The Insiders 5/12: Can Sacramento Kings follow Pacers blueprint?

The Insiders 5/12: Can Sacramento Kings follow Pacers blueprint?

Good morning everybody. Hello. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. No Joe Brazil today. So, we’re kicking it old school. I’m trying to figure this out on the fly and making sure I’m doing everything correctly. Yeah. Yeah, I’m just trying to be quiet over here and make sure that you get everything you you’ve got to have all the buttons press that you have to press. I can’t believe I used to do this every day. Not that anybody cares. This is not a hard job. Like, don’t get it twisted. I’m not I’m not complaining, but uh don’t write in the newspaper that I’m complaining. No, there’s just there’s there’s it’s not hard. It’s just a lot of steps to to monitor and take care of and remember. So, uh I’m going to do my best. There’s a really good chance I’m going to screw something up here at some point. Hopefully it just doesn’t knock the station off the air. Uh, good morning James Ham. Happy Monday to you. I have a question for you off the top. Oh, do you wearing your your new Valkyries hat? Yeah. Yeah. Got repping the WNBA. Yep. So, I regular season starts this week, by the way. But I’m scrolling this morning and and every once in a while some stuff happens in the morning, especially after a weekend stuff will happen Monday morning. And that’s a gift to us because I get to jump on here and I get to talk about it with you, which is great. And of course, everybody in the chatty house. Good morning everybody at youtube.com ESPN1320 and twitch.tv/ ESPN1320. Subscribe to our channels. Hit the thumbs up button while you’re there. Hit the little notification bell. That way when we go live on YouTube, uh, you’re there and we’re there. Also, if you’re listening on 1320 a.m. or 98.5 FMD2, we appreciate you. And of course, the James Hammond comat show is a podcast version of this show available wherever you get your podcast. All right, so sometimes news comes down Monday morning and it’s like great, we have an outlet to talk about this. I have a couple things from today. I’m going to start with the more recent news because one thing is news and the other one’s not. It was announced today. Today that Michael Jordan is joining the NBA on NBC. So NBC is going to have NBA broadcast rights again starting next season. And Michael Jordan is going to be some part of their coverage. We don’t know exactly what his role is going to be yet. Are we thumbs up or thumbs down on MJ joining NBA on NBC? You know what? I think it depends on how you do it and and how willing he is to like break the wall down and actually be a functioning member of like a broadcast team. Sure. Right. So, I I think like when you look at Charles Barkley, you look at Kenny Smith, you look at uh Shaquille O’Neal and that group, I think that they’re wonderful together. They play off each other and everything else. Are we not on the air? God, see, told you I was going to screw something up. We’re better. Um, yeah, we should be good now. Uh, checking hopefully. No. Oh, boy. Really screwed this up. All right, it’s fine. And this is what happens when I’ll keep talking. Yeah. No, you keep talking while I figure this out because I told you I was going to screw something up at some point. I’m going to So, for me, it’s like, look, if you’re going to have a a player um a former player step in, like, he has to be allin. And to me, I don’t think Michael Jordan has been allin and a functional member of sort of the NBA world since he he left the game. Mhm. And you know, again, we had his uh his Hall of Fame speech. We had some of the other things that he, you know, like here and there you get to hear from him as like an owner of the the Charlotte Hornets, but he realistically has not been like a big- time personality. And for that matter, I don’t know that he’s ever been a a big- time personality outside of his game. you know, like his game had so much personality, but he was always smug. He was also very guarded because that’s the world he lived in, right? Yeah. I remember reading u one of the first books uh about him. I think the Jordan rules. Yeah. And by Sam Smith. Uh maybe that’s what it was. And they were Oh, we’re all good to go. Charlie’s back. Yeah. Yeah. I just I I was worried about knocking the station off the air. The thing that would avoid me knocking the station off the air is just not having the station on the air at all. Oh, so we’re fine. We’re on the app. We’re on the radio. If you if you were tapped into the radio and listening to silence for the first couple of minutes, thank you for sticking around. Yeah. Sorry about that. My bad. Anyways, keep going. Yeah. So, Michael Jordan, my point, there was a moment where, you know, they they missed a freeway exit and went down to the next exit to get off and turn around. Mhm. and they pulled up, got a red light, and people started flooding out of their apartments to come out and see them and were standing on the streets chanting and like, you know, celebrating Michael Jordan. This is during his playing days. And in the time that it took for them to stop at a stoplight and and then go for the lights to turn green, like the authors had said like a thousand people were on the street right next to them cheering and and celebrating that they had got off on the wrong exit. That’s what So rock stars. Yeah. Yeah. Beyond rock stars. So maybe it’s possible that um he’s moved past that and that he he can be comfortable in that setting. But I hope so because like I would love to hear more from him, but it’s got to be in the right tone, you know? It can’t just be, well, they’re not nearly as good as I am, right? And that’s what So, so that’s what’s really interesting is I think a lot of people I’m a thumbs up on this because I want to know what Michael Jordan has to say. Yeah. This is not this is not random guy. This isn’t Rammon Sessions. Like this isn’t I I want to know what Michael Jordan thinks. Even if it’s like a bad even if he’s if it’s what you just said. Even if it’s man uh Tyrese Hallebertton is never gonna be me. I don’t think he would say that. But that kind of vibe even that at least it’s all right. Gives us something to talk about. Yeah. There’s a smuggness to him that I hope that that is gone. But I don’t think there’s going to be when it comes to like I understand the concern because so much of what we have of Michael Jordan speaking publicly about things is on the documentary about his Bulls team. Yeah. And obviously that’s about him. We’re seeing a lot of behindthe-scenes stuff and hearing a lot of stuff about him as a competitor when he’s trying to win. we’re seeing, you know, him watching clips of Gary Payton saying that Gary Payton’s gonna shut down Michael Jordan and we’re watching him respond to that. I don’t think that’s going to be because there were a bunch of clips going around on social media today of appearances that he’s made on like special not podcast but like video type of things where he talks about how the game has changed for the better now and you and you have guys like LeBron James who are able to play so many positions. So now that singular dominance like like Michael had is not necessarily required anymore. Mhm. Because guys are so able to do so. And so as long as he’s watching the games like that’s my biggest thing. If if as long as he’s watching the games and then giving what he actually thinks then great. But if it’s hey we’re going to drop Michael Jordan out there once a month and he’s going to be a guest analyst in the studio and it’s really clear that he hasn’t watched any hoop. It’s like watching Charles Barkley talk about college basketball. Yeah. I personally I’m a big Charles Barkley guy. I think Charles Barkley’s great on TV. I know a lot of people don’t on TV. Yeah. I love But it’s really clear when he’s talking about college basketball that he has watched very very little college basketball. No, I totally agree. The other thing is like when you put Michael Jordan into a setting like this, you have got to have the right people around him. And what it can’t be is is some players that like are sitting there like, “Oh my gosh, that’s Mike.” Mhm. It’s got to be someone like Ernie Johnson who controls the conversation and moves it from one thing to the next. He’s got to be able to hand it to Michael, take it from Michael, hand it to somebody else, play off of everybody. And I don’t know who that is. I I don’t It’s probably Mike Trico or someone. Um, but I’m not sure who NBC’s lead analyst uh or lead uh analyst lead anchor would be for for their NBA side. But I hope that it works. I mean, we’re also But we’re also not even sure that that’s the capacity that Michael Jordan is going to be on NBC in. That’s true. He might be a I hope God I I hope they don’t drop him into a game. That’s a concern that they drop him in as an analyst for a game. Okay. I don’t think he would be great at that. I mean, maybe maybe he’s been working on it and he’s awesome. I don’t know, but I don’t think that’s probably his but still tough. And then there’s is he a studio analyst? Is he a is he a guest analyst sometimes? Do they do a special Michael Jordan show where it’s like this week in the NBA and Michael Jordan talks about what’s going on in the NBA for half an hour? Like that’s what I’m I’m interested to see what role he has and be I’m a big thumbs up because man, I just want to know what Michael Jordan has to say about the NBA. No, I I I agree, man. Like it would be kind of cool if he even did like a he had his own show where he interviewed players. Mhm. You know, and I like talk about like the biggest honor ever for a player to go sit in studio and like get to sit down with Michael Jordan and do something. You’d probably get more candid answers from guys. Maybe you could have a couple of guys just totally clam up and be like, “Oh my gosh, that’s Michael Jordan.” They That’s to They might. Yeah. But also, I think you’d be way more open to if if I I don’t I’m trying to the if Malik Monk walked in here. Mhm. Malik Monk’s sitting here and we’re interviewing him. Malik’s going to be good because he’s a he’s he gets the media thing. He’s a he’s an amicable person. You just have to have your finger hovering over the dump. No doubt. No doubt. This is stream only interview with Malik. No, but but he’s going to be good. You get Malik Monk sitting next to Michael Jordan, I think you’re going to get very different, even more candid answers than you would if he’s talking to media people. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, I I I don’t know. I I can’t wait to see how they use him. I just really hope that it doesn’t turn into like kind of I mean, Shaq is good on it inside the NBA, but it’s pretty rare that Shaq is like super complimentary of a specifically a big man. Mhm. in the modern NBA. Like it feels like a lot of well he didn’t win the titles I won, so the hell with him. Yeah, he just I know it’s not all that, but it feels like there’s a lot of that and I just hope that’s not what it turns into with MJ. I don’t think it will. Okay, I don’t think it will. Uh the other thing that happened today is I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this. Shams Terraneia, a bomb from Shams, says that Janice Antennampo might possibly consider the potential idea of maybe asking out of Milwaukee. Oh, you you don’t say like, “Thanks, Shams.” I don’t know, man. I I I we all know this like we’ve been the minute they lost, we jumped on the radio and we’re like, “Hey, Giannis is probably asking out because Giannis himself went on a podcast two years ago and was like, I’m not above asking out of here. If I don’t think I can win, I’m going to ask out.” He said that. Yeah. You And you look at their future. Their future is so dim. They’re hosed. Oh, man. They’re so screwed. It’s so bad. I mean, they owe uh Damen Lillard so much money. He won’t play. He might not play at all next season. Yeah. I mean, popped his Achilles like like if he plays next season, it’s probably late in the year and he’s probably not super effective out of the gate. No, I mean, this is a a nightmare situation for for a team that, you know, is holding on to a superstar, but also that all of their other players just faded quickly. And that’s tough. That’s tough. Yeah. So, uh, and then Brian Lewis of the New York Post reporting that the Nets are ready to pounce. Like yeah, the Nets and 29 other teams are going to be making phone calls about Giannis Antreko. So that’s out there in the ether now. It’s it’s not I it was being presented as breaking news from Shams. Shams is just letting everybody know what everybody thought. Well, that and it’s I mean we had it what last week where Howard Beck started listing the teams that he would like to play for. Yeah. What was it? Miami, New York, and LA. Yeah, of course. Huh. A shocker. Yeah. And then of course today the NBA draft lottery 4 pm. And who’s repres who’s representing the Kings? You had that this morning. Oh yeah, Mr. Keon Ellis. Look at him go. Shout out to Keon. The undrafted guy. Undrafted guy. Going to go represent the Kings at the lottery. I think that’s so much more fun than when it’s a GM. Yeah. Yeah. That and you know like Kellis has some flare. Like this is a fashionista dude. Like you should see his locker. Like he he likes to dress well. He’s gonna be all excited to be there. Love that for him, you know? And like for me, like if you’re going to have somebody I I think this does a couple of things, Kyle. Number one, it sets a stage that hey, uh those worries that Keon Ellis might not be back. Um like those are over because Keon is going to represent us, which means he’s already in the building. He’s already having conversations. He’s already part of the com, you know, what’s happening. Do we think that’s also the case for Zion Williamson who’s representing the Pelicans? Well, see, that’s the other thing. Yeah, I I think right there that is crazy. The Pelicans saying, “Yeah, we’re not trading him, everyone.” That’s wild. And then, you know, you know what? If they land the top pick, they might trade him. It’s like, okay, we got to clear out space. We got Zion and the number one pick. What’s up, Bucks? Yeah. Want to send Giannis down here? Yeah. What’s happening? That would be, man, absolutely wild. So, the Kings are 13th. Just to just to put a bow on this, the Kings are 13th. They keep their pick if they jump into the top four. Yes. That’s the only way they can move up. Yeah. Is if they’re top four. Okay. So, because they can’t get pushed from the bottom. Yeah. The lottery is just uh the first, second, third, and fourth picks. Right. Right. Every And once you get past the fourth pick, it goes in order of record from there on. Right. So, the top three teams have the same exact uh odds of moving to number one. The fourth place team has like slightly less and then it starts going downhill from there. The Kings have 3.8% chance of landing in the top four big time and a8% chance of being the number one overall pick. Come on, boys. If they are not one of the top four picks, their pick goes directly to the Atlanta Hawks. Yep. It’s that easy. Or sitting there salivating. The Kings are either top four or they don’t have their pick this year. Exactly. So, we’ll know pretty quick whether the Kings jumped into the top four or not because it’ll go it’ll go 15. No, four 14. And then if it’s not the Kings at 13, we know. Yeah. And the 14th pick, so people know, is the Atlanta Hawks. So, the Kings won the coin flip for 1314 with the Hawks. Mhm. And so the 14th uh if it goes according to to H oil like the 14th pick is going to be the Atlanta Hawks. The 13th pick will be the Sacramento Kings, right? But the Hawks pick goes to San Antonio. Yes. And then the Kings pick goes to the Hawks. Exactly. Huh. Yeah. So we’ll know very very shortly after 4 p.m. today whether the Kings have a pick in this year’s first round or not. Yeah. And I mean the entire likelihood is that they won’t. Yeah. 96.2% chance that they will not be selecting. Yes. But 3.8% chance says they will. Saying there’s a chance, Kyle. Uh I’m still catching L’s on underdog. Obviously it’s over the weekend. It’s just me. If you ever wonder, hey Kyle, open the underdog app and you actually make a lineup. Yeah, man. I actually make a lineup every day and I actually catch an L every time. I got one. I got one over the weekend. I got I got a little bit of money back. I got a three out of four. Okay. Or a two out of three. So, I did I did snap the losing streak, but there were still more L’s and W’s this this this weekend. So, download the underdog app. Sign up with promo code Kyle M. That’s K Y L EM to play along. Here’s where I’m at tonight. Going Timber Timberwolves Warriors. I’ve got a five got a five player lineup. Oh, that’s bold. I’m going Jimmy Butler lower than 26 and a half points. I don’t know that he can dig deep and get another 27 plus point night. Okay, because I think Golden State really went for it in game three, didn’t get it, and now I think they might fall behind the eight-ball a little bit. Dante Danchenzo going higher than eight and a half points. I need Dante to make three threes. I like that. Buddy healed lower than three and a half, three-pointers made. At some point, Buddy’s going to go cold. You keep at some point. He’s going to start missing. Got it, Kyle. He’s going to start missing. It’s a trap. He might even go like three for eight, but at some point he’s not going to hit four. Damn it. Oh, come on. Come on, Kyle. Julius Randle, I’m going higher than half a double double. Julius Randle has been sensational in this Warriors Timberwolves series. And Draymond Green, I’m going lower than one and a half three-pointers made because I’m not totally sure that Draymond Green is going to last the entire game. So, that is my lineup tonight for Warriors, Timberwolves. Would love for you to play along with underdogs pick them game. It’s super easy. Pick higher or lower on at least two player stat projections and then you can turn a dollar into 1,000. Join the millions who have won billions on Underdog. Download the Underdog app and sign up with promo code Kyle M. That’s K Y LM to unlock a special offer of up to $1,000 in bonus cash when you make your first deposit. That’s promo code Kyle M. Kyle LM must be 18 plus and present in a state where underdog fantasy operates. Terms apply. Conserved with your play. Call 1800gambler or visit www.ncpgpambling.org. In Arizona, call 1800 nextep or text next step to 53342. and in New York. Call the 247 help line at 18778 NY or text hope NY. NBA draft lottery, NBA playoffs. We got some baseball from over the weekend. The A’s dropped two of three to the Yankees, but I want to gripe about that a little bit. We’ll get into all of that here on the insiders. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Mads. We’re rocking with you until noon. Sponsored by Jiffy Loop on ESPN 1320. That is Sacramento’s sports leader. Okay, I think we’re good. We’re on. We are. You did it, Kyle. I was hoping they were going to send Jeremy Lamb. He’s been permanently sidelined. What are you talking about? What’s up, Jose? Oh, hey Sa. What’s up? What up? What up? Uh, everybody, if you’re watching on the stream, if you could hit the little thumbs up, that would be awesome. And if you’re not subscribed, please do subscribe. I can only make the thumbs up bubble when I’m at home. That’s weird. Have you seen it? Yeah, you did it. Oh, yeah. Thursday. 202 people watching and 39 thumbs up. That’s crazy. Say that again. 202 people watching and 39 thumbs ups. Come on everybody. Unreal stuff. About a minute here. You know what? Hey, that’s fair enough. Hey. Hey. O Hey, Sizzler’s shout out to Sizzler, bro. Oh, when I was a kid. Hey, want a Sizzler after church? I disagree, dude. Sh. Say it again. I said going to Sizzler after church when I was a kid. Oh, boo. So, jump over to YouTube just real quick. Hit the thumbs up and then you can go back to Twitch. Hey, here we go. Now, back to the Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. A lot of things to remember. I think I’ve pushed all the buttons and I think we’re on air. We’re good. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the Insiders. We’re taking you up to noon. Then we’ll hand it off to DLo and KC. DLO and Casey. We’ll take you up to four o’clock. And then at 4:00, coverage begins. Game four, Celtics at Knicks. Excited to see how that series uh kind of continues rolling forward because man, felt like in game three, the Celtics figure something out. Like figured out how to make their threes and pull away from the Knicks instead of letting them climb back into the game after going up by 20. Yeah, I think the Celtics are going to be okay. I hope so. I hope that that’s a series, you know, because I think um the other the other game tonight, the Minnesota Golden State game, which we have here, right? Right here on ESPN 1320. Do we? I believe. Isn’t that what Charlie came over and told us before? No, he told us we have he told us we have Celtics Knicks. Oh, my bad. Okay, I lied. Sorry, babe. Um yeah. Uh I I hope that it becomes a series because I just don’t think that the the Warriors uh Timberwolves series is going to be anything interesting to watch at all. It’s just even it’s such a weird series because no Steph takes a lot of the intrigue out of it. Mhm. But then Minnesota won by I think 24 in game two, but it was kind of an uphill climb. And then they won game three, but it was definitely an uphill climb. Like one or two possessions goes differently. That game’s a lot different. It’s not like, oh man, you’re just watching Minnesota just steamroll a team that that is not great and also doesn’t have its best player. It’s just a rock fight. So even if it gets to six or seven, it’s not like wow, what a series, just like gh. If you’re Minnesota though, you have to like have it in the back of your head that like we have to win the next two because if if you don’t and you leave the door open for Steph to come back. Mhm. Who knows what h what happens now? It’s possible Steph just isn’t ready to come back fully. It’s possible he can’t play in game five or game six, maybe not even game seven. And it’s possible he steps on the court and just doesn’t look like himself. Yeah. But it’s also possible he’s Steph Curry and you’re done. Yeah. And you don’t want to risk that. No, you don’t want to risk that. So yeah, I I definitely would not want to face the Warriors tied at two a piece with Steph Curry coming back. No. Or even up 3-2. Yeah. With Steph coming back. But uh let’s stick on that game because I learned a lot of stuff over the weekend and I want to go through some of the things I learned over the weekend. Okay, if that’s okay. The Warriors season rides on Jonathan Kaminga. Oh boy. That’s what this like the reason they were in the game the other night is because Jonathan Kaminga was outstanding scoring the basketball. And whether he can fit in a Steph Curry offense, it looks like no. But in an offense where it is, hey, you’re going to get the ball and you find a way to the rim or you find a way to get to your shot and you shoot it on a team full of dudes. Moses Moody has become unplayable. Quinton Post has become unplayable. Trace Jackson Davis is playable, but he’s not going to help you outside of eight feet from the basket. Nope. Buddy Heield will will shoot it. Buddy Heield’s going to going to going to shoot the Rock. Either he’ll make him or he’ll miss a bunch of them, but he’s going to shoot. Brandon Pajki, as far as scoring goes, is giving them nothing. He had 26 in game four against the Rockets, and I think he’s averaging seven points a night for the rest of the playoffs. That’s not good. Not good. like it’s just they don’t they they are running out of dudes who can who can or will shoot the basketball and Jonathan Aminga will shoot the basketball and is as game three was kind of winding down and you’re you’re assessing what happened in that game. There’s no world where Golden State is winning a game against Minnesota without Steph Curry where Jonathan Kaminga isn’t scoring 28 plus. Yeah, I mean the last two games he he scored 30 in the last game and 18 in the one before that. And he’s like he’s been spectacular. He’s 11 of 18 and eight of 11 from the field. So what are we talking 19 of 29 from the field, man? Like everything that he’s doing is great. The other thing he’s doing is, you know, he’s actually getting to the free throw line a little bit. Um but it really does remind me of the Kings. It’s it’s because when you give the ball to Kaminga, it’s a lot like giving the ball to Demar De Rozan. Ah yeah. And a lot of times it’s like okay like this is our only option at this point like it please save us. Yeah. Right. And other times it’s like okay you took it too far. Yeah. And so you’re caught in the middle especially a very young scoring version of of uh Demard Rosen. So he’s got also the like the quirks of being a young player. Sure. Um, so I I think that if there’s a pathway through for them, it it probably does have to go through him at least until you get uh until you get Steph back. But they also have to like if you can make him a focal point to where the defense has to adjust and it frees up some of their shooters on the outside. That would mean everything to the Warriors at this point. Yeah. And they just need somebody to start knocking down shots. Yeah. because if not they because defensively they’ve been really good against Minnesota. Now Ant took over the other night. He was outstanding in the second half specifically. But their defense has been fine. It’s just I don’t know that they have the horses to put the ball in the net enough times. Yeah. Even if they play well defensively and so it’s going to come down a lot to Jonathan. That was thing number one that I learned. Thing number two that I learned over the weekend, the Shador Sanders discourse has completely jumped the shark. We’ve reached the point now because this is the time. This is the cycle just in and this is not this is not anybody’s specific’s fault. This is just the media environment that we live in where a story happens and then that story gets covered and then with the 24-hour news cycle that story gets covered adnauseium everybody gives their takes and then we reach the point where things flip and now the story isn’t the story anymore. The reaction becomes the story. Oh yeah. Does that make sense? Well it does because there’s this thing called keywords and SEO. Yes. And so what engine optimization what people found is that mentioning Shador Sand uh Sanders in any any post like just feeds the machine can confirm. Yeah. And so they’re just finding new ways to uh bring it up. But he gets asked in his press conference over the weekend because Tom Brady said very publicly, “Yeah, I texted Shador after the draft and told him that this isn’t the end of his road. Where he got drafted doesn’t matter anymore. Look at me. I’m the perfect example. I was 199. Where what what place you got drafted in doesn’t matter once you get there because now it’s football.” Mhm. So Shador Sanders got asked in his press conference, “Hey, Tom Brady texted you giving you some advice. What was your takeaway from that advice?” And Shador said that my journey is a lot like his and relayed basically what the text message said. Yeah. This got taken as Shador Sanders arrogantly compares himself to Tom Brady. No. Like no, he didn’t. Ah, look, I look I you don’t have to like every player all the time. Like I get I I I get it. And I’ve largely been pretty indifferent towards Shador. I I didn’t think he was a great prospect, but people smarter than me thought he should have gone in the first round. So, okay, cool. That’s that they they know more than I do. But I thought the draft side like that sucks for him. That sucks just for anybody. You And again, has he had the hardest life? Like no, probably not. Uh, has he has he um has he had his dad, you know, coaching him since high school and got him in to to Jackson Jackson State and then to Yeah, sure. He’s kind of been there, but but dude, this is a dude that that has dreams and aspirations of playing pro football. It sucks that thought he was going to the first round, he went to the fifth. The taking that quote out of context like we’re just inventing things. If you didn’t like that he walked over and showed off his watch after a game, okay, I don’t mind. But if you personally are against that, cool. But making stuff up now and taking stuff out of context, like now we’ve we’re past criticism of Shador Sanders and we’re making things up as reasons to dislike the guy. Well, that and I think they’re making things up to again get clicks. Yeah. Just straight up. I mean, and and that’s a tough thing. and he’s put himself out there enough where he is going to be like a clickbait headline guy. That’s just who he is. Um and and it’s sort of the path of the Sanders family. Mhm. To put themselves out there in a way that, you know, this can happen, right? But at the same time, like this is a college kid. This is a kid who just got drafted in the what is he 22? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you’re going to make mistakes. you’re like everyone think back to when you’re 22 and um number one how long ago that was uh for me. God uh it was a long time ago. Um and I mean the fact that my oldest just turned 22 like you just Oh yeah it’s true. Yeah. You just understand that like look they’re going to make mistakes. He’s going to make mistakes and eventually he’ll either get humbled or he’ll be out of the league. But and that’s just Yes. And that’s just it is he has taken this approach every time he gets asked like, “Yeah, I’m here now. I’m competing.” Trying to be honest. That’s what I’m I I’m glad to have be around a team environment because you’re solo for so long in the leadup to the draft process. Excited to be around teammates again. Like he’s saying all the but Oh, he compared himself to Tom. No, he didn’t. Yeah, that’s tough. Relax. Especially when they ask a question. Yes. Hey, what did you take away from your conversation with Tom Brady? Yeah, those are tough too. What I don’t like doing in um like very seldom will I do this where the only time is when it’s something like extremely egregious, but when a player comes up and and talks to the media and says something very specific aimed at another player or at a coach and then you have to ask the coach about that. I I don’t like doing that. Sure. Because like for me, typically what you get in postgame is players like repeating some of the same verbiage that they just got yelled at in the locker room, right? So if a coach says something very specific, you usually hear that, yeah, we made mistakes, you know, someone might look at the box score, but you know, we just can’t let somebody shoot 43% from three to, you know, again and again. We just can’t. And that’s because that’s what they just heard, right? Right. So, I I don’t like taking a player’s words and playing against a coach or a coach’s word and playing against a player because then it’s on me to because I’m not going to exactly read the quote back to them. Right. Now, I’m, you know, like editorializing the quote back to them, right? Yeah. I’m paraphrasing. Yeah. And that’s where it gets like dangerous because what I don’t what as a media member you should never do is try to start a riff between a player and a coach. Um, unless there’s literally a riff and you’re just examining it and you’re getting them to talk about it. Yes. But a lot of times it feels like you’re creating something and that’s just not that’s not what you’re that’s not our job. An example, if uh Keegan Murray says, “We need to be better. We need to be better. We need to we need to we were off with our rotations tonight and we need to be better.” in that you don’t then go say to the coach, “Hey, Keegan Murray said that you haven’t been doing enough defensively in practice and that you need to work on your rotations.” Thoughts? Yeah. Or, “Hey, coach, that’s what he said at all.” Keegan Murray said your rotations were off and defensive rotations and rotations in general are two totally different things, right? And coach would be like, “What do you mean rotations?” Yeah. And so, yeah, I that’s just not the game I like to play. Um, but it happens. Shout out to Shador Sanders. Yeah, I’m now I’m rooting for him. Like I said, I was pretty indifferent, but now now I’m rooting for him. Uh, third thing I learned over the weekend, we’re watching Oklahoma City, the Thunder, the basketball team. We’re watching the city of Oklahoma City. No, we’re watching the Oklahoma City Thunder adapt to playoff adversity in real time. Yeah, it’s fun to watch. It is. It’s like watching Aman Thompson in the Warriors series in his first playoff series figure out stuff for the Rockets where in game seven he’s having the biggest playoff game of his life. Yep. In his first ever playoffs, Oklahoma City tricked off that game one because down the stretch they didn’t execute properly. Mhm. In game three, excuse me, in game four, we watched them blow a big lead. We watched Denver go up by two scores and Denver was just kind of doing that methodical Denver thing where they’re just going to walk you down and it’s going to be a lot of Nicolola Joic and it’s going to be a lot of Jamal Murray and then Christian Brown’s going to hit a big shot or Aaron Gordon’s going to hit a big shot and now all of a sudden you don’t you’re you’re cooked. Mhm. We watched OKC take that punch, get knocked down, and then instead of failing to execute down the stretch or panicking or doing, they just kind of stuck with their game plan and they didn’t do anything crazy. They didn’t get outside themselves and they stole a game on the road to tie that series up. Yeah, I was really impressed with Oklahoma City yesterday. What I love about that series is you’re watching a seasoned veteran team come up with big plays in big moments to win games and a young team learning and growing and figuring out that it doesn’t have to be one guy that that everybody can participate, everybody can hit a big shot and they’re growing as a group. And so you can see the talent level difference between the two teams. Yep. One team is way more talented, but one team is just so much more experienced and you’re watching this epic battle of experience versus talent. And to me, it’s it’s one of it’s why I told you I thought that that that series is the Western Conference Finals. I don’t think that any team that makes it out of the Golden State uh Minnesota series is going to have, maybe I’m wrong, but is going to give either one of those teams a game. I disagreed with you when you first brought that up, but after watching Minnesota play three games of this series now, I agree with you. And maybe it’s just a matchup thing with Denver and they just match up really well against Denver and and beat them. Yeah. But man, I have a really hard time seeing that right now with how Minnesota’s playing. Yep. They just have not been super impressive to me. Number four. All right. Four. Number four thing I learned over the weekend. We know too much about the NBA rule book. Okay. There are too many rules and we know too many things about it. I shouldn’t know the phrase proximate foul. Proximate foul. Yes. Okay. That’s the phrasing they use. So, so this is this is not this is not a complaint about the call. It was the right call. This is just the example I’m using. So, Jonathan Kaminga the other night gets fouled to go into the basket by Julius Randall. Minnesota reviews it because they think that Julius Randall only fouled him because he was being held by Draymond Green. Got it. And they was right. They were right. He had him by the jersey. That is approximate foul. It is a foul that leads to the other call happening. So if I’m going for the ball out of bounds and it goes off in my hand, but you shoved me in the back and that’s why it went off my hand, it’s a foul on you. Yep. Instead of ball out of bounds, right? So I shouldn’t know that. when it doesn’t come up very often and it’s such a rare case because it happened in a Kings game this year. Yes. And it it it just feels like it’s starting to happen a lot like teams are now really getting into the weeds of replay and going, “Okay, that was definitely out on us.” But was there approximate foul yesterday? The reason I brought this up is because it happened in the in the OKC Denver game. Mhm. We got to go here in a second, but it happened in the OKC Denver game where Joic and and and Caruso are both going for the ball and Joic might have pushed him off a little bit, but the ball got saved and then Joic grabs it. He turns around, he makes a pass and then he gets fouled. And they tried to get approximate foul from like 8 seconds earlier in the play. It’s like, man, we’re too deep into this. Yep. I should we’re we are we have we have gone past the realm of replays use and now we’re getting into like hey we’re trying to change basketball games here by use of replay. That’s not what it’s for. Well, no. And the other problem is Kyle, the only time that you can replay is when some sort of whistle is called. Mhm. You can’t replay when they just make a mistake. Yes. And that’s the problem. Yeah. like the whole approximate foul stuff and it only works when somebody actually gets fouled, right? You can’t just go, “Wait, he fouled him.” It’s like, “Well, we didn’t call one, so too bad.” And we just know and we just like I shouldn’t need to know the specifics of like the the A to B motion by a defender and all this. It’s just is it a foul or not? Yay or nay? Thumbs up or thumbs down? The fact that we know just all this minutia and you’ve got officials explaining on replay, well, the defender did this and then this. I don’t want to know all that. No. Was it a foul or no? Thumbs up, thumbs down. It’s all I need. Uh, we have a we have a fifth thing we can I learned over the weekend that we can get to, but the Pacers beat the hell out of the Cavs and people are trying to turn it into a referendum on the regular season and I think that’s silly. We’ll talk about that next. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. No Joe Brazil today. She’ll be back with us later this week. This is the Insider sponsored by Jivoo. Back in a second on ESPN 1320, Sacramento Sports. Yep. Um I starred something that I was going to bring up. Um, Will Raider Laker from 916. Um, Kings fans still agree with choosing Fox over Hallebertton. The Kings didn’t choose Fox over Hallebertton. I was, just so you know, that’s that’s just it’s not a real narrative. The Kings did not choose Fox over Hallebertton. The Pacers wanted Hallebertton uh in exchange for Damontus Sabonis. They were not offering the trade of De’arren Fox for because Darren Fox was making a lot of money and at that point it was a question on whether he was worth that contract. Well, yeah, De’ar Fox was in the beginning stages of a of a $30 million a year contract that just kept going up from there. And and Hallebertton was a secondyear player making not only that, but a second year player who was a 12th overall pick who’s making like three half million a year, right? like the the conversation was totally different. If there was a conversation at some point of like like wow, thank god we got to hang on to De’Aran Fox. Yeah, cuz look how then Okay, but yeah, it wasn’t that wasn’t the Pacers going give us one or the other. Yeah. It wasn’t like Yeah. The choice was trading Hallebertton or not. Yeah. Exactly. Like that’s the that’s the choice they made. But the the Sabonis deal from what I understand. Mhm. The Sabonis deal wasn’t on the table with Fox. No. No. Now before that there was conversations with Philadelphia and Philadelphia was pushing for one of Fox or Hallebertton in the Ben Simmons alleged deal. M now that may have been different but as far as like I don’t know I Lizzy I don’t know if other teams like teams around the league knew that Fox was available this season like we we know that now like there were but they also teams around the league were also told that he wants to go to San Antonio and he’s not going to sign an extension other places two Thunder. Feel the thunder. Yeah. I’m not trying to call you out. I’m just saying, you know. Yeah. PE time. I’m not sure if that’s the case. I don’t know. Like, we’ll discuss this in a few. The the Indiana Pacers of it all. Glaze is the grossest word that anybody uses. H I said glaze is the grossest word anybody uses. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not sure why we use that term. Oh, I know why. Well, yeah. It’s a chatty house. It’s just, man, Tyres Hallebertton’s having a heck of Glaze. All right, you got it. All right, Tyrese Hallebertton’s not having Why you hating? He’s saying you’re hating. I’m going to bring this up. Rob Nacho, will Monty McNair go down as the worst GM than Blotty Devots? Uh Vladi Devots never made the playoffs as a general manager and he certainly didn’t win 48 games. It capped out at 39 wins under Dave Jagger. Um so no, I mean we can have like some weird recency bias here towards uh Monty McNair and sort of throw hate his way, but uh in all honesty like Monty got you there. He just didn’t have a plan once he got there or couldn’t execute a plan once he got there. When did anybody say that Tyrese Hallebertton was in a pe time about to get blocked? Uh oh. All right. 10 seconds. Now, back to the Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. All right, have another thing I learned from over the weekend. It’s my last thing. I did not realize that the Saints and Derek Carr just viscerally hated each other. Oh yeah. The celebration from Saints fans on the internet yesterday when Derek Carr’s retirement was announced. Oh, I had no because again, why would I follow the Saints and Saints fans relationship with Derek Carr? But it was a full-blown like fiesta. Is this the fifth thing you learned this weekend? Yes. Okay. Had no idea. That is wild. Had zero clue. Wow. And for Derek Carr, here’s how I know Derek Carr hated the Saints. For Derek Carr, because he has a shoulder injury with his with his labum. I think there was degenerative stuff in there. He had a bad shoulder issue that was probably going to keep him out for the 2025 season. Instead of getting a surgery and rehabbing and getting paid for this season, even though he’s on IR, he retired. He left so much money on the table to bounce. Wait, so does he not get an injury settlement, though? He gets some form of money. Okay, but he would have gotten a lot more if he just stuck it out through this year. Wow. But instead, he goes, “Yeah, I’m retiring. I’m out of here.” And maybe maybe I’m reading this wrong. Maybe Derek Carr is very much like, I don’t want to be in New Orleans anymore. I want to go home to where’s he at? Bakersfield or Fresno or wherever he lives now. I want to go to my home and be with my family. I’m done with football. I’m going out on my terms. Maybe it’s that. Okay. But I think Derek Carr hated the Saints. So, I’m choosing to read this. I And Saints fans felt the same way apparently. That was that he’s 34 years old. Uh, man, like his stats like they’re really good. Yeah, good player. I mean I mean he’s in an era where you know there are much bigger stats for other quarterbacks, but to finish your career with 41,245 yards at 257 touchdowns and 112 interceptions. Like a 2 to1 ratio isn’t great, but um to be honest, that’s really not that bad. The I would love to go and I know there’s a lot of Raider fans who would who would love to go to this universe as well. I want to go to the universe where Derek Carr doesn’t get hurt in 2016. I want to go because it felt like after that it was just really downhill for him. it he was just it never because going into that year the Raiders were building and they their team was really good and you had Derek Cars 12 and three 64% completion rate almost 4,000 39 3,937 yards in 15 games 28 touchdowns six picks he finishes third in the MVP voting first team allp pro he’s a pro bowler he was awesome and it felt like okay there’s this ascension And then he got hurt and just never it was it was like when Jimmy Garopolo tore his ACL. It’s like man he’s just never quite the same player after that. No. And I would love to go to the universe where he and that Raider team not only get an opportunity in 2016 uh against a Houston team that I think they were going to beat so so to move on in the playoffs, but B see what that turned into in 2017 and beyond. That set that set the Raiders on this course of and Derek Carr on this course of a falling short way short of what we thought they’d be a decade ago. It’s tough because it’s so it happens so often that uh players careers are cut short. But with quarterbacks specifically, you don’t see it like this very often. You know, quarterbacks tend to last forever in the NFL. And even like Derek Carr, what 11 seasons something? 11 years. Yeah. I thought he was a good quarterback. I I I do think that every time he got in crunch time, he’d overthrow the ball that or he threw it away on fourth down with the game on the line multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. Like not threw it into traffic like threw an incompletion on purpose. Yeah. So I I know that that’s going to cloud and I’m sure there there are Raider fans or Saints fans who feel really strongly one way or the other. Dude had a really nice career. Shout out to Derek Carr. I hope he finds happiness post football and I’m sure he will. Yeah. 916909320 9169091320 is the Elgrove Kid talk line. We’re kicking it old school today because we don’t have a call screener. So, uh Don, you’re on the insiders. What’s up? Hey Don, how’s it going? Hey, man. How are you? Oh, not too bad. Hey, um I wanted to say um I’ll give you that the Pacers were didn’t didn’t want Fox. They wanted uh uh they wanted a um on Hallebertton. Yeah. But uh the Kings were never going to go with a Hallebertton. They they wanted to stick with Fox and I don’t think they were ever going to trade Fox. So that’s that’s the problem I had. I think the Kings made a mistake. Um I saw it from the beginning, you know. Um I would call up all the shows. like, you know, you know, you know, and of course they would all laugh at me, but I think I think it’s starting to show now. You know, of course it’s not going to, you know, you know, you know, that’s not going to change anything, but I think the Kings always make a mistake. They always picked the wrong guy, and they picked the wrong guy at this time, too. They should have, they should have traded Fox when they had a chance, and they didn’t. And of course, you know, now now we are where we are. When when when when do you mean they should have traded Fox? You mean in the Sabonus deal? No. No. I don’t think with the Sabonus deal, I don’t think uh they should have made that deal because I think they should have looked at a deal to move Fox, whether it was to I see uh to somebody else. I don’t care where where he went. I think they should have moved Fox instead. I think that they should have had the foresight to see that he wasn’t the better player. Cool. Thanks for the call, Daniel. Appreciate it. Yeah, I don’t I don’t hate the take. The the the thing that I have trouble with with that is where f I don’t think Fox’s value and what was that 2122. Yeah. The 2122 season I believe cuz Beam Team won was the first full season of Domos. Yep. So yeah, 2122. Dear Fox’s value was not that high at that point. No, he elevated quite a bit the following year and and and got himself into that conversation, but I don’t think Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. I think it’s really difficult and and I get like the take that that Fox, you know, like you probably could have traded him for value somewhere. I mean, the 2021 uh 2021 season, he averaged um 25 a game. The next year, 21-22, I believe that’s that’s a year with Hallebertton, right? That’s he’s at 23.2 points per game. His assist numbers dropped. His shooting percentages dropped. He was really struggling to play off the ball with uh with Halleurn, right? Um, it’s really difficult because if you’re just looking for pure scoring talent in the NBA, Fox has a higherend scoring talent. Like he’s averaged 21.5 for his career, but you know, he capped out with the Kings in the 23 24 season at 266 a game, right? At 25 a game, 25 another season. Like these are big-time numbers. 25 points a game. Hallebertton is not going to get you that. No. And you know, I I’m going to bring up Domos in this this discussion because I think we all have this we have this understanding that if Domos averaged four more points a game. Let’s say he averaged 24 points per game. Mhm. He’s a top 10 NBA player, like really close to it. Like he’s averaging like seven, eight assists. He’s averaging he’s leading the league in rebounding, right? And it’s that extra couple of points that you’re always going to look at and say, “Man, if if Dom could just do that.” Mhm. And I got to be honest, Hallebertton’s the same thing. Like Hallebertton averaged 20.7 points per game and 20.1 points per game, but he this last season he averaged 18.6. Like he hasn’t like ascended to first team allNBA status. and the fact that he’s leading his team through the playoffs the way that he is is really cool to watch. And he’s hit some game winners and he’s had some big nights. He’s also had some stinkers. And so like I I just think that there are like for whatever reason there’s a blind spot when it comes to Hallebertton and sort of the the ceiling of Hallebertton versus you know who he is. And and again it’s tough to average 24 points per game and 10 or 11 assists. The only player that can do that is Trey Young. But Hallebertton is is one of those players who’s really really really good and he’s probably an all-star in the East, but you put him in the West and I’m not sure, you know, and maybe he will be because there’s a good chance he’s going to make the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row and he’s going to be the face of the Pacers, but that doesn’t change the fact that ceiling wise, De’Aran Fox always looked like he had a higher ceiling than Tyrese Hallebert. I agree with you. I have so many thoughts on this and on the radio side, we have to pay bills. Okay. So, I would like to put a pin in this conversation for just very momentarily and and we’ll get back to it when we return because I think there’s a a lot of layers and a lot of nuance to this and I and I think some of the hypotheticals are really fun. If you’d like to join the conversation, please do on the Oakrove Kid Talkline. It’s 9169-1320 916991320 if you want to join the conversation. Again, no call screener today. So, we’re just going to answer. I can have one person on on hold basically at a time. So, if it’s ringing for a while, stay patient. If you want to hang up, try and call back and and we’ll get to as many people as we can here on the insiders. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Let’s talk some Tyrese Hallebert and De’arren Fox. What if sliding doors moments, butterfly effects, whatever you want to call it. We’ll do that next. That’s James Ham. I’m com. We’re the insiders. Second hour coming up here on ESPN 1320 in Sacramento Sports. We’re clear. I have so many Tyrese Hallebertton takes. All right, I’m here for him. All this and this. See outcome math. Whoa. Hey, kill the mics for a sec. Nothing is happening. Yeah, nothing interesting. No, it’s probably interesting, but nothing we’re going to talk about personal stuff. We’re not at the time of year where when James is asking to mute the mics that it’s going to be anything Kings interesting. I said was boy what a what a catastrophic night it would be for the Atlanta Hawks if they don’t of course move up which that’s an actually it’s unprotected pick their their pick is unprotected to Spurs it’s already gone but if the Kings move up and they end up with no picks oh about 30 seconds I’m going to be pissed if Utah gets a first pick. I’m That’s the most annoying outcome. Yeah, it’s the worst. Utah getting rewarded for whatever the hell this was. Was just garbage. Some of them wore my Crocs again today. Feel great about it. Awesome. All right, here we go. ESPN hour number two. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Mads and we’re rocking with you until noon. Then we’ll hand it off to DLo and Casey. And DLO and Casey will take you up to four o’clock where coverage begins of game four between the Celtics and the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The Mecca. The Mecca. The Mecca. All right, we’re talking about Tyrese’s Hallebertton and Dear Fox and the Kings and we had a we had our caller Don saying that the Kings should have actually kept Hallebertton and not traded for Sabonis and instead explored a trade of DR and Fox to build around Hallebertton. Okay, I have a lot of thoughts on this one. I’m really interested to know because at that point remember Dear Fox is putting up numbers but the Kings weren’t winning a lot and there was some question about man what’s your ceiling if Dearron Fox is your best guy. Mhm. Is he is he that dude? And I thought he showed the next year in the playoffs that he’s very much capable of being that dude and maybe you’ve had your mind change over the last couple years and given how things ended in Sacramento but again we’re rewinding the clock taking back. So, I’m I’m interested in that concept because I don’t know what you’re getting for De’Arren Fox at that point of his career because remember, we have to go before we see him in the playoffs and before he was an allNBA guy. Mhm. He was a man, is he just another like guard who’s going to score a lot and not really contribute to winning? which I think was was a little bit the the perception or the the question mark over him. It was legit. It was legit until he was the best player on a 48 win team and the third seed in the Western Conference and people can say whatever they want about being a down year or whatever like elevated his game in the playoffs. Yeah, this is before all that. So, I’m interested to know what he would have even fetched in a trade and would that plus Hallebertton plus everything else have gotten the Kings to a to a higher place either in in the immediate or currently. And that I don’t know because the Chatty House brings this up and I think it’s a great point. I don’t know who in the chatty house brought this up, so I can’t shout anybody out individually, but it’s really hard to put a lot of faith that the Kings front office, regardless of who they brought in instead, would have done the right things to build around Tyrese Hallebertton in the right way. No, it’s I mean, that’s a really good point because that’s Yeah, because that’s the whole thing with the Pacers. We had our guy PE time complaining that we were talking about Tyresese Hallebertton being being good when he’s actually not that good and he’s capable like yeah dude he’s not a superstar. He’s not that. But the reason he’s successful is because the Pacers have built around him just about perfectly. Oh yeah. Hallebertton in a vacuum is a is a is a really really good NBA player. But they’re succeeding at this level because Andrew Demhard’s really good. Benedict Matan’s really good. They traded for Pascal Seakum. Miles Turner’s a really effective player. Obie Topphen, uh, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell is a perfect backup point guard. Like, they have a really well- constructed, well coached team that elevates Tyrese Hallebertton in a way that I don’t think the Kings front office ever helped elevate De’Arren Fox, Demon Sabonis, Keegan Murray, or otherwise. Well, I think there’s that small window, the the first Beam team that it was a bunch of complimentary pieces with Fox and Sabonis. Yeah. Right. Yeah. and you were hoping that the organic growth would happen, but it didn’t happen, right? So, you kind of got to look at it and say, “Okay, they did build something that looked like it could be sustainable.” I mean, Kevin Herder was 24. Yeah. And best season, again, a rookie Keegan Murray putting up, you know, best season of his career. Yeah. The most three-pointers of any rookie in the history of the game, right? So, there are all of these things that you could point to, but they just stopped like the the build. And so it’s really difficult to like look at it, but when you look at the Pacers, the Pacers have not only the length of the athleticism, but they have like the rim runner runners that uh that Malik Monk needs. Mhm. They’ve got like five of them. That’s that’s what they do. They build a team around those types of guys, the the guys that the lob threats, right? And it feels like the Kings have always held themselves back. Like we can rave about like the Valenunis pickup and just how good he played for the Kings because I think he did. Mhm. But the fact is the Kings didn’t really they needed a better backup center than Alex Len and whatever else they’ve had. But realistically what they needed was like a better version of of Javal McGee. So they had the complimentary piece to go with Malik Monk to maximize a player. Mhm. And that’s always going to be the frustration to me. Like it is very simple and basic of how to maximize Demonos Sabonis as a player. Like you need to have somebody who’s long and athletic at the four that can shoot the three that can block a couple of shots here and there. There are players like this all over the league. That’s what you needed to put alongside him. He never did. You need a rim runner, a a lob threat for Malik Bunk because he’s one of the I mean, statistically speaking, the best pick and roll ball uh ball handler in the league, but you don’t go get one, right? You tried it with Javale McGee, but Javal McGee was like 35 years old and and like was out of the league the next year. Yeah. And was really singular in that one thing that he was that’s all he could do. Yes. Yeah. And could not play alongside Sabonis. Correct. So it just feels like they’re it’s not the big miss. It’s not that you missed on Pascal Yakum or that you missed on OG and Anobi. Those pieces could have helped a lot and it could have changed the trajectory of this team a lot. It’s all of the other little pieces, you know, and again we I I love Trey Lyles. I think Trey Lyles is a great dude and I think he’s a very smart basketball player, but there came a point where if Trey Lyles isn’t your small ball five and and again, if you’re going to have Tre Ly as your small ball five, you have to get the long athletic guy to go next to Trey Ly. Correct. It’s the same exact problem you have with Domomas. And so you kept limiting yourself with the players that you brought in. And again, I I I don’t know why they couldn’t see the the easy path forward or find a way to to build the roster the right way. So odd. It is very odd. And and you that last thing, you don’t know why they couldn’t find the right pieces to build the roster the right way. That’s where I’ll push back on our caller Don from earlier where I I reject the idea that had they kept Hallebertton, they’d be in a better spot. Mhm. You’d have a point guard You’d have a point guard who’s a who’s a talented scorer but but distributes first. Really kind of throwback type of player in that in that respect. You you’d be good there. But were Money and Wes going to build around him better than they built around the the two stars they did have? We’d still be waiting for a Miles Turner, right? Obby Toppin, right? Even an Isaiah Jackson. Length and athleticism would still be a major issue. Yeah. So that’s where that’s that’s where I’d push back on it. And maybe again it’s butterfly effect. Who knows what ends up? Maybe they wind up trading for Pascal Seakum and maybe maybe they’re just the Pacers, right? If they if they kept Tyrese Hallebertton, but nothing that Monty McNair and Wes Wilcox did over the last four years, three years leads me to believe that they would have done the right things where we’d be sitting here talking about Tyrese Hallebert and carrying the Kings to the Western Conference Finals or to the brink of the Western Conference Finals for a second consecutive year. Yeah, they they’ve just they they haven’t they didn’t do that. That’s why they’re gone. Yeah. And maybe maybe you’d rather have maybe you’d rather have What’s Tyrese now? 23 24. No, he’s 25. Is he 25? Yeah, I believe. Like you’d rather Oh, cuz I guess he was Was he two years? He’s an old Yeah, he’s 25. He was an old sophomore coming out. That’s right. So, but still, you’d rather have a 25, if you were tearing it all down and starting over right now, you’d way rather start with a 25-year-old Tyrese Hallebertton just because of the way the NBA is now. It’s very guard centric. Okay, I I understand that. If that’s the argument, I’m not going to push back. But I reject the idea that man, if they’d kept Tyres Hallebertton, they’d be in a way better spot because man, no. Tyrese Hallebertton landed in a perfect place and they’ve done everything right in Indiana to put themselves in a position where they’re up 3-1 on the on the number one seed in the second round. And I’m going to add the other element that is like always the elephant in the room here when we’re talking about Sacramento Kings. Um, how long has Rick Carile been the head coach of the Indiana Pacers? Long ass time. one longass time per basketball reference. Yeah. So I mean I’m thinking six years 2122 was his first year there. Okay. So he spent all those years with Dallas and then the last four with Indiana. Dallas is that Yeah. No, but he was Okay. Okay. I I was Okay. I wasn’t losing my mind. Rick Carile was also the Pacers coach in the early to mid 2000s. From 2003 to 2007 he was a head coach. Okay. All right. Wasn’t totally losing my mind. My point is that Rick Carile is an exceptional coach, really good coach, and you’ve allowed him to build a system. And I I think if you’re going to build a team that lacks a true superstar because the Pacers, I don’t care what people think of Tyrese Hallebertton, go look at every single game stat from this playoff series, he’s had superstar moments, but he has not put up superstar performance. Not like a Donovan Mitchell or even though he’s losing or, you know, even Anthony Edwards, he’s not having the same type of impact. Yes. Right. But if you’re going to build a team of really, really, really good players and a depth team, right, where your best two players are Seakum and and Tai and you know, Turner, that’s those are your best three players. You have got to have a system in place to support that and and a coach that believes in a system and sticks to a system and directs that system. And that’s just the biggest issue for me that it’s when things go wrong and a player gets the yips and stops hitting threes. And you know, someone mentioned that, you know, Mike Brown screwed this whole thing up by putting Chris Dwarte in the starting lineup. And he waited 12 games into this into the season before making a switch to Chris Dwarte. And he did it for five games and then went back to Kevin Herder. Like that wasn’t a thing. like and if you’re not strong enough as a player to fight through that and and figure out what’s going on in your game and two years later we’re still wondering the same exact thing with Kevin Herder, that’s not a Mike Brown situation anymore. That’s a player situation. And so like look, I think building a team the right way is something that the Kings just failed at. They they had it momentarily and then you saw the path forward to build onto that team to make that team better and you did not do it. Yeah. You didn’t take the necessary steps. Okay. One, I I I want to talk about the Kings here in a second, but I was just looking at this. Not including two-way players. Don’t look at the Don’t look at the Pacers roster. How many players are on the Pacers roster who are under listed under 65, not including two-way guys? Oh, um, yeah, because Matron is over 6’5. N Smith is 66. Uh, Kay Smith listed at 65. Uh, okay. So, I’m gonna say um Nemhard and McConnell. Nemhard listed at 6’5. Okay. Listed. Okay. Probably more. That’s crazy. TJ McConnell’s the only guy on their roster listed under 6’5. Yeah. 61. But Aaron Neith listed at 6’5. Dog. Andrew M. Harvard listed at 65. Dog. Like they just That’s all of their guys are like that. Benedict Matan, same thing. Yeah, Pascal Seakum same thing. Obie to same thing. They have especially I mean Isaiah Jackson got hurt this year. Um but they just kept adding these long you remember they had Jaylen Smith before Yeah. Um he left via free agency. They just kept bringing in that guy. Mhm. And the Kings just didn’t. And I I don’t know why. like it it it will be basically it’s what’s on their tombstone as you know now this all said and done never found length and athleticism that’s it all comes down to I hate by the way that the Cavs Pacers series has turned into a referendum on the regular season like see this is why the regular season doesn’t matter no it does this is the playoffs now this is why we have the playoffs Yeah, this is why the playoffs exist. But people were I saw people like, “Oh man, they did they did everything right in the regular season. They tried hard, but they rested guys and they were smart.” And look, they’re still down 3-1. Like, yeah, sometimes you run into a tough matchup. Sometimes the lights are too bright. Yeah. To borrow a phrase from Jared Allen, man. Sometimes that just happens. doesn’t need to all be like, “Oh man, the regular season’s hosed because the number one seed Cavs are gonna get knocked out in the second round.” No, man. Pacers are just pretty freaking good. Yeah, that’s it. That the Sacramento Kings just officially announced the addition of Mike Woodson as as an associate head coach. So, it’s something that we had confirmed last week, but uh actually today is the day that they Can you do me a favor? Can you quote tweet it and say officially official? Officially official. It’s my Okay. Least favorite thing to put officially official. Oh my god. Like Yeah. No, we got it. Uh what’s his name from uh Ian Raffle does that all the time here. I officially official. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Just this time for you. Thanks. I’m going to retweet it. Can’t wait. Follow us on Twitter for more interactions like this. Uh no, we have to step aside. The Pacers blueprint though to removing the Tyresese Hallebert and Deonus Aonus aspect of this. I think the Pacers blueprint is the way the Kings need to go. Unless Scott Perry decides this needs to be a total tearown, which I don’t think they do. I think you can you can get there with the way the Pacers have done it. And we’ll we’ll talk about that coming up next. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the Insiders and we’re sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Rocking with you until noon here on ESPN 1320. That is Sacramento Sports Leader. What’s going on everybody? It feels like this first round was awesome and then the second round there’s been some more kind of been some blowouts but been some incredible comebacks. Yeah, it’s been a mostly good playoffs. I don’t think we know where that Knicks Boston series is going and we clearly don’t know where the Denver OK OKC series is going, but I either team could win either of those series. Yeah. I also feel like that that Denver is like they’re not going to be able to just shake OKC like and just like run away with it. If that was going to happen, they would have won yesterday going away. Yeah. Yeah. It was funny watching that after watching the the Golden State Minnesota game the day before because it went almost exactly the same like oh trailing the whole game. Home team fights back gets up six and then all of a sudden can’t just quite can’t quite stiff arm the the the visitor for long enough. Now granted, Denver is is way better than Golden State, so it it was it was a little closer for longer, but it just had the exact same vibe. Like, oh, nice run. And it’s done. And it’s over. And it’s gone. Hey, PS, that’s kind of I think that’s crazy. That’s kind of nuts you just said that. This is just more nonkings related drama. Now, back to the Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. We’re just talking about the NFL schedule release is what we were talking about at the break. Yeah, with the mics off. Oh, I didn’t I didn’t give my I did my underdog lineup earlier and I did not say my new fake underdog slogan. Oh, let’s hear it. Because they don’t have a slogan. There’s another daily fantasy site that has a slogan and it’s like really cool and Kenny says it all the time. Kenny says it all the time. I’m like, dang, I wish I had a So, I’m going to just pitch this one. It’s not as cool as the other one and it might not be something they want to do because it’s daily fantasy. Yeah. But underdog, it’s your new favorite. Okay. Am I right? Am I right? Okay. I’m going to try that. I’m just going to I’m just going to sprinkle that into the reads and then when they get sent over, the underdog people can let me know what they think. Or maybe they’re watching right now. If you are, shoot me an email. There you go. You know where to find me. All right. the Pacers. So, so one of the things we’ve talked about a lot with the with the Kings this off season is how they’re kind of stuck in the middle, right? They’re in this place where they’re too have too many good players to just tear it down. Milwaukee, for example, is in a place where they’re going to trade Giannis and very likely be in a place where they’re not going to be good next year. Their tearown could happen pretty quickly. Yeah, I I I agree. But also like Giannis makes so much money that it’s difficult to take back nothing. Again, like the fatal flaw, just so we’re clear here, the fatal flaw to the to trading Dear Fox, please, right? It’s that you went out and got a more expensive player who’s not as good. Yeah, that’s a fatal flaw, right? So like the Kings would have been much better off taking back like two expiring contracts or or like a a young player like Schmassel rhymes with that. I don’t know like Stefan Schmassel. Uh they would have been better doing something like that. I thought you were Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were talking about No. They would have been better off taking back a reasonably priced player. Yeah. And a young player and picks. Yeah. Than taking back a more expensive player that now puts you in a very very awkward situation moving forward. Yeah. I watch the Pacers and I go, man, maybe the Kings don’t have to do this thing where their their next couple of years is just trying to offload big contracts. Yeah, maybe because I’ve been of the mind. I’ve been I’ve been approaching this like, dude, they need to get a superstar. If you’re going to be competitive, you have to have a superstar. Anthony Edwards, uh Jaylen Brunson, Jason Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Donovan Mitchell, like all these teams have that dude. Steph Curry, every team has that dude. And then there’s the Pacers where Tyresese Hallebertton’s probably their best player, but man, the delta between Tyresese Hallebertton and whoever the ninth guy in their rotation is is way smaller than the delta between any of the other stars and the ninth guy in the rotation, right? Even the even the Celtics, it’s like Jason Tatum versus Luke Cornette. Like come on, that’s a that’s a huge gap, right? So, I think the Kings can take the Pacers approach here and say, “Okay, Damon Sabonis, Zack, uh, uh, Zack Lavine, I almost said Zack Randall, Zack Lavine, and Keegan Murray. That’s going to be our that’s going to be the the and again, not not apples to apples player comparison, but just that’s going to be the Pascal Seakum, Tyresese Hallebert, and Miles Turner. were all really really good players but not anybody I’d consider a superstar on that singular level and then you figure out what those guys need and you you put the pieces around them and oh look you’re going to go to the conference finals for a second consecutive year. That is not something I had considered until watching the Pacers be up 45 on Cleveland yesterday. I mean the key to that is that you have to establish whatever identity it is right away and you need a point guard and you have to play to it well they need a point guard and they they have to have that shot blocker that that defensive minded Miles a very good defender. Yeah. Yeah. I mean again that’s like where I I don’t think they have to add a super I mean if they added a superstar that would be amazing right? We get to cover a superstar but I I don’t know that you can build that way in Sacramento. It’s a Well, and I guess just to pause you real quick, I think the bigger issue for me is it’s really hard to find that player. Yeah, it’s not super easy to just fall into Anthony Edwards. Well, I mean, like, look, the closest thing to a superstar in Sacramento that we’ve that there ever has been is is Chris Weber. Right. Right. And there was like a lot of discussion as to whether he is a superstar or you know like again a player like Domas or a player like Demarcus Cousins like all-star level but not superstar level. Like there was a ton of discourse here in Sacramento as to whether that was the case. So like look at even Mitch Richmond, you know, like all-star player but not a superstar. And so you’re you’re always left wondering like is there a way to do that in Sacramento? And for that matter, is there a way to do that in Indiana? Like Indiana’s had some really, really, really good players even, you know, but have they had like legitimate just oh my gosh, superstar players? Not since Paul George. Okay. And even Paul George is at the top end of allstar player, but not quite superstar level, at least in my book. And maybe it’s because he broke his leg and and it like held him back from being taking that one extra step. But great two-way player, Hall of Famer, all that stuff. But is he in this era, has he ever been considered a superstar? And I don’t think so. Like close, but that’s kind of interesting. Was Paul George I think he was. Paul George was really damn good. No, I agree. He’s really damn good. But we’re talking But I’m also talking 12, 13 years ago. Yeah, but I’d also like say this. So, it was Paul George better than Mitch Richmond. No, I think same tier of player like Hall of Famer, really, really, really good player, multi-time all-star, great two-way player, but is he a superstar? Four time all defense, six time allNBA, ninetime all-star. How many times first team AllNNBA? First team allNBA. Let’s see. See, third. Third. Third. third one and then another third. Okay. One time it was first team all. So all those thirds though, but first team all defense that year. Also third in MVP voting. I was in 1819 with OKC. Yeah. All right. I don’t hate it. I put just those Pacers teams with Paul George pretty freaking good. Yeah. No, I mean they’re good, but I I don’t know. I mean, that’s about as close as you’re going to get, right? He was, if he’s not, if he wasn’t in the superstar tier, he was he was really on the cusp. He was he he was the dividing line. Mhm. From the superstar tier to the to the star tier then. Yeah. He’s like right there. All right. We can work with that. I mean, because I’ll just And then who is Okay. So, perspective, Demon Sabonis is a two-time third team AllNBA player. Right. Right. So, and and I’m not putting Domos in the superstar category. No. Star level player. Yes. Like I mean you can take into consideration playoffs and stuff but you know same thing with Paul George. Same thing with a lot of players. All right. But yeah I mean outside of that it’s what Reggie Miller before that. Yeah man. I’d even say like look if you look at the uh the early 2000 Kings like Chris Weber’s the best player and and sort of in that Paul George a little bit above Paul George right around the Paul actually probably in the Paul George conversation as far as like status of player. Sure. But that was a balanced great build team. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And that’s where I think the Kings probably have to live. You know, like you’re not going to get the best power forward on the market, but if you could find a way to add a Nause Reed or you could find a way to add a Bobby Portoris, you go from being like a 40 something win team to potentially like getting jumping back up into the conversation. You also, but now you have to address the point guard position as well. Like they have a lot of holes. Yeah, man. There’s I just I think there’s a foundation here because I was really concerned that man they’re either tear it down or be a 40 to 44 win team for the next five years and then the tearown happens and we’ve wasted five years. Yeah. Like that that was a but watch the Pacers and you go okay maybe maybe there’s a way to do this where they don’t need a superstar. They got to make some savvy moves. They have to do this right. It’s not going to be easy. I’m not saying the Kings are going to be in the conference finals next year, but I think you’re a couple off seasons away from potentially building a team that is that is significantly better than where they stand right now. Yeah. The problem is how do you get there? How do you go from point A to point B? And I’m not sure how they the Kings do that because it’s going to be very difficult. I mean, again, sure, you need to address it. If Demar Rosen isn’t the answer at small forward, you need to address the either power forward or small forward position with Keegan Murray moving back and forth between those positions. You still have to address a point guard position. And so, you’re looking at two primary positions that you have to address. Starting starting rotational pieces that you have to address. And you know, that’s not to take anything away from Keon Ellis or anyone else. It’s just that’s where you’re at. You know, if you’re gonna move, leave Keon at the two, move Zack Lavine to the three and find a starting point guard and then find a starting power. Uh well, I guess in that situation, you’d be okay, but uh that that might be one way, but then you need like four other dudes who are 6’8, 6′ n, and can defend the three and the four. That’s it. There’s no way to slice this where you don’t need taller, more athletic dudes. No. No. I love that every conversation about the Kings eventually gets back to that point. Yeah, we might meander over here for a while, but we’re going to come back to to the length and athleticism. It’s just unfortunate that that that’s the case, though. What do you mean? That that it always comes back to like one basic need that every team seems to recognize. And we’ve been able to say this on the radio for like well here on the insiders for two years. Yes. But realistically, I’ve been saying it like screaming it from the mountain tops for like five years. Yep. Like it doesn’t like go all the way back to where you had to one season you had to start Bogdon Bogdonovich as your small ford at 6’6 and you had no one else that could play it at all. Like these guys, they do they grow on trees at least for every other NBA franchise. Well, and there’s going to the you’re you’re probably not just going to find Jaden McDaniels, right? Jaden. Jaden is on the Timberwolves. Yes. Is that right? Are we sure? Before I continue this point, bro. I thought I had it right. I tweeted it the other day and got it wrong. Jaden is on Minnesota. Okay. All right. He has a twin brother, Jaylen, who’s sort of in the NBA, who was on the Kings briefly if you didn’t follow that closely. Um, but Jaden McDaniels, you you’re not just gonna just gonna go find Jaden McDaniels in the undrafted free agent pile or or in the early in the second round. Yeah. There’s going to be development that needs to happen. Mhm. Like that’s the that’s what you and I I think are asking for and I don’t think that’s unreasonable is, hey, get this this body type, get this athletic profile. Mhm. And then see if he can help him develop a jumper. See if you can help them develop defensively. See if you can do the things to make that player the functional seventh or eighth guy off your bench. Yeah. I think for the Kings, for every Jaden McDaniels, there’s a Jaylen McDaniels, a Kazy Apolla, uh what’s his name? Um Moharkas. No, like boy, you you tried to go get those guys, but you always did it on the cheap. Glenn Robinson the third. Like you just or the second, I think you just third. Yeah, you just kept doing it on the cheap as opposed to going in and getting like the better version already prepackaged and ready to roll. Now, that doesn’t mean that you don’t spend your second round picks or if you have a late first round pick that you don’t spend that Yeah. on another one of those players. Go try it. Yeah. Well, you need to do it multiple times. That’s that’s how you you build a pipeline. There are guys that are like this all over the league. Yeah. And the Kings just well Monty and West that that group did not value that type of player nearly enough. Yeah, they found one of them in Keegan Murray, but with the fourth pick in the draft. I just don’t understand. I don’t want to rehash all this. But while we’re here, I don’t understand how you make the Keegan Murray pick, which was again, I was all about it. I loved Keegan. Thought he was a right fit for the Kings. Salute to to Money and West for finding him. I don’t understand how you make the Keegan Murray pick, see the impact he has in year one as a shooter, see the impact he has in year two as a defender, and not go, “Hey, we should find a bunch of dudes like that.” Yeah, it’s it’s baffling. I know we’ve been talking about it, but man, I I’m I’ll never get over it. I’m never I’m never going to be at a point where I’m like, “Okay, it’s fine.” And while we’re there, I’d also say please that um the value of having even one of those guys that’s kind of like Keegan Murray just I don’t know what the the overall record would have been, but I have a feeling that the Kings would have been a better team if they just kept Harrison Burns. And I know people hate that idea. Yeah. this last year like but even if he drops down and averages 11 points per game, Keegan probably would have elevated. Yeah, there’s it’s the it’s the domino effect of what Yeah. removing such an offensive force like Demard de Rozan what that does for everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. And I I don’t I don’t know that I’d bet my life on it, but I don’t hate the take for sure. Like Harrison Barnes isn’t like the best player that you’re going to have, but No, but he would have willingly taken the fifth the fifth offensive player in the starting lineup role and he would have played defense. He would have supported the right way. He could have dropped down to 27 28 29 minutes a game, you know, or when you need him, you know, the dude plays every game. Mhm. I mean that that’s one of those things where you look at and you’re like okay if you could have taken you could have just switched that and look at like it’s not that much money the difference but it is like if you’re paying you know Harrison Barnes 17 18 million this year you might have enough to go get another one of these guys that we’re talking about and have the three forward rotation that makes more sense. Just tough. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. All right. Couple more minutes here and then we got to step aside then we’ll get to the handoff. One of DL or Casey. They’re both in the building. So I don’t know which one’s gonna pop in. It’s always fun to see which one of those guys jumps in with us. But uh I wanted to real quick I was kind of disappointed with the A’s Yankees series this weekend because the Yankees were at Sutter Health Park in West Sack and they took two out of three and they outscored the A’s I think 29 to 15 and it just kind of sucked because and I understand why it is. This is not I’m not naive, but my hope was that there was a a feeling and a and a buzz about the Yankees coming in where it’s like, hey, this is a cool opportunity for the A’s to see, hey, they’re they are right there. They are above 500. Even after losing two out of three, they’re still a game over 500. They’re they’re they’re competitive in the AL West and and trying to win the AL West and certainly pushing for a playoff spot. They’re going to be in the mix. this is a great measuring stick series. Let’s see where the A’s are at in this measuring stick series. And then it felt like all of the buzz and all the discussion was like, guys, Aaron freaking Judge is here. He’s here. And I get it. He might be, Dude, he might literally and and again, I I I’m not now I get I understand it’s the Yankees. They’re in Sacramento. I understand why that’s a big deal. It just felt like that was the entire story of the weekend. And they dominated again. They won. They won two out of three. They won one game was it 12-2? Another one 11-2 uh or 10-2 and 12-2 or whatever it was. And I get so I I understand I did not see a singular mention of what this series meant for the Ace and what this meant for them in this. All right. Hey, here’s a here’s one of the favorites to to win the American League. How did they fair? It was Hey, did you see the man Aaron Judge boy hit the hit the heck out of that ball? And I get it. He’s one of the best right-handed hitters on his on track to be one of the best right-handed hitters of all time. And his last 162 games have been unbelievable. I say I say this when you’re looking at Judge, the one thing that I’ll give um I’ll give sort of the fans is that Judge is doing things right now that sets him so far and above everyone else. I mean, he literally at this point leads the league in runs, hits, home runs, RBI, batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS plus. Mhm. Like he leads total bases. He’s got 120 total bases. Mhm. I mean, the Yankees are are we can all acknowledge are a really good team, right? Yeah. Good club. Uh he’s got 120 total bases and next on his team is 76. like and that’s it’s again they have a lot of really good players so I get that like basically the equivalent of I don’t know maybe Michael Jordan at this point or you know he’s he’s a superstar he is easily the biggest star in the American League. Yeah it’s him and show are the two stars of major league bases of baseball and Aaron Judge right now is putting himself on in my lifetime on the Mount Rushmore of right-handed hitters. Yeah, it’s like Albert Pulse, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Mayana Ramirez is in there. Aaron Judge is firmly in that mix. Yeah. And and I get it’s May. He is a He is going to be the MVP of the American League barring disaster. Uh he’s going to flirt with a 400 average for a while. He’s going to hit 50, 60 home runs, whatever. Whatever he winds up at. I understand. I just I was going in like, “Okay, hey, this is going to be kind of interesting seeing where the A’s stack up.” And there was just none of that. It was like, “Oh, this is home of the Yankees for the weekend.” Like, “All right, well, that’s not well that.” And I mean, like, realistically, the like crazy thing, the A’s are 21 and 20. The Yankees are 23 and 17. They’re two and a half games ahead of the A’s in the standings. That’s it. But it was all the coverage was all Yankees. Yankees are here. the Yankees are here, right? And I get that’s where fans were excited because and again, this is not this is not unique to Sacramento where where Yankees fans show out. Like that’s every market. It was in Oakland, it’s in San Francisco, it’s in Chicago or Texas or wherever they are. Yankees fans are going to pull up. I get it. That’s not what this is about. I just I was I was really hopeful there would be some some push and some like, yeah, hey, it’s A’s a time and it felt more like, hey, the Yankees are here. See? Mhm. This is why it’s great to have a Major League Baseball. No, like No, we’re A’s fans supporting the A’s being athletic supporters. Yep. Right. Support your team. Yeah. But I It’s got to be your team. I get it to an extent. I get it to an extent, man. I think we got to go to break. Yeah, we do. Aaron Judge, hell of a player. The handoff won a dealer or Casey will be joining us next. We’ll talk about who’s winning the NBA playoffs. He’s James. I’m Kyle. No Joe Brazil today. He’ll be back with us tomorrow. We’re the insider sponsored by Jeffy Lub. It’s ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports. Hey, this and a t-shirt, right? You nasty ass. Chatty house afterparty. Oh, hey. Hi Dave. What up? It’s kind of what it feels like, man. 13. I don’t think they’re moving. We should still knuckle. Oh, hello. Supporting NBC today. Nice, dude. funny. Uh, we’re actually we’re gonna have some fun with this. Uh, oh, I can’t. Ah, darn. Gosh darn it. What? Uh, oh. I’m trying to make my life easier here by making my life way more difficult. Hopefully NBC doesn’t get mad at us and sue us on YouTube because everybody on the stream is about to hear the song I’m gonna play. Hi, Scooter. What up, dog? Ho. You stay ready. You don’t got to get ready. You said what? I thought you said where are the cupcakes. I was like, “Brother, I have no idea.” Those cupcakes. Oh, this is a long break. I messed up, guys. Yikes. Boy, I messed that up big time. Whoops. This is why having Joe here. It’s a great point by Kiran. Damn, buddy. True. Remember everywhere you go to bring a towel. Want to get high? Want to get high? Two minutes. Two minutes. Yeah, dude. I told you it’s a long break. I messed up. I locked into talking about Aaron Judge. That’s funny. Uh Kenny, do you want to talk to the chat? Hey everyone, Kenny Carowway’s here. What up though? There he is. What up though? Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We already got our uh daily fantasy reads out of the way. So, okay. You know, trying to get a couple dollars. Trying to get a couple dollars. Hey, so so right after Hey, so right after I debuted my fake slogan for them. Mhm. I got a notification from them. What? But about something different. Not about my And then about 30 seconds later, I got an email from the Odyssey lady who works with Underdog. Completely unrelated. What’s going on y’all? Do my favorite part about watching Miami Heat games. Minutes do men. All right, 15 seconds. D. All right, here we go. Now, back to the Insiders brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. Yeah, if you’re watching on youtube.com/ASPn1320 or twitch.tv/ TV/ASBN1320. You’ll know we’re playing a little Round Ball Rock. Yeah, man. The NBC NBA theme because Kenny Carowway, of course, is wearing a hoodie featuring the newest NBA on NBC contributor, Michael Jordan. I mean, completely unrelated. Um, because I got this hoodie over the weekend, right? The the plug came through. Yeah. Shout out to the plug. You know what I mean? Shout, man. Big ups. Michael Jordan himself dropped it off at Kenny’s compound over the weekend. That’s not what happened. Private coaching. No, that’s not what happened at all. Once again, these people believe you guys. Wait, hang on one second. It’s time now for the handoff. Taking the hand off from James and Kyle today. Here’s KC Kenny Carowway. Yes, sir. There he is. Yes, sir. Um, but it was a hoodie. It’s almost the middle of May. I was like, I like this hoodie. be a little it’s gonna be a little chilly on Monday. Better wear it now because it’s not going to get an opportunity again. So, I was like, “Yeah, this is pre uh preconceived outfit.” Like, “Oh, yeah. I’mma wear this on Monday. It’s good.” And then NBC drops the news that Michael Jordan, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, for the first time ever, is going to be a contributor, a special contributor for the coverage of NBA on NBC. I have not, I should say, we have not been able to like follow along because it’s hard to keep up with news mid show. Has there been any any additional news on what his role is going to be or he we just still know he’s just going to be part of the NBC? Not that I’ve seen. Not that I’ve seen. What are you hoping his role is? I just pop in every now and then on the on the studio set um and just, you know, give his thoughts. Probably playoffs, big games. Hey, you know, I’m looking right now and you know, I know I know Draymond Green is out there and he tries to play defense, but I mean, this guy’s awful. You know, this guy’s awful and we wouldn’t allow that back in our day. You know, we he would have sat his ass on the bench. That’s what he was. You know, the All I ever hear though is back in Jordan’s day, everybody was super physical. Draymond’s just playing old school basketball. That’s what I’m talking about. You don’t think they would ask him to compare uh Draymond and Dennis Rodman? Oh, that’s a thousand% what would happen. Yeah, probably. So, yeah, it’s a thousand%. He said he said, you know, he would say, you know, Dennis Dennis was Dennis was a guy that he understood what you had to do for the team. And they went kicked out. Dennis didn’t get, you know, technicals when we didn’t need him to. Dennis knew his role. And you never hear Dennis talking about um, you know, I’m this, I’m that. You know, it was about the team always. I didn’t have no problem with Dennis. Plus, Dennis was a outstanding rebounder. Really good rebounder. Really like he was not the passenn. But Draymond Draymond is is one of the great defenders of all time. So I you know talk about that. He’s I mean he’s he’s just not the same though. Not the same. Like he’s he ain’t been the same for a few years. Um time to take old Yeller out back. Oh. Were you did you you typically tap into this program and we appreciate it so much? Yes, sir. Were you following along with the Tyrese Hallebertton discussion we were having? Vaguely. I got out of the car. Well, I got out of the car when you said, “All right, when we come back, we’ll talk more.” Tyresese Hallebertton, Darren Fox, so I didn’t and then I was talking to our guy, Bill, so I didn’t I didn’t see the followup to it. Okay. But yeah, I heard earlier when talking about Domas and, you know, him averaging four extra points. I was listening to So we so we had a caller who who basically said that the Kings would be in a better spot had they found a different trade and traded De’aran for something and kept Tyresese Hallebertton. Do you agree with that? No. Not like uh what do Kyle likes to say? Not in a vacuum. Right. Sure. Because if you were to tr It depends on what you get back, right? Like if you were able to let’s just say doas do for Fox you keep Hallebertton maybe but Tyrese is very in my opinion he’s very dependent on the talent around him that’s it like you need topflight talent or I shouldn’t say top flight but like really really highlevel players around him so he can so you can get the best out of Tyrese Albertton distributing the basketball and it’s a little bit of a safe fall for those times when he has like nine points like he can have nine points and you can still win cuz Seakum or Nimhard or Turner or Benedict Matan or Nesmith could have these games and if you don’t have that like Darren Fox could never have here he could never have nine points and it be okay like never and Tyrese sometimes you could have that and still kind of get away with some things. I think the difference though just to you know because Tai is a very very good basketball player. I I think Tai makes players better the players around him better in a way that Fox never really figured out how to do. That’s kind of interesting. Like I I think Fox like him being on the court changes the dynamic of a roster like greatly way more than like not to pick on somebody but Zack Lavine because Zack Lavine there’s the fear that he might shoot it right. There’s also the fear he’s getting out in transition, but there isn’t fear that he’s going to break you down and draw the entire defense into the middle and then make some pass or that he’s going to go up and and finish in traffic. When when he does drive, it’s always an inline drive. It’s always like very quick and like to the point. And it’s it’s fun to watch, but it’s different. And I just think that Tai like he has an ability to make everyone around him better and in a way that maybe Sabonis does and and not so much in the way that Fox did. I like I even think right now like if you put Sabon or excuse me Hallebertton no trades or nothing like that but you put him on this King’s team with Lavine with Sabonis with Kim Murray Malik Monk I think he’d be great. He’d be great and I think the team would be really good. He’s there there’s enough talent on that team on that Kings team where you can get the most out of Hallebertton as a as a playmaker and a setup guy for others and still he’d have the opportunity to get his 19 to 24 points every night. I think he’d be really good on this King but I mean that’s not the way things necessarily work. You know what I mean? But it all it all where we where we eventually landed was Monty McNair and Wes Wilcox did not do the things to supplement the Kings roster with Fox and Sabonis. The way the Pacers have supplemented their roster around Tyrese Albert and Miles Turner, they they didn’t. And I’ll say it because I know we’re short on time. I will I’m not stalling them out cuz they there’s other ways to do it. But number one, the Pacers had a certain amount of assets to go get a Seyakum without giving up their guy. Cuz I always say this about the the scenario where it was time to make a move. If you were going to get a Seakum, it felt like you had to give up Keegan. And at the time, nobody was ready to give up Keegan. Sure. And maybe that was the wrong move. I wasn’t in I wanted to keep Keegan Murray. Mhm. Maybe that was the wrong move, but the the level of assets or lack thereof that the Kings had had it where that was the way to get them. The Pacers had x amount of first rounders and all this other stuff where they could get a seakum without necessarily giving up Miles Turner, sure to speak. So, a little a little different, a little context to it that we don’t talk about too often. I’d still like to know what that trade was because I don’t I don’t know that Keegan was involved. I do know that they they asked for uh Malik Monk towards the end of negotiations and that would have been a discussion and a decision to make, but overall I I think that you know like the Kings backed out of that deal, walked away from that deal because they did not want to pay Sakum the money that he wanted. And once they sat down and they knew exactly how much he wanted, they said, “Okay, we’re done.” We have like 30 seconds, so yes or no. Would you have done Seakkum for Malik? Um, I mean, I’m the wrong person to ask. I’m not I wasn’t like a huge Seakum guy. Sure. Um, and the money was a concern for me, too. So, probably not. I probably would have got that wrong. All right. Yeah, because I think he would still be playing and I don’t think Dear Fox would be on the San Antonio Spurs. That’s hindsight. Done and Casey, it is. It’s all hypotheticals. That’s why this is fun. That’s why I love doing uh doing radio and and being here on YouTube with you guys. That’s Kenny Carowway. Uh, he’s coming up next with Damian Barling, Dlo and Casey, they’ll take you up to four o’clock and then we’ll get into game four of Celtics versus Kenny’s Knicks. The Knicks trying series. James Ham back tomorrow. Joe Brazil back tomorrow. I’m Kyle Madson for those guys and for our sponsor Jeffy Lub. We’re the insiders. Back with you at 10 a.m. tomorrow right here on ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports Center. Until then, drink water. Be nice people. Where

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0:00 Stream starts
2:40 The Insiders
21:40 break
26:40 Timberwolves-Warriors has been a rock fight
29:00 things we learned over the weekend
41:00 break
48:00 Derek Carr retired
54:00 Kings team building
1:01:00 break
1:05:00 Kings and Tyrese Haliburton
1:21:00 break
1:25:00 Giannis out of Milwaukee?
1:44:00 break
1:48:00 The Handoff with KC
1:58:45 The Insiders ends

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