Free Agency Frenzy | Nuggets-Nets Trade Grades, Hawks Stay Active, Waiting On Giannis

Free Agency Frenzy | Nuggets-Nets Trade Grades, Hawks Stay Active, Waiting On Giannis

[Music] Welcome to no duck. s here on the Athletic Podcast Network. Free agency watch continues here on July 1st. Happy Canada Day, everybody. I’m Tas Melis. With me, it’s the man in the middle, Trey Kirby.
Hey. And the man making the magic happen as always. It’s super producer JD.
Hello. What’s up, JD?
What’s up?
How are we feeling?
How you celebrating Canada Day today?
Corn dogs.
Corn dogs.
Corn dogs dipped in maple syrup.
Okay. Probably actually good.
Actually, now that you mention it, it’s pretty good.
Yeah, I’d be all right.
What about a breakfast sausage corn dog style dipped in maple syrup? That’d be pretty good.
Yeah, that is a good a good treat.
Yeah.
Yeah, you guys are putting it all together. Really putting it all together.
Sausage dog. What would they call that? I don’t know. I like I like the idea of it, though. It’s like a pig in a blanket.
Yeah.
In a like a pancake blanket.
Pig in a pancake. At the CN.
Yeah. That’s a good thing. It probably is.
Um, I thought we got some good moves here. Not huge ones, not monstrous ones. Remember what Adam Silver said at the NBA draft when he came out and he said, “Oh, he’s celebrating the OKC Indiana final.” And then he said,
“Welcome to a new era of NBA basketball where every team has a chance.”
Yeah.
Kind of feels like that. Like he was on to something. Like you make these these smaller moves. Well, well, let’s get to
I don’t know if any of these moves has put a single team on the Thunder level, but every team has a chance to finish second right now, I think, is at least true.
Well, let’s jump right into that first move. The Denver Nuggets, the team that took the NBA champs to seven games. They made a very important move here. Going to get a shooter. They traded away Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam. Cam Johnson is coming over. All they had to give up was Michael Porter Jr. and a first round pick in 2032. A long time from now.
That’s unprotected. Yeah, exactly. Jokic is gonna be an old man.
37 years old, right?
And here they get Cam Johnson. What do you think of this trade, Trey?
I like it. I like it for the Nuggets just because we saw how game seven went. They were down to one armed Michael Porter Jr.
for the most part. one leg Aaron Gordon and Russell Westbrook around their four guys in Joic Murray, Christian Brown, and I mean it was MPJ at the time, but
Jamal, I guess,
and Jamal Murray, of course. Um, but I think this is the Nuggets taking on a little bit of risk here. Cam Johnson is older than Michael Porter Jr., 30 years old by the playoffs to MPJ’s 27. He’s a little bit smaller. MPJ is a legit 6’10, a pretty good rebounder, which is something that the Nuggets are going to have to address going forward because Cam Johnson at 6’8 isn’t quite the same rebounder as Michael Porter Jr., but he’s a little bit better with the ball in his hands. Cam Johnson is. He’s a little bit better of a playmaker. Really stretched his game with the Nets last season. They’re maintaining the shooting basically, you know, 40% essentially for MPJ and for Cam Johnson. by CJ. Maybe a quicker trigger on Cam Johnson, but the Nuggets, I like the move in general. I like the move. I like to see them uh use one of their assets to change things up. I like that it opens up a little bit of flexibility, which brings because the Nuggets will now be underneath the aprons. It gives them some access to their exceptions. The key is they have to go and use those exceptions. like Al Horford would be an incredible fit here, but right now they’re bringing in Bruce Brown, which we’ll get to in just a minute here. And they’re swapping out MPJ for Cam Johnson. I don’t think the Nuggets got a lot better. I think Michael Porter Jr. is a little bit underrated at this point just because, you know, he was like a top five recruit out of high school. He was a guy who was maybe going to be the next Kevin Durant if he could ever get his off the dribble game going. that never came about in Denver, but he’s still a really good player and has been more available than Cam Johnson has been for the Brooklyn Nets for the Phoenix Suns, which you know, you think of MPJ as an injury guy. There’s definitely concerns about his back, but he was pretty tough last year playing through that shoulder injury. So,
do I think the Nuggets got a lot better trading for Cam Johnson? Not really.
I think this is kind of a a money move all things considered, but I still like it for Denver because they needed something to change up. Uh, I think and maybe the ball handling, the self-creation that Cam Johnson brings can be good for the Nuggets because they would definitely struggle when Joic would go to the bench and it was Murray and MPJ trying to run the show. So, uh, I think a good move for Denver. Not necessarily a great changing move, like challenge or title changing move. I’m not totally convinced on that one. I’m pretty excited this for this for the Nuggets just because Cam Johnson I believe is a better offensive player. I know Michael Porter Jr. can shoot that thing, but if you get Cam Johnson playing with a gravity like Nicoish, you’ll see his numbers even go up even higher. But basically, they’re the same as Michael Porter Jr.’s. He’s a more solid defender. And yet Michael Porter Jr. obviously a champion and played hard and was playing on one shoulder after that terrible turnover. Why would you throw the ball like that into the front court? Cam Johnson wouldn’t do that. I just think Cam Johnson will be playing off Joic a little bit better and can give it on the defensive end. And you mentioned the money part of things. I think this is the front office front office thing. They did really well. They turned a 40 million player into a $20 million player. And now they have room as you mentioned. They’re going to go get Bruce Bone, which we’ll talk about in a second as a veteran minimum guy. And they can do some things off the bench. You basically have a new starting lineup, Cam Johnson over Michael Poor Jr. and improved bench by this new front office that’s taken over for Calvin Booth that has two guys who are basically the same type. They have the same title. They they’re like this this split head type guy. Um, executive VP of basketball operations for Ben Tenzer and John Wallace. Ben Tenzer is more of the I know every job in the organization type of guy and John Wallace is the learn everything around the NBA develop relationships type of guy. So there the split mentality here. Same title for both of those guys.
So I think they did a great job in terms of the financial part and I think Cam Johnson will pay off. You you do bring up a good point that he is older than you think. I wouldn’t consider him a 30year-old. He’s already going to be 30 next year. I just wouldn’t think of him as that. But I do think he’s a baller. He can put it on the floor a little bit better than Michael Porter Jr. in my opinion, especially with the when the gravity comes. He shoots the ball well. He was part of a a team that went to the finals uh with the Phoenix Suns. So, I think he’s got it. I think he’s got it all. And yeah, there was a time that needed to change here in Denver. They just they just needed something new. And I think this is this is smart um in in all facets here for Tenzer and John Wallace in this new front office. Yeah. Josh Kroni made put his foot in his mouth talking about Nicole Joic at their
pre free agency press conference, right? Saying we need to get underneath the tax so we don’t even have to think about trading number 15. This gets them under the tax, but if they don’t actually use that money, those exceptions that are now available to go and get somebody that helps, I look at this as just a salary dump. It’s a good salary dump being able to bring in Cam Johnson and essentially replace what they’re sending out in Michael Porter Jr. But if trading a unprotected first round pick way down the line, something that would be pretty valuable uh around the NBA only brings you back kind of a like forlike player in Cam Johnson. It turns into more of a business move than a basketball move for me because yeah, Bruce Brown definitely helps, but that’s just one guy off the bench. The Nuggets need multiple guys and now they’ve opened up avenues to be able to address that to finally maybe have a backup center for Nicole Joic, which has not been the case since he has been uh playing in Denver. I guess they drafted a center last year. He tore his Achilles right before the season started. Uh Holmes should probably be coming back this year. I don’t know what you can expect out of a rookie coming off a serious injury. So, there will be an opportunity at the very least, but I think the Nuggets can still get better with these financial moves that they pulled. And, you know, maybe Cam Johnson is better for Michael Porter Jr. I think that we’re just expecting so much more from MPJ that it makes Cam Johnson look good in return cuz he is kind of like hitting his potential. Whereas MPJ, you think there’s something more out there. Maybe there isn’t. I don’t know. Uh, but I would like to see the Nuggets continue to be active throughout free agency. I do think Cam Johnson, yeah, has gotten he’s gotten better, frankly, if you watched a lot of the Brooklyn Nets games last year, which I’m sure a lot of people didn’t, he had to take that on upon himself as the number one guy. He had to put it on the floor. He had to create for himself. And I think there will be space created by Joic where those creations won’t be that hard. He’s just going to be good at it. I think he’s he’s very solid. Yes, he’s a a $20 million player versus a $40 million player in Michael Porter Jr. that they had to pay after winning the championship. And I just think you’re in a good spot here. It was a good contract from the Brooklyn Nets. Uh and this is the time here uh for Cam Johnson to show it uh on on a bigger level. I think he’s that good. And from the Brooklyn Nets, yeah, they had a $20 million cap space that they had to create something. They created an unprotected first round pick. So again, I just think the front office was front officing very well in Denver to see that opportunity and to jump on it to sick it because that was what they needed to do as you said to get better in depth and what they did to
Well, let’s talk about it for the Nets. I think this is actually a really good move for the Nets as well. They got a lot younger. Michael Porter Jr. still has more upside uh than Cam Johnson has. Like I said, I think he’s a little bit underrated. He’s probably going to look worse away from Jokic as a lot of these guys have. You know, KCP has not been the same since he left. Bruce Brown has not been the same since he left. Maybe there’s some self-creation left in Michael Porter Jr. He’ll at least get to stretch his legs. Him and Cam Thomas will be a hilarious pairing. And you know, that post Joic first round pick that might be great. How are the Nuggets going to get a lot better after Nola Joic leaves uh retires to Serbia to race horses? by the time he’s 37, this pick is going to be looking good for the Nets. So, if you’re a rebuilding team, this is what you need to do. Take on big contracts and get juicy picks for it. We’re also looking at the team that’s going to be the worst team in the league in the Brooklyn Nets. I saw Robbie Kalen tweet last night, NBA TV just put the Nets projected starting lineup on the screen, and it was a full-on jump scare. As of right now, they would probably be starting Jaore Demon, their rookie, Cam Thomas, Terrence Man, MPJ, and Nick Claxton. That looks like a first in lottery odds kind of team to me. So I think smart move by the Nets to get off a desired player in Cam Johnson who doesn’t mean a lot for their team. Maybe they get a dice roll in the future with MPJ and then they get that big one way down the line in 2032. So I think good stuff for both teams.
Yeah. Well, let’s get to the the depth that Denver has created now by going to get not only Cam Johnson here, but also Bruce Brown. We’re going back to 2023 in the championship when Bruce Brown was coming off the bench and having fun out there. They go and get him for a veteran minimum contract, which seems extremely low for Bruce Brown and a guy who helped him win a championship just a couple years ago. He ain’t that old yet. What do you feel about Bruce Brown joining the Nugs?
I like it, but I swear I haven’t seen Bruce Brown play basketball since he left Denver. I know he was there in Indiana. I know he was a Toronto Raptor somehow. I even know that he finished the season with the New Orleans Pelicans last season, but I feel like all I’ve seen from Bruce Brown since leaving Denver is him wearing Cowboy suits on the sideline and then getting involved in these transactions. He’s going to be 30 by the playoffs. The best season he’s ever had was that year in Denver when he was on a player option and then was able to cash out at the end of the season. If he’s able to shoot 36% from three like he did in Denver, awesome. If he’s a 33% shooter like he was the rest of his NBA career, not quite as awesome. But I like him being able or I like I would bet on him being able to rediscover what made him great playing in Denver. And honestly, they just needed guys. Like we said, by the end of game seven, they were scratching the bottom of the barrel. So getting anybody who’s reliable and a veteran presence is going to be good. Julian Strawther did have a moment in the playoffs. Maybe Jaylen Picket improves. Maybe Pton Watson becomes something besides a defensive specialist. I don’t know if I would be betting on that one, but they’re getting closer and closer to the necessary seven to eight guys you need in the playoffs because as we saw last postseason, they didn’t have that. So, as long as they’re able to get Bruce Brown back on track and as long as they’re able to do something with that little bit of money that they opened up, I will be happy uh with the Nuggets. But, does Bruce Brown on a minimum change things? I’m not totally convinced. But that’s just because I haven’t been totally convinced by what he’s done in the NBA since he left Jokic. Yeah, it’s been two seasons coming off surgery where he was hurt and came back and had to start with a lot of these teams. Now he’ll be off the bench. We’ll see if he can get that back to 2023 when the Denver Nuggets and Calvin Booth said, “Well, we’ll just let him go.” Because he did get a monstrous contract from the Indiana Pacers. He got paid 22 million and 23 million over two years. And the Denver Nuggets weren’t going into the tax. That’s what it was about. It was about the dollars. And unfortunately, they lost some of that mojo that they had. They just lost some of that locker room that they had. We saw Nicola Joic being that type of guy trying to put the team on his back last season. That was Bruce Brown’s kind of role. He just yelled a lot. He talked a lot. We were both at the finals in 2023. We saw him in practices. He was their mo and that’s why they went and got Russell Westbrook to come off the bench to be that type of guy. Now Bruce Brown goes back to the bench. There’s no way he’s going to start. I would consider him the best player on the bench immediately if he’s, you know, playing well. You mentioned all the guys in Strawther and Payton Watson and maybe Jaylen Picket, young guys who who can improve. But Bruce Brown, if he can come back to that guy, and I don’t think it’s a big if, I think there’s a good chance that he can do that. He’ll be the best guy off the bench. He’s still, you know, fairly young. He’s going to be 29 soon. We’re birthday bros, me and Bruce. And so, uh, I, as long as the injury hasn’t worn him down, you know, watching him with the Toronto Raptor, he tried to do a little too much where he was a starter. And maybe this is my new role. Maybe he’s flashing back to his Brooklyn Net days when he started where they were trying to just run him as the sort of that swing guy in the starting lineup. He just has to be Bruce Brown again. And at least the Nuggets have that vibe back where they’re trying to make that up for the the flub. It was honestly it was a flub as soon as they let him go. And now they’re trying to rectify that. So, we’ll see if it works. It should. In theory, I think it does. If First Brown’s the best player on their bench, they still don’t really have a bench because the guy’s on a veteran minimum and it means everybody else is a question mark. They need to see significant improvement from the guys that they let KCP go for that they let uh Bruce Brown once upon a time go for because those guys still haven’t been replaced. Now they’re kind of just getting back to square one. Like you said, Bruce Brown left because of financials. The Michael Porter Jr. trade was because of financials. Even though Stan Kunky is one of the wealthiest owners in the NBA, they could be overspending into the second apron if they wanted. They could have a better bench if they wanted. It makes things tricky with team building going forward. But as long as Bruce Brown’s able to get back to the form that we’ve seen in Denver, I’ll remind you, literally only one season that we have seen this. If he’s able to do that again, I think this is great uh for the Nuggets. And he just seems like a fun guy to have around. Like you’re saying, he’s got uh a personality. He’s got a little bit of attitude and he’s got a lot of versatility that the Nuggets definitely need. So, I like I’ve been saying the entire time, they still need to make another move because I don’t think they have a backup big guy. It ain’t charic. It ain’t Zeke Naji. Uh, and I’m not totally sure that Sharp is going to be or Holmes is going to be the guy, but we shall see. Nonetheless, I think a good day yesterday for the Nuggets considering they didn’t have a ton of avenues to get better.
Yeah, I think that’s exactly what Adam Silver was saying when he got to the podium in the draft. Nobody can win back-to-back champions essentially. No, there aren’t teams that can just say, “Hey, we’re adding to the top of our roster, go topheavy, and be good for a long period of time.”
But there is there is one
the OKC. Yes. They they just created that. I mean, they Yeah. So, I guess he was sort of wrong in saying and not referring to OKC as this new
He just saw seven champions in seven years.
Yeah. That’s all.
Yeah. But then he started talking about OKC in Indiana a lot and said we are in the heartland of America here.
Okay. So getting Cam Johnson for MPJ adding Bruce Brown. Does this put the Nuggets on the Thunder level for you?
No, but they’re super close. I do think you’re talking about the bench in 2023 when they won the championship. Bruce Brown was their best player. Why can’t they be that because they are so good?
That was two years ago.
Yeah. Yeah. So Bruce Brown just ain’t that same guy.
He hasn’t been.
Yeah, he hasn’t been. But he’s also been starting. He he now he just needs to go to that batch. I we just saw the Denver Nuggets take OKC to seven games. And I do think no matter what Adam Silver said, no matter how many times I refer to it, this is a league that refer or that relies on the stars. Nico Joic is freaking that good and he can take his team that far. Now they do need a backup. Sure, they they need more guys. Last year running Westbrook and Sharic and Shrather and Payton Watson did not work out. So all the only thing that’s really different from that 2023 championship is Christian Brown has now replaced KCP. Bruce Brown is a couple years older and they they do lack a tiny bit of depth on the bench.
Yeah, Jeff Green was solid for that team.
Jeff Green was solid. Yeah, Calvin Booth couldn’t bring the same two guys back. Yeah, they’re paying for it now. I mean, they paid for it and that’s why you saw Joic more mad than I’ve ever seen. More mad than when his horse doesn’t do things for him. I don’t think he gets mad at his horses. I take that back. be mad at a horse.
No, I agree. Um, but he I’ve never seen Joic more mad. He just needed more guys and that’s exactly why they brought Russell Westbrook in there
who could return with this team. There is that possibility of him coming back because he was good for them. Yeah, I do think they’re close to OKC. I mean, talent-wise, depthwise, and that’s what Ms. Silver was talking about. You go one through 10 deep now in in terms of an NBA roster. That’s what we’re doing here. No, they don’t have that type of depth. There’s no doubt they don’t have that type of depth, but Jokic up top is damn good.
Yeah, they’ve got Jokic, which is the main thing, and they’re still trying to win around Jokic, but I think they can do be doing more. They can certainly be spending more, and that’s kind of been the story for the Nuggets since they win the championship. It’s been all financial moves since then rather than basketball moves necessarily.
Yes. And they have that opportunity now, turning a $40 million player in Michael Porter Jr. into a $20 million player in Cam Johnson. They have that opportunity. You only spent a vet minimum on Bruce Brown. We’ll see what they do otherwise. Moving on, we’re coming here to Atlanta. Local team Alexander Walker signing with the Atlanta Hawks. Four years, $62 million. What do you think about Na joining the Atlanta Hawks bench? Trey,
bench.
I’m benching him. I’m already benching him. I shouldn’t say that immediately.
Yeah, it’s hard to tell. uh $15.5 million average annual value. He starts at 27 years old. So basically the Hawks are going to be paying him through his prime years. You got to love that.
Yep.
Also, they use the trade exception. Trade exceptions hardly ever get used in the NBA, but the Hawks actually found a way to use it. They’re getting a secondary ball handler in Alexander Walker. He’s obviously a good defensive player as well and then a good three-point shooter. I think he had an up and down playoffs, but had some good moments uh for sure uh for the Timberwolves there. It is a question mark though like
is he going to start?
I don’t really know because he’s a better offensive player I think than Dyson Daniels and Zach Rishes. I think if you’re like slotting the defenders up uh between those three it would go Daniels and then Nquille Alexander Walker and then Reese probably. He is smaller than both of them. So, I think you’re probably choosing between um uh Daniels and Nquille Alexander Walker. But Daniels just had such an awesome season, most improved player, all defense kind of guy. Perhaps Nquille Alexander Walker starts at small forward for Zachary Shashet, but I doubt that’s the case. So more than likely, you’re right, he’s coming off the bench and this would be an awesome defensive substitution, an awesome backcourt rotation because like we’ve been talking with the Hawks since the Porzingis trade, they need somebody else to come and handle the ball. And I think Nquille Alexander Walker, if he ends up being the third guard for the Hawks, is a big-time upgrade over Caris Levert, who did decent in his uh little stint here in his LA in Atlanta. So, I like the Hawks seeing Naila Alexander Walker actually come available after the Randall and Reed deals for Minnesota and striking while using the assets that they have available. So, to be able to get him for a second round pick and pay him a pretty good contract like you’re not going you’re not breaking the bank at 16 million per season, but that’s nice for Nikquil Alexander Walker. It’s a nice bump for him. So, I think good stuff for Atlanta and on Salai here. Yeah, Anie Salai killing it so far with the move on draft day to get uh probably the more favorable uh draft pick next year of the Bucks or the Pelicans. Whoever’s worse, that’s their pick. Now, it’s not necessarily going to be an incredible pick. We’ll see about that. But to go along with Chris Appsingis and now Nquil Alexander Walker and another move that they made we’ll get to. It looks incredibly solid, especially because you know that they’re building around Trey Young. These are the type of guys to pair with Trey Young to be on ball defenders in NA and Dyson Daniels who was awesome last year. Doesn’t look like Trey Young is going anywhere. They’ve just built so many type of guys around Trey Young, Zachary Reach and his length, Jaylen Johnson and his length. I mean, they could do different things. And so when I say he’s coming off the bench, maybe and maybe not. Maybe you start him alongside Dyson Daniels and Trey Young. And Zachary Reach can be your four. He’s only 20 years old. I see those videos of him working out.
Sending Jaylen Johnson to the bench.
Yeah. Yeah. Just in random situations. No, he’s not going to Jayen Johnson’s not coming off the bench, but he’s got to be able to play on the floor. I’m just saying that there’s multiple things that they can do. Like Chris Stops can start at the five and there are lineups where Anaka and Kongu can start beside him and Jaylen Johnson can play the three. I mean, there are so many things and there’s so many ball handlers as you said now with NA and Dyson Daniels who got better at that as being the secondary ball handler and Jaylen Johnson is a damn good ball handler. Now they lose Caris Levert, which we’ll get to, who was a a good ball handler and a decent guy, but Nikquil Alexander Walker, a very, very good player in his prime here, as you said. It’s it’s a no- lose situation. And for him, he gets three years guaranteed plus a player option in year number four. So, it’s good money for him as well. The Hawks just seem like this team that’s can throw all these arms at you to go around Trey Young. Excuse me. With Trey there in your back court, you need incredible defenders around him. Every single one of these guys I mentioned can play D. So they’ve just got an incredibly good team beside him. They just they go big, they go small. As I said,
it’s nice to see Trey Young not getting all those rumors, oh, he’s going to be gone now. He’s going to be there at the at the very least for this next season. I guess things can go things can go bad, but Trey Young by all accounts is in the, you know, the the back end of things being vocal about who he wants and Nikquil Alexander was a guy he wanted and you could just tell if you throw Nikil Alexander Walker out there with Trey Young and Dyson Daniels again, the the other team is gonna have trouble bringing up the ball up the floor. This is a very very good couple guys to throw out there with Trey Young.
Yeah, I do think Reese is probably getting squeezed a little bit with this deal, but that’s fine. Uh the Hawks have a lot of depth and the Trey Young piece of it is interesting because this is a well-built team around Trey Young as we’re seeing. They got backup ball handlers that they need. We’ll get to Canard in a second here, but like even that guy can run a pick and roll uh in a pinch if you need. So, they have addressed their backup uh creation,
which I think is an issue for the Hawks. their defense has gotten a lot better. So Trey Young has this season under contract. He’s got, I believe, a player option for next year. So, he’s extension eligible. But like you’re saying, if things go poorly for the Hawks this season, imagine Porzingis just isn’t able to stay healthy on the court. All of these guys take a step back and the team somehow finishes, you know, like 43 wins. Not the big jump that everybody’s expecting. You know, they won 40 this season, but right now it feels like this team should be a top four playoff team in the East. Let’s say it all goes perfectly wrong for the Hawks and they don’t really reach the heights that everybody’s expecting here on July 1st. They can still trade Trey Young next season, right? And then they had Nikquille Alexander Walker, Dyson Daniels in town, Risa Shay Johnson, whatever they would decide to do with Porzingis who’s on expiring deal as well. There’s still outs for Atlanta, especially since they did that deal for the Pelicans Bucks pick, which the Bucks side of things is looking nicer and nicer as the offseason goes on. The Hawks are doing a good job of going for it with Trey and probably giving him his last chance and his best built team around him. But if it goes poorly, there’s still ways to pivot and have a future in Atlanta, which I don’t think was the case after the first DeJonte Murray trade when they traded a bunch of first round picks and first round swaps to the Spurs. Things are looking more and more stable in Atlanta and the team looks a lot better as well.
Oh, absolutely. It didn’t look good when they trade for Dejonte Murray, but you turn around for DeJonte Murray going out for Dyson Daniels and a first round pick. things are getting better and better as as we’ve said, including that first round pick, which may be Milwaukee’s first round pick next season. So, you’re saying that it could be incredible for Atlanta because Milwaukee and what they’ve done so far this off season ain’t looking all that good.
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s possible for sure.
Yeah, they’re down two starters so far. Lillard out for the season. Lopez is a Clipper. If Giannis misses 40 games, the Bucks pick is going to be in the same realm as the Pelicans, I believe. Yeah, it’s it’s the other way if Giannis is playing like because he’s Giannis that’s the the P they’re going to win games because he’s Janis Kubo. So it’s going to be like a you know a middle of the pack type of draft pick. The Pelicans is more likely to be the one that conveys to the Hawks for sure, but like I think that it would be when they did the trade I think you would say 9010 it’s going to be the Pelicans picks going to the Hawks. Now maybe like 7525 Pelicans over Bucks. Uh but we’ll see. Yeah, I I I’m interested to see what John Horse and the front office with the Bucks do.
They got nothing they can do. No, no, in terms of Giannis is playing. Maybe they just say, “Hey, let’s just get super bad if we can manage to get a pick here and there um just to be able to say, Giannis, just sit. We just want you to sit.” Now, I say that and they’ve given away basically their picks. Pick is going to the Hawks.
It’s likely going to the Hawks. Yeah. If they if they’re super bad. Um, yeah, but maybe they can. That’s That’s the That’s the conversation right now is let’s trade Giannis out so we get our pick back
to the Hawks.
Yeah. Well, yes. Yes. Yeah, they are.
They want Jaylen Johnson. That might be the best player they could get back for Giannis at this point. So, I mean, that’s definitely interesting for the Hawks too, right? Like they’ve positioned themselves to at least be in the Giannis sweep stakes if it ever opens up.
Yeah, they have. It would be Jaylen Johnson. It would be getting their pick back. And yeah, I guess I say that back. I say sit Yiannis. I take that all back because really they they can’t at at this point with the way the trades have gone. Yeah, they got to go get their pick back uh somehow if if they want to sit Giannis to be bad. But here we are here. Giannis is in in July here. This is the exact same team that the Milwaukee Bucks are going to run back that they had last year minus Brook Lopez obviously minus Damen Lillard. But it is Giannis. They’re just going to be a there’s going to be a fine they’re going to be a fine team. They can’t be bad. They can’t be good uh at this point. Anyways, we’ll get into the Giannis talks uh a little bit later. Sticking with the Hawks, they made one other deal signing Luke Canard. One year, $11 million for Big Luke, the active leader in three-point percentage in the M in NBA history. That’s pretty solid to say, hey, we’ve got that guy if you’re a numbers geek. 43.8 for his career. again active leader of anybody in the NBA. They got him off the bench. He’s definitely coming off the bench. Luke
to the Hawks. What do you think? This is the first Hawks move that I wasn’t like, “Oh man, Auntie killed it.” But then I thought about it and I was like, Auntie kind of killed it here. He’s giving you the three-point shooting. A big portion of the reason that Canard shoots so well is because he only takes wide openen shots because it takes him forever to shoot a three. He just doesn’t have a very quick release, but when he shoots it, it usually is going in. Like we mentioned earlier, he can handle the ball for a second unit. He can create for a second unit though. Nquille Alexander Walker will do some of that as well. So I think that is a nice pairing of those two coming off the bench. Plus Luke Canard right now is on an 11 million contract. He just signed with the Hawks. Becomes expiring immediately. Teams are always interested in shooting though that was the case last year and the Grizzlies weren’t able to trade him at all. However, the Hawks, if they wanted to, could include that New Orleans Bucks firstround pick for 2026, $11 million expiring contract on a shooter who can help other teams, plus a valuable pick that could bring back a real player for the Hawks if they decide in February they want to beef up even more. So, good stuff once again from Atlanta. They turned Bogdan Boddanovich and DeAndre Hunter into Terrence Man, George Niang, and Carris Levert. Then they cho turned those guys plus the 22 pick into Porzingis, Nquille Alexander Walker, Luke Canard, the 23 pick which turned into Ace Newell and this pick in 2026 from the Pelicans or the Bucks. So they got better players and they got better assets and it’s been one week since this guy has been on the job. A perfect start to his tenure with the Hawks. Let’s see what they look like when they’re actually on the court together. It looks nice right now. uh though, so I I’m feeling uh optimistic for Atlanta here.
Yeah, being a local guy here, it’s the most uh positive that you can be watching this front office do their thing in years in a in a very long time in probably a decade. I mean, they did some good things right before they went to the conference finals in 2020. Uh that was a good year, but has done extremely well. it does matter if they can play. And so, uh, Chris Sporting is is a very good basketball player, but will we see him on the floor for a long time this year? To be determined. Uh, we will we will see if he can play. That being said, they can throw out so many different lineups. like they do have other capable bigs now uh with Aneka Kongu Jaylen Johnson and Zachary Reach who’s only 20 is only going to get better. So it just seems like they’ve built up some depth. They do have a bunch of guys here in Atlanta. Now Luke Canard, yes, he’s he’s a shooter and when he was drafted way long ago with the Detroit Pistons, he was supposed to be a creator and he and I think he is a pretty good creator coming off the bench to some degree. You could see the assist numbers there with Memphis and he’s he’s decent at that. And so saying goodbye to Caris Levert, I think, is is totally okay considering all these guys that can now put the ball on the floor. I think Canard can do that a little bit along with Nikil Alexander Walker and Trey and Dyson Daniels. It goes on and on and on. Now, he’s not an incredible defender. If there’s anybody in that rotation that’s not a good defender along with Trey Young, it’s this guy. Um, but they just don’t have many bad defenders. So, I don’t think you’re going to see too much Luke Canard with Trey Young. He’s just going to be this guy who comes off the bench while Trey is sitting probably, but they have a bunch of guys. He’s obviously a good shooter as we’ve said. So, yeah, it it seems like $11 million for only one year. Why Why does it seem a little high? I guess. But Lucenard’s probably saying, “This is a contract year for me.” Uh, and he’s going to try and get paid again in a year. And Anie Salai does a very good job here of not saying or not paying a bunch of guys for a long term where he can still keep things flexible in 12 months.
Yeah, exactly right. Like we were talking about with Trey earlier, if things go bad, there’s still outs here. And that includes Canard’s contract being up at the end of the year. I think Canard makes more sense to this team after the Nquille Alexander Walker move than Caris Levert would have. So, we’ll see if he actually decides to shoot. And if he does,
cool. All right, let’s move on to what feels like kind of the end of an era with the Milwaukee Bucks. Basically, everybody from the 2020 championship team besides Giannis leaving Brook Lopez is going to 21.
Did I say yes?
Yeah, 2020 was a
that was a good
The Lakers
2020 2021 I’ll say both years. Uh are we done saying both years now
in terms of an NBA season? It feels like people are now going to the in the 2021 year. Well, they never used the first year. Like you said, the 2020 champions. If you say that, people know it’s the Lakers. But I mean, I think Yes. I think the uh the 2020 of it makes it a little confusing. Yeah. I just mean in terms of
You would say that the Thunder were the 25 champions.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That’s happening more than it used to happen. Um and it feels better. I mean, it’s just it’s easier to to to reference that. It does feel better. Brook Lopez leaving the Milwaukee Bucks, agreeing with the Los Angeles Clippers to a two-year, $18 million deal. Chris Middleton gone. Brook Lopez gone. Drew Holiday gone. Kind of an end of the era in in Milwaukee. But what do you think about Brooke definitely coming off the bench uh in Los Angeles now?
I think this is a good get for the Clippers. They needed size off the bench. They’ve shuffled through guys in the past couple of seasons as Zubat has gotten better and better. They still have small ball five options. But Brook Lopez at only $9 million a year. That’s a really good price for a backup center and he’s going to be a good one. He plays defense similarly to Zubots. I think Zubots is probably a little bit more switchable. But both in general would like to play drop coverage. So not going to have to be a lot of scheme change for the Clippers. But Lopez definitely gives you different offensive style than Zubots does. Zubots is a pick and roll player predominantly. Also a decent post player. Lopez can post up, but the guy’s going to pop threes, which I think is a nice curveball for the Clippers to add. It’s also only a 40minute drive from the Inuit Dome to Disneyland, which surely had to factor into Brook Lopez’s choices here. So, I think this is a win for LA to be able to pick up Lopez on pretty decent contract uh for a backup center. 2 years $18 million, that’s what guys are going for right now. And that was an area of need for LA.
The Disney discount. That’s right, as our man John Hollinger put it. Yeah, two years 18 is nothing. This is the first time he’s coming off the bench forever. He does play a lot of games which kind of doesn’t go talked about about Brook Lopez but he’s here to be that backup to guard Joic I think would help he would be he would have been big in that series Clippers Nuggets instead of Ben Simmons or Nicola Batum just to throw out there against Joic and to stretch him at the other end because he’s he’s out there. So that would have helped uh a little bit. Yes, a smart move I think for for the Los Angeles Clippers. Another old.
Yes. Yeah, but this is a backup center, you know. That’s the good thing. They’ve got a starting center who is actually their Jokic stopper in Zubots. He’s their main guy and he’s one of the better Joic defenders. Now Joic is going to put up a 30-point triple double on him every single night, but he might have to work for it. Uh so I think that Lopez, this is nice. You want him as a backup center at this point in his career. He just can’t function as well if he’s having to sprint up and down the court for 30 minutes a game. So, if they’re able to get him 20 minutes a game playing his tempo, his style, that’s good for LA. Yeah. And he still alters shots back there. But yes, the the Clippers again, they’re just getting older and older and older. Although, they do have some financial flexibility going forward because of that incredible contract they’ve got for Avita Zubots. It’s so cheap uh to go along with Kawhai and James Harden. Will they bring Norman Pal back or will they go get another starting guard um to to help out in replacement of Chris Dunn potentially cuz you’re going to see Harden, Kawawaii, Zubots, those are your locking locked in as your your starting big three. We’ll see what they can do. They’ve got some depth.
You got an announcement for us? Shay Gil just Alexander just signed a 4-year $285 million super maximum contract extension with the Thunder through 203031. Richest annual salary for a player in league history. You think he deserves it? I mean, he just won finals MVP, MVP, the scoring title, and a championship. But does he deserve it?
Does he deserve $71 million per season? Wow. Yeah. So that would be the most ever. That’s the most ever.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Is it single season?
Yes. That’s the most ever.
That’s the most ever. Although it could be topped soon. Apparently Devin Booker could be signed to a max contract very very soon. Earlier.
Yes.
Right. So he gets a the little bump. But uh yeah, this is awesome. I mean at what at some point Shay Gildas Alexander is going to be making a million dollars per game.
It’s very very
pretty much very very close. Yeah.
Yeah. Paid for.
How long do you think that phone call took?
Sam Prey and SGA’s agent negotiating his contract after just having the best season in Thunder history and one of the greatest guard seasons we’ve seen since Michael Jordan. 5 seconds.
About 5 seconds, I guess. He calls his agent and says,
“I could make more money if I hold off until next year, right?” I think. And now I’m doing I’m doing the
the front office CBA thing because it’s two years he’s under contract. He’s signing a four-year extension. If he waits till next year, can he sign a 5-year deal or wait two two years to sign a five-year deal that’s worth more?
Whatever. I’m being a loser about numbers, about how much he’s getting paid per game. Yes. It took two seconds.
Yep.
To say, “Hello.” Cool.
Sign me.
Nice.
That’s a lot of money. Sign me. All right.
Two contract extensions since being traded to the Thunder. The first one was like, “Oh, are you so sure you want to?” And he told Andrew Select, “Yeah, we’re going to win and it’s not going to take very long.” And he was right.
It’s worked out very well. Congrats to Shay Gildas Alexander. Are we going to say congrats to the Houston Rockets for this signing? They signed Clint Capella, which was an interesting move because they have a lot of centers already. Alpine Shenun is there. Steven Adams is there. Now they got a third one. Three years, $21.5 million for Clint Capella to be their third center, I suppose.
Sometimes second center, I would say. I would say that that’s kind of the move here. Shout out to Moernie. It’s going to be a long season. You better stock up on centers cuz now they’ve got three basically in Shenon who was an all-star last season. Steven Adams, they did the deal for him three years 39. Is that what he ended up got paying? That’s too much now that I think about it. Especially when they signed Capella to uh a 7 million per year deal for three years. You’re talking $20 million for your backup center. Brook Lopez just went for $9 million as a backup center. So that’s kind of weird. But the Rockets are definitely committed to the double big lineup, which we saw have success for them during the regular season and especially during the playoffs. And of course, they’ve got to go up against Nicole Joic. So, it helps to have different sets of guys to throw against him because when you’re looking at specifically Rockets versus Nuggets, I think you would say biggest advantage is Joic over the centers for the Rockets there. So, Capella and Adams both 31 years old. You probably want to limit how often they have to play and how many minutes they have to play. So like literally if they wanted it could be Clint Capella, you’re the backup center for tonight. Stephen Adams, you’re the backup center for tonight. And then just switch every other game if they want to get those guys to 41 games. But uh Rockets are a huge team now. It’s like they’ve got these three guys at center. Jabari Smith Jr. can play small ball five. Kevin Durant can play small ball five. Dorian Finny Smith can play small ball five. They’ve got a lot of options there. So, I think it was a little weird to invest this much in Capella, but maybe he comes in handy if Adams goes down with an injury or something like that and you still want to have that double big option.
Totally. You’re right about the the length of a season and just being able to throw guys at Nicola Joic like those 2020 champion Lakers did when they threw out, you know, Dwight, here you go. Jal McGee, here you go. just basically to bang uh Nikolic. Now, do you have to do that to have three guys? I mean, it does sound like a lot. Um and and how big this team is. Shenun, Adams, Capella at your center, Jabari Smith, Dorian Finny Smith, you can call them your power forwards, Amen Thompson, Tari E, Kevin Durant there at the small forward, or maybe Kevin Durant’s going to go back to his Seattle Sonics days in his rookie year where he was playing shooting guard with PJ Carlosimo. I mean, this team is huge. I guess they do lack a little bit of ball handling. Fred Vanble Vleet, their number one ball handler, all good there. Otherwise, his backup guards, Reed Shepard, who barely didn’t play last year, and Cam Whitmore to go along with with Kevin Durant. They have Aaron Holiday. That’s who they got to to be a ball handler. So maybe they go and get another one just to round out the roster in terms of rotation, but you are going to see a lot of length uh from Udoka. That’s for sure. Um, is Capella at three years a little bit too much money and length? I guess. I mean, he is past his best days, but at 7 million, what’s strict? What’s really going to be a third center? I guess it’s totally fine if he’s not playing.
That’s a lot of money for a third center.
Yeah, I guess. But they can afford. How can they afford it?
Well, they’re probably going to they’re either going to cut Jlandale or find a way to trade Cam Whitmore to afford it, really. And then they’re given these longer deals. Like 3 years is kind of a lot for Capella. He’s kind of looked washed here in Atlanta. Uh he’s 31 years old. Four years is a long contract for Dorian Finny Smith, but you give these older players that kind of security and that’s why they’re on the Rockets and not on the Lakers,
right? Just just a bit of a of a payday here. I mean, yes, depthwise, he he probably isn’t going to play a lot. He’s going to play as much as Jock Landale did last year, but it is a a pay savings than what Jock was getting. Um, but
that was not a good contract.
Yeah, they I was a Landale Fanale for a second there. But, uh, Capella is better than Landale is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and when you saw him go out there as a a backup with the Atlanta Hawks, he was capable. He still is capable when Anaka Congu took over those starting type minutes. So they have an incredible incredible roster. Would you throw them close to the OKC sphere of things?
Oh, definitely. I I as of right now, I mean, they finished number two in the West, so not a hot take, but I think Rockets are the biggest competition to the Thunder going into next season.
Yeah, I I totally agree. Um,
the other takeaway I had for this is once Lopez went to the Clippers and Capella went to the Rockets, it’s like all sights are set on DeAndre Aton going to the Lakers, I guess they probably just got to figure out the contract for him. But as of right now, the Lakers don’t really have a starting center and they need a starting center uh going forward. So, I have to imagine uh that there are some serious conversations going on there.
Yeah, there aren’t a lot of bigs that are available. Obviously, Miles Turner still available, but the Lakers can’t afford that. That ain’t going to happen. So, it does feel like DeAndre Aton’s going to be there. We talked about him yesterday on our our free agency podcast as the time ticked down that DeAndre Aton could be there in Los Angeles. He ain’t the best fit for a Luca Donuch run offense cuz he wants to hang out in the mid-range. He doesn’t want to be a
just roll to the rim and do a Derrick Lively or that type of thing. So, we’ll see how he works out there. But we will see you on on Wednesday at 5:00 PM. That’s when DeAndre Aton becomes available to sign. Sure seems like he’ll be a Laker. Emergency podcast.
Of course not. We won’t be doing an emergency for for DeAndre Aton.
The number one pick a mere seven years ago. We’ll see what he can do. If he can he can just rehab his career in Los Angeles, I guess there’s a chance.
There’s a chance.
There’s a chance. Moving on to centers. Who got paid? Luke Corette got paid. Four years and $41 million. Sounds like a lot for Luke Cornette. Obviously going to be the backup. What’s your take for Luke Cornett going to the Spurs? I like it. You know, I think he’s going to be a backup big for the Spurs. So, $10 million a year,
that’s pretty fair as we’re seeing with these other deals around the league. Can he play alongside Victor Webbyama? a little bit probably. Double big lineups are becoming more and more common. WBY likes to shoot from outside. So, the role is still there for Cornet. He has abandoned the three-point shot since leaving Chicago when Jim Boland was trying to turn him into Robert Ayrie, but it does feel like a this is a bit of an overpay, but I think a valid overpay for the Spurs. Cornet can play. He seems like a fun guy to have around, like a good locker room guy as well. He’s not going to threaten Wemby minutes wise. Perhaps they can share the court a little bit together. So, you know, they’ve wanted another big since doing the Zack Collins trade at the deadline last year. And I think Cornet is a better player than Collins. I don’t necessarily know that I’m going to want him paying $10 million a year when he’s 34 years old, but the Spurs have money. Their books are pretty clean. They don’t have big contracts on uh their ledger right now outside of De’aran Fox and I guess Vel got paid as well. Maybe Kelvin Johnson, but I don’t know if he’s a longtermer there. So, the Spurs can afford it right now at the very least.
Watching Luke Cornett in the playoffs with the Celtics and then seeing this contract, you’d think, oh, this a perfect match. I mean, he played well in the playoffs. He was bouncing around defensively. But it is that old question. Can the guy stay healthy? He’s turning 30 in a couple weeks. Happy early birthday to Luc Cornet, but he’s going to be 34 at the end of this thing. And he hasn’t played a ton in his career. He played 18.6 minutes this past season, the highest of his NBA career. So, it is a question of whether or not he’ll be out there, but he’s a very, very skilled player. And you look at the stats when he’s out there, he is he’s super efficient, and if he can bounce around defensively, Yeah. and he he makes sense whether or not he’s playing with WBY or not. He can just be their backup center and that’s it. I guess he’s the Zack Collins replacement there and Luke Cornet has shown that he’s a better player uh than Zack Collins when he’s out there. Four years 41 sounds kind of high uh but in today’s NBA
got to have a backup center.
Yeah. And a good one. Yep. And you also need to have a starting point guard. And that’s what the Dallas Mavericks got from D’Angelo Russell signing there. Two years, $13 million. Sounds like nothing for D’Angelo Russell. Six and a half per year. They just needed somebody with Kyrie Irving out and they got it.
Yeah, exactly. Right. The price is right for D’Angelo Russell here. They’re paying him basically $6 million with a player option next season. So, if he has a good year, he can go into free agency next season, which is probably beneficial to the Mavericks as well. You would like to have D’Angelo Russell playing during a contract year. So, I think that’s kind of smart. His best run offensively was playing alongside Anthony Davis with the Lakers.
Now, LeBron James is also on the court there, so that definitely helps. But, at the very least, there’s some familiarity between AD and D’Angelo Russell. You would also, if you’re a Mavericks fan, point to Russell and AD being a part of a decent defense in 23 24. They were like middle of the pack. Obviously, the Mavericks have their sights set higher than middle of the pack, but maybe the rest of the defensive talent around the Mavericks can mitigate Russell’s weaknesses in that area. They need him to chuck threes. The Mavericks are a low three-point shooting team after the Luca Donuch trade. Kyrie Irving is going to be out for the majority of the season. They’re bringing in a rookie in Cooper Flag. They’re bringing in Anthony Davis for a full season. This is a team that needs some perimeter creation. So, chuck threes if you’re D’Angelo Russell and don’t kill us until Kyrie Irving comes back. At which point, Kyrie moves into the starting lineup and Russell becomes a decent guy off the bench, which is probably where he’s best suited at this point in his career. At only $6 million, like the Mavericks didn’t have a ton of options. I probably would have went for Chris Paul would be the guy that I would have preferred. Maybe he didn’t want to be a Maverick though. So D’Angelo Russell is a fine save after the Kyrie Irving injury, I think.
And he’s an improvement on what they had besides Kyrie Irving last year
when they were healthy. They had Dante Axom really as their other guard who may not be back this season. So it is an improvement.
Nico Harrison making magic happen. Uh
fortune favors the bold task. Yeah, they’re they’re bolding it up and hopefully Kyrie Irving comes back at some point in the regular season. He’s going to be out for the calendar year of 2025. It feels like he’s going to be back early 2026. So, a couple month a couple months of D’Angelo Russell as your starting guard who was starting last year with the Los Angeles Lakers. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s totally decent. I got the Chris Paul thing. Um but D’Angelo Russell can ball and can score obviously. So, if he goes to your bench afterwards, after Kyrie’s back, it’s all good.
Yep.
Six and a half sounds cheap.
That is That’s very cheap. So, I mean, Russell, yeah, he’ll get paid again whether or not he wants to do it next season because he has a player option for that second year. Uh or wait for two more years. It’s all up to him. I guess he may be a little upset. All I got was six and a half. I mean, I guess there just weren’t many many suitors saying, “Hey, we’ll pay you 15 million or pay more or he wants to win in Dallas. Go back with I say win because I figure that they’ll be decent.” Or go back with Anthony Davis. I don’t know what the idea there is for D’Angel Russell, but I guess he didn’t have suitors.
Yeah, he didn’t have suitors. Uh the Nets were the team with the most cap space, his previous team. Uh, now at this point they drafted a million point guards, so obviously they don’t want Russell as their development piece going forward. I guess he could have like hopped on with the Clippers in a same sort of a deal. Uh, perhaps something cheap, but uh, probably the most opportunity for him is in Dallas. And the best chance to kind of rehab his value and his image around the league. You play with this team, they make you look serviceable on defense. you help lead Dallas to I mean they’re dreaming at the six seed right now I think would be a goal for Dallas and if that plays out they get Kyrie Irving back maybe they get a favorable matchup in the first round put a scare into a team who knows if everything clicks right D’Angelo Russell could perhaps get a bump on this salary next season if he decides to decline his player option so I think um Dallas and D’Angelo Russell probably making the most of a bad situation
yeah you mentioned the Clippers there That’s somebody that’s going to have to get a guard. And whether it’s Chris Paul or Malcolm Brogner or something like that, I’m sure we’ll see that happen over the next couple days. We’ll be back on Thursday to talk about every single teenytiny deal. We got a decent deal here for Ty Jerome. We should get to Ty Derome, who was balling in the playoffs, was dropping shots in for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was balling for, you know, something.
He was he wasn’t balling in the playoffs.
Well, he was scoring. He had some big scoring nights. Some big scoring nights. the guy just
he was a great regular season player last year. I actually the the playoffs left a poor taste in my mouth.
He had bad moments. He had bad moments.
He was pretty bad in the second round and he was a target defensively, but
that’s the thing.
He’s making less than $10 million. So, it’s hard to get upset about anything. The Grizzlies need guard depth. John misses huge chunks of time every season. Scottie Pippen Jr. I think is a good player, but it’s nice to have options. They’re saying goodbye to Cole Anthony. I do think Ty Jerome can probably play alongside John Marant in some smaller lineups uh for the Grizzlies, but good stuff. Uh you know, like I said, three years, $24 million. You’re living with that everywhere.
He was making some headlines in the playoffs when he was dropping what he dropped 21 against uh the Pacers in game one. He was helping out. Then they show that he he just doesn’t want to play defense. I mean, they they were really exploiting him through the rest of that playoff series. He had a 28-point game in round number one when they destroyed the Heat. And so, he was making headlines. I had people texting me yesterday saying, “Ty Jerome at 9 million a season, that’s nothing.” Cuz he was making uh making those headlines. Now, coming off the bench uh for the Memphis Grizzlies, he’s going to score. Um, but he can be exploded defensively and I that’s why the Cavs were say okay saying we’ll go with Lonzo Ball that they went and acquired because he’s going to be solid defensively and he’s going to keep moving uh that basketball and Tai Drome, you know, he he wants to put it upon himself and score. Uh so it seems like it’s a cheap deal for a guy who can can drop whatever you need him to drop. He can score. He could score last year. I mean, he’s got he’s had one good year in the NBA and he’s getting paid off of it, so good for him.
But, uh, I think he scored 21 in game one against that Pacer series and then 19 the rest of the series total.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I like like Ty Jerome, he can be good again next year, but you got to have two good years to prove to me that you’re actually going to be a reliable player.
Well, we shall see what he does with the Memphis Grizzlies. Moving on to a guy who started the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, ended up being traded here to Atlanta. Now he’s going to Detroit. Carris Levert. Two years, $29 million for Caris Levert. What’s your take on that?
This is too much for Carris Levert. This is the first one that I’m kind of like, whoa, I don’t know if I would have done that. He’s their Shruder replacement. Shruder is pretty solid for the Pistons after coming over midway through the season. So, I think decent insurance there. Like Caris Levert is kind of like the perfect replacement level bench guy. He can handle the ball. He’s not a great defensive player. Some games he’ll have 20 points off the bench, some games he’ll have four points off the bench. If I’m the Pistons, I would certainly rather have Malik Beasley on a deal like this, but that guy’s underneath federal investigation right now. So, I think this was kind of a scramble for the Pistons to get Carris Levert. You know, Jaden Ivy’s got to be coming back. That guy’s going to be a big second unit ball handler because Kade Cunningham is the number one guy. You want shooting around Cade Cunningham, which is why Beasley is definitely preferable for the Pistons. Circumstances have changed, however. So nice of Caris Levert or nice for Caris Levert to get paid here. Not my favorite move for Detroit, but they needed to make a move. And with the Beasley situation in flux, I guess this is the best they could do. Yeah, the Beasley situation has changed things there and they let go Dennis Shruder who was finishing games with Kate Cunningham beside him and was playing really really well. I think Caris Lever can replace that. I think he’s good enough to do that. I know he didn’t he didn’t get a lot of
storylines or didn’t do a lot with the Atlanta Hawks, but I think he’s he’s a good solid player who can create for others. Uh and and you look at Kate Cunningham and you think we just want three-point shooters around him. Mhm. And I suppose that that’s true. You want uh Malik Beasley out there and if he’s not,
get another shooter. Why would you get Caris Levert if if he’s not that type of guy? Uh he’s more of a I’m going to create for myself. But I think he he did show even when he started the season under Kenny Atkins’s offense with Cleveland. He’s a good playmaker. I think he’s he’s developed that in his uh NBA career. So I think this is a fine fine contract. And yes, it was probably an emergency. We need somebody other than the guy who’s being federally investigated. Uh very that is an odd scenario that was supposed to be replaced by a contract from the Detroit Pistons. He was supposed to get a contract and this is all happening. So here we are July 1st and he has not signed. So we will keep an eye on that. Who would you rather have? Carris Levert at $14 million or Jordan Clarkson at veteran minimum? Clarkson. Nah. Well, 14 mil. I guess that’s that’s a lot of money.
That’s what they paid him.
I know they did. They did. I mean, he’s a He’s still a good player. He’s still He can still He’s He’s not going to be a ball stopper. He’s not. He He was decent at creating for others. Jordan Clarkson can’t do that.
Sure.
So, yeah, I know if you’re comparing a veteran minimum.
Levert’s not a ball mover.
He can be.
No, he No, he’s not a ball mover. He can create off the dribble for others, but he’s not a ball mover. Yeah, this is a weird signing to me. I don’t think that the Pistons needed this type of player. They’re going to have to figure out their deal for Tim Hardaway Jr. who now has to become Malik Beasley. We’ll figure we’ll see what happens with Beasley. Uh but he was vital uh to their team. So, I don’t know. This is just unusual to me. I think you can you can find a player like Levert anytime. There are so many of these guys. Colin Ston just got traded to the Hornets. Same exact kind of guy. Yeah,
Jordan Clarkson on a way cheaper deal for the Knicks.
14 and a half million. It’s It’s weird for Caris Lever. The guy hasn’t The guy hasn’t made a difference for any team.
Yeah, that’s that’s fine. I think he was good with the Cavs off their bench. I I think he’s
They traded. They said we need an upgrade.
Yeah, they went to a different totally different position to say DeAndre Hunter, we need height. And that was that was the move that they got. But I will say Caris can replace what Dennis Shruder did. I mean, they need they need another ball handler to make things happen. Dennis Shruder again was was a guy that they desperately needed in Detroit and he again he was finishing games. So, we’ll see what he can do there uh with the Detroit Pistons. You want to bounce around?
Yeah, let’s bounce buddy.
Jordan Clarkson, as you said, let’s just start. We’ll just get that one out of the way. Minimum deal with the New York Knicks to come off the bench. Nothing wrong with that for a guy who can score.
Yep. They were playing a campaign as their backup point guard in the biggest moments against the Indiana Pacers. So, I think this is good.
Yeah. Not that Clarkson has really proven anything recently. Like, you think back, man, this guy was a recent sixman of the year winner. That was five years ago at this point that he was, but uh who knows? He’s a decent option on a veteran minimum.
Yeah, he had a couple good year a couple years ago with the Jazz, but last year was incredibly bad and he was injured. We’ll see if he can add anything at that cheap. you give it a shot. Let’s go to Taius Jones joining the Orlando Magic. One year, $7 million to be their backup point guard. What do you think of that?
Taius Jones as a backup, I love it. Tus Jones as a starter, not good. So, him as a backup I think is good. Like I said on yesterday’s show, I would like to see Jason Richard or Jace Richardson, sorry, get the opportunity as the backup point guard, but Tus Jones is really solid and steady. So, I think a $7 million deal. That’s good. He was on a veteran minimum uh with the Suns the last season. So, a pay bump for him. And at the very least, he’s a professional guy who’s going to make wide openen three-pointers. That guy is a ball mover. Tus Jones, he loves to move the ball. He doesn’t love to go inside. So, uh, I think if things worked out perfectly for the Magic, Taius Jones would be their third point guard behind Suggs as the starter and then either Anthony Black or Jace Richardson would be the backup. But more than likely, it’s going to be Tyus Jones with Anthony Black kind of like in the one two and they’re waiting for Jace Richardson, who’s a shorty and a young guy, to develop before he really has a big role, which is a bummer if you think he’s the steel of the draft like I do. But, you know, the Magic want to win now. They don’t want to win in three seasons.
They do. And that’s why they go and get this veteran type of guy who has some history playing with Desmond Bane uh in Memphis. And if you look some of those lineups, you when John Morant was out or when uh Tai Jones was just playing with Desmond Bane, some really good numbers where he was just Yeah, exactly what he what you said, moving the ball. who’s a traditional type of point guard and they want to be good and he’ll be outside shooting the three ball and letting your baneros your fronzes work in the mid-range to give them more space than what they had last year. He’s a really good three-point shooter so that seems like a smart move. Get to a quick signing here.
Yeah, new deal alert from Sham’s free agent center Gershon Yabuselli has agreed to a 2-year $12 million contract with the Knicks. Has a player option for season two. This is a good deal for the Knicks. $6 million for Yabu, who was pretty solid on the Sixers last year, but uh after they drafted Joe Broom, the writing was kind of on the wall for Yabu Cle. The Knicks are a team like we’re talking about that needed depth, and at the very least, I think Yaboole is a good depth piece. He can probably play along Carl Anthony Towns in a pinch if they need to start him for some reason. But uh I think a different player definitely than Precious Atua, but I think at least a minor upgrade probably.
Yeah. And in desperate situations where Mitch Robinson is hurt, Gershan Yaelli can fill in. I mean, you mentioned you you said that the position backup center or you said signed center, I should say.
Yeah, I don’t think of him as a center, but I guess he will be in New York. It sure feels like at times, but yes, he’ll replace Precious Ach. He had a great year with the 76ers at minimum. now getting a huge pay raise to 6 mil per season. It’s good for him. They need depth. There’s no doubt
the New York Knicks need to be bigger. Uh and Gon isn’t your backup center type of size guy. He’s 6’8.
Mhm.
Uh on a good day, I think, you know, he could be even a little bit smaller,
but you need somebody to be able to play with Cat and I think he could help. Uh he he was really good defensively, so he’ll help.
Yep. And as JG is mentioning here in the stream team, this will hard cap the Knicks at the second apron. So basically, they’ve got their team going forward, adding Jordan Clarkson and Gershon Yabusle to a team that had a good season, made it to the conference finals. All they need now is a coach to figure out when these guys are playing.
Yeah. Again, you never know who can play in terms of their bigs. So I think this guy seems like he’s entirely healthy. At least he’ll play again if Mitchell Robinson is hurt and he can shoot the three ball. So he’ll be totally different than a precious. He’ll he’ll step out and shoot that thing to give Cat and others some space and something that Mitchell Robinson can’t do. So a different type of offense for whoever their head coach is to scheme a little bit because we don’t know who’s going to coach that team.
Maybe Mike Brown.
Could be Mike Brown.
Maybe Don Staley. We shall see.
Yes, we shall. All right, jumping around. uh still here in terms of the small deals that were made. Dennis Rutder is going to the Sacramento Kings. That was surprising to see that happening.
The Kings have no plan. They’re just like, “We see a guy that we know and we’re going to bring him in.” It happened with Zack Lavine. It happened with Demar De Rozan. It’s now happening with Dennis Shruder, which uh there was some talk that maybe it would be Malik Monk would be going to the Pistons in the signing trade. I don’t know if that’s still going to happen. And I guess this is still a couple of days from being made official. All of these deals are so things can change. But yeah, the Kings said they needed a point guard and Dennis Shruder is literally a point guard, but they don’t need him. They don’t need another guy who’s a score first guy on this team. Yeah, this is uh yeah, puzzling.
Yeah. Team number 10 for Dennis Shruder again, who did really good things with the Detroit Pistons. He helped out last year. Uh, so I suppose he can help out with the Sacramento Kings and he’s he’s he’s a capable guy, but yeah, overall
nothing to be excited about.
Yeah, nothing to be excited about.
And are these other contracts all that to be excited about? I’m segueing because we just saw a big deal happen. And even though we were going to talk about Luca Garza to the Celtics and Kevin Porter Jr. and Torian Prince and Gary Trent going back to Milwaukee and Trey Jones to the Bulls and Kavon Looney to the Pelicans. We got to talk about the Bucks getting Miles Turner. Hello Yiannis ain’t going nowhere. He’s got Miles Turner playing beside him. What a surprise. Four years and $17 million for Miles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks. Pacers losing their longestterm player in Miles Turner just went to the finals and he is gone. He is going to play beside Giannis Dentoopo. What an upgrade for him beside beside him. Bucks ain’t going to be bad. I guess the Atlanta Hawks got to hope the Pelicans are going to be super bad.
I assume uh that Giannis and Miles Turner will have a winning record together. That is a surprise. 107 million bucks over four years. one of those years as a player option at the end and a full 15% trade kicker according to our man Sham Sharan. So he doesn’t want to go anywhere. He wants to be in Milwaukee. Wants to be up in the Midwestern sort of part of the US.
Milwaukee is the Midwest. Of course it is.
Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. You know, it feels more east. We’re going east anyway.
A guy not from the Midwest.
Yeah. Well, I like looking at a map and I like seeing the West. When I talk about the West, I want it to be in the West. Anyways,
this is this is farther west than Indiana.
Oh, yeah. I guess. Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyways,
and it’s right in the middle. Uh I can’t believe it. I can’t believe Miles Turner is actually not going to be on the Pacers.
Yeah,
the guy’s played on the Pacers since Paul George was there. He was in trade rumors every season. There was a trade deadline where Miles Turner was like, “Yeah, if I were the Lakers, I would trade for Miles Turner.” Which was one of the craziest things. But now, since Tyrese Hallebertton got injured in game seven of the NBA finals, Miles Turner is finally leaving. I think if Hallebertton finishes that game, who knows which way it goes. Let’s say OKC still wins the championship in game seven, but Hallebertton is healthy going into the season. I think Miles Turner is still a Pacer today would be signing a deal for the Pacers to go into the tax. They’re not a team that historically historically likes to pay the tax. So, seeing that Hallebertton is going to miss the majority of next season, likely all of next season, the writing was on the wall for the Pacers. Are they actually going to pony up enough money to keep their longest tenured guy in Miles Turner? Obviously, the answer is no. They’re cheaping out on keeping him and they’re going to need to replace him. Not necessarily for next season because it’s going to be a down year for Indiana, but for the 26 season, we’ll see where they go there. This is great for the Bucks. They’re basically getting the closest thing to Brook Lopez from a defense and three-point shooting standpoint. And he’s what almost 10 years younger than Brook Lopez at this point. He’s so much more athletic, which is something the Bucks have been lacking the past couple of seasons, I think, between Turner and Giannis. You’ve got a front court that both of them can defend the rim and switch out onto the perimeter. So, this is a great save for the Bucks to be able to bring in Miles Turner. still question marks about what they’re going to do with their guards. They did find a way to bring back basically everybody from Ryan Rollins, Kevin Porter Jr., Tory and Prince. Those guys are coming back. So, I think this is great. This is an upgrade for the Bucks to be able to turn Brook Lopez into Miles Turner. Turner’s a better player at this point in his career. He’s much younger and yeah, you’re paying him for four years, which means they want to keep Giannis around for as long as they possibly can. and it just was not feasible to me for the Bucks to go into next season, missing Lillard, missing Lopez, and having no sort of replacement. So, this is a really good scramble move for the Bucks. And I just am really shocked that Miles Turner is finally not going to be on the Pacers. This guy’s been in rumors all the time, Taz, and this one came out of nowhere. Yeah. Yes, it is surprising that Miles Turner is finally leaving because it felt like, okay, he ain’t going anywhere. They just went to the finals. This guy is Indiana. He’s been there for 10 seasons. And so you think when as soon as you say that he’s old, but he’s not. He came into the NBA just one year in college out of Texas. So he was pretty young then. He’s only 29 now. So four years if this end up ends up happening, he’ll be 33. And it feels like he’s been super durable so far in his NBA career.
So it’s not a big deal. He plays. Yeah.
Yeah, he does play. And kudos to the Milwaukee Bucks. Front office. didn’t seem like they were going to do anything. They just brought back Tory and Prince, a guy who couldn’t start for them on another two-year deal. Gary Trent, who obviously got better as the season went on, brought him back, but it felt like the same team is coming back, minus Brook Lopez. And they go and get Miles Turner, who was arguably the biggest name who was available out there in terms of free agents to play beside Jensen Koopo. So, that dude must be pumped. Now, they still lack a ball score, a ball handler and score outside on the perimeter. I mentioned the guys who who they have. It’s Gary Trent and Kemp Porter Jr. Once again, they have Koozma.
We’re going to miss I’m going to just skip over Kyle Kosma because he he he didn’t show that he was a great ball handler in Milwaukee. He didn’t show that he was a great scorer in Milwaukee. But arguably going into next season, he was going to be their second best player because Damen Lillard was out. Now they’ve got Miles Turner.
Yep. which is uh yes, definitely an upgrade. It just felt like he was going to be an Indiana Pacer for the rest of his career, but somebody was willing to pay him more. And it was John Horst again, four years, 107 mil. So at almost 27 per year, uh it isn’t a crazy amount for Miles Turner. No. when you’re looking at starting centers, he’s shown that he is a very very capable defensive player as as you said because Brooke was just lacking that ability to get up to the three-point line and guard that far. But Miles Turner can do that. He’s that good.
Yeah. Are the Bucks going to be a lot better just because they got Miles Turner? I don’t really think so. Uh but I think they would have been a lot worse if they were just saying goodbye to two starters with no sort of replacement at all. So they replaced at least one of those positions. If you’re going with Kevin Porter Jr. as your starting point guard for the whole season. I think that’s going to be tough, but maybe there’s still a deal yet to be done for Milwaukee. The Lillard for Beal is still out there. It could still happen. I don’t know if it’s smart, but it could happen. And at least Bradley Beal will be playing this season. So, I think a good thing for Milwaukee and a sad end to Miles Turner tenure in Indiana. He wanted to be a Pacer. He said so afterwards. He had a pretty poor finals if we’re being completely honest and he was the longest tenured guy there. And like I said, I think if Hallebertton makes it through the series healthy, they’re ready to go with Miles Turner probably there as the starting center again having to pay the tax. But the reality is that Hallebertton isn’t going to be there, the Pacers aren’t going to be quite as good. And their ownership is deciding to take a gap year, save some money, and see what Pascal Skiakam can bring them. So, if you’ve been holding Tony Bradley stock,
this is big time. Yeah,
this is big time.
And when they went and gave Isaiah Jackson also that uh restricted free agency ability by giving him that contract, it sure feels like they’re going to bring back Isaiah Jackson as a big center for them. It is weird to see Miles Turner go out, but yeah, you’re right. It looks like a gap year while the Milwaukee Bucks
they need a starting center. They made an offer to Eightton, right? Like
a long time ago. Yeah, they made an offer to Eightton. um which the Suns then matched. So, I wonder if they get back in the mix for him, though. That probably puts them into the tax, which is the reason Miles Turner is leaving in the first place. But, they need a real starting center. Uh Isaiah Jackson coming off an Achilles tear is not the guy, nor is Thomas Bryant, nor is Tony Bradley. So, I wonder
I wonder he was even out there. Rick Smith’s come back, baby.
Yeah. I wonder if they offered DeAndre Aton a low number. it doesn’t count necessarily against the taxes all that much. Uh because yeah, maybe they outbid
the Lakers or whoever, but maybe it doesn’t cost that much. So yeah, we could see DeAndre there. I am excited about the Milwaukee Bucks. And as we’ve said, maybe it doesn’t
raise their ceiling incredibly high, but it definitely raises their floor to make them a more solid team. They could be extremely bad if they didn’t have Miles Turner out there and you’re just throwing out what they throw out against the Indiana Pacers in round number one. as Kevin Porter Jr. is your starting guard. This makes them so much better, but they still need to go get some guards.
More news from Shams regarding this trade. The Milwaukee Bucks are waving Damen Lillard and stretching the remaining $13 million that is left on his contract in order to acquire Miles Turner. So Damen Lillard waved and stretched $13 million on the Bucks payroll divided over the next five seasons.
That’s right. So that’s what a little less than $23 million. Still got their draft moves. That’s Wow. I guess Damen Lillard is a free agent. Yeah.
He can’t he’s not going to play this season, but he’s a free agent and he’s going to still be making $113 million. So a team could maybe get him at a discount.
Yeah.
For next year, right?
Wow.
Good for the Milwaukee Bucks and saying Dame Lillard is not working for us anymore. We gave up a lot for him. We gave back so much for him, but that ain’t going to pay off anymore. It’s a sunk cost thing. He has he did not look like himself a lot this season and obviously the continued calf injuries add up here and he he just wasn’t the same Dame unfortunately. So good for the Bucks to say financially it’s time to give him up. And that is a clear sign to Yanet Koopmpo. We’re going to do everything we can to keep you happy to say we’re going to wave and stretch this contract. So 5 years of 113 mil for Dame instead of two years and 113 mil so we can do as much as we can right here, right now financially to keep you happy. That’s a smart smart move. And again, watching Dame and watching him play out there, um, he just wasn’t the same guy. So,
no. And he’s got a torn Achilles. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s the main thing.
Yeah. Like, could he could could he recover from it? I I suppose, but because these calf injuries, the the Achilles was a single incident, but the calf injury has been adding up for him uh for several years. He just hasn’t looked quite the same. I did uh you know getting into the the cap geekery here. I didn’t know that the the the release and stretch uh wave and stretch I should say counts with these these player option deals or part of a contract. But I guess it does. I guess that would make sense.
Yeah. So two years left turns into double that plus one. So it’s five years that they will be paying Damen Lillard again. What’s it 113? So, yes, as you said, you know, 20 between 22 and 23 million to not play this season, which I guess is better than paying him $50 million to not play this season.
Yeah, exactly. And even if you brought him back with that player option the following year again, I don’t think he’s going to look anything like what he did. So, they got to go get a guard. Watch I thought Kevin Porter Jr. was going to be gone because watching him start against the Indiana Pacers was not good. He wasn’t getting guys involved. He is a a guy comes off the bench and it’s all me.
I’m gonna score. Um and now he’s their guard to go along with Gary Trent Jr. Uh that’s who they got. They need to go get somebody. So I guess this this waving stretch frees up more money to go get is it going to be a a bring back Malcolm Brogden uh type of thing. Maybe.
Maybe. Yeah, he was solid for them. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to stay on the floor a ton. a Chris Paul possibility if they could do that veteran minimum Chris Paul for a year. I that’s a decent stop gap.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely.
Even a few more mill. Give it to Chris Paul. Um but yeah they they’re desperate I’m sure. Can’t think of any other vets.
Both Jones brothers are signed now that Taius is going to the Magic. Trey Jones going back to the Bulls. Uh yeah Rollins is coming back. Uh Porter I’m with you. He’s not uh you don’t want him as your starting point guard. He has moments uh and he had some decent moments in the playoffs, but uh I don’t know. I think this is a good move for Milwaukee.
Yeah, I I think that Giannis has got to be super happy and that’s what it’s all about. It’s
about making that Greek happy. He’s got to be happy really. There’s nobody else left unless you’re signing uh in terms of point guards. It’s got to be Chris Paul, Malcolm Bro, there’s an old Kyle Lowry available. There’s Russell Westbrook is still available. for us. Yiannis would love that.
A weird fit.
Um, yeah. And Dennis Trud’s gone. Spencer Denwitty, I guess, is a possibility to bring there. That’s it. Yeah, exciting stuff. Can’t believe it. Giannis ain’t going anywhere. He’s happy for now. I
He’s happy because they brought in Miles Turner and said goodbye to Damen Lillard.
They He’s They got to do what they got to do. At least they’re doing something. Yes. Yes.
They got to do what they got to do.
Yeah. Uh, and we got to do what we got to do. We got to go. Um, well, you don’t want to talk about Trey Jones getting more year more money per year than Tyus Jones. That’s crazy, bro. Yeah, man. I do feel bad. I
did. Did you see the other news about the Bulls?
No. No, you didn’t. There’s no Josh Giddy deal yet.
There isn’t.
Are the Bulls being smart here?
And
so, the Nets did the trade for Michael Porter Jr., which cuts into their cap space. The Nets were the only team that really had cap space. They could offer Giddy a big deal. They’re obviously out of the game right now. The Bulls signed a point guard in Trey Jones who was pretty solid for Chicago. I don’t really think he’s a 50% three-point shooter like he was for the Bulls in Mickey Mouse March, but they have a guard.
He’s a decent guard.
So, there are no suitors for Giddy. The Bulls could actually get a deal, could get a discount if indeed they are negotiating with him right now. Like I told you, I was worried like I would accept $30 million as a contract per year for Giddy. they can get him for cheaper just because there’s nobody else out there that can offer him the kind of contract he’s probably looking for. The fact that the deal wasn’t done this morning when I woke up, I was like, interesting, interesting. Might get a discount. We shall see.
30 million be okay with that contract. Sounds
like that’s how it is, man.
It is.
That’s how it is.
But he is a restricted free agent and yeah, he would only be negotiating with him with the Bulls. Uh it feels like who else is offering that? That’s a good point. Trey Jones had some good minutes with the Bulls. He had some good minutes with the Spurs uh this past season. He he looked like he was capable. So,
yeah, Bulls are being smart, huh?
Well, yeah. Let’s wait until Let’s wait until they make the deal. Okay. Maybe they’re just like whatever. He’s in Australia. We’ll talk we’ll talk a little bit later when he’s back on Central time or something like that. I’m not willing to give them credit until I see a small deal for bit for Giddy. But a small deal could be had and he’s worth a small deal. He ain’t worth a giant deal.
Yeah, that
we’ll see what happens.
That Trey Jones contract, we were ready to talk about it. But then you get a Miles Turner to Milwaukee. Whoa. Uh that is such a surprise. So we skipped that. We skipped Kavon Ludy to the Pelicans. End of an errand gold state there. Nigel Hayes Davis coming from Europe to Phoenix. Um and Mason Plumbley to the Hornets for one year. 3.6 mil. Those are contracts we just skipped over. Yep,
they are. Uh we’ll see Mason and Plumbley. They got centers, man. They’re going to be so much better next year. Anyway, um that’s it for us here. We’ll be back Thursday to wrap up everything else that’s happened. As we mentioned, there’s a bunch of guys available. DeAndre Aton still available.
Yeah. Uh Duncan Robinson has to sign a contract somewhere. You got big men who can shoot out there. Your Bouches, your Trey Lyles. There’s guys. There’s guys.
Guys, those are guys. There’s guys out there. Those are guys. Just a reminder, we’ll be doing a show in Vegas. It’s next Friday, July 11th at 400 p.m. in the Sportsbook at Mandalay Bay. It’s free. It’s fun. And join us. And if you’re watching on YouTube, that’s where we meet. Right below that arrow, right at the back. Yeah. I mean, it’s going to be really interesting, JD, now that I look at all those monitors that you sit at where wherever you’re sitting, you like you have a monitor in front of you.
Well, that I think that’s going to be behind us. The way it’s been described, there’s a bar and then there’s that area.
So, yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. I’m sure the gamblers are going to love every second of our of our show. They’re going to love it.
They’re going to love it.
All right, we will see you Thursday to talk more about free agency. But until then, Clipper Bros.
You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.
Thanks for joining us. And I’ve been doing a stretch provision of my own at the house. Uh I only had two eggs left yesterday. So, when I was making a breakfast burrito, I only used one egg, so I could stretch my provisions and have another breakfast burrito today. Couldn’t go out and buy some more.
I’m going to go I’m going to go it. It was too late in the day for me to know to go shopping. I was like, I’ll do it tomorrow. I got to get psyched up for it. So, yeah, I’m buying eggs today. Free agency eggs acquired. I’d love to see somebody make a graphic for it. Can’t wait to see how much they cost. Yeah, it’s an MLE to get a dozen eggs these days.
All right, we’ll talk to you Thursday. [Music]

On Tue.’s No Dunks, the guys react to BREAKING NEWS: Myles Turner is going to the Bucks as they waive Damian Lillard. Plus the Nuggets trading Michael Porter Jr. and a pick to the Nets for Cam Johnson, new deals for Brook Lopez and Clint Capela, and the Atlanta Hawks continue their strong offseason by acquiring Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard.

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0:00 Classic loading
0:15 Cold Open
2:10 Nuggets trade Michael Porter Jr. and 2032 first-round pick to Nets for Cam Johnson
12:05 Bruce Brown back to the Nuggets on vet. minimum deal
20:05 Nickeil Alexander-Walker signs four-year, $62 million deal with Hawks
29:30 Luke Kennard signs 1-year, $11M with Hawks
34:11 Brook Lopez agrees with Clippers for 2-year, $18M
38:15 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder agree to 4-year, $285 million supermax extension
40:14 Clint Capela agrees to 3-year, $21.5 deal with Rockets
46:31 Luke Kornet to Spurs on 4-year, $41M deal
49:20 D’Angelo Russell and Mavs agree on 2-year, $13M contract
53:50 Ty Jerome agrees to 3-year, $28M deal with Grizzlies
56:14 Caris LeVert agrees with Pistons for 2-year, $29M
1:00:33 Jordan Clarkson agrees to sign with Knicks
1:01:15 Tyus Jones signs 1-year, $7M deal with Magic
1:03:07 Guerschon Yabusele sins 2-year, $12M deal with Knicks
1:05:35 Dennis Schröder agrees to deal with Kings
1:06:54 Myles Turner 4-year, $107M deal with Bucks
1:15:28 Damian Lillard and $113M remaining on contract waived and stretched by Bucks
1:20:24 Tre Jones returning to Bulls on 3-year, $24M contract
1:23:10 No Dunks live show in Las Vegas
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