Ben Anderson | Previewing NBA Draft, Jazz Offseason
ladies and gentlemen you’re locked in to JJ and Alex with the insight and analysis on the teams you can’t live without presented by G2G bars this is 975 the KSL Sports Zone [Music] welcome back it’s another edition of JJ and Alex 975 the KSL Sport Zone Alex KY Jeremiah Jensen together we comprise the team that is JJ and Alex I’m just looking at the uh they were just showing a Trevor Lawrence press conference and they have the really classy Jaguars logo behind what’s the worst logo in sports is it the Browns just because their logo is a helmet of their just their color they have that what is that little oh they have the is it inappropriate to call him a munchkin because that’s what he is he’s like an elf or a munchkin something like that kind of interesting yeah yeah but that’s a good question that’s not really like the primary look I’m not I’m trying to think what the worst logo in sports is basketball’s got some bad ones uh and I’ve had bad ones over the years and it’s just like there’s some that are that are bad colleges there’s just so many of them that there’s there’s a lot of misses I’m trying to think you keep that in your head what the worst logo in sports is because the Jags have a really bad one it’s just a dumb dumb logo and I wish that I wish that you would like that’s why you got to roll out when the Utah Hockey Club becomes the yeti or whomever but the yeti we got to figure it out got to figure it out because you don’t want to have a crap logo that you’re gonna have to keep figuring out over the years and tampering with to try to make it look good you don’t want that joining us on the right now as we kick off the hour of course our program is brought to you by G2G bars all natural ingredients and no preservatives you got to try a G2G Bar for a quick tasty nutritious boost let’s kick things off with Ben Anderson it’s the cut right here at the top of the hour it’s time for the biggest story of the day this is what made the cut with JJ and Alex a 975 the KSL Sports Zone Ben Anderson Jake and Ben Fame of course uh this portion of the show brought to you by Trader wealth also the cut brought to you by tra and wealth trj and wealth.com Ben what’s the worst logo in sports I’m putting you on the spot here but uh you at least had some lead time to think about it I’m thinking about some of these crappy ones that are out there I don’t know if the NBA has the the corner on the market on some of these but uh maybe there’s one that just pisses you off when you see it uh I hate the Florida Panthers logo now you know what yes it’s a very tame looking Panther that looks like the colors don’t do anything for Florida like Miami the Dolphins colors feel like Florida yes uh Tampa Bay feels like Tampa Bay like the colors match the state or the city Panthers it’s just like red and gold I think and some black or some blue it’s just like I I why did you pick any of that well I love how it’s like a it looks like a the Panther’s taking his senior picture he’s just like very mild looking and yes when tan is a big part of your color scheme that’s not a bit that’s not a good one uh I think the Warriors that’s a bad sign yeah the Warriors you got the it’s the Golden Gate Bridge but it’s not golden but looks like an off-center picture of the bridge I don’t know it’s just like what what is that I could I could hate on a lot have to think when I’m looking at your logo the New York Islanders logo is also terrible that’s really bad uh Ben let’s get to some of the things that have happened today in the in the world of basketball how about Monty Williams uh failing upward as a uh as a coach who’s who’s the worst who is it worse to be right now is it uh is it Monty Williams you get fired but you get to sit at home and collect two different paychecks from two different organizations I’m trying to figure out or is it like you know a guy like Jimbo Fisher same thing $70 million you don’t get to coach the thing you don’t get to be the pro that you train to be but you’re at least you’re going to get a Payday we have gone in such a weird Direction in professional sports when it comes to paying out coaches that we don’t feel like did a good enough job yeah I guess I’d rather be Monty Williams than the owner of the Pistons who’s paying him to not coach I mean that’s insane to me uh so I I would hate to be a part of that you know Matt isby who owns the Suns is still paying him and is one of the biggest donors to Michigan State and who’s the Michigan State football coach who just got fired Tucker yeah Mel Tucker just got bought out I mean he’s paying Mel Tucker salary he’s probably paying the new salary and he’s paying Monty Williams salary so uh there’s just a lot of those it’s yeah it’s it’s bad and look they had to pay Monty a bunch of money to coach I know he’d been fired by the Suns but he was going to take a year off his wife having health issues and they just kept raising the price it sounded like until he agreed and then they fired him after year so it was just a huge mistake from a organization that does nothing but make huge mistakes yeah it gives you more and I know that the Jazz are a little down this year or down recently but it gives you a lot of uh I don’t know makes you feel better about the what the organization is here that the Jazz have a lot of people with uh cooler heads and and make a lot of more smart decisions uh they got some big decisions to make right now there’s a lot of stuff going on around the league the Jazz improv and free agency trade draft the buzz to death um at least I was from that aside from JJ Reit getting hired by the Lakers coach we might get to that in a second but uh the Bulls made a trade today to send Alex guso to the Thunder for Josh Giddy and uh there’s a lot of Buzz about Zack LaVine being available and I bring that up because there’s already rumors tied to the Jazz and LaVine would that make any sense for the Jazz to pursue that kind of a deal at all um maybe if you were unloading salary that you just didn’t care about but I mean Zach or Zack leine gets paid a lot and doesn’t play a lot he’s he’s good he’s super talented and he’s never won a whole lot which I think is a red flag uh and he does need the ball so you you’re changing everything you do to kind of build around him which maybe that fits maybe he works really well with Lowry marinan and you have a go-to guy who you know scores at least 19 points a game every game which actually isn’t that crazy of a number um but but has the ability to be in the mid to high 20s as well and shoots the three a lot like every he does is likable and then there’s still one of those things where you’re just like I still it doesn’t there’s not quite enough substance there like all the numbers say yes and then all the production says no and I think those guys you always have to be a little careful about when you see you know these these draft uh boards and a year like this year where there isn’t like a consensus like for sure that’s going to be the top pick there you could see teams going a couple of different directions when you have a number of names that could be at the top of the dire draft is that a draft that you see a team like the Jazz getting more involved in in buying into early on or less involved do they wait another extra year and say no we want to be a part of the sweep Stakes for maybe a couple of of BigTime players versus you know a handful of guys who are in a a down year in the in the draft Yeah I think that’s a tough question because I think it increases the likelihood that maybe somebody slips uh and they see somebody you know six or seven or something where they feel like oh we really got to be a aggressive and move up and go get that guy because you know we thought he was going to be the third best player in this draft and he’s there at seven and that cost is pretty easy to make up uh to to to make that trade so you’re willing to do it I I can see that probably easier than it was to trade up in last year’s draft where I think it was hard to move up in that direction but at the same time if it’s that flat you may just say well why would I give up future assets for a player at 10 that or or at seven that might be just as good as the player at 10 so it’s not worth investing more assets in a better draft in the future to move up in this one which is it’s just going to be a bit of a crapshoot there’s going to be good players uh if you knew who the good players were going to be yeah you would absolutely move up and trade and get them but that’s just so rarely the case you know Howard Beck was on H Hansen Scotty today and we played a bit from that but he he had uh he was asked about the Jazz offseason and what they can do to get better and he was honest and he says I think it’s more likely that uh they would actually go the other direction and maybe look at if there’s a great deal for marinin to to move him and then obviously be back in the lottery again next year what do you think the Jazz should do I what is not what you should do what you think they should do but what do you think is the most plausible what do you think is the most realistic uh way that the Jazz offseason could go down do you think they can add some pieces that there’s some big game hunting out there to do or is it most likely about the 2025 Lottery yeah I mean I think they want to get better and that doesn’t necessarily mean they can and then that the thing is I think they can get worse without trading Lowry and maybe and this is a guy who I’ve not I would certainly not say that jazz should trade him because I actually really like him and I think he’ be a part of your core going forward if you hold on to him but if you want to get worse you could trade Colin seon and you would be worse next year I mean Colin for the last 50 games of the season was pretty spectacular he was over 20 points was over five assists he was super efficient as a shooter uh he figured it out just like what was being asked of him he always plays hard on defense like I think he helps you win games especially if he and Lowry Markin are on the floor together I think you’re a pretty good team and you saw when he got moved into the starting lineup uh was when the Jazz went on that run in late December early January or really through early February where they were pretty unbeatable if you’ve got those two guys healthy and ready to go with some just normal pieces around him around those two you probably get a win 41 games I mean I think those two are that good so if you’re saying no you want to win 25 games you want to be in the Cooper flag sweep Stakes or just anybody in this top five next year that’s supposed to be very good you could trade Colin you could probably get a pretty healthy return for him and then still get a good lottery pick next year and then have your seven-footer who shoots 40% from three on your roster spill which uh is probably the preference I would have the likelihood that the Jazz pick and keep all the guys at 10 29 and 32 their picks in the draft this year is what very low uh but I would have said that last year I think this is actually even lower than last year uh I think you can probably trade up using your combining your two second picks to go up to maybe 23 uh where the suns are picking I think that would make some sense for Phoenix because they just need to add more cheap players uh or maybe you can kick that 30 second pick down the road for another team’s future second or two future seconds and you know the Jazz actually don’t have a lot of second round picks they’ve made a lot of those trades in the past and maybe Danny a sees some value in those so I could see that happening for sure uh or maybe you trade the 29th pick the 29th pick is guaranteed money that you probably don’t necessarily need to guarantee and it’s going to be a very similar player to who’s there at 32 so maybe you trade this year’s first for another team’s future your top 20 protected first round pick and that way you keep this this asset alive of a first round pick which you know whether we want to say it’s true or not they just has value by being called a first round pick we just we like that it’s first round and not second round uh and that makes it more valuable in a future trade and maybe they do that and they they say the 30 second pick is just as good but it doesn’t have the label of a first-rounder so I I very likely to happen for the Jazz either before draft night or on draft night after watching this playoffs and watching the Celtics win the championship and be as dominant as they were uh do you feel the Jazz are are farther away from that point than you thought before or do you think that there’s a path to get that they could even get closer I think you can toss around the idea that there’s more parody in the league than ever before but then you look at some of these young teams in the west and Boston it’s like they’re not going anywhere certainly Boston’s not going anywhere uh I think Oklahoma City is going to be good for a while I like that trade that they pulled off today uh and I just don’t know what the rest of the league is going to look like and how quickly things are going to come and fall and look I mean I would if I had bet my house on things I was sure of to happen in the NBA over the last six years I would have lost my house five times I mean I would have told you Brooklyn was gonna win a title I would have told you the Clippers was gonna win a title uh and I would have told you Milwaukee and Phoenix would have at least made a Conference Finals again uh you know it’s just like that most of these teams don’t even get close to that after they’ve they’ve been to the finals so it’s hard to feel safe betting on anything other than well Boston brings back their entire roster next year and they’re going to be good next year and then beyond that it just might be so hard to keep teams together financially or you lose a guy like Al Horford who’s such a key piece it just it falls apart quickly so I’m actually would be pretty encouraged if I’m a jazz fan that you didn’t have to have and look I’m not trying to say that neither Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum are very high level All-Star players but they might not be top three top four guys uh and you can still win at a very high level or the highest level with guys who are really good but aren’t Le James great aren’t Michael Jordan great and that’s probably a positive Ben Anderson Jake and Ben of course every day right here on the KSL Sports Zone 10 to noon uh all right JJ reck he gets the uh the top job at the at the Lakers it was the name that was thrown out there before we had even heard the Dan Hurley names we had heard the JJ reic ties into there Dan Hurley turns the job down and now for eight million plus a year uh reportedly and four years of a deal it looks like JJ reck is going to be the next guy who is going to be thrown under the bus after things don’t work out in La unless how does JJ reck make it work in La what’s a four-year plan for a guy like him who’s never coached before uh turned into success for them down in La the the Lakers are so sick of firing coaches that they just keep him regardless and then LeBron retires and you say well I guess we’ll just see if he can rebuild a team you know like I they can’t win a title they’re not close to winning a title it doesn’t matter what they do with draft picks this offseason or Trad this offseason they’re not going to get close to winning a title uh I mean were they were a playing team this year right did they sneak up to six and avoid that I think they may have gotten to six and got to play uh Denver in the first round but like they’re not a good team they they’ve got some talented players they’ve got some Hall of Famers and I I admire them I don’t hate the Lakers or watching them play but man they’re just the pathway to get to a ring is non-existent so that’s really difficult to do and and I don’t expect them to get there yeah they were seven they were in the play again this year and I I don’t I don’t see like we talked about there there’s so many good teams in the west I I don’t I don’t see the Lakers breaking through and getting back to that top level um is this a case where the Lakers are are thinking outside of the box and this is going to go well or do you see this as another like just another inept move by a Lakers organization that is not what it used to be and if it wasn’t in LA and if it wasn’t the Lakers we’d be making fun of it like the New York Jets yeah I mean I don’t think JJ’s a bad hire I mean there there have been a lot of players like JJ who have been hired before we we hire specifically guards usually we hire guys now generally point guards and that’s not what JJ reck was we don’t hire a lot of pure Shooters but Steve Kerr has a job and has a bunch of titles so to so he’s gota be smart right he’s gotta be smart uh you know and Craig hyberg has gotten jobs and Jeff Hornes sec’s gotten jobs so we like Shooters and they’ve had jobs uh not all of them were successful Jeff Hornes had Jeff Hornes mixed success hyberg had mixed success probably better in college than than the pros so uh it’s not like it’s the most outlandish hire of all time and there are comps um I I kind of say this about every coaching job I couldn’t love it and I have just have no idea if it’s gonna work because if we knew how it would work it wouldn’t be the highest turnover job on the planet it’s just it’s so hard to find the right culture and the right winner and look one day you’re a bozo and one day you’re the best coach in the League last year everyone made fun of Joe Missoula for the decisions he made the playoffs and how he wasn’t ready to coach a finals team and now everyone Praises all the weird stuff he does uh to to become an an NBA champion watching you know the town every night like he says he does it’s like Michael Malone seemed like the greatest coach in the world and then couldn’t figure out what to do at all in the playoffs this year it’s just I I I really wish I knew what made a good coach or or could predict it but you know what I don’t feel bad about it because NBA teams don’t do it very well either Ben we appreciate taking some extra time and uh trying to help us understand these off seasons that get to be so weird and shorter it seems like these days in the uh in the NBA and so we’re looking forward to it and we’re looking forward to better days for jazz fans thanks for hanging out man we’ll we’ll be listening all right guys we’ll talk to you soon there you go B soon everybody
JJ & Alex are joined by KSL Sports Utah Jazz Insider Ben Anderson to discuss the NBA Draft and the Utah Jazz offseason now that the Finals are over.
