The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 Points with Chris Mannix - Dame is finally traded
Episode Date: September 30, 2023Chris is joined by longtime NBA writer Mark Medina to breakdown the details of the trade that sent Dame Lillard to the Bucks, if Portland got enough in the deal, and what's next for Jrue Holiday. #Vol...ume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Welcome back to three points with Chris Manning's, the show we tackle three of the biggest topics in the NBA each week.
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the early version of this show. Well, there was a big deal in the NBA on Wednesday.
You had Damian Lillard traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Phoenix Suns. They get a bunch of
piece in this deal. And in Miami Heat get nothing. Talk about that and every facet of this trade.
I want to bring in Mark Medina, longtime NBA writer, Sporting Tribune, Fox Sports Radio.
do it is a great job for multiple different outlets.
And Mark, let's start with the Milwaukee Bucks and what they're getting and how much,
if at all, they are improved.
They certainly get better offensively.
Damian Lillard coming off of 32 point per game season.
Defensively, I can say they take a step back.
True Holiday that gave up in the trade, one of the best defensive wings in the NBA.
Do you look at the Milwaukee Bucson?
as a team that got better and how much better did they get?
Well, Chris, no doubt they got better.
And how much better that they get?
I think that they're not to definitive favorites to win the NBA championship.
If I had to make a prediction, I would give it to them.
I think that they have the best trio in the NBA right now with Janice Antecoon and
Damien Lillard and Chris Middleton.
And the reason why this deal was significant is not only regained Damian Lillard
and his point guard savviness and his scoring mentality,
but you're also in effect also securing that you,
Gianna Sons de Kumpo is with them for the long term because of his comments this offseason
the New York Times and elsewhere in different podcasts that he wants to see the bucks continuing
to go all in to win a championship.
And so no doubt they had to give up obviously a really good talent and Drew Holiday.
I think one of the most underrated defenders in the NBA are great two-way player.
But I think when you add everything up, Damien Lillard will help them much more substantially,
especially in their half-court game.
And I think the bigger part is it should erase any sort of uncertainty that Janus could
head elsewhere.
So you hit on the mediest part about all this, the half-court game.
When the bucks have been beaten in the playoffs over the last few years,
even when they've come close to getting beaten, like the Net Series back in 2021,
what's gone haywire for them is half-court offense.
They just have not had the personnel to be an efficient half-court.
court offensive team. Janice is still very good in the half court, much better in transition,
but very good in the half court. Chris Middleton, he could score. But Drew Holliday, for all his
diverse talents, is not an elite half court offensive player. Damian Lillard is that.
Damian Lillard averaged 32 points per game last season. He shot 37% from three. He is a walking
bucket. And if you put him and Janus in the half court game in a two-man game,
you are going to ask teams to do the impossible defensively.
You're going to ask them to choose between blitzing Damian Lillard
and leaving Janus with a free run to the basket or sagging off Lillard
and giving one of the NBA's best shooters an open look at the bucket.
That is just a, that is Sophie's choice right there.
You can't expect a team to defend that at a particularly high level.
So yeah, they got significantly better on the offensive end of the floor.
The potential downfalls of this deal, you look at defense.
And yeah, there were top five defensive team in the NBA last season.
They're going to take a step back because at the point of attack right now,
they've got Lillard, they've got Chris Middleton, they've probably got Pack Conantin there.
They don't have the defensive-minded players that they once did.
But I think a lot of those issues can be resolved by the backline, by the first.
fact that Janice, who in addition to being an annual MVP candidate, great score, is annually
one of the best defensive players in the NBA.
Brooke Lopez, who is ageless at this point, is consistently the last couple of years,
has been in the mix for defensive player of the year.
Bobby Portis, really good player coming off a tour with USA basketball.
More often than not, guys benefit from that.
And they've got enough there, I think, to protect Lillard and protect some of those weaker
defensive players in that backcourt. The other thing I've heard talked about a lot is depth
and how much now the Bucks lost some depth with the guys they traded civilly, Grace and Allen
going out as part of that deal. I think that's an issue and one certainly worth talking about,
but Conadden, as I mentioned, still there. Jay Crowder is still there. Marshawn Beauchamp is
still there. You can say Malik Beasley now in that mix, still there. So they've got a reason
reasonable rotation. And I think when players become available after the trade deadline in February,
Milwaukee's going to be in a prime position to sign one of them. So they're going to be able to flesh out
that rotation before the start of the playoff. So when I look at the weaknesses, yeah, there are some.
There is a downside to acquiring Damien Lillow. But the upside to me is far more significant,
don't you think? Oh, without a doubt. I mean, look, when you're making a monumental trade,
you're going to have to trade something to get something. But I think that the point that you made that
it's not like that they don't have great defensive reinforcements in the front core where they can funnel players to the basket so that they can stop them at the rim.
That's number one.
Number two, when you're looking at the way that Damian Lillard and Yannis Ante Coupo and Chris Middleton will score, I mean, we're running out of fingers here.
You got Damien Lillard threes.
You got Damian Lillard driving the basket.
You got Yannis picking rolls with him.
You got Yonis post-ups.
You have Chris Middleton being able to move off the ball with both of those two players.
drawing a lot of attention. And so when you use the math formula, clearly the offense and number
of points that they're generate is going to be substantially more than the points that they're going
to give up, even when you account for what Drew Holliday did with his perimeter defense.
And I think that perhaps as a preamble for both of us to beat up on Miami a little bit,
this really illustrates why the Bucks were able to make this deal. They had a player that is
worth of interest, uh, drew Holliday to really make the end.
of this trade work, but they also knew that they had depth to fall back on that if they're
making a deal, it's not like that they're going to get Damian Lillard with, you know, some top
heavy talent and no depth around them. And that's really what Miami, you know, encounter here,
where, you know, clearly and understandably so, but Jimmy Butler, Bam out of bio not being
part of these trade discussions. It was a matter of, okay, what else do we have in the cabinet to offer?
And if we do offer enough of Tyler Hero and draft picks and any other role player, all of a sudden we don't have a complete roster.
And so I think it just really captures why the trade happened this way as opposed to, oh, Portland wasn't negotiating in good faith or anything like that.
Yeah, I think a key player now from Milwaukee is going to be Jay Crowder.
You know, Crowder was a non-factor for this team last year.
and the question is, was that because Crowder missed the first half of the season sitting out in Phoenix?
Or does it have more to do with Jay Crowder is 33 years old and doesn't have the legs that he once did?
Now, both these things can be true.
But at some point, Milwaukee is going to need players that can match up with the top perimeter wings in the Eastern Conference.
They're going to have to find a way to match up with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
They don't have anybody right now that jumps.
off the page and you say that's the guy that's going to be not the stopper, but at least a deterrent
to those types of players. Jay Crowder, at least to me, has the potential. I'm very interested
what kind of shape Jay Crowder comes into Camp As and what kind of role he has in Adrian
Griffin's rotation, because to me, Mark, he's going to be the guy, at least for right now, that
they trot out there in defensive situations and say, you got to go make plays. Look, Jay Crowder,
you know, certainly a flawed player has become an inefficient three-point shooter over the last
couple of years, but he wins. The teams he goes to wins, either high number of wins in the
regular season, advancing deep in the playoffs, you know, advancing multiple times to the finals.
He has been a winner for most of his, at least the second half of his career. I'm very interested
to see what he has left moving forward because he is going to be, I think, a critical piece
to all this. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced
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The other side of this mark is Portland.
And we've heard a lot of opinions over the last 24 to 48 hours about what the Blazers got back in return.
Ostensibly, what they got back is DeAndre Aiton, Drew Holiday, a first round pick, and two pick swaps.
There's been some criticism, Portland.
Should they have gone a different direction?
Should they've looked out in Miami?
Was there a better offer there?
what do you think of the return the Portland Trailblazers got for Damien Lillard?
Well, I think that this is the best deal that they could have made with what was available.
And I think that I look at through two lens.
Gain Drew Holiday, it's inevitable that he's going to be flipped in another trade.
And so that's more assets.
And there's going to be a lot of teams fitting for his services,
especially ones that want to make a championship run because of his two-way capabilities.
When it comes to D'Andre and look, there's question marks about him,
about his maturity and his past playoff performances in recent seasons,
but he's going to have a much more expanded role in Portland,
I think a new environment.
And while in fairness to Frank Vogel,
I thought that there was a pathway for him to have more success with Phoenix
because it's a new head coach.
He doesn't have the clashing history as he did with Monty Williams
and Frank Vogel's defensive credentials are top notch.
And he has stated publicly that he would try to empower him
with getting him involved offensively,
even with the top heavy talent.
It's just the rating on the wall was there
that the roster construction
was going to be built around
Kevin Durant, Devin Booker,
and Bradley Beal producing offensively.
And here in Portland,
clearly he's going to be able to expand his game.
And while, you know,
the idea that he could mentor young guys,
he needs mentoring himself.
But I think that this could be a very good opportunity
for him to have that fresh start
and to feel very empowered in the process.
And look, Chauncey Billups is a really good coach.
And, you know, I know that there's obviously been growing pains that Portland's gone under his tutelage.
But he is a guy that I think that can bring the best out of him and find that sweet spot of holding him accountable and also making him feel empowered.
But because of the roster construction, it's going to be by design that he's going to feel empowered because he's going to have a bigger role.
So I think Joe Cronin deserves a lot of credit for how he handled this situation.
There was a lot of pressure on him, Mark.
going back to early July when Lilid asked out, he asked specifically betrayed to Miami.
Miami made an offer of some substance.
There was a lot of pressure on him to get a deal done, give Damien Lillard what he wanted,
and to just get this over with, to move on from Damien Lillet.
But Joe Cron didn't do that.
He stuck by his belief that if you gave it time, competitors would emerge.
I don't think that the Blazers ever ruled out the idea of trading Lilid to Miami.
They just wanted some competition for him.
And over the last couple of weeks, competition emerged.
It emerged in the form of the Toronto Raptors, which had a clear interest in Lillard.
And then, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, it emerged with the Milwaukee Bucks,
who faced, as you said earlier, a lot of pressure from Janus to get better or risk losing him,
or at least having him not sign a contract extension next summer, which would have been catastrophic.
for a Milwaukee. So Joe Cronin did the right thing and let this thing play out to this point to give
himself and give the blazers some options when it comes to Damia Lillard. I think a lot of the
debate about this return centers around opinions of DeAndre Aid, right? There are people out there
that believe DeAndre Aden sticks that believe he's overrated, that believe he's soft, that believe
he's a malcontent, and they can point to tangible evidence of that. They can point to his issues
over the last couple of years with Monty Williams.
At times, his production has been inconsistent.
But here's all I would say to that.
Last season, DeAndre Aden averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds as a third option on a winning team.
That's pretty impressive.
He played alongside, you know, first it was Devin Booker and Chris Paul, then it was
Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant.
He was an afterthought in that son's office.
and he still put up 18 points and 10 rebounds.
He's 25 years old.
He's under contract for the next three years.
I don't think it's a stretch mark to say next season,
DeAndre Aten is going to average an excess of 20 points per game.
I don't think it's a stretch to say it's going to average between 11 and 13 rebounds per game.
I believe his block shot numbers are going to go up as his minutes go up in that Portland offense.
I can tell you from talking to people in the Portland organization in the aftermath of this deal.
They're thrilled about the idea of adding DeAndre Aiton to the mix.
They now have a legitimate, you know, I wouldn't call him an All-Star yet, but he's on that All-Star-ish level, starting center to go with a team that has a crowded but talented backcourt. You've got Scoot Henderson, you've got Shaden Sharp, you've got Anthony Simons, throw Jeremy Grant in that mix. Now you have a backstop to all that. You've got a pivot to pair with those guys. And for the Blazers, that just makes so much.
more sense than acquiring Tyler Hero. Tyler Hero did nothing for the Blazers. All Tyler
Hero did for the Blazers was give them a piece they could potentially trade for future
draft assets. DeAndre Aden is not a piece they're looking to trade. DeAndre Aden is a player
that they believe at 25 can grow with their group of 19, 20, 21 year olds that they've currently
got on the roster. And I'll be honest, I think they're right. I think DeAndre Aden has been,
I don't want to say unfairly maligned because I think he's brought some of it on himself.
But I think the negatives that have been out there about DeAndre Aden have been overblown when compared to the positive.
I think the positives are going to be really good for Portland.
I think they're going to get a player that's going to be motivated, a player that's going to get an enhanced role, a player that fits with their roster construction.
I think DeAndre Aden, Mark, makes a lot of sense.
on the support in the roster. And I think that's why this is a pretty good deal for the Blazers.
Yeah, I mean, Chris, look, you and I, these past few minutes have just been in complete alignment
about DeAndre. And I would add to other things that make this a really good deal.
Look at just the chemistry that he's going to be able to forge with Scoot Henderson.
He's a really good young point guard who's about playing fast and he's a past first guy.
And so he's a guy that's going to be about getting DeAndre Aten more touches.
even though he's a young player. He is a guy that has gotten a lot of rave reviews from people at G. League Ignite as well as Portland about his leadership and his work ethic. And so he's going to set a good example with DeAndre about putting in the work without having the demonstrative lectures that maybe he got from Chris Paul and other people in Phoenix. And that's not to say that they weren't incorrect. Like all those criticisms are valid. But I think because of the environment, I think that this
can bring out the better of Dianjana.
The other part is who they gave up with Nurchage.
I mean, Nerkich, he's a really great center, great defender, but his durability.
He has had a lot of injury issues.
I'm putting the brakes on great defender with Yusuf Nirch.
I'm pumping the brakes on.
How about serviceable defender?
Servicable, yes, he's servicable.
And he's a good screen setter, and he's a good passer.
So I think those things are going to speak.
Yeah, great screen setter passer, team guy.
But the bigger part is he's had a very checkered injury history.
We never knew when he would be available.
And DeAndre Aitin, he's obviously a lot younger and hasn't had those level of concerns about
his injuries.
He has missed games, but certainly not the level that Nirkich has.
So it was a no-brainer across the board and tying this up with Miami.
I mean, not only was this a much better deal because you're getting a DeAndre Aiton,
but even if in the theoretical sense that Phoenix would be involved with the Miami Heat deal,
deal and all that.
They're still getting Tyler Hero, which would be roster redundancy, number one.
And number two, Drew Holiday could get a lot more in a trade package subsequently than they
could with Tyler Hero.
So all this angst about, you know, Miami did all that they could.
I don't fault them for drawing a line in the sand.
At some point, they have to have a complete roster.
And they had been losing a lot of key guys with Max Scheris and Gabe Vincent.
But this idea that Portland wasn't negotiating good faith, I just don't buy it.
They just looked at what the roster was available from all the other teams and made their decision accorded.
So let's talk about Drew Holiday because the market for Drew Holiday over the next couple of weeks and months, if it goes that far, is going to be robust.
Drew Holiday, while not being Damien Lillard, is still coming off a 19 point per game season.
He is still considered an elite defender.
He was an All-Star last year.
So you're talking about a guy that was, you know, it was peaking.
last season as a terrific year.
And look, we could point to the struggles he had defensively in the playoffs against
Jimmy Butler.
That was just the snake-bitten series for the Milwaukee Bucks, really from start to finish.
So I'm more apt to believe that Drew Holiday has at least one, if not more good seasons
left in him.
What do you think the market is going to look like for Drew Holiday?
Because to me, I think it is going to be a lot more robust than it was for Damien Lillet.
not to say Holiday is better than Lillard, but Holliday's contract is a lot shorter.
He's going into the final year of his deal.
He doesn't have the Miami or bust sort of sign around his neck.
So there's not that aspect of it.
And there are a lot of teams out there because the salaries are a little is a little bit lower that aren't going to have to just gut their roster to make the money work.
What do you think the market's going to look like for Drew Holiday?
Well, I think that basically every team is going to be interested, but most realistically, we think outside of Milwaukee, who else has a chance?
a legitimate chance to win an NBA championship.
I wouldn't be surprised at all those teams,
you know, not just do their due diligence with making calls
to see what they can get for Drew Holiday,
but seriously consider a package for him
because he is a player that you need to win a championship.
And I know that you noted about his playoff struggles last season against Miami.
I'm with you that was kind of more of a one-off.
I'm more of looking at his total body of work.
And when it comes down to this,
you need players that aren't going to stop,
obviously elite scores, that's impossible, but at least slow them down, tire them out.
So it's war of attrition as the series goes on.
And Drew Holiday checks that box as well as provides the occasional additional
scoring and he's a great team guy.
So when it comes to how his role is going to be, obviously he's going to need a
prominent role because he is a special player.
But when it comes to touches and minutes, et cetera, I think that he will be very
flexible with that.
And so because of that, I think teams can be flexible with their
level of thinking here when it comes to possible trade packages. Yeah, I think the heat are going to
revisit this. You know, I think the starting price from Miami is going to be Kyle Lowry and two
first round picks. That's a big part. I think the I think the Blazers are going to be able to
extract two first round picks for holiday, which is going to up their hall to three first round
picks total in the Lither deal. I think there's too much competition for Portland not to be able
to get a second first round pick in a deal like this,
even for a player at Holiday's age and with one year left on his contract.
I think they're going to be to leverage all the teams that are out there trying to get him
and they'll get a second round pick.
I think Miami's going to be in that mix.
I think the Clippers are going to be in that mix.
I think Boston's going to be in that mix.
I don't know if Golden State will be in that mix,
but the Warriors can certainly get there because they've got the contract in Chris Paul.
They've got some blue chip players in Jonathan Cominga, Moses Moody, among others,
and they've got draft capital.
to deal. So they could get into the mix if they so choose. I want to focus here, though, Mark,
on which teams need him? Like, who needs to push their chips to the table and get Drew Holiday?
Because for me, it's two teams at the top of that list. They're both in the Eastern Conference.
I think Miami and I think Boston need to go out and be aggressive on Drew Holiday. Miami, for obvious
reasons, the heat have had a catastrophic offseason. It could not have gone worse. They lost their two
starting backcourt players in the playoffs in Gabe Vincent and Max Trues. They are a year
older, Jimmy Butler's 34, Kyle Lowry's in his mid-30s. They've got a starting lineup right now,
which is featuring two players who are minimum-ish or minimum contracts in Josh Richardson and
Kevin Love. So they need an infusion. They need help. And if they're going to hope to get past
teams like Milwaukee and Boston in the playoffs, even Philadelphia with Tyrese,
Maxi, you need a defensive stopper, and Drew Holliday is still that player.
So I think Miami, even though it's got to be painful for Pat Riley and company to go back
to the table and call Portland about another guard, a different guard, a lesser guard than
Damelo.
They've got to find a way to do it because the clock is ticking on Jimmy Butler's career.
I think that's pretty obvious that Miami has to go all in.
I think Boston, though, is right there with him.
The Celtics made a lot of moves this offseason to plus up their offense, getting
Chris Stas Porzingis was about adding front court depth, which they needed because Al Horford's old,
Robert Williams is often injured. But under Joe Missoula, they have become much more offensive-oriented
than what they were under Imaudoka. Not to say they're bad defensively, but they're much more
offensive oriented. Joe Missoula would be happy with this team shooting 53 points per game. That's kind of their
offensive mindset. So they've got the offensive horses right now. What they don't have is depth
defensively. What they don't have is that Marcus Smart-like presence right now.
They don't have that guy they can deploy in anybody in somebody's backward.
Drew Holiday would be that guy. He would be the guy that you would turn and say,
now you guard Damie Millard. And if you think Drew Holiday wouldn't be motivated to defend
Damien Lillard in the Bucks, you're crazy. It would probably cost the Celtics some combination
of Malcolm Brogden and two first round picks. The two first round picks, again,
seems like a steep price. But if you're Boston, what do you hold?
not to them for. What do you care? Your window is open right now. Your chance to win championships
with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown is right now. Al Horford is 36, I believe. You'll be 37 end of next year.
The clock is ticking on his career as well. You've got to go out there and be aggressive in acquiring
top tier talent. And if that means giving up a couple of first and Malcolm Brogden for Drew Holiday,
Holiday, clearly a better fit for this team, I think, than Brogden, who already has, I think, some issues with the franchise after being dangled in trade talks last year.
I think the Celtics are right up there with Miami in terms of the need to get into the holiday chase.
Yeah, I think you outlined Celtics, Miami perfectly.
I would add two other teams, I think, would both see them.
Philadelphia.
Now, I know that Keith Pompeii from the Philadelphia Inquirer, he was mentioning that they obviously started exploring that.
I've been told the same thing.
Now, I think that the complication with this is, you know, who's going to take James Harden?
I think that they're going to have to get a third team involved.
But I think that just feels probably the Clippers.
I mean, it probably the Clippers in that instance.
Right.
And with that, I think it's more of the lens of not only what Drew Holiday can do from his talent
standpoint, but just this window of opportunity with the Sixers having with just finding a way
to trade hard and before training camp.
So that's team number one.
Team number two would be what you're saying with the Clippers.
I mean, the Clippers, they may get James Hardin,
but I would argue that they would probably be more enamored with Drew Holliday
because not only does he have more of a diverse skill set as far as his game,
he's a lot more durable.
Now the question is going to be the Clippers have a really weird predicament
where they have depth.
What are the handful of those role players really good enough to facilitate a kind of trade
when you're obviously not including
Kauai Leonard and Paul George.
You know, guys like Terrence Mann,
guys like, you know, Marcus Moore Sr.
Can you package that enough together
involving a three-way deal?
Mark, to your point,
Terrence Mann is the guy that,
and the clippers have to be willing to deal.
I understand they like him a lot.
He's a good player, durable player,
you know, 10 point per game score,
a couple of different positions,
but you can't hold on to guys like that.
Well, Chris, what I'm saying is,
It's a no-brander.
I just don't know if that's enough for, you know, Portland's liking.
I think they can trade a first.
Like, Terrance Man, to me, is like the equivalent of a first.
That's a young player they can add to that mix.
That's a first-round pick.
You trade another first.
You make the salaries work with guys like Morris and something else.
You know, I think that is a no-brainer as well.
I mean, Drew Holiday, look, for how many years now has,
have the clippers been searching for the right point guard?
Like, how many guys have they cycled through over the last,
few years. They've been looking for that right fit. Drew Holiday, I think, would be an excellent fit
opposite Kauai and Paul George. He brings defensive intensity to that backcourt, defensive
intensity I haven't had in a while. Like that, that's a round peg, round hold type of fit that
if I'm the clippers, if I'm Lawrence Frank, I'm on the phone with Joe Cronin. I'm saying,
Terrence, man, a first some salary filler. Will that get it done? Oh, without doubt. And I mean,
it's been clear the recent seasons that Ty Lou and his players, they've been more and more vocal
about their want that they need a traditional point card,
which is something that Lawrence Frank would kind of downplay
in past trade deadlines saying,
hey, it's about modern NBA,
positionless players, wing depth,
but clearly they have moved closer
toward the idea that they do need a traditional point card.
So to stress,
Clippers, it's a no-brainer.
I just didn't know out loud
if they had enough to become a front runner.
One thing I would add, though,
I know that you mentioned the Warriors, they certainly would have the package.
I would doubt that they do this only because of a few things.
We have a lot of questions about Chris Paul's fit and is he going to start, come off the bench.
How's that going to work?
And this whole idea that Steve Kerr saying, hey, we have six stars.
We're going to play this out.
But I think that they are bullish that Jonathan Kaminga is going to have a breakout season.
But even with that, even with them being in the win now mode, I think the thing that could hold them back.
It's just the reality that they have some players that can do what Drew Holiday already does with an Andrew Wiggins,
now that he's obviously a lot healthier than he was in the playoffs.
And to a lesser extent, Clay Thompson.
So I think with the Warriors, while they certainly will be in the mix in acquiring,
I would be very surprised if he winds up in a Warriors uniform.
I think it'll be worth watching because the Warriors can just do a two first round pick deal.
They can make the salaries work with Chris Paul.
I'm sure they'd be reluctant to put Kaminga in a trade like that because Kaminga is one of the few guys with some size of front of a team that's devoid of it at the moment.
But they're a team definitely worthwhile.
I get your argument.
I understand that.
But to me, they're a team worth watching.
I think Holiday makes more sense than Chris Paul with that team.
They're both on expiring type deals.
And look, Holiday may be more inclined to resign there.
If he likes the situation, he likes the chance to wait, he might want to come back and play a role within that team.
All right.
Mark Medina, follow him on social media.
Listen to him on Fox Sports Radio.
Check him out at the Sport Tribune.
Mark, always good to catch up, man.
Chris, always get a catch up
and looking forward to seeing you more turning caps
these next few weeks.
You got it.
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