NBA Free Agency Winners & Losers, Lillard Landing Spots, Best BBQ Sides | The Drop
Welcome. Welcome to No Dunks here on the Athletic Podcast Network where we’re going to put a little bow on everything free agency and some little things will happen over the weekend. Then we’ll just tear that bow up and we’ll do it again on Monday. That’s right.
Why not? I’m Tess Mills. With me, it’s the man in the middle, Trey Kirby.
Hey. Hey. And as always, it’s the man making the magic happen. Tad late on the AO, but there’s a lot there’s a lot on the go.
A lot of buttons over here. Hello.
Hello, JD. And as far as the intro goes,
yeah, people are loving it.
Mhm.
Oh,
yeah. Just wanted to give you that.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. That’s the last we’ll be seeing this week probably. Ah, maybe next week. We’ll see.
See you next year. We’ll see if we squeeze in. Listen, we’ll get to all that free agency stuff. But first, a little reminder. Vegas show next week.
Vegas, baby.
Going to Mandalay Bay. The sports book room should be exciting. July 11th, 400 p. p.m.
Mhm.
It’s free. We’ll see you there. Yeah, I’ll see you there.
I’ll see you there.
What do you want to talk about?
That’s a great question. Yeah, we’ll see.
Yeah, we will see. If
you have any ideas, let us know. We’ll talk about it.
Yeah. Um, as far as what we’re going to talk about in this show later, we’ll talk about where Damen Lillard should go. Okay.
Mike Brown named as head coach to the New York Knicks and other tiny little signings like Duncan Robinson to the Pistons. There’s some offc court stuff with Michael Beasley. We’ll talk about like some actual news. Did I do Michael Beasley again? That the Michael Beas that Michael Beasley Dwight Howard video where Michael Beasley is talking about Dwight Howard’s old relationship with Michael Beasley’s sister. I guess that’s in my brain. Anyways, other offc court stuff. That’s other offc court stuff we won’t talk about.
Yeah, there’s a lot of offc court stuff with Malik Beasley. And honestly, there’s a lot of oncourt stuff with Michael Beasley. I do like seeing his one-on-one clips and his clips from the big three. The guy’s still a bucket. might be the best one-on-one player not in the NBA right now. Is he coming back? I don’t know. Should a team take a chance on Michael Beasley? Stay tuned. The guy can score. Yeah, all that stuff. Raptor stuff. But first, let’s do winners and losers of NBA free agency in general. Trey, where do you want to start with winners?
Easy winner, the Houston Rockets, because I’m factoring in the Kevin Durant trade as well. So, basically, the Rockets have added Durant, Dorian Finny Smith, and Clint Capella. Say them all together. That’s a lot of old guys, but they’re a team that can use some veteransship. I believe they obviously lost Jaylen Green and Dylan Brooks in the trade with the Suns as well. Fred Van Vleet coming back on a pretty smart deal, a good deal for him, getting a little bit like $5 million uh extra money, but it’s two years 25 per for the Rockets, which makes things a little easier from a team building standpoint. They brought back all of their end of the bench deep veterans in Aaron Holiday, Jeff Green, Jawn Tate, guys who can play in an emergency, which I think is good. And they’re betting on Reed Shepard as a backup point guard here since pretty much everybody else on the roster is over 6’6. There’s not a lot of guard depth for the Rockets, but they do have Fred Van Vleet. They drafted Reed Shepard number three last summer. He needs to get a chance at some point, so this is a good chance for him. And if the Rockets do want to make another move, they’ve still got some uh prospects they can trade. Like I’ve seen rumors of a Cam Whitmore for Io Dumu trade with the Bulls. That would be an awesome pickup for the Rockets to get a guy like IO who can be a third guard, can be a little bit more of a defender uh for a team like the Rockets. So, I love what they did. I think they and we’ll get to the Nuggets here in just a second, free agency winners. Like they’re probably tied for number two in the Western Conference behind uh the champion Oklahoma City Thunder. So, you saw the Rockets take the take the Warriors to seven games. You saw the Nuggets take the Thunder to seven games. Both of these teams got better and I think the Rockets have a chance to make a run to the conference finals and who knows what happens, you know, 10 months from now in the playoffs. I love what the Rockets did. They still got a ton of flexibility going forward. They still have a bunch of assets. They had to jettison Dylan Brooks. They had to say goodbye to Jaylen Green. Those were kind of things I think that were built into the plans for the Rockets depending on how it went. So getting their guy in Kevin Durant and then solid supporting players, rotation guys who were going to play in DFS and Clint Capella. I think it’s been perfect so far for the Rockets.
Yes, the Rockets far better. The Western Conference looking lethal. I do wonder about the guard play. It’s totally true. Last year in the playoffs, we saw how the Warriors were able to take out Fred Van Vleet and Jaylen Green in that instance. Now, do you add Kevin Durant with Jaylen Green gone and are are they good enough in that respect? Probably. You know what’s uh forgotten about the Phoenix Suns and how bad they were 3646 team and and they fell apart and they were bad defensively. They’re a top 10 offense.
Why? Mainly because the guy we just mentioned, Kevin Durant, who is spectacular. I just wonder when it gets down to it in the playoffs, do they have guys who are going to take it to the hole enough? Um because if you look at Kevin Durant’s shots and where he takes him, only 10% of his shots are at the rim. Fred Van Vleet, their lead guard, same thing. Only 10% of his shots at the rim. Now Alpie, he’s going to kick it. He’s he’s he’s going to kick ass is what I want to say, but I stopped myself from air quotes swearing. Uh but he’s
explicit tag now JD.
He’s going to be able to take it to the rim. 30% of his shots there. The other guy who’s forgotten, Amen Thompson, 40% of his shots are at the rim. What is he going to do? You know, he he’s as we talked about him last week, this now shooting guard for the Houston Rockets. I guess that’s what he is. He’s going to take it to the whole hard. We will see more Reed Shepard. I am interested to see him. Cam Whitmore even if he gets on the floor. The Iodumu trade very interesting. It seems like that would help them from just guys who could handle the ball. Fred doesn’t want to take it to the rim. He’s never been that kind of guy. He wants to shoot from the outside. So does Durant. And that’s why the Suns were so good because he was that good in the mid-range. So we’ll see if it opens up the floor for for others being that good like Shenon and Aman Thompson.
Yeah, it does feel like the Rockets could still use some shooting. I guess Van Vleet is probably their most prolific outside shooter. Like Kevin Durant’s a great three-point shooter, but like you’re saying, he prefers to play in the mid-range. He pops some threes from time to time, but it’s a misuse of his talents to just have him standing around as a catch and shoot three-pointer guy. So maybe the Rockets are able to find somebody who’s just chucking threes with a Jun Tate contract plus one of the picks they have. They can address that kind of need as they get further into the season. But for right now, I think just they’ve added a major score in Kevin Durant, which was the main thing they needed, and then beefed up in some other areas as well. So great stuff for the Rockets. They’ve been pretty patient with their rebuild. They had a couple of bad seasons. They were getting trashed for Steven Silus being their coach. They professionalized bringing in Udoka and Fred Van Vleet and Dylan Brooks a couple of seasons back and that’s really paid off for them. They got their first all-star appearance out of Shenon last season. Went to the playoffs. They said, “We’re going to see how it goes and see what we need to do going forward.” They saw how it played out and went after the exact sort of personnel that they need. So yeah,
it’s been a easy choice for me for our first free agency winner. Totally true. Tal tiny nerdy note here. The Durant trade could involve an unprecedented seven teams.
This is crazy, man.
Cuz it’s not official. Yeah, when you think about it, seven, it is nuts. Yeah. Sources have told The Athletic that now a lot of the names involved would involve a lot of names we’ve already heard about. Yeah.
Like Clint Capella coming from the Atlanta Hawks to the Houston Rockets in a signing trade would be part of this seven team trade. But the front offices, they got to do some work to figure all that out. And it’ll be official in a few days, I suppose, July 6th, I guess. Unless they’re still talking about it and still wanting to make sure that all these little pieces give them an advantage in the new CBA to get a signing trade involved, etc. That kind of thing.
It’s going to be a crazy graphic whenever it pops out. Nobody has a template ready for a 17 team trade. I guess they did a sixteamer last year for Klay Thompson to go from the Warriors to the Mavericks and they chucked in a whole bunch of extra pieces on that. So, we’ll do the same here.
But, I mean, that’s a quarter of the league. Seven teams. It’s like we’re just going to roll everybody who moved teams during the offseason into one trade. Make it easy. I guess we’ll see.
It is nuts. Yeah, that Klay Thompson one, as you said, that’s an all-time high. Six teams. Yeah,
this one would be unprecedented. Moving on, let’s go to the Denver Nuggets because they are clearly a winner of free agency. The best player in the world, Nikico, was able to take OKC to seven games. They were up 2-1 in that series. He couldn’t get it done, especially because he didn’t have any help. Enough help, I should say. He had some help, but he didn’t have enough. Now, you get Cam Johnson in there instead of Michael Porter Jr. They are a better team. Cam Johnson can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim unlike Michael Porter and he can play some defense and he’s a good three-point shooter without Nicola Joic and Jamal Murray really being able to be that gravity. He was able to do that as a number one option with Brooklyn. So excited to see Cam Johnson be there on that team. Another reason why Denver wasn’t able to beat OKC Jokic was just gassed all season long. He had to do so much. And now they’ve got a far better bench with Bruce Brown coming back to the Denver Nuggets with now Yonis Valenunis being their backup center, a solid solid center. That is a huge improvement on what Joic had to do last year in terms of what he was carrying as far as the bench big time. Tim Hardaway Jr. now coming to his to side just to be a great three-point shooter off the bench. That’s just an incredible improvement. I saw Payton Watson is there in Denver working out now. He’s going to be there all off season, which he wasn’t last year. If you’re gonna try and draw any little hope that somebody else can be a good player, DNVR pointing that out. Guess he didn’t have a great relationship with Michael Malone last year, so he left. So, I just named all those guys. And Bruce Brown, Hardway, Yonas Falu, now Pton Watson.
I guess we wonder if Russell Westbrook comes back cuz he could. He could. Yeah, they could still use a point guard off the bench, but then you look back two years ago when they won the championship. They didn’t really have a point guard off the bench. I mean, it was Bruce Brown and then it was Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray kind of running the second unit. They didn’t have one. They had Reggie Jackson. He didn’t even play in the playoffs really. He played a few tiny minutes. So, I think they are just far better off. Again, Joic had to carry this team so much. He had to play more minutes than he’s ever played in his career and he had to do it in the postseason. So just excited for this team to have some depth number one and number two just the improvement of Cam Johnson over Michael Porter Jr. especially defensively and on the offensive end. Just excited to see those guys work it together.
I think the most important thing with the Michael Porter Jr. Cam Johnson trade is that they turned one guy into two guys. Basically freeing up money to be able to sign Tim Hardaway Jr. as well. I don’t necessarily know that I think any of these guys in uh Hardaway and Valenunis mostly will be like playoff players for the Denver Nuggets. Those are the kind of guys that’ll be like right on the edge of are they able to hang or will they be targeted. But I’ve seen Tim Hardaway Jr. have a 15-point quarter in an NBA finals. That’s still one of the craziest things that’s happened in the past couple of years. you know, Valenunis at least will be able to play during the regular season, which helps keep Joic’s minutes down, which helps keeps Aaron Gordon’s minutes down since this guy’s basically been the backup five for the Nuggets. So, yeah, you look at who the Nuggets brought in, it’s Cam Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, and Yonas Valenunis. That wouldn’t get anybody all that excited unless you had Nicole Joic on your team and you took the chance to seven games and it feels like all the Nuggets really needed was some competent role guys to be able to throw out there for five to seven minutes because obviously Michael Malone for quite some time didn’t trust Picket. He didn’t trust Watson. Julian Strawther did get some minutes for Adelman there in the playoffs, but I think those guys still needed to be better, the young guys for the Nuggets to really be able to count on their depth. But you can’t deny that the Nuggets had very little assets going into this post or into this off seasonason. They basically had the Michael Porter Jr. contract and the picks they had further down the line. They used an unprotected pick to get off the Michael Porter Jr. contract. That could have been a win in and of itself. But to get four guys who at the very least are going to help during the regular season, you hope Cam Johnson is good in uh the playoffs like he was for Phoenix. You hope Bruce Brown is able to throw it back like he did when he won a championship for Denver. This is just good for Denver to get a supporting cast around Joic rather than just bringing in random veteran dudes on deals like the Dario Sarich deal never paid off. The guy was out of the rotation almost instantly. At least Valenunis will be able to play. Yeah, at least Tim Hardaway Jr. will be able to play. Uh, so I think this has been good for the Nuggets heading into the season. We still got a couple of months before things even get going. Would you favor the Nuggets or would you favor the Rockets?
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think I’m taking the Nuggets. I think I’m just riding with Joic and what he’s able to do as far as gravity goes with all these guys. I think they they are truly deeper. I think Joic was doing so much in the regular season just because the bench couldn’t play. The non-JIC minutes were horrendous and Russell Westbrook and Joic that relationship was deemed a success because he was on the floor with him at the same time. When Westbrook was on the bench leading that second unit, things were not going well. really it was him, Sarge, DeAndre Jordan, some Payton Watson, and you know, they they they tried Jaylen Picket, they they tried other things, but that’s who we’re talking about in comparison now to Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway and Jonas Felen Shunis. And yeah, maybe he’ll throw in a Payton Watson to see if he can do it again. But I I think they’re far better off. Uh and I think the Cam Johnson improvement will will show. It’s I think that’s a guy who sort of was under the radar a little bit in Brooklyn and what he was doing and how good he was doing it and how he’s developed here in the prime of his career. So, I think they’re better off. It’s a it’s a great second round uh series between them and the Rockets to see who’s going to play an OKC in the conference finals if if that’s the case. But yeah, we we we went through how they got Jonas Felenus or that they got him, I should say. They traded Daario Sarich to Sacramento to get him and then they were able to sign Tim Hardaway Jr. for that small one-year contract as you said because they were able to get rid of that monster deal in Michael Porter Jr. and were able to save money trading him to Brooklyn. So, they had money to deal with and they gave it up and the two headed executive vice president of the Denver Nuggets front office. It kind of that also flies under the radar. They’ve got two guys with the same title, Ben Tenzer,
Ben
and John Wallace,
but they’re doing a great job in comparison to what Calvin Booth was doing. They are getting old. You just mentioned that that they’re older. Yeah, that’s true. They are, but they all line up with Nikolic and that’s the whole point is take advantage of your best player. So, they’re all going to be good while Joic is good in general. And that’s fine. And that’s totally fine.
Excited.
I think you’re right. They are an old team, but Jokic is in his prime. You got to go for it right now. The Rockets got older, too. Bringing in Kevin Durant. I still think I’m going uh Nuggets over Rockets just literally just because of the Jokic factor, but we’ll be cool to see because it feels like two legitimate contenders or at least major obstacles that OKC is going to have to battle with going into this next season.
All right, let’s let’s get to uh another winner. Who you got as far as free agency winners? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know if this is a winner, but I’m picking them as a winner. I’m not even sure if they’re better, but I do think the Memphis Grizzlies had an interesting off season. They started things off trading Desmond Bane for Contavius Caldwell Pope. Then they used one of those picks. They got back from Bane to trade up and take Cedric Coward early in the NBA draft. They just maxed out Jiren Jackson Jr. and then the day after he’s got an injury. He’s going to have to have surgery on his toe. He’s got to Yeah, that’s kind of a bummer. I mean, they obviously the Grizzlies had to have known. Yes,
it didn’t happen overnight. So, I guess they’re saying it’s going to be fine, but it’s going to be a weird start to the season. Zack Edy, we know, is having surgery as well, so he’s going to be out. Brandon Clark is returning from injury. It’s quite likely that the Grizzlies start their season with Jay Huff at center. I don’t know if that’s ideal.
She I never thought about that. Yeah.
Yeah. There’s not a the center position at the start of the season is not looking great uh for the Grizzlies, but eventually Edy will be back and Jiren Jackson Jr. will come back as well. Hopefully, he doesn’t miss a huge chunk of time. I think there was a longer prognosis for Darius Garland to return than for Jiren Jackson to return. So, I don’t know which one is true. Is he going to be out three months? Is he going to be out six months? Who knows? Uh he’ll be back eventually and we knew the Grizzlies were going to pay him. I think he’s a good player as well. Then you look at the other things Memphis did. They’ve got Santi Alama back on a solid deal. 3 years 52 million. Y they’ve got Ty Jerome coming over from Cleveland. Three years 28 million. And then cheap deals for Cam Spencer. Two years 5 million. He’s just an end of the bench guy. That’s fine with me. They only lost Luke Canard to the Hawks which you know they’ll miss his shooting but he hasn’t really moved the needle for Memphis uh so far. So I think their ideal starting lineup Jaw KCP in the back court. I think it’s between Jaylen Wells their rookie last year and Coward if he’s able to come and steal his minutes. Obviously, the Grizzlies aren’t worried about putting a rookie into the starting lineup. And then eventually Jiren Jackson Jr. and Zack Edy with Ty Jerome Aldama Pippen. Either Coward or Wells and Clark off the bench. Like that’s still a pretty solid team. Unfortunately for them since the peak of the Grizzlies, the Western Conference has gotten a lot better. Are they better this season? I doubt it. Unless John Morant has a bounceback season, which maybe playing an entire year under Thomas Eselo is what he needs if they’re going to turn the team back over to him in a pick and roll scenario. I guess that helps uh Jaw out. But most importantly, there’s a lot more flexibility for the Grizzlies. They have turned into a second apron built team where they’ve got a big two with a lot of roll guys around them rather than a big three with cheap role guys. You know, they got Ty Jerome because Cleveland got aproned. They got Santi Alama back because there was no cap space out there. They’ve done good business moves. Maybe they can move John Kchar for a guy like Goa Pataz to start the season. I don’t know what they’re going to do at center, but that’s just a concern at the beginning of the year. So, I think the Grizzlies have done good business stuff. I don’t know if it pays off for them this season specifically, but they’ve got a better chance of building around Jaw and Jiren Jackson Jr. than they did when they had the Desmond Bane contract on the books as well.
Right. So, in general, I agree. instead of going a full-on rebuild, see a Jiren Jackson Jr., see a John Morant, this retool is very interesting and I think it’s uh designed to see Tomaso their head coach getting a first time at training camp as a head coach to just say this team is John Morance and Jiren Jackson Juniors. That’s who we’re going to go behind and to see what he can do, what they can do around it. So that that part is if you’re a Memphis Grizzlies fan is exciting rather than just tearing this thing down because you do have all NBA player a fantastic AllNNBA player and Jay Jackson Jr. and John Morant we’ll see if he can get back to what he was and I think that’s what Isel is going to do. He’s going to say, “All right, you are going to handle the ball a ton and they’re going to put a lot of guys around him.” Like Cedric Coward, I think, is going to play a lot. Like, I know they have Kavius Caldwell Pope, but I wonder how much he’s going to play in general. He’s he’s there. He’s going to be there for two more years. Uh, but I think the point is to get Cedric Counter and Jaylen Wells a ton of minutes around those other two guys. So, if you’ve got those two guys supporting Morant and Jiren Jackson Jr., those guys can take as many shots as they want because Coward uh and Jaylen Wells don’t have to shoot all that much. And so I think the design makes a heck of a lot of sense. And I’m excited to see Cedric Coward. It’s kind of flies under the radar that he was a senior. He’s he’s an older college player and he’s an incredible defender, a small forward or wing, whatever you want to call him, that they’ve been looking for forever. And so he fits perfectly. All the headlines were the unfortunate uh time that Malik Andrews call him calling coward. All right. So I called um Malik Beasley Michael Beasley multiple times in the last couple days. It’s totally fine to do that. This guy is an incredible player. I’m very interested to see how they re retool. It’s it’s a good way of looking at it. Memphis Grizzlies could have just said, “Ah, this ain’t gonna work. Morant, a lot of offc court stuff has happened with him. It’s not going to work.” and just tried to rebuild it. But it is exciting that they’ve gone the retool uh mode and and got a coach I I think who’s just going to put the pressure on Morant to handle a lot and Jiren Jackson Jr. So excited for that.
Yep. We’ll see what they look like. Uh health is going to be a big concern for the Grizzlies as it has been it feels like for the past three seasons. They’ve just been so banged up with big injuries, little injuries as well, just not being able to keep their same team out there. So yeah, a bounceback season for Jaw, bounceback season for KCP. And the Grizzlies are contending for a playoff spot, I think, in the Western Conference. And that doesn’t sound like a great prognosis, but there’s three really good teams up top, I think, in the West in OKC, Denver, and Houston. And then there’s a big mess in the middle of teams that are going to be beefing for four through 11 or 12 kind of, it feels like.
Let’s talk about one of those teams.
Hold on before we we’re going to get to losers here in a second. I think uh obviously the Hawks are a winner as well. We’ve talked a lot about them on the show recently bringing in Porzingis, Nquille Alexander Walker and Luke Canard plus that juicy juicy New Orleans or Milwaukee pick for next draft. I think that’s a a winner here. And then I was going to curious Tess. Do you consider the Milwaukee Bucks a winner or a loser? Like this is the transition period where we’re switching from our winners to our losers.
Yeah. And it’s like the Bucks got the top free agent out there. Miles Turner was the number one guy. They replaced and upgraded Brook Lopez. I think that is a win for Milwaukee. But
when you combine Turner’s contract with Damen Lillard being stretched, it’s going to cost basically $48 million per season for Miles Turner to be on the Bucks, that seems like an overspend to me. But maybe Giannis likes it. Like literally, if Giannis likes it, that’s all that matters because things are going to be ugly for Milwaukee regardless once Giannis retires. They’re still paying off the Drew Holiday trade, not to mention the Damen Lillard trade. There isn’t a huge future in Milwaukee whenever Giannis is gone. So, if you can extend the amount of time he’s here and if Miles Turner, a guy who apparently Giannis helped recruit to the Bucks, if that’s something that helps convince him to stay, then I think it’s totally worth it and they’re winners. But if Giannis looks at the team and says, “Wait a second, this isn’t going how I like,” then they turn into losers. But I think they got to roll the dice at this point. Especially like you compare him to what the Warriors have been doing. They’re keeping everything safe for whenever Steph Curry retires. Now he’s closer to the end of his career than Giannis is. But it feels like the Warriors are stalling out where the Bucks are at least trying everything in their power to keep Giannis around.
Right. That’s why I think the Milwaukee Bucks are a winner 100%. I know it doesn’t seem all that great and the team around Yian dumpo doesn’t necessarily it doesn’t it doesn’t say they’re going to be a championship contender immediately but they had no other choice. Yes, they bought in extremely hard on Damen Lillard and they are paying him to be a superstar but they had to let him go to please Janice Dupo now. And I know people are saying, as you said, the $48 million number that they have to pay Miles Turner because it costs 22 million per year to to get rid of Damen Lillard. Sure, but they’re not paying Miles Turner that much. I mean, the the idea was they paid a lot for Damen Lillard to get there. And now there was no other choice to make Yanet Kubo happy as soon as possible. That was the only idea to just stretch and wave or wave and stretch him. that that was their only opportunity. That’s their only thing they could do. Now they you like you said sort of about the Golden State Warriors. We’ll wait until Steph and Jimmy uh retire and then we’ll figure it out from there. You could have just have Damen Lillard be this $50 million paid guy who doesn’t play. You could have done that, but then you go through a good point. You go through 50 million on the on the books regardless. Exactly. That’s the way a good way to look at it. And yet Kubo comes in, walks into the locker room and says, “Whoa, dude. every single day for the next 365 days. Kyle Kousman is his second best player and he obviously didn’t pan out well and Ken Porter Jr. is his third best player or however you want to put it. That’s their team. That would have been their team that Yiannis would have had to look at every single day and that would have been a struggle. I think I think I’d rather, you know, make this attempt of having Miles Turner in there with him to try and please Giannis to be a 500 team for sure. They should be a 500 team. They should be above that. Um, but I’d rather do that than go forward with what they had against the Indiana Pacers in the playoffs, which was which was poops. It didn’t work out. Now, Miles just helps them out. They obviously need another guard. Um, we’ll get maybe we’ll just say it now. The Vasa Michich is potentially their starting point guard. Uh, potentially they may even buy him out.
Yeah, he might not even be here,
but I’d rather have that than what they have. The guy could pass. He’s going to be fun with Yianis Koopo if he’s playing. He’s not not a good defensive player. Uh but that’s Yeah, that they’re they’re kind of short. They’re they’re short as far as guards go, but they’re they’re giving some things an opportunity. They’re trying our Garry’s. They’re trying Gary Harris. They’re trying other guys. So, I think this I think this is the only way to do it.
You convinced me. I was leaning winner, but you know, if the Bucks come back this season, lose Brook Lopez to the Clippers, we know Lillard isn’t playing. We’re definitely calling them losers if they’re down two starters going into next season with the Giannis thing hanging over their heads. So, at least they brought in the number one guy on the market. We’ll see how it turns out. And I don’t know if Giannis is helping get Miles Turner to his team. You have to think he’s going to be enthused that he actually signed the deal. So, yeah,
let’s see how, you know, it’s just going to be weird for the Bucks. Yeah.
Someday Giannis won’t be there and it will be ugly, but then guess what? Maybe you draft another Giannis. We’ll see.
Yeah. Or they can reel him in to stay there for his career. there’s a chance that that happens. They had no other way of addressing this. You could say John Horse maybe gave up too much for Damen Lillard in the first place. That’s a fair point, but going into the 2526 season, there was no other way of navigating this other than saying Damen Lillard, you’re waved and stretched. Now, you could hope that I guess that he would have came back in 26,27 and been a great player, but I I along with I’m sure a lot of medical people or people who’ve watched Damen Lillard as far as a basketball player last couple years, they don’t they don’t see the same Dame. No, he’s not the same guy, unfortunately.
So, I think this was smart in a in a weird way. Can’t wait to watch. I think he’ll be happy next year. That’s a big stretchy big stretchy contract.
Let’s get to the losers. Let’s start official losers. Let’s start with the Los Angeles Lakers official. Are they an official loser trade? What do you think picked them?
I did. I did. I did. Yeah. I I think you go into the off season and LeBron James says, “All right, I’m coming back.” And his agent says, “Listen, I know this 40-year-old guy is coming back, but he wants to win.” Essentially, that’s their statement. That’s his statement is an agent publishes this thing that says LeBron’s good. He’s coming back. He’s he’s going to be with you. But you know what? He’s so good. He wants to win right here, right now. You start with that and then what do you add? You add Jake Laravia um in instead of Dorian Finny Smith who leaves. I’ve watched Jake Laria. I’ve watched him front Nico. He gets after it. He can shoot the ball a little bit, but he he ain’t Dorian Finny Smith. So, they got weaker on the defensive end. There’s no doubt about that. And we’ll talk about DeAndre in a second and what he can do. But just overall when they made the Luca Donuch trade, the two things that we were looking for were better defense and a bigger team. They did not get better defensively, losing Dorian Finny Smith, who can guard basically every position except five, but he can guard everybody. Jake Lar is going to come in. I know he’s uh Austin Reeves bud and he made the announcement that he was going to the Los Angeles Lakers while Austin Reeves was in the car with him, a front office sports doing a little podcast with those two guys. Cool. Uh, but that doesn’t mean he’s a good basketball player, a good enough of a basketball player to take LeBron James and Luca to another level. They’re not a better defensive team than when they made the Luca Donuch trade. They’re they’re just they’re fine. Uh, but losing Dorian Finny Smith hurts. Uh, and then we get into uh LeBron in general. We talked about it as soon as free agency happened and whether or not LeBron could possibly be moved after seeing the Rich Paul statement. I didn’t buy it at first, but the more you look at it, I’m starting to believe it a tad bit more just because LeBron may be playing his last season. This might be his last one and maybe he wants to play somewhere else. The the tough part is all the math is getting a big enough contract coming back to the Los Angeles Lakers. Like, what champion what really good team is going to give up $40 million in salary to get LeBron? That means you’re giving up a good player. So that’s that’s the puzzling part. But sitting here now after watching what the Lakers did and what and we just talked about OKC Denver and Houston and the really good teams in the Western Conference, the Lakers ain’t anywhere close to that. Yeah, and I agree. I don’t think they are or have gotten closer to that, but I’m a little I’m a minor zag on what the Lakers did. I do think Dorian Finny Smith is the best player between him, Lorravia, and DeAndre Aton, but what the Lakers essentially did was turn DFS’s contract into Jake Larabia, who is eight years younger, and DeAndre Aton, who’s definitely better than Jackson Hayes. Yes. So, if I’m a Lakers fan, I’m not necessarily happy, but I would say we got younger, we got more athletic, and we upgraded our weakest position. The next move for the Lakers is go and get Marvin Baggley because it would be very funny to have the top three picks from the 2018 draft in Aiden, Baggley, and Luca. And guess what? Baggley would be helpful for the Lakers. He’s a rim runner. He’s a center. He He’s a fast guy. Uh he has also an LA guy. Oh, uh, you know, it would be kind of like a a meme signing, but I don’t think it would hurt the Lakers. So, yeah. I mean, not ideal for LA just because this is a team that wants to bring in stars. They’ve got the LeBron thing hanging over their head. I’m with you. doubt he gets traded just because the teams that would want to trade for LeBron are teams that are theoretically in title contention and think he’s the final piece to put them over the top. Which means it’s going to be hard for them to get enough contracts, enough money back to send to LA. And that’s without factoring in things like whether that team may or may not be over the first or the second apron, what they’re allowed to do. So yeah, the Lakers didn’t have a great off season. I think we’re definitely seeing that this team is more tilted towards a Luca timeline than LeBron because I don’t know how LeBron says Jake Larabia and DeAndre Aton here now we’ve got a chance in the Western Conference.
But JJ Reic was playing five guys in a playoff game last
like two months ago, right? He played four of his five starters like 24 minutes of the second half of a playoff game. They ran out of steam and everybody was like, “You can’t do this JJ.” Now, it’s going to be funny to see him working with DeAndre Aton and a guy who’s not always the most um doesn’t have the strongest motor at all times is probably going to drive JJ insane, but they turn one player into two. Both younger guys. I think that actually helps LA.
Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. The the the problem is JJ Ratic is going to ask DeAndre Aton to run back on defense. He’s going to ask him to set picks and work hard. And we don’t know if that’s going to happen. And I think that that is that is the puzzling part. Will the Andre Aton
s suddenly revert back to what he was with the Phoenix Suns and and be who he was? That’s the puzzling part. Now you can say LeBron James has done that for NBA players in the past who weren’t playing to their capability and LeBron at the leading locker room might be able to do that. That’s possible. But you have an offense and defense frankly uh supported or or ran around I should say. LeBron and Luca defensively you need guys who can guard everybody. I don’t think Jake Lava can do that. DeAndre Aton can’t do that. And and so yeah, you got you kind of traded one for two guys because they didn’t rely on Jackson Hayes to play.
They benched him.
They benched him.
Now he may be the backup center. he may come back as the backup center. But now at least you have a guy that they’re going to play, I guess. But there have been many coaches in NBA history. I mean, a few, not many, uh, that have said, DeAndre, nah, this ain’t working. This isn’t good. You got, we’re benching you like Monty Williams did with the Phoenix Suns. We got to bench you. We got to. So, we’ll see if if they can do that now. Five years ago, it’s almost five years when they went to the finals against the Milwaukee Bucks.
He was good.
Yeah, he was good.
Yeah. So,
you saw the Sham’s tweet putting up his playoff stats alongside the deal that he signed and not mentioning that he’s there on basically a veterans minimum because he decided to get bought out from his last contract.
The bet on Aton is weird. Like, nobody is anticipating him bouncing back to where he was with Phoenix. But, this is a pretty decent scenario for him to be in. He played much better playing off stars and smart guys in Phoenix than he did in Portland where there was a lot bigger expectations for him coming back in the Damen Lillard trade kind of being the centerpiece there even though Tumani Kamara ended up being the better get for the Blazers. So I’m not anticipating a lot from Aton but you look at the team they’re better than they were I think at the end of the season when they had five guys in the rotation. I know we say Dorian Finey Smith has been traded for two guys or you know you you sub him out for two guys but Jake Laravia has never been anywhere close to Dorian Finny Smith. Is he going to be able to play 30 minutes a game? They were going to ask a lot of Jake Laravia. He’s never been that steady a player in the NBA. So I don’t know. I don’t know.
Okay. But I mean is how much better than Jackson Hayes?
Definitely. Definitely. So, we’ll see what JJ Reic is going to ask him to play hard and go close to the rim and play you be a repellent on the defensive end. We’ll see if he can do that. Also to drive at the rim on the offensive end. I don’t know. JJ Reick was just said, “No, Jackson Hayes, you’re out. We’re going small. We’re going five smalls.” And now, if that happens again, they don’t have those guys. I thought they would have been better off with Dorian Finny Smith over Jake Laavia playing a small ball five or small ball four or whatever. So, we’ll see what Jake Laavia can do and we’ll see the relationship between Reic and
and Eightton.
Look, when we’re talking about how good Jake Laavia and DeAndre Aton can be, you can tell it’s not a great off season for the Lakers.
That’s 100% true. Another offseason that wasn’t that great. Golden State Warriors, Trey, this was your pick as a loser.
This was an easy one. The Warriors are literally one of two teams who haven’t done a single thing in the postseason. The Pacers are the other one and they kind of got caught off guard with a Tyresese Hallebertton injury and then Miles Turner deciding to go away. The only thing that the lake or the Warriors have done so far, they lost Kavon Looney to the Pelicans. I think more of an emotional loss than an onc court loss for Golden State and then they drafted Kobe Bray number 41. That’s it so far. They’re chasing Al Horford which would be a good fit for the Golden State Warriors. He can play both sides of the ball. He’s a stretch five, which they had success with Quinton Post last season. And Horford is a better player than Quinton Post, but he’s also somehow the only free agent that the Warriors could sign and get older.
Like, this is an ancient team. They’ve still got the Jonathan Kaminga question mark. No team is offering the deals that he wants. There’s basically no teams left for him that have cap space after the Nets did the Michael Porter Jr. deal. The Warriors don’t value Jonathan Kaminga. At least the coaching staff doesn’t. Maybe the front office cares about him a little bit more, but it seems like that might be setting itself up for yet another awkward season where Jonathan Kaminga comes back to the Warriors because there’s nowhere else for him to be and then he’s in trade rumors once again. He wants to be able to get the ball and do his own thing. They want him to play in a system and it doesn’t work out. You look at the Western Conference, OKC is the champs. They’re bringing everybody back. They’ll probably be as good or better next season with internal growth. Houston and Denver got better. Minnesota running it back. They did lose Nquille Alexander Walker, but everybody else is there and they’re betting on their young guys to take a step forward. I think Golden State is in the mix with both LA teams, the Clippers and the Lakers. They’re probably ahead, I would say, of Memphis, Dallas, San Antonio, and Sacramento. I mean, they do still have Curry a full season of Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, assuming those guys stay healthy. Still a good team, but it still feels like the Warriors are stuck in that. are we going to make the sixth seed or are we going to be the seventh seed in the playin tournament and that’s where they’ve been since they won the championship in 2022. So it just feels like the Warriors took a step forward getting Jimmy Butler. I thought they would be a little bit more active during the off season wanting to really go all in on the last couple of years of the Curry era and instead it feels like they’re just waiting around. Jimmy Butler fell into their laps at the trade deadline. He wanted to go to Phoenix. It didn’t happen. they had the pieces to make it make the trade a reality for Golden State. So maybe further down the line, Jannistompo is able finally decides he wants out of Milwaukee and Golden State is able to seize that opportunity. I suppose that could happen, but this feels a lot more like last summer when they were chasing after Paul George. They were chasing after Lowry Markin and nothing happened and then they had to make the trade for Jimmy Butler. worked out for him. But I think it’s just so like a real tightroppe walking act here for the Warriors where they’re like, “Oh, just wait. This star might come available and we might be the ones who are able to seize on the opportunity and trade for him.” As of now, the Warriors aren’t getting left behind in the Western Conference. Their big move was the Jimmy Butler move at the trade deadline, but the rest of the West is getting better and the Warriors are just getting older. Yeah. And here we have the Jonathan Kuminga thing that still hasn’t happened. It looks like that’s going to be a sign in trade. Now you may say, well, can they get somebody really good back for Jonathan Kuminga? You can only get half of what Kuminga will be paid back in that trade because of baseear compensation rules in the CBA. And our man John Hollinger pointed out because a lot of these deals have not happened quite yet, he could be dealt out and again some money will be available. Um, and it could be part of a whole other big thing where Malik Monk could be sent out from the Sacramento Kings if Jonathan Kuminga is sent there. It’s complicated, but maybe the Warriors can can somehow get their hands on somebody else, but it’s it looks like it’s just going to be Al Horford. Um,
I mean, Monk would be awesome. Monk would be Monk would be a great for them. He would be I mean, he would fit into the Jordan Pool role from the championship year where he can play alongside Curry when Curry’s on the court and then somebody can handle the ball and get some shots and create for others. Uh,
like you’re saying, pretty complicated for that to happen with Sacramento, but you know, you don’t put it past Sacramento. They’ll get anybody who can dribble the ball.
Yeah, it looks like as far as Hollinger puts it that Monk would get to Detroit and Kuminga would get to Sacramento. Warriors would have room to get Horford and that’s it. That being said,
I don’t like that as much as I mean Horford will be good for the Warriors and it definitely seems like that’s where he’s going to go, but man, that guy’s old too.
He is old. It is unfortunate on that end. They just they got old and we could see it in the playoffs when they played Minnesota. You got to play four playoff series to be an incredible team and that’s faking hard. So, we’ll see what happens there. All right, let’s move on to We just talked about Damen Lillard a little bit. We snuck him in with the Bucks. We’re wondering if they are a winner or actual loser. Let’s talk about Damen Lillard, the player. Where do you think he ends up signing and who should get who should go get him? It’s an interesting situation because Dame Willer is getting paid all of his money so he can basically choose here’s where I want to sign on whatever kind of deal. Like will he take a veteran minimum? Maybe. Will he
be on like a bannual exception? Who knows? But it kind of opens up the entire NBA I feel like for Damen Lillard to choose if he wants to sign this year for a year of rehab or if he just wants to take a gap year and then decide next summer. Uh, I suppose there are like a few different spots like Portland can offer him being home, you know, like that’s where his family is. He could rehab with the Blazers. He can tutor guys like Scoot Henderson, uh, Shaden Sharp. He can tutor Drew Holiday, you know, teach him all the different things about they can talk about their favorite things of Milwaukee, cheese curds, Mars, Cheese Castle, things of this nature. Golden State can offer him his childhood home growing up in Oakland. And then like it would be cool to have Damen Lillard as a potential playoff wild card. I don’t know how the timing would work out. And man, it’s a big ask for Dame Lillard to come back from an Achilles injury and suddenly you’re playing as Steph Curry’s backup and sometimes alongside Steph Curry. That’s kind of weird. Miami, they got a great training staff. They’ve been after Lillard for quite some time. Uh they’re very close to Balco as well. So if he wants to get a legal with it, maybe that helps out Damen Lillard and the Heat. But my favorite spot for Lillard is Boston. I think they’re already taking a gap year this next coming season. They would be able to let Jason Tatum and Damen Lillard rehab their Achilles injuries together. They just traded Drew Holiday. So, there is an opening at the point guard spot for the 26 27 season when Lillard comes back healthy. And, you know, we don’t know what he’s going to look like as a player because he has taken a little bit of a step back kind of starting with his core muscle injuries with the Blazers. still all-star with the Bucks and coming back from an Achilles injury. At the very least, Lillard is going to be able to shoot. They would be able to cover for him defensively
with Derek White as a perimeter defender. The downside is he’s on the complete other side of the country and it feels like he’s trying to get back towards the West Coast. But from like a basketball getting healthy and then having a chance at a ring going forward, Boston might be the best bet for Damen Lillard.
I do agree. Boston is where they should go. The timeline just works out so well. Damian Lillard is not going to play next year or if he does towards the end of next season, he’s not going to be anywhere close to himself. So come back in 2627 when
his man Jason Tatum, the guy right beside him will be coming back at the exact same time. I think the timeline works out so well. They will be ready to be a championship contender in 2627. Those two guys and Jaylen Brown and everyone around them makes so much sense. I think the role works extremely well because Tatum and Brown are your one two type of guys and Lillard will be 36 at that point. It just it makes so much more sense.
Is this a time in Damian Lillard’s career where he will be able to accept that? I don’t know. Yeah. Where he would take such a step back, but after the surgery, after the injury, maybe maybe that’s a chance. And the finances work as you said, they don’t have to pay him a ton. They could literally pay him a minimum uh to go along with his 22 mil that he’s making per year.
No, actually I take that back. So he was signed for 50 plus million for the next two seasons. He gets paid that, right?
He gets his whole contract. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So So it’s not like what the Milwaukee Bucks are doing where they pay 22 per year in terms of they don’t pay it, but that’s what counts against the cap. 22 per year. Dame Lillard gets the money up front. I’m just trying to think as uh Damen Lillard’s financial advisor. We want to get money right here up now up front. But if he gets it up front, then all good. He can take whatever he wants as a supplementary income. So I think Boston just makes the most sense and he can finally get to a point where he can win a championship again.
Two years from now, if Tatum is back and Jaylen Brown is still there, which I assume he will still be there, they could be a championship team. They could be a team that’s a contender. So, I think that’s the best one of all of them because the Warriors, as we’ve talked about, they’re older and we’re going to add Damen Lillard two years from now essentially. That’s
that’s that’s beyond ancient. This this one makes the most sense to me.
Yeah. Be interesting to see. And it’ll be interesting to see how soon it gets done because I mean, there’s really no rush for Lillard right now. He could sign it anytime. So,
cool.
All right. Stay in the East here is something that happened over the weekend. We got to get to it. Um, over the weekend. When did it happen? Why am I saying over the weekend? yesterday.
Yeah. All these days blend together. Uh Mike Brown has been named head coach of the New York Knicks. What do you think, Trey?
Yeah.
Yes, he was. Uh look, Mike Brown has coached a lot of great players. He was LeBron’s coach. He was Kobe’s coach. He was an assistant coach with Steph Curry. He got to coach Demar De Rozan and Zack Lavine. What a lucky guy. Uh always good for a funny press conference per season when he gets really heated uh at the referees. So, I think the spotlight in New York will get us at least two funny press conferences for Mike Brown. I just don’t really know what to expect from him because to me, Mike Brown is a defense first coach. But that’s only because my first impression of him was from those LeBron teams where I was like, LeBron, you’re our offense. We’re building a perfect defense around you. Can you get us to the promised land? They came up short. But then in Sacramento after his tenure winning championships with the Warriors, he learned from Steve Kerr and the offense. Built them up as an offense first team, never really able to get things going defensively uh in Sacramento. So, I don’t necessarily know which side he favors. But if the Knicks are thinking he favors the offense, I think that’s good for New York because that to me is where they can take the biggest step forward. They were a good offense last year. At times they were a great offense. I just think it’s going to be hard to build a good defense with Jaylen Brunson as the starting point guard and Carl Anthony Towns as the starting center. Just not the personnel to build up uh on that side of the ball. So, you need to really outscore teams on the other end. And I think Mike Brown was pretty creative offensively with Sacramento and was flexible to become an offense coach and build a team around dribble handoffs. And at the time, dear Fox’s speed, right? like he did a good job in Sacramento until
he ran out of time. So, I wasn’t like super enthused about the Knicks getting Mike Brown. Like he doesn’t seem like a serious upgrade to me over Tom Thibido. The point or the goal right now for the Knicks is to make it to the finals to win the championship. They just made it back to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years and said, “You’re out of here, Tom. That’s not good enough.” There’s an opportunity in the Eastern Conference for a team to be a surprised team in the East. Right now, it kind of feels like if you can beat the Cavs, you can make it to the NBA Finals. I think the Knicks have a chance against the Cavs. I don’t think that Mike Brown hurts them in any way, but I don’t necessarily know that this is a huge needle moving move for New York to go from Tibs to Mike.
Yeah. In in the New York City media, is Mike Brown going to be the guy that gets all the headlines? No, and we’ll get to other tiny little signings in the NBA in a second, but I think this kind of is classified as that because it’s Mike Brown. But that being said, as far as the basketball goes, I think the Knicks want a few things from their head coach. They want everybody to touch the ball more offensively first and foremost. They don’t want it just going through Jaylen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns. And I think Mike Brown,
as you said with the Golden State Warriors where Curry was running off the ball, he has been part of those offenses. And and I think that’s a definitely a great great positive thing that you can look at Mike Brown and say just do that. Just don’t have Jaylen bring up the ball as much. And and I will say Jaylen took fewer shots this year and there were a times in the playoffs where he was running off the ball more and things were run uh by through other guys, but it was too little too late. I mean that should have happened the entire season. I think that’s what the coaches or excuse me the front office is looking for. They also want more players to play basketball. I Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They want uh players to player fewer minutes amongst their starters. We heard Mikuel Bridges say the the bench guys are we’re all dying here. They should be playing more. I mean, I’m paraphrasing, but you know, he wanted to quote back off a bit on the starters minutes because the bench deserves more. And you saw the starters go into the postseason and they weren’t great in terms of plus minus per 100 possessions. They got worse. And so guy more guys have to play and I think Mike Brown will finally do that. And also I mean they they want their defense adjustment of stop playing cat at the five. I I think that’s going to be done a little bit more through Mike Brown. I think now that they’ve signed Gershon Yabuselli, it seems like a teeny tiny signing, but I think we’ll see him and Mitchell Robinson at the five more, especially because Gershon Yabiselli specifically over Mitchell Robinson is a three-point shooter. So, it’s a it’s a modern type offense where things can be moved around, the ball can move be moved around. Um, and that just has to happen. So, I’m excited to see what Mike Brown can do uh for the New York Knicks. again kind of uh a few days into free agency, not the biggest of names, so maybe not the most headlines. Um, consider considering it was Jason Kid first and other guys, but I think it definitely could work and he could get the respect and I think he will be good in New York taking a lot of the pressure off of the players as well. Like he’ll he’ll be good in press conferences, he’ll talk, he’ll he’s funny.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More so the funny
theatrical as well. Yes. All right. and he’s I think he’s probably a little bit more creative offensively uh than Thibido is. So, we’ll see. I mean, there’s still three guys in the top 25 in minutes per game this season from the Kings. So, he plays his guys a lot, but Yaboselli helps. I think Jordan Clarkson uh will help as well. And then we saw like Shamut was okay in the playoffs. Campaign was okay in the playoffs. You just got to play those guys a little bit. So, you don’t have to play the starters 37 minutes a night. Okay, we’ll get to some rapid fire find fun soon, but uh we’ve got some minor deals to talk about.
Let’s start with Duncan Robinson going to the Detroit Pistons. Three years for 48. Now, there might be a signing trade or whatever, but anyways, Duncan Robinson’s on the Detroit Pistons. Kind of came out of nowhere.
Yeah, kind of came out of nowhere. He’s definitely the beneficiary of Malik Beasley being in debt with everybody uh and being under investigation because I didn’t necessarily see a $16 million per year contract out there for Duncan Robinson when he turned down he had a player option right with the Miami Heat for I think 19 million and it was just kind of assumed okay they’re going to work out a longer deal for him he’ll make up his money uh that way but
once the Beasley thing opened up in Detroit I think a decent replacement. Uh I don’t know. I don’t know who I think is better as a defender, Duncan Robinson or Malik Beasley, but uh at least an equivalent shooter. I think Duncan Robinson. He shoots a ton. Like he gets uh like 10 three-pointers up per 36 minutes, so he’s going to shoot it every time he can. He’s a little bit older uh than Beasley as well. And I suppose there’s a chance he starts in Detroit because they’ll start Cade Cunningham, they’ll start Duran, they’ll start Tobias Harris. I think the other three are question marks. I assume Ivy will be a starter uh when he comes back. And you would like to get some shooting on the court.
That’s why I think Harris is going to start. He’s a three-point shooter. Ivy’s not necessarily a reliable three-point shooter. So maybe you need that guy chucking at the three spot uh between him and Assar Thompson. SR obviously is the long-term play, but maybe Duncan Robinson starts. So,
they kind of turned uh Shruder and Beasley into Caris Levert and Duncan Robinson.
I don’t know if it’s better. I don’t know if it’s worse, but he’s not under investigation with the federal government. So, this is a win for the Pistons. I think
I laugh at that, but it ain’t that funny. It seems like that scenario is getting worse and worse and worse. Not as far as the NBA betting, but as the Michael Beasley story, Michael Beasley again, he’s Michael Beasley. Malik Beasley story off the floor over the last year, aside from basketball betting, has has gotten more and more unfortunate. We’ll say the Detroit News obtained public record records that show that Beasley had part of his Pistons paychecks seized um because he had debts mounted to a celebrity barber, a dentist, a landlord, a lender, and a marketing firm. He he was sued by a landlord twice according to the Detroit News. So reading that just, you know, obviously the unfortunate things seem to add up. He was released by the Minnesota Timberwolves or once upon a time not signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves in part because of offc court issues according to John Krinski. So we don’t have any evidence that Malik Beasley did anything as far as NBA betting. But reading that on the Detroit News from Robert Snell uh and hearing all the other offc court scenario type of stuff makes you think that Duncan Robinson’s replacing Malik Beasley
pretty much. Yes.
Uh so Duncan Robinson will he be able to create more space for Cade Cunningham? You know, in part I I think that is true. Obviously, Malik Beasel was a great shooter, too. But Duncan is going to do the same thing. I think he’s going to be faceguarded by defenses a lot when he gets out on the floor to give a little bit more room to Cade. But will we see the Duncan that drives at times cuz he can do that at times? He showed that he can put on the floor. Is is he gonna be able to do that all the time? Is he gonna be able to defend? That’s that’s a good question. So, you’re right about Caris Levert and Duncan Robinson replacing now uh Beasley here in Shruder. It’s a big It’s a big I don’t know.
Yeah, probably lateral. Yeah, it’s probably lateral. So, let’s move on to that guy I just mentioned, Dennis Shruder. He’s going to Sacramento. Could be part of a signing trade again, but it’s three years $45 million for Dennis Shruder. Three seasons. What do you think? Kings need a point guard, but this is not the guy that I necessarily would have targeted for the Kings. I think they would have been happier with a Tyus Jones strictly ball mover, three-point shooting type of point guard rather than Shruder who is a good creator, good with the ball in his hands, good scorer for sure, and usually helps bad teams. Like Dennis Shruder, if he’s your point guard and you’re a team that’s like on the comeup, that’s the best. It didn’t work out with the Warriors. Uh there was some times with the Lakers where it worked, but he’s definitely a let’s raise our floor kind of player.
Uh I think but he’s just gonna take away touches from D Rozan, from Lavine, all of whom are already taking touches away from Damont Sabonis. So I just wonder if this is kind of like yet another nail in the coffin of Damont Sabonis’ time uh in Sacramento. It seemed like he was unhappy at the end of the season. It seemed like he was unhappy at times after the Lavine trade as well. I just the Kings had a great spark when they were lighting the beam. Went to game seven against the Golden State Warriors and since then things have gone pretty poorly for them. I’m not a big fan of this signing.
No.
For Sacramento.
Me neither. Yeah. After lighting the beam, we had obviously Darren Fox wanting out, getting out and getting more players that definitely need to touch the ball. And now Dennis Shruder is is another step in that direction. Three years at 45. It’s It’s puzzling how long that they signed Endur for. He hasn’t been on a on the same team for two consecutive years since he was with OKC in 2018 to 2020. That’s a long time ago. He just kept bouncing around teams since then.
He’s now going to be on 10 teams. This is his 10th NBA team. And the guy can obviously ball and he helped Germany win a gold medal and he helped our man Gourd, the Canadian coach, win a gold, but it’s it’s these little doses. It comes in these little spurts that make it ideal and that’s why he kept bouncing around the league. And three seasons sounds like a lot. And you’re right about the Damont Sabonis drama. Um because if Shruder is going to handle the ball and want to score and want to touch it a lot and it’s going to go through him, he’s going to want to shoot. Plus Demar, plus Zack, plus Deonus who the ball should be going through. It just feels like it’s doesn’t seem like a good recipe in this Western Conference. Just doesn’t
No. And they’re after Kaminga as well. Like that’s another guy who wants to handle the ball.
Yeah. Yep.
Weird.
Yeah. Very odd. Um, another odd one, the Toronto Raptors signing Yakob Purle to a big extension. He didn’t pick up. Uh, well, anyways, it all comes down to player option, all that. It all comes down to four years for $104 million for Yakob Hurle over the next four seasons. Trey, seems like a lot for YaKob. What do you think? Seems like a lot for YaKob. 30 when the season starts. He’s basically making Nasreed, Miles Turner money. I think you would probably rank both of those guys ahead of Yakob Purle. Although Purle is a good starting center, this is kind of the market rate for a starting center. This just seems like an expensive team. The Raptors are getting pretty pricey here for a team that a we haven’t seen play together hardly any games. They haven’t had Brandon Ingram on the court yet. That guy’s coming this season. But I’m talking even like the Barrett, Barnes, Quickly, Purle
part of the Raptors team hasn’t played together. And they might just be like a playin team. So, I don’t they can’t really Were they gonna let Purle walk? You know, like I guess they could have done his deal for his player option this next season and then address it in the summertime. They want to get the deal done now. That’s just the way the Raptors have tended to operate as like we pay our guys and then figure it out later. I don’t think this is going to kill them. But it’s also like okay, $100 million 25 mil per season for Yaka Purle.
Mhm. Yeah. Not to have the freedom to do it elsewhere now. Yeah, in a vacuum it’s fine. You look at even Quickley’s contract in a vacuum. Okay, it could work out. Same with RJ Barrett. Okay, it could work out. Brandon Ingram, yeah, maybe Scotty Barnes. Yeah, maybe. There’s just so many variables there. It’s like when you go see a a solar eclipse, okay, you you want you want a fullon eclipse that passes by perfectly where it’s dark out there. But that is it’s not the best analogy here. But all of those things have to happen at the exact same time.
You have to be in the path of totality.
Yeah, the path of totality. You don’t want a partial eclipse.
Uhuh. It’s not the same.
No, it ain’t. It ain’t that fun. You want it to be dark out there. And I don’t know if Purle, Barnes, Quickley, Ingra, Barrett, all those guys getting paid a ton uh is going to make it a fullon total eclipse. It just feels like it’s just going to be a partial like maybe maybe you’ll get one good game that’s a total eclipse where everything works together. But how many how many good months are you going to get out of these guys? We just haven’t seen it the last couple years. Now, part of that is of course it’s injuries. Uh, but who’s who is leading this team? What’s the identity of this team? It just remains a question. I I don’t know. Scotty Scotty needs to have another guy as far as Cardi Barnes goes. That that’s the ultimate talent ceiling. It feels like on this team that that’s the guy who could be the guy, but it feels like he needs another great player around him. So, is Brandon Ingram going to turn into that guy? It’s possible. It doesn’t feel like it’s Quickly. It doesn’t feel like it’s Barrett. It doesn’t feel like it’s Purle. Um, so we’re here at one of these teams. I don’t know if we’re if the Toronto Raptors are the eternal like Chicago Bulls where this is going to be like, okay, this is who we got for a playing team for the next three years. Maybe. That could be.
It might be.
It might be.
Yeah, I guess we’ll see what Ingram has left in the tank. He just We haven’t seen him on the court hardly at all this past season and then had the longest ankle sprain of all time uh for the Raptors. But
this is just how the Raptors
do things, you know? They make a trade. They’re not. They’re worried about their free agency standing. So, they do their free agency via trades and then pay the guys after they need to and that means you got to pay the guys uh eventually, but then it ends up you’re paying, you know, quickly $35 million a season. That one’s looking crazy right now.
Yeah, that one was unfortunate. He got hurt in game one. Why was Darius Garland under him for that rebound? That that that hurt. Yeah, but we haven’t se we haven’t seen that. But yes, that one does not look all that great. And you’re right, that’s what the Toronto Raptors do. That’s what Messiahi did until he was let go this past week. Bobby Webster is doing the same thing. And and I suppose Rogers is saying we want this this just this the comfort level here, the stability of not paying a ton like the again the vacuum of Yaka Purle at that much. It ain’t that bad. I think I can play on both ends, but you know, like your vouch in Chicago, he’s not not moving a needle. Exactly. It’s uh it is very similar to the Bulls in that like the Bulls for the past three seasons have every year been a joke around the league and everybody’s like, they’re only going to make the playin tournament. And then trade deadlines and transaction cycles like free agency come up and they’re like, oo, somebody could go and get Lonzo Ball. Somebody could go and get Vu. Guys that like look good on a contending team, look helpful there. But you throw them all together and it’s like, wait a second, we got the fourth best guy on every team and now that’s our best guy on every team. So, uh, it is unusual unusual, but Purle’s cool, you know, and a team will be interested in him eventually if they decide to move off him, uh, I suppose, and then they could just trade back for him again.
Yeah, listen, as a Toner there fan, there’s good days. And I say, well, I can’t wait to see Scotty Barnes playing. I can’t wait to see Emanuel Quickley playing. I can’t wait to see Brandon Ingram playing. I just mentioned three guys specifically um Ingram and Emanuel Quickley that may not be playing sometimes and so that’s the the the question are these guys going to play and if they can’t play they can’t get to this next level of being a number one number two guy. So, all that to be said, they did make a fun move as far as a backup center goes. Mamu.
Mamu. Sandro Mamu. Kell Vi is your backup center.
That’s exciting. Is it?
Yeah.
Yeah. You’re excited. I believe you. Yeah.
Cheap cheap guy.
I was texting all of my Toronto friends back. Did you hear mom’s coming to the Raptors? Yeah, I did. I did some texting.
Yeah, sure.
The guy can shoot. So, he’s going to space the floor. 20 points in 19 minutes or whatever he did last year once upon a time. Yeah.
30 points. 34 in 19 minutes. He had something crazy like that, right? And then he like was hanging out with Flavor Flave afterwards. Yeah, that’s exciting.
Yeah. Flavor Flave is his buddy with the Spurs. Um so that’s great if you look at it in a vacuum, this tiny little contract. Uh
it’s a good move.
Yep.
So that’s a positive.
Batman, you can’t get upset about that.
No, you can’t get upset about that. Uh we have a a couple deals that we mentioned a little bit earlier. Gary Harris to the Bucks. Vasameich might be on the Bucks. He was part of the deal to get Pat Conetan to Charlotte, which saved them a little bit of money to get Vasameich back. And so in turn, they could do the Miles Turner signing after the Damen Lillard thing happened. So any anything to say about Gary Harris? Back to the Bucks. No, Gary Harris to the Bucks. Definitely to the Bucks. Me kind of to the box, might not be there. Nothing to say about him.
Gary Harris is a guy that I always thought was going to be good,
right?
And he hasn’t ever been good, but he’s been okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, he’s fine off the bench.
Uh Josh Min to the Celtics.
Okay. From the Grizzlies.
May not.
He’s a Timberwolf, I thought.
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, Grizzlies. Yeah. Why would I say the Grizzlies? Yeah, the Minot on this Wolves. He did play some um and the Celtics seem to be grabbing guys like Luca Garza uh and now a Josh Minut that like we’re sort of saying with the Raptors in other way some good minutes but are they going to contribute here to the Boston Celtics?
He might not have an opportunity with the Timberwolves but he might be able to get on the court for the Celtics uh this season. Same with Luca Garza. There’s just players ahead of them uh for the Timberwolves. So I don’t think these are needlemoving moves for the Celtics. They are in cost cutting mode, but who knows? It’s worth taking a gamble on young guys who are athletic.
And and our last one here that we’re going to mention, the the biggest contracts of them all, Trey man to the Hornets for three years and 24 million. Biggest contract and also best minutes last year before he got injured. There was some talk that he could be six man of the year a little bit because he was good. Uh and so they’re guard heavy. Very guard heavy.
Yeah.
They signed Spencer Denwitty as well.
Yeah. So, LaMelo, they traded for Colin Ston. They’ve got uh Trey Man coming back from injury and then Spencer Denwitty as well. It seems to me that the Hornets said, “Our team is not going to go in to the toilet when LaMelo Ball gets injured. They got to have somebody as a backup point guard or at least a ball handler.” So, Trey, man, he was fun to watch during the preseason. He was wearing his long shorts. He’s kind of got an Allen Iverson fetish. Uh he’s he puts up some cool highlights. Uh, so yeah, to get him back for basically the same deal as like Ty Jerome seems like a lot of money now when I say it like that. Ty Jerome at least has a bit of a track record. Uh, but yeah, whatever. Yeah,
Trey man
an in
French it would be very man. Uh, my favorite bargain bin guy that’s been signed so far, uh, Trendan Watford going to the Sixers two years minimum deal. He’s only 25 years old. The guy was getting buckets for the Brooklyn Nets uh, last season. So, similar sort of deal in uh Philadelphia, like he’s young. Maybe he could be something. They had some success with Justin Edwards uh as a random fine last year. And then still no Josh Giddy deal. Uh-uh.
Yeah, we’ve made it through a whole week and the Bulls haven’t overpaid him. So, I’m happy so far. Every minute I’m happier and happier. Four for 100. Think he says yes. There’s no deal out there for him right now.
Yeah, I would I would think he would say yes. I am not his agent, so I don’t know the what he’s being offered, but if you’re the only one offering him something, then
yeah, you got to take it.
Yeah, got to.
All right. Um, we’ll get to any other deals, including Josh Giddy on Monday. We’ll be back uh July 7th. Our mans will be back as well, so we’ll do that then. But for now, let’s get into a little rapid fire fun. I had a surprise banger tweet this week. I tweeted, “The Bucks now have 100% of NBA Garry’s.” and it got over a million views on Twitter, even though it was incorrect because Gary Payton II, he’s still out there. He doesn’t have a team yet, but nobody cares. People just love Gary. So, my question to you guys, who is your all-time favorite Gary? Well, here’s another guy that’s not uh officially a Gary, but to me, he’s a Gary. Gary Bird. That’s Gary Garrison Matthews. That’s his nickname. That’s his official nickname. It’s his basketball reference nickname. And I will just say a guy who gets a nickname like that, you know, related to Larry Bird with not having an himself not having an incredible NBA career, that’s a great accomplishment to me.
That is good.
Yeah. I People here people here in Atlanta um who are Gary Garrison Matthews stands uh were saying we’re saying when when Luke Canard was signed, they said, “Oh, come on. We already got Garrison Matthews. What do you want?” Listen, Lukard’s a far better player, but there’s some Gary Bird fans out there, and I’m one of them. Gary Bird. Larry Bird is a career 37% three-point shooter. Gary Bird is a career 38% three-point shooter.
Tells you everything you need to know.
JD, you got a favorite Gary?
Oh, so many Garry’s. Who to choose? There’s uh Tass’s drunk alter ego Gary. He’s probably my favorite Gary, let’s be honest. But uh I love Spongebob’s Gary, the snail. Oh yeah.
It’s more about Spongebob saying the name Gary. Gary, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
There’s Gary Oldman. He’s actually probably my favorite. Great Gary.
You know, slow horses. The guy, he can do no wrong.
Uh, it put me down for Gary Larson.
Far side.
Farside Gary Larson.
Great Gary. There’s a lot of good Garry’s out there. There’s a lot of great Garry’s.
Yeah. Trey.
Gary Oldman was on my list uh for sure, but I’m going Gary Senise. Oh, he was on my list.
Yeah. I don’t know why I was thinking about Forest Gump recently, but then I was like, man, it’s pretty crazy that his name is Gary Cise and the guy is always playing very sinister characters. He was just made for it. Forest Gump, Paulo 13, Quick of the Dead, Snake Eyes. Gary Cise, great ‘9s actor. Oh, he was a he was a CSI guy for a while, right?
He definitely is on one of those CSI shows. I don’t know which city he’s investigating.
Same. Gary Senise, let us know your favorite Garry’s in the chat. While explaining how the Bucks came to wave, Damen Lillard, our main man Mark Spears, said on ESPN that, quote, “The Bucks have some amazing super nerds in their computer room.” Guys, what’s the most amazing super nerd thing about you,
man? I’m just going to I’m just going to fullon brag here. Uh this past this past week, the no dunks business world had some paperwork to do and I was told you should go get a lawyer. Uh and that’s totally true. I should have got an attorney,
but I wasn’t going to do it. Uh I sat in front of my computer. I thought I can do this now. It wasn’t fun, but I did it. And uh I thought of it as an accomplishment for myself. It It’s not fun reading all this legal ease and just like having to go through all of that stuff, but I did and it was fun. And that’s it. That’s the end of my sentence.
Wait, it was actually fun. You had fun.
Yeah.
You felt like you learned?
Yeah. When I got up from that computer after 16 hours of reading all these freaking words, uh, yeah, it felt it felt like I did something. Like it was an accomplishment. Did I do it perfectly? God, no.
Uh, that’s good to hear. Good to know. Did I have to do it multiple times? Yeah. Yeah. Well, afterward the show, I’ll tell you how much I screwed up and Okay.
How what we’re all going to have to pay for. No, I’m kidding. Uh, but anyways, that’s it.
Nice.
Super nerd time.
Business nerd. That’s a It’s an important skill to have.
I guess it is. One of us four needs it
indeed.
Uh, yeah. I’m not a smart man.
So, the most nerdy thing about me is my glasses. It’s like a Clark Kent disguise. You know, you know what I mean? Like I went for the biggest, thickest I could find
just to trick people. You’re
right.
Do you think it’s worked?
Yeah. No, I don’t think so. Because when I open my mouth, people realize, “Oh, that guy’s an idiot.”
But you think the glasses maybe confuse them at first?
Yeah, I think so. I think so. You know, it’s like that guy probably knows what he’s talking about. But really, it’s just I can’t see very well. I have no fashion sense. So, yeah. Yeah. with my glasses. That’s the most nerdiest thing about me.
I think your glasses are awesome. Doesn’t it say like uh right and left on the top of them? Yes. And uh port and starboard and one of them. And uh Yeah.
Yeah. Cool.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Not nerdy. Cool to for me most amazing super nerd thing right now is I’ve started reading large print books.
Wow. You need a pair of these, Trey.
Maybe I do. Funny thing about me, I don’t have any sort of uh vision enhancement. Just pure just pure eyeballs here. But sometimes it’s hard to get a book from the library, like if it’s this uh a popular book. I’ve been trying to read um Demon Copperhead for like a year and it was never available. But then I was like on the website and I looked it up and they had the large print edition
available. So I, you know, put in my hold for it. It came and it is so thick. It’s like 900 pages long and it looks like a a phone book how thick it is. Yeah.
So, I feel like a big time nerd pulling up to the pool and big out pulling out the biggest possible book, flipping the pages. But I read so fast now.
It’s like I can read 20 pages in 5 minutes. It feels like cuz there’s like maybe two paragraphs on the whole page. You must feel great.
Oh yeah. You feel super accomplished pulling out a doors stop. Uh but then like it looks ridiculous how big this thing is.
Yeah. But you only get through like 1% a day, you know, depending on how much percentages are not good.
Yeah. Yeah. You got to read a 100 pages for it to really matter.
I’m sure you read more than that. I’m just saying about I I’m projecting myself who doesn’t read enough. I’m like, “Oh, 1%. That’s all I read.” Gosh.
Well, sometime I mean, you know, sometimes I only have a chance to read one chapter, right? And then it does feel like 1%. It’s like four pages. Yeah. Four pages. Not good.
All right. Got ourselves a big barbecue day tomorrow, boys. It’s the 4th of July. So, tell me, what is the best side you can get at a barbecue?
For me, it’s those baked beans. I hope they’re around. And listen, I know it’s not ideal for everybody who might be at a barbecue that wants to stand and eat because, you know, you don’t want to be scooping beans.
Um, but they’re just so good. You know, they’re they’re they’re sweet. They’re I hopefully they’re warm because they’re baked beans. Um they’re just they’re just they they hit every spot for me. It’s a baked bean.
Yeah. I wasn’t sure if we were talking about barbecue side, like barbecue sides or like we’re at a cookout, you know? Yeah. More of a cookout side, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Just give me a work a day potato salad. You know what I’m saying? We’re out in the sun.
Got a couple of beers in me.
You want a hot salad? Hot potato salad.
Yeah. Warm. I don’t care. Yeah, it’s been sitting in the sun. It’s covered in flies. Shwe them away. Delicious.
But like, you know, if it’s made right, it’s great.
Yeah, that’s the thing.
Yeah. I mean, that is the thing. It’s hard to make good potato salad. I’m with you.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I think those are both good. I’m adding both of those to my plate as well. Potato salad and baked beans. I think like the greatest uh cookout side is grilled corn, but the one I’m most excited to see right now, pasta salad.
Wow. Interesting.
Yeah. I just I don’t know why. I just love a pasta salad. I prefer it cold, but it’s like you can eat a pasta salad next to a pool.
Yeah. Yeah. True.
I happened to be eating pasta with cheese in it yesterday and it felt like a pasta salad and I was excited and it was like cooked I don’t know 6 hours prior. It was a warm pasta, but it had been sitting there on our counter for like 6 hours and I just hammered it. I started eating it. It was so good.
Yeah. If you leave it alone long enough, any pasta turns into pasta salad.
Yeah. Well, at what point what’s the temperature threshold that it becomes salad? And then you’re just eating pasta. You know what I’m saying? Like how warm or cold does it have to get to cross that threshold,
right? Yeah. Yeah. While I was eating it, I didn’t know what to call it because it was just room temp,
right? I mean, is it is this
cold pasta or warm pasta?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don’t know what the threshold is.
If the feta cheese is kind of melty, that’s pasta to me.
Yeah,
you’re right. If there’s any sort of melt to it, it’s pasta.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good way. Totally agree.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
All right.
Looking forward to eating sides. I actually have a huge thing of pasta salad in my fridge right now. I made it last night.
Oh, you made it. Mhm. Allison Roman’s recipe. Sundried tomatoes are the secret ingredient. Didn’t need to spoil it. When was that? You don’t like sundried tomatoes?
I’m not a fan.
Yeah.
Give me a fresh tomato in there. That’s fine. There’s
also fresh tomatoes in there.
Oh, there you go.
Quite jammy. But I had to cook it. How about that? I cooked down the tomatoes.
Cooked them with this sundried tomatoes and then added it to the pasta and let it cool. Okay.
So, I cooked it. Is it pasta or is it pasta salad? Who knows?
Yeah. Well, I think Allison is on to something. You know, you need something in a pasta salad that makes it a little stand out a little bit that you’re not just eating freaking pasta. So cool. Uh that was fun. We’ll be back on Monday to talk probably some more things that have happened because there are going to be lots of deals that officially VidCom deals on Sunday, July 6th. Our man SKS will be back. And just a reminder, we’ll be in Vegas.
Yeah. July 11th live show. So come on by. We’re leaving a week today.
We’re leaving a week today.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Crazy.
Cooper flag Bronnie James one week from today. You excited?
We’ll be there, baby. Hopefully.
Yeah, we will. Well, we’ll be there.
I don’t know what time our flight lands.
It’s going to be a packed
I haven’t thought about it, actually.
It’s going to be a packed house as long as Oh, yeah.
our credentials are approved. We can always buy tickets, I suppose. What? That’s what I I’m not 100% sure they’ll be available
night one cuz this is a
a new thing that Summer League is doing. bumping it a day before pro like they were bumping it earlier to the Thursday. Although it’s probably going to be one of those scenarios that there’s tickets available cuz everybody will be playing, but I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe I was I was just wondering if it is just a double header. I don’t know.
Probably. Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. Looking forward to that. We’ll see you back on Monday, everybody. But for now, Clipper Bros.
You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.
Thanks for joining us. Remember there’s a Wikipedia page all about guys named Gary. So if you want to do some research, get in there. Gary Fensick. Forgot about that guy. Highranking Gary for me. Gary Fenick, too.
Football player. I just think he’s a Chicago Bear when I was young.
Oh, I got nothing on Gary.
I know. Gary Fensick.
Fensick.
Yeah, he won a championship with the Bears.
He’s part of the shuffling crew.
Oh.
Mhm. Legend.
Two guys named Gary Green. No, there was like eight guys named Gary Green. popular name.
We’ll see you Monday, folks.
On Thu.’s No Dunks, the guys discuss NBA free agency winners and losers, the Denver Nuggets finally adding a competent backup center, Deandre Ayton joining the Lakers, potential Damian Lillard landing spots, and the New York Knicks expecting to hire Mike Brown as head coach. That, plus other smaller moves (Duncan Robinson to the Pistons, Dennis Schroder to the Kings, Jakob Poeltl staying with the Raptors), our favorite Garys, super nerds, and best BBQ sides.
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0:00 Classic loading
0:15 Cold Open
0:28 Show starts
2:44 Free Agency Winner: Houston Rockets
9:12 Free Agency Winner: Denver Nuggets (Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr.)
16:43 Free Agency Winner: Memphis Grizzlies
22:41 Are Milwaukee Bucks free agency winner or loser?
28:28 Free Agency Loser: Los Angeles Lakers (LaRavia, Ayton)
36:21 Free Agency Loser: Golden State Warriors
41:38 What team should sign Damian Lillard?
46:24 Knicks hire Mike Brown as head coach
52:08 Duncan Robinson agrees to 3-year, $48M contract with Pistons
55:55 Dennis Schroder signing 3-year, $45M deal with Kings
58:49 Jakob Poeltl reaches 4-year, $104M extension with Raptor
1:04:17 Other smaller signings (Mamukelashvili, Garry Harris, Micic, Minnott, Tre Mann)
1:08:45 Rapid Fire
#NBA #NBAFreeAgency #DamianLillard
40 Comments
Talk about what big man the Celtics need
I think Dame he will be in GSW #NoDunks
Rockets have a great mix of young and old. Playoff tested and definitely deep. Like you all said need a back up pg. They have plenty flexibility for another trade. Hopefully they gel on a quick timeline. Nothing guaranteed and KD has pa lot to prove. I'm really excited about the west. Not so much about the east besides it being wide open. Knicks have to be favored I would think. Hawks are right there. My 76ers who knows. The big IF is health. If they are they definitely have a good shot of really competing but In not getting my hopes up too high. In 60 yo and have been burned way too many times by this organization.
That's why the Rockets have three centers. Throw everything at Joker.
If Dame ends up being paid by the Bucks to knock them out of the play-in with a team like the Heat you'll hear me laughing from across the Atlantic.
I’m excited to hear Matt Devlin say “Mamukelashvili from downtown” on the Raptors broadcast
How long will you guys be in Vegas for summer league after the show? My dad and I will be down there towards the end of
I think the Rockets loaded up a little too much in the frontcourt at the expense of the backcourt. Maybe they can trade for one of Charlotte's 7,000,000 guards if they need more shooting.
Miami Heat legend Gary Grant was one of my favorite NBA Garys not named Gary Payton
Boston is a great option for Dame. Marc Spears mentioned Minnesota as the #1 destination for Dame.
Given Boston's tear down of their roster I could see Minnesota being a better option given the defense they have on the team and their need for a PG.
Not to diss Skeets, he did well, but I think your recent thumbnails look better than ever. I doubt you guys photoshop new team jerseys on these guys, but still, very good cropping skills.
No love for the Spurs signing Kornet?
Jonas Valanciunas is literally the best backup big Jokic has ever had. Maybe Denver won't have the worst offense of all time when Jokic sits now?
That said, I do think the defensive upgrade of Johnson over Porter is a bit overstated. Porter's defense was absolutely critical to the Nuggets winning a title. I don't think he got enough credit for that. I would say that Johnson's defense is more consistent than Porter's, but his defensive peaks are not necessarily better. He's probably overrated on that end.
We looooooooove free agency!
2 years, 3 months and 24 days of being sad about the chances of a No Scoobs disc golf podcast 🙁
Poeltl picked up his player option for the 26/27 season so he's only making 19.5 mil per season over the next two years then an AAV of 28 mil over the following three seasons. Makes it sound a lot better than just 4/104 IMO.
Every free agency makes me more and more confident that a monkey with a dart board would be a better GM than some of these jokers.
The Bucks are in a situation where both the team and Giannis should be recognizing that they're dead. They weren't a contender WITH Dame, now they're worse, and they're operating at a financial disadvantage to every other contender. So how could it be good for them to (almost literally) mortgage their future to mitigate how bad they are right now? Every time they do something desperate to appease Giannis it results in a month-long honeymoon period and then everyone realizes that everything is worse. If this were a marriage even the kids would be realizing that there needs to be a divorce.
People keep saying denver took okc to 7 because of blah blah blah but fail to realize they got blown out in 2 games, barely won the games they did and Jdub had a wrist injury lol. Also stop saying Jokic is the best in the world. It's Shai.
Only admiration for LeBron, but at this stage of his career I wish he took a paycut by like half so the Lakers have some leeway to grab some more FAs.
I got a Homer pick for favorite Gary… my dad, Gary
Hawks aren't a winner?!?!?!
Warriors biggest losers. Watch horford retire and they trade JK for useless Dario and short man Devin Carter. Just idiotic
Demon Copperhead was great Trey! We should start a No Dunks book club
I believe Dame wasn’t going to say he wasn’t going to play in 2026 so Bucks couldn’t get the medical exception so Milwaukee didn’t have much of an option! Plus Myles Turner for less than 30 million!
where is Skeets?
1 vote for Gary Gulman.
Everyone talking about dame getting stretched 💦💦
The Nuggets and the Rockets make the #2 and #3 spot in the west for TK… I think you have to add the wolves to the Top 4… yes I’m a homer.
But they are the only team of the four to have gone to back to back Western Conference finals… and they haven’t gotten worse.
9 of their top 10 players are back. Only lost NAW. Dillingham, Clark, and Shannon Junior will get much more run this season as they progress and bring more energy.
And continuity is key. OKC has had it for the past 3-4 seasons. Boston did too.
The West is going to be a bloodbath as usual… but I think the wolves deserve to be slotted into the number three or four spot
Love ur shirt …I have the same… get ur Greek Passport Tass and come to Greece to make an Interview to Giannis, Bucks still have the Full TMLE and can trade Kuz, still under Apron
read kenny smith's book TALK OF CHAMPIONS. great book, super large print 🤷♂️
Smush Parker with bad knees jaxon hayes! Lakers won the center search.
The MPJ disrespect is crazy. He scores more, rebounds better, has higher shooting %'s, and has the same exact defensive rating as Cam Johnson. Not sure how anyone can call it a clear upgrade
Would you have the magic as a winner or loser?
Gianiss did this to himself. 1 seed in the east then gets Griffin fired
PLEASE make that the new intro 😩😩 classic factory intro is dope but this is GOOD
A lot of kings fans are attached to Sabonis and I can’t really blame them too much but the right thing for that team imo is to get off his contract and start the rebuild.
That was real heartwarming AYOOOO at the start of this one <3
NO SPURS ?
greatest Gary's: Coleman, Oldman, Busey. Shandling. Maybe in that order
If Giannis wanted to use an american nickname, he'd be Gary Antetounmpo. Also, just watched Point Break and we gotta mention Gary Busey!!