MIAMI TWICE? Heat Exec Hints at LeBron Reunion | If 76ers Tank, Who Gets Embiid? | OKC West Threats?

MIAMI TWICE? Heat Exec Hints at LeBron Reunion | If 76ers Tank, Who Gets Embiid? | OKC West Threats?

Paul George injured again. If the Sixers tear it all down, what would that process even look like? One Miami Heat official says LeBron James would be welcomed back to South Beach with open arms. And who is the biggest threat to a Thunder repeat out west? That’s all today on Locked On NBA. You are Locked on NBA, your daily NBA podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome to Locked on NBA. Thanks so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free. We are available wherever you get your podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. I’m Doug Branson, host of Locked On Hornets and your Shock Lock Sherpa guiding you through the NBA’s biggest stories with the help of Lockdown’s local experts. And I have two of the best with me as always from the Lockdown Heat podcast. We’ve got Wes Goldberg. Wes, Jordan Walsh got ejected from a summer league game last night. Give me your best analogy. Getting ejected from a summer league game is like that one time in college that I got ejected from a karaoke bar. I got kicked out of a karaoke bar once. That’s what that feels like. Was it for Mr. Bright Side? Cuz they had done it like eight times in a row. It was for uh Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which drops the fbomb a few like a handful of times. And um in my state of mind, I thought it was okay to go ahead and do that in a family restaurant. They really They said you hit it too hard. Had you just kind of breezed by it, you would have been fine. But you really laid in to the expert. I bleeped out all the other words. It was actually a Chili’s though. They didn’t even have karaoke that day. How did you know? The other voice that the other voice that you hear is from the Locked On Mavericks podcast. Uh sitting in for Hayes. Wes is sitting in for Matt and sitting in for Hayes from Locked on Mass podcast and locked on NBA game night. He’s day and night. He’s NBA talk 7-Eleven. It’s Nick Angstad. This is a bad day on Locked on NBA if you don’t like Nick Angstad and Wes Goldberg just taking over the feed 36 hours of us. All right. Well, we start in Philadelphia where the 76ers, they really just can’t catch an injury break at all. Paul George in the second year of a 4-year over $200 million deal. And now he’s having to have an arthoscopic procedure on his left knee after a workout injury. He’ll be re-evaluated closer to training camp. Uh, Nick, you talked about this on locked on NBA game night alongside Gavin Shaw, and you also cribbed one of our staple segments, How Cooked Are They? Uh, so we can’t play that game. I do expect a royal royalty check in the mail pretty soon, though. Uh, you and Gavin Shaw both agreed that the Sixers are somewhere between done, well done, and open the front and back door to let the smoke out and take the fire alarms down. So, if that’s the case, Nick, should they explore tearing things down at some point, whether it’s before the season or during the season? And and what would that even look like if they tried to do that? Explore it. Yeah. They should be Daryl Moore should be on the phone every single day calling about these two guys like, “Hey, is there any chance? Would you want to take a chance on these guys?” And I start to think through some of the teams and you’re like, “Well, unless a you know, a a Wizards gets a little desperate and they’re like, “Well, we got some we got some, you know, some vets here. Maybe we just swap some of those and maybe we get lucky and Paul George is actually healthy. Or the team that I think about, what are the Kings doing? This is This feels like a Kings move where the Kings just go, you know what? Let’s take a chance on Joel Embiid. Let’s see how this Let’s see how this goes. Maybe he plays next to Sabonis. Maybe they’re done with the Sabonis experiment. Who who knows? That’s the only team where I’m like, maybe that’s just crazy enough that it just might work because it might work for us. Yeah, the Sacramento Kings is where I went to. And you could talk about the Sabona. You could talk about like the actual team parts of this. It just feels like something Sacramento would just do, right? It doesn’t need to make sense. We don’t have to talk them into it. It would just feels like something that they would have to do. But in terms of the 76ers, I don’t know that they should explore tearing this thing down. They don’t own their 2026 first round pick. Or rather, it’s top four protected owed to OKC. So, they don’t own their 2026 pick unless it falls into the top four. They don’t really own their 2027 pick either. And so if they did want to tear it all down, they would have to hit this tight window of being very bad right now very quickly. So bad that you ended up in the lottery and ended up getting one of the best four picks in the NBA draft in the lottery. And as we all know for the 76ers, all of their plans always go swimmingly, right? Like they never fail on any of their plans. So, if you’re the Sixers, that tight window, that’s a really tough thing to hit. But aren’t you just trying to get out of the the aprons? Like, aren’t you just trying to to to clear up that money for the future? To me, I think it’s less about draft picks and more about like just clearing a cap sheet so that when your Tyrese Maxi, your uh you know, your VJ Edgecom, your Jared McCain are like ready to take control of the team that there’s stuff that you can do and are possibly doing. As of right now, we’re looking at $67 million to Joel Embiid by the time that Jared McCain like is hits restricted free agency like Yeah, I think they could do a mix of both where does it really even make sense to get off Embiid and Paul George now? Maybe just do two years, hope to catch Lightning in a bottle one of these years and then in 2027 that summer, Embiid will have two years left on his contract. PG will be an expiring. It’ll be easier to move off for those guys at that point. Yeah. Like wouldn’t it be different Wes if they had really zero future prospects? But but that’s not really the case. They’ve got McCain, they’ve got Maxi. So wouldn’t wouldn’t a move away from Embiid and George be less about what you could possibly get in return or less about even the the future draft picks and just saying, “Hey, we need to just like focus. We know this isn’t going to work.” And so now it’s just about not wasting time and getting to that that future development faster. Well, the good thing is they could do both, right? The great thing about Jolen Beat and Paul George is that they never play basketball. So you don’t have to worry about them getting in the way. Getting the time. Yeah. So like those those possessions will be there for McCain, for Maxi, for VJ Edgecom if he ever wants to play. Also, he’s getting the a quick 101 in in load management already in summer league. But um you don’t have to worry about that. And the only reason I’m I bring up the draft picks part of this too is to Nick’s point, who’s taking Embiid? Who’s taking Paul George? You might have to actually attach more of your draft picks to get off of those guys. And if that’s the case, then I don’t think you can do it. You might just be better off having them on your books for two years and then letting these guys kind of play through it. And then eventually when they are ready, you fully hand the keys over to them. All right, we shift from bad injury news to good injury news. Victor Womenyama told a French newspaper that he is cleared to return to all basketball activity. Uh Wes, what does a successful season look like for Victor Womenyama? Where do you set the bar for him this season? Well, the first thing is stay healthy, right? He’s played 71 games and 46 games his first two years in the NBA. So stay healthy is number one and then help the Spurs push for a playoff spot. That’s the other thing. Victor Webbyama at this point is capable of doing that. You look at him with Darren Fox with some of the guys that the Spurs team has. But if Victor Webama is one of the 10 best players in the league, which I think a lot of people are projecting him to be that he was 13th in EPM last year, then that is probably what a successful season looks like for him. But it starts with staying healthy. And by the way, we’re going into his third year now. It’s time for him to win defensive player of the year. I mean, he’s going to if he plays the games, right? He would have last year if he had just played the games. To me, a successful season for him has nothing to do with his play because you know what you’re going to get out of him. It’s just staying healthy and playing the games. And then I think this team should at the very least like if they do not make the playin, that is a complete disaster for for this for this team. But I think they should make the playoffs. I think they should get out of that. They should maybe be in the top six. We’re talking about D’Ang. You think about some of these young guys. If one of them hits really good, like maybe Castle takes a leap. Maybe Dylan Harper is really good right away. We saw some of the athleticism in summer league. I mean, he’s just looking really great. You got the cornet contest next to Victor Romanyama now. You’ve got some other options. And all these young guys like I just think that this team is ready to go right now because Victor Romanyama is that good. And so to me, it’s more about the team success later in the year than than his accolades because he’s going to get it. He’ll get all NBA. He’ll get defensive player of the year. He’ll get all of it if he just plays the 65 games. All right, let us know what you think on YouTube. YouTube.comLockedon NBA. Coming up on Lockedon NBA, what do we expect LeBron James to do? Will he stay in Los Angeles? Will he move on? We have an interesting quote from someone within the Miami Heat organization about a possible return to South Beach. And we have the host of Locked on Heat with us. So, we’ll get his opinion. Plus, later on in the show, we had the home run derby last night. Which teams had a home run off season? I’ll ask Nick and Wes that and more ahead on LockNBA. Today’s episode of Locked on NBA is brought to you by FanDuel. Summer sports, they’re in full swing. 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[Music] Thanks for making Locked on NBA your first listen every day. We are one of the most listened to podcast on the Locked on Podcast Network and we thank you for that. We’re now on a mission to become one of the most watched shows on the network. If you’ve been listening for a long time, please support the show by going to YouTube and subscribing. Udonis Hasslam, the Miami Heat’s vice president of basketball development, said this on ESPN’s NBA Today show during a discussion about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Quote, “I don’t give a damn who they bring to LA. That is not a championship roster right now with the LA Lakers. I do know a place where he is welcome and he will always be welcome.” Now, I’m not snitching, but that feels tamper-ish. Uh Wes, you’re our local Heat expert. Have you given much thought to the idea of a LeBron James return to South Florida if the relationship between LeBron and LA continues to go south? No, not really. I’m kidding. Obviously, obviously I’m giving that a ton of thought. Come on. Um, it wasn’t that long ago that Pat Riley said that there’s a key under the mat for him. Uh, it does make some sense. Now, I know that the easy connection to draw is LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron hasn’t exactly been making it a secret that he still admires parts of the Cavaliers organization. Um, you know, tweeting congratulations to people in the front office, being photographed there at their practice facility and all these things like that. But he also once played for Miami and I would argue had the most success of his career in Miami than he has had anywhere else. Four straight finals, two championships at the absolute peak of his career. What happened there? Dan Dan Wakey uh went on the Low Post earlier this week and asked sort of rhetorically, you know, talking about LeBron James and how hard it is just to trade his contract because he’s making $53 million. He said rhetorically, who’s got 52 $53 million in expiring salary to send back to the Lakers because they want to maintain that flexibility in 2027? The Miami Heat do. The Miami Heat literally have $54 million in expiring salary. Andrew Wiggins, Tara Rosir, they can go to the Lakers and then whatever else you have to include there, but that’s your expiring salary. The Lakers can maintain their flexibility that they want to build around Luca Donic long term and LeBron James could try to chase a championship in the Eastern Conference. I think it makes a lot of sense. So then your team is LeBron James, Tyler Herro, Bamabio. Norm Pal’s going in the trade, right? He’s got to be part of the You can keep Rose and Wiggins. That’s it. And then where are you where are you going with this team after that? Don’t ask too many questions, Nick. That’s not the point. If you’re LeBron, you say, “Look, the Western Conference, it has been rough the last two years. Let me just get to the Eastern Conference.” And you’ve got LeBron and Bam who’ve won a gold medal together with Team USA. You’ve got Hero and Norm Powell who are knockown three-point shooters. That’s the kind of team you got a dominant big man presence who can anchor the defense and shooters around LeBron. If you’re LeBron, you at least say those are the bones of a team. That’s a LeBron team. Right now, the Lakers feel like the bones of a Luca team. I need to go to the bones of a LeBron team. And then is he really scared of the Knicks and the Cavaliers? I don’t think he is. I don’t know that the Heat are better than those teams. But if you’re LeBron James, you might look at that as a real opportunity. Yeah, if you’re LeBron, you want to go to the East for sure. But I do look at the I do look at the Heat and go, well, you got Bam Adabio, you got Tyler Herro, but we have a Bam Adabiosized Tyler Herro in Luca Donic over with the Lakers. And I think that makes it just because of that makes it more of a better like winning situation. I think it would be very interesting for LeBron James if he were to return to Miami for like the idea of him returning somewhere to become part of of his like legacy when he I think a large part of his legacy was the decision. We talked about that. You you did a whole show on the uh the 15th anniversary of the decision. So much of it was about him leaving that maybe a second return to a location to help win another championship. Uh that would just to me would completely redefine the legacy. I don’t know what you think, Wes. Uh I would agree with you. I think it would be a wonderful idea for LeBron’s legacy. I I don’t see any problems with it. I don’t know why anybody It would be great too to see people react to it this time because the reaction when LeBron first went to Miami in 2010 was obviously incredibly dramatic and the burning of the jerseys and the beginning of the player empowerment era to kind of try to close the loop on it and make it almost a challenge to LeBron fans in the media in in the sense of okay, what are you going to say this time? That would be interesting to me. Nick, not one, not two. Yeah, you three returns. We might as well just let’s loop him all the way back and in 2030 we’re talking about him going back to the Lakers and then you just loop back and he’ll return to the Cavs and I mean we’ll just keep doing the cycle over and over with LeBron. I don’t think he’s going anywhere, though. I’ve always just thought that that statement was him putting pressure on the front office like he always does and that he’ll just end up staying in LA. His son plays for the team. All right. Okay. Well, if LeBron James does stay in LA, will the Lakers be one of the greatest threats to the locked on Thunder uh to the locked on thunder to the Oklahoma City Thunder repeating as Western You know what? In fact, I think Ryland Styles should get a ring. He’s He was that good this year covering the locked on thunder. Covering the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think he should get a ring. Uh today on Locked on Thunder, Ryland Styles and Michael Martin power ranked the threats out west to OKC’s quest to repeat as champions. And maybe unsurprisingly, the team that topped the list was not the LA Lakers. It was the only West team to take them to seven games. That is the Denver Nuggets. I don’t know if they’re going to be this two seed in the West because of what Denver typically does in the in the regular season, but I do think that they’re the second biggest contender to knock off the Thunder. If you told me right now that the Thunder do not get back to the finals and I had to guess what the reason why would be, I would guess the Denver Nuggets because they have the best player in the world in Nicole Joic or the second best player like they have a they have the best player in the world in my opinion in Nicole Joic. I know that Thunder fans get mad at that because they think that Shay’s the best player in the world, but either way you slice it, Nicole Joic is a system onto himself. Uh and he’s a a guy that obviously took the Thunder to the brink almost by himself with a very very very bad roster. Yeah, they’re a team with a real homecourt advantage. They can win on the road. they have the best player in the world. I’ll agree with you. I’ll take on some of the hate. Um but I think he is still the best player in the world for now. That can change, but I like them. Um I like the Cam Johnson trade. I think that overall the Nuggets, we agree. We can talk about it until we’re blue in the face, but they’re definitely the number one threat. Okay, so Ryland and Michael agree there. How about you, Nick? Do you agree that Denver is the number one threat out west to OKC’s title defense or can you make a case for Houston, one of the LA teams, Dallas? First of all, they’re taking the ring away because he’d said SJ is not the best. They’re not the best player in the world. I think that’s just disqualifying. Okay, see the Nuggets are the they are the answer. I don’t see anybody else unless every single thing goes right for the Dallas Mavericks. You have Kyrie comes back and he looks exactly like he how he played last year when he comes back from the ACL. Cooper Flag is like a fringe all-star year one. Anthony Davis plays all his games. Like everything works together super well. The Mavs just have a lot of size that is a interesting matchup for OKC because they have a lot of like really good guard defenders, but they don’t have a ton of good like big defenders. And so that’s something I think could could mess with them. But I just don’t see it. Their defense is too good. And if you put Cam Johnson in place of Michael Border Jr. and Cam Johnson actually like hit some threes and and did some stuff offensively, they may have won last year. Yeah. Yeah, and if Aaron Gordon isn’t hurt at the end of that series as well, right, who knows how that series plays out. It’s got to be the Denver Nuggets. It has to be. Jokic uh is unsolvable. He they pushed the Thunder to seven games. No team pushed the Thunder the way that the the Nuggets did in the Western Conference last year, and it’s been that way now for a few seasons. It’s Nico Yic. It’s the Denver Nuggets. You add everything that they’ve done this off seasonason in terms of adding Tim Hardaway Jr., adding uh Valenunis and it sounds like he’s going to be part of the Nuggets roster next season. Bringing B bringing back Bruce Brown. All of these things have made the Nuggets better, deeper, and I think very well positioned to make a run in the Western Conference. I still have the Thunder as the favorites, but to me, it’s the Thunder. It’s the Nuggets. You have another tier that’s maybe the Rockets and a couple other teams, and then it’s everybody else. Yonas going to be back with the Nuggets. Whether he likes it or not, he doesn’t seem to have a choice at this point. By the way, I just checked the Dallas Mavericks roster. And yes, they do still have PJ Washington. So, I have to Yeah, the Thunder Killer. He was a Thunder Killer when he was with the Hornets. You have to consider them, I think, a threat, particularly if Kyrie does get back and and healthy and playing at his top level. All right, let us know what you think on YouTube. YouTube.comlockedon NBA. Yes, we read your comments. Uh so, hit us up there. All right, coming up on a locked NBA is Bronny James breaking through in Las Vegas. He’s put some interesting performances together in summer league. We’ll hear from locked on Lakers on if it’s enough to secure a rotation role early in the season. Plus, the home run derby was last night in baseball. Who’s had a home run off season this thus far? I’ll ask Wes and Nick that ahead on Locked on NBA. Today’s episode of Locked on NBA is brought to you by Hungry Rude. Let’s be honest, meal planning, grocery shopping, it can all be overwhelming. You’ve got a lot going on between work, picky eaters, trying to eat healthy, it all adds up really fast. That’s where Hungry Root comes in. They take the stress out of figuring out what’s for dinner by filling your cart for you with personalized groceries and easy meal options tailored to your taste. Using Smart Cart technology, Hungry Root recommends groceries, recipes, and even supplements based on your lifestyle. Whether you’re dairy free, gluten-free, focused on gut health, or just trying to make smarter food choices, that’s me. That’s 100% that’s me. The thing that I love most about Hungry Routt is that there are no more last minute grocery trips or wasting time wandering the aisles. Hungry Root does the heavy lifting for me so that I can just focus on my day. Take advantage of this exclusive offer. For a limited time, you get 40% off your first box, plus a free item in every box for life. Go to hungryroot.com/lockton NBA and use code locked on NBA. That’s hungry.com/lockedonba. Code locked on NBA to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. More Locked on NBA ahead. [Music] Thanks again for making locked on NBA your first listen every day. Bronnie James, ever heard of him? He logged one of the better box score lines last night in Las Vegas. 17 points, five rebounds, five assists, and only 24 minutes of action. Here’s locked on Lakers on whether or not Bronnie has done enough to earn a small rotation role with the varsity squad. I think it’s still pretty fringy. I think it’s probably unlikely, but if you told me that they might need 15 games out of Bronny this year, um like I’d be like, “All right, I think you can get by.” I think he is for two reasons. First, I think the skill set defensively is becoming a little bit more defined. I think his confidence in terms of just making the right pass, making the ball, the feeling that he belongs out on that floor, that he is not as good as like, you know, the the everybody else in the NBA, but he can he can legitimately look around at sort of his peers, guys who are drafted in the same class as him, guys certainly who are drafted in the same round as him, and say, you know what, I am doing as well or better than a lot of you. I I have shown people that I am not just sticking around and playing because my dad is LeBron James. All right. What do you think, Wes? Has Bronnie done enough to continue to get looks with LA even if LeBron leaves? I mean, he’s looked good in summer league so far. He went toe-to-toe with Cooper Flag in that marquee game, right? Sort of, so to speak. Um, but the thing with Bronny Okay. Okay. The thing with Bronnie that really stands out with him, he knows just he just knows how to play basketball and that shouldn’t be shocking, but that is a big part of playing basketball is knowing how to play NBA basketball. He knows where to be. He makes the right reads more often than not. The shot obviously comes and goes. I do uh agree with the Keminis that defensively he’s starting to come along even though I again I think he always knew how to play defense, but now he’s kind of getting there physically with where he has to be. And you look at this Lakers roster behind Luca Donic, behind Austin Reeves, it’s Gabe Vincent who’s been in and out with injuries over the last couple years. Uh it’s it’s Jordan Goodwin, it’s Dton Connect who may not even be on the roster at the start of the season and doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of confidence in LA with him. There are minutes out there for Bronnie to grab and based on the summer league performance so far, he’s at least competing for them, especially defensive minutes. Can we get anybody that can defend? I mean, you start naming those those those players and like Luca has some good moments defensively and some that are not so great. Austin Reeves gets targeted all the time. You have Dton Connect. Like these are not all great defenders that you’re naming. And so I think there are minutes right now if I just look at this roster as it is right now. I keep waiting for something else to happen with the Lakers and until something else happens. They bring in somebody else. They sign some minimums. They they get, you know, maybe a buyout guy. I don’t know. It does seem like there’s a lot there’s like a good amount of minutes for Brody James. Like I don’t I feel like he could be in the rotation to start the season. All right. I’m pleasantly surprised. I thought you both would be adamantly against the idea, but you brought reason and rationality. Oh, I agree. I think he’s, you know, he’s he’s working his way. I just I love even if it wasn’t Bronny James, I mean the the thing that is cool to me about summer league is watching these players develop yeartoyear and and go on this sort of hoops dreamsish journey uh to to scratching and clawing their way into a G-League roster or eventually getting their their shot uh in the bigs. I mean that’s that’s the cool part of this. So what I think you have to take your thoughts about LeBron James and Bronny out of it and just say yeah like he’s earning it right now. Yeah, if there was a, you know, a 6-2 guard that could defend really well and can can, you know, hit a three and make the right pass and all that, you don’t need him to have the ball all the time. You have Luca Donic. You have LeBron James, who happens to be his father. But yeah, like that type of player is something that you would want on the Slickers team. Now, I do think that LeBron as a final act of fatherly sacrifice should say, look, you yes, you can trade me Los Angeles, but you have to put in there that Bronnie gets a rotation role. That’s it’s it’s real simple. final act is he’s going to Miami to die like well the I mean the career is he’s getting up there in in you know career years. All right, time to cross the streams and bring a little baseball into our basketball show. Last night Cal Raleigh aka the Big Dumper won Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby. First of all, Wes, is there a single NBA player with a nickname better than the Big Dumper? I don’t know, but there is a tandem that could rival that nickname. I just found about I just found out about this. Donovan Klingan and Yan Hansen in Portland are being called the Klingyang twins. Wow, that’s pretty great. I love it. I like that. Nick, can you think of any past or present? I’ll give you I’ll give you anything there. If KD had let us call him the Slim Reaper, I think that’s the only one that would have been better. That’s good. Ricky Davis wanted to be called Big Paper Daddy. That’s an old I don’t know that many people are going to even remember who Ricky Davis was. Tricky Ricky tried to score on his own goal to get a triple double one time, but Ricky Davis had if you go to his basketball reference page right now, there are like 17 nicknames. He was a former Hornet. That’s why I know this. And one of them was Big Paper Daddy. Is Big just NBA nicknaming version of Lil in hip hop where you just kind of put something after it and now it’s a nickname? We had we had big baby. We had the big ticket. It’s just just But it doesn’t work if KG is just ticket or if Glen Davis is just baby. I think you’re on to something, Wes. You figured something out here. Broke the code. Okay. Big Poppy, too. A big Poppy. Back to baseball. Uh, and back to baseball. Home run derby. So, I want to know which teams had a home run off season. Nick, we’ll start with you. It is the Dallas Mavericks. I mean, how how else? Nico Harrison’s vision just comes together and it’s looking exactly like he expected. No, but they get Cooper flag. How is that not a home run off seasonason? I was like like agonizing over what the MA’s future was going to look like after the the Luca trade. I was like, man, they have this two, three-year window of like hopefully guys stay healthy and now they have this 20 year future where you can just absolutely see what Cooper flag is going to be for this Mavericks team. Like you can name a bunch of other teams. I’m sure Wes will talk about the Nuggets and maybe the Norm Pal trade and I don’t know who else, but it’s the Dallas Mavericks. They’ve had a home run off seasonason and it and Nico didn’t even swing for it. He was he just happened to be up there and the ball just like ricocheted off of his bat when he was holding it behind him and it went out of this park. Yeah, I look the Mavericks deserve a shout out because not only with the Cooper flag thing, but as Nico Harrison says, defense wins championships. So, they went out there and got one of the best known defenders in the league in D’Angelo Russell. So, uh I I think that it’s definitely a home run of an Aussies in Dallas, just nailing it on all fronts. Um jokes aside, we already talked about Denver. Um, I’m going to go with the Knicks here for the sake of being a little bit different, but I do think that they had a home run off season. Um, the Tom Dibido firing it was I mean, I criticized it at the time. A lot of people criticized it. I think Mike Brown is a good coach for this team and might be the kind of coach that they need. And then you add the two guys that they uh acquired in the offseason. They go out and get Jordan Clarkson and Yabiselli for very small contracts. They were not out there uh swinging big for the fences. They weren’t going out there giving Nikil Alexander Walker the full mid-level exception or anything like that, but they added guys who are going to be in the top eight or nine of their rotation on very cheap, manageable deals. That is the definition of maybe not an exciting offseason, but an effective offseason. And I think those are the two guys who could play real minutes for them. Um, and for for a team that desperately needed a couple other guys in their rotation, as we saw in the playoffs last year, and they have a coach that will actually play them in that rotation instead of just five. I think people would throw the Houston Rockets in there for their acquisition of KD and moving on uh from Jaylen Green. I think people would look at the Orlando Magic and their acquisition of Desmond Bane. Maybe just what that team needed uh to to help them get to the next level in the Eastern Hornets and getting Liam McNeely. I mean, listen, that’s a sore subject for me because I was a little low on the pick and so I’ve had to eat a little Crow on locked on Hornets. I’ve had to drive up into the McNeel’s drive-thru and order a Crow burger. Um, but wearing a headband. Yeah, I might have to wear a headband for the rest of the season after I was low on the pick. Uh, he certainly looks good in summer league. We’ll seeu uh how how it translates uh when we get a little bit further on. I am interested in the Atlanta Hawks because I feel like they got a big boost in their uh NBA win total when Vegas came out with the win totals and I was a little surprised by just how many wins uh that they were projected to have. They of course pick up uh KP uh in the in the offseason. That’s that’s a little bit questionable with his health status. Uh, but what do we think about the Atlanta Hawks off season, Nick? Yeah, you get Jaylen Johnson back from injury, I think, is massive. That’s probably their best acquisition. But you add Nikquil Alexander Walker, Zachary Rich gets a year older. You get, you know, Dyson Daniels a year older who’s still just, you know, just 22. They draft Ace Newell. Like, they have done some some really good things this offseason. It seems like that team is starting to feel cohesive around Trey Young and maybe one of the first teams we’ve seen that’s like, all right, this makes a lot of sense. I like this Hawks team. I think their off seasonason was fine. I do think it was very overrated because everybody basically wanted Nikquil Alexander Walker and they ended up coming out of the Nikil Alexander Walker sweepstakes. He’s not going to start for them. He might close games for them, but I think it was a solid offseason, but they add Christophing to your point Doug like we’ll see. I don’t think a lot of people are penciling him into the starting lineup. I still think it’s a a Aneka Kongu starting just cuz you can’t rely on Porzingis’ health. And then to kill Alexander Walker is going to play a bunch of minutes. But they also lost Caris Levert who was really good for them after the the trade over from the Cavs. I think they actually won that trade. And then they they lost Clint Capella who wasn’t starting for them but was a reliable uh bench big. Nick is right like Jaylen Johnson coming back is going to be the big acquisition for them and if he could stay healthy they’re going to be better than they were last season. I still like this Hawks team, but I don’t think that they won the off seasonason. I I think it was probably closer to neutral uh considering who went in and who went out. But they are they do have an identity and that’s important. They they are taking a swing. It feels like the seventh time the Hawks have taken a swing in the Trey Young era. Like it just feels like they’re constantly like, “All right, we’re going for it again.” Really? All right, great. They just keep stepping up to the plate and uh they keep Trey Young and we keep talking about maybe they should trade him and then they don’t and then they they move the pieces around him. It’s also like the seventh front office to be dealing with them too. Like every front office like this is what we’re going to do. Yes, I can fix it. Hire me. I can fix it. All right. If you like what you heard today, subscribe to Locked on NBA wherever you get podcast, including on YouTube. Thanks so much for Wes and Nick for stepping in and sharing their expertise. Check out Locked on NBA Game Night. If you like what you heard on this episode, you’re going to love Locked on NBA Game Night. Thank you for making locked on NBA your first listen. Make your second listen locked on NBA Game Night. Enjoy tonight’s summer league action. They’re covering every summer league game every night. Be kind to each other. We’ll see you right back here tomorrow on Locked On. [Music]

Could the Philadelphia 76ers be headed for a fire sale? With Paul George’s knee injury and Joel Embiid’s long-term health concerns, Doug Branson asks Wes Goldberg and Nick Angstadt what a full-scale Sixers teardown would even look like—and whether it’s the right move given their tight pick window. Then, the panel debates LeBron James’ future, sparked by a spicy quote from Heat VP Udonis Haslem. Could King James really return to South Beach, or is this just another power play?

Next, the trio talks Victor Wembanyama’s return to full health. Wes sets a high bar for the Spurs’ success this season, while Nick has strong words about what “disaster” would look like in San Antonio. Shifting westward, the panel names the top threats to OKC’s repeat title hopes—with Jokic and the Nuggets standing tall, even after a Cam Johnson upgrade. And don’t sleep on the Mavericks, who Wes and Nick both say accidentally stumbled into a 20-year window with the addition of Cooper Flagg.

Plus, could Bronny James break into the Lakers’ rotation this season on merit alone? The guys give their surprising take. And finally, in a home run derby-style segment, Doug gets Wes and Nick’s picks for which teams truly crushed the offseason. The Knicks, Hornets, Hawks, and yes—Mavs—all make appearances in a fast-paced finish.

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