The Ringer NBA Show - Free Agency Bonanza, Day 1! Cam Johnson Traded to Denver, the Lakers Are Adrift, and More. | Group Chat

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Justin, Rob and Wos are here with their immediate thoughts on Day 1 of free agency. They start with the Cam Johnson-for-Michael Porter Jr. trade and Denver’s outlook moving forward. Then, they talk about the Rockets getting deeper (20:48), what the Lakers' plan is (31:10), the Hawks' interesting offseason (48:40), and much more. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Ben Cruz Social: Keith Fujimoto and Jomi Adeniran This episode is presented by State Farm®️. Dishing the assists you need off the court. State Farm®️ with the Assist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to group chat. I am Justin Verrier and joining me on day one of this free agency, Bonanza, Rob Mahoney, Big Waz. I have drank like what, four cups of coffee, just making hot dogs on a stove like a fucking degenerate. We're out here, man, just grinding those Dennis Schrooter transaction tweets. We love it. I'm honestly, you know, aside from the player movement, oh, this guy's on a new team, these guys have gotten better. I am into the graphics game. It's pretty interesting because DMVR, my guy,

Adam Marez over in Denver and the crew over there, they just straight lifted Shams's graphic and just put it on their Instagram, right? And it just says breaking with a guy's picture on it. I'm like, okay, Bruce Brown, but then I just got to read their actual caption on the IG post. It's like it's interesting how people are handling

the social medification of every single whether it's big or small transactions. It's just fun watching it play out in real time. So you just want to call out the crew at DNVR. And are we sure as we're doing this that they even did that in the first place? Because Bruce Brown, to the Nuggets, has been discussed widely over the last couple weeks.

It seems possible they might have photoshopped it themselves. Well, I mean... painting perhaps. Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm not somebody who thinks it's like not fair use to take the picture from Shams' posts. Like, are you kidding me? Like, if that's the quickest, easiest way to do it, by all means.

It's sampling, really. Yes, exactly. Well, speaking of sampling, I think I also saw some AI being used. So pretty loosely, I would say. So there's a real graphics war going on here, but glad to see it because, God forbid, we even read tweets anymore. I know. Can't even read articles.

We're at the point. He's got to look at the picture. The full details on the tweets. You just got to see Luke Cornett in a Spurs jersey and count how many fingers he has to make sure that AI did make up a fake rumor right in front of you. But this is the world we live in. You know, our heads are spinning.

I'm trying to figure out where Luca Garza is. You know, that's just the world that we live in now. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. On the basketball court, the best players know when to pass. And off the court, you still need teammates who are there when it counts. That's where State Farm comes in. With agents and online tools to help you find the coverage you need, you could focus on what really matters, whether that's hitting game winners or just getting through the day.

State Farm, with the assist, coverage options are selected by the customer, the billability and eligibility vary by state. So we're recording this about 6.30 p.m. PT, I think we kind of all assume that the first wave of transactions, even though they came a little slower than they typically do. We got like a half hour of like a grace period. Then they came rapid fire from our guy Shams. We're going to get through all of the most exciting ones. But the first one that we have to talk about isn't a free agent signing. It was actually a trade with Waz's Denver Nuggets. We got MPJ, Michael Porter Jr.

And a 232 unprotected first round pick going to the Nets for Cam Johnson. And this is interesting to me for a lot of reasons. But first and foremost, it seems like if you were to just take away all of this stuff that potentially made Michael Porter Jr. special, but ultimately probably made him maddening to the nuggets, I think you'd end up somewhere in the approximation of Cam Johnson. So you really got more reliable, less tall, but less expensive, ultimately, Cam Johnson, which as we've seen, or excuse me, Michael Porter Jr., which we've seen is a pretty good fit when he's plugged in. Yeah, I mean, Michael Porter Jr. is definitely a more talented player than Cam Johnson.

In terms of his size, obviously, is just as good a shooter as there is in the NBA when he's able to get that shot off. But I think that's about where the advantage is on the Michael Porter Jr. side ends. He's way more overpaid. Well, Cam Johnson is not overpaid. He's fairly paid. Also, you know, we talk about the injury history all the time. Although he's been reasonably, you know, durable. I just think, honestly, in terms of the style that the nuggets want to play,

Cam Johnson is better suited to playing that style. in terms of the movement with and without the ball. Let's face it, Michael Porter Jr., not the best dribbler. I'm not saying Cam Johnson is some wizard, and he's going to be putting it to the deck and becoming some amazing closeout attacker. But for what Denver needs him to do, he is more than qualified to put the ball on the deck,

take that one step pull up, or move the rock. And defensively, again, he's a strong. smaller played than MPJ, but he's just got a way better motor. That's just the truth. Does he? He does. He does. I'm not, I know we're past

the point in Phoenix, but we were calling this guy 3 and D. I'm not going there. Notice I didn't say he's a 3-n-D wing. If you're out there about to blog about this trade and call Cam Johnson a 3-and-D player, please do not. And I said that with great admiration and affection.

Now? You can't be a 3-&D guy? Like that? Oh, no, no. No, no. No, no. You can be Justin, but he's not. He doesn't D. He doesn't D like that. He threes, though. He does three. There's no question about the threes. I think I'm more aligned with the way Justin laid this out,

which is if you're going to find someone similar enough to Michael Porter Jr., this is about as good as you're going to get, especially for half the price. Jesus Christ. Like the opening of cutting the salary almost in half, opening up the mid-level exception potentially in the process, and we'll see if Denver actually does anything with that spending ability. That's really exciting. And to have that come on the same day that you've brought in Bruce Brown for the minimum, now you're starting to see a momentum to Denver's offseason that, to be totally honest,

I wasn't sure it was going to be here. I thought we might have a slow day for the nuggets in which we're trying to parse, you know, what's left of the market for them to kind of scoop up. Are they going to bring Russell Westbrook back? All those conversations that we might have had in another universe. Instead, they do something really exciting in bringing in a similar enough shooter, a similar enough player. Someone who I'd say is like maybe a touch more dynamic as a movement player off the ball than Michael Porter is. But you do trade off some of that like all all world level shooting for merely one of the better shooters in the league. Like that dip is not insignificant, but for a team in the Nuggets position is well worth it for ultimately the long term reliability.

Although as you alluded to was like Michael Porter Jr. has been healthy for the last two years. These last playoffs accepted. Ultimately, you're just getting a player who I think is a little bit more rock solid. in the way you want to play the direction of the team over a longer term and we'll see how long he figures into the Nuggets plans. But it's just, it's a really exciting move for a team that felt like they were kind of stuck in a corner. Yeah, the numbers, like the raw stat lines for both of them last year are startling similar. Like it's basically 18 points. MPJ is a better rebounder, seven to four, but Cam's a little bit better on the assists, three to two, basically.

but they shot 39% on high volume 7.2 for Cam Johnson, MPJ, 6.4. The money is quite literally half, 79 million for MPJ over the next two years versus Cam Johnson 44 million. But you're right, Rob. It's just like, I think at a certain point, just maybe the frills ultimately ended up being too, added too much consternation. Added too much, they got the blood pumping a little too hard for kind of the principles with Denver. and to just have that no longer there, to not have to worry about whether or not MPJ's mood is going to affect his defense, his ability to hustle after stuff,

I think is going to be addition by subtraction. But I have to say, was on the net side of things, buying low on MPJ is not a bad person to do so, if only because maybe you can unearth some of those better things and then have him going forward because he is still young, and then you get the plumb 2032 draftick on top of it.

That is the real price here. where it's 2032 when Nicola Yokic is going to be 37 years old. Like, most likely or not, that's going to be a good pick, even if you trade it to someone else before you even get there. I will choose not to see this as an MPJ bylaw and a cash in your Cam Johnson. One of the most coveted available guys trade chips, like in the league. We thought he was leaving last All-Star break. Excuse me, last trade deadline.

ends up being this summer instead. And getting, yeah, that's a plum pick. Like, you know that Yolkich is, even if he's still on the team, he's going to be in a far diminished capacity than what he is today, which is the best guy in the NBA. So kudos to them for doing that.

I just, you know, I think we've seen everything MPJ is going to be in this league. And I feel pretty confident in that. Like the idea, because, like, there's this idea that MPJ would, is a gunner and in a different context. Like, he'd be allowed to spread his wings and do more. And I'm telling y'all, bro, like, MPJ is not going to become some great offensive hub,

cook people with off the dribble. And like, he's not. What if he does the same exact things that he does now, just not being hurt in the playoffs? He has two available arms in order to do what he typically does. Or I think the question is, does he then take this operation? where there are shots of plenty with Brooklyn and actually indulge his worst impulses. And this is actually the worst possible scenario for MPJ. That feels close to what I think is going to happen.

Like MPJ being a high volume efficient score on this Brooklyn Nets team, like who's going to help him do that? He's going to. Agor is it's going to be. Danny Wolf, one of the five first round picks. This is the thing. What if instead of Nicola Yolkich, you just stacked up five draft picks through the pass. and they are the ones passing the ball to MPJ. He's going to have to do it on his own.

Like, I've just never seen that from MPJ that consistently he could be a high volume, high efficiency score in the NBA. And so, yeah, y'all know how I feel about MPJ. I felt like this was about four or five years now. So, yeah, this next thing is going to test the theories of every MPJ opinion that's ever been had, honestly.

I really like who Michael Porter was as a Denver Nugget. And we should say proven NBA champion, Michael Porter Jr. Indescible in in in 2020. For sure. Huge against the Lakers, huge in that run, has had amazing moments for Denver in several different playoff capacities. Like he did his job. He just had a very expensive contract that limited them in some ways in terms of

trying to improve their team and left him vulnerable to this kind of deal where he gets shipped off to a team of no consequence whatsoever in the Brooklyn Nets, a team that is going to be finding itself, I think, for years to come, ultimately, in terms of what kind of team they want to be. And in the meantime, I hear everything you're saying was, and yet I am perhaps perversely, a little curious as far as like what MPJ as a net is going to be. I don't think he's going to be amazing. And I think ultimately you and I are in alignment on this. What limits you as a score and the reason why Michael Porter Jr. is not going to be some breakout star of the 2025, 26 season is if you don't have the handle, you can't expand. your ability to create shots.

Like that, that he really is what it is. He can't create space, Rob. He can't do it on his own. He cannot get space by itself. Sometimes he's bigger than a guy, like much bigger than a guy. And he could kind of,

all right, create a little bit of space and it doesn't matter. He's so much bigger. But like a credible defender and that dude is straight up, all right, I'm breaking you down. It's no.

Is this going to be a bunch of 30 foot stepbacks? That part is true. Okay, Justin. Yeah. Here's the other part of this too, is that the net's runway to be bad is shorter than you'd expect because they only got two draft picks back or control of two of their own draft picks back in that swap with the Rockets last year. It was this year and it was next year. And so

really they need guys to be available for when they do take a big swing. If they trade for Janus tomorrow, there really wasn't much to go with him. If you can have MPJ suffer through the contract he's on now, maybe he shows himself to be that same player. He's still young, as I mentioned, and you just get him on a lower amount for that next version, I think there's some logic to taking the brunt of it now to pay it off later that could be valuable. I think that's absolutely true. And here's the thing about Michael Porter too,

where he doesn't have that handle where he's going to be a creative star in the way that, again, star is loose in this definition, but even someone like Camp Thomas can be, right, in terms of just having the juice to generate offense for himself. That's not who he is. Michael Porter Jr., though, is one of the best and most accomplished contested three-point shooters in the league

because of that size, because of that height. Like, he doesn't need a Nicola Yokic level pass in order to knock down a shot. And so playing in a different environment, I mean, look, he's going to get shots up just by virtue of the roster that they have laid out because of who he is as a person. I hope he doesn't take the wrong lessons

from his time as a Brooklyn net, as we have seen, you know, Jeremy Grants of Times Passed, as they kind of venture onward to other teams and try to spread their wings as like an offensive creator or star and ultimately fall into this weird like neither fish nor foul kind of zone where they like aren't the kind of player that they need to be

to be a high level role player anymore or kind of a supporting star anymore. I certainly don't want that. I have no idea where this is going to go. That seems exciting to me. That seems interesting to see the experiment play out in real time. I just think on a hoops level. Okay.

Cam Johnson average 60% more assist on the Brooklyn Nets than MPJ did on the Nuggets. That's fucking insane. I mean, that's my virtue of who has the ball. Like, who has the ball for the nuggets? It's not Michael Porter Jr. until it's time to shoot.

I mean, it's like, but there's a reason you don't have the ball. Oh, completely. Completely. There are guys you do not pass it to unless it's time to shoot. And that is Michael Porter Jr. That's all I'm saying.

Just in terms of how the team wants to play, you know, they don't want to be this dumping into Yokic, let him cook, you know, chew up 40% use. They don't want to be like that. They want to be a more distributive type of team. And so, yeah, I just think this guy's just way more suited to that task than MPJ was. And, you know, and again, because MPJ. was so limited at some of the star stuff, quote unquote, he's just overpaid as hell to be doing what Denver really needed him to do. That's fair.

Yeah. And as we've seen time and time again with the Nuggets the past two seasons, it's not necessarily that they needed star level talents. They just needed consistent production, not only bodies, but guys to do the same thing over and over again. I think they kind of got that in Johnson. And again, they got that with our guy, Bruce E.B., who is, I would want to say putting on the cowboy hat,

and mosing his way down to Denver, but he probably is already wearing one right now as he's signing the contract. Never took it off. Well, as going back to the bank of Yokich probably isn't a good idea for a guy who has, you know, struggled to find himself since then,

but clearly he knows how to play off of Yolk. He's gotten into some spats. I heard it was issues with Toronto, with certain guys on the team, and whatever, it happens. I just think, obviously, he was there two years ago, knows exactly what is going to be.

asked of him and has just a deep familiarity with the main cogs on the team. And so whether that be Gordon, Yolkich, and of course, Jamal Murray, I think they struggled in the non-Murray minutes of who could be like a sort of secondary ball handler type. Bruce Brown does that perfectly. But he also can just be a cog in the machine that just doesn't use the ball at all. Just incredible transition player will make a wide old. open three-point shot, take it with confidence, just quality defender, if not some all-world kind of guy, but just not a sieve on that end can't just be relentlessly exploited.

He's just so obvious what they needed. And, you know, in terms of what they needed, like, you know, we need like credible role players, credible minutes eaters. He's another guy to add to that talent. I just think the list of players who are going to be available this summer by trade or for agency, who could both fill those minutes without Murray and potentially play with the starters plugging in with that group is a much shorter list

than you might imagine. There just aren't that many well-rounded guards with those kinds of skill sets. And guess what? We've seen Bruce Brown do literally all of that stuff before. Not only is he familiar with how they play and there's going to be some changes over time with David Adelman,

but all these guys trust him. There's no learning curve where we have to figure out where to get Russ the ball to find the pick and roll chemistry. And some of that stuff was pretty effective. especially between Russ and Yokic over the course of last season. This is just easy money as far as incorporating a significant piece of your rotation goes at a time when the nuggets don't have like half a season to waste. The West is going to be super competitive.

They're going to need to get these guys rolling, get it going pretty quickly. I would say the only way in which I would pour even a couple of drops of cold water on this is what you mentioned, Justin, that it's been like two years since Bruce Brown has been a good and consistently healthy NBA player. it's possible that his best time as a Denver nugget is already behind him. I hope that's not the case, but I can totally see from Denver's perspective why you would bet on the idea that putting him back in, you know, bringing him back to the Yokic bosom would ultimately be the best for everyone involved. Yeah. You hope that he plays on a different level or some of those like in between skills that he has are just a little bit better when he's playing off of Yokic than he is the corpse of like the Jante Murray or like Kelly Olinic. And I would place a pretty high bet that that is indeed the case. But you kind of mentioned it, Rob, that when we looked at this trade probably 20 times during the season and thought like, oh, if they trade MPJ, it should be to chop him up into two pieces.

And it seems like they're doing that just not conventionally, whereas they trade for Cam Johnson, but they open up the MLE in order to go get somebody else. We'll see, to me, that is going to have a big bearing on like if we're going to grade this trade out. Sure. they ultimately get as we're recording this. Let's talk about Horford would be a pretty nice fit in there. Obviously, you have to worry about him in terms of just playing an entire season. You have to probably pace him through at this point in this age of his career, but he ends up being oftentimes the most reliable center in a rotation.

Like he wasn't Boston when Christops was sick and whatnot. And so I do think that matters. That next player matters, especially for a team that had four or five guys that they could rely on. But was like, I don't know, I'm feeling the Denver juice again. If they could just nail this next move, all of a sudden, like, I would probably say they're probably the biggest contender

with OKC in the West, for some major thing happening for sure. I'm definitely, you know, feeling way more positive about what they're doing going forward, considering how I was feeling after the freaking owner said he might have to trade Nicola Yokic because of a freaking salary cap rule. And so today it feels a lot better.

Yeah. in terms of somebody who, you know, wants to see the nuggets get better, compete in the West, and actually not waste Nicola Yolkich's prime. So, yeah, I'm really excited about what they've done today. Not to throw my body in front of a billionaire, but one of the things that Josh Cronky was talking about as he made those remarks was like, because of our injury risk, because of our injury situation, we're leaving ourselves vulnerable to worst-case scenarios.

They definitely improve that situation. That's the thing. They certainly have done that. And if they use this to get deeper, they're also insulating themselves from some of that potential risk as well. I think the issue... No, go ahead, please.

I was going to say, it might diminish Julian Struthers' minutes, but I think they can live with that. I think they can't live with that. As far as the follow-up moves go, like, yeah, Al-Horford would be great. The bad news for the Nuggets is the center market

is already quite picked over. And that is the kind of resounding, remaining need for them is, like, who is the backup five or kind of combination four-five that you could plug into this group. And if you want to get Chris Boucher on the phone, that sounds wonderful. Other than that, I'm not sure like where you're turning for reliable sort of minutes at this

stage in the, in the, in terms of like who's available in the market. Yeah. Well, there's a team that I think a lot of people would pick as rivaling the nuggets for that number two spot in the West, at least in this offseason derby based on what we know now. I think it would be the Houston Rockets who somehow not only have roster spots, but have money potentially. We have to earmark that to come back to for both Dorian, Finney Smith and potentially Clint Capella. I thought was that they already had 20 different defensive-minded wings

on this roster. I guess adding another one in Finney Smith, especially considering the way that handicapped the Lakers, no one's going to like bat an eye at that. It makes the Minish crunch a little more confusing to me, but like Finney Smith is such like a the model of the league average

3 and D wing that you just want and no matter in what situation. Yeah, I don't think it's so the reason why I like this deal for Houston is that they're not going to lean on him in the ways that the Lakers tried to or had to. Like I think all of the best four and five-man lineups had Dorian Finney Smith in him last season

for the Lakers. Like it was pretty insane, the degree to which they relied on him to keep it together like glue. And I think you saw the shortcomings of that idea in the playoffs, right, when they went up against the wolves. And so I don't think he can

be a 30-minute player for real. But what I do like, it's like Atari-Eason or any of these other guys, it's like your minutes aren't guaranteed, okay? Like, this guy is going to be rock-solid, if not, you know, some kind of world-beater in that position as they slide him up from four to three depending on the matchup. I'm sure he's going to toggle in terms of where they slot him. E-Mae's always been good at that. But in terms of reliability, that's just amazing.

the amount of people they know they can count on rotation-wise going into next season. It's just amazing. And you know, you think about it now where now they have two guys that can anchor the offense when the other isn't on the court, right? Like Schengen proved last year

that he was the most reliable offensive player on the team. And now they have KD. and that also unlocks the way they can go out and sort of orient different lineups, man. Like it doesn't have to be like, all right, we know we're going to guard the hell out of people, but with certain looks,

what the hell are we doing on offense? Like, is Fred Van Vleek going to be like taking 30 shots per 36 minutes, you know, depending on the lineup permutations? And so, yeah, they've made themselves better and deeper with these off-season moves. And, you know, three years, for Finney Smith, for the guy that I saw in the playoffs last year.

But it's not a terrible number. No. And, you know, he's a great locker room guy. It's just proven, like, he's always in the right spot. Every now and again, he actually makes shots. So I think this is a great move for the rocks. Now and again, he actually makes shots is uncharitable. In the playoffs, he didn't make a single shot.

Look, it does have, it happens to all three in D wings, honestly. And that's where you'll see if you don't have the defense side kind of profit. you up and you are that kind of unstable shooter, your value can come and go. Like Dorian Finney-Smith, if nothing else, is a good team defender, will get after guys, and is flexible in the way you described, Was, which I think is so important for this team. Like, to me, transitioning him from being that kind of player for the Lakers, who is essential personnel to part of the mix that can come and go, that can flex in and out, that can play a variety of roles. Like, all of that stuff that you mentioned is so important.

And I think it relieves so much pressure, not just on Dorian, but on Tari-Ey. who's a guy who picks up a lot of injuries on Kevin Durant from having to play a huge number of minutes in the regular season. Hopefully all these guys can kind of take some of that burden off of each other. Doran Finney Smith is not creating shots like Kevin Durant, but to your point, if you're playing him with Shangun, if you're playing him with Fred Van Vleet, there's other lineups that can make sense for the Rockets that don't just bank on KD playing in 38 minutes and chucking up shots at volume every single night. There's so many ways for the Rockets to win. And this is a team that was already one of the hardest playing teams in the league last regular

now they are also one of the deepest teams in the league and to see them doing this and Denver doing that at a time where Oklahoma City just won the title and in a way where it's very clear that the thunder are not going anywhere and you just see these other Western Conference challengers stepping up to the responsibility of like what do we have to do to fight with these guys?

What do we have to do to push the thunder in a ways that they haven't been pushed before? I think this is one of the ways you do that. Yeah, I think Finney Smith is ultimately going to be the adult in the room in the 3-D wing room to borrow A, football terminology. On the one hand, I appreciate the margin for error that provides this team.

And also, if they go out and want to swing a big old Yannis trade in the middle of the season, now they have the players just left around in order to stitch things together, which Finney Smith at this point, having gone to the Nets, having played with Luca in Dallas and now with the Lakers, has more than 10,000 hours of just making things work on the fly for teams that are constantly shuffling through different permutations of their roster. I will say this compounded by the other moves that they made in order to roll back a lot of the guys that you kind of thought would just be dispersed to other rosters is a little perplexing because in addition to this you have the extension for Jabari Smith Jr. who you presume would start at the five but now all of a sudden you have to wonder. That's called my high.

Yeah, at a pretty good number, I believe someone said at the fifth year of that extension he'll be making about what the MLE is just to show you how the math and the money. He is just evolving over time on the fly here. So it's Jabari Smith Jr. They re-signed Jay Sontate. They still have Kim Whitmore just pulling splinters out of his ass. I have to assume that he's got to go somewhere at this point. And you have to start to wonder like one year was fine with this because now you have a lot of guys who aren't getting opportunities

and the good thing that the Thunder have that the Rockets might have to deal with is like the Thunder have this like pipeline where everyone kind of falls in line and everyone isn't really like pushing for more minutes. If I'm Cam Whitmore, if I'm Reed Shepard. I'm like, what's Aaron Holiday doing, getting in the game above me? And so I think they have to worry about that a little bit more because those guys were higher picks and that's more was foretold for them.

Yeah. I mean, easier said than done in terms of being the thunder and managing all those players. Like even even just having someone like Jalen Williams, J. Will Jailen Williams, who's a rotation worthy player that I think a lot of teams probably could have used if he had decided to test the market this summer. Instead, he re-uped the thunder. He signed up and has been in a role where, He plays in the regular season here and there, doesn't in some playoff series.

Like, not everyone is cut out for that. Not everyone is cut out to be that sort of role player if you are someone who could be a definite minutes guy on another team. And like we've talked about Cam Whitmore a lot as a prospect we believe in as a score, as someone who could earn and play minutes in a lot of different situations. This rocket team is a lot to play for now. And whatever is above too many guys is where they are. They have the most guys.

They have the most guys of anyone in the league in terms of finding these mouths to feed. I think the telling change over there, Justin, is when you zeroed in on, which is the Aaron Holiday to Reed Shepard minutes. That kind of has to happen, just based on how much they've invested in picking Reed, and ultimately you would hope the belief that that expresses and who he can be as a player.

Aaron Holiday is perfectly fine. It's also perfectly fine as a third or fourth guard that you call upon at times. And you need Reed Shepard to be a guy, ultimately. If you're going to keep him on the team, that's kind of the idea that you're continuing to invest in. I mean, for me, I'm more looking at the front court minutes

where it feels like there's a glut of front court players. Are you, is your closing lineup KD at the three or is it Jabari at the three? Depends on the night. You know, on top of Click Capella and Stephen Adams coming back on the extension. And Shengun, so like Shangoon, KD, Jabari? It might be. Like, that's, you know, I think those are things I'll be interested to see.

The Jabari deal on his part, the sign that for five years is very interesting. Because on the one hand, I don't think he's been more productive than Nas Reid. Right? But, like, there are different propositions, though. Sure. But, like, at any point in the playoffs last year, did you? think they were equivalent players? No. I mean, I think Jabari,

Jabari definitely has the higher ceiling. And the fact that he was playing nominal three next to those two bigs, I think just speaks to the fact that like, if anything, why lock yourself into it? You were saying he might be a five, like what? We don't even know what this kid is. No, but that's why you're paying him is because you don't know. I think with Nas, we know who he is. And he's a guy who, although he's had great playoff moments,

has also had disastrous playoff moments. Oh, yeah, he's had terrible games. He's got this. Yeah. I'm just wondering what they see for Jabber. Bari ultimately. It's just confusing for me because, like, they didn't pay you. Right.

But, like, obviously they didn't tell you to go fish either. They didn't saddle you with, like, a jail and green situation where it was only a three-year deal. So I'm just like, what do they see for him in a world where KD is now your best player? This is just fascinating questions to me. And, you know, I think E. He may, who just has credibility with his guys, seems like, wherever the hell he's at. is going to figure it out, but it's a fascinating question to me.

Yeah, I think Jabari is in for a prove-it year this year, and so I was a little weird for him to take the money before he even had an opportunity to do so. We'll see. I ultimately think he's probably, I think he's probably best as like a stretch four with the flexibility to guard various positions. Like, for instance, if Janus came in,

I think he would actually make a lot of sense as the four next to him slide Katie to the three nominally and just let him do that. especially with the men kind of wreaking terror everywhere and like Favandvili presumably still being able to get after it defensively. But we'll see. I also think like this rippling into the Lakers side of things is also pretty fascinating here. So Dorian Finney Smith opted out of a $15.4 million player option for next season

in order to ultimately sign less on an annual value basis over four years. He took the years, not the money. And so the Lakers as LeBron is making a big show. of things about like, what are we doing in the future? We'll see. I don't know what they could do with LeBron. But at the very least, this deal suggests to me that he may be on to something here. Because while the Lakers are trolling for every center that's available, one, they haven't

gotten anyone yet as we've recorded this. It's about 7 p.m. PT right now. You presume that they'll get our guy, DeAndre Aten, to dominate in across the Pacific division. But then now there's this giant gaping hole on the wing. because Finney Smith was really your only three and the forward. I guess Rui, but Rui's more of like a four or five type. I actually think he was best as a small pole five.

They bring in Jake Luravia on a nice little deal. But like all of a sudden, like the boat is springing holes. And so I have to wonder, Rob, is part of this, the fact that they didn't go out and give him the years a sign that what their big game plan is, is to basically say, Luca, pick your team. We're going to have a sea of cap space as soon as like next summer. It's basically Reeves's player option, Luca's player option. If he doesn't sign an extension and then like Vando and like a couple of the guys,

connect, et cetera, is the goal here to basically be like, Luca, you're our guy and LeBron just has to deal with it. Because otherwise, I don't see what the plan is for next season because right now they're worse than last year. They're definitely worse than last year. Like the center rotation is in Shambles and it was already in Shambles. Jake LaRavia, who I quite like as a player, and I would have been fully. ready to come on to this podcast.

I like Jake LaRavia too. If a team like the Rockets had picked up Jake LaRavia and he's sort of a finishing piece, it's like, oh, that's a great signing. If he is the piece that your whole summer is resting upon, things have gone very sideways. Like, they just have not gone well. Here's where I would push back against, you know, the premise of what you're suggesting, though, Justin. It's like, I don't even see it as a matter of like, oh, did the Lakers not offer enough money?

Did they not offer enough years? If you were given these two situations, I would go play for the Houston Rock. Like I were Dorian, Vinnie Smith, this is like fewer guaranteed minutes, but for a guy who's trying to compete for something, I think the rockets have more to compete for right now. That's true. I wouldn't, if only because I get to live in L.A. and be a millionaire. Yeah, Houston is a very attractive market to NBA players, if not everyday people. Yes. What do you think about crawfish? What do you think about Vietnamese food? How do you feel about humidity? These are important touchstones that you have to cover. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Houston is the Black Boston. in terms of attractiveness to black people. It's just...

Is that good? Yeah, like, well, you know how like Boston is like the white American bros like Mecca? Sure. Like Houston is that for black American people. Interesting. Yeah. Learning so much. It's got that level of reputation as a city.

Then what is Atlanta? Atlanta is the New York. Oh. So you're big. Big boy in Houston. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Houston is the Boston to Atlanta's New York for sure. But, like, it's up there in terms of prestige, you know, that, like, players really like Houston a lot.

Okay. No state taxes. I don't know if you guys knew that. I personally, I don't see the comparison city-wise in terms of L.A. and Houston, but, you know, a lot of people disagree with me there. Yeah. I just, the Lakers seem to be in a bind. And so if I'm just like on the whiteboard, like trying to match all these things up, maybe LeBron has a point here that if he wants to compete for a title, that the Lakers aren't the best position to do so. Now, it seems near and impossible to get anywhere else. LeBron makes over $50 million. By opting in, he's just made it incredibly difficult to go to another team because as we're seeing across the league, guys are just getting bought out for totally normal. contracts. Aitin was on an expiring contract. I think he was in the 30s. He got bought out. Like Jordan Clarkson, Colin Sexton gets dumped for a second round big.

That was crazy. Nurchich, who I thought was better. It just seems like guys are getting dumped. And it just seems like the money squeeze is starting to affect certain personnel decisions. And so this is a long-witted way of saying, like, how does LeBron get anywhere with a team not gunning like five players in order to bring him aboard? Yeah. This has been a super weird summer in a lot of ways already because there's so little cap space. And so you're seeing teams make those sort of like financially motivated salary dumping moves because there's no other way to get below various thresholds, to move certain guys along. The jazz situation is unique though, because honestly it's pretty disappointing

after the way that they've sort of held on to Sexton and Clarkson, that they ultimately didn't get anything for either of them and had to give up a second and take use of NERCage back in order to move on Colin Sexton. There's a good NBA player, a good NBA score. I don't really understand what happened there. But there just aren't a lot of teams that make. sense for LeBron. Category 1, subset, teams that have the salary that could cobble together to trade for LeBron, even among those teams, and teams that are now on the timeline that would make sense to be competitive enough to fit what LeBron wants, which, to your point, like, he might be right that the Lakers are a cute little rebuilding team right now. They certainly have a lot of

work to do. But the list is quite short. The list might be the New York Knicks. It's one team. It's one team. I think Cleveland might be on the list. who's the player coming back, though? Could be Jared Allen, could be Darius Garland. I think Darius Garland would be a lot. Jared Allen, I think could be reasonable. Cleveland and New York for LeBron, I feel like I'm in 2010 all over. Insane.

Cute family guy clips, I guess. Yeah, I mean, if the Lakers just was like, we want something before LeBron inevitably leaves us. Yeah. Cool. Like, Carl Towns to me is like, they basically. play the same position. They're both power forwards of way different conceptions obviously, but like they're both power forwards and they make the exact same amount of money. You could also do OG and stuff. I think O.G.

You could do OG and stuff. Yeah. I wouldn't do OG though. If I'm the Knicks. Oh, I'm not saying you should. You wouldn't do OG for LeBron? It's wild to say, but my guy is so old and he takes a lot off the table just because you have to pace him through regulars. I know. It sounds wild to say. That is crazy. I mean, he's an amazing player, obviously.

LeBron's one of the greatest ever do it. Even today at his age, one of the better players in the league. He also does this shit. And you have to deal with this if you decide to employ LeBron James. It's a very real thing. I do it for towns in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. All NBA season.

Playoff here. In a heartbeat. You got five more years left on his deal. Yeah. I bet LeBron to be like, yo, again, it's position for position. and he could actually play center theoretically for the Lakers, which we just covered. They're having problems filling that spot. They certainly are, but are those the problems you want in exchange?

Luca and Carltown. And Austin Reeves. Don't forget Austin in there. That is the, I think, the decision. Do you want whatever Luca wants versus adding someone now and kind of gunking things up? I think Luca plus pick your teammate is a pretty attractive proposition if I'm the Lakers. Here's the thing. I don't know that Luca would love playing with Carl Anthony Towns.

I don't think he loved playing with Kirstap's Porzingis, you know, like during their time in Dallas, even though it was quite successful at times, even though it opened up all this space for him. I think I think what Luca needs is someone who's more of an interior presence. And when Towns makes himself an interior presence, picks up a lot of offensive fouls. Like he runs the risk of teetering on the edge of his game in a way that I don't think is representative of his talent. And I don't think it's flexing who he is as a shooter. Like, yeah, you can do a little bit of all those things if you're a Laker as cat. I just, I don't think that that partnership would be the most fruitful for either of them.

Well, speaking of interior presences, Brooke Lopez, a guy that the Lakers were looking at, maybe bringing him back, ultimately signed with the crosstown rivals with the clippers. two years and 18 million is what he got. And I love this partial list, our friend Law Murray, the athletic tweeted out here, about all of the backup centers since they traded Mike Mascala for Aviza Zubuch. Montrez-Harrel, I'm going to read it for you, Montres Harrell, Sergei Baca, DeMarcus cousins, Isaiah Hartenstein, Moses Brown, Mason Plumley, Daniel Tice, Mo Bamba, Ben Simmons, and Drew Eubanks.

And now, Brooke Lopez. So it's been a long slog to get to a guy. I think fits reasonably well. It's basically like for like when they're subbing Zub out. Like and adding a stretch element. Zub is at this point, which is crazy to say, he's more mobile than Lopez is. He's one of the five best, six best defensive players in the entire. NBA right now.

The best Nicola Yokic answer that I've ever seen in my life, I love this as a zoo backup. It's like you almost don't even skip a beat when you bring this guy in. If you're just like, look, man, we're planting your ass in the paint and, you know, orienting our defense that way. I think it's a wonderful move.

You know, nice piece of business for Lopez getting the $18 million out of it. Shoot, man. Why not? And again, Milwaukee, L.A. I mean, need I say more. This is a tough time to make that argument. Again, Milwaukee in the summer, beautiful place. Love it.

Oh, yeah. Are they comparable cities? LA is pretty cool in the summer, too. Just got to say, I don't think Brooke Lopez is going to hate being in California again. I don't think he's going to be hate being this close to Disneyland again. I think he's going to have a great time. Ultimately, the Clippers are a tough team to shop for because they have a lot of a lot of stuff in the rotation, a lot of good players, a lot of things that kind of fit in various capacities.

And you saw to what extent, like to what extent that can be effective and where it can be limiting. That is what it is until they want to dramatically remake their team. The one glaring hole as you zero it in with that list, Justin, it's like who's playing backup five? It can't be small ball all the time. And having Brooke Lopez as a guy you can play regular season minutes as that stretch option, like, it really is a foolproof sort of option, given what they had to work with, what the market looked like. and the player who can kind of do the most good for them in terms of this sort of spot edition.

Yeah, so they bring back Hardin as part of their offseason moves thus far. Makes sense. I mean, game seven was what it was. They added a year to the deal. I think he earned that extra year for sure. Yep, I think he has an option on it as well. They still need a backup point guard.

Honestly, I think Chris Paul wouldn't make a ton of sense. I don't know if he and Hardin are ever going to be able to get along again. but pretty much those guys play with each other every four years to the point where Kevin Durant is playing with Jeff Green on the Rockets after Russell Westbrook and after James Hardin played on the Rockets. So we're just shuffling up the Yatsy container and just like figuring this thing out every couple of years now. So who knows. But the Clippers seem like they're going ahead with what they had and what they had was pretty good except for some of those playoff games. We should talk about the buck side of this with the Lopez situation because they lose. lose Lopez, but virtually bring back the same lot of guys that they had last year.

Kevin Porter Jr. is resigning. Bobby Portis resigning. Torian Prince, as we're recording this, also re-signed. I guess that's it. They have a little flexibility now. I think that they could use part of their MLE, but we keep, this is the thing looming over the entire league was. It's just like, Janus is coming back to what? Yeah. Like, we're here in the, reports like Janus is staying put, blah, blah, blah, but like, if Janice's whole thing is I only want to be competitive, I want to compete, I want to play for championships, I want to make deep playoff runs. Like, the whole league has eyes. That has not been achieved by the roster that's been constructed. Not to say that there's much, you know, wiggle room here.

Damien Lillard, your second highest paid player, second best player, is gone for the whole season, you know, older guy within Achilles. Like, it's not. even like they could tell somebody, yo, Dane Lidd's going to come back strong as hell. Why don't you get ahead of it and trade for him and give us some cool stuff right now?

Like, they can't do that. And so this is what it is. I think people are just waiting for Yannis to wake up and smell the trash that's filling his locker room in terms of teammates. And so it's tough. It's tough.

Rob, what do you want me to call this roster? Look, you want me to call it serviceable? it's it's not really serviceable I'm not I'm not gonna sugar code it is it trash though there's a range between trash and serviceable and we're in there it's you know it's sputtering

let me ask you something trash respectable who has a better supporting cast this year yonisanta de Kumpo or the mellow ball have you looked at Charlotte's death chart yeah it's pretty dicey I would say it's signed Mason Plumley

I would say it's better than than Melo I would have about this let's let's let's take some guesses all around who do you think is slotted to start at center for the Charlotte Hornets they just traded you know mark Mark Williams gone use of Nurkish Mark Williams gone use of Nurkich gone Nick Richards got traded last season oh it's a debate Diabate is there see this is the Musa Diabate slated to start at the five for the Charlotte Hornets or Ryan Kalkbrenner a player who I guess is a real person who just got drafted I'm going to have to see him to find out I don't

Did you say his last name was? Ryan Calkbrenner. All right. Okay. They also brought back Mason Plumley. So, yeah. You got to do two tours if you're a big old white guy. Jesus.

They should not have done that. Brandon Miller, you know, Miles Bridges, even the rookie they brought in. Like, they just got way more shit on their team. It's just younger. And so for that reason, I would say Milwaukee. Milwaukee is, man. next season, Charlotte is much better off long term. It's how I can split the baby there.

But this is the difficulty for the bucks is, you know, bring back Bobby Portis is a best case scenario. No, I think it's a best case scenario for them. Under these circumstances, they just don't have any other means to bring in someone as good as Portis. And I think Bobby Portis is pretty flawed. And I think for a championship level team raises all sorts of questions. But they need him. Like, they need guys who can fill out front court minutes who are not Janus or Kyle Kuzma or I guess Tyler Smith. you know, like they really need players who can fill those spots.

So having him is huge. Getting Kevin Porter Jr. back, I'm sure is important to some people. I don't really like it. It is what it is. Ultimately, this leaves you with like, what are you doing with the mid-level? There are another one of these teams that is sitting there with their exception, trying to figure out how to spend it. If you're going to bring back Gary Trent Jr., you're going to have to cut into it.

I think that it probably, you know, it behooves them to do that. Like Gary Trent Jr. was good for them. He's part of some of their more effective lineups. but as we are slotting all these guys back in, Tori and Prince and Kerry Trent Jr., you're right, Justin. This is kind of just the same group. Same guys.

Where is the new blood coming from? Because the guards you might have wanted are gone. The bigs you might have wanted are vanishing off the board. The wings, I'm not sure they were over there in free agency to begin with. Like, they're just not, there aren't a lot of options

that actually make sense for the bucks, short term and long term. And so then you're just kind of trying to recapture the magic of what was ultimately a doomed season. We can't even lie to ourselves. That's how you describe it, what they're doing. We can't even lie to ourselves and say that like, oh, this draft pick that isn't going to be good has upside that they might be able to tap into A.J. Johnson ain't there anymore. And so, like, maybe we could do Derry Bird if we want, AJ Green.

He's good. Yeah, AJ Green's good. He's solid. He's a solid player who will probably get buried because Doc will lose interest in him like halfway through the season. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah. What are you going to do? who's yeah where is the next wave coming from who's going to actually make this team better than it was last year it's a mess so uh something to keep an eye on because honestly that could make the difference for the entire league at this point that was a team that needed to have a really good day and i think had this maybe the start of one or the start of a good weekend in terms of bringing portis back and just like could not get the guys that they probably needed to get speaking of a team that had a good weekend we have to talk about our alana hawks who just keep

Keep adding. Hell yeah. Talk about the rockets who are piling on the wing players. The Hawks are following suit there. They get Nikiel Alexander Walker, four years, 62 million. They ultimately have to do it via sign and trade for a middling little second going back to the Timber Wolves. They also get Luke Knard on a one year, $11 million deal. Apparently, Trey Young made a call, was like, we need to get my guy.

Luke Conard, have no idea how those guys know each other or why Kinnard would listen to Trey Young. but I think he helps because, was like this step chart, starting to fill him behind that starting five that I think we were so excited by. We talked about that just the other day. It's nice. Obviously, Luke Kinnard is a more than capable backup,

play him at the two, playing at the one, could do a little bit of ball handling for you. Great shooter. One of the best shooters in the league has been for years now. And I think that rap that he had as like one of the worst defenders

in the history of life is more improved. again, I'm not saying he's just to get back to the Cam Johnson thing, not saying he's going to go out and strap anybody or anything close to that. But he's no longer a complete embarrassment

and problem on that. And so just a beautiful, you know, backup piece. And Alexander Walker, I think, could start for this team at the two, you know, when, and you put Risha Shay or, you know, some of these other guys at the three.

I mean, you got to like Dyson Daniels, though. Well, sure, sure. Dyson Daniels, that maybe has to start. Who knows, though, how to season. They have options. That's what I'm saying. You know, they have so much optionality now. And Alexander Walker getting $62 million, man, when before he got the Minnesota, you could have said he was on the fringes of the NBA. And him making himself into, like, one of Minnesota's most indispensable parts in, like, earning this deal, super happy for him, man.

I think he's going to fit in beautifully with what they're doing. And I'm interested to see this is the kind of team that Quinn Snyder, like, specializes in making work, all these interchangeable, versatile kind of parts. And, you know, like, it's just crazy that they've rebuilt this and reimagined this still around Trey Young somehow. Yeah. Like, we're still here.

And, like, we like the roster and it's not toxic. And it's like, this is going to be cool to watch next year if every. everybody plays. Like, this is really exciting stuff. It's just the kind of depth chart that makes you feel something. I don't know how else to put it. Like, you just, you just look at this collection of names and wing talent and defense.

And you're right, like there are so many options on the board. I don't know who is going to play when and in what combinations. But you really have to give credit to newly elevated general manager on C. Sala, who like, again, people step into this job,

especially when they're promoted from within. You don't really know what to expect from them. Within a week, basically, the Hawks have added Chrisaps for Zingas, Nikiel Alexander Walker and Luke Kinnart, who we just said. I guess we'll see if Aes O'Newell has anything to give them kind of out of the gate,

but also bringing in that Pelicans pick from down the line on the other side of the much maligned deal that we discussed on the last pod. Not a bad business for them. They certainly were. And you know what? Maybe they should be. I'm just going to lob that over there. But this is an incredible turnaround. Like, was you're right?

I don't know how you do with this. quickly. I don't know how the team gets shaken up in a way that all of a sudden they just make a totally different Quinn Snyder sort of sense. And I think some of that is Trey Young. I do want to give Trey credit not just for being a recruiter, but for coming off of what I would say was his most mature season to date in which he flexed fewer of his bad habits. He actually dug in on defense. He tried to move the ball. He tried to do all the things that people have been begging him to do. and now he has a roster around him that's better suited to benefit from that than any roster he's ever played with before. So just to bring the listener back, you got to think about the narrative around the baby boy trade, the Dejante Murray trade.

Whereas like, yo, the Hawks kind of went all in, gave up a bunch of draft capital for a dude who was perceived as a great compliment to Trey Young. Although it had been years since the San Antonio level defense, dogging people on the perimeter, but the idea was that Murray would be back there just hounding guys and kind of free up Trey Young to do more of the things that he's suited to do. That didn't happen. They gave up a lot of picks to do so. And it was like, wow, that's a failure.

And then now look at it. They've actually found the actual compliments to Trey Young, specifically Dyson Daniels, But again, Risha Shea, I think you can say the same thing. And from everything we saw from Alexander Walker, where it's like, I can be on the ball, I can be off the ball, I'm now a reliable shooter. When he gets into people in the back court, he's one of the best defensive perimeter players that are getting his minutes totals in the league, man.

Good on transition. Like, this is crazy that they've now, like, actually done what they've been trying to do for so long. It's really cool to see. It's almost the opposite logic of the Murray trade, where it's like we're going to take the ball potentially sometimes out of Young's hand, maybe make him play off ball and there would be a bit of synergy there. If anything, this team is built first and foremost with Trey dispersing it to a bunch of wing players who probably don't have like the ball handling talent, save for like Jalen Johnson and whatever

development, Dyson Daniels ultimately does. If there would be kind of a pushback would be like maybe they're too reliant, on trade to get everyone involved but i think i like it overall everything just seems to fit a clear vision for a team and we haven't said that about the hawks in a very long time the thing that makes me a little nervous is the front court rotation between a congwu christaps and jalen johnson those are three guys injured as hell they all get injured and it's like you're you're getting it was johnson just last year he he's no he's missed games the year before too I'm misremembering.

The COVID year at Duke was a weird thing as well. Like, he's always missing games, man. Yeah. So that scares me a little bit, just because you're stacking all those guys up and relying on all of them potentially so heavily. But you've got so many guards. And in terms of combinations and teams that can get away with playing three guard looks, this is going to be one of the better ones, certainly in the East and probably in the

league. Nekeel, to me, is sort of like you're Andrew Nemhart. Like, he fits that, like, lengthier, bigger player. But in terms of a guy who's going to be able to be able to. to pick up full court in addition to Dyson Daniels praying on people in addition to Risa Shea having like the innate field that he does all of a sudden there's just like so much exciting wing playing happening with the Hawks I think it says something that they can afford someone like Kinnard who's a shooter first and doesn't really play defense because they have so much of

those other guys to cover for him when for the longest time they needed those other guys because they had a lot of offensive first players like it's a complete facelift of who they were as a franchise thing you guys want to talk about the grizzlies made a shit ton of moves today i love it i love it should i run it down yeah please do so uh renegotiated and extended jaron jackson junior for two hundred and forty million five years player option on the last year santi aldama three years fifty two million cam spencer two years four point five million and then they get our guy tied to rome three years 28 million it seems like cole anthony is going to get bought out in order to facilitate say some of these moves, but like a lot of Blog Boy All-Stars just like on this team again.

So like, needless to say, we're fans. Yeah. Ty Jerome, again, another congratulations in order for him. Another guy, fringes of the NBA. Like, yo, is this thing ever going to coalesce? It does last season. He gets himself paid. So super, super duper happy for him.

Sauti Aldama more than earned this deal. Last year in the regular season was just incredible. And I just like, and obviously the Jared Jackson renegotiated and extend was a no-brainer. Like, that's not even, like, you do that, obviously. I think the cool thing is that they shook it up while also, you know, clarifying that the success of the team is going to come and go with Jared Jackson and John Moran.

You guys have no excuses. We didn't rip this thing down to the stud. They're still talented individuals. all up and down this roster. And if John Moran and Jaron Jackson are who those guys think they are, they think of themselves as, this should be a damn good team next year. And if it's not, then the Memphis Grizzlies can go into being like,

these guys are losers. They're never going to win here. Get them out of here. Let's start all over. But I like that they did a lot of sort of split the baby here in terms of moving on from bang, getting a bunch of stuff for him. and, you know, if they have to go in this rebuild direction because ultimately, you know, their diaper dandies,

although, you know, them diapers looking more like the pens these days, they're going to have to be counted on and see if these guys, these boys have become men yet. So are the boys or the men wearing the depends? What's going on there? Well, that's the thing, like, Dick Vitel, you were diaper dandy if you were a freshman in college. Sure, yes.

So these guys, they're youngish, young-ish NBA. place, but it's like, they're not really diaper dandies anymore. You know, they're not trying to be safe down there. Yeah, they're getting longer in the two. Okay. I respect. I got you. They're not Biden level, but you know, in NBA terms, they're getting up there.

They certainly are. Yeah, I still don't really understand, like, exactly what this team is. I'm trying to get my arms around it. This was a lot of movement, even if it's just retaining in certain ways, but I'm still kind of like trying to recover from the Desmond Bainty. trade and KCP being a prominent part of this team. Obviously, Ty Jerome is in some ways supplanting Scotty Pippin Jr. But I imagine both of those guys are going to play.

This is the problem with them being the blog boy all stars is the true blog boy all stars on this team are going to play like three minutes. It's going to be like Gigi Jackson getting in for garbage time. I don't know what to make of the fact that they're going to have to reincorporate Jalen Wells, who was injured at the end of last season, reincorporated Brandon Clark. Like they got a lot of guys who were already on the roster. and just weren't present because of their injuries. And now they're adding talent, now they're reshuffling.

They do just depend a lot on job in terms of driving their offense, even more so than before. I think losing Bain's ball handling and creativity, look, it's a big deal. Like, you can try to replace that with Ty Jerome. We just saw where that gets you in the playoffs. And this is where I'm torn, was on the celebration of Ty Jerome as a guy who just made himself a bunch of money

because he also just cost himself a bunch of money. I think coming off the regular season, he might have been in line for like a $15 million a year deal from the magic or otherwise. You know, like some team would have really saw the future in that. Instead, you see him as a role player type who could be useful to this.

The Indiana series kind of ruined the stock a little bit. The bloom fell right off the rose. Hey, man, $20 million is decent work if you could find it. And it's a hell of a lot better than getting your passport stamped in Turkey or freaking Greece or something like that. I, like, you know, I think it's nice. Yeah, but I think you have a point.

point, Rob, because the grizzly superpower is finding guys on the fringes. Their question for many years, especially in the jaw jarring construction, is like, how do they get another star level talent to figure out that three position that they've long kind of suffered it for? It still doesn't feel like they're any closer to that. Maybe Cedger Coward just develops into that and going the draft route actually makes sense for them because they draft historically very, very well. But then that's a longer timeline.

You might have to go a little bit longer in order to get to the team that we've been waiting for them to become. Elsewhere, anything else? Catch your eyes here? We haven't talked about Dennis Schroeder or some of these other kind of guys in the mix here. The Julius Randall deal is fascinating

because basically two more years at the exact same money 33 mil after all he's done for this team. That makes me wonder about like how we're just not a cap space sport anymore.

And like it just feels like he's gotten underpaid on that deal. And at a certain point, you kind of get tired of fighting and be like, oh, well, I kick the can next year. You know, because theoretically, he could be like, oh, I'm holding a gun to your head in terms of my contract. But the wolves are like, who are you going to sign with outright for more money? It's just not there. I just, I don't know, man.

Again, I just think I just look, OG and Anobie love him as a player. Like, that dude is 12 to $13 million a year better than Julius Randall? I mean, it's more complicated than that. Yeah, I think that's just because OG maps so easily onto any team in the league. If you want to be a Julius Randall team,

you have to make a lot of considerations to make that work and make it happen. The wolves have done it as better than I would have ever imagine they could have. It turned out to be an incredible partnership and him and aunt and like him and some of those early playoff series in particular. I'm just frankly stunned by how well Julius Randall performed and how good Timberwolf he turned out to be.

It kind of makes sense. And look, this is, I would say generally speaking relative to his production, a team friendly deal. Like this is it's low end starter money. I mean, it's more than that. 33. Every starter money then. I think that. No.

Like what Drew, man. Yeah. It's still above average. They're starters money. They're starters. They're starters who are on their third deals. I mean, listen, I like Randalli, money.

He's making less than Drew Holiday. I think if we had this conversation, I think if we had this conversation a year ago, we'd be like, where is Drew is Randall going to go? Because he does one thing very well, but it's tough to fit that into other teams. So if anything, the market is, one, the market is suppressing, I think, guys who aren't absolute

superstars. If you were in that next tier, you're just not going to get paid in that way anymore. We've seen that across the board. But also, like, I just don't know who else would be paying him. And so for me, this seems like a nice marriage on both sides, ultimately. I think it makes sense for everybody. Like, for Julius Randall to be part of the long-term core of a really competitive team

that just went to the conference finals is poised to compete for it again. Like, that's a good outcome for Julius Randall. It may not be the money he won. I'm just saying he was the Pascal Siakum of this team. Straight up. He is not as good as Pascal Cial. I'm not saying he is, but he was the Pascal Siakum of this team. You're right.

But this is what happens when Julius Randall is the Pascal Seaccom of your team. It's like you run pretty hard into the wall when you get there. Nas Reid also comes back to Minnesota as part of some of their moves there. They ultimately had to choose between Nas or Nikiel. Nikiel was the one out there. I think Nauts was what, five years, 125 ultimately, which is solid money for a guy that's hard to replace just because of the way that he fits next to all their various bigs. And they brought into other young, very raw big men in the draft.

And so, like, he's going to be important to that process. So I'll give this, I'll give the Minnesota new owners credit for this. They keep spending, perhaps not at the level in years past. But like, trying to prove a point, man. They're blowing through it in order to make sure this team stays competitive. Like, it's unfortunate that the CBA restricts teams so that they can't just bring the keel back. Yeah. And just pay these guys whatever they want in order to do so.

but like this is still a very top heavy team that's paying through the nose in order. By the way, by the way, I want to give a shout out to my guy Nate Duncan because I was listening to his show and he brought up a great point. And he was sort of snarkily talking about these new draconian rules. And he's like, thank God,

the big market Timberwolves can't keep Nickill Alexander Walker on their team. Thank God, because this is, I mean, the league was being ruined by stuff like this. It's a mental. What these idiots have done with this roster structure, the salary structure and stuff, it's so fucking stupid. The Celtics couldn't even bring back Luke Cornett.

He's getting paid by the Spurs, which more power to him, couldn't or would. They could have won back. Or years, 41 million for Luke Connett. Shouts to him, man. Good for him. He deserves that.

But Luke Cornett has been the exception to what we've seen in this market overall. This has been so far the summer of the re-up. It is go back to your team, sign an advantageous deal because that's all the money you're really going to get. It's not out there. Like everyone we saw change teams was mostly guys who could fit into the mid-level exception. That's it. That's it. Guys who were signed and traded or guys who are on like the mid-level or the biannual. That really is all the movement we've seen so far that wasn't just like a trade for trade. Jordan Clark in the campaign minutes

for the Knicks next year, major, major, major upgrade. I like that. that. Anything else, Rob, that you like? What's that when we brushed on? Kavan Looney, got to pour one out. We do. We do. We even Golden State. Do you know how old that guy is? He's younger than... 28? Yeah.

He's 29. I would have said 37. He's been on Golden State for so goddamn long. He's played basically since he got drafted. That's the thing, man. Like, he got minutes damn there out the gate. Yeah. So he's going to New Orleans, two years, 16 million. I don't know what the hell New Orleans is doing.

It seems like in just another big they have a couple of those guys but like, I don't see how it all fits together but he's, he's a steady veteran in the locker room.

I am glad that the Knicks got involved with Clarkson though because it did kind of feel today like most of the East just sort of fell asleep. Like I don't know what was happening or not happening. Have you seen the conference?

Well, but that's like there's opportunity there for whoever wants to jump at it. Orlando already made their move. I like my chance. at least. They got Tyos Jones. Yes, got Tyos Jones today.

Look, that's nice. Like them getting that much shooting and ball handling in one off season, I think is a nice swing for the magic. Other than the magic, I guess the Celtic secondly did some stuff. I don't know that any of it was particularly useful. And they certainly said goodbye to a lot of people. We're at the point now with Boston where they're already because of injury and losses to their roster without four of their top nine guys in terms of minutes last season.

Al Horford could also very soon be out the door. The sort of like open chatter out there is that he, might be going to the Golden State Warriors. We'll see if that turns out to be the case or not. I guess they're just going to have a whole new team. I guess Anthony Simon is just going to play 42 minutes a night, and that's going to be that. I'm not looking forward to watching Boston Celtics basketball.

I am looking forward to watching basically everyone in the West, who I guess they've just decided, like, we're all pushing in. They all see some opening. They all see some advantage. Maybe give or take the Lakers in that. Yeah. I'll say this, just as a way to go out on, I still think,

and I tweeted this yesterday that DeAndre Aten has a Javelle McKee like kind of track to his career left in him because in 2021 you just streamline what he does and it worked. I just like maybe he's said I'm around him so often but he's a giant athlete

who moves so fluidly and if he could just be a little bit more serious about things more often I think it could pay off to the point where like when the when the Blazers went on their run at the start of this year he was a big part of that And I have to wonder, playing for his next contract,

potentially being with a premier creator like a Luca, will ultimately unearth that version of him. That would be the hope. This is honestly an amazing way to end this spot. Justin is still in. Like we hadn't done any Portland homerism. He's so Portland. He's still in on dominating.

Even though he's gone. He's not even going to be of Portland anymore. He's like, no, I'm talking to this guy. He's a fun guy. He loves his video. games. He's going to figure it out. So I'm just confused. Like, where are we in the Javelle McGee arc if he's having the Javele McGee or Golden State? Okay.

Yeah, Golden State. Lakers. I'm playing every year for my contract. I'm just going to run and jump and be giant and athletic. That's the path. We got an email today at ringer group chat at gml.com from Shaw, a listener Shaw, who said, buying out Aidan after a couple garbage years really emphasizes the Waz classic, big for nothing label. You know what? We got to bring it back. Until the man boxes out a single time, DeAndre Aiden is big for nothing.

DeAndre, intake more than one free throw, a game challenge. Yeah. It's going to be big. It would be nice. Attach a chick-fil-a coupon to that. He's going to be a great Laker. He is. All right. Why don't we end it on that note? I believe we'll be back on Thursday.

You've got something for your July 4th planning. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. Thank you to Ben Cruz. We'll talk you next time.