The Ringer NBA Show - Offseason Reactions and Future Projections | The Answer

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

Chris and Seerat start their conversation by sharing their reactions to Deandre Ayton's new contract and talking about what it means for Kevin Durant's future. They then analyze and debate their favorite offseason moves and make their projections for the Dallas Mavericks (11:27) and New Orleans Pelicans (16:35) before getting into Kenny Lofton Jr. and Chet Holmgren's performances at summer league. (20:57) After the break, they examine how the Timberwolves (28:09), Grizzlies (35:53), 76ers (38:15), and Pistons (41:28) look after their post-season acquisitions, and ponder if the Warriors will keep their winning edge next year. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Producer: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For as long as I've known the NBA, it's been a Stars League. But even among the Stars, there's an exclusive club. Russell and Dr. Jay, Jordan, Kobe. They're all part of a select group that paved the way for the NBA superstar of today. And some even shared secrets with each other along the way. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Jackie McMullen. And this is the Icons Club. Hello and welcome to the Ringer NBA show.

It's The Answer. I'm Chris Ryan and I'm joined by Siritt Sohey. What's up, Siritt? Chris, I'm doing well. How's it going? I'm doing well. I'm refreshed because I had a couple weeks off. But now I'm melancholy because this will be our last answer for the NBA season officially.

You know, we'll go into like a summer hiatus. There's going to be plenty of Ringer NBA show. We got you covered. There will be like some version of the Ringer NBA show throughout the dog days of August just in case Kevin Durant decides after viewing those satellite images of space. He wants to become an astronaut. And we talk about, you know, what's going on with him and what's next for him out in the interstellar realm.

But for the most part, everything is settled. That seems like more of like a Kyrie Irving move to me. That's true. But, you know, he's very impressionable. You know, maybe if Kyrie is like, I want to go to space, KD, we'll be like, absolutely. Actually, now that I think about it, Kyrie probably thinks they're fake anyways.

That's true. Those are just mountains. But we had kind of like the last year to drive. that we were waiting on for this summer. So it kind of officially ends the 2021-22 season, which now stretches on into eternity. But DeAndre Aiton, he had signed an offer sheet from the Indiana Pacers,

and then almost immediately re-signed with the Phoenix Suns. So it's four years, 133 million. This was reported kind of as the Phoenix had always intended to do this. There's some chatter, like, why did they let it get this far? What happened here? What's going on here? Can they mend everything? Aiton is now not available for,

a trade at least until, but for a year, I believe, which pretty much takes Phoenix out of the Kevin Durant sweepstakes to the extent that there are any. So, Sarah, I guess my question is, what's the big takeaway from the Aden resigning? Probably the Kevin Durant part of it. They offered, they matched that offer sheet in record time in three minutes, and they save themselves probably about $5 million total over four years. and don't have a player who is going to be 27 when he's off his next,

when he's done this contract locked up for that fifth year. So great, great job, sons. This actually could have been so much worse for them than it was. But I think the Pacers made the offer to Aten assuming that he'd actually maybe be with them because like this contract is not horrible in the ways that a lot of restricted free agents contracts are. Like there aren't, you know, there's like, there's no player option. There's no trade kicker. There aren't like weird poison pills and stuff.

So kind of worked out for the suns. We'll see how it goes relationship-wise for those guys. But yeah, I think the biggest takeaway is Kevin Durant's path to Phoenix now becomes a lot more difficult. And if you look at the odds for where he's going to play next season, it's actually looking like the Nets. Yeah. The odds say that he's going to return. Our guys, the Raptors are the next. favorites, but it's a plus 550. So it's not exactly like it's favorite that he's going to be there.

I am, we're going to talk about things we're looking forward to today. Yes. I am not looking forward to this continuing, like us kicking the can down the road. We're also kicking the can down the road with Miles Turner, who is still a pacer somehow. It's totally kicked. Yes, I know. It's a pretty incredible. So a whole lot of nothing has come from the Kevin Durant trade request at this point. It's been 16 days and we've just seen, you know, people playing with a trade machine. People like us for the most part. That's really all that's come out of it, which I'm actually here for. It's good to have some content. It's funny that you should say you have some like fatigue when it comes to talking about like Durant and we haven't mentioned Mitchell yet,

but Donovan Mitchell also obviously in trade rumors I saw yesterday from various like pretty reputable jazz sourced people like Andy Larson, Tony Jones, just seemingly. like that's going to take a couple of weeks at least to kind of iron out all the details if it does indeed happen. I saw today Danny Aange was trending. So I was like, oh, did something happen? And in fact, nothing. It's just we're still in the deal zone.

You can kick the can down the road on Danny Aange's name being trending for no reason as well, right? That's right. But it's almost like, I feel like the sort of like fatigue people have around major player transactions. is almost similar to the way people are talking about like Marvel movies, where they acknowledge that it is like the reason to get up in the morning is to like talk about superhero movies and talk about the superhero industrial complex and what like the next movie is going to be. But nobody feels like that good about it.

You know, and it's like the same thing for us. It's like we get up and we're like, here's seven fake KD trades. But it seems like he might just be on the Nets next season. And it seems like we might just run this all back. Honestly, I need to find better reasons to wake up in the morning. at this point, especially since we're going to be going into August. But yeah, it's weird. Like, you know, the Mitchell stuff is probably going to take a while.

With KD, I kind of assumed it would take a while, even though at first it looked like things were moving pretty quickly. A lot of teams were seemingly getting involved. I think the bidding war, the Nets were hoping for never really materialized. And I think with a player like him, when you have four years left on his contract, like that is one of the advantages that you have is you don't necessarily. necessarily have to trade him right away. I don't think his trade value is going anywhere. Like we've seen now, you know, like Bradley Beale, for example, the time to trade him would have been

two years ago if the Wizards were going to trade him. We've seen that with a few other guys. And I think with Mitchell, we might see this too, where obviously Mitchell's a lot younger, but the more years a guy has on his deal, like how the Spurs did with Deonté Murray, trading him for a haul because he's still really young and you're not going to have to pay him right away is kind of like the advantage that the Nets find themselves

into even though they're very different players in very different situations. So I don't know. They now seem to want to convince KD to come back and I don't know maybe Brooklyn is actually a pretty good option for him. If they do do that then all these like perceived dominoes that we see

falling don't actually fall. I wonder if Kyrie Irving to the Lakers even happens in. That's something that I think almost, you know, a week ago felt like a near inevitability. And maybe, I don't know, maybe Kyrie and Katie are both back on the Nets. Yeah. I mean, I think that's entirely possible. I also think that it's like all this stuff is related, right? Like one thing can't happen without the assurance of another thing happening. So the most likely thing is that since you're, if you're going to require Kyrie having a deal to the Lakers, but that needs to be a three teamer if they don't want to take Russ back,

then you got to find another place for Russ. You got to find another situation for, then you have to set up your Kevin Durant trade, which now the main avenue to Phoenix has been shut down because there's no Aiton deal available. So maybe this all goes to January. And maybe, you know, there's a kind of a soft reset and let's see if we can get into gym with Steve Nash

and settle our differences. Did you see that Cam Thomas interview video of him kind of rolling his eyes when the interviewer asked him about Steve Thomas? I was like, there's just division in the camp, man. I don't know what's going on over there. Yeah, it is what it is.

It's truly one of my favorite sayings in the universe. It is a total acceptance of reality that I think, you know, I think everybody should strive to have. You can just apply it to so many different things. You can. You can. I think a lot of people look at that as a cop-out. It is what it is, right?

But I think it's just, you know, sometimes it really is what it is. And for the Pacers, it is what it is. right now. They were a team that I was going to put on our list of things that I'm looking forward to next season, but I almost hope that they don't make it. That they don't make your list? Well, that they don't end up being something that I enjoy watching in a way. You know what I? Okay. Let me reframe it. So you want the Pacers. You're hoping that they're not interesting

to you. Yes. I'm hoping that they're a little too bad to be interesting. Okay. Because I really like the Pacers. I really like the Pacers. And one of the teams that is on my list is Luca and the Mavericks. But only one part of it. I'm really looking forward to the Luca Christian Wood pick and roll, which we will get into later. But the upshot for the Mavericks is that they have a really talented generational player.

And they got too good, too fast. and they never really figured out who to put next to him. You want the Pacers to paste themselves, basically. I do. I would, I basically, basically, yes. I would like to, I would like them to pay themselves. I would like to really go to snail space. Who is the generational player on the Pacers?

They don't have it yet. Okay, there we go. Well, that's part of, that's their whole problem. They have the number two, the number three. I really like Matherin. I really like Dwarite. Obviously, Halliburton. I think Matherin's going to be so good next to those guys.

He's like awesome in space. He's a good cutter. He's smart. They're going to make plays for him. This house is completely ready to move in. It just doesn't have a floor, right? Pretty much. But what they do have is $32 million in cab space.

And you know that, you know how free agents are dying to go to Indiana, right? And they still have Turner on the books too. So they basically, they have a ton of flexibility. I think this is a team that's really never tanked before. And I think that like they came pretty close to not having to. I was thinking about them like, you know, before the sun's match the offer sheet where, okay, like, you've got Halliburton, you've got Aiton, and you've got all this other young talent, and you didn't really have to lose a whole

lot of games to get there. And that's really cool for team building. But at the same time, like, those are also the guys that you can get at that level. So I'm, I'm looking forward to the Pacers not being good. Is that sincerely your first, your first pick for what you're looking forward to next year? Because if that, if so, that is the funniest thing I've ever heard. It's, it doesn't rank first. But, you know, I wasn't necessarily. going to do this in the order of things that I'm most excited about. You know what it talks? It speaks to, it speaks to your, you're so bleary-eyed after this long season that now you're like, you've moved through Galaxy Brain to, I'm excited to not

be excited about a mid-market team that has a lot of cap space but can't attract any talent. Yeah, pretty much. That's where we're at. That's where we're at. I just see the writing on the wall sometimes, you know? I just don't, I don't want to see what could happen to the Mavericks, happen to the Pacers. Well, let's start with the Mavericks then. So we, we, Cyr and I both have a couple of things that we're really looking forward to next season. And we're just, you know, after coming out of the playoffs, after coming out of the finals, after coming out of the free agency in the draft. And I would say that largely, there's a lot of teams running it back this next season. I've seen, you know, and there people have been

discussing this on NBA Twitter a little bit where it's just like, there's a sentiment that whether because they got no buyers for what they were selling or because they've decided that continuity is better than reshaping the entire team. You see a lot of teams who have added little pieces here and there, especially in the Eastern Conference, and are going to go run it back. Or in the case of, say, the Lakers,

they just can't find anybody to take Russell Westbrook. So they're just going to run it back with, like, this new group of bench players. Let's start with this Dallas idea. Why is that one of the things you're excited for next season? So the Mavericks, by and large, did not have a good off season. They lost Shailen Brunson.

It wouldn't be an offseason if the Mavericks were feeling at it, honestly. They bungled the Brunson situation from Boonstart. It never really extended him. Then never got anything back in a sign and trade. So they just kind of, they lost him for nothing, which is always a worst case scenario with a player like him. I get why they didn't want to pay him all of that.

Like the Mavericks are kind of in a strange like LeBron James Cavalier situation where they never really found the right number two. But at the same time, we could also look at this and say that they are having like a take a step back to potentially take a step forward later down the line type of season. I think 2024 is going to be their, I think everything comes down to 2024 for them.

They can have a bunch of cap space. I think then, you know, Luca will be in his supermax and probably closer to a place where, you know, he could start thinking about saying some things and doing some things, which he hasn't really exactly done yet. He seems way more on the ilk of like the loyal, loyal superstar is going to let the Mavericks, you know, figure things out. You think so?

I think so. Don't you think they check with him about the Porzengis trade or, you know, they don't chat a little bit about Brunson? You think all of that stuff just happens and he's just like, okay, I guess I'm not the GM, right? Obviously, yeah, I think there's like probably some level of input, but I would say relatively compared to, let's say, like a guy like LeBron James or Kevin Durant or James Harden or,

or really any of these, any other superstar, I think Luca is probably like one of the more hands-off guys other than wanting to play with his buddy Gorondragic, which, you know, like should have been a layout for the last three years for the fabrics, but I haven't really been able to make that happen, which, you know,

it doesn't give me a lot of confidence in their long-term plans, but on the floor, on the floor we have one of the most exciting players in the NBA to watch. The player probably that I will miss watching the most. this offseason Luca Donchich, and he finally has a pick and roll partner worthy of his playmaking expertise. Like the Mavericks for the last, pretty much like for Luca's entire career, they have not really been able to find the right front court mate to pair him with.

Like, Prisenghis was not that guy. He's just not really, you know, it's just not really physical enough to get down there. And he doesn't really cut in space. and he doesn't really seem to care to do much except for, you know, pop for jumpers. And they had like, they have got Maxie Kleba and Dwight Powell who are kind of each other's opposites where like one of those guys can shoot and the other one rolls really well. But like with Christian Wood, you basically combine their skill sets and you add like 10, 10 inches of vertical and you make him younger.

And he is going into a contractier. I think he's like poised to have a pretty awesome season. He's really, really versatile in a lot of different ways. You can post him up. He's a great cutter. He's an awesome roller. He's an awesome shooter. He's genuinely versatile on the role in a way that like, you know,

Chris Paul and Aiton were together where there was very little that you could do against them because they just have so many things in their repertoire. And I'm just so excited to see that one throughout the season. I'm excited to see that like on opening night. but I'm actually like the most excited to see it in March when they've had like, you know, five months together and they really understand how to play off of each other. Are you at all concerned by the reputation that precedes Christian Wood of people being like, we got to get this guy out of the locker room?

Not yet. It's not really like he's been in a lot of winning situations. You know, like, and he's also like individually improved pretty much every season that he's been in the league as well. I feel like he had a really great final year with the Pistons. and then, you know, in Houston, it just kind of disappeared because, like, that's what happens. Like, Houston is now, like, sort of like, the black hole of the NBA, where if, you know, if you're not a first round pick, and I don't mean, like, as, like, a picked as a first round pick,

I don't mean, I mean, like, literally, if you're not the asset, you just don't really kind of matter. So, yeah, I'm not, I've, like, definitely, like, put a little bit of a flag beside of it, beside it, but I'm not quite there yet. Okay. Number one for me, not necessarily an order of excitement. Although, you know what? Honestly, I will say this is an order of excitement. Number one for me is I cannot wait to get Pelican pilled next season.

I think that the Pels had like the equivalent, I think, of the Sun's bubble run this season. So in this playoffs, I think showing what they could do in a postseason, I think showing what Brandon Ingram could do as a postseason. I think showing what Brandon Ingram could do as a postseason. postseason offensive number one threat, integrating CJ McCollum, and then maybe most importantly was the emergence of the Herb Joneses and the Jose Alvaradoes and Trey Murphys of the world where it feels like there is this blossoming of talent

of role players specifically on the Pelicans. And then you add on top of that the relatively drama-free Zion extension, all smiles, all high-fives, all my guy Griff over here always believed in me. We always believed in Zion. His family wants to be here, New Orleans. Jazz coming out of every window. They really went on a limb, by the way,

in believing in Zion. I'm just saying, you know, you got to play the hand you're dealt, and I feel like they played it relatively well here. So I can't wait to see this. Now, I suppose if I wanted to be cynical, you could be like, is Zion, you know, is Zion going to fit in?

into the basketball ecosystem that Willie Green is kind of designed here and is point Zion going to disrupt Brandon Ingram and will Zion be more in the flow of this offense? But I feel like that's really concerned rolling. This is going to be a really exciting team that could have potentially three All-Stars, at least two with Zion and Ingram.

And I would be scared of them if I was a Western Conference team. This is an ascendant team. I think they have a lot of self-belief and I think they have a big chip on their shoulder about being kind of like kicked around the league for a few years here. And I'm really excited. I like who they drafted this season. I feel like they've kind of been rolling a little bit. And as I've been as mentioned over the course of the last couple of weeks, whenever a superstar kind of comes up for grabs and trades, they sure have a huge war chest of stuff to offer if anybody does kick loose. you know if anybody is like available at the at the trade deadline and they want to either make a big move or a move that seems to bandage up any any frailties that they have so very very very very excited for new orleans next season yeah they are probably the team that are most places are to see a jump in like i don't really i don't really have a lot of questions like for me like the biggest one is just zion i'm you know like with his health we don't really know what's going to happen um but it's

if he can play, A, that's like the most exciting thing in the world because he's Zion Williams and he's like just incredibly fun. He's a very unique player. And I love the way, I love the way that everyone on that team fits together too.

Like they have a lot of guys that can play different roles. And Ingram's superstar turn to is going to be one of the most exciting things for the Pelicans as well. Because I think like when a guy has a poor performance like he did in the playoffs, I can kind of like roll over into the off season into like what they do. Yeah. And, you know, give them that little push that they need to say like, oh, wait, I actually do belong with like the top 10, top 15 players, the NBA.

Like when I am firing on all cylinders, I am in that conversation. Like I had an unguarded playoff game. That type of stuff I think really matters. And it can give, I think it gives other guys around you confidence to like to your point. Like these guys are feeling themselves. And why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you when you just watch? Braden Imgram do what he did. And when you just like challenge Chris Paul, like if I'm Jose

Alvarado, like I think I am Chris Paul next season at this point, right? Like that's yeah. Like that's, that's like the attitude you should have. And unlike the sons, other than CJ, everybody on that team is getting better as they as they get older too, right? Like they're super young. So yeah, I'm super excited for those guys. Let's keep it going down with like the weird fun basketball players. This is probably the thing that I'm most excited for. I was watching Kenny Lofton Jr. who was out of Louisiana Tech. And this might

not be an NBA thing. I might be watching some Memphis Hustle Games next season. Kenny Lofton Jr. out of Louisiana Tech is probably the biggest NBA player that I've seen actually be effective. He signed a two-way contract with the Grizzlies at an awesome

summer league. And when you say big, I think some listeners might think Taco Fall Big. You're not talking about it. No, no. I'm talking I'm talking bowling ball. I'm talking like, like you think Draymond Green is unconventional. Like, come watch this guy, man.

He is like, he is 6, 7, like 2, I think 280 pounds. And it's just like incredible off the dribble handoff, man. Like, you do not want to see this guy

faking a dribble handoff. Because like, he's got ahead of steam. And if you're the, if you're the help defense, like, it's like, it is pretty much just like,

imagine Zion Williamson. coming off a dribble handoff fake and just barreling right into you. He's awesome with the angles. He knows how to finish over bigger defenders. He played against Chet in his Summer League debut and was amazing against him. Played against Wembenyama in Team USA. And basically just like, there was a play where he, you know, use his shoulder to create some space.

And Wembe fell back and then also was like holding onto his shoulder for the rest of the next play. This dude is so fun. So I'm very much looking forward to him, but I'm overall just looking forward to the strange new iterations of basketball player that we are seeing now. I think teams are drafting in a much more, I think teams are drafting better than ever. And I think they're less obsessed with like your conventional ideas of what a basketball player looks like, right? Like there is like the ideal like, you know, six, six nine reasons. Memphis is

especially unconcerned with that conventional idea. Memphis does not care. Memphis was like, we're drafting Xavier's helmet and now we're, and we're going to, we're going to trade for, for David Roddy, who's kind of like a version of of Kenny Lofton, who fits a little bit better into the NBA right now where you can actually see like directly how, how it would work for him. And he has like a very similar skill set to him as well. And then they, they did, did us one further and they got Kenny Lofton and he's going to be awesome. On the other side of that, there is the Thunder and Chet and Pocu who are on the opposite end of the spectrum, just like, you know, seven feet tall, seven, six wingspan and just not a lot

of weight on their bodies, but, you know, tons of height. I'm super excited to see OKC. I think everyone is. They're probably like, they're probably on the top of my list just in terms of of sheer curiosity. I think they might, I know, I know you're a little, like, you've always been a little bit more on the side of, like, when are we actually going to see what this team can look like beyond a hypothetical?

And I think this might be the season that we see some of that. Obviously, it depends a lot on what Chet actually is in the NBA, how easily his lack of strength is exploited. And also on the other end, like, you know, we've seen like these awesome KD fadeaways in Summer League, like how much of that stuff does actually translate right away. I don't think it has to translate right away by any means, but this is by far to me the most interesting experiment in the NBA. They take what the Raptors have done with wingspan and just,

and like, you know, trying to create a bunch of deflections and sucking up space to an entirely different level because you go down the line on that team. Like if you like look at even, even Shay as well, like they have a lot of length. and then they have like one of the most fun playmakers in the NBA and Josh Giddy as well. So I'm super excited to watch them play. And just really excited for all of these strange sort of new NBA player species that we're seeing. Thunder Grizz is definitely going to be the nightmare alley of the NBA. It's just going to be like, come look at the wild world of wonders.

You know, the Grizz thing is really smart about like they're just sort of casting aside the typical body type that people look for in NBA draft circles. I would also just really love a like an all or nothing or a hard knocks with the Grizzlies heading into next season where we get like some behind the scenes like camp stuff with those guys. I heard Rosilla talking about being in the gym in Vegas with a bunch of people from the Grizzlies

and just talking about how close that team is. I think it would be really cool to get a fly-on-the-wall documentary with them. That needs to happen in the NBA in general. I just started watching that Formula One show on Netflix. I'm extremely late to the game. But why doesn't every sport do that? Yeah, golf is doing it. So the golf has one coming.

I think for Formula One, they kind of had less to lose because those drivers are so anonymous without it. I mean, they're just these guys sitting inside these rocket ships, right? So you're not going to really get to, it's hard to get to know them. And this kind of opened up this whole new dimension and added this soap operatic thing to them. But it'll be interesting to see how the golfers handle it. because golfers are already, like, it's just their personality on the course the entire time. So I don't know if it works for every sport.

I would love it for basketball, though. It's just like, it's the same thing with like, why can't we as adults just click the button and get the miced up that's real and not just, you know, not just Mike Buttonholzer being like, go ahead, rebound, transition, effort. Like, I want to hear the real talk, you know. just give it, put it in like a five year, like, waiting period so that nobody gets offended. And then we can actually hear, like, what is Doc Rivers actually telling these guys? I want it live. I want it live. Well, we already have the soap opera aspect of the NBA.

I don't really think the NBA has anything to lose by like putting their players out there more and getting actually honest about what's going on and like raising the stakes and drama. Because there's plenty of drama. It's just like the problem is like oftentimes the drama is just annoying. Right. And we don't get the actual player perspective, like the human perspective on why somebody would feel a particular way. So obviously it seems annoying because people are, you know, they're just acting out. And we don't exactly understand like the ins and outs of what's going on. Do you think that if there was a drive to survive for the NBA, would that be considered old media or new media? Oh, that's a good question.

I guess it would traditionally be associated with old media, right? Because it's not like the players would be producing it or anything. Yeah. documentary film making as old as it gets. Exactly, exactly. We should get Ken Burns and, yeah, it should be Ken Burns, by the way, doing it. Ken Burns is Memphis Grizzlies. He's got like Peter Coyote just narrating.

He was like, John Morant. The next thing that I'm really excited about, I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but it's true is the fuck them picks Timberwolves. Minnesota, kind of going all in on the core that they have and giving them the best rim protector, I guess, in basketball. I say that as a Philadelphia fan, so it always makes the hair on the back of my neck kind of go sideways

when I have to say nice things about Rudy Gobert. But I think in sort of telling of the tale of this trade, because it's like dealer Danny fleeced the Timberwolves for a guy who's exiting, like, maybe his prime a little bit and got the entire bench plus every pick the Timberwolves ever had to trade Gober. it's kind of gotten distorted what he could do for this team

and just how interesting the sort of makeup of this team will be next season. And I, for one, I'm really fascinated by it. Like, I found their rise to be incredibly amusing partially because you could tell that their self-belief way outpaced their actual ability. So Minnesota's reputation as shit talkers and as a team that was pretty spiky on the court

is really funny to me. I don't think Gobert is going to dull that at all. And now they have a little bit of interior defense, and they have this, like, kind of presence in the middle. I don't know if it's going to work, but I love when teams try something like a Twin Towers and just try to, like, say like, hey, fuck it. Like, we like this group of guys. I saw DeAngelo Russell talking about how bad he wants to sign an extension. I think that that extension should come with you under no circumstances or allowed to take any crunch time shots

or your contract will be completely voided. But be that as it may, like Ann Edwards, another season of that, I can't wait. So I'm really, really, really curious. This might be like, what I would say is this is a two-week affair. Like, I could see myself watching every Timberwolves game for about 10 days and then be like, I'm good, wake me in the playoffs. But for now, you know, and of course,

the most important thing on the Timberwolves is Jade McDaniels. What's like your average affair time, usually? My average Timberwolves time? No, your average or fair time. Yeah. Like when does it, like, when does the magic start to disappear? Like, when does it start feeling like a Taylor Swift song? I'm actually, funny you should ask.

I'm a serial monogist. So it's like, it's, I actually, I'm an endurance runner when it comes to that kind of stuff. Nice. Nice. Happy for you, man. Thanks. I'm in conflict about this one. You've heard me talk about the Evan Mobley, Lori Markin, Hilo game enough to know that any twin towers. configuration is going to

peak my interest on some level. This one in particular, just, it's weird to me. First of all, Towns has never played the four in his career. You just signed this guy to a supermax and they're going to have your best player playing out of position. That's interesting.

And not necessarily with a guy who helps anybody on offense, really. It's not like Gobert's going to be sucking up space. At the end of the day, like that's a guy that's going to be in the paint and probably forcing Kat to take more inefficient shots, probably going to, you know, not exactly grease the wheels on an Anthony Edwards pick and roll game, right?

Like, I am, I have a lot of questions about how this actually works on the court. But at the same time, like, I am, I am really excited to see it just because it is so different. So, you know what it is, is I also, I'm kind of into them not keeping their powder dry. I'm kind of into them not being like, let's stay flexible.

Let's, like, have some, Let's keep our picks. Let's keep kind of like chipping away at this. Like sometimes being irresponsible is the most entertaining option. And, you know, you were talking about the Pacers earlier and all their cap room and everything. And it's like, what are we talking about here, right? Like, nobody's going to Indiana. Like, I don't know that I think Minneapolis, Minnesota is like a really cool city,

but it's absolutely like a frozen tundra for most of the year, especially during the basketball season. It's going to be really hard to get somebody to come play there. they had a very bad experience with Jimmy Butler, but it's nice that they're still trading for all-star caliber players. And they were feisty against the Grizzlies. I hope that they're like a solid playoff team for years to come because I think that they're an entertaining one to watch.

Well, they're going to be really fun in the locker room and stuff, right? Sure. Speaking of a drive to survive, that would be good. That would be. I think Delo gets kind of a bit of a bad rep for like, you know, he's been on a lot of different teams and it hasn't really worked out. I think he's actually probably been

a reasonable stabilizing force for that locker room. I'm very curious to see how long the spice lasts with these guys because it's not exactly like they are, they don't, Carl Towns, for example, is not somebody to look at

and I say like, oh yeah, this guy, it's a big trash talker. So I'm curious to see how long that lasts if they like, you know, hit a snag and like if things change. But the other thing that I'm looking forward to seeing is how much, Memphis deals with that.

Memphis has not been, like, no one in Memphis has been able to stop talking since they got knocked out of the playoffs. And by no one, I mean John Morant particularly. Even, even the fake ball sack sports report that he thinks he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one, there's a reason that that picked up steam. There's a reason that nobody exactly fact-checked that. Is that old media or new media, by the way? I was going to ask you, is, so is the thing.

with Ballsack Sports that they willfully put out fake stories that seem like they could be real in hopes that people fall for it, quote unquote, like the way people fall for fake Woj tweets and then they aggregate it and popularize it? Or is it that it's like the onion and it's so funny it's true kind of thing, but not funny? There is this great Sports Illustrated feature on Ballsac Sports Sports, like probably from like a week or two ago. And it's, Somewhere in the middle of that, I think the guy who created it was probably looking to be a little bit more like the onion. But it's really ironic because the reason he created Ball Sack Sports is because he wanted to shed a light on how easy it is for misinformation to spread in media. And he was on it. He was just very much, it seemed like he was at a loss.

He was just like, I called this thing Ball Sack Sports. The acronym is literally BS. And by the way, it is called ball sack. And I just say the most ridiculous things on it that aren't true and can't be confirmed. And then as he realized that people were aggregating and thinking the things that he was saying were real, he up the ante more. You know, he would get more and more ridiculous just in hopes that somebody would, like most people would realize that this is fake. And like it was in hopes of being a meta-commentary type of thing.

kind of like trying to be sarcastic on the internet where nobody actually realizes that and they think that you're you're doing it seriously. So kind of a demoralizing thing for society as a whole, very demoralizing for this guy personally. He shut down the account for a while and then kind of just brought it back. I don't know exactly when he brought it back, but, you know, it's been going strong this offseason. It doesn't really seem like, it doesn't really seem like anybody's in on the joke yet. Yeah. Well, I'm glad we're such an industrious country. You know, it really seems like we're putting our brains towards the right things. No, absolutely. But Memphis, you were saying. Yeah, I'm really excited to see what happens with like this next iteration of the Grizzlies. Like, first of all, I think that they're going to have a target on their back this coming season. Like, they have fully arrived and they have fully annoyed pretty much everybody in the NBA. So I don't know. I'm, I just, I wonder what.

what they look like next season, how they react to being this team. Obviously, I think there's going to be a lot of growth just because of how young they are. And I think that the thing that could help them is like the fact that they are just kind of naturally predisposed to be this way in a way that a team like the Timberwolves. Like, isn't necessarily, right? Like I think John Grant is always going to say what he's going to say win or lose. And it's, I feel like people don't like that, right? Um, like there's this idea of it's fun when you talk trash and act up and stuff when you're winning. And that's fine.

But if you've lost now, you kind of have to take a step back. And like one of the punishments for losing is you just kind of have to eat shit for a bit and either backtrack on things or just lay low. And these guys have not laid low at all. Like they're kind of just, you know, they're getting it in getting into it with the champs, which is, which is weird. Like, there's this idea that like, well, now that you win a championship, no one's going to say anything to you, right? But on the other end of it, there's also just like, hey, like, keep the same energy.

So I don't know. Like, will all the grisleys keep the same energy? Yeah. I'm curious. I need it so desperately to continue. We need this stuff in the NBA. I promise you, it's just a better, it's a better league when teams are like feisty with each other,

when you actually can circle a date and be like, ooh, Golden State's going to be in Memphis that night. Definitely not, no plans that night. Like, how many, how many games in a race? regular season, are you actually like, this is, I cannot miss this. Yeah. Like, really? Like, I mean, you can be like, oh, individual matchup.

I want to see Yannas versus KD. But like, there's a 50% chance that one of them is not going to play. You know, like, it's, no, it's pretty much warriors, grizzlies and thunder, thunder grislies for me. That's right. That's it. That's all I got. Yeah.

And, and, and, uh, T, Wolves versus the ghost of the Utah jazz. That's basically it. That's a really good point. I, so I, I had, I mentioned the Timberwolves. I mentioned the bellicans. I'll say just for my sins, I can't wait to watch the reunion of the 2018 Houston Rockets on the Philadelphia 76ers. That's a cool team building strategy. I actually think that the Sixers had a good off season.

I'm not trying to be churlish, but... No, Sixers did have a good offseason. They did have a good off season. I know. But, like, it's one of those things where it's like... I don't know that I can even explain this, but Daniel House, PJ Tucker, in vacuums, really like their games with James Hardin. and the rumors of Eric Gordon or Patrick Beverly coming to Philly, it just is like that was a team that I really, really disliked in Houston.

So to watch them be reconstructed around Joelle and Bid, I'm really putting a lot of stock on D. Anthony Melton. Let's just put that way. My emotional like availability is really like entirely concentrated on D. Anthony Melton, Maxie and Joelle. And I'm ready to love the Rockets, you know, and I'm sorry that I was ever like such a prick. about them, but it is really funny

that this is the team that's sort of being formed again. I don't know. Like, it's funny for you personally. It's like watching, it's like watching a bunch of Avengers that you hate come together, you know? Yeah, like everybody that you kind of rooted against is now on your team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What if Thanos was like,

I will start the Avengers? I didn't like these guys. I think that you are going to love Anthony Melton throughout the entire course of regular season. I think you're going to love the effort that he puts in on defense. He's super scrappy. He's better defensively than he should be when you look at his makeup.

Shout out Grizzlies once more and not really caring about body type. And then I think the playoffs are going to come around. He's going to be a small guard that, you know, for the last few playoffs, it's never actually shot that well and wasn't awesome for Memphis last year either. So just, you know, kind of, you know, you're well-versed, right? Like, you've been here before. My expectations are totally tempered. I'm fine.

I'm fine. Well, you're going to get James Hardin. recently talked about how he needs to switch up his diet as he ages. So, you know, I think we talked about it before on the podcast. Did he say to what, though? He was very vague about it. He was extremely vague. So he wasn't like, he didn't say plant-based, right?

No. But you know what? Plant-based, I don't know. Every, every playoffs, plant-based diet seems to abandon Chris Paul. So it's like, I don't know if we're like, it's like, while it might be good for the environment and your body, I don't know if plant-based is a winner. Yeah. I mean, you got to have killer.

instinct, right? Yeah. So, like, that's why you need to have, like, some kind of pescatarian, at least, like, deal going on. I think that post-career, I encourage all, all these guys to go plant-based, but right now, maybe mixing a chicken thigh here and there, just to be a winner. Just to be a winner. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you are going to get that. I'm, I'm interested to see how, how that actually works out. I saw him running up and, running up and down steps in a video. with like his trainer and a couple of his boys. And he was like just furious in Vegas. Like the Rocky steps? No, it was like something like it was like on the roof of the wind or something. It was like doing some kind of like wind sprint thing. And he looked really good. But it's July.

So it doesn't really matter. The one other thing I wanted to mention that I was really looking forward to. We can we can end my segment with this is just the Detroit backcourt that I guess I'm going to nickname Caden, even though that's not, Caden sounds like a 15 year old TikTok star. like it's Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivy and I was super psyched that Ivy fell to them on draft night I think this is a real thunder and lightning

backcourt which we haven't seen in a while with like you have these two really electrifying playmaking guards but who have very different speeds and very different like player profiles and I think they could be like electric together I'm trying to remember the last time I mean I've been this excited about a young backcourt it might have been like early Splash Brothers, where you're like,

ooh, like these guys have like this, these two really distinct playing styles that compliment one another. So the Pistons might not be as good as they are in my head right now, but I really am looking forward to watching them. Yeah, I think they kind of, they did not fall, like what hopefully will not fall prey to the Mavericks issue.

Maybe in large part, because Cade was hurt for a large part of the first part of the season, and then took a little while to come on, allowed the pistons to drop to fifths and, you know, get also, Jaden Ivy dropped to fifth too. It's not necessarily dropped. I dropped from four to five. And, you know, I think, you know, there's so much luck in these things, right?

This was a loaded draft. But it feels like if Ivy, who has been awesome in Summer League, is actually, you know, actually Panzo, he could be a John Morant level of talent. You can never say that about a guy before he's played in NBA. game. But it's the perfect fit next to Cade, who is like more cerebral, a great playmaker. And also quite big. And Ivy's quite big. And Stewart is quite big. And Sadiq Bay is quite big. And they just got Jalen Duren, who's only 18 years old. He's already a giant. And all these guys can leap out of the gym. I think they're just going to be really fun to watch. Like,

regardless of whether they're like a playoff team or a play in team, they have a ton of talent. And they have a lot of guys that are going to be able to explode out of the gym and just, like, get things going and transition. Like, they might be my league pass favorite next season. And Dwayne Casey, by the way, compared Jalen Duren to Sean Kemp in a summer league interview. Holy shit, really? Yeah. So what's your last thing that you're looking forward to? I'm looking forward to the Warriors title defense.

I had this to, like, kind of penciled in, and I'm glad you're saying this. Okay, why did you have it? Because the same way that I said we need little rivalries like Warriors, Grizzlies, I think for as much as I like the parody and for as much as I like the idea that any given year, any given team can win, there's something narratively hefty about a team defending its title, about the confidence that the Warriors seem to have right now, about the sort of bridge to the future thing going on with Cominga, Moody, and Wiseman. I didn't see any of Wiseman's Summer League stuff, but people seem to be pretty excited

about it. And I'm just really, I'm really thrilled with the idea of like a title defense from this team. Yeah, there is something inherently badass about a title defense. And I think the older you are as a team, the more badass it gets. And I don't know exactly what it is. Maybe it is the age and the fact that like, then, you know, you win the title and you have a target on your back. Everybody wants to come for you. And there's also like all this, you know, this stuff lurking like, oh, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is going to be able to hold up for another season. Like, you know, all these guys are getting older, like, you know, or who's going to come for them? And I think the Warriors, a particular team that actually really enjoy that. Like, they, they, they, not necessarily that they like being doubted. I think they, they actually hate being doubted enough that it ends up being really great fuel for them. Um, right. The thing I'm probably looking forward to most, and it feels like a bit of a bit of a considering how much young talent they have and that this is basically like a Jordan pool appreciation podcast and I am very much excited for what he does next season. But I'm so excited for Clay Thompson next season. Like so, so excited. I feel like he's got this huge ship on his shoulder.

Like just dating back to not making like the NBA top 75 to then all his talk about like, he comes back and it's like, is he washed? Is he like, you know, the old Clay is gone and stuff? he turned a corner at some point in the middle of the finals he seems like he found his legs on defense as well and I'm just so excited for him to have like a full healthy offseason

coming off of a title and like having a full regular season to get his legs back properly I think we're going to see an awesome Clay Thompson year and I think I think we might actually see like the best Clay Thompson year and yeah like that's that excites me because Clay Thompson is is the best

and they probably do need somebody to step up that way as well because I think, like, Curry doing that for a regular season was not sustainable, right? Like, he probably had his most up and down regular season. Like, he kind of came out scintillating out of the gate. And then, you know,

kept like the weirdest shooting slump ever. I think, like, if they stay healthy, they'll be more consistent. And then the young guys, too, right? Like, who's going to kind of step up and, you know, fill the Gary Payton hole and fill the Andreig with all a hole? Like, they have a ton of guys

that could potentially do it. And, like, just watching them in some League. Cominga and Wiseman off the role, it's so fast and it's so explosive. And Moody's out of Good Summer League as well. Matt McClung, by the way, you know? Like the Warriors just like, it just keeps getting better, you know? The winning never stops.

The winning never stops. And they pick up Dante Tien. It's like it's like they need a lot of sports. You sound like you're like sitting on the top of the Salesforce building in San Francisco being like the winning ever stops. I think that's like there's going to be like a mirror. in San Francisco of Joe Jacob doing that after,

like you put the idea in somebody's head. I want to see if you can transfer it over to the Oakland A's, if he buys the A's. So look, that's like a really good list. We've got some new players coming in a league. We've got some teams trying to prove themselves. We've got some Formula One style documentaries in production. And we've got a title defense from the Warriors.

So there's a ton to look forward to next season. Sir, thank you so much for joining me. Obviously, you're going to be able to hear, SIR, especially over, you know, the next couple of weeks heading into the fall. We'll have like a ringer NBA show basically like once a week and then also if news demands because, you know, you never know when Kevin Durant might explore the deep reaches of space and call it call a day on his MBA career. That could happen.

Yeah. I spent a good chunk of time. I spent about an hour just staring at that image. The one, the cliffs, the one that they're calling the cosmic cliffs, if you go to the NASA website and click on it, you can zoom into like pretty much any part of it. And then basically after geeking out over that, I woke up today and I found out to the guy, James Webb, that they named a telescope after was also a raging homophob. Oh, it's too bad. Which is incredible to me because like, how could you love space this much and also just give a shit about anything on Earth as stupid as who finds? who come on

James Webb man Thanks for the telescope but fix that So Siri we'll sign off here Chris thank you for producing us Chris Sutton was our producer on the answer this season we can't wait to talk to you guys next season And everybody have a great summer

And Cyril will be with you I'll probably be in and out if the Sixers managed to hire Mike Dantone as an offensive coordinator and bring in Pat Beverly and Eric Gordon I'll have my Rockets tattoo done live on Twitch. So that'll be cool.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll talk to you soon.