The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Worst NBA Contracts Draft With Joe House and Big Wos

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House and Wosny Lambre for the third annual NBA Worst Contracts Draft. One by one, they draft the worst NBA contracts in 2024. Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Wosny Lambre and Joe House Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, terrible NBA contracts. The draft is here next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this, it's game day, all the gang's here. You're tailgating outside the stadium. It's a great time for beer. Or how about when you're standing at the grill and the smell of sizzling burgers is in the air? Moments like that. Or when you want a light beer that tastes like beer, that's delicious. You don't want to load up on those heavier beers and then you only have two of them.

Then you feel tired. Your stomach feels full. Miller Lite, it's your friend. It just accompanies whatever else you're doing. You're super happy with it. Opening an ice cold Miller Lite can signal the beginning of Miller time. Miller Lite is the light beer with all the great beer tastes we like. 90 calories per 355 mil can.

So why not grab some Miller Lites today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday night NHL hockey. And it's on Prime. All season long, watch Prime Monday night hockey deliver unreal plays, the biggest goals,

can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL's best. They're all on Prime. Prime Monday night hockey. It's on Monday. It's on Prime. We're also brought to you

by the Ringer Podcast Network. Put up a new Rewatchables on Monday night. We did Risky Business. Me and Chris Ryan had an absolutely great time. Go check that out. You can check out all the videos from the Rewatchables and all the shorts, as well as all the stuff from this podcast, videos and shorts, on youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. And we launched a TikTok channel just in time for the ban. If you want to follow this podcast on TikTok, it is at BillSimmonsPod.

So check it out on the TikTok. Maybe we can last like a week. I don't know. We'll see how long it goes. Not going to do anything on the Celtics Suns tonight because the Celtics killed the Suns. And I'm absolutely loving this Jalen Brown season. We've talked about it a bunch of times on this podcast,

but man, he is just bringing it night after night after night. Spoiler alert. He is not drafted in the worst contracts draft we're about to do with Big Waz, Wazden Lambree, and Joe House. This is the third annual. Can't wait to get to it. Before we do, I just want to mention, I really want the Patriots to sign Mike Williams.

Can they just do that? I looked up, I was on StatHead looking up all the receivers since 2018 who have caught at least 25 touchdowns and played at least 70 games. And there are only 14 of them, including Mike Williams, who somehow gets the rap as being injury prone and he can't stay healthy. Well, at the end of the 2022 season, he had hit in the back in week 18, really, really hard hit and ended up getting knocked out for the playoffs, but he played that whole season. And then last year, tore his ACL in week three as he was getting tackled, I think by three guys and just got pushed and his knee went out.

But he's still 29 years old and I just really want the Patriots to sign him. I think he's, I just feel like he's good value. He'll be ready for the start of this season. I want the Pats to do something. Spend some money, for God's sakes. All right, here we go. Worst NBA contracts draft. Me, House, Wise next.

First, our friends from ProJet. All right, we're doing it again. Third annual worst NBA contracts draft. I think two years ago we tried to be nice and call it the regrettable contracts, but we're not going to be nice. What do we care? Let's call it what it is. These are the worst. This is our crew.

Big Waz is back. Joe House is here. Nobody has more experience with bad NBA contracts than Joe House. You've lived it how many years? 35 years of your life, bad contracts? Every single year, it seems like we might be out from under it. And then there's a new, brand new arrival, a new candidate, a new signing. And it just keeps on coming. It's in perpetuity here in the nation's capital. By the way, Bill, these contracts are

signed. Generations of these guys' families will be able to enjoy this money. I think it's okay if we call them bad contracts because these guys are overpaid. I think it's okay. Yeah, and that's an important thing to say at the top. We are not talking about these people as people. Yeah. We are only talking about them as assets on an NBA team and what they're worth and whether a franchise decided they were worth more than they're paying the person. And that's where we are right now, where we have guys that might be

worth 10 million. And for some reason they're getting 30 a year. They're guys that maybe should have a $40 million four-year deal. And for some reason it's 120. And we're going to point out all those. What we do, we do a draft. Waz has gone first the last two years in a row. House always passes up the sandwich pick, even though he loves sandwiches. So you're going to go second. But I'm going to go third and then have the first pick back.

So we do snake fashion. Do you guys remember who the first picks were in 2022 and 2023? Do you remember who you picked, Waz? Yeah. Let's hear Waz say it. I would assume it was either Bradley Bill or Ben Simmons. No. No. You went off the board quickly.

You blew House's mind. You took Davis Bertans. You did it. The number one pick. And House was furious. House thought he was getting them. And everyone thought, I think you were going Westbrook. Last year, here was what the order was.

Ben Simmons went first. Okay. Bradley Beal second. Duncan Robinson was our third pick. And that's the thing about the worst contracts draft. Sometimes it lights a little flame under somebody. Sometimes they play themselves out of the draft. Duncan Robinson, a valuable guy for Miami this year.

So kudos to him. Duncan Robinson was playing so bad, Bill, that they pulled his podcast from him. They said, you can't even podcast anymore. You're playing so bad. Well, he's back. Bertons was fourth. And then Rudy Gobert was our fifth pick. Another guy who's not going to be drafted probably

today. Towns, Collins, Young, Jordan Poole was ninth and Evan Fournier was our 10th pick. So a couple things for the listeners. If somebody's on an expiring contract makes them less valuable, that doesn't mean Waz isn't going to take Klay Thompson at some point even though he's got three months left on his deal. He still might take them, but

that expiring deal makes them a little less gamey for us. And then the other thing I just want to mention at the top house, less bad contracts, like less long bad ones than we used to have. And it's just, I think, cause the terms are shorter. The athletes are more willing to bet on themselves. Like, didn't you notice there's just less? Yeah. I felt like, you know, one of the wrinkles that we're going to try and incorporate, there might be some speculation coming into the upcoming free agent season. As I look down the list of guys that are going to be free agents, I was like, you know what? I don't really see any of these guys as candidates for gross overpays. You mean except LeBron James? Well, that's a matter of debate.

42-year-old LeBron James making $60 million a year. Maybe it won't be a gross overpay, I don't know. Do you think lebron comes up in this draft i mean just so the listeners know we have added an addendum in the sense of anticipating guys who are going to get deals that end up looking ridiculous this upcoming summer which is only man that's only like four months from now right so four months from now there's some guys that are in line for some pretty cool raises for them and their families that might look nasty the second after the ink dries on that.

Well, we can only guess, but we can guess that Pascal Siakam is going to get a max or close to a max. Yeah. We can guess that OG Ananobi is going to get a max or close to a max. We can guess that LeBron is getting at least 100 million for the next two years combined probably probably um yeah

he's angling for a third year uh we'll see if he gets it you know that las vegas franchise isn't gonna pay for itself so he's definitely angling for a third year. But yeah, LeBron is in line. Yeah, you already said Siakam. Those are the big ones. Harden's going to get paid. Oh, shit. I forgot about Harden.

Yeah, Ballmer's definitely paying him. He's going to get paid. So James Harden's extension is on the board, if anyone wants to take that. Oh, yeah. Wow. Absolutely. Let's go. Where's Contracts Draft?

Let's do it. Waz, lead us off. Who do you have? So this one, it was definitely a little bit of, I had to fight with myself about what the pick would be because there are guys who have more money left on their deal but are quality you could say players at their position um and so while they're a bit underwater on the contract meaning they're probably getting paid 10 15 million more than they should um and they're gonna have that

over the course of the next two to three seasons. How is this already laughing? Excited. But then there are guys who are complete zeros. Yeah. When they don't play and when they do, they're negative. And that's why my first pick is Ben Simmons, who's over $40 million. That's a relief. Oh, I was so worried.

Next year. Next year, Ben Simmons is going to get $40 million. And the reason why I didn't pick him over guys like Levine or Beal or some of these other guys who are going to quickly come off the board, the Nets are trying to be good right now. Yeah, because they don't have their pick. They actually needed Ben Simmons. And they're paying him $40 million this year and $40 million next to not play.

And when he does play, he's effectively a backup center, guys. They're paying a backup center $40 million next year. $78 million this year and next year. He was the second pick in last year's draft house. So last year we did a whole thing about bad contract or sad contract. Right. That's a nice thing. Lonzo Ball. Lon whole thing about bad contract or sad contract. Right. That's a nice thing.

Lonzo Ball. Lonzo Ball, bad contract, but also like a sad contract. Like it's not his fault. Is Ben Simmons a bad contract or a sad contract for you? It's both. And honestly, it's wonderful that we are doing this draft on the same day that it's reported that Ben Simmons had his surgery on his back for the second time in three years. The news came out today. Ben Simmons has played in 57 games since the Nets acquired him during the 2021-2022 season. No, go back further. He's played in 57 games since the Hawks series in 2021. fine which was three years ago and he missed games due

to his mental health uh issue apparently which is a funny way of saying i don't want to play basketball unless uh you trade me and he's missed games because he allegedly hurt himself trying to get himself into shape for the season whenever it was that he decided to return to professional basketball. This is a dude who just doesn't want to play. He's changed agencies.

He doesn't want to play basketball. He could take that $40 million that he's going to get next year, the last time he will ever get anything like that in terms of money and go back to australia i don't know how they feel about him there could he join could he be a like a you know get on the national team in australia play for them is that a path to rehabilitation he can't play in the nba he doesn't want to play in the nba and so honestly we're going to be bidding him a bon voyage i believe yeah this is this is the end of

the the line for ben simmons because his deal will be finally mercifully uh for the brooklyn nets expiring next year and the simmons thing is so crazy because it took another bizarre turn last week or maybe a week and a half ago when his agent came out and said guys it's my fault Ben Simmons isn't playing yeah I didn't do the due heard of this in my life. A guy's agent came out and is taking the bullets because Ben Simmons treatment wasn't taken seriously enough. Well, I figured Ben was going to be one of our top two picks and actually did some, did some research trying to figure out,

was there an exact moment that this went sideways? Cause doc had said on one of my pods, he was like that Atlanta series when they started fouling him. And I saw it in his eyes and he was never the same after they did that. So I actually went back and I was like, is that true? In the 2021 Washington series house. If you remember Russell Westbrook

my guy my guy so you're down 3-0 in game 4 in Washington and they start doing hack of Ben trying to get back in the game they end up they're up 2 with like

you can go watch it on YouTube they're up 2 with like 2 plus minutes left and they intentionally fouled Ben Simmons after he gets a rebound. I think he makes one and misses the other, but so now the seed's planted. He averaged in that Washington series in five games, 15,

10, and 9. He almost averaged a triple double. You go to the Atlanta series, that drops to 6, 7, and 9. And the key game was that game five that Doc mentioned. Phillies up, they're up 51-31 in the first half. They're up like 26 in the second half and Atlanta comes back and wins. But one of the things that happens, second quarter, Phillies up 20, Atlanta starts fouling Ben Simmons and he misses seven of his next eight free throws and he's never the same. So it's like, I I'm sure physically there's some issues.

I think stress has some, some stuff to do with back issues, which I personally experienced, but he finished that last three games of the Atlanta series, six, seven, and nine, seven for 20 from free throws. And then for the rest of his career since, he's made zero threes, 31 for 72 from the charity straight. So his last 92 free throws, he's made 38 was,

38 for 92, making high 30s. To me, there might be stuff going on with him physically, but to me, this is like Chuck Knobloch. We're going in that direction with this. This is somebody that got the yips. Yeah, this is somebody that something happened to them and they couldn't get it back. Maybe he didn't want to put in the work.

Maybe physically he wasn't feeling the same, but this is like a sports documentary at this point in the house. Well, and I think this could be the end. Like the last, the final chapter is this upcoming season. Who knows whether or not he's able to rehabilitate himself after this back surgery and show up. I mean, the Nets are saying, are we expecting back for a full season? You know, best of luck.

And it is very curious to me the observation made at the outset as we were talking about this pick. The Brooklyn Nets are trying to win right now? Is that really what we're going to believe? Yeah, they need like a rebounder defender. They don't own their pick futures. Like they have picks out. They have a bunch of swaps out.

They don't own their destiny as far as picks are concerned and so they want to put as quality high quality of roster out there as possible at all times and there is 40 million dollars burning a hole through their books uh it's just a cautionary tale well wow this is why they dumped their whole front office because when you get this bent oh no though wait no he's got some he's got some still there he got some compromise on um joe's side that we haven't heard about man well we we like ben simmons as an asset when he was holding out with Philly, even though there was buzz that he was in London, that he wasn't even working on his game, that he didn't really care about playing basketball. And I was still like, that's still an asset.

Like if I'm another team looking to cash in on somebody, I would still think about that. Even last year with Portland, with Dame, I was like, you know, and if I'm Portland and it's just two years of Ben Simmons, roll the dice, the roll the dice era with Ben Simmons is now over. And that's it. You're right. He might be in Australia in two years. All right. How's he had the second pick? Who do you got? I'm so happy. This was so nice of Was the lead in that he, he teed up is so perfect for this player. This guy, I literally have never seen a player with this much talent who is so disconnected to any of the elements of winning basketball. And of course, I'm talking about Jordan pool. He is literally the dumbest basketball player in terms of the talent that he possesses.

I've ever seen ever in my entire life of as a fan of professional basketball, our good buddy, Tom Haberstroh. I feel like he did this for me, uh, in the middle of, of February did a breakdown. So Jordan Poole's in the first year of his four-year $126 million contract.

Yeah, we should have mentioned that sooner. Four years, $126 million, and this is year one. Three years, $100 million basically left on the deal after this year. Oof. So this is a guy who has the most turnovers without an assist in clutch time for any guard going all the way back to

1996-97. Wait, he doesn't have an assist in crunch time? No clutch time assist. Zero clutch time assist. How's that possible well somewhere along the way he's the point guard well the team the teams you know finally decided to bring him off the bench uh he leads all players in the nba with the most fouls beyond the three-point arc the worst kind of foul that you can commit jordan Poole leads all players in that.

He is number one amongst all guards in the NBA in travels. He has the worst shooting percentage among all players with at least 150 attempts on pull-up three-pointers. Take a guess at what his shooting percentage is

for dribble-up pull-up three-pointers. He's underwater. He's definitely under 30. I would say like 28%. 27.3% as of sometime later. It feels worse when you're watching them on a small TV in your house. And I honestly don't know what the path out of this is.

I can't come up with. It's a true conundrum. It's a challenge that I'm not up for. How does he get better? What fixes him? Well, a couple of my wife's friends, not even close friends, but extended friends, like microdosing is in now. I wonder, maybe they should just try micro dosing with him. It seems like it calms moods. It melts people out. Like maybe we're at the micro dosing level with Jordan Poole. So brain chemistry, we want to alter his brain chemistry.

Maybe it'll have him have an assist in the last three minutes. I was looking at the stats about just like, these are more simple than the stats you came up with, but he's for anyone who's played over 25 minutes a game, he's 173rd out of 179 players in net rating. He's minus 11. He's shooting 32% from three, but he's taking 6.83 pointers a game.

And in the last two years, only two players have averaged seven, three pointers a game, but shot under 33% Jordan pool. And can you guess who the other one is? So seven, three is a game under 33% Russell Westbrook. Now good guess. It's Jalen green. Oh, wow. Of course it is probably going to be in the Wizards in two years. Like, don't rule it out. The conundrum here for me is just how good he was in the last couple of finals games.

And now, worst case scenario, he looked like Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford. Yeah. You know, that was going to be his destiny. Like, instant offense off the bench, good three-point shooter, a lot of confidence, really smart decision-making. He looked Curry-lite a little bit. And I mean that as a positive, that he could do like a Curry impression for them. And from the moment he got

punched by Draymond, it went away and we haven't seen it since. And I don't know what happened. In the best of times, Jordan jordan pool was a negative on defense literally one of the worst high minutes guards in the league by every single metric i test you name it teammate eye rolls whatever metric you want to use um he was leading the league and being horrible at defense at guard and he's supposed to be an all-offensive player. And yeah, I think he's at above a 25% usage on the season or about there, which is damn high, right? Like, that's like running the offense type of thing. And he's got a true shooting percentage at about 51.

He might even be hovering around the 50s by the time of this recording and so negative on defense and now high minutes high usage not neutral not like kind of decent he's horrible on offense now do you have stats on eye rolls did second spectrum keep track of that how many times

somebody's life just left their body podcast every now and again and hear him defend the punch house can you yeah wait No, I just listen to the Draymond Green podcast every now and again. And hear him defend the punch. House, can you... Yeah, wait. Draymond... That was a lose-lose literally for everyone involved. There were no winners whatsoever.

House, what's it like to watch him week to week when a player who clearly cannot get out of a funk to the point that it's almost like watching, we've seen this happen in other sports, right? This happens in baseball where like the closer just can't throw a strike anymore. We've seen it in football where the quarterback, it happened to Mac Jones this year. Like he just literally lost his confidence and became unplayable for a team that needed a quarterback. What's it like to watch an NBA player go through this?

The problem I have is I'm not sure it's a funk. I think this is who he is. And, you know, I don't think he belongs in the NBA, to be honest with you. Well, this is the challenge, right? If you, what is the thing that he does that helps the team with winning? What particular skill set? But we've seen him do it though.

The thing is, we've seen it. Surrounded by three Hall of Famers. He was surrounded by three Hall of Famers with discreet minutes. I do wonder if somewhere early on, if you wanted to be a person that subscribed to the Golden State Light Years Ahead

thesis, that they... Dububs culture? That they overpaid him. That they understood how limited he ultimately was going to be. And they zagged. They said, you know what? What if we gave him this enormous contract to make the rest of the league think

that there is some value associated with this dude because he is a sunk cost. He's absolutely a sunk cost in terms of actual winning basketball. I know that they really thought he had a chance to be like a special piece of a bunch of good teams over the course of the decade.

I don't think they know what happened. But I will say this. I'm still rooting for him. And I always feel bad for him. And I thought he got a really raw deal with that with the draymond incident and he did and he did handle it with a lot of grace yeah anytime he's talked about it in public he's been really freaking gracious and could have been a lot more pissed off about it publicly throwing people under the bus and stuff like that. He's been really gracious about it.

Maybe that's what he should do. Maybe he needs to, that's how he gets his mojo back, is he should lob some grenades. All right, we're going to take a break. I can't believe the second guy on my board is still available, and I'm going to take him right after this. Vando's putting the ball on your court for the rest of the NBA season. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

That's 200 bucks. If your bet wins, you can even have some fun, do some futures. You can have Minnesota 10 to 1, get the one seed in the Western Conference right now. You can get the Warriors if you think they're going to make the playoffs, which would basically mean they're either the 9 or the 10 seed. They win that game and then they beat the loser of the 7 Conference right now. You can get the Warriors if you think they're going to make the playoffs, which would basically mean they're either the 9 or the 10 seed. They win that game and then they beat the loser of the 7-8 seed.

That's plus 164. I like the Warriors. I actually think that's pretty good value. Anyway, you can do stuff like that on FanDuel until you go nuts. Bet on the NBA with a wide range of bet types, including quick bets, live same game parlay, player props.

Oh, and the wait is over, North Carolina. FanDuel officially live in the Tar Heel State. Visit FanDuel.com slash BS and make your first bet at Layup. FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Game problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit TheRinger.com slash RG. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven daysager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache

for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions,

two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions. And that very same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. All right, coming back. I have the third and fourth picks in the worst contracts draft. And I'm going to take somebody who was number two on my board ahead of Ben Simmons. Zach Levine,

four years, including this year, left $198 million, plus has a 15% trade kicker if he gets traded. Right now, he has the seventh biggest contract value in the entire league,

which would go up with the trade kicker. He's hurt. He's had at least one knee surgery. Did he have two knee surgeries or one? I can't remember. He had at least one torn ACL, but now he's got this foot thing. He was available for a month and nobody wanted to trade for him except LeBron. Which, by the way, is a fact.

In clutch we trust. So, here's what really strikes me, fellas, with Zach. And this is like, because somebody's going to try to talk themselves into him this summer. For $198 million minus whatever it was this year. This was his 10th year

in the league. Do you guys realize that? He was in the 2015 draft. How many playoff games do you think he's played in? Total number of playoff games. What would your guess be? Well, I guess he was on the Jimmy He was part of the Jimmy Butler

deal. They got Jimmy to Minnesota. He wasn't on that Minnesota team. The Bulls only made the play-in. So he's never made the playoffs. Waz isn't going to guess. He's just going to talk it out. He's trying to do that.

Zero playoffs. Zero playoffs. No, it's four playoff games. Oh, I was going to say five. I was going to say five. All right. So I had to look this up. A new basketball reference. I'm a subscriber to StatHead because I like looking to say five. I was going to say five. All right. So I had to look this up and you basketball reference.

I'm a subscriber to stat head. Cause I like looking up weird shit. How many guys have played the first 10 years of their career and played less than five playoff games? Well, you can get answers for that. How many of those guys also made an all-star team and played less than five playoff games and played 10 years in the league.

It's him and Maurice Stokes. Those are the only two. Maurice Stokes, which is one of the saddest NBA stories ever because he had like an annual... This guy was basically Elgin Baylor before Elgin Baylor, got hurt, and they had the Maurice Stokes Award. And he's a beloved NBA figure. He's the only other one in the history of the league that this happened to. If you expand it to five playoff games or less, the great Steve Francis enters the equation as the third guy. House, this is pretty dire. And this is a guy that you've looked at for the Wizards for the last four or five years as like 30% kind of wanted him and 70% knew it and badly.

Definitely not interested. Definitely not. No, I mean, this is a guy who's going to, this contract's going to run its course and there will be a reset of, you know, what he can get in the marketplace. Well, he'll be 34 at that point, 33. Is it going to be half of what he's getting right now?

Is it going to be, is it 20? No, not even 25 million, right? This is the last one. Yeah. Was, have we now with the, after the Bradley Beal deal, where it's like, oh, you got to give them the mat. You got to protect the asset. You can't lose the asset.

And then a year later they have Jordan Poole for the Bradley and a bunch of, they have 40 second round picks in Jordan Poole because they protected the asset. Same for the, same for the bulls, the bulls. I got to protect the asset. Can't let Zach Levine leave.

Well, now you're stuck with Zach Levine. Is this era now over? Are we going to see a team just be like, you know what? Fuck that. I don't even want to protect the asset. Good luck.

Godspeed. Yeah. I think because of the structure of the salary cap, teams often just get capped into doing it, meaning there's no way to even get replacement level talent in the building. You're just literally fielding a way worse team at that point. But at the same time, man, I wondered with the Bulls specifically what they might do when faced with this because if people remember,

Zach Levine was in the press complaining because he thought the Bulls might not pay him. And I remember Windhorse had put something out and Chicago had been putting out for a while. Like, look, why would we pay a guy who can't get us in the playoffs? He's never done it and then what are we the wizards and then ultimately they did they pulled the trigger on it

and yeah it's been quite regretful the fact that so many teams want to add you know the idea of what zach levine brings to the table he he just languished there and nobody pulled the trigger. And then also that first. So you guys remember him and Billy Donovan got into it. Yeah. So there was all this stuff in the press, him and Billy Donovan hating each other. And let me tell you, it wasn't just Billy Donovan, the guys on the team. That first time he left the team and they took off, the guys on the team were sick of Zach Levine. So it's like coaches, players like everybody's off of this guy. And then teams around the league were like, eh, I'm good.

Even Rob Palenka was disciplined enough not to do something like this. That's crazy. Yeah. So Levine gets hurt this year. Kobe White gets more minutes and the Bulls immediately look way better. Revelation. You know, or at least a frisky playing team. House, anything to add about Zach Levine before I go to my fourth pick?

No. I mean, you said it all. Good luck to him for the rest of his career. It might not be very long. Top three for Zach Levine. Tough B for him. All right. Well, I also have the fourth pick.

I feel semi-bad doing this. But then I thought about how I lost my 2022 title, Banner 18 for the Celtics. Because really, Steph Curry in game four and Jordan Poole coming off the bench in the last three games. But really, it was Andrew Wiggins turning into the second best player of the series and becoming this amazing two-way guy, tapping in all the potential he had,

leading to him getting a pretty nice extension, four years, $109 million. Last year, he disappeared for a long time. Don't want to speculate on whatever. We've all been like, I don't know what happened, but feel bad for him. I have an idea, and it wasn't warranted. And this year he did it again and was just gone for

two weeks. So this is two years in a row where he just left the team. But I'm just going to do production. He's down to 12.6 points a game and four rebounds and his three-point shooting is in the 35% range. And the reason this is the number four pick for me is I think he's almost impossible to trade.

Who is like, oh, cool. I can get Andrew Wiggins. At this point, he's going to hit his 30s. There's been some erratic stuff the last couple of years. People aren't sure about the motor to begin with. If he leaves that Golden State infrastructure, what am I getting? I just think I was looking at everybody else on my list and he would give me the most hesitation house. It's like, oh, Andrew Wiggins for that? I don't know. The problem with

him is what evidence is there setting aside the title runs? Six months. Six months in 2022. We setting aside the title six months six months in 2022 we'll always have those six months that's right that he analyzing six months that he wants to play nba basketball that he likes playing that's it yeah it was like the six months before kyle's wedding when he like wasn't smoking he wasn't going out. The same thing. He Andrew Wiggins'd us. Like, look at this guy. He's changed his life around. He's an adult

now. Kyle, he's all grown up. He's throwing a wedding for himself. Yeah, I don't know. Where's Wiggins a year from now? What team? That's a great question. I mean, he's not so bad, I i feel like yet that he can't

even be salary dumped but when he signed that deal everybody was like man he should have held out for more everybody thought it was a steal for what he got and what we all forgot is that glenn taylor gave him a max rookie extension on a freaking promise that he would try hard that was a thing glenn taylor said in public he would try hard. That was a thing Glenn Taylor said in public. He said, I talked to Andrew and he told me he's going to work himself into being worthy of the contract. I just fashioned on him. That's a thing

that happens. Such an underrated, awful owner, Glenn Taylor. Yeah, really. It was just a disaster. He's so low profile. He did some of the dumbest shit ever. And you know why, Bill? Because a lot of times bad owners are associated with meddling. With Glenn Taylor, it's the opposite.

It's apathy. Yeah, apathy and like, hey, this David Kahn seems like a good guy. Maybe I'll make him the GM. Whatever. Keep it. You know, the one thing I'll say with Wiggins House is that by all accounts, really well liked teammate. Okay. And you could feel it in the 2022 playoffs when he was doing well.

All the Warriors and Steve Kerr and the coaching staff, they called him Wiggs. Yeah, we saw it. They were just so happy that he was having a moment. Right. Which makes me think, could this come back? But for that price, I don't know who's taking... When Dallas didn't want to take a gamble on it and went for P.J. Washington instead, they could have just probably flipped Grant Williams and a pick and a Wiggins if they wanted,

or even just Grant Williams and something. But I just don't feel like anyone was looking at Wiggins. House, you're up. Number five. Well, I can't let a top five of worst contracts in the NBA go by without including Bradley Beal. I mean, call him. Let's be honest here.

He's 30 years old. He's in the second year of his five-year $251 million deal. The final season of that contract is a player option for $57.1 million. He just said yes. I'm going to exercise that. Can we bet on that future? Is that a future we can get Vanduul to write some odds for us?

By the way, that's the second biggest contract value in the entire league right now. Well, contract yes, value no. He's played 36 out of 65 games. And when you look up his stat And, you know, when you, when you look up his stat line, it says Bradley Beal nursing hamstring is what it says. He's,

he's averaging 18 point 18.6 points per game. Now look, the stat line for him this season in the 36 out of 65 games that he's played to date, not bad. He's shooting almost 50% from the field, just a 49.7. And he's up on his

career average from 3, 37.7%. I gotta say, I like the way he's been playing for them. He just plays and knows his play. It would be nice to know if he was playing. But yeah, I think he's fit in really nicely with them. Me too. Good asset when he plays. But he's being paid as if he's

Shade Gilgis Alexander. But he's a glorified third banana. I mean, come on. It's a terrible contract. And then you forgot the last part, House, which is my favorite part about the Bradley Bill contract. He has a no trade. So even if he tried.

Did that move with him? Did it go from? Yes. He didn't get to bring it. It's like BD. You just get to bring it to the next stop. So even if you find a place that's crazy enough, sicko enough, you know, to love Brad Beal so much as to try to trade for him and give you value for the guy, he could veto

the deal. It's the gift that keeps on giving the Brad Beal contract. One of my favorite Bradley Beal stats is he hasn't played 60 games in a season since the 2018-19 campaign when Kawhi was on Toronto and Kevin Durant was on the Warriors. It was five fucking years ago. He hasn't played 60

games? I do like the way he fits with Booker and Durant though. House and I talked and I know House did a thing on East Coast Bias as always. You guys stole stuff that I brought up in the thread. At least House and I talked. Yeah. And I know House did a thing on East Coast Bias as always, like you guys stole stuff that I brought up

in the thread. At least you gave me credit this time. I did. What are you talking about? It's fine. But I was saying that Phoenix,

the more I stare at the West and the more I stare at Denver and how unbeatable they are, especially in the last five minutes, just nobody's beating them. So unless you, if you, you have to be up 10 on them with five minutes left and that's how you beat them in a playoff series. But the, the only way to beat them is just to outscore them.

Literally like you have to, that they're going to score on their end. So you just have to score at least one more point than them on your end. And Phoenix might be the only team in the West that can, can do that wise, where they could just be like, all right, you're definitely scoring, but we're definitely scoring too. And that's how to beat them? I don't see another recipe for beating Denver. I'm of the mind that you kind of got to,

I'd like to see somebody build a jumbo package against them. If guys will remember the last time this team lost at full strength was with the lakers who dwight howard still had something in the tag in the tag well minnesota has the people to do that you know uh like they i think you gotta have a jumbo package available i actually think rudy does pretty decently um against jokic when they face up with each other not that he's like killing him or anything, but he plays pretty well against the guy. But outside of a jumbo package,

I don't think the outscoring thing is going to work. I don't think anything's going to work. But maybe Durant and Booker are getting hot four times in a series and they win three of those and then Beal has the one rando game when he has like six threes. I just can't imagine that the Nuggets are losing four times to a team because and then Beal has the one rando game when he has like six threes. I just can't imagine that the Nuggets are losing four times to a team because of Bradley Beal. The Nuggets aren't losing to anybody.

Somebody's going to have to get injured for it to be realistic. I am intrigued by what Waz just shared because that is the way that Phoenix beat them last week. They played Nurkic and Eubanks 53 minutes and both those guys fouled out of the game. And what that got them to

was overtime. But then they won in overtime. They did outscore Denver in the overtime. So it is that... Durant made a three. Beal made a couple big plays. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll see with Bradley Beal. All right. Waz.

I mean, this is where the board drops. If we're doing the NFL draft, this is like a swing pick right here. This could go in a lot of directions right now. And you got two in a row. What do you got? Man, I got to go back to Chicago and one Nicola Vucci main. Wow. Vucci, bitch.

Because I don't think people realize how badly this guy is thinking up the joint this year at this point. So just so folks know, he's got about 66 million left for three years. After this season, 41 and a half million bucks, which is a bit For two years, yeah. For two years.

That's what you pay a starting quality above average center in this league. Is that what you pay a guy quality above average center in this is that where you pay a guy who gets replaced by andre drummond at crunch time it's insane his defense has gotten worse obviously over the years with age and his offense one because he's got the sort of cultural veteran cachet guys feel a need to give him the rock so he could, quote unquote, go to work on killing his team. And now he's taking threes at volume and he's at like 28%. And so it's very reminiscent of what happened to House and pick up basketball near the end of his career.

No, near the end. Near the end. Guys still felt like, oh, it's House. We'll feed him at the top. But, you know, it wasn't there in the same way. Just a black hole. I still got him up. He's so bad.

And the Bulls are so anonymous at this point that people don't notice. But that extension they gave him has been a killer. And is he even a backup center at this point? Who was the other person in there? Like, we also are at 66 for three for Vucevic. I think it was the we loved Lonzo we loved what we had when lonzo and you know caruso and all these guys were cooking the two weeks when lonzo and caruso and we had everybody right i think they fell in love with that and felt like vuce was a big part of it and it was justifiable but clearly and then you know they gave up a bunch

of pigs to bring him in just terrible terrible transaction I really want I'm ready for Vooch to move into the next phase of his career the Marc Gasol late 2010s an eighth man on a good team where he comes in and you're not relying on

him but every once in a while it's like oh my god who's bitch had 12 points in that quarter. And that's kind of where he is now. But unfortunately, he's the starting center on a team making 22 million a year. House, any last Vooch thoughts other than the obvious Wizards trade that's going to happen with him?

No, no, they're not going to do that. I can't imagine. All right. Waz, what's your other pick? So I think it's time to get just slightly spicier. Uh-oh. I've been waiting. And I'm still not a fan of the Carl Towns deal.

Okay. I'm still not a fan of a guy who is a center, and I get it. He made the all-star team. He's a quality offensive player. Well, say what the deal is. Five years, I think it's about $260 million, $257 million. $257 million for this year and the next four. $257.

$257. Yes. Over the next four years after this one, there will be $220 million left on Carl Towns' deal. And at least one of the years starts with a six. After this year. And this is a guy who is a center, who you had to go trade for someone, who you're now paying $45 million to do what? Play center.

Okay? five million dollars to do what play center okay called because of carl towns's game minnesota is paying 120 million dollars a year in centers okay they were number number one in the west for like 60 of the days of the season so far look they, they did not work well. Edward Soal isn't lost. And again, Carl Towns is a quality player. It's not like he's some unplayable whatever player. He is not a $50 million NBA player. He's just not.

I had him lower on the list. I did too, only because I think we got a little bit of validation of what Minnesota was after in terms of bringing in Gobert. We did see them be able to function together. And his versatility still, I think, makes him a little bit of an asset. But Waz, I'm not arguing with the point. Listen, he was going to get drafted. I just was grabbing him at seven was a little like when the Pacers took Walker

eighth last year. It was like, Whoa, he's going now. Okay. Um, yeah, no, it's, I mean, he, it, I did notice that he went out and Nas Reed immediately went into his spot and had like 34 points and looked really good. 20 million a year for Nas Reed center. So here was, here's why I didn't have him in the top 10.

Cause I think if they shopped in this summer, I think, I think teams would pay for him. Like I think the Knicks would pay for him. I think there's some teams out there that are like, Oh, towns is on board. We take this back plus some picks.

Like, whereas I just don't think Beal has a market. Beal's market was basically somebody buying the Suns and just being like, ah, let's make the finals. I don't care about picks. I don't care about the second apron. Let's get

some players. He was it. He was the only guy bidding. So with Towns, I do feel like there's a couple teams that would... For instance, Oklahoma City, that's a guy that they should be thinking about if he ever became available because he fits what they do. They like all those permanent people. They have a million picks. I don't know if they care about the money as much.

Any other Carl Anthony Towns? This is like the nicest we've ever treated him in the worst contract strap. Listen, look, I thought Rudy should have got his spot at All-Star, honestly, because they're a dominant defense and it's because of Rudy Gobert. I just, I don't know. That Carl Towns thing seems absurd to me. Although, again, to be fair, what he's done on defense this year deserves, he deserves credit for that. Eight years or whatever we are into the Carl Towns experience, he's decided that defense is a thing that matters and serious teams actually perform at, serious players.

But, yeah, that deal looks absurd to me every time i look at that number i'm just like blown away that carl towns got that was this might be one of those picks when you look back at this draft in june after towns falls apart in the playoff series like whoa great value at seven come on man that was a top four Well, that's a perfect segue and set up into my next pick because I can absolutely tell you a player and a team that would gladly take Carl Anthony Towns, and that is the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Trey Young. I'm really surprised that Trey Young made it this far in this draft.

We still took him last year like 10 spots early. I think he's in exactly the right spot right here. Was it number eight or number nine in this draft? Yeah, number eight. He is... It was a five-year $215 million deal. This is their... We need a name for this class of overpaying.

It's your Zach Levine, your Bradley Beal, your Trey Young. I don't know if I want to put K.A.T. into this, but there is this. So it's not a Max deal. It's his first rookie Max extension, right? So Towns is on his second one. And so that's why his is so much so first max this is his first max and so that's why for me it's like he's still a borderline all-star which means he is close to like a 35 million dollar player like he is so i i don't see it as

in terms of production in terms of production, in terms of leadership. Well, let's define production. What is his role on a team, you know, setting aside? And I'm going to, you know, recognize what I'm doing here. What he did with that Atlanta team in the Eastern Conference playoffs, you know, a couple of years ago. Can he ever do that again? This contract is based on that performance. Well, you need Ben Simmons on the other team.

You need Joel Embiid to gack two free throws at the end of a game. There's a lot of stuff that has to go your way. I think the thing with Trey Young, the potential of what he is, you could even see it. Like House and I were fascinated by the betting for this season where the Hawks at one point after 60 games were 22 games under 500 covering the spread. What was their record? They were like 19 and 41 against the spread.

Historically bad. Despite all evidence that the Hawks were bad, week after week, gamblers were like, this is the week. Historically bad. Despite all evidence that the Hawks were bad, week after week, gamblers were like, this is the week. Here they go. I was watching highlights the other day. Trey Young looked amazing. And then guess what? They'd fucking lose again. And Vegas is just setting the line

perfectly. And all these idiots like us are like, this is the week for the Hawks. I nailed most of my over-unders. When I was in Boston, I did a bunch of future parlays. And of course, this is the week for the Hawks. They were, I like nailed most of my over-unders and I had a bunch when I was in Boston, I did a bunch of like future parlays. And I, of course, I put the fucking Hawks in like four of them where I have, where I'm going to hit six of the seven win over-unders. And then there's the Hawks who are going to be 10 wins lower. I just wonder if that's Trey's destiny, that they'll be dining off this 2021 playoffs for the rest of his career where

we're like, well, that one time, remember that? And it's just, you know, maybe it was a fluke. Maybe Philly should have beaten them in five. And then we would be talking about it the way we should be talking about it, which is like, he is a good stats, bad team player until, until we have further evidence that he's not. And,az, I mean, you care about the Hawks the most out of the three of us. You probably watch the Hawks the most. Yeah. What evidence is there that he's more than a good stats, bad team guy? Look, I think what he does is elite.

His passing is elite. And under the right circumstances, he can be pretty elite at scoring as well. I think the problem with that is the route that he takes to these stats is very alienating to teammates. And Trey Young being a guy who's always going to need teammates to pick him up defensively. So the proposition that he's making to his teammates now and in the future is watch me take all the shots, hog the ball, pass it when I feel like, take 40 footers on a whim, and then lift me up on defense. Who's signing up for that? It's just an insane proposition. It's a very junior situation of the LeBron situation. LeBron's earned all the accolades with this, but when you're on LeBron's

team, if you win, LeBron gets all the credit, and if you lose, it's your fault. And if you're on Atlanta, Trey gets the credit if anything good happens. I think this is part of the Murray thing. It's always interesting when Trey doesn't play what happens with Murray in those games. He's like, finally,

I get to take dad's car out of the garage. I thought it was a whiff early for Trae Young but Haas I also I respect that you're a man of principles and you stick to your guns

and it was a very predictable pick I'm gonna take I'm gonna take a break and then do my two in a row Upper Canada College inspires boys from senior kindergarten to year 12 to find their passions and realize their potential.

An IB World School, UCC offers a supportive environment, cutting edge facilities, and a best in Canada financial assistance program. UCC, a place where tradition, excellence, and innovation meet. Learn more at our open house events on October 15th and 16th. Register now at causeandeffect.ucc.on.ca. All right, coming back. I have two picks.

Honestly, I'm stunned, guys. I'm stunned that he's still available at the ninth pick. I thought for sure he was going, it's one of the last two. Deandre Ayton. Yes. I'm waving the white flag. I'm not defending him anymore.

I'm done. I just can't do it anymore. Deandre, it's not you. It's me. It's not you. It's me. I just need some space.

I can't defend you anymore, but it's, but It's not you. It's me. I just need some space. I can't defend you anymore, but you're great. I had a great time riding for you and mentioned the 2021 finals and how you were able to kind of guard Giannis sort of, and you got a bad deal in Phoenix. You got blamed for everything. And if you could just end up on the right team, I'm done. Can't do it. Three years, $102 million left. That's this year and the next two. He's 15 and 11. He's proven. He's like the guys

House and I grew up with. These centers that can get 18 and 11. They can get 15 and 10. They don't really seem like they're always trying. Minus 6.7 net. I thought he was in a great situation, this Portland team. Rob Williams goes down.

He gets to be the starting center. And it's like, all right, prove it to us. Show us Phoenix made a mistake. And he kind of did the opposite, Was. You can go, I want to say, 10, 12, 13 possessions at a time without even noticing this man is on the court. Okay. On both ends. It's insane how bad this guy has been this year to me. And again, this is relative to the deal. He gets paid like an upper echelon starting center in the NBA he is nowhere close to that he's and again he's not a negative so you know he's not Jordan Poole range where he's actively

hurting his team every single minute that he's on the floor but my god the domination yeah it's too much money allocated to... For this level of production. Would you rather have Luke Cornett for $2 million a year or DeAndre Ayton for $30? Sign me up for Cornett. Thank you. I don't know if you've seen him lately, but he might be a $30 million a year guy the way it's going for Luke Cornett.

Good rim protection. House, you tried to talk yourself into Ayton with the Wizards a bunch of times. Is that just sealed? I thought there was a possibility Good rim protection. House, you tried to talk yourself into Aiton with the Wizards a bunch of times. Is that just sealed? I thought there was a possibility that he was going to be part of the Bradley Beal thing because it was apparent, it seemed, that Phoenix was thinking about moving on from him. Yeah, I'm good. I'm all good with Mr. Aiton.

Well, maybe Portland signs signs buddy healed this summer get a little bahamas reunion maybe that'll get him going i i just like if it didn't happen this year with no rob williams i don't know if it ever happens all right so eight and one pick i'm gonna admit defeat on him i have two guys on my board One is like an underrated drive-by and then the other one is super spicy. And I think I can get the super spicy guy in a couple picks. I'm going to go with Kelton Johnson.

Probably weren't expecting him in the top 10. He's immediate darling. Four years, 74 million. Yet another guy when everyone, when we have to talk about how smart the Spurs are, even though there's been really no evidence since 2017 that they're either smarter or dumber than anyone else.

Literally, there's none. Nobody can come up with any evidence. They got the number one pick. What are you talking about? They stumbled into one. The next generational talent. They're geniuses. If you just go through the moves, not great, but they gave Kelton Johnson this extension and he's dropped from

22 points to 16 points a game. 33% three-point field goal the last two years. He's got the worst net rating on the Spurs, minus 8.5. And I test-wise, I'm like, fucking A, man. Wemby needs better teammates. And one of

the guys you look at right away is like, I wish Kelton Johnson was better. So you go from your 22 point a game score on a really bad team to now that you have a good teammate, it should make you better. And it just doesn't feel like it has. I don't know who would be excited to trade for that contract house.

Sure, except for it's not that much money is the thing. It's like 18, 19 million. It's 20 million this year and it goes backwards. But that's fungible. See, so to me, the reason why I don't like your pig bill is because there's a guy on his team, Zach Collins. I mean, good Lord. What is he making?

He's got $34 million two years after this one. Zach Collins... He didn't make my draft list. He has $34 million. What the hell? $34 million over the next two seasons after this one. Can't play with Wemby. Obviously

can't man lineups without him. And they just paid him blindly for just like on a blind faith that he would be a guy oh no they got he got an extension Jesus two year 34 million extension next two years after this one

but he's only at 7.7 this year yes two years 34 million in the next two years he's just been wiped out of the rotation wiped out of existence he does nothing is that your next pick? oh no you're not up

I gotta go spicy my next few picks oh I can't wait now I regret not going spicy but yeah I just I wanted to lash out against the Spurs because the Wemby thing makes me so mad. That's why we need to pick you up, Bill.

Can you put a fucking better team around Wemby? I say it every podcast. House, you're up. Well, I'm kind of surprised with the DeAndre Ayton pick. Why?

Because the combination of his age and the duration of the contract, there is still an out. That out doesn't exist with his teammate, Jeremy Grant, who is in the first year of a five-year, $160 million deal.

This guy is making $27.5 million this year, $29.8 next year, $32, and he's 30 years old. Yeah, that part's 30 years old. So, I mean. Yeah, that part's not great. Congratulations to Jeremy Grant, by the way. Tremendous job. Like, turning himself into two great deals.

He's like the new Kirk Cousins. He really is. That's just a great call. So, I had him in my top 10, and then I went and looked at his stats this year because from watching Portland, I was like, yeah, Jeremy Grant's pretty good. And he's averaging 21 a game and shooting 38% from three. Like he's a good player.

He is, for sure. He's just too overpaid. And Portland's atrocious. And it makes no sense at all for them to have. They have $60 million combined going to deandre and jeremy grant and they have these the kids who really should be getting that this run um you know they have to find out what they got with scoot uh simon's still still you know salvageable um

shayden sharps legit uh i don't know i, if it's a go-along-to-get-along contract, it just feels like that's what it is, and it feels expensive to me. He could be a very valuable player in a different kind of circumstance altogether, but I don't know what he's doing on Portland at that price. The reason he wasn't up on my list is that I think the second this season's over,

they'll be getting calls on him again and they'll be able to extract value out of his deal again and so like they just punted on it this this past trade deadline because they're like people are going to want this guy because like you said he's shooting 38%

although I do think I think he's a little bit overrated like I do think that but I think his perception because he plays a premium position because he's got great size think he's a little bit overrated. I do think that. But I think his perception, because he plays a premium position, because he's got great size and he's making his threes, I think people will still call them for him. And he will draw some interest this summer again. So that's why he was low for me. Although, again, I do think he's a bit overrated in that way.

I like House. I thought you made the key point about where he is the last two years of that deal when he's in his mid-30s. And maybe not as exciting to pay 34-year-old Jeremy Grant $32 million. So House bought in low. All right, Waz, you're on the clock with two. Kawhi Leonard just left the freaking clippers game wow with back spasms so now we're adding back spasms to a gimpy meniscus and acl i mean the the injuries just never stop piling up for this guy and yes obviously when he plays he's a borderline MVP candidate but he never plays and he's going

to make 50 million dollars three years preceding this um that is oh that is a scary proposition so to me I'm making that bet that he's just not going to be on the court and that is expensive four years this year plus the next three. He's making $45.6 million this year. And then a new extension kicks in from Uncle Steve. Uncle Steve's like, I got a new arena. Who wants some money? And he gave Kawhi three years, $149.65 million house.

Yeah. I mean, what would you say for when you throw in Kawhi's history and the curse of the Clippers? What is the over-under for Kawhi games in the three-year extension? If you had to bet. I'm going to set it at 140

games. Would you go over or under? Way under. That's an outrageous number. 140. Would you go over or under? Way under. That's an outrageous number. 140. Would you go under, Wes? You have to play 141 regular season games next three years. Including this year? No, next year.

The three years. I'm going under. That's 50 a season, right? No, under. Under, under, under, under. Way under. And I'd count the postseason in that too. So that's basically, you're saying he's going to make more than a million a game. Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, the funny thing is we do the Ringer 100 voting

and I think I had Kawhi as the sixth best player in the league. Yeah, that makes sense. I just wouldn't want to pay him $200 million. I'd want to pay him by the season. He just doesn't play. He doesn't play. He's a liability that way. He doesn't play. But if he's healthy come these playoffs and

you know, Harden and George are healthy. He just left the game and went to the hospital with back spasms. It's a regular season. It's not great. They got drugs for that. Okay. Waz, what's your other pick? CJ McCollum.

I mean, he's just got such a great reputation in the media. He's a media member himself. Like, nobody would ever come after CJ McCollum because he's such a positive, well-liked, so polished and all of that. I don't fall for it. It's a bad deal. The guy can't guard anybody. He's not a point guard. He's

not like a set-up guy, set-the-table type of guy. Thankfully, he's shooting threes at volume for the first time in his career, really. He's always been like a sort of mid-range darling um but guess what he's the third sort of setup guy on this team doesn't guard people and all he does is spot up essentially uh he's overpaid two more years at 32 million a pop after this year so 64 million after this year if you count this year 100 million dollars so c So CJ McCollum could be a glorified microwave dude. I think that's absurd. Overpaid as hell. Bad contract.

CJ McCollum rounds out my roster. That was my favorite wise pick of the draft. He's not falling for CJ McCollum. I'm not falling for the media's glad-handing. I'm not going to fall for it. I'm too impartial. What are your additional thoughts, House? I mean, he was staring me right at the face.

It was. It's right. He's getting paid for something that doesn't have to do with going out and playing basketball and helping his team win basketball games. I like him, but sometimes this happens where what's weird is they double down on it. He was pretty pricey when they got him. And then they're like, hey, how about two more years? Feels like the 25 range is the right range for him.

And he's above that. All right, House, who do you have? I have a, I ask a technical question because I have a combo, but I don't know. This would be the first time in the history of the worst contracting. What this really amounts to is an indictment of one particular team, but I don't want to... I could just say one of the players

and you would understand who the other side of the coin is. I'll do it however the podfather dictates, but I'm asking permission for a combo pick here because I don't think either one of these guys... You'd have to forfeit next round's pick, but I'll allow it. I like this.

I don't think you're going to take any of my snake picks. I don't think so either. I'm looking at DeAndre Hunter and John Collins and wondering what in the hell was Atlanta doing two years ago? What in God... John Collins is now in the hell was Atlanta doing two years ago? What in God?

John Collins is now in the third year of a five-year $125 million deal. And DeAndre Hunter still has, you know, four years, $80 million, I believe. I have him for four for 90. This is year one of his extension. Yeah, right. So three years after this, and it's $90 million total for four for 90. This is 90 extension. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

So three years after this and it's 90 million total for the four years. This is how you create teams that, that, that, that can't possibly find their way to success. This gross overpaying role players. The, the,

the, these guys, what contribution does John Collins make to a winning basketball team? Now, the curious thing, both these guys are 26 years old. The knockoff Hunter. John Collins, three for 78.6, by the way, including this year. That's what's left. So he's at 26 million a year for this year and next year.

Yeah. And Hunter had garnered this reputation of being a defensive ace, except for he can't play. And when he does play, he doesn't play very good defense. So I'm happy to use both of my picks right now on this disastrous Atlanta tandem. And this is three picks in a row for me with Atlanta. And honestly, it might be the only franchise that gives me hope with my Washington franchise. Because they really do rival Washington in terms of grossly overpaying role players,

third and fourth, not even really third, fourth and fifth bananas on teams that actually have aspirations for winning. I'm glad you're blaming Atlanta for the contract, even though it's now on Utah. It's telling that when they traded him to Utah, Utah was like, here's our offer. Nothing. Right.

They did the Michael Corleone. Yeah. Here's my offer. Zero. We'll just take the contract and give you a bag of balls back. The Collins thing is interesting because I do like his game, but if the three-point shooting was in the 40s. Yeah, it never came back around, honestly.

He broke the hand and it never came back around. And I feel bad because I've been a John Collins apologist for about four years and I thought the Utah thing would finally be able to turn it around. But it turns out he's just a nice little low-end starter. He was definitely on my board because he gets paid a sort of premium power forward type. And Utah, he gets

plenty of opportunities, plays around plenty of space. They got a creative offense and it just hasn't worked out. He's not worth the deal that he's on it's just a fact there's no two ways about it deandre hunter's not a starter he's not a guy he's not a guy and and you know and he got his deal at a time where everybody was just like oh the way the cap is spiking and blah blah blah like you can never overpay for a little role player

three and d wing guy it doesn't matter if he can't dribble or shoot or pass. It's all good. It's going to work out. And it just didn't. Yeah, I think Hunter is a way worse value on his contract than John Collins. It's only because I can see John Collins getting meaningful minutes for a real team.

Hunter's at least hitting threes this year. He was not last year. We're going to take one more break. And when we come back, I am bringing the Momofuku spice. And we are about to give this podcast a shocker. Chili Crunch!

Alright, for my next two picks, I dedicate both these picks to Gilbang. Curb Your Enthusiasm. What was it? Episode three or four? The Shocker. Gilbang was on the porn set all day and you know what? His equipment wasn't totally working. And then somebody had an idea to put a little Tabasco in his ass. And it turned out it wasn't the actress he was working with. It was the cameraman. And he told a whole story. And Larry's wife was horrified.

And this was the first great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. House and I revere Gil Bang. I'm Gil Bang-ing both of these picks. First off, LaMelo Ball, welcome to the draft. Yeah. Sheesh. I mean, honestly, for the love of God, LaMelo Ball, welcome to the draft. Yeah. Sheesh. I mean, honestly, for the love of God, LaMelo Ball. $10 million this year.

His extension hasn't even kicked in yet. Five years, $204.5 million starting next year. For LaMelo Ball, who's played 58 games last year and this year, who every time I watch the Hornets, he's just in street clothes, smiling as they're down 20. I have no idea if he could be even the second best player in a good team. From a culture standpoint, we've now had a whole presidential term with him, and I don't see it. I know the talent is there, but this feels like somebody who's going to break some hearts along the way where it's like, oh man, he's so talented. Oh, did you see he had a 36, 15 and 10 last night? And I don't see it. I don't like where it's gone was in about myself. The talent is obviously there. He's obviously still super young. I don't think he's plateaued in terms of output when he's actually played.

He's shooting threes at pretty nice volume, 36 percent. Like, you can't be mad at that. That's not, you know, scintillating, but it's like, OK, this is respectable. He's always had the core vision, always had the size. Let's get those positives out the way. He does not play. He is highly unserious, is not a defensive player yet, even with all of the size and the alleged basketball IQ. I think the yet is going to be standing for the next 10 years.

And, like, there's just no proof that a guy, like, who never – like, this guy doesn't – he's got to get on the court. And when he's on the court, he has to be a serious person. Like, I know it's like some of this stuff is very cosmetic. It's like, oh, he's not moping on the bench. Well, sometimes you should mope. Your team stinks and you're never on the floor. Stop showing up to games and goofing around.

You know what I mean? Like, I get it. This is a scary, scary, scary situation. Good thing they got Randy Miller. Listen, maybe this segment will be a PSA for him. LaMelo Ball, we all think you're talented. What we don't want is 10 years from now, on whatever Twitter ends

up being in 2034, is the 90-second montage of some idiot going, LaMelo Ball is a problem! Whoa! And it's these LaMelo Ball is a problem. Whoa. And it's these LaMelo Ball highlights. You're like, oh man, LaMelo Ball was really good.

Your destiny can't be the 90 second Twitter montage of that you were a problem when you didn't fucking make the playoffs ever. So get your shit together, LaMelo Ball. What do you have to add, Avis?

I feel the exact same way. Stop the clowny pants. I mean, this is the thing is, is there, uh, you know, I'm not going to besmirch the family, but we have a problem with getting the balls on the basketball court that that is now a documented fact. So we all, we all love Lonzo. And I, to me, that was like, I don't know what happened with his knee, but we've at least seen moments from Lonzo where it's like, this guy is a winning player who has real value and adds something to good teams.

And LaMelo just seems like a guy who's a good stats, bad team guy. And he's not, doesn't seem like a culture guy, at least not yet, but he's young. Maybe there's a chance, but. And again, just the opposite end of the spectrum with a young guy and some of this stuff is structural for me

in the sense that LaMelo Ball has accomplished practically nothing in the NBA and he's already got, he's, if he does, if he doesn't live

a single finger again, he will have earned $250 million and at a certain point, it's like, you can't tell me my career's panned out bad in that sense so

with with that being said what's his incentive to turn into a serious player turn that to a victor wimby yama who i'm not gonna lie i was pretty skeptical like he's gonna come in here kick everybody's ass he's a dog he's yelling at his teammates he's playing hard he's taking defense he gives a shit serious yeah He is taking it so freaking serious. And that's what you want to see out of a young guy. Yeah. And we're not seeing it. So we all agree.

Something's missing. Can't put my finger on it, but the way Woz just spelled out the Wimby thing, that's exactly how I feel. You either have that, I want to dominate and I want to kick ass and I want to be awesome. And I want my team to be awesome. Or you're just playing basketball to get stats and look cool.

Yeah. And Instagram followers. Maybe there's still time for the mellow ball. All right. My other pick. Also another Gil banger. This year in the next three, he's owed $207.3 million.

He's going to be 37 years old, getting a paycheck that starts with a six for the year. He's good once a week, not positive, but his best years might be behind him. We're about to find out over the next three months. Every once in a while, he gets absolutely torched by somebody. I hope he doesn't make a diss track about me.

Damien Lillard. It's just too much money. And it's money that scares the fucking shit out of me if i'm the bucks for three years from now it's a terrifying number though for what we're seeing now i think he's be three years older in three years and we're gonna be paying 60 plus million house it just it's it's it makes you gulp i made this case on this show a year ago with, you know, there were still only four years left. But it's about his age at the end of this deal. Now, the thing that you, better than me and Woz maybe, have a perspective on what the next media deal might look like.

So there could be a form of cap relief you know as you when they when it seems like i don't think it's going to be as exciting of a media deal as everybody seems to think okay all right but they we do think the cap will go up some amount right i think we'll still get those 10 raises i believe so yeah yeah so i don't think that creates a little bit of room. Well, let me ask you this, House. It's not enough. If you're a network and you're like,

all right, what am I paying for? The two most famous players in your league are 39 and 35. What's year seven of my deal looking like? I better really believe in Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum and Wimbanyama, who's a French guy fair enough

fair enough so the biggest player all the biggest players in your league are not going to be from America yeah it's tough it's tough like Jokic is the best player in the league and it's not close right now

and I feel like the ringer probably spends the most time talking about him, but I, you know, I don't know if he's a national guy like LeBron and Curry. I don't think it's ever happening. I also don't think he gives a shit, but I don't know what I'm paying for.

If I'm the, if I'm the networks, like, why do I have to pay a 25% premium on where we were already? Well, I think maybe if you think you're a network and you're just better at selling this package of goods than the previous partners were, because let's face it, they haven't been always awesome at doing that. Don't want to say no names, but maybe that's the play. It's like, yo, I think this is a depressed asset and I can do way better with this,

what these guys have to sell than what the current partners are doing. I think that's the only way to spin it when you look at some of the current numbers and trends, et cetera, et cetera. The problem is what Derek Thompson talked about on this podcast a couple of weeks ago is there's so many basketball fans who don't actually watch that much of the games, but they follow the league religiously on social media.

Like my son. My son knows everything Wemba Nyama is doing. I know for a fact he hasn't sat down and watched more than like five minutes of a Spurs game with me. So how do you sell that to networks? I think it's a problem. Anyway, we'll see. If the cap goes up, the Dame contract, not that bad. I just know House is terrified. You want to get through another podcast about a Dame lowered diss track or anything. Yeah. Any sort of eye emoji. If they make it to the finals this year, the NBA finals this year,

then it'll all be worth it. I mean, I think if you put that on the table. This year and next, when they retool this summer, where they actually have the ability to add to the roster and not just be trotting out like a joke of a wing rotation, I think this year and next will be the window. And I think Dame has been out of rhythm, out of sorts. He's definitely, obviously, clearly not having as good a season

as he had last year. But I think he can bounce back. I think he's got it in him. I'm not as down on Dame as you two guys are. But I understand the trepidation. I'm down at the 50 plus million a year. It's just in general. That number is terrifying

no matter who the player is, unless it's like Jokic. House, what's your next pick? Well, I used the combo and you said I have to skip. Oh, yeah. So, Waz is up. Waz, who do you got? All right. We're getting down to the nitty gritty here.

We might have two more rounds than us. We'll go this round, next round, and we're a wrap. MPJ for me. Still, he looked good last night. Listen, look. I just think Jokic is...

He lifts all boats, man. This guy, it just can't be overstated how much he elevates all the things that are around him. I think Jamal Murray is an amazing player. You know, I think he is extremely complimentary of what Jokic brings to the table. I don't think without Jokic, he'd be some world-beating, dominating one. I just, I don't. I think the world of the guy. And I think he's great for this team.

He's extremely clutch. But I think because he gets to work off of Jokic, that thing looks beautiful. Same with MPJ. Like, he doesn't got any moves. He would never be any ball-dominant guy. That thing looks beautiful. Same with MPJ. Like, he doesn't got any moves. He would never be any ball-dominant guy. He's not some prime Klay Thompson just deathly scaring everybody with what he's doing with movement shooting and shooting and all of that. And respect to him for becoming a plus defender,

actually using his size and all of that. But, like, you think about the back. You think about the it's only a matter of time before this guy's probably like, yo, man, I need more touches. I need to rock more. I'm just thinking in the future. So MPJ, I'm looking at that contract

and yeah, I'm not too, too crazy about it. So we got 115 million for this year and the next two. Three years, 115 million counting this year. the next two. Three years, 115 million counting this year. History of back issues, although he's been really healthy. I'll be the 170th person to make this point

on a podcast this year, but he definitely is the X factor of that team. It seems like when he plays well, they're unbeatable. They might be unbeatable anyway, but when he plays well, you're like, holy shit, now what happens? And if you do that in playoff series twice

per playoff series, that's a win for him. House is just thinking about him ending up on the Wizards like three years from now. He's the perfect Wizard. House likes MPJ. House doesn't want to say it, but you're kind of an MPJ guy. All right, Waz,

what's your other pick? Just because I have to. It's a bonus. I mean, wow. I can't do this. I can't do this. Y'all not going to get me to buy this thing. I'm never going to buy this thing. The T-Rex

arms at center, I'm never going to buy it. I get get it he's a focal point of what they're doing on offense and he doesn't always embarrass himself on defense and he plays hard and he's a positive guy but he's got four years 186 left after this year okay uh which again over 200 million dollars when you that was an uncle beck Uncle Vivek's like you've heard of Uncle Steve here's Uncle Vivek come on now for a 6'8 center

I just I can't who doesn't shoot threes I can't be he killed Anthony Davis last night well I'm just like I'm not impressed

that's all he does do it in the postseason do it in the postseason it's fair I'm not I'm not buying this bonus thing y'all can buy it

I'm not so basically five years $214 million for him if you include this year I'm not buying this Sabonis thing. Y'all can buy it. I'm not. So basically five years, $214 million for him, if you include this year. I mean, we took a lot of heat, Simmons, when you and I were together looking at the lists of potential all-stars, and we didn't know exactly what to do with Sabonis. The light-the-beam people came at us for not having...

And he does have this incredible double double streak going as the production. It was not only that, but it's production that matters. Like, you know, they, they beat the Lakers ass last night because he, he's,

you know, he, he, he's very challenging to Anthony Davis. I guess my question is, and I know this kind of defeats the purpose of the worst contract draft, but every team kind of has to have at least one guy making over 40, right? Yeah. And probably two.

You know, this is the situation Lakers are in that Russell and I talked about. Like if you, you basically, every team has the spot and the guys are going to make between 40 and 50. And if you pick your two guys and they're making a combined 90 to a hundred, what are those two? What's the ceiling with those two guys? That's what everybody has to figure out. So if you're the Kings, you're like, all right, here's, we have Fox. Fox on a pretty good deal. Cause he's under 40. Cause they signed it two years ago and some bonus. So we're paying like $85 million maybe for those two together. What's our ceiling?

And then you can talk yourself into, well, we had the number one offense last year. We're really fun to watch. He likes being in Sacramento. Got bounced in the first round by Jordan Poole. I get it. Come on. The case for the contract is this guy actually likes being in Sacramento.

Our fans like him. And our team's pretty good. With all that said, it's too much money for Sabonis, I agree. It seems high. Your ceiling is very low. What's your other pick? No, those were the two. Oh yeah, you did MPJ and Sabonis, so house is up.

He did too. I have a confession. Is this the last pick or the second to last pick? This or the second to last pick? This is the second to last pick But we can help feed you if you No, no, no, I just have a confession There's a name on this list That I'm just staring at it And I don't want to say it

I don't want to say it Go bang us, give it to us I'm going to save it, I'll save it for the last pick This is low hanging fruit Staring us right in the face. Whatever Pascal Siakam's next deal is, it's going to be a gross, grotesque overpay. It's going to be a preposterous. We're also certain that it's going to be a max.

Do the Pacers really have to do that? I don't know if it's going to be a max, but it's probably going to be like 40, 42 range. I think it's going to be like 220 for five years. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For what?

The problem is they have a truly transcendent talent in Hallie. Right. And so you have to surround him with complimentary pieces and so far you gotta overpay for the piece yeah but but is that the piece that's the piece you're gonna overpay for you want to be your third best guy he can't be i would sign that deal and immediately try and trade him for carl anthony towns that's what i'm gonna do that deal. And what I will say is that since Halliburton got hurt and he rushed back, he just hasn't been the same. So I'm not going to judge the Siakam trade too harshly right now because Halliburton isn't at his best. And ultimately, Halliburton has to be at his best so we can see what it really looks like.

For sure. But yeah, the Siakam deal is, it can be a little bit kind of scary. I will say to me, he is in the class with Julius Randle and Jalen Brown where it's like, oh man, how much money is it? Oh, he doesn't do this, he doesn't

do that. But when they're on your team, it's a nice guy to have on the team. All three of those guys are three of the 10 best forwards in the league. They play. They're durable. You know what you're getting. You watch Indiana at the

end of games and it's like, Siakam will make a really good play with 90 seconds left. He's been in big games. I like him. I just think he's too expensive. He's going to be too expensive. He will be on this list next year. He definitely knows how to play. And that is a very good reason

to have him on a team with the youth that Indianapolis has. I do wonder a tiny bit. It looks to me like his athleticism is diminishing a tiny bit. I do think that. That makes me feel better. Alright. I do think that. Well, I said yeah immediately, so that makes me feel better.

All right. I mean, he's 29. He's on the other side of that hill. Yep. I have two picks left. The first one's easy. I'm offended that he hasn't gone yet. He's making,

for this year and the next three, four years, $94 million. And to me, it's like, for what he does during a game, I can find 30 guys in the league who basically does this. It's Cam Johnson on the Brooklyn Nets. It's like, oh yeah, they traded Durant. They got Mikael Bridges back and they got Cam Johnson. They re-signed him to almost a hundred million dollars and he's going to blossom. Well, where's the blossom? He's he, first of all, he, he's one of the few people who failed by team USA theory. Usually when you play on team USA, you come back and you're better.

He's somehow worse. He's three points worse. Three point shooting's fine. He's a 40% three-point shooter, but that's really it. Doesn't really rebound. Doesn't really pass. Solid defender. He's a 3 and D guy. Why do I have to pay a 3 and D guy $22 million, $23, $24 million a year? I don't want to. No, thank you. It's the same conundrum you're in with DeAndre Hunter. It's like, cool, I'm getting all this stuff, but can't I patch this together and find people that I'm paying

$5 million a year for? So anyway, I'm a little disappointed. I thought he'd be better this year and he's just not. So he's one of my picks. Cam Johnson is like a Tavon Austin type. Every time somebody thinks about him or brings him, he's like, oh, Tavon Austin type. Every time somebody thinks about him, a Briggs is like, oh, Tavon Austin.

He's got to unlock some stuff. Oh, he's such a great piece, and it's so explosive. And it's like, bro, he's dropping 40 in the spiked basketball era. You know, it's like the Brady Anderson 50 home run situation. Yeah, we're in the spiked spike stats era and the stats went down.

Yeah, but what I'm saying is, remember those games where he dropped 40 like three times in a row and it was like, oh, when Kyrie left the team at first, that's what got people really excited about this dude. But yeah, I've never saw it for him. House? He's the poster child of of are we really sure that brooklyn's trying to win i mean it's we had the conversation at the top i understand the point about them not having or anything but right right this guy this is this is exactly why i asked the question the nets can lose to anybody they They've proven it time and time again.

They'll lose to any team in the entire NBA on any given night. And this guy at this salary is part and parcel of it. There is no proof to me that that's a serious team with serious intention

to trying to win. But good luck. Good luck to him. Well, the good news is they haven't changed their front office in 10 years. Can I make a quick defense of Cam Johnson, even though I just picked him in the worst contract draft?

Please. If Cam Johnson was here and was like, Cam, what happened this year? I think his response would be, my point guards were Spencer Didwitty, Cam Thomas, and Dennis Smith Jr. That's what happened. Give me a real fucking point guard.

Maybe you'd see your 20 points a game. Okay? Leave me alone. All right. My last pick. This is emotional. I'm sad it's over. I was really having a good time.

There's some good ones left. But I got to go. there's some good ones left but I gotta go this just is it's been jumping out at me I can't stop staring at it this year in the next five 262 million dollars for Anthony Davis

who is 31 years old it's not a bad pick who's been playing big minutes for Anthony Davis, who is 31 years old. It's not a bad pick. Who's been playing big minutes really since he got in the league, who hasn't exactly been Mr. Durability. No. And look, I don't mind the number this year.

I don't mind it next year. I don't mind it the year after that. But now you're taking me into the rest of the 2020s. You're taking me into, he's going to be 35 years old, 36 years old, 36 years old, 37 years old,

making $60 million. What is that going to look like? What is our evidence of big guys hitting like the year 14, 15, 16, 17 of their career and still being awesome? I thought it was a kind of perplexing extension. I didn't really understand it because they already had him under contract.

And that's just a lot of money house. It is one of the curiosities of the way that the NBA contracts have to work. There is no mechanism by which you can reward a player. And it literally is the thing that washington uh you know i'm very accustomed to this in seasons when abe poland owned the team uh years where guys had good seasons they would come back and they would get like giant contract extensions without really any uh modicum of of what what does this do to the cap? What's our team building thesis? It was, nope. We had a good

season last season. Extensions for everybody. And so it's because there is no way to truly compensate guys for resetting the direction of a team, resetting the trajectory of a

franchise. I think Anthony Davis... By the way, House trajectory of a franchise. I think Anthony Davis, by the way, I house, I fucked up. I said, uh, I said six years,

256 million. It's five years, 256 million. So it's 83 million this year and next year. And then the extension that kicks in is three years, 177 million culminating with a player option in 27, 28 for $62.97 million. Anthony Davis has already picked that up. It's just a bonus. They gave him a bonus. They gave him a bonus because he helped them be competitive. He was a running mate for LeBron. He made the Lakers relevant. They won

the summer camp title in 2020. So look, you know, those are all meaningful things. I'm fine with rewarding him for that. But right. I cannot wait for Waz's take because he's making a face. No, I listen. I think AD, like you guys said, the reason he's at the back of this thing is because for the next three years, he's going to justify whatever he's getting paid. But once he gets up in the years, when you count the injuries, and I think of a big man who's playing well into his mid to late 30s, which is Al Horford.

But his game isn't so predicated on athleticism like AD's is. Al Horford is like spreading you out to three. AD can't shoot threes. You know, AD is counting on catching lobs and, you know, being really athletic on the perimeter, on switches and stuff like that. I don't know. That kind of stuff is going to be greatly diminished at the end of this deal.

So I get it, but I'm an AD guy. So I'm a... For me, he's second team All-NBA this year. Yeah. Because I'm going to still vote with positions. I think he's been the second best center in the league and it's perplexing to me

that he's been as good as he's been and the Lakers have been better. I'm just looking. We've followed the NBA too long and House and I

are older than you was. But these athletic, tall, big guys who can't shoot from deep, it goes Jermaine O'Neal. It was over all of a sudden. And three different teams try to talk themselves into him after it was over. And he went to like Miami and he went to Toronto.

And it was just like, when it's over, it's over. And I just think it's going to be abrupt with him because of what you're talking about with the athleticism. He's not going to have a plan B. Horford was able to refashion himself around a lot of the skills he had, but he also wasn't making $62 million in the final year of his deal. Although that last deal with Elton Brand,

that was tough. Yeah, true. True, they did have to attach a first-round pick to trade it. Yeah. All right. House, your last pick. Okay, so

here's the name that I've been staring at. This is a confession, and I'm not going to select him out of respect and love for our beloved colleague Chris Vernon. But John Morant at $5,197 million with the last 18 months

I had him marked. The last 18 months of John Morant was a lot of uncertainty. Now, it's everything because we want him to play in this league. The TV contracts that we're talking about, he should be

asserting himself as the best American player. He should be in that. It should be him, John Morant going head-to-head with Anthony Edwards, going head-to-head with Jason Tatum. And Zion. And Zion. And Halliburton.

Let's get some Americans in the mix, baby. Yeah. We just got to get the past 18 months in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible. And so I am not going to sit here and cast his contract. It's a fair level of compensation. It's the same amount of money that Zion's making.

I think it's fair. The extensions for both those guys after their rookie contracts. Zion did get drafted last year. He did. I know. He deserved it because there was no proof that he could play a full basketball season looks like a knock on wood like let's not jinx zion i want zion in the playoffs all right so who's your pick the playoffs gotta be kyle kuzma and the reason is

because kyle kuzma took an extension from the washington terrible franchise. And they put him on the table as they told him that he was going to be. And they had a deal in principle with the Dallas Mavericks. And he said that the team asked him, do you want to go to Dallas and play with Kyrie and Luka? And Kyle Kuzma said, nah, I'm good. This is great. I love it right here. Why would I leave here? And Luca and Kyle Kuzma said, nah, I'm good. This is great. I love it right here. Kyle Kuzma.

Why would I leave here? He said he wants to build something special in D.C. with you guys. Come on now. He's looking forward to opening up that new building. It's been a special year. That new building in Northern Virginia. He's excited to open that thing up, House. It's the funniest thing I ever heard.

I loved it so much. Do you want to go to Dallas and play with a team that's going to make that thing up, House. It's the funniest thing I ever heard. I loved it so much. Do you want to go to Dallas and play with the team that's going to make a deep run potentially in the playoffs? Nah, I'm good. I would love to know the validity of that idea. I would imagine that the deal fell

through and Kuzma was like, I know I was supposed to be traded, but I still like being here. Can I tag on this? Because I've had a theory on this. Let's hear it. Kuzma was like, I know I was supposed to be traded, but I still like being here. Cause he's a nice guy. Cause I've had a theory on this. Let's hear it. Kuzma played with Porzingis last year. Yes, he did. Might've made a call, huh?

Probably hung out right on the road a little bit. Hey, what was it like to play with Luca? Maybe you heard some stuff. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. And by the way, guess who was pretty miserable playing in Dallas? Poor Zingas.

And guess who immediately left Dallas and was good on Washington and now on Boston? Poor Zingas. And I wonder if Kuzma's like, man, I already did that. I won a title doing that with LeBron. I don't need to win another title.

I have a ring. I'll stay here and I get a lot of shots. Maybe Jordan Poole will be good again in the 2020s. I can see it. Maybe he likes DC. Maybe he likes the DMV. House, you haven't left the DMV since we graduated

college. I honestly have no problem at all with Kuzma and I think that contract is honestly fair. He's a good fourth player, fifth player, fifth player. Contract's expensive. I think that's a good Kuzma contract, especially just before we get out of here, obviously. Just a couple that I had up here that you guys didn't mention.

Wait, you're up. You have the last pick. You got to finish up. Oh, yeah, it's you. Yeah. Yeah, Kuzma, you're the one. 90 is second to last pick. You're done.

You're wrapping us up, Wes. It's not Nurkic for me. It's Tyler Hero. It's Tyler Yeah. Yeah, Kuzma, you're the one. 90 is second to last pick. You're doing, you're wrapping us up, Wes. It's not Nurkic for me. It's Tyler, it's Tyler Hero. It's Tyler Hero, man. I'm glad I got taken. I mean, like, it's the Jordan Poole deal. Good job. Essentially the exact same deal.

It's four years, 120, right? Or four years, 126? Three years, 99 mil at the end of this season. He just has not lived up to it. They went to the finals without him last year. It's like, it's tough. He basically was part of the reason they couldn't get Dame in there

because everybody thinks he stinks. He does shoot it still, you know, but he doesn't really do anything else. That's a tough, tough contract. Tyler Hero. Now you got Heat Nation against you. Now you have a weird coming out wise. Ringer Pundit takes

slams Tyler Hero. That's going to be a headline now. Does Heat Nation stand by Tyler Hero? I don't think so. Well, they tried to trade him. I don't think so either. Yeah, it feels like a lifetime. I think they've moved on to Jovic and Jaime Jaquez

who are legitimately good rookies and legitimate pieces. Ballers. I agree. All right, so to recap, Ben Simmons was our first pick to Waz. House took Poole.

I took Levine and Wiggins. House took Beal. Waz took Vucevic and Towns. House took Trey. I took Aiton and Kelder Johnson. House took Jeremy Grant. Waz took Kawhi and McCollum. It started to get spicy right around here.

House asked to take two picks a row and took Hunter and Collins together. I took Lamello and Lillard with the Gilbang same game parlay. Michael P. Jordan, a.k.a. Michael Porter Jr. I have MPJ down. I wrote it as MBJ for some reason. Michael Porter Jr. and Sabonis. Wow, you got super spicy here in the second half of this draft. I didn't really fully realize it until I was looking at it. Yeah.

House took the Siakam extension that hasn't happened yet. I took Kim Johnson and Anthony Davis. Kyle Kuzma went to House, and the last pick was Tyler Hara. We have some apologies, as always. We like to offer apologies. Bruce Brown, two years, $45

million, making $20 million next year to be the ninth man on Toronto. Apologies. Kevin Herter, the Red Rocket. Three for $50.5. His stats dropped dramatically. I hope Priscilla doesn't hear that. Grant Williams, four for $53. Made it 50 games with the team that signed him.

He doesn't know what else he had to do to get picked. Michael Finley's taking snipes at him in the media. There's drive-bys on him every day. PJ Tucker with two for 22.6 taking the leave of absence and everybody be like, all right, tell us when you're going to come back. He didn't get picked.

Rob Lambs, three for 37.2. Sorry to Rob. Sorry to Draymond Green, four for 100. One more incident away from maybe just being suspended for the rest of the season I'm not sure I'd want to be on the hook with that and then last but not least

Davis Bertans 16 million this year and a 5.5 million dollar buyout just to get out of his 17 million dollar extension so you gotta pay 5 and a half just to get him out but he did not get picked. And it made me sad.

This is the first time we've done the draft without Bertans. Maybe next year, somebody overpays him. All right. Before we go, we got to bring in Cerruti. What's up, gentlemen?

Cerruti, who won the draft? Man. Was super spicy. I think I love the hero hero pick the sabonis thing was just i especially have to like like triple doubles owning anthony davis i it's gonna be a tough one but i'm willing to hear it as somebody who still thinks that trade is a disaster for the kings um so i got aside with laws uh you know obviously house is a homer so they're houses most homer tricks of anybody i give this light edge to Waz.

Waz, congratulations. You won the 2024 Worst Contracts Draft. I mean, he did have the first pick, but when you start out with Ben Simmons, your team is just loaded. Yeah, you start out Ben Simmons, Vucevic Towns. Wow. All right, that's it. Cerruti, were you disappointed there weren't more magic

taken I don't think there were any magic taken no they have no well last last year was I think took or maybe was an honorable mention it was Jonathan Isaac and I zagged on that and you were talking about I just want to mention that he's he's fine and we'll see what happens this summer but no no they haven't given out any contracts

yet so inevitably there will be somebody bad on there we might be having it we might be having that speech about franz in a few years you never know i i agree was we got to get you on risolo by the way because we did talk about uh what we talked about today was your take on paul on not being you know one of the one number one picks that you wanted because everybody in magic you know land was that's not what i said oh we were talking about we were talking about teams with the best futures right who has the next best five years and the reason you might be able to make an argument for the spurs is because they have wimby sometimes you get the number one pick and it's Wemby who's like Kareem and LeBron and Shaq or you get

Paolo who's not. That's it. That's all I was saying. I wasn't saying he's terrible. I wasn't saying he's not LeBron and Shaq. It's his favorite player. We did a whole segment on it today. He's not magic.

Sorry. I think the one that could end up next year in the Magic is when they pay $160 million over four years for Malik Monk. Which, by the way, I would sign up for. I think it's a great move for the Magic. But it will also be drafted next year. What if it's Klay Thompson? There's one.

Oh, please no. That might be on there next year. How much? $10 million? How much does he get? Nah, they'd have to overpay him. They'd have to give him more than $25. What's Tobias Harris get next year? This is his last.

It's probably like a 2 for $20. Right? How do you have fallen? Yeah. Yeah. He's, it's probably like a two for 20. Right. How the money have fallen. After all the contracts we just listed, I'd believe anything house. It was great to see you. Wow. Always a pleasure.

Of course. Steve Cerruti. Good to see you. Kyle Creighton. Thanks for producing. You can watch this entire episode on youtube.com slash bill Simmons. Have a great night, fellas. On the wayside On the first side of the river I said

I don't have Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fando is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit Fando.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan,

New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 888-789-7700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 877-770-STOP in Louisiana, mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, 800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia, 800-522-4700 in Wyoming.

Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support of Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.