The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Mailbag: Warriors Path Forward, Best Moves For Lakers, Nuggets Losing KCP

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Jason Timpf answers a range of listener questions from the mailbag! He charts the best path forward for Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors and whether Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets can overcome the loss of Kentavius Caldwall-Pope. He assess the ceiling for an upstart Orlando Magic team, whether Jayson Tatum and the Celtics will be buried under the weight of so many big contracts and more! 5:30 - Should Warriors have bent to Klay’s requests 8:00 - Warriors’ path forward 13:00 - Lakers best possible trades/signings 17:00 - Will Celtics contracts hamper them? 21:00 - Thoughts on Flagstaff, Arizona 27:30 - Good minimum signings for Mavericks? 31:30 - Ceiling for the Orlando Magic 33:00 - Nuggets losing KCP 36:00 - Could OKC win 2-3 titles in next 6 years? 38:00 - Eastern conference power rankings 40:00 - New CBA 42:15 - Favorite Star Wars character 44:00 - Becoming a better ballhandler (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #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 IHard 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, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but the show. celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me.

84's big to me. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume.

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As promised, we're getting to our mailbag today. I sent out a tweet this morning and you guys left a bunch of questions in there, a bunch of good ones. Obviously, we can't get to all of them, but we're going to get to a bunch of them. We're going to talk about some Warriors where they go from here, some Lakers, offseason stuff. We're going to talk about what's going on with the Denver Nuggets and them not having done anything. We're going to talk about what Jason Tatum needs to do to be revered as the best player in the world. Are the Orlando Magic poised for a leap? There's literally tons and tons of stuff that we're going to get to today.

As always, I appreciate you guys for participating in the mailbag. we're going to get to as many as we can. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight 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 show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed

wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mailback questions and the YouTube comments, so we keep getting them throughout the rest of the summer. And then quickly before we get started, just to give you guys an update on the schedule, we were trying to take the rest of this weekend off to give our team a little break over the holiday.

Obviously, if any sort of significant trade or massive signing comes through, I will stop and get an instant reaction video out there. But unless something crazy happens, we will be done after this video until next Monday, just to give you guys a scheduling note. All right, let's talk some basketball. So first question,

do you think the Warriors should have bent to what Clay requested from them? Assuming it's difficult, but I doubt it's super difficult. They pay the player what they think the player can contribute to the future, but they shouldn't pay more to what they have done. So this is an interesting kind of dynamic with the Clay Thompson deal. It's like, did the Warriors owe something? to Clay. Now, most of this has to do with timing, like even just the difference between when Dremont renegotiate his deal versus Clay is massive. And first of all, a couple different things.

I think Dremont's a better player right now than Clay is. Because Dremont is still one of the best defensive players in the world. Clay has taken steps back on both ends of the floor, right? But even then, even if we remove that context, Dremont's deal was negotiated at a time when the Warriors felt closer. They missed the playoffs this. year. Out of 15 teams in the Western Conference, they were in the bottom five. They allowed 10 teams in and they didn't even make that list. In addition to that, Steph had a rough end of the season. For roughly the last third of the season, he didn't look like himself. He looked like a shell of himself. And now,

I think there's some context there. There's fatigue, wear and tear. I think he was a little banged up. I personally think Steph's going to come into next season kind of on a little bit of a revenge tour. And I think Steph is going to look a lot like the old Steph next season. But at the same time, the ownership group in the front office, I think they view that as kind of like a risk element there. Then in addition to that, when you look at Clay Thompson in terms of loyalty, if I'm the Warriors, I'm saying, well, you know, remember when you got hurt and we paid you max dollars two years to basically rehab a back-to-back injuries, right? Like, the Warriors extended him a massive olive branch and a massive demonstration of loyalty when he

tours ACL after the 2019 finals. And so again, like, I don't necessarily think loyalty plays much of a role here. I think it was just an honest evaluation of the situation. I think the Golden State Front Office and Ownership Group does not think they're close enough. And I think their moves have demonstrated that. Letting Clay go for nothing, letting Chris Paul go for nothing, not using his salary, you know, turning down some sort of fringe aggressive deals. I think that I think that's an indicator of what the Warriors front office is telling us. They're telling us that they don't think this team is particularly close. And if they did, I think that we should, we would see more aggression from them. We have some more warriors. Actually, we'll get to this next warrior's question first,

and then we'll go back. What is the realistic warriors path forward? They effectively lost pool and clay for nothing, plus more considering they gave pool plus assets to get Chris Paul. Marketing is the only realistic obtainable improvement, but is there enough trust in Steph and Dre to make one more run? So here's the thing. Even if they don't do anything, you still have some high quality starters. high quality starters, in my opinion. Steph and Draymond, I think DeAnthony Melton's a high quality starter. If he's healthy, I think Warriors fans are going to love that guy. I think he helps in a ton of different ways.

I'm a believer, right? Andrew Wiggins, I view as a high quality starter. Obviously, he's had his lumps over the last couple of years, but it's, you know, he's one of those guys where, like, you start talking about Andrew Wiggins' trades, and then the players that come back in a deal like that are going to have some flaws of their own, right? So you still have four high quality starters, right? So like let's say that they do just slide comminga in there and they just rock with that five and they start the season 32 and 22.

Like they just get off to a good start, right? In that case, then I think you could potentially convince the Warriors front office to make a more aggressive deal at the deadline. And to be clear, there's not a lot of great options right now. You want to trade for Jeremy Grant? Well, there's a little bit of a, you know, Jeremy Grant's a guy that like over the last few years has wanted to play. in smaller markets under low pressure and put up scoring numbers. The Warriors are going to need him to score the basketball, but they're also going to need him to do a lot of dirty work

and buy into a five-out system as more of a cog, right? Like, is that a great basketball fit? I have the same concerns about Jeremy Grant for the Lakers. Like, I think it could work great, but I also think it could work poorly. Like, there's real risk there. Jeremy Grant's a risky pick. Brandon Ingram, kind of a funky basketball player that's tough to plug and play because he needs to have the ball in his hands and he's a mid-range pull-up shooter.

What about, you know, what about Zach Levine? Well, all of the injury issues and his massive contract that he has moving forward. Like, right now, the options don't look great. But we don't know what the options are going to look like in February. And so honestly, like the most realistic Warriors path forward is they nailed the MLE signing, in my opinion, for, okay, so let's take a look at the bigger picture. You release Chris Paul, you let go with Clay Thompson. Those pull you out of that second apron back into the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

that opened the door for you to go sign the Anthony Melton. Now, is that the best option? No, obviously the best option would have been re-sign Clay Thompson, try to trade Chris Paul's contract for a star of some kind out there, a higher-powered player out there of some kind, and you include commingas the asset or draft compensation, whatever it is. Obviously, that's the most aggressive move, but that's really over-extending yourself with a lot of associated risk, right? So the Warriors took a low-risk, low-expense move. They got out of the, second apron, they get down into that non-taxpayer mid-level exception range where they could get De Anthony Melton a high-level starter, in my opinion, when he's healthy. The market on De Anthony Melton is low because he got hurt last year.

But I look at DeAnthony Melton as kind of like a rough approximation of Contavius Caldwell Pope. He's a similar type of do-everything rock-solid NBA starter at the two-guard position. So you've got Stefan and DeAnthony. It's a really good one, too. Andrew Wiggins-Dremon-Green, 3-4-35, whatever you want to call it. you've got your kind of starting foundation there. You go into next season. If Steph plays like a superstar, if De Anthony Melton is healthy,

if those guys just have a good camp and Jonathan Camiga gets a little better year over year, you go into the season, then maybe you can reinvigorate the front office into believing in Steph Curry and Draymond Green as a championship potential core again. But like, I don't think we're going to get a super aggressive Golden State move this summer. It just doesn't seem like it's on the table. maybe I'm wrong. I'm hoping they do. I want Golden State to be aggressive. I just don't love any of the

options out there right now. I don't think they can afford Lori Marketing. Maybe they can. We'll see, but like judging on the McHale Bridges deal, which is a similar type of deal, I don't know. And then also like, you set trade for marketing. You have to immediately extend him to a long term max, probably in the department of four years and 160 million dollars. So like, there's just a lot that goes into an aggressive move right now. So I kind of understand it. But at the same time, like I'd hate to see Steph go down with a mediocre team. And so from that standpoint, I'd like to see them eventually do something aggressive, but this just feels more like a deadline type of move. And here's the thing, if you go into next season and Steph looks like the same player he did at the end of last year, which is like a guy

that's below the superstar tier, if he looks like that, then that's kind of the writing on the wall anyway for where this whole dynasty was going to begin with, right? So like, I think that that's the route that's most realistic for that front office. It's what I expect. It's not necessarily what I prefer, but I think it's the direction we're going to see them go. And most of that, the all-in type of deal is more just me thinking like a basketball fan, because I want to see Steph Curry compete for championships because he's one of my favorite players ever, right? Like, that's just a basketball fan opinion. Like, in terms of the actual logistical realities of doing that as a front office, it's just complicated. What is the Lakers

best move from here after missing out on their plan A options? And can they still do enough to have a chance at a title this year, possible trades, signies? So I want to start with the DeMar de Rosen kind of rumors that are going around there. And I'm kind of skeptical about him to begin with because this is not the first time Demar de Rosen is hinted at potentially taking a pay cut to go to the Los Angeles Lakers. I also have heard from Adrian Wojanozinski. He went on TV yesterday and said that LeBron's probably going to take the full max now, which if he does, takes the Lakers out of the non-tax taxpayer mid-level and puts them in the regular taxpayer mid-level, which is a smaller deal, which would make it even less likely for them to get DeRosen. So I don't necessarily think that's realistic. I also don't love the DeRosen. fit. To me, DeRosen presents a lot of the similar issues for that backcourt that Austin and DeAngelo-Russell presented. It's like a pull-up shooter score type who, now, DeRosen and DeLoe are very different players, but like the gap between Demar DeRosen and DeAngelo Russell is not that big in terms of their playoff impact. Like, they're two guys that struggle in the playoffs.

There are two guys that are like skill guards that are good playmakers that, like, DeRoson's more of a pull-up mid-range shooter. You know, Dilo's more of like an aggressive three-point shooter, but they're both good playmakers. They've got like some similarities there, but they're similar in redundancy in the sense that like, if Austin's going to be your point, the two has to be a freaky athletic defensive-minded guard. Like that's just like the only star guard that I liked next to Austin Reeves, I know there was talk about Donovan Mitchell. I just didn't view him as a realistic option. The only guy that I liked there was Dejante Murray because he brought real athletic traits, real defensive capability, even if he hasn't been that since leaving the Spurs, while

also bringing some offensive upside. DeJante was the guy that I thought made sense as a star guard at the two next to Austin. I would have viewed Demarder Rosen as just another redundancy there. So from there, if you're going to get a high-powered option, I still think I lean towards Jeremy Grant as a target at the three. I think that an influx of offensive firepower would be helpful for the Lakers. I think that Jeremy Grant, it kind of brings a layer of athleticism to that front line with him, LeBron and Anthony Davis. That could be really imposing. I like that fit a lot. I just am not sure if they're going to be able to get him. In the event that they can't get Jeremy Grant, that's where I would lean back on your role player types. A guy like Bruce Brown at the two is

someone I'd really like. A guy like Dorian Finney Smith at the three is a guy that I'd really like. But no matter what, I think if you get Jeremy Grant, you can get away with playing a Max Christie at the two or get away with playing a skill guard like maybe even a Gabe Vincent at the two. but if you, I think if you don't have that star power, and Jeremy Grant's not really a star, but he's like, he's a fringe star. Like, he's a guy who can get you 20, 20 points in any given night, right? Like, that's kind of what I'm getting at there.

Like, Jeremy Grant's basically like a way better version of Rui Hachemura, in my opinion. But like, you get Jeremy Grant, there's a firepower element that would kind of counteract a lesser two. But if you don't get a guy with that kind of firepower, I think you need to upgrade the two and the three. And so that's why I'd look at it at like two separate deals. for Bruce Brown or for Dorian Finney Smith.

In terms of the center position, I view that is important as well, especially within the context of what are you going to do with Anthony Davis when he has to miss 10 games here or there. That sort of thing, I think a center is important. But I view that is less important than the guards in the sense that you're not winning the title unless Anthony Davis stays healthy anyway,

because you can't crawl down from the seven seed to win the, crawl up from the seven seed to win the title. It's just too difficult. I think that it's the version of this story where the Lakers win the title is they start the season really well and healthy, and they have all hands on deck, and then you're going down with AD at the five next to LeBron. You're not going down with AD at the four. So, like, again, I think the backup

center position is important. I just think it's less important than upgrades at the two and at the three. What do you make of the large contract extensions that the Celtics have been handing out? Do you think that exceeding the salary cap by so much will come back to bite them? Do you see other owners following in the footsteps of Wick Grusbeck? I'm going to tail in a set, like kind of put a second question on top of this. Do you think the Boston Celtics will keep their starting five going into 2025, 2026 when all the extensions kick in. They are projected to pay 500 million in luxury tax that year because of the second apron rules. I think Porzingis might be in another team that year personally. So let's start with the kind of looking forward piece. As we heard,

the Celtics are looking to trade, or to sell trade. They're looking to sell the Celtics with the finalization around the year 2028. What that means is the new, the new owner, ownership group groups that are going to be considering purchasing the Boston Celtics are going to be groups that have an enormous amount of money. They have to be because you're buying that team under the impression you're going to pay a massive luxury tax bill off the top, right? That goes without saying. That's like that's kind of a prerequisite. So like you're not going to, like, there's not going to be anybody that's going to be hesitant to pay that kind of money that's going to take over ownership of the Celtics. In addition to that, they know that that comes hand in hand

with championship contention. The Celtics are a substantial favor to win the title next year. I think they will be again the following year. So like at least two years here, you're looking at a team that's the championship favorite. Like there's like a, I would say there's roughly a 50% chance that the Celtics get one of the next two. That is a really, really high percentage chance of getting an NBA title. So it's like basically an ownership group can purchase the ability to most likely win an NBA title. That's, that is, that's an exciting proposition for any sort of ownership group. As far as the stuff goes with the second apron. All it really affects is your flexibility,

not your ability to retain players. As long as you're willing to pay, you can keep those guys together. You just can't, all of those restrictions have to do with tweaking the roster. And so I actually tweeted this last night, and I mean it sincerely, if you're going to be a second apron team,

it's for these five guys. It's for Derek White, Drew Holiday, Tatum Brown, and Porzingas. Now, if Porzinger continues to get hurt and it just becomes an obvious, you know, kind of like liability in the sense that you're paying tons and tons of money for a guy who's just consistently unavailable, then yeah, they might look to move Porzingis to try to get a less expensive, you know, more reliable in terms of health center option. But like, again, it's about flexibility. Like, do you want to be in the second

apron as the Golden State Warriors with Stefan Clay and Draymond? And like with all that money on the books and the potential to have to pay, you know, Jonathan Caminga in the future? Obviously not, which is why they made the moves they made to get out of that second apron. Why? Because they're looking at it like, we're going to need to make substantial roster tweaks in the coming years. Doing that out of the second apron is damn near impossible. This is our way to get out of that situation. Boston, they have like literally the perfect starting five. So for them, they're not in a position where they're going to have to make substantial tweaks. And as long as you have those guys together at the top,

like Porzingis is like, Derek White, Drew Holiday, Tatum, and Brown, they all clearly have several years left and they all complement each other so well. Like, that's just such a clean fit. It's just that center position that's going to be tricky and they have a couple years to figure it out what they want to do, what direction they want to go there.

But yeah, like as far as going into the second apron, you just can't go into the second apron unless you know your five. So let's take the thunder, for example. Let's say the thunder become a second apron team. If they're a second apron team, but they've got Shea, Jalen Williams, Lou Dort, or Case on Walls, whoever it is that ends up filling that position in the long run, Chet, and let's say that they end up getting some board in the long run, where it's like a cleanly fitting, obviously, like easily mixed five players that fills all the needs of a

basketball team, then it's like, who cares? We can work on the margins with the bench. We've got our five. You know, they're all on the same time. timeline that's what I think we're going to see. I think teams that enter into the second apron are going to be teams that legitimately have sustainability with their core five guys into the future. The Celtics have $5.30 million players that all play positions that kind of coalesce nicely into a five-man unit, so it makes perfect sense. Hey Jason, nice snowball hoodie. How do you like Flagstaff? It's beautiful. I love it here. So Flagstaff is about four hours up the road from Tucson. and my wife and I go there usually two or three times a year.

It's our favorite place for day trips to go skiing because we'll wake up at like 4 a.m. hit a McDonald's outside of Phoenix on the way up to town, get some, you know, McGrittles. It's kind of a little tradition for my wife and I. And then we book it up to the mountain. And it's always beautiful because the sun is always rising just as you're kind of coming through that valley up into Sedona and Flagstaff.

And for those of you guys who don't know what Flagstaff is, Flagstaff is a old volcanic area in northern Arizona, kind of near where the Grand Canyon is. But it's really cool because most of the mountain ranges in Tucson are like typical tectonic activity. I say Tucson. In Arizona, they're like typical tectonic activity. These are volcanic mounds in Flagstaff. So they're like the, they look like, you know, they look like the volcanoes you see in the cascade arc, right? like they're like Mount Rainier or you know Mount Baker or Mount Shasta that kind of thing they just look

like giant like cones right and so as you like kind of come down uh into that valley right before Flagstaff you look out in the distance and it's like kind of flat everywhere except for you just see these giant like 12 13,000 foot peaks well they have this really nice like state of the art a state of the art for a small facility I should say ski facility there they got taken over by a large ownership group of a few years back and So it's like for a single day where we can leave at 4 a.m. and be back by 8.30, we can get like a legit day of skiing in. And my wife and I will typically go up on like a weekday on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday

when there's just nobody on the mountain and we just cruise because it's a little bit on the small side. It's not the biggest ski resort in the world. But they've got really high quality skiing conveniently located next to us. We usually do multiple like destination trips where we'll go to like Park City or like Tahoe or to Breckenridge or something like that. and then we'll have like several day trips where we go up to Flagstaff. But Flagstaff has always been a kind of a special place for me and my friends and my family.

My favorite restaurant there is Pizicoleta. They have a really good pizza and beer. We stop in town usually at the end of the day and get drinks there. Sometimes we'll stay there for multiple days. But it's kind of a get away from the heat to being from Tucson. Preparing for your upcoming fantasy football draft, do you wish that you could wave a magic wand and somehow know who exactly your league mates are going to take? Well, with Draft Intel from Fantasy Pros, you'll know exactly how your league made's draft

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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 Clifford show on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan, Ryan, Korn, and I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough.

Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels. of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. Hey Jason, Big Navs fan here. Are there any minimum signings out there that could move the needle for them defensively the way that Derek Jones Jr. did? I was thinking Dennis Smith Jr., if not schematically, how do you think the Mavs can orient their offense to compete with the likes

of Oklahoma City in Boston. I did a massive deep dive into the Dallas offense and what I expected to look like in the future in yesterday's show. So make sure you guys get to a little bit further back in my feed yesterday when we were breaking down the Clay Thompson signing. I went into excruciating detail on the offensive fit. So you guys can find that stuff there. Other kind of like two-way wings that they can look at

that I looked at in the free agent market for like veteran minimum type of guys, Alec Berks, Caleb Martin, Gary Trent Jr., Dennis Smith Jr. Some of those guys might end up getting MLEs at other places, but they're at least potential veteran minimum guys, and there are guys that they can keep an eye on. What's your favorite PRS model? I think the Silver Sky, the Paul Reed Smith makes guitars. I think that the Silver Sky is my favorite model in terms of it's just the easiest to pick up and play. It's basically their version of a Fender Stratocaster. It's their signature model for John Mayer. But I think my favorite one that I own is probably my hollow body two piezzo. It's that purple one that you've seen behind me sometimes.

That one just has like a lot of versatility because it can do acoustic guitar stuff and it can do electric guitar stuff. And the 5815 humbuckers that they have on that guitar just sound absolutely beautiful. So that one I'm going to say is my favorite overall, but easiest to play, easiest to pick up and play in terms of like the tactile nature of it, I'd go with the Silver Sky. What's the ceiling on this magic team for the upcoming season? Could we see an OKC 2023, 2024 type leap. So looking at their offseason, they upgraded Gary Harris to Contavius Caldwell Pope while also resigning Gary Harris. They brought back Gogh Bataze. They brought back Mo Wagner this morning. So they're basically running it back with an upgrade of a starting spot. I have to look at their draft picks.

I mean, I didn't even take a look at that before. I pulled this up. But the East in general is going to be better next year. So even though I expect Orlando to be better, I still kind of think they're going to be right in that four or five slot again. And I think they're probably going to lose in the first round to one of Philly, Milwaukee, or New York. I think those are the clear top four, right? Boston, Philly, Milwaukee, New York, in some order with Boston at number one. I don't think Orlando's ready to leap into that group yet this year. That said, I think they're going to be a huge pain in the ass. I think they're going to win a lot of regular season games. I think they're going to be right up there in the mix, but I just, I think they're still quite a ways away. They need so much

improvement in offensive skill. And Contavius' Cawalwell Pope is going to really help as just a better version of Gary Harris, but I still think that that doesn't alleviate the main concern, which is there's just not enough perimeter shooting ability in their starting lineup. Now, if Franz Wagner and Palo Boncaro both take substantial leaps as shooters, then we can have another conversation. It's just hard to believe at this point. You always said you'd be skeptical of the nuggets if they lost any of their starting five. So with KCP gone, do you see a path of their starting lineup being just as good next

year with Christian Brown, although it would be different stylistically? also does Rust to Denver move you. So here's the thing. To put it very simply, the nuggets are worse than they were last year. And last year they weren't good enough. Now, I think they were better than they looked last year.

I think KCP and Jamal Murray were both a little banged up by the time they even got into the Minnesota series and that ended up being one of their main areas of underperforming in that series. But despite all that, they were up 20 in the second half of Game 7. So, like, I'm of the opinion that like,

yeah, losing KCP, them worse. Yeah, them being banged up played a role last year. Yeah, they're a little bit vulnerable to specific matchups. But like, I still think gun to my head if I had to pick one team to be my favorite in the Western Conference next year, even with Christian Brown sliding into that starting two spot, I think I still lean Denver. I just, I think Yokic is the best player in the world. I think they're going to come into next season, angry and motivated. Their margin for error is smaller. If they win the title next year, it'll be much harder than when they won in 2023. But I think writing them off is foolish. And they have some time. They have some time

to figure some things out. My guess is that in the long run, this ends with them trying to flip Michael Porter Jr. into two quality starters at some point in the future. But that Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Nicole Yokich, core is still one of the best three-man cores in the league. And I think it'd be foolish to write them off. Does Russ to Denver move you? I, here's the thing. I've gotten in a lot of trouble with Russell Westbrook fans. As a basketball fan, I loved watching Russell Westbrook when he when he was in his prime. But as he declined out of his prime, he became, in my opinion, one of the most unlikable players in the NBA, the amount of stupid stuff that he does and the mistakes that he makes. All I'm going to say is that somebody covered him closely with the Lakers and now the Clippers

don't want him either. Like, Denver, do not make this mistake. Like, this is, it'd be really interesting, too, because LeBron made the same mistake. Yokich is about to make, apparently all the intel is Yokic is kind of pushing for that behind the scenes. Like there's some elements that you like, right? Like he gives you an athletic guard to put on the floor. He's a guy that brings dribble penetration, which is something that as we all know, Denver lacked last year. But just there's got to be a better option than Russell Westbrook.

Russell Westbrook, it's just, trust me, guys, for every good play he makes, he'll make at least one bad play. And in the aggregate is going to be something that has a negative impact on the team. How big are you on the Grizzlies going into next season? What moves do you think they need to look at in the offseason? Cheers from India. Thanks for supporting the show. I'm really high on the Grizzlies.

It's hard to say where they match up with the top teams in the league, because it's just been so long since we've seen them all put together and playing that I want to see a larger sample size before we start ranking them. But here's the thing. Gigi Jackson and Zach Eadie add a bunch of athleticism on the wing and size on the front line. They're going to have big looks. They're going to have small looks. John Morant played like just a few games last year and looked like,

one of the best players in the world. So, like, I think they're going to be right there in the top of the conference next year, in the top four seeds. We'll see what they amount to as a playoff team, but I'm a huge believer in Memphis, and I would be stunned if they didn't have a dominant regular season this year. And if they didn't, it would probably be related to health. I think Oklahoma City could have two to three championships in the next six years. They're a well-organized franchise, and they are for me,

the top three best team in the league right now behind Denver and the Celtics, do you agree? I do. I don't quite have them up on Denver's level yet, but I think they're clearly the second best team in the West. And right now I'd take them over any Eastern Conference team not named Boston. I originally I thought there was Denver Boston and then a gap. I think a couple teams are going to enter into that tier this year. But Oklahoma City is definitely one of them. And right now, before we see all this shakeout, because I want to see who Philly ends up rounding out their

roster with. Like, I want to see if the Lakers end up making some sort of trade. Like, there's a bunch of stuff that I want to see. But for right now, without having seen the rest of the player movement, Oklahoma City to me is the third best team in the league. Hey Jason, love the pod. How big of a deal is Denver losing KCP? With OKC adding Hartinstein, are they now the clear favorites in the West? As I talked about earlier, I still think I leaned slightly towards Denver. But that said, Oklahoma City adding Hartnstein gives them more resiliency against Denver. I would have given Oklahoma City a 0% chance to beat Denver in a playoff series last year.

This year I give them a substantial chance, even though I'd pick Denver. So that to me is a significant move in that direction. If Tatum were to become a good to great half-court shot creator, would he be in the conversation for best player in the world? That's really the difference. He does everything else so well. He just has to get a, like, I don't think playmaking is the weakness for him. It's his shot making ability.

He just has to become a guy who can be a 60% true shooting, 30 point per game guy, consistently in the playoffs in order to justify being in that conversation. There's just been too much inconsistency on that end of the floor. Again, to put it simply, like, is Tatum as good a half-court surgeon as Shay Gilles Alexander? No. Not really close. Is Shea gives us Alexander as good a half-court shot creator as like the Luca Yokic tier? No, not really close. So like I almost look at Tatum as like a third tier half-court shot creator. And so like from that standpoint, like I still think he's got a ways to go to enter into those best player in the world conversations. What do you see the

power rankings in the East being? And do you see the redistribution of talent has made it a strong enough conference that Boston would now be equally or less likely than Philly or the Nix to make it to the finals. Still think Boston's a clear favorite. I think they're clearly number one. I think they're clearly better than the next group. Knicks, Sixers, Bucks. It all depends on what Milwaukee and Philly accomplished over the next couple of months. But for right now, it's all up in the air for me. I'd probably go Nix 2, Philly 3, Milwaukee 4 just because of some of the health questions surrounding Philly. But Boston's a clear number one and we'll settle that out when we get into the end of the summer and we do our contender rankings.

What do you think will be the next unexpected star to get traded because his team decides to throw in the towel to go into full rebuilding mode? The four guys I wrote down were James Hardin, Brandon Ingram, Jimmy Butler, and Trey Young. Those are the guys that I think in the next 12 months could become available for trade. Hardin's on a discounted deal now, like an affordable deal, 35 million. It's a lot of money, but it's not an absurd amount of money, and it's only a two-year contract. And if Kauai gets hurt again, I just think if you're the clippers, you trade Hardin as part a rebuild. Brandon Ingram is the odd man out, the weird fit in New Orleans so I could see him

getting moved. Jimmy Butler kind of feels like the end of the window. We're going to talk about him in just a minute. And then Trey Young, you know, like if Atlanta just decides that they want to move into a full rebuild, that's the guy that's obviously going to go. Thoughts on the Miami Heat consistently deciding to run it back year after year instead of improving. At what point do we need to call out Pat Riley? I've called up Pat Riley every summer for the same problem. And the main issue here is now it doesn't even make sense to go all in. Last summer was the last summer was the last Last summer where it made any sense, or last deadline, was the last time it made any sense. They didn't get it done.

Now at this point, it feels like Jimmy's starting to kind of tail off a little bit. Bam, that doesn't seem like there's much more of a ceiling there than what we've seen. So, like, at this point, it doesn't even make sense, and I think the window might be closed. And so it is what it is. There was an opportunity to be aggressive there. Pat Riley never jumped on it, and I feel bad for Miami Heat fans. Jason, what do you make of the CBA? Are there anythings you wish to see improved?

And what do you make of the cap aprons? My only issue with it is, like, I think that those restrictions, you know, restrictions need to be reconfigured to player movement rather than the draft. So for instance, like, I don't think you should have to pay the price for drafting a bunch of good players and having to pay them all. But yeah, if you want to go out into the open market and trade for players or sign players in free agency, there should be punishments for just overspending, right, just to try to level the playing field. But like, it's stupid to me that a team could just draft extremely well and end up, uh,

end up getting squeezed out of retaining talent. Now, there's caveats there. What about traded draft picks, right? Like Oklahoma City has a million first-round draft picks. So, of course, they have a bunch of really good players, right? Well, there's an easy fix there. You just make it for your own draft picks. Like, if you draft a pick with your original team's actual pick that belongs to you originally,

then that player should not count towards those sorts of cap exceptions. Essentially, like, imagine it as like a spending budget outside of your own draft picks. That would be the way that I would look at. it. But right now it just, it seems like it was really heavily geared towards the teams that were big spenders, but those teams weren't even the best teams in the league. Really, they just had giant payrolls. And like, I mean, the teams that had to get out of it, the Clippers and the Warriors, how much of a threat were they this season? They won two playoff games combined between the two of them, right? So like, it's one of those things where like, I think it was kind of like

a reactionary thing to some large payrolls, but it doesn't really serve the purpose of creating fairness around the league. What is, do you see as the next step in Derek lively's development, is adding the three-point shot realistic. I think it's less about the three-point shot, even though I do think that Derek Lively has that capability. It's more about just becoming the quintessential five-out fulcrum. I think Dallas is going to shift to more five-out movement next year. I talked about it a lot in yesterday's show,

and there's going to be a lot of pressure on Derek Lively to be a decision-maker and a playmaker in that role. And there was a report I saw this morning from Tim McMahon that they're leaning towards putting Derek Lively full-time into the starting lineup, which is another thing I talked about yesterday as an indicator of them shifting more towards five-out. So like that, that I think is going to be his main area of development

as being more of like a fulcrum. Great guy for him to watch film of would be Isaiah Hartenstein. That's a player that I think he can learn a lot from. Favorite Star Wars character of all time? I would go with either Darth Bain or Darth Plegas. I'm a big Sith guy. I find him to be the most fascinating entity in that universe. Darth Bain has three books that you can find in the legends.

It could continue them. And then Plaguez has one. Those are like four of my favorite books ever. I highly recommend you guys check them out. Thrawn is going to be my third place guy. Grand Admiral Thrawn, those of you guys who have watched Rebels or read the Thrawn books will know why Thrawn is such a cool character. I also have a podcast where I talk Star Wars and not just Star Wars, but other TV shows and media and movies and stuff. It's called Two Suns. You can see it right down there, TWA. TWA.

Sons have a YouTube channel as well as a podcast feed there. Me and my best friend Luke break all that stuff down. We just talked House of the Dragon yesterday. Tonight we're talking the Acolyte, so you can find that on the feeds later tonight as well. How do you gauge which opinions are common in the NBA world when a lot of times the loudest people are a minority that doesn't always believe logic as a necessary ingredient in forming an opinion? This is one of the biggest things I've just learned in general since I got into this industry. Loudness on social media is almost always not the public opinion. It is the fringes that are the loudest.

In addition to that, like there's just not a lot of people on Twitter, for instance. There's just not a lot of people on Twitter in the real world, like a very small percentage. of, at least of Americans, I'm not sure if it's like this in other countries, but a very small percentage of Americans are active Twitter users. So the idea that like, if you see some opinions on Twitter, that that's reflective of a specific large nationwide opinion, that's just not the case. And so in general, like, I've had to work on not reacting. And it's still a weakness of mine that I'm getting better at, but I have to work at not reacting to the loud fringes on social media. The last question, how do slash did you approach becoming a better ball handler for both

yourself and your high school kids you work with. You've touched on this one covering Jabari Smith, identified it as a pretty big weakness of his, but last summer you were really impressed with him. Thanks. I know it sounds silly, but it's just about drills. And the main thing specifically with the drills are like body language, like the actual move of a crossover or behind the back move, or behind the back dribble, the success of that move has way more to do with whether or not you actually sold that you're going the other way than how dramatic you whip the ball across. like a basic push cross where you don't do anything fancy but just kind of push the ball to the left as long as you had your body geared up to the right and your eyes to the right and everything to

the right that's going to be more effective than a big sweeping alan iverson crossover and so like again like the body language is a big piece of it and then tight and under control like a lot of people think like oh it's about dribbling through cones and you got to dribble through cones as part of your skill development piece like that's that's how you become better at ball handling but the major piece of it is can you protect the ball in traffic? Like real ball handling and real basketball games is about like when you make a move and the dude's riding your hip and swiping at your other arm, can you fend him off while dribbling with your left hand?

As you go into traffic, can you split two defenders and gather the ball strong before you make that next pass or dribble like the low gathers that you see guys like Tatum or Jalen Brunson used or Tray Young? There are so many different like little intricacies of it, but most of it is about learning how to dribble in traffic. And so it's a good mix of practicing with cones, but also doing ball handling against live defense. So like one-on-one drills where you tighten off an area and you make multiple counter moves. That's like your turn-your-man five-times drill that you see sometimes in high school where you go from like the lane line over to the sideline.

And you just have to try to turn your man five times. The ball handler is working against ball pressure that way. But it's a good mix of against live defense and cone dribbling. And again, it just, guys, it's incremental just like jump shooting. You have to put thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps in over the course of multiple summers to improve. It's a it's a very painstaking process. All right, guys, it is all I have for today. As I said, we'll be back Monday unless we have some sort of major news release.

Regardless of when that happens, I will see you guys when I see you guys. The volume. 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 date. David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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 awesome. unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast, 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.

On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

Before it was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart 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 Fourth. seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast.

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