The Mismatch - Top Summer League Performances, Interesting Teams, and Lakers Drama

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

Verno and KOC congratulate the Blazers for winning this year’s summer league tournament before discussing the top performers (02:00). The guys debate how many interesting teams there really are in the league right now before discussing whether the Raptors would be a possible destination for Kevin Durant (17:26). It has been reported that James Harden will return to the 76ers on a discounted rate and they discuss Harden’s impact fit with Joel Embiid (33:15). The guys also discuss LeBron James playing in the Drew League and all the noise surrounding Russell Westbrook and the Lakers (42:44). Despite the Knicks being the overwhelming favorite to land Donovan Mitchell, he still remains on the Jazz as the guys debate why Mitchell hasn’t been dealt yet (01:02:19). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's not quite the DeLorean, but we're going back in time with the new podcast feed full of all my favorite interviews in the history of the Bill Simmons podcast. We're coming up on seven years now. I've had an unbelievable collection of athletes, celebrities, showrunners, directors, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett, Shirley's Theron, Tom Hanks, Bill Burr, Kevin Durant, Peyton Manning, The Undertaker, Eddie Vetter, Kyrie Irving? Yeah, he actually came on. Dave Grohl, Quavo, Barack Obama. I mean, what else can I tell you? I've had Al Pacino with Barry Levinson. I've had people like Steph Curry, Jason Bateman, John C. Riley, Joe to Hill,

I could just, I could keep going and going. But wait, there's more. Whether it's your first time or you're planning on revisiting some of your favorites, make sure you head to Bill Simmons Interviews.com for the entire archive, you can sort by genre, year, and more to easily navigate all your favorite people. Follow the Bill Simmons podcast, the interviews on Spotify now. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, A.K., Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Climber, Kevin O'Colm! What's up, man? How are you doing this Tuesday? Well, we got through Summer League, and so now we've got a little bit of

down time. Well, I don't know if it's going to be downtime. We are just going to have our time filled with needless drama. And so there is drama all over the NBA. Once there are no games, players to talk about, then the void gets filled with the drama. So we'll get to some of the drama. But Summer League did conclude. Congratulations to the Portland Trailblazers. I have not seen when they have scheduled their parade, but a Summer League championship for the Trailblazers who are trying to rebuild on the fly.

Also a special congrats to our mutual friend Amara as well. Amar Baptist, who ended her time with a Summer League championship who does a tremendous job with social media for the Portland Trailblazers. She is moving on from there. I did not see that.

I didn't know that. Yeah. And they won the title. Wow. Good for her. Yep. We're on her way out. It's like John Elway.

She's exactly like John Elway. Peyton Manning? He won his last year too. Yeah, but he kind of limped. Yeah, the defense carried the team. Yeah. Well, you know, a couple weeks ago, I was looking up his stats in that last year. Holy mo.

I know. He fell off a clue. didn't it? My word. Yeah. Once his wife stopped, took it the steroid. Oh,

how dare you? How dare you? Allegedly. Allegedly, yeah. Meanwhile, Tom Brady's still going. Anyway. We can move on. Tom Brady's still going.

We know who the real goat is. Well, he's not going in New England. You guys turned your back on him. He didn't even thank you when he paid her time. He made the right decision because he, He went to a team that could those how to build draft receivers. Yeah, that's right.

Well, and the other thing is, you know, Fait Manning, I will say, for his credit, he never fake retired. He just retired. And so Tom Brady, or at least one retirement in. That's okay.

That's fine. Oh, all stunts for his TV show. This is an NBA podcast. That's right. Yeah, okay, that's right. Not social media, not NFL. Yep, that's true.

And here's what happened. The top six picks in the NBA draft, as we covered last episode, made everybody feel good about their draft. It was a very strange summer league. We didn't have the, oh my gosh, I can't believe this guy didn't go much, much higher, real breakout star. In fact, it appeared as if, on the surface, these teams were really good at analyzing and drafting talent.

Paulo Banerero, Chad Holmgren, Jabari Smith, Keegan Murray, Jade Nivey, Benedict Matherin, all the way down. And then we didn't see the next three guys, Shaden Sharp, Dyson Daniels, Jeremy Sohan. We didn't see any of those. And then there really wasn't anybody that was drafted much lower. We heard some on, Jalen Williams, of course, from the Thunder,

who was really, really good, the kid out of Santa Clara. We heard some on Tari Eason, who was very good, who went to the Houston Rockets out of LSU. And, you know, there were moments here and there from guys that were further down the draft. Certainly some of them had very good games. But I guess what I'm left with the most is kind of what we thought going in, which is the best players performed like the best players.

Paolo looks the most ready-made to contribute next year. And if it's not him, it's Keegan Murray. But at least on the surface, we have six that come out of Summer League, I think feeling really good about the player that they took in the draft. Isn't that fair? Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I mean, it's a shame we didn't see some of the other guys that you mentioned there. it's too bad for a team like the Wizards.

You draft Johnny Davis with the 10th pick and he can't create a shot, can't hit a shot, can't do much of anything. So there's some disappointments too in that top 10 in that lottery range. But I think you're right, Chris, those top six, you've got to be feeling pretty good about who they are.

And I think with Bencaro, Chet, Jabari, that top three, we've talked a lot about Keegan Murray too, but with Jabari Smith Jr., I come away, even though the offense numbers weren't totally there with him in Houston. I still come away feeling really good about what Jabari Spitz Jr. showed on the defensive end of the floor, like with his length, his ability to defend. That game against the spurs he had where he was defending Branham and defending all

their young guys, Blake Wesley. I mean, these are quick, speedy guys off the dribble. And he was just swallowing them up. Him and Tari Esen drafted 17th. They looked like one of the best long-armed wing defensive. of duos I've ever seen in Summer League history. So I look forward to seeing how they build that team around Jalen Green with those two guys. Because if you're a Rockets fan, you were fantasizing and dreaming about Bencaro and Green and

those guys, dribble handoffs, pick and roll, Bencaro and Green, the dynamic duo they could be. And that's not going to happen. But with Jabari Smith Jr., you do have this defensive dynamo who already looks like a guy who can defend anybody in the NBA. And offensively, the shots will fall for him eventually. So, I mean, yeah, those top six are great. And Jabari Smith Jr., the numbers weren't there.

But I was very impressed with him as well. Okay. So we had some others that were named to the All-Summer League first team and second team. What an honor. Kind of go to those. Well, clearly there are those that played less games. And so that's why they were not named like the aforementioned Paulo Bekero. Tari Isson was in the last.

that group of guys that made first team. We talked about him. A mega athlete rebounded the ball exceedingly well for Houston and certainly made them excited about that tandem of him and Jabari. Quentin Grimes from the Knicks, guy that was drafted last year like most young players for the Knicks, maybe didn't see a ton of time, but promising nonetheless and was an outstanding player at Houston, just to be years back. I'm just going to call him Mamu because that's what everyone

calls him. Sandrew Mammo Luskevich. Like, I mean, for just forget it. I have no chance. I think it's Mamu Kellechefsi. Look at you. For the box.

I mean, my, my pronunciation is definitely wrong. I'm just not, I'm not good at names either. That's like, that's one of our Achilles heels, Chris, pronouncing names.

Well, I mean, it's everybody. Yeah. Yeah, come on. Camp Thomas was the other one. Not everybody. Some people are very good at it.

Our former producer, Isaac Lee, he was always very particular about our pronunciation of names. I remember? Camp Thomas was the other one. Camp Thomas finished the summer league with 750 field goal attempts and one assist.

It says, wow, that's unbelievable. Did you see that dunk man who had against the Celtics? It was like with like 30 seconds left in the game. There's a tie game and he was posting out, but he just dunked on everybody on Boston. That's what Mamu does. Mamu needs to become a guy for sure. Oh, yeah.

Because I just like saying Mamu. Santiago Alma, Benedict Matherin, Marcos Semenovich, Semenovic for the Bulls, Trendon Watford for the Portland Trailblazers. Champs. And Linda Wington for the Milwaukee. Bucks, so the Bucks had two guys make the all summer league teams for what that is worth. And so a lot of the bigger names were not on these teams, but it's certainly something to just keep an eye on and see if it does transfer over, especially for some of the second

year guys, right? If you're trying to figure out who could make a leap in that second year that maybe we didn't see as much from in that first year. You've got those guys, Semenovich, Aldama, Watford, Wigington, all guys that are second year players that were playing in this year's Summer League and showed much better than they did in their rookie campaigns. Quentin Grimes, too, man. I mean, yeah, Quentin Grimes. That's fair. Quentin Grimes is really good in Summer League. He looks more like the guy that we thought was going to be going into college at Kansas.

When he was a top recruit out of high school, handle the ball, created his own shot. The bombs at Kansas, transfers to Houston, becomes a 3-&D guy, gets drafted in the first round last year, and has a pretty good rookie year with the Knicks. He was good last year,

38% from 3%, made good decisions of the ball on his hands, good defensively. I mean, in Summer League, they had him running high pick and roll. Yeah, they had him ISOing. He was playmaking. He had some like,

really slick behind the back passes off drives to the rim to Jericho Sims. And I don't know, man. Quentin Grimes to me looked like, he looked like a player, dude. Like the type of guy that if you're the Utah Jazz and you're trading Donovan Mitchell to the New York Knicks, you're like, we want Quentin Grimes. Absolutely. That's the way I feel about how he looked. I'd rather have Quentin Grimes than an additional future first round draft.

That's a no-brainer to me, considering everything we saw from him at Houston with his rookie year with the Knicks, the progress in Summer League, that guy looks like he's going to be in the league for 10 years and might be more than just a 3-and-D guy. Well, and the promising thing for somebody like Grimes, if you are, if we're looking at that deal and think something that will eventually get hammered out,

you know, the RJ deal was one where he's up for a contract, so that is not, it's not nearly as desirable as you would necessarily think in attaining a good young player. Grimes, though, he's on this meager contract that he has for three more seasons before he's ever up for an extension, right?

If you get Grimes, you're getting him after this rookie year and he's on a very low payroll. So if you're right, and he is like a real bona fide player, we've talked about this so much, Kevin. That is right now, that has become the most valuable. asset you can have in the NBA.

When you are talking about having players that can wildly outperform their contract for an extended amount of time, especially given the extreme amount that you are paying the best players in the NBA, that if you can find these guys that make a million, a million two, a million five, that can start for you or be rotation guys for you, that that is, that's the greatest value that there is now in the league. And so if you're right, and Grimes is going to be a real player in the NBA, he becomes a much more valuable asset than he necessarily would be on the surface. Does that make sense?

Yeah, no doubt about it, man. I think for Utah, it'll be interesting. Like they, you know, we'll talk later about who they signed. But with somebody like Grimes, it's not like, they can be. an average, below average team with the nature of the draft lottery odds now, if they were to trade Mitchell for young players,

picks, and the intentions are to be bad, you don't have to be like processed sixers anymore. You can have good players and just not make the playoffs, especially in the Western Conference and have good lottery odds. And so somebody like Quentin Grimes,

I mean, he's 22 years old. Already looks like he's going to have a long career. I mean, he's talking at preseason. I watched an interview with him for a Nix Fan TV. C.P. The franchise runs a great channel on YouTube there. He interviewed Quentin Grimes,

and he talked about wanting to level up his game. And it's like, you know, like I said, everything we saw from him, that's somebody you want to gamble on, Chris, because like whether he becomes a guy who creates or whether he's somebody who's just finishing with the occasional, you know,

playmaking opportunity off of attacking your closeout or whatever, if you're the jazz, those are the types of players that you want be able to get in a trade if you're moving Mitchell. Somebody who offers a baseline, you know, but also some upside. So the only real question is going to be who's going to be better, Grimes or Tarantino. Yeah. Well, let's get to the, let's get to the, let's get to the whale re-head.

I don't even know. I don't even know what you're talking about. You don't know, Quentin. I was, who's the best, Quinn? He's a non-sequitur. Like, I know who Quentin Tarantino is, but I wasn't, I'm not thinking. about movies. I'm not thinking about movies. Grimes or Tarantino. What's your favorite Tarantino movie, Chris? Pulp fiction. Pulp fiction? Yeah. Yeah. I think it stands a test of time. Oh, it definitely

does. And I think it just came out at the right time for me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, like it's one of those where it's like there was nothing like it. It's all anybody talked about, you know, amongst your college buddies was, did you see this? Did you see this? And then, you know, people watched it over and over and over again. Yeah. So I'd say, I'd say that one just because of the time it came out, how quotable it was, and still is for that matter.

I think, I think my personal favorite is either inglorious bastards. The in-theater experience for Django Unchained was really great. I saw that with my dad. And I just remember, I don't even remember much of the movie, but I remember feeling thrilled when I left the movie. And Jackie Brown, very underrated. That's a good movie. It is underrated.

And Kill Bill, of course. Kill Bill, Volume 2. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Kill Bill, too. Yeah, Kill Bill's fantastic, of course. I forgot about that. Kill Bill 2 might be my favorite. Yeah. I liked it.

Yeah, much better. Maybe Kill Bill. I don't know. That's tough. I like the second one even better. A lot of good choices. I like two better than one. Anyways.

Did you see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? You watched that? No. too long. Oh, you didn't see that? No, my dad told me to watch that 100 times and every time I was about to do it, I was like, man, I don't have three hours. Yeah, three hours. Why don't it just split it as a parts? Treat it like a, like a Netflix. Like do an hour and then cut when it feels good. Then do another hour. See, I don't know if that's like sacrilegious to like the movie geeks and whatever. It might be. I don't really care.

But did it turn to you know talking about doing like a Netflix series? You have 10-parter? I have no idea. I don't know. we have now after the summer league as as as finished we have been left with all of these different teams that when i went through and looked and kind of thought about it through the prism of summer league and i know you're going to disagree because you see the positive in everything there's really that's not true yeah there is there's like three there's like in basketball wise um that's not true you want these fans to like you So here, let's see if you'll make them mad. I think six years of of banging on, like saying Russell Westbrook needs to be better. One of the most stand.

It's a player. Yeah, I know. But he's one of the most followed, loved players and saying this guy's not as if he is. I don't know. His own team won't even walk across the court to say hi to him. In 2016 and 2017, I've been being a dead horse for six years. And now everybody, now everybody's saying the same thing. I find like three.

Definitely always posits. I definitely lean possums. All right. I'm talking about with teams. I'm talking about with teams. All right, look, Washington, Indiana, and San Antonio. Those are the ones. Outside of that, I find pretty much every single team in the NBA interesting.

For some reason. Why aren't the Wizards interesting? They're interesting to me because, like, they might have, Like Johnny Davis did not look good. You just signed Bradley Beals to the Super Max, and he has a no trade clause, and they feel like a team that's stuck in the middle. What are you going to do?

I guess that's why I find them interesting. But you mean to watch? Like, hey, I want to tune in and watch this team. Yeah, I'm talking about I want to watch these teams. And obviously, look, for the Pacers, they got some young guy, they got Halliburton, they got Madarin. I want to watch the Pacers? Pacers, why wouldn't you want to watch Halliburton and Mathurin?

I mean, I'll watch. That's fine. I mean, those guys Calaburn's awesome. Now you get Miles Turner at the five without a bonus there for the first time with two pick and roll guys and Batherin and Halliburton.

I feel good about watching them. Who else? Yeah, and then the other one was San Antonio. Who cares? I'm glad Kelden got the money because I like Kelton John. Good for him. But I mean, look.

The Spurs, I mean, but the Spurs, it's about like just for me, like if I'm tuning in to watch the Spurs, I'm tuning in to watch. Well, hey, how did Devin Vassel progress? How did Kelton Johnson progress? What does Sohan look like in this matchup tonight against this player on the defensive end of the floor?

It's more individuals than... Yeah, and I'm just talking about this. Look, if it's the only thing on, then I watch it. But when I'm saying 27 of these 30 are interesting, and there's like three that, like, if given a choice, I'm choosing the others to watch, if Orlando's on the other channel, if Oklahoma City's on the other channel, if, and I'm talking about even about the bad teams, if Detroit's on the other channel.

And these are teams that, you know, probably, some of these teams are going to be lottery teams. Some of these teams are going to have to be teams that are very high in the draft and are non-play-in teams. But I think even the ones that weren't very good last year can at least be more interesting this year. The last two, for certain in the East, in Orlando and Detroit, are infinitely more interesting. And then those next two, Indiana and Washington. I mean, look, Indiana could be playing Washington in my backyard, and I wouldn't raise the blinds. And then on the, and then the other one, San Antonio, like, I guess. I mean, I just, I just don't care. I guess I can watch the see if Devin Vassel progresses, but I don't really care if Devin Fissel progresses. I got to be honest with you.

I don't. I don't care. Why do I care? The Spurs fans listening are, they can be mad. Yeah, I mean, you might think it's about me being loved. That's why I tweet my award picks and Elon. I don't care about being loved.

I don't care about that. I just like to find things interesting for myself. It's a selfish thing more than anything else. Well, Devin Bissell's mom and you can watch. Can watch the say to Antonio's first together. You and Bissell's parents. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's, I don't know.

I mean, your comment, it just has me thinking, Chris. I'm just sitting here thinking about it. About what? Want to be liked? Because I find something interesting in a team for the league we cover. No, it's because when we talk about, like, say, every free agent move that I trash, you defend. Not really.

It's the way it goes. Every trade that happens that I don't like. I mean, we can go back through the entire archive of the mismatch. I mean, this is true. I think teams are true. And then I get, I'm the one that takes the brunt of everything on Twitter. When do, name a fan base that's ever come after you. I have had every single fan base come after me and say,

The Toronto Raptors. That's good. The Toronto Raptors, when I said they should break up Lowry and de Rosen. Every time you say something positive about a team, I get, Kevin watches our team and really knows ball and you don't, right? Like, I mean, that's if I don't like it. I mean, in the case of Rudy Gober, that's definitely true. Oh, God forbid.

I cannot wait until they fall on their face. I can't wait. In fact, I want... It probably won't be Gober's fall. Let's plan it together. Let's plan to watch the... Well, let's actually make our plan to watch the first round together because he never plays in the second round.

So let's plan now to watch the first round together. That's what we should do if we could somehow figure that. But that's all that was about, that these fans, every one of these fans. I usually don't like the move. You like the move, and then they don't like me. Like no matter what it is. What move like sticks out on your mind most? There was a, I still get Lou Dork stuff, which by the way was not the contract they gave him.

So somehow Sam Presti and Oklahoma City agreed with me that that contract would have been crazy. Because what was reported was not actually what was given to him, the four years and 80 million. But that's just the last one. No, it was five years. Yeah, five years, 80 million. Yeah. Right. Well, that was the deal, right?

It wasn't like $5.82? No, no. It ended up the last year is not guaranteed and there's a million bonuses that go into it. So what is it guaranteed? So whatever the first four years of that deal. Whatever the first four years are. I got it. It's $65 million guaranteed.

Much more reasonable. So it's essentially four years, 65 million. Yeah. But the annual number, like, it's still the same. The annual number. also excludes a fifth year, and what would it have been, almost $20 million?

$17.17 million, right? Which is, that's a pretty big, it's a pretty big gap. I don't know. At that point with the cap, it might be, it might be Lou Dort who wants out of that at that point. You never know.

I'm just, like, we don't like, the mid-level, the mid-level by the 26-27 season could be 15 million. So like for Lou Doord at that point He might be a He might not be like making that money Like you could be right in that sense

But he might be a $25 million guy at that point Just with the way the cap's gonna go up Yeah I would say that I mean look I didn't like the Hardin deal You like the Hardin deal I love Hardin. No I know I didn't like the Gobert deal

You like the Gobert deal I love Rudy too I didn't like the siding for Dort You like the side of for Dort. I thought the Phoenix thing with Aiton was intensely goofy. I mean, I don't know. We could go on.

I could go through pretty much every team and I could find something. How about all time? And I'm not right about all of these things. No. Neither am I. We're both always wrong. I'm not right about all of these things. But like I didn't love the C.J. McCollum thing for New Orleans.

And I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for me, I think that was more about Zion, like the bet on him to build a winner around him. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you could go through most of these. I think I could go through most every team. I think I'd find some reason that they've been mad at me for some reason and told me that I didn't know what I was talking about that you did and I don't know. I mean, I think I could go through every team.

probably maybe that could be an off-season project yeah i probably should i should go through then we could grade them and we could see who came out on top yeah who came out on top i mean that actually became kind of fun i mean like now that we're talking about it like this is this is this could be good i'm curious with the listeners thing too because it's like oh my god no look i can remember josh josh richardson dallas fans killed me over it you love josh richardson uh and i was wrong and i was wrong about that with jane dead dendman to the king I got murder over Dwayne Deadman to the Kings. They cut him within a year.

Like, there's a, I mean, there's a million of these. See, I don't even remember Dwayne Deadmo being on to the Kings. You loved it. I don't know if I loved him. How is it possible to love Deadman to the Kings? I didn't understand it either. We've been doing the show for six years. I mean, I would love to hear like, like, if we had a cut of, like, our arched

about the Raptors and the Sons from like the 16, 17, 17, 18 season. I thought to listen back to those. We had some really good arguments about those teams back of the day. When I said the Raptors should trade Lowry or DeRosen, they should consider blowing it up. Yeah.

I mean, in a way, like I was... And then they won the title? I was, well, I was half right that they should break them up. Yeah. I was wrong about the possibility of blowing it up. And for me, that was a lesson in the sense of, like, there is,

especially like we talked about this before in the context of our Pelicans debate earlier this year in the column and I said and I think I remember you saying to me how you always like blowing it up why do you like this team in the middle adding a veteran and I explained about the changed lottery odds and they had the Lakers pick

but like I think back in the day with that Raptors team there was more incentive to the tank however there was also incentive just to straddle in the middle and have a good team and then pounce on an opportunity for a star And four years ago yesterday is when they traded for Kauai Leonard.

And now they're trying to go for Kevin Durant. So they're in that position again where they could. So they have this really good team with a bunch of great young players. And now they again have a chance to get a future Hall of Famer. It's kind of wild. I wonder, do you think Kevin Durant would want to go to Toronto? Because you remember, and this is another thing you and I talked about. I remember during that 2019 finals, the TV broadcast showed Kevin Durant

getting booed, like cheered when he ruptured his Achilles, fans in the crowd, clapping their hands, waving goodbye. But I remember like sitting next to Danny Chow in the crowd and we talked about it. Well, like, I remember just the KD chance. I didn't even know Katie was hurt.

So I wonder for Kevin Durant, let's say Toronto made an acceptable offer to Brooklyn, an offer the nets were willing to take. Would Kevin Durant even want to go out of the Raptors? I mean, you're moving into a different country, you know, that's the, totally different thing.

And also what he experienced there, I wonder how he feels about it with like what happened there. What was his perception of the cheering? Because to me, I don't think that was, I don't think that was indicative of like Raptors fans. It was just some drunk idiots in the crowd. Some stupid individuals.

And that's true. I think I remember you saying that's like every fan base has those. I just remember the, I remember the KED chance, a standing ovation as he walked the floor. To me, that's more representative of that passionate fan base. Yeah, I don't think you want to ever, I don't think you ever want to judge a fan base by the worst of them.

No. Unless the worst of them is so overwhelming, like Warriors fans. I'm kidding. It's going to suck for your grizzlies and get smacked by them the next five years again. And then jaw leaves. Oh, right. Yeah, those guys are the beacon of health. Beacons of health

And hey look, they got away with it With Jah getting injured one time During the playoffs They'll have to see him again Yep He was only averaging 40 points a game When he got hurt I say that

I say that's her tongue and cheek But I have genuinely excited For future Grizzlies warriors battles Oh yes hopefully we've got a little rivalry I know I hope so I hope Memphis keeps getting better Yep On the other side of the coin

Wait wait wait with Toronto Toronto Yeah But with Toronto and KD Do you think you think I don't think that they would do a deal that doesn't include Scotty Barnes and I don't think Toronto would give up Scotty Barnes. I don't want Fred Van Vlead and Siakum and whoever.

I want Scottie Barrett. How about like Seacom, O.G, a bunch of first-round picks. You don't think Brooklyn would take that? I want Scotty Barnes. Yeah, I'm not giving Scotty Barnes. Scotty Barnes could be a future Hall of Famer. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

So you meet in the middle. Because those picks aren't good if I give you the rank. If I'm trading him, I'm trading to somebody where I'm getting some good picked. It would probably have to more like be OG to the Mets, see, I'll come to a third team, and then picks from that third team, a third team that you think would give better value picks.

Yes. To Brooklyn. Something like that would make more sense for the Mets. Yeah, if I'm moving him, it's got to be somebody that I think I could get some, like, you know, the picks have to have an incredible value or the young players. have to have incredible value.

And even that, how far would you want to go if you're in that Raptors front office, Chris, for Kevin Derry? He's 34 years old, a couple years removed from that, ruptured Achilles. He is getting older. He's still awesome. You don't know about the long-term commitment. He might push his way out of a four-year deal.

How far do you really want to go if you're trying to when you have this great young team and Scotty Barnes is the face of it? I mean, I just think we drew the line, right? No, Scott. Yeah. We drew the line. I wouldn't give them up either. I'm not even,

I'm not even 100% certain that the Raptors would want to give up OG and Ciacom and a bunch of picks. It might be more like OG and Gary Trent and a bunch of picks. Oh, no way. Or maybe just Ciacom and then Gary Trent and then to keep O.G.

Something like that. If you could, we're just spitball. Yeah, I think the only thing off the table. But. Oh, and I agree there. Only thing off the table would be Scotty. everybody else is going to.

Regarding the one of the other teams in the Eastern Conference that has got a superstar that used to play with Kevin Durant, James Hardin, story came out saying that they are ironing out the final details of his one plus one contract that reportedly are going to see him take a $15 million discount. He did an exclusive interview with Yahoo Sports on Sunday, and he said he was willing to sacrifice financially for the betterment of the team. And he also said, I had a conversation with Daryl who's explained how we could get better

and what the market value was for certain players. I told Daryl to improve the roster, sign that we needed to sign, and give me whatever is left over. This is how bad I want to win. I want to compete for a championship. That's all that matters to me at this stage. I'm willing to take less to put us in a position to accomplish that. Of course, they went and got P.J. Tucker, they signed Daniel House, who he used to play with in Houston. They also picked up DeAnthony Melton and Trembling Queen, who was the G League MVP last year.

So they've certainly added to the depth of roster this offseason. This was quite the issue depth for them last year. And they have been able to add to it. There's at least three guys. We'll wait and see on Queen, but Queen is what we think he is, four guys that are like legitimate nine-man rotation guys that can log minutes for your team.

And in the case of both Tucker and House, you know exactly how they fit in a James Hardin world. And that's to go along with, you know, maxi and Embed and what you're. already had going on there. And so that did not lose much and they have been able to add. And it seems like everything is sympathetico on this that, you know, Daryl is going to be able to give Hardin the one and one deal. Hardin is cool with it and it's for less money. So kind of works out perfectly for Daryl. I think we were all sitting back and waiting. Oh my God,

is he going to give him $200 something million? Remember when the trade went down, Bobby Marks went on ESPN. He said, look, they signed him to the max extension this offseason. That's going to end up being the worst contract in NBA history. And it's not even close. It's not even close to that. And so Darrell got his guy in the trade, and now it seems like they are going to come to a pretty good middle ground here

where they're not having to pay him an insane. amount of money in his later years in the league and then have enough cash flow to be able to build some depth around him. And so while we criticize Harden a lot, I mean, this is, this is a I think I was surprised and I think if I was a Sixers fan, I'd be delighted. In the end, he's got to deliver it. He's got to deliver in the playoffs. But in terms of not hamstringing the organization by signing and demanding full-on years money certainly helped the cause in terms of being able to win. Now he's got to perform, right, like James Harder and not like whatever the hell that was last year. This is why I'm buying Hardin stock. I mean, it's a prove it year essentially.

Hardin's playing for that $200 million contract. So even if next year in 2023 when he signs that five-year max, even if things fall off after that, maybe they do. This one year, if you get the best version of James Hardin in the 22-23 season with Joel Lombie who's going to come back even better than he was last year, and if Tyrease Maxie gets a little bit better, if some of your other younger guys get better, if PJ Tucker is able to provide what he has for years

for teams that have contended or had deep playoff fronts, Miami, Milwaukee, Houston, the Sixers are a team that I think are going to be able to exceed expectations given the way things ended. Because the fact is, despite James Hardin not being the James Hardin we've seen for years with him dropping, you know, 50 bombs, 40 points, 15 assist games, Joel Embed when he was set in a pick for James Hardin, those two were still the league's most efficient pick and roll due in the entire NBA. They scored 1.17 points per pick and roll when they ran in a court in the second

spectrum, number one in the NBA. Those guys were still dominant despite Hardin not being his full self. Mbid has never had anybody like James Hardin who can create shots for him. This is the guy who had T.J. McConnell running that ton of pick and rolls for him. That's what Mbid has dealt with in the pick and roll for years. I mean, they draft Markell Fultz who falls apart because they wanted to give him B a pick and roll partner. It didn't work.

They add guys like Shane Milton who were good, solid players, but nobody like Hardin. So I think if you consider the fact that this is a team that can pummel you inside with Joe Allen Bid, if Hardin is able to tap into even 80%, 85% of what he was in his prime self by getting in the quote unquote best shape of his life, making all the changes he's talking about,

if Harden practice what he preaches, the Sixers have the roster to go all the way to the NBA finals and possibly win it. The only question was going to be with them is Doc Rivers the right coach for that. They're bringing back Doc Rivers, it seems, right? Doc Rivers, who has not won anything since he was in Boston with the big three.

Doc, the guy who, for years now, has struggled with adjustments, blown leads in the postseason, that's, to me, the question of this team. They have the depth, they have the stars on paper. They just need health. and will the level of coaching be where it needs to be in the postseason? And obviously, yes, with Hardin, can he do it in the postseason? Will it translate all of that?

Yada, yada, you're right. But Hardin has also never been with somebody like Joelle LeBeat. Hardin has never had somebody like him be. So I think for the first time in Hardin's career, if he's able to be more like James Hardin, he's going to be the second best player almost every night. And some nights he'll be the third best player when Tyrese Maxie is going crazy.

right? So I think the Sixers dynamic at the top of their roster is ripe for a deep playoff on. As long as Hardin comes back and looks the part as he claims he will because he's saying all the right things and approve of year. I'm optimistic about it in that sense.

And you make a good point on the whole maxi thing. I think Maxi's going to be a star. I love Maxi. I love Maxie. And I can't tell you how many people I've asked this summer. I said number one in the NBA at three-point shooting percentage was Luke Canard. Number two was

Desmond Bank. Who was number three? Maxie. And no one, no one can believe that. You know, because that's not what you think about when you think about Maxie. You think about speed. Downhill attacking. Yes. And he showed up

in the playoffs. And so that's what I'm saying. Like Hardin may not even have to be that guy. If Maxie doesn't, he doesn't. If Maxi becomes what I think he's going to become, I think there's going to be several nights where Maxie's that guy, you know, and Hardin still has the, he provides as they talk about with Curry the gravity, right, where these teams load up on him.

You saw it last year with Miami, you know, where they load up on him and just make life hell. I think that Maxi benefits from that, but I also think Maxi in his own right is going to become, I'm a big time player in this league. It took a monster step towards that last season. And by the way, even if Hardin isn't averaging, you know, 28, 29 points per game in the postseason, like he did at Houston for seven, eight years, the playmaking is still there.

He still has the passing vision. So even if he dials down the scoring as he did with Philadelphia and turns up the playmaking, it can work. It can work. And with Joel Abed, I'm telling you, A, B, it's going to come back better.

Embedd is going to come back even better this season. You know, he's pissed about that MVP. No kidding. He's going to come back with a chip on his shoulder. It's going to be a revenge year for him. It's going to be a revenge year for Hardin. Like, they, like, sometimes you look for reasons for motivation. Sometimes you look for a reason to have a chip on your shoulder.

Like, it's clear with Philadelphia what they're going to come back with. Abed, not getting MVP, feeling slighted. He's going to remember every name of every voter, including me, who didn't vote for him and James Hardin. So will Drew Hanlon. Oh, yeah, Drew Hanlon. Drew Hanlon will be texting him the list on a daily basis. He's got, what was that?

It was a Billy Madison where Steve Bouchem. He's got the chart up in his thing, and he's picking them off one by one. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's got all those pictures up on his wall. Your pictures on his wall. Yeah, I hope it's a nice photo. The other cover. we've got the Lakers.

And man, we don't have games, so we got drama. You got LeBron playing in the Drew League after he called Boston a racist city, even though he's a part owner of the Red Sox. And, you know, made everybody mad with his Britney Griner America comments. Then he went and showed up in the Drew League, so those headlines could get off the front page real quick. It's great, great idea. Yeah.

He showed up. He showed up in the Drew League. Four of my city. Yeah. And forgive me for getting the guy's name who runs the Drew League. But this poor guy, he got to be Sean Marks for a day. Because he tells everybody that Kyrie's showing up. He's going to play.

Jim gets filled. People stand around the corner. Kyrie never shows up. Dino Smiley is the one who told Dave McMeneman. We still have a couple games left today. And then six tomorrow. But it sounded like it was going to happen to be a sure bit, but I don't know what happened. Kyrie happened, Dino.

Come on. Ask your marks what happened. Unless, Chris, this conspiracy theory here, unless it was like Lebron's camp leaking that Kyrie would be there to hype up even more interests. Oh, not a bad idea. Yeah, it's not bad, huh? Okay. You actually work at PR.

Okay, so maybe they're the ones that put that out there. Well, he certainly appears to. to have a good relationship with Kyrie Irving now does LeBron James. Not as much with Russell Westbrook. And so we got a lot of conflicting stories going on here. First, you have that Summer League thing,

which is super weird, where everybody walks down to the baseline to kiss the ring of LeBron. Russ is there, and they don't even speak to each other. Right? Like, they don't even, they don't even, like everybody, like, Palankanca's there

and Darvin Ham's there, and everybody's there. They're all down there on the sideline talking to LeBron. Russ is there. LeBron's there and everybody notices that they don't speak to each other. That was strange. Yes. Of course it's strange.

That'd be like me and you showing up at Summer League and we just didn't talk to each other. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be kind of weird, wouldn't it? Well, I guess maybe it would be if we had only done the pod for a year. I mean, I guess we've been six years, so that would be super weird. Yeah, but even if we had done it for a year, we were sitting close to each other. And not even like acknowledge.

It would be odd. Not even like a high, not even like a wave. That's a little strange. And then you have this Chris Haines report. So you tell me, help me figure this out. Los Angeles Lakers are no closer to trading away Russell Westbrook now than they were at the start of free agency. And while they could change before the season starts,

LA's stars are at least preparing for the possibility of playing together next season. LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Westbrook reportedly had a phone conversation where the trio, quote, expressed their commitment to one another with hopes of making it work next season for Chris Haynes. It's also likely organized to quell any reports suggesting that LeBron and Westbrook have a frosty relationship, especially after they both attended the Lakers Summer League games

and didn't interact once, despite sitting across from each other. So now I guess this is the, this is what happened. Everybody started chatterboxing about the fact that it was bizarre that they did not even interact at all. And everybody noticed it. And so now there's the report that came out. No, no. A.D. LeBron and Westbrook, they all got on a phone call together. And they all said, hey, let's do this together.

Meanwhile, Russell Westbrook just fired his agent who came out with a statement. Oh, dude, that statement was wild. I mean, it just, the whole thing is weird. I mean, to me, it reads like, Russell Westbrook doesn't want to be there anymore. Russell Westbrook was in the same way Ben Simmons was up. Just don't say Westbrook.

Yeah, you'll have Rossamina. I won't. I'm going to victim in your mentions. Trust me, I won't. They said, poor Jeremy Sohan, he's the one that's the one that's going to get it next. Skip Bayliss has been calling him Westbrook since 2011, and not until this year, the first year he gets any real criticism nationally. Does it become a problem?

Anyway. Well, no, he said it was because of this kid. You could, you can roll your eyes at that if you want. That's fair. I don't have kids. That's a reason he got, sure. That's the reason he got mad about it because they said that to him at school is what he said. That's what he said.

Oh, yeah. That's what he said, right? So that's why it would be more relevant now. Tell your dad to stop shooting. Simple as that. That's all pretty easy. So some real honesty in life would be nice. Now, that, dad, that voucher, a reconcilable differences.

And it basically says that, you know, he wants to be traded away from, the Lakers, but that L.A.'s got to attach more assets to entice teams to take him, and that only serves to diminish its value. And obviously, if you're the agent, a lot of agents come from that school of thought that if you do get traded, and then the team just buys you out, which is a very likely scenario with Russ's contract, that then you latch on and you sign a minimum deal with somebody, and that's your last the like you're not getting you're not getting a good deal anymore i can imagine if you're the agent you say look let's hope for the best play this thing out you might get another real contract

after this but the minute you become vet minimum guy you're resigned to being vet minimum guy whether that's true or not that is typically the case right and so i don't know what the hell to make of this it it appears that westbrook has no interest in being a part of the lakers and yet, and that was shown with those summer league, then that whole weirdness. And it's also shown by getting rid of his agent, who feels differently than he does. And then on the other hand,

you've got this story that's given to Cressains that all these guys jumped on a phone call and they're going to try to make this thing work. What do you think? Well, I mean, I just want to, you said the story that's given to Cressain, so obviously it's leaked to him by somebody. Why do you think it was leaked to him?

What is the reason for Do you think Clutch leaked this to Chris Haynes? Ross has came like, why do you think this story is out there about the phone call? Let's investigate that first. Why is this out there? Well, let me just say, I'm assuming Chris Haynes was not on the phone call,

therefore someone would have had to tell him about the phone call. I don't know, he might have been on the phone call. Yeah, he might have been the one who made the Zoom. He might have made the Zoom. He got them all together. He might have sent up the links for it. Yeah. But why do you think this story is out there?

Oh, to get the Summer League stuff, stop, you know, from being talked about. Okay. That's why. So stop that. So if they want to stop talking about that, is that to help try to regain some leverage for the Lakers? Is it like, why? What's the reason? Oh, I think because it's better for them.

If they've had the discussions and they're like, yo, there's nothing to do with them. there's nothing to do we can't do anything okay so if Darwin's gone way out of his way to try to say that this is going to be right he thinks that

Westbrook's been counted out he thinks that this can work and what would quick I get to interject Darwin Ham said all that and he also said the same damn thing I've been saying for years with Russ with what he needs to do

to change his game he went on the dan Patrick's show and said on national TV that Russ, that the way he envisions his offensive role is being dynamic, setting screens for LeBron James, sitting in the dunker spot,

cutting to the rim. They want to have a defensive identity and they want Russ to buy in and he said Russ said he will buy in. Everything Ham said is correct. It's common sense. And if Russell Westbrook has issues with that role that Ham outlined, to me that says everything you got to know about Russ

and the Lakers should be doing everything they possibly came to get rid of this guy, if he is not accepting a role from a coach who believes in him with teammates who believe in him. Like, that's sad to me in a lot of different ways, man, because Russ still has it in him to at least adapt his game. Look, Russell Westbrook has become, here's, here we go again, somehow you put me in a position to defend this guy,

he has become the scapegoat for that sorry-ass team. And he is not, it was not his fault. No, no, no. That that team sucked last year. It's all this. No, no, I don't want to get into that. I don't want to get into that. But, and frankly, in the limited minutes that they did play together,

it's not like they were bad. Russ? Yeah, and LeBron and AD are pretty good. Well, yeah, but they never played together. Okay, well, if LeBron and AD are so good, how come that team wasn't a playoff team? I mean, you know what I'm saying? 80 was out of loss.

I get it. And also, 80, AD himself wasn't the same guy last year. They weren't even in the play-in. I know. AD was not A.D. Look, you're right. Ross became a scapegoat. AD deserved more blame. The roster stunk. They made mistakes. All right, we get that. But I don't want to look back,

Chris. Your original question was, why are they doing this? Why are they leaking this? This is the reason. Because there's nothing they could do with them. So you have one choice. Unless they attach those future draftics, the 27 and the 29. They're not doing that. For Kyrie Irving? But would you give

those up for Kyrie Irving? Would I give up I don't think Brooklyn's doing that. I don't think so either. Unless they move Kevin Durant. I mean, as Woj has reported multiple times,

they're focused more on Kevin Durant first. If they were to move Kevin to rant, then perhaps they would do that deal. But the Nets wouldn't do that deal. They wouldn't do Kyrie Irving for Russell Westbrook 27 and 29 unprotected unless they're moving Kevin Durant.

So I think that might be a non-starter for the Lakers, which is why Woj said this weekend. I feel like with Woj, you got to read between the lines with him sometimes, and he said he thinks they're going to make a deal. He straight up said he thinks they're going to make a deal, whether it's for Eric Gordon, Buddy Heels,

Patrick Beverly, somebody like that. Woj said, I think the Lakers will make a deal maybe more than one deal. That's the quote from Woj himself. So I think that's also worth keeping in mind as well, where it's like maybe you would rather get Heald and Gordon and Beverly or two of those three guys

than Kyrie. Like that might make more sense. Like what an upgrade that would be if you're able to flip Russell Westbrook for one or two of those dudes? That'd be perfect. And I think in the meantime, you want those stories to go away

about how we're all not cool with each other to put out the story, we're cool with each other, and we're going to try to make this work. It's the only choice you have in the matter right now. The only choice you have in the matter, and maybe you're right. Maybe it is to create leverage.

The other option is nothing can happen, and they're going to have to play together. Yeah, they might have to. So it behooves them to try to nip this in the bud now and just say, look, all this crap's out there. We know what you're going through. We got this new coach. We're going to try to run this back, and we're going to try to make this right for all of us and get on the same page. I mean, it's the only choice you have. if you are stuck together,

even though it's probably not the desired outcome of Russell Westbrook, LeBron, James, or Anthony Davis at this point. Sometimes you don't have a choice in the matter if your team can't do anything with it, you know? And for what it's worth, I mean, that Fadcher quote, he said, my belief is that this type of transaction

only serves to diminish Russell's value and his best option is to stay with the Lakers embrace the starting role in support that Darmannham has publicly offered. I agree with FACCHR. voucher. For Russell Westbrook, that is for his best. To stay with the Lakers, accept the role that Ham outlined for him, embrace it, become the best version of your new self, do the things that you're best at, do less of the things that you're worst at historically, one of the

worst high-volume shooters in the history of basketball. Don't do that as much. Do more of the stuff that you're good at. Simple stuff, and it could work better. Is it the ideal? No, probably not. I'd still be looking to trade them during the season. I still would be. But for Russell Westbrook, if in his eyes doing that isn't as good as getting traded, getting bought out, signing a minimum contract with like the Wizards and going ham, like, to me, you're just stuck in the middle. Maybe that's what he wants to do. Maybe he just wants to put up big numbers next to Bradley Beal again.

Maybe that's what he wants. Well, in the end. I just think that's unfortunate because I would love to see it work with the Lakers. I would. In the end, the only, though LeBron never gets any criticism, it's his fault he's even a Laker anyway. He wanted him. You're right. He wanted him. They could have got to Rosen. They could have done the buddy heel trade. He wanted him. You're right. It's LeBron's fault. And the reason, and the reason Westbrook got mad about it is because at the end of

the season, right? They said, you know, at the beginning of the year, you said that, you know, AD and LeBron called you and said they want you to be you. They want you to be yourself. and they said, did that happen? And then, you know, obviously what Russ was like, no, that didn't happen. It didn't happen. They didn't want me to be me. They wanted me to be. That presser was.

It's crazy. Right. And now you got egos. He's got to like look at the mirror, man. Yep. I don't know if he ever has. I'm like, I don't know if he ever has. I mean, you're, you're getting into.

Carmelo range, right? Which is like, are you going to reinvent yourself and be able to help a winning team? Or, you know, this happens a lot. This happens a lot with guys that are like number ones. They're the man. When you win MVP's, when you have a Hall of Fame career, when you have all of these things that have happened and the success that he has had doing it his way, that then when it comes a time that you cannot do that anymore,

it's very, very difficult. you know, we've seen it. Yeah. We've seen it with other guys. It's hard, man. You know, it's tough and you've got to fail sometimes. Like I think even just, what was it, two years ago? It was, yeah, 2019-20 season.

Like the version of Russell Westbrook we saw with the Rockets, that's one of my favorite versions of Russell Westbrook of all time. That half season, it's fantastic. He led the NBA in points in the pain. And that's because he, for the first time in his career, stop jacking so many mid-range jumpers early in the clock. He did adapt that year. He began to change a bit.

Even with the Lakers, he still doesn't, Russ has evolved his game subtly. He doesn't shoot as much as he used to. So, I think if he just, if he keeps leaning in more to that, it's going to be for his own benefit.

I think he's a better basketball player than what he showed there. And I think that, you know, it is, look, if you think, You've got LeBron James and if you've got Anthony Davis, flank them with shooters. It's a stupid fit from the very start, and we all saw it. We all saw it.

That's not ideal. The Buddy Heald thing, that's ideal. The Eric Gorda thing, that's ideal. Even look at their title team. He's out there with Caruso. He's out there with Danny Green. He's out there with KCP. Like, you just got to be able to knock down open threes.

That's your role, right? They can run pick and roll with Anthony Davis. He can get in the lane. He kicks it out to you. You got to stand there and you got to make shots. So if you're Kyle Kuzma, if you're KCP, if you're Alex Caruso, they need role players. And guys that can just bang shots. That's all you have to be able to do to play with this guy.

That's it. Just make open threes. You don't have to do anything else. It's unbelievable that they even, you know, not even he sees how. All that just fits with him. And so, you know, the sooner the Lakers figure out, I had a flank LeBron and AD. It's not that hard when you got those two guys.

Do you think they did enough this summer? I mean, they had Lonnie Walker. No. I got Juan Tisano Anderson, Troy Brown. No, they added a bunch of guys that are not reliable shooters. Bananas. I know. I don't think they know what the hell they're doing.

That's my opinion. So, like, LeBron, I mean, he loves living in Los Angeles. He's not signed beyond the season. I wonder, like, there's probably been many years in the NBA. The far majority of LeBron's career, there's been a zero percent chance that LeBron James gets traded. I wonder what the percent chances that this season LeBron were to demand a trade or ask to be dealt, or that the Lakers would say it's on our best interests to move LeBron James. I just wonder what the probability is of that happening during the 22-22-2.

I know she's talked around it, but Jeannie Buss doesn't seem like she's all that thrilled with the LeBron experience. With the Kobe tweet? Yeah, come on. I mean, I don't know how much that was really about LeBron. I viewed it as like a late night, you know. I miss Kobe tweet.

I love them. Not necessarily a deal shot of LeBron. I don't think. Genuinely, I don't think it was. You can say that. Hey, you could say that. There were details in there about what she missed about Kobe. I know.

that apply directly to the situation that hanged. Totally. Totally. Like to not, you know. And so with that in mind for the Lakers, like the guaranteed contracts they have next season are Anthony Davis and Max Christi. That's it. That's crazy.

Horton Tucker and Damien Jones have player options. Scotty Pippin has a qualifying offer like because the teams have his rights. That's it. that's it. So for the Lakers, if things don't work out this year for whatever reason, this roster next year could look

totally different. They might be in the dumpster. They might be with a totally different team contending again. Who knows? We really don't know. Maybe there'll be a clutch Lakers divorce. We don't know. All right, two quick things before we get out of here.

It seemed like we were hurtling very fast-torned, say Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks deal. And I guess was the offer just obviously not good enough yet? Are we just at a standstill? Danny Aange is clearly going to ask for a king's ransom. And so now we've got a little bit of a stare down, it seems. And so you make the choice if you're the Knicks, right? Are we willing to give up the extreme amount of assets that Danny Aange is requiring for us to get Donovan Mitchell?

Or is it more prudent for us to not do that right now and just say, fine, enjoy your time with Donovan Mitchell? You know, because it seemed like we were headed towards that so fast, but, you know, the deal is there. You felt that? You felt that? I didn't really, honestly. How come? What was the report that made you feel that way? When Draft Kings moved it and Fandul moved it and everybody moved it from like plus 300 to,

a minus 250 or minus 300. I mean, that's your signal. Donovan Mitchell's next team. When they put that at minus money, when you got to really lay money in order to make money, that's when you usually know. It tipped us off on the Bancaro thing, even though Walsh came back over the top

and put those odds, but the Bancaro thing, the books had that first. to know the real story behind that. The real story. Who placed that bet to move those odds? Why did those odds move overnight? I don't feel like I'm in a position. I don't have those types of sources in the betting industry.

It doesn't have to be a bet. It can be just information. Yeah, but I'd love to know what's the real story behind those odds moving the way they did? Yeah. I mean, they, because it is fascinating the way that happened at night. And maybe make it still happen. You know what I mean?

Just still happen. I mean with Van Carrow. Like the way they moved overnight, that was, that was wild. Somebody knew something. Somebody knew something. Somebody knew. Somebody knew something. Yeah.

It's very interesting. And those odds got flipped. Oh, God. Look, these syndicates and whoever else, I mean, they got people everywhere. Yeah. They usually, they know what. They know. And yet, like, there's still confusion on draft day.

Like you said, Woj reported that morning, like, that wasn't certain yet. The players weren't told. They're right. Somebody knew. Somebody knew. And so that's kind of how I feel about the Donovan Mitchell thing. That's why when you ask me why I was confident, those odds flipped dramatically to the Knicks being the super favorite. And so I guess, well, I mean, they should be, you know, if he gets traded, they should be the super favorite.

That's where he wants to go. I think it's a little peculiar that, okay, he wants to go there. The Knicks really want him. And so are they just haggling over and we'll see who gives in? Or are the Knicks just not willing to meet the price that Danny Aange wants? Would you give up R.J. Barrett and a deal for Donovan Mitchell? I don't think they want R.J. Barrett because of the contract coming up.

That's what we just talked about with the Grimes thing earlier. Yeah. You got to pay him. That's not what they're trying to do right now. You're not you're not trading for R.J. Barrett and you got to pay him next year. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure Danny H's an RJ guy. Well, you'd also want, right?

Like, you know, the younger guys. The guys have got a couple more years on their contract. Yeah. And they also want. Grimes, Obie, maybe quickly. you want all that. And I've heard like I think in those discussions

they want the Nix picks like the unprotected nix picks not the other stuff. Of course they do. Yeah. Because like all those other picks they're all heavily protected heavily like top 15 protected

top 18 protected and whatnot for years. It's been a pretty good bet that if you've got the Nix pick you've got a lottery pick. I mean you've got a pretty good 20 something year track record now. Yeah. You've probably got a pretty good pick.

If you've got the Nick's pick in the draft. They may change that. What did you think about it? I think it was Mark Stein who said that if they were to get Mitchell, they could become a team that could land Russell Westbrook in a deal to move future salary. And the intentions for that would not be to have Russell Westbrook in their starting backcourt.

It would be to acquire him, likely waive him, and then you have cap space in 2024 or cap flexibility in 2025. I'm sorry, I mixed up my years. you would have cap space in 2023 or cap flexibility in 2024. To me, that's the ideal scenario.

Getting Mitchell and Russ and dumping salary and then you have your number two star in Mitchell, you have a good point guard in Brunson, you get some good young talents still remaining on your team and space.

That's a position where things suddenly get interesting for the Knicks where maybe those picks end up not being good for the first time in decades. Yeah. You do wonder if the Rudy Gobert trade now really hurt the chances for teams to be able to get Mitchell for a price they might have because he was able to extract just an absolute King's Ransom from Tim Conlin and in the Gobert trade. And so now you kind of know the price of do a business with Danny Aange. And I don't know if anybody's going to meet that. It's going to be fast. fascinating to see because, you know, look, Danny may just stand pat and say, fine, we'll bring

back Donovan Mitchell. You don't want to give us what we want to get. Nobody wants to give us, you know, the heat can't find a third team, the Knicks don't want to give us what I'm asking for, fine. And you, then you've got Donovan Mitchell and then, you know, as the season goes on, that's when teams decide, okay, fine, we'll give you what you want. Because it does seem like Danny's pretty dead set on getting a monster return for Mitchell. And if you can't get it, then it'll just wait. They added that one guy. This one really flew under the radar.

This Simone Fontecchio that they signed the jazz from overseas. And I saw the headline and it was like, the jazz signed Simone Vontecchio. So, of course, I typed his name into YouTube. Yo, this dude. has got a shot that is a bucket as pretty a jumper. The bowl spins. Like, if you are teaching someone how to shoot, and like I watched a lot of highlights,

and the damn thing looks the same every time. This guy, like, we'll see what he does in the NBA. He's, I think they say he's 26, but for a guy that I just, like, looked up on YouTube, and then I'm like, all right, I'll check this guy out. I'm like, my God, look at the backspin on that thing. His shot just looks perfect every time, and he's got this high release.

I'm kind of interested in him because he, I've never heard of him before, Simone Fontechio, but this is the benefit of nowadays being able to look up anybody on YouTube. People can go check out this dude's YouTube highlights. And there's like one, there's a video I watch that said, why the jazz wanted Simone Fontechio. And I watched it, and I was like, damn, I want him. This guy makes everything. I know it's a highlight video, but the shot looks so pure.

It's crazy. I mean, he didn't make 100% of his shots, but he did make over 40% of his three is well over. But it just looks so good when he shoots it. Yeah, he's got a good looking shot. Yeah, Fontecchio, it's cool that he came over to the NBA for Utah. Hopefully for Danny Aange, as another Italian forward, he works out better than GJ Detomé did in Boston. Yikes! Gigi was fun.

I like, I like Gigi. He's fun, man. Yeah. He can shoot it, you know? The guy I'm hoping comes over to the NBA is Vasselia Misich, MVP over in the EuroLeague. Misich is flirted with the NBA for a long time now. I believe OKC now has his rights. Okay.

if I remember correctly, but that would not be the team he would be going to. Bulls, bucks, I think where the two teams previously reported as teams of interest for him, I hope message comes over

and gives the NBA a shot, but he's a king. He's a king overseas. Like, he's a god overseas. And he gets paid a lot of money overseas. So there's, there's, like, incentive for him to stay. Whereas here, he's just a role player

and, you know, it's not like he'd be making dramatically more money and be living away from home. way from family. I want to give everybody a heads up throughout the summer for the next couple of weeks. There won't be Friday shows, but we will still be doing

every Tuesday. And if something breaks, it's huge. We'll obviously do an episode. There's very few free agents that are still left out there. There's the sexton thing that's out there. Who knows on a Durant or a rush trade or whatever else?

But we've got some downtime in the NBA now that Summer League is concluded. And so we will be doing once a week for the next couple of weeks until we're ready to ramp up for the season. So keep a lookout for those. And like I said, if something big happens, we'll certainly put out an episode, but hopefully nothing.

If you're a message, the back-to-back, your league champion, EuroLeague final four MVP, back-to-back. If he comes to the NBA, are we doing an emergency pod, Chris? You can. You can. Okay, I'll just do like a five-minute solo.

Yeah, you can. You can post it. Breaking news. Kevin O'Connor on, what is it, Missage? Missich, yeah. He could be good. I think he could be a good NBA player.

It's just, like I said, he's an MVP. Yeah. Overseas. It's like Russell Westbrook. Do you want to score a triple double in Washington or do you want to compete for a title in Los Angeles? What do you want?

Well, he certainly did not compete for a title of Los Angeles. did all last year. It didn't. The ADAD, the dream, the fantasy. He didn't compete for anything. Sometimes, Chris, like Peyton Manning, it's good to rely on your,

on your team's defense. That's what Frank Vogel is muttering to himself in the corner somewhere. Yeah, he is. Limit mistakes, Peyton, like you always have. Limit mistakes, rely on the defense. Just put the offense in good position to score.

He said, I'm a defensive coach, and he went and got me, Russell Westbrook and Carmello Anthony and Dwight Howard. Oh my God. Thanks, Polanka. Who could have seen it? Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always.

Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. Have a good one, everybody.