The Ringer NBA Show - The Big Men Are Running Summer League, Plus Free-Agency Check-in | The Ringer NBA Show (Ep. 300)

Episode Date: July 9, 2018

The Ringer's Justin Verrier and Jonathan Tjarks sit down in Las Vegas to talk about some of the rookies and sophomores playing in NBA summer league, including Harry Giles, Marvin Bagley III, Deandre Ayton, Collin Sexton, Jaren Jackson Jr., and more. They they talk NBA free agents and some possible landing spots for Clint Capela, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, and Jabari Parker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, welcome to the Ringer NBA show. Today we are talking to Jonathan Charks, Ringer blogger extraordinaire, about some summer league action and some other guys out here still in the restrict free agent market and some teams that are kind of making some noise out here in the remainder of the off season. And today's episode is brought to you by the ringer.com, believe it or not. Great website. Today, you can check out Haley O'Shaughnessy with a great feature on Wilts Chamberlain's trade to the Los Angeles Lakers 50 years ago. Haley talked to some really important guys from that era, Jerry West, Eldron Baylor, just about how that kind of laid the groundwork for today's free agency culture where guys are kind of forcing their way to different situations.

It's a really good read. check that one out. And it's also, if you have some extra podcast listening time, listen to One Shining podcast, are guys Tate Frazier and Mark Titus. I believe they're here in Vegas as well, popping in to check out some of the action. I think they're going to record some stuff for you guys. So definitely check in from the college perspective on the rest of these guys. And we'll get in with Charks here. Thanks for joining us. Hello and welcome to the Ringer MBA show. I am Justin very you're joining with me jonathan charx how you doing man what's up man uh we are here from lovely las vegas where we're at the caesar's seasors palace casino and resort i presume is how you say that

in this lovely villa surrounded by several ringer staffers charx is just raving about the brunch i just killed the breakfast buffet man it's fantastic the bryosh game i hear it's really oh bryosh and crepe crepes how do you say crapes yeah they're it's fantastic you're real francophone i could tell i'm getting there no i'm becoming more classy by the minute saying it's seizures So we've been here, what, three, four days now? That's hard to even tell anymore. I've lost track of time. Each day is like five days.

Yeah, nobody really has a voice anymore. We've been just sitting in a gym for the most part watching a bunch of mediocre basketball, bad basketball, intriguing. There's fun players, but the actual games are horrible, but the players are fun. I actually like coming and seeing these guys for the first time. I know the setting is complicated. And for a lot of these guys, if they play poorly, we'll just write it off as if they didn't have the proper teammates or people that are doubling them and whatnot.

not, but I don't know. I like seeing these guys for the first time. I like just the general, like, chill atmosphere. The Cox Pavilion is basically like a high school gym. So we can almost like reach out and touch Harry Childs, which might not be best for Harry Giles. I mean, one thing we've been talking about throughout the past few days is just the big men in this draft class and how they kind of defined. It feels like. And there's so many good bigs. Right. I mean, how many went in the top few picks? DeAndre Aiton, number one overall, Marvin Bagley, went to Bamba went five, I believe, to the magic or six? Bomba won six.

Jackson went four. Carter went seven. So that's five out of the top seven picks. So we were talking about these guys pretty much leading up into the draft for weeks. And now we get to see our first glimpses of them. I guess your takeaway, like, what do you think of these guys so far? Well, what's really stood out to me is like it's even deeper than that. So the other guys, the one guy from last year's draft who's still here is Jonathan

Isaac. He's as big as any of them and he's killing it. And then you have two more guys who've been off the rate. You have Harry Giles. He was considered the top big man in his class two years ago before he destroyed his knee. Everyone kind of wrote him off is never like he'll never be the same. He's back this year. He's playing really well. He looks good. He looks like an elite big man. I mean, elite's probably strong, but he looks really good. And then Mitchell Robinson, the guy that nobody knew anything about. He didn't go to college. He was totally off the map.

Fell in the second round. And you watch that guy player like, oh my gosh, he's got as as much talent as any of these guys. Yeah, I've been watching a few of these guys. And what's interesting is, like, yes, the top picks have been interesting and have done some stuff. But the guys next to them are almost more intriguing simply because they no longer have the shine to them. Jonathan Isaac obviously missed a lot of his first season. Harry Giles missed his entire first season. So he is technically still a rookie. And Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox has been getting a lot of the buzz just because of some of the dunks he's been having. And it's really athletic. He seems like he fits that kind of two-way model teams are looking for. But Mitchell Robinson is out there. He's just a

massive human. And he's almost as if like he has a guard's body and someone just like stretched them out for sure. He has been showing some fatigue issues. Like he seems like he hasn't played. Yeah, but he hasn't played for an entire season. So I do wonder like how much those guys will factor into it. Do you think Giles specifically has a chance to maybe even win rookie the year? I mean, I feel like so I'm not sure Sacramento is going to learn enough games. I feel like generally rookie of the year goes to a guy on a good team who puts up stats. I mean, Sacramento is going to be tough for them to really. Yeah.

I mean, I think also they're going to Sacramento better bring him along slowly. Do not rush this guy back and play him 30 minutes at five right away. That's to be insane. Yeah, and that's the question, because they do still have a lot of guys in that front court. I saw Costa Cuffo's just hanging out. Yeah, I mean, Willie Colley Stein.

I still kind of like him in theory. I think he's active. He can get out and defend a few positions. So I don't know what they're going to do there, but I do think it's funny that we're talking about Giles way more than Marvin Bagley, a guy that I think while we knew that his fit would be a little complicated in the NBA, he'd be more of a stats guy than maybe a guy that would be on a winning situation. But he got hurt here already and he's kind of seated the floor here. Have you seen a little bit of Bagley and I guess what do you think about him?

See, I always kind of thought he'd be a project. I still think he's got incredible talent, but nothing he's done surprised me. Actually, I was surprised in a good way. They're letting him take the rebound and bring you up the floor. And he made a couple good paths in transition. I think the thing with Bagley that's encouraging is that he's very fluid off the dribble. But then he has to become a good shooter for it to matter. And that's a long way away. That's where the project part comes in.

Right. And I guess the one guy who's really doing well in that area is Jaron Jackson Jr. I think he had eight for 13 from three. He was really from afar. I mean, I kept tabs in some of those draft guys, but I pretty much had it filtered through you and Danny Chow. Great, great word. And Kevin O'Connor.

Kevin O'Connor. He's sitting over here right now. It's too cool to his podcast. There you go. And pretty much Jaron Jackson, Jr. was, if not the number one blog guy, definitely number two. He was the number one blog guy. I mean, Luca definitely. I guess, yeah, that's true.

He's the blog god. I mean, I'm bummed that Luca didn't play in this to divert the conversation just a little bit because everything has to be about Luca at the ringer. But like the natural tension of like the guy who got passed over from number one and everyone thought should have gone. one, not being able to play against Aiton, has really been a bummer in this summer league setting, I think, so far. Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure it was ever really going to happen. The Mavs put out a lot of stuff. They kept changing their story.

They were like, at one point, they were like, well, you know, real Madrid's in Spain. I don't do things on the weekends. Like, they can answer a phone call and sign a contract. I don't, I don't buy that. Yeah. I guess the one thing he doesn't need to do is play more basketball over the summer because he's been playing pretty much throughout the draft process. He's won every MVP award that, like, the EuroLeague has to offer.

I guess my Luke could take, I didn't realize he had two big tattoos on his arms. Whoa. So he's got a Bengal tiger and an eagle. And so I've been asking around the tattoo people in Vegas. Wow. Wait, are you asking tattoo artists? No, like the NBA bloggers who have tattoos. Okay.

So I'm not a tattoo guy. Sure. You know. And they're telling me like it's unusual for a guy for his first tattoos to be his forearms. Usually it's your upper arm because you can hide that. They're like, if he's sitting forearm tattoos at 18, he's probably going to have full sleeves pretty soon. Because that's the Lonzo move. I noticed he has the forearm going as well. I don't know if you've been on Tattoo Watch. I'm not. I mean, I'm watching Luke a little closer. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that he's,

constructing an entire jungle on his non-shooting hand. Hopefully it's not a shooting arm. Strictly for passes, that one. But yeah, I mean, Bagley, I don't know. I've never been a big fan. But at the same time, I was never a big fan with Aiton either. Yeah. I mean, he, they went up against each other, I think the first night here. It was really disappointing. It was really disappointing. pointing because it ended up being Giles guarded Aiton and Bagley played Fender. So they hardly ever played against each other. We're all pretty bums. Classic Summer League where you anticipate just like two rookies going at each other and they

never go anywhere near each other. But I don't know, Aitin, to me, he seems active, but he seemed a little passive off the ball. Like when he got touches, he was able to go for it. But I don't know. His screens were just like really laxidaisical. And he seems like the type of guy you're going to need to keep engaged. I think with him, he's, it's weird. because he has the shot and he's so athletic,

but he's actually more of a post score right now. Like to get him involved, you got to run an offense and, like, post him up. And it's really hard to get post guys touches in Summer League. Because, like, the other, it didn't seem like Aiden and, like, Jackson and Isaac and those kind of guys, they'll just forward the three point line and get shots up that way. Aidan really needs the ball given to him inside.

And with Summer League, it's always like, oh, this team has no point guard. This is tough. Yeah, and he was getting double-team a lot, I think, was the case there. But I have to say, I've come up with what I call the Buddy Healed Zone, which is where a guy who was picked in the lottery doesn't do too well at Summer League. And everyone writes it off because Steph Curry also didn't do too well in Summer League. But then in actuality, they probably aren't that good.

It's just that we rationalize that guy in Summer League and we don't want to read too much into it. But a guy like Troy Young, for instance, like, I don't know. I didn't really see it. And so I do worry a little bit with Aiton. If he's not out there dominating from the start, especially given his size and physical advantage over some of the other guys there. I do want to. Well, here's the thing with Aiton in college. That's a difference. Like, because he was lifting off all these bigs. He didn't really have that much of an advantage on Harry Giles. Like, there's so many good bigs. So like all of a sudden

Dianne's otherworldly size and athleticism, instead of like just dwarfing people, he's just slightly bigger and slightly faster. Yeah. That's like the, honestly, Harry Giles outplayed him. I don't know. That doesn't really mean that much, but he outplayed him in that game. Yeah. And I guess A. is what, like 20 at this point? I have to look it up. They're all the same age. Yeah, but he looks like he's 35. Like, I don't know how you physically matured that quickly. Here I am, just a blog boy eating chicken fingers. We certainly would be doing that. Well, I don't know about you, but I think I have some game left in me. So I guess based on three or so days of Summer League, who's your

rookie of the year favorite? Okay, this is not the guy I think is the best. Just when I've talked to people, I think Colin Sexton because I think Cleveland's going to try to be good next year, keep their guys, and then he'll have the ball a lot. And so if they're an eight seed and he's putting up a lot of counting stats, he'll probably be the rookie either year. One guy I was looking at kind of similar there, and maybe it's just because guards might be easier in Summer League because they have the ball. They don't have to rely on other guys.

But Shay Gilgers-Alexander, I didn't watch a lot of them, but what I saw I really liked, he has like a poise to his game that I wasn't expecting. And a lot of pull-up jumpers, which I'm, not sure I'm thrilled about, but he definitely knows how to get his shot off and he could be a little crafty getting into the rim. I don't know. I think there's a possibility that like the clippers could start selling off guys before the trade deadline. Maybe they, a few wins don't go their way and they could start tanking a little bit and all of a sudden, Shay's in that rookie of year conversation. Actually, I'm doing a story on him and Jerome Robinson. I talked to Shay maybe two

days ago. I don't even know when I talked to him. Great guy. Great guy. Fantastic. And it was funny. I was asking about his jump shot because that was a big question about him and he's like well not Kentucky my role was to attack the rim and not shoot it's very very john calipari yeah you know just everyone attacked the rim we don't need shooters but you think he can't shoot it's better than i think he's given credit for because calipari was just telling him to attack the rim constantly in college yeah so it was because everyone was like man he's a very reluctant shooter i don't think he is i just think in college he was in college he was being asked to just attack constantly yeah all right uh i think we're going to take a quick break and then we'll get back to some more general NBA topics.

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off your purchase. Burrow makes a luxury couch for real life. All right, we are back here in lovely summer league. We're going to talk about a little bit more about guys who were left out there in free agency. It's really kind of a barren market at this point. It's really just a bunch of restricted free agents who have kind of been squeezed out of this market. The top guy there is Clint Capella. I think a guy we expected to be gone by now or at the very least maybe one of these teams with cap space like the Kings or the Bulls or the Hawks to at least take a chance on them. I thought they would have squeezed the rockets, but no one did. Right. At the very least, you want to make the rockets pay the luxury tax and get up there. But all of a sudden,

the musical chairs have kind of stopped here and Capella doesn't have a team. I'm just curious, like, what happens with this guy now? Is there a possibility that he signs the QO and comes back and plays on a one-year deal? And all of a sudden, the Rockets are looking at a bit more of a tenuous future than we expected. I've heard he's really pissed about the offer. Yeah, we too. Like, I think he went into the summer assuming, and we all assumed that he was worth a max. Yeah. And then considering what DeAndre Jordan just got paid by the Mavs, I think you could, argue that he is worth one. I mean, you look at it like, he clearly outplayed Carl Towns in the first round, and Carl Towns is about to make like $160 million. Right. So Powell's like, give me my cash.

Right. I mean, we talked so much during the season while the rockets were spacing the floor just with shooters, like he created vertical space. This is something KOC has talked about a lot. And it's just another advantage that they have. And I think it's like, it's one that I don't know if they didn't have him, this is two years from now. So we don't even know what the rockets are going to look like, but whether Chris Paul is going to get injured this next season, what's going to happen? But, I mean, he's a big key part of their present and their future. And speaking of their future, I think they are looking at a certain guy that we all love dearly. Deerly.

We had a telephon for him. We did. I know. And he is going to be free soon. We're talking about Carmel Anthony, obviously. And he's looking at a few teams. We don't really have a list to work off from, but there have been rumblings and, I guess, presumptions that he's probably going to follow one of his homies to one of these teams.

The Rockets are one of them just because Chris Paul is there. Dave McMinneman had a tweet yesterday that Carmelo Anthony's business manager was sitting with a bunch of the Rockets principles. I think Daryl Morey, I think Mike Dantonie was there. The whole brain trust seems like. Yeah, everyone comes to Summer League and just like hangs. Well, it's just for like, you know, scheming, cooking out villainous plots. Right.

So, I mean, I get it. They lost Trevor Areza this offseason. They have a hole there at the three. But Mel to me doesn't necessarily strike me as the type of guy. Does he fit that hole? I don't know. I mean, they need a 3-D guy and he's a 3-and-3 guy. He's more like an ISO-and-I-so guy.

Do you think, okay, so that's interesting. Like, there are a lot of what they do now is ISO-based. Do you think, like, there's a place for him on that team? See, I would like him in the Ryan Anderson role. If he's coming off the bench and just getting buckets. I mean, I don't know. I need him, you know, guarding people. I guess the Ryan Anderson role is a bit amorphous at this point, because Ryan Anderson's role is to sit on the bench and just make an absurd amount of money.

It comes in handy in the regular season. Like he comes in and gets like 20 points and wins a game for you. Mello could do that still, I think. But every night, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I guess the question is if Chris Paul has been willing to take a backseat to James Hardin and that whole structure there is, mellow the type of guy to willing to suppress like maybe his ego

or his desire to take shots. You saw that press conference in the season. I mean that was a kind of worrisome the what he was talking about. Yeah. And then like as he was exiting the thunder, he was basically like yeah, I still don't want to do this. I wasn't kidding before. So I do wonder like if he fits there because a lot of the suitors everyone are

talking about are basically title contenders. You have the Lakers with LeBron. Even the heat. Like yeah, they aren't in the upper crust of the east, but Dwayne Wade is coming off the bench there. And if he comes back, presumably, if Wade's coming back. Yeah, if he comes back. And I think it makes too much sense for him to come back, right? Because I mean, he got burned with LeBron last year, chasing LeBron around. So I would think he wouldn't want to do that again. Right. And then

if you're looking at a team with the Lakers of Wade, Mello, LeBron, Rondo, and Javille McGee, like maybe get Chris Bosch back in there. I know. Get the whole man together. Get everybody back there. I just don't know if it works there. But, But as a fan, I guess, or someone who's watched Mello way too long and has become emotionally attached to him in certain ways, I kind of want to see them go to the Clippers. Let's say that they strike out on Kauai, which is a thing that's burbling over the past couple days here. And they just want to prove that they can cater to a star player, which is essentially what

the organization is running toward here. They have all this cap space coming into 2019. I wrote about this the other day. but like there might not be anyone to spend it on. And so maybe this helps in that regard. You know what's kind of sad I'm thinking about this? Like they've got Tobias Harris and Golanari. Like Mello's not better than those guys.

That's a great point. It's like he's just not. Well, what Gala Nary? Yeah, yeah, that's true. Gellonary with a working glute or not. But I don't know. It's going to be a fascinating thing to see. It's pretty much at this point going past the summer.

It's Kauai and Mello. Everyone's waiting for Kauai. Everyone's like speculating like where's you going to go? Like that's the talk of the town for sure. Well, those guys plus another Lakers legend, Isaiah Thomas. Oh, yeah. We're sitting here, what is it, mid July at this point, July 9th, so early July. And he still doesn't have a team.

Where is the team going to be? I don't know. I just don't, I don't know what he does at this point. There were some reporting that the magic had kind of danced around and maybe talk to him a little bit. That's not happening though. He's not going there. Yeah, there was some kind of reporting that came out afterward that they weren't really entertaining the idea. I think they were thinking about it. That's far as it goes. Which makes sense because their best guard is the other Isaac, or other Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah Briscoe, the number one. DJ Augustine is mad at you.

Yes. So I don't know. I mean, they have a lot of bigs there. They need a point guard. They need a guard. But at the same time, if you're looking to develop those guys, do you really won Isaiah Thomas jacking 30 shots a game? Is he a culture guy for a young team? I don't know. So if you were Isaiah Thomas or Isaiah Thomas's representation, which team would you be calling up right now? China. The Chinese basketball association. Calling up Yao Ming. Get some of the same. Get those Brinks trucks, man. He could be so, I mean, Isaiah's not that old. He could play in China for five years, be the MVP, you know, he can make so much money in China and just be a legend over there. Or he could stay in the league and be hunting on the puck and roll defense.

Yeah. And it's worked for some guys. Like, J.R. Smith went over there and came back and rehabilitated his career. And he had one of the most tumultuous, like, Chinese runs in history. Yeah, where he would just, like, get fined millions of dollars for missing every single practice, reportedly. Did you hear about the room service? No. So apparently, he would order room service just to do it and just stack room service things.

He'll never even. I mean, I guess if you don't know the language and you're not interested, per se, in the culture and you're not really a travel guy. You're not the Bordane of the NBA. I feel like J.R. Smith has all kinds of culture in him. He's a lot of stuff in him. Get J.R. to the Great Wall of China. Yes. But I mean, maybe Isaiah goes out there, like gets his money and then comes back and is maybe humbled a little bit. Proof he's healthy, you know. But it's just sad because two years ago, this guy was just a of legend. He was. With the Celtics. I think he still will be in time.

I think he'll get his nerds, jersey, retired and stuff. I do wonder what Celtics fans think of him now. I think they love them still. I mean, if they didn't, that's kind of messed up. At the same, well, at the same time, he kind of went out. He threw some shots. He's throwing some shots at pretty much everybody. Time heels.

Time heels. Yes, that's true. That's very deep of you. Jonathan, I've always said that about you. We're getting to the Zen stuff here in Georgia, Vegas. Right. But I guess another one of these teams that I guess is kind of added an inflection. point, just like the Orlando Magic, the Memphis Grizzlies. Everyone's favorite team.

Chris Vernon. Chris Vernon's favorite team. Shout out, Chris Vernon. But Jaron Jackson has been interesting for them. They also signed Kyle Anderson to an offer sheet. Pretty steep price of four years 37 million. I don't know if I would be giving Kyle Anderson 37 million. Have you been a slow-mo fan? I like slomo. I think they were in this weird spot because the owner said, we got to win 50 games. year. And so then, okay, we got to be good. And like, they have literally no wings in the roster. And it's so hard to find threes. That's the harsh person to find. They're not out there. It's basically Kyle Anderson or Rodney Hood where your two options. I still believe in Rodney Hood. I believe in him too. But might have gone hood.

It would have been. I mean, he's had some injury concerns. And in slow mo, that's one thing. You can kind of kind of come on. I mean, if you never jump, it's hard to get hurt. That's true. But I don't know. I mean, does it take the ball out of my conline? his hands a little bit more than than you'd like. I think that'd be good though. I think they need to. I mean, he's, he's a little older.

Like, I worry about Conley's injury history for sure at Memphis. Yeah. And so now you really have this team in Memphis kind of walking the line between what they used to be and what they're maybe going to be with Kyle Anderson, Jaron Jackson. Dylan Brooks is still there. I think he'll start at the two, Dylan Brooks. Really?

At the two? Who else are going to do it? Look at that roster. You tell me who else is going to start. The Chandler comeback is afoot, my friend. Oh, Oh, here we go. That's still here.

She's lacking it. But I don't know. Like, do you start Jaron Jackson or is someone like Marcus Oll going to buck a little bit when you're playing next to a rookie? I think Jamichael Green buck. He's not a contract. I think they'll start Jackson off the bench and ease him in, you know. I mean, he's only 18.

They might as give your veteran with a big contract. Because if you bench to Michael Green, now you've lost them for the season, you know, let them play out. And then if you need Jackson, if you're not doing very well, then you can bring him in. It's like, oh, here you have a push kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, they also signed Omory Caspi. Personal favorite of mine, but he couldn't stick on the Warriors last year, at like the minimum.

So I don't know. It's a bad sign if you can't stick in the Golden State. Not great. Wayne Seldon, Ben McElmore. Marshawn Brooks, I believe, is still technically on the roster. Oh my goodness. That's awesome. After his amazing end of the season.

I mean, for me, the thing was like they didn't trade Tyree Cavins at the deadline. That was still crazy. And they didn't really get much of it. So they're in this weird spot where their ownership clearly wants to win. and they went through all this turmoil, maybe not turmoil, but at least unrest during the middle of the season where their principal owner had to buy out essentially the team from the minority owners. And I don't know if we ever got official resolution from that. It's all super vague. I mean, my conspiracy theory is like because he bought those guys out, he needs money. Sure. He probably

can't afford for him to be bad and like, you know, not sell tickets. That's my suspicion. 100%. And they're if not the smallest market. They're definitely in the bottom. I mean, I've always thought of them as just like another New Orleans where... I think that's right. If you have something to sell to your fans, they've come out. Like the Gritten Grand Era was huge. And I know like from marketing execs in the NBA, they used to just flock to there and just like wanted to know the secret sauce that was able to build a fan base essentially from

nothing from a football culture. But at the same time, like, they're kind of stuck in this middle ground. And I don't know if we've ever seen that work. I mean, the Mavs are in the same position where you have a, veterans mix with intriguing rookies in a conference where it's really going to be unforgiving. Yeah. I think with Memphis, if you look at, so they're a small market team, like if you really go back and look at it, the reason they're having to pay Anderson was a $40 million is because they haven't been drafting and developing. Like that role should be your guys you drafted in the last

couple of years who none of those guys have panned out for them. And that's what really kills you for a small market team. You've got to keep that pipeline replenished. Right. And you saw what the Pelicans did this offseason losing two of their staples of the roster, one during the regular season and Boogie and won in the playoffs with Ray John Rondo. And they got some intriguing guys and Peyton and Julius Randall, who I've called the slim fit versions of Boogie, Ron. Thank you. Thank you. Did you RT it? No. You're not an RT here. I'm not on Twitter, man. I don't tweet anything. A mental RT from Jonathan Chish. I think you told me that. I didn't even see it on Twitter. Oh, really? I'm just very proud of it. It was a good take. I like this one joke. But like they're in

another situation where it's like they're trying to mix and match guys. And I like both players in a vacuum. And I think that they fit what they want to do there to a certain extent. But at the same time, they're on one year deal. So it's just going to be kicking the can down the road. Yeah. I mean, it feels like they're always kind of on this like treadmill, like running to stay in place. It's Alba Alfred Payton. Do you like Peyton as a starting point card? I like Peyton as a player, I just need him to prove it. Maybe without his hair obstructing his vision. Oh, that's a good, like he's going to just start just draining corner threes. But I've always looked at it as Ron, it wasn't just losing Rondo. You were losing Rondo and Peak Drew holiday just because Drew had such a

good season last year. And I think to a large degree Rondo brought the best out of him. Yeah. Drew was always thought of more as like, or at least from my perspective, as like the primary creator, pick and role guy to Anthony Davis's role man. And I think he did well in that role to a large extent, but you saw what he could do off the ball and a freedom to play more aggressive defense. And he was a monster on that. And I think he was all NBA second team this year, or excuse me, all defense second team. I mean, what he did to Damien Lillard in the playoffs this year, man, that was, that was vicious. He was incredible. He was pulling cards left and right. And like, I'm not a big Rondo fan, but like that team just worked and it had success. And

the playoffs. And so I don't know if Peyton's going to be able to step in right away in a year that might be the most crucial now going forward with Anthony Davis because he can sign an extension next summer. And if he's not going to, then you have to start looking at trading him next summer. That's why I was thinking with Peyton. I think you're totally right, Drew at the two. So then, because like Drew can play the one. But if you have a guy who can move him off the ball, it just makes them so much more dangerous. Because I love the Davis Randall Miritage front court. That is a fun combination of players right there. I think the trouble you're going to get in with them

is the trouble they've had over the past couple seasons where they don't have a three to mix and match with those guys. It's essentially Solomon Hill again. And he creates some of the spacing issues that they struggled with in years past. And with Randall, I think he'll be good mixing and matching, but I don't know what you do with him in crunch time. And I also don't know,

considering a lot of his games as a face-up big and a guy who likes to pound the ball a little bit, likes to create for himself. I don't know how that's going to work because even though Rondo was a ball pounder, he was looking to set up guys, whereas I think Julius looks to score first. So I don't know. I think what's interesting too with them, like when they got Davis and cousins together, we all just kind of assumed, oh, you know, cousins is this big guy, he'll be inside and Davis is this kind of lean guy. He'll be outside. But actually, it was Davis going inside and cousins going outside. Yeah. And like really Davis was great with Meritich on the outside and him on the

inside. So if you had Davis and Julius, they're both kind of going at the rim. My assumption would be Davis and Meritich and Crunchtime. Yeah. I mean, it worked really well. And the one good thing they can carry over without Ron or without boogie is that front court really worked. Davis seems like he really is convinced on playing the five more often. I think it's like playoffs. Regular season, he'll save his body, then playoffs. Right. They still need the Emeka Okrefour type to throw out there. Maybe they bring him back. Maybe. Checktealo has made some progress. I didn't really give. get a long look at him in Summer League, but he's a guy that I've always been fond of. He's, as someone explained to me, he's the type of guy who is high IQ but never knows

like where he needs to be. He's just, what does that work? He's just like, he's a smart player, but sometimes like he'll almost like overthink it. Oh, like maybe the game was a little too fast for him. He's like 30 going on on 15 sort of thing. Okay, I got you. It's like a weird mix thing. Like over eager.

Yeah, exactly. And so I've always been a big fan. He's a really nice kid. I remember his first year, him having to call Uber's at the practice facility because I don't think he had his license yet. And he didn't appreciate everyone teasing him about that. But I don't know. I mean, they definitely need those guys that they're out there. But even in the regular season when Bogey went down, he was, AD was starting a little bit more a center.

Yeah. So, I mean, I like New Orleans, but I think what you just said, if you look at that Golden State series, it's the lack of perimeter length still wasn't addressed. And so like, they'll either go, Solomon Hill, bigger wing, can't shoot or Etouin Moore. smaller wing can't he's not doesn't have the size and so you had drew guarding kd it was just a tough matchup against golden state which i mean it's golden state yeah so obviously but they just don't have a lot of length on the perimeter yeah they're a weird team where it's like they can go they can finish third in the west potentially if everything clicks or they can not make the playoffs at all i mean a bunch of teams like that yeah there's just the west is just going to be insane uh and then the east

on the other hand maybe there are a couple good teams that'll come they'll kind of spring i think I think the top of the east is okay. It's just the bottom of the east is just going to be tired, disaster. Yeah. I mean, and there are still a few restricted guys. Are there any other guys free agency wise that you're intrigued by that you want to see you? I think Mark is smart. Yeah. See, to me, if I was Sacramento, I'd go after Marcus Smart. He's a culture setter. Yeah, 100%. I think you get him there. Everyone's competing more. The intensity ratchets up. I think that would be good for it. If that was them, I would get a guy like that over Levine or Levine. I mean, Jabari's interesting too, obviously.

Those two guys, Marcus Marr and Jabari Parker. Yeah, I mean, it seems like the Kings are after those culture setters. Like, everyone in the past two drafts for them has come from like a blue blood college. They went after Bagley. And part of it is probably guys who actually wanted to be there who were willing to interview. That's never a great way to do things. I know. But I think Smart would be great for them.

And the Kings are slowly turning into the new nets where they're just throwing money at guys to force other teams to match. Yeah, they're definitely the new nets. I would assume the Celtics would match anything. But Jabari, I mean, I don't know, man. The bucks are just like super confusing to me. They went out and got Iliasova for a lot of money when just like a couple months ago, we thought his career was kind of over. He's playing in obscurity in Atlanta. So maybe he was better than we assumed he was motivated. Ilyosov has been on six teams in the last three years. Wow. That's incredible. One of them was probably the bucks, right? He's been moving around. He's been rocking up air travel miles. But they also got. Brooke Lopez. I like that one though. I actually like both of them when not factoring in the money. And I think well, Brooke didn't get paid at all. No, like two million dollars. Yeah, it was on, it was something low like that. And Eliasova, sure. But I guess what I'm trying to say is it makes sense with Janus. If you're saying Janus is a rim protector, defender, extraordinaire, let's get guys who are a little bit more stretchy. It's almost like the AD Meritich.

Yeah, totally, totally. And so it makes sense. but like long term, I don't know, man. And I don't know what it means for Jabari and even like John Henson, a guy who's... I mean, I mean, John Henson's gonna be sitting on the bench. They're making a lot of money doing it. That contract was terrible when they brought back. Yeah, they've really thrown a lot of money out.

I mean, I think they stretched Deladova. De la Vadova. I think they stretched them. They paid him. They stretched him as off season, I think. Wow. He wasn't really doing too much. I mean, they have a thing.

They throw money around. It doesn't really work out for them. They have the new Delvedova Doeva in Dante Diffinchezzo. Another guy whose name is hard to say. Yeah. I mean, the new Delvedova is Grayson Allen for sure. I mean, that's done. Yeah. So I don't know. I think the Bucks are at a really important part of their team like building process. And if it doesn't work out this season. I think I'm a Bucks believer. I'm

I'm, I think I'm saying Yonis MVP campaign this year. Wow. Yeah. I mean, yes, he's one of the five best players and he could do it. If they get a top three seed and he's like putting up silly stats. Yeah. I mean, but you look at what Anthony Davis. this year. I mean, what would they finish? Sixth or something? Well, I think with Davis, because he kind of came on when Boogie went down. If he had put up those numbers all year, it had been a different story. Okay, not to always make this about the Pelicans, but it's always about the Pelicans. My thing is Davis was just as good as he was the season before. It's just the storyline flipped. He no longer had cousins, and he was rising from the turmoil and putting the team on his back. And, yeah,

they rolled off a lot of wins. But they were really good right before Buggy went down when those guys were together. Yeah, that's true. I mean, the season before they weren't in the playoffs, though, right? It's all about them. That's why I'm saying with the rookie of the year. It's all about you got to be on a winning team, you know, narrative is important. We're blog boys. We know how it goes. We love the content. Hashtag that. Yeah, I guess that's it. Are there any other Vegas guys you're looking out for over the next couple days here? I'm like, oh, guys in the summer league. Yeah. One guy I've been watching my guy, OG and Obie. That's a guy. That's my guy. I'm surprised he's even playing. It's cool. It's cool. Basically, there's like, we're just

working on your game. Like right now they're like, OG, we want you attacking the rim off the dribble. It's like he's super raw right now. Sometimes it won't work. But then there was a couple of times against Minnesota. He got the ball faced up, two dribbles dunked. Yeah. In traffic. Like, he's got an interesting game. I think they're really

trying to grow him because obviously during the season they've always established veterans. He's spotting up. And Summerlee like, hey, OG, just run the team. Jack shots. Who cares? Yeah. He's among the guys that are too good for Summer League. Jalen Brown was that type last year. And I was watching Bam out of bio the other day.

They shut him down, I think. He's done him. He's been flipping and flopping with Derek Jones the past couple games. Oh man, Derek Jones. Our guy. I was telling someone the other this morning. I was honestly a near religious experience.

Because I hadn't seen him play live before. He had three incredible dunks in 10 minutes. Yeah. Like I almost left the gym. Like this is too much. He's just dunk on the entire team. Yeah. And his thing is like if he can do anything else.

Like if he can shoot. Like that's a player, man. I have not seen an in game dunker like Derek Jones in a long time. He got hurt, unfortunately. I don't think he's going to play anymore. Yeah, he rolled his angle, I believe. So we'll see going forward. I mean, like, the first dunk, I'm like, what?

The second dunk, I'm like, the third dunk I'm beside. I got to, ugh. The end game dumps at Summer League are what we're here for. Oh, I'm definitely here for that, yeah. We'll be here another day or two. We'll be hanging out at the lovely villa watching Kyle go to work here, producing our podcast. But that's it from us. Thanks for joining the Ringer NBA show, and we'll talk to you soon.

Yeah. Have a good one, guys.