The Bill Simmons Podcast - LeBron’s Philly Shocker! Plus, the 2011 NBA Redraftables With Zach Lowe.

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Zach Lowe to react to LeBron James deciding to take his talents to Philadelphia. Then the guys redraft the 2011 NBA class. (0:00) Intro (1:14) LeBron signs with the Sixers (45:07) 2011 NBA Redraftables Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Zach Lowe Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Brought to you by PayPal. Learn more at paypal.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Terms and exclusions apply. See PayPal.com slash rewards terms, credit card points subject to issuers, terms, and conditions. All right, it is Friday morning. This is the Bill Simmons podcast. I have no Sunday podcast. This was supposed to be the Sunday podcast. Zach Lowe was coming here.

We're going to do a 2011 redraft and 20 minutes before we were about to start recording. We got the word that LeBron James is going to the Philadelphia 76ers. We're going to talk about that one second. Live rewatchable is coming Monday. Four o'clock Pacific time. We are doing obsession. So stay tuned for that. Okay.

LeBron to Philly. So first I'm going to start eating some crow. I thought Cleveland was done. I thought this was where this was headed the whole time. I'm not sure what happened there. We could talk about that later. Philly shocked me. This got a genuine woe.

Wasn't a lucre trade woe, but this was a woe. I didn't think this was in play. I didn't think he'd want to live there. I guess he's going to live in New York. Where was this on a one out of ten woe scale for you? 7.5. The moment Bob Myers went on game over, I had someone in the league, I said some iPod, just say to me, someone's smart, not necessarily

read, not, not even reading T leaves, which is saying, why would he go on that show and potentially debase himself like that if he didn't know something? And since then, that's, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything because all these teams were just telling you the last two weeks. We don't know. We're in the dark. We're completely in the dark. I, I'm 7.5. It's not a 10. It's not a 9, but it's pretty high. I just, I'm like you, I just always thought momentum would push him towards a familiar destination, whether it was Cleveland, Miami, or his friends in Golden State. And this is, this is fun, man. I actually really like this for a whole multitude of reasons. I think this is a really fun. I think this might be other than Minnesota, which is a pipe dream. And Denver, which is like a

triple pipe dream. This is a really fun outcome. So you're going to do the deep dive on Sunday. We are doing the irrational, holy shit reactions to this. Big picture. This is maybe, maybe not Joelle Embed. We have no idea how many games he's going to play. You have a franchise guy in Maxie, who's also a clutch guy. You have Vijay Edgecombe year two. You have Jalen Brown just being thrown into all of this.

And then LeBron, I guess, says the power forward. It's a basketball team that makes sense. From a usage rate standpoint does not make sense. But this is a team that if everybody's healthy, and playing together, this would be kind of a nightmare to guard, and especially if they're playing with Pace, like they did with Edgecombe and Maxie

in a couple of those playoff games, and then you throw LeBron into that. I'm just surprised that this almost makes me wonder if he's going to play until he's 45 now, which he's hinted at a couple times. We thought, like, oh, this would be the last year or the last two years.

He's said some things over the summer, like, why should I have to retire if I don't have to, right? Tom Brady played until he's 45. And I wonder like because the Cleveland thing, which we could talk about later, they just couldn't figure out how to make that work. I wonder maybe that's where this ends anyway. Maybe he thinks two years, title chase, and then I'll end up in Cleveland for at the end.

We're already projecting him out of Philadelphia over to Cleveland. Can you give me a minute? It's a two year, $8 billion deal. My God, he's going to be 44 years old at the end of it. Let him retire. I mean, look, he said in his, I'm still worse, we're doing this life. Didn't he say this is his last decision in one of the 14 tweets he sent out in announcing this? I don't know.

I don't believe anything. And I don't think he's going to retire unless he feels old. Like he's not going to, it's not going to be one of those things where it's like, oh, I could put up 20 next year. I'm going to retire, though. I'm just going to read you what he said. I've had an incredible few months with all the people I love trying to figure it all out. This is my last decision.

I'm not going for money. I'm not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. still want to grind, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you, L.A., Miami, all forever love in Northeast Ohio will always be home. Minnesota doesn't get any acknowledgement in the...

In Golden State. Between Golden State, not acknowledged. Look, this is my last decision. You are going to be a skeptic till the end. I respect you. I'm going to take him at his word. This is it. Well, this is like when boxers say they're going to retire or actors say they're doing

their last movie or wrestlers like, this is my farewell match. I'll never believe he's going to retire until he hasn't played for a couple years. But this is, we'll start here. This is a title run. Oh, yeah. I'm going to try to get a fifth ring here. Which I think Cleveland,

I don't know. If they couldn't have figured out how to, I just don't know how he would have won a title with that Cleveland team from what we saw last year and some of the deficiencies that would have deficiencies they would have. Golden State. that would have been a super fun team, a traveling America, the biggest high profile,

a bunch of stars and famous people on one team in 10 years, but I don't think they would have won the title. This team, if they can get Embed going, could win the title. And what's interesting is to have flexibility with or without Embeddeed, right? Because you would have Maxie and Jaylen and LeBron, who are three of the top 20 to 25 players in the league, with Ambide as the wildcard. And then you see what happens with that. Benjcomb. Did you like what they did in the offseason from a bench standpoint? I like Simons. Dean Wade looks a lot better as your seventh, eighth guy coming off the bench and he did it in the starting five, which LeBron takes his spot. One of the greatest upgrades in

late late offseason rotation history, Dean Wade trunked by LeBron James for starting power forward spot. Mike Ganzy getting the boys back together, by the way. He came out. Mike Ganzy is like, if I'm going to get to, I've waited a long time for this. I'm coming in swinging. I'm doing whatever I want. after that, the depth is a little bit unproven, particularly behind Mbete. It's just the Dambona and Huck Pordy at this point. And Fylon, too, I like him. He'll play.

Yeah, I think he could actually be like a 10th man for them. But look, I think there's, I mean, when you mentioned the two things you said that I would be interested to dive into a little bit more. You mentioned from a usage standpoint, it doesn't make sense. And I know what you mean because they have four extremely high usage players now on their team. But rarely does a championship contender have a usage hierarchy that makes sense in that sort of perfect ideal, idyllic way. Like, this is just part and parcel of building a championship team. Number two, they can stagger minutes incredibly strictly, and they will do that.

Like, whatever pairing they want, you two go together, you two go together. And we know that LeBron will miss games and Embed will miss a ton of games. But so I think there's enough here to solve that problem. The other thing I would say, why you said, um, about Cleveland, the defensive deficiencies that you saw in that roster. Why is that team with LeBron worse than this team defensively only with LeBron? Because you have two small guards, just like you have there. And they have Mobley plus Allen. This is small ball power forward plus Embed, whose mobility slash health is always

questionable to say the least. Fair. Well, I was looking from a Cleveland standpoint. ultimately you're talking about who's your five when there's six, seven minutes left in a playoff game, right? And their best five would have been Allen and Mobley and LeBron

and Mitchell and Hardin, I think. I just don't like that as a five. You have LeBron trying to guard guys of the wing. You have Hardin who can't guard anybody. That's fair. I just think that's a... I don't think LeBron is a small forward at the stage of his career.

I think he's a four or five. But on the flip side with Philly and Bede, who can certainly better, be put in a torture chamber. LeBron can ratchet it up or down depending on whatever. And you made the key point. They have these, they have in Jalen and VJ and Maxi, three guys who can play 70 games at least in 2,400 minutes,

2,500 minutes somewhere in there. You could move the other two around there. And Bid could almost be on like a Premier League schedule. Like you could just say, play home games. You're going to play 40 games this year. We just want to keep you ready for the. the playoffs and same thing with lebron you can just he's like hey lebron we're just going to play you 25 minutes a game and and all we care about is the spring so they have the kind of roster that i feel like

could could uh i don't know could basically get those guys ready for april may june which is all they're going to care about well and the premier league schedule is not an option in the playoffs and the ultimate question is like will joel and bd ever be healthy for three or four playoff series which is what the dream here is i i will say there's a enough star power between Maxie LeBron and Jalen Brown. And I'll throw Edgecombe in there. Like I think Edgecombe has, it was spectacular as a rookie has a big leap coming, that they could put a representative, competitive team on the floor without Mbid if they have to for a

couple games here, a couple games there and steal games. We've seen them steal games without Mbid before. And now they're kind of loaded. But to your point about the regular season, like, the East is no picnic. Getting into the top six in the East is going to be hard. and I think they have fortified themselves really, really well to be able to get into the top six while not overplaying MBEED or LeBron or anybody because it's not going to be easy, but they have enough sort of top line depth to do. I mean, on paper, Bill, we can go through the starting fives in Oklahoma City and New York in San Antonio. Is this the best starting five in the NBA on paper?

Who else is in contention besides the teams that I named? I mean, I don't know. I don't think anybody is. Denver, if Denver's ever fully formed? So on paper, you're basically saying I'm getting the glass half full out version of Joe Al-Ambud. Yeah, any given night, he fuels 95% throw this lineup out there. Is there a better starting five in the NBA, despite the one ball overlapping skill sets

and all that? I mean, I think they have a pretty strong case. I will say this. This is, so here's what, here would my answer would be. This is the number one team in the rankings of fuck, they're playing everybody today. if you're the other team. Like, oh shit. All these guys are going to play tonight?

God damn, that's going to be hard for us. But yeah, I just don't, I don't trust Embed. I don't, he hasn't played big minutes. Can we bring conspiracy bill in for a second? I always welcome. I listened to a conspiracy bill, go through a couple of mailbag questions yesterday in my car and I was laughing the whole time.

So he's always a welcome, welcome edition. It felt like Anthony Davis was a key component of this LeBron free agent summer. right i just don't you feel like that was made up like i don't think i don't so how do you explain james hard and not signing the contract extension and and or the contract whatever you call it and then draymond opting out and kind of waiting to see what happened with lebron to me that felt like lebron side putting leverage on those two teams like we don't love the team that you have right now we need one more move from you right there's no other explanation it's July 24th, neither of those guys have signed yet. I don't understand that.

Well, there is another explanation. They're just waiting for LeBron to make his decision independent of anything else. Shams reported yesterday on McAfee's show that there was no other domino they were waiting for at this point. Now, that doesn't mean there never was. That just means they could have realized yesterday, having planned probably to make this announcement today, that another domino was not coming. And as I'm saying this, Shams saying that yesterday almost makes me more suspicious that at one point there was a domino that maybe they were dreaming on. But here's what I say. Wait, hold on.

Conspiracy build and finish the, I didn't round it around. Okay. Embed for Davis does work from a salary cab standpoint. Well, you're just coming out. You're putting him on the cabs in 20, 28. I mean, my God. But could this open the door, Philly uses the rest of their assets and tries to get Davis and Washington gets the Embed contract and some other assets?

I just, my brain went there for a second. I don't think it'll happen if I was Philly. I would want to see this Embed thing for a year before I got there, but I just feel like the Davis thing felt important all summer. So when I meant, was it ever real? Like, I don't think the Wizards and the Warriors ever had a real conversation about Anthony Davis. I don't think the teams were ever involved. I'm not sure that LeBron ever went to the Warriors and said anything directly about Anthony Davis.

Like, again, every team I talked to on all sides of this was like, I don't know. I know as much as you know. And I would call about these rumors and they'd be like, hey, that's news to us. Like, you call the cabs about, hey, I hear you're trying to salary dump player X, Y, and Z. They were like, we are. It's news to me. Now, everyone lies. I get it.

But this was just a universal shoulder shrug from around the league. But now conspiracy, Zach, who doesn't really exist, but Sean's saying that yesterday, that there's no other domino here, they had to know the clutch people that this was probably coming today. So, like, you could put the pieces together, like had the decision already been made and they're sort of laying in the groundwork for, hey, there was never anything to see here. Do you believe the whole thing with Cleveland?

I'm always going to think he was looking at Cleveland first, and I think that that was down the road in a lot of different ways, and I'm never going to not believe that. And I don't think he liked the roster the way they had it. And the hardened piece, I do feel like the hard in opting out, which was the wink-wink from last year, but then no new deal,

and then there was always like a little buzz, like maybe he could get him. And I think there was some Phoenix stuff at one point. They went for Dallas with Kyrie and Dallas. Like, no, thanks. We'll keep Kyrie. I do wonder if he was just like, I'm not going to sign because Cleveland only had the minimum, right?

I'm going to sign with the minimum for Cleveland and I probably can't win there anyway. This doesn't seem like the way to go out. This is like the juiciest team, right? Golden State would have been the most fun for us. I said on Wednesday's pod, I just didn't see the Miami thing. I didn't get it.

I didn't get him and Janus and band together. I just don't like the fit. This feels like a better basketball fit if we have Embed. And that'll be the question. And I guess the accidental YouTube thing in Miami was actually an accidental YouTube thing or the greatest fumble in the history of sports.

I don't know, but it looks to have actually been an accident. I think like Golden State was going to be too old. I think personally you're underrating the Cleveland team just because we're all sort of like just the division of hard and dribbling the air out of the ball and everyone being like, hey, man, we have LeBron on the team. We have done to Mitchell and like, why do we have to play like this? I think that actually would have been a pretty stacked team and a legit title contender. This team is a, I mean, if Embed can give them anything in the playoffs, they're a contender to get to the finals for sure. I just have no faith.

Forget the season. Forget the first 82. We don't have any evidence that he can stay healthy for the last 20. And those are the most intense, hardest playing games where they need him the most. Then maybe they just can lower his minutes in those games to a reasonable amount because they have so much talent around him. But their backup center situation is just okay. Like I like Bona. Nick Nurse has never seemed to trust Bona all that much.

They're going to be able to get February guys and buyout guys and people want to play with this team. Right now they unfandal, they're 10 to 1 to win the time. title, they have the fourth best odds. They are plus 380 to win the East and they are minus 130 to win 50 plus games and plus 210 to win 55 plus games. Are they, is that updated already? Yeah, they move it. They move fast. Okay. All right. Um, listen, the Cleveland thing, I, you and I are just going to disagree on that. I don't like that team. And I think they were trying, he wasn't going to go there for the minimum. They're trying to trade strews or shrewder.

Nobody wants those guys, especially in this new second April and CBA era. The hardened things seem very complicated because they'd done the wink, wink with them. And he goes to Philly instead. You mentioned the playoff piece. I was talking about this with somebody a couple days ago about the second and third rounds, the playoffs are the young guy rounds, where that's where you're playing a lot. You could see Philly like in the Boston series in round one and B'd place three games or three and a half games in that Boston series,

but then goes to that next round and all of a sudden you got to go and he couldn't hold up. This is still, those are the young guy rounds, but Philly's covered in that with the three guys they have that aren't M. Beter LeBron.

Jalen is one of the most durable stars we've had of the last 20 years. That was one of the things that would always make the case for him. Maxie, I think, either led the league in minutes or was second last year, and Edgecom played a crazy amount of minutes for a rookie.

So they're covered all the other way. How do you feel what Jalen Brown feels about this, though? All right. Well, two things. What a summer for him. Two things. Number one, I agree with you. He is almost the most interesting character in this whole drama that is played out.

And I'm going to get back to that in a second. I mean, the thing about the East is, Detroit is going to win a lot of games and be a tough out, no matter how you feel about their offense or their offseason. They're not going to be an easy out there going to a lot of games. Boston is still going to win a lot of games, despite coming off as one of the quote-unquote losers of the offseason.

The Knicks are the Knicks. The Cabs are going to win a lot of games. the heat have Janus for whatever that's worth and it's worth something. Toronto seems at least pretty darn likely to have Kauai Leonard. My point is, I'm not sure how many rounds you get in the 2027 Eastern Conference to just be like, yeah, we don't have to play our all out rotation for this entire series. I think it's going to be a tough battle all the way through. I think I couldn't wait for you to bring up Jalen Brown because I think he's the most

fascinating character. He was already the character of the offseason. and now even more so because not only is he not the number one option which he dreamed of and now on a team where he has two former MVP's in his starting five and an ascendant all-NBA guard who's going to have the ball a lot. One of the MVPs on the team plays essentially his similar or almost same position. And stylistically, although he's in a different universe as a passer from Jalen Brown, like they're physically sort of similar in how they play.

And so the overlap issue for him just got even more severe. And I'm trying to picture like, all right, so is there like a LeBron, Jalen Brown two-man game that's going to happen? What is Jalen Brown doing when it's like a maxie and B pick and roll and LeB pick and the close out or LeBron's posting up? Where's Jailen Brown? And smart players and talented players figure all this stuff out. But it is strange to think about like what's his role going to be on the team.

Yeah, the closest you would come to this was like, like the 24 Celtics when they had all those good players when they had Porzingis and Drew Holiday was there and, you know, Jalen will get his five minutes at the top of the second quarter and the fourth quarter when Tatum sat. But last year, his usage rate was 36.2, right? Maxi was 29.4. LeBron was 27.2 and then Embed's not in here because I guess he didn't play enough games, but Embedd is another one that when Embedd's in the game, the whole offense seems like it revolves around him. So you have four guys.

Jalen is going to get the short straw. It feels like all the time. And he's going to have to do the, all right, I guess I'm basically a glorified role player. I wonder, is he on the team in October? Did they flip him?

Jalen Brown? Is that possible? So I just want to be, you've already in the span of 15 minutes, traded Jalen Brown. I didn't trade him. I'm asking if he's on the team in October. Traded him B'd for Anthony Davis

and put LeBron on the Cavs in 2020. You're on fire. I'm on fire. My coffee has he kicked in yet. But is it, would you bet your life? He's on the Sixers in October 20th? I wouldn't bet my, don't bet my, don't bet your life. I keep telling you this.

Just word of advice. Don't bet your life in any circumstance. I would bet lots of money that he's on the team in October. February, now you have four months of like, we get to see how this works. The trade deadline comes, whatever. Like that, I mean, who knows what happens then. But in October, I would expect Jalen Brown to be on the team. I would too.

I'm just mentioning. But to your point. What if he said I want an extension or I'm going to be super unhappy the whole year? You know, I talked about this on my pod yesterday about extension candidates. I mean,

he's got, it's just like, these guys who have three years, I understand the tool is helpful for teams and players. And it's helpful to have as much flexibility using it, the extension tool.

Three years left on your contract just seems like, let's just, it's too early. In every case that's not like Yokic or Shea or Wembeyanama, it's like, can we just wait 18 months, man? You have three years left to underdial. Can we not talk about it? And can you not

take that as like a personal affront? It's just a reality, but who knows? That's what I say. If I'm like Gansy, I'm saying, we're not talking about that right now. Sorry. The Davis one's amazing because he's got this year and then a player option for next year. And he hasn't been healthy in two years. He's like, I don't know.

need an extension. It's like, do you? Can we see one year before we have to up up you for more years? Plus, you're the one with the power anyway with the power option. How about how about we all be reasonable and we'll say, okay, so let's tear up your player option. We'll give you a two year, a hundred million dollar extension. How do you feel about that? And he would go nuts and clutch would go nuts and they'd be all insulted about it. And I'd be like, okay, so you're in your early, the mid-30s and you don't play you play a third of, you miss a third of the games every year.

Like, why am I just no-brainering an extension with you at the max? I'm not. Anyway. So Rich said something about if you paid attention all the clues. See, he said something like that last week.

If you paid attention, all the clues were laid out for what the decision was going to be, which you could have interpreted in all of these different ways. But now looking back, You mentioned Myers went on that podcast, right? That's pretty interesting. He wanted to win and also be happy.

What were the other clues we can take from that they laid out? What are we talking about here? Is the whiteboard like usual suspects? Does it say like Skokie, Illinois on there somewhere? What are we miss? Am I going to drop the coffee cup on the floor? Are going to drop the coffee clap on the floor? Like what's on the bottom?

It was Kobayashi. I wonder what the other clues were. I'd love to know what I missed. I guess I got to go spend some time. Look, I can call all the GMs and agents involved in the next four hours, or I could spend time deconstructing the whiteboard and, like, listening for, you know how Steve Kerr? Did you read the story that Steve Kerr, like, dropped an entire Taylor Swift song

into press conferences this year, like one word lyric at a time? So maybe we need to, maybe we need to go back listen to some podcasts and see if we can hear a clue all put together. There must have been. That sound? It means summer's biggest event is here. The fashion is unmatched. The crowd's buzzing, the bets

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Well, so LeBron has the 12-year-old daughter who's lived here his whole life. So, like, are they going to, is his family going to move or is he going to be like going back and forth? Are they going to live in New York? Who knows? That's going to be a whole thing. And then him and Jalen Brown is another piece of this. Jalen Brown, the famous thing about him sitting at Summer League and basically saying,

you know, Brani's not good or whatever. He wasn't fair because it was the cameras catching him. And then LeBron kind of made mention a bit last year, but I assume Brony is going to end up on the Sixers at some point. I was going to say, how did we get 20 minutes into this without answering the what about Bronny question? I just assume he's probably on his way because the Lakers have 16 guys anyway.

Geometry wise, I give you Embed, LeBron, Jalen, Maxine, Edgecombe. as a closing five. There's three minutes left in a playoff game. Walk me through a play and where everybody is in the court. I mean, Embeded is setting a high screen or at the nail, probably. And it's a two-man game with, I mean, again, like, I don't really know. It's a two-man game, maybe with LeBron,

so that I can use Maxi in some off-ball stuff with Jalen Brown and throw some size issues at the other team. Like, they'll have a little guy on Maxie, maybe we can get a switch that way. But it's there, it's going to be. So VJ's in the corner regardless. VJ's probably in the corner or setting some off ball stuff if Nick Nurse is getting creative and when it gets down to-

Jaylen's spending some time in the corner. Yeah. I mean, LeBron and Maxie kind of switching playing off Mbide. And then if Embed's not out there, you could even go a little small ball with LeBron and or Bono, like whatever. But yeah, the geometry, there's going to be two guys in the, corner that are going to be like, shit, I'm in the corner.

I wonder if on days M. B doesn't play if there is some potential for like LeBron at the five kind of lineups. They're built to try that out. It's always, those always sound better in theory than they are in reality. The other thing is like, you know, Joelle Embed had back-to-back seasons when he shot 37% on threes. And one and two years ago when you shot 39% in limited games, if that, now that's all sandwiched ground 33%, 30%, 30%, 33%.

And no one's ever going to treat him like a defcon one threat out there. But if he can find that stroke again, you have a little bit more flexibility in where you can put him. It doesn't have to be at the nail. It doesn't have to be we're running through stuff through it. But what happens to his post-up game to me is a really interesting question here. Like, how often are you just dumping the ball into Embed when these other four guys are on the floor?

Does it make sense to play that way? Sometimes it will, but sometimes it won't. And if and if you're talking to Vijay Edgecom about this, you're like, dude, just practice your corner threes. Just take 100 million of them. Take 200,000 a day. And this is going to be a two-year thing. You're going to be a better place for this. You're going to be in big games.

And it'll all pay off in the long run. But he's probably the biggest loser from a gross standpoint because he just, he basically just turns into a 3-and-D guard now, I think. Well, I think he's also so good that he'll find ways to stretch that 3-and-D roll in the half-court to its boundaries. LeBron with the Lakers and particularly with Luca leaned a little bit more into transition fast. Remember, LeBron was known as a slow it down chess master kind of player. Jalen Brown is a demon in transition, particularly as a cutter off the ball. Everybody but Embed in that starting five is meant to play fast, like super fast. And I think that's okay for MB.

Like, he can trail the play and whatever. And that's where VJ can run into eight points a game. I mean, like, just like that. So I think there's something to be said there too. You know what else is going to be really fun? I think this is going to be a really fun team to watch. And this is immediately the, this is the team I have to monitor the first two months team of all,

of the 30 teams we have that are different than they were last year. But VJ is so good at both, like, crashing the offensive boards when somebody else shoots, but then also those little sneaky backcuts he does from the side. And LeBron loves guys like that. So that'll be, that'll be, I think LeBron's going to love playing with him.

And I, you know, him and Maxie, I think they've known each other for a long time and they have the Rich Paul connection. And Bede will be the wild card. You know what we didn't mention, though? This is unbelievable for the Boston-Filly rivalry,

the best rivalry in the league, the most important rivalry of the league's ever had. Everybody says Celtics Lakers. I've said this a million times. Southex Sixers. is the most historic awesome rivalry the league has. They've crossed past every decade in some way, some more than others,

like the 60s, more than the 70s and shit like that. But every year they've had battles, and they had some battles this decade. But now you have the Celtics have traded Jalen Brown to Philly. You have LeBron, who was their biggest foil from, I don't know,

2008 through 2013, where they were the big bully with him. and then he flipped it and he was the big bully with them. He doesn't like Boston. That's been his rival and the team that really tried to break him down. And now he's going against them. And these are two fan bases that have gone at it. Philly beat them last year and came back.

I feel like all of these games will be on national TV, right? Oh, well, I mean, Adam Silver made that pretty clear when he was like, hey, man, can you make a decision? Yeah. Yeah, Philly, Boston, all-time classic rivalry. How about LeBron being back in the East and the state of all the teams involved puts like LeBron could face the calves in a playoff series LeBron could face the heat in a playoff series.

Toronto is the team that he owns? Is he still paying rent on Toronto or no? No, he owns Toronto. He doesn't have paid out. Yeah, so you have Miami, Cleveland, Toronto. He has history with, we didn't mention the Knicks. I mean, Boston. East is this is this is this is east is on a heater like we have not seen in the last 25 years in the NBA it's the superior conference top to bottom right now even if you want to say the two best teams are in the west it's the top to bottom better conference and we've got you know a lot of trade drama we got players moving east we've got you know Kauai probably LeBron moving east and so the east is on fire I like how you said probably yeah if you go to the to the finals odds on Fandall

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Eight of the, eight of the twelve were in the east for the top, for the highest odds. When was last time that happened? And we didn't mention the Pacers, who are 40 to one to win the finals. And I think could be pretty sneaky as well with Zubots there and a healthy halberd and they had a new brain and all this stuff. So Nick Sixers, what's going to be a better rivalry? Nick Sixers or Celtic Sixers this season? Oh, it's Celtics.

Celtic, the Jalen Brown stuff in Boston is going to be off the charts. The atmosphere, the Brown versus Tatum, the first time they go one-on-one against each other. If Tatum's ever under the rim when Brown is like winding up for a dunk, like that, that stuff's going to be irresistible. There's so much tension. But Nick Sixers will be pretty great too, though. Yeah, LeBron in the Garden, Nick Sixers, they've had recent playoff history. They had a really great series two seasons ago.

And yeah, I mean, those are all great. Right, Rob. These are these, we have all or most of the iconic franchises in the Eastern Conference, other than the Bulls, are really like going all out for it right now. And that's like pretty incredible. So I thought of one other clue. Ruben has, you know, LeBron did the Fanatics Fest stuff and Ruben has the Sixers connection. So maybe that was another clue. So, okay. Ring chasing. This isn't a ring chase because he signed as a free agent with the team that wanted him, but he could win another ring with this team. Do you think he will? I would always go, no. I mean, you're basically asking Field versus Sixers. I'm going field aggressively given MBE's health issues, but it's of all the options out

there, short of LeBron signs with Oklahoma City for the minimum, this is about as good as it gets, but no, I would bet against them winning a title. Yeah, because the bar would be Oklahoma City in San Antonio the next two years. Now, San Antonio, if they have Embed, it's one of the few teams where they can throw a guy with size at Wembe and at least make them think a little bit. And then OKC is just a nightmare to play against. But OKC is weaker now. You know, they had to get rid of some depth or relying on rookies that, you know, in second year guys, the rookies did not look good in the summer league. We'll see.

I really, you and I went to those Indiana games two years ago when Lou Dort and Caruso basically swung that series. is Lou Dord's gone. Lou Dord's only 27. It's not like he's 40, you know, and they're a little smaller. They're going to be a little smaller on the perimeter. And this Philly team,

when everybody's playing, like this size is a bitch. Like Jalen's a big-ass small forward who can go at basically every position, right, and scored 29 points a game last year. LeBron can be an absolute bitch to guard. And Bede can overpower anybody. So there's going to be nights where,

I don't know, I like it. I think this was the smart move. I thought, It was no chance of happening. I made fun a house the other day. There's no way he's going to go to Philly. That's ridiculous. Why would he do that?

I get it. I get it from a basketball standpoint. This is a smart move. It's interesting. I sent this with Howard on my pod a couple weeks ago because he was of the ilk of like it, like when Wendy said on TV, it just feel, the vibes would feel funny if you went to Philadelphia, awkward, whatever he used. Howard was on that side of things.

And I said, honestly, I think it would be kind of cool. because whatever you want to say about LeBron, step by step by step in his career, he is not adhered to any sort of traditional superstar career track. He's chosen his own path for his own reasons. Like Miami was a shock, leaving Cleveland the way he did with the decision was a shock. Going back to Cleveland was kind of a bold mid-career move, leaving Bosch and Wade, going to the Lakers because he just felt like, you know, yeah, he probably thought I can get Anthony Davis to come here.

We can revive this iconic franchise that's fallen on hard times. and he just really wanted to live in Los Angeles and play for the Lakers. And I think this sort of going to a team that feels random to his history, to his trajectory, is actually kind of in step with the way he's handled his career. And I think he just, like when you were saying maybe he'll just sign in December, January, I just think he loves being on a team. I think he likes getting to the arena early. I think he likes being around teammates.

And I think he just looks at this and is like, this will be fun. Like whatever, whatever comes of this, this is an interesting group of players in a big sports city. This will be fun. Let's give it a go. Also, the New York City piece of this can't be underrated. He can live in New York City if he wants, right? I mean, I think other Sixers have done that in the past. Yeah, but he could have a place there that they could use.

And he could have a place in Philly and bounce back and forth. So he keeps the big city thing. We'll see if he moves this whole family there. Listen, this is the, this, I think out of all the options, Golden State would have been really fun from the expendable standpoint and just having those guys playing together. But this was the most fun basketball option, the more we talk about it. I just think this has the most variables every which way, including like there's 2012 Lakers potential too, where this looks awesome on paper and there are all these reasons for it, but you have

LeBron who's 41 who with a ton of miles on him. God only knows when he's going to break down someday and Embed, who never plays, and Jalen Brown on a new team trying to fit his way. Like, there's some, there's an unhappy version of this, too. And I don't know which one I would bet on, to be honest. I mean, look, there was an unhappy version of the Knicks in January, and they won the championship. I would say February.

Like, it's, it's, these things are not easy to do when you're juggling a bunch of guys who are stars or think they're stars or whatever the thing is. And I, it's always challenging. and you always have to find the right style of play and everyone's got a sacrifice. Like your point about Edgecombe, if I'm Nick Nurse,

I'm going to Vijay and saying, hey, look, man, you're a second year player. You're going to walk in, hopefully to 18 points a game. Strong, solid number for a second year guard on a loaded team. It's going to be a lot of nights when Embed doesn't play or when LeBron doesn't play. Those are nights you can go for 25, 28,

whatever you explore for. And by the way, being on national TV all the time and being part of a winning team is good for everybody, including you. So just enjoy it. This isn't your permanent lot in life and go from there. That's just the, but yeah, I mean, look, it all comes down to Embed, right?

The whole thing comes down to Embed because I think if he's, if he's not healthy in the playoffs, I don't think this foursome plus what they have on the team is good enough to win a championship. If he, by whatever miracle is healthy for enough of the playoffs, this team can go toe to toe to toe with anybody. I just don't believe that he can be healthy for four straight playoffs. off series. I just don't, I won't believe it until I see it happen. He still has not made the conference finals. Would you rather have Embed for the team that the Sixers have sad now or a Gafford, PJ Washington, Clay Thompson threesome? Oh my God. I mean, the fact that that's a fair

question is just such a sad state of affairs given. I still, I just want Embeded. I want to I just look, I get the, I get the argument. I get what you're saying. Depth pieces. Clay, just bring Clay in as part of this too, like another all-time legend. Let me get, I want to go down swinging one more time with Embed. You know, Philly, the whole history has. I agree with you.

You get me another. I have two LeBron years. And we'll see, we'll see how he looks by near the end of the second year. But at least for this year, with the roster and the depth, this is the best possible situation for Embed where it's like, we're just going to be super careful with you. This is, we're going to be, this will be, you'll be like the vase and risky business. We'll be, we'll be carrying like this the entire season, not putting any, any miles on you at all, just trying to get you to April, May, and June.

And even in the playoffs, you know, I remember Chris Ryan when they went to round two. And Chris Ryan's like, I would bench him be tonight against the Knicks. I'd bench him for game one, throw it away. And they ended up playing him. And he just broke down as it went along. They could be in situations where he just plays five of the seven games. games and they look and they like, hey, LeBron and Jalen, you're carrying us tonight and do it that way. It's possible. It's possible. I mean, we mentioned it earlier. It's possible. The East is going to be

tough, but they at least have enough like superstar ball dominance cover or or pseudo cover for him that if you go up two oh, maybe you can take that kind of, that kind of risk. I'm stunned for the calves and I just don't think they could figure out how to pull it off. I still feel like that's where this was going to end up. I'm always going to feel that way. But they couldn't trade the dudes. And it all goes back to that weird D'Andre Hunter contract that they did. That weird extension they did with him, that they then had to turn into Schrooter,

and that was the extra of $14, $15 million. On the Laker side, just quickly, if they had managed the LeBron piece of that a little better and somehow been able to keep LeBron there with Luca Kessler and Reeves, plus patching together Frades and stuff. I don't like that team as much as this Philly team. The Lakers with LeBron. Yeah.

With everything else they did. And Kessler and Luca and Reeves. I'd have to think harder about it. It feels almost like a wash to me again because I just can't, I can't factor in. I mean, I guess Kessler is as much an injury risk

as in Bid, although it's been a recurring shoulder thing more than anything else. But yeah, I'd have to think more about it. All right. Those are all my preliminary thoughts. You're going to do a pocketer, on Sunday with some deeper dive thoughts and I'll I'll do something middle of the week next week.

I want to want to marinate on this and think about this. But I will tell you this. The NBA is more fun today. This was an incredibly fun outcome. There's robberies galore. LeBron's back in the east. And we'll see. I would say, who would you say has the most at stake with this? That's not LeBron. Would you say Embedde? Like, this is it. Will Embed ever be on a better team than this? We're focusing on Philly only, most at stake. Yeah, it's it's Embed. It's got to be Embed, right?

Everybody else, Jalen's won a title. Maxi has his whole career out of him. So does VJ. Nick Nurse has won a title. This is like, hey, Embed, this is on a platter now. You have somebody who is sixth MVP last year in your team. You have a franchise guy. You have LeBron.

You hit the lottery with VJ. And let's be fair to Embed when we bring up the health stuff. A lot of the playoff injuries have been really fluky injuries. Pascal Seacom, elbows in the orbital bone at the end of a game that's probably over. Bell's palsy strikes him and all this. But the knee stuff highlighted by when Cominga fell on his knee two seasons ago, that's becoming the scary recurring thing that he just can't seem to shake for any prolonged period of time. And you can see when he comes back, he's like almost playing with a certain trepidation about it, that he has to get past that every time he comes back. So that's

just the fair dossier of like Joel Embed and barring some sort of transaction where they get a really another high quality center. I think they're going to need him to get where they need to go. And so it feels unfair to be like, the pressures on Joelle and Bid, you playoff legacy. When a lot of his playoff legacy is, he just gets hurt. And I don't know what there's what that, what there's to be done about that. I don't think either of us thought LeBron could win a title if he was one of the two best players on a team at this stage of his career, right? Yeah, I mean, he's, he's 41 years old. He'd have to be the third best player.

In this case, he's drifted in between three and four, best possible situation. Biggest loser today, Darryl Morey, be just held on for two more months. That's a tough one. He would have done the Jalen Brown trade and then ended up with LeBron and been like, this was his dream of putting a whole bunch of stars in the same team. I got a big, and I would say Golden State, too, would be the other one, because they got of that Draymond deal. They did nothing.

They were just basically paused but the entire summer. And now I think they have 10 players in their roster, including Jimmy Butler, who can't run yet. Yeah, I'm checking my phone here because I keep thinking we're going to get the flurry of like Harden re-signs,

Drayman resigns, all these other deals, but nothing has come on. I also just think like, not that he was ever going to go there or really even entertainment, entertain it, but Yokic in Denver

just sort of sitting there, in stasis while all of this happens around them and maybe Peyton Watson comes back and that's their big sort of move so far but you know it's it feels like afterthought is too strong of a word but they've got some catching up to do um to sell to miss the window yeah to salvage the oka or the window may have closed they got one title out of it i don't the Peyton Watson any scenario where he's making more than 15 million dollars a year does not really pass the sniff test for me well just with the way these middle the way the way the middle class numbers are. I just don't understand who's giving him 20. So you're saying

Peyton Watson deserves Gary Trent Jr. money is what you're saying. We're going to take a break. Zach's going to do way more LeBron stuff on Sunday. We're going to come back to the 2011 draft rewatchables. Want to see your rewards go further? Now at Shell, Seam Plus members can fill up on points at the pump, on snacks, car wash, and more. Plus, Scotia Bank and Tangerine cardholders can get up to 10 cents per leader in value with a linked card. New rewards partners, new ways to save and earn at Shell. Get more, go further. At participating shell locations, conditions and limits apply.

Actual value may be lower. Visit shell.ca. slash loyalty for full details. The 2011 redraftables. Ironically, 2011 was right after LeBron lost in the finals with Miami to Dirk. We had a lockout looming in July. We had no owner for the New Orleans Pelicans. We had the first month of Grantland, a great website that you eventually worked for. I did.

And we had Cleveland with the first pick after mysteriously, went in the lottery thanks to a Clippers, Baron Davis dump trade a year after they lost LeBron to Miami. Conspiracy Bill has always been very focused on that lottery. This turned out to be the Kauai, Kyrie, Clay, Jimmy Butler draft. We did not know this at the time. What we did know, we had a first round that had two Lithuanian guys, a Turkish guy, a Congolese guy, a Serbian guy, a Czech guy, a Latvian guy,

a Canadian guy, and a Croatian guy. We had five top tips, top ten picks in a row named Ennis, Tristan, Jonas, Jan, and Bismack. We had Charlotte with the seventh and ninth picks, and somehow they didn't end up with Clay Thompson or Kauai Leonard. We had a huge trade in the middle

the draft. Kauai Leonard getting taken by Indiana and then traded for George Hill from San Antonio, which had dramatic effects on the 13 and 14 playoffs and led to one of your best grand limpeas ever. And then I wrote my draft diary at the end. I have a feeling we'll remember the 2011 draft as the foreigner draft. That was the takeaway. Now looking back, this is a 10 out of 10 bat-shay crazy draft with where guys went. It's a 10. It's just a 10. It's just a 10. With the four best guys the draft went, first, 11th, 15th, and 30th. It's also a draft that's very close to my heart because, as you said, it sort of dovetails with me transitioning into full-time NBA media.

This would have been my second year, I think, full-time. But these are guys where it's like I've written about a lot of them over the years. I feel like I've like, they're like my cohort almost. So I have a soft spot for a lot of these guys. All right. I'll give you the first pick. Go. This was easier than I thought I'm going to take.

why Leonard and I'm not really going to think about it too hard despite the injuries, the drama, the aspiration scandal, all of it. And the thing about, you know, you mentioned the top four guys and you nailed them. They're going to go top four in some order. They've all had enough health issues that, you know, they've all scored. Kawhi has the fewest career points at 16,500, but Kyrie, who's number one, is 18,400. So there's not that much of a difference in terms of just sort of the raw scoring. And Kauai's got seven all-NBA appearances is the only one of. of this four that has any first team all NBA appearances, two championships, two finals MVP's, the best two-way player by a decent margin.

And was the best player alive at the end of 2019? Yeah, I think it's a pretty easy choice that I'll take away. I had him number one as well. Also, defensive player of the year twice, runner-up MVP in 2016, three-year peak of 26, seven and four, four-year playoff peak of 29, nine, and five, over 60 games. Best player on the 2019 champs finals MVP in 2014. What's interesting about this draft, if we had done this even after 2000, maybe 15,

we would have said Kyrie would that was the number one pick. Right? I think so. Yeah, I don't even know who else it would be. I wrote this big pit. I wrote this huge piece for Grant Land in 2014 about what a crapshoot the draft was. I read it in preparation for it.

Yeah, I did 20 years of drafts about and I redrafted basically all this and I did the 2011 drafts. So I did three years later and I had Kauai first, which I was surprised by. I had Kyrie Irving second. I had Clay third

and I had Chandler Parsons 4th and Kenneth Farreed 5th. Jimmy Butler was 11th on this list. So that goes to show you how much all this stuff can change. We should have mentioned before you. made the first pick.

What the, what, we should at least do the lottery for this draft, right? Because we had, just so people remember it if they don't remember it

when it happened. Kyrie went first. Minnesota took Derek Williams second. Can't wait to talk about him later. Ennis Cantor went third to Utah now and his freedom. Thompson to Cleveland of four. Downed Shunis to Toronto of five.

Jan Vesley at six who won the draft because he had the hottest looking girlfriend, probably in the history of the draft. It was a big, big part of my draft diary. Bismack Beyondbo seventh ends up in Charlotte. Brandon Knight, eighth to Detroit. Kemble Walker 9th in Charlotte. Jimmer Fredette?

Did you ever buy Jimmer Fredet stock? Jiverr, call your broker on him or no? Okay. No, had no stock. He went 10th, ended up in Sacramento, who did not have Vivek yet. That was still the Maloves. You're telling me Sacramento messed up the draft?

Yeah, I'm telling you that. That's a draft day trade, by the way, and an extremely depressing one. Really? one of the most depressing three-team draft day trades we've ever had. It was Sacramento, Milwaukee, and I think Charlotte. Clay Thompson, 11th Golden State, Berks, 12th to Utah. We had the Morris Twins go back-to-back, Marquith to Phoenix, Marcus to Houston,

and then Indiana takes Kauai Leonard 15th. And in my draft diary, which I had some huge wins and some huge misses, after burks went 12th i wrote how is kawai leon not been taken yet what am i missing the morris twins went 13 and 14 i wrote san diego's quiet leon is officially our how the hell did he slide to the middle of the draft guy which doesn't happen every year but when it happens and i put in parentheses granger loss and her herbert you know as it's happening he should have been a lottery pick he's a natural small forward so i had that right i did not have the first pick of the draft right which I will go second here and I'm going to take

Kyrie Irving. I was a big this is one of my biggest draft misses of the last 20 plus years. I was in the let's take Derek Williams here at camp for for Cleveland.

Derek Williams had come off a really good Arizona season and just seemed like a natural stretch four. He shot 59% from three in college his sophomore year. That's a real stat? 59%. 59%. He made one

point one and took 1.9 overall made 1.1 and just seemed like and was really good in Arizona and Kyrie I think had played 10 Duke games and gotten hurt but Cleveland took Kyrie and I said I see him settling somewhere between an extremely poor man's Chris Paul and a rich man's Mike Connolly will he ever make an all-star team it's possible maybe one or two big miss tough one but I think Kyrie I was interested I had a feeling you were going to give me the number one pick and I knew who I was going to take without doing much research about it. By the way, that Kauai trade, it's an all-time fun trade.

I went back and I read that piece that I wrote when I did a sort of TikTok of it. There's so many things that were going on that I had forgotten about. Like Wodge had reported that the spurs were actually sort of exploring trading Tony Parker to move up higher in the draft for someone who went away above Kauai. That was the Tony Parker getting shop summer, yeah. Then like the GMs are on the record in the piece being like, well, you know, we got to go time and the Spurs decided they didn't just need the Kauai pick. They wanted Davos-Bortan, or they wanted the 42nd pick in that draft that became Davos-Burtains

and an international prospect named Arizemlurebec. And they might not do the trade unless they get both of them. Wow. And Indiana was like, both of them. That seems like a lot. I guess we'll do it. Like all these things, all these things can fall apart like so easily in the moment that it's kind of amazing that a deal like this gets done. But yeah, Kyrie, I was interested to see who you'd take second if you would flirt with Jimmy Butler.

Kai Rech, I think, is the clear second guy. I mean, I feel like we just, we have had very limited glimpses of him, given his stature of, like, him being the guy in an NBA offense, like, undisputed the guy. And I just wonder how we'd think of him if we, if, like, that was mostly Cleveland pre-Lebron coming back when they were just a bad team. Yeah. I think he's just an absolutely sensational offensive player that in his prime, if he ever got handed the keys to an offense, we might think of him a little differently. I think he felt that way too, which is why he wanted to leave. Second best guy in a championship team, three finals teams, one second team, all NBA, two-thirds,

playoffs, career, 23 a game, 39% from three. Fourteen seasons, only 779 games. But a big one-of-one factor with him. I think he's one of those guys. He's way better than a Kyrie Irving was a problem, social media video guy, but he will be a guy that I think as the years past will be even better as some of the how just his ability to go left hand, right hand, in traffic, double clutch, triple clutch. And he made one of the biggest shots of this century, right?

That's it. We were both there. Which one? No, I wasn't there for that one. You were there for them. But won a title. I thought he was the clear second choice. And I'll take the L on that one.

You have the third pick. Who do you have? This is a good one. Without hesitation, I will take Jimmy Butler. It's him or Clay. And obviously, both have had some injury issues. Clay is more severe and traumatic than Jimmy and Butler's. Jimmy's had some conflagrations in some of his stops,

and all of his stops almost. And Clay is a four-time champion, and Jimmy Butler is not a champion yet. I just think head-to-head, the defense, the size, just the all-around scoring ability. I would put him, I would take him over Clay in a vacuum with apologies to one of the greatest shooters of all time

and game six Clay and clutch performances. It's a debate because of what Clay has done on the biggest stage so many times. But part of the reason he got to do that was that he was surrounded by one of the 12 greatest players of all time and just the perfect nucleus for him. So I'll take Jimmy Butler. I have a feeling we've gone Clay here,

but I'm going Jimmy. It was 3A, 3B to me. I think if you're going, Jimmy, he was the best player on two finals teams that didn't win the finals, but he carried two teams to the finals, which I don't know if Clay could have done as a number one guy. And I think that's the difference. Jimmy had one top 10, one second team all NBA,

three top 15s, 2020 playoffs, 22, 7, and 6. Two-year playoff peak, 27, 7, and 5, 39 games, career playoffs, 21, 6, and 5, 130 games. The chemistry stuff with him

is really dicey, and I think has to be, that was one of things, there were two things that almost swung it to me for Clay. One is Clay is one of the great shooters of all time. I think Clay gets unfairly dinged,

because that five-year Warriors one was so grueling, the entire team literally broke down at the end. And Clay broke down once and for all at the tail end of it after five years when they're playing. I mean, what did they play? Over 500 games in five years. Lots of the games. It's one of the most grueling, awful stretches any teams had.

And it's a reason why we don't see, we'll never see a Bill Russell Celtics again because no team can do that for more than four to five years. his five-year peak, 22, 4 and 3, 42% from 3. You mentioned the Clay Thompson game in OKC that saved them in 2016. Second best player on the 15 champs, third best on the 17 and 18 champs. Basically, the second best or third best guy in a team that went 207 and 39 over three years and won 25 games in a row and had a 73 win record at one point.

A couple shooting things with him really quick. So there's only four guys ever who have made 2,000 threes and shot 40% from three. He's one of the four. Curry, Rayall and Clay Thompson. Weirdly, Kyle Corver. He's also the only guy ever to have at least 400 threes

and shoot 40% in the playoffs. He's 501-3s in the playoffs. Even if you're going 175 three years or more, that's only him, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, and Duncan Robinson are the only four guys who did that. So I actually think he's a greater shooter than maybe people realize and he was also an awesome defensive player

and was never the same after those two injuries, which happened. He blew out his knee and then he blew out the Achilles within what, eight months of each other and was just never the same guy after that. I think this could have been like a Ray Allen 15 year career of just him being awesome. Ray Allen is the right name because we never got to see

the Clay Thompson version of of Seattle, Ray Allen, who is the number one option and actually kind of fared better than maybe people thought he would as someone who was pigeonholed as a shooter more than a score and a distributor. And I think Clay Thompson could have approximated that if he ever, I don't know if the team would have won quite as much as the Warriors won. But when he was in his prime, his shot was so lethal that it made every other part of his game better because you had to press him so high on the floor.

You had to overreact to him every time he touched the ball that he could have just like, he didn't need to be the most explosive driver to beat people off to dribble because they were already basically beaten by the time they were guarding him and he was an okay passer. But to your point, just an absolute killer as a shooter, a beloved teammate, a grinder turned himself into a very good defensive player. He has an all defensive team appearance, I believe, on his resume. Never heard any arena I've ever been in. maybe with the exception of MSG after the Annobe tip, then Oracle was when he came out to

shoot those free throws in the finals in game six, when he was on one of the great heaters of his career and then got fouled and injured, ended up tearing his ACL. And he was a guy, like one of the things I'll never, a story I'll never get tired of telling that I unearthed in writing about Clay. He was a guy that the Spurs in this draft brought in for a second secret workout right before the draft because they were so curious about him. And obviously he gets picked, I think, four spots above Kauai. And Chip England, who was the Spurs assistant coach then shooting specialist, was at these workouts.

And he told people on the Spurs something about this guy's internal drive reminds me of Mondo Genobli. And they all, their hair stood up on end because they all revered Genobli as a competitor, as a fighter. And not a lot of people saw that in Clay. He's kind of like SoCal laid back, whatever. But the fire really burns in him. And it really endeared him to everybody. He was ever around. He hated losing.

He took it person. Like, he took this whole draft personally. He and others with the Warriors told me about that. Like, he never forgave the Kings for taking Jim or for that over him. He would go around saying the Cavs took the wrong Thompson. Yeah. He took Tristan Thompson. Like, he was, he is doesn't look it, but he is a fiery, fiery,

dude. I, regardless of the fact that I didn't take him with my. first or third pick in this draft. He's just one of my all-time favorite basketball players that always will be. Yeah, there's a stretch there from Beyondbo at 7, night at 8,

Kamba at 9, and Jimmer at 10, that I'm sure Clay was probably like, what the fuck is happening? I think the Jimmer 1 really stuck in his craw. It's like, really, you're taking another shooter over me? All right. So, listen,

I think you made the right pick at 3 with Jimmy. But if, if we could go back, in a time machine and have this draft. And I know what I'm getting with each guy. And the clay injuries, you know, you can't factor that in because I think that was a wear and tear from the five years. I just think I would rather have Clay Thompson on my team for the 15 years than Jimmy Butler because I get an awesome teammate. I get no drama at all. I get the gravity of Clay. Well, you're not going to have Jimmy for 15 years. I guess I have to make that into my decision. But that's that that Jimmy brings this extra drama, but the higher ups.

side. It's a really interesting debate. I guarantee if we ask Steve Kerr, yo, just curious, who would you rather have had since 2011 on? He wasn't there until 2014, but would you rather at Jimmy or Clay? It would have been no contest. So it's good argument. The thing about Jimmy is the thing that's interesting about how every situation with him seems to end badly is, which is true. The Jimmy's stuff is always really good until it's not. Like Chicago, oh, he changed our culture. He's a locker room. What a bulldog, what a story. Jives with Tibbs. And then he hates Hoyberg and it goes the other way. Minnesota, like Tibbs again, like, oh, he's elevating the culture. And then he decides he doesn't think Cat and Wiggins are winners. And it goes the other way in Miami. All Taylor made,

is a heat culture guy like central casting. Maybe he's a problem somewhere else, but he's made for us. And then it goes badly there. So it's this weird up and down where he's like a, he plays in a way that you want your other players to play, a toughness, defense and all that stuff. He's a good chemistry guy and then it goes it goes the other way it's not like a universally bad like you know from day one this guy is going to bring some issues to our team it's not it doesn't start that way with jimmy so we went kawai karee butler clay you have the fifth pick and it drops off here to a pretty interesting next three i mean i i'm excited to pick one three five in this draft because i can build my team around the trio of kawai and jimmy butler on the wing and kemble walker at

as a spot-up shooting point guard. Temple Walker, wow. I just think he reached, his highs were higher than anyone else on the list. His two best seasons in Charlotte were better than anything that I can get from anybody else in this draft. He fits with my two wings that I've already taken. We can protect him on defense. And I just thought he, it's some pretty spectacular highs, both as an off-the-dribble artist,

and it just is a number one score on a decent team that, frankly, people didn't expect from him earlier in his career when his jumper was shaky and all that stuff. And another just all-time beloved culture guys. So I'm taking him. I wrote in the draft diary. He's a leader and a winner could absolutely be the second or third guard on a contender someday, which he ended up being in 2020 in the Celtics in the bubble where he did not, they went to the conference finals. He did not have a great last series there. You mentioned his peak in Charlotte. 24, 6, 6, 6,

38% from 3, he was basically discount Dame lowered it, right? It's like a slightly poor man's name. Four all-star teams, one-third team all-NBA, and sadly, his knees just didn't hold up. I mean, they went pretty fast. Boston stiffed it out.

They traded him. He ended up getting them out, Horford, they had to attach a pick to it. And then there was a weird thing where the Knicks thought he had a little bit left in him and he just didn't. And he had one all-time great game with the Knicks when his mom was in the stands.

Yeah, I think he might just put up a 50 ball if I may be making that up, but it was like a crazy high-scoring game. But I think that led to them having a trade, what ended up being the Jalen Durham pick, because they had to attach the pick to get rid of Kemba on Detroit. And that ended up, so they didn't get him, but they ended up with some free agent stuff anyway.

I think that's fair. I'm going to take Vucevich 6th. And I had him in the five spot. So over a thousand games, 32K minutes, which is second most in this draft, 17 and 10 career, 50% shooting. Never won a playoff series of his entire career. Two All-Star games.

And his big legacy ended up being that bizarre Chicago trade, which ended up being Wendell Carter, Wagner, and I think Anthony black they got for Vooch. No, it was Jet Howard. Oh, it was Jed Howard? Okay. Yeah.

Well, they end up getting Carter and Wagner for Vouch, basically, which you're doing 100 times out of 100. But I like the durability with him. I think he fits in with my team. But I also think he should be either the fifth or sixth guy from this draft. I can't believe you, I can't believe you would even entertain taking him over Campbell Walker. I guess I don't know what we're aiming for quite.

I'm like, I just, I'm aiming for, for, I'm going heights more than durability. Kenba question to me is, was it a good stats, bad team situation with him? Because it's not like those Charlotte teams were winning, right? When he was putting at those stats. And the only time we ever saw him on a good team with a chance to really do well, was that Boston team that he just didn't have a good playoff series for them. Or good playoff run for him, but it might have been at a different point of him physically. That's bubble and physically wearing down.

And it's not as if that Charlotte team was making great decisions about its franchise around. surrounding him. Yeah. But it's evidence by the rest of this draft and the fact that we will not say Bismak-Bionbo's name for quite a long time.

He was a defensive liability even when he was 100% healthy. And in the 2020 playoffs, teams just, as Miami especially, it was just like he had, they just put a, they covered him in steak sauce

and just tried to grill him for, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to have with Vooch on your team? Well, that's the irony of this is Kembo versus Vooch two all-time

guys who get hunted and were big reasons why they never had more playoff success. So I just thought Vouch's career was a little longer. But I thought that was a 5A, 5B situation. I know you're going to take 7th. So go ahead. Yeah. I think really you surrendered this draft by letting me have the first pick. I think this is a clear 135, 7.

I win the draft over you. I will take, let me just check the second round to make sure. No, you know who you're going to take. I got to bring him in. I got to bring Tobias Harris to my team. I'm taking Tobias Harris at 7. And I have, you know, he's a power. My team is trending power forwardy, but that's okay.

He's longevity, production, a little late career revival with the Pistons. I think he'll help the Spurs, you know, left the Philadelphia Sauer experience behind and rebounded. And I just like, he's done more than the Morris Twins. He's done more than Alec Berks, than more than Brandon Knight. he's done more than Chandler Parsons and Boyan Bogdanovich, who are good second round picks here. I just don't think there's really anyone else who suaves me here. I mean, is there another candidate? Markief Morris said his best was pretty good.

Tristan Thompson, I think, is underrated. You're spoiling the draft for the listeners. All right, all right. All right. No, it drops off. Give me Tobias Harris, and we'll sign Bobanavich as an undrafted free agent and reunite them. over a thousand games for him. Most minutes of anyone from this draft, 32,474.

16 and 6 for his career, 17 and 8 in the playoffs. Never made a conference finals. In the running for best zero all-star guy from this century. Ooh, I like that. Just from this century. Never made an all-star game, but I think the career is pretty solid. He's going to end up, you know, now he's going to San Antonio, might have a chance to actually make conference finals or finals.

I would say he has a good chance. He's also been in five trades where the team that traded him lost the trade each time. Charlotte traded up and Milwaukee traded back and it ended up being a mess. But Milwaukee ended up getting Harris and ended up winning the trade. He got traded in 2013 with Duran Lamb. Do you have Duran Lamb stock? I did not. Beno Udre and cash for

so that Orlando got Tobias with those other two guys and Milwaukee got Gustavo I own JJ Reddick and Ish Smith a famously unhappy JJ Reddick Milwaukee I was going to say let me give you some personal advice if you run into JJ do not ask him questions about his tenure with the Milwaukee bucks it's not funny

he's not going to laugh at it he's not going to take the joke well even went better than his New Orleans Pelicans tenure 2016 traded to Detroit from Orlando for Irsa Nili Soba and Brandon Jennings. Wildly irresponsible trade Really horrible.

For the magic. That was a Scott Skiles has the wheel and his drive in the car into the Grand Canyon trade. By the way, I see genuine joy as I list these terrible trades

from the 2010s in your face right now. 2018, traded with Avery Bradley, Bobon, and at 2018, first round pick that ended up being Miles Bridges, but then they traded back with Miles Bridges spot to take SGA,

who became a two-time MVP, to the Clippers for Blake Griffin and two other guys and Detroit got a year and a half out of Blake Griffin and he broke down. And then last but not least, traded by the Clippers with Bobon and Mike Scott for Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, Landry, Shammett, and two firsts. That were not big first. That's the only one where the other team might have won the trade.

because I think the Quippers were excited to turn Tobias in the two-first. Anyway, quite a career. Still going. We're going to see him in some real playoff situations on a good team. We should mention another beloved teammate. Everybody likes them. So there you go. Okay.

Eighth pick. Eighth pick for me. I'm just taking upside with Isaiah Thomas, who was the 60th pick of this draft. Oh, that's a good one. By the way, I should have mentioned Busevich was 16th, and Tobias was 19th in this draft. Isaiah Thomas was 60th.

Went to Sacramento. Somehow ended up having a better career than Jimmer Fredet, who they took 10th. Ended up in Phoenix. Danny H. steals him. And has this incredible two-year run with the Celtics, where he averages 26 a game for two years.

7.6 free throw attempts, two all-star teams. And in 2017, second team NBA, fifth MVP, and they make the conference finals. Really nice run. And then got hurt and they traded him and probably still paying karma points for trading a guy who really went all out

for them in the playoffs and was never really the same again after that when it was arguable he should have kept playing. But his highs were high. I would say... It's a good pick. I would say similar, although the other person had way more success, but his effect on those Celtics teams, those first two years, or those big two years,

in the vicinity of what Brunson has done for the Knicks for the last four, from a statistic slash, oh, my God, I can't believe he's getting to the rim like this. And there was some similarities. Brunson's a better player, obviously. Well, he also arrives in Boston as part of this spasm of Phoenix point guard trades where they turned him to Boston for first. drum pick. They traded Dragage to the heat for two picks. They, uh, and then they trade, uh,

one of the Lakers picks that they had, one of the golden chips in the league for another guy in this draft, Brandon Knight, who neither of us have taken yet. So to recap, we have Kauai at 15. These are the top eight picks we took. Kauai who went 15, Kyrie first, Butler 30, Clay 11, Kempa 9, Vucevich 16, Harris 19, and Thomas 60. This draft was fucking not only, drunk, but like throwing up and having its hair held back as it puked again. Well, you have the next pick. I'm going to restore some order with the ninth pick and pick Tristan Thompson, who was the fourth pick in the draft, because I know here are some things I'm going to get from

Prime Tristan Thompson. I'm going to get some really, I'm going to get a lot of press for his romantic endeavors, which is going to help my team's publicity go up. I'm going to get elite defense switchability, versatility. Yeah. And I'm going to have the most annoying offensive rebounder in the entire league who's to do all the dirty work for my team, never complain about his touches,

and just be effective at what he does. And at this stage of the draft, I'm very happy to just get that. He turned into an awesome role player, four finals teams, 2016 champs, three playoffs from 15 to 17, where he averaged 9.4 rebounds a game and did all the switching stuff,

you mentioned. Billis said during the draft, he just needs to learn how to play and how to score. And then I wrote, I think I need more for my fourth pick than that. Well, he turned into a decent guy. Turns out he's a great ninth pick in this draft. Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand,

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That's my responsibility. Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand-new day. Thursday. Yeah. I'm going to take a guy who's played a thousand games, who career is 13 and 9, 56% shooting,

and who is an interesting what if for the 2016 playoffs, Jonas Valanchunis. Good pick. So came back, 2016 playoffs is his peak. He's averaging a 15 and 12 in the 2016. playoffs for a really good Toronto team and gets hurt midway through the second round and comes back for the last couple Cleveland games in round three. Toronto loses Cleveland in six. Did you ever feel like that was like maybe not a Hall of Fame what if, but maybe like a little stealth on the Sunday

buffet next to the scrambled eggs and bacon as a what if for you? Like what if Jonas doesn't get hurt? Does anything change in 2016? Hello? No, no, no. We're going with no, Alex. No. Okay. He does give up Toronto. He does end up getting Toronto a title though, because what happens? Well, they trade him for Marcusole, one of my favorite all-time players. I love Jonas. I think he's actually a great success story of someone who found his place in the NBA by just doubling down by everything he was good at. He's a big man who, they know they flirted with him. him? Is he going to be through? Can we make him a three point shooter? Can we do this? And he's like, you know what? I'll just beat the shit out of everybody all the time. And that's going to be what I do. And he was very effective at it. He was a top five or six, don't fuck with him guy for at least 12 years. I never, other than Toronto, I never felt like he found the right teams. I was felt like it was

always a mismatch with teams that he was on. I did either. That's why he's in Europe now. Right. He went from the, he went through some of the real drags of the last five years in the NBA, just sort of like cycling through. He ended up in New Orleans and Sacramento, the two worst run teams in the league at one point. And by the time he gets to Denver, he's pretty much washed. I did the draft hire in 2011.

I had Kevin Wilde and Dave Jacoby with me as Peanut Gallery guys. And when Valens Chounis got interviewed for this draft after he got picked, Wilde thought Valchunis was right on the interpreter cusp where he knew just enough English that he didn't need one, but probably should have gotten one anyway.

And Wilde said, the interpreter never hurts. You're always going to sound smart talking in your own language. And then I wrote, unless you're Brett Favre. What a, what a, what a night. I think that's a great point by Wilds, though. The interpreter always makes you sound better. The interpreter is always a win. Like, unless you're like Wembaonama level English,

I'm using the interpreter until it's just obvious I don't need one anymore. I'm just like, fuck it. Wow. Yeah. All right. I just, look, I mean, it depends what franchise. I mean, like, can you imagine asking Tom Dundon to pay for some extra interpreters for

Hanson Young? It would only be one. It would only be one that. They did one guy who speaks 12 different languages just in case we sign anyone from this, from any part of the world. Which things have the Tom Dundon belt tightening things have you actually agreed with or kind of see his point? Because my only one is why do we have 12 assistant coaches at every game and on the bench and

at Summer League? I would just never have more than four. I do think there is a certain amount of fake hustle in all of sports that he's trying to police a little bit. Like, do we really need like 17 people to scout this opponent? But most of it is just like, he's just obviously trying to squeeze every penny I can out of the team. Like, are they even going to have a broadcast team next year?

I know you talked about this already, but what do you think his end game is? I am not as plugged in as I need to be on it. I would assume his end game is get the city to pay for really, nice arena or a really nice upgrade to the current arena and not have to foot too much of the bill himself. I don't think that's going to happen. Do you think they're going to move the team? I don't. I just don't think the city is going to be chipping in to help this rich guy have a better arena. Good. They shouldn't. I mean, it's been 15 years since I read Field of Schemes on a summer vacation, which is all about this. And the schemes are still scheming.

When I did my HBO show, this was a big part of the ad campaign, how billionaire should pay for their own stadiums. What a concept. You have the most money. Maybe you should use the money. Why are you asking the city to do it? Or just keep the arena you have. All right.

You have the 11th pick. Who do you have? Boy. Okay. Now we've reached a point where... I like two guys, though. Look, I'm debating between two guys. I wonder if they're the same two guys.

But you know where I have a connection in the world. And so I will take a boy on about. Donovich to round out my team. I had him. Shooting. I had him. 10 years in the league, 20,000 minutes, 11,000 points, knock down shooter, could do a little ball.

39% threes for his career. Could handle the ball and it post up in a pinch if I need him. I'm not going to need him to do it on my team. But I feel like he's the best option. There are some good, depending on how much you weigh longevity here, there are some interesting players in this spot, but I'll go, I'll go, boy, on. He had a couple cup of coffees, cups of coffee, cup of coffee,

cup of coffees. He had a couple cups of coffee as this guy's a missing piece for us. And the only time it really worked was in Utah. I looked at his stats for 21 and they lose to the clippers after Kauai gets hurt, which was just an indefensible

loss. But he was 18 and a half points a game in like 13 playoff games, 46% from three and was an absolute bitch in that entire playoffs to guard and really felt like oh, you But that was really the only time we saw it unleash.

But I always liked this game. I always thought, I remember when he was on the Wizards in 2017 when the Celtics played them. I always felt like they didn't get him the ball enough and figure out how to unleash him because I thought the Celtics said trouble guarding him. There was a Pacers Cavs series when he was on the Pacers. Yeah, that's another one. Is he the LeBron Stopper?

I forgot about that. Yeah, I do feel like he's a legitimate playoff guy. He went 31st in this draft, which ties into my pick at number 12. I'm taking Marcus Morris. who was 14th, who played 41 more games than his brother. So what swung it for me is he was a real rotation guy for two conference finals teams in 2018 with the Celtics and 2021 with the Clippers, where he was,

he played 30 minutes a game for the Celts and 31 for the Clippers. He's like a 12 and 5, almost 40% from three both times. And I just think if he could have been, one of the top five to seven guys on a conference finalist, that's better than anyone else I'm getting in this.

And I thought he was a little better than his brother. Okay. So you are now, we only have a couple of picks left. There's a couple of fun ones left, so we can go quick. Who do you have a 13th?

I'm going to have some fun. I'm going to have some fun right now. I want all around skill. I'm going sealing, drafting ceiling, all around skill. Max player back in his day, a little entertainment value off the core.

We're bringing Chandler Parsons onto the squad, who was the 38th pick in this draft. Yeah, injuries, ruined his career, knee stuff, all that stuff. Some late nights with Mark Cuban that were well-publicized. We may have to just get the off-court stuff a little under control. But we're taking Chandler Parsons. And he's a great, he's going to help recruit free agents to my team. He was always at the forefront of that.

His emoji use was first-rate during the DeAndre Jordan Husset situation. Yeah, I'm taking him. So I had him higher on my initial list than I did the deep dive on the career. and he only played 440 games in nine years. He played 13 playoff games, zero round two playoff games. His four-year peak was 15 and 5, 39% from three. I had him down, but not, I had this guy ahead of him. Ennis Cantor, who's the third pick of the draft,

11 and 8 for his career. Really one of the better per 36 guys we've ever had? I think Bobon's obviously the LeBron of per 36, but Canter was 22 and 12 as a per 36 guy for his prime. And also help the Knicks win the title. You know how? Who do they get in that? He's involved in a whole,

an Oklahoma City, New York trade. OKC trades for Carmelo for some reason. in 2018, they give up Cantor, McDermott, and a second round pick in 2018, which becomes Mitchell Robinson. Oh, wow. Yeah. I always liked Cantor's game.

It went fast when he was on the Celtics. He was just, he just was washed. He was too slow. But I always thought he was kind of a bitch on the low post. Like he could really, like, torture teams. And he was a good change of pace coming off the bench, physical guy. And I feel like where the league is now,

he kind of missed, he was between these two eras that he would have been good in. He was in the worst possible era for what he was good at. I think he would have been better now. It's a good pick. And as you said, when I took Chandler Parsons, there was a bunch of guys in this draft that played significantly more games than him. And we're fairly productive in Ennis Canter and his freedom is one of them. I also will always admire 2019 playoffs with the Blazers.

Nerkich got hurt. He's shoved into the start. starting five, he was dealing with some kind of elbow or arm injury and just like unrelenting. You know, his skill level was, you know, he was an around the rim guy offensively. He was a liability defensively. There's the famous Billy Donovan can't play canter lip reading thing that happened to Oklahoma City. But he gave everything he had to that Portland team and did what he did well.

And so it's a good pick. The one piece with him, he was, he went, ended up in Utah because they traded, uh, D. Will. De Will. To the Nets. And they end up getting the third pick in the draft. Would they get Derek Favors and Cantor out of it, basically? Dev, Devin Harris is in that trade too.

But the Cantor pick really felt like, holy shit, they're getting the third pick of the draft out of this. And it was just the wrong draft. It wasn't like, if that happened in 2024, it's like, oh, cool, we have Jabari Smith. That didn't go. All right, let's go quick. Who do you have next? Okay. Quick.

quick, who do I have next? Now we're getting into dicey. Not dicey, but, you know, I'll take... You're going to take who I would have taken. There's someone I really want to take, but it's too early for him. I'll take Markief Morris to make sure the twins are not on the same team. Wow. Markle of Morris.

I really thought Mark Keith Morris was going to be better than he ended up being in the NBA. I think he had real all-around skill and feel that, just somehow never all clicked together at the same time. Yeah. The shooting never clicked. And maybe that's the sort of all-encompassing explainer. But at this spot in the draft, I feel pretty good about taking him over a few other guys. I agree with you.

When I did my, the 2014 rankings, I had him 10th and I had him ahead of his brother. He, we should mention, was a role player on the 2020 Lakers, won the title, 18 minutes a game, played for eight teams. So he could be, I think, at his peak. maybe the ninth or tenth man on a really good team. Which we saw. I think he was better than that. But yeah, I mean, he never became,

there was a vision of him where he was a starting power forward on a good team because he could do just enough of everything to be like a jack-of-all-trades and that never really. The irony of the Morris twins of both of them were about an inch and a half too short. Right. They were in that weird tweener zone. I'm taking Reggie Jackson. Jackson.

He was in, yeah, it's a good pick. Two conference finals, 2014 playoffs for OKC, six man was pretty good as a bench guy that year, I live in a game. And then famously oversized ego, and I don't think it played well in that team.

Ended up going to Detroit. Stan Van Gundy overpaid for him. Your guy. And then 2021 playoffs, Clippers make the conference finals. He's 18 a game in the playoffs, 41% from three. and was like a revelation for them.

So he did it in a big spot. He was the 24th pick in this draft. And, you know, worst case scenario, I think the thing that Dink's in was he went to Denver in 23, and we thought that was going to be an impactful move for them heading in. And they won the title anyway, but he just really wasn't involved and never really meshed with Joker, which seemed to be a recurring theme for him.

So taking him there. Who do you got? I have four draftable guys left. That's it? Yeah. I got more than that. I am going to go off the board a little bit here. And I'm going to go all the way down to number 42,

and I'm going to take Davos Bertans. Just, you know what? Let it fly. Like almost no one, almost no non-star player has been so, like, guiltless, without conscience, without thinking about letting it fly from three. And he should. That's what he was in the NBA to do. He would let fly from all angles, all distances against tight closeouts.

And he's an all-time, he's like a very, very good elite three-point shooter. And let's have some fun on my team. He'll create some chemistry problems by taking too many shots. So our coaches will have to do some work with that. But, you know, it's him or a couple other guys that you're going to mention. And I don't feel strongly enough about any of them that I'll take the guy that I know has one A-plus skill and some other liabilities. But one A-plus skill. I'll take Davas per 10.

What was, didn't he get a goofy contract at some point from somebody? Because I remember writing Davis-Bertan's contract for two years. I believe it was the Washington Wizards of Joe House. Yeah, but that's what it was. I just remember him being in every trade rumor for two years as some sort of third contract, whatever. Okay. Resigned, resigned unrestricted free agents. Sit down for a minute.

Yeah. Five years, $80 million in 2020, Washington Wizards. What year was that? The year of our basketball gods, 2020. Oh, that was like a, I'm like, why would they do that? That's insane. Even for the Wizards, that's insane.

Five years, 80 million? Jesus. Fucking Wizards. I'm taking Alex Birx, 12 pick in this draft. Good pick. Basically 11 points a game, 38% from 3 for his career,

and he's played 791 games. always like in the eighth, ninth, tenth range. Some playoff contenders have kicked the tires on him to mixed success. Probably did the best on what the trait, I would say, but had a long time in Utah.

He had a late career revival with the Knicks. Tibbs loved him. I was kind of enjoyed him. Cooky shot, one of the weird, kooky shots of in an era where a lot of people have the assembly line shots,

but his shot was a little, a little goofy, which I liked. So that's my one. All right, who do you got? You know who I don't got? Isn't this the draft where the timber wolves take through a trade select Tangai Nogombo who turned out to be too old to be draft eligible?

I think that happened in this draft. That was one of David Kahn's last moves. I think that's the right guy. A talent for the David Kott era. Yeah. If apologies, if it's not, but he is one of the players taken in the second round who has no stuff. that's in the NBA and thus never played.

So I will not be taking him. An all-timer, like drafting a guy who's undraftable. I mean, that's like, you might as well draft a football player, just for fun like teams used to do. I'll have some fun. I'll take Kenneth Farid. I really liked watching Kenneth Freed play. I'm at the disappointing Kenneth Freed, but got taken part of this draft.

Yeah. He's my next thing. You know, voracious rebounder, rim runner, super angry dunker, never really advanced any other part of his game, unfortunately. I had a little useful jump hook you could bust out now and then I just feel like he'll come in and make hustle plays for me.

I was a huge fan. First six years, 12 and 9 in 26 minutes a game. Probably peaked on that weird Denver playoff Hodgepodge team. I loved them in the draft. I wrote in the draft diary.

If Farid doesn't end up having a meaningful moment for a contender at some point over the next eight years, I'm giving you a full refund for this column. I think he win. I think he had a meaningful moment

for a kind of a that the George Carl team where Gallin hour got hurt right before the playoffs, that counted as a made loose to the Warriors as sort of the Warriors announcing to the world we are here. We're forced to be reckoned with. But yeah, I think you don't owe anybody. I'm going to take Nicole Ameritich with, we could make this the last pick or go one more around. 23rd in this draft couldn't come over for a few years, was dangled as this.

Very few times this has happened over the years, the guy who's overseas, who's overseas, who's always being Sergio Lull all-stars, these guys that are overseas that are just lingering as these massive assets, but they really weren't. But we always heard about them over and over again. He finally came over. He played second round in the rotation

for the Bulls, Pelicans, and Bucks, and was a 12 and 6 guy and was always a little overpaid. I think I liked them the most on the Bulls. But he ended up, who did he get in the fight with? Bobby Portis, I was going to say, you got to just keep, don't sign Bobby Portis on your team.

Yeah, Bobby Portis, teammate fight in the locker. Teammate fight. He really hurt Muratich. Yeah, he, what did he break his, like, orbital bone or something? I just say, I would just say he broke his face. Not great. Anyway, welcome to my team. We'll keep Bobby Portis off it.

All right, I'll give you one last pick if you want it. I have a guy I'm excited to pick. I think this is a perfect, what is this? The one, this is like the 10th guy on my team. I think it's a perfect 10th. guy had some playoff moments locker room stabilizer organized the offense for us off to

Benz. Corey Joseph come on down to Team Low. He was the 29th pick in this draft right behind Norris Cole NBA champion Morris Cole who can't get a sniff. Nor can't number two pick Derek Williams. Corey Joseph might have had there was somebody

overpaid him at some point. I can't remember who. I remember there was a oof contract with him. Could be. I think it was Toronto. Yeah, somebody did it. Yeah, he was more of a fourth guard who got miscast as a third guard sometimes. But yeah, he was around there.

And he was on the 2014 spurs, high-fiving people. Kings signed to a three-year 37.2. Oh, man. It just goes to show you it's always the king. The Raptors signed them in four years earlier to four years 30. which is more reasonable. So. Birth time's 5 for 80.

When in doubt, Kings Wizards, like if you're like, who was that bad contract? With a crazy contract? All right. Last pick of the draft. Chemistry guy.

When he was drafted, Fran Frashella said about him, the problem, he cannot score. You cannot run any place for him. That was what I had in the draft diary. Bismack Biombo. Seventh pick of the draft.

Oh, Bismack getting in, still kicking around. Bismack's big moment was, When Valanchinus got hurt in 2016 and the Raptors had to throw him in for like seven, eight playoff games, they won a series with him as the center. They finished off Miami with Biombo as their center and then lost to Cleveland. But he's still around. I'm sure he's going to be in the league next year. He's one of the longest running guys from this draft.

You know what else happened in 2016 with Bismack Bianbo? He was overpaid. The cap spike and the $64 million contract from the Orlando Magic. who had like nine big men on their team already. Did not work out. I love the cap spike. All right. So that's the draft.

Not picked. Derek Williams, the second pick in this draft, who ended up being a 30% three-point shooter in the NBA. I wrote in the draft diary, I believe Derek Williams will be a more effective professional basketball player than Kyrie Irving. We will see.

One of my worst ones ever, easily in the top 10. This was David Kahn's last first round pick, I think. And this really, just quickly, the number two curse, which goes back to 1984, where we have Sam Bowie, Lenny Baez, Danny Ferry, Sean Bradley, Jay Williams, Darko Milichick, Marvin Williams, Michael Williams, Derek Williams, Michael Kiddick, Gilchrest, Jabari Parker, Lonzo Ball, Marvin Bagley, and James Wiseman from 1984 to 2020. And then not mentioning Steve Francis, John Moran, Kenny Anderson, and Victor LaDipo, who all

bad off the court stuff or bad injury luck. And then it feels like it's shifted now. I'm not as scared of the second pick anymore in the 2020s. We've had some good ones in a row. Jan Besley did not get drafted. Wanted to mention Sal and I bet that Jan Wesley would be a top six pick in this draft. And we won that because he went sixth. One of my first summer league memories that I can see really clearly

was sitting in the stands in the little gym, not Thomas and Mac the other one with some wizards officials watching Jan Vesley play the three for their Summer League team after getting drafted. It was clear he was not going to be able to play the three. And in my mind, he had like eight fouls

in the first half. And I was like, this is, I might leave. This is getting a little awkward with you guys. It's not going great for Yon Vesely. You go to the bathroom and don't come back. Brandon Knight went eighth. Now, Brandon Knight should have been drafted, but just could not stay healthy.

I mean, I think he played. 60 games once. He did get one big contract from somebody, I think the Pistons. Jimmer Fredad at 10, I wrote, I see him becoming a more consistently explosive version of JJ Berea only with deeper range. That's some guy he'd want on your team, right? Turned out, no, was wrong on that.

Amman Shumper at 17. Yeah, Shump, Shump was the other one that had a case. And the only other things from this draft was ESPN played Adel's rolling in the deep the entire time. Oh. It was a rolling in the deep draft with a lot of, uh, I'm trying, I'm trying to look at the, um, look at the draft and, and, uh, see is there, is there a guy in here that I just had a super soft spot for?

Like, I was sure this guy was going to make it and it was not. I think my was Kenneth Reed. I remember liking Jordan Hamilton. By the way, Josh Selby is in this draft. Yep. And the only reason I bring up Josh Selby is because all time summer league all star, just like he came in and exploded in Summer League and then played 38 games over two NBA season. My soft spot guy.

Dang guy in the Gombo. I did kind of enjoy John, John, how'd you pronounce the name? Lurer. Lure. Lure was good. I always thought he was like a banger that was going to have a moment. I had a moment where I enjoyed Lavoie Allen, who was the 50th pick in this draft. I like Levoy Allen.

I liked Jordan Hamilton at his soft spot for it. And I liked Andrew Goudlock had some, had some sauce to his game. Andrew Goudlock was a problem. Now, you said Steamsmo was an undrafted for agent in this draft? Yeah. Okay. I had the list, but I deleted it because there was no one that we were going to pick. All right, here's your team.

Well, I'll just do what the draft was. And it goes back and forth. Zach's pick my pick, my pick. Zach's pick my pick. You took Hawaii. I took Kyrie Irving. You took Jimmy Butler. I took Clay Thompson.

You took Kimball Walker. I took Nicola Vucevic. You took Tobias Harris. I took Isaiah Thomas with the eighth pick. You took Tristan Thompson. I took Yonis Valcunis. You took Boyam Bogdanovich. I took Marcus Morris.

You took Chandler Parsons. You have a more fun kind of team to hang out with than me. Joy, Joy is going to be our watchword. I have Ennis Cantor. You have Mark Keefe Morris. You ended up, did you get, oh, no, we split up the Morris twins. I took Reggie Jackson. You took Davis Bertons.

I took Al Perks. You took Kenneth Farid. I took Niccolo. Meritich. You took Corey Joseph. I took Bismac Beambo to round it out. We'll put it on the social media's and we'll ask people to say who won that one. But man, I would say that's a 10 out of 10 weirdo draft. I don't know if it gets weirder than that one other than maybe 2013. 2013 is a 10 and a half out of 10. It's a pretty 2013 is a great one. 2009 is not weird, but it's a good one of my favorite ones. This one is in all time. Like, what happened? What's

going on and I was listening to you guys do the bubble one or the COVID one the other day. That was another, it's another wacky one. Zach Lowe, we will hear from you a deeper dive on the LeBron trade and not the LeBron signing and all of the ramifications from that. That's going up Sunday. I'm not going to have another podcast until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Don't forget about the live rewatchables on Monday, Obsession, 4 p.m. Pacific Time live on Netflix. and thanks to Ghal and Eduardo and everybody at Spotify as well.

Congrats to the Philly fans. Are you going to have Chris Ryan this weekend? We're going to try. We're efforting. We're currently efforting. I bet he's available. Okay. That's it for the pod.

Enjoy the weekend. I will see you next week. Thanks, Zach. Thank you. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming. Give him a problem.

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