Rockets free agency can help them win West, Lakers stay still, are Knicks back? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Rockets free agency can help them win West, Lakers stay still, are Knicks back? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

path of competing and building for the future. Here’s who they added. DeAndre Aton, who the Blazers bought out and they lost, most notably Dorian Finny Smith, who you correctly mentioned, uh, Luca Loves. Luca Loves. And luckily, they resigned one time Wild’s fave and then show fave Jackson Hayes. Never been show. You guys did long stuff. No, we did not, bro. Jackson Hayes. Uh-huh. Uh, what is what grade are you giving the Lakers off season? I’m doing grades. I We didn’t really plan. We’re in a three. We’re in We’re We’re in hour two and a half, buddy. Are we doing grades? We’re not doing grades. If you’d like it, I I’d give the Lakers off seasonason a C minus. C minus. Uh, I do want to give them credit for paying 5 million bucks to move up from the 55th pick to the 36th pick. Sincerely, I mean that. I’m not being a smartass when I say that. I like when teams just be like, “Hey, we want a better second round pick and some of these other teams will just sell them, so why don’t we buy it?” So, I do I give them credit for that. I also think even though I am a long time and still DeAndre Aton skeptic, at 8 million bucks a year, he’s worth a flyer. Like, I don’t think he’s going to be I understand he has been damaging in locker rooms in the past reportedly. I I’m not as worried about that. And I think that because they missed out on some better options. They don’t seem I mean Rob Pelinka does not really seem able to pull off any type of trade that doesn’t involve Nico Harrison calling him in the middle of the night being like, “Hey, will you want Luca? Just don’t tell anybody.” He made the biggest trade, one of the biggest. He was on the receiving end of one of the biggest gifts in NBA history. You know what? I’ve thought about that a lot. I disagree. Um and the but so I don’t like two track timelines. I didn’t like when the Warriors were doing it with Steph. Now they ended up winning a title, but I think it was just No, here’s why I don’t think it’s they won a title despite it, not because of it. They didn’t win a title because James Wiseman and Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga like, “Oh, look what we turned into.” It was they won a title despite that. And I also, if I were the Lakers, I I just they have to be very certain Lucas signing the extension to alienate Dorian Finny Smith. Like that’s a very like that was Luca’s dear friend with Dallas. When he got to LA, he talked about how great it was that he was already there, right? You know what I mean? And by the way, he’s a guy that fits with Luca and does a lot of the stuff they need. So, from basketball and personal perspective, so all that stuff I don’t love. And I listen, it seems like the Lakers, you know, might want to be out of the LeBron James business because I don’t know. I guess they think they’re going to replace him with one of the five people who finished higher than him in MVP voting last year. Um, and in that case, I wouldn’t mind it if LeBron James got out of the Laker business. And I think that’s on the board, but unlikely. And so, I’ll say a C minus. Okay. Good. Good. C minus. Moving on to the Bucks. Uh Giannis, a lot of noise, but Giannis didn’t really say anything about leaving. Nevertheless, they added uh Miles Turner. They added Gary Harris. They’re waved Dame and stretched his contract over how many years? Five. Five. Five years. Uh Brook Lopez goes to the Clippers. Pat Conetan gone, but they did resign Bobby Portoris on a deal. Uh Prince and uh Trent Jr. And Gary Trent Jr. contracts a steel. I think he’s a better player than a minimum. So those are those are good deals. We’re grading this one a one to 100. 100 being you absolutely love it. One being you hate. So I don’t have a grade for this. Not a great one to buy it. You want I I don’t have a number for you because I find this I will give the number at the end of your take. I will give you a number. Okay. No problem. Uh, I I can’t remember a team doing this much for its superstar and that in this chronology like they trade for they they move all their chips in to trade for Drew Holiday and they win a championship. And right A+ all around. They then resign their aging team to defend that championship. They resign Brook Me too resign Brook Lopez. They sign Middleton longterm. They give Drew, I think, extra years. They do all those things. They might not have because the Celtics did, but whatever. They they lock everybody up. They didn’t realize, you know, they get a little unlucky with injuries. Seems a little stuck. There’s a little Giannis unease, you know, little bit of unease surrounding Giannis. Yeah. remember they were giving him pens to sign his attention. So they trade for day love it again and then right and we all said well they’re they should be the favorites in the east at the very least. That then is going poorly. They change coaches again seemingly because they thought Giannis would like it. They then trade Chris Middleton for Kyle Koosma just because they’re like maybe that’s a warm body that can help us this playoff run again for like at not the behest of Giannis but because they are just they just desperately don’t want to ever get the Giannis wants to be traded phone call and then they do something none of us thought was possible which is create cap space out of thin air by waving and stretching Damen Lillard to sign Miles Turner again just because they desperately don’t want Giannis to ever say I want to leave and I just I respect it even if I think it’s reckless and so I I don’t know that it’s smart for them long term but I don’t think they are thinking long term I think they are just thinking we want Giannis to stay here and we want Giannis to stay here forever and even if we are now making moves that make it harder for us to ever be able to build a true contender. We don’t care as long as Giannis is on the team. That’s what I like. Yeah. I thought figured you would like this one. You know what it’s like? It’s like in a uh You ever watch a romantic comedy? Sure. Why are you guys laughing? It’s just cuz your delivery is hilarious. Go ahead. You watch a romantic comedy. There’s a scene about the end of act two where they break up and then someone has to go and be like, “Don’t you want to fight for the relationship? you’re willing to walk away like Sarah Jessica Parker and Mr. Big. They’re fighting for the relationship. Is it going to work out? Probably not, but they’re fighting for it. Buy a dog. You give it a 87. Oh, I did not. Just out of respect. Uh-huh. Nuggets 2025. Is the most contemporary romantic comedy you could think of, Sex in the City? No. But there was recently an article about the real life Mr. big who used to work at Vanity Fair and he moved to a farm in New Hampshire and he loves it. Okay, Nuggets 2025 offseason. Uh Valenunis who may or may not play. These are not in alphabetical order. Bruce Brown is back on the team which I always like. Cam Johnson scorer shoots threes coming over from the Nets. Tim Hardaway Jr. reinvented himself as a marksman. So, I do like this, but I do have a question before I give my full thoughts. Do you think Cam Johnson is better than Michael Porter Jr.? Yes. So, you do think he’s a better player? I think he’s a a more dynamic scorer. And I am also influenced by the one singular time I saw Michael Porter Jr. in person where he came off far less athletic in person than I realized on TV. I know that sounds weird, but there’s stuff that I was expecting him to do. I’m like, “Oh, he just looks more limited.” And maybe I was prejudiced because I know his injury history. No, I think that probably impacted it. He looks a little bit like the Luca. Oh, what? No. Everything they’re worried about Luca, like they see more injuries coming down the track. It feels like he got a championship. He got injured this year. He fought through it. He deserves a lot of credit for that. But he’s on the back nine of his career, right? Back nine of his Michael Porter Jr. That feels harsh given his age. Um, but age and health. I don’t know. Maybe that’s I think back nine is probably too much. I think he is I think the worst thing about Michael Porter Jr. is his contract. And so I think that Cam Johnson is definitely a better value because he makes so much less money. Is he a better player? I’m not sure. Is he a better fit? Maybe because he is a better defender for sure. And if the belief is, man, Joic is going to create a floor for our offense this high anyway, we need more defenders. I just like that they have more guys that you feel like can play six minutes in a playoff game than they had before because by the end of that round two series, they had so few guys they trusted that they they needed Aaron Gordon on a torn hamstring and Michael Porter Jr. in a shoulder harness just to be able to get through that series. So, I think you could argue that they’ve had one of the two or three best off seasons of any team in the league. And in a spot where we didn’t think they were going to have a lot of flexibility. Now, the answer for a lot of these teams is if you think you don’t have a move, try to get one of the bad GMs on the phone. And they they were able to, you know, luckily Sean Marks hadn’t hadn’t blocked their number, so they were able to get that. So, love it. Love it, like it, or leave it. You’re gonna go love it. I’m going love it. Love it. Yeah. Two love it. Wow. The rare two love it in our segment. Love it, like it or leave it. Rockets 2025 offseason. The big move. Durant who was on the Rockets and then all of a sudden NBA media was like, “By the way, this trade’s not done yet.” I said, “What? We already talked about it last week.” No, now it’s a 17 trade. Have at it. Uh Clint Capella, love it. Unfortunately, Dylan Brooks add a little spark to the team. Uh Jaylen Green gone, Cam Whitmore gone. Uh Adams, Fred Vanble, and Jory Smith resigned. So, it’s time for our segment. We did grade, we did score, we did like it, love it, leave it. Uhhuh. Now it’s cash it or trash it. They usually rhyme. No. Um I I obviously love this off season. I I don’t understand why they got rid of Cam Whitmore. I think he was worth more than two second round picks. Now, the answer might be uh not enough minutes. Now, but the Capella here’s I I like it for a lot of reasons. One is I think they can win the West. The other is like I I am valuing Kevin Durant at the level of okay, is he pee Kevin Durant? No. Is he still awesome? Yes. It’s why so much of the conversation surrounding what’s LeBron James worth at this point was is so mind-boggling to me cuz he’s better he was better than Kevin Durant last year. I expect him to be better than Kevin Durant this next year and I thought giving up a 20 point per game score in Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks and the 10th overall pick which turned into Malawatch was a great deal for the Rockets like because they added Kevin Durant. Um, I also like the Clint Capella signing is interesting. Can I tell you why? Yeah, I’d love to hear it. So, it seems unnecessary. Shingun’s your center and you have Steven Adams. Yeah. And you just gave him money. Is the Clink Capella signing because hey another good player or is it well if at some point you know we have to include Shingun in a trade for Giannis we are going to need another center and that that is that they are they have almost too much depth because they think they might be doing a 41 trade at some point down the road. That to me is certainly interesting is certainly like on the board of possibilities. The and the Fred Van Bleet contract allows that to happen. I mean that’s interesting. The other idea is that Eay loves defense. Shingun’s defense has gotten better but not really where it needs to be and Adams is available half the time. Okay. Well, yeah, if it’s but the signing Clint Capella because you’re not because Stephen Adams isn’t that reliable doesn’t to me jive exactly with giving Stephen Adams a contract extension. And again, I like I think Clint Capella is a good signing and by the way he started his career with the Rockets. Now he’s back with the Rockets. That’s always cool. I I but I love their off seasonason is the short version. I love their offseason. Uh fin unfortunately we are not going to get to all 30 teams. Uh we are going to do an extra episode of hold them or fold them after the show on the podcast exclusively. Knicks off season have a new coach Mike Brown also added Jordan Clarkson uh Yabiselli and uh the 51st pick uh hold him or fold them on the Knicks off season. I I like the off season. I I think Yavelli gives you, you know, maybe 8 minutes a game in the playoffs, which is fine. Like the And that might be too high, but but he has big game. He has big moments. Yeah. And he adds toughness. Clarkson is just a better version of campaign where it’s like, ah, I can’t really trust you and you’re not good at defense, but you might score 12 points in a 4-minute stretch and that can be helpful. And remember how I said I thought they wanted to hire Jason Kidd because it could be bait for Giannis. Giannis. This is a good one. Who did Mike Brown go to the finals with? It was it was LeBron. So I just find that interesting. And I think Mike Brown is a obviously very different coach than Tibs, but he is an off, you know, Tibs while Tibs’ team’s offenses were actually better than people thought, but it’s, you know, Brew had his complaints made the wrong criticisms about the heliocentricity of them. He was known as defensive coach. Mike Brown more known for what he can do in the offensive end. So, I’m excited to see what that can look like. But the Knicks, as presently constituted, should be the favorites in the East. And if this is LeBron James Bade, it’s even better. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey.

Nick Wright and Kevin Wildes break down the offseason of multiple teams, including how the Houston Rockets can win the West after their Kevin Durant-led free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers staying somewhat put and if the New York Knicks are back by hiring Mike Brown as HC.

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About First Things First:
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Rockets free agency can help them win West, Lakers stay still, are Knicks back? | FIRST THINGS FIRST
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