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Sarah Todd the Utah Jazz trading for Jaren Jackson Jr, Is the rebuild over (?) + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Another one.
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  Speaker 2: This is the Sean O'Connell's show. You are home of
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  Speaker 2: the best Inside of your youths. Let's get back to
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  Speaker 2: OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred
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  Speaker 2: and ninety two to one, a f.
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  Speaker 3: M blockbuster trade. Let's talk about it for the Utah
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  Speaker 3: Jazz with the Utah Jazz Insider from the Dead's News
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  Speaker 3: Sarah Todd, who's kind enough to jump on and react
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  Speaker 3: to the big news that Jaron Jackson Junior will be
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  Speaker 3: headed to Salt Lake City along with several other players
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  Speaker 3: in the Utah Jazz are sending out Walter Clayton Junior,
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  Speaker 3: Kyleie Anderson, Taylor Hendrix, George Nyang, and three future first
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  Speaker 3: round picks. Sarah, welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 1: How are you? I am not doing too bad. I'm
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  Speaker 1: coming at you live from the parking lot of a
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  Speaker 1: McDonald's where I'm using McDonald's wife I to write my
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  Speaker 1: story and I'm watching somebody get arrested right now. So
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  Speaker 1: there's just a lot going on in my life that's incredible.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, the cinema and the glamor of being a beat writer. Wow,
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  Speaker 3: thank you for giving us a little look at what
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  Speaker 3: that actually is Your initial reaction to this big trade.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm my initial reaction is surprised. I didn't expect
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  Speaker 1: them to do something big. I don't know that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you'd ask them. I mean I have asked them
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  Speaker 1: right like a few weeks ago. I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: there are a lot of people within the Jazz organization
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  Speaker 1: that really expected for them to do something major and big.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, the making Ja Morant available and this
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  Speaker 1: was kind of signaled right when the Grizzlies traded Desmond Bane.
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  Speaker 1: The Ja Morant thing has been percolating for a while,
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  Speaker 1: and him being very clearly available for trade, all that
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  Speaker 1: does is send signals out to the rest of the
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  Speaker 1: league to say everything else is available too, right, And
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  Speaker 1: so I think it's really great from the Jazz to
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  Speaker 1: have gone in and instead of going for maybe what
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  Speaker 1: would seem like the flashier thing to do and go
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  Speaker 1: after someone like John Moranty, they got memphisis kind of
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  Speaker 1: more consistent player from the last four years. And and
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just as far as you're looking at that lineup,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I know that's probably something that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to talk about too. Is the idea of Walker Kestler,
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  Speaker 1: Lowry Markman and Jarren Jackson Junior all playing together like
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  Speaker 1: it's it's a bit wild, but I think that it's
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  Speaker 1: really intriguing.
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  Speaker 3: Well with this move, have the Jazz in the front
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  Speaker 3: office announced that like, all right, this rebuild is not
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  Speaker 3: going to be called that anymore. Now we're tuning and
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  Speaker 3: this is a team that in twenty twenty six, twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty seven, we're going to actually put our foot down
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  Speaker 3: to the gas pedal and we're going to try to
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  Speaker 3: compete and win some games.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that there's been a lot of fatigue
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  Speaker 1: right from Ryan Smith and you known, anybody else in
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  Speaker 1: the organization. I don't think that anybody really enjoys the
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  Speaker 1: the years of tanking, right, But that's that's kind of
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  Speaker 1: what they've been saying over the last couple of years about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, how to frame what a rebuilding process is.
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  Speaker 1: You know, people within the Jazz organization have liked to
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  Speaker 1: say that, you know, in order to do a rebuild,
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  Speaker 1: you have to tear down to then build back up.
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  Speaker 1: And so we've been seeing a lot of the teardown
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  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. And this is kind of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the first big step of building things back up.
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  Speaker 1: So like you're saying, like this is going to be
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  Speaker 1: fine tuning. I want to temper expectations for everyone. I
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  Speaker 1: don't want everyone to think like next year they're going
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  Speaker 1: to be world, Right, But this is a really good
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  Speaker 1: sign for the Jazz to be ready to actually compete
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  Speaker 1: and try to make things happen as early as next season.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't feel coincidental that you're bringing a guy, a
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  Speaker 3: former Defensive Player of the Year, multiple time All NBA
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  Speaker 3: Defensive Team when you know your team has been pretty
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  Speaker 3: bad defensively and they've talked about several times even in
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  Speaker 3: recent weeks how that needs to be fixed. How much
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  Speaker 3: can a player like Triple J fix that?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And we don't know what the future of the
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  Speaker 1: other players coming over, right, like John Contra, Jock Lockdale,
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  Speaker 1: jocqu Landale, Villan Williams Jr. We don't know how that's
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  Speaker 1: all going to shake out for the future of the Jazz, right.
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  Speaker 1: But my greater point here is that thoth Memphis teams,
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  Speaker 1: even under the new regime, dating back to the Britain
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  Speaker 1: grind days of the Memphis Grizzlies, like there has been
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  Speaker 1: a very, very strong and important defensive culture for that team,
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  Speaker 1: and so like that, that is the kind of player
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  Speaker 1: in Jaron Jackson that you're bringing in. And even if
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  Speaker 1: you end up keeping any of these other players, they've
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  Speaker 1: been in that system. That is the number one priority
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  Speaker 1: for them. And when you're talking about Triple J, I
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  Speaker 1: think it's important to note like his success on being
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  Speaker 1: a point of attack defender as well as being a
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  Speaker 1: front court defender. And so obviously you're going to want
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  Speaker 1: some smaller players, whether it's your Kiante George Ace Bailey,
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  Speaker 1: to step up as perimeter and point of attack defenders
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  Speaker 1: in the long term or add more wing and point
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  Speaker 1: of attack defenders as the years go on. But this
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  Speaker 1: is a huge injection for them to increase their defensive
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  Speaker 1: efficiency right off the bat.
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  Speaker 3: How much is the emergence of Kyante George affected, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a decision to make a move like this. I don't
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  Speaker 3: want to oversell anything, but it feels like if if
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  Speaker 3: Kyante was struggling along this year, we might be asked, hey,
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  Speaker 3: be patient, we'll see what happens with this draft whatever.
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  Speaker 3: As his emergence accelerated the timeline to trigger something like
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  Speaker 3: the move we're seeing today.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you can look at it in two
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  Speaker 1: ways to not just that it's accelerated things, but also
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  Speaker 1: that you know, if Kyante was struggling across the league,
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  Speaker 1: and especially from Jazz fans, we'd be having a much
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  Speaker 1: different view of how the Jazz have actually handled the
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  Speaker 1: draft and these selections of the last couple of years. Right, Like,
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  Speaker 1: we've seen some good stuff from Cody Williams over the
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  Speaker 1: last few weeks, but a few weeks is not something
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  Speaker 1: to hang your hat on. And so the jury is
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  Speaker 1: still out. Taylor Hendrix, who has now been sent out
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  Speaker 1: his trade like that was looking like it was. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he was basically out of the rotation, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: whether or not the season ending injury from last year
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  Speaker 1: had to do a lot with it or not, Like
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  Speaker 1: he was struggling. And so like, we have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of you know, top ten picks, a lottery picks that
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  Speaker 1: were looking at their not really looking like they're going
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  Speaker 1: to pan out into great players. And so then you
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  Speaker 1: place a lot of hope and responsibility on the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: of guys like Ace Bailey and Kante George. So if
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  Speaker 1: we were looking at Keyante George struggling through this year,
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  Speaker 1: that would have been a huge black mark for the
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  Speaker 1: Jazz in their drafting during the rebuild. But also, I
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  Speaker 1: mean they'd probably be sending him out in a trade
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  Speaker 1: like this and trying to get something back, and maybe
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  Speaker 1: not even get something as valuable because prior to this season,
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  Speaker 1: Keyante's value was really low. But he has completely completely
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  Speaker 1: turned things around with his with his attitude, with his approach,
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  Speaker 1: and so absolutely, when you have a player like that
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  Speaker 1: that's starting to emerge at a twenty six year old,
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  Speaker 1: huge defensive player in Triple J that does speed up
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  Speaker 1: the timeline.
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  Speaker 3: Sarah Todd for another minute or two here, Utah Jazz
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  Speaker 3: Insider over at the Dead's News. The picks. The three
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  Speaker 3: picks are a twenty twenty seven first rounder from the
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  Speaker 3: Cleveland Minnesota deal, the Lakers twenty twenty seven first round pick,
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  Speaker 3: and a twenty thirty one first round pick. That's what
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  Speaker 3: Memphis gets as part of the draft capitol return from
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  Speaker 3: trading Jaron Jackson to the Jazz. What do you think
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  Speaker 3: of that? This is a team that has been rich
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  Speaker 3: in draft capital, and I don't know that people wanted
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  Speaker 3: to be patient enough to see how a twenty thirty
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  Speaker 3: one first round pick was going to work out anyway,
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  Speaker 3: but you're giving up two first round picks in twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty seven. Is this going to be something that the
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  Speaker 3: Jazz look back and say, yeah, it made sense or
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  Speaker 3: are we going to regret it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a big question every time that there's
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  Speaker 1: multiple draft picks that are sent down a trade, right like,
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  Speaker 1: is hindsight going to make this look bad? I think definitely.
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  Speaker 1: The thinking here is that the twenty twenty seven draft
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  Speaker 1: right now predects to be not a super highly touted
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  Speaker 1: draft class. And because you're hoping that the Jazz are
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  Speaker 1: going to be at least competing in the Western Conference,
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  Speaker 1: and you probably expect for Cleveland and Minnesota to at
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  Speaker 1: least at least be good for the next couple of years.
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  Speaker 1: So that first pick that's the most favorable of those
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  Speaker 1: three teams, that's probably not going to be a very
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  Speaker 1: high pick, So you're not too worried about sending that
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  Speaker 1: one out. The Lakers are probably going to be in
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  Speaker 1: the mix, Like you wouldn't expect for a Luca Dantic
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  Speaker 1: team in two years to be down at the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the standings in a way that going to give
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  Speaker 1: a really, really high pick. So I'd say not too
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  Speaker 1: worried about the twenty twenty seven picks, like I said,
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  Speaker 1: especially considering what that draft class kind of looks like
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  Speaker 1: right now. The twenty thirty one picks, that's probably the
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  Speaker 1: one that looks good. But I've been saying it for
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  Speaker 1: years now. The Jazz are not They were not collecting
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  Speaker 1: all these picks to make the picks themselves in perpetuity,
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  Speaker 1: you know, like they weren't just going to keep making
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  Speaker 1: draft picks. At some point you do have to start
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  Speaker 1: packaging these together to actually kind of make a go
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  Speaker 1: for it, and they still have assets in the cupboard
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  Speaker 1: to continue to make deals. I think that the Phoenix
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  Speaker 1: twenty thirty one pick is probably the pick that Memphis
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  Speaker 1: is the most excited to receive in this because they're starting,
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  Speaker 1: they're looking down the barrel of a rebuild now, and
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  Speaker 1: so that one you might, you know, five years from now,
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  Speaker 1: look back on and think, oh, we could have had that.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't think that anybody in the jazz world
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  Speaker 1: wants to be sitting here five years from now wondering
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  Speaker 1: what they could have got at the top of the draft.
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  Speaker 1: They'd rather be competing five years from now.
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  Speaker 3: Does the acquisition of Jaron Jackson Junior. Does it change
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  Speaker 3: the math on Walker Kessler's impending free agency restricted or not?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a couple things that play here, right,
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  Speaker 1: Like from Walker's side of things, right, Like Walker's view
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  Speaker 1: of things, I think that there was maybe a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of concern that they were that the Jazz might
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  Speaker 1: be heading towards not being a competing team, and that
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  Speaker 1: could be worrying if you're in Walker Kessler's camp, right,
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  Speaker 1: And so if you look at the the idea of
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  Speaker 1: playing beside kind of another stretch guy like Jaron Jackson
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  Speaker 1: Junior who can shoot from the outside, you're still going
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  Speaker 1: to be able to play on the court with him
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  Speaker 1: Like that probably feels exciting to actually be starting to
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  Speaker 1: build up. So maybe that, like often feelings there a
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  Speaker 1: little bit from the Jazz side of things, I think,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they've been open and are open to keeping
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  Speaker 1: Walker Kessler around. I think that this I don't think
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  Speaker 1: that this necessarily changes the number that they would probably
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  Speaker 1: end on. I think that's all more tied to Walker's
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  Speaker 1: surgery and what his recovery might look like and kind
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  Speaker 1: of just what the two sides are going to be
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  Speaker 1: willing to agree upon when it comes to a number.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's really it makes sense for people to
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  Speaker 1: see this trade and think, well, they're bringing in Jaron Jackson,
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  Speaker 1: like that's probably the end of Walker Kessler. I think
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  Speaker 1: it might be a bit of insurance that if Walker
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want to be in Utah, or doesn't want to
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  Speaker 1: sign an extension, or just wants to take the qualifying offer,
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  Speaker 1: right like, having Jaron Jackson Junior is pretty beautiful insurance
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  Speaker 1: as far as having someone else who could play that role.
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  Speaker 1: But I think there is a lot of excitement about
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  Speaker 1: the idea that Walker Jaren Lowry to be sharing the
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  Speaker 1: court a lot for many years to come.
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  Speaker 3: I will for now share in that excitement. And what
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  Speaker 3: a fun thing to happen two days before trade deadline. Sarah,
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  Speaker 3: thanks for your insight and your time. I appreciate you,
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  Speaker 3: no problem. Thanks a lot to see Sarah Todd from
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  Speaker 3: the deads News, Utah Jazz Insider