Shams [BREAKING NEWS] Free agent D’Angelo Russell has agreed on a 2-year, $13M deal with Mavericks

Shams [BREAKING NEWS] Free agent D’Angelo Russell has agreed on a 2-year, $13M deal with Mavericks

you thought that game seven would be the exhale that after the draft the NBA might take a little breath oh no no this is the league that never sleeps welcome to the NBA Today free agency special your 2-hour front row seat to the frenzy the deal floodgates they opened about an hour ago and if your phone’s been vibrating non-stop it’s probably this guy notifications from our senior insider Sham Sharan because he’s been busy so far there have been over a billion dollars in deals and contracts that have been given out this off season with more to come but what are the impact of all of those deals that sounds like a job for Mr money Moves Mr bobby Marx we’ll be sorting through everything from the sneaky to the seismic and speaking of seismic have you guys ever heard anything about a guy named LeBron James well let’s just say a certain statement has captured the entire basketball world’s attention checking the map doing the math our quartet of California based reporters texting their sources to bring us up totheminute insight we’re going to get to all of that with our senior writer Brian Winhorse our analysts Tim Leggler Udonis Hasslam I’m Malikica Andrews let’s sit back get comfortable and take it in nba free agency 2025 has begun brian if you were to describe it in one word so far what would that be
expensive
expensive and we’re only about uh an hour in so I have a feeling it’s going to get a little bit pricier from here let’s start with the busiest person in the league our senior insider Sham Shirana shams as I have been walking through the studio my phone has been vibrating with your reporting with your updates here what do you got for us
yeah I have uh I have some news for you guys free agent guard Diego Russell has agreed to a 2-year $13 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks sources tell ESPN co-heads of CA basketball uh Aaron Mintz Austin Brown reached an agreement as well as uh the Mavericks officials here tonight so this gives Dallas a stop gap at point guard he’s going to have a significant role especially when Kyrie Irving will miss at least half of the upcoming NBA season so D’Angelo Russell going to the Mavericks two years $13 million
d’angelo Russell to the Dallas Mavericks legs what do you think of this
well first of all I think that’s a bargain at $6.5 million a year really D’Angelo Russell still can score and I think for me he said stop gap that’s a good word i just look at it as a solution to the Kyrie Irving problem we don’t know when we’re going to see Kyrie Irving again but they still have Anthony Davis they brought in Cooper Flag this is a team that wants to get out of the gate they don’t want to be buried behind a bunch of teams in the West to me D’Angelo Russell is about as good as you’re going to get on the market right now and that’s obviously a great number
i mean with Kyrie being out you get a guy who averaged 18 points a game two years ago about 17 points a game the year before and then last year had a down year so this is a guy who can definitely score struggles to defend but you have those wing defenders you have those Nargi Marshals you have those Cooper Flags those Caleb Martins you have AD so you have guys that can cover that i love this move for them
there’s not a ton of free agent dollars on the market now there’s two teams that have significant space that’s Brooklyn and Detroit so So some of these free agents are going to have to take maybe a little bit of a pay cut certainly this is the case for Danzel Russell so if you’re going to take a pay cut pick a spot where you have a really good fit and that’s the case here he’s going to walk into a starting job have a big role for a team that figures on being a Western Conference contender if Kyrie Irving can get healthy later in the season
the Dallas Mavericks have had a a really interesting sort of offseason even so far adding Cooper Flag as well
yeah if you look at Dallas they are probably one of the most upwardly mobile teams in the whole league because they get Cooper Flag who we all think is going to be an impact player they’ve got Anthony Davis coming back healthy this fall and they’ve got a really good set of role players that they can either use or use in additional trades coming forward in the offseason
i was hoping we were going to be going back to Shawn’s now but the way that this free agency goes he’s already off to the races he’s working on something right now usually Brian we don’t start our free agency shows with a player opting into a player option but this isn’t just any player it is LeBron James he exercised his 52.6 million option but this is what caught everyone’s attention it’s what his agent Rich Paul told our Sham Sharan quote “LeBron wants to compete for a championship.” Brian you said this well on on the Hoop Collective podcast okay fine yes of course he does he knows the Lakers are building for the future okay that makes sense he understands that but and that is a big butt he values a realistic chance at winning it all we are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie and Rob and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career that butt holds a lot of weight there Brian yeah so he opted into his contract so he’s committed to returning to the Lakers he has a no trade clause which he can not only control where he would go but who he would get traded for which makes any sort of LeBron trade unlikely not impossible but unlikely so Willie what LeBron what Rich is saying here is LeBron would like to see the Lakers get off to a very good start in free agency and I’m gonna be honest with you there’s been a couple of transactions out of the gate and the Lakers have lost a player and replaced him with a player
Dorian Finny Smith
that’s right dorian Finny Smith is according to Shams is going to leave the Lakers he was a really big acquisition last summer I mean last winter um he’s going to sign with Houston on a four-year deal leaving the Lakers and they have according to Shams replaced him with Jake Larabia a younger player less accomplished another 68 wing who will fill in the role but again less accomplished maybe it’ll end up being a great signing but if you’re LeBron who’s talking about whether the Lakers are going championship moves this isn’t a move that’s going to make you feel super great just yet it’s just the beginning we’re an hour in
I personally don’t think he’s going anywhere I never really thought that he was the interesting thing about this was typically in this situation a guy would say “I’m opting in because this situation gives me the best chance to win a championship.” He opted in and then immediately the language was like “But are they going to do enough to make sure I have a chance to compete for a championship?” I think LeBron James made a decision a long time ago to go to LA it had more to do than just basketball he’s settled there that’s where he wants to be i think that’s where he’s going to finish his career and look by the way you still do have Luca Donets next to you and I know they only had half a year a year ago it didn’t work out the way they wanted you’ve got one of the best players in the NBA next to you now with a full season uh to hopefully get some things done in LA
um and he’s not going anywhere like I will tell you this straight up first of all I know LeBron James this is LeBron James flexing his muscle this is LeBron James using what he has as a superstar to have hold the organization accountable as a player we are held accountable when we don’t win there is a conversation with us about winning as a player when you get to the level that LeBron James has gotten to and you won as many championships you have the right to have a conversation with the upstairs about what it takes to win i think there needs to be a collaboration on where we’re going what we need to win but also on the other side we have a young superstar who also is the future of this organization there’s two sides of this but Bronn is not wrong he only has a few more years and in those few more years he needs to be put in a situation to win how many times before Brian eight times nine times has LeBron been in situation where he has the opportunity to opt into a contract and basically every other time he’s opted out he’s restructured there’s been something that has happened that’s more than just opt into a deal that’s also curious
this is where it is different he has never he has had player options in his last eight contracts dating back to 2006 when he signed his first extension he has never used them he has always opted out of the contract three times he switched teams um and then you know the other times he signed new contracts in fact that’s happened twice with the Lakers um in this case he opted into his contract so for the first time in 23 seasons Malikica
LeBron is on an expiring contract for the first time in 23 seasons he will start a season where he is not the franchise player
and of course that also brings up questions about how long LeBron James wants to continue to play because he is going to turn 41 in December elsewhere [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for heat excuse me

Shams [BREAKING NEWS] Free agent D’Angelo Russell has agreed on a 2-year, $13M deal with Mavericks