The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How Damian Lillard fits on Heat with Jimmy Butler + NBA free agency reactions

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to the news that Damian Lillard has requested a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers and wants to team up with Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. Jason also reacts to free agency signings throughout the NBA like Fred VanVleet going to Rockets, and more. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fans, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith ruling. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend. I'd a quick getaway into Texas for a family wedding, flew out on Saturday, flew back on Sunday, and in that span, quite a few players have been signed and or traded. We're going to be hitting on 16 teams today, rapid fire style. We're going to start with the Damian Lillard trade request, talk a little bit about some of my thoughts on that. And then we're going to get to the other 15 teams and a bunch of different signings. I did scouts on a couple of those European guys that both signed for 20 plus million here in the

States for the Thunder and the Kings. One team we're not going to hit on in this particular show is the Los Angeles Lakers. Since our last video, they've signed Cam Reddish, Jackson Hayes. They re-signed Austin Reeves, DeAngelo, and Ruby Hachamara, all on team-friendly numbers. but I want to do like a whole separate video on the Lakers for a bunch of different reasons. One because Rob Polinka has had some wins over the course of basically since the trade deadline to now that I think are worthy of covering. Also, I'm a Lakers fan. As you guys know, I'm a fan of this particular Lakers team, at least while LeBron James is on it.

So I want to just take a little bit more time there. So we're not going to hit the Lakers today. The teams were hitting today. The Blazers, the Sons, the Warriors, the Rockets, the Raptors, the Heat, the Mavs, the Grizzlies, the Cavs, the Kings, the Thunder, the Bucks, Sixers, Clippers, Knicks, and Nuggets. So a ton of basketball to get into you. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. Also, for those of you who want to hear a deep dive on just your particular team, don't forget that as we get closer to the start of the season there in September, that's how we do our season previews. We do power rankings like one through 15.

And for those 15 teams, I do deep dives on their entire off season and everything that I expect from them in that particular season. So we will eventually get to that point, but I like to wait to the end of the summer just because of all of the different pieces that could fall down before then. But the Lakers off season is basically tied up, and obviously I've been wanting to talk about them a little bit, so we're going to get to them later this week.

All right, let's talk about this Damian Lillard trade request. So it finally came down, basically right when I landed in Dallas on Saturday, right around like 11 a.m. Central time, if I remember correctly. And immediately, Shams Treni reported that he was wanting the heat. And pretty quickly after that, we had the report come down. I think it was Woage that basically said that the Blazers are going to shop him around and not particularly consider sending them to the heat. I would imagine they're not in love with that particular trade package.

I think it was Tyler Harrow, Duncan Robinson, and some form of draft compensation. And the Blazers GM, Joe Cronin, came out and said, quote, we have been clear that we want Dame here, but he notified us today that he wants out and he'd prefer to play someplace else. What has not changed for us is that we are committed to winning, and we are going to do what's best for the team in pursuit of that goal, end quote. Now, I still think Dame's going to be with the heat. I refuse to believe that the Blazers lack self-awareness to this extent. Because what's really frustrating to me about that is like it was totally fine for Dame

to remain committed to you as a franchise when you as a basketball operations department could not surround him with the necessary talent so that one of the 15 best players in the entire league was consistently floundering at the bottom of the standings and or missing the playoffs entirely, to the point where even when you looked at Damian Lillard, Anthony Simons, and Jeremy Grant's minutes together this season, they had a negative net rating according to cleaning the glass when they filtered out garbage time. So you guys have not done your job. And now, because Dame, after many years of loyalty, has expressed a desire to go someplace else, now all of a sudden you're committed to winning.

And now all of a sudden you want to be sound with your asset management and to put together a winner around your young players. I think that's a really bad look. There have been some reports since then that players are quote unquote monitoring the situation with Dame to see how Portland treats him. This is so outrageous to me for them to suddenly get stingy about where they're trading Dame after everything he's done for them over the years that I refuse to believe that's what's happening here. So my guess, my guess purely circumstantially, is that basically the are going to trade into the heat, but they're manufacturing this fake controversy in hopes of driving up the price a little bit. And I don't know if it's a specific draft pick thereafter or what

the deal is, but like, I get it. You don't want necessarily Tyler Robbins, Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson. But this is not, this is not a player that was, you know, committing to a team for his first long-term max contract and then went in the door six months after and said, get me out of here. This is a guy that time in time again has given you chances and you haven't done your job. And so with Dame in particular, I believe he should be accommodated. And if he wants to go Miami, you should send him there. If you have to play some game to get an extra draft pick or two, fine. But that's where he should go. And so I believe this will end with Dame with the heat. If it doesn't go that route, I think that speaks volumes about the arrogance and lack of self-awareness in that Portland

front office. And, uh, It's something that I'm going to be paying close attention to over the course of the next couple of weeks. I'm really curious to see how that situation breaks down. Whenever the trade does eventually go down, you guys know the drill will be breaking it down immediately here on the show. One last note on that, the Jeremy Grant deal. Like I told you guys, there was another report that came out that they still plan on offering that same deal with Jeremy. Like I said, I thought it was a relatively team-friendly deal right around, what, $32 million a year for a really good wing that can score the basketball and defend. so I think he's a good asset that you needed to maintain regardless of what your plan was,

whether you're going to keep Dame or not. For starters, you don't really have a player of his ilk on the roster. And so maybe you run it with him and kind of see how things go. And then if he's a bad fit with Scoot and he's a bad fit with Anthony Simons and Shaden Sharp and you want to get him out of there, you can move him at the deadline and probably get a good amount of return for him based on the fact that he's a good NBA player on a team-friendly deal, especially with the upcoming TV deal. All right, on that note, we are going to rip through 15 teams here and some of their, some of their free agent signings. I'm not going to hit on literally every single one, but I just picked ones that I found particularly interesting.

I'm just going to read some quick stats, give a really quick breakdown, and we'll move on to the next guy. Number one, Eric Gordon to the Sons on a minimum contract. He was 1.34 points per spot up possession with the clippers after he was traded there last year, 73% effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jumper. So really good spot up threat. He also has a little bit of that extra juice putting the ball on the floor to be able to create his own shot, just stuff that he learned from, stuff that he's retained from all of his years as more of a primary ball handler at other destinations. He used to be an excellent point of attack defender.

We're going to talk about this a little bit later when we get to the Nuggets, but he kind of is that, that short, stocky wing as opposed to that longer lanky wing. You guys know I've been talking forever about how I'm really curious as to why these shorter, stocky or stronger wings seem to do better in the playoffs. than a lot of the longer lanky ones. And I was actually talking about it with my buddy Pete Zayas from Blake or Film Room the other day. He calls him fire hydrant wings, which I think is a really interesting way to put it.

And all of you basketball players have played against a guy like this before. We're like, you're bigger than him, but you just can't go through him because he's so damn strong and his center of gravity is so low. So you have to try to go around him. It can be difficult. And more often than not, you end up having to shoot over the top of a wing like this. Now, he turns 35 this season, so we'll see if he still has any of that juice left as a point of attack defender.

But if he has any of that left, and if he can knock down shots like he did for the Clippers, that's a home run signing for the Sons on a minimum contract. So, you know, under the circumstances, after the Bradley Beale trade, which severely limited their ability to surround them with other role players, I think they've done pretty solid. Between the Drew Eubanks and Shemezzi met two signings for athleticism and the front court, obviously bringing in Aaron Gord and the Bradley Beal move. There's a lot to be excited about as a Suns fan coming into this particular season.

I was actually working out my high school kids this morning, and they were all talking about how excited they were about the Suns. That's unique. It hasn't been like that ever since it became abundantly clear that the Chris Paul and Devin Booker pairing was not quite capable of getting them over the top. As I said, right after the Kevin Durant trade, I'm not judging the trade until after that second season. I didn't think they had much of a realistic chance to win last year because of all of the veteran minimum quality players that they were putting around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker.

And I think that came to fruition in that Nugget series, which even though it went to six, had a lot more to do with the hot shooting Devin Booker performance. And they really got their ass kicked in just about every other game in that series. Corey Joseph to the Warriors, he ran 427 pick and rolls last year for the Pistons that led to just 399 points. That's 0.934 points per possession, which is not good, but it's the Pistons. And you've got to factor in the surrounding talent offensively in the way that that can limit a pick and roll ball. handler in terms of passing to roll man or passing to the weak side for shoot to shooters. 41% on catch and shoot jump shots, 34% on pull-up jump shots. So he's a big downgrade from

Dante DiVincenzo, in my opinion. That's not a hot take. It's just look at the contract values. Like Corey Joseph's coming over on a minimum and Dante just signed for 50 million with the Knicks. So that's not exactly a hot take. But here's the thing. For this Warriors off season, it's been pretty much status quo bringing everybody back and then you've lost Dante DiVincenzo. So where is the piece that's going to bolster this roster? Mason Plumley just got signed, just re-signed with the Clippers for one year five million. Is it Dario's Arch? Darius Arch would certainly make me feel a lot better about this roster,

but it seems to me like a lot of what this next season for the Warriors is going to come down to is once again the development trajectory of guys like Jonathan Caminga and Moses Moody. And can Chris Paul say healthy and bring anything to this? this particular team. Really, the Chris Paul piece is like, it's a big gamble in my opinion. We're either going to look back at the Chris Paul piece as like the genius move that put the Warriors over the top into their fifth title or the beginning of the end as you traded away a talented young player for a player that may or may not be able to hold up. Chris Paul, as I've said, on the show before, has been hurt in four of his last six postseason runs, including, I think,

two of them where he just straight up couldn't play. So that's definitely a risk in that particular regard. So definitely a strange offseason so far for the Warriors and your wondering what's coming next. The Rockets just had an insane weekend. Fred Van Vleet, three years, $130 million. Dylan Brooks, four years, $80 million. Jock Landale, four years, $32 million. They traded for Patty Mills.

Really quick on the Dylan Brooks thing. JJ Redick had this take where he came out and he's like, everyone said he's going to go to China. Now he signs for $80 million. And I generally agree with the sentiment of what he's trying to say, because if you guys remember right after that series, lots of Lakers fans were taking victory laps at Dylan Brooks' expense. And if you remember, I came on the show right away and I said, Dylan Brooks is a good NBA player.

He's going to sign for somebody next year and he's going to help. I just saw it more as like I thought Dylan Brooks was a textbook mid-level exception guy. I mean, he is a severely limited offensive player, 23.7% in spot-up situations in that Lakers series. He ran nine pick and rolls for just four points. In the regular season, he shot 335 pull-up jump shots, which is insane volume, but only made 33% of them. 35% on catch and shoot jumpers, 52% on the rim. Everything really high volume for a player like him. He just shoots and shoots and shoots and shoots,

even though they're generally not going in. But that said, I thought he was one of the very best perimeter defensive players in the league last year. Like literally top tier defensive player. He just night after night was taking superstar NBA players and making them look like a shell of themselves, whether it was Steph or LeBron or whoever it was that he was guarding on any given night. He was bothering people in the regular season. Now, again, those are one-night

regular season things. Obviously, we know what Steph would do to Dylan in the playoff series. We literally saw what LeBron would do to Dylan in a playoff series, but that has nothing to do with Dylan. Great offense beats great defense every day of the week. But it is a huge asset in this league to have a player that regardless of position type, you can throw on any perimeter player in the league, whether it's a guy like Steph Curry, a small guard who takes a million pull-up jump shots, or a big rim-pressuring forward like LeBron James and everything in between, having a player like that is a massive asset. And that's why I thought he'd be worth, you know,

I was thinking somewhere along the lines of like three years, $36 million, is what I was expecting for Dylan Brooks. So like, while I agree with JJ's point that like everyone was going way over the top with their criticism of Dylan Brooks after that series, I think we can all admit that four years 80 million is a lot more than we were expecting and really had a lot more to do with the Houston Rockets having a ton of cap space that they could throw around. That said, I'm really happy for Dylan Brooks.

And it's a great lesson for you young kids out there. Play some damn defense. That will get you paid. That will get you the scholarship. Stop worrying about just the things that are fun in the game of basketball. There's a whole other half of the game that is not fun, that is nasty, that requires hard work, that you have to be driven by competitiveness. And there are guys that excel at that stuff that have jobs all over the NBA,

and their great lesson for young players to learn from. As far as Fred Van Vleet and Patty Mills go, I thought this was a textbook example of Houston trying to bring grownups into the locker room. It kind of reminds me of what happened to the Phoenix Suns the year before CP3 came when they brought in a bunch of just veteran player. I think Rugi Rubio was in that group as well, where they just kind of, instead of, like,

if you want to run your basketball team like a developmental program where every player on the team is below 25 years old and they're all just kind of in their growth progressions, you're going to look like a G-League team because what you are is just a glorified G-League team full of lottery picks at that point. So, you know, you can develop young players while also being a competent professional basketball organization.

And so that was kind of the beginning of the resurgence of the Phoenix Suns that year before Chris Paul, when they just brought in real NBA role players and put them around Devin Booker rather than just leaving him with a bunch of lottery picks, right? Well, that's kind of what I see the Rock. Rockets doing now, bringing in consummate professionals like Patty Mills and Fred Van Vleet that can help teach guys like Jalen Green and Jabari Smith and Albert Sangu and how to just be professional

basketball players at the highest level, the work ethic, the way to behave on road trips and all these different things. Not that the Rockets necessarily had behavior problems, but the point is, is they kind of looked like a super, super young team last year. And so it got really sloppy on a lot of nights. And, you know, another big one is there's a lot of ups and downs in NBA basketball games, especially now with shot variants and guys getting hot and guys getting cold shooting from the field, right? And so having guys that have been there done that a million times can help prevent your young players from letting go of the rope. The Houston Rockets got blown out a lot this year because they struggled to handle runs and things along those lines. Bringing in a

veteran team gives you just more of that resilience. It'll help your younger players during their development trajectory. And again, I think you can do this while still giving Jaylin and Jabari and Shangoon all the reps that they need to improve. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Cliverts Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of Tontons and Wampas on the Ice Planet Hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of

Listen to Stuff to Bo Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Moving on to the Toronto Raptors. They signed Dennis Schroeder for two years, $26 million, and Jalen McDaniels for two years, $9.3 million. Jailen McDaniels, classic kind of like thin wing. Not really excellent at anything, but he's got good tools. He's 6'9.

Totally different type of player than that fired hydrant type of wing that I was talking about earlier, the name that I'm stealing from Pizzias. This is that long, skinny wing. And they can help in a bunch of different ways. They can help with some perimeter assignments. They can help with contested rebound situations. Obviously, the ability to shoot over the top helps. He was good crash in the offensive glass for Philadelphia last year. But they can struggle with more physical assignments, and that can be a problem in the later rounds of the NBA playoffs. But Raptors fans, I am certain that you guys are going to love Dennis Trotter. It can be a little frustrating at times. It can be a little frustrating at times with his shot selection, but overall, the full package is more than worth it.

He was actually over a point per possession in both ISO and pick and roll situations during the regular season. So that's what I mean by big picture. He's going to have some ugly plays in there where he takes some shots you don't like, but in the big picture, he's actually surprisingly efficient. In the playoffs last year, again, a three-round playoff run into the Western Conference finals, one point per possession in isolation, 0.98 pick-and-roll point per possession, which is pretty solid, a little down from his regular season numbers, but not bad. He is an excellent point of attack defender who competes his ass off. And that competitiveness part is what you guys are going to love.

He's a textbook foxhole guy. Any big game you can count on Dennis Schroeder to bring the intensity and to play his ass off every single night. I covered him very closely with the Lakers for two seasons. Yeah, he had a bad stop in Boston, but Boston is kind of a weird place with a weird locker room that already had a lot of guards. So I don't necessarily think that was the best place to evaluate him. And most importantly, I'm glad that he got a paycheck because he got the short end of a stick in a negotiation with Rob Polinka and he made a mistake, turned down guaranteed money.

They probably shouldn't have. Had to take a mid-level exception, then had to take a veteran minimum contract for the Lakers, but the payday is here now. Maybe not as much as he was hoping back in the day, but he can recoup some of his losses with a nice little $26 million contract. Again, covered him closely with the Lakers. I really think you Raptors fans are going to like him. Miami Heat, signed Thomas Bryant. He's really good offensive big. He runs the floor really well, has great hands and finishes around the rim well, and he can hit an open jump shot, but he's a really bad defensive player in a bunch of different ways.

Struggles to bother anything around the rim, can't defend and pick and roll, can't hold his ground in the post. He's going to struggle a lot of those ways. But Eric Spolstra is famous for being able to make unplayable defensive players playable for one reason or another. You saw a lot of examples of that in this postseason run, including Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love. So if he can do it with those two guys, I absolutely think he can do it with Thomas Bryant. Again, this is another guy covered very closely with the Lakers at the beginning of last year.

So decent backup center option for the Miami Heat. Josh Richardson, I loved this signing for the minimum, kind of like a Max Drews replacement. Very good point of attack defender, great athlete. Shot 41% on jump shots last year for the New Orleans Pelicans. The big thing for the heat now as we're waiting, as we're waiting is, are they going to get Damien Lillard? and if they do, that obviously monumentally changes the projections for the heat heading into next season.

How many more we got? One, two, three, four. We've got a lot more to do, guys. All right, here we go. Seth Curry to the Mavericks. This is a perfect second side creator for the stretches when Kyrie or Luca are off the floor. It's kind of one of the roster needs for them. When they're off the floor, they actually do pretty well in the regular season. But again, you make it a little bit easier when Kyrie runs a pick and roll and they do contain it for one reason or another. and you could throw it over to the other side. And instead of someone like Tim Hardaway Jr. who's capable, but not great, you have someone like Seth Curry, who's, you know, really capable of capitalizing on the defense shifting his way and attacking either through ISO or pick and roll.

He's a dead-eye shooter shot 58% effective field goal percentage on all jump shots last year, which is off the charts good. Desmond Bain signs a max contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. A lot of guys signed max contracts over the course the last few days. A lot of very rich young basketball players. everyone seemed to freak out about the Desmond Bain one in particular for whatever reason. And I really don't understand this. First of all, it's really not that much money.

It's a little over $40 million per year, which is not going to be nearly that crazy, especially when you get to the new TV deal and all the max contracts are making $60 to $70 million a year. Again, there's max at different tiers based on where you are in your career. Your years of experience, have you made an all-MBA team? It's like there's the 25% max, the 30% max, the 35-per-max, and then there's like additional escalators based on whether or not you make things like an all-N-B-A team. It's very complicated. So when you hear Max, don't just freak out. Like, for instance, Austin Reeves for the Lakers, signed the Max that he could sign for the Los Angeles Lakers, and it was what, $58 million,

or $56 million for four years. Again, it all depends on your contract situation. Here's the thing, though. I thought for Memphis in the playoff run, Desmond Bain was their best player. He was consistently generating and making great shots for himself, and he was an excellent defensive player. He damn near stole that series. Again, Lepard. Bron James made a ridiculous driving layup over the top of Jaron Jackson, basically at the buzzer to save game four of that series. It was going back to Memphis 2-2. And here's the thing.

The Lakers were the better team. And at 2-2 going to Memphis, I still would have given the Lakers about a coin-flip chance to win that series. But, you know, that's a coin-flip chance. Memphis could have stolen that series, and Desmond Bay nearly did. He's a very good basketball player. And here's the thing, guys, good basketball players cost money. I'm sorry.

We were talking about this with Jailen Brank. earlier in the summer. Like, if you want to have really good basketball players on your team, you better be willing to pay for them. How funny does that Jalen Brown max contract conversation seem now compared to some of these other contracts we've seen signed around the league? Sorry, guys, you're paying $50 million a year for a guy like Jaylon Brown. He's an all-M-Bayer.

And he's going to be an all-star every year of that contract. I guess we got up it to 17 teams because we ended up hitting the Celtics today. Moving on to the Cavs. So we talked in our last video about them signing Georgia's knee-eating as a dead-eye spot-up shooter from the forward position. Well, they got Max Truist as well. It was like four years and $60-something million. He shot 61% effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch-and-shoot jumpers last year for the heat.

So he's a dead-eye knockdown shooter when he's in wide-open situations. So they've addressed one of their two biggest needs. They brought real perimeter shooting, a playable perimeter shooting alongside their pick-and-roll attack. I just still think, and I said this during the regular season, and I think you guys got to see it a little bit against the Knicks. There's a redundancy in having two high pick-and-roll guards. And you saw that against the Knicks when they were. able to shut down the Cavs pick and roll attack. They didn't have a second punch. In general, defensively, I don't like the idea of having two small guards in your lineup as well. I know

Cavs fans love Darius Garland, but in my opinion, Evan Mobley's the future of that team. So like, I would be looking to flip Darius Garland for a star wing. Somebody along the lines of, I'd be looking at, the guy I'd be looking at as Paul George. I'd be just calling the clippers and being like, hey, you're sick of the PG and Kauai experience. You want a young star guard that you can put next to Kauai. We'll take Paul George off of your hands. that's the kind of deal that I'd be looking to make if I was the Cavs. All right, a couple of fun ones here. I did a little bit of scouting this morning.

Sasha Vezankov signs for the Sacramento Kings for three years and $20 million. You played for Olympiacos and won MVP this year. Originally, when I was watching just a little bit of footage, I saw like a big lefty going to the Kings and I'm like, oh, like a Sabonis archetype type of player. But the more I watched film of him this morning, he actually reminds me. a lot more of Yokic the way he plays. And again, with player comparisons, it's more just like play style. Obviously, he's not Nicole Yokic. There's a huge gap in footwork. Sasha's footwork is way more sloppy than Nicole Yokich, who I think has incredible footwork, but he has a lot of similarities. First of all, ridiculously good post-up player, 151 post-ups for 190 points last year,

1.26 points per possession. Just ridiculously good at beating switches, especially small guards that try to front him in the post. He just pushes down on their back, makes an easy target over the top. If you watch some footage of Sasha this year, it's just deep seal over the top pass bucket, deep seal over the top pass bucket, deep seal over the top pass bucket. Just he's deadly beating switches with deep seals and leveraging guys into positions where guards can make easy post-entry passes. He also has a deadly left shoulder fade from the left block. He shot over 58% on it. It's a little different than what you'd expect from a left shoulder fade from a typical like big, you know, scoring wing. It's not an overly athletic move.

Like he's not elevating over the top. It's quick. A lot of times he just goes off of one leg. But he just kind of works you into the post with that right hand until he gets to the angle that he wants. And then he just quick leans and turns over his left shoulder and shoots that little left shoulder fade. Deadly with it, which is a really good go-to move in a situation where the defense is taking away the easy stuff. Also an excellent passer to cutters and shooters. they averaged 1.36 points per possession when he passed out of the post, 1.24 points per possession

against hard double teams. All awesome. He ran some inverted pick and roll, 21 of them, to be exact, for 25 points last season. A little bit of everything, some driving layups, long pull-up threes off the dribble, hitting the open man when defense has warped to specific, you know, like to the guy rolling to the basket, whatever it is. He's also great in the short roll. 40% on catch-and-shoe jumpers, so he's a reliable jump shooter. 24 pull-up jump shots that he made last year, 34%, so a little bit less efficient, low volume, but there's some stuff there. 51% on floaters and 50% on hooks, so super efficient for those shots. Yokic just kind of breaks the curve because he happens to shoot in the mid-60s on those,

but over 50% on both of those is excellent for a post-player, and then 75% at the rim. Again, he doesn't play exactly like Yokic, but there are some similarities there in his approach. I ain't really curious to see how he fits next to DeMontos de Bonas, though, because they do play a very similar position, and I don't think you necessarily are going to be able to play the two of them together a lot. But I do think he can fill into that role seamlessly, especially in that dribble handoff attack with Deer and Fox and Malik Monk. Excuse me. So for Sasha Vizankov, and I hope I'm pronouncing that right, really, really interesting move and a really good player. I enjoyed scouting in this morning. The Thunder, Vasilogy. Again, I'm probably butchering that,

and I'm sorry, but Michich is his name. Signs for the Thunder. for three years, $23.5 million. Played for a team called Anadalu, Fis, I believe in Turkey, if I remember correctly. Really good size for Guarded. That's 6'5. Moves pretty well laterally. Not a lot of vertical pop. He had one dunk all season, and it was like rim grazer over the top and struggled

a little bit to finish at the rim, only 62%. But moves laterally pretty well, can get to his spots when he needs to, and actually kind of has like a good physical profile. just an absolute pick and roll maestro. I was having so much fun watching this kid in pick and roll today. I say he's a kid. He's 29 years old. He's grown-ass man.

But he was 1.21 points per possession in pick and roll, which is off the chart's good. Remember, most guys are just a little over one point per possession, like 1.05 for like a league average guy. Starts with a deadly pull-up jump shot. He shot 53.4% effective field goal percentage on pull-up jumpers. Gets really good lift in hunts pull-up threes and pick-and-rolls when the guard dies on the screen and the big is too far back. That consistently pulls that screen defender up, which just wrecks havoc for his passing ability because of his ability to hit the roll man consistently. Also, it was a deadly jump shooter in general, 41% on all jumpers, 58% when you wait for three,

62% at the rim. So another really interesting pick and roll shot creator for a Thunder team that already has three good ones in Jalen Williams and Josh Kitty and Shaggildes Alexander. So just the Thunder are going to be one of the most fun teams in the league to watch next year, no question. Brooke Lopez stays in Milwaukee for two years, $48 million. There was some suspicion whether or not he'd go to Houston or maybe signed for an MLE for a team like the Lakers or the Warriors. Nope, he stays in Milwaukee. Continuity wins in the NBA. We talked about this the last couple of season. We've seen consistently teams that run it back be rewarded with opportunities to compete for an NBA championship. The Bucks went that route this summer and I like it. Brought back Chris Middleton,

brought back Brooke Lopez. Yannis is going to be the one that's going to have to pull them over the top by making his improvements in his particular weaknesses. All right, we have four more teams. Patrick Beverly signs with the Philadelphia 76ers on a minimum contract. Excellent point of attack defender when he's defending smaller guards, guys that are underneath 6'4 that operate mostly from the perimeter. He is much worse than his reputation when it comes to guarding bigger, stronger players. All that stuff about using him to guard on the wing.

That is, that bared out horribly for the Lakers last year. he's just too small. It's really that simple. Like, I'll give you an example. Like, you put him against, I'm blanking on his name, the kid who just signed, a Tyrus Allberton, who just signed the massive contract for the Pacers. Like, Pat Beverly just ate that kid's lunch. Time and time again in crunch time,

just picked him up full court, was picking him clean, bothering his dribble because he doesn't have to worry as much about a size discrepancy there. But then, like, he tried to pick up Josh Giddy full court and was just barbecue chicken because Josh Giddy could just pin him on one side and go around him because he's too damn big at six foot eight so again defensively still a very very good point of attack defender against smaller players not so much against bigger players on the offensive

end for the lakers and really before that as well but he just tries to do too much he just he kind of has an elevated sense of what he's capable of so he's constantly putting the ball on the floor trying to make plays a little slow to make read so he can actually stilt an offense when the ball's popping around it ends up in patrick geofferly's hands he'll catch and look at the rim take a jab step and look at the rim and then rip through and it just kind of slows down the overall rhythm and flow of the offense. He also only shot 34% on catch and shoot jumpers last year. He was 19 for 62, which is 31% when he was unguarded last year. It was a big problem for the Lakers, just Patrick Beverly missing wide open shots.

That said, he did shoot much better for Minnesota the year before. So a big part of this is, are they going to give them the right type of defensive assignments, particularly at the point of attack, which is a need for the Sixers. They need someone who can play that position. and is he going to knock down shots? That's going to be the big key for that particular signing. Russell Westbrook to the clippers for two years, $8 million. Love Russell Westbrook on this type of deal for this type of team that really needs what he brings to the table. Best defensive run I've seen from him in literally like a half decade, probably even more, maybe even his entire career in that playoff

series against the Suns. If he defends like that, he's a huge positive player. On the offensive end, because that team so badly needs someone that can generate rim pressure for their two forwards that just take a ton of pull-up jumpers, he actually brings a great deal of value. So I actually really like the Russell Westbrook fit with the clippers. Dante Divencenzo to the Knicks for four years, $50 million. He's a great point of attack defender, in my opinion. He's a great rebounder for a guard. Really sneaky on the offensive glass.

He's always sneaking behind and trying to get the ball up top or swipe it away from the big after he gets the rebound. He shot 43% on catch-and-shoot jumpers, 48% when he was wide open. He's a really good NBA player. That feels a very important role as a point of attack guy that can play off the ball. He's not going to do much for you on the ball, but off the ball, he can help a lot. He's a good NBA player.

He's going to help the Knicks. Last minute, at least, Justin Holliday to the Nuggets. Good size, 6 foot 6, but he's very thin, very different type of player than Bruce Brown. Now that specific role, they want someone to bring the ball up the floor when they don't feel like playing Reggie Jackson or Bones Highland in the previous iterations. And they'll have this guard, bring the ball up the floor, and just kind of make the entry to Nicola Yo Kits and then go spot up. And there's no doubt that Justin Holliday can do that, but there's also no doubt that it's a downgrade from Bruce Brown. This is what happens when you win

NBA championships. Your role players that contributed at a high level end up getting big fat paychecks elsewhere, and you end up having to downgrade at certain positions. And I don't think it's enough to make it so that Denver can't overcome it. They're still going to be my championship favorite going into next season. But this is that first little crack in the armor is going from Bruce Brown to Justin Holiday, going from a really, really good role player to just a solid role player and kind of a journeyman around the league in Justin Holiday. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Like I said, we're going to have a deep breakdown of the Los Angeles Lakers postseason probably tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. And then we have some other plans for the rest of

this week. And then, man, a really fun weekend planned in Vegas and flying in on Friday. I plan on going to that first Victor Women Yama game. I think it starts at like 6 o'clock local time. So if you guys are in the arena, feel free to come say hi. And then I get back the following Monday and then I go on vacation for a little while. So we're going to have some more free agent and trade coverage and a lot of coverage of the, I love scouting players. So we're going to do a lot of scouting surrounding Summer League as well. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys and I'll see you tomorrow.

The Volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer. Street or Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

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