Ben Anderson | What do the Utah Jazz want to accomplish the rest of the season?
Accessing when TV and radio Collide love it this is what you get you’re listening to JJ and Alex presented by G2G bars don’t touch that D on 975 the kosl sports Z all right welcome back everybody it is 975 the KSL Sport Zone Alex cury Jeremiah Jensen normally with me of course he’s the JJ portion of JJ and Alex he’s off this week at some welld deserved time off uh we all need welld deserved time
Off I suspect that we won’t be able to or we won’t be having to uh ask Ben to do a lot of postseason work as the Jazz season starts to come to an end after I think another oh boy I don’t know how many games they have left I guess it’s
Uh 12 are we 12 Ben what’s the actual number of games left here that we’ve got to suffer through here 11 who counting thank k i was I thought maybe a dozen I was guessing on the uh on the high end there uh my goodness let’s first start
Off with uh some fireworks the other night against the against the Rockets Chris Dunn gets a two game suspension after fighting with Jabari Smith shoot uh Jabari Jr I I don’t know I mean where does that come from a beef between those two just in one instance or is this the
Kind of thing that happens when you are losing a lot of games and on top of it you’re losing a game by 30 well they did have a brief run in the last time the Jazz were in Houston uh I remember Aaron holiday kind of pushed uh keante George after after
Keontay George had the ball ripped and then Aaron holiday ended up with a dunk I think Chris Dunn took a little offense to that it was you know a veteran picking on a rookie which is a little bit UNC yeah and Chris Dunn and yeah and
Uh and Jabari Smith had kind of gotten into it a little bit and then it carried over to the point where it seemed like the first opportunity Chris Dunn had to kind of punk Amar Jabari Smith he did it and got Jabari to react and in all
Honesty like you know I know the Jazz were already down 26 at that point but that’s a trade the Jazz would made Jabari Smith’s a good player and Chris Dunn’s a second unit guard at this point so uh I think Chris Dunn was trying to probably light a little bit of a fire
But also settle some personal Vendetta he’s like uh the Jazz front the Jazz front office actually liked the fire that they saw during that fight from Jabari Smith more than they did from Chris dun uh all right well you go off of the you go off of that loss against
The rockets and now the Jazz are hosting again for uh the Mavericks they were down of course in Dallas last week where they lost to the Mavs but uh all right help us through these last 11 games here you’ve got a good chunk of the guys who
Were have been out with injuries are going to be available I would I would anticipate we’re going to see a lot more of the bigger names in these games so what happens over the next 11 games here as the Jazz return home tonight yeah I’ll be curious how they balance that
Because no they don’t want to win games you know they are still almost cemented into finishing ninth but you could accidentally win a couple of games if something happens to Atlanta and jump them in the standings and there’s still a slight chance that Brooklyn jumps the
Jazz and they slip from the ninth worst record in the NBA to the eighth and then that just improves your lottery odds etc etc you’d rather be Drafting eth and Ninth so I don’t think there’s a lot of value to playing veterans but at the same time you can’t have what in my
Opinion felt pretty toxic what we saw uh against Houston and even a little bit in the fourth quarter against Dallas even though that was a nine-point game going into the fourth quarter and I think it was only a three-point game going intoh the final against Oklahoma City like you
Want to maintain that competitiveness because it’s crazy we’re like okay only 11 games left well that’s more than a tenth of the Season like wasting all those reps I mean listen to college football coaches talk about you know Spring football and how important that is for their players and like they’re
Not lying they actually mean that all those reps matter if you waste a tenth or more than a tenth of the season because you’re down 30 after the first quarter of every game like they were against Houston that’s not valuable to anybody either yeah and then I think you
Start to build up bad habits potentially or guys check out or their care Factor goes out the window or they stop listening to the coach because he’s like hey he’s telling me to bust my butt out out here and we’re down by 25 like why am I listening to this dude like he
Doesn’t know so I don’t think you want that either and you got to walk a little bit of a fine line when you’re tanking to not turn septic and that’s a little bit where the Jazz felt like they’ve gone yeah I mean the 147 to 119 game
Felt different every game you tell me if I’m wrong the games the previous losses before that were kind of like 116 to 103 119 to 100 uh 113 to 97 and then this one kind of felt like the the the bottom really fell off or is there some version
Of that and and really where do guys like like John Collins come into mix when when you’re asking them like to be a veteran leader on a team where that doesn’t really have uh you know super vocal leaders so they’re asking a lot of
The young guys to do it yeah I mean I think that is a part and you saw Colin seon in one of the timeouts like trying to fire up the team and trying to get on everybody like at this point it’s probably a little bit late in the season
To do that and I almost wonder if they need to go the opposite direction not fire but just kind of like fun and that’s one of the main reasons why I think I mean you’ll see it on your Twitter timeline or anytime you’re kind of just like listening to Jazz games
There just like just a Vibe and I’m not saying David lock or bowler have it I’m just saying like it’s just kind of got this negative vibe so I wonder if actually bringing somebody like Jordan Clarkson back tonight who is you know a quote unquote good vibed guy yeah if he
Can just bring some fun back and you know make some shots and make the ball move a little bit even though I know that’s not his full Mo but just like have some positivity around the the group because I think they’ve been lacking that and then the rookies start
To feel like they’re doing everything wrong and I’m sure they start to question themselves and I don’t think that’s good for anybody either so I do think you need some positivity even if it doesn’t result in wins and and you would hope that Jordan Clarkson uh the
Veteran with that attitude can do it I think uh if Lowry is available uh fun is kind of his middle name he’s the guy who likes to bring a lot of the laughs into the uh into into those huddles on the on the sideline no uh the the Scandinavian
Humor obviously well I guess the team has probably gotten it though they they probably figured out by now is LCA donic good enough to be I mean I was looking at kind of Vegas odds I think this was last Friday we were looking at Vegas
Odds on the MVP and his name comes up a lot of times before Jason tatums does and I know he’s scoring a lot of points every game but who’s who’s the guy you want to build around is it Jason Tatum or is it LCA donic I’d probably still
Take Luca I just think he’s so Dynamic offensively especially in fourth quarters where that’s kind of the question about the Celtics is like what Jason Tatum is always taking these tough jump shots and look he so does Luka Luka takes a lot of tough jump shots as well
Luca might be the best tough shot maker in the NBA you just think of the weird crazy 40 foot threes he’s hit falling out of bounds Bank shots like he’s just really good at that and maybe that’s crazy because Jason Tatum’s a significantly better defensive player
But you know Luca is is in my opinion the better player he’s certainly you know if I were to switch their spots who do I think is is doing better I would say you know Luca on that Mavericks team would also have them in the one seed and
You know where do we think the Mavericks are with Jason Tatum I’m not sure but uh you know Luca we’ve seen do incredible things against the Jazz this year including the 30-point triple double the first time the Jazz visited Dallas so yeah he’s a he’s a one-man Wrecking Crew
Uh and this is a big season for Dallas because they made a lot of Trades they mortgaged a lot of their future draft picks to build an Uber athletic team around him that’s how they got eight team dunks the last time these two teams played last week uh and then they went
Out and you know the Jazz are susceptible to giving up a bunch of Threes so uh that’s a thing that Dallas can also do when they’re fully healthy so I think this is the type of roster you want to have around Luca to try and make a real push because they get easy
Baskets they get out in transition they’re athletic enough to defend and they’ve kind of got a bunch of different ways to play now when you’ve got super athletic guys in the front court or you can beat teams the way they beat the Jazz in the last year of the Donovan
Mitchell era which was by putting Maxi Cleaver in the corner and playing Five outs so I I actually kind of like the way this team is put together even though I know was kind of a big risk I was uh I I think we’re all kind of watching teams like the Oklahoma City
Thunder I don’t think we look at Dallas and and get jealous much of Dallas because there’s the one side where you go hey they’re middle of the standings with two of the best two of the guys who uh sell the most tickets in the league sell the most jerseys in the league and
Really they are awesome to watch in Luka donic and Kyrie Irving and yet they’re not that team that everybody feels like is going to make some massive run in the playoffs I me know they could but nobody looks at them and thinks that they are
You know the future of of what the NBA is however again watching TV last night watching the the uh NCAA tournament and a commercial with Shay gilis Alexander and Chad hren pops up did you see this and they’re singing on the commer I’m going what is going on right now like
Chad holgren and Shay gild Alexander the Oklahoma City Thunder like core is on my TV right now that’s what doing that’s what winning games does for you yeah funny note that’s actually that commercial was written by uh a woman who was actually a pretty big jazz fan on
Twitter named Charlotte for a while she actually wrote that commercial so hey shout out to Charlotte former jazz fan kind of having a breakthrough here but uh no you’re right you win and you show up look Donovan Mitchell’s still on every NBA commercial when they get a
Chance and he was doing that in Utah as well like if you win you matter and that’s where the Jazz are trying to get back to I don’t know how quickly they’re trying to get back to that but uh that’s that’s that’s the game you’re playing
Right now if you win games you can be the quietest person on the earth in in in sheay gilis Alexander like I’ve never seen him on Twitter I don’t know what he does on social media I’ve never heard him get into a fight with anybody and
He’s still the face of a big- time NBA ad campaign yeah all right Ben Anderson our uh you our Utah Jazz Insider uh kso sports.com you can read his bu line there and you’ll of course get the breakdown of the game and anything that goes on NBA wise with Ben and you can
Listen to him of course every day uh with uh Jake Scott of course so Jake and Ben T to noon every day right here uh Ben I appreciate it man thanks for hanging out with me today yep guys talk to you soon there you go Ben Anderson
Everybody hey how’s your twet 16 looking uh Jeremy everything good um doing okay this is that was a troll question you’re actually not doing that well I have all four final four teams you know as funny as I have the champion I have my title games oh everybody’s still intact however New
Mexico y James Madison no good well you had first you had the first uh you had the James Madison win the first C around I think a lot of us those first wins and then you’ll lose it on the second one and uh it’s hard it’s hard to continue
That sort of thing but you knew you’re going to at least get a look there was a 14-11 game getting played NC State’s get another double digit the only one yes usually there’s a kajillion but uh yeah yeah uh we had a meeting actually today uh Lloyd and I were chatting with Nate
And I was like how’s Nate doing he’s not in dead last anymore in fact I think he actually might have gotone ahead of you oh boy I’ll have to check this in the break that’s embarrassing I’m not on page 10 anymore either I’m very I’m planted uh
Actually probably in the top third I might be in the top third there you a bunch of people are tied on page four of bracket yeah but our man Chandler is number one overall so far somehow Chandler hold hang on brother he was there at the game so it’s like well I
Did that yeah I did that last year where I took an early lead and then I just never look back you know I had I had the entire final four picked I’m just kidding nobody had that picked the winner yuk Yukon I had Yukon going far
And a lot of people did so there you go uh appreciate Ben Anderson joining us and jumping on here nominate your Youth Sports volunteer that you know for the Hercules hero of the week the way you do it you just go on to KSL sports.com contest and you can uh listen every
Thursday afternoon JJ and I will read the winners uh and it’s been a really really fun thing this season to go through all these community members who are nominating their community members for being awesome Youth Sports volunteers or coaches or somebody who’s just making a difference in the lives of
These kids out there playing sports you can nominate uh that neighbor or that person that you love in your neighborhood who does such a great job uh KS sports.com contest and then they’ll win a prize courtesy of Hercules Credit Union we’ll take a break we’ll come back get a little we’ll get a
Little bit of a uh BYU Spring football update so stay right here at 975 the KSL Sports Zone
KSL Sports Utah Jazz Insider Ben Anderson joins JJ & Alex to discuss the final 11 games of this Jazz season and what the team wants to accomplish the rest of this season.
