Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Jeremy Woo previews the NBA Draft, Should Jazz trade up to No.1 for AJ Dybantsa (?), Players who are staying in college + more
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Good.
- 0:04Speaker 2: You were listening to about Sean O'Connell show, your source
- 0:07Speaker 2: for the best utes football coverage. Here's oc from the
- 0:10Speaker 2: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two
- 0:15Speaker 2: to one.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Half N Welcome back to the Shawan O'Connell show. Welcome
- 0:28Speaker 1: in Jeremy wu ESPN NBA Draft analysts to tad all
- 0:33Speaker 1: things about the upcoming draft, where, of course your Utah
- 0:35Speaker 1: Jazz have for now the number two overall pick. Jeremy Wio,
- 0:40Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
- 0:42Speaker 3: Hey, I'm going man.
- 0:43Speaker 1: You know, we're excited. It's a really interesting time of
- 0:46Speaker 1: year with the NBA playoffs coming to an end, NHL
- 0:49Speaker 1: playoffs coming to an end, and then we get into
- 0:51Speaker 1: a an offseason discussion where there's actually some optimism for
- 0:55Speaker 1: a Utah Jazz team that has been very short on
- 0:58Speaker 1: that in recent years. Hopefully Walker Kessler's situation gets figured out.
- 1:03Speaker 1: But then of course there's the question of what to
- 1:05Speaker 1: do with the number two pick and what we think
- 1:07Speaker 1: is a very deep draft that has several maybe franchise
- 1:11Speaker 1: changing players. And you've been part of these conversations, you've
- 1:15Speaker 1: heard these conversations. It seems like it's a AJ DEBONSA one,
- 1:19Speaker 1: Darren Peterson two, or maybe just maybe a reversal of that.
- 1:24Speaker 1: But what is the more likely scenario in your mind
- 1:27Speaker 1: when it comes to those top two picks. Yeah, that's
- 1:31Speaker 1: something I think.
- 1:32Speaker 3: It really is a debate. Like sometimes some of that
- 1:36Speaker 3: nuance gets a little bit lost during the season, you know,
- 1:39Speaker 3: because we talk about number one and then you act
- 1:42Speaker 3: like it's been in it. But really it's been a
- 1:44Speaker 3: real argument between those guys for a while. So I
- 1:48Speaker 3: don't know, you know, like I think I think LOSTI
- 1:52Speaker 3: will think it'll be ag number one, but I wouldn't,
- 1:56Speaker 3: you know. I really do think it's kind of a
- 1:58Speaker 3: toss up, and I think Washington has to have a
- 2:01Speaker 3: process with that. But i'd up stays to the Jazz.
- 2:04Speaker 3: I think you too are really good at number two,
- 2:06Speaker 3: just knowing you know, if those are your top two guys,
- 2:08Speaker 3: you'll get one, right. I mean, it's like a pretty
- 2:11Speaker 3: pretty low stakes place to just sort of sit there
- 2:13Speaker 3: and know you'll get one.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Obviously. You know, there's a connection with Utah ownership and
- 2:21Speaker 1: AJ deboncea. A significant chunk of the Utah fan base
- 2:25Speaker 1: also happens to be BYU fans. So there's an amount
- 2:28Speaker 1: of affection they have for Aj Debonca because of that connection,
- 2:32Speaker 1: and part of that, you know, leads to a conversation
- 2:34Speaker 1: and be like, well, hey, if your owner really loves
- 2:37Speaker 1: this kid, he's the owner and he can go down
- 2:41Speaker 1: to Austin Ainge's office and say I want him, do
- 2:44Speaker 1: what you have to do to get him. I don't
- 2:46Speaker 1: think that's what Ryan Smith is going to do because
- 2:49Speaker 1: of the quality of everyone else that is available here.
- 2:52Speaker 1: But how much of that is a realistic discussion in
- 2:55Speaker 1: the minds of you know, outsiders, Like there's no emotional
- 2:59Speaker 1: attachment here for most people in your position. Is there
- 3:02Speaker 1: any kind of conversation realistically about the Utah Jazz moving
- 3:08Speaker 1: up to one to guarantee themselves? Aj DEBONSA.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, you know, I think it was kind of interesting.
- 3:17Speaker 3: You know, at the combine, it was something people were discussing, right,
- 3:20Speaker 3: But it's so early, so early in the process, where
- 3:23Speaker 3: like if there were going to be talked, you know,
- 3:25Speaker 3: they haven't started, and if they are going to happen,
- 3:27Speaker 3: those are those things going to happen like later in
- 3:29Speaker 3: the process. But but you know, it's so rare, just objectively,
- 3:33Speaker 3: if you look at the history of it, it's it's
- 3:35Speaker 3: very rare that the top picks ever change hands. Period.
- 3:38Speaker 3: Those are hard trades to make for a lot of reasons.
- 3:41Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, I think I think you raised the
- 3:43Speaker 3: right point, like speculatively, like, is there a scenario where
- 3:48Speaker 3: not not even just just Ryan Smith, but any owner
- 3:51Speaker 3: you know, holding this type pick could could be like
- 3:53Speaker 3: I want to push this button and go do it? Right?
- 3:55Speaker 3: I mean, yes, the answer to that is Steewafel.
- 3:57Speaker 2: Yes.
- 3:57Speaker 3: But you know, I think if you look at the
- 3:59Speaker 3: big picture, you know, if I'm Utah, it's not something
- 4:01Speaker 3: I would would do, and I I don't think there's
- 4:04Speaker 3: really any reason to think they're doing it as of
- 4:06Speaker 3: as of right now. Just again, like if you just
- 4:10Speaker 3: break down the mat but it's like, yeah, you can
- 4:12Speaker 3: have whoever your number one player is, or you can
- 4:14Speaker 3: have whoever you're number two players plus you know, X,
- 4:18Speaker 3: y Z, whatever else assets. One thing that's true with
- 4:21Speaker 3: the number one pick is that the ask is always
- 4:24Speaker 3: going to be astronomical gifts at base values. So just
- 4:28Speaker 3: just doing that logic, like to me, it's it's never
- 4:30Speaker 3: been something with a ton of sense for Utah. So again,
- 4:34Speaker 3: barring some scenario where there'd be a push to do that,
- 4:37Speaker 3: like I would surprise you that's what happens. But it's
- 4:40Speaker 3: part of why it's fun.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Right because you know the Jazz are in this position.
- 4:44Speaker 1: It's you know, Behooves, someone in my job or anyone
- 4:48Speaker 1: who's you know, passionate about this team. And it's fan
- 4:51Speaker 1: base to say, all right, well what are these guys
- 4:53Speaker 1: supposed to be. And so you know, you go through,
- 4:55Speaker 1: you read every article, you watch as much tape as
- 4:57Speaker 1: you can. Uh, both guys played in the Big Twelve Conference,
- 5:00Speaker 1: so we saw a lot of them anyway. But you know,
- 5:05Speaker 1: when it comes to projecting at the next level, we
- 5:08Speaker 1: had a Kansas guy on that was like Darren Peterson
- 5:12Speaker 1: is Kobe Bryant. It's like, okay, whoa you know? And
- 5:16Speaker 1: then you'll hear somebody who got close to AJ sayah,
- 5:20Speaker 1: Aj Debontsa is gonna be a ten time All Star
- 5:26Speaker 1: in the NBA. And we use these cliches all season
- 5:30Speaker 1: long about oh wow, deep draft wow, franchise changing draft, wow.
- 5:35Speaker 1: These guys could be foundational pieces of an NBA team.
- 5:39Speaker 1: When you look at the top guys, is that how
- 5:42Speaker 1: you grade them out? Is that how you see them?
- 5:45Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think. I do think the the very
- 5:48Speaker 3: top of the draft is certainly a strength. Right, It's
- 5:51Speaker 3: one of the special things about this year's draft. It's
- 5:55Speaker 3: just the you know, there are multiple guys he would
- 5:58Speaker 3: do as real prizes, guys who in most years would
- 6:04Speaker 3: be in the number one discussion. And again you can
- 6:07Speaker 3: put Boozer in that group too, A lot of people do.
- 6:09Speaker 3: I don't think it's necessarily what will happen, but yeah,
- 6:14Speaker 3: I think you look at these guys that you can
- 6:16Speaker 3: compare the past years and there are a lot of
- 6:18Speaker 3: years where you feel really good about any of them.
- 6:20Speaker 3: So and again you can remember, you know, Cooper Flag
- 6:23Speaker 3: who was originally in this class be where he reclassified
- 6:26Speaker 3: in high school. So they need the class that the
- 6:28Speaker 3: NBA teams are looking forward to for a very long time,
- 6:31Speaker 3: and a lot of teams were you know, preparing for
- 6:34Speaker 3: last year and this year for a while. So again
- 6:37Speaker 3: knowing with so that it's a lot of your forms
- 6:39Speaker 3: coming into play moving forward like this is a pretty
- 6:42Speaker 3: pretty great year to move up. So it's I think
- 6:44Speaker 3: truly a coop for the Jazz.
- 6:46Speaker 1: Yeah, thank goodness for that. Jeremy Wu is our guest
- 6:49Speaker 1: here ESPN NBA Draft analyst. Of course, the Jazz picking
- 6:53Speaker 1: number two overall. Uh, and you mentioned that Boozer is
- 6:56Speaker 1: kind of in the same discussion, I've probably been what
- 7:00Speaker 1: should be an obvious question when we talk about the
- 7:03Speaker 1: franchise franchise changing talent in the draft, how many picks
- 7:06Speaker 1: down does that go? Is it just the top two?
- 7:09Speaker 1: Is Boozer there is four, five, six potentially there? Yeah?
- 7:15Speaker 3: To me that, I mean, it's one of the interesting
- 7:19Speaker 3: things has been the way that people's opinion to sort
- 7:22Speaker 3: of change as year has gone on.
- 7:25Speaker 1: And I think there is.
- 7:25Speaker 3: Still some difference in opinion, right, I mean, there are
- 7:28Speaker 3: some people who get to the lens of it's there
- 7:30Speaker 3: in aj there are some people who Booze are in
- 7:32Speaker 3: that group, and there's some people who think it's the
- 7:33Speaker 3: top four. Right with with Caleb Wilson that I do
- 7:37Speaker 3: think that's kind of where the drop off is, Like
- 7:40Speaker 3: it's not, you know, necessarily a huge one, but and
- 7:43Speaker 3: it kind of depends what you think of the next
- 7:44Speaker 3: group of guys. With Keton Waggler, I mean, there are
- 7:47Speaker 3: a lot of promising guards in that next bucket of players,
- 7:50Speaker 3: but I I think if we're talking about the guys
- 7:52Speaker 3: we feel good about being All Stars or beyond, and
- 7:55Speaker 3: they're three or four of those guys, so that that's
- 8:00Speaker 3: right say, but there is again that hasn't really been
- 8:03Speaker 3: a true consensus, right, Like we could say AJ is
- 8:06Speaker 3: the favorite number one, but I wouldn't say he's the
- 8:08Speaker 3: consus number one pick, which is again that's why I
- 8:10Speaker 3: think it debates.
- 8:13Speaker 1: So you got to watch the current NBA playoffs and
- 8:18Speaker 1: put whatever happens in this draft against that backdrop, and
- 8:21Speaker 1: I find myself chuckling because I'm like, man, the Jazz
- 8:24Speaker 1: are gonna get AJ Or, they're gonna get Darren Peterson.
- 8:28Speaker 1: And I think that guy, whoever it is, might spend
- 8:31Speaker 1: his entire career wishing that Victor wembin Yama didn't exist
- 8:35Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. And you know, the Jazz went
- 8:39Speaker 1: through this thirty years ago with Michael Jordan being alive,
- 8:43Speaker 1: and you had two top fifty players in NBA history
- 8:45Speaker 1: on the same team together for two decades, and they
- 8:48Speaker 1: could never get over the hump, unfortunately, because they coincided
- 8:52Speaker 1: with some of Jordan's best years. Yes, these are young,
- 8:56Speaker 1: incredibly talented players, and yes, I think the Jazz have
- 8:59Speaker 1: made really good moves with the trade. Do you bring
- 9:02Speaker 1: in Jaron Jackson junior? Et cetera. But when you when
- 9:05Speaker 1: you see, you know, Washington, where they are, you tell
- 9:08Speaker 1: where they are and you see what the rest of
- 9:11Speaker 1: the league looks like. I mean, how much more is
- 9:14Speaker 1: it going to take even for Utah Jazz team to
- 9:17Speaker 1: get into the same conversation as Oklahoma City and San
- 9:20Speaker 1: Antonio right now? Yeah?
- 9:23Speaker 3: Well, look, I think you make a good point. I
- 9:26Speaker 3: think there is the existential crisis facing a lot of
- 9:30Speaker 3: the NBA about you know, what do you do with
- 9:32Speaker 3: the sky for the next ten to fifteen years. But
- 9:35Speaker 3: you know, that's something that I think also to your point,
- 9:38Speaker 3: that's this is the cycle. There's always going to be
- 9:40Speaker 3: you know, two or three dominant guys and those teams
- 9:42Speaker 3: are going to dominate. But if you look at how
- 9:46Speaker 3: Okay See and Samitellio got there, right, Like, how do
- 9:48Speaker 3: they get to the position that they're in, It's because
- 9:50Speaker 3: they were patient. It's because they had a process and
- 9:52Speaker 3: they did a really good job of you know, evaluating
- 9:55Speaker 3: on the margins right like they're you know, okay seeing
- 9:58Speaker 3: particulars a different thing. You know what they've done is
- 10:01Speaker 3: probably the big It's like a large scale every level,
- 10:05Speaker 3: you know, hitting on all these different picks. But like
- 10:07Speaker 3: I think, you look at what Utah's doing, I think
- 10:09Speaker 3: they had a good amount of foresight with the trades
- 10:12Speaker 3: they made, right, they're positioning themselves to at least take
- 10:14Speaker 3: a step forward next year, and that's all you can
- 10:16Speaker 3: do and then you get the lottery luck what you
- 10:18Speaker 3: go forward, you know, I think it's about as well
- 10:21Speaker 3: as the plans can go to this point, right. So
- 10:24Speaker 3: I think it's having a lot of team to deal with,
- 10:25Speaker 3: and I also think if you think too hard about it,
- 10:27Speaker 3: it's probably a little depressing. But you know, you got
- 10:31Speaker 3: to find a way to beat them. I think that's
- 10:32Speaker 3: part of the challenge and fun of of what you know,
- 10:35Speaker 3: what teams do? You know, you're always always trying to
- 10:37Speaker 3: be the best.
- 10:40Speaker 1: Jeremy I dang near through a party on the air
- 10:42Speaker 1: when the results of the NBA player anonymous poll came
- 10:47Speaker 1: out about what what place do you not want to
- 10:49Speaker 1: go play? And Memphis had like thirty percent of the
- 10:54Speaker 1: respondent saying I don't want to be in Memphis. And
- 10:56Speaker 1: for the Utah Jazz, the percentage they were like fifth worst,
- 11:01Speaker 1: I guess in the league for lack of a better
- 11:04Speaker 1: way to put that. Where of course we've been, you know,
- 11:07Speaker 1: self conscious about battling the narrative. Nobody wants to be
- 11:10Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City. This is not a good NBA city, right,
- 11:14Speaker 1: There's no black culture in Utah and a lot of
- 11:16Speaker 1: the players, best players in the league are just not
- 11:18Speaker 1: going to fit in well there, They're not gonna like
- 11:20Speaker 1: it there. Noble free agents want to go there. And
- 11:24Speaker 1: you know that that is a question about an upcoming
- 11:27Speaker 1: draft where one of the guys already likes the state,
- 11:31Speaker 1: family already lives here in the state, high school and
- 11:33Speaker 1: college in the state. Another guy, it's more of a
- 11:36Speaker 1: question mark. We don't really know. And number three, by
- 11:38Speaker 1: the way, was born in the dang state. So it's
- 11:40Speaker 1: like does that matter in today's NBA in your opinion?
- 11:48Speaker 3: You're asking just a question of my comfort upper level?
- 11:52Speaker 1: Well, like, is it something that you should consider if
- 11:55Speaker 1: you're the Angels and you're in that Jazz front office
- 11:58Speaker 1: and you're like, man, really loved Darren Peterson and we
- 12:02Speaker 1: hope that he will come to Utah like Ace Bailey
- 12:05Speaker 1: did and realize he likes Utah, But these other two guys,
- 12:09Speaker 1: Cam Bloozer has very obvious connections here is Dad works
- 12:12Speaker 1: for the team, and aj Deboncea has very obvious connections here.
- 12:15Speaker 1: And again, change the calculus on what you want to
- 12:18Speaker 1: do with that pick because from a sustainability standpoint of
- 12:22Speaker 1: keeping somebody here after you draft him.
- 12:26Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I understand you're saying. I mean I don't
- 12:29Speaker 3: think so. I think for me, like just my opinion is,
- 12:32Speaker 3: I think you just got to pick who you want.
- 12:33Speaker 3: You gotta take the best guy because the future is
- 12:35Speaker 3: so unpredictable, right, Like I think winning here's a lot
- 12:38Speaker 3: of things. But also you know, they're very punny of
- 12:41Speaker 3: instances where historically, like you hope a guy doesn't leave,
- 12:44Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, the biggest things
- 12:46Speaker 3: if you don't win, that's when players tend send and
- 12:48Speaker 3: get itchy. Right, So it's I don't know, did anyone
- 12:51Speaker 3: think Lebron was going only at Cleland, you know, in
- 12:53Speaker 3: two thousand and three when he got there, and you
- 12:55Speaker 3: know it's a hometown team, right, so like eventually we
- 12:57Speaker 3: know what happened, but like there's just no way to
- 12:59Speaker 3: predict the future. And that's my point, so like, yes,
- 13:03Speaker 3: it's like a nice bonus, but I think I think
- 13:05Speaker 3: you're just taking what you want just because I think
- 13:07Speaker 3: it would be probably the wrong, wrong way to approach
- 13:09Speaker 3: such a you know, high value franchise teams and pick.
- 13:14Speaker 1: ESPN NBA Draft analyst Jeremy Wu for a couple more
- 13:17Speaker 1: minutes here on the Sean O'Connell show. We were talking
- 13:20Speaker 1: earlier about the players that had to make a decision
- 13:24Speaker 1: last night about whether they're going to come back to
- 13:26Speaker 1: college hoops or they're going to stay through this NBA
- 13:29Speaker 1: draft process and hopefully hear their names called, and how
- 13:33Speaker 1: different that process is now than it was five or
- 13:36Speaker 1: ten years ago because of the big, fat nil figures
- 13:40Speaker 1: attached with the top players that you know might be
- 13:45Speaker 1: mid first round, late first round, second round picks. It's
- 13:48Speaker 1: kind of a no brainer now to come back because
- 13:50Speaker 1: if you're that good of a college basketball player, Saint
- 13:54Speaker 1: John's wants to pay you five million bucks, Kentucky wants
- 13:57Speaker 1: to pay you four million bucks, Arizona is going to
- 14:00Speaker 1: give you a couple of cars in a house or whatever.
- 14:03Speaker 1: And just you know, I know you were you were
- 14:05Speaker 1: tweeting about this and taking a look at this Were
- 14:07Speaker 1: there any surprises for you of the guys that were
- 14:09Speaker 1: kind of on that borderline either staying in the draft
- 14:13Speaker 1: process or making the announcement that they're going back to
- 14:15Speaker 1: college hoops.
- 14:18Speaker 3: As far as the decisions from yesterday, actually not really.
- 14:21Speaker 3: I think it kind of went the way, you know,
- 14:23Speaker 3: I was expecting, just just based off of what I
- 14:27Speaker 3: was hearing and sort of what where players stocks were,
- 14:30Speaker 3: you know, like for contact, I was looking at this
- 14:33Speaker 3: this morning, like on my last top one hundred rankings,
- 14:36Speaker 3: like the two highest players who went back and this
- 14:39Speaker 3: is following the combine were ranked twenty nine and thirty, right,
- 14:42Speaker 3: So that gives you an idea of like I think
- 14:44Speaker 3: a lot of guys who feel like they're in the
- 14:46Speaker 3: first like still want to go pro. There. You know,
- 14:49Speaker 3: there were some decisions earlier in the process, guys like
- 14:51Speaker 3: Thomas Howkin, Brylin Mullins who are going to be you know,
- 14:54Speaker 3: big earners and be stars in college again next year,
- 14:57Speaker 3: and then trying to move up in twenty seven draft, right,
- 15:00Speaker 3: But it really has changed the calculus and all. No,
- 15:04Speaker 3: I think, like, you know, twenty five to thirty guys
- 15:06Speaker 3: who I viewed as like top one hundred players went back.
- 15:08Speaker 3: So I don't think the NBA really minds this, to
- 15:10Speaker 3: be honest, Like, I think it's you get more time
- 15:13Speaker 3: to evaluate guys. They tend to be more ready when
- 15:15Speaker 3: they when they come to the pros. The players have
- 15:19Speaker 3: to learn how to manage their money earlier, right, Like
- 15:21Speaker 3: it's something you know in the past, as far as
- 15:23Speaker 3: it can be a pitfall for you know, teenage NBA players.
- 15:26Speaker 3: So I think on a lot of levels it's okay
- 15:28Speaker 3: for the NBA, but it has changed the draft. It's
- 15:32Speaker 3: definitely definitely takes away from sort of the depth in
- 15:34Speaker 3: that middle middle of the draft of twenty to forty five.
- 15:37Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to ask you if if
- 15:39Speaker 1: you know that this trend has changed the way that
- 15:43Speaker 1: the pre draft process and the evaluation and specifically the
- 15:47Speaker 1: communication that teams have with you know, the folks helping
- 15:51Speaker 1: these players make their decisions. Because if you're an NBA
- 15:54Speaker 1: guy who's like, you know what, I'm willing to deal
- 15:57Speaker 1: with the eighteen year old kid who's bad with this
- 16:00Speaker 1: money so I have a couple extra years with him
- 16:02Speaker 1: so I can develop him. And then there's probably a
- 16:04Speaker 1: lot of people in the NBA who are just like
- 16:06Speaker 1: I would rather not mess with that so that I
- 16:08Speaker 1: can focus on the task at hand here and I'll
- 16:12Speaker 1: let them develop and make their mistakes while they're still
- 16:14Speaker 1: in college, because now this is a much more viable thing,
- 16:18Speaker 1: and it is much more viable for players to go
- 16:20Speaker 1: back and make NBA level money in college basketball. Has
- 16:27Speaker 1: the communications style transparency at all change to your knowledge
- 16:33Speaker 1: when it comes to a team's role in helping these
- 16:35Speaker 1: players decide.
- 16:36Speaker 3: What to do, I don't think so. I think I
- 16:40Speaker 3: think it benefits teams to have good relationships with agents
- 16:43Speaker 3: and vice versa. So I do think there's a lot
- 16:46Speaker 3: of you know, helpful feedback that goes both directions as
- 16:49Speaker 3: players make these decisions. Some of this just bears out,
- 16:53Speaker 3: you know, in different ways with the combine and different
- 16:55Speaker 3: evaluation settings. And you know, again, remember teams are bringing
- 16:59Speaker 3: in guys behind the scenes or workouts. They've been doing
- 17:01Speaker 3: it for a few weeks. Each team is a little
- 17:03Speaker 3: bit different with how they approach it. But at the
- 17:05Speaker 3: end of the day, like these guys will end up
- 17:06Speaker 3: with enough feedback to make the right call. But again,
- 17:10Speaker 3: having this for most guys, you know, this financial parachute
- 17:14Speaker 3: of hey, I can go back, I can go to college.
- 17:17Speaker 3: I can make really good money, and you know, some
- 17:20Speaker 3: guys can do it for multiple years. And again, like
- 17:22Speaker 3: point guards and centers are probably the most things that
- 17:24Speaker 3: are most valuable and hard to find in college. Like
- 17:26Speaker 3: those guys can really really make a really good type
- 17:29Speaker 3: of change before they turn pro. So I think it's
- 17:31Speaker 3: good all around. You know, we'll see the landscape. Teams
- 17:35Speaker 3: always be changing, so we'll see, you know, if it's
- 17:37Speaker 3: able to sort of stay this way in terms of
- 17:39Speaker 3: the dollar figures. But I do think it's been overall positive.
- 17:46Speaker 1: Who do you think wins tonight? Between San Antonio and Oklahoma.
- 17:50Speaker 3: City to Sanntonio, cours is game seven, Let's go.
- 17:53Speaker 1: That's what we need, right, that's what we want. I'm
- 17:58Speaker 1: fascinated with San Antonio because obviously, you know, there's a
- 18:01Speaker 1: proximity thing here with the Utah Jazz and and I
- 18:04Speaker 1: think that they are going to be the team that
- 18:06Speaker 1: stands the way of some significant development for Utah Jazz
- 18:10Speaker 1: franchise that is now desperate to try winning again. But
- 18:15Speaker 1: Victor wembn Yama is just impossible for me to root against.
- 18:19Speaker 1: Is he taking a little bit more of a heeled
- 18:21Speaker 1: turn in this series, you know, maybe ordering a hit
- 18:25Speaker 1: on a on an OKC player, skipping some media, Like,
- 18:28Speaker 1: is he shaking off a little bit of the universally
- 18:32Speaker 1: loved boy scout image in this series.
- 18:37Speaker 3: I wouldn't. I wouldn't go that far. I decided the
- 18:39Speaker 3: guys competitive, like knowing him a little bit, I think
- 18:44Speaker 3: he I think it it all comes from the right
- 18:47Speaker 3: place of competitiveness with him. And again this is this
- 18:50Speaker 3: is a really his first, like true huge tests on
- 18:54Speaker 3: the stage, and I think it's it's exciting and interesting
- 18:57Speaker 3: to watch him sort of solve this puzzle. To me,
- 18:59Speaker 3: so I've been enjoying just sort of watching him experience this.
- 19:03Speaker 3: And I mean, the guys obviously such a talent, so
- 19:07Speaker 3: I'm trying to just see what happened.
- 19:09Speaker 1: We've been making a big deal in these last few
- 19:11Speaker 1: days about the flopping the foul Merchant sort of reputation
- 19:16Speaker 1: of it. Now a two time MVP and shake Gildas
- 19:19Speaker 1: Alexander and I guess by extension that whole Okay, see
- 19:22Speaker 1: team and you go back like it was Dwayne Wade
- 19:25Speaker 1: who was the poster boy for this when the NBA
- 19:28Speaker 1: was putting in their anti flopping fines and things like that.
- 19:32Speaker 1: I don't think anything serious came of that. I don't
- 19:36Speaker 1: think it was really enforced. I obviously we're still seeing
- 19:40Speaker 1: it happen a lot in the game. Is it something
- 19:42Speaker 1: that the NBA is going to have to look at
- 19:44Speaker 1: the way they did the tanking thing?
- 19:47Speaker 3: Honestly, I don't know. I don't have a strong flopping Takelake. Honestly, man,
- 19:51Speaker 3: people have been flopping for thirty years. Man, Like I
- 19:53Speaker 3: remember being a kid watching like Reggie Miller and Lade
- 19:57Speaker 3: and Manu, and like, this is all of doing it.
- 20:00Speaker 3: I'm not new, It's part of the game. It's gains
- 20:02Speaker 3: the ship. I'm not a referee. I'm not going to
- 20:05Speaker 3: pretend that i'd have an expert take on how they
- 20:07Speaker 3: should appreciate these things. But to me, I think it's
- 20:09Speaker 3: just it's part of sports and see are always gonna
- 20:13Speaker 3: hate it, but he'll always be part of it.
- 20:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're probably right on that. Appreciate you
- 20:18Speaker 1: giving us some time today. We'll check it again right
- 20:21Speaker 1: around draft time if that works for you.
- 20:23Speaker 3: Yeah, thank man, I appreciate it.
- 20:24Speaker 1: That's Jeremy wu ESPN NBA Draft analyst some good thoughts
- 20:30Speaker 1: there on what the jazz may or may not do,
- 20:33Speaker 1: and of course the strength of this class