July 3, 2024 • 26 mins
Andy, Porter and James talk on the Utah Jazz moves in the offseason, NBA free agency, Utah Hockey Club news, and more!
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(00:10):
An hour three of the show withno Name, The Nameless Midday Show.
I'm James Peterson. Sitting across fromme is Porter Larson sitting in with the
Today the last live show will havein this space and in the mid days
until Sean O'Connell takes the reins.On Monday, July eighth, we'll have
(00:33):
a best of Bill Riley's show throughthe years, maybe some conversation with Coveys,
maybe some conversation with cams and otherswill replay. Oh yeah, we're
still taking suggestions too. On thetext line eight seven seven three five three
zero seven hundred. If you ifthere's a favorite interview from let's say the
past seven or eight years of theBill Riley Show that you want to hear
(00:57):
on Friday, drop it, dropus a line eight seven seven three five
three zero seven hundred. That's ourdish pros text line. Welcome in our
next guest, Andy Larson. He'sthe Utah jazz beat writer for the Salt
Lake Tribune. Doing a little hockeyriding as well. Both things topical right
now, and we'll discuss it withAndy right now. Andy, how you
(01:17):
doing man good? How are youdoing good? We'll start with Jazz.
Uh, the summer league roster isout. The broadcast schedule just dropped.
I know there's been lots of jokesabout this maybe being the best summer league
roster ever. But as you mentionedon on our shows before that, Will
(01:38):
Hardy's like Oklahoma City ran out theirentire starting lineup except Shaye last year.
So I guess your your thoughts onSummer league getting started here soon for the
Jazz and and what they hope toaccomplish with this kind of loaded summer league
roster. Yeah, look at thebest I think it's you can argue it's
the best Jazz Summer league roster.It probably doesn't have the top tier talent
(02:04):
that the one with Donovan Mitchell orDarren Williams did, right, So you
know, maybe you say it's maybenot the best team ever, you know,
because it's missing that top tier star. But I mean, one through
ten, you have NBA players,right like you have the three guys who
were drafted last year, three guysdrafted this year. You have Walker Kessler,
(02:25):
who you know, if he playslike he did as a rookie,
is going to be the best playerI think in the Summer league. If
you if you add in Kenny Loftonjunior, who we've seen terror parts summer
leagues here in Sally City and inVegas for the last couple of years.
You've got five year NBA veteran DariusBaisley. It's a really, really,
(02:46):
really good summer league team. Andlook, if the Jazz are going down
this road and you know kind ofthe plan is to be bad for a
number of years moving forward, thisis the exciting time of year draft and
summer league time where it's it's goingto be most exciting for Jazz fans before
(03:06):
you get into kind of the boringpart of the regular season. So yeah,
that's I think I'm very excited tosee what we'll see from the Jazz
is youth next week. And youknow, I think it's going to be
a real opportunity for and with youjust made us all sad. You just
made us all sad by saying thatSummer league's the most exciting it's going to
(03:29):
get for the Jazz this year.No forour to go ahead, No,
but speaking of summer league and itbeing obviously they talk about the summer league
team being good, your regular seasonteam's not great. Well more specifically,
you have a third year first roundpick as a center who is still playing
(03:49):
on your summer league team. Whatdoes that say about Walker Kessler's development,
Andy, and what are your expectationsof him in the twenty twenty four Summer
League. Is his third go atit? Yeah, I mean, look,
he needs to dominate. It saysthat his second year was a very
bad year for him. I mean, like, look, that's relative to
expectations, relative to what he didhis spriky season, where he was,
(04:14):
you know, one of the bestrim protectors, if not the best rim
protector in the league. I thinkhe still had some of that rim protection
last year, but didn't have thefinishing at the rim, didn't add to
his game in terms of screening,had less control of the ball in terms
of catching and finishing, and theleague figured him out a little bit,
right, Like, I don't knowif it was a fatigue issue. I
don't know if it was about confidence. I don't know if it was about
(04:39):
kind of what was going on withthe Jazz's point guard position, having you
know, a number of either youngor bad players or both. But like
it was, it was not whatJazz wanted to see from Walker Kesler and
so like making him play Summer Leagueand is a real statement year that like,
hey, look, you need tostep up in in order to make
(05:00):
yourself a ten year NBA career inorder to be the player that you can
be. And if you know,we need to see some development from you
in order to consider you one ofthe strong points the footholds of this franchise,
right like, and if not,look, then you're probably if you
play like you did last season forthe rest of your career, you're a
(05:23):
backup center. Like and and thatlimit that means making five to ten million
dollars a year. That means you'regetting fifteen minutes the game. And that's
that's the deal. I still thinkWalker Kessler can be a starting center in
the NBA, and I think heit may even be most likely that he
is, But there's a lot needsto figure out, uh, in terms
(05:44):
of his offensive skill, in termsof his ability to screen, in terms
of his ability to defend on theperimeter, UH, in order to be
that starting center. And you know, I think Summer League and these games
and you know, kind of theselast couple of months since the season ended,
are are good opportunities for him.To develop those skills. And then
along those same lines, Andy,they drafted Kyle Philipowski, who a lot
(06:08):
of draft analysts and and maybe scoutsa lot of scouts as well, saw
as a first round talent and earlyin the second round. Could could that
also be a message to Walker that, hey, like, we need you,
We need you to be the guy, at least the guy you were
your rookie year, had show someprogression this season, and if you're not,
(06:28):
we've got someone that has a potentialto maybe be our future at center
waiting in the wings. Look,I mean, Kyle Philipowski was a best
player available pick, right Like,That's not the Jazz didn't draft him to
send a message, you know.I the Jazz don't have good enough players
right now to be drafting guys tosend the message. They need just good
(06:54):
dudes on the roster who who mightbe good at basketball one day, right
like? And I think Kyle Philipowskiis is a really good prospect, right
Like. I had a thread onTwitter kind of before the draft of kind
of my view of the draft,and I said, look, he's not
a sexy prospect. You know,he's not ever going to be an All
Star he's not going to be ayou know, a NBA star, but
(07:15):
what he does I think makes themlikely to be somewhere around like the twelfth
best prospect in the draft. AndI think the Jazz got him at thirty
two, and so that's that's abig win. That being said, like,
you know, it's a it's aweek's draft, and I don't know
that I expect Kyle Philipowski to bean NBA starter necessarily moving forward. And
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he's still twenty years old and stillis like most rookies likely to be right
bad right out of the gate,right like, we'll have to learn a
lot about how to play NBA basketball, deal with the physicality, play defense,
especially down low. You know,I think he's a good perimeter defender.
I don't know that he's a goodinterior defender right now, even though
he stands a sick a leven andyou know, there's a lot of guiding,
(08:00):
but he needs to do his game. You know, the comparison is
Kelly O. Lennox. Kelly olyinocksa lot better a shooter right now than
Kyle Philipewski is. And so youknow, in terms of I like him
as a prospect, I think he'sgreat value at number thirty two, But
in terms of kind of threatening WalkerKessler for playing time, I don't know
that I see that right away.I see him more likely, you know,
(08:22):
either contributing in minor minutes off thebench for a young, developing Jazz
team, or maybe even just playingmore minutes than the G League, playing
thirty five minutes a night and gettingthe chance to work on his skills down
there. Andy. Obviously, there'sbeen a lot of noise around Lowry markin
over the last forty eight hours orso. What is the latest there?
(08:43):
From my understanding obviously that the Jazzare not looking to trade a player of
that caliber. But if the rightoffer comes along, and if the timing
is right, you got to thinkthe Jazz, in the mindset that they
seem to be in, would bewilling to, you know, part with
him with the right Godfather offer.Yeah, So, like there are degrees
(09:07):
to this now, I think,you know, and I think we have
we have advanced in these conversations enoughthat we have to acknowledge that it's not
like, hey, you just bowlus over with an offer and we'll take
it. It's it's and it's notnecessarily a best offer win situation. Either
(09:28):
it's something where Lowry is kind ofon the block a little bit as they,
you know, evaluate what they canget for him. And I think,
you know, it's pretty clear thatthere are at least three teams significantly
interested, that being the Warriors,the Kings, and the Spurs. The
Pelicans have also been mentioned as potentiallyan interested team, and those teams are
(09:54):
are giving up are offering what Iwould call significant, but probably not enough
to meet his market value at thispoint. And that's not the Jazz looking
for a god offer that's like marketvalue, right like mckel bridget set the
market yep with getting that five picka pick slop plus boon. But Danovitch
(10:16):
fact, Uh, you know,the Warriors have trouble matching that offer,
right Like, they have three firstround picks, they can trade three pick
slops, they can trade Jonathan Mingezthey want to, but it sounds like
they don't want to. Uh,Moses Moody could be in the deal.
I'm kind of not convinced. MosesMoody is a good NBA player. Brandon
(10:39):
Pozzemski is someone I'd be interested inas one of the best, you know,
five or six best rookies last year. But you know you're you're talking
about that kind of offer being tome, that's market value, not a
godfather offer. That being said,look, and I wrote about this in
the Tribune yesterday, the Jazz caneither there's it's very difficult to see the
(11:01):
Jazz being good next season with orwithout Larry Marketing. And I think even
if you keep Lowry marketing, you'relike the thirteenth or fourteenth best team in
the Western Conference and you probably havethe fifth or sixth best lottery odds and
you go from there and kind ofthe question is whether or not that's good
enough, and it honestly might bein this draft, and given how flat
(11:22):
the lottery odds right are right now, right like, the difference between you
being the fifth seed and the firstseed, and given NBA draft right now,
the fourteen percent chance of the numberone pick versus a number a nine
percent or an eight percent chance atthe number one pick, like, it's
just not that big of a difference, especially in a deep draft like this
one, where yes there's a priceat the top in Cooper Flag, but
(11:45):
there is significant talent down below whereyou're still getting a franchise player below that,
or you know, if you canget legitimate significant assets back in a
lowry marketing deal that you think canhelp rebuild the team into real true contention
that I think you think about it. The Warriors offer is tough for me
because just because it's hard for meto see those pick swaps being as valuable,
(12:11):
because I think the Jazz will beworse than the Warriors for a number
of years still to come, andthat's especially true if they have Lowie markt
and who I think would be atremendous fit next to Seth Curry. Yeah,
and you mentioned how you've written aboutthe Jazz still being able to be
bad enough with Lowry marknin to getpretty good draft odds, pretty good odds
(12:35):
at the number one overall pick andat a Cooper Flag or at another franchise
type player in next year's draft.I tend to feel the same way,
and especially since since we just sawthe San Antonio Spurs with Victor Wim and
Yama having an all star type yearin his rookie season only win twenty two
(12:58):
games, I feel like the jazzUs can be bad and keep a star
that they might want to try tobuild around in the future. Yeah,
and you know, I think theyprobably could as well. You know,
kind of the question is the EasternConference, right, like what happens over
there with Detroit. They just signedby a Paris. Again, they probably
want to win more games than theydid last year, but are they actually
(13:20):
going to be able to They weretrying to win games last year and had
the longest losing streak in history.Can Charlotte improve with some more health maybe,
you know, And you're kind oflooking at the tank crace and who's
your competition there. I don't knowthat the Jazz are better than the Portland
Trail Blazers, right like with theemerging Shaana Sharp and and and you know,
(13:41):
all these really good players that theyare not really good, but young
enough up and coming players obviously ScootHenderson as well, that that may take
jumps next year, right And thatbeing said, the same is true for
the Jazz where they have sick guyswho you know are our first or second
year players and may take on aexpected leaves of their own. So we'll
see. I mean I think thatyou risk by keeping Lowry the ability to
(14:07):
tank, right, Like, there'sa chance that it if you lose lowry
market and you're you're gonna tank nextseason no matter what. If you keep
him, there's a chance that you'retoo good and you kind of end up
in the limbo that they've been inthe last two seasons. And maybe it's
just worth it to cut, youknow, cut ties and cut that risk
completely. But you know there's riskon the other end too, which is
(14:28):
if you trade him to the Warriorsor Kings or Spurs, you create you
know, you're you're getting picks inthe team late teams and twenties that don't
end up having much value to thefranchise in twenty thirty and then you're stuck,
you know, in in purgatory,not I guess, not even purgatory.
Just you're you're down in hell fora decade, right like, and
(14:50):
you're you're down at the bottom ofthe Western Conference for a decade. And
obviously that's worst case scenario too.And do Jazz have, of course,
all of those those draft picks andassets upcoming, they also have a bunch
of cap space, and I wonderwhat you think they'll do with that.
Obviously, the Drew u Bake signingfills up a little bit of that.
But if they're not trying to makemajor moves this offseason to step forward,
(15:13):
what do they do with the moneyleft on the table, and how much
can they keep, you know,kind of set aside for potential big free
agents after next year's draft. Yeah, I mean, I think there are
a couple different things they can dowith it. One, if you do
keep lowry, you're using a reallybig tunk of it to renegotiate and extent
him right like, and that getsyou nearly to the salary floor if I
(15:39):
remember the calculations correctly. So it'snot like it used to be the new
CBA change of rules on the salaryfloor where there are kind of some penalties
for not getting there. It usedto be like, if you don't make
the salary floor, you just haveto pay the players who are currently on
your after more money to get tothe salary floor. And so it's not
really a penalty. Now it messeswith your app you can't do some certain
(16:00):
things, and it's you know,you you probably do want to be at
the salary flayer by the time theseason starts, and so yeah, then
the obvious thing to do is acquirebad contracts from other teams and get the
draft picks in return that that thatcosts. You know, I think if
that happens to Jazz will be oneof the only teams with cast space in
(16:23):
order to do that. And soI think you can extract some draft pick
value in order to make that happen, or sign players that you think will
have value to contenders at the tradedeadline. Right, So you know,
if you want to get a HighestJones, for example, and sign him
to a one year, fifteen milliondollar contract or whatever, and and and
(16:45):
then you can trade him at thedeadline to someone who really could use him
as as a point guard, youknow, whether they're backup point guard or
a third guard or what have you. Maybe somebody gets hurt, you you
have him to to sell in atrade negotiation. But you know, the
only name on the market that iskind of big and made is we'll see
(17:07):
what he ends up getting, butmaybe a Miles Bridges, but obviously that's
terrible for a number of other reasons, given the domestic violence, multiple disputes
and incidents that that he's committed,right, So uh yeah, we'll we'll
see what happens with that cap space. But it's you know, given that
we're on July third now and thethe kind of bigger name cre agents are
(17:30):
mostly gone. I think that's kindof what we're talking about with the cat
space switching gears to hockey a littlebit here, Andy, the we just
we just saw your colleague, RobertGurky wrote about an update to the Downtown
District proposal by Smith Entertainment Group.He wrote that it's closed that the City
(17:52):
Council and SEG are close to adeal on there and that and that it
would include that what they're pushing foris is thirty year locked in for thirty
years for the Jazz and Utah HockeyClub at the Delta Center staying downtown,
among other things. I know youyou didn't necessarily write about this recently,
(18:14):
but I know that you've been watchingit very closely. Just any other information
you ever in it, or justyour your general thoughts on this update that
we received about the Downtown district.Yeah, I've been working with Turkey on
this kind of stuff pretty you know, at the Tribune. And yeah,
so the deal is the participation agreementkind of the executive summary of it was
(18:38):
presented to the City Council last nightand then we're getting the full participation agreement
sometime this week, let's be honest. With the holiday, that probably means
Friday. And yeah, so thisis kind of the document that we've been
waiting to see, like what arepublic city tax players actually going to begin
(19:00):
for this nine hundred million dollars intax revenue sales tax money that they'll be
committing. And you know, Ithink it's a it's pretty much in line
with what we expected. So,you know, it's five hundred and twenty
five million dollars to renovate the stadium, five hundred and twenty five million of
the nine hundred million going to renovatethe Delta Center, three hundred and twenty
(19:22):
five million going to things outside ofthe Delta Center. You know, from
a again a viewpoint of what's bestfor the city, probably the least money
they spend on the Delta Center isbetter. So it's a little more than
a fifty to fifty split going tothe Delta Center there. Obviously, that's
a really expensive renovation project, andI think that's it's going to be interesting
(19:45):
to see all the all the thingsthat change with the Delta Center. I
mean, it's it's five times moreexpensive than the last one, which I
think did make a big impact onhow the Delta Center operates, you know,
seven or eight years ago when theydid that. Any other changes,
I mean, there's this ticket feewhere one, two or three dollars of
any ticket sales will go back toSalt Lake City to support affordable housing in
(20:08):
the area. I think that's good. You know, you're you're literally looking
at you know, somewhere probably betweenfifty and one hundred million dollars on that
ticket fee going back to Salt LakeCity for those causes, and I think
that's important. There's a public safetyelement of this where they'll be able to
create kind of I don't know ifI want to use the word police station,
(20:30):
but a station for police to bestationed I guess within the district,
along with SEG security as well.So that's interesting. They kind of pointed
out they're going to be giving fivemillion of it to Japantown and its renovations.
They're going to be giving five millionof it to public art displays within
(20:52):
and around the district. So theseare kind of the details. And then
I think the most important detail iswhat keeps jazz and what keeps the NHL
team downtown, and the city hasthree different ways they can go about keeping
them downtown if they if the SmithEntertainment Group would choose to leave in the
next thirty years, one would beone hundred and twenty five million dollars fine,
(21:15):
One would be for the Smith EntertainmentGroup to repay all the sales tax
increase that they've they've revenue that they'vegotten, and then one would be to
go to court and we'd see whatwould happen then. So, you know,
I think that's a a little bitsoft where you know, one hundred
and twenty five million dollars is significant, but maybe not significant enough given the
(21:37):
Smith's pocketbooks. But you know,I think overall it's a relatively good public
private agreement here that that didn't reallyhave any kind of negative surprises, and
I think that's reflective of that.I think they've been negotiating in good faith
so far. On the way outAndy Woods, where we set you loose.
(22:00):
Some somewhat breaking news out of theNBA World free agent Joe Ingles has
agreed to a one year deal tojoin the Minnesota Timberwolves, joining, of
course, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Nikhil Alexander, Right, yeah,
yeah, your thoughts on on thejazz of a few years ago playing in
(22:21):
Minnesota, Now, yeah, Ithought, I pop up off my phone
on as you guys asked the question. I like, it's uh, you
know, it's it's nostalgic, it'sit's jazz teme a lot, right,
Like that jazz team with Mike Conley, with Joe Ingles with Rudy Gobert was
so much fun. Was the mostfun I've had watching basketball in the last
(22:45):
you know, ten twenty years.And I think what Joe and Mike were
and and how those guys interacted withRudy Gobert specifically, and you know in
the pick and roll especially, isgoing to be fun to replicate Joe was
not the player he wants. Waslike, let's be honest, he was
not a super duper contributor in Orlandolast year. Mike is still pretty close
(23:10):
to what he was, and youknow that could change any point. But
regardless, you know, even ifyou're just signing Joe Ingles to be a
locker room guy, I think thatthat makes sense. I think it's it's
a fun signing. It's a reminderof what this jazz team used to be.
And you know, I don't thinkit's for anybody's fault necessarily, I
don't, but it's it's cool tosee Joe come back to to to play
(23:36):
with those guys. And you know, obviously I think a lot of jazz
fans here in Utah are going tobe watching him. Yeah, it should
be fun to watch. I wasalready rooting hard for that te Wolves team,
partially because of the the Jazz ties. Con wanted to see Connley and
Gobert win a championship or get closeto a championship there. I think I
think jazz fans will root even morefor for Minnesota UH in the playoffs this
(24:00):
year, assuming they get back towhere they were last year. Andy,
thanks for hopping on man. Havea good rest of your day. We'll
talk again soon. So good Thanksguy. Thanks Andy. Andy Larson of
the Salt Like Tribune, Utah Jazzbeat writer doing a little hockey riding as
well as we get ready for thefirst Utah Hockey Club season. I liked
(24:22):
what the additional information he had andinsights he had on that downtown district proposal
that Smith Entertainment Group is trying toget done and in the city council is
ruling on here shortly. They dohave another meeting on the ninth, you
said, Porter, right, andthen another one in August, and one
(24:44):
of those may in the end ina vote. Maybe the vote will come
later after that. We'll see,Yeah, of course, the the I
think the meeting on the July ninthis the one they were hoping to get
all the way finished yesterday or theday before, So we'll we'll see exactly
what comes about out. But yeah, I think the majority of this plan
(25:04):
they want to have kind of figuredout before they get into actual hockey,
so they can focus on that oncewe get into fall. Yeah, so
the August thirteenth or whatever date.That August date would seem logically as the
time that they might vote on it, but you never know with these things.
We will certainly keep following it foryou and give you updates as we
(25:26):
get closer to that being resolved.And like you said, Porter, it
would makes sense if they'd want todo that before the season starts. Their
first season starts in October. OnOctober eighth, we have the exact start
date. They'll take on the ChicagoBlackhawks before we break here help the children
at the Road Home start school instyle. Stop by the advocates in Ogden,
(25:51):
American Fork or Murray. Pick anapple from the tree and you can
supply shoes, clothing, and abackpack for a child at the road Home.
Every child deserves an advocate. Stopby today. It's so important to
help our our children in our communitythat are experiencing homelessness and their family from
(26:11):
families that are experiencing homelessness, getthe get the supplies that they need to
start school. Because it doesn't matterwhat your living situation is, You're gonna
be going to school and you needyou need the you need that new stuff.
Uh and that and all those schoolsupplies that any other child has and
and needs to be able to getthrough school. So stop by the advocates
(26:33):
and pick an apple from the roadHome apple tree too. To serve our
great community that way today. Uh. On the other side, more from
the Nameless midday show, The Showwith No Name Here going until two right
here on Utah's number one Sports TalkESPN seven hundred and nine
An hour three of the show withno Name, The Nameless Midday Show.
I'm James Peterson. Sitting across fromme is Porter Larson sitting in with the
Today the last live show will havein this space and in the mid days
until Sean O'Connell takes the reins.On Monday, July eighth, we'll have
(00:33):
a best of Bill Riley's show throughthe years, maybe some conversation with Coveys,
maybe some conversation with cams and otherswill replay. Oh yeah, we're
still taking suggestions too. On thetext line eight seven seven three five three
zero seven hundred. If you ifthere's a favorite interview from let's say the
past seven or eight years of theBill Riley Show that you want to hear
(00:57):
on Friday, drop it, dropus a line eight seven seven three five
three zero seven hundred. That's ourdish pros text line. Welcome in our
next guest, Andy Larson. He'sthe Utah jazz beat writer for the Salt
Lake Tribune. Doing a little hockeyriding as well. Both things topical right
now, and we'll discuss it withAndy right now. Andy, how you
(01:17):
doing man good? How are youdoing good? We'll start with Jazz.
Uh, the summer league roster isout. The broadcast schedule just dropped.
I know there's been lots of jokesabout this maybe being the best summer league
roster ever. But as you mentionedon on our shows before that, Will
(01:38):
Hardy's like Oklahoma City ran out theirentire starting lineup except Shaye last year.
So I guess your your thoughts onSummer league getting started here soon for the
Jazz and and what they hope toaccomplish with this kind of loaded summer league
roster. Yeah, look at thebest I think it's you can argue it's
the best Jazz Summer league roster.It probably doesn't have the top tier talent
(02:04):
that the one with Donovan Mitchell orDarren Williams did, right, So you
know, maybe you say it's maybenot the best team ever, you know,
because it's missing that top tier star. But I mean, one through
ten, you have NBA players,right like you have the three guys who
were drafted last year, three guysdrafted this year. You have Walker Kessler,
(02:25):
who you know, if he playslike he did as a rookie,
is going to be the best playerI think in the Summer league. If
you if you add in Kenny Loftonjunior, who we've seen terror parts summer
leagues here in Sally City and inVegas for the last couple of years.
You've got five year NBA veteran DariusBaisley. It's a really, really,
(02:46):
really good summer league team. Andlook, if the Jazz are going down
this road and you know kind ofthe plan is to be bad for a
number of years moving forward, thisis the exciting time of year draft and
summer league time where it's it's goingto be most exciting for Jazz fans before
(03:06):
you get into kind of the boringpart of the regular season. So yeah,
that's I think I'm very excited tosee what we'll see from the Jazz
is youth next week. And youknow, I think it's going to be
a real opportunity for and with youjust made us all sad. You just
made us all sad by saying thatSummer league's the most exciting it's going to
(03:29):
get for the Jazz this year.No forour to go ahead, No,
but speaking of summer league and itbeing obviously they talk about the summer league
team being good, your regular seasonteam's not great. Well more specifically,
you have a third year first roundpick as a center who is still playing
(03:49):
on your summer league team. Whatdoes that say about Walker Kessler's development,
Andy, and what are your expectationsof him in the twenty twenty four Summer
League. Is his third go atit? Yeah, I mean, look,
he needs to dominate. It saysthat his second year was a very
bad year for him. I mean, like, look, that's relative to
expectations, relative to what he didhis spriky season, where he was,
(04:14):
you know, one of the bestrim protectors, if not the best rim
protector in the league. I thinkhe still had some of that rim protection
last year, but didn't have thefinishing at the rim, didn't add to
his game in terms of screening,had less control of the ball in terms
of catching and finishing, and theleague figured him out a little bit,
right, Like, I don't knowif it was a fatigue issue. I
don't know if it was about confidence. I don't know if it was about
(04:39):
kind of what was going on withthe Jazz's point guard position, having you
know, a number of either youngor bad players or both. But like
it was, it was not whatJazz wanted to see from Walker Kesler and
so like making him play Summer Leagueand is a real statement year that like,
hey, look, you need tostep up in in order to make
(05:00):
yourself a ten year NBA career inorder to be the player that you can
be. And if you know,we need to see some development from you
in order to consider you one ofthe strong points the footholds of this franchise,
right like, and if not,look, then you're probably if you
play like you did last season forthe rest of your career, you're a
(05:23):
backup center. Like and and thatlimit that means making five to ten million
dollars a year. That means you'regetting fifteen minutes the game. And that's
that's the deal. I still thinkWalker Kessler can be a starting center in
the NBA, and I think heit may even be most likely that he
is, But there's a lot needsto figure out, uh, in terms
(05:44):
of his offensive skill, in termsof his ability to screen, in terms
of his ability to defend on theperimeter, UH, in order to be
that starting center. And you know, I think Summer League and these games
and you know, kind of theselast couple of months since the season ended,
are are good opportunities for him.To develop those skills. And then
along those same lines, Andy,they drafted Kyle Philipowski, who a lot
(06:08):
of draft analysts and and maybe scoutsa lot of scouts as well, saw
as a first round talent and earlyin the second round. Could could that
also be a message to Walker that, hey, like, we need you,
We need you to be the guy, at least the guy you were
your rookie year, had show someprogression this season, and if you're not,
(06:28):
we've got someone that has a potentialto maybe be our future at center
waiting in the wings. Look,I mean, Kyle Philipowski was a best
player available pick, right Like,That's not the Jazz didn't draft him to
send a message, you know.I the Jazz don't have good enough players
right now to be drafting guys tosend the message. They need just good
(06:54):
dudes on the roster who who mightbe good at basketball one day, right
like? And I think Kyle Philipowskiis is a really good prospect, right
Like. I had a thread onTwitter kind of before the draft of kind
of my view of the draft,and I said, look, he's not
a sexy prospect. You know,he's not ever going to be an All
Star he's not going to be ayou know, a NBA star, but
(07:15):
what he does I think makes themlikely to be somewhere around like the twelfth
best prospect in the draft. AndI think the Jazz got him at thirty
two, and so that's that's abig win. That being said, like,
you know, it's a it's aweek's draft, and I don't know
that I expect Kyle Philipowski to bean NBA starter necessarily moving forward. And
(07:36):
he's still twenty years old and stillis like most rookies likely to be right
bad right out of the gate,right like, we'll have to learn a
lot about how to play NBA basketball, deal with the physicality, play defense,
especially down low. You know,I think he's a good perimeter defender.
I don't know that he's a goodinterior defender right now, even though
he stands a sick a leven andyou know, there's a lot of guiding,
(08:00):
but he needs to do his game. You know, the comparison is
Kelly O. Lennox. Kelly olyinocksa lot better a shooter right now than
Kyle Philipewski is. And so youknow, in terms of I like him
as a prospect, I think he'sgreat value at number thirty two, But
in terms of kind of threatening WalkerKessler for playing time, I don't know
that I see that right away.I see him more likely, you know,
(08:22):
either contributing in minor minutes off thebench for a young, developing Jazz
team, or maybe even just playingmore minutes than the G League, playing
thirty five minutes a night and gettingthe chance to work on his skills down
there. Andy. Obviously, there'sbeen a lot of noise around Lowry markin
over the last forty eight hours orso. What is the latest there?
(08:43):
From my understanding obviously that the Jazzare not looking to trade a player of
that caliber. But if the rightoffer comes along, and if the timing
is right, you got to thinkthe Jazz, in the mindset that they
seem to be in, would bewilling to, you know, part with
him with the right Godfather offer.Yeah, So, like there are degrees
(09:07):
to this now, I think,you know, and I think we have
we have advanced in these conversations enoughthat we have to acknowledge that it's not
like, hey, you just bowlus over with an offer and we'll take
it. It's it's and it's notnecessarily a best offer win situation. Either
(09:28):
it's something where Lowry is kind ofon the block a little bit as they,
you know, evaluate what they canget for him. And I think,
you know, it's pretty clear thatthere are at least three teams significantly
interested, that being the Warriors,the Kings, and the Spurs. The
Pelicans have also been mentioned as potentiallyan interested team, and those teams are
(09:54):
are giving up are offering what Iwould call significant, but probably not enough
to meet his market value at thispoint. And that's not the Jazz looking
for a god offer that's like marketvalue, right like mckel bridget set the
market yep with getting that five picka pick slop plus boon. But Danovitch
(10:16):
fact, Uh, you know,the Warriors have trouble matching that offer,
right Like, they have three firstround picks, they can trade three pick
slops, they can trade Jonathan Mingezthey want to, but it sounds like
they don't want to. Uh,Moses Moody could be in the deal.
I'm kind of not convinced. MosesMoody is a good NBA player. Brandon
(10:39):
Pozzemski is someone I'd be interested inas one of the best, you know,
five or six best rookies last year. But you know you're you're talking
about that kind of offer being tome, that's market value, not a
godfather offer. That being said,look, and I wrote about this in
the Tribune yesterday, the Jazz caneither there's it's very difficult to see the
(11:01):
Jazz being good next season with orwithout Larry Marketing. And I think even
if you keep Lowry marketing, you'relike the thirteenth or fourteenth best team in
the Western Conference and you probably havethe fifth or sixth best lottery odds and
you go from there and kind ofthe question is whether or not that's good
enough, and it honestly might bein this draft, and given how flat
(11:22):
the lottery odds right are right now, right like, the difference between you
being the fifth seed and the firstseed, and given NBA draft right now,
the fourteen percent chance of the numberone pick versus a number a nine
percent or an eight percent chance atthe number one pick, like, it's
just not that big of a difference, especially in a deep draft like this
one, where yes there's a priceat the top in Cooper Flag, but
(11:45):
there is significant talent down below whereyou're still getting a franchise player below that,
or you know, if you canget legitimate significant assets back in a
lowry marketing deal that you think canhelp rebuild the team into real true contention
that I think you think about it. The Warriors offer is tough for me
because just because it's hard for meto see those pick swaps being as valuable,
(12:11):
because I think the Jazz will beworse than the Warriors for a number
of years still to come, andthat's especially true if they have Lowie markt
and who I think would be atremendous fit next to Seth Curry. Yeah,
and you mentioned how you've written aboutthe Jazz still being able to be
bad enough with Lowry marknin to getpretty good draft odds, pretty good odds
(12:35):
at the number one overall pick andat a Cooper Flag or at another franchise
type player in next year's draft.I tend to feel the same way,
and especially since since we just sawthe San Antonio Spurs with Victor Wim and
Yama having an all star type yearin his rookie season only win twenty two
(12:58):
games, I feel like the jazzUs can be bad and keep a star
that they might want to try tobuild around in the future. Yeah,
and you know, I think theyprobably could as well. You know,
kind of the question is the EasternConference, right, like what happens over
there with Detroit. They just signedby a Paris. Again, they probably
want to win more games than theydid last year, but are they actually
(13:20):
going to be able to They weretrying to win games last year and had
the longest losing streak in history.Can Charlotte improve with some more health maybe,
you know, And you're kind oflooking at the tank crace and who's
your competition there. I don't knowthat the Jazz are better than the Portland
Trail Blazers, right like with theemerging Shaana Sharp and and and you know,
(13:41):
all these really good players that theyare not really good, but young
enough up and coming players obviously ScootHenderson as well, that that may take
jumps next year, right And thatbeing said, the same is true for
the Jazz where they have sick guyswho you know are our first or second
year players and may take on aexpected leaves of their own. So we'll
see. I mean I think thatyou risk by keeping Lowry the ability to
(14:07):
tank, right, Like, there'sa chance that it if you lose lowry
market and you're you're gonna tank nextseason no matter what. If you keep
him, there's a chance that you'retoo good and you kind of end up
in the limbo that they've been inthe last two seasons. And maybe it's
just worth it to cut, youknow, cut ties and cut that risk
completely. But you know there's riskon the other end too, which is
(14:28):
if you trade him to the Warriorsor Kings or Spurs, you create you
know, you're you're getting picks inthe team late teams and twenties that don't
end up having much value to thefranchise in twenty thirty and then you're stuck,
you know, in in purgatory,not I guess, not even purgatory.
Just you're you're down in hell fora decade, right like, and
(14:50):
you're you're down at the bottom ofthe Western Conference for a decade. And
obviously that's worst case scenario too.And do Jazz have, of course,
all of those those draft picks andassets upcoming, they also have a bunch
of cap space, and I wonderwhat you think they'll do with that.
Obviously, the Drew u Bake signingfills up a little bit of that.
But if they're not trying to makemajor moves this offseason to step forward,
(15:13):
what do they do with the moneyleft on the table, and how much
can they keep, you know,kind of set aside for potential big free
agents after next year's draft. Yeah, I mean, I think there are
a couple different things they can dowith it. One, if you do
keep lowry, you're using a reallybig tunk of it to renegotiate and extent
him right like, and that getsyou nearly to the salary floor if I
(15:39):
remember the calculations correctly. So it'snot like it used to be the new
CBA change of rules on the salaryfloor where there are kind of some penalties
for not getting there. It usedto be like, if you don't make
the salary floor, you just haveto pay the players who are currently on
your after more money to get tothe salary floor. And so it's not
really a penalty. Now it messeswith your app you can't do some certain
(16:00):
things, and it's you know,you you probably do want to be at
the salary flayer by the time theseason starts, and so yeah, then
the obvious thing to do is acquirebad contracts from other teams and get the
draft picks in return that that thatcosts. You know, I think if
that happens to Jazz will be oneof the only teams with cast space in
(16:23):
order to do that. And soI think you can extract some draft pick
value in order to make that happen, or sign players that you think will
have value to contenders at the tradedeadline. Right, So you know,
if you want to get a HighestJones, for example, and sign him
to a one year, fifteen milliondollar contract or whatever, and and and
(16:45):
then you can trade him at thedeadline to someone who really could use him
as as a point guard, youknow, whether they're backup point guard or
a third guard or what have you. Maybe somebody gets hurt, you you
have him to to sell in atrade negotiation. But you know, the
only name on the market that iskind of big and made is we'll see
(17:07):
what he ends up getting, butmaybe a Miles Bridges, but obviously that's
terrible for a number of other reasons, given the domestic violence, multiple disputes
and incidents that that he's committed,right, So uh yeah, we'll we'll
see what happens with that cap space. But it's you know, given that
we're on July third now and thethe kind of bigger name cre agents are
(17:30):
mostly gone. I think that's kindof what we're talking about with the cat
space switching gears to hockey a littlebit here, Andy, the we just
we just saw your colleague, RobertGurky wrote about an update to the Downtown
District proposal by Smith Entertainment Group.He wrote that it's closed that the City
(17:52):
Council and SEG are close to adeal on there and that and that it
would include that what they're pushing foris is thirty year locked in for thirty
years for the Jazz and Utah HockeyClub at the Delta Center staying downtown,
among other things. I know youyou didn't necessarily write about this recently,
(18:14):
but I know that you've been watchingit very closely. Just any other information
you ever in it, or justyour your general thoughts on this update that
we received about the Downtown district.Yeah, I've been working with Turkey on
this kind of stuff pretty you know, at the Tribune. And yeah,
so the deal is the participation agreementkind of the executive summary of it was
(18:38):
presented to the City Council last nightand then we're getting the full participation agreement
sometime this week, let's be honest. With the holiday, that probably means
Friday. And yeah, so thisis kind of the document that we've been
waiting to see, like what arepublic city tax players actually going to begin
(19:00):
for this nine hundred million dollars intax revenue sales tax money that they'll be
committing. And you know, Ithink it's a it's pretty much in line
with what we expected. So,you know, it's five hundred and twenty
five million dollars to renovate the stadium, five hundred and twenty five million of
the nine hundred million going to renovatethe Delta Center, three hundred and twenty
(19:22):
five million going to things outside ofthe Delta Center. You know, from
a again a viewpoint of what's bestfor the city, probably the least money
they spend on the Delta Center isbetter. So it's a little more than
a fifty to fifty split going tothe Delta Center there. Obviously, that's
a really expensive renovation project, andI think that's it's going to be interesting
(19:45):
to see all the all the thingsthat change with the Delta Center. I
mean, it's it's five times moreexpensive than the last one, which I
think did make a big impact onhow the Delta Center operates, you know,
seven or eight years ago when theydid that. Any other changes,
I mean, there's this ticket feewhere one, two or three dollars of
any ticket sales will go back toSalt Lake City to support affordable housing in
(20:08):
the area. I think that's good. You know, you're you're literally looking
at you know, somewhere probably betweenfifty and one hundred million dollars on that
ticket fee going back to Salt LakeCity for those causes, and I think
that's important. There's a public safetyelement of this where they'll be able to
create kind of I don't know ifI want to use the word police station,
(20:30):
but a station for police to bestationed I guess within the district,
along with SEG security as well.So that's interesting. They kind of pointed
out they're going to be giving fivemillion of it to Japantown and its renovations.
They're going to be giving five millionof it to public art displays within
(20:52):
and around the district. So theseare kind of the details. And then
I think the most important detail iswhat keeps jazz and what keeps the NHL
team downtown, and the city hasthree different ways they can go about keeping
them downtown if they if the SmithEntertainment Group would choose to leave in the
next thirty years, one would beone hundred and twenty five million dollars fine,
(21:15):
One would be for the Smith EntertainmentGroup to repay all the sales tax
increase that they've they've revenue that they'vegotten, and then one would be to
go to court and we'd see whatwould happen then. So, you know,
I think that's a a little bitsoft where you know, one hundred
and twenty five million dollars is significant, but maybe not significant enough given the
(21:37):
Smith's pocketbooks. But you know,I think overall it's a relatively good public
private agreement here that that didn't reallyhave any kind of negative surprises, and
I think that's reflective of that.I think they've been negotiating in good faith
so far. On the way outAndy Woods, where we set you loose.
(22:00):
Some somewhat breaking news out of theNBA World free agent Joe Ingles has
agreed to a one year deal tojoin the Minnesota Timberwolves, joining, of
course, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Nikhil Alexander, Right, yeah,
yeah, your thoughts on on thejazz of a few years ago playing in
(22:21):
Minnesota, Now, yeah, Ithought, I pop up off my phone
on as you guys asked the question. I like, it's uh, you
know, it's it's nostalgic, it'sit's jazz teme a lot, right,
Like that jazz team with Mike Conley, with Joe Ingles with Rudy Gobert was
so much fun. Was the mostfun I've had watching basketball in the last
(22:45):
you know, ten twenty years.And I think what Joe and Mike were
and and how those guys interacted withRudy Gobert specifically, and you know in
the pick and roll especially, isgoing to be fun to replicate Joe was
not the player he wants. Waslike, let's be honest, he was
not a super duper contributor in Orlandolast year. Mike is still pretty close
(23:10):
to what he was, and youknow that could change any point. But
regardless, you know, even ifyou're just signing Joe Ingles to be a
locker room guy, I think thatthat makes sense. I think it's it's
a fun signing. It's a reminderof what this jazz team used to be.
And you know, I don't thinkit's for anybody's fault necessarily, I
don't, but it's it's cool tosee Joe come back to to to play
(23:36):
with those guys. And you know, obviously I think a lot of jazz
fans here in Utah are going tobe watching him. Yeah, it should
be fun to watch. I wasalready rooting hard for that te Wolves team,
partially because of the the Jazz ties. Con wanted to see Connley and
Gobert win a championship or get closeto a championship there. I think I
think jazz fans will root even morefor for Minnesota UH in the playoffs this
(24:00):
year, assuming they get back towhere they were last year. Andy,
thanks for hopping on man. Havea good rest of your day. We'll
talk again soon. So good Thanksguy. Thanks Andy. Andy Larson of
the Salt Like Tribune, Utah Jazzbeat writer doing a little hockey riding as
well as we get ready for thefirst Utah Hockey Club season. I liked
(24:22):
what the additional information he had andinsights he had on that downtown district proposal
that Smith Entertainment Group is trying toget done and in the city council is
ruling on here shortly. They dohave another meeting on the ninth, you
said, Porter, right, andthen another one in August, and one
(24:44):
of those may in the end ina vote. Maybe the vote will come
later after that. We'll see,Yeah, of course, the the I
think the meeting on the July ninthis the one they were hoping to get
all the way finished yesterday or theday before, So we'll we'll see exactly
what comes about out. But yeah, I think the majority of this plan
(25:04):
they want to have kind of figuredout before they get into actual hockey,
so they can focus on that oncewe get into fall. Yeah, so
the August thirteenth or whatever date.That August date would seem logically as the
time that they might vote on it, but you never know with these things.
We will certainly keep following it foryou and give you updates as we
(25:26):
get closer to that being resolved.And like you said, Porter, it
would makes sense if they'd want todo that before the season starts. Their
first season starts in October. OnOctober eighth, we have the exact start
date. They'll take on the ChicagoBlackhawks before we break here help the children
at the Road Home start school instyle. Stop by the advocates in Ogden,
(25:51):
American Fork or Murray. Pick anapple from the tree and you can
supply shoes, clothing, and abackpack for a child at the road Home.
Every child deserves an advocate. Stopby today. It's so important to
help our our children in our communitythat are experiencing homelessness and their family from
(26:11):
families that are experiencing homelessness, getthe get the supplies that they need to
start school. Because it doesn't matterwhat your living situation is, You're gonna
be going to school and you needyou need the you need that new stuff.
Uh and that and all those schoolsupplies that any other child has and
and needs to be able to getthrough school. So stop by the advocates
(26:33):
and pick an apple from the roadHome apple tree too. To serve our
great community that way today. Uh. On the other side, more from
the Nameless midday show, The Showwith No Name Here going until two right
here on Utah's number one Sports TalkESPN seven hundred and nine
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