Justin Verrier

And he's not like super young.

I think he's now going to be 21 years old or maybe it's 22 coming up here.

And so like he's already starting from a place where his development arc, you really expect more.

But now he just seems like he has a sense of what to do and has been able to highlight what he does well, which is on the defensive end where he's big and mobile and really has something.

And they need some of that.

I think you bring up a good point because we talked about the Mavericks being able to quickly flip this and turn this around into a competitive situation.

I wonder how high the ceiling is for next season's jazz.

If everybody is healthy, if Kessler is back and all these pieces come together.

Are we talking playing?

I think here's a good example.

The Wizards playing in the East, so the runway is a little clearer there.

Do you think the Wizards will ultimately, with AD and Trey and all these young guys, be higher in the East standing than the Jazz will be in the West standing?

Which one will ultimately have the better seed next year?

I think it's two different conversations.

It's like, are they a better team when it comes down to a seven-game series than the Timberwolves?

No, certainly.

I'd be shocked if they won a playoff series against the Timberwolves next season.

But could they be the type of rock-solid regular season team that a team like the Timberwolves struggles to because there's so much just like weird shit happening seemingly every two weeks and needing to run off the court and take a shit and all of a sudden it's just like that's the dominant storyline of the Timberwolves?

That's a very normal thing to happen.

Do you ever have to do that in the middle of a pod?