The James Ham Show – What To Takeaway From Kings SL Performances

The James Ham Show – What To Takeaway From Kings SL Performances

in our man uh James Ham here. Kind enough to join us here uh an hour early because of some appointments he’s got going on today. Hammer, I just posed the question like we’ve we’ve allowed ourselves to fall in love during summer league and that can be dangerous. Falling in love can hurt. We have fallen in love so many times and we have had our heart broken so many times. But right now it feels like people have fallen in love with Maxine Rol with Nick Clifford and we are just holding on to the start of training camp to see where this new relationship might take us. No, I’m with you. I mean for me watching Nick Clifford play like you just keep upping the player comp. Like every time you watch him you’re like oh he’s got that in his bag. Um I you know in this game uh he’s he’s got 12 points or something like that, but eight assists, five rebounds, like everything he’s doing is something that that is repeatable at the next level, you know, and when the spacing is better and when he’s a fourth or fifth option on the court, you can just see how much better he’s going to look when he’s not the focal point of the other team. So, I think everybody has uh you know, watching him play, everybody should be pretty excited just because the confidence, you know, everything that he does again just looks like an NBA player and and that’s a good sign. Rainol, he’s going to have ups and downs. You know, he needs to get way stronger. You can see that. Um he needs to be better at rebounding, uh better finding a body as a rebounder. Um, but overall I I think you know we’re watching like the the early stages of two guys who should be in the Kings rotation at least by mid-season and with Nick I would say on day one you’re a little more maybe maybe maybe skeptical is the wrong term but you’re a little are you a little more it sounds like you’re a little more reserved with uh with Maxim right now. Yeah. I mean I’m just being realistic. I mean, he’s he’s going to have some good moments, but he’s also going to have some moments where it’s like, look, you either have to be bigger, stronger than everybody around you, or as a big man, you got to be real quick. And he’s caught in between those two things right now. And I think, you know, the next, you know, 8 to 10 weeks is going to be super important for him to grow and learn and get and just get better. and the Kings uh they’ll have a plan for him coming out of summer league. But I I do think that, you know, again, bringing in a guy like Drew Eubanks to compete for minutes with him, that’s a good thing. you know, bringing in a guy like Dario Sarish, if he if he makes a team, whatever, if he’s going to be there, like having these guys there to compete with him for minutes, it opens a door where it might not be the first week of the season or the first month of the season, but there could very well come a point where you see some of those back looks like a player who is really, really smart. I mean, they were talking to him on the broadcast a few a few minutes ago while you were on the air, and you know, he’s a computer science and math major at Stamford. So, that tells you he’s he’s a really brilliant dude, but he’s also he’s yelling, he’s screaming, he’s he’s on top of his teammates uh early on, and I think that’s great, too. Uh you just want him to be able to maintain that when he’s with the the parent club and he’s getting minutes. uh you know he’s got to be able to be a leader from the back line. We talked a few minutes ago, you know, Keegan Murray came up in a conversation with Chris Beerman earlier, Hammer, and and one of the things I think when you look back at at Keegan Murray’s rookie season, which was really good. There were uh a lot more ups than downs. He was as steady of a rookie as I think maybe we’ve ever seen in in in uh in Sacramento. And I I attribute part of that to being he had a very clearly defined role from the the moment he stepped on the floor. Like I know he didn’t start the very first game, maybe he started the second one that he played or whatever it was, but like he had a very very clearly defined role. And I think that played a part in the way that that rookie season went. I’m fearful that neither Nick or I’m positive James is frozen, right? like I just continue to talk like like James is I think James is going for moments of I hear you right now. Okay. As long as as long as James hears me that’s fine. Um I one of my concerns hammer with Nick and and Max both is while I think both of those guys have roles with this Sacramento Kings team. I don’t know how clearly defined that they are. I think that’s something both of those guys have to work through. That’s something that Doug Christie and his coaching staff have to work through and that to me creates a situation where you probably have um a little bit more ups and downs here in this rookie season for those guys. No, I I mean that’s a it’s a really good point, you know, but I I would actually look at the role that that Keegan had in his rookie season and why can’t that be a role that that uh we see starting lineup most likely, but I still see that as like it that can be his role. Keep it simple and then slowly build from there. Um, I actually think because of his age, because of his years of college, you know, just Keegan came in as an older rookie as well, but like a 21-year-old rookie, um, but with only two years of college experience. Nick comes in with five years of college experience. Like, it’s not just that he’s 23, it’s that he’s 23 with, you know, 160 games or something under his belt. It’s something crazy. So, um, you’re expecting him to be taking it to to be able to take on more at a younger age, uh, as far as, you know, like whether it’s defensive, uh, questions or whether it’s, you know, hey, we need you to be a little bit more of a distributor. Um, I think just naturally he’s a great rebounder for his position. He’ll be able to do that. I think he’ll be able to hold his own defensively at the small forward or at the shooting guard. Um, and to be honest, I think he could average 10 points a game as a rookie. You know, getting above that as a rookie coming off the bench where he’s likely going to be won’t be the easiest thing to do, but I do think that there’s plenty of room for him um to grow and to know what his role is, but to slowly be able to take on more and more. And the one thing I’ll I’ll say is a lot of times when you see rookies who try to do too much, um, you you see it right away. Like, but when I’m watching Nick Clifford play, it doesn’t feel like anything he does is too much. It feels like he’s playing within the confines of of the in the flow of the offense, the flow of the defense, like he’s just playing basketball. And that’s a good sign for the Kings because when a player, you know, again, looks like they’re doing too much and you can see it right away and, you know, forcing the issues, uh, which a lot of, you know, again, not to single out Devin, but a lot of I just watched him throw up an airball on a step back three, like, man, you’re doing too much, you know, like, let the game come to you. and and Clifford, even though it’s like his fourth summer league game, you see this like calmness and ease to his game, um that, you know, again, I think we’ve seen from certain rookies throughout the years with the Kings. Um you know, Keegan certainly had that calmness, that maturity as a rookie, but also, you know, like look at Tyreek Evans. He was phenomenal as a rookie. Um you know, he clearly, but again, he was doing too much a lot of the time. Um, but you still understood how good he was like right away. I think we’re going to like the I don’t know the legend of Nick Clifford is going to grow here and I think he’s going to be a really really solid rotational player, maybe even a starter down the road. Yeah, Nick is doing that thing again. He’s having a big quarter and he’s up to 19 points to go along with those eight assists uh that you referenced when we started this conversation. He’s at 19 uh five rebounds, eight assists, one turnover uh for Nick on eight of 14 shooting, man, in his 28 minutes. And the Sacramento Kings are up six with 2 minutes and 53 seconds left. One thing you talked about the the the conversation with Max earlier, Hammer, um one thing Kings fans got really excited about was he’s talking about, “No, let’s go win summer league.” Like, we’re here. He’s just I don’t you guys shutting down. That’s fine. Let’s go. Let’s go win summer league. And I think Kings fans will always love and appreciate that level of competitiveness competitiveness and fire above virtually anything else. Yeah. And to be honest with you, Doug is going to appreciate it. Like Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, Doug is over the moon excited about the way his team is playing right now. And it’s not whether they’re hitting shots or not. Everybody loves the fact that the Kings came in shooting like 42% from three and Nick Clifford came in shooting 70% from three in the first three games. Um that’s not sustainable, I don’t think. Uh but no, but it’s the style of play and the grit that they’re playing on defense where everyone is just talking about how well they’re playing defensively and that’s something that Doug is hoping to that will carry over. You know, these guys aren’t going to get to play this type of minutes ever. uh in in this season. Um you know, there might be a couple of games where Devin Carter or Isaac Jones or or Nate Clifford play, you know, heavy minutes, but as a group, this group, you’re not going to expect them to play this type of, you know, like time on the court together. Um but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re going to be in Sacramento. They’re going to be playing against each other. They’re going to be batt battling all through the next 10 weeks building up to training camp. And in that time, um, when the veterans do come in, they’re gonna they’re going to see the level of play from these guys and the intensity that they’re playing with. And if guys aren’t playing to that intensity, they’re not going to play. They’re going to get pushed to the side. If you don’t want to play, uh, what Doug is, you know, trying to build this culture of strong physicality, uh, you know, defense talking, uh, hoisting up threes, but also, you know, the beautiful game that Doug always talks about, sharing is caring. um all of that stuff. If you’re not willing to do that, you’re going to find yourself out of the rotation really quickly. And I I think that that’s, you know, they’re trying to establish a culture uh that’s unique to Sacramento, unique to Doug Christie, but you know, that mirrors some of the cultures you see around the league, whether it’s, you know, the Houston Rockets who play extremely hard, the Memphis Grizzlies who play extremely hard, like those teams that that don’t give in and make you play a full 48. and and that’s something that you can establish in the summer league that you can carry over in the buildup to training camp and then into training camp. Um I’d also say they’re pushing the ball a lot and they’re they’re also they’re grabbing rebounds and and shooting out long outlet passes. That’s not something we’ve seen from this Kings team since, you know, the Dave Jagger second year where they had the fastest team in the league for about 85% of the season until they slowed down at the end. Um, I expect this team to run and so maybe Doug is a is a coach that is willing to go, you know, nine or 10 deep and not limit his rotation like Mike was always uh like wary of doing. And that’s a that’s that’s kind of another component to this upcoming King season that a lot of us are asking questions about is we don’t know exactly what type of coach Doug Christie is. I don’t know if Doug knows exactly what type of coach he is. last year, you know, he did a fantastic job, but last year was surviving. It wasn’t about finding your style. It wasn’t about doing like Doug was surviving thing after thing after thing. First, it’s taking over from Mike Brown, trying to figure out how to get that team on track after losing six straight. He loses his first. It’s it’s seven straight. And then they’re able to get going. Actually, I think his his loss was the six straight. Then they won, you know, seven in a row. I think it was 10 of 11 or 11 of 12 or something like that. Then you have the whole De’Arren Fox situation. Then you try to integrate Zack Lavine and he’s he’s dealing with so much. I don’t know that he ever had the opportunity to find out who exactly he is as a head coach just as much as these players have an opportunity, you know, this off season to kind of grow together, gel together, work out together, you know, refine their games. Doug has the opportunity to find out exactly what he wants to do as a head coach. And you mentioned seeing things that we haven’t seen, you know, uh, in terms of ball movement, in terms of, uh, pace since Dave Jagger was here. It’ll be interesting to see how much of that hammer uh, DC takes with him into the start of the season. Yeah, I I will tell you this, Doug never understood why they slowed it down. Like never understood like why you have a Ferrari as a point guard and you got him in third gear the whole time. Like it was frustrating like as as Doug was a commentator. while well while an analyst while he was watching the games and stuff. Uh you know again I spent a lot of time with Doug sitting watching games together and his prevailing thought was always like why are they not pushing the tempo? I’m intrigued too to see what kind of uh because what we’re talking about is you know again Doug said it so many times last year he was trying to like fix an airplane while it’s in the air. like trying to keep the airplane, you know, on in the air while flying to the next destination and not having the thing crash and burn. And I I think that there is something, you know, like to being a leader of men and sort of what he did to to keep the thing on the right path. Um, but I I totally agree with you when we don’t know what Doug’s like offensive identity is going to be. Uh, what his full-fledged defensive identity is going to be. It’s one of the thing to say they’re going to play hard, they’re going to play physical, they’re going to give second and third efforts and all that stuff, but are they going to be like uh are they going to have a Horns offense that, you know, super heavy on the pick and roll? Are they going to have a a flow offense? I will tell you Doug um he was really really close with uh Pete Carrill and like for for years but they kept in touch for you know until Pete Carrill passed away a few years ago. um they were always always super close and they talked all the time about the the ideas of basketball. And so a lot of what you get from when you do talk to him about it, it’s it’s almost like basketball abstract. It it’s thinking about the game and and how the flow of the game should be, how um you know, how you should be with your teammates, the type of screen that you should set, uh you know, how to roll to the basket the right way. all of these little finer nuances of the game which he’s really really uh like that’s something that he puts he pushes on players so much you know like the idea Pete Krill told him you know they worked on behind the back passes and people are like why are we doing all these behind the back passes he’s like well because sometimes a behind the back pass is the right pass like you’re able to shield your body shield the the defender away from the ball go behind your back and and open up a running lane to a player that you can’t do while you’re facing the other way. And so there’s all of these nuances to the game, but how does that work within a structure of an offense, the structure of a defense, and what is Doug going to be known as? What type of, you know, sort of again offense are they going to run? Will it look like what we saw from Mike Brown’s offense, which was realistically Jay Triano’s offense, or will it look like something more from, you know, his time with Rick Adelman and sort of the Princeton style with the high posts? Like, we don’t know yet, and we’re going to have to wait and see what that looks like. And Doug may not know either, but I think the true hallmark of a great coach is Doug may have an idea of what he wants to do as a head coach and how he wants his team to play, but you’ve got to cater that to your roster. Like you you talked about Doug, the analyst, you know, referencing those teams like, “I don’t understand why, you know, you’ve got you’ve got a Ferrari and you got him in third gear this whole time. Why did you stop moving? Why did you stop moving? You don’t have the Ferrari anymore. Like you have a a different type of team. You have Demar Rose and you have Zack Lavine. Everyone talked last year about, you know, Doug would talk openly about how many threes he wanted the the the Sacramento Kings to shoot. And Kings fans would be like, “Well, you’re not going you’re never going to hit that number because you got Demar D. Rose in there. You’re only going to get, you know, two, maybe three from Damonte Sabonis on a game-to-ame basis.” So, the hallmark of a great coach is having an idea of what you want to do, then recognizing I might not have the roster that can execute that and then adjusting. And Doug Doug might have to build his first year coaching style off of what exactly he could do with this roster. Yeah, it’s it’s kind of a bummer though because you would hope that that they would be able to adjust the roster accordingly to get the players that might fit like some sort of flow offense. Um, so then that way, you know, when they do make changes, it doesn’t feel so dramatic because I think that’s the one thing like everyone knows like there’s there’s nothing wrong with with what Dear D. Rozan does as a player. I mean, he’s efficient. He’s incredible. He’s going in the Hall of Fame, you know, six-time all-star, uh, top 25 all-time scoring list. Like, what he does is really spectacular. And there are games where, you know, the Kings would have lost by 20 without Demar Rosen. But at the same time, you you have to, you know, see what his impact is on the rest of the players and how do you build a team around that and how do you how do you limit sort of the Demar De Rozan effect? Because again, you have Demar for one season and maybe if you want him for a second season, but at that point, he’s going to be 37 years old and and might not want to play basketball anymore. And so, how do you design a team around players that may or may not be there? How do you design a team around one of the best passing big men in the NBA with the understanding that there may come a point where Damon Sabonis isn’t on this team? And so it’s a constant battle to like to develop your own identity as a coach, play to the strengths of your players like what you’re talking about, but also find the players that fit the system so you can succeed in the way the style of play that you want to play. And I I think it’s going to be a constant battle until they sort of get this roster not just right, but on the right path. And I I think that’s what most of us have been asking for. It’s not it’s not that you go out there and have, you know, again, the Clippers roster where you have, you know, five allstars or six allstars on on your in your rotation. Um it’s it’s about getting a player that makes sense for what you’re trying to do as a team. And that’s all you know it’s it’s like again I think all of us we weren’t sitting here pining for them to go get uh you know the best player at you know even male Bridges like right everyone would have loved Muel Bridges but it was with the understanding that going out and getting male Bridges cost you five first round picks you know it’s more like hey you know this Cam Johnson kid fits the bill like he knows how to play the position he might not be as good as as a Mikuel Bridges uh or an OG and Anobi, but he’s still the type of player that this team needs. And I think that that’s where, you know, it it’s kind of it’s tough for Scott because he’s got a lot of cleanup to do. And he’s got to figure out how to bring in these pieces that were never quite uh brought in to finish off the original roster. And now the roster is going to be completely different because you traded away the best player. And so now you’re rebalancing the entire time trying to figure out a way through like a very very dicey situation. Uh shout out to the Kings and Cavs who stretched that final two minutes to last as long as humanly possible. Uh the game is finally gone final. The Sacramento Kings win their fourth straight summer league game. They are 4-0 uh beating the Cleveland Cavaliers uh 94- 86. Nick Clif Clifford winds up finishing uh with 19 points, seven rebounds, and nine assist. Uh Maxine Rainol finished with 10 points uh in his 23 minutes of play. Uh Isaac Jones finished with 17 points. Uh and Devin Carter 11 points, six assist. Uh Devin and Max led the team uh with four turnovers. I don’t I don’t want to be overly ne I thought Devin stunk today, man. And maybe and maybe it doesn’t matter. I I I don’t know. Devin Carter is not this team’s backup point guard. He’s not this team’s emergency point guard. He’s not this team’s point guard in any way, shape, or form. I don’t know what he is here to do for this Sacramento Kings team, but I know it is not that. Yeah. I mean, it’s so tough. Um, watching him, you know, Kyle and I were discussing this earlier. Uh, the question was like, who was it? Who were we uh hoping would have a better game or that would um, you know, sort of come out of this looking like, you know, the better player type deal. and between Devin and Meek and I I you know like I want to see which one of them takes over as the point guard, which one of them gets in the pick and roll. Which one of them finds their teammates in the corner and or sets up the big man for for the dunk? You know, which one like has that it factor as a potential, you know, like not primary distributor, but a distributor. And what did Devin finish assist-wise for the game? Uh he finished with six assists in this one. Six assists, four turnovers. Yeah, I’m going to guess that four of those assists came on lead passes to a guy who was cherry-picking. And that’s okay, you know, because you you need that as well. But that doesn’t say primary ball handler. That says like grab a rebound, which he’s a great rebounder for his size. grab the rebound, hit a lead pass, and go from there, that’s really a like a good attribute to have, but when you saw Nick Clifford finish with nine, and they’re all kinds of different assists. It’s finding guys under the basket, it’s it’s finding guys in the corner, it’s finding guys in the pick and roll, you know, the lob to Reolo. Uh like all of those things, they show you that he can be a primary ball handler in in a pinch. And that was the step we were hoping that Devin Carter would take somewhere along the way in this uh summer league. But it’s also where you see that his natural instincts have nothing to do with being a point guard and and again he can throw a bomb outlet pass that you know drops from the ceiling like his three-point shot and looks really good, but where are you at in a basic offensive set? And when you get to the key, do you have any idea what you’re doing or are you just getting to the key and then pivoting on two on one foot the whole time? And I I know he did have a a nice uh find. He found um Isaac Jones for a dunk at one point. Um but it’s just the consistency of it. You know, his head isn’t up as a player. His head is down because he he wants to score for himself. And I I told Kyle this the other day, like I I think he’s a lot more Camp Thomas than he is, you know, any kind of point guard. And, you know, again, those types of players like that, they end up getting assists, but they end up getting assists because, you know, two guys shift over to them because they keep chucking and they know that they’re not going to pass, and then all of a sudden they hit a pass that, you know, finds a guy that’s wide open. So, it should be interesting to see what happens. But, uh, you know, I I definitely think we’ve seen Nate Clifford consistently put up 18, you know, finish like he’s he’s averaging 18.3 points per game. He’s got like between 17 and like 21 points every game. There is no fluctuation. His rebound numbers are solid. His assist numbers spiked in this game, but I came in averaging 3.7 assists per game, and all of them are like between three and four assists per game. So, I I like the consistency of action and and what we’re watching on the floor. It matches the stat line perfectly. You see a competent rebounder. You see a competent ball handler, a competent distributor of the basketball, and a very confident confident scorer, and that’s all good. Uh we got more time with James Ham. He joined us an hour early uh to talk summer league basketball, to talk Kings basketball. We’ll continue to talk Sacramento Kings 4 and 0 so far in summer league. We’ll talk more about this game against Cleveland, more about Nick, more about Devin, more about Maxim Reno when dealing with Casey with James Ham. Continue here on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. I’ll run to the restroom, James. I’ll be right back. Yeah, I’m going to switch Wi-Fi everybody. I’ll be two seconds. Yeah, it I I’ll switch. Hello. Is this thing on? All right, I’m back, everybody. I’m on my other Wi-Fi, but it doesn’t look any better. I don’t know what the deal is today. Maybe it’s because I’m watching the game. Maybe if I shut the game off. Drew Timmy is second in scoring in summer league. There we go. Maybe this helps. Fingers crossed. I’m at one bar. I was at one bar with my other Wi-Fi as well. I don’t know what the deal is. Uh the serial connection. Uh does Deon even get Hey, like he’s going to have a tough time getting minutes no matter what. you know, the easiest pathway for him to get minutes is if the Kings pull off a trade and move on from u from Malik, but man, Dennis Rutder, Malik Monker are going to play major minutes at the at the one and their minutes are going to bleed over into the two where you have Zack Lavine and Keon Ellis. Those minutes are going to bleed over into the three. You know, this is like a never- ending cycle of moving players around. I’m really hoping that Isaac Jones gets an opportunity because I’ve really enjoyed watching him play and the dude just has great balance and hangs in the air. Yeah, I would blame the kids, but I don’t Maybe they are streaming something upstairs. I I don’t know. I don’t think they’re playing video games, though. Um, sure. For the right player. Okay. Like if the Kings traded Monk and Carter and a trade package for a small forward, I could easily see them um going out and and trying to sign uh Russell Westbrook, if he’s still available at that point, and having him as the backup. You guys don’t mind, hit the thumbs up for us. Yay. Oh, Jaylen, we lost the pug. He’s not using our bandwidth. That was about Oh, man. two months ago now. We’re back here, James. All right, man. I step out real quick, come back. James is in 4K. Goodness gracious. James is crystal clear now on the screen. It was you were having a your internet was having a Devin Carter like day uh first few minutes of that that conversation. But uh now you look like the Sacramento Kings who are 4-0 here uh in this summer league and hell appear to be going attempting to win their third summer league title, man. And and why not? What a what a boost that would be for you know one thing that we haven’t talked about Hammer in our excessive praise of guys like Nick Clifford and Maxine Reno is that those guys are the first draft picks of you know this new front office with Scott Perry BJ Armstrong this this this new front office you know that took over following the season didn’t have a pick leading into the draft didn’t have a first round pick uh leading into the draft and you know by very very early appearances seem to have landed not one uh but two guys who could potentially make an impact on their team. Man, what a what a feather in the cap that would be for this new front office. Yeah, I mean like look, if you find two rotational players um when you had no first round pick and you you were able to trade in um that would be huge. I mean this team needs it, right? I the Kings they lost Jake Larabia they lost well I mean at this point Trey Lyles does not appear to be coming back uh they moved they moved on from Yonis Valenunis in what amounts to a salary dump um like they’ve lost some depth here right and so adding depth pieces uh you know sure you can try to go out and sign players in free agency um but even like a a real basic signing like Drew Eubanks like that’s fine and all, but that’s not going to be the difference between you winning like two more games. Like somebody else has to be able to step up. And you know, again, if if Nate Clifford becomes a player who plays gets 16 to 18 minutes a game as a rookie and starts showing some major promise, uh it also it allows you to do something crazy like maybe at the trade deadline you do move on from a guy like Demar. uh maybe you cash in whatever value that you can get out of him or you you get a player who’s under contract longer that makes sense for your roster build. Um if you feel like he’s ascended to a point where you can install him into into a lineup. I’d also point out like we mentioned this before but Scott Perry has done some really good work in the history of his drafting in the 20s. You know it doesn’t has he made some mistakes? Sure. you know, like Kevin Knox, uh, not a great draft pick, but he also drafted Aaron Gordon in, uh, when he was with Orlando. like these are players that he’s hit like high end of the draft, but also he found Emanuel quickly at number 25, you know, and that’s what you’re kind of hoping that that he won’t turn into Emanuel quickly. But that level of player, if you can find that level of player in the 20s, then you did a great job and your scouting department did a great job and and not only that, but you made a decision that that made sense. Uh because I think a lot of times that’s been one of the knocks on on the money and Wes uh sort of like their era was like why do you keep drafting point guards? Why do you keep drafting undersized players? Why do you not address like the elephant in the room? And you know, just the fact is there was always an elephant in the room. Like how why do you not have a 6’8, 6’9? Why do you have to go out and get um a Moharkas or a Kazy Aala or a Chimo uh Monki? Monki. Yeah. Why Why are you going out and getting these players um but not the better versions of those players, you know? And that’s tough. I mean you want to you want to grow your players and you want to be able to you know maybe develop an Isaiah Crawford Isaac Jones but at the same time like there is a way in which you go get higherend versions of those players whether it’s in the draft or free a free free agency and uh they just they didn’t address those situations like time and time again. Do you think the Kings tried to because it felt like a I don’t know six weeks ago we we actually would regularly through the offseason kind of have fun with this question like is it a foregone conclusion that the Sacramento Kings are trading Demar De Rozan? Is it a foregone conclusion that Demar De Rozan is playing somewhere else uh other than Sacramento? And the answer for months and months and months and months and months was yeah like he’s not like yeah it doesn’t fit. Yeah, for a multitude of reasons he’s not going to be here. And it wasn’t even, at least not for me. It wasn’t even like a slow gradual change into, hey, I think Demar is going to be here. It just suddenly hit me that, yeah, maybe they’re not trading him. Maybe he is going to be here. Now, this was all before we saw the current the current climate that’s happening in the NBA, this really weird off season uh that we’re having. But do you think that the Sacramento Kings tried to trade Demar or weren’t interested in trading Demar? Like look, I think like I heard stuff early in the offseason about uh the Miami Heat. Um, but then you know it feels like Scott came in the door and we’ve all heard about this. Like he went around and interviewed everyone in the building like you know everyone from you know locker room attendants to um you know like security people and everything else. He like wanted to get a lay of the land. And um I think as part of that I I think that there were conversations with Demar and you know for whatever reason they’ve decided that their path forward is together at least for right now and maybe that’s because there wasn’t a big robust market for for Demar to Rosen at least at this point. Um but I certainly could see there being a robust market for Dear like mid-season. The the problem is you’re always gonna need to like the Kings can’t just trade Demar just to trade him. You know, he averaged 22 points per game last season, right? Like he’s a ball player. Yeah. So, like if you’re going to trade him, you better go get an asset for him. You better get something for him. Or, you know, is there more value in in having your salary drop by 26 million next season um or 16 million bucks next season and and completely clear the year after? because I think that that can be the advantage too here where you can sit here and continuously switch out players and hope that for the best or you can leave players in place and um you know if you’re not going to get actual value for them on the trade market or you’re going to have to you’re going to hurt yourself further with additional years of bad contracts from some other player uh on a different team. you might just want to hold tight and let this thing play out and try to be as competitive as possible in the meantime, which is kind of where we’re at. But you’re right, like I the switch was weird. Like all of a sudden it’s just like Demar’s not part of any trade conversation and Scott Perry likes him a lot and it sounds like Dear’s sticking around. Yeah, it for me it was thinking about Scott Perry and the types of players it appears that he likes. I started to think I feel like that’s Demar. Like I feel like Demar fits the mold of what Scott Perry would like in a in a in a in a basketball player. Obviously Dear is tremendously well respected uh across the league. So I’m sure that that that plays a part in it. But and you you mentioned something there a second ago. Can you walk me through this because I’m I’m I’m pretty sure I got it. Deamar’s contract is only partially guaranteed next year, which means if the Sacramento Kings don’t trade him or can’t trade him, they can wave him and would only owe a partial amount of that guarantee. Yeah, amount of that contract, I should say. There was a way in which he could get the entirety guaranteed, but I don’t think or the guarantees would go up. I don’t think that we’re gonna worry about those measurements like it’s something like Western Conference Finals or or something like there were a bunch of like small ways in which it could be longer where where his his uh third year would be uh like would raise up in value. As of right now, it’s like $10 million buyout. So they they would just basically decline his contract and then the declining of the contract would would come with a $10 million check to Demar. And so so but that it also that works for another team as well. And so let’s just for example say there’s another team out there that has a player that’s you know 26 years old. It’s on a threeyear 20 $75 million deal. they own 25 or 24 25 and 26 million over the next three years. Um, let’s say the Kings trade Deamar to another team that that team could instantly wave Demar at the end of the year and pay that 10 million bucks and go from owing, you know, I don’t know what it would be. It would be like 40 million over the two years to well owing 75 million for the players they had to more like, you know, 35 million. Yeah. And so you could save another team a bunch of money in in a transaction like that. Even, you know, again, as long as you traded him at this deadline, um I think that that’s or before the new basketball season starts when his contract would have to be guaranteed. That’s when you can actually do this type of move. And I, you know, it would save another team, you know, 16 million bucks uh off their books, too. Did you think when the collective bargaining agreement was signed that these new aprons would have such a dramatic impact on the league and the way that teams do business as they have? No, I don’t think anybody did like because they’ve tried things throughout the the course of time with the with the uh the CBA. And the funny thing is the league always hardlines against the players and it’s always like a battle uh until last time, right? Like Adam Silver was able to get through without a stoppage which David Stern almost like embraced all the time. Um you know like every every seven years he’d reset his league and I never agreed with that either. So we have like the 98 lockout. We got um the I think there is one around 2005. You had the for sure the 2011 lockout, but you know now we have labor, you know, like I I don’t know what you want to call it, tranquility. Um but I don’t think it’s going to last, especially after what just happened. Um where, you know, the the players have a have a an impound account where 10% of their pay goes into a giant bank account. And the assumption was they would get that money back and maybe some more after that. And that’s not what happened. They lost all the players lost all of it. And now we’re seeing an off season where it’s very awkward and very weird and nobody’s able to uh like maneuver at all. But I always found it interesting that, you know, the league is is the owners. It’s backed by the owners, right? They’re they’re fighting for ownership and then the the players association is fighting for the players and the league is always beating up beating up beating up the players and then as soon as they get the deal done, the owners turn around and circumvent the own the rules that they just put in place in order to make their teams really good. And so a certain group of owners always just instantly go out and spend the money that the league really was fighting for them not to spend. And it’s this perpetual cycle. I I think at this point though, everyone is looking around and saying, “Okay, these like these rules are so extreme that not being able to trade your first round pick is one thing. Losing your first round pick is another. All a sudden the repeater tax if you start, you know, doing this two or three years in a row, you start jumping up to, you know, the hundreds of millions of dollars in in fines basically. And even what we saw today with the Bradley Bill buyout, um, you know, Bradley Beal gave back $13.8 million, and that wasn’t him being generous. The only way they could do that deal is if you gave that money back because you’re only allowed to stretch provision 15% of your salary cap each year. So, but like just think of it this this way. They just basically tied up $20 million of their $200 million, you know, around salary cap for the next five years. They can’t access that money. They can’t do anything with that money. But in return, Damian, that $30 million they saved this year off off their books, because that’s what it is, you know, 50 and then you spread his contract out over five years, uh you save $30 million bucks, that might save the Suns $100 million in luxury tax. Yeah. And allows them access to things they weren’t going to have access to in terms of picks, in terms of, you know, even the types of players they can sign because of the restrictions of the Second Apron. Yeah. the the second apron, even the first apron is so restrictive, but the second apron is crazy. And again, like I think teams right now, like the Kings did it last year and you know, they they hardcaped themselves by doing the Demar D Rozan trade. Um they again uh hardcaped themselves this year by doing the the Dennis Shrutder trade. So the Kings are hardcapped at the first apron. It’s almost intentional. That’s it. It does feel that way where it’s like, nope. Well, we’re not going to go up there anyways, but in case we needed any further deterrence, here it is. Like, the league will not allow us to go above $188 million this year. And that’s just like a really interesting way that the Kings have done business last two years. And like look, I you know, the free agent market hasn’t always been good to the Kings, but the sign and trade market might still be okay for the Kings because if you’re a team that’s willing to pay more than other teams for a player, they they might be willing to go to play for you in that situation. U especially because of the aprons, because you know there aren’t a bunch of teams out there that can afford these players. So again, the reason why Kaminga isn’t signed as a free agent right now is because no one has any money and you know, like if a team has money, they’ve got the $4.1 million mid-level exception and that’s not enough money for him. So now he’s just stuck in this holding pattern until they find some sort of solution with another team because Golden State doesn’t appear to want to pay that money either. So, it’s it’s just a really really interesting way that the league is running right now and how difficult it is to move pieces. Golden State doesn’t want to pay a penny to that man, period. Whether it involves their apron, their first, second, sour cap, nothing. They don’t want to pay nothing to him. I was one I’m I’m I’m I have the the apron tracker and it’s pretty crazy at 36 and 46. Phoenix Suns were the most expensive team in the league. Uh that’s obviously changed today or I assume that has changed today with the buyout of Bradley Beal, but I am looking to see it feels like with the restrictions of the second apron and as they get greater as you move along, we will likely never see a multi-year second apron team. Oh, the restrictions would be far too great. You’d just you would just be stuck. Like your team would literally be in cement. Yeah. Yeah. You you can’t even make a trade that brings back a player that makes a dollar over the player that’s going out. And I think they limit the ability to aggregate players in a trade. It becomes like really, really, really difficult. And that’s where, like, again, we talked about this before, but like I thought the Knicks were so shortsighted by firing Tom Tibido because what they did last off season was so aggressive to go out and get Cat, to go out and get Male Bridges and then on top of that to pay OG and Anobi all that money and his extension and to just keep, you know, keeping that team together and and paying all the money. Even um, you know, he took less money. Um, but why am I drawing a blank? Oh, Jaylen Brunson. Jaylen Brunson took less money, but he still took a ton of money. Yeah. Right. And that that contract, all of those contracts were kicking in. But it was like, hey, if you just wait until the offseason, there’s going to be like three or four players who are excellent players, but in the twilight of their career that wouldn’t mind coming and playing for you. And so you go from a team that has, you know, five players, maybe six, to a team that all of a sudden they filled up their bench and, you know, they were able to go get Yaboselli. Uh they were able they might be able to get Ben Simmons. They were able to get uh Jordan Clarkson. Like these are pieces that are so incredibly valuable to a team that Tom Tibido couldn’t do last summer and now this summer Mike Brown is going to be able to take advantage of. But again, it’s about managing like the top end of your roster and then being able to still field a competent team because that’s that was the flaw to the Knicks last year. They just straight up ran out of gas late in the season. And part of that’s because Tibido plays all of his starters, you know, 40 minutes every single night. But a lot of it is just because his team wasn’t good enough once he got past the top five. And so now we’re going to see a different version of that and maybe a much better team. Uh but certainly a team that’s either going to be at the apron or around the, you know, the second apron. But they can stay under that by bringing in veterans who, again, keep this in mind, this is you pay a veteran who’s been in the league 10 years, you pay him 3.4, 3.6 million bucks. But per league rule, he counts as a league minimum player at 2 million bucks. So sort of the Alex Len thing that we talked about last year. So, as far as luxury tax dollars, those players count for twothirds basically of of their salary. And that’s how you’re able to fill up a roster on a great team. It’s how the Warriors were able to stay so relevant for so long with with budget players around their great players. Uh you brought up the New York Knicks. I don’t know why I find this so funny, but the New York Knicks are $53,000 away from the second apron. And again, I don’t know why that’s funny to me. Uh but it very much is and you are absolutely correct. Uh when you are over the second apron um you cannot aggregate two or more player salaries in a trade. Yeah. You can’t send out cash in a trade and acquiring a player using a TPE that was created via previous signing trade. You can’t do that either. The only things you can do when you’re over the second apron is you can resign your own free agents. You could sign draft picks, you can sign players to minimum contracts, or you can make trades where one player is sent out an equal or less salary comes back. And if you’re over the second apron, they freeze your the final pick. So it would be the 2032 pick. If you’re over the second apron a second time, I believe you forfeit that pick. Yeah. It’s it’s crazy. So freezing the pick means you can’t trade it. Yeah. Yeah. So, a team like Denver right now who literally walked into this off season with no second round picks and they had no access to any of their own picks. Every pick they all of their first round picks were either traded or had uh had trade uh whatchamacallits on them um the option to swap uh pick swaps on them like all of their picks. So, if they’re over the second apron and we hit the new calendar year and they get their 2032 pick, but it’s frozen now, they can’t trade that either. They can’t do anything with it. It really does just make it extremely difficult to maneuver. And I I think that some of this will go away because, you know, in the end, the even the lower-end teams, even if they’re not winning, the the lower-end teams are still like, “Hey, go ahead and let Joe Leob spend 300 million bucks. we’re okay splitting the the tax money. Mhm. Uh yeah, and and so I think, you know, they will make adjustments down the road, but for right now, yeah, it’s tough. Uh I think this includes all of the the new money and latest deals. The four teams over the first apron are the Nuggets, Lakers, Bucks, and Knicks. Uh the three teams over the second apron are the Boston Celtics, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Phoenix Suns. I believe uh Phoenix is now not only below the second apron, but also below the first apron uh after the Bradley Beal buyout today, which puts just the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves over the second apron right now. And how far over the the luxury tax were was Phoenix before today? luxury tax is 1988 30 uh over the luxury tax I have them 25 million over the second apron 36 million over the first apron um I’m not sure how far that puts them over the luxury tax. Let me do some just add another uh my guess they were about if I’m if I’m doing this right were they about 80 million over. Yeah, that’s that’s so much money in luxury tax. Oh my god, that’s so much money in we’re talking 200 million in luxury tax. And that’s like again that’s what you’re going to see from a team like Minnesota. Minnesota’s going to pay out the ears for that team. I mean, that is such an expensive team. So, and that’s why, you know, they they lost uh Alexander Walker, but also why the Nause Reed transaction was like, “Oh, that’s a lot of money. He just took on another 10 million. That’s so much money.” Well, remember that like 12-h hour period where we thought Rudy Goar was getting traded? Oh, yeah. He he posted the the what looked like an Instagram goodbye and I think it w I feel like it was Kevin Durant. I think it involved KD and everyone thought KD was going to Minnesota. As a matter of fact, I think Eddie told us the deal that had KD going uh to Minnesota. It did involve I think it was Rudiggo Bear, Dante Devenenzo and and and maybe some draft capital. But uh that has nothing to do with the Sacramento Kings summer league team being 4-0. And it has nothing to do with the fact that James Ham has to go. Uh, thanks for joining us in our early hammer. We appreciate you.

Thank you for watching. Please subscribe and hit the thumbs up.

The Insiders
LIVE Mon-Fri 10a-12pPST
ESPN 1320 Sacramento, CA

D-Lo & KC
LIVE Mon-Fri 12p-4pPST
ESPN 1320 Sacramento, CA

D-Lo & KC Merchandise
dloandkc.com
shopthedopeones.com

Subscribe to the Podcast:
https://omny.fm/shows/d-lo-kc-1

ESPN 1320:
https://www.audacy.com/espn1320

🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5657035977261056