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David Locke's Podcast interview with KOC

Jazz had a top 20 pick several times in the past decade. Here's how it went:

2002- 19. Ryan Humphrey. Traded to Orlando for Curtis Borchardt.
2003 - 19. Aleksander Pavlovic.
2009 - 20. Eric Maynor.

I don't even remember most of those guys.
Picking at 19/20 doesn't usually land you much of a player.
 
I have to give Locke some rep, he does ask questions he knows KOC won't like, then again, KOC is a Sally when it comes to answering questions and gets upset at even the most basic of questions. KOC really only answers about half the questions asked.
 
Jazz had a top 20 pick several times in the past decade. Here's how it went:

2002- 19. Ryan Humphrey. Traded to Orlando for Curtis Borchardt.
2003 - 19. Aleksander Pavlovic.
2004 - 14. Kris Humphries and 16. Kirk Snyder.
2006 - 14. Ronnie Brewer.
2009 - 20. Eric Maynor.
2010 - 9. Gordon Hayward.

I don't even remember most of those guys.

If I remember this one right, didn't they take Borchardt one spot ahead of us then we took Humphreys and in essence swapped picks? Why didn't they just take Humphreys to begin with? If I remember right nothing else was involved, just a simple swap. Maybe I remember that all wrong but it seemed to me to be very weird at the time. Anyone else remember it this way?
 
If I remember this one right, didn't they take Borchardt one spot ahead of us then we took Humphreys and in essence swapped picks? Why didn't they just take Humphreys to begin with? If I remember right nothing else was involved, just a simple swap. Maybe I remember that all wrong but it seemed to me to be very weird at the time. Anyone else remember it this way?

The Jazz also sent their second round pick to Orlando. Ralph Sampson's nephew or cousin.
 
The Jazz also sent their second round pick to Orlando. Ralph Sampson's nephew or cousin.

Ah that's the missing piece. So in essence the picked Borchardt to hold our second round pick hostage.

The brilliant fiends!
 
There was this other guy the Jazz drafted somewhere in there but I can't remember his name. Can you two with the lists humor me and help out?
 
A few things which stood out to me in the interview:

1. KOC threw Memo under the bus for not being available and the rest of the team for lacking effort. He did not give the impression that he was disappointed in the talent he had assembled.

2. He did not want to answer any "coaching"-related questions about scouting reports and how teams are playing against the Jazz. Would that make Sloan look bad?

2. When asked about money saving moves, KOC quickly shut down Locke! This hit a sensitive spot and tells me the Jazz would be very interested in such a deal.

3. He basically inferred that he had to decide between Big Al or Wes Matthews, so they went with the big over the guard. He didn't let on that it was a mistake at all.
 
A few things which stood out to me in the interview:

1. KOC threw Memo under the bus for not being available and the rest of the team for lacking effort. He did not give the impression that he was disappointed in the talent he had assembled.

2. He did not want to answer any "coaching"-related questions about scouting reports and how teams are playing against the Jazz. Would that make Sloan look bad?

2. When asked about money saving moves, KOC quickly shut down Locke! This hit a sensitive spot and tells me the Jazz would be very interested in such a deal.

3. He basically inferred that he had to decide between Big Al or Wes Matthews, so they went with the big over the guard. He didn't let on that it was a mistake at all.

Even with out the context of Big Al or Wes I thought not matching the contract was at the time was the correct choice for reasons stated a few million times. Also as much as I love Fes if the Jazz kept Mathews that means he would be the starting C or Kosta or assuming they still signed Elson, just saying.
 
I listened to the interview yesterday on the way home and I didn't think KOC's tone was much different than in any other interview. The questions he avoided are questions he would avoid even if the team had the best record in the league. I think too much is being read into this.
 
I listened to the interview yesterday on the way home and I didn't think KOC's tone was much different than in any other interview. The questions he avoided are questions he would avoid even if the team had the best record in the league. I think too much is being read into this.

Interesting. I guess I dont listen to these things often enough...
 
3. He basically inferred that he had to decide between Big Al or Wes Matthews, so they went with the big over the guard. He didn't let on that it was a mistake at all
.

Sounds like a typical person who wants to avoid taking responsibility because some of KOC other decisions made this situation possible. Mostly, re-signing Okur before he had too and for not offering Wes a CJ type contract right up front. One instance he didn't allow the market to set the price in Okur and with Wes he made the decision to let the market dictate his decision. He had to let Wes go because he screwed up the Okur situation.
 
.

Sounds like a typical person who wants to avoid taking responsibility because some of KOC other decisions made this situation possible. Mostly, re-signing Okur before he had too and for not offering Wes a CJ type contract right up front. One instance he didn't allow the market to set the price in Okur and with Wes he made the decision to let the market dictate his decision. He had to let Wes go because he screwed up the Okur situation.

The difference is that one player was a restricted free agent and the other would be unrestricted. Signing Memo to an extension was questionable, but nobody could have predicted his injury.
 
3. He basically inferred that he had to decide between Big Al or Wes Matthews, so they went with the big over the guard. He didn't let on that it was a mistake at all
.

Sounds like a typical person who wants to avoid taking responsibility, a few of KOC's decisions created the circumstances that cost us Wes. Mostly, re-signing Okur before he had to offer him a contract (with Okur's nagging injuries and obvious lack of defense the market was small at best). Why not wait until he becomes a free agent. Okur wanted to stay in Utah. KOC knew he had the Boozer issue to deal with in a year. Most fans knew that the Jazz would not be able to keep Boozer, AK, Millsap and Okur so why not wait and let him test the market. When Wes came along he did the exact opposite, he should have worked the deal from the start and offered him a CJ or a little better contract to keep him.

The problem is that KOC had already screwed up by signing Okur and not trading AK. The fact that KOC showed his hand with Boozer he was unable to trade him for anything good so he had to beg Kahn for AJ. There was no choice between them both KOC just mismanaged the situation and he just covered his mistakes up by signing AJ and Raja. At least that is the way I see it.
 
Sounds like a typical person who wants to avoid taking responsibility because some of KOC other decisions made this situation possible. Mostly, re-signing Okur before he had too and for not offering Wes a CJ type contract right up front. One instance he didn't allow the market to set the price in Okur and with Wes he made the decision to let the market dictate his decision. He had to let Wes go because he screwed up the Okur situation.

i realize you're never going to get it, but i'm not busy today. so what the hell, here goes.

of course, extending Okur at the time was a risk. extending any player is a risk. Matthews could rupture his achilles tomorrow. who knows?

on the other hand, it is perfectly obvious that replacing a 17.5 PER center is always going to be difficult. do you think there are a lot of 17.5 PER centers that KOC can just sign as an undrafted free agent (like he did Matthews)? here is the list of centers with a PER higher than Okur after the 2008-2009 season:

https://www.basketball-reference.co...tat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=ws

for those of you too lazy to click the link: Howard, Yao, Okafor, Shaq, and Lopez. that's it. four of those guys were making far more than the $10 million KOC spent on Okur, and the last one was on a rookie contract. Considering the premium you have to pay for size in the NBA, how is $10 million spent on Okur so extravagant? and only a two-year deal?

your boy Matthews? he's a good player too, but his FG%, 3P%, and per-minute rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks are all down this season. and he wasn't very good at any of those last four when he was here. his 15.2 PER rates him as an "average" player at his position league-wide.

face it: both the Okur and Matthews decisions that KOC made were defensible at the time.

now if you had been the Jazz GM in the summer of 08-09, your approach would have been: I'm going to pass up extending my 17.5 PER center (when any potential replacement is making double that and would be unavailable anyway because of the salary cap), because I need to save money to re-sign that undrafted free agent "average" wing player that I'm going to find later this Summer. right?
 
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