 What's the word, y'all? It's time to actually talk about the Utah Jazz. It is time to actually talk about the Utah Jazz because they are 10 and three on the season after a comeback win against the Atlanta Hawks. Before the season started, Vegas put together their over-unders. They're projected to win X amount of games. The Utah Jazz are projected to win 23 games, y'all. They have 10 wins, a couple weeks into the season. If you thought the over was a lot, you should have put that money on it because here they are. Every single season we see a team start off extremely hot and then they regress to the means. Like for example, I'm looking at it right now. The Charlotte Hornets last season started off 4-1. The New York Knicks started off last season 4-1. And then eventually those teams ended up missing the playoffs completely. Hot starts happen every single season. I remember it was the Orlando Magic a few years ago. Missed the playoffs. And for the beginning of this year, when the Utah Jazz started off 3-0, when they started off 4-0 or 4-1, whatever it was, that's what I thought it was. I mean, at this point, the simple size is 13 games. This is no longer just a hot start. This is a well-ordered machine that is really good. But first I do want to say, I know we usually do these recaps. And I talk about a little bit about every single game that will not happen today because I was at Bulls versus Pelicans. Recap it at, Brandon Ingram is nice. We all knew that, but it's a fact. It was a really cool night. In the house tonight, please welcome Chicagoland native and lifelong Bulls fan, Kenny Beachum. Legitimately one of the best nights of my life. Every time I go to a Bulls game, I end up missing some crazy performances in the NBA or just crazy games in general. Like Javon Carter had 36, 12, and four. How the hell did that happen? I gotta go watch the footage. I see the Kings beat the Cavs, gotta watch that. So I went onto Twitter and said, out of all of the games that I missed today, which game is the most important or which game should I watch? And people were saying, go watch Utah, come back on the Atlanta Hawks. So I did. And here we are talking about it. I also see the Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Suns with no Chris Paul. And of course, no Kim Johnson slash J Crowder and the vibes aren't great. I'm sure the Timberwolves are gonna get their own video eventually, but let's stay on the positive side because I've had such a great day. Other than the Bulls losers, I've had such a great day. We'll stick on the positives. And one of the best stories in all of basketball. I saw a tweet a little minute ago that said, hey, if the Utah Jazz's jerseys were better, they will be America's team. And I agree, I hate the jerseys so much. They have one jersey that's pretty, pretty good. But like, anyway, 10 and three. When they were on the beginning hot streak, I think I came onto here as like, I don't understand how they're doing it. What the hell is going on? They have what seems like talent deficiency compared to a lot of the people they beat across basketball. How do they keep winning these games? And I can't say the formula is simple. They're doing this and doing this and doing that because I think it changes from night to night. For example, like I said, I went back to watch this game. They were down by like 15 points in the third quarter, right? And coach Will Hardy, one of the reasons I really liked this team, coach Will Hardy, role with the guys that were there to help them within the run. Who were those guys you asked? Malik Beasley was absolutely incredible today. But the one that might go a little bit under the radar because he didn't hit five threes or six threes like Malik Beasley did was Walker Kessler. Walker Kessler felt like kind of a little throw in to the Rudy Gobert trade. Hey, we drafted him in the first round this year. We don't really care about it here. Y'all needed a center here. We'll give you a young one. And off the bench today, Will Hardy gave him enough confidence to keep him in the game because, well, he was all over the place on the defensive side of the ball, a couple blocks, and then the end of the third quarter happened. I think they were maybe down by five. And in my mind, I was like, okay, starters coming back in. Nope, Will Hardy let Walker continue to play for like six more minutes after that because he was having such an amazing impact. And it feels like that's the type of vibes that are going on with the Utah Jazz. Like, it don't matter who it is on this night or this night or this like whoever the high hand is or whoever's the one keeping us in the game. We will play them. There is no politics. There's no emotions. This is 12 to 15 ball players that care about just winning basketball games. Yeah, I'm somewhat buried in the lead when we talking about the Utah Jazz, not to mention the name Laurie Marketing yet. A season high tonight. 32 points, eight rebounds and hit some really big shots down the stretch, bro. I think I've mentioned it already, like three times on this channel since the season has started that I'm extremely happy for Laurie Marketing and that he got to a place that is allowing him to be the Laurie Marketing that I think a lot of us bulls-fed star he could be for the first couple years of his career. I will not stop blaming Jim Boylan for stunning this man's growth. I will not, he will always get the blame until the day I rest. I think that Jim Boylan was the guy that prevented Laurie Marketing from being this in Chicago, but I'm happy that he was freed and that he ended up where he is. Because I mean, at this point, he is an all star. He is an all star, 32 points. I mean, and the thing I was like, okay, what is he doing differently, right? I can't actually show you this, but just trust me when I read you these numbers. The last year of Laurie Marketing in Chicago, I'm gonna compare him to Chicago's version and not Cleveland's version because Cleveland's version, he was somewhat down the totem pole, like fourth to fifth most important slash impactful player. I'm gonna send him to Chicago, I'll talk about to Chicago because when he was here, for the most part, he was one of the guys we're trying to build around. And I can't show you this because this website costs money and I don't want to get in trouble for showing this, but just take my word for it. When Laurie Marketing was with the Chicago Bulls, nearly 40% of his touches that ended in the shot were strictly spot up. What means that anytime he put a shot up, it was literally him standing on the wing, standing in the corner, not moving whatsoever. Compared to this season, it's down to 26%. Can you ask Kenny, what's up? Transitionist play is up by a ton. Moving off-screen is up. Offensive putbacks is up almost quadruple of what it was with the Chicago Bulls and he's not being used as a role man nearly as much because when he was a role man, it wasn't a very effective offense and now he's got other things that he's amazing at. The transitions, he is in the top percentile in transition this season and that's not necessarily getting to the basket and Duncan sometimes is spotting up, sometimes is doing this, is doing that and he's just overall has rounded out his game to be more than just a stretch four and it's so beautiful to see because nobody should be pigeonholed to this one role, especially a guy like Laurie Marketing who was like 21 years old at the point. If he's within 17 feet of the basket, he is in a 92%ile when it comes to points per possession. I know a lot of these stats don't mean anything to a lot of people but I'm just showing how efficient he is once you get rid of his three point shooting this season which has somewhat come along but like the beginning he was shooting like 20% but the last couple of weeks he's really put it together but if he's close to the basket slash in the mid-range area, he's one of the best in basketball right now. That's the Laurie Marketing we watched, you know what I'm saying? So it's so cool to see him go but more than that, this is just a cohesive team that moves the ball and feels as close, I'm trying to figure out how to word this without it feeling like a backwards compliment because I don't want it to come off that way. It feels like a legitimate college team and it feels at times and I'm only saying at times because of course their star power is not nearly as much. The way they move the ball and move without the ball, it reminds me of a baby baby version of the 2014 San Antonio Spurs which is the greatest form of basketball I have ever experienced as an NBA fan. Like a very, very poor man's version of that but it's moving like that. The ball is hitting every single hand before a shot goes up and that's the clue in having like Jordan Clarkson on the roster. They have so many people that are having career high years when it comes to assist numbers because everything is unselfish basketball but they still have this huge, huge decision to make because well, as good as it's been, as good of a run it's been. You kind of still want super quality draft picks and the only reason I'm saying that is because when I look at what their roster is or who's on their roster, I'm trying to figure out how do you hit the next step? And it might be extremely early considering this is year one of trading away two star players but like what is the path to get to contention? And honestly, you're never too early to figure that out. You know what I'm saying? It's at least draw out the map and in my mind, the path to do that is to draft some superstar talent. And I've heard just from a little birdies across the association that this is the draft class you wanna have at least a lottery pick. Everybody ain't gonna give Vic or Scoop but to have a lottery pick is extremely important this season. The one thing that that's saving them a little bit is they have a couple different picks this season. They got Minnesota's pick. Who knows what Minnesota's about to turn into and then they have the worst pick of Houston, Brooklyn and Philly, I think it is. So they should have three first round picks to see her include in their own. Maybe in their mind, hey, we just gonna keep winning games but to see make the playoffs and then package these three picks to get number nine. I don't really know but they have to make a decision soon because there's some teams out there basketball right now that don't like they go win a ton of games. And you went in 10 right through the first three weeks of basketball is already putting you behind and the lottery sweepstakes but maybe that's not even what they try to pitch to their fans. Maybe they like, hey, if Laurie keeps this up the all-star game is here in our city this season. He's gonna be an all-star. We're not building around Laurie. That's not what we're trying to do but we'll already have an all-star and then Walker Kessler. Could he turn into a really good rim protector? He already averaged the most blocks of college basketball last season and he's translated some of that to the NBA. We got THT, who looks like the version of THT we got for the last two games is better than almost any version we saw with the Lakers. And we still got like Ote Abazi who ain't got no PT but a former first round pick from just this season. So like, I don't, I just think that Danny Ainsham have a lot to figure out. And it's gonna be hard to try to tell these dudes, eh, our direction is a little bit different. You know what I'm saying? After getting this taste of success, you know what I'm saying? Some of these dudes ain't never won before. Now they finally doing it. Laurie's winning as a one-op. So you can't tell that man that we about to try to lose once we get to the late game. Absolutely not. One and anything. A lot of these pieces are like scraps from other trades. Like legitimately speaking when the Donovan Mitchell trade happened, do you think the front office was like, we really, really want Laurie because we think he could be an all star? Or was it how many picks you're giving? And some of those picks are after, after Donovan Mitchell's contract is up, we want to take our chance on that because we don't know if you'll resign to Cleveland. And if he don't resign to Cleveland and boom, we got, we got your draft picks. I don't know if Laurie marketing was the big piece in all of this. I mean, listen, the trade happened and we mentioned the people that were involved and they said the Cleveland Cal leaders didn't get rid of no core pieces. Laurie marketing wasn't the core piece. Laurie marketing was a trade that happened last off season that incorporated Derek Jones, Jr. and Larry Nance. Like that was a small trade in the course of basketball. He was in this trade, not just to fill salary because he was still, he was talented last season with Cleveland. Don't get me wrong. But it wasn't like, yes, we got our next guy. We got our next guy, Laurie marketing. I mean, maybe that's legitimately what they thought and they tallied department and scouted department is crazy. But I don't think that's what it was. Or like Walker Kessler, perfect example. They like, hey, give us all the young players plus your picks. It wasn't like, yes, Walker's going to be the center of our future. You know, so this is like a lot of, Danny Ames did this trade for draft capital. He, he did it to, to the Brooklyn. That's 10 years ago, 15 years. I don't know how long it was for the draft capital. He couldn't care less about the actual players they got back in that trade. It was legitimately for the draft capital and that draft capital turned into Jalen Brown eventually it turned into this, it turned into that. And I think that's what they were thinking this time around with the people was so nice that they looking like a whale or machine. I mean, Will Hardy is the youngest coach in basketball for not mistaken, he is looking like one of the better ones easily, easily, offensively and defensively. And they don't even have like crazy defensive talent on his roster. If you look at it, just looking at their roster, how many of them aren't considered plus defenders. It's not a ton of them, y'all. And right now I'm looking, I think they have the 16th best defense in basketball, 16th best, second best offense. That's the thing that scares me a little bit just because I don't know if that's gonna be sustainable. Second best offense in basketball. But then again, I look at their shot diet and I look at their percentages and I'm like, it ain't like they started off the season shooting 60% from three. You know what I'm saying? Their openness rate is really high. They're getting good open looks from people that we know can shoot. Believe me, easy, plus shooter. Jordan Clark has always been a good shooter. Larry Market is a career 36% through for a shooter. He ain't even got it going just yet. So I'm looking at their shot diet and be like, it's not like they're about to just fall off a cliff when it comes to their shooting. It's not like their transition is gonna be any worse or worse enough where it goes from top five to the bottom five. So number two is crazy, but it's maybe not that crazy. Wow. I also don't think people believe it around the league. You know what I'm saying? Oh, it's the jazz. Who want that roster? Oh, maybe I. You not I. They will cut your throat out. You know what I'm saying? They did not foul tree young one time. They didn't send tree young to the foul on one time. I think tree young's averaging like seven free throw temps per game before this night. He didn't get found one time. Good defense. You know what I'm saying? Just overall good defense, good teams. And I feel like I could talk about them forever. And I was late to the party. You know what I'm saying? Of course I watched possessions and highlights of my players that I really like. But through the first five or so games of the year, I was like, oh, hot start. I ain't really caring too much. The last week or so they have, they're up there on my league pass. You know what I'm saying? When people on Twitter were telling me, Kenny, this is the game you gotta watch. Easily. Yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah. I watched Lord Market. I heard he had a career at night, you know? So let me know what you think about the jazz. Big fear. This video jinxed them. So I'm gonna put in a title that we're not jinxing them. And hopefully that's the case, man.