Gil's Arena - NBA Free Agency LIVE Reaction Special!!

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

NBA Free Agency LIVE Reaction Show as the Gil's Arena Crew reacts live to all the breaking news from NBA Free Agency as the tampering period is officially over, allowing teams to sign free agents that will reshape the NBA landscape. They tip things off by reacting to LeBron James saying goodbye to the Los Angeles Lakers as the King informed the team he will be signing elsewhere this offseason as he writes the final chapter of his legendary career. They discuss what is next for LeBron as he debates where to sign, highlighting the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs and Washington Wizards as the most likely landing spots for the NBA GOAT. They then react to Kawhi Leonard returning to the Toronto Raptors as the Los Angeles Clippers pulled off a blockbuster trade for their former Finals MVP and debate if the shocking move was smart for either side of the deal. Finally, they react to Ja Morant getting traded to the Portland Trail Blazers and react to any breaking news that comes through live. Today's Gil's Arena Crew : Swaggy P, Skip Bayless, Brandon Jennings & Rashad McCants Gil's Arena premieres every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET. Sign up for Underdog HERE with promo code ARENA and play $5 to get $50 in bonus funds or bonus entries https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/... SUBSCRIBE:    / @thearena0   Read Rashad's Blog - https://rawrashad.com/?blog=y Join the Underdog discord for access to exclusive giveaways and promos!   / discord   Must be 18+ (19+ in AL, NE; 19+ in CO for some games; 21+ in AZ & MA) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.ncpgambling.org; NY: Call the 24/7 HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY or Text HOPENY (467369) 2 Min Countdown 0:00:00 Show Start 0:02:02 LeBron James Decides To Leave Lakers 0:04:30 Should LeBron Sign With The Warriors? 0:32:18 Kawhi Leonard Traded Back To The Raptors 0:41:40 Ja Morant Traded To Portland 1:04:27 Tim Hardaway Signs With The Heat 1:29:03 How Will Ja & Dame Share The Floor? 1:32:10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Gil's Arena presented by Underdog. I'm Brandon Jennings, and I'll be your host this evening. We got one of the biggest legends in sports media game. Sit next to me, Skip Bayless is in the building. Sitting next to him is joining him is NBA World Champion of the World Swaggy P, Nick Young. Wait, where's Nick? We don't know. We don't know?

He'll be here. And the man they call Cemetery Larry. NCAA champ of the world, Rashad McKinz, is in the building. How you feeling today? Finish him. How you feeling there? You got your Lakers stuff on, feeling good? Last hurrah, this is the last hurrah.

Yeah? I figured I'll bring out the last little bit of props and take a couple souls in the process. Yeah. And it's a special free agency edition of Gills Arena and Will We breaking down all the big signings and moves. This episode is presented by Underdog. Underdog is available in most states including Texas, California, and Florida. New customers get $50 in bonus entries when they play just $5. To get started, just use Code Arena when you sign up and it'll instantly load. Underdog, make picks, win money with Code Arena.

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feeling like this new point guard? Yeah, yeah, it was a little, I mean, you know, the little reasons a little different, but it's all right, I get there. I get there first time. Yeah, get back to the point guard position, man. So it came, so it became official this morning that LeBron James will be moving on from the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Rich Paul. The Lakers put out this statement.

LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history. We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led to us in 2020. under the toughest imaginable circumstances and the countless records he broke in the propylene gold, we wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be cherished and part of the Lakers family. In LeBron James 23-year career with other teams he has played with, he was drafted by the Cavs and played for the Cavs in 2003 to 2010,

signed with the Heat and played for 2010 to 2014, Returned to the Cavs and played 2014 to 2018 and signed with the Lakers and played from 2018 to 2016. All right, Skip, let's get started with you because this is your guy, this is your favorite guy. What do you think is next for LeBron James? You don't want Cemetery to do this? He's going to be in a body bag regardless, whichever way he go.

You or me. All right. So, Brandon, I got a kid. kick out of the fact that Rich Paul is saying this morning that he and LeBron informed the Lakers they're going elsewhere. The truth is the Lakers have been informing LeBron all along for the last month. They're moving on without him because they were offering so little money that he had no choice but to go elsewhere. And

Luca did not want LeBron James back with the Lakers. And Luca posted, I think it was on X, some statement, I don't know, about, it's been an honor and a privilege to play with you and learn from you. And I'm sure there's a part of Luca that believes that. That was

genuine, authentic Luca. Because he does love and appreciate the game of basketball. and the genius IQ level of LeBron James, I think he came to admire greatly. But he also came to resent greatly that he had to share the Lakers stage with LeBron James and all that LeBron brings

in the way of aura and mystique and all-time leading score. And Luca had just had enough of it. And clearly, the Lakers have committed to Luca contractually as the new face of the franchise, and clearly, and painfully clearly, they just gave Austin Reeves his money,

and they gave him lots of money, and they committed to Austin Reeves as the best buddy of Luca, and they have a very deep kinship, friendship. Sometimes it gets a little weird, they seem so close. But whatever. they're like this. And Luca came to enjoy playing with Austin more than he was enjoying playing with LeBron.

So Luca got everything that he wanted. The Luca era is now fully, completely, utterly launched with AR as his little buddy sidekick. And that's who the Lakers are going to be going forward. and they want to have some flexibility left to be able to add a few little pieces. I don't think they're going to be big, but they're going to be little to fill out the rest of their roster. And now it's up to LeBron to go wherever it is. I just want to make this point that you and I went back and forth on.

You were a big proponent of Golden State from the start. You have campaigned for that for, what, a week or so? Yeah. And I got it. I still think they would be the Olden State Warriors, the Golden Oldies, but the one piece of the puzzle I could not understand was why the Wizards would trade a Rich Paul client, a clutch client in Anthony Davis to Golden State. When the Wizards have been trying to sell, we got Anthony Davis,

and we signed Tray Young, and we drafted AJ, and here we go, and we might even have a playoff team next year, right? And I just saw on ESPN via Mark Spears, for whom I have great respect, he's reporting that the Wizards will not trade Anthony Davis. So the whole notion of this super old team, but super team reuniting in Golden State is already a thing of the past because that part is not happening. Now, Lamont wants to play with Steph and Dremont. That's cool. And maybe they could bring Clay back and try to run it all back. Just re-sign, and Porzingis. And Porzingis, which is not bad.

And for what it's worth, Al Horford's 40 years old. He takes great care of himself, and I'm sure he can still produce it a fairly high love. He's sort of a LeBron-esque in his capacity to continue to produce at an advanced stage, right? Absolutely. Okay, so that's what you're going to have to work with. Do I love it? I don't love it. Would I watch it?

Yeah, I'll watch it. But if you did have Anthony in the middle of this, Anthony Davis, you might have something. But he is still the most nuclear weapon of that aging group to me. That's the one you would need if you really wanted to go places and make big things happen. So to me, I still don't. you know, before I give it up to you, I'm going to throw it because this came out the other day and I think I started it, but I can't remember maybe Kenyon had something to do with it, but you love the San Antonio Spurs, mostly because you love that alien.

And I still say, if I'm LeBron, and I like the thunder, so this would scare the hell out of me, if all of a sudden LeBron says, I'm going to San Antonio to play point guard, your position, to be the new rudder of the San Antonio Spurs that I don't think they really have. They don't have that kind of an orchestrator, a back court leader. And that's what LeBron does best. He had his worst year shooting threes this year. He's 31.7 percent. So you can't rely on him to do that.

But passing the basketball, setting up, playing quarterback, I don't know. I like that. And as an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, that would haunt me. It would be a lot of beating us because it would be a fucking abomination. You think so? I know so. With LeBron at point guard? Yes, because he's like you said, he had the worst shooting three-point season of his career almost.

He did. And he's going to have a bunch of wide-open shots that's going to be predicated through Victor and the other guys slashing and going to the hoop. You look at Deerrin Fox, you look at him, and you say, you know, do we need a passer? We really need a facilitating passer? Is LeBron James not a better passer than Deeran Fox? He is, but do we need that? Like, it's not that we needed that. It's just like we needed Deeran to take over games.

And you already know somebody that doesn't take over games. You don't want to bring him in and have him. No, he's not a closer. He's not that. Yeah, we need one of those guys. We need a closer. Okay. And, you know, you're saying Victor Winiana is overrated,

I would call him more unreliable at this point in stage of his career more than it is underrated. You can't rely on him to do things that we want him to do at 22, and he would do it at 25 based on having experience and knowing how to do it and all that kind of stuff. So having a reliable veteran that can actually close games or something that they need. But just going back to what your point is about, you know, LeBron and the Golden State Warriors and the Lakers. Let's just start with the Lakers. Eight years, LeBron James, he did his thing. You can't take away from what he accomplished here in L.A. when it comes down to showcasing

his talents. And you're talking about surpassing greats, breaking records, you're talking about giving L.A. something to come to the gym and cheer for, night in, night out. This is the LeBron James show, right? But the one thing he didn't do is he didn't deliver the parade that L.A. has been waiting for since Kobe's 2010 season. He couldn't because we were all trying not to die during that time. So it really didn't do nothing for the fan base.

We were able to see Kobe bring five championships, five parades to the city of Los Angeles. So when you talk about what we expected, we didn't get to see none of that. And so it's not a huge knock on LeBron because it is a team game, but you are the leader and you did come here to win championships. So for the last eight years to move on again to the next team and not come back and not secure or end your career here, which I think everybody was expecting or at least wanted to happen because who ever seen a guy play 25 years in the NBA? So we've never seen that. So the fact that he's going to another team again after not winning a championship again, to me, that's just another reason for me to keep going.

going the way I go about having expectations for him. I have high, high expectations for LeBron. And so for him to finally get off the team that I used to root for because I had high expectations for Kobe and how he ended his career I did not like. I did not like it on the losing end and the injuries and all those things. So I never gave him credit for that.

That fall off was not good and it didn't feel good for me. And it don't feel good right now. Like seeing that LeBron's gotta leave again, And that's just another thing that I can add to the conversation about why he's not to go. You left here, you left here, you left here, you left here on losses. So for you not to bring a championship here and leave, that would be cool. That's like, at least you gave us a parade. You give L.A. a parade.

L.A. will immortalize you. And the fact that he wasn't able to deliver that, that says something. And the last eight years, regardless of the stats and the accomplishments that he's done, we've been able to see what he's truly made of, what he brings to the table, his longevity, his endurance, and just being able to fight through all the old shit. Yeah, it is. But after that, it's just, to me, it's just another move.

It's another move, another page in the movie, another ask for watch me here. And now we're going into free agency for the summer. We've got to talk about LeBron for the rest of the time. the summer and everybody's like well Rashad what are you going to do when LeBron retires I'm like we'll find out when he fucking retires like until then I'm going to be on your fucking neck my guy but can we say that before LeBron got there the Lakers were we're looking rebuilding were they rebuilding or were they going into a direction where they were lost you remember who they had

who they had to give up to get LeBron who did they have to give up to give LeBron they had Julius Randall they had Clarkson they had Coosma they had had a bunch of guys that they felt like Brandon Ingram. In Lonzo Ball. Lonzo Ball, they had a, they hit a core. They were looking towards moving towards. And they had Magic Johnson running the show. And Magic wanted to make certain moves.

So you don't think LeBron coming to the Lakers, he revamped him and helped him? Revenped, I wouldn't say that, because the team that they revamped with and won with, they didn't bring back. If they bring that team back, they win two, three titles. Then we're having a totally different conversation about LeBron James. So the fact you didn't bring back Dwight Howard, Cousins, J.R. Smith, Danny Green, management. Management, yeah. So the fact that they didn't run it back and left LeBron just with him and A.D. to try

to figure it out, it just didn't help for him. It didn't help for his legacy. It didn't help for any of those things. Because that team, compared to the team that they had before that team, it was like, damn, LeBron came in with a bunch of bullshit. He has to figure it out. Then they got that team and it's like, it's like the Beatles. And then you lose those guys and you, you lose those guys and you, you, you

You never go back to that. So that's a drop-off. Like, you should be able to nick-pick at that type of thing because it's a real thing. It ain't like it's not a real thing. Okay, so what grade would you give LeBron for his L.A. Laker tenure here? What overall is, what was it, eight years? What's your eight-year grade for LeBron James in L.A? If I can give him like a B-plus-A-minus, I would.

B-plus-plus. That high? After everything you just said? Because he's still, he's still LeBron. Okay. He's still LeBron. He still has and has done all the things that he's done. So giving him a C or a D wouldn't even, that would just be playing hating.

I am a hater, but I'm going to give respect where respect is due. The championships matter to me. 24 years, four championships. That matters. Okay. L.A. 8 years, one championship, that matters. But knowing that they blew up that team that could have got him two or three championships Him trying to find his way out with him in AD

Who's gonna be the one who's gonna be the two and then finally playing with Luca and not how you know not knowing how to adjust to playing the third row It's tough. I can't give him an a a plus a plus but B plus plus if I could give him B plus plus I'm gonna get me a minus a minus yeah a minus because Just like I said before, I think the Lakers were cooked and they needed to revamp. He came in when the city was down and they needed something new. He brought a ring in. They got a ring. They went to the Western Conference Finals, I think maybe twice or in his eight years, once or twice.

Under Dardenham, another new coach. Am I forgetting? I just remember the Denver. What am I forgetting? Well, they went in the bubble. Twice. Probably. You know, he broke the all-time scoring record in the Lakers' uniform.

for him and he kept the Lakers at a high value. So to me, yeah, I'm going to give him an A minus just coming here towards the end of his career and still making the best of it. Okay. I'm not hating. I'm just truth-telling. I'm going to give LeBron James for his eight years in L.A.

a C because of my expectation for LeBron in Lakerland, in Hollywood, where I think he was born to play basketball. I think it's crushing his soul that he can't finish his career with the Lakers. That's just me. So like a flat C, like not C plus, like a flat. I'm doing flat C and I'm going to explain. Okay, so in these eight years, this is what's happened.

The Lakers have missed the playoffs twice. They have been swept twice in the playoffs in these eight years. That's four. They have been gentlemen swept twice in these eight years. That's six. And now let's look quickly at the Mickey Mouse championship that he did win. And you correctly, to me, dismissed it. You didn't even give it a parade because we were all trying to figure out how to survive 2020.

So what happened was, obviously, LeBron at an advancing age, though he's obviously at every stage, he's, because, of his incredible longevity. He's the longevity king. He's the Iron Man. But he's still playing at a very high level in 2020. But he got four months off, four months to get ready just for the playoffs. Well, come on, man.

He had a supreme advantage in 2020 where he got to just unwind, revitalize, get his body completely right, not for the regular season. because when they got to Orlando, would they play like two regular season games, and then they went, right? And here we go. And by two-thirds of the way through the bubble, most teams just didn't want to be there anymore,

especially the Los Angeles Clippers, who, by the way, were the Vegas favorites to win the championship that year with Kauai and Paul George at their peaks, right? We'll talk about Kauai in just a minute getting traded back to Toronto. But this is Kauai. in his early years with the Clippers where he was it.

And they were it until they revolted and mutinied on Doc Rivers. And remember, they're up three games to one on Joker and the Nuggets, and they blow it. Lou Williams, Martyrus Harold, they had a nice stack. Yeah. And my friend Jared Dudley said at that point on a podcast, he said, them boys didn't want to be in no bubble. They just didn't. Because if they had been committed, they were better than the Lakers.

But the Lakers got to push through Denver, and Anthony Davis played great. So did the law. LeBron played very well. But then they get the heat. And they're just way better than Jimmy Butler and the heat at that point. Yeah. Especially with Anthony Davis, because BAM's no answer for AD. And I can't, did that go six or five?

I think it just went. Was it five? I can't remember. I might have been five. But it was fairly easy for them to win what I call a Mickey Mouse championship that couldn't even command a parade because we're in a pandemic. Okay, so now what has happened since the Mickey Mouse Championship? In playoff games, I'm not making this up.

I'm not exaggerating. LeBron James since the bubble in playoff games is 16 and 26. of all the players who have played in the playoffs over these years since the bubble, that winning percentage, which is 38%, that ranks dead last in the NBA in winning percentage in the postseason. Because he's played a good number of games,

but he's won very few, 16 and 26. And remember what happened when they did get, in a non-pandemic year, they got to Joker and company in the conference finals. And they got their asses swept right out of the playoffs because in all four games, the games are close within a point or two going to the fourth quarter. And in the four fourth quarters combined,

LeBron shot seven of 23 and one of 10 from three. And in the close-out game four here in Los Angeles, Staples at that point. Remember, LeBron had two shots in the last few sessions. seconds to tie the game and neither shot hit the rim. Neither shot hit the rim. He had a jump shot that hit the side of the backboard and then he tried to drive it through Jamal and the ball didn't hit the rim at the buzzer. Okay, so my point is that was ugly. That was an ugly finish to what had been a decent playoff run. They had blown through John Company and that's where he actually

won a few playoff games, but when you miss twice, swept twice, gentleman swept twice, and you're 16 and 26 since the Mickey Mouse Championship, that's a C to me for LeBron freaking James. That's, I I'm not exaggerating. I'm not

trying to pile on. You're not. You're not. You're cooking. You're actually cooking. So he gets a grade C, so they retire his jersey then, right? So his does LeBron James get his jersey retired there in L.A.? Okay. Are you asking you, yes. Yes. I'm not. Should it be?

Yes. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that because he did break the all-time scoring record here that was Kareem's record. I assume just because they'll, like, Jeannie issued that statement, what she called, I wrote it down when you were reading it under the toughest imaginable circumstances. I think they were the best imaginable circumstances in the bubble. But he did win a championship, so. I can't give the whole break the record.

record thing, he's going to break that regardless. No matter what team he's on. Yeah, but he did it in the Laker. And that's the problem for me. My thing was him coming to L.A. was him coming into somebody else's territory that had built a legacy here, like other Lakers that built legacies here, they were drafted here. They were. They were here because this is home.

And so for you to come here and want to submit a legacy on top of a legacy, by It bothered me because you could have did it anywhere else in the league, especially where you were. Yep. You could have passed a record in a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey, which would have meant more to Cleveland. It would have. Because we got the number one guy on our team. He did it in our jersey. We drafted him.

He's from here. The storyline there makes more sense to me than coming to L.A. for the nostalgia of it. And that's always been my problem with it. And that's why I couldn't root for the Lakers anymore because I felt like you didn't have to come here to be LeBron James. You're LeBron James wherever you go. But you were home and you won home. There was no reason that you couldn't win that same 2020 championship in Cleveland. You didn't have to leave Cleveland to come to L.A. to win that because you're LeBron.

You're that good. And you're with Tyrone Lou who believed that you could get 50 any fucking game. So to break up the band to come over here, and everybody depart, it just didn't feel good for basketball's sake. It didn't feel good. But you make your own decisions. I mean, but the Lakers got a ring.

He broke the record and he has a chance to go back to Cleveland if he wants to. Yeah, but we can't beg for his statue. We can't beg for his jersey in the rafters because what he just outlined from a Hooper standpoint, that's not good enough.

As the leader, as the guy that's supposed to take us over, what he just outlined is a C. As far as production, what you're supposed to do, what you're expected to do. Yeah, the Lakers were cooked, bro. They had no vision. They didn't know where they were going to go. I mean, you know, the tragic accident,

and then he comes in and builds the Lakers back up to a. Same thing happened in Cleveland. Cleveland would cook. Cleveland didn't know what they were going to do. It was just Kyrie Irvin and Dion Waiters. They didn't know what they was going to do. They didn't know what they was going to do. And then he got Kevin Love.

Then he got, like, he got a team. He built around that. And that's what he does best. When I come in, bring the shit around me, we're going to take it to the house. Just so happened. After he did it in 2020, they weren't able to do it again. Yeah.

You got AD, you didn't build around that. You got Luca. How long has he been playing with Luca? Two years? Two years. Two years? Like, you couldn't even get close to it. You couldn't sniff it.

So now, for what he's saying, we can blame it on age now. We can say now he's too old. And the years that, in the latter years of his career, we're looking at the resume like, come on, we've got to give him a break. This is the tail end of his career. But it's like, okay, but you're still playing. When you're still playing, you're giving me ammunition to steel critique. That's true.

So I'm not going to give praise over the criticism because you're not winning. I will praise you when you win because you got it done. And if you can get it done, you deserve to be considered the greatest of all time. That's the only thing holding him back is getting it done. We know what he does physically. We know what he does from the mental side, the IQ side. We know what he does. Mr. Longivity.

Stat King. But when it's talking about getting it done, You're talking about one for 10 from three, against Denver. Yeah, and it does happen. It happens a lot. But it's not supposed to happen with you. Why?

Because you want to be the great. You want to be the greatest. Yeah, but all the grades had to go through that. The one grade was six and oh. The one guy you tried to surpass. That guy before that would happen before that, though, before he got there. He had to go through it. He did.

But when he finally got to it, he got to it. And then dropped that shit off, like drop the, Mike. So now you're trying to fight against that and everyone's pushback is, come on, it's Michael George, bro, 6 and 0. You've got to give us something like this for us to even consider to be named next to him.

Okay, well, another point I want to bring up. Real quick, I don't want to drop this jersey thing. So you believe his jersey should be hoisted into the rafters. Yes, I think when this guy is done, he should have three jerseys retired. Okay. So you want his jersey, as Rishad

just pointed out, up there, with the Laker grates who were born and raised as Lakers, right? With West and Magic and Cream and Worthy and Kobe and Jack and who else? Well, Paul's up there. Paul's not a Laker bread. He's probably the only one. Paul Gisal. Oh, Palgisal.

Yeah, he is up there. He'd be the one because he started Memphis, yeah. And he did get it back to back. So back to back Says back to back Says something Give me back to back I got the finals MVP

Give me back to back And I got the record here It's not a bad argument I don't think it's a bad argument With how he listed off The eight years you hear Well he gave him a C So I don't think he's going to say

That LeBron should have his jersey Retire And it's LeBron James So it's just like you can't say no You can't say no I'm not offended by it I wouldn't be outraged by it. It doesn't, it's not that big a deal one way or the other.

That's a big deal. Well, I know it is. I get it. But it's easy to justify, given his career accomplishments. It's easy to justify, yeah, you hoist that one up there too, right? Nobody's, no, I don't think Laker fans would be offended by that, would they? Maybe some would be. You made the case.

Can't be. He didn't deliver for you the way you hoped he would. But he came to L.A. Yeah. So if you think about at the time, he's the best player in the NBA playing on our team, we can't say we don't appreciate him. You can't say you don't appreciate him because he did come. And he tried. The effort was commendable.

Yeah. But listen, you got it getting it done is getting it done. This is a difference. And I think everyone up there on the rafters got it done. So if we're going to counter Mickey Mouse championship, you would have to consider him. Yeah. Okay. That's fine.

Well, bring it up, LeBron James. Go to state is trying to. get in the mix right now with Draymond Green taking a pay cut do you think it's smart for the Warriors to try to make a super team between LeBron James and AD for sure I think it's smart yeah a smart move to go after LeBron James and AD I mean like I said before the movie line the the plot the script for Steph Curry draymine and LeBron even if it's not AD you know just those three you know you're talking about brother We're happy and what's saying, you know, that's that.

So you can't shy away from an opportunity for guys to do that. I think that's just like having an opportunity to get KD. You get an opportunity to get KD, you take it. You get an opportunity to get LeBron James, you take it. But the difference is he's 42. So it ain't like you're getting 29-year-old LeBron James or 32-year-old LeBron James. You're getting 42-year-old LeBron James. Now you bring back Clay Thompson, you might have a band.

You might have a real band, you know, but if you get AD, which I think that whole ploy of staying away from AD was just distraction to keep everybody off to the fact that we already caught on to it, the smartest man in the world and already caught on to what Rich Paul is doing. So he had to go back and, hey, hey, tell him we're not going to trade AD. They're going to figure it out later in the summer. Yeah. But right now, you're talking about what is LeBron going to do. And then when he does it, what are they going to do to surround him with talent to win? Because right now he's saying he chose happiness over money. He did.

And I don't know when a player has said that they're choosing happiness over money. When we've all had conversations about guys would take $200 million over five rings. And that conversation is happiness over money. I'm happy with being a champion or I'm happy just being a millionaire, billionaire, whatever. So if he's at that stage in his life where he feels like I just want to go somewhere where I'm happy, That means that were you happy where you were here? Because this is LA and you're saying you want to go where you want to be happy. So if you're not happy here, we need to know that.

That you were not happy playing here and losing. So now you want to go somewhere where you have a chance to win and be happy. That's what I think to take less money is. I'm willing to take less money if you put me in a winning situation. Okay. So to me, and again, you brought this up first. the whole idea of Golden State. Okay, so now, according to ESPN, AD is out of the picture.

So Golden State can't afford because Draymond opted out and seems willing, as a clutch client, a close friend of LeBron's, seems willing to take less than the 28 that he could have opted in for, allowing them to use their exception, their mid-level exception, on LeBron at 15 million. So LeBron would go from, I think it was 53 million here last year, to 15 million, 53 to 1 5 million in Golden State. And here's what would happen.

LeBron would turn, as you point out, 42 on December 30th. So you're going to play much of the year at 42. Now, again, he's made 42 the new 32, right? So we give them that. Steph will be 39, play the back half of the year at 39 years of age. Shit, Steph 39. Then Draymond will turn 37 during the season and play much of the season at 37. Clay, let's just say hypothetically they bring Clay back, he will play at 37, okay?

And they have resigned Al Horford at 40, okay, to do whatever Al Horford can do coming off the bench for them. Then you point out, Porzingis, I don't even know, he's not in the age range. That's not a huge issue. So, and they still would have Jimmy Butler coming back. You know, we thought Jimmy Butler would have to be traded for AD because that's the only way to go salary for salary if that was going to happen.

Well, now Jimmy Butler's still on the books at age, he turns 37 on September 14th. So he's going to play the whole year at 37 coming on. off complete big ACL reconstruction. Okay, so can he come back mid-year? Like Kyrie didn't come back for the whole year, right? Yeah. Okay, so LeBron at 42 and Steph at 39, I just don't see it equaling playoffs. If you told me Anthony Davis was in there, I'd say, okay, you got me.

but it's going to be so hard to manage minutes for LeBron and Steph to load manage them through the year. It's going to be hard enough to just get them enough wins to get to the playoffs. I'm just not sure about it. They did draft the kid Lindaborg, who ironically is old for a draft pick, but at least he's only 24, right? He knows how to play. And he does know how to play. And he'll fit fine with them.

He'll probably be a starter in this group and be just fine. He knows how to play, and he will fit right. In fact, I don't know that you could pick a better college player to fit into this group than he would fit. 100%. Okay. So all that's good, but I just don't, they're so old. They'll be by far the oldest starting five. Where else does LeBron fit, right?

So, look, Cleveland, James Hart just declined. Yeah. I mean, they want to re-up with him. They want to, but if he's declined in the same way that. Draymond Green's declining, which gives him an opportunity to go back home. And the funny thing about LeBron is that they waited to get Brony completely and fully guaranteed with the Lakers before he made the decision to go ahead to make sure his son is good. And now he can go wherever he wants. So if he does want to go back home to Cleveland, it could make sense for them to just pick him up.

They don't lose nothing. Yeah, it does. You can have your farewell tour. You could go back. and you can just end it there. It makes more sense there than it does Miami. Yeah, I agree. I don't like Miami for him because him,

Bam and fucking Janus is like three bowling balls going down the lane at the same time. And I feel like, yeah, everybody's just going. Everybody's jumper is unreliable at some point where you can't just going to let Bam shoot a bunch of jumpers. So, but it would be entertaining. Miami, you know, it is a storyline there. But it ain't the Warriors.

Play with Steph, Olympic Avengers field, go back home. You got you, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jared Allen, and Mobley, Steele. That's a good team. That will sweep through the east. I find it hard not to just because what he brings, and they need a little bit of what he brings. Okay, so they just got swept by the Knicks, and you think that would reverse field on that? 100% because think about how the Knicks beat them.

The Knicks beat them because James Hardin is not reliable in playoffs. We have to just get that in our head. He's one of the greatest players we've seen. He's unreliable. Donovan Mitchell, as great as he is, unreliable in the playoffs. No, he's never had help. But he's just been unreliable. Yeah, but he's never had help, though.

Help or no help. He's been unreliable. And you said itself, you're never going to be a job. championship guy with him being number one. If he doesn't have, if he doesn't have the right pieces around him. So bring LeBron James in and allow him to be with James? A distraction. You're going to keep

James? Yeah, I would. Yeah. Because James can shoot. One thing James can do is shoot. So if he can catch and shoot, get LeBron and get him open shots due to the fact LeBron's still a force of nature that you have to kind of like come and double or give attention

to. Then you got two twin towers down there. I think that they will up They're up their play with LeBron there knowing that they can get the ball in certain areas where James doesn't have to come downhill and do certain things. It allows the guards to play. You guys play. LeBron is going to be LeBron, but he's going to have to change his game to be more postcentric. It can't be Bron in pick and roll, bond at the top of the key trying to do some motherfucking bag work. No, get your ass in the post.

Let's take advantage of the mismatchezage and then let's throw it to the lob. Let's throw it to the weak side threes. Let's try to maximize what we got. So you don't want LeBron orchestrating? Don't want them orchestrating. Really? At all. Because you got James and you got Donovan Mitchell.

These are two point guards. Yeah, but we just saw them last year. They got swept. They're unreliable because they don't have a guy that's going to demand attention. I know. So you need somebody that's going to orchestra and be the guy to make it easy? Not from the top of the key, LeBron. We don't want top of the key, LeBron.

Yeah, but it can be from anywhere. Yeah. That's the orchestration I'm talking about. I'm not talking about ball dominant LeBron, bring it down, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, no. We throw it in, Brian, you make a move, make a play. And we're not going to do that every fucking play. But at least we know that the team is going to respect us coming down

because we got LeBron James on the floor. And he still windmilling and fucking throwing it behind his hand. He can still do that. Well, we'll see what happens with LeBron James soon. But more news in L.A. The Los Angeles Clippers are trading two-time NBA champ, Coad Leonard, back to Toronto Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, two first round picks, one pick swamp, and two second rounders.

Kauaugh famously led the Toronto Raptors to a title in 2019, and will now return to the six to play alongside Scotty Barnes. How do you guys feel about Kauai returning to Toronto? Let's skip. Let's start with you. I think it's a good move for the Raptors. Kauai is coming off arguably his best season ever. average 28 a game, shot 39% from 3, 51% from the floor, and 89% from the free throw line. I'll take that. He just turned 35 years of age, and I'm pretty well connected with the Kauai group.

Listen, LeBron gets all the credit for how hard he works. I think Kauai works at least as hard on his body and game as LeBron. works, maybe harder in what I see. I don't know how to quantify it because I can't actually like keep score of minutes practiced or time spent working on body. But Kauai takes great care of himself and his knees were pretty good last year. And both of them have been through the wars. But they held up pretty well.

And the problem was the clippers went first. 42 and 40 and lost in the play-in. So we can talk about this in a moment, but it's almost LeBron-like in the, how many years was it? One, two, four, five, six, seven. Yeah. So in his seven years versus LeBron's eight,

they don't have anything to show for him either, right? So they paid him almost $300 million over seven years, and they just don't have anything to show for it. At all. And then, as everybody well knows, this aspiration scandal happened, involving Kauai. They're trying to sort of subtly put it off on Kauai,

like, well, he and Uncle Dennis, his advisor, did it. You know, they did it independent of us. I don't know. That's what the clippers are contending, Balmer. But Balmer was an investor in the company that went belly up and the co-founder went to jail. So it's a big, ugly mess, and it feels like they just decided we've got to get out from under Kauai.

I don't know if there's maybe pressure from the league to get out from under a Kauai. 100%. Just to get the stench away from you. Yes. And because I don't know how the league can punish. Who do you punish for this? Because it's still murky about who was most at fault.

But, okay. So, you know, I like it for the Raptors. I just think he's got a couple of big time years left in him. And he knows the city and he had great success in the city for one year. And for Brandon Ingram and Grady Dick, I don't know, it's like, yeah, do that. It's trash. Yeah. This is trash.

We've seen three teams make three trash decisions about trading high value assets and not getting the high value asset. I mean, it feels like they just gave more. They're giving players away. Yeah. Let me explain. So the aspiration situation, I wrote in my blog about how Kauai was going to get rewarded for what happened. You did. I read that. That was good. The reward is going to be he go to another team and get the extension he asks for.

He's going to get the money he deserves because he played well last year. We're going to sweep this thing right under the rug as if it never happened because the clippers are going to fucking do clipper shit. The clippers are now right back in the shit that they've always been in and they've been trying to climb out of it. Let's go get James Hardin. Let's go get Paul George. Let's make it look like a playoff team. And then we fight, fight, fight, fight. Kauai's not healthy.

Paul George goes down. James Harder is in the club too much. We don't know what we want. Let's bring Wessel Rusbrook. All right, Russ, let's help us get. This don't work. We got all these L.A. guys on one team with Norman Powell. Yeah.

And we still don't get nothing done. No. Norm's gone. James leaves. Paul goes, now Kauai's gone. Everybody got the same call. Like, get the fuck off the ship. It's sinking.

What is Balmer doing? He's sitting there holding this fucking dick and he's like, I don't know what to do now. But I spent all this money on this damn team and it was overpriced. Now he's holding Grady Dick. Yeah, he's holding Grady Dick.

He's holding Grady Dick. He's got enough dick for all the bathroom. 100 toilets. 100, 30 toilets. Shit. Goddamn. Steve, what you're doing? And it's like, now what do you do now?

Like Brandon Ingram, he played well last year. He did. enough for you to be like he's going to come to our organization and turn it around, right? And I think at this point he was a little disgruntled about playing time and being shifted around and the lineup, all those things. So what is the Clippers going to do now? Like they got Darius Garland, they got Brandon Ingram, they got, they're getting off Bradley

Bill. We didn't even get to see Bradley Bill playing the Clipper. Like, what are we doing? I didn't even mention Bradley Bill. on the team with Kauai and never played with him. No, he just declined his op- He just declined, so he's gonna go somewhere, so I feel like... They got Derek Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn.

Come on, that's it. And got rid of Zubop. They did. And Brooke Lopez? I know. He's back, Brooke Lopez. That just lets me know whoever's making decisions for the Clippers need to be fired. And I can't remember if we agreed on this.

I'm not a big fan of Keaton Wogler and that's who they took with that pick. You know, they had a hot-pice. It doesn't. And like, okay, good luck, man. And what pick was that? that six six or seven you could have got a real high caliber player that could give well no it's five because that it was five it was a cuff on the table for sacramento could have been a cup could have been he could have been and hey listen there's garland look you're cool but you can teach this young fellow

what he needs to know and you can move around but right now the clippers don't have anything to root for and they're back to square one in this beautiful stadium you got all this investment and you just got idiots in the front office don't know what the fuck they're doing. And now you've got to depend on Tai Liu to actually coach the team. He's back to the drawing board again. You think about the beginning of the season how they struggle with Chris Paul there and all those guys and trying to figure out, well, we're losing. But then they turned it around.

It felt good. It's like, all right, T. T. Lou finally figured it out. Kaua Leonard's knees is looking good. And they probably going to look good in Toronto because when you figure out how to get your shit back, you don't just lose that, right? He'll start feeling better. But for Ty Lou, it just, it may be time for you to go too

because now you've got to rebuild, period. So, look, I like Lawrence Frank. He's a good guy. I mean, I enjoy talking to him, but I don't know how he keeps his job because it's just been disaster after disaster after flame out, after swing and miss, after, it's just nothing ever worked.

He's a Van Gundy. He's a cousin. One of them cousins is going to stay around. Just keep going, man. He'll be a motherfucker. He's still the coach of defense, right? Over there for the Cliffers. He with the Clippers, yeah.

Right? Okay, so I look, it's like we looked at LeBron's 10 years time. And, man, okay, so the first year is 2020 with Kauai, and I brought it up. So they're up three games to one on Denver in the bubble with Doc is the coach, and Paul George and Kauai is the stars. Kauai, Paul George is the stars. And they blow it. Okay.

And they were the favorite. And then in 21, the next year, they get to the conference finals, except Kauai has blown up his knee against Utah, remember? And he can't play in the conference finals. So it's Paul George or bust against Phoenix and CP3. Remember? Yep. And CP3, and the closeout game went out of his mind, shot at the best I've ever seen him shoot it. And they go on to the finals.

So you don't even have Kauai for the conference finals that year. Then they missed the playoffs. Then they go, first round, exit, first round, first round, exit. Three straight years of exits. And then this year they failed in the play-in, so they didn't make the play-offs. Right. Okay. So, man, it's, and in this time, his salaries go, 31, million, 34, 39, 43, 46, 49, 50.

Okay. It's just he's going to make 50 next year. And we hit this before, but, man, Kauai won a championship with the Spurs, obviously, and he was really good. And then he got sideways with Pop, and I went through, I was in the middle of that thing, and you want to talk about ugly. Nasty. And he just quit his way out of town.

And because it went for the most of the I think it just played a few games that year. Right. And he would say it was an injury thing. Something about his quad or something? Yeah, I had what he had. So it was, it's a painful thing. It takes time. Okay.

But his was weird because it was like tendonopathy in it, like a tendonitis thing as opposed to a tear. Right. He could play with it. No, 100% he could play with it. Okay. So do you remember the classic Tony Parker? quote where Tony, after a shoot around, stood up with a bunch of reporters around him and said, because Tony had ruptured his quad and come back from it that year.

And he said, what I had, my injury was, and this was a quote, a hundred times worse than Kauai's. And Kauai just wouldn't play. And so the next thing you know, they got to ship him out, but they're going to ship him to the east. So he wound up in Toronto, which he viewed as. a layover before he went home for demar de rosen yeah which was a good trade for the spurs if tomorrow would have bought it in to the system no it was fine but but the point was he goes there

and makes the most miraculous shot i've ever seen because it bounced like 19 times on it remember the corner shot absolutely it's philly can't forget it and i don't know i don't know if you've ever made a shot like that from the corner either you two but but it it bounced how it can't bounce. It's going back and forth because you don't have any backboard to work with. It's just bouncing all around the rim. And I don't know why, but it fell. Man, almost like some magnets was up there. It was. It was like a magnet shot. Crazy. So, but the point was, he wins a championship. And then LeBron thought, according to a bunch of reporters, that Kauai was coming to the Lakers for the 2020

season. And in the last second, he pulls the, I remember, It was July. It was like right now, in fact, it was not, I don't know if you remember this, but there was an earthquake here that night. And it was like double earthquake, not to make a light of earthquakes, but because it was a big one. It shook all the way to Las Vegas. I was watching a summer league game and the scoreboard in Las Vegas is shaking. It was so, it was a big one for here. Fortunately, I think everybody was fine, but it did, it wreaks some havoc.

And then right on top of that, there was another. tremor because Kauai chose the Clippers and when I first saw it on ESPN.com I'm like he's in a Clippers jersey why is he in a Clippers jersey?

Oh, he's a clipper and so now I'm thinking well and then they went and got Paul George and it cost them SGA Shay you know Okay They would look right past Shee

looking right past Shee because the clippers at the time Yeah They weren't thinking that they were going to be what they needed to be at 10. Yeah. But the owner came in. It was like, we can go get him

and whoever he wants to be with him. Yeah. It makes sense. But for the Raptors, I don't know, man. Let's talk about the Raptors. Yeah. Let's talk about the Raptors

where they now just got Kuat Leonard. You know, they just got rid of Ingram, but they still have Scotty Barnes over there, R.J. Barrier, and they got some young pieces. So how does Coad Leonard fit with this squad? I mean, if we're looking for a distraction for how... Are they a playoff contender?

I mean, they played in the... They were. They were. You know, with Brandon. So give them a veteran, champion, finals MVP, respected, defensive player. You're talking about somebody that can take it over the top at any given point. But I think the reunion of it is what.

was like, kind of like, how do you guys feel about Kauai coming back when he didn't have to leave in the first place? I think that's the energy I would be on. Like, why did you leave? But who's left? Who's there who experienced him leaving? Nobody. You mean?

No. I don't think nobody is because I think Pascal and O.G. were the last guys. Yeah. A whole new team. Yeah, a whole new team. Kyle Lowry was there and Fred, I think, was there. Yep. So, you know, him going back is kind of like the city, the energy of the city.

Oh, yeah. They missed him. They wanted him. So for him to come back is like, okay, you got to have to deliver again. That's true. You got to deliver again. And that's, that's an unfortunate part because now you're looking at the east, are they going to make more moves? Do Toronto make more rules?

Because they need a center. You know, if you're going to play Scotty at four. Yeah, Jacob. Like, you're going to depend on him to be your four. You're going to play small ball. majority of the time. So you're going to need a formidable big that's actually going to rebound and score the ball at some point. And you're going to have RJ at the point? No, Emmanuel Quigley.

Oh, they got Quigley over there. Quickly over there. So you got Quigley, RJ at the two, Kauai at the three, Scotty at the four, and you need a five. And they can be good. Give them a good five. Miles Turner, somebody like that? They still have, and I can't be. What's the name from the Spurs that I used to know him? I just went blank on the, you know, he's a Euro seven-footers. Jacob? Yeah. Patel.

Yeah. Bertel. He tries hard. He's solid. He ain't enough. He ain't enough. But they still have him. Right?

I mean, yeah, that's, I mean, for the East. It does make it. You're thinking about the teams that are going to be solid next year in the East, you can't rule them out with a Kauai Liner edition. He's average. 27 last year. Yeah. You know, he had a phenomenal year, and to do it under the pressure that he had,

no Bradley Bill, James Harden Jump Ship, Chris Paul gets kicked off the team. He did. Like, you're talking about just me and Chris Dunn and, you know, Jones Jr. And like, I'm just doing it myself. So I think him having backup, because Scotty Barnes is a killer. I think he's a killer. Yes, he is. You know what?

I'm glad you brought in my. I continually underestimate him and underrated him in my head because he doesn't have star quality, but he is a star. And I kept looking at the defensive stats at the end of the year, and he was top five

in individual defensive winshares. He kept creeping up, and all of a sudden he's finishing in the top five. And I can't remember if he's first or second team all defense. I think he might be first. I think he's first team all defense. And then I wanted to argue with it because I think Kays and Wallace is really good. And I thought he belonged first team.

And I can make a case where he belonged. But in the numbers, in the actual individual defense of windshares, it was Scotty Barnes over Kays and Wals. And he can score. I mean, he's a really good player with no acclaim whatsoever. Yeah. He plays team ball too. Yeah. He's not a selfish guy.

No. He's a glue guy. But he's an advanced elite glue guy. Like you said, I don't think he has the star quality where you look at him like star. Got the bravado. He has a, he's the guy that you wouldn't expect to be a star on the team. Kind of like how Pascal is for Indiana Pacers, like he's not star quality, but he's the star of their team. He is.

And he rebounds, he passes, he drives, he can hit open shots. He can. And, I mean, he's a humble guy. Like, he just shows up hard hat. You know, blue collar, he just wants to get it done. And I think bringing somebody in that can win, that's similar to him, that is an added, like, culture thing for them. They're very close together because Kauai has no real rough edges to him. He has no personality that he shows you.

He does off the, you know, off camera. Scotty Barnes, I don't even know what he speaks like. Right, right what he sounds like. I don't. You haven't heard him do no interviews or nothing. No, he doesn't do interviews. And when he at Florida State, I think he came out of Florida State. I didn't even know him in college.

I mean, he didn't, he wasn't on my radar. He made no waves. He had no impact that I knew of. I'm like, Scotty Barn. Yeah. Huh? I don't know. But, but Kauai, they're very much the same.

Yep. And again, Kauai is coming off a career year quietly for a 42 and 40 team, and he's 35, but I've been. promise you if his heart's in this and I assume he had did he have to sign off on this or I think so yeah I think to go back had to be a part of it and I think what you guys were saying with the clipper thing too the stunt yeah well then I I like it I think again I definitely think they're a playoff team are they a contender for the championship I doubt it maybe because of yacca purdle you know but maybe they go fix they go fix that but I like it for the raptors I hate it for

the clippers and I hate it for the league as we continue to just dump off players as whatever we're doing asset control or marking off the books and we're trying to clean books or whatever it is and to see Jai go to Portland. I'm sure we would talk about that. I know but it's it's scandals is we got scandals where we can talk about job but but in this case I just think somebody up above is saying you you got to cut bait here man yeah he can't be a clipper any longer there's too much shit going on. Yeah, too much is going on. It looks too bad.

There's stench around it. Let's get, let's just undo it. Send him wherever you can send him, but get him the hell out of your place. For sure. Right? Is this the last jersey we'll see him in? I think it should be to retire. But he's 35.

And thinking, he's been in the league this long. You would think that he's fucking 37. Like he's like everybody else is a day. But he's still got at least good. three more years where he can go to Toronto and really give them something to cheer for. I think that's important. But with the Clippers is like you can't escape the stench because it's on you, no matter how, who you move where, you guys got an answer for what's happened.

You do. And the fact that he was able to get away, Scott Free, now it's just on the Clippers. Now it's what did you guys do to get him here? Yeah. And Shay had to leave. And this is a lot of, a lot of possibilities in the air. And by the way, for anyone watching who doesn't know, the scandal was caused because Kauai from this former company called Aspiration got a $28 million, you know, marketing deal, endorsement deal. 28 million is a lot of money.

And I'm pretty sure he got it. Like it's proven that he got it in its salary cap circumvention, right? He got that beyond his salary. And so it's proven that he got. got it and to your blog's point he's getting away with it right rewarded yeah he's getting rewarded for it he's he's fine yeah right he's not been penalized whatsoever and you think about james getting out he's seen the fucking fire coming from the basement hey listen i smell smoke cp3 got out give me out give me out of here paul george was the first one was like some shit going

on give me what kawai got you're not going to give me what kawai got because i know you can because you got him. You're not going to take care of me too. Give me up out of here. They're going to give me something similar. All right. That was the first, that was the first brick. So now everything else is just falling apart.

So now it's like, what do you do now have you, the clippers? You lose this trade. You've got to figure out how to circumvent the rest of your roster to even be, like, compete in the West. You're in the West. Yeah, you can, like you're going to the bottom at this point because you got a team like Utah who just built on talent. They have talent over there. They do. They have a way better team than the Clippers right now.

Way better. Way better. Yes. They got youth. They got youth and they actually have to play. So if Will Harder can get to get it. They actually have too much right now where you can't see out how to fit it all together. They need to go to talk to the Clippers and figure something out.

But that's a good thing to have, right? Utah. Yeah, too much talent. You want to be able to have that. Yeah. And you can make that case for Portland too because they're. Portland. Portland and Utah just upgraded to be above anybody as far as the Sacramento, the, the, the, the, Sacramento. The Klippers, the Sons, the Dallas, like guys who think, even, hey, even Houston.

Yeah. Even Houston, what is Houston doing? They ain't make no moves. They ain't draft nobody. What the hell are they doing? They think they're sitting in the good seat? But speaking of Portland, yesterday, one of the biggest moves of the period was when the Grisleys traded Jama rent to the Blazers for Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray. Rashad, go to you on this one.

been waiting on this one. How do you think Jai will work out in Portland? And is this his last chance? Well, I mean, I spoke briefly on how it would work with all those guards. But the fact that he has a fresh start and he can play a fast-paced style with Dame and Drew and Scoot, with Denny Aviah out there with Donovan Clingham, Camorra. Like these are these are These are guys who all know how to play. They've proven last year that they can compete at a high level. Denny's showing that he's an all-NBA type guy. And the fact that he was able to show that on that type of team,

even with Jeremy Grant there, a guy that he outshined. I was supposed to be Jeremy Grant in that position, averaging 25, 7, and 6 and stuff like that because he has that potential. But for some reason, Jeremy has just been in the shadow over there in Portland. And the fact that Dame looks the way he looks now, I think he's motivated to really show people at his age, what is he, 36, 35? Yeah. I think he might be 35, 36.

Yeah. He's got another two years to show him prove. So you look at him and Drew, they're talking about playing these guys all together as a core. Yeah, Dan's 35. 35, 35, year old Dame Lillard and Drew Holliday is probably around the same age, 35, 36. So you're talking about John Moran and Scoot Henderson playing together. And that's a combination that we haven't seen because Scoot's starting to come into his own just last year, especially defensively.

So you're talking about Drew and Scoot on the floor at the same time locking down guards, you got Dame shooting the long ball and you sub in like I'm not going to say sub in Jae because I would start Dame and Ja together and I would sub in Drew Holiday and Scoot Henderson. But if you had to for Star Power, you want people to show up to that arena. John Morant, Dame Lillard, star the lineup, for sure. Well, yeah, if you want to just sell tickets and collect eyeballs, that's how you do that. That's where I mean, ain't nothing else to do in Portland, but if I could go to the game.

So might as well put the best players on the floor. Yeah. Skip, how do you feel, John Morant will work out in Portland? So back on the show, I used to do with Shannon Sharp. we must have gone six straight months it felt like about who's going to be better jaw or zion zion or jah jah or zion and i like zion slightly more even though i was a fan of jaws and communicated with him a couple times but i thought zion's bigger i'll just take the bigger guy and the truth is neither has quite lived up

to what I thought both could be for various reasons. So, John just ran wild for a while. And you know everything that happened and he went through multiple suspensions. And he's just running with the wrong guys. And he's got the gangster mentality

and I run this town. And it just, no, you can't do that. Not if you want, if you want to be this, if you want to be one of the greats, if you want to go down in history, you can't operate that way. And when he came back from his last suspension, it just looked like, to me, this is just watching him on TV,

it looked like his spirit got broken a little bit. 100%. Right? Yes. He lost some edge or whatever. And sometimes the off-the-court edge can fuel on the cord. in a good way, you know. Yeah, when you're not expecting consequence, too.

When you're not expecting people to turn their backs on you. Yeah. And all of a sudden, your teammates are looking at you like, yo, what's going on? Like what happened over when they were playing over in London, I believe, and one of his teammates came up to him like, yeah, what's going on? Why are you not with the team? And he has to have, you know, excuses for that. But that's a spot-on observation because I felt the same way.

Okay. And all of a sudden, Jha wouldn't play with the first. fire and desire. I just didn't see it where, you know, he was operating on the court like he's the gangster, like he's running this show. And all of a sudden he wasn't running the show anymore. He's kind of deferring and looking around. He just had a lost look to me. I'm hoping for his sake that to your point, given what he was for a good, good long while, they just gave him away. They did. They did. They did. They did. And Portland was able to acquire a real talent, a genuine rarity.

You know, and if this is, I'm hoping for his sake, that this is exactly what John needed just to get out of Memphis. Just I'm hoping he can cut some ties with some people. His father hasn't been great for him either because he travels with him, but can't cut that tie. But I'm hoping that he goes to Portland and looks at it as a new lease on life. Like, I'm going to turn the page and I'm going to start over and I'm going to start right. I would really love to dive into the Scotland Report for John real quick because when you talk hoop,

you've got to find out what actual moment turned the light off for him when you talk about the skill level. Because when you say that, I go back to seeing a couple of those games where he did look like. like he didn't know how to play ball no more. Like his athleticism disappeared. He wasn't hitting the middy no more. He was turning the ball over. And you know as a point guard, it's really what I want to ask you.

When we're watching him, we're like, yo, what's happening in the Jai? Because we know the team dynamic can get to you if you don't know how to handle it. When guys don't want to pass you the ball, you don't want to pass him the ball, but ultimately you're trying to show management. You can't do this without me.

I'm the show. I'll pack it in. for a game or two and just be out here like look who you got these niggas can't play they're not me they're not good like that now we're gonna lose if y'all don't give me what i want y'all fired the coach that i liked and you brought this guy in and he think he could tell me what to do that's true this is not the end and when you talk about the gangster feel or the boss feel that josh's persona is showing the world it's not truly who he is because he's a he's a basketball kid he's He grew up playing basketball.

No, I got it. So that Memphis culture got to him where he felt like I am the man. I'm bigger than the program. And my skill set now is being affected because I'm not working on my game. I felt like he didn't work on his game for the last two years to elevate it to a point where we're still missing Jai. I remember Gilles saying when Jai came back from the suspension, we should expect that that guy be the guy before the suspension because he had the shoes and he had the antics. and the giddy and all that stuff. So we're like, yeah, Jai gonna be Jai.

But we didn't see his game elevate. Similar to Zion. You expect your game to elevate. I need a better jumper. I need some moves in the post. I need some more handle out of you, Jai. All of these different things. And it's like his game never truly elevated.

So what you think about as far as a point guard, what he needs to do in Portland that he didn't do in Memphis. He's going to have to learn how to play without the ball. I think he's going to, and I think being with Dame Lillard, being with guys like Drew Holiday, he's going to be able to be able to mature too also. You know, I've heard Dame, Dame is a great leader. Drew Holiday, I've been knowing Drew since I was 11 years old. I know what type of person he is.

He's a great person. He has the opportunity right now to change, to change the narrative, to change the perception of him. I love that he's going to Portland. Nike's there, right? Nike headquarters is there. No party. No crazy shit. I know Nike's probably like, you ain't fit to, you ain't fair to listen.

These shoes are selling. We need you as close as to this facility as possible. Come on in here. We got a gym for you. So, you know, I love that part. But from the part of being a point guard, he's going to have to learn how to play without the ball. He's going to have to learn how to play without the ball.

He's going to have a spot-up shooter. He's going to have to learn how to be able to cut. Because, Dame's going to have the ball, too, also. Like, you know, let's not forget it. When Dame Litter comes back, this is still his, you know, this is right here. You know what I'm saying? So I think he's in a good position, though. You know what I'm saying?

I think he's in a good position. I think Portland's a great basketball town. They sell out all the time. We play there all the time. Great town for basketball. And I think this is a chance for him to mature and become better. And also, La Mello Ball, too. I think both of these guys who've gotten traded, they're going into situations where, you know,

they have. You know, Jai, you're playing with a top 75 player all times. So, you know, he has no nonsense. You're going to Mellow Ball. You're going to the Timberwolves over here where, you know, they've been winning. And they're trying to, you know, get over that hump. So I think both of these young guys, especially job, they're in great situations right now. They just got to go out there and try to prove it.

You think it's a rebranding situation? Yes. This is an opportunity to reinvent yourself. It is. To refresh the whole browser of this is what we find when we look at you. You did this. You did this. You are this. And I remember he just posted something on his Instagram about being the underdog and having to refocus and really training and really

having that hunger and doing it in silence. I think that's a mature thing. And like you said, for his father to be in his life and have to really focus on making his son rebrand, reinvent himself. And get away from that culture that really, the culture can kill you. And that's a thing that these athletes have to understand. Once you get bottled up in the culture, it becomes an influence on your behavior and your character. And if that's not who you are, going to another city that can calm you down,

isolate your emotions, and now you're sitting there like, I almost lost one of the biggest opportunities in my life. And I did that based on not seeing the big picture. And Portland is a team that play on, remember Portland used to be on national TV a lot. They were good. Like, you know, they play on them Christmas and in them games and things like that. So it's just being in that, and they have a, well, I don't know, the owner just changed, right? Yeah, they changed the owner, but he's rich too. It's a little cheap over there. He's a little cheap over there now.

He's cheap, but he rich too, though. He's cheap, but they got some shit going on. So, Brandon, when you first saw Jha and he rose to his peak early in Memphis, how much did your game remind you of his game or vice versa? Did you see any of your game in Jha? No, I saw a lot of like D-Rose in Westbrook in the beginning of their years. And then what would help them is they got that jump shot, like he was saying, that the game slowed down for him. They understood how to play.

Like, when you looked at Russ, like Russ, when he first came in, he was to the basket just out of control. Then he started getting that jump shot. Then he started understanding. So that's why I think now he's going to have a chance to really understand how to play and be with guys who are leaders. Like, you know, he's been the leader at the age of, what, 22, 21 years old since he first walked in. So it's like it's kind of tough. So now I just think now he has an opportunity where he can work on all aspects on, on, on, on and off the court. Yeah.

And Dane, Dane being a mentor to Anthony Simons and Anthony being able to be the talent that he was out of high school, not really having any kind of tutelage, he was coming into his own when Dane got traded to Milwaukee. Yep. So now Anthony is like in the limbo of where and what to do. We had a point now where. Oh, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Oh my God, what's up? Swaggy Fee, NBA champion is friendly in the building.

Yeah, you know I was doing some famous stuff. You know, some famous stuff? It's been famous out here. Good. All right. Do y'all think that Mello and Joss both stay put where they are with the Timberwolves and the Blazers? I hope so.

Yeah. Mello's going to stay for sure. I like both situations. I mean, listen, I love it for Mello, because you would another, you would a dog. I asked you that because they both got dumped off. So if this is, is this a long term, we got something that we consider as an asset investment or is this another opportunity for us to take an asset and move it for something we really won't?

I'm saying dumped off. Because that's what happened. No. They're stars, superstars. Kauai just got dumped off. No, he went, he going to get paid. Yes, but he just got dumped off because you can't plant no more trees over here. We don't got all the trees we got.

We ain't no more trees to plant. I'll tell you this. It's their last chance. You think so? You think so? From a standpoint of maturing and like really taking that. We over that. Yeah, like you know what I'm saying?

Like once you end the league five, six years, it's kind of like, all right now. Bro up. All right. Like we're waiting on you to take this next step. Like, are you talking about jar? Both of them. Both of them. Both.

Not mellow. Not mellow? Nah. Because mellow's the seventh year? Yeah, seven year, but it's... Six year, maybe? Six. Six?

Hell of a... Hell of a talent. I just feel like it's some of these years when you look, they're just like, ah... So when you say last, like they wouldn't be able to be superstars no more? No, no, no, no. They'll be in the league, but they'll have to go into that role. Yeah, they have to go into the row. I get what you're saying.

So now you'll be playing a role of, now you might be the third option on the team. You no longer the centerpiece. Yeah, like, you're on this team, but you might be coming off the team. You're not the centerpiece. I can never see Mello and Jai in just a row. Well, he was just a role earlier this year. He was coming off the bench, Mello. Charles Lee had him coming off the bench and nobody better than I, bro.

Listen. They was literally like- Better than them coming. Listen, they brought- In the league are coming into the league. Like, what are you gonna get that's better than Jod and- We know the talent level there, but I think what he's saying is just- As a draft pick as, there's still 24, 20, what, 24?

But it's the risk, the risk of immaturity to deal with the immaturity that you have to deal with if they don't mature is what he's saying like how much longer are we going to deal with you having the keys driving us and then wanting to pull over and take pictures and shit every five minutes like but we're trying to get to the destination what's wrong with that because we're trying to get to the destination it's taking us longer because what's wrong with that if that if this was jason tatum we'll be talking about him and jalen brown like you guys haven't matured enough over there when you guys were going through it but they matured like they sold all. Jaylon Brown getting killed and everything.

No, no, no. They already won, though. No, he's getting killed. You know what I'm saying? They were talking about getting rid of, yeah, let's bring Kyrie in here. Let's get, like, they were doing all this stuff and they still stuck together. But that's what I'm saying is they last hand. Who would you trade that come in and take these guys spots that's like, like what other point guards that you would bring in that's better than mellow and job? Okay, so you just, you ask you me that. Let me give you an answer.

Like, you're not bringing this. They just told them take their spot. They just told us from Kenyon, Charles Lee would rather have Kobe White than La Mello Ball. So your question is a good question. Who we bring in is better. It ain't about who we bring in. It's like, who do I prefer to have run my team?

And that's what Charles was saying. I rather have him than him because he's reckless. That's a coach. Like, coach is hate other. Like, you can have a coach to hate because, like, got swag. That don't mean I'm, oh. It don't mean you're a bad player. It don't mean you're going to it. It's just a bad look, right? But I'm telling

you, you just asked, who would you rather get? And I'm saying the Charlotte Hornets just made a decision to go with this guy rather than that guy. That's the Charlotte Hornets. So you're dealing with the Minnesota Timberwolves now? Look, they drafted for the last couple of years besides Mello. How many times they got it right besides Mello? You don't think Brandon Miller up and coming? How long

did that take? Two years? So, before them two, they had number one picks all the ones, top fives. Top lotteries, just say lotteries, yeah. Out of them two, for the last, when the last time Kimber was there?

Kimball, yeah. How many lotteries they got right? So we should say the same. Miles Bridges was a lottery, wasn't he? He was 12th. 12, Miles Bridges, probably. By the way, quick point of order on that, you realize that was a Michael

Jordan selection. Those were Michael. So that's another the situation. But remember, on the Miles Bridges, they had the 11th pick, and guess what? They let the Clippers trade up and give them two second round picks to go back one spot so that the Clippers could select at 11. SGA. So Michael Jordan. Okay, so Charlotte was sitting on SGA at 11 and said, oh, you'll give us two seconds? We'll take that to go back to 12, and we'll take Miles Bridge, who's no longer a hornet.

No, that's a good question, though. I mean, those guys, do you have a fucking time frame? Yes. On your talent, just like we have a time frame for Zion. Yes, you have a time frame. Your rookie contract is your time frame. After your rookie contract, we expect you to be hitting the next level. And ain't no excuses after that.

Like, hey, you fat, you got to get in shape. I need to this. Hey, you got gun problems. You don't know how to not be in the club. Dda-da-da-da. Hey, Mello, you're driving reckless on the street. Where should they be? I just want to, where should they be?

You're saying, so if they're not this person, who's this person? Who's that person? They're not like Kauai's or the LeBrons. Like right now. They're not playing for the USA team. They're not even- They're not getting invited. Nothing. So yeah, that's a clear plan.

Because you put, we would put them like they would be on the on the USA team. team. Okay. Josh should be on. Jaya, Zion, and fucking Lamello ball should be the next tier level of talent for the fucking USA to compete to make sure we keep our distance from everybody. But they're not being mentioned at all. So I get what he's saying as far as how much time do we give him.

I got to defend Lamello on this. He doesn't belong in this. He had a really good year last year. That's one year. Okay. But the coach. He hasn't been held. He has it just like Zion.

We give Zad, we're going to not roast Zion for not being healthy, being hurt, not. It's a difference between tanking and being healthy. A lot of them times there wasn't winning, so why keep them out there on the floor? No, that ain't about why keeping them out of them. Or you got to still build your resume up. You still build a 20 and, he's an all-part. But you only played 26 games here, 34 games here. Like, if you're going to have these short spurts of playing and you only had two games, two seasons where you play the

over 70 games. Okay, but he did play 72 games last year. He did, and he played well. You look at his advanced numbers. Seriously, you're going to laugh. But in advanced offensive stats, he was top five in the league. And they went on a run, as you know, they

won 44 games after winning 19 the year before, without him. And his on the court versus off the court, off the charts that they were hot with him, disaster without him on the floor. And they go on a run of, they close 32 and 13 over their last 45 games from January 1st on.

And from January 1st on, in the NBA, the Charlotte Hornets were number one in offense and number 5 in defense. It was a whole lot about him. Yeah. And the coach doesn't trust him. He doesn't like his style. He doesn't like the shots he takes. I got it. And they acquired Kobe White and Charles Lee said, damn, this is what, this is my.

This is my style. This is what I can trust him. And they gave away lamella ball to Ant and company. And I'm like, that's just wrong. You can't do that. He's too good. And your fandom, he had a couple of reckless driving things off the court, and he's a reckless driver on the court sometimes.

I got it. But still, he is a big talent to me, like a rare talent. He is. So the question that he's asking, though, like how much time do we give you to prove that? So if he goes to the Timberwolves and he stays and you're with Ant and you don't eclipse the Western Conference finals as we've been. No, no, no.

I mean, you can't put that on him. I mean, you got Tyrese Maxey in their draft class. You got Tyrese Hallibur, like, I mean, these guys are catch. I mean, I'm just, they're right there catching up. Maxi first time. He's the first time All-Star this year, right? Who? Second.

Second? Who? Tyree. So how many All-Stars they got compared to each other? Well, Jai has two All-Stars. Lamello, I think, has two or three. But what I'm... But what I'm saying is, I'm just saying, Tyrese Hallibur, he's been playing in the finals.

Like, I mean, Tyrese, he was an MVP. Whose draft class are you talking about? Lamello Balls. Okay, all right. Yeah, Lamello Ball, Anthony Edwards, they're all in the same drive. Okay. Who, remind me, how does it go at the top? Do you have it up?

Yes. Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman. Mello Ball, Patrick Williams Mello is a two-time All-Star. Average 28 for his career, like what, and five, between eight and six. No, I'm just saying, like, if they don't go, if they don't go to these teams and do what we think they're capable of doing,

then there's going to have to be some conversations. Maxi is a two-time all-star. So if he's not... Maxi, Tarry's Macon. He's not superstar, and he falls into being... Just a guy from the D. A star. A star.

He's always going to be a star. Yeah, yeah. He's always going to be a star. He's not going to fall below star. Okay, that's what I think. But we're talking about expectations here. We're talking about we know he's supposed to be a superstar, megastar type of talent. And that's what I get you saying.

He's too good to just dump off. You can't. After the season that he had. But there are discrepancies in his play that coaches or his GM or whoever feels like, we can't win. like we can't win with him. So now he has to go prove it or you're going to be taking that star seat just that

Pascal Seaccombe, Scotty Barnes like you're good, you're Jerry on Fox like you're a star. Yeah and remember that he was going to be eligible for a, what is it, a 19 million extension in coming up on July 7th he would be eligible.

In Charlotte just says we're out. We don't want to do that. We don't want to do Miles Bridges anymore. So Hallibur and Maxie and Lamello Baller all two-time All-Stars. Okay. And where you rank them, one through three? I mean, seeing that Holliburton didn't play it all last year, it's tough

because the year he had moving into that before that injury, he was above all of them. He was above Maxie. He was above Lamello. By winning our game, that's what I'm saying. Which one are we going to say? Winning our game. Because it's the style of play, right?

But his style of play is I got my team to the finals and we should have beat them. So like Hollerberg showed improved. But then you got Tyrese Maxie's game. I like Maxie's game better than all of them. And I would put Mello second. I would put Tyrese Halliburton third as far as game is concerned with winning and knowing how to play the game, Holly is number one. Breaking news, guys. Breaking news just now.

Tim Hardaway Jr. has agreed to a deal with the Miami He, Heat, one year deal for $6.5 million. You said breaking news. I mean, it's breaking. I mean, it's breaking. It says breaking news. So you thought a big, a big trade was going. It's a free agency and we ain't heard shit yet.

It's breaking news. That's a big news. I mean, that's a big move for them. Got a shooter. He ain't scared to shoot. He is not. He ain't seen it. He never seen a bad shot.

What's on your mind, Skip? I see you over there copyplay, man. To your point, it's not big breaking news. But, and he's not a star. But you know what? I like him. He's a cold-blooded shooter, man. He makes a lot of big shots coming off the bench.

Fearless. Trustable. I mean, it's a good pickup for them. It's not going to, like, change life. But you need that guy around Bam and Janus, obviously. I mean, it's nice. It's a nice pickup. Yes.

What you think? What you think about? Like, if you're sent a talk about, like, if you're sent a lot of, Tonyo, Miami, and Portland, you think they should do a deal? Like somehow, Drew go to Spurbs. Fox could be in Miami. Hmm. You've been thinking about some shit.

You're the fuck to thinking. They're talking to. What they were? You were thinking about all this? He's like, I got to have some good shit when I get up there. But I would think, I was talking with my brother, that's why. That sounds crazy. That sounds actually real crazy.

Fox, Fox to Miami. Drew to San Antonio I mentioned Drew to San Antonio They just got to get some picks or something Or they get Champagne is just a decline We did But aren't they going to re-up him?

I don't know They should Not because you get Harper, Harper If you got for sale too For sale I know to your point about Portland They're just It's like

Overstocked where you That's why I say Get rid of Drew My God Drew a field. Because Shaden Sharp is there and all. Ooh, that's who forgot the fucking mention. Yeah.

I mean, he's in town. What do you do with him? Whew. I would bring Shaden Sharp to the San Antonio. I would love him down there. Him, Castle. Athletic. Woo.

They kind of similar. Woo. Woo. Woo. Yeah. But you just stopped. But you got to move something from Miami though. What is Miami moving?

That's why I don't want to know who's on Miami now. That's why. They don't really got. Yeah. Norm Powell. Norm Powell, because they would be guard heavy steel over in Portland, I mean, Portland, if you move with Norman Powell. They brought Wiggins back.

They brought Wiggins back. Hmm, that's an interesting one. Multi-team trades are the best because you can move, you can move a lot of shit around. It'd be all bunch of shit. Hell yeah. You got the 2035th pick. Man, first round pick, man, 3033. Yes.

But you did make a point. that I didn't get back to about Jah and Dame. And you said, well, you got to start them both. And I get, in Portland, that'll sell. Giant Dane. It's a box office. Man, I... No way.

But who has the ball, man? Because both of them want the ball a lot. Take turns. Like C.J. McCullough, they used to take turns. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, but C.J. had the mentality of... He...

Because he came from a small school, and he was happy to mostly defer to Dame. Mostly he did. I'm sure Jal would like to pay. passed that ball to Dane Blitzer. And he went to a small school too. John went to the United States. You don't think so? Somebody got to go.

No. Go. No. No. You talked about this being Jari Brandon, right? Yes. Like you had to... Dane went away right now.

No. Is Dane in the way? No. Or is Dane going to be the guy to teach him what you need, how to be a real pro in this league? Yes. Because he didn't have that at Memphis. You didn't have nobody that's going to sit you down and be like, hey, look,

this is what they want to see from you, bro. But y'all just said Dane was working out. He looked good. he's about to try to come back and be Dane. He's going to be. You can't be Dane, man. You can't be Jai at the same time. Yes, you can because, first of all, one can shoot the three from whatever,

and the other one is a slat. A driver, slather. So we're not, so it's not like, you know. He's just seen that. But Jop has, but Jah's going to have to mature his game, though. I'm telling you, you're going to have to be at a knock down that jumper because the ball's going to be in Dames' hand. I forgot Jaya was, he led the Western Conference.

Like, he was number one, his teams. He's been like a winner. He know how to win. His teams ran into LeBron. Dame did the same thing. Dan did the same thing. Dan, ran into y'all.

Dave was ran into y'all. Okay, see, watch out. Okay, see. That's what I'm older. Watch out. That's all saying. Come back. Watch out.

Watch out. Watch out. No, as you get older, you want to go out. First of all, Portland brought you back, you know what I'm saying, so you can retire here and everything. Are you, now, right.

Right, so now all I'm doing, I'm just going out to the wheels. Like, I'm chilling. And it's the same. It's the same situation with the Mello and motherfucking ant. Like, and Mello, I'm the number one dog over here. You're going to have to come over here and figure it out. You got to figure out how to fit in here.

Jai is the same way. And Mello passed, too. Mello's a good way. You don't think Jop passes? Yes. They pass the same. It just look better when Mello do it. It's little.

I think it's going to work. Little, though. I think it's going to work. It's going to work because these boys are little. Little, yeah. It's going to work. Okay, but who's town is it? Who owns Portland Orange?

Oh, Dave Lillard. Dave Lillard stuff. That's what I'm saying. I mean, listen, until John come down and then Nike throw that commercial and he had to, you know, then. I mean, I'm feeling Denny like feel like it's his team. Who? Denny, obvious. I feel like he feels.

He does. I can do more than you guys can do. No. That is true. Like you shooting at three is cool. Not more than Dame. But Dame don't do what. that Denny does, he doesn't get to the free throw line.

He doesn't create mismatches. You coming down shooting a three was a time, that was a time for that. That was you and Steph, y'all had y'all time for that. That time is gone. Now it's a bad shot. It's back to being a bad shot if you're not making it at a 38, 39 percent. When you guys come back and dunk on Wemby like he did. That would change everything.

It's over. That's all saying. We talked about that. He got the best shoes, he's Nike. He's going to be in Portland. Yeah. His second shoe coming out. That's crazy.

But we talked about that, like it looked like his deflation of being around toxicity created him like he looked like his athletic abilities disappeared. Because he wasn't motivated. Yeah, because he just, I don't really feel like going to dunk on nobody. So now people's questioning, is he declining? Is his athletic ability declining? Is he one of those guys that we've seen like Steve Francis that was really, really upside, and then disappeared

because he went to the wrong team. And we haven't, well, good thing we haven't heard a lot from him, we haven't seen him either. He's off the grid. He's been off the grid lately. I'm hopeful for it. I think that Jock can do it. I think Mello can do it.

But it's like I said, the wrong team is a bad deal for it. Quick point on Dane. I don't think we're talking about Prime Dane anymore. That's what I'm saying. I don't think he's what he was. No, he was in Portland the first time. I don't think he's all that. And he tore his Achilles.

He's not quite as explosive. He can still shoot it. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Because even on the butts, you've seen a decline. Yeah. Yeah. Before the injury.

Before the injury. Yeah. We was like, yo, what's up with that? Yeah, we was all talking about. Now you get hurt. Achilles. Well, but you know when somebody wants to really be there. Like, when they plan.

But he was deferring also. He was trying to fit in, trying to not. to do too much and not to say this is my team. When you know who team is. You're saying your team, then you go sign Jai. Yeah, but I can sign Jai because Dame is 36 now. Dame is older. Now if I'm signing Jha and they both in a prime, now we're going to have a be on the bench

in Portland next to Nike. I'm not signing Jaya. I would never say he's going to be on the bench. I said he's going to start him and Dan. Yeah, he started for a short night. Because you're not bringing Dame off the bench. You got to. For who?

For who? A job. And who's playing the two? Who's Dane's on guard at the two? Man, look, we playing zone. Whoever, right. I'm not saying, whoever. We're going to have to figure it out.

We're going to have to figure it out. Who are you starting over Dame Lillard, top 75? This is going back to the Russell Westwood. I'm just about to say. I'm just about to say. He comes off the Mitch, too. Yeah. Or who?

Shannon Sharp Scooke Shaden Sharp Shaden sharp What is name? Shatine Sharp What is Scoop

It's going to be Jai scoop Sharp Denny Denny and Klingham Big boy Maybe

It's not bad You gotta have a good coach You got to make that shit shit work Yeah All right go Drew Drew Jadrew

Yeah I do that before I go Jai Dane because Drew could go work I agree You said what Because Drew could go art He'll go Drew before Dame And I give Jai the freedom

Drew know how to play with Superstars He know how to play If it's his night Because Jai's efficiency offensively don't match What Dane can bring to the table Bro

We gotta talk who When we talk about it School, Drew and Jai are all inefficient Offensive players When you're talking about Depending on carrying the bulk of the offensive.

So you bring Dame in with Jai or Dame with Drew, you're going to get some offense and you know it. But depending on Jada get you 25 a night, no, no, not right now. Have you just seen Bradley Bill right? Mm-hmm.

What you're talking about Bradley Bill in Washington? He was nice in Washington. He came to feelings, got hurt. I thought it was going to have a big year. this year with the clippers. Got hurt again? Got hurt in Phoenix? I just think he's just been stealing money.

I ain't even gonna say. He's just, I don't think he got nothing. I think he can still play. I just think he's gonna give me a check. Give me a check. Got down, fuck it. Well, he's a free agent now. Now he can get some more money

and still some other money, but Brad can play. And Brad, I don't feel like Brad was going to do to pack it in, but I don't see this being one of them situations at all. But I agree with you about Dame, but in Portland, Oregon, how do you not start Damian Lillard, right? How? You can't not start him.

He would, God, he would throw fits. Then he's going to ask, who are you starting? Who are you starting over me? Drew. Well, they're going to have to get rid of Drew. Yeah. You got to get rid of him. Yeah, he's a good piece.

I mean, listen, he's a plug and playing. Wherever he's going to go to a team that's probably contending. He'll probably end up on. the spurs are O KC I mean, just never know. For sure. O'C wouldn't be bad. They need a backup point guard.

Like, he can, he's solid. And he can go out. That would be a great, that would be a great move for OKC. And Portland could get something for that country. When they're saying, Casey Wallace's not going to resign, Skip, I don't know how you feel about that.

Saying he's not going to resign? Mm-hmm. He saying he won't test the waters. You mean when? I would too. Now? That's people like the Lakers. Isn't he up?

He's somebody. Like the Lakers' name. I think so. Case and Wallace up? He's still on his rookie deal, isn't he? He should be up. Mm-hmm. I thought I seen some report that he was...

I mean, he's got at least another year to go, and then they're going to have to pay him a lot, like a whole lot. And I don't know that they can. Something's going to have to go. But I'm pretty sure he's okay for next year. he's not free now so he's currently playing on a four-year 24 million rookie contract

yeah fully guaranteed well guys I think that's it for our special free agency edition that is it? Yes up today this is all we had first man before we wrap it I want to thank y'all I want to thank y'all for this whole year that we had

this NBA season we had a great year Nick Rashad Skip Josiah King We used to do a whole fucking party with the girls. I know. And what's going on? What's going on? Now, we ain't got to have some fireworks and shit.

Yeah. Snow bunnies and all kinds of shit. Yeah. This is it. I mean, this is it for a minute. I mean, we'll be back for sure. Yeah, just a little break. Yeah, just a little break.

It's summertime. But, you know, I just want to thank everybody. Yeah. I just want to thank everybody in the chat. Everybody that's been rocking with us throughout the whole year. Man, thank y'all for showing up doing what we got to do. But this has been another episode of Gil's Arena. And by the way, you're pretty good.

I'm trying to do my first time. First time hosting. Do not rock his boat, man. He's gonna think he's a bird to sit there and shit. Oh, you see how I'm getting comfortable. You see, look, I got his feet up and shit. We're talking about some next episode, um, 360.

Oh, nigger. This ain't the Twilight Zone, nigger. This has been another episode of Gilles Arena, presented by Underdog. We will see you guys soon. We are.