Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Steve Jones from ‘The Dunker Spot’ to discuss Utah’s outlook for the coming season and why the youth on this roster is a good sign for the franchise. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
If you were ranking the college prospects by funness regardless of talent, both of those guys would be in the top 5 with Ace Bailey being the dynamic scorer he is and Walter Clayton being the, the Steph-like bucket getter that he was in March Madness.
The dude was amazing.
And so the Jazz this offseason, they also added some bets, Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love, George Nang, Yusuf Nurkic.
They lose Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Collin Sexton, among others.
The Jazz, man, like they, uh, Steve, I like their young guys.
But this team is gonna be bad, which you wanna be.
You wanna get another high lottery pick, but they, I like their youth.
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I like what they’re building.
I think for me, I like the fact that they are starting the season young, younger, as opposed to the Utah Jazz program of we have these vets, they’re pretty good and well, now we’re a different team.
No, this is us.
This is who we are.
This is our foundation.
This is our youth.
Everyone go out there and do it.
And I think one thing that gets underrated is Will Hardy, creative offensively.
So I’m excited to see what he does having kind of a level of depth and youth and people who can drive and be used in different ways.
We’ve seen how he’s used Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler spaced on the wing to get into a handoff or a pick and roll.
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Like there’s different things that he can do with this roster.
So I’m intrigued to see what he tries to do more than anything else.
But I think the Jazz will be fun, you know, I think offensively, they’re gonna get after it.
will compete defensively, I imagine.
I don’t know how good it’s gonna be, but they’re gonna be a fun team to watch grow and progress over the course of the season.
And I think, I think the fact that they changed the roster around to this degree says they are trying to go with the youth to a higher level, and I think more of those minutes would be the more adults in the room type beat as far as maybe second quarter, fourth quarter minutes.
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You know, obviously, those guys wanna compete um if they’re there, so.
I would not be surprised if a couple of them sneak in there, but this team is gonna be young and those guys are gonna have plenty of opportunity to earn.
They’re just saving their minutes.
I’ll put it that way.
They’re gonna be fine.
Yeah, and I’d say for the Jazz, they belong in the tankers tier, like this team is not trying to make the playoffs.
They’re still figuring out who they are, and I expect them to be near the top of the lottery, maybe even with the best odds.