The Deep 3 Podcast - NBA Offseason Questions That Still Need Answers | Ep. 228

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

NBA free agency decisions we're still waiting on! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW �� Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794   Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree   Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/   Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mo, we are six days into not knowing where LeBron James is going to play basketball in the 2026 season. How does it feel? I feel good because y'all are six days away from me telling y'all where the fuck I'm going because new to y'all, I'm leaving to. Y'all better pray he's in Chicago because otherwise I'm leaving. I might be moving to Cleveland. Who knows, I might be going to Orlando if he decides.

I might be going to God knows where. But TBD will see. So you didn't follow him to Los Angeles, but you're going to follow him to wherever's next? I couldn't. I had to like establish my career, get a little money first, and then I had to step back. You know what I'm saying? Now you can be a professional. Yeah.

Now you can be what's it called whenever people follow like bands on the road. A groupie? Yeah, you can be professional groupie now. You got the money to be a groupie. What's that word called? They held out their audition not that long ago and safe to say I secure my spot. You're trying to get that clutch chain. I feel like.

I feel good, man. It's more than a change. I just can't say it yet. It's a lot of sound. Check it's added. I sign NDAs. He's getting branched. Fat-ass gay right here.

You'll get a stamp. It's the dumbest thing in the morning. You go a stamp, a tramp stamp. Clutch tramp stamp. It's just LeBron's crowned. They'll never let you meet LeBron. Tell my clutch tramp stamp. Amen.

embarrassing the brand. Hey man. NDAs can't say too much yet. Well, how'd you guys see about the title? We're here today to talk about the biggest NBA free agency, more really off-season in general, questions that we still have. Players that haven't been signed yet,

teams that are still incomplete, the rumors that haven't come to fruition yet, all the things that are still up in the air heading into week two of free agency. Today is actually the day that the moratorium ends, so moves will finally be executed and things might become more clear. Talk about everything that we want to see happen.

Let's look at it. Cute the intro music. We're throwing it back. Whoa. That's crazy. He was bragging. I don't know. The cranium is crazy.

Oh my God. Crown eaters rejoice. So before we get into our offseason questions that we still have, let's do a quick rundown of all the transactions that have happened since our last episode, the breaking news that's come over the weekend. Be Souls, what is up first as the most pressing issue to talk about? The first pressing issue we need to talk about is SGA's haircut. We got a pot about this. I don't feel about this. Let me know how you feel about it first. You go first. I'm glad you brought this out. Yeah, how do you feel?

I like the old haircut, man. I'm not going to lie. But this is clean, though. This is clean. Yeah. I expected he would have like a couple more years at like his peak with the with his style but I mean we all knew this is coming it literally has to come you know this does his old hairstyle did cause a lot of stress to his like edges and shit that's what just naturally does so I get it but so soon damn yeah I think the interesting part about this is that Dylan Brooks also cut his hair off as well yeah and so him and so like I thought that maybe it's a it's a Canadian basketball thing because the the Canadian team they're trying to qualify for the the Fibble World Cup so it's okay you have your camaraderie I do think legitimately this is

is kind of like a shit because we have the like the second half one of my questions was halfway revolving around this of like because he went into the world cup saying like oh i want to play off ball how committed is he actually to this like new year new me type of vibe and i do think that locking in cutting off your hair it's a universal sign for i'm locking in yeah i do think this is a different version of she okay he might not be playing fair this year is what i'm saying i saw okayc fans actually distraught about the aura loss of their star. Really? I saw the most hilarious discourse where they're actually down bad and like analytically analyzing

what this means for his oral loss and his on the court of build. He's based on his intimidation factor with versus without the braids. We do have different angles. There's another angle here. Okay. Okay. The silence is kind of deafening. Damn, he did lose a little bit of aura.

But you know, he did lose a little bit of oral. You got a little ugly phase right now, you know? You don't got the way you're kicking in yet. You just got to wait a little bit. You do have to see what he wants to do with this. If he just goes, like, I'm just going to keep it low. Okay, maybe. But if you start brushing a little bit, right, we can see where that goes.

You start getting different variations of fades. We'll see where that goes. As of now, they are comparing him to R. Kelly. They are calling him. They are calling him. They're also. They're also comparing him. to Kenny Beach him.

Not all right, I do see him. These are exactly the same. What? I don't know about exactly the same. Let me say this one angle. Not this angle, obviously. He looked more like hells than Kenny. No, trust me.

I'm going to send you guys the angle right now of you so you can pull it up. Yeah. One of their fan accounts tweeted out. I'm going to send you be so if you find it. That's hilarious. Dude, this angle is crazy. Pull that up. Okay, so.

Yeah. And the forward angle, obviously, you see more of shade's facial structure. they don't look alike. But this side profile is it? Look at the comments. I think somebody put the profile picture side by side. Let me see, man. Well, I don't know.

Such a coward, too. It's hilarious. I don't know what I'm scrolling to. Just a case. I don't know what I'm crazy. You can't roll around Twitter comments for willy nilly on the internet. Yeah, I don't blame you.

You know what they're side by side. Okay, I thought it's all right. Yeah, that's hilarious. doing Twitter My bet I know this is filthy We have new

I do think Maybe you're right That it is I don't really Give a fuck about his hair But Maybe it is Signify

He's trying to change stuff up It says what it looks like On the court Like With the headband The facial expression Silliers He does

Now that looks like A punishment Right there He didn't want to get his hair It really is the Just lost the deer Yeah

But we've gotten the trifectar between the haircut Between the comments of I'm saying that I want to play more off ball Him moving from Converse going You know up another you know quote unquote Up another level to Nike We're seeing a lot of delineations in the Shay story I do think that now that

They're coming off of this championship Or this title defense year Where two teams are or two of if his start players are down in terms of J-dub, AJ Mitchell, Wembe's feeling on top of the world like he's on top of the Western Conference. She's like, listen,

you guys have this entirely confused. Like, I average 30 in my sleep. This still is my conference, and I do have to let you guys know that. This is a good sign for Thunder fans. Okay. It also feels like a girl going through a crisis and just just changes the color of her hair,

but it feels like that too. And I don't even know if it's that deep. Sometimes those haircuts, sometimes getting that bob changes a woman's life. sometimes they come out for the better for it let's get into the bomb discourse man you gotta come out with bedazzled fashion next

I'm sure Shane his opinions on the matter he's wearing bedazzle he can't really He has He has rhinestones in his closet Absolutely Yeah The off ball comments were nice to see though

Because that was such a major point Of why he was able to have such bad shooting nights In the playoffs whenever teams were Making his life hell off Onball with all the doubles and stuff and he had to just force his way through. Being able to get the ball off ball for an advantageous position,

so glad to see he's focusing on that. Yeah, it makes sense. And if they're going to start AJ Mitchell, makes all the sense in the world. Exactly. Now, he did say that, and then the next game came out, he looked just like Shay.

He wasn't awful. He wasn't, like, entirely crazy. Yeah, it wasn't, like, entirely crazy. But the thought is there. And you see the self-awareness through Shay and through these comments. Listen, Jory Fernandez is a very good offensive coach. Yeah.

Teach Mark Dad on a thing or two. Show him how to use the star. Yeah. Besides the shade of hair, Discourse, what is the next business that happened over the past several days? Um,

definitely a doubt great from these discussions, but the Adriene is a wizard. It is. Let's go. And you know what? There's never been a more predictable sentence ever said than that

what you just said right there. There's never been a more fitting combination of player team than DeAndre ad and the wizards. I feel like nature is healing, honestly. What do you all feel? Nature is healing.

healing, wow. Yeah, the wizards getting a recommendation project that people don't believe in to replace their previous one in Marvin Bagley? I don't know if nature's healing because I do think that he, yo, you said he asked into the wizards. The wizards are not like the same old wizards that we used to talk about but in terms of you being

like a leftover piece, I think your career is pretty much on the line. I'm going to push back on that a little bit. Really? Really? I'm a pushback on that. Why? Let's buy. Come on. Let me pushback. Can you said that they're not the same old wizards. Why? Why are they not?

I think that they, like, clearly we like some of the moves that they've done. They have to prove to us otherwise that they are a different version of the wizards. Let me push back. I'm still hating. I would like to hate some more, please.

Don't tell me I should be done hitting on the wizards. Definitely. In terms of God given right to hate. I feel you, but in terms of, like, the actual basketball product, it's TBD, we have to see. But when it comes to their process and how they went about getting,

okay, they made the move. the first round picks for AD. He doesn't want to be there. They got trade. First round picks. It was A for something, wasn't it? useless. There's nothing pretty much.

You say that now. You say that now. And then in two years, when you want to, like, be more flexible, make more moves. You can do that. That pick could have been a superstar in a couple years. Like Cam Car. 700 days away? Come on, no.

Let's live in the now. Exactly. One summer league game. Two summer league games, 25 points in both. All right. But no, so this deal. I think it makes sensible size to some extent. This was reported.

They got this trade happening for the Wizards, and soon after it was important that they do intend to run a lot of double-big lineups, whether it be Saar and Aden or A-D in Aden or Sarr-plus A-D, they're going to be a double-big type of team with A-D getting his dream to be power forward when he's at his biggest and slowest he's ever been good for him. But they intend to have Aiden there in that role being a third big that play serious minutes.

And, you know, in our last episode we talked about Aden for 8-Mill as a backup center. You can understand that, right? It's a decent value. If he buys it as willing to be a backup center, that's t b fucking d this tells me the lakers did not believe in him to buy in to be a backup center probably not think he's down to play 15 minutes a night and give us all they probably said we're not going to deal with that you already annoyed us when you play 30 minutes i imagine you're going to be more annoying at 15 let's try to get some picks for you can't really be mad at either side i think bro he's been dreaming to play the four his whole career he really has I want to play the force so bad He's never been less equipped to do it Bro, who's gonna be passing the

Who's their bench? Who's their guard bench? Or they're bench guards? For watching. Bill Russell. Bub. Bub. Forget about Bub.

Yeah, no, he's not. Now he's a guard. I didn't say who's passing the ball to answer to that isn't Bub, but he is a bench guard. Yeah, nah. This is going to be tough. He can't start for no,

no team to league anymore. That's kind of crazy how fast you go here. Yeah. And we'll see how he does that role. Because again, he could be like a premier backup center if he wants to be. But if he wants to be as a story of his life, he's never wanted to be. He's never wanted to be once. He doesn't.

And I like, we, we. No one wants to play that starting five role. He doesn't. He doesn't. We did our rankings last year and you were the highest on, on Aiton. And part of that was one, you're going to play with Luca and you're going into a situation where if you just show that you want it for. 45 games, the world is yours. Like, you can be this guy and he just did not want to be that guy.

He wanted it for 20 games. They didn't want it for 15. They kind of wanted it for 15. It was up and down like you'd expect. It's such a different experience to be backup center too. Like, it's probably harder, right? Because like you really have to want it and really have to be focused and really have that ability to like buy in and sacrifice and all this like typical sports cliches. It's probably the most true of any position in the sport as a backup center. Like you have to just only focus on the little things only be open to not getting your touches like your mindset has to exclusively be sacrifice and bedroom for the team and that doesn't sound like aton at all right aton has the mindset of just like he just moves like he just so happens to be so happens to be big

so happens to be strong so happens to be taller than 99% of humans ever exist bro and he's just like oh fuck well i guess i have to get this rebound fuck i guess i'll box him out here and there damn that dude's in the paint let me just throw my hand up see see i feel like react off of something you got tall on Yeah, exactly. It's inconvenient for me this tall. And when we talked about the Lakers after their free agency moves, I kind of, it was nice to have an idea of them having 48 minutes of competent center play. Because even at Aitin's worst, he might be the worst starting center in the league. He's starting center caliber, especially for 8 mil, right?

Now, you can't really win a championship when you're starting center clearly. But he's, you know, in the grand scheme of things, at worst, like the 28th best center in the league, I think. So him as a backup on Walker Kessler, that was kind of nice to imagine that you have 48 minutes of people that can catch a lob, play manageable, average defense at the room, rebound all the stuff. Lakers said fuck that. We'd rather have no backup big

and try our hand at Kavana Looney or whatever because they probably truly did not believe in his ability to buy in that role, like you said. J.J. Reddick already got pissed at him last year. Probably wasn't trying to deal with that with low risk, low reward to be had. Also, they need the second round picks. Now they have two instead of one.

That's meaningful. I guess it's a good move for the Lakers. I'm scared now with a back of center position though. Yeah, but I, And the way that the JJ Redick has presented himself, I think you are better with a less talented player. Yeah. That he just rocks with. Like that you just, that he has some level of trust in as opposed to every day he's wondering, can I, can I maximize this guy?

What type of effort am I going to get from from this player? And that'll probably reap a couple. That'll reap more benefits. Yeah. than trying to hit, you know, hit a home run out of the park and try to get like these like value signings. It's, I think, I think from what we've seen from him, the intensity that he shows as a coach and especially when things are going bad in the moodiness that you can get from the head coach himself, I think buying is the number one thing. And now that LeBron is gone, you do have a situation where

it is completely, everything is being built completely with JJ and Luca moving forward. There's not a big domino that you have to factor things around in terms of having and LeBron there. So I do think like, yeah, you guys are fine not having Aiton there. Yeah, it's not in the world at all. Aiden didn't get along with J.J. Redick, obviously. And Luca never had any good connection with him either. Everyone always talked about he had a better connection with Jackson Hayes.

I think it's quite telling to what you just said that Aidan and Jackson Hayes were both allowed to leave this team. The Lakers clearly didn't want to sign Jackson Hayes. He didn't even wait for them to see he signed that $5 million deal with the Jazz. if they were considering signing him I promise you he would have waited to try to get that opportunity that you play with Luca

Of course he has a Slovenian passport now, bro they clearly told him you're not coming back buddy because JJ Reddick as much as he hates Aiton hates Jackson Hayes even more because as low of an IQ as Aiton plays with

that is worst Jackson Hayes always plays that low IQ so they had no intention of having any centers that give you headaches on their team and I can respect the vision of that of only having

reliable players at your big man positions I'm guessing they're going to sign Kavon Luni it seems like it's like him or Nick Richards if Kavana Luni is one thing, it's reliable. For a guy you play 15 minutes a game because Walker Kessler is going to be playing the rest of the game, I'm not mad at a thing going reliability in that role.

Yeah, that's good minutes. They had a, the first year that they were there, they had no centers in the playoff series, and J.J. Reddick was still like, he can't play for me. He's like, Ruey's going to play center. I do not want Jackson A's on this floor. So I think getting into,

defending yourself from a situation where you are in playoff games and your head coach doesn't want to play a seven-footer, that's probably the best thing. Speaking of, Rui Hachamor has finally signed. He was a free agent before about three minutes ago at 1029 a.m. He signed a two-year $28 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers breaking news. It seems that he was waiting around to try to see which he would give him a full mid-level.

That clearly didn't happen. And it seemed like the Lakers were reportedly choosing between Rui and Jonathan Cominga as who they want to sign to be their power forward for around this money after they presumably dump some salary here in the next 30 minutes before the moratorium ends. This kind of signals to me. Maybe the Lakers are going to pick Kaminga, as we expected. How do you all feel about Rui going to the Clippers? Okay.

I mean, I like it. I think they have a decent lineup. Darius Garland, Wagler, B.I., Rui. I think that's like a very like regular, slightly below average team. Stingy. It's kind of stinky. They have a lot of spacing and their offenses, I mean, in theory, like, should be good. Do they have their pick things next year?

No. They don't. Anytime you want to ask that question, answers, no. Yeah. It's going to be no. for quite some time. Let me see. It might be a pick swap next year

or they don't have their pick at all. I don't know for sure. I'll check. I was thinking maybe they have like a mid-commander team. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. At the best case scenario, they have a pick swap on that pick.

That's 27. They have the more favorable of least slash less favorable of Clippers, Denver, OKC. Wow, there's like a million swaps in the pick. I know.

They're going to get a mini meoker pick. I'm guessing it's the worst of all these. It's probably like OKC's pick or something. We got to stop with the swaps. I read like one fourth of a sentence on here just now. didn't even want to finish. I was on my beast little shit.

I'm tapping up. I'm tapping out. Hell, yeah. We got to continue with the sauce, but like having it be least free of X, Y, Z team, after two teams, that's when my mind's like, all right, I'm tapped out.

Bro, they start off with more favorable of least favorable and a bunch of caveats. I'm not reading that. I'm not solving that movie. So yeah, though I'm a first-run pick it's not there is most likely.

Yeah. But shout out to Rui. Good career move. Get your money, man. You get to stay in L.A. too. Oh, that is nice, actually. Yeah. For lifestyle style?

That's nice. This is also, shout to them. The Clippers, I guess, they get their John Collins replacement, so it makes sense. True, that too. I'm really hoping they pursue Peyton Watson as well. I'm really hoping they want to dump Derek Jones Jr. And the Lakers can somehow get him for a second round pick or something. Oh, forget he's still on this roster.

Yeah, he should not be here. 29 years old, $10 million expiring contract. There is no reason he shouldn't be a Laker next year. The 24 Maz rebuild continues. Exactly. Yeah. It's a adult. Do you all think Cominga's like the PJ Washington of it all?

That's what they want to happen. No, I don't because I don't believe. in Camiga like that. But, but clearly. Yeah, if they don't, if they feel right, right now, you just need somebody who can play the four. You know, like, you're, you look at the, at the, at the Deptart and everything that they've done. And especially now that, now that Brown is not there, now that Jackson, now that

DeAndre Aden is, isn't there, Jackson Hayes isn't there. All of a sudden, this team is kind of small. Like, you do, you do need some, some athletes. You need some size. Kamiga can do that. And he did show flashes, especially in the second half when he went to, uh, to Atlanta. So it's really there's like three playoff games where he show flashes. Yeah.

That's really all it is. He didn't show shit in the regular season for Atlanta. But those three playoff games, he had some moments. Yeah. Change your life. The question is, got some wins. I don't think the question should be,

do we believe in John the Kaminga? It should be, do you believe in John the Kaminga more than Rui Hachimora to make this team better? I can say yes, I think. I think Rui has gotten very overrated by some Lakers fans because he is such an amazing shooter. And, you know, there's a stat line. He was the most efficient three-point shooter in the playoffs. and like NBA history for that run

and it's up is true he's an incredible shooter he doesn't do anything else really at all he plays horrible awful defense can't defend on the perimeter because you can't fight over screens and doesn't rebound

on a team that has the athletic deficiencies of this team a lot of white dudes you need to focus on athleticism obviously he doesn't have functional athleticism he's not running in transition giving you guys points there he's not necessarily going to chase down shots and block it he's not going to be a good cutter

that gives you a lot for all the stuff that we know can do at his worst you are probably better off, I think, having Mamu and Kaminga as your Power 4 duo than Rui, because Rui is like purely can only play the 4. He's a stretch 4 stand in the corner because he can't rebound enough to play center and can't move while to play the 3.

Mamu play similarly to Rui, but can play the 5 because he can rebound and Kaminga while being a 4 can play the 3 a little bit because he can move a little better. I think that versatility there and the varying skill sets is a better proposition than just like a pure stretch 4 that is one thing. And it's obviously a safer pick.

If you want to chase competency and try to be the most competent team you can be around Luca, Rui's a better pick. But I think if you're trying to aim for getting some Swiggins that have upside and hope you can give him a Wiggins arc, I kind of do buy that Kaminga makes sense. Yeah, I 100% agree. Some things that stuck out with Kamingo last year is that, you know, he's just an absolute force in the interior. And of course, like, he's just, he's good, but he's just not that, obviously,

because of his athleticism cap. But more so what I'm excited to see Assuming Kaminga or whoever signs with someone more athletic signs with the Lakers Is how they're gonna be able to slide in super nice with Luka Even if they're not like shooting the ball extremely well That's the only way you feel Ruiz presence on the goddamn poor

If he's not shooting the ball well what is he doing We don't know no one knows But what's the superpower from Kaminga though He's a straight of good slasher And grubber for his position Per 36 he gets like eight rebounds a game He's a legit crash the board guy and run in transitions game to hit the rim.

He didn't have his best offensive season last year, but every year before last year, he was a very good slasher at the least. Three point shot was only 33% last year. That's obviously hit or miss. That's the swing factor to me. And by getting him, they're clearly hoping he has more defensive upside

than Rui and that he can buy into that role and hope that maybe he's, I'm assuming they're having conflicts with him and maybe he's a little more receptive to not being the star score he clearly wanted to be for years because he kind of like is humbled by the market. I think their idea is you harnesses athleticism

into being a better defender. You let him eat. in transition, Luca will feed him and just hope and pray he's ready to find the right role for his athleticism. That's such wishful thinking, obviously. It's not a great bet given his track record. I don't know

because like if he sits down, if he's real with himself, he sits down and understands how we got, became valuable in that next series, yo, he got he got valid because he was big. He got value because he was able to defend a little bit. He was the only guy on our roster legitimately who can do something to Kar and the town

and at least makes his presence felt known. That's exactly how you talk about him finding value with the Lakers is how we got playoff minutes and how he was like legitimately one of the reasons why we did steal a couple of games from y'all. Sounds like Aidan. Aren't you tired though of trying to try to have guys like. So because of where the Lakers roster is, I do I do understand it. I'm just talking about in a general sense. Yeah. This idea of like trying to find guys that are on the precipice of reaching.

like self-awareness. It's like it is kind of annoying. And so like those types of guys, I don't think they are my favorite types of swings to go to. I see what you're saying. It is annoying. It's a tough existence. Two things. Buying low and trying to fix somebody is a proven thing across every sport. Trying to find the value that isn't being harness right now because he's not a good fit in his current team and saying I can fix them. Every sport. That's a good way to try to find value. And when you're a beggar, you can't be a chooser. You as a Lakers have no fix. Your only route to getting high impact players is by trying to fix them and hope that you can make, that find the diamond in the rough, right? Yeah. Try to find the next Andrew Wiggins' arc,

which you did with Malik Munker for years ago. Then you got paid by the Kings because you did the exact same thing for him. He is in a good role and flourished in a role that fit him off the bench, got paid somewhere else. Hopefully the idea would be to make him stay and do that with Kaminga next. I'm not mad at it. Like, even the Aiton thing, like it didn't work in the grand scheme of things. They dumped him. I would take that risk again. I would take it again with Kaminga. And now, I don't want to be all my eggs in the basket like you were with Aiden. That's what sucked is it was Aiden or fucking bust because there's no other centers. I don't view Camingo.

The team wouldn't be Camingo or bust. So I'm kind of, I have the appetite to tell myself it's a decent bet. It's so crazy, like how we've talked about Camingo over the course of the really like the last like 24 months when it comes to the whole Warriors thing. And now like you talked about him potentially being traded to my team. And I'll get you over here. Shaking your ass for Camiga, man. Yeah, the difference is why. the absolute best version of him for your team.

The difference is I have... The difference is I have Luca Donchich who makes everybody better. Your team. Shout out Dyson Daniels. Shout out Jalen Johnson. I'm not seeing a lot of floor raisers of players. Regardless, we both needed Kaminga, bro.

That's all I'm just trying to say. And we're trying to theorize him in the best possible scenario. In the same ways, he's valuable. He's good. And that goes, that shows something. That says something by him. Okay.

What does it say about him? It says in theory he's very valuable. I think that the Warriors experience, plus also on top of that, too, how these teams in the free agency are trading him should be very humbling. I agree with you on that. And he definitely does have a space in this league. He just needs to capitalize on it and really run with it. Yes.

Okay, so Donovan, 1 to 10. How much are you buying and Dick Kamega fixing himself next to Luca, Walker, Walker, and JJ Redick? Probably about a 4 out of 10. Okay, Mo. Yeah. Next to JJ and Luca, I'll probably say, like, let's say six out of ten seven out of ten okay that that's pretty optimistic yeah i feel good about him

okay i think he has yeah i think he has to help like move forward with a good attitude he's finally like off of the whole warriors thing he got embraced in alanta for two seconds yeah i feel like pretty good about it um go six and a half out of ten okay y'all are optimistic okay wow i'll go five i'll go right in the middle of you guys i i like the bet because i i do not like rui hutching more very much as much as some lakers fans do so i the upside is worth it and i do think it's the floor, even if he still does suck at a lot of things and can't shoot consistently, is, takes one too many mid-range pull-ups because he wants to be a bucket-getter. At his worst-key scenario, him as a transition score and rebounder is, like, worth a cheap

contract he's going to get at like $12 million or whatever. So I think worst-co-fiel is in his bad, though. It seems like it's goddamn, goddamn likely they're going to get him. So if they don't get him, then whatever. There's other comedias out there. They'll get some other, like, regular, maybe it is Derek Jones or whatever in that salary slot, I won't really care that much if they miss out on him. I'm not like dying to get

Camingo on my team. But if they do it, it's a solid bet. Yeah. The shooting, I just, I don't think the shooting is going to come around. Yeah. Like I don't think you're going to see like he has one year where he's above 35%. Yeah. For his career and that was on like two attempts

a game. Like it's not, it's not anything it's, yeah, it's not anything that up until this point going into, was year six of, of of Camiga, where I have faith in the jumper coming along. I think if he is going to provide value, it is going to be in all the ways that you say of being a super downhill demon, a transition demon, and, you know, kind of leaning into being this special teams player for the Lakers. They want him to be baby Aaron Gordon, but he doesn't have

that defensive instinct. I don't think he'll ever be that. But an offensive slanted archetype, like, I guess that's kind of what PJ Washington was before he went to the Mavericks and then defensively he locked in when he was finally on a good team. Differences, everything we're saying here, can we get the exact opportunity with the Warriors. in a also equally good environment for his skill set. The hope now is just he's more mature after being rejected times. Then he started taking too much food.

Are you all looking to start Kaminka or off the bench? A lot of people, I've seen most Lakers fans assume they want to start Kaminga just because Lakers fans are very uncomfortable with the idea of starting Mamu and Power Forward. I'm not. I'm kind of like very okay with starting Mamu, but I could see them starting Kaminga. Okay.

Yeah, it probably just depends on how things mesh between Mamu and Kaminga next to Walker Kistler. Yeah. I wouldn't be mad at it if they started him, though. Yeah. I just feel like if he's coming out the bench, then, like, what is there to lose at that point? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And the good thing for him is for the slashing.

This should be one of the best shooting teams and its offensive teams in general in the NBA. Like, their shooting is going to be fucking crazy. Lakers? Yeah. And their shooting is all guys who can attack off the dribble. Like, if they start Grimes and Mamu, one through four, all four of those guys with Luca, Reeves, Grimes, Mamu, can shoot threes and attack a close-out at a high-high level. Like that's a defining trait.

Now Luke is not spotting up or anything. But you know what I mean? And then Walker Kessler showed the shooting flashes. We'll see if that's real. There's going to be a lot of space for a slasher to eat. Yeah. So top five offense minimal for you guys? Like, what's your expectation for the offense?

Let's say they get Kaminga and Matisse Taible to round out the team. Yeah, I think fifth best offense is. That's a solid prediction. Okay. Like actually on the low end. Like if they tell me the third, I won't be shocked. Yeah. I mean, how else are they going to be like?

I mean, I guess you could say it. Would you be shocked with her first? No, I wouldn't. Yeah, I guess you could say anything, really. It could be. The best teams in the league are defensive juggernauts. Yeah. I guess.

Yeah. Yeah, I got to pull up the, like, who the league leaders were last year. But in, like, in offense, you had, I mean, it was the Knicks, the Thunder, the Spurs. Oh, wait, never mind. Playoffs. Yeah, I was like, oh. Nuggets Celtics, Spurs, Nicks, Hornets were the top five. I see no reason they can't beat the nuggets.

Yeah. And like very similar build. They don't have a power four that's Aaron Gordon, which is the difference in like Championship caliber, I think. That type of defender there. But offensively, I see no reason they can't beat the same type of team. Like they have a lot of ball handlers that can attack. And we, if Cam Carr can be a good shooter from day one at the very least,

sexing can attack off the bench, a lot of space too. I forget you guys have sex and holy shit. Yeah. And that's going to be big for the offense. They're having 48 minutes of two ball handlers that can attack at all times. This should be a top flight offense. Yeah. I'm looking at everybody in the top 10.

There's no reason why you guys can't jump each and every team in the top 10 because even the second half is Cleveland, OKC, Houston, Detroit, and then the Lakers were 10th last year. They can very easily be the number one offense. The best officer in the league should be like Lakers, nuggets, and Pacers or something like that. In the NICS, I guess. They carry the moment. Even the Spurs.

Like the Spurs now is like you add, you add Tobias who's actually playable. Yeah. and at your forward position, like you should be able to to have a lot more firepower, a lot more shooting for that team moving forward. Wembe, you know, having another leap offensively.

I think, yeah, top three right now would probably be Lakers, spurs, and I'll just say Nuggets just because they have Yokic. Yeah, I'm really coming around in the Lakers team in general. The backup center scares me now.

We'll see what they do. If it's Kvon-Luny, just for example, okay, solid player, has chemistry with Kaminka, I guess. Not a lop threat, which is unfortunate to have not 40 minutes of lot threats for Luca Donchich. And if Walker Kessler, I should say when Walker Kessler misses games, because every starting center misses games for the most part. Don't know what the plan is.

It's kind of scary. Not great. I would have loved to have an Aitin type of average starter in the backup big. That would have been a nice luxury. So that's the main thing I'm worried about now. But even with the wing defense deficiencies, I'm pretty optimistic about this team right now in terms of being, you know, three seed, four seed, whatever, and scary team you don't want to see. Okay, if they do somehow pull off something with like Derek Jones Jr., like I would be so wildly optimistic.

So much more optimistic for him. That's not, it's not unreasonable to hope they can do that. Yeah. Okay. All right. What's the next signing that's happened since our last episode of Beasles? All right. Let's go over to Donovan's team.

The free agent center, Andre Drummond, has agreed to a one year $3.9 million contract to sign with the New York Knicks. This is the opposite of like, oh, that guy killed us in the playoffs we have to go sign him we played him off the floor and they're like yeah come come in this is this is a problem and like it's going to be fine i guess but for you know 15 minutes a game but also when you get into the playoffs it is it is crucial and this is why i i was like after we finished recording you were like oh yeah you guys are going to be fine like like you know you weren't trying to hate on Mitch but You got the vibe that like, you know, Mitch is kind of getting overrated right now.

For this specific team, I don't think so. The end, we had the video a couple weeks ago where I was like, yeah, Kat, right now he's better than one being you were like the last three games of the finals. He clearly wasn't better, obviously. And a bunch of that is because he got into foul trouble in the first minute of the game. And there's one player in the league that's going to put himself in that position. And so when you do have that guy at your center spot, having Mitch who can play deep, defense and having somebody who can who can be like the yin and yang of your center rotation is super super

valuable so i i think german is good and it's going to be fine in the regular season we got somebody who can shoot threes now exactly stretch big yeah two of them little quarter three glitch but literally i i just i'm i wish the the center rotation was a little bit better right now and considering that we had the ability to do it if we just wanted to pay and now Andre Drummond is the option it's not the most encouraging just process behind it.

I'm confused why they didn't draft it big. They traded out of the draft. They said we want no parts and you know what? If you don't think there's any centers worth taking in this draft and you just don't forget about them on your team, you're not obligated to address a need just because the fans want you to. But I don't know. They could have us here.

They could have the guy you got. Like that was on the board for them. Yeah. It seems pretty just like a money move to me honestly. And going back to the cat thing, I feel like having Cat on your roster is great, of course, but you do definitely feel a lot more of his woes when you don't have another, like,

some form of a defensive anchor alongside of him. In this case, scenario, Mitchell Robinson coming off the bench to just, like, make you forget all the bad things that Kat had, has done earlier in the moment. So it sucks, and I don't know, I'm not going to see. I don't think this, like, takes them by a total and complete, like, championship contention. But I don't know if I look at them as, like, the same complete team,

simply because, you know, Mitch is a big piece of this, right? It comes up so much for them. Yeah. Also, we have 10 minutes left of the moratorium. If the Lakers do not reroute Jaden Hardy today with other salary, they can't aggregate him for two months. Oh, my God. They basically won't have the space to aggregate him

after they sign Austin Reeves as a contract extension and, I mean, extension, new contract and Colin Sexton with the room minimum. So if in 10 minutes we see those deals become official and Jaden Hardy is not traded, that means they can't aggregate. create him for two months. And that will be terrible business by Rob Polinka because it is crazy

to do the salary dump of Aden and get Hardy back and keep Hardy. Because you just only lose $2 million a salary. Yeah. So we got 10 minutes to see what Rob Polink is made of. His ass is sleep right now. Yeah, Starbucks right now.

Getting a coffee. The assumption is... You don't even know when the deadline is. Oh shit. What the fuck? Yo. You know what? The assumption is they're going to use those new second round picks all three they have now to package with Hardy and hopefully Vando, maybe La Ravia, whatever it takes, connect especially to dump all those contracts and free up the space to go get Camiga and someone else.

That's the assumption. Only way the Camiga noise makes sense and there's been a lot of noise that actively pursuing him and he hasn't signed anywhere else. So it seems like they're waiting for it to happen. So it'll be baffling if they don't do that in the next 10 minutes. You got nine more minutes. Nine now. Well, I guess I guess it doesn't have to be the next nine minutes. they just couldn't, they wouldn't be able,

they'd have to hold off the Reeves and sexy moves for like hours, which you don't usually see. So we'll see. Weird business. We'll see. Other transaction that happened, which one should we talk about next? Tar Heason, five year,

$16 million deal with the Houston Rockets. I thought it was a good deal. It's a great deal for the Rockets. Sucks ass for Tar Heeson. Five years? You're on just over a mid-level? They got you for five years? Five years is kind of cool.

Restricted free agency is a plague. Yeah. Five years is kind of nuts. I'm not going to lie. I mean, shout out $8 million. $80 million is $80 million. That's life-changing money. That's a lot of security.

Five years a long time. I'm about to say, how bad can I really feel? True, but the scene could be so much higher word of player. Man, paid Washington's going to get $26 million a year. Like, yeah. This is tough. And mind you, his agent reps two clients. The end of this tweet doesn't say,

negotiated by Agent X, like Shams does at every tweet. agent didn't want his name on this one he has two clients in the NBA one tar he'sen do you guys know the second who jalen durran he got himself summer got himself a summer fuck man and we've heard none about jillian durrant at all other than he was taking a meeting with the lakers obviously ain't nothing happened the second walker kest the trade happened all the jayland durin noise disappeared his leverage play was gone yeah and his agents over there fucking shaking shaking in his boots What do you do if you're down

Darren's agent? Like who do you talk to? God. Yeah. You're going to get fired. Yeah. Tell the kings. Come on.

You tell the, the Nets. True. Come on. Okay. That's great. Okay. That's good.

That's what you do. Honestly. You are now clutch. This is, this is also back-to-back summers that the rockets have gotten really good deals. Yep.

Because last year they got they got the Jabari Smith Jr. Five years, but another five year deal, 125. And I think after they signed that, everyone kind of around the same, you know,

had the same reaction of like, yo, this is a really good deal for Houston. Because like Javari Smith is a really, really good player. And now it's the same thing. You have another five year deal for Tar Heeson. And if he bounces back

and gets back to the trajectory that he was on coming into last year, and now you have this, you know, two years ago when they first started making leaps, you had this like treacherous twins duo with him and a man. And now he gets, you know, closer to that version of himself. They, their windows feels like it's continued to be pushed. Like, we'll see what happens with KD.

We'll see how good, you know, Fred Van Blee comes along, all that. And if they actually can be a power in the Western Conference, but this is good business for two years in a row for the Rockets. Very good business. Speaking of good business, the Charlotte Hornets received three first-on-picks, my bad, three second-round picks to take on Dorey-Smith's salary,

which allowed them to sign this deal on the Rockets end. Good business, getting more picks. I think, I forgot the exact number. The Hornets have a ridiculous amount of second round. Like 17. Yeah, I think it's like 21

in the next three drafts. Jesus Christ. It's something crazy. There's so much trade ammo now, which is why they're linked to Payton, Jaylon Brown previously. They have lots of ammo to go out and get a guy

after the lamella ball trade. Other piece of interesting business, I don't know if I'll call it good for anybody, Anthony Simons has signed a two-year $12.3 million deal with the 76ers, a team in the 76ers who we talked about at the Dillel and Brown trade. I personally was saying that I think they have one too many hoopers, one less passer and defender than they need. They now have another hooper that is not passer and defender.

How do you guys feel about this team? My guys are getting stolen, man. It's starting to get ridiculous. It is. I can justify the team, especially when your best players, are that if you have a bench of people that that compliment your your best players and now you can mix and match lineups and you you are very versatile if everybody on the team does the same thing then it then it gets a little bit dicey yeah also 12 million dollars for sims a steel of a contract

that's six million years it's a it's a good contract and yeah it's it's a good contract and if this was the guy that you wanted you got it at a at a value i think that they probably should went in another direction because they also drafted LeBarrad. So you have another hooper that you just brought into the building. It's so weird. Like if you

were going to trade Jared McCain just to go ahead and add another two more guards to your roster in LaBarrean and then also Anthony Simons just makes me scratch my head and like you just really didn't fuck him McCain like that at all. Different GM now. No Darren Moore was fired. So yeah. True. True. True. So we're in that

benefit that maybe maybe that GM never would have traded, never would have traded, uh, Jared. I guess so. Who's a GM right now? I don't even know who the, is there an interim right now? I think, is there GM that LeBron dude where he like, he went to high school with the dude? That's the Cavaliers assistant GM. Mike Gansy is the present basketball operations taking over following the departure of Daryl Morey. All right, Gansy, show me what you got? Apparently, you love Hoopers.

Yeah. Apparently there's been this big division between the, the analyst crowd and the Hooper crowd, even within the NBA. Like certain, certain teams are like not, not, not with the analytics movement, and that's why we saw the Sixers get Jalen Brown and they saw the pros in that. And then there's this other camp of like, yeah, Jalen Brown isn't really all that.

And that's why it's trade value. Every summer we do this discourse. Every summer we do this now. But apparently, like, it's within, like, NBA front offices now. I'm sure it is. Like, it makes sense. Yeah, I'm sure there's multiple perspectives. Yeah.

But also, especially right now, I think Jaina Brown is the only guy that is on this back. battlefield. Like for a lot of, in terms of like stars, like, what, what other stars are, are we talking about? It's like, oh, yeah, he's not, he can't win because the quote-to-quote analytics are saying that he's a, he's a bad guy. Well, I think that's, John Morant. No, he's just bad. Like, there's not analytics there. He just, he's played bad. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. This discourse is so, I think the actual thing to your question is, you don't think about that way anymore

because analytics just won. Anthony Simon just got $6 million. That's what we're talking about, a guy who was supposed to be this like, oh, underrated score. that can be a quality whatever. Got $6 million. All these shooting guards that nobody wants anymore, Levine, DeRose, and all these guys. That's the stars, quote unquote, Camp Thomas, like those are the stars, quote unquote,

that died in the analytics battle. But we do this every summer now. This analytic shit is so silly. Like, every team uses analytics. Every team thinks about it in some way, but they're also not blindly drafting them based on the spreadsheets, blindly making decisions based on the spreadsheets. People attribute everything to analytics.

That's just, like, slightly in-depth thought. that's like slightly deeper than who he's got bucket yeah i think when it comes like the upper extraan names i think you're trying to reach for which is literally jalen brown and only jalen brown that's just overblown to hell and people just really locate him but outside of that i have a question for you if there is like those teams who do go against a grain who are they who are like the dumbest who you say fuck numbers the kings straight hoopers the kings certainly the cichers okay Sixters, Pelicans, 100%. They got no brains up there.

They got no Wi-Fi. They don't have no 4G LTE. All focus on 3G still. So the Lakers are hiring some people now, but for the last five years of the Lakers, for sure. They're just lucky they had LeBron A-D, but they did a lot of Hooper-Pilled brain ship before. The Blazers for sure. Blazers.

They don't have the brain from it at all. They're not hiring analytics. Yeah. Well, they had on Schmitts for a while who I don't know where he falls in that. Yeah I just think like Especially And yes

A lot Not saying any good teams By the way Exactly the suns Meh Exactly And like a lot of those guys Yes like they have

They have lost the war already But You look You look around in like the top 20 And Jalen Brown is probably the only guy That is still It's still on this wave

That is still like Fighting Fighting this this battle. I think maybe the only other... But I feel like honestly the only way... Maybe... Maybe Book is like starting to get into that into that conversation only because like his play has declined. And so you still have an idea of what Devin Booker is.

And then... But then there's this other side where it's like, well, actually he hasn't been as like... As impactful of a score as you think a Devin Booker would. Maybe. Well, the thing is his criticisms are more based in the like simple stuff, I think. He's just not making shots like that. I think the Jim Brown thing is specific. DeMitch is a good. The Mitch is a good.

Not even because the Jaylen Brown thing is a very unique circumstance where he's been good for his whole career, but there's never been a single season where his on-off numbers are good. So he's like a very unique animal in this way that like there's no way to talk. This whole just beast of a discourse around him is its own thing because it's the one guy who's a high volume score while having no good analytics for nine straight years. It's like at a certain point it's something. I don't know if there's any other star player that has that type of discussion around them or that type of analytic profile.

Right now, no, but I think like, DeMar has a lot of similar discussion. Exactly same. Yeah. And that's the point. He's like, damn, is he DeMarre? Yeah.

Come on now. Mellow too a little bit. Yeah. And I don't necessarily think, I mean, again, I think the most reasonable people, there's that report that

was a McManneman is like, I heard from some staffer that thinking he's the seventh best player in the Celtics. There's a Bobby Marks. Bobby Mark said that. Such a straw man. Who gives a fuck about this one random staffer? Like,

it's such a weird thing that everyone latches on to do that every analytics nerd thinks he's a, the seventh best player on the Celtics. Most reasonable people that think Jaylon Brown is overrated because of the analytics say he's like the 20th or maybe 25th best player in the world. Yeah, no one's saying he's ass. Yeah, it's a very reasonable conversation that gets treated

like it's way more harsh than it is, I think. Yeah. Just because one guy that Bobby Marks knows hates Jalen Brown. Sick. All right. So weird. I don't know. The whole conversation is just I hate it so much. It's so weird, but there's no validity to it for real. And I guess it doesn't really matter.

It really doesn't matter because all JB's done is win, for real. And obviously, like, the off-court stuff is off-course stuff, regardless of how if he sounds like little snobby or whatever, or if the people on the other side are just, like, overly hating. I'm looking at it right now. Over the last five years, according to Data Baller, his on-off numbers are just plus five, specifically without Tatum. With Tatum, of course, it's plus nine, have better players around you.

You're going to, your stats are going to be inflated, but it's not extremely high for some of his caliber. That's a, are you looking at? I think that's a plus five net rating you see. Correct. Plus five. The real question is on off. So when he's on versus when he's off.

And in that regard, he's never positive, which is strange. It's definitely strange for that large of a sample size. Yeah. Now, that's not. So like, close the tab. See, that's the problem. We can't even like interrogate why this 10 years sample size is the way it is. So like, it's like, it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't matter. Do we think that like that? Because what's the, what's the Jane and Brown argument? Like, does he think that he? He's like a top five player in the world? Yeah. He believes he's like a top three two way player in the world, all NBA MVP caliber. Yeah.

So last episode I was saying I kind of understand all this. And people in the comments were like he's top 10 on both sides. And that's the divide is because the people that really love him truly believe he's like a top 10 perimeter defender in the world. And that's the divide is. Like me me mellow was on his pocket. I said he's a DPOI candidate. Okay. So people are very high in his defense.

And that's the whole divide right there. Yeah. Is that. It has also been self campaigning a lot of this stuff. Yeah. And people just, when you do that as an athlete, they just, people just listen. Yeah. The defense being overrated and I think people not realizing that he's such a bad playmaker is the thing.

He turns the ball over a lot. It doesn't add a lot of making shots open for others. And the defense overrated to reputation, that's kind of the divide, I think, of why some people think he's like a legit top 10 player on bold ends. Yeah. I think even with the, even with whatever numbers that you want to look at, because it is weird that they, that the numbers bear out the way that they do. but I also think that it's very fair to just be like, hey, he might just be the anomaly. And like, if you look at enough groups of numbers for a certain amount of time, there probably will be outliers on either side. He's probably just one of those outliers.

Yeah. And so like Jalen Brown being the anomaly, that's hilarious. That's Tatum's sick. And that's the real beef. Is that he's Tatum. He's the anomaly. If we ranked right now, the players... We should call him seven.

You know? Seven. No, hell, no, we can't do that. If we did rankings today for the players going to next season and like just top 50 players in the world, where do you guys anticipate you'd rank him? Dylan Brown? Yeah. He's somewhere in the teams. Probably like 13, anywhere 14, like 13 to 16.

Yeah. Yeah. I might say like 17 or 18. Like the fact that we're having this combo for like a pretty marginal difference. If somebody thinks he's eight or 20 at worst, like that's not a big gap in value. Like that's really like very very little gap in value for how much discourse we're having about it I'm looking at so the ring of 100 right now cat is 12 Tatum is 13 jalen brown is 14 Tyre's maxi's 15 so like that yeah about fair yeah that's that's that's the range right now

and I I agree with that I agree with that with that range 17 uh KD is 17 Scott or kd is 16 Scotty barts is 17 yeah so yeah he's an elite level player right that's it the combo is he extremely good or is he one of the best in the world? Either way, we're saying you're a pretty valuable player. Yeah. Yeah, there's not even a jump to like number seven in the world. It's either you either 13 or you're three.

And that's really it. So yeah, it's a much do about nothing. But now there is a lot of like people take these combos and make it very nasty naturally. So that leads a lot of discourse where people are just like. Attacking this character. Yeah. I went a little far with it. I do with him on that.

We're like, you can say guys a little overrated and can, like, the stream stuff he says a little annoying, but people that are like, they gotta trade him because he's annoying, I guess, I guess a little much. Saying he has like a disease. What the fuck?

Yeah, well, Colin Cowherd called his know-at-allness, a disease in the locker room. Yeah, which is just poor verbage. Like, you can't, what the fuck?

Yeah. And it's not based in nothing. Like, you understand why he has reputation, but people have a certain tone about things and a certain type of person leads to this discourse.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so that's all the big news stories that have happened since then. Let's talk about some more questions we have that we want to see answered for the last 40 minutes of the show. I guess we'll start with the obvious one.

Where is LeBron James going to play? Rich Paul on his podcast showed a whiteboard of teams that I can only assume as a very strategic output of information. This guy's the Joker, man. Consider his Asian put it out on his podcast. This is ridiculous. He can eat a riddler. He's so crazy. And now you might see a lot of cores together, right?

you see the Timberwolds core in the bottom, the nuggets next to them, the calves above them. A lot of teams and the pros and cons of discussing their fit with LeBron on the court, right? Do you see Dallas? Oil is the first thing it says. Golf. Oil, golf, and what's the, where next to it?

Macau? Macau, yeah. Alfred? I'm not sure what I could read his handwriting. Oil, golf, and Macau. What does oil have to do with anything? That money, man. Don't worry, but

What? Okay. So we have foreign markets in Macau. I don't even know what the link is to the Dallas Mavericks there. Golf and oil money. That's the draw of the maverick. Why the fuck did they write oil and publish this? Yo, what's going on?

What's going on? Why are they letting us know they're about that? Why don't they've ever been shy about letting us know that they're about that? Oil? Money. that's what they want big clutch they've never little one

they've never been been shy about this this is a different level of cap circumvention man what the fuck offering LeBron oil instead of money what the fuck is going on

what the fuck and three oil reserves we're gonna make you an oil barren what the fuck yeah I think this is largely nonsense and they're choosing between like two teams

and it's probably going to be the Cavs and they're just doing this for the documentary. Yeah, it's all right and Tayes trying to sweeten up whatever off. Brad and Tatum with the bottom. They just wrote some shit. Hey, man. Oh, it says no Garland. He had to sprinkle it in, clutch line. Yeah.

What? And I do believe that LeBron really wanted to play with Garland. There's a few comments over the years. That would make sense. The Spurs. Spurs. It's the Spurs. Knicks.

Cronky. Cronky. But that's the side of the nuggets thing. You think that's positive? negative because it just says cronkey. Probably negative. I'll bet negative. Cronky. He owns the Rams too.

Bro, I see Mello right here. And he owns, is it? It's not Arsenal, is it? It's one of those soccer teams. I can't remember. I think it is Arsenal. Yeah. He owns Arsenal. Yeah. Bro, I see Mello here. I'm like, yo, no, is Carmelo on the terrible? Yeah. So this is the biggest question that's remained unanswered right now, going into the rest of the offseason. Where will LeBron play?

Betting Oz right now are saying calves? and I think it's probably in part because of this right here. Probably, I think, so I think that the unction would still be the most fun, and I think that they should try their hardest to make that happen. If we're not doing that, we keep talking about the Sixers and how they just have too many ancillary pieces. I do think that Braun and Philly would be kind of nasty. That would be fun as fuck because there's one thing.

In a good way. Yeah. Yeah, I feel you. Like, I'll be fun because if there's one thing about Philly, they got all the years. Hell, no. I don't want that. Wow. What you mean?

What's the fuck not? It's Cleveland. He's going to state. Why? What's wrong with Philly, man? Well, so one thing I do have the back of my head that I can't escape is not wanting to see a nasty-ass-durzy in his legacy. And on the bottom is a basketball. Sucks.

There's a, there's only one option then. Do you have to go to Cleveland? I think he does. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else is going to be a nasty jersey. Jersey. It's going to be a cursed jersey. So I, if you want to avoid that, if that's at this, if you care more about the nasty jersey than the oral, then go to go to Cleveland. But let's be real. But if that's not the case. If LeBron wants to win a championship and he puts himself in the business of Joelle and Bede. I'm going to divide today. Set up the meeting on the jet right now. Philly only makes sense if you think that's like we can win a championship. And if they want to put their eggs in the Joellen bead basket, they're lunatics.

as far as the best championship opportunity. Like I would think if it's purely trying to win, like the Timberwolves is probably a more safe bet with just as high up the ceiling. Oh, that's disgusting. That's the type of thing where I thought you were going to say, that's like the disgusting fit. That's disgusting.

Throw aside narratives, throw aside legacy and story chapters. Throw aside everything. That's a team where I'm like, oh, you'd make them amazing. I don't know. I feel the same about those two teams. And I feel almost a little bit better with the Sixers because, you know, Max, all he does is play games. He played probably like the highest minutes in the entire NBA last year.

Denver played 40 minutes a game. Didn't really miss too many games. Vijay's youngest cell plays all the games. There's one thing about Jalen Brown that we know he's mad durable. Of course, Joel in Bede is entirely different discussion. He's a complete opposite of what I'm saying right now. But, hey, like the shooting that they have, the physicality at the scene has the speed between those two guards. And he has someone who can do a lot of like the in-between stuff and Jalen Brown too.

I like that. I like that fit. It's a lot of balls that you be putting people's hands. LeBron's going to be a league playmaker in And defender? I don't know about the defender part Well, somebody's got to do it Joel and B was not defending like that anymore

Listen, man I don't think that team would be close to the favorite in the east I don't know Close I think they can get to that point I want to see a low-use digger defender At the Power forward with all those guys Is there any team in the league

That Bron goes to right now That instantly becomes the favorite Not the favorite I do think the Timberwolves could be like the best of tier two Like they're not going to be the spurs or OKC Thunder. But like if you tell me the third best team in the West, like with the bullet, I can see that. Does he want to deal with the ball family

again? I don't know. Lavar just talking out the side of his neck? I don't know, man. You, close personal friend on my fucking good. I don't want that title. Close personal friend. Good Lord. I do like the Philly fit. I think I do like the Philly fit more than the timber will sit potentially.

His damn near talk to me. Yeah. I don't want to see that. Why? I don't want to see either of these honestly. I kind of just want to see the Cavs personally. I kind of just want to do the like obvious thing. Apparently the Warriors stuff is losing traction because AD's not on the table anymore. Yeah. And I agree.

And you said the unction. I like the unction that they had AD without it. I feel like it's kind of sad. I don't really want to see just him and Stefan Dre. Dude, if I'm Dreyman, I'm just. They got Yaxul.

They do got Yaksal who I do like a lot. He's going to be nice. They got Unks everywhere. They got Al Horford still. Pozingis. Jimmy Butler's there. He's not going to be there for eight months. I just didn't see that joint tour.

We don't need you for eight months. We don't need you put a wear and tear on your body Just get back to playing You're in Jimmy Butler who'll come back second half of the year It'd be cool I'm not gonna be mad at it I do I kind of just want to see Cleveland and make the rest work Like hope you're hard intake's a smaller deal Maybe chip out Jared Allen and re-figer the team a little bit spacing wise

Like I kind of just want to see him go home and figure everything else out So I think like you've already done the Cleveland thing What else is there to do it in Cleveland? The one thing if LeBron goes back to the Cavs and is able to overcome James Harden playoff I'm listen that's another notch on the bill if you can get to the conference

if you get to the finals let's say with a with a James Hardin team at this point I'll give you half a ring on your legacy just you personally just the way that I see and discuss LeBron will have four and a half rings okay four and a half rings I don't want to bring this up

But apparently, if y'all didn't win, it would be a nick right now, according to Rich Paul. Bro, can you imagine replacing Josh Hart in that connecting role as a forward that runs transition grabs rebounds with LeBron James? Jesus Christ. Yeah, that would have been crazy. That would be disgusting. But like, we would have had to, this is the stupidest thing ever. In terms of like, oh, man, like, you should have seen it. We would have had to lose to see this.

I don't care. I'm glad I got to see Josh Hart on my team and we win a championship Josh Hart went and gone anywhere He would have been six man So you can still have got a guy Josh Hart I get your saying obviously

Yeah But like just imagine that basketball wise though That would be fun as fuck That would be so fun regardless How would you defend that team? I don't know, go running in 2K Come back to me Let me know how it is

You don't care about it Dude we're champions now We have the ring now He says this I hear this and I'm like then just go anyways I just go if you're if you're so worried

about going to the champ like you're above that but you're not above like some other form of random team you're going to for ring chasing purposes like I don't know it just feels like a silly line I get it obviously because I understand the backlash that they're very cognizant of what will come when you're being LeBron James moving like Kevin Durant

I get it I'm like if you think it's cool just do it and once you make it public that you're willing to take the minimum for some teams if that's truly on the table and everything's there, then yeah, you're right, it should be still on the table now.

Because if it was like, okay, C or the Spurs, I can understand it if he didn't give a fuck about them and he was just like, I want to win. Because we have the documented history of him just really wanted to play in New York, I wouldn't be mad at him going there

even though they're the champions. Just because we've known that's a long time coming. What if he still does it? That'd be cool. We just hear it in the next 10 minutes. That would be cool as fuck. I would like that.

Honestly, I wouldn't say I'll like that more than the Warriors because there's something like very special in my heart to see an old step and dray and and lebron together that would be cool but i don't hate it all if brown if brown went went to the nix getting out the east again um type it would it would it would happen i think going yeah going up against okay c and san antonio another another year after after you know they all level up like that that would be tough but for the physicality of lebron There's so much beefness there.

That's insane. It would be a lot. Yeah. That's insane. We can't see one of the Turbles fit. I don't think he's going to goddamn Minnesota. But like that lineup would have a lead point guard, a superstar shooting guard that does everything you want a superstar shooting guard to do, an elite forward defender, one of the

best playmakers of all time and one of the best rear protectors of all time. How could you ask for anything more from a starting lineup than those things? That's an insane high-level skill set at every single position. And it's a different high-level skill set at every single position. position? Apparently these are the final six right now. The only two we haven't really discussed are the heat and the nuggets. Okay. No one wants to see the heat. Why would he be there? I guess they'd be like Wiggins of the two, LeBron the three, big starting lineup. At least I've always been curious about giant teams like that, like with the jazz

are about to do. So part of me is like, oh, that's cool. Let's see in this modern NBA, like, how far we can lean into that type of like unique style of lineup configuration. If that was announced today, I wouldn't be like pissed at it, I guess. Yeah, I can, I can be really mucky, though. That's all. That's all. I think the. It's definitely a little strange.

For a lot of teams, it is, it is super muggy. I do think there was somebody with the IQ of LeBron. It probably makes it a little bit less mucky. But it's not, yeah, it's not my favorite. Speaking of IQ, do you want to see him in Yokch together? Also, curse Jersey, but like. Horrible jersey. Discussing Jersey to see him in.

Bro, they have Ron in the jersey with two numbers on it. Please stop. Please stop. Please stop. Hell no. Please stop. Not even 5280. The base white jersey is fucking ugly.

No. That font is terrible. Seeing LeBron, it looked like Paul Millsap. Oh. I'm going to hunt down Getty images and destroy all of them. Now, hell no. I did look up. This is golf.com in 2015.

They ranked the 50 states by their golfiness. Okay. Colorado's top 10. Golf of the mountains behind you is pretty cool. Okay. If he likes that, he likes that, he can get on the golf wave in Colorado. He did have golf on the Dallas. Exactly, exactly.

He's at altitude, his ball will travel further. His scores will probably be a little bit better. Would they start LeBron with the three? Or there's been trade rumors for Aaron Gordon. Is the idea you trade Aaron Gordon and upgrade on the perimeter and then LeBron starts with your four? And you have this insane tandem of passing your talent? Hmm.

I feel like you got to keep air around. I think you have to. He's Mr. Nugget over there. I don't know if you're... Well, there's rumors about it because they got to give up something in the weird situation they're in. And I guess we can transition this into the Nuggets talk. The Nuggets are our second apron team,

and it's been assumed that they are going to get out of the second apron by dumping Cam Johnson or Christian Brown to retain Peyton Watson. We've got two reports. First, it is not a guarantee they duck the second apron. They might just pay Peyton Watson and just stay there and just say, we'll deal with the repercussions. This is a pretty loaded team. Or yesterday a new report came that they do intend to match any

opportunity of Payton Watson, but they are open to talking signing trade. So we have to read between the lines here and figure out what the bullshit is. My thought is they want to sign and trade him because they see what Walker Kessler got. And they don't want to be the second apron. And if they can get two first-on-pix or Payton Watson, he's gone. And they're saying, well, we're actually okay with Payton the second apron, just so teams think they're serious and have to do a trade. Wow.

So if they were to sign a trade, Who would be interested immediately? Clippers and Hornets are the presumed teams. The Nets could also have a cap space so they could always be there. Clippers would be nice. I love that for the Clippers. Yeah, the Clippers can free up the space.

They just dumped Derek Jones Jr. and a couple other small deals and they can give him that $25 million offer sheet and whatever picks are needed in a signing trade. Okay. If he does end up with the clippers, that just adds on to all like the slim players that they do have already within their lineup.

Yeah, it's a very skinny team. But like, I don't know. Then that screams you got to rerout brand in Ingram, I guess. Because you can't start Ingram, Watson and Rui. Unless they want to like have King Walker come off the bench day one

which it makes sense to. They still medic mathematics as a free agent who they might keep him and then whack was going to be able to bench regardless. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I'm hoping he's a clipper

because then I want Derek Jones Jr. It has to be dumb so he can be a Laker. That's my hope right now. But the Hornets is also a team that can make sense. I think you have a hornets too. Yeah. Having some some size

and some more versatility on the wing if you're Charlotte. Brooklyn, obviously. All these teams don't have forwards already. I'd make a move after that. If you're a team, do you want to pay, Payton Watson $25 million a year plus trade a pick or two to get them? Probably.

That's a lot. Yeah, probably not. I would be more inclined to do that if I was Denver just because I feel more comfortable with Watson just because he's been in the building. I've watched him progress, but I'm not going out of my way to pay somebody $30 million and do that. It's probably 25. Because even like the Lakers, you just,

you go up, you give up assets, you give Walker Kessler, this amount of money. That's essentially the range that you think Peyton Watson is going to perform at. I'm not really, unless you have a dire need of forward, I'm not doing that. The only team that I could like, you can, you can like convince me to do it. But even then, I don't know if I love the fit, is if the Pistons wanted to give up a couple of young players, Ron Holland and whoever else you can think of. You giving up all right? Yeah. For Watson, sure. Why not? Because I think Watson obviously is like a couple years ahead of his development.

He already has, he's been building on a jump shot in the creation and all that. And the bet bet on is for him to develop, not necessarily into an all-star, but like an ultra-valuble role player. Still, you don't lose on any defense as well. I think I like that all right. Yeah. So that's one of the biggest questions left the off season, obviously outside of LeBron. Do the endeavor nuggets stay in the second apron, which has huge implications to their flexibility outside of Payton Watson? Pay him and just have a crazy cap sheet, not dump Christian Brown.

not dump Cam Johnson and just say this is our team Cronky, you're ready to open that goddamn wallet. You better get ready to make the conference finals. Going into the second apron, if you lose in the first round again. Payton Watson's a clutch client, by the way. We tell Rich Paul, I'm going to give him his 25, stay in the second apron. LeBron comes. We have so many forwards.

We're so deep. Maybe we're a packaged deal. Maybe that could work. Package deal. Start LeBron to three. And off the bench, you have Peyton Watson and Cam Johnson. That's disgusting. You're deep as hell.

You're cooking there. That's a lot of good wings for 48 minutes. Aaron Gordon can be low-managed all year at that point. He's probably not going to Denver, though. Yeah, that's a lot. He's going to the Cavs. That's, I just, it feels a little bit anti-climactic for him to go back to the cabs. Just because.

If I told you they traded harder the next day, then what? I feel so much better about that. Yeah, I would feel better. Harding just feels like a big ass, like, cloud over the, organization, honestly. They could give him a deal and move him at the deadline, maybe.

For who? Anybody? It was one thing we've learned. James Hardin keeps a market. True. Some team out there is always going to want James Hardin. The Kings.

Like, maybe. Who's to say the magic don't want to point guard the deadline? Flipping for Suggs, who's also flawed in his own ways. Like, there's always a market for James Hardin, it seems. He just got to sell someone on a dream.

That's all he needs to do. Yeah. And he's a dream. He does that very well. James Hardin's good to give you a dream every year. He'll have a couple months where that dream is alive and will.

I can fix them. Come on, man. What are we doing? So I would feel better about it if they traded Hardin and wait. It would still feel anticlimactic, though. But only because, again, we've done this before. And I don't know if they're going to win a, they're not winning a title with or without Hardin.

But is there any team they're going to win a title with the Bronner right now? The Nuggets and. I mean, if he ring chases, yeah. Like, what's the, OKC? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be sick. Do you think he's trying to win a ring next year? Yes, but I also think he knows reality.

Yeah. But I do think they've said as much that they're focused on trying to, you know, compete for a high level of basketball. I do think that's true. But there's certain realities where he knows he's not going to the thunder or spurs, so he's not going to be like a favorite. But I do think if it's up to him, his mindset as a player is, I still want to win.

Yeah. Okay. Does Rich Paul go to fuck about that? Probably not. Yeah. So it's his job to balance realities there. If he is able to get a ring in his last year, that would be a storybook of me. But can't really force it.

If he goes super nasty, he goes to Boston. No, hell, no, he can never do that. That's around my, you can't do that. They still, you told me the other day, Brian, that they still sell fuck LeBron's shirts outside of every single game. Yes. Can't do that.

Brian on camera? Yes. I wasn't going to ignore it. Brian, I was crazy. I just want to. But yeah, they still have like LeBronza bitch shirts. He's finished with a mom. A whole lot of aliases up here.

I do, man. Some people think my name's Benji. Really? Yeah. It's kind of tough. You ever presented as a Benji? It was a nickname that stuck on another podcast. Benji.

You said, I'm going to focus on out of the show. You said Omar called you Benjamin? All of them did. Like a couple years to the point where some people actually thought my name was Benji. Easy thing to believe if someone calls you Benjamin, why would I think it's a lie?

You do look like a Benjamin. What's that mean? I don't know. It just looked like a Benjamin. And he kind of fits you. You are giving Benjamin. Not Brian? Definitely not Brian.

Okay. I go to. Would you be upset if your name is Benjamin? Not really, no. It's just not my name. Did you guys ever want a different name growing up? No. Not any serious way.

I don't think. Not in any sense. series. So that means you kind of thought about it. Yeah, as a kid, I was like, what is my name? Do I like my name? Like, it's like a seven-year-old. But I've never, as a point where I'm conscious and have actual thoughts about things like that. I never thought about it really. I remember being like, why can't have a cool name like Zach?

Zach, you know, like, Z. Tell me in the first grade. I wish my name was Zach. Next question that we're still waiting on. Anybody have one? What's the thing on your mind? I have a question. And I'm, bro, you mentioned the word. upset. I've been so irritated just because I felt like this team was holding the, not

in the entire league in hostage, but this team has many pieces that are mad interesting and could be adding value to so many other organizations. Are the Pelicans dead ass? Are you serious right now? You've made no moves this offseason. You damn your loss

60 games last year. Hold on. We got a new report. They're being reasonable. They no longer need four first round picks for Trey Murphy. They said fine. I'll be more than I'll give you guys. I'll give you a reasonable demand. Three first round picks for Trey Murphy.

Fine. I'll go down to three. Twist my arm. What is wrong with them? They're not that ass, like you said. They're in serious. Wasn't there a report that like the Knicks were hell bent on getting one of their centers? Yeah, they try to use messy.

And they rebuffed them multiple times. It's like, get out my phone. We're keeping Missy. Because they are a terrible team that has 10 untouchable players. As you would expect from a terrible team, right? This We keep all of our players It worked that well last year

This is this is terrible too Because they're gonna get They're gonna get probably like two first off picks for Trey Murphy And they're gonna be like Boy do we scam the league We started at four Because we know that we would have to negotiate

Down to two This is all part of our plan This is really just good business You know And it's like Come on man You could have just been straight From a joke

And just happen Two first job What is wrong with Joe? No, what's wrong with him? He has the big yellow book. And he has the yellow book. How to negotiate for dummies. Ask hi, negotiate down.

I'm gonna kill him with this. They never seen a GM move like this. Oh my God, bro. Imagine negotiating your salary. Start at 800K. You know what I'm saying? Let's just start here. Mind you're actually worth like 80.

I feel that he doesn't even have like people's contacts or like up-to-date emails. His ass be operating off of phone books and shit. still. This is like a Malcolm in the middle plot where Mal goes for her first job interview and he's like, $1 million is my first offer. This is a sick on plot.

We'll offer you 85. Yes. Deal. I got 5K more than what I'm actually valued. Sold. The art of the deal. It's so dumb. It's so annoying.

It's so, it's so dumb. And for them, like, they, we talk so much about, like, direction for certain teams. the press conference last year, we really could not overstate how bad that was. For them to make the moves

that they did in the draft and then for Joe Dumars at the start of the year when they asked about playoffs and he was like, oh, you know, we're actually several steps away and we're still building.

And then for them to have the year that they just had and still have all these untouchable players, what the hell are y'all doing? What do y'all talk about? No, what are you building? This is in the replies,

but, but, best I can do, It was Cory Kisper, Buddy Heel and the worst The Pels and Bucks next year. And it shows the guys in Bonn Stars. Yeah, man, I don't know what they're doing.

They're just so annoying. They bother me a lot. And it seems like they fully got, not necessarily a scam because Donatee Murray was hurt off the Achilles. That's so crazy. And he did perform really well towards the end of the year and he did give them like a spark of life.

And I guess he like just swindled everyone in that roster. in that organization to be like, damn, man, if he was healthy all year, this is the leader who changed everything. He can go ahead and put all the soldiers in like, he will make Derek Queen play better defense. Wildly frustrating, team. Yeah, I don't care about them at all, actually.

And I'm wondering why we're talking about them. All right, cool. I just want to trade players. So I don't have to talk about them and talk about the other good players on other teams that can do something special. I did want to bring this post-MBA finals. We're talking about Ms. Johnson and his coaching job.

Billy Donovan has agreed to become the lead assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs. Good for him. Replaces Sweeney. Solid hiring by the Spurs. Ms. Johnson. He's so respected. Okay. What is that?

What conspiracy do you have? Nothing. Mitchell Lohzzi? I mean, listen. It wasn't the best. No, no. That's not even a conversation, right? That's definitely a conversation if he did as poorly.

I do. I do think for what for everything that that you just said. If this was anybody else, I think I wouldn't, I wouldn't think too much of it. But because Billy Donovan keeps himself a job and keeps himself a head coaching position specifically. I think that the spurs have shown that they are extremely patient. But bringing somebody in like Billy Donovan with the amount of experience, if things start to go wrong, not that he's going to get fired in like, the middle of the seas or anything. I don't think things are going to go like that haywire.

But it is... You better lock in. Yeah. That's all it is. A lock in Mitch. Got that heat on you. Yeah. And that red beam on your back.

And his name's Billy. It's not nothing. It's not nothing. I guess so. It's nothing until it's something. Exactly. Another question for this off season. Have a question.

Let me know. Who's taking jumpers for the heat? I also wrote heat shooting question mark. Yeah. Does it exist? It follows Miami. fan, I would be so unbelievably pissed off knowing that Anthony Simons went for just

$6 million a year. Like, that's another added to shoot shooter. You could have got it. I mean, I think a lot of these teams, he's kind of the poster boy for these type of players we're talking about that can't play in the playoffs these days. But that's also another, that's a But if you're Miami, you can fix players

like that. You've done it time and time again before. Can you? If we're talking about, yeah, if we're talking about playoffs and if we're talking about them when it comes to shooting, beggars can be choosers. Yeah. And I think for them to go into the season, with Tim Hardaway Jr. being your best jump shooter. I think, like, we're talking,

if you're talking about guys that can't play in the playoffs, I think that Tim Hardaway Jr. has a track record of not having the most outstanding playoff performances, you know, throughout his career. I would like for there to either be more volume of shooters or people that you trust a little bit more. And the last three years, the last two years, he had, he shot 31% two years ago in the playoffs in Detroit,

shot 35% from three last year. Those are not the numbers, mind you, when he's shooting 40% from three in the regular season. The drop off is very stark with Tim Hardaway Jr. And if you have Bam, you have Dave R. Mitchell, you have Janus. The three-point shooting in a seven-game series is not there. Who's her backup center? Their backup center right now, these... Don't answer. It doesn't exist.

No, that's not true. That's Big Bobby. Big Bobby. Big Bobby. Sick. He's holding it down. Yeah. 13 minutes to game.

Our backup power forward and I guess our starting power forward are back in center right now. I forget they did resign Simone Fontechio. Yeah. Lots of us. They're not actually looking for shooters.

They're looking for DeMarreosa. They're looking for him. It's so, bro. This is their solution. As a normal power placement, there is a free of a shock rate. It's going down just a little bit because I always see his brain.

There he is. Who better now? Yeah. It was just funny. You wanted to see Demar so bad. I miss him I forgot what he looked like been in Sacramento all year

I haven't watched to play meaningful game in three years it's a lot I think Demar I think putting Demar de Rosen on this heat team

spiritually is exactly what they want to do I think it is a bad decision you think they're one of those anti-analytics teams 100% they are no they're not

yeah they are the heat no no they're very cutting edge really yeah yeah look at all these fucking second round picks they found these fucking second round picks they found you these type of guys with analytics I think they find him based off of how hard you work no exposure might but pat Riley may not Spolster just got to work with what he's given

yeah I think they're a team that has an actual like built out for an office though I don't think they're like the they're not like the Lakers where it's just GM and coach go fucking figure it out I think they're a well both out organization they probably they do obviously have an analytics department but I think at the end of their analytics scheme or whatever

they call it Pat Riley and just have those guys run up hills he's going to run the fastest Yeah Yeah we'll see Their roster is incomplete And like it's kind of like the Lakers Where they make these big moves

And they're incomplete because of it Maybe it's just because I follow Lakers news more than the heat But like I see the path towards The Lakers figuring it out And like knowing what their goal is here With the Kaminga thing And a tieble or whatever

I don't know what they're gonna do To get back up center The heat I don't know what they're gonna do To get a shot creator You like on the perimeter Well their second free agency is coming up in a week.

Summer League starts a week from today. True. Find your gems. That is, they're, they're walking in there like, just, like, it's a thrift store. And they're like, oh, I'm about to find some stuff today. They find some of a million scouts to watch every single game. Yeah. The thrift store just got restocked.

Like, hey, man. I'm getting fits off today. Yeah. And I, it's a vintage. It's a 28-year-old who's never played in the league. This is archival. It's Kevin Knox. Archival.

What are you saying? Okay. Is James Watson? Yeah. There's some shit they don't even know about. I can work with this. Yeah, I don't know what they're doing. I guess so the big question we have to talk about.

What's going to happen with Jalen Duren, man? Still a restrictor free agent. It's probably been one who's one that drag for a long time. They're going to pay him. I assume he's going to be on this team. Is that a guarantee though at this point? Are they going to play hardball and just like fuck him? And he's just going to not get his money and just like deal with it?

I mean, honestly, I think that's the only one of the only avenues that they do have of getting better. They're probably going to wait and they're probably going to try to humble Jalen Duren. My question was as well, similar to Jalen Dern or along the same lines of Jailen Dern was with the Pistons. Are they in the business of being better? Like they did go and sign John Collins. But outside of that, like they didn't do a damn thing. They extended Kevin Hurtt her for multiple years for no reason at all. Like, he's such a forgettable player when it comes to their organization.

So it's like, I don't know what they're trying to do. Builds from what they. Stockton starts. Builds from with him. Build continuity. Yeah, replacing John Collins. I mean, replacing Tobias Harris with John Collins. I don't know, lateral move, I guess.

Cool. Maybe there's some interest with KD being on the team. It's Brett Siegel. Next to next report. Not Starlight. Certified effort. Yeah. So I think he will be on the team.

I think this is going to be probably like a DeAndre Aitin's situation a couple years ago where they didn't want to give Aiton the money, but it would be bad business to just let him walk for nothing when you have the ability to resign him, when you have his rights. So they'll probably match whatever offer sheet. He'll play it another year. If he can bounce back in the playoffs and he lives up to the money,

then they'll keep him. if not, then they will probably look to, look to trade him, get some message back, and then move forward from there. But I don't think it would be smart for them to just be like, you know what, we don't think you're worth this money, buy. When you have the ability to retain him on your team. Yeah, I hear. Because I, and like they were another question for me,

because I'm looking at them and, you know, thinking about the offseason where everybody, you know, starts to rank and stuff. I don't think it's a guarantee that there are a top 16. next year. I don't, I don't, I don't think that's, that's set in stone for,

you said? Yeah. I think they'll be top six. I think I don't, I don't think it's, I wish you feel better about it. It's set in stone. I mean,

New York, um, just, just in the, in the mix. New York, Boston, Cleveland,

Toronto, the Sixers, Miami. Indiana is going to be. Yeah, Indiana's back. Like the, the,

uh, the east gets very crowded, very, very quickly. And so if you're a team that, you took this leap because not only did Decade get better but also Jalen Duren made this all-MBA leap and if he's not

if he's potentially not there or if he's potentially in a bad mood and that affects everything that that you guys did last year I think that like 60 wins is a lot for them to be pacing for and for them to be at the top of the league for a majority of the of the year with a team that can't shoot is super super weird yeah so I think I think a lot of teams can can potentially jump up

and get them. We make funny y'all all the time Atlanta just because they're perpetually six, you know, five, six, seven seed. I think that... We're going to be better next year. Okay.

Maybe not like Mark, like, anything worth like noticing, but we could win like 47, 48 games. Okay. And everybody would be like... Okay. For like the average fan, being honest. Does Orlando play better with like a little bit more, more

synergy and a new coach. Yeah. I think Detroit is, it's not easy. And it's not sweet for them. And I do think that they need this lineup right here with Paul Reed as you're starting to say, obviously like, if they do lose Dern, then they will go out and make some other moves. But it's not the, it's not the best situation.

I hate people do this. The end of free agency day won. What a useless idea. Like, who cares? It's not going to be the team. It's just a progress report. Yeah. I think they kind of view of Corey's changing their lives from what I've gathered from

from hearing Pistons fans. I forgot they drafted him. They think he's going to be an NBA ready contributor day one that's going to be the on-ball creator and juice they need off the bench as another guard that can, if he's really good, close games, but K, potentially is too lethal weapons out there. Okay. Like, and I get it. That's disappointing. Like, older rookie, but we're just going to ask this rookie to step in and instantly day one. I mean, he's perfectly equipped scheme-wise for what they need.

So it's tough. I mean, he's not even older than old. He's 19. It's tough to bank on a rookie in any way. as your main offsies in addition. But on top of continuity. I don't know why I thought he was like 21. Because he averaged like a million points.

So you just assumed he did that as a senior. Yeah, he averaged 25 points for your game. And he went to Stanford. That screams like fourth year transfer in that sentence I just said. Yeah. But no, he's 19. I suppose you can bank on Jalen Dern getting even better in the second years of star learning from that playoff experience.

Hopefully, Sart Thompson continues to develop offensively, gives you more. Ron Holland develops offensively gives you more, both already amazing defenders. There's enough there in terms of the time. upper momentum that I can see why they're not panicking and they're not doing too much too fast but you're definitely right there's definitely a world in which they should have done a little more they should have went out and found their heart and signed in caruso bro kawai's here in the conference he's talking extension talks today talking to the raptors this week about an extension my goodness kawai's here to stay so yeah i think yeah i'm i'm i'm nervous i'm starting to get

a little bit nervous about about detroit i'm another question too not really as important but I'm just curious to see what the fuck is going on because we did mention this team a lot in like trade talks and potentially shaking shit up in the offseason. Orlando, they haven't done a damn thing other than cut Jonathan Isaac and then sign him again. And then they also let Frantz, no, Mo Wagner leave.

I was scared that, I'm glad they signed Jonathan Isaac back. I was terrified that Rob Plinka was going to call his phone day one of free agency. That was such a Rob Plinkass move to sign a guy who used to be really good. Thank God he's back with the magic. Keep him away from me.

Oh, they re-signed Vucevich. Oh, yeah, they got Vosovich. They got big boots back. I guess, man. Yeah, apparently they're making on continuity. They said we're going to our starting lineup when playing was analytically extremely high level. Let's see what that has.

That was ironic. What I ironically, the net rating was crazy with their starting five. So I guess there's- The bad off-season for that. Let's give them one more year to see if we can keep these guys together and build on that. I guess I understand that, right? Like, what would you want them to do? What's the panic move?

You want to see them do? Like, they expanded all their picks for Bain. You don't want to necessarily throw whatever little picks and swaps you have left. Do you want to ship out Sugs? I know he had a terrible. You know the move. What's the move? Do what the hornets didn't trade Palo.

Like, that's the. They don't think is Lamello's not Paul. Paulo's not Lamello. Different types of concerns. Like, Bosn did not that con that the hornets have. Franz. Franz is waiting to be that con. Possibly.

Possibly. The difference is I think you can sell yourself when shipping your star out to the fans when it's an injury concern thing above all else. If I just said this guy won't be there, palo is just like ability and you can always sell yourself the next year as a year he makes a leap.

So it's pretty hard to look at Magic Fan of the Eye and say we don't believe in him when he's young enough that you can still have faith in momentum. Yeah, I just, that's the, for all the reasons that they said they kind of just stuck. And so I think it's a player

on continuity, but also at the same time, it's like, we really have no choice. Like, they don't have any other choice, but to bet on continuity. Yeah,

is that where you get rid of a very valuable player that's a huge part of why that starting lineup was so successful? Like, everybody says to trade Suggs, he was so bad offensively, I would be terrified of trading Sugs and he becomes Derek White for somebody else. That would haunt me.

That's exactly what's going to happen. That would haunt me at night. That all of a sudden he started shooting 36% from 3 every year, and it's like, oh, wow, I let him go. For Romeo, Romeo Linkford.

That's what the Spurs got for. Hell yeah. And some picks. I forget with the exact package it was, but that was the headliner. I'd be terrified of being the Spurs. Next new story. I don't know what that was.

Other question I have written down. OKC is as currently constructed going to be in the second apron. Do they want that? I think you can't stay in the second apron. You're allowed. People treat it like you have to duck it. You don't.

But next year they will certainly be in it when the extension is kicking. So this is like your last year Before Shea starts making $70 million a year That you can duck out of it And avoid it being a repeat thing Because the more years you're in it

The more harsh penalties you get It would stand a reason That they should duck out of it this year There's been no rumors at all really About a lewd door dumping Which has been the assumption Yeah It was that or get rid of

Conrich Williams, Sorber and Topic They just resign Williams To a pay upgrade He gets $5 million a year now Instead of $2.5 So that suggests they're not doing that. It really kind of is

the dump blue door or stay in the second apron. We've heard nothing about it. Bro. Who are their owners? Ah, damn. Someone. Infinite money spreads.

I like it. I love it, man. Standing on something you believe in. Standing on like rare, arguably like, yeah, very rare like camaraderie between all your players. You have a special unit

you've won before. Health, in my opinion, completely derailed your championship odds specifically against the spurs. I like it. I said, I fuck with it heavy. I like it too in general

I like it's not always a It's always a cheap thing You know we always like The Nix that's always a cheap thing To people but like There's real harsh Outcomes of being the second apron And I don't know

If Lou Dort is worth that I don't know either But they have all the picks in the world To like And that's why Aid that relief honestly That's the main thing for me They're gonna be in it regardless

Like you said And let the picks there But I think if you can put off That repeater tax like It's just smart I think For Unless you think Like makes it

meaningfully more difficult to win a championship, which I don't know if that's the case. No. I mean, the ability to go out and get other players is obviously one of the biggest issues with the second apron. You lose a whole bunch of avenues to do that,

whether they be in the buyout market, the mid-level exception, right? Using trade. You can aggregate salaries? Yeah, using cash in trades, all this other stuff. But they've had, they have two guys that they basically redshirted

in Topich and, and sorber. Mara is, you just got Hardenstein back again and you drafted Mara like you have three guys, you have three centers on your team that could be, you know, the center of the future. I think they're okay to try it

out. And if they, if after this year, things once again don't go the way that they go, everybody can leave and you can start to shake up your team after that. Yeah, but that's not really the question though, because next year they will be in the second apron. Like no doubt about it, they're going to be a second apron

team next year. So there's no like there's no shaking it up ever this year. Like you're going to be in the second apron and like you said they have their future pieces that they position themselves well. It's just you will be in it next year is Lou Dort single handle the worth being repeat attacks one year earlier and becoming that much more difficult to manage. In this first series, he averaged four points, three files a game shot 20% from the three point line, 34% from the field. Damn. Is that worth it? I don't know. probably had a down year and he saw like 30% from the field this year as a whole for the regular season. Now, of course, he was like injured and in and out the line of senior narrow, but.

I would trade the hell of them. Yeah. And this first series, even defensively too, which is like his main calling card, he was so like, his presence was not there because he would just get blown by every single time by all these quick ass guards. So I would trade him to. He can go be a hornet. You can go to some team that needs culture. Give me a cool little $5 million contract. You can have them.

So we think that he's done because the two years prior, shot 41% from three last year, 39% the year before, and obviously the down year this year. Are we just, we're over the Ludo experience? I wouldn't say that. I mean, like, the Lakers got him not be happy because the defense, like that'd be cool, you know? So I don't think he's a useless player.

I just think when you know they have J-Dub and A.J. Mitchell who can start at those spots and run their double bigs that they're not relying on his defense in any way that because of the tax realities. There was no second apron. I'd say keep him, pay the money, whatever. But I think he's expendable in a way that makes it worth it for them specifically to not need him. I think there's so many teams that could use someone like a Lou Dord.

Like if the, I'll argue if the Caz were in the business for LeBron's aims, they could use someone like Ludo. I know they have like restrictions within the cells, but I'm just saying team of that mold. Yeah, they could use Ludoort. Yeah, if they were to dump Jared Allen for a cheaper contract and get some picks back, they can get Lude Dort and LeBron. Yeah, that'll make sense. Yeah. So I think part of it, I think Dord also allows them to, like, load managed Caruso throughout the year. And you have this other wing that you can play, you know, all the time.

And, but we've talked a lot about them switching up the really identity of this team and a more offensive slanted team. And if you do get rid of Dord, then you have the ability to do that. You are a little bit more flexible. and you're showing everybody that this is what you want to be. I'm kind of like a Lou Door supporter. Yeah, I'm not going to say fan, but like I kind of rock with Lou Dorr a little bit. What a sentence. And, yeah.

A t-shirt on? He's, listen. I kind of rock a Lou Dorrit. Fung up in the club my Lou Dorrit shirt shirt. Dirty as hell. But I don't, I don't hate him on this team. I think that it's actually okay. The Milwaukee Bucks just put out a statement about

the trade of Janus. He'd be sold, do you want a reading challenge? Oh, God. It's long. It's long. Where is it? I said to the chat. A reading challenge. It's a lot of words. Ooh, hell no.

Wait, show the screen. Hell no. What the fuck? What? Hell no. Now, the first one is the owner's, it's the owner statement and the champ statements. Was that too aggressive for him for a reaction? I think I was duck in this phone. too much there.

So there's an owner's statement and a GM statement. Why read the owners one? Oh, God. Where is it? Right here? Okay. From delivering a championship to transforming our franchise, Janice's impact on the Milwaukee Bucks

is lasting and profound. We're incredibly grateful for what has been a remarkable and historic journey together. For 13 seasons, Janice gave everything to this organization and inspired our city with his relentless drive, humility, and heart. You're into one of the greatest players in the world while becoming an integral part of the Milwaukee community.

More importantly, Yonis represented this organization with authenticity, character, and deep commitment to the people of Milwaukee. Did it? There's a lot more. So long. It's not much. But kind of peaked right there in terms of my reading. So I'm going to leave on a high note. Pop your shit, man.

Leave on a high note. Salute. Who got next? That is the end of this episode If you're still here, comment one to ten How good did Beasol just read that? I bet you see tens I'm not going to lie

Anything less than nine you're hating I agree That's perfect reading It is the summer We are doing really Cowry Henching tests Every two weeks Every two weeks

We're back in summer school guys We actually need to give it to our views For real right And on Thursday we'd be Donovan Read Shakespeare in his original text Of Middle English Not middle English but old Victorian English You gotta bring a

Shakespeare fit too. What if you made you read actual Middle English like back from the 1400s? I'm cooked. The fuck. I wouldn't even know what I'm looking at it.

Yeah. But I'll bring Hamlet. Okay. I read Hamlet. Did you read a translation today or the original? Probably the translation. I read it in like 11th grade.

Okay. Because they have like no fear of Shakespeare. It's a big difference. Yeah. No. Okay. I did not. I don't remember hearing that term.

I did not read that. Okay. Yeah. That's like the, it's still like the fluffy language but it's translated to today's speak. So it's not like twas and stuff like that's. That's what's cooking me in high school, man.

Sometimes I can read it obviously, but a lot of times I'm like, it just goes through one year out the other. I have to do so much rereading. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, wait,

what the fuck? I'm so focused on saying the words and recognizing them. I got to look back and be like, what did I just take in? Yeah. Have you ever seen Middle English? I haven't seen it.

I've heard of it. It's been over like damn it years since I've seen. I don't know if you've ever seen it. That's not something you see in school. Yeah. Like that's like 1400s the shit they were saying. Because that's, That's what we were saying, yeah.

Because when we were reading Shakespeare, everybody just said, oh, like, it's so hard to read this old English. And my English teacher was like, y'all don't know what, what, like, old English actually is. Yeah. It's not, like, it's not a common thing.

Yeah, you can read stuff from like 1,100. And you're just like, what is this? It basically looks like you're reading a different language. Like, you're reading German today or something. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to look this up. Yeah, I'm actually curious now. I'm actually curious.

It's like one middle English passage. We just have been. Middle English reading test. What the hell? Oh, yeah, that's the off-season. Practice test, middle-English reader. I hope it's not middle school. Maybe, maybe that.

But the, yeah, it's been a while. Because even in like, like, we read Shakespeare, I think, in 11th grade. And then I think I read it in ninth grade as well. Maybe like another, I can't even read these words for them. Where do you, I'm not trying to find one. I can't see a good passage. Yeah, like these passages are stuff. It's just a cahoot.

I'll keep you, I'll keep getting middle school English. Okay, I found one. Biffle that in that cesson on a day in Southwork as the tavern as I lay, ready to wendon on my pilgrimage to Canterbury with full devout courage. And it's spelled C-O-R-A-G-E for courage. Wait, stuck that sentence again. To Canterbury with full devout courage. Oh, no, no, no, no, the start of the passage.

you said biffle something biffle that I think biffle is before you sound like E40 bobble that It's the season on the day It's southwork I thought he was rapping blue face

Dude E40 The southwork at the tower That I lay E40 would kill this Ready to win And on my pilgrimage To cat's a bird I think that's the poem

It rhymes At night was coming I gotta send you this I can pull it up The spelling is crazy The fuck does biffle me I'm assuming it's before in context This is before that in that season on a day

I think it's what I'm saying Fellowship is F-E-L-A-W-S-H-I-P-E So I don't know how you pronounce that It's probably not fellowship It's probably intertwinnertying with some like German Or some shit like that Yeah Shout out Middle English in this episode

Type shit, type shit, type shit Shout out E-40 rapping in Middle English Hey, heart test coming next week. Biffle that. I'll see y'all on Thursday. He'd be so good. What is this? Biffle?

Well, that was spelled. Okay. We'll see y'all on Thursday.