Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sarah Todd on the Utah Jazz and NBA Summer League, Darryn Peterson's play in Vegas + more
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: You tune to the Sean O'Connell show for the Murdoch
- 0:10Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred. At ninety two one
- 0:14Speaker 1: FM got a three way tye for second place at
- 0:19Speaker 1: the Open Championship. Right now, Lucas Herbert continues to lead.
- 0:22Speaker 1: He went sixty two today. He's eight under for the tournament.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Rice In d Chambeau has got one hole to play.
- 0:28Speaker 1: He just pulled it to six under par. He Cam
- 0:32Speaker 1: Young and Suber at six under, Sam Burns at five under.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Girard also on the on the course, still five under
- 0:41Speaker 1: through fifteen. Scottie Scheffler heading to eighteen. He's at minus four.
- 0:46Speaker 1: Tommy Fleetwood still out there is daylight still popping at
- 0:50Speaker 1: Royal Birkdale, and we'll keep you updated on that. We'll
- 0:56Speaker 1: give you one more leaderboard update before we get out
- 0:58Speaker 1: of here today. Final hour of the program. I'll give
- 0:59Speaker 1: you a World Cup preview for the final coming up
- 1:02Speaker 1: on Sunday. Spain and Argentina coming up in just a bit.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Sarah Toot's gonna join us here in just a moment
- 1:09Speaker 1: or so as well. Got a couple of other text
- 1:11Speaker 1: messages here from you guys today eight seven seven three
- 1:14Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred. This one comes in from
- 1:17Speaker 1: Spencer Spencer McKay Hey, Spencer, Hey, bial, great to have
- 1:21Speaker 1: you back on the blowtorch. Here's a question whether you
- 1:23Speaker 1: think are the odds of Utah or the Big I'm sorry,
- 1:25Speaker 1: the Big Twelve getting two teams into the playoffs. What
- 1:27Speaker 1: would have to happen for that to take place? I
- 1:31Speaker 1: think let's let's just put it this way. I think
- 1:33Speaker 1: Texas Tech is likely to be there only because their
- 1:38Speaker 1: schedules pretty easy. I could see them maybe one loss,
- 1:41Speaker 1: hitting the Big Twelve championship game, maybe even undefeated going
- 1:45Speaker 1: into that, so I think they probably are there. Utah
- 1:47Speaker 1: or by you have a chance to get in. You
- 1:50Speaker 1: just if you want to assure yourself of getting into
- 1:52Speaker 1: the playoffs, you have to have one loss. You could
- 1:56Speaker 1: be a two loss team to get in. If BYU
- 1:58Speaker 1: were to beat Notre Dame in the regular season, but
- 2:01Speaker 1: then maybe have two losses in the Big Twelve, they
- 2:03Speaker 1: would still be in pretty good shape. Utah doesn't have
- 2:06Speaker 1: a great non conference schedule, but let's say the Utes
- 2:09Speaker 1: win eleven and one of the regular season but then
- 2:11Speaker 1: lost in the Big Twelve championship game. I think they'd
- 2:13Speaker 1: have a chance to get in there as well. So
- 2:15Speaker 1: it's it's not a lock by any means, but I
- 2:17Speaker 1: think they'll have a chance this year. But BYU having
- 2:20Speaker 1: that Notre Dame non conference game can really help their cause.
- 2:24Speaker 1: This one comes in from Jason's Bill. Always great to
- 2:26Speaker 1: hear from you. I'm very excited forty eight days to
- 2:29Speaker 1: go go Utes. Well, thanks Jay, I'm excited to eight
- 2:34Speaker 1: seven seven three five three zero seven hundred gets you
- 2:38Speaker 1: in and on board. Today here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
- 2:41Speaker 1: Bill Riley filling in for Sean today, we'll talk some
- 2:44Speaker 1: jazz coming up momentarily here with Sarah Todd of the
- 2:47Speaker 1: d News. This text from Texter zero seven to five
- 2:51Speaker 1: to two. Hey Bill, great to hear your voice. You
- 2:54Speaker 1: mentioned Andy Ludwig in passing a little while ago. I
- 2:58Speaker 1: still feel bad for the way he left the program.
- 3:00Speaker 1: He was so successful here. He led our offense to
- 3:03Speaker 1: two Pac twelve championships. We kicked USC's ass three times
- 3:08Speaker 1: in a row. He also led that offense and beat
- 3:10Speaker 1: Nick Saban in Alabama. I'm a little bit baffled about
- 3:14Speaker 1: how a guy who is so great suddenly loses his touch.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Did Ludwig lose his game or was the offense so
- 3:21Speaker 1: bad because of a massive number of injuries. Did he
- 3:24Speaker 1: just take one for the team because somebody needed to
- 3:27Speaker 1: be fired. No, Andy did not lose his touch. Andy
- 3:31Speaker 1: was a great offensive coordinator, not just at Utah but
- 3:35Speaker 1: other stops as well. Andy's undoing was his starting quarterback.
- 3:41Speaker 1: Cam Rising was not able to stay healthy at the
- 3:44Speaker 1: end of his career, and because because of the ever
- 3:50Speaker 1: moving nature of college football today where players don't stay
- 3:55Speaker 1: in a program for a long time, Andy's offense was
- 3:59Speaker 1: very challenging. It was Brian Johnson was in the program
- 4:03Speaker 1: for a long time and thrived in Andy's offense when
- 4:05Speaker 1: he was healthy. Cam Rising was in the Utah program
- 4:08Speaker 1: a long time and thrived in Andy's offense. To be
- 4:12Speaker 1: very fair, Bryson Barnes was in Utah's offense or in
- 4:16Speaker 1: Utah's program for a long time, and while Bryson was
- 4:19Speaker 1: a little bit more limited physically, he led Utah to
- 4:23Speaker 1: an eight and four season. Remember that because he knew
- 4:27Speaker 1: Andy's offense inside and out. Utah struggled when a guy
- 4:33Speaker 1: like Isaac Wilson, who was a true freshman, didn't know,
- 4:37Speaker 1: didn't have an extensive knowledge. Andy's offense was very intricate,
- 4:41Speaker 1: very complicated, and Kyle decided to make a move to
- 4:46Speaker 1: an offense that was a little bit more malleable, a
- 4:49Speaker 1: little bit more plug and play. So it was nothing
- 4:53Speaker 1: having that, it wasn't massive injuries. It was one injury
- 4:57Speaker 1: in particular, and that was at the quarterback position. But
- 5:01Speaker 1: Andy was I mean, he was the offense for Utah
- 5:07Speaker 1: in their best years under Kyle Whittingham, the Sugar Bowl year,
- 5:12Speaker 1: even that very if you go back in time and
- 5:15Speaker 1: look at the numbers that Brian Johnson put up before
- 5:17Speaker 1: he got injured at the end of that first year,
- 5:19Speaker 1: they were very prolific numbers. When Andy Ludwig had a
- 5:23Speaker 1: healthy quarterback and a quarterback that had been in his
- 5:28Speaker 1: system for a little while, his offense is hummed. So
- 5:32Speaker 1: that was kind of the story on Andy. But no,
- 5:36Speaker 1: he did not lose his touch suddenly. He just ran
- 5:39Speaker 1: a very complicated and intricate offense that required you having
- 5:43Speaker 1: been in the program for some time, and college football
- 5:47Speaker 1: today guys just don't stay in programs long enough. They
- 5:52Speaker 1: don't want to sit back and learn as much. They
- 5:55Speaker 1: want to go someplace and play eight seven seven three
- 6:01Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred gets you in and on
- 6:05Speaker 1: board today here on Utah's number one sports talk and
- 6:08Speaker 1: The Shan O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred. Just a couple
- 6:13Speaker 1: of other reminders for you. We'll have a leader board
- 6:17Speaker 1: update coming up here momentarily, and we'll catch up with
- 6:20Speaker 1: Spence when he comes in as well. I heard Spence
- 6:23Speaker 1: had JJ Watt on the show the other day. We'll
- 6:26Speaker 1: get the backstory on that coming up in just a bit.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Friend of the program, friend of mine and a tremendous
- 6:33Speaker 1: NBA writer and insider from the Deseret News, joins The
- 6:37Speaker 1: Shat O'Connell Show, Sarah Todd in right now. How are you?
- 6:42Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Bill, How are you?
- 6:43Speaker 1: I'm doing fantastic. Did you survive the heat of Las Vegas?
- 6:48Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I should say I'm doing great.
- 6:51Speaker 3: Despite the fact that I've spent seven.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Days in Las Vegas in July. That's a big caveat here.
- 6:57Speaker 1: It almost feels like a punishment in some ways. I
- 7:00Speaker 1: have to go to Vegas one for seven days. But
- 7:02Speaker 1: also in the middle of July, I.
- 7:04Speaker 2: Realized that, like I really shouldn't complain, right, Like I
- 7:08Speaker 2: get I get paid to watch basketball, and like, I
- 7:12Speaker 2: get to go to Summer League, and there's a lot
- 7:14Speaker 2: of people that would really really love to do that.
- 7:16Speaker 2: But man, Las Vegas is just not it, you know,
- 7:21Speaker 2: like there's there's a whole lot of places. Let's move it,
- 7:24Speaker 2: let's let's have Let's have NBA Summer League in San Diego, right, like,
- 7:30Speaker 2: just somewhere where the temperature is not just the depths
- 7:35Speaker 2: of Hell and where there's a nice breeze, Like it's
- 7:39Speaker 2: just anywhere else other than the place where it could
- 7:42Speaker 2: be the hottest and most depressing during the daytime.
- 7:46Speaker 1: Yeah, at least the games aren't being played outside. At
- 7:48Speaker 1: least you're inside for those games. But San Diego play
- 7:52Speaker 1: them up on the Mesa via Haas Arena or downtown
- 7:55Speaker 1: a Field Sports Arena at the Convention Center.
- 7:57Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it would be so great.
- 8:05Speaker 3: I bet that there's a lot of people I think
- 8:07Speaker 3: that don't.
- 8:07Speaker 2: Go to Las Vegas during Summer League because they've gotten
- 8:10Speaker 2: to the point where they're just like, oh, I can't
- 8:12Speaker 2: do it anymore. I think that even more of the
- 8:15Speaker 2: NBA world would show up if they had it somewhere
- 8:17Speaker 2: where the weather was a little bit more temperate.
- 8:19Speaker 1: I'm lucky in a fact, I missed doing this show
- 8:22Speaker 1: sometimes and I love being able to fill in for Sean.
- 8:25Speaker 1: I don't miss tuning in to watch the hot take
- 8:29Speaker 1: shows every morning, where every play and every move of
- 8:32Speaker 1: every game, even Summer League games are analyzed, and all
- 8:36Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're having to nitpick Darren Peterson in
- 8:38Speaker 1: real time in Summer League, which is insane. But I
- 8:43Speaker 1: would like your opinion is one that has watched him
- 8:45Speaker 1: play throughout Summer League here in Salt Lake and down
- 8:48Speaker 1: in Vegas. Give me the Sarah Todd report card on
- 8:52Speaker 1: on Darren Peterson.
- 8:54Speaker 2: Yeah. My report card is I tried really hard not to,
- 8:59Speaker 2: you know, get overblown or overreact to anything. I have
- 9:03Speaker 2: to like really tell.
- 9:04Speaker 3: Myself to be intentional about that.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Every year, right, Like, you know, Darren Peterson has a
- 9:09Speaker 2: game with nine turnovers.
- 9:11Speaker 3: In Summer League and I have to I have to
- 9:12Speaker 3: tell myself.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Like it doesn't matter, it's summer League, Like, don't think
- 9:15Speaker 2: about it. You know, let's let's talk about a turnover
- 9:20Speaker 2: issue when Darren Peterson is actually in the NBA and
- 9:24Speaker 2: that happens you know, five six, seven games in a
- 9:26Speaker 2: row or something. This is not the time to worry
- 9:29Speaker 2: about turnovers, right and then also like just be realistic
- 9:34Speaker 2: about what the situation is and who who's around Darren Peterson.
- 9:38Speaker 2: So you know, everyone went into the summer really looking
- 9:41Speaker 2: forward to seeing Darren along with Ace Bailey and see
- 9:44Speaker 2: how Cody Williams looked. But the reality of the situation
- 9:48Speaker 2: is that Ace Bailey's dealing with some backstazins, which is
- 9:51Speaker 2: something I'm a little bit concerned about. Well, you know,
- 9:54Speaker 2: that's that's a side conversation. And Cody Williams, honestly, he
- 10:00Speaker 2: he in my estimation, didn't really look that much different
- 10:04Speaker 2: and didn't really look that great in some of the
- 10:06Speaker 2: games that he played. And so you've got the number
- 10:11Speaker 2: two pick who was in many people's eyes, could have
- 10:15Speaker 2: been the number one pick, and a bunch of guys
- 10:18Speaker 2: playing around him. They were probably never gonna sniff NBA minutes,
- 10:22Speaker 2: and everyone wants to make him look bad. And even
- 10:26Speaker 2: though they wanted to make him look bad in this
- 10:29Speaker 2: Summer League games, he still managed to score like twenty
- 10:33Speaker 2: five points, twenty eight points, twenty points, and then sixteen
- 10:36Speaker 2: points in the last game they played. Like that is
- 10:39Speaker 2: pretty good. I mean, he was double team triple teamed.
- 10:42Speaker 2: They were blitzing him on basically every play, which is,
- 10:46Speaker 2: you know, that's the kind of part for the course
- 10:48Speaker 2: in summer league, defenses are really really aggressive because they're
- 10:52Speaker 2: just trying. Some of these guys want to play defense
- 10:55Speaker 2: in Summer League just because they want that breakaway dunk, right,
- 10:58Speaker 2: and some guys I just want to do it because
- 11:01Speaker 2: they want to look better than the number one or
- 11:02Speaker 2: number two pick, and so they're just they're scratching, clawing
- 11:06Speaker 2: their you know, fouling guys left and right. And so
- 11:10Speaker 2: the way that I saw is, no matter what you
- 11:13Speaker 2: think about Darren Peterson, the fact that he was basically
- 11:15Speaker 2: getting double or triple teams on every play and he
- 11:18Speaker 2: still managed to look like the best player on the
- 11:20Speaker 2: floor on most possessions, there's something really special about that,
- 11:25Speaker 2: considering that he's nineteen.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Again, small sample size, but what you've seen of him
- 11:30Speaker 1: this summer playing with guys that he won't likely play
- 11:33Speaker 1: with this season when he plays nexe Qiante George and
- 11:37Speaker 1: Larry Markin and Jaren Jackson, what skill set or what
- 11:42Speaker 1: part of his game kind of gives you the most
- 11:45Speaker 1: help or should give Jazz fans the most helpe of again.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Small sample size.
- 11:49Speaker 2: Sarah, Yeah. I mean I've watched so much of his
- 11:52Speaker 2: films from Kansas and then also film from before that too,
- 11:57Speaker 2: and he just has There's two things that really really
- 12:01Speaker 2: excite me.
- 12:02Speaker 3: It's just his.
- 12:02Speaker 2: Feel for the right moment to shoot and the fact
- 12:05Speaker 2: that he's so fluid and he just everything always looks
- 12:08Speaker 2: like it's going to go in because he has such
- 12:10Speaker 2: great touch. And so that's whether he's at the basket
- 12:13Speaker 2: or a little short like floater shot. He's got mid
- 12:15Speaker 2: range jumpers. The way that he pulls up from three,
- 12:18Speaker 2: just every single time that he goes up for a shot,
- 12:22Speaker 2: it feels like the right decision, the right shot. And
- 12:24Speaker 2: he's got such great touch from everywhere. So it's just
- 12:28Speaker 2: he's a walking bucket. That's exciting. But I think the
- 12:31Speaker 2: thing that most excites me is that at nineteen especially,
- 12:36Speaker 2: like I have to remember that this guy is a
- 12:38Speaker 2: literal teenager, that he he doesn't get sped up, and
- 12:43Speaker 2: that like when he's pressured, he really understands how to
- 12:47Speaker 2: draw contact, and he really understands like great ways to
- 12:52Speaker 2: move and get off the ball, and he he knows
- 12:55Speaker 2: how to change speeds like he knows how to speed
- 12:58Speaker 2: up physically, but doesn't get it sped up mentally. And
- 13:02Speaker 2: it's just not often that you see that in a
- 13:05Speaker 2: nineteen year old. He is so so smart with the
- 13:09Speaker 2: basketball in his hands, and that makes me really excited
- 13:12Speaker 2: because he's not going to have to go through like
- 13:15Speaker 2: the learning curve of how to draw contact to get
- 13:18Speaker 2: off the ball when he is double teams. Like those
- 13:20Speaker 2: small things that rookies have to deal with. It just
- 13:22Speaker 2: looks like he already knows.
- 13:23Speaker 3: How to do them.
- 13:24Speaker 1: Sor Todd with us from the Deseret News. We'll talk
- 13:26Speaker 1: a little bit about Jess summer League. It's funny you
- 13:28Speaker 1: mentioned all those things. I'm lucky enough to work with
- 13:31Speaker 1: Alex Jensen, who's got a little bit of experience in
- 13:34Speaker 1: pro basketball. And we were talking about Darren Peterson. We
- 13:37Speaker 1: saw him this year when Utah played Kansas, and I
- 13:40Speaker 1: asked al about him and he just said, hey, he
- 13:43Speaker 1: just makes it look easy. And this was, you know,
- 13:44Speaker 1: back in February. He said, he's a pro and he
- 13:48Speaker 1: just makes it look, as you said, fluid and easy.
- 13:53Speaker 1: And this was Alex talking about him when he was
- 13:55Speaker 1: playing at Kansas dealing with injuries and stuff. And I said,
- 13:58Speaker 1: he said he's going to be a good and that
- 14:00Speaker 1: was back then, and Alic's got a pretty good eye
- 14:02Speaker 1: for those things.
- 14:04Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 14:04Speaker 2: I mean, I've you know, talking to like Steve Rosharowski,
- 14:08Speaker 2: the Jazz assistant coach who was their head coach during
- 14:11Speaker 2: during summer league. He he was, you know, head coach
- 14:16Speaker 2: at Marquette for many many years, and he, you know,
- 14:19Speaker 2: he was an assistant duke, Like he's seen guys go
- 14:22Speaker 2: through the college system. He knows what players look like
- 14:24Speaker 2: when they're that age, when they're Darren Peterson's age, and
- 14:28Speaker 2: he was like, you know, I've seen a lot of
- 14:30Speaker 2: great players in my day. And like the fact that he.
- 14:33Speaker 3: Does that, that he makes it look easy.
- 14:35Speaker 2: That he is so smart and that he doesn't you know,
- 14:38Speaker 2: he does he deals with pressure within the game so well,
- 14:42Speaker 2: like that is unique to people his age and so
- 14:46Speaker 2: it and I've heard what Alex said, he makes it
- 14:49Speaker 2: look easy. That phrase comes up every time you talk
- 14:52Speaker 2: to scouts or executives just across the league about Darren.
- 14:56Speaker 2: It's they say it over and over again. He makes
- 14:58Speaker 2: it look easy.
- 14:59Speaker 3: And some one is making it look that easy.
- 15:01Speaker 2: At nineteen years old, Like I guess it's you know,
- 15:04Speaker 2: you can.
- 15:05Speaker 3: Get you can get away.
- 15:07Speaker 2: We get ahead of yourself thinking about the potential of
- 15:09Speaker 2: what he might look like when he's twenty three, twenty four,
- 15:12Speaker 2: twenty five, you know, when he starts to hit his
- 15:14Speaker 2: NBA prime.
- 15:16Speaker 3: It just it does really feel like this guy is
- 15:18Speaker 3: the limit for somebody like him.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Hard to grade Bailey because, as you said, the backspasms
- 15:22Speaker 1: are jazz people you've talked to concerned at all about
- 15:25Speaker 1: the backspasms or is this something they will pass.
- 15:28Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there.
- 15:29Speaker 3: Is a little there is a little bit of concern
- 15:31Speaker 3: about it.
- 15:33Speaker 2: Again, when I asked Wiojo about it, he was like, yeah,
- 15:35Speaker 2: it's concerning. And I think that the reason that it's
- 15:38Speaker 2: concerning is because it's not like he went like straight
- 15:40Speaker 2: into these games cold. You know, like the young guys
- 15:43Speaker 2: have been in Salt Lake. They've been working out, they've
- 15:45Speaker 2: been lifting, they've been you know, playing pick up against
- 15:48Speaker 2: each other for weeks, and so it's not like he
- 15:51Speaker 2: just went in off of not working out and you know,
- 15:55Speaker 2: started having like backspasms because he was doing something different.
- 15:58Speaker 2: So I wonder if it has to do with just
- 16:01Speaker 2: how much strength he's been gaining already, because he does
- 16:04Speaker 2: look like he's bulked up quite a bit over the
- 16:07Speaker 2: summer already, and you know, we have to remember there's
- 16:10Speaker 2: a huge portion of the off season still remaining, so
- 16:12Speaker 2: it's it's only been you know, about two months since.
- 16:15Speaker 3: The season ended, and so.
- 16:18Speaker 2: I just think that that is a little bit concerning,
- 16:22Speaker 2: and so I'm you know, it's in the back of
- 16:24Speaker 2: my mind thinking about it, but there's so much time
- 16:26Speaker 2: remaining in the off season and so they probably are
- 16:29Speaker 2: going to have this under control and like it shouldn't
- 16:32Speaker 2: be an issue as we go into the regular season.
- 16:36Speaker 2: But like I said, outside of that, what's really as
- 16:40Speaker 2: exciting about Ace is that he does look like he's
- 16:42Speaker 2: like put on some really good NBA weight already, and that.
- 16:46Speaker 3: It's a successful off season as.
- 16:48Speaker 2: Far as strength goes for him, and he still looks
- 16:52Speaker 2: like he's going to be so so good and having
- 16:56Speaker 2: that strength, it could be really excited about what kind
- 16:58Speaker 2: of a defender he can be because he's got such
- 17:01Speaker 2: good lengths and such good instinct from the ball on defense,
- 17:05Speaker 2: and so that's what I'm most excited about him and
- 17:07Speaker 2: like seeing it at the beginning of next season. But yeah,
- 17:11Speaker 2: I am thinking about that. I mean, he's a really
- 17:13Speaker 2: young kid who you know, has been working out regularly
- 17:16Speaker 2: and he's dealing with backspots and to the point that
- 17:19Speaker 2: you know, they put him into a game and then
- 17:21Speaker 2: at halftime and he's like, now we got.
- 17:22Speaker 3: To shut him down.
- 17:22Speaker 2: He's still not feeling good.
- 17:24Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah, Nineteen twenty year olds generally don't or
- 17:28Speaker 1: shouldn't be dealing with back problems. That's old people or
- 17:31Speaker 1: guys that have been around the league a little bit
- 17:32Speaker 1: or that have been seriously injured. Those are Sarah Todd issues,
- 17:37Speaker 1: Bill Riley issues too. Since you and I haven't talked,
- 17:40Speaker 1: and this is probably maybe ground you've covered with Spencer
- 17:43Speaker 1: or Sean, but in your in your informed opinion, how
- 17:47Speaker 1: much better are they now than they were when the
- 17:49Speaker 1: season ended than they were a year ago at this time.
- 17:52Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen some oftening offseason editions, the Hayes,
- 17:55Speaker 1: yet Kog, the re signing of Nurkic, you know, the
- 17:58Speaker 1: rookies that are getting a year old Peterson clearly, how
- 18:02Speaker 1: much better do you think they are right now?
- 18:05Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a weird question because I think that the
- 18:10Speaker 2: thing that we have to say is that we didn't
- 18:12Speaker 2: actually know how good they were last year, Like, we
- 18:16Speaker 2: have not seen this team. We've not seen Lowry unleashed
- 18:19Speaker 2: for three years, right, we haven't seen Will Hardy really
- 18:23Speaker 2: be able to coach a team.
- 18:24Speaker 3: Without thinking about, you know, what kind of rotation should.
- 18:27Speaker 2: He have on the floor in the fourth quarter in
- 18:29Speaker 2: order to kind of maximize the potential of young players
- 18:33Speaker 2: versus maximize the potential of winning a game. And so
- 18:39Speaker 2: we don't know what that looks like when you know
- 18:42Speaker 2: Jaren is on the court with Lowry, with Keyante, with
- 18:45Speaker 2: someone like Darren Peterson, we don't know what any of
- 18:48Speaker 2: that really looks like. We've seen tiny little snippets, we've
- 18:52Speaker 2: seen small groups that have played together. We've seen just
- 18:56Speaker 2: a little bit of it to where we think we
- 18:59Speaker 2: know what it could look like. But we don't even
- 19:01Speaker 2: know before the offseason.
- 19:03Speaker 3: Editions, before any of it.
- 19:05Speaker 2: We don't even know what this team was before. And
- 19:08Speaker 2: I think that you know, probably most people would agree
- 19:11Speaker 2: with me that the Jazz were better than we ever
- 19:14Speaker 2: saw them already. And so that was already like a
- 19:18Speaker 2: good team that was playing Everyone is playing with one
- 19:21Speaker 2: arm behind their back, and Will Hardy was coaching with
- 19:24Speaker 2: one arm behind his back, and so I think the
- 19:28Speaker 2: Jazz were so much better than we saw and that
- 19:32Speaker 2: they're going to be so much better this coming season.
- 19:35Speaker 2: Like that's why you've got so many people around the NBA,
- 19:38Speaker 2: myself included, thinking like this really should be a playing
- 19:44Speaker 2: team at.
- 19:45Speaker 3: The very worst, like this, if they.
- 19:47Speaker 2: Didn't make the postseason at the end of this season,
- 19:50Speaker 2: like that's probably going to feel like a disappointment for everyone.
- 19:54Speaker 2: The expectations are so high for this team after so
- 19:57Speaker 2: many years of tanking, because this team is better than
- 20:01Speaker 2: what they actually should on the court.
- 20:03Speaker 1: All right, last thing, I'll make you make an educated guess,
- 20:07Speaker 1: where's Lebron end up?
- 20:11Speaker 2: I mean, I think that conventional wisdom and like the
- 20:16Speaker 2: right thing to say and assume is probably Cleveland, you.
- 20:20Speaker 3: Know, like have this be the retirement tour.
- 20:22Speaker 2: Closed it out where it all began, Like the narrative
- 20:25Speaker 2: fits right. But selfishly, I think that I want it
- 20:31Speaker 2: to be Golden State just because I would like to
- 20:35Speaker 2: watch the Steph and Lebron tour in what could be
- 20:40Speaker 2: his final year. Right, Like, we've seen how much fun
- 20:44Speaker 2: they have playing during the Olympics. And that's not to
- 20:47Speaker 2: say that it's going to really work or that either
- 20:50Speaker 2: of them can you know, get a team to the finals, right,
- 20:53Speaker 2: but god, it would be so much fun, Like these
- 20:55Speaker 2: are two of the greatest players of this generation. Lebron
- 20:59Speaker 2: I think probably, you know, it's nearly unanimous that he's.
- 21:04Speaker 3: The greatest player of this generation.
- 21:06Speaker 2: And Steph would be right.
- 21:08Speaker 3: There in the conversation for that and.
- 21:11Speaker 2: Man, to watch them play together, like, I think that
- 21:14Speaker 2: it's what basketball deserves. So selfishly, I just think that
- 21:17Speaker 2: that would be the most fun. Answer.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Well, apparently pat Riley has made his pitch to Rich
- 21:22Speaker 1: Paul and so we'll see if he ends.
- 21:24Speaker 2: Up in Miami. Yeah, I mean that wouldn't surprise me too,
- 21:29Speaker 2: Like Lebron playing with Giannis, right, Like Lebron pairing with
- 21:32Speaker 2: any of these guys, right, Lebron going to play with
- 21:35Speaker 2: Donovan and James Harden closing it out where it all began.
- 21:38Speaker 2: Lebron going back to Miami and trying to bring one
- 21:41Speaker 2: more championship while playing with you know, Bam and Giannis.
- 21:45Speaker 3: Or Lebron going to Golden State.
- 21:47Speaker 2: And finally finally pairing up with Steph Curry and also
- 21:50Speaker 2: playing with Jimmy Butler when he gets back at.
- 21:52Speaker 3: Some point like all of those answers.
- 21:55Speaker 2: Are fun and they make sense, and I mean, I'm
- 21:58Speaker 2: I'm with everyone else, like I'm just holding for us
- 22:00Speaker 2: and waiting until we find out what's actually gonna happen.
- 22:02Speaker 1: Hey, Sarah, thanks for doing this great catching up. We'll
- 22:05Speaker 1: talk to you soon.
- 22:06Speaker 2: Absolutely no problem.
- 22:07Speaker 1: Talk to you soon, though, Sir Todd Dezret News Jazz Insider,
- 22:11Speaker 1: NBA Insider, terrific writer and read her stuff at Doesnewsdesretnews
- 22:15Speaker 1: dot com or down Straight Desert dot com