Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Shreyas Laddha on the Utah Jazz's 1-4 start, JJJ's knee injury, Tonight vs Wemby and the Spurs + more

Transcript

Shreyas Laddha on the Utah Jazz's 1-4 start, JJJ's knee injury, Tonight vs Wemby and the Spurs + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:06
Speaker 1: Break it up.
0:06
Speaker 2: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
0:09
Speaker 2: best inside of your youths. Let's get back to OC
0:12
Speaker 2: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
0:15
Speaker 3: I can't get enough.
0:16
Speaker 1: I'm hot and sweet from.
0:22
Speaker 3: My head.
0:24
Speaker 1: To my feet, yeah.
0:27
Speaker 3: All right, it's long overdue.
0:28
Speaker 2: Happy now to welcome in Shreyas Lada, the new Salt
0:31
Speaker 2: Lake Tribune jazz beat writer to the Sean O'Connell Show.
0:35
Speaker 3: Shreyas, welcome. How are you, sir?
0:38
Speaker 1: Good, how are you? Thanks, Shreyas. You're welcome.
0:41
Speaker 3: How is Salt Lake City treating you?
0:42
Speaker 2: I know that it's not like a lot of other
0:44
Speaker 2: places in the country. Have you found it to be
0:47
Speaker 2: to your liking so far?
0:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've liked it a lot. People are really nice.
0:53
Speaker 1: I like the downtown area quite a bit. I've never
0:57
Speaker 1: lived anywhere out west this far, so I'm still getting
1:00
Speaker 1: used to a lot of things. It's different. It's certainly
1:04
Speaker 1: different than Kansas. It's different than Georgia, where I mostly
1:07
Speaker 1: grew up, and it's been different than any of the
1:09
Speaker 1: stops I've lived at in my career.
1:11
Speaker 2: Okay, now I won't pretend to be unbiased, but I
1:14
Speaker 2: believe that the Mountain Time Zone is is elite for
1:17
Speaker 2: sports viewing. Now, I guess it depends on the sport,
1:20
Speaker 2: but you know, East coast, every game starts way too late. Central,
1:24
Speaker 2: I guess, is not that different than the mountain time zone,
1:26
Speaker 2: but how have you found that adjustment? Because, you know,
1:29
Speaker 2: there's an hour difference, at least from your last stop
1:31
Speaker 2: in Kansas.
1:33
Speaker 1: I love it. You know, especially on a Sunday, you know,
1:37
Speaker 1: I wake up, go to the gym, get a breakfast burrito.
1:42
Speaker 1: And then I sit and watch eight hours of NFL
1:44
Speaker 1: football from 11 a.m. So like eight or something or
1:48
Speaker 1: eight 30. And I'm like, Oh wow. I still got
1:50
Speaker 1: a couple hours in a day. It's nice. Yes.
1:53
Speaker 3: It's a, it's late. People always were the fly over
1:56
Speaker 3: time zone.
1:56
Speaker 2: People forget that mountain time is, it's a great time
1:59
Speaker 2: to be awake and to be alive and be watching sports.
2:02
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about this Utah jazz team.
2:05
Speaker 2: And obviously you knew on the beat, but you've got
2:08
Speaker 2: a little bit more experience with one of the most
2:10
Speaker 2: important players on this roster than the rest of us
2:12
Speaker 2: having covered Darren Peterson at Kansas. And I want to
2:17
Speaker 2: rewind a little bit, go back to, you know, that
2:22
Speaker 2: sort of complicated relationship, the media and Darren Peterson and
2:25
Speaker 2: the way he was covered played out at Kansas.
2:29
Speaker 3: We were watching him from a big 12 perspective.
2:32
Speaker 2: Not knowing at that point that he was going to
2:34
Speaker 2: be a Utah Jazz man. And I was trying to
2:37
Speaker 2: figure out what the relationship with him and Bill Self was,
2:40
Speaker 2: what the relationship with him in basketball was, how much
2:43
Speaker 2: he really loved the game. And obviously you've written a
2:46
Speaker 2: lot about this and you've taken a deep dive into it.
2:49
Speaker 2: So I wanted to give an opportunity for our listeners
2:51
Speaker 2: who maybe haven't read the stuff for you to explain
2:55
Speaker 2: that miscommunication and, of course, the real relationship Darren Peterson
3:00
Speaker 2: has with the game of basketball.
3:03
Speaker 1: You know, I think it was a really difficult year
3:06
Speaker 1: for Darren in a lot of ways. It was probably
3:09
Speaker 1: the most difficult year of his basketball life. You know,
3:13
Speaker 1: he just was never fully healthy. Anytime at Kansas, I'd
3:17
Speaker 1: heard about the cramping a month or two after it happened.
3:20
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things where you don't want
3:22
Speaker 1: to be wrong in injuries, right? And you want him
3:25
Speaker 1: or his parents or his agent to say something about it.
3:28
Speaker 1: I think the way it was handled, if they could
3:31
Speaker 1: redo it, they'd probably do things differently. Keeping a lot
3:35
Speaker 1: of the media in the dark and letting things go
3:38
Speaker 1: out the way it did, I think, wasn't great. Kansas
3:41
Speaker 1: didn't do a great job. Peterson's camp didn't do a
3:43
Speaker 1: great job. But the idea that he doesn't care about
3:45
Speaker 1: basketball or he didn't care, it was completely untrue. I
3:50
Speaker 1: think there was just a lot at stake for him.
3:52
Speaker 1: He was the consensus number one coming into the year.
3:55
Speaker 1: And for a while there, you know, he was the
4:02
Speaker 1: guy until mid-February when AJ's playing 40 minutes a game
4:06
Speaker 1: and Darren can't finish the game. You know, so... He's
4:11
Speaker 1: a supremely talented basketball player, a great kid. I say kid,
4:16
Speaker 1: but he's not that much younger than me. But I
4:20
Speaker 1: think what happened at Kansas was just the worst possible
4:24
Speaker 1: scenario for him in that year. And I think we're
4:29
Speaker 1: seeing the real version of Darren Peterson, personality-wise and everything else,
4:33
Speaker 1: play out in Salt Lake. So.
4:38
Speaker 2: We've heard projections of him being the next Kobe Bryant.
4:42
Speaker 2: We've heard talks about how he's going to be the
4:45
Speaker 2: best player that this Utah Jazz franchise has had since
4:48
Speaker 2: John and Carl. I think it's unfair to do that
4:52
Speaker 2: to a guy who's still a rookie, but very obviously
4:54
Speaker 2: he has some of those tools. Very obviously he's got
4:58
Speaker 2: an elite basketball sense and the athleticism to go with it.
5:02
Speaker 2: When we talk about where he's at now versus his ceiling,
5:05
Speaker 2: how much growth and upward mobility is there in his
5:09
Speaker 2: game as we watch his career progress?
5:12
Speaker 1: I think there's a ton of growth. I think there's
5:14
Speaker 1: a ton of upwards mobility. Like we haven't even seen
5:17
Speaker 1: a fraction. I think of what Darren can become, you know,
5:20
Speaker 1: the shots aren't falling right now, but you can see
5:22
Speaker 1: the flashes of what a player he is, you know,
5:26
Speaker 1: he's getting to his spots. He's doing what he wants defensively.
5:29
Speaker 1: He can improve. I think there's some moments where, you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: he's been over helping on defense and then having to
5:34
Speaker 1: go back and he gets burnt a little bit, being late,
5:38
Speaker 1: going back on three pointers. Like I like the comp of,
5:44
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully a little more defensively minded. Devin Booker
5:49
Speaker 1: is a good comp. I don't think Kobe's fair to him,
5:52
Speaker 1: but he just gets to his spots. And as one
5:54
Speaker 1: of his favorite players is Booker. And I think people
5:57
Speaker 1: think Kobe because of some of the way he plays,
6:00
Speaker 1: but Kobe had this unworthy athleticism and verse that I
6:03
Speaker 1: think just Darren doesn't have. And that's okay. Darren is
6:06
Speaker 1: a little, you know, taller guard than Kobe was. And yeah,
6:11
Speaker 1: he works very, very hard to be a good basketball player.
6:15
Speaker 1: He is a great work ethic like Kobe did. And that's,
6:18
Speaker 1: I think the only where the comp goes besides, you know,
6:22
Speaker 1: the mid range game a little bit, but I think
6:24
Speaker 1: he's going to be a special basketball player. I just
6:26
Speaker 1: think it's going to take time. And I think he's
6:28
Speaker 1: figuring things out because this Utah jazz team has three
6:32
Speaker 1: guys that who are better than him right now and
6:35
Speaker 1: above him in the pecking order, scoring-wise, between Jaron, Lowry,
6:39
Speaker 1: and Keontae. And I think there's this feeling from some
6:44
Speaker 1: people like him or our Darren Peterson fans or whatever
6:50
Speaker 1: that he needs to chuck up 30 shots a game.
6:53
Speaker 1: That was never going to happen in Utah. And I
6:56
Speaker 1: think him being surrounded by good basketball players is going
7:00
Speaker 1: to make him a better basketball player in the long run.
7:03
Speaker 2: When you mentioned that pecking order, no disagreement for me,
7:06
Speaker 2: but how long until Darren Peterson is expected to climb
7:12
Speaker 2: and to be a guy that's now your second option
7:14
Speaker 2: or eventually your first option?
7:16
Speaker 3: That's why they drafted him where they drafted him.
7:19
Speaker 1: I think it just depends, right? It's on him to
7:22
Speaker 1: take the reins of when does he become the guy.
7:25
Speaker 1: The Jazz are trying to determine that if he is
7:27
Speaker 1: the guy, if he can become the guy. Is he
7:30
Speaker 1: the number one option on a contending team in a
7:32
Speaker 1: playoff team? Is it in six months? Is it a year?
7:35
Speaker 1: Is it two years? I think it's, it's, we're going
7:39
Speaker 1: to see the flash of him being second or third
7:42
Speaker 1: on the pecking order, you know, by the end of
7:44
Speaker 1: the year, I think if all goes right, Darren is third,
7:49
Speaker 1: like firmly third on that pecking order by the end
7:52
Speaker 1: of the year. And even if he isn't, I'm not
7:54
Speaker 1: super worried about it because like we talk about the
7:57
Speaker 1: Leafs guys have made between year one and two, look
8:00
Speaker 1: at Ace Bailey and how much better he looks on
8:03
Speaker 1: both ends of the court after one year, one off season.
8:06
Speaker 1: And it's something I've talked to about Will Hardy and
8:10
Speaker 1: Allison Ainge and different people in the front office is
8:12
Speaker 1: like the development of stars, like to become a superstar,
8:18
Speaker 1: to become a top 15, top 20 guy in the league.
8:21
Speaker 1: It usually doesn't happen until year three or four. Like
8:24
Speaker 1: you see guys become that good until year three or four.
8:28
Speaker 1: A good example of that is Jason Tatum, Caleb Brown.
8:32
Speaker 1: You know, you're seeing it even with Keontae going from
8:37
Speaker 1: year two to three, he became, you know, a near all-star.
8:42
Speaker 1: that development I think takes time and everyone wants things
8:47
Speaker 1: to happen tomorrow, but he's 19 years old and he's
8:52
Speaker 1: figuring things out and he's overthinking at times. And he's
8:55
Speaker 1: told me, you know, he's like, I worked too hard to,
8:59
Speaker 1: you know, be indecisive is the word he used, but
9:02
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm not worried about it. It's game three
9:04
Speaker 1: of 82. He said after the Pelicans game. So just
9:08
Speaker 1: give him time. And, and I think, his work ethic
9:12
Speaker 1: and his just, you know, basketball talent went out. And
9:16
Speaker 1: once the shots, you know, start falling, I think Jazz
9:19
Speaker 1: fans are going to be really, really excited about what
9:21
Speaker 1: he can become.
9:23
Speaker 2: Salt Lake Tribune Jazz Insider Shreyas Lata is our guest
9:26
Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell Show, talking all things Utah Jazz.
9:29
Speaker 2: We've started with Darren Peterson, but now you get to
9:32
Speaker 2: some of the more veteran guys. And the unfortunate news
9:36
Speaker 2: is You've got a couple of injuries, one that's significant.
9:40
Speaker 2: Jaron Jackson Jr. is going to be out for a
9:43
Speaker 2: couple of months now. Lowry Markkinen sounds like a relatively
9:47
Speaker 2: minor sprain, but it is on the shooting wrist. And
9:50
Speaker 2: as you ask these young players to kind of grow
9:52
Speaker 2: into themselves, for me, it becomes a lot more difficult
9:56
Speaker 2: when they're not with the team that they're actually supposed
9:58
Speaker 2: to be with. when they don't have the guys like
10:02
Speaker 2: Triple J and Lowry on the court to help them.
10:05
Speaker 2: How big are those two injuries, especially so early in
10:08
Speaker 2: the season for the Utah Jazz?
10:11
Speaker 1: I think it's really difficult, right? Like, this team is
10:14
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to play defense and build
10:16
Speaker 1: winning habits. And Jaron is the guy that's been to
10:20
Speaker 1: the playoffs before, a guy that is a big part
10:22
Speaker 1: of their defense. It's a guy they traded for that
10:25
Speaker 1: didn't get to play a lot of games last year
10:27
Speaker 1: with the core that they've built. And they just have
10:30
Speaker 1: a lot of new pieces. It's really, really, really... is
10:34
Speaker 1: hard and it candidly sucks for jazz fans because like
10:38
Speaker 1: they haven't been able to see him, what this team
10:40
Speaker 1: is fully healthy on both ends of the court. And
10:43
Speaker 1: you see flashes of really good play, but they just,
10:46
Speaker 1: you know, it, it, it's, it's hard on the flip side.
10:51
Speaker 1: If with Jaron being out, you'll see guys like there and,
10:54
Speaker 1: and John fan ACE have to take up the offensive load.
10:57
Speaker 1: And it's also on them to be a little better defensively.
11:00
Speaker 1: And you're hoping Lowry is back sooner rather than later
11:04
Speaker 1: because he's such a great offensive player. And he is
11:07
Speaker 1: one of the vets in the locker room to make
11:09
Speaker 1: them have the opportunity to build some continuity because hopefully
11:13
Speaker 1: in two weeks, Merrick is ready to come back and,
11:16
Speaker 1: and Lowry's back by then, or if not earlier and, and,
11:19
Speaker 1: You know, you feel a little better about what this
11:22
Speaker 1: team can be. It's really hard to build continuity if
11:26
Speaker 1: guys are getting injured and rotations are being impacted. But
11:31
Speaker 1: I do think there are some positive things that can
11:33
Speaker 1: come out of a really difficult situation like Jaron missing
11:36
Speaker 1: this much time. I think it's going to make Ace
11:38
Speaker 1: and know, Darren and Keontae have to step up offensively
11:43
Speaker 1: and defensively. And I think hopefully make them better in
11:47
Speaker 1: the long run. So when Jared does come back and
11:49
Speaker 1: Larry's healthy and nerve is healthy, this team looks that
11:52
Speaker 1: much better.
11:53
Speaker 2: Speaker 2 you mentioned already ace Bailey a couple of times,
11:57
Speaker 2: and obviously, you know, he's not quite the headline bringer
12:00
Speaker 2: because he's not the highly drafted rookie anymore, but he
12:04
Speaker 2: is in his second year as a highly drafted rookie
12:07
Speaker 2: and a guy Similar to Darren Peterson, there was a
12:10
Speaker 2: certain narrative following him as he came to this franchise,
12:13
Speaker 2: and he's done nothing but, as far as we can tell,
12:17
Speaker 2: work hard, be a good teammate, be a professional about
12:21
Speaker 2: being a member of this Utah Jazz team, and we're
12:24
Speaker 2: starting to see the payoff from that. I guess similar
12:28
Speaker 2: to what I was asking you about, Darren Peterson, as
12:31
Speaker 2: Ace Bailey progresses towards his ceiling, how does it change
12:36
Speaker 2: his role with the Utah Jazz?
12:39
Speaker 1: The hope is that Ace Bailey and Darren Peterson are
12:43
Speaker 1: the guys. In some combination, they're a one and two
12:47
Speaker 1: on a championship contender or a playoff contender or a
12:51
Speaker 1: two and three or one and three or whatever. Who knows?
12:54
Speaker 1: It's about finding that one. And H Bailey has taken
12:59
Speaker 1: a significant step forward defensively, especially he looks a lot better.
13:03
Speaker 1: They're putting them on the guys like Tyra, Tyra Jerome,
13:06
Speaker 1: who was averaging 34 a game until, you know, having
13:10
Speaker 1: to come in and play ACE and the Utah jazz, this, uh,
13:15
Speaker 1: past couple of days. And you're seeing him feel more
13:19
Speaker 1: confident offensively. He's crashing the boards. He's just playing like
13:23
Speaker 1: an excellent winning basketball player. And he talked about wanting
13:27
Speaker 1: to be a two-way star and stud. He has these
13:31
Speaker 1: amazing athleticism and gifts that I think Darren doesn't even
13:34
Speaker 1: quite have. The ceiling on Ace Bailey is hard to
13:38
Speaker 1: put a ceiling on him because he's it's up to
13:41
Speaker 1: him almost to continue to see how he develops. Right.
13:45
Speaker 1: And also see, you know, what this team looks like,
13:49
Speaker 1: not now, but three, four years from now is a
13:51
Speaker 1: guy like Lowry and Jerry and Jackson still there is
13:53
Speaker 1: eight going to be more on ball. If they're gone, like,
13:57
Speaker 1: is he going to have more of an offensive load
13:59
Speaker 1: because he's ready for that? You know, point of his career.
14:03
Speaker 1: That's questions and things they're still figuring out. And I
14:07
Speaker 1: think ACEs development alongside Darren's are probably the two most
14:11
Speaker 1: important things to watch if you're a jazz fan in
14:15
Speaker 1: the next two years, because if they are really good
14:18
Speaker 1: basketball players, if they become stars, well, then the jazz
14:22
Speaker 1: are in a really, really good position, I think, to
14:25
Speaker 1: make a run deep in the playoffs in a couple
14:28
Speaker 1: of years. it depends on how good these guys look.
14:32
Speaker 1: And I know it's easier said than done, but winning
14:36
Speaker 1: real basketball games, isn't just going to be based on
14:39
Speaker 1: Lowry and Darren's great play. They're going to have to
14:42
Speaker 1: do it behind Darren and ACE. If they want to
14:44
Speaker 1: become a real title contender in my mind.
14:50
Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of basketball left to play,
14:52
Speaker 2: but what's going wrong in these early outings for the
14:56
Speaker 2: Utah jazz? I mean, It's not fair to think that
14:59
Speaker 2: they're just going to completely 180 and be an instant
15:03
Speaker 2: playoff contender. And maybe they, maybe they do end up
15:07
Speaker 2: making the playoffs, but they don't look like that right now.
15:10
Speaker 2: At first it was, you know, getting out rebounded and
15:13
Speaker 2: then turnovers. What's going wrong with this Utah jazz squad?
15:18
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's just guys haven't played together. You know,
15:21
Speaker 1: like this is a really new team full of a
15:23
Speaker 1: lot of new faces. They're still figuring out rotations. We'll
15:28
Speaker 1: still trying different things, trying to figure out how we
15:31
Speaker 1: want to play with who guys are trying to figure
15:34
Speaker 1: out their role of what they can be or some
15:37
Speaker 1: can become defensively. Like you can see them have some
15:41
Speaker 1: good moments, but they're still not there yet. You know,
15:43
Speaker 1: it's just too many open three pointers. Um, offensively there's
15:47
Speaker 1: this over dribbling reliance sometimes that it's leading to turnovers. Um,
15:52
Speaker 1: you know, guys like Isaiah Collier and Keontae has looked really,
15:56
Speaker 1: really great offensively, especially sharing and playmaking, but there are
16:00
Speaker 1: moments where they over dribble or they're a little out
16:02
Speaker 1: of control. Um, to me, I've been really encouraged by
16:06
Speaker 1: their play and I know I sound like I'm coping
16:08
Speaker 1: and I know jazz fans don't want to hear it
16:10
Speaker 1: cause they've lost basketball games, but like They almost beat
16:14
Speaker 1: a grizzly team that hasn't lost this year down for rotation.
16:17
Speaker 1: Bigs last night, they kept up with Luca and Austin
16:22
Speaker 1: Reeves the other night when Luca dropped 52. And I
16:26
Speaker 1: had a big part of that was the jazz just
16:28
Speaker 1: didn't defend him. Well, then another part of it was
16:30
Speaker 1: Luca was making everything, no matter who defended him and
16:33
Speaker 1: who put the hand in space and who did what.
16:36
Speaker 1: It's going to take time. It's going to take time
16:38
Speaker 1: to change losing habits into winning habits. It's going to
16:42
Speaker 1: take time for these guys to figure out their role
16:44
Speaker 1: and what they can do, how they play together. I,
16:50
Speaker 1: my hope for this team was never a definitive playoff seed.
16:53
Speaker 1: The hope was they can be a play in team.
16:56
Speaker 1: I don't think that's out of the question. It just
16:58
Speaker 1: becomes so much harder now because Jaron Jackson is, He's
17:01
Speaker 1: missing the amount of time he is. And Nurk is out.
17:03
Speaker 1: And we don't know how long Lowry's out and if
17:07
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes is back and all that. But it's about
17:11
Speaker 1: showing good habits to become a winning team. More so
17:17
Speaker 1: than just winning basketball games on the backs of Larry
17:20
Speaker 1: and Jared Jackson. You want the young guys to look
17:24
Speaker 1: like they can understand what it takes to win and
17:28
Speaker 1: develop and hopefully go on a run somewhere this season
17:32
Speaker 1: when everyone's fully healthy.
17:35
Speaker 2: Wemby, you have not covered the NBA extensively before.
17:40
Speaker 3: Is this your first time in the building with Wemby?
17:44
Speaker 1: I got to see him in the preseason, but yeah,
17:47
Speaker 1: this is the first time watching Wendy. You know, I,
17:50
Speaker 1: I was watching him in pregame and preseason and I
17:53
Speaker 1: had a front office member in the jazz and we
17:55
Speaker 1: were just talking and he was like, he's unreal.
17:57
Speaker 2: He's an alien.
17:58
Speaker 1: And he is like, it's just nuts watching him warm
18:00
Speaker 1: up and how skilled he is at that light and
18:03
Speaker 1: how difficult he makes things for opponents and his ability
18:05
Speaker 1: to shoot over everybody and kind of do whatever he wants.
18:09
Speaker 1: He just changes the game. The best way to describe
18:14
Speaker 1: it is he's a once-in-a-generation type NBA player. And the
18:18
Speaker 1: Jazz are going to have their hands filled with him today, certainly,
18:23
Speaker 1: especially if they are missing Lowry and if they are
18:25
Speaker 1: missing Jackson Hayes. So it should be a ton of fun.
18:30
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what they try to do
18:31
Speaker 1: and how they force him to make him if they
18:34
Speaker 1: can make him uncomfortable. And I bet you will see
18:37
Speaker 1: some ace Bailey on Wendy at times. And I'm excited
18:39
Speaker 1: to see that matchup at different times because he seems
18:42
Speaker 1: to have taken the liking to being the guy who
18:44
Speaker 1: can stop the best offensive player.
18:45
Speaker 2: Speaker 2, we'll we'll adjust these expectations as the season progresses.
18:52
Speaker 2: But is this jazz team, a play in team, a
18:55
Speaker 2: playoff team, and also ran an outside looking in like
18:59
Speaker 2: they've been for the last several years.
19:02
Speaker 1: That's a really hard question because it's, I don't know
19:05
Speaker 1: what the Jesse myths, right? Like we're, we're trying to
19:08
Speaker 1: figure out what they are, but they just don't have
19:10
Speaker 1: any continuity from last year. But on top of that,
19:14
Speaker 1: like there's so many young guys and they also have injuries. Like,
19:17
Speaker 1: I think if fully healthy, like Karen comes back and
19:20
Speaker 1: come back sooner or later and, and Lowry and Jackson
19:24
Speaker 1: Hayes are playing within the next week, they can be
19:26
Speaker 1: a play in team. But I think there's going to
19:28
Speaker 1: be really some moments of ugliness at this point in
19:30
Speaker 1: the season, just because they're playing some really good teams.
19:33
Speaker 1: Like you're playing the Spurs, you're playing the undefeated trailblazers
19:37
Speaker 1: on Saturday. Then you, you know, have to travel, you know,
19:42
Speaker 1: to play the Spurs again, then New Orleans and Dallas.
19:45
Speaker 1: Like these are all good basketball teams and you're playing
19:47
Speaker 1: it on the road soon. It's going to be hard
19:50
Speaker 1: and it's going to be the honest, it's going to
19:52
Speaker 1: be on the young guys. And there's going to be
19:53
Speaker 1: some moments of brilliance and some moments of like, man,
19:55
Speaker 1: they're just not there yet. My prediction before the season
19:59
Speaker 1: was the plan. I think it's slightly lower than that.
20:02
Speaker 1: Maybe right outside the plan with the Jerry Jackson injury.
20:06
Speaker 1: But Who knows? Maybe they find something and they got
20:10
Speaker 1: a little run. And I think there's going to be
20:12
Speaker 1: a point in January, hopefully, where they win five straight
20:15
Speaker 1: games in a row because things are just clicking.
20:19
Speaker 2: Shreyas, appreciate you giving us some time today. Look forward
20:23
Speaker 2: to many more of these conversations as the season continues.
20:26
Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.
20:28
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
20:30
Speaker 2: Shreyas Lada, the new jazz beat writer over at the
20:33
Speaker 2: Salt Lake Tribune.