Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sarah Todd on the Utah Jazz, Taking Darryn Peterson at No. 2, Expect Walker Kessler to remain in Utah (?) + more

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Sarah Todd on the Utah Jazz, Taking Darryn Peterson at No. 2, Expect Walker Kessler to remain in Utah (?) + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
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  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESGN sven undred at ninety one.
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  Speaker 2: A half AF.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show. Welcome in Sarah Todd,
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  Speaker 1: NBA and Jazz Insider over at the day's news at NBA.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah on the old tweet machine, Sarah, welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show.
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  Speaker 3: How are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, A lot of excitement from everything that
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  Speaker 2: happened yesterday. I'm exhausted because I stepped off of a
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  Speaker 2: flight from Europe and basically went straight over to the
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  Speaker 2: jazz facility for draft nights. So I was exhausted yesterday,
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  Speaker 2: but I will get through the jet lag this week.
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  Speaker 3: Uh. Europe for business or pleasure?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, okay. Me and my husband took both of our
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  Speaker 2: moms on a kind of a European vacation and we
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  Speaker 2: wrapped it around the fact that he had a work
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  Speaker 2: conference in Budapest, and so we ended the trip in
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  Speaker 2: Budapest and he was there for work, but for the
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  Speaker 2: rest of us it was for pleasure.
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  Speaker 3: I love that, all right. That's the right way to
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  Speaker 3: do it.
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  Speaker 4: By the way, when somebody in the family has an
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  Speaker 4: official engagement, You attach everybody on, you make it a vacation.
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  Speaker 4: Glad you're back and glad we get to talk to
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  Speaker 4: you about the Utah Jazz selecting Darren Peterson at number
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  Speaker 4: two after a lot of wonder, worry, hand rigging, speculation.
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  Speaker 4: It ends up being kind of the most predictable outcome
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  Speaker 4: in the top four ish of this NBA draft. But
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  Speaker 4: most important is the Utah Jazz get the guy from
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  Speaker 4: Kansas who we were not so sure wanted to be
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  Speaker 4: in Utah. How influential was the meeting that the Jazz
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  Speaker 4: had with Darren Peterson and his family at his home.
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  Speaker 4: We learned about that pre draft yesterday in I guess
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  Speaker 4: closing this deal from the jazz perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Jazz went into the situation knowing
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  Speaker 2: that Darren was the guy that they wanted, and the
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  Speaker 2: trip kind of served two purposes, right. It was one,
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  Speaker 2: let's go and make sure that he's definitely the kind
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  Speaker 2: of person that we want, like, let's get to know
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  Speaker 2: him a little better. Let's you know, we've got him
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  Speaker 2: checked as he's the guy we want, but let's just
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  Speaker 2: solidify it and make sure. And then the other purpose
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  Speaker 2: was while we're there, let's sell him on the Jazz,
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  Speaker 2: and it was it was a really big deal. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it wasn't like they hadn't been in communication. Darren had
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  Speaker 2: a really good interview with the Jazz at the combine.
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  Speaker 2: And it wasn't like Darren wasn't I wasn't thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to play for any certain team. It
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  Speaker 2: was just that, you know, there was a chance of
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  Speaker 2: him being the number one pick too. And so when
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  Speaker 2: you you know, when you meet with the team that
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  Speaker 2: has the number one pick and there's a possibility, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it wasn't strange that that him or aj weren't really
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  Speaker 2: working out as the top picks. You know, they know
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  Speaker 2: they're going to go number one and two whatever order
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  Speaker 2: they end up going. But that trip to Canton, Ohio
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  Speaker 2: was really important because you had the entire basically Jazz
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  Speaker 2: brain trust. You had Austin Ainge, Avery Bradley, Danny Ainge,
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  Speaker 2: Justin Vannik and all of them were like, you know
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  Speaker 2: the gesture of being like, don't worry, like we're going
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  Speaker 2: to come to you. We want to come to your
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  Speaker 2: hometown where you're comfortable, it's on your turf, meet your
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  Speaker 2: family and just sit down and talk. And that gesture
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  Speaker 2: really meant a lot to Darren. It meant a lot
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  Speaker 2: to his family, and they, you know, they totally used
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  Speaker 2: it as a sales pitch opportunity. You know, the Jazz,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Austin Ainge went in there and he was
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  Speaker 2: ready to tell them like, look at how many fellouts
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  Speaker 2: we've had. Look at the fans that show up when
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  Speaker 2: the Jazz have been you know, tanking and rebuilding. Look
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  Speaker 2: at look at how many people show up, and how
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  Speaker 2: many people are excited that you could potentially be there
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  Speaker 2: with them. And this is how we're going to use you.
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  Speaker 2: This is what we see for the future. We're ready
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  Speaker 2: to win games right now. It's not like you and
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  Speaker 2: know you're a top lottery pick going to a team
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  Speaker 2: that's still going to be you know, rebuilding for a
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  Speaker 2: couple of years. We're ready to go. Now, let's win
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  Speaker 2: some games. And it all meant a lot to Darren
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  Speaker 2: and to his family, and it got him really excited
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  Speaker 2: about it, and so he seemed really really excited and
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  Speaker 2: kind of itching to get here when I talked to
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  Speaker 2: him last night.
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  Speaker 4: You just part of that answer was one of the
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  Speaker 4: most intriguing things about all this For me, how are
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  Speaker 4: we going to use you? What do we know about
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  Speaker 4: the Jazz vision for how to use Darren Peterson, especially
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  Speaker 4: in this rookie year. What it means for Keyante, George
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  Speaker 4: and the other guys in that backcourt.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think is going to happen with that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think as far as like the
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  Speaker 2: starting lineups and closing lineups, that sort of thing, I
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  Speaker 2: think that remains to be seen. But there's little context
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  Speaker 2: clues that we can pick up from some of the
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  Speaker 2: things that Austin Ainge said yesterday and from a couple
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  Speaker 2: of the things that Darren Peterson said last night. Darren
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  Speaker 2: specifically said one of the things that he said about
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  Speaker 2: the Jazz is that he was really excited to play
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  Speaker 2: with Kyante because he thought that they could have one
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  Speaker 2: of the most dynamic backcourts in the league with both
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  Speaker 2: of them on the floor. And so to me, that
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  Speaker 2: says that that's something that has been talked about with
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  Speaker 2: him so far, And I mean I think that that's true. Right, Like,
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  Speaker 2: whether we know that we've seen Keyante grow on the
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  Speaker 2: ball and that he's become a much better distributor and
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  Speaker 2: a much careful, more careful player over the last year
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  Speaker 2: and a half two years, and we know that Darren
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  Speaker 2: is great with the ball in his hands. Yesterday, Austin
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  Speaker 2: had said that, you know, whether Darren plays with the
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  Speaker 2: one or two is not necessarily as important on offense,
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  Speaker 2: because he can be a combo guard and he can
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  Speaker 2: be used in different ways. He's definitely going to be
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  Speaker 2: playing in the pick and roll and coming off screens,
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  Speaker 2: and there's a lot of movement in the Jazz's offense
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  Speaker 2: as we know, and so that's going to stay the same.
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  Speaker 2: But where you see kind of who the point guard
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  Speaker 2: is is more like on defense, who's going to be
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  Speaker 2: guarding the guy with the ball? And Darren Peterson is
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  Speaker 2: a defensive guy, and so I think that's where we're
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  Speaker 2: going to see him kind of take on more of
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  Speaker 2: the like lead role responsibilities on the defensive end.
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  Speaker 4: Will Hardy and really everyone in this organization has been
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  Speaker 4: pretty clear about the fact that they want to improve defensively.
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  Speaker 4: They want to end up maybe being one of the
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  Speaker 4: top defensive teams in the league. And I think you've
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  Speaker 4: already partially answered this, but how much of drafting Darren
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  Speaker 4: Peterson had to do with him being a great two
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  Speaker 4: way player, had to do with him being a good defender.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, frankly, I think that we would all
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  Speaker 2: kind of be rolling our eyes and kind of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: looking a little sideways if the Jazz were to go
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  Speaker 2: get another player who kind of didn't have a defensive profile,
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  Speaker 2: right Like, if you bring in another another guard or
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  Speaker 2: a wing who can't play defense, then that would be
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  Speaker 2: a big problem. And yes, the Jazz want to be
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  Speaker 2: better defensively and they want to be a good defensive team,
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  Speaker 2: but my god, that's a long way away from what
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  Speaker 2: we've seen the last few years. And so Darren Peterson
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  Speaker 2: is not going to fix things all on his own. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: he definitely gives the Jazz, you know, kind of a
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  Speaker 2: point of attack defender that they haven't really had the
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  Speaker 2: last few years. But there's a lot of work to
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  Speaker 2: be done, you know, across the roster. You're going to
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  Speaker 2: need Keyante George to step up even more on that side.
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  Speaker 2: We need to see Ace Bailey develop and be able
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  Speaker 2: to use his tools, and I think that's going to
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  Speaker 2: come with time with him. If Walker is here, we
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  Speaker 2: need him to step up even more than what we've
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  Speaker 2: seen from him, you know, in his first couple of seasons,
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  Speaker 2: and you know Lowry also like everybody needs to step up.
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  Speaker 2: And in my brain, I'm like part of me thinks, well,
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  Speaker 2: the last few years, we certainly haven't seen guys trying
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  Speaker 2: their hardest, right, like they can certainly do more than
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  Speaker 2: they have. I think that the motivation to try your
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  Speaker 2: absolute best and kind of play that dogged defense when
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  Speaker 2: you're on a tanking team, that's really really difficult. So
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  Speaker 2: I think that naturally guys will try harder now that
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  Speaker 2: they know that wins are the priority. But even on
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  Speaker 2: top of that, there needs to be a more concerted effort.
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  Speaker 2: There needs to be more priority on the defensive end
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  Speaker 2: from everybody.
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  Speaker 4: Sarah Todd our guests here on the Sean o'connall schell,
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  Speaker 4: reacting to Darren Peterson drafted by the Utah Jazz number
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  Speaker 4: two last night. We have, of course Round two of
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  Speaker 4: the NBA Draft coming up, maybe some more local flavor there,
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  Speaker 4: perhaps Richie Saunders will come off the board from BYU
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  Speaker 4: staying with the Utah Jazz here for a moment though,
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  Speaker 4: and especially on the defensive conversation, Walker Kessler has been
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  Speaker 4: offered an extension and apparently doesn't feel like the twenty
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  Speaker 4: eight million dollar per year average annual value is quite adequate.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know if there's going to be a market
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  Speaker 4: much higher than that for him around the NBA.
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  Speaker 3: Kind of depends on who you're listening to.
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  Speaker 4: But is this something that eventually is going to get
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  Speaker 4: done between Walker Kessler and the Jazz.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like eventually it'll get done. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: this is this is the way that this probably was
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  Speaker 2: always going to go. You know, the Jazz are going
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  Speaker 2: to offer a number. You know, they were almost always
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  Speaker 2: going to be like, no, we want more, and then
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  Speaker 2: you go back and negotiate. It's probably going to end
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  Speaker 2: up somewhere in the middle. You know, that Jazz might
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  Speaker 2: move up a little bit more. They're deaf and not
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  Speaker 2: going to move up to exactly where Walker's you know,
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  Speaker 2: agent and everybody wants him to be. So I think
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  Speaker 2: this is just how these conversations are going to go.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's a little bit more of a highlight
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  Speaker 2: on it because it's Walker, because the Jazz have already
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  Speaker 2: been spurned by restricted free agents before in the past,
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  Speaker 2: and so there's a little bit more of a spotlight
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  Speaker 2: on the situation than maybe normally would happen. But this
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  Speaker 2: is kind of how those conversations go, and it's an
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  Speaker 2: interesting one and it's interesting to kind of think about
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  Speaker 2: who has the leverage in these conversations and for what reasons. Also,
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  Speaker 2: let's definitely not forget that the person negotiating this is
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  Speaker 2: Aaron Mint, who's Walker's agent. He's also the agent for
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  Speaker 2: Trey Young, who got him what looks like a lot
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  Speaker 2: more money than Sarah Todd thinks he deserves. But this
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  Speaker 2: is how it goes, right, Like they the jazz say
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  Speaker 2: a number, the agents say no, then they go back
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  Speaker 2: to the board. Like that's how it's going to go.
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  Speaker 2: I think this is going to be resolved. You know,
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  Speaker 2: Walker came out on social media and kind of wanted
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  Speaker 2: to clear the air. And it's the same thing that
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  Speaker 2: I always say to everyone, like when you hear you know,
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  Speaker 2: Walker turned down the money, Well, it's not Walker walking
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  Speaker 2: into a room and saying I don't want to be here,
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  Speaker 2: give me more, you know, it's the agents that are
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  Speaker 2: working on this and like Walker wants to be here,
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  Speaker 2: he wants to feel like he's being treated fairly. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, we'll see where it all ends up.
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  Speaker 4: What number is Darren Peterson going to wear for the
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  Speaker 4: Utah Jazz Yeah, I was just.
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  Speaker 2: Actually looking through some of this, So Darren wants number
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  Speaker 2: twenty two. Currently, Kyle Philipowski wears number twenty two. Kyle
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  Speaker 2: philip Howski wore twenty two in high school. He also
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  Speaker 2: wore a couple of other numbers depending on where he
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  Speaker 2: was playing in high school. But Kyle also wore number
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  Speaker 2: thirty at Duke. Thirty was currently being worn by use
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  Speaker 2: of Nurkic. So if nirk does resigned and thirty would
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  Speaker 2: be available, and so there's a little bit of negotiating
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  Speaker 2: room there. Darren Peterson's backup number would be number eight,
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  Speaker 2: but Isaiah Collier is wearing number eight, and Isaiah Collier
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  Speaker 2: kind of had to he gave up that number to
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  Speaker 2: Patty Mills and then had to wait until Patty Mills
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  Speaker 2: left to get the number eight back. But I feel
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  Speaker 2: like there's probably a negotiation that can happen that could
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  Speaker 2: lead to Darren wearing twenty two.
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  Speaker 3: Interesting, he's a big Kobe guy.
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  Speaker 4: Why is twenty four not an option for him?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I think that a lot of Kobe
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  Speaker 2: people kind of more associate they eight with him than
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  Speaker 2: the twenty four. That seems like I see more eight
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  Speaker 2: Kobe jerseys than I do anything else. I know that
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  Speaker 2: Darren just got a Kobe tattoo. I haven't seen the tattoo,
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  Speaker 2: and so I'm wondering, like, is the Kobe tattoo with
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  Speaker 2: him in an eight jersey? So maybe that just feels
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  Speaker 2: more significant. That's kind of just playing in my mind,
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  Speaker 2: like maybe that's why the eight is there. But I
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  Speaker 2: think I think you know, this happens all the time
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  Speaker 2: in the NBA, when like you guys show up to
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  Speaker 2: a team, they're negotiations of all sorts that happen, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's you know, offering money, offering other things. And so
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  Speaker 2: I think that you can probably get something ironed out
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  Speaker 2: between Darren and Philipowski.
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  Speaker 4: Darren also signed a big endorsement deal and extension with Adidas. Uh,
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  Speaker 4: he's going to get his own shoe. It looks like,
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  Speaker 4: do we have any insight as to how involved he
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  Speaker 4: will be with that process.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure exactly how involved he's going to be
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  Speaker 2: with with the process. I think that a lot of
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  Speaker 2: times like that these shoe deals, like the being involved
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  Speaker 2: in the creative process usually is just about how how
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  Speaker 2: involved the player wants to be, right if they have
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  Speaker 2: a big enough profile and like a big enough name,
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  Speaker 2: and Darren Peterson, you know, for all intents and purposes,
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  Speaker 2: was you know, a number one prospect and so that's
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  Speaker 2: that's a huge profile and he's gonna, you know, get
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  Speaker 2: a signature shoe. That makes a lot of sense, I
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  Speaker 2: think from my point of view. But if he wants
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  Speaker 2: to just say like, oh, yeah, you know, check check
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  Speaker 2: on a piece of paper when they kind of show
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  Speaker 2: him options in color ways and say like yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: like that or no, I want this color over here?
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  Speaker 2: Can we switch that? It could be as simple as
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  Speaker 2: that and like saying yes to something when it's presented
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  Speaker 2: in front of him, and it could also be you know,
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  Speaker 2: involved with him saying what types of colors he wants
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  Speaker 2: or you know kind of the profile of the shoe
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  Speaker 2: and how it looks. But I think that that really
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  Speaker 2: depends on how much the player wants to be involved
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  Speaker 2: in how creative they are. And I don't really know
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  Speaker 2: that much about Darren Peterson's creativity at this point, so.
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  Speaker 4: We'll see unfair question time, What do we need to
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  Speaker 4: get out of Darren Peterson? In the next i'll say
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  Speaker 4: three years for us to look back and say, all right,
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  Speaker 4: he was justified at number two.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's you know, because I think when we go
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  Speaker 2: into the draft, right like, there's all these really really
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  Speaker 2: high expectations and feelings like you want the guy who
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  Speaker 2: was going to go number one or number two, you
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  Speaker 2: want them to be a future multi time All Star
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  Speaker 2: with MVP potential, right Like, that's all kind of ceiling talk.
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  Speaker 2: And what makes a lot of sense is I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if he were to get anywhere near All star level,
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  Speaker 2: then absolutely one hundred percent success, great pick, good job.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that if you have just a efficient
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  Speaker 2: and really important starter who is impactful and helps winning,
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  Speaker 2: then that is that that is what you paid for,
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  Speaker 2: that's what you thanked for, that's why you wanted him,
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  Speaker 2: that's what you want to get out of him. And
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  Speaker 2: so obviously kind of the the sky is the limit
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  Speaker 2: things that you look towards, the possible MVP, the possible
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  Speaker 2: multi time All Star stuff like, yes, all of that
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  Speaker 2: would be great, but what you really really are wanting
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  Speaker 2: from a top guy is just that they help you win.
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  Speaker 4: And now it is time to win for this Utah
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  Speaker 4: Jazz Basketball team. What a special season is coming here, Sarah,
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  Speaker 4: where you're actually going to be covering a team that's
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  Speaker 4: trying to win basketball games.
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  Speaker 2: I can't believe it. Honestly, I'll believe it when I
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  Speaker 2: see it. The years have blended together, so oh see,
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  Speaker 2: I just I'll give me some winning basketball to watch.
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  Speaker 2: I will take it.
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  Speaker 3: Well. We all look forward to it.
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  Speaker 4: Appreciate your coverage on all this stuff, Appreciate your time today.
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  Speaker 4: Get some rest and get rid of that jet lag,
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  Speaker 4: and we'll chat again soon.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Thanks a lot, Talk soon, Sarah
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  Speaker 4: Todd Over at the Deseret News at NBA Sarah on
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  Speaker 4: Twitter