STRUGGLE – End of Utah Jazz roadtrip EXPOSES the difficulty of life without Walker Kessler.

STRUGGLE – End of Utah Jazz roadtrip EXPOSES the difficulty of life without Walker Kessler.

Historically rough in Minnesota. Could this roughness be reality? Next on Locked Odd Jazz. Why, that’s interesting. That didn’t run like it was supposed to. At least it didn’t on my end. So, we will bring it back. How are you? I’m David Lock, radio voice, Utah Jazz, Jazz NBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz. It’s your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. Today’s show is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Thank you for making Locked On Jazz your first listen. Thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. And every day out there, you’re the best. I’ve taken some time and uh not a lot but uh and figured out some things programming wise for the year. Here’s what we’re going to do. Monday third segments are going to This is going to drive me crazy. My hair is for those you on YouTube, my hair is Monday morning baddy and uh it’s nothing I can do about it now. Uh all right, Monday, third segment, last of the show will be trends Monday like it always has been. Tuesdays will be late game watch. Wednesdays will be Jazz Trends and Will Wednesday. So if Will has interesting comments throughout the week, we’ll pull them back because he’s has he’s the leader of the ship. Thursday will be late game watch. And then Friday, I don’t think we’ll do anything because the Ask LJ questions have been so good. So every day you’re with us every day. That’s the plan. Uh today’s show trends Monday to end it. We’ll talk about what what we’ve seen without Walker. It’s ugly. Uh the road trip, where some of the guys are, what’s happening uh and where we are. That uh performance on on Friday night in Minneapolis was historically bad. It was the largest deficit we’ve ever had at the end of the first quarter, the largest deficit we’ve ever had at the half. Um, you know, and it was, you know, I I’m not going to give fifth game of the road trip kind of stuff to that. Like I just But I will say this, like when the year started, we talked about 240 minutes. And if you recall, the 240 minutes is how many minutes you have on your roster that are established NBA players. And so Lowry came in at 34. Walker and Nerkach came in at 48 combined. And then you had to decide what you were going to do with Keonte. And the comment I made was I’ll give Keonte 24, but if he played for any other team in the league, I wouldn’t give many. Like if you told me that a two-year player that shoots 39% from the field and 31% from three in his first two years in the NBA that is not going to be a player that I’m going to say is established two years into their career of being an NBA player. Now we this was at the beginning of the year and we’ve seen and he shot sorry it’s 39 and 33. Um, but so you and that’s it. Like then you can maybe guy Kyle Anderson 12, but probably not. And you can probably go George Nyang, I would give George Nyang like 14. So when the year started and we looked at this, out of 240 potential NBA minutes, I think we had 110. We were literally going into the season knowing we were going to play might have been 120 kind of is my memory. Half of our NBA minute half of our minutes every single night are with players that are still trying to establish themselves as NBA players. Doesn’t mean they won’t be, but it also doesn’t mean they will be. That’s the reality of where we are as a franchise. We just lost 32 of those minutes. We just lost 30% a little less 28 29 of our limited minutes that are vi that are NBA players. And like just be totally honest about where everybody is. Kyle has not established himself as an NBA player yet. Isaiah has not established himself as an NBA player yet. Taylor has not established himself as an NBA player yet. Bryce has not established himself NBA rotation player. Let me rephrase this. NBA rotation. It just hasn’t happened yet. And it may or may not. But let’s just like that’s the truth. That’s what we’re doing this season. Cody has not established himself as an NBA rotation player yet. Keonte truly hasn’t. He’s on his way. It looks great in most ways. So, the reality is we’re walking into an arena where we’re playing a team that’s not quite 240, but pretty close with a bunch of all stars and we’re rolling out right now with 30% of the minutes we’re playing every night are established NBA minutes. Maybe right 34 from Lowry. Nerk’s not a 30inut NBA player anymore. Like if Nerk played for another team and he was the backup center for 18 minutes a night. I’m I’m I’m going there. We’ll give Nerk 20. We give him 30. I don’t care. Like bust it up. No need to make it bigger. But and then if we give Keonte 24 and 30, like Keiante on a good team’s not playing 30 minutes a night right now. And honestly, at 39% shooting and 33% for your field. I’m not I don’t know that Keont is playing for a not very good team. Like I don’t know he’s playing for the Knicks right now. He should he’s going to get there, but he’s So just that’s my point. And you know, if we look at the other teams are dealing with this is there’s Washington and Brooklyn and the rosters are similar. They’re getting they’re getting toasted. So getting waxed and getting blown out is probably an unfortunate like Brooklyn lost to New York 134 to 98 last night and that game was 18 points at the end of the first quarter. I mean, it was kind of the exact same game we just watched and then it kind of stayed at 18. I mean, the one thing that was interesting to me about Friday night in the NBA, just to share, is that there weren’t any close games, which lets you believe that the minute it was cup play and the margin of error mattered, teams don’t work their way back like they often do in the NBA where the other team relaxes, it gets within eight, and then you work your way back up. It also tells you how fruitless some of those minutes are. But this was, you know, Brooklyn last night never got inside 20. We go look at Washington play. Washington played Dallas was a closer game because Dallas is not particularly good. But if we go find the last time that Washington played a really good team. They played Boston the other night who we beat and they lost 136 to 107. Boston hit their threes that night. So, I just think these nights are unfortunate. They they the the the most unfortunate thing is that they zap the soul of your team because it’s embarrassing. Here’s the things I’m going to watch in the midst of all this. One of the things that really has to start happening, and this is not easy, and it sounds silly, and there’s no metric for it, but our guys have to start owning their own space. This goes back a little bit to the show I did where let’s not be the get well guys. There’s a little bit right now that Minnesota ran into every single I I rewatched the first quarter. They just ran into every single play they wanted to. They got everything open. They just I mean literally the first play of the game just rip it out of our hands and dunk. Like you’ve got to own your own space. I understand that if you are Kee George guarding Anthony Edwards that Anthony Edwards is better than you. I got it. If you’re Isaiah Call, you’re playing Dante Danchenzo. I get it. Dante D. Venenzo is better than you. If you are Taylor Hendricks or whoever our starting three is or Mckyuk and you’re going up against Jade McDaniels, I understand that Jade McDaniels is six inches longer and bigger athlete and a better player than you. I got it. If you’re Nerkage and you’re playing Rudy Goar, you’re both 10-year veterans at this point. Like, own your space. And if you’re going up against Julius Randall and you’re Lowry Markin, like own your space because you’re better than he is or as good. Probably the same. So that’s the one thing I would say. And then when our bench guys come in who are young and scared and not sure what’s going on and still trying to figure out, they need to own their own space and they need to impact guys and they need to have it be felt. That to me is would be the biggest area of growth for this group right now. I’m not sure that they have the confidence in themselves to go do that or how to do it. It’s a skill because you get called for fouls a bunch of times while you’re doing it. So, you know, there’s there’s a concept in the NBA that like the officials only call abnormal activity as a foul. So if you’re someone like Houston and you’re physical the entire time, none of the behavior looks abnormal and so therefore they don’t get called for fouls. We need to make it look normal to be physical and impactful on the ball and motion and routes and things of that nature. Um that that’s the biggest thing that jumps out to me watching right now. That would be, you know, I don’t know that it’s fair to ask some of our younger players who are trying to establish themselves to be equally as good as Jaden McDaniels tonight or Anthony Edwards or Dante Danchenzo or Julius Randall or Rudy Gobear. Now, when they’re guarding Jaylen, when they’re up against Jaylen Clark and Terrence Shannon, if Terrence Shannon plays and Rob Dillingham, then they better be as good as they are because those are not established NBA players either. So, there’s al so there’s that aspect of things, too. And that is when you’re actually playing someone who’s not an established player, how do you look? It was the great thing about Philipski summer league was that a bunch of against a bunch of guys who he should annihilate, he annihilated them. That’s great. But now Kyle Philipowski’s got to figure out how he’s going to play against someone that’s not Adam Bona, who’s good. He’s playing well for Philadelphia. That’s the best player played this summer. Isaiah Collier gets the start. Why? Let’s road trip summary and the non-Kesler impact is significant. Next on Locked on Jazz. Monday edition of Locked on Jazz is brought to you by our friends over at Murdoch Chevy. Murdoch Chevy is located in Woodscross. It is also located in Logan. And the Chevy lineup of trucks, well, it’s the Silverado and it’s the Colorado. And it’s awesome. The Silverado is I got to drive the Silverado for a while. It was and I’m not a truck. I’ve never been a truck guy and I was like, “Oh, this is why this is why people love trucks.” There’s also the Silverado EV now as well out there. If you never want to stop at a gas station again, the lineup of Silverados, the 1500, the HD, the 3500, the 82500 HD, and now the EV are all there for you. And it is incredible. Right now is truck season, of course, because the winter supposedly is coming at some point. and 0% APR up to a8 $8,123 value when you trade in an eligible vehicle as well. All sorts of great deals right now. 0% APR on the 2026 Silverado 1500, the Equinox, Equinox EV, and the Trailblazer. All taking place at Murdoch Chevy located in Woodscross, also in Logan. If you’re going to stop by, please email me first so that we can give you the VIP treatment that you deserve as a locked everydayer. Email me at dlock09gmail.com and we’ll get you set up. Have the sales guy waiting for you. Don’t have to go through any of the rigomearroll and make sure you get what you deserve by being a locked on every day. Today’s show is also brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, but every day, locking in on every opportunity and every opening, beating your PR, beating it again, channeling that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options, futures, and crypto all on one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood’s legendary advanced tools or take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more for yourself. Expect more for your money. Get started at robinhood.com. Your money. Again, that’s robinhood.com/youoney. Your money. Your move. Thank you very much for making Lockdown Jazz your first listen of the day and thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Awesome. You guys are amazing. It’s almost 10 years. My wife and I were at dinner the other night talking about this. Um free plug for a restaurant that’s very high-end, expensive, and super cool. Um only because there weren’t enough people there and I hope it survives and um I’m rooting for them. So I went to a restaurant. It’s a tasting menu. It’s I’m just going to tell you the whole deal. It’s seven courses and it’s like $115 per person. So, it’s expensive. This is not just This is special night out. And it’s called Monte. And I It’s M O N T E. And I don’t know if you’ve heard about it. Um I had just heard about it from friends. It’s a type of restaurant we’ve not really not had in Salt Lake before. Um we have Table X. Um and I believe that restaurants are part of your culture and important. And so I’m giving them a free plug because of the fact they didn’t ask for this. I paid for my whole meal. They have if they’re going to hear about this and be like, I had no idea he was in the building. Um, my wife and I just went and had a wonderful time. It was really, really good. Um, and I just am rooting for them and I’m nervous that Salt that that we we need restaurants like this in Salt Lake. Like it’s important um to have some of these high-end things to it’s also important to have the non- highend things, but these are important. It just those are not mutually exclusive. Um, so anyway, if you’re a foodie like me, um, two things. One is I went to an incredible place in Detroit and if you’d like to know about it, just email me at dlock9. If you’re going to any NBA city and you want to go to a restaurant, just email me at dlock9 and I’ll give you a restaurant. I promise you, I’m into this. Uh, but Monte was super good. They do they’re trying really hard. They’re doing creative stuff. Um, they’re located in a distillery and they’re kind of hidden and you just wouldn’t know about them and it’s in South Salt Lake and so there. Okay. All right. Isaiah call your starts. Why? Well, one of the things that Will Hardy talked about to start the two two things. One, nobody will say it, but I I thought maybe the Walker Kesler injury allows it. I don’t know that you can play Walker and Isaiah Collier together. Um, that’s always been one of my things because that’s just two total non-shooters on the floor. Um, Isaiah is convinced he’s going to shoot well this year, which is great. Um, and if it is, then it’s a game changer for his career. He believes that he had a talking to him that he had something in his wrist and it was a screw and it came loose last year during the season and it made it almost impossible for him to bend his wrist and now he can bend his wrist and he’ll be able to shoot. Um, so that let’s let’s go that that’s true. That’s awesome. Here’s the thing that Will’s dealing with right now. Uh, and prior it’s gotten a little bit better. Um, but the Jazz are the fifth slowest team in the NBA to their first action. We’ve always kind of been this way. We’re the seventh slowest team across half court. Um, I believe this is only because we’ve sped up in the last few days. This numbers, these numbers are actually getting quicker. We’re the we have the 12th longest possessions of any team. So once we get across half court, right? So just take this. We get across half court, we’re the seventh slowest team in the league to get across half court. We take the seventh longest to get across half court. Let’s phrase it that way. Then once we get across half court, we’re the fifth longest team to get into our first action. But then our possessions are the 12th longest. So once we get into our actions, whether it’s Lowry on a pin down or whatever it might be or handoff action, we’re we’re doing pretty well. Will Will like us to play with some more force and get across better and not be pressured back. And Portland, there’s clearly a scouting report that came out against us. And I asked Will about whether teams are defending us differently. He said, “No, teams I see have just pressured us relentlessly in the back court, slowing us down, making it difficult for us to get where we need to get to and get into our sets. And so having a secondary ball handler and having Isaiah Collier on the floor is supposed to help that.” Now, the problem is we’re also right now 28th in the league in three-point shooting at 30.5%. Which is just stunningly low. Um, but we’ll see. All right, road trip summary. Um, just quick numbers on a few of our guys. So, Lowry, teams have zeroed in on him. Lowry got back to kind of a normal. Instead of 30 points a game, he averaged 24 points a game, five rebounds. The number that jumps out of me is down to one assist. So, one of the things that was most obvious was how he was getting assists to every other guy and helping everybody else out. Some of that was Walker. He only shot 41% and 28% from three on the trip. So, those are not great numbers from our King Guy. Keonte 22 points, four rebounds, six assists. Amazing. He’s shooting 43% from the field and he’s up to 33% from three, which is right on his career average. And he’s 86% from the free throw line and he’s taking eight free throws again. Keont is amazing. The overall three-point shooting number, I’m not going to lie to you, is a little disturbing, but 33% in the last five kind of like the most recent trend is all right. Um, Keant’s getting 36% of his field goals, his layups or dunks. Lowry is getting 59% of his field goals made as layups or dunks right now. Keont is getting 33% of his points at the free throw line. Amazing. Um, but Keont is great. Like that is the story of the road trip is 33 minutes a night, 22 points, four rebounds, six assists. He’s drawing he’s taking eight free throws a game. He’s drawing like five or six fouls a game. Six fouls drawn a game right now. The other one is Keonte is shooting 63% on layups. That’s super high. Lowry’s at 52% just to put that in comparison. Um, you want the crazy number? Uh, Ysef Nerk is shooting 43% on layups on the road trip. Kyle Philipowski is shooting 40 33% on layups. Those two are not We do not have good ribb finishers right now. Um, all right. Other quick notes. Ace Bailey 40% 20% from three on the road trip. 20 minutes a game. So, he’s up to 21 minutes a game. He’s trying to learn, figure it out. This is going to be a progression. It’s going to take some time. Um, not a great road trip for Kyle Filipowski. 35% from the field, 27% from three. Yousef Nerkach, your starting center, is now 34% from the field and 10% from three and 58% from the free throw line. I mean, the Walker I mean, if you go back and listen to my show the day Walker was out for the season, like I tried, but it I just you just know it. Here’s something pretty exciting. Walt Clayton road trip 14. This is just offense. 47% from the field, 43% from three. So nice to see Taylor as we expected. We’re not going to judge him. 16 minutes, 36% from the field, 25% from three. We’re going to go over a lot of this on Wednesday on trends Wednesday for the Jazz. But I thought the road trip was kind of an interesting bellweather moment of those five games to see what we have. Here’s what’s really changed. And this is shooting frequency by opponents. Now, we’ve talked about this a lot that there is some element the hometown scorekeeper, but our first five games of the year and um I don’t have the raw numbers. I’m going to give you percentages. Excuse me. The Clippers took 14% of their shots at the rim. Sacramento took 20%. Phoenix took 19%. Portland took 21%. Okay. Like Phoenix took 24% the second half. That is in defensively in the 99th 92nd 99th percentile. Like the Clipper number at 14 is one of the best defensive performances the year denying the rim. And then Sacramento at the 92nd percentile and then Phoenix at the 95th percentile and Portland at the 90th and Phoenix at the eighth. There is some question whether hometown scores don’t count rim shots. I think that’s legit to take just to be fair. However, we go on the road and suddenly Charlotte took 33% of their shots at the rim. Boston, who does not take shots at the rim, only took 20. Detroit took 41% of their shots at the rim. And then Minnesota took 36% of their shots at the rim. We built the entire will built the entire defense in the offseason predicate on taking the rim away which really is Walker Kesler and then secondary room defenders helping Ysef Nerk and now we don’t have that and it’s abundantly clear and I I don’t I don’t know what his answer is here. Um, to me that’s kind of the daunting thing here. The second one is that our offense has just totally disappeared on the road trip. Our offensive rating percentile to league performance. So if something’s in the third percentile out of a 100 performances, it would be the third worst. Okay? Is that you understand percentile? So we’re in the third percentile against Phoenix. the 11th percentile against Charlotte, the 30th percentile against Boston, the ninth percentile against Detroit, and the zero percentile against Minnesota. That was the worst offensive game by any team all year. I mean, it’s hard to think that Walker is that big an impact, but he is. Walker does two things that nobody on this roster else does. One, Walker runs the floor at on fast breaks and gets in front of people at a rate that a lot of our guys don’t do. In fact, no one does. Maybe Lowry a little bit. And number two is Walker rim rolls on a pick and roll. And I don’t know if the lack of rim roll is the reason, but our three-point shooting in the last four games, seven of 32, 9 of 31, 12 of 39, nine of 39. That That’s a tough one. the road trip as a whole fivegame road trip shot 27.5% from three. So we got to pick that that’s going to lead to some long nights if that doesn’t change. All right, trends Monday next on Locked on Jazz. Today’s edition of Locked on Jazz brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. FanDuel’s official sports book of Locked On and the official betting partner of the NBA. 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Jazz are a seven and a half point dog to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Uh Clippers and the Hawks tonight in LA. Clippers are a five-point favorite. Clippers not playing well. I would be super concerned if I was a Clipper fan right now. Today’s show is also brought to you by Game Time. Game time. Download the Game Time app. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. game time. Taking away all the negatives of ticket buying. I don’t mean to be negative to lead the conversation, but taking away all the hassles, all the worry about extra fees, all those kind of things with game time and giving you the best purchase experience you can have. So, no cues, no surprise fees, no prices jumping right before checkout, none of the things that frustrate you. The app gives the fans the advantage. It’s the ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stress-free. Recently used game time to grab seats to concerts, and it works perfectly on the road. Kind of look to see what I can find as well. Uh you’ll see exactly what you’re paying for. No hidden fees at charge at checkout. There’s also zone deals are a game changer. You pick the section. Game time picks your seats and you save big. You can even save. Find tickets for under $25. Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s code locked on NBA for $20 off your first swipe, tap ticket, go. The trends Monday. All right, I have to share because I share with you guys everything. So, I obviously have I’m congested. So, I’ve taken more crap than you can imagine. But this morning, getting ready for the show, I forgot to do one thing, which is eat. And just about five minutes ago, my entire stomach just completely reacted and I could not feel worse right now because I have all the medicine in me and forgot to eat my food to go down with it. And if you actually look on YouTube, you can probably see I’m sweating. So, kind of fun. Uh hopefully nothing tragic happens here the next two minutes or five minutes to wrap up the show. Okay. Every Monday we do trends Monday. We like to look at where teams are in the NBA. We look at their last 10 games and then we look at their last two weeks and we might even go to last five games this week because of where we are in the process. Cleaning the GA glass looks at two weeks. We’re a little deeper than two weeks is kind of seven eight games and then we look at the NBA.com numbers um for team stats uh for the last for the last 10 games and that’s kind of where we are for the season right now. Um, there’s some interesting things to look at at this point because you’re beginning to get things. First off, I’m not entirely sure that these six teams that are in the playoffs nonplaying in both the East and the West aren’t the six teams already. Like, if you look at it, I’m not sure this is the order, but Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Milwaukee. Who’s knocking out? Chicago is the team you don’t expect in there. Who’s knocking them out? Philadelphia, Toronto, Atlanta, Boston, Orlando maybe. But I’m I just have not been sold on Orlando all season even coming in. So I I actually think that Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, Miami, Milwaukee might be the teams. In the West, it’s Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Lakers, Houston, Minnesota. Who’s knocking them out? Not Portland, not Golden State, not Phoenix, not Memphis. And I think the Clippers are going to be the lottery. I don’t think Clippers are figuring this out. Clippers have trailed by 20 too many times. That’s kind of my benchmark I look at. They’ve trailed by 20 too many times. All right, so let’s take a look at this. Whose offenses are clicking? This is crazy. Houston has the best offense in the NBA right now. Um, at a 121.7. What’s so interesting about all these things is that none of these leagues keep all these different sites. It’s so annoying. All these different sites keep different offensive ratings and different systems and different this and that because like I go to Radar 360 and they have which is sports radar and they have Denver Nuggets as the number one offense and Minnesota is number two and um and the Knicks is number three and Houston is number four and this one has Houston as one, the Knicks is two, Denver’s three and Minnesota is four and then Philadelphia slides from five to eight. So, I do not know how everyone is calculating differently, but using NBA.com because it’s I guess we’ll call it the best. Houston has won. Knicks are two offensively. Houston is grabbing 41% of their offensive rebounds. That’s how they’re doing this. They’re shooting it well. They’re the eighth best shooting team in the league. I’m not sure that that’s totally sustainable. Um, but they’re the eighth best shooting team in the league, but they’re getting 41% of their own offensive rebounds. That makes them the best offensive team in the league. New York is two, Denver is three. Denver to me is going to have an offense that’s better than everybody else by the season’s over. Jokic is incredible. That team is perfect. Cam Johnson’s not playing well yet, but they’re perfect and they’re playing fast. Um, Minnesota four, Philadelphia five, and San Antonio six offensively. Teams that cannot score, Indiana desperately cannot. Dallas cannot score. Washington, New Orleans, and now Utah is now bottom five. Memphis is also right there. So, surprising team, but we’re 10 games in. Memphis 11 games in the These numbers are real at this point. Oak defensive teams, Oklahoma City’s one. This is the big surprise. Denver’s two, Detroit is three, Dallas is four, Miami is five. So, credit to Dallas who can’t score they can play defense. San Antonio is six. So, San Antonio’s six offense and six defense. That’s like the makeup of a championship team. teams that cannot defend Brooklyn, Washington, New Orleans, Sacramento. Doug Christie was very upset after the game against the Clippers, and then we’re sixth. So that’s overall teams with a net rating on trends. Oklahoma City and Denver well above everybody else. Then Houston, New York’s the best in the East. San Antonio, Detroit is second, and Miami after that. Washington, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Indiana, and Utah, the bottom five in net rating. That’s kind of probably the truth. New Orleans doesn’t own their own pick, so they’ll get out of there at some point. Looking at the last recent trend, excuse me, give me a second. Um, last two weeks point differential, Oklahoma City 1, Houston 2, Denver 3, New York four, and Minnesota five. Two back-to-back blowouts will help you. And then Detroit six. The teams in the last stretch that are struggling the most, Brooklyn, Washington, New Orleans, Clippers, and Utah. I’m telling you, Clippers is not right. Offensively hottest team in the league over the according to Clean the Glass over the last two weeks is New York at a 131 offensive rating. Craziness, Houston, then Minnesota, then Denver, then Philadelphia, then Oklahoma City. Defensively, Oklahoma City well ahead of everybody else. Then Denver, Dallas, Detroit, Golden State, and Phoenix. A little surprising that Phoenix is in that group uh right now. Teams that are cannot score over the last two weeks. Indiana, Dallas, Washington, Utah, New Orleans. I mean, this is really separating. And teams that can’t defend, Brooklyn, Clippers, Sacramento, Washington, New Orleans, and Charlotte. Chicago, by the way, keep an eye on this. Charlotte Chicago has been living off an unnatural three-point shooting defense. teams have just missed a lot of shots against them and that has suddenly rectified and now all of a sudden they’re 24th in the league in defense. Um, if you just look at shooting accuracy, I would also say Denver’s defense a little suspect right now. Teams are shooting 31.6% from three against them. I don’t think that’s real. Um, it’s just not a number that that’ll head up to 34 kind of where everybody else is. Um, Brooklyn, Clippers, Charlotte, and New York, interestingly, have kind of been unnaturally had unnaturally bad three-point shooting against them so far this year. All right, that is your trends Monday. We’ll do late game watch for the third segment tomorrow. Jazz, Timberwolves tonight. Tune in and join Ron and I. Have a great day. Be safe. Thank you very much for tuning in. Thanks for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. 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Utah Jazz suffer a historic blowout against the Minnesota Timberwolves, raising questions about the team’s development amid a challenging rebuild. How can rising talents like Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen help the Jazz navigate their roster limitations and claim their space on the court?

David Locke breaks down Utah’s struggles, highlighting the loss of Walker Kessler and the pressing lack of established NBA rotation minutes. The analysis covers George’s impressive scoring and foul-drawing ability, Markkanen’s recent shooting dip, and the team’s concerning rim protection issues. Minnesota’s All-Stars expose the Jazz’s defensive vulnerability, while trends around shooting efficiency, possession speed, and physicality reveal deeper problems. Locke explores the impact of young players like Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski, plus league-wide trends affecting Washington, Brooklyn, and the LA Clippers. Can the Jazz rebuild confidence, boost their shooting, and compete against more experienced lineups?

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