The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Ranking the Bucks Offseason, LeBron’s Future in LA, and What’s Next for the Nets With Bobby Marks

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Russillo is joined by Bobby Marks to share their thoughts on the Bucks signing Myles Turner, preview what the future could hold for LeBron James, and again try to make sense of the Pelicans’ draft-day trade (0:39). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (52:55)! Should I send a poem to the one that got away? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Bobby Marks Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Marcelino Ortiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca. We're going deep with Bobby Marks. We're going to talk about all the off-season stuff that is still worth talking about now. We're going to talk LeBron, also what's going on, the anatomy of a bad heel, and then we just keep going and going and going. So it was fun there. And we've got a longer life advice for you with Kyle getting ready for a celebration of America's independence.

So holiday theme. Have a great holiday everybody. Checking out the pot. We'll talk to you again, Norm Scherzer next week, Tuesday, Thursday. Bobby Marks, NBA insider from ESPN, former front office member. Great time to have him on. I thought I'd be able to wait a little bit longer but we're just not ready to because I want to talk about the off season in a very normal way and then obviously the expertise that you bring into all this stuff. So now that we've had a few days to think about the Milwaukee Pacers decision, we know Turner goes to Milwaukee, the stretch on Dame. The more I thought about it, and I opened the show on Tuesday with it, it's like I could make an argument that I

don't like it for either side in a way. Give, give me a sense of how desperate the bucks were to do something like this for miles Turner. Yeah, I think it's funny. It's there's a probably like seven different layers. We could look at it. I think from the stretch provision stretching his number over five years at 22 and a half million, really, that was really their loan option. They basically had the option of running it back with this group that lost in the first

round. Lopez and they certainly brought some of these guys back with Gary Trent and Bobby Portis. Because where they were financially, it was like, oh, we just have the non-tax mid-level exception. That was it. That was our big loan, big thing we could go out and use. The stretch provision was really the, their loan get out of jail free card, right? Like that was it. Like that was the one where if they were going to create cap space and we all, like I would say 99% of the NBA didn't see it coming, right?

Like we just like, we're like, oh, hey, you know, we didn't, I didn't write about it. We didn't write, you know, because you never think about stretching that amount of money over a period of five years. It's the biggest ever. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, I said this on TV yesterday, like, cause I know they're getting, they're getting hammered and stuff, reckless. I heard all these different things. And I said, well, listen, I've been there before.

When you have a generational player and I never had a guy like Yanis. When you have a generational player like Yanis and you basically are running out of options. In year three, four and five, Ryan, that's going to be your someone who takes over your job's mess to clean up. Well, you're thinking about right now, man, like we should be the norm should be you're operating in a three-year window, especially in this day and age, how you do it all.

They're operating day to day. They're operating like, we got to do as much as we can because we've got this guy on our roster to try to build as much of a good team as possible. Now there's the other layer where you can make the argument, okay, we're going to decide in mid-June, we're going to use the stretch provision on Damien Lerner. Who are the other free agents out there that we can maybe use that money on, whether it be taking $25, $26 million and splitting it up into two guys or three guys and just building it out there, or is it Turner's your guy?

And I get it, he's the best center available here. So you can make that argument too, as far as what you do with that money instead of just spending it all on one person. Well, I guess there's probably another part where you could say if the cap continues to project a 10% increases, and sometimes I think sometimes it'll be estimates

where it's like, oh, it's only gonna be seven and it's ended up 10. The revenue stuff has been really good. And no matter what the BRI is, it's a 10%. It's different than the Durant off season there in 16, where a 10% max, but now at 150 plus million salary cap, I could see Horst in the front office going, this is a bit like the NFL cap. Whenever you see bad cap situations, the NFL,

I have almost no sympathy because it's like you get this extra bonus every single year. In this case, if you're talking at like 15 million, now it doesn't mean you're going to have the flexibility to replace Dame at 22 and a half because of the spike, but 22 million in dead cap in three years, you should be able to figure out a way to anticipate that much better than say a cap that was at 112 million five years ago.

Yeah. I mean, and especially because your cap, you can only cap, the max amount is 15% of the cap. So eventually, like, so they're right at that number this year. So eventually two years from that, that percentage of the cap might be like 7%. Yeah. Percent. It's going to come down. I just, listen, I understand why my Milwaukee did it. Um, I hate dead money because it's not a person, you know, you can never trade

it. It's going to sit there forever. Um, but as I said, you're thinking about the now as far as you're just thinking like, I need to, we need to go out and change his roster up. You know, they brought some of the old back, some of the new, and then you get a guy like Turner. So I get why John and that group wind up doing that. What happens, and I don't mean to go back to July of 2013 in your time with the Nets. Everybody knows this deal. You and I have talked about it multiple times, but you have Prokhorov as an owner who didn't understand it.

You have Billy King, who's answering to him. You're working in that front office. Can you help those of us that have never had that experience understand the anatomy of what ends up becoming this kind of like team altering. And historically it looks, you know, it's an awful deal. But I don't know that Milwaukee's gonna be,

we're gonna be sitting here three years from now going like, oh my God, oh my God, because we're not talking about draft picks and then guys turning into a future all-stars with Tame and Brown, but how you get down this path of desperation where maybe everybody in the room who's in this discussion is looking at each other going,

are we really going to do this? Yeah, it's almost like you giving me $100 and you say like, when do you wanna spend it, right? You wanna spend it now or you wanna spend it in three years from now? And I said, well, I'm gonna spend 90 right now and it's on a bad investment and I only got 10 bucks left. And then you basically keep on borrowing, right?

You keep on borrowing and borrowing and then basically you're running out of options. So it's similar like the Boston trade in 2013. It's like, we want to spend now. Meaning spending, meaning going for it right then. And then what happens, it creates a snowball effect where, all right, now we only have one first round pick left. Okay. What are we going to use it on? Like I had never told the story. Like, like we were close to acquiring Kyle Lowry when Kyle was, I think he was in Memphis or Toronto. I don't know if he was, I think maybe towards the tip when things weren't going well in Toronto. And it was like, man, do we really want, we got one draft pick. Like, do we want to go out and spend it on him? But it's, it, it, it, what happens is it just comes, when you make a mistake, it keeps on compounding because you're never going to get out of the hole that you dug

yourself in unless, you know, Milwaukee gets good fortune and they go out and, you know, win a championship here. But in the Brooklyn days, what happens is when you have a change of course of direction, like we did, what you did now becomes extremely magnified because we're going to go in a different direction now. Wait a minute, we just traded four first round picks. We just let Pierce go to the Clippers. We're going to trade Garnett for Thaddeus Young. So if you're going to go all in, you better be all in, but also have the optionality to fix some of your problems here. But like Mike Dunleavy Jr. said, I was reading a comment from him, he said, like, the worst

thing could be in the NBA is have no options, right? Optionality. Like if you trade all your draft picks and you have nothing left, then you're... And then what will happen is like Phoenix, right? So Phoenix trades all those picks, Brooklyn and for Durant, then they trade for Beal and like, where's the picks? Oh, now we're gonna swap, right? It's basically you're keep on borrowing against your 401k, right?

And the interest rate is keep on going higher and higher. And then when you wanna cash out, you basically owe money left. And that's the worst spot to be in when you're trying to build a roster. Is that simply because of the unknown here? You can even pitch it back to the Milwaukee topic. Everything is about keeping Yanis happy and it's, I guess, a year-to-year thing.

It'd be really nice if Yanis could say, well, maybe Janis can't say, like, hey, let's look at where we're at the trade deadline. Let's look where we're at 26. If I'm a Bucks fan, I'm absolutely sick of everybody talking about how he's going to be gone all the time. If this were a Janis short, then people would be, you know, you'd be paying the premiums on this for like so long. It's like, well, you're even right if he ends up leaving somewhere else because you guys in the media have been talking about it for year after year after year but is there a conversation and again it's specific to the personality of the player that is the face of your franchise but you're like hey we can make 25-26 like a little bit better yeah bring in Turner, Dame wasn't going to play anyway we're moving him out, we're kind of

all in on this stuff we still have all these picks do I guess they have one first that they could move And correct me on that because I know it's a very two. Yeah, right. So Like I always think back and I'm not really ready to ask the question yet but I think back to those LeBron years the first time he was with Cleveland and you know, he just Is so convinced that keeping ownership in the front office in the dark and not being a good partner, that that's the right way to go. He wants everyone around him to have this anxiety and he feels as if if they don't

have that anxiety, they won't be as motivated to compete. I think Steph is a perfect example of you actually don't have to operate that way. They were doing very incremental deals that cost more and more and put them in an even worse spot. And then in 2010, it's like, all right, well, now that I'm out of here, after they've done the Ben Wallace deal, they've done the Larry Hughes into Zerbiak into Drew Gooden, you know what I mean?

They were just doing whatever they could. They were scrambling. You just wonder if Milwaukee, like, hey, Janice, here's our first option, we'll be better this year. But if we do that, like, we have even less options and we're not even, like, this is the problem with the Turner acquisition. What does that guarantee you?

Does it even guarantee you a higher seed than five or six in the East? And it's more open, we understand because the injuries, but it doesn't really guarantee you anything and it's a super aggressive thing. And I just wonder if it's any kind of conversation that can happen or if it's the simple case of an athlete being like, just cannot comprehend waiting a year because they're athletes. Well, I mean, you look at, I mean, I think the odds are out in the East as of today,

they're eighth in the Eastern Conference. And this is an Eastern Conference that's supposed to be pretty wide open. Right. I mean, it's, there's a, there's a parody there and that's, you know, that it didn't move the needle. Um, you look at, you mentioned the Bron years, the first go in Cleveland, like there's collateral damage when he left, right? Like it took them five years before everything worked out and he had to come back. Yeah. So was it planning or was it?

So here's my, here's my concern with Milwaukee. If this doesn't work in a year from now, now you got a guy in the last year of contract technically and you're basically sitting on 25 million for it. And I mean, that's playing Monday morning quarterback a little bit, but you're, whatever you did now, there's collateral damage, right? There's collateral damage as far as what you did this off season here. And you have a guy next year and you're maybe sitting in the same spot losing the first round because there's no guarantee you're going to go any further. So it's, it's, it's in one way you can make the argument that you understand why Milwaukee

did it. But on the other end, like eventually like there like, there is the collateral damage effect that, because of this move. Let's talk LeBron. What's actually even possible if he wants to get weird? Well, I drew the ire of certain people on Monday when I said that there was no market for him, but I said it and I got aggregated by my own

company. So I will, you know, there was a lot to it, right? Like there was like, it was like the Bobby Mark says there's no market for LeBron, but the butt part didn't get, the video part was there, but the other part, and what I wanted to, what I said was, I said there was no market for him, but here's why. Here's why. A, he has no trade clause, so he dictates the terms. He's on the last year of his expiring contract. He makes 53 million.

And I talked to teams on Sunday. Did I call all 30 or 29 teams? No. But I talked enough that I had enough conviction. And basically it was, hey, that's bad business. Why am I trading four guys for a guy that's going to be here for a year? It's bad business. If you're...

Listen, Cleveland was one of those teams that people were talking about. And then we bring in these rules, second apron, and basically trade $70 million players for one year of LeBron and everything like that. I think for LeBron, it's interesting because the statement comes out on Sunday. What does it mean? Does he, you know, is he watching this roster and is going to ask to be traded? I don't think so. I mean, that's hard to believe.

I mean, that might change during the regular season if this team struggles and you have a guy on an expiring contract, does he want to be up there where OKC is and maybe Houston and add the pieces? Probably. But here's the problem with that. Twofold. If LeBron thought that his best option of not winning a championship was not in LA, and I don't want to speak for his $53 million. He could have just opted out of his contract and go play, pick a team where he wanted to go. That's the reality of it. You could have won East and played in New York. They could have kept their roster intact here. So that is the one option there. Certainly you're hearing like, well, would the Lakers ever do a buyout if things got on the line?

And I'm thinking, like, why? What help does it make to the Lakers? You're not going to be able to get a $30 million replacement for him. You still had the non-taxman level exception. And then there's the other part of it where, and I've never really seen this before, is that you have two generational players, one in this prime in Luka, and one that is close to retiring in LeBron. And your goal is to build your roster

around your younger player. And your goal is to have as much flexibility and not mortgage the house in taking back bad contracts and bad short-term deals. But then on the other end, you have your other generational player who's in the last year's contract saying, wait a minute, are we not getting better? So it's like a seesaw. It's like a balancing act.

And that's a tough for Rob Plinkett because when I did the Luka trade, it was about the future. It was about the future as far as how we're going to build this roster moving forward. I'm with you on the LeBron thing. I mean, as Cleveland, it keeps getting brought up because the salary that you have to match to even make it work. It's like, why am I moving multi-year assets for a one-year deal here? And look at as great as he is beyond an age that we'd expect to make all NBA to put up the numbers that he puts up. Cleveland's not better with LeBron

than they are with their four guys. I don't understand it other than, I don't know really what the reason would be. And I think it's really important to him to stay in L.A. for the business opportunities. Clearly, that's a big part of all of this stuff. And, you know, some of the stuff that they're trying to do.

Would you get weird with the Lakers? Would you get weird with this fan base that already has kind of a weird thing with you anyway, because you're not Kobe? I don't know if that means all of a sudden, like business opportunities aren't there for him. But, you know, is, this is a really passionate place out here. I saw it. Me and Wendy went out to, we went out and had like a slice of pizza during our break downtown and we're sitting there and some random guy comes over and he was like, you want to talk to us and tell us why Kobe was better than LeBron. It was just like, like people are like passionate about, you know, certainly the Lakers and that argument and, and all that stuff.

So it's going to be fascinating here because here's the, here's the thing. When I said this this morning, like what happens? Okay. Everything's fine. They go out, maybe make another move. You get to training camp and all of a sudden, like we get to like December and they're 500. Right? Now you got a guy on an expiring contract and you're not bringing it like now. Do we think about moving him? What do you want to get moved? Like there's all these other mechanisms as far as like,

I'm not getting, I'm not ready to go there right now as far as, you know, what trades and all that stuff. But it's just like, there are a lot of different things as far as like I'm not getting I'm not ready to go There right now as far as you know what trades and all that stuff But it's just like there are a lot of different things as far as what you what you hate You have to be prepared for everything if you're in that Laker front office Yeah, I think it's great as he is I don't know That it's almost like he doesn't like the quiet. I think he really enjoys the noise. He enjoys speculation. And you think you just want to be kind of it at peace at some point and being a piece doesn't mean that you're not a competitor. Again, I would offer up stuff as an example of like, you don't have to worry about all this extra shit with me. You know, if we're bad, I'm still we're all on the same team. If we're good, we're all on the same team. And because there was like no option for any speculation with him, or maybe

he wanted a bigger number on a two year deal with them, you know, I don't know if that's something that was going to happen. I guess I'm a little surprised at it's like, well, hey, this is going to get really weird, it's like, well, hey, this is gonna get really weird. It's like, well, based on what? Just pointless speculation? Cause I don't know what the basketball move is there. I mean, would you agree that LeBron Mitchell and Mobley

isn't as good as Mitchell, Garland, Mobley and Allen? Am I nuts? Am I nuts? Probably Schruess too. You can throw, I mean, like just your role players are also going out and stuff. It's like, and I mean, even, you know, like, I don't want to get into hypothetical trades and stuff like, you know, listen, you trade them to New York for towns, for example, right now, you know, on the set, right? Like,

it's like, you know, it's, yeah, can you win? Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, I mean, but it's like, whatever. Like I, as I said, I always go back to the statement and everything was, it was, the statement was interesting because it felt like in past tense, right? Like it was like almost like thanking them, like for thanking me, thanking them for the last seven or eight years. But it's like, it goes back to winning a championship. He wants to be in a position to win a championship. Now you go, unless it's a buyout, anywhere you go is going to be taking important pieces away from that team that gives

them the ability to go win a championship. There has to be some kind of disconnect. And I don't, you know, the rich Paul quote about, you know, we know they're building for Luca or whatever. And you just go, well, all right. But I mean, were you entitled the Anthony Davis Luca thing? Cause it sure didn't seem like it. So I, uh, I don't know, man. I, I love him as a player. I think there are times where I just think he kind of can't help himself. It's like, Hey, nobody's really been talking about me.

So like this way, everybody's going to talk about. But you know what? The other thing that's crazy, Ryan is that it's still a team that won 50 plus games last year and they were the three seed and this year they have the fourth best odds to win the Western Conference. It wasn't like this was a 20 win team and maybe it was the expectation based on what we saw in post deadline in March and we, you know, it was kind of like a little bit fool's gold, right? As far as, and then when you get matchups against a team like Minnesota, you're like,

whoa, this team isn't as good as we maybe thought it was going to be. But there are still pieces there as far as for them to be a good team. Are they in OKC's level or maybe Houston or Denver? I don't, probably not, I guess, just based off what we see in the off season. But it isn't like he's coming back to a 25-win team. Like that's probably important to know.

Yeah, and they've added Deandre Ayton, which a lot of people expected based on their need. I've read a few Ayton stories to the Lakers and you get done reading a few paragraphs and you're like, this guy sounds awesome. Yeah, he's going to Hollis, he's going to Springfield. Oh, who knows? And then you have to keep asking yourself the question

after you read these summaries of all of his accolades, like, why is this guy available on a buyout at 26 years old, 27 later this month? It makes sense for the Lakers. I'm not an Aitin fan, but considering what they have and their options, what they gave up in a Mark Williams deal that was rescinded after the health issues, and then they get Aitin essentially for just a small investment because he's on a $34 million buyout. And again, I know that's not the total number because it'll be offset, right? But it makes all the basketball since the world, I would say, like knowing his rep and what, this is probably dumb for him to pick the Lakers.

Yeah, I mean, it's from the Lakers perspective, if you probably put A in as a free agent, just as we went into June 30th as a free agent, he would probably have been right behind Turner. I mean, it would probably be Turner, A in Lopez, that group of guys. Steven Adams was already off the board. So if you look at it just from that pure lens, then it's a good signing for the Lakers. It's a two years, $16 million deal with a player option for next year. That's a low cost based on De'Andre as a player. If he was just a free agent, we'd be like, wow, that's a great value deal.

He fills a need and everything like that. I think the concern for me would be certainly the buyout in Portland, you know, up and down years since he left Phoenix, right? It's been like not the greatest of two years here. Is his career, is this going to give him a jolt getting to the Lakers or is his career trajectory going down? Right. It's almost reminds me of like, Dr of Andre Drummond a little bit. Andre Drummond was a max guy and now he's basically a minimum guy. Because once you keep on going down and he had a good year in Chicago a few years ago, but it reminds me a little bit of the trajectory of Drummond.

Yeah, I have no... This is a home run for the Lakers considering options, considering need. I mean, as a team that couldn't put a center out on the floor against Minnesota of all teams because they couldn't play Jackson Hayes. And I think Lakers fans are probably going to be a little too hyped about it. And sure, look, he's probably going to have like a really good game. Probably have 20 and 14 in the game early and then everybody will get really, really excited.

But I don't know. I would suggest there's a lot of evidence in his stops that he does not have the personality that will match what is going to be asked of him. But we'll see. Yeah. You know, the biggest concern for me with the Lakers is I was doing the touchscreen yesterday on TV. We're doing a depth chart and it was one uh, it was one of those like moments when

like we're about to do and I look at their backcourt that I was like, Whoa, you know, like, Whoa, and it's. Shake Mill and Jordan Gou and Bronnie James, um, Gabe, Vincent and Dalton connect. I'm like, man, that's, that's some tough sledding right there. Jorn's a dog though. Yeah. That guy got after it in his minutes out there.

So we'll see if he improves upon that. There was a pretty interesting recap of the Pelicans deal where the Hawks, it was the assistant GM talking. Well, I guess we should just say on one side is the assistant GM, Troy Weaver's GM under Dumars with the Pelicans. And then when you have the main GM in Atlanta, I have to call Joe Dumars to make sure this is accurate because they're being offered the unprotected pick in 26. When you read something like that, what do you think of?

You know what's funny? I talked to a team, team exec this week and they said, I wanted to talk to him about it. And he's like, I wonder how many teams actually passed on that deal. He's like, that's the biggest curiosity to me. How many of those teams that were maybe before them that passed on that deal here? I mean, I look at it in multiple different ways, probably two lenses. If you told me you walked out of the draft night with Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen, I would be like, well, that's a good draft, right? Like you get a guard, you get a big, you need a big and stuff like that.

But then you tell me like, well, we had to move up 10 spots and potentially give up a lottery pick to do it. I would have said, holy God. And I say that in this way. We had a one year when we traded, signed and traded Kenyon Martin to Denver. This was 04. We wound up getting like three firsts. One of those firsts was an unprotected first from the Clippers. Okay.

And that was a Clippers team was like bad. Like they were bad. And that pick wound up turning out to be like the 25th pick in a draft because the Clippers actually had a good year later, two years later. Right. So you never know. But here's why I think there's so much scrutiny on it is because of circumstances. New Orleans plays in the Western Conference.

Okay. Do you think, can you make a guarantee they're a top eight team in the Western Conference? I can't. Milwaukee is the other part of the pick. Can you guarantee that there's not going to be dysfunction there this year and that they'll make the playoffs and that's fine. But then guess what? We're going to want to get that Pelicans pick back.

It's not the least favorable. It's the most favorable that you're getting here. And I think that's why there's so much scrutiny as far as what was given up. So that is a high risk move, man. That is to move up 10 spots to do that. And it's not the... I heard Bill's comments and stuff like that. Bill, it's not us media crushing New Orleans. Ryan, you talk to teams? You talk to teams? That was the comment.

I had text during that night where I'm on live TV, and it's like GM's text me, like WTF? What is going on? We're like, like it, it wasn't, you know, we're not making all this stuff up. That is the perception of teams. Like, what are they doing, man? And what happens is, and I go back to my days in Brooklyn and New Jersey, we, when you think the roster is better than what it is, you think you can make those trades because you're

like, oh yeah, we're going to win 45 games next year. And then when you're at the, you're in February, you're like, oh yeah, we're going to win 45 games next year. And then when you're at the, you're in February, you're like, you're 18 and 32. You're like, holy crap, what the hell do we just do? So that is kind of like, you know, and it's, it's interesting because it's not like Joe had been there. Joe Dumars has just come into this group, right? He doesn't really know what, you know, he can watch them on film, but he doesn't know until you put them on the court and you get Jordan Poole

in that trade with Sadiq Bey. Like, you don't know when De'Jante Murray's coming back. You're going to trust Zion Williamson, a guy who's played 40% of his games since he's come into the league, that you're going to be a playoff team next year? Man, that is a huge, huge gamble. I just don't understand why they kept moving back, how it went from protected versions of it to unprotected. I mean, granted, they didn't care that you could say technically the pick was getting worse as each pick goes off the board because for them it was

only about Queen. So as long as Queen is still on it, they're still looking at it as the same incoming transaction. But I would have been solace the GM now, I would have been nervous to call the Pelicans again to be like, are you really doing this? Oh, I know. I had to, I had to, not anyone involved with the trade, but I texted a buddy of mine who worked for a team. And I go, can you just text me what the language they're gonna use in that? Just to make sure I'm good, right?

Like, I'm like, what do you think the land, like, no, this is what it's gonna be. I'm like, oh, he got, and I think what happens to the night of the draft and when you have deadlines, like when you have like, they're on the clock, right? Yeah. You're on a, so almost like trade deadline, three o'clock Eastern, right?

When there are rookie extension deadline in October, when you are dealing with extensions, it brings out a different level of desperation. Like it's like, it's like almost like you're playing blackjack and stuff like that, right? And you're like, you keep on losing. You keep on going to the ATM machine and stuff like that. It's like, walk away, man. Like walk away.

You don't have to do it right now. Regroup and then kind of figure it out. Do teams call other teams while they're on the clock tactically just to fuck them up and distract them from something that they may want coming from someone else? So it happens all the time. You know what I mean? It happens all the time.

I mean, listen, we, you know, it would have been interesting. Like we had, you know, Philly was an interesting team for us with at number three and supposedly the asking price was pretty significant to move up to get there. Like multiples ones, maybe even three ones and like, come on. But it would have been like, if I was in front office, I would probably call them to like, hey, two ones. Just to kind of like screw up a team and everything like that.

Oh yeah, they team screw with each picks in the draft. I think it was you that picked Luel. Dang. And they said, we're going to give you our two first round picks. And they said, we're going to give you our two first round picks. And they said, we're going to give you our two first round picks. And they said, we're going to give you our two first round picks. And they said, I'm going to go with the first pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick.

And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick.

And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that were like, Oh, I'm going to go with the second pick. And then we had a couple of guys that later ones, like, you know, so we're all like, whoa, holy cow, these guys are gonna offer us the second pick in a draft for this future first or whatever. And you get to do the call and be like, no, it's the 21st pick in draft. It's like, so yeah, I think it's, that's why like when you go in there, you gotta have a plan, man.

And just, you kind of just stick to the plan. Don't deviate when like, when chaos happens. That's great. Yeah, I imagine you have to figure it out on the other side of it too. It's like, okay, these guys are just wasting our time. Now we have three and a half minutes left on the, I mean, granted, you can call before.

They're actually technically on the clock, but I could see the value in just trying to take up time so they're not talking to somebody else that might be a little bit more real. I love that old Ainge, Brian Colangelo clip that came out, that was a long time ago, and Brian was running the Raptors and there was a player that was falling. And I can't believe this stuff gets out sometimes and it's Colangelo calling Ainge to be like, hey, do you have like a report, like what's going on with him? And he's like, I'm not telling you.

Brian's like, what do you mean, Danny? Like you're not. He's like, I'm not telling you. Not telling you. Do you remember this? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. I mean, listen, it's I think nowadays there's more information out there for, for, for, um, for teams. Um, yeah. The interesting thing was when, um, players wouldn't go to Chicago and you never had their medical. Yeah, right. I mean, that wasn't that long ago. I remember we were on TV. I think Jaren Jackson Jr.'s here, like he wouldn't go to Memphis and visit or something.

There's something where he wouldn't visit somewhere. The question was like, would you draft a player if he didn't have his medicals? And I was like, oh, geez, that's a risk. Nowadays everything is available. But yeah, the information gathering it's, you know, it's, it's interesting as far as what teams were willing to share. I mean, I wouldn't want to share anything like why it was, what is the benefit of us sharing information that, you know, that another team doesn't have.

Well, I guess you could say the Pelicans are shares. They're shares at least on, you know, because the assisted GM was working with the Pelicans this whole time. So I don't know if that trade happens. I don't know if that happens if there's not the relationship of the inner workings with Bryson who is under Sol there. Okay, let's talk nets. We don't need to go through all the five draft picks again.

We've already covered that in the past week. But, you know, I look at the Terrence Mann deal. It's like, okay, this is what they're doing with their cast space. Like, as we kept playing the game of like, hey, would harden. Well, I don't think the nets are resigning harden, even if they loved the guy. And considering, you know, there just wasn't like,

hey, could Turner go there, right? Is there anybody that was looking for that number north of 20 million and only one team, the oddity of one team having certificate cap space, it felt like everybody was right about this and exactly what they're doing, parking bad contracts, they're bringing in assets. I'd argue to get off on Michael Porter, Jr.'s next two years, you probably would have had to attach a first just to get off of that deal. And then to give up Cam Johnson going the other way, I don't think that's enough. I mean,

granted it's a 2032 unprotected from Denver, Yokiches 37 at the time. But the more I thought about it, I'm like, I don't know, man. This has been a rough week for them, at least our initial reaction to the moves that have been made. Yeah. I mean, as I said, going into the off season, they control the draft and they controlled free agency. They were going to have a big role in it regarding the draft and not to get into every pick and

stuff. We had a production meeting on Wednesday morning before the draft and I went in there. I think everyone, a couple of people almost fell out and I said, Hey, we just need to prepare it at Brooklyn takes off five first round picks. And they're like, what? Like, I'm like, no, I'm serious. Like we need to be, like, don't be caught off guard. If we get to pick 27 and they're like, is this Brooklyn? I'm like, just be prepared and stuff like that. So it wasn't surprising to me that they did, they, you know, took that approach. I mean, certainly we can talk about who they picked and all that. And it was pretty interesting. But cap space is interesting

because there's a lot of different ways you can go about using it. I agree with you on, I'm not a huge Porter Jr. fan. I'm not either. That's also interesting, Ryan. It's like, you know, we live in a world where guys usually get scrutinized when you're on like max contracts. And I felt like he's been, he's gotten a pass, like as far as because of maybe what maybe the success they've had in debt. And Yokoichi's basically camouflaged a lot of things for- Well, he's the third option. They already have a title. I mean, he's never even really the two when they're closing. He gets benched and then it was the shoulder injury,

which did look like it was limiting him somewhat, but I don't need to keep going. Everybody's heard it from me already. So go ahead. No, I think if I was like, for me, you're right, I think you definitely had to attach something to it, but what are you going to do with him? Right? Like, it's like, it's hard to flip him

again, for something because I don't maybe, yeah, that seems to be the rationale around it. Like, hey, a year left, he probably put up some numbers, like, who knows? I mean, because camp Tom's gonna kind of, but there should be plenty of shots for him. If he could play next to Yokochi and Murray, there should be more shots from with his next team. But that's the thing is, like, who's gonna like them one, I mean, you know, it's funny too,

because we talk about expiring all the time, because back when we were younger, it's like aspiring, aspiring. Hey, when it's 40 million and it's expiring, there aren't a lot of, you should, we should stop emphasizing the expiring as this awesome asset when it's a massive number for what is a guy, I bet you a lot of smart basketball

people aren't huge fans of either. Yeah, I mean, I think it's certainly it's like what the system is in Brooklyn. As you said, he's gonna get a lot of shots up and he's probably gonna score a lot of points, but you look at kind of the situation that's going on with like Camp Thomas right now, right? Like you would have thought a guy that, you know,

I don't know, top 15 in the league of scoring before he got hurt, guy that can come in and put 30 up and had some really terrific stretches and felt played it better last year. There would have been like some teams waiting to make it put an offer sheet or maybe he's sitting there right now. Him and the other group of restricted free agents, Kaminga and Giddy and Quentin Grimes. And so it's like, when you play on a team that's, you know, rebuilding and your numbers are inflated, right? Like I think you had, if you're a team out there for Porter jr. Next year, you kind of take a pause, right?

Is it, is this, you know, what player are we getting? The, the Michael Porter jr. We saw in Brooklyn that was averaging 28 points a game and was shooting, you know, whatever, 46 from the field. Are we getting the guy in, in, in, in Denver, we're getting the guy in saw in Brooklyn, that was averaging 28 points a game and was shooting, you know, whatever, 46 from the field. Or we getting the guy in Denver, who's your third or fourth best option, but at a price tag of $40 million plus.

Do you like the restricted tag? Cause it leads to some really hurt feelings. It really does. I mean, there's like, there's some gulfs between what teams are offering. It's almost like hockey. I remember when we were merged with the devils, this was a long time ago and Lou Amarillo ran, ran, he ran both teams. And I went in one day and talked to him about, I want to learn about like arbitration, like arbitration, hockey arbitration.

And he said, it's like the most awful thing because you're basically sitting there and telling your player like he sucks. And then you walk out and you're like, you're trying to be friends again after you just lowball them by like $7 million. So it's so hard because here, I mean like we're restricted free agency because I looked this up the other day, in the last 10 years, there's only been five players that signed qualifying offers. So is this going to be the year we see it? Kaminga, and I don't want to say there's no market, but it's really just Brooklyn on an

island by himself. And there's the sign. The sign-in trades are hard too with restricted guys because it has to be a 3-year contract. So if you're Jonathan Kaminga and you're like, some team wants to sign and trade you for 3 years, $45 million. We have breaking news here or nothing? Oh, no. I thought we had a Chalmers notification come up.

I was like, if you sign up for 3, then he's like, I'm on a bad contract. So it's so hard. And the other thing to do is if you sign a QO, you basically have a de facto no trade clause because you're on a one-year contract. And if you approve the trade, you lose your bird rights to that team and they won't have the ability. So it's like, I don't love it. I understand protecting the team. But it's almost like the window should expire. Like if you don't have anything done by like mid July, like there has to be, there has

to be a clock for the team also. Like, it just can't be like the guy just sitting here being like, well, what do I do? There's no money out there. Yeah. Especially when there's no money out there right now, none of these guys want to sign a qualifying offer because then the team that has the rights is going to go, great, I can't believe you did that. Like there's been times in the past where

I've talked to the team that's had the restricted free agent and then, I mean, you're right, it used to happen a little bit more often. It just doesn't happen really at all anymore, but they would be like, we're thrilled because it was a lower deal. Like sometimes you'll want your guy to sign an offer with someone else because it can't be close to the maximum

that he can get both length and dollars as the Bird Rides team. So there'd be times where some, I remember, I'm not gonna say the name because I remember the GM that did it. And the other team was just like, that was the dumbest thing ever. We matched it in two seconds.

That was awesome. Well, I mean, listen, you go back to the nets when they signed those guys to this offer sheet, Alan Crabb and Otto Porter. And they're like, everyone was like, oh, these guys are the smartest guys in every room. Can you imagine if you got stuck with those contracts? You know, Otto Porter, Max, we had a story.

They matched on Alan Crabb. They did, all those guys. We had a funny story for you. I never forget Alan Crabb because I mean that's like the all time peak excess. We had a, 2010 the year that all that money was a cap space, LeBron, the LeBron free agency year. We had all this money and we couldn't sign any guys. And we're trying to figure out like, what do we do with this money and stuff? So we wind up giving Travis, not Travis, we did sign Travis, Tyrus Thomas, another quality

wing. We signed, we could do a lot of things, Bobby. I'm just saying, you know, he played a different system. We agreed on a four year, $32 million contract, which 8 million a year in 2010 was like in the mid twentiess nowadays. Right. And we went to lunch, Rod Thornton and I went to lunch and I remember sitting in the car with him. I'm like, God, Rod, I hope they match this offer sheet. Like, I like, he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, God, I don't feel good about this one. Right. So we go home, we get back to the

office and Brian Elfus, his agent, calls and goes, Hey, got bad news for you. I'm like, what? He goes, Charlotte's going to match. Michael's going to match that offer sheet and stuff. I'm like, Oh my God, thank God. It's like, but that's the, that's the downsize. If you want to come in and put an offer sheet on it, just to screw around with teams. Is if a team doesn't match, you're like, oh my God, we're stuck with this contract. Yeah, there was two teams that felt like

they were going back and forth on just messing with each other. You could probably remember, I'm not gonna say that, but it just felt like they were just, there was one offer sheet signed, and then the other team was so mad about it, which I didn't really understand why they were so mad, because it was like, look, whatever.

And then it just, there was a cycle where it felt like these two teams were just going at it with each other when they didn't even want the other guy. The crazy thing dating back, offer sheets, you used to have to hand deliver them in person. Like being served? Yes. So two stories for this.

be served. Yes. So two stories for this. A week before this was in 2011, I think, a week before Christmas, I'm sitting in my office. This is Presti. I'm sitting in my office and knocking on the door. Mr. Marks, I'm John Smith from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Here's a offer sheet for Nainat Christic. And I was like, Jesus God. Right. City Thunder, here's an offer sheet for Nainat Kristic. And I was like, Jesus God, right? So that used to happen. Stretch five. You had to, yeah, you had to come.

And I had to, when we signed Tom McCullough in 2001 to an offer sheet, I took the train down to Philly, knocked on Billy King's door. He goes, yeah, hey, how you doing? I'm like, here, here you go, you've been served. You know, here's your offer sheet's your offer sheet and got on the train and went back home. Why?

And then they changed the rules. So funny. And they what happened was they changed the rules because I think it was Jeremy Lin. Right. So I think, I don't know, or someone was put an offer sheet and like the team would be like hiding, right? Like they the person who was serving, but they wouldn't open their door, right? Like you see him out sheet and like the team would be like hiding, right? Like the person who was serving, like they wouldn't open their door, right? Like you see them out there and like, we're not open, like we don't, yeah,

like so you basically would hide from- Well it was Darryl, wasn't it? I doubt Darryl got on the train, but. And so you would hide from now it's like digital, right? Now it's like, you just can email the person, right? Like that's it. But yeah, it's funny how things have evolved. Last thing, Beale buyout. What do you expect there?

Well, he's got to get a home first, right? You don't do it. It's not going to be the Lillard one because here's the thing with Beale. It's Lillard and him are different because Phoenix has already waived and stretched Nasir Little and I think EJ like Lydell or something like that. So they already got like three and a half million on the books. So you can't just wave and stretch Beale without doing a buyout because it would exceed the 15% of the cap. Right. So there's going to be a number, I don't know. I mean, can he get the non-tax ML on the market, which is $14 million? I went through the numbers last night.

There are not as many teams that have money as you think. And there are teams that have it but are right against the first apron and that gets triggered if you use it and everything like that. So I would think that a buyout happens. It's a matter of like, is he willing to take a little bit less of the 110? You know, would he take, I don't know, 96, 97 from Phoenix if he can get eight or nine from another team? If he loses three or $4 million?

I think that's the biggest question. But I think if there is a buyout, as I said, he has to take money off it. He has to take, I think like $12, $13 million, maybe a little bit more off that number. Yeah. So you're saying if you sign the player post buyout, then you're automatically triggering the first apron? If you are like Miami, for example. For Miami.

Yeah, so like Miami, they have most of their, I think they have all their non-tax ML, which is $14 million. If you sign Bradley Beal to like a one year, $10 million deal, because you're spending more than 5.7 of that, you're going to trigger the first apron. And I think they're only like 10 million or $11 million below. So yeah, that's, you guys have to be careful as far as where your number falls. Like the Lakers, by signing in Larravia, they basically split up the non-tax. They have now triggered the hard cap, first apron hard cap. Right. Okay. All right. You should do a, well, I don't want to add more work to your place. I got a suggestion for you.

I don't know if my boss is here. He has panel and agree with this. I was thinking when you, Bill and Zach do your podcast, you should have like a button you hit when like you're, you're, you're, you're, you don't know, you're not sure about a rule, and my voice appears. And it's like the man behind the curtain as far as like kind of like defusing, like, yeah, when Bill's going through these like crazy trades

and stuff like that, you know, like you can just hit the button and like, you know, it's almost like AI, right? Like where my voice would appear, then we just spit out the information. It could be like a video game where you go down to Orlando for EA Sports and you just talk for two straight days with any possibility and then you could just say, hey, that triggers

the first apron or no, they can't do that. You can't aggregate salaries. That's dollar for dollar. It's not the $125. So yeah, I look, I'll admit sometimes on the trade stuff with Bill, I feel like it's extra innings and it's a knuckleball and I'm behind the plate. And I'm like, you know, and then Bobby will send me a text being like, you know, you can't do that.

I'm like, I don't Zach needs to help the least. I would say I'm the three of us. So thank you as always for all the work, but I, my suggestion is you should have. It would be good. You may, maybe you get through the off season, table it until September, October, but just going through the lack of assets, the second apron teams, like the most screwed rankings.

You can come up with something nicer for Disney, but no, just like lack of options versus the most options and give us that perspective of like, this is, it's not who's good or who's not. It's just, this is how stuck you are. And this is how much freedom of movement this team has because of picks, because of cap, because of how they've managed the aprons, all that stuff. Because like you dig into the Milwaukee thing

and you're like, all right, I, to your point, to start this whole thing an hour ago, like I understand it I don't necessarily like it, but now you're just digging digging and digging. Yeah, it's almost like more like Denver. I Don't think you know like Denver's almost like in a similar position I think they probably have better players around Yolkic with you know, Murray and Gordon and I love what Denver's done by the way and yeah You know like they were kind of backed in a corner a little bit as

far as, cause they were like, they were trying to thread the needle with their young kids, right? Like we're going to build their bench with our young kids. And then it was like, Oh, like these guys aren't ready yet. And it's like, what's our get out of jail free. We only have one first round pick trade, right? So we're not going to go out and just wave Michael Porter Jr. and create cab space. Okay, how do we flip him for something else? And then it gives us flexibility. The trade for Val and Tunis signed Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. Like that's a good way to go about building your roster.

I love what Denver's done because one, you get off of Porter Jr. Sure, we could talk about an unprotected, but it's not like three unprotecteds. You know what? What would you rather have? Jokic under cont, signing an extension this summer for three years or that 2000 or not him not being here and you still have that 2032 first. Who cares? No, I think the off season has been awesome.

And you look at the cam who I just like as a player. I like him as a person. I like the idea of him coming in and knowing what's needed where reporter junior just seemed to be on his own program night in and night out. Bruce Brown, those catches at the free throw line and then rolling of the stuff that we saw him doing with Denver where it's like, hey, guess what? None of this stuff is open anywhere else you're gonna go.

And then Hardaway taking corner threes instead of Westbrook. Yeah. So there's just these two, because I was wondering if they would get stuck enough where they would test the waters on the Murray value around the league. If that was going to be their way to reinvent this around Jokic.

I don't know, but I don't think it's, and maybe we end here because I think this is important. Like the Sexton deal happens and I'm thinking, okay, well, why would you do expiring for expiring and give up the second? Sexton is the better player than Nurkic. It's clear Utah doesn't want to keep a ton of vets on the roster because they still need to be bad next year

and they're going to be, but they don't even want the option of the vets, I think, for Will Hardy. And so then you look at like, okay, well, how does that happen? It's like, you don't think that the front office for Utah had canvassed the entire lead and got a sense of what Colin Sexton's value was

and like whatever they needed to do, that's what they wanted to do because they wanted one less guard out and one more big in. And it doesn't seem to make a ton of sense in value for value, but I would imagine it's worth reminding all of us that you are constantly canvassing the league to get a sense of the value of your players and even players that you are constantly canvassing the league to get a sense

of the value of your players and even players that you would ever have any interest in wanting to trade, correct? All the time. I mean, like people say that, you know, like, you know, the trade deadline in February, but people, you don't just start calling teams like that week. Like there's going to be conversations in summer league next week, you know, about teams and, you know, talking to teams about your players and all that stuff and evaluating. And that's where everything starts. You have a clean slate right now.

It's almost like a new book or chapter. And it's like, okay, now summer league starts the process, the evaluation process, whether it be your younger players or whether it be your own players on your roster. And that's where the conversations like you could have had a conversation in the night of the draft on something that maybe made sense, but you weren't ready to do it. And that's where it will continue in two weeks from now and everything. But yeah, you're constantly on the phone and you're just talking about, guys, hey, would you do this?

What are you thinking about this guy? And it just kind of, you just keep notes, right? Just keep notes. And then you kind of go back to those notes as far as when you're trying to do something. I don't want to keep you any longer. This was a lot of fun. Bobby marks ESPN, you can see him all over television, read him on ESPN.com. Make sure you follow him on X as well. To keep us on top of everything that we need to pay attention to.

You're the man, dude. Talk to you soon. Appreciate it. Thank you. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, rr at gmail.com. Hope everybody's getting ready for a big fourth. What do you guys got on deck? You going to Bill's party? Yeah, you going? I'm not gonna be here.

You're like, but that's crazy because you're kind of right there, no? Yeah, but I'm not gonna be here. You're like, but that's crazy because you're kind of right there, no? Yeah, but I'm not gonna be here. That's nuts. All right. The saga continues. But yeah, that's gonna be great. Gonna knock off a little early today

if we can get all my work done, play a quick nine, the public course here in Hollywood. And I think that's just a great start to the weekend. You know what I was realizing though? Leafing through the closet a little earlier, I don't really have like an American flag theme anything. You know, I used to have one of those like classic old Navy joints, which I think is perfect for 4th of July. Don't know where that is.

I even looked I think a little earlier in the year. They're not really making that thing anymore. Like I think you got to go like secondhand with that. And I just didn't want somebody else's 4th of July shirt. So I'll have to find something that kind of matches the colorways, but I don't have a themed shirt that I was really looking forward to. I don't know how I let that slip through the cracks. That shocks me, no themed shirt. Yeah, I have a couple of Tommies,

but none of them are like American flag, you know, branded. So I don't know, I gotta think about this one a little bit. Tommy Hilfiger? No, Bahama. How about you, Or? We're gonna have a much bigger week ahead, so you're getting married in a week. Yeah. I imagine you'd kind of dial it back. I mean, I'm sure you're proud of the country and it's his independence, but you're about to lose your independence.

So, you know, mixed emotions. We're going to a friend's apartment. He's got an apartment like right on the East River So we'll go there. Maybe she's some fire. So if I'm at some fireworks, he's got a grill Throw on a sleeveless call today Sleeveless I think a sleeveless can take the place of an American flag on 4th of July You think guns out means like it's kind of our military militant background. Yeah. Yeah Did you buy a sleeveless or did you make it sleeveless? Yeah, yeah, I bought them sleeveless.

See, I was hoping you were gonna say it the other way. All right. I don't like when the hole is too far down, you know? Okay, no, I hear ya, I hear ya. I don't know, I just think, yeah, whatever, it's a preference thing. Yeah, no, I have whatever preference thing. Yeah. No, I, I have a Chris Mullen team USA Jersey, but I'm also old.

So wouldn't do that one. I don't think that'll fly on the force. It would, it would. I just don't think I would. Why would your hesitation be Chris? I, yeah, I just, I haven't looked good in a, in a basketball Jersey forever. So, uh, and that's what I was still like fighting weight. You're really, you're so big that I think you could just,

like, you don't have to be sinewy. You can just be you, man. Yeah, something about the way it lies. I just, you know, I'll go football or maybe not at all. So baseball jersey is great. Baseball jersey is great, but not for the fourth. I don't know. I'm still, I'm looking at it through the lens

of my fourth dilemma. So let me just get that out. I feel like I'm steering the show. Maybe like a second Nordiques jersey or a Dougie Gilmore maple leafs, but then that doesn't really, it's like, what are you doing? You know, that's not really American. No, it's the opposite.

Who knows the relations right now, although I feel like they've improved a bit. It just hasn't been that topical, you know? Yeah, you're right. So, yeah. I don't know maybe things are good there. Doesn't grab headlines, same way. To our friends up North, thank you.

Okay. Uh, let's get to some emails here. I don't really know that this is even a question, but I'm just going to do it because we have further data on it. Uh, am I creepy or just good at geography? Five eight, 225, gained 20 pounds, late night eating with two young kids. I started doing F45. SCP and Stanford Steve routinely talk about their beach vacations. I happen to live in the same

town in Maryland in a much smaller house. I went to Maryland, had a lot better GPA than Scott, but likewise my salary is now a lot lower. I also happened to vacation in the same neighborhood as Scott on the Delaware shore. Well, you got that. Yeah. I submit these two texts, screenshots. The first is a picture of a friend of Scott on the beach. The second is me describing exactly where my friend and Scott were for my home office in Potomac.

Happy 4th of July, loving Kyle and Oregon contributions. Miss Saruti. That's good to hear. Don't we all. Where are we going to have them on today? We tossed it around. Anyone reach out? Doesn't bode well for Friday feedback.

No, that's not very good. Yeah, no notice. None of us reached out to them. We're talking about you, buddy, though. Have a great weekend. So of course, love the pod as well. Thanks for all you do. Go Terps.

So here we go. It's a picture of Ampel. We think at the beach, his beach chair is facing up the beach, ocean behind him, if you can understand what we're saying. So he's facing us in the picture. Is that a power move? What is that? Gotta think the sun's that way, right?

I don't know. I mean, he's not, he's sure, he's tarps off in this one. It looks like he's looking, at first I thought he was reading and it's very clear he's sure he's tarps off in this one. It looks like he's looking, I first I thought he was reading and it's very clear he's on his phone. He could be, somebody could be saying like, hey, how come you guys didn't do twins highlights tonight? It's like we actually did in the D block 1141.

He's got sunglasses, he's got one of those nice little wagons for all the toys for his brood. But yeah, I mean, it's just a guy at the beach trying to relax a little bit. And this picture is like street level, right at his crotch. And so they text each other and they go, Scott Van Pelt, yes or no? Somebody else on the thread says definitely yes.

And then I guess our emailer's like, he's in between these lifeguard stands and whatever. So look, honestly, you just wanted to send us a picture of Scott at the beach. I sent it to Scott. He's pumped. What's the question? There is not a question. Okay, great. Great. I will say I'm a little jealous. I mean, I'm not, there's a couple of things I could be jealous of, but hearing about the beach wagon, my dad would never go for the wagon. He was

like, we got a big bucket and we just had take, take turns carrying the bucket. We're gone with you're starting a family beach stuff. I'd say go for the wagon. I've never got over just like watching everybody with the wagons and I got this fucking cracked bucket. We can't even put water in it, but it just, it'll hold all the, all the bullshit.

So I would just say spring for the wagon. I think that's a generational thing, to be honest with you. Cause I think back to some of our beach planning when I was really young and we could have done a better job, you know, but it was right there. It was like a pride thing. I don't know. Dad just wasn't, wasn't going to be those people. We had the rigid, hard plastic wagon, but that we didn't take that to the beach.

You had like the flyer. Yeah, exactly. Nice. Yeah. People weren't take that to the beach. You had the flyer? Yeah, exactly. Nice. Yeah. People weren't doing that. Manhattan beach, I swear to God, it's like army, Navy supply stuff. Like, yeah, babies have, yeah, not amateurs. They're automated, remotes. Nobody even has to pull the thing.

It's like air in the tires and they like take some out in case they're going a little further along. There's every single activity imaginableable perfectly packed in this thing. We shipped our stuff to Africa in that campaign, World War II. Those guys could have learned something from parents in Manhattan Beach with the way, because I guess the ramps to get the Jeeps off were packed behind the Jeeps. Yeah, that one. Not great.

Not great guys. But look. Yeah. So there was no quite, I guess. Yeah, not great. Not great guys, but you know, look. Yeah, so there was no quite, I guess it was just a creepy. It's not a great picture of our guy. He's not psyched. He said not flattering as I just sent it to him, but I guess you knew exactly where it was. So yeah, we're what? 10 minutes in and haven't said anything really.

Nice. Yeah, okay. Twin bed guy checked in, said thanks so much for reading the email, I'm gonna opt for the full. Nice. Nice, war God, you won. It's the middle ground, yeah. There are some people that were saying,

hey, Murphy bed, Murphy bed, what's wrong with you guys? It's like, I've seen pictures, I thought about getting a Murphy bed in a spare bedroom to make that kind of like another Viewing the space. Yeah. Yeah, you know, maybe just put up some katanas or whatever and then it's like Murphy that goes into a closet or something, right? It's not just like yeah standalone, dude, I don't even think they're real James Bond you only live twice.

I think that was a Murphy bed, but you know, not sure. I don't know. Okay. All right. Let's stay on the beach theme. Dropping, you have a beach house without sounding like a rich entitled D bag. Whoa. Six six. Well, there you go, dude.

You're six six. You don't have to worry about anything. 24, former D1 walk-on pickup comp, Paolo Bencaro, if raised in the Balkans, big body who loves getting downhill and getting teammates involved. This guy might be the first dude who could say Boris Diao and it be accurate. I'm checking in because I found myself in a new and slightly uncomfortable situation. The definition of a champagne problem. My parents recently purchased a waterfront beach house as a second home. The house is a testament to their hard work and I'm incredibly proud of them. I've started spending as much time as possible at the house as a surfer.

Oh man, waking up. The waves has been my version of heaven. I just felt his heaven right there as I read that sentence. The new house, however, raises some questions when a friend or coworker asked me to hang out or why I'm working remotely with a new Zoom background and I saw, oh, it's because I'm in, insert city houses in right now. This inevitably leads to the question of why I'm there and leads to me kind of awkwardly explaining my parents have a house there. I grew up in a wealthy area and work in finance, so it's not unheard of to have a second house, but the Beach House location is exclusive and as someone who has been told, I give quote,

rich vibes unquote, and already has the factors above work sector where I grew up working against me, I feel self-conscious that people think I'm some daddy's money nepo baby. I also want people to be my friend because of my Lego collection and trivia skills, not just because of the house. Okay. Any ideas on how to convey this information without feeling awkward would be great. Thanks for the help. Love the show and Big Daddy Wargon's addition to the life advice. Need more fishing content. Hope to run into Rusilo out in the Owens one of these days. I am planning some sort of fishing excursion. We're not quite sure yet. All right. Here's the deal. Here's my advice. This could be real specific. You are 24. Stop worrying

about this shit. Okay? This is, I don't know what it is and we could all sit here. I was thinking like a little bit generationally of all these different things. It's like, you know, WWII, parents, male parents, Vietnam concerns, draft, they did the birthday thing. It's like, dude, this is a disaster. And then, you know, my generation honestly had it kind of easy in the sense of like the normalcy of like, do well in high school, probably get into a good college and have a really good chance, save some money, down payment housing. Housing's fucked. No one can get into school anymore. It's way too expensive because of all the administrative costs that schools have just tacked on to all this bullshit. So there's something about this generation where I do feel like, is there some sort of shift where

the challenges are actually tougher? I mean, we could sit in circles and debate this all the time. That was a pretty quick one. There are holes in that. All right. But what I do think is, um, I don't want to say like, I think this generation is constantly asking themselves about like where they're at because they're updated on it every 30 fucking minutes. Right.

Like I was talking with my college friends about it because we have one who's kind of like unhinged politically now and everybody hates it. And they're telling him like this stuff sucks, but everybody still likes the guy, right? Then it's too late now. Like it's he's grandfathered in, there's nothing we can do. But we were talking and we were like, has anybody, does anyone ever remember any conversation we ever had

in that college, just sort of post college, you know, weird phase of thinking you're an adult and you're not really an adult, but you know what I'm talking about, like those early years post college where you really think you have your shit figured out and you don't. But do you ever remember getting into an argument about politics with anyone in that age range and then not being friends with them again? Like never, it never happened. I knew like one friend who leaned a certain way. Um, you know, another guy was talking about Newt Gingrich a lot, we sort of would make fun of him. And then I remember him saying something like,

he's well, the guy's only running the fucking country and we were like, what are you talking about, dude, like I'm about to order a sub. We didn't analyze things. Perpetually. We didn't, it was actually, I think, a nice little break in comparison to what I see today where you were constantly analyzing where you're at,

what that person said, how that makes you feel, and all this different stuff. You are in a great spot, man. All right? And on top of everything else, it's not like you're 24 and killed it in Bitcoin, and then you have to explain to all these other people that aren't even close to your level financially. Your parents saved and bought a house. For you to have this anxiety about how do I explain it, here's how you explain it.

My parents bought a fucking beach house and I go to it. That's it. There's nothing else. And if that person has some sort of weird issue, like the nepotism thing now, that's like, oh, it's as if, if anyone has any kind of advantage and then becomes successful, then you're supposed to feel guilty about it all the time because you're told to feel guilty about it constantly. Look, there are some paths. I'll admit, I'll be like, that's bullshit. That sort of sucks.

But, you know, uh, I just wish this younger age group would realize like you spend, you seem to spend a lot of time hating success. And those that obtain success, or I should say attain success, then somehow feel guilty about it. So, and it's not even your house, dude, on top of everything else.

Yeah, I mean, I don't even know if I'd go that deep. Like you, everyone's got a perspective about who's got more money. And especially if you're worried about coworkers, like, you know, the job could be awesome. Dudes will still find something to bitch about. That's just how it works. That's how it's always gonna go.

And then they find people to project their shit on too, if there's nothing great to bitch about. So I think there's no avoiding that at all. Like you're 24 and like, you know, have a sick Zoom background. Dude, you got that rich kid stank on you and you're not going to get it off, whether it's true or not. But there's, you know, there's going to be certain people that, you know, if you felt the need to explain the actual situation, they'll be like, oh yeah, that's cool. Your parents got something

and it's not really a reflection on you. I don't think you get everything you ever wanted. You're like a spoiled kid and some people won't and there's really no way you could change the perspective of that. So it's really, you can't, you gotta know what your truth is, man. And it sounds like you're a self-aware guy

with a little bit of rich kid stank on you. Even if like, you know. Be a little self, like be a little less self-aware guy with a little bit of rich kid stank on you, even if like, you know. Be a little self, like be a little less self-aware, I think. Yeah, I think so. I think so. Like I remember the rich kids flying around and I was like, it never dawned on us to hate any of them.

I was jealous. I was like, what the fuck do you, what? They get to do what? You know? I don't know. I was kind. I was like, what the fuck do you, what? They get to do what? You know? I don't know. I was kind of the opposite way, and I wish, wish I maybe hung out with those guys once or twice. In Poughkeepsie, I kind of didn't do that, but I was always like,

those guys don't even know what the fuck's going on. I'm taking, I'm taking like the bus one year out of high school or whatever to my job. And like those kids, they don't know what's going on. I would have hung out with those kids actually, I think. If only just I got to know them instead of like just putting that like,

those guys are different than me. They don't know anything about life. It's like, yeah, maybe they do actually. I think maybe they got one or two things figured out. Do you guys think kids are getting like bullied less these days and they like can take less ribbing because of it? Because I grew up with an in-ground pool

and my one friend has called me rich my entire life. And I don't care, it doesn't bother me at all. And it's like, I can't imagine that getting under someone's skin. It's such a nothing comment. Your parents bought this house, go and enjoy. I would be worried about me and my friends going there and destroying it one weekend.

That would be my biggest concern, is how do I keep getting my parents to invite me back here? Be nice to have that many friends. Pool's a dude magnet. Forget chick magnets, a pool is a dude magnet. Kyle, you had an in-ground pool? It wasn't sticking out above the surface a little bit?

No, it was not. Not even a little bit? My dad's house, it was an in-ground pool, yeah. Oh yeah. You were rich, dude. Look at this guy. Yeah. Damn. Do you think above-ground pools

will ever become like the thing? I don't know what would have to happen, man. Right? I really don't. I don't know what would have to happen. Dude, I really don't. I don't know what would have to happen. Dude, you just get hurt jumping into an above ground pool. Like, you do it long enough, like, you're just gonna crash on the side there and hopefully you slide into the pool and not out in the little rocks around the outside. But like, it just happens.

Dude's like, you're in the pool a couple times, you're like, I could walk around the edge of this thing. You know, there's only like a quarter deck, the rest is just, it's, I can't see how it would become more appealing. I think there certainly are more above ground pools in America than, you know, below in ground, but I just don't think it'll ever be the cool thing. Yeah. We're easier to cover though. We're not shaking his head.

Big time on the above ground. I just was like, can imagine some Instagram posts to some influencers out of like some compound near Joshua tree being like, Oh, they're just retro pool. The vibes of the above ground pool. Yeah. The whole pool is just a vibe. No, I don't, I don't ever see it happening. No, you're probably right.

Probably right. Okay. Seeking your advice on reaching out to the one that got away. 53. No lifting stats due to a bum elbow. NBA comp is either Spurs Walter Barry, the truth, the original truth, or Bucks Frank Borkowski. Hiked in Montana with Frank. Shout out to Frank. Over 30 years ago while in college, for the only time in my life, I got, I was gobsmacked for the first time when I saw Met Kate, names have been changed and protecting the innocent. There was some mutual interest. I kind of blew it with her.

She was mature and responsible. I was not. Most of us weren't back then, buddy. I never really got completely over her, but we graduated and moved out of the state for a job and we drifted away. Yeah. I mean, it's 30 years ago. So, while still in college, I wrote a poem for Kate, but I never gave it to her.

Two things recently. You guys ever read a poem for anybody? No, not a poem. I did. That didn't have the chops. Yeah. Two things recently happened. I found the poem in my stuff and Kate turned up on social media.

No stalking. I swear. She appears to be married with kids. Should I send the poem to her after all this time? That's the fuck out of here, man. I'll read that again. Should I send the poem to her after all of this time? I believe that you should share something like this to let the person

know how they inspired you, but it would be, but would it be fair to her husband or even to Kate, thanks, um, I can confirm there are no red roses or blue violets in the poem. Yeah, I don't know, man. He attached the poem. Dude, this don't know, man. I mean. Oh, he attached the poem. Dude, this goes back to the perspective thing we just talked about.

You are somebody who's like, maybe been thinking about this girl and not even realizing it, and then you find this poem and she pops up on, none of that stuff happened for her. None of it. It's such main character energy where it's like nothing that happens

outside of your life matters. You got no arc here. There's no story arc. You're just gonna be dropping this uncomfortable thing into her constructed life that she has. And it's gonna end with you being like, what's she so upset about? Or what the heck?

Or you're blocked and then you'll feel sick to your stomach. Cause you were like, you know, I mean, it's not necessarily post-nut clarity, but whatever that is, when you do the thing you were thinking about and you're like, what the hell? You can't do this. You cannot do this.

I wouldn't do this either, but if you reached out, I wouldn't even bring up the poem, dude. But I wouldn't reach out at all. This is clearly everything that you're thinking on this side of the line. It's not on that side at all, none of it. She wasn't thinking about you, any of this.

If she's got a family and every, it seems like she has family, this is a no go, man. This is just, you sit with that and you stew a little more. Also you have this like nice little moment, memory with this girl. The second you reach out, it's ruined. Yeah, yes. Totally ruined.

Hold on to that. What if the guy she's with now is not a poet? Look, I mean, I think we're all like, my first reaction is I don't really like this idea. I mean, you don't know. You have no idea. Like you're still thinking about her. That's amazing.

It doesn't sound like it was, you know what I mean, it was just like a quick kind of college hang. Was it like a couple of years, you know? Then you start getting that Wayne Gretzky quote popping in your head. You're like, you miss all the shots you don't take. And you can just totally frame it where it's like,

what, can I afford not to do this? Right. And it's been 30 years, right? So it's, you know, I can imagine like, there's no regulator whatsoever. Once you get like 60 or something. But again, maybe I'm just moving it beyond where somebody is thinking of my age being like, that's when you really don't care. So, you know, it's all a moving target, depending on what your age is and the

tendency to not want to think that you're in the age where you're starting to lose your fucking mind. But, um, yeah, I mean, there's something, you know, what I always think is, is the case, and this is where being older, I do have this perspective is you may miss Kate, right, but you probably really miss who you were when you knew her. And so she reminds you of that time where, again, you didn't have real problems for the most part at that age, nothing was a major concern.

Look, after reading that Mark Twain book, we're gonna turn it on pretty shortly. We just taped it, but like Twain, that book, it's really depressing, but I don't even know. This is probably a little too much because it's also Mark Twain, but like he ends up becoming convinced that like there's only happiness as a child. And look, he's losing a lot of his family members throughout his story. So that would put you kind of in that place. This is too much and I shouldn't have done this, but we're not

editing, you know, I have to leave. I just need to get better. So we're leaving it. Uh, I don't, I don't think that that's like, cause there'd be a lot of people going, Hey, there's nothing better than watching your child accomplish something. Like that's the kind of happiness that's completely different than your own selfish happiness of all that time. But I do think, cause I think I can be guilty of it at times.

I'll think back to like, okay, what was true freedom? What was the moments where you're not thinking about how every decision impacts where you're going to be in five or 10 years? I like that the stakes are higher now for me with every decision, but at the same time, you miss, I think there's a lot of us that really miss who you were when you were younger. I think it can be a little bit like you have this idea of this person in your head, but that's not who that person is anymore. It's been 30 years. You're not that same person. So you're probably just missing a phase of your life as much as you think you're missing this

other person. Now who knows? I mean, maybe she's unhappy and it sparks some sort of conversation and then you're going to feel alive again in a new way. But I could tell you if I'm the husband and Kate's like, Hey, this guy, this fling from college sent me a poem 30 years later, I would be like, cool. You know, I, I wouldn't be upset with my wife, but I would just go like, it's okay. Well, so where's this going? Like, is this a subscription thing? Are we getting these every month?

So you have a sub stack. So yeah, it's not gonna be like, look at that photo, look how crazy it was. It was like, look at this poem I wrote you. It's just totally different. It's not like a shared memory. It's something she's not unaware of, right? So, I like the way that you broke that down though, instead of what I had said was

basically like, don't be insane. I like how you, you know, let's dive into that a little. That is something about being older though, like, because I had started talking to somebody from college a while ago and it was like, I really, really loved hanging out with this person. loved hanging out with this person and yet it was like, what, fuck, like, this isn't, it was like, hey, what's new with you? I've seen what you've been doing. Hey, how's it going? Oh, you know, whatever. How long is it before you get to, hey, you heard from Todd? Yeah. Right. Like before that's nothing else, right? Right. No, I mean, you know, it was like, hey, I got divorced and it was like, yeah,

no, you know, whatever. And then you're just like, yeah, but dude, I, you know, like, all right, well, uh, you know, I figured done bartending and I'll be over, you know, like the fuck, uh, yeah, like I have a mortgage now. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Uh, for those international travelers that may find themselves in any of the islands, as a Yukon guy, basketball comp has to be a husky

that shoots a lot of threes, so Rashad Anderson, all right, love that, just wanted to pump Ryan's tires on his travel logs, went to Palma with a group of friends and made a Vandal reservation based on his high praise. This again, maybe the best restaurant I've ever been to in Majorca. Not just the best restaurant in Majorca, one of the best restaurants I've ever been to in the world was met with a little

skepticism when I said this was highly recommended by a sports podcast host. Maybe you won't be welcome back. Who is the skepticism from the staff or no rebroad from his party. His traveling party. I believe I could just wear a funny hat and be like, oh, this burger is such a vibe. Yeah.

I get some goofy glasses. This is the hottest taco in LA. That's what people are saying. The salsa they bring out is like a vibe. All right. By the end of the meal, five're on this vibe crusade, man. Love it. I know, it's pretty bad.

It's pretty bad. Wait till you hear my travelogues. I'm gonna impersonate an influencer for like five straight minutes and that's just gonna be a chapter. But I still don't know where I'm going. By the end of the meal, no one had a word to say and we all agreed with the Roussilla

was a top five meal that we've ever had. A little Palma Spain tip for the future as well. Tinto de Verano, red wine of the summer is a must get drink. All right, Kyle. Would that be Tinto or Tinto? I don't know. Tinto.

Did you even go over there, dude? I mean, what the hell was that? I don't know. It's kind of like when somebody asks me a college football question and I go, dude, but no, I'm not. I'm not in season right now. So, you know, you just, you abstain.

Yeah. That's right. I don't want to ruin the brand. No, I just don't know anything. I can't find him. If I'm out of season and somebody's like, who's your favorite backup quarterback? I'm like, you know, you're speaking a foreign language. So yeah, when I'm not traveling internationally, you know, I murdered that one.

Somebody Spanish is a little bit, no, I deserve that, totally deserve it. How can I call myself a culture guy giving out restaurant tips in Mallorca and not knowing? All right, I think we end on that note then. Am I gonna be better? Yeah. Keep it by me, sorry.

No, no, I need it. I need it too, Kyle. Just cause my name's on the marquee doesn't mean I need it. I need it too, Kyle. Just because my name's on the marquee doesn't mean I can't get better. Nice little reminder there. All right. Keep that one. Throw that one in for next week.

Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Wargon. Big things coming for our buddy. Thanks to Saruti for just being in our thoughts and Marcelino for running stuff here on the podcast, Ryan Russell Podcast. Check out our YouTube page. We will have two extra features, we think, next week where Ryan Russell Podcast, Ringer Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think you can live

up to it, so they named me Michael Jared. Music Must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit md gambling help dot org in Maryland hope is there visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.