With Andy B. Larsen still on vacation, Eric Walden brings in former TribJazz-turned-Athletic reporter Tony Jones for hosting help this week.
And, in true TJ fashion, the conversation goes off the rails pretty quickly, including such topics as pitting his daughters against one another, addressing the criticism of Donovan Mitchell’s play with Team USA, what Jazz fans should be excited about this season, and the absolute worst attempt at an embarrassing Andy story you’ve ever heard.
At 7:51 • Eric and Tony give a brief overview of Team USA’s play thus far, discussing whether this is the least talented U.S. Men’s National Team since 1988.
At 13:41 • Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell — who’s become one of the team’s top players — has been alternately criticized for being aggressively inefficient and passively ineffective. Is it warranted?
At 21:36 • Tony says definitively the Jazz are NBA championship contenders because of their elite offensive and defensive balance.
At 24:58 • “The uptick in point guard play alone is going to help this team tremendously.” Tony says Mike Conley is “this generation’s Rod Strickland,” and yes, that is a compliment.
At 27:42 • The biggest potential pitfall of this team is how they’ll fare rebounding and generally matching up against bigger forwards. Speaking of which, how will those frontcourt rotations shake out?
At 32:04 • Both Eric and Tony foresee Jingles having a huge impact, though they wonder how he’ll adjust to the second unit with his pick-and-roll partner, Derrick Favors, now gone.
At 34:21 • Eric recaps Angie Treasure’s evisceration of Andy from a week ago and encourages Tony to follow suit; and like Tony’s jumper, the attempt comes up well short.
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