Bucks Fire Griffin & Colin Sexton One on One

Chris Mannix reacts to the sudden firing of Bucks coach Adrian Griffin despite holding a 30-13 record before being joined by Rohan Nadkarni to break dowm Tristan Thompson being suspended for PED's, the heat trading for Terry Rozier, some pre all start voting thoughts, and a lazy performance by Luka Dončić and the Mavs in a loss to Boston. Lastly, Chris talks to Collin Sexton about his resurgent season with the Utah Jazz on the heels of winning 15 of 20

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is the crossover sports illustrateds NBA show, breaking down with
the latest news, bloomers, and everything.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Here's your host, Chris.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
All Right, wildly in the wild We So, Rohan and
I recorded our podcast on early Tuesday afternoon, East Coast time,
and just after we finished recording, it was announced that
the Milwaukee Bucks had fired Adrian Griffin as its head coach.

(00:41):
So I'm just going to weigh in on that before
we get to the meat of the podcast, which includes
an interview with Colin Sexton of Utah Jazz. So you
want to stick around for the entirety of this week's pod.
But the news that Milwaukee had fired Adrian Griffin is
both surprising and unsurprised at the exact same time. It's

(01:02):
surprising because well, just look at the standings. Milwaukee is
thirty and thirteen. They're the number two team in the
Eastern Conference. They're coming off two straight wins then one
what five of the last six. Very recently they had
a beatdown of the Boston Celtics. That was a game
they won at home. So you look at a team

(01:25):
with that kind of record and you wonder why they
would fire their head coach. Why does that make sense.
Why would they put themselves through this type of turmoil
halfway through this NBA season. But if you take a
deeper look at it and you ask people involved with
the organization, people that are around the organization, you start

(01:49):
to get a better understanding of why. For starters, I'm
of the belief and I've been told that key veterans
on that team, including Janis at Tendacumpo, had become disillusioned

(02:09):
is a word I would use. Had lost faith is
a phrase I would use with Adrian Griffin and his
ability to coach this team at the highest level. Now,
some of that shouldn't be surprising. You've seen some public
comments made by several players, you know, within the organization,
and look, Janis himself has been vocal about this team

(02:32):
to needing to improve dramatically after some tough losses, particularly
in the defensive end, and we're going to get to that.
But from what I understand, several veterans had lost some
confidence there. And look, it was always going to be
a work in progress. With Adrian Griffin, who it should

(02:54):
be noted, is a really really smart basketball guy. NBA
veteran law long time assistant earned this opportunity and then some.
But there was always going to be a learning curve
with a coach like that, especially when you're taking over
a championship team, and that learning curve has been wavy,

(03:16):
to say the least, really ever since Adrian Griffin took over,
and it began in the preseason when Terry Stotts abruptly
quit over issues working alongside Adrian Griffin. There were shifts
defensively with the way this team played. Adrian Griffin came
to the Bucks with a defensive philosophy that more closely

(03:40):
mirrored what we saw Nick Nurse do. Adrian Griffin, of course,
a former assistant to Nick Nurse, what they saw him
do in Toronto, the Bucks didn't really have that kind
of personnel and didn't really want to play that kind
of defense, so there were shifts that way during the season,
and defensively overall, this team has been bad. That's the

(04:03):
only word you can use to describe a team that
is bottom third in the NBA in defensive efficiency. Now,
in fairness, they were always going to be a lesser
defensive team this year than they were the last few years.
When you make a trade like the Bucks did, where

(04:25):
they shipped out Drew Holliday and brought in Damian Lillard.
You are trading defense for offense. Drew Holliday is one
of the best defensive players in the league, versatile guards
multiple positions, gets stops on the perimeter. Damian Lillard is
one of the best offensive guards in the league, makes
big shots, takes a lot of pressure off of Giannis,

(04:47):
but he is not anywhere close to the defensive player
that Drew Holliday is. So they're always going to take
a step back. But I think in the minds of
the Bucks front office, they took too big a step back,
and even though they had a big win over Boston,
even though they've got a good record, I think that

(05:08):
front office looked at this team and, you know, perhaps
in a micro level, looked at how they were defending
and thought, when we get to the postseason, we can't
beat them. You know, the Celtics when they played that
game against the Bucks, they were coming off a really
tough game against Minnesota at home just the night before,
So there were some reasons for that. Not that it

(05:29):
takes anything away from Milwaukee's win, but it was a
different version than of the Celtics that I think the
Bucks are expecting to get in the playoffs. Think they
looked at that and said, we're not on that level,
and the only thing that can get us closer to
that level is making a coaching change. I think they
believed that coaching was among the reasons that they had

(05:51):
not played at the same level as a Boston or
any of the top contending teams in the Western Conference.
Because remember, this is a I mean, I don't want
to call it championship er bus season because right now
you've got Giannis and you've got a little under contract
from multiple years. But the window was a tight one
in Milwaukee. You know, you've got to win a title
this year, next year, maybe the year after that to

(06:12):
maximize the talent they have on that roster. So I
think this was just to move the front office felt
had to be made to put themselves in a position
to win a championship and look, for John Horst, it
had to have been brutal to make a decision like this.
You know, John Horst hand picked Adrian Griffin. There were
some other candidates. Nick Nurse was a candidate, Kenny Atkinson

(06:36):
was a candidate. This was John horse guy, like he
picked him and he believed in him and really from
jump it has not worked out in the way the
Bucks had hoped it was going to work out. Now,
Joe Printy, as we record, this is the interim coach.
Joe Printy is not going to be the head coach
for the rest of the season. Doc Rivers is the
name that everyone is talking about, at least on Tuesday afternoon,

(07:01):
And yeah, I think there's a very good chance Doc
Rivers becomes the next head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Look,
Doc has talked about, you know, enjoying his time on TV.
But Doc is a coach. I mean, look at his history.
He went from Boston to the Clippers to the Sixers
without missing a beat. This guy is a coaching lifer
and I just don't see him passing on an opportunity

(07:23):
to coach Jannis Lillard and Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
The question I have now, though, is can this team
get it together in time to succeed at the highest
level in the playoffs? Like, can they adapt to a
Doc Rivers team, a Doc Rivers system to function on

(07:48):
the Boston level or the Philadelphia level, or if you
even get even further that, the Denver, the Clippers, the
upper tier Western Conference team level. That's a lot to ask.
I mean, Doc Rivers is going to come there with
his own system, offensive and defensive, and it's going to
be really difficult for him to change things effectively on

(08:08):
the fly. We all know practice time is limited in
the NBA. Yeah, you get the All Star break to
kind of work some things out, and I'm sure that
will be useful, but it's difficult to make these kind
of changes on the fly. I mean, I've seen some
references to two thousand and what was at sixteen when
tylu took over for David Blatt, But Tyleru had been
in that Cleveland pipeline for some time. There's familiarity with

(08:34):
Tyleru in Cleveland, So I don't think those are parallel
sort of things, parallel situations to compare. So I think
Doc coming in and looked. I think Doc's an excellent coach.
I just think it's going to be really difficult for
them to adjust his coaching style in time to come

(09:00):
Pete with Boston and with Philadelphia and some of the
upper tier teams in their own conference. I also don't
know the Doc River solves their defensive problems, like they're
not you know, Damian Lillard is, you know, an average defender.
Malik Beasley is maybe a little bit above average defender.
Chris Middleton, I don't know what he is now coming
off that knee injuries. Probably average at best in the

(09:22):
defensive side. So if you're not getting stops on the perimeter,
you can't get stops on the perimeter and at least
the same way you have in years past. I don't
know how you're going to succeed. I really don't. So,
you know, I get it. I get where Milwaukee was
coming from. I'm bitterly disappointed for Adrian Griffin, as I'm
sure a lot of people in the NBA are, because
he's a really good guy and he earned a head

(09:44):
coaching opportunity. But I get it. I get what they're
trying to accomplish here. I just don't know if they're
going to achieve that, at least not in this season.
So we'll see what happens. John Horst scheduled to speak
to the media on w afternoon. I'm sure he'll offer
some answers to the questions that we were asking. We'll

(10:05):
see how quickly negotiations wrap up with the next head
coach whether it's Doc Rivers or somebody else who've seen
Kenny Atkins's name refloated back out there, but I think
it's gotta be Doc Rivers. So we'll see how this
all kind of comes together. But it's it's definitely a
challenge that Milwaukee's gonna have to overcome as they head

(10:26):
into an important second half of the season and really
important playoffs for a team that is championship driven this year,
no doubt about that. So that's my take on the Bucks.
Now let me jump into my conversation with my colleague
Rohan not Kearney. This is the Crossover NBA Podcast. I'm
Chris mannis joined as always by my colleague Rohan not Kearney.

(10:50):
And Rohan we have a guest on the show this week.
Big week for the Crossover pod pod. We've got a
guest joining, Colin Second, the young Bull Utah Jazz guard.
He's going to join the program for a few minutes.
I wrote about Second, I know man. I wrote about

(11:11):
Sexton this week over at si dot com. He's having
a really impressive season. Entered the starting lineup in early
to mid December, averaging better than twenty points per game,
shooting better than forty percent from three as a starter.
And you know, one of the things we got into
is that he's really starting to remove or shed the

(11:35):
label that he's an empty calories kind of guy, you know,
because that was always the perception of Colin Sexton that yeah,
great numbers, but what do his teams do? It was
Cleveland last year, a little bit in Utah. Well, the
Jazz are winning. They won fifty in the last twenty
one as we record this pod, and Colin Sexton is
a big reason why. So Colin's going to join the
show talk about his second full year in Utah and

(11:59):
kind of what this resurgence has meant to him. Before
we get to that, there's a lot of news in
the NBA I want to talk about. And the first
subject I never in a million years thought we would
be discussing is a ped related suspension for Cavaliers forward

(12:20):
Tristan Thompson. Now Tristan Thompson of course been around for
a long time. He has been you know, won championships,
run championship with Lebron James in Cleveland. He was suspended
for twenty five games by the NBA for testing positive
for let's see I'm going to try to get these
banned substances right ibute to Morin and s A R

(12:44):
M LGD dash for zero three three now we're recording,
is very early in the process. But those do not
sound like good drugs. And as I searched sore of
the twitter, I just say they don't sound like good drugs.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
As I'm serve, I would love to get your list
of good drugs one day.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
It's not that long. To be honest with you, I
just want to quote a tweet from Michael Grange, who's
a reporter up for Sportsnet in Canada, and he says,
per Google, which is always a great resource, Tristan got
nicked for HGH and steroid like substances taken in pill
form and banned by WADA. And he hads, if you
think he thought he thought up this regiment all on

(13:31):
his own, and he's the only pro athlete or action
movie star following it, I have a bridge to sell you.
So count Michael Grange among those skeptical that this was
taken accidentally or ingested accidentally. And it does look the
NBA has not traditionally been infected by peds, at least

(13:52):
not in the same way that other sports have, whether
it's football, baseball, boxing, The NBA has generally steered clear
of of that. So I think it is notable that
a player like Thompson, who's basically in the last year
of his career gets nicked for for this.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Do you know Tristan Thompson, by the way, is like
only thirty two or something like that, Like you'd think
he's like forty one the way his career is gone.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
High school, he came out one year in college Texas.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
But has but it's been is relatively very young. Uh,
it's a shocking suspension. I mean, just Tristan Thompson is
like the content gift that keeps on giving for a
variety of reasons on and off the basketball court. Uh
you listen, it hasn't really mattered because shout out to
the Calves who are like red hot beating up on

(14:45):
teams despite losing Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. People a
lot of thought the people, a lot of people out
their season would sink help that they've played some bad
teams that are on a heater right now. So this
doesn't really matter, but it remains kind of incredible that
the Calves bought out Kevin Love last year and he's
been like one of the best backup centers in the league.

(15:07):
He couldn't crack their rotation last year, and now all
of a sudden, they were giving Tristan Thompson minutes. It's
like a baffling series of events for them that they
somehow went from Love to Thompson and now this. You know,
I don't expect it to have a huge impact on
the Cavs. The NBA ped thing is interesting. I mean,
there are some people who say that, you know, this

(15:27):
is just like speculation or talk amongst people here sometimes
that maybe the testing isn't as you know, rigid rigorous. Yeah,
that maybe they're not necessarily trying to catch people, which,
if that is indeed the case, just makes it even
kind of funnier that Dumpson is getting popped for this.

(15:50):
But yeah, man, it's uh. I don't wish to make
light of it, but it is kind of funny. I'm
being honest.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I mean, look again, as you said, it's the
NBA's drug testing has been mocked in some corners as
being insufficient, so it is a surprise when you see
athletes that are getting caught up in this in the
way Tristan Thompson has, So I mean, I look again,

(16:22):
we're recording this on Tuesday afternoon. The story just broke
hours earlier, so we don't know too much information beyond
what the NBA has already put out. But these do
sound like serious substances. They do sound like performance enhancing drugs,
and at the very least, Tristan Thompson has got some
splaining to do. He's going to be getting back into

(16:43):
the NBA at a point in time, So we'll probably
talk more about this next week as the story device.
We also had a trade on Tuesday before we recorded
the podcast, and I know this is near and dear
to your heart, Rolan, because you're like required to tweet
like five times anytime a member of the Miami Heat
is traded, and the Heat did move Kyle Lowry, trading
him and a first round draft pick to the Charlotte

(17:04):
Hornets for Terry Rozier. I have been banging the drum
for months, if not years, for somebody to take Terry
Rogier out of the purgatory that is Charlotte, because Terry
Rogier is a really good player. Not only that he
is a really good playoff player. You know, Terry Rogier.
During that twenty eighteen Celtics run, I had a bird's

(17:25):
eye view of Terry Rogier and he was awesome, filling
in filled in Carrie. He wasn't quite as good the
next year, but that entire season was snake bitten in Boston.
But what I saw on the twenty eighteen playoffs when
Terry was a young guy, told me that this guy,
and look, I've gotten to know him a little bit
over the years. He's got some moxie to him. He's

(17:45):
fearless in big moments. Hasn't had any big moments in
Charlotte because you know, by you know, December of most
years in Charlotte, they're basically playing for the lottery. But
I think this is a great deal for Miami. I
think they get an upgrade at the point guard position.
A guy that can play moultiple guard spots, guard multiple
guard spots. I mean he can play anywhere one through three,
you know, in a team system, can handle the ball,

(18:09):
can play, make a little bit, make threes. This is
an upgrade for Miami, no question about it. And I
think I love this deal a lot of the heat.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, so I'm going to grade this deal for SI.
I'm gonna give away my grades right here, right now.
First of all, I think it's an A for Charlotte.
These are the kinds of moves they need to be
making right now. They're gonna be a cap space team,
take bad contracts, expiring deals, acquire first round picks. I
believe it's lottery protected in twenty twenty seven and unprotected
in twenty eight. According to woj So, solid deal for Charlotte,

(18:39):
good work for the Heat. I have it as a B.
And the only reason I don't love it is they've
been a little bit pick strapped for these last few years.
You know it hurt them trying to pursue Damian Lillard
in the summer and you know, not to play Galaxy
Brain three steps ahead. They've been a team linked to
Donovan Mitchell does give it up at first now, maybe

(19:01):
hurt you in that pursuit. And secondly, I like Rosier
a lot. I'm a little dubious about his fit with
Tyler Hero. The Heat kind of seem insistent on starting
Tyler Hero and closing games with him in a way
that I don't think they need to be as married
to and that's not because Tyler's been bad. I think
that has more to do with his fit next to
Jimmy and Bam and kind of how their offense works

(19:23):
with the three of them on the floor. As for Rosier,
you hit the nail on the head. I mean, he's
been fantastic this season. I think he's at twenty four
points a game, shooting the lights out from three. You know,
people have put his stats side by side with Damian
Lillard this year. I think he's scoring a little bit
more efficiently than Dame this year, which is hilarious. I'm
not equating them as players, he is.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Look, just just to emphasize that he's at about forty
six percent from the field, which is not you know, awesome,
but that's I think a career high for terrorist. Yeah,
shooting career high from the floor. He's thirty six percent
from three point range, which is a little bit below
some of his career high. He's been forty percent you
know in the past. Uh So that's not a ridiculous number.

(20:03):
But he Look, he's consistent. He is a consistent, solid
scoring guy, will give you good numbers. And I think, look,
one of the things that Terry they loved in Boston
about Terry Rozier was his work ethics. So when you
talk about guys fitting into the Heat culture, I think
Terry Rozier is one of those guys. I think Jimmy
Butler is gonna love him. I think bam Adebayo is
going to love him. Look, they love Kyle Lowry too,

(20:24):
and that's not to dismiss what Kyle's done for that team,
but Terry is a younger, bigger version I think of Kyle,
and I think they're gonna be able to do more
things with Terry in that backcourt than they could with
Kyle at this point.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Without a doubt. I mean, he's such an upgrade over
Kyle Lowry at this point, who just age too quickly.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
With the Heat.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I mean, he was a big reason for their deep
playoff runs the last two years.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
But I mean he's gonna be took this long to
age frankly right, like he's right what thirty seven years old,
almost thirty eight. I mean, I actually hanging on and
playing at this level this.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Long for sure, But like over the last month, he's
really not given the Heat much offensively. I think Rosier
gives them two things that they desperately need one is
someone who can be a natural pick and roll partner
for Bam out of Bayo. I think right now the
best option they probably have is Duncan Robinson, who's been great,
but you need someone who can throw Bam lobs. And

(21:18):
that comes because Terry Rozier can get into the paint.
The Heat or the team worse in the league at
shooting within the restricted area. Getting to the restricted area,
it's not something they do well. They desperately need someone
who can penetrate the paint. I think Terry will do
that for them. That makes BAM's life a lot easier.
So I think that's gonna be just a great pickup
from them. And again, I mean if they close games

(21:39):
with something like Rosier, Bam, Jimmy, then you have Hawkez, Caleb, Martin, Heywood, Heismith,
Hero his options to close around those three guys, that's
a really solid closing lineup. And for a while now,
the Heat, they just haven't made a move on the margins.
They keep trying to wait for a star. And I've
said this time and time again, they needed their version
of the Derek White trade. Derek's White wasn't an all

(22:01):
star consideration. When the Celtics traded for him, people thought
that they give up too much. Look at the ways
he's affected that team.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
Now.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
I don't think Terry Roziers as good as Derek White,
let me be clear, but the Heat desperately needed this
type of infusion. I think Rozi's gonna help them a lot. Again,
He's not necessarily the all star home run swing people
want from Miami, but they had to do something to
bring themselves closer to Boston, Philly and Milwaukee, and I
think this does that.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Miami is a team that is all about the playoffs, right,
regardless of where they finish in the regular season. They
are a team built of the playoffs because they have
Jimmy Butler, great playoff performer, bam Adebayo really good playoff performer.
They've got guys that have had success in years past.
And I go back to that twenty seventeen eighteen postseason

(22:47):
that Rogier had in Boston. Let'll read you some of
the numbers. Nineteen games he played in those playoffs averaged
thirty seven minutes per game. He shot thirty five percent
from three to forty percent from the floor, averaged sixteen
and a half points per game, five point seven assists,
came up with one point three steals as well. He
was a big time plarity. Did that on a team
with other offensive options, guys like Tatum and Brown who

(23:10):
were younger, more raw, but still really good offensive players.
So al Horford in that group as well. So this
is to me, is just another guy that is going
to be playing his best when the lights are the bright.
And I promise you darro ziear has been thirsty for
this kind of opportunity to be on a team competing

(23:30):
for something. Being on Charlotte while he was well compensated
in recent years, it had to have sucked the life
out of him, you know, being in these situations over
and over again. I think he's gonna be revitalized. Yeah,
I don't even revind he's playing well vitalized in Miami,
and I think that's that's just a big pickup for them.
I really like it.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
One thing I just want to add real quick. A
surprising part about this trade is the Heat willing to
take on Rosier's contract because there's a lot of talk about, well,
they only trade Lowry for an expiring they're so close
the second apron. How are they going to re sign
guys this summer. I think it's a positive sign for
an ownership group that since the Big Three frankly has

(24:08):
made all kinds of maneuvers to duct attacks when possible,
et cetera. You know, letting guys that gave Vincent and
nextrewsco this summer to stay out of the second Apron.
This move saves them money in the short term, that
reduces their tax bill. But I'm I'm impressed and applaud
them willing to take on some longer term salary in
this deal, and maybe that bodes well for how how

(24:30):
willing they are to.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, I'm even overly impressed by that because Terry's got
a movable contract. Yeah, drew twenty five million dollars per
year of the next couple of years. And if Miami
is looking to take a big swing, some team out
there is going to be cool with that contract. You
got a guy that can average twenty he's only making
twenty five million. I know, we're in the age where
it's like only twenty five million, is right?

Speaker 2 (24:52):
I mean, wors case, you move them for another, you
move them for another first to words case and use
that you can do a lot of deal.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, I have been, like I said, to bring it
full circle. I have been wondering for well over a
year now when someone was going to go get Terry Rozier.
Miami's the team to do it, and I think they're
going to benefit greatly from it. All Right, The lead
topic I wanted to get into today was All Star
voting because on Thursday, the NBA is going to reveal
the All Star starters. I was one of the media

(25:20):
members Rohan that had kind of one of the official
ballots that account for twenty five percent of the voting.
The players get twenty five percent and the fans get
twenty five percent as well. So what kind of a
rundown are respective All Star ballots? And we don't have
to get too deep into the obvious ones, because there
are some obvious ones. Let's look at the Eastern Conference.

(25:41):
The obvious ones to me, Joel Embiid starter, Yeah, clearly,
Jannis tend to coompo starter, Eastern Conference, clearly, Jason Tatum
started out Eastern Conference. Clear So the three front court
guys in the Eastern Conference are obvious starters. They're high
vote getters. They're going to want in that starting lineup.

(26:02):
In the backcourt, Tyrese Haliberd started obviously having a fantastic year.
The pacers are good, he is proven, he is a
franchise player. The guard spot next to him was really,
really difficult. And I weigh this all the way up
until like nine to thirty Eastern on Saturday night, when

(26:25):
I got that text message from Mark Brossard of the
NBA saying, hey, man, your ballots doing eleven fifty nine.
Just a reminder that's the one I couldn't I just
couldn't confidently vote for. I just had so many mixed feelings,
and I went back and forth on this ballot because
you had I think three or four really qualified guys.

(26:47):
You had Damian Lillard in Milwaukee. You had Donovan Mitchell
in Cleveland. You had Jalen Brunson in New York. You
had Tyrese Maxi in Philadelphia. We can talk about some
other guys. The aforementioned Derek White deserves some consideration as well,
But you add four guys that you could make strong

(27:07):
arguments that deserved that starting spot. So the guy I
gave it to, though, was Jalen Brunson. Yes, because Jalen
Brunson to me has been not only awesome all year long,
but he has been awesome over the last ten to
fifteen games when the Knicks have really needed him the most,

(27:29):
as it has been some transition in New York with
new players, new people coming in. You look at the
last few games. Last Saturday against Toronto, he scores thirty
eight points. A game before that against Washington forty one points.
Before that, Houston thirty points, Dallas thirty points. A couple
games before that thirty three, twenty nine, thirty one. He
is putting up some outstanding numbers. He is contributing to

(27:51):
winning in every possible way. His overall numbers excellent as well,
twenty six and a half points per game, six and
a half per game, shooting forty seven and a half
for three, forty two point seven from three point range. So,
after much consideration, Jalen Brunson got my vote for the
second guard spot. What do you think about that?

Speaker 1 (28:12):
So?

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I think that's a great pick, and I think I
had the NBA given me an official ballot, I probably
would have done the same thing. Let me just make
the case for Donovan Mitchell though, because as I mentioned,
the good Kase Calves a great case. I mean the Calves.
From the start of the season, the biggest storyline about
them has been Donovan Mitchell gonna re sign. Does Donovan
Mitchell actually want to team up with Jalen Brunson in

(28:35):
New York? You know what's going on there? And Donald
Mitchell continues to produce despite all these trade rooms about him.
Something I really respect is, I mean, up until his
last year in Utah, frankly, and remember everyone talking about
will Utah blow it up? I feel like he's never
let that effect his play. And same thing this year
with the Calves, after those injuries to Mobiley and Garland,

(28:56):
and it's like this, could this team go in the tank?
I mean they're playing Dan Wade, big minutes, Coro Max Strus.
I mean, these are solid role players, but not the
team they expect it to have. Around him, He's got
a higher scoring average than Jalen Brunson anything. Part of
that is the way the Cavs playoffense a little bit faster,
et cetera. But I think he's done an incredible job
and to stay this focus to keep the team competitive.

(29:17):
I think he deserves a lot of credit for it.
But I don't even know how to describe it in
like a statistical sense, But there's just a certain like
swagger that Jalen Brunson has brought back to the Knicks
that's so exciting and fun to watch that I do
believe he deserves to be rewarded with that starting spot.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Probably the only separator that I found with Mitchell and
Brunt his game's played right. Brunts has played forty one games,
Mitchell's played thirty two. Yeah, it's not a huge difference,
but it's enough of a difference to lean one way
on the All Star ballot. So that was what put
Mitchell Brunton over the top over Mitchell, and Mitchell was
my second choice for that due respect to Lillard, who's

(29:57):
had a good but not the Dame type year. Right,
We're used to seeing same thing with Tyre's Maxie. Really
good player. Both those guys should be All Stars when
they released the reserves. But to me, it was between Brunson.
It was between Mitchell and Brunson games played. Really the
Tarry's been on over the last couple of weeks. Yeah,
he picked the right time to get really hot and

(30:18):
play really good basketball.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I hate picking on this person because I think she
was making a completely fair point that you know, Internet
trolls got way too excited about and we know why.
But Becky Hammond, you know, ever since she made this,
it feels like ever since then, Jail been like watch
this like the usher me. He's like, he's just been
on such.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
A ham by the way, maybe maybe not built for
TV if you're gonna overreact to, you know, people getting
angry about a take like she's not necessarily wrong, like
I'm at all Yeah, no, I'm not convinced the Knicks
can win a championship. If Jalen brunce' is your number
one guy, that's a reasonable argument to make. And I
think Becky metagun spooked a little bit by Kendrick Perkins
reacting the way on the set, and then you know,

(31:00):
you're not used to that kind of backlash if you
bet sham and you've gotten a lot of positivity in
your time. An NBA assistant, a w NBA coach, Yeah,
I think.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
She's Her problem is she's too rational for the Internet,
whereas like someone like Perkins or skip Baylists is like
they know that the game yeah exactly. She's like, no, no, no,
I'm I'm a rational person, and don't try to explain
yourself to these people.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
They want they want slop. You know, don't don't try
to rationalize yourself to these psychos.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
You know, we're gonna find out on Thursday how what
the starting lineups will look like. And I'm gonna take
this opportunity to uh clobber Knicks fans a little bit,
especially my good friend Jerry Ferrara uh from Entourage, Power,
great actor, great guy, huge Knicks fan. But we have
been having this lengthy social media and what's spilled over

(31:57):
to text message battle about Knicks fans not voting enough
for Jalen Brunson. Because I think Jalen Brunson is going
to get a lot of the media vote for All
Star Starter. I saw my good buddy Tim Bontemps on
his podcast said he voted for brunts, and I think
there's a lot of people they're gonna wind up voting

(32:19):
for brunts. And I also think Brunce has got a
lot of respect amongst his peers and get a lot
of those players votes. The votes he has not been
getting are from the fans. At last count. In the
NBA's last released vote count, Jalen Brunson was well behind
you know, some of the top guys in the voting,

(32:40):
including Trey Young, who's been you know, good, but he's
on a really crappy team. Brunson, I think, was in
sixth place at the last reveal, behind Tyrese, Maxey and
Lillard and the other guards in that mix. Now, the
argument that you know, Jerry and others have made to
me is that, oh, it's a popularity contest, it's global,
it's da YadA YadA, nonsense. It is a popularity concept contest.

(33:04):
But you are the New York Knicks, all right. You
are one of the biggest and most rabbit fan bases
in the NBA. You should not your guy, your number
one option, should not be losing the fan vote to
Tyrese Maxi. I'm sorry, they should not. He should not

(33:25):
be losing the fan vote vote. This bad to Trey Young.
I get it, Trey Young. The kids love Trey Young.
Don't want to shoot like that. But you are the
New York Knicks. You are in a city of what
like eight nine million people, whatever the number is today,
half of them at least are New York Knicks fans.
Galvanize your people, Jerry Ferrara, galvanize your troops and get

(33:48):
them to vote. Now. It's too late now. But if
the All Star ballot Rohan comes out on Thursday and
Jalen Brunson is not a starter, I've got a sneaky
feeling it's going to be strictly because the fans did
not get behind him, and that's gonna be the fault
of New York Knicks fan. You should have gotten behind
your guy. Don't tell me that there's not enough of

(34:09):
you that could have voted for Jalen Brunson to start
the All Star Game. We're not talking about ten million
votes here, Like Jalen Brunson had like five hundred thousand
plus votes. I think Trey Young had one point six
million or something plus vote. Like it's the difference of
like a million votes. You can get your people together,
you can vote, you can push him into the All

(34:30):
Star Game. In like the idea that it doesn't matter,
trust me, I think it matters to Jalen Brunson. I
think Jalen Brunson wants to be the All Star starter
for the Eastern Conference, and if he's not, I'm looking
forward to seeing the breakdown to see if it is
strictly because he didn't get enough fan votes.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
First of all, I love you going like Jimmy Johnson
NFL halftime style, straight to camera calling out Jerry Ferrara.
I first, I could not agree the Knicks one like
one regular season opening night game against the Celtics last year,
and for the next six months, like we had to
hear bing bong like every time anything happened in New York.
It's like their ability to go viral and come up

(35:10):
with campaigns. It's like, see New York for ten years.
They're crazy rabbit and I love that about them. Yeah,
but none of them seem to be voting. None of
them seem to care about the All Star ballot.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
I take it back. Let me I got the last
voting number. Let's look at the previous one. Jalen Brunson
sixth place. He trailed Tyres Maxie, Donovan, Mitchell, Damian Lillard
and Trey Young. I know it is a huge fan
base for Tyrese Maxey. They're supporting him, like the social
media viral campaign to get Tyre's Maxey in the All
Star Game. He was less than seven hundred thousand votes
behind Trey Young for that number. Two spot Tyre's Halliburton

(35:45):
far and away the leader, deservedly so, having a phenomenal year,
but Nick Jalen Brunson being seven hundred thousand votes behind
Trey Young and six hundred thousand votes behind behind Damian
Lillard and three hundred thous and votes byd Donovan Mitchell.
That's on you, Knicks fans. Where are you like they
have like these Knights in the NBA where three votes

(36:07):
count for one, you can't put together a campaign to
get this guy at the top of the ballot. Don't
tell me that Knicks fans are Their reach is far
and wide. They should have been voting for Jalen Brunson
for all Star.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Could not agree more in an election year. Nonetheless, be better,
Knicks fans, be better.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
All right. So finally I want to talk about the
Dallas Mavericks because I watched the Mavericks Celtics game last night,
which had to have been a disappointing loss for Dallas.
They were at home, they had not played since this
past Wednesday. The Celtics were coming off of back to back,
they were playing the third game in four nights. They're

(36:47):
playing without Christaps Porzingis.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
So this was a.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Game that was ripe for Dallas to win. Gettable game
for the Dallas Mavericks. They go out and largely late
in they made a run in the fourth quarter. Luka
Doncic made some shots, but you know they were getting
beaten pillar to post for most of that game. I
just watched the Mavericks play, and you know, when you

(37:12):
have a star the caliber of Luca and you have
a second star the caliber of Kyrie, you know your
focus is championship, right Like you want to be in
contention to win the whole thing, not just be a
playoff team, but to be a team that can win everything.
I don't see that with Dallas, And I point the
finger in part at Luka Dancic, who was so bad

(37:36):
defensively in that game, like so bad, liked bad. Was
actually the best he was in that game because at
times he was indifferent. You know, he was doing that
whole thing where a guy goes by when he reaches
around trying to get a steal that way, which is
the laziest possible defense. And I'm watching this team play
and as ridiculously fun offensively as they can be, with

(37:57):
Luca and Kyrie doing Luca and Kyrie things. If their
superstar can't defend at even an average level, what can
that team be? I you know, and I know that
they've been a little bit better defensively this year than
they've been in years past. Enter that game eighteenth in
defense efficiency. And I know that Luca's been a little

(38:18):
bit better, you know, defensively this year I think overall
then he's been in years past. But that was a
marquee moment right against the team that the caliber of
which you're gonna have to beat to make a deep
playoff run. And look, I don't care what the final
stat line said. You know, Luca had a triple double.
You had what eighteen rebounds in that game or eighteen says,

(38:38):
I forget what it was. But he had a monster
statistical game. He was out played in that game by
Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown played better than Luca in that game.
And Jalen Brown from the opening tip was taking the
game or taking the play to Luka Doncics. He was
going at him drinsically. Oh dropped it, which, by the way,
the MAVs ran on their jumbo tron, which is for

(38:59):
reasons as a replay reasons unbenounced to me. They usually
don't do that when it's a bad play for the
home team. I just found myself thinking, like, can this
team win anything when your superstar is like an ambivalent defender?
Am I overreacting to that? I know, Look, it's one game,
but like this MAVs team, they're not a championship contender

(39:21):
at best. They're a second round team, and that's at best.
As marvelous as Luca is offensively, his defensive deficiencies I
think are always gonna make the teams he play on
mavericks or otherwise vulnerable. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (39:35):
No, I mean, I think this is This was definitely
a measuring stick game for them, right. You wanted to
see them come out and compete against a team the
Celtics caliber. And you know, I hear you on the
Luca concerns, and I think part of them is, like listen,
He's also can be so destructive in the playoffs that
if we just put enough defenders around him, maybe we

(39:56):
have a chance. I mean, obviously, the ear they made
the conference finals, they had better defense. I mean, I
was there that Game seven against the Suns, and I've
never seen a player like the second he hit his
second step back three. Everyone in the arenak you it
was over like immediately. To me, the bigger issue they
have is, you know, Maxi Kleieber's finally back from injury.

(40:18):
He's someone that they really need, Like they need the
version of him that they had when they made the
Conference RS because he's a switchable defender, he can space
the floor was really important for them. You know, something
that's really hurt them. It's like Drew Powell didn't play
in that game, or Dwight Powell didn't play in that
game against Shout out to Drew Powell, by the way,
first ever guest on Crossover TV. Dwight Powell didn't play

(40:39):
that game against the Celtics. You know, they're putting so
much on Derek Lively's late Grant Williams, who I thought
was a home run signing for them, Chris, someone who
could guard multiple positions, hit the three. I mean, he's
clearly kind of falling out of favor. He plays only
eighteen minutes against his former team, not in the story.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
What could they do?

Speaker 3 (40:59):
You know, when he's not making shots. This year, he's
been around thirty five percent from three, about low forties
from the field. He has not been the defensive stopper,
versatile defensive guy that they hoped he was going to be.
He has not lived up anywhere close to the expectation.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I mean, you're you're hearing rumors that they might be
looking to move off of them, even though they just
signed him.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
And it's I mean, good lucks, good good luck with
that truly.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I mean you think about it, like Derek Jones Junior,
and I'm a big fan of Derek Jones Junior has
been essential for them this year, but I mean, how
far can you kind of get away with him being
your most important perimeter defender and kind of the offensive
issues he has in your lineup? You know, I think unless,
like you know, when I was envisioning them before the year,
it's like, okay, they can play kleeber Grant, Kyrie and

(41:46):
Luca together, you know, figure out your fifth guy. Maybe
you have enough defense there. It just hasn't been the case.
And I think that's what's hurting them right now kind
of more than anything else. I mean, they played only
eight guys in that Celtics game. I mean, I mean,
Jason Kidd, I think is kind of a unique coach
to begin with. But it just doesn't look like he
trusts enough guys on this team.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
And I can't know, so yeah, and I don't.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I don't. It's just the Grant thing not working out.
I mean, maybe Kleebrow, who's missed so much of this year,
can kind of come back and round into shape and
that helps them. But to me, it's like, because Luca
and Kyrie put you in such a bind, they have
to nail those role player decisions, and right now it's
not working out for them.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
I mean, they were one of those teams, you know,
before Rudy Gobert and Minnesota got their act together. Shout
out by the way to carl Towns for having sixty
two would have lost to Charlotte. That was remarkable, remarkable
to watch that unfold in real time. Before the Gobert
thing came together, they were a logical landing spot because

(42:52):
if you're gonna have two guys at on the perimeter
in Kyrie and Luca that don't defend, you need somebody
backstopping them. You need some you know, need a real
defensive rim protector. And that would have made some sense
in Dallas without him, you know. And look, I want
to say this about Kyrie. Kyrie has been great for
that team. He has in the locker room. You talk

(43:13):
to people in Dallas in the locker room. From the
day they acquired him to today, he has been great,
a leader with that team, great with the young guys,
great with the veterans. Has worked his ass off to
fit in opposite Luca, which is not the easiest thing
in the world because the guy is a high usage
rate player who takes a lot of shots. He has

(43:35):
worked hard to fit into that role. So he's not
the problem with this team. The problem is how can
you win a championship when your two best players are
that bad defensively? And look, I think Kyrie tries, but
he's you know, there's just physical limitations that he has
on the defensive end. I think Luca half the time
doesn't try. Honestly, I watch him and it just doesn't

(43:57):
look like he's trying out there. And he spends so
much time complaining to the officials, like just constantly complaining
to the officials about things that he's wrong about, Like
he's long, like he committed some follow in the first
quarter on Monday night, He's immediately waving at the bench.
You see the replay, it's like, dude, you fouled him,
like it's it's it's clear as day that you follow him.

(44:18):
He spent so much energy going at the officials when
the reality is he is not a good defensive player
and Kyrie is not a good defensive player. And I
don't know how you win a championship in today's NBA
with both of your stars being blow average defensive players.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
And that's the double edged sword with a Luca type
who I think is going to be rightfully finished top
five in MVP voting this year, and when he is
clicking offensively, there's just no one like him to watch.
But I mean, we saw it with James Harden those
Houston years. When you're when you are such a heliocentric
offensive player, when everything is revolving around you, even with

(44:55):
getting Kyrie the usage being so high, you just you
find other ways in your game to conserve energy. And
I think that they have to find a better balance
between letting Luca be Luca and what makes them special
offensively and making sure that he still has enough to
compete on that end of the floor, because right now,
I just don't think the balance.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
Is there, you know, you do the MVP rankings over
at SI dot com and you talk about Luca being
a top five MVP candidate, I'd almost push back on
that because I know the offensive Yeah, look, the offensive
numbers are ridiculous. But like you know, if you look
at the numbers, like look at last night's game, thirty
three points took them thirty shots to get there. That's

(45:36):
that's not that's not good, right, And you look at
the MVP, the top tier MVP guys, Joel Embi put
up seventy on Monday, ridiculous number. But he's also one
of the better defensive players. Yeah, in the NBA, Nicoli Jokic,
even though his defense has been pilloried, he's not as
bad as some people suggest. It's a pretty good teams center.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
We saw it in the playoffs. It's not as easy
as as you think.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
He's not embiid or Gobert, but he's not. You know
this turnstile out there, he's a pre He's a averaged
above average defensive player. Go down the list, shake Gilds,
Alexander two way player, Giannis two way player, even further
down to Tatum becoming a much better two way player.
I would put Kawhi Leonard high on that list because

(46:19):
is having a magnificent offensive year, and we know what
this guy does defensively. Luka Dancic is an unbelievable offensive
player and can be an unbelievably bad defensive player. And
I don't know how you can you can consider him
for an MVP vote with with that being the case.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
I think that's a fair argument. It's gonna be the
argument against him anytime he's in these conversations.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
By the way, Kevin Durant in his prime and still
still two way player, like these guys that are winning
mvs in the mix two way players, and.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
They've called on Katie to carry a low defensive this year.
He's guarding up, he's guarding Lebron when they play the Lakers.
He's playing SECD. You know, all the guys you mentioned,
even if they're not necessarily locked down every night, you
can give them responsibility on that end of the floor
on a night to night basis, and they welcome it.
And I think that's a knocking And Sulker, I mean,
we know to get two in the weeds. I still

(47:14):
think his production is just so absurd that it's hard
to leave him out, And I do think overall, I
feel like the Mavericks have overachieved a little bit this year.
I think they're ahead of where I thought they would
be considering all the issues, and even morehead considering how
guys like Grant haven't worked out, Cleever's been out of
the lineup. But I think big picture, you're right, how
much longer can they go on with this? Because I mean, listen,

(47:36):
I was one of the people is like, are you
really going to commit to Kyrie as the second guy here?
And that's worked out, that part's been good, So if
you have to find a way to get a more
balanced effort from Luca moving forward.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Out of how you do that with Luca and with Kyrie,
I just don't know how you get stops when your
two best players can be attacked in the way the
teams are going to attack them in the post season.
And look, they're sitting right now in like that eight
to nine spot, so they're a playing team at the moment.
And look, looking at the teams that are in that

(48:10):
play and mix. I just had it pulled up here,
But looking teams that are in that play and mix,
you're talking, where's the bottom half of the standings you had.
Lakers are a team that's in that mix. You know,
you got to think they'll at some point get their
defense together enough to be more of a threat Sacramento Ano.
They're all offense, no defense. But Utah playing great basketball

(48:31):
right now. They might have a hard time getting out
of that play and getting to the playoffs and out
of that playing spot because of their some of their
defensive divisions.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
And let me just add real quick, because think about
the Nuggets, for example, it's like the big question about them,
can Yokichen Murray hold up defensively in the playoffs? We
saw both of them step up when they really needed
to give that two to eight effort. You know, when
the Nuggets played the Suns, it was like, how are
they going to slow down Booker and drant Are they

(49:00):
necessarily slow them down? But they did enough defensively in
that series. I mean, Jamal Murray did enough defensively in
the NBA Finals. So even for people who don't have
sterling reputations on that end of the floor, when it counted,
they stepped up. You look at the duos that have
gone far in the NBA playoffs last few years, All
those guys play both sides of the ball.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yeah. Look at the great duos in the NBA today.
You know Lebron and a d.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah, Tatum Brown and Jenny Bam Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Yeah, these guys are two way players. I just I
was really disheartened to watch about the mavericks chances to
do anything after watching them play a big, big game
they should have been up for. I get the Celtics,
all right, we'll be back here next week. But when
we come back. By conversation with Jazz guard Collin Sexty,

(49:56):
I guess the first question I want to ask you, Collins.
I mean, look, you had a good year last year statistically.
What what are some of the biggest reasons in your
mind though, that your game is really taking off this season.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
I would say just doing a little bit more diving
into the film and doing a little bit more things
on court as far as like my decision making and
making sure I'm not overdoing it. But when I'm in
there working on the things that I feel like I
need to improve on or even just work on for
that game, I feel like I watched so much film
or watch so many so many games that I've been

(50:30):
able to Okay, if this team is in a deep drop,
let me work on coming off the screen shooting the three,
or if they're up to touch, okay, let me try
to snake it, or even just like okay, this team
they like to stay attacked, just reading the game a
little bit more and understand like what certain teams Tennessees are.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
What what pushed you to change the way that you
looked at film this year?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
I would say, just to continue to I want to
continue to improve and at the end of the day,
anything that like I can improve on my game, I
want to. And I've been over the summer even also
like all last summer and even when I was injured,
I try to like just get five percent better each
and every year of like okay, let me learn a
little bit more schemes and understand the game a little

(51:14):
bit more. So I just wanted to go out here
and just be better and be more prepared. I feel
like when you're prepared, you play a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Was there anything different about this past off season because
you did have one full year in Utah, one full
year of playing for Will Hardy, were you able to
attack the off season any differently?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Oh? Yeah, absolutely, I feel like my off season coming back.
My first season with the Utah Jazz was totally different.
I was injured, I was rehabbing, I was pushing it
every day, and I was pretty much just trying to
like get out there and I wanted to show people
that I was back. And I felt like I didn't

(51:55):
feel like myself, but I was able to push myself
mentally to come back a lot faster than I was
even supposed to. So that was one thing for me,
and I used this past summer to really work out
and not have to rehab as much and not have
to worry about those things. I was really able to
work out and work on my game.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Yeah, is there is there a physical benefit for you
being another year removed from that knee surgery.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Absolutely, I would say just the confidence. Confidence is everything,
and not worrying about pushing off or not trying to
change your game just because you're nervous or scared. I
feel like that's something that like people have to get
over that hump and know that like I'm good, and
I feel like I did that last year, but even
more this year. I'm just just continue to know like, Okay,

(52:43):
I'm back to full swing and at the end of
the day. Everyone in this builder believes in me, so
I just got to just continue to go out here
and play for them and play for my teammates.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
You know you're you're playing really well. The team right
now is playing really well, and you're a big reason
for that. The narrative, as you I'll know in previous
years is Collin Sexton scores a lot of points, doesn't
impact winning, at least not in a high level way.
How much did that perception bother you over the years.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
I would say it bothered me a little bit, just
because I consider myself as a winner. I had to
win some type of form to even get to this,
to this place, and being that people saying I'm not
a winner and stuff, it just gives me a little
bit more motivation, a little bit more chip on my shoulder,
just to go out here and impact winning however it is.
If it's diving on the floor, picking up full court,

(53:34):
or guarding the best player on other team, or scoring
the ball, whatever is needed, I'm going to do it
just so I can show people that, like when I'm
out on the court, I try to impact winning as
much as possible, and the little things that may not
show up on the stat sheet. I'm going to do.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
So. Will talked about that perception the other day, and
I'm sure you've seen the clip by now, but for
this audience, I want to play what he said about
you before a recent game.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
I needed to look in the mirror in the offseason
and have a little bit of humility about mine and
Colin's relationship and just try to take it at face value.
I needed to take Colin at face value and just go, hey,
whatever happened before he got to Utah is means nothing
to me. And how has he been with me every day?
How has he been with our team every day? And

(54:26):
He's always done everything that I've asked. He's never complained.
He has never come to my office and asked for
more playing time, he has never asked for more shots.
He's never questioned what we were doing. He just continues
to work every day. He takes coaching. He lets me
coach him very hard. You know, there have been moments

(54:47):
in last season that were caught on camera where people
see Colin and I getting into it and there's no
anger behind that. That's us trying to solve problems and
get on the same page. And for him to under
what I'm asking him to do. And you know, this
offseason for me was about kind of resetting myself as
it relates to Colin.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
So he noted that he did allow that perception of
you to kind of seep into how he viewed you
last season. Is there any difference in the relationship you
have with Will Hardy this season than there was last season.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I wouldn't call it too much of a difference. He
gets on me a lot. I would say, he screams,
He yells at me a whole lot during the game,
even after the game, or even sometimes before the game.
I'm like, coach, what I do? People like, I'm just
I'm just on you today. Don't worry. I'm never gonna change.
So that's something that like I've I've embraced and that's

(55:46):
something that like I need just because I want to
get better. Like, anytime a coach is screaming and yelling
as for a good reason, that's because they believe in you.
So that's something that like I've always like believed in.
If the coach is yelling and getting on you, than
he wants best. But if once he stopped screaming and yelling,
then you should be worried. So that's exactly how like

(56:07):
I view it, and that's exactly how I feel like
coach Will has been.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
So you view it as a positive because I'm sure
people might see an interaction on TV and say, oh, well,
this relationship is obviously there has to be bad. You
view that kind of dynamic as a positive. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I feel like all my coaches have pushed me to
be my best and they're screaming, yelling, and at the
end of the day you might get screaming and yell
at but you got to pick out the message from
the screaming and yelling. At the end of the day
of the games are high. We all competitors in this building.
So when sometimes when you're competing and sometimes when you
have that emotion, sometimes the voice is level and at

(56:49):
the end of you can't okay, just because he's yelling
at me doesn't mean like the message might be just
get back on defense. But he might be screaming it
in a way of like you Didne did four or
five bad place, And that's just how I like I've
always viewed it as like, just continue to pick out
the message in it and know that it's coming from
a good place.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
Will's talked about your decision making improving this season, like
You've always been a guy that has been able to
put pressure on the rim. Now you seem to be
looking more and more to set guys up when you
do that. The assist numbers are up this year from
last year, especially when you look at the per thirty
six numbers. Has that been more of an emphasis for you,
you know, looking for guys being a better decision maker?

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Absolutely every day. We have been coming in every day
just working on my decision making and reading through coaches
or reading through like different scouts. Like I said, just
so that when I'm out there, it's like it comes naturally,
like oh, if this guy pulls in, let me zip
it to the corner, or if this guy is over
maybe late, I can finish it. And just reading the

(57:51):
game if the game says shoot, shoot, if the game
says past past, and not overthinking it.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
You know you're you're starting numbers. Since you've been that lineup,
the numbers have exploded, They've gone up. You're up at
twenty two to twenty three points per game. Your three
points shooting percentage is way up. The assistant turnover percentage
is better. How is being a starter again, how has
that helped you?

Speaker 1 (58:15):
I will say just the flow and just being able
to go out there and just pick the game out,
but also making sure like I set the tone for
the rest of the game for my teammates. That's coming
in just being able to set the tone and go
out there and just be tough, show them the toughness
and so that when we do get subbed out, okay,
they're not just running past us, running like past like

(58:40):
doing whatever they want out there. And at the end
of the day, I feel like that's all I can
do is compete and just be tough and just show
them like, okay, when I'm in the building and when
I'm on the court, I just want people to feel me.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
So the ball really moves in this jazz offense when
when it's at its best, And even look at some
of your made shots, your high fifty these in your
made shots that are assisted, I think your mid nineties
in made threes that are assisted, only ninety plus percent
of them have been assisted. How much has that made
your life easier? Kind of the way the balls moved

(59:12):
in this offense.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
I would say the offense has been it's been really good.
It's been very beneficial because at the end of the
day night just for myself, but for everybody, it's kind
of it's a lot more fun to just even touch
the ball. When you're going up and down. Sometimes it's
hard to get a flow and get a rhythm and
also want to compete on the defensive end. If you're
not just touching the ball, it doesn't matter if you're

(59:35):
the one shooting it. But sometimes when you just want
to touch it and it gives you that much energy,
and sometimes at the end of the day, people don't
realize the ball is what the energy is. And sometimes
you might get an easy layup or the hockey assists
is something that people don't see. Okay, I might drive
it hard to the nail and kick kick for a three.

(59:57):
Like that is energy. That's what allows you just to
want to play defense, because I don't know too many
people that want to just just play defense nowadays. You
just want to play defense.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
That's tough. You've been able to put up these numbers
and only playing around twenty four minutes a game when
you were in Cleveland you were in the mid thirties.
As how do you feel about the minutes you're playing
right now. Is it a good thing to keep you fresher,
you know, and to be playing at this kind of level.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
H Yeah, absolutely. I just feel like at the end
of the day, we got so many guys on this
team that can play that I don't have to go
out there and play all the minutes. Me and Larry though,
JC Walker, like Keyonte, we don't all have to play high,
high minutes, and that's allowing us to be fresher for

(01:00:47):
when it is our time so that we can give
it one hundred and ten percent. And that's also like
what coach always talk like, you go as hard as
you can when you're out there, so that when you
do come out, you're tired. And I feel like that's
how we've all been playing, and you can tell when
we're out there we've been flying around.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
You're this team had success at the start of last season,
great success at the start of last season before tailing
off a little bit. You're you're now having kind of
like a similar run in the middle of this season.
Does this success you're having now feel sustainable to you? Guys?
Do you think that maybe you're not gonna win every game?
But do you think you can play at this kind

(01:01:24):
of level over months instead of just weeks. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I feel like we have the coaches behind us, we
got the personnel, and we got the organization like all
behind us. So when we're out there, we're competing not
just for ourselves, but for the whole for the whole building.
And sometimes when you have people believing in you, then
you can go achieve whatever. So that's how I like,
That's how I view it, and I feel like right

(01:01:50):
now we're coming together. Just because sometimes we might lose,
doesn't mean we need to split apart. Sometimes that might
make us a little bit more stronger. And I feel
like that's what happened in the beginning in the season.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
All right, before I let you go. You may not
even be eligible for six man because you're a starter
now and you'll looks like you'll be a starter for
the foreseeable future. But if you could win one individual
award at the end of the year, would you choose
most Improved Player or six Man of the Year?

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Honestly, I would choose whichever award is given to me,
to be an honest but just because at the end
of the day, I put the time in I put
the work in for whatever is given. I know, I
go out here each and every day and give him
my all. I know, Coach, can you know what I mean?
He can speak to that. I never complain. I go

(01:02:42):
out here and do whatever is needed. So I just
feel like whichever award that I would be given, that'll
be a blessing and I'll be thankful for it, and
I'll just continue to work. I think that'll be something
that just will motivate me that much more.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Well, Colin, congratulate the success Man team and yourself. Good
luck into this road trip, and I do appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
H thank

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
M hm hm