Hot Takes or Toast: What moves should the Utah Jazz make?

DJ & PK debated what moves the Utah Jazz could and should make this offseason with Austin Ainge taking over a president of basketball operations for the franchise.

question of the morning what moves should the Utah Jazz make got a lot of opinions here people all over the place mark I think got a great answer here it depends on what direction they want to go well they want to go up do they want to go up 10 games in the short run kind of cap themselves that’s what I don’t understand if you go up 10 games why does that automatically cap yourselves well it depends on what kind of move you make to go up 10 games why can’t you then go up 10 at some point they’re going to have to go up 10 games in order to go up 20 games yep so what are we waiting for if they can go up 10 games why not because really 10 games is not just 27 wins it’s probably 35 go look at Oklahoma City what did they did they should had 25 a year ago yeah right if they wanted they could have got it yeah so when you look at that I I don’t understand that logic capping themselves you are so far away from worrying about capping yourself you’re trying to not hit rock bottom again that capping yourself is years away from being even a worry it doesn’t mean you take on some ridiculous losing contract that’s not the point we got people suggesting that Jason trade both first round picks for Russell Westbrook heavy sarcasm there thank you Jason again was that the fourth time bring Russell back through town again vernon I like trading Lowry Mark to the Spurs for the 14th pick for Harrison Barnes and Devin Vassel how about this one make sure we get our high lottery pick right why don’t we trade up swapping picks with Charlotte for their fourth and fifth pick also giving up John Collins assume he opts in for Brandon Miller andor Miles Bridges oh you know Bridges had the domestic thing going on you wonder if they want to get involved in that uh and who was the other guy brandon Miller okay i mean he’s so young that uh he shows some stuff you you wonder uh you know what what is his level i I I like the Brandon Miller part yeah does Charlotte want to trade the number two yeah but what what’s in it for Charlotte it would be number four but uh yeah and uh the vast man on the San Antonio one you know he’s only 24 years old he’ll be 25 I think this summer and he’s he’s been okay yeah uh since he’s come in in the league with the Spurs the big the bigger thing I think Vernon’s trying to get here at is trade the veterans who are pretty good for younger guys who have a chance to be great that I think is the theory regardless of what names and teams you plug in there really though I wouldn’t if John Collins played like he did and he was 23 years old he’d be far more valuable so why not get somebody who’s like John Collins you need those types of players is Jaylen Williams that much different that much better than John Collins it’s just that John Jaylen Williams is much younger so I’m not sure that I buy into that theory entirely i get it certainly and it’d be great if you could do it but it’s hard to do oh that part I totally agree that part I totally agree you have to figure out someone’s going to be great and the team doesn’t and the other guy doesn’t that’s what it comes down to now there’s also hey we think SGA is pretty good and we need something back in this deal and maybe both teams are surprised that SGA turned into the MVP yeah sure i got you yeah I Yeah that I mean the Thunder aren’t going to come out maybe in so many words and say that and did we get lucky we hit the lottery yeah so I understand that but my point I’m making is it I would think it’d be easier to get a player a younger player who has the potential to grow into a John Collins than an SGA obviously yes john Collins is not trash here 100% and he shot the ball really well last year really close to that uh 40 50 90 combo it seems like he has a great understanding of the game yep his his attitude unless there’s stuff we don’t know about no but everything we know about he seems like a a minimal drama guy a guy like you a guy that you’d like to have on your team yep so I to me I think that if you can get a younger John Collins in the deal if I could trade John Collins and just take the same guy and make him five years younger I’d do it he’s a nice player and at 26 million with the cap going up the number looks uh much more reasonable than it did a few years ago his production is up there’s more cap room it’s a good combination there was a time when that that contract was viewed as a wow that guy’s way overpaid i mean kind of everybody is I don’t know what to say on that i mean the the the contracts you can always trade them we’ve heard 15 times 500 times contracts there was a time with Chris Paul like you can’t possibly trade that deal and it literally got moved twice yeah so I don’t buy any of that you can Russell Westbrook untradeable contract move multiple times right so there’s there was a time that I bought that but I mean the proof is in the pudding right there and they’ve been moved so worry about something else daniel wants to trade the two second round draft picks for cash or players they can cut draft or trade their way into a better draft pick stay pat draft the best players available do not make any unnecessary trades to just give away assets do not under any circumstances trade for Paul George okay i think they’ll go younger than that the question is they try to get guys in a prime or are they going to get some guys who are 22 23 on their way up well the Paul George situation depending on what it gives you because you’re not going to make a trade singularly XYZ for Paul George what is involved there what are your intentions with him and what could it help you do t if you take a bad contract do you get valuable draft picks or potentially get some young young player in the deal who you like right some to help the medicine go down so I want to see what the entirety of that would be i don’t believe that would happen in a singular one for one or whatever it might be two for one the point being that the one is your acquisition of Paul George i don’t see that that that makes no sense which is why it it literally will not happen uh so with that in mind what does that entail tony wants him to go get a legit star you have to have a top 20 player to compete for a title right now they have a top 50 player and that’s not good enough no it’s not and you can argue do you have to have a higher than a top 20 i I I think that that’s most likely going to have to come from within draft and develop someone yeah i I just I I don’t see how else it’s going to come it’d be nice but I think it’s too much of an ask to expect that or even hope for that that’s it’s more of hope is I don’t have a lot of stock in the word hope but even in this case if I use the word hope that’s not good enough it’s like a pipe dream it’s worse than hope because it’s going to lead to nothing you’re going to have all this hope and get yourself fired up and then just be let down anyway if double A pulls this off build a statue right there and that would be awesome if they could do it i we’d all love it if it would be happening but I I I just can’t see it and like to me the only way that it could happen is if you gave up the farm and then what do you got not enough around him you could end up like Phoenix and so then you’re just trading that guy again in hopes to recoup what you already had in terms of assets which is Phoenix do that that’s why I never bought Oh they’re not going to have their draft picks that’s they don’t have them right now but you don’t need them in February you need them in June so I never bought that i thought well that’s a simple problem to solve if you’re so inclined to solve it just trade this dude and you’ll you’ll get some of that back you may not get all of it but you get some of it and then you can make another move and all I don’t I don’t think any situation in the NBA with the right management is absolutely hopeless and a foregone conclusion maybe in the immediiacy but check back in three to four to five years okay yeah if you give them five years well if if the Jazz are in the finals in five years who’s complaining uh Bradley Beal has two more years of big money and that seems like a big problem for Phoenix but you’re right to your point about five years well that gives them three years to bounce back after that deal’s up i don’t know if they can get anybody to take that contract we’ll see well yeah but I mean they can make it get uh these first round picks for Durant this year and next year sit be it we’ve seen that where they just sit somebody and then the guy wants out and he’ll take whatever to get out if you go five years out everything changes in the NBA you can’t possibly predict five years down the road yeah and we’re already into year three for what the Jazz are doing so let’s just go two years that doesn’t seem that long but I just I resist and reject this idea of you can’t just go a 10ame improvement because somehow you’re capped out i don’t ceiling out not capped out it takes on a different meaning potential out i don’t I don’t buy that is just because whatever if you make moves to help you win 10 more games Hardy right there is in coach of the year category and there’s more good times and then you make other moves to make you another 10 games you’re going to have to get to that 10ame improvement at some point how many wins do you think if they just play the team they have i don’t know the team they have there’s no big moves they draft somebody yeah but I have no idea who they’re going to draft so I mean ask me in three weeks it’s It’s too soon i get your point valid question but I think it’s too soon who knows what’s going to happen let’s go on uh uh two weeks from tomorrow or two weeks from Friday i I think that’s that’s a far more legitimate question on on that i I think right there that could be a 10-ame improvement but the roster today is not going to be the roster September 1st something’s got to happen austin comes in it’s a stand pad summer what’s the point he could have stayed in Boston now you don’t want to go crazy you don’t want to think “Oh man I’m new kid here and I and I got this name that matches the name of the CEO so I got to be I got to just hit a home run right off the bat.” I I I wouldn’t want him to feel that pressure he’s got the job he’s got the last name okay great for him fortunate for him he also at the same time spent 15 years toiling to get to this point so both can be true he paid his dues but he got in because of the name way back when all right and like he would not only not be the first he’d be probably the 10,000th in the NBA in the history of the league right i would take if you offer me the number 10,000 I’d take the over yeah so all that matters now is what the man does on the job that he’s not going to be judged on his last name he’s going to be judged on his first and last name and how he does this job that’s how it’s going to be at this point you got to get over it you know Ers just died well who got the team his three daughters well the janitor’s son like me didn’t get it how did he get the team well obviously his dad yeah so I mean way to go so you can sit and complain about it if you don’t have that last name or you can go bust your butt and get yourself in a situation that you’re happy with that’s me that’s you right so here we are that’s Yak so away we go same thing here with Austin now go do the job but don’t feel like oh my gosh you just got to go nuts right off the bat don’t do something stupid just to do something which I don’t think he’ll do i I really don’t have any worry about that but we’ve seen with the Phoenix thing Ishbia going nuts and he made it way worse if he just would have I bought the team and I’m gonna live in Michigan and come in because it’s nice weather in the winter ready to break they’d probably be better off strong argument for but he put his thumb on the scales and so they are where they are yeah right so go ahead and if you can make the team 10 games better with a move that fits not just design oh I’m going to make the team 10 games better right now no because you’re looking at making the team better 10 games in 25 26 where are you 26 27 and so forth because I think you have those opportunities there and if you can do that now do it that we we need some more positivity in the results category i wonder who it is that they like or Austin personally likes in the league you’re talking about in the league who’s already in the league not draft picks who’s already in the league who they think is underutilized and can be better win BMA no I think they like him i think they do too i don’t think he’s under utilized and sat out most of the season here yeah that that was for for health not think he could play yeah he’s currently hold up in a Shaolin temple in China right and didn’t he get he cut off all his hair he shaved his head there yeah so uh I’m not sure they’re those types of players i I can tell you the type of player that he likes a Marcus Smart type the gritty dude who’s going to get every part of his body dirty if that’s what it takes to win i’m very confident in my conversations not saying they’re going to acquire him that’s not the point you’re asker yeah yeah he played really hard he played with an edge did the dirty work wasn’t the leading scorer right and I think he’s inclined to go after that type of player and then build from there have guys who bleed winning not who are casual about winning but bleed winning yeah casual about winning will disappoint you at some point you got to be all in yeah i mean when you get that combined with great uh talent then you’re on to something i just heard uh yesterday I was you know just cruising looking for stuff that’s out there and and I can’t remember who said it and I should have wrote it down he said “If you want to play high school ball this is a pro and bugging me that I can’t remember who said it uh if you want to play high school ball you must have the fundamentals down whatever sport it is and they all have different fundamentals but you have to have that and if you have that you can get on that high school team.” Then if you have talent with that combined then you have the chance to go to that next level as they say and then depending on what level of talent then you can take it even beyond that right and he was saying that and oh man it I think it it was a it was a baseball guy uh talking about that and that he he felt like that that stuff is really missing today you know you need to do the things the way the game was intended to play you must excel at them because those things don’t necessarily take a ton of talent you know it takes discipline it takes work but you can acquire that so that’s a that’s a Marcus Smart kind of guy so they could use those types of guys but you know you got to get the big dog and that’s the hardest thing to do obviously that’s why these teams are still playing and the other teams aren’t djpk it’s 975 the zone question of the morning what should the Jazz do derek let Lowry play build his value then trade him before the deadline other than that I got nothing after the failed tankage they put themselves in a tough spot so I think his value is already high i basically I think it’s as high as it can be think people understand why he had an off year with the stats last year he played 47 games he didn’t have a year he did that counts i get it’s not a full season but they also know what was going on yeah but there’s no there was no way for him to get in any form of rhythm i also think he’s not as good as that half season all-star spiel if you start thinking he’s a top 25 player he’s not he’s in the next 25 but he’s good sevenfooter who can shoot and move and do those types of things and you know he’s not going to cause any trouble uh so yeah I mean he has value in this league i I think him he Collins Ston have the most value of the of the what we consider the tradable guys you can put other guys in there i mean the Lakers would die to get Kesler shane says “Package number 21 with another asset or two to go get a second top 10 pick.” Oh yeah i’d do that what’s the asset i mean Collins or Kesler what’s the pick ston that’s good good comeback good comeback not one or two all right three yeah who do you want i I honestly I’d be surprised if they got anything above them in the understood but you said one and two i did one and two is I’d give up Sexton to get someone in the top 10 you believe five six well you already got five so take that off the board uh three four six that’s where you have to know okay who does Austin Angel really believe in you know he’s been scouting these guys he said even though you know the Celtics don’t have a top pick he said everybody scouts those guys cuz there there might be a trade draft night and you might have a chance to acquire them two three four years down the line well that’s what you do so he’s hip he’s hip deep in all of these who does he love yeah then you just got to hope it’s not Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio he’s got to be right yeah he’s got to be right i mean those were two top five picks i think they’re four and five and then Steph Curry was out there at six somewhere in there uh so yeah you gota you got to hit man that’s another thing too and the reason why the Suns sucked for 10 years is go look at their first round draft choice they had high high picks and most of them were just awful they were Go look go look at them all right here we go i’ll I’ll call it up yeah not in the last three or four years i’m talking about when they had those high picks they’re just Alex Len uh Maris what was his last name gryom something like that from Washington nothing uh Josh Jackson nothing there’s some really bad Clipper-like uh Scar Labier who yeah what What What pick was that uh first round 28th pick okay but I’m talking about fourth pick dragon Bender yeah I’m talking about top 10 picks don’t don’t remember anything from him josh Jackson with the number four pick deandre Eaton with a number one jared Culver with the number six yeah no no no and no and no now Alex Lynn that was the year two years before Devin Booker so your chance to build a core you know to hit the way the Thunder did on Yeah three draft picks in three or four years alex Lynn no you hit on Booker in 2015 but you missed on Bender in 2016 and you missed on Len in 2013 booker was the lowest of those picks he went at 13 yeah he’s double L at 12 and the and it was the word was they were going to take whoever the Jazz didn’t take and Booker’s a player and they missed on him and they had four picks at 13 and yeah and the Suns took him booker got him there the Suns got Booker with a 13 but they took Markeie Morris with a 13 Kendall Marshall with a 13 and Georgia’s Papa Genius papa Jiannis isn’t that a pizza place greek Greek center i’ve I’ve gotten You make your own pizza is that what it is papa John’s papa John’s papa Jiannis if Giannis Anttompo bought Papa John’s it would become Papa Giannis i’m sure he could or he wanted to if he wanted to but yeah having the picks I I would do that trade but you you you’ve gota you got to cash in and right now there are two highest picks one’s an I don’t know and the other might be an O don Hendris you don’t know no didn’t get to see that second year see what I still have a level of optimism with him that he’s a serviceable dude yeah cody Williams if you’re firing scouts over him that must mean that that’s bad and he was awful this year but I’m not ready to make a a definitive conclusion but we’ll see man he’s got to step it up next season didn’t expect either one of them to come in and dominate but you want to see flashes and you want to see moments and we saw that with Taylor Hendris very very briefly though exactly but he spent most of the first season in the G-League that so if if they send Williams to the G-League that is an awful sign right off the bat awful sign Henrix is not going to be in a G-League let’s see what he has yes but I think that that’s going to work not saying he’s going to be a superstar not saying he’s going to be as good as Gordon Hayward was because they were taken right around the same location in the draft uh but obviously that needs to be developed still and and Williams right now I think every one of us as we evaluate Taylor Hendrickx at worst we’re neutral not so with Williams the flashes that we saw out of Taylor Hendricks we didn’t see out of Cody he looked really overmatched but let’s see what the kid’s got man just hope he puts on some weight gains some strength he knows it he’s plays with more confidence right no he could not have been happy with that comes from a military family they’re disciplined we hear that all the time and no excuses and no whining father was in the Air Force right no excuses no whining yeah so anything we say about him he’s already heard which that ought to provide as much ammo as possible nobody believes in you son your team doesn’t they fired scouts is what we’re told so what do you got it’s up to you you’re the one who’s going to decide it’s not going to be Will Hardy they can help develop you for sure but they’re not going to ultimately decide whether you make it you are and that’s good that’s a good position to be in my fate doesn’t rest with anybody else but me djpk when we come back our fate in the US Open draft bob Casper joins us from Oakmont next and then Tim Lome Jazz analyst at 8:30 dj and PK it’s 975 the zone