Plenty Of Positives From Kings SL Game Two – July 14: The Insiders + D-Lo & KC
Hi everyone. Good morning, Chatty House. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, Warren, we are up in here. Totally. Who was who was first this morning? Warren. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Sean, good morning. Uh, David is here. Facts, bro. Uh, hello, Zabbo. We David Jackson. Casey Tucker band. Yo. Yo, yo, Johnny G. How did we do, right? Yeah, we do know little to nothing about all of that. Yeah. No, I got nothing going on for you guys on that. Sorry. No. What up, Nick? Hey, hey, hey, Kenneth Williams. Eric, what’s good? Michael Henderson. You guys have very formal names. Yeah, love this for you guys. No Mike, no. Pen Kenny and then Johnny G and then and then Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan. Oh, St. Louis trip does not sound fun. Sorry Johnny. Good morning everybody. There’s Joe. Uh better. Not all the way. My face is still You can see a little bit here. There’s a little bit. Uh can you see on my eyebrow? Yeah, just a little bit. Little bit. Yeah. So it hides. Most of it hides under Oh, the worst one. The worst one is right here. Oh, that sucks, dude. It’s all good. We made it. I just feel for you. It’s not a good. Good morning, Katrina. Dave Aldrin. Yeah. What up, Ar Holden? Alder J. I am not red. It’s the mic. Yeah, he’s not. He’s definitely not. Oh, here we go. Legal. [Music] Hey, we’re normal. This feels right. Yeah. I’m Kyle in the studio. That’s James. He’s back from Cabo. Joe Brazil in the building. Giants hat and all. We’re the insider sponsored by Jify Lube and we’re hanging out with you until noon. Uh really fired up uh to to be to be back here. Happy to have you back, James. Because while I was whining on the radio about my week from heck, you were having a great time down in Cabo and I love that for you. I did have a great time in Cabo. How how was it? Tell tell me tell me all about it. It was pretty amazing. We went to uh you know, we’ve ventured out because we’ve been to Cabo a few times. Uh, we made a a trip to Toto Santos. That’s where you saw us on the bike. And we went to the green room, which was like one of the most uh like epic dinner spots of all time. Like on the beach. Just absolutely like your chairs were in the sand. Like that good. Sick. Yeah. Yeah. So, that was nice. Um I don’t know. You know what? Like I I I will tell people this like find a travel group that that you’re friends with that feels cool that that everyone gets along. Uh because I think that’s what we’ve kind of found and and it’s nice because we all have different things of places that we have to to either like people can come up to the lake and hang out with us, right? We have friends that have a spot up in Truckucky and so it’s cool because you can all kind of share what you have. Yeah. Um, and and the place we stay at in Cabo is unbelievable. And this year they put in a like professional pickle ball court. So, I got to play pickle ball for the really for the first time that I’ve played more than like for like five minutes. How’s the back doing? I’m sore everywhere, but I’m okay. Good. Like I’ve done so much hurt. Yeah. Nice. Like when we started this show, people don’t know this, but like we couldn’t do a three or four hour show because I couldn’t sit in a chair for more than two hours. Yeah. Um, we’re to the point where like easily I could do a three a three-hour show and we could probably uh we could probably even think about doing a 4 hour show if that ever came up, but 4 hours is still a lot and I don’t know that I want to get up that early. That’s a separate thing. But uh yeah, I definitely feel like uh getting in better shape and and all that stuff, it it makes everything better. Cabo trip better makes the uh sitting here and doing our show better. Salute. So, you mentioned finding a group of people to travel with. Yeah. I think that’s such a great point because there’s nothing worse than traveling with friends for the first time because going going alone with your significant other is fun. You have a you have a good time, but then you want to have a you want to go with a group. Like the more the marrier, right? There’s nothing worse than having good friends and then you travel with them and they are bad travel partners. Oh yeah. Oh my god. No, I’ve done that quite a few times. Horrible. Yeah, we haven’t. do them differently with like there’s eight of us that travel together and you know I bartend the entire time which everyone everyone loves that I’ve always got the bartending duties and then somebody gets up and makes breakfast every morning and because I’m not a breakfast person like we have all of these things and then they have these apps now where you can just put all the receipts in and it splits it up. Oh, that’s amazing. The split app. Uh so like we at the end of the trip you might owe a 100 bucks or you might owe 300 bucks or some people might owe you 50 bucks but it all takes care of it you know so when you’re out to dinner you don’t have to split bills or anything else. We all kind of take turns paying for a dinner so then that way we don’t get stuck with like a giant bill at the end. Sure. Yeah. Good stuff. Amazing. Yeah. Love that. Yeah. You got to find a good travel group, dude. That’s so the group of friends I have here in Sacramento, we’ve done little overnight stuff, you know, to to Santa Rosa for for the event my podcast does, Candles Chronicle Salute out of Coupe Brewing in in Santa Rosa. So, we go up there, we get an Airbnb and we’ve done Airbnb things. Uh we’ve been to Tahoe. We’ve done different little areas around here. We have not done like a trip trip though. We went to Disneyland. Okay, that went great. But I feel like if you’re going to do Mexico, if you’re going to travel like across states, I’m really worried about that because what if I hate traveling with my friends? Yeah. And my friends hate traveling with me, which is even worse. Yeah. If it gets awkward, it gets Yeah. You’re like, “Oh, I don’t think we can do that anymore.” Yeah. Like, oh my god, you take so long at TSA. Like, why are you take your laptop out beforehand, take your sweatshirt off beforehand? We’ve been in line for 10 minutes. Like that’s that’s the kind of like little stuff that I just can’t that’s going to irk me about somebody. I will judge somebody permanently if I don’t like how they travel. I I think it’s funny too because when my wife and I when we go places we walk very fast and it’s alarming to some people. Like we when we do walks around the lake we’re down we’re under a 14minute mile walking. Like we we cook. Yeah. But we do that everywhere we go. we just like move quickly and not everyone does that. Yeah. And so a lot of times you look back and the people you’re traveling with are like 100 yards back and you’re like, “Okay, we gotta wait. We gotta wait.” So it’s it’s one of those things where you you kind of have to choose travel partners that have long strides. Sure. Yeah. You want to go to you want to go to Berlin with us? Okay. Yeah, that’s fine. Uh what’s your walking mile pace? What is your pace time? Can we get that sub 15? I need that sub5 before. Hey, what are you training for? You’re doing a marathon? No, I’m vacationing with the hams. I already bought my ticket. It’s a sub 15 minute walk. It’s funny though because, you know, when you get together with a group of people and you’re not together all the time, you start to like the the girls pair off and start having conversations about, you know, workouts and stuff. The guys are talking about like what supplements we have to take now cuz we’re all getting old. It’s just like, oh yeah, it’s it’s fun because we’re all in the similar place in life. So, I highly recommend find a good travel group. Find a good travel group. Salute. All right. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Matson and Joe Brazil on the ones and twos. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Lube. We’re hanging out with you until noon. So, I’ve been trying as the NFL season approaches. 49ers rookies actually report to training camp tomorrow. I’ve been trying to sprinkle in some football every day just like here and there and just trying to manufacture some some football stuff. Uh thankfully, it’s the off seasonason and the 49ers have been dramaree. And it wouldn’t be a 49ers off seasonason without at least a little bit of drama, which we got today, courtesy of ESPN’s Adam Shfter. Jawan Jennings is entering the final year of the two-year extension. He signed last offseason with the 49ers. He’s due to make about $7.5 million. He is not happy with his contract. So, he wants a trade or he wants a new deal according to Adam Shfter, but he’s not going to hold out. So, the 49ers are going to have Jawan Jennings in camp. he was going to be unhappy with his contract situation. And to get him not unhappy, the 49ers are going to have to trade him or they’re going to have to pay him. What do they do with this? I told you when he signed that deal that I thought it was one of the best deals that I’d seen. A two-year $15 million deal. I’m like, that is like such a bargain basement deal for a guy who has the ability to to really crank it up. You can tell even I don’t think they’ve even capitalized on what he could be as a red zone score. Sure. Like he’s such a big body and he has a a really nice way to clear space and you know box out people. Um so hey look he needs to get paid especially if you’re going to trade Debo and you’re going to have a $27 million Brandon Iayuk on injured reserve the whole time and he’s the number one. Um I don’t know what that deal looks like. I don’t know if it’s a you know $15 million a year deal. I don’t think you want to go back up to Debo Samuel money, but the Niners have money to spend here and he’s a player that if you’re looking at the grand scheme of things and how you’re going to progress over the next couple of years, he should be your your number one or number two wide receiver every step of the way and that might not be like the best thing for your team um because he’s probably better suited as a number three, but I’m okay with him as a two three, you know, as a John Taylor type dude as a he’s He showed me. So he showed me last year that he’s dramatically overqualified in the wide receiver three role. Yes. Yeah. And that is he if if he’s your third best receiver, you’re doing you’re doing something right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And last year he I mean he last year he was ostensibly their number one wide receiver. He was their second on the team in in receiving yards with 975. Uh would have gotten to a thousand had he not gotten ejected from from their season finale against the the Arizona Cardinals. But this is a really weird spot for the Niners and and to me I get why they wouldn’t want to pay him. Like I understand the logic of course and I understand where they have leverage here but if I’m Jawan Jennings this is le the he picked the right time to strike because I don’t think I say strike like he picked the right time to to make his feelings known. Yes. Because when you look at the Niners, you go, “Well, hey, he’s if Brandon Aayuk is healthy and Ricky Pearaw is healthy and he takes a leap this year. Jennings is the number three.” The problem with that, that banks on one Ricky Pieraw staying healthy and taking a leap. Uhhuh. It banks on Brandon Aayou coming back and being anything close to what he was in in 2023 after an ACL tear, MCL tear, and additional damage, mind you. So, forget this year because I think this year it’s it’s pretty cut and dry to me that Jawan Jennings is is going to be wide receiver one or two. But now we start looking into the future and we start looking at is he going to be part of your receiving core? Is he going to be one of your top two guys in 2027, 2028 and and beyond? And to me, man, normally in a perfect world, no. If Brandon Aayuk hadn’t gotten hurt last year, I I’m very much under the idea that he would have bounced back after a slow start, he would have had a good year, uh, and it would have been Brandon Aayuk, Ricky Pierce all, and then you’d have a question with Jawan Jennings because like, man, this guy wants to get paid, but he’s going to be wide receiver three. Like, like, but that’s not your situation. No, your situation is you have no idea what what Brandon Aayuk is going to look like post injury. You have no idea if Ricky Pieraw can play in the NFL still. Yep. He’s going going into year two. Flashed last year. A lot of upside for sure. But if you have a disgruntled Jawan Jennings, you might put yourself in a position where you’re down to, okay, Brandon Aayuk. Oh man, you know what? Actually, he’s not going to be back to week like 10. And hey, you know what? Ricky Paw had really good first couple of weeks, but now he’s dealing with this nagging hamstring thing and he’s been kind of in and out of the lineup. And so, if you don’t have Jawan Jennings, you have nothing. So, you need him around. And if he’s not going to be happy, if he’s going to underperform, or if he’s going to become a problem because he’s not making the money he thinks he should be making, I’m sorry. I understand that you’re trying to cut down on these kind of bloated contracts. Mhm. But you have the cap space to make that adjustment. Now, you you don’t have anything on your books moving forward outside of Bosa, KD, and and uh uh Pertie and Warner. Yeah. Like longer term. So to me, this is that you you find out what he wants. If it’s 15 a year, I’m doing that yesterday. Oh, yeah. My guess is like a 460. My guess Yeah. My guess is he wants something uh more in the in the range of 20 a year. Yep. And I I’m sorry, man. You got to figure out a way to do it. You’re not in a position right now where you can be telling Jawan Jennings, who is absolutely your your number one receiver going into camp, you can’t you can’t be telling him no. He’s making seven and a half million bucks. Yeah. And to be honest with you, I think that there’s potential for him to be a legitimate 1,200 yard receiver. And not only a,200 yard receiver, but a,200 yard receiver, 10 touchdowns. Like he’s he’s got that type of body. Uh you do worry a little bit about like him being able to maintain uh health. He he’s a guy, you know, played a bunch of games early in his career, missed three games two years ago, and missed a couple of games last year. M like you’re hoping that he can be out there for, you know, close as close to 17 weeks as possible. Um but yeah, I’m paying him. I I’ve been a fan of his for a couple of years and uh he’s a guy that like you’re going to have to eventually pay either way. He showed last year that he is just Brock Pery trusts him. He’s good at in all three levels of the field. Really good in contested catch situations. Hell of a blocker. They they move him down and he blocks like a tight end. Yeah, that’s why in the two tight end set that they might want to run a bunches here. I would use if you get healthy at the wide receiver position and you develop a couple of guys, I’d love to see him as a second tight end in certain situations. Sure. There’s there’s so much you can do when he’s on your team versus when he’s not. And if if he’s going to become a problem this year because he is vocal, they do feed off his energy. And if that’s going to be a problem, if that’s going to be an issue, I I think you wind up causing more harm than good by going, “Hey, we’re going to wait this out.” Now, I don’t know, man. How did you not anticipate this? How did you not see this coming? I think they did. And I think they probably have a contingency plan. And maybe this is why And maybe this is why he’s come out because they’ve said no to heck that we’re tableabling that until the offseason. Let’s see you. And and if you’re the NerS, it makes sense that you’d go, “Well, you were awesome last year. We love you, but we’re not going to pay you 20 plus million because we need to see you do this again.” Yeah. We want to see what you look like in a receiver room that features Ricky Pieraw and Brandon Aayuk because you don’t want to pay the guy 20 million a year and then it turns out, you know what? Hey, he’s the third best wide receiver. Yep. So, I get where they’re coming from, but like let’s live in reality. Brandon Iayuk, even if he comes back or I I he’s on track to come back, but when he comes back, you’re not going to get you’re never getting all pro Brandon Iayuk again. I’m so confident in that. Okay. I I I I really think it’s going to be a a I don’t I should never say never. I It’s going to be an uphill climb, okay, to get all pro Brandon again. I think that there’s still a lot of development left for Ricky Persaw who has not been able to stay healthy in the reality of the situation. Not the pipe dream pie in the sky like sunshine and rainbows. Everything’s going to be awesome. You need Jawan Jennings on your team. Yep. He is too vital. I think you whether I’s back or not or Pierce all develops or not, he’s still I look at him now as a legitimate number two wide receiver with the potential to be a number one a legitimate number two. So, what does that guy get paid in the NF in the NFL? Yeah. Pay him that. You know, if it’s it’s 15 million or it’s 17 million. I mean, double his pay. Yep. Say, “All right, we feel you. We’re going to double your pay this year, but we also want three years of it.” Sure. So, you know, lock him up is 28, 29, and 30y old season and we’ll go from there. Yeah. Uh I I wouldn’t be shocked knowing how the NerS have operated this off seasonason if they say, “Yeah, heck with it.” like you’re going to play, you’re under contract, we’ll we’ll deal with it down the line. Uh let’s see if he can do it again. But if I’m if I’m in that front office, I’m trying to get Jawan Jennings signed as soon as possible. So, we’ll keep a very close eye on that situation, whether he comes back, whether he gets traded, whether he gets an extension, we’ll follow all of that news, that 49ers news right here for you on ESPN 1320, Sacramento Sports Leader. This is the insiders. He’s James. That’s Joe over there. I’m Kyle. We’re sponsored by Jify Lube. We’re putting a pin in the NFL because King Summer League has officially started. We’re two games in. We got a third game tonight. Couple of weird games for Devin Carter. 30 points on Saturday night. Did that move you at all? 9169320 91691320. That’s the Oakrove Kia talk line. We’d love to hear from you on Devin Carter. Did his 30-point performance move you after his disastrous summer league opener? We’ll talk about that next. He’s James. Joe over there. I’m Kyle. Jify Lube. The Insiders 1320. Yeah. Uh I meant to hit this. Sorry, Rust Dog. Um because the non-g guaranteed contract on top of the physicality of the sport. If Jawan Jennings plays this year for $7.5 million and tears his ACL, Jawan Jennings is not Jamar Chase, right? Like he’s not gonna go if Jamar Chase was in the last year of his deal and tore his ACL this year. Jamar Chase is still getting paid. It might not be what he was going to get paid, but he’s going to get a nice little contract. If that happens to Jawan Jennings in week two, he’s just out for the year and hits free agency coming off an ACL. He’s he’s going to get a fraction of of what he can get on the open market if he’s healthy. So, and just kind of ensuring some kind of security because the contracts don’t typically offer it. Good question, though. We went to uh Flora Farms, which I I don’t remember who it was that talked about that uh in in the chat, but um Flora Farms was absolutely spectacular. Uh we ordered some of our friends ordered a a medium pork chop. Uh like because they have different sizes of pork chops. Uh, it’s one of their specialties. The medium pork chop was this big. Oh my god. That’s a giant plate, too. That’s not a small plate. It was like That’s a medium pork. Did they cooked medium? No. No. Like a size medium. Medium sized pork chop. You could get a small, a medium, or a large. The large I can’t even imagine. They would have had to have a bigger plate. It’s just a pig. Yeah. It’s just a whole It was one pork. Absolutely delicious. Absolutely. phenomenal. H uh car is drivable or TBT on if all the repairs are completed. It’s just the wheel, right? Well, oh the the alignment, I guess. Yeah, but we got that. This is a green room. The the scene from the green room. Just crazy. That’s so sick. That looks fake. That looks like a stock background. Yeah. Uh, the right the right couple won on Love Island. Okay. The right couple won Love Island. Shout out to Amaya Papaya and Brian. This is facts. How about like a like a pork tonkatu love? Yeah. Little ramen that I had last night. Yeah. Yes, you can do ramen or you can get um I don’t know. Is it tonkatu? Uh pork just katsu. Yeah, katu pores. The the tonatu ramen is so good though. Go, bro. I’m so mad. Whoever Hey, the psychopaths that were keeping Huda on the program need to be studied. I’m so serious. What a ridiculous What a ridiculous thing. A fact. Uh, Lizzy, I saw you at Korean barbecue last night and uh I was jealous. I need to go get that soon. Uh, there’s a spot. I’ve talked about this before. It’s called Tatsu. T-Su. It is in Walnut Creek, which is uh about half an hour east of Oakland. Ex. Best katu I’ve ever had in my life. Oh my god. Now back to the insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson brought to you by Jify Lube on ESPN 1320. This is Kyle. That’s James. Joe Brazil behind the glass hanging out with you until noon. Now we need to talk about the real stuff. Got Jawan Jenny’s contract situation out of the way. Let’s talk Love Island finale. Oh, I wouldn’t do that to you or anybody listening for that matter. You want to talk Love Island with me, hit me up individually. I got thoughts. Uh, I also have thoughts on King Summer League and James, I’m I’m hoping you do as well. So, let’s start with Devin Carter and TC. I see you on the Oakrove Kia talk line. We’ll get to you for sure. 9169-1320 91691320 if you’d like to join the conversation. We would love to hear from you. Phone lines are open. Let’s start with Devin Carter’s debut. Summer league debut. two of 14, eight points. Kind of a disaster. Yeah. Comes out Saturday, goes 10 of 13 from the floor, scores 30. A little more swagger to his game. Looks a little more interested because he looked very disinterested in the in the summer league opener. his 30point outing the other night just still didn’t move me on how I feel about Devin Carter because I’m not a I don’t think Devin Carter is bad at basketball. I don’t think Devin Carter can credibly do the things the Kings need him to do to find him minutes. And going for 30 in summer league uh doesn’t do anything for me in terms of like, yeah, he made more shots. I expected that. I I I don’t feel like I’m watching Devin Carter and going, “Wow, that is a future point guard.” Well, I I think that’s the problem that if you want him to be a point guard, um you’re wrong. He’s not a point guard. And and I don’t care what he says behind the scenes because I know like when he’s interviewed, yeah, I played point guard my first couple years of Providence, blah blah blah. Like, dude, you don’t play the position like a point guard. And you just don’t. You are straight up a combo guard. And realistically, you’re more like an undersized two. Mhm. Now, the fact that he has a like 6’8 wingspan at 6’2, that helps. The fact that he’s a great rebounder, that helps. The fact that posted a 42 inch vert at the combine, that helps, right? All of these things help. The fact that he’s an undersized, too. He’s an NBA player. Yeah, I I I think so. Um, but I also like Kyle, there’s this weird thing that’s happened here over the last like week, and that is that the rumor of him getting traded for for in a Kaminga deal. Mhm. All of a sudden, fans are looking at Devin Carter as like a gateway to Kaminga. And so they’re they’re all amped up because they want Carter to succeed. So, the Golden State Warriors will turn around and go, “Oh, okay. We’ll take him. We’ll take that deal.” And I I think it’s really put an unfair amount of like emphasis on who Devin Carter is in this situation. Like, you want him to develop as a point guard. Can he bring the ball up the court? Yeah, he can bring the ball up the court and hand it off to somebody, but he’s just not a creator for others. And you’re I mean Mason Jones, neat Clifford, uh Maxim Rainol, they are creating for others. Y he’s really not. In fact, he doesn’t want to create for others. He just wants to shoot. And you can understand that. Mhm. But it’s almost like he’s got a little more Cam uh Cam Thomas in him. He wishes than he does. Well, yeah. I mean, Cam Thomas is I know what you’re saying, but that style of play. Yeah, it’s that style of play like the head down, not looking around. Um, Carris Levert. Yeah, Carris Levert gets assist. He gets assist on accident. Mhm. Like because he dribbled the arrow out of the ball and he’s got nowhere to go and somebody has to shoot it and he passes to somebody and they hit a shot and he gets an assist. That’s that’s what it feels like with with Devin and like the process of bringing him along. Again, one of the problems is when you draft older prospects, they are who they are. When you get him, he played four years of college. Like, he’s 23, going on 24, whatever he is. Like, he’s a mature player. That’s just not his game. Yeah. Where again, Nate Clifford is a little bit older, but he stuck around for an extra year of college and said, “Oh, I’m going to learn how to draw contact. I’m going to learn how to get to the free throw line. I’m going to learn how to create off the dribble. I’m going to learn how to create for myself and for others. And all of a sudden, all of his numbers jump up because he was doing that at a level where you can do that. You like going out at the NBA level and thinking you’re going to send a guy to the G-League for 10 games and he’s going to come back a point guard. That’s just not the way it works. Yeah. And he has to be willing. He has to be 100% willing to be that player. Yeah. That’s not who Devin Carter is yet. It might be in two years, but right now that’s not who he is. I think there’s a pretty significant difference between and this is where I think the because I I’m going to say this. I’m just going to say this once to show. Almost everything here exists in a gray area. It is not Devin Carter is a point guard or Devin Carter stinks. Those are not that’s not the conversation exactly. There is a huge gray area between those two things. And I and I think this is where saying he’s not a point guard doesn’t mean that he is incapable of creating for others. He can. We’ve seen him drive and pass. We’ve seen him bring the ball up the floor. Like those are typically point guard things. But there’s a difference between, oh, he worked on creating a little bit versus he worked on being a point guard. Yeah. like a credible bring the ball up, get the offense uh where it needs to be, get the offense orchestrated and move the ball. Ball gets to you, you’re moving it because you’re the the centerpiece of the offense. That’s just not going to be him. And that’s not a knock. That’s not that’s the thing is that’s not insulting Devin Carter. No, it is understanding the type of player he is. And when you look at him, you go, “Okay, let’s just let’s just go from scratch. We’re building a team.” You’re watching Devin Carter. you go, okay, that’s a that’s a two with like good defensive upside, good uh upside as a rebounder, and he can create a little bit is how you’re going to define that. Yes. But then you drop him onto a team with Malik Monk, with Zack Lavine, with Keon Ellis, and you start going, “Huh, like there’s not really with Demar Rozan, you’re going, huh, there’s not really like a like a big role for him.” Yeah. like where do the Devin Carter minutes come from if this is who he is as a player and it is and that’s I think the question I think that’s what people are butting up against and that’s not that’s not a Devin Carter is bad that is a Devin Carter is not going to see minutes ahead of Malik Monk as long as he’s on the team he’s not going to see minutes ahead of Demar De Rozan or Zack Lavine or or Keon Ellis so that’s that’s the question now for me is like okay he’s here I don’t know where he’s playing a ton of minutes this year if everybody body’s healthy. Well, that and I’m going to add the extra layer. The extra layer is that as of right now, the Kings have Dennis Shrutder and they have Malik Monk at the the back as their two point guards, right? Rarely does a team go into a season with only two point guards. They always want a third. And people remember last season it was Jordan Mlofflin. Well, the Kings don’t really like they have to decide if they’re going to bring in a third point guard or not right now. Like realistically, what they would love to have done was to move Malik Monk in a trade that would have yielded a a forward and then backfill that position with Russell Westbrook. Sure. And then you have two guys who are going to play a ton of minutes. But here’s the problem that Devin Carter is running into right now. Number one, he doesn’t look like a point guard at all. And number two, the Kings have two point guards right now. And those two guys, what if one of them gets hurt? you don’t feel the confidence that you can just run Devin Carter out there as your backup point guard, as your third string point guard or as your backup in an emergency situation. And so that’s where he’s going to lose uh even whatever foothold he has for potential minutes. He’s already the fifth guard, but if you have to bring in a sixth guard to play that backup point guard position, that is devastating for his potential to ever get on the court. Yeah. So, at this point, is it Keon Ellis? Is he going to be that third point guard? Is it, you know, are you going to trust a guy like Zack Lavine and say, “Okay, now you’re the third point guard.” Like, that’s where you’re at if he can’t do it at all. And so far, even like Nick Clifford, I I’ve got more confidence in Nick Clifford right now. I was just going to say that like bringing the ball up and and getting initiated into the offense and start to move the offense than I do Devin Carter. And like look, for a guy who barely played last year, he put up an 18 a 17.9% usage rate. That’s not who you’re going to be allowed to be, you know? And that’s, you know, we run into he’s not the only one that we see this issue with. Totally. It’s the same thing with Jonathan Kaminga in Golden State%. Like he wants a whole bunch of usage rate percent and that’s not who you’re going to allow to be be allowed to be at the NBA level. Yep. So unless you reinvent yourself or find yourself in a position where they don’t have any of these other players that make sense in a in a rotation, then you’re going to have a tough time getting getting minutes. And again, I think a lot of Kings fans are so amped up about the potential of getting Jonathan Kaminga that they are waiting for Devin Carter to show up and average 30 a game in summer league and for the Golden State Warriors to go, “Oh my gosh, look how good he is.” That’s not how it works either. Yeah. Because nobody values summer league all that much. What you’re valuing in the summer league is whether a player looks like he belongs or looks like he does not belong. And so far, Nick Clifford checked in. He belongs. Yep. Uh, Maxim Reno, he belongs. Isaiah Crawford looks like he belongs in my book. I’m watching Mason Jones. Okay. You see how all these other players get it and then you’re waiting for, you know, again, for Devin Carter, the light bulb to go on and it’s not about the 30 points. It’s not about the shooting numbers. Nope. It’s about looking like you, the light bulb is on and then you’re checking in in summer league. I am not moved by Devin Carter scoring points in summer league. Yes, I know he can do that. My question is not can Devin Carter put the ball in the hoop against guys who may or may not be NBA players. We saw him go down to the G- League a couple times and tear it up. Mhm. Not I’m good. Good. Two thumbs up on Devin Carter being able to put the ball in the hoop. Can you do all the other things that the Kings currently require from that position? Mhm. And so far through two summer league games he hasn’t. It’s good that he went for 30. You’d rather that game going for eight on two of 14. Yep. Thousand%. Yeah. It It’s like it he has to somebody has to define success for him and then he needs to go seek that success. Yes. And that is such a complicated thing. Mhm. Like, hey, I need you to be this guy. Can you go show me that you can be that guy? Because again, Mason Jones, Mason Jones should be out there trying to score 25 and earning an NBA contract. He’s out there finding Devin Carter because he’s hot. Finding Nick Clifford because he’s hot. He’s moving the ball to the right guy and making the right decisions and showing you that, hey, look, I have the potential to be something more. And to me, that that’s a good sign for him. And when it comes to Devin, you’re you’re still waiting for that moment where it’s like, “Hey man, you’re not going to be a star at the NBA level.” Yep. I steal this line from Austin Rivers all the time because he says it all the time and I’m going to believe him. Learn your role. Change your life. Yep. Embrace that role, man. Uh, real quick before we get to the Grove Kid talk line with TC who wants to talk about Devin Carter, you want to take a stab at what Jonathan Kaminga’s usage rate was in 1100 minutes last year? 24 and a half. Oh, you got to go up, buddy. Oh no. Steph Curry led the team and and this is a Braxton Key was second, but he played 11 minutes. So of guys who played more than a thousand minutes, Steph Curry 29.8. Uhhuh. Jonathan Kaminga 24 27.4. That’s a really really I mean that’s outrageous. That’s That’s not quote unquote Kings basketball, but it might be become Kings basketball. Dennis Shruder, for those of you wondering, in 628 minutes, 21.2 usage rate. Yeah, I mean Buddy Heield used to have around a 24 usage rate. 20 and a half for Buddy last year, but that’s with Golden State to when he was with the Kings, it got up around 24. Can I Can I give you an example of what we’re talking about usage ratewise? Yeah. Brandon Pajki is a guy who plays a lot for Golden State, has the ball in his hands a ton, has a usage rate of 18.3 because he moves it. Yeah. Because he gets the ball where it needs to go. Well, that and he’s asked to play like a point guard position uh while Steph is running off ball, right? Yep. Like there’s there’s there’s a there’s a way you can you can be on the court a lot and be very effective without putting the ball in the hoop. And the Kings need more of those guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean like Keon Ellis has a 12.7 usage rate. Uh Keegan Murray has a 15. That’s insane. Keegan’s got to be up over 20. Does he’s he’s got to be at 20. U Yeah. Demard Rosen 25. Let’s get let’s get to our guy TC on the Elroia talk line. He wants to talk about Devin Carter. TC, you’re on the insiders. What’s going on, man? Hey Kyle, ham, what’s up, man? Chilling, bro. Hey, so look, check it out before we get started. Joe, give me a minute before we get started. Hammer, can you answer this? So, what’s the cap hit if we were if we were to try to buy out or maybe release D Rozan and Lavine? Is it a major cap hit? I just want to know that then I’mma carry on. Okay. So, uh, D Rozan would be a like relatively substantial like the the non-g guaranteed portion of his contract makes it com like complicated. Um, but I can just tell you like Lavine is 95 million over two years. A stretch provision allows you to break that up over five seasons. And so basically, you would pay almost 20 you’d pay$ 19 million a year for for five seasons. O, no. You’re not doing that. Yeah, you’re not going to do that. And you can’t trade that once you once you buy somebody out like that. Yeah. You’re done. You can’t trade their contract. Yep. Okay. Okay. So, I I I was just trying to work a way around it because it’s like if we stack and we can’t move on, it’s like we might as well try to either figure out a buyout or either try to take pennies on a dollar back for that for those dudes, right? Because and I’m I’m not fired up on like super purple lenses about Devon. My problem with Devin was is I didn’t like his brotherhood and I didn’t like his his mentality, his sportsmanship, not shaking his teammates hands, acting like he was bigger than everybody, right? But he fixed that last game, right? And we need a guy like that. I don’t know about him at point guard, but we need a guy like that. And we keep talking about a young core. What I figured out this weekend, we have a young core, bro. We have Meek, we have Max, we have Keegan, we have Keon, we have Crawford, we have Isaac Jones. We have a young core. So if we want to move forward with a young core, bro, we can move forward with a young core if we want to do that today. That’s how I feel. Thanks for the call, TC. Appreciate it. I’m going to be bl like brutally honest with you. You have a young core that’s a 25 win team. So like I I get it. The the the problem with with that is that I don’t know that Isaac Jones is an NBA player. I don’t know that Isaiah Crawford’s an NBA player. I’m a big Isaiah Crawford guy, but but we we’re like still I’m with you. Still don’t know if those guys are are NBA caliber players. Yep. You don’t know if Maxim Reno is going to be able to play in the NBA. Don’t know at all. You don’t know. I I’m I’m very bullish on Nick Clifford and we’ll talk about him, but you don’t know what that’s going to look like once the regular season starts. Yep. So m like maybe. But it’s really clear to me and and we can talk about this here coming up and and it is something I wanted to dive into. So salute to TC. Uh there’s not it’s really clear there’s not going to be this like commitment to youth. There’s not going to be this huge youth movement this year where uh you’re seeing veterans sitting in favor of young players. And so even if you have this young core and and I know TC was trying to figure out a way can you can you just get out of the get off of these contracts. It’s like if you’re getting off of Zack Lavine’s contract you’re trading multiple vers to do it. Mhm. Uh at this point you may be the same thing with with Domas or you’re taking back another bad contract. Well that’s the deal. You’re taking back bad contracts because in order to get up to a 48 million player, right, you got to give up at least 40 to 42 million bucks in contracts, right? So you’re like you’re you’re just you’re moving laterally. Yeah. So I I don’t and I understand you know tried the the buyout idea like that’s not that’s not gonna play. So you’re just kind of stuck and if there’s a young core on this team I don’t think we’re going to realize it until 27. Yeah. But I want to talk more about that and the idea of a of a of a youth movement here for Sacramento. And I think it all centers around Nate Clifford who has been a baller at summer league. I’ve been extremely impressed with Nick Clifford. We got to talk about him and we got to talk about Maxim Reno because it does feel like a lot of the King’s future hinges on those two guys and we’ll talk about it. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Mads and Joe Brazil’s with us. We’re the insider sponsored by Jify Lube. This is ESPN 1320. Sack for Sports Center. Yep. Yeah. Like I I like the idea of the Kings having a young core, but when your young core in 2027 is pretty much all going to be 27 years old. Mhm. That’s tough. Mhm. Like look at their young quote unquote young core versus say OKC. Like their young core, their players are younger and just better. I did not realize, speaking of OKC, that Aaron Wiggins signed a three-year $9 million deal. 39 total or three nine million? Three and nine total. Oh wow. Unless I misread. I There’s I thought it was I thought he’s making 9 million a year. Like 327. They got a bunch of guys on like threeyear fouryear 101 million deals. Oh, I’m sorry. Not Wiggins. Who was it? He’s he’s a five and 47. So he’s nine a year. Okay. Maybe that is what I heard. Yeah. Yeah. Or what I read. I misread. My bad. Yeah. My bad everyone. Yeah. It’s just it’s the Kings are caught in like such a weird spot because you’re so far behind the build of the other teams, the the young teams that are coming up, the again OKC, Houston, San Antonio. You’re so far behind them. And even if you weren’t like look at the the talent that like a team like San Antonio has and it’s all like they have the number one pick and Victor Womenyama like a generational talent. They’ve got a number two pick, a number six pick. Like you’re so far behind because you have to go rewind and like try to get those players now if you’re going to compete. So like where’s the window for Sacramento? I have no idea. Yeah. And I get I get the the consternation of or the the issue. Where’ uh where’d my guy go? Uh Aaron said, “Cool. Let’s be mediocre for the next two years. Get bad draft picks. Sign me up.” I get the frustration there that the Kings as currently constructed aren’t going to be bad enough to be picking in the top three. And you want to give yourself like the best chance to do that. That’s your best chance. Like the higher you go in the draft, the better your odds are of hitting a pick. I I I Yeah. of hitting a start. I totally get it. Like I’m not I I am not uh naive to that fact. But at the same time, I think if the Kings could have gotten off of their contracts without shelling out a bunch of picks and taking back bad contracts, they would have. But there’s not a lot of teams with money to just absorb contracts without getting rid of other bad deals. Yeah. and expensive deal. Detroit is still lingering out there as a team that that’s why they gave up a second round pick in this trade for Shruder because they have a bunch of money between the they’re over the cap but under the luxury tax. They have a huge amount of money right now, but they had no way to spend it. So by going out there and producing a $14.1 million trade exception with the Kings, it opened the door for them to actually have a little bit more. Yeah. So, I I just I I understand the frustration. Like I said, I’m I’m right there. It’s going to be super annoying if they’re 40-ish wins for the next two years and then we go into 27 like but uh you have to hit picks. That’s what I keep coming back to. Whether you’re picking 12th or second like you find players who can play. If it looks like Nate Clifford can play and he picked him 24th. Yeah, that’s that’s a good really good start for for me. All right, I’m going to bring this up. Rust dog, if Fox was uh was still here, would Carter be okay as a backup point guard Carter learns from Fox? Um, absolutely not. I got to be honest with you. Uh, that would be like a worst case scenario because Fox isn’t somebody who works with young players on at his position. He never has been. Um, and in fact, there are times where it felt adversarial, whether it’s with DaVon or with with Tai. Um, not like that he’s a jerk or anything, just that he that’s his position. Um, and Carter is also not a player who learns from who’s who’s willingly accepting that right now, which is going to be part of the problem. Yeah, Carter’s just not a point guard. Like, that’s not his mentality. Yeah, it’s not like not like he sucks. It’s just all right. He’s not going to play that position. Even I saw someone like compare him to DaVon. DaVon’s a point guard. He is definitely a point guard. Yeah. Now back to the insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson brought to you by Jify Lube on ESPN 1320. I do get the frustration, man. Feels like the Kings are It feels like the Kings are just kind of throwing their hands up for the next two years and going, “Hey, got these contracts. It’s what it’s going to be. We’ll work on 2027. We’ll have money and stuff then.” But I think over the next couple of years, I I do think we’re just talking about a young core. Yeah. And I think over the next couple of years, that doesn’t mean nothing is going to happen until 20. Let’s let’s take the the chances off the table of Zack Lavine getting traded for something or or Dom getting traded or or Demar getting traded this year. Let’s take all that off the table. That doesn’t mean because our guy Aaron Mick in the chatty house is, you know, expressing the frustration that I think a lot of people have that man like this is just kind of gonna be mediocre for two years and then have nothing except a bunch of mid round mid first round picks. I get it. Mhm. I am like I I this is not to not I yes like there’s a re very real chance that we get to 2027 and it’s like man there’s just this cupboard is dry and that would suck but also I think that there’s a chance for some for some wins in that in that stretch and I think you watch a guy like Nick Clifford who they picked 24th they didn’t give up a ton of capital to move up to 24th and or move into the first round I guess now move up and move into the first round. And man, through two pre through two summer league games, I don’t want to overreact. I don’t want to put Nick Clifford stamped all-star everybody watching. But it’s hard not to be encouraged by a player like Nick Clifford, by a player like Maxim Reno and go, “Okay, I I I feel okay if the Kings are drafting 12, 13, 14 over the next couple of years and finding impactful players.” Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, I’m going to make a weird analogy here, right? Love weird analogy. Let’s say let’s say that you’re like building out your living room, right? Okay. And you really really want this couch, but the couch is like 4,000 bucks, and you’re like, I there’s no way I’m going to be able to afford that couch today or tomorrow, but maybe two years from now, I can afford it. Yeah. You don’t just like stop building out the rest of the living room. You can still paint the walls. You can still put up a TV that might not be the end all be all TV, but you know, you can still find a really nice find for a coffee table or an end table and you’re slowly piecing the thing together for when you do have the money to go buy that that couch to like tie it all together. But the thing is, by that point, you might be looking at a different couch because when you go to tie it all together, that couch that you originally thought you were going after, it doesn’t fit the room anymore. Who’s the couch? Well, the couch is the players that the Kings don’t have. It’s it’s the star point guard. It’s whatever. Yeah. But I think you also need to define what it is that you have, the rest of the pieces that you have. And you need to keep proving those up. Like it just because you can’t get the couch doesn’t mean you can’t get other nice things all around. Totally. That will support that. And so when I’m watching like a guy like Nick Clifford, like I instantly see like a modern-day Lionel Simmons. Sure. Like I I instantly see like Evan Turner like not superstar but really really good solid role player in the NBA for years. Whether they’re a starter or not, you don’t know yet. They’ve got a lot to prove up. But that doesn’t mean that that they’re not functional pieces. They Reo instantly looks like a player that you’re like, “Okay, I think that there’s a pathway forward for him to actually be an NBA player.” And then all of a sudden he shows you flashes of stuff that you’re like, “Okay, that pass he made to Isaac Jones, that Rainol made to Isaac Jones for the the hammer dunk.” Oh, was like, where in the world did that come from? Because that is not that is not on his college tape. And so sometimes when you get a guy at the at the pro level and the spacing changes, all a sudden his basketball IQ starts to show up a lot more. Yeah. And so I I do think that they found something in Rainol. I do think they found something in Clifford, but that doesn’t mean that they found like one of their top three players or a future starter. We don’t know those things yet. Mhm. But they sure do have skills. And you’re like, okay, there’s a way for him to get on an NBA floor. Mhm. And that’s what you’re you’re kind of hoping for, at least in the first summer league for players. And you’re hoping that they continuously build from that. But this is like a really good benchmark moment for the Kings where when you put guys out there in summer league, it’s do they look like they belong or do they not? And there are so many players that you you instantly see you’re like, “Oh man, that guy’s just a hack.” Like he’s got no chance of ever making it. And it doesn’t matter how many points he scores. It doesn’t matter how many times he like lowers his shoulder and runs through the entire defense and slams into everybody and and somehow hits some haymaker. That doesn’t matter. Yep. And I I think what we’re seeing from Clifford and we’re seeing from Reo, two players who just legitimately get it. Yep. Right away. And you’re like, ah, competency. Yep. Competency first. It’s It provides because I don’t think Nick Clifford is going to go in I just I’m going to go out on this limb and average 1912 and five, which is what he had in in the second game. But what Reo and and Clifford’s games have done in the summer league for me is give me confidence that whatever role they’re going to eventually settle into with the Kings, they’ll settle into that role. Like they have the skill set to do because it’s not like what Nate Clifford is doing for the summer league Kings is not exactly what he’s going to be asked to do for the Sacramento Kings is going to be a little bit different. But when you watch him and you just watch where he goes on the court, how assured he is in in his movements, how he knows where to go with the ball, how he knows what he’s doing defensively, the the the IQ to know how to draw contact and get to the line, which he’s done really effectively. Yep. All of that stuff is like, man, he’s going to be able to piece this together where, okay, the Kings don’t need all this stuff, but he he is competent at enough things that he’s going to figure it out. Yeah. whatever role he settles into, he’s going to be really good in that role. And I think the same thing for Reno. Um, and if you can find, and again, this comes back to what we were talking about with the Kings building, uh, their their team building. If Cliff and Reo are NBA players, like just rotation guys, even if only one of them’s a starter, the other one’s off the bench, but they’re playing 20 plus minutes a night, like that’s so big for this year. Even if they don’t get off any of their big contracts, even if they are, you know, really mid and winning 38 to 41 games and they’re just in kind of the back of the lottery again. Okay. Like fine. But at least like Clifford and Reno. Yes. Good. Two thumbs up. And so far and and so far again, we’re in summer league. Maybe they get to the NBA and just cannot figure it out. Oh yeah, that’s seen it before. Very possible. Seen it before. Yeah. But right now, if you’re looking for something, if you’re if you’re in the in the camp, and I I am like salute. I get it. This is not knocking you. I I 100% feel why you feel this way. But if you’re in the camp of like, we’re just wasting these two years to be mediocre, like no, you’re not. Because I think you can find a player like Clifford, you can find a player like Reno, and if they’re playing, and if they’re growing now, you start to see, okay, these is this is maybe the foundation of this core that’s that’s going to help the Kings be more relevant in 27 and beyond. Yeah. So, I I had conversations uh early last week um about like like Reo specifically like and you know I’m not super high on the Drew Eubanks acquisition, right? Well, he is what he is. Let’s talk about it. Go ahead. Well, but here’s the deal. Your starter is going to play 35 minutes tonight and Demon Sabonis maybe 36, right? He’s going to hold down the fort. Mhm. Drew Eubanks is is nowhere near as good a player as Yonis Valenunis. But also having Yonis Valenunis on your roster at $10 million playing 13 minutes a night doesn’t make any sense. It makes sense if you’re in a stretch run and you’re trying to get to the playoffs and you think that that guy might be a matchup issue uh or might help you with a matchup issue down the road. That totally makes sense, right? But having a guy like Drew Eubanks does very specific things. Number one, you can crank the tempo up off the bench. Like he is a player who plays much faster than Yonas Valenunis, right? He’s also a guy who does all the dirty work and is more versatile as a defender. He’s not the guy who’s going to knock somebody to the floor or take up all the space in the key, but he is the guy who hustle who hustles and who tries to defend the perimeter. The other thing that Drew Eubanks does is he opens the door for Reo to actually play because Eubanks is a player that throughout his career has either played or not played and it doesn’t matter. He comes in, he does his job when he gets to play. When he doesn’t get to play, he doesn’t soak. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t sit there and make a big problem about it. M so if Reo is better than than the 42nd pick in the draft, if Reo is actually a first round pick like he was projected and he comes in and he starts playing meaningful minutes in year one, 12 minutes a game, 14 minutes a game and he starts to build a little bit, you now can bring him along where if you had Jonas Valenunis, I hate to tell you this, Reo would not have played Yep. a single minute the entire season unless you really really had to. Yep. And so like I I I do I see the vision for why you did what you did. Yeah. And the other thing is like look, we talk about 2027, right? This thing is a mess. They have so much. It’s not just the the gigantic contract of Zack Lavine or the whatever money you owe Demar De Rozan. It’s the fact that you had no second round picks. It’s the fact that you had all of this like stripped down like this was a financial mess. Mhm. And they’ve like Scott has a bunch of housekeeping to do before he can really even start doing the main heavy lifting of work. And again, we get closer to 2027, you’re going to start seeing a lot of ability to move a guy like Zack Lavine or a guy like Demard Rosen. Demard Rosen at the trade deadline has way more value than he does today. Thousand%. And that’s both to the Kings and to another team. Totally. Has way more value. There’s going to be some team that’s pushing for the playoffs who lost a scorer and Demard Rosen’s available on the cheap. Yep. Like financially on the Jeep and he’s going to have value for sure. Uh just on real quick on on right now, I’m going to take it a step further. Unless he’s a disaster, like unless he just cannot play in the NBA, he should be playing over Drew Eubanks. That’s where when you start talking about this youth movement and wanting to to hey who cares about wins we want to see that to me is where hey you know what if he’s going to miss a defensive assignment here and miss a read on offense there but overall he looks like he can play and he’s learning and he’s growing there’s zero reason to play Drew Eubanks by November or December but if you come out and all a sudden you’re you’re fighting and your team is better than you think you have to at least give this this team an opportunity to be who they might be Sure. And and if they show very quickly that they’re not going to progress or they’re not going to be a a you know playoff team, then that’s when you say, “Okay, like February, he’s playing a ton, but let me start peppering him in in December and let me see what he’s got and see if he can actually help change the trajectory if he can be better than what you’re actually running out there.” Yeah. And that’s totally a possibility. Yeah. Whatever Whatever is best for his development, I guess, is what I should say. Yeah. Like if they think playing him, if they go, “Man, he just needs to play.” Then cool, let him play. But if it’s that, yeah, sprinkle him in November, December, we’ll see where we’re at come January. All right. I love that he barks that uh Raino barks on defense. Like he’s all over the place. He’s yelling and screaming. Hey, look at that. That’s good. Love to see it. I have to apologize to an athlete. One of my least favorite things in sports is when somebody’s like, “You need to apologize.” Like I don’t, but I’m going to in this in this regard. We’ll tell you who it is next. That’s James Ham. I’m comats and Joe Brazil over there. Complex is walking by. We’re the insiders. Sponsored by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 132. Uh I’ll be right back. Cool. Um I agree with this Kyle. Uh this Kyle, I need to see Raino be a better rebounder here in summer league. He needs to get stronger in boxing out. I I agree 100%. I I would point out that he is playing with two very good rebounding guards. Um, you know, again, or guard slashforward and Devin Carter and Nick Clifford, they both have been grabbing a bunch of rebounds. So, I I would I haven’t watched enough, but when I watch the game tonight and and I urge you to do the same, Kyle, watch and see if if Reo is actually boxing out so his guards can get rebounds or if he’s just not boxing out. And that’s that’s a big question. Um I don’t disagree with this. uh Daariosarich. Like again, the reason why they did the Dariosich swap for uh for Yonas Valenunis was because the Kings were were trying to reduce their uh their salary cap situation so they could add more players, which they will continue to do uh here and there. So, um, Dario Sarich for Yonas basically cleared up 5 million bucks. Uh, and it also opened a pathway for the potential of a guy like Reo to play. Uh, and also it allows you to play a different style off your second unit. Hi, Charlie. Hi, James. So good to have you back. And to all my friends out there, Modula Ablangada. That’s right. Welcome to Jurassic Park. Uh, I don’t think this is happening, Saurin. I don’t think that that’s happening. Yeah, I think like just don’t get too hyped and never too high, never too low type mentality when it comes to summer league. But also like look, they’re playing really hard for Dip uh Dep Mystery. Um, like I I like the way that they’re playing and this is how Doug wants them to play. And if veterans don’t want to play tough and physical and tryh hard, um, then they’re going to find players like hiding on their bench that they can they can do that. Curtis, uh, I haven’t we don’t have any word on on this yet. Uh, but they have they have plenty of time. Heels, nails. I don’t think he’ll put up the numbers Dwarte did in his rookie season because I don’t think he’s going to have the opportunity with um as far with Demar there. Um, but I think he’s a better player than Chris Dwarte. I I feel for Chris because Chris is a very nice guy. He’s very physical. He know he works hard. He knows his game. Uh I mean he’s just the ability to piece it all together, isn’t there? Like it’s tough because I I think physically uh like he has all this the the tools. I just got an email that said, “I’ve been following your podcast and appreciate how you consistently deliver actionable insights for business owners. Hour number two. That’s James Ham. I’m comat and Joe Brazil over there. We are sponsored by Jiffy Luben. We’re hanging out with you until noon. All right. I got a bunch of housekeeping to do. Yeah. Uh I have a piece of paper here that says two live mentions per show. So here we go. Here’s number one. Thank you. You can win two tickets to A1 Combat number 21 number 29 Maximov vers Indio at the Hard Rock Live on Friday, August 1st. Enter online at the ESPN1320.com contest page courtesy of Uriah Faber’s A1 Combat. Oh, that’s going to be a blast. Go definitely go enter.com. I like your Oh, yeah. Well, A1 Combat number 25 20, excuse me, 29 numbers, you know. Yep. I’ll probably be there. Joe’s gonna be there. If that pushes the needle any further for you, if I do that read a second time today, will that ensure you’re going to be there? Yeah, absolutely. Hey, stay Hey, stay tuned everybody. 11 uh let’s see when’s 16 about 11:20. We’re going to do that read again. Buckle up. Remind you to enter. Uh we also have the home run derby tonight 5:00. Coverage begins right here on ESPN 13:20. That is Sacramento Sports Leader. Tomorrow we have the MLB All-Star game on this radio station beginning at 4:00 right after DLO and KC. Mhm. And that dubtales nicely with the apology I need to make. Okay, I’m here for it. I have to apologize to Cal Raleigh. Oh, because I did this whole tangent on Friday because I saw a tweet before the show where MLB tweeted, “Who’s the AL MVP?” And then they put Aaron Judge’s numbers alongside Cal Raleigh’s numbers and it was really clear that Aaron Judge should be the American League MVP. His numbers were better across the board except for home runs. I even dove into like the peripheral weird stats to see. Nope, it is Judge all the way across the board. RBI rally’s up there with RBI, too. Go ahead. But I think Judge has got him or at least he did. He might have he might have passed him in the last couple of days. But my point was not that that Cal Raleigh is bad. Mhm. My point was that I don’t want Cal Raleigh’s season to get buried under the weight of Aaron Judge. And you know, Cal Raleigh has been amazing, but Judge is just on a completely different level. Like he’s the MVP. D Cal Raleigh that night against the American League leading Detroit Tigers hits two home runs including a grand slam. He finishes the first half with 38 homers. That’s one shy of Barry Bond’s MLB record for homers in the first half. He is 10 shy of the single season record for home runs by a catcher, which is 48. Belongs to Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals. Perez hit 33 as a catcher. Cal Raleigh already has 31 as a catcher. That’s wild. It’s just insane. So, my apologies to Cal Raleigh because I made it sound like it would be ridiculous if Cal Raleigh would win the American League MVP. But if he continues this pace and he finishes the season with 50 home runs as a catcher on a team that should be in the playoffs in the American League. I get it. Like I just it’s one of those it’s one of those deals where Judge might have the better numbers across the board and it’s going to be one of those deals where if you know you vote for Judge I’m not going to be like wow you’re but maybe Cal Raleigh just wins the MVP because he’s the story of the season. Maybe Big Dumper just captures the the the the attention of America. That’s his nickname. Yes. Oh my god. And that’s not like a joke, like a baseball reference nickname. Like, no, that’s what he is very much so his nickname. That is his nickname. Oh, boy. Yeah. I don’t want to know. It’s cuz he has a big ass. Okay. That’s That’s it. That’s it. You found it. That’s whatever you think it is. That’s it. Mysteryy’s been uncovered. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Mystery debunked. So, I think Cal Raleigh’s path to the American League MVP is very much open. Mhm. I was wrong to shut it down. Um, if he winds up being the story of the season, get out of here, Jesse. If he winds up being the story of the season, even if Judge’s numbers are better across the board, there’s that’s the pathway. And watching that game, I happen to be watching to He knew I was watching. Yeah. He watched Cal Raleigh club a couple of just big home runs that that extended their lead and then and then kind of put the game away. Incredible stuff. And he’s in the home run derby. Um, which begins tonight, five o’clock coverage right here on ESPN 13:20. I’ll be rooting for Cal Raleigh. Salute, bro. Like, my bad. My bad for saying you can’t win MVP because he very much can. Yeah, I agree. Uh, like it’s going to be tough, though. I mean, Judge is is like having a this is his prime and he’s dominating his prime. like very few players have dominated their prime for the Yankees which helps. Yeah, that does help. If that’s the thing like Judge might hit 60 bombs and hit 350. Yeah, I know there’s more to baseball stats than that. Like I know there’s there’s Believe me, I’m I’m a numbers dork with baseball, so I know there’s people like batting average doesn’t matter. It’s like brother, if you’re hitting 350, you are raking. Yes. Hitting 350 with 60 bombs, you’re raking. Well, even what era it’s in. It’s why we’re we’re saying right now like Jacob Wilson is gonna win the AL rookie of the year. He’s batting 332. Yeah. He’s second in Yeah. in the American League behind behind Judge in batting. He could easily win the batting title this year. Easily. As a rookie short stop. Yeah. As a rookie shortstop. And and then it I to be honest with you, it doesn’t matter how many home runs Nick Curts hits. I don’t think he’s going to be able to catch him in in the AL rookie uh rookie of the year race. I don’t. And and Curts might hit he might hit 30 in like I don’t know 450 at bats. Yeah. Like he is he might be on a ridiculous bet. He’s a monster. Yeah. Yeah. I mean a full season of him right now looks like something ridiculous like 51 homers and 120 something RBI. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s he’s figuring it out for sure. Speaking of the home run derby, which is Did you know the home run derby has a$ two and a half million dollar prize pot? That’s wild. The winner gets a million bucks. The runner up gets 500,000. Everybody else gets 150k. So you get 150k bonus just for participating. And then the longest home run, the person who hits the longest home run gets $100,000. Oh. So you could in theory be the first batter of the night, hit one home run, have it go 550 ft. You wouldn’t hit it that far, but indulge me. Hit 550 ft. You hit no other home runs. You do nothing else for the night, but you walk out of there with $250,000. Yes. Like that’s hilar. Why has the NBA not done this with the with the dunk contest? Yeah. Like put a gigantic prize number on it and and maybe they have and it’s just like under cover. But no, put that out there. Well, that and for like an NBA player, a lot of times you get like a Kia. Like very few NBA players are going to drive a Kia. Yeah. They might they might give it to a family member or friend or something. Yes. Yes. But man, tell me you $150,000 just to participate. Oh yeah. And you could have you could have best dunk or whatever get $100,000, you know, voted on by by America or whatever. I I don’t that this is what this is a thing. The dunk contest needs to do. Mhm. Make it Make it worth a million bucks or make it worth like something stupid like five million. Winner gets $5 million. Yes. Like, oh, that’s a lot of money. Yes. Like even for an NBA player like then you’re not getting like again like half of the roster is G-League guys you’re like what is happening and I know I know that that the financial incentive for players doesn’t move people to watch like nobody’s going to go oh wow the dunk contest winner gets a million dollars I’m watching now the the goal would be to incentivize John Morant Zion Williamson uh pick your favorite dunkers Malik Monk to be to be in this thing and that’s what would then draw viewers you’re trying You’re not trying to draw audience, you’re trying to draw actual like stars into the event. Yeah. Is is what you’re trying to do with that. Uh but really excited for the home run derby. So, if you’re not familiar, eight players in the derby. Uh everybody hits. First eight players go. The top four in amount of home runs hit go to the semi-finals. Okay. Most home runs versus least home runs in the first round. One verse four, two verse three. Then they move on to a final. Um, if there’s a tie, it goes to a three swing swing off, which is which is a lot of fun. I really like the way MLB has kind of tweaked the home run derby because I was out when it was like you got 10 minutes or whatever, five minutes to hit as many balls you wanted or it was like 10 outs and it was just it got to be too long and too much of a slog. I’m really excited for the home run derby this year particularly because the A’s have uh have somebody in it. Yeah. Shout out to Brent Rooker. I’m excited to see Rooker Rooker I’d love to see him get five million bucks as a guy who a million. Oh, it’s a million. Yeah. But win a million because as a guy get five million who hasn’t, you know, up until this season had never really made any money in baseball. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s really cool to see. Yeah. A ton of really really fun players in in the derby this year. My pick is O’Neal Cruz. Oh, O’Neal Cruz’s Easy Power. And I know Matt Olsen has that. Like if you told me Matt Olsson won it down there in in Atlanta, it wouldn’t shock me. Um O’Neal Cruz just has ridiculous easy power. And so that’s the guy I’m going to take. Okay. Because I think he’s one of those guys that doesn’t need to take huge swings. He can just hit line drives out of the yard to any part of the yard. So that’s my pick there. I am worried as hell. If I was a Mariners fan, I would be terrified that Cal Raleigh is participating in this event. Oh yeah, it could totally ruin a second half. I don’t want any And I know that that’s been like debunked. It is not a But man, I just Hey brother, you’re a Patrick. Take the night off. Just go chill. Uh rooting for rooting for Cal Raleigh, though. Like why not? Why not just become the star of All-Star weekend, too? Yeah, that’d be fun. Just really add to the add to the lore. Yeah. Anyways, hope Brent Rooker wins. That’d be really cool to see. That’d be sick. We We’re all rooting for you, Brent. We want to see you win. I’d also, you know, I would like to see Matt Olsen kind of find his swing again. Yeah. He’s only got 17 homers on the season. I mean, he’s a big bopper, but talking about a guy went from 54 homers to 29. Yeah. Uh like it’s that’s not great. You know, he was he was on this trajectory to be one of the premier home run hitters in the game and he’s kind of sputtered. Um and he’s only 31. Like, yeah, you would expect him to be higher at this point than 276 homers. Yeah. For his career. Uh, Junior Camro from the Rays is another guy who could who has a real chance to win it. I think Buckston’s a sleeper cuz he’s he’s uh he’s a lot healthier than he’s been in a really long time. I mean, I’ve been seeing a lot of his highlights lately and he’s making really solid contact. I think he’s kind of got he’s not he’s not the biggest dude that’s going to be playing, but uh I think a factor that people aren’t really realizing is he is very healthy right now for the first time in a while. So yeah, he’s a really talented player. Really good player. I’m shocked that Jazz Chisum is in this. I’m not to be totally honest. It’s like a total, you know, he was the cover of MLB the show. They he he’s just kind of totally the culture guy. Totally the vibes guy. 17 homers. But when it comes to easy home runs, that’s not who I think of. Oh, no doubt. No, he’s No, just given how wrong I’ve been about baseball all year. Here he comes. He’s going to go win. That would actually be really cool. The guy’s listed at 5’11, a buck 84. That Let’s go, Jazz. Come on, man. I was watching uh A’s yesterday and man, it’s center fielder. Why am I drawing a blank? Um Denzel Clark. Yeah, Denzel Clark. He made two catches that were wild. One where he got spun around on the on the warning track and then like basically caught the ball on the ground. Sure. Uh and then one where the sun got in his eyes and he ended up taking a knee and then kind of twisting sideways and then caught the ball from a knee. Very odd to watch. But hey, look, the dude’s got skills. It’s just it’s not always totally like orthodox. Like he’s like very all over the place. You’re like, “Huh? What? What were you doing there? I’m not quite sure. Were you here when he hit the 471 foot homer? No, I wasn’t. No, but I saw I’m like, what the what in the world? That thing was tattooed, bro. I don’t know that Denzel Clark can hit in the majors. I don’t know that he can hit enough to to stick around for for as a as an everyday center fielder somewhere. No, cuz he chops wood. That’s what it looks like, bro. He like You bought yourself a month of plate appearances with that. He that so far like oh my god then so where’d that come from? All right. Anyways, uh home run derby tonight five o’clock right here on ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports. If you’ve not watched the home run derby lately, tap in. It’s a it’s it’s very very fun. And I guess Pat McAfee is going to be doing coverage of it which is not not my bag personally. No. But maybe that’s uh maybe that’s a Okay. Uh you know what else is tonight? Kings Suns. Kings have another play uh another summer league game tonight. Uh we’ll talk about what we’re watching for. Should this be Devin Carter’s last summer league game? Should this be neat Clifford’s last summer league game? We’ll get into all that. That’s James Ham combats and Joe Brazil’s with us. We’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lubon ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports. Yeah, I get this email some spam email. Would you host Design Rush general manager on your podcast? Host who? Design Rush is the company. I’m not going to click on any links because I’m on my work email, but I’ve been following your podcast and appreciate how you consistently deliver actionable insights for business owners. That is not what we do on. In fact, I would think it’s probably the opposite. Don’t if you’re exploring topics like these, JeanLuca can provide sharp actionable insights. I thought I was already doing that. I thought I was doing actionable insights. Strategies for accelerating business growth. Adapting your business to the AI revolution. How empathy shapes leadership and drives success. Leading your business using datadriven strategies. We talk about that a lot on Candlestick Chronicles. They’ve nailed this down for sure. Yeah. Scaling ABM with customer personas. Well, we don’t need someone else to talk about that. We’ve got that covered. You should scaling with ABM personas. It’s like my number one topic on Candler. You should do like an AI episode where you figure out a way to convert you and Beerman into like Minecraft characters and just do the entire episode as Minecraft characters. We could just throw you guys in Minecraft. Just do that. Yeah, you Minecraft guy. Sure. I knew it. There it is. Yeah, I grew up with Minecraft. Forgot your Skippy toilet toys. Oh no. Okay, Minecraft guy. Now we’re you’re getting a little closer to the era I was so elementary school Minecraft when it was when it was brand new though. It had it was a new thing. Right. Right. Right. Right. It was a brand new thing. I was trying to remember. So So my cousin’s a few years younger than you, but he was big into Minecraft. Oh yeah. Like my little brother is probably like But he was probably like My youngest plays a ton of 10 or 11. Yeah. I haven’t played much lately, but if there’s like this known uh phenomenon where uh all the this is like a a universal thing once every six months the whole crew will get together, play Minecraft for a week and then not play it again for six more months. It’s awesome. I’m gonna take this one. Uh oh, go ahead. No, because Jaden Ivy is not a point guard. No, he’s he’s just not. Shout out to Jaden Ivy, though. Hope he’s healthy. Yeah. Uh, this probably makes Achilles uh ACL, I think. Okay. This probably makes me a ween, but whatever. Uh, I’ve seen I’ve read about some of the environmental stuff with AI and so I’ve just kind of rejected it entirely because of that. Oh, I don’t do any I I Our boss all the time is like, “You got to use AI. You got to do this. You got to do this.” I’m like, “Oh, really?” Yeah. But that’s just where I’m at right now. I was not a Fortnite kid. I was in high school when Fortnite came out. Okay. So, they’re saying was Fortnite too young for high school? No. No. I played a ton of Fortnite. Oh, god. But I wasn’t like a Fortnite kid. Fortnite kid. You were a Fortnite. I was a Fortnite kid. Both of my boys played a lot of Fortnite. Fortnite. That’s why we have the wall of TVs so their buddies could bring over their Xboxes and play Fortnite together on three screens. That’s fun. See, I see like the Dark Souls references or whatnot. I’m a big gamer. No doubt about that. Now back to the insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jify Lube on ESPN 1320. Is Jesse still in there? Did you make the reel that just went up on Instagram at ESPN 1320? You didn’t do that one. Okay. I was going to ask some questions which is why. All right. Very good. as somebody working behind the scenes. Follow us on Instagram at ESPN 1320. There you go. It’s also where we’re on Twitter currently X if you’re into that sort of thing. Uh James Ham there. I’m Kyle. That’s Joe. Uh home run derby tonight. Kings Suns third summer league game for the Kings tonight. Do we think this is a scenario where if Devin Carter goes out and scores 30 on 10 of 13, he’s done playing in summer league? No. Okay. Like in in theory, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. Um, but when I look at what the Kings are doing right now, you’ve got a first year head coach in Doug Christie. And I I think what you’re trying to do right now is to try to build some summer success just to like promote this style of play, this physicality, this whatever they’re trying to build. I think the Kings are going to go for this. like I I I think they’re gonna try to win uh all the way through and I would like to say that oh no we might get to see you know again um Sharif Abdul Raheem’s son play but I don’t know I don’t know that that’s going to happen or you know some of the other guys that are hiding on the end of the bench maybe they’ll get some spot minutes here and there the only way that’s happening is in a blowout and even that you know they depes mystery uh the the Kings summer league head coach Coach Dip, I mean, he had those guys out there the entire Yeah. the entire game the other night. Like they were playing all the way down the stretch and you’re like, “Okay, this game’s over. What are you doing?” And so you anticipate Devin Carter playing all the way through summer league? I think so. I don’t Maybe maybe I’m wrong. That’s like I guess you didn’t play a ton of hoop last year, so you wanted to play as much basketball as possible. Yeah. Yeah, but if it’s not in like I I don’t know. I think you had your bad game where people were questioning like whether you’re legit legitimately an NBA player. Sure. Then you had this great game where you put up a bunch of stats, but I think you and I both can sit here and pick apart some of the stuff that he did. Mhm. Then you need him to go out there and have like a couple of really good where it’s like 18 to 20 points, uh, good floor, eight rebounds, four assists where you’re starting to show that you’re getting what the process is because scoring 30 points isn’t the process. Correct. The uh wild step back three that he took, which was just crazy. Are you talking about the one on the on the right wing where he put the ball on the deck and then got inside and then took like two of the largest steps ever? A move that is never going to work in an NBA game ever. That took so long. It took so long and then he shoots low, right? The guy cash the guy jumped way early and then landed and still the shot wasn’t off. If he would have just ran at his shooting arm, you like you wouldn’t have got the ball off, right? Yeah. It took so long to develop. And that’s a per that that shot. It’s so funny that you clocked that because that was such a perfect like, okay, he made it. That’s great. But that’s not that slowass step back is not going to work. Well, that and like everyone goes nuts. You know, they hand to the bench. Of course. Of course. Like, all right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No, you cooked in summer league for sure. Yeah. It’s like showing off a skyhook. Like, okay. Yeah. Will you ever use that once? Yeah, I know. A lot of kids now when you you go out and you play so many kids like do the James Harden like three-point shot. Like it’s everywhere. It’s very strange. James Harden ruined basketball. I’ve often said this. Yeah. I I just I I guess this for for me anyway. I if if Devin Carter is gonna be out there just doing Devin Carter stuff kind of that he’s been doing. He’s looking to score first. He’ll pass it if it’s like absolutely necessary. Grab a couple of rebounds, you know, but then fine then cool. I I would I’d rather see more Reo. I’d rather see more Nick Clifford. I’d rather see more like Isaiah Stevens. Yeah. Like Sure. Like give let’s get see what what these guys have if Devin Carter’s just going to go out there and look for his. Like cool, man. Like we got it. We know what you can do. Go. We’ll see you in training camp. I’ve always liked the idea of of having a player on a two-way contract like like Stevens. Mhm. Who is who could be your third point guard? I’ve always liked that idea because like why not have your third point guard be a G-League guy who’s who’s playing with the G-League team all the time who last year averaged a ton of assists per game at the G- League. and a half. Yeah, he had like over 300 assists at the G- League level. So maybe he does know how to run a team and let him like be up to speed, be in great shape, and then pull him up on occasion, let him have a taste of the NBA, you know, here and there, but then also have this ability like if someone does go down, at least you have a backup to the backup plan. And you don’t have to go out and sign a guy like what we talked about earlier like a, you know, a Jordan Mclofflin. Sure, you don’t have to do that because you have a guy who’s who’s GLeague capable who can come up and give you minutes and it might not be the great minutes that someone else is, but we’re talking 8 to 12 minutes uh for a short stand if someone’s going to miss some time. And so maybe that’s a possibility. I like him. I I really like Isaiah Crawford. I I do. I Let’s talk about it. Yeah, I like I am also in on Isaiah Crawford. I think there’s a credible NBA player there. I He’s like a prototypical 3& guy that all these other teams, you know, not everybody has a 6’8, 6’9 guy now. They all have a bunch of 6’5, 6’6, 6’7 guys who are built like linebackers. Yes. And he’s he’s just a kid with he’s got a bunch of hops. He’s super strong. He’s very very like a really good kid behind the scenes. Like very quiet, very reserved. Maybe that’s part of it. He’s not noisy enough. That’s and that’s where that’s where I get stuck because I check so many boxes of hey, why isn’t this guy at least on the end of the bench and and if not playing minutes? Yeah. on a team that needs two three not not twos but like threes and fours who can switch and do that stuff and hit a three and not need the ball in their freaking hands like why isn’t he around more and playing but then I watch a summer league game and I’ll get to three minutes left in the fourth quarter I’m like has Isaiah Crawford played what are we doing and and then I got to go check it’s like oh yeah he did make that corner three in the second quarter that’s right yeah I I I’m I’m I’m struggling between he like how are you not being more aggressive in summer league versus hey he knows that this is going to kind of be his role so this is what that’s what he’s going to occupy whether it’s summer league preseason the regular season G-League or otherwise that’s what it kind of feels like I I think that he got the memo like hey we want you to play within like who you’re going to be right and so right now five of eight from the field two of four from three that’s perfect 13 points three rebounds, played spectacular defense. Like, he’s so physical. And and I know someone in the in the chat says, “Bryce is 6’5 is awfully tall for a linebacker.” I’m not saying he’s he’s built like a linebacker. He’s a 6’5 6’6 linebacker. Like he’s built physically. Yeah. Like a he’s a huge like a defensive ender than than linebacker. Well, yeah, but I mean, we’re talking about guys who are like Lou Dort. Lou Dort is like just a monster. Yes. So, um, like a bank vault. Yes, exactly. So, I really like what he’s doing. I think he got the memo and then I think Mason Jones, like look, Mason Jones has been in summer league a bajillion times at this point. But for him to go out there in 22 minutes and only take four shots, go one of four, but he has six assists and and he sits there and he’s he’s kind of rahrh and leading the team. Those are things where like, look, you’re a veteran. You need to take a step back. We need to highlight some of these young guys. And and I like what they’re doing where all of a sudden Mason Jones is creating for others or Nick is creating for others. I like that because what you’re you’re doing is you’re giving guys little little bits here and there to show and expand their game and and I think everybody’s stepped up and that’s why I think we’re going to see this team really try to play it out like they they might try to win this whole thing and you know again if you’re going to go 15 from 30 15 of 31 from three well gonna win a lot of games like this is a it’s a good summer league team. Does it go on Mason Jones basketball reference page if he is a has a fall spring summer fall spring and summer where he was a G-League champion G-League Finals MVP and summer league champion. Are we putting that on basketball? That’s a good question. I think it should. I think so, too. I’ve already I’ve already tried, you know, I I have a guy at the sports reference sites. They did a first team all California classic this year. Oh. And so I hit him up. I was like, “This needs to go on everybody’s basketball reference page.” First team AllCow Classic. That’s right. It’s amazing. Uh, you think there’s any chance? Am I Am I I’m totally open to to me being way off base with this. Uh, but I want to put on my purple glasses for a second. You think there’s any chance that Nate Clifford runs some point? like at the pro level or like look I think you need to give him an opportunity here in summer league to see what he’s got. I think kind of agree he can be a point forward. Yeah. Like I think he can be like a a small forward like leading stuff. I’m envisioning lineup not not hey he this is uh we have starting point guard a and Nick Clifford like I don’t think it’s that but can he be credible enough with the ball in his hands and what you saw in college early summer league leads me to think that he can eventually get here where you can run some lineups where he is effectively the point guard for five minutes like that’s what that’s kind of what I’m I’m envisioning where now all of a sudden this guy who’s like switchable two, three, like, hey, you know what? And in these certain lineups, these certain scenarios, talking about players who may not even be on the team yet, yeah, Nick Clifford’s going to run the point because he can get everything organized and get the ball moving. I think there are enough question marks about his uh his ability to be a true ball handler at this point that again, I think one of the good things about summer league is you get a player out there and again, we saw it with Reno with the past Isaac Jones. saw something, you’re like, “Oh my goodness, where did that come from?” Right. Mhm. But then there are other when you’re really really watching like the finer nuances and you start to see again Clifford overly reliant on what his his right hand, right? Those are things that the this this break because we’re going to get done with summer league in like, you know, mid to late July, right? And then you have all of August, you have all of September uh to sit here and work with these guys. I think one of the things that they will attack with with Nick Clifford right away is like like we need you to get better as Ball Hitler. We need you to work on it right now because if you put him out there at, you know, again, bringing the ball up naturally in half court offense and you look across and you’re playing the Miami Heat and DaVon Mitchell’s there, DaVon Mitchell’s gonna just walk up and take the ball from him. Yep. Like we’ve seen it with almost everybody. That’s when that first like time when a an NBA player with a 6’8 wingspan, a point guard runs at you and you don’t know what to do. That’s where I think Meek is going to have problems. Like in the flow of an offense when he’s got the ball and he’s dribbling downhill or whatever, he’s creating for someone else. I think he’s perfectly fine. But I also think they need to tighten up his handles pretty uh a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a couple of weeks here, a couple of like you have eight eight to 10 weeks to to really refine some of the things that he’s doing and also get these guys in a workout program. I I saw uh again Isaac Jones. Isaac Jones looks like he’s really bulked upper body. Yeah. And that just tells you like he he knows he’s going to play the four five. Um and he like at this point like I hate to say like Trey LS isn’t coming back. Yeah. It sure doesn’t look like there’s a a pathway for Trey Lyles to be on the team. Like I don’t know Dario Sar is going to make this team. Maybe he will. Maybe he’ll be, you know, depth that that you can’t go into the season going Sabonis and then some combination of Dario Sarich and Isaac Jones or Drew Eubanks or Drew Eubanks or Maxim right now. Like no, that’s not Yeah. Yeah. I think Sar is a guy they’re leaning on. Well, that and I I’ll continue to point this out. Sar makes like 5 a half million. If you stretch provision him and just, you know, again, break his contract up over three years. It really does open up like 3.5 million, 3 point something million for the Kings to use right now to get to drop below the luxury tax even more. So, you have this this gap to play with, right? Mhm. And so I think there is a possibility that, you know, that they they do that. And it’s it’s one of the reasons why I was like I just kept saying, why are you giving up a second round pick to get rid of uh McDaniels last year? There was no reason. Just stretch provision. Like if you’re paying a million and a half this year for for McDaniels, like who cares? You’re paying a million and a half next year. Like nobody cares. Not moving the needle. Nobody’s going the Kings can’t build a team because of Jaylen McDaniels. Yeah. because Jaylen McDaniel’s like 1.5 million bucks. Like that’s what you should have done as opposed to giving away a second round pick and it’s how you get into these situations where it’s just these little pieces of things that you don’t have money for. You could have easily moved McDaniels in in one of the trades that the Kings pulled off during the season. Like his contract was small enough that it would have just fit right into one of those deals. Yeah. And then you still had your second round pick. So, it’s it’s those little mistakes, the like death by a thousand paper cuts that now Scott Perry has to go and clean up. Yeah. You know, a lot of maintenance to do. James Hams there. I’m Kyle Madson and Joe Brazil on the ones and twos. We’re the insiders and we’re sponsored by Jify Lube. We’re hanging out with you until noon. It’s so funny how fast the shine wears off summer league for me. I get so excited for summer league to start. Yeah. And I get I the first couple nights I got Cooper Flag debut and of course Kings are going to be on but when the Kings aren’t on. I watched Jazz Hornets the other day. Fired that up. Yeah. Hey, let’s watch Jazz Hornets. Like a lot of good young exciting players will watch this. We’re what five days in. I’m over it. Oh man. I got the hoops are not good. I tried watching I think what was it Nick yesterday? Nick’s Bucks. Is that who it was? Sure. It was so bad. We’re like midway through the first quarter and everyone has stopped playing defense and they’re just running back and forth with guys getting layups. It’s like, hey, does anyone realize that that’s not getting you to the NBA? Like this is not a pickup game at the local Calit. Yeah, this is that’s not what somebody play some defense. Anybody stop ball. It is it is and it’s not I don’t know. I I I don’t want to like this is not hey if you were watching summer league you’re you’re bat like no salute you’re a basketball sicko way more than I I just if it’s not the Kings right now I just can’t Yeah I just I just I can only watch so much Dylan Harper before I’m you know want to watch what they do against NBA players. No totally but you at least see the outline of like a really intriguing player. You do? Yeah. And and that matters for me with Sacramento. Yeah. I want to know what’s what’s going on with with Sacramento and the intriguing players there, the with all due respect, the Isaiah Crawford of the Utah Jazz does nothing for me. No. Like, oh, this possible two-way guy for the J. I can’t watch the bad defense. I can’t watch the bad shots. There’s so many bad shots. Oh, yeah. The amount of players who just drive and there’s no lane, so they just start crashing into people. It’s like, oh my god, can somebody move the ball? And then you get to do anything game three and four of summer league and these dudes are out there that that have no business being on on a basketball court. Um that’s where a lot of guys get hurt and that’s why you might shut down a guy like Nick Clifford or a guy like Deon Deon Carson. See the Mavs already shut down Cooper flag. Well like two games like all right we’ve seen it. I mean, they probably have already had like Kevlar bubble outfits made for him just like to walk the earth in. Especially after how last season went. That’s why I was driving into work today after all my car trouble last week. I was driving into work today. I was so vigilant about what was on the road in front of me. If it was there could be roadkill coming up and I’m like moving if I can safely get to the other lane like moving to go around it. Not running over anything, dude. Oh, that’s funny. Hell no. All right, we got the handoff coming up. I’m interested to get I’m 0 for five guessing who was going to be in for the handoff last week. Oh, so DLO or KC will be in. I don’t know which one. I know DLO’s out there, but I’ve seen KC out there before and DLO walked in. So, one of DLo or Case is going to be in. I’m interested to get their thoughts on on what’s happening with with this Kings roster in summer league. Devin Carter, Nick Clifford, Maxim Renault threading that needle between uh playing the young players versus trying to trying to win for the veterans. We’ll talk about all that during the handoff. That’s next. James Ham’s there. I’m Kyle Mads and Joe Brazil’s over there. Really insiders. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Lub on ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports. Oh yeah, that’s right. I can confidently guess that Damen Barling will be in for the handoff. Okay. No Casey. Oh. Um, okay. So, there’s a couple of things in chat here. Uh, Frank Anmore, you said you can’t stretch position. I know provision everyone. You can stretch provision. I think it’s up to 15% of the salary cap. Yeah. And when we’re talking about 1% of the salary cap with each of these deals, that’s that’s nothing. Um, and then a couple of you guys asked the same question. Why didn’t the Kings just NY the trade with the the Nuggets and let JV go to Europe? This is a really good question. Um, number one, I they were committed with the Nuggets to doing this deal for whatever reason. And so that’s one thing. You don’t want to burn a bridge with a with another team because they really wanted Yonis Valenunis, right? The other thing is Yonas might not be willing to give back all the money. So the Sasha Visenkov thing is one thing, but it it almost felt like Yonas was like heading to Europe and like expecting to still get his paycheck. I I don’t know what the deal is there. And so I I kind of want to know if there was a buyout amount because if the buyout was less than what Sar makes, you might as well have just like bought him out or if it was even less like if he if he’s walking away for nothing. I agree. Like you should have just traded him for nothing. But you already had I mean you just let him go for nothing but you already had some sort of commitment there and I’m not sure what happened. Yeah, I mean they’re committed 5 million and they didn’t have to give up a draft pick. And to be honest with you, I’m surprised they weren’t able to get a second round pick in that deal. But Denver doesn’t have any picks at all. They’re like barren. One of the craziest things ever. There’s a couple of teams that have nothing and one of them is is right there. Uh Denver just has no way to acquire something. Another player and I can see them being like really upset. Do you want to get that computer fired up? Can you do it in two and a half minutes? Cool. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. At least you guys know considering um I literally have access to a calendar that tells me that Casey’s not here. I’m trying to be better about it. Considering I just learned how to block off time on other people’s calendars and request meetings and stuff. Oh, really? Yeah. I was doing that analog. I was texting. I was like, “Hey, are you available this time?” Yeah. About the fourth time I asked Complex if he could meet and he’s like, “Check my calendar.” Like, “All right, brother. You know what? I don’t know how. Is that what you want me to say? Is that what you want from me?” It’s Damian Barley. Oh, you guys got the light blue hoodie. Uh oh my god. Oh, that was tough. O, you Sorry. Mute down. Thank you for that. Yeah, I feel left out of the light blue uh group text casual hoodie. No, I’m not in group text meaning. I just text James. Light blue bros. Wear the light blue hoodie shirt thing. I just don’t have enough t-shirts, man. So, I have to find like my lightest. Sure. Don’t Well, I have t-shirts. I just don’t really have any that I like. I love these. I think they look weird. I run into that, too. They look good on camera. That’s why I started buying polo shirts. Oh, it’s a good There you go. I worry about the sun. Unders. Understood. Now back to the insiders brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. That’s James. I’m Kyle. Joe Brazil and the ones and twos and Dame Barling of DLO and Casey. No Casey this week obviously. Everybody knows that. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. So of course it wouldn’t be Kenny Carowway in for the handoff. Oh man, it’s me all week, bro. Uh, shout out to you. Um, thank you. I also need to do this because this paper here says I need to mention this twice per show. Okay, so I’m going to do it right now. Good call. Buckle up, everybody. This is mention number two. You can win two tickets to A1 Combat number 29, Maximoff vers, at the Hard Rock Live on Friday, August 1st. Enter online at the ESPN1320.com contest page, courtesy of Uriah Fabers’s A1 Combat. fired up for that. Go enter at ESPN espn1320.com. Sounds like Joe’s gonna be out there, so you can go hang out with Joe. Um, all right. I’ll present this question to you here. We’ll start this here. Should tonight be Nate Clifford’s last summer league game? Uh, yeah, I’m good with that. Yeah, guy. I mean, I I think it would depend on um like what their plans are for him. If they know, like if they know what Nick is going to be for them during the season, then yeah, like I I think it should be like especially if he’s going to be a part of what they’re doing, I think this should be his last game. Same with Devin. Um Devin did what I needed him to do on Friday. Really? Uh or Saturday, excuse me. Yeah. Just make the shots instead of miss them. Yes. I needed to see Devin Carter dominate. I needed to see Devin Carter score. I needed to see Devin Carter What’s What’s the What’s What What is that? I just I feel like Devin Carter just did all the stuff that like they have Zack Lavine, they have Malik Monk, they have Keon Ellis, and he’s none of those guys. Well, Keon, he but he’s he’s not Zack Lavine. He’s not Demar De Rozan. He’s he’s not he’s not Malik Malone. I needed to see him score. Like I needed to see him rebound. I needed to see him comfortably and I I needed to see him grab the ball off the glass and start the break. I needed to see him be comfortable with the ball in his hands. And I got I got all of that. Give me give me one more game that and and it doesn’t have to be, you know, 30 points on I think he was 10 or 13. It doesn’t have to be that. But give me something in between game one and game two to like, oh, okay. Yeah, like I’m I’m I’m good with that. This could be Devin Carter’s last game, too. But the caveat to that is if if they don’t know exactly what they’re going to do with Neat or or even Max yet, yeah, you might want to you might want to keep running them. But if you expect them to be a part of what you’re doing, I’m I I mean, once you get past that first weekend, summer league is it it always gets a little sketchy. And I think game three is tonight. Play it. And then, you know, let let the you know, let Isaiah go out there and run and let some of these other guys, Mason Jones, go out there and do whatever Mason Jones is going to do. At this point, I think they’re going to let them like I I if they win tonight, I expect them to play this thing out because I think they want to win. They want to win the thing. And I’m fine with that. Yeah. Because I mean, you do give these guys a couple more games just to work, just to try to figure things out. And and on top of that, like you still have like 8 to 10 weeks. I agree with you. You get late in the season and late in summer league and that’s when the hacks come out and you’re like, “Oh no, like I don’t want my guy anywhere near that guy who’s playing.” Who? Yeah. Yeah. And I think you can kind of get around that a little bit by just not putting guys in positions to, you know, when when those guys step on the court, it’s like, “Okay, this game’s over. Is that what we’re doing?” Um, so so that’s one way. And I don’t think that happens too often. Sorry, Kyle. I don’t think that happens like too often where guys go out there and they’re trying to get extra summer league minutes and then they, you know, it certainly has, but it’s not like a yearly like, oh, they got him this year. Oh, it happened again. Like, it’s just, you know, that there are guys out there who are fighting for their job. They’re, you know, they’re they’re doing the best that they can. They’re trying to earn a spot in the NBA. This is the p path that they see to do it. And sometimes, you know, you’ve got to try extra hard. Sometimes maybe you got to make a play that you didn’t think all the way through. Sometimes you’re not skilled enough, you know, to make a play, you know, at the basket. That’s one thing I love. Like there were like three kings that got dunked on on on Saturday. That’s beautiful. Yeah. Get dunked on. Like get up there, try to block the shot. Yeah. Garrett Temple. I someone someone got got during that era of the Kings. And I can’t remember who it was, but I remember Garrett talking to me and Jason and he’s just like, “Yeah, no one cares. Like you’re playing defense. It’s like you Yeah. If if you’re if you’re willing to take because all all it really boils down to is social media. If you’re willing to take that like you’re doing your job like you’re getting up there, you’re trying to block the shot and man the Kings did that on Saturday. Give me give me that 10 times out of 10. Yeah. Yeah. The Cardwell block and then the Cardwell when he got dunked on. Both of them were 100% like the first one was unbelievable. The second one was so acceptable. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. He almost got it. Absolutely. Yeah. He didn’t get dunked on cuz he was slow and late and and not there. didn’t halfass it like he just Yep. Yeah. But more bounce. Uh I I I should I meant to ask this earlier, but we’ll just do it now. Is Mason Jones playing for the Kings or is he playing to put tape out for other teams? I think he would love to play for the Sacramento Kings as a rostered player, but I just don’t know. I I mean, it could be in the cards. They’re going to get down to counting pennies here at the end and there might be a couple of roster spots and as opposed to going with like a Doug McDermott or a Jay Crowder or you know one of those guys that may Markeel Folultz. Yeah, you may just go okay look look this is fun. You know, oh my god, is Markeel Folultz still on the team? I completely forgot he is or he’s not. Not as of right now. But again, we could get to a point where they look and they say we need that third point guard. Maybe they do. Yeah, Russell. Hey, if it’s Marco, I’m not getting off that hill. Like, no, that’s fine. No, that’s fine. Absolutely believe Russell Westbrook should play for the Sacramento. I would so much rather see Russell Westbrook play for the Kings than Marco Boltz. Oh, yeah. I saw everything I needed. I like I I like Markell. I I Yes. Emphatically, yes. Uh I don’t want to be too hard on him. I know Jesse was the first person I remember like, why not just go sign Markel Folultz to do something for you? And he, you know, he did a few things became like, uh, you can’t really play him. Yeah. you just you’re going to have to figure something out. You’re going to have to make Malik do it. You’re going to have to make De You’re going to have to make these other guys you you you’re going to have to make guys play out of position. And that’s the that’s the that’s the main thing. And I can’t wait to talk to James at three. I feel like I’ve been storing so many things while you are off in Cabo away that I want to ask you about. And I I just hate I just hate the idea. I heard your guys’ conversation about Na just a couple minutes ago. You know, you talked about him being a point forward and you asked about him playing a point guard. Like I like I I I I get you can get through you know moments like that but I I just it’s the same thing with Devin Carter like asking guys to play out of position I feel like is a recipe for disaster and you know maybe that’s something you can ease Nick into and over the years you could put him in that position. You know as he gets to year two and three like no we could trust him with the ball in his hands we could trust him to do this and do that but like right now like I just don’t want to see those guys playing out of position. I’m okay with him doing it in summer league. Like, hey, let’s try this for five minutes where we’re gonna run the ball through you. You’re not going to be like at the top like running a natural point guard position, but let’s see what you’ve got because you want to see how he deals with somebody like running at him. You want to see how he deals with the panic moments and whether he can handle himself. And so far, he’s handled himself really, really well. But there’s going to come a point where he has to show that he’s more than just like a spot guy. And like look, this is about summer league is about like really breaking down a player and saying, “Okay, I see at least five issues that we have moving forward and we’re going to work on those issues for the next 10 weeks.” We’re not going to work on every issue. We’re not going to try to recreate your three-point shot and bring you back as like something different. What we are going to do is we’re going to really really concentrate on your ability to handle the ball. And that’s something I think with him they’re going to do. Like we’re going to work on your left hand. I’m we’re not comfortable with your left hand. It stands out on tape and let’s see what you look like. And that’s a good case for him playing well past tonight. Yeah. Right. Let him stay out there and and and try to work these different dynamics of his game into, you know, different spurts of their rotation. Yeah. Uh real quick, we only got a couple of minutes. I want to ask you about Jawan Jennings, who wants a new contract. Yeah. He’s going to show up. He’s not going to hold out. just letting everybody know that he’s not satisfied with seven half million dollars and either wants a trade or a new contract. If you’re the 49ers, do you tell him tough or do you have to work something out? Get it over with. Really? Well, well, no. Well, okay. It depends. Do they like him? Yeah. Do they see him as a guy? Sure. Like, because if they do, oh, look. Hey, let’s get this. Okay, let’s get this worked out because they have gotten this far. It’s it’s it’s fre it’s the middle of July. You’ve gotten this far. Camp starts what in a couple days a week. Rookies report tomorrow, right? The vets report I think on the 22nd. I know that’s some teams that might not be for the 49ers, but Ners, it’s Hey, look, we we have been trying to avoid all of this all off season. We love you. We think you’re one of our guys. Let’s get this done. What’s it look like? Because for me, who is this? This hasn’t worked out well for anyone. The 49ers and Brandon Iayuk, terrible. 49ers and dbo Samuel, terrible. Interestingly, neither one of those guys are probably going to play for the 49ers next year. Well, so like I I if don’t get bullied into something, you can’t keep going through this year after year after year. If you know right now that’s not our guy, yo, ship him anywhere. The pro the problem is he’s our best wide receiver right now. Oh yeah. By like a lot. Okay. So, is he your best wide receiver right now or is he your best wide receiver moving forward? Because to me, those aren’t the same thing. I I I I think logically you would say he’s not their best guy moving forward, but we were talking about this earlier. You have to live in reality of man, you don’t know what Brandon Aayuk’s going to look like postacclm stuff is how it’s been described. Ricky Paw hasn’t been able to stay healthy even before being shot. Hasn’t been able to stay healthy. wild sentence. Accurate, but insane thing to say. Just it never it never gets right. Uh I just I feel like it’s one of those things like you’re forced into this situation. You you he has to be part of your future now. Then I’m then pay him. Sure. Like then pay him. What I just feel like is you can’t get bullied into this this thing. Like come on. Like now, bro. Like so my my assumption is they have been trying to work behind the scenes. They’ve gotten nowhere and so now it’s time to make this public and now we got this big pissing contest and everybody’s going to be unhappy going into training camp which is the last thing that the San Francisco 49ers can afford because it has gone so terribly for them the last two off seasons when this has happened. Yep. More unnecessary drop. Yeah, it’s just not necessary. We’ve got DLo and Casey. No Casey. DLo and friends. Yep. You got James at three. Yeah. DLo and Jesse. Dlo and Jesse. Yeah, no doubt. Elo and Jesse James at three. Yeah, King Summer League. Yeah, that’s it. King Summer League. We’ll talk about the Jawan Jennings stuff. I’ve been dying to dive into the NFL Players Association stuff. So, there was a little bit of news from that yesterday, so I’m finally going to take the time to really deep dive into that. Also, a quick 24-hour tease. Obviously, Tuesdays are Trista Jason Jones. Also, if you’ve ever heard of the Dissect podcast, Cole Kushner, he’s a huge Sacramento Kings fan. He’s from Sacramento. It’s one of my favorite podcast ever. He’s gonna join me uh tomorrow at 1:15 also. That’s gonna be incredible. We’ll talk about being a Kings fan. Uh but we’re gonna talk a lot about Kendrick Lamar because he just did a deep dive into Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. Man, it was something. Awesome. Can’t wait for that. Can’t wait for today’s show either. DLO and Casey. No Casey, just DLO. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. Joe Brazil’s over there. We’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Back with you tomorrow at 10 a.m. right here on ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports Theater. Until then, drink water. Be nice. Spiggle. Blue. Appreciate JY House. Good show. Bye, friends. Um, I think that’s it. That’s all I got. What’s up, guys? Chatty house. What’s good? Sorry, I need a second to set these bottles up. What’s up, chatty house? Happy Monday. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got them screaming d. We got them screaming d. We your number one spy. We your number one spot for some sports. Huh? Got the city going crazy when we work. Huh? We top two, but we ain’t two. We in first. Huh? And when you need the real, we is who you search. Huh? D. [Music] We your number one spot. Let’s go, baby. We in here on this Monday. Hey, what it do? What it do? One more time for the weekend. Hey, man. We welcome you in here to the Monday, July 14th edition of DLO and KC. I’m Damian Barling. The ultimate needle mover in god mode himself. KC is out this week. Acknowledge me and we are live. What are you doing with him? I’ve learned what Casey’s thing is when he’s out now. Like yours is like just some random surprise guys is going to pop out when you’re gone. Casey’s when he’s gone, some news pertaining to one of his teams is going to pop up and he’s just not going to be here. That’s true. Like whether it be Jawan Jennings or the Giants and stuff like there’s just there’s things to talk about. We would have let him on vacation. Didn’t a Christian McCaffrey trade. Yeah. On his way to Jamaica, I think. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Now Jawan Jennings has stuff to say. Um we’ll talk about that. That’s certainly a uh certainly an interesting wrinkle to the upcoming start of training camp that I didn’t expect as I thought the 49ers had escaped uh all of that stuff for this particular season. But uh you know, we’ll dive into that. There’s lots of different things to talk to uh talk about, excuse me. Uh not the weekend that the Giants were hoping for, though it was close. Uh it just didn’t go the way that they needed. So, we’ll talk about that. what I think that that means for them. Uh, coming out of the All-Star break, LeBron James declining to join the ESPN broadcast made huge news all over the NBA. And I was just telling the insiders uh a couple of minutes ago, I’m pretty anxious to dive into this NFL players association uh owners uh thing uh that has been going on this man. I I I don’t know. I feel like it’s a scandal, but I I I feel like anytime you’ve got your your your players union working in, you know, direct order with the people that you fight against, yeah, that feels like a scandal to me. So, we’ll talk about that today. Will Z is going to join us uh later on in the show. I know he’s excited to talk about the things some of the things that we’ve seen from King Summer League. And then, of course, uh James Ham will be with us here coming up in the 3:00 hour. Uh, I am a uh quite the contrast uh to our man Kyle Matson there just a couple of minutes ago. I love the game I saw from Devin Carter over the weekend. It’s it’s it’s it’s literally what I was screaming for. Like, I need you to come out and dominate. I need you to come out and be that guy we saw in the G-League. I need you to come out and show that you’re better than everybody else. And I felt like that’s exactly what he did. Now, you might not feel like, and this was I think Kyle’s point, which I completely understood, you might not feel like that’s the move for summer league, but for me, especially for him, for a guy who had kind of such such limited time last year. Yeah. Give Give me that. That’s exactly what I needed. I needed you to go out there and be great. I needed you to go out there. I mean, 10 of 13, five of seven. I need you to do that. I need to see you run the floor with the ball in your hands. If if if if Devin Carter at the backup point guard spot or at the, you know, uh the third point guard spot or whatever, like Devin Carter at any point guard spot, I need you to see you be comfortable with the ball in your hand. And I didn’t feel like that that was something that we saw in the first game. Uh the first game was was was overly clunky and we can come up with 50 different reasons as to why that might have been the case. Uh we can come up with 50 more reasons as to what happened on uh Saturday was a the exact opposite, but the exact opposite is what I needed to see from him. Now, how many more times he does that moving forward, not really a big deal. I’d like to see him play tonight. I’d like to see him play well tonight. And then if Devin Carter doesn’t play again, I’m perfectly fine with that. But I saw what I wanted to see from him on both sides of the ball on on Saturday. Watching his isolated film back this morning. Um it stood out even a little bit more. Just if you cut clips, I’m sure King’s film room has got him up somewhere. If you just watch him from game one to game two with the ball in his hand, not even talking about his aggressiveness at scoring, not even talking about just him and the half court offense. You watched that ball come off the rim. There were times over and over and over again on Saturday where he just grabbed that ball and he led the break. There was no hesitation from Devin Carter on Saturday, which again I love. That’s what I needed to see. de facto vet out there so to speak, the leader, the one who in terms of the guys who are playing. I know there are guys who have been around the league longer, but guys who are going to be on the roster, guys who are going to be playing, yo, he’s he’s the one that you got to look for. You talk about guys being on the main roster. Like, I’m I’m turning to Devin. If I’m Nick, if I’m if I’m Max, that’s who I’m turning to. Like, yo, what are we doing out here? And I thought Devin Carter was terrific. Devin Carter told me to shut the hell up uh with that game. And that’s what I wanted. I want to see him do it again. I don’t again I don’t need to see him shoot 10 or 13. I don’t just need to see his shots fall like shots are going to fall, shots are going to uh miss on a nightto-ight basis. It’s what NBA on TNT tells us. It’s what NBA today used to tell us. It’s a make a miss league, but what else do you do? How are you moving on the defensive end? How are you moving with the ball in your hand? How are you moving on the break? How are you leading on the offense? I think he had three assists, right? It’s whatever. I mean, he’s not Chris Paul. I’m not looking for him to be, you know, Russell Westbrook and average a triple double. I just wanted to see the man be comfortable and I thought he was. I thought he was completely comfortable with the ball in his hand. He at least he looked it and everybody looked comfortable with him. the offense looked a lot more fluid and there were a lot of things that were, you know, a bit different in Saturday’s game versus game one. And, you know, we’ll talk about these guys a little bit more in depthly, you know, as the show rolls along, but you know, Max showed up, Maxine Marino showed out in the first quarter of game one where every time, you know, we’re doing the KSFM show, this game’s getting underway and every time we look up, Max is scoring in a different way. Max is scoring in the low block. He’s scoring in the mid-range. We’re sitting here watching him, you know, catch the ball around the three-point arc. And we’re saying audibly, “Shoot it.” He gets that ball up, it goes in. I joke, “Hey, man, we’re winning the championship with this kid.” That’s not what it looked like on Saturday. It was a lot more spread out on Saturday, which to me made Devin’s contribution stand out a little bit more because the guy who had the big maxim uh uh the guy who had the big offensive output was actually Devin Carter. And so what you do with those three guys in particular moving forward, I think really depends on what you plan on doing with them this season and how much more you want to see from them. I don’t I I’ve I I I’ll repeat this until the season starts and I just have to shut up about it because it’s reality. I don’t like putting guys I I don’t like guys asking to play out of their natural position. I mean, you could call Devin Carter a point guard if you want to. Everybody knew when he was drafted he’s not really a point guard. Like, he can do a lot of different things from the back, but he’s that’s not exactly what he is. He’s not the organizer that that which has become my favorite term for a point guard that Fred Van Vleet is. He’s not the floor general that a guy like Chris Paul is or even like a guy like Lonzo Ball is. Those are the type of point guards. That’s that’s closer closer to what I think Dennis Shruder is. I don’t think he’s exactly the fourth general that either one of those guys are, but I think he’s a lot closer to that than he is say like a Trey Young or something like that. I think the Sacramento Kings needed one of another one of those. Even Malik Monk isn’t that. Malik Monk isn’t that floor general type. I think the Sacramento Kings need a guy. I think the Sacramento Kings need a traditional point guard. I mean, I know Chris Ball is out there. I think the Sacramento Kings need a guard like that. Now, the problem with that is, as we’ve outlined and we’ll just continue to outline until something changes on the roster, is in fact the roster. The way that the roster is loaded up in that one, two spot would make it really difficult to go acquire someone to play primarily the one because then you’re just juggling. Okay, how are we going to put Malik in here? How are we going to work, you know, Devin Carter into this equation? We putting Nick at a three. Is Nick too small to be a three? Does he need to be the two? Do we mismatch these lineups? How does this all work? It felt like going into the season, the Kings needed to get rid of one of those guys. the Kings needed to move one of those guys to try to get somebody, you know, maybe who could add some depth at the 34 spot. Now, it feels like they might need to get rid of two of those guys to add some depth at the 3- four spot and potentially add someone who handles primary backup point guard duties. And this goes back to the CJ McCollum tweet, Jennifer, I’m trying or I’m trying, Jennifer. I’m pretty sure the Sacramento Kings have been trying to do this. They’ve just been unsuccessful. Pretty sure they’ve been trying to move off some of these guys in this loaded back court and just haven’t succeeded which would make failing at moving one of them and going to acquire someone else at that position a bit foolish. Now there are some things that happened over the weekend that I I actually didn’t realize hadn’t and it’s the Sarich Yonis Valenuna trade. All of the talk about JV had been about Denver and going to play in Greece and Denver honoring him to to, you know, to his NBA contract. And, you know, I learned far more about overseas contracts than I ever really cared to learn about over the course of the last week. But I hadn’t realized that the trade actually hadn’t been completed. Both teams announced the trade yesterday, which I thought was so funny. Shouldn’t have the conversation been around about yeah, if this trade doesn’t go through, Sacramento’s just kind of stuck. And this was I I mean Dario Sarich isn’t as good of a player as Jonas Valenunis is, but this was a a money-saving move. And I don’t know if that’s because of Dennis or other things that they’re trying to do here this this off season, but I did the first thing I wondered when I saw the let’s get to work Dario Sarich or whatever the tweet was was, oh, this this hadn’t been completed yet. Okay, maybe this had to be completed for them to get moving on some other things. Now, I have no idea if that’s true. I just thought it was interesting that that trade actually hadn’t been completed when we thought it had. We’ll talk more about that uh as the day progresses and we will dive back in uh to the game we saw on Saturday from the Sacramento Kings uh at Summer League. We’ll get back to the rookies who continue to play uh really really well. Uh so we’ll talk more Kings basketball. Uh obviously KC is out today. Uh I’m thrilled that you’re here with us. We’re going to open up the Elkrove Kia talk line. Uh, if y’all want to hang out, get on these phone lines, be the co-host for the day. 916909320. We’re just getting started. We’re thrilled that you’re here with us. It’s Dao Mccasece, brought to you by Sky River Casino on Sacramento Sports Leader, ESPN 1320. And we’re off and running, baby. Off and running. Everybody have a good weekend. Yeah. Know me though, right? Right. Yes. Yep. So, okay. Uh, it was cool. CJ, you don’t you don’t sound impressed. overrated. I know it was a monster at the box office, but you don’t really sound like you’re feeling it. Benjamin had a great weekend. Love to hear that. Did you happen to catch any wrestling this weekend? Uh, no. I caught up on just about everything. I saw a little bit of what went on at Allin in Texas. Um, that looked like a a pretty solid show from all accounts. evolution was absolutely fantastic. I did see the cash in. Uh I actually watched a good chunk of that match. I might I might have a hot take on that one. Um I’ll say I’ll I’ll save that for a dead moment during the show. Uh and I didn’t watch any of I know Seth is hurt. I saw that. And um I saw they cut Goldberg’s speech off which is hilarious. Polo, you got that right. And our guy Otani too on Saturday pitched pretty well. That was nice. Too bad Casey’s not here to talk about it. Yeah, it’s amazing. Not here, huh? Wow. Oh, nine out of 10 for Superman. Okay. Yeah, I’m kind of with J2. I give it eight out of 10. You saw it, too? On Saturday. I give it eight out of 10. Okay. Okay. All right. It was fun, though. Let’s go. Uh, no. I mean, no. Katie was watching it. I can’t remember if it was Friday night or Saturday. I I don’t know what happened. I know she was upset at some of the eliminations and uh how Huda, Huda, whatever, got to the finale and it’s like, baby, this is a war. Baby, this is wrestling. This is a work. Like they did that on purpose. Like she she gets eyeballs. She gets attention. She gets drama. Work. But other than that, I have no clue what happened. I don’t even know how like did like do you win do you win Love Island? Like I I I kind of got roped into it. I know a lot of the characters, but I I don’t know exactly what Chris went to both Giants and A’s. Okay. Okay. Hoda. Okay. I think people love her cuz she’s crazy. Ley, she was a mess. This is fact, Stephen Brown. Mr. Terrific was dope in that movie. Good to see everybody had a great weekend, man. That’s awesome. I picked up my suit yesterday for the wedding. Oh, let’s go. Not picked up. They got to work on it stuff now. But let’s go. Gave them more money. Why? Yeah. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. We’re going traditional black on black. No, it’s going to be like a lighter tan type out there. Okay. Obama. All right. President Obama. Russ. Nope. Nope. It’s our Baker family wine. We’ll talk about this next. Actually, I’ll save that for say, “What’s good, baby? Do you like Superman movies?” Uh, I’m not big into We’re talking during the commercial break with the Chatty House. It looks like a lot of people, including Jesse, went to see Superman. Uh, obviously that that that the movie was an absolute monster. Um, Mark asked, “Do you like Superman movies or superhero movies, excuse me?” Not really. It’s not that I don’t like them. Most of the ones that I’ve seen, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I just don’t make a like a I don’t I don’t make an effort to go see all of them that come out. It feels like there’s so many. And it started to get I started having I started having trouble understanding what hap what was happening with these superhero movies when they did like the Jerry Maguire Spider-Man movies and then like they dropped one and Toby Magguire. Toby Magguire. I said Jerry Magcguire. Jerry McGuire. It’s terrific. Yeah. Tom Cruz was playing Superman. I was like wait which one was that? The uh Yeah, the Tobeby Magcguire ones. And um and then they put one out and like people didn’t like it and then like immediately like an entirely new version of Super uh Spider-Man came out. Yeah, there’s been three different Spider-Man and I was confused. I was like, “Wait, where’s where’s Toby? Oh, this is different.” So, it’s like the Batman joints where they do the you know, it’s it’s Michael Keaton, then it’s George Clooney, then it’s all these different people, and then no, we’re completely resetting. we have a brand new director and we’re doing, you know, Christian Bale and this is getting real dark. And so once I caught on to like how this all worked, it’s like, okay, I got it. We’re we’re doing this completely different. Like, wasn’t there a Superman that dropped not that long ago? Man of Steel was like 20 Man of Steel 13 to 17, one of those years in between. Okay. Pretty recently enough, I guess. Well, there was Batman versus Superman. That was one of them. That was pretty recent, too. Batman versus Superman. Like this is a different Yeah. Different Superman obviously than the Henry Kville guy. Yeah. I guess I just I I just don’t pay enough attention. I did finally watch Sinners. Um How’d you like that? I loved it. It was tremendous. Like it it was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t realize because my I waited so long to watch it. We made a like, hey, we’re watching Sinners Friday night. We’re watching Sinners Friday night. We’re watching Sinners Friday night. So I get home. Uh it was like, “You want to eat dinner and watch the movie?” I’m like, “No, cuz I have to get up, do the dishes. We’ll watch it as soon as as soon as we’re done eating.” And I was I was both happy and felt stupid when I went and and went to the Apple TV and found Sinners and saw I waited so long that it was on HBO Max now and it was free. Oh yeah, that’s where I watched that first day it was out. That’s what I waited for. I was I I I one I felt ridiculous, but two, I was like, “Huh, okay. procrastination pays off. Save me 20 bucks or whatever it was because I fully expected we’d have to do the bit where you go to Apple Music or iTunes or whatever and buy it for $25 and watch it. Um, but I thought I thought Sinners was was incredible. I don’t I don’t know if Casey said to I’m not I’m not sure, but I was really happy I stayed through the credits. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I I don’t know if someone said to stay through the credits, but I I remember like the credits start to run and I’m like, “Nah, hang on. Let’s Let’s just wait this out. Shout out to Marvel for that one.” And the and the and the scene comes back and that was one of the I thought that was one of the best scenes of the whole movie. Yeah. I feel like that kind of just tied everything up. Yeah. I that that that final, you know, five minutes was it was just fantastic. I feel like Sinners is one I got to rewatch cuz like everything from like the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie is just connected in some way. Yeah, in that moment there are things I’m sure I missed. Yeah, I was locked into that. Like it was sit there, no talking, no getting up, no refilling drinks. Let’s just uh lock in on on what’s happening in this movie. But I Yeah, I I absolutely love that. I’m glad to see so many people love Superman. I will say, “Oh, I’m gonna go see it.” Like, no, I’m not. Just wait till it comes out. HBO Max, I always I wanted to see Centers in the theater. It just never happened. one week turns into two, turns into three, then it’s like, well, let’s just wait for to rent it at home. And then that went south and it wound up being on HBO Max. So, the turnaround time on movies is pretty quick now. Yeah, it it it’ll hit. And well, I feel like cuz Do you think this has anything to do with just people not going to the movies anymore? Probably. I mean, just show it for a few weeks, three weeks or whatever and all right, throw it out there now. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think when you when you when you throw it on to a a DSP like while it’s winding down its time in theaters, you have people like me. I was fully prepared to pay $20 to own the movie, which I know I’d probably only watch once or twice maybe, but I was fully prepared to pay the $20 to just watch it at home. That’s the the co effect. I was going to say that’s one of the things from CO that just kind of still lasted that it’s probably never going to go away to me. Like if you put out if if you put out a movie in the theaters today and said, “All right, well it’s, you know, $18 if you go to the theater, but it’s $40 if you watch it at home.” I’d watch it at home. I’d watch it at home for $40 and be very happy and call it a wash cuz popcorn ain’t going to cost me $20 and I already got my drink there so I’m good to go. That’s one. And I understand why they didn’t. Uh, but that’s one I I I wish CO had kept. Uh, but it was a big weekend at the movies, it appears, for all of the superhero fans. I’ll try to catch up on the next one, man. We’ll see. I’m sure I’ll watch this when it hits HBO Max or whatever streaming platform uh it’s going to. Um, I did get the opportunity on a on a pretty busy Saturday to catch up with that that Sacramento Kings game. had a chance to watch it uh mostly live and then rewatch the whole thing uh last night and I kept wanting to pick apart what the the rookies were doing, you know, cuz as I’m watching them, it’s like, oh, they’re they’re they’re they’re a little bit more spread out. They’re a little bit more there’s there’s no big, you know, scoring burst. Well, I guess that’s that’s not the case for Nick. Nick had a a big fourth quarter again. Um but it was for Max. Max didn’t have that, you know, the 11 points in the first quarter like he did in game one, but I thought he played really well. I thought both guys played really well. And I’m trying to I’m trying to figure out what my expectation for them is, meaning Nick and Max, what my expectation for them is headed into the the the the regular season, headed into training camp and all of that type of different stuff versus what the Sacramento Kings expectation uh might be of them. I I did feel like with the Valenunis trade, maybe that changes Maxim Marino’s role a little bit because my initial thought was like, nah, it’s cool. Like, it’s cute. I’m glad everybody’s high on him. I’m glad everybody is digging this. But Yonas Valenunis is a Sacramento Kings backup. He’s a more than capable backup. He’s a starting caliber backup. and then he gets traded, which of course didn’t get finalized until yesterday. We’ll talk more about that when James gets with us uh in the 3:00 hour. But when the trade gets announced, it’s like, oh, sorry. All right. I think there’s a Drew Eubanks thing was over there. It’s like, all righty. And then you start hearing about Maxine Marino. You see him get selected. Then you start hearing the conversation about him and the different things that he could do, the way that he can shoot, uh the way he could draw defenses out, how he can spread the floor. That was on uh great display in the uh first two games of this summer league. And those might be uh the last two games we see of Maxine Reno. Cunningham uh of KC just tweeted Sacramento Kings rookie Maxim Marino will not play in today’s summer league game against the Suns due to right wrist soreness uh that he suffered in Saturday’s win o over Orlando. Um, again, he doesn’t say he’s out for the remainder of uh summer league, but Maxim Rainol will not play uh in today’s summer league game uh against the Suns. And if he doesn’t play again, that’s not a big deal either. summer league. I’d actually prefer he doesn’t play because summer league and I look, I love basketball as much as the next person does, but it gets really difficult watching summer league basketball as you get later into this week as you start to get into the Thursdays and Fridays and the spectacle of summer league is gone. like LeBron James isn’t gonna be courtside for the Los Angeles Lakers game on Thursday or Friday or whenever they next play. Maybe if Bronny’s getting run, but even at that, I still doubt it. Like the allure of summer league is the first weekend. It’s Thursday really through Sunday. You could stretch it into today as I’m sure there’s a bunch of meetings going on, a lot of general managers still there, a lot of people still there, and then they start to filter out. There’s not a mass exodus like there is the All-Star game. There’s just a a filtering out and it’s a quick filter. They disappear quickly. And then the more that they disappear, the more the knees, the Maxines. I mean, Cooper Flag’s already been shut down. Like, it kind of comes to an end pretty quickly. So, I’ll be happy to watch a Kings game on Thursday or Saturday. I just don’t want to watch it super intently. And if Nick is playing, I am. If Max is playing, I am. With all due respect to Isaiah Stevens or Isaiah Crawford or some of these guys who might be on two-way deals or some of these guys who might find, you know, their their their pathway in Stockton, I’ll catch up on them when Duce Mo on the call and find out what’s going on. But outside of that, like, let’s just kind of get this over with. So, Maxine won’t play tonight, but I love the way that Maxine played in the first two games of this the the summer league. And I think it showed and if you had a a level of excitement and you know, I asked people like, “Hey, I know the possibilities of this are really exciting, but let’s take a deep breath. Let’s chill. Let’s see what happens, you know, as the as the season rolls along.” And then summer league starts and he immediately scores 11 points from eight different places on the court. It’s like, okay, well, this isn’t going to settle anybody’s excitement down, nor should it. Like, why not? You have a you have the right to be excited when one, you’re a franchise that doesn’t provide you much excitement and two, yo, this a second round pick who people talked really highly about. Hey man, this my pop, this my work. and Nick, man, those 10 points from Nick in the in the in the in the fourth quarter um against Chicago the other day. Like Nick, I I love that Nick just stayed aggressive. You go back to that Orlando game the other day. He needed like he was instrumental in the Sacramento Kings winning that game. Those I I think I can’t remember if it was 10 or 11 points that he scored in the fourth quarter, but they like he the the Kings, what was that 84 81? Yeah, they needed all of that. Kings beat the Bulls ass the other day. Like, they didn’t need those points, but he stayed aggressive. He stayed aggressive. He kept playing his game and he continued to show off the different things that he could do. One thing he didn’t know, he get to the foul line. It’s not necessarily his fault. summer league officials also. You never, you know, I mean, Chicago shot 28 free throws in that game. They were getting the whistle. Uh, Nick didn’t really work for the whistle like that. Maybe that’s not his game. I have to pull up or talk to some of the experts about what he shot from the free throw line in in terms of not necessarily percentage-wise, but what he shot in terms of free throws per game in college. But he hit the three. Eight of 13, 19 points in total, you know, behind only Devin Carter who who who dropped that 30 piece and then Max who had 17. There’s there’s there’s no reason to not, you know, feel good about what you saw in summer league. Now, you could try to temper your expectations. You could try to like not get overly excited. And to be honest, as I’m saying that, I realize I don’t think anything is going to happen this off seasonason that’s going to get Sacramento Kings fans too excited. Having Nick play well, I think brings a level of excitement for sure. I think having Maxing Renault play well brings a level of excitement for sure. If Devin Carter uh plays well tonight in whatever part of the summer league that he he he plays the rest of the way, uh whether it’s tonight or it’s through the week, I think Kings fans will be just fine. Barring seismic trades plural, I don’t think anything is going to get Sacramento Kings fans overly hyped at end of the season. Now, I think when training camp comes around and preseason comes around, I think some of the uh negative discourse surrounding this team will disappear a little bit or or I I let me rephrase that. It won’t disappear. It will subside a little bit and then I think the excitement for the season will come and hopefully hopefully it starts like immediately. You know, hopefully the Sacramento Kings don’t find themselves behind the eightball like six, seven, eight games into the season and they come out and play. Well, I’m not asking them to go 8 and0, six and two. They just come out and they’re playing solid basketball and it’s like, okay, we see this. This works. Again, it’s not a you know what what what what was Doug? 11 of 12. 11 of his first 12. You know, seven in a row. 11 of his first 12 or something like that. Yeah. It it doesn’t need to be that. Just come out, play good basketball. And that’s the thing that I keep getting stuck on. when you add, you know, a potentially impactful rookie like Nick Clifford, when you add a potentially impactful rookie like Maxim Renault, when you have a a an improved, you know, secondyear player who’s he is like Devin Carter is a secondyear player, but it’s kind of his de facto rookie season. Like again, I get he played last year. And I’m not I’m not I don’t even know. Did Did Devin Carter play enough games to be eligible for rookie of the year last year? I mean, I know he came back shortly after Doug was hired or Mike was fired, whichever one you want to look at. He played 36 games last year. He wouldn’t even have been eligible for rookie of the year last year. Just I don’t think. Isn’t that how many Didn’t Joel Embiid play Didn’t Joel Embiid play 36 games in what was his third season and he thought he was going to win rookie of the year in his fourth season? Well, yeah, it was something like that. And then wasn’t there something with Ben Simmons? Ben Simmons? I don’t Ben Simmons didn’t play his rookie year either. How many he played his second season? Well, I think yeah, the second year like there was a whole thing with him and Donovan Mitchell as far as winning that award because Ben technically was in his second year or something like that. Man, how times have changed. Talking about Jo talking about Yeah. Uh uh Joel played 31 games his the first year that he played he played 31 games, which was actually his third season. And I’m pretty sure he tweeted he was going to win rookie of the year next year, which would have been his fourth season. But regardless of eligibility or not, the dude played 36 games last year. I mean, he spent a chunk of time in the G-League. He spent a chunk of time on just being injured and not being on the roster. So, it’s okay to like feel a level of excitement around these three guys, but when you factor all of this in, it’s the one thing that I just can’t shake about this Sacramento Kings team. I do not think that their roster is bad. We could talk about the makeup of the roster, that’s a bit of a different story. But the roster as a whole, the Zack Lavine, I do not hate Zack Lavine. I do not think he’s a bad basketball player. Demar De Rozan, I understand some of you don’t like the fit on the Sacramento Kings. That’s fine. I think he’s a good basketball player. Malik Monk, whatever is going on with him behind the scenes, whether they’re trying to move him or not, whatever his future is, whatever. Malik’s a cool basketball player. He’s great vibe guy, too. Fans love him. Dom frustrates the hell out of me. Yo, but Dom is good, and I still maintain he’s underrated, maybe underappreciated. There’s more he could do. He refuses to do it. and Keegan. I have given Keegan Murray a level of grace that I just have not given Devin Carter. Devin Carter, as we just stated, 36 games into his NBA career, Keegan Murray entering what his third season, fourth season, and I’m I give him none. Fourth season. I’m giving Keegan all of the grace and Devin none because I still think Keegan is good. Now, how good Keegan is, that’s a that seems to be an endless topic of discussion on this show, in the Kings universe, in and perhaps uh even in front offices as well. Perhaps even in the Sacramento Kings front office. He’s extension eligible. I wonder what they do with think of Keegan. I I can’t because Monty and Mike, I’m sure, loved him and all that, but Monty and Mike aren’t here anymore. And like Doug’s been around and all so we’ve seen Keegan progress and all that, but like I said, it’s just kind of ties into Devon in a sense where like they didn’t draft him either, which is like how do you feel about him as a player? I guess if I were to guess, I think Doug is really high on Yeah. on Keegan. Not to say they’re against him. I’m just how they feel about him. Scott I when Scott laid out uh I can’t remember if this was the exact term he used, but forgive me. the the principles of what the Sacramento Kings identity should look like. Yo, a lot of that was Keegan. Now, it it it might not be like Keegan might not be the highest example of all of those things where he’s a, you know, an elite defender and elite this and elite that. Keegan’s a great character guy. He busts his ass on both sides of the floor. You know, there are obviously things that Keegan can be better at, but when you talk about the the principles of what a Sacramento Kings player should be, when you talk about the identity that Scott Perry is attempting to establish with this roster, to me, Keegan Murray absolutely fits that. He absolutely fits that. So, what Scott Perry in in this front office uh does moving forward with him, we’ll all find out together. But I think Keegan is a good basketball player. And I know that’s not the debate because his his his name has been tied to so many, you know, highlevel trades, be it OG, be it Pascal, be it any trade that might not have even been rooted in reality that someone put on Trade Machine, threw it up on on Twitter or Reddit and said, “Let’s cook.” We’ve we’ve used him as the Sacramento Kings biggest like trade commodity, the biggest asset. And so that at least speaks a little bit to what Sacramento Kings fans think of him. And I think we’ll soon learn what this Sacramento Kings front office thinks of him. But I say all that to get back to the original point that it’s okay to be excited about the way Nick is playing. It’s okay to be excited about the way Max is playing. It’s okay to be excited about the way that Devin is playing. Those guys fit onto this Sacramento Kings team. We could pick apart the roster and talk about how clunky it’s formed and we’ve got too many players here and not enough players here and you’d all be accurate in that assessment. overarching point is this team is talented. They’re not as bad as people are making them out to be. I just I don’t know. I think I I have I have a little bit of concern about um like the psychological component. I have a little concern about like how people are feeling coming into training camp. I’d be really curious to know how Damont Damonte Sabonis is feeling this off season. I’d be really curious to know how Devin Carter truly feels about hearing his name in trade discussions or I I if nothing else hearing his name in the rumor mill. I’d love to like know that. Malik Monk, same thing. Is Malik Monk sitting around like, “Oh, a year ago y’all love me. Now everybody turning on me.” And I don’t think everyone has turned on Malik at all. And I don’t think Malik is one of those guys who lives on social media either. I think he lives on the golf course. I think that man out there enjoying his life. And we talked about the fallout of last season and how how so many things happened last year that could frustrate some of those guys. With all of that behind us, with the the Mike Brown stuff behind us, with the De’ar Fox stuff behind us, with the urgency to Hey fellas, let’s just get through the season. Hey fellas, let’s just get together. Uh let’s play the right way. Let’s let’s let’s let’s see what we could do here. You know, let’s make a push for the playoffs. That doesn’t work. Let’s try to get this playing game. Let’s let’s just go out there and do what we can. With all of that behind you, with all of the, you know, adrenaline that comes with that almost survival like instinct, how are your feelings once that’s worn off? Is it, man, what a brutal offseason or what a brutal season, excuse me. Let’s take a breath, reset. We’re not going to have to go through any of that next year. We’ll come out, we’ll cook, we’ll be ready. Or is it, man, what a what a season. Yo, f this team, man. They’re as dysfunctional as everybody says they are. This team can’t get right. Not sure. However, the Kings clearly have some good young components. I’d like to see a little bit more from Devin Carter, though. He did exactly what I wanted him to do on on on Saturday. I’d love him to see I’d love to see him do something along those lines tonight. Again, it doesn’t it could be somewhere in the middle of those two games. I want to see him be more than more than scoring. I want to see him be comfortable, be comfortable as the go-to guy, be comfortable as the number one out there, and facilitate everything for those young brothers. and I will be able to make my judgment based off that when we reconvene here uh tomorrow at 12:00 once the game is over. We’ll come back, man. Much more basketball to talk about. Uh a situation is brewing uh in San Francisco, of course, as we approach training camp. There’s no chance we could get to 49ers training camp without some drama surrounding a wide receiver. And we’re not going to get into the All-Star break the way that Casey hoped. Obviously, he’s out today, but we’ll talk about his Giants. Uh, and we’ll dive back into the Kings as well. Will Z in the two o’clock hour, James Ham in the three o’clock hour, Steel and Casey brought to you by Sky River Casino on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. What is happening in this chat? We talking about ‘9s actresses. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. H. All right. We’re sleeping on Katherine Zena Jones. Sharon Stone. I saw Tiffany Amber Them pop up earlier. Uh, what do you think of the vets not showing up the Kings deal? Uh, keep it real, G. Hit me with that one one more time. Oh, Russ. Okay, Russ. All right, buddy. Oh, y’all are funny. Richard, Jennifer, love you. I see you. Hey, we back. The B. We told y’all we was bringing the bottles back. We bringing the bottles back. All right. Phone lines are open for you. Uh if you want to hang out, talk. 9169 uh 1320. Um let’s welcome uh Baker Family Wines to the family. We told you in 2025 we bringing the bottles back, baby. And if you’re watching on the stream, you see uh we’ve got the bottles behind us here in the studio. We’re going to try to make them look a little bit prettier than they look right now. Uh but we have teamed up with Dusty Baker, the Hall of Famer, uh who’s headed from the dugout to the vineyard. Man, he makes some absolutely incredible wine, a wide variety. Dusty’s uh has put just as much passion uh into these wines as he did uh his managing career. Man, Dusty Baker and Baker Family Wines. We are thrilled to be teaming with them. We told you one day, hey man, we need to do a wine tasting event and we’re doing that uh to the 10th level. Let me show y’all this one, man. This 755 right here. This is my jam. This cab right here, Hammer and Hank, obviously 755, uh they partnered with Hank before he passed away. Uh obviously he gave his full blessings on this and it is an absolutely tremendous wine uh there in West Sacramento. The tasting room is incredible. It’s a phenomenal place to go hang out and I assure you we will be hanging out there uh moving forward. We’re working on our our our first event with Baker Family Wines. Uh join Dusty’s Clubhouse for exclusive releases and tasting room specials. Baker Family Wines, man. The official winery uh of DLO and KC. And I don’t know that Dusty would be feeling what happened over the weekend because Oracle Park was jumping and it was jumping for all the wrong reasons. sounded like there were a lot of Dodger fans in San Francisco and they went home unhappy on Friday. The Giants legitimately had a chance to do what we talked about them doing last week. They had an opportunity to win the series. Now, I’m not changing my not changing my tone here. Had they won the series, I don’t think it would have been enough like in terms of making a a real run uh at at the division, but would have been good for Vibes and like for a realistic opportunity, man, it would have been fantastic. Like you chip away at it a little bit, you feel good. I mean, and and and that’s probably the most important thing. You feel good going into the break. Now, you’ve just gotten your ass kicked by the Dodgers a couple of times, like on the overall, what is it? Three, four, two so far on the season. Do I have that right? Yeah. You You got to do a little You got to do a little better than that. And man, it started out the right way. It started out that that that Friday night sending the sending LA to their seventh straight loss. Man, that’s that’s the killer, too. The Dodgers are up six, what is it? Six games and they’ve lost seven straight. Man, that’s tough. That was why on Friday as we were talking about this series, it was it’s kind of like I don’t I don’t think winning this series is going to be enough. You’ve got the Dodgers legit struggling right now and you’re six back in the division or you’re six back now. I think they were five back to start, but they’re six-ack now. I don’t know if that’s going to work. They had a chance to get the series um last night. I mean, 2-1 again, I don’t think it would have been enough, but vibes feeling good headed into the All-Star break. They had an opportunity to get the series last night and couldn’t do it. Hell of a ninth inning. Things went bad for them uh in the 11th. And that pop when Freddy Freeman’s single dropped was a little bit too loud. Little bit too loud there at Oracle Park. That’s why I say I don’t think Dusty Becker would have liked that. I know Dusty Becker was with the Dodgers, too. I don’t think he would have liked that many Dodger fans at Oracle Park. He would say, “Yo, this ain’t happened when I was here. I think the Giants best bet is is the wild card. I did see what there was a there was an interesting note about the Giants. They’re 52 and 45. So, they’re reaching the All-Star break with 52 wins for the fifth time over the last 20 seasons. They did it when they won the NL West with 107 victories in 2021. They also did it in 1614 in 2011. This Dodgers team is legit though. And the killer part is you have the Padres’s right there. So I feel like and obviously you just do what you do. You keep going out there. You keep playing games. you keep trying to win games. You just go out there, you do what you do. But I don’t think the Giants can catch the Dodgers in the division. They get into the playoffs, it’s going to have to be through the wild card. And I think they’re a good enough wild card team. Like they’re a good enough team to get in through the wild card. And I think they’re a good enough team to win in the wild card, get to a full-on playoff series. I absolutely uh believe they’re able to do that. I think the Dodgers have some shortcomings, too, which it’ll be interesting to see. If the Dodgers are in one of those one of those like LeBron le team things where they’re, you know, they won they won the World Series. Now they’re kind of chilling. Now they know it’s a long season. They just want to get through it and their way of getting through it is what 58 wins or whatever it is. And I know they, you know, there there there’s people talking about their their their full-on rotation isn’t strong enough. You know, I’ll be curious to see as we get to the second half of the season, how does Atani’s role on the mound change? Uh they’ve been very uh delicate uh with his return to the mound. I don’t imagine it’s a situation where he’s going to go from two to seven or two to six, but I do wonder if you’re going to see a gradual increase from postallar break headed into playoffs. Is that something that they’re viewing as a luxury versus a necessity? Is the idea of show Atani on the mound for you Oh man, that’d be great. That’d be great if it works out. But it’s cool if it doesn’t because here’s what we have. I’m not sure. I would operate on that front if I was the Dodgers, though. I would operate on the idea of like, ah, it’s cool if it’s dope if he’s there, but if he’s not, that’s all right. And that’s I think Dodgers fans biggest complaint. And obviously we’ll talk to Jason Jones tomorrow as we do every Tuesday, but that’s Dodger fans. I think biggest frustration is that they don’t have they don’t have a a a full slate of pitchers. Once you get into some of these series, man, that could come back to get you. And you got guys coming back. We’ll see what that winds up looking like. Byer points out trade deadline is coming up uh on July 31st. Dodgers are rarely a team that sits around quietly. They have everything you need to make a move. Are the Giants able to make a move? What do they I don’t think the Giants are going to make a bigger move than they already have. But what else might be there for the Giants again? And I don’t think that the idea should be, oh, go catch the Dodgers. Go catch the Dodgers. Go catch the Dodgers. It should be let’s play winning baseball the rest of the way. If we make some acquisitions before the July 31st trade deadline, all good. Let’s just keep moving. Let’s just keep moving. Let’s just keep moving. Let’s be playing our best baseball as the regular season winds down and we head into the postseason. Let’s be playing our best baseball when this wild card comes around. Do that. And if you catch the Dodgers in the process, but again, the difficulty for me is the Dodgers, they lost seven in a row and you barely made a dent in this. Or at least not one to where you go like, “Ah, I see the light. It’s right there. I see the light. Let’s go get it.” It didn’t happen. The Giants are going to have to hit another one of those really, really strong runs and the Dodgers are going to have to fall off. What I think is going to happen, I think the Dodgers are going to ascend the second part of the season. Doesn’t mean the Giants won’t, but if both of them do, that’s not going to do anything for the division. So, there is a lot uh to watch for. uh home run derby here on ESPN 1320 uh as is uh the Allstar game. Uh we mentioned uh for those that missed it that are just tuning in uh Maxim Reno of uh the Sacramento Kings summer league squad will not play tonight. Uh Sean Cunningham reports uh he will miss tonight’s game uh against the Suns due to right wrist soreness uh that he suffered uh from something that he suffered on Saturday. So, no Maxine Marino. He was one of the main uh levels of excitement for the Sacramento Kings. He will not play tonight. Now, I don’t know what that means for Max’s summer league. I don’t know what that means uh for Max moving forward, but as Sean Cunningham says, he will not play tonight. If there’s any issues moving forward, I’m at the point, like I said this earlier, I don’t mind repeating it. You can shut people down. Like the the main three, and to me, the main three are Max, Sneak, and Devin. If you want to shut them down after tonight’s game, it’s perfectly fine with me. I’ll happily watch uh Isaiah Stevens. I’ll happily watch Isaiah Crawford, Dylan Caldwell, whoever. Those guys are out there working, busting their ass. Like, I’ll happily watch them. Isaac Jones, Mason Jones, whatever. I know I won’t be watching Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag had the Devin Carter performance. He was terrible in game one. very good in game number two. And Mavs said we good. And that makes sense. The weekend is over. The big time games are over. The showcase is over. It’s kind of customary in summer league. Not unusual at all. I don’t think Wimby played much last year. I think he did the same thing. Played two or three games and it’s like, “Yeah, man. It’s over.” So, Cooper flags summer league is done. I didn’t even see that game live. I had to run that back. Especially after I saw what he did. I was like, “All right, let me watch this. Let me watch this.” I Cooper Flag has been a Cooper Flag has been a was a player at Duke that I was like all right like he’s good but the level in which he was talked about versus what I was watching was like oh no like he’s good like he’s like I get it like number one I I see that but he’s been talked about like a I don’t want to I don’t think he he’s been he’s been talked about as like just short of a like a generational player. I was like, “Yo, man, is he really that like is he really that good?” And sometimes I just sometimes it’s slapping you in the face like LeBron James was like Victor Winyama was. Hell, even I think really to a large degree that’s what it looked like Zion was. I think Zion is that is there are things preventing him uh from being that type of player, but sometimes that’s just hitting you in the face and it’s clearly obvious. I I I don’t know for was is is Cooper Flag one of those guys like do y’all look at Cooper Flag like yo this is a potentially generational player. I look at him like man he’s a really good player who could do a lot of great things with the basketball and that was on full display this weekend. generational is a bit of a loaded term I feel, but like he is kind of I guess closer to that than a really than an other than a normal first round pick. Like I’m expecting the BS to be not pretty good, but I could see them in the play this year. Yeah, he’s not the like he’s going to have that kind of impact where like it’s not like oh Kyrie’s gone blah blah like no Cooper flags here and he’s impacting day one. Yeah, but there’s a caveat to that. The Mavs aren’t trash. I don’t I mean I I you know KC might disagree but like I don’t think the Mavs are trash. So, like adding a a a and and and I’ll go a notch below what you’re saying. Adding a really good player like Cooper Flag, like yeah, like they should be good. Aldron J says, “I see Cooper like Paulo.” Okay, I got you. Cuz Paulo, Paulo’s not a generational player, but he is a franchise. Paulo is absolutely a franchise player. That’s a good comp. I feel like yeah, like not generational like he’s saying, but like just more so like he’s had an impact pretty early on. My mind changed for Paulo or it didn’t change. I understood Paulo more the first time I saw him in person. When I saw Paulo in person, there was there was very much a oh got it. Didn’t like sometimes you just can’t compute until you’re like 10 feet away and you realize like to me it it’s always uh jarring being next to LeBron. LeBron is the LeBron is just man he is just built different and I always thought like in you know in terms of you know guys LeBron side like he’s a he’s a one of one. Now you’ve got guys like Giannis who you just marvel at when you see like how tall he is, how long his arms are, bro is shredded. Like it’s it’s incredible. But LeBron just looked like a different type of human being. Paulo’s the same exact way. And if that’s Cooper Flag, all right, I get it. I get it. Let’s see what TC talking about here. 91691320 Elgrove Kid Talkline. TC, what’s good, baby? Yes, sir. Hey, what’s up with my two brothers? Jesse in the back, man. What’s up with my two brothers, man? Kenny, man, what’s up, bro? What’s up, baby? Hey, listen, DL. Check it out. So, hey, what I came to realization over the weekend is I’mma not just because Devin had the 30point game, but he’s part of the young core moving forward, bro. That’s that’s how I feel when I see the young core. I told Kyle and Ham this earlier. I say the young core is Devin, Keon, Nick, Max, Isaac, and I think I’m leaving off a young Buck. Isaac who? No, I mean not Isaac, but uh uh Jones. What’s my boy name? Isaac Jones. You you I’m sorry. You got Isaac Jones as a part of the core. No, not the I’m talking about as far as our young core moving forward. the young guys that we got on the team as far as Devin, Keegan, Keon, the Young Bucks, besides the Rose, besides the Rosen, Lavine, the Do Masa bonuses and all that, right? So, if we was to move with a youth movement, I would be fine with that. You get me? And I asked James in this earlier uh uh DLO, I said, man, how much would it cost to buy both those dudes out just to move on? Like, if we can’t trade them, it’s Listen, him, he made sense. He said it’s too much money and we ain’t going to do it. So I said I’mma leave it alone and we going to let the money fall back. But my call was we have a young core Kings fans in my opinion. I believe we have some young guys on this team right now. We don’t have to go out and search. We can put with it, but it’s not like we don’t have anybody at all. We have some young cats that’s ready. That’s what I got. Do okay. Um I feel a little optimistic. Yeah. [Laughter] uh saying we have some young guys we have some young guys who can go. All right, I’m with that. But to say like I I’m I’m nah I I’m going to stop short of saying no like we’re good if we go with the youth movement. Like no we’re not like the king I’m sorry to to be clear the Kings aren’t the Kings aren’t good. like you go with, you know, buying out Lavine and Demar. One, the the cost would just be astronomical. And two, and I cannot stress this enough, how stupid Dump that. I’m going to do this again. how more stupid this organization would look for trading De’Aran Fox for a player who winds up playing a handful of games for them and then you buy out what is roughly the remainder of their $100 million contract would be something I’m not sure this organization could survive. I’m not sure it’s something this fan base could survive. And you don’t have any young players worth even the idea of that thought even entertaining that like no one on this no young player on this team right now is even just like I said worth the thought of Yeah. Maybe you do that massive mistake. Not even close. Oh TC, I love you. That’d be so bad. So so bad. And you can play though. Here’s the other part of that. Like if you’re all in on Nick and Devin and Max and you you you you love these these young play like great man. That’s fire. You can run them with Zach and Dear. Like it’s fine. You can run those guys together. You can play. Look, I I I’ll go back to the roster conversation we were having a couple minutes ago. You may not like the way the roster is constructed, and I completely understand that. But the talent that’s on the roster is not bad. Zack Lavine is not bad. You might think Zack Lavine is bad when you factor in his uh near $50 million contract. That’s why most people don’t like Zack Lavine. It’s not the fact that the man averaged 20some points per game on 40some percent shooting. It’s not that. It’s the fact that he makes $50 million. He makes Giannis Dumpo level money. LeBron James level money. Steph Curry level money nearing it and he doesn’t play like any of those guys and that frustrates fans for some reason. We do this all of the time. It happened with De’aran. The perception of the little babyface kid who was drafted number five overall and everybody loves him. He wanted to be in Sacramento. That all changed when he got that third contract. second country. They’re all changed. Second one. Now, if it changes on the rookie extension, imagine what it does when you get to the big money contract. Because again, you’re not judging him by what he’s doing on the floor. You’re judging him by what he’s getting paid. Demar makes what? 20 and some change. Five, six, seven, somewhere around there. The one year ago, a little over a year ago, 53 weeks ago, everyone’s like, “Yo, that’s that’s a good contract for Demar.” The 22 and the partial at the end, man. Kings front office did that. Now all of a sudden, God, it’s so much money. Demar De Rozan was the most consistent player in the Kings uniform last year. And that includes Deont Sabonis. That’s why the conversation on Domas is starting to change. That’s why some of y’all are willing to hop on the bus with DLO and say something about that man’s shot attempts per game. One day y’all wanted to kill me for saying this man should shoot one to two more times per game. I had done this big heel turn on Damonte Sabonis. Oh my god. Hit him right in the back with a steel chair. But then contract kicks in. Then it goes on for another year or two. Then you realize, hey man, he’d be a 23 four point per game scorer if he just shot two more times per game. I mean, and how out of the realm, how out of character would it be for Domomas? Well, it turns out when you look at the numbers, extremely. You can run through Indiana. You know, OKC is really the only exception, but you can run through Indiana and you can run through Sacramento. Field goal attempts per game are the same. 11, 12, 13. That’s it. And think about how low talking about one of and I mean this as a shoot. You’re talking about one of the best players in the league. How many players in the league can you say they’re one of the absolute best and they shoot 12 times per game? Doms is one of those because of the incredible level of efficiency he doesn’t force shots. He doesn’t force possessions and he rarely takes bad shots. I don’t know if he ever takes bad shots. I have multiple frustrations with him as some of them is when a bad shot does go up, it’s never his fault, it’s someone else’s. And maybe it is, but I need Damontis to be more accountable in those situations. If you have the stomach for it, go back and watch that Dallas Mavericks game. Go back and watch that playing game again if you have the stomach for it and watch that sequence of possessions with Domas Sabonis from one turnover to a miss shot to another turnover. Just watch those one after the other after the other after the other. Watch that man’s body language change. Watch how that g ended. And it wasn’t just the possessions which all led to points. Dom was done after that. He was mentally cooked and his demeanor was given off that it was everybody else’s fault. More Summer League talk as LeBron James not joining ESPN. Summer League broadcast became a massive story. We’ll talk about that. But first, no chance we can head into 49ers training camp without some drama surrounding a wide receiver. We’ll talk about that. It’s the M Casey. No Casey this week, but we’re happy you’re here with us on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. Uh right now, uh Cass, these bottles are decoration right now. At some point, at some point, I’mma drink them. We’ll drink them. But right now, these bottles are here to uh help us promote Baker Family Wines, man. Yeah. Yeah, today’s my long day. Oh, yeah, for sure. I got you. Yeah, just come over whenever you’re ready. Uh Bryce, I think it’s so uh that’s Grand California, right? That’s what that’s um I think it’s uh I think we’re at the Disneyland Resort this time. I think we’re getting details trickling in rather than getting them all at once, but I think it’s the Disneyland Resort this time. Big ride, man. That’s work, bro. It’s work to keep it that fresh. I never know if the voice guy is going to talk. I kept waiting for him to talk like Yeah, that’s my fault, man. I gota fix. No, it’s fine. I got to fix that. I know. I got to fix that. Shouldn’t be so different. Oh, man. That’s so great. So, so great having I’ll get to it. No, it’s all good, man. It’s all good. We We’ll talk about it in the meeting tomorrow. Yeah. Oh, man. We’re having a a meeting tomorrow. I don’t mind this meeting, by the way. Feels like we’re actually going to talk about some important things. No, it’s funny like and and and it’s what I love. I think um you know, it’s tough when you have you know, we’re a cluster of six radio stations. You know, it’s obviously ESPN and KSFM. Uh it’s the end, it’s all 98 Rock and the Eagle. And sometimes, you know, it it there’s someone gets neglected and often times it’s this station. And so there’s this, hey man, what do what do we do to really bring, you know, h how can we get all in on ESPN and bring ESPN to, you know, life? And DLO and Casey and Jesse and the Insider, they’ve done such a a great job, but what can we do to take it to the next level? And it’s like, man, that’s great. And I believe that, you know, the people who have asked for this meeting and requested, I I absolutely believe they are all in on this idea. And man, do I have ideas for them. There are so many things I want to change about this radio state. I’ll even tell y’all one of them. I have no problem telling y’all one of this. The dumbest thing I think about what we do every day is ESPN 1320. I absolutely believe that’s the dumbest thing in the world because no one cares about 13:20 a.m. I was telling Kyle the other day, I was like, “Yo, why don’t we just be ESPN Sacramento? We air on YouTube. We air on Twitch. People are listening to us on the iHeart app. They’re listening to us on the Odyssey app because they’re trying to punish themselves. They listen to us on 98.5 FM HD2. Like, are there people that listen on 1320 a.m.? Absolutely. But you know that we’re there. You know that. Like, you didn’t stumble across 13:20 a.m. You knew. But if we post something on social media, yo, that’s ESPN Sacramento. Okay. ESPN 1320 sounds like Will Kane is about to join the show. Will Kane about to take over from noon to 12, followed by uh 7 hours of Greeny and whatever. I I honest to God have no clue what ESPN airs anymore, the national station. I have no idea. They have completely devalued their radio product. And Complex was asking me the other day, he was like, “Yo, does ESPN still have value?” And I’m so down on the ESPN name. But the fact is it does. When you say, you know, “Yeah, I work for I I I I’m on ESPN.” People immediately know you’re talking about sports. Now, they might think you work for the television station or the station in Bristol, which would make saying, “Yeah, ESPN Sacramento much better.” And we don’t have to do this big landscape changing announcement and all of this dumb stuff that people do. No, we just start calling ourselves ESPN Sacramento and we eliminate those numbers that no one ever really cared about. I’ll run this through all of the big wigs tomorrow. I already told Kyle about it. Kyle liked it. I’m telling y’all about it. I hope you like it. I think it makes more sense. I’m going to pull up tomorrow like that one guy that was interviewing for the office job, the manager job in the office. Like I got a five-part plan. I’m only going to give you two parts. I’m going to need some help here finally. Like I have two parts for you, but if you want parts three, you’re going to have to work. Well, give them part one of the second part. Exactly. That’s what you do. Yeah. Yeah. Give them part one and the second part. So, we’re having one of those meetings tomorrow before the insight at like 8 o’clock. I was like, “Yeah, cool. I’m I’m I’m down.” Like, I love I love these meetings. like I love uh the idea of making uh a product better and it’s not a it’s not a playerson only meeting right we’ve had a million players only meetings over the last five years it’s uh it’s a whole it’s a whole crew coming together and talking um so that’s coming up on uh so we’re doing that tomorrow so if all of a sudden you see like you see some of these graphics change you see some of these different things change and you just hear us start saying ESPN Sacramento. Now you know why we start the show pissed off means meeting didn’t go good too. See this is see there’s no way that this that’ll there’s no way that’ll happen though. Not with this group of people. I I don’t believe this isn’t PDX. This isn’t all of the stuff that we went through before where we were often talking in circles. Like this is this is uh this is this is a group that rides with us. This is a group that’s down for sure. I’m excited for it. I’m excited for it. So if you just start hearing little subtle differences, that’s what it was. I promise you we’re not going to tell you we’re changing the landscape of sports in Sacramento. And we certainly won’t be ESPN sack town cuz we live here and we know better. We’re going to change our colors. No. No. We’ll just stick with red and white. That’s fine. It’s fine. Yes 1320. Your new era. Well, it’s the same old era in San Francisco because the training camp is approaching and there’s a wide receiver controversy. Joan Jennings needs to chill out, man. Joan Jennings wants a new deal or a trade. And the report from Adam Shfter is he’s not going to hold out. He’s not going to uh create any stir. He’s gonna show up. He’s going to do his job. He’s not going to be happy. As amazingly, as amazingly, the article pointed out, Sher legit wrote, “He is not expected to be a training camp hold out, but he is not expected to be happy either.” as the 49ers saw last summer with Aayuk. That is such a The agent told me to include this line as I have ever seen. You’re not You’re not I’m sorry. Like you’re Nick Bose, uh um Debo Samuel, yada like Joan Jennings, I’m sorry. You’re not going to be the one to strongarm me here, man. Like we’re not doing that, okay? I’m not paying you off of one season. Like go ahead and do it for a couple more, at least one more if we’re going to have these conversations. Anyone want to take a guess how many thousand yard seasons he’s had so far in his career? I’m going to go zero. Okay, you’d be correct. How many seasons he had above 500 yards in his career? Above 500 yards? Yes. How many seasons he had above? Last year. One. Yeah. Just the one. It’s like you can’t Was it last year? Yeah. Literally just last year. You can’t come asking me for money. Blah blah blah. Like maybe he sees an opportunity and his agent sees an opportunity with IU coming off the ACL and Ricky Pierce. So don’t even know who he is yet. But yeah. I know. We’ll see you at training camp. You’re not getting paid right now. We’re not doing this. Be foolish if you gave him 20 anything any type of money right now that was above 20 million or even above 15. So, he’s uh due it’s like seven and some change this year. And what I have to assume it’s 7 and a half. What I have to assume is this has been a um behind the scenes conversation for weeks. You’re approaching the start of training camp. You’ve gotten nowhere and now Jawan’s agent is like, “Well, we’ll take it public.” And this was absolutely Jawan’s agent because of the sentence I just read you. He is not expected to be a training camp hold out, but he is not expected to be happy either. Who do you hell? Who do you think told Sher to write that? Yeah, it’s exactly the same. Like that’s great. Like exactly. You can’t hold out because there’s no money. Like there’s no leverage with Jawan Jennings here. Like there’s no like like we’ll see you week one on the field. And you build up your value that way. There’s no holding out. Like he like this is just in hopes that maybe the 49ers want to be nice people here and give him back given their wide receiver room situation. Like there’s no reason for the 49ers to pay him. If he’s not holding out, which it’d be insane if he did, then why on earth would I pay you right now? Well, here is what I will say about that. This might be his best negotiating position because he knows he’s entering the season without Brandon Aayuk. He’s almost certainly entering the season as the I don’t even know that it’s this. I don’t even know that almost certainly is is the right term. He is entering the season as the number one option for Brock Party and the San Francisco 49ers in that wide receiver room. Yep. This might be your best leverage to get paid like a number one wide receiver. You’re entering the final year of your contract. It’s not unusual to try to negotiate an extension before you enter the final year of your contract. That is not unusual at all. The circumstances surrounding this are unusual. when you resigned Jawan Jennings, you sign you you signed Brandon Iay to the big deal and I I I’ll have to look up the timing of this. Debo Samuel was probably still on the team. Now you go on to move Debo. Brandon Iay gets hurt and now this is the predicament you’re in. Yeah, I get all that. Um Tyler Jennings says that’s cap. Jesse, he’s the wide receiver one at the moment. Young guy is still unproven. Uh Kata says no. Demarcus Robinson most likely to be suspended in a bunch of unproven guys. I get that too. Like let’s not forget Joan Jennings is still unproven as well. Like he’s not a wide receiver one because he had 77 catches and 975 yards in one season. Like I don’t know exactly what he’s looking for if he looks looking for a little bit more money or some security for the season. Like sure like he wants a little bit more guarantee. That’s fine. But I’m not giving Jawan Jennings like 20 mil per year. Like there’s still a chance where he plays through the season and we learn oh wow Jawan Jennings is still a wide receiver three or maybe a wide receiver two on his best day. Like there’s that aspect as well. Like I’m not going to pay a guy because of one year because my wide receiver may be a little bit weak. Like if he’s not holding out then he’ll be there week one. Cool. Build up your value and we’ll talk at the end of the season or maybe during the season. I don’t see why the 49ers would need to pay him right now. Yeah. It’s just tough. I feel for probably not his right to real quick. He like says we don’t even know how much he’s asking for. Like I said, yeah, if he’s asking for guaranteed money this year, like that’s fine. But like if he’s asking for like some deal where like oh yeah, pay me like a wide receiver one because that’s what I’m going to be. No, I’m cool. We’ll talk about that later on. Yeah, he has um the last contract he negotiated was about a a two-year deal at 15 and 15.39 and he’s in the the second year of that. Um it’s a rather unique situation. Actually, the more we talk through this, the more I don’t blame Jawan Jennings and his agent for trying to to get something done here. The tough part is you might have to do a short-term deal. Maybe you you know, you get a a stronger guarantee for the year uh with with at least uh cuz we didn’t see exactly what he’s looking for, right? It was just more so this deal. Yeah. So, it’s like I don’t even know if he’s like what does that mean? Is he looking for like a wide receiver one contract or does he want just incentives guaranteed? I mean, I’m I’m positive if his if his if his agent is effectively doing their job, they’re looking for a wide receiver one contract. Now, there might have to be a compromise here. I always paid like a top five guy, but he’s getting 25 or 20 plus per year, whatever that is now the wide receivers get generally. Also, because I’m a jerk, if I’m Jawan Jennings agent, I’m also like, yeah, you know, he’s not coming back. You know, Aayuk isn’t coming back. You know, you don’t even want Brandon Aayuk to come back. You got a guy who loves it here, a guy who has outperformed every contract he’s had. Let’s go ahead and make Jawan Jennings your number one wide receiver. Now, that’s the agent’s job. Where he’ll have to really work, which is where John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan and that contingent of people will work too, is the compromise. Because this isn’t haggling over money. This isn’t haggling and navigating around salary cap and all of that stuff. This this is this is just a uniquely difficult spot where you paid Debo then traded him. You paid Brandon Iayuk, he got hurt. He’s still very much on the roster. You’ve paid your quarterback. That’s another thing. That’s and that’s probably the biggest part here is you’ve paid your quarterback and he has a fair to describe the 49ers receiving room as maybe a little thin. Yeah, it’s not great. I wouldn’t Yeah, it’s not a good receiver room. It’s thin. Yeah, it’s thin with Jawan Jennings. Yeah. Yeah. You take Jawan Jennings out of that, it’s more problematic. So it it again the more we talk through this the more that I absolutely understand where Jawan Jennings agent is coming from. Now if there’s no compromise then you just every everybody loses. If there’s no compromise on this, everybody loses. But if you can get uh perhaps a higher uh guaranteed salary for this year, uh get him locked up for something next season, then you start working off, hey, maybe this man is going to wind up being our number one wide receiver for the foreseeable future. And then at some point, I’ll have to look at the makeup of Brandon Iayuk’s contract. you’ll figure out what, you know, when his money changes, when it falls off, when it’s no longer guaranteed, and uh when when we find all of this stuff that we read about is ultimately fake and they’re due, you know, 26 bucks at the end of the year. Yeah. Tyler Jennings again in the chat says, um, give him something like 14 to 15 million per year. If I’m Jawan Jennings, I’d be looking for more than that cuz I figure if you have another great year, it’s like, oh yeah, like he proved himself again as our wide receiver number one. Like you can get 20 mil per year on the open market. I feel so like I don’t think he’d be looking like I said we just don’t know how much he’s looking for right now. But like if if if it’s about him being the wide receiver one on this team this year, it’s like and he has a big year like I feel like you’d be looking for more after that. So if you’re if you’re if you’re 14 to 15 is not like top receiver money anymore. Like that’s we’re past all that. If you’re Jesse Tapia of Clutch Sports, then are you pushing for Jawan Jennings to get a high a bigger salary this year and become a free agent next season? Yeah, I guess like you mean as far as like just guaranteeing his money and then going hit the market. Yeah, it that’s dangerous. It is. It is. But that’s kind of like what Well, that’s the thing. Like what is their thinking though? I don’t know what they’re thinking is like who’s there? Jan. Jan and his agent. Jan and his agent. If Jawan thinks like no, I’m a wide receiver number one. I’m going to get this opportunity finally. Like if you and agent believe that like if you tear it up this year, you can get a lot more than 14 to 15 mil per year. But if you want stability and things like that, then sure, I’ll give Jawan Jennings 14 to 15 mil per year. That’s wide receiver two, three money, whatever. But like I said, if this whole thing is about him being the wide receiver one this year and all that stuff, like he can have a big year and make a lot more money after the season. I figured like to me my thing is like maybe that’s kind of what they’re looking for looking toward as far as talking with the Niners and if I’m the Niners I’m not paying that right now. But do you agree that the difficulty in navigating a a the final year of a contract is very high. Yeah. Okay. Cuz there is I don’t know they’re in a weird spot I guess like Jawan has all the reason in the world to do what he’s doing right now. All right, guys. It’s a It’s a pretty unique spot. It’s it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a pretty it’s a it’s a really difficult spot. It’s a difficult spot for for for all involved. It’s one that I actually I never once thought about because, you know, that there was so much conversation about Brandon Aayuk and, you know, when would he he return? Would he return? you know what what it would ultimately, you know, look like for him when he got back and didn’t really realize, hey, Jawan Jennings is entering the final year of his contract. That could be a thing. And it absolutely is. And like I said, the more we talk through this kind of the less I fault him. Like I get it. I get it. Um I also I understand Jesse’s point of hey, cash in big. uh at the end of cash in big when this is over. It’s 28 right now, but maybe you can get like a threeear $65 million contract or something like that where it’s like you’re someone’s top receiver because you had a big deal with the Niners or something like that cuz I don’t know like the Niners aren’t going to I guess what are the Niners going to do with Brandon I though imagine you’re not going to pay two guys I don’t know and not both of those guys. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re doing with Brandon. Remember like before Brandon Iayuk got hurt, it wasn’t exactly going great. Then Brandon Aayuk get gets hurt and now you have now you have this really difficult situation. And this is the one of the things that I hate so much about like injuries and timeline projections is they’ll tell you, hey, um, so and so had surgery, they’re due back in, you know, four to six weeks. Four to six weeks is the timeline in which they can play again. four to six weeks is which they will be medically cleared to go play whatever professional sport that they’re in. But how much time is it before you’re back to feeling normal? Like we have we have completely devalued the fact yo they’re they were cut open. Something in their body was repaired. Something that had been one way for so long was opened up and repaired. And it’s just like Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. Go be the best in the world at this particular sport. Yeah. We talk about these guys like when they get their injuries like their math problems over like yeah back in six months like he just blew out his knee so he’ll be back in a year and we’re good. And I say all that to say I firmly expect Brandon Iuk to not if if he returns this season to not be good and then now it’s like okay so now the entire season is a wash. You want him to have an offseason. You want him to have a strong off season. You want him to head into next year strong. But he’s also really expensive because he is in fact at least payrollwise your number one wide receiver. So how this works out with Jawan Jennings, man, I am not sure. I am not sure at all. And the one thing for that that seems for sure because with the exception of Brock Pury, thankfully with the exception of Brock Party, these drag out, man. Trent Williams dragged out. Nick Bosa dragged out. Debo dragged out. Brandon Aayuk dragged out. They all dragged out with the exception of Brock Party. Is there even a situation here if he doesn’t hold out? Because if he shows up to training camp and he’s there week one, it’s kind of like, all right, it’s up to the 49ers if they want to make this player, I guess, happy in the sense of you guarantee or just give him what he’s looking for. But other than that, like he’s there playing for you week one. Probably. Probably like I Yeah, he’s there playing week one. They’re there. I don’t know how much distraction this would be for them. It wasn’t the firmst like stance. It was kind of like like, “Hey, let me tap him on the chalet, man.” It was basically like Chef tweeting for the agent like, “Hey, my client’s going to be upset.” Yeah. I just want you to know, oh, is he is he going to hold out? Well, no. He’s going to tell a lot less jokes in team meetings, I’ll tell you that. He’s He’s not going to smile. I’m gonna tell you that. He’s going to sit by himself in the cafeteria. All right, man. There’s also a another component to this and it’s it’s not like Joan Jennings is 23 years old. Oh yeah, he’s 28, right? You got to get his now. Like if there’s ever a time, it’s by now. And again and again and again and again. Forgive me. The more we talk through this, the more I get it. This is your chance. Get every penny you can. Even if it’s just guaranteeing the seven and a half. Even if if it if it’s if it’s making it a 10 million G, do whatever you have to do because this is your shot. Do you think the 49ers, and work with me here, because I don’t even know if I believe this, but have they kind of developed a culture where like like this feels like this is every year now was whether it’s Bosa or anything like that? Like there’s always just some type of contract distraction that pops up. And I don’t like I said, I don’t know how much of this, but like Kenny always talks about like either trying to win or whatever, but like money’s on the mind as well. And like that’s at the forefront. Like you think Jawan is kind of playing off of what he’s what he’s seen the last few years in San Francisco or Santa Clair or is this just more circumstance where a guy just needs his money and it’s the right time? I think it’s well I actually think it’s a product of the 49ers system. They’ve drafted good football players. Um, you know, they went and, you know, they went and got Trent Williams through trade, which which, you know, part of the Trent Williams acquisition was making sure he got a contract. Once you got him in a 49ers uniform, you certainly don’t want to lose him. You’ve been able to acquire, you know, you know, Christian McCaffrey was through a trade. You’ve been able to acquire talent and part of having talent on your roster is paying them as talented players. And that might be just as much as what this is as anything else. He probably is looking at it like Debo was your number one guy and you paid him. Then you decided Brandon Iayuk was going to be your number one guy and you paid him. Well, you don’t have Debo. He’s somewhere else. Brandon Iayuk is rehabbing and when he was playing it wasn’t going well. Guy you dropped in the first round last year’s off and on healthy. And now you have me who is entering this season as your number one wide receiver just like the other two. So I want to be paid like the number one wide receiver. I stepped up last year when those guys weren’t here. I stepped up last year when Debo was gone and I was unavailable. So yeah, I want to be treated essentially the same way you treated everybody else. Rock party was your guy. You paid him. Nick Bosa was your guy at that position. You paid him. J Williams is your guy at that position. You paid him. Debo, Brandon Aayuk, they were your guys at my position and you paid him. Christian McCaffrey. You paid him. I am your guy at this position for the quarterback that you just signed to a massive contract. Pay me like that. You pay George KD. Paying George KD was as much about Brock Party as it was George KD. I can’t believe this. I just talked myself into being team Jawan. I’m with it. It makes complete sense. Real quick, too, because I think this kind of adds to what we’ve been talking about. Quitty Q threw it in here. It’s got reported Garrett Wilson just got a $130 million extension. I think it’s about 31 per year, not including the guarantees or whatever. And I’m looking at spot track right now for a top wide receiver one that’s going to cost you about 30 million per year. Looking down the list like Terry McLaren 22, Calvin really getting 22. They didn’t even pay they didn’t even pay that. You can’t do that with Jawan Jenny. You can’t pay him that money. He’s not that. You can’t do that. Christian Kirk is about 18 mil per year. Ken Allen’s 20. Like I guess that’s what I’d maybe think about Jawan if you were. But yeah, you’re not I don’t think you can give him 25 plus or anything like that. Again, none of this we don’t know what they’re looking for. This is all radio show content right here. Yeah, but Tyler says it. I wouldn’t play on 7 million if I was Jawan Jennings. I actually completely understand that. I understand that. It’s just a a a tough position that we laid out. Um he doesn’t have a ton of leverage other than you did it for everybody else. I want you to do it for me, too. We’ll come back. Um man, there’s there’s two things I really want to talk about. Will Z is going to join us. I’ we’ve got to get to this NFL Players Association collusion thing. We have been holding off on that for so long and there actually is some news that came out about that yesterday. Sort of. Uh if you’re not caught up on that story, we’ll catch you up. It’s bad even for the NFL. It’s bad. That’s next on ESPN 1320. I think we did just get the deal done. That’s what we do. We crowdsource deals here. Yeah, Barrett. The only tough part about that is, and I know this could happen whenever, but what if he gets hurt? I mean, that’s the that’s the biggest thing, right, with NFL players. What if what if they get hurt? People called like 10 times. man. You guys are cooking. You guys are cooking. And I have I got thoughts, dog. I’ve got things to say. I got things to say in that regard. There you go, Tyler. Yes, he does. I mean, Joan is your brother, right? Tyler, it was Ryan, Tyler, and Jawan for heard that as well. Uh, hey, DLo, is Katie going to watch quarterback like she did starting five or she doesn’t care? Well, she didn’t care about starting five. She watched it really because she thought it would be fun to talk about on the show. Um, she was gonna watch quarterback. like I actually think she started but because like it had already passed uh she it was just like uh don’t worry about it. So with the new season, yeah, I might I might have her tap in and come in and do some reality show stuff with us because she she loves that stuff. I think she watched Receivers. remember she went in on I think it was George KD’s wife so she she definitely watched receivers scooter today your birthday happy birthday Scott good stuff man what are we doing for your birthday Casey Tucker no way Jennings should play for less than 15 million I think I’ve talked myself into that be to be honest with you I think I’ve talked myself into 9169091320 if you want to get in on the phone lines. KC out this week. Happy that you’re here with us. Let me hear some air horns from my man Scott. Hey, Scooter 916. Happy birthday, baby. Uh he said he’s out going out there fishing sushi for dinner. Uh that sounds like a good birthday scooter man. I appreciate you. Uh happy birthday my friend. Enjoy this day. July 14th it is. Um Will Z is going to join us. We’ll talk Kings basketball uh with him, some of the summer league performances, what he thinks about these rookies, uh how impactful could they be, uh on this roster, and how he feels as we get closer and closer uh to the Sacramento Kings season. So, we’ll see coming up at about 2:15. And then James Ham will be back with us. Of course, he was back on the Insiders after a week away. He’ll be back with us at the top of the 3:00 hour. There’s still a couple of things I really want to dive into, but I want to make sure that this story doesn’t get pushed back uh any further than it already has. We’ve talked about it several times on this show in kind of a roundabout way, but haven’t really uh dove into it the way that we should. Pablo Tori and Mike Florio deserve uh a lot of credit. We we became aware of this story when a it was essentially a fan attempted to sue the NFL for collusion against Shador Sanders. And it was Florio that pointed out, I don’t know who this fan is, but he’s probably a lawyer and he’s not an idiot. The main thing it appears that he wanted to bring to light was that there was a 61page arbitration ruling that showed there was some form of collusion between the NFL, meaning their owners, and the NFL players association, the people that are elected to work for the players. And for weeks after that lawsuit was announced, nothing. And Florio would write about it like, “I have attempted to get this 61page document. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.” And of course, Pablo has that great podcast. Um, it’s called Pablo Finds Out. And the two did a podcast together a couple of weeks ago in which they acknowledged they were in a friendly competition to see which one of them could get the 61page document first. Pablo was able to land the 61page document, but the two worked together in breaking this down. They did an extensive podcast on it that I strongly encourage everybody to go listen to because this is I use the word scandal because that’s exactly what I believe that this is. And this is a scandal unlike anyone I can remember in professional sports. I mean, there have been and there may currently be gambling scandals. Um, hell, we’ve had scandals involving sex thanks to Eime Odoka. Shoot, it wasn’t just Eime Odoka. There have been scandals involving sex long before him. There was always the thought of collusion surrounding Colin Kaepernick. And as most of you are aware, for someone who has been team Colin Kaepernick since 2016, you have been called every form of an idiot over the better part of the last nine years for believing that collusion could potentially exist in the NFL when it came to a quarterback the likes of Colin Kaepernick. And no one cared because that was such a it was such a divisive subject and people wanted to make what Colin Kaepernick was doing starting back in August of 2016 about everything except what he was actually doing. And when you go back to that August of 2016 and that first time it was noticed that he wasn’t kneeling during the national anthem, he was sitting on the bench and it wasn’t even the first time he did it. It was the third, but it was the first time a camera caught it. And after the game, it might not even have been after the game. It might have been the next day. I can’t remember which one it was. I think it was after the game. And it was absolutely in San Francisco because all the local media was there. And I remember I think this was one of Tim Kawakami’s finest jobs because he asked a lot of questions that day. It’s 15 minutes. It’s 15 minutes of Colin Kaepernick standing in front of his locker and every storyline narrative whatever that was used to describe a colleague he shot down like that day. They were ask well how what about the truth? He’s like, “No, this isn’t about the troops. This isn’t about this. This isn’t about that.” I’m telling you flat out what this is about right now. And it was essentially ignored. That the 15 minutes is readily available on YouTube, but it’s been completely ignored when it comes to history. And then, of course, Colin Kaepernick finishes out the year with the San Francisco 49ers. Has the season that he’s had. I should say the 49ers have the season that he had. They have that was the year before Kyle Shanahan comes in. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch come in. They decide they’re going uh, you know, a different route. Colin Kaepernick isn’t coming back. Colin Kaepernick is a free agent. And never get signed ever. And then along the way, you get these little public workouts that the NFL allegedly set up. You get all of this nonsense that is just that. It’s nonsense. And then this Shador thing happens and Kenny and I Kenny and I said the the day the draft ended, the day after. It’s like look, Shory doesn’t go in the first round. That’s pretty surprising, but like okay, it’s whatever. He doesn’t go in the second round or the third or the fourth and then he winds up being drafted by the team that everyone thought would wind up drafting him anyways. H fascinating, interesting, perhaps just a hell of a coincidence. Then that lawsuit is filed and it becomes, okay, so what is this collusion thing? We know it’s not about Colin Kaepernick, so what is it about? Well, it’s about keeping guaranteed contracts down, particularly when it comes to quarterbacks, cuz we all knew the Deshun Watson thing was a problem. Everybody knew the Deshun Watson contract was a desperate football team making a desperate move that has backfired in an incredible way. Now the 61page ruling it did say that there wasn’t enough evidence to support the fact that uh owners colluded amongst each other to keep the guaranteed contracts down. But there was evidence to support the fact that Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, who works on behalf of the owners, worked with the NFL Players Association president, the guy whose very job it is to get NFL contracts up, to keep contracts down, to keep guaranteed contracts down. They point to specific uh names like Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson. Of course, Lamar Jackson will be one of the most egregious things that ever ever happened in the NFL when Lamar on but by himself is attempting to negotiate a contract. He wants a fully guaranteed contract just like Deshun Watson had. Baltimore is saying, “No, we’re not doing that.” And then Baltimore makes the unprecedented move of saying, remember, I think he’s under the franchise tag this time. Remember that it’s like the unprecedented move saying, “Go ahead, go seek a trade.” Shfter puts out the tweet that the Baltimore Ravens had allowed Lamar Jackson to seek a trade and immediately immediately the Atlanta Falcons go, “Nah, we’re not interested. We’re not interested in Lamar Jackson. Really? Y’all got Desmond goddamn Ritter and you’re saying you’re not interested in talking about a trade for Lamar Jackson. Okay. You had I think the New Orleans Saints were another team. No quarterback. Not interested in Lamar Jackson. Huh. So So this isn’t collusion, huh? H let I I’ve there’s there’s a lot more to talk about this. Uh but we’ve got an attorney on the line and I know this is what he’s calling about. Uh Camaro, what’s up, man? What’s going on? I I tried to call you from my cell, but it was like coming out kind of crazy. Can y’all hear me fine or? Yeah, I got you, bro. I got I got you. We could tell you’re in the the big conference room uh with the oak table and and and the glass statues, man. We know. Oh, you’re funny. You’re funny. But I’m accurate. No, no, you’re definitely not accurate. Um, you know, the thing is about the collusion. First of all, Damon, are you are you going to the show? We’ll talk about that. We’ll talk about it. We’ll talk. I’m working on it. Okay. Um, the thing about it is that I think everybody kind of knew knew about that there was a bunch of collusion happening the NFL. And I think what’s frustrating is when they people they would gaslight you and they’re saying there’s no collusion. There’s nothing there. And you’re like, it’s almost like, don’t believe what you see, believe what I tell you, right? And you know, the hardest part about proven collusion is that nobody wants to be the one to actually be the the main witness to it, right? Because we’re afraid of uh the blowback from that coming back. But you mentioned Lamar Jackson, the MVP, could not get a single contract and then they ended up signing, you know, a they end up signing his a counterpart who was nowhere in the same same stratosphere as Lamar Jackson. So I think that was one of the red herrings and obviously we going back to Colin Kaepernick and everything like that, but I I I think what my problem is the NFL PA is such a weak organization. Yeah. Right. Arguably the worst in sports. It’s the worst in sports. So, okay, now this comes out, but what is going to happen? How what how I think that’s my problem. Like, what is the legal leverage that they have? Because they’ve shown that they don’t have the arm to force the NFL to change their ways. They the players don’t have the power. It’s the shield, not the players. And I my problem is that this is just going to be a story that people are going to talk about and then it’s going to go away and they’re going to have another example and have another example until you have main Star Wars in in not just the organization the NFL PA but actual star players saying enough is enough. And I don’t know if there’s there are players out there that willing put the career. It’s going to have to be the boy out of KC, right? You know, it’s going to have to be players like that caliber. It can’t be like this the backup quarterback or you know it has to be someone that has such marquee name that it’s going to be like okay we got to listen now. But but but Kamar the these like it it it has to be like how would any NFL player be okay with what just went on the last couple of weeks? Like it I mean it doesn’t have to be just I mean I understand Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and the big dogs. I like I understand all of that, but how could any football player be like, “Hold up, our players union, the guys that we elected, our executive committee is actively working against us.” Well, the problem you have is, okay, you know, you talk about, you know, uh uh um like the big dogs, but they’re fine. Ideally, right? You know, listen. So the Patrick Mahomes ideally he’s like he’s like I’m fine. Yeah, I’m part of the players or I’m I am part of the the union but I’m not really am I is my career suffering from it? And I get all the the the best the messages of being the marquee guy in the league, the face of the league. And that’s hard for somebody, you know, especially someone like I don’t want to get into I I don’t know Mahomes. We don’t know Mahomes. But does he strike you as a person that is going to be like, “All right, I’m I’m going to I’m standing I’m I’m I’m going to stand for No. No. So So the the issue is like you’re saying, how can players not rally? You need you need the top player. Like let’s say let’s say counterpart in NBA. If LeBron says, even though he’s not he’s not what he once was five, six, seven years ago, but LeBron says this, his name his this his voice alone will cause a ripple effect on how the league reacts. Yeah. Right. Right. And even though when they’re talking about two different scenario, two different players associations, whatnot. I get all that. It’s not apples to apples, but we have to acknowledge that the you say, how can players continue to go on? You need the big domino to fall. And until the big domino falls, the NFL is not going to react. And they’re not gonna The big domino is never going to fall because they’re gonna feed the big domino, you’re going to get all the looks. You’re getting all the love. You’re not like the rest of these guys. You’re different. You’re different. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So that’s that’s my that’s my opinion on on it all, man. I I appreciate you, man. Thank you uh for your perspective, especially uh from attorney. That’s our man Kamar out there calling from Orlando. He’s trying to get me. Kamar always calling trying to get me to spend money. And I’m going to tell you something. He’s about this close to pulling it off. Like he he he’s going he’s I I’ll tell y’all about it later cuz we we talking about something right now. But to me, this is a scandal. And that’s the part that frustrates me. And the what really frustrates me is that is right. It does. It’s going to have to be Lamar. It’s going to have to be Patrick Mahomes. going to have to be one of those big dogs to say something. When in actuality, the backup lineman who pays his dues to the union should be furious. It doesn’t have to just be Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson that are upset, the guys who were named in this, the guys who I actually think testified in this arbitration. It’s not just them. Every NFL player who has learned that the players association that they elected has worked to keep their money at a lower premium should be offended. But here’s what it all boils down to for Roger Goodell and the rest of those owners. It doesn’t matter. They don’t care. The players don’t care. All because you don’t care. And that’s fine. You don’t. I just laid out the Colin Kaepernick situation. Y’all know how I felt about Colin Kaepernick for the last nine years. You know how I felt about what he stood for. You know how I felt about that whole situation. Many of you felt the same exact way. It wasn’t enough for you to stop watching. It wasn’t enough for me to quit my job and walk away and say cuz I can’t do this job and not cover the NFL. So, it wasn’t enough for me to quit my job and walk away. And for most people, that’s going to be the case because think about it. What scandal in NFL history has ever rattled them? Aaron Hernandez likely killed multiple people as a player. Nothing. Ray Lewis almost certainly murdered somebody. Bro won the Super Bowl the next year. Then he’s all of a sudden the he’s he’s Biggie from the new day. He’s the power of positivity. It’s a new day. Yes, it is. Y’all remember Ray Kuth? No one cared. These are extreme examples. I just named three examples of murder didn’t affect the NFL one bit. What about the integrity of the game? What about Spygate? What happened with Spygate? Anyone remember? No, no, no. Not what Spygate was. Everybody knows what it was, but what happened after they destroyed the tapes. They learned from frost Nixon. They learned from the White House tapes when Richard Nixon essentially set up Watergate on the phone lines. They they learned destroy the tapes. That’s what they did. They have minimized deflate gate for a decade and some change, but didn’t give us the opportunity to see what it actually was. Oh, everybody knows plays. Oh, that’s what defenses do. They study film. How is it different? You think studying film is the same thing as watching a team run through their plays on the football field? Run through their specific plays that are set up for this specific team. Okay, that’s fine if you think it is. That’s perfectly fine if you think it is. Put the tape in and let us see it then. Put the tape in and let us see how minimal of an impact deflate gate had. They didn’t because they can’t because they know that’s not true. So they destroyed the tapes so no one will ever know. Deflategate overtook an entire season. No one cared in the end. No one cared. Hell, I just mentioned three instances of scandal that involved one football team. Three instances of scandal that involved one football team, one coach, one owner. No one cares. The NFL openly admitted to those uh racially based tests that they had to get rid of like a year ago. Those cognitive tests was called it racorming. What was I can’t remember what that was called. Casey and I were talking about it like a month or two ago. Openly admitted to that. openly admitted to screwing over black players in in their in their retirement funds since the history of the league. No one cared. And this is the same thing. The NFL owners are working with the elected officials of the NFL Players Association executive committee whose president Lloyd How is actually part-time for a company that has been allowed to be one of the the the the venture capital companies that is allowed to invest in the NFL. meaning he has a direct conflict of interest as the president of the players association. How did he get elected, you ask? Great question. No one knows. Absolutely nobody knows. And here’s the saddest part. I’m sitting here in Sacramento, California. I’m sitting here in the Odyssey studios of ESPN 1320. It’s not my job to know. But Jawan Jennings, who is demanding a new contract, it’s his job to know. He doesn’t. Your favorite football team, the shirt that you had, all those players on that team, those 50 some odd players, it’s their job to know. They don’t. That jersey you got on your back, it’s their job to know. They don’t. They don’t know how he got elected either. And you know what? They probably don’t care. Maybe a few of them do. But so the executive committee backed Lloyd How after all of this. They backed their executive vice president yesterday. Just yesterday. From murder to cheating to just flat out screwing over your players, there is no scandal that the NFL can’t survive. The only one that would ruin them is something involving gambling because that’s all this boils down to. The interest in the NFL is so vast because you, the diehard football fan and your group of diehard football fans can launch this fantasy football league and you can play d fantasy sports. Then you could walk into work and with all your buddies that are that are that are big football fans, you can play fantasy football with Jen, the girl from HR, and Alyssa, the account executive. Why? Cuz it’s 16 weeks. It’s easy and it’s fun and it invests everybody into the league. The NFL survives off of gambling. And until you have a massive gambling scandal, they’ll survive anything. And it doesn’t matter how many of their players kill somebody. The clo I thought for the briefest of seconds, the Ray Rice incident would change something. And then Greg Hardy reminding us it wouldn’t. We’ll come back. We’re going to shift our attention back to the Sacramento Kings. Will Z joins us next here on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. Oh, Keon Ellis worked out with the squad this morning. That’s cool. Good for Keon. I like Keon, man. I hope everything works out with him. I really like him a lot. William, what’s up, man? Good, man. How are you? I am at my parents place on the coast. So, just my AirPods today. Am I coming around? Coming through? Oh, yeah. You’re just fine, man. You’re just fine. What are you guys doing out there? You You said along the coast. Yeah. Uh Northern in Guualala. It’s awesome up here. Oh, okay. Yeah, we have a wedding in Eureka this weekend. So, time here and then driving up. That’s awesome, man. Yeah, man. Bummer about Raino not playing tonight was too bad. Yeah. Yeah, that that’s definitely a bummer. I was uh he’s really fun to watch. Mhm. So true. He is really fun to watch. I really enjoyed both rookies. Yeah, the feel that they have is just so impressive. Oh, appreciate you, Filthy. I’ve been holding off on that segment for a while, man. So, I appreciate you. Casey out of yacht party. Yeah, probably. He I won’t hear from the funny thing is I’m off next week. Casey’s off this week. Like I leg [ __ ] Casey and I won’t talk to each other for the next two weeks. Break from each other. Oh man, he might be on a yacht somewhere. Who knows? Him and Kamar. Nick going for 25 tonight. Man, I hope you’re right. Uh yeah, KG. I hope you’re right. I mean, there’s a good amount of shots that’ll be up for grabs. Yeah. Yeah, man. Let me see Devin get his points again and then Oh, that I don’t care if Devin gets it his points. I want to see him Yeah. I want to see him be be aggressive. Yeah. Good for you, Afro. I always say uh I always said when my my my time here is done, not when I’m dead, meaning when I’m off the radio, I’ll I I can comfortably not watch the NFL and be fine. Yeah, I’ll be happy. It is a playoff game. Dave, I figure there’s no point in trimming it up before the wedding this weekend. So, that’s a good call. Yeah. And then you get that fresh laid down look. Yeah, that’s the way to go. That’s the way to go. Uh, we still got about 30 seconds. Will looked like you guys had u went to a fun spot over the weekend. We did. Yes. I uh won’t say who because it was for uh Katie. Um and that’s her endorsement, not mine. So, I just it was uh it was nice. We had a good time. Um uh but it was it was work and it was work for her. And we have uh we have conflicting sponsorships. So, that’s why the post the posting was was pretty limited. Incredible. Oh, I still got the game up for Oh, I still Oh, we’re coming back. Will, our man Will Z joining us from the coast of California right now to talk Kings basketball. Well, I just chuckled because I uh looked down at my computer and was like, “What is this? What is What is this uh window open at the bottom?” And I still have my my Devin Carter film open from uh Saturday here on a different browser. Uh well, thank one, thanks for joining us. Uh two, well, you know, we’ll get to to Nick and and Maxim, of course, for those just tuning in, we’re not going to see Maxim Renault tonight. Sean Cunningham reported uh he’s dealing with wrist soreness uh from something that happened on Saturday, so he will be out tonight. Uh but I do want to talk about what you’ve seen from him so far, Will. Uh, but I do want to start with with Devin Carter. Um, I had expectations for him entering the summer league and it was I wanted him to look exactly like he looked on Saturday. Um, did you have any expectations for Deon Cartage? Is there anything that you wanted to see from him this summer league? Yeah, I think like a lot of other people it was just can we see him like the whole thing is the point guard position and like I know you’ve talked about it a lot but like that to me feels like his only avenue to really find playing time is if he can get into that point guard role and I don’t know if we’ve seen that yet. I know the 30 points is great but it still doesn’t feel like he’s the type of point guard that Scott Perry kind of wants. Um, but obviously like the points are great, but to me I think I just keep going back to the first game more so than the second game. And the two of them balance out so much where they’re on like two opposite ends of the spectrum where you’ve got the one that was really good and the one that was really bad. Um, but I keep going back to like the very first few minutes of the first game when he had an open three in transition. I think Nick cut to the rim and passed it out to him and he open he had the open three and he didn’t take it. I don’t remember if he passed or drove it and missed or whatever, but just if he’s going to make this Kings team, he’s going to need to do different things, I think, than we saw in the second game. And part of that is just hit catch and shoot threes. And maybe it’s because it was his first game and he’s been in all the trade rumors and he had a lot on his mind. But, um, I just keep kind of coming back to that and wondering trying to look at what he’s doing now and put that into his possible role with the roster as currently constructed. And I I still just don’t see it. But maybe I’m with you. I’m not super high on him. So maybe that’s just my kind of bias leaning into a little bit more. I think more than not being super high on him. I’m not super high on the idea asking him to do something new, like asking him to do something different like as the point guard, but you know, I I will give him credit. I thought he looked uh shaky and uncomfortable with the ball in his hand in game one, and he just looked completely different in game two. and you take the 10 of 13 aside, you take the five of seven from three, you just you just you you could take that stuff completely out of the equation and just watch him with the ball in his hands. Watching him uh take the ball off the rim and lead a break. Watching him kind of facilitate the offense, he looked like a completely different player from the first game to the second. And I’m not an athlete. I don’t know what cuz it’s not like he got substantially better than than he was, you know, two days prior. He had obviously just had a bad game, a bad outing, a bad whatever, but he looks so much more comfortable in game number two. And even with that said, I just don’t, you know, looking comfortable as as kind of the facilitator and the lead guard in a summer league game is one thing, but doing it when you know the best defenders in the world are running back on defense trying to stop you, that’s an entirely different thing. Of course, you got better players around you. I just I don’t I just don’t love the idea. And it’s the same with Nick. I don’t love trying to force someone into that position because you have too many guys who can’t actually can’t actually play that position, right? It’s just not my favorite approach that the Kings might be taking because we’ve heard Devin as potential backup point guard minutes and we’ve heard Nick as as not necessarily backup point guard minutes, but potential point guard minutes. And I don’t love either of those things. Yeah. And it’s possible where it might not matter as much as we’re all making it out to be because there’s a difference about of being like a point guard when like Dylan Cardwell is your center. Obviously like Raino still kind of falls in the category of Sabonis, but there’s a difference of being a point guard with a like pick and roll center like a rim runner and a point guard paired with the minus Sabonis. like Sabonis is still going to probably get more of those kind of ball handling when Schroers’s out. So, it’s possible it could work. And that’s all on Doug Christie and the coaching staff and the offensive scheme. like can they make the backup point guards who maybe aren’t backup point guards lives easier by setting up an offense where they don’t have to do as much and run it through Sabonis more which I don’t think we saw as much last year. So that’s one thing I’ll be looking at as the season kind of starts is what’s the what does that all look like and do we get more of the kind of Saboniscentric offense back that we saw in the last few years. But I’m with you. Like both of them I don’t I do think I like Nick more in that role than Carter. Um he looks a little smoother to me in that like point guard spot. But I don’t know. Well, you talk about the Saboniscentric offense that can lead us into a conversation about Maxim Renault. You said when you joined the stream during the commercial break, man, it’s a bummer he’s not playing tonight. uh he’s out with the sore wrist. Um he was a guy when drafted I people were were really talking about like he was a first round pick. Of course, you know, you look at some of the the mock drafts and and some of the big boards and stuff had him much higher than 42 where he wound up going and then there’s, you know, conversations about him angling his way wanting to get to Sacramento, wanting to play in in Sacramento. And these first two games uh will have given us a pretty good indication I think of or I don’t want to say an indication that’s that’s probably a little bit too strong but it’s given us a pretty good like if we used our imagination a little bit and thought hey what would it look like if he was out there on the floor with Damont Sabonis like what or or what could he look like if he’s out there in place of Damonte Sabonis he offers a lot of differences that Kings fans have been and not just Kings fans, but like I know we’ll talk to James Ham in about 30 minutes. James has been screaming for, you know, a four or five who could stretch the floor and shoot the three a little bit. And these first two games have shown uh Max might be that guy. Yeah. And it’s so exciting. It’s like we finally got a true like stretch five like and I think it is a really good pairing with Sabonis and his shots a little slow but at the same time he’s 71 so maybe it doesn’t matter but to me I do see I wrote an article this morning on like three bold predictions based on summer league games because it’s summer league and got to write about something so why not overreact. Yeah. And my bold prediction for Renault was that he’ll be starting by the end of the season. Um, okay. I think that just his ability to do so many things on the floor to fit with Sabonis to push Keegan back down to the three. I have no idea who would come out of the starting spot. I didn’t get into that because I I don’t know um who would come out. Dangerous territory. Yeah. Will you want to start Yeah, we’ll leave that for another time. Um, but in terms of like play style, I think that the two of them work really well together. Like him being able to step out and hit the three. And it’s not just him hitting the three, but also Sabone is proving last year that he can hit the three. He didn’t shoot at high volume, but that still leaves room for Reno to operate inside, which he shown great touch and great like post up. I know he probably won’t post that as much as he is now, but his touch inside can still be utilized with Sabonis out there as well because Sabonis has more of a consistent three-point shot as well. So, it’s not just Reno being able to step out and hit the three, but vice versa. Sabonis being able to space out and hit the three. And can they run a true five out offense, which is one of the most lethal ways to kind of build an offense, I think, now. Um, and have every person who’s out there be a threat from three. Yeah, and that’s the key word. Will the threat to hit that three uh can change the way things go for a lot of guys, especially Domomas down in the block who I guess I’ll just continue to beg for him to shoot 14 or 15 times per game instead of 12 or 13. But I guess that that’s just a hill I’m going to die and rot on because it’s there’s no there’s nothing in his career that shows that’s ever going to happen. So, just when you see me sitting on that hill, just give me a glass of water and let me, you know, live a month longer before I ultimately die. Um, because it just won’t happen. Uh, so that’s Max. So, you’ve got a hot take for for Maxine Reol. What about Nick? You know, Nick is another guy who both of these guys played really really well in those first two games. Uh, Nick will go uh tonight unless we hear something within the next, you know, four and a half hours or so. We expect Nick to go tonight. uh and he’s been a guy who has had different bursts of uh you know fourth quarter Nick here in in these first two games. But what have your been been your impressions of the first round pick so far? He’s just so poised like both Hayman right now, but Nick especially. I think he just has such a good feel for the game and his ability to find the ball off the uh off the boards and get the rebounds is such a underrated skill. I think the size like everything just looks so polished for a rookie and like it makes sense. He’s fiveyear senior, right? if I’m remembering right and Raino was four that it makes sense for him to kind of have that advanced feel for the game. But it’s just how he affects the game in so many ways on defense, on offense, passing, rebounding. He can do a little bit of everything. And that’s where it comes in the difference between like him and Carter. like there’s such a clear avenue for him to help this team win because he can do a different thing on a nighttoight basis or can like slot into whatever the Kings need for that moment. Like if they need him to score, maybe go score. If they need him to just defend, just go defend. Uh if they need them to just focus on rebounding, go do that. But I think his skill set is so diverse that that fits into the holes in the Kings rosters. So if they go like a defenseheavy roster or defense heavy lineup, maybe he does a little more on offense or vice versa if they go offense, I don’t remember which one I said, but you get the picture. Um, and then same thing with his position. I think he can play multiple positions of need. Um, not like backup point guard. I still don’t know if that’s his like ultimate calling card, but the Kings have two spots. Either the backup point guard or the backup three, and he can do either of those, I think. So, he has a clear a clear pathway to kind of a key rotational spot that I’m really excited to see how much they use him and what they use him on the NBA team. You very obviously think highly of Max and his ability to kind of impact this rotation immediately. Do you feel the same about Nick? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s good. Um I I’m Do you know maybe you know Doug a little bit more um than most. Do you know what his coaching style with young players is going to be or do you have any sense? No idea. No, I It feels like I know as a commentator, I know as a I know as a guy that you just talk basketball with, he’ll tell you, you’ve got to let guys make mistakes. That’s good. You’ve got to let guys make mistakes so you can correct them and they can be better. Otherwise, if if the idea of correcting them is not playing them, they don’t learn from anything. They just wind up playing scared. With all due respect to Mike Brown, I feel like he tried to coach players into like a fear like like obviously this is not the case for Domomas and De’Arren and those type of guys, but like the Terrence Davises. I mean the you know the interactions with him and Terence Davis are unfortunately legendary at this point. Even to a certain degree like Kevin Herder, Chris Dworthy, the whole saga around that too. It it was it was always, you know, I think Casey um he hit the nail on the head during I think it was the seven game win streak after Doug took over. He said Doug Doug accentuates what you can do rather than harping on what you can’t. And sometimes it felt like Mike was harping on what you can’t do rather than accentuating what you do. And as a young player, you have to find out what you can accentuate. Yeah. And Doug is Doug, at least in my conversations with him before he was coach Christie, those were it was a lot of you got to you got to let these young guys play and and and and figure out the game a little bit. They’ve got to learn the game. They’ve got to learn to feel the game. Yeah. So, to me, that’s a really encouraging sign, I think, for both of them to come in and make an impact. Like I love hearing that and knowing that they’ve got some of these young guys that can get minutes and get the experience and make mistakes and learn and be in that environment where they kind of know that it’s going to be okay and they’ll still get on the court. Like that makes me even probably more excited for the two of them. Like thinking about how Doug will use them and kind of coach them in their early NBA careers. Uh, you think the Kings do anything else before we uh reconvene for training camp or are we done? I don’t know. It I’ve looked around a lot. I feel like they’re still they could still use another like true power forward, but I keep looking at ideas and I can’t think of anyone. Like I know the Koozma thing was floated out there. I don’t like it. I just I’m done I think putting energy into the idea of Kyle Koozma. Like it would probably be a fine movie. feels like I am not writing another Kyle Kosma article. That’s exactly what my thought was. Like I’ll pass. Understood. But understood. I don’t know. Like it feels like they just have players in contracts that they’re not going to be able to move, but at the same time they still have the mid-level exception. So they could bring in someone for like nothing theoretically moneywise. Mhm. And like if they want to send out a pick for someone under that 14.1 million, I think they could. I just don’t know who it would be. I don’t either, man. I don’t either. But I appreciate you, my friend. Thanks for joining us while you’re while you’re out on the coast with the family. I see we got we got bobbleheads and autograph baseballs and a bat and all of that exciting stuff behind you. Yeah. My parents are big time Giants fans. So Oh, good stuff. Yeah. Uh Will Clark signed bat that my mom got from my dad a few years ago. Did we get a Barry Bonds bobblehead a couple of days ago? Uh I don’t think recently. I know that was an ticket the other day. All of the Dodgers fans who showed up to Oracle Park got him. Uh great. I appreciate you, Will. Uh give Hannah and Kennedy our love and we’ll we’ll connect again soon. Real soon. Thanks, Damian. Sounds good. All right. It’s your man Will Z right there on the coast of California. Um, man, Will really high on Max. You know, Will’s a numbers guy, so he probably went through the numbers to make sure he wasn’t overreacting to anything. And I I I mean, I understand why everyone’s high on Max. You know what the other thing that I think is that that maybe one, be clear, Max has played terrific uh in these two games. to what we learned about him at the drafts, coming out of the drafts, all of that stuff. That’s all also a a very big deal. But I think the thing that fans kind of maybe even subconsciously love the most is the fact he plays in a position that the Sacramento Kings have needed for a while. You know, we’ve talked about the backup of fight. I know everyone liked, you know, Jonas Valenunis. He was great in that position, but he was different than Domomas. But the shortcomings that the roster needed, Valenunis had also. Again, Valenunis was a terrific backup and a more than capable starting center, but he had he he the the the shortcomings of the roster were the same of his. Max is completely different. Max obviously smaller in size than than than Yonas Valenunis, but taller. So now you now you feel like because he’s what is it? 71. Oh, we got a rim protector. Oh, might not actually be accurate. I don’t know that you have a rim protector, but you have a guy who can learn to be one because when you’re 71, you can protect the rim. Now, there’s other nuances to it that you’ve got to figure out that I don’t think he has yet. And that’s fine, but in time, he could do that. And more importantly, and I’m excited to talk with James Ham about this coming up at the top of the 3:00 hour, more importantly, as Will was just talking about right there. You have that guy who can stretch the floor. You have that guy on the block who can step out, free things up, and again, Will was using the word threat. You have threats to shoot the three. The threat of Maxine to step out of that block, clear things out for Damonte Sabonis. or that defender getting cute and leaving Max out there on the ark close in on Domas and Domomas of course you know being the you know you talk about floor generals I’d argue that’s what Domas is seeing Max out there and hitting the three. Now, these are all things we these these are these are all like we can use our imagination to see this work, right? We can use our imagination based off what we’ve seen in summer league. We can use our imagination based off uh what we’ve seen uh from Damont Sabonis during his time not only with Sacramento, but of course just throughout his career with Indiana and Oklahoma City, but particularly Indiana and and and Sacramento. He’s a facilitator. He could be a facilitator. he could be a floor general and the more guys that can hit shots the better off you are and that’s where so many Kings fans concern lies with the makeup of this roster is that you have like a Demar de Rozan who doesn’t shoot a lot of threes of course he shot more last year than he ever had in his career that’s the makeup of the basketball team I’m not exactly sure and I’ve heard fifth1 excuses about why Keegan Murray couldn’t shoot that three at a high clip or as high of a clip as he did in years past. But the more three-point shooters you have, the better. And it’s the threat of the three that makes it better because you can’t leave anyone. You can’t get lazy and you leave Keegan, Zack, shoot, Keon, Domas himself, Max. You leave all of those guys. And this goes back to something we talked about two and a half hours ago. I may not love the construction of this basketball team, but I like the players on it. And it’s why the idea of tanking, it’s why the idea of blowing it up. It’s why the idea of being bad just doesn’t work. Now, maybe they are bad. Maybe the Sacramento Kings team does wind up being bad. I can’t like see them being like 30 win bad. But I honestly, what would what would were they 40 wins last year? Was 40 and 42. I’d be surprised if that’s what they were. I mean, even if they were marginally better, again, I can’t look past the Mike Brown stuff. I can’t look past the De’Aran Fox stuff. I can’t look past all of that silly stuff that happened last year. Of course, you’ve got a new front office in place, which is going to naturally bring questions about the roster. Scott Perry, BJ Armstrong, that group of guys that are here. They didn’t sign Malik Monk to a contract extension. They didn’t draft Keegan Murray. They didn’t even trade for Devonte Sabonis. They didn’t do any of that stuff. So, when a new front office comes in, it’s this immediate like, hey, um, all right, how do they feel about these particular players? There was a concern that maybe this front office doesn’t like Keon Ellis because they didn’t, you know, do the contract deal, you know, a couple of weeks ago before the deadline. But that’s the other thing, too. Everybody wanted the Keon Ellis contract extension. So do I. Everyone wants the Kea Murray contract extension. Hey, cool, man. So do I. But at what point are we getting to like, hey, we’re just kind of running this back, right? They probably knew at the time we can’t trade Demar De Rozan. We can’t trade Zack Lavine. Maybe we don’t really want to trade Keegan Murray. We can’t trade Malik Monk. I don’t know how many players on this roster, the Sacramento Kings, haven’t inquired about training M. I don’t know how many players that they haven’t had at least one conversation with somebody about, hey, would you be interested in such and such? Maybe there’s one, maybe there’s some, maybe there’s a bunch. No clue, but I’d be really surprised if they weren’t open to just about whatever. What can we do to make this basketball team better? That has to be the first question. And then if the answer involves Malik Monk, if the answer involves DeBar Rozan, if the answer involves the Montis Sabonis or Keegan Murray, you have those conversations. And where that leads you to, that’s another story because as of right now, 242, Monday, July 14th, has led you nowhere. We’ll talk much more about these young guys on the Sacramento Kings, the summer league game tonight uh in just the last few weeks as James Ham joins us for the first time in over a week back from Cabo ready to talk Kings basketball. James Ham will be with us at the top of the 3:00 hour. Plus, the biggest nonstory in the NBA became a huge story at summer league all for one reason. We’ll explain what that is when the Casey return here on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. Everybody good out there? I’m Let’s go Stevie B. Let’s get Russ, man. I’m with it. I’m with it. Let’s go Stevie B. Same page, man. Same page. Give me rest. Give me rest. Give me rest. Oh, I bet it’s hot outside. See, I I I can dress like this cuz I am not going anywhere. I am right here and I am inside for another 5 hours or so, four hours or so. But I believe it. It’s got to be close to 100 outside, right? I see rumors that Sacramento sends Domos to Boston for H. Yeah, that’s not a thing. Russ, that’s not a thing. We will miss Casey and Ham arguing for the Well, yeah. At some point, uh Casey and Ham and Casey and Jason will get into some sort of silliness. Uh loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. Um thought it was great. had a great sinister sound to it. Uh Push is just I mean both of them there they’re cold. I thought I thought the album was terrific. It absolutely lived up to the hype. Thought Jack Boys 2 was really good too. That dropped on Sunday. Uh nice little mixtape from from Travis and those guys, man. Thought it was great. Um, yes, as a matter of fact, uh, used it this morning and used I’ve been I’m on maybe a 7day streak and I’ve gotten in the habit, Stevie, of just walking out there, taking the cover off, throwing that 39 degree water on my face, and keeping it moving. But yeah, I I I use that cold plunge. And there’s something psychological, too. If I can get out there around 9:00, 9:30, the sun is hitting that cold plunge perfectly. So, the sun is on my face while I’m in the in the cold water is perfect. Perfect. Very relaxing. Yeah, Push is a bad bad boy. Bad boy. Katrina, I meant to text you earlier. Just wondering how you’re doing. That’s all. Hey, look who’s here. We don’t have to wait. Hammer, what’s up, man? Kevin, figured I’d show up a little bit early. Oh, I appreciate it, man. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What’s going on? Not much, man. just uh talking Kings basketball. Excellent. I do that a lot. Yeah, you’re very good at it. I I started the I didn’t make my way I didn’t get through all of the podcast that you guys did the other day. Um but I did caught most of it. Was able to catch most of it. Nice. Yeah, it was good. I mean because those guys have been there and I you know I was gone for the week so lots of moving pieces. Dennis Shruder had his press conference plus you know talking to Dip talking to some of the players. Yeah. Like 15 seconds or so. Sweet. Got so many damn tabs open. All right, we’re coming back, James. All right, a couple of things here real quick. Actually, just one thing real quick. Uh because James Ham was kind enough to to join us early here and we want to talk Kings basketball and uh see how much James has been able to catch up on after a week in Cabo. I I told you there was a big story that uh emerged over the weekend that really came from nothing is nothing. But because it’s LeBron James, it became a story. LeBron James declined to join the ESPN summer league broadcast uh and uh told Dave McMinnon, “I ain’t got nothing to talk about.” And that became a massive story over at ESPN. LeBron James not joining their broadcast was a big big deal. All right, I’m going to play a clip. Just let me know if it’s something or it’s nothing. Okay. Yep. Watching. All right. There’s LeBron. Nice Louis Vuitton out there. They’re handing him a Lakers wristband, by the way. Yep. Look, it’s a Lakers wristband. Oh, what am I going to do with that? Oh, just passes off the wristband. Put it on, LeBron. No, he don’t put on the wristband, LeBron. Oh, no. He That’s nothing. Why is he not put on the Lakers wristband? Why is he not put on the wristband, D? Settle down, Stephen A. Tapia. Mess it off kind of quickly. Looked like he didn’t care about it. No, he one. He’s not putting that bracelet on. He He gave it to his daughter. I don’t know. People are asking. Wow. Why do you hate kids? I don’t I hate non-loy loyalty to teams. Wow. Well, it sounds like the Lakers were the ones who weren’t loyal. This the LeBron James thing is a bit funny to follow because LeBron is being treated like every other player in the history of the league has except for LeBron James or I guess maybe like there’s LeBron, Kobe, Dirk. There’s a handful of guys that have never had to go through anything like this and LeBron for his entire career has dictated everything. And it appears trying to read between the lines of some of this stuff. The impetus of all of this is the fact that the Lakers didn’t offer LeBron James a contract extension and that has kind of led us to where we are right now. Well, I mean, how how long is he going to play? I mean, I don’t think we No one has any idea like has ever played 23 seasons before and LeBron James is entering his 23rd season. Yeah. I mean, like this is a weird situation that I I don’t It’s kind of uncharted waters where a player is not only continuously playing at this age, but at such a high level and who means so much to a franchise. You know, I remember the first time he left Cleveland, they said the franchise valuation dropped by 100 million. And at this point, that sounds like, oh, well, that’s not that much money. And it was, it was when the franchise was worth like 500 million, it dropped by a hundred million bucks. So, you know, around that same time, the King sold for 535 million. So like that he just means so much to a franchise. The same thing with players like Luca. It’s it just is a tremendous investment that you put into a player and when they hit it big, they become like so incredibly valuable to everything that you do. And so I’m intrigued to see what he does, how long he wants to play or if he just, you know, hangs it up. Like there’s nothing says he has to play beyond this season. Yeah. Um, but this isn’t the Lakers beat, man. This is the Kings beat. And I’ve been anxious to talk to James here for a little bit about some things that are going on uh around the Sacramento Kings. Let’s start with the most recent. This could just be my bad, Hammer, but did you realize that the Jonas Valenunis uh Dario Sarra wasn’t actually completed until yesterday? Yeah, there was a hangup with the Denver Nuggets because you know when you do all of these contractual deals right during the moratorum, they have to be put in order like in order for you to first you have to use all your cap space. Then once you use your cap space, you have to use specific exemptions at specific times and then you can sign your own free agents and sometimes there’s a holdup in all of this because one of those actions can’t be done before the others. And so I I think this was just basically a like a housekeeping thing. I’m surprised though, like I don’t know if Alen Chunis is willing to give back his entire salary or not because if he was willing to give back his entire salary and I was a Sacramento Kings, I would have reeled in that trade and said, “You know what? It’s fine. If he wants to go to Europe, I know you guys don’t want him to go to Europe and play, but we do. That’s fine. We’ll take the $10 million uh like basically cash gift. uh it would it would have alleviated, you know, an extra five million over what they’re doing right now. But then eventually the deal got done and got done, you know, yesterday. That’s when the league office they called it into the league office. Um and you know, the Kings saved around 5 million bucks in the deal. And I know people say, “Oh, they’re just being cheap or something like that.” But that’s really not what it is. They’re trying to open up more cap space between where they are, you know, financially today and where the luxury tax is. And so every little bits of money that you can reduce your salary helps you get below that luxury tax. So if you’re a team who’s not going to go into the luxury tax, and I like rightfully so, the Kings aren’t good enough to go into the luxury tax in my opinion. Um but if that’s who you are, like we shouldn’t be holding them, you know, to some weird standard that they have to go into the luxury the luxury tax just because um you know, if your team is good enough, yeah, go into the tax. Uh but right now they’re in some weird flux mode where you know we’re hearing things like 2027 mentioned repeatedly and that might be the way that it is. And this deal here it just allowed them to bring in a player who again I don’t know if Dario Sarich will play or not for the Kings. He easily could be bought out. He could be stretch provisioned. They could stretch provision him and open up over three million bucks in cap space again. Um, and you might need that, especially if you continue uh to have conversations and, you know, kick the tires on players like Jonathan Kaminga. Hammer, can we go back to the 2027 thing? I know that you joined uh the insiders from you joined your show uh from Cabo at some point last week and talked about 2027 and what the thought might be amongst this Kings organization in terms of some of these contracts they have. Yeah, it’s just tough. you know, Scott Perry inherited a um a bit of a financial mess where you’ve got a couple of players with gigantic salaries. Um you know, you’ve got, you know, again, they owe Zack Lavine something like 97 million over the next two years. And and on top of that, you’ve got some other players that you want to play, you want to pay, some other players that you might want to move on from. Um, but realistically Scott has to first and foremost like clean up the room, you know, clean up the books and that’s not easy to do. That’s why I think the Dennis Shrruder trade really did help the Kings. Um, you know, they they were able to go out and make an actual sign-in trade, which hardcaped them at the at the first apron, which are nowhere near at this point, but also it allowed them to uh to collect a second round pick. The Kings don’t have a lot of second round picks. We saw how valuable they were last off season. They’ve already tied up two of their second round picks in in the potential well in the trade for for Nick Clifford. Um so, you know, if they don’t give up the 2027 Spurs pick, then they give up two seconds that year. So, again, those picks are gone. So, as of right now, the Kings have their their own 2026 uh second round pick. They have a second round pick from Charlotte and then on top of that they have a 2032 pick, second round pick. So they don’t have a bunch of seconds. Anyway, so what Scott’s been doing is trying to create, you know, sort of opportunities to go get second round picks and that’s what the Shruder trade ended up being. Not only did you take on a player, but you you basically allowed Detroit to create a $14.1 million trade exception, which has value. And Detroit is kind of like the Kings, except for they have a whole bunch more space. But they’re they’re living in that gray area between the salary cap, which they’re over, and the luxury tax, which they’re under, but they’re under a whole bunch. Now, they have a $14.1 million trade exception to go out and try to find a player to fit into that, which is big. and and that trade also allowed the Kings to have this $14.1 million mid-level exception, which they would not have had if it weren’t for the fact that they made this trade. Um, so again, a lot of housekeeping that that has to be done by Scott. And at the end of the day, he might not be able to clean up everything until 2027. And that’s the year that, of course, you know, Zack Lavine’s massive deal falls off the books. It’s the last year that you owe Demar De Rozan any money. Um, it puts you, I think, a season away from Demon Sabonis’ final year. Uh, again, Malik Monk would go into that summer with a with a player option. So, you can see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel where the Kings could actually be people who are, you know, able to go out and either sign players or make trades that to bring in high-end players, uh, and and supplement whatever they can do in the draft. So in I I I hear the way that you lay that out and I’m just stuck asking so what does that mean for this year or even that means yeah what it means for this year and next year is that you know you have Dennis Shruder uh as as a stop gap point guard uh whether that’s for one year or for whether it’s two years or whether you get some crazy deal at the trade deadline this year that says hey we can move on from Dennis shooter and bring in sort of the A-list point guard that you’re looking for. Um, but what it does is it puts the next two years in kind of a holding pattern where the Kings are going to be competitive, but are they going to be really competitive? And I think as of right now, the answer is um they’ll be a solid team that’s going to compete for like an 8 n10 uh spot in the Western Conference. Um maybe they’ll file fall below that. Maybe somehow they jump up above that. Um, but you’re just trying to get to this moment where your books are are as clean as possible. And you know, it it’s tough when you’re trying to build a winner and you get to a certain point like the Kings did like three years ago where all of a sudden you go out and you win 49 games and you want to add more money, but also your own players get more expensive and you start shelling out all this cash and then if it doesn’t work out, you’re kind of stuck trying to reverse everything that you did. And there’s no easy way to reverse things in the NBA in the current landscape. Uh because the new salary cap restrictions really have hamstrung the league. I mean like everybody is looking at this as like either you’re just going to pay a ton of money in tax or you’re just stuck. You’re stuck with the team that you have and you’re hoping that you can come up with deals around the league that make sense to improve your roster. but with the full knowledge that there isn’t a way to do that. And you know, I I think the Kings are one of, you know, a handful of teams that, you know, it might be better for a Portland Trailblazers team as opposed to paying another gigantic contract out like they did with DeAndre Aton to just let a Jeremy Grant contract expire. But it’s a tough thing to take on. You know, a couple of years of 70 million, 80 million bucks for a player that is past his prime. And so I think the Kings are are in a spot that again a lot of teams around the league are in. Um and that’s why we haven’t seen nearly as much movement as we thought we might this offseason. I coined a term I called it survive and figure it out. Yeah. That’s what I think this basketball team can do. Like I are they perfect? No. Are they constructed perfectly? No. But they do have talent. And if you can find a way to survive this year and survive next year and then you wind up like if you’re, you know, if you’re operating as a first round playoff exit team, I feel like that puts you in a better position in two years, uh, when guys are off the books or maybe you get into next year and you got guys on expiring contracts to build a a better, more competitive team than if you’re, uh, you know, back into the lottery phase of being a Sacramento Kings team. Yeah. Yeah. And not to be wrong, it’s just I’m just again I’m trying to survive. I’m trying to survive as a a radio host, a fan, all of that stuff with, hey, this team isn’t that bad. I think that that’s like the mantra like we, you know, allin was a mantra one year um together or believe or whatever. Um this year shirt might say this team isn’t that bad. Um, I mean, I don’t think they’re gonna print that shirt, but some fan out there might. Um, and and I bring this up, too. Zebra PT. You can’t build a castle on crumbling foundation. It’s like the old, you know, biblical parable about building your hand your your house on sand versus building your house on rock. You build your house on sand, it gets washed away. You build your house on on rock and, you know, it’s there to stay. And the kings thought they had built their their house on on stone and everything was, you know, they had pillars. They could potentially support this thing, but then they just they they stopped doing the rest of the work. So, it’s it’s nice that you build a beautiful house, but if you never finish the plumbing, like your house is going to smell and no one’s want going to want want to come visit you. And you know, if you don’t figure out how to build the electrical into the house, then you know, you don’t have any lights and people aren’t going to come want to come and and check out your house. So, um, you know, what they did here is is I think that they started out strong and they they had a foundation, but they lost their way somewhere, you know, mid midway through this build and really hurt themselves. And it and and it’s really it’s the way that teams get bad quickly is there’s always a move or two that you could have made that you didn’t make and more often than not those moves that you didn’t make are the ones that really come back to haunt you and we can look at the Pascal Seakum deal we can look at OGO whatever it might be but there were moves where this team could have been a title contender and they didn’t do the deal and maybe that’s because the owner didn’t want to shell out the cash for another $40 million player or maybe they just looked at not only that $40 million for a player, but you know, going deep into the luxury tax and not wanting to do that. Whatever it was, uh they didn’t close a deal on a couple of gigantic transactions that could have put this team in a different stratosphere as far as where they are. And now you’re just kind of left with the decaying, you know, body of of a team of a of a house that’s half half built on sand. And it it’s a bummer to watch it get washed away. But, um, you know, you might be right. You you put some sandbags out and hope that your house doesn’t flood every single day. And maybe you make it through the winter, maybe you don’t. Uh, that’s a tough way to live, but yeah, it might be the reality of this basketball team. is the first is that off season after the playoff appearance is that going to be the defining moment for where things went wrong with this team and talking about Yeah, I’m going to say it’s it’s that moment. It’s it’s the previous uh trade deadline where they stood pat and they liked their team and they said we’re not going to do anything, but it’s like your team still has holes. um that that off seasonason and then it’s the next trade deadline where again I think that next trade deadline all they did was acquire uh Robin Lopez and wave him the previous trade deadline Robin Lopez era when he was reading a book yeah the the beam team era uh the first year of the beam team that’s the year where they acquired Kesler Edwards and a second round pick to let the the Brooklyn Nets get underneath the luxury tax asosed opposed to doing anything meaningful at the deadline. And sometimes, you know, you got to stay the course, but you also have to be honest with your team at all at all times. Like, if you have a gigantic gaping hole in what your your roster is, you have to continuously try to fix that. And you can say, you know, going into this season, the Kings still have the giant gaping hole that that they continuously have. They don’t have the length and athleticism at the wings that we would like to see from a team that is in modern basketball. You got one guy who’s 6’8 that can that is a meaningful uh 30 plus minute per game rotational player and that’s Keegan Murray on the wings and that’s tough. So, you know, we’re kind of in this holding pattern until they they’re able to either find those guys uh via trade or through the draft or, you know, they they figure out a different way to play basketball. That makes sense and it’s not easy. Well, the good news is Hammer, we are entering a new era and I believe it is the Maxine Marino era. Of course, he won’t play tonight uh as your partner over on the Kings Beat. Sean Cunningham reported earlier today he’s out with wrist soreness, but it’s been a fun two games to watch this young man perform. Like they were there was a lot of hype uh after he was selected 42nd uh in the draft a couple of weeks ago and man, he’s lived up to it. He’s been able to hit shots from all over the floor. That debut in the summer league late last week was as electric debut as I’ve ever seen. and uh he followed it up nicely with a nice balanced performance on Saturday. He’s been a hell of a player to watch so far. Yeah, I I totally agree. Um basically what you’re getting is is just a really really high basketball IQ, high skill level player, which I I think that that’s what they thought they were getting, but to see it work out on the court has really been impressive. And you know, we we talk about like the dangers of summer league of getting too high and too low on players in summer league. I remember, you know, the Kings had traded for uh Dante Green a couple of years years ago, a decade ago, uh maybe more, maybe 15 years ago. Um you know, and but the trade couldn’t go through until after summer league or midway through summer league. And so he went out with the Houston Rockets and dropped 40. Um, and everybody was ooing and on just how good Dante Green could be. Like I I don’t know if he ever scored 40 in a game. I don’t know if he ever scored maybe he scored 30 in a game one time. Um, but like it doesn’t always translate. But what what you’re looking for is um do they look competent? Do they look like they’re they’re not so overwhelmed? Do they look like that they’re they’re athletic at all? Because sometimes you get players in, you’re like, “Oh man, this dude can’t move at all.” Uh, but what I think we’ve seen from Reynold is I want him to rebound better. That’s one issue. But outside of that, he’s got the little baby jump hook. He’s got the three-point shot. The court vision is crazy. Uh, we saw the pass to Isaac Jones for the dunk the other day. To me, when you see it’s not just that he made a bounce pass, it’s that he made an electric pass and it showed you something that maybe no one knew that he had in his bag because that’s not who he was at uh at Stanford. So, I think Kings fans should be really excited about him. We talked about this on the insiders a little bit and I talked about it last week when I jumped on from Cabo, but you know, there’s a reason why the Kings traded Yonas Valenunis. Uh, first and foremost, it was to save that five million to open up that that gap in in their salary. Um, but also it was to go out and get a player like Drew Eubanks who is a career backup and knows his job, but then the potential for for Reo to actually get minutes in year one and what that could mean. Uh, you know, Drew Eubanks is not, again, he’s not some player that’s going to change the outcome of a bunch of games this year, but he knows his job and has no problem sitting on the end of the bench and being a pro if you do have a a young player develop faster than what you thought. And so I, you know, I I don’t again still love it, but the Kings will be able to play faster off the bench with a player like Eubanks, and they’ll also have the opportunity at some point to maybe hand that That is an official James Ham freeze. James Ham is uh officially back from Cabo as he has frozen here at 309. That one kind of came out of nowhere. I don’t think anyone had their times in. As a matter of fact, I think the what time does James freeze game has been on hold for a while, but Hammer Hammer is back and he’s smiling. That’s how you know Ham’s back from vacation. Normally he’s frustrated as hell, but he’s still got that Cowboy cool to him and he’s and he’s and he’s nice and relaxed after the freeze. But um so Max, do you think Max can make you said obviously it’s summer league, we don’t want to get, you know, too caught up, but I said earlier we can use our imagination and see how it works and sees how see how it works, you know, with the main roster. Do you think he can make an immediate impact on this rotation? Can he give Doug Christie some real decisions to make when the season gets underway? I I don’t know if it’ll be in October, November, but I I do think by the end of November and early December, you might be looking at a little bit more and more and more of Max. So, he’s got skill and, you know, I think going through um a summer league is amazing, right? And you’re starting to see what it is that that you really want to focus on over the next 10 weeks with him. How do you get him better? And I I think again physically he needs to be more physical, number one, but number two, um you’re going to get him in the gym. You’re going to bulk him up a little bit. You know, 10 weeks with a professional training uh staff is a long time, and they can get him out on the floor. they can, you know, beat on him a little bit, push him around a little bit, have him go one-on-one against Dylan Cardwell in pickup games and, you know, feel what that’s going to be like cuz that’s not that’s not nice either. Cardwell has has a mean streak in him and he’s going to shove him all over the court. But that’s good. That’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to build up a player. I think there is a chance you need to give, like we talked about earlier, this team might not be that bad, right? We do need to see if this team can be good. And so the first couple of, you know, weeks of the season, the first month and a half of the season, you don’t know what you have until game 20. We always hear that. You do need to let this group show whether they’re good enough to to stay together and and to build something or not. And during that time, it’s very possible we see more Drew Eubanks than than what we will later in the season as you sort of transition to what this team probably is, which is, you know, perfectly fine team fighting for uh a back into the playoff spot. Um but if somehow they are better than that, and who knows, maybe they will be, um you kind of want to let you know veteran players play as much early on to give yourself an actual shot to win games. So that’s Max. That’s the second round pick. That’s number 42 overall. But what about the player that the Kings traded into the first round uh to acquire? I thought he also had two really solid performances. And as far as we know, uh he’ll go tonight. Um I can’t remember who they play. I was going to say Phoenix. I can’t remember. Uh it’s Phoenix. Yeah, they’ll go tonight. Uh Nick will go tonight versus uh Phoenix. But what do you think of how he’s played so far for Sacramento? Yeah, I think Nick Clifford has been really really fun to watch. You know, he’s had a couple of defensive issues here and there which he’s he’s going to have to learn. Um he’s had a couple of uh moments where, you know, maybe he isn’t as smooth a ball handler as you would hope, but again, that’s what this 10 weeks coming up is for. Um I think that there’s plenty of room for improvement. He reminds me of Evan Turner. Uh I’ve said that a couple of times. Um, even like a modernday Lionel Simmons. Uh, so basically Lionel Simmons with a three ball, maybe a little bit more athletic than Lionel, but uh, Lionel had like a very, very high basketball IQ and a very universal game. He could pass the ball, he could rebound the ball extremely well. I think one of the biggest things is that you found a rebounder um, at a an odd position. So whether he’s playing the small ball forward or he’s playing the shooting guard spot, this team has struggled, you know, outside of having Domas dominate the glass and having additional players, whether it’s Devin Carter, it’s sneak, you know, or, you know, again, Keegan Murray got much better as a rebounder this last season. Um, you just need more and I I think that that’s going to help the team. And overall, like look, he he kind of lets the game come to him and that’s a good thing. you know, he’s not out there playing like a chicken with his head cut off. He’s not, you know, turning Well, he did have five turnovers last game, but, you know, the mistakes are honest rookie mistakes. They’re not just like pushing everything way too hard and and making um, you know, forcing the action. So, I I like what we’ve seen so far. And he’s also shown a little bit of that clutch gene that we know the players have. You know, he’s scored a bunch of points in the fourth quarter in a couple of games. Um, so I think the early returns are really good and I do expect him to be in the rotation. I expect him to be, you know, maybe 14 to 18 minutes a night. Uh, but I I do think that he’ll find his way into the rotation sooner than Reo, even if Reo looks better uh at certain points in in summer league. Um, you know, you can still see he needs to get he needs to get way stronger. Uh, with with Nick, I don’t think that that’s the deal. I think he needs to work on his ball handling and secondary play making and stuff like that, but I like the idea of using him as a as a point forward for certain stretches of the game. And he just needs to make sure he can handle the the ball pressure at the NBA level that that gets put on you. You know, you get picked up full court half the time and he needs to figure out what that’s going to look like and feel like. You said you think Nick makes an immediate impact or immediate impact on the rotation where because that has become a topic of conversation um over the last couple of days as well. Do you see him in that backup three position? Do you see him running somewhere on the point guard depth chart? Like what would be the ideal spot for for Nick to get to get minutes to start this season for Sacramento? Yeah, I mean I think it’s going to have to be at the small forward spot and you know for right now which I think is great. Yeah, when you look at Zack Lavine and you look at um again you look at Keon Ellis at the shooting guard spot that that position’s taken care of. when you look at the point guard spot and you’ve got, you know, two point guards there and and Dennis Shruder and Malik Monk. If they make a change there, um I could see the Kings using, you know, a combination of Keon Ellis, Devin Carter, and and Nate Clifford as the third point guard, but that would be like a break in case of emergency. Somebody’s out and you’re going to have somebody out for three or four games. Um, I also don’t think that this roster is it they don’t want it to be complete. Whether or not it it ends up being the final roster, uh, that’s yet to be seen. But, you know, they would still like to make a move or two here uh, to to balance out the roster a little bit more. And maybe that does open up an opportunity for for Nick to play a little bit more in the back court. But for right now, it it feels like he’s probably a backup to uh to Demard Rosen. And again, look at the trickle down, you know, effect that this team is going to have because when you have two point guards that are basically 26 to 30 minute per game, guys, let’s just say, you know, that’s 56 minutes right there. One guy plays 30 and one guy plays 26 minutes between Shruder and Monk. You’re already over budget. So now you got to steal eight minutes from the the shooting guard position. and the shooting guard position. You have a 33 minute per game guy and a guy who should play 30 as well and Keon. So now you’re way over at that position. You’re going to have to find a way to play small ball for large stretches. And you know, maybe that means Nate Clifford even has to slide over and play a little bit of five. I a little bit of four. Um but again, you need him to get bigger and stronger in order to do that. Um it’s not a bad issue to have, but same time like this is this roster is pretty full. It’s got it’s got talent at multiple positions and that’s why, you know, again, Devin Carter playing point guard at summer league. Um, if he could show that he’s the third point guard on this team, then that would be a really good sign for him. If he can’t prove that and they’ve got to go find a third point guard, then he’s in trouble. Like, he might not get off the bench at all. Uh, just because that’s the dynamic of this team. you already have. He’s a fifth guard and if you have to bring in a sixth guard u because he can’t handle the point guard duties or the the third string point guard duties, that’s a problem. You mentioned that the Sacramento Kings, you know, they’d probably like to make a move. That probably wouldn’t just be an acquisition. It would likely they’d probably be more comfortable if they could get rid of a player or two at a certain position and kind of free things up. You mentioned the MLE and you know the ability that they have to to sign guys. It probably be more advantageous advantageous for them to be able to move off a couple of the guys before they did anything like that. Yeah, realistically the only way for this thing to function properly is for the Kings to move one of their bigger contracts. So, you know, we’ve heard a lot about Malik Monk, and I think the reason why we hear about Malik Monk is I I believe the team felt like that might be the easiest contract to move of that like 18 to $25 million range contract, and it just hasn’t been able. They that hasn’t proved out. So, they’ve got to figure out a way to create some momentum with some other team if they’re actually going to clear out space. Now, like the there’s not a lot of players to clear out space for. You know, we heard someone on the internet like some guys from the Athletic talk about the potential or they thought would would make sense would be a like a Malik Monk for Kyle Koosma trade. But I got to be honest, that’s just a major talent downgrade at this point. If you look at what Koosma’s done the last year and a half now, um I I don’t think I would do that deal. If you’re looking at a way to go get Kaminga, you know, again, you’re going to have to clear up 20 $25 million in space. And if the Warriors aren’t willing to take back that type of contract, then you have to find some other team to involve in the trade. And realistically, there are only two teams in the league that you can do that with, and that’s Brooklyn and Detroit. Uh the rest of the teams are pretty pretty close to the the salary cap or or pretty close to luxury tax. And so it’s not really easy to to move off of all of these guys um and to to commit to a a restricted free agent like they would with a guy like Kaminga. Um so it’s super complicated. It it is it’s just it’s not um like if they’re going to go out and chase Kaminga, number one, Kaminga’s price has to come down. Number two, the Warriors price you might have to give a little bit more to the Warriors. Uh, number three, you got to find a third team to take on a player like Monk. And number four, you got to be comfortable with what you’re giving up and with the the expense that Kaminga would be as far as salary. So that would be one of the most complicated transactions that I’ve seen just because there aren’t teams with cap space that can help you. And so whatever naturally happens here, it’s not going to be simple. And the Kings can’t just sign him to an offer sheet. They can, but the offer sheet’s going to be 14.1 million and that’s not what he wants. And you know, and even that deal would put you in the luxury tax. And that’s something that as of right now, I don’t think the Kings are going to do. So it it’s really complicated if you’re going to continuously try to make moves unless you’re swapping a player for a player like Monk for another 18 or 20 million player. Do we have any idea what Kaminga’s group is looking for? Initially, the word was they were looking for 25 to 30 million a year. But you got to remember he’s a base year compensation player. So when you trade for him, he counts as whatever you sign him for that much money going out, but the Warriors can only take back like I I think it’s it’s a it’s like 15 million or something like it’s very complex uh because of the base year compensation thing. And like look, he could just go back and play. We hear you know the Warriors uh he could just pick up his $7.9 million um it’s not a player option. it’s a a qualifying offer. He could play for that this season. The Warriors could also try to sign him to like a smaller deal that they don’t really want to do and he doesn’t really want to take. Um, so that could happen. But like the the restrictive free agent classes here, it’s just a bummer for these guys. And to be honest, it’s probably a really good thing for Keon Ellis. He’s not part of this because it’s kind of sad. These guys don’t have any money to move around. No teams do. and the teams that might have some money, they don’t have any money under the luxury tax. So, you know, they’re not going to go way above the luxury tax to sign a player. Um, it’s just it’s a bit of a a struggle here. Have you ever seen in your, you know, decade plus covering NBA basketball a free agency period like this one? I don’t think so. Like I think like this uh in my 15 years, the the thing that stands out about this one specifically is that there is just no money. Like you know there’s this this idea that the salary cap raises 10% a year and then next year it’s only going up 7% which is also freaking everybody out. That’s not a good thing. But if it’s only going to go up 10% a year and your standard raises for your own players is 8% then like you’re not gaining a whole bunch of cap room just naturally. And so that makes it really difficult. It makes it the whole entire process uh very difficult to you know see a window where you can create a bunch of money. And the Kings had money, you know, a couple of years ago, uh, when they signed, they they did the, uh, renegotiated an extension for Damon Sabonis and then they brought Harrison Barnes back. That’s the one time that they had cap space. But even then, we kept saying this might be the last time for 5 years, 6 years that they have cap space. And sure enough, that’s why 2027 is looking so appealing. And it’s also why the Kings aren’t sitting there saying, “Hey, we’ll give Kaminga 30 million bucks. let’s get this deal done because they’re looking at that 2027 year and saying hey do we want to if Kaminga is a right player then sure but if he’s not then what do we do then we have this contract and we’re not going to be able to be players in a free agent class that maybe we want to be players in yeah you talk about the nuances of a potential Kaminga deal and it it really is fascinating on many levels because you’re talking about it from the perspective of what the Sacramento Kings could pay Jonathan Kaminga Then there also comes part two and it’s what will Golden State allow that deal like what what sort of deal do you have to work out with Golden State in order to get him here to Sacramento. So you have to work with two two different entities both of which seem to hate each other in an effort to try to get him here to Sacramento. Well, yeah. And I mean that’s we don’t even know if Jonathan Kamingo wants to sign in Sacramento and all. Right. Yeah. We we we know he doesn’t want to sign in Golden State, but we don’t know how he feels about Sacramento. Yeah, he wants a better opportunity. And again, if if the Kings are making a move to go get Kaminga and Demard Rosen is still on the roster now, you just go from having a a glut at the point guard position to having a real problem at the point guard position and having a glut at the forward position where again, Nate Clifford wouldn’t get to play at all in his rookie season. like you you basically would wipe out any chance of him playing and Keegan Murray would probably be pushed to like the 12th man on the 12th option in the in the lineup in the rotation. So yeah, it’s really really complicated and that’s why I think like there is a pathway here especially since Golden State doesn’t really want him back and and that’s like everything we’ve heard around this team is that they’re not enamored with bringing him back. the idea of bringing him back and potentially trading him. Okay, maybe that works, but it’s also possible it doesn’t and and you know, his value gets hurt during that time or he gets injured during that time and next thing you know, you’re in even worse situation. So, it’s again, we we’ll have to see how it all plays out in the end. Uh we’ll come back, we’ll talk more Kings basketball with James Ham specifically. He brought him up earlier. We’ll talk Devin Carter, what he’s looked like here so far in summer league and what we expect from him headed into what’s starting to feel like a pretty unpredictable Sacramento Kings season. That’s ahead with our insiders from the insiders. It’s our man James Ham do and KC here on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. James, I’m going to run to the restroom real quick. I’ll be right back. Sweet. I got you. What’s up everybody? Yeah, Filthy Mcnasty. This situation is dumb, but it’s it’s, you know, again, if there’s a player out there that has talent and you like his talent and you want to go chase him, there’s no reason not to at least see if you can work something out. Um, I’d even go as far as, you know, we’ve heard the offer that was made and that, to be honest with you, that was everywhere in Sacramento for like a 48 hour window. Uh, was it Devin Carter, Dario Sarich, and um, and two seconds? I I definitely could see the Kings going as high as like a protected first for him. Um, but again, it’s just it’s complex. It’s such a difficult transaction to do. Uh, let’s see. How many roster spots do the Kings have? Uh, uh, Afro. I you know to be honest with you I don’t know I haven’t counted but here let me do a quick count five guards um two centers three centers uh Keegan Isaac Jones Dear and um Dear Nick that’s 12 right there uh Terrence Davis is on a partial guarantee and the same thing with with Isaac Jones, he’s on a partial guarantee and then on top of that, you have two of your two-ways taken and then sort of a free-for-all for the third two-way. Um, I would not be surprised to see Isaiah Crawford in that, but we’ll see. Um, yes, David, uh, Brendan’s air horns were were weak. They’re weak sauce on the pod. Uh, let’s see. Uh, Saurin, I don’t really have a lot of thoughts. Um, I haven’t spent a lot of time with Fred Vanble. Um, yeah, I I don’t know. Uh, I I would Yeah, I mean, I’m going to guess the the Kings Stevie B are are still interested in Haime Hawz, but I don’t know that the Heat are ready to move him. Carter Sard’s first round pick and one second round pick. That would work for Kaminga in the pick swap. Is that too much? Um, yeah. I mean, now you’re just getting too complex. Um, if I were the Kings, I would give up either two seconds or first. And first would be lottery protected. I’m not giving up anything more than lottery protected first. Um, and then it’s about finding ways to match salary and do all that stuff. It It’s just like super complicated. And on top of that, like if you’re willing to take on Kaminga, how much are you willing to pay him? So, you know what I mean? Like, are you offering him a 4-year $80 million contract, which is not what he wants to play for? maybe a fouryear $90 million contract. Um because that’s when it gets like because of that base year compensation it gets really complicated. Um Mack, do we have seconds? Yeah, the Kings have two 206 seconds. One of them is tied up slightly, but it’s uh the Shruder deal. They gave up the Charlotte pick, but it’s 31 through 55 protected. So, if somehow Charlotte becomes one of the best five teams in basketball this season, the Kings would lose that pick. That’s not going to happen. So, they have 2627 uh from Charlotte, but the both their own and Charlotte’s 27 are tied up. And then they just picked up a 2029 in the Shruder deal from Detroit, and they have their own 2032 now. So, I think they have four second round picks that they can play with. Yeah, cool rebel. I do believe that the Kings still have interest in Westbrook uh and or you know um why am I drawing a blank Malcolm Brogden but the problem that you have there is that they have Monk on the roster still if Monk wasn’t there they’d have a lot more interest in Westbrook coming back Hammer cool all right talking uh Kings basketball with our man James Ham here. We got game three of summer league uh tonight. I think I think it’s on ESPNU. You can find that somewhere. Oh, Sacramento Kings will take on the Phoenix Suns. You got to you got to dig deep into the YouTube uh guide for that one. Probably not saved to your favorites. Uh but it’ll be there for you. Um two dramatically different performances. hammer from uh Devin Carter so far this year. I know me and your co-host on the Insiders, Kyle Matson, saw Deon Carter’s performance on Saturday very differently. That’s what I wanted to see from him. I wanted to see him score. I wanted to see him be comfortable. I wanted to see him rebound. I wanted him to look like he was the best player on the floor. Uh and I thought he accomplished that. What do you think of uh Devin Carter and the way he’s played for for these first two games? And do you think that was even necessary? Like first of all, like Devin Carter, I feel bad for him because he he didn’t get a natural anything in his rookie season. You know, he went through shoulder surgery, missed the entire summer, everything. Um so like look, at some point we have to give him a little bit of a break about, you know, sort of his development and where he’s at currently. Um, the problem is that in order for him to to break into the Kings rotation or to like be a force for the Kings or whatever it is that you want, it can’t just be 30 points or bust. Like, he has to find a way to number one hit the glass. He’s got to find a way to set up his teammates. And I I think the the idea here is that, you know, you can make him into a point guard during summer league. And that’s not really like realistic. That’s not feasible to like expect a guy to go out there for three or four or five summer league games and all of a sudden he knows how to play the point guard position. Um, but on the other side, you’ve got Devin, you know, making sure people know that he was a point guard before his final year or two at Providence that, you know, he played point guard in some point guard in high school and he played point guard in his first couple of years. So, um, like there there’s just something about watching him play and he doesn’t look to set up anyone but himself. And that’s where I think Kyle and I both kind of watched and said, “Okay, like you scored 30 in a summer league game.” Like, whoopde-doo. Like, show me that you can learn, that you can be part of a a team that’s that’s growing, that that you can do the job that you’re being asked. And that is to set up your teammates and create for others. And so far, we haven’t seen that. And you know, again, it’s tough because you want him to have success to build in summer league so he has confidence moving forward. You also, you know, I think there is a possibility that Deon’s been humbled a little bit by not just, you know, his rookie season, but by the constant mentions of him getting traded at any moment. Like, I think there is plenty of of humbling that that could happen here. But what I need to see is for him on the court to be a team player. And we’re not seeing that yet. Because what the Kings don’t need is like a Cam Thomas. And that’s what it looks like Devin Carter kind of feels like he he’s trying to do. It’s like, hey man, they already have a Malik Monk. And to be honest with you, Malik Monk’s a better player. Malik Monk sets up his teammates. He averages five and a half assists a game. You know, he can break a defense down. He can do things that you’re not doing. um that makes him a you know a guy who’s on the bubble whether he’s a starting level point guard or a great six-man but a great six-man and you know Devin Carter’s got a long ways to go before he matches that type of of like production and you hope that he can get there but I also I I feel for him because you know he’s being asked to do something different and he’s being asked to maybe prove that he can be something different and that’s just really hard to do in like three to five games size. It worked for me. I wanted and I don’t need to see that again tonight. I wanted to see that in a game. I wanted to see him look like he was the best player on the floor. The thing that I like the most, Hammer, was, you know, you talked about can you can you lead? Can you facilitate? Can you can you do all of those things? Can you do the things that your team is asking you to do? He looked so uncomfortable in that first game leading the break. He looked uncomfortable with the ball in his hands. He looked com He looked uncomfortable kind of being that that floor general, so to speak. He looked significantly more comfortable over the weekend. And sometimes guys just have bad games, they have bad outings. Obviously, he didn’t get significantly better from game one to game two in the middle of in in in a summer league. He just executed better. He was more comfortable. And that’s what I wanted to see, especially from the point guard thing, which I really I just don’t like the idea. I wanted to see him comfortable with the ball in his hands. I wanted to see him comfortable getting up and down the floor, and I thought he did that. If he hits 10 to 13 along the way, shoot, I’m with it. Yeah. And I get that. I get that. But what I need to see from him is like uh, you know, not the bad outing and not the great outing. What I need to see is in summer league a 17 to 22 point game with with eight rebounds and six assists or five assists maybe five rebounds and five or six assists like show us that you can actually take on the role that they’re asking and I think it’s interesting because like we talked about with when Reynold made that pass to Isaac Jones where he just like flung the ball to Isaac Jones hit him in stride with a onehand like sort of wraparound pass. It was like, “Holy smokes.” Like, there’s something else there. And you know, when you see like the basic stuff of Reo, yeah, he hit the three. Yeah, he’s got the little baby jump hook. Oh, the the other things that stand out about him is he’s been so vocal on defense that you hear him through the television. Everyone there in Vegas is talking about it. How he’s directing traffic, he’s yelling at everybody. Uh he’s having quiet conversations with guys. He’s showing a leadership quality. All of those things. Like I I I just said all that about him. And you know, all I can say is I watched Devin Carter do a a crazy step back three that would never fly in the NBA. And you know, sure he put up 30 points and he was highly efficient. Uh and he did he did hit the glass, but you’re always left with that. Okay, man. show me something that makes you unique and that that maybe either shows me something that you you couldn’t do before or a process that you’re learning. And I I think that that’s where I think Kyle and I keep wanting more. It’s like, hey, I don’t want him to go score 40 points and not 30 points. I want him to score less and be more part of what’s happening on the court because you and I both know there’s never going to be a moment or maybe if there is it’s like once or twice where Devin Carter is asked to go out there and score 30 in a game. Yeah. That’s not who he’s going to be. So, show me who you can be within the team concept. And so again, maybe we’re being too hard on him, but I also think Kings fans have been way too hard on Devin Carter, uh, with this whole idea that he’s going to show up in in Vegas, he’s going to put on a a show, and then they’re going to be able to trade him for for Kaminga because he put up more points. And that’s something that, you know, you see all the time on social media, like everyone’s pulling for Devin Carter to blow up so the Kings can trade him. And it’s like, you should be pulling for Devin Carter to improve as a basketball player. and improving as a basketball player sometimes can mean making more of your shots, but it can also mean just being more part and and more I I want to say present in the game where it’s not just about you getting 30 points. It’s about you being the reason or part of the reason why a team won. Uh I’m not the biggest Devin Carter fan, but I’ll stall him out a little bit. He scored 30, but he did it on 13 shots. So, it’s not like he was, you know, jacking them up trying to trying to up his point total total. He was pretty efficient with the shots that he took. Again, 13 of them. I think he took seven threes. I believe it was five of seven. Might have been the same thing from the foul line. Uh overall, I just I I got I got what I wanted from him and he could have hit half of those shots. Uh and did all of the other things he did uh made me feel good about his game. And again, it’s he’s just he’s just a player. I just don’t think I get it, James. I I I just don’t think I get him the player, particularly him, the player, and his fit on this team. I just don’t get it. But I’m willing to see it out and I’m willing to hope for the best. I just don’t see it. You know what, man? He reminds me so much of Jonathan Kaminga on the Warriors. He just doesn’t fit. He just like how do you how do you get through to somebody? And I you know I made this uh this argument for Kaminga like a week and a half ago right before I left on vacation. Like I’m I’m starting to turn a little bit on him as a potential trade target because we see we see him with the Warriors and and we get that he doesn’t fit there. It’s like a a round like a square peg in a round hole, right? And he doesn’t want to be Aaron Gordon. He wants to be a superstar. And I I also watch him and I think I see the potential to be a star. And so maybe in a different scenario, in a different world where he’s not on the Golden State Warriors, maybe he does get that opportunity and he does live up to who he believes he is. And I think that’s always going to be the problem in Golden State. Like you hear it all the time, if you know the an unnamed source told me one time, if Kaminga ever is as good as he thinks he is, he’ll be a superstar. But he’s not going to be as good as he thinks he is. And so that’s the the problem. And he’s not going to be as good as he thinks he is in Golden State. That’s just the facts. and and if he signs there short term so he can get traded a couple of months from now or whatever like what good is that gonna do him? It doesn’t feel like it feels like that’s the worst scenario. It helps the Warriors because now they still have an asset in case somebody big becomes available. But that’s that’s not going to help him. If I’m him, I’m like, “Yeah, I’d rather leave.” Yeah, I I’d rather go somewhere. Even if it’s for a budget contract, you know, if you he were to sign like a two-year, you know, I don’t know, you could I I guess the Kings could use a mid-level exception on him and try to clear out cap space. Um, but like you’d have to tell the Warriors, you know, what do we have to do before we sign him to this deal to to trade for him and, you know, it would be less from the Warriors. Um, but again, it’s just it’s tough to match what he wants and what who he thinks he’s going to be. And it comes back to Carter in the same way. Carter has a very very high opinion of who he is as a player and who he thinks he is in the league. And he also is going to have to go through a process where he realizes that might not be who he actually is. And it might take a while for that to happen. Um, but you know, it’s it’s tough. It’s it’s a it’s not an easy business. The Kaminga thing is starting to remind me of the Joan Jennings conversation we had earlier in this show, Hammer. And I actually in the middle of talking to Jesse and the Chatty house and myself, I talked myself into I understand why Joan Jennings is doing what he’s doing. He has no leverage and that’s the tough part. But he’s operating on the idea of when Debo Samuel entered this when when Debo Samuel entered the season as your number one wide receiver, you paid him as your number one wide receiver. Last year when Brandon Iuk entered the season as your number one wide receiver, you paid him like your number one wide receiver. Brandon Iayuk is not going to be available. I am entering the season on the final year of my contract as your number one wide receiver to a quarterback you just paid 200 some odd million dollars to. you need to pay me like your number one wide receiver. That’s living off a hope and a prayer. But I understand why Joanna is doing it. I understand why Jonathan Kaminga is doing what he’s doing. I just in this in this current state of the market, and this is where I feel like Kaminga’s team might really not understand what’s happening. There is not a market for a player commanding the type of salary that you mentioned earlier. A 25 to30 million risk. You’re betting on potential with this young man. And it’s why when Kings fans asked repeatedly or in the chatty house or on Twitter or whatever it was about Jonathan Kaminga and the Kings throughout the season, my answer was always I devoted zero minutes to Jonathan Kaminga because I just didn’t there’s no pathway to it. There’s just no way that it makes sense. And even from a Warriors standpoint, the only thing that I think that the Warriors would see of great value is Jonas Valenunis. Well, Valenunis was on long gone. And I was like, there’s no That’s why when this Kaminga stuff started, I was pretty surprised cuz I just couldn’t see it. And that all took place after the Nick Clifford uh the Nick drafting. And so it just became, all right, I guess somehow this has become a conversation. But I never saw it. And I don’t see a happy ending for Jonathan Kaminga in Sacramento, in Golden State, or virtually anywhere. Wherever he winds up, he’s not going to be happy with it. No, you’re probably right. He’s going to get there and already be, you know, the whole Buddy Heield thing. Buddy Heield signed that his uh they they claimed it was $110 million deal, but the nuts and bolts were, I think, 86 million. Um he was angry about that contract the moment he signed it. And you know, like he joked around about it, but it was a joking around in a very negative way. Like we all could tell he he was pissed. So you’re right. There is going to be like this this moment where he’s not going to get what he’s asking. Uh where his agent’s not going to get what he’s asking. And and maybe that’s part of it. Whereas agent has promised more than what he can actually get for him. Um but it’s the dynamic of the league right now. And if you’re the Kings Yeah. like like taking a gamble on a you know again you’re probably talking I’m going to guess at a minimum at a minimum a four year 80 to to90 million contract that’s at a minimum um but you’re willing to do it on a on a 22 year old player who’s averaged 16 points per game in the league and who’s shown flashes of brilliance um you’re willing to do it but again you you’re going to have to rewrite your roster again if you were to do Like if if you go out and trade for, we talked about this the other day. If you go out and trade for Kaminga and you still have Demar Roen on your roster, you still have Keegan Murray on your roster. Who’s your starters? And and everyone gets real quiet real quick. And then again, that just means that Nate Clifford just lost a year of his career. He’s not going to get an opportunity at all. Um and that’s not what the Kings want either. So, um I think it it’s complicated. Uh, and it’s going to be complicated until it’s done. And is there a possibility he just signs with the Warriors and plays for pennies? Sure. But I’d rather do that than sign like a four-year deal starting at 14 million bucks a year with a mid-level exception with a team like the Kings and then regretting the contract that I signed the entire time. You know, it does always come down to that. You think you have a $5 million house, but the only thing you can the only offers you get are two million bucks. I hate to tell you, you got a $2 million house. It’s kind of where Kaminga is at right now. And and there again, maybe there’s more money next summer, but I’m going to guess there’s not, especially with the NBA reducing the projections for next summer. Yeah, the projections were reduced and then there was that we we were reading about the was it like $500 million the players had to give back from the escrow account. Like it broke it down. It’s like some percentage of the salary and like Steph Curry lost $5 million off of his contract because of that uh they overp projected what they thought their earnings would be and it’s like oh my god what is going on in the NBA right now? Cuz this isn’t about television rights. That’s what that’s not what this is about. that money’s done and paid for. This is about uh basketball revenue. This is a this is this is about non- basketball revenue. This is about the the jersey sales and all of that other stuff that’s like you don’t read about that happening too often. You never hear it happening. And every project projection on the first, you know, the the the $80 million player, $90 million, first hundred million per year player is all based off the 10% increases every year. And out the gate they’re like, “No, it’s 7%.” And now everyone’s projections are thrown off and they’re back to like, “Well, we don’t really know who the first player is going to be to hit that number or when.” Yeah. No, no, this this changed a lot of things. And I know it’s 3% difference, but that 3% is so much money. I mean, you’re talking about, you know, like 3% ofund what should have been 170 million. Um, you know, that’s I don’t know, 500 million. 5 million that just got wiped out. That’s a byanual exceptions is half a third of a mid-level exception. Two league minimum players. That’s a lot of money. Uh the uh unrelated to the Kings hammer, but the Philadelphia 76ers are in mid mid-season form here on July 14th as Paul George underwent a successful arthroscopic procedure on his left knee Monday today to treat an injury suffered during a recent workout. George will begin a rehab program and be re-evaluated prior to the start of training camp. Dear God, what a disaster of a contract that turned out to be for the Philadelphia 76ers. Well, yeah. I mean, Paul George is a gift that keeps on giving in the NBA. I mean, that’s how that’s how Oklahoma built their dynasty that’s just starting. I mean, they got Shay and like five first round picks for him. Um, and then the Clippers lost him and you know, the Clippers walked away from him because of stuff like this. They knew where his body was at, but to pair him and Embiid and Embiid, you know, he missed the first two seasons of his career. He didn’t play at all. He played We Funny enough, we looked this up earlier, missed the first two seasons of his career and only played 31 games in his third season. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he’s missed so many games. I mean, that’s why, you know, the best ability sometimes is availability. Um, and and to be honest, like that that franchise is built around a house of cards. That’s again, you want to build a franchise on sand. That’s it’s the Philadelphia 76ers. Yeah. So, Paul George will be re-evaluated prior to the start of camp and Joel Embiid, who knows, man. Who knows whether he is fully functional at this point. I know Daryl Moy spoke recently and said he expects Joel Embiid to be uh available for the start of training camp. Great. The fact that you don’t know definitively whether your $63 million player will be available for the start of training camp is a hell of a statement even from Daryl my uh James. Great to have you back my friend. We definitely missed you last week. We’ve got the home run derby coming up where your home of Major League Baseball Allstar game coverage all week long and it begins with the home run derby starting here in just minutes on Sacramento Sports Leader ESPN 1320. And we did it. Nice job team. We did it. Yeah, I mean Philadelphia, they haven’t even been able to sign Quinton Grimes. Like all of the restricted free agents are just totally screwed. Getty thought he was getting a 5year 150. Yep. And there ain’t no money. Like and they’re saying, “Okay, well what next? What’s you know what do you want?” Like we don’t have to pay you. Yeah. And if I’m getting I’m saying, “Okay, fine. I’ll just play for the qualifying offer and you guys can kiss my my Australian ars and I’m gonna leave in the offseason. I mean, that’s where Kaminga is at, too. I was gonna say that’s what a lot of these guys are going to have to do. Yeah. Uh hope they play well. Hope they don’t get hurt and going about their business. Yep. Yep. Awesome. All right, y’all. We’re shutting down. I got another show to do. We will see you tomorrow at 10 o’clock. See you.
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0:00 Stream starts
2:30 The Insiders
20:00 break
24:00 Devin Carter stepped up in SL Game two
43:55 break
48:00 Nique Clifford and Maxime Raynaud look like NBA players
59:30 break
1:03:30 Kyle apologizes to Cal Raleigh
1:18:55 break
1:24:00 back to kings summer league
1:43:55 break
1:48:00 The Handoff with D-Lo
1:58:30 The Insiders ends
2:03:00 D-Lo & KC
2:16:55 break
2:22:00 Kings rookies playing well
2:46:55 break
2:51:00 Giants drop 2 out of 3 to the Dodgers
3:16:55 break
3:22:00 Jauan Jennings looking for a better contract
3:46:55 break
3:51:00 NFL Collusion story
4:16:55 break
4:21:30 Will Zimmerle
4:46:55 break
4:51:30 James Ham
5:30:00 break
5:34:00 More Ham
5:57:00 See you guys tomorrow
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1 Comment
Andrew Nembhardt's super slow step back 3 goes in all the time. Not saying Kyle Is wrong per se but this Carter kid is one of the most hated player's I've seen.
I hate to always bring up the Pacers players comparisons but Nembhardt's game was very ugly his first year in the league and I questioned whether He'd ever have the shooting to be an NBA guard.
From being around TJ Mcconnel everyday in practice He embodied some of that fearless mindset and developed A middy.
You all definitely could be right and Carter just becomes another faded out the league NBA player but damn this Dude is hated on..
I honestly think He brings it upon himself with the Hair and the knee high socks. His game Is already easy to critique because it's different but He looks different too.
If I'm Devin Carter and I want to be a rotation player in this league I'm leaning into the hate and becoming full blown Heel.
Be A player that all the opposing teams and fan bases hate but the home team embraces him.
Carters problem right now is He's hated by his own and every other fan base. Tells You how strong mentally this Kid is if He gets through this and becomes a rotational player. That's the NBA mindset A player needs