The Bill Simmons Podcast - The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House and Wosny Lambre to marvel at how well the Luka Doncic and Jimmy Butler trades have worked out for the Lakers and Warriors, respectively, and argue about whether the Cavaliers should be the favorite to win the Eastern Conference (2:46), before commencing the annual NBA Worst Contracts Draft (23:56). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Joe House and Wosny Lambre Producers: Kyle Crichton and Chia Hao Tat Order Michelob ULTRA today, available on Doordash!  ENJOY RESPONSIBLY © 2025 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, MICHELOB ULTRA® LIGHT BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by Fandul. The NBA season hitting full stride. Don't foul out on your chance to win with America's number one sportsbook bet on fun markets like live quarter player props and partless. Plus enjoy our new NBA player prop pages, your one-stop shop for player props that include Fandul's exclusive performance trends. Tracking the last five games for top markets. They even do that.

The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. When you win last five games for top markets. They even do that. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. When you win, you'll get paid instantly. So download the app today. Bet with FanDuel, official partner of the NBA. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.

Listen to the end of this episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and presidents like States game problem call 1-800 gambler or visit rg-help.com. Coming up it's time the annual NBA worst contracts draft with house and was it's next. We're also brought to you by the ringer podcast network. If you missed it, we did a rewatchable on Monday night. It was Rocky the 1976 Oscar winner. Can't believe we didn't do it yet.

It was me and Chris Ryan and Van Lathan. So please go check that out. Check it out on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. I'm also on the Prestige TV podcast every Sunday night doing white Lotus recaps with Joanna and Mallory. And we have a great time doing that. We're brought to you by Fandil sports book as well, by the way. And they're doing the 30 on 30, those a little profit boost that we do every Friday. You have to pick a 30 points plus score. Who's going to get at least 30. Look at all the matchups. I'll tweet out my picks who I think might have the best chance to do it.

And if you hit, you get 30% profit boost on it. So let's say yolkage on Friday night is like, I don't know, minus one 28. You hit that, you get 30% on top of what you win. Be sure to claim the PBT place your 30 on 30 bet for Friday. Just look for 30 on 30 in the Fandle sports book app. So I think this is the fifth year we've done it. Me and big was and house We draft the worst contracts in the league. It sounds like a negative podcast

It's actually very positive because we have a lot of laughs. We have a great time talking about it We're talking warriors Lakers at the top with house and was and then dive into the worst contracts of 2025 the NBA this is always a blast can't wait first our friends from project All right, we've been doing it every year since 1977. The worst NBA contracts draft. One of my favorite times of the year. We always wait for the perfect week of the season. Far enough away from the playoffs, right after the trade deadline, guys start getting sidelined, scratched, bodies start breaking down.

Perfect time to do this. And we have a couple doozies at the top. House, just thinking back this decade, who was your favorite worst contract of the decade before the guys this year? It was probably the Ben Simmons, right? When he had all that money left? Was he number one or was it somebody else?

No, no, no, no. Nobody will ever rival Bradley Beal. We really should change the name of this. Bradley no, no, no, no. Nobody will ever rival Bradley Beal. We really should change the name of this. Bradley Beal has a no trade clause. Like the impact of the Bradley Beal contract on the face of the league over the last, you know, seven or eight years, just unbelievable. Mind blowing, dearly. It was unbelievable to you as it was happening and the no trade push

there over the top. Is there anybody else you would would put was would you put Simmons above that or no? Oh? Ben Simmons Bradley Beale I Think those are the creme de la creme Specifically because Ben Simmons got a max contract and it never played right when he did play he didn't want to take layups so Yeah, those two are the ones that immediately come to mind. Obviously, there are legacy deals like John Wall out there. Like there's a few other doozies, but Ben Simmons and Brad Miller. I forgot. Yeah, we had that Wall-Westbrook trade combo.

Yes. Simmons was five years for 177. And I think the last four was just complete regret by everybody who had them. So we should mention, you know, we've been trying to stay positive on the pods with our Ringer MBA coverage. This isn't a sadly negative podcast, but we have fun. Hey, there's great contracts, great trades, great teams.

The storylines are awesome right now. How sweet, we haven't talked on the pod. We have the Warriors and Lakers as legitimate contenders all of a sudden. It's unbelievable. Wonderful. The league feels like it's been supercharged over the last couple weeks. We were like worried, oh my God, this is just going to be Cleveland, Boston, OKC, and literally nobody else. And now all of a sudden Denver's in there, the Lakers, the Warriors, the Knicks are kind of lingering a little bit, but was super fun NBA season all of a sudden. Yeah, I mean, I think the Luka trade

definitely took this thing into a whole different gear. Obviously, we spent a lot of time talking about what happened, why it happened, how it happened. But the actual basketball, to watch Luca kind of just pretty much automatically be embraced by the crowd at Crypto, where he is just playing to the crowd and just straight up, he's in it. And it's kind of amazing that it's come together in nine freaking games this way. Yeah.

Well, it's even more amazing that some people were saying, I don't know, I don't know how those guys are going to play together. Two ball dominant guys. It's like, what? Two of the highest IQ guys we've had in the last 30 years on a basketball court. I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out. It's been really fun to watch. I wanted to drop the first F-bomb of mean he's a force fucking multiplier like that dude because of his basketball brain and you put the two biggest basketball brains on the planet together yeah I think they're gonna figure it out but think about where we were in the first third of the

season the criticism levied against the NBA and it was proper criticism are we really gonna do this goddamn retirement tour thing with LeBron and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant? We have to watch all these shitty games with these shitty teams and now look where we are Look right where we are. So we have a yeah, we have a Celtic Laker game Saturday night That's you know Other thing that first Cleveland OKC game is probably the most fascinating game in the season. And it's two guys that the Celtics have real history with, right? They played Luke in the finals last year. And then LeBron has been their biggest foil of the 21st century, both on the same team. They're so weird to watch just as a team now. They have no center. They had no point guard.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jackson Hayes dropped 20 points in the first half of the game. Long arm Jackson. But you watch them and you're like, I don't know why this is working, but it's working. And this is a team I would not want to see in a series when everything slows down and you have to play the same team every time for two weeks. And I just don't want to see these guys

under any circumstances. And LeBron looks rejuvenated. And by the way, LeBron started to look rejuvenated two weeks before this trade. I'm just flagging that. I'm just flagging that. Hopping a step for about two weeks earlier. You say the same thing about Steph. As soon as they acquired Jimmy Curry, he dropped a 56 on us.

Like hey, very best shot. Did you say Jimmy Curry? You've already had your first malapropism of the pod. I did say it. Yeah. Jimmy Butler. Whatever. Jimmy Butler. That's the new duo though. But no, LeBron seems to have a pep in his step.

He had a chase down block the other day where I'm just like, this guy's now back to chase down blocking people. I loved it. They smartly decided that no, Luca Donci is just the point guard, the orchestrator will just work around. I don't know, one of the three best players in the NBA.

And they've been rewarded for that. And the J.J. Reddick stuff is absolutely working. Every time the Lakers social media account post one of his post game speeches, I know it's bullshit, but I'm bought in. I'm like, I'm ready to run through a

wall for this guy. It's amazing to watch what the Lakers have been doing. Yeah, it's very Dan Campbell, lions-ish, those speeches he does. And you know, it's a little stuff with him, like the pulling back Dalton Connect, right? Guy gets traded out of nowhere, goes to Charlotte, meets everybody on Charlotte, trade gets rescinded. It's like, ooh, hey man, goes to Charlotte, meets everybody on Charlotte.

Trade gets rescinded. It's like, ooh, hey man, good to see you again. How have you been? Boy, this is awkward. And yet he's inspiring him. It's not like he's a huge part of the team, but he's one of their best nine guys. They kind of need him. I've been fascinated watching, and I've talked about this in the pod before, but watching LeBron, just like his fucking Terminator brain, recalculating how he should be used with Luca having the ball this much. And I think he immediately embraced,

I don't need to actually use as much energy as I used to, this is actually really good for me. Now I'm picking my spots in short bursts. It's very similar to that first Miami season when Wade was awesome. And he didn't know how to pick his spots that year, especially as we got in the playoffs. So now, he's such a good three point shooter.

He wasn't in 2011, now he is. But then he's also figured out the defensive rebounding. It's a really great team to watch right now. And I'll say this, I know a lot of Laker fans as this was. I can't even describe how euphoric they are. They went from like, this is a wrap. I don't like watching this team. I can't take another AD up and down.

He's hurt. He wants to play the four. LeBron's padding his stats. He's not playing defense. This sucks. We're fucked for the decade to in a flip Just like it's it's like they inherited money from some aunt. They never knew it's like my aunt just gave me ten million dollars I hadn't seen her in 12 years That's the attitude they're going absolutely crazy house and I might have to move absolutely crazy house and I might have to move. They deserve to be going crazy.

Like that is the only rational response in the face of, you know, the most extraordinary, irrational trade in the history, maybe a professional sports. I mean, I guess the Deshaun Watson thing might rival it. No, it's at least basketball. I think it's the craziest, most indefensible trade we've had in basketball. All of sports. All of sports. Well, because the other part, and we said this when the trade happened, and I know I said this on this pod, this is the greatest thing you ever did for Luka Dončić.

Yeah. We talked about this, Woz, when we did the trade deadline pod like a week after. It's like, well, yeah, maybe you were worried about some stuff, but you just did him the greatest favor you could have ever done them. You lit a fire on him. It's a kick in the ass. Yeah, now he's gonna have a comeback. And that's the other thing with LA is, LA loves comeback stories.

LA loves like, oh, Ben Affleck. He's made gone baby gone, he's back. He looked like he had it rock bottom. Now he's putting his career back together. And this Lucas, as great as he is, but he was a little bit of a comeback story. Now he's putting his career back together. And this Lucas, as great as he is, but he was a little bit of a comeback story. It's gonna be fun to watch him get in better shape,

embrace vegan food, embrace smoothies, embrace the VersaClimber, all this stuff. Vitamin D! He's gonna be getting a Halle Bieber from Erdogan, is that what we're saying? He needs a celebrity relationship soon. He's going to be playing all the hits. It's going to be great.

Fellas, I don't want to see this team in a playoff series if I'm basically anybody. And I'm sure there's going to be ways, as we keep watching them, that you can solve some of their deficiencies. But right now, if you have two guys who are putting up 60 points a game, that's, I just don't want to see the team like that. So that story has been great. And then Golden State.

Oh, excellent. The Jimmy thing is excellent. Can we officially say that worked out way better for them than getting KD? Cause when we did the trade deadline, we were like, Hmm, I don't know. What are we getting from Jimmy? And we were all bullish on the Jimmy part. But, um, I think now that we were all bullish on the Jimmy part, but I think now that we've watched it the fact that he can give them this two-way defense stuff doesn't really necessarily need the ball

You don't get all of the up-and-down Personality stuff that sadly KD brings to the table from time to time. We saw it the other night on TV What's with you? Wait, wait, wait, though like it Like Jimmy in Miami didn't cover himself in glory in terms of up and down. It's fair. I'm just talking this season house. Well this season... Happy Jimmy. We've seen Jimmy's teeth this season. He was bitch Jimmy for, you know, 45 to 60 days. Like you really want to say from an... If you're comparing the emotional kind of component of it, I'm not sure that I'm willing to concede I think KD if he had been into it would have arrived with the very best attitude but I don't know if he was into it wasn't into it didn't want to go to go and state house if he did want to is what I'm saying

right if it had been in his brain that she'd be my uncle I mean he didn't want to go to go this is why I disagree with you, House, is when's the last time KD was happy somewhere? 2016 Golden State. 17. Yeah, 16, 17 Golden State. That was the last full happy season. So the guy's just been perpetually unhappy.

Everybody remembers that last year in Golden State. People think this boon-hozer thing is out of left field. It's like, go look at that last year in Golden State. Like people think this Booth and Olsen thing is like out of left field. It's like, go look at the last year in Golden State. Like this guy was miserable. A lot of people described it as morose for an entire season for the best team in the league by far. Right. Obviously the Brooklyn thing blew up.

And look, I've kind of defended what Jimmy did because it's just like look you guys don't want to pay me After I basically overachieved my entire tenure here I'm blowing this thing up like it was ugly, but he got the right outcome for himself in his career He got his money in Golden State And now he's on a team that I think is as scary as anyone and it's specifically because they got Jimmy Butler the defense is taken another step and Jimmy is just seamlessly fitting to the offense, which I kind of thought would be the case because he played in a similar offense in Miami around, you know, Tyler here on Duncan Robinson, getting free

on the three point line. Now it's Steph Curry. Right. It's crazy. The other thing, it's so funny with basketball, you can just add one guy and the entire team slides into place, right? Like, now Moody is kinda doing a Wiggins impersonation

defensively, and he was really good the other night in that Knicks game. Pods, who had the ball too much, and they were almost using him as like a second playmaker, because they didn't really have another choice. Now he just is who he is, which is a guy on the side who can hit some threes and rebound and play hard. And then Draymond doesn't have to worry about anything

at all other than throwing entry passes to Jimmy or setting screens for Steph. And you feel, Rossella and I talked about it Sunday. It's like you can see, it's like a different human being, Steph now. Steph had weight of the world on his shoulders. Just looked like he'd played nine games in 10 nights every night.

And now he's skipping around. The way he played at MSG, and his little tweaked ankle, and he's just dancing and prancing the whole day, which was awesome. So, you know, it's funny, because we talked, I don't know how many months ago, about how this league was a prisoner of the LeBron Steph eras and they couldn't move on and create these new stars.

So now ironically, they might get these two. The thing to watch for me is can Golden State get into the four or five? Can they get OKC in round two? Cause I want to get them earlier than later. Um, and I think avoid that Lakers Denver combo. Let those guys beat the hell out of each other. Cause those are going to be tough matchups for them. But if they can play OKC, I know OKC is excellent

and they're a really good young team and they're having a great season. But Golden State OKC, they've already had awesome games. That's a team that I think Golden State feels like we can play with this team. And I just feel like if we end up, we could have a round two where we could have Celtics Knicks, we could have Lakers Denver and we could have Golden State OKC. Those would be three of the four series.

And I don't even know who the other. Super realistic. Yeah. And then it would be Cleveland against somebody crappy. Before we get to worst kind, and I'm sorry I may be a tangent to you, but am I the only one who thinks Cleveland is clearly the favorite right now? You are 100,000, 50 million percent the only one.

Okay. And I'm not buying this reverse jinx crap that Bill Shotton had. I'm not reverse jinxing anything. I'm not doing that. I wonder if we're going to sniff this out. We knew you were going to do this reverse jinx. Look, the Celtics went out to a 25 to 3 lead. I think that's for a reason. I think they are just a nightmare matchup for Cleveland because they get Cleveland out of their base offense, which is ball movement, quick hitting, all of that stuff. The Celtics being so switch heavy, it's just like, no,

Garland, you got to beat somebody. Donovan Mitchell, you got to prove that you're an all NBA caliber, shot creator, finisher. You got to beat somebody. It's going to be Drew Holliday. It's going to be Tatum. It's going to be Brown. They're going to force these guys to play in the one-on-one And I think they're gonna be fine like honestly It all depends on the health of the Celtics when those two teams get together. Yes, that will be it That's the most important thing for that matchup two things health. I Thought the Phillies Super Bowl really fucked me up pass

Well, you didn't have me on to help steer you, so there's no one to blame. You put one in your KC for that, Bill? You were in New Orleans eating fried oysters. I could've jumped on the phone. No, I've had a lot of regrets, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong with my Super Bowl pick, because my instincts are telling me,

Philly, I've talked about this, but I do wonder sometimes if hunger is the most underrated noun in sports. And that's what worries me about Cleveland versus Boston. As Boston plays hard, Tatum plays hard every night, the team gives a shit. But Cleveland hasn't been there before.

And every guy in that team, when they play the Celtics, it will be the most important two weeks of their life. And the Celtics can't say the same. And there's that little edge of like game seven at home, Donovan Mitchell with like, holy shit, I could actually make the finals. This is my moment right now.

The Celtics had that last year. Going back to back is really hard. The history of the NBA is like, this is the single hardest thing you can do in the NBA is win the second time in a row. And that's what worries me. The health, what am I getting from poor Zingas? What am I getting from Holladay?

And then this Cleveland team that just can play everybody 30 minutes a game or less. They have incredible depth, they have a bench, they have a huge lead. They're gonna play somebody absolutely shitty in round one. Right? Like, truly shitty. They have a huge lead. They're gonna play somebody absolutely shitty in round one. Right? Like truly shitty.

Whoever that eight, nine, that is gonna be a shit team. They're gonna get a sweep in that. They're just gonna be fresh in round two. And that's a real thing. So those are my concerns, house. Who would be the fourth seed in the East? I'm blanking. That would be-

Indiana, Milwaukee. Indiana. So I mean Milwaukee is playing better in Indiana. Detroit is making a push by the way. Let's not rule out Detroit. They had a tough loss last night. Why is this guy Schroeder has been really good eyes on the Pistons. That was a sneaky trade. I don't know why Miami didn't want him, especially when Terry Roger has died, as we're going to cover in the draft. I think I love sure. He's an on-ball menace.

He plays his ass off on defense. This guy really tries. He takes his matchup personal every single night. Obviously, he's a yapper and gets under the skin of every single one of his opponents. Oh yeah. Sometimes he's on teammates too, but that's neither here nor there. I just think he's a gamer, man. Me too.

And you know, every now and again he'll get you some buckets, blow-by guys, driving kit guy. He'll make his threes every night. Like, I've always been a Schroeder guy. They played him, he came off the bench yesterday, Hardim went nuts yesterday, and Schroeder kind of took him in the fourth quarter and was just doing a whole bunch of German Schroeder things on him and just defending him full court, annoying him and hard.

It was getting badder and badder. I think that Detroit team, that Detroit Knicks series is gonna be an absolute bitch for the Knicks. And I can't wait because they are gonna be trying to get in the fights, try, you know, shoving matches, get chippy. They're gonna try to work on towns.

They're gonna try to hit Brunson. They have, Waz, where do you, Rosilid I talked about this Sunday, Ron Holland, who's I think averaging an altercation every 10 minutes. Is he on your radar yet? He's a little Ron Artesti. He's on my radar. Obviously freaking Stewart, Beef Stew.

Beef Stew's number one now. Pretty much ready to rumble no matter who the opponent is. The guy almost murdered LeBron James two years ago. But yeah, Ron Holland is fun. I like that they haven't been afraid to throw him on the deep end, man, and just let him sort of figure it out. I think coming into last year's draft, people saw him as kind of the most sort of figure it out. I think coming into last year's draft, people saw him as like kind of the most,

you know, sort of physically, athletically gifted of the bunch, if not, you know, the most skilled and crafty. But I like what I've seen from him so far. I think he's been coaching these guys up. I really do. I agree. I like how feisty they are. Feisty team.

Okay. We're gonna take a break and then we're going to do the worst contracts draft house. Are you playing Fandual 30 on 30? Every time you put one out, I ride. Cause you can, you can cash in on betting with Fandual, Fandual America's number one sports book every Friday night, the ringer, we came up with this idea with them 30% profit boost boost if you pick a player

to score more than 30 points. And what's really fun is you can look at the matchups like we got tomorrow. You can look at like Phoenix, Denver. You can be like, oh, Joker's going off. That feels like a 30 pointer. Just grab his 30 on 30 and you're ready to go. Fandle the home for all your favorite profits,

whether you want to ride with my picks, cause I'll be making picks on Friday on Twitter or make your own. Just look for 30 on 30 in the Fandle sports book app or head to Fandle.com slash BS for your chance to score a bigger payout this Friday night. Make every moment more with Fandle. You must be 21 plus presidents. Select states are 18 plus president in DC where Joe house is Peter Schrager given DC a lot of love recently on this podcast opt-in required bonus issue

does not with trouble profit boost tokens restrictions apply including any token expiration max wager amount see terms at sportsbook.finder.com game prom called win 800 gambler visit rg-help.com this episode is brought to you by Miklobe Ultra, McLobe Ultra, a superior light beer in the ultimate trophy. Win or lose, you're bound to enjoy the ride with a good beer in hand. McLobe Ultra, crisp, refreshing, only 95 calories. A superior light beer. No matter the game's sport or season,

superior is worth playing for. Always be prepared for a win and order a McLobe Ultra today. Available on DoorDash, by the way. Enjoy responsibly 2025 in Iza Bush, McLoB Ultra, Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. It must be 21 plus to order alcohol. Alcohol available only in select markets. All right.

It's time. The worst contracts draft. I think this is our fifth one. It's either four or five might be the fifth one. And the rules are as follows. We go, we go in a, not snake fashion. We just go in a circle. Um, I'll read the, you have to say the contract or I'll say it after you pick the guy.

And the thing is you, it's almost like reverse NBA trade value. The worst contract in the league, the one you wouldn't want the most, the most untradable contract, the one that if you were a fan of the team, you'd be like, Oh my God. Um, and there's one clear winner this year. We'll see if it goes. How's did you want the first pick or you didn't? Because we have one wrinkle this year. Coaches and GMs are now eligible for the worst contract strap.

And in the coaches before in the GM case, Brad. We've done coaches before. In the GM case, we don't even know what the contracts are, but you can still take a guy. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Anyway, House or Woz? One of you can have it. You want the first pick, Woz, or do you want it? I'll go first. It's all good. It's so obvious. It's almost like a ceremonial first pick in the sense that we all know what the outcome is going to be. And it's got to be Bradley Beal of the Phoenix Suns. Oh, wow.

Wow. And that was not who I had on my board. Why does I have him fourth? No shot. And the reason why is we just went through this exercise. The sons were desperate to move this guy. They did all kinds of tactics. They tried to bench him to get him to remove his no trick. They tried everything to get this man off of their team. They had Jimmy Butler on hold, ready to go,

locked and loaded. They were gonna improve their roster. They ready to go, locked and loaded. They were going to improve their roster. They called everyone. It was not possible. This is an immovable. It's literally can't be moved. All right. This is an interesting case because it actually is untradeable.

And you so from a worst contract, you can't trade it. I don't know. I, he's winning me over house. You can't, not only can you not trade him? Okay, and like there was this sort of like I did it will Bradley bills still a you know a decent contributing play like the other Night the you know KB and blood game they completely took off after Bradley bills ass went to the bench and Right the so he's getting 50 million this year 53 million next year, and then 57, well, he

has got a player option. Yeah. Hold on. I wonder if he's going to take his player option. Shams is reporting. He's exercised it. Yeah. His player option is 57 million in 26-27, all while holding a no trade clause, which

means he basically has the franchise by the barrel. Okay. To me, this is still because of the two extra years, still the worst deal in the NBA. And I get it. There's other guys here that I'm like, wow, this is tough. But Bradley Beal to me is the worst. So I quite love it. And I'll just interject quickly quickly I think it would be fine if we wanted to rename this worst contract We just call it the Bradley Beal Memorial worst contract and just do it every year Name this for Bradley Beal like arguably one of the worst contracts in the history of bad contracts in the in the NBA We should name it after Andre Blatch

That was only $27 million. I know, but they gave him an extension and then amnestied him before the extension kicked in. We're never going to top that. That's never going to happen in the history of the league ever again. I begged for them to do that with John Wall when they gave John Wall the giant extension. That could be the John Wall too. The reason that Beale deserves this top billing is because he set two franchises back a grand

total of how many years? It'll be at least 14 to 15 years. If you add up the number of years that Washington is going to take to recover and be competitive and how long it will be before Phoenix is competitive again, that's truly amazing. You got to give it up to Tommy Shepherd for that one. Well, it's also funny that the way they got him was they, Chris Paul was in expiring, right? That they could have bought out after his next year.

And then they had Ayton who they wanted to get rid of. And they somehow turned that into Beal and then another guy who's gonna be in this worst contracts draft a little bit later. It was like they took two things where they actually would have had some flexibility and now they're just stuck. I just want to mention his last two years, he's averaging 18 a game with 51, 40, 42, 82 percentage splits. And on paper, you could go to basketball reference in 50 years and be like, badly, man, wasn't that bad? This contract's devastating. When do you think his last season playing 61 games was?

House would know this way. Right before the extension, right before, like, you know, it was before the extension. The 2018-19 season. There you go. Yeah. How many playoff games do you think he's played since he lost to the Celtics and before the extension. The 2018 19 season. There you go. Yeah. How many playoff games do you think he's played since he lost to the Celtics in the Kelly Olympic game? He definitely, we're also Westbrook single-handedly dragged the Wizards into the playoffs. So he played four games, um, as they got their asses swept in, in that series.

And then I don't know how many, what, he played? Three, four games for the Suns? He's played 15 total. Okay. So they're not making it this year. So that'll be eight playoff, 15 playoff games in eight years for Bradley. Anyway, a stunning number one pick, but I kind of liked it.

Bold. People tomorrow in the papers would be like, Big Waz, bold with his first pick. You know, and I gotta say, going through this list, there's just not as many horrific, scary contracts. I know, yeah, we didn't have the same depth. Yeah, I agree. Most of these contracts are like, eh, not that terrible.

Some of them you could be like, oh, it's kind of risky, but most of these deals, like even if a guy is slightly overpaid, it's not a franchise killer the way this Bradley Beale thing is. And I'm sure I'm pretty sure I know your next pick is going to be, but yeah, it's tough. How's your next pick? Well, this is so I respect Was cause he's a traditionalist. He went with the the og here

This this is an out of slightly out of left field But you know this this guy changed he altered the course of two franchises speaking of You know a five to ten year recovery window for one franchise and another franchise That's going to enjoy it should be at least another decade of prosperity. It's Nico Harrison. I mean, what Nico Harrison? I don't know how much money that man made. And I know that he is going to,

I hope he's beefing up on the current offering of Nike sneakers or whatever, because that man is going to return to the sneaker business. There is no franchise in the NBA that he can go to now. There are no more jobs for him in terms of a front office. How do you tell your fan base? Yeah well even quietly. Yeah we brought him in because he's got this with like no you know no no this is his last job in a front office and I keep looking for the definitive economic impacts.

Like nobody's done the soup to nuts of how much money it will cost the Dallas Mavericks. Just over the next five years, I think it's gonna take much longer than that for them to properly recover because of what happened to Kyrie. But it's very, at the very, very lowest conservative estimate, it is a

billion dollars. It is a billion dollars in diminished value for that Dallas franchise. When you think about the impact on revenue from, from attendance, okay, fine. All of that is, is getting walloped. The revenue that they're going to get there and over the air, uh, you know, in their local broadcast, they don't have a, a regional sports network that they're on. They switched that. How are they going to get advertisers to pay anything to for people? But Jersey sales, right. Merchandise partners.

How do you, how do you tell the, what are you going to tell those people? Uh, so on down the line, you can go through six or seven or eight categories. The ways the team make money, the way that the teams have cashflow walloped. Just take it right off. I think the ultimate economic impact is gonna be between a billion and a half and $2 billion. And think of how remarkable it is in this era where in every sport we look at them,

we say the best investment that a rich person can make is in a professional sports franchise because no franchise ever goes down in value Here he took the golden goose and turned it into a gold pile of shit That is the worst contract in professional Lord, we don't even know how much he makes and he's number two in the worst contract trap Yeah, I did something on my pot at the top on Tuesday and I was thinking about it. Because remember like when LeBron left Cleveland the first time and they would do those franchise

values every year and last year he was on Cleveland, they were like the number two team. And then a year later they were like 28th. And it was just they went from being like worth, I don't know, a billion point two to like being worth like 500 million. This is 15 years ago. Um, if Luka wins the title with the Lakers this year, you could argue Dallas might date like this might be a, they have to move in the middle of the night and go somewhere else, like just break leases.

Like, like who is the guy in the Colts? Ursay? Yeah. They just moved to Baltimore in the middle of the night and go somewhere else. Like just break leases. Like who is the guy in the Colts? Ursay? They just moved to Baltimore in the middle of the night one night? It might be a move in the middle of the night one night. I don't know how they recover. And the way sports is consumed now with all these little kids get attached to players

instead of teams. And all these kids love Luca. I don't know how they come back. Like why? This might be like a death blow. It's tough. I got to say, I've been one of the biggest, like, look, elements of wanting to move on from Luca were justifiable people in the media, right?

Like, there are elements to it where I'm like, I understand why a team would say, you know what, man, this guy is going to be problematic after we give him $350 million. The bottom line is trading for AD just, it's just, you just, you just had to do something more or better. Oh, you had to get twice as much in the trade. And then even then, I'm not sure. And, and, and then AD goes,

it's just like the way he framed it in the media was about availability. AD goes down immediately. the first game he plays Kairi's gone like he's gone Did you see kids thing do you see kids thing about he was he took real offense that people thought it was the Increased workload that that hurt Kyrie's knee and he's like it was a fluke injury. It was like dude We've been following the NBA our whole lives Like this is clay thompson going down the 2019 finals because he was playing like crazy minutes and doing some crazy Workload and then all of a sudden his his leg blew out like this is what happens in the league the more you put

On these guys the more likely it is they're going to break down dumb ass I have a question. I have a serious question because that, that trade was immediately followed by the Lakers trying to acquire Mark Williams and for whatever reason, having cold feet about that. And the reason when they backed out, they shook out a trade and backed out, because the first team of 15 years to back out of a trade was a smart back out. Let me ask them.

They used the physical. Dallas acquired a hurt player and then got him hurt. And somehow he passed the physical. So I would like to understand. Oh, I like this house. So the better move would have been to back out of the trade because of the physical, because of the reaction. But now you've lit a fire on DeLuca.

That would have been a better outcome. You've also sent open to the entire league the possibility that Lucas available. Let's see that auction. Let's see how the rest of the league responds to that. Let's have a proper. I thought there was a possibility. I put it in the text threads within the first 12 hours that there was a, this crazy Machiavellian play. I wish that that's what had come to pass. But what Dallas did is, is proved to all of us.

They showed their ass in terms of their inability to run very basic downside cases. Like here's the hope for outcome. Kyrie's awesome. AD's injury is behind him. We have all these giant guys. We're going to be good. And, um, we're going to really compete this year.

Then we have a window. But the downside case that any sensible like rational business person would conduct is what happens if 80s injury is is lingering or you know can't be overcome quickly. How does that impact you know the rest of the team? How does that impact directly Kyrie? What's our assessment of the injury risk to Kyrie going forward? Like what happened to Dallas is not extraordinary. It's the downside case. But now, now the rational basketball response, the only thing that would make sense and possibly win the fans back, they got to throw Nico into the bushes. They got a trade AD.

Nico needs to move. I mean, why AD. They have to get some move. Hey, I mean, why would he even want to stay in Dallas now? He's he should resign. Great point. Here's the thing. I'll make a prediction because we saw this in 2011 when Cleveland miraculously won the lottery the year after LeBron left. I just think Dallas wins the lottery.

Now I'm going to bet on it. Oh, I bet on a Fandel. Yeah, that's what's the lottery. No way. Yeah, I bet on it. No way. Dallas wins the lottery. No way. Yeah. Absolutely not. We got to save basketball at Dallas. Oh, they got Cooper Flank.

Everything's okay. You don't like this idea, House? Like a hundred to one odds? Well, I mean, gambling on it and it coming to pass are two different things. Of course I'll gamble on it. Go for that thing. I'm kidding. God, you took that.

You guys took that so it. I'm kidding. God, you guys took that so seriously. I'm up. I don't know how he's still on the board. It's very reminiscent of the 2014 NBA draft when he fell to three. Vince Carter was half man, half amazing. He's half man, half available. He's Joel Embiid. Five years, $299.5 million left.

By the end of this season, because he's been scratched for the rest of the season, 452 games played, 440 games missed. It's a very sad story. I don't mean to sound so excited talking about it. I'm just excited he was still on the board. I'm just going to read through his injuries, guys. In college, stress fracture in his lower back,

mismarched madness. Right before the draft, stress fracture, navicular bone in his foot, 2014. Rebroke the same thing, 2015. Left meniscus tear, 2017. Fractured orbital bone, 18. Finger surgery, 2020. Right meniscus tear 2017 fractured orbital bone 18 finger surgery 2020 right meniscus tear 2021 so we tore meniscus in both legs torn ligaments

right thumb 22 fractured same orbital bone 22 right torn lateral meniscus 23 there's two different meniscuses I guess and his right knee tore both of them Bell's palsy, 24. And then this year, they don't, they're not even telling us what the injury is. It's just left knee swelling management that now he's out. And what's weird is the left knee was the one that's only been operated on once, unless they're not telling us about one. And then the right knee, which isn't even the one that's having all the

swelling has two operations, four years left. It's, I, I, there's no way out of this. And we've seen with the big centers, like once you keep breaking down like this, there's really no path back. And maybe if there's a path, it's 50, 60 games. Brutal contract was, why did they do the extension? Well, wherever, will we ever figure this out? Why did they do the extension? Will we ever figure this out? Why did they do it? I think they did it because it's like,

before he went down last year, he was basically averaged 35 points. He was having the best scoring season since Michael Jordan, literally, in like 1988, right? And so the idea being like, look, when this guy was on the floor for us, he was amazing. And even in his limited capacity against the Knicks, he was pretty good.

So the idea is like, oh, he's going to get back to that form before he went down midway through the season. I think the problem for me and what makes this a justifiable pick is that guys go down and it's like, all right, he's got an ACL, he's got a PCL, he's got a broken fibia, he's got whatever, ankle, whatever. This is the problem. This is the procedure we're going to do. This is how long it's going to take for him to come back.

It's going to be fine. They can't even tell us what is wrong with his knee and what they're going to do. People are throwing out micro fracture surgery. Do they even still do that? Dude, that's how dumbfounded they are by what they can do to address the problem in his knee. And it feels like there's nothing left to fix. Yeah, but why? It's like-

They said, so they do the extension, but then Bondtaps writes that piece right before the season starts about how Philly finally has their plan to peak in the playoffs. And Embiid says, I'm never playing back to backs again for the rest of my career. That would have been my extension, Red Flag. Call me nuts to just add the three million, three years and 170 million to a contract I'm already worried about. House, from what you saw from Embiid in the Olympics, would you have given him an extension under any circumstances? about house what from what you saw from and beat in the Olympics would you have given him an extension? So I want to ask you, can you remind me you did this outstanding podcast with the executive

producer of white lotus, David, David, and add, and he described this phenomena. He said one of the best pieces of advice he ever got was from, I can't remember who the famous person was that gave him this advice. It had to do with, you know, you get inside of, was it the monkey cage? What was it? It was inside. Oh yeah. You can't get used to the smell of shit. You grow so acclimated to the smell of the shit that you cannot identify that there's a bad thing, that you're in a bad environment situation. So for me the problem with the Sixers goes all the way back to what I will

forever argue was an ill-advised and ill-conceived return to the playoffs by Embiid. He wasn't ready. He wasn't healthy. We know this was is right He had a 50-point game in the first game in Philadelphia. I went up there and watched it It was awesome but he also had many dramatic moments where he went down on the floor and stayed on the floor for several minutes and then went To the locker room and then came back minutes and then went to the locker room and then came back. That whole situation of him coming back to the playoffs and playing in under the highest leverage situation in the shape that he was in with his knee and the condition it was

in and then you go from that to the Olympics which are barely six weeks later and and even less than that when you consider the training and the USA team says look it's on the player you consider the training and the USA team says look It's on the player to make the decision about the players health and yeah We saw from him looked like a competent Joel Embiid now Well, he he had some impactful moments. He didn't look as explosive. No, they used his size really well But he you could tell he wasn't a hundred percent right. And so we come off of that and that's the moment when the extension is given after the Olympics. And Windhorse had a great story this week about some of the decision-making

and some of the... They went, you know, the Sixers talked to every single knee specialist in the world and got the input. By the way, that's a red flag. knee specialist in the world and got the way. That's a red flag. They wanted the assurance. The problem with the extension is what the fuck was the rush like? How about him just play the season, see what happens now? More, he said, then do a quote that Windhorse attributed to him was like, we didn't want to arrive in the summer of 25 and have the uncertainty,

the potential chaos of him going somewhere else. And my question is why the fuck not? Why not? He would have been 32 and had played 60% of the games in his career. Listen, I've known Darrell a long time. I think if there's a flaw with him, I think he wants to be liked by players. And we saw that with the, when the hardened thing fell sideways. And I just think he likes him bead and wanted to take care of them and, and

chose to see it as a glass half full versus a glass half empty thing. And I think the owners like him be too. And ultimately like that was what was so funny about last week when they're leaking out, like this was Darrell's fault. Darrell did this. It's like the owner makes the decision. Yeah. It's just stop.

It's that one person is signing that extension and one person is asking all the questions and getting all the answers for it. But it's a devastating, devastating contract now. Just so folks understand, let's just say presumably he plays three more years on this knee. In 28, 29, he's going to be owed basically $70 million.

Um, that's tough. There might be some like insurance wrinkles with this that, you know, cause we found out more info about Zion's contract as it, as the months came out. And there might be some wrinkles with this, but as of yet we have not heard of any. And this just seems like a straight $300 million for a guy who doesn't seem like he's going to be able to play that much. And his age 30, what'll that be? He'll be 31 next year.

Yeah. Yeah. If we were gambling on this before, like, what do you think is more likely? He retires in the next two years or he makes it to that third year of that contract? Oh, he's gonna make it to the yeah. He's he's not We have not seen the only person I've seen retire is Andrew Luck Yeah, like just walk away from money and that was seen like a more like I don't want to put my body through this anymore Okay, yeah, I'm going to retire before contract is up. He can't his his accountant will not allow it

Okay, you can't 20 games a season out of him. Hey, hey It is whatever I gotta do to make it to the finish line and listen look I think Joel and B. It is a bit of a tragic figure a Lot of a tragic figure. I mean everybody likes them. It's What it is really badly is just his body just straight up has not cooperated and that sucks. But at the end of the day, he's gonna have like $600 million in career earnings.

Yeah. And I don't feel that bad for the guy, you know? Right. Life is pretty good. House and I are old enough to remember doing this dance with Bill Walton way, way, way back when. Yao Ming, Greg Oden, Ralph Sampson. There's been a lot of big dudes that their bodies couldn't hold up because

just fundamentally it's really hard for a seven foot three person to run up and down a basketball court for nine months a year and jump up and down and land on things. You're, you're playing with fire. All right, we're going to take one more break and then we'll do the rest. All right, we're going to take one more break and then we'll do the rest. All right, come back. Was is up. There's one big kahuna still left on the board. This is the last obvious, this is just horrible contract, in my opinion, left in the league. This other ones that are like, all right, this is pretty bad, but this is like horrific.

And it's Joe Allen Bede's teammate, Paul George. I honestly thought these two could be one, two in the drafts. Horrific. And it's Joe Allen Bede's teammate, Paul George. I honestly thought these two could be one two in the drafts. No, easily. I think so. I think you can make arguments for both. We are in the situation with this worst contract draft where we have one guy who costs his team like a billion and a half dollars and another guy that costs his team $500 million and both of those franchises are looking at a decade of pure

F-ing misery coming up. Yeah. So Paul George is four years to 11.6. Three years after this one. Yep. Um, player option in 27, 28 for 56 mil. Probably opting into that one. Not retiring.

I couldn't figure out a way to look this up because I'm not smart enough, but when somebody drops six points a game, just fundamentally, when somebody goes from 22 to 16 and they played, they're like year 12 or later, it usually doesn't come back. I remember talking about this with Jermaine O'Neal 20 years ago. When you go from being a 24-10 guy or a 22- 22 11 guy and now you're like a 15 and nine guy It doesn't come back and that that would be my fear with paul george and I don't they said like something's wrong with this finger But it doesn't explain

The lack of explosiveness and so bad and and this is the thing I think we got to give cut darrell a break here a little bit in the sense that last year on the Clippers Paul George was an all NBA performer He was his the Clippers on-off numbers with Paul George on a both offense and defense He was he was their best player last year Yeah, um, he was a bona fide star NBA player last year and he's coming to the 70s 76ers environment, just turned into a pumpkin.

Like, I don't think we could have foreseen this, this. So we could have forced that house. This is one of those, we see this in sports. Sometimes the, you had to do it, but you didn't feel awesome about it as you're doing it signings. We had this argument in October when we were doing the over under pod me, you and Rossello, and I'm the only one that, that shows the over for Philadelphia. I owned it, but I did understand the thesis.

I understood all of the moves that Philadelphia made in their off season. It was a gamble. It was an all in all the chips to the center of the table gamble where that Philadelphia team on paper as we entered the season looked like it had the potential to compete. I'm not saying beat but compete with Boston. Boston is the standard. How can we get put guys around Joel Embiid? The whole thing revolves around Joel Embiid's health. That is you know obviously the the biggest part of the gamble but the other side of the gamble is that Paul George will show up.

The thing that the Sixers had done successfully in the two seasons leading up to this season is in those chunks of time that Embiid was missing, they could tread water. And they were able to tread water through the players that they had. Paul George was supposed to be the tread water character, but that dude showed up.

I will never, this will always be Paul George for me. And I hope when he gets into the hall of fame that they put this picture up as part of the montage for his legacy. Him putting his mouth on his wife's titty on a spring break, you know, during right before the All-Star, you know, the players that aren't involved with the All-Star game are off on their version of having a break. And that man has to go to put on his Instagram, his mouth on his wife's titty. That will forever be the Paul George moment for me.

That will forever, I'll always think of him under that context. That's it. That's it. Well, next year is year 16 for him in the NBA. Damn. Wow. The year after that will be year 17. And then the last year of this contract will be year 18.

Not feeling great about it. And he's another one that's had some physical stuff, right? He's got the rod in his leg and all kinds of things. Well, House, you're up in the... I think there's one prime time guy left here, but we'll see if you take him. Oh, interesting. Cause now I'm officially kind of having...

You feel like the draft is dropped? Yeah, I'm having a hard time. I think there's one good one left, but let's see. We can do... It's round two and House is already like flummoxed and can't figure who to pick. No, I'm not flummoxed. I know who I want to put in here and You know I'm prepared to take all of the slings and arrows. It's Scotty Barnes. I don't like the Scotty Barnes extension

I don't like it one bit they have this is the thing right and the reason why I'm putting him in at this moment I know what I'm gonna take from from from Toronto the bullets. I'm about to take from from the Raptors But somebody proved to me that he is not Zach Levine. Somebody proved to me that he is not Trey Young. The problem with paying a guy that's not ready to be the leader of the team. And look, you can say he's been hurt. Well, yes, he's been hurt. He's only in the fourth year of his NBA career. I don't want guys that are missing chunks of time the way that Scottie Barnes is missing time now.

Well, can we give the contract because he's on the last year of his rookie deal, which is 10 million. Next year, we're kicking in five years, two 24. So you're not, you're not a fan. Well, it's his worst year shooting percentage wise of his entire career. So I've been saying this for a while and the Toronto fans get mad. I'm not against Scotty Barnes becoming potentially a guy, but they've been, he's been treated from day one like he's a future franchise guy. Remember he wasn't in the KD trade. Yeah. And I got yelled at a few years ago because I said he wasn't... Remember, he wasn't in the KD trade. Yeah, and I got yelled at a few years ago because I implied that he wasn't the next

Kawhi Leonard. People thought I was insane and kept saying, look at his rookie stats compared to Kawhi's. I'm like, guys, this is not... I think Scotty Barnes is a really good player. Me too. I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one... You go really good? I think he's a good player.

I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one. You go really good? I think he's a good player. I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one option. I think around the right circumstance where he would be de-emphasized and just kind of just solely allowed to focus on his strengths and not, you know, firing up threes on a regular basis. Controlling the ball at the end of the game. It's a little bit, yeah.

It's that Iguodala-Philly situation, right? Where it's like, all right, you're not really a number one guy, but if you're a number three guy on an awesome team, you might be awesome. Tell me when he will make his first all-NBA team. Hey, he made the All-Star team last year, House. He's an NBA All-Star.

All-Star. So he's knocking on the door theoretically on all-NBA. The great theory. I've never been the biggest Scotty Barnes person, All-star. So he's knocking on the door theoretically on all NBA. The great theory. I've never been the biggest Scotty Barnes person, but I don't see his contract as like some kind of death knell to Toronto's future. I think some of the team building, the actions they've taken in that direction, I think are highly problematic.

But I don't think Scotty Barnes is like some horribly overpaid. I love it. House has replaced Trump as the number one enemy of Canada. I love it. I put him where I put him because we've seen this this song and dance before. It's good.

And you warned us about Bradley Beale. You've warned us about guys in the past. Scotty Barnes averaging 28 and six. He's shooting 27% from three and the team loses. It's the worst shooting percentage. So here's what I compare Scotty Barnes to. I compare it to the deal that Wiggins got off of his rookie extension. Where Glenn Taylor said that, well, Andrew Wiggins promised me that he was gonna

work his ass off in the off season, and so I gave him the max contract extension. Like, he hasn't put it on the court that he's worked at, but he promised me, he gave me his word. I think if Scott, I think, I look at his deal like that, like you look at the talent, where they drafted him, the idea that they're just not gonna give him, you know, a max extension, I think would have been problematic for their management and I'm like in a few

years can Scotty Barnes be the finishing piece even at a slightly inflated or an inflate of vastly inflated according to Joe Howe's contract could he be help a winner like elevate their situation the way Wiggins did for the Warriors I think he could potentially. That's why I'm not so, so down. When he's a fourth banana. Okay. I'll, I'll, I'll keep my eye on it.

When he's a million dollar fourth banana. There you go. There we go. I just came back from, from the grocery store. It's not that far off. I'll tell you. He, he turns 24 in August. Listen, they need him to be a number one guy if they're going to pay him that kind

of money. And I don't know how else to find him. I like the pick. You used history. Some, I think this young guy might be a max guy. So I'm giving them a max when there's no actual evidence. He's a max guy and look at his stats and his basketball reference page is really good.

We have seen this go wrong many times. I like the way you can see too. Well guys, I feel like I've already won the draft. I got Joel Embiid with the third pick. Kawhi Leonard still on the board. I don't know. What are you guys doing? Kawhi Leonard, three years, $149 million.

He's played 20 games this season. He's played 249 games in six years for the Clippers. He's played 15 playoff games Yeah, what is he Cal Ripken jr. All the sudden what is happening? You know, it's so funny bill is that when I looked I looked at Kawais contract But I looked at it next to Paul George's and I was like And plus like he's been playing so well recently. I'm like, ah. But you're right, though. It is what you've heard these days.

I watched last time, and it's like, there's Kawhi during a timeout wearing a jogging suit. And second, I guess he's not playing. He just straight up does not play. And that's what makes the deal. Never know if he's going to play. You go to a Quipper game, it's like, oh, Kawhi's warming up. He's going to play.

This is great. I'll confess. I might have a little softer view on Kawhi's warming up. He's going to play. This is great. I'll confess. I might have a little softer view on Kawhi because at the end of the day, I think that, um, everything that Clippers have done with him has been part of the wildly successful arrival of the Intuit Center. I think what Ballmer did was try and create a credible product, not an incredible product, a credible product. And the way that he did that was he used Kawhi as the vehicle.

It has been a gross overpay from really the, the, ever since he arrived from, from the Raptors, each of the,, the two extensions were gross overpays, but for the purposes of what the Clippers are trying to the identity that they're, you know, they, they want to be relevant and the risk of him, you know, not being available was kind of worth it. Risk. It's the fact of him not being available. So the case for, the case for this contract, they had a really fun Lakers game a couple nights ago.

And Kawhi played, played 40 minutes, 13 for 23, 33 points, 10 rebounds, and looked like he was every bit as good as Luke and LeBron. And that's why he did. Now, if you saw a tweet tomorrow and it's like, Kawhi Leonard has been shut down for the next three weeks, wouldn't be surprised at all.

And that's why for 50 million a year. I gotta put him on there. 249 games in six years for the Quippers is nuts. Waz, you're up. My next contract is like this, I feel like this contract goes under the radar because this franchise is just known for ineptitude basically.

But it doesn't get talked about enough. And to me, this contract just signals like everything this franchise is about. And it's Patrick Williams of the Bulls. I had him on my list. Interesting. Like this dude is going to make $18 million per year until 2029.

And like, he's never been good. He's not good now. And like what there was no reason to do this Like they who are they competing against five years 90 million for Patrick Williams He's a good nice man guy has been theorized. It's like oh look at the body and the 3nd and it's just never ever Materialized and it's just what the Bulls do. Nothing they've done. Aside from finally, thankfully, moving on from Zach Levine makes any sense whatsoever. But are we even sure that they're even going down the rebuilding path? We don't even know if that's the case, man.

But like the Patrick, as soon as they inked this, it was like, what are they doing? Like, why would you do this? The Bulls are your guy in your fantasy league, your friend that you haven't talked to in 12 years who doesn't really make any moves. And then every once in a while, we'll spend $58 in the free agent auction. And you're like, oh, there he is.

It's like, he's trying to finish sixth place. What's this guy doing? He just likes being in the league. He likes being on the email threads. They're embarrassing. I had Patrick Williams too. He's 26 minutes a game somehow this season averaging 37% From on field goals house and I've never I just don't get it when I watch them

He doesn't really jump out of the TV. There seems like there's 20 guys like him I don't know why you'd pay him. I think five years from 50 would have been Kind of the same. I don't get each dude for this season. He's shooting 37 and a half percent. You can't shoot Guys How's your ass crazy it's time to have the Terry Rogier Two years 51.5 million left for Terry Roger. Look at on the face of it, 25 million bucks for a shooting guard that's capable of being a prolific scorer.

It's okay. The problem is we have a sizzle reel from this season that shows him actively, actively undermining the ability of the Miami heat to win basketball games. It looks like he's completely lost his ability to play basketball. Cause I looked at, I looked up when they made the trade last year, cause I remember thinking like, Oh, getting Terry Roger for what they gave up like a first for him.

I would much rather do that than give all the shit you had to give up for Dame Lillard, which included Tyler Hero. Right. So when they traded for him last year, he played 30 Charlotte games, 23.2 points a game. Yeah. Thirty six percent from three. Yeah. And and was playing awesome and was like crunch time.

He was a good player. I thought Miami made a great pick up. Yeah. This year, his stats are almost half. He's 11.8 points a game. He's shooting 40 percent, he's shooting 29 percent from three. And eye test wise, he might be the worst rotation guy in the league. And I don't know what happened and there's lots of theories floating around, not hard

to find, but you know, it really seems like whatever there might be a scandal with him, there might not with some of this betting thing, but it really seems like it, it sent him into an absolute tailspin, but they keep playing him as the part I don't get house. I wonder, you know, we can theorize about stuff that doesn't take us into uncomfortable territory. about stuff that doesn't take us into uncomfortable territory. No team in the NBA has more double-digit leads that they've coughed up in the fourth quarter than the Miami Heat. And I, on the Ringer Gambling podcast just this past Monday, said one of my favorite betting strategies over the last couple weeks, and will be until the end of the season is to find situations where Miami has a

lead going into the fourth quarter and watching them cough it up. Um, they down the stretch in the last six minutes of the game have no apparent game plan. It's ISO to hero, but Rozier's contribution to that. And again, who knows? I wonder if they quietly went to him and we're like dude We're really not trying to make the playoffs Well, so no, they're the seventh seed right now 29 and 32 Orlando's 29 34 Atlanta's 28 34 so they could fall to the 9 seed pretty easily if they wanted to

I don't shock it seems like they want is they are a bottom half of the league from a talent standpoint. The weirdest thing to me that I, that I think helps your theory house is why they didn't want Schroeder. Why don't they want him? Great point. Like they, they actively try to not keep him in the trade. It's like that guy actually would have been a really fun heat that

would have helped you and now instead you're playing Terry Roger. I don't, I've never seen some, somebody who is not past this prime. Right. He was, I think he was, I'm going to say he's 30. I've never seen somebody crater. He's 31 on St. Patrick's day. I've never seen somebody crater where last year you're watching going, man, Terry

Roger, could he make the all-star team to this guy is now the worst rotation guy in the league, good pick house. I feel really bad with my next pick. Does it make me feel good? I almost want to take a shower after he's somebody I did not like for a long time. And he really won me back over the last couple of years. I really respect him.

I really feel bad for him. I feel for him. And this is bad for him. I feel for him. And this is way too soon, but I have to take Kyrie Irving. He only has two years left at 84.9 million. He's not playing this year and I don't think he's playing next year. Wait, is this what the extension and Nico Harrison is going to eventually give him this summer? Well, regardless, he's, if he can't if he cut this is this these Kyrie the ACL injury when it happens at this point of the season

It's usually a season and a half season is done. We saw it with Jamal Murray in football You can come back in less than a year and basketball. It doesn't seem like you can So basically he's not gonna play again on this contract and I feel bad But I don't see a worse contract left than two years 84.9 for a guy who can't play. So not his fault. But it's a tough one. It's tough.

And again, I think Dallas was good. They were basically gonna be over a barrel this summer. And have to probably give him a max extension for four years, which would have been kind of insane. With a lot of scary history for smart guards. And so maybe that'll be a mitigating factor in the next deal. But yeah, he's not playing next year. Wait, you're saying that a team owned by Patrick Dumont, who just traded the most popular guy

in the history of the franchise since Dirk DeWitsky and then, and then talked all kinds of leaky shit about him after they traded him would do something shady. It's tough. He said he wanted them to exhibit the work habits of one Shaquille O'Neal. That was, that was tough. Am I up now?

You're up now. Go ahead. So- Actually, let's take one more break and then you're up. All right. Let's go speed round from now on. Waz, you're up. Who do you got?

This is kind of easy for me, to be honest. And it's Brandon Ingram, another guy who nobody, they tried to trade this guy for two straight years. Basically, David Griffin was like, bro, we're not paying you a penny over your current salary. Like, it's not going to happen. They fought and they fought and fought. Nobody would take this guy. Golden State needed a forward.

It wouldn't take him. It was like, no, thank you. Everybody said no, thank you. And then of course, like the Raptors, for reasons I still don't understand, traded for the guy, gave him the extension, three years, $140 million. And then, you know, right after my guy, Jake Fisher is like, yo, they're probably going to trade RJ Barrett next summer. Like, what was the point of this?

I don't get it. He's not a fit next to Scotty Barnes. He never plays any defense despite, you know, the physical tools and the profile. He's always just been a kind of like, give me the ball, let me cook, and not gonna elevate a single thing around me. Hates taking spot up threes. I don't understand the trade. I don't understand this deal.

I don't understand what Masai Ujiri has done basically since 2019. To be fair, it's three years, $120 million extension. 120, sorry, not 40. And it's still years, $120 million extension. $120 million, sorry, not $40 million. And it's still awful because that's $40 million a year for a guy that New Orleans could not trade for a solid year as an expiring contract.

I love it because it's a confession about how they feel about Scotty Barnes. So it's wonderful. It feels like it validates Scotty. Oh, it's a win for house. Yeah, it feels like an extra win for me. Also, I love putting a worst contract on here that hasn't officially kicked in yet. I think kudos to everybody involved.

It's on its way. Musai Uheri, who, remember there was that moment when it was like, could the Knicks just turn over the entire franchise to him? Is this guy the next, see the next guy? And he did a great job with the Raptors in the 2010s, but holy shit, the last five years, I disagree with basically everything they've done. I just don't understand it. How's your up? Um, this one, I understand the controversy surrounding it. I have to go put a bright light on Jamal Murray because

an enormous, an enormous, enormous contract for a guy. Remember where we are with him in terms of his injury situation and his execution. Our recency bias will tell us this guy is a mad killer when he's healthy, but the dude's only been healthy for about six weeks now And I adore him next to Joker. I want to be very plain about this very clear I love the contribution of Jamal Murray to the Denver Nuggets I'm very excited to see how this playoffs shakes out But his injury history classic does to that to history classic what he does to that to

that franchise what he does to that franchise when he can't play it it it it ruins an all-time historical figure in in the Joker it takes so much off the table with the Joker so when you're staring at it says five years two hundred and forty three million dollars that's a big that's a big gamble that's So when you're staring at it says five years, $243 million. That's a big gamble. That's all I wanna say. That's a big gamble. First of all, classic house, backhand a compliment,

talks about what a great fit he is, then complains about the contract. The extension was four years for 207.8 that kicks in starting next year. I'm personally fine with it. I had him way later in the draft. I had him way later in the draft. You have to pay the money. You have to. He definitely made my list, but it's like you're the Nuggets. This guy's been a part of the greatest team in the history of your franchise. You drafted the guy.

They love the guy. If the Nuggets make another finals run or two, I think this is completely justified to keep the era going and all that. But I'm not going to lie, House, some of these Jamal Murray box scores to start the season, definitely my eyebrow was raised for a while. The performance between Canada and the goddamn Olympics, that was scary stuff for me. But as of lately, he's dropping 50 on guys.

He's looking spry. I love it. I'm feeling more confident. That was scary stuff for me. But as of lately, he's dropping 50 on guys. He's looking spry. I'm feeling more confident. But it's scary when you think about his injury history. I think House has moved into the clear number one spot for a guy who's gonna take the most shit online from this draft and I can't wait for it. I'm gonna redo the salary years for my pick.

Yet another great pick. I feel like I'm dominating the draft now. Um, 43.8 to $7,587 this year. So almost 44 million this year. Three-year extension kicking in for 109.5 million next three years. That's right. The Stifle tower himself. Rudy Gobert. I had him circled.

This is a really interesting one. They had him at 43.8 this year and 46.6 next year. And they thought they would get all smart. They were like, hey Rudy, let's wipe out that player option for the 46.6 and we'll give you the three years 109. And then we'll turn Carl Anthony Towns into D'Fincenzo and Julius Randall. And it's a re-allocation of money. It's going to be great. So Rudy Gobert, who is having the worst statistical season he's had. Is it fair to say he is unplayable

in a Lakers series, an OKC series, and a Golden State series? I don't think so. I don't think that's a fair characterization. You think he sees the court in a Lakers series? You think he sees a fourth quarter in a Lakers series with Luca and LeBron in the game? Yes. 100%. I think so. I think Rudy was the anchor of By Far The League's best defense last year. He was keen to beating Joker in the playoffs. I mean, it was a trio, but Rudy played a major part in sort of like keeping

Joker contained. They win that in a dog fight, you know, seven game series. And then he got played out the court by Luca Dantzsche in the next series. They justify it by saying, look, $35 million, that's probably the going great for starting centers. This guy's always been an Ironman in terms of playing, takes his conditioning and his body really super seriously to stay on the court. I understand the pick, Bill. I think he's-

But why is that, that's not why they did it. I would be fine if that's why they did it. They did it because of the money, because they are worried about how much money they're paying. They didn't want to pay Towns what he was paying. And they looked at it as like, we can get off this Randall deal, hopefully next year, cause we'll have an awesome season for us. So go into free agency.

Guess what? Julius Randall will be opting into the $32 million next year. So they didn't get out of that contract. D'Franciso they're going to lose. And now they're stuck with Rudy for three more years. And, uh, I don't know, man, they're going to lose Naz read now. Naz read is gone. Like he's done.

He's leaving. They can't keep him out. There's no chance they keep him. He is going to New Orleans. He'll go to Brooklyn. He could go to your Washington wizards. He's going to be making $35 million a year next year and it will not be in Minnesota. I think that Minnesota is going to be making $35 million a year next year and it will not be in Minnesota.

I think that Minnesota is going to find a way to keep him. I think that there's off season. Yeah. Dinner. That's great. Yeah. Dinner bet. I mean, he will not be on Minnesota next year.

It's not happening. He's not, he's not happening. Well, well look, I mean, you, you just went through, they moved cat. Nobody had that on their radar for money saving purposes. I think they understand the value. We'll see it in the playoffs. I think the Naz read is going to make such a compelling case over the course of these playoffs.

Uh, if Minnesota goes anywhere, honest to God, my favorite matchup of the entire first round is Oklahoma city, Minnesota. I pray to God that we get that as our opening ground in that thing. And, and the, the toll it's going to take on Oklahoma city sets up that, that match up against potentially golden state in the second, God is so juicy. But to go back to the point around Nas read and Rudy go bear, if the go bear extension was for the purposes of, uh, you know, does it make them more palatable as a trade asset?

Eh, but they have to do something to keep Naz read. And I think Naz read will stay with Minnesota. What do you think Wes? I think Rudy is going to stick around. Um, the idea that they had a three center rotation last year is just an anomaly. Like you can't keep three centers who are basically paid their market value on your roster when all of them are basically kind of started calibers.

So I don't know, I think they figure out how to make the Nasri thing works. I'm just not as disgusted by the Rudy deal. And I guess I've kind of become a Rudy convert, man. I just think a lot of the stuff he does gets a little bit underrated. I can't believe this. He's expensive, but I'm not.

I'm gonna be texting you guys when he's sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter of a Laker series, watching Lebron and Luca run pick and rolls. Waz, you're up. By the way, Julius Randall's still available. Another one I take no joy from this, but Dejante Murray, after this year,

he's got three years at about 32 per, coming off of an Achilles injury. And it's just, it's tough. You tear your Achilles, that guard, and you're like, one of your main strengths is basically your athleticism, your shiftiness. I'm not seeing it for him. And the deal is tough.

I think this is going to end up being a bad deal for New Orleans, man. Four for 114 for him. I mean, it could be worse. They could have traded Dyson Daniels in the... Oh, wait. House, you're up. It's mandatory if we're doing a worst contract draft.

We've mentioned his name once, but he has to officially be a selection is Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons has to be the Ben Simmons buyout. You just take it anyway. OK, yeah, you can't have a draft and talk about bad contracts.

Rossello sent a hilarious text this week watching him on the Clippers, just making an observation around what seemed to be Ben Simmons instincts for passing the ball some of like it's just hard to really thread the needle in terms of what he was trying to accomplish where the ball was going yeah it's an honorary pick for Ben Simmons for me at this stage. I like it. Um, you know, I'm upset that Patrick Williams is gone cause this is right where I thought I

was going to be able to get him, but he's not a, he's not on the list anymore. Um, I gotta do a manual quickly. We gotta go back to the Raptors. Wow. I gotta do it one more time. He's in the first year of a deal that pays him five years 162.5 million. And I kind of like Emmanuel quickly. Like he's 38% from three. He's instant offense off the bench.

But his destiny on any good team, on an actual good team, would be a sixth or seventh man, a bench scorer, instant offense. That's how you'd want to ideally use him. And you don't pay 30 plus million dollars a year for a guy like that. You pay like 14 million dollars a year. You pay, the Celtics are playing Peyton Pritchard seven million a year.

They're paying him. He's on the opposite of a bad contract. That's an Amazing contract they got for Peyton Pritchard right now, right? Right that would be doing the best contracts That's what he'd be up there for sure. I just it's just too much money if it was five for 100 I'd be like, all right, I guess but when you're talking about That much and now you're basically locked into Barnes and Ingram and quickly as your three expensive guys where the fuck are you going at that point what what do you think's gonna happen wait you're gonna win 38 games like what I just I honestly do not understand what Toronto is doing

anyway Waz you're up uh this is pretty easy for me and it sucks, but it's Grant Williams. This guy has three for 41. Yes. And he's just not an NBA player anymore. Straight up doesn't play. Just just he's just done. He's well, he he blew out his knee. But you're saying next year, next year, he's even when he was was playing and he was getting ticked this season. It was pretty disastrous Um, this was another he was another Nico Harrison sort of unearthing

Just never never panned out. Um Yeah, Grant Grant Williams, I think he's done. All right house I think he's done. All right house Am I allowed to do a combo deal because these guys to me fit this the exact same profile and they are also in this In this gamble phase, do I would you be able to take two picks in the same pick? Oh, I don't know. Okay. All right, then I'll choose Zion because you know You can know you can imagine who the through the foil would be who the other guy's name is what I'll say But I won't say it. He could still be a viable pick.

You know, we need proof that Zion can play basketball for us. I didn't know where to put him on the board because he technically has four for 163 left, but they have all these different outs for games played, for weighing him, and it seems like a moveable contract. I also think teams would have traded for it in February if they had put it out there. And I don't think they, I know teams kick the tires on it. I'm positive. And I think New Orleans was like, no, we need, but maybe this summer we could see something. He's looked good in a couple of these games though. I did too. I wanted to work.

Okay. Well I to work. Okay. Well, I need a wet guy. And this is very similar to what I just laid out with Emmanuel quickly. Grayson Allen at four years seventy million to basically be my ninth man. Like, yeah, he's shooting forty three percent from three. million to basically be my ninth man. Like, yeah, he's shooting 43% from three. He's Sam. He's Sam Hauser. He's in that kind of level of like those white dudes, the calves have.

There's a bunch of these guys and guess what? None of them are making 17, 18 million a year. They're all making like three. They're making four. They're making two. They're making, oh man, we found this guy in the waiver wire. They're not making like three they're making four. They're making two they're making. Oh man. We found this guy in the waiver wire They're not making this so congratulations Matt. Ishby. You did it again. I mean he's making Austin Reeves money. Yeah Yeah, that's crazy. He's making more than Austin. He's making more than awesome

You brought up awesome means cuz fuck the Spurs again for not making an offer that summer. I said it that whole month and everybody's like, why are you just saying this because you want the Lakers to lose them? It's like, no, I'm saying because Austin Reeves is good and he should have gone. Now that's somebody if he got a quickly deal, I would have been like, all right, a little high but I would do it. Waz, who do you have? I don't want to draw the ire of this fan base but for me it's the bonus.

I'm sorry. I love when you do this. You do this every year. This guy is just overpaying. I think the team's limitations are based on their commitment to this dude playing center where just like straight up you cannot guard the pain. Chous and Doug Christie's changed up the game plan to make it just straight up everybody just packs the pain and we allow teams to shoot The reason now that's it. We cannot guard the pain with the monitor bonus at Center And they just committed to it and I get it. He gets rebounds. He's a great guy I get it all of that. But like this guy is just not Worth what they're paying him to not worth what they're paying him. So they're paying him four for 186.

It's year one of the new extension. Listen, if you're another team and you've identified some bonus as somebody you want, why? Why do you want him at that number? Because I want to win 43 games. Okay, Thank you. I think there's a world where you could build an awesome team around him, but I think it's really hard.

Like you really have to put a lot of thought into every other player in that roster because he does have some limitations, but you're right. Like he's like the center version of Ben Simmons would have panned out. Wow. Every year, Subotus just takes strays from us. He really does. Who do you have House? I'm going back to an old favorite of mine. This guy is near the end of his career doing a very distinguished job of helping franchise, you know, with a tremendous talent, you know, try and see the best outcome. This is Damian Lillard time This play well lately well, I agree

161 for Dame Lillard the problem is is the amount that's left on this contract at his age and the history in the NBA of Guards with his profile being effective. It's just really the end of the year thing I said up front that I am I'm glad that he's playing well because I'm glad for Milwaukee to be good. I'm pissed at Milwaukee. And our guy Doc. Doc's gonna get to play golf at Bel Air with Doc. We got a praise name in Lillard.

For saying nice things about him. Now you pissed off another fan base. Well I don't think so because he's doing all that he can do. He's playing well. 161 is 161 is a gop and wait for the playoffs. That's all I'll regret this in the playoffs up now I I'm trying to put it in the right category. I he's gonna be good the Milwaukee. I'm pissed in Milwaukee

I honestly think the porters drug thing was a bummer But if I don't think they should have traded Milton. They've taken off since he... I know that they needed, you know, some cap savings and that Kuzma is a live body, but I will tell you come playoff time without any reservation or hesitation, a moment will come and Kyle Kuzma will have the f-ing ball at that moment and it is going to go badly. It's going... Chris Middleton, I trust. Kyle Kuzma, I do not. Best of luck to the Bucks.

For my next pick, first of all, House has won the draft for pissing off the most fan bases. He locked it up two rounds ago. The Hawks is not going to be pissed. Oh yeah, don't be mad. The Dane fans. There's a whole Dane line. I can't believe this guy's still available. Three years, 66 million. Contavious Caldwell Pope. It's been a rough year in Orlando, man. Leaves Denver, Christian Brown comes in, is immediately like twice as good as he was. Goes to Orlando.

Oh my God, twice as good, come on, man. Hear the stats, 60 games, 8.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, congratulations on all that. 31% from three. He's rocking the 9.0 PER. Not what he's brought in to do. And he's playing 30 minutes a game and you could argue, if anyone playing 30 minutes of more a game, he might be the least useful player. And I know there's good, look, he's a good defensive player, there's metrics, but.

Great locker room guy. Great locker room guy, all that. But I promise you they were looking for more than what he's given them this year with this contract. So he is my pick. Waz, who do you have? Aw, man, now I'm starting to get into guys that I really actually like as players.

Now that's part of the draft. This is tough. I think the Jalen Green deal is a tough one. Just the up and down inconsistent nature of his game, man. Two weeks he's up, three weeks he's down. Well, can we give the deal one for 12? Yes. And then next year three for 105 as an extension.

Which would have played at the end of it. And by the way, good content for us because he's going to be in 58 percent of the fake trades we make in June. Yeah. I'm guessing. We try to get them a superstar. When we get to a David Booker and we try to, it's like, well, Jalen Green will be in it. And I think the ultimate indictment of Jalen Green and the deal is that Fred Van Vliet

goes down and the offense just goes into the tank because they don't have a creator who can effectively get them into decent offense. And it's like Jaylen Green, like you're right here. Like you should be stepping up here. He cannot create anything for anybody else. That would be the criticism. I really like Jaylen Green. Yeah.

There was a moment last year when it really felt like it all came together and I have not seen it. It was waiting. House, you're up. I can't believe this guy is still available, to be honest with you, and I'll take the criticism for some of my earlier picks, but Andrew Wiggins is still on the board. Look at this contract, and please tell me the next time

that you think that he is going to play 60 games in an NBA season, please, please tell me the next time that you think that he is going to play 60 games in an NBA season Please please tell me the next time you think that that's gonna happen. He's at 49 games right now. He played 49 games last season. He is living off of a contract That was a reward for helping the Golden State Warriors Totally reasonable no, you always forget to say the contract three years 85 million the golden state warriors totally reasonable. No problem. You always forget to say the contract three years, 85 million. That counts this year. That's a lot.

It's a lot of money left for a guy that looks like he's lost some interest in his interest in basketball has always been kind of an open question except for the championship year. Everyone's getting groggy. We're nearing the end of the draft and, uh, I haven't really pissed off the fan base yet. And I also haven't made was laugh hysterically with a pick yet. And I think this is going to be it.

It's the most controversial pick of the late rounds. I got to do it. Four years, 163 million. Jammer. And stop it. Get Morant. Stop it. Get the hell out of here. Listen, it's in the draft. I'm just trying to get value.

I'm just trying to get value. Why doesn't he play? They're conserving his body for the postseason folks. Chill. What's wrong with your shoulder now? What's going on? When I asked for permission to combine players, I wanted to do Zion and Ja together. Because to me, they fit the same kind of like, when is Ja gonna be able, like if the idea with him over his entire career will be to preserve him for the playoffs, then what does that do for your team? You're paying...

He's 25. What are we preserving him for? He should be playing every game. He can't. There's no proof that he can. But he is... This year he's played 38 games this year. He played nine games last year.

He plays 29.4 minutes a game. He doesn't even play 30 minutes a game. They're conserving him. They're being very conservative. And they're kid gloves bubble wrapping him. And now, game. He doesn't even play 30 minutes a game. They're conserving him. They're being very conservative. And they're kid gloves bubble wrapping him. And now, yesterday he didn't play well and he's like, I don't know if my shoulder is gonna be good the rest of the year.

So now I have a fundamental shoulder issue on top of all the other baggage. Like, look, there's 10 teams that are paying him that contract without blinking. I'm just flagging it. We're near the end of the draft. The contract, the numbers are pretty high for somebody who doesn't seem like

he's gonna play all the time. Okay, not mad at it. Who do you got, Wes? This hurts me, because he's one of my favorite players in the league, but it's OG Ananobe. Oh. That Kananjira is so big.

I was wondering when he'd go five for 212. It's a huge deal with a guy who has an extensive injury history, especially muscle injuries, which tend to happen with a lot of over usage, which newsflash, he plays for Tom Thibodeau. Ask Luel Dang about that. I love watching OG play. I love his approach to the game, but this is so much money for a guy who doesn't create his own shot ever. He's not some great distributor.

It's like, man, this is a lot. And he's a very good defender, but I will also say that Tatum and Brown aren't exactly quaking in their boots when they see him. And that was one of the reasons they did that thing. I'm with you. He's the, for the injury issues with him that always are lingering. 212 is a scary number. House, I'll give you one more pick.

Thank you. Uh, and I want to say this name so we can have a quick conversation about him. I'm going to draw a distinction between him and Scotty Barnes. I'm taking LMelo Ball here. And the distinction that I want to make is... See, this is where the draft gets great. John Marino, LaMelo Ball. I love it.

But here's the distinction. I think LaMelo Ball could definitely make an all-NBA team. And it could be like right around the corner. It's just not going to be in Charlotte. And I don't really quibble with Charlotte paying him this contract. I think it is commensurate with his talent, but his talent, he is a loser. He's a serial loser. You mean a loser of games, not an actual Cuban loser.

Correct. Correct. There is no proof to the contrary. He's never played basketball in this situation, a serious situation where his team has been a winning. Where his team has been high-fiving and shaking hands and celebration after games. After games? It's a unique experience for him. For missing the winning component.

Good win. I can't believe we won seven games in a row. It's never been said. With his talent, if he can stay healthy, another guy who can, you know, we keep seeing this, these nagging ankles here and there, but his talent is such that if he was. With the right situation with the right coach, this would be an incredible contract potentially. Cause I think he is supremely talented and I like his swag. It just needs to be redirected. So in this circumstance with this team, tough one, I don't think it's bad money, but you know what? I'll take his career over Scotty Barnes and everybody from Toronto can go ahead

and send me poop sandwiches. I'm fine with it. I'll recap the draft before I make the last pick. Was took Bradley Beale to kick us off. House took Nico Harrison. I took Joellen Bede. And then it went Paul George, Scotty Barnes, Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Williams, Terry Roger, Kyrie Irving. I felt bad about that one. Brandon Ingram, Jamal Murray,

Rudy Gobert, Dejante Murray, Ben Simmons, just an emeritus just has to be picked anyway. Yes, honorary. They're making a billion bucks. House just on the board. I took a manual quickly. Then grant Williams, I and Williamson, Grayson Allen, Demata, Sabonis, Dame lowered, Contavious, Caldwell Pope, Jalen Green, Andrew Wiggins, John Morant, OJ and Inoby, Lamelo Ball, and the last pick of the draft only because he has Another guy, he's like Ben Simmons, he has to be in their house to soak sand.

Zach Levine, 3 for 141. We gotta have him. Give me Zach. We gotta have him. Zach was outside the door, knocking. Like, hey guys. I thought that was the worst contract party. I'm one of them.

Hey, anybody home? Okay. I mean, the case for that, even though he's had a really good year is The Bulls traded him and didn't even get good stuff back. They got bad contracts from other teams. Literally a hill of beans. So Apologies to the following people for not getting picked. Julius Randall 2 for 64. Jimmy Butler 3 for 159. Chris Middleton on House's Widows 2 for 65. Zach Collins 2 for 35.7. How is he not in our draft? Yeah he should be. Zach Collins definitely should be. Kevin Herter 2 for 35.

Terrence Mann 1 for 11 this year then kicks in 3 for 35. Yeah. Terrence man one for 11 this year, then kicks in three for 47. Lori marketing five for two 37. I did look at him for the last couple of rounds. I almost took him over job or it Gary Harris, two for 15. Just had to put it in there. Principal, buddy healed four for 38. Can't believe he didn't get drafted. Teams are trying to sign him as an undrafted free agent

for the draft right now. Drew Holiday, four for 134. Drew Holiday is tough. And another guy that's tough. He's got like a fucked up finger. That I thought about, this Bam Adebayo. He's having a horrible season. Everybody thought this was gonna be a breakout year,

particularly on offense. That just straight up has not happened. He's got a horrible season. Everybody thought this was gonna be a breakout year, particularly on offense. That just straight up has not happened. He's got a sterling reputation amongst people in our profession. So he won't get killed in the media, but he's been a disappointment. Well, we've hit the end. I had a wonderful time.

Me too. It was the worst contracts draft. My favorite part is that everyone's gonna be the maddest at house. Yes, I'm here for it. Me too. It was the worst contracts draft. My favorite part is that everyone's gonna be the maddest at house. Yes. I feel like maybe the Memphis fans come after me a tiny bit.

Was, who's coming after you? Probably Sacramento. Definitely Sacramento. Oh, Sabonis, yeah the Sabonis hive coming at you. This was a blast though. Thanks to Sarudy and thanks to Kyle and thanks to Gahau. As always, you can watch this as a video podcast on Spotify.

I don't know why you would cause you just finished the podcast, but it's also going to be available on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. You can listen to the house on fairway rolling and on the Ringer game, like so you can listen to wise on group chat with Mahoney and Barrier on the Ringer NBA show. Great to Great Steve fellas. Thank you. I'll never say I don't have Must be 21 plus in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in president DC.

Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit md gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.