David Locke | It’s OK for Utah Jazz to be drafting at No. 10
how it’s time to get the inside scoop on the Utah Jazz from the play-by-play voice of the Jazz David lock Sweet Revenge presented by Murdoch Auto Group a 975 the KSL Sports Zone all right everybody welcome back it is JJ and Alex 975 the KSL Sport Zone and the NBA has delivered again without knowing who the champion is we’re going to get our sixth champion in six seasons in the NBA that’s the parody that we like that’s the type of excitement that we like and that’s the type of non totally figured out story lines that we love also just like you never know what you’re going to get with the NBA what you do know what you’re going to get is a lot of really good basketball joining us on the horn right now he is the voice of the Utah Jazz David lock on the program here with us what’s up lock not much I mean if last night’s any indicator we have great basketball going on and that is the widest margin of two teams ever playing in an East in a Conference Finals I think between two seeds between a one and a six no not one wind total oh wind total gotta all right that makes sense well everybody was already ready to everybody’s already ready to tell me that the Pacers weren’t didn’t stand a chance against the Celtics because they didn’t have a particularly good season against them there was one game I think it was a 51o win for the Celtics but yeah uh going into this one with eight seconds left we thought this one was going to be going the way of the Pacers uh how do you blow that game is it just 100% based off of the fact that the Pacers hadn’t really been in that type of situation although Pascal cakam was the guy who uh you know was in question about whether or not he should have fouled Jaylen Brown he said he probably should have but he got late into that play and he didn’t want to foul him when he went up and there’s all sorts of fun stuff that’s why we like basketball this time of year yeah I mean I I think on you know if you didn’t someone didn’t watch the game this is going to get pretty grandular so I’ll be quick with it you know I don’t think it was that they hadn’t been there before Tyrese Alberton dribbled off his leg he got rushed uh and made a mistake um and that was it was a bad play um and then I just thought Pascal SE yakum took a terrible route to the ball um you know and so that’s just you know that’s not being fundamentally strong and two of the most important plays of the game when you’re not going to get a whistle to Bell you out so um you know super disappointing if you’re Indiana you had that game uh you know Rick Carlile held on to a timeout he said afterwards he was regretful of um I’m a little concerned actually that that was their shot um you know they lose game two and they go down 2 and and then I think it’s going to get pretty hard for them and when Pingus you know they went after Al Horford on virtually every play of that game pretty dramatically and so when fingas comes back for game three or four if he does you know they don’t they don’t have that matchup anymore Boston becomes I think too much at that point what do you me let me let me let me be clear on something if you listen to my podcast you heard me say this I was not surprised at all the game one was close I I thought Al Horford’s a wonderful player one of the great players of this league uh one of the real travesties I think a few years ago when he was just sitting in Oklahoma not playing for the year that a bunch of teams didn’t trade for him I think teams could have teams very easily could have won a title if they had made trade for him that year I think it it was a real Mistake by a multitude of teams to not do that so I think he’s wonderful I think he’s but he’s 37 years old and he can’t guard in space at this point and Indiana went after him I mean it was it was almost like unconstitutional what they were doing to him in the second half yeah fans shouldn’t be too surprised if they’ve watched the Pacers since the SE yakum trade and look at their roster they’re very talented H but I look at Boston it kind of feels like lock it this Celtics team just hasn’t played their best how concern what what do you make of that is this why have we not seen the best Celtics yet or or is this just who they are right now and they’re they’re not they’re underperforming based on what they did in the regular season um well question so sorry I’m pausing a little bit because I’m trying to figure out why we’re saying they’re underperforming because they dropped like a game they shouldn’t have dropped I mean they weren’t like you didn’t think they were ever going to lose the last series did you no um Lo they lost they lost they lost both set game twos at home in the first two series and we know the teams they were playing weren’t they were you know didn’t have the the a full roster available and I think that they were home last night again and they were pushed overtime I think going in the playoffs we all felt they were going to be the best team and the dominant team in the East and maybe I’m wrong maybe they still have been dominant we’re just our percept that’s my perception so I mean I mean I don’t have a good answer um and I maybe I may be like I never when they lose game two I’m never worried until they lose game three and then I don’t think they lost game three I might be wrong I was out of town for some of it yeah right like you know it’s like okay if they lost game two and they lost game three then might be like oh crap like what’s wrong with Boston but I like that hasn’t happened I will say this I thought the their body language amongst themselves as a group was awful last night and I want overplay that but there were the amount of times that something happened and one of their guys looked at another guy like what’s up with that kind of right like whether it was a misu on a handoff or a uh there was a you know miscommunication on the switch it did feel to me a little bit like they were really feeling their mistakes is I guess the way I would say it LO one of the things that we didn’t get talked to talked about last week was this uh and at this point last week we hadn’t seen this it wasn’t uh a a nuggets Timberwolves we didn’t know how this was going to go we just as I I think as game six approached we were like well obviously the nuggets have figured some things out and the Timberwolves have gone the other direction then of course the NBA gave us an awesome uh you know finish of that series which was not what you expected the Nuggets losing and uh and and the timberwol is figuring some things out what have they figured out and now that they’re at the place that they are and we’ve seen ant doing what he’s doing in the in the postseason here what is this Mavericks Timberwolf series uh going to look like starting tonight well I gotta say two things here maybe you should stop having me on the show because honestly I still don’t have any idea how I still don’t have any idea how Denver lost that series like I got it like their offense bogg down it maybe people have figured out a little bit on how to guard you know if you guard joic with a big and you have a secondary Defender it’s playing on Aaron Gordon and the secondary Defender happens to be the greatest big man defend you know one of the greatest big man defenders in the history of the NBA in Rudy goar then maybe maybe that’s the answer but I I if I’m being 100% truthful on this I I don’t really have a great answer for you on on what happened there or why um I’m a I’m honestly I’m I mean Minnesota’s really really good um I’m a little stunned by it though if I’m being like I thought Denver you know game seven in Denver like I thought Denver’s winning right like that’s what they’re supposed to do Denver suppos to right be the world Champs and win like and you know what I’ll tell you I’ll take a side note on this to me here’s the Brilliance of the Rudy go bear trade okay I I think and I think this is going to be super interesting about Oklahoma City this going to be super interesting about Denver com going forward I think the single most UN this is me just taking the conversation somewhere where I actually think I can be useful because I have not useful to any other part of this conversation great um so I think the most untalked about thing in the NBA is the scars that teams get their runs so we all talk about it as though we all talk about the old days right when Detroit battled through and they finally overcame the Celtics and then the Bulls overcame Detroit and we all talk about it in this realm of like you have to go through the losses to get to the wins right that’s actually not true anymore at all the fact of the matter is what’s ending up happening to most teams now is they get scars and they don’t heal and they become festering pus filled wounds that rip the team apart so it happened to us it happened to Phoenix Boston’s on the edge of it right now that’s why their body language jumped out to me so much they have two really painful playoff losses as a group it’s why they traded Marcus Smart and they changed that group up just enough adding Chris a porzingis to maybe change the chemistry of that group I’m curious to see what happens to Memphis they were the young team with a bright future and then they’ve had all these problems Oklahoma City it’s all hunky dory they have a great future yeah so did we so did Phoenix so did Memphis so did a lot of other teams recently but you start to have losses together as a group and you don’t hold together and so I’m curious I’m Boston this is if you go look at Denver’s playoff run to a championship there were no warts there were no scars in that if you go back and look at it they went and lost like they lost in the second round like they were supposed to then they got to the Conference Finals in the bubble and then Jamal Murray got hurt and then the next time they were together as a unit they won an NBA Finals so this is their first scar as a group and it’ll be interesting to see how they handle it so back to where I started here Minnesota’s group of Carl Anthony towns and Anthony Edwards had begun to have some scars they’d lost a some bad games they lost a bunch of leads in the playoffs there was a friction between whether it was Aunt and Cat’s team and they brought in Mike Conley and brought in Rudy go and they changed the whole chemistry makeup of that team and frankly all of last year all the talk was how bad rud he was and no one talked about C cat and ant anymore and it it freed them of that burden and I think that’s one of the best parts of that Rudy gobear trade is that was a team was beginning to get scars and they altered the makeup of that team enough to that they’re where they are today um but I think that’s really the story in this league right now is these teams are not recovering from the scars like they did the Clippers clearly have way too many scars they’re not it’s over like that can’t come back around um so it’ll be interesting to see how these teams how these teams do with that said Do you believe the Timberwolves are going to win this thing are they going to win the finals is that your pick now with these four teams or you like somebody else uh you know it’s interesting I haven’t really thought about who my pick would be I my general take on Minnesota throughout this whole process is that their offense just wasn’t good enough to to win but it has been seemingly good enough here I think it’ll be it’s a very interesting series with two rolling bigs with Lively Ann Gafford against goar and Minnesota has a better ability to play five out and force live Lee and Gafford out of the middle but that takes Rudy off the floor and then they can’t then they can’t guard the rolling big so I think that’s going to be a pretty fascinating series uh boy who do I think’s gonna win Dallas Minnesota I you know it’s interesting I’ve just been enjoying it and I hadn’t really stopped to think of who I was gonna win this series um I think lukee and Kyrie are too much I’ll take dels okay uh that’s who uh you know it’s kind of interesting because that’s who uh JJ had also had last round I was like no I I just don’t think for some reason whatever it is whether or not it’s a team not being ready or whatever I don’t even know if that’s a storyline anymore either uh but yeah Luca and Kyrie not a bad combo it’s it’s crazy too because Kyrie is not even a storyline in the playoffs except for how good of a basketball player he is it’s pretty interesting how loose he’s been since he’s just kind of put his head down and started playing well he’s great so I mean he is the best you know he’s truly one of the best one-on-one players League he’s Mercurial um a little bit but he’s you know he’s he’s brought himself back in and been an incredible asset for them um I’m just trying to walk it through in my head I mean obviously they have Jade McDaniel who’s gonna guard Luca ant can go guard Kyrie they have a lot of and you know nille then gives them as a third wi Defender M you know I guess they’re gonna throw Derek Jo I mean they’re both pretty well made to have like Derek Derek Jones is gonna go guard ant with PJ Washington getting some time I I really think you need the at this point you’re going to need a third offensive option to make enough plays when they take away your first two I don’t know who that is that so is DJ Washington gonna have a better series than Nas Reed and Mike Conley can he can interesting yeah if he can replicate what he did last series possibly but uh I I I have my doubts yeah I mean my concern on Dallas so if I just think about these two teams Dallas is gonna get better looks than Minnesota in this series like Luca just breaks the defense Luca’s going to get in the paint Kyrie’s going to get in the paint but particular and he’s going to kick out to open Shooters and they’re going to get better looks ant’s really good and he’s great but he doesn’t get you the same looks they get it more out of spacing when they have cat and Naas Reed on the floor together and they’re five out and then they can penetrate and do some things and they’re really well-rounded like Minnesota is super interesting that if you look at their offensive landscape I think they run like the 10th I talked about this on locked on Jazz today so if I’m a little off forgive me I think they run like the 10th most picks and the they’re like the 11th most drives and they’re like the 14th most handoffs and they’re like the 16th most off ball screens like they they’re and they’re like the ninth most isolation like they just do a little bit of everything none of it particularly great but they do a lot of things which have helped them you know if they need to play off ball screen they can have Conley getting it to ant on an off ball screen if they need to play pick and roll they can have ant or Conley running off any of their three bigs and a pick and Ro if they need to just play isolation they have you know they can play they can do that with um ant if they need to play a little post up they can do that with nas Reed or Carl Anthony town so they have they have probably the most wide ranging offense but I just when I think about these two teams I think Luca is going to be able to get Dallas more open looks as good as Minnesota is defensively my only concern is the guys taking the open looks for Dallas you know PJ Washington’s probably a career 34% three-point SHO Josh Green not always a great shooter Derrik Jones is a bad shooter who made shots in the last series so my concern really on Dallas is who takes the shots but Dallas will get better looks than Minnesota in this series can’t wait to watch Ser it’s gonna be great it’s going to be fun and the West is wild that’s absolutely stacked with Talent when you see that now everything always comes back to the Jazz for us because that’s what we love to talk about the most with you and so when you see all this talent and you see how crazy these playoffs have even been too does it does it make you more excited for the idea that a team can be built and you can get it done and and and you can be that next fill in the blank whether it’s the Timberwolves or uh you know maybe if Dallas makes a run here and you could you does that give you more hope as a as a guy calling these Jazz games or does it do you look at it and go man that’s an even bigger Hill decline because of how deep the West is so can I say both yeah so if I’m being 100% honest watching the plays were really far away right like we’re just really like we’re 30s in the league defensively so let’s just be honest about it right like you watch the NBA defense right now we there wasn’t a possession All Season where we played defense at the intensity level that we’re watching in the playoffs so like that like let’s just be we just got a long way to go there what is really really encouraging are two different things that are clear the NBA has created parody we’ve had this will be our six different Champions six years as you open the conversation Alex if you actually go back had there not been that weird little Spike year I think we would have had nine champions in the last 10 years the MVP like I don’t think we’ll ever have a player on our roster that’s an MVP caliber player like I think that’s super hard for us to have right those are usually big Market players and things like that the MVP has made the Conference Finals like once in the last like eight years in the NBA Finals like something like that right like like the MVP if you go back and look the MVP this has been to the Conference Finals think once in maybe it’s the last five years like the MVP hasn’t been to the finals in like eight years number two number three that’s really encouraging is that Rudy goar is the only player in the top 15 highest fate players in the NBA that’s still playing right now well what that means to me is that depth is becoming more important than ever before so if you look at Milwaukee and Dallas and the way some of those or me Milwaukee and Denver the way some of those teams are built when they’re maxing out two or three players all of a sudden once they’re done maxing out two or three players they then have these bench of of you know borderline NBA players and the way I’ve talked about it a lot I think we’ve talked about it here I’ve talked about it a ton on my podcast is the idea of 240 minutes that’s that’s 48 times five do you have a roster that can fill out 240 minutes a night well Denver didn’t have 240 minutes and Milwaukee didn’t have 240 minutes and the teams that are are surprising people had New York had 240 minutes till they ran out of players due to injury so the the the 240 minute concept might be more important than it’s ever been before is the way the league is built right now well we can build a roster of 240 players or 240 minutes we probably can’t build a roster that has the MVP and we probably can’t build a roster that has the highest paid players in the league but we can do the other thing so the way the league is trending I think is very encouraging to us we are Indiana frankly like we’re the exact same Market as Indiana um and so you know what that tells us if we do this right we have a chance um but you know we got to do it right and and that starts us off season and part of that is the draft this is the first chance we’ve had to talk to you since the NBA Draft Lottery and once again the lottery sucks if you’re a jazz fan it never works out the Jazz way they’re going to pick 10 29 32 uh what do you make of that news and and can you see the Jazz keeping all three of those picks it feels like they they don’t want to have six young players on the roster next season so I think the um all right slipping to 10 sucks but it might not yeah here’s why so one is if draft is really not very good the worst thing you want to have and and when someone says the draft’s not very good like I’ve gone through the research and done years of just did about 15 20 years worth of draft research to figure out like what is a not very good draft like it like it’s not like it just means you don’t have like you have a few less rotation players you have one less All-Star like but you still have players right you still are gonna have average 14 of the 30 you know regular your average by the way is 17 of the 30 players become NBA rotation players and you’re probably gonna have 14 out of the 30 players in this draft so every so and and the highend talent’s not Victor webon Yama so therefore when you look at that what you want to make sure that you’re you don’t want to have one through four and pay them it’s a lot on the salary cap for a guy that’s getting you 22 minutes a night so dropping from8 to 10 may turn out to be fine we’re going to get an equal player and have to pay them less the other one I would say is unless like we really think like Reed Shepard who might go as early as three is that special which he’s pretty small so it’s hard to believe that if we have someone we really like and we think is that good I think we can use in this draft we could use some of our draft capital in 28 and 31 or even something in the future to go get to seven if we really needed to like if we really need to get to six we probably can do it you know my understanding of the way last year’s draft played out is we probably could have gotten I gotta be a little careful here because I got to think back on the draft I think from what I’ve heard kind of the vibe I had we probably could have gotten to five and down if we wanted to but like we do you want it yeah do you want it I think’s what’s five and down a Thompson was five like jice Walker was seven right Anthony black was six somebody was eight and then we took Taylor ninth right right yeah so I think you know I think we have the draft Capital we have the capital if we have somebody we really really believe in to go to pop up and get him it certainly it would be easier to do it from eight than it is to do it from 10 but on the other if we don’t have someone to really like then it’s nice to just pay for 10 not pay for eight or certainly not pay for four three or four if it’s not worth it locked on jazz is where you can find the daily download uh of David lock giving you his thoughts on the Utah Jazz and uh really get the education on on everything as well when it comes to all these things David lock voice you yes yes by the way I had a I had a good friend just text me and who thinks I’m full of crap yeah and don’t know what I’m talking about and he’s really smart so I’ll give him credit and he says that the MVP markets most recently have been Denver and Milwaukee and almost Oklahoma City so my comment that we’re not going to get an MVP uh is fool hearty okay well it was well you know what they have a point because look it’s not like uh jokic should have an MVP type season but technically he didn’t win it last year uh I me it’s an interesting concept that the MVP is not advancing in a league in which the general rule used to be yeah that’s the guy you would look at a playoff series and ask who the best player in the series was and they would always win and now it’s like who has the best three or four players you know and maybe even that that full roster so all right David lock Utah Jazz of course is where you can hear him make those calls and then of course like we said locked on Jazz every day lock we appreciate it man we’ll chat with you again thank you guys talk to you soon there you go David lock I’d like to assume it was Danny a who text him this said you or Ryan Smith I’m sure they’re smart anytime somebody tells David lock they’re full of crap you got to have you got to be pretty uh you got to be preh hyped unless may maybe it’s just his wife it’s uh maybe that’d be uh for sure for me it’ be the first time my wife had heard me on the radio so that so that that eliminates that maybe uh the market thing is overplayed at this point I think it’s starting to play out that way that you know does everyone want to live in Miami probably you know but outside of that like they want to win man what’s the difference between playing in Utah and Chicago right and if you play in Utah for eight seasons you win a title you go you go play where you’re going to make the most money and have the best chance to win right you got because the world it’s a small world now with with online and everything else going on that that none of that stuff matters guys need to I mean look what would Shay Gill guildas Alexander leave that situation with the Thunder to go play in Atlantic because he wants warmer weather that’s what you do you go you put the billboard up doesn’t make sense right you put the billboard up for those uh NBA players to come to town you go come on it’s only eight years you’re going to be 85 one day you’re not going to care give give Utah a title all right we’ll take the break we’ll come back more to go we’ve got our NFL Blitz coming up and much more so stay right here 975 the KSL Sports Zone
JJ & Alex are joined by the voice of the Utah Jazz David Locke to discuss the NBA playoffs with the conference finals underway and who might be making the NBA Finals. Pluss, what can the Jazz find at No. 10 in the NBA Draft?
