The Bill Simmons Podcast - Curry vs. Rodgers, Plus Drafting the Worst NBA Contracts With Joe House and Wosny Lambre

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons shares his thoughts on generational talents Steph Curry and Aaron Rodgers (1:06) before he is joined by Joe House and Wosny Lambre for the second annual NBA Worst Contracts Draft. One by one, they draft the 21 worst NBA contracts in 2023 (19:06). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and Wosny Lambre Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Coming up on this podcast, a little bit later, we're going to be doing a worst NBA contracts draft with me and Big Waz and Joe House. But coming up, I want to talk about Steph Curry and Aaron Rodgers. Let's go. Pearl Jam. All right, I want to talk about Steph Curry, and I'm going to try to do it in the context of Aaron Rodgers.

He's going to be a very hard plane to land. Please buckle your seatbelts and be careful. Here we go. I went to the Clippers Warriors game on Wednesday. Steph Curry had the hardest 50 points I've ever seen anyone score in my life. He was awesome. He turned into a video game in the third quarter, the crowd, you even had like Clipper fans kind of rooting for it because when you're in the room for something like that, the greatness trumps whoever you're

rooting for. It was just incredible. And you know, I tweeted this at the time, but once again, he is the best in game basketball experience you can have as a fan, right? And this is a loaded year. You have Jokic and Embiid and you have Luka and you have Giannis and these great scoring guards all over the place. We've had two guards have scored 70 points. Nothing compares to when Steph gets hot. Nothing. He's 35 years old.

He has mastered his craft to the point that he used to need like a second to get open. And now it's like a split second. And you had the Clippers last night where they're greeting him with two guys at mid court. Like he's a freaking high school player in Indiana. Just let's get, let's get him to get rid of the ball. You can't get him to get rid of the ball because he's going to keep the ball and he's going to shoot it over you. He is using screens and then bouncing backwards off the screen and just firing shots with that split second. It's like 0.4 of a second. He'll pretend he's going to use the screen, then he'll bounce back and shoot. He'll come curl around. He'll do this giant lap, catch it,

and it's just already going up. He is able to, oh, you're going to play too far out of me. All right, I'll drive in. I'll do the thing where I do this swooping ready layup thing over your big guy. Or I'll pretend I'm going to do a turnaround. I'll do a drop step. I'll come the other way and I'll just flip some crazy shot off the backboard. I mean, he had everything going and they lost by eight. And if it wasn't for him, they probably would have lost by 20. It was an alarming game for me who, you know, I love the Steph era. I always want Steph to be in the playoffs for as long as possible. I like watching him. I like this Warriors run that they're on, even though they steamrolled my team last

year. I don't think they have it this year. And believe me, I am very careful about saying stuff like that, especially in this era where little sound bites and tweets and whatever can just get thrown in your face. I remember what happened last year where it looked like they were kind of dead in the Memphis series. Then all of a sudden it flipped and they won the title.

They have one of the best players in the league. You can never bet against that. They don't have Wiggins yet. They don't have Gary Payton yet. They're going to be much better defensively. Here's why I worry about them. And here's where I think they have real, real, real issues that aren't solvable.

It goes back to what KOC and I talked about on Tuesday. This is a center's league in a lot of ways now. As many great perimeter guys as we have, you kind of have to have center stuff now. Every single team that succeeds at least has somebody like Zubat. Zubat last night had 16 rebounds. The Clipper centers had 21 rebounds.

Plus they had Westbrook crashing in for rebounds. They had Terrence Mann crashing in for rebounds. Westbrook was good last night, by the way. I was shocked. But the Warriors couldn't hold these guys off because they're too small and it didn't matter if you were too small in 2016 and it didn't even really matter in 2017.

The Warriors could experiment with lineups where basically Draymond and Durant were their centers, right? And that was fine. In 22 last year, they could get away with Looney and Green together or maybe just Looney and Wiggins or Green and Wiggins, and they could do it because Boston couldn't really make them pay. But with the league this

year, there's too many guys who can make you pay. There's too many guys who can crash the boards. And they're at a position with Draymond where he's just moving into a slightly different phase of his career. He's not as athletic anymore. From what I've seen on TV, and then it was confirmed last night, like finishing around the rim is just harder for him. It is then the same lift. And guys are going over his back for rebounds. They really needed help.

And I look at that Jakob Pertl and it's like, oh, yeah, whatever. Jakob Pertl, freaking guy in the Spurs center, like is maybe a double-double guy. Oh, is that guy going to swing a title? In this case, it actually might have swung a title if they were able to get him because that's exactly what they need. They need another big body. They didn't get him.

The Raptors ended up trading for him. And this brings me to Curry and more specifically Aaron Rodgers. We never hear anything from Curry. I think he takes real pride in the responsibility he has as the culture setter of his team. He wants to be an awesome teammate. He wants to leave the front office stuff to the front office and the owners, and he stays out of it. And that's just what he does. Tim Duncan did it too. It was the reason I love Tim Duncan,

probably over just about any other reason. Selfless teammate. He just wanted to set the culture, show up to work every day, pull for his teammates. I used to write about Duncan when you went to go see the Spurs. Any sort of dead ball stuff,

Duncan always had his arm around somebody. He was the most inclusive teammate. That's why I loved him. That's why I'm always going to ride with him in any Duncan-Kobe debate. I just am. I have a certain type. Some people, they like blondes. They like long-legged people. They like muscle guys. Whatever your type is. I love great teammates. I love superstars who are awesome fucking teammates. That's my type. Duncan was like that. Curry's like that. You

didn't hear him say a fucking peep about the fact that they did jack shit for him this year. Right? Think about if LeBron was scoring 35 a game for the Lakers and they had all

these young guys on the team. We've seen LeBron just completely turn on young guys or be like, get this fucking guy out of here. Can you imagine LeBron just being like, oh yeah, ho-hum, 35 and 33, and none of our young guys can help me. I'm pretty sure he probably would have pushed for some trades, and maybe that's one of the many differences between them,

and maybe that's not even a bad thing. But for Curry, he stays out of it, and he lets the chips fall where they may. And he trusts that the Warriors are going to do right by him. And that's my point. They didn't do right by him, which brings me to Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers for the last five, six years has made it seem like the Packers have,

you know, undermined his chances to succeed. They haven't consulted him. They haven't agreed with him. He's just been a huge pain in the ass. Nothing major, all like paper cuts. But now it's basically led to this gushing ax wound of unhappiness that we thought was settled a year ago when it seemed like he was leaving

after his MVP season when just whispering, you know, whispering now, but kind of sucked down the stretch in that Niners playoff game, whatever. Now we want you to finish your career in Green Bay. This is really important to us, even though we don't have an owner and this is just a committee of people that represent the Packers. But we want you to finish it here. Signs this huge contract, so huge that they have to trade Devante Adams. And guess what happens in a year? He's still unhappy. And it's still just, it's

almost like we don't understand. We don't understand what he's been through. What's he been through? I don't know. What's going on? Does he just not want to live there anymore? Does he feel like the organization has severely let him down in some way? They've been competitive every year. And by the way, he didn't play that well last year. I watch football every Sunday. Wasn't that good last year? He's headed to the Jets. My rule on this stuff is when somebody is perpetually unhappy, that doesn't change. There's no cure for perpetual unhappiness. There's always a story. And now he's going to go to the Jets in a city where they love

the shit and they're going to be overreacting to every single thing he says and does. And honestly, maybe that's what he wants at this point in his career. It certainly seems like what he's wanted the last couple of weeks. He's drawn this whole drama thing out and it seems like he likes the circus of it. Congrats to him. My point is, if he was on this Warriors team, he would have been bitching about the supporting cast and the young guys and the direction. And why do we have Kaminga? And why haven't we traded Kaminga?

I need a rebounder. We don't have anybody who averages 10 rebounds a game. What would he have said? What would he have done? How would he have handled this situation? Probably poorly. I look at the way Golden State handled basically everything from the offseason to now. And it reminds me a little of Ben Affleck when he decided to be Batman in 2015.

When he kind of said, fuck it. Like I have now, I've not only done this career rejuvenation, but it's gone way better than everyone thought. I'm an A-plus lister again. I directed an Oscar movie. And what's the last frontier for me? You know what? I'm going to be fucking Batman.

And he is Batman. And he went for it. And I think the Warriors looked at this whole thing and they were like, oh, we got only a couple years left with Curry, but we have this chance to build this whole next era of things. And the problem is they mis-evaluated their players.

They didn't sell high on Wiseman in time. They seemed like they thought Kaminga was going to help them this year. And from what I saw last night, I'm not selling any of my Kaminga stock. He's an incredible athlete. He had zero reb saw last night, I'm not selling any of Michael Mingus' stock. He's an incredible athlete. He had zero rebounds last night. It was a problem.

Moody came in for a little bit, didn't look remotely ready to play big minutes in a game. They had a chance here to do right by Steph and to really go all in on somebody who has four rings, same amount as LeBron, same amount as Shaq, one behind Kobe and Duncan, two behind MJ. And he's as good as he's ever been. And they had a chance to make a big move to load up.

And even if it was somebody like Jakob Pertl, that would have made a huge difference. So can they rally from this? Is that a 68-game sample size? Do we need more time to look at this team? Probably not. Is the West so bad that they could just say, whatever, we don't care if we're on the road every round,

we're going to win every way? Maybe. But I left last night exhilarated by what I saw from Steph, but at the same time kind of bummed out because the Warriors are just wasting another apex prime Curry season. Last year it worked out. This year it is way more unrealistic. And this is the best I've ever seen Curry. You know, it's interesting. There was this moment a few days ago when he was shit-talking Chris Paul and they caught it on video

and he said something like, this isn't 2014 anymore. And then it gets passed around on social media for three days. Oh my God, I can't believe he said that to Chris Paul. There's a reason he said that. And if anybody else mentioned this or noticed this, my apologies to them, but

I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to say this. 2014, why did he pick that year? Because they had an absolute bloodbath of a series against the Clippers that year. Seven games. You might remember Mark Jackson dressed in all black for the last game for reasons that remain unclear. The Clippers won. I went to the game. It was my anniversary. I asked my wife if we could go on my anniversary of that game because I thought it was going to be awesome.

And I think just in general, game seven, my rule is if you can be at a game seven, be at a fucking game seven. That's my rule. It was a really important Curry game because at that point he physically was not anything close to what he is now. He was pretty slender.

The book on him was just to beat the shit out of him. And in that game, game seven, Chris Paul did the thing that all great players do. And Chris Paul was at his absolute athletic prime that year. And he was just super physical with Curry the whole game. I wrote about this or talked about this or both at the time.

It's one of those things that Miami Heat loves to do this. The smart teams know how to do this. They get super physical in the first quarter and eventually the refs, the bar gets raised and then you get to go to that bar for the rest of the game.

I thought Chris Paul, if you go back and watch the tape of that game, Chris Paul commits like 35 fouls in that game. And his whole goal, it was like a prize fight. He was just trying to pound Curry. It reminded me, my favorite boxer ever, Sugar Ray Leonard. The Sugar Ray Leonard-Duran fight in Montreal,

the first one, and Duran just wouldn't let up. And Sugar Ray could have boxed them. He could have paced around the ring, but he wanted to go toe to toe with them. And Duran was just such a bully and he was relentless. And he just kept beating them up, beating them up, beating them up. But it made Leonard better. It actually brought out what ended up happening in the Hearns fight. That's what Chris Paul did for Curry in that game. He was stronger. He was older. He was tougher. He just knew all the tricks and watching it sitting in my seat. That was the night I knew Curry was special because he kept coming back, kept fighting. He kept getting his points.

He kept the words in the game. He took all the hits. He never bitched to the refs really about it. And he just kept getting up basically. And we left that night and I was like, that guy has it. I would bet anything that that guy has it. And I think anybody who was there probably thought that. He just kept coming back. So when he said that 2014 thing to Chris the other day, to me that tied into the stuff I'm seeing with Curry.

He's bigger now, especially you see it in person at the games. He's kind of built like a small forward now. It's funny. He is not the slender, skinny guy anymore. He has the ability to bounce off people. He has the ability to hop off and guard different wings. I think it's really inspiring that somebody who won that many titles and won a couple MVPs just continues to try to get better and work on his body. It's the same reason why the LeBron story is so incredible. LeBron had all these different incarnations of himself, but he just kept working and adding things and, oh, I need to get stronger.

He actually did get stronger. By 2018, he became this 3.0 version of himself. This Curry By 2018, became this 3.0 version of himself. This Curry version does feel like a 3.0 version of itself. He is thicker and stronger and tougher. And he's been able to shrink the timeframe of when he can get a shot off and all these different things. This is the greatest version of him.

I really believe that. I think this is the best he's ever been. And it feels like the Warriors might've wasted it. So brings you back to the question, what would have happened if other athletes had been in this spot? I think that's one of the reasons, you know, I've always rooted for him because if he's, if he's pissed about this, if he feels like the team let him down, we'll never hear from it. Because he understands.

He is the culture. The same way Duncan was the culture for the Spurs. You know, are they going to do right by him in the offseason? Is it going to be too late to trade some of those guys? Did they miss their window? Am I overreacting? Are they going to be fine in the playoffs? We'll see.

But I left last night, I was bummed out. I just felt like this is a great step season and they might be wasting it. So there you go. Coming up, we're going to talk worst contracts. We're going to do the draft, second annual one, Big Was, House. As always, remember, we're just talking about the contracts. Don't take any of this stuff personally. We're just having fun. It's all next. This March, take your first shot at College Hoops with FanDuel Sportsbook

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In Kansas, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com. Louisiana, 877-770-STOP. In Maryland, visit mdgamblinghelp.org. In Wyoming, 800-522-4700. In West Virginia, visit 1800gamber.net. All right, we're taping this late Wednesday afternoon. It is the day before March Madness. We couldn't tape it on March Madness

because Joe House treats day one of March Madness like it's a holiday. So we didn't want to mess with that. He likes to eat. He likes to drink. This is the second annual Worst Contracts Draft that we did last year with Big was who's here and joe house who's here last year was you thought westbrook was the winner i can't even remember

was westbrook and john wall were like the bird and magic of the worst contracts right is that not true house well for the draft purposes big was went first and I believe he took the big chicken, Davos Bertans. I believe Bertans went number one overall. You're right. But it is a moment to celebrate. And speaking of celebrating, I, of course, will do my Thursday ritual. But Big Woz is really the one that pushed us to confirm that we could tape Wednesday because Big Woz has Thursday plans as well, right, Woz?

Yes, yes. I'm going to a draft viewing event, they're calling it. Not a draft, excuse me, March Madness viewing event. And yeah, these things start really early. These games start at noon, which is just like, Lord. I'm aware. Yeah, even earlier on the West coast. All right. So where's contracts draft. Here's the deal. We're going to go in order. We go in snake fashion.

So if you get the first pick, you don't go again until six, get the third pick, you get three and four and the middle pick just keeps sandwiching around. We're going to try to each build the worst possible team of contracts. I have all the numbers. I have everything written down. We're going to pour one out for the Westbrook wall contracts. Those are really the standards. You had to take multiple first round picks

just to get rid of the contract. They couldn't trade them all summer. Houston had to buy out John Wall's contract. They couldn't even trade it. And then Westbrook, the Lakers finally unloaded, got some players. They had to attach a pick to it. There's really no pick like our contract like that,

except for one that I think is going to be the first pick in this draft. So how, so how do we decide who drafts first? I can't remember how we did it last year, but I don't want to go first because I feel like I know who's going to go first. And I've already done my bit on this guy ad nauseum. Everybody knows how I feel about this particular player. All right.

So we'll give Waz first pick. House, you go second. I'll go third unless you want the sandwich picks, House. No, no. We can keep it. You do like sandwiches. I do like sandwiches. If you could give me a sandwich, I'll take it.

But otherwise, it's fine how we roll. All right, Waz, you're on the clock. First pick in the 2023 worst contracts draft. Who is it? Yeah, for me, this player deserves the worst contract because he has two years left on it at around $80 million, which would mean that he's making $40 million annually after this year and is not an NBA player. Of all the people I have on my list, there's guys that I'm just like, you know what? Reasonably, I could say this guy deserves to be in an NBA rotation

and can play NBA basketball. They might be significantly overpaid, but they can all play NBA basketball except for this one guy. And that's Ben Simmons, who to me is the worst contract in the NBA right now. Because one, he can't play when his back is bothering him or he's suffering from some kind of mental health issue or he's just straight up doesn't like the team that he's on, whatever. And even when he does, he's still picking the splinters out of his ass from the benching that Jacques Vaughn and Steve Nash, to be honest, have given him all season. So to me, Ben Simmons is the worst deal in professional basketball

to the point where, again, most of these guys, with some exceptions, I feel like if their deals were up in two years, they would still get deals. Is Ben Simmons even a minimum player in two years? He's the worst deal in the NBA, in my opinion. He's my number one pick. My only quibble with that was, which is a beautiful diatribe. The contract's actually worse than you gave it credit for. It's three years,

that too. Oh, excuse me, three years. Yeah, it's $35.448 million this year, $37.89 next year. And then in 2024-25, guaranteed $40.338. The total package is over 113 million house for three years. But this is a guy once upon a time we defended, we liked, we thought he was a top 15 basketball player and the Nets bought a lemon. And I gotta be honest, I don't understand how the Nets front office survived this one. They rallied a little bit with the KD trade, which I think they maximized what they could have gotten out of KD. And even the Kyrie trade looks pretty good. The Dallas might not even make the playoffs.

So it's not like they lost any skin on that one, but, but panic trading Harden and just basically getting Seth Curry, who they're not really playing. And then these two first that don't really matter. And then Simmons as the linchpin without doing any real research into what was going on with him.

They trade him. He's hurt right away. I thought it was indefensible. Where do you stand, House? So you just said two things that I'm not sure are a matter of public record and widely held views. In the first place,

I don't feel like the James Harden trade was a panic trade i feel like kairi irving drove james harden away from a team that james harden was willing to make a commitment to did make a commitment to and and enjoyed playing for uh and with but he was still on the team they were still paying him he was an employee of the brooklyn nets exactly kairi took a knife and knifed him in the back. He tried. James Harden, you know, at least showed up in the playoffs

and tried to drag that team when Kyrie, you know, had had his, you know, whatever big toe injury and then, you know, whatever provocative stance he had to take on public health and other kinds of shenanigans and distractions. I didn't feel like it was a panic trade from from bookman's perspective and i also thought that it was a reasonable gamble i i'm not so sure that they didn't do their diligence i think that they did do some some diligence

it's just you you don't know until you know and i i think i think he got hurt worse after the trade, and that's what set us on this trajectory to where we are right here at this moment. And part of the thing, the reason why I didn't anticipate Simmons being the number one pick in this draft is because at the time that contract was given him, he had earned it.

I mean, the forecast for him, well, we can quibble, but he had accomplished some stuff. He had accomplished some stuff. The Bradley Beal thing is entirely different. Wait, House, hold on. And I'm not going into there. I'm not going into there.

I can't let you off the hook. Go ahead. They didn't have to trade James Harden. Oh, because Kyrie didn't want to play home games because of the vaccine, so now James Harden's like, well, I don't want to play home games because of the vaccine. So now James Harden's like, well, I don't want to play basketball either. I know it was a dysfunctional situation, but he was still an asset. When you look at the prices of some of these stars that are being thrown around now, I don't know, if you're Philly, you're doing that trade pretty much every

time they're holding out with Simmons for something. You agree with that, Waz? I just don't know why they had to do it if they didn holding out with Simmons for something. You agree with that, Waz? I just don't know why they had to do it if they didn't know that Simmons was healthy. I agree with you in the sense that I felt coming into the season that the Sixers had no leverage in the sense that, one, the guy couldn't come back

and play for the Sixers. It became so toxic with Doc, with Joel, with the fans. He can't play for your team again. That's a one. And then the two, the last time we watched him play was against the Hawks in the playoffs in which he was a pumpkin. So he's a bad player who can't come back to your team, which is why I kind of agree with Bill.

And at the time of the trade, I was like, yo, everybody's hubris has kind of been rewarded here. Ben Simmons is nonsense. He gets to go to the team that he wanted to go to. The stubbornness that Daryl Morey showed in just holding the guy and being like, somebody's going to bite. And then James Harden throwing another temper tantrum and getting his way ultimately. Everybody's

ridiculousness got rewarded in that trade. But again, I thought Ben Simmons was a toxic asset immediately after that Hawks series. They somehow got a freaking all-star for him. And now, like, look at this. He can't play. He doesn't

play. He's like the 13th man well they i mean there were some red flags with the fact that he seemed very comfortable just not playing for reasons that seemed pretty unclear to everybody like his feelings were hurt he just felt like it had run its course by the way and this is this is not talking out of school bill like we know what he was doing. I have this on good authority. He's in the Hollywood Hills throwing parties and hanging out. That's what he was doing when he wasn't playing. He wasn't hard at work at his game.

That's the thing. We know that from a basketball work ethic standpoint, there were things that just didn't seem to be getting better in any way, shape, or form. When the trade happened, Harden just seemed like a damage asset because he had quit on two teams in 10 months. And Simmons seems like a, like a damage asset to me. Um, and I didn't know who was going to win the trade. And, and there was a real possibility. Both teams are going to lose the trade. You look at how

Harden's playing this year. I have Harden, like he's definitely going to be on one of my three all NBA teams. I'm just telling you, he'll either be second team or third team, but he's going to be all NBA for me. Um, unless he just tails off the last 10 games, it's turned out way better for Philly than I ever imagined. And honestly, way worse for the nets than I ever imagined. The fact that he's unplayable seemed inconceivable to me. You could have told me he at least could have been like rebounds and defense and just refused to shoot the ball anymore. Seemed like a worst case scenario. This is a way worst case scenario.

This is a guy who might be out of the league or getting bought out. Anyway. All right. Enough on Ben Simmons. Who do you have for the number two pick house? Well, before we move on, I have a question for you. So you sent me a was a list. Was it your goal and intention that we use this list exclusively?

Or are we allowed to bring some? Okay. He basically leaked his big board. Yeah. I just, I gave you a little, I sent you maybe, I don't know, 50 contracts. But last year, if you remember famously, Waz went off the board with a Clay Thompson pick that singed my eyebrows off. It took me six months to regrow my eyebrows after that. Well, and lo and behold, the list you sent us has Clay Thompson on it. The reason I asked that question, Bill Simmons from Boston is because I didn't see one single Charmin Celtic on this list.

Well, I sent it a month ago. I sent it to you guys literally five weeks ago. It wasn't that long ago. In any event, I'm not going to select any of the Charmin Celtics with the second overall pick because it's not time yet. But there's going to be some Charmin Celtics that catch some fire on this podcast today. I was updating the final list of that page that I sent you.

Yes. I did add a Celtic. I mean, I've come up with two. No spoiler alerts. I've got two potential ones, but I am now in this position where I must do the thing that I said I wasn't going to do, which is take

Bradley Beal. I'll keep it short and sweet. And you guys, you know, it'll be easy. The one thing you cannot do in professional sports is pay a non-superstar like a goddamn superstar. And it is something that you cannot recover from. It will take the entirety of this contract, the full duration of the five years that he got to, to, to make one step forward in terms of a recovery. The team has locked in

a 36 to 40 win ceiling. And that's assuming that they keep Porzingis and Kuzma. I have serious doubts about Kuz sticking around for what purpose now I will say this I like going to the games it's fun to go down there check them out I'm getting some really good seats and see the other teams come through it's a very relaxed environment

but there isn't any like serious basketball being played and this is what they chose and I'm not even talking about all the bells and whistles the serious basketball being played. And this is what they chose. And I, I'm not even talking about all the bells and whistles, the no trade clause and all the other nonsense. Kicker. Right.

Exactly. Why don't you tell the audience how much the contract is for, or do you want me to, are you unable to speak the words? The podfather, the podfather, you, you have,

you run the numbers, brother. Well, it's year one of a five-year deal, Waz, for a cool and crisp $251 million. Jesus Christ. That's the contract. I watched a game last week where it was a totally winnable game and he did a couple Bradley Beal things and they lost.

It was against the Hawks, I know. He is, as a last-minute guy, he is not in my top half of guys. I want with the ball doing stuff in the last minute, but that's the thing about the Switzer season. It's been a fun season. They're always in these close games and more often than not, they blow them.

I agree with house. I, I, the contract is crazy. I would be really curious to see if, if they try to trade it this summer, what kind of offers they'd be getting back because you'd have to have the money that matched it

combined with picks and stuff like that. Waz is just making kind of a sad, grim face right now. What do you think, Waz? Yeah, it's tough. He's clearly not worth the deal in the sense that he's just not a superstar. He doesn't by himself elevate an offense to competence in and of himself. Bradley Beal is not an offense unto himself.

He's a good offensive player, high volume. The shooting has gotten better. He's always had this reputation as a shooter, but has never had the shooting to match it up. He's never been anybody's idea of a playmaker. He's kind of just been like, look, he can do a reasonable job at elevated volumes and usage percentage, but his defense has always been a little bit overrated.

And yeah, the idea that you would pay this guy, like he is the leader of a franchise sort of North Star of competence is just not the case. And there's been times with Kyle Kuzma who gets paid about a fourth of his salary and has just been better than the guy, which is just insane to consider. And so the people listening, we're just talking about everybody that we're about to draft just as the asset. Production, quality versus the money figure.

And in this case, like Beal's having a solid year statistically, right? He's 23.4 points a game, four assists, five and a half assists, four rebounds, 51, 37, 85 percentage splits. It's solid.

If he was your third guy, you'd be pumped. If he was your second guy, you could talk yourself into it as long as you had an awesome first guy. It's what house laid out. When this is your signature guy, your number one dude, where are you going? And the answer is what we watch with the Wizards. You're 39 and 43, 40 and 42, 42 and 40. You're going to be in that range. Porzingis is 22 and nine this year. I mean, he's been a really high level, above average offensive center. And Kuzma is a good player.

That's not ever going to be enough. And then you have the other thing is you have no chance to improve from this basis point. What do you do? How do you add people? You really can't. So to me, the problem with Bradley Beal is like he's getting paid as if the difference between him and Jordan Poole, say, is the difference between Jordan Poole and Devin Booker or even Donovan Mitchell. And that's just not the case. He's not as good as those two people who play his position. And he's paid like he is. And that's just not true.

He's more in line with a Jordan Poole, in my opinion, than he is those top level NBA all-star type of guys, all NBA kind of guys. All right. I'm on the clock with the third pick. Can't believe this guy's still on the board. Seems like a nice guy by all accounts. Duncan Robinson. He signed a 5-for-90 last year.

Still has the 4-for-74.3 left. It's like a Bertans 2.0 kind of contract. It's kind of staggering. There's always different reasons why he's not playing or why he hasn't been successful, but he has not been successful really since he signed the contract. Again, seems like a cool guy.

I root for him. Self-made man, worked his way up. Turned himself into a really cool story. Got the bag and has not been really heard from since. And, you know, to speaks to a bigger issue of these Miami moves, the last couple of years were after the really smart Jimmy Butler move and the hero draft pick the last couple of years, like every swing he culture, Pat Riley, every swing they've taken has either not worked or really failed.

And yet I'm still terrified in the playoffs. They're probably going to beat the Celtics in a two, seven or three, six. I'm just already resigned to it. But anyway, I have him as the third pick. Yeah. I like the pick, especially, I believe the last year of his deal is a player option. Spoiler alert. He will be picking up that player option. Well, that's the thing. I just factored that in. It's $17 million a year. And again, similar to Ben Simmons,

but I think the difference between Duncan Robinson and Ben Simmons is like he has an identifiable NBA talent, which is his shooting, even if for whatever reason it's sort of tapered off. He can't shoot anymore. I don't know. Is it still a talent, which is his shooting, even if for whatever reason it sort of tapered off. I don't know. Is it still a talent? I have to believe that. He was so incredible at it when he sort of burst onto the scene three years ago.

And I have to believe that he could find minutes on another team that wasn't Miami. But yeah, I like this deal. It was very, very high up on my board. So salute to you. You like this deal. It was very, very high up on my board. So salute to you. You like this deal. I like how bad this deal is.

Yes. It is funny. It's a throwback deal. It reminds me of the era when guys like Isaiah Thomas was a GM or a coach. And Doc is also guilty of this. They go up against somebody that is hot, that tortures their team, and then they hand out a giant contract.

I mean, you can do your Jerome James. You can do way back when, you know, Seattle overpaying for Jim McElvain because he had a decent year for the Bullets and didn't pay Sean Kemp. But teams, you know, see something, jump in, gross

overpay, and you're stuck with it. Shout out, I mean, I guess in a way, it shouldn't surprise me that it was Riles because it's an old school kind of contract. Well, I'll say this about what he did too, is that Miami's offense became so hard to guard around people being completely terrified of

what he was doing off the ball right like his movement and how he was catching and shooting on the run like that completely opened up their offense and they went to the finals behind that right so i understand wanting to reward it something that was central to your finals run. Well, 2020, he was 45% from three, 8.3s a game in the regular season. In the playoffs, he played 21 games for them. He was 28.6 minutes a game. They made the finals. He's 40% from three that year.

So last year, or the 2021 year, he was a little banged up, wasn't the same. And then they said, well, screw it. Let's pay him off the 2020 year. And it didn't work. There was a baseball player the Red Sox had named Dave Stapleton. Every year for the first eight years of his career, his batting average went down. And it's like the most fascinating baseball reference page to look at. He starts out at like 321 and each year it goes down. Robinson's kind of working on that in basketball reference. 20 is 13.5, 13.1 a year after 10.9 last year, 6.7 this year,

playing 17 minutes a game. And the funnier, not so funny thing is they kind of need him. Like they need one more shooter. Strews has been playing more for them. But he can't stop a nosebleed, Bill. And that's just not going to cut it in Miami. And he just shooting. It's funny. It's almost like when you have that reliever in baseball

who's lights out for a year. And then the next year they can't find the strike zone. And you're thinking, what happened? We've thrown 99 over the middle last year. Now you're hitting guys. House, we're going to take a break. Coming up, the fourth pick in the draft. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this,

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Must be legal drinking age. All right. So the draft board has dropped a little bit. That was really the big three. There's multiple guys here who could go with the number four pick. I'm going to go with an old standby. Just he's an OG. Maybe it's a little high. It's like when you're in a fantasy draft and those years where you'd see Tom Brady and you'd be like, wow, Tom Brady's going for eight bucks.

I just feel like getting this guy with the fourth pick is such great value. those years where you'd see Tom Brady and you'd be like, wow, Tom Brady's going for eight bucks. I gotta get him. I just feel like getting this guy with the fourth pick is such great value. Davis Bertons again, three, three for 49. He's got two years left after this one. He's almost, almost at 50 million bucks left on his deal.

And, uh, it just delights me to no end. It's it's house. His team was responsible for the contract. House defended it at the time. No, no, he's been great. I like it. It's just like

the wizard's DNA just infected your body. Anyway, Davis, you're the fourth pick. What do you got, House? I have no argument with it. He belongs in China. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some, some buyout activity as, as we come up to the next season, because Dallas has to go through

some wholesale looking in the mirror here. Come on now. We, we're not going to send him to China. We're going to send him back to Europe, Euro basket. I'm sure he could find a team in Italy or, or, uh, Israel. Somebody picked that guy up. But yeah, I laughed by the time I got to his deal. I was like, wow, this is still a horrible deal. It's just going forever. Even though he's gotten some tick in Dallas and he's been useful at moments for them this year.

But if you watch Dallas at all, you realize that they are one of the worst defenses in the league this year easily. And Davis Bertans does not aid in that mission. So yeah, that's a great. You know, it's funny

that I've changed my mind on that poor Zingas trade a hundred times, right? Because Dallas did make the Western Finals last year. Didn't really was a piece of it. But now you look at it, Dallas doesn't, they can't find a center. They had to roll the dice with Christian Wood, who's, that's been super unhappy. Oh, who could have figured?

And Porzingis is playing really well for the Wizards, and Dinwiddie just gets kind of passed around the league. But that seemed like actually a pretty good trade for the Wiz. Yeah, you hear that him and Lucas' relationship had kind of broken down, right? Like, they kind of just didn't like each other or didn't like playing with each other, at least. I don't know if it was personal, but, like, it became toxic between those two.

And these teams, Bill, like, you know how they are. They're so desperate to keep the young superstar happy that they'll do damn near anything. And, you know, the poor Zingas deal seemed like a no-brainer for them where they just dumped the guy's deal. And it was like, look, he's not getting along with Luka. We got to get him out of here.

I think they might have won the trade. It might have been the one of Tommy Shepard's only good moves we could really point to all right house you're in the clock fifth pick this to me was not very challenging and and I want to give kudos I want everybody to make sure you listen to this week's uh podcast with Bill Simmons featuring Kevin O'Connor because there is a very interesting conversation about the return and resurgence of the big man yeah NBA basketball and it's a curious moment and it's a very thoughtful conversation i enjoyed it very much it made me feel very very confident with this next next pick

and that is rudy gobert of the minnesota timberwolves now a contract with four years and 170 million dollars left on it. And I will tell you this, Bill Simmons, while I listened to you and KOC run through 10 or 12 or 15 different centers and the attributes that the modern center offers and that the most successful modern centers, Rudy Gobert is a specialist and not a very good one. It is as though in the NFL, using a first-round pick or a second-round pick or a third-round pick on a punter or a kicker, he has one specific skill that's only translatable and worthwhile

from a competitive standpoint in a single context, which is regular season around the hoop defense. And we have seen from the early indications of the relationship between he and Carl Anthony Towns in Minnesota, an inability from this guy to get along from a playing standpoint. Now, I don't know whether or not, you know, personally what the story is, because he was just, he arrived and then K.A.T. got hurt in fairly short order. But Minnesota is right on the cut line here of missing out on the playoffs.

And the best they can hope for is making the play-in, and I don't have them making the playoffs even in the play-in situation. You know what's crazy about Gobert? The advanced metrics still don't mind him.

Yeah. There's the offense, defense ratings, all that stuff. They basically like him more than the eye test does. I agree with house. I had go bear in the top five or six was because not only is it a bad contract, not only is it a constant reminder that you gave up all this stuff for this guy who might not even make you a first round playoff team,

but he's 30 and I don't see his game aging well, which was the other issue with the trade. What's he going to look like but he's 30 and I don't see his game aging well, which was the other issue with the trade. What's he going to look like when he's 33? So he's going to be like, if he gets a tad slower and a tad more mummy-ish every year, which is what we've seen over and over again with bigger centers, what is that going to look like in two years? Then they'll have two years left in the deal. So a couple of things on Rudy. I think he's being paid as if, you know, the thing that he was very special at, he's still special at, right, which is defense, defensive player of the year level production. I don't think he's no longer he's no longer special. He's still very good defensive player, defensive big, but he's no longer special. And so to be paid the way that he is, to be a one-dimensional guy and not be outstanding at that dimension is tough.

And two, and, you know, he makes me think of another play. He makes me think of Brook Lopez because Brook Lopez, I don't think, has any better foot speed or even defensive instincts as Rudy. And he's been that plotting drop defender sort of big man, but he's changed over the past couple of years. He's been willing to come up to the level more,

even do a little bit of switching out more. He's just gotten better at what the modern demands are. I don't see why Rudy couldn't do that. But Brooke on the other end is providing you with all this spacing while punishing switches. It's just, it's just tough. I don't know how Rudy sort of regains his value,

even if he starts to adjust, you know, his game going forward. Yeah. I think we would all like his contract if it was four for 60, but when you throw in the extra 110 million, that's when I take pause. You got to draw the line.

I like that pick, House. All right, Waz, last pick of the second round. Who do you got? See, this is easy for me, and it's related to Rudy Gobert. It's the guy who they traded for Rudy Gobert to play his position, who has five years after this year at $260 million. They traded four first round picks, the rights to their damn draft, all of this stuff for a dude that's already making $45 million to play your spot and you still get paid a max contract? Carl Anthony Towns. It's just a horrible deal. And the reason why I know it's

a horrible deal, Bill, this guy is their max contract player. He hasn't played since essentially December. We don't know what his timeline to return is. Nobody even talks about it. It's not even spoken of. People have just moved on. Carl Townsend's going, who cares? This dude has $260 million left on his deal, right? And again, I think, you know, some people would say his contract isn't all that unvaluable because there might be somebody dumb enough

willing to actually give Minnesota stuff for him in a potential trade, because I think obviously he's the next domino to move. They have no other choices, but I doubt that. I have a town's update. I don't believe that. 334 Pacific Time on a Wednesday. He's expected to return in the coming

weeks, quote, according to Timberwolves. He's continuing to progress in his rehabilitation program. Guys. He scrimmaged with reserve players and coaches this week. What did he get? Like his calf cut off his body?

How is his calf injury this long? I'm with you, Waz. I couldn't agree more. That is a really, really, really, really tough contract to digest next to the Gobert contract. Because I think they can trade towns. And I actually think there will be a market for him. Because if you look at his offensive production.

Oh, the house is raised to the sand. And the hoops IQ stuff that we saw from him in the playoffs last year, which was appalling and reprehensible. As the months pass, people forget. Like with anything else. It's like, oh, yeah, they lost in the playoffs last year, which was appalling and reprehensible. As the months pass, people forget with anything else. It's like, oh yeah, they lost in the playoffs. They don't remember some of the shit that actually happened in that series. I think he's the number

one draft pick to get traded this summer of all the stars. How do you want him? I would trade Bradley Beal for Carl Anthony Towns as fast as you put a giant plate of fried chicken from popeyes in front of me and i take that sucker down like i can't tell you how fast i would make that trade the the money is is nearly equivalent uh the one aspect of the bradley beal thing that i forgot to mention uh he's 29 years old turning 30 this year in the first

year we're gonna have the first year of this contract done another four years great track record for actually i don't want i shouldn't say share any of this because i want him traded uh he's great he's a great uh team player second banana third banana minnesota you can work beal in let him be a catch and shoot out on the perimeter. Let Anthony Edwards drive and kick. And Gobert can stand in the middle immobile. So let him be a shorter Carl Towns? I don't understand that. I wonder, you know, he's a Kentucky guy.

I wonder if the Knicks have him on their radar. There's always the Phoenix. Could you put him with Durant? DeAndre? That kind of thing. I think there's... I could see the Warriors talking themselves into him. I think there's a lot of teams

that would kick the tires on that because his production... He was putting up 25 and 10 or 25 and 11, whatever. 40% three-point shooting. You look at the basketball reference page for two minutes and you forget all the other stuff. You're like, whoa, look at those stats.

Wow. And that's it. That's where House is. Is he twice the salary worth of Julius Randle? I find that hard to believe because he's going to have to play power forward. He'll play Julius Randle's position, and obviously he is on another stratosphere of offensive player, but he's way worse at defense.

As crazy as that is to say about Julius Randle, he used to suck. He's just way worse at defense. Like the few minutes that he did play with Gobert, it was a joke that anybody could think this guy could play defensive minutes at power forward. It's, I don't know. I think Carl Towns, man, I just think he's a losing player. I really do. I don't know how, if he is the focal point of what you do and you commit all of those resources to him, how your team can be very good. Minnesota, they had it ideal for him last year with all of these really

wiry, long, athletic guys. They played this hyper-aggressive defense that allowed Townsend to just be like, you know what? Just be aggressive at the top. Everybody else is going to handle your business behind the play and close to the rim because we're so rangy and athletic and

strong and all of that. And then this year trying to get him to just be a traditional big, it's tough. I'm reasonably sure his extension has not kicked in yet. No, it hasn't. It starts next year. Which harkens back to one of my favorite NBA moments of all time when Washington gave Andre Blatch an extension

and it hadn't kicked in yet. And then it kicked in and they amnestied it it. They amnestied it right after it kicked in. It's one of the best in the animals house. We have to do a top 75 worst wizards, bullets, moves podcast. That's gotta be top 12, the Andre Blatch extension.

You'll get at least 10 listeners for that. I'm sure. Oh, wow. You get one more pick top of the third round. Hmm. Okay. Oh yeah. This, this one hurts me because i really like this player um but it's become plainly obvious that he's overpaid and and it feels like he's unmovable and that's john collins um he's got three years almost 80 million

left after this year and ever since he's ruined his finger on his shooting hand, he can't shoot anymore. And if John Collins isn't sort of respectable from three, if you look at his three-point percentage, it's just completely plummeted since that injury. He's shooting in the 20s now. He's just not as effective of a player. And he's been on the traded block for two solid years and nobody's bitten. And I like him. I think he's a tough player. He plays with an incredible motor. I believe he can give you minutes

at the five defensively. He's switchable, vertical spacing with the hops on lobs and all of that. But man, he can't shoot worth a damn and he doesn't do anything else offensively.

And so, yeah, the contract is tough right now and it hurts me Bill and I love John Collins I know you watch a lot of Hawks in general the three point shooting went off a cliff this year 25%

House I like the concept of somebody being on the trade block for like more than a year and it's been a year and a half for him. That's just an incredibly long amount of time for somebody to work for an employer where it's been patently clear. They're not totally satisfied with the working relationship. And maybe you want to send you to greener pastures. You just can't find the right thing out.

The interesting thing with Collins. So Phoenix is going to trade for him, right? It's going to happen. And the day before the trade deadline, that new owner they have, Matt Ishbia, he's like, wait a second, we can't get Durant because you don't want to give up Mikael Bridges? And they're like, yeah, yeah. Mikael's off limits. He's like, what the fuck are you guys doing? And they throw him in the trade and, and so long John Collins, but I'm with wise house. I I'm not sure if you're like the six, 10 forward, you're an okay rebounder, not incredible, but you also can't shoot threes. I don't know how you play in 2023. I'm like a really good team.

I mean, you, you have to be like a fourth option and they're paying him like he's in between a second and third option. That's the problem with the dollars that he's getting. Yeah, he's like discount Tobias Harris. But Tobias Harris at least makes open threes. Tobias Harris. Interesting name.

Yeah, that's a good name. Oh, House, you're on the clock. Oh, Tobias Harris. Wait, no,, that's a good name. Oh, a house here on the clock. Oh, Tobias Harris. Wait, no, I'm not going to do it, even though he's grossly overpaid and I fully expect him off the board within the next two rounds. I hope Walsh forgives me.

I'm going back to Atlanta. I don't see. It's a damned if you do damned if you don't for the Hawks because you have a player that is the face of the franchise that gives you that moment

oh my god I need like a safety harness where are we going who else is the face of the Atlanta Hawks franchise and the dude Who else is the face of the Atlanta Hawks franchise? And the dude is a coach killer. Only two.

To be fair, only two coaches. His career was resuscitated and saved by Nate Robinson. And he said, thank you so much, Nate. Nate. Nate McMillan. Nate McMillan. Nate Robinson. And he took a giant knife out this year and stabbed it right in McMillan's back. And what is your best case scenario with Trey Young?

Can I read you the contract? You keep forgetting to say the contract. You're the numbers guy. keep forgetting to say the contract. You're the numbers guy. Well, here's the contract. Five years, $215 million. Yeah. Yeah. Waz is just nodding sadly.

Look, I'm going to start calling him Young Beal. Here's what I'll say about Trey Young. In his career, he's proven that he can be an elite offensive player, right? Like just having him on the floor around base level competence, you will have really good offense. Like he's proven to be that kind of guy in his career. However, the stuff where it seems like he's impossible to work with and deal with on a professional and human level, that's a problem. You know, to me, that's bigger than, you know,

can't guard anybody and all of this kind of stuff. It's like the attitude around the team, the way these guys play is just so, like, lifeless and not very, they don't play for each other. This doesn't seem to be a connected group. He's gotten two coaches fired. Nate McMillan to the point where he's like defying people in the press,

where he's just like, yo, fam, I know I'm going to get fired. I don't care. I'm not taking shit from this kid anymore. Like, to me, that's bad. And that's why I'll lend this to some credence because of the stuff off the court. I think on the court, he's worth his deal.

But off the court stuff, it has to come into consideration when you consider somebody a quote-unquote franchise guy where he's pissing everybody off, from John Collins to Nate McMillan to you name it. Well, Murray will be the litmus test for this, right? If Murray doesn't want to stay, then I think that's another chip in the, uh-oh, what's going on here with Trey on Arsenal?

All right, I'm on the clock. I need a ruling on Lonzo Ball. Oh, man. I'm glad you put this to us. Can we have the Lonzo Ball. Oh, man. I'm glad you put this to us. Can we have the Lonzo Ball conversation? Oh, man. Lonzo has three for 61.5 yet, but it might be just an injury. You just get to write it off.

It might not count against the cap. You might get to replace it. I don't know. Is it a bad contract or is it just a sad contract? I think it's a sad contract. Me too. I'm strongly in sad. Is it a bad contract or is it just a sad contract? I think it's a sad. Me too. I'm strongly in sad. It's a sad contract.

Yes. Because those first few months with him and Caruso on the Bulls was must see TV with these guys were doing the backcourts in the NBA. I'm such a fan of Lonzo's game. And by all accounts, he's a great guy. All right. We'll leave him out. For his knee to be so cooked. It's tough. That by all accounts, he's a great guy. All right, we'll leave him out. For his knee to be so cooked, it's tough.

That hurt me, Bill. That hurt. Oh, hurt. Your guy, David Griffin's like, yeah, Chicago, you should take him. It'll be great. We're going to let him go. All right. So Lonzo.

Hold on, Bill. Speak like Griff's reputation. I've never seen a roller coaster reputation. I know. Like Griff's before in my life where it's like he's a genius for the AD deal. Then it's like he's an idiot for what he's doing with Lonzo. Then it's like, oh, my God, look at all this stuff New Orleans has. They about to be.

They might go to the Western Conference finals this year. They got all the. He's a wizard. The Lakers are going to get them one. Yeah, I'm a blah, blah, blah. And then now it's back to what the fuck is Griff doing? It's crazy, man. He needs his own crisis firm.

I am going to audible. I'm going to audible in a way that's going to please both of you. This is the second biggest punch that he's taken this season. The first one came courtesy of Draymond Green. The second one is right now because Jordan Peele, you are the ninth pick of this draft. Jordan Peele! Get up!

It's the pool party. It's five for 132, but this year is the cheap deal. Next year it kicks in and he's like a 30 plus million dollar player. I've watched, I don't watch every Warriors game. I watch a lot of basketball. I don't watch every Warriors game. I watch a lot of basketball. I don't watch every Warriors game. I watch a few of them though. I've personally witnessed four different times when his teammates have become completely disgusted with him during

a game on the court. The stats are way down. I don't, to me, it's just like, if you're going to have your heat check or rational confidence guy, the market for that is $12 to $13 million, and it's not $30. And I think they overreacted to last year and his ability to play on big stages. I really worry about this contract if I'm then. This is too much money for somebody who's a defensive liability, who just seems really heat checky, and I don't know if there's a next year and I like him. I've been a huge defender of him the last couple of years, but I have not liked what I've seen this year house.

You're nodding sadly. Well, he's 23 years old. So if you want to try and come up with a justification, a rationale for why there's yet time. And, and, you know,

I really think we're going to look back at that punch as a sliding doors moment for the warriors franchise. I mean, uh, uh, I, I, I feel like the part of the reason why the warriors don't win games on

the road has to do with an overall cohesion. Cause it's deep lack of road. Yeah. That's precisely, That's right. They're missing it. You know, I've heard our guy Eddie Johnson talked about this on his show

with Termini that I like, but just about something like that, the healing of an incident like that is just way longer than I think dumbasses like us would think. And, you know, especially when it's Draymond's the leader of the team and it's just, hey, can you lead the same way after that? And look, it's anecdotal, but the seven for 26 is not anecdotal.

That's a real number on the road that, you know, they're playing the Clippers tonight before we tape this, but that's a crazy number. That's like the fucking Houston Rockets should be 7-26 on the road, not the Warriors. Anyway, the pool contract makes me nervous. We're at the point in the draft where it's like, I'm just looking at that kind of money. It hasn't even kicked in yet, and I'm not sure.

I just feel like I can get better options for that spot. Waz, you seem like you want to defend it. The reason why I defend it is because I think this is kind of just the going rate for these dudes. And by these dudes, I mean these shooting guards who score and do absolutely nothing else, right? And it's Jordan Poole, it's Anthony Simons, it's CJ McCollum. These guys who are just one-dimensional players.

But they seem to all get paid, right? Here's another one. Tyler Hero, exactly. Who, you know, by the way, has gotten. I think he's a little better than Poole. A little bit better defensively. But that's the thing. Hero and Poole were side-by-side heading into the season.

Hero ascended. I think Poo pool went backwards a little bit yeah and but i felt like it just felt backwards because the stakes seem so high in golden state right and so when pool's not delivering it's like whoa this is supposed to be the championship favorite and this guy's supposed to be a huge part of what they're doing and he's not delivering on that and so part of me i'm like yeah he'spaid. But also, I think this is just how these guys get valued. Once you have, once it's identifiable where it's like you can shoot and you can create your own shot pretty consistently and efficiently, teams are going to pay you for that. And so, you know, he's in line with his peers.

But damn, it's a lot of bread. And the side cost of it was sort of disrupting the tranquility with Draymond Green, who's just in a vacuum, is a better player than Jordan Poole is. And then when you consider what he means to this team specifically, like he's just better. And then he has to watch Jordan Poole get paid. So it has these compounding factors. It's like, damn. House, you want to guess his three-point percentage this year heading into tonight's Clippers game?

I know it's among the worst in the NBA. It's a little better. 32.9. Oh, okay. But he takes eight a game. All right, we're going to take a break, and then I'm going to take the 10th pick of the fourth round. This episode is brought to you by Movember.

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Just need an easy one. That Jordan Poole conversation, I think it took a lot out of us. We disagreed on some stuff. This one, there's no disagreement whatsoever. He's French. He plays for the Knicks. It's a mere pittance. It's two for 36.9, and then he has a player option, or team option next year. So it's really only

this year or next year. The contract is so bad. And it's so weird that he's just not even a rotation guy anymore. And then you see him on the bench, and he's always kind of standing there. He's not really applauding. He's just kind of watching the game like the rest of us.

And his name is Evan Fournier. And I'm making him my pick uh yeah any thoughts yeah 100 percent uh this is this was on my board I had this sort of highlighted because it's like one he's gonna make 20 million next year and this is a guy who would struggle to earn a contract of four or five million in Europe? And you're paying him to do nothing on the Knicks, but it's with good reason. He's just not an effective offensive player. He's never been anybody's idea of a defender

at a position where you need people who can hold up to the most skilled guys in the league. And so, yeah, this is a terrible deal. And Tibbs was really stubborn about playing. I'm playing veterans. Last year, he was so damn stubborn about this shit. Where this year, he's finally found religion. And it's just quickly and grinds and all of the young guys now.

And Fournier, he's master splinter now. Well, we always talk about the 50-40-90 guys house. Fournier is working on a 50-40-90 guys' house. Fournier's working on a 35-32-86. Unconventional. True shooting. He's 490 this year. He played 44 minutes in February. He's played

zero this month. It just sucks to have the bad contract where it's like Duncan Robinson, there might be one more run with him. You never know. It's like, oh man, oh, he had some threes. The Fournier thing is like sunk cost. He doesn't want to be there. They wish he wasn't there.

Clearly this summer heading into the last year of his contract, he'll be a trade piece. And did I leave anything else out house? No, I mean, I'm looking, uh, first of all, Fournier and Bertans that both those guys could go to Europe. That would make, I want to make an all-Europe team. That makes sense to me. But you mentioned Duncan Robinson.

The contracts kind of line up. Fournier, Robinson, does that do anything for you? Well, yeah, they line up from a year-by-year standpoint, but the Robinson goes way longer is the issue. All right, Haas, you're in the class.

Yes. We mentioned this guy's name, and this is purely a function of the amount of money that he makes relative to how important he is to this team's success, and it is Tobias Harris. I think it's time to go ahead and call it out. He's got two years at $77 million. It's a little steep. He's perfectly fine. He's shooting around 50%.

He's averaging. I have the numbers up here. He's a mid-level exception level player. He's slightly better than that Jay Crowder level of the $10 million a year. Maybe he's like a $14 million a year guy.

And he is inconsistent in a way that would be fine if you were paying him at that kind of level, but his inconsistency and you just look at his last five games, he plays 25 minutes on Sunday against the Wizards, shoots 36%. Uh, Oh wow. He's, he's,

his shooting percentage has been bad lately, but you know, four games ago, a 50% game and five games ago, a 66% game, you know, 14 rebounds three nights ago, uh, you know, three rebounds, uh, uh, you know, against the wizard. So it's, it's that inconsistency. It's that up and down where Philly is legit. That's a serious team. They are formidable. I am excited to see them where they land playoff-wise. I think they're going to get the two seed

and beat out the Charmin Celtics. I'm sorry, Podfather. It would be great if they could get some consistent play out of Tobias. That's all. Tobias Harris 15-6 this year was. Yeah. That's, yeah. When they, my problem with his contract,

because he's up there for me too, is that when they inevitably lose at some point in the second, or if they're lucky, the conference championship of this year's playoffs, nobody will say his name. Nobody will mention what his lack of contribution was or whatever he put. Like, he has just skated this entire deal. Like, nobody cares about what he brings to the table. And he signed a maximum contract extension with this team.

It's kind of crazy. I hate going against a fellow New York City guy, but god damn, man, this is a tough deal. Yeah. Again, playoff player, no question. Just a little too expensive. Waz, you got two in a row. Who do you got? There's a couple

guys that I cannot believe have been taken yet. I think because none of us have the balls to take one in particular. I have a few. The first one that comes to mind and to me, it's DeAndre Hunter. And part of this is because... DeAndre Hunter?

We have three Hawks already. DeAndre Hunter. DeAndre Hunter, after this season, he's got four years. His extension kicks in four years, $90 in four years 90 million dollars right four years 90 million dollars and more importantly bill a guy who's making 12 13 million dollars was on this team is way better than him and is killing in sacramento right now and that's my guy red velvet kevin herder so that's why why this particular contract just gnaws at me

because they had the guy at this position who was just flat out a better player. But, Waz, this is what happens when Roman Roy gets to run your team. Mmm. Mmm. Is that what's happening with Hawks ownership right now? Hawks are horrible. Ha ha.

Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha. So, yeah, so this deal is a bad one. There's a lot of chefs in front of that oven. This deal is a bad one. Bill is daring us to get spicy. I have a quick DeAndre Hunter thing.

Sure, go ahead. I'm disappointed. Not in you, but in him that he made this list. I really like DeAndre Hunter. I like this game. I thought he was going to take a big step up this year. He's the classic. A lot of smoke getting blown up his butt

about what's going to happen this year, House. Oh, DeAndre Hunter, watch out for him. Breakout year. And I don't know. It'd be easy to just say, well, this is a weird team. I wouldn't want to be a small forward on this weird team. But I don't know. it'd be easy to just say, well, this is a weird team. I wouldn't want to be a small forward on this weird team. But I don't know.

I'm disappointed, House. Well, he is a defensive minded guy and we've sort of touted him. And he hasn't missed, you know, previously had a little bit of the injury bug, but he's played 59 games this season. But it's turned out to be quiet. And I think some of that has to do with the dysfunction in Atlanta, who's in charge. I mean, I really can't believe we have three Hawks already. We're only, you know, 12 picks in. Unbelievable.

But I agree with the assessment. The problem with DeAndre Hunter is that he cost them Red Velvet. Well, and $90 million for the next four years. Who do you have for the other one, House? Was. You going to do it? Somebody's going to do it soon. I know that bomb's going to be

dropped. I'm waiting for it. I got to get spicy. For me, it's Michael Porter Jr. Again. He got dropped last year, too. He's a max level guy. Some people would say, oh, he's not really allowed, too. Another he's a max level guy. And some people would say, oh, he's not really allowed to play to that level. I just don't I just don't see it. I don't I don't see it.

And they're going to rely on this guy to be one of their best wing defenders in the playoffs. And if they can't do anything defensively on the wing, it's because Michael Porter Jr. wasn't doing his job as the second highest paid guy on the team. And so, you know, offensively, I believe in the style that they play. I think it's completely unguardable. I don't think Michael Porter Jr. needs to be some one-on-one assassin on this team. So it's not really about what he's doing offensively. It's just like he should be a better rebounder. He should be playing better defense. Just from his size alone, he should be better at those things. And he's just not.

And oftentimes it feels like he's just going through the motions out there. And, you know, part of this is my sensitivity to the fact that I picked the Nuggets to win the championship this year. And I need Michael Porter to come through for me. I know, he's their swing guy. Well, you didn't say the contract. Oh, so after this year, there's three years, $105 million left on the deal. I have it on SpotTrack.

I have, this is year one. It's five years for $179,000, but the fifth year has partial guarantees in it. Right. Next three years guaranteed 33, 36, 38.3. Listen, here's the problem with Michael Porter Jr.

Because I do think he's you watch on the certain nights and he'll make a big shot and it's exciting and he does some really fun stuff with Jokic every once in a while.

I shouldn't be pleasantly surprised every time he has a good quarter. It feels Toby Harris-ish. Oh, cool. Michael Porter played well for an hour. I shouldn't be psyched about it.

A lot of Tobias Harris vibes with that one. As far as impact on a night-to-night basis. House, any Porter takes? Any what? Do you have any Michael Porter Jr. takes or do you want to just do your pick? Well, I really do think that what was saying is is the case their their playoff fortunes really reside on that dude's shoulders and we haven't seen enough to like really feel confident as these playoffs are on a four-game losing streak and he is the swing he's the fulcrum player i i

believe i mean nerkich is going to get his. MPJ has got to play crazy defense. He's got to average double-digit rebounds. And he's got to knock down those threes for Denver to go on the run that we kind of imagined they were capable of. Counter just from somebody who watches a lot of Nuggets games. Porter 17-5. 41.5% from three this year. I'm more worried about Murray

watching the Nuggets the last two weeks than I am about Porter because I don't know what happened with Murray, but we all agree that Michael Porter makes too much money. How soon do you have next? This feels like low-hanging fruit. Maybe even a cop-out. Kyle Lowry's still going to make

60 million bucks in the face can't get on the floor can't help Miami get over the hump I don't like to do what I'm about to do but dude never looks in shape I understand the injury component of it and rehab

and everything like that but you can be in shape and be injured at the same time that that is they're not mutually exclusive um he looks like he's rolling in at the y and you know if he rolled on the floor at the y you're okay, he's the guy you would underestimate who would come in and start making 30-footers in your grill. I've made that mistake before. But he's not rolling in the Y. Miami needs him to make a viable playoff push, and he can't get on the floor and make that contribution.

They really miss him. He would really, the version of Kyle Lowry from two years ago would be incredible for this Miami team, but he can't play. I have nothing to add. I think it's a little too high for him. There's a couple really tasty choices left on the board. There's a few tasty ones. I'm going to go next.

This is an easy one. Honestly, great value. Can't believe he hasn't gone yet. Three years, 36 million. Doesn't play anymore, even though he's on one of the most fun teams in the league, Rashawn Holmes.

Doesn't play. They don't have a backup center. He's right there. They just paid him an extension. Guess what? No thanks, Rashawn. You stay over there. We're going to have fun and score 129 points a game. Just cheer us on. And this is one where they will be moving this one and shopping.

I know they were shopping at the deadline too, but they will be shopping this one hard. Yeah, he's an offense-only player on a team that already has plenty of it. And it's like, dude, we need some level of defense at some point here. And Rashawn Holmes has kind of never been that dude. Although I've liked him in the past. There were times where he was one of the only bright spots when watching the Kings.

But yeah, he's a bit slightly overpaid for what they're asking him to do at this point. Honestly, I think he would have been a good tanking weapon for one of the, like the Rockets should have pursued him to add him to the list the rocket should have like pursued him to add him to the list he would have been good my only quibble with with drafting him here is in some respects it seems like it's addition by subtraction for the kings like not playing them him has given them the rotation that that works for them like he's not stealing minutes from anybody. And it's only $12 million, which to me,

in the big scheme of things, you can whiff on a $12 million player. That's all. Well, since House just challenged my manhood, I'm going to drop the bomb. The two of you wusses were just afraid to do it. We all stared at it for a couple rounds now. None of us had the balls. Guess what? I just put my balls on the table.

Zion Williamson, six years, $207 million. He is an unbelievable basketball player. $207 million. And he cannot play for four weeks in a row. And I think we have drafted five, 10, almost at 20 players. I would be very scared to cut that check if I was a New Orleans owner, even though I get all the upside. And he's an amazing basketball player.

Can he stay in the courthouse? Can we see him stay in the court? He's in the basketball player. Can he stay in the courthouse? Can we see him stay in the court? See, he's in the same category for me as Lonzo. It's a sad contract, not a bad contract because the potential that he showed us in the, you know, two 30 game stints that we got out of him had him appearing as, as a transcendent player, right? I mean, he had numbers that were top five all-time NBA history kind of offensive efficiency, points in the paint kind of trajectory. He just can't play. So he's still super young.

I give him enormous credit for listening over the summer. He got in great shape. Really showed up in shape. He was ready to kick ass. New Orleans, what were they, 23-12? At one point, they were third in the West at one point. I am going to lose a ton of money on the Pelicans this season because I was so bullish on their prospects.

You might even have a Zion MVP bet somewhere. No, I didn't do that one. MVP bet collection. I didn't do. I did bet a lot of guys for MVP. Zion wasn't one of them. But it's a bummer. What I say about Zion, it's a bummer.

He's young. Maybe there's still some hope. Yeah, the stuff about him not staying on the floor is tough. But I think the difference between him and Alonzo Ball is fair or not the perception that throughout his career, Zion hasn't been exactly dedicated to his fitness. And it's hard to separate that lack of dedication from his injuries.

I feel like the two go hand in hand. And maybe I might be wrong. Like, you know, spoiler alert, I'm no doctor. But I think there's a perception that a lot of his injury problems stem from his lack of, you know, nutritional stuff, the working out stuff. And when we say he was in shape coming into this season, I would say he's in shape compared to the seasons before that. Not in shape, actually. Right. And so that's my thing about Zion is like, man, is he is his is he even going to make

it to the end of that deal? His body anyway. That's why I question that. That's why I think Bill makes a solid point. This is an inspired pick for sure. But I was thinking about somebody else, honestly. I think the sad contract, bad contract is, first of all, a really good gimmick. Congratulations to me for thinking of it.

I was very excited. I still got it. I still throw a fastball every once in a while. The Zion thing makes me sad more than mad at the figure. Certainly wouldn't blame them for what they paid him. It's Zion Williamson. But I just look at it like LeBron got plantar fasciitis, which everyone else in the league gets in your season's over.

And LeBron is Instagramming photos from a hyperbaric chamber. And he's clearly going to be back in like two weeks and he'll be fine. And if Zion got that injury, we wouldn't see him for like a year and a half. Yeah. And that's unfortunately the problem with the Zion thing. All right. We're going to take one more break and then, uh, house you're on the clock. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Elevate your morning coffee ritual from the first sip of coffee in the morning to the on-the-go cup.

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All right, House, you're up. I thought you had somebody else in mind for this, and so I'm going to jump in the pool with both feet. And I don't know if you guys are going to agree or what, but for how old this dude is and, and what the, the, the age through which this extension that he just signed is going to run.

Oh my God. Don't disrespect my guy. Oh, he's a one of one. He's a one of one. He is the face of the franchise. He deserves every accolade, but in terms of return, in terms of the fortunes of the franchise, the goal to be successful, this contract feels like it's a limiting factor.

I am going to say Dame Lillard. I love Dame Dollar. I love him so much. He was an absolute ray of light for Portland through the entire winter from January on up through. A top three scorer in the league, but this contract has him. Hold on, my red leg just caught on firehouse. Hold on, hold on.

Just stamping it out. I just want you to hear this. Well, let me ask, how much money do you think he's going to make in 20 in the 2026 2027 season it's like it starts with a six it starts with a six yes it starts with a six now i know that we're good there's a new collective bargaining agreement coming there's a new media deal coming and at some point 60 million dollars60 million could feel like just a regular old upper tier contract. But Dave's going to be 36 turning 37. There's not a huge track record of smallish shooting guards who are still at the

peak efficiency at that point in their career. Love Dave Dollar. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. It's just too rich. It's a Lifetime Achievement Award contract. That's all. His extension was two years, $121.7 million. Waz, if Dame did a diss track of House, would that be the highlight of your career, my career, or House's career? Or all three of us at the same time? I would say all three of us at the same time. And the reason why I disagree with House, one, I think Dame Lillard's contract is one that a bunch of people would want to jump on with two feet. Because it's not just this play, which the guy dropped 70-something points this year. Love it.

Right? The two previous years, this is why I disagree with this. And it has to do with the Trey Young stuff. The two previous years where Dame is playing through injury he's not doing load management he's not doing the this they have to make him sit games and go get operated on to fix himself this guy just like refuses to not play and then of course there's his production, which, look, man, Steph is probably better, but man, I think Dame is like a

half a notch right underneath that. And just as a professional, as somebody who's going to lead your franchise and do the right thing, set the right examples, that kind of stuff gets discounted too much, I think. And so I disagree with you. I understand the

take. $63 million. I understand the take. $63 million. I appreciate the take. And a 26-27 season is going to be a lot. But I think for the next three seasons, Dame's going to be a $50 million player for sure. I think it's basically the contract itself, even if you just whited out his name and just said, here's his contract.

It's almost like blind has to be in the top 25. 121 million starting three years from now makes my sphincter just tighten. All kinds of terrible things can happen to basketball players. It's just,

man, that's a lot of money. House, really appreciate and respect where you went. You have one more pick somehow. What do you got? No. Oh, no. You know, Waz has two.

It's Waz with two. Go ahead, Waz. All right. So my pick here is Zach Levine. And that's because the Bulls were hemming and hawing and crying about having to give this guy a deal. Before this, they were just killing this dude in the press. You guys will remember our friend Brian Windhorse was

at the Olympics. He asked Zach Levine about getting a deal done and Zach Levine said, I just want my respect. A.K.A. pay me the goddamn maximum in money and years. They fought over this over the press. They gave him the deal.

Five for $215,000. Basically, and I think they're going to charge this four years and $178 million left after this year. I have worse news for you, Wes. 15% trade kicker. So now, if they trade him, that's up to like $245,000.

I think they'll be looking to move him this summer, but I wonder how many teams outside of like teams like L.A. Like I think the Lakers would be willing to do anything for some win now stuff, even if with the long term ramifications. But like I wonder who would actually take on Zach Levine at that number. No one. He just he doesn't really change your life. You know, you have to have excellence already in place for him to make a big deal. I think, don't get it twisted, Zach Levine, LeBron, AD, I think that would be incredible, right? But like on a different kind of team or the Bulls more specifically,

they're nothing with him and he's got these lingering knee issues. So yeah, I think the Levine deal might be one in a few years where we'd be like holy moly this is a tough one I agree that he's a trade candidate this summer I don't agree that the Lakers will trade for that contract because they already have Anthony Davis and LeBron James in year

21 on their team at that point and I'm pretty sure you'd want a little stability with your $40 million guy at that point I can see the Nets for him. The Nets have all those different pieces and like a three for one, something like that. But I could also see houses wizards. It seems like the kind of contract the wizards would be kind of on brand for them. Well, if you're looking for a guy who's going to help a franchise, you know, spin its wheels and win about 38 games a season, that ZL's the dude. I will say

this, in the Bulls' defense, the context in which they made that deal, you were thinking about Lonzo coming back, and they didn't have a choice. It was a 35-game sample with Lonzo, and it's like, man, this really could be

something, and we've been cheated of it because of the bad injury luck. with Lonzo and it's like, man, this really could be something. And we've been cheated of it because of the bad injury luck. Waz, you got one more pick. What do you got? I'm trying to see where I – okay, I know what I want to do. It's Jonathan Isaac. And this might be bad contract, sad contract because he can't stay on the floor. But, you know, when you got a guy in your locker room quoting Bible verses to NBA players,

I got to put you on bad contract alert. And so Jonathan Isaac, a.k.a. The Preacher Man, two years, $34 million still left. They have some outs with it, though, I think. I think they can get it. There's some partial guarantee stuff with it that I think they can get out of next year. No. Should we get? No. No. Okay. guarantee stuff with it that I think they can get out of next year no it's two guaranteed years after

this year at 17.4 for a guy who never plays and whose teammates roll their eyes every time he steps into the same room as them so yeah put Jonathan Isaac on that list for me House what do you got maybe we'll do one more round here what do you got Same room as them. So, yeah, put Jonathan Isaac on that list for me.

House, what do you got? Maybe we'll do one more round here. What do you got, House? Oh, good. It's time. I'm ready. I have my guy. Oh, no. He's a very important part of the Charmin Celtics.

And if he was playing, it might be a different. He could be the coach on the floor that, that the team needs. And he, and he should be the, the, the enforcer, uh, in terms of, of, of force of will he's got, uh, it's what he signed a four year, 76 and a half million dollar contract. And at the end of this contract, he's going to get paid 21 million bucks in 2025-2026 i mean if if marcus smart could stay on the floor and you know help that team find itself all over again in terms of some defensive intensity i might feel like you're getting your money's worth but

who is marcus smart at this point in his career? Podfather, I ask you. I mean, the sad thing about what you laid out is whatever physical condition he's in right now, they're actually better off if he's not playing because he's been that bad. And they have Derek White just sitting right there, ready to play any crunch time. I've been talking about this for a couple of weeks now. Smarts just look terrible. And it's not like I always have in a bad game. And this is like every game he looks bad. The Hawks game, they're just trying to finish the Hawks game. And he's just coming up with new ways for the Hawks to get the ball back. Rockets game, he was singularly atrocious. And White was sitting

there on crunch time. It's been really bad. I do worry. He was awesome last year. He was awesome to start the season. But I do like thinking in football terms, these guys like running backs or tight ends or strong safeties that just are in a lot of collisions and a lot of physicality. And all of a sudden it goes off a cliff. And I really hope that's not happening with him right now. It's the topic of every conversation I have with every Celtics fan in my life is where I'm like, what is going on with Marcus Smart? What do you see, Wes?

Yeah, but he goes through these stretches where he can't make a shot and he looks like a complete disaster um but he could always guard somebody in those stretches right and that's the problem he can't stay in front of people anymore and that that's more alarming to me than the the shot coming and going yeah and and that's the the real problem is like now he's not this elite then he went defensive player of the year last year was that he decided you know um now he's not this elite. Then he went defensive player of the year last year. Was that just last year? You know, now he's just getting abused.

You know, I would hope maybe this is just an effort, regular season thing. And then in the playoffs he'll go back. Or he might be having an injury. There's an injury. Like, I'm just not telling people I'm injured piece of this that's possible. If that's the case, he should stop playing right now. Take the 10 to 12 games that you need to get right and get right. Help this team.

The Celtics have showed an alarming lack of resilience in the face of physical play. What the Knicks did to them a couple weeks ago in terms of that overtime, they bullied celtics they built though celtics could not corral a single rebound the only way they got the ball back in overtime was by fouling mitchell robinson who got every goddamn rebound yeah that josh hart just seemed tougher than anyone in the celtics there's a problem they there's not a lot of dog in the celtics team this year and you think like last year where Grant Williams and smart and Robert

Williams were these huge pieces of everything that was happening this year. Grant Williams is getting yanked around and he's been bad for six weeks. Smart. I don't know what's going on. Rob Williams doesn't play. It's, it's pretty rough. All right.

I'm going to end this for us. Um, I don't think I'm going to drop a bomb. There's some pretty fun ones on the board still. All right. Nah, I don't want to feud with the Rockets fans again. I'm going to stay away from that. It's so whiny. It's a whiny fan base.

Think about it. I want Portland fans to know that I love Dave. I don't misunderstand. We're all afraid of the aggregated blog content coming out of this podcast. It says Dave Bleward overpaid. I love him. I love him. Don't get it wrong.

Oh, my God. I had somebody on my list that was supposed to go in my top seven, and he just went undrafted. I'm going to fire two of my scouts. Yusuf Nurcic, four years, 70 million. How did he not go four rounds ago? He's up there. He can't guard anybody.

He cannot guard anybody. It's terrible. He's supposed to be the anchor of what they're doing down there. And, you know, again, They're right there with Dallas. Just some of the worst defense they can put. It's a layup line against these guys every single night. Nurk is up there.

Another big man I can't understand. Marvin Bagley, two more years left. 25 mil. Yeah, that's right. Why is that happening? And then Norm Powell. He's got three years. 60 mil left on his deal.

I kind of like Norm, though. Norm does kind of like Norm. I come in hot every once in a while. He's a $20 million player? Come on, now. Can I read you just all the centers in the league and you tell me, just stop me when it's somebody you'd rather have

than you'd rather have Nurkic than the center. Than that person? Jokic, Embiid, Sabonis, Adebayo, Anthony Davis, Brooke Lopez, Jaron Jackson, Carl Anthony Towns, Vucevic, Kessler, Aiton, Porzingis, Jared Allen, Miles Turner,

Pirtle, Capella, Horford, Gobert, Robert Williams, Nick Claxton, Jonas Valanciunas, Mark Williams on Charlotte. No, I like Jonas more. No, Mark Williams is a rookie. He's going to be good. He's definitely not better than Kevon Looney.

No shot. Steven Adams? No, Steven Adams is the secret to Memphis' portion. Mason Plumlee? Alright, now we're getting warm. Now we're getting warm. So we're now in the Mason Plumlee

Christian Wood? I think Christian Wood is misunderstood. That's tough for Nurkic. I didn't think that Christian Wood and Jason Kidd were going to be a good match. And guess what? They're not a good match. At least Nurkic rebounds, man.

But Christian Wood is just a way better offensive player. He's shooting the hell out of the rock. Like, I don't know. But yeah, that's the range. Well, apologies to Devante Graham, who has three for 36 left. And Rudy Gay, two for 12.6. I respect Rudy. Daniel Tice can't believe he didn't get drafted.

He was, where is he? He's 18 million bucks. Who cares? Two years, nine million bucks a year. Who cares? Gordon Hayward, two for 62. He doesn't know what he did wrong not to get drafted. That was so good lately, this about Gordon Hayward.

I've been watching him lately and he looks so damn good. He looks good. When he plays, he looks good. Kevin Porter, 4 for 50. He can't believe he wasn't drafted. And JaVale McGee, 3 for 17. He's a little stunned.

P.J. Tucker, 3 for 33. The last year, he's going to be like he's going to earn all that money in the playoffs you watch it's basically a three year deal just for this year and then last but not least Johnny Davis two years 9.9 million that's not nice

why do we have to end on that note that's just a blown pick it's not surprising it's Washington doing the drafting why do we have to end on that Matt knows. That's just a blown pick. It's not surprising. It's Washington doing the drafting. Why do we have to hit on that? That's not a bad contract. That's a blown pick.

Let me give you the numbers for Johnny. No! Why? It's not necessary. He signed a four-year deal for $21.9 million. This year, guaranteed $4.8 million. Next year, $5.05 million. And then we get into the club option era,

aka the Jalen Smith zone, where Washington could just be like, we've seen enough, we're out. Yeah, we've seen enough already. It's Jalen Johnny, come on. In this area, too? Because he's going to make like 12 next year or something crazy like that. He found

his spot in Detroit. Check out some of his numbers. I actually am keeping the door a slight crack open. By the Wiseman Detroit situation? Just keeping the door a slight crack open. I'm not ready to slam it shut yet. I am also mildly intrigued by Wiseman.

Wes, how many minutes do you think Johnny Davis has played this season? Get the guess. It's March. I'd say like 400. This is so rude. 400? 400 minutes in what? In the G League? It's not even 40. It's 88. 40 it's 88

he's been 88 minutes this season that's ridiculous 88 minutes for our guy Johnny first round pick lottery pick what number was it house 9 I think 9 or 10 my feelings are hurt

it was an 8 player draft he could have had Jalen Duren. Could have got Mark Williams. Could have got big guys. He could have Mark Williams. You would have loved Mark Williams. You knew he was good from college. I knew he was good in college.

Knew it. I'm not in charge. All right. Waz. Joe House. Oh, can we bring in Cerruti just to defend Jonathan Isaac's honor for five seconds? Cerruti, do you want to defend Jonathan Isaac's honor really quick?

Yeah, I wish I didn't know as much as I do about this contract situation, but it's actually pretty awesome. They only owe him $7.6 million next season, and that's it. He technically has two more years left on his deal, but because of the injury and all the games he missed,

there was some clause that got triggered. Basically, the last year of his deal, which is 24-25, can be completely voided. And if they waive him, they only owe him $7 million. So it's one bad contract. For the official standings, do you want to swap him out for anyone? Yeah, I'll swap him for Norm Powell, for sure. Norm, I'm swap him for Norm Powell, for sure. But I still

got to dock him points for the Bible banging. There's no room for that in baseball or the NBA. Totally fair. What was your favorite contract, Cerruti? I thought the Andre Blatch nugget was the best thing that we've done in the podcast so far. Immediately

amnesty. I'd love to be some Andre Blatch back in the day, too, but that was the best nugget was the best thing that we've done in the podcast so far. Immediately amnesty. I'd love to be some Andre Blatch back in the day too, but that was the best nugget of the podcast. I'll tell you this, guys. Filipino national team legend, Andre Blatch. Having a column back then with how many dumb GMs and owners we had was just one of the great things that's ever

happened to me. So much to write about year after year. So many dumb moves. So many dumb things. Teams just doubling down on the Isaiah Thomas era with like GMN coach. Let's just give him everything. He can do everything all at once. Just really wonderful stuff. All right. Saruti, thanks. podcast. Thanks to Waz. Thanks to House. Thanks to Kyle Crane for producing. Thanks to Steve Cerruti. Don't forget to listen to One Shining Podcast over the weekend as we react to March Madness. And I will see you on Sunday night with Rusillo. On the wayside I don't have Fear

On the wayside