The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Vinnie Goodwill Discusses Bucks' Big Moves, LeBron & Lakers' Future, Nuggets' Title Threat | 7.2

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

On today’s episode, Vinnie Goodwill of Yahoo Sports joins Bomani Jones to recap some NBA offseason headlines. They start off the show by saying how shocking the Damian Lillard news was (0:58) and how it most likely won't help keep Giannis in Milwaukee (2:16). Continuing with the Giannis topic, Bo and Vinnie say why the Bucks would want Amen Thompson from the Rockets in return (15:24). After the break, Bo explains why it would be a mistake for the Lakers to acquire Deandre Ayton (31:45) and if the Denver Nuggets are now back to being the best team in the Western Conference again (41:15)? Bo and Vinnie round out the show by reacting to the Detroit News article on who Malik Beasley owed money to. (45:30) . . . Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show: Go to zbiotics.com/BOMANI to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use BOMANI at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest join us.

Coming to us live from Yahoo Sports with all the shoes on the wall of any goodwill was going on. Well, what's happening, man. Hey, man. And it is very interesting what NBA free agency has become, right? Because we are out of the era of the big giant free agent deal, right? Where the guy goes from one team to another. The cats have all decided I'm going to just lock in on this deal and then I'm a strong arm my way out of here if it comes down to it. Now, put a pen in that one because I have some thoughts about that very idea. But I don't know if I have been more shocked by any transaction ever in the NBA. Keep it in mind, I woke up one day at four o'clock in the morning and Luca Donchens got traded for Anthony Davis. Okay. I have never been more shocked than you and I, you and I were texting while this is going on because you actually got to talk to people. I'd be here watching television. So we see that Miles Turner has signed a $25 million in your deal

to go to Milwaukee, which was a surprise on a number of levels cheap amongst them. Milwaukee had no cast space. So I'm watching on TV, and it's Tim Bond Timson, Brian Winhorse, and Bonnizant is hypothesized that maybe, maybe they traded Kyle Kuzma because Kyle Kuzma's salary matched up in order to make this happen. And wrong. We found out that they waived Dame Liller. Somebody sent me a text and said they waived Dame Lillard and not a person in the game, just somebody. And I'll apply, hey, I need to investigate this matter. I don't I don't know if I can trust you by very intelligent friend because nothing like this ever happened. They waived him, stretched a hundred ten million dollars out that they owe him over five years

of salary cap, presumably in an attempt to keep Janus. You think that's going to work? Janus will leave if he wants to leave. And I think that's the thing that we miss. We naturally assume that Janus wants to leave when we've seen and we've probably been in situations where you don't leave relationships unless you want to. And plenty of times you get reasons to leave, but you stay because you want to stay. Milwaukee has given him reasons to leave. And then they have gone and done something in the 23rd hour to try to get him to stay.

Now, this isn't getting Drew Holiday in 2020. This isn't getting Dame Littleer two years ago to get him to resign. Bo, think about like this. His extension hasn't even kicked in yet. The extension that he signed when they got Dame Lillard two years ago doesn't kick in until this season. So it's almost like the game just rewinds. Now, on the Dame Lillard thing, it is utterly fascinating for me that 110 over five years. And they're like, you know what? We can swallow that. We can eat that.

That is an above-level, mid-level player that you are saying will be dead money. and we think that will be the best course of action to keep Janus and to the Kumpo. And Miles Turner is only replacing Brooke Lopez. He's not adding on to what they've had over the past couple of years. He's just a younger version of everything that Brooke Lopez is. Stretch the floor, defending space, rebound, block shots. He's just younger. That's all.

And by younger, I mean, he graduated or he left college in 2016. Like this ain't no young dude, Bo. Like he's 30 years old. But this is where the Milwaukee Bucks are at, this level of desperation to the point that the only move left, keeping in mind that they don't even have a point guard, Beau. What are they going to go get Chris Paul, Vincent Denwitty, Russell Westbrook.

Like, they don't have a point guard. But the only move left, the only car left to play is to throw the big Joker on the table and say, hey, y'all, this all we got. Yon is what you want to do. That's all they have left. to be fair, Miles Turner is much younger than Brooke Lopez. That's true.

Right? Like, like, like, like, well, you are correct. I agree with you 100% that it is this, another version of the same thing, right? And I think I would argue the evolution of Brooke Lopez in his career and what his skills are has been fascinating. Because there was a point where he was a seven rebounded game guy at his size, which is crazy. Also, fun fact. for incredible right there are a handful of guys who are active and are the all-time leading scorer of a franchise in the NBA right LeBron James is Damien Lillard is um who's the other one

I was just thinking about Russell Westbrook he is he gave me a little more time I could probably stop oh I said LeBron James you give me a little time I could cook up some more right I think Step Curry now was the Warriors guy, right? Yes, yes. And one of those people is Brooke Lopez. For the Brooklyn Nets. He's the all-time leading score in the history of the mostly New Jersey net. Like he did a lot of New Jersey.

No, he was Brooklyn. But either way, fun fact about Brooke Lopez. I say this, though, if you're Milwaukee, future, what future? We got no chance if we're burning 50 a year for two years, right? They are betting on capital. increases that will certainly occur, that will smooth this out just a little bit. But I also think they're looking at this one. I don't think they think that Yonis is leaving. And at this point, I don't think Yonis is going to want to leave. And I got a couple of reasons behind that.

Number one, I remember once I was in a negotiation with a place and had a pretty strong push from another place to get me, but I didn't want to do that, right? And I remember telling the first place, hey, don't make me do this. Like, I'm telling you right here, this is what I wanted to be. But if you make me do it, I mean, of course, they damn near did. But I'm like, don't make me do this. Okay. That's where I feel like Yonis has been with Milwaukee, right? Like, look, man, I really, really, really want to do this, okay? Don't make it to where, don't make me look stupid, right? Don't make me feel foolish for being loyal to what's going on here, right? Like, that seems to be the way that he's going about this, but I think that this CBA, and I'm curious your thoughts about

this, while we look at all the things that I think are ultimately negative about this CBA, and the biggest thing that I hate about it is they're basically rewarding incompetence, or at the very least, they are penalizing competence, right? Like, they can't. came up with this salary cap way back when, and then they had to put the Larry Bird provisions in because they realized, oh shit, we're making it where the Boston Celtics can't keep Larry Bird. That's a terrible idea, right? Like, just as a principle. That's a terrible idea. And so they did all these things with the cap to try to make it such that you can keep your own team together without just going and poaching players from other teams. That seemed to be what the provision was. Then it reached a place where they were like, yo, man, now we can't get these guys to stay anymore because they decided they wanted to put the max salary provision in. there. And that made it such that the difference between the max and what you get in these other places, by and large, was not that high. Then they kept doing more, right? They added the idea of the supermax, for example. So that now they make it even more, make it easier for the teams to keep the guys, but that still wasn't really working that well in order to keep guys. Now they set

these aprons up, right? And aside from the fact that the aprons, you know, have these Punitive tax penalties when you go over the second apron and everything else that comes with it. What it really does that I think is most interesting and quite honestly problematic is that once teams get into these second aprons, it's what you can't do to improve your team. It's the trades and acquisitions that you can't make in order to get your team just a little bit better. So once you decide to go in a second apron, hard cap is basically where we are, except it's not even just a hard cap. You can't maneuver. Right. Right. So it's one thing to be like, you know, you can't go.

add more players because then it's too much, but now we can't even make little moves. I say all that to say this. If you're yonness, if a team makes a move to get you, how unlikely or how likely is it that you're going to be right back in this same situation in 18 to 24 months looking around like what y'all got, what y'all going to be able to do for me? And now we're going to be doing this same exact thing over and over again. So to me, it feels like The owners have finally gotten what they wanted to meet at the expense of everything else. But they finally got what they wanted. We're going to make these dudes stay.

These guys that we think sell all the tickets, we're going to make, we're going to make it really hard for them to leave. Well, it's funny. You said penalizing confidence. I think they're penalizing excellence, right? And now players, it's going to be so much more important. Because I'm going to get to a point. It's going to be so much more important to your last point about where players are drafted now because before it would be you could spend seven years somewhere and then once you

get into a certain place where you could get 25% in the cap then you go somewhere sign a shorter deal then sign a longer deal and you're in the place that you want to be that no longer exist and folks let us let us appreciate bomani having his Samuel L Jackson and jungle fever moment where he says don't make me beat somebody over the head I'll do it that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying. I'll do it. I'll do it. That was, that was very much, I've been there a couple times. One time it worked out the way I wanted. One time it was just like, all right, cool, you know, we'll do this. Cool. You got it. All right, man. Wesley Snipes. All right, man, here, here. Just don't make you beat somebody over the head. No, but I think the CBA,

amongst other things has landlocked players into deciding either you want the money that you are going to be underpaid for anyway, right? LeBron underpaid. Janus underpaid. Like the top of the top level guys, they know how much they're worth to their franchises so they can't take a penny less. The union has set it up so that if Janus takes less, then that sets the president for every other superstar coming down the pike. LeBron has to take the max. He absolutely cannot afford for the future help of the league and the players in the league not take a dollar less at this stage because of all the discounts or because of the discount he took in Miami. Well, I think his first year he was getting $13 million. Oh, that is mid-level exception money now.

And that's the reason why he ain't taking a dime less ever again. I tell you, he did it once and y'all ain't give him no credit for it. not never. So with Janus, and I'm with you on the point that not only it makes players stay and you wind up being in an exact same situation, for me it's twofold. If I'm a, if I'm a rival team and I'm looking at the NBA moving so much faster, like we never would have thought Luca Donchish would have gotten traded. We never, we don't know how many times we thought Kevin Durant would be traded, like all the machinations and things that have changed over the NBA just in the last 24 months. right? I'm still operating under the guys that maybe this don't work and I'm going to keep my powder dry and I'm going to hold my war chest just in case Janice says, you know what, I've had enough. That's why if I'm the Houston Rockets, yeah, I will give you but so much Phoenix Suns for Kevin Durant,

but I'm keeping my Javari Smith. I'm keeping my Cam Whitmore's. I'm keeping Reed Shepard. I'm keeping a man Thompson who was never going anywhere, anywhere anyway. I'm keeping all of my young players just in case Janus decides I've had enough. Because you can go from saying, I'm a Milwaukee buck for life, to saying, man, in a week Eastern conference, we couldn't get it done in 2026 to saying, get me up out of here. If I'm Janus and there is no clear cut place besides Houston, I'm saying, let's play this out for at least a year. Because then he has one more year left after next year, and then he goes into an option year. Not saying that, because nobody goes into free agency anymore, right?

The stars don't go into free agency anymore. You get traded and you get your extension. That's how it goes. But if I'm, if I'm Janus, I'm playing this out for at least one year so that all these other teams that maybe want to make a run for me, they get your draft picks in order, you get your house in order, and then you go from there. All right, but let me throw something else out here.

And I feel bad for Janus, because I can often feel like this in my own. life and it doesn't feel good. But if I'm Milwaukee, say Yonis come upstairs and say, I want to trade. Duly noted, we're going to work on finding you a trade. You tell him, Yonis ain't going come out here and play hard, bro. You tell him he doesn't. Oh, that's just what he does. It's what he does. It's what he does. It's what he does. Like, this is not, James Hardin says he wants to trade. You need to go trade James Hardin right now. Okay. before somebody got to whip his ass in the locker room.

You need to go trade James Harden, right? Because that's in Houston. That's what it almost came down to. Look, it was a bunch of new, what was it, DeMarcus cousins? John Wall. PJ Tucker was on that team. Like James Hardin.

Hey, brother, myself, person. And I believe the word that I saw used by at least one of them was disrespect. They felt as though James Hardin was behaving in a disrespectful manner. And this is post-Achilles boogie. This is great. He had zero of the Fs to give. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, man.

No, man. And they had to get James Hardin out of there. Be honest, Yonis going to show up. Look, remember when Kevin Durant asked for a trade from the Nets? And they was like, yeah, gotcha. Okay. That's nice. Yeah, they, Kevin Durant, they treated that, they treated that Kevin Durant.

trade proposal like it is with Trump when they bring him to daily briefing. You're like, ah, cool. Talked that bitch over his shoulder like, nothing ain't even happened. Like, what I need to know with that? What I need that for? Are you going to be kidding me, right? And so I think in part, that's kind of where if I'm the, because here's, if I'm the bucks and we've all talked about the Rockets.

And I think if you are a Milwaukee fan, you absolutely say, we have to get I'm in Thompson in such a trade. if you are a Rockets fan, you're saying, we're not giving Amin Thompson up in that trade. If I am Milwaukee, I am very clear with Yonis. Look, if you want to go to Houston, that's cool. But I'm telling you right now, if they don't give us Thompson, we're not doing it.

Right. And for what it's worth, if I'm the Rockets, I'm probably doing. You have to. You hold your nose and you do it. Because if you're getting Janus at age, okay, Janus is 30 now. He'll be 31 in December. and you look at the years of excellence that Janus has had, these elite years.

Let's just go back to, let's say, 2018, right? Let's say 2018 is the first year where Janus has turned into a absolute superhero, and then 2019 was his first MVP. He's been a superhero for seven years at 611, 240 pounds, with the beating on his body. And let's just say the lack of outside development from 3.1.4. shooting. So his game is predicated on power and strength and speed and all these things that diminish over time unless you are LeBron James by and large. Right. So you, if you're going to

acquire him, I'm saying, if you're going to acquire him, you can only play for two years at a time, right? You're going to get two rings out of it, but you're going to play for those two years with him and KD, and you're going to be okay with it. Right. So here's my question for you. on that idea. Because I think you're correct about that, right? All of us are wild excited about I'm in Thompson. Okay. Yes.

And I think, and you tell me if I'm wrong, he's taller and he's more slender, but I think the comp that we're really looking at is Kauai Leonard, right? Like that to me is like a guy that has the potential to be the best perimeter defender in the NBA can go and get his own shot. He's slender, but he's strong, right? I feel like he's got a kind of no must, no fuss, offensive game that is similar to that. The thing is, Kauai Linder turned himself into an excellent three-point shooter. And I'm in Thompson as it stands right now as a mediocre to bad three-point shooter.

I bring all that up to say, I think that we're operating on an assumption of how good Thompson is going to be that is actually a touch optimistic, especially considering he's 22, right? This is not a guy who is like, you know, came into the league at 18, right? it's a big risk if you're the Rockets, but if you decide you're playing the Yonis game, then I think this is a dude you trade. You can't have this with so many ways. But then the problem, Vinny, is that Amit Thompson does not make a lot of money right now.

And so if you do make this trade and you have Yonis, you have Yonis and Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant, who's going to want some more money after this. So then what do you do? So, Bo, I think there's something to that, right? I think the comp for all of these hypotheticals, deals is the Sam Presti combo deal, right? Where we get Shea Gilders Alexander, you get Paul George, and we get every single

draft pick known to mankind. Let me ask you this. And not to change the subject, but let me just ask you as far as worth of a trade. If the L.A. Clippers win a championship, do we think of that deal as so lopsided? If they win one championship, even if they win the goddamn bubble championship in 2020, Do we think that the LA Clippers get fleeced by Sam Presti in the Oklahoma City Thunder? Is that trade worth is weight in gold for one championship? So that is an interesting question because it raises this.

What is a championship worth depending upon the franchise, right? For example, the one championship that the Broad won for the Cavs means way more than the one championship than the Broad won for the labels. They are not the same. Yep. Right. To me, if the Clippers, the Cullipers had won a championship, everything that you could ever imagine is worth it. I actually make the argument that for the Clippers,

that trade was not nearly as lopsided as advertised. They had some horrible luck. And some of it, I mean, it's just what Cawai Leonard's body was. They had some injury issues with Paul George. also. But I don't think that we can be so short-sighted in our memories to lose sight of the fact that that trade completed what started with the Chris Paul trade in the fall of 2011 and completely legitimized this franchise to the point where they could have their own arena and everything that came with it. You know what I mean? Like, and the Clippers, by the way,

are not a bad team. Like they were still in a position to make some moves and do some things and make some stuff happen, right? It just, just Kauai Leonard was more tattered than they had understood. But if they had won that championship, yep, you make that trade every single time. It is a no-brainer. The question is, how much is one ring worth it to the Houston rise? And I was going to say that. I was going to say that because Houston has a championship lineage.

Houston has won championships. They have gone to the NBA. They went to the NBA founders twice in the 80s, twice in the 90s, been a contender over the, you know, the Daryl-Mory James Harden years, like they aren't the little engine that could. And they are the team or the franchise that you made this point before. They are very welcoming to stars.

When you look at their all-time list, you're like, man, you're okay, yeah, you drafted a king. You traded for Clyde, you traded for Charles, you traded for Chris Paul, traded for James Harden, you trade, you know, Moses Malone, even going back, those guys. Like, you wind up having... Very.

You know, And keep it in mind when they drafted Ralph Samson and Elijah Juan, what that meant in both cases. Yes. And duplication, who cares? You're going to the NBA finals. That's what that meant. That legit, I mean, let's appreciate the fact that Hakeem Elijah Juan in year two put out, put out arguably the greatest center of the modern era in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

And then basically gave the works to the greatest front line we've ever seen. Larry Bird, Kevin McKale, Robert Parrish, right in year two. That was Akeem, Abdul, Elishoan. Not, Hakeem. That's correct. Can I make my quick point about Akeem starting with A, Elijah Wahn that everyone used to remember, and it is the greatest compliment that anybody could ever make. I grew up in Houston.

Never once heard nobody say we could have had Jordan. That's the win. You know, how crazy that is. That's the win. And by the way, baby, I don't know. anybody who had the majority of his prime completely wasted by the front office. You can blame it on the dope, right? But the dope was Mitch Wiggins and Lou Lloyd. This is like the, the dope was not, the dope did not take out Ralph Samson. Everything else got Ralph Samson, but the dope did not take

out of Ralph Samson. It was Elijah Ward and his lonesome out there. And he won a ring with it. And by the way, Elijah Wad told the Rockets, I want to trade. And Charlie Thomas, the dead owner told him you can call me whatever you want, but I got tickets to sell. And all Elijah won did was say, okay, and then two years later won a championship and then the next year won another. Look, the fact that he went to them and said,

I want to trade, that's like me saying, I want to date with Kelly Rowland. You know what we going to do? Laugh. He said they wanted a trade after they accused him of faking an injury. It was terrible. And they were like, nope.

everybody's just going to have to get over it. And you know, we're going to give you, we're going to give you Otisthorpe, Sam Cassell, Kenny Smith, and Vernon Maxwell, go make it happen. Make it enough. And he made it enough. And he put out in consecutive years, y'all. Hold on. We would have got you, Robert Ory, but then that wasn't actually going so good.

So we decided to trade him to get you Sean Elliott, except he needed a new kidney. We just didn't know it at the time. And so they sent Robbore back. Can you imagine? I mean, these sorts of things have happened before, right? But I don't know what it would have been like in this day and age, the Robert ory for Sean Elliott trade. It was Robert Ory and Matt Bullard for Sean Elliott.

Sean Elliott failed his physical. It was years before the kidney got replaced, but he failed his physical. And Matt Bullard now does TV for the Rockets, and Robert Ory became Big Shot Bob in the 95-5s. Think about it like this. In a two-year span, the San Antonio Spurr said, we're going to trade Sean Elliott for Dennis Rodman. And then they traded for Sean Elliott again

and got them back for the Lolo. For the Lolo. And then they decided to take that gift horse in the mouth and say, you know what, Dennis Rodman, you're a little too crazy for us. We're going to trade you for Will Purdue. gave him away. They were like, just whatever you got.

Just, just, just. You want him. You want him more to, just name something. Name a price. And we're going to say yes. I mean, I don't have a lot. Name a price. I promise you, I don't have a lot.

Name a price. Okay, man. Okay, I'm serious. Will Purdue. Sold. Sold. Sold. They would have took Will Purdue.

They would have took Ed Neely. they would have took Bobbeth Hansen, they would have took John Paxon, they would have took Bill Winnington. What other white boys am I forgetting that the Bulls had? Because Phil Jackson love to keep a couple. Jack Haley. They kept Jack Haley. They had to keep Jack Haley for Rodman. For Dennis Rodman. That is correct. God bless his soul. God bless his soul. Sorry, Jack. Yes. But to your point about, but to your point, circling it back about a man Thompson, The question I have is, why does he need to be a three-point shooter to be even an elite offensive player?

I think he needs to be a better than 28% three-point shooter. Right. I don't need him to be, I don't need him to shoot like Brad Beal, right? But 28, we can leave you alone. That is what we, that is what you can't have. And that is the point that he's at now. Now, of course, with Durant now, they'll be able to spread the floor a little better, and that'll make him a bit more dangerous.

But the reason to keep Amman Thompson is not what he can do for you right now. It's the idea and thought that you have a real live, front line, franchise player for many years. And he's a guy that all the guys who play basketball, they see it. They immediately see it with him. I'm probably going to get Yonis, right? Like, it's in the same situation as the Clippers. We're going to get Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Okay, but you got to give a shame.

all right, we'll see what happens. Now, here's the question I have for you. This is a general philosophical question that I ask NBA, executives and coaches. Can you build a team beyond a two-year window? Like, can you look beyond two years in today's NBA? Right. Because the game moves so damn fast. All the things we thought existed two years ago, just a short two years ago after Denver

won their NBA championship, oh, they're going to be here for a while, right? And we're going to talk about them. We're like, oh, they're going to be here for a while. No, we're not really sure. Like, so I think because of free agency and everything that happens in trade markets and Achilles injuries and all the other type of stuff, you can't plan beyond two years in today's NBA. I don't think that's a good thing. I think some people laugh and think, oh, it's more like the NFL. I think it's too seismic. There's not enough connected tissue for fans to build a upon, for the media to build upon, for your own storylines, if it's too much change, too much like violent change. But that's the way that the NBA is now. I don't think you can build

beyond two or three years. These owners want the NFL, and this is what they've gotten, and we're going to see whether that's something anybody actually wants. But coming up next, we are going to get to talking about the Denver Nuggets, but we're also going to talk about what is, or more specifically, is not going on with the Los Angeles Lakers. Let me tell you about Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic. Zibiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works.

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Drink one before drinking and wake up feeling great and ready to take on the next day and all that summer has to off. Go to Zbiotics.com slash Beaumani. to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Beaumani at checkout. Zbiotics is back with a 100% money bag guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash Beaumani and use the code Beaumani at checkout for 15% off. Back here with Vinnie Goodwill, I went over it on the show on Monday, the LeBron James soap opera of sorts.

And again, I get it from where LeBron's coming from, right? Like, LeBron's thing is you got to put the screws to these cats every year to get it done. But I think, again, the new CBA doesn't really make it possible to make moves in the way that he is talking about and be sustainable on it. Now, of course, if you only got one or two years left, you're like, fuck a future, dog. Like, y'all need to go ahead and make this happen. There are all the things that come with it. But I just want to ask you about this one thing. Okay.

The Lakers need a center. We have known that they needed a center since the middle of last season when they made the trade for Mark Williams and then they said he failed his physical. But Mark Williams just got traded to somebody else who apparently thinks he going to be all right. That is its own story for another day. I saw Lakers fans hoping that the Lakers would get Dianne. Okay. I was a DeAndre Aiton defender for a while or a defender of him in the sense that I did not think, I think that when you make a draft pick, your hope is to get a good player and you can't get so caught up

and whether or not somebody else got a better player. And I thought that Phoenix got a good player when they had them. And I would note that Phoenix made it to the NBA finals before Dallas did, right? I don't know if they wind up with Chris Paul and all the other stuff. if they get Luca how they, like there's all kinds of things that are there. And I don't think Luca had any interest in going to play for Phoenix, even if their coach was his Slovenian home, right? All of that stuff.

However, in 2022, which wow, long time ago now. When I D'I. did not go into the second half of game seven against Dallas. Flat out did not go. That was losership right there. And from what we are hearing out of Portland, where he missed a game because the roads was frozen. And look, baby, I know you from the Bahamas, but come on now.

They said somebody to get him and he was like, no, I'm straight. They said somebody to get him. I cannot believe that you would be trying to win a championship and think that bringing this guy is a good idea. Like, the only reason you do that at a few of layers, if you try to make LeBron quit. Can you imagine like what? LeBron, like look,

only person that's going to be late all the time is me. It is, okay, I'm going to start back to what I saw when I saw DeAndre Aiton. I saw a big man with decent feet, a good touch, and a decent enough rebounder. You know what I saw? I saw Patrick Ewing, right? I remember like seeing, oh, Patrick Ewing, drop step, fade away. I saw the skill set. I didn't see like the meanness.

I saw like a, you know, a nice dude to talk to in a way. Like, he's a good dude to talk to. But I didn't see the mean. I didn't see the nasty. And I'm like, man, I hope he gets it somewhere along the line, somewhere along the way. And then it doesn't happen. And then when Portland drafts someone to take his job a year after they get him,

he becomes like the kid's biggest mentor and cheerleader. Yo, you sit at somebody to take, you try to take my spot flash. I'm not going to encourage you to take my spot. I'm going at your neck. They just bought him out. They bought him out,

which shows you how much they want you to go. Like whatever you've done. And remember, Chauncey Billups is not one of these firing brimstone head coaches. He's a former player who is very sympathetic to players.

This is not one of these PJ Carly. Lissimo type dudes who don't have any, you know, lack of a better phrase, like an understanding of today's player, like Chansy understand today's player. And he's like, nah, this ain't it. So now you're going to send, listen to this part, Bo. You're going to send D'Andre Aiton, not to LeBron James' team. You're going to send DeAndre Aton to J.J. Reddick's team? Do you want that man to have a heart attack on the sidelines?

Do you want to see that man's timbre, that man's vein in his neck pop out? during an actual game. That's what y'all want to see? That's you want to see, Rob Polinka. Okay, cool. Go ahead. Entertainment.

Let me throw the other level on this. Forgive me if I interrupted you, we got a little, you know, traffic lag game, right? But I was going to throw this out here at you. We got the one year that you could rest assured that you're going to get tip-top shaped,

Luca Dodgich. And I say this because I watch Shaquille O'Neal play basketball for 20 years. Okay. Get a new coach. Make a move doing two. new team or whatever, you going to get it, all right? But people are who they are. Okay. Luca did not turn into a new person. If he does not have that dedication and that vigilance about it, then it's not, it's not naturally within him. I don't think you're going to develop

it in an offseason because people were picking on you. That's not it, right? And so with Shaq, Shaq year 2000, for example, that MVP year. We never saw Shaq like that before. We never saw Shaq like that after. The next year he was still pretty good, but that's when we start, isn't that when we started getting into I got hurt on company time? So I heal on company time. Right? Like that's when we started. Yeah, so year after that, but you're right. You're right. You're right. We start trending in that area, but you're right. Yeah. Because he is who he is. And I'm not saying that, I'm not trying to say that as an insult necessarily, but I'm just saying, though, that's his inclination. Kobe Bryant was that

from day one. LeBron James was that from day one. Luca Donchage at 25 or 26 years old, I don't think you're going to suddenly turn into that guy. So you're going to get that guy this year. And then you're going to bring in a dude who's been acting like a loser for the last three, four years? Now, I look up a name. I will look up a name. I will give you a name of a player who may dispute that, may dispute that. I'm looking up his age. I will give you a three-time MVP who got in the best shape of his life at age 27. after they shipped away one of his drinking buddies. Okay, let me hit you with a counterpoint on that.

Because who you are talking about is Larry Joe Bird. Right? Larry Bird's problem could be fixed by trading his drinking buddy. Luca Dantzich is the drinking buddy. You know what I'm saying? Everybody, mama swear the other one is the problem. I put it to you like this. And for those of you who don't know this story,

I want to say it is in the year 1984, the Celtics trader Rick Roby to Phoenix for Dennis Johnson. And the big reason was that Rick Robey was dragging Larry Bird down. And so they got them out of there. They brought in Dennis Johnson. Obviously, they won two more championships, right? this is this is this is it i totally get it our problem with lucca has not been he spent too much time hanging with nobody right you don't we don't quite have the answer to what that is and i will just

also note that while it's not the same thing larry burr threw out his back running a jackhammer in his old driveway which implies not the greatest dedication to his physical fitness for basketball Or just decision-making. Right? Just decision-making. That's all. Just decision-making. Not the smartest move.

That's all. You're not locked in enough on the task. Like, this is not what it is. So maybe you're right. Okay. Maybe Luca can go and he can turn this thing into whatever it is. I'm just saying the only one we can be sure of is this one. This is the chance.

This is the opportunity. What we get with LeBron, I have no idea what is going to happen. But they do need a center. I would take old Al Horford before I took DeAndre 8. I mean, look, the question becomes, do you try to feel all of your needs now? Or do you keep a little powder dry, see what happens in the regular season, and then see if you can get, I would say see if you can get a Walker, Kessler, out of Utah. But that means you got to deal with Danny Aange. No, let's just move on from there because Danny Aang is going to try to...

You're not going to win that trade. Nope. Rob you for all that you got, right? I'm a proponent of don't just go and chase bad money just because you need to fill a position. I am a proponent of you're not coming in the training camp with nobody there because, especially on LeBron James' team. If you have nobody there, what happens? LeBron James says, all right, y'all, I'll do it. You can't have LeBron they're doing that no more.

He's not the stage of his career that you can do that. And the question I have in general for LeBron and Luca Donchish boat is, can you fulfill all the objectives for what Luca Donchich needs and for what LeBron James needs all at the same time? The only thing they both need in conjunction is athletic wings that can help defend because neither one of them are equipped to do it. But LeBron needs shooting and Luca needs vertical spacing. You can't go get that when you get two players on super big boy maxes back to your point.

You can't do that in today's league. You can't go and get mid-level exception. And not all maxes are, when I say big boy maxes, the rookie max, totally different than the big boy max. The big boy, that extra 5%, that extra 10% is a huge, huge change in what you can afford and what you cannot afford in the open market. And you get two dudes on Super Big Boy Maxes that leaves you next. They, Bo, they make $100 million together on the same team. What are we doing? It's tough, man.

It's tough, tough, tough. But I got two things I want to hit before we get out of here. One, both kind of quickly, but we'll get it right. one of them is we talked about Denver. And I think Denver did a lot by doing a little because Denver's problem was depth. Denver's problems was depth and an unreliability of Michael Porter Jr., which I attribute to his body, not because there was something wrong with him. I don't think we talk nearly enough about what it takes for Porter to simply play basketball.

All the contraptions they got because it dropped foot and stuff like that. They traded here for Cam Johnson. They are not the exact same player, but they are reasonable facsimiles of one another. And Cam Johnson is going to give them much of what they hope to get out of Michael Porter, right? They got Bruce Brown, and the big one is Jonas Valchunis gives them something they have not had, which is an actual real live backup to Yokic because they just get destroyed in the non-yokage minutes. I think they back up. Like I'm not saying they're the best team in the West, but they back up.

I think look at the fact that you got Cam Johnson who shot 39% from three on seven threes a night and he wasn't playing with Nicola Yokic. Do you mean to tell me what type of looks he's going to go get? They get Tim Hardaway, Jr., who's just a capable vet, just a capable vet. Think about it like this, Beau. If Aaron Gordon's hamstring was not made of paper mache a couple of months ago, they may beat the eventual NBA champions, the 68 win NBA champions in a seven-game slug fest, and all I needed was a second guy. All I needed was a second dude that I could depend on while I take on the bulk of everything else of all the responsibility, and you go and get me a couple of dudes.

That speaks to me and says to me a bunch of different things. Remember how Boston won the championship last year, and everybody said, oh, Boston's going to go on a run. and everybody in the East just better pack up for the next couple of years because Boston's on it. The Knicks of all teams said, we're going to go get Carl Towns and McHale Bridges. And then they put the Celtics out. Mitigating circumstances, a bunch of stuff. You know, Chris Has Porzingia's got the cooties and all that, but they put the Celtics out, even before Jason Tatum went down with that Achilles.

Now you look at the 68 win champs and you see Houston loading up, Denver's loading up. We can't even talk about the Lakers or Golden State or any of these other teams or Dallas. because these other teams are chasing you and chasing you with aggression. Denver didn't even have the resources and got back up, making a lot out of a little. We might be spending next June in Denver if Nikola Yolkich is healthy and that team is put together. Look, what I don't like about this CBA and in line with what you just said, having the best team, having the best player in the NBA should make you a contender for a time. Yes.

I don't like this idea that they have the best. He's still the best player in the NBA. Shay, great job, buddy. I ain't no hating, baby. But number one guy is still that dude over there. That should make you a championship contender. Instead, they just did not have the depth, right? They could not keep the guys.

And we weren't, we're talking about keeping guys like Bruce Brown. You know what I mean? Like the dudes that were talking about them needing to keep in order to keep it up and they couldn't. That is what I don't like. But I think they managed to support. I think they managed to put enough around him to where they don't have to run him into the ground, right? They replaced, I was always

a big Porter guy. Like, I, I am not a big Jamal Murray guy. I think Jamal Murray is entirely a product of playing with Nicolio. And we're going to see how it goes with him with all these injuries and how they stack up and how he looked when he, when instead of playing with Yokic, he had to play with dudes from

Canada. You know, it wasn't really, it wasn't really hitting the same. You know what I'm saying? So we're going to see there. I don't want to cut, I hate to cut that so sure. I just have to. I have to get this in. Okay. We talked on Monday about Malik Beasley,

and I talked about it in larger terms, about how this gambler stuff is going to be a thing and everything else, just, you know, not kicking a dead horse because the horse is still limping around, just making sure y'all know I've been talking about this for a minute. But the Detroit news, your alma mater, put out a story about Malik Beasley, formerly of the Detroit Bistons,

who I don't think will be of the Detroit Bistons. And you had not seen this, which is disappointing, because you're one of the few people in a, you know, who's outside of Detroit, who actually has a Detroit News subscription, and therefore you could have seen this article that I had to trust the snippets that came from other people. Okay. I'm going to read you some things about who he owes money to. And I quote, in March, Beasley was sued in Detroit's 36 district court for failing to pay $14,150 in rent at the Stott.

The historic high-rise apartment building in downtown Detroit is owned by Bedrock, Detroit, is owned by Bedrock Detroit, the real estate arm of the business empire built by Dan Gilbert. Take a gift. There you go. There you go. That's right. So Malik Beasley owes his landlord, Dan Gilbert. Okay?

I have more. Last month, Beasley was sued again by the stock for failing to pay $7,355. A hearing is scheduled for July 15th. Oh, a couple of weeks. Okay. In January, a celebrity barbershop with a long roster of NBA stars won a $26,827 judgment against Beasley. The barbershop, Cairo cuts, operates in Milwaukee, where Beasley paid for the Milwaukee Bucks from 2022 to 2024. How do you run up a $27,000 bill at the barbershop? I was about to ask that very, who's getting haircuts?

cuts. How many kids you got? Do you got a bunch of kids? Y'all on a friends and family plan? You get a hair cut every day. Hold on. I need to know this, man. If y'all from Milwaukee, tell me about what's going on at Cairo cuts. Because apparently they're cutting the fuck out of head. Tell me, tell me what they got. Tell me what they can do for me. Because if that's what they, like $26,000. Okay, but, but, but wait. There's more. This is where we got more. In January, a Minnesota dentist won a $34,390 default judgment against Beasley, according to court records. The dentist, Hassan al-Shahabi, of Delicate Smiles, started garnishing Beasley's paychecks from the Pistons in February court record show. The debt has not been satisfied according to court documents.

Malik Beasley has made $60 million in the NBA. And my question about that guardishman is, who else is on his check if the dentist ain't got his $35,000 yet? Because, you know, don't forget Malik Beasley also once pulled the yop on the wife and kids, right? Or the woman in kids. I don't know if it was the wife. But I'm assuming he got to send checks to them. I, Tom Havischer would a very good thing about how let's be careful about being sure about what we're, what they're investigating Beasley for because he had some compelling evidence to some of what's come up. There's reason to believe that he did not do the things that they said. And I think that that's all totally fair. Itch, kitch, yeah, yeah, y.

All that stuff is totally true. However, them clips of him trying to hurry up and cover the spread at the end. Oh, no, no, no, no. I see what time it is there. And I got to be honest, if you're the Pistons, after they start garnishing checks, y'all got to start looking at these dudes a little bit more closely, you did? It's a weird thing, right? Like, you owe Dan Gilbert.

like that is that is the wild thing to me a man that I don't think I would want to owe money to I don't think he has a sense of humor about those things um Dan Gilbert was a former bookie at Michigan State right I hope that's not slander right right I'm not hoping that's right hope the right time don't get sued for this I'm sorry but um yeah that's Dan the Pinky might be that man's real name in East Lansing or something like that. So, no, this is, Bo, this is fascinating to me because, A, he was about to sign three for 42. He was playing his ass off last year. Like, I think he came second in threes to Anthony Edwards, who all of a sudden turned to Clay Thompson, right? The bad thing for this is, you go back and you look at those games and you're like, oh, yeah,

it's trying to cover the spread. Or the worst thing is, and I don't know. know if you remember this, Bo. Do you remember the last play of the Piston season last year? The very last play. You probably don't. You remember the second of last play, which was Jalen Brunson. The last play of the season was a perfectly executed out-of-bounce play to set up Malik Beasley on the right wing for a wide open three, which would have tied the game and sent it to overtime. That's right. He dropped the pass. And I'm not saying that to say it. Oh, look at what happened there. Because he hit six threes in the second quarter when they were on the verge of getting blown out.

I say that to say, when stuff like this comes up, people start becoming Twitter detectives, amateur-ass detectives and saying, look at that. He threw the game. And for me, if there is one sport that cannot afford a scandal of integrity or of validity, it is the NBA. because every time you look up, every single team that wins a championship, everybody points to and says, oh man, the league wanted Oklahoma City to win.

They wanted Oklahoma City to win? What type of crack are you smoking? But that's what people believe with the league. Oh, the refs wanted this to happen. The league put Scott Foster here, blah, blah, blah. And now you've got to put the players and prop bets and over unders into this. And man, ain't this just weird to talk about?

Ain't even just this weird to read? Yeah, and so I have this question for the league. Are they going to reach a point where it's like, and there are jobs like this? We got to run credit checks. Like, can you afford to sign a dude that owns a bunch, owes a bunch of people a bunch of money at this point in time? Because, like, we're going to find out what it comes down to with this dude.

But if you wanted a dude, just a straight line, quick, we see how it happens. We understand where these things go. can you again this dude made $60 million and he's apparently I mean what is wrong with his teeth by the way I don't think we got around to talking about that like like he'd just been you know I look I had times where you know I didn't have health dental insurance I was skipping it you know what I'm saying I got back I ain't have to do no $50,000 worth of stuff though like what's up with your grill homie what's your breath smell like yeah I mean I thought we I thought we had health insurance in the league though he never spent time I don't I don't, as far as I can remember. No, but I want to say this, though, and this is very important. They investigated Terry Rozier and apparently nothing has come up. Right.

I don't, I think there's more coming. Don't get me wrong. But we can't go so far to make these assumptions about what is actually happening. Right. However, they're going to have to get this under control, right? Because, well, actually surprised me about that. What Beasley was I felt like we had. The era of these dudes going broke is kind of gone away because they get so caught up with people who help them take care with their money and all that stuff so early now.

Like it's a much different world than it used to be. Your money guy is far less likely to steal from you in this day and age. Like, I don't think you're going to end up with a Kreme Abdul-Jabbar type of situation. Or Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnet. Right. Right, right. The industry that surrounds this is so much better built out. Right.

And these guys make so much money that even if they get guy, they can build the stack back up pretty quick. But clearly, this dude, he ain't got it. Like I saw somebody on Twitter making a response on one of these and was like if this was only $100,000, all the money he makes, he can obviously pay this back. Obviously he, but maybe he can, but he didn't. I mean, look, if you're getting garnished at that point,

you want to get that off. You want to get that off of your paperwork, ASAP, because they're going to take more than what, someone's going to take more off of that than what you actually owe. So it behooves you to take care of that. Well, it's just unfortunate. Like, he was just going to sign a three and 42 contract. Not to say, as soon as he signed this money, everybody was going to get paid.

Like, that's usually not necessarily how it works. But, Bo, what are we doing here? Like you said, I thought we were out of this era. And maybe we're not. But when you add all those things up together and then he's getting investigated by the feds, Like it removes a level of benefit of the doubt. And that's the unfortunate thing for him is that people will look at him and say, you don't get benefit of the doubt anymore.

Hey, man, let me ask you this. You ever had them hop up on your check before? I ain't never had them hop up on my check. I did once have the state in it erroneously. That's the word I'm looking for here. Erroneously, hop up and scoop my whole bank account one day, boy. That is embarrassing. Man, the motherfucker, instead of

subtracting, they add it. Like, it really happened just like that. Something that was supposed to go in one column went in the other column. And I had to call them because my shit was gone and I called the bank. Like, what's that code? And they were like, oh, that's the state. That's the tax man. I was like, I don't know. Those jokes, no money not called. And they were like, oh, damn, my bad.

We put it in column B instead of column A. But it was Friday. I couldn't get no money until. Monday. How was you living for the, for the weekend? Like I used to, dog. Figuring it out. That's what I was doing. Figuring it out. Let me tell you something. That wasn't the first time I had no money till Monday. You know what I'm saying? I don't even remember what I did. This is after I was on TV. So I'm in the restaurant getting ready to go to a round of horn. I got my suit on. They know it's me. You know what I'm saying? And they just hopped it. And

got me for my shit, right? But I can't imagine nothing more embarrassing. And I'm talking to people that's like that when they call your job. And that means there's at least one person at your job that knows that they hopping in and taking your bread. There's at least one. And let me tell you something, that person, whoever handles payroll, you know what I'm saying, office manager, whoever run the checks, they're the ones that was like, hey, I don't know, man. You see the way he dropped that pass?

I don't know if y'all know this. but his debt his dent is hopped up in his check. Ew. Y'all, man, like what is wrong with your? I mean, apparently his grill is fine, but I see no diamonds in that bitch. Like, what is, what's going on in your mouth, dog?

He can't pay to rent. He can't pay for his teeth. And by the way, shout out to him. You ain't got the money, but you still take care of your teeth, man. That's teaching your kids the right way, I suppose. The barber. And, by me tell you something, man. I'm glad that Cairo cuts took him to court.

Because I don't know about your experience with barbers and not every barber I've had, just to be clear. But I feel like barbers are a profession that are likely to adjudicate matters on their own. Fist or cuffs. If you're lucky. Or something. Oh, hey, you seen belly. I was thinking pistol cuffs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, if you want to combine the pistol and fist of cuffs together, that's the, everybody's favorite friend, the pistol. Oh shit. Look, how much did you really owe the barber for the barber to win that type of judgment? Like, okay, because clearly there's legal fees and everything else. But how many haircuts did, how many times do you get your haircut? Like, clearly, you get your haircut, well, get your teeth right. Like, how many times do you get your haircut in Milwaukee? Where do you have to go in Milwaukee that you got to be fresh that often? If you in L.A., I can swallow that. but why did you keep cutting his hair? That's a great point. Like at some point, you're just going to have to be raggedy,

homie. That's a great point. Right? Now, granted, who knows? I just, maybe interest racked up and that'll be the fun part too if the barber added it all in his own interest.

Like at the bank, at Cairo Mutual, they stack that up. I have no idea. But, yo, damn. Like, Malik Beasley,

you are officially known as the, the broke his ass of the whole NBA. Dog, that is, that is, that is,

that's, like when he comes back in place, the trash talk will be merciless. Yeah, I'm gonna be out here with him like, hey man, you need anything?

Like this. There's anything out of him. Hey, do you need to go get, do you need to go get a rebound right, right quick? Or he coming to game. We're getting all the boards today.

We're getting all the rebounds today. I got the over, he got to under. I saw somebody have the child support people run up on them as soon as they left the floor. That, by the way, happens all the time. That isn't underrated. I talked to one Hall of Fame caliber player talking about somebody. They come to get you at the games because you can't go nowhere. Because they know where you at.

The whole game of the team figuring out how to get the process server to another place. and yeah, that, I think we may have come up with the voicemail topic for today. Ladies and gentlemen, that has been your goodwill. Check him out covering to the NBA for Yahoo Sports. My brother, I appreciate you. Yes, sir. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week, but this week, the Friday is July 4th,

so we'll be back with you on Monday. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line, 3-2-3-9-6-77-67. the craziest thing you've seen somebody do to get their money back. 3-2-3-9-6-7-67. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars.

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