The Ringer NBA Show - Melo to Leave OKC, Kyrie’s Uncertain Future, Lakers’ Coaching Conundrum, and Trae Young Misses Treys | Sources Say (Ep. 298)

Episode Date: July 6, 2018

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan discuss the Oklahoma City Thunder reportedly parting ways with Carmelo Anthony (0:58), the possibility for Kyrie Irving to leave the Boston Celtics (8:15), how LeBron James affects the Los Angeles Lakers’ coaching staff (16:20), and Trae Young’s struggles during NBA summer league in Utah (25:54). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We won. Yeah. They suck. Yeah. We're here. NBA show. It's a special sources day. Live from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I'm Juliet Littman. I'm here with Chris Ryan. What's up, Juliet? So much. We're in high NBA off season. I can see the desert stretching out beyond us Treasure Island across the street. It's all so beautiful here from our villa at Caesar's Palace, which is really dope. It is pretty nice. I feel like an NBA player. And I feel like Pablo or something.

Do people still make that joke? Nobody makes that joke anymore. Well, I'm here to bring it back. That joke has been canceled along with Kanye West. You know what else has been canceled? Carmelo Anthony and the Oklahoma City Thunder's relationship. Yeah, this is for tax purposes largely and also for basketball decisions, for basketball reasons.

So Carmello was part of this enormous payroll and tax bill that Oklahoma was staring down, something like $310 million. Because when you think of the most lavish and expensive prosely, sports teams, you think of Real Madrid, you think of Paris and San Germain, you think of the Lakers, and you think of the Thunder. Of course. Yeah. Who famously traded James Hardin to avoid the tax.

So times have changed, but what hasn't changed is that Mello's still an expensive and not very good basketball player. So they are going to either look for a trade partner, let me know how that works out, or they're going to stretch him, which means they basically spread his contract out over the next five years, thus saving Oklahoma City upwards of I think $107 million on next year because once they hit that luxury tax the fees are so high. Right, and the repeater tax is so high. It's awful, yeah.

I think that's what killed the cabs, right, for the last couple seasons too? That's part of it, yeah. Part of it, sure. Loran wanting to spend all his time with J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson, yeah. Mello has really been like, fuck you to everyone this summer.

He has been, he went to see the Salt Bay, steak guy. I love a guy who's into memes late because that's, that's me too. I really only found out about Bad Baby and like cash me outside. So I'm new to you. So Mello being into Salt Bay now tracks with a person of his age. He also like is kind of late to the NBA wine revolution but doesn't really seem to care. Yeah.

Like that's also part of like his social media stick. He's just sort of like I'm doing me. And I feel like this is latter stage professional basketball Mello is the purest Mello that we have always known as there, and now he has the freedom to come out and play. So here's the big question. He's going to get paid. He's getting this contract, his money from Oklahoma City either way. The question I have is, does Mello now recalibrate himself and say, okay, the thing that

I didn't want to do in Oklahoma was be a role player. But if I go sign with the Lakers, if I go sign with the Rockets, which are two teams being suggested, hell, if I sign with the Warriors. The Warriors? What? That's a pathway to a ring. Or I can go to Chicago. I can go to the Clippers.

I can go to a number of other places. And I can be a player that's like the A option. And that's all my shots, which has always been important to him. I don't see him doing that. I think if Mello wanted to be a role player, he probably would have stayed in Oklahoma City. I know that he's not like a Paul George wants to live in a smaller city, likes that size market. But I think if you're willing to be that role player, why not stay there? I mean, I understand why it's bad for the team, but you're with two all-stars.

Well, I think for Oklahoma City, they were like, feel free to opt in. You're getting stretched. Right. I don't know that they would have brought. If he had opted out and immediately signed for like the mid-level exception, I still don't know if Oklahoma would have had him back. Because now with Mello out and a healthy Andre Roberson, they're looking at Russ, PG, and Roberson being a pretty tight perimeter defense.

Right. And then Jeremy Grant and Stephen Adams being a really athletic back line to protect the rim. defensively, the Thunder are really good. They're bringing back Felton, which is, he did some nice things for them as a backup, but I think they're an incredibly thin team. Yes, they are. The thing that they need to do is basically get to the playoffs healthy.

We saw this a couple of instances in the postseason, where once that rotation gets shortened down to five to seven people, it doesn't really matter who your eighth, ninth, and tenth person is. That's for the regular season to give guys breathers. But if the Thunder can go to the playoffs healthy, I don't see why they can't make a little bit of noise. Maybe not go to the finals, but I think they could win a series or two. Definitely.

I mean, like, I think that there's like not questions lingering around for them this year. Like it'll just be a different team. It's just a thunder. Yeah, this is who we are. This is what we've got. And we're working with it. And they seem like excited. They had a NAS concert for Paul George in Oklahoma.

Here's one thing that's really interesting, too. We've got Blake, Wall, even Rust, to him to some extent, all these guys who are like, reaching sort of probably the end of their prime or the late period of their prime. Sure. And they'll have like their twilight. They're all getting wildly, not overpaid, but they have, they're on really expensive contracts. Are we going to see this happen to any other big stars? Not now, but like down the line a little bit.

Will Detroit try to stretch $44 million Blake? Didn't they do that to Josh? What's his face already? Josh Smith, yeah. Several years ago. Josh Smith's still getting paid by like three different teams. The Blake question's a really good one. I kind of forgot he's in the league.

and he's just like out there in Detroit. But I guess they could like make noise this year. Yeah. Or something. Dwayne Casey seems to think so. Yeah. I'm happy for Dwayne Casey. Didn't have to move very far.

Yeah. It's not like a big relocation. I think yes. I think that also like if the players are like, well, this is what I'm doing now. Just I'm one at like one plus one. Yeah. I think like teams will be okay, fine. Then we'll just stretch you.

Like everyone's going to come a mercenary. I just think the long term deals will be less and less basically. Like Russ and Hardin and Steph might be like. last, like, major max deals. Well, good. I'm glad that LeBron and Chris Paul made such a big deal to get those supermax contracts then. Oh, and Chris Paul.

I mean, he, that's, to me, is the worst decision that anyone's made of the offseason. Is Chris Paul opting back? Is the signing with the Rockets or the rocket signing Chris Paul? The rocket signing Chris Paul. So what would you have done other, differently? I don't know. They were kind of like in a bind. They went all in on the team last year and they got so close, but they are now worse than

worse off. Because they don't have a reason. They don't have a Riza. It's like a weird. Capella is not re-signed. Yeah, I'm sure he will. I think he's going to take the qualifying offer. But I just think we saw them at their best.

Chris Paul is definitely on the decline now. And the Western Conference has LeBron. So. I don't think the Lakers are going to be as good, that good. Yeah. And I think that they can make the argument that we were, we're doing what the Thunder didn't do, which is we took the Warriors right to the brink.

And then our best player left. The Rockets are bringing back all their best players. And they took the Warriors to the brink again. And they're maybe counting on emotionally, mentally. It's so exhausting to do this that the Warriors do come up short in the fifth year of this run. I guess so. I mean, I think that's the bet. Do you think the Rockets are the second best team in the league?

I don't. Who do you think is the second best team in the league? I think a healthy Celtics is better than the current Rockets. I'm going to go with empirical evidence. I haven't seen the Healthy Celtics. I don't know what Jason Tatum is when he's the third or fourth option. That's true. That's fair.

And Kyrie Irving is like a 50-50 health risk. Like I don't know when he's going to be, he's played through what, like two, three full seasons without like major injury? Only two because he broke his kneecap at the end of 15. And then he was back for 16, obviously. 17, he was healthy and they lost. And 18. He was out like half the time.

Right. So he's had two consecutive healthy seasons. Right. And they have to wait for Hayward. Like Hayward's going to come back, but not necessarily like to Paul George a full year to look like Paul George again. Celtics aren't like a knock-on guarantee second-best team. And segue alert.

They got to take care of their own guys. Yes. Because not only do we have this Marcus Smart situation, which we want to talk about, but I want to spring something on you. Please do. I want to hear how the Juliet Antenna is receiving the Kyrie may not be a long-term Celtic rumors. Which one do you want to start with?

Let's start with Kyrie. I'm really into this one. Big shock. I'm really into this one. So if I am the Celtics, I trade Kyrie. Well, let's set it up a little bit. So Kyrie is obviously,

was this huge talisman for the Celtics in the first half of the season. Then a series of injuries and basically opted to have surgery, but like the surgery, as he said on Bill's pod, he was dealing with infections. They had to get the metal screws out of his knee.

This is a guy who's had some pretty significant leg injuries. And now we're starting to hear, okay, so not only are the Celtics going to be looking at, we've got Brown and Tatum that we have to worry about extending. And then we also have to pay Kyrie in what,

after this coming season. And Kyrie has said, I'm not going to do an extension now. There's no need for that. Then there's just been this kind of rumor hanging around Kyrie that he is going to do like two or three years here and two or three years there.

Maybe he wants to play with Jimmy Butler. It's always been his dream to play with the Knicks. Maybe he'd come west. So what do you think? I think that Kyrie Irving is a malcontent. and it's just amazing how all roads lead back to Team USA. And I just, I think, I think that the Celtics don't want Kyrie to be a long term as much as Kyrie doesn't want to be their long term.

Like, I think it goes both ways. Like this is almost like, it's mutually beneficial for you to bump us out of like scrappy underdog role players outperforming their potential to top Eastern conference team. Then when we catch up to you, you can go your own way and we'll go ours. Yeah, basically. Yeah. I think it works for both of them. And Kyrie just seems like a person.

I, like, obviously ingest all of his interviews as quickly as possible. And he just seems like we'll never be satisfied, an Alexander Hamilton type, if you will. And he, I just think, like, he can't stay in one place for too long. I think the winning a ring is the worst thing that ever could have happened for Kyrie Irving's career. I get to a good point. Because he's probably now, like, nobody can tell me anything.

Yeah, he's been to the mountain top. And also, like, I can do all sorts of weird experimental shit with my. career. Yeah. Because I have a ring. It's like something that Carl Malone and Charles Barkley never got. Yeah. But I can just go off and be like, I'm going to go play for Miami for three years.

And then I'm going to go play in China. Like, Kyrie is definitely in the zone of like, I might go play in China in my prime. That's interesting. Like, he's kind of like in the Tyson zone and basketball. Like anything could happen. You could tell me anything and I would believe it. One thing also I find interesting about the whole Jimmy Butler thing that mind to team up, it's Kyrie is famously really not like a like a, like a,

I've never heard of him, like, yeah, Kyrie Fun Hang in the locker room. He's not a glue guy. Okay. And neither is Jimmy Butler, really, right? Now there's Jimmy Butler. Kyrie Irving definitely left some games at halftime during the playoffs, like, just kind of like showed up. Now, he said that was because he had to go get treatment for his infection.

Sure. Okay. Fine. There's many hours in the day that don't coincide with a basketball game. Yes. So I think there were other opportunities to do that. And I think it's interesting that he's, like, signaled out one person he does want to play with because that seems like just totally anomalous.

to me, which, which, but Jim Butler's the same way. He's also not really, like, great for the locker room. But he does have more, like, friends in the NBA than Kyrie. Where Jimmy Butler from originally? Jimmy Butler is from Houston and he went to Marquette. He was playing dominoes or cards. It was either Spades or Dominoes with Mello and Wade when he got traded on draft night in 2017.

And, like, there's no, there's literally no stories like that about Kyrie. There's no one's like, yeah, Kyrie was with. Yeah. So, I've never heard that any. Do Katie and Kyrie like each other? I don't know. It's a good question. I could see them doing a Knicks thing in a year or two.

Together. Yeah. Interesting. Because the KD signing the 101, it just means to me, like, he always wants to have the flexibility to, like, leave there if it gets bad in Golden State. Yeah, absolutely. Or he's unhappy. And, like, if he wins a third ring, Golden State, to then be like, that was one cycle.

I did the Oklahoma cycle. I did the Golden State cycle. And now I'm going to go, whether it's to the Knicks, whether it's to the heat, whether it's wherever. What do you think about the K, sort of, not the KD rumors, but the, rumors about the Warriors having locker room trouble during this year just kind of like that David West quote yeah they were like a big thing for like three days and then moved on I don't know I wonder if it's just like the first of all like do you think it was fighting like

guys being like Nick Young and Javele McGee don't take basketball seriously enough or do you think it was Steph KD level beef I think it's more I think it's probably Dremont it's probably Dremont it's probably like Dremont giving guys a hard time but Dremont not having quite the same season I think it's like probably similar to what happened with the Bulls at the end of like the Michael Jordan years of like everyone's really good everyone's a professional and like can turn it on but there's just a lot of grievances yeah and like a lot of a lot of personalities to manage yeah there's so many I just love remember I'm gonna I'm gonna call this now Kyrie KD Knicks nice within the next two years Oracle Chris yeah let's say that okay I'm into

it that would be that would be fun um before we move on to anything else we should mention Marcus more on the Celtics yes before we get carried away there was a story from the Boston Herald yes the Boston Herald the Boston Herald the Boston Herald said that he was disgusted at not having heard anything from the Celtics. This is a good. I want our sources, secret sources out there, step your game up. Like, if you're going secret, be creative with what you talk. Like, throw some bars in there.

So this source told the Boston Herald, he loves the Celtics, but with these crickets he's hearing. Crickets. He's hurt and disgusted by it. I love it. It's amazing. Who do you think, who do you think makes the call to this reporter? I just, this is just a great story. Marcus Morris had a pretty tempestuous relationship in terms of his contract stuff with the Celtics.

Because you remember when he was up last year, they were like, we'll worry about Marcus or maybe the offer was really low. And the agent was like, they're going to pay for this down the line. Yeah. So they exercise the fourth year. Right. Or they didn't offer him rookie extension. And they're going to pay for this meant not retribution. It just meant like he's going to show them how much he's worth.

and in a weird way, Kyrie going down and Marcus Smart having such a huge role in the playoffs, even though it was beyond the box score, made him super valuable to like really good teams. Like Marcus Smart is a terrifying warrior. Marcus Smart would be a terrifying rocket.

He would be a terrifying... I mean, I can't believe the Lakers spent all this money on all these garbanzo beans. Oh, he would have been great on the Lakers. And could have Marcus Smart out on a Laker. Yeah. Like, wouldn't you rather have Marcus Smart

than Rondo at this point? That's an interesting question. I actually, I don't know. I kind of like, the Rondo signing. I know that's a really weird take, but I think it's significantly better than Shabelle McGee and Lance Stevenson. What are we doing? We just saw how that

ends up. I know, but I do think that Rondo, like, as a coach, is helpful. I think... Sometimes not to the actual head coach, though. Let's do a little Lakers tea leave reading. Yeah, let's do it. Before we get there, let's just talk about Caesar's Palace. I'd love to. That's where we currently are. Just arrived. You just arrived? How do you like it?

Everything has been like... I feel like I've been floating on air since I got here. No, seriously. Incredibly great. Like, everybody who's tier has been super helpful and lovely to deal with. And like, it just feels like they really take care of you here. Casino looks awesome. I can't wait to go to the sports book tomorrow to watch World Cup. Yeah.

Nice. If you would like to stay here, we got a promo code for you. It's LVPod, LVPOD. And guests will get 10% off their stay from now until December 28th, 2018. You can get a room at Caesar's Palace, Bally's, Planet Hollywood, and the Rio, or only one of those.

And this is a special offer for our listeners. Again, it's LV Pod, and the offer ends September 30th, 2018. If you haven't been to Vegas lately and you want to come, Caesar's Palace is the place for you. Do it. Why not? We're enjoying ourselves. I've stayed at a lot of places in Vegas. This place is awesome. Yeah, I agree. I love this villa. We're in. It's fantastic.

Let's talk about the Lakers now. Yeah. So I'm worried about Luke Walton. As you should be. How many more months do you have as him as the coach of the Lakers? I feel like we'll have the mandated review process will take place

during the All-Star break. Mandated by LeBron? I just think mandated by what history tells us about LeBron's first year coaching experiences. Sure. Spolster's the lone survivor on that one. And it turned out that Spolster is one of the best five coaches in the league. That's my guy.

That's not so surprising. Luke was in the same draft class as LeBron. One thing in, in Luke's favor, in my opinion, best friends with Richard Jefferson from Arizona. Sure. I wouldn't even be that surprised to see. RJ doesn't want to be on a team.

He doesn't want to coach. I think RJ would like to continue his career. His media career. As the host of Road Tripin. Here are some things that I heard last season. Ooh. That the Lakers staff, which now I'm not looking at who they are right the second,

but that the Lakers staff was filled out by a bunch of Luke's buddies from Arizona, from University of Arizona days, and that it was not a particularly, intense, like super detail-oriented setup. Now that could have changed over the course of the season, but I heard that it was a pretty like, you guys, like, it's all about basketball supposed to be fun. The ball finds energy.

Let's go. Like, you guys just play your game. Yeah. And I think that that was useful in some respects for, like, getting those guys to enjoy basketball again after some pretty miserable seasons. But I am wondering whether or not that will work for Rondo, LeBron, and Lance. and whatever else. And he's also going to have two very distinct generations of players,

these young kids who chirp a lot and these older guys who are probably very ring-focused. I don't think I've ever wanted a hard knock for the NBA more than for this Lakers team. I mean, the bidding would start at like $500 million. I mean, it's just amazing. When you talk about it as kind of like a generational clash, it's even more fun. Yeah. It's pretty wild. Like the trio, if they all remain on the team, I mean, who knows?

but the trio of Kuzma Hart and Ball against the new trio of Stevenson, Rondo, and McGee with LeBron as like the kind of the host would just be amazing. Like, can we get like a family feud every night? Josh Hart, shout out to Nova. Really flying without a net right now.

Oh, definitely. Because he's pretty good, but like doesn't have a huge resume and his guy a very outside, it's like social imprint compared to like what he's done on the basketball court. I know. It's tough. And he also got sent down to the G-League a few times.

And unofficially reprimanded for, like, he and Coos' social media presence of being, like, a little too feisty. If you're, if you are Luke Walton, are you excited to have LeBron? Yeah, I mean. He's still the best part in league. I think so. It's just a question whether or not Luke is the guy who, like, kept everything warm for, like, another coach to come in or not. But I don't really know, we've talked about this before. I don't know who the, like, marquee coaches are out there in waiting.

I don't think there are many. I mean, I think you hope to develop one. I mean, Spolstrow is homegrown. Brad Stevens, like a unicorn. Steve Kerr, I think, I think, gets too much credit, even though I do think he's very good. I think he's probably more important as a personality manager than an actual, like, tactician in many ways. Sure. Like, and also their system hasn't developed that much since they kind of have launched it.

And now it'll change inevitably because LeBron, half court LeBron coming. Right. I mean, I think Steve Kerr's a really good coach, but he also just has so much, as he will say in every press conference, he has so much talent. We talk. Oh, go ahead. Quinn Snyder, I guess, is also up there. Yeah. That would actually be, like, a power move is to come over the top and try and buy a

Quinn Snyder out from Utah, although he seems to be very, very settled in Utah. I love Quinn Snyder. Him and David Locke just rolling out. Best friends. SLC Nights. We're talking about LeBron. We're talking about Half Court LeBron. Let's talk about European LeBron.

Euro LeBron. LeBron is on vacation until July 30th, at which point he'll be seen opening a school in Akron, Ohio. Nothing like switching teams and then just being like deuces, I'm out. There's some great pictures. Has he done that before? Let's see. With the heat, they had the welcome party famously, so no.

Cleveland. Did he do a come, I'm back? They had like a, like, a welcome to Cleveland. Yeah, this is, this is the most sort of like, I'm not available that he's been, which I would do as well. I'd be like, change my number as well and not sign up for service in Europe. Oh, there's always Wi-Fi. Did you imagine LeBron James just went zero dark 23 in Europe over the summer? It'd be amazing.

Should we sign Rondo? Well, he was, we trade for Kyrie. He was doing a lot of social media before he changed his mind, like in between the finals. Yeah. And July 1st, he was doing a lot of social. His family went to hang. He did a lot of Instagram stories of Savannah working out while Anguilla. It was weird.

And then he did the, he jumped off the not very high cliff with his son. Yes. It was Anguilla to Van Nuys, sign with the Lakers, Van Nuys or whatever to Europe. Yeah. Yeah. Now I think they're off the, like on the Amalfi Coast. Mav is on the yacht. I saw some photos on TMZ Sports.com.

It does feel like a new era of LeBron. And I'm such a sucker for the LeBron economy that I'm excited about it. So do you think in the same way we have pre-agency now that LeBron is in like pre-retirement? That's an interesting question. I don't know if it's pre-retirement, but it definitely is like LeBron is changing the message. I think the story that Ramona and Brian Windhorst had a couple days ago on ESPN.com, which talked about how Magic was like the closer on this deal. LeBron had decided, but he needed to like just be pushed over the edge.

But that he's had an input on these other signs. It's like their magic and Rob, my guy, are executing a vision that LeBron is on board with, his sort of the idea. Yes. And so I think he's already trying to seem like he's not taking, he's trying to make it very clear. It's not GM LeBron. I thought that was an interesting piece because there's,

I think one point in it where it was like magic directed LeBron, or Magic directed Rob to make these signings. And usually we hear about them kind of in partnership. Like Rob talked about Lonzo asking Magic to do film sessions with him in the offseason. And then Rob was like, so Magic, Lonzo and I do. film sessions now. Right. So it's always interesting

to see how that dynamic works out. So I'm incredibly biased. I'm probably Rob Polinkas number one fan outside of his family. However, however, I think he is the GM most perfectly suited to work with LeBron

because he worked with Kobe for so long. He worked with James Hardin. He is so good at like marquee player management. I think he's good at it at least. No one was ever mad at there. Like no one who worked with Rob was ever mad at him. I just think that he is probably...

Didn't he get fired from his agency for the Carlos Boozer thing? Yes, he did from Wasserman. Yeah. It's pretty funny. Like, California has Bob Myers up north and Rob Polinkin down south and Aron Tellin is like out in Detroit. And it's sort of like that triangle is very interesting to me. And Rich Paul in downtown L.A.

Yeah, and Rich Paul in downtown L.A. But I think that because LeBron runs his career like a CEO more than a marquee basketball player, Like, honestly, Rob is well suited to, like, work with that. Sure. Better than someone like Kobe Altman or David Griffin, who might be better at, like, basketball decisions. But in terms of the management of that personality, I honestly do think Polinka is really a good, a good force.

I just wonder how much weight magic really has over LeBron. I'm, like, wondering if that's... I'm sure that will come up as well. I'm sure that there's going to be... I mean, if LeBron is sulking at the midseason when the Lakers are what, like 20 and 25, you know what I mean? What do you predict their record to be? With this team?

Yeah. Above 500. But I wouldn't get an oxygen tank just yet. Who has a better record? The Lakers or the Thunder? I think the Thunder will be better than the Lakers next year. I think I do too. I don't know.

It's not a good team. I was going to make a wager to that effect. Now, I would be probably sorely mistaken if they get Kauai Leonard. But this team specifically, with the history that we have of LeBron first year acclamation and just what we saw from the Lakers last year, I think that the Thunder would be better than the Lakers next year. I think the Lakers are like a four or five seed, five seed maybe. What do you think the West is right now? Warriors, Rockets. Warriors, Rockets.

I'm going to go Jazz, number three. Jazz, third, Thunder, four, Lakers five. Lakers five. Yeah, and then I guess who else? The Blazers. Or would you put the pelicans up there? Would you say Pelicans five? if they get a full healthy Anthony Davis season.

He's so good. I hope Drew Holiday continues to be good, too. It's tough. And then there's the Nuggets, too, who are going all in on Yokic. The Blazers feel like that one, it feels like that team needs to be broken apart. I would love Dame in L.A.

There's like some rumblings about that. I would absolutely love Dame with LeBron. I think LeBron would be great with another point guard who was a real chip on his shoulder. And Kyrie was like that until they won, to your point. They would definitely need Kawhi Leonard in that case

because somebody needs to play defense for Dame Lillard. Sure. Maybe they can teach Lanzo defense. I don't know if you've heard of it. He's all right defensively. Yeah, it's just he can't shoot.

He's fine. It doesn't seem like... If Lanzo ball and Dame Lillard like merged into one player, they would be like one of the top five players in the NBA probably. One of the biggest problems the Lakers is Lovar Ball

and they have, and I think that will be a bigger issue that's, that's another one. I'm just like, this will be something that they try to ignore for a while but could come up,

you know, it could definitely flare up. Before we go, can I just say one thing? Sure. I just want to send a really, really sincere and heartfelt thank you out to Trey Young. Oh, man. For making me feel better about Mark Hill Fultz. So Trey Young drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and came to them via this Luke Godtrach trade.

And Trey is having, I don't know whether it's the air in Utah, maybe the oxygen wasn't that high. two oxygen jokes in this one podcast. But... It's because we're in Vegas, baby. Trey Young, let's just go over some numbers. I'm a numbers guy. Please do, Chris. 12 for 52 in his first three games.

That's so bad. He's shooting 23% from the field. You know, he is leading the team and scoring, I guess, but 52 attempts in his first three games. And I have to say that the eye test is not helping those numbers at all. Like the eye test is bad, man. It's like, it's like, I always kind of wonder, like, do they ever worry about the fact that the NBA three point line is a few feet behind the college one?

And it's like, maybe you really should with Trey Young. Yeah. And like maybe if there was a drop off in the season, like you should also play attention to that too. It's brutal. I really hope he gets it together because he seems like a like a really fun player. And I'd like Atlanta to be this weird, this weird, a weird, fun young team. Yeah, exactly. But, man, definitely.

feeling better about Fultz right now. We're going to have way more on Summer League all weekend long, all week long, here from Cesar's in Las Vegas. Check out the Ringer NBA show. Follow us on social at Ringer on Twitter, at Ringer on Instagram. And thanks for listening. More soon.