Utah Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks Post Game | Lauri Markkanen and Ace Bailey shine again! | Hoops Nerd Show

Utah Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks Post Game | Lauri Markkanen and Ace Bailey shine again! | Hoops Nerd Show

Tough loss for the Utah Jazz. Crying. I’m crying. Let’s talk about his show. [Music] All right, guys. Like the video. Subscribe to the channel if you’re new here. Oh my gosh, was I sweating that one. And I got to say, guys, after some careful consideration and I thought a lot about my stance about whether the Jazz should lose to get a superstar player like Darren Peterson or AJ Debonsa. By the way, AJ Debonsa, if you haven’t gone to his uh Players Tribune article, he tweeted it out. Go to Players Tribune and read about his why he chose BYU, who he is as a person. Great stuff. or Camboozer. I’ve really thought about my stance and I almost felt like saying I I was gonna apologize, but I just I want to say that I actually do apologize to you for absolutely nothing. For nothing. I was I am even more convicted now convicted convinced now than ever before that this is the right path and I will never settle for anything less than championship trajectory. There is just nothing that will change my mind. I apologize for nothing. Nothing at all. All right, let’s get into this. So, the Utah Jazz, they played an Atlanta Hawks team that was without negative influence. Trey Young, No, just kidding. They were out without Trey Young in this one. And I tell you what, I was super interested in this cuz I am not a Trey Young fan. And anytime I have watched the Hawks play with Trey Young, it is just not an enjoyable enjoyable experience for me. It’s just not. I don’t enjoy watching Trey Young. When Trey Young is on the floor, you are at an immediate disadvantage on the defensive end. It’s just he is so bad. And when you have Trey Young on the floor, you immediately have free reign driving to the basket. And so for a team if they don’t have rim protection, like if the Hawks didn’t have rim protection and they have Trey Young on the floor, then they just have players getting to the basket at will and just there’s just no way you have a good defense, right? And if you have Trey Young in the playoffs and he has I mean in Trey Young’s defense, he’s played well and he’s had some series and I think they even got to the Eastern Conference Finals with Trey Young, but they didn’t win. And when you’re in the playoffs and it’s advantage basketball and everyone’s trying to find the weak point, it’s just unavoidable that the best teams in the league will find it. Like you go up against like the Luca Donuches, the Nicola Joices, the LeBron James or whoever, the Tatums, the whatever, they are going to find that weakness and they are going to break it down. And that’s why you have to build these teams with length and athleticism and size and shooting. And that’s basically what this Atlanta Hawks team has done. Reza, you know, they they got the number one pick in an off year and he’s turned into turning into a nice player. I don’t think anyone expected him to be a superstar, but he plays 20 minutes and plays pretty decently. Jaylen Johnson is turning into a legit star for them. I think he’s probably one of the most underrated players in the league with his size and combination of athleticism. He almost had a quadruple double tonight. 16 uh let’s see 18 rebounds, 14 assists, seven steals, 31 points. That is superstar stuff. And you know, it says a little bit about the Jazz defense for one thing, but he’s just awesome. And not having Trey Young has just unlocked him even more. I’m a little lightaded. Oh crap, I made I forgot my cider in the microwave, guys. I’ve been heating up hot cider and it it’s the best. I get the sugar-free kind. By the way, if you want to know an absolute cheat code, go get those sugar-free hot cers. First off, they’re great. Great for the diet. If you’re trying to eat well, they’re they’re like awesome at night if you just need something. And guess what? They’re chalk full of vitamin C. So, they help you not get sick. Or if you are sick, you should get these because of the vitamin C. You can thank me later, but I’m telling you, go get hot cider. We have a big bag of cinnamon sticks and I put I make the hot cider in the microwave, heat up the water, baboom, put in the packet, stir it up, drop in a cinnamon stick. You’re welcome from the hoops nerd. Anyways, I uh I enjoy watching this Hawks team minus Trey Young. So much more. It’s so much more interesting. And you have size at every pi position. There is no defensive we I I mean the Jazz scored a ton tonight. So they’ve got some defensive things to clean up. Although this Atlanta Hawks team was on the back end of a backtoback having traveled to SA from Sacramento to Utah playing at Utah altitude and still played like this. Hey, if you’re a Hawks fan, you’ve got to be pretty excited about this win because this was not a gimme. This Utah Jazz team has played well this season and for them to play like they did and they didn’t look particularly exhausted to me. They did blow out the Kings in their game before but the on a back end of a backto-back on the road to beat this Jazz team like this when the Jazz were playing pretty well. Uh impressive win for the Hawks. Uh Dyson Daniels didn’t shoot the ball hardly at all. I was kind of wondering where he was at. Where’s the defense? because he got a big contract. And I don’t know, there’s sometimes, this is one thing, too, and this is just something to watch, and I’m sure, you know, I haven’t watched enough Hawks games to really have an opinion on this, but it does remind me of some things like um Hassan Whiteside is kind of one of these guys that can rack up just a ton of blocks. Do you remember when he was getting triple doubles in Miami with all the blocks, but their defensive rating was terrible? I sometimes think that there’s a difference between a guy that’s good at steals or maybe good at blocks, but are they necessarily a good defender? Are they just good at getting steals and blocks? Right? Cuz sometimes there’s a difference if you’re not like stopping your man from getting to the basket. If you’re not, you know, if you’re a rim protector and you only stop the first shot, but the second shot always goes in because you don’t have a good second step and you don’t position yourself well and things like that. Are you actually a good defender? That’s why I’ve always had a little bit of a question with Walker Kesler because he’s a great shot blocker and he does have good rim protection numbers, but I don’t always know if it’s like continuation to the end of the play. And I don’t know if that’s his fault. I could be wrong. Maybe they just need better rebounding around Walker Kesler, but the Jazz defensive rating the last three, four years has been just terrible and tonight was no different. In fact, let’s go look at this right now. refresh. So, worst net rating in the league is the Washington Wizards. Utah’s now down to 22, but makes sense cuz there’s about they’re about eight or nine in these tankathon standings. Brooklyn is also there, so not surprising either. Defensive rating, number one, Oklahoma City. Utah now at 24 defensive rating. So, it’s continuing to drop. Uh offensive rating, the thing that the Jazz were kind of hanging their hat on, 23rd. So Utah’s playing pretty good offense, at least better than last year. The offense is is getting better, and that’s from having just better shooting on the floor. The ball’s moving. But I It’s interesting that this is only at they’re the 23rd offense. So, we look at all this scoring the Jazz are doing, and it might be a little fool’s gold. And one thing to uh think of now, Whoops. NBA.com. Uh, let’s go to actually Utah Jazz schedule. There we go. And this next stretch for Utah starts to get pretty tough. And for guys like me that have been worried out of their minds because I want a superstar on this Jazz team to pair with Ace Bailey, to pair with Kee George. By the way, I don’t think we saw Walter Clayton tonight. I just thought about that. Isaiah Collier has been playing pretty darn well off the bench. Gotta say I was like after a disastrous summer league and a pretty terrible opening game with when he started, he’s really locked in on that second unit. We’ll see how it goes when they go up against better teams. But uh so Utah now will play the Lakers on Tuesday. Let’s see. Is this the current season? I believe so. Oh yeah. No, they play the Bulls on Sunday. Okay, so we have three days in between. I got to get some videos done. I probably won’t get a video done tomorrow. My son is turning 13 tomorrow. Happy birthday to Gray. Um, but anyways, Bulls Sunday, Lakers Tuesday, Thunder Lakers, Warriors, they do play the Kings. I kind of hope that Lowry is out with a cold. I, by the way, Tony Jones was saying that the Jazz have plans to like be good next year, and I think that is the right choice. I agree with the Jazz on that. Do the Jazz know what’s going on this season? Do they know what’s going on right now? Do they understand the implications? This is not the every single win is devastating. It is so hard to come by losses or it like I how do I describe that these loss these wins are extremely difficult to overcome if you are trying to secure the top eight spot. Utah is at 4 and eight and they’re sitting at nine. There’s these teams that are filled with incompetence and idiocy like the Dallas Mavericks and Nico Harrison and the Sacramento Kings are run by absolute morons and idiots. The New Orleans Pelicans have a coach that is stupid and doesn’t know what he’s doing. He is an idiot and doesn’t play. I mean, it’s just crazy. You have three teams like right here run in absolute just unbelievable incompetence. And there comes a point in the season where these teams will just let their incompetence go and eventually their incompetence will actually help the Jazz because they’re still going to play to win. By the way, New Orleans is going to pass the Jazz eventually. They have no reason to win. That’s why this Hawks team, you got to be excited. Look at this. They get this this Hawks pick. They’re just pathetic. Pathetic. Sacramento pathetic forever. Forever. This is them trying to win and they’re 3-9. Just pitiful. Just suckitude beyond imagination. Dallas sucks. Uh the Clippers suck. I mean, the Clippers are worse than the Jazz. And they have Kawhi Leonard who is injured now. James Harden didn’t see a donut he couldn’t put his mouth on. And Memphis is struggling. It’s just with John Morant and that Jarant drama. This is like five teams the Jazz should jump. But if they don’t figure it out, these teams will. And trade deadline is you don’t have to wait to the trade deadline. Jazz, if you want to trade Steam Mail for a pretzel, you can do it. You can do it. A warm pretzel with cheese sauce. They’ll take it. And you can have Si Mik. Just do it. Do it. Come on. Can we wake up? Wake up. All right. Should we talk about the actual Utah Jazz? Ah. Ah. I was sweating it on this one, guys. Holy smokes. By the way, speaking of S Mik, what is the obsession? By the way, I have I’m working on a new 8bit video. I got to get that done. Uh, it’s going to be fun. Speaking of Sy, but Mik, I don’t get it. I I don’t get it. There is no reason for him to be on this team right now. And I tell you what, the fact that Utah is thinking about next year and not worried about this year very much apparently and that SE Mik is playing drives me crazy. Like this Jazz team, I don’t care that they said they’re not going to manipulate lineups. That’s stupid. If you’re not going to manipulate lineups, can you at least manipulate the roster to set yourself up to succeed? Come on. Why is fe McKy playing? I don’t know. The Jazz kind of lucked out. This front office who I have a feeling is not. It makes me worried, guys. This ownership, this owner and the guy he hired, I don’t think they get it. I really don’t. I don’t think they do. And it’s even worse to have AJ freaking Debbonsa in your own backyard just looking like the next more efficient Tracy McGrady and you don’t want that on this Jazz team. Could you imagine a pairing of AJ Debonsa who is looking like an actual point guard at 69 just incredible next to Ace Bailey you have like that’s it. It doesn’t matter who else is on the team. It really doesn’t. You just fill in the gaps with cap space and make smart decisions. None of the other players matter. Ah, you’re going to I’m going to be boulder than I already am. Probably what caused it. Go from freaking Greg Miller and now Ryan Smith. None. Like at least he likes to have high fives with the team after the game. I do not care if our owner is having fun. And I don’t care. I really don’t. I don’t. It does not matter to me. He will have lots of fun when Darren Peterson or AJ Debonsa or Camboozer are in the running for MVP. You know what’s fun? That’s fun. And if you are not old enough to know what that feels like, let me tell you, it’s better than this. It’s better than this. I’ll just tell you that. Ah, you guys don’t even know. Some of you, you don’t even know. You don’t know what it’s like to have an MVP. It is the best. It’s the best. And I want that. Um, anyways, Lowry Markin is is just the slump is over. He was at I was just so worried like three games ago he was at 33% from three and I was like, are you kidding me? Are we doing this again? He has completely turned it around. You have to give credit to Lowry Morgan. He’s playing awesome on the offensive end. This is truly what it would be like is if when you, you know, prime Klay Thompson on the Warriors pre-injjury just p when he was just like the most electric shooter next to like Steph Curry, the greatest shooter, I guess, whatever you want to call it. This is kind of like what would happen if you took that player and just built everything around his skill set to help him succeed. This is that’s really what this kind of looks like to me. Obviously, Markin’s seven feet and, you know, Klay Thompson was playing off of Curry and and all that, but it’s kind of like that where you have a player that’s just an elite offball shooter and having an offense kind of geared around what they do. This is just great play by him. I mean, this Hawks team has great defenders and like we said, they were probably a little bit on the tired end, and so that’s why def their defense probably wasn’t quite as good, but still super impressive. 15 for 25 from the field, 6 for12 from three, four for four from free throw. Just really arguably one of the best nights he’s had in a Jazz uniform. Uh, two assists, a steal, seven rebounds. Just great great stuff from Lowry Markin. Cannot argue it. And really for I know there’s like two fields of thought and I hear from both of you and all of you. I hear you. If you’re pro- winning and pro build around marketing then you’re happy with this because he’s showing what he can do. This is like he is in his prime right now. This is prime Lowry Markin. If you’re pro- trade marketin like me, I’ll just be honest. I am very pro that because I would like to get Darren Peterson because I think this version of Markin as amazing as it is. If he’s your best player, you’re not going very far. You know, you are in this league, you are only as good as your best player. And it’s just proven out every time with the Jazz. When the Jazz had Carl Malone, he was an MVP and he took him all the way to the finals. And he had John Stockton next to him who was an allNBA guy. First team, second team, like every year, whatever. Just allar every year. Just an one of the best 10 to 15 guys in the league every year. And that’s why both of them were on the dream team. It was incredible. If you got to watch that growing up, it was just incredible. Markin’s not that level, but he’s really, really good. Like Markin to me is kind of like the the Jeff Hornosk. He’s just the perfect piece to fit next to a tandem. And maybe he’s the second guy. He might be, maybe he is, but you cannot build if the second if the guys that a second or third option type guy winning you games when you need to get that superstar guy first. It’s just backwards. And the thing that sucks is the Utah Jazz. Ryan Smith and Justin Xanic screwed this up when they did that Derek Favors trade that gave that pick to Oklahoma City. We’re still paying for it. And it’s like 6 years later. Honestly, Utah and this front office is lucky that they live in this market because the only person that ever criticizes is this guy right here in SLC Dunk. And no one else pays attention too much. But I can tell you right now, if the if the Jazz were like the Lakers and they got that kind of that kind of coverage and and spotlight and focus, they’d be getting just destroyed for that pick every year. Every year just destroyed every game. It would be talked about. Why did the Jazz Jazz do this? What were you thinking for like a stupid little uh I can’t even remember what the Jazz did with that, but it wasn’t even that effective and it didn’t result in a championship. It didn’t result in anything and we’re still paying for it. It’s crazy. And the fact that they signed Derek Favors for the amount they did the year before, you just you pay for these decisions years down the road. And if the Jazz don’t fix this now, they will pay for this decision for years down the road. Guys, look at this Sacramento Kings where they are always going for the immediate gratification. They just want the immediate gratification. They don’t have discipline. They don’t have the the strength to say we can’t do this right now because it’s not the right thing. Instead, they make these moves and they go out and trade for Zack Lavine and they go out and get Demar D Rozan. And look what it’s got them. Three and N. It’s bad. It’s not good. And you can’t do that. So, Utah has to figure this out now. They’ve got to to get their act together. Now, like I said, it might be okay because now they’re going to go on a string of losses. Although, I have to say they’re probably going to win one of these and they’re always going to be playing a team that’s on the back end of a backtoback or one of these Laker games, Luca Donuch is going to be out for fat and that then Jazz might win one. Utah has to figure that out. They’re better now with Lowry Markin than these other bad teams. And when they are playing the bad teams, they will win these 5050 battles like they’ve done, like the Celtics win, like the Phoenix win. So, it’s just it takes discipline and not immediate gratification. It’s just a lesson in life. If you’re always just going after immediate gratification and you don’t learn discipline, where are you going to get? Not very far. All right. Anyways, that’s my rant. That said, Markinham was great tonight. And I tell, you know, before the season, Zack Low has talked about the Detroit Pistons. They are obviously extremely interested and would make a trade tomorrow if the Jazz wanted Jaden Ivy and Ron Holland and and Tobias Harris. And I guess maybe the amount of picks might be holding that up. My guess is the Jazz want Thompson, Assar Thompson. And the thing is is if Lowry Markin keeps playing like this, they might give him up. I tell you what, if they give Assar Thompson and and two picks and Tobias Harris and you can get Larry and you can turn Larry Markin into a young prospect like that. I just think you have to do that because you can have Thompson play next to Kei and you know it’s just allows Key to play point guard again and then this team just can develop and they will not win as many games because the shooting will go down. The best thing about this team right now is their offense. The defense is terrible. Assar Thompson will help with that defense a little bit because he’s really good, but um I don’t know. That’s my thoughts on that. Ysef Nerkach had a near triple double as well. 10 rebounds, eight assists, 10 points. He was two assists away from a triple double. He’s almost at a 5×5 and he had a 5×5 with turnovers if you count him. But Nerkich is just I don’t know. It’s interesting how he’s turned himself into and you got to give credit to Will Hardy on this. He’s turned himself into just an impactful player. He’s not like washed. He can still do some things out there. Now, his layups are an absolute uh adventure. When he takes a layup near the basket, who knows what’s happening with that ball, but it went in more tonight than it did other nights. He’s not a good free throw shooter. His free throw shooting is putrid, but every single missed Nerkage free throw, a lottery ball gets its wings this Christmas season. And so, I’m okay with that. Um I’m it. You know what else with this Jazz team is they have been pretty healthy. I know um Taylor Hendris is sitting right now with hamstring stuff and we’ll see what happens with that. Um there’s a little bit of suspiciousness with that with me. A little bit. I mean if he if you’re trying to make a trade I don’t know. I don’t know. But anyways, Ysef Nerk points across the board. He’s just a very smart veteran player. He’s enormous and he rebounds pretty darn well. I don’t know. He’s not a very quick player. He’s not going to win you a lot of games, but I mean, he’s been a pretty good placeholder since Walker Kesler went down. And he kind of plays in a style I think the Jazz really want to play where the ball kind of starts up top and you have a center that can shoot threes and and he can do that. Not super effective, but he can. And then pass the ball to cutters and things like that. All right, guys. It’s time to talk about our guy, our beloved beloved Ace Bailey. Oh my gosh, I am so happy. I’m so excited. You know what we’re in some ways what we’re seeing from Larry Markin. Larry Markin is kind of the perfect mentor for Ace Bailey right now and learning from what Markin does because right now Ace Bailey’s skill set is extremely similar to Lowry Markin like really similar because Markin cannot Markin’s not a playmaker. He can’t handle it very per he’s gotten better over the years and he’s developed a handle that’s good enough that he’s fine but he’s not a playmaker. I we’re already seeing some playmaking from Ace Bailey that’s pretty exciting stuff. I don’t know if he’s going to be I pretty sure he’s never going to be like James Harden or something like that, but he does make the right pass. He makes smart passes multiple times. I mean, we just have to like we really have to talk about how more polished his game is than I think we realized tonight. We saw just how pure that catch and shoot jump shot is. Holy smokes when he the look at these jump shots. And I think one of the things, and this is just rookies in general, when he gets his fitness to another level, it’s going to be really fun to watch because I think some of the times that he starts missing shots is just getting tired legs. You You’ll notice at the beginning of the game, look at how pure this jump shot is. It’s just so quick. That just looks so easy. Just so easy. These are all catch and shoots. Look at this. Bam. Quick. And it looks so pure. I mean, this is different than when he was in college. He’s already better. It’s really fast, really smooth. I mean, this is just going to be with him for the next for the rest of his career. He’s just It’s very clear he’s going to be a great catch and shoot uh three-point shooter right here. Same thing. Catch and shoot, bing bang, boom, money. And then finally, right here, and these were all catch and shoots. That’s what’s exciting about this is what happens when the Jazz start focusing on him in the offense and actually start giving him more plays. What’s going to happen here and it’s going to happen and that’s going to be one of the fun things as the Jazz continue to get better is Ace Bailey’s handle is not that good. I mean he’s it’s a little probably better than I thought but he does kind of cough that ball up here and there. you’ll see him it kind of squirt out once a game. Probably not the best uh word usage that phrasing, but you’ll see him lose that handle a little bit and it’ll kind of pop out and and as he gets that handle, I mean, he’s already taken this coaching so well. He’s already improved as a as a three-point shooter. And what happens when he gets more comfortable with that handle and he starts doing pull-up three-point shots? Like what happens when you have a the center come over and set a screen for Bailey and he if they go under the screen he just pulls up from three and knocks it down. I mean it’s pretty exciting. This is like offensive focal point type stuff. Really exciting stuff. You can see there’s a ceiling there that’s pretty skyhigh if that handle gets better because then not only that does he can he initiate offense like run a pick and roll things like that get into a pullup three because we know he can do it and it looks good but then the other element of that is he can drive to the basket and draw fouls. He’s drawing fouls at, you know, not a high level, probably pretty low, but it’s a little bit better than people were saying. Everyone was saying, “Oh, he can’t drive to the basket and draw fouls.” Well, he shot how many free throws today? He shot, was it? Three. Three free throws today. And he does play inside. The other thing that’s exciting is my goodness, is he a good offensive rebounder. He is so athletic and so long. And guess what? Yes, he’s 67 and a half without shoes, but basketball players, last time I checked, play with basketball shoes on. So, he’s at 6’8, 6’9. however thick that basketball soul is, whatever. But anyways, he gets to that basket and he has a he has such good athleticism that he gets those rebounds and he has pretty good hands and he has some of those hands that the ball just seems to to glue to his hands and he gets and he gets tipins. He’ll get little putbacks and things like that. It’s really nice. It’s really nice. And so I’m just excited about what we’re seeing. He actually tries on the defensive end. Look at that. two steals. I can’t believe Nerkach had five steals today. But anyways, two steals for Ace Bailey. Three assists, five rebounds, 21 points on four for seven from three and eight for 13 from the field. That’s just awesome. And if he gets better as a defender, if he gets better with that handle, uh, pull up threes, sky’s the limit. And we already know he can pass the ball. He sees the He sees the court really well. Another advantage of being 6’8. Another advantage when you are tall and you have passing ability and you’re looking for that that play. It’s great. And the fact that he’s getting these assists without the greatest handle is just exciting stuff. So for Jazz fans, you’ve got to be excited. The tank worked last year. Utah got a top three prospect. He’s looking great. He’s only going to get better and he’s going to start rising on those NBA rookie rankings. In fact, I should start doing rookie rankings on this channel. All right, Keonte George, who played a lot tonight off of Isaiah Collier. Isaiah Kier played 25 minutes. Keonte played more minutes than anyone else. It kind of tells you the importance of what he does. Uh he is just clearly clearly better at the point guard position than when he’s playing off at the shooting guard because what he does so many nice things from the point guard position. Seven assists tonight, six rebounds. He did have three turnovers. That looks like about what he’s going to average. So about three turnovers a game. He had a couple bad ones at the end, but the shot was not falling, but he was forcing it a little bit tonight. We saw a little bit of the bad habits from Keith from last year tonight. And some of that, I think, was him being at the shooting guard. And when you’re at shooting guard, what you’re trying to do is shoot the ball. You’re trying to score, play off the point guard. Well, he was forcing it. And he’s got to learn that, you know what, even if you’re at the shooting guard, you can play a little point guard, and that’s okay. Now, I think there’s a little bit of disadvantage when he’s playing next to Kier, who is not a good three-point shooter, and so the defenses can kind of hone in on him. Makes it tough. The Keonte George Isaiah Kier pairing, I don’t really feel like it really works. Um, Steve Areno, I criticize more than anyone in Southeast Asia. And then, uh, I believe in Steve. Perfect game. Ace shows flashes. Lowry trade value up. Another one in the Elcon. Exactly. This was perfect. I was stressing it though. Oh my gosh, was I stressing it. But anyways, I guess if you’re wanting the Jazz to tank, then you should play Keonte George and Isaiah Collier together. Uh because Kier can’t shoot the three. It affects the spacing a little bit and it forces Kee into bad shots more than you would like. When you had spacing on the floor with Keonte George there, that’s when we start we’re seeing those just crazy assist numbers and better percentages, right? And if Utah wins the lottery and puts Darren Peterson next to Keonte George things, this Jazz team, I’m telling you, is a playoff team immediately. Peterson is that good, guys. I mean, the talk that people are saying, best prospect since Vince Carter at the shooting guard, just best prospect since he’s just special. He’s really special. Or if the Jazz get debons and you put, you know, I mean, maybe the Jazz will get lucky if like Lowry Markin if you know he can have some sort of hamstring or something like that and you can keep him and then you put Debonsa and Bailey at the two and the three, Keonte George at the one. You just, I guess, sign Walker Kesler and then you use that cap space for someone else this upcoming off season. This Jazz team gets good real fast. But you got to do things right this year. You just have to. I’m sorry. You have to do things right. You have to make hay now because guess what? At the end of the season, there’s going to be more and more teams that are not going to be interested in winning games and Utah can’t screw this up that at that point. So, we’ll see. Uh, we’ve talked about Isaiah Collier a little bit. Having said that, this pairing is not that good. Isaiah Collier played really good off the bench and I think honestly he should just sub in when Keanti George goes out because he plays extremely he played really well tonight. Uh let’s see, seven assists, five rebounds. Let’s see here. One block and one turnover. But one thing I was really a fan of with Isaiah Collier was the defense. Like he’s at a uh even plus minus which is nice to see. He just plays hard defense. And you know, if you’ve ever coached basketball, like my son’s team, when I coached them and the coaching I’ve done with some of the other things, like one thing that I always feel like as a coach is that if I don’t see my players getting fouls, then are you really defending? Are you really defending hard? I don’t want to see an zero fouls. I don’t I don’t like seeing one personal foul. That means you’re not defending hard enough. You know what I mean? Zero personal fouls. I’d like to see a couple more. Although Keonte George was probably a little worried cuz he got in foul trouble before. That’s actually funny. I bet he was playing I don’t know. But I like seeing the fouls here. Look at this. Four personal fouls. I like that. I like it because guess what? Guess what that means? That means you’re getting up in someone’s jersey. You’re playing hard. You’re playing physical. And that’s how like this that’s the one thing. Um, I don’t want to see it this year because I want to lose some games. But next year, this Jazz team has to has to has to has to has to has to improve its physicality. It has you you have to you have to set the tone. Set the tone. You are going to come in and you are going to be a bully. You are going to play physically hard basketball and you are going to force those refs to calm down. you go set a hard foul and show these refs how what level of physicality is going to be in this game, then guess what? You will be able to play at that level of physicality or near that the rest of the game. But if you only have one guy playing with physicality and everyone else is playing lacadasical or just like playing 2 feet off, that one player is going to get in foul trouble because they’re noticing that no one else is playing that way. The thing that Utah needs to do next year is just the physicality on defense has to be there. You got to be up in someone’s jersey. You want them to smell your breath. Smell my breath. Right. Chest to chest. Uncomfortable. Uncomfortable. I want my I want you to smell my my crest toothpaste. Right. Or lack there thereof. In fact, the Utah Jazz should should stop brushing their teeth in the morning so it stinks in their face. So, they hate it, right? Then we brush our teeth after the game. No, probably not. No, don’t take that advice. Just a thought for the finals when the Jazz are in the finals in the next few years after they win the lottery. After they win the lottery. Okay, but anyways, I want to smell I want them to smell my breath, right? I want you to feel my chest. I want you to feel this arm. I want you to just when I’m guarding you, you feel it and you don’t get to your spots. So much of basketball is getting to your spots and shooting from the spots that you’re comfortable shooting from. And if you have a defender that doesn’t let you do that and then finds ways to keep you away and get you uncomfortable and shooting it like let’s say it’s I’m shooting it three feet farther from the basket than I normally do. Guess what? You’re not going to shoot it quite as well as you normally if you’ve got your little you know everyone who plays basketball and this includes NBA players. You have your spots you like to shoot the ball. If someone keeps you from that spot you don’t get to shoot there. Sorry I’m guarding you now. Then guess what? it’s much harder for you to score and it’s much harder for you to do the things you want to do. And I loved seeing that from Collier tonight. I felt like that’s what he was doing. And you know, like we talked about, he had more fouls cuz I think that physicality is not always quite there with some of these players. Um, let’s see. I have the other player off the bench. I tell you what, I’m to the point with Kyle Filipki, I get scared when he gets on the floor because he plays so well and I just he stepped on the floor and I was like, he’s going to make some plays. He’s turning I think we’re going to see at least at least mentioned and he might win one, but I think there is a sixman of the year award for Kyle Filipowski in the future. I think he’s that good. I you know he comes off that bench and he just makes plays and he can dominate against other bench players and the three-point shot was falling tonight and if he can just be consistent with it. his passing, his he’s just he’s just a nice good basketball player. And you know, there’s some there’s some deficiencies there defensively. And maybe with his size, if he was 3 in taller, then he might be something really special as like some a playmaking center. But because of what he’s at, he’s just perfect to play off the bench. He kind of plays that four, five, switch between that with whoever else is on the bench. uh he plays next to Kevin Love and that kind of makes a lot of sense. They both can shoot the ball. They both pass the ball really well. It’s what makes this bench unit kind of fun. And so uh I just I love what Kyle Filipki brings. Just allaround game is great. And he’s a good rebounder. Look at this. Nine rebounds, three assists, eight points. You’ve got to love it, baby. Um you got to love it. Uh anyways, Cody Williams got 12 minutes tonight. I’ve noticed he’s getting a little more run. Um I think it’s the defense. We talked about this last time. He was a plus one. I I you know what he plays defense and that’s the that’s how we should think about Cody Williams is a defensive player who is long and and and pretty tall and moves pretty darn well and offensively it’s just not even close just yet. But if he could just be more consistent shooting the three, it changes things. He had that nice cut to the basket and there’s just little little little beams of light just once in a while with him. It’s, you know, it’s not there yet, but he does play defense and it’s worth playing him this year to see. Now, there’s going to be other guys that play defense, too, and will actually hit shots. And so, he’s got to start hitting shots at some point, but I don’t know. I still find him to be an interesting player, and I think it’s worth taking time even if you start giving him minimums. I, you know, maybe we’ll be getting giving him minimums for years, but I love what he brings defensively. I don’t know. It’s pretty good. Uh Kevin Love, if you didn’t read, he had that article with or that interview with K. Adams. It was pretty fun. Um, I retweeted it if you want to go to my Twitter, but uh, I also put it on the SLC Dunk the feed. By the way, if you’re not reading SLC Dunk every day, what are you doing? It’s the best jazz basketball site out there that I manage and our writers do great work. But there’s a feed out there and I put it on there so you can go look and listen to that. But he’s just talking about how happy he is in Utah. just another case of a player coming to Utah who had uh preconceived notions about what this place is and then he gets here and he’s like this is nice and he’s already like he’s enjoying it and honestly if the Jazz signed him to a minimum next year I’d be happy with that cuz I think his ability to shoot the ball spread the floor be a third center when you know when you need depth it’s been fine he’s played well he’s at the end of his career obviously ly, but he shoots the ball. He passes it really well. Look at that. Four assists tonight. What’s not to love? But anyways, very nice. And then finally, Bryce Sensah hit some big threes. He took six threes. That’s the only shots he took, but he knocked him down. He scared me. He scared me that he was going to turn the tide in this one and give the Jazz another win. Guys, if the Jazz had won this game, they’d be sitting at 10 or 11. And that is not where they want to be. Charlotte is is winning games, too. I mean, these teams right here are going to improve. I just have a hard time not seeing it. So, maybe I shouldn’t complain too much, including Memphis. I think Utah ends up at four. But they got to be at four. You’ve got to get those odds because if you’re at four, then you’ve got, you know, these odds are about the same. Then it’s, you know, every lottery ball matters and position matters, too. We learned that last year, by the way. Utah doesn’t get Ace Bailey if they didn’t have the worst record in the league. That’s just a fact. The tanking worked. Anyone who says it doesn’t is incorrect. You are wrong. That is just factually inaccurate. It worked because Utah was in the position to take advantage of a of a couple teams that made a mistake. I mean, I guess Charlotte’s fine with Keniple. He’s playing extremely well, but I think in the long term, Ace Bailey has a higher ceiling with what we’re seeing with how big he is in athletic and what he can do. So, anyways, I think that’s it tonight, guys. We What a fun night. It had me stressing just like crazy. Um, it was a It was a fun game, though, I got to say. All right, let’s see here. We’ve got to There we go. All right, let’s see. So, let’s go to Tankathon. Utah now sits at nine. Is this right? Let’s refresh one more time. Did anything change? Nope. All right. So, Utah’s at nine playing the Lakers who are playing really well. Let’s just keep guys right now. All of us have to have New Orleans, Sacramento, Dallas, Clippers, and Memphis. We’ve just got to root for those teams hard to get some wins. Memphis might trade Jaw here soon and get themselves a player. We’ll see. be interesting. They They should win some more games. They will. Uh what would happen if the lottery was today? This always hurts my feelings. Let’s see what happens. Ah, Memphis wins. Indiana stays. Atlanta gets the number three pick. Can you imagine? And Utah gives the best case scenario for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They get the number nine pick from Utah. Absolute worstc case scenario for Utah. Best case for them. I can’t imagine if the Jazz do that. It would be truly front office malpractice. Does this front office and ownership understand how this works? Do they? I don’t know. All right, let’s see. Let’s give a shout out to our allstars tonight, guys. Thank you for supporting. I appreciate it so much. to all the members and then especially the allstars. Let’s give a shout out to Steve Aino in Southeast Asia. Steve Stevens, let him cook. Sturdy pots, Ezekiel Rice, the man from down under, Tyson Price, the Price is Right. See youa Lexator Jordan the goat bestel Ryan Edward Perry the legend Christian house money to hos Robert Hall of fame I believe in Steve Jazz exile Austin Rant editor extraordinaire flipping the script the OG and Patrick Aubo the conosur guys if you’re new here like the video subscribe to the channel join if you want to support I really appreciate it I will talk to

The Utah Jazz had a tough loss to the Atlanta Hawks who were without Trae Young and it didn’t matter.

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