It’s time for a Ryan Smith appreciation post

One of the most important elements of this site, the thing I find close to sacred, is that we don’t censor what we say or do. That is for other sites or reporters to do, whether it’s to stay in the good graces of the team’s PR department or of their sources. At SLC Dunk, we don’t sugarcoat.

But that doesn’t mean we just criticize (I’ve definitely said some things on my show, or written them here, in the heat of a terrible … win … during this rebuild). It means we also have to call out the good when we see it, and I have to show some appreciation for Ryan Smith.

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This Tom Dundon situation in Portland is bad, really bad. It may not seem like it now, with him being a fresh owner, but the stories of him looking for cheap options for a wide array of options are not going to create the image he wants.

If you haven’t heard, here’s a list of things reported…

Looking for the cheapest option for head coach

Apparently, Dundon only wants to pay $1M for his next head coach.

By the way, Tiago Splitter is seeing all this while being the current head coach. Not great. And apparently, he’s fine just bringing in any sort of coach, and that will somehow work out for the team.

He’s also allegedly offering coaches the position at his cheap rate and getting turned down.

Ryan Smith deserves a ton of praise for finding a great head coach in Will Hardy, paying him market value, and signing him long-term when it was clear he was a great coach. Knowing that the Jazz don’t have to deal with this kind of nonsense is a great reflection on ownership that appears to learn, grow, and evolve with each decision they make.

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Dundon isn’t flying his two-way players to playoff games

Dundon is apparently trying to save money on flights after paying billions for an entire basketball team.

It’s pretty wild that a person could be willing to spend this amount of money on a team but then cut minor costs like this, especially with your own players. What kind of message does this send to them?

He’s also apparently not flying out team photographers?

For Utah, we have an owner who has included all of these…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/time-ryan-smith-appreciation-post-044201941.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-24 04:42:00

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