The Herd with Colin Cowherd - NBA Free Agency Winners: De'Andre Ayton to Lakers, Nuggets & Jokic upgrade + Mike Brown to Knicks

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

 Jason reacts to the Los Angeles Lakers signing center Deandre Ayton to pair with Luka Doncic and LeBron James. Then he gives his winners of NBA free agency including Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets for adding Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown, Nico Harrison's Dallas Mavericks for adding D'Angelo Russell, the Atlanta Hawks, the Houston Rockets for trading for Kevin Durant, and New York Knicks for getting Mike Brown.   #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We've got a jam-pack show for you guys today. DeAndre Aiton has signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. We talked a little bit on Monday about just some of the reality surrounding the circumstance and why it made sense for both of these teams. But today I want to do a much deeper dive into DeAndre Aten's game and how it's going to fit with the Lakers on both ends of the floor. So a full scouting report on DeAndre Aton as a basketball player on both ends of the floor, lots of detail there, give you Lakers fans a good idea of what you can expect from him this year. After that, for our course correction segment

this week, we're going to be covering the biggest winners in free agency. I have four teams that we're going to be shouting out in that segment. After that, I'm going to do just a short mailbag as we go into the holiday weekend. I'm going to be talking about Damian Lillard and where he could potentially end up Mike Brown as the new head coach of the New York Knicks. Talk a little bit about Luke Cornett in the San Antonio Spurs. And then we have a LeBron Lakers question at the tail end. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss your announcements. Don't forget about our podcast for you

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All right, let's talk some basketball. So we talked on Monday. about how I thought this made sense for both sides in the Aiton Los Angeles Lakers deal. The Lakers were in desperate need of a center. They don't have one that they trusted in the playoffs last year. And obviously there's some emergencies surrounding Luca and LeBron. The free agency options were all decent backups, but none of them were going to do well in a real starting role.

DeAndreighton has had two franchises at this point, say good riddance to him. And he's in desperate need of a very public and successful season. to give himself any chance at another long-term deal. As crazy as it sounds, even though he's had his two MBA contracts, he's only 26 years old. And he's way too talented of a guy to have this week of a market in free agency. And so he needs to rehab his image. Lakers desperately need a center.

Even when it comes to Aiton and some of his off-court stuff, which we'll talk about in a little bit, this in theory should be the year where you get Aiton on his best behavior because he's effectively in what amounts to a contract, There's that player option for next year. That's basically just a safety net in case this goes really poorly for Aiton and the Lakers. But if he has a great season this year, he could potentially go into next year.

And we've seen what the starting caliber center market is, guys. DeAndreighton has a great year. He could easily look at over $100 million on a four-year deal somewhere else. That is like absolutely 100% achievable for DeAndreighton if he goes into L.A. and has a great season. So it's a perfect match. The Lakers get a legitimate starting level talent to anchor the center position for them this year.

And Dianjaten gets to play with Luca Dantjic, who has the potential to help Aitn put together one of those career years on the offensive end of the floor. Now, obviously, the Lakers and Aiton's camp agreed with that assessment. Now he's a Laker, so let's dig into some more of the basketball specifics about his fit on that team. We're going to start with offense. and we're going to start with the good.

He is just a absolute monster pick and roll player. There is no other way to characterize it. As we went over on Monday, he's statistically been one of the highest volume and efficiency role men in the NBA for the entire 2020s. If you want to hear those numbers again, I went over them in detail on Monday's show,

so head over to our show from Monday and you'll get to see those specific numbers. But it starts with screening. He doesn't necessarily set the most physical screens in the world, but he's very good at the timing and getting in and out of screens quickly. Reverseing angles when the situation calls for it, running up and getting set like he's going to screen, and then just jetting out.

Like he'll, it's hilarious because he lacks the same verve in his pick and roll coverages on defense, which we'll talk about in a minute. But on the offensive end, he gets in and out of screens quickly. And he will often get behind the screen defender simply just because he's spruce.

rinse out of screens. And it like pops off the screen when you're watching film. He is a very, very good pick and roll roll man in the NBA. He creates a very large vertical spacing window and he has great hands. He averaged almost two dunks per game last year. That is going to be a great fit alongside Luke Dodgich. He's a legitimately good mid-range jump shooter. As a jump shooter at large, it doesn't look good because he took a lot of threes last, not a lot, but he took almost 43s last year and he shot pretty poorly on them, but he was 55% last year on two-point jump shots on almost 74 attempts, so almost two attempts per game. By the way, that does not include post-up fade-away jump shots, which we'll talk about in a minute. He's not very good at those. But off the catch

in ball screens or in short-range spacing situations around the elbows, he is a very good mid-range jump shooter. He also does a good job of reading the back line. So he'll roll hard if there's a lane, but then he'll short roll to the foul line when there's traffic. And even on those short rolls, there are some of them where he's very well set and it's just an easy pocket pass and he rises up. There are some of these where he's on the move. He's rolling to the basket and he's like popping like left right with his footwork like a movement shooter and rising up from the elbow. And it's kind of a legitimately feathery touch that he has on that little midrange jump shot. It's a little flat, which is why it doesn't go in when he shoots threes. But when he's in that mid range,

it goes in at a high rate. He's going to score a million points playing off of Luca Donchich and pick and roll. Like, there's no way around it. The only thing I'm a little bit worried about with pick and roll is when Luca gets blitzed. He's not a great decision maker and he's a little bit turnover prone.

So that will probably be the biggest issue that the Lakers have to deal with in ball screens throughout the season is just if they look to start blitzing Luca. I'd be curious to see if the Lakers pivoted to situations like that where, oh, you're blitzing Luca. Well, we're just going to use LeBron as the screener and then put DeAndre Aiton in the dunker spot and see if you can work off of that.

They're going to have to work out some stuff, but specifically in ball screens outside of Blitzes where Aitin has to make decisions, I just think he's still one of the very best role men in the league. And it's just going to be a very, very impactful option alongside Luke Adanjich. The bad on offense. We mentioned the turnover prone short roll stuff on Blitzes. He's never been able to put it together as a post player. there are times when it looks great. Like he has really good physical tools, obviously.

And then he's got a nice jump hook. We talked about it yesterday. He was a very efficient jump hook shooter over the course of his career. But like on occasion, you'll see him, you know, post up Brooke Lopez and just like bump him off with that left shoulder, get to that hook off of like a nice little spin move. And you'll be like, man, like he's got the potential to be such a monster down there. But he's constantly settling for super difficult like turnaround phase. away jump shots out of the post or like face-up jumpers out of the post. And while he's a good jump shooter off the catch, he's pretty bad on these post-up jump shots. And so he, it craters his

efficiency. And then you add in the turnovers. He's extremely turnover prone on post-ups compared to some of his, some of his peers. He doesn't see the floor well. A little spastic, you'll like freak out a little bit when he gets into traffic. So as a matter of fact, Aiton was actually the least efficient post player in the entire NBA last year out of the 54 players that attempted at least. these 50 post-ups. Now, he was especially bad last year. He was like just over seven-tenths of a point per possession. In previous years, he was better like in the point nine and change kind of range, but he was still below a point per possession for those same reasons, turnovers and taking a lot of those tough turnaround jump shots. The post is not going to be an area where I think

he's impactful for the Lakers as like a legitimate high-volume threat. He is going to have some success attacking against switches against smaller players. That's going to be key. It's not, I'm not saying you don't post up Aiton. I'm just saying you don't post up Aiton unless he has an advantage, right? So he's going to significantly raise the ceiling of this Lakers offense. The key will just be trimming the fat, keeping his postups down to just quick duckins against pick and roll switches, keeping that volume down. And by the way, it shouldn't be a problem. He posted up last year for Portland, six, excuse me, I should reverse this. In 2020, we, with the Sons. He posted it up six times as many times as he did last year with the Blazers.

So his post-up volume has already been cratering. I don't think that will be an issue. I think there will be issues with Aiton. I just don't necessarily think it'll be like, oh, he's demanding the ball in the post too much like he's prime Dwight Howard or something like that. So on the offensive end, I view it as nothing other than a substantial upgrade. On defense. The defensive tape with Aiton from last year is mostly useless in the context of the Lakers because the Blazers is almost exclusively used him in a very deep drop coverage. So he was primarily just sitting back, very upright, like not even really down in a defensive stance

and just kind of like backpedaling and keeping the roller. He was classic no roller behind coverage. So he's keeping an eye on the roller. He generally would ignore the ball handler and just kind of get back to the roller as part of Portland's defensive scheme. So he gave up a lot of drop covered shots, pull up threes, floaters, things along those lines. He even gives up some stuff at the rim,

which is what you don't want to. to give up as a drop coverage big. That's the entire point of drop coverage is to not give up stuff at the rim, but he'll give up like layups to mediocre guards around the league in ball screens just simply because he's so passive and so back on his heels in ball screens. There are a lot of examples of frustrating effort. I saw a play today against, we watched a ton of film this morning on it and he had a ball screen against the nuggets where Yokic was the screener and he just like hugged up on Yokic and like grabbed his hips and Strother drove off the shoulder. And Aiton just literally pointed at the rim and yelled out, help him!

As Strother just went down the lane and laid it in and everyone else is like, what are you doing? You're supposed to be defending the ball screen two on two. And you know how it is with Yokic? It's like, yeah, he can shoot pick and pop jumpers, but you want to take away the layup before you deal with Yokich on a pick and pop. It's just lazy defense, right? There was a Jaden McDaniel's play where he drove right at Aten's chest.

and Aiton did a good job going vertical with his size and forced to miss. And then Aiton hit the ground and just immediately entered chill mode. And Jada McDaniels hit the ground and just went right back up and got the offensive rebound and laid it in. There is upside, but there's going to be a lot of frustration with Aiton and just random little bits of laziness. Like obviously, it's hard for me to tell exactly what it'll look like with the Lakers because I just don't think J.J. Reddick is going to view Diondraighton as a deep drop big, which, which, we'll talk about in a minute, but a lot of ugly stuff on tape last year with Portland. Just to put it very simply, Portland's defense was five points better per 100 possessions last year when DeAndreighton was off the floor. He was a weak point in their defense last year,

even though that team had some legitimate defensive upside at times throughout the season. Again, there is upside. He'll make a big block in pick and roll where you're like, man, this dude's got crazy physical tools, or he'll make some recovery move where his foot speed shows or he'll slide his feet on the perimeter. You'll think he can do this, but it's just few and far between, at least in the Portland tape. So this is going to be a massive project for JJ Redding.

The first step will be finding a scheme that works. I'm a little worried about him switching because he's so passive just naturally as a basketball player on that end of the floor. There was a couple of plays in a game against Minnesota this year in crunch time, late game in the fourth quarter, where he gave up a couple of threes to Nas Reed, one on a switch where he kind of came out passively

and Nas Reid was just like, okay, and just hit like a little in and out dribble, got separation, hit a three. And then after he hit that shot, and the game is now tied in crunch time, big possession, they go back to the same action. They switch Aiton onto Nas Reid, but he just hit a three,

and he just kind of passively switched out where he's like standing there, but he's not getting out to contest. And Nas burned him again and hit a three over the. the top and you're like, what are you doing, man? Like, you got to be paying attention. This is Nas Reid. He's on a roll. He just hit a jumper in your face. You got to be pushing out a little bit further. Now, to his credit, again, in that same game, there was another sequence late in the game where he switched, defended Nas well and got to stop. But it's like, that needs to be the

level of attention to detail that's earlier in that sequence, not later in that sequence. Everyone knows what Nasreed wants to do. He's got that quick release. He wants to take that above the break three. You got to be out there. So like switching, I'm a little nervous about just because if you have passive switches, he's going to get burned over the top quite a bit. I think he could be a good high drop coverage player. What that means, again, is coming up to the level and then recovering back after the action and getting up to the level and then recovering back after the action. And I look at that as a potential scheme that could work for him because of what I was talking to, talking about earlier involving his offensive work in ball screens. This dude gets in and out of

ball screens quickly on offense. He's a good athlete who's 26 years old. He is absolutely capable of riding that yo-yo in ball screens on defense, getting up to the level, showing, getting back, waiting for the next action, getting up to the level showing and getting back. I think that's something that could work, but now that's requiring JJ Reddick to get Ait to embrace a certain level of defensive motor that he just hasn't shown in recent years. So it's kind of like a big question mark there for me. But Aiton has a lot of natural talent, and he has shown a high level of defensive competitiveness in some big playoff spots before, like we've talked about over the course of this week. So I don't want to say he'll be useless here.

It's just going to be an adventure on that side of the floor. It's going to be a lot of ups and a lot of downs. And then, of course, there's the off-court stuff with Aiton. He's a bit injury prone. He hasn't played over 70 games since his rookie year. He hasn't played over 60 games since he had a son's jersey on. He's super flaky. He'll show up late. or miss-team events just generally shows a lack of unprofessionalism. The one potential upside there is this kind of feels like a fork in the road for DeAndreaten's career. If he fucks this up in L.A., he's staring down the barrel of veteran minimum contracts for the rest of his career and obviously substantially hurting his earnings potential

and he could be out of the league within a few years. If he locks in, shows professionalism, puts up monster numbers alongside Luca Donchich, then this could be I'm signing a four-year, $125 million deal or $120 million deal, like some of the starting caliber centers that we have in the NBA. That's the fork in the road here for DeAndreighton, and it's going to come down to what he does

with his professionalism and with his on-court play in this season. So, in summation, it's going to be a lot of good, offset by some bad that mitigates his value. I think he's going to be an offensive. monster with Luca. I'm calling it right now, as long as he's relatively healthy. My guess is he logs at least 20 games next year with at least 20 points, just because he's going to have so many opportunities on the role playing alongside Luca Donjic. She will have games this year where DeAndreighton has like 32 points and 15 rebounds, and he looks like an all-star. But he's going to be

a mess on defense. That will undercut his value. There will probably be some off-court unprofessionalism, even if he's on his better behavior, that's going to undercut his value. But to be very clear, that still nets out as substantially better than any center the Lakers have had in the last few years other than Anthony Davis. So all in all, I think it's a win for the Lakers. And I'm at least excited to watch what DeAndre Aitin looks like as a pick and roll partner with Luca. I think it could be very scary.

I like view it, to be very clear, like, with Aiton as a role man, I view it as like, a substantial ceiling razor for the Lakers offense. This is just a huge part of a pick and roll attack. If you look at a pick and roll attack as three-pronged, meaning there's the on-ball guy who has to bring a certain amount of scoring threat. And then you have the weak side guys that all have to bring a certain amount of scoring threat. The guy in the middle, the guy that makes it all work is the scoring threat on the roll.

If that guy isn't a substantial scoring threat, they don't need to really tag rollers with that much intensity. If they don't need to tag rollers with that much intensity, all the weak side scoring guys are not going to get nearly as many advantages off the catch. But if that guy's a monster, now the defense has to make a very difficult decision. Okay, we're going to get the ball out of Luke Adonchich's hands. So that means we can choose one of two things. We can either play the weak side or we can play the roller.

And having Austin Reeves on the weak side, having LeBron on the weak side, having Dalton Connect. on the weak side. Having Rui Hachamura on the weak side, if you give those guys awesome opportunities, they're going to score. And if you stay glued to those guys, DeAndre Aiton is going to dunk everything and make a bunch of these wide open 15 footers at well over 50%. So this is the missing cog in a deadly pick and roll attack. Last year, because of some of the difficulties that Jackson Hayes had finishing in traffic and all of his issues on the defensive end of the floor, they had to bail on that. and basically get rid of that middle piece and play straight up five-out driving kick,

which basically only has two threats, right? The on-ball guy and the people you're spraying it out to on the perimeter. There's a much more layered approach to this offense now with the ability to have a legitimate superstar-level shot creator in pick and roll, one of the best scoring role man in the NBA, and then all sorts of offensive talent on the weak side. I would be surprised if this Laker offense isn't top five. in the NBA next season.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

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But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

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follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right, welcome to course correction, brought to you by Microsoft, just like the story. star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. It must rise to the occasion turning challenges into opportunities.

Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management, and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we will highlight the teams this week that have risen to the occasion when they are needed. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This week's course correction segment, we're covering the biggest winners of NBA

free agency. We were originally thinking biggest winners and losers, but here's the thing. If you really look at the biggest losers conversation, it's complicated because I saw a report yesterday that the Kevin Durant trade could potentially be expanded to include five additional teams. The Warriors are probably going to do something in the trade market. The Lakers are probably going to do something in the trade market. There's so many teams that still have things that they can do. This is so far from over that I don't want to know. necessarily focus on the losers yet. We will do that at some point in the postseason, but today we're just going to focus on the winners. The Denver Nuggets. After a couple of years

of slippage in the Western Conference, the Nuggets have completely reloaded. Trading Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, significantly upgrading their starting three spot and saving some salary, trading Dario's arch for Yonis Valanchunis, turning a useless backup center into a guy that gives them a better chance to win when Nicole Yokic is off the floor. It also will help them maintain some schemes consistency. Yonis Valenchunis, is obviously a substantially lower level player than Nicole Yokic, but there are some similarities in their play style, which I think will actually help.

You know, the bench units for Denver over the years, we remember. It was, they generally went small, and it usually turned into, like, the opponent would just switch against that group.

And in those units, it'd be a lot of, like, we're hunting mismatches with Aaron Gordon for post-ups, and Jamal Murray is picking on bigs or a weaker perimeter defender and getting into his bag for, like, a mid-range pull-up. I think that having a Jonas Valchunis will allow them to run some of the similar offensive concepts

that they run when Yokic is on the floor. And that scheme consistency could help them be more reliable in their bench groups. Signing Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. That gives them two substantial bench upgrades. A guy in Bruce Brown who was proven to fit with Yokic in a championship context and a guy in Tim Hardaway Jr. who should theoretically fit really well as a movement shooter and a super aggressive spot-up player as well. defense was also an issue for them in the regular season last year. Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown are legitimately upgrades on the defensive end of the fore. And like, as we discussed on Tuesday, they both represent options on the perimeter. And this matters because over the years, Denver's had to deploy Aaron Gordon in a lot of those situations.

And every time you deploy a big forward out on the perimeter, it limits your backline defensively in terms of rim protection and defensive rebounding. having Bruce Brown and Cam Johnson as like substantially better perimeter defenders than anybody that was on the roster last year not named Christian Brown, that gives them a better opportunity to keep Aaron Gordon in a more realistic, not realistic, but in a better fit role for him as a backline defender. It would also be easier on Aaron Gordon's body throughout the season, which may allow him to hold up better physically throughout the season. I was already a big believer in Denver's core four. and with these substantial upgrades, I'm now seriously considering the Denver Nuggets as my favorite to win the title next year.

By the way, I view this as a value right now. All of our odds are provided by Draft Kings. The Denver Nuggets right now are plus 1,100 to win the title. That is the fifth best odds in the NBA. I would, like that to me looks like a great value at this point because you're getting the best player in the world, a team that last year already pushed Oklahoma City to the brink. They're a great matchup.

specifically with Oklahoma City, and they significantly addressed some of their biggest needs. Backup center, bench depth, upgraded that fifth starter. I would have, if I was placing odds, like right at this point in time, I don't see any reason why they should be anywhere lower than two behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. They seem to me like such a safe bet compared to some of these more volatile teams that we haven't actually seen them play yet. Secondly, I have four teams today in our biggest winners. The Dallas Mavericks.

Hard to imagine a scenario where a team can pivot off of a superstar trade faster than the Mavs have. Obviously, you get a superstar talent back in the trade in Anthony Davis. You get a starting caliber two guard in Max Christie in the deal. You also get a first round pick from the Lakers in the deal. You fortunately get the number one pick in the draft out of the lottery, which turns into Cooper Flag, who has the potential to be a monster defensive player next to Anthony Davis and who knows what he's going to be on the offensive end but chances are he'll be a very very good player there as well and you make a very savvy signing of de angelo russell you needed ball handling and you got a guy who fits perfectly alongside ad and the rest of the i think you just fits that roster really well at a team friendly number i don't really know what the navs are yet and i would imagine they'll make a trade still at this point with their gut uh glut of uh forward talent but just simply an aggregate talent like if i was just saying

which team has the most on-paper talent in the league, the Mavs have one of the more talented rosters in the NBA right now if you really zoom out. So I'm super excited to watch them next season. Three, the Atlanta Hawks. In an Eastern Conference that's there for the taking, they went for it. They made a couple of substantial upgrades. We've seen teams not do that. Cleveland has basically stood path.

It made a swap from Ty Jerome to Lonzo Ball. You get Larry Nance Jr. is a good big man in their rotation on a discounted deal. But Cleveland is more or less talent-wise where they were last year. The Knicks have made some upgrades on their bench, which we'll talk about in a minute, but they're not exactly loading up. The Hawks are like, we're going for this thing.

We're going to try to make this happen. You know, Christopps Porzingis had health issues in Boston, and that obviously will be the wild card here. But he's a substantially more talented player than Clint Pella. And I still view him as a massive upgrade at the starting center spot. They won the Nikiel Alexander Walker sweepstakes. He's one of my favorite 3-and-D guards in the league. I don't think ideally he's not starting for you,

but he is a quality playoff rotation piece. Get Jalen Johnson back, another year of improvement for Zachary Rissachet, another year of improvement for Dyson Daniels. The Hawks are going to be a ton of fun this year. I mentioned this on the show on Tuesday. I think it's a legitimate goal for them. They should be shooting for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. I think they should be looking for a top four seat.

And then lastly, the Houston Rockets, getting Kevin Durant, adding Clint Capella, adding Dorian Finney Smith, for signing many of their young players, including Jabari Smith Jr., maintaining their trove of draft compensation for future flexibility.

They ended free agency, according to Draft Kings, as the second favorite to win the title at plus 700, getting KD, increasing your depth, resigning your young talent, hard to not consider the Houston Rockets as one of the big winners in free agents. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember, Microsoft's AI solutions empower you,

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We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title

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All right, guys, as promised, mini mailbag as we head into the weekend. first question with the dame wave could a team like the nuggets sign him just for postseason help so obviously with the achilles tear there's no way of knowing what it's going to look like in terms of his recovery there is a chance we've seen it before that he could come back in less than a year i i would imagine that unless he's feeling great he would take the time he needs to get 100% healthy but let's evaluate just this theoretical scenario. Damien Lillard races through rehab, does a great job, his body heals quickly, and right around like,

right around the stretch run, like early April, he's just ready to go. Okay, so that's 11 months post-surgery, theoretically. This would be a situation where it's not like he's coming back to take on a starting point guard role and a dead serious. serious, like, massive usage context. There's no way he's doing that this year. But a guy who could come off the bench for you in a playoff series and provide some

better shot creation than many of the backup guards that are around the NBA, even on a surgically repaired Achilles, that's an interesting concept, right? So let's talk about some teams that would make sense for Damien Lillard. I don't actually love the Nuggets fit. I think that that Nuggets team is kind of like geared in a way where they have ways to run offense in various groups. I think you see Jamal Murray in many cases lead the bench group when Nicole Yokic is off the floor. I'm not saying it's a bad fit for Dame, but I just see some less value there compared to some other potential units around the league. So I put together six teams.

These are the six teams that I think would be fun fits for Damien Lillard as like a just, oh, I'm, I'm here for the playoffs as a backup guard who's going to play 15 minutes a night. The Dallas Mavericks, a team that's desperately in need of ball handling. And like if they're in a situation where Kyrie Irving is just not ready to come back this season, Damien Lillard could be a guy who steps in and plays some bench ball handling role for the Dallas Mavericks in a postseason context. The Golden State Warriors, this is a team that Jimmy Butler has come in and helped a lot in terms of secondary shot creation. It has certainly allowed them to have some more. or flexibility when Steph is off the floor and obviously a great defensive playmaker.

Jimmy, I think the Jimmy fit with Golden State has been a resounding success so far. But they still struggle a little bit with creating shots outside of the context of Steph Curry. Damien Lillard would be a really interesting fit to come into Golden State and play a small role off the bench for them in a postseason context. Cleveland Cavaliers, this is a team once again that we talked about when we were talking about the LeBron trade. In the postseason, Darius Garland is just really.

struggled to create shots. And so Donovan Mitchell has had to basically revert back to heliocentric ball to keep the offensive float at times. You lose Ty Jerome. Lonzo Ball is a good backup guard. He's just a very different backup guard. And what he's not is like some supreme shot creator. Damian Lither could fit a role there as a bench guard for them. The Detroit Pistons, they signed Karris Levert as a replacement for Dennis Schroeder and Karris is a good player. But similarly, their team that could use some shot creation beyond Cade Cunningham. Damien would be a nice fit there. Houston Rockets,

they're still light on ball handling. On that roster, they're obviously, they retain Fred Van Vleet, you bring in Kevin Durant that really help. Shangoon can help, but they don't really have a guy off the bench unless Reed Shepard can develop into it.

They don't really have a guy off the bench that can come in and consistently provide high a level ball handling for them. Dame would be a great fit in Houston. Last, the Minnesota Timberwolves. this is a team that once they go to their bench similarly has a little bit of a lack of depth in ball handling you lose to kill alexander walker used to run some second side action for them i like the idea of a high level skill guard playing alongside anthony edwards i can set him up with some more off ball opportunities as well Minnesota would be a fun destination for Dame. Again, I think the far more likely scenario is that Dame doesn't play a minute in the NBA this year

and that he ends up coming back next year. And that's going to be a completely different discussion because now we're talking about a healthy Dame that's had 18 months to recover. And that's got a full training camp to join a team probably in a starting role. But in the short term, those are the teams that I think would be fun for like a late postseason edition. Jason, what can Mike Brown do to help the Knicks? So as we heard yesterday, Mike Brown will be the new head coach of the New York Knicks, a well-respected defensive coach who keeps getting opportunities in the NBA based on that respect. Now, it's worth mentioning that Sacramento, for the most part, was not a very good defense underneath Mike Brown.

But it's complicated. They didn't just lack talent defensively at the center position. Their entire front court was weak in defensive talent. Wasn't just Sabonis. And by the way, I'd argue subonis as still a better defender than someone like Carl Anthony Towns. but he has some similarities in terms of some foot speed weaknesses and some verticality. Like he just doesn't have as much of a vertical deterrent as some other centers around the league. But it wasn't just the bonus.

Like the Kings just did not have a legit athlete at the forward position to cover Sabonis as a backline defender. The Knicks present similar roster issues at the center position, but they have legitimate size and athleticism and length at the forward position, which should give them a stronger foundation to work with. Essentially, when we talk about like ball screen coverages, there's like a bracket on the backside as well. We talk about the bracket in the form of the ball handle, the guy guarding the ball and the guy coming up to the level as the big.

But on the backline, there's a similar bracket. The more ground that this big can cover, the less that the backline defender needs to do. The less ground that the big can cover, the more that the backline defender needs to do, right? So like if Carl Anthony Towns is that at the level big, it's easier to build a backline with an OG Anatobe, with the McAil Bridges, as like athleticism on the off the ball, Josh Hart as well, to help structure a more resilient

defense. So I do think Mike has a little bit more to work with in New York in terms of defensive talent relative to what he had in Sacramento. But what I talked about after the season, in terms of whether or not Mike Brown's going to work out with the Knicks, it's all about cleaning up their fundamentals. There are certain realities, right? Like Kat and Brunson have their defensive weaknesses and they will make mistakes and they will compromise your defense. There's no way around that. But there are some pieces of low hanging fruit, some fixable mistakes that can raise the level of this defense. Mainly getting rid of those easy transition opportunities that we saw in the Pacer series because of bad floor balance. It's like doesn't matter if you have bad defensive talent or

if you have good defensive talent. If you have five dudes below the foul line when the shot goes up, you're probably going to give up a transition opportunity the other way. So having basic floor spacing principles to where there's always two guys above the brake so that you're set up for transition defense. That'll go a long way. Some of the avoidable errors like cat showing way too high on ball screens or committing to one side of a ball screen before the ball handler even has. He gets rejected more than any other big I've seen in the league where he'll sprint up to the right side of the screen and the ball handler is like, all right, I'm just going to go the other way. And then when he crosses over, there's nobody there and he'll go all the way downhill. Cleaning up some of the

like basic fundamental stuff with cat and ball screens that is avoidable. Deepening the rotation so that you can keep your starters minutes down so that fatigue doesn't cause laziness within that roster. Jordan Clarkson is an upgrade over campaign. Gorshon Yabuselli is a guy that will provide some front court depth. They've added some of those pieces. Mike Brown just needs to actually make use of them in a way that Tom Thibito did not. And then adding aggression for defense to transition. A couple things.

one, I thought the Knicks were at their best last year when they were forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. We saw that a lot, even in some of their big runs that they had in the Celtic series, if you guys remember, just like OG and Mikhail flying around in passing lanes, forcing turnovers, getting out in transition. The second piece of it is that when you have weaker defensive players like Pat and Jalen Brunson, sometimes like just running traditional coverages that concede openings will just lead to really comfortable basketball for the opponent. So like if I know, all I got to do is bring Brunson into the action.

He's going to hedge. So once he hedges, that effectively leaves two on the ball for a minute, I just pitch it over to his defender, or his offensive, his assignment, excuse me, as he's slipping out. And then he's going to have a four on three and he's going to drive. That's really comfortable offense, right? But like, if you attack the ball, at least, like it's like, we're putting two on the ball anyway.

We're bringing cat in this high drop anyway. They're already leaving all these openings. Why not attack the ball and try to force some more looping passes, some deflection, some of that kind of stuff. to try to breed more of those transition opportunities, try to add a little bit more of a defense to transition element for this team. The Knicks just need to get more of the low-hanging fruit in basketball.

And Mike Brown is certainly a capable coach to improve the team in that regard. What do you think of Luke Cornett to the Spurs to help Wembe? Is his contract too risky for a 30-year-old, 41 million at four years? So I didn't think of it as that risky considering I view Cornett as like, if you were looking at like different tiers of players around the league there's like your

starting caliber players and then there's like your backups but then there's always like a middle tier which is like this guy could start and if he started for us we'd be fine but like ideally he's not our like day one starter for 82 games right and to me luke hornet fits into that mold and when you really start to look at it from an expense standpoint and it's like okay we have backup centers back like legitimate just backup centers going for like mid-level exception money or veteran minimum money 10 million a year really isn't that crazy for a guy that spot start for you at times and then also if you look at the way that the salary cap is going to continue to go up in future years like 10 million is just not that big of a number I don't view that as a problematic contract

at all for san Antonio I look at it as kind of a hedge on wemby's availability because cornet 10 start for them at times, an opportunity for them to explore Victor Wemanniama more as a forward alongside a too big type of look. I look at Luke Cornett as a really, really useful player on a cost control deal. He's 30 years old that's right in the heart of his prime. I think it was a good move. I think it's a move that makes the Spurs a better basketball team, and I'm excited to watch him in that fit. Last question. Jason, huge fan of your work. If you're a LeBron and the best outcome this year, roster-wise for the Lakers, assigning Aiton while losing Dore and Finney-Smith.

This was in the Monday video, by the way. But Aitin did end up signing with the Lakers, so it's still relevant. And then a couple of moves on the margins. Would you prefer to stay on the Lakers or swap with Jimmy and go to Golden State? Who is going to defend slash do the dirty work on a Luca, Austin Reeves, Ruey, LeBron,

DeAndre Aton starting five. Conversely, can't tell if Golden State's roster offers a higher ceiling for LeBron next season. It's the cleanest trade by far for LBJ, but it's also messy for LeBron's legacy. But I think the last couple games of the Minnesota series last year. LeBron knew the Lakers had no shot, and I'm not sure if they can improve much at all this year, so maybe he thinks him and Steph with Kerr in the movement offense offers a better

ceiling. They would have something to do at center, though. Can Aiton go to Golden State? Obviously, Aiden's not going to Golden State. He's going to the Lakers. All right, so let's zoom out from this for a second. A couple of things. I agree with you that the Luca, Austin Reeves, Ruey Hachamara, LeBron James Dianne, Staten, starting five is at this point, there's not a single professional defender, in that group. And I will not take the Lakers seriously as a championship contender unless they can turn Rui Hachamura into a player that is of the ilk of like an Andrew Wiggins, a freaky athlete, primary point of attack defender that's also a useful offensive player with what they do. So I do think that there are some serious limitations there. But it's worth mentioning as we look around the

league, those same limitations exist elsewhere. I view the Lakers right now as like a second-tier contender. I view the Warriors right now as a second-tier contender. If LeBron were to swap with Jimmy Butler, I think it makes the Warriors better, but I don't think it makes the Warriors a top-tier contender. They still have issues on that roster. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to watch it. As a basketball fan, I can't think of a more fun basketball fit

than LeBron and Steph would love to watch it. I just don't think it makes sense for LeBron to go anywhere unless it's like this obvious, dead serious, we're favored to win the title if we go there. And even some of the options out east, like Cleveland, for instance, or New York, they are options that are more appealing in the sense that the Eastern Conference is so weak

that LeBron would just have a better chance to make it to the finals. But I don't view any of them as like he gets there and they're just like automatically right there with Oklahoma City going to win the title. LeBron's only chance to do that was to opt out and to go sign somewhere on the mid-level exception. And he just wasn't going to do that for all of the reasons that he's given over the years

involving him not taking a discount. But ultimately, as I look at the situation, for all those things you talked about, with Luca and Austin and Rui and LeBron and DeAndre Aten and some of their defensive shortcomings, for all of those issues, I still think that group has just about the same chance to win the title as a Golden State if LeBron went there, as some of these, maybe a little better in the East just simply because they could get out of the conference easier, but they're still going to have to face somebody from the West, probably a Denver or an O KC or a Houston, and those three teams are still going to be better than those teams out in the Eastern Conference would be with LeBron on him.

So with that being the case, he lives in Los Angeles, his family's here. I just don't see LeBron uprooting his family unless it's just such, or uprooting himself, I should say, his whole routine unless there's just this shoe in obvious fit. And like, look, we went over, I went over, what, four LeBron options in the Monday show. And they'd be fun. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I wouldn't enjoy covering a LeBron Warrior season or a LeBron Cavs season or a LeBron Knicks season. But I just, the reason why I never saw it is that likely.

And the reason why I said in that video that I would just be surprised if LeBron wasn't a Laker again is because the Laker situation is nearly as good. still, even with the flaws, and he gets to stay home and kind of ride things out in his current comfort and routine. And again, I do think the Lakers have an outside chance of entering into a higher level of contention if they can flip Rui Hachamura into a starting caliber, legitimate upgrade at the three. Like, if Andrew Wiggins get in there and it's Luca Donchich, Austin Reeves, Andrew Wiggins, LeBron James, DeAndre Aden, that's a lot of talent. And now I kind of view them as more like in the in between tier one and tier two like either at the very bottom of tier one or

at the very top of tier two so i i think for lebron it still makes sense to stick with the lakers even though it's been frustrating and rob polinka's you know just uh fucked around for the last several years and just kind of prevented any sort of like substantial commitment to trying to win in lebron's tail end of his prime and here we are and now the situation is entirely different because of lucca and now they can't go all in i you know i'll say this is the last thing before you know i'll say this is the last thing we leave in terms of the Lakers and strategy. Like, I don't think the Lakers should be mortgaging their future to try to win around LeBron James. That would be stupid.

You got Luca Danschich. He's going to be 27 next year. You've got to be more prudent with your approach. But I still think you owe it to LeBron and Luca Dantzic and his competitiveness to try to maximize the short term as well. So, Jason, how do you do that? Well, you just need to go for assets that don't lose as much value. value. So for instance, trading a bunch of second round draft picks for Dorian Finney Smith.

Obviously, that trade was made before the Luca Donchich trade. You're trading for an older role player on the tail end of his prime. That's going to lead to a massive downturn in assets, right? And by the way, the Lakers ended up losing Dorian Finney Smith for nothing. But even if they kept Dorian Finney Smith, he would have declined quickly over the course of the next few years, and it would have been a depreciating asset. It would have, it would have, led to an eventual decline in talent on the roster, right? With the Lakers moving forward, I do think you should consider trading Dalton Connect,

trading that first round pick. If it brings back a player who is a legitimate core piece alongside Luca Donchich, who's in his mid to late 20s, because then it's like, okay, we gave up a first round pick, we gave up a first round talent in Dalton, but what we got back is a player that we can use for four to five years,

and he's going to still be in his prime during all that time, and then still at age 31, he'll be that generation's Dorian Finney Smith. He can be the guy that they look to move for some sort of asset return at that point in time. If they can get a starting caliber talent that's no older than like 30, then that makes sense because there's still some long-term value in the asset. set. You just can't trade the first round pick and Dalton Connect for like Paul George from the 76ers. That would be stupid because now you're giving up assets for a player that's going to quickly depreciate and you're going to have such a huge net negative in your total roster talent available,

right? But if you can move assets for other assets that will retain their value, that is something you can do that helps capitalize on the LeBron James era while still allowing for long-term flexibility surrounding Luca Donchich. All right, guys, it's all a half for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We're going to take the holiday weekend off. So all you all, uh, spend some time with your family and relax. And we will be back on Monday.

We have a very busy week next week for Summer League. I'm headed out to Vegas with Jackson. We're going Thursday through Sunday. So hopefully you guys will stop by and see us at some point while we're in Vegas. I'll keep, you know, show announcements and stuff on Twitter in terms of just letting you know, letting you guys know where we're at during the week and when we're releasing content. Busy week next week. We'll see you guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight.

It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate it. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what?

We created our own podcast called. Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent a podcast. it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick.

Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 helped 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.

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