The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Kawhi Sweepstakes, a Warriors Reboot, a Knicks WTF Update, and Summer Conspiracies With Ryen Russillo | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss Kawhi Leonard's options, best fits, and undetectable motivations. They talk D'Angelo Russell's addition to the Warriors , the Brooklyn free-agency sweep, the Knicks' misfortunes, the 76ers' exciting starting five, the Celtics adding Enes Kanter, Jimmy Butler to the Heat, Hassan Whiteside to the Trailblazers, mailbag questions, Gym Corner, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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we've been putting up podcasts because people like listening to them. So we have I'm trying to think of some of the good ones we've had lately. Oh, well, if you love The Bachelor

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I'm actually taking the next one off. I only doing two this week because I think we already know what's happening. The NBA is prepared to do three, but we think Hawaii is going to go to the Lakers. Ryan Russell is coming up here in a second. We're taping this podcast. It is 10.30 a.m.

Pacific time on Tuesday and we're proceeding as if Kawhi will be a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. And if for some reason that doesn't happen, eh, fuck it. Who likes the Lakers? It'd be great.

I hope it's a reverse jinx for you. That's all coming up first. Our friends from Pearl Jib. All right, Rosillo is here. He's draped in an American flag. The USA-England game is coming up a little bit later today. But we have a lot to talk about. I thought we were going to leave with KD and the Warriors because I have a lot of thoughts on that. Not a Betsy Ross flag.

True. We're just going to proceed like Kawhi signed with the Lakers because you think it's happening. I think it's happening. I think he's taking a little time here just to enjoy the limelight and soak it in a little bit, and then he's going to go to the Lakers. And I think you could argue it's his best move.

It's his best basketball move in Toronto. He's there for one more year. He could repeat his champs. That team could get pretty old fast. It's a hard team to keep together. You got to pay Lowry, Ibaka. They would really need Siakam, I feel like, to go up a level. Which is possible, by the way.

It's very possible. The Lakers, he knows he's playing with Davis for the next four or five years. LeBron, at least two where you would think LeBron would be at a high level. And then whatever buyout guys and whoever else, they patch it together. It's a logical move. I'm not against

it. How do you feel? The way I've heard different versions of the pitch, and the thing is I feel really comfortable sharing this because I've heard the pitch basically word for word from a couple different people. But just the different elements that are part of it is that if you're talking to Kawhi and you're on the Lakers side of this, you're just saying, hey, if you're you, the best player in the league right now, and you're going to come to LA and play basketball. You're going to play for the Clippers? Like, come on. And the irony is that the Clippers are far more stable to me.

The coach situation is better now because I think there was some concern from Kawhi. Again, this whole thing with Kawhi is weird, and I think we should kind of like try to spend as much time on trying to figure all this stuff out is. But I think he was worried about Vogel's offenses from the past. So he wanted assurances there. I think he wanted some assurances from LeBron. So I think Magic told him what he wanted to hear in an informal meeting.

And I think LeBron told Kawhi what he wanted to hear. And you're right that LeBron's whole point is that he wants to play with his son. That's a very real thing. It's been talked about for years. And whether or not LeBron leaves in two years or maybe this thing's rolling enough where he stays the third year, the fourth year of that Lakers contract, like whatever they've had to do, they've had to appease Kawhi's concerns. And my favorite part of the Kawhi story from the first moment that we found out he was upset in San Antonio was we always thought he was the soldier, the spur, the perfect

spur, the perfect Popovich guy. What a great guy to carry over the Duncan thing. And we were totally wrong. So whenever I hear somebody say like, well, why would Kawhi go with those two top five guys? That's not him. Why would you keep asking as if you know who Kawhi is? Because it's clear we've never known. We still don't know.

And even though I'm with you, I feel like the Lakers are the favorite right now. It's this whole thing. Anytime, any piece of information that I get where it's like, well, why would I do that? Or why would he need a shirt? Just assume you don't know anything about it and move along, you know, because that's really what he's done. He's surprised us in so many different turns. And we should know by now not to put ourselves in the shoes of the person making the decision. Because KD just went to Brooklyn. It makes no sense to me. The more I think about it, I'm like, why Brooklyn?

Why? It just feels so kind of lame. And then it's been explained to me, well, it's not just about the basketball. It's the guy who's going to take over who runs Alibaba, Alibaba and all the business opportunities there. It's rock nation and it's Kyrie. And it's like putting an imprint on the East coast where LeBron kind of is owning the West coast as an NBA player who produces content. Katie can be the East coast version of that, whatever that is.

I don't, I don't really know. I don't know what the ceiling is, but I can, so I see it. By the way, real quick. Can you imagine though? Like, Hey, it's Kevin Durant. It's outside. He wants to talk about a production deal. No. Tell him LeBron's.

LeBron's already here. So I got two people pitching, trying to buy my documentary. KD and LeBron. They've given some notes. Look, all power to him. He wants to do what he wants to do, but they don't really have any fans. You're joining a team that it's, you know. The Kyrie thing is the part that I understand less.

And you're aligning with, we can talk about that in a second. The Kawhi thing, it's like, I don't know what motivates the guy. He's won titles on two different teams. He might just want to live in LA. It might really be that simple. It might be like, I've proven myself.

People think I'm the best player in the league. Now I would like to live in Southern California. That's where I feel more comfortable. They're going to pay me a lot of money. I get to play with two good guys. I'll contend every year. This sounds great. And it's that simple.

And it's always easy too after the fact, right? Because if you were to go back to Toronto, which I think we still have like, hey, how come this is getting dragged out? You go, well, if we go by what we believe that Kawhi had told people that he was going to give Toronto the last meeting when Woj had that report at the end of the last week.

And then it's all of a sudden, okay, we're sitting there on a Monday going, oh, he's a Laker. You know, like Monday, it really heated up and everybody that was like, you know, it's a Lakers, a Laker. And I started thinking like, well, wait a minute, who's doing this? Like, is it like a wait a minute who's doing this like is it magic saying this because magic like i

feel like kawaii could show up in a raptor's hoodie to the meeting and be like i'm not signing with you and magic be like we nailed it closed it you know because i just think that's who magic is he's so confident you know and then whatever the magic version of whatever it was because i still don't know all the details you know was he just telling people and then everybody kind of took off with it and then all of a sudden we're going to watch TV here too. Sorry, I'm trying to turn it off. No, no, that's good. But if he were to go to the Clippers,

you'd be like, oh, you know what? That makes sense. He likes the coach better, knows the offense will be built around him. That's fine. If he goes to the Lakers, oh, why would he go anywhere else? He can pick this whole thing up again.

To that point though, do the Clippers make any sense other than it's a good organization? I had always thought if he went there it was going to be with another player. Not now. Now I look at the roster

it's like he can't go from the champion the champs to the choice of going back to defend the title or play with LeBron and Davis or you're playing with Lou Williams

and Trez Harrell and Galanari and Shea Gilgis-Alexander like that's weird. That'd be weird. Beverly, yeah. And I thought he was going to end up on the Clippers, but that's just a weird choice, I think. To drag it out like that, you'd have to think. But again, this is us making the mistake of trying to think like him. But if he really wanted to go to the Clippers and he liked

Doc, he liked the front office better, and he didn't care about the Lakers tradition versus being the Clippers. Because I can't imagine if i was a great baseball player and new york wanted me and be like you know i'm gonna do i'm gonna go to the mets i'm gonna go to the mets you know what i mean but i just i couldn't fathom doing that yeah so for him like the clippers part of this looks so bad because he didn't do them any favors now granted the clippers had to wait it all out and ride it all out but now it's you you have to think Now, granted, the Clippers had to wait it all out and ride it all out. But now you have to think if you're running the Clippers, you go, why would he want to make his surrounding situation worse

by not telling us in time to actually get some deals done on Sunday? Because they had a chance to. Their only option, I think, I think there's two teams that had to be a lot more proactive before July 1st. And one was the Knicks and the other was the Clippers. Where I think if the Clippers had gone all in on another star player before July 1st and one was the Knicks and the other was the Clippers where I think if the Clippers had gone all in on another star player before July 1st and done some sort of trade or even if they

had gotten Kevin Love for giving Cleveland the Miami pick and just taking Love into their cap space, whatever they had to do, at least it was somebody else. I just don't think they have enough. I'd be shocked if he went there. It's 1044 right now, Tuesday. I just think if it's Lakers Clippers, just looking at, especially if LeBron is saying, I've only got two years left. I'm hitting the finish line. I'm about to move into a different phase of my career. I know it, 60,000 minutes coming up. I just want to kind of, the long game for me is my son's going to be in the league, hopefully in 2023. I just kind of want to survive. This will be your team when you take over. That would resonate with me if I was Kawhi. If LeBron's really saying that stuff to him,

we both think he is. Yeah, we absolutely think he is. And I don't even know if LeBron, like I believe the part where LeBron- He might be full of shit, but he's saying it. He's absolutely saying it. And then you wonder like, is Kawhi going to be able to figure that stuff out? Because one of my favorite LeBron things is that every time it's a new coach every time it'd be a new surrounding set of pieces I mean even as dumb as that Lakers thing was last summer with the way they built out of the rest of that roster like yeah but you know we want to play we want LeBron to do it differently you know like the fucking guy went to eight straight finals so whatever he's doing is probably working so like how much do you really need to change it and then

you know basketball players I don't think And then, you know, basketball players, I don't think people really change. You know, maybe they do in the face of something dramatic, some life altering thing. But for the most part, I do think we kind of are who we are. Maybe we just adapt a little bit around the edges. Basketball players are even greater examples of this. I don't think you change until physically you can no longer be the player you want to be. So if LeBron's telling Kawhi, like, well, run your offense. You'll be the guy. It's your team. I'm going to hang back.

I'm going to play a little more power for him. He'll be doing all these things. You know, come crunch time, it's going to be LeBron dissecting what the defense is doing and dribbling the ball because it's worked forever. One of my favorite lesser level ones was when Antoine Walker came back to the Celtics and he got ripped for not, like, getting back on defense and complaining about the refs

and not doing anything. He was sprinting to get the ball in bounds and like running to get back on defense for like the first few weeks when he was back. And it was like, yes, I figured this out. He's got it. Yeah.

The light bulb was gone off. I'm with you. I, if we've learned anything over the years, it's that aging superstar basketball players just double down on whatever bad habits they already had. I think it'd be really hard for LeBron to adjust. We've always imagined this world in which, yeah, I'm going 10 years ago where it's like, all right, what's the final run for LeBron?

What does it look like? Oh, he'll be a power forward. He'll just be Karl Malone. I've been hearing this for years. Yeah. It's never happening. I think what'll be really, really, really, really, really compelling is how you take these three guys and who the other two people are that are playing basketball with them in crunch time of a playoff game.

Because, yeah, I haven't heard anybody talk about this. You can't play Kuzma, Davis, LeBron, and Kawhi altogether, I don't feel like. That's a pretty weird, those are basically four forwards you know i you can put kawaii on anybody right you could think you know unless you had to have him chasing around like peak west i'm just talking about spacing where people stand what what i to me if they do this kawaii thing it would actually make more sense to flip kuzma for a guard or like a six four somebody who could shoot who has a cheap contract i feel like kuzma has real value yeah but the problem is that because kuzma is still so cheap unless they wanted

to i mean they'd have to flip him for somebody who's just as cheap and younger to hold off the extension and that transaction just off the top of my head, that's going to be tough to pull off. I mean, think about Kuzma defensively. I love his effort stuff, but defensively, when you watch it all the time, it's not that great. And it was even worse. I mean, them trying to play him at center defensively at the beginning of the year, who came up with that idea? I think he's pretty, put it this way, he's pretty limited as being a flexible player.

I think Kawhi is one of the most flexible guys in the league who whatever is around him, he can mesh with it. LeBron used to be that way. I'm not sure he is anymore, especially defensively. I think LeBron is just maintenance. His years, statistically, the raw numbers are so impressive to me, watching him with the approach he had to the game.

Yeah. Where it was, I'm going to be out here for seven minutes, but don't expect me to be doing a ton. And then you look up and you're like, this guy still had like 30 and 12. What the hell? How did that happen? Right. I mean, it really was impressive.

It's not, this isn't a knock on him. It's actually a compliment. Last year, especially. Yeah. He was just getting a 29, eight and seven. And it felt like he was barely sweating. So, yeah, so this is Kawhi's team

if he signs. LeBron has never been in that situation ever at any point in his career. That'll be weird. That's the best three that he's ever had. Right? I think that first Miami year, Wade was pretty great that year. I know, but you still think-

Like an edge better than- Yeah, you're right. It is the best three. Because I mean, there's no point of me who would ever say Bosh is better than Anthony Davis. I just think LeBron in the first year of Miami was so much more kind of talented than probably this version. I went back and looked at some of it.

He's one of the greatest athletes of all time. Some of that stuff and going, oh my God, like this guy existed. Like, did I not, did I not just sit and turn off my phone enough to appreciate?

And you can't ever. It's like when Jordan comes back on on an NBA TV thing and you go, I should have just not done more on the weekends and made sure

that no matter what, the NBC Chicago game. But you can't, you can't appreciate it. Last two Cav seasons were definitely like that for him. I remember that first Miami game in Boston, the first time Wade and LeBron ever played together.

And it was really sloppy and disjointed. But then they were down like 10 with two minutes left. And those guys kind of flipped a switch for a second. And it was the most frightening thing I'd ever seen in my life. Yeah, it was a little clunky for the first month or so. Oh my God, these guys, they're going to score every single time they get the ball

for the rest of their lives. And, you know, he's at a different point of his career now. He's also way smarter and he's never played with, you know, Davis's, if he can stay on the floor,

which we think we can. I just, it's always, when you just throw three people together, no matter how good they are well you played you know that we're both basketball players right it doesn't happen overnight and that's why i think the other guys they put with them are so important like even i saw iguodala

was mentioned and people think oh this would be great revenge for he was a palinka guy too yeah that's weird too though with this fit to put Iguodala with so that that would be your starting five with LeBron at point guard that's a pretty strange team I'm not against it I just

kind of want to hear the case for it the case for it is anybody that we think is a top five rotation guy like good enough to be a starter we'll play we'll have you we'll have you

because it's that bad so when you look at how crazy Sunday was in this whole thing, and I get the Clippers and Lakers approach to the whole thing, but I think you bring up some good points to the Clippers that maybe this would be different if they were just more proactive before it. I don't know if that's the Davis trade. I'm not sure that I'm with you on the Kevin Love thing, but I do want to talk about Love a little bit later.

There are agents that are going, you know, that whole, hey, you know, here are the five, here are the six, and we'll fill it all out with the rest of these veteran minimum guys. Yeah. They're all gone. They're gone. It is so bad. The pickings are really bad. So however, this Lakers thing, if it's Kawhi and it's everybody together. And I also think I need to kind of do a little cleanup on, I think, was it the last time we talked or two weeks ago where I was like, yeah, I'm still, I needed to be convinced that, that LeBron thought he had a chance with Kawhi because that was a weird dynamic after last summer when the trade didn't happen.

There was some talk of whether or not Kawhi actually did want to hook up with LeBron. And I think there was some side, some stuff on LeBron's side where they still weren't 100% sure either. And I had mentioned like, I'm not sure that Kawhi, but now, you know, now that's kind of out the window now and we'll see what ends up happening here.

But back to the point of just, oh, we'll just load it out with all these veterans. Like, Melo's going to be on this team. And it's going to be good for them. And FYI, Dwayne Wade went too. I'm not ruling it out. Bonus DVD. Would you bet your life Dwayne Wade is not on this Lakers team? Never.

No way. Yeah, I was looking. I made a whole list of free agents. Oh, did you? No, I just. What do we got? Who's your highest? Who's the best bill five available?

But when they signed with a team, I would just cross that person off. Everybody's gone from the first three groups except cousins. Every single person. So then you go to the fourth group. Justin Holliday didn't sign you with anyone, right? Danny Green didn't sign with anybody.

Marcus Morris didn't sign with anybody. Then fourth group, Kelly Oubre, Collie Stein, they're both restricted. Corey Joseph signed. I guess Jeff Green's available. Wesley Matthews signed. And then all of a sudden, it drops to Tyus Jones. It drops fast.

I thought there was a Tyus Jones. I can't remember if there was a call. It's Trey Burke. You start looking at like the Dragan Bender, Marquise Chris's those kind of guys. Or then you look at the old guys like Shumpert. Marquise Chris is actually like, hey, we got Marquise Chris.

I know that sounds nuts. Former lottery pick. Yeah, because he was just all athlete. He was a highlight guy, but then you actually ask him to go out there. There's not even a lot of old guys left. No, this is bad. Jared Badley, Joakim Noah, Shumpert. Like it's, there's five guys.

And I don't know, none of those guys, they still need to find a guard who can actually play in a playoff game with six minutes left and can guard like Steph Curry. You don't think Caruso can do that? Maybe he could. Could he guard, could he guard Dame Lillard in a conference finals?

Can anyone? So here's a good example. All right. They're playing Portland in round two. They have more talent. Portland's got Lillard and McCollum. And you're putting together a team where right now your best four guys are the four guys we mentioned, including Kuzma.

And then you add like Andre Iguodala. There's still some defensive stuff that they would have to figure out. There's still gonna have to be somebody that emerges that's like the Derek Fisher of this current Lakers team. And I don't know who that is. No, I don't because it's really slim. And then you have Golden State

who's also gonna be going after some of these minimum guys. Houston's gonna be trying to figure out how to get some of these guys in. So instead of it just being maybe one team that knows hey we'll get this going and this isn't also like you do this deal and it's something I wanted to ask you about where every time you do it and you figure it out right like are all the GMs wrong because the smartest GMs whether it's Myers with the D'Angelo Russell deal going, yeah, I know that's fine. Like those are my four or five guys. And then I'll figure out the rest. Although Golden State's

in much better position than the Lakers are or would be with Kawhi. We're not putting blink in that group, but if, if Daryl was trying to get Jimmy Butler and was like, I'll figure out the rest of it. You know, if, if Miami going back to Pat Riley's like, don't worry about it. We'll figure out the rest of it. Like, don't you think we should just assume or just understand, accept that this game really is about who are those three guys? Who are then the five guys? I may not even play seven in the playoffs

and everybody can just shut up and like stop worrying about who eight, nine, and 10 are. The problem though is the league is just smarter overall, I think with some glaring exceptions like the Knicks and those it's become harder and harder to kind of stumble into those role guys, I think. You look at the Celtics in 08

when they were able to pull off Posey and they had House. They were able to get PJ Brown at the deadline. That stuff's harder to do now. The Warriors tried to do that last year and couldn't find the guys. It ended up being Looney was somebody they drafted. But for the most part, they tried to patch it together with the Jarebko types.

And those guys, I hate admitting defeat on Jarebko, but it's harder to find those dudes. Toronto was basically playing seven in the finals. So the Lakers need to find their four. I guess the big thing for me is I got to admit I was wrong about the Davis trade. I thought they completely overpaid, but it's going to end up in Kauai, and it was worth it. Kudos to them.

I still thought it was worth it because you ended up with Anthony Davis, even though, yeah, I would agree that there had to be a point where you go, when are you going to hang up, Blanca? When are you going to hang up? They completely overpaid, but they also must have had a real reason to completely overpay because they're just looking at the end game of, look, we have to get Davis because then we can get Kawhi. And who cares about all these picks? But think about the hindsight game, though, like we just did with Kawhi, right?

Like if you were to go to the Clippers, you'd be like, oh, hey, love Doc. If you go to the Lakers, like, who are you kidding? You're going to go to the Lakers if you're Kawhi Leonard. If he stays in Toronto, be like, he just won there. He likes it. It's Kawhi. He's peaceful. Yeah. Like look how much fun he had in the, what it do baby. Like he loves his teammates. And you brought up a really good point too. Like when you watch the teammates talk about him or even kind of interact with them, he's still like a mythological creature to those guys. Yeah. It's really fascinating. Like after you said it, like I'm paying more attention to it like lowry looks to him like lowry's a 14 year old at at the derrick coleman camp like whoa like

what's going on here i don't know if he likes derrick coleman or not right but um it was a little like how the warriors regarded kd but in the kd had maybe a little bit of a darker element where they just couldn't figure him out he was an an enigma. Right. But Draymond was never going to look at another human being with awe. You know, Draymond's like, the quiet thing, he's an enigma, but they're also like kind of an awe of him.

Yeah. With Durant, he was just more of an enigma and they knew how incredibly talented he was. But I think, you know, I, stuff will come out.

I think during the summer about, he was a really frustrating guy to play with. With Durant. Just off the, I think he, I think the people who are just up and down personality-wise and, for lack of a better word, moody, but they're the best player in the league or one of the best players in the league,

and they're coming into work, and they're just in a funk, and you don't know what's wrong. It's difficult. But some of that stuff was happening last year like i had heard it going last year hey i don't know about this team and i'm like what what are you talking about and then that houston thing if it had gone the other way all the stuff that would have been written about that golden state warriors team is like this is dysfunctional it's a dysfunctional group they're not getting along with things falling apart quicker than before and as much as i love

jeff van gundy i could never understand during the broadcast where he'd say like they're gonna they're gonna win seven titles in a row. Sports just don't work that way, especially with basketball because it's so easy in basketball to go, you know what, I want to try something else. Before I go too far down the road though, I want to just follow up on the Lakers thing

that you end up saying like, hey, but the hindsight game with this is really easy because look at the Knicks. When they made the Porzingis trade, it's, oh, they know. Well, I guess they didn't. When the Nets made the cap space trade, moving Crabb and the picks to Atlanta, and their theory was like, we were worried that all the cap space was going to drive, like people are going to use cap space. And Atlanta was a team that maybe wasn't. So we want to make that trade earlier. So did they know? Well, we can say

they absolutely knew they were getting both guys because they got that i actually think they knew okay but then you go and look at the clippers it's like they know they know they're gonna get one maybe two they were hoping but see what i'm saying like whatever the ultimate result ends up being we talk ourselves into this team knew this team didn't this team but i think there's two separate versions of that one is we think we know we think we have an awesome chance. We're going all in. The other is like, we fucking know. I think 2014, when the Celtics ended up with that three-team trade

because Cleveland had to clear cap. And I think they sent Tyler Zeller to the Celtics with a pick. Somebody else went somewhere. That pick ended up being used in the Isaiah Thomas trade. But it was basically the Cavs needed to clear six, seven million out of nowhere and were desperate to do it. They were desperate to do it

because they knew they were getting LeBron. That, to me, is different than the Knicks trading poor Zingas, throwing Lee and Hardaway in there and keeping their fingers crossed, basically. I think the one thing we've learned in this decade, you can clear a cap if you really need to, and you can do it in 24 hours.

The Warriors just did it with Iguodala. Iguodala wasn't getting shot for the last four weeks. And it was a 24-hour stretch where they were like, shit, this is cratering on us. We got to do something. And Joe Lacob's losing his mind. And they end up, here, take Iguodala. We'll give you draft picks and then sign and trade that happened in 24 hours. You don't need a clear cap in February.

In my opinion, when horse did have an interesting nugget though, on his, like what the warriors are going to do thing where he had mentioned a sign and trade, but he didn't mention who it was. And that was days before it happened. So even though I was kind of surprised, but then that was another one of those. Once I see the answers on the test, I go, oh, okay. Because the D'Angelo Russell thing is brilliant. It's what the best GMs do, where they go, okay, what's the situation we have? All right, it's nearly impossible. We're capped out even losing somebody like Duran. Where is he going? Well, wait a minute. I mean, they lucked out in the sense that Brooklyn was ready to punt on their 23-year-old all-star in D'Angelo, who I'm still, like, I'd like to have seen two seasons of it from him.

But to know that, yeah, okay, we don't know that he's worth that money, but who cares? And I don't even think he's a basketball. He's not even close to a basketball fit for what they do. But now you can help him. You're not going to wear Curry's ass out, you know? You can put him, when Klay comes back, you can put him with the second unit

instead of always splitting up Klay and Steph because you're going to have to figure that out again he's 38 quality minutes a game yeah and they had no other way to do that and they can honestly

let him go be himself if they want to get Mike got reaction because that happened Sunday night we had to re-record the top of the pod I was just like

what an amazing what an amazing save like I felt like Iguodala was on his last legs as a quality basketball player, whether he can, you know, pull one or two more years playing 15 minutes a game, maybe. But, you know, he's really banged up at this point.

He's played a lot of minutes. It felt like he's hurt every other playoff game for the last two years. And I don't think that's an exaggeration. And there was no real reason for the Nets to help them. That was the part that shocked me. I guess I would really weigh the competitive part of this if I ran a basketball team where if you're the Nets and the Warriors are on your radar, especially for a year from now, because the Nets can't win the title this year, but next year they could, or the 2020-21 season.

The Warriors are one of the teams they have to go through. It's like, do I want to give them D'Angelo Russell? They have no other way of getting him. Am I better off with him just going to Minnesota? Then I don't have to worry about competing against them? Because I feel like the Warriors, a year from now when Clay comes back,

do we both agree though, Russell is not long for the warriors i feel like no to me that's all trade asset we have a we have a really young guy at yeah big number but it's that was all about asset protection that's all that's what these guys do more than anything they trade him in december or january to minnesota for robert In December or January to Minnesota for Robert Covington and two first round picks. Imagine Wiggins unleashed in that warrior system. They're like, we can figure out how to save Wiggins. But I do feel like he's probably not long for the Warriors.

How quickly would Draymond fight Wiggins? Week one or two? I think it would be a lot of manhood challenging. But they have, I don't know, a four month look at, at Russell. They get to check under the hood, get to drive the car around a little bit, see if they like it. It might take, they might be like, wow, what a great fit this guy is. We were hoping, but this is awesome. We're keeping them. Or they might say, Hey, Minnesota, what do you think?

Or Phoenix or whoever. It's perfect because you wanted to spend the money and we can talk all the new chase and all this money. That's not even the point. The point was, how do we have an asset that's 23 versus not? Because if we don't do this deal now, we can't plug them in. There's no other thing we're going to be able to add

this kind of guy without trading one of the other three pieces. So we just added this fourth guy. Yes, it's not Durant. And then the Brooklyn part of it's, it's kind of lofty, but why wouldn't you want to think that way that, you know, did we just help out a competitor that we could have to see down the road? You're getting a future number one five years from now. I guess that's a trade asset. But we're leaving out a part of this, the agent part of this, where it would am would amaze and not you but how many times over the years where i'm like well why would you do something like that and be like you know you

always want to keep that relationship with the agent good and you go what i think that's horseshit you think it's see it's not all horseshit i just feel like the agents are always going to do what's best for their guy but if we think back to all the lead up and the tampering stuff doesn't bother me at all like people complain about tampering all the time like just just can we can we roll some b-roll of the guy who just signed like who gives a shit um i think this is where some of that comes into play though maybe you're right maybe you're totally right i think it's horseshit so why would all these really smart guys always figure out a way like are they just being conned for decades here and they're idiots for ever doing anything

to help out an agent? Yes. I don't think it's as absolute as you're saying it is. I think Brooklyn looked at it like, we can get a free number one pick to do this. Let's do it. We have Durant, we have Kyrie, we have all these young guys.

Now here's one more asset that if we want to trade for a third star, we can use. I remember a team who wanted Andre Blatch pool. And they couldn't believe he was still on the board. Yeah. How could you? I think he, did he go 50th?

Kyle, can we get IT on that? No, he, yeah, he was in the 40s, 50s. Yeah. And the team wanted him, but they had promised somebody else. And they called the agent and said, hey, we didn't think this was going to happen. We'll, we guarantee we'll bring your guy in. It wasn't too way back then,

but we'll do a deal, and we'll guarantee the first year of it. And the agent's like, absolutely not. You promised. And they're like, yeah, but this guy's going to get drafted. We want him, and we're still going to bring your guy in.

You're going to get the same deal as you were going to get if you went there. He's like, I can't tell my guy that he's not getting drafted. And so the team was like, so we just drafted the guy that we promised. I was like, why would you do that? It's Andre Blatch. Are you kidding me?

They're like, you have to make sure you don't burn the agent there. I'm like, Simmons wouldn't have done that. No, that's a different one because you gave your word on something and then you reneged on it. There's all these times when people go, why promise why would you do this who cares the promise part i never got let's uh let's take a break because we have so much shit to cover hold on let's take a break talk about helix you're special you're special unique people this summer let's get you special mattresses made just for you and your unique needs other mattress companies

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On the Lakers, just going back really quick, there was some guy from Reddit who then was on Twitter named RD Ambition, and he's been breaking news. There was some person on Lakers, just going back really quick, there was some guy from Reddit who then was on Twitter named RD Ambition and he's been breaking news. There was some person on Lakers Reddit and I swore off NBA Reddit a year and a half ago. Why? What brought you to that point?

This is actually fascinating. Consensus of opinion, groupthink. Just was out. I've never been on a Reddit message board. You're not missing much. I feel like I have. RD Ambition was this guy in the Lakers thing who clearly

had inside information, and it was so detailed and so specific and so meaty that it was almost like nobody could make this up. I think I mailed that to you a few weeks ago. But I don't even know if it's the same guy, but there's this guy on Twitter, and he's like,

Kawhi's done. Kawhi's called the Clippers and told them he's out of it. This very specific- That was before the dinner. Yes, before the dinner. This very specific stuff. And it's this new era of social media where these people,

and you don't know if they're full of shit or not, but you kind of have to take them seriously. Meanwhile, some dude, RD Ambition, he had nine tweets. And I'm like, is this real? Could this be a real thing? Because you said that to me. What is happening? I don't understand it. And dude, RD Ambition. He had nine tweets. And I'm like, is this real? Could this be a real thing? Because you said that to me. What is happening?

I don't understand it. And I've already seen it. And I've just seen enough now where somebody like that out of nowhere has been right. Yeah. And so it makes you, like that shit used to be so easy to write off. Like totally just, I remember different stuff being sent to me from like the real gm remember all the real gm message boards and that kind of stuff and like i would read some stuff and be like what is this is insanity right and then a couple guys start getting stuff right and it's so specific

and you're like is this just a board team employee is colangelo back like what's going on here colangelo but then when mrs colangelo's back so when that was sent to me i i go okay how does he have nine tweets and he's got 30 000 followers is he deleting all the shit he gets wrong or is it just that it's so right that he can't keep it out there but it is different it is different to take it seriously yeah how do they not even catch the guy how do they they allow it? What if it is like Jimmy Buss? Who is it not? Let's make a list. Let's go backwards.

I think it's such a strange time though when everybody has to be taken seriously. And, you know, this is, I did a podcast with Brian Curtis a couple weeks ago where we talked about all the ways NBA coverage in the media has changed this decade. And the biggest thing is just being prisoners with your phone or your iPad or whatever the moment shit starts going down. We were in Boston on Sunday and my family was out and I was basically just trapped with my iPad, just redoing Twitter and checking Slack for four straight hours until I did the house podcast. And I had

the jump on in the background, although I had to mute it because they kept doing that steam sound. You didn't like the steam? No, I didn't like it. I didn't like that at all. I didn't like being jolted by a loud sound. You and I talked for a while. I did the same thing. I don't smoke. And I sat there for seven hours and I was taking some calls. And then certain guys I knew didn't- Just texting? Yeah. And I knew, I can always tell if it's people

that I don't always talk to that are reaching out to me. I was like, this Kawhi thing, nobody has a fucking clue on. Yeah, yeah. If this guy just called me to ask Rosillo at home

in Manhattan Beach, like, hey, you got anything on that Kawhi thing? You talked to Nephi Kyle about it. Does he have any Kawhi info? Yeah, I remember just like,

I got off the phone with you and I go, I don't even want to do anything. Like there was Formula One on after the jump and it was just on for an hour. And I was just staring blankly at like what just happened. And then it kept going. I also don't believe half the shit.

Like during that whole four hour just crazy, whatever it was, then there was that report from Ramona and Woj about the Knicks were never going to offer him the max. I just don't believe it. They can say that. We'd have no way to disprove it. I just don't believe it. I don't think it's true. I think they were probably like, maybe they wanted Kyrie and KD. Maybe they were worried about doing KD by himself. Maybe they want to see the medicals. But I can't believe they would be stupid enough not to offer them the max that's insane to me what's your alternative yeah that was a tough one because you you know that means someone told whoa dramona that okay so that part of it like you know they're they're right and then it was like no no we knew that before we before he and it was like well then why didn't it felt a little bit

like because i felt like james dolan was like all right enough of this yeah let's get it let's get a couple paragraphs out there and let's go and then they re-released it that's what happened it didn't feel like that that's what happened james dolan's like fuck this you tell them we didn't offer them the max We weren't gonna Use an emoji Use a crutch poop emoji I just had to cancel a studio session With my band this is fucking bullshit Just fucking tell them we weren't gonna offer the max We were gonna do Neil Young decades Start to finish

Ask Phil James why don't I have you on the phone We're gonna give 52 million dollars this year To 5 tenth men Can you sign off? Great get me more power forwards Ask Phil. James, while I have you on the phone, we're going to give $52 million this year to 510th Man. Can you sign it off? Great. Get me more power forwards. Great.

Bobby Portis showed a lot in those last four weeks of Wizards games when they were playing for nothing. Well, you know what sucks, though, is the Julius Randle thing is actually perfect for them. He's perfect. Yeah, I agree. The Przingis thing, digging around on that, I think they felt like they had to get that dude out of New York City.

It seems like it. And, you know, that's the part where I love Przingis thing, digging around on that, I think they felt like they had to get that dude out of New York City. It seems like it. And, you know, that's the part where I love Przingis, but I still didn't understand the trade, and now it looks even worse because they didn't get anybody in there. I think they wanted to get him out of New York City. I think they wanted to get his brother out of New York City. I think that was a bad marriage. Right.

With that said— They didn't want to repair it, is the point. With that said, because, listen, the Knicks fans, the ones who don't completely hate the team and aren't just like, we're completely fucked. There's no daylight ever. The ones who are like, well, actually, those fans, this is indefensible.

They stretched Joakim Noah to get cap space. They threw Lee and Hardaway in that Porzingis trade to get cap space. They threw Lee and Hardaway in that Porzingis trade to get cap space. It was all because they thought they were getting free agents. He said, in March, we're getting people. People want to play for us. The Noah thing, ironically, they're talking about summer of 2021 now.

They're going to be paying Noah. He's going to count for $6 million that year. If that was your plan all along, then just, I just think you said something though they're so fucking stupid see i don't think that the front office is as bad as everybody's trying to make it out to be okay so we may go to war here right now let's do it do you really think that there are that many examples of absorbing big contracts and taking like alan crab to the atlanta hawks is that is that really such a common transaction we just had moe harkless moe harkless like so you would

have just not signed anybody and all right because they did all short deals on these guys dory reggie bullock for 10 million dollars a share B, Moe Harkless and a number one pick for Miami. Which one would you rather have? Moe Harkless. He's a better player. And a number one pick. My whole thing is... I just don't think there's that many of those examples. But nobody has cap space. You actually were in a position

where you're the guy in the fantasy league, if you play this correctly, where everybody has $8 left and you have $80, but there's still some shit that might go down there in the draft and you can just overpower people, I think OKC is going to panic with this luxury tax thing. You have the ability to basically hold them over a barrel to take Adams or Schroeder or Roberson, whatever you have to do to help them get under the tax. They're not going to pay repeater. You have that.

You have Miami. If Miami now is like we have Butler. All right, now we have to get, if we can get somebody to take Goran Dragic and James Johnson, now we clear the space and we can do this. But some of those contracts suck. Like I wouldn't even want to take the two first to go with Adam's contract. But they've made it clear. We're willing to throw in the next two years because we want to be clear for the summer of 2021

where all these phrases are coming. So they're not trying to win a title. So what do they care what the contracts are? I would take whoever had two years left and be like, we're here for you. Whoever it is, we don't care. All I would care about is Randall and RJ Barrett. And it's like, I don't care who else is on the team.

I don't care how many games we win, but let's try to get as many asses as possible. What's ironic is Brooklyn showed them the blueprint for this. This is what Brooklyn did. Like they traded Bogdanovich. They got the Jared Allen pick. They got Russell in that trade. Like this is how you do it.

This is how you rebuild a team. The thought of like, they're going to be able to trade these dudes for real value is laughable to me. Who got traded for a number one pick last year who was a role player? Miritich went for two seconds or three seconds. Who went for first? That part I agree with you on.

There's no market for those guys. If you look at the prices, then you go, wait a minute, who's offering you for Bobby Portis later? He's on three teams now. And he makes- You're off of Kevin Knox already?

$8 to $10 million a year. You're already off of Kevin Knox? He's 20. I would have rather played him. I don't know. I just think it's just really weird how some of this stuff gets perceived when it's anything... People want to think that it's anything other than just abject

incompetence. And it's abject incompetence. This was terrible. They spent two years building toward this moment and didn't get anybody and then signed a bunch abject and confidence. This was terrible. They spent two years building toward this moment and didn't get anybody and then signed a bunch of 10th men. So you would have disaster like at the point where they're not getting anybody. Okay. And who are they going to get? They were going to get to rant. And once Kyrie said, I want to go to Brooklyn, I guess Durant wanted to go there more too. I mean, can you help us understand that one? Cause I think you would know that better than everybody. Like what happened there? Was it

Kyrie wanted to go there first? Because if I have to read another article how Kyrie's going to his hometown Nets, like, what was he doing? Checking the standings? The Atlantic's so deep. I think the Knicks were in the heavy lead. And I think the Nets, very shrewdly,

from the moment they could start talking to people and talking to in-betweens and intermediaries they had a really carefully executed awesome plan with rock nation alibaba and all these new york business people and entertainment people and just the totality of this like hey this isn't just about basketball you will be able to accomplish all of these other goals you have. Is this the pitch now? Like, is this- I really honestly think it is.

You think there's teams listening to you talk about this? Because like, I'm sitting here now, like interviewing you, because I'm interested in this going, like if you're not doing the tech production company, here are the influential leaders. Like everybody, like it's not cool to just be a basketball player anymore.

So if you can come with us to Sun Valley and sit at these conferences, like that, does's not cool to just be a basketball player anymore. So if you can come with us to sun Valley and sit at these conferences, like that, does every team need to be including that in their pitch to a tier? I mean, I think every smart team does. I'll tell you this, the Knicks don't do any of it.

And James Dolan's attitude is basically like, we're the Knicks. You get to play an MSG, Kevin, John Ben Beesbrook. But that's the thing. Harvey Airden wrote an interesting piece today

about why is Dolan a good owner for the Rangers but a terrible owner for the Knicks? It's because basketball players are completely different than hockey players. Hockey players are like,

they just want to play hockey. If they get to the playoffs, they'll play with a broken jaw or a broken hip or a broken wrist. They don't care. All they care about is Stanley Cup

and just hanging out with their teammates. And basketball players are looking at basketball as like this way station to do all these other things they want to do. Dolan doesn't see that. I also think it's not just Dolan gets the hockey thing better. I just think hockey's easier. Hockey's much easier. Everyone gets

traded in that league. It's unbelievable. Like, hey, this is one of the best players in the league. Yeah, we've had him two years. Let's trade him. Right. They's unbelievable. Like, hey, this is one of the best players in the league. Yeah, we've had them two years. Let's trade them. Right. They just do. Like, everybody's... I almost feel like the hockey rebuild is the story that hasn't been written about enough that you could just... Because nobody would read it.

Oh. That's not... Yeah, it's 40,000 people that have written about hockey. Have you seen the depth for forwards the Panthers have brought in? That's amazing. But I look at what the Nets did

and I think all these teams now know they have to woo the guy behind the guy. So if you're going for KD, you're not really going for KD. You're going with Rich Kleiman. Rich Kleiman, diehard Knicks fan, loved the Knicks, completely understands the Knicks.

This is why I thought KD was going to the Knicks forever. I knew he was going to New York. I knew it. I just thought it was going to be for the Knicks. This is why I thought KD was going to the Knicks forever. I knew he was going to New York. I knew it. I just thought it was going to be for the Knicks. And especially with Kleiman, who's a Knicks fan. This would be like if there's a second team in Boston and you're my guy, you're my KD, and I'm Rich Kleiman. I like that.

And I have the power to convince you to go to my beloved Boston Celtics. And instead I'm like, here's where we're going. Worcester. Worcester's 49% owned by the guy from Alibaba. It's up and coming community. We got rock nation owns a piece of the Worcester centrum. Corey Lockmoms here. We're doing it.

Yeah. Holy cross. He's going to handle all your insurance. It'll be great. And I just talk you into it. I think it's crazy that the Knicks didn't get these guys. It's crazy. It's insane.

The Nets got Katie and Kyrie over the Knicks. It's insane. Andrew Sharp, your guy, now with SI. Yeah. Did you read his piece on all the grades? Not to put you on the spot. I didn't. I didn't see it.

He's the first guy that was like, I'm not trying to, you know, permission to zag, but he's, if you look at the KD Kyrie pairing, do we know? And I'm like, okay, well, what is, what is, do we know? I mean, you shouldn't be sitting there and be like, that's probably two championships, right? Like it's more likely to be zero

and it's not just the KD injury, but Kyrie's had like two significant knee injuries. And on top of all that, you still do what the Nets just did. Because if you don't do what the Nets did and you have that cap space, then you start either piecing around like the Knicks do, which nobody's excited about. So I'm not sitting here trying to tell you this roster is amazing.

I'm just saying like it felt like they were going, we need to salvage some whatever short-term plan we have here. I don't know that there are going to be a bunch of contracts absorbed. You might be right. I'm just saying, well, what's the point? You can just write a check to everybody at the end of the year if you don't want to add up to the 90% of the cap floor. But when I – Nobody ever thinks to do that.

Nobody ever wants to do that. I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, you didn't interrupt me there because you're right to throw it in. Like I remember – There's always this desperation with these teams. Like, well, we got to spend it on somebody. It's like, no, you actually don't. You can just write a check.

Worst case scenario, you just write a check for whatever you're under, but you can sit there until June and take contracts from people. So two different teams. I love this story. Cause it's never really talked about that much is Portland had Chris came in, I think at one point and he was telling everyone in the locker room, like, hopefully they don't make a trade for anybody. Cause we're all going to get like 3 million bucks at the end of the year. Right. They got to get to 90 of the cap floor and then they traded for somebody and all the teams the team was like fucking pissed i think it was came and then philly hinky had that year where you're like where when i think they did it though they did they traded for javel mcgee and there was still a little leftover but

like they brought in mcgee for i think a first and then waved him little leftover but like they brought in McGee for I think a first and then waived him and it cost like the rest of the team like 30 I might be exaggerating on 30 million but like maybe 20 million in salaries that they were gonna have to just bump guys like guys that were making 400,000 a year we're gonna get a couple million bucks because the Sixers weren't even close and then Hinckley just did it for the whole thing. So you'd have like a locker room of guys freaking out about a late trade being like,

let's not get any cap filler here because we're all going to get a check at the end of the year. But it is, it's underutilized because it's almost never utilized. You can just say,

hey, I'm going to give everyone a raise, right? We got the real because the KD Kyrie thing is I think a really important piece of this. House and I talked about a little on Sunday night and I don't want it to sound like sour grapes because Kyrie was in the I think, a really important piece of this. House and I talked about it a little on Sunday night,

and I don't want it to sound like sour grapes because Kyrie was in the Celtics. Well, no one believes us. I don't care. I don't. But I think the risk made more sense for the Knicks than the Nets because I think the Nets were actually headed toward whatever was going on with them was really cool anyway. And if they just re-signed Russell

and added one more veteran, they're still on the up and up with all the stuff they have. This was actually riskier for them to do this this way. I'm with you. Kyrie's had multiple knee surgeries. He's basically pushed his way out of two teams now. I think he's a really strange guy to lead your team.

He's been erratic. He just has. What are the chances he sabotages this all in this year without KD? And KD's like, oh my God. But that's the other thing. There's no KD this year. So it's really just the Kyrie show. We've already seen how that's gone.

Not to mention the whole KD coming back from the Achilles thing. I think the risk made a lot more sense for the Knicks. But a couple of people have mentioned this to me, and I couldn't get it out of my head. And I hope it doesn't turn out this way because, and I think you're the same way as I am. I just want good basketball. Like I want everybody, I want as many awesome basketball teams as possible. I want everybody to be healthy. Like even KD and Clay going down in the finals is just such a bummer because we lost like two of the 30 guys that I liked watching. But I do think it's possible this plays out like the Orlando thing.

Grant Hill and T-Mac. Where they signed Grant Hill and he was hurt and they thought he was going to be fine and there was all this excitement about it and it just didn't translate to anything and they couldn't keep Grant Hill in the thing. This Duran injury is really dangerous. We'll see if he can come back 90, 95% of what he is. But Kyrie has also been really banged up. And you just don't know. It's a risk.

I think it was a risk worth taking, but maybe the Brooklyn had to think about it more than the Knicks did. If you're the Knicks, you just have to do it. You're a joke for 20 years. This is the one chance to not have people talk about what a joke you are. Yeah, because that's why, back to the original point on the Katie thing, I'm not sure the two really good reporters had that nugget about not doing the max. I don't know if I believe that they would have done the max. Because as much as you could sit here, and we're doing this right now, where it's like, what is Kyrie really especially a year like this right now for one year is Boston with a worse roster around him that's what this first year of Brooklyn is and a worse coach

and so now you look at those two injuries and it's not just this injury with KD it's the other leg injury that he had in the Wizards game where he thought like he was going to be done for the year like at one point he thought he was done done. What about his broken foot that's been operated on three times? So this foot thing that I've heard about going back to when he was a free agent, when it was the Hamptons thing, I had heard this foot

is a massive problem. Massive problem. But how many times do you hear about some guy that has some crazy injury and you're told, oh man, he got flagged. Our guys won't even clear him. And then the guy ends up playing like another six years and we never hear about that injury again. Like that's definitely happened enough that I don't know what to do when I get these injury rumors. Yeah. But here's the thing. This is what we know for sure. Both of these guys have had these injuries. And if we've learned anything over the

last however many years, it's the fucking injuries add up. And I think Blake Griffin's a good example. Blake Griffin has been operated on like seven times. At some point that's becomes too many times. We saw him, he couldn't even make it through an 82 game season last year and he broke down. I think it's a concern. I,

you know, I don't think a team with Blake should be like, Hey, January one is when we start like a 50 game season. There's another lockout. We'll see in January. But I think it's, I think it's a legitimate concern. I have 50 game season. There's another lockout. We'll see in January. But I think it's, I think it's a legitimate concern. I have a KD thing. Let's take a break. Cause I wanted to

mention this one KD thing that I think has not gotten enough attention. Hey, doesn't it feel like most phone plans just weren't made with us in mind? You know, us human beings between bad coverage, paying too much for data. You don actually use. Crazy roaming charges. Come on. GoogleFi is a phone plan by Google made with features that people like you and I actually want. Features like free international roaming. So you never have to worry about calling up your provider to let them know you'll be traveling. One of my all-time pet peeves, by the way. And three networks in one.

So you can stay connected wherever you are from your home to your office and everywhere in between. GoogleFi works in your favorite smartphones. So you don't have to switch phones just to switch plans. In fact, it's just as easy as downloading the app. You only have to pay for the data you use. Plus with bill protection. Not me, Bill. I mean the phone bill.

Not Bill Simmons. Plus with bill protection. If you ever do use a lot of data, your bill is capped at a reasonable amount. Learn more at fi.google.com. That is fi.google.com. Switch to Google Fi, a phone plan by Google. So I was thinking a lot about KD's Warriors tenure and some of the stuff that had been written about,

which anybody who listens to this podcast all the time knows. We've been discussing this stuff. I've discussed it with you, with House, with a whole bunch of people, really for the last year and a half. I have a pretty good feel for KD. I don't know him that well, but reading between the lines,

I did six podcasts with him. We probably did 10 hours of podcasts talking to him back and forth. And I've said this on the pod multiple times and I believed it with all my heart and it was why I thought he was going to leave after this year. I think it all goes back to that first title

and they win. And he feels like all the shit he took from OKC leaving, jumping to the 73 win warriors. He won the title. He beat LeBron in a playoff series. He outplayed LeBron in a playoff series. Everybody's going to shut up now. That was the feeling I got when I did the podcast with them right after they won.

It was still the feeling I got mid-July when we did another podcast. Although I could feel like he was a little pissed off that people were still like, yeah, you won, but you only won because you jumped to the Warriors. And it was kind of like, what else do I have to do? I just beat LeBron in a playoff series. I think the most important moment for all of this

was the first championship when they got the rings. So we're talking late October 2017. KD was the best player on that finals team. He outplayed LeBron. He won the finals MVP and arguably was the best player in the league. He was either 1A or 1B. And they had that championships, the rings thing,

and he was just another guy. And then Curry was the last guy. Curry gave the speech. It was just clearly the Warriors were really desperate to prove that it was Curry's team. And I don't think this was ever the same since that night. It's my theory. Remember, though, when the theory was presented,

when KD was the first guy brought over to the Chase unveiling and Curry wasn't there? I think Ethan Strauss wrote about that for The Athletic. That they were trying to- It was trying, like this almost- Trying to make up for it. Right. And then it was kind of like the underlying,

like, will Curry be upset? I remember that story. Because Curry wasn't going to be upset because A, Curry doesn't give a shit. He doesn't care about any of this stuff. And B, it's his team and it's his city. And that was, I went to- So what did Durant think though?

Like, I tried to do this thing where I go, if he wants to get out of OKC, which is obviously a big motivating factor in this whole thing. And the first time I'd heard about the KD thing and I was like, oh my gosh, like they're going to actually maybe pull this thing off. I'd heard it back in January of that year.

And because I like K oh my gosh, like they're going to actually maybe pull this thing off. I'd heard it back in January of that year. And because I like KD. I did too. And I love his game. And I don't ever feel like, you know, some of it's getting older and some of it's having to deal with your own stuff of like, oh, this again today. But I felt more connected or sympathetic to him when he went through the burner account stuff and all the bullshit. Because I would go, you know what? And I don't like when people say, I like flawed people. I'm like, well, that's bullshit.

Because somebody said that to me once. And I was like, fuck you. Sounds insulting. Yeah. What are you talking about? FYI, everybody's flawed. Yeah, right. Everybody's got their stuff.

What are you talking about? And so when the KD stuff comes out, it sounds like bullshit to say, Oh, I like imperfect people or all these things. I'm like, no, no, no. I just liked that. I think I know him. I just liked that. I go, okay, this shit bugs you, man. And it shouldn't, but like, who am I to tell you be less bothered by it? Because you're right. Like he, he didn't get it. He didn't get it from a sense of like, Hey, what happens? Like the rules are you win your championship and everything goes away. Like Kawhi, what he just did and bailing, and I think he bailed on San Antonio. We've been over this a million times.

But nobody brought that up after he won. Nobody cares. It's like, you know what? What? You know, this guy gets a funny shirt. Fucking coward. He backstabbed San Antonio. Nobody said that.

Nobody's saying any of that. It's unpopular for you if you were on a TV show to bring that up. Like you'd be the guy that didn't get it because you'd still be hanging out on this Kawhi stuff. So Durant just miscalculated. Like, I'm surprised he miscalculated and doesn't get it. And so therefore, maybe, you know. But I don't think he miscalculated. Did you really think people were going to embrace him?

No, but here's the thing. He left OKC because, as he discussed on six podcasts I did, he wanted a new challenge. He wanted to live in a new city. He wanted to have new experiences. And he wanted like a high intake and all that stuff. But he wanted a higher level of basketball. Like he really did.

It's fun, by the way. It's fun to play with those guys. Yeah. And if you go back and listen the first pot i did he talks for like 10 minutes about how incredible it is to play basketball with those guys and he was really energized by it but i think when he went to head to head with lebron and he really got to feel for the first time like your answer the question how good am i am i am i good enough to win a title am I good enough to be the best player in the finals? Am I good enough to go head-to-head with LeBron

and be better than him? And he answered all those three things. So now he's like, I'm the best player in the league. He really feels that way. I am the best guy in the league, and yet I'm playing for Steph Curry's team. And I think that's when it started. I don't mean to over-cycle analyze it,

but I don't think he expected that part of this. Well, then he made a mistake, okay? I actually think he might have. Because every guy that goes to the Yankees never was going to outshadow or overshadow, excuse me, Derek Jeter. Well, it's a little like the A-Rod Jeter thing, right? It doesn't matter.

But A-Rod came to grips with it. And he also shit the bed in the playoffs so bad that it was like he had no choice but to accept it. Durant didn't exactly shoot 20%. But it's clear to me, I say this with all bias removed, it actually would have been a better move for him to go to Boston.

Knowing what we know about Durant now. Okay, but would he be happy? They say Boston doesn't win because there's no guarantee with that at all. But it's clear that he did want his own team. That was what all this was about. But see, this is the part where I don't have sympathy. And I mean this collectively for these guys.

Yeah. Because you come in, it's apparent you're going to be a star, right? When you're one of these dudes. And it's like, okay, this is going to happen. Donovan Mitchell's kind of about to enter this, right? Where I go, whoa. That first year you're going, this might be really special. And then they win that series

against the Thunder. I'm not saying Donovan Mitchell is going to end up being Kevin Durant, but there's this fun period. The Anthony Davis period is fun in the beginning. And then it's like, wait a minute, you've been here like four years.

Yeah, you've been here four years. Like, how come you're not winning a little bit more? And then the guy's like, well, wait a minute, I got the extension. I've got my shoe deal. I'm the face of the franchise.

But now they're starting to say on all these TV shows and people on Twitter are saying I suck and I can't care anything. It's everyone else's fault. Yeah. All right. So, all right. You know, this team around me blows, the GM sucks. I didn't do a bad trade. You know, Jarrett Jack's my best friend, which was always the best because every team wanted him because everybody liked him. Yeah. And so then you go to the team and you go, all right, now here we go. And then that doesn't guarantee you anything anyway. But in Durant's case, they were going to win three straight finals if those guys don't get hurt this year.

And yet that still isn't enough. So then they changed their minds again, being like, well, I don't want the team that's my team because everybody else sucks. But I want the team to be my team in perception. But I still also want to win because I don't want to get knocked for not winning. Like these guys, it's such a moving target. We make it a moving target as fans in the media. But they change their minds all the time.

Like nobody ever seems to get to that point where it's like, okay, this is the perfect amount of my team, but still enough talent. But nobody else is going to get more credit than me. And yet I still have a chance to compete for championships. That's a very, very small hole or needle to try to thread there. Well, especially if you're reading all the criticism and hearing that too. You know, like I think we've had fun doing these podcasts the last five months.

If people were constantly analyzing them and picking apart every single piece of them and pointing out all this stuff and getting you annoyed about things you didn't even know annoyed you're about, it wouldn't be as much fun to do the podcast. i do think this was do you still feel like it's your podcast you're like when we won the title i don't know why i didn't get to go last like how come simmons won an award for the bill simmons pod that's have you seen the numbers well i have

i have a story and it's been reported, but not totally. And I think it explains a lot. Okay. So you know about how Curry flew back from Shanghai, right? Do you know the whole story? Because I don't think it's totally out. I don't think I do the way you're looking at me right now. So I'm going to lay out. I was surprised by it.

So give us this timeline. Give us the whole thing. Curry's in Shanghai. KD is deciding what he wants to do and the Warriors still feel like they have a puncher's chance to get him

enough that Curry is going to fly back from Shanghai to New York and he's going to land on Sunday night right after free agency starts and he has this

determined time with Curry with KD to just talk with him and kind of put a bow on everything and either, hey man, here's how we feel about you and convince him to stay. And if Durant's not going to stay, then they'll talk about that. I don't know how long is Shanghai to New York, Kyle? It's got to be like what, 16 hours? Yeah, get IT on that. Curry's-

14 hours and 45 minutes yeah so 15 hours Curry's flying back it's now late afternoon ET free agency is about to start and he's gonna meet Durant that night like about an hour before the plane lands all of a sudden it's

KD's gonna be announcing on his Instagram that night he's follow on the, on Instagram at the boardroom, all this stuff. And he's like, what the fuck's going on? That was quite the graphics package, huh?

I need to hire somebody for that. So he's like, what's going on? And then it gets announced. He's signing with Brooklyn. Curry's plane hasn't landed yet. And he lands and he decides to be, do the dignified thing.

And he goes to meet KD anyway, to basically just say goodbye to him. But from what I've heard, the Warriors took that personally because by all accounts, undeniably, Curry is one of the best teammates in the league and one of the best teammates in a long time.

And has just always kind of looked out for KD and defended teammates in a long time. And has just always kind of looked out for KD and defended him and all that stuff. And it just was shitty. That's what I heard. I don't know if the Warriors thought they're going to be able to try to do KD the favor by holding off. Once we heard there was going to be that

announcement on the boardroom website, it was going to be 6 Eastern. It was initially saying it was like tonight. It was ambiguous when it was going to be. Oh, it was going to be tonight. So it started what? Free agency technically started at 6 Eastern. Yeah. There was going to be a couple hours after that, right? It was like 445-ish ET. All of a sudden it was like, they're announcing this on the boardroom. I feel like Golden State always knew he was leaving this year. Yeah. It was a completely different vibe and just, eh, you know, and then the injury happens and then it's like, a minute is this some weird thing that's gonna happen this altering this nba history

altering moment where the injury that cost us a title actually is going to allow us to keep the window open longer and then we end up getting two more down the road that we weren't going to get had he left and he was healthy and then it's like yeah now he's still gonna leave um but that's bullshit that's that's but i but again then it becomes your own brand thing and then you get all these people around you and these people that want this stuff to be exclusive to the website and were they thinking they were going to get that done before woj because as soon as the warriors knew woj was going to know and so once or maybe climate told you know i don't know i don't know i don't know how all that works maybe it got away from them

and maybe they decide we have to yeah we have and they had to kind of speed rush whatever they're doing but i it's just a really the three years those guys all had together was really complicated but i think what was fascinating to me about curry and how he perceived everything was i think he really enjoyed KD and was really genuinely curious about him and cared about him as a teammate and a player. And even like when we did the podcast with him a year ago when he did the Blog Boys stuff and KD had this great rant on the pod about the Blog Boys

and we had fun with it. We made a couple of t-shirts and Curry like really wanted a t-shirt. He asked for one and he wore it and he got such a had fun with it. We made a couple of t-shirts and Curry really wanted a t-shirt. He asked for one and he wore it and he got such a kick out of it. I think they actually really got a kick out of KD sometimes, but also felt like he was this really complicated,

kind of sad guy in some degrees. Like he was searching for something and now he's searching for it in Brooklyn. I really genuinely like him I hope he finds happiness with whatever his next thing is but I think this was really strange how this played out but when we talked about the injuries everything like I just think there's an important kind of end sentence on that I'd still do it if I'm the Nets I still do it I would have done it I mean anybody would have given it a max and so the next thing is weird

even with the Kyrie injuries you do it and the reason you do the Kyrie thing is because you know, you're getting Durant. So I don't know how this first year is going to go with them. I don't know if they're going to win any titles, but with all of this movement, what we've just seen, and if Kawhi ends up with the Lakers in a way, I want him to go to the Lakers because I want to see what they do with the rest of that. And I want to see if it can be toppled or if it's completely overrated on paper, or if it's really cool to watch those three guys play together. And then sometimes I want Kawhi to stay in Toronto because I'm still not sure how the rest of the east plays out with my amazement with what Philly may or may not look like because I still don't know that I have the answer to that so the Brooklyn Durant thing the it'll always be

I don't know why but if you're just friends with Kyrie and you want to hang out with your buddy then I guess I get it but I just hope he comes back and looks close to what he looks like or maybe he'll look like what Duran has always looked like and the question would just be the durability part of it like when he's playing hey that looks like Duran again I'm worried I don't want

this to turn into like oh he's playing 50 games and now it's 40 games and he has a lot of miles on him already he's been in the league since 07. It's a really strange three years. It'll be a good documentary someday for somebody. And I think, you know, it's funny because I was there that night, that Clippers-Warriors game,

and it felt like something substantial had happened during the game in the moment, not even knowing how. It was just being in the building for it. With the blown lead game? Where Draymond, no, in the regular season, when Draymond and Durant flipped out each other. And it was just so out of whack to things you would normally see in an NBA game where these guys are so mad at each other and they're walking on the court and Draymond's still talking to them.

And it really seemed like they were going to get in a fight for a second. And then they're carrying that over through the whole overtime. And then to me that it was probably over then. Cause I don't know what, I don't know what Draymond said specifically in that huddle when they were yelling at each other, but I think he cut too deep. But I don't think it was ever, I don't think it was healable.

But other people would argue that Draymond said what he said to him because he knew he was leaving anyway. So like that was the whole thing. I, he definitely did. I think the Warriors thought that all year. I think they thought he was leaving, but I think he crossed the line that night. And I don't think any chance of maybe Durant coming back. Who knows what the injury to, like if he doesn't get injured and if he wins the title, let's play this out the other way. He never gets hurt. He was the best player in the league.

He rips through the West. They play Toronto. He beats Kawhi in five. And it's like, put the fucking crown on KD. He's the best. Is it easier for him to leave at that point or is it harder? I don't know why we always do that

because everybody's different. Like Kawhi, like, oh, he's- I'm just trying to put myself in his head. I guess we can't. No, but with Kawhi, it's, oh, well, he won. He can't leave now. Well, I could argue, why can't I leave? Here you go, Toronto.

Congrats. I'm out. Well, nobody's ever done it. Let's take one more break. Hey, I want to take a quick break to talk about our new podcast that we have launching on July 9th, Tuesday, only on Luminary. It is called Break Stuff, the story of Woodstock 99. It is a narrative podcast. It is a deep dive with

host Stephen Hyden on a music festival that just went exceptionally wrong from day one. And a whole bunch of crazy shit happened. And it was really the end of an era in a lot of different ways. This is a narrative podcast an era in a lot of different ways. This is a narrative podcast. We spent a lot of time on it and we're very proud of it. Actually. It's pretty cool. So you can listen to this every Tuesday, starting July 9th,

go to luminary. Here's the promo code luminary.link slash ringer. And you can check it out there. It's really good. Very proud of this one. Congrats to Steven Hyden and the whole Ringer crew who was behind this one. Break Stuff, the story of Woodstock 99. And speaking of podcasts, by the way,

the rewatchables, we have Bill Hader, myself, Chris Ryan, Breaking Down No Country for Old Men. That is going up on July 3rd, and it's awesome. So there you go. Okay, a couple other things. Sixers, it looks like the Ben Simmons extension is in the works five years, 168 million. That means for the Sixers team a year from now, they'll be paying over $130 million for six guys. Embiid, Simmons, Harris, Horford, Richardson, and Scott. And then

also for the year after too. Do you feel good about Ben Simmons for $168 million? Do you feel good about Jamal Murray for five years, $170 million? No, but we have to do that thing where we just have to stop thinking about guys. Like, I really wish you guys would do this on the website. You should do, this is what a 2019 contract looks like in 2010 and vice versa. Just the math with the cap going up. Because we still, I don't think, have adjusted enough by going just mentally yeah mentally like when you go that guy's gonna make 25 27 million like the vucevic contract i remember talking to somebody about that

and then you go wow that's a lot of money like actually it isn't like if i'm doing 80 million dollar extensions down a guy that may be the team's best player as bad as he was in the playoffs like i would i would sign me up so can, can I give $80 million to anybody? I made that case last year with Love because they gave Love that giant extension. It was like, well, Love's the 31st best player in the league. It's a 30-team league. You've got to pay.

You still have to pay somebody something. True, but that felt like, hey, LeBron left. Fuck you. Let's give out $100 million to somebody else. Then if you're Kevin Love, you're like, I would love, I would love to have this happen. I'm all for paying top 30 guys,

whatever it takes. I guess my question is, would like Jamal Murray, if I'm paying him 35 million and Jokic 36 million, then I'm basically locked into those two guys as my foundation. But what do you do then?

Say, hey, you know what? Jamal Murray's not that guy. And he showed us some things in the playoffs. He, I think, improved his perception stock. What's the upside of giving somebody the extension now? I don't understand that part. Well, it worked out well for the Wizards. But why not wait a year?

What's he going to do? You still have the leverage a year from now. I feel like it's one of those this is how business is done by the people that are in the business and they just understand it. Some of the people have done the extensions early. It doesn't make any sense. Like the Ben Simmons one coming up.

Why can't you wait on that one? Like, hey, are we going to be able to see if you can shoot at all this year? And I infamously made the mistake on saying with the Sixers and Embiid before he had done that contract that had specific injury language in there where I go, you know, as much as I love him, I wonder if it'd be worth, you know,

trading him and seeing what you could get for an Embiid because I'd be horrified, right? How dare you? How did, right? So I got it wrong, screwed it up unless he doesn't stay healthy the rest of this contract. But I would be really scared about the Simmons money. I really would. And the extension stuff is already coming up today. I would be terrified. And we just talked about the Simmons money. I really would. And the extension stuff is already coming up today. I would be terrified. And we just talked about the Curry-Durant dynamic in Golden State where it was always Curry's team.

And I've said this before, but it's the same thing with Embiid and Simmons. Philly belongs to Embiid. He's the most popular guy on the team. The fans love him. He is the process.

He's the galvanizing force. It's never going to be Simmons' team. Simmons is always going to be the one they're frustrated by because he can't do this, he can't do that. Why can't he be this? Where was he in that last game? And Embiid is always going to be

the one that they just kid gloves it with, that they just love. If I was a Sixer fan, all I would have talked about for the last two months is, is he going to get in shape? Where are the pictures of you in the personal trainer? Can I see a picture of your abs? Yeah, fat guys do box jumps on Instagram. Like, give us something.

Is there a sandhill you're running up and down? Can I get that video? There's one by me, apparently, you have to reserve. Yeah. There's a couple ones. There's one in Culver City. I saw it out by Del Segundo and I went, oh my God. There's one in like pch there's one way down toward oxnard uh tons of girls there kyle but yeah and bead okay let's do the sixers thing though

because we we have we have to do deep dive on this thing okay i actually really liked what they did i can't wait to see it if you told me right now they're the favorites in the east i'm not going to tell you you're wrong anybody adding Horford is the right thing, except that there's two short-term, or excuse me, there's a short-term negative and there's long-term negative. The bill that's come and due in three years is absurd. It's probably the most expensive team

anyone's ever put together unless they trade Simmons. I don't know if they were in a playoff game next week you know crunch time playoff game what are they running what what's the action and who who's guarding Kemba Walker I'm not even as worried about that as it's like it's confusing is Ben Simmons watching Horford throw Embiid entry passes or oh I... Oh, I like where you're going here. You know, like what's Simmons doing? Or is it a strong side thing where you're actually trying... He's setting some picks.

You're trying to get shots for Harris and Richardson on the weak side? Richardson's in the corner. Horford and... Harris is in the other corner. Horford and Harris are running high screens. Or they're just kind of standing watching Embiid. And Simmons is on the other he's on the defensive end of the court he hasn't made it across he's back now he's not fair he's he's

just Bill Russell so the short term of who's the ball handler like I don't I'm not gonna tell you I love Jimmy Butler I mean he went nuclear in Chicago and I took his side he went bat shit in Minnesota and it was all calculated. And it's like, oh, hey, the jump's here too? Perfect timing. I'm going to also go on TV. When did you guys get here? Oh, let me throw on a hoodie

and share some thoughts. Yeah. And then he gets out of there and then you'd heard around the league that some teams were like, no, no way. And then the Houston thing was a joke for a couple days which didn't make any sense we were good on that at least yeah i feel like you and i uh we were pretty good on that one

yeah it is crazy anybody can just start a story now you just start anything be like the the miami is all in on yannis in years. And then that just becomes a story. Yeah. What's more valuable breaking news now or like, here's a transaction that'll probably never happen, but I heard about it. So we got 24 hours to roll with this. Clippers reevaluating all in on Giannis in 21.

Their next two years, they're just signing Greek players. There's a whole strategy. Will James Johnson be able to transition to a complimentary piece by the time they have Giannis? So, Butler, you know,

the Houston thing wasn't going to work. Butler gets his way. He gets to Miami. And I still love looking at every bad. Well, you skipped this step though. What happened to Butler and Philly? Still haven't heard. I've heard,

I've heard pieces of what I think happened. is that I'd heard, it's hard to take Jimmy's side when he's mad at everybody all the time yes but there's too much and philly fans get so mad when we do this and it's it's not it has nothing to do with andrew tony okay it's simply you it's constant around the league that the feel like people that roll in there feel like the two young guys had no rules from day one it It was the process.

They're allowed to do whatever they want. They think that I like Embiid a hell of a lot better than I like Simmons, the player. People do this stuff where it's like, well, Simmons is about the scene. He's not working. I don't know. I mean, every broadcast talks about how hard he's working the whole time on this jumper that we still don't get to see. Simmons? Yeah.

So I don't know if any of this is fair. I don want to be irresponsible here but it's a podcast we're just talking but if Jimmy Butler shows up and goes this coach stinks I want to go play for Spoh maybe he just wanted to be in Miami but is Jimmy do you want to side with Jimmy when he's looking at the young guys saying I don't know what the hell these guys are what like where where's the accountability for these two well we knew we knew he flipped out a couple times during the season yeah we know this we knew he didn't love the coach we knew he was frustrated by the young guys and how devoted they were to whatever and he clearly i mean if he if all he cared about was winning and he felt like those guys were people he could win the title with he wouldn't have left.

Especially when the report came out before, you were like, wait a minute, maybe they just offered him the Ford, so he's like, screw this. And then it came out that he won, like they were going to give him the fifth year. Tobias Harris is like, you should go, man. You should just go to Miami. You'd be so much happier there.

Spurrow. And then I thought Windhorse on that jump special did a great job on the Harris thing, because everyone loves Tobias Harris. And then they trade him. Yeah. He's been traded four times. And then he'll be traded a fifth time.

To me, the Russell contract and the Tobias Harris contract are the, you're probably not going to be here in nine months, but here's a lot of money contracts. That's why Harris, you had to give him that fifth year because I think if Harris is saying, if you think you're going four on me you think I'm going to stay here so you can trade me to someplace I don't want to go I'll just go sign

somewhere close that I want to go to but what if he said I'll do four but no trade me no trade clause first two years I think Philly's like

can you wait can you do that if you don't qualify for it though oh I don't know I don't know no trade breaks now you got to have

like 10 years or something unless it changed. Or like five years maybe? I thought it was... Yeah, you're probably right. So... Because nobody has one now, right? So Butler talks about

all he wants to do is win a title and then he goes to Miami and he's playing with you know, Justice Winslow. But clearly

wanted to be the guy in a big city and now he gets to be the guy. But this goes back to our other thing. It's like, do you want to win? Everyone wants to be the guy in a big city. And now he gets to be the guy. But this goes back to our other thing. So do you want to win? Everyone wants to be the guy. Nah, I want to win, but I kind of want to be the guy. Can I win but be the guy?

Well, if he wins in Miami, guess what? He will be the guy. Yeah. Good luck with that though. Because I still love that we've had two LeBron off seasons where the Cavs are so pissed they lost him, they gave Kevin Love $100-something million, and that when Riley lost him,

he went fucking crazy and gave the Son White side a contract he finally was able to trade, James Johnson money, the Tyler Johnson money that had already moved, the Dion Waiters contract, Kelly Olenek $13 million

the next couple of years. There was a time there where every time I'd look at Miami's cap sheet, I would just go, how did anybody do this? It reminded me of the Curry-Randolph zag when Isaiah's like, everybody's going small, we're going to go bigger.

In Miami, it was like, everybody's trying to get superstars. The real inefficiency is the $10 to $13 million guys. For multiple years. We're going to lock them down. Can we lose Tyler Johnson for $20 million a year? No. That was nuts.

That wasn't even one of the five worst contracts of that year. There were some bad ones this week, but nothing of the Evan Turner one. I'll still never forget. What was it? $37? $47? What? $70? No, that's not wrong. Portland wouldn't do that.

Portland's smart. I really liked it at the time. I'd seen enough of him. I was under the impression, incorrectly, that the cap was just going to keep going up by $20 million every year and that this was like funny money. So even when the Lakers signed Dang,

I was like, well, Dang would have been good the year before. And I was like, well, that's good. He's only like 29. Imagine Mozgov. It was like, hey, Mozgov, I knew it was bad. Is there a guy out there that is going to become extinct in a very short amount of time? Even with the number of drafts. Is there someone we can give $60 million to

that won't be able to run around on the floor in the version of basketball they're playing? And who's the quickest guy that will be the worst $60 million investor? You're like, you can't pick Ray Hibbert because he's already extinct. Who's next? Back to Philly for one second.

And apologies if anyone else has mentioned this. This is my reaction, the more I thought about it. It felt very Giannis-centric getting him. Beyond the whole backup for Embiid, he could play power forward, good culture guy. They couldn't beat Milwaukee last year. Giannis they had no answer for. They just couldn't figure out.

He overpowered everybody they had. Horford is the best I've seen at guarding Giannis in the league other than Kawhi, who they had no chance of getting. And I do wonder if that was a piece of it. If they're looking at it like, Kawhi's going to the Lakers, who do we have to get through? We have to be Milwaukee. Nobody else.

Brooklyn's not even going to be a contender for a year from now. We'll be fine with that. But we have to get through Giannis. Giannis is going to own this conference. What do we do? And that's what led to Horford. When everybody says, oh, well, you know,

if the shot doesn't go in against Kawhi, Philadelphia may have won the title. And it's like, wait a minute. I, one of my favorite memories from this past season is seeing Giannis. Destroy them. Yeah, because I remember back when I used to play,

there was this kid I hated. And whenever he was near me, I was just a different person. And for whatever reason, like Giannis reminded me of me. Yeah, I like it. I'm trying to do the worst. No, that was good. But he, like Simmons is at least like body type, right? This isn't like you're asking some 6'4 point guard to hang with Giannis.

And Giannis was almost in a hurry to disrespect him. So I think the Horford part of this, this is about two years. And when the Celtics, think about the Horford contract when the Celtics signed him three years ago. People were looking at this fourth year coming up at 30 million going, oh man, the back of that contract is going to be tough. And the Sixers just gave him the same thing again, basically, in his 36-37 season, depending on the bonuses, which if they win a championship, then it's all worth it. So the two-year thing for this, I get it. That bill is going to be nasty. Brett Brown is going

to have to figure out a way to do some stuff with this team. And you're not just going to be able to run all these amazing half-court sets. I want to know, ball in his hand, who's going to have to figure out a way to do some stuff with this team. You're not just going to be able to run all these amazing half-court sets. I want to know, ball in his hand, who's going to be that guy? Can Embiid physically do it for a seven-game series? Because there are nights where I think Embiid's the best player in the league sometimes. I want to see him in shape.

I don't trust Brett Brown. I like this Sixers team more than last year. I still think they need to find a guard because there's going to be situations when, and that was the thing with Butler, like Butler could guard Kemba Walker if he had to for three minutes. I don't know who that player is on this team now.

I don't think they're going to miss Redick. Unless it's Zyre Smith, unless it's Thibel, you know, maybe that's now. Maybe Thibel, my guy. Thibel, your guy, because now you don't need, you know, I worry about non-shooters. I certainly worry about a non-shooter next to Simmons, which Zy i are we don't think that's who he's going to be but i thought when zyra was coming out of tech he was the best athlete arguably the best athlete in the

draft or at least you know depending on how deep you want to go so maybe that's their whole plan they go wait a minute we have the two athletic guys that can guard the perimeter now we're fine speaking of my guys my guy is coming to Boston. My guy. Oh, no. Cantor. Do you even want me on for the Cantor segment? Anyone who's listening to this podcast has heard me repeatedly tell you how he's my guy over the last three months.

He was my guy, helped Portland get to the conference finals. I got to say, I would have rather had come on Looney. I thought that was like the best contract of the entire summer so far. I don't understand how Looney goes 15. First of all, I test. I thought he was like a high-level defensive player in the playoffs and could switch on people, was in the right spots, right time, never did anything he couldn't do.

He played with like a really, really horrible injury that nobody plays with that you just peck thing like watching him in person or whatever it was like a shoulder clavicle he was like dying what a fucking word that watching that guy in person go through that when i came back out i'm like this guy he would he would line up on the free throw line to box out and i'm going oh that guy's dying right now. Here's a Looney theory for you. Do you think that NBA front offices get so sick of watching fucking games that they didn't notice that Looney got a lot better

and it was more pronounced in the playoffs before he got hurt? Because he was actually bad for a while. Yeah, I agree. He was always able to switch a little, but his finishing around the rim was atrocious. Just awful. But here's the thing, though.

The advanced metrics were as favorable for him as any player in the league that it wasn't like a superstar. I'm trying to think of the teams that don't. There are five-man lineups with him in different combinations, regular season and playoffs. Stats, I don't even like that much. RPM and shit like that. It was just like when he's on the court, they're better by any calculation. And the eye test backed it up for me.

I thought he was the perfect fifth guy for them. I saw the plus minus stuff floating around today. That's not entirely fair when you talk about the team. I don't love plus minus. Your plus minus would be pretty good. But my point is... Did you just give yourself a ton of credit right there? No, I said your plus minus wouldn't be that good with the four Warriors guys. I felt like it would be pretty good with. But my point is... Would you just give yourself a ton of credit right there? No, I said your plus minus wouldn't be that good

with the four Warriors guys. I felt like it'd be pretty good. Oh, I thought you meant from like a podcast standpoint. No, no, no. Your podcast plus minus is great. Thank you. I don't love plus minus, but my point is I test and advanced metrics merge for me

where it's like, oh, so I'm seeing this, but it's also getting backed up by this other stuff so let's go back to canter two years 10 million it's one year it's one well he's he he'll opt out of the second year oh it's a player yeah all right and he still couldn't find a way to not turn it into a thing everything is a thing with him every single thing so then he he gets here's i was told everything that happened okay he was the first call portland made yeah it was the first call so they were actually doing the hey let's show him respect but he was a buyout so what they offered him is all they could have offered him which ended up being the same thing the celtics signed him for by the

way yeah and then he posts this woe is me pay attention. I only had six minutes and then they moved on. Yeah. And whatever. And then it turned out it was way more than six minutes. Damian Lillard was with Neil O'Shea, the GM. Yeah. And then Lillard posts was like, no, maybe six minutes past the original 45 that you gave him. And then I'd heard a story about somebody asking for like a two-way contract for a buddy.

And you just go, you have the- Was it DeAndre Jordan? People are like, DeAndre Jordan wins most popular at next year's NBA award show. They're paying him $40 million to be like a member of the entourage. Right. And Jared Allen- Did anyone watch him play basketball last year? He's done.

He's done. I've never seen a guy move less that actually used to be athletic than Gianni Giordano. Did he take the year off? Is that possible? He took it off, but I don't know if it was calculated. He was really intentional or not. Four years, 40. I thought the Jared Wallace contract. Remember when they did that with, he's close

to Darren Williams. Got to get him. It's like, never do that. Glenn Davis. Glenn Davis, Glenn Davis loves Dwight Howard. I like Cantor. I would have rather had Looney. I still, the thing for me is,

I still haven't been able to find out, are they getting anything back from this Kemba sign-in trade? Because I was hoping they got Bismack Biambo back because he's been expiring. And then in February,

you can take that with the Memphis pick and get one more real guy and then contend for the conference because there's still a guy away. You're not winning with the team you have now. But at least they're going to be fun. I mean, Kemba on Newberry Street

signing autographs for the kids. That's what works in Boston. Yeah. Just own being in the city. Do stuff like that. Play your fucking ass off and people are going to love you intensely. Talk less. Yeah.

Yeah. Talk less about mind control. Yeah. Don't do fucking weird. Instagram posts, refuse to sign autographs, be addicted teammates, then go on a cross country plane flight and be like, guys, I've been a dick to teammates, then go on a cross-country plane flight

and be like, guys, I've been a dick. I'm sorry. We're turning around today. And then two weeks later, you're a dick again. Like that stuff doesn't work in Boston. Sorry. It probably doesn't work in a lot of cities. Should we do a little on Portland though

on the other side of this? Because I think they were in a spot where they're like, what are we going to do? Right? They don't have a ton of flexibility. Canter thing doesn't work out, which they gave him more than six minutes. They pivot to

Rodney Hood. I think they were pumped to be able to retain him after Hood probably played his best stretch that we've ever seen in high-stakes stuff, certainly, in the playoffs. What, did he get an eight million? Yeah, no. I thought he did a two. We don't have to talk about Portland. Chris Haynes summed it up on Twitter.

Neil O'Shea with some incredible moves this offseason. Adding Hassan Whiteside to the mix without giving up a core piece is masterful. Phoenix is, Portland is a real championship contending force. Has he seen Hassan Whiteside play in the last three years? No, because he doesn't play a ton lately. He was out in Miami, but that's an expiring... Do people think Hassan Whiteside's going to play for Portland?

Yeah, no. Portland thinks he's going to play for Portland. Here's the thing. I didn't know that he and Dame Lillard are buddies. Apparently, Lillard is that guy that is so great to have as the face of the franchise. When Hassan played there, I guess he would stay with him.

I never knew any of that. So this actually might work out. I wouldn't bet on it. Miami would have traded this guy to anybody in the league who took the contract. I would say he was a top. John Wall's the most available contract.

Chris Paul's probably two. Hassan's three. Cantor, four. Cantor. They lost all their wings. They lost Am Canter. They lost all their wings. They lost Aminu. They lost Harkless. And Seth Curry,

they lost some shooting too. I don't, people are saying Portland's better. I don't see it. I think they went sideways. I think Utah's better. But Utah's now the sexy. Why aren't,

why shouldn't they be sexy? Well, they should be. But here's the thing. I'm saying this out there to all the media people out there you're no longer allowed to say dramatically you know who's really good Utah

you know who people aren't talking enough about Utah because we just talked about them for three days everybody knows they're good you're not breaking revelations here you know who Scott Van Pelt is right by the way, new pod. Because a lot of people,

after you did the live Manhattan Beach podcast, it was you, me, Cowherd. Yeah. People were like, you should throw Van Pelt in the mix. Yeah. And then it pivoted into an ego ranking segment. Oh, my God. Between you, me, Cowherd, Van Pelt.

I could argue anyone for the one seed and anyone for the, well, there's a couple guys that aren't four seeds that's bullshit i feel like i'm a four seed you think you're clearly the four seed you think you have less of an ego than all three of us like you just you just gave it i think i have an ego because i thought i didn't have an ego so i probably maybe i'm the one seed now on social media because we actually brought it up on SportsCenter last night we actually did we teased the podcast by saying hey next time we're going to rank the four egos

and we said it on SportsCenter and this is what I love about Van Pelt's brand is everybody had him everyone had him fourth that's incredible everybody said like, without question,

Scott's fourth on that list, ego-wise. So just engaging in your Twitter replies with random strangers is good for your ego? Somebody was ripping, like Scott complimented Woj. Woj was an absolute cyborg on Sunday.

Okay? I can't imagine having to compete with that guy. And he was off in a little room. I know where he was on Bristol's campus and he was off to the side and he's got the phone and he's got the deal and he doesn't want anybody to bug him. And he's like, like, you know, he's, he's getting stuff done. Right. And so Van Pelt took a picture of him and Woj likes SVP. So I, you know, I'm sure it was cool. So he posted like, Hey, kudos to this guy, giving him props for the great day a rando on twitter goes big deal all he does is hit send on tweets it's not that hard to get the information out there oh no scott's

like are you kidding and then even conceded a little bit like yes but the the contacts the relationships whatever like the guy who's at the top of his game in a way that's like, I don't know that I've ever seen what Woj just did on Sunday. Yeah. And I wanted to go to Scott, but then I knew I'd get into a fight with him. But I'd be like, definitely argue with this random guy more

about whether or not Woj is valuable on a Sunday because that seems like a good five minutes. He's like the sheriff from social media. Ego ranking. I think Portland went sideways. I think Utah is the one that clearly jumped. Golden State, can they linger and get a seven seed? Maybe.

Could Klay come back on March 30th and be a playoff guy for them and they could at least be frisky in the playoffs. Who would you write right off in the West? I only have Memphis and Houston's running it back. Yeah. I mean, I would write off the Clippers if they don't get anybody. She's kind of, but I'm just saying right now, like the golden state thing, I felt like the first two months, they're

going to be really bad. This is just a theory, right? For the first time in six years, nothing is at stake the way it's been before. So how do you get up for it? But the thing is though, we learned this with the 94 bulls with the year after Jordan left that when that infrastructure is that strong, you can kind of survive for a little while in the regular season. I don't, I could, I could actually see them being better than we think, not worse, for like three months. And then if they can just kind of hold for it until Klay comes back. Trayvon in a contract year will be great.

Looney taking a step up. Curry having like the MVP year. Everybody getting excited about that. Russell gives it. There's a path for them to win like 45. Yeah, I could also see them saying. Punt? Not punt, but just we're not as locked in.

We're not as motivated. And, you know, let's see how the first 20, 30 games go and we'll see what happens. Or maybe Russell goes off. You know, I don't know. I do think Iguodala was incredibly important

for them behind the scenes and was there the whole time and was completely unselfish an adult all that stuff and when you remove completely unselfish people from a small basketball team that can go badly can we just also clear up like i know the breakfast club had a lot of fun with us that iguodala comes on criticizes the medical thing, and then he gets traded. And it's like, how do you think it works? Do you think Golden State said, hey, do you want to pay D'Angelo

Russell $117 million? No. I think it made it easier for them to trade him, though. I don't think it had anything to do with it. Well, I would go the other way. I would say maybe he says that stuff because he knows. Okay, that's fine. But what it turned into on social media is that Iguodala criticizes Golden State. They bounce him to Memphis.

It's like, or they obtained a 23-year-old all-star in a four-year contract that they see as an asset in a way they'd never be able to add anything like that once the summer was over. Or he knew he was getting traded. And that's why he said that stuff. I'm okay with that part of it. But that's not the way it was playing out on out social media is that it was too much fun to be like he criticized him and then he paid a price the better social media narrative was joe laker inexplicably saying he was going to uh retire durant's number and everybody's saying like

parentheses please don't sue us like i thought I thought that was funny. Because I think that might have been a part of it. Before we go, a couple of email questions. Let's take one more quick break. Hey, there are over 2 million burglars reported every year. Is that possible? One every 13 seconds. What's crazy is that only one in five homes have home security. Maybe because most companies really don't make it that easy.

Look, it's a pain in the butt. It's a pain in the butt to do anything. You have to go research it. You don't know where you're going to sign up. Maybe you have to call somebody. I mean, look at Kyle. It took him how many years to get TSA? Oh, geez. I still don't have TSA. Are you still not? See, that's the thing. It's hard. It's hard to just suck it up and say, I'm going to do this. That's why SimpliSafe is my top choice. Hands down.

They protect your whole home. Every window, room and door 24 seven monitoring for just a fraction of the cost to make it easy on you. No contract, hidden fees or fine print around the clock monitoring, just $15 a month. Plus designed to blend right into your home. No wires, no drilling. No wonder it's won a ton of awards from the likes of CNET

and the New York Times' Wirecutter. Visit simplisafe.com slash BS, get free shipping and a 60-day risk-free trial. You've got nothing to lose. Go now, simplisafe.com slash BS so they know we sent you SimpliSafe with two I's,

simplisafe.com slash BS. A couple of email questions. Joseph wants to know, relative to their best potential outcomes, who had the worst year, the 2019 Knicks or 2002 Rosillo? And he also mentions there are odd similarities in Ryan's girlfriend rejecting his proposal,

parentheses, KD, Kawhi, every other consequential free agent, and then dating his friend, parentheses, orD, Kawhi, every other consequential free agent, and then dating his friend, parentheses, or in case, neighbor, Brooklyn. Damn. Pretty good. Joseph, put some thought into this. Really well done.

Okay, the Knicks still have some money to spend. I did not. Although, there's more KDs out there for me in my world. You know, you could say post-KD, I went LeBron for a little while, and that's not happening for the Knicks. So split. Very fair. Ryan Erickson wants to know, are we missing a key point with KD shunning the Knicks? DeAndre Jordan. Got traded to the Knicks, reports of being bought out so he could sign with the playoff team. He

said, no, I want to stay here, which was an odd move. All the while, KD to the Knicks buzzed the sky high. Conspiracy theory. DeAndre was KD's mole on the Knicks. Stuck around to feel it out. Free agency rolled around. DeAndre gave KD the thumbs down. KD joined the Nets. DeAndre got $40 million for his trouble.

What are your thoughts, Conspiracy Bill? I'll bring in Conspiracy Ryan for this one. That's pretty good. I'd feel bad saying that's not true. I just want to know more about the Kyrie part of it, though. Did Kyrie say to KD, hey, I actually want to go to Brooklyn, and KD was down with it? Because one of the things I heard of the pushback on the Kyrie-KD thing

and all the different versions that I'd heard of this over the year was that Kyrie didn't want anyone, you know, and all the different versions that I'd heard of this over the year was that Kyrie didn't want anyone to think that KD was influencing him and blah, blah, blah, blah, and all that stupid whose team is it.

That combo should go great. Well, the Celtics knew like four weeks ago, four or five weeks ago that Kyrie was recruiting free agents for Brooklyn. So my guess is... Was that during...

Was that game two or game three of the Milwaukee series? It might have been at halftime. So my guess is... Was that during... Was that game two or game three in the Milwaukee series? It might have been at halftime. But my guess is maybe Kyrie and KD together

weren't... wasn't really that realistic if Kyrie's out there trying to recruit other free agents. That's... Yeah.

Because people seem to think now that they had planned to play together for the whole season. I don't know if I believe that one. Danny from Vermont.

Great place, Vermont. Was just up there last weekend. Yeah, I'm headed there a little bit. So green and happy. It's pleasurable. Maple syrup. You got a place up there? No.

I went there for a wedding. Danny from Vermont points out, on last week's podcast, we broke our nine straight podcasts mentioning Kevin Herter streak. Kevin Herter. So he was somehow keeping track. Apparently we had mentioned Herter nine straight times.

And then last week, for some reason, we didn't. If I had known, I would have taken a shot. I didn't know that at all. Well, we were 47 away from DiMaggio. In order to salvage that, he wants to know realistically, how much money do you think Charlotte would have paid Herter instead of Terry Rozier? If Rozier got 58, is Herter like 80? How do you pay Rozier 58? I think it's one of the worst signings of any of the things that happened this week. I think of the decade.

If I had told you what's a better price for Roger 5.8 million or 58 million, wouldn't you have said 5.8? I mean, that would have been too low. Yeah, right, right. But it's less low than the 58 is high, right? Has anybody ever made an absurd amount of money because he kind of got relegated? I feel like if he had to play another full year, he would have made less.

But since he was in this kind of ridiculous situation, and look, he's not Kyrie's. He wasn't going to play as much. He's behind Smart. And then whichever one of the bigger young guys was going to play the off-guard position. Do you want my dad's scouting report? Because we had a friend who was,

we had a friend who roots for a team that was like, hey, what about Roger? Should we go after him? This is my dad. He's 72. Don't hold it against him. My dad's scouting report on Roger. Incredibly selfish.

Shoot first and pass only if you can't shoot point guard. Who will keep shooting threes until he makes one. Parentheses. 0 for 10 in threes in conference finals, game seven, Cleveland. Kept shooting anyway, end parentheses. Plays good defense, good rebounder for a guard.

Pouts if he isn't playing major minutes and is on my list of least favorite Celtics ever. Please take him. That was my dad on Terry Rozier. So he wouldn't have given him 58. So good luck, Charlie. Not a bit on the bidding for him. Herder, I don't know. 80?

78? A year. No, a year? Can he be the face of a franchise? Can Herder be a one? Definitely a franchise. Next year. Might not be in America.

Carl Forsman just brings up the point. Somebody gave me Herder's cell phone number. You got to be buddies with him. I don't know what to do with it. But see, that's the thing. Somebody aggregated a thing I'd said about Kyrie, and it was like Ryan Russillo said Celtics teammates had told him. I'm like, do you honestly think any of these guys in their 20s?

Like Jalen Brown is going, hey, Russillo, hang out. The non-white guys are like you know who I gotta get with so maybe Herter and I would hit it off but Herter might be like dude you're 100

I wanna hang out with you in Buckhead Carl Forsman wants to know why is everybody acting like the Knicks were crazy not to offer KD the max KD at 32 coming off an Achilles

and then two years later he's gonna be worth 41 million what if this is Hayward but way worse there are I think it's a good corner for Knicks fans to be like yeah hey man we've had 20 years of bad luck we're not signing a guy coming off an Achilles I disagree with it but I just I feel like whenever you're trying to put together okay so wait a minute

so he's he'll be 31 in september so he'll be coming back at 32 i just noticed a couple people have thrown around a 33 like whenever you're trying to make your point on a guy an injury adding years yeah like i love when guys who do what we do just add two years to a guy's age to try to win the argument you're like you know you know, the thing about LeBron, he's going to be 44, and you're like, what? 10 years from now. What happened? Will from Charlotte says,

Lifetime Hornets fan here. There's like 30 of us. Kemba News is worse than any of the dumpster fire seasons this franchise has put together. It's well known that we have an incompetent owner in our front office. But why aren't we taking more shit for not trading Kemba at All-Star Weekend or right after the trade deadline if they knew they weren't going to offer him the max

and he was going to leave? Or is this just complete lack of foresight? I would say complete lack of foresight. But it is interesting. They probably should have traded him in February if they knew they weren't going to resign him. So I did a hit on a radio station down there, and then a guy followed up with me, and they'd ask the question.

They'd go, down here, everybody. Now, I don't know. What does that mean? Is everybody just repeating everybody else that, oh, you should have traded him, you should have traded him? Because if there was a deal on the table where they were getting some kind of asset back that they liked, whether it's a younger player who's not going to be projected

to be an all-star, nobody's going to trade him, or two firsts, you know, one's protected heavily, one's kick it down the road, or two firsts that are un him. Or two firsts, you know, one's protected heavily, one's kick it down the road. Or two firsts, they're unprotected in the 20s. You know, that kind of thing. And it's not about the five years, 221, because he admitted, I'm not going to get that. He said he would take less.

He probably wanted the five for 190. And then when it comes for five south of 170, and then you start going, well, wait a minute, then I'll just go somewhere else, four for 141. If there was a person, whether it's Jordan or if it was the business people or the marketing people that didn't want to be embarrassed of not having Kemba on the team for All-Star weekend after the All-Star fiasco of a couple of years ago, if that was the deciding factor in not trading Kemba, then those people should be fired. So I was thinking about it, because this all sounds great.

You'd be like, well, what was the trade? Who's the team? Exactly. I have to know that there was a trade for me to be that upset about it, but I'm just saying if there was, it was like, we don't want him not around here on the All-Star weekend. That's such a short-term decision for a long-term screw-up. Philadelphia, instead of Tobias Harris, if they gave a lot of that stuff for Kemba, could have changed the equation last summer.

They gave up two fires, sham it. Whatever else was in that trade got Kemba back. Kemba is only making $12 million, so it wouldn't have taken that much with the salaries to even make it work. Maybe Fultz is in there. That's a better trade than tobias harris i also think kemba for kairi would have been interesting if the celtics like fuck this guy we got to get him out of here here take kairi and we'll give you the sacramento pick the

14th pick and you just rent kairi for two months and he can be yeah because they know they're not resigning yeah then we know we know he's not coming back, so fuck it. That would have been interesting too. But then, wait a minute. Just to play it forward though, does that... I don't know if the Celtics

would have factored this stuff in. Do you sit there and go, hey, if we trade for him, but then he makes all NBA third team, then now we're on the hook. Then we have the super maximum. Right, we're on the hook for next year. I don't even know if a team would,

like that would be really smart to think of it. I'm only thinking about it after it happened. But would you factor that into the trade and be like, hey, he's going to be more expensive if we actually trade for him? If the Hornets knew they weren't going to pay Kemba in February, they should trade him. Just fact.

I don't know where he would have gone, but they should trade him. Sam Hansen, New Zealand wants to know, will Kyrie be the first NBA star to get vehemently booed by two franchises he's played for during the first Nets game in Boston? The answer is no. Chris Weber. Vehemently booed in Washington, vehemently booed in Golden State.

So congrats, C-Web. Jim Corner? Ooh. so congrats c web uh jim corner oh um i know that you're really excited about a new product do we not do we not want to talk about this is a new video idea that was submitted to jim corner that i gave the okay on no we we can't we can't tell that's a summer surprise all right all right you're excited for that though very i love i love when a plan comes together and i really think we got something here um but i don't know he doesn't even know what it is he's excited but i love when a plan comes together i get what you're saying man um how's how's your uh left shoulder right elbow. Bad. So I had a really bad pulled muscle the other day, right in the middle of the workout.

And I still went to re-rack my weights. Shout out to DJ Equinox. Great trainer. Really good guy. Yeah. Seems to like me. And I started pulling the plates off and he just walked over.

I was like, hey, go in the back and see the doctor like stop racking stuff we appreciate like that's how much i care about being courteous in a gym yeah so i'm your number one guy for that and i was at massive massive muscle strain in the back and i'm i'm trying to pull these plates and i wasn't it wasn't even that heavy and then i went in the back and the guy was like, all sorts of different vertebrae were out all up and down my spine. And we popped them all back in

and I'm sure by now they've all popped back out. So I'm going to give it a go here very shortly. I'm going to go across the street and see what happens. Yeah, we're wrapping up. I'll admit though, my gym lately has been on fire, Kyle. To me, yeah.

Just, it's, I'm not a gym guy who like hits on girls i don't know that i've ever asked a girl out at the gym i don't think i ever have if somebody knows that i i don't think i have ever i just don't know what to do i don't want to be hit on it's that Seinfeld episode really ruined Jim hitting on. Jimmy? Jimmy likes Elaine. I would always get bummed out when Elaine would lower her standards for a different storyline guy she would date on the show. Elaine was all over the place. Because I loved Elaine. I was in love with her both as a person,

but also I thought she was fucking hot. Yeah, totally. Like that was, you would just walk around in the early mid nineties, be like, I just want to find Elaine tonight. And you never would. You'd find Elaine, but it was like Elaine as Blake Lively in the town,

but not as cute. I tried to find Blake Lively in the town and I never, I never was able, like I was always kind of like surprised, like, how come I can't just like find some girl from Medford with like an Orient green Jersey on that's from Models. That's not even like a good one with like the streak, Jennifer Aniston hair, where it was like the, the opposite streaks. Like I expected, you know, my couple, my buddies are like, you're doing Celtics post game. Like you would think that'd be a layup because those are always the girls that you kind of wanted to hang out with,

but you didn't want to tell anybody. And when you find out they don't have a two year old kid, you're sick. Yeah. I watched at the town parts of it again. I can't wait to do the rewatchables, but I feel like it's, so we're doing that.

It's you, me and Chris Ryan. It's been booked where it's running in a, it looks like beginning of August. Is there a problem with me on the rewatchables? Not at all. Or was it you were just afraid to ask me to do stuff that I might not want to do? No, because I kept asking, and you kept saying,

I want to do Fear with Mark Wahlberg. I don't know. You and I breaking down the rollercoaster scene just didn't seem like a great idea. Presented by Voodoo. Yeah, but what if he says, like, Mr. Walker. I was just watching a movie where the fear scene was in there. Oh, it was Euphoria. Is that show any good?

What's going on? I'm hearing a lot of stuff. I want you to catch up on it so we can do. Are we two in? We can do Throne Game, but for Euphoria. I don't know if I can handle that. I don't know. I don handle that. I don't know. I don't want to start having to do Ecstasy.

It's an insane show. It's for Kyle's generation. That's what I'm hearing. You know what was good? A lot of dicks. That's what I'm hearing. That was the stat I was wondering about. Basically, it sounded like they were like,

what's the dick record? Let's triple it. Yeah, they were like, it was almost like Maury with the Rockets. Like, how many threes can you take in a game? What if we dick record? Let's triple it. Yeah, they were like, it was like Maury with the Rockets. Like, how many threes can you take in a game? What if we take 50? So, you know what I really liked? I watched the pilot of the Roger Ailes thing.

Yeah, that was great. Look, Russell Crowe in this Roger Ailes role is off the charts, first of all. But the way they did it, like, I'm all the way in. Somebody told me, you're going to love it, and I didn't know, and then I watched it, and I'm like, all right, I'm totally in. Oh, it's 1-1. 1-1. Oh, shit, we got to go. England-USA 1-1. How did

England score before we did? I can't believe you went this long not watching the beginning of the game. This is your thing. Well, I was really in our conversation. Also, I'm going to re-watch with my daughter tonight, so i didn't didn't a million percent care um send out some rapino tweets fit in you love social media pandering it's one of your favorite quarters especially with soccer because it's like how i sent out it's been 10 minutes since I've sent out an awesome soccer tweet. Fuck. People are going to think I'm not down. Ryan Russillo, you have one more

dual threat coming up this... Today. We're taping it today. We'll be out later this week. Today, that's it. It's going to be awesome. And then you're coming to the Vegas Live Show on Saturday. The tickets are long gone. Then we're done, aren't we? Tickets are long gone. Then we're pretty much done. There's nothing else to happen. I guess we have the town this summer gone. Then we're done, aren't we? Tickets are long gone. Then we're pretty much done. Yeah, there's nothing else to happen.

I guess we had the town this summer. Yeah, we'll do that this summer. This was a really fun, nice little basketball run for us. I really enjoyed it. It was great. I knew it would be fun. It went even better. But I have a nice little Ryan time run coming up here now.

It was great. You got to get back to getting your body in tune, getting healthy, getting ready for the season. Maybe Bali, some sort of muscle thing. Exploratory. Is it a surf camp or something? Thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me, man.

All right. Thanks to Rosillo. Thanks to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go check them out. ZipRecruiter.com slash BSZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. Thanks to Whole Lotta, a tasty new fruit, nut, and seed bar from Cliff Bar. Soft-baked snack bar. All the goodness you want, like pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, dried cherries, or ginger. None of the stuff you don't want. No gluten, soy, dairy, added sugar. Plus, packed with 10 grams of plant-based protein. Visit cliffbar.com slash BS for 35% off a trial pack of Cliff Bar's new whole lot of bars, clifbar.com slash BS. Thanks to SimpliSafe.

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Hey, enjoy the rest of the week. If you miss my voice for whatever reason, I don't know why you would, but go listen to our rewatchables feed. It's great. Bill Hader, No Country for Old Men, Chris Ryan, myself. That is going up on July 3rd,

and it was a really fun one. So enjoy the holiday. Go USA women. Take it home for us. And we'll see you probably Sunday night or Monday. I don't have feelings within On the wayside I'm a bruised soul I never was I don't have feelings within