Free Agency Day 2, Kings Sign Dennis Schroder – July 1: The Insiders + D-Lo & KC
Good morning, Chatty House. We have decided to just go live now. Not on the radio, but here. Um, yeah. Let’s see. Uh, let’s see what happens today. Uh, things are getting crazy. So, we’ve got Valenunis gone.
Yep. Daario Sarge in in what I I have to imagine is a purely financial move. Yeah. Yeah. It it gives them enough wiggle room. Um yeah, this is uh like everything is moving very quickly and we’ll try to keep you up to date uh as much as we can. Um, it does appear that the Yonas Valenunis for Dario Sarich move is straight up uh just a straight swap, which I’m not quite sure like all of the mechanics of it. Um, but we’ll learn as the day goes on how that kind of happened. Um, but uh
it’s not a signing trade. So, it doesn’t appear that Malik Monk is going out the door to acquire Dennis Shruder.
Yeah. Well, on top of that, this signin trade would hard cap the Kings,
right?
And first apron.
Yeah. It’s just the first apron, which is like 198 million. The Kings aren’t going up at 198 million, I don’t think. But, uh, like this is like super complicated. Um, I’m gonna have to see like the final the final results on what exactly Shruder’s deal is. I’m not like I would not be surprised if the last year is not a team option on Shruder.
I just hope they didn’t clear money in the Valenunis trade
to open up some dollars to give Dennis Shruder. Yeah, it it’s more complicated than that though. Like I I tried to explain um yesterday why it was that they they couldn’t give uh Keon Ellis money.
Sure. Right. But by uh by moving off of Alen Tunis, um they basically saved close to $5 million and that dropped them down to like 164 165 million in dedicated salary. Uh if Denver had an MLE, that makes perfect sense because what the Kings likely did in this scenario is they traded uh Valenunis into the MLE with Denver and then they took back Sarich using the uh the Chris Dwarte trade exception. Um but I’m going to have to see if Sar actually fits into that. Let me make sure. Yeah.
Yeah. Because this is this is why the salary cap is so crazy
and wild. I love this part of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sar fits into the Chris Wart. It’s 5.4 million. Um, and I don’t know if they’re going to keep Dwar uh Sar or not. Um, but they they did that deal to try to, you know, to be as close as possible. Um, yeah, we don’t know about the the option year or not for for Shruder. I think it’s interesting that we’re seeing it play out this way because everything I had heard was a two 228. Um, yeah, I keep looking. This is where the aggregating thing sucks because you’ll see a Dennis Shruder graphing and you’re like, “Oh, does someone have more details?” And it’s nope. No,
just the same thing. Yeah.
Also, Darren Waller back in the NFL, everyone. So, since I put since I sat my ass in a seat in the kitchen this morning, Dame has been waved. Miles Turner signed with the Bucks. The Kings have signed Dennis Rder, traded Jonas Valenunis, Pat Conetan’s been traded.
Yep.
To Charlotte for Vicil Meich. The basketball blogosphere rejoices.
Uh Jericho Sims signed with the Bucks.
Totally. That’s a thing that happened. Um I feel like there’s something else that happened this morning. Um well, Gary Harris just signed with the Bucks. I don’t hate that deal either.
Milwaukee loading up on Garry’s. They collect all the Garry’s.
Hey, is Dennis Shruder the last person born named Dennis? [Laughter] My next door, my next door neighbor’s name is Dennis. And then a guy 32 years old.
No, no, he’s in his 70s. And then my neighbor at the end of the block who’s in his 80s, his name is also Dennis.
That’s it. I think Dennis Sher is the youngest Dennis.
Uh Gershon Yabiselli uh Yabuselli went to uh Brook to the Knicks. Yeah, there’s a lot. Oh, and Shay Shay got his pay. It got paid. Oh, yeah. SGA got a $75 million a year extension.
Jesus,
that’s so insane. That’s a lot of money.
The Kings are Dennis Rder. This is from my guy Justin Russo who covers the Clippers. The Kings are Dennis Ruters’s fourth team in the last 12 months. That’s so wild.
Happy Bo Bobby Bonia day.
But I can fix her, right? Is that how we’re feeling? Here we go. Good morning, Chatty House, by the way. Joe’s back, everybody. Big round of applause. Huh. I mean, this thing is is gotten crazy. Vasili Michich heading back to Europe. Oh. Oh, that’s her way to save money.
I just Man, I I don’t know. I guess I should probably wait until the radio program begins, but I just don’t Yeah, Dennis Smith Jr. has joined the chat. Good call, Colobby.
Oh, that’s really good.
Yep. Oh my god. Dennis Smith Jr.’s only 27. Yeah. He is the youngest Dennis.
Yeah.
He has to be the youngest Dennis in the world. The negative vibes coming out of the draft for him were just wild. Like everything I heard was just negative, negative, negative. like he walked into like his at NC State. He walked into the locker room like on day one and was like, “Hey, just going to get this out of the way now. I’m not here to be friends with any of you. Uh I might not even know your names by the end of the season. U I’m going to be here for a couple of months. I’m going to go to the and then I’m going to leave and go to the NBA and I’m not here to make friends.” So, uh you guys take care. What a what a guy.
Yeah. Yeah. We don’t believe that someone went to school with someone named Dennis who’s 24.
I don’t believe that for one second. I have never met someone my age named Dennis. I think Yeah. No, I haven’t. Yeah, this is we got a lot of stuff going on here. Sorry guys. I’m just trying to keep up and make sure we’ve got ducks in a row here.
Yeah, sure. No, I’m good.
I would take one.
James wants one. Dennis. I’m not sure about a three-year deal. Uh, two years are guaranteed with the third year being partially guaranteed according to Chris Haynes.
There we go. There it is. All is right in the world. Two and 30 with a partial guarantee in year three. Sick. I don’t know, man.
It’s 229. Um because if they’re signing him using the mid-level exception, uh is that what they’re doing?
Well, yeah. I mean, this is the only way that they could do it is to sign to the mid level. Huh. Okay. Yeah. Unless they’re they were trading him for monk and then if they traded him for monk they would have the mid-level exception still that would have been a sign and trade move. Yeah. So now it makes you wonder why um thanks dude. So what things get things have gotten crazy? So what was the Valentunist trade for? Um, the Valentuna trade was to dump five million bucks and to free up that spot because like look, I I love Yonas. I think he’s one of the the nicest NBA players I’ve ever met. Um, but like they’ve got to they’ve got to find a way to use that five million bucks. But um but they were super close to like I I told you basically if with the um if they signed Shruder to the MLE that put them within 5 million of the luxury tax, which now it does, but you just knocked it down to 10 million from the luxury tax. So So they’ve got room to move around. Cool. Yeah, there’s a lot of people who are angry. They’re angry last night about the potential from Malik Monk getting traded and now
they’re angry again.
I get it. Yeah. All right. Eventually, we’ve got a radio show to do.
Yeah, we’re just we’re just kind of in a holding pattern. Um we figured we’d hang out with you guys while we tried to figure this out. So Dennis Shruder, Devin Carter, Malik Monk, I’m missing one. Keon Ellis.
Keon Ellis for now.
Yep. Zack Lavine. Um, small. Okay. So, first of all, Ty Jerome isn’t a isn’t a point guard at all. Yeah, he’s a he’s a point guard in the way Malik Monk is a point guard. Yeah, actually he’s not even a point guard as much as Malik is a point guard. Yeah, he can just in No, I don’t I don’t know.
Yeah, the the final year is partially guaranteed. I’m going to guess it’s like a three million or $5 million guarantee. And hey, if Shuder is a is still a strong player at that point, like why not? Okay, we have 20 seconds and then the radio portion of this program begins and we’re going to start saying the F-word like fun team friendly contract.
Fabulous [Laughter] first round pick.
Yeah, Joe hit the All right, good morning everybody. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson, Joe Brazil in the cut. We’re the insider sponsored by Jify Lube. All right. Um, the Kings are finally doing stuff and we’re going to try and make sense of it today because the NBA hit uh the crazy button this morning. If ever if you’re watching on YouTube and Twitch or watching on YouTube, please hit the thumbs up. We would appreciate you immensely for doing that and subscribe to the channel if you don’t. We’re on here every single day, Monday through Friday, James and I 10:00 a.m. to noon, DLO and Casey, noon to 4. Uh, we don’t change stream. It’s just all the same thing. So, so come hang out with us each and every day as we talk sports, Kings, Niners, Giants, Raiders, A’s, whatever, whatever’s going on. Uh, we got you. If you’re listening on 1320 a.m. and 98.5 FMD2, good morning. We appreciate you. If you’re listening on the free Odyssey app, thank you. Hello. If you don’t have the free Odyssey app, download that. Search ESPN 1320 and uh you can listen to our station live anywhere around the world. Take us with you. Anyways, there you go.
So, I don’t even know where to start. Matt, a friend of the program, Matt Moore, HP Basketball on Twitter, Hardwood Peroxism.
Yep.
Said, “I don’t even know where to begin writing.” And that’s exactly how I kind of feel about this King stuff because they’ve now agreed to sign Dennis Rutder to a three-year $45 million deal with the third year partially guaranteed.
Yep. Jonas Valenunis has been traded to the Denver Nuggets for Dario Sarge in a salary dump. And now we’re sitting here with Dennis Shruder still being the most substantial thing the Kings have done. And I think where, you know, I I saw Kenny talking about this last night on Twitter, how people need to need to relax and, you know, you’re you’re saying today like, “God, people are so angry.” I think it’s just the uncertainty of what is this?
Yeah.
What what is this? Are they trying this year? Are they in a in a quote unquote gap year? Are they’re not tearing it down? They’re clearly not going to tank. I don’t I I I think the frustration is and where my frustration lies is I there’s no path here. There’s no clear direction here. This is get a point guard. All right, you got him.
Yeah. I mean, like, look, um, the salary cap is 155 million bucks. And the luxury tax is 150 188 million. The first apron is like 198 million.
But you just signed a point guard. And I know people want to freak out cuz this is Dennis Shruder’s 10th uh team in his 13th NBA season.
Fourth team in 12 months.
He’s not young. Um but he does do a lot of the things that the Kings want to do. He does play defense. He he does push the tempo. Uh he does shoot the three ball. Um he’s not a perfect, you know, he’s not perfect at any of these things. Um but he is the best free agent guard point guard on the market. And people can bring up Ty Jerome or they can bring up Tyus Jones or Trey Jones. The fact is like Dennis Shruder is a better player than all of those guys
and and he’s also a more natural point guard than Ty Jerome. Uh he’s a better scorer than either of the Jones brothers. He’s just he’s a better point guard. So I think where we we kind of get caught up in this saying is what exactly are the Kings doing with the Malik Monk situation? Uh I I know Jake Fischer had a lot of stuff on a potential signin trade for uh for Shruder and Monk last night. Um it at this point it does not appear that that is what’s happening. Um and and basically like I couldn’t make sense of of a swap Dennis Shrutder for Malik Monk swap. And I I can even tell people like look when you hear that uh the Kings traded Yonas Valenunis for Dario Sarich and saved five million bucks. They’re not saving 5 million bucks to put it in VC or a DB’s pocket. That’s not what they’re doing.
What they’re doing is trying to lower their salary right now so they can do other moves because if not they’re right up against the luxury tax. You sign Dennis Shruder to a deal that starts at 14.1 million. That’s the mid-level exception. They just gave up their mid-level exception. Okay.
Right.
That would have put them at roughly 183 million and the luxury tax is 188. You have no room to move.
You have $5 million to work with. Yeah. And at that point, if you would have signed Jake Laorabia, who the Kings lost yesterday, if you would have signed Jake Laorabia, you’re at or over the luxury tax
and you’re done.
Mhm.
Right. So, by trading Valenunis, now you drop all the way down to like 178 million. Now you got about 10 million to play under the luxury tax. And look, they’re not done. At least I don’t think they’re done. They’re they still have the ability to go out and and sign more. Like we’ve heard the Russell Westbrook rumors. We’ve heard like all, you know, Malcolm Brogden. They’re going to talk to Malcolm Brogden, but
Zoom with Malcolm Brogden.
Yeah, they’re going to zoom. They had all these Zoom set up yesterday. So like at some point, you’re still going to have to address the lack of depth at the forwards uh spots. You still have Demard Rosen and and Nick as your only small forwards. You have Keegan Murray as your only true power forward. You can put Dario Sarich in that, but let’s be honest, Dario Sarich is looking more and more like he’s washed.
I will I will hear a lot of things today. Like I said, I’m not I’m not in the place where it’s like fire everybody. What a disaster. Everything is off. I’m not I I I’m not there.
Yeah. Like I said, it’s just the the general I I expect there to be a very clear direction of like, oh, this is what they’re doing. This is how this affects immediate immediate. This is how this affects two and three years down the line. And it’s looking more and more like this is this quote unquote gap year we keep talking about.
Yeah.
This is that this is, hey, we got some some rough contracts to move. Uh they’ll be easier to move down the line, so we’re just going to kind of do that. And that’s fine. You’re just not going to sell that to me.
No. I I I’m not going to be okay with like, hey, the the Kings are going to be like a nine or 10 seat again this year. It’s fine. Everything’s cool. Like, I just That’s yucky. I don’t want I’m not I’m not doing that. But what I won’t be talked into is Dario Sarge.
Oh, yeah.
I’m sorry. I will You can have the Purplest glasses in the greater Sacramento region and you’re not going to be able to talk me into Dario Sarge.
No, that’s fine.
As a as a like option.
Yeah. Like three years ago, I would have loved to have had Dario Sarge. four years ago. But yeah, Daario Sarich’s career path has gone uh pretty much
not the right direction.
No, it it’s gone away. And like look, they could buy out Dario Sar tomorrow and and spread his $5 million contract, 5.4 million bucks over three years u and so cost you 1.5 million. That’s another three million they can free up in in money to to get closer to get just add more depth to this roster. I I don’t I don’t think at this point that the Kings are even close to done. And I can even explain people that were out there freaking out last night because of the Malik Monk thing.
Yes.
Like look, if if there was an opportunity for you to trade Malik Monk for for Dennis Shruder, on paper, that doesn’t sound great, right? Because I bad
I said this last week without any question. I believe that Malik Monk is a better basketball player than Dennis Shruder. You’d be trading a younger better player for an older worse player. Yeah, that’s a really hard sell for me, man.
I I get it. But I I would also say like Dennis Shruder is a true point guard where Malik Monk isn’t.
He is. I mean that he plays the position. He has played the position. I’m perfectly fine with them going into the season with Shruder and Monk. I think that that’s actually a really dynamic point guard pairing. It’s not De’Arren Fox. It’s not going out and getting John Morant, but what it is is you’re going out and you’re you’re filling up the 48 minutes at that position with two guys that can really cook. And I’m okay with that. But the reason why you would have traded Malik Monk in a deal for Dennis Shruder is very specific. It would it would have been a signing trade which would have hardcaped the team at 198 million which they’re not getting to anyways, right? Mhm.
But on top of that, it would have kept the mid-level exception. So, the Kings would still have that 14.1 million bucks
that they can either trade or they can trade for a player to come into that money or they can go out and sign a player for that money.
They would have had that as well as Dennis Shruder.
So, while you’re losing Monk,
Mhm. you would have had the ability to go out and still continue to make moves and it would have dropped their payroll all the way to like 163 million which would have given them$ 25 million underneath the luxury tax and 35 million under the the first apron and where they would be hardcapped
as of right now they’re not hardcapped if if this is a straight sign uh of of Dennis Shruder to the mid-level exception then they are not hardcapped and they can continue to do business accordingly. But that doesn’t mean that they have a bunch of money to go do stuff. What they do have is they still have the Kevin Herder uh $16.8 billion trade exception. They’ve got a couple other trade exceptions. I I’m I’m pretty sure that in this deal to move Dario Sarich for uh Yonas Valenunis that they probably use a Chris Wart uh
like a um a TPE, the traded player exception, but that that thing was going to expire in like three days anyways. Five days. Yeah. Uh so like look, they’re tightroppe walking right now. They’re trying to piece together a team. um trying to be competitive, which I know you can disagree with,
but that’s why Scott Perry was brought in here, not to tear it down, but to build something different in his image uh while remaining competitive. While whether they remain competitive or not, that’s a whole other story. Like, we don’t know if they’re going to remain competitive. But as of right now, if they just gave up their mid-level, they still have their byanual exception, a little over 5 million. Uh they still have these trade exceptions, so they can go trade for somebody. uh they still have minimum contracts that they can sign for people. I just think that this might as of right now if if uh again Malik Monk is staying in Sacramento for right now.
Uh that does kind of extinguish any like chase of Russell Westbrook.
It’s uninspiring. No, I agree.
All the names you’re saying are so uninspiring this idea that yeah, you can go make a trade for the with this with this trade exception. Like all right, man. Like I guess it sounds like it sounds like you’re just throwing I’m going to use the phrase band-aids again. Just yeah. Hey, here’s here’s some stuff. Look, we made moves. And I don’t know, man. It just doesn’t We wanted a direction, right? The the we talked about you need that point guard. You need a point guard to build around. Tyrese Hallebertton, Shay Gil, just Alexander. Look what the freaking Hawks are doing around Trey Young this off seasonason. Yeah.
Like, man, it is so much easier if you have that point guard to build around. You got to go find that guy. And then it’s like, hey, here’s Dennis Shruder. Call us in a couple of years. Just wait till we can get off these contracts. That’s not a plan, dude.
No. No. I get you.
And I And I understand that he inherited a mess. Like I said, I I I I’m not fully in the what are they doing? Everything’s terrible. But at the same time, I I’m not going to be talked into, wow, hey, Sunshine and Rainbows, man. Look, they got a point guard.
Mhm. like at least they can finally now move on with their off seasonason because apparently this was priority number one. There’s a Keon extension to do. You got a Keegan extension to do. Yeah,
you gota you got to figure all that out still.
Well, I’ I’d also tell you this. It does look like like Scott Perry’s looking at the next two years as like how do I get through the next two years? How do I get through the finalund well 97 million or whatever it is it’s owed Zack Lavine? How do I get through the demar de Rozan two years remaining? Um whether it’s one or two years, right? How and if this is what I’m going to work with right now, I’m going to add Dennis Shruder to just get us through this two-year window. And that doesn’t mean that it’s a full two-year window. It could mean that at the trade deadline, somebody comes and knocking and says, “Hey, we’ll take Demar De Rozan.” And you make a move or hey, you know, we got a year and a half left of Zack Lavine. Somebody want to take on the contract. you make some move at the deadline. So, what we’re looking at is placeholders
until they can figure out, you know, the path forward.
And the path forward, like here, it’s not going to be easy. Like one of the worst things that ever happened was that you allowed and this is again this isn’t even a knock on Zack Lavine. But when you take a starting point guard that you build a team around, you talk about the Trey Youngs, you talk about you know John Moran that Memphis is out there building around John Moran where you know all of these point guards that they build around. you had your point guard to build around and you traded him for an overpriced shooting guard with a long history of of
not only not playing defense, but a long history of injury. Mhm.
Like
you traded for a bad contract. Yeah. Well, not only a bad contract, but a player at a position that realistically isn’t that difficult to fill that you already had multiples of. Mhm.
So when you did that, you unbalance a roster so greatly
that there’s no way to to really to like everybody right now is is on the other side of the boat trying to keep the thing from capsizing. Totally.
Because you brought in a contract that doesn’t make any sense
and that’s just really really difficult to recover from. And that’s that’s the job that Scott Perry accepted.
No. And that’s that’s understood. I think I think where the other frustration comes in
Mhm.
because nothing you said is wrong. Like I’m not I don’t I’m not disagreeing with you, but I think where the frustration comes in is they take this huge swing to acquire Demon Sabonis, right? Like you trade Tyrese Hallebertton who is a who is a who is a rising star, but you get Demon Sabonis and hey, this thing works. And then that was like the last major move they made.
That was the last huge swing they took. And that was what three years ago now, four years ago now. Yeah. Four years ago. So, I think when when you’re the Kings and you’re like, man, it would take a huge swing to kind of get out of this. What’s what’s the big move that’s coming? Where’s the And you see Milwaukee waving Damen Lillard and just eating 22 million a year for 5 years and saying, “Hey, we’re going to do this and then we’re going to sign Miles Turner.” And you see Denver able to get off Michael Porter Jr’s contract for Cam Johnson and then sign Bruce Brown to the minimum. And uh what else did they do? And then acquire Jonas Valenunis.
Yeah.
Like you see all these teams do it. You see Atlanta doing all this stuff. You see Phoenix moving mountains to to try and change their situation. And then the Kings are like how about Dennis Shruder? Like trust us, we’re do like it seems like every other team is able to to function and maneuver and make this big swing. And for years with Monty McNair, we heard financial flexibility, uh, patience, and we’re gonna wait and bite our time, and then we’re gonna strike. And it just never happened. And, and now it kind of feels like, hey, financial flexibility, we’re going to wait and buy our time. Dog, that’s a really hard sell given how the last three years.
Yep. I agree.
We got to step aside on the radio. We’re going to play some commercials and then we’ll keep talking about this. We’ve got a ton of King stuff coming up. We got to get into the the Milwaukee Bucks insane moves. Denver looks awesome. Atlanta continues to win the offseason which is kind of crazy.
Houston
Houston winning the off. There is so much going on in the NBA and we’re going to cover all of it and there’s going to be news breaking throughout the day. So do not go anywhere on ESPN 1320. This is the Insiders. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Loop. Joe’s over there. That’s James. I’m Kyle. Uh we’re rocking with you until noon on Sacramento Sports. Thanks Joe. Uh, hey, if you guys don’t mind, hit the thumbs up for us. Subscribe to the channel. I think you have to subscribe if you’re in the chat. So, um, yeah, we certainly aren’t homers. like like when I dive deep into the contract stuff, it’s so people understand the the money, the financial side of it, and like there is actually financial issues here at play, but I I’m not going to sugarcoat this whole situation. Um, and like look, we we’ve got to let Scott Perry do his work and and if he figures out a way to get out of this mess faster. Um, you know, that’d be great. No, Bruce Brown can’t come to the Kings. I don’t know why this question. Bruce Brown already signed with the Denver Nuggets on a league minimum. Well, he’s going back.
The Nuggets got rid of Michael Porter Jr. and opened up their midle in the same move.
Yeah. Like and got Cam Johnson. Yeah. Which I think what they did there is they they opened up their midlevel and then made the move uh uh to get Yonas with that money.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like really impressive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh salute for the 999. Thank you so much. That makes our station look great. Um to the to the corporate overlords. Uh, this looks like a tank to
We don’t get that money though.
No, we we do not, but it represents our performance at the station. So, salute to you guys. Um, yeah, this is just I I I think this is kind of what I’m saying.
Yeah,
like it’s it’s a tank, but more a you can’t tank when you have Demon.
Too many good players to be bad enough to tank
and Zack Leavine,
but their contracts aren’t they’re in that. They’re they’re in that like there’s the players who are expensive, but any team would take them immediately, right? Giannis. If Giannis becomes available, teams are going to clear their books to get Giannis. Then you’ve got the Bradley Beals who are on bad contracts and don’t really help you win. Uh, and they’re hurt a lot. And then you’ve got what the Kings have, which are players who are like on not great contracts, but they’re not bad players. Mhm. Okay. They’re just now back to The Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. W This is tough, man.
One of those days. It’s just It is. No, it is. It’s it’s just it’s it’s not like I said I don’t I don’t want to come across as though I I believe the world is is the sky is falling right like I don’t because I don’t think it’s that
it’s just a general frustration with okay man Scott Perry’s opening press or he’s t man he just knows what to say he emphasized the need for a point guard okay yeah they’re going to they know they need a point guard who who can they go get who can they trade for who can they really really shake up this roster and then it just turns out those avenues aren’t there.
I don’t think we ever even got to Dennis Rutder. Like on the list of point guards, like we had this list of point guards that you you like would have to trade for that you’d have to give a a whole bunch for,
right? And then we had this other list of of potential free agents.
Maybe Shruder was on Shruder, Taius Jones, Trey Jones. Those were like the big three.
Okay.
Top of the list. And then and then Westbrook had his option. I think Malcolm Brogton was on the list.
Yeah.
Down basically everyone who had played minutes.
No, that that that’s true. It just felt like we skipped over the possibility of shooter and like look this is a reasonable he’s a reasonable player. He’s a guy who’s been a starter in the league for years and
totally.
Yeah.
We didn’t and this is and again this is this is where there’s there’s nuance to this
in a vacuum. Dennis Shruder is not bad. I don’t think Dennis Shruder is a bad player. But we went from not really even mentioning him. When we did Kings point guard options, we said, “Here’s the free agents.” Wow, these are all super uninspiring. Every name we say like, “Yeah, maybe Trey Jones. He’s 25. Maybe he’s got something another level to hit. Maybe.” But it was like Tyus Jones. Nah. Dennis Shooter, me. You need to find that point guard to build around. That dude to build around.
Yep.
And then you wind up here. And again, it’s not it’s not that this is bad. It’s not that honestly uh the Kings are better today than they were yesterday, I think.
No, they are. They That’s
They got better today.
So, so that’s where I’m struggling with this because I do not think that Dennis Shruder is bad. He’s pesky defender. He he can handle the basketball. Um good first step. Like every every once in a while you’ll see him. He he gets into the lane, can draw fouls. You he distributes just kind of does does the things, but he’s just a guy He doesn’t do anything particularly special. And so, yes, it’s it’s a point guard, but when the expectation was Scott Perry’s going to really shake things up, he’s going to flip this roster on its head. People aren’t going to know what hit him. And the move is trade Valenunis and a salary dump for Dario Sarich who’s washed and then add Dennis Rutder. Okay, here you go. It’s like, man, all right, I guess. So it just it just pushes I I I was under the expectation there would be some kind of seismic move coming from the Kings and maybe there still is and we’re just not hearing about it.
Yeah, there there might still be and I am I will be happy to change my tune be thrilled but we’re going into the the the second day of free agency here and we’ve seen all these massive moves happen. It’s just like I said, like I like I said, it’s just a hard sell to be like, “Hey, just wait two years.”
Yeah. And
I don’t want to I Yeah. No, I get you. I get you. And I’ll also like when the Kings went out and traded for Yonas Valentunis, I thought, man, what a move, right? But that was to get you through the last half of last season and try to, you know, try to make some sort of impact, right? Um you don’t need a $10 million backup center when your starter is an AllNBA player that makes 45 million a year. you don’t. And so I get that move. Now, I’m not saying, hey, it’s okay that the the Kings have um you know, again, like that the rookie is going to play, that Maxim Reno is going to step in and and be this massive player for the Kings. I don’t believe that to be the case. Like, I still think the Kings need something different. But I’ll also tell you that for as much as I really like Yonas Valenunis as a player, the Kings h have to have like some of the basic things that that other teams have.
Mhm.
Like number one, length and athleticism at the wing. We’ve been banging the table for that for like, you know, uh what is happening? Why can’t you go find a guy since day one of this radio program?
Yeah. It’s just like why can’t you do that, right? But let’s not ex like forget the fact that the Kings need a like a true rim runner, a guy who blocks shots at the at the four, the five.
They have to have that guy a lob threat for a guy like Malik Monk or heaven forbid Dennis Shruder to actually lob the ball to like they haven’t had that guy for like three years. The last time they had the guy was Javale McGee and Jale Jale McGee was like at that point was what 35 36 and hasn’t played in the league since. Like so you can’t just keep loading up on positions with the wrong type of player.
Mhm.
And so yeah, like trading Yonas Valenunis to me like again I think Yonas Valenun is one of the nicest NBA players I’ve ever met. Every time he walked in the locker room he fistbumped everybody, walked around the room, greeted everybody. He walked by you, put his hand on your shoulder, hey, what’s going on? How are you today? Like, good dude, but that doesn’t mean that he was the right fit. And I’m not saying like going out and getting a guy like Kai Jones is is going to change the landscape in Sacramento.
Sure.
But it might give the Kings a different look that they don’t have today.
Mhm.
And something like that makes more sense than spending $10 million a year on Yonas Valenunis. And and I agree like hey he’s a great backup center but like this team isn’t to a point where they they need to prioritize a backup center that can be a starter. They need a different look type center.
So this is and and Michael Jones says this in the chat and I think it’s I think it’s a valid observation. He said we went from we need a backup center to eh Jonas Valenunis is too expensive. And it’s not I it’s not that Jonas Valenunis is too expensive. is that Jonas Valenunis is the type of backup center you want when you’re a team that fancies itself a playoff team that wants to make a playoff run.
Yeah.
I think what you’re seeing right now and and again, this is where I get a little bit stuck in my in my brain that wants to move logically. I’m frustrated with how slow this is going, but also moving on from Jonas Valenjunis is something that Kings were going to have to do here in this roster revamp or rebuild or retool or whatever. I don’t even know what we’re calling it. But moving on from Yiannis Valent is going to have to happen. And if that means that hey, as part of a quote unquote their version of a tank or whatever this is, it means that you’re going to play your second round center a lot and see what he’s got in the NBA and you’re going to take a couple of losses. If it means that he can he can earn his lumps in the NBA and and figure it out, I I don’t I don’t hate that. Now, I I hate it. Again, we we don’t we don’t know what what moves are coming down the line for the Kings, but where we sit right now, I would hate it if that was a pure salary dump.
Yeah.
If that winds up being, hey, what what Michael Jones said, he was too expensive. We’re not going to be competitive, so we just want his 10. We can take Dario Sar’s just over here. We can save five million bucks. Two thumbs up. That sucks. But I’m not ready to I’m not there because we haven’t seen that yet.
Yeah. And and I think that people need to understand that there’s a difference between a salary dump to like line the pockets of an owner, right? You know, to save money
to save money, right?
Versus a salary dump that opens up more space so you can actually go do more things,
you know, like and again, like it’s complicated. Um, even even the Shruder play, they could still do like a a signin trade uh for Shruder with Detroit. And you know, somebody brings up a really good point. They could actually use uh Yosi Goslin um who what is this? What does he do? Um he’s an NBA salary cap analyst uh for the Third Apron, right? Third Apron podcast. Uh need a PhD to be a cap analyst these days.
Yeah, exactly. Um, the Kings could actually use the Kevin Herder trade exception in a sign-in trade to acquire uh, Shruder
and that would retain their mid-level exception at 14.1 million. The reason why you would do this, like the two exceptions, one’s bigger than the other clearly, but the reason why you would do that is very specific. um if you’re able to manipulate the cap, a trade exception um isn’t that valuable because it can only be used to acquire a player via trade. The mid level is extremely valuable because number one, you can break it up into multiple pieces.
Mhm.
Uh all the way up to the 14.1 million. You can also use it for up to a four-year deal. And so there are all these little things about like that type of that exception itself that that makes a lot of sense. But the problem is again the Kings would be a tax team if they used a full midle after they did did this deal.
So it like we’re going to keep spinning around in circles. At some point we’re going to see what the plan is.
We are.
That’s that’s it.
Yep. I do I do again while while I’m not like hey this is awesome everything is so good right now I also wouldn’t be shocked if we find out sometime during our show sometime during DLO and Casey noon to 4 right here on ESPN 1320 that there is the Kings are maybe part of some significant trade
that does shake up the roster in some meaningful way but I think for now while the expectation was they would be working on that and doing that early and really be big players in free agency and the trade market. They just haven’t been.
Yeah.
And and I do not because I feel this and I do not blame any Kings fan who’s sitting there going, I don’t have the patience for this anymore. I’m done being patient. I’m done uh raising banners for for for financial flexibility. Use it. Do something with it. Like I think I think that’s what what Joe was saying this morning before the show. Like I just don’t have like I don’t want to wait anymore.
No,
I don’t trust them to do is that am I am I you just
Yeah.
You don’t trust that that move that that we’re saying, hey, this could be there. You don’t trust that it’s there.
Yeah. Ex. Yeah. Pretty much what I said was that they haven’t given me any reason to give them any more patience. Um and that’s kind of
exactly it. I mean, if they if I had something to lean on, something from the past where I was like, “Okay, yeah,
we’ll have a little bit of patience, work this out, maybe, but I have nothing to work with at the moment.” So, yeah. No, I’m not feeling very patient.
Yeah, you got to prove it.
I guess that’s just it. And maybe I I like I said, I’m crossing my fingers, my toes, whatever that there’s a different not a different another significant move coming because if the moves are Yeah. Hey, they have what, what’ you say, 10 million under the under the luxury tax right now.
Yeah, roughly
is filling that $10 million with a couple of players and that’s it.
Yeah, that’s tough. That’s tough.
No, I I get it. I get it. But, you know, we went from last night where if you watch social media last night, the outpouring from Kings fans who just freaked out because it was possible that they were going to trade Malik Monk for Dennis Shrruder in this trade in this transaction.
Bad. The optics of it are bad, but like look, when you bring in a new GM, we warned you of this. Like, we told you the entire time. This is going to get painful.
Do not go buy a Kings jersey right now.
Wait until the the jersey drops 50% off for a player who’s not there anymore.
Sure.
Because that’s probably going to happen. And we’re not done yet. Like, we’re not done at all. I think for me one of the biggest frustrating parts I I’ll I’ll say this is that you had two young players that are in play this off season, right?
One of them was Jake Lorravia and you lost him for nothing
to the Lakers.
You lost him for absolutely and there’s nothing you could do about that deal to be honest with you. Good riddens. If Jake Lorravia wants to leave and try somewhere new for $700,000 more over two years when you easily could have made the second year non-G guaranteed money and he could have made more money. Like you could have you could have given him a player option and he could have had full Larry Bird rights next season. Like this could very much hurt Jake Larabia’s long-term money
because now in order for him to establish Larry Bird rights, he has to play his two years with the Lakers to get early bird rights and then has to play another year to get full bird rights.
Jeez.
On the cheap.
Yeah. So like he could very well never ever get to a point where he gets his bird rights back.
Yikes.
In the NBA. And so like for him to take that deal, okay, I you know, like I I I think I like Jake Lorravia, but I wasn’t sold that Jake Laravia is like the end all be all. He had one really really good game early, his first game when he showed up and was like this this, you know, 90 seconds of brilliance where he scored eight points and I think we all got like all excited. Hey, Jake Larivia. But like I’m going to put him in the Ike Diagu category. Like, yeah, like Diagu finished the season averaging 30 points a game over the final two games and then I don’t think he ever played again in the NBA.
Like that’s just like sometimes players have moments. I’m not going to pin everything to like that, but you had two young players in Jake Lorravia and Keon Ellis. One of them is gone and the other one very well could be gone because you didn’t have any room to do something to like keep him long term. Mhm.
And that’s, you know, again, if they would have been able to do this deal, if they would have been able to do the Jonas Valentunis deal like 4 days ago, if they would have known for sure that they had that deal done,
then you should have not picked up the option year on Keon Ellis and you should have just paid him.
But like still I think they’re 10 million under the luxury tax right now like and you add in the 2 million that Keon’s going to make. Would he have accepted 12 million?
Sure.
Maybe, maybe not. He might have said, “No, I want the full 14 or whatever it is that I’m gonna get on the open market.”
So, yeah, it’s complicated, but look, we at at the end of the day, I think we have to wait and see how all of these moves play out. And I’m not saying don’t get angry. I’m saying like wait and see and then get angry.
I don’t And that’s the thing is I don’t think anybody’s burning their Kings jerseys. I don’t think people are getting rid of their season tickets for this. They might. But I don’t think I don’t think that’s what’s happening. I think you’re seeing a fan base that has been told over and over and over again that got to the playoffs and then missed the playoffs in the next two years in service of financial flexibility and just wait and know to tell that same fan base, well hang on, financial flexibility, just wait. You can’t do that and expect people to be like, oh, got it. Yeah. Like no, nobody’s not going to watch the Kings this year. be fired up when when it’s when it’s game one and and we’ll we’ll start the regular season. But for now, uh I I think it’s it’s been underwhelming. And I think the other thing is you start talking through that is you kind of lay out how this is all gone. I think that’s what’s that’s the part that’s sticking for me and that’s the part where where the frustration sets in is this doesn’t feel like a plan. This all feels very reactionary. This all feels like um Okay, we’ll wait on Jake Larivia. Oh, shoot. Oh, he’s gone. Okay, that’s fine. Uh or before that, we’ll wait on the Keon thing. We’ll get that worked out. Oh, hey, uh the deadline’s here. We don’t have any money to pay him, so we’ll just pick up his option and kick that can down the road and like, oh, this Jonas Valentunis trade just opened. Uh yeah, sure. Here, you take him. We’ll take That’s what all of this feels like. This does not feel like this well-calulated plan where Scott Perry’s going, “Okay, we’re going to move this and then we’re going to move this around. We’re going to do this and now we’re set up to to knock down these dominoes that we’ve been setting up.” It feels like a scramble and just trying to get their arms around the offseason as every other team is making all these moves.
I I get that. I would also like I think my rebuttal would be I think it’s possible that like people like us who sit here and talk about fake trades and things that we you know like we had our our
favorite thing
that are our fake trades of the day.
I was on fanso this morning brother.
Yeah. But when when we create an element that like maybe you can do this, maybe you can do this, maybe you can build this team quickly, I just don’t think they’re able to do it. I think they went out on the market with um with, you know, they set up their table at at the local market and they put all the cards out on the table that they were willing to to trade
and people just kept walking by their table and and you know, glanced over and like, “Hey, no, I Yeah, I’m not interested.” What do you think? $4 for that, Malik Monk?
You know, the guy at Costco that keeps asking you what cell phone plan you have and you just keep walking. No, thank you. I’m good. That’s what exactly just happened to the Kings. Like a bunch of people just walked by their table and said, “Yeah, I’m not interested in what you have.” Sure.
And that’s the reality.
They want Dennis. Well, now you got another guy that uh it’s very possible that people don’t want
that you you won’t be able to move off of and Dennis Shruder because like a bunch of teams have moved off in the past.
Sure.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I still think he’s a top six, seven of a rotation player in the NBA for a almost every team, but whether he like for the money that you gave him and the money that you had to give him because you’re always going to pay a tax for being the Sacramento Kings and being a small market and being a team that’s known for dysfunction. Um, like look, I just hope what you didn’t do here is is sign a guy and two weeks from now he turns into George Hill and and stops playing basketball or he turns into Luis Severino and just wants to complain the whole time. That’s what I hope you didn’t get.
Yeah.
Cuz that that’s where it’ be like, okay, not only is this disappointing as far as like what you could have got and what people wanted you to go get, but if he’s not happy and he wants to be that guy, then that makes it even worse. That’s that makes it 10 times worse because I think the ideal is okay, you’re bringing in a stop gap, but it you know what, he’s going to play hard. He’s going to be scrappy. He’s going to be this culture setting veteran.
Yep.
And if he does the opposite of that, that’s a that’s a freaking disaster, man.
Yep.
We’ll keep talking Kings off season. Uh any news that breaks, we’ll have it for you. So don’t go anywhere on ESPN 1320. Uh Sacramento Sports Leader. We are the insiders sponsored by Jiffy Lube. That’s James. I’m Kyle. He’s Joe. Uh we’re going to put a pin in the kings briefly to talk about some of the other insane stuff that’s going on around the NBA today. We’ll break all that down for you and have any breaking NBA news for you on the insiders. He’s James. Joe, Kyle, I’ve said all this. Voice guy, get me out of here. Voice guy, get me out of here only plays on the radio side where people hear the voice guy on the stream here. This is I can’t even. It’s just our voice guy who says all the stuff that I say on the way. You know, I’m sure we could play voice guy over the stream or we could just keep it ambiguous. It’s up to you.
No, keep it ambiguous. Oh, the Spurs lost. Uh, Sandro Meella. Sure.
I liked him. He’s a big like burly tattooed dude.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um,
he’s the Jonas Valentunis of Yakables. So, and I had to stop like the baby giraffe dude. Like when I got Kings players in the locker room saying, “Who the hell is this baby giraffe dude?” Yeah. I like I couldn’t I couldn’t follow him. I had to block him on Twitter. I just couldn’t deal with like seeing his stuff. Um there was something else. Yeah. Hey, I I totally I I will continue to say this, but just because you want a top 20 point guard, a top 15 point guard is what I kept saying, it doesn’t mean that someone’s going to let you have a top 15 point guard. So, and uh a lot of the the players that we’ve been talking about, teams decided to build around those guys. Like straight up, they decided to build around, you know, the the Hawks decided to build around Trey Young. The uh the Grizzlies have decided to build around John Morant. the Kings don’t have the guy to build around and and realistically I’m not putting that on Monty and Wes allowed it to happen on the way out the door but um I know enough that that is not what they wanted to do and they said no to that type of transaction for a very long time before they didn’t have the power to say no anymore. H I don’t think this has anything to do I mean Dear Fox is a is a guy who shoots like I don’t know seven times more a game eight times more game than Dennis Shritter. I don’t think they’re done making moves but like whether they can make a move that makes sense or not I I don’t think we know the answer to that yet. Yeah, Chris, I’d say it’s this off seasonason or it’s the following off season. The following offseason, the Kings should be so flush with cash, it’s crazy. It’s okay everyone. The following off season. That’s the uh that’s what um what’s his ass in LA said.
Oh,
they have to maintain flexibility in 2027. All right. Can the herder be uh TPE be used to in a deal for Kaminga? Yes, but no. Uh yes, theoretically you could use the the TPE to acquire Kaminga, but Kaminga wants more than 16.8 million and that’s all you can offer up is 16.8 million. So, so yes and no. Kaminga wants more money than that. And to be honest with you, if he were to sign for 16.8 million, the Warriors would just keep him.
Yep. So, so yes and no. It can be used to acquire him, but again, you can’t uh aggregate a TPE. It can’t go um like you can’t add that and another TPE or you can’t take a traded player exception and add it to Malik Monk’s contract and all a sudden you’ve got $35 million to play with. That’s not the way it works. Now back to the insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. James is there. I’m Kyle. That’s Joe. Gonna talk about hard roster moves. The Bucks waved Damen Lillard today.
Is crazy. So, we talked about this a little bit yesterday, how Bradley Beal couldn’t just be waved because of his contract. Mhm.
But the reason Dame can be waved, even though he has a super expensive contract, is there’s some Keith Smith of Spa broke this down on on Twitter. Go find his Twitter for the full readout, but basically the Suns already have $3.8 million stretched. So Beiel’s contract would take them over like a 15% of the cap or something.
Oh, got it.
And Dames does not buy like $600,000. So that’s why they were able to do it and the Suns can’t
at least this year. So
yeah. Okay. So, um
I just Go ahead.
I also like Damen Lillard from what I’ve read has really struggled being away from his family.
Yeah.
Uh and he’s a guy who has always been on the West Coast. uh he’s a big Oakland guy, but also, you know, his family uh they established roots there in Portland, and it’s just been very difficult. And he’s going to be sitting here uh like rehabbing for a year.
Yeah.
He he’ll he I don’t think he’s playing at all this year.
I’d be I would be very surprised if he plays this year.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
If you’re the Kings, do you just call
go, “Hey, hey, you’re a Bay Area guy. Come out to Sacramento. You’re an hour and a half up the road. You can rehab here with great medical staff, rehab here, and finish out your career. Would you sign him to like a three-year deal for that?
I mean, if it’s for pennies because he’s making 22 million bucks for the next five years.
Yeah. I mean,
because I’ve seen because I hear what you’re saying about the the reports about he he didn’t like being away from his family in Milwaukee, but then you see a report that like Miami is interested in Dam, which obviously, but that’s even further away than Milwaukee. Yeah.
So, if I’m the Kings I’m calling, dude, I’d give him I’d say like, “Hey, we can’t pay you a ton, but we’re going to guarantee you three years, including 25 26.” I wouldn’t doubt that he does that either with Portland or he does that with the Warriors. Like those are two places where he has established roots. It’s possible like with the Kings, he’d say, “Okay, I
I’ll consider it.”
Yeah, we got a starting job for you next year. Yeah. Uh someone in the chat asked, uh why was Severino catching strays from James? Uh Severino took a whole bunch of money from the A’s and then got to Sacramento and just wants to complain every single day that he’s in Sacramento. uh his his
complained specifically about the ballpark.
Yeah. Yeah. About the ballpark. Exactly. And I get it. Like
they did not they did not pull the rug out. He knew exactly what he was getting into.
Yeah. Yeah. But he’s made it an issue.
He’s catching a stray because he’s unloading the clip every chance he gets.
Every single chance he gets. And he’s got to the point where the A’s are done with him and ready to move him. And to be honest with you, I think Mark Cay is done with him because when I watch him go out there and start giving up a couple of runs and then Kay just lets it ride. Yeah.
And leaves him out there and say, “All right, go ahead. You’ll you’ll take the seven earned.”
That’s fine with me. Or the six earned that you took the other day.
Yeah.
Uh the reverse is just, you know, we’re not going to sidetrack this completely. I also get Severino being frustrated because the A’s are a little league defensive team. I have never seen anything so incred not only not only defensively but on the base pads like what are you doing?
Yeah.
Like I you’re down three to nothing and you run to two outs in the seventh inning or the eighth inning
so bad.
Like every single game like again you put a a guy who’s never played third base at third base and
we’re going to talk Kings in a second. Everybody go ahead. a guy who’s never played left field and left field and then a ball drops between them like once every three games and it’s just really really horrible to watch. If I’m Severino, I’m more upset about the fact that my team can’t field routine plays again and again and again and I keep giving up runs
because they don’t catch a popup.
That’s where I’d be frustrated. Sorry.
No, you’re good. This is the insiders. We’re talking a lot of kings today, but you needed to get that off your chest with the A’s. I understand. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Loop. Joe Brazil’s here. That’s James. I’m Kyle. I have a question about Malik Monk.
Mhm.
I know we were just talking about Dame. I’ll save the Malik Monk thing. Uh when we take a pin out of the Kings, it’ll be about Malik. Uh we were talking about the Bucks. So they wave Damen Lillard and stretch provision him. So they’ll pay him $22 million a year. That he’ll cost them $22 million a year for the next five.
And then they turn around and they sign Miles Turner to a four-year $107 million deal. And then we get a report from Chris Haynes that Giannis is upset that Dame has been waved. But then we get a report from Shams that Giannis actively recruited Miles Turner.
There’s no way that they didn’t lay out the cards and show him
a thousand freaking%.
Like this is how we get Miles Turner. Dame’s got to go.
Absolutely.
And Dame can come back and sign there in two in Well, I think he can. Yeah. Oh, maybe he can’t. The length of No, it’s just the length of the deal. Yeah. Oh, no. No. He can’t sign back in Milwaukee for two years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, uh, the Bucks, I think, got substantially better,
but the drama of Miles Turner from the Pacers joining the Milwaukee Bucks, who have beef with the Pacers
after the Pacers eliminated them in two consecutive postseasons. And then you had the whole deal with Oscar Sheway.
She
scored his first point and took the basketball. after Giannis had set the record for points in a game for the Milwaukee Bucks.
And then there was that whole confusion over that.
There’s beef there. And pause. And Miles Turner leaves the Pacers after their run to the finals. They went to game seven of the finals. They were 12 minutes away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy and he leaves to go to their sworn enemies. I cannot wait. Yeah,
Pacers Bucks is going to be excellent for the next couple of years.
I love what the Bucks have done though, like to recover like they got themselves in a really tough situation
where they’ve try they’ve got to try to make you honest happy and and I think you know when you go out there and you get a a Miles Turner when you go out there and
you know you retain Bobby Portoris and Kevin Porter Jr. and then you get Gary Trent signed like the cheapest contract ever. Mhm.
Talk about a guy going from making 21 million to a guy making like 2 million and like being okay with it.
Yeah.
Um but like look, they’re they’re trying their best to create something for Giannis to keep their star happy.
Mhm.
And that’s not easy to do. But yeah,
I’m a winner. Yeah, he is a winner.
Yeah.
I what you just said there and I I don’t want to I don’t want to harp on this too much, but it’s just really difficult not to. You talk about how the Bucks got themselves in a really difficult situation or the Bucks got into a really difficult situation when when Dame tore his Achilles.
Yep.
And they figured out a way out of it. They figured out a way to on the fly because things the writing on the wall, we called this the summer of Giannis. The writing on the wall was a the Bucks supporting cast is terrible.
They are a playoff team because of their conference. They are not a threat once they get to the postseason. They have no money to work with. They have no way to work this out. Giannis is going to ask out. Oh my god, the Bucks are the Bucks are host. And now all of a sudden they’re they’re waving Dame and they’re adding Miles Turner and we feel good about the Bucks again. It took one it took a month.
Yeah.
Two months to just Oh. Oh, the Bucks are back. Cool. That’s another reason it’s really difficult to sit here in Sacramento and go, “Yeah, they’re just in a tough spot.”
Well, that like
So are other teams.
It’s It’s not just the Bucks, too. I mean, you talk about the Denver Nuggets. They go out, they trade Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, the guy the Kings have been trying to get for five years, it feels like.
So, they go out and they do that deal. Then that frees up frees up enough money where they’re able to resign Bruce Brown that they had lost who signed a two-year 40 something million dollar deal and left and for a couple of years and now he’s back on a league minimum deal.
A league minimum. Then they’re able to go turn around and and go get Jonas Valentunis from the Kings and they went from having like a team that was fading to they’re right back in it. Hey, look at that. You got a better fit player in Cam Johnson. you got Bruce Brown back to to play defense and to be that guy and now you have a legitimate backup center.
Like that team got better. Uh you look at what the Rockets have done. They go out
somehow. I I don’t know where they’re where they’re like printing money, but they they had signed Stephen Adams to an extension. They brought back Jeff Green. They brought back uh one of the Holiday Brothers. Uh yeah. So they’re they’re bringing they’re building this team. They go out, they trade for Kevin Durant, and then they sign Clint Capella, and then they go out and they sign Dorian Fenny Smith, and you’re like, “Okay, first of all, that’s one of the great that team is going to be so good defensively,
loaded.
They are loaded, loaded, loaded.” I mean,
I would so much, dude, I would so much rather have Dorian Finny Smith in the Dylan Brooks role than Dylan Brooks.
Oh, yeah. They got better just that Brooks might be a little better defender, but I trust Dorian Finny Smith offensively way more than I trust Dylan Brooks.
Yeah. Well, he knows be a problem, dude. That’s that’s the other that’s I think the other part with this is you’re watching the Rockets who were already ascending. Like, don’t don’t this is not Oh, wow. The Rockets out of nowhere. The Rockets solidified themselves in the West.
The Rockets are now past the Okay, it’s a lot of young guys. It’s still some young players, but they have some legit veterans there now. Like legit star with Kevin Durant. The Rockets just line themselves up to be in full competition with Oklahoma City Thunder for a title.
Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you.
Yeah.
Uh you’re watching Denver, who took Oklahoma City to seven games.
Yeah.
By the way,
uh they reloaded.
Yep.
And look and look awesome. Like the West, we already knew the West was going to be it was going to be really tough. But you’re seeing these teams that man, if the Rockets take one false step, they could they could carine back down to earth.
Yep. Yeah, Memphis kind of rebuilding on the fly. Memphis could be a problem next year.
Memphis done incredible stuff. I mean, Memphis, they they signed Triple J to the massive extension. They retained Santi Alama. They got Tai Jerome. Uh they lost Luke Canard, but okay. Like they they’ve done a nice reload as well after dealing Desmond Bane.
Um so yeah, right back in it. That’s the that’s the other I think part of this
is seeing all this all this stuff going on teams in the west retooling you you got the Bucks uh overcoming their biggest contractual hurdle just on the fly and then adding a a best center on the market in the process man and it’s not even done we’re in not even 24 hours into free agency. Yeah,
I would expect I would expect more fireworks and my expectation is the Kings will be involved in those in some way ideally. So, if they are uh we’ll we’ll let you know. I want to talk about winners and losers from free agency so far. You you have some winners. Uh we’ll recap kind of what an insane morning it’s been so far and any breaking Kings news, we will have it for you right here on the Insiders ESPN 1320. We’re hanging out with you till noon. Got to step aside for just a moment, so don’t go anywhere. Responsored by Jiffy Lub on ESPN 1320, Sacramento Sports Center was a problem child cuz I got to now. What’s up? stretching. Is everyone doing okay? Like, how’s everyone? Like, let’s forget the Kings. How’s it How’s the vibe, everybody? NonKings edition.
Vibe check. I want to put I want to not talk about basketball here for a second. How’s everyone doing life-wise? Love that for you, Tom. Hell yeah. It’s my guy. Oh, sorry, Drew. Hate that for you. locations where oh yeah Zbo salute. Good Mrs. Mack getting that worked out workout done early. Hell yeah.
What’s everyone doing for the fourth?
You doing great. Awesome. Anybody? I’m lucky enough to where my buddies have spent all the money on fireworks and I don’t have to spend any money and I get to enjoy it and just watch and have fun. So, I’m excited for the fourth. How about you guys? You guys excited? Uh, sorry, Rust Dog. We started early. Did you get the belt? Congratulations. I think Rust Dog got the belt. Um, yeah. I don’t sure. I love the fourth.
I know. Same, dude. I You know what? Any excuse to party with the boys, get outside. Come on.
We uh the lake is all about the Fourth of July. It is like the holiday for Lake of the Pines. Really strange. We do like a pontoon a pontoon boat parade like the night before. Everyone puts lights on their boats and goes out and pulls around the lake. And then they have a golf cart parade the next day. and like a bunch of old cars. There’s a bunch of people with like classic cars in the lake.
That’s cool.
So, we have that and then they shoot uh fireworks out over the lake, which is spectacular. So, you just lay there on a on a boat or or in the water and fireworks all over the place. See burgers and we do uh I’ll do ribs. Yes. Ponto uh pontoon boat people are different than regular boat people. Yeah. It’s like people who say they’re camping and one guy has a tent and another guy has a fifth wheel. That’s not one of those is camping. One of them is not. You have a speedboat. That’s boating. Yeah. Uh Jack, I don’t I have not got to play uh I’ve had back problems for the last uh like 35 years, but they’ve gotten worse over the last couple years, and so I have not been able to golf in probably like really close to five years. Uh, I once broke a player signing from the lake. I was on a pontoon boat. I built a bar for my pontoon boat. It’s hella tight. hour number two. Lord my God. That’s Jam. I’m Kyle Madson. Joe Brazil with us on the insiders sponsored by Jiffy Loop. We’re hanging out with you till noon. Then we’ll hand it off to DLo and KC and they will continue to try and make sense of the Kings off season so far. They wind up not trading Malik Monk. And that’s kind of where I want to start right now is the Malik Monk’s name has come up in in multiple kind of trade rumors leading up to the off season.
Mhm. And it makes me wonder if the Kings are shopping him or if teams just want him. Maybe Detroit said, “Yeah, hey, this is a guy we need and we think he fits with Kade Cunningham, Jaden Ivy, and all that.” Or are the Kings going, “Hey, we have a glut of players at this position. We’re looking for hard-nosed defenders who are going to do the do the little stuff on the margins, and Malik is too inconsistent offensively. He doesn’t play enough defense, and we just don’t. We’re just eh like I think that’s I think that’s one of the other things that that sticks out to me here is okay so Malik Monk has been involved in all these trade rumors.
Mhm.
His place where where I believed Malik Monk was was he’s a perfect six-man. He is the emotional fulcrum of the Kings. He is what what their roster what on their roster passes for this vocal leader. Uh they he is their most important player. That’s the that’s the train I’ve been on.
Mhm. But it it it at least appears that that’s not the case anymore because I just I can’t believe that that was the case. They’d be willing to trade him for Dennis Shruder which again that didn’t wind up happening. It doesn’t sound like. Yeah. But that was very much like what was banded about last night was it was going to be the sign and trade and it was gonna be Malik Monk for Dennis Rutder. And if that’s the case, I don’t know how you move forward with him on your roster.
Okay. So, you said something there that really stuck out. He was he’s the emotional fulcrum.
Mhm. And I think sometimes when you’re uh when you you switch management and they bring in a whole new group of people, you want to change the emotional fulcrum of a team. Like I I think that that’s possible that that’s where we’re at with this. Like Scott Perry walked in the building and from what I know, he interviewed like every single person in the building. Like no stone unturned. He wanted to get a feel for what was happening in Sacramento from top to bottom. We’re talking about ball boys. We’re talking about locker room attendants and and you know trainers and he sat down with everybody and got a lay of the land. sometimes a lay of the land things get come out that that maybe make you uncomfortable as a GM or maybe things come out that
like look it it’s not like I think when you look at Malik Monk he is a lightning rod for for energy and everything else but that doesn’t mean that it’s always positive like you know there there are certainly times where you know Mike Brown and and Malik Monk went toeto toe because Malik Monk thought practices were too long.
There are times where, you know, Mike Brown lost his job and there are players within the walls of that franchise that had gone to management and asked for Mike to not be there anymore
during the summer before. It’s very possible Malik Monk was one of those guys. Like there are enough things that happen here where you know Malik has been pushing and pushing and pushing to be the starter
then was a starter and it didn’t go well
and the team struggled and the team fell apart and and then you look and like okay well how do you go back and we kept saying well you can’t really go back once you press that button.
Mhm. Well, they have to go back. Like, if if this team is going to survive,
shout out to Lost.
He’s got to he’s got to be somebody who goes back to a position that he was at before
that realistically isn’t what he wanted to do. So, yeah, I get it. He loves Sacramento. I get he’s been embraced by the fan base, but like there there are certain points where you got to wonder like how much blood is on people’s hands behind the scenes and and which players have some of that blood on their hands. And sometimes it’s just that it’s just like, hey, we need to switch things up. You know, you talk about again an emotional
fulcrum.
Maybe Scott Perry doesn’t want an emotional fulcrum tied up into either one person or this specific person.
Mhm. maybe the interview didn’t go well when he sat down with Malik Monk and he walked away from that going, “Okay, uh maybe I need to make a different move.” And so, like, look, I I think that as from the outside, everybody sees the player, everybody sees what they want to see in a player. They they see the excitement, they see all this stuff, but they ignore the 32% from three.
They ignore the bad turnovers. They ignore the blown defensive assignments because that’s not who they want to see. Mhm.
They want to see this guy that they love, that they adore as like this electric guy who, you know, is is just like super funny and and all of these things, but sometimes that’s not what a new management group wants. They look at a player and they go, “Okay, I I get it,
but I don’t want that.” And so I’m not saying that’s 100% the case here with Malik, but there’s enough smoke here that that you know the Kings are going to get better that he might be the piece that they use to get better.
And I guess I guess that’s everything you just laid out is the is the basis of my concern here. What if they can’t trade him? And now you have this guy who has been we’ll we’ll continue using the phrase emotional fulcrum who has been that who’s now in the locker room and it was clear there’s some kind of um I don’t even know what to call it. I don’t want to say friction but it’s clear that that whatever Malik Monk does on the court or off the court. I have no idea. But there’s something there where the king said, “We’re going to move on from this guy.”
And and if they’re not, you you you have him in your locker room still. And I don’t know how you navigate that because he’s not just going to go sit in the corner and go about his day and do his thing. He’s just not wired that way. So, I think they’ve now presented another issue here where I saw last night, I saw the same thing you did on social media like, “Oh my god, how do you trade Malik?” It’s like now I think you have to I don’t think you can recover from this where you go, okay, hey Malik, I know we tried to trade you, but hey, you’re going to come back in here and you’re going to do this thing and you’re going to be like if you’ve decided he’s not part of your program. I don’t I don’t think you can go into this year with him in your program. I think you can. Um, but I think this is where coaching comes in. This is where Doug Christie and and his group have to like embrace, you know, if Malik is still on the roster when we get to the, you know, start of the season. And like, look, just going to throw this out there. This this has a feeling to me a little bit of
um actually the Kings did this so many times it’s so stupid. Um, they had uh they had Isaiah Thomas and then um they brought in Darren Collison and instead of letting them compete, they gave away Isaiah Thomas for nothing.
Mhm.
They should have just let them compete best man wins.
Right. Then they they have Darren Collison. Um, but they bring in Rondo and you know, instead of letting them compete, they just they give the job to Rondo and then eventually Darren Collison’s gone.
And then they just kept kept doing this where like, hey, if if you open up training camp and Dennis Shruder and Malik Monk are your two point guards. Let them compete. Let them compete for the starting job because to be honest with you, they are like the Spider-Man meme. They’re just like four years, five years apart, right? They are they they’re very similar players. They bring very similar energy and everything else. Either one of them can start or come off the bench. Go ahead and like let them fight it out for who’s going to be the starting point guard. I don’t think that will happen.
Um but like why not? Because you can’t I mean again if they’re both on the roster,
I know it sounds really strange. Malik Monk will make more money this year than Dennis Shruder,
right?
Like, let the best man win if that’s what you’re gonna do. So, I’m okay with it. I I I’m also like I understand full well that that, you know, Malik Muk could be attached to a different trade, especially the Kings have been chasing Russell Westbrook and wanted both. Like, there’s a possibility that there was another trade out there. Uh because this Detroit thing kind of materialized late. It sounded like
it was weird. Yeah. Uh, it was weird. But they also the Malik Beasley thing happened on Sunday right before the start of free agency where he all of a sudden is being federally in uh investigated for for you know potentially fixing games.
So we have that situation happening and then all of a sudden so the bottom falls out for them. They were able to sign Caris Levert which might take up some of that. Um, but also I wouldn’t, you know, Detroit liked Malik Monk before
and that’s why all of a sudden I think everyone thought that this might be a sign and trade.
Um,
you know, like because it kind of made sense
uh for the Kings to clear out a guy uh who maybe didn’t make sense for them anymore and bring in a guy like this.
Either way, like look, the Kings have a lot of work to do. Scott Perry’s got a lot of work to do and it’s not just in adding players and and and all that stuff. like there’s a cultural shift that they’re trying to accomp, you know, trying to accomplish right now.
And as of right now, they they don’t have that cultural shift. Most of the players on the roster are the same exact players that were here the year before. You know, Dennis Rutder is here uh at at this point, but you know, I’m not going to like Markeel Folultz and you know, uh Jay Crowder and and Doug Mcder, those aren’t like foundational pieces, right,
that are all gone. you know, maybe the closest thing you did have to a foundational piece out of all of those guys is Trey L. And we don’t know what’s going to happen with him, but at the same time, like look, there is a a shift that’s happening. And to be honest, it had to happen. You went from 48 wins to 46 to 40.
Mhm.
And we can start pointing and placing blame on why that happened.
And I I think it really is easy to do that,
but also like a lot of these players were the same players and they didn’t perform at the same level.
Yeah. No doubt. and they let they let the fans down as much as anyone else does. Like there’s no excuse for for being a sub 500 team at home or being right around 500 on the season at home. Not when you have a fan base like this. Not when every single player talks about how amazing the fan base is and how, you know, they’ve played in other cities and there’s nowhere near as many fans and they’re not nearly as rowdy and all that stuff. Okay. Well, then play better. Play better at home. Sure. Represent better. Mhm.
Stop embarrassing your own fan base.
You know, I remember Ty uh Hallebertton, they asked him very specifically like somebody asked him if this was like the most disappointing um game in his career because I think the Kings had just lost to Atlanta like by 30 or something.
He goes, “No, last year we lost by like 45 or something at home.” He’s like, “That was the lowest the low.” Mhm.
You shouldn’t have to have a list of games at home where you were embarrassed so bad that you can actually start to put them in a one through 10 category.
Yeah, you shouldn’t have a ranking of the worst games. So, yeah, tough stuff.
You mentioned in there Russell Westbrook whose name was out there a lot connected to the Kings last night. There was Malcolm Brogden who was initially reported by I think it was Jake Fischer and Mark Stein on Mark Stein’s substack that the Kings were interested in him. I guess I if you’re going to bring in one of those guys uh I I I the money for me matters less right now than uh the roster construction. So you’re bringing in two point guards at that point. If you still have Malik Monk, is he just your six-man and playing off the ball all the time? Is he still playing on the ball a little bit? Uh, you still have Devin Carter. You still have Zack Lavine who’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot. I I I struggle to outside of like the vibes of Russell Westbrook, right?
Or Malcolm Brogden can shoot it a little bit. he hasn’t been able to stay to stay super healthy in his career, but um I don’t I don’t see the logic. Like you said, the the direction is changing and I don’t see it. I see them spinning their tires.
Yeah. Well, no, I I I mean, for me, like, look, I I still think, you know, I I see people putting up the the current backcourt, like the log jam, like Malik Monk is fine playing point guard off the bench. like it’s what he’s done. It’s what he’s been extremely successful. He’s the main ball handler. And let’s be honest, the Kings got to a point where they didn’t have enough playmaking.
And you know, especially when when uh Malik and Kevin Herder got hurt right before the playoffs, right before the play year uh a year ago,
um like they just had this huge issue with no playmaking. Like you added another playmaker, the Kings had to at least do add one playmaker. If you add a second, then somebody’s got to go. like you you can’t bring in at this point you can’t bring in a Westbrook or a Brogden unless you are moving off of Malik Monk. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
That’s what I’m that’s what I’m kind of getting at.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s the only way.
If you’re so interested in those guys, it has to be because you have something lined up for Monk.
Yeah.
That just is that has to be the case.
Yep.
Or else none of it. We talk the Kings roster would not make sense just in a different way now.
Mhm. ball still being not making sense in the same way it did, but now we’re adding a new element.
Exactly. Yeah. Hey, man.
Making my head hurt, bro. Like, uh, switching your entire, uh, like what you’re trying to build like in one off season isn’t simple.
Yeah.
So, I don’t know. We’ll see.
What else is out there? What else can they do? We’ll get to that next. We’re going to try and end this end this thing on a high note. That’s James Ham. from Kyle Madson. Joe Brazil on the ones and twos. We’re the insider sponsored by Jeffy Lub on ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports. What’s going on everybody? Is the Chatty House holding up? Are you guys holding up? I know this has been a crazy day. If you guys don’t mind, hit the thumbs up. Yeah, salute. appreciate you guys for hanging out with us. Hey, I don’t know who is doing overtime for Perry here. Like, we’re not having a discussion that would, you know, like Scott Perry has a lot of work to do and so far hasn’t I mean, he had nice draft. Um, first day of free agency. Clearly, they targeted Dennis Shruder and went after him. It’s not something I would have done, but I don’t know. Uh oh. I’ll be right back. Uh
oh. Uh I mean maybe, but like Shruder’s played for this is his 10th team. He knows that like things change. I don’t think they’re trading Keon, although like trading Keon might be in their best interest at some point. Um, if they don’t feel like they’re going to be able to sign him, Yeah, it’s funny. He’s probably still in the lobby of the Zoom call. Yeah, I’m going to guess that that’s not why. [Music] Yeah, lots of lots of interesting things going on in here. No, I think the the deal for is pretty much over it sounds like for Shruder and it’s not a sign in trade. Yeah, I don’t even know if Dario Sarge will be on the roster. We’ll see. I don’t think Dario Sar has really been a functional NBA player for a couple years. And again, the Kings could stretch to provision him and open up another three million bucks. Like, how old is Daario Sarich? 31. That’s it.
Yeah.
Oh, I’d have got I’d have put the over under at like 34 and a half. Okay. There was a time where he was good.
Yeah.
Time has passed. Now, back to the Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. That’s James. I’m Kyle. Joe’s over there. Okay, so I think a thing we’re going to hear a lot today
Mhm.
the Kings fans are overreacting. Have patience. Everybody’s so mad all the time. Why are you mad? Stop watching. Whatever. So, help me. What? You said they made the Jonas Valentunis trade, so they gave themselves $10 million under the luxury tax to work with. So, what what am I waiting on to be excited about? Well, see, I mean, like, look, I when we look at the way that the last like 48 hours has happened and even the last two weeks in the NBA, how many of these trades did you see coming? How many trades did you go, “Hey, yeah, we kind of had heard about that.” I I just remember like being floored when Desmond Bane got traded. Um, you know, like being floored when DeAndre Aiden was waved. Like there are a bunch of things that have happened here. Like, we don’t know what’s next. And and I know that that doesn’t help where people are like, hey,
you know, like
I want to know. I want to know. It’s like, well, sometimes it it does take like I’m not going to sit here and preach patience, but you do have to let the process play out a little bit.
Understood, 100%. But what what are some moves that could theoretically be out there? Maybe it’s something we’re not talking about, but theoretically, what are some things out there? Like a Jonathan Kaminga trade, for example. Yeah.
Is is a thing that’s been out there? I don’t I’m not going to take anything necessarily off the table given the let’s let’s forget our individual thoughts on Jonathan Kaminga as a player for a second.
Just the financial rules of that deal because of the baseear compensation rule.
The Kings can only take back or the Kings are going to get the full amount. They’re taking on the full amount of the contract. Yep.
Whatever it winds up being, let’s say 25 million. Yep.
The Kings are taking on 25 million, but the Warriors can only take on like 15 million or 14 million in that in that instance.
So, it’s it’s going to be financially tricky, not just with the Kings, but for for any team to swing that deal, but what else is out there? Like, we’ve heard the Kaminga thing. We’ve both given our thoughts on it. Well, I I mean again, the problem with the Kaminga deal is I don’t think you’ve cleared enough space where you could have the offset
like without going in luxury tax and it it would be a sign and trade. So, you’re getting hard capped at 198 million at the the first apron. Yeah. Just that that’s a complicated one. There’s got to be easier stuff out there. Free agents. We’ve talked about Cam Whitmore
who who is very much like even more on the block now than he was, I think.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don’t even think he’s on the block. I think he’s, you know, like, you know, when you’re chopping stuff and stuff falls off.
That’s where he’s at.
He’s he over yonder.
Yeah. Like a like the carrot rolled off and it like hit the floor. Like he’s he’s over there.
He’s a floor carrot now.
I mean like if I’m the Kings, I’m certainly making that call. Like there are ways to potentially get better. And like look, there are a bunch of players that we don’t know that are available right now that are
and
on the trademark.
Yeah. Yeah. And there are also teams that are looking at their roster the same way the Kings should be looking at theirs right now and saying, “Okay, like we got a point guard, but now we’re up to like 17 guards.”
Mhm. And I like how are these guys going to play? And the fact is as of right now, Shruder and Monk and and Lavine and Keon Ellis are playing uh in the back court. And even that, you know, at least two of those players are going to play 30 plus minutes a night. that only leaves 18 minutes at the most. Like there’s not enough minutes at the in in the back court for the players that you have. And that’s not even bringing up a guy like Devin Carter. Like there’s going to be more movement. There has to be more movement or like it they can walk into the season with a completely unbalanced roster again, which would not be great. I would just man
Well, if it like we feel that way, but just think what it what poor Ke uh Keegan Murray feels like. Like he’s looking around like, “Are you serious?” Like I might be the only guy on this roster at 68 that’s not a center. Like what exactly is happening here? Because that’s where they are right now.
Okay. Can they replace Jake Larivia? Let me put it that way because I know I know what you said about Jake Loravia earlier I think was right. Like it wasn’t like they lost some 15 point a night guy.
No.
But they lost a style of player that they just desperately need. It’s the style of player I think Nick Clifford is going to be. And maybe that’s what they think. like, hey, Nick Clifford is talented enough to at the very least be Jake Larabia. Like, we think even if he we we have higher hopes for him, but we think that that no matter what, his floor is Jake Laabia, so maybe that’s a replacement, but they have these exceptions. Is there
is there a replacement on the wing they could go find?
Yeah, one of the Martin twins was waved again. He’s 6’5.
Cody.
Uh yeah, I think it was Cody, right?
Mhm. Um, so you know, that’s a player that would make sense for the Kings. Um, you know, a guy, again, any move that you’re gonna make isn’t gonna be earthshattering.
Um, it’s going to be on on the peripheral, on the fringe,
uh, to get better. And again, like maybe that means bringing back Trey L. Uh, yeah, it’s just like there there are a lot of different options here,
but like we’re too far away. like we need to see how it all plays out.
And like even right now they just don’t have that much money to go out and do a whole bunch of stuff. Um like signing league minimum players still cost like over two million bucks. You know, we don’t know if Terrence Davis is going to be on this roster or not. He’s currently on the roster, but like whether he’s actually be on be on the roster once we get to training camp, stuff like that. Isaac Jones, same exact thing. That’s a guy I guess we we do kind of skip over. They do have Isaac Jones who’s 69 and who plays hard and and you know might be able to play in the rotation at this point.
Um but at again today as of today Isaac Jones has to play minutes.
And honestly like I’m fine with that man. If you’re not competing for a title
Yep. which they’re not. If you’re not going to be competing for a title, let Isaac Jones play.
Yeah.
And give him 25 games and if he just really stinks and it’s like, man, this is just not an NBA player. All right, you’ll pull the plug. Same deal with with Maxim Reno. Yeah, let him cook. Uh Isaiah
Dario Sarich and and Maxim Reno might be a good player comp to be honest with you.
Like prime Dario Sarich though.
Yeah, like when Dario Sarich was was like Yeah. When he was good
Suns and Sixers, Dario Sar. Yeah. When he came into in Philadelphia, averaged 14.6 and 6.7 and shot 39.3 from three.
Yeah, you’d take that. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. So, so maybe that’s part of the plan. Maybe it’s to bring him along. Um, you know, and people bring up uh Cardwell and Cardwell averaged five points and five rebounds a game as a 23 year old in college. Like,
let him get in the G- League. If he’s cooking in the G-League, then we can talk.
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s not to say he’s a horrible player, but like, let’s be honest, he’s he’s a guy who averaged five points and five rebounds as like a fifth or sixth year senior. Yeah. He’s got to prove it in training camp first. Yeah. Yeah.
And then probably go to Stockton and play really well there for a while before. But like I said, like Isaiah Crawford, yeah, give him some burn. You want to be competitive. I I I get it. But also, it’s not the end of the world if you win 37 games this year in service of finding out what you have in Isaac Jones, finding out what you have in Maxim Reno. Give Nick give Nick Clifford some real run. Give Isaiah Crawford some real run.
Yeah. Give like even Devin Carter Carter. Thank you. Yes.
Yeah.
Like go if that’s if that’s what this is going to be. And I know I and again now you run into the roster politics of well Zack Lavine’s not losing minutes to those guys and Demar Rosen’s not losing minutes to those guys. Deanna Sabona is not losing minutes to those guys. Yeah.
So I I understand you you you’re you’ve got kind of finite um resources in that regard. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing if you’re losing a few more games this year, but you’re getting minutes for the young players you do have on your roster. The pieces who might be on the team if you’re contending in three or four or five years.
Yeah. The problem is it I I mean, we keep saying this, but this team as it’s currently constructed is not going to be bad enough to be bad like to to get a great draft pick. It’s
like you’re not going to be able to reload with this team.
Understood.
And and so that’s always going to be the problem. So you’re sitting in this really bad spot where you’re probably as of today a 9 10 11 12 seed in the Western Conference.
Like and if you finished out of even the plan, that wouldn’t be a shock at all. And that’s not about coaching. It’s not about it. It’s just the roster is is weird. I would rather miss the plan and let some of the and again I I also understand I’m not naive to the fact that Dom isn’t losing minutes, D Rozan isn’t losing minutes, Lavine’s not losing minutes, Keegan’s not losing minutes. I got it. Like I’m I’m there.
But I would so much rather see Isaiah Crawford in the rotation, Isaac Jones in the rotation, uh and and Nick Clifford having a having a very prominent rotation role. Maxim right now. I would so much rather finish 12th and those guys got real burn and you got a good idea of what they are than finishing 10th or ninth and losing in the first playin game. And and those guys didn’t play.
Yeah.
I would I I just I but I don’t think the Kings are there. I don’t think that’s what the Kings want. I don’t think that’s what you’re going to get this year.
Yeah. Uh, but that’s that’s the way I would kind of approach this because I I mean, you look, Chris Bucher is out there, but you don’t need another big Ben Simmons.
Yeah.
If you need a point guard, you’re going to do the Ben Simmons thing.
See, Ben Simmons at least you’d be like, “Okay, for league minimum deal, I just think that there are going to be better landing spots for a league minimum deal for him.”
Yeah.
It’s just that I think that’s it. I just I just we just kind of explored it.
Yeah.
I What else is out there? And the response is well, we don’t know exactly. There there might be a player available. We don’t know yet. Okay.
Yeah, man. It’s tough. Like look, this isn’t this is uh a job that when Scott Perry took it over, it came with a list of of problems. You know, I think one of the things the Kings aren’t doing this off seasonason, we’ve heard, is they they are not negotiating a new extension for Zack Lavine.
So, I’m really looking at this team two years from now or a year and a half from now, a year from now, and and what does it look like then? And can they make the moves they need to make between now and then? Can you get to the deadline and someone says, “Okay, I’ll take on that last like 49 million plus from Lavine. I or I’ll take on uh Demar De Rozan’s contract for this year knowing I can buy him out for 10 million next year.
Like those are things that you might be able to make moves at the deadline. Even uh you know Monk like I I know a lot of people are like super upset over the possibility of him being traded but like like look you still owe Malik Monk three years and when you’re not a good team having a a 18 to20 million sixman
isn’t good business. It’s just not.
No, for sure.
Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s one of those positions where um like when you’re a good team, paying a player that does something specific is one thing, but when you reach into the the bottom of the the Western Conference standings, all of a sudden, having players that are are basically bonus pieces
that make a lot of money,
that’s just not good business in the NBA. Real quick before we get to the Oakrove Kia talk line 9169091320 SCC there we’ll we’ll get to him shortly. Uh Sean Trirania reporting the Toronto Raptors and center Yakob Purle have agreed to a 4-year $104 million contract extension. Purle is also picking up the 2627 player option and $19.5 million and then adds three additional years to that deal. Yeah. So, shout out to the Raptors. Locked in their center. And let’s lock in with TC on the Elkrove Kia talk line. What’s going on, TC? Talk me off the ledge, bro.
Hey, man. Listen. Hey, I’m just tapping in with the homies Hammer. Kyle, what’s up?
Chilling, bro.
What’s going on, man?
Hey, so how I see this Hey, I’mma stick to that, man. Uh BJ and Perry are silent assassins, bro. And they putting this team together silently, right? It’s not on how how fast we want to move and how slow we want to move as fans and media. they putting this team together. How I look at that move with Monk was, “Hey, okay, Detroit, you guys want you want them? We could do a signing trade, but I’m going to need a first round pick or I’m gonna need some type of draft draft asset.” Oh, you don’t want to give that to me? Okay, we going to pull a deal off and I’m just going to sign him anyway like I was going to do. So, I’m fine with that. Now, we got a guard, right? We got a point guard for the next couple years to see where this is going down the line. And where it’s going down the line is it’s it’s it’s right in front of us, guys. We’re we’re staying relevant until all this money can fall off the books because we can’t trade these guys and we’re not going to be like, “Hey, we’re gonna give you Zack Lavine for uh 2035 second round pick.” We’re not going to do that, bro. So, he’s like, “Hey, I’ll keep these guys. Get me a guard here and we’ll just keep pushing. We’ll either try to make top six until this money falls off the books and then we’ll have a legit team.” Perry and BJ are putting this team together. Kyle,
thanks DC. Not buying it. That’s nice. That’s nice, TC. No.
No. No. Like he might not. This is the thing is this is all opinion. This is my opinion. I don’t know. I’m wrong a lot. Maybe Scott Perry has some move up his sleeve that’s going to change the King’s fortunes. They’re a top six seed this year and we’re having a great time with it.
Yep.
I I I could be TC’s opinion is that that’s what’s going to happen. He might I don’t that’s not my opinion but he may not be wrong.
Yeah.
But I just I I hear I hear this idea and I and I’ve used this phrase too of just maintain relevance until you can get the the money off the books until you can trade some of those big deals and trade some of those expiring contracts. Like what is relevance? TC just said top six. I’m sorry you’re short of that.
Oh yeah. Yeah, I don’t see that.
And if you’re making if you’re making a move that gets you into the top six, you’re doing something that’s beyond just staying relevant.
And is staying relevant battling for the 10 seed? That’s not relevance to me. That’s playing for an extra game or two. I don’t I don’t I don’t see that as as it’s just not being the Jazz. And that’s just I don’t I don’t know, man. I I guess I’d rather be fighting for the 10 seed than being the 14, I guess. But I’ll go back to what I was just talking about. I’d also rather give a bunch of young dudes burn and see what you’ve got. So when you do start unloading those contracts, maybe Isaiah Crawford is a legitimate uh 3 and D rotation player that can give you 25 minutes a night. Maybe Isaac Jones is is a is a stretch four or stretch five
that can that can play real minutes for you. But you’re not going to know if they don’t play. And I don’t think they’re going to play a lot because the Kings are too busy focused on being relevant. Yep.
So I don’t like what’s the expectation? What’s the expectation here?
Well, I can tell you in all honesty, 40 and 42 is not relevant. You’re completely irrelevant. You are. You’re completely irrelevant. That’s it.
And so I mean that’s the problem that they have. And like look what they did to add uh Dennis Shruder that does not change the fact that they have a bunch of players on this roster that are square pegs and round holes. It doesn’t change it. Like I I don’t care how far down the road we get. Like I don’t care if like we’re hearing that you know Scott Perry like really likes Demard Rosen. That that transaction in itself does not function on this team. Mhm.
Okay. you get 20 points. Okay. He might win a couple of games, but like the functionality of the team is what’s broke.
Mhm.
That’s that’s the problem. It’s not, you know, like player X or player Y or the direction or the coach or like they don’t fit and you have done nothing to address the fact that you have a roster that does not fit yet at all. Mhm.
You have not done anything to address the fact that there are no 6’8, 6’9 players on this team that can bounce back and forth between the three and the four.
Yep.
Like I again I I like Nick Clifford. I think he projects Well, he’s the 24th pick in the draft.
You know who else is a 24th pick in the draft? Uh Max and Prosper. Omax.
Yeah. Olivia Max’s Prosper.
Yeah. who the Dallas Mavericks are looking to dump his salary.
Like the 24th pick in the draft like couldn’t can be a ball player
and it can also not be a ball player.
We have no and for that matter the 16th or the eighth pick or the 12th pick, same exact thing. But that’s why you don’t pin all your hopes to something to a young player like that. like the the team needs a a a major major remake and whether they’re able to pull that off in one season or or by the deadline or by next summer like I just I don’t know,
man. I wish I had an answer.
I do too. But it really sounds like barring another move, which could very much be in the works, barring another move, it feels very much like uh this is going to turn into all year talking about the next couple of years.
Yeah,
that’s rough. We got to step aside the handoff. Kenny Carowway is here for the handoff. If anyone is going to inject some positivity into a conversation about the Sacramento Kings, it’s Kenny Carowway. He’s going to join us next ahead of DLO and Casey. Excited to chat with him. I love talking to Kenny. Uh stick around. We’re the insider sponsored by Jeffy Lub. It’s ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports Center. Yeah, we are. I’ll be more right back than I was last time.
I never got to my oatmeal.
Oh, dude.
It happens.
Back in. Did you see that uh the Bucks are resending their qualifying offer to Ryan Rollins? camera. Yeah. Glow. What’s going on?
Oh, you know the sky is falling, honey. Yeah. No, it’s like I don’t think we’re trying to have a negative show. I think we’re just having a realistic conversation about where the Kings are one day into free agency and how much work is ahead of them. But it does sound negative. Everything’s
Yeah, it’s me. I’m a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’d even like you don’t have to love Shruder, but you you do have to I mean he does fit a need that the team had. I’ll continue to say I think Malik Monk is a better player. Um and he’s younger. Yeah. But to see the fan reaction last night just like, “Oh my gosh.” Yeah, Brett Huff makes a good point on on Twitter. Uh, I’m not going to get worked up over Schroeder’s contract, but I am alarmed that Perry’s first contract is similar to the overpays he helped hand out to George Hill, Zach Randolph, Vince Carter. Oh, one minute. I’m going to turn the mic on. Um, I’m just chilling, you know, Scott Perry do his thing. I said about a week ago, I was like, damn, I wish he was more aggressive, you know, getting stuff, but I’mma just I’m going just let him cook. But at the same time, this is what y’all wanted.
So, y’all need to shut the hell up.
If you’re letting him cook, food’s raw.
This This what y’all wanted. Y’all wanted Y’all wanted Save this for the air. Save this. Save this. Save this. Hang on. Hang on. I just feel like I’m gonna really like wholeheartedly disagree with you and I want to make sure we do it on the radio. Uh, please hit the thumbs up if you’re in here hanging out with us. Now back to the insiders brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. I’m Kyle. He’s James. Joe Brazil’s over there in a Giants hat. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Kenny Carowway’s here in a Twins hat.
Yeah, man. Cuz the damn Giants can’t get no win. I’m going to wear my Giant stuff in a couple days, though, cuz you know they coming to town. So, I’mma be ready. I’mma I’mma stick beside them. I’mma stick beside them. But these bums can’t get anything done right now. Come on, fellas.
Uh, these bums can’t get anything done right now. Are you talking about the Giants or the Kings Front Office? Am I right? Hell. Uh, uh, it’s been I don’t even want to say it’s been negative in here today.
It’s just the reality of where the Kings are at has been underwhelming, disappointing. It’s hard to preach patience.
So, I’ll ask you a question. What did you want today? What did you want? What would make you happy today? to today.
Yeah.
Uh today I don’t know because they’re not I was under the the expectation
that when Scott Perry said,
“Hey man, there’s there’s going to be guy we need to find a point guard that they were going to go get because we were talking Trey Young, we were talking John
Morant.”
And then we get told, “Hey, here’s Dennis Ruder.” And then we get told, “Hey, Dennis Shruder might also cost Malik Monk.”
Um and then we find out that’s not the case. He gets a three or 45. Okay. They trade Yonas Valenunis. They free up some cap space and here we are.
So,
it feels very much like we’re going to go into this year uh just kind of waiting around until some of these big contracts become more valuable so they can get them off their books.
So, and that’s just tough.
I would say this and I understand that feeling and that sentiment. Remember I told you about a week ago before the draft I was like, man, I’m antsy. I’m antsy. Like, I want things to happen. That’s my mentality. But I would ask you and everybody else that you’re feeling how you feeling. Whose fault is that? James Hams.
Okay. No, my fault.
No. No. But because Scott never told you we were going to get guard. He just said
I understand that.
He just said we need a point guard. He didn’t say we were going to fix this in uh in six months. Nothing. He just laid out. But here’s
He did go on a bunch of podcasts before he took the job and said how much he liked specific point guards and how much he did not like
Zack Lavine.
Zack Lavine as a player.
Here’s here’s I think what’s frustrating
is you’re taking the patience route and you’re going I’m just going to sit back. I’m going to see what happens. We heard patience and financial flexibility for three years while the Kings went backwards.
Mhm. And now in Scott Perry’s first year where hey here comes Scott Perry he knows everybody. He’s going to make these calls and he’s going to he’s going to wheel and deal and hey maybe Zack Lavine’s contract isn’t that bad. People are going to want Domas like all this we hear oh Demard Roen’s definitely out the door and they’re going to get something for him and all of a sudden all those guys are coming back
and the moves they’ve made have amounted to patience and financial flexibility everyone. That’s a very very hard sell for me. And and like you said, maybe the moves haven’t been there and that’s fine, but I’m watching we we said, man, Dame Tour is Achilles. Milwaukeee’s in a bad way. Giannis is going to ask out. And now all of a sudden, Milwaukee has figured out a way to not only get rid of Dame’s contract, but they’re also signing Miles uh Miles Turner. I almost said Myers Leonard. That would have been crazy. Miles Turner. Um you’ve got Denver who look like, man, they’re kind of on the ropes. They’re cooked. They’re they’re they’re heading the wrong direction. Can Can Yokic kind of drag them along? And now all of a sudden they’re trading Michael Porter Jr. and they’re getting Cam Johnson back and opening up their mid-level. They’re getting Bruce Brown. It’s like, oh my god, how are how is every other team figuring this out? And with the Kings, it’s patience. Look at the financial flexibility. It’s just like
to me,
I just don’t want to hear that anymore, man. Do something.
To me personally, those two teams, those are moves just to make moves. Like Cam Johnson’s cool, but like
but you get off of Michael Porter Jr’s contract, which is terrible. Now, I understand I I understand that. Is Cam Johnson that much better than Michael Porter Jr.?
Uh, no. I think he’s I think he’s he’s a little better
and they open up their full mid-level exception with that deal.
Okay.
And we’re able to trade for And Bruce Brown is Bruce Brown’s cool. Bruce Brown is not
Caruso.
Got him got him at a league minimum deal,
but they got better.
They got substantially better.
They got better.
Substantially better. They are nowhere to me personally and I was wrong on Denver all playoffs. So
take that for what it’s worth when I say this. They are nowhere. They are not Houston or OKC.
They’re not.
They won’t be on paper but the fact they took OKC to seven with whatever their roster was last year.
That was impressive.
That’s super impressive. Yeah. I don’t know. So I don’t think they were that far that
to be honest with you. I don’t know how they but but I was wrong on Denver the whole time. Like I I didn’t believe in them the whole time.
And you’re right. They gave them a hell of a series. But I I’m just going to have to see it again because I don’t think they’re on the level of OKCU. They got better maybe from where they were at, but it’s still
still not championship level.
The other the other thing and and again you you say whose fault is this? This is on me. I said I would like them to pick a direction. I don’t care if it’s tanking. I don’t care if it’s hey we’re going to go full boore to build around Zack Lavine, Deanna Sabonis.
Those are going to be the two guys. Keegan Murray, Keon Ellis, like this this is this is going to be the start of this core and we’re going to just really go for it. They’ve done neither. And it feels like they’re just treading water in mediocrity.
Isn’t that a not treading water in mediocrity, but isn’t a direction to be like we’re not going to we’re not going to do nothing crazy right now.
No.
Like we’re that’s not
but that that’s we’re not going to do anything to jeopardize our future whether it’s financially. What future picks?
I mean, everybody got a future. Like, regardless of like what you think, everybody got a future. So, their future, they got nine what? Nine first round
pick
something like that.
First round. So, we’re not going to jeopardize not maybe we’re not going to do that just for anything.
Sure.
Like, we want to Okay, that’s what we got right now. Hopefully, we can add. We need to get some second rounders. Hopefully, we can do that,
but we’re not going to put ourselves in a final financial situation where we’re handcuffed in that respect. and not have any assets. And we’re going to move along slowly to your point, but we’re going to move along slowly and and wait for our right time to make whatever move we see fit, whether it’s, hey, let’s go get the superstar or now we can get off these contracts with with no type of repercussions.
Like I said, no, I’m sorry, James, I’ll let you go here. Uh, I understand like I get it. I’m not dense in this particular regard. Uh, like I get I get the the what you’re laying out.
I also reserve the right to be extremely frustrated by that idea. Absolutely.
And extremely annoyed that it’s another year of Hey, just everybody just just hang on. It’s just everybody wait. It’s down the line. But everybody just hanging like like I said, nobody nobody who’s complaining is going to not watch the Kings this year. Nobody’s going to not go to games. Nobody’s going to burn their Kings jerseys over this. Nobody’s asking for Scott Perry to be fired, but I think there’s there’s a a certain level of frustration that comes with watching a team that preached patience the entire time they went from 48 to 46 to 40 wins and now it’s hang on more patience. More of that, please. So, so real quick,
I’m asking you, but I want James to be able to talk, too. Should because that’s what the previous group did. Should Scott Perry do something crazy just so he’s not like them?
No, absolutely not. I don’t think I I don’t think
Patience,
but then that’s what
I’m just gonna like you want you want to you want to establish an identity, right? That’s what we’re talking about. We You want to replace the head of the snake, which was Dear Fox.
You just picked up a guy who’s on his 10th team in 13 years. He is neither an identity piece or a head of the snake.
He’s a player. And I’m not saying that Dennis Shruder is a bad player, but he is not a cultural changing identity piece because if he was, he wouldn’t be on his 10th team in 13 years. So if that’s the idea is to like forget the names, forget all the pieces. It’s to create an identity and to find a player, find players that will push that identity forward. It’s really difficult to see how Dennis Shrruder fits into that and how moving on from potentially moving on from League Monk does that and how not moving on from other players uh that don’t fit your system or what you’re trying to do furthers this idea of building an identity. Because to me, I understand building an identity. But what one thing you can’t do is wait 2 or 3 years to build the identity. The identity has to start now. That’s what has to start now. The players can change. The pieces can change, but the identity pieces have to be bold and strong enough to be what you build your franchise around. And as of right now, I don’t know who that is because like I I Demon Sabonis is it can be an identity piece. Keegan Murray has never taken that step as a personality to be an identity piece, but I get it. Keon Ellis, you probably burned a bridge and and when you decided not to give him a to opt out and give him a contract. So, like who is your identity and what is your identity pieces? And what it can’t be is like, hey, the 24th pick in the draft is one of our identity pieces. Like, okay, that’s if he makes it if he makes it two seasons in.
Yeah.
And so, I I get the under like the the idea, but you have to show me what the identity is because as of right now, that is where I’m getting lost. It’s like, okay, who who are you moving forward? Because what you what you really look like is a bunch of people who are looked at as as expiring contracts in a year. That’s what you’re looking at.
Yeah. So, what if that person isn’t available? What do you do? Do you just go do something crazy?
Like just because because people because people want you to do something different. If the person that you’re looking, let’s just just for um example, if I’m just throwing out a name, if they think Jaylen Brunson is the type of person that you would build around and be your identity piece, if that person isn’t available this summer, what do you do? What do you do? Do you
Well, we’re about to see it. That just happened.
We’re gonna find out.
We’re gonna have We’re gonna find out cuz that just happened. It’s less I saw somebody say Kyle has to remember that it wasn’t Scott Perry who did this. I get it. like he he got he picked up a terrible hand,
but at the same time, I get frustrated by the traffic at the 5 to 80 junction on the way home.
No, that’s that’s worse than Scott Perry.
No, that is that is damn ridiculous.
That’s a good point. Uh uh but like I get frustrated by that, but I know it’s there. Like that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be annoyed while I’m sitting there behind a big rig doing four miles an hour.
Like that’s kind of what this is. Like it’s it’s frustrating. It’s annoying. I understand. Like wait a couple years. Okay, cool. But we had so we had so much hope that okay, Scott Perry’s going to change. It’s going to be aggressive. It’s going to be so different.
And oh, whether the moves are there or not, whether the moves are available or not, this feels super disappointing.
I get it. I wanted
to this point to this point there could be huge moves coming. I don’t know.
I’m dying on the hill. I could be completely wrong. I wanted him to make the deal for Trey Young.
Like apparently that was available. He decided he didn’t want to do that. I that’s the move I would have done.
Absolutely. But all right, we got to go. Joe’s yelling at me. That’s James and Kyle. DLO and Casey coming up next. Trista Tuesday. Jason Jones today.
Uh should be a ton of fun. Noon to 4. They’ll have every uh little bit of news that breaks. They’ll be breaking it all down for you right here on ESPN 1320. Don Casey. Next for Joe Brazil and James Ham. I’m Kyle Mads and we’re the insider sponsored by Jeffy Lube until tomorrow at 10. Drink water. Be nice people. Uh Chatty House. Really great show today. really appreciate you guys uh is going to be a lot of fun. Thank you Joe to have you back.
Thank you guys. Thank you everybody.
Enjoy deal. See you guys. [Music] Rex. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got them screaming d. We got them screaming d. [Music] We your number one spy. The number one spot for some sports, huh? Got the city going crazy when we work. Huh? We talk to you, but we ain’t two. We in first. Huh? And when you need the real, we search. Huh? Dloc. [Music] We your number one spy. What y’all want to do today? Huh? We talking. We talking today. What’s good? We talking today.
What’s good? We here on the first day of July. Yeah, man.
Steel and KC. I’m Demi Barling.
The ultimate needle mover in God b himself.
He’s Kenny Careway.
Yes, sir.
Acknowledge me.
And we are live. The worst of Lot of people asking,
what are you doing with him?
Well, that’s a fair question.
Yeah, a lot of people lot of people asking. We’re gonna have some difficult conversations today. Some difficult conversations because I accidentally left Kenny unblocked on Twitter for like two weeks now. Keep it there. Keep it there.
Yeah, I might do it. I might do it. Especially It’s always weird when you come back to Twitter, too, by the way. Oh, there’s Damian. Have to check to make sure it’s not a fake account.
Yeah, it’s like, “Oh, yeah. He’s download the app today.” I I’ll I’ll tweet I’ll tweet a couple of times a year. Free agency, trade deadline, and and maybe one other miscellaneous time. But last night, I thought, let’s let’s also be clear, Jake Fischer is our man.
That that is our guy. He was on the show with us uh last week. Um Jake Fischer is is is our dude. Matt George has been all over this sign and trade. uh he had the Locked on Kings podcast posted uh before uh Jake Fischer uh posted his tweet about, you know, signing trades and and and so on and so forth. Uh and Matt had had had had been working on this, you know, all day long. Um so I knew when the podcast went up, I was like, I’m going to have like Matt’s back. I’m I’m trying to help him inquire. Uh maybe maybe close some loopholes. Maybe if he can break this story, like great. Uh, I have been unable to help him. Uh, we’ve been able to find out a variety of different things, but not what we were looking for. So, I started tweeting about Malik. If you’ve been listening to this show for the last few weeks, you know that Kenny and I are of the belief that Malik Monk is probably gone. There’s probably a I I believe there are a variety of different reasons for why Malik might not be with the Sacramento Kings when this year starts. We also said that’s going to upset a lot of people. We know just as he is in this room, Malik Monk is extremely popular. He is the guy. When I tweeted my thoughts on Malik and where he might be with the organization, the amount of heart and soul comments I got, the amount of this guy cares, all it’s great to have a guy that cares. It’s great to have a guy that has heart and soul. That led you to 40 wins last year. Now, you can [ __ ] and complain about the construction of this roster and how that hindered Malik and there’s probably a lot of validity to what you’re saying. Maybe his role changed. uh with with Demar De Rozan here. It changed with Zack Lavine here. It certainly changed with Dearron Fox not here. That’s the hand he was dealt. If this organization, meaning this front office, which just went through a change, felt like he could contribute to this team, there’d be no discussion about Malik Monk potentially being on the trade market. There would be no discussion about signing trades. There would be no wondering about his future. Also, for the record, because I’ve been challenged on this, one team made a serious offer to Malik Monk last year. One, it was the Detroit Pistons. That does not mean it was the only team that made him an offer, but an offer that was of the caliber of what Sacramento was offering. There was one, and it was Detroit. It was not Golden State. It was not Dallas. And it sure as hell wasn’t Orlando. One team. It was the Detroit Pistons. Money dried up, dog. That is a direct quote from Malik Monk. So, we can do this pizza guy thing. We can do this. He took less. We could do all of that stuff. But the reality is one year ago when he was a free agent, the market was not there for Malik Monk. It was here in Sacramento, it was nowhere else except for Detroit. This year, there appears to be no market for Malik Monk. There’s mounting evidence that that now includes Detroit. I don’t know if there was a sign and trade in place. I don’t know if the Sacramento Kings are going to work the next 5 days to get a sign and trade in place. But there is a reason Fred Katz knew that Dennis Rutder was signing with the Sacramento Kings. And there was a reason that that news wasn’t reported for an entire day later. The Sacramento Kings are still attempting to work on something. We believe it involves Detroit. Whether it happens or not, I can’t help you. I do not know. If I did, I’d freaking tell you. But I do not think I do not think Malik Monk is going to be a Sacramento king next season.
Man, look, I don’t I should take this back. There are new new listeners, right? we don’t have the same listeners that we had um or excuse me, we we got more listeners than we had three years ago or whatever. So, I got to reexlain myself or reintroduce myself to
Welcome to all of you. Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is
Casey. The um
a lot of people that maybe saw what I was tweeting last night and I was just having conversations with people. That’s all
it um heard some of the things I had to say or whatever. Maybe you’re not familiar. Maybe you are familiar and you forgot. But who was the one 3 years ago that was saying, “Get Malik Monk here to Sacramento, please.” Who was the one, and I don’t get everything right, but I got this right. They signed him to the two-year deal. I said, “Oh, I’m I’m going to lay out what’s going to happen.”
Yep. After that second year, we are going to be scared to death that we’re going to lose this man cuz he about to come here and ball the hell out.
Yeah, you will not find a more longtime bigger Malik Monk fan than myself. I love his game. I’ve loved watching him play basketball since the first time I seen him in Kentucky. I think it might have been their Midnight Madness. Big- time believer in this game. We’re telling you, not off of speculation, off of intel, that the market isn’t what you guys think it is for him. And I said last night, I disagree with the market.
I disagree with the rest of the NBA.
I think Malik Monk can be this top flight guard or something like that. I think he’s got all the talent in the world. But guess what? What I think doesn’t matter. I think my home should be worth $4 million. Does that matter?
Why so little?
We We know that this guy we
will you stop it worth more than that.
Does that matter if nobody’s going to pay $4 million for my home? And they’re like, “No, you can get this amount for your home. That’s that’s all that matters.”
That’s the old James Ham analogy.
Yeah. I’m just we are just telling you what we’re hearing multiple different sources, multiple levels of intel.
It’s not a matter of what we want either. It’s a matter of what we’re facing and the fact that this position group, the back court is just flooded with players right now. The fact that they might not be done adding players to the back court is like, yo, you’ve said it before the Kings acquired anyone. They’re going to have to move someone. The number one name. Look, it you you it started to feel like a couple of weeks ago we we we posed the question live on this show with I I’ll speak for myself. No, no one called us. There was no source. There was no intel. There was no nothing. I want be honest with you. You want to pull back the curtain? We were killing some goddamn time is what we were doing when we asked the question, are we sure Demar Rosen had like are we sure like let’s walk through this a little bit and we walked through
we’ve said that a lot to be honest with you for a for a while.
Yeah. No, no, no. For sure. We’ve we’ve brought that up randomly,
but it came up, but like when we really dove into it two weeks ago, where it was like I I’m it was almost like we were live in an impromptu conversation talking ourselves out of it. Then calls start coming and it’s like, oh, there’s validity to that random thought we had. Okay. So if Demar is not out and you’re probably not moving Zack Lavine, you start doing a process of elimination as to who the Sacramento I never I I believe they want Keon Ellis to be a part of this team moving forward.
I know everyone is on edge about the option and all that. I believe they want Keon here long term, but it’s Oh, okay. Well, it’s Devin Carter or it’s Malik Monk. And we were like, it’s Devin Carter. Mhm.
Easy. Guess what? That was the sound of the phone ringing for Devin Carter. Did y’all hear that? Y’all heard it right
one more time.
Okay. This is the sound of the phone ringing for Devin Carter. Got it.
Yeah. You can clip that. It’s not. It’s not. Now you have potentially two guys who you’re trying to move and can’t and I have like Go ahead, Jesse.
So, are you just trying to If they have him on the market, we just should we just accept like you’re just dumping Malik Monk at this point then?
It’s a great question. Are you dumping Malik Monk or do you just start? Do you just go? Because I’m absolutely not of the belief you have to trade Malik. I don’t know how you’re going to navigate this backcourt.
Yeah,
I don’t hate trading Malik. If that’s what you have to do, fine. I hate trading him for a player that you could already have in Dennis Schroed. I didn’t get that at all yesterday. Like if you want to trade Malik, that’s fine. Like great. But
so there is a there’s a financial reason for it. There was a financial reason for the sign and trade to involve Malik Monk. It’s that if you if you were doing the sign and trade with Malik and and Dennis Ruda was a part of that that 3 years 45 comes back as part of a trade. You still have the mid-level exception
which means you have 15 million to go spend on some one or as James points out all the time some ones.
They were still to do that through the um Valentunis trade though, right?
One more time.
They were to do that through the Valentunis trade though like that cleared up more money. So that that that that did clear up that did clear up money like 10 million I think and it’s unclear whether or not they’re using the the mid levels. They have the $14 million one Kevin Hard or 16.
They have the trade exception. Yeah.
Yeah. The trade exception, excuse me. Um and it’s un I haven’t heard any other reports about whether they’re using one of those or just outright cap space. Look man, we’re here to talk. We’re here to get uncomfortable. We’re not here to say the things that you want to hear. This team is in a tough spot. Any Kings fan that is pissed off or frustrated, I understand.
We’re going to talk through this as best we can for the next 4 hours. The phone lines are open. You could tell us both to go to hell if you want to. That’s perfectly fine. We might.
We might. We got a double button. We might tell you worse. 916991320 is dealing with KC brought to you by Sky River Casino where the Sacramento Kings are gambling right now on Sacramento Sports Leader. ESPN 1320. Oh man. Oh man. Um, Eric B. Uh, I maybe I misspoke, but I’m thinking um the first apron. So, I think they’re they’re over the luxury tack, but they’re I think they were after with the Keon um extension option. They were like 18 million under I think the first apron is what I said. And that was before Valentunis. So with that, saving $5 million there.
Small Ball Podcast. I’m going to give you some shine here on our platform, man. Salute. If that’s a real podcast, man, keep up the great work. You got the logo in there. Tell me more about tanking. That’s so lazy. If you have a No, let him live. Let No, no, no, no, no. I’m I’m giving him a chance.
Yeah, let me tell me more about how you can build a sustainable winner by tanking. And more importantly, if you wouldn’t mind, uh, Mr. or Mrs. Small Ball Podcast, tell me who it’s worked for. And please, for the love of God, don’t say the Oklahoma City Thunder
because I don’t want to talk down to you. So, tell me who it’s worked for and and and tell me how this works for Sacramento. Tell me how this works for Sacramento. Should have brought that on the air. God damn it. I We’re good. We’ll bring it back.
Yeah, bring it back. Like I said, it’s Yeah, David, that’s that’s that’s possible. I just don’t I don’t know how um coveted Malik is by contenders. But you’re but but you’re right. Someone gets injured. Yeah, you need a score. Maybe that’s what you do. Uh Cam, I don’t know, man. Is as many as you need, bro. As many as you need. The other thing um with that is also like I said you they they trying to win basketball games uh not to break Kay Fabe. Yes, it was a joke.
What did something new happen? Carmichael Dave is not responsible for Keegan Murray not getting an extension. Someone tagged like all of us. you’re on it in a bunch of tweets about why Keegan Murray hasn’t gotten an extension. And uh someone’s like, “How comes no one’s talking about this?” I was like, “We talked about it for 40 minutes yesterday.” And Dave was like, “Well, Damian talked about it for 40 minutes. I’m going to need 40 more.” So I replied to Dave, “Why don’t you tell everyone it’s your fault?” And he wrote, “That was between us, dude.” And it was it was a joke. Re uh real real chill. You say Houston and San Antonio. Houston. Houston tank to get who? Jabari and
there’s a hu
Jaylen Green that they just traded.
Yeah. I’m And they won what? Uh we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll address that. Tyler, where where did my man? No.
Thank you.
Thank you, Co.
It get it gets even crazier when you really dive into that thing, man.
This
So, that’s a that’s a fam. Hey, play. Hell no. We’ve already gone to another place. What is this?
Hell no. We’ve already gone to another place.
I was in the process of just getting us back from break. What did he say?
I got you. I’m the umpire.
You don’t have anything. Then repeat what you said. What did you say? No, hold on. Hold on. We’re freezing the show right now. Freeze. The show is frozen. We’re talking. What did you say? What did you say?
We’re three plays later.
No, we’re not. It wasn’t three plays.
I can say it cuz we’re three plays later. You can’t charge me on that one.
Go ahead. Come on with it.
I said it gets even crazier when you dive into that thing. No, there is no flag. We went back and reviewed it. We went back and reviewed it. His foot was on the line. It was a three or it was a two, not a three. It’s a flag. You can do it in the NBA. We can do that here in my league. It’s a flag.
It’s literally our league. We can do what we want.
That is trash, bro. Oh, this whack, man.
All right, shows on frozen.
All right, we’re here. Um, let’s just go to what we were talking about during the commercial break. Where is my man here? I told him I want I wanted to show they haven’t responded yet, but there’s someone called uh Small Ball Podcast uh listening to the show. He said, “Why can’t Perry just realize the path to building a sustainable winner in sack is by tanking?” So before I don’t I don’t want it to to feel like we’re we’re picking on small ball podcast cuz I’ll tell you this straight up. This question came to a group text message like a friend group text message uh that Kenny and I are on and I’ll tell you the same thing I told y’all know it was Kamara. I’ll tell you the same thing we told Kamara. Tanking does not work. You cannot name a single team that has tanked and has been successful. Not one. If your mission is to get back to exactly where you were for before you started tanking, salute to the Philadelphia 76ers. You did it. Mhm.
Do not try to convince yourself that the Oklahoma City Thunder tanked. That is not what they did. They managed their assets in the most beautiful way when they had Paul George held like the like like it was a money in the bank ladder match uh over the Los Angeles uh Clippers and they were desperate to land Kawhi Leonard. I think there is zero chance Kawhi Leonard was ever signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Clippers didn’t know that. They gave up everything
to pair Paul George with Kawhi Leonard and that includes Shay Gildris Alexander. At no point did they tank. At no point did they not attempt to win games. Did they have a great basketball team in totality? No, they didn’t. But what did they go on to do? They got Chris Paul. They went on to do a variety of different things to help get to the moment that was last year, which of course led to the moment that they’re at right now. That is not tanking. That is managing your roster in the most effective way possible. You want to talk about tanking? Is Utah tanking? Cuz they suck. They suck. They’re directionless and they tanked on a hope and a prayer for Cooper effing flag. and it failed. Dallas made the goddamn plan when we thought they were done. Did they tank? No. What did they get out of the deal? They got Cooper flag. Tell me more how tanking builds a sustainable winner. Managing your assets builds a sustainable winner. Let’s start there. I’m I’m sorry.
No, go ahead because I feel like you might just pick up where I’m I’m leaving off. Go ahead.
You got securing the bag. This is they had SGA for two or three years. That’s because they had SGAA, right? So, they had a guy that Oh, this is this is a foundational piece. They already had that. Number two, the other thing about that is they were able to get a guy that they targeted.
Yeah.
As as as a guy that, you know, we want this guy. They they probably didn’t know he was going to be an MVP. I’m not going to say that. But they were able to target a guy like that because you can make whatever jokes you want about Paul George today and you know all this other stuff and playoff P and all this other that’s fine. He was a top five MVP candidate in the league
when he was traded from OKC in the league. That’s how they were able to get all those picks and SGA
because he was a top five MVP candidate at that time. Deamontis Sabonis isn’t that. Zack Lavine is not that. Demar D Rozan is not that. So thinking that you can do what OKC did and everything be fine, that’s a whole another thing. And here’s the other thing. Are you going to stay on OKC? Because I got one more thing to say about OKC.
Yeah, I I I am. Yeah. Go ahead.
You got SGA who was the 11 pick and were got from in a trade.
Mhm.
The 11 pick got in a trade for a Paul George. What draft pick was Jaylen Williams? Uh, was it 16?
I think it was 16.
16. 17.
What draft pick was Lou Dort?
Uh, out of the lottery.
Undrafted. Undrafted.
What about Caruso? Did you draft him? Did you tank for Caruso?
No,
I don’t think so. That’d be You got Chad at two strategy. Yeah,
you got Chad at two. So, that was tank, I guess, or whatever the case may be.
Or not being good. That too. That too. And And I’ll I’ll even give you this. You got giddy and that allowed you to get Caruso.
Was that a tank situation as well or was it just not being good?
It It’s almost as if maybe drafting properly that leads to your team functioning well.
Um I I I just pointed like this is what Kieran Bagley does and we love our brother. He says Utah is going to be better than the Kings. Salute. You you can have that one. That that is your death take right there next to your screen name. That’s your death take. But you you can keep that one. Let’s go to David Lopez. This our brother right here. Uh the other dowo on the show. So why not follow the OKC model and trade your core players for picks and just run a trash lineup? Lavine and Demar and Sabonis won’t win games. So let’s let’s dissect what David Lopez is talking about right here. Lavine, Demar, and Sabonis versus OKC Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Let me let me try that again. Zack Lavine, Demar De Rozan, and Deont Sabonis versus OKC Russell Westbrook and Paul George. between Lavine, Deamar, and Domas, all three of them together, you can probably probably land one first round pick, and it would be for Domas. You’re not getting one from Demar. You sure as hell are not getting one for Zack Lavine. And I’m sorry to tell you this uncomfortable reality, as frustrating as it might be with the way that the Sacramento Kings handled the De’Arren Fox situation, and it is perfectly fine if you’re upset with the way that they handled it and they settled on Zack Lavine. If you think the idea should have been wait for the off season, you’re probably right. If the idea should have been you only work with San Antonio and you make them trade for it, great. If you think you were netting a multiple first round pick trade for De’arren Fox, you’re sorely sorely mistaken. This isn’t hate. I have no venom to that brother whatsoever. The league watches the league. They see everything you have ever been frustrated about with De’Arren Fox. They all see it. If you think there would have been this massive robust market for De’Arren Fox where there would have been a bidding war unlike the thing anything we’ve ever seen in Sacramento. You’re dead wrong.
Could you have netted a first round pick? Absolutely. I think they did net a first round pick. Could you have netted two? Maybe if there were really two teams interested between Russell Westbrook and Paul George. You got like eight and you got Shay. That OKC model isn’t realistic unless someone and unless Victor Womenyama gets drafted by San Antonio and says, “I’m just staying in France unless you go trade for De’Arren Fox.” That’s what happened. That’s what happened in Oklahoma City. That’s the only way De’aran Fox would have netted you anything near what Shay Gilas Alexander uh with that with that trade with the Paul George trade netted for Oklahoma City. Wimby says, “I’m staying in France unless you go get De’arren Fox.” Then you make off like a bandit. Outside of that, we were just going to kind of get what you got. the year before um OKC traded Paul George, Paul George averaged, this was him on Oklahoma City, so this year and then they traded him that off season. Paul George averaged 28 points, eight rebounds, four assists. He was third in MVP voting. He was third in defensive player of the year. He was an all-star. He was all NBA first team. He was all NBA defense first team. That’s why you could ask for what OKC asked for.
We’ll even go a step further. You talk about Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook. The years I’ll go I’ll go I could go more, but let’s go four years. the four years before the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Russell Westbrook. He was fourth in MVP voting and all-star AllNBA second team, fourth in MVP voting, an all-star AllNBA first team, the MVP and Allstar AllNBA first team. Fifth in MVP and Allstar AllNBA second team, 10th in MVP voting and allstar AllNBA third team. That’s why you could ask for what you asked for for Russell Westbrook. Those are the resumes we’re talking about. I got no disrespect for these guys. And obviously I like them a lot more than other people. But we’re not talking about Zack Lavine and Demard Rosen. We’re not even talking about Damonte Sabonis who was able to muster up in the last two years a eighth place finish in MVP voting and a seventh place finish. Mhm. We are talking about when they were traded, two of the top 10 players in the game. That’s why you can’t do the OKC model. You don’t have those players to get that type of return. Period. Let’s look at a couple of things here because this big John Paul’s ass. So, Desmond Ma Desmond Bane had a bigger market than Fox. I don’t know that he had a bigger market. I want to go to Cam, too. Cam says that Bane Hall trips me out. I don’t know that Desmond Bane had a bigger market. Desmond Bane had a team that was desperate to land a player with his skill set. So, they gave up the assets that they believe they needed to to acquire him. Orlando thinks this is the guy that puts us on a different level. We outlined this with Indiana and Pascal Seakum. They spent that 200 some odd million dollars on Pascal Seakum because this is the guy to pair with Tyrese Hallebertton who’s going to take us to a different level. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about this. This is our duo. This is who we’re riding with. Orlando made the decision, this is our guy. This is who we’re going with. No team felt that way about Darren because if they did, no matter how badly VC, Monty, anyone in that circle wanted Zack Lavine, and I do believe it was VC, they would have stopped and said, “Wait a minute. This team is offering what we’ll just call now, even though it didn’t happen, the Desmond Bane return. No, no one is saying no to that. No one felt that way. Absolutely no one. Now, there’s multiple reasons for it. One, no one will call a player’s punk card or not a player, he’s not on De’Ar. No one will call an agent’s punk card. They won’t. Oh, we’re not going to resign there. The whole Rich Paul line. No, man. He’s going to come in. He’s going to work his ass off. He’s just not going to resign with you. Now, people take that as he’s not going to resign with you ever. Like, that’s what uh uh uh Rich Paul was saying about Anthony Davis. That’s not what he was saying. He’s saying he’s not going to sign with you before he hits free agency. Look at the Lakers. He didn’t resign with the Lakers until he hit free agency. That is a financial move. But the financial move changes if you sign with the team that you’re on versus moving to a new team. Maybe this is why I can’t have a basketball team. Cuz I’d be like, “Yeah, go ahead. Walk away from the 50 million or 40 million or whatever it is. Go ahead, walk away. I’m going to use your talents to help my team try to win a championship this year. If you decide after whatever we do, you want to leave. Hey, salute. Good riddens. This isn’t going to be a sign and trade. I’m not going to help you net what you want. If you don’t want to play here, you can leave. But we’re doing what OKC did and we’re going to take this risk and we’re going to go sign Paul George. And it worked out for them. He ressigned, partied with Russell Westbrook, and then dipped out of here.
And if he hadn’t dipped, the Oklahoma City Thunder would not be the champions. Messiah Airi, God rest his soul. Not dead, just unemployed. He said, “No, I’m Look, we’re we kind of hit our ceiling with Demar and Kyle Lowry. We’re going to make this move for Kawhi Leonard. We’re going to do everything we can to resign him, but we think we can win a championship with him. We were a 60- win basketball team. We believe Kawhai is better than Demar. We believe he can put us over the top. I don’t care what happened. I don’t care if you fire Messiah Jiri 10 years later. That man took that risk and won a title. Okay, that’s a great point because that was something else I was going to get to, right? Because they always talk about how tanking is the only way to a sustainable winner, right? Well, let’s look at the winners last 10 years. Let’s find out how many of them tank to get to that point. 2015 the Warriors, did they tank?
2015 they did not.
2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, did they tank?
No, they were just bad prior to LeBron’s arrival.
2017 Warriors, did they tank?
Uh, yes, they tank to get Kevin Durant.
2018 Warriors, did they tank?
Uh, they did not.
Okay. 2019 Raptors, did they tank?
They were a 60- win team. 60- win team the year prior.
2020 Lakers, did they tank?
Uh, no, but that one doesn’t count. 2021 Alex Caruso even said so
2021 Bucks didn’t
2021 Bucks went through it
2022 Warriors did they take
well no but
they didn’t even use those players
they didn’t they just they just fell face first into the Larry O’Brien salute that one yeah congratul yeah sorry congratulations
2023 Nuggets did they tank
oh they did not they stuck with it and won a title
2024 Celtics did they tank
I got this one no 2025 Thunder I’ll even be nice because we dispelled that but I’ll be nice and said they tanked one of the last 10 champions tanked one. So here’s the thing that I always have an issue with with Small Ball podcast and David Lopez and all this other stuff. If you believe
you say their names in a way that makes it sound like you want to fight them. I try to say their names in a loving way like oh my man David Lopez Small Ball podcast but but but but you sound like uh Bing RS and Baby Boy when you’re talking
guns and butter.
Guns and butter securing the Bagley. I’ll talk to you too. If you believe taking is the way to go. I’m not here to tell you that you’re wrong for that thinking. I’m really not. We outlined some stuff and we we had a debate class and we But if that’s what you feel,
fine.
What you can’t tell me and this is where we go back and forth and we talk about it. What you can’t tell me is that is the way to win because that’s not true. I saw
that’s false.
I saw someone bring up I don’t I don’t think I started so e me I didn’t. So apologies for not giving the recognition to someone. Someone asked the Pistons tanked, right? And they’re in a good spot. I don’t think the Pistons tanked. I think they were bad. They landed Kade. He developed. Now, let’s go back to the beginning of last year. Nobody. They were the surprise of the league. Nobody expected them to do that. People this time last year laughed at them because they had available cap space that they couldn’t use on Malik Monk, the lone team that went after Malik Monk, and used it on Tobias Harris. People laughed at that. They weren’t laughing at the end of the year when that team was playing the way that they were. JB Bickerstaff, the perpetual interim coach, took that team, a job nobody wanted. Don’t act like this was a plan. Nobody saw this happening with Detroit. Detroit de the question is, and this is this is where this is where I’m on a wait and see approach. I love what Detroit did last year. I’m also completely unsure how they did it. No shade whatsoever at JB Bickerstaff. He’s He just always That wasn’t a coveted job. It doesn’t appear to be a job anyone wanted and he took it coming off of the run in Cleveland and he yo, he killed it. How are you going to follow that up? Because everyone’s talking about Detroit. Detroit, oh the Pistons are going to be this, the Pistons are going to be that. Man, I remember two years ago when the Kings lost that seven game series, what they were saying about the Kings after that and how did it go? What’s Detroit doing right now? What did they do last week? What are they doing right now? And how is that going to sustain them through an Eastern Conference? Hey, Atlanta’s working. Whether it works or not remains to be seen, but they’re trying like they’re trying to put Trey ain’t going nowhere. They’re trying to put players around Trey. We ain’t even got to what is going on in Milwaukee yet. Celtics with or without Jason Tatum is a good basketball team. The Knicks once they hire Mike Brown or whatever they’re going to do, they’re going to be a good basketball team. Okay, I’m going to take a wait and see approach with Detroit before you tell me that they had this big turnaround that worked crazy.
That’s fair.
And Paul makes a Oh, Paul. My man. My man Paul.
I I
Go ahead. Go ahead. I got I’ll put it on the screen and you say it.
Yeah, I got him. Because this is the other problem that I have when I talk.
Yep. You can’t tell me both things.
Yep.
You can’t tell me two things. So, we have all agreed, Jesse, Kyle, everybody’s that the Kings were on to something with Beam Team One. They They loved Beam Team One. They had This was it. We found it. 17 years. We finally got it right. We got the right coach. Everything is good. We have Fox, we have Domas, we have Keegan, we have Herder, we have Monk, we have all these guys, right? Did they tank to get that? Did the Kings tank to get that team?
Oh, no. They were just bad for a decade, didn’t they?
Ah, even the players that they acquired, did they tank to get those players?
No. No. So, when you you can’t look at that team and be like, “We missed out on something. We had something cooking and everything, all this other stuff, and then tell me tanking is the only way to get better.” Oh, that’s not what I thought you were going to say at all.
I could tell cuz you didn’t put it up there.
Not even close. What you think? Detroit has a guy. Well, that’s a whole another thing. Detroit has a guy. That is a massive difference
between Detroit sacri. Who’s that? Is it maybe it’s Ace?
Maybe. Maybe Detroit has a guy in Cade Cunningham. Sacramento Kings do not. They do not have a guy. They got guys. They got brosies. Broies,
fellas.
They don’t have a a guy, a dude. The one. They do not have that.
They don’t have that.
And they never did. No. Now, and then here go the revisionist history. Now all of a sudden, we did tank for De’Arram Fox. I thought we never tanked. I thought the Kings have never tanked. I thought if VC would just get out the way and let this team tank, then everything will be all right. But now when I got you when when I got your your argument on life support, oh, now they tank for Fox, who was the top five pick. Once again, you said it. You said it a number of different times. You guys don’t know the difference between tanking and just being naturally bad,
just not being good. Did they tank the next year when they got Baggley and had the opportunity to uh to to to draft Luca and they didn’t? Matter of fact,
you can make the argument they didn’t put forth the best effort that he
Oh, that’s that’s dead wrong. Do we remember what that that summer was?
That was the George Hill uh Vince Carter summer. No.
Yeah.
Yeah. But then what but then what happened?
Well, no. I’m talking about that summer.
They were trying to They weren’t to tank. You would you draft Fox, you sign those guys. If you were tanky, you would draft Fox and not sign anybody and try to be bad the next day. They lucked into the number two pick.
They did, but they also pulled the plug on those guys halfway through the season. They did, but I’m talking I’m just talking about going
No, no, I got you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It the the They didn’t think they were going to be that bad.
That’s my That’s my point. They didn’t think they were going to be bad. And when they realized they were, that’s what that’s why I never understand why Kings fans are upset with George Hill.
George Hill was
Well, he was a bit of a jerk about it.
He might have been, but it’s Yo, he yo. Hey, man. No, we’re not. Yo, you’re going to come here and compete. We’re trying to win games. Look, we got Vince, we got Zebo coming in. You get I don’t even It wasn’t even 41 games into the season where they pulled those guys uh uh Garrett Temple aside like, “Hey, man. we’re going to we’re going to change our approach here. And the and I remember Garrett Temple was not quiet about this. He said this on the radio show I was on at the time. I didn’t expect this. None of us did. Then they had a series of injuries take place where guys like George I think they wound up training trading George Hill, but Garrett Temple, some of these guys had to play I think a little bit more than they anticipated, but it was it was dead at that time. And and forgive me if I’m getting my years incorrect, but even with when they decided to ship those guys off,
they were weren’t they still slated to draft nine or 10 or was it even? They jumped.
Oh, they jumped. Yeah, they jumped
by the luck of the ping pong.
I can’t remember if it was eight or 10, but they they jumped from one of those numbers to get to two. Yeah,
I think it was Chicago. They jumped. Yeah, you guys are making it like they just let’s just be bad and have 25 wins. No,
that’s not how they got to two.
Yeah,
not how they got to and they got it wrong. That’s the other part of all of this. We’ll dive into it. We’re go We Hey, we’re family. We’re going to get through this. Nothing of note is happening. If it does,
we’ll let you know.
We’ll pass it along to you. But we’ve got a lot to talk about as it relates to the Kings and a lot to talk about as it pertains to the rest of the league as well. It’s DLO and Casey. We’re brought to you by Sky River Casino. Get in on the action. Sky River Casino is the place to play with 2100 of the newest slot machines and over 80 table games. Sky is the limit at Sky River Casino. Paul, to be honest with you, Paul, to be honest with you, you got to get lucky. No, you’re a gonna lie to you. You got to get lucky. We did this this study um a couple years ago, and we can we can bring it back. We can update it every year just to check on it, see where it’s at. But I took the 24 allstars, the like the 24 all-star players from like two years ago.
They’re all over the draft. There is as many second rounders that are all star as there was number one overall picks. There are many um late teens allstars as there are lottery picks. It’s not sexy. It’s not scientific or nothing like that, but you got to get lucky. It’s tough to tank, too, when there’s no market for the guys you’re trying to move off of.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s the other aspect of it.
You got to build assets if you’re going to do that. If you can only get one first for Domos or just whatever for like I don’t even know if you can get anything for Zack Lavine at this point. H. Let me do Let me do a quick look of the of the four because this is what’s in front of me right now. the four M top four MVP um votes this year only one of them is in the top five and that’s Jason Tatum shout out
Giannis was what 16 something like that obviously Jokic was second rounder SJ was 11 I don’t think anybody says tank to get to the 11th spot I’ll do a quick look while we’re here. And off the top of my head, let’s talk about the Let’s Let’s broaden it out a little bit and go NBA playoffs. Oh, wow. I’m thinking of the guys of the guys the the number one guys these the guys that you talk about top six seeds in the Eastern Conference only one of them were number one picks that’s Cade only two of them were top five picks that’s Cade and Tatum Uh let’s open uh the phone lines. Um 916 9091320. It’s the Elkrove Kia talk line. Um I know people got some feelings. If anything happens, it is uh quiet. Oh, no. Once period, once again, I want to reiterate now. I’ll I’ll speak for myself here. Tanking is fine. If that’s what you want to do, fine. But don’t tell me that that’s the only way to win cuz now you’re just being lazy. You’re just being lazy. If anything, Damian, you’ve talked about it before. We’ve broken it. That’s that might be that might be the least effective way. What? Hell, we just named out all the uh all the NBA champions over the last 10 years. One of them you would consider a team that tanked. One out of 10. That’s probably the least effective way to get it done. We talked about the the the final four of this year’s uh NBA playoffs. I gave you OKC. the other three teams tank. I can’t I can’t say Minnesota tank to get Anthony Edwards because they already had Cat on the team and Andrew Wiggins and all those other guys. They just weren’t good. The Knicks didn’t tank. The Pacers didn’t tank. And that’s all I say is don’t tell me. This is the only time you’ll get push back from me. Don’t tell me that’s the only way to get better. That’s lazy. Mhm.
That is absolutely lazy cuz there are different ways to get better as an organization and different examples of that all around the NBA. You can’t even tell me it’s the highest percentage way cuz like I said, we just went through the NBA championships. You got a 10% chance at best of tanking and winning an NBA championship. So that’s my whole thing. If that’s if that’s your philosophy and you want to make a move that way, cool. That’s fine. Just don’t tell me that’s the only way to get it done because I disagree.
Yeah, it’s not the only way to get it done. In fact, it’s not even a proven way to get it done. Uh I see because of the I I mean, not that not that fans don’t know this term. They certainly do. It’s it’s it’s it’s been around. It’s been a thing. Um, but the Dame Lillard news today, uh, has everyone talking about just waving stretch. That is I’m not No, I’m not. I’m just Yeah, that’s just crazy. I don’t I don’t think you want to do that. I I I I get it. It’s I I understand. It’s It’s in the news. It is not worth doing that at all. Dame Lillard is not playing all of next season. Zack Lavine’s money is gone at the end of next season and you can all rest peacefully. Demar De Rozan’s contract after this year is that partial guarantee and it means absolutely nothing. You can all rest easily. The fact is this team is stuck in this kind of bizarre state of you can it’s like what was Monty’s line was like maintain and improve.
Scott Perry for the next couple of years might have to live by survive and figure it out. put it on his shirt
because like you you have we we’ve we’ve said this repeatedly, this team isn’t awful. They’re not a championship contender,
but they’re not awful. They are kind of stuck in the middle. You don’t lose by 30 at home to Dallas. Maybe this conversation is different, but they did. Um, you finish top six, it’s certainly not a conversation, but it it’s just a they’re just stuck in this bizarre state of they’re that you you you tank. They’re too good. They’re they’re too good to tank as a unit.
They don’t have good enough parts to break apart and get the assets you need to tank effectively. Which leads us to the next thing. We’ll get to the phone lines in two seconds. There is no point in taking tanking if you’re going to draft the wrong players. None. DaVon was a draft pick. He ain’t here no more. You You can go all the way back to Luca Donuch if you want to. You can run through the variety of times that the Sacramento Kings have missed on a draft pick. That ain’t got nothing to do with Scott Perry. Absolutely nothing. Scott Perry landed Emanuel Quick. Scott Scott Perry, his history shows us he sees talent. I’ve got questions if Trey Young was truly on the market and he didn’t see it. I got questions. I’ve heard about what his feelings were for Jaylen Brunson in Dallas. I’ve got questions. Scott Perry seems to like a specific type of player and it’s not a high usage offensive first guy, which both of those individuals that I just referenced are. Let’s get to the Elro Kia talk line here. 91691320. Start with our man AJ. AJ, what’s going on, brother? Hey guys, big fan. First time calling. Uh, so shout out to you guys. Um, Casey, I wanted to push back a little bit on the last listing out the 10 champions. Like, I don’t know, 2020, the Lakers tanked for so many years to have the assets to acquire an AD. Obviously, it takes a player like LeBron to win the championship, right? or like the Celtics controlling the entire Nets future through like a boneheaded trade. Like I I don’t feel like the tanking is not like your point against tanking. It doesn’t seem like a genuine point when you factor in some of those championship teams also had tank to have the assets to get another star players to become contenders. So it doesn’t it feels like we can at least tread in that direction, have some flexibility, acquire a start, but it seems like we’re going the opposite route. Seems like
a big fan of the show, guys.
AJ AJ, if he’s still there,
you AJ, you still there, man?
Yes, I’m here. Okay. I’m I I’m just want to ask you a question. Do you think the Lakers when they had Ingram, Randall, um, Lonzo, all those guys, do you think they were tanking or they were just bad at what they were doing? Yeah, I mean, they were getting number two picks like three straight years, right? Like I don’t remember what the lottery odds were for them, but I think they were tanking, right?
I don’t
I gota look back at the roster, so I could be wrong, but
I’m not I’m not gonna
I I just think they were bad. I think I just think they were bad post Kobe retirement. Yeah, they I I didn’t think they were very good at um team building. I didn’t think the players around those guys were better. And I don’t think who was it? Magic at the time. I don’t think Magic was saying, “Hey, we’re just going to be bad.”
Magic oversaw the LeBron signing. So maybe
Yeah. I I don’t think they were actively tanking. Like I don’t I agree with you and with co when you say OKC wasn’t tanking.
Mhm.
But I will concede that argument to anybody that wants to think OKC was tanking because there was a a moment in time when they would just shut SGA down in like February for like two two straight years. That still doesn’t explain being able to find a Lou Dort, find a Jaylen Williams, uh, being able to go get Hartinstein, Caruso, all those other guys outside of the draft. They made good moves. But if you want to if you want to say OKC was a tanking team, I’ll concede that. That is different than what the Lakers were doing in my opinion. The Lakers were just going out there. They, oh, we’re bringing Nick Young back. You know what I mean? Like he’s bringing him home. Swaggy P, he’s coming home. Like that’s what they were doing. Oh, we got Lonzo now. Everything’s good. We’re, you know, first game on TNT. Brandon Ingram, he’s next. Like, they just, they weren’t managing things well. Mhm.
And that gave them an opportunity to go get Anthony Davis. True. For sure. But they did that because they were bad in my opinion. I don’t think they were actively trying to be as bad as they could be to get those picks. Uh, let’s stay on the phone lines, man. Let’s go to Tanner. Tanner, what’s going on, brother? Appreciate the call.
What’s up, DLo? What’s up, KC? How y’all doing? We good, Tanner. How you doing, man? Hey, doing good, man. Uh, I just wanted to ask y’all just about like potential moves specifically. I personally think that the best move that would set us up not just for this timeline but for future timelines would be a move for Kaminga. Uh one question is what would a what would a trade in your mind look like for that? Uh and two do y’all think that would be a smart move just seeing the the Scott Perry era how that would all work under Doug Christie in this era?
I appreciate you. Who who was the player he said? Oh, go trade for Kaminga.
Oh, so is this such a talking point because of Sam’s article? Cuz I feel like Sam wrote
Yeah, that’s it. Look, yeah, they’ve expressed interest, but I don’t think it’s a thing.
There was more talk over the weekend of I forgot who it was. Maybe Jesse can find it. But somebody did come out and say while it looked like they were just in the background before, they’ve leaprogged the Heat and some other teams as being
like real contenders for Yeah, I remember tweeted that too, but I saw that one as well.
Yeah, that that’s why I kind of start bubbling up again. That’s fascinating to me because I feel like I mean I’ll we could try to answer the question. I feel like if you were going to it would be centered around one of two players. Damonte Sabonis which signals something different or Yonas Valenunis which isn’t possible right
so because they need a center right and I feel like the war I feel like Dom fits what they’re doing I just don’t I I don’t picture that happening. Yeah.
Um how you acquire Kaminga man I don’t I don’t know. I’m not I’m not exactly sure. I’ve I’ve said a number of different times like Kaminga. Yeah, I gotta see more from him as far as his his true impact on the game. I think he’s super talented. I also leave room for him to grow a little bit. I don’t even know if he’s 22 yet. You know, he might be 22, 23, something like that. So, um, you know, maybe it’s something that, you know, right now he’s just focused on on getting buckets and as he understands the game a little bit more. He understands how to pick and choose his spots and still get 25 a night or be impactful elsewhere. And for somebody that that that’s that young, I still kind of give grace for that, man. Like, he he’s still learning the game and and trying to figure some things out. So, if they were the Kings were able to get him, you know, I’d be open-minded and excited about a player that young and that talented being here in Sacramento. I look forward to it, but I I don’t know how that gets done.
It’s a sign and trade situation. It have to be.
Mhm. Mhm. Huh. Yeah. I I don’t if if the Valenunis deal hadn’t happened earlier like okay I could have I could see it unless you throw Dario in that I don’t know.
Yeah.
Um that quote you were talking about 2K was Brett Seagull. Brett Seagull
said um the Kings have substituted themselves in place of the Nets as a prime commander destination. That was this weekend. H
and then really nothing else on that. Like that’s the that’s all we kind of heard from that.
Yeah. The the only cuz so I didn’t even see seagulls thing. I saw Sam’s which was like no Kings are interested. It’s probably not a thing like Kaming and the Kings probably I’m paraphrasing. It’s not exactly what he said but he was very dismissive
uh of the idea of Golden State in Sacramento talking about Jonathan Kaminga. So you know maybe things have changed since then but Kaminga is a guy that I’ve that that’d be interesting. That’d be interesting. Um, I’d expect everybody’s energy to be real strong if they make that deal because a lot of people have been talking about it. Like, it was all over my mentions last night. I just burned my whole goddamn Twitter account. That’s why I only go on Twitter two or three times a year. Just just burn the whole thing down uh in one night.
If they
brother tweets one GIF and everyone loses their mind. Everybody’s allowed to have fun on free agency except old DLO. I um I don’t think I don’t think it happens, but if they were able to find a way to to land Kaminga, it’d be exciting. Young, like I said, a young guy who’s got a lot of talent. We still got to figure out if he can, you know, figure it all out as a as a top level basketball player. But I I’d be excited for Kaminga, but I like you, I I just don’t really see the pathway to that happening. At least I I haven’t seen it. I haven’t heard of how how that gets done. Uh, let’s get uh Sean in next. 916909320 Elkrove Kia talk line. Sean, what’s going on, man?
What’s going on, fellas? I I can’t believe Kenny’s defending the Lakers yet again calling out a championship. But anyway, you guys of the dangers of mediocrity. I’m a Pittsburgh Steel fan. Please forgive me. I don’t like Aaron Rogers, but
you go with us. And you will never never have the man. Now tell me the last time somebody won a chip without having a man on their team. I’m not talking about men. I’m talking about a man. The last time you got to go back to Chanty and Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace and all them boys.
When’s the last time you seen a team win without the man? We don’t get players hop to our team and we haven’t proven success through the draft. We got to try something or we just going to live in this, you know, play in game, six roll, six, you know, six spot in the in the in in the Western Conference for the next 10 years. I don’t want to do that.
No, I feel you on that. And and and you’re right about, you know, not not having the man and all this other stuff. My thing is always there’s other ways to get them with the Kings. It’s not ever really going to be free agency, so you’re not you’re not going to uh be able to get it that way. I would like to be more aggressive in the trade market. I’d like to and hence what I was talking about a month ago, moving on from Domas, going after a LaMelo Ball, going after a Trey Young. That’s where I would take my gamles. I’ve seen those guys. I know what they are in the NBA as opposed to um like not being good for, you know, two years and then like hoping that the that I’m right about this 18-year-old or something like that. I’d much rather be more aggressive in the trade market. If I was Sacramento over the years, I’d be trying to any disgruntled guy, any any guy that you know, maybe you don’t think is in the right situation, I’d be looking to trade for him and and trade draft picks and all this other stuff for that. That’s where I’d be looking more times than not to go get quote unquote the guy is in that trade market. Uh 9169091320. Appreciate you, Sean. Uh let’s talk to our man TC. TC, what’s going on, brother? What’s up with my two brothers?
What’s good, man? How you doing, big dog?
Hey, look, you know what? To be honest with you, I’m good, bro. You know what I mean? Like, hey, Kings fans, bro. So, look. Hold on, DLO. Jesse. Hey. So, bro, check it out.
You got it, boss.
Well, what do what do we want, though? I I heard you asking that. Be like, what do we want? Everybody talking about a point guard, this that. We got one now, bro. Right. Okay. Well, Monk Detroit, y’all want to do a signing trade? Okay. Well, I’mma need something with that. I’mma need I’mma need a first or at least a couple seconds. Oh, y’all don’t want to do it. Okay, I’mma just sign him. That’s what that That’s what that move told me. As far as the the signing Kaminga signing trade, I’m in for that. The dude’s a young buck athletic dude. If that’s the move we doing, I’m all for that. But I’m talking to Kings fans like you, DLo. What do you guys want? We have a point guard for the next couple years until all this money falls off the books. Yes, we’re going to be competitive. We’re not tanking. We’re not selling pieces off and doing all that. We’re gonna stay relevant while this money falls off the books, bro. And then we’re gonna go there. But Kings fans, what do we want? We have a point guard now. What do we want, bro? Everybody’s like ma mad and mad at the world. BJ and Perry are two cold individuals, bro, that’s putting this team together. Give them time. They know what they’re doing. It’s not Monty McNair, Vlatty Devok. It’s not none of that. These are two competent dudes that know what they’re doing. King fans, what do we want, bro? That’s all I got, man. I’m hot. Happy 30 seconds ago. That’s all I got. Hey, clip. That’s That’s a That’s a That’s That’s a drop right there. That’s all I got. I’m hot. Shout out TC, man. I agree with a lot of what he said, too. You know, I mean, as far as a point guard, Dennis Rutder, and all this other stuff, like I I like Dennis. I think he’s a good ball player. I don’t I don’t think he’s the future. I don’t think he’s franchise point guard, nothing like that. Um, people even push back on whether he’s not he’s a starting point guard. That’s debatable. I mean, he started something like 50 of the 75 games he played last year. So, I it’s it’s debatable, but I don’t look at him as some type of savior. Um, but I think he is a good ball player. I think he is a point guard. And uh I you know I’m I’m okay with trying to always be open to figure out like what you can do uh to improve this team and trying to get more talent in here. And you got to figure out this log jammer at the guard spot and maybe you can flip one of those guys and get a player of need somewhere else. But um yeah, I I didn’t I didn’t have a problem with much of what TC said.
All right. speculation that TC’s not real. Oh, he’s real, pal. 91691320. Ross, what’s up, baby?
Hey, what up, fellas? Long time no talk, man.
Yeah, man. Now we get a coach’s perspective in here. Go ahead, Luke. I mean, Ross,
you know, I’ve been listening though. You guys are killing it like usual. Uh, you know what? I I agree with TC, man. Um, uh, getting Trey, getting Jaw, that scares me. they don’t play defense and uh injury issues, whatever you want to call it, but trading away three, four first round picks just to be maybe the fifth, fourth seed, best best option scares me. Uh like you said, the money comes off the books 2728. So, we might just have to sit tight and then 26 27, you know, take salary dumps or whatever you want to call it. But I think we just got to wait it out and give give Perry a chance to clear the runway for 2728. As much as that’s painful to hear,
you know, that’s probably I don’t know if clear the runway is the right way of phrasing it, but there’s a certain level of just survive and figure it out. This team has had no direction since the end of game seven. They didn’t they didn’t that off season. They didn’t the next. And you know, I can give them a like they tried, they tried, they tried, but like how if I had told my mom in school, I tried, mom. Yeah, try harder, bro. Like you ain’t living at home forever. Try harder. Get the job done. Time and time again, they didn’t get the job done. They were waiting financial flexibility. this that and all we wound up with was a team that got progressively worse over three years and everybody unemployed since then. Facts.
Let’s see what Stanley talking about here. 91691320 Hall of Famer.
What’s up, Stanley?
Well, first off, I want to ask you all, have what have you all heard concerning one of my old favorite Kings players, uh, Big Gerald Wallace. What what have you all heard? I mean, what what’s he doing these days? But the main thing I call to say the main thing I call to say is the Kings should have marshaled all of their plans together to get Trey Young. That’s what they should have done. I I I I you know what Stanley I agree. That was his point. He was done after
I agree with Stanley. I I’ I’ve said it a number of different times. I would have if Trey Young was was there and we’ve heard a number of different things to say essentially. We don’t know like the details of the deal or nothing like that, but essentially if the Kings wanted Trey Young, Scott Perry wanted Trey Young, he could have he could have got him. If that’s true, I would have I absolutely would have gone after Trey Young.
I think a lot of people are going to change their mind about him after the season.
Trey.
Yeah. I mean,
you think they you think Atlanta’s better now?
Yeah, I think this will be I don’t know. I don’t ro in front of him and all that. You could argue this would be their best roster he’s played with so far. Yeah, I think I think you’re right. Uh Jaylen Johnson can come back healthy. You know what I mean? That’s that’s going to be a big piece to what they’re trying to do. So they they definitely got some ball players. But I agree with Stanley. I would have I absolutely would have uh gone
You know who doesn’t agree with you, Stanley? Is Scott Perry. That’s true. Why do we think
Scott? That wasn’t us. That was Scott. No, no, that was Stanley. No, call him. Yeah, Scott just called again. Why do we think they didn’t want Trey? I’ve seen stuff about identity and I saw that kind of get thrown around with Malik and stuff like that and why maybe they want to move on from him and all that. Like is like what are they looking for here?
Uh so like for me personally what I try to do like there are players that I like and I don’t think that people necessarily always do this. They just love their player and they’re like ah to the end of the earth. Like I like Trey Young. I would have traded for him. I understand why somebody wouldn’t want to trade for him. He’s a small guard, doesn’t play defense, um hasn’t really shown the ability and and we we’ve talked about the roster, but still hasn’t shown the ability to raise the level of others around him. Um there’s been some some personality quirks with him, you know, if if you think that um maybe his teammates haven’t always loved him, that’s something that’s been out there. Coaches, all this other stuff. So, there are reasons why. And then what it would take to get them and keep them here. You’re giving up like three or four first rounders and you’re paying them $50 million a year. I can understand somebody not wanting to do that for Trey Young. I disagree, but I can understand that.
I could absolutely understand that. Man,
it’s unpopular. It’s going to take a couple years. That is the most uncomfortable reality of
like that’s just what it is. I’m sorry. like you the kings of the island of misfit toys right now. Nobody wants Lavine. They’re not trading Demar. I don’t think you’re
I don’t know.
Fans wanted a quick fix. Like I’m not sure what everyone’s hope was entering this off season, but like a quick fix, one signing. I mean, this was a 40- win basketball team that we we feel like if if you’re if you’re truly being fair to the story, you will discuss the extenduating circumstances. But in the last couple of days, we’re hearing, you know, I don’t want Malik gone. Okay. Well, why hasn’t Keon why didn’t Keon get his his his extension? Okay. Well, where’s Keegan’s extension? All right. So, be clear. Y’all just want to run it back. No, no, no, no, guys. We don’t want to run it back. We want Demar gone and Lavine.
Well, and Lavine. Oh, okay. So, y’all hate Demar and want him tra. What do you think the rest of the league thinks? Y’all were the same people. And I cannot stress this enough. I don’t think this is true. Someone reported that the Chicago Bulls tried to attach like two first round picks or three first round picks to Zack Lavine and no one would take him. Go to hell. Go straight to the depths of hell.
That is some of the biggest cap I’ve ever heard.
That is that is absolutely insane to believe that that’s true. But you’re here today telling the Sacramento Kings to go trade Zack Lavine. Fine. By your rationale, you want the Kings to attach multiple first round picks to get him out of here. Guys, what are we doing?
What are we doing?
I I don’t know. They just
So, we’re just arguing amongst each other at this point.
People just kind of upset and and just want to vent. And I’ll be I’ll be fine. I’ll be real with you. Fine. Come, come through the deal and KC, come to the chatty house, call in 916 uh 9091320. You can vent, you could be upset, all this other stuff. Just know that in some cases, if you vent vent too much, always complaining about everything that’s going on and everything’s wrong. People will just kind of tune you out. Like that’s how I go about things, right? Like if you always complaining, I’m just kind of going to stop listening to you cuz I’ve already got it. No, you’re going to complain about everything. He’s just going to complain. It’s just a chronic complainer. So, you tweet me, you call the show, you get in the chatty house, and it’s just everything’s wrong. All right, bro. I get it. Everything’s wrong. I don’t really need to like hear explanation anymore. Just I know you think everything’s wrong. So, let’s all get together and problem solve. What’s the right move for this organization to make? What are the right moves for this organization to make? We’ll discuss that. We see a lot more of you on hold. We’re going to get to each and every single one of you. Please be patient. We’ll get right back to the calls here with DO and Casey on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. And people love doing this. I love when I love when people do this. I love when people do this. When they go to the extreme of what somebody said, you’re right. The organization, the Kings organization ran very well. I’ll stop complaining. I never said you had to do that. I literally said you can do whatever you want. I don’t care what you do. I’m telling you, Paul, that if for me personally, if you’re constantly complaining about something, I will tune you out. That’s my superpower. I’ll just kind of You can be talking and it’ll be like talking to a brick wall. So, like I’ll look at Paul like, “Oh, I know Paul. He He got something negative to say. He don’t believe in it. Cool. I heard him the first 45 times. Why do I need to hurt him the 46th time? I already know what he’s going to say. That’s what I do. That shouldn’t what I do and the reaction you get from me shouldn’t stop how you go about your life. So if you want to complain and you’re happy with it, that’s all that should matter. Not my reaction to your complaining. That sounds crazy. was all good a couple years ago. I always listen to you, Matt George. Always. Mike Brown look be the Knicks new coach. How happy are you about that? All right, man. Maybe maybe you know he can get the Knicks in the finals so they can play the Kings in the finals. Stolines galore. I love that.
What’s going to happen who realizes Cat and Brunson will play defense? He going to bench him. Jaylen Brunson is a situational role player on this team. Hey. Hey, get Hey, get your boy, man. Get your boy.
No, get your boy, man. Come on, man.
Yeah, that’s crazy. Stephen, go take a lap. That’s one of those where he’s looking for the flag. He did like He did like Trey Young not giving the ball back to the ref. I know I’m gonna get teed up for this. Team me up. I don’t care. Oh, that’s fine. That’s fine. I don’t I don’t think I don’t think no type of way about the way you feel about it. All right, let’s uh get back to the Elkrove Kia talk line here. We’re going to try to turn this team into a winner somehow. 9169 1320. We’ll start with S. S, what’s going on, man?
Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hopefully you can hear me. I’m uh on the road right now.
Yes, sir. Loud and clear, man.
Oh, right on. Right on. You know, I appreciate your guys’s um your insight on things. And I I listen to a whole bunch of different I’m a basketball fan first. I’m an old head. First time I saw the Kings was in 1988. Um went to lots and lots of games, standing room onlyies. The thing is is that we are in a holding pattern the next two years. It seems like I’m not a Lavine fan. I don’t think we should have got him, but what’s done is done. It doesn’t seem like anybody would want to take his contract, which is understandable. But since that is the case, we need to somehow play towards his uh his his uh tendencies. And we know that he doesn’t make very good decisions. He’s got a low IQ. if he’s dribbled the ball more than two times and he’s not going towards the rim, there’s something wrong. So, we’re going to have to somehow incorporate these next couple of years and h hopefully he stays on the court and injuries uh aren’t a big deal or won’t be a big deal, but everyone’s going to get hurt. Everybody plays hurt. I think the Kings as an organization uh the lack of leadership from the very top is going against all universal law. And when you have people saying let’s tank, let’s do this, let’s do that, that’s just not a winning uh mindset. That is a scarcity weak-minded way to approach life. And here in Sacramento, we’re bluecollar people. We work hard. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Now, if we’re going to just go on the floor and just jack up a bunch of threes, then of course we’re only going to win about 30 something games. If we have some type of system, and I I’m I come from a defensive-minded uh background. I played high level of sports, and the first person that punches the other team in the mouth and shows the more aggression generally does better. when the Kings have a mental and and I like Doug Christie as a as as a person and certainly as a player
um as a coach. It still remains to be seen, but we have to remember this whole situation is so wonky and jacked up. They hired Doug Christie before uh Mr. Perry and so they’re trying to work together.
Yeah, that that I I appreciate you. That didn’t exactly happen. Like I I I understand people I hear you listening to you, but that didn’t happen. Doug was the interim head coach. Uh Scott Perry uh hired Doug Christie. Um he said, “I can only tell you what Scott Perry told us. He came in, talked to a few people around the league that he knew wanted the job. In the end, he wanted Dell Christie to be the guy, and we’re going to we’re going to keep it moving.” Uh appreciate you, man. Thank you. Thank you for the call. Uh, I think that was S. 9169091320. Stephen, what’s good, man?
Hey, what’s going on y’all?
What’s up, big dog
from Alabama? It’s good to hear from y’all. I listen to y’all all the time. I figured I would call in.
Appreciate you, buddy. Shout out to you.
Yeah, I was just calling V a little bit. Man, I think the biggest issue for me is the whole feeling of, oh, we just gonna run it back. You know, Dennis Schroeder is a running back type of move and it’s like we are we are old team and it’s just not a lot of hope or positivity to look forward to. I mean, we got the two guys we just drafted, but um one like one move I would say I would like to do is it would be a minor move, but since we don’t have a long-term uh solution at point guard, I say why not bring in a guy like Trey Man just to, you know, see what you got? cuz other than that a lot. We’ve got like one of the oldest rosters in the league, but yet old but not good enough to win anything meaningful. So, um that’s just one minor issue I would like to see. But other than that,
that’s that’s all I got. Okay, I hear you. That’s all right. We appreciate you.
No doubt, man. No doubt. I like I like I’m intrigued by Trey Man. You know, I know James always talks about like his his injury history and that’s a concern and they’re like serious like back injuries and stuff like that. So, that’s a concern. And I like his talent though and for the right price. I mean, not right now because you got so many guards, but like if you had an opening at the backup point guard spot or one of your wing guards, I’d for sure take a look at at Trey Man, but I don’t know if they’re going to have that kind of space. Uh, let’s get to Manny here. Reminder, Trista Crick coming up at the top of the two o’clock hour and she already said she might just stick around. Let’s do 91691320. What’s up, Manny? What’s up y’all? Like I think a I think the a lot of the conflicting feelings that a lot of the fans have is I I think at the end of the season, right, there was a big sign and I think everybody’s uh attention was towards Dear and Zach, right? And we kind of already had established like it was going to be hard to move Zack no matter what because of his contract and the years left. And I think everybody was so zoned in in Demar, they weren’t really looking at it from the perspective of like it’s more than just demar like if you’re going to reset this or there’s a lot of moving pieces that have to happen. And I think because of the way Monk had professed his love to this city for so long, um when that came up uh 24 to 48 hours ago, that was jarring for a lot of fans. I don’t think they were prepared for that. Um, and I think that’s where you got a lot of backlash you saw on Twitter and you know wanting this and this and that and I don’t think everybody thinks like the way you said DLO like and even Casey said like look I don’t agree with what these people think his worth is but that is what it is right now and you can’t d you can’t dictate the market on what you want it to be. The market is what the market is. And if nobody wants to give you what you want, there’s only a limit, right? And and a lot of people are say, “Well, just keep them anyway.” Look, you got to make a decision. And it’s beyond just the love for one player or the love for one or two players. If you want to make a change, let Perry do what he’s going to do. Don’t look in the immediate present of what he’s doing. Let him work it out and let’s see where it goes down the line. Because any moves he makes now, people are going to find something wrong with it. But you got to see let him play out his vision and let’s just see where it goes. Like I don’t care what he does whether I agree with the move or not. I’m looking at a year or two down the line as all right at that point. Where are we at? What did you do to help not only make this team good right now necessarily, but where are we set for going forward and into the future? Because that’s way more important than anything. Manny, I um yeah, like there’s no I’m not going to tell fans to be patient. This fan base has been patient enough. I’ll tell you my approach is I’m willing to see it out. Like that’s all I can do. I’m not big on the idea of Malik Monk being traded, but I get it. Like I like Malik as much as everybody else does. I get though why they’re trying to trade him. I don’t like Devin Carter. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t You You saw something in his game at the end of the season. I just did not see. Uh you have a significantly better basketball eye than I do. You think there’s something there? Great. I don’t know how you I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know how he fits. I don’t I don’t I don’t know how you unless you really believe long term you’ve got something with Devin Carter and you can see through what is probably Demar De Rozan’s last year assuming he’s still here and and you can see through um uh uh you know Zack Lavine’s two years and then also you got um you got Nick coming in now like if you can navigate all of this because you think Devin Carter can can be a be be a be a solid player for you moving forward like cool Like I’m really Hey, I’m willing to see it through, but I I’m just going to give Scott Perry a chance to put this together. That’s That’s all I can do. Like, this isn’t the front office of last year. This isn’t uh Mike Brown. We We can’t blame Mike and Monty and Wes for everything. There’s one guy you can blame for everything, whether that has any validity or not. You can blame that guy cuz he’s the one that’s always here. But the the the conversations about you could say, “Yeah, man. That last front office put put Scott Perry in tough position.” All right, Scott, figure it out. Very literally your job. When you interviewed for this, assuming you interviewed, you knew this was a tough spot. Anyone who took this job was going to be in a difficult position. They were probably going to be operating without a draft pick. They were going to have to find a way to work their way into the draft if that’s what they wanted to do. Uh you have the Zack Lavine deal. You’re going to have to navigate the Demar De Rozan situation. You’ve got the Keon Ellis and Keegan Murray extension. You’ve got a lot that you got to deal with as the general manager of this basketball team. We could Monty did this. Mike did this. Wes did this. FCC did that. Too goddamn bad. Scott is your job to fix it. That’s what you were hired here for. I’m going to give him an opportunity to fix it. And if he doesn’t, I’m going to tell you that he doesn’t or that he hasn’t. But I’m going to at least give him the opportunity to do it. I mean, and that’s I’m I’m much like you in that respect where I’m not going to tell anybody how to feel or what to do because I just live by this simple. I wouldn’t I don’t want nobody telling me what to do and how I should feel. So, how am I going to tell somebody else how to go about these things? You want to be upset, you want to be angry, you want to vent and talk about how bad people are, sure, go ahead. That’s fine. Uh I am going to practice patience because I’m of the belief if you do want things to change it does take time and people who don’t want to take that time or don’t want to go understandable but because you don’t want to doesn’t make things go any faster the way I believe it like you can get mad and hate it all you want that doesn’t
you can’t skip skip steps You just can’t. And I’m a big believer in that in life. You can’t skip steps. If you want to reach a goal, attain a goal, is going to take putting in the work and getting things done. So, you know, you you if you’re not for that or you don’t want to follow this team and do all that while they go about that and don’t believe in them, that’s cool. That’s fine. Um, but I I didn’t come into this off season thinking that they hired Scott Perry, everything’s going to be good by August. Like that’s not and that’s and that’s even thinking that Demar De Rozan wasn’t going to be here. You know what I’m saying? Like now that he might be here, that’s one less trade asset that you have.
So, and that does take time.
That does make me wonder if if the market is truly that bad for Malik. And maybe they’re maybe they’re attempting to trade Deon and Kent. Maybe the market isn’t there for him either. I mean, he’s essentially an unproven player. You’d have to be, you know, you’d have to really believe in what you think that young man could be based on mostly his college film and maybe you can go off some stuff at the end of the season. Do you? because you and I are of the belief and and a handful of others, Matt George, too, that maybe they don’t want to trade Demar De Rozan like that’s they they would like him to be here. Do you have to pivot back to Demar if that’s still an asset that has value around the league? Do you have to Man, we really would have loved to keep Demar, but we have we’re we’re kind of just jammed in this back court. We have to do something to balance this roster out a little bit. It’s not our first choice, man. But maybe we do have to move tomorrow. There has like all things got to be considered in my opinion. That’s not a copout answer to what you’re saying, but no, it’s perfectly fine.
All things have to be considered. I think you even have to consider the way you go about it and saying, “All right,
we want to keep Dear around. We want to keep Dear around, but we’re not married to him. We’ll listen to offers right now. More importantly, if we go into the season and still have Demar, we going to listen to offers in February. If we gonna listen if somebody if Cleveland, you know, I just throwing out a team, but if they need a score around the deadline and they’re desperate, yeah, Demar might be available then. Maybe we can get a better return on Demar in February than we can in July. If the market is what the market is right now, there’s no real value for these guys, then I’m sorry, but at this point like Scott Perry has no choice but to hang on to him. I feel like I don’t think
survive and figure it out.
Yeah. Like I don’t like hopefully like it’s easier to move on from Lavine next season because he’s got a year less on his deal or maybe it’s easier to move on from Sabonis and things like that, but it’s like right now it’s like you don’t want to
just sell guys off for nothing. That’s why I was so against Monk for Shruder because it’s like you can get Shruder just here. You don’t need to give Monk Obam away. and and I’m of the belief and Dame you can tell me if I’m off or anybody could tell me if I’m off. A lot of these people are looking at it as the player and I got a different approach to it and a different outlook on it. I don’t know if people don’t like Malik Monk as much as they’re scared to death of this apron stuff and they aren’t taking any chances with any acquisitions
like anything that’s going to bring them closer to that. Not saying that Malik Monk alone is gonna bring somebody to a first apron or second apron or something like that, but everybody’s just there. I mean, hell, people are talking about there’s no and I I know it’s not apples to apples. There’s no trade market for LeBron James. You know what I’m saying? Like there the the there was only three teams quote unquote that wanted Kevin Durant. Mhm. Like those things factor play a factor into how these teams are moving right now
because
you you want to make sure you know you’re not first apron. Definitely want to make sure you’re not second apron. Oh, the Celtics just parted with three-fifths of their their starting lineup or something like that because we don’t want to be in this apron because not only is it the money, but that affects what moves we can make just in general.
They just signed a guy today for 5 million per. I think that put him back over the second apron. So now they got to make more moves,
man. That’s what Keith Smith says at least. So I think it’s not the end all beall, but I think that does play a factor into player X’s market. You know what I mean? If if you didn’t have all this stuff, sure, somebody would take a $30 million chance on Jonathan Kaminga. The guy’s 22 years old or something like that, like sure, let’s let’s take a chance on them. But now when you got all these restrict restrictions because of the aprons and stuff, it has people thinking twice a little bit, I believe. Uh, let’s get Phil in here. 916909320. Uh, appreciate you uh being patient, Phil. What’s going on, man?
What’s going on, guys? What’s going on?
What’s up, man?
Hey, so I think I think Kamiga low key is probably going to go to Indiana when Miles Hardon, they’re going to need like a power forward or a sim type to take a spot. So, I think we’re going to be out of the Kaminga stuff. I I’m not Yeah. I mean I mean those those guys that you referenced earlier are are more connected than than I am. I I don’t know how realistic that was. I I can’t that and that’s the other thing about Kaminga. Kings or not. Kings Kings or the league. I have no clue what that looks like. And it really depends on who they’re talking to, doesn’t it? Because if this is a sign in trade, uh, Brooklyn, for example, just just saying a name, I know they have cap space. Brooklyn, no, we like, no, okay, it’s it’s f max contract.
We’ll sign comma to a max contract. So, go ahead. Sign comma to a max contract. What’s the trade look like? Boom, boom, boom, boom. Here, we’ll send it back. We We’ve got the space. We’re good. Take Brooklyn out. You got four other teams that are like, well, we’re four and 80. Well, we could do four in 92. We could do four in one. It’s like I then you then you so you so so you’ve got the dollar figure that you have to manage if you’re Kaminga in his group. Then you’ve got the asset return if you’re the Golden State Warriors that you got to make work. And there’s just so many moving parts uh when it comes to a sign and trade. There’s so many moving parts when it comes to a player who might be coveted by a handful of teams in the league. I don’t know that he is. I imagined and have always imagined he would be, but I just don’t know what that looks like. Period. And I really don’t know what that would look like for Sacramento.
Yeah. I I again, I thought Sacramento’s best asset one, it was either Damonte Sabonis, which I don’t think is a thing, or it’s Jonas Valenunis, who is no longer a Sacramento king. So, I don’t know.
Well, we did say we were going to try and figure out figure out together how to get this done. And
yeah,
I think there’s an I number one, I think there’s multiple ways that you can be successful
if you’re trying to get the Kings in a in a good position. And I don’t know if there’s any one right way. Like I look I look at the roster. If I’m Scott Perry right now today, I look at this roster and I’m assuming I’m assuming I would still try and make calls, but I’m assuming I can’t move Sabonis or Lavine for their worth for a good trade package. Demar De Rozan, I’d be looking at that that trade um market for him and seeing if anything is appealing to me.
Mhm. um be doing the same for Malik Monk. But what I’m not going to do, and I told this to the to the insiders earlier, good show.
Very good show, is if I don’t think I’ll put it to like this. If I don’t think you can be the best player on my team, I’m not going to mortgage my future right now from Scott Perry.
Yeah. I’m not going to give up draft capital and I’m not gonna overpay and get into another bad contract if I don’t think you can be the best player on my team. So, that’s going to that’s going to kind of limit what I might do this off season. I’m a little bit more resigned to the fact that maybe you do stand pat and go into the season. I still think you got to move on from one Monk, Keegan or Devin. I don’t want to go into opening night with those three on the roster along with Dennis Shrutder. But I’m other than that, I’m more resigned to like, yeah, kind of running back this thing and monitoring as the season goes along, whether they’re a good team or whether, you know, you want to move on from a guy like D Rozan or somebody at the trade deadline. But opening night and what I do this off season, um, is going to be very, very selective. if I’m putting this team together.
What do you think Scott Perry’s trying to establish in his first season? Like, are you trying to get to playoffs? You trying to establish culture here? Like, what is what is the goal? I guess I think the number one thing is to get everybody get a situation where everybody in the building is on one accord. M
and like are you looking at this roster too like like like there’s a future with some of these guys because that’s one thing I do struggle with with this team is like I don’t Demard Rosen seems like he’ll be here this season but I don’t see anything past two years with the Kings same with Lavine Sabonis who knows it seems like it fluctuates with that guy as far as what people say and all that but like like Monk is on the verge of getting traded it seems like all the time now it’s just like what’s the what do you see here? You know what I think about in moments like this is I think what what does ESPN think? Oh, what did they say?
ESPN uh wrote about the Kings adding point guard Dennis Shruder on the three-year $45 million deal. Graded it a C minus. Okay,
here’s what they said. Please listen closely. New Sacramento general manager Scott Perry seemed to signal the King’s pursuit of a point guard when he called the lack of traditional playmaker an obvious need during during his introduction to local media. Although that statement is hard to dispute, I’m not convinced playmaking was actually Sacramento’s biggest shortcoming. After the Kings reshuffled their roster by trading De’arren Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team trade that netted Zack Lavine as a replacement, they essentially filled point guard by committee. Both Lavine uh and nominal small forward Demard Rosen are capable of ball handlers as our guards Keegan Ellis and Malik Monk.
We got a new player from the Kings noame roster. Again, that’s Keegan Ellis and Malik Monk. To some degree, Shruder could help there. He’s capable of providing fullcourt pressure on opposing ball handlers. still the 6’1 intruder makes the Kings even smaller on the perimeter and he’s essentially a downgrade defensively as compared to Ellis. I wonder who he’s referring to. He’s talking about Keegan Murray or Keon Ellis. Uh offensively, Schroeder has always been better cast as a playmaker off the bench than as a starter. His value has fluctuated in large part with his three-point percentage. Uh blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Remember that the next time ESPN has something to say about Sacramento. Both Lavine and Demar De Rozan are capable ball handlers. Okay. As are guards Keegan Ellis and Malik Monk. Clearly they didn’t see Malik Monk as a point guard uh with this unit. And clearly well clearly they didn’t watch a single Kings basketball game last year.
And that and that’s one of the things I was talking about with Malik uh last night. I wanted to I was on these airwaves talking about I want to see him as a point guard. I want to see what it looks like. I think he’s got uh the passing ability and the quickness and all and some components to be a starting point guard. I saw it. I didn’t like what I saw. He’s too erratic. He’s he’s not as um stable and grounded all the time as you would want your point guard.
And I didn’t like him as a point guard. That doesn’t mean I don’t like him as a player. want him on the team, but just I I saw that time and I said, “Uh, I don’t think that’s best for him. That’s not putting him in the best situation to be your starting point guard, and that’s not getting the most out of of uh Malik Monk by having him as your starting point guard.” Spot duty sometimes off the bench, sure, that that works. But you you I came away saying you need to go find a starting point guard. Whether or not Dennis Ruter is looked at as a starting point guard or not, that’s a whole another conversation. But I I do I did agree with Scott bearing them that that’s what you needed to do. Uh Kevin Pelton, sorry.
Keegan Ellis, I just I I don’t really have any thoughts about
Keegan Ellis. Shout out. Based on that cost, I undoubtedly would have preferred offering Taius Jones a deal similar to the one he signed with in Orlando for one year and 7 million. Quick message for Kevin Pelton. Quick question for how do you know they didn’t? Right.
How do you know bro didn’t say like no salute. I’m going to go play in Orlando though. I have no idea if they did or didn’t. But stating it so factually because Taius went to Orlando and not Sacramento is bizarre to me. Also, I don’t I don’t know. Like I I guess I know everyone’s a cap expert and an apron expert and all of this this $15 million isn’t that big of a deal. And I and I man, you paid a bench player starter money. Terrific. What’s Malik make again? Thank you.
Because y’all are telling me that Malik is best as the sixman. Great. Malik makes $18 million a year. So, what did you do? Did you pay a bench player starter money? I don’t think $15 million is starter money anymore. We’ll come back. Trista Crick at the top of the hour. She’s ready to cook. She’s got a lot to things to say. I’m positive she’s gonna hate this signing uh from Sacramento. And if there’s anything to report to you along the way, you know, we’ll stop everything and do it. Uh but it’s awfully quiet out. We’re here. We’ll get through it. We’re in this together. Sto and Casey on Sacramento Sports Leader. ESPN 1320. I want it on record because of all the heat I’ve taken the last three years on this damn show that I’ve been cooking my eggs over very easy lately for breakfast and I’ve been throwing pepper on them. So for all those who slander my day there still no salt.
No, if it’s scrambled, it’s just straight scrambled eggs, nothing on them. But over I got to throw pepper on them and stuff. Okay. How do you like it?
Oh yeah, it’s fine. I’ve done it before. I’m just saying like just I’m not the psycho person that you guys make me out to be. Well, so happy they signed a often injured player who’s past his prime. Sick. It definitely works with Odell Beckham Jr. The NFL is doing everything they can to steal the sign.
Miami Dolphins most Miami Dolphins most popular team in the NFL in the league. See, look, I try to be normal or whatever and DMAC still throwing three question marks like I can’t win with you guys. Tim Hardway Jr. to the Nuggets. I like Jun. That’s a good signing for them. I think that’ll that’ll help them out a lot. Shout out passwords, too. There’s three of us now. I love my dolphins, they say. Good for you guys.
It’s a love hate. Can’t wait to um experience my first playoff win. Drew down top tier breakfast right here. probably go. Yes. If Mika is still good. That was midbite when Jesse said, “We’re back.” I don’t know what to tell you.
My bad. I wouldn’t even pay attention back, dog.
No, it’s all good. These uh these lower bars can be tough. So, my bad. My bad. Uh Trist Crate going to join us uh at the top of the two o’clock hour. We’ve got nothing uh to report as it pertains to the Sacramento Kings. Um, we mentioned we started the show, my man Matt George, our man Matt George was working really hard uh on this sign and trade story with Detroit yesterday. Um, I don’t know if and and and Jake Fischer, you know, had it later in the evening. Uh, we talked a little bit about it on social media. Obviously, Kings fans were uh they had some feelings um because Malik Monk is believed to be a part of this. I I don’t know if those trade talks are still alive. Of course, we have the news that Dennis Rutder is signing a three-year $45 million deal with the Sacramento Kings. Of course, everyone is aware that is essentially an agreement to sign a three-year uh deal worth $45 million with the Sacramento Kings. They have five more days before that contract can be signed, which means they have five more days to execute the specific details of this trade. Uh it could involve uh trade exceptions um like the one that the Sacramento Kings have for Kevin Herder. Uh it could involve um Malik Monk. It could involve a variety of different things. The significance of a sign and trade. This this also this needs to you’ve got to understand this. The Kings don’t have to do this to acquire Dennis Shruder. I think they want to do this to move on from Malik. That was a constant question last night is why are the Sacramento Kings trying to do this when they can just sign Dennis Shruder in free agency? Well, there are serious financial ramifications for it. They could do so much more if it’s a sign and trade. Plus, they want to. That’s the important part we have to understand. They want to they want to move on from Malik. I don’t think they’re discarding Malik Monk by any stretch of the imagination. But if they can move him in a way that helps them financially, you acquire Dennis Shruder, you have one big thing you can go do with that mid level or you have a variety of other things you could go do with that mid level. But you can do more and I think that’s what the Sacramento Kings are attempting to execute. Now they’ve got five days to do it. I know no one wants things to move that slowly. Doesn’t mean that they will, but it doesn’t mean just because the uh specifics on the D and shooter deal were announced, it doesn’t mean that they won’t or they specifically, maybe more accurately, doesn’t mean that they can’t. They still very much can. Right. And I I I wonder if they’re looking at it the same way that I and a couple other people are looking at it, too. It’s like I just we we can’t go into this next season with Monk, Keon, and Carter. And
we’ve we’ve tried to move Devin and we heard what the the phone was sounding like with the we we heard what was it sounded like again, Dame, when um you’re trying to get calls for Devin Carter. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Yeah, it was like that. So, we tried to move Devin. Couldn’t do that. Keon. I think they want Keon around like regardless of like what happened the other day and what people feel about it. That was kind of like some some business stuff that it’s unfortunate for Keon, but I don’t think they want to move on from Keon Ellis. I think they want him around. And then you’re looking at Malik Monk. I don’t know if they necessarily want Malik Monk around like that anymore. The one thing that I don’t know that I do wonder is if they were able to move on from Devin Carter, would they keep Malik Monk or would he be out as well? I’m leaning towards he probably still going to be out of their plans anyway,
but I wonder if that would change some things. Uh, Jacob asking, perfectly fair question. Is it completely out of the question that Malik is tired of dealing with how the King’s doing things and low-key has to be traded? Uh, no. Is it out of the question? Of course, I don’t believe that’s what happened. Um, there’s zero indication uh that that happened, but it’s the King’s Man, so who knows?
Who knows?
Again, Trista coming up at the top of the hour. Uh, the big story this morning and arguably the only actual We were promised fireworks. We did not get them.
We got sparkler shams.
Yeah, Sham’s Shams overpromised and underdelivered. The biggest story broke this morning, but it really just depends on who you believe as to what happened.
Dame Lillard’s time with the Milwaukee Bucks is over. He can sign with Miami. He can sign with Golden State. He can sign wherever he wants to.
Doesn’t change the fact he’s not going to play next year, but he can sign wherever he wants to. They did the uh the stretch provision clause. he’s going to get paid uh for, you know, the next handful of years, a pretty decent amount of money, and can go on and sign with another basketball team. The Bucks use that money to go sign Miles Turner away from Indiana, which is stunning. I don’t know if this is on the level I I I It’s not Kevin Durant going to the Warriors, but it might be Ray Allen going to the Heat.
That’s exactly this morning. I thought exactly this morning. Ray Allen going to the Heat and man, tough for the Pacers, great get for the Bucks. Then the Chris Haynes report that Giannis is not happy about how this went down with Dame Lillard. Then the Sham Shirania report that Giannis Ando helped recruit Miles Turner. Now, Giannis could have helped to recruit Miles Turner, not realizing, right? Like, it’s not his job to understand money in the salary cap. He may have done that, not understanding that Dame Lillard would have to be out in order for this to work. But that’s the biggest firework that we’ve gotten so far today. Yeah. And then there’s still this circling this swirling LeBron situation where yesterday when we went off the air um I think it was during the draft show that they did on ESPN or excuse me the free agency show they did on ESPN Brian Winhor
that didn’t start when free agency started.
Well that’s a whole another conversation but uh I think Brian Winhorse on that show said something to the effect of this is the beginning of the end.
You said I’m not trying to be dramatic or controversial. This is just the way it is.
This is the beginning of the end for LeBron and the Lakers.
Yeah.
And I I feel like that happens this summer. Mhm.
I’m I’m really starting to believe this happens this summer.
I’m with you. There’s too much smoke out there.
Like like we come on. We know how this goes. That would be seismic. So where now now for those for those that don’t know, LeBron is in complete control of this. Mhm.
He has a no him and Brad Beal. He has a no trade clause and his agent is RIP Rich Paul. They can literally sit down with the team that they want to go to and navigate the parameters of what the deal would look like. Rob Pelanka has to agree to it, but they’ll No, no, no. Don’t. No, no, no. Not MueL Bridges. Josh Hart. No, no, no, no. Not Josh Hart. Carl Anthony Towns like whatever. We looked at the money yesterday. They could trade they could trade Cat for LeBron straight up.
You don’t have to add anything. You could just straight up make the trade. Um, does Darius Garland work? Does that even make sense? Darius Garland and Co for LeBron
back to Cleveland. Um,
I figure that’s
I don’t know what Darius’s money is, but I’m sure it’s not far away. Yeah, you’d have to add on top of that. But
I think I think LeBron wants to go to the Knicks. I don’t meeting up with his old pal Mike Brown. There’s no way. Yeah, I forgot about that. Mike,
it seems like Mike’s getting that job, too.
It’s It certainly feels like it. Uh Darius is 39 42 44. So, yeah, you’d have to Well, do you trade Draymond Green for him? I think Draymond Well, he
Kaminga.
Feel like Draymond would quit
probably. That’s my like I I’m not trying to be I feel like he’d quit. He’d be like
I’m not playing without Steph Curry.
They got studios in um LA for Draymond to practice being an on air host. Sure.
I don’t know where their studios are now.
I’m saying that’s his next thing. You go do that in LA for the last. That’s what I’m saying. Does ESPN still have their studios out there?
In LA?
I don’t think they do.
You said LA, right? Yeah.
I don’t think they do.
That’s where uh I think they’re still out there for NBA today, though. Yo, they just jumped the sports center or dumped the sports center.
I thought so, man. I could be wrong.
Let’s bring in TK. What’s up, y’all?
Yeah, Trista couldn’t wait. She was tweeting. She was ready. She’s got the little baby microphone in her hand. She got the accessories on. We ready to cook.
What’s up, y’all? What’s good?
I Okay,
intruder era.
Perfectly fine with it. It’s whatever. You guys were tweeting. Speaking of people who were tweeting, y’all were tweeting. Yeah, it doesn’t happen very often, but like I just thought there were some things to be discussed. Like I think sometimes in our in in the sports media world, it’s not real unless you put it on social media. We’ve been telling people for weeks like I think Malik is gone. And they were so stunned. We maybe man that’s a kicking the balls to your ego too. Like y’all ain’t listening to us. We we’ve been telling you like I think Malik is gone and and understandably fan base didn’t didn’t handle that particularly great uh especially because
at least at the time it was it was tied to Dennis Rder. I don’t know if it’s still tied to Dennis Rutder. I don’t know if there are still things being worked out with Detroit. Uh but I certainly thought that was a a high probability last night. Um I like Dennis Shruder. I always have. I don’t care. Like 15 million per isn’t crazy to me. Um I just think that the Kings got a a lot more work to do and making this a sign in trade to where you open up that mid level once again uh would be extremely helpful. Yeah, I uh I don’t hate it either. I think Dennis Shreder is actually a really good guard. I like him a lot. He’s strong. He can shoot. He’s tough. He’s competitive. like you need somebody that can bring the ball up the floor. He’s a champion, right? Um and probably is worth more or was worth at one point more than the deal that he’s ever had since, right, when he turned down that that deal from the Lakers in 2021 when I was like, what is who who who the f does Dennis Shruder think he is that he’s worth more money than this? And he hasn’t been. So, I like the pickup. Um I think there’s obviously a lot more to do, a lot more to be done. Um, and I think people obviously are very upset uh at the Scott Perry era that this is the beginning of it. I mean, I would love to see something record time. This has to be record time for which Kings fans have gotten pissed off at the general manager like moment. I mean, I’m tempted to cry racism. It happens.
Love for money early,
man. And that dude signed Hassan Whitide. He did. and Glenn and the Nick move was pretty good. The Nick move was pretty good.
Oh yeah, they were see there were some wild quotes going out about uh how well Scott Perry did last week after the trade, but there were people willing to do all kinds of things.
But less than a week later,
pause. No, I was major pause. One one of the most crazy pauses of all time. But yeah, I
TK we got to send her that one. Yeah, we’ll send it we’ll we’ll send we’ll send you the clip. Crazy. Yeah, we’ll send you the clip. That’s crazy.
But
you ever wonder You ever wonder why the Kings aren’t on ESPN? We’re not willing to do that. That’s why it was a little little Monica Lewinsky. Well, not far off. Not far off.
As they say, buck 50 for every team,
man. Man, I’m glad to hear you like Dennis Shruder though. I didn’t think you were going to like it.
Oh, I mean Dennis Rutder, anybody who’s watched Dennis Shruder playing FEA
loves him, right? He’s ridiculous. I like him. I I mean he’s not an overpriced player. I don’t think he’s a player that’s like fills the fills the box, you know, the the fills the stat sheet up just based on like what he does. He’s not a Here’s how you know whether it’s a player that I like versus like not. Is this a player that’s on Kenny’s top 10 bucket getters? If he is not on that list, I might like him. If he is on this list, I do not like him.
You don’t like offense. You don’t like scorers.
I love offense, but I like guys who can do both. Pause.
Well, well, yeah, definitely pause that. But, uh, yeah, not everybody.
Not everybody gonna be able to do that on on a basketball team. I wish you were here last players. I don’t want Trista. The GM doesn’t want small, undersized guards who cannot defend on the team unless it is filled with athletic defensive-minded 3 and D type wings. That’s it.
Well, see, I wish you were around last week when I I built the team and you would have you would have heard like that what you need is you need some scores. So that’s why I’m always in
that’s why I’m always in constant search for those guys. Scorers are easier to find than you would think. That’s why Damen Lillard just got waved.
I mean Yeah, but he’s Damen Lillard. Like there’s that not everybody can. Everybody thinks they can score 25 a night if they have the opportunity. There’s a reason why those guys get paid a premium because you just you just can’t find those type of guys. So you’re looking for those guys. But what I said last week is you only need about three or four of them max like throughout the whole roster. Once you’ve got those three or four that you can that can get you like 20 to 25 on any given night, then you can start filling it out with the role players with the um the three andd guys or the guy that just comes in like a Mitchell Robinson and rebounds or the guy that just defends um like N Smith did. and N Smith was able to shoot the ball a little bit too, but there’s a method behind it. Like seven scorers doesn’t work, but seven role players don’t work either. You know what I’m saying? Like you can’t have seven, oh, we’re just tough and we just go out there and do the dirty work. You’re going to score 50 points a night. But those dirty dirty work players, those are cheap players. You don’t have to pay them a lot of money. And those players actually are harder to find than you would think, especially ones that don’t have high egos. Guys like Dyson Daniels, guys like Herb Jones, those guys are hard to find. Guys like Nesmith, hard to find and also not that expensive. And there’s so little of them in the league that are big, athletic, can do multiple things. Nmith can also rebound his ass off. He can also, you know, get other players involved. So you can always find a disgruntled star to slot in, dra trade for him when he’s upset and pay him money. You need to build the nucleus first. Unless you’re going to go the route of Atlanta where they’re like, “We can’t trade Trey. There is no market for him. Let’s just support him the best that we can.” I don’t believe just getting a bucket getter and seeing if you can fill that the rest of the roster in is a very easy thing to do.
See, I disagree though because how many of these Lou Dorts are around? How many of these guys are undrafted? I looked at the exact opposite. If you know what you’re doing and you know what you’re looking for, you can always find those guys. They they don’t they go undrafted all the time. Keon Ellis undrafted. When’s the last time you saw an undrafted 25 point per game scorer? Well, that’s what Alex Cruz said. Alex Cruz said everybody can score and that’s why they go to the G-League and they think that their role is to score, but really their role is to be the janitor. That’s their role is to, you know, get defend hard and and rebound. Everybody wants to score. That’s what they all want to do. Lud Dor couldn’t shoot. That was now he can shoot. and if he was shooting 40% from three, he doesn’t go undrafted. But also, I agree that there’s plenty of talent evaluators that do not know what they’re doing on the college and like low end. Once they’re in the league and known, those players are hard to find and they’re valuable. TK, what would you We’ve been trying to figure out the approach for this Sacramento Kings team because it feels like they’re kind of stuck in no man’s land.
Yes, they are. What’s What would Trista, the general manager’s approach be with this basketball team? Unfortunately, probably blow it up. Um, get rid of Sabonis.
Let’s Okay, tell me what Tell me tell me what a Tell me what you think a Sabonis trade looks like. Yeah, that that’s that’s that exactly that’s there. And And you didn’t you didn’t use this where you said you you got to blow it up and start over. But the idea is getting assets back. The idea is putting together a poor basketball team, getting as high draft picks as you can, and I just don’t think that that works with this team. They have players who are stuck right in the middle. They’re good, but they’re not great. Great assets collect you draft picks and first rounders. I said Demar uh yeah Dear Domas and Lavine could potentially net you one first round draft pick and it would probably be from Domas.
Yeah, it would be definitely from Domas and you probably get much more than that.
You’d probably have to package Domas with Lavine to get Lavine somewhere else. Something like that. That’s a hundred million dollars worth of salary.
So much well that you know there’s like three team 14 trades. They reroute them other places. Go to Brooklyn. do. It’s tough. No, it’s it’s a very tough situation. And I think probably I don’t know what Keegan’s gonna get paid, but I remember sitting in your studio advocating for Keegan to bring you Lori Markin. And I don’t and I remember getting like, yo, we can’t do that. That’s insane. And I don’t even know if Lori Markin is that good right now because of how bad Utah has been. And I really don’t know how to assess or analyze his game on like a competent team or a team that’s trying to win. But Keegan’s value is definitely different perception wise than it was when we talked about that two years ago. I think it’s just like you find as much as you can get. And I’m not going to say that Portland’s the perfect model for this because they’re not. But if you can’t get good value, then you you hang on, right? Like Jeremy Grant’s not yielding anything back. And so as much as they’d like to trade him, they can’t you I think going the way of and and maybe this is hard because this isn’t quite a blow up. This is more of like a retool rebuild, but if you’re trying to get off of players, you know, maybe find at least somebody exciting to come back like Portland wanted to get rid of Anthony Simons. A lot of people probably don’t like the Drew Holiday move. I do like the Drew Holiday move. he’s a winner. And I think you once you get a winner in the building, I think that helps a lot. Even if they’re older, even if they’re more expensive and and you try to like have some sort of asset management. Scott Perry’s got his work cut out for him. Um, you’re right. This is going to be really hard to rebuild, but I don’t think you can just duct tape things here and there and find a way back to some sort of relevancy. Just real quick, the biggest breaking news we might get today is there’s a verdict in the Diddy trial.
Is it Is it It hasn’t been announced yet. It hasn’t been announced yet. They said uh jurors and family returning to the courtroom. They said
they have the jury has verdicts on count two, three, four, and five. Count one is the RICO charge. They are like a hung jury, I guess, on the RICO char. I don’t know how that works, but they’ve reached verdicts on two, three, four, and five, and wasn’t a lot of deliberation. So, I uh
Wow. No, it’s the end of an era.
That more Karen, less Karen,
or is it
less Karen? More Karen.
Okay. Well, we may um find out. Uh
less freakoffs.
Wait, hold on.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Uh, the Los Angeles Clippers are waving center Drew Eubanks. And Eubanks plans to sign with the Sacramento Kings on a one-year deal after he clears Wavers.
I don’t hate it.
I like
10day guy. Drew Eubanks. Drew Eubanks is a pretty good player.
He is a pretty good player. He’s a good little backup backup center.
He’s a good backup. Yeah, he is. He’s tough. He’s okay. Get you some minutes. Eat up some minutes like a middle. Yeah,
I’m not. That’s It’s okay. There’s not a lot you can do. You’re just
Okay.
But here’s the thing, though. I got you.
Here’s the thing.
I think you have to at least know that you got to be really bad. That’s number one. For at least a little while. Or you have to have a franchise player and build around them. And you saw what Detroit did. They were really bad. They got cade and they stayed bad for a few more years. And now we feel confident in them being able to like build something. Atlanta they were pretty good went to the conference finals. Then they were like really bad just playing playing and then they got competent a competent front office which I think we can all kind of say wow what Atlanta’s doing is very
interesting. They’re finding ways on the margins like Nail Alexander Walker clearly wanted to go to Atlanta for a reason. But Nail Alexander Walker is a perfect Sacramento king. Not to say that he would want to go there, but like that’s a player that’s like does a lot of versatile things and is a piece that you can have as a young player who’s, you know, we’ve all been kind of like rooting for Nail for a long time. He took a while to hook on, but even if you’re rebuilding, he’s good. And if you’re like a contender, he’s good. Now, he probably wants to be on a contender. But I think the moral of that story is if you have a competent front office, even like the Wizards have started to do, you can build things faster than you think. And no man’s land isn’t forever. I also I think a lot of this stuff, especially here in Sacramento, um it’s not going to happen in one summer.
No.
Like it’s just it’s just not. As much as people want it to be that way and want a quick turnaround, this is something that’s going to take, you know, a summer or two, you know, to kind of get the type of guys that Scott Perry wants in here to wait for some of these contracts to either come off the books or get more digestible to be traded um and and locate some other talent around the league. So, I I want to see I want to see, you know, these moves being made, but I’m also not expecting I’m not expecting them to do something that’ll turn them into a 55 win team next season with just this summer. Like, I I don’t I don’t look at what’s ahead of Scott Perry in that front office that way. So, I guess maybe I’m more resigned to the fact of that and that’s why I’m not as angry as other people are because it’s going to take time one way or another.
Yeah, I think you’re right. And not to bring it back to Portland again, but even though this has taken many years, more than I think people wanted. It’s now been three years since we traded Dame. You have at least some guys like think about the Tumani Kamar piece. All of a sudden, he just performs over expectations right away as either a late first or an early second. I forget exactly where he was drafted, but he was a diamond in the rough that performed right away. And you just need to continue to build on those little things and feel like you can have confidence in those who are making the decisions. And as much as a lot of Blazer fans don’t like Joe Cronin, I believe in what he’s doing. And at least even if I don’t agree, which I do agree, but even if I didn’t, I know what the plan is. Everything is sort of fitting in this box of like what type of players they want, who they’re going after, and and what the vision is for the team. As of now, I haven’t seen the vision for what the Kings are looking for. And I’m looking forward to seeing that from Scott. Yeah, that’s the other thing. We’re judging this on an incomplete picture. Um, here’s the tough part. The picture is not going to be complete today or tomorrow or at the start of the season. Like we might really start to be able to see this thing unfold by the trade deadline. I doubt it. But as we get into next year and next trade deadline, that’s where we’ll really start to that’s where we’ll really start to get a fear for feel what’s got
question for you. Question for you. If if they if you guys would not have traded Darren Fox at the deadline and waited until right now M
how many things would have been so much different and and you can say well we thought maybe there was going to be less opportunities for us. I think actually there would have been a lot more opportunities. Is that a one-year like is that on him on an expiring does Indiana give you some assets because they still want to contend? Does the Milwaukee Bucks coming off of a Damen Lillard Achilles injury?
Firing De’aran for a year while Tyrese is out is just menacing work.
Right. Right. This is incredible. But San Antonio probably no longer wants maybe Fox because they want Bill and Harper.
And so everything is different depending on, you know, when you decide to make that move. And I just thought that the impatience level was the reason that the deal came back as one-sided is one-sided as it felt, right? And I think if you do this deal now in the summer, and I know that hindsight is 2020, there’s a lot of places that maybe that’s Orlando. You look at Desmond Bane and like what they gave you for him. And I think maybe that’s not the same player that they want cuz he’s a little bit undersized and he’s not the same type of player, but there’s a lot of options that would be interested in him more than just I’m going to San Antonio. That’s the only place I’m going and screw you if you want to send me anywhere else. Maybe that’s Miami. There’s a a lot of different situations that would have been open now. Maybe maybe
I I I I hear you. It would be different because Scott Perry would be in control and Scott Perry could execute his vision as he sees fit rather than allowing whether it was Monty or VC executing the vision for him
last February. Here’s what I think would happen if De’Arren Fox was still on the team and Scott Perry was in charge of facilitating this trade. De’Arren and this fan base would see the lack of a market that he had. That’s what I think would happen. You have a player earning what $40 million who is acquiring De’Arren Fox going that’s what we need. That $40 million player right there, that’s the guy we need to be a championship contender because acquiring De’Aran is a championship move. That is a move that that’s the Siaka move. That’s that’s the move you’re doing to take you to an who’s doing that. I’m not saying there’s no teams out there. I’m saying the idea that there there’s there’s there’s this big robust open market for De’Arren Fox if he’s still a Sacramento king during the summer, I think is just completely false.
I do too.
I think it is terribly unrealistic. I also
the Blair Witch Project is happening at Trista’s house right now for those that aren’t watching.
I I also think it’s more a line with not exactly this deal. I don’t want to say it’s exactly this deal, but it’s more a line that that uh Jordan pulled CJ McCullum deal like maybe it’s a little greater than that. Maybe, you know, you’re able I’ll just say the the Kings would get back CJ McCullum and you get that contract, that expiring one player, run rotationary player, maybe first rounder maybe and a and a couple second rounders be cool, too. But yeah, I don’t I don’t think it I don’t think he was going to net you, especially with his his um disposition and his representation position. Yeah.
I don’t think people were going to like, nah, we’re they we’ve always said this, uh, Trista, I don’t think they were going to treat him like Toronto treated Kawhai. Like, yeah, I don’t care. You’re Dear Fox. We’re going to get you here and try and win a champion. Like, oh, no.
No, no, I don’t think that, but I don’t think it would have been Zack Lavine. I think there would have been more options than that. And I think it would have been more like, we don’t really care if you want to go to San Antonio. There’s plenty of other places that we can send you. Um, so
real quick, real quick, real quick. Let’s stay here. I want to ask both of you guys this real quick.
I know how people feel about the the player and all this other stuff. Not to sound like Bill Parcels or whatever, but talent-wise, do you think you could have got a better player than Zack Leavine? Talent-wise, well,
that doesn’t tell the whole story because he’s got the whole story that all that’s
just asking. Do you get do you get do you think you get a guy that can score 25 points a night for De’Aren Fox? I I could get I think I could get Jordan Pool for Dear Fox. I’d like Jordan Pool.
Mhm.
So do I. And I think that’s like right there. Jordan Pool makes a lot less than
like No, but they make Jordan Pool makes $15 million less a year than Zack.
Okay. Okay. But doesn’t he have an extra year on the contract? Yeah, but I think you can finesse more people into Jordan Pool than you can Zack Lavine.
Understood. All right.
It’s tough. Also, really quickly to stay on clutch because I wanted to get you guys’ thoughts about this. It went totally under the radar and I was my alarm bells were were raised by this.
Did you guys see um Rich Paul in the car
talking to Phoenix?
Yes. about come on Malawatch.
Yeah,
my jaw my jaw was dropped and I have so many questions now. Like wait. So, okay. So, for everybody who didn’t see it, come on Malawatch Duke Big who may not even be able to come to the United States like with all these ICE things like I think South Sudan is on the terror watch list right now. Not even joking. That’s true. If they’re throwing out Elon Musk, I’m not sure if he can get over here.
No, I don’t. I don’t know. He better not leave and he better not have like stable place to get mail and just change up his movements on a dayto-day basis and he’s in Arizona. This man’s gonna go to the like the Joaio tent city where they put people Come on. Anyway, stay on track. So, come on. Malawatch goes 10th to the Phoenix Suns. A lot of people excited about him. He was somewhat mocked in the like somewhere between six and 12 range. Okay. So, the video is Rich Paul talking to Phoenix. I thought this might be AI. And he is like, “Hey, are you guys planning to draft him if he’s there at 10?” And they’re like, “Yes, he is our number one option on the board.” And he goes, “Great, cuz this is Malawatch’s number one option as well. Hang tight. No promises, but I’m going to see if I can get him there to you.” What does that mean? Does that like is him What does that mean? If I want Come on, Malawatch at seven. What are you going to say? Is he not showing up to camp? Does What are you giving me in return? I’m so confused. So, Trista, one of the things and and you you like really know the inside of of all this stuff, right, of all the the basketball world. One of the things that I’ve learned as I got this job that the show talked to more people and understand more about this that I try to convey to people who aren’t like in the know like I was a radio listener just like everybody else right and I didn’t understand this is I think agents run these leagues more than people realize like you want to get mad at Scott Perry and Monty McNair and all this other stuff the Bill Duffies the Rich Pauls the the worldwide westes, those are the decision makers. It sounds crazy, and I’m not saying they have 100% power, but they have a lot of power to like move these players where they want to. Would you say the same thing?
Yeah, I would. And I just wondered, I know that he did it and I know that it happens. I’m just wondering the details. What are these details? What are these phone conversations like? What is the tit for tat? Is it like, “Oh, the next player that is a clutch client that goes here, like we’re just going to in free agency go somewhere else.” Like, is that what that looks like? Is it the carrot? Is it the stick? Is it a blend? They’re just a cartel. And I’m getting really uncomfortable with the clutch cartel. But it’s not It’s not just Clutch, though.
It’s everybody, man. It’s all these. But I don’t think, and I’m going to be a Bill Duffy apologist,
Bill Duffy just doesn’t air it on social media. Bill Duffy, if you ask around, doesn’t strongarm that way. Okay.
Strong arms.
He strongarmms differently.
I don’t think he strongarms, period. I don’t think he strongarms. All right.
Who hasn’t keeping her invite to the summer league party? Who is that?
We’ve been accused of being in the back pocket for the last 24 hours. So clearly we know where TK’s allegiance are lying.
Listen, the fellain and yawn sticks are good.
Who was the agent um that sent the Marvin Bagley letter on opening night?
That was Wasn’t that
Bill Duffy? What was that letter?
What was the letter? Oh, he famously sent a letter when when when uh when the Kings said I guess the Kings announced maybe that Marvin wasn’t going to start
and or maybe they
maybe they said Marvin wasn’t going to play. Well, yeah, cuz wasn’t the whole We thought, we don’t know if this was what was going on, but we thought they were going to trade Marvin in the offseason and we were probably hearing things that had us thinking like, yeah, they’re the Kings are going to work with other teams and Bill Duffy to get
Sema League fans, there’s still hope
to get Marvin the new team. We get to opening night, he’s still on the Kings and Bill Duffy out of nowhere publishes this letter just laying into the Kings for their treatment of Marvin Bagley.
Wow. Okay. Well, that’s
I’m trying to find it.
I’m gonna go I’m gonna go on record and say that’s not great. But also, if he moved like that, then Luca would not have been would not have been traded to the Mavs from the Mavs to the Lakers behind his back because they would have been terrified to do that to him. They just did it and just didn’t ask him or talk to him. That’s one of the most earth shaking trades that we’ve seen in league history. and he didn’t have any inkling about it. That shows well Tristan neither did LeBron and and Rich Paul either.
Yes.
Anthony Davis, they didn’t know. They they didn’t know Robin. Yeah. Just Rob and Nico just going to the coffee shop.
Somebody Somebody I think it might have been like Gills Arena or somebody on there was like, “Yeah, LeBron absolutely knew. What are we talking about?”
Of course he knew. Of course LeBron knew. Just Rob. just robbing Nico. I bet you I bet you it was. But here’s the thing that’s interesting is the shock waves that that sent for LeBron and all this like the clutch letter, the clutch. Hey, you know, we we understand they’re building for the future, but Jeff, by the way, it wasn’t Bill. It wasn’t Bill Duffy. It was Jeff slandering my guy Bill Duffy.
It was Jeff Schwarz. Sacramento has informed Marvin Bagley he is not in the opening night rotation which is completely baffling thankfully clear they have no plans for him in the future and yet passed on potential deals at last year’s deadline and this summer based on value instead they chose to bring him back and not play him a move completely contradictory to their value argument see wasn’t Jeffrey
yeah stop slandering my man Bill Duffy
it wasn’t slander It was questioned.
Well, it was an accusation that was rooted in incorrectness. I think he’s what I’ll say is before this before we move on, I think he’s the like a velvet hammer. I think he’s just been around the league so long, had so many connections. But what I will say is everybody has good things to say about him. So I just and everybody has bad things internally and externally to say about Clutch except for the people who are in Clutch’s pocket but outside of them people are like
that’s Kenny Kenny’s in the pocket of Clutch and VCron and apparently so am I all because I don’t care Malik I’m in the
that’s all bec that’s all the Louis Vuitton you get. Oh, no. It’s because I It’s because I tweeted for the first time in a year and all of a sudden it’s because Uncle V uh handed me a bag to get his agenda across.
Thanks, Uncle V. Appreciate it.
Thanks. Thanks for the chain, Uncle V. Thanks for the Thanks for the chain.
Gonna need another Louis bag, dog. Gonna need another one.
Come on. I like Malik. He’s just not good enough to be risking your career for. Yeah, I’m I’m I’m with you. uh CNN has the headline that says deliberations to resume tomorrow morning after jury reaches partial verdict in Shawn Diddy Comb’s trial.
I I thought we were getting a verdict tonight.
I can see uh your boy someone’s at your house. Um it’s just my mom walking out in the back looking at tomato plants.
What happens with Dame now? He finally can get to Miami now, can’t he? That’s certainly
I don’t like the way you said that either. That was That was I didn’t like the way you said that, Justin.
No, I Let me be honest for a second.
That is honestly one of the most disgusting ways to treat a franchise player that I’ve seen in a long time
to do it. And I know he had an injury and that injury is for a whole entire year and you’re trying to your very best to keep Giannis happy and you want financial flexibility, that’s fine. But the way it went down for them not to even discuss it with him or work with them on it and for him to find out on social media when he is a top 75 player of all time and honestly risked his career to come back from deep vein thrombosis early to try to compete because that’s the kind of guy he is. when he had been dealing with a calf pretty much on and off for the last year and change, maybe from the playoffs before. It’s just it really is showing where these organizations heads are at right now with the new collective bargaining agreement that money now is and financial flexibility and not wanting to lose draft picks or lose the ability to make specific kinds of trades is leading you to completely take the human out. And as much as I’ve made fun of Dame for leaving Portland and has have somewhat reveled in him not winning a championship or even coming close, um this is really wrong. And it was it was actually horrifying to see because at this point you’re rehabbing from an injury which is already so hard on its own and now you are a man without a team. It’s I was shocked.
Let me ask both of you guys this. Help me out here. If Dame wanted to stay in Milwaukee, like really wanted to, not I’m I’mma stand 10 toes down because that’s the type of man I am. You know what I mean? But like I don’t want to be here, but I’m not I’m not going to leave. If he really wanted to be there, that is messed up. But if he was like, I don’t really care if I’m here or not, like asked me in a perfect world, could I still get my money and leave? Yeah, I would do it. What’s the problem? If that’s how he felt, the process, how it’s done, right? Like I think regardless if you want to be at a job or not, if they buy you out and you’ve got your some years left on your contract and it happens in a way that blindsidize you, that just feels very unethical. I think there’s just a way to go about things. And yeah, like the end result’s the same. and he’s still getting $120 million to literally do just nothing to just chill. If he wanted to retire right now, he’s getting that $120 million. If he wants to play on a veteran minimum, he’s still getting that money. So, that end result is still the same. I just feel like with a new ownership group, Milwaukee is sort of moving different. New ownership group, the Celtics are moving different, right? They’re just click clip clip click clip. And I bet you the Lakers when they get their new ownership in place, even with Genie Bus there, they will move different as well. And um it’s just a little bit disappointing in how they’re moving.
Speaking of the Lakers, is there a market for LeBron James? Like is there a a realistic destination for LeBron James to go to this year? Any place LeBron would sign off to go to would significantly hamper that team so badly that why would he even want to go there? Why would he want to be there? If you traded him to the Cavs, what are you going to trade him for?
It’s got it’s probably Darius and someone else.
Darius, Jared Allen, some picks.
That team stinks now.
I’m probably not including picks, but I do think you can trade Kenny’s been on this one if he wanted to. You could trade LeBron James for Carl Anthony Towns and he’s on the New York Knicks. Yeah,
I think Carl Anthony Towns makes more money than LeBron James does.
If I’m the Lakers, why do I want to do that? Just because he’s going to leave next year and I’ve got more I’ve got a center now. I guess
clearly like if the relationship is over, like execute the trade. Like this is what’s facing the Bucks. Just do it. Just rip the goddamn band-aid off and do it. like this whole the the the you know the Chris Haynes stuff. Uh Giannis was not happy with how this went down. The Sham Shirania stuff. Giannis helped recruit Miles Turner. It’s like yo the writing is on the wall here. Like everyone sees it. Giannis Giannis has not said anything publicly. That’s the difference. But I feel like Giannis’s moves are being made public and I think that’s strategic. He is this close to turning into Dwight Howard. If you remember Orlando and the the Dwight that was that summer from I want to be traded to I’m opting in to the contract extent to trade me. It was an absolute disaster that made that man look like an idiot. It made him look ridiculous. Giannis doesn’t look like an idiot,
but this dance is getting very This dance is lame and everyone knows it and it feels like the more and more again, the stuff isn’t getting out by accident. It’s not Giannis doing it, but Giannis having a meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks wasn’t put out by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Facts. And on top
on top of that, I would say to your point, anybody who’s a real NBA fan and is in the weeds on it, we’re pretty tired of Giannis and his nonsense. We’ve been watching Giannis go and do interviews with GQ and like autocolctor.com and like been like, “Yeah, they don’t surround me with winners and I’m just going to leave.” It’s like, well, where why are you doing this in this platform, in this setting in the summer over and over and over again? Why do you keep why are you so petty and going back and forth and being like, I’m not an underachiever. Here’s all my championship trophies, yada yada yada. Like, Giannis is the most fake. And I I have enjoyed every moment that I’ve spent around Giannis. This is not like a personal thing and there hasn’t been that many moments, but I I think I’ve interviewed him twice or three times. He was nice in person, but his moves, he wants to be the nice guy, but he kind of operates like an a-hole. You know what I’m saying? Like he just really is proddding and prying and like getting the news out. It’s very sneaky. It’s very like, you’re right, very close to being diva-esque, Dwight Howardesque. And he’s awesome. He’s better than Dwight Howard, but his moves just are very alarming and very close to kind of being a bad saga for walking. I I think you’re right, uh, Damian. Just just get the hall for him before get the hall now before it’s been too long that everybody knows they can fleece you because you’re forced to do it.
This is the same thing I said two years before they traded Dame. Not to say that Portland got fleeced or anything, but like we already knew where this was going to go. like should have traded him then. But it all worked out because they got scoot and all this other stuff. Nicks trade that works. LeBron to the Knicks for my Kale Josh Howard to Mitchell Robinson. It’s too much.
Too much.
That is too much.
Too much.
Guys,
not winning a title. I just trade Carl Anthony Towns. I wouldn’t trade Carl Anthony Towns because I need I need that that third guy.
I do it.
I need Who’s gonna play center? Mitchell Robinson.
Sure. Now he’s going to be Now he’s going to be on the Lakers again. Like if I’m LeBron, I’m vetoing it. No, I’m Why would I do that and just be on the New York Lakers with no center, no nothing? No.
Well, that’s cuz you hate Mikuel. What if you get more out of Muel?
Muel the the Lakers playing Jackson. We We sign Jackson Hayes to the Knicks.
Muel isn’t Jackson Hayes.
No, I’m telling you, sign Jackson Hayes to the Knicks because they don’t have no center.
It’s the same by not to say that
Drew Eubanks is off the table.
Off the table, bro. So you ain’t got your root. You ain’t going to make it happen.
Where’s Rashawn Holmes when you need him?
The Knicks lose cat. They’d be the same situation as the Lakers. So if I was LeBron, I wouldn’t go. You do need Yeah. And Mitchell Robinson to that.
It would be funny going from Luca to Jaylen, though. I didn’t even think about that. Be funny going from Luca to Jay ball domin. Yeah. I I think and Mitchell Robinson is so injuryprone that you never you you are very close to Jackson Hayes. Like that’s how close that is.
Yeah. I don’t think there’s anywhere for him to go. I think that’s just a bunch of nonsense. All that tweeting and social media.
I know exactly what they can do. Get your boy. Get who?
DeAndre Aiden ain’t signed with nobody.
They could get your boy.
They thought he was going to go at first. Huh?
That’s where everybody thought he was going to go as soon as he got bought out
to LA. Oh well. Go to uh go to New York.
They got some bad clips of uh DeAndre floating around. Basketball clips. Uh oh. Oh my goodness.
Just like Jokic, KD, Booker, all fighting for a rebound and DeAndre Aiden’s just watching.
Just standing there watching. Jason Quick put out a piece about all the things that DeAndre Aton wasn’t doing and all the bad things. He was showing up late, not coming to PT, not getting on the plane. And that article came out, I think yesterday, and I was like, whoop, probably a lot of teams either knew about that already or if they didn’t. And I like DeAndre again. I like him. He’s a nice kid. Uh
I haven’t seen him link to anyone. Like Drew Eubanks has to clear waiverss and it’s like oh he’s already signing with Sacramento.
Well, people are saying people are saying Indiana.
No,
Indiana would be a great pickup.
Yeah. Miles gone.
Sure.
You don’t need that much out of him. Why would Miles want to go to Milwaukee? That’s disgusting.
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s a That’s a tough look.
That’s crazy for him though, man. To lose
even though Miles Turner was spotty in the finals, but like to lose Turner and Hallebertton.
Yeah. Seakum and Tyrese are going to be talking about this betrayal for years, decades even, just like Paul George. Yeah. Not going to speak to him. Yeah. Yeah. They’re going to do these like specials, these reuniting specials for the team that almost won the finals and just exclude them.
And to be honest with you, they’d be well within their right. I mean, why why would you go to Milwaukee? You see how you know, we had battles with them and and why would you come play for us? Um, what do you think happens with Jonathan Kaminga? Well, we see
that our dubs down bad. Losing Cavon Looney shocked me. They have no center basically. They have What are they gonna get out of Horford? Um I think his value to the market is much lower than he believes. I think we’re starting to see that. Is he a clutch client? Is he?
Is he a clutch client?
I don’t know. Stand by.
He seems clutchy to me. Wow.
Doesn’t he?
Let’s see. Jonathan Kaminga agent wrist prawl.
Yep. clutch client. Yeah, I mean he’ll get probably
right. Let me let me let me triple check that. Continue. Sorry.
Triple check it. I think he’ll probably do I think it’ll be a Golden State signing trade. Where where he could go? Maybe Pistons. Well, they got uh what’s his name? I mean, you could another big man, but they got my boy Dur.
Yeah, but that Jonathan Kaminga is like a four.
Oh, I’m I’m still thinking of uh Aiden. My bad. My bad.
Oh, yeah. talking about I’m talking about Jonathan Kaminga.
Be a good look. That’d be They’ve got Oscar. He’s kind of like an Oscar sort of a vibe, but he can
Aaron Turner is Jonathan Kaminga’s agent. Okay. Aaron Turner. Why neither am I? Who? Where is he?
Uh is it does it say versus? Oh man. Jonathan Kaminga. It’s not even with the He’s with the
management team. Yeah. Come on.
Come on. Oh, flu.
Come on. He’s with the mom and pop shop. Well, he’s probably better than Bailey. Yeah, that’s bad. The Omar Cooper. That was a bad move. If If Ace Bailey was a was a clutch client, he would not be in Utah right now. Yeah, that video taught us that.
That video taught us that. Let me let me get you to Washington. I don’t know when the Wizards became a destination, but that’s where Ace Bailey apparently wanted to go. That’s That’s wild. That’s crazy,
isn’t it? That’s where he wanted to go. He wanted to fall to six. Well, maybe he’s a big Maybe he’s a big history guy. He just wanted to go to the Just wanted to wanted to walk the National Mall every day
just just a big time.
Go to the National Archives. Yeah. Yeah.
Just gallery. just sit out here and meditate by this Lincoln monument.
I wanted to go to Oh, no. I think that’s only uh Maryland. I was about to say go to eat at Royal Farms every day, but that’s only that’s only Is that only Baltimore? I don’t know.
I think that’s a Baltimore. I think that’s both Baltimore. Just watch the uh the reflecting pool. Go to the reflecting pool.
Sit there like uh Kevin Cosner and JFK.
Just sit there. Just Just sit there. Hey, don’t hate. I’ve done it before. But yeah. No, I think it’s
Are you kidding me? Damian’s the kind of guy that would go to the African-American museum for like four days because he just wants to like take all the trauma in.
Bro, you should be ashamed of yourself. That’s not exactly what happened. It wasn’t four days.
It was three.
That was more than one.
It was a It was one and a half.
That That first floor though. Yeah, that first floor is tough.
You gota almost get your check. You you almost need like a little like fresh air after the first floor. They almost need like a like a patio for the second floor just to go like
So what’s what’s crazy about like cuz the first floor like it literally takes you through it’s the history like it starts the the bottom floor
this the middle passage the slaves like all of that you like you walk you walk through that you see the shackles you see the kids shackles that they have like it is
it is brutal no there is no as you’re walking in hey guys this could be, you know, sensitive for some. Nope. You just walk through that and as Trista says, you just take in the trauma.
I don’t know. I I believe this is a regular part of the museum. I take it you’ve been you the EMTT till room.
Yes. There is a very clear warning before you walk into that room.
Understand what is in this room and do not walk through it if you’re not comfortable seeing it. Like we were there with my niece and nephew when they were younger and it was like you you can’t come in here. Like you you can’t come in here.
I wish I hadn’t gone in there.
But yeah, clear clear warning out there. Meanwhile, you go through that middle passage and you need to put a warning there as to what you’re going to see.
You almost need to pop up to the fourth floor to take in the Oprah
and be like, “Let me just
Can you show me the Michael Jackson outfits just for like 10 minutes, please? Throw me the Eddie hilarious costume and the Oprah on the little t the black and white TV on repeat just to show me her best moments. I can’t Yeah.
Just a pallet cleanser.
It really is. It’s almost like you need the excellence in between those floors,
right?
Just to kind of like, okay, we made it out. Like it’s
you don’t I mean, think about it. You don’t
you don’t get much happiness till you get past the 60s. You talk about the Africanamean History Museum. Like you’re walking through the water hoses and the the lunch counters and
it is intense, man. It is.
They don’t spare any details either. They It’s like uh it’s like being inside the diarama.
Yeah. My um my one of my finance people like they were a big contributor to that. And man, the work that they put into that place is just extraordinary. go now before someone tries to like shut it down.
Jesus.
Um, we appreciate you. Thanks for jumping on with us. This is free agency sucks. It’s a lot. It’s a lot going on.
It’s a lot. But ain’t what I wanted.
It’s a water hose. What did you want?
I don’t know. Tra trades. I don’t know. Something else.
I think that I think Russell Westbrook is what I wanted. I think I think
I think we still got two KD did get traded and
I think I think we got at least one move coming still still to come.
LeBron or Yiannis?
I think LeBron getting traded, Tristan. I think it’s I don’t think it’s smoke. I think it’s I think it’s really gonna happen. They
I hope so. I hope it does happen. They want the airplane story so bad. Yeah, they do.
They want the airplane story so bad.
Okay. Can we give it to them? Can I give it to them?
We have to break. like you can give it to Okay, I’ll come back.
All right, Trista is not going anywhere unless major news breaks. She we she’ll get she’ll give you the full airplane story as to why she missed last Tuesday here on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. [Music] I’m getting up for a second. TK, you good?
Yeah.
Yeah, I’m good. TK, you’re in Portland, right? When was the last time you went to the East Coast? Uh, LA, I was in Miami two weekends ago. You going to Miami?
I had a thing with CBS. They flew me out.
Okay. A little thing with CBS. All right. And then I met up with Metallark, the little thing with Metallark, Dan Leitard’s company. Met with the head of content there.
Okay. All right.
Yeah. So, it was dope. It was super dope. That’s what’s up. You got um anything you can tell us about like football like around the corner? No, I mean there was an opportunity that was would have required me to move and that was like on the table if I wanted it, but I can’t move and I’m not going to move and I don’t really want to move. So, so I said no and we’ll see if anything comes of it in terms of like, you know, more remote type stuff. We have we have like um grown past the um original reason why we met you. But like Trista be talking that football talk, that gambling talk. Trista be talking that baseball gambling. She showed me some things before too. I got to get a I got to get a refresher because Yeah. She
that pitching matchup. Yeah. Looking at fantasy pros. That’s there’s so many things that you uh and I love our basketball talk so I don’t I don’t want it to change but there’s so many different ways that you can go that I love talking to you about I love talking you know I love college football I love talking about college football
my ducks man we’re we’re it’s an interesting time to be a college football fan I’m really really excited about this year
yeah they trying to they trying to keep us out but we gonna sue the pants off the NCAA sack
state
we gonna sue the pants off them boys die trying or they gonna treat us like SEU and
that is how they’re going to treat you.
Destroy the football team. What’s Damian doing? He’s just walking in and out just scurrying. I
think he’s going to refill his Yeah, probably
in standby. In stand. What’s that say? Where?
Behind you on the door.
Oh, yeah. In standby. I don’t know what that’s always been there. I have no idea. You know what’s pretty cool? I mean, it’s been going on forever. I don’t know why this is just like I’m just really sitting down and watching it. But today is Canada Day. And obviously the Blue Jays are playing. They’re playing the Yankees. The whole stadium field sold out in Toronto. All wearing red today.
Oh, wow. That’s wild. Little Canada Day. Nothing wrong with that. Uh you ever been to the Sky Dome? No. No. It looks like an underrated place, man. That almost looks
I love baseball stadiums.
Me, too.
Baseball stadiums are just like little cities. I loved Fenway. Fenways was incredible. Like a little almost feels like Disney World, but for baseball. Loved uh Camden Yards. That’s the Orioles. Love the one uh AT&T and San Francisco. That one’s beautiful.
The best. The best.
That one’s the best. That one’s the best. Um, the underrated thing that’s always been there at the Sky Dome that I one of these days maybe I’ll try is the the hotel attached. There’s a hotel in there.
Yeah. In Center Field and the They got the windows. That’s Those are hotel rooms. Wow. That’s crazy. Could you imagine just kicking it watching the game right out from there? Or even just like the game’s not going on, you’re you wake up, you look out and there’s the ballpark. I think that’s a low-key fun thing to do. I want to stay there one day. You get some water, Dao?
Got some water. Got my green juice, man. I’m ready to roll for another three hours.
Shout out AC. I think is it Roger Center still? Or maybe it’s something else even now. Roger Center. Be the Sky Dome. Yeah. Sam Rogers that kicked out Messiah.
Oh man, we ain’t even talked about that. That’s crazy. Where does he go? He would have been a good Sacramento Kings GM.
He likes power. He would have stood up to VC. We know he’s capable.
George Springer. Grand slam. Now 94 Blue Jays over the Yankees. Coming back.
Go ahead. All right. We started this conversation uh almost an hour ago. Trista Crick discussing all things Sacramento Kings free agency. Uh Dame Lillard being waved, Drew Eubanks, uh the newest member of your Sacramento Kings and um LeBron James. However, there are many people who would like to know why Trista wasn’t here with us last Tuesday. And I made a little mention of what happened uh to the chatty house. Radio audience didn’t get this, I don’t think. I think this was just during a commercial break, but they have been clamoring for the story uh of what happened last Tuesday when you were flying home.
First of all, I wasn’t even supposed to fly Tuesday. I was supposed to fly Monday. And Miami airport is the worst airport I’ve ever been to. I think they just really want want to be the the least helpful that they can possibly be. So, I’m taking Olly with me because he’s five months old and he can’t live without me. So, I’m flying with him. I got all of his paperwork. I did all the due diligence. Everything’s set. I get to the desk hour ahead of time more, actually more. And the woman is like just befuddled. Can’t figure out how to get them processed. Can’t figure out the paperwork. And then by the time you know it, uh, she says, “Oh, well, we don’t have time now to process your bags, so you just missed this flight.” Wait, you just missed it.
You just missed the flight. And I’m like, “What? You You could have told me that. You could have just checked me in. I would have figured it out after the Oh, no. Can’t do that. Got to process the dog before we process anything else. Get you your boarding pass.” They won’t even give you your boarding pass until you process the dog. It’s just a mess. won’t let me won’t book me on a new flight. So, I have to call a travel agency who did it. And they’re like, “You just h you’re done. Like, there’s no more flights tonight. You have to fly out tomorrow. And also, tomorrow’s flights are pretty much all sold out.”
So, I’m like, “Oh my god.” So, I I get a flight the next day, stay at the hotel in the airport, call Delta again. This is Delta’s fault. All of it. Delta. I’ve already sent a letter. And so, hey, making sure that all these paperwork is set. I missed my flight. I need to make sure it’s done. Yep. Yep. Yep. Get to the desk. First and foremost, I know that this is going to take a long time and there needs to be some excellence and competency here to just process him for some reason. So, I go to the Sky Priority desk. There’s nobody behind me in Sky Priority. Yes, I know I don’t have enough MQDs. Yes, I know I’m not a Sky Priority member. I get to the desk. They look at my passport. They say, “Oh, sorry, ma’am. We can’t help you. You’re not Sky Priority.” I look behind me. There’s no one there. There’s three people at their Sky priority desk. There’s one person at the general boarding desk. There’s over 150 people in line for the for the general. No people in line for the sky party. I’m like, “Oh my god.” And they are reing. There’s other little ones that are chirping. Yep. Can’t help you. Nope. Delta policy. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m trying to get in line. I’m trying to cut in line. Hey, can you Nope. Can’t. Somehow I finagle my way to the desk. Get to the desk. Woman clearly lost. She starts working on processing Olly and then she’s like, “Hey, Linda, uh, I I got this woman’s bags over here. Uh, and she’s military and I couldn’t blah blah blah. Can you help me with that?” I’m like, “Well, I’m not military, so I don’t know who you’re talking about cuz you’re supposed to be working on me right now. Uh, what?” So, that’s taking 20 minutes. I’m starting to get freaked out because of the whole bag thing the night before. I’m like, I’m going to miss this flight again. Two minutes. Literally, we’ve got 120 seconds until I miss the deadline again. She’s like, “Oh, looks like you have six pets in cabin. You’ve got an oxygen tank.” No, I don’t have any of those things. I have to pay for the pet in cabin. I’m like, I’ll get my money back later. We just got to get this I got to get on this flight. Got to get on this flight. I’ll save you save you the long story short. We get on the plane. We have a We have a
short version of the story.
This is a short version. This is a short version. I get on the plane. I’m in Minneapolis. We have a layover in Minneapolis. Barely make that. Again, more problems with the dog. Get on my aisle seat and we’ve got two two husband and wife duo over 300 lb each
spilling into my seat. I am like, “Oh my god, this is just nightmare city.” By the way, you’re supposed to buy an extra seat if you spill into somebody else’s seat. But hey, whatever. I guess there’s no other seats. So, I see this couple and the flight attendants don’t want to deal with me because they’ve got this old couple that they’re dealing with. And the woman wife wants to sit next to her husband, which is totally normal. But I’m looking at the husband and I say some he doesn’t look good, this guy. He’s got an ox. He’s the one with the oxygen tank, not me.
And they finally get them to sit together. When they move him over to his new seat, he doesn’t just get up and move on his own. They’ve got a weekend at Bernie’s him. They’ve got to slide him over like he’s full weight and they’ve got to move him. So I’m like, “Okay, this is not good.” But they do it and it’s not my life. And he’s he’s literally one No, I’m in 21, he’s in 19. So he’s two rows in front of me. So I’m watching my Love Island. We we take off. Everything seems to be fine as much as it can be. I look down somehow. I don’t know why. And there is a crowd of people surrounding my seat. Eight people I counted. Bunch of nurses, doctors, and flight attendants. All homie with the oxygen is now laid down on the aisle. They I watch them rip his shirt off just like ER and they start compressions on them. And you’ve got the machine beep beep beep. Stop compressions. administer shock. They’ve got to shock him with the paddles five times. They are working on this man for almost an hour. And he is I’m talking about like inches away from my shoes. Inches. I can just I can’t even go. You would think that maybe because you can’t do anything about it, you would go back to what you were. No, you can’t do that. You You were just locked in on like hopefully this guy lives. This kid 15 years old in the aisle next to me. Me and him are looking at each other just ghost. What do we do here? I’ve never experienced anything like this. He’s They cannot find a pulse. I do not see him breathe ever. Never. His wife is totally sanguine like this was just expected. And they’re like, “All right, 20 minutes till we land.” They never stop doing compressions. They never stop doing the paddles until we have an emergency landing in Montana in Billings, Montana where the paramedics come, they also do compressions. They put a tarp underneath him. They slide him when they stop compressions in between. With the tarp, they just they just pull him pull him on the carpet off the jetway. Continued compressions. I guess we stay on the jetway or on the like landing area strip for two two and a half hours because why? because we’ve used all of our oxygen on him. They put oxygen in him. They gave him an EpiPen, two EpiPens. They put an IV in him. All of this is happening like less than 6 in from me. And we are all shaken up and we don’t know when we’re going to leave. TSA won’t let us leave because we’ve used all of our stuff that you would normally need for like an emergency landing or if you crash or whatever. So, they’ve got to like allow us to leave without that stuff. We landed with a full tank. So, I think it took me I don’t think he lived, by the way. It was horrible. And I talked to the nurse and I’m like, “Hey, do you think that guy could have made it?” And she just shook her head. No. So, I texted Damian and I go, “Sorry, I can’t make the hit. The guy died on my flight in midair.” So, that’s the story.
Good reason why. That’s crazy. You were in the air. I thought you were on the runway and this happened.
They literally were continuing to do compressions as we landed. They were like kneeling over him just And I’m thinking and I’m, you know, I don’t know anything about the med medical field, but I’m thinking to myself, he’s dead. He’s dead. He went gray in front of me. Why continue this ruse? I guess you have to. There’s no way he was coming back. I think he might have had a heart attack on the plane. He had a pacemaker. He was pretty old. It was awful. I’ve never heard of anything like this. We went and got my bags, me and Ollie, and people were talking about it and they didn’t have any idea because they were way in front and I’m like, “Oh, you didn’t know what happened?” Oh, yeah. The guy was just just passed just collapsed right there on in the aisle. Gracious. I know. Very sad story. Very sad story, but also very dramatic. Uh, not one single Shams tweet during that story, just for those that were wondering.
Good. Good.
Sean’s cleared the floor. Sean’s clear.
I texted him ahead of time.
That was good. I said, “Did you text him yesterday at 3:00 when he didn’t tweet anything for like 30 minutes?”
Nope. Mm-
No, bro. That That was Somebody got to do better because they were They announced 3:00 is when everything starts. They were clearly waiting for the start of this ESPN free agent show that started.
Yeah, they were.
So, why not just start everything at 4? or cut the show at three.
Yes, because they were airing, what is this? Wimbledon coverage. They was just Aaron Wimbledon. They’re like, “Ah, nothing happening at 3:00. We know that
better off of there. I’m trying to see what Scott Perry
h how I don’t understand how TSA won’t, you know, let me bring a straight edge to cut my beard or won’t let me bring edibles on the plane, but a guy with an oxygen tank and a pacemaker and he’s, hey, you could just get on a flight. Like at some point someone’s got to go, “Hey, brother,
I don’t know what you’re going to Miami for, but maybe don’t. Let’s
maybe don’t
Yeah, let’s not.
And what’s crazy,
we can’t in good conscious let you go.”
What’s crazy is one of the women at the baggage claim was like, “Oh, I said to myself when he got on the plane, he shouldn’t be flying.” And I said, “Oh my god, me too.” And I’ve never thought that to myself. That’s how immobile he was getting on. It was like Final Destination.
Miss P says you can get on a plane with gummies. Lol. Miss P different planes than I do. [ __ ]
She’s not flying commercial.
Yeah, I’m flying commercial, Miss P. I can’t private.
I can’t I can’t get on.
Also, what a photo for Miss P. Put that photo back. Go
some people. Yep.
Nice.
Shout out to uh DMV’s finest. I think Miss P’s birthday coming up. Yeah, I think it’s like fourth of July. Yeah, shout out Miss P.
Really?
Well, shout out. Happy birthday, Miss P.
What island she’s going to be on for her birthday that she flew the private jet to?
Well, you said in your tweet that this was going to take longer than an hour and you were you were on point. I think we covered everything. I’m I’m not sure.
I’m not really sure. I just I just Now Shams is on now. You know, nothing. Well, he’s got his phone in his hand, so Well, hopefully
always has his phone.
Hopefully he’ll do better than our brother Chris did yesterday when he know it was rough for Chris. That was our brother had a he had a tough day yesterday. He had the the D’Angelo Russell Photoshop mishap in in the in the Jake Laavia Lakers signing. Rough. That is so rough. I felt so bad for him. Can you imagine dating you? Obviously not you two, but could you imagine someone dating Shams and like trying to get any if your love language is quality time, you’re never getting Oh, you’re not getting it.
You’re never getting quality time.
That’s That’s why old girl was mad. Well, K Adams, that’s why
K Adams,
he got her a pair of John Guyers and said, “Keep it pushing.” Can you put your phone down for five minutes? No. Actually, I can’t.
No.
Can you imagine him dating someone who didn’t know anything about the NBA? like like Katie like he’s dating like someone like Katie and she’s like why do you keep why do you keep playing on your phone? Why do you keep tweeting all day? Like I have 3.1 million people have to get this news out to
Didn’t we I mean this isn’t a the secret just rehashing but we saw Sham’s game one and didn’t he stop and say
the only one he cared about was Frisa.
Yeah that’s what happened.
VC literally drooling from across the court that Sham Shirania was there. Never have ever ever ever ever seen VC react like that to anything.
He was thirsty for him.
And and and Sean’s rolls by. It’s Kenny, Trista, me. He zeros in on one person and one person only. And it wasn’t the two of us. Yeah. Seams friend of the pod.
Sham’s story.
Sean,
that’s my one time seeing Sham.
Sham’s dating a regular person, though. It would be amazing.
Incredible. He would probably just crash out. I don’t think he has the ability to like put his phone down.
Is that something like you have to like address that day one? Like look, I have to put my phone on the table. Here’s why it’s going to light up a lot. It’s going to it’s going to you’re my phone is going to be very active. Like you have to address that the very first time you go out with somebody.
Definitely. He probably should live on the West Coast because then you have later.
Sure.
If it’s like 900 PM, 10 p.m., you could get a little personal time and you won’t worry as much about the phone lighting up. You You got to move to like LA.
I wonder when he’s going to stop. Who told the story? There were two. I can’t remember if one was Sean. I feel like one was Chef where they was in a uh romantic situation.
Oh, no. That was that was my story that I was talking to Jay Glazer and he said deflate. That’s that’s what it was. Yeah,
it was deflate gate mid pump.
Oh, well
mid pump. He goes, isn’t that ironic? Deflate gate.
Well,
the phone ain’t buying me like that. Well,
real quick.
I I don’t I don’t think any Sacramento Detroit trade is happening. Duncan Robinson has agreed to a three-year 48 million deal with the Detroit Pistons.
Wow. Duncan,
I think I think Toms is tweeting that right now. I just looked up at think he’s tweeting it right now. U Duncan Robinson three-year 48 million deal to the Detroit Pistons. I have to believe any conversation um between the Sacramento Kings and the Detroit Pistons regarding Malik Monk is dead. Who where do you think Malik goes? Uh Sacramento
now. That’s just where he is now.
I don’t think he has a market, man.
This may be an Allen Iverson 2001 situation. I’ve talked about this before. Remember Allen Iverson was gone. He was traded. The Sixers traded him and Matt Guyger did not wave his no trade clause. So, they had to bring everything back and they went to the NBA finals. That’s what’s happening.
Could be. I think you heard it here first. Then he said he’s in VC’s pocket. We’re going to the NBA finals. I think the time to come to Sacramento is in August. Just putting that out there for me.
Oh, for you. Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. Just was thinking about thinking about Well, I was my my segue was if you guys go to the finals, I’m definitely up in there. But also, I think I think coming to Sacramento when the NBA season has died down is the best time. Well, like are we starting next month or are we starting next year?
Next month. Oh, okay.
Yeah.
No, let’s do it. We need to plan a show then if you’re if you’re going to come.
Yes. Yeah.
Let Let the Let the Sky Rizzy go. Let the Sky Rizzy know.
Okay. We got that. We We also have something that is very close to being complete.
Um, no.
You know, our 5year anniversary is coming up, too.
Yeah. Yeah.
What’s the date on that? August 17th, I think, is our
I always want to say August 20th, but it’s August. It’s August. Our our our fiveyear anniversary on ESPN is August 17th. Our two-year anniversary on KSFM is August 14th or 15th. Well, let me know what kind of things are popping. We’ll
Yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll figure something out.
Yeah. And I think I think we’re both like taking time off in August, too. So I if I can if we can finesse this to where we hit the live show and I have some time off and we’re just like hanging.
Exactly. That’s exactly what I’m thinking as well.
Okay. All right. We’ll get that done. We’ll get that done. All right, TK. We’ll let you We’ll let you We’ll let you go, man. We appreciate you so much.
Love y’all. Talk to you soon.
I’ll be back. That’s your girl Trista Cick right there.
Yeah.
Um well, Miss P wants to come to the live show. We ain’t even got a live show planned. Come on, Miss P. Start up the chat.
You know what to do.
Stop playing with us, man.
You know what to do.
Hey, can I read something I got from the Louis Vuitton Don?
Okay.
Private privately. You got it privately.
Yeah, but he he said it’s good. All right. It’s good. He’s watching. He might still be watching, but he’s Well, you know how he he don’t text me. Hey. Hey, Mark. It’s me. I know we It’s It’s me.
But look, this this how I did it. this, you know, that how I do. He said, “I’m watching y’all 35,000 ft in the air.”
My man,
oh man, the Louis Vuitton make a move. But he said he was talking to a Pistons assistant. And this is what they said about Dennis Shruder. They said, “Yeah, we’re going to miss Diaz. He’s such a savvy vet, a student of the game with a high basketball IQ. Would always have a basketball game playing on his iPad. He’s really good at attacking off pick and rolls. He’s one of the best at drawing fouls when his team is in the bonus. He’s a feisty defender who knows how to raise his defensive level when it’s winning time. You guys got a really good pickup again. We’re going to miss him over here in the D.
Shout out to our brother uh Mark Jones for that, man. We appreciate Louis Vuitton D. When he when he lands somewhere, we got to holl at him, man. Oh, he’s I mean, he’s probably landing where there’s, you know, beaches and water and, you know, palm trees and um I look put me on the payroll. Like, I like Dennis Shruder like I always have. Like, you could dig through the archives of this show. I like Dennis Shruder. I don’t have a problem with this pickup whatsoever. I was It’s The Kings need to move someone. I feel like for multiple reasons it’s Malik. I felt like if this could have been executed with a sign and trade, you would have had the ability to do more in free agency based on this Duck and Robinson signing to Detroit, which is actually a sign and trade with Miami. It’s not happening. I mean, at least I can’t imagine it happening now. So, yo, all of you guys who who love Malik, yo, you you’re in a great spot for Malik to be back next year.
And we’re one of them. We’re two of them.
I I just I don’t I just don’t know how I think the I think the the thing that kill I I don’t know. You can’t go sign Russell Westbrook now. And sure, that was my own personal want, but the hell with all of you. Why can’t I want something?
Um, sorry. I’m not ready to give up my favorite player for yours yet,
right? That’s I guess not. I guess not. Um I don’t know,
but I I I still think there’s
too much of a problem in that back court. And how do you solve it? I don’t know.
I don’t know. You’ve got And then you you got
I mean, I’m not saying you base everything off of him, but Nate Clifford,
he’s not 6’8. He’s like 66. Like he’s borderline like James said yesterday, borderline 23. So now you’re talking about
versus a 34.
Now you’re talking about Shruder, um Devin Carter, Malik Monk, Keon Ellis, all of these guys trying to fit into the rotation, all trying to um get meaningful minutes. If if Malik is here opening night, that’s going to be a job for for Coach Christie. He’s gonna have to figure that out. And maybe maybe it’s also one of those things where you got four guys there that none of them are 40 minute a night guys or 35 minute a night guys. Maybe maybe it works out perfectly because you got you know four guys that you know 25 minutes 20 that that’s where they should be around. Some that some would say if you got four guys like that, you don’t have a starting point guard, but you know, maybe that’s when it works out a little bit. Um, run with Fox on X says, “Change your Twitter name word, YouTube name. What are the odds we can get D Rozan off the bench?” And is and is the idea here, Run with Fox, you you’re starting Malik. I don’t know. I don’t know why you would do that.
I don’t I don’t either. Like what’s the what? Someone explain to me because this is another popular thing in King’s World. What? Explain to me or wrong with X says Keon. Okay. Keon. Keon.
Keon with Dennis.
Keon. Dennis and Zack. Three guard lineup. Maybe you’re having Zack at the three. I So Rumble Fox and others. You know how I where I stand on this. A lot of you guys focus on starting the game.
I don’t I’m not saying that don’t matter,
but I look at who finishes the game
and I think a lot of the times the Rosen’s going to finish.
So it don’t matter. Like
I don’t think you should bring him off the bench, but if you do, cool. But last five minutes of the game, he gonna be out there. Who’s going to be on the bench?
Keon, Dennis, Zack, Malik. Can I ask who is a better player on Sacramento than Demard de Rosen? Is Domas? No, I don’t think Zach is it. Okay, let me let me let me let me let me I’m I’m doing this. I’m doing this stupidly. Let me ask this question because it’d be easier to answer this way. Is Deamar De Rozan the best player on Sacramento? Um I think it’s Domas is still all NBA caliber.
I wanna I I want to go with Domomas because that’s like Jesse said, all NBA caliber. He’s got the accolades. I’m going to go with Domas. But I do think those three players are on the same tier on the same level,
including Lavine.
Mhm. I mean Demar is probably at his best was one that really good as well but yeah I think at this point just do is better we’ll come back man uh
and Dom and if is your best player
Jason that’s a problem of your top two best players
that’s pushing it
Jason Jones joins us man we’ll continue this conversation next on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320 most important certain person in Alabama sports history. Yeah. Why is that a question? Shalow, Kyle, you’re being a little too loud. Being a little too loud there. [Laughter] D Rozan not better than Lavine. What? Is that a Are you saying D Rozan’s not better than Lavine? I I feel like Dear is better than Zack Lavine. Maybe he’s Maybe he’s not better. Maybe he’s just more consistent. I don’t know. Oh, what did I just see? That’s brutal. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Uh, you know what, Alden J. Oh, Greece, man. That’s fire. The The next trip the next like major major trip I got to line up, man, is the overseas one. I I gotta do something overseas. Uh I don’t have a trip in August. I’m I’m gonna take some time off in a couple weeks and in August, but I don’t have anything planned. I went that that Vegas trip kind of the Vegas trip kind of beat my ass. So I’m I’m might just chill at the house between the pool and that that damn trip. I sit my ass down and just be at home. Okay. See question. Where’s all the stars? Pat Riley’s was ready to play. He got nobody this off season. I don’t know that there’s any stars out there to sign like some of the big names. Stay put. Yeah. I I guess I understand that. I don’t I don’t agree, but I know a lot of people feel the way that you do. I just I just don’t agree. I I think Dear is good. Uh I know But I understand, man. I know people don’t like his game. I understand. One night off has done some undoable damage to do. I definitely think Lavine did a lot of deferring last year. I agree with that completely. Uh Russ, haven’t watched wrestling in months, man. Sorry. Have not watched in the months. Trying to keep up but not doing a very good job. Dr. David, you’re not wrong. I am not going to Paris for WWE. But I do you know where I want to go? I want to go to Venice. That’s where I want to go. I want to go to Venice. Uh yeah. I I should have done this on the air with Fox, but isn’t there a greater problem with the roster? like you’re not you don’t well maybe you’re in a situation now where you are running back the same roster but I just I just feel like the roster is as big of a problem as anything else.
One of the things run with Fox does and others seem to do they blame Demar for the roster. Well he was saying I mean I I
I don’t understand
I well he’s saying he doesn’t fit with the roster which I guess I understand but my problem is I don’t like the roster. That’s like that’s my thing. Shout out James Ham keeping the snacks going. I always take a glance at the fridge we got in the kitchen and just shake my head every time.
I got a I got to drop a 20 twin twin in there for the boy. Just a bunch of emptiness. All right, Jason Jones going to join us coming up here in just a little bit as NBA free agency continues. Sacramento Kings fans just kind of scratching their head. Jonas Valenunis is out. Drew Eubanks is in. Dennis Shruder is in to the tune of three years, $45 million. Uh but the questions seem to be more centered on uh will any trades occur? Will those trades include the include, excuse me, the likes of Malik Monk, uh perhaps uh Devin Carter? Is Russell Westbrook still an option for the Sacramento Kings? Is anybody still an option uh for the Sacramento Kings? They do have that trade exception. Um we thought maybe they were still attempting to work a deal uh with the Detroit Pistons given the Duncan Robinson signing just a few minutes ago. I don’t I don’t think that would be the case, but I don’t know, man. I’m in Vex pocket. I’m just here doing my job. I’m trying to figure out what a what a deal would look like for any one of those guys,
Keon Monk or Devin moving on. Um,
Keon deal is kind of tough. No. Yeah. Well, I think maybe not Malik because of the money situation, but I feel like all those guys seem feel like they would be involved in a trade, right? Be part of a trade, not just them how we thought maybe Malik and and Dennis was. So, uh, yeah, I’m not I’m not sure what you do with that. I think the next the next the next
Oh, Dario Sarich, I didn’t mention him. Kings Kings acquired him too in the in the Valentino move. The next situation would be somebody just not playing. I don’t think somebody not being part of the rotation. Yeah. Yeah. Unless, like I said, unless I’m I’m missing something.
There’s also the Keegan Murray extension, too.
Mhm.
Um I I don’t know. The Jabari Smith Jr. contract was 4 and 122. Mhm.
Uh where does Keegan fit with that? Um about the same, a little more, a little less. I’m not really sure. Uh that’s a conversation that is a debate amongst the Kings fans. I don’t know what the conversation happening within the walls of the Sacramento Kings front offices are. I do I I I I actually like Dario Sarich. I really like Jonas Valenunis. I didn’t necessarily want to lose him. I guess they felt Dario Sarich was was was comparable and it saved them a couple of bucks. Uh I I I really really like Dennis Shruder. I just wanted to see some other things done uh with this roster cuz right now I feel like Doug Christie has a whole host of problems to figure out.
Yeah, he’s still got
and I don’t want Sorry, I’m so sorry. I don’t want front office directives either. Like, hey, so and so’s not in our future, DC. Like Doug’s if he’s got guys on his in wearing uniform, he’s he’s got to put out the best team possible. And I hate when you get into that, hey, this guy isn’t in our future thing, so maybe, you know, drop him over there on the bench.
And we’ve seen that far too many times uh in the history of this organization. Uh let’s welcome in our man Jason Jones of the New York Times, aka the Athletic. Jason, what’s happening, man?
Stupid hat,
man. Look at your stupid hat. That’s fine. It goes with the outfit. You look great. My m my mine goes with my shirt. So, okay.
Oh, okay.
All right. Yeah, she cooking over there.
To insult me. You’re the one tweeting about they can’t lose five or six when they clearly can’t.
Oh, that was embarrassing. That was
that that was that was what I expected since y’all were screenshotting two weeks ago because you won a game against the Dodgers.
This is just awful. And then the Dodgers.
That was the first place for 12 hours.
What What they have? Oh, no. They play Kansas City. But six of their last nine games are going to be against uh double A teams.
Rockies for three and now they’re playing the damn White Socks for three.
When do they play the the Braves and all these other teams?
Played them earlier in the year. Beat him. I love that every Tuesday with Jason starts the exact same way.
I was chilling. He the one who caught my hat stupid.
No, it’s always instigated by Kenny. I understand.
Yeah. I’m just saying, you know, focus focus on beating the Marlins.
Don’t worry about the first Okay. What do you think about basketball? What I think I think I want to go down and go down to Elsa Gundo and fight the front office.
So that’s that’s what that’s what I was going to ask you. What’s what’s going on in Los Angeles right now?
I want to fight some I mean cap space for 2027. Is that what we’re doing? It just that’s what we’re doing. I’m like, can the new ownership please fire people? Can they please get that sale finalized so we can stop enduring dumb stuff like we’re preparing for like free agency in three years?
That is that has got to be the worst leaked thing at least for me yesterday. Oh, don’t worry. They they need to have flexibility for 2027. Okay. Yeah. with for for Bronny’s prime. Like, what are we doing here? Like, what are we doing here?
See, Kings fans, it’s not just you. What are we doing here?
The damn Lakers got an issue, too.
That is the most thing I’ve heard. You’ve got Prime Luca and LeBron coming off an AllNBA season, and your response is, “We need cap space two years from now.” Do we want to go through another embarrassing LaMarcus Aldridge, everyone tells us no, Summer? Like I my only saving grace that is in 2027 the people making the decisions won’t be making them anymore. So I’m of the belief I think I’m a oneman wolf pack with it but I’m of the belief there’s smoke to to this um or where there’s fire to this LeBron James smoke. I think he might get traded this this summer. What are you what are you hearing? What are you thinking about LeBron um possibly not being a Laker after the summer?
I don’t think he gets traded. I just I mean I have no re no like I haven’t talked to him. I just don’t think he gets traded.
I mean,
what do you think happens? I think I I think LeBron’s trying to is applying pressure.
I think we see what happens. But I don’t I just I I just think I think trading LeBron is not nearly as easy as it sounds.
Sure.
Just because if you’re Cleveland, do you really want to give up say Jared Allen and a couple of other young guys for possibly one year of LeBron? I mean, because if you don’t win a championship, what did you do it for? I just I I’m like, and because he makes what? $52 million. you know, you’re gonna have to send something significant back to the Lakers, and that would be any team unless you’re going to go star for star. And if you’re trading a star, LeBron has a no trade clause. So, I see I I I peruse the internet and see Laker fans saying, “See, we can just go get Giannis now.” No, you can’t. LeBron’s not going to Milwaukee, first off, and he’s definitely not going to Milwaukee without Giannis there. So, I mean, you’re really limited in what you can do. I just think, hey, you have to you see what happens the rest of this week. I think that, you know, it’s only what, day two. So, of course, every fan base is going crazy. You know, if you didn’t do anything yesterday, everyone thinks, oh my god, it’s over. You know, there’s there, you know, Julius Randle got traded before training camp last year. So, there’s a lot of time between before you even play any basketball games. So, you know, I jokingly overreact and lose my mind, but we’ll see how it all play. I don’t think anything happens anytime soon though, which of course means the opposite will happen.
Are you surprised by what happened in Milwaukee today with Dane?
Well, if you think about it from a business perspective, no. I mean, I think it’s kind of shocking. You don’t see that type of player get amnesty, you know, waved like that and and you know, you know, and all that. You don’t see that. I mean, I think because it’s Dame and plus Dame just got injured what in April.
Yeah. It just seems like when that’s cold blooded, bit of
none of the stuff you read,
I don’t I never got the sense that Dame was in love with Milwaukee anyway. And I can imagine that a guy from Oakland would rather be rehab. He probably would have been rehabbing in California anyway. And I I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want to spend, you know, a winter in Milwaukee where he can’t, you know, where he can’t do anything. And if the odds are when he came back they probably might have tried to move him anyway on the last year of a deal. I think it I mean you remove kind of the feelings emotions like dang that’s cold. It makes sense. It’s just it I mean it it took it took a lot of guts to make that happen though be like you know what we’re going to wave a hall you know who you know when he was healthy he Dame could still play but I just think they were like you know we’re not going to have him for a year. Go ahead and move on. I’m just wondering what’s up with Indiana. I guess they said, “Okay, there’s our window. Bye.” Real quick on that Dame situation. Do you think that happens without his blessing? I don’t I I think it could happen without his blessing, but I think you definitely they you know, you definitely go to him and present it to him. I that’s why I think when you read that he’s pleased with how it turned out, they definitely talked to him, which is I mean, but all the reports right now were so crazy. On one hand, you read that Dame is elated. On the other hand, you read not Giannis didn’t like it, but you also read that Giannis helped recruit Miles Turner.
So, I mean, everyone’s lying at this point, but I I think of all those scenarios, Dame being happy that he still gets his money
and say hypothetically in a year and he’s healthy, could still sign say a two-year $40 million deal or whatever. I think Dame, you know, I could see Dame being happy with if he wasn’t gonna play this coming season anyway. So I, you know, then the idea that when he’s healthy, he can pick his spot, I can see, you know, I can see Dame being happy with that. How big of an impact do you think these aprons are having on this current free agency period? We’re not seeing the shocking dollars that we used to see, you know, over the last several seasons. We saw the cap uh didn’t go up the full 10% winning up about 7% and every tweet is accompanying with how close to what that particular team is to the first or second apron.
Oh, it’s having a major impact. I mean, I I’m I’m not convinced that if without the apron that Boston doesn’t keep, you know, Drew and Porzingis for one more year because I mean, that’s still a good team
if you keep those guys even without Tatum. I’m not convinced. I mean, I think a lot of these decisions are not basketball. They are strictly financial decisions. Let’s, you know, get under this apron, you know, let’s shed salary. Let’s not be committed to guys long term. I’m con, you know, I’m convinced that it’s definitely having a major impact because, you know, people are already projecting out what OKC’s going to do, you know, with with twin chat’s eligible for his extension, you know, and it it’s it’s definitely affecting teams. And I think what what it does is it gives a bunch of teams and a bunch of ownerships groups or owners a reason and excuse not to compete. I I hate it. I just think I think it g I think it punishes I know we’re talking about big market, small market or whatever who can spend the most money, but I think it gives teams who you know between that and the whole playing thing you get you’re giving teams a reason like it’s okay to be mediocre because of the apron now. like we can’t, you know, if unless we can be like Oklahoma City and win when the guys are young, wh why even try?
And and that’s what I don’t like about it. I just think it’s I hate seeing a bunch of decisions being made based off of that as opposed to you know what this guy would really help us you know because I mean they say that one of the reasons why Indiana let Miles Turner go was because they didn’t want they were like without Hallebertton why be in under that apron or whatever because you’re not going to compete. So, it’s like you say you did it for parody, but the fact now is it’s going to be, you know what, if teams feel like they can’t win a championship, there’s gonna be getting rid of salary. Yeah. And I I I had the same thought about just the there’s been a lot of talk about value of like we’re talking Malik Monk, but just different players and stuff like that. And you mentioned these aprons and the first apron is obviously something nobody wants to be around if they don’t feel like they compete. And the second apron is like death. Even if you’re a championship team, you don’t want to be there.
So I always try to say
or lately I’ve been trying to say Malik Monk for instance, it’s not that he’s a bad player or people look at him as a bad player or anything else like that. I just think these teams are like super cautious with any type of money that they bring on and the type of player because they don’t want to make the wrong decision being one of those aprons and now be
kind of in no man’s land. So it it’s we’re talking about Malik Monk, but I don’t think it’s more I don’t think it’s an indictment on Malik. More of it being something that the league is going through with these aprons.
Yeah, Malik’s contract is not a bad contract. I mean, that’s not a that’s not what what you would put in, you know, top 10 worst deals in the NBA. But the thing is is when you’re close, you go, you ask yourself, does Malik put me over to a championship team? If you don’t think Malik makes you a championship team, maybe you don’t want that contract. And a lot of these contracts you see getting dunk, you see a lot of guys in that, you know, 156 million dollar range. Mhm. Teams are keep trying to I think you try to keep your salary smaller, they’re easier to move. And if you if you’re a team like the Kings, you’ve got, you know, you know, Demar’s deal isn’t crazy, but trying to move a guy like Lavine. That’s not an easy deal to move. Someone’s got to believe Zack Lavine makes them a championship team to take that on. And so you’re it’s Yeah, it’s Yeah. And I And I hate some of the discourse I’ve had to see about Malik because Malika is not the problem. The problem is the roster and the in the fin. It’s not it’s not a Malik problem, but
it doesn’t like there’s too many there’s too many guys who do the same thing and because it’s a roster issue. It’s not it’s not Malik’s fault, you know, that they drafted Devon Carter last year.
No, it isn’t.
Yeah, it’s not Malik’s fault that they took on, you know, Lavine and signed D Rozan in the within a matter of month. That’s not his fault, but because of what you just said with the, you know, 15 16 17 $18 million, he has a contract that is really easy. Well, we thought his contract would be really easy to move.
Yeah. And I think maybe it’ll be easy if you’re going to, you know, I think it as you get past free agency teams strike out on guys, you know, you start kind of seeing like when I started seeing, you know, you you know, and the thing is some if you’re, I mean, I’m not that I’m trying to run Malik out of town, but some of the teams you look at where he would have fit well, you would think in a trade don’t e either, you know, or have a lot of salary already or hard to move or, you know, or hard to fit them in. Like when I watched the Knicks in the playoffs, I said they need I said they need another guy who can score and and handle the ball and initiate. A guy like Malik would have been perfect in New York, but if you’re New York’s financial situation, it’s easier to get Jordan Clarkson off waiverss and and sign him to a minimum deal. I just think this, you know, it’s hard for teams to kind of go in and and like I said, Malik does not have a bad deal. It’s not like he’s on a four-year $120 million deal. But it’s it’s just the way it is. And in a lot of ways, if you look at the way the Kings are, if you’re going to move, if there’s a guy who’s tradable, you would think it would be Malik. But I think some teams are going to say, for a guy who we probably bring off the bench, do we want to pay him that much? I mean, it’s really weird because now you’re seeing guys who maybe five years ago you’d be clamoring, oh, I I’ll make that move in a heartbeat. Now you’re going, you know what? Maybe we sacrifice a little depth here and maybe some talent to avoid these aprons and all the other stuff. Sucks.
Yeah.
Uh I was going to ask you the guy that is coming to Sacramento, uh Dennis Shruder. You got to see him up close and personal a few years ago when he was with the Lakers. Uh he was on the title team or the year.
I think I want to say the year after or the year after. Yeah.
What you think about him, man? I like Dennis Shruder as a ball player. Not saying he’s the savior or anything like that, but I think he’s a good ball player, man. What you think about him? He’s a I think he’s a good player. He’s he’s competitive. He’ll get in you, you know, you know, he he’s comp he’s a competitor defensively. He’ll try to get in you, you know, he can make, you know, he can make the three. I think he, you know, I think he’s a solid option at point guard. I don’t I don’t have any issue with the Kings signing Dennis I don’t think signing Dennis Shruder is an issue at all. I just think the Kings more greater issue is what do you do with this collection of guys over here who were all variations of the same guy? Like if all those guards you name, who would you say, you know, I guess you say outside of Keon, who are your defenders, you know, who’s who’s you know, it’s it’s kind of just they just have a bunch of guys, bunch of backcourt guys.
Yeah. Yeah, I think at least Dennis has a defined role outside of I don’t know what the defined role is. Like I said, as of today, what the rest of the guys would necessarily be. This is why I’m I’m curious to see in four or five days
what moves get made, what things happen to shake stuff up because the way they’re built right now, it’s like, okay,
I’m like, I don’t know what you gonna do with this except have a bunch of guys mad. And it’s also a weird thing too because your rookie from last year is not who your current GM drafted and what you know is there a team that would want to take a flyer on him
so far? No.
Yeah. So, I mean, you’re just kind of in this weird and and this kind this kind of collection of players got you what what ninth in the West and you know, I don’t think I don’t think you see they’re because it’s still early, but they’re not in a better position right now, you know, and to the point where you lose a guy to the Lakers mainly because, you know, the Lakers had a little bit more money to offer.
Yeah. Very little bit. Yeah. It wasn’t It wasn’t like the Lakers came in and offered him 10 million a year.
Yeah.
But it was still more than what the Kings could do.
It It was It was And then it was simple as that. It was very literally the Kings could only offer so much. Like it wasn’t something the Kings did. It was just a collective bargaining agreement.
They can only offer so much. The the the the Lakers said, “Okay, I see you. I can up that by about a total of 1.5 million in total.” And salute to Jake Laabia. He took it. I take every single penny someone was willing to offer me.
Yeah. Can’t be mad at that. It is a victim of the CBA. And I I I know we probably it’s not happening soon. I can’t wait to see the next labor negotiations because at some point, you know, you got to assume that the players have to stop giving the owners ways to save themselves. I mean, everything that, you know, every concession they’ve made is basically because the owners can’t make good decisions, you know? They they want to throw money away for years. Now, look what you’ve got. I don’t know, man. Like, I’ve, you know, you’re watching these teams, you’re watching these these different moves. The the the Dame Lillard one, you know, even though like I guess you can look at it and go, it makes sense. You noted this a second ago. Uh J Jason, it’s it’s weird to see that with a player the caliber of of of of Dame Lillard. Then you got like the LeBron James thing going on where LeBron James is now a a prime candidate. You can’t tell a prime trade candidate. You can’t tell if Rich Ball kind of put out a very vague trade request or trade threat in his statement. And then you start having the conversation about, yeah, it’s a $53 million trade and in the era of the collective bargaining agreement in 2025, it’s almost impossible to pull off and remain a contender unless you have a total anomaly of a contract. We might have one if you want to work on this Zack Lavine trade, but
the anomaly you saw was Luca and AD. That’s the anomaly where you have two highlevel players get traded for each other, but generally you’re trading a guy like that, you’re not getting that guy back. Like the Lakers aren’t going to trade LeBron to Cleveland and get Donovan Mitchell back,
right?
You know, it’s just not going to happen.
Yeah.
So, I mean, yeah, it’s this is just it’s just been fascinating, weird, everything at the same just to kind of watch all this stuff unfold. It’s like, yeah, it it’s it’s weird, you know, between that, the draft. Oh, it’s just the NBA is just weird right now. I don’t know what’s going on half the time anymore.
Haven’t mentioned one time. I It’s It’s It’s news, but it’s whatever. We haven’t touched on Shay’s extension, his monster contract extension that he signed,
71 mil a year, 285 million in total, a four-year max. Um, yeah. Goodness gracious.
Have to keep Applebee’s open late for him and OKC. 62.5, 68.6, 73.7, and 78.7. We are getting closer and closer to that $100 million man. How old is Shay? 26. Yeah, that’s what I thought. He uh no is he older than that time 26. This contract will take him because he’s got two years left. This contract will take him till his 32 28 27. Yeah. He could get to
Woo.
He’s going to get close.
Somebody already projected Cooper Flag could make a half a billion. Okay.
They already projected. I mean I think Yeah. I mean, when’s Wimby’s going to his extension going to be?
Oh, yeah. We we I felt like I at least we do this every time you bring up a contract. But who’s next? Who’s the next one after Shay? Uh, who’s the next one after Shay? Well, I don’t know that there is one because because
Steph. Well, yeah. Yeah, but it probably
in terms of current.
Yeah, but I mean in terms of guys who’s due up next, I mean
I mean
the Trey Luc not the same, but Trey’s two-year extension that he can signed is like 75 million a year. Good.
We’re go we’re we’re not that far from the hund00 million play.
Yeah. There’s there’s a really important component to this. You have to either be on the team that drafted you or have been traded on your rookie deal, which Shay was. So, even though the the the the Clippers didn’t uh even though the Thunder didn’t draft him, he still reeks the benefits of of that one team thing. And so, you know, Luca, we I think we were projecting it was going to be Luca. Luca’s out. It was Luca would have been it would have been Luca.
Chhatty House is saying and Edwards. And Edward What? Yeah. Is a AllNBA player. Yeah.
Yeah. Ant’s gonna be in the running for that. Yeah. Uh
Book Yeah. Book Books Book’s rumored extension was I think around 75. If if if uh if the Timber Wolves stopped paying big men, you know, there’ll be some money for Ant. Rudy Goar. How much Root money we get Rudy Goar?
Stop. Stop. Please. I still have flashbacks to that.
Rudy Rudy Goar getting $81 million. The only man with Rudy Gobear flashbacks played the game of his him and his children’s lives.
That’s why they got to have money for 2027. They got to be able to combat that in two years. Like we got to be ready.
That man couldn’t keep his hands on the ball in the Western Conference Finals, but he grabbed 27 rebounds against the Lakers.
Well, it helps when you’re getting boxed out by Austin Reeves, but still. Yeah. But yeah, he won’t it won’t Rudy won’t get 100 mil. I think I mean you put in all the parameters a Wimby one of those guys is going to get 100 mil. I mean I wouldn’t put it past Phoenix. They may I wouldn’t put it past Phoenix to do that with Book. I mean they got
never wants to get rid of Booker.
Yeah, it’s out there.
I mean they don’t care about the cap and the aprons clearly. They just they they Book and the Suns love each other.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean it might it might end up being Book because a lot of times that first person to crack that barrier is not like a the guy who you would assume it it’s going to be like remember back in the day when the first hundred million dollar contract was it Jawan Howard?
Um
yeah Jawan Howard then Alonzo Morning I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s when Shaq was like, “If they’re getting that, I know I’m what I’m getting, you know.” So, I think Yeah. It you just need one team to do it and Devin Booker would be an ideal candidate.
Is that when contracts were kind of just a free-for-all?
Yeah.
Like there weren’t set numbers like there are like set came up with every number you thought worked, you know? So,
Well, that’s right. Magic did sign like a 20 year$20 million deal one time.
Yeah. So yeah, there was a time Yeah. Yeah. Kids, there was a time where you just go up there and say, “This is what I want.” There was a time kids were rookie signyear deals off the rip. That’s what I’m saying. That’s what baseball is. Not what uh Trout and Harper on like 13-year deals.
Yeah. And baseball ends up because you get like happened with the Angels with pool holes. You get to like year nine, you’re like, “Why did we do this?” They’re like, “What? What’s going on here?” Like, yeah, it’s year eight, year nine of a deal. Except in the case, we’ll take our 10 year guy.
Yeah. Not pay him for 14 years.
Don’t worry about what we do. Jesus.
Focus on the Marlins. All right, that’s the second time. Relax. They uh they stretch Atani’s contract and I’m fine with it. I’m I’m in preferred money. Happy today. Happy Bobby Bonia Day.
Deferred money.
I’m in favor of deferred money. Happy, like I said, today is Bobby. He’s the He’s the forefather of it. Happy Bobby Bonia Day. Shout out to everybody who lived through the amnesty era. You used that word a second ago when we were talking about Dame and it was like, oh my god, what a time that was where a team could just go,
my bad.
Oops.
My bad.
I’m out. Did I have this right as was the first one Allan Houston?
The first guy to get amnesty.
Yeah.
Oh, good one. I don’t
I don’t remember. I just remember every fan base had at least one guy. They were like, “Could you please amnesty?”
Yes. They were trying.
And there was like a window in which you could use it
and everyone was like, “Yeah, let’s get
They should bring it back.”
Yeah, bro. You know how happy Kings fans would be if you could use an amnesty clause right now?
Bring it back. I mean that was Yeah, that was And then when the first you could wave a player, you know, wave a player then, you know, you know, break the contract up.
This is AI, but I got Gilbert Arenus.
Oh,
as the first player to uh be waved under the amnesty clause, Gil was making I think Gil was making a lot of money. I almost I can’t remember exactly, but
yeah,
Gil was getting paid. This AI mode is wild, dude. Artificial intelligence is crazy.
Yeah, Gil was Yeah, Gil was cashing checks. I’m trying to see what the dollar figure was. And I Oh, come on. Come on. Artificial intelligence be better. So,
the amnesty provision was Wow. The amnesty provision was known as the Allen Houston rule. That’s why I think about Okay, now wait a minute. The first player waved under the rule was Jerome Williams by the New York Knicks. Jerome, they said we made him a mistake with Jerome Williams. Shout out
the Nets used it on. Nick said, The Nick said, “Oh man, we messed up bad. This is crazy.” The NBA agreed to a new collect that the the agreement included an amnesty clause provision allowing teams to release one player without his contract counting against the cap because the Knicks were expected to use the amnesty clause to wave Houston due to his expensive contract and injury roles. Uh the amnesty clause was dubbed the Allen Houston rule after Houston assured the team that he would retire if his knee injuries uh reoccurred in training camp that fall. The Knicks chose to not use the amnesty clause to release release him. Instead, they released Jerome Williams.
Poor I’m looking at some of the names. They said Lu Lu Dang was amnested. Lu Deng was amnested.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I got I got the list right here. We got some things. Boy,
is Gilbert even on the list?
They used It was used on Chris Bosch, but he had a health thing. Okay. Oh, man. was alive that long.
I’m looking just in 2005. My bad. Okay.
I found a whole thing of Monte Ellis.
Oh, what you know about Clarence Witherspoon? Yokim Noah. Howard Eley. Oh, look who look. Hey, look who got amnesty. Doug Christie from Oh, DC
from Orlando.
Uh, so so how So, uh, I got Gilbert G getting amnestied um by Orlando also in 2011.
Yeah, I’m looking at I’m just trying Yeah, I’m looking at some of these. I remember when Travis Outlaw did because they were like he’s going to Sacramento now because he Yo,
Brooklyn him though. These numbers are crazy. They they amnesty Doug Christie for $7.5 million, man. Yeah. And then
like he was making 80.
Yeah. But back then that was a significant amount. I guess I’m looking at some of these other ones from back in the day. Who was used on? I don’t know how accurate this is. The name they said it was used on was Tyrus Thomas, Carlos Boozer,
Baron Davis, Brendon. What’s the most famous amnesty story you guys can think of? The most famous amnesty story. I
How about amnesty? That Oh, yeah. That was when Mark Cuban
Oh, that’s right. Someone That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.
Lakers should amnesty Kobe.
Yeah.
And beat him.
But look at some of these names. Who remembers his Lionus CLA?
Oh man. Andre Blout Andre Blanch, man. Oh, shout out Josh Stanford. Stand up. Drew Goodton. Shout out Kansas and the Oakland Soldiers. Yeah. I mean, I’m just like, man, this Travis Outlaw got amnestied by the New York New Jersey Nets. His next team, Sacramento. Sacramento kids.
Yeah. Well,
yeah. Some of these names I haven’t seen in a while. guys like Robinson Ryan Gomes used his name in a while.
What y’all know about Eddie Robinson? Oh, Eddie Robinson. Who’d he get amnesty by?
Chicago for $5 million. Reggie Miller got amnesty.
I see that. I’m looking at that. I’m trying to figure that out, but I can’t.
I mean, these were wild. These these were wild times. I mean, if they brought it they br if they brought it back. Yeah. the the the market would get flooded with players.
They should bring it back.
They couldn’t amnesty players quick enough in today’s era.
They should bring it back every five years or so. You know, oh, you know what? The playin tournament should be for an amnesty contract. Treat treat it like the money in the bank contract. You don’t think teams will play hard for that? If you win, you can amnesty a player. would make Dame pay 48 minutes. They’d be like, teams wouldn’t play. The league would just have to spring it on them. Hey, you won. Players, you get five million to split amongst yourselves. Ownership, you get the amnesty. One of them.
Imagine the owner or GM going to a player saying, “Hey, man. I know you don’t want to be here anymore, but we win this one. We got you.
Get you out. We gonna get you out. had a game of his life.
It’ be the It’d be the opposite of the uh Malik Beasley accusation. That man gonna go all go all out.
Adam with the Kia in season amnesty tournament. Team sign. You got to compete to qualify. LeBron’s playing 48 minutes. They free up. What if what if the Allstar game was for an amnesty clause? The winning team could amnesty a player on the other team. Oh, we got
inseason amnesty.
Just treat just just treat the amnesty clause like the money in the bank briefcase and I think we could work this all out.
Yeah, everything could be for an amnesty. You could have like four or five of them available allstar weekend. Winner of the three-point contest, get some amnesty. Warriors are likely will get signed just played by the Celtics just so he can win.
And guys are fighting. They’re like, “No, Steph is in this, you know. We got to get all
Do you think that we got We got to go. We got to go.” But seriously, do you think the Celtics would amnesty Jaylen Brown if they could? That’s a good question.
I don’t think so. I think
I think he has value. All right.
I think he has value. Question. We’ll answer it tomorrow. Yeah, I guess I guess just just think about it for a while. We appreciate you, brother.
All right. Yeah, take care.
As always, it’s our man Jason Jones. Tomorrow, we gonna find an amnesty candidate on every team.
We bringing amnesty back.
That’s what we gonna do tomorrow. We’re just gonna start amnesty players tomorrow. Uh we appreciate y’all for being with us. Um we tried to fix everything today. I’m sorry. I don’t think we did.
Is uh Michael Wilbon say, we’ll do better tomorrow. We’ll see you at 10 a.m. on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 13:20.
Vamos’s Dennis Shruder. Oh man. Is the uh Giants game over?
Are they playing?
No, they don’t play till like six o’clock. My bad.
They didn’t even get up almost today. Poor guys. They hitting with that that uh wet Sunday paper.
No, anything nowadays. All right, y’all. Um we’re going to get out. If anything of note happens, we’ll try to bring it to you. We’ll jump online or something. Uh if not, man, we’ll just see you guys tomorrow. Jesus, that brother’s having a bad week,
man. It’s all bad.
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0:00 Stream starts
13:00 The Insiders
35:00 break
37:00 Jonas Valanciunas traded
53:00 break
59:00 Bucks sign Myles Turner, Cut Damian Lillard
1:10:00 break
1:15:00 What do the Kings do with Malik Monk now?
1:30:00 break
1:34:00 what’s positive for Kings fans to point at?
1:52:30 break
1:56:00 The Handoff with KC
2:09:00 The Insiders ends
2:13:00 D-Lo & KC
2:27:30 break
2:32:00 Kings current direction and fan reaction
2:57:55 break
3:03:00 tanking isn’t the answer here
3:28:00 break
3:34:00 The Kings are in a difficult position
3:57:30 break
4:01:30 Bucks made some moves this morning/LeBron moving on from the Lakers?
4:09:30 Trysta Krick
4:57:45 break
5:03:00 Trysta’s airplane story
5:28:30 break
5:35:00 Jason Jones
6:08:30 See you guys tomorrow
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2 Comments
Can confirm. My dads name is Dennis and his damn near 70 😂
Fox fans. See what happens when you support a FRAUD like fox.
Fox's babysitter keegan is almost just as useless on the offensive side of the court.
And no. It's not demar's fault. Stop blaming demar.