The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Paolo Banchero on His Rookie Season and His Path to Being the No. 1 Pick, Bobby Marks on the New NBA CBA, Plus We Like the In-Season Tournament!

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on the proposed NBA in-season tournament, and why he surprisingly likes it (0:26), before talking with rookie Paolo Banchero about playing for Coach K at Duke, being drafted no. 1 by the Magic, the Magic's team chemistry, Rookie of the Year, the MVP race, and more (18:18). Then Ryen is joined by ESPN's Bobby Marks to discuss the new NBA CBA, revisions to the luxury tax, positionless All-NBA, and more (39:39). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:10:17). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Paolo Banchero and Bobby Marks Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast a lot of nba we've got palo bancaro we have bobby marks help us get through the new cva and the stuff that you need to know i'm going to run through the in-season tournament stuff and realizing i think i might like it. And of course, life advice. It's cardio week. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping? Total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets.

Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. All right, I want to start by talking about the play-in tournament that the NBA proposed. I'll admit when I first heard the rumors about it, I was kind of like, what are they doing? What is this? You know, what is this, soccer? Like, what are they doing? What is this? What is this, soccer? What's going on? And then I think because of other times you've seen regular seasons disrupted, I think with

hockey in the Olympics years ago, where you were like, wait, don't they just shut it down? Is that what they're trying to do here? And I know that we all collectively, as soon as something new is proposed, we just, I don't know what's wrong with us. We just go like, oh, it's stupid, right? A lot of times things can be stupid, but I think I might like the play-in term is my point. The play-in games, I know that I've been on record with it, going into it and being critical of it, not because I don't think it's fun. The games are a lot of fun. It's an extra product to sell, which is always a very important part of trying to figure out why any of this stuff happens. figure out why any of this stuff happens.

I do think it's a little weird on the TV broadcast at times where the announcers, as we get down to the stretch of trying to figure out what the seating is going to be, who's going to be in the plane, who's going to be out where they're like, man, the NBA deserves all this credit. It's like,

it's not like you can make it 12 teams. And then we'd have even more teams alive. Do you want to do that too? Like, I think there'd be some kind of cutoff. And I do think, you know, you play it out over 10 years,

there's going to be a seven seed where you go, how, why does that team with that record have to play one more game to prove what they've just done over the regular season? And that's the fundamental part of it that I don't like. Mark Cuban's even brought this up,

talking about some of the standing stuff, being like, you know, it's something that maybe needs to be looked at in the future. Anyway, but with the play-in tournament, now that I realize what it is, it's not disruptive at all, really. pretty seamless there'll be pool play games that are designated as pool play games in november right uh then there'll be eight teams in a single

elimination tournament in december and then you're gonna have a final four a neutral site probably vegas or something um and the final teams will play an extra game. I've seen the jokes about wanting to shorten the season. I get it. Everybody seems to want to shorten the season. I would argue if you had a 72-game season, the guys would just find a way to set out games because it's cool taking off work. And then again, it's not always on the players missing this time.

We know that it's a directive of the medical staff and coaches and all that kind of thing too. So it's not all just on the players, which is important to remember. But when I looked at the details of all this stuff, I'm like, this really isn't some huge break. The games are just the regular season games. And then we have this final thing here. So the only extra games will be the two teams that are in the finals. So will it make the early season more exciting? If you're not locked into October, November, December basketball, will this make you watch it? Maybe.

It's not going to happen right away. Maybe there'll be a curiosity rating spike. Does it die down? Silver even said, to his credit, it's not going to be an overnight success, but we're trying to build a new tradition here. It's definitely extra TV money too. So let's not kid ourselves. And then when you look at the way the designation would be for the pool play teams or those games,

like they'd be in these 18 pools, which doesn't work out on the math for only 30 teams, which tells you, Oh, that's because they're probably going to expand to 32 teams. And there you go for pools. No problem. Because expansion is definitely coming.

People have been talking about this now for a while. I don't think anybody is on the other side of that because it's just growing your business out. That's the thing that we can look at all the TV money. We can look at the valuations of the franchises, but anybody that's doing business at this level, the way a lot of these owners have done business in the past, they're never content. They're never content. So it's about growing it consistently and trying to bring in even more revenue, which is what a lot of this stuff is leading to. The question I'd ask, though, is like, what is it going to mean for the players? Because it could be good and it could also be kind of bad. Let me explain this. We fans media shit on NBA players a lot.

And we get to the point where we'll start conversations with, hey, we know he's good, but are we shitting on him enough? We aren't? Let's start doing it a little bit more. Yeah. Let's just start asking questions, being like, I don't know. Is he a winner? Like, I don't know. Not that many winner? I'm like, I don't know.

Not that many people get to win, dude. And I'm not just talking about Chris Paul here. It's actually happening with Luka right now. We know Kyrie's been a disaster pretty much every spot, but is Luka not getting enough shit? And that's just the timeline of the NBA star. It just happens. You're really good, play long enough,

don't win enough. And Dallas is a mess now. And I'm not telling you Luka deserves no blame. And I'm not even telling you all this stuff is on Kyrie right now. Right. But you get the point. Like, we'll have players we don't like. And then there'll be players that we like. And then there's kind of this neutral purgatory tier of NBA players where the topic will be,

hey, should I start dumping on this guy a little bit more? I don't know that it happens in any other sport like this. It happens with quarterbacks, right? But imagine being any of the other positions in the NFL. I don't have to deal with any of that stuff. So what we do with the NBA players all the time. I couldn't help but think about the Timberwolves play-in victory

where they beat the Clippers, they get the play-in the Timberwolves play-in victory where they beat the Clippers. They get the play-in. Timberwolves are back in the playoffs. Beverly's crying. Carl Anthony Towns is acting fucking weird. Anthony Edwards is up on the table. And then they go back to the TNT guys and they're just killing them. They're laughing their asses out and they're just making fun of them. Being like guys want to play in turn or you get like you want to play in game excuse me i shouldn't even call it that right you want to play in game and you guys are like ready for a parade now i got the timberwolves side of the excitement right but it was also funny and why i think tnt always works is that we have too many shows that are so

deferential to the product that they're afraid to ever say anything. Whether or not you ever agree or disagree with the TNT crew, the fact that they would do that, that wouldn't happen, I don't think, on any of the NFL partnerships. I don't think it would happen in college football. I don't think it would happen on an NBA ESPN show. Those guys are just like, I'm going to let them have it. They went overboard. Again, if you were a Timberwolves fan, I'm sure you didn't love it. The point was, it was like, dude, what did you really accomplish?

Whoever wins the first in-season tournament, we all know where this is going. The confetti's going to fall. Somebody somebody's gonna hand somebody a trophy the players are gonna give us these quotes that they likely are like yeah this means a lot you know play the game to win and they're gonna know it's stupid and their quote is gonna be perfectly crafted but they probably won't mean it. And I could think of a handful of players

where I think it'd actually be worse for them to win this if they don't win a normal ring. Like, basically, the point I'm getting at here is if Chris Paul's in the final of this first one, I'll probably be rooting against him if he doesn't win a title this year. And Phoenix obviously has a chance. But if Chris Paul is ringless going into 23-24, the idea of him with confetti, sweat, holding a trophy next to silver, and what's going to happen to Chris Paul, I'll root against him.

I don't want that to happen so badly. So let's just jump in here with Cerruti. on this list about who else would fall into this category where without a ring and to win this, it actually might be worse for him? Well, I think there's a couple camps, right? There's the... Jokic is on this list.

If Jokic, after winning two, maybe three MVPs, if he won only a play-in tournament, we would absolutely crucify him for it. And if he never won it... I think five years from now, if he won only a play-in tournament, we would absolutely crucify him for it. Like he would, and if he never won it, like I think five years from now, if his only actual hardware is, or silverware is like,

you know, holding up this, this, this in-season tournament trophy, it's going to make people hate him even more or call him out. I think like, imagine if Charles Barkley, you're making the Chris Paul argument.

Like imagine Charles Barkley in the nineties, if they had this in-season tournament and the only thing he ever won in his career, he didn't win an NBA title, but he won the in-season tournament. Shaq and Kenny and all those guys would never stop clowning him for that. So like I think Jokic is kind of in that camp of like he's so good. But if you're almost at that high tier and you haven't won a title, you can't win. You can't win the in-season tournament. You just can't. So he's definitely for me like he's top of the list, I would say. And I wonder five years from now, if we'll think about this conversation and go, we were totally wrong. But the way it feels now, and the way the NBA has talked about whether it's SARS, I think we're right.

If Chuck, if, I don't know, I just did that. But if Charles Barkley only had, your point's a great one, they would show the picture of him sweaty in his Sixers outfit or Suns outfit or whatever, holding this trophy and they would have that picture up all the time. It would be a meme that would never

die. Yep. I'd feel bad for him. It would suck. So to that point, if I'm Jokic, I don't want to win this thing. That's why there's... I would say 75% of the team and players, I mean, probably 99% of the players in the league like

yeah it'd be cool if they won this tournament um but it's just kind of that upper echelon like I think it breaks into two camps the guys that will give passes to if they win it it's guys who we haven't really gotten on for not winning a title yet or making significant playoff runs or guys who we already like like Steph Curry who it's like where it's like the cherry on top so like if Steph and the Warriors won it we would probably celebrate that and make it a bigger deal and be like oh look at this crowning accomplishment for this team they just rounded out their trophy case they've won everything else and now they won this you know the in-season tournament because we like them and they've won the title multiple times so I think it kind of breaks into those two camps but

it's it's really kind of like that that like zone It's Embiid, because we count on him for not having playoff success. It's Jokic. It's Harden, right? It's kind of that group of players that have won MVPs or played at an MVP level, but haven't had the playoff success that we think is necessary to call them a quote-unquote all-time great.

I wouldn't call the cherry on top for Curry, and I know you didn't really mean that. So I'm not going to get on your case for the order of words that you used. But Curry, I mean, it wouldn't matter. It just wouldn't matter. And Bede, I still feel like this will be a year for him with how nasty it's been for like two years. If they get bounced early and B gonna be dipped it like there's gonna be a waiting room like hey the guys that really take a ton of shit like you you're up like you're

gonna go in that room if if they don't make some kind of run harden would be another one i don't think westbrook necessarily like will have the status with a team like i don't think westbrook's ever gonna be the main guy on a really good team anymore so i don't think it would matter you know what's kind of a tricky one a guy with rings if durant got it and never had a non-warriors ring that's almost like some of the dudes that were talking about getting it without a ring now this may this may sound crazy to like anybody be like what are they going to do lose you know like you're you play to win you're going to be out there. You're going to be competitive. Part of me, as we're talking this out, this thing is kind of absurd,

but so is what we do to so many of these dudes. And sometimes I think it is fair. I think some of the criticism is very fair, but I do think it's like, it kind of gets back to the point I always make about Olympic gold medals. When you're stating a Hall of Fame case, the higher up the gold medal is on your resume, the worse your Hall of Fame case is.

And I can only see like a debate show talking about two dudes and arguing and we're like 2027 and somebody on the desk goes, he's got two in-season tournaments. Do you even call them rings? I don't think you can. Maybe I'm wrong here. Well, and to your point about the Olympic thing, you're 100% right. The only time the Olympic argument should come up as far as whether or not you're an all-time great player is if you didn't win a gold, right? If you've failed, if you won silver or bronze or whatever, that's the only time we should talk about the Olympics actually mattering in an all-time player debate.

But I actually think the in-season tournament would be more significant on your resume than an Olympic gold. The Olympic gold, I mean, we win it most tournaments. Every four years, we basically win it. So if you're on that team, again, you're probably going to get the trophy and you're going to get the medal. But it's going to be harder to win the in-season tournament than it would be to win the Olympic gold medal. Yeah. In the beginning of what you were saying, I was about to freak out. And so did a lot of people probably listen to this thinking that you're just like a young

dude that's not patriotic whatsoever. But your point is valid. Is that competition? I mean, you're still competing against all the other NBA players. I just wonder what the intensity will be because that that's, I mean, if they're regular season games up until the final game, then the intensity should match the intensity that we normally would see in a regular season game. What none of us want to see is anything that resembles the All-Star game.

And I have a hard time believing that we're going to see it. No, I think, and this has been my last point on this, I think the top teams, for example, the Clippers as a franchise as currently constituted with Kawhi and Russ and Paul George, they cannot win the in-season tournament because them as a franchise right now, all the money they've spent,

the trades that they've made, it would just not be worth it for them. But there are a lot of teams that I do think it would be fun for. Look at the Kings. The Kings would try this year. You don't think the Kings would be all in on winning an in-season tournament? They're probably not going to win the finals. That's fine. But that'd be an awesome trophy for the Kings to win

this year if they could do it. I look at a team like the Knicks. The Knicks are fun. They've had some stretches where they win like 10, 12 straight games this year. They've had stretches where they've been awesome. Maybe they sneak into a Final Four. Maybe they can get to a title game and win an in-season tournament. Those kind of teams,

like the playoff teams, but the teams that aren't really in the title hunt. I mean, maybe you can make an argument. Some people think the Kings are. I just don't, but I still like the team. But that's kind of the group of teams

I think will take it seriously and it will be fun for them to win. And we probably won't clown on them for it. It's the Lakers. It's the, you know, I don't think the suns would take it very seriously is that really like would you think the celtics would take it seriously i'd probably not well wait a minute we need to stop because of course they're gonna like they're gonna take it as seriously as they

would in a regular game the games all count so then they're not going to get to the finals and then decide hey we don't want to win this so that's where i would push back maybe. Maybe, but again, the beauty of it is it's a single elimination tournament, right? So that's why when you were talking about the beginning, are fans going to tune in more or less? I think if you had a big team like Phoenix or Boston's on the ropes against a smaller team to get knocked out of this tournament, I think there probably would be some more interest in that in the round-robin version of this.

So I don't know. I just think maybe those teams that are in that, you know, in the round robin version of this. So, I don't know. Like, I just think, I just think, like, maybe those teams that are in that little zone, they are probably going to play harder because they know

that this is the one thing that they could potentially win this year. Whereas those other teams, like, they might, you know, you're just kind of, like, subconsciously, maybe it's not,

it's not your full priority. Spurs, with all the guys being the final, and Russ Duncan, and Parker. They probably would. I look at, like, as a Magic fan, for example.

We've had fun, but I would... If they made a Final Four, that'd be awesome. That'd be a fun year for a team that really, other than anything, isn't really going anywhere. Yeah, I just think we should push back on the idea that good teams would not try in this thing when they're still regular games or play hard enough to get into the Final

and then not play the Final. All right, we've got more on this. Bobby Marks and Paolo Bancaro. The NBA season is coming down to the wire and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000.

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All right, three, two, and one. He's the number one pick in the NBA draft. He is going to win Rookie of the Year for the Orlando Magic. Paolo Bancaro joins us now. Okay, Paolo, I want to go back to almost a year ago. We're trying to figure out who's going number one. It sounds like you were trying to figure out what's going on. All these mystery stories about what was real and what wasn't.

What was the lead-up like that for you, leaving Duke, combine, all the stuff, lottery, and then draft night? What was real now looking back a year later? Yeah, for me, it was just a lot of, you know, well, one, right after the season, I had to pick an agent. So that was a process of meeting with different people and trying to pick the best option for me, which ended up being Mike and Lyft.

And then after that, it was more just focusing on, you know, trying to get an idea of where I was going to end up, who I needed to, you know, work out for, talk to, combine, you know, met with some teams and stuff. So that's really, and just trying to stay sharp with skills and stay in shape. But yeah, mainly it was just more of talking, having conversations and trying to figure out where I was going to go.

I have told you this, and so I'll share the story again. I think I've already told it before, but I was in Chicago for the Combine. That's kind of where it's all ramping up. You know, a lot of chat, a lot of Jabari, a lot of Paolo talk. That's kind of where it's all ramping up. A lot of chat, a lot of Jabari, a lot of Paolo talk. I got the full core press by Mike Miller, Lift, Dan Frank. And I was like, look, I think I'm kind of there with you now. What was it about Mike Miller and not only him playing, but the recruitment of you understanding, okay, this is who I want to rep me. What was it about that relationship? Yeah, I think it was just his transparency in terms of, you know, putting basketball first before all and trying to help me become the best player I can be and just trying to, as him being a former player,

put me in the best positions, you know, for me to be the most successful as a player on and off the court. Like Mike understands, you know, he's been, he was in the league a very long time. So he understands, you know, what a guy needs on and off the court marketing wise. He built a great marketing team around me. And then on the court in terms of, you know, where I needed to be in terms of the draft, what I needed to work on, my biggest rooms for improvement coming in. He was on top of all that.

We watched a lot of film together. We were in the gym a lot together. So he was real hands-on. And I appreciate that most agents aren't like that, especially when it comes to the basketball side. They don't really do too much on that end. So for him being as, you know, involved as he was, it just was a difference maker. Does it help that he seems like he's the same age as you, even though he's not?

Yeah, no, that's I mean, that's Mike, though. I mean, he's just full of energy all the time. You know, like you said, he's out there on the court showing me how to do the moves, the shots that I'm shooting during workouts. He's doing the same thing. I grew up watching the NBA, so I knew who Mike Miller was for a long time. It just makes it dope when you see him coming back and pouring into you how he does with just his energy and, you know, his love for the game. Let's go back even a little bit further. We know the Washington ties.

We know your family's history with the program. Everybody thought that's where you're going. You end up going to Duke. How hard was that decision? I don't think it was as hard for me as people think. I think my whole life, I will say growing up, I didn't see myself going anywhere except Washington. Like that was the school that, that was the only school I knew,

only college I even knew. You know, both my parents went there. I went to countless football, basketball games growing up as a kid. So that was all I knew was Washington. And then once I started getting recruited throughout high school and I got to visit, you know, other schools and just see what it was and what it was like, I think it kind of became an easier decision for me. You know, obviously leaving home is always hard and it was hard, but I think my focus as it, as at that time was just always trying to do the best for myself and,

and put myself in the best position to achieve my, my dreams and goals, which was to be an NBA, be a, you know, a, a top pick. Um,

and I was able to go to Duke and do everything I dreamed of. So it was for sure worth it. And I got to play for coach K and, uh, that was something that, you know, I didn't want to pass up on. What is it like when Coach K recruits you?

Yeah, it's surreal at first. I mean, I probably couldn't tell you any of the times where a coach hit me for the first time. But Coach K's first time calling me, I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, the weather. I remember everything about it. What were you doing? Who were you with? Tell us about it. Yeah, he called me.

It was the week before Peace Jam. So it was the week before. They hadn't offered me yet. And Coach Shire had reached out over text previously, but I hadn't heard from Coach K. And I got a call. I was at my grandpa's house, matter of fact, in Seattle. It was sunny out.

And he called me for the first time. And, you know, if anyone knows Coach K, he always introduces himself no matter how. He could have known you for 20 years. He's still going to get on the phone and say, this is Coach K, like he always does. So when he said that for the first time, like I was shocked. I almost couldn't, kind of was lost for words.

And I remember just having a good conversation. He told me he was going to come watch me the next week up at PGM and just wish me luck and told me he'd be watching. And after that, we built a great relationship. But that was the first time. It wasn't just the Gonzaga game, you know,

because I'd seen some of the high school stuff with you, but the Gonzaga game you go off, right? And it's early enough. It's kind of the Chet showdown and you watch that game and you're like, wait, why would anybody take anybody over this dude? He's this size, he's dribbling into this mid-range. But what I really started to appreciate more and more is that I feel like you could have taken a lot more shots, but that Duke team was stacked. You know, whether it's you or AJ, who was kind of stuck in the corner, Mark, who could do a million different things. Wendell had been around a little while and he could use the ball. Keels, who, you know, was brought in as a big recruit too.

And then Jay, like that was a stacked team. There was also a lot of dudes that would have loved to have the ball a little bit more. And my appreciation for your game was that you could have shot more. You probably were a better option a lot of times, but it felt like your DNA, your basketball DNA, is that you want everyone to feel like they're a part of the offense. And that's what convinced me about not just your ability as a scorer, that you saw the game a certain way at a young age that I just don't see very much. Yeah, no, I mean, I think you're right on. Like, just with that, when you have a team with four or five pros on the court, how we did, you know, there's not going to be a guy who takes 20 shots a game. It's just not going to happen.

You know, me coming in as the top recruit of the class and whatnot, like that's not, that's not what I wanted to do, nor was it like best for the team. I mean, we had pros, uh, throughout our lineup, um, who all could, you know, who are really talented and who played well, we all played well off each other. Um, and I mean, I think that's why we got as far as we did. And obviously, I think I had a really good year. And I also just kind of took it upon myself, like, you know, being, I mean, I was the guy who a lot of teams focused on. But, you know, guys like Mark Williams, A.J. Griffin, like, I always wanted to help them, you know, just get involved and, like, find them shots and make sure Mark's, you know, around the rim getting lobs. And AJ, you know, just whenever they were open, just trying to find them

because they were so talented that, like, you know, if I wasn't helping get them the ball, I felt like I was, you know, hurting the team. You know, those guys were so talented. You see what they're doing. I mean, in their rookie years, Mark is having a very solid year. AJ has had a really good year. And, you know, you could see that, you see that just as we were playing together at school.

We had to use all our talent, and I think we did a good job of that. Even though we fell short, but we got real far. Guys had good years. But it's been really important, too, I think, because of this Orlando team. We know it was a bad start, but if you look at since the five and 20 mark, you're 29 and 25. And when I watch, I'm like,

man, they're kind of figuring some stuff out here. And, you know, my producer, Sruti and I just always feel like nobody really pays attention to how good Markel has been. And,

and false needs the ball. Cole comes in and gives you energy, but like you can still run the offense. And then you also going to make sure Franz is allowed to create off the dribble a little bit. So there's a lot of guys that are comfortable with the basketball, and there are times where it feels like you're running the offense. And there's also a time where you feel like it's stepping back. So the stuff I saw at Duke feels like a perfect fit for how this rookie season has gone for you. So again, I feel like there needs to be a more pointed question for me, but I'm seeing the same things, Paolo,

from you where you are. How do you define, but I'm seeing the same things, Paolo, from you, where you are. How do you define, maybe I should say it this way, how do you handle knowing when to press the issue with your size and dribble advantage and knowing that now is not the time to kind of try to take over because somebody else needs to get theirs?

I just don't see it very often with young dudes. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, that's something that I still work on. I think I'm pretty good at it. I think it really just comes from having a good feel for the game. I think I always been like that since, since my younger days, just even when I was in high school and was by far the best player, like I still would, you know, defer sometimes the guys who, who were good and would have advantages. And I think it's just a feel for the game thing. I mean, there might be a game where I got, you know, 25, 28 points

heading into the fourth, and I'm just feeling it that night. And I take over, you know, in the clutch. You know, there's been a few games like that where it was like New Orleans where I hit like the last four shots in the last two minutes where, you know, I was locked in, kind of just took over. But then there's games like, I mean, I don't know, shoot. There's been a couple games where Markell's closed it and he's just had the ball, hitting big shots, making plays.

And there's been games where Franz has closed it. I remember in Portland, we played in Portland and the last like two, three minutes, Franz just had the ball, you know, the last three, it was hitting big shots, making the right reads. And I trust them. They trust me. And so it just makes a perfect dynamic because all three of us and whoever else really cold, too, I think is in that group, Wendell, we all trust each other to hit big shots and make plays.

And it just shows. I don't ever give the ball to Franz or give the ball to Markell. And I'm never worried about what they know, what they're going to do or if they're going to make the right play. Like, we all just have complete trust in each other. And whether it goes right or wrong, we're not going to change on what we do. You know, Markel's a former number one pick. Franz is a top ten pick, you know.

So we're all built for this, and we know that. And so we all just want to see each other win. We want to see each other win together. So, you know, we try and do what we need to make that happen. What does Franz have in his game that you wish you had? Definitely his finishing, just around the rim, floaters, touch shots. Like if Franz gets in the paint, I mean, touch shots. If Franz gets into paint, unless it gets blocked, it's

probably an 80-90% chance that he's going to make the shot left or right hand. I would just say his craftiness around the rim in terms of finishing inside hand, off hand, Euro steps, he's just a master around the rim. This is a

broad question, but what does a rookie need um not just from his coach but from his teammates what are the things that all of us don't understand that a rookie as talented as you are the number one pick that you need to make sure the year goes as well as you want it to uh man if i had to say i mean i, I would say just, I'd probably say patience. You know, me coming in, you know, I had a lot on my plate. And I think I started off really hot, was, you know, delivering. Even though, even during that hot start, though, there was moments where, you know, I just made rookie mistakes. Like, these are my first couple games in my career that I'm going into and throughout the season that happened you know where you just kind of make a bonehead

play um that you know you shouldn't have made but you know it's it's I mean this is your first go-around so that's gonna happen so I think my teammates have just done a great job being patient with me obviously I try not to make too many mistakes, but there's those times where you kind of do something and they kind of look at you and smile like, yeah, you got to be there. But they just my teammates have been great in terms of never

always holding me accountable, but never making it feel like it's all on me or all on anyone. We all take accountability for our wins and losses. So it's just a great group that we have, and we all gel well together. What kind of targets do you have? Look, I remember some of the summer league stuff that we saw. We saw some of just the practice games where it was dudes

were coming at you verbally. What is that like in the beginning when it feels like maybe some of the older players are testing you mentally to mess with you a little bit? What's that like in the beginning when it feels like maybe some of the older players are testing you mentally to mess with you a little bit? What's that like? Oh, I like it. One thing about me, I never, never back down from a challenge from anybody. And I think whenever stuff like that happens, whether it's on the court or in practice, I think my level of play always just, you know, gets, gets risen.

And it just brings out a different side out of me that, you know, I like to see. So I think there's been a couple of times this year where, you know, it's kind of been that way, whether I have a tough matchup, a guy who's, you know, coming out, trying to, you know, prove his point or make it extra difficult for me. And sometimes it's gone really well. And other times they've gotten the best of me.

And I think either way, I just always take it, you know, with a grain of salt and try and learn from it, good and bad. And I always look back and kind of smile about it. Even the games where, you know, I might get busted and whatnot. Like, I always kind of just look back on it and, you know, just cherish it because this is the NBA. This is where I dreamed of being. And so when you get to play against, you know, the top players and just see what it's really like and see the level that they're at, it just leaves you nothing but really motivated just to get to that level.

I know it bummed you guys out when you were taken to the Celtics a couple times there earlier and then Eddie House was on the postgame being like they're not any good um because you even addressed it what is that like for a young team and I don't even think you're mad I just wonder what those conversations are like maybe at the facility maybe in the locker room before we are like this guy is killing us right now um despite and again that's what I think it's kind of lost as people look at the overall record, but they don't realize this kind of definitive line, this break point, where you're now an above-average basketball team. It just doesn't show it that way in the standings.

Yeah. No, and that's how it's been this year. I think early in the year when we were losing a lot and, you know, guys, you know, when we beat the Celtics and Eddie House said what he said, it just made us, you know, we're the only ones as a team and organization who really knows what's going on

in terms of guys who are hurt, you know, what we're missing and stuff like that. So we always knew how good we were. We just didn't have anybody to start the year. I mean, me and Franz were playing point guard. Like, we didn't have bodies. We were real thin. So we kind of had to deal

with that rough patch. But, like, once we got Markell and Jalen and, you know, the rest of the guys started to get healthy and we started to have full rosters, Gary Harris, Jonathan Isaac coming back.

Like, once the guys started to come back, I mean, we started beating a lot of teams. And, you know, obviously the league was kind of surprised and whatnot, but we knew how good we were. And, you know, obviously the league was kind of surprised and whatnot,

but we knew how good we were. And, I mean, we just wanted to go, we wanted to go out and prove to everyone that, you know, you got to, you know, when you play the match,

you're going to have to get up and, you know, be locked in because, you know, we're a good team. And that's just what we're trying to show. I think we did that

once we got healthy. When did you first start paying attention to the Rookie of the Year stuff? I mean, that was always a goal of mine. So I always had it on my mind that I wanted to win the award. But I would say once the season started, I really wasn't too invested in like the the race or whatever you want to call it I mean you see the the ladder and stuff that the NBA posts and I so I always saw that but um as terms of like checking on other guys or really worrying about other players I

think I just kind of eliminated all that I think I did I did that in college too with the whole draft you know draft selection I just didn't try to cancel that out while the season's going and just hoop. And then that'll take care of itself. But I definitely saw it as the year went on with the ladder and guys going up and down.

Were you a little worried in February during the shooting slump? I was more worried about trying to make some shots myself. That's what I mean. Yeah, right. Just in general. Yeah, in general.

But no, I mean, I think. How did you get out of it? How did you get out of it? Because it was rough. Yeah. Well, I got, I had a, no one really knows. This is my first time really saying it, but I had a nerve damage kind of that was in my neck

and it went through down my whole right arm and I had I had their injury happened I think the last game of January and so the whole really the whole February I had messed up like my whole right arm was kind of messed up and uh I don't want to blame that's like the only reason I went one for 33 but like people see that and like three percent is crazy and I I kind of want I mean I do attribute it to that injury and then once I got that out the way um my jumper kind of my three point percentages was literally once February passed like everything went back up and I I mean I got healthy my arm I got that and did a lot of work on my nerves to try and get it right. But I just got through it just by staying down.

I mean, I had played a good season the whole way leading up to that. So I wasn't, I didn't really lose confidence. It was just more of a trying to become, you know, more efficient. I think my legs were a little tired just from the season in the All-Star, you know, trying to get to the All-Star break. But, yeah, I mean, I knew a rough patch was coming eventually, but obviously that one was a little more than I would have liked. But I knew I was going to get through it at some point,

so I wasn't too worried. We're going to be done here shortly, but when you mentioned the Pelicans, the Pelicans game was the last game of February. Is that the one where you hit the the three mid range, like right elbow, you kind of dribbled into them and you just like possession after possession after possession. It was like, oh, he's closing this by himself right now. And it's, it's funny because it's that month. You tell us now about this.

And then I think since March, you're like 38% from three. So, uh, you, you figured it out. Okay. I'm not worried about you as rookie of the year before we let you go. Maybe you can help me with this. Cause I do have votes. I don't know if you'll it out. Okay, I'm not worried about you as Rookie of the Year before we let you go. Maybe you can help me with this because I do have votes. I don't know if you'll answer it. I would love if you would. The MVP race, your Eastern Conference perspective,

who's tougher to deal with between Giannis and Embiid? I would say just from strictly our games that we've played, I think it would be, I'd have to say Giannis, just because of the shooting that Milwaukee has around them. Like they, I think we've challenged every other team in the league, I think, this year. Like where it's been a close game, we've had them. I think Milwaukee's blown us out pretty much both times or every time we've played them. And I think it's really just because you got a guy like Giannis, who you have to commit almost like four players. Your whole defense, you really have to build around one player.

And then they just have endless shooting around them. So it almost makes it kind of impossible to stop them, just for us. But MB's a great player, too. I think he's dominant. I just think we're able to guard him a little easier than we are Giannis. Yeah, I think positioning on the court, like you just kind of know where MB's going to set up, which also makes it impressive because even though you know what he's going to

do every time, there's still really not that much you can do with it. Look, those guys are awesome. The top of the East is incredible. I don't know what I'm going to do. I still got a couple of days to figure it out. I know I'm voting for rookie of the year. It's going to be you. Not because you came on the pod. I don't know what I'm going to do. I still got a couple of days to figure it out. I know I'm voting for rookie of the year. It's going to be you. Not because you came in the pod.

It's not close. I'm really happy for you. It's really tough to be the number one pick. The fan base hopes to see something they haven't seen before. There's all these expectations. And I think in your rookie year, you've shown so many different elements of your game that every magic fan should be happy.

So thanks for the time, man. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. I appreciate you. Bobby Marks joins us, former front office executive now with ESPN. He is a go-to guy on the cap.

We have a new CBA, Bobby, labor piece, at least until 2029. Some of the biggest points are unchanged. Still feels like a 50-50 split. I actually want to start with the cap smoothing because we know we're going to have a big spike with the new TV money. And now looking back, that's what led to Durant that led to all those guys in 2016 getting massive contracts and then a couple of free agent classes later being like, wait, where's all of our money? Basically, they put something in here for a smoothing mechanism where there will be no cap spike,

and the cap can only increase 10% in a given year. And then the leftover, if there is, would be tacked on to following years. So I actually think that was a huge deal with a new TV deal coming up here very shortly. Oh, it was beyond huge. Because normally the cap generally outside of the COVID years where it basically froze for two years, we usually see between 8% and 10% jump annually.

And when you put basically a cap on with the smoothing and new TV money, that probably comes in 2025, I think. Yeah, we won't see 2016 again when Alan Crabb and Biambo and Hinme and Noah all got $80 million contracts. Then the following year, everyone was like, where's my money? And there was nothing left here. So you cap it at that number. And then as you said, you smooth it out in future years. Yeah. And I got to remember going back to that too. It was a very owner's union thing where the owners were like, hey, we'd like to smooth this cap out in

2016. It was like, wait, you're keeping our money. I don't even know if Michelle Roberts just opposed it because she understood it or opposed it because she didn't understand it. And if I were a player back then, I would have been furious with her. Look, I just don't think she did a very good job and people don't seem to like to talk about it all that much. But them not realizing what they were going to cost the larger base. Why would you go? Why were you, if you were a player, would you say, no, I think it's really cool. There's going to be this massive cap spike in this free agent class is going to clean up instead of protecting the 450 plus people. That never made any sense. It was great for the Warriors. It was great for the guys that were free agents in that class. But that was a very misguided thing that I think was only rooted in opposition to the owners without thinking of how it better represented the players. It helped 20% of the players and it hurt 80% because it basically went in cycles. So. So that year, those guys, the 2016 guys got their money, 2017, there was a little bit left over.

And then once you came, you know, whoever was a free agent in 2018, there wasn't anything there. And then we had COVID and basically guys, you know, had to wait like three or four, four more years for, um, for another con contract. So this, this at least will help that, you know. It should help everyone. It should be about every player, not that year's free agent class.

Well, yeah, I mean, because what happens, a lot of agents got fired. A lot of agents want the following, the summer of 17, a lot of these guys, because their guys are saying like, you know, where's my 9 million, my $10 million?

And they're only a minimum guy because that's kind of what's left over. Yeah. Well, I think that's a huge part of it. There's also further restrictions on the tax. So like this year, if the cap's around $123 million-ish, the tax, that first threshold is about $150 million. The aprons would go up by $6 million in those increments. Well, now there's kind of the second apron that, and again, correct any of the numbers of them off and any of this stuff. If we're at 17.5 million over the luxury tax, that's this new apron that feels far more restrictive than anything we've ever had in the past. So what is that and explain what it means?

Yeah, I think it's important too, that this is going to be phased in, in like two years from now. Like this is not like all of a sudden golden States and the Clippers are going to go into this off season. Like, wait a minute, we're now 40 million over the second apron. Like, can't we at least get our books in order? We saw this in 2011 when the new CBA came in and they had that harsher, the luxury tax where it wasn't dollar for dollar anymore. It was like an escalating. They basically waited two years to put that in place, the off season of 2013. So how it works right now, there's only one apron in play, right?

If you're $7 million, let's say the luxury tax is at $150,000, the second apron is $157,000. That kicks in. the luxury tax at 150. The second apron is 157. That kicks in. If you acquire a player in a sign in trade, you use your bigger mid-level exception, the biannual exception. That's how it triggers all that. What they're doing now is they're putting the second apron in. So it's basically 10 million more than the first. So hypothetically, if this was this year, this past offseason, it would be one, let's say 167. Okay, that's the second apron. What that would have done was

Milwaukee couldn't have signed Joe Ingles, right? Their tax mid-level exception is no longer in place. It just doesn't exist. It's not even an option. It just goes away. Who else? The Clippers wouldn't have been able to sign John Wall. The Golden State, Dante DiVincenzo, right?

That exception goes away. There's more rules in place now, which is interesting. Phoenix would not have been able to put a fourth first-round pick in the trade to Brooklyn because you're not allowed to send out a, if you're over the second apron, a pick that's seven years out. Right now, seven years is the longest you can trade a pick out. And for those teams in that past that second tax apron can include a pick more than six years out. So they just shaved a year off it for those specific teams, right? Correct.

Correct. And you can't include money in a deal. You can't sign a buyout player. I think the interesting thing will be what happened was teams that were over the luxury tax where you had restrictions, but then you go out and you go out and trade for James Harden. Okay. Brooklyn did in 2021. So you're sending out $34 million in

salary and you're taking $42 million back. Well, now all of a sudden that $8 million is really $24 million when you include the luxury tax. What's going to happen is that those teams in that second apron are basically going to be like dollar for dollar. If you send out a $20 million guy, you got to take back a $20 million guy or an $18 million guy. So there's restrictions as far as from a trade perspective. Okay. So I actually think that might be the most important out of all of this, because what

you're saying is, and I wondered, was there going to be anything in the CBA? They can't say, hey, nobody can make a trade demand, right? You could sit there and say, oh, if you make a public trade demand, you'll be fine. Nobody gives a shit about any of that. I was just trying to think of what could they do to feel like they were getting some control back. And basically, it feels like, hey, if you're already looking for your third awesome player and he decides he wants to go there, which I think we could just point to the Durant deal in Phoenix, you can't throw in the extra pick. Okay, I have a thought on that. But the most important thing is you can't

take back more cash than you're sending out so that especially when it's this kind of player like that feels like some way of of kind of restricting the player from even being able to be required now i wonder if i don't know if it's the unintended consequence because these guys are really smart and they figure it out. I wonder if we'll get to a point where it's like the star asks out and the team that's bringing them in

is like, well, now we have to trade all these extra pieces that we didn't even want to and we wouldn't have to under the old market, which could be a reality, or it could be the team that has the outgoing star that's demanded a trade is going there. And then that team's like, well, this sucks because now I'm getting less draft equity back.

I don't know if it's going to hurt one side more than the other, but it's very clear that those rules on trades for teams that are way over the apron that it's a mechanism to try to prevent some of these landing spots where a bunch of guys are potentially not saying it's not going to happen, but it seems like an attempt at a deterrent to it. Is that fair? No, that's fair. And I think it hurts a little bit. The team like Brooklyn, let's say if this was two years from now, it would hurt because they can only, they're not getting the full boat of draft picks, right? Like you're not getting that, um, that, that amount, you know, whatever is involved, player involved in the trade. I think, you know, it's, it's funny. It's like, you know, it's a player association. It's the players who are

negotiating it. And it's almost like, there's like a fraction of like the league was, was working against a fraction of teams, right? Like basically you guys could not help yourself. Now we're going to put in these rules that are going to force you, whether it been, you know, the Clippers made the,

the Norman Powell, Robert Covington trade last February of 22, where they took back a lot more money, right? Like that doesn't exist anymore. In the future, that won't exist as far as to be able to do that and run up your tax bill here. But yeah, people think it's a hard cap.

It's not. A hard cap would have forced people to choose your younger players. It would have killed teams like Oklahoma City, probably, Orlando, where you draft and it hurts. But yeah, I mean, as I said, the second apron will penalize or restrict teams that basically

have this unlimited budget. The big thing is, where are we going to be in 2025 though? Do we know if Golden State's still going to be together? Where's Draymond going to be? What happens with Paul George and Kawhi in the Clippers? Middleton and Milwaukee, all these higher spending teams. Phoenix will probably still be there.

So it's going to be for that next wave of teams. What's interesting is, though, is like the tax money that these teams, like these Indiana's of the world, it's like, they're getting like 16, $17 million in tax distribution this year. Like that goes away like that. Like the golden goose doesn't won't exist two years from now where all these teams are kind of, you know, using that money to budget, you know, other things. Um, so it will be interesting as far as where we are, you know, two years from now. Yeah. It feels like a real reset at the top where it'll be tough for those teams to

live in that neighborhood. Cause you mentioned whether it's the trade stuff we just covered, but you can't use your taxpayer mid-level anymore, you know, and then there's even some problems where like, if you had a guy on a veteran minimum to fill out the rest of the roster because you're paying so much to all of these other players, you almost have no chance of retaining that player now too because you're not going to have any kind of bird rights anyway. So there's just as I was going through it, I was like, man, this feels like a very targeted thing. And it's a really good point, too. And this is the part of the player side that I also sympathize with.

It's like this isn't even about us. this is about what you guys want to do and i'm sure there are probably a lot of owners going i like that 16 million dollar check at the end of the year from those two teams like in all the teams i think there's eight or nine tax payers are projected to be like i want that check and of course if i'm silver i'm saying it's better for the health of the league and 15 to 16 million is nothing compared to the new tv deal so you know don't don't start counting that but although you know look i i'm sure there's still were owners like i don't care i still want that free taxpayer you know dispersal that's coming from all those teams but this feels like a very it's not a hard cap but it's the closest we've ever had to it and i think every cba is ownership hoping to progress in that direction more and more

and if this is our tug of war the rope is coming more and more on the owner's side of getting something that resembles something that they ultimately would want. And I don't know if they're ever going to get it, but that's, you know what I mean? Like the players lose every negotiation. It's just a matter of how much they lose it. Yeah. I mean, it's like the players like, well, wait a minute. Like, why is it our fault that Steve Ballmer and Joe Lacob have $400 million payrolls? They're like, wait a minute, we didn't do anything. Exactly.

We're just part of it. We're basically being kind of penalized. I think the interesting thing too, Ryan, too, with the luxury tax is that how it works now is that whatever is in the pool, 50% of that goes to the teams under the luxury tax. From a distribution standpoint, the other 50% goes towards revenue sharing. That's going to change a little bit.

There'll still be 50% that goes to distribution, but the other 50% goes to the players. As far as that goes back to them, not towards the teams as far as from a revenue sharing standpoint. The All-NBA is 65 games for that and for all the awards. We've had some really lean years recently as far as how many of the top players are getting over that 65-game mark. It feels like it's gotten a little bit better this year. I'll have to see how it kind of lands at the end of it. The positionless part of it, i completely disagree with dream on as somebody who

had a vote last year has a vote coming up this year there there aren't this this isn't like a fourth team of of maybe you just use the wrong word and bums um yeah but there's there's a handful of really good players that i have to leave off but then sometimes their position like forward this year is a little lighter so like all right like, all right, I'm going to not get creative, but how is this going to work? And by taking this out, I think maybe you end up getting the 15 best players, but more importantly, it's for players that are going to qualify for a contract instead of somebody that qualifies for it that makes 13

that just was a better option positionally. So I like it. I think it actually makes sense, even if historically it's kind of spits in the face of it. I think what's going to be interesting is, well, two things there. If you go back and look at guys who were super max eligible, who had met the criteria, there was 11 players in the last five years. If this rule was in place, only one of them wouldn't have met the criteria. It was Joel Embiid back in, I think, 2020 or

2021. He wouldn't have played less than, whatever, 65 games. He would have met it the following year. It never impacted any of those 11, the Giannis's of the world, the John Wall, all these guys who were Supermax eligible. I think what's going to be interesting when we get this

term sheet is going to be, what are the conditions for the 65 games? Because it's not black and white. It's not looking at John Wall's profile and saying, Jay, he played 63 games. He's not eligible. Wait a minute. We got to find out what were those 19 games that he missed for? Did his team rest him down the stretch? What type of

injury here? Did he play a game where he only played eight minutes and they shut him down for the rest of the game because he wanted to hit the criteria? So there's going to be some guardrails here where it's not just cut and dry as far as 65. And I think that's going to be what's going to be interesting as far as how that comes into play here. But I mean, you look at the guys that are eligible this year, there's, you know,

are you going to vote for Devin Booker who only played 52 games, the Currys, you know, those guys, the 50, that really never was the case. Like, I don't remember guys who played 45 games being on the all NBA team.

Right. Like it's huge. It's always been kind of 60, kind of 60 and above maybe high fifties here. So I, I agree with you. I mean, I disagree with dream on it.

Like all of a sudden, you know, these, as he calls them, these bums are going to make all NBA and now they're going to pay him a super max. Like just because you make all NBA, that doesn't mean like you have to pay them.

Like that doesn't like, that doesn't like, and you don't even have to pay the 35 like you could do 31 you could do like there is a negotiating part of all this yeah isn't that what Utah did with Gobert where it was like we know what you're eligible for but we're also still able to pay you more than everybody else so we'll just pay you more than everybody else but we're not going to go that far out um I don't know if I think and again if somebody speaks for a living there are times i'm like i wish i'd phrased that differently or whatever i just wonder if dream on if you would have rather used a different way you know what i wish what i wish

he would have done was go talk with andre guadallo who's on the players association and be like hey give me the lowdown of all these rules because i saw him on Saturday when we were putting out stuff, basically teeing off on the PA and CJ, basically that, hey, they went to the table with all this and they left with nothing here. And I really, I mean, I disagree with him because A, the full amount of rules is not out here. And I think the players concerning where they were in all this, listen, they were staring down a hard cap.

Like a true hard cap would have killed this league. It would have helped certain teams here, but it would hurt a lot of people here where, as I said, you would have been forced to choose. Spending would have been eliminated, basically. His next contract would have been impacted here. And I think the Players Association was good enough to get away from that. And I guess even the upper spending limit and you know, the second apron is the second apron here. So I, I mean, I disagree, I disagree with, you know, kind of where he's coming from. So you just said something though, they were staring at a hard cap. Yeah. I mean, is that the opening salvo from ownership every time now with this in 2029? Is it going to be a much harder

public push? Because look, Stern was a master at planting the little seeds, trying to get the public. Every single time the CBA was coming up, there'd be a big feature on ESPN and we hear about the 13 teams that were losing money. And again, my argument is I don't care what your operating costs are. I care about the value of the asset. And let me know when anybody in the last four decades has sold one of these teams at a loss. Well, you can't because it doesn't happen. I even felt like Silver, when he was meeting with people before this was agreed upon, he was trying to use the Valley Sports Network going bankrupt. It just didn't feel like it was in him. I don't know if you saw it. I watched the

press conference and I go, I know what he's doing. He's trying to just go like, hey, not everything's great. Well, it's funny because he didn't believe it. I just, I don't know. Go ahead. Go ahead. He did the press conference last Wednesday and you're watching and you'd be like, well, there's a gap and it's kind of like doom and gloom, these regional sports networks. And then we got a deal two days later. So he had an idea of what the vision was going to be as far as what the CBA was looking like. All right. So you think, and we talked about all that progress going to the owner's side.

Again, to remind everybody that the revenue split used to be 57, 43 for the players, not that long ago, what less than 20 years ago. Yeah. Yep. I don't know. I, you know, they can't, I mean, that's the baseball argument, right? We cannot have some mechanism that prevents any one player from getting whatever he is worth and it's a great philosophy and i just wonder you know basketball has far more mechanisms than baseball does uh if if that would be you know if that's something where the owners go granted you know they'll sell the team it'll but if the league is going you know by 20, we want that in place. Will it ever happen? Well, I think any league would probably want... Anytime you're going to the table for a collective bargaining agreement,

you're always going to want to put something hard cap in place. That's usually your first thing you're going to throw up against the wall. And usually it's met with a ton of resistance here and that goes away. And I think if the league was in a position where 20 out of the 30 teams were racking up high spending, luxury tax bills, spending was out of control, then I get it. But considering that it's really a small portion of teams that really have high numbers and we've got this new TV deal coming, I think the league is healthy. I think the system isn't broken. Basically, this CBA is an amendment of the 2017 CBA where we're tweaking things. We're adding more jobs.

The mid-level exceptions are going to be able to increase. Certainly, system changes here. There's all the other things as far as players investing, and that's probably another podcast here. I think at the end of the day, I think what's going to happen, and we were talking a little bit off air here, it's going to make teams think twice

when they want to go all in big, right? So if you're going to do the Rudy Gobert trade again, right? Like you better think twice, man, that I'm going to have him, Towns, making $80 million. Then I got Anthony Edwards coming up making $35 million. Then I got Jaden McDaniels. I've got four guys committed to $140 million next year. I've traded all my draft picks. So what do I have left? I won't have the taxman level likely. I probably restricted on trades. I got the minimum and whatever's left over on my bench, your former draft picks here to build your roster. where I think it's going to, that's where you'll see probably less of those big four pick trades here. I mean, Cuban, you know, went on record last night on, on, on a Wednesday, Wednesday night

with the whole Jalen Brunson stuff. I mean, that's another thing here. Like, what are we doing? Like the guys on the Knicks, like just leave it alone. Right? Like, I felt like, I felt like saying like, well, we could have talked about like, why didn't you give him have talked about why did you give him a four-year contract without a team option in there? And you left yourself unprotected. But that's another thing for another day. But Cuban had a good point. He's thinking, am I comfortable paying Luka and Kyrie $90 million per year for the next three or four years? And what do I have left?

I owe the Knicks a pick. I owe Brooklyn a pick in 29. What do I have left to build around here? And that's kind of what this CBA is going to have teams think about more as far as a roster building standpoint. So with Dallas, they wouldn't have been able to do the Kyrie deal, correct? Correct. Because they were already, yeah, they would have been a second apron team.

Right. And they wouldn't have been able to trade that pick, which is in 29, which is their last pick in that deal. Okay. You mentioned the mid-level for the cap room teams, a significant increase, which again feels like another mechanism against the teams that don't have that. i don't want to spend a ton of time a ton of time like this let's talk about jalen brown and dejante murray um because the way it works uh previously is that jalen brown could only get the 20 increase on an extension which would be below what his market value would

be so it's not a reflection on jalen brown about maybe he wants to leave but i think he's actually like one of those guys who's very open and honest. And then people freak out instead of just lying and saying, I never want to go anywhere else. Like I appreciate what Jalen Brown does and the way he talks about it. But it's just math. Like why would I sign an extension for below market? Now, the weird thing is they've changed that rule in this where they could go to 40% raise off of the last year to do the extension. But for somebody like DeJounte, who's at a good number, this is the part for the team where it kind of sucks. It's like, can we sign the right contract to a guy and now we're screwed? team building alone, but DeJounte's $40 million bump, or excuse me, 40% bump wouldn't even really get him to market. So you got to wait until he becomes a free agent. So can we talk through those specific examples and how it relates to what teams are going

to have to wait on? Yeah. Three players that I was looking at who would impact Murray, Ananobi in Toronto, and Sabonis in Sacramento, because what happened is they signed rookie extensions that have now become team-friendly. They're below-market rookie extensions, similar to what Zach Levine did back in his rookie contract with Chicago here.

He was like $19 million, right? And then he's playing like a max guy, and you're restricted as far as what you can extend him for. So those players now, you can bump up 40 it's still gonna blow go below the max for murray or uh sabonis i think sabonis is like three for uh four for like um i don't even know 100 and let's say 15 120 which is which is lower um jalen, he is four years, 185, 189. That's the max. That's the max contract for him. There's no more with that 40% here. So it's an interesting point now. If he doesn't earn all NBA, which I think he will, what does he say? You know what? I want

to give it another run at trying to earn all nba because i can earn the super max the following year and if you're boston or is that are you comfortable enough with that where he's basically turning down the max offer here so i wish they would have done away with the the percentage increase i wish they would have done with if you're a player like murray in atlanta and you're eligible, you can sign for the percentage of the salary cap, right? So if you're a guy who has seven to nine years and you're a 30% guy, right? You could sign for 30% of the cap as far as your extension number. Extension, just to get it over with.

Yeah, just get it over with. There you go. Here you go. Now we're not dancing around. If it's below market, we got to wait another year i mean from what i understand the highest that um you know maybe it could have gone to was 150 and the league was pretty hell-bent on 140 um but i just didn't think if you're all in on like trying to keep teams together like as far as roster building just eliminate the extension rule and as far as just go off the percentage of the cap. But this at least helps option-wise for those teams, but specific to Jalen because DeJounte is not in the all-NBA

thing, we could still be looking at this Jalen thing being a year away from another decision depending on how he wants to play. Well, yeah, and the other thing too is like Sabonis, who was traded and he'll help he'll probably make all mba is not super max because he was traded so that doesn't carry over and that was another rule like a team was a couple teams were texting me like hey did that change like can we like if we get a guy in a trade and can we you know is he

super max eligible if he earns all mba and i'm like no that's from what i understand that's not part of the rule like you basically have to be the only way it works is if you're traded during your your rookie scale contract right to a new team and then you can be super max eligible right for for all yeah so like if mikhail bridges was uh earns all nba next year in bro. He is not super max eligible because he was traded after his rookie. Yeah. His rookie skill contract. I'm surprised the players wouldn't have just gone, Hey, we need that in there. Yeah.

You know? All right. The last thing I think I could do this all day, but, uh, the one and done. Yeah. And help me out here. You know, years of work in the league. I feel like when I first started, you know, having the chance to talk to people around the league, I'd ask them about it. They'd be like, oh, just get rid of it.

It's stupid. Now, as I got older, I couldn't understand if that was an evaluation thing where there's plenty of people you meet in the league and they just go like, let me draft him now. Like, I'm fine. I don't think I've ever met anyone in the front office who's ever said to me, to me, I'm just not that good at it. I'm just not that good at drafting. So there was always a confidence of I can still evaluate the player and we'd rather get him in here instead of this farce of the one year and get him in and become a professional basketball player and get him in. But then I also think there was a societal thing where it was more of an argument. It wasn't about basketball. It was just about prohibiting young men from being able to earn what they're worth earning, where I would be in agreement with that argument. It feels like a lot of people were like, Silver's really on it, and he didn't have as much backing. And therefore, it ended up not happening.

So do you think teams would rather it not be there? Because I know why it didn't happen. The players weren't like, we don't want a double draft where all of a sudden 45 roster spots are gone for veteran players. So that was easy, and I understand it. spots are gone for veteran players. So that was easy. And I understand it. Where do you think front offices are today on whether or not they'd rather just be able to grab kids out of high school or another year of evaluating them in college or overseas or in the G League? I think where teams are is that the draft is really hard already. And now, wait a minute, you're going to make me go into a gym in Southwest Texas to go evaluate a 17-year-old. I mean, I think that's where it is.

I think the notion that players are immature, they're not ready, a senior in high school, I think is a little bit overblown. I've had guys who spent three years in college who've come in and be like, oh my God, what a train wreck right now. Like not ready from a maturity standpoint here. So there was never, from a team standpoint, there was never, this was not a, if this was a list of 200 items, this was item 201. This was not something that teams didn't want. The player association, I understand that it takes jobs away. Technically, the draft takes jobs away anyway., they got in return, it was something

like, you know what, let's revisit this in like six years. Okay. That's Bobby Marks. You can catch him on ESPN, helping us all understand this a lot better. Thanks, man. You got it. Thank you. You want details? Bye. I driverari 355 cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am

liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required whoa kyle is that a visor just a hat this is a master's visor if you're wondering um just in honor of the great tournament that i've been to a couple days in a row and just thinking about it this year i'm ready for chris vernon's master's update and just remembering all the good times i had at the masters bill didn't bring you huh no he's there right now twice in a row now it's like dave chan got the invite over you Just remembering all the good times I had at the Masters. Bill didn't bring you, huh? No. He's there right now? Twice in a row now. It's like Dave Chang got the invite over you?

Yep. Yep. Is he related to Dave Chang? Not that I know of, but I don't know. Maybe if you go back far enough, I don't know. Yeah, maybe. Who knows? A couple of things about me.

It's cardio week over here. I didn't know you did cardio week. My joints, just everything hurts. I was like, you know what? Why don't we just give everything a break on the moving stuff around thing? I wouldn't say I'm in the best mood ever. So I've been doing a few different things. I'm getting some shots up though. That's felt good.

That's always fun. But I'm doing these sprints on the bike and man, thighs were just, is on fleek still cool to say? I don't think so. Yeah. But the thing is, is like after that, I was like, all right, let me do a little sweet greens. And maybe I shouldn't name the place. But then I went to Apple and pick something up. I just think the.

I know I'm in two places here. Yeah. Never to Range Rover after that. You know how like when you go in, i think it must be like a corporate thing for for like the corporate structure to be like be engaging when the customer comes in like some places are way more over the top than others where you're like hey man it's like oh what'd you do you went to apple like yeah i did nice nice it's like what'd you do? You went to Apple. I'm like, yeah, I did. Nice.

Nice. It's like, what'd you go with? I don't know. You know, I'd like to go with right now. Some chicken and rice. Uh,

yeah. You just sit there and you're kind of like, and I know I'm the dick on this transaction, but it's just, it's a bit like, where do you think this is going? Like, yeah, I bought something. What do you want to know about the keyboard decision like i don't i don't

really know what to do so i i feel like i i'm friendly enough i think or it's like oh hey yeah i grabbed something but then after like this six or seven inquiry i'm kind of like all right i'm over this now and i wonder from like a corporate standpoint of like what that line of like be super engaging to being ignored you don't want that right uh and by the way maybe this person's just in a great mood it's just an incredibly friendly person it's a little slower and they saw me they thought there would be some common ground and we would start talking and i you know after a bike ride on the bike stationary bike and then that and kind of being a little pissy this week i just was like all right i think i think chick-fil-a got these companies fucked up their employees like save people's lives and i think they just want them to they just wanted to get like uh to that level of like uh niceness or whatever

they're like oh yeah the guy left and and the chick-fil-a employee ran half a mile to chase him down and give him his waffle fries so i think chick-fil-a just has all these companies like we gotta we gotta do better so i think they're like that's an incredible incredible observation because you could argue are the chick-fil-a is the campaign a little arrogant they're like we just hire the best people. We have the best people. What can you say? We're a family here.

They had a story. They had to do some work, though, in the public. There were a lot of people that were anti-Chick-fil-A anyway. So I think those are still are. Yeah, I agree. That's a reaction of them having to kind of change their image. I feel like I don't know. I don't know if I still know.

You're right, Rudy, because the NFL killed it when it was like at its worst approval rating there for a stretch and then they just started doing all these ads about how awesome they were and then they had the footballist family one right where it was these are like the super bowl babies and it's like man watch football you may start fucking you know and then it was like check out our kid and that was like over the top the other one was the bank i'm not going to name the bank this bank was so shady about what they did and then it was like our bad you know it's kind of like the succession scene where didn't bp do that like the the british petroleum company when they like had an oil spill in the gulf and they had all these commercials about like where we care about the environment it's like somebody like cleaning a duck like guys this isn't gonna solve the problem

yeah but it's like 101 i mean again succession when hugo after the cruise uh controversy and he's like here's our full page ad it's like we get it we hear you it's like what was that and then it's just a perfect plan like how how silly some of this stuff can be i think there's another because i you know i don't want to start naming out everybody's obviously saruti's not afraid of big oil but uh then another company that has the hack and it was like we get it and it's just you i don't know the whole thing was kind of funny. So anyway, basically, thanks to everybody at Sweet Greens for being super friendly. I guess I just wasn't in the mood that day.

Let's get to some emails. Life advice, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right. Dave Matthews Disruptor. Hi, guys. 35 years old, 6 feet, 180. More of a high rep, low weight to fatigue guy, but not quite shredded.

Alright. So my wife and I share Dave Matthews as our guilty pleasure band. I hate that people have to... What's guilty about that? Yeah. I don't know. Like, isn't or way more of a guilty pleasure than Dave? Or? O-A-R, is that what it is? Yeah, come on.

You actually didn't know that I think as I said or I went I think it's OAR yeah I forgot alright when's the last time you listened to OAR Cerruti college loving memories good song that's probably about it okay so anyway

we had not had a night out without our infant since he was born but decided to pull the trigger when Dave decided to pull the trigger when Dave came to Omaha. The concert was at the Creighton Basketball Arena, so while it was a good-sized venue, we all had assigned seats. The problem lied with the drunk couple behind us. I can only assume they were early on in the dating stage as they talked, well, rather yelled the entire time the concert was going on. They'd be a little quieter during his most popular songs.

People, sir. But during the deep track only section they would ramble about things like how omaha was nice but the sunsets in the rural areas are so much better uh and how this i love the friends with dave crew even though although i said i met him right in the same way you're friends with dave i was gonna say yeah pretty much like hey i cut my foot on stage oh yeah i remember you have fun ryan thanks dave even though we were on the opposite sides of the arena in medium quality seats yeah i'm friends but he likes to just kind of you know like he always tells me the sound is better from this angle um this went on for the entire show definitely left a sour taste in my mouth despite dave putting on a great show at one point i had enough and turned around and asked him if he could keep it down whoa even though he was wearing an Affliction shirt,

he was not the typically sized Affliction wearer, and I could take him. Affliction wearer. I got to tell you, yeah, Affliction in 2023 is a real wild card. At a Dave concert. Yeah. This guy's checking a lot of boxes. Are you really friends with Dave?

Yeah. Yeah. I can see Dave being friends with an Affliction guy. Not. He asked if I was being serious and i said yes then he proceeds to complain to his date very loudly about how i asked him to be quiet uh and the yelling continued how would you guys have handled this with the arena being sold out and having assigned seats there was nowhere else to go love the pod i think that's actually kind of a tough one it is a

tough one you don't want to be the guy at the concert telling somebody else to calm down. This is usually strength in numbers. You would need other attendees in close proximity to agree with you so you could shame him as a group instead of a one-on-one. Because you're not going to win this. You're at a concert. Again, I remember Harvard Civic Center. I think I was in sixth grade. And we had the second row great seats and in front of us

was the worst family ever the worst family ever and the mom and the oldest son turned around and threatened to beat up my mother um and i was like you know everyone's gonna do much uh i was you know the kid was bigger than me was gonna do you know nine years old six much uh i was you know the kid was bigger than me was it gonna do you know nine years old six ten years old so you know what but what happened is eventually you go and you go look you know we're at a wrestling event and everybody's unhinged but they were in the front and they stood the entire time so it was like kind of hard they were going crazy they were being assholes to everybody so again the point is is that um it was it was just you know you kind of know what you're signing up for a dave matthews concert you know if they're going satellite

in the beginning in the intro and they're talking about the rural sunsets being a little bit better and it's louder like you should have just tried to find some allies around you so i don't i don't you know i don't think you did anything wrong it just is not gonna work yeah i think you know concerts are things like people enjoy that in their own way like a lot of shit flies at concerts like even like you know even like a tamer concert like yeah the guy shreds but it's john mayer i mean it's not like you know it's not it's not crazy but still there's people smoking weed in there there's a woman having a full-on meltdown because he's doing something you know that that you know it's just and people people enjoy shit different ways and

granted like talking about um talking about whatever the fuck dumb shit they were talking about doesn't like that's not necessarily in the way you would enjoy a concert but just more shit flies at concerts so like you know it's just hard to tell people not to do things their way you know it's not like you're you're at a show where everyone has to be quiet people are cheering especially i mean you know we get into jam bands that's probably a whole different kind of concert but like i think i just think it's harder to be like you're not doing this correctly at a concert because people do their own shit like you're not supposed to smoke weed you're not supposed to do this people getting hammered it's all kind of in the in the normal you know prism of enjoying a concert you know granted

annoyingly talking next to somebody is definitely pretty shitty, but I think more shit flies at concerts. Unless you had that group of people that you were like, do you believe these guys? If you just went rogue, people would be like, dude, relax. It's a fucking concert. I think it

wouldn't be crazy for you to just have to suffer through that. That's funny that you bring up John Mayer. Cause I was at a John Mayer concert probably what a couple of weeks ago in Boston. And it's a great time. The solo tour was fantastic. Yeah.

I was thinking about that. I'm not afraid to admit that it's, he's a great, he's a great show. I've seen him multiple times. And there was, so there was somebody and we were on the, so we had floor seats,

which actually isn't that great. Um, because like the way the stage is, you're kind of like looking up and sound travels. We, we had, we, we had a good setup, but there was somebody to the left of us who literally had his phone up filming the entire time. Like all three hours of the concert. It's going to be an awesome video. And I was thinking in my head, like if this guy was right in front of me, like what I would be so pissed. Like, cause you're, I'm going to be distracted.

I'm going to be looking at his phone instead of looking at john or like the monitors the whole time and even like my wife and i look at each other we're just like this is so weird there's nobody gonna say anything and nobody's done anything not the people even right behind them so probably friends with john i think yeah it's probably friends with john yeah they were they were the incognito camera crew yeah they want to get some in crowd shots for the doc later but yeah because i was looking around to be like are the people behind them going to say anything and they just kind of didn't you can just kind of see they were doing like the lean thing or they would just kind of move around um i think yeah i think what you have to do in this

scenario is you just got to kind of look around and see if anybody else is kind of giving you the eyes and then you guys can kind of give them a nod and be like all right we're going to do this together because what this it makes me think of one time when i was when i saw endgame in theaters the marvel movie um there were like there was like a group of kids somewhere in the middle of the theater. And for the first hour of the movie, these kids were just kind of talking. And they were young kids. They probably were under 10. And it's a three-hour-plus movie.

And they're not crying, but they're just screaming and talking and whatever. And they want popcorn. They're getting up, getting down. And after about an hour, I think everybody in the entire theater just kind of like had had it up to here with it. And they just started berating kind of the mom that was multiple people started just yelling, shut up. But again, it has to be it was multiple groups of people yelling, be quiet, shut up, get out of here. And you kind of have to bully the person until like feeling bad about it. But you but if one person had done that, I think know you probably looked at him like are you the asshole so it kind of has to you're right it kind of has to be kind of a group dick effort uh and you also kind of have to give each other the head nod that you know hey this is kind of odd yeah phrasing could have been better there yeah i look it's it it would be tough during some of the slow songs if they're having a full-blown conversation and if you're telling me it's early songs if they're having a full-blown conversation

and if you're telling me it's early on and they're both sort of like having their early on date anxiety but again man just hang back um and you know like i i i feel for the emailer here but i i mean unless you just want to go nuclear option like you heard him say he was friends with dave to the day it goes on for but, but they've ruined the third or fourth slow song and you just turn around and just go full blown on him. Be like, if you're friends with Dave, why are you sitting there? Stop lying to her and talking about the sunsets during the deep cut section, you know, but then you got to be willing, like, if nobody takes your side, then everybody thinks you're the worst. Even though the way you laid this out, it's very clear. It was super annoying. And apparently all three dudes kind of fuck with John Mayer a little bit. So deal with it.

Let's go. Kid stress. All right. What do we got? I love the show. Okay. So I got hired by this dude. Let's call him Gary. About 10 years ago. I did not know him prior to this job. We worked together about three years. I was awful at what I did, accounting, finance. And for whatever reason, he took a liking to me, took me under his wing and actually made me a pretty valuable asset to a company at that time. Fast forward seven, eight years, I was at a steady job for the past five years, different jobs. We left an old company for better opportunities, kind of hit a plateau in terms of learning

and growing professionally. We had stayed in touch as we were both degenerate gamblers, LOL, but never really discussed work, just sports or bad bets, life news, events, et cetera. This past fall, he hit me up with a huge opportunity, a controller position. I'm going to go ahead and just guess. All three of us have no idea what that means, right? Nope.

We're not saying comptroller, right? We're saying controller? Got it. Because when it comes to comptrollers, Kyle's our guy. I don't know what a comptroller is either, other than I've seen signs of them. I just thought it was the easiest job to get hired

in a local town, but I think I just pissed somebody off with that. So sorry. Sorry. Sorry. The comptroller's out there. I took a stray. I didn't even realize it.

Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Starting this weekend. It's like fucking a Kyle. All right. Yeah. I was thinking jackpot,

more money, keep learning under Gary again, keep growing, build a resume all while having as much fun as accountants finance people could have while at work all right seems like it's a good deal here here's where the problem comes in during the interview with the actual owners of the company i forgot to mention that gary's the cfo of the company real right hard-working guy the owner asked what i was looking for in terms of salary

which completely caught me off guard how could you be in this for 10 years and not have that prepped uh anyway whatever i nervously said about 15 to 20K more than I was currently making. A few weeks passed by with no news until one night while I'm sweating out of bed, I get an email with an offer for 50,000 more than what I was making. I thought it was a joke, but who would ever turn that down? So, of course, I accept it. I've been on the job for five months or so now, and I can honestly say I'm not worth what the company is paying me. Two of these guys now since we've started this.

Yeah. How I answer the question in the interview is the honest trust, or maybe he meant truth, of how I valued myself based on my skill set, certifications, or lack of, LOL, and work ethic commitment. I'm looking for advice on how to ask my boss slash good friend. I went to his wedding, and we talk almost every day via text before I took this job, so we were definitely boys on how to decrease my salary as it is easier to keep lower-salary people on the job and not as much pressure on you. I'm trying my hardest and do decent work. My thinking is the owners could just get someone way more qualified for what they are paying me. I figure the less I make, the less the owners even think about it as long as the work is getting done accurately, which it is. I also don't want to sound like, quote, yeah, pay me less because I'm not working that hard and putting that much time in.

The effort is definitely there on my part. I'm just honestly not worth what they are paying me. I can't afford to lose this job, especially as I'm planning to move in a few months. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. All right. The first thing is I'm assuming you're moving, but you're also going to work for the same company. Yeah, it has to. Yeah. Right. Because, I mean, the simple solution would be if you're moving, but you're also going to work for the same company. Um, yeah, it has to. Yeah.

Right. Cause I mean, the simple solution would be if you're moving, I mean, that's the problem with some of the emails is that like we, we hammer from 18 different angles and then guys like the 19th thing that you possibly could have suggested. Uh,

it just happens all the time. Sometimes we just whip too. Uh, all right. He's upgrading on a house. He's, you know, he's,

he's, you know, going from the starter home to the, to the, the full-time home. Getting that two-bed, two-bath apartment instead of the 1.5. Look, I think everybody listening to this right now, my immediate instinct is like, what are you, fucking stupid?

If they're paying you this much more, let them figure it out, even though they obviously know when they're doing this. Now, the thing is, it seems like couple of people here really, really like you on the higher side of things. Um, did they perhaps just hook a dude up here? I mean, you know, is that a possibility? Uh, is, is this is a bigger firm? I would say definitely don't say anything because stuff like this happens. If it's a smaller firm, like I know what you're saying and some people are thinking this right now, like you don't want to be in the crosshairs making all this extra money, not necessarily

being good enough to do what you're supposed to be doing. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as we each get years to make money and every year you don't make money is another year you wasted of earning what you can make. And my career stuff's a little different because we have these massive peaks and valleys. So I'll always kind of look at it as like, yeah, but I can't make that year up that I didn't get paid. So now I have to try to figure out a way to make up for it or put you in a position to be able to even have that as an option. I know you're kind of stuck. I get your point. I get your point that you don't want to be a target because this is what happens when there's layoffs.

It's like, okay, this guy's making this much money. He's not worth that and all these different things. Isn't there also a possible chance like that could have happened to you anyway? different things. Isn't there also a possible chance that could have happened to you anyway? When I would put all the math together on this being like, okay, how long can I keep making this extra money that maybe I'm not qualified for? I don't know, probably two years, maybe even longer. If layoffs happen, what's the percentage chance of me being let go at this salary scale versus 150 grand below it or maybe 35 it, based on what you said in the interview. Well, wait a minute, I could still get let go. I just wouldn't be in a hurry here

to tell these people that you want to make less money because there's also not a great way of going about it. Now, there could be the absolute reverse of this, the weird time where you go in and you're such a straight shooter they like you and be like hey look i think i'm making too much and i don't know that i'm do you want to say qualified because then they'll definitely take your money away but you might want to just say like i feel like i'm too expensive you know there's a win there where they're like this guy this guy's the fucking best let's give him another raise he's got our backs let's give him another raise i guess my experience is that in my career it's kind of tough to compare to any of this kind of stuff i just

i wouldn't do that i just wouldn't do it and i know i might be wrong so yeah i'll keep my kyle i'll keep my short and sweet but like if this is like a business sort of place they might just think you're a fucking insane like this guy doesn't want the money like what's wrong with they might be like wait they might go to your cfo friend hey what's up with this guy what what the hell like what kind of guy do you bring us you guys see the accountant you see this guy doesn't want any money what the fuck's going on does he eat food like what's going on with him so i i wouldn't i wouldn't i just be like how weird is this guy like what, what is, what is, what does he do? Like, he doesn't want, you know, a raise.

So I would just be normal, do focus on doing enough good work to, to be worth your price. That'll probably be good for you in the long run. Yeah. Like, is there a way you can, I don't know, like if you're, if you don't feel like you're fully qualified for the exact job that you have, can you like pick up the slack that's, you know, on other projects that might not be like that difficult, right? Can you just constantly ask people, Hey, I could, you know, can I help you out on this? Can I help you out? So you're like the helpful guy, right? But I think at the end of the day, you have a buddy who's going to probably

tip you off on anything that's going to go on anyway. And if you're in jeopardy of actually being let go, wouldn't he give you a heads up and be like, Hey man, like, you know, words coming down from high, like you just kind of got to pick it up a little bit or we're having some issues. And then you know where you're at. And then maybe you have that conversation to say, hey, I know you're having financial trouble. Maybe I'll take a pay cut because I really want to stay here. But don't do that until I feel like you know that there's a problem. Right now, you're fine. So again, I know it's cool that you have this conscience and you feel bad about it. But I just don't think there's anything you should do right now.

If it was a really small shop, right, and it was kind of like you knew everybody that was involved and all this kind of stuff, then I think I'd be more in line with you trying to figure this whole thing out. If it's a massive, massive place, you're probably better off riding it out for a while and letting it know. for a while and letting it know. And to Rudy's point, you would think with your relationships with some of the decision makers, if there was a layoff stretch, you would have a heads up and then maybe that would be the time to be like, hey, you know what?

If it's because I'm too expensive, tell the board, tell whoever, on whom's authority, that you would take a pay cut. That you would take a pay cut that you would take a pay cut but you know think of it this way right now you know what man like sometimes there's just the guy at your place that makes way fucking more than he's supposed to and everybody knows it and people think it's bullshit and they're like i can't believe fucking this guy's making this.

How about just embrace getting to be the guy? Congrats. Yeah. You know, you've got to be it. Every dog has his day. Instead of being like every other dude in his officer's cubicle or walking by in the hallway being like this fucking asshole.

How about you celebrate the fact that everyone's saying that about you instead of the other way around? That was one of the last things I said at ESPN. I was like, I just want a contract where everyone at work is like, fucking resents me. And they were like, great point.

Great negotiating tactic. Alright, that'll do it for Life Advice. Thanks to Steve. Thanks to Kyle. Ryan Russo, the podcast. all right that'll do it for life advice uh thanks to steve thanks to kyle ryan russell podcast Outro Music