Is There A Rebrand On The Horizon For The Utah Jazz?
Welcome into the Jazz notes podcast Ben Anderson Chandler Holz and uh it is March 26th 10 games left in the regular season for the Utah Jazz uh as always find us on Twitter at Chandler hold KSL Benz hoops and readus at KSL sports.com also Facebook Tik Tok Instagram X
Twitter wherever you are threads uh find us at KSL Sports get all of our coverage there and subscribe to the KSL Sports newsletter uh to make sure that you get all the latest info about the Utah Jazz ahead of time and uh before everybody else all right Chandler what happened
Over the last four weeks let me quickly tease what we’re going to do we look at the last four games excuse me not the last four weeks nobody wants to talk about the three and 17 Jazz over the last four weeks uh we’ll look at the last four games we’ll look at what’s
Coming up this week for the Jazz uh of course we’ll look at the standings give our Jazz grades and then uh as always we like to uh answer your mailbag questions really the fun part of the podcast rough week of basketball 0 and4 week and every single loss was a double- digit one
Started off with a 119 to 107 loss to OKC uh Chad hungr and SGA combined for 66 points uh seon leaves the Jazz with 25 uh Jazz only trailed by two to start the fourth but after the first three minutes of the fourth they were down
Double digits uh next up a loss to Dallas 113 to 97 Luca with 34 in that one Markin in returned put up 21 um Utah just makes four of their 33 Point attempts in that game it was a rough shooting night and then big loss 147 119
To Houston Jaylen green with 41 um again seon with a 20 piece and then uh finally yesterday the Jazz lose by 10 115 to 105 to the Mavericks um again Utah led by one with 10 minutes left in the game five minutes later they go down double
Digits yeah this has just kind of been the storyline of teams allow the Jazz to hang around for the first three quarters because the Jazz are giving effort and then when they want to end the game they end the game now that was not the case
In Houston Houston ended the game in the first quarter they were down whatever 20 it 4721 something like that 26 points uh and that game was over instantly but yeah the last three games even though they’ve not been at all enjoyable to watch which might reveal the grade we’re
Going to give them on the fun Factor if you wanted to paint it in a Rosy picture it’s that to the first three quarters 36 of the 48 minutes have been competitive but we talked about the last four weeks uh Jaz Jaz are three and 17 in their
Last 20 games like abysmal maybe the worst one of the worst stretches of basketball in Jazz history I tweeted this out maybe it was this about this point last week like this is the worst stretch since the end of the Tyrone Corbin era in Utah uh absolutely
Horrendous but and it’s by Design as was the runin for Tyron Corbin we should note that that it’s not like Tyron Corbin was that bad of a coach all the talent was stripped off the roster they were trying to get a top four pick or a
Top two pick to get either Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins they ended up with Dante exom um but of the 17 losses 12 are by double digits so they’re not even competitive at the the end of the game and eight of those 12 so almost half of
The 17 games are by 15 or more which is really just unwatchable yeah bad basketball and that’s what Jazz fans have had to deal with so my sympathies if you’re a jazz fan trying to find something to pull out of this has not been enjoyable to watch and the last
Four games were no exception no definitely not and like you said by Design we’ll talk about the standings a little bit more but little preview it’s working in the Jazz’s favor little bit of Weekly News in the game against Houston the big loss Chris Dunn and Jabar Smith were ejected in the
Beginning of the second quarter for an altercation Chris dun got hit with a two- game suspension he will miss the Spurs game tomorrow he missed the Dallas game last night uh the Houston also played last night and Jabari Smith missed that game but he’ll be back for
The Rockets next game and which is against um I’m not sure I think it’s the Utah Chris Dunn comes back at least uh Friday’s game to play the Rockets so uh Chris done feisty to say the least so we will see if that carries over I suspect
He learned his lesson because he’s on the veteran minimum so losing money is probably not easy for Chris Dunn the way it might be for some players but uh yeah there’ll be back at it and I I you know what I bet that’s going to be a decent
Game I know Houston’s playing really well the Jazz were embarrassed by Houston and probably don’t want to be as embarrassed again they could they could potentially win that game I wouldn’t expect it but the Jazz could potentially have a weird mini two- game winning streak if they beat San Antonio tomorrow
Which also you know what Lowry’s resting every other game it seems like at least that’s been the pattern we’ll see if he plays tomorrow I kind of suspect he doesn’t I don’t know uh Jazz could easily lose that game to San Antonio as well as the the Phoenix Suns learned
Pretty tragically who went one and three against the Spurs this season and it’s going to end up putting them in the play in tournament yikes yikes the West is really tough uh but yeah like you said uh the Jazz are gonna host San Antonio tomorrow and then they’re gonna host the
Rockets on Friday and then last game of the week um in Sacramento on Sunday best case scenario realistically like Jaz could maybe go two in one yeah very realistically go 0 and three again MH most likely probably one and two I think they will win one of those home games
Cuz they’re they’re they’re a reasonable home team for the most part they’re not I mean they’re still four games over 500 at home for the season though they haven’t won a lot since the trade deadline but they are pretty competitive and Houston San Antonio still vulnerable to losses um I looked
It up earlier today and I didn’t see any news yet but wanyama missed the Spurs last game so uh to be determined if he will be um here in Salt Lake City tomorrow I I almost wouldn’t be surprised if they just shut him down like you’re not learning anything else
From Victor wanyama this year you know what he needs a point guard y like and otherwise he’s going to be a top 20 player next year might be a top 20 player already could be top 15 or 10 if uh if it all comes together and they
Have supporting pieces around him he may already be the best defender in the NBA which is crazy yeah he probably is he’s probably the most impactful defensive player in the NBA yeah um you want to do our Jazz grades right now sure let’s get
To it yeah not a whole lot of news or excitement to talk about with the week ahead so yeah we’ll do our Jazz grades we’ like to look at four different factors for the week how the veterans played how the young players played the standings and then the whether or not it
Was any fun to watch the team uh let’s start with the veterans over the last four games for the Utah Jazz Larry Markin had probably his third best game of the season and maybe his best game since November yesterday and still only got one field goal attempt in the fourth
Quarter like dog you got to get the ball you got to go get it you got to go get the ball I know you don’t dribble you’ve got to attack switches you’ve got to attack Kyrie Irving will hardy even talked about it like if you’re on fire
Six of nine from three and you’ve got a winnable game go turn into a star you’ve got to be a star that is your job but he was good I mean he still averaged 27 and a half points and uh five rebounds and actually uh bounced back is shooting a
Little bit still only 41% from the floor 38 from three but uh was good yesterday yeah and then Colin seon he puts up 25 in the game against OKC and then three straight 20 pieces uh coming off the bench for some of those games and starting the some of the others um
Shooting numbers so so I mean 55% from the floor is great three-point shooting only 30% not great John Collins heck of a weak uh other than getting dunked into Oblivion by by uh Anthony Edwards which unfortunately like has a chance to just be John Collins’s Legacy like Brian
Russell is a good basketball player his legacy is that Jordan hit the shot over him Frederick Vice was probably a good basketball player I know that Vince Carter dunked over him in an Olympic game that that was a bad enough dunk that that might be what people always
Associate John Collins with but it overshadows a week where he averaged 20.7 points 7.7 rebounds shot 56% from the floor and 60% from three he did have the worst plus minus on the team which is a consistent issue with John Collins and I keep trying to figure out like
Does he have a role in the NBA cuz he’s clearly productive there’s got to be a way to maximize that I don’t know what it is and really smart coaches in Atlanta and now in Utah haven’t figured out how to like really turn it into a thing but like there’s something there
There’s something there so the veterans played okay actually I think to wrap this up the veterans played okay I would say maybe like a b yeah B that’s good uh you only got two games out of lowry you only got three games out of John Collins
And they lose a half from getting nuked on by by Anthony Edwards unfortunately uh okay young players um young players honestly kind of a a struggle week for the young players maybe the worst week combined for the three young players for the Utah Jazz and then if you want to throw Walker
Kessler in there as well who had like a couple of okay but mostly unremarkable outings keontay George 12 points four and a half assists four and a half rebounds I like those assist rebound numbers again I think if he can be you know 18 five and five next year which is
Not crazy that’s a that’s a really good sophomore season problem is his I think his legs are gone I think he had that good little two- game stretch going into the All-Star break speaking of keante he came out and had like eight more games where he was awesome Lowry got hurt he
Was carrying a huge offensive load and I think it completely killed him I I think it sapped all the energy out of him uh because over kante George’s last four games it actually stretches back further but he’s shooting 27% from the floor and 10% from three on seven attempts a game
10% from three on seven attempts for game over for last night uh yeah and then Taylor Hendrick like all the things that Taylor does are still there yeah he hits a couple of Threes length is really enticing on defense gets some dunks you get it Bryce Sensa shooting’s been
Atrocious as well somehow at his 15% from three is actually better than Keon George’s over the last four games but also only shooting what 27% from the floor like really really bad yeah like it might be a d or maybe worse yeah maybe even a D minus I’m looking D minus
I’m looking at Bry sba’s shooting numbers it looks like Tor dates he has two for n right here um in the first game against OKC 1 for seven in the first game against the uh the Mavericks and didn’t get much better after that so
Yeah I think a D minus is pretty good D minus for the rookies that’s tough that’s not what you wanted to see like the value in these last 15 games of the season was that like okay the rookies are G to get a lot of opportunities and
Like they just don’t have anything left like I just think they’re absolutely gassed I don’t think there’s there’s I don’t think you’re going to see a whole lot of them maybe keontay George can bounce back cuz he always does this he gets to this low point and
Then has a huge game but uh you know I’m not anticipating another 30 piece from K before the end of the year uh next up standings again we’re at a point where losses are better for the Jazz than wins are a plus yeah they go and four so got
To be an a I mean Jazz fans are hoping that it could be some competitive or at least watchable fun games didn’t really get that which we’ll talk about here in a sec with fun Factor but yeah I mean Atlanta stuns the Boston Celtics Atlanta’s down 30 in the second quarter
It’s like 66 to 36 or something 68 38 storm back beat the Celtics I didn’t think they were going to catch Atlanta anyways like realistically there’s kind of been a three- win Gap this whole season two wins or really for the second half of the year and the Jazz can very
Easily not win two games the rest of the year but this like actually gives them a little leeway because now there’s three games Atlanta still has to play Detroit Charlotte and Washington I think they’ve got one more game like atrocious Portland not Washington Portland like Atlanta’s going to win at least one of
Those and get to 33 wins there’s no way the Jazz win four of their last 10 years so there’s no way the Jazz catch Atlanta and then what’s really interesting is now Brooklyn is only two wins back of the Jazz Brooklyn doesn’t have their first- round pick this year so they
Don’t have any reason to lose games they’re not even tanking there’s like a not zero% chance that Brooklyn wins two more games or three more games and the Jazz and Nets are tied at 30 and then a they would split the lottery odds to move up into the top four which would
Increase the Jazz by a few percentage points and then a coin toss would determine who gets the eighth pick and who gets the ninth pick if neither team wins yeah that’s a big deal so you’re no longer watching Atlanta in my opinion if you’re a jazz fan you’re only watching
What Brooklyn does game in and game out uh so yeah standings a hey you nailed it 0 and four yeah uh next on fun Factor polar opposite yeah definitely that honestly I I again I put it on Twitter I think that first half against Houston might have
Been the worst first half in jazz history oh they allowed a franchise worst what is it 84 points MH they were down 26 after the first quarter there was no semblance of Play Rhythm anything that was unwatchable and then like everyone’s just running layup lines Detroit or Dallas didn’t last night but
They did in Dallas OKC did I mean the whole second half it was it’s it’s borderline onw watchable like I I feel for jazz fans who are trying to be like well I’m I’m married to this team so I’m going to thick or thin I’m going to be
There good for you because this is brutal yeah and it and it all stems from the defense there’s no reason that the Rockets who are 35 and 35 I know they they been on a hot streak but there there’s no reason they should be shooting 56% from the floor and 55% from
Three I mean they’re just everyone’s clowning the jet like it’s it’s true like clowning embarrassing the Jazz and Jazz don’t seem to have any solutions and they don’t look the Jazz don’t look like they’re having fun so yeah I think an F maybe is that the first F of the
Season maybe I think I think it might be um and honestly the only saving grace for this fun Factor grade is markkanen’s 34 that was very fun to watch but honestly I can’t really point out much else from the week Y and even then it’s just kind of
Not in any meaningful way like the first three of the game and Dallas is sleepwalking and just says okay we turn on the fourth and win by double digits and they did because they had done that two games earlier yep and it’s exactly what OKC did as well and I think it’s
What you’re going to see a lot for the rest of the season so yeah F unfortunately not something we wanted to hand out all right let’s take a break we will look at the standings real quick uh and then we will answer your mailbag questions stick around more Jazz notes coming up next
Welcome back to the Jazz notes podcast Ben Anderson Chandler hold all right Chandler again we talked about the standings a little bit in our grades so we don’t need to hammer it too hard uh but 10 games left in the season Atlanta has 11 games left in the season Brooklyn
Only has 10 games left in the season those are the teams you’re watching right now Jazz are 29 and 43 you don’t even worry about 43 losses don’t matter it’s just wins at this point Jazz have 29 wins Atlanta has 32 no chance that jazz catch them no uh and then Brooklyn
Has 27 so two wins there for Brooklyn you need them to make up on the Jazz if you’re a jazz fan to climb up and and potentially give the Jazz the eighth pick in the draft or the eighth best odds of winning the lottery which is not
Insignificant the Jazz if they stay at Ninth have a 4 and a half% chance of moving up to one a 4.8 chance uh percent chance of moving up to two 5.2% chance of moving up to three and a 5.7% chance of moving up to four you add those up it’s just
Over 20% like a one in five chance of already moving up to the top four if you end up with the eighth worst record in the NBA you go up to 6% chance moving up to one 6.3 to2 6.7 to three and 7.2 to four like you’re up around 26 27% like a
Better than one in four chance that you move up into the top four picks which in a bad draft the higher you get the the the more excited you’re going to be so uh there’s there’s some hope there I guess if you’re a jazz fan I wouldn’t be
Surprised if they if these two teams ended up TI Tied by the end of the season yeah and like you said the jazs have the ninth worst record in the NBA right now the two teams below them are the Brooklyn Nets and the Memphis Grizzlies they are uh only two games
Separated from the from Brooklyn and five games separated from Memphis but interesting thing to point out here like you said earlier um Brooklyn has games against Washington Detroit um Toronto Toronto Chicago Chicago’s okay Chicago’s not been bad but they’re not great but here’s the interesting thing five games
Uh away from the Grizzlies the Grizzlies play Detroit twice and San Antonio I just don’t I think that five games uh behind with 10 games is a lot to ask for but a tie is possible a tie is possible probably unlikely but yeah the nice thing Brooklyn has the fifth easiest
Schedule remaining Jazz have the sixth toughest yep if the Jazz don’t beat I know we touched on Houston a little bit on Friday uh if the Jazz don’t beat San Antonio tomorrow I don’t know if they’re going to win a game for the rest of the
Season oh yeah the rest of the Jazz schedule looks like this uh and again I wrote about it a little yesterday in uh my gamer you can find it at KSL sports.com after San Antonio you play Houston Houston’s trying to get into the playing tournament like they how far
Back are they right now of the Golden State Wars It’s like a game and a half like maybe even a half game two G there it’s it’s let’s see yeah half game that’s it that’s crazy suddenly they’re a half game back of the final playing spot and have a
Pretty beneficial schedule the rest of the way right like I can pull up there strength schedule meeting h Houston has the seventh most difficult so that’s tough golden state has the sixth easiest but so every game’s going to matter so they’re going to come in and bring it to
The jazz on Friday I don’t expect the Jazz to win that game then you go at Sacramento Sacramento’s trying to get out of the play in uh because they’re right there with Phoenix and Dallas in that 5 six S8 spot in the west or six seven8 spot in the west Cleveland’s
Trying to hold on to home court advantage in the first round and stay out of the Boston side of the bracket in the East the Clippers are trying to hold on into the top four spot because New Orleans is coming Golden State as we mentioned is trying to stay in the
Playing tournament they’re going to try and beat the Jazz Denver’s trying to get the top seed Houston again trying to get into the playing tournament at the Clippers trying to avoid losing homec court advantage and then at the Warriors last game of the season might depend whether the Warriors make the postseason
Or not y like the last nine games of the season after you play San Antonio everyone is a playing well and be playing for something like there I there’s there’s almost no chance that you has win any of those games ear in the season you could look at the Houston
Game as a potential win maybe even the Clippers they had their time struggling but all these teams are surging at the right time so it’s tough I I honestly think if you’re trying to catch a Jazz win uh get tickets to go see wemy tomorrow might be your last chance and
You might not even see wemi tomorrow so yeah yeah that might be your last chance to get a victory so this is going to be uh this going to be another tough what 18 days left in the season or so for the Utah Jazz it’s going to be a little bit
Ugly to close the year and you’re going to have to hope they uh have some Lottery luck or move up in the draft or whatever it is but okay okay that’s your standing watch we said we’d hit on that briefly let’s get to our uh mailbag we always send out this prompt every
Tuesday around 11-ish uh and then you can respond with your questions we try to answer in the mailbag Chandler what do we have uh first up from J CCH uh is Kenneth Lofton scoring prowess in the g-league level going to translate to the NBA game are he and Darius basley going to get
Extended looks from the Jazz down the stretch uh I I mean Kenneth Lofton scored 52 points for the stars I don’t think he’s going to ever score 52 in the NBA the hard part about Kenneth often is he needs the ball Y and it nobody gives
You the ball in the NBA you have to be so unique to get 15 shots a game much less 28 you know I mean whatever he got with the Stars to get to 52 so like the odds that Kenneth Lofton pans out and is anything more than like a third string
Center is probably really low the truth is Darius basley hasn’t stuck in the NBA for a reason also I think this was a chance to get a extended look at them with the Stars uh maybe one or two of them plays with the G League or excuse
Me with the summer league this offseason like I don’t know if daryus basley at this level of his career wants to still play in the summer league but if he wants to stick in the NBA he might have to and that’s kind of what the Jazz do
Going forward but I don’t think we’re going to see them the rest of the season a whole lot maybe a game or two but will hardy I asked him about this specifically yesterday and he said I like to give guys big chunks like I like to have young players knowing they’re
Going to play 15 minutes a night for 10 straight games so they can kind of get into the rhythm of what to expect there’s there’s only 10 games left and you want to see what Johnny juing and Micah Potter and Taylor Hendricks and Bryce sens about these guys who you’re
More invested in so honestly I kind of don’t think we’re g to see him a whole lot if at all yeah and also you speaking of unique Kenneth Lofton gets most of his touches in the post and when you look at post players in the NBA today the only players who are getting
Numerous post touches of games are the superstars Nicola yic Joel embiid I would say like the lowest level player who’s getting numerous post touches is like DeAndre Aiden maybe yeah right um porzingis gets a handful poring is great but you just don’t get a lot it’s not
How the NBA works anymore I’m rooting for Kenneth Lofton like cool story unique guy I like the weird the weird players in basketball uh but I don’t think we’ll see them this year and we’ll see if they can turn something into the summer and probably be back on the the
Jazz uh roster next season at the very least is Camp invites and see if they can make the roster yeah vastly different uh career path from the guy I’m about to say but kind of reminds me of J Lo four just sort of an outdated player in today’s game great touch
Really skilled ideally you could like put him at the nail and some offense through him because he is a very willing passer but we can say like yeah joic does it it’s like well joic is the most unique basketball player of all time so I don’t think Kenneth Lofton is nickol
Yic as fun it is to see him score 52 points uh next up from D graph uh we’ve seen the Jazz give up over 140 points multiple times this year scoring is growing more and more what’s the limit will we consistently see 150 plus points
Scored in games in a few years or will it come back down to a reasonable level uh it won’t ever come back down to like 90 or 80 oh yeah the NBA hates that nobody wants it fans don’t want that and now that you’ve gotten a taste of 120
Point games you don’t want to go that low but I think 140 is crazy I I I I don’t like these games I don’t like that every night someone’s scored 75 80 in the first half it’s like come on that’s that’s crazy and the NBA even has come
Out with the officials and they said yeah we’re trying to focus on different things to make sure that not everyone’s going to the foul line etc etc so uh I think we’re going to get back down to like the 120s one teens and I think that’s actually a good Pace I think it’s
Very consumable and it looks like guys are actually playing on defense and you may have to even change some rules to benefit the defense to keep it that low but I think that’s where we’re headed no I 100% agree I forget what it was but earlier in the season uh came out that
The competition committee was looking at the high number scorings and Adam Silver hated the 200 Point All-Star Game notoriously was like embarrassed by it after he had come out and promised it’s going to be the most competitive game we’ve seen we’re bringing the All-Star Game back and it was arguably the worst
One they’ve ever had y uh he doesn’t want that he recognizes it’s become a bit of a circus yeah get rid of defensive 3 second there’s a lot of things I would do yeah I would I would get rid of the 3 second rule I would get
Rid of some of the fouls that players were able to to spam out just by faking and pump faking over and over yeah there’s a couple little things you could do to help uh next up from Jimbo slice is the Rebrand still happening or are we stuck with the yellow and black forever
Okay A little bit of what I’ve heard as a little bit of a jazz Insider I will tell you some things that I’ve heard I don’t know what is accurate or not but I will tell you what I’ve heard and I’ve not seen this on the internet before uh I’ve heard mountains
Are going to be a part of the Rebrand I’ve heard it’s coming next year and there’s not going to be any more yellow so I don’t know I haven’t seen jerseys I haven’t seen mock-ups I promise you like I’m a little bit blind on this but I probably have a little bit more
Knowledge than because I just cover the team and around I think the mountains are coming back and the yellow is going away I don’t know if it’s still black and white I know Ryan Smith has talked about purple um but that’s kind of where I think it’s trending I don’t think you’re
Going to see yellow anymore Jazz fans hated the yellow I liked it Jazz fans hated the yellow uh and I think you’re going to see more Mountains uh along with the Jazz note so that’s what I’ve heard um do what you want with it you can
Aggregate it I guess if you want to I could be wrong I’m going to put that out there that like this is not 100% confidence level this is just kind of gathering what I’ve been able to gather no like strong Source like this is the inside person who showed me these
Like I promise you that’s not happened at all just kind of what I’ve gathered from several people I’ve talked to of what I kind of think is coming okay so big we’ll see but I do think a Rebrand is coming next year okay that’s kind of what I feel confident in saying like
You’re not going to see this look next season Y so it’s a little bit of a guess a little bit of informed information uh but I don’t totally I don’t have no idea what they look like okay follow-up question from Jimbo how many years into a rebuild
Before will hardy seat start to get starts to get hot I’ve thought about this he just has nothing to work with like the reason the Jazz signed him to a five-year deal was to like let him work through all this nonsense and like this is a lot of nonsense that the Jazz are
Dealing with right now like this year we’ll we’ll we’ll do a big like retrospective at the end of the season on like was this a good season for the Jazz like I’m kind of trending towards us being a pretty big failure of a year like you are betting so heavily
On these draft picks panning out and this top 10 pick you’re getting and maybe you just trade all of them like I don’t know what it’s going to take some time before we figure out what actually happened um but because it’s so up in the air like I don’t think
You can blame will hardy for it now there are potential issues where like are the guys not buying in anymore does he lose a locker room I’m not saying he has but like those are things that could crop up like next season the Jazz do all
This losing this year if it doesn’t come back next year when they’re expected to start winning like that’s an issue now here’s the thing he’s had two pretty mediocre rosters each of the last two years through the first 70 games last year the first 50 games this year and
Had them both at 500 where like low Markin was your best player for the first time this year like there’s a real argument that Colin saon was your second best player he’s never really done that on a good team before and the Jazz were 500 and weren’t even built like a roster
That was designed to win they were just built to feature veterans so they could trade him with the trade deadline and he’s even won and kept those teams competitive so my guess is never is not soon for Will Hardy on the hot seat because when the Jazz have lost they’ve
Been designed to lose yep they are designed to lose every game and that’s what they doing after they traded Mike Conley the design was to lose they didn’t even lose enough after they traded Mike Conley they were 35 and 36 that’s 71 games into the season that’s
Exactly where we are right now we before last night’s game and the Jazz were still at 500 they’re 13 games under 500 this year or 12 as of last night before the game was played like this is designed to be awful this is the this is what they’re trying to do
And it’s working before they stripped this team of any semblance of of real basketball players they were okay they were competitive they were in that same conversation as Golden State and the Los Angeles Lakers who have Stephen Curry and LeBron James and the jazs were
Trying to do it with a bunch of kind of castoffs so I think will hard is a good coach uh and I suspect when you give them some real pieces they’ll start winning yeah um of course Talent can carry coaches and schemes as shown with some people maybe like Doc Rivers some
People would say um but I think that given this roster if you put numerous other coaches in will Hardy’s position they’re not performing as well they’re not winning what 15 of 19 games earlier in the season they’re not going on runs like that so yeah I think it would take
At least a couple more years before will hardy seat his hot because he needs to have a chance with a good roster yeah if they win it like all in like let’s say they trade for Trey young this off season and you know sign Isaiah hardenstein they’re like we’re making
The playoffs this year like this is it we know jazzz fans you put up with this we’re going for it we’re at least going for like Improvement and they’re worse okay Hot Seat but like I nothing we’ve seen from Will Hardy would imply that that would be the case nor is anything
Of the Jazz losing recently his fault yeah so this is all on the front office this is by Design This is not this is not will Hardy’s design um next up from Cody Ryan is Jordan Clarkson the coolest person to have ever lived in Utah I thought about this yesterday a little
Bit in the sense that like the Jazz have not been fun to watch at all and just kind of having Jordan Clarkson look Jordan Clarkson wasn’t great you had 0 for seven from the floor I think had five turnovers like and they’re kind of the bad Jordan Clarkson turnovers where
He just gets too far into the paint and just throws it to nobody and it’s a live ball turnover turning into a layup the other direction but like man they play so much more fun when he’s out there like they are just everyone’s engaged and then on top of it like the actual
Like the fashion stuff the enjoyability of him as a person to talk to uh he’s been my probably favorite jazz player I’ve ever covered I think it’s going to be really hard to beat him in that in my own personal rankings as far as just like interesting funny relaxed
Very kind like I I really have enjoyed the Jordan Clarkson experience on a personal level um so yeah maybe yeah he might be one of the coolest people to ever live in Utah we’ve had some cool people to come through but uh as far as athletes I’m not sure there’s one that’s
Particularly close to Jordan Clarkson just as far as the full well-roundedness of of all the cool different aspects of the world Jordan checks a lot of boxes uh next up from Glenn Anderson some draft questions if we get lucky and jump up into the top four who would you want
The Jazz to to draft if we stay at the 89 range who do you like also if we did jump into the top four do you prefer taking the pick or trading the pick um all right a lot there yeah so my first thought is well what do the
Jazz need and I actually want to ask Will hard of this before the end the air so I will try and flesh this out a little bit more I he may not answer the question because that sounds a little bit insulting to his roster like but a
Prototype of like what would you add to this roster if you could to help them and part of it I’m like well what did they lose like Kelly oen not you add Kelly oin but what Kelly oin was such a connective piece like he was a great
Passer he really was a cerebral player is really smart and I think the best passer best cerebral player in the league or in the draft this year was like Nicola topic who’s going to go top three so maybe that addresses that question or even Reed Shepard from
Kentucky who had a terrible game that maybe was the only game people watched of him this year at Kentucky not a good example of who he actually was all year as a freshman now the problem with Reed Shepard is he’s little and he plays the same position as Kon George so like well
You get a draft and so does topic topic needs the ball in his hand because he doesn’t shoot and you know is not a great defensive player so like these like connective tissue guys which I think are really important and maybe what the Jazz need most don’t actually fit the model all
That well if you think keontay George is going to be the guy but maybe you don’t Crown keontay George yet and you just kind of keep trying to just draft the best players available and If Keon has to play off the ball a little more or you trade Keon like I guess that’s
Always possible you just draft the best player available so outside of the connective tissue honestly I just default a size yeah and not like Zack Edy not Donovan kingan from Yukon like no give me the guys who have great positional size and both of those guys do I mean Cody
Williams like give me a big rangy forward from Colorado give me modest buis in the G League who’s just like 610 and really runs the floor well and like has dominated at every other level before he got to the G league and has only been so so everyone thought he was
Going to be the number one pick this year because it wasn’t a very good draft and then hasn’t been so like maybe you just go I’ve heard weird things about Ron Holland like the guy I don’t know he’s a young kid who probably just used
The g- league as a stepping stone to get to the NBA I try not to judge people too harshly but like Ron Holland has good size Modis bues has good size Cody Williams has pretty good size Alexander SAR if you get him number one overall
Has good size uh rayet the uh French kid the other French kid seems to have pretty decent size like get a big person and hope the rest falls into place that’s because really skilled little guys have a ceiling yep big guys that you think you can teach going back to
The last really bad draft 2011 or whatever it was someone drafted a huge kid out of Greece someone drafted a huge kid out of France and they turned into Yannis San kmo and Rudy goar it’s like well yeah they’re huge yep and then you taught them the game because they had
Some semblance of what to do so I my thought is just go draft the biggest player you can not Zack Edy even though think Zach’s fine like draft a tall guy and then if you want to get a skilled guard you can draft him at 29 or 31 we
Actually seen a lot of those like Marcus Sasser types that like come in and are good backups and you’re like oh that guy’s great it’s like yeah you can get him at 29 you don’t need to draft him in the top 10 so maybe I wouldn’t touch
Either of the Kentucky kids um looking at the Jazz roster and players who they’re more or less committed to you have keontay George who is a uh ball dominant guard you have Walker kastler maybe the the least committed to of the group I’m about to say but he’s around the
And then you have Marin and Taylor HRI who take up the forward spot and because of that I kind of like K from Tennessee he’s a two guard 6 foot6 um and I just feel like having just another scoring two guard maybe Jordan Clarkson but a younger version can maybe come in and
Improve in areas like defense and other things and a much more efficient scorer than Jordan Clarkson now he might just be Bryce sensah true now he’s better he’s a better college player than Bryce sensah was but he’s also like 22 it’s like okay is he good because he’s old so
Those are all the questions why this draft is so flawed it’s why like there’s no guarantees in this draft that any of these guys are stars like everyone has a a major red flag along with their game which is why people don’t like it and look not all those red flags will pan
Out but also some of the green flags won’t pan out as well so some of these guys are not going to make it because the things they can’t do are real and some of these guys are going to really make it who get drafted late because well the things that you thought were
Going to be red flag they overcame in the NBA and turned into Stars so again my my default would be size get big athletic guys uh Taylor Hendrick is big in athletic and like you can see like oh he doesn’t know how to play the game at all and is
Really effective already like already impacts the game and when he puts it together it’s going to be really good Lowry Markin took a little while but he’s really big and that helps so that’s a benefit and something I would run with if I were the Utah Jazz speaking of
Markin next question from James mckenny is lry Markin skill set in length too unique to Warrant a trade do you see a world in which the Jazz tank next season to get into the lottery for 25 we addressed the tanking thing a little bit I don’t think so but again I wouldn’t
Rule it out if the Jazz are mediocre at the trade deadline and there’s a market for whatever veterans are on the roster including maybe Lowry I don’t think Lowry I’ve heard that they are truly invested in him and are G going to give him a bunch of money this offseason um
Yeah they could pull the plug again and just be like yeah guys it’s a bad two months of basketball but you’re trying to win a title yep and if it means you get a number or a high draft pick in a good draft and your odds of moving up
And getting Ace Bailey or uh Cooper flag are increased by trade away whatever midlevel veteran at the trade deadline next year versus playing an 83rd game for the playing tournament for a right to get oued in the first round like the Jazz will do it again yep unfortunately I know that’s not what
Jazz fans want to hear but if that’s where they’re sitting they will repeat this process again and again and again I suspect until they get the guy that is a real Difference Maker so that’s the tanking aspect of it is Lowry market and skill set and length too unique to warn a
Trade here’s what I always do because I mean no it’s like he’s not a top three player in the NBA so like everyone can be traded if you’re not Giannis or Nicol yic yeah or Anthony Edwards like yeah all these Luca all these guys are available for trade if the right piece
Comes along but what I will say is when you get these kind of like players who were 15th to 30th best players in the NBA and I’m always like oh man Boston should kick the tires on a Jaylen Brown trade just to see like what’s out there
Maybe that could really push him over the top almost inevitably every time I say that like two years pass and I’m like wow good thing they didn’t trade Jaylen Brown because they’re the best player in the NBA and he’s the second best player and he’s critical y he’s absolutely essential to everything they
Do so that’s probably where I’d put Lowry which is like he’s not too unique to war in a trade you could probably explore it but two years from now like let’s say you hit on a couple of these draft picks you’re so happy to have Lowry Markin on
The roster you know like here’s the thing look at Cleveland right now do you know what they’re missing Lowry marinan like the Evan MO is okay Darius Garland’s okay Donovan’s fabulous they’ve got some decent role players like they need a second Allstar who’s 7 feet tall who shoots the heck out of the
Ball yep okay well they lost Lowry marinin like they might be better with Lowry than Evan Mobley you know and they kind of gambled that like well evans’s going to be the star but they gave up on the a little bit more proven piece who was having the best year of his career
So my thought is no he’s not too unique to trade and even then I would probably like I would rather trade Lowry a year too late than a year too early yes and I Young players oai iagi you traded him a year early that was smart because I’m
Not sure oi’s an NBA player uh Lowry I would rather wait a little bit too long and say well we took a little bit of a hit on trading him versus oh man I really wish we had Larry Markin and this is you know the Jazz front office
Speaking so that’s how I would approach it anything else I think that’s it okay we appreciate you guys tuning in as always subscribe like the podcast leave a review but uh really uh you can see it in every article I write a link to the Jazz notes newsletter sign up for it get
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