The Ringer NBA Show - Durant’s Trade Request and Recapping Day 1 of Free Agency

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Justin and Wos start by discussing Kevin Durant requesting a trade from the Nets, and what teams he could actually go to (1:35). Then, they talk about all the important news from Day 1 of free agency (25:29). Hosts: Justin Verrier and Wosny Lambre Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Benjamin Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joanna, do you ever wish you could definitively prove that you have the right opinions about movies? Uh, yeah, Neil, because I do have the right opinions about movies and television, right, Dave? No, because I'm more right about those things, and I demand trial by content. Oh boy, what is trial by content? Each week, we'll take on a huge question. Each of us will bring a choice and combine with listener submissions and your votes, we will come to a decision. It's trial by content every Tuesday on Spotify, the ringer.com, wherever you're listening right now. Don't let Neil win.

Don't let Dave win. football is very good. Hello and welcome to this special free agent edition of the Ringer MBA show. I am Justin Verrier and joining me to break down day one of a flurry of transactions. The Malik Monk to my dear in Fox joining me in the big leagues after a couple years apart. It's Big Watts. What's up, buddy? What's going on, man?

I was just thinking before I signed on here, I was like, oh, it's supposed to be a free agent extravaganza. Doesn't seem to me much craziness going on in the NBA yet, Justin. I know. Compared to what happened, boy, a couple hours beforehand, free agency was relatively tame. Oh, my goodness.

Yes, most of these signings are like, you know, nothing too, I don't want to say outrageous. There's definitely some eye razors, but nothing really too crazy from what I've seen so far. Right, right. So we'll get into some of the

deals that have been agreed to in the early hours of free agency. But first, we have to talk about the topic at hand. The big news that was dropped earlier in the day, Kevin Durant wants out of the Brooklyn Nets. I got to say, I'm not totally surprised. One, because, like, this time of year, my body is just, like, ready for this to happen. Like, it's almost like, you know how people talk about with, like, if you have arthritis or something when it rains, like, it starts to feel it in advance. Like, you can, I was ready for big trade to happen. I was ready for superstars to exert their power and something to happen here. And we had gotten dribbles of this from Woj and some of the reporters beforehand.

I thought it was mostly a leverage play. Me too. Turns out not so much. So I'm just kind of baffled. And I don't really know why this is happening. Well, I guess I know why. But like, I'm still just like all over the place on this. What's your kind of reaction to the Kevin Durant news?

I think, man. And so I've been thinking about this so much since the news came out, just the sort of anatomy of this thing and how it happens, right? Because when I went on Spotify live with Syrit and KOC and who else do we have, Kyle was up there, I was like, how do you just request a trade with your extension just now kicking in, right? It's been a year. Right.

It's literally about to kick in now. And I think that when these dudes sign these extensions with these teams, there's got to be like a wink and a nod that, like, if I want to get out of here, you will accommodate me, right? If I don't like the way things are going, I have your word that you will accommodate this move. And the person that comes to mind is Paul George with OKC. When he re-signed with Oklahoma, everybody was kind of like, this is insanity. Like, this is a dude who we knew for years wanted to get himself to L.A.

And then he has the opportunity. And he stays and only a year later, he's getting traded to the Clippers. And I think there was just a wink, wink of just like, look, don't worry about resigning with us. If this doesn't work out the way we all wanted to, we'll figure out a way to get you a new home. And I think that's that's without, you know, talking to anybody or any of that stuff. That's just my thinking on how KD can sit here and be like, I don't want to be here anymore, even though he's made a long-term commitment.

And then I think the second that they basically took a hard stance with Kyrie Irving, I guess this thing was over. Like, we should have known once Kyrie opted in, and he wasn't getting his way, the organization was signaling to everyone. Like, we're no longer conducting business the way that we were previously, which was basically Katie and Kyrie, He basically boss us around and tell us what to do.

And it's a new day. And Kevin Durant said, I don't want to be a part of that new day. And so he's on his way out the door. I love the conspiracy theory. But it's just crazy to me because going into Brooklyn, he had specifically signed short-term deals in order to provide himself with the opportunity to do exactly what you're talking about, to not hitch himself to an organization, to give him flexibility.

if he wanted to go somewhere else. He did the LeBron. He did all that stuff, right? He specifically signs for four years. And maybe that is just to get the money in place. But it seems, and I have to believe him, because he's done so many goddamn interviews at this point, to people that he actually likes in respect, like Logan Murdoch, who he's very open with. And he just says, like, man, I am so chill here. I love it here. Yada, yada, yada. And like, I believe him to that. And if that is true, and yet he still opted out an act. out just because they pushed back on him and push back on Kyrie, that is fucking mind-blowing to me.

That's the one thing that they drew a hard line about, if they in fact did, is crazy. It also has me wondering, like, is there any friend in my life I would ever do this for? And the answer is hell no. Like, what does this guy, Kyrie have on him, man? outside of like compromise, like nude photos or something really bad, like there's no reason to get to this level where you're basically like, sure, I'll go play in Phoenix or whatever rather than Brooklyn where everything is set up for me. You know, I think that all depends on what was said prior to him getting there.

Sure. We don't know what assurances were made to these guys that, you know, Brooklyn basically said we're going to capitulate at every turn. That might be the case. And now that they're no longer doing that, to KD's mind, it's like, all right, this is not what we signed up for when we came to the Nets. We were told we were going to be full partners.

You know, as Kyri so eloquently put it, we're co-management with Joe Sy and Sean Marks. And that was the deal. And that's why we came here. That's why we were happy to be here. Now that the Nets are finally finding their spine and backbone, guys are like, you know what? Maybe being in Brooklyn isn't for me,

which is, you know, ridiculous on a bunch of levels. But again, like, this is kind of how it goes with a superstar. Like, they get to call their own shot when you're as good as KD. You know, you can say, like, well, he has four years left on his deal. But again, if you're paying a guy $40-something million who doesn't want to be there and his performance is then affected by it, it's like, you basically got a job. junk car now, right? Like, there's no point in this thing.

And so, yeah, it's looking like they're going to have to accommodate him. And now I think the question, Justin, is, to what extent? Like, are they going to let him dictate what team he goes to? Or are they going to say, all right, give us three teams? Or, like,

to what extent will the Nets be willing to be like, yo, KD, we don't care. We're not involving you in this process. We're putting your ass on auction. And The highest bidder will get your contract. Goodbye. I think if you were to believe the reports, the answer is yes.

That the Nets are going to hold out until they get the best possible offer. It's being framed very much as the Nets are driving this. Kevin Durant is signed for four years. He doesn't have much say in this. I really don't believe that. I don't buy it. Like, throughout the course of what, the past 10, 20 years, has any player of Kevin Durant's caliber

just wound up in Indiana just because the team was like, fuck you, I'm just going to get the bass package. The closest thing is Paul George, as you mentioned. But George isn't on Kevin Durant's level. And he's also shown repeatedly, as well as

his friend has shown repeatedly, that he could probably just say fuck you and not show up. Like I definitely believe Kyrie, and I'm starting to believe that KD is the same mindset, that he actually doesn't need to do this. He was actually saying things like that a couple

months ago to Logan where he was basically like, you know, yeah, I want to win titles and I want to maximize my career and maximize the potential of this team. But like, if I don't, you know, I'm kind of minted. I'm Hall of Fame. Like, nobody can say anything. I'm a top 50 player of all time. Who cares? And so

I think just the threat of that is going to be enough to knock off all of these Orlando magic like pipe dreams, even like in New Orleans. He's not going to walk away from $180 million. I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.

This is just so weird. I have to think that these guys are rational actors. And I'm telling you, I really think that the reason he's coming to them and he's, because everybody remembers they were all, all three of them, and by three of them, I mean, Kyrie Hardin and KD, they were all extension eligible. basically at the same time and the assumption was just like everybody's going to sign their extension

and then KD did it did it and then Kiree and J and they were off those things were on those extensions were on the table the Nets made those offers KD took his and I was like okay so it was just like everybody's going to take the money and this is going to be a dynasty and whatever and then those two guys

didn't take those extensions we're probably going to get to Harden at some point, he walked away from over $250, $260 million, and he just signed a $90 million deal in Philly, which is just like, again, even for a guy who's made $300 million already in his career, that seems like kind of insane. And then, Kyrie now, he opted into his deal, and there's no guarantee that there are other long-term deals out there for him to get. Like, this all seems so crazy to me.

Yeah, that's a whole other part of this is like, because reportedly the Nets are intending to seek out trade offers for everyone on the roster, which includes Kyrie, assumedly, and Ben Simmons maybe even, who, I mean, I just assumed that they would keep him because his value would be too low, but I guess at this point, if you're just going to, like, clear all decks and settle all family business, you might as well just, like, start anew. which actually brings me, before we get to some of the trade possibilities, I do want to ask you this question,

is Sean Mark's good? Like, on the one hand, he did, like, rebuild them back after they were in the dark days. After the Billy King debacle. Yeah. Right. Although, I will say, like, what was there to lose during that time? Like, the whole goal was to take risks in, like, mine, low, first rounders and just, like, build a nice culture, which,

seems like, you know, not the toughest jobs in the GMs when the bar is that low. Then he flips it all for Katie and Kyrie, as I think pretty much every GM in the league would. But then, like, he played ball to the point where he brought these guys in. And now he's kind of throwing it all away. And so he's almost like going back on the vision that he, like, agreed to originally. And, like, no one knows the human toll that Kyrie has on this organization. Like we hear things, but like not totally. And so maybe it's just like so bad that you can't imagine it.

On the other hand, kind of signed up for this. And now you're saying you don't want it anymore. And I have to wonder, man, like maybe all those media reports that are saying, that are singing the praises of our guy Sean, like maybe there's just a little bit, a little extra mustard on that to maybe like not admit his actual flaws in this whole procedure. I like it's tough because everybody thought this was a great thing when they got kD and kairi like i don't seem to remember there being a lot of criticism of these acquisitions like everybody agreed the nets came emerged from the darkness they stole kD and kairi from underneath the

noses of the nicks their cross town rivals everything was awesome they had a nice talented team around them. You know, they had a proven coach and Kenny Atkinson who had put a plucky group together guys that play hard, played smart, tough-nosed. And it was like,

yo, this guy is a freaking he's a wonderkin. He's a freaking genius. Like, Sean Marks can do no wrong. And again, just to peel back to curtains a little bit for people at home, like Sean Marks has great relationships

in the media. He does. he's obviously somebody who talks to these guys in private all the time. Would you say that he's the worldwide leader in relationships with media? I like what you did there. And that's not to say that media will go out

and say things that are wholly untrue about him. But when you see a guy getting a lot of great press from media, oftentimes it's because he has a lot of great relationships with those guys, right? And I think that's part of the narrative, is that like he was somebody who had a great relationship with these guys

and so people were like look at what he's done you know at the same time like as the head of the organization isn't it your job to manage this

and to call this anything than utter collapse disaster failure I don't see how you can call this anything else and how he can bear no responsibility for this disaster

this is a disaster just Like, this is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Yeah. So, I mean, we'll see. But it just, it seems like Josai is willing to let him go through this process of now building the next era, whatever it may be. Poor Chuck Widows, man. Charlie Widows, man.

He goes over there. He's living his New York City dream again. And to have this happen, oh, Lord have mercy. Yeah. RIP to Chuck. All right. Let's go through some of these possibilities here. I want to start with some of the favorites.

So based on reports, Chris Haynes, others. Katie has his eyes set for Phoenix. And Miami is also in the mix there. Start with Phoenix just briefly. I think the real question there comes down to, do you throw Devin Booker in a trade if you're Phoenix? Like if you're James Jonah, are you drawing the line and saying like, hey, what about, you know.

The guy they just signed to a Supermax? Right. Like, I don't know. And you can't even, you can't even entertain this. Really? I'm surprised. No, because, like, for what, though? Right?

Like, you just sign this guy for five years because you're like, you're our person. And, like, let's just say this KD thing doesn't go through. That is a disaster waiting to happen. Like, I don't think Phoenix can do the Devin Booker. They can do the look. We're one of the, you know, most wing-rich teams in the league. I don't know how you guys feel about Aiton. Let's throw some wings in.

A guy who we don't want. You could have A-N. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can have A-N-you-can-have, hey, maybe even McHale Bridges, who I love, we love, full-core fits alum. But listen, you can do this ancillary stuff, but you're not touching my baby. You can't do the book of thing. I don't think so, although I just, you can't, you can't do that.

Do you think Booker and Ben Simmons would be a good combo or like, do you think they would bond over like their relationship with Kendall Jenner? Or do you think that's like a no go right off the bat? Like, I'm actually kind of serious. Like, if there is bad blood as a result of that, like, I don't think you could, you could trade for him, right? I think we got to cross that bridge whenever Ben Simmons actually touches a basketball on an NBA court again. That is just too much to even contemplate. That is crazy. Okay.

I'm just starting off this. So you're saying no to Booker? No, no, no, no, no. This dude is 34 years old, right? And I'm not saying he's a bad player. It's like I was talking to Bill about this on his podcast the other day. Why would Boston want to do this send Jalen Brown when they just beat KD? Right?

Like, this reminds me of the Lakers pantsing Russell Westbrook Then trading a whole bunch of stuff to get him You guys wrote the blueprint On destroying this guy in the playoffs Then you trade for him. Not that Katie is, I'm not an idiot. I know that.

Katie is way better than this guy by orders of magnitude. I'm just saying like, why? Well, because he's Kevin Durant. And like, after watching Jalen Brown dribble off his foot like multiple times the game. Yeah. But, Justin, hold on.

He's Kevin DeRane. He's got four years left on his deal. What's to stop him from asking me for a trade when he's got three years or two years? So it's like, why am I giving, like the dude that I said, yo, the franchise is in your hands now. Here's all this freaking money for a guy who just blew everything up in a place where they did nothing but kiss his ass for three years. It's a good point. I don't understand that. Yeah.

I do wonder how much this becomes a litmus test for a lot of these high culture franchises, right? Boston being one of them, Miami, one of them, although they tend to take a little bit more risks. Like, how much are people going to, willing to risk for the talent upgrade, all of this long plotting out and all of these, like, great things that people write features about? If I was Boston, I would do it for Durant, just because while Brown is good, he's only going to be your number two. And KD takes me from a team that makes the finals to winning that finals, bar none. Like, I think they would have won that series.

And so that would be the difference there. But I don't know. Like, you seem to be more of a high culture guy. I guess I'm curious to see how much it chills the market. It's really interesting. Look, Golden State, the perfect team situation. KD. sulked his way out of town there. Brooklyn, not the perfect team situation, but again,

an organization that did nothing but handholding and ass kissing at every single turn, kowtow into this guy. What does, what makes Boston think they can satisfy this guy in his needs? Why do you believe that as a franchise? I would even take him for two years. Like,

give me the mercenary Kauai situation, man. To be like, hey, just with a title here, just pad your resume and then move on. I really don't give a shit what you're doing in three years. Like, we'll help fund your next, like, podcast network or whatever you want to do. Well, I mean, so that's a good point, though, since we're talking about the Warriors. If you're the Warriors, would you take our guy back? And who are they sending out?

Clay Thompson? A mixture. I don't think they want him. A mixture of, like, the young guys. Like, let's just give him a pool, a Wiseman. Moody. Yeah, sure. Take a Moody.

Cominga. Take all of them. All of the young guys for kids. I think we have to figure out what Brooklyn wants first. And see, because, like, theoretically, of course, everybody wants KD on their team. In theory, I think it is going to come down to what kind of package Brooklyn actually wants for the guy. If they want guys who can hoop right now or if they want to just be like, all right, it's time to just realize that, again, this whole thing has been a complete nut of failure.

Let's just cut our losses and start the clock all over again. If they want young players, yeah, I guess Wiseman, Cominga, Jordan Poole. But are you doing that if you're Golden State? Are you saying like, welcome back, buddy? You could have your old locker. Why? Why am I doing that?

The dude who just sulked his way out of town. Like, if you talk to anybody, I'm talking about media, the people on the team, the people who experienced that last year of KD in Golden State, it was absolutely fucking toxic. It was awful. He was awful that last year with them.

Not on the court, just the kind of person to be around where they're doing a huddle and he's standing 10 feet away, like doing his own thing. He's yelling at my man Chris Haynes at press conferences after a, after a game, he scores 50. They win the game. He drops like 50 on the clippers. Chris Haynes asked him a regular question. I was standing like seven feet from Haynes.

And he just yells at the dude. Jesus. And like, again, you just, like, why would Golden State, after what they've achieved, volunteer for that? Like, that one's probably too toxic. Yeah. Too toxic, bro. That one, that one's a stretch.

All right. I'm going to name a couple other teams here because I do think, like, Bill talked about this on his podcast the other day. I do, I do think, like, you want to go through the list of young assets and basically see which ones are viable. I'm going to name a few here. We already talked about Brown, Zion or Brandon Ingram. in New Orleans.

Scotty Barnes in Toronto. Evan Mobley in Cleveland. Shaden Sharp and Anthony Simon's in picks with the Blazers. Grizzlies are tough now with Aaron Jackson being out for four to six months. So it's probably Desmond Bain in picks. And then I wrote down

Paulo Banchero for the magic just for shits and giggles. Any of those teams doing anything for you? I mean, obviously, if I'm Brooklyn, I definitely want to roll the dice on Zion. Like that's, to me, that's the number. number one, if I could do that because it's like, yeah, it's a young guy who's already very

freaking good when he actually plays. Yeah, I think Zion is definitely at the top of that list. Scotty Barnes probably number two for me, personally. I really love Scotty Barnes. But again, like, Evan

Moble, people are going to be like, you're crazy. Evan Mobley is the best. But like, if Katie's going to call his shot, he's going to call his shot to Cleveland. I know. That's the problem with New Orleans too. I find that hard to believe. And with New Orleans, like, I really think it's going to come down to this Miami, Phoenix, all of those, a contending team that could put together a dope package of picks

or whatever to this guy. I don't think it's going to be the Orlando magic. Do you remember when he was still an OKC and he was like on the verge of free agency and everyone saying like, oh, this guy's actually kind of different? like he might end up in a small market like what about Orlando no state taxes teaming up without Horford. That was his thing. KD with the stupid backpack showing up to press conferences.

Like that dude doesn't exist anymore. I know. You know, like he's just not that person. And this is just what a mess. What a mess. So I don't know, man. I think it ends up being Phoenix for all the reasons that we outlined. I think the teams that have.

the marquee young players and the willingness to trade for for them. There's not a match because the market size is probably not going to be enough for a Miami team that we didn't really talk about. But like they really only have like Tyler Hero, Duncan Robinson, Max Struz. They don't have a first in 2025. They do have more picks than they have in the past. But like, I don't know, those young guys aren't getting me as excited as like even an eight and Cam Johnson sort of package. So listen, if I'm Brooklyn and I could get like the sort of pick. call that even

Dejante Murray got from Atlanta. Plus, again, figure out how to make the salaries work as far as throwings. Give me Aiton, give me bridges, a bunch of picks. See ya. Wouldn't want to be you. Get out of here.

With the worst timing possible, they gave away the exact package they probably could have offered to Brooklyn. And now they have Dejante Murray and they might be better than the next year. It's a tough one. Yeah.

All right. We'll see how that plays out. Let's get to a free agency now. I want to start with a team that may have Kyrie Irving by the time we're done with this podcast, the Los Angeles Lakers who did stuff. It's sort of different than it has been in past years. So memorably, I'm sure as everyone remembers, they loaded up on old guys who couldn't shoot. This year, they seem to be targeting young guys who can't shoot.

They have so far signed Lonnie Warrie. Walker to, I believe it was the taxpayer mid-level, Troy Brown, Wantsisdiscoano Anderson, all three of whom happened to be clutch clients, coincidentally, and Damien Jones on a two-year veteran minimum. I mean, I like that they're younger and more athletic and ostensibly, like more defensively inclined, but, you know, like, yeah, they needed bodies. They brought back Stan Johnson. They were so utterly unathletic on the wings and at the point of attack.

It was an embarrassment what they were trotting out there by, you know, by basically February and March. It was literally just the most disgusting unit that you could imagine. So, yeah, these guys are younger. They will be better at defense, which, you know, such a low bar. You're like damning with fade praise. They're better than the freaking Lakers of last year. But this doesn't move any needles.

Like, none of this stuff is going to have a say in the Western Conference Championship race that, like, these are marginal players. These are fringe NBA players. Yeah. I really don't understand what happened with Lonnie Walker, who seemed to be like a quality mid-level draft pick for the Spurs, which are they just let go. And maybe it's a clutch thing. I know there might be some bad blood over, like, the Marcus Morris thing from a couple

years ago or perhaps like they looked into finally some of the conspiracy theories that he was dropping during the draft process. If you haven't looked that up, I recommend that you Google that. One of them involves Hitler. So there's that. So it seems fine. Wantscano Anderson reminds me has like really big Chetty Osman vibes. So I feel like he's instantly going to be a LeBron favorite, instantly going to be a fan favorite. I saw someone tweeting out. He has Mexican roots and thus will be a huge hit with Lakers fan. So that will be really, really fun. But ultimately, and this is their starting lineup, according to one Yoham Buha, Russell Westbrook, Austin Reeves, Troy Brown Jr., LeBron James, Anthony Davis.

Championship, I ask. Wow. I mean, that is, Lord have mercy. Um, man. Why can't they get anyone that can shoot is my question? Like, how hard is this with LeBron? He drives into the middle, dribble, dribble, dribble, into the paint. Caps.

Guy shoots. It's been the case for a fucking decade. This is the thing, man. Like, because there's a power vacuum there, like, Rob Polinka is an empty suit. Jeannie Bus is essentially an absentee owner. Right. Um, and so clutch comes in and they fill that vacuum.

It's not like when, like, When your leadership... You're describing a parasite, by the way. Listen. When your leadership is like we don't have the want or the will to lead, it doesn't mean that that void just stays, you know, vacant. Somebody's going to go in there and start making the decisions. And Clutch has decided they're going to be the ones who do that.

And this is what you end up with. You know, you trade. quality NBA guys, guys who fit perfectly around your two best players for Russell Westbrook and stuff. And now you're bringing in more clutch stuff. And that's just what it is, man. Sorry, Laker fans. Yeah. Seven players on this roster are assigned to Clutch out of the 12 or so on the roster 13 since 2017.

I guess the problem is just like it's really expensive to sign shooters these days. Like, that's the problem is that everybody wants shooters. And even, like, a catch-and-shoot guy who can't play defense, he's going for him. And when your sixth best player makes $50 million, that also hurts your ability to sign shooters. We should mention Mink Mung, two years, $19 million to go to the Kings. Good for him. I like that deal. Yeah, I mean, I thought Malik Munk showed, like, some incredible ability last year.

But at the same time, it's like, was that, like, paper champion stuff on a horrible team, a team that went nowhere, you know, but he showed that he's pretty elite shooter on a variety, in a variety of ways, off the dribble stuff, off of screens and pin downs and stuff like that. Obviously, spot up. He was LeBron's most reliable spot up guy. So good for him. I'm glad he got a nice little deal out of it. Yeah, his future is going to be Jamal Crawford without the on ball juice, right?

And so, like, if he's a super six man, fill out that King's lineup, more power to him. they'll probably get up and down. They'll be playing to his strengths. All right. Let's move on to the Philadelphia 76ers. We're getting the band back together. James Hardin still hasn't signed. He opted out of his deal.

And it seems like specifically to add some more help, according to Wojj, they're going to meet to negotiate his new deal over the weekend, but it seems almost performative because all signs point to him coming back. But in the meantime, PJ Tucker, three years 33.2 million. Daniel House, two years 8.5 million, and some guy named Trevlin Queen,

two years, 3.3 million. Do you like rolling it back and becoming Houston Rockets East? Yeah, of course. I think PJ Tucker, one of my favorite players, Joelle literally said we need a PJ Tucker type in here. You know, in his last press conference. So, yeah, that's a great.

I think three years, 33 million seems pretty steep, but when the two best guys absolutely adore you, the GM's going to have to make it happen. And so, you know, they kind of overpaid for PJ, but good for him. I'm happy for him. Daniel House, I think that's good value right there when you consider the amount of usage

that Joel and James are going to get and he's had his best years, basically, playing next to James. I think that's a pretty decent move as well. You add that to the melting situation. This is a nice offseason for them. You know, I don't know what's going on with James Hardin and Dary, but those guys are bonded in blood, bro.

Yeah. Because, again, there was a long-term fat extension on the table with Brooklyn. And James Harden turned that thing down and forced his way to Philly. And now he's about to sign a deal for substantially less money. So, man, shout to those guys for loving each other that much. Right. It's a beautiful thing. I guess the conspiracy theorist in me is wondering,

is James Harden taking this much time because they're trying to figure out a way to get his former friend, Kevin Durant, over, or even maybe some sort of trade in the midst there because, like, you have to admit, you have to expect, like, a lot of these deals were done in advance and that Hardin had a number,

which is why he opted out to begin with. And so I don't know why you wouldn't wait, or why you need to wait any longer? Who knows? I mean, but the thing is with Darrell, like he's literally always working every single angle. There might be some balls in the air that he's trying to work out that involve James' deal.

And he's doing this because the messaging out of there is that he really, really wants to win. And so, you know, Darrow's like, yo, wait a second. We could probably do this other thing that'll make us better. That's the only explanation I could have. for that one. Right, right.

Ends up he just wanted to create a trade exception and all this is bullshit. All right. So a couple Supermax extensions got tweeted out immediately at 3 o'clock on the dot. Niccolo Yokic getting the full Supermax. Devin Booker getting a Supermax. Bradley Beale getting a Supermax. Carl Anthony Towns also getting an extension. And John Morant gaining the full five years.

Are any of these particularly interesting to you? Not really. I'm not surprised by the Towns thing because, you know, as much criticism as I've had for him and I don't, look, he's getting paid like a lead dog, like the type of guy that saves your franchise, like a Steph Curry, like a Kauai, like a Kevin Durant. You know, like he's getting paid like that.

And he's sort of. clearly not, but like, what else would Minnesota do here? They've got their young core, and he is so complimentary to Aunt Edwards. Like, they, you know, this is just kind of a no-brainer. Even if that number is so freaking scary for what Carl Towns actually does for you on the court when it matters. Yeah, I think it's good for Minnesota, if only because a couple years ago, I would have expected him to be asking out around now, not trying to sign a Supermax extension.

Like, everything was headed in a very bad, direction. They've managed to flip this around. And it seems like they got a pretty bright future to the point. We used to also think that Carl Towns was like the next wilt. You know, remember, there was that moment where people were just like, this is the number one young guy in the league. Like, oh my God, Minnesota has the craziest thing. And like, we just don't think of him that way anymore, you know,

because he just hasn't proven to be that. And, you know, for a center who basically can't center, it's tough, but I see why you got to do it. Right, right. Um, the Booker one is mildly interesting to me. So on the one hand, he gets first team all NBA is 25 years old. Clearly, if you're going to have a next phase after Chris Paul and you don't get Kevin Durant, Booker's going to be the guy, right? And so I could see his agent in particular, basically being like, all right, he just played really well, give me as much money as possible

as soon as possible. And so maybe they were over a barrel here. But what an absolute fuck you to Dianne Aitin when they told this guy nope, go prove it and Devin Booker who still I believe has two years on his deal did not need a raise because he was already on

a maximum extension from his rookie deal that they gave him at the first possible minute they tweet this shit out at three o'clock on the dot on the first day of free agency like what a fucking move

You know, when you consider the Aitin part and the level of hard ball that they played with this guy, yeah, it does seem really strange that they're so enthusiastic about, you know, paying Booker. But, you know, he's their lead dog. He's the guy that they got to give the ball to when they need things to happen. You know, you might quibble with certain things, but he's transformed himself into, like, he's the man. And another thing about Booker, like, he's the man. And another thing about Booker, like, guys want to follow him. He's a leader, you know, like, people really follow him in his personality.

And he takes on that burden. So I get it. I think, you know, the Brad Bill not wanting out of Washington, all of those, you know, all of that stuff we've always here. Well, here's the reason, guys. Like, they were, like, Brad Bill is the person. I'm just like, that's a bad deal. That's not like, oh, smart. keep the ass said, but that's a bad deal.

He's not that type of dude at all. Yeah, I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I saw this one. Oh, five years, 251 million. I'll have to double check this, but I believe he's making more than every player in the NBA, on average, than Steph Curry next season. It's Steph Curry, it's Bradley Beale. A guy who over the past four years has brought, has brought, the Washington Wizards to one

playoff appearance, which was via the play in tournament. I just don't like, like it's so clear that they needed to trade this guy. And I give them kudos, I guess, for trying to make it work, for trying to be competitive, to try to be relevant for once after

like so many years of going through so much shit, especially with John Wall and before that, Gilbert Arena's like I get it in D.C. But good Lord, that is either going to be traded or it is going to go immediately into the Albatross Hall of fame with Wall and arenas, honestly. Yeah,

and the thing, the thing for me about Bradley Bill is that he's never consistently played at some all-MBA level in his entire career. So this idea that you need to treat him as if he's the franchise cornerstone, like he's your dirk. You know, like, he's

not. He hasn't shown that level of play his whole life. You know, there were those moments when John Wall's body was still, right, that Brad Bill showed some moments in the playoffs, but he was like a second banana and they flamed out anyway. Like, you know, and I don't, look, I'm not trying to count these dudes money, but I'm just like,

I don't know how you justify this contract for a player who's just never proven to be that. Either your call, it's one of those things too, Justin. It's like either he is one of those type of players or your management has been wholly incompetent, which then signing him to this deal reinforces that fact. Right. Right. I just don't know where they go from here. Like maybe Johnny Davis is like the next John Wall, but good Lord, they need something

there. They couldn't even get Tyos Jones, who like I think a lot of people were rumored to be like a nice compliment to Bradley Beale. Maybe he'd get him in there to be the point. And Bradley Beale plays a little more off ball. Couldn't even do that. All right. That's actually a good segue to talk about some of the other deals from the day.

Are there any other contracts amongst, this like slew of like middle tier guys that jumps out to you. Lou Dort. Oh, mid tier, yeah, Lou Dort immediately jumps out to me because that's a nice, pretty penny. They're paying him to be a mostly one-sided player, but he's shown improvements on the other side every single year. So if OKC is banking on like, yo, he's going to eventually be like, even if he's not a plus offensive player, not a complete and utter minus.

And the way he defends big wings is extremely valuable. So that's a very interesting deal to me. I thought Tyos Jones could get more than two years guaranteed for 30. He was easily the best backup point guard in the NBA this year, which to me means he could probably play starter at a higher scale somewhere else. So, like, I think that's a nice, nice deal. got for him. So those two deals definitely stick out. And then of course, Marvin Bagley getting three years, 37 mil from Detroit. I thought that was fine. I'm surprised. Why? Because he killed it

during the stink-it-up months of the NBA season. Like, oh, he was so good the last 16 games. Like, yeah, because a bunch of bums are playing the last 16 games. A bunch of people don't care anymore. Yeah, but Detroit makes a lot of smart bets on talent that just like hasn't. found the right place. Like Josh Jackson was getting rotation minutes long after he fell out of favor in Phoenix and even fell out of favor in Memphis. Like they just like, I think they placed their chips very smartly. And like Bagley, three years, 37 million, like most likely ends up being an overpay for a guy

who's like, what, your third big man? On the other hand, if he does tap into the player that a lot of people thought he was going into the draft. Like, then you got yourself like a pretty nice player there. Speaking of disappointing big men from that draft class, Mobamba, two years, 21 million to go back to the Orlando Magic. Additionally, Gary Harris, also going back to the Orlando Magic for a pretty penny. I have met two years, 26 million.

Here's my theory. I think it just pays to be decent on a really bad. franchise with a lot of cap space. Like, Golden State, I believe, finished the past season with 23 million unused money that I think gets redistributed at least some of it to the rest of the roster. I think, like, teams like this are just jumping the gun and overpaying Lou Dort and Moamba and Marvin Bagley's other guys because they have to. So, like, they have to.

So, like, I got to say, like, yeah, it must be nice to compete for championships, but, like, Blame for a shitty team. Pays off. Pays off. It's good work if you can find it, Justin. All right. Let's wrap it there. I'm sure there will be more activity going on the next couple of days

to bring your NBA show. We'll have you covered each and every day going into the fourth. Zach Levine, DeAndre, and still a couple of interesting guys out there. So stay tuned for Waz. And for me, thank you to Isaiah Blakely on production. Thank you to Ben Cruz on production. for giving us some of these contract details ahead of time.

We'll see you next time. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.