Mark Jones, ESPN – Sacramento Kings In A Tight Western Conference

Mark Jones, ESPN – Sacramento Kings In A Tight Western Conference

Mark Jones in the house Mark how you doing man outstanding outstanding it’s my favorite time of the basketball calendar year man coming down the stretch run 20 21 games to go regular season jacked Jack just got back from Clippers in Houston on Wednesday night for ESPN and looking forward to

Tomorrow’s game for us yeah um you you are the busiest man in America it’s crazy how many Mark how many miles do you fly a year well I’m executive platinum on American I’m already diamond on Delta and I’m about to hit another barrier status on United um the only one that I don’t

Check all the boxes on so far is um is Southwest because I’m so lazy I still haven’t joined up for the program which is really bad that’s negligent man I’m like taking food off my own plate but yeah I was coner on American Airlines I’m probably going to

Hit that again coner key pretty soon yeah yeah because American American Airline they give you the uh The Companion Pass I mean you can you you and the wife can fly wherever you want once you hit that level so that that’s nice yeah yeah I’m sitting with about

380,000 miles in my American account right now and I and I’m constantly turning over uh tickets to you know from my wife flying places with me my my daughter’s coming to games and that kind of thing too so it’s it’s it’s pretty wild but the concierge key service guys

It’s like going to heaven honestly like the first time I got concierge you get off the plane and you feel like the foreign exchange student they have to sign up there with your name on it I’m like and nobody told me that I’d gotten concierge key so I thought something was

Wrong the first time I saw it I have this negative cognition problem you know so they said no Mr Jones we’re going to they took me down this was a DFW in Dallas they took me down on the tarmac and drove me in this nice fancy

SUV to my next flight I didn’t have to take the train I’m like oh wow I hope they got the right guy here and if they don’t you know like Trading Places you know there some other guy named Mark Jones standing there waiting I like Where’s My Car Kings broadcaster ESPN broadcaster

Mark Jones and um one of the most well-traveled people in America joining us um man uh heck of a game last night for the Kings what do you what do you what do you make of these games where they go and they they stuff the Lakers

In a locker one night and then the next night they have they have trouble putting away the the Victor wanyama list San Antonio Spurs yeah at this point of the deal man like whether you win or lose with somebody really doesn’t matter winning in this league is hard and this

Team you know you just take it as a w on the way out and what I liked about last night in particular was being able to come up with the defining clutch stop at the end with you know domas jumping the passing Lane and getting the Breakaway

Layup and you know I know we’re ranked 20th right now in defensive rating but going back to last year um the king showed the ability to get stops and have a good defensive rating number in the postseason so my hope is that when the time comes they

Can do that hopefully we can play defense well enough to get into the top six and not the plane because that’s treacherous if you end up there you don’t want to do that whether it’s Dallas or the Lakers or Golden State or Phoenix or whomever but um I I like the

Way the team is trending right now this next stretch of five home games is going to be really pivotal you know just to underscore that point I was watching that Phoenix Denver game the other day and Denver goes into Phoenix goes into Denver and beats them without Deon B

Booker so you know it doesn’t matter who’s on the floor right now you can say this team’s missing that guy this team’s missing the other guy hey you win on to the next yeah that point I mean we watched the Clippers lose to the bucks with uh Giannis and Chris Middleton out

And it’s kind of one of those things that League wide you’re somebody who calls so many games does this feel unique to this season where 20o margins don’t really matter who’s playing and who’s not doesn’t really matter each and every night seems to be like one giant

Upset and one team disappoints or one team like shocks the world and it feels like it’s it’s sort of the trend of the league or the personality of this specific season of of NBA basketball yeah it’s a great point it does feel different and um you know it’s fun

Because it lends itself to some pretty incredible story lines like you know we’ve seen in Sacramento Keon Clark come off the bench of late and give this team a great boost um I did uh the Phoenix Suns game a couple of nights ago down in the desert and uh you know Grayson Allen

Hits six threes you know you you get to a point where you have guys in the rotation who might not be primary players uh stepping up and providing what a team needs and you know in the context of the Kings right now um you know Keon Ellis um you have Davon

Mitchell um you have Trey l I think that Mike Brown and his staff can take comfort and solace in the fact that you know one through 10 guys are contributing right now you know because you never know who might go down right look at the Timberwolves they lose Carl

Anthony towns um Bookers out like I mentioned with Phoenix um you know our athletic training staff in Sacramento is one of the elite ones in the NBA top the bottom we’ve been the healthiest team in the league amongst the healthiest teams the leag I know we were number one last

Year this year you’re just as good um but to be able to have guys to fill in when you’re missing people we’ve seen foxas games recently and have the team play well so that’s really the story The that is something that I think James that’s a good point that has happened

This year you’ve seen these guys step up talking with Mark Jones Kings broadcaster is also a broadcaster for ESPN turn on a basketball game and chances are he’s going to be calling it hey but I’m doing the Kings game tomorrow that’s great I’m about being a golden one Center

Cannot uh cannot wait for that you mentioned um you mentioned Sunday pardon me Sunday yeah that you mentioned Carl Anthony towns um and that that injury with with Minnesota but then we talked about this yesterday like where where does that put Minnesota in the standings they’ve since the All-Star break they’ve they’ve

Struggled against good teams and they they’ve been beating bad teams where where do they kind of wind up here and then you go see Anthony Edwards last night just kind of take over that game and have that spectacular block to finish the game can he carry them and

Keep them afloat in the race for the one seed do you think I I think he’s capable of doing it I don’t think that people should look at Minnesota now in the light of Carl Anthony towns’ injury through that prism and think that they’re cooked because they’re not

Anthony Edwards I really think is the next space of this league um there are times where he’ll struggle offensively like their entire offense does but there are moments of Brilliance like last night where he goes for 44 and we saw it this summer with USA BAS bball on a team

Of you know not quite super Superstars but elite players in the NBA he was far and above the best guy on the roster and I think with without CAD in there Carl Anthony towns um you know they figured out the spacing a little bit but I think

It puts more on Anthony Edward’s plate and he understands that responsibility and you know ant is I spent a little time with him recently he’s he’s an old soul like he understands he’s got pretty good perspective and you know despite behind you go behind that engaging smile

Of his he’s got really good sense of where he falls in the pantheon of the NBA right now and unbridled confidence and uh I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s still one or two when it’s all said and done you know they still have the number one defense in the NBA you

Know Mark I wanted to ask you it kind of plays into the other question that about you know the 20-point lead this season but like it does feel like there a different vibe this year because of the new rule the 65 game rule for stars to

To basically be all NBA or or be eligible for postseason Awards when you’re out and about do you feel that with some of these teams I mean again like Devin Booker he’s right on the cusp like he got injured I think he was at 11 games missed he can only miss like

Another five games uh or he’s out Carl Anthony towns may not play again in the regular season and wouldn’t be eligible for postseason and be but do you feel like there is an added pressure and then secondly what do you think it’s going to mean in the playoffs when a guy like

Kawh Leonard who plays 55 games a year all of a sudden plays 75 and what’s he G to look like in in a seven game series is is there another question there yeah I I think to answer your first one do I feel the impact of it definitely I think players are

Talking about it they’re aware of how many games they’ve played I think uh you know deep down inside if you ask Joel embiid if he would do it all over again he might take a different track on his injury um but you know I I think at this

Point James it’s it’s almost become a little bit too punitive call me crazy um but if a guy’s hurt like Devin Booker is a guy that likes to play basketball he’s not going to load manage he’ll fight his athletic training staff and he’ll fight Frank Vogal on playing games uh if he’s

Not playing it’s for good reason and I don’t think that should preclude him from being um you know qualified for one of the NBA awards at 65 games with that limit and I think it’s going to have an impact on some guys uh when it comes to the playoffs

Because once they hit I think coaches are aware of it too so once guys hit that 65 right that makes them eligible for postseason Awards um that’s when you see the load man come on so you know tyo if if the Clippers have secured a top four homec court advantage

Spot and Paul George or kawhai or James hard whoever it might be needs to be rested and there’s no changing into the significance of who they might meet in the first round a matchup you’re going to see guys rest because at the end of the day it all matters what your

Relative Health looks like when the plane lands on April the 13th or whatever it is the last day of the regular season because that’s when it really counts you know the uh Denver what they won it last year being the number three seed right were they the

Number three seed last year I uh no no number one number one we were number three yeah but there are teams that have won the championship you know uh being a non number one seed or number two seed you know so look look at the Miami Heat last year from the

Playin to the NBA finals you know mind you there’s a playoff Jimmy factor involved there but um I think teams are going to be managed with respect to their Stars after the 65 number has been hit because they talk about it they may tell us they

Don’t but they do y uh you mentioned the Houston Rockets as you talk with Mark Jones voice of the Sacramento Kings he will be on the call for the Kings Rockets game on Sunday they started 15 and 12 uh since then they are 12 and 23

They are mostly out of the play in race at this point um do you still feel like because at the beginning of the year it looked like man this is an ascending team look at all this young Talent they bring in these veterans and and it’s

Fred Van vet and Dylan Brooks has got him on the right track what what a what do you think happened that that led them to be 12 and 23 and B do you still feel like they’re one of those ascending teams in the west yeah they they they

Had some injuries which really kind of hurt them um you know Fred was out for a little bit uh Terry een just recently went under underwent a season ending surgery um it’s still a relatively young team when you look at Jabari Smith and Jaylen green who’s still looking for a

Measure of consistency and even Shen goon who despite his lofty numbers of late you know had a season high career high 45 46 the other night is undergoing some moments of frustration still offensively because now he’s moved to the number one number two guy at at least on The Scouting Report so they’re

Going to have those bumpy moments and that’s why they’re not quite where em mayoka would have hoped they would be but I’ll say this they are go undergoing right now what we did last year in Sacramento which is to say a culture change in real

Time I’ve seen it a couple of times I did their game a couple of nights ago eme adoka is serving out undistilled hard brutal truths to his players and that’s how they’re changing the culture they they’ve done well that way anytime one of their guys told me if you see eay

With his hand over his mouth talking to a player it means that a whole line of expletives are coming out of his his mouth look for Sunday if he’s doing this and it looks like he’s smiling while talking to one of his players he’s saying hey you you got to pass that ball

Because and then he’ll Pat him on the butt and have him go on his way if he’s if it’s Jaylen green or Jabar so that’s one thing but two um they they they’re going to be a team of the future because you know they have a decision to make on

Jaylen green uh he’s averaging about 178 a game but shooting only 40% from the field uh shenon is going to be the Hub of what they do moving forward he’s spectacular he’s uh kind of a poor man’s sabonis right and then Jabari Smith is one of the most improved players in the

NBA this year that nobody’s talking about so they’ve got a bright future no doubt yeah I I think when you look at that team they they could use the dearon fox type players that the you know the ultimate score to go with shenon yeah but then the Kings couldn’t really use

Jabari Smith that’s that’s the guy you know like yeah yeah the guy who can who can block shots a guy that can hit a three ball who can extend the floor who can play along sides of bonus it’s almost like they stumbled into that pairing uh because shenon just became so

Good so quickly and then you know next season I think they’re gonna be really impressive too cam Whitmore is a guy that just looks like a ball player and then amen Thompson and you know they they went out and they traded for Stephen Adams and like what’s that gonna

Look like next season if he’s healthy they’re going to be tough they’re going to be you you mentioned you you conspicuous by his since you you left one name out and he’s the guy that I love he’s the guy that I love and he’s the guy that really epitomizes part of the culture

Change along with Fred Van v which is Dylan Brooks oh yeah I would love a Dylan Brooks on my team anytime and here’s a trend that we can look for on Sunday afternoon’s game in Sacramento at some point there will be a scuffle between Dylan Brooks and

Somebody pick the guy on the Sacramento Kings I’m guessing either yeah or or Trey L is our Debo right yeah true Tre L is the guy we send to go get our bike back when somebody steals it so I’m I’m saying I’m saying it’s Trey L and Dylan Brooks that’s if there’s a

DraftKings proposal on that somebody tell me about it we’re not allowed to wager but somebody tell me about that because that’s the way I see it it’s going to be Trey lyes it’s G to be um Dylan Brooks Dylan’s going to say something I can remember a couple of

Years ago when he was at Memphis you know he walked by our bench and said Coach man you guys you guys suck get somebody out here who can guard me I mean he’s he’s gonna do something on Sunday so that’s part of the fun for the

Game for me I look forward to that uh Mark Jones voice of the Sacramento Kings he’s just gonna join us for the handoff if that’s okay Kenny car D and KC Fame in the building you know the Louis Vuitton Don you know he look he he he

Gives you guys video work we don’t even get video work we just get the baritone so you know it’s just I’m just grateful to be here I got the product ready this morning K you’re all glued back together what’s up big Mark how you doing man I’m good man I’m good you guys

Do great work all of you guys man look forward to it man but hey send me the link next time I’ll come on a video I’ll do no doubt no doubt he’s just a busy man like I said I don’t want to bother him on the three story yacht you know what I’m

Saying going what do they call the what do they call the the water in between uh oh the inter Coastal Miami the inter Coastal yeah yeah I don’t want to bother him on the inter Coastal when how quickly he knew that too you said it’s the waters like the inter

Coastal the inter coal that’s where I hang out hey man hey there’s a lot of stuff good and bad coming through that inter Coastal you know I mean I’ve been watching Gela I’ve been watching giselda I know what’s going on gotta feed the trade in Miami sometimes oh man uh that’s good radio

That’s good radio uh Mark how the one thing I always I’m always amazed by you uh is your ability to work with anybody just how do you do this where one night you’re you might be with Doris one night you might be with Katie Christensen one

Night you just shift gears and are able to to move from one like partner to the next when it comes to broadcasting wow I you know what I think is just wrapped in my love and passion for the NBA and um you know being ready and U I’ve worked with so many different

People you kind of get used to it James over the years um you know getting to know the vibe of the person next to you uh counts you know Doris and I you know we worked together over a decade so that one’s easy Katie and I for several years

Now that one’s become a lot easier too um but it really comes down to just having a a conversation you know with the person that you’re sitting next to and you know looking at Katie and saying Hey Man 4 seconds to go are they are they switching everything are you

Fighting over screens here you know it’s it’s a basketball question or action about a play that I might ask a coach or a player or anybody else with good insights on the game uh relative to the situation so uh it and and I have fun I’m always going to have fun whether I’m

Working with Katie or Doris or huby brown or JJ reick or Richard Jefferson because at the end of the day guys it’s sports right it’s supposed to have supposed to be fun and um you know it’s walking that fine line between engaging your your uh analyst and um having

Tactical insights and observations and uh having fun with the game well it’s never a question mark that you’re having fun on a broadcast yeah one of the best if you don’t have seasoning man you shouldn’t be on air honestly just a little bit of I don’t do I don’t

Do Bland you know somebody on Sunday needs that black Air Force energy that’s what we I yo uh by the way uh just so you know before before we get you out of here when I like shoot a a paper into the garbage can or whatever I now yell

Butter when I make it that’s my new that’s my new go-to it’s so good so appreciate you for that appreciate you for hopping on and we’ll do this again soon man thank you so much have a great call Sunday you got it guys look forward to seeing you guys at the

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