh you just ref you just referenced nepotism in New York. What’s going on there? Well, all right. So, listen. I don’t I’m not sure. I think Tom Pivot was the one that kind of suffered for some player unhappiness there. It’s really well documented. Carl Towns, OG Anobi, and especially Male Bridges were very upset with their level of touches. And I say especially Male Bridges because he’s the only one in that mix that hasn’t gotten paid. And he’s the only one that put his name on criticism and went public with it, even though it wasn’t about touches. But I think for Bridges, he complained about Tom Thibido playing him too many minutes because he was essentially having to do a whole ton of grunt work and not getting the touches he wanted. And where was all that complaint? Well, the ball’s in Jaylen Brunson’s hands all the time. and guys kind of felt like it should have been more of an equal opportunity offense with the four shot makers that they have there and assuming we’re including Bridges and Anobia shot makers and the fact that that was not really changed much till they got deep into the playoffs. I think a lot of players looked at the fact that Rick Brunson is right there on the bench next to Tom Thibido and that’s Jaylen’s dad. And so I think that’s a sticking point and I think for the Knicks they did not eliminate that problem by firing Tom Thibido. Now, don’t get me wrong, Tom and and Rick Brunson have been very close historically. I did hear from someone I trust that towards the end there was some issues when Tom tried to diversify the offense a little bit in the playoffs away from Jaylen. But now you court another problem if you’re the Knicks where you got to go hire a new coach. Jaylen’s not going to be happy. And it’s told me by two people Ian Begley said it to me on the record on our show yesterday. Jaylen’s not going to be happy if his father’s not on the bench. And so, how do you approach that? You’re gonna bring in a new coach and you’re gonna tell that new coach that he has to have Jaylen Brunson’s father as one of his assistant coaches. That makes it hard. Now listen, most any coach you’re gonna bring in this side of Michael Malone will accept that just to get this job. And frankly, Michael Malone might accept that to get this job because he’s a strong enough personality to keep Rick Brunson at bay. But I will say this, and somebody well-connected in that organiz organization said this to me two weeks ago, okay, that Rick Brunson is the most powerful guy in that organization. That axiom right there is going to be tested here in terms of seeing what happens because if Jaylen wants him there, he’s going to be there. Guys, keep in mind one very important thing. Listen, the Knicks did this whole sentimental, we’re going to bring the Villanova guys back together, the the Nova mafia, as my colleague Rob Perez on NBA radio calls it. Uh, Lacosa Nova. Okay. Because they brought the Zillanova mafia together. All right. They never played. Isn’t that a good one? Lakos Nova. Okay. They never played a game together. And Dante Devincenzo came into Madison Square Garden for an exhibition game back in October and had a whole lot to say, audible for the cameras to Rick Brunson about Rick having him sent out. All right. Everybody kind of understands what’s going on here. And now this whole power thing has shifted with James Dolan. And make no mistake, I know everybody’s saying, you know, they’re saying Leon Rose made this decision. Leon Rose did not make this decision. This is a Jim Dolan decision 100%. Leon Rose will have to own this. The same way Billy King owned MueL Proarov’s decision to trade for Garnet Pearson, trade all those first round picks. The same way Nico Harrison is owning Patrick Dumont’s decision to not pay Luca Donuch and have to trade him. It’s the same thing. Leon Rose is having to own this decision. If it never gets better here for this era of Knicks basketball, this is going to go on Leon Rose’s resume, not Jim Dolan’s. Dolan made this decision. But this decision has now pretty much injected the Knicks into what was definitely a little bit dysfunctional, but Tom kind of was a stabilizing influence in that. Now it’s become the wild wild west. It’s the It’s the face of dysfunction and who they’re going to bring in and how that person’s going to operate and who’s going to be on their bench and who are they going to answer to. All those things are up in the air for the Knicks right now. Well, Brian, man, I Brun Brun Brunson’s lucky then. I’m playing CIO and we got a game at Morris Catholic and I got a shot to go for 30 and the coach takes me out and I can’t get 30 and the coach was my father. So, it’s the reverse of that. Well, it’s here. It’s so funny. I had this conversation with somebody yesterday because I I have a son that’s a high school basketball player here in New Jersey for a top 10 team in the state. I spent time coaching him. At times I was tougher on my son a lot of times than I was on other kids. Expected more, got angrier, would pull him quicker for mistakes. Um and for a variety of reasons. Number one, I thought it served him well development wise. Number two, did want to send a message to the other players and the parents per se that he doesn’t get special treatment. As a matter of fact, he gets it tougher than your kids get it. And even then, they find reasons to complain. And that’s the problem. The second you put a player’s father on the bench sitting next to a coach, you’re going to have this perception of of favoritism, this perception of nepotism, this perception of this relationship happening on a team level at the team’s expense. It doesn’t have to be true, guys. But once it becomes the perception, it becomes it it becomes a growth. It grows out. It’s it’s an epidemic. It’s malignant. It makes its way through your organization. And I think the Knicks are suffering for that right now. Are you like everybody else? You think the Thunder going to win it? I do. I mean, I’m going to say six because I think that everybody’s underestimating the Pacers a little bit. I do think Seakkum becomes a pretty tough matchup for OKC and how they defend and that’s a decision they’re going to have to make. Do you put Dort on Seakkum or do you put Dort on on uh on Theres Hallebertton? I my feeling is I would put Jaylen Williams on Theres Hallebertton and I would have Dort on Seakum and live with the fact that Seakum’s just longer. But I would want the strength on Seakkum. That’s where I thought Seakum ate up the Knicks because they didn’t have a physically strong enough player to guard him. He was even stronger than Anobi and so he threw bridges around like a ragd doll. If I’m OKC, I’m going to school on that a little bit. I do think the Siaka matchup is the one thing that’s tough. And listen, when you’re going to play a fast game and play pace, OKC is better than that at Indiana. But the one thing OKC thrives off of is listen, 20% of their of their buckets in transition are off turnovers. I mean, they do a great job of turning people over and turning it into baskets the other way. Indiana’s really good at not turning the ball over and and I think they had a couple of game, you know, the game five at Madison School Garden against the Knicks notwithstanding where they turned it over 17 times. They’re pretty good at protecting the basketball. So, if Indiana can take care of the ball, they will stay in a series because of how OKC thrives off of that. The other thing I think we’ll see is more zone from Rick Carile. The thought being if OKC is going to beat us, we’re gonna make them shoot over us because we know they can suffer bad shooting games and that’s going to keep Indiana in the game. So, I do think Indiana hangs around a little bit in this series. In the end, OKC’s too deep, too strong, too athletic. Um, and frankly, too big for Indiana to handle over a sevename series. Well, I got to know, is it Planefield? Uh, what’s the what’s the high school? Gil St. burners and and and Peepac Gladstone, the great Morgan Scene, a New Jersey Hall of Fame coach, is my son’s head coach. Uh so, you know, we got bunch of guys playing who played in college, playing in college, come out here. Got a guy right now that’s in the mix for the NBA draft. I don’t I don’t think he pulled his I think he pulled his name out to go to Texas A&M. Mackenzie Embaco, that’s that’s a one of our Gill alums. Um we have Paul Mkei was a all big 10 player for Ruckers a couple years back. He’s an assistant coach on the team. So got a lot of lineage there and a lot of guys that went. Zack Martini was one of the main guys on Ruckers this year. He’s a Gil St. Bernard’s alums. A lot of players across the country coming out of Gil from where my son is right now going into his junior year. Going to start this year. So we’re we got a very exciting year on the horizon there. Yeah, 19-7 last year. Let’s see if we can improve on that. That’s actually 19 I thought we were 23 and seven. Well, Max Preps needs to update it then. maybe 19 and seven regular season, but we won the count Somerset County and we made a state final last year. So, we we look pretty good. You know, it’s exciting. I hear you. I always hear you. Glad you always got the kids back. You know what I mean? There’s a reason I’m not coaching. I’m I’m a basketball dad first when it comes to this stuff and a coach second. Are you in the first row yelling at people or you try to stay up high where nobody notices you when you’re screaming? Kind of neither. I I I’m a I cheer. I don’t criticize. Um I sit four or five rows behind the bench enough that I can kind of watch what’s going on, but enough that I’m not involved. I don’t want to be involved. You know, Morgan’s a he’s a great coach, but he’s tough on the kids and he holds him accountable. And there’s times that, you know, you watch your son get ripped pretty good and you handle it and and it is what it is. But, you know, listen, when you talk to people regarding recruiting these days, and my son would like to be a college player and and what division he ends up in is remains to be seen going into his junior year. But I’ll also say this, the more people you talk to, the more they’re looking at the parents as much, if not more, than they’re looking at the player. So, you really need to conduct yourself in a way that’s going to reflect well on your kid. Can’t criticize refs. Can’t complain about the coaches. You can’t carry on and make yourself the show. It’s got to be about your kid. I make sure that I sit with my wife every game. I’m not one of these guys. My wife and I sit in separate places because she generally keeps me under control. And by the way, she can be a nutty basketball mom, too, and I keep her under control. We kind of check each other there to make sure we’re all pulling in the same direction for him. Uh we got to we can’t let you go without hearing a word about the draft. The Jazz are at number five. What do you think is their best option? You know, it’s Listen, if Edgecomb drops, I would absolutely love that. But I would also say this, and I know that the Jazz have Walker Kesler. I know there’s a lot of demand around the league for him. And I I and they’re going to have to pay him sometime soon. I would look at Malawak at five. I think he’s got everything you need to be a topline five in this league and not a Jokic Towns type of guy, but one of these guys you can really count on and win with and and so if assuming Edgecomb goes off the board at three or four and Bailey’s the other one that goes off the board, I would really look very seriously at Malwok. I don’t think you need to bring in feeders and have another guard there. I, you know, Kyer showed himself last year a little bit that I’d want to give him a little bit more of a chance. And I do think guys like Ston and Clarkson are going to be on the way out sooner rather than later. You know, Keonte George, I think you want to get more of a look out of him. So, I’d be careful about injecting another guard into the mix. I would take a serious look at Malawak because again, there’s teams that are going to be banging on the Jazz’s door about Walker Kesler. If you can bring in Malawak and and leverage Kesler into two first round picks, which was out there last summer, by the way, for him, um I I think there’s a chance at maybe doing that, and I I would like to see that out of the Jazz. If Bailey or Edgecomb drops, I think they’re both too athleticist prospects, especially Edgecomb, that I I you couldn’t pass on him. And Bailey, there’s a major shot selection issue there. He’s a very good bad shot maker, which is a very good thing and a very bad thing at the same time. But I do would like him being developed by Will Hardy to kind of get him to think the game better. So I wouldn’t stay away from Bailey if I were the Jazz that he falls to five. But again, if it goes kind of chalky with Edgecomb and Bailey or Bailey and Edgecomb going in front of the Jazz, the guy I’d lock in is Malawak. I I I love that player and I think he’s got a lot of potential. And I think ultimately in the end, in the next two to three years, I think he’ll be a better player than Walker Kesler. Did you just talk all the way around Trey Johnson? Did I I I did. You know, I I love Trey Johnson, but I don’t know that the Jazz need another player like Trey Johnson. The Jazz have a lot of those guys that like to take shots. You want to put Keante George and Trey Johnson at the floor at the same time? And then what if you don’t get rid of Sexton and Clarkson? Oh my god. I mean, I you know, Will Hardy may light himself on fire on the sidelines. Like I I don’t know that you can do that. I love Trey Johnson. I just don’t know that with what the Jazz have drafted previously and the Jazz have enough guys there that you really have to take a look at what we have and what fits as opposed to just saying, “Hey, best player available, best player available.” I think, you know, you’re building a roster and we if you continue the asset accumulation phase when you have to start to pay guys, I think you start to run the risk of squandering assets. And I just with all the assets the Jazz have, I still don’t I don’t think it’s a good thing for them to start the asset drain this early. And I think you you draft a guy like Trey Johnson, it’s just repetitive with these other guys. And again, if and his talent’s great, don’t get me wrong. If his talent was that much above a guy like Malawak, I I would that’d be one thing. I don’t think it is. I think it’s at kind of an even level. And again, love Trey Johnson. He’d be a terrific player, but I I’d be locked in on Malawak in that spot. I think he’s going to be special. Well, if that happens, if Will Hardy does that, I’m gonna sing Whoa, I’m on fire. There you go. Right. Look at him. Bring it right back to Jersey. I absolutely love that. You know what I mean? It’s going to be like the movie Airplane with Ted Striker’s telling his story. Right. That’s what Will’s going to do. Pour the gas on and just torch it. Kind of like Tony Soprano’s fever dream. Okay. in in the in the season finale of season two down in the Asbury Park boardwalk where where Christopher turns around and says he’s going to do us a favor so we don’t have to visit him in the hospital. He’s going to light himself on fire. That’s going to be Will Hardy if you draft Trey Johnson. You never disappoint Guil. You guys want to jersey this thing up? I’m all in for that. We do every day with me. Jersey this thing up. Oh man. All right, Brian. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. We’ll talk to you again. Always my pleasure, gentlemen. We’ll do it again soon. Take care. Brian Gelzyler jerseying this thing up. SiriusXM NBA radio host and NBA TV contributor. That was a deep dive on the Knicks nepotism right there. Intense. Yeah, for sure. And they were talking about it yesterday when I was listening. Uh but I think we need to hit what he said on your question on the draft and him with the Duke guy. And we’ll do that next. Stay with us. DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone accessing. This is HSN and Scotty G. Eric Wedle kind enough to join us. You find out you’re up for the College Football Hall of Fame. What’s your first thought when you get that phone call? Just humbled by it all. Quite honestly, I think I have a real shot is the College Football Hall of Fame. I don’t think I have any shot at the NFL Hall of Fame. So when I look at the College Football Hall of Fame, I think, yeah, I belong there at some point, whether it’s now or 10 years from now, like I think I belong as one of the best college football players to have played the game. So whenever it happens or if it happens, like you guys know me, I I live life to the fullest. It’s not going to change whether I fall asleep at 10:00 or midnight. I got many other things that are on my mind, but it’s really humbling and and truly honored obviously and know that it took coaches, players, faculty, family, wife, kids, like it doesn’t happen alone. Catch Hansen Scotty weekdays from noon to 3 on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Uh, we got to we can’t let you go without hearing a word about the draft. The Jazz are at number five. What do you think is their best option? I would take a serious look at Malaw and leverage Kesler into two first round picks which was out there last summer by the way for him. I I think there’s a chance at maybe doing that and I I would like to see that out of the Jazz. The guy I’d lock in is Malawak. I I I love that player and I think he’s got a lot of potential and I think ultimately in the end in the next two to three years I think he’ll be a better player than Walker Kesler. Nominate the youth sports volunteer that you know for the Hercules here of the week. Submit your nomination kilosports.com/contest and listen every Thursday afternoon to JJ and Alex for the winner. Help us celebrate the efforts of those volunteers making an impact with the Hercules her of the week sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. Brian Gueltzer suggesting the Jazz should go even younger. That would drive Jazz fans nuts. But this goes back to his other point about uh Danny Age and I think the same goes uh for Austin. Don’t worry about what everybody thinks. Do what you think is right. If that’s the right move, then do it. Yeah. In the short term, yeah, you take heat from it. But what does short-term heat matter? Well, they will go younger no matter what. You’re going younger in terms of replacing Kesler. Uh and that’s a an interesting concept. If you think Malik will be better than Kesler in two to three years, then yes, absolutely do it. And if what Brian and he’s tied into these NBA people up to his eyeballs that Kesler was worth two first round picks last year, then certainly he would be worth two first round picks this year because he had a better season this year than he did last year. Assuming that the same team with the same resources hasn’t filled that hole with somebody else. I get your point. Yes, his value should be increasing. Sometimes your value is situational. So, there is that. But on the whole, yeah, you’re right. I mean, he had a better year, he ought to be worth more, right? Now, you got to make sure that the team that wants him has those two first round picks up a pick and a player or whatever, whatever it is. Uh, if you can make your team better through trading Kesler and get a replacement that you feel is just as good in two to three years or better, and you get some other quality in return, whatever that looks like, then yeah, none of these guys are household. We’ve got to keep them forever and ever. None of them. Zero. There’s not a player on that roster. Well, you like bold. That would be bold. Yeah, that because I think we all view Kesler blood pressure the oldest guy in the young group. H Kesler or Sexton. Yeah, we could probably split our audience whether they think he’s a young guy or not. He plays young. He plays young because he plays fast. Yeah, he’s a fun player to watch play. I I’ll give him that. Uh, so I I get your point, though. Uh, yeah, that would be something that all of a sudden now I got big-time intrigue. I hadn’t thought of that whatsoever, but if that’s a possibility, and I’m sure that the Jazz have thought about that. I’m sure Austin A has probably thought about it 20 times already uh today and yesterday in the since he I mean he’s officially on the job Monday, but obviously people knew about it before then. So he’s been thinking about it that whole time. So yeah, and that’s what he’s talking about. Uh when he says all these options and roads that they can go down, why wouldn’t you pursue that? doesn’t mean you have to do it, but you would pursue it to see if it’s worth doing. That that just gets me so intrigued. I I I feel myself getting a jolt of energy just thinking about that that they would do that. Yes. Because it’s not something I had thought about. Well, when we’ve been talking about guys, neither one of us has really talked about Maluke and what he says. drafting in the right range where I thought the talent matched the spot and and also because but they could still draft fifth and 21st and make that move. So what Austin’s talking about, he’s not tipping his hand completely, obviously not, but he’s saying, “Hey, he probably knows they got something over here that is separate from over there.” And that fifth pick, there’s a strong possibility we’re going to take it and do this and that. You see that? That that fits. That’s imaginable. It does. It does. I’m I’m just imagining it right now as you speak. I mean, obviously we talked, you said what you said in the tease and we talked in the break, but you know, pull the curtain back. I wasn’t thinking trade Kesler now, get the, I don’t know, pick a number seven, eight, nine, 10, whatever, pick in the draft. Yeah. Yeah. And get a pick that or two, whatever it is player, you know, down the line, right? And grab whoever you get. I don’t know. And you have still have the fifth. Well, you take him with and suddenly you’re at 58 and 21 or maybe the 21 pick goes in that deal. Yeah. You know, who knows? So, you take him five but then you get something else and then you take wherever it lands or even if it’s not it may not even be this year. Austin did say the most likely thing is that we draft a five and 21. Okay. But that could happen. He didn’t slam the door. You know, something could happen. But but you could still draft those. That’s two different deals. It could it could be two different deals. Yeah. So you draft five, you draft 21, it could be together, but then you make the Kesler deal to get something else. And so now this is Oh man, who’s got to be his mentor? His father. Who’s got to be DA’s mentor? You know where I’m going with this? Red Arch. What did he do one year? You love history. I’m playing into your wheelhouse. I’m setting you up instead of reverse. There was there was one year that he uh drafted Larry Bird and then every’s like he can’t play and he’s like it’s one year it’s not a long time. But I’m talking about the multiple draft day deals. Oh, when he uh when he put together the power line. Yes. Those deals. That was the same year, wasn’t it? Parish and male. I think the Parish and Male deals were the same year. They were one year after Bird, right? After Bird showed up. So two years after he came. Right. But Bird’s You can’t do that anymore, right? no fifth year player. Everyone’s going nuts and you can’t draft him and wait and all that blah blah blah. It doesn’t happen. So, I’m talking about it then that he two years later. I I haven’t thought about that in a long time, but yeah, I think you’ve heard of Key West. It’s a glorious spot. I’ve heard that. Yes. Like I’ve been there. It is. Yeah. This is Boston West. Well, that’s true, too. Yeah, it is Boston West. When Austin started listening, are you going to bring anybody with you? And uh and then he just starts listing all the people who are already here. This is Boston West. Yeah. Yeah. We had Mitt Romney. True story. Massachusetts. He was a governor there and then came out here to be the senator. Same thing. Yeah. It’s not the same thing. Our agg RC Roberg Massachusetts. Your bowling columnist. Back off. He did do bowling. Yes. Yeah. I was new to town. opened up the newspaper back in the day, never drove. They got a they got a bowling column, huh? Quirkiest guy you’d ever seen, never drove, would accumulate flight miles. He’d fly to Hawaii and then fly back. That never made any sense to me. Now that I’ve now that I paid for that flight, I’ll be able to get a free one later. This is Boston West. We’ve got the ghost of Red Arback. Look at I mean, who’s the ghost in Utah football? The ghost. Yeah. Is that Fred Whittingham Senior? Bingo. Okay. Bingo. Outside of he was going to Ike Armstrong. I thought about Ike Armstrong for a second, but I’m talking about right now. The influence is Fred. Fred Senior. It’s Fred. It’s Big Fred, as they called him, is just dominant all over the place. It’s Big Fred’s program. He’s been gone for 20 years, but he’s still pulling the strings. The influence is strong. Talk to the boss. He’ll tell you over here who brought Da to the Celtics when he was a professional baseball player. Red Arbach. Yeah. Outside the box. Yeah. Red. who made a player the player coach and who was black which was controversial at the time. Way beyond controversial that is like I remember it but I’ve heard cutting edge. Yeah. Cutting edge doesn’t do justice to that was that was bold. Read all back right. Yeah. That was uh 60 would have been a fall of 67. Bill Russell. Yeah. And then uh Frank Robinson uh broke the color barrier baseball a decade later. Yeah, it was mid to late 70s when that when when Cleveland made that high. Oh man, I’m all over this. Count me down the days to the draft. This is going to be a glorious day in Jazz history. You did the math, right? It’s always on Thursdays, isn’t it? Actually, I saw just barely. I think it’s Wednesday now, though, isn’t it? So, Wednesday and Thursday. So, it’s three weeks from today when it was Tuesday. Today’s second round is Thursday. Correct. Yes. Even better. One less day and we’re going to squeeze in somewhere between four and seven NBA’s finals games. I’m up for it. DJPK, it’s 975 the zone. The spring football tour continues. Justin Spears, Arizona Wildcats beat rider for the Arizona Daily Star joins us in 15 minutes. Stay with us. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present This is JJ and Alex. Travis Yoast. He writes for TSN. What a great gift it is for the Mammoth to get that number four overall pick. Do they really need that number four overall pick? You’re either drafting best available here and reloading the covers, which may make sense. The second option is, do I find a team that’s in some organizational distress and looking to make changes and maybe looking to move off a player that may not make sense for them anymore, but may make more sense for Utah. When you’re trading the number four overall pick, you don’t have to add a lot of sweeteners. That’s how valuable that pick is. If Utah’s willing to swallow it and say, “Hey, look, we’ll move off our first rounder this year.” That is going to be very interesting to teams. So, I think that option until they actually make the selection, that option is going to be on the table. Catch JJ and Alex afternoons from 3 to 6 presented by G2G bars on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. It’s a win tickets Wednesday. Caller 12 right now 801 575 zone. Win a four pack of tickets to Aerofest with sticks. Kevin Cronin, former lead singer of Ario Speed Wagon and Don Felder, formerly the Eagles. June 11th at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater. Caller 12 right now. 801575 zone wins four tickets. You know, I once provided security for sticks. Yes, you’ve told that story. I do know that. Even I know this story. How old were you? How old was I? Mhm. Uh 19. 19. Okay. Maybe. Maybe 19. Maybe 18. Maybe 18. Yeah. Yeah. You’re 18 or 19? Yeah. Keep everything safe here. You’re the trouble, man. The fox the fox is in the hen house. Look out. Well, I wore a tight shirt to show off the gun. Oh, that a kid. I’ll take a schmeium because they and the cars came to Northern Arizona and uh we were supposed to take tickets and everybody went and listened to the band warm up and the guy who was in charge came back 15 minutes later and I was the only one who didn’t go. He moved me right down to escort them out of the locker rooms into onto the stage with the flashlights, you know, because it’s dark. and then afterward escort them from the dressing rooms to their limos. And each of them had their own limo. They were pretty popular. They were a big deal for a while. Yeah. Although I was never a huge fan, but that was my claim to fame as I escorted the guys from sticks from the locker room to the stage and then from the stage to their limos. We talked with uh Brian Gueltzer and uh asked about the draft and he had multiple opinions. We had a lot to get to obviously the finals and Austin and and so at the end asked him about the draft and uh not only is he really interested in the center from Duke Maluk, he’s also not really interested in Trey Johnson from Texas. H the Jazz already have a lot of those guys. That makes me nervous. Mistakes have been made in the past with that attitude. Who’s the best? Who’s the best guy? And and Trey Johnson, a freshman, 6’5, playing in the SEC, the best basketball league in the country. I think without question, I think they showed that in the NCA tournament with team after team making deep runs. It seemed like as he got deep in the tournament, they basically had half the teams in every round. It seemed like and and he averaged almost 20 points a game and shot almost 40% from three. I know. Like that’s eye opening. And he’s 6’5. He’s got he’s got some size. That’s with no afro. Okay. So, well, I remember what Bill Armstrong, the guy calling the shots for the Mammoth and they talking one of the interviews that he was doing and may he comes on with Scott and Hands I think every week during the season. Maybe it was then uh he said we draft best player and then if we have an overload we trade and I wanted to hug him. Uh because I think that that’s always that’s the way to go. what you do. Yes. And then because if you if you want the Duke center, you’re gonna take him with the idea of trading Kesler. Well, if you have good players at this position and Trey Johnson you believe is better in two to three years, well then you trade those other guys. I don’t know that they have anybody at Trey Johnson’s position that I would say I’m completely comfortable with. So, I disagree with Geter on that one. If they think Trey Johnson’s the man, so be it. Can he be more efficient than Keonte? He’s going to be he’s going to be uh a little bigger than Ston and and and Guell threw Clarkson in there, but it feels like he’s moving on in one year at the latest. Oh, for sure. Right. Yeah. And maybe this summer. So, that wasn’t He’s not even on my radar making this decision. No, not at all. uh you you need this team needs everything top to bottom, right? And so go do it. The only only possibility would be if I intended to keep market in I draft somebody that is very similar to him. But even then, I would still take him because then I could trade marketing or whatever. The good thing is the Jazz have guys on the team that other teams would want. Now everything’s got to be for the right price, but they’ve got movable guys up and down the roster. You’re not going to get flagged for them. We understand that. But I think you can get quality in return. DJPK, it’s 975 the zone. The spring football tour takes us to Arizona. Justin Spears covers the Wildcats and he’s up next. Stay with us. DJ PK and we are joined now by Justin Spears, Arizona football beat rider for the Arizona Daily Star and the Wilder. Justin, good morning. Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me on. So, we do a spring football tour. We go all around the Big 12. What are the storylines? Who are the new players? Nobody can keep up with the transfer portal. Please help us. So, let’s start with the biggest story line. Arizona really had it going. They had a coaching change. From the outside looking in, it looked like it was going to be a good hire, but that was a rough year. That was a rough year. Have the problems been diagnosed? And more importantly, have they been addressed and solved? We’ll see. You know, because Arizona had a a a really good roster last year. I mean, they had the best receiver in program history in Tetro McMillan, who ended up becoming the highest selected offensive player in the NFL draft from the University of Arizona. And even though T-MAC was was special to watch this last season, the offense was very stagnant. You know, with Dino Babers as the offensive coordinator and then they eventually made the transition to uh former passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Matt Atkins. It didn’t really seem to matter who was in charge of play calling. The offense was just so stagnant and lethargic and slow. the plays were just so like long developing and just there was no rhythm and Arizona’s offense didn’t really have an identity despite having this generational talent in Tetto McMillan and you know protection was also wobbly too even though the Wildcats had big Jonas Ainaya who was drafted in the second round by the Miami Dolphins Josh Baker was a mainstay at center for the last three plus seasons hardly missed any snaps at that position so he was a a rock right there in the middle and now he’s gone. Uh Wendo my at guard uh he transferred to uh Tennessee in the offseason. Uh he’s a really good player that they are missing. But despite those players that I just mentioned, offensive line dealt with a number of injuries. I mean we’re talking about seven different starting offensive lines in the 2024 season. So there wasn’t really any continuity up front and it showed and Noah Afida got a lot of pressured and or he was pressured a lot of times and and that’s a big reason why he led college football in throwaways. He had 37 throwaways last year was also sacked more than he was the the year before. And when you have the slow developing plays and the protection up front isn’t good that’s just a recipe for a disaster. And so Arizona, they went into the offseason and they knew that they had to make some changes with the offensive coordinator and they did. And they brought in this guy by the name of Seth Dy who is this young upand cominging coordinator who was a great quarterback at Texas Tech is, you know, top five passer in Texas Tech football history. Was great uh playing for Mike Leech and also Tuberville. And you he started coaching at Purdue and USC and then he took on the play calling duties at Marshall. And when you think about a former Texas Tech quarterback who is a Mike Leech disciple, you immediately think, “Oh man, he’s going to sling the ball. They’re going to throw the ball so many times in this game.” But the thing that makes Seth Dy a really solid offensive play caller is that he looks at his talent and he looks at how can we maximize these guys? How can we get the most out of them and piece this offense together so we are potent and everything it just flows together and there’s a rhythm? And when you look at Marshall last year, the Thundering Herd, they had more rushing yards than passing yards because Seth Dy looked at the running quarterback. He looked at all the other weapons and recognized that we’re going to be a much better running team than passing team. And that’s why they went on to win the the Sunb Belt. They had a very successful season. And now Seth Dy, he comes to Arizona as the guy tasked to or tasked with, you know, putting a a shot in the arm of the Arizona offense. And they added some some speed in the trade portal with Jay Watley from Chattanooga, Luke Weissong from New Mexico, Trey Spivey from uh Kansas State, Chris Hudson from Washington State. And all of these guys have track backgrounds. uh they are very fast and speed was something that wide receivers lacked last year for Arizona. So I think even though Arizona loses Tettoa McMillan, I think the receiver group collectively from top to bottom is better, way better than it was last year. Uh and Noah Fida now he’s going to have to learn how to play quarterback without his longtime buddy in Tettoro McMillan. You know, those two guys were teammates since high school or excuse me, since middle school. You know, they played Pop Warner together. They played at Anaheim Servite together and obviously the last few seasons, uh, they played at Arizona. And now for the first time since Noah Fida was in the seventh grade, he’s going to have to learn how to not play with Tetto McMillan. And I think this is going to be good for Noah Fafida’s development. So, uh, yeah, there’s still a lot of questions out there, uh, that, you know, will that won’t be answered until, you know, games start playing, but I think the offense is going to take a a step in the right direction. Offensive line, the protection, it still concerns me, but I think the offense is going to be uh much much better. And then the on the defensive side of the ball, you know, the Wildcats made a transition puty Gonzalez over at defensive co linebacker’s coach last year and they made that switch after the season. They initially put uh Dwayne Aina who was the former defensive coordinator. They put him back in his role as the defensive backs coach. And I think Dwayne Aina is much better in that role. He is the DB’s guru, the DB’s godfather. And I think when he’s just specializing in the secondary, uh, that’s when he’s a a really really amazing coach. And so they they made that transition and then Dwayne Aina decided to go to to Texas and take on the defensive backs role there. But with Dwayne uh, excuse me, with Danny Gonzalez as the defensive play caller, um, I think Arizona’s defense is going to have multiple looks. I still think they’re going to utilize that 425 base defense, but Danny Gonzalez comes from the Rocky Long tree and Rocky Long was a guy that used that 3-35 defense and, you know, moved linebackers all over the field and we started to see that in spring. So, I think Arizona’s defense is going to be versatile. I think they’re going to have a lot of disguised looks where they have a linebacker as an edge rusher or a blitzer. They might bring in a slot corner or a safety as a blitzer. This is going to be a very creative defense and a very um unpredictable defense. You’re not going to know what this Arizona defense is doing. They’re either going to bring the house or they’re going to drop back. You just simply don’t know what this team is going to do. Um now, will it all come together in year two under Brent Brennan? We shall see. I think the biggest reason why Arizona struggled last year is is injuries. you know, the roster 1 through 20 was, you know, as good as it gets in the Big 12. And that’s why Arizona went into last year with Big 12 championship aspirations, maybe even CFP aspirations. But because of the timing of Brennan’s hire in January, they missed that first portal window, and that’s usually when you get a lot of great players. A lot of your your best transfers are going to come from that December portal. But because Jet Fish left of Washington, that portal class kind of got depleted and Arizona only they were able to keep three guys from that December class. So Brennan and his staff, they were kind of scrambling trying to figure out the the pieces that they could add. And then when the injury started to happen with those best players in in that one through 20 range, but that that roster 21 through 85, it definitely exposed Arizona and it was just a a bad recipe for Brent Brennan. But they’ve made all the right moves in the offseason. I love the coaching hires. I love bringing bringing Big Joe Salva back uh into the mix. He’s one of the best defensive line coaches in the country. They’ve made all the right moves in the off season. Will they will that translate to wins? We shall see. Excuse me. You speak of the defense there and wow the defensive backfield. Uh Stokes, Johnson, and Smith. I think they’ve got over 50 starts from those three guys. And then Taye Brown is an outstanding linebacker. So Danny Gonzalez, he was on the staff year before. I think he was what special teams and maybe linebackers coach. It looks like he’s got some talent to work with in his first year as the new coordinator. No doubt. No doubt. And I think getting those guys that you mentioned in the secondary was was big time because those guys enter the transfer portal. You know, Arizona, they had the most entries um in the transfer portal from the Big 12 and had, you know, one of the the most turnover out of all the teams in college football. And those guys, they went out and explored the market. uh Traden Stokes, Alton Johnson, Genesis Smith, they they put their feelers out, but they ultimately wanted to finish what they started at Arizona. And I think that Dalton Johnson is, you know, a player that is very underrated with so much turnover in the defense last year with injuries. Uh Dalton moved into more of like a a dollar linebacker role where he was a safety, linebacker, hybrid. He led the team in tackles last year and he’s a really good open field tackler and Trayden Stoops, you know, Dwayne Aina called him the the bestkept secret in college football. He’s got the the length he can he’s really exceptional in pass coverage because, you know, he he’s a Nickelback, but he comes from cornerback uh a quarterback background. So, he’s really good in pass coverage, but he’s also improved significantly as an open field tackler. And fortunately for Arizona, Trayden only played in four games last year before suffering that season ending leg injury against Utah. And that would have been his last year if he played the rest of the way. So that four-game retro rule ended up turning into a blessing for Arizona because they bring in a team captain and a leader and just an overall good dude in Trade and Stokes. And then Genesis Smith, I think Genesis could potentially be one of the best safeties in the Big 12. And I think if he puts together a season that I think he can have, uh we’re talking about him, you know, maybe being a a day two draft prospect as a junior. Uh he is 6’2, 63, uh I think a little over 200 pounds. So he has the the big frame as a safety. an absolute ball hawk. You know, watching him in spring this year, I mean, I could have sworn I counted maybe 10 to a dozen interceptions just on just from him. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see Genesis Smith uh lead the Big 12 in in interceptions this year. And then I think Tay Brown last year was his first official year as a starter. He’s now going into year three into the program. And I think some experience in the weight room, the game experience that he got last year, I think is really going to uh help him and and set him up nicely for a good junior campaign. They have some some good pieces on the defense. You know, I I think that, you know, my biggest concern with them is up front. Can they get to the quarterback this year? You know, Trey Smith had a lot of quarterback pressures, but not too many sacks. So, he was there. he was in the area, but you got to figure out ways to turn those pressures into sacks and finish the play. Arizona needs to improve in in that category. Uh they added some beef on the interior with Tia Sea coming back. He played one year at Texas and then returned to Arizona. He’s a guy that I look to maybe start. And then at nose tackle or the other defensive tackle spot, I really love Deshawn Mcnite. Get to know the name now. He is a transfer from UT Martin and he was probably Arizona’s defensive MVP in spring or at least one of the most improved players and he has really asserted himself as a starting defensive tackle. So they’ve got some pieces but uh will it all come together? We shall find out. There are schools where if a new coach comes in and has two bad seasons, the coach gets the head coach gets fired. Now, in this NIL era, well, first off, I don’t know that Arizona would have the money in any era to buy out a coach that quickly in this NIL era and given what happened with, you know, a quarter of a billion dollars lost on the books. How hot is the seat? I would say it’s it’s pretty hot right now. Um, well, I would say it’s very warm, right? Um because if Arizona puts up a similar season like last year, then yeah, I mean that’s going to be a really tough sell for Arizona fans. And I think that Brennan understands that the the staff he hired was a mistake. I think bringing in Dino Babers was a mistake. Um, I think the the offensive hires that they made last year, some of them were mistakes. Uh, but now, you know, some of the the mistakes are are no longer there and they replaced them with with better coaches. And I think that now that this is his team because last year Brennan was just trying to keep the band together cuz in 2023 they won 10 games, they went to the Alamo Bowl, the vibes were high and Brennan would have looked bad if he wasn’t able to keep the the the T-Max and the Noas. And you know, looking back, it’s almost like you’d rather wish that Brent Brennan lost all these guys because you can justify going four and eight after you lose a majority of your team, right? But, you know, they returned Tetto McMillan, they returned Jacob Manu and No Fafida. And you know, I know, you know, some of these guys experienced injuries and they were without arguably their three best defensive players for most of of last year, but you know, I I I think that the the culture like when Brent Brennan first got here, all he was trying to do was just keep the family together. And you know, he won’t he won’t admit this, but like I’ll be I’ll be the first one to tell you, I truly feel like he was a little concerned with like really coaching up the guys last year because like if you say the wrong thing or you piss off a player just for one thing that you said, he’s going to be like, “Okay, screw this. I’m out. I’m going into the portal.” like Takario Davis who’s now playing at Washington. He was in the portal last spring. So, he’s going through spring practices at Arizona, but he’s his name is currently in the transfer portal. And so, like, do you coach up that guy? Do you actually coach him the way you want to, or do you kind of, you know, kiss his butt a little bit so you make sure that he stays at Arizona? And now that I think a year has passed and the players who have stayed at Arizona, they know this coaching staff, they know Brent Brennan, they know how he operates, and then the players that they brought in through the high school and junior college ranks and also the transfer portal. This is now more of Brent Brennan’s team. Now, with that being said, you got to translate to wins. Arizona fans are not asking Brent Brennan to be a world beater. They’re not asking him to go to the the CFP every single year. all Arizona fans ever ever want is just to get to a bowl game. And I think with the way the schedule and how it’s set up this year, the first half of the schedule, five out of those first six games are at home. So Arizona has an opportunity to really build up some wins and then when it gets really tough in the second half of the Big 12 schedule, you know, if you can steal a game or two and just get to bowl eligibility, that’s going to buy you another season. I think if Bren Brandon goes six and six or seven and five, the vibes are good at Arizona. But man, if they miss out on another bowl game and they’re able to stay healthy, I I don’t see how you bring that guy back. But I think Brent Brennan’s a great coach. He’s a guy that wants to be here for the long haul. He’s not an opportunist. He’s not looking at the next job. He wants to be the head coach at the University of Arizona. He wants to be here for a long, long time. But will he get to year three? Um, yeah, we’ll find out. But yeah, if they don’t get to a bowl game, that’s going to be a really tough sell to Arizona fans to bring it back. Justin, we appreciate the time and their perspective on Arizona football. Thanks for joining us as always, guys. Thank you so much. 9 a.m. Slacker Radio headlines coming up next. We’ll get you up to speed on everything you missed in this show, including Brian Gueltzer and the draft moves he’s ready to see the Jazz make. We’ll get to that next. Stay with us. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson. The Jazz named Austin A the new president of basketball operations. Obviously, the job is twin. That’s the most important thing and that’s what Austin A is going to be tasked with doing and he’s going to have to figure out how to turn this thing into a winning program again, which it’s not right now. The nepotism angle is obviously there. It’s how he got his job in Boston. It’s how he got this job in Utah. When your dad is the CEO of a team and you come in as the president of basketball operations and you have the same last name, obviously that plays a part. However, he has been doing this for 17 years with the Boston Celtics and has seen a championship team. But I think people complaining about that are being naive. Nepotism happens all around us. And you know what? In basketball in particular, it is rampant. There’s at least half a dozen Nepo head coaches in the league right now. And some are good and some are not. The nice thing is that is ultimately how you get judged. It doesn’t matter who your dad was. It’s you win or not. Here. Jake Scott and Ben Anderson every day from 10 to noon on 975 KSL Sports Zone. 9 a.m. Slacker headlines brought to you by Trajan Wealth. Call Trade Wealth today, your local trusted financial fiduciary. 801899-7600 or visit their website at trajewealth.com. Earlier in the show, we discussed many things. The Knicks have fired Tom Tibido despite going to the Commerce Finals for the first time in 25 years and having back-to-back 50 win seasons for the first time in 30 years. So they searched for a new coach. Brian Gelzidler came on and talked about some of the nepotism that was a factor there. Jaylen Brunson’s dad is an assistant coach and Gelidler believes is right in the middle of a lot of drama there. So wherever you get your podcast, you can listen to our conversation with Brian Gueltzer. Uh he did talk about the Jazz in the draft and Austin A coming to Utah. Your thoughts on his hottest takes? Yeah, it’s about the draft and what the Jazz can do. He likes the Duke center. Can they trade Kesler? I think that’s important. Uh A you at this point his name, what does it matter? Sure. If you think he got the job because of that, oh, you’re the thing that I’ve learned through the uh proverbial school of hard knocks is you’re not changing anybody’s mind. So, why bother arguing? You know, if you think it’s just complete nepotism, then that’s what you think it is, right? And you’re not going to change your mind no matter what I say. So, why would I waste time trying to convince you otherwise? I’m not. Think what you want to think. And if you want to think that, that’s great. But from this day forward or two days forward, two days ago forward, it’s all about results. That’s the great thing about sports. It’s results, man. There’s literally a scoreboard. Yeah. Right. You know, Scally talked about they’re not in the uh the building at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. No, I’m getting ready for work. Uh I’m not going to get up at 4. Uh but I’m going to judge you on Saturdays. I’m gonna judge you on your win loss record. Fair or unfair? Tibido, you want to talk about fair? What fairness is that? Didn’t look like any to me. I was surprised when I heard it. I all I thought is that’s the Knicks. And I really thought that’s Dolan. It’s got James Dolan written all over it. He’s done unpredictable stuff that set them back. And we’re we’ve all got our biases, right? We’ve all got these experiences that shape the way. And I just remember Jerry Sloan saying, “Guys together.” that third year they really peak where they’re playing off each other and they know everybody knows what everybody’s going to do just from the body language just out of the peripheral vision they know and the the Knicks I mean they made a major change this year and they had a pretty good year with it better year than I expected really and yet they’re not going to try to build on that they’re going to do something different I don’t know what they’re doing but fine whatever yeah they’ve made major trades and acquisitions and so forth become like a college team uh yeah I don’t I know if you’ll have any team will have three years to get to that point and teams maybe if you don’t have to compete against the teams that have had three years maybe you don’t need the three years you know because the other guys have the same problem which is what college basketball has become right and it’s what we’re seeing in the finals this year that the Pacers and the Thunder were in the lottery two years ago and last year they went out in the uh what second and third round in the lottery in 2023. Can you believe that? No. No, they were in the lottery. 22. I don’t know. I’m asking. I don’t I don’t know it off the top of my head. Yeah, I think they were in the lottery in 23, but let me check. Okay. I don’t know. I’m asking. I just looked it up. Now you got questioning myself. But you know, it involves doing math on the air and I can’t count and talk at the same time. I’ve proven that so many times. Can you? Yeah. 23. Okay. 35 and 47. The Pacers were 12 games under 500. They bottomed out the year before in 22 at a 25 win season. Been a roller coaster. I went with the thunder since you’ve led me down this path. Uh me to the water. Drop me in the river. Yeah. Down to the river since the spring scene today. Uh I’m unload. Here you go. So, the Thunder had um because I know in 22 they had that phenomenal draft of Holgrren and Williams, right? They had uh they had the 22 and 24 win seasons in 21 and 22, right? How about 23? So, in 23 they go 40 and 42, but miss the playoffs. That feels like some previous Jazz rebuilds we’ve seen. And then last year, they won 57, won in the first round against the Pelicans, and lost to the Mats, but they made significant progress in missing the playoff. That’s fine. Yes. and and Holman was out that year, right? Because he didn’t play his rookie year with foot, I think it was. Yeah. Right. So, they didn’t have they didn’t have their guys. Uh and then they get him in there and he’s adapted well. Uh their future is just so unbelievable. They they need to invest in an entire store of shades. That’s how bright their thing. And I think June 27th is National Sunglasses Day, too, for that matter. They they they’re parallel in the fact that they both um had lost in the first round in three straight years for the Pacers. Actually, five broke it up. Went into the lottery for three years a piece and now they’re in their second year in the playoffs and they’re in the NBA finals. So, way to go. Things move faster now. Yes, as we have been told. And that’s uh Austin in his press conference said that that’s a reflection on the the salary cap, the collective bargaining agreement, your ability to keep things together. There there are people think that the Pacers financial situation that they’re actually going to give up key pieces like this is their window. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. We’ll see. They got a break in New York beating Boston. I don’t think OKC got a break, right? I think they just stormed right in. They had the best record in the league and I think everybody in the postseason Yep. And I think a lot of people think what you think and think the West was better and they took on all comers. So yeah, that’s why they’re picking Oklahoma City. Sure. I haven’t got zero problem with that. The Thunder are the favorite. And it looks like most people are picking the Thunder in five or six because nobody wants to pick them in four. I would certainly pick them for sure. Yeah. But yeah, Austin going forward to bring it full circle will be judged on the production of the team. That’s the great thing about it, man. You can sell it, you know. And then Dennis one year wanted to talk about the point differential didn’t I I just couldn’t go there. And I’m a Dennis Lindsay guy. But you’re also right not to go there. It didn’t It didn’t really translate. Yeah. is you can’t ignore your record. Now, there’s sometimes there is reasons like Utah, I can’t ignore their five and seven. Well, obviously he’s got rising, but then I can on the flip side ignore, well, you put all your faith in this guy for two years and it was clear he had major injuries before the Rose Bowls. The guy is unlucky. five years at Utah, three season ending injuries, two Rose Bowls. It’s just boom or bust. There was no middle ground with him. You put all your faith in him, so you can you can volley serve back and forth on that. There are some reasons that go into it. Uh but were the three years worth the two? Which three years? I mean, were the two years worth the three? Were the two great the two Rose Bowl years worth the three season ending injuries? Yes. Right. You think there any of you fans who’d argue that with you? Some. Yeah. Oh, really? I think people like to argue. A little recency bias. Fun. A little recency bias. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and and I had someone say to me on the field when they lost Arizona, you know what’s worse than this loss? Those other guys are six and zero. A I Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Got it. So the other guys not talking about Arizona, right? Yeah. Yeah. Arizona wasn’t I was about to say Arizona wasn’t six and0. What were they talking? Oh, I know who they were talking about. So the recency bias if they were three and nine, it probably wouldn’t be none, but they they just went 11 and two. But the good thing about that and Chris Hill was right about this. It’s like it pays to have a rival. He had a friend who went to San Diego State and he thought he was going to be great and it didn’t work and why. And a guy who’d been to Ohio State said never underestimate the importance of rival. It drives you. But if you’re in the moment, in the moment 100%. That it really is like that in the moment. And that’s what drives you is that moment. That moment is real. I know. But fans don’t have anything to drive. That’s the school and the football team. We’re talking about fans here. You just asked me about fans. That’s the And that’s more that only goes to the the high-end boosters who really make the budget happen because they get driven because they feel it, right? I’m talking about Joe Fan. Yeah. But Joe Fan, even season ticket holding Joe Fan, right? That money is important, but it’s a fraction. Especially the way the Oh, yeah. TV streaming revenue has gone. Yeah. Next time we have Ryan Smith on, we can ask him about that. I’ve talked to him a little bit about that off the side and he’s like, “Wow, when it comes to basketball, that that kind of contract that changes business for everybody, you know, the entire league. Not every league has that. NFL certainly does and now the NBA does. We’ll see about the others as their deals come up.” So, for all those Jazz fans, if Austin is great, you win. If he’s not, they’ll make a change. But we’re five years out from even thinking about that going forward. I’m excited for him because he’s younger. He’s aggressive. This is something. It’s like Brian Santiago. The parallels there are startling in that Brian work work grind grind grind. Get your opportunity. Now you’ve got your opportunity. Austin Age. Yeah, sure. It sure helped that his father got him in, but his father couldn’t get him to the point where he was grinding. If he was lazy or didn’t want to grind and do the work, his father couldn’t help him or or do anything for him, right? So, he he was a grinder and now he’s got this gig. And just like with Santiago, I hope he knocks it out of the park. Same thing with Ang here. Hope he knocks it out of the park. Wherever you get your interviews, if you’re into the Jazz, you’re into the NBA, go listen to Brian Gueltzer. His takes on uh the players he likes, the bold moves he would make. He loves the center from Duke. Probably loves him more than most people. I love him more than Christian Lightner. Okay, that was really Mike Jaminsky. some other centers who played at Duke. Cherokee Parks, Allah Abdulabi. We’ll see where Maloo goes. He’s been projected top 10, but not top five, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t you couldn’t do something. Yeah, make a move. Make a bold pick. Well, whatever pick he comes at, it’ll be about 20 or 25 higher than Jokic was. Or more. Yeah. So, 35 higher. So, keep that in mind. I saw a thing yesterday. Oh, ESPN put on their power index spiel. Huh? What is that? Football percentages index. and great, but it has no meaning. I don’t think we saw last year the teams that they picked to do all this and that, and you can say, “Okay, well, my gosh, Utah had an injury.” All right, I’ll give you that. Well, how about Oklahoma State? Nope. And and and Arizona State and BYU and Colorado, the whole thing was upside down. The whole thing was upside down. So, they got the teams wrong. Why would I look at that thing and believe it has any value? I don’t know what it means or how they get there. I can’t understand it. They put that on. It’s the the It’s right there with the the percentage chance to win the game based on the score with nine minutes to go or whatever. That’s nonsense. How How the heck do you figure that out? And the only time that ever becomes uh people posted is the team that had 97% lost. They never posted. The team that had 977%, they won. You never see that. You only see it when it’s the other way. Well, yeah. So, things happen. That That’s why we tune in because if that thing was true and so and so team had 97% click and it actually happened. That’s why we love sports. The Knicks would have gone up 20. It’s unscripted drama and we uh we love it. The curve balls are the best part. The freakishly predictable is not as much fun. I mean, you look smart. And in the Mountain West era, we could all sit here and basically pick BYU and Utah’s schedule, game by game for the whole season and and be 90 90% right. Everybody loves Raymond reruns. That’s all I watch is sports. You watch Everybody Loves reruns. Yeah. You’re even done watching uh watching the Sopranos to see the old neighborhood. Well, that in that restaurant. You have to pay for that. Oh, okay. It’s not out there somewhere, huh? Not that I’m aware of. For free. Plus, I’ve seen every episode a thousand times. And that’s It doesn’t make me laugh when they they mention my hometown. All right. I know that. I got over it. Uh but Rey and Ma, they make me laugh. That’s it. And occasionally I’ll dip in a little Love American style. What are you talking about? Those reruns. I don’t think that’s out there anywhere. Loveboat. I don’t think that’s out there anyway. Probably. Oh, it’s got to be somewhere. Some streaming service has it. There are there are outlets for this thing. Yeah, I did. Love boat, man. Well, I I got They sail out of Pedro. I get to see the It’s because of Pedro. I should have known. Why didn’t I know that? And you see the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which I walked over when they had a a party for it, some anniversary. Yeah. So, I just do that. No, I don’t I don’t watch. You are a mess, man. You need to go more. More. That’s my harbor. There it is. It’s on YouTube. There’s I lived right over I lived right over here. Right over over where it says donate. Donate now. join us today. Well, you gotta carry it out. They just got a picture of the bow where it’s docked. Classic. All right, DJ and PK. It’s 975 the zone. Your feedback next. What do you think about uh Austin H saying that the Jazz Hey, anything can happen, but they’ll probably pick five and 21. We will get to that next. Stay with us. That’s all we’re almost here. Don’t go nowhere. Join hands of Scotty G. Friday from noon to 3, they’ll be at the Larry H. Miller Summer Games in Cedar City. Celebrate 40 years of a Utah sports tradition. They’re going to be in Cedar City. Yes. Yes, they are. Join hands of Scotty G. Friday from noon to 3 at Larry H. Miller Summer Games in Cedar City. Wow. Holy freak. Good for them. Is Milts still up the uh up the canyon? Is that is that uh a lot of restaurants? Uh hey, the generation ones. Uh up the canyon, buddy. Go up the canyon to Milts, man. I had a photographer. I was down there for some story. Photographer took me up there. It’s like, well, that’s why this place is popular. Steak and the baked potato. Let’s go. I don’t know. I don’t I’ve never been to Milts. That was the place back in the day. It’s Peterson. Maybe it still is. Yeah, you got me. Austin says the Jazz most likely will keep this month’s draft picks. What were you hoping for? Battle cattle fan trading up. Not possible. Sorry. Yeah, you could trade to three or four, but they they want one or two. You could get to three or four. I think you could get to two. Really? Yeah. What do what do you offer? Everything. Everything. The kitchen sink. Yeah, you wouldn’t want to do it. The number two player isn’t good enough. Yeah. So, it’s not realistic, right? But why would they want to? That’s the point. How do we really know that Harper? We don’t. Is going to be better than Edgecomb or Johnson or whomever. And Bailey seems to be Oh, man. I I feel bad for the team that takes Bailey if he doesn’t turn out because like there’s so much pressure. Why didn’t you take him? Well, it’s a Dante Exom pick. There were four guys and everyone acknowledged before the draft, these are the four and the Jazz are drafted in fifth. And then suddenly at number four, Orlando says it’s not number four to us. So the Jazz were absolutely expected to take him and they did. And the best thing about that is they traded him for Clarkson. Yep. Even fully healthy, I don’t think he would have been a big player. It didn’t seem to be trending that way. And then the injuries drained out whatever remaining drama there was and how that would play out. Yeah. It looked like, oh, this is starting to be a reach, right? He still managed, and good for him, to get himself back in the league, but he’s a role player. Yeah. And maybe there might be a draft where if you get a role player at five, that’s the best you can do, right? Well, and Orlando took Aaron Gordon and traded him to Denver and he couldn’t he couldn’t carry the show in Orlando, but man, next to the Joker, he was a reward. I don’t know who I don’t remember who they traded him for to evaluate that trade. Uh, so, but I know that it was a critical component. So, the Nuggets made a great trade there. I don’t remember. I think Pope or I don’t remember who they gave up. It didn’t matter. Uh, so yeah, I I think they could move up, but but they’ll have to overpay. So don’t do it. Sell the farm. No. And Dallas, that guy, what’s his face, whoever that GM is, I can’t remember his name now, would absolutely be run out of town if they didn’t take Flag. They might as well move to Winnipeg. Winnipeg. Yeah. Kind of random, but okay. Winnipeg. Yeah, that it would just be just shocking. But other than that, we’ll see, man. That’s what makes it so intriguing. That’s these guys get paid a lot of money to do these very things and they do what thing what they absolutely think is right and then it could backfire. And then Denver’s sitting there, yeah, we’ll take this uh this foreign dude, Jokic. Nobody bats an eyelash. I wonder what the reaction was that night when he came out of the draft. You know what I mean? What were they thinking in Denver? Okay. Well, take a flyer on this guy. Yeah, we’ll see. He blows up and he’s a surefire Hall of Famer. It’s crazy. It’s so crazy, man, that that’s the way things can go. And you work so hard and do everything possible to get it right. and all those teams and some of them twice obviously passed on Joic. Well, yeah. Oops. And since the draft went to two rounds, clearly he’s got to be the best all-time player. Yeah. And obviously if you knew now what you should have known then, he would have gone number one, but nobody knew. Yeah. So now you got to fly off to Spain and Slovenia and France and Germany. There’s a kid from Israel, but I think he’s playing in Germany. But I think they did do that, right? And they still did that. And they still Yeah. And he was chubby and he was playing against fourth tier com competition. Yeah. It’s just crazy that that’s going to determine your fate. But that’s the reality. But then also too, you can just work your butt off and make the right pick at the right time, too. It’s not just all throwing darts against the wall blindfolded. DJPK, we’re all done. Jake and Ben are next right here on the zone.
The entirety of DJ & PK for June 4, 2025:
HOUR ONE
• Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
• Bill Seals, Cyclone Report and Rivals
• Austin Ainge, Utah Jazz
HOUR TWO
• What is Trending
• Hot Takes or Toast
• What do you want the Utah Jazz to do?
HOUR THREE
• Brian Geltzeiler, SiriusXM NBA Radio and NBAtv
• Khaman Maluach could be option Utah Jazz consider
• Danny and Austin Ainge have options in the NBA Draft
HOUR FOUR
• Justin Spears, Arizona Daily Star
• Slacker Radio Headlines
• Feedback of the Day
