49ers And Raiders To Watch For, Kings Current Direction – July 23: The Insiders + D-Lo & KC
a little late. Here we go. Good morning, Chatty House. Good morning, everybody. We have like 30 seconds uh 45 seconds till the show starts. So, I’m a little late and I’m not plugged in. Uh Weezy gets a bell today. Congratulations. Weezy out, baby. Baby, moving on up. What’s up, Russ dog? What’s up, Warren? What up, Michigan? Casey Tucker in the building. David in the building. Scooter’s here. Hey, is there anything better than a baseball game at like 9:00 a.m.? You know what? It does always seem like it’s the Braves. And look, there’s Nick Allen. Oh, he’s legend. All right, here we go. Boy, he’s tiny. Yeah, he is. Okay, I think I got this right. We don’t have Joe today. We don’t have our safety net for making sure the station’s on air. So, I’m very I’m It looks like we are Studio 2 live. I know I’ve taken the board where when I push a button, we’re going to go to commercial. Okay, we’re not going to go to commercial now. We got a segment to do. But, okay, I think we’re set. I think I’ve got this right where I’m not going to mess anything up. I have the I have our our system ready with all our music and all that jazz. Okay. All the basic radio sweepers of like you’re listening to that’s all in. I think we’re good. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. I don’t know that we’ve had Joe out where I’ve had to run the board and we’ve not had an issue. Like I think every time he’s out I do something a little wrong. Every once in a while it’s a perfect day. Every now Oh boy. Few and far between though. Okay, let’s see. That’s on. That’s on. That’s on. All right, let’s do a program. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. No Joe Brazil today. He is on assignment. We are sponsored by Jiffy Luben. We’re hanging out till noon. We’re on the radio 13:20 a.m. and 98.5 FM HD2. Well, we’re multimedia. We’re also on the Odyssey, iHeart, and TuneIn apps. So, if you listen on the radio and you need to get out of your car, go away from your radio, you can just tap in on your phone at one of those apps. They’re free. Search ESPN1320 and we’re there. You can keep listening. Or you can hit us on YouTube, YouTube.com20. We also simoc cast live on Twitch at twitch.tv/ ESPN1320. And of course, the James Ham and Kyle Madson show. That’s the podcast version of the program. There are so many ways to listen. We have so many tentacles out in the world. What are you laughing at? The chat is wild. Yeah. Chatty house at youtube.com ESPN1320. Go on. If you are out there and you need some place to hang out with just random people that you may never meet in person and hey in person like there is some uh some good content going on going on in the chat. The chat is such that I probably three times a week have to close the comments. Not because people are saying mean things. Like that definitely happens sometimes, especially when Manny and John Bull are in the chat. But sometimes it’s it’s it’s just we’re having a conversation. We have an audience to try and entertain. Yes, that’s our goal here. And then sometimes I’m in the chatty house and I’m not paying attention to our conversation. I’ll be like talking, but I’m just like roboting while I’m talking and just kind of regurgitating a take I’ve thought of 16 times because I’m reading what’s happening in the chatty house and I have to close the comments or else I won’t be engaged in the conversation we’re having. No, I’m with you. I’m with you. I mean like there the county crypto in in the chat. You’re telling a long story here and it’s getting a little wild. Oh my god, this is multiple Oh my god. There’s it just keeps going. So, like if you’re out there and you need somewhere to to like to feel like Norm from Cheers, you know, or Norm in the chat. Yeah. The Hey, Count of Money Crypto. I I I ain’t reading all that. I ain’t reading all that. But I’m happy for you though. Or I’m sorry that happened. Shoot. Hey, before we get into NFL training camps have are are fully underway. We’ve got all the practice videos coming out. But I want to talk about that and I want to talk about the Raiders who begin practice today. Talk about the 49ers who begin practice tomorrow. Players were watching. Um, but speaking of random things since that’s just what we’re going to do here at the top of the show today, also Keith Smith talked to a Kings front offense executive and a coach and there are some really interesting quotes that came out of Keith Smith’s piece in on spot track. So, go check that out. We’re going to talk about that coming up here in a little bit as well. But, uh, tons tons to get into today. And at 10:45, A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler is going to join us. He homerred lead off last night’s game. I texted A’s PR guy Mark Ling, who is the homie. Love Mark. Uh, texted him two nights ago and said A’s are winning tomorrow. Lawrence Butler’s going to homer and then he’s going to join the show at 10:45. We got two out of three. We got a leadoff homer from Lawrence Butler. A’s couldn’t hold on. That’s that that’s fine. Uh, Lawrence is still going to join us at 10:45. Should be a really fun discussion with him. Big Hawks guy. Yeah. Loves his Atlanta Hawks. I know. Made that very clear. And they made some moves. I’m excited to talk I’m more excited to talk to him about that than actual baseball to be honest. Yeah. See what he thinks about playing some center field. He robbed a home run the other day. Yeah. Nice. It’s his natural position. I think he started in center, but then the last couple of years has primarily played right field because he can throw right better than everybody else. Uh SAK State’s former head coach John Smith, a legend who the SAK State baseball field is named after, always said, “You put your best athlete in the right field.” And Lawrence is is uh quite an athlete. So excited to talk to him. Uh West Sacramento A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler joins us at 10:40. I’ve been watching. So So I got into the show Traders. Okay. It’s a It’s a game show. There are reality show contestants, but it’s like people who have been on Survivor. Okay. For reality showy from Survivor has been on it and and a couple other different He’s been on Survivor like 14 times. Just insane. So many times. Boston Rob made an appearance. Oh, okay. In the just just a legend. Uh and and a few other Big Brother uh The Desperate Housewives um and and a couple of other different kind of reality shows are are in there. They’re mixed in. But it I’m I just like that style of game show. It’s kind of like murder mystery type deal. Okay. So, there’s a show on Netflix called Secret Millionaire. The premise of Secret Millionaire is it’s normal people. It’s not reality stars come together to to this house and they go to their rooms and every room has a box in it and one of the boxes has a million dollars. And it is up to the person who first has the million dollars to try and hold on to the million dollars. You want to be the last person standing who has the million bucks. Okay? Because if they identify the millionaire, the millionaire is out of the game and the money gets transferred to somebody else. Okay. At random. Uh I hate this shelf. I’m going to keep watching because I want to see who wins. Like I’m invested in the in the people. Your pot committed. Yeah, absolutely. But if there’s a season two, I’ll check to see if there’s some rule changes. But here’s the here’s the premise. So So person A, yep, goes on the first day. They explain like, okay, it’s this big dramatic thing about how they got to go to the rooms and see who has the money. And the first person gets the the million dollars. And they’re like, oh, I didn’t want the million dollars. Like because you want it at the end, you don’t want at the beginning because if you have it at the beginning, people are hunting you. Mhm. And as the millionaire, you get a secret agenda every day. It’s like a thing you have to do. And if you do that thing, you might get three votes at the elimination. And it’s a secret it’s a secret vote. So your vote counts for three. Okay? Or uh one of the things is if you do your agenda, you can have the money transferred to somebody else so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. You don’t know. It goes at random, but so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. Uh, so there’s all these things, but if you don’t do the agenda, you either have to keep the money or you have to uh like you’re you lose a vote automatically. You have one vote against you at the elimination table. The problem is these secret agendas are insane. It’s like you have to hug every person and everybody in there is looking for odd behavior. M so the there’s one person who’s going to be doing something weird and then there’s challenges and when you win a challenge that group of people who wins the challenge gets to go to the trophy room and in the trophy room you get a hint about who the millionaire is. Oh no. But spoiler alert for for one of the things if you really want to watch Secret Millionaire and not have a ear because I’m not through it yet. I’m not done. This is an early in the show spoiler. So it So hang on for 30 seconds and and mute me in 3 2 1. One of the secret agendas is the person has to make two people scream. Oh well, the person who was the millionaire chipped his tooth. He had a chipped tooth that that happened in the in the in the house. So he leans into that as like, “God, I’m so frustrated. Like this is just I just need to scream. Can can can you come scream with like just a frustration scream? So everybody goes over and they make it this whole thing and it’s this kumbaya moment. They’re all screaming together and he like he he thinks he got it. The hint that they got in the trophy room was the millionaire completed their secret agenda and that agenda was based on the title of a horror movie. Oh great. Like that’s so easy. So the one weird the one weird thing that happened was that everybody started screaming randomly during the day and then we got to think of horror movies. So that’s what they do. They they get this hint, the person who got the hint relays it to everybody else so they can try and identify the millionaire and they just start listing off horror movies and somebody goes scream and then a couple of the people are like, “Oh, huh. All right, we know who it is. They’ve correctly identified I’m three episodes in. They’ve correctly identified the millionaire three times already. Like it’s just there’s no competition. Yeah. See, I’m telling you, that’s why I I do love Survivor. Survivor is a good competition show because and Survivor, they’re always evolving. Yes. And changing uh the way that they handle things. Uh you know, everything is is always got a little bit of a new spin on it. And you know, they’re almost 50 seasons in. So 25 years in because they did two unbelievable. Yeah. 50 seasons. I know uh Joe Fighter Joe uh you know Joe Hunter uh Katie Christensen’s husband Sacramento legend will uh he’s going to be on season 50. He’s coming back for Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, he’s coming back for another year. Sweet. Love that. And I wonder, you know, like you can make a career out of this because a lot of these people just go around doing these other shows and like why not? I might as well give a little check on the side. Maybe get an endorsement here or there. Yeah. Hell yeah, dude. Uh this is the other thing. Somebody in the in the in the chatty house said it’s basically who can lie the best. Randy Lily said it’s basically who can lie the best. And that’s the thing. So I hate this happens in Traders all the time, too. And I’m sure this happens in Survivor. I’m not as familiar with Survivor. I haven’t watched it in a long time, but I’m not as familiar with how that game is has has evolved. But in Traders, there’s a bunch everybody. There’s 18 people or whatever and there’s three traders who have to conceal the fact they’re traders and then they kill a person every night. They eliminate a person every night secretly. Mhm. And then people have to try and identify who the traitors are. And then people get so mad when the trader is a trader and they’re like, “You lied to me. How could you do that? I cannot tr you lied to me. I thought we were friends.” Like, “Yeah, it’s a game.” That’s the game. That’s the point. Yep. You’re being lied to on purpose. If that person didn’t lie to you and just avoided you, it would be weird. It’s like Yeah. And like a week ago, you had no idea who that person was. They were some random person on the street that you had never ever ever met before, right? Yeah. Like the the it would be like in the NBA. Can you imagine Dennis Shruder brings the ball up the floor and one of his friends in the NBA is guarding him and steals the ball and Dennis is like, “Bro, why’d you do that? I thought we were friends.” No, you’re you’re you’re in competition with each other. That’s why you’re on the game. We’re friends talking about off the court. On the court, it’s battle time, right? Yeah. And just the amount of people that don’t get this in these games like I can’t believe you would lie. You were you lied to us. You were deceitful. Like Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. I see I would love to have uh have done Survivor. I did um I did years ago with my brother go to tryyous for the Amazing Race. Um we didn’t get Oh, we made it all the way to like like they actually like had us in an interview and everything. Oh, nice. But uh did you have to send in a video? No. like you had to get up at four o’clock in the morning, go get in line and we were like super close to the front of the line because we got there early and yeah, we actually we made it all the way in. We actually got to talk to somebody, a producer and all that stuff and I think we would have been great TV. I would yell at my brother the entire time. I wonder how they choose that. Yeah. I don’t know. Like, but are they judging your answers? Are they judging your interactions? Is it both? I think that’s what they are. They’re looking for like controversy. They’re looking for people who like if you guys had just walked in and every answer contradicted each other and then argued about it, I bet you would have made it on the show. Yeah, maybe. They’re looking for messy. They’re either looking for messy or they’re funny. No. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I would have loved to have done Survivor, but my back issues and the fact that um unless they provide like unlimited sunscreen, I’m kind of shocked. You have a real you have a real problem. Yeah, I would be I would be I would hate going on a show like that and being the first person out. Oh, of course. Because it’s just it’s like it’s like in baseball. There’s nothing worse in baseball than fouling out. I hate it. I I I you you swing and you make contact. It’s a pop up to first on the foul side of first base. Like it’s just a wasted bat. I feel like if I’m going to go all the way to this island, I get what? Two days there before the first tribal council and I’m just out like, “Wait, I didn’t get a chance to play.” H I would hate that. Maybe I’ll go back and send in a video for Oh god. Please do. Can I help produce it? Yeah. Oh my god. Yes. I would like I would like to do that on the show. We make the video on the show. Okay. I want this to be a bit that we hash out. Okay. We’ve got we got training camps happening, but there’s going to be some days off during training camp. We’re gonna have some segments. Okay, I’m in. Hell yeah. We’re gonna get James on Survivor, everybody. It’s going to be amazing. Anyways, we’ll talk about real stuff. I promise. We got Keith Smith talked to a Kings front office executive and a coach. Uh they talked about Keegan Murray’s extension, the Dennis Shrutder signing, the evolution of the roster, and Keon Ellis’s non-extension. Uh, we’ve got an A’s loss to talk about. We’ll talk to Lawrence Butler, their uh, outfielder at 10:45. And I’m getting kind of tired of the Keegan Murray conversation. I think I’m over the Keegan Murray discussion. We’ll talk about that. Training camps are underway. They’re in full swing. Tons to get to on a Wednesday. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the Insiders. We are sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Did I mention training camp? Maybe. Yeah. A’s uh, not not A’s. Raiders and 49ers training camps. Uh, which means training camp videos are coming out. Uh, oh, which means it’s overreaction time in the NFL and training camp overreactions worse than summer league overreactions. But we’ll get to we’ll get to reaction. We’ll get to all of that. James, Kyle, Jiffy Lube, no Joe, the insiders, ESPN 1320 and Sacramento Sports Center. Clear. Um, Rust Dog, I have talked to Joe uh and and actually to be honest with you, he’s always uh like when I have seen him, he’s always, “Oh man, you got to try out. It’s so much. It’s so incredible. I I would love to do that.” Oh. Uh, thanks the baby daddy. that one. Do you know what else I hate while we’re talking competition shows? Because I don’t want to get into this on the program again or I’ll take up a whole segment. Okay. Um I don’t hate Keegan Murray. I hate the conversation around Keegan Murray. Um uh I hate on Chopped. I love the show Chopped. Okay. Chopped is top five alltime TV show for me. And that’s probably not true. Top eight. I’ll go comfortably top eight alltime TV show for me. And the amount of people once it got popular, Chopped was very, very popular. The amount of chefs that would get Froot Ring cereal, Froot Loops, but they can’t call it that, Fruit Ring cereal, and they’d be like, “What are these processed ingredients? I don’t cook with this.” Like, yeah, man. That’s the program. That’s the point of the show. What are you talking about? This isn’t who can cook the best. This is who can make the who can turn chicken S into chicken salad. Yeah, that’s the That’s funny. I’ve been re-watching uh Ted Lasso cuz they are now filming a fourth season. I don’t know how I feel about it. I thought the end of season 3 was really good and I felt good about it. I’m excited to spend time with the characters again. Yeah. But I’m really really scared for the quality of the show. I don’t know because you know you know who the writer is like. Yeah. And I also know that the writer did season nine of Scrubs which is also getting a reboot. It is getting a reboot which I love Scrubs. Incredible show. Season 9 was hot garbage. Oh horrible. Yeah. When it shifted from NBC to ABC I think it was it like went downhill so quickly. Yeah. Yeah, they just tried to mix the formula up. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then once all the primary characters left and it was just JD and was Sarah Chalk even in season 9, I think so. She’s back. I have no I have no recollection of it. They make jokes on their podcast. Donald Fesison and and uh Zack Braph, they have a Scrubs Rewatch podcast and they make jokes about how season 9 doesn’t exist. Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah. This is true though. Bill Lawrence is is a legend. Yeah. I’m excited to to see if they can if they can do it the right way. Yes. Fake doctor’s real friends. Yep. That’s it. Oh, here we go. Now, back to The Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson, brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. We will not talk sitcoms. We’re going to talk about sports. Damn it. It is It is uh July, late July. July 23 and training camps are beginning. Dude, I I just real quick want to get this training camp over reaction thing and then we’ll then we’ll talk about the Kings. Uh Lawrence Butler, A’s outfielder, going to join us at 10:45 right here on Sacramento Sports Leader. Excited to talk to Lawrence, who we have not talked to since the Sawyer before the season. So get a little update from him. We didn’t have him on the show one time. I thought we did. I don’t think so. Did we? I don’t know. We had JP Sears. Okay. We had JP Sears, Jacob Wilson, uh Brent Rooker. Brent Rooker, Tyler Sodestrom. Tyler Silverstrom. Was Rooker on the program? I think we had Rooker. Yeah, we might have. Or did he not make it the day that we had him set up? That might have been the case. Boy, we’re not very good at this guy. No, we’re not. No, we’re definitely not. But Lawrence Butler, uh, talk to We’ll talk to him about his position change, what he did over the All-Star break. He’s a huge Atlanta Hawks fan. We’ll talk to him about that. That should be a fun conversation. He’s a He’s a fun guy to chat with. Uh, real quick before we get to the Kings, though. I I need and I and I know I say this a lot just about various pre-season things in sports. And you know, James and I, if you listen to this program, we are very much proponents of fan how you fan. Oh yeah. Do do your hate what you want to hate, love what you want to. like we were not going to tell you how to fan, but I need the reactions or not not even reactions, overreactions and sweeping declarations from padless one-on-one drills in training camps to slow down. We’re on year, how long has Twitter been around? Almost 20 years. 16 years now. 17 years. Uh 17 years, I think. 1998. I mean, 2008, almost 20 years. Yep. And we’re still doing this. Wow. Look at this rookie in this one-on-one rep. Make sure to move him up your fantasy draft boards. Like, okay, he’s a seventh round pick. Relax. Calm down. He won a one-on-one rep, which is designed to be won by the offense. Come on. The the news with one-on-one reps is if somebody looks particularly terrible, that’s the news. If an offensive lineman is just getting his ass kicked in one-on-one reps, that’s bad. If a wide receiver can’t create separation in one-on-one, that’s bad. If wide receiver gets a step on a corner, though, in a one-on-one and makes a deep catch, it means nothing. And he’s up against the sixth corner or something, right? The 12th corner on the roster, right? No safety help. Yeah. No game planning. It’s just Yeah. Well, I always like to like when I go to media day, right? Media day, you’re always looking. Yeah. For the Kings, you’re always looking for the big winner of the summer and it’s just the guy who comes in who looks like he really really worked out and and was, you know, came in ready. Couple of years ago, it was Trey Lyles who had lost like probably 25 30 pounds. Um then you know I think two years ago it was Kesler Edwards who showed up and was just jacked was like what in the world like what is going on? Um I remember even all the way back uh my first like after my first season the next uh we had to go through the lockout then the players showed up and uh Hassan Whitide had gained 30. Oh yeah, he got super yolked. 30 or 40 lbs of pure muscle. Like literally looked like he had gone to, you know, I I don’t even know. Like he was ripped. He was gigantic. So funny. And his first thing was, “Hey, my dad played uh played for the Minnesota Vikings and he weighed 290 pounds.” And I had no idea that his dad had played for the Vikings, but that’s crazy. Sure enough, he was a defensive lineman who weighed 290. It’s the horse. And so it was like, “Okay, that’s crazy.” Um, but then the first day of camp, trashed his knee and was done. Yeah. Yeah. It’s one of those things where you’re always like, you show up and you’re like, “Okay, who looks really good.” Just because Kesler Edwards worked out really hard during the summer did not mean that he became a much better basketball player, unfortunately. Right. Best shape of their lives. Yeah. Yeah. Um, speaking of early training camp things, I did we we talked a little bit about some of the news that came out of the Kyle Shann and John Lynch press conference yesterday, but I wanted to get to this quote. We talked about this a little bit on Candlestick Chronicles with our buddy Chris Beerman, but I want to talk about it with you. Um, Kyle Shanahan was basically asked if they anticipated Jawan Jennings holding out and asking for a new contract. Not I shouldn’t say that he’s not holding out. he has reported uh they they say they expect him and anticipate him to be on the field. We’ll see if if he actually practices but anyways had asked like did you kind of see this coming? And he said yeah I think you anticipate all situations that make sense when a player’s in that situation. I see the same thing with Colton Makivitz. Pause right there. I get it. Colton Makovitz is a is a probably league average starting right tackle and he makes significantly less than that. But Kyle Shanahan invoking Colton Makovitz who has not set a peep and from all we know is gonna go out there and play. Kyle Shanahan invoking Colton Mkovitz there un unprompted is definitely a shot at Joan Jennings. It’s like yeah we got two guys like this. One of them’s yapping about it. The other one isn’t. Yeah. Then tomorrow, sheepishly, Colton McKivitz walks up to the coach’s office. Knock knock knock. Hey, um, why wouldn’t you? I just I I was thinking about this last night when I was watching social media and I was thinking maybe I should come in and ask for a raise and see if I could get a contract extension since I’m only under contract this season. Just wondering if that’s a possibility because if it is, uh, I’d really like more money. If it’s not, I might hold out. Yeah. Like, hey, coach, you made a great point. You made a great point. Thanks for always having my back, coach. Can you give me John Lynch’s number? Yeah. And I know there’s people probably like, “Oh, Colt McC, there’s probably people listening who who don’t know who that is.” Uh, or or B, you might be a Niner fan and like, “He stinks. Don’t give him.” But hey, I got to tell you, go look at the offensive lineman on the roster. He is far and away their best option of right tackle, more so than Jawan Jennings as the Niners’s best option at wide receiver. I really do hate it though when we get to a point where we’re like, well, we don’t have anyone better because that’s like that’s Kings 101. Well, we would love to, but you know, he’s the best option. It’s like, yeah, he’s the best option. Here’s here’s the other here’s the other thing he said. I think I this just really hits my funny bone. Here’s Kyle Shanahan. You know, when people talk about how to avoid drama and stuff and things like that, and I’m not trying to say anything negative about it. I think that’s just business. He’s talking about Dwan Jennings here. I don’t call that drama. I call that business. I mean, if you want to avoid all drama, then just be really extremely bad at business and just be ridiculous on everything. And I guess there’d be no drama until you tear your team apart doing that. So, like you look into all that stuff, but like we’ve got a great relationship with those with these guys. Those two guys, that does make sense. We can do everything we can to make that work out, but it’s not always easy to make it work out. So, we’ll see how that goes. Yeah. Let me uh go out to my grill and cook you up a big nothing burger, dude. He goes he goes circular quotes. He said, “People talk about how to avoid drama, and I’m not saying it’s drama, but actually drama is good. If we didn’t have drama, it’d be bad. So, it’s not I’m not saying it’s negative that there’s drama because there’s not. But there is because but if we didn’t have it, it would be a bad thing. Well, in a certain ipso facto drama good. There is a point that there is nothing worse than the only thing worse than being bad is being boring and bad. Yeah. And so I guess drama does actually drum up something that can distract from the fact that you might not be that good. Well, he’s saying when you have too many good players, Yeah. and you’re paying a lot of guys, that’s a good problem to have. Okay. If you if the 49ers didn’t have any good players, then they would just sign Jawan Jennings because they wouldn’t be paying anybody big money and you could just afford to keep him. But they can’t necessarily do that. So, have a high price quarterback, high price defensive end, high price linebacker, high price tight end, high price a high price running back, high price receiver. Uh, one of their corners is now making $88 million. like they have they have all this they have all this capital invested already. So, it’s a good problem to have. I just I I thought it was I thought it was funny. He said talking about how to avoid drama. Not trying to say anything negative. Actually, what I’m saying is that this is all great. We love drama here. All right, man. You got it. This the way he said that though and the fact that he included Mckivitz and then ended his his his answer with those two guys, that does make sense. It kind of makes me think that we’re going to get extensions for both at some point. Great. I’m all for Jawan Jennings extension. McKivitz is like you’ve been waiting for five years from or three years for him to find someone better. Yeah. No, he’s fine. But I think if you can find a starting caliber tackle, which I think he is. If he can find a starting caliber tackle and get him for cheap, if he wants to sign a threeyear $35 million extension or whatever. Yeah. Like sure. He was just looking around like, “Is this happening?” Yeah. Well, yeah. Just give him give him give him some money. He’s a he’s a good stop gap until you find something better. Yeah. I don’t I don’t I don’t hate the idea. But anyways, I do hate the idea when the stop gap is like eight years. You’re like, “Okay, that’s that’s a long time that we’ve had a stop gap here.” Like, yeah, that’s true. That’s like when when you fix something and you just rig it. Mhm. And then it doesn’t break and you’re like, “We’ll just see how long it lasts.” I’m doing that with my car right now. We’ll just see how long it lasts. Oh, no. It’s fine. Well, that’s what TripleA is for, Kyle. Dude, bro, shout out to you, man. Uh, that’s James. I’m Kyle. We’re sponsored by Jify Lube. No, no, Joe Brazil today. Uh, Keith Smith covers the NBA for for Spa Track, among other places. emptied out his summer league notebook and included some notes on on every team in the NBA. Uh split it up, Western Conference and Eastern Conference. Highly recommend you go check it out. A lot of really interesting stuff in there. Both Kings and non-Kings, but obviously we’re going to stick with with the Kings stuff here. The first the first bullet point here is about Dennis Schruder. And the quote from a Kings coach is, “Last year after trading De’arren Fox, we saw that our offense needed more ball handling. We’ve got scorers and passers, but guys to get into our stuff was something we were lacking. That’s what Dennis will give us along with his own scoring and playmaking too via Kings coach.” Mhm. That clarifies for me that I think they are expecting Dennis Ruder to start. He might not play as many minutes as Malik Monk, but I think Dennis Rutder starts and I think more importantly, Dennis Ruder closes. Because I think that was a significant problem they had down the stretch of games last year where we talked about it was a it got way too early in games. Oh, Demar Rosen’s just going to take over the offense and he’s just going to shoot it every time down and the Kings are going to ride on whether he makes or misses. And it wasn’t like a functional offense. No, it went from a functional offense early in the season was that was kind of sputtering to a non-functional offense that just became ISO like whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Yeah. And I think I think a big problem with that was they didn’t have a true point guard which I think Dennis Shruder is. Yeah. At least as as far as those exist in the in the NBA today. I mean I think that there are, you know, probably 25 true truer point guards in the league than Dennis Shruder, but that’s fine. like Dennis Shruder is is a serviceable player, right? So, if this is the answer, okay, and and I get it. Like I I agree when you brought in, you know, Demard Rosen, the reason why you brought in Demard Rosen was because the previous year you were rolling and then started to have some issues and then Malik Monk and Kevin Herder got hurt and you had no other playmakers outside of De’ar Fox and Demon Sabonis and your offense went to hell in a hand basket in a matter of seconds. Right. So you wanted to add more, right? So I think that that’s why Dennis Shruder makes a lot of sense. You added more and and I I always like it’s great to have a a defender that is just an unbelievable defender. Just think if you go get Matis Stybel just un if he can’t step on the floor, if he if he’s always hurt or if he’s not good enough to stay on the floor, then it doesn’t matter how good he is defensively, you know, playing five minutes a game isn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t change anything, right? So having a player that can step on the court and actually help your team and play is, you know, a positive sign. So now you have, you know, we always talk about like the levels of player. I put Malik Monk and and Dennis Ruer in the same tier of player. Um the same I I would have put Kevin Hurder in that same tier. Uh the same with Harrison Barnes. They’re this this group of players that are league average to that spot right below allstar and they can have a variance of, you know, whatever. Like they they can have good seasons, they can have bad seasons, but they’re not going to be so bad that you can’t play them. They’re always going to be in a rotation. Uh they’re always going to play 25 plus minutes a night, that type of deal. So, I think like yes, the Kings needed a player who could initiate the offense, who could get things rolling and and make things easier for other players. Mhm. Whether Dennis Shruder proves to be that guy or not, I don’t know because there’s so many ways in which he’s done that and hasn’t done that in his last five stops in the last two seasons that it it will take time to know if he’s going to be a player that that fits or doesn’t fit. This is a FIA World Cup MVP and gold medalist we’re talking about. Yeah, FYI. Um, no. I I am of the belief that Dennis Shruder has been on uh been on some teams where his role was not necessarily defined. Mhm. And I like you talk to people in Detroit and people in Detroit loved him, really wanted him back uh because he kind of just slotted nicely into a role. I think that’s what the Kings are at least anticipating here that he’s going to be the guy that okay late in the game they need to get into their offense. It cannot turn into Zack Lavine ISO Malik Monk ISO Demard Rosen ISO Demard Rosen ISO Demar Rosen ISO. Oh hey Zack your turn. Like it just can’t it can’t be that. And I think they’re they’re hoping that Dennis Shruder will be that organizer. Maybe he’s not. It’s funny because if you talk to anybody hoping he is and they watched him in Golden State last year, they will tell you that Shruder was a like a complete disaster in Golden State. Yeah. Right. Um he shot 37.5% in Golden State from the field and 32.2% from three. Mhm. When he got traded to Detroit, he shot 37.8% from the field and 30.2% from three. He actually from three, he got worse by 2%. Yeah. uh as a offensive player he was exactly the same basically. And so realistically like he’s the same player in both spots, but one place he looks like a genius and the other he looks like a horrible player. And that’s just kind of the league. Um but also I I I get what you’re saying about like whether he fits and all that stuff. It’s just kind of like an interesting way. I think he was considered a disaster in Golden State because there was a lot of onus put on him to carry them offensively. Yeah, because they don’t that you saw it. Steph Curry goes out. They got nothing. They have it’s they have they have they had nothing for Minnesota once Steph Curry went down. I think that a lot a lot of the problem at the beginning of the year was it was like, “Oh, hey Dennis, need you to do a lot more scoring than you you’re probably qualified to do and hey, we need you to shoot the three, which you’re not very good at, right?” But then you go to Detroit where they have Kade Cunningham to run the show. They have Malik Beasley who leading the league in threes or second in the league in threes, whatever. Jaylen Duran is a is a really high quality big. You had Tim Hardaway Jr. there. You got Tobias Harris. It was so much more a all right, Dennis, you’re going to play this very specific role. You’re going to go be a pest defensively and you’re going to get us into the offense sometimes. I just think that’s what he’s going to do here instead. And maybe he’s not a very good player. And if he’s not, then uh that’s on the front office for me. Yeah. I mean, we’re I think they got him to fill a pretty specific role. And if he can’t do that, then like why did you bring him in? Yeah. You got to figure out which version of Dennis Shruder you’re going to get. And like that that’s why I again we can have we don’t have to have this this discussion, but it’s one I had on the podcast yesterday and we had on the show yesterday. Like I don’t see a huge difference between Dennis Shruder and Malik Monk. Shruder is a little bit better defender. Uh, Monk is a better athlete. Um, like they’re a coin flip who’s gonna play the most. They’re a coin flip of who should start and who should come off the bench. I don’t really care either way. Um, but I definitely I understand the idea, but all of the stats say they’re virtually the same exact player. I watch Malik Monk and I watch Dennis Shruder and I do not see the same player. Not even a little bit. Yeah, I I I really don’t. But maybe that’s maybe I don’t know what I’m looking at. Um, we’re going to talk to Lawrence Butler. He’s outfielder. Was a center fielder, then he became a right fielder. Now he’s moved back to center field with Denzel Clark getting hurt. We’re going to talk to him about moving around uh positions in the outfield. Talk about what he did during the All-Star break. He’s a big Atlanta Hawks guy. Mhm. I talked to him about the Hawks. The A are in a tough spot, man. They’re in that they are in a place where I I I I think it’s impossible to watch them and not be excited about their future. But this season, just in in the scope of this year, obviously Jacob Wilson super exciting. Uh Nick Curts, who you mentioned, has actually surpassed Jacob Wilson now in AL Rookie of the Year voting or not voting, I’m sorry, not voting, uh odds. Oh, wow. So the A’s have the there’s a very real chance the A’s finish this year with the top two rookies in the American League. So that’ll be fun to watch down the stretch. But I couldn’t help but last night the A’s go up one nothing. Lawrence Butler leads off with a homer and then the Rangers tied it and then the Rangers went up two to one and it felt like the game was over because the A’s are right on that cusp of not being they’re not on the cusp of bad to good. They’re on the cusp of of bad to right around 500. Mhm. Like right in the middle of the pack. They’re right there. And so when they fall apart in a game, it’s just it you’re not you’re just kind of waiting for it. And that was a really tough watch last night. Yeah. Like, can you get anything going offensively? Okay. Nothing going offensively. Okay. But it’s it’s still one- nothing through I think four. All right. And then, oh, tied. Oh, now it’s 2-1. Like, uhoh. And now you’re just kind of waiting for the bullpen to do its thing. And sure enough, they give up four runs in the seventh. It goes six to one. And and at that point, it’s over. Yeah. That’s just a really hard spot to be as a as a club. It is. Uh, speaking of one- nothing leads, Rafie Devers, new first baseman for the Giants, rad last night in his first ever start at first base. Uh, and just hit a homer today for the Giants and put him up one nothing on the Braves. Look at that. Salute to Rafie Divers. But salute more to Lawrence Butler because he is going to join us next to Oakland. Uh, not Nope. Nope. West Sacramento A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler. He is going to join us here in a second on the insiders responsive by Jiffy Loop. James Ham there. I’m Kyle Madson. No Joe Brazil. We’re hanging out with you till noon on ESPN 1320 at Sacramento Sports. No. Well, yes, but we’re gonna Barcelona officially confirms Marcus Ra Marcus Rashford will wear number 14. Talk about a guy who like had a incredible season, got paid, and then did nothing. It’s too bad. I like Rashford guy. Hopefully he does well at Barta. I think he’s on loan. Um, okay. Okay. Drew down. Um, it’s not a good morning. Drew down. Uh yeah, I I agree with this, but like he’s one of those players that that’s always like right there. Like is Marcus Rashford like the Rudy Gay of of the EPL? I don’t know your thoughts. Uh let’s see. Rick, do you see Domas and Max playing together at moments? We’re gonna have that discussion. Um wait, is it raining? I think actually Sean Cunningham said yesterday he hit a patch of rain on the way home to Elkrove. [Laughter] That’s hilarious. It’s hilarious. Is Jason Steven in the chat today? Where you at, Jason Steven? You are Jason. I see you in here. Pull that picture down that you put up this morning. There’s a reason why we don’t talk about where Brennan works. Has nothing to do with the fact that we’re competing radio stations. They he played primarily at left left wing. I don’t know. Sometimes he’s a right up top. Um, I agree. Uh, Brandon, I agree. Uh, I think the biggest issue with Rashford is the manu just doesn’t have someone to set these guys up. And you know, Bruno’s a good player, but they just don’t push the ball the right way. And they have no finishers in the middle. Little world. We got to figure it out. Now, back to The Insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson. brought to you by Jify Lube on ESPN 1320. Yeah, this is what happens uh when you have a when you have a program that uh only has two people on it and you’re trying to get somebody on the phone for an interview. Okay, it’s fine. Salute to Jonathan. We appreciate him immensely for hanging out and answering the phone if and when it rings. hopefully gonna have Lawrence Butler, A’s outfielder who let off last night’s game with a homer and is back in center field defensively. Yeah. Where he’s uh where he’s crushing it. Um so hopefully we’ll talk to talk to Lawrence here in a little bit. the A’s lost last night 6-2 to the Rangers, but man, they are they are I don’t want to say so close because I think they probably need like seven new pitchers, but yeah, you see the you see the outline of a team that should be pretty freaking good. If you look at their um their bullpen since like mid June has is like top five in Major League Baseball, which is great, you know. So, their bullpen figured it out. Their defense has started to figure things out as well, but it is really difficult to watch sometimes because they have guys who are just naturally playing out of position. You know, they’re trying to teach Tyler uh Soderstrom how to play left field at at the Major League Baseball level, and that’s just not easy, especially since it they didn’t even start him playing that in like uh in spring training. So, um, and that, you know, you you didn’t have a third base option and you start throwing guys like Andahar at third base. You start throwing guys like Maxy at third base. They’ve never played it. So, you’re going to have all these issues with a brand new left fielder and a brand new third baseman. And unfortunately, they’ve had quite a few mistakes in that in that area. And they have not a brand new center fielder, but sort of new to this season centerfielder. Lawrence Butler has started at that spot the last couple of games. and he’s going to join us now on the Elgrove Kia talk line. We’re the insiders. 91690932091691320 if you would like to join the show. Uh but first we got to get out to uh A’s center uh center fielder outfielder Lawrence Butler. Uh Lawrence, how you doing, man? How you doing? I’m hanging in there, man. Uh we’re just we’re just talking about um defensively how you kind of came up as a center fielder, but you’ve moved to right field. Now you’re moving back to center field uh for the last couple of games. What are some of the adjustments it takes as a as an outfielder going from because I know like you go from third base to second base very different position. Is it the same going from from right field to center field and and back and forth? Yeah, it is cuz you know I would I would like like going from third to second you know it’s different views. You know when you’re in the middle of the field you know you can kind of see the strike zone. You can see where pitches are getting thrown at. You can see hitter swings a little bit better. So, I feel like it’s kind of a little bit easier to anticipate where the ball is going to be than, you know, when you’re on the side or you’re on a corner. You know, you really can’t see, you know, kind of where the pitches are. You know, you don’t you might not know if a hitter hits the ball as good as he as he as you thought he did. So, you know, it’s a it’s a big difference. But, you know, I played it before in the past. You know, I played it in um minor leagues a lot. You know, I played it a little bit 23 when I got called up. So, you know, it’s no it’s no no big task for me. You know, I feel like I I can play center field at with the with the best of them. You know, Lawrence, we saw you uh go over the fence and rob a home run the other night. Um you you were like harnessing your inner Denzel Clark. U just how crazy has it been to watch his maturation? It’s a real bummer he had just started hitting the ball, but uh that ability to play next to a guy that has just uncanny ability to to go over the fence and rob home runs left and right. Yeah, I I talk with Dale a lot about you know, just the defensive side of the ball. You know, he’s gave me some of the tips that he’s um you know, used in the in the in the league so far. So, you know, he’s been helping me out out there. You know, he’s just a a a freak of nature. I mean, you see the catches he makes. I feel like nobody else in the league is make making those type of catches. So, you know, I just I’m glad he’s on my team. You know, I’m glad I just get to watch him and learn from him every day. You know, he’s been helping me out a lot out there. Do you feel as we talked to Lawrence Butler, A’s outfielder on the Insider, sponsored by Jiffy Lube. Uh do you do you feel like what position you’re you’re playing uh affects how you approach the the game at the plate at all? Um, I really wouldn’t say so at all because I mean defense is you kind of got to separate the two. You know, you can’t you can’t take your at bats on defense and you can’t take your defense to the at bats. I mean, but yeah, obviously, you know, if you make a good play on defense, you going you going to be feeling a little bit good at the plate. But I feel like you kind of just got to separate the two. And, you know, I feel like the goal should always be up there to to go up there and have a good at bat and, you know, just get on base for the team and try to help the team win. You know, Lawrence, I think moving from uh from right field to center field is one thing, but moving from first base to left field is something that does seem to have like played a little bit in Tyler Sodstrom’s up and down season. Um I I think at one point like 13 of his 14 home runs had come while he was playing first base, uh and only one while he was playing left. He’s slowly starting to feel more comfortable. Do you see that with Tyler where you know it’s just difficult to bounce around the diamond especially when you weren’t even in spring training we didn’t see him playing a bunch of left field. Yeah. I mean I think his first start in left field or just in outfield period ever was you know in the big leagues and you know it’s not easy to play outfield in the big league and you know he’s been doing a terrific job. I want to say he’s like fourth in left fielders you know with outs above average and you know he’s just been playing a great left field and you know baseball is baseball. you know, you’re not going to go up to the plate and hit a homer every time or, you know, get a hit. So, you know, he’s been doing really good with the, you know, the struggles that come with, you know, 162 game season. So, I mean, I feel like he’s he’s starting to heat back up anyway. So, I mean, he’s been he’s been doing pretty good all year to me if you if you ask me. So, I think he I think he’s a really good baseball player. Yeah, no doubt. We’re talking with Lawrence Butler, a outfielder. Uh, you had an awesome 2024 season. I I think pitchers uh going into this year uh probably had your name right there at the top of the scouting report. Of course, you’re also leading off. Do you feel like pitchers have changed their approach with you this year? Uh, I I would say a little bit. Yeah. Like like any other, you know, any other good player, you know, you have a good season, you know, pitchers are going to are going to, you know, keyhole you and try to find your holes and just try to try to find different ways to get you out because they know that they don’t want you to beat them or they just rather somebody else on the team beat them. So, you know, that’s just the the cat and mouse game of baseball. You know, pitchers make adjustments then the hitter got to make adjustments. hitter make adjustments, then the pitcher make adjustments. So, you know, that’s just that’s just really how the game goes nowadays. You know, just pitchers are just trying to find different ways and new ways to, you know, just get you out and, you know, we got to find different ways to just keep getting on base. You know, Lawrence, early uh early in the season, we talked to you and we talked about this this thing that last year like you realistically should have won rookie of the year or been right in the running for rookie of the year, but you were ineligible because you had spent too many days uh up the year before, right? Um and then this year you’re watching uh Nick Curts and Jacob Wilson who are just going at it as for you know potential rookie of the years. Um, how much fun is that to watch, you know, the big slugger versus a a guy who just, you know, slaps the ball all over the field? I mean, it’s it’s amazing to watch. And I I was preaching this, you know, before we moved to Sacramento when we were in Oakland, the whole new Oakland thing. I wasn’t just saying that about, you know, me, Gail Off, and Sodom, you know, I was saying that about the whole minor leagues. I mean, I’ve I’ve seen the the draft picks we’ve had, you know, up to that point, and, you know, they were all good. You know, I had full confidence in Jacob. You know, when we picked Curts, you know, I had full confidence in Kurts. And, you know, we just got a lot of young players, Max Muny, Denzel Carton. You know, we got a lot of good young players on our team and in our organization that are coming up to the big league level and making a big difference for our team. So, I mean, those two guys are just doing it. I mean, to see them do it at the age that they’re doing it at, you know, Jacob just went first AL rookie, was it like AL rookie to start shortstop Allstar game? I mean, what they’re doing is is special. And I’m just glad both of them on our on our team. And I believe that Nick Curts might be one of the, you know, best first base to ever play this game. I mean, what he’s doing right now is is unbelievable. He’s got 19 homers in I want to say like 60 games or something like that. Like he he is he’s he’s one of the he’s one of the best hitters in the league, I say, right now. And I mean, every time he steps up to the plate, it’s like he’s getting an extra base hit. Just did the math on that last night. He’s on pace over a full season for 49 jacks as a rookie. Yeah, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. I mean that that’s insane. I mean you can’t it’s it’s like I mean when we when we see him at the plate it’s just like if you just throw it anywhere in the zone or even if you paint a pitch, he’s going to hit it 112. So I mean we hope we hoping he he does the um home run derby next year. It’ll be like close to his hometown in Philly. So we’re we’re all trying to convince him to get into the derby. The one he hit, the one he hit against Texas a couple of nights ago, uh the breaking ball in the outer half. Getting that pitch out opposite field is just ridiculous. That’s special. I mean, back door slider curveball and you just backside mammoth shot. I mean, he he’s special. I mean, me and me and Bren Rooker were telling him like Rook Rooker, I don’t think he’s ever done that. So, you know, for Kirk to be doing that as a rookie, I mean, he’s only 22 years old and he’s, you know, putting up a season like he has right now. I mean, him and Jacob him and Jacob going to be running and crew for this rookie. I honestly don’t know who who’s going to take it now that now that Curts is doing what he’s doing. Yeah, it’s going to be fun to watch. Hey, last thing here for you, Lawrence. Uh, we really appreciate your time. Uh, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about your Atlanta Hawks. I don’t know how much you get to lock into the NBA offseason while you you’re in the midst of your baseball season, but the Hawks have been making moves. Man, that’s going to be a good team in the East, man. I love the Hawks. I got the Hawks patted on me. I mean, I I feel like we gonna have a good year this year. You know, we still got Trey Young. I just hope they don’t never trade him. And uh, you know, I’m going to be a lot of I’m going be at a lot of these games in offseason. I love going to the Hawks games in offseason. You know, I just I feel like I feel like this is the year where we finally can, you know, get through that Eastern Conference Finals. We usually, you know, with LeBron being in Cleveland, you know, when I was younger, you know, just the East having some really good teams, you know, I feel like we will always get to that Eastern Conference Finals and just, you know, fold. But I just hope this year, you know, we can we can pull it through and I’ll be in attendance to watch them. They’re going to be going to be a team to watch for sure, man. The East is wide open and we’ll be pulling for him for you. Really appreciate your time, Lawrence. Good luck with the rest of the rest of the season. No problem. Thank you. Thanks. Take care, man. Lawrence Butler, A’s outfielder. Um, one of the best, man. Really enjoy chatting with you. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. We’ll uh just talk to him about the A’s rookies all day. He loves those guys. Yeah. Um, appreciate Lawrence Butler. Appreciate the A’s for uh for sending him over. We have the second hour of the show coming up. We got a ton of training camp stuff to get into and uh Keith Smith talked to a Kings front office executive and a coach. We’ve just scratched the surface of of those conversations. So, we’ll uh we’ll get into that as well uh in the second hour. He’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the Insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube. This is ESPN 1320 at Sacramento Sports. Hell yeah. All right, so here’s a crazy stat. This is this is absolutely bonkers. Um, they pulled Nick Curts up uh on April 23rd. It took him until the 13th of May, 17 games to hit his first home run. Then then he didn’t hit another home run until May 20th, right? Game 24 of the season. So through the first 23 his first 23 games he had one home run he’s played 63 games which means in his last 40 18 home runs in his last 40 games. My god. Let’s do some math. Let’s do some math. Uh 18 in his last 40. So 18 divided by 40 times 162. That’s a light 73 homer pace. Yeah. Yeah. And the RBI totals are crazy too. He’s got 49 RBI. in 63 games. Uh Jesse texted me something. Um the Hawks could be really good though. I don’t know. They They got Alexander Walker. They got Porzingis. Hang on. We have to go away for a second. All right. first hour tight. Hi everyone. We might have another uh uh you know what? I’m going to try and do it. I’m going to try and do this since Jesse’s here. James, you might have to take the start of the segment, but we’re good. Ah, what’s going on everybody? What’s happening Jesse? What’s up, Chatty House? Um, what do you think? You know, I I think we told everybody that this draft specifically, there was a top eight and then after number eight, everybody from 9 to like 35, 36, maybe even 40 were considered like like personal preference. And I I think one of the reasons Nick probably fell is just because of his age. Um, you know, we’re talking about a kid who turns 24 during his rookie season, so that might be it, but I’m here for it. There wasn’t some personality quirk or anything else. Hour number two of the ESPN 1320 Insiders. Get ready for the most up-to-date sports news and talk with the ESPN 1320 Insiders. Hour number two. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. Jesse Top on the ones and twos. Hey Jesse. What’s up guys? How’s everyone doing? Lawrence Butler interview was great by the way. Thanks man. He was good. He was really good. Yeah. It’s always dope when the player because players when they come in do the interviews they’re not always so enthusiastic and stuff like that kind of all right I’m here for 10 minutes blah blah blah like Lawrence was into it and stuff like that that was dope. Yeah really enjoyed talking about his teammates which is not al not always a thing you get. We’re sponsored by Jeffy Lou by the way hanging out with you till noon then went handed off to DLO and KC which is produced by the great Jesse Tapia. No DLO just KC and friends today. Yes. Sarah Hodgees will be there. James Ham will be there. I’ll be there. Hell yeah. Talk sports. It’ll be fun. Maybe I’ll be there. Maybe Kyle will be there. Oh, never mind. I might I don’t know. Uh, that’s coming up at noon. I was going to say something about Lawrence Butler, and I can’t remember what it was. Ace outfielder who just joined us, but Oh. Oh, Jesse, I don’t know if you heard, but I texted the A’s PR guy two nights ago, so Tuesday. No, last night was Tuesday, so Monday night, and I said, “Hey, the A’s are winning tomorrow. Lawrence Butler’s going to homer, and then he’s going to be on our show.” And then he led off yesterday’s game with a homer and I was like, “Yes, I have not wanted the A’s to win a game that bad since the last time they were in the playoffs. I needed that call. I needed that win and I still couldn’t get it.” No, that worked out. I’d take credit for that if I was you. Okay. Two out of three works. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Specifically because he homerred. You should have played that underdog, you know. Oh boy. Yeah. Well, no, it’s fine. Yeah. Here’s Daily Fantasy. Here’s a uh a crazy we we were talking about this before or during the break. In his last 40 games, I I just pulled up the stats. In his last 40 games, uh Nick Curts has 171 played appearances, and 147 at bats. He’s got 12 doubles, 18 homers, and 43 RBI in 40 games. He’s batting .320. And he’s got an OPS of Does this disappear off the stream? Yeah, my camera stopped working. Oh, while you figure that out, keep your screen on there so they can hear James on the stream. Oh, okay. That’s my bad. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just absolutely unbelievable what he’s been able to do over the last 40 games. And that’s why he was AL player of the week this last week. That is just for for There we go. Hey, we’re back. just for math purposes and just to get 18 homers across 40 games. Does anyone know what the regular season record for home runs in a season is? Well, off the top of your head, 73. Yeah, it’s 73. That’s that pace. Yeah. 18 homers in 40 games is a 73 homer pace over 162 games. Yeah. Even the the RBI total. I mean, that is He’s on pace. Have we not talked about my RBI takes? Go ahead. No. Okay. Well, I get it. I get it. But he’s on pace for 172 RBI in 160 games. Like seriously, 43 RBI in 40 games. You remember when the King when the A’s acquired Germaine Dye and he did this right here? He had I think he had 40 RBI or 41 RBI in 40 his first 40 uh 40 games or the 40 games after he was acquired. He was so good. And then I believe that’s the year he fouled the ball off his leg in the playoffs and broke his leg. Broke his leg. Yeah. To give you an idea of how many RBI’s 172 is, Aaron Judge led baseball last year by a lot with 144. Yeah. That’s so crazy. I mean, it’s really really wild to watch a kid just figure it out. And he also he missed time, you know. He he uh he had an injury. had to miss I don’t know like he missed two weeks and a 40 game sample is a legit sample size. Yeah, it’s your first 73 homer pace across four games like no it’s 40. It’s a quarter of a season. Well, even what you talked about the home run. He he just waited and flicked the ball over the the left field fence. Yeah. I mean, just a laser over the left field like generating generating that much pop on a back door breaking ball that’s going 78 miles an hour or whatever. Yeah. Ridiculous. He’s a really really good player. The future’s bright. Uh for the athletics. So, this Keith Smith thing as we shift gears back to the NBA, James Ham, Kyle Matson, Jesse Top on the ones and twos were the insiders sponsored by Jiffy Lube. We talked about Dennis Schruder and the the Kings coach who talked with Keith Smith about Dennis Shruder. Then there’s a front office executive talking about Keegan Murray’s possible extension. More or less said, “We’re really happy with Keegan. His role’s been all over the place, but we’re happy with his development, etc., etc.” Um, Keegan and his reps know how we feel about him. We’re hopeful that we can get something done that keeps him in Sacramento for a long time. Okay, great. I don’t hate anything there. His role has changed. Apparently, they’re happy with his development. I I I think I’m done with the Keegan Murray development conversation. We know what he has to do. We know there might be things that that make that prohibitive with the style of player around him and that’s it. That’s I I don’t with with Keegan Murray, I like him as a player, but if everything we said last year is true and if what this executive is saying is true, he’s had a tough role every year as a rookie. We asked him to shoot a lot more. Last year he was often the fourth or fifth option. Guess what? He’s going to be the fourth or fifth option again. He is and probably again the year after that. Maybe third or fourth the year after that. Yeah. The problem is that I I just don’t think you have an ability to stop some of the players from being who they are. Yeah. Like Yeah. The the the idea here isn’t that you know like that Demar D Rozan is doing doing anything wrong. He’s doing exactly what you paid him to do. Yep. Thousand%. And so the problem is that if you want Keegan Murray to have more shots or to develop in a different way, then it’s a it’s upon the team, you know, sure he can shoot more. He can try to shoot more, but realistically it’s upon the team to to get a player that plays opposite him that is just a different style of player and a player that shoots, you know, 10 to 12 times a game, not 17 times a game. and then another, you know, five trips to the free throw line. So, this is where when I say I’m sick of the Keegan Murray conversation, this is why. Yeah, cuz it can’t change. It’s not going to change. I like Keegan Murray. This is the role he’s going to be. For me to get on the radio and go, he needs to shoot it this like he’ll do that a half a dozen times a year where he has a huge game and shoots it 20 plus times, 18 plus times, whatever it is. And outside of that, he’s going to be a tertiary 3 and role player. Yeah, that’s what I got. And I think that that this this front office executive kind of confirms that when he said he’s played a different role every year. Last year, he’s a fourth or fifth option. Like, cool. And he’s going to be in the same team. So, Geon Murray’s an awesome 3 and D wing right now. Yeah, we were we were talking about Nick Clifford last night on the pod and it was uh Beat podcast. Yeah, it was a funny conversation because it’s like, well, you know, who’s going to be the back of four? If it’s not Isaac Jones, then who’s your backup four? If it’s not Dario Sarich, who’s your backup four? And um, you know, the point was made, well, you could try to use Nick Clifford, just go small and use him over there, too. And it’s like, well, that’s not really fair to take a young player and ask him to play a role that he’s not really comfortable with. It’s like, and my point was, uh, they’ve done that the last two seasons to Keegan Murray. Great point. Like, hey, just shut up and play the power. We’ve got no one else. No one else is coming in that door. Like, I think, and I know this is this is semantics and it’s separate from what you’re saying because you’re right. It hasn’t mattered to the Kings, but I also don’t think Nate Clifford can probably play the four. Oh, I agree. He’s 6’5 and a half, undersized. I mean, 67, which is close to 67, which is so I’m with you. But it also might not matter. He might just be one of their five best dudes that they got to get on the court at certain points. Yeah, we we won’t know until we see him play. Um, but I also like look like everything we we think about Keegan Murray, it’s going to be the exact same thing that that Nick Clifford is going to deal with in his rookie season. Like he is going to get minutes or not get minutes depending on what Demar de Rozan is doing in the game, whether he’s holding his own defensively, whether he’s uh whether he’s hitting his jump shot. Mhm. Like if Demar de Rozan is on fire, like Nick Clifford is going to play limited minutes. If Demar De Rozan isn’t on fire, um yeah, he’s not going to. And then when we get to the end of the game, we all know what’s going to happen. Last four minutes of the game, Demar Roen’s going to be in the game and N Clifford probably is not. Yep. And that’s just the reality of the situation until the situation changes. And uh yeah, you know, I’m with you, Kyle. Like there there isn’t a lot more discussion. And again, I people always saying, “Oh, you just like bury Demard Rosen.” It’s like, no, I’m just being honest. Like, yeah, this isn’t Do you want Demard Rosen to do something different? Well, if you’re the Kings, maybe. No, you brought him in here to do this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to do. It’s not It’s not It’s not This is not I’m not This isn’t even about Demar Rosen. Yeah, I don’t want to. This is about the Kings have Deanna Sabonis, they have Zack Lavine, they have Dennis Shruder, Malik Monk, and Demard Rosen. All five of those guys, probably not Dennis Shruder, four of those guys outside of Shruder are going to probably take more shots than Keegan Murray. Yeah. I mean, and the fact is Shruder is going to be the guy with the pole in his hands. Yeah. So, he’s possible he’ll take more shots, too. So, this is not, like I said, it’s not even a Demar Roen thing. It’s just that this is where Keegan Murray is. This is his role on the team. I’m not going to sit here and go, I need Keegan to do more because he’s not going to. It’s not It’s not him. It’s not any specific player on the roster. It’s just that’s where it is. And this front office executive who talked to Keith Smith confirms it. Yeah. Okay. Has a fourth or fifth option for right now. Like I I don’t think that’s his ceiling. I just that’s just like who he is today. What do you guys think his ceiling is though? Like say things worked out. Keegan Murray, there was no Demar Rose and Zack Leavine in front of him. Like his ceiling standing. Yeah. What do you think he like if say he was able to get his shots, do we think he could be a 20 plus point per game player? Yeah, I think 18 to 20 is like wouldn’t be that difficult. No, I I I I am right there with you. In fact, if if he shoots the three at a better clip, he might get to 18 last year. So I I I’m well I mean he would have need he would have that too far. That was too much. Math wasn’t math in there. No, it’s it’s we’ve we’ve heard this name before in relation to to Keegan, but if we’re talking ceiling ceiling, everything went right for him. We’re probably looking at somebody who is in the uh in not I I don’t think quite this caliber, but in the realm of a Kawhi Leonard. Okay. Like a first or second option. Really awesome defender. I said I don’t think he he would have been Kawhai specifically just because I think Kawhai was so uh great at his peak. Yeah. But I think that’s where you’re talking ceiling wise where he is that first or second option and he’s a lock down wing defender. I think like just right away the player that I I think he could be and like even be a better rebounding version of Cam Johnson like like Cam Johnson season this year where he averaged 18 and a 18.8 points, 47.5% from the field, 39% from three. That’s who I look at Keegan. And you know, the fact that Cam averaged 3.4 four assists per game this year. Um, for the first like five years of his career, he averaged around 1.3 assists per game. Mhm. So, it’s just a matter of like like the Keegan would be able to expand his role if if there was an ability to do that in Sacramento, but there isn’t. Yeah. Not right now. No. And the fact is probably not for a couple years. He’s going to be in a starting lineup and he’ll be the best defender by a long shot in the starting lineup and he’ll get used to defend the most difficult person on the on the court the entire time. That’s it. And then can you knock down some threes? Yeah. Do you have a three? Yeah. Yeah. An attacker close out. That’s it. I think the interesting thing is how much are you going to pay for that if you’re the Kings? Yes. That’s that is going to be the question. And you know, again, I think the Kings have limited his value slightly. They’ve knocked down his value by uh just like the opportunity that he’s had. Um but that doesn’t mean that his agent is going to be okay with that. I just got a text from Kenny Carowway about our conversation and I can’t wait for the handoff coming up at 11:45 in a half an hour. I got I gota I completely disagree completely in all caps. Oh yeah, he’s talking to you by the He’s talking to me. Yeah, he’s talking to you. Yeah, cuz I didn’t get that text. That’s crazy. All right. 11:45, be here. 11:45, me and Kenny are going to box. Just me bleeding. Uh, all right. We’ll have more on the Keith Smith article where he discusses his notes uh from talking to Kings executives and coaches. Uh, we’ve got more on the roster evolution. And then I did not you have less of a problem and we’re going to talk about why with the non Keon Ellis extension, but this quote from an executive on why Keon Ellis didn’t get an extension really rubbed me the wrong way. We’ll talk about that. We got some training cam stuff coming up and me and Kenny are going to fight in half an hour. We’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube. This is ESPN 1320. It’s Sacramento Sports Leader. I don’t have to do anything. That was great. Thanks, man. Do I have time to go get coffee? Yeah. Yeah. Um, is there a way I can talk to you and not have the stream hear it? I can take myself out of the stream, right? big big fan of Seth, our lead engineer. Seth will come in to my studio from time to time when you’re here. He’ll just stuff you in a locker like Yeah. He’ll like legit just stuff you in a locker and just walk out today. It’s outrageous. I’ll be sitting here minding my business. Seth is hella quiet by the way for like the chatty Like Seth is just minds his business. Good, cool, nice guy or whatever. Not not like standoffish. Like he’ll say hi, but not not a a I’ll be sitting here working, just minding my business and he’ll come into studio one, which when engineer walks in, it’s kind of like, uhoh, what happened? And he’ll just look at me and be like, “You’re doing that wrong. You break anything today?” Like, “No.” And just walks out after that. Yeah. Like, “Oh, what’s up, Jess? What’s up, Seth?” And just walks out after. Yeah. It’s hilarious. Just Hey, I know you have a problem. I’m not going to fix it. Uh, why not? Because I don’t like you. Sick. Shout out to the engineers. My favorite people here. Hey, thanks Russ dog. Appreciate it. I’m all done with my drugs that I had to take for it. You’re cutting what? Seriously. Okay. Okay, cool. Thank you. I guess everyone’s at the baseball game, right? Hey, yeah, everyone’s at the ballpark. Would have been nice. Huh? Can you mute the mic for two seconds? Sure. And I’m going to answer that question. Go ahead. Just asking. Uhoh. I have a couple things. One, Bradley Davis is absolutely right. I am using I am per I think peripheral is the word I’ve been looking for and I’ve been saying tertiary, which literally means third. Oh, okay. He Bradley, yes, correct. Shout out to you, Bradley Davis. He’s absolutely right. I’m not even joking. Like, I’m not even being a jerk. He’s he’s so right. Shout out Bradley Davis to my spot. says like you’re using it a little incorrectly. No, he’s using it a lot of incorrectly. But yeah, like I’m way off. Do the little to be nice. Yeah, he could have been a super jerk about it and didn’t. He’s like, “Hey, you know what? You’re using this word wrong.” Hey, genius. Salute. No, I appreciate that. Appreciate that. Peripheral is the word I’m like over there. Yes. If Demard Rosen’s the primary option, Zack Lavine’s the secondary option, Domas would be the tertiary option. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Very good. Thanks everybody. Appreciate you guys. Um, can we get Hey Jesse, I want to ask you this. What’s up, man? Just because the kid talk on 91169320 91691320. Have you heard from Mitch recently? Yeah. Yes. it yesterday or two days ago. Okay. So, it’s just our yesterday. We didn’t get to his call. We have a We have a proof of life on Mitch, though. Yeah. No, he’s tweeted me. Mitch is um of Latin descent, East LA. He said, “What?” Yeah. He said he’s like me. Oh, yeah. Shout out Mitch. We just have our our call screener board here. Yeah. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen that screener and it says Mitch and nothing else. And hey, to give you an idea, you haven’t heard from Mitch. You want Mitch to call in? I can send the Pat signal out. Yeah. Uh yeah. Oh, Mitch tweeted Kenny yesterday for his birthday. Okay, very good. No, we were just talking about Hey, hey, have you heard from Mitch? Like, is he doing okay? Yeah, that’s why we doing all right. Killed the mics because when I came back in from getting coffee, I’m like, huh? Yeah. No, we haven’t heard from Mitch. Yeah. And he’s not banned like like Mitch has has been banned from from a different Odyssey station. He’s not banned on this station. There’s just times where I just don’t get to the phone. Okay. Two hours. Got a lot to get to and it’s like, “Oh, shoot. I forgot.” Like our guy TC was on the line forever yesterday and hung up finally. Uh because I didn’t get to him. Well, that was the day before. Yesterday, I think he did get through and complain about. That’s right. Yeah. So, to give everybody an idea real quick, we’re talking about Seth, our lead engineer, and we’ll get to we’ll get to the King stuff here in a second. Uh me and Kenny going to argue in about 20 minutes in the handoff. So, this is facts by Zabbo in the Chatty House. So, I asked Seth if we could get a call screen software because what normally happens at a radio station, just peel the curtain back. Producer answers the phone. Mhm. Says, “What’s your name? Where you calling from?” And uh person says, “This is Mitch. I’m in New Jersey. I want to talk about uh Demon Sabonis and Maxim Reno playing again.” Great. Cool. that then gets typed into a screen on the producers side and I have that same software up so I can see the names and where they’re from and what they want to talk about on my side. So what you’re saying is that there’s a call screener, a producer and then a host that would get something. Go ahead. Well, usually producer is call screener. Yes. Okay. Both. Okay. Yes. But there’s typically a technical director who runs the board and then a producer who screens the calls and then there’s a tertiary person who runs the show. Um, but I don’t I I wanted that software. I said, “Hey, because Joe text us. Joe does a great job, but I will not see it.” Yeah. Sometimes if I forget to take my phone out of my pocket, then I don’t see it. Yeah. Or I don’t Or I don’t look down at it or whatever. Like I just miss it. So, I asked Seth, I said, “Hey, Seth, can we get this software? Should be pretty easy to install. Every computer has it. Every studio has it except ours.” And he went, “Um, I don’t really want to do that.” And instead, we come in here the next day, I think. No, it was that later that morning and we have been given a whiteboard to write the names on. Like I said, Seth just comes in here, will stuff you in a locker just just for no pulled me out of a locker to stuff me back in said locker. But this is why he’s the best because that call screen software was on our computers before the show started. Yeah. And I asked him that day. That’s funny. Anyways, shout out to Seth. Uh and shout out to Keith Smith. This is the Insiders. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Lube. I’m Kyle. He’s James. Jesse Topia filling in for Joe Brazil on the ones and twos. Keith Smith talked to Kings front office executives and coaches and uh we talked about Dennis Shruder talked about the Keegan extension. Uh he also talked about talked with a front office executive about the Kings roster evolution. They’re happy with the guys they added in the draft. Uh they think Nick Clifford is one of the most versatile players in the class grade. Probably going to play a role right away. Then here’s what he says about Maxim Reno, who the front office executive called a steel. Quote, “He’s kind of the perfect partner to Domas because he’ll space the floor and we won’t have to push him to play too many minutes too early.” Want to pause there. Do you read that as he’s the perfect partner to Domas in so far as he can be the backup or a perfect partner to Domas in so far as they can play together? That’s a really really like fine line to walk because I read that as they play together. After reading it multiple times and listening to you say it, I think it could mean one or the other. It could mean both. Sure. But uh you know, he’s kind of the perfect partner to Dom because he’ll space the floor. If I just stop there, it’s like, oh, he’s going to play alongside him, right? Yeah. But then he says, “And we don’t have to push him to play too many minutes early, meaning Domas is going to play a ton of minutes, and then he’s going to scrape by whatever, you know, like so they’re going to partner up on the position of center.” Um, yeah. So, like, look, I I think like watching Reno play. Mhm. There is a potential power forward there. like but it’s gonna take work and and I don’t know how much work and and I don’t know if he’s going to be able to make the transition and stay there because again he’s he’s young but he’s not that young you know what is he 22 going on 23 right so there is potential for him to lean down to work on his footwork to work on his his hips and his mobility and lateral quickness and what I saw at summer league was a player that showed a lot of the signs of somebody who could stay on the perimeter. And you know, again, you need to make sure when when you’re developing a player like this and you’re a strength and conditioning department and you have like kind of two models you’re going to look at. You’re going to go get go, okay, can we turn him into Vousvich? Because Vousvich looks physically a lot like him coming into the league at 19 out of USC. Yep. or can you turn him into Lori Marketin? And that’s the question. Can you work with him? That’s interesting. And and convert him into a player. And I’m not saying the full Lori Marketing experience where he’s going to be able to take guys off the dribble and all that stuff, but certainly the three-point shooting, the defensive acumen, a little bit of the rebounding, all that stuff. Can you can you convert him into a true stretch four and a big stretch four at that? And if you can and he’s the answer long term and all of a sudden you move like I I can like map out like where do with with RO starting alongside him in year two with Keegan Murray at the three with Nate Clifford at at the two, you know, you could see this team all of a sudden be a bigger Yeah. like you know and again I you know maybe you look at Nate Clifford at that point and go okay could Nick Clifford be a Bran Roy type player? Sure. And that’s where, you know, you start to like, all right, you can see an outline of something that could be interesting, but the problem is we’re a couple of years, we’re a year away from that at least, maybe two from being able to try something like that. And can you get Domos to stick around long enough to be like, okay, I’m still here, you know, like, so it it’s just difficult. But I do like the idea here. And I I like the idea that they they mention Isaac Jones. This was because we talked about this yesterday. Yeah. I’m of the mind when you look at the power forward position for the Kings. Let’s take Maxim Reno out of the com conversation for a second. You have Keegan Murray’s going to start there. And then Sure. Sure. Dario Sarich is your most veteran option, but then there’s Isaac Jones. Yeah. who had some momentary flashes last year but uh once Doug Christie took over and you’ve chronicled this has not did not play as much and did not get as much opportunity but I think he played well enough in summer league uh certainly had flashes and then had the two monster games to to close the the summer league session to me we talked about this yesterday Jones has got to be your backup four at least to start you got to give him a real runway to to try and kind of take hold of that position And the front office executive told Keith Keith Smith, “Keeping Isaac Jones is a quote. Keeping Isaac Jones was key for us, too. He’s got so much talent and he plays so hard, he’ll be hard to keep off the floor.” Okay, so I love this, but I’m also going to remind everybody that we start summer league every year by saying the same thing. It’s summer league. Please don’t don’t think too much. Right. And and I know with Devin Carter, everyone has been like, “Okay, I I don’t know if he’s a player or not.” I think with Nate Clifford, everyone’s like, “Oh my gosh, I think he could win rookie of the year.” With Reno, they’re like, “Oh my gosh, he’s a starting back. He’s a backup center.” And then now we get to Isaac Jones, like, “Oh my gosh, he could be this or that.” And you’re like, “All right.” So there, you have to take a step back and go, “Okay, it is Summer League.” And Isaac Jones had a tremendous final two games. He was absolutely spectacular, dominant. Yeah. and and I hope that that is who we see all season long, but at the same time, like it’s gonna have to he’s gonna have to have opportunity and and I just don’t know how that opportunity will come into play because again, we’ve talked about this the whole time. They don’t have another player who’s six foot eight, six foot n 6’10 outside of like Dario Surich and Isaac Jones and and so but we we bring up Isaac Jones way late in that discussion and proving that you’re a guy who is going to be part of a rotation is really tough to do in summer league. I I realistically I want to see what he looks like at the end of the 10 weeks. Sure. Sure. What does he look like on day one of training camp? Has he stayed healthy the entire time? Has he continued to grow? uh as he continued to refine his body and then you know let’s let’s let him battle it out. If he can’t beat out Dario Sarich Yep. we got problems. Yeah. But if it’s even close I I’m giving Isaac Jones that early runway. I hope so. And because I mean what does playing Dario Sarge do for you? That’s kind of my question. And I think that’s why so many people have latched on to Nick Clifford playing big minutes and Maxim Rayol playing big minutes and Isaac Jones playing big minutes is not because they dominated summer league, but to me it’s because they showed in summer league oh like they might and you’re right, training camp has to happen and maybe Maxim gets into summer league or or Reo gets into summer league uh not summer league, excuse me, training camp and is just a is just a it’s a nightmare. can’t move his feet, can’t take contact, isn’t affecting shots at the rim, can’t make anything, and it’s like, “Oh my god, okay, this guy’s got a ways to go.” Okay, then we can alter our our opinions then. But I think the reason people are getting so excited is because outside of this year, NBA guru Zach asked in the chat, “Give me something to be excited about, except for Nick, aside from Nick Clifford.” Yeah. It’s like, man, I see it. You want to be excited about Maxim Reno. want to be excited about Isaac Jones and this possibility that Isaac Jones is an undrafted role player and now you got Isaac Jones, Keon Ellison, you got two legitimate rotation players who were undrafted. When you start looking at 2027, 2028 and beyond, that makes this season more palatable. I’m with you. I think that’s why people might be are are at least that’s why I think I am so bullish on those guys after just Summer League. Okay. And I’m also going to add this. Um, like everyone in Sacramento heard about this potential Kaminga trade. Every single person heard about a potential Kaminga trade and in that trade was you know Dario Sarge. Mhm. Like I don’t believe that’s why I have taken the approach that I have that like there is a potential for Darios Arch not to be on this roster at all that they could easily buy him out stretch provision him and clear up through a million bucks. They could also wait until the deadline or or wait until December and and when they’re trying to pull off a deal use Dario Sar’s salary in that trade. Right? So there are a lot of ways in which you can use Dario Sarge, but it’s with the understanding that he’s more of I don’t even want to call him an asset as much as I want to call him just like a $5 million coupon that you can use later for something else. Sure. And so I would not be surprised if he’s like in mothballs on the side uh just kind of waiting and or or that they would buy him out and clear up the roster spot, clear up a little bit of salary cap space. Yeah, that’s the homie Darios Arch. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the homie plays it. It’s possible. Maybe the homie plays and maybe he’s uh he’s this year’s uh Nemana Bita. I got to say Dario Sar is getting minutes this year. It really just tells you how bad the Kings roster building or the situation was going into the year. That’s what it tells you. It’s not like, oh, Dario could do some or so and so is not raises. Ah, we’re really just we’re in a tough spot right now. Yeah. Because because if you’re talking about like Isaac Jones playing or you’re talking about Reo playing, realistically what you’re doing there is you’re you’re taking your car out of gear and you’re putting it in neutral, right? The old stick shift. You’re like in neutral. Yeah. If you’re putting Dario Arch in the game, that really does feel like it’s like going full speed and trying to jam the car in reverse and you’re like, “Oh no, that hurt my transmission.” That’s what we’re talking about. We’re like, “Ooh, ooh, that doesn’t that’s not good. That’s a bad noise that just got made. If there’s a weird injury, Keegan Murray uh rolls his ankle and has to leave the game for five minutes and Dario Sarich has to play, fine. Yeah. But if I don’t know, Isaac Jones would have to be a mess in training camp and in the preseason for me to be like, “Yeah, get those Dario minutes in instead. This is an experimental year. See what works. See what doesn’t.” You know, it’s funny. You remember we heard Mario Horizon rumors early on. What if they had Super Mario and Super Dora? Same team. Sure. Um, last thing, the Keon extension. This quote hit me the wrong way, man. Uh, on Keon Ellis and a possible extension. Again, this is Keith Smith talked to a Sacramento front office executive. Quote, that’s the goal. We had a lot of discussions on the best way to handle things with Keon and the option we had for him, the team option. Ultimately, it’s a show of trust that we picked up his option instead of making him a restricted free agent. That helped us add some talent this year that we might not have been able to get otherwise. Now, we hope to get something done that keeps Keon in Sacramento because he’s a really good player and different from all our other guards. So, explain the money to me because I got to tell you, the idea that you put Keon in limbo and potentially upset him to the point that he’s like, I don’t want to be here after this year, uh, I don’t know that that’s worth the talent they added. It’s the ultimate roll of the dice. And like, look, the Kings can sit here and work an extension for him like ASAP. And that’s what they should be doing. that would kick in next season, right? And you gotta hope that he says yes. You gotta hope that that like you didn’t burn a bridge. But when I when I read this, it’s an ultimate show of trust. Like I think it’s the king saying like, “Look, please trust us. We will pay you.” Okay. I read that as them putting trust in Keon that he’s not going to leave. Well, maybe. Anyways, you might be right. Go on. Sorry. Well, but on top of that, the reason why like they had to do it this way, I explained this to you guys in the beginning, like there’s this gray area between the salary cap and the luxury tax, right? The Kings only had a certain amount of money in there. It’s probably 18 to 20 million bucks to start. Mhm. If you opted Keon Ellis out and then gave him that money, if you gave him say 14 million a year or 12 million a year, you had no ability to sign Dennis Rutder. So, what you’ve you’ve asked Keon to do is we got to we’re going to hit you in the pocketbook and this year, but we’re we’re hoping to give you a a long-term deal that starts next season that and we’ll take care of you. Like, we’ll take care of you, but you you have to understand that we will not be able to do anything this off season if we opt you out and pay you. And I know people are, you know, they’re going to be frustrated like Keon himself. I I guarantee you he does not want to play for 2.3 million when the opt the other opportunity is playing for 12 million or 14 million. Sure. Like right he he wants the money and and rightfully so. I I I agree with him 100%. Totally. Um but at the same time you now have Keon Ellis and Dennis Shruder and I know that’s not earthshattering but having just one of them or having one versus the other would have been like your team would have been weaker. Sure. and and by being able to add uh you know, Shruder, the Kings at least brought in another player that’s a rotational player that will will help this team. Yeah. Um if they would have lost, you know, if they would have paid Keon, you would have had to you would have basically run it back and had to find a two or three million a year point guard. Mhm. To eat up that Keon Ellis salary. And it’s tough, but I mean I I don’t know. Like might have made sense if Malik Monk is going to start over Dennis Rutder anyway. We’ll see. Hey, real quick. Salute to our guy Mitch. He’s on the Elkrove Kid talk line 916909320. Mitch, we wanted proof of life and he came through for us. How are you, man? What’s popping, guys? Um, I just got back uh every time I had the dead zone Wi-Fi. So then I was last time I heard you was talking about football. And by the way, I I just thought two days in a row you left me hanging. I can understand. Yeah, there is a lot in sports. It’s always and it’s mostly good in sports other than the bad news. So I guess I got to stop being so sensitive and grow a pair, right? It’s not I promise it’s not you, Mitch. I promise it’s never you. It’s not you. It’s Kyle. It’s me. I think it’s I think it’s me, not you. But Saturdays I with that station I know you work there. You were great there, too. They let me on Saturdays. Just don’t tell him. Maybe there’s he gave me a break, but I know I I overdo it. And for you mentioned about I sent him a happy birthday, uh, Casey, he didn’t acknowledge or respond, but everybody sees. I don’t understand this. I don’t know if he receives seen it or just ignore me, but everybody knows what I’m doing, especially the super stuff. Uh, I know you can’t say pretty girl, pretty dog. I I get a bunch of fakes and trouble. All right. Thanks, Mitch. We love you, Mitch. What a legend. Thanks for calling the Elgrove Key talk. We gota go to break, Mitch. Yeah, we gota we gota we gotta go. Uh we’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube. We’re gonna argue with Kenny apparently. Oh, or just just me. I got the text. Kenny completely disagrees with what we were talking about on on Keegan Murray earlier. Excited to get into that with Kenny Carowway next on The Insiders or sponsored by Jif Lub. It’s ESPN 1320 Sacramento Sports Center. Uh hey count like that’s not an unpopular uh opinion. I I’m just going to say that like they’re they they traded a $10.5 million Yonas Valenunis for Dar for $5.5 million Daario Sarish. they were just reducing their salary in order to do things like what we’re talking about where they had no money to sign Keon. Um, this isn’t about having Sarich or Ben Simmons. Um, and in fact, the Kings at this point could wave Dario Sarich, stretch provision to him and have plenty of money to go sign Ben Simmons right now. Um, and maybe that’s part of what they’re doing. Maybe that’s a plan. Maybe it’s not. But, uh, you know, if the Kings are still interested in Ben Simmons, which we’re hearing that is the case this morning, um, at least that’s it’s been reported that Ben Simmons is about to make a decision on what he’s doing and the Kings are still part of the teams that have been attached to him. I’m not sure that that’s still the case, though. Um, it’s it’s going to be complicated. Has anyone ever like just flamed out as much as Ben Simmons did as far as just superstar and just cool after that? Just nothing. And I don’t even know if superstar is the right word, but like he was like all MB all defensive team at least all-star teams. Um and then it was over. The one guy that comes to Well, okay, too. Um Roy Herbert, that’s a good one. Roy was a moment. He was a two-time all-star and an alldefensive team in 20134 and um then just completely plummeted from there. Uh and then the other one is Andre Drummond who who went from being like a 80 plus million dollar contract to like playing for the league minimum the rest of his career which is just wild. I mean once the league bases said we want our centers to play outside the permit a little bit more. He was cooked. What’s that? No. No. It’s like you own Valentunis. Yeah. But he doesn’t get to it just doesn’t happen though. Yeah. I mean is crazy. Hibbert was an all-star in 20134 and he was out of the league by 201617. What about Hassan Whitide as a 30-year-old? Got that deal from Pat Riley. That’s when we should have knew Pat Rally was on the downside. Whiteside kept putting up numbers. Hassan Whitide did the Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. He was DPO 15th and this is uh in a three-year stretch. He was out of the league for two years after a couple years in Sacramento. Then he went 15th in DPOI voting and averaged 12 and 10. Then he was second team all defense, third in DPI voting while averaging a league high 3.7 blocks with 14 points a game and 12 boards a game. Then fifth in DPI voting, averaged 14.1 rebounds a game to lead the league, 2.1 blocks and 17 points. And then you’re right, he was 14 and 11, 12 and 11. Did he get hurt? No. No. He just kind of Rudy Goar got a $200 million deal and everyone realized, hey, you can’t play him in the playoffs. Dude, Whiteside learned the mathematical equation for for peer and for like advanced stats. I love that he did that. That’s so funny. That’s also the handoff. Kenny Carowway in the building. DLO and Casey. No, DLO, just Casey today. Casey and friends. Yeah. Well, Casey and friends, sir, we just learned Sir Hodgees will not be here. That’s it. A word and friends. Maybe just Casey and the crew, the 1320 crew. You know what’s interesting is I had a Wednesday all lined up and one by one the scheduling didn’t work out. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m just, you know, we don’t I’m just going to knock on the table right now. Thursday might be over booked. But nobody could do Wednesday. Yeah. I meant to tell you later on. I can’t. No, I’m just shut it down. I was like, “Dog, don’t do that right now. Don’t do that now. We’re going to be rehearsing uh lines from above the rim at 3 pm. That’s what we’re going to be doing. We loaded Casey and JT today. He’s going to do an entire hour in Jerry Jones’s voice. Oh, Jerry Jones was in the uh was was on the show yesterday. Yeah. Oh, good in the building and everything. Yeah. How did uh what he did? In fact, you know what? Hang on. I actually I I don’t know why I’m acting surprised at theater of the mind. Like I knew he was in here. I cut some of the sound from that today. Uh I’m gonna play some of that sound right uh right now. Here’s Jerry Jones talking about uh dunking on Micah Parsons instead of giving him an extension. Well, KC, I just want to thank you again for having me on the show. And before we do anything, I thought I cut that part out. Sorry. Before we do anything, I just want to give a shout out to my guy Stanley because I know Stanley’s always listening and he has my back when you and DLo try to throw me under the bus. So Stanley, if you’re listening, we can go to Mortens anytime and have a nice little dinner. But KC, I just wanted to bring up Micah Parsons. And look, he only played six games. And why would I give him that money? And that reminds me of when I gave Dak Prescott money and he missed twothirds of the season. I thought I cut all that first part out. That’s crazy. The Morton’s bit is I wait for it every time. Like how is he gonna get the Morton reference in here? It’s really good to Morton. Kevin Clark, friend of the program, said on first take yesterday, do and I want to see if you agree with this and then we’ll talk about Keegan Murray, but he said that if the football gods came down and said, Jerry Jones, you can win the next three Super Bowls, but the catch is you cannot do any media. He said that the problem is that Jerry Jones would turn that deal down. Do you believe that? Yeah. I don’t believe it. I think you can do you can you can win the next three Super Bowls, but you get to be No, you get no public you can’t be out in the public flaunting it. I don’t think he does. So, even after he wins the Super Bowl, like he can’t he can’t go on the on the podium. And I think I think he’d do it. I think he’d take the Super Bowls cuz he wants to win a Super Bowl so bad. Not that bad, Kenny. Uh, all right. Kenny Carowway, DLO and Casey coming up here next in in uh in just a few minutes. But we we were talking earlier about Keith Smith’s article where he kind of just notebook dumped all of his all of his conversations from from Summer League. We’re talking about Keegan Murray. Mhm. And the if if you missed it, the front the King’s front office executive that Keith Smith talked to basically said Keegan they’re happy with Keegan and his development. asked to shoot a lot more as a rookie last year. He’s often the fourth or fifth option. That can be hard to adjust to as far as an extension goes. Uh knows how we feel about him. We’re hopeful we can get some ball. James and I were kind of the mind that yeah, Keegan’s probably going to do that again this year. Like that’s going to be his role on this team. You disagree. No, I do not disagree. Here’s where I disagree. Uh oh. No, here’s where I disagree. And and and we we Great content you having to show bit. I I don’t necessarily want to fight about this. Yeah. Because I don’t think there’s anything to fight about. It’s just um you’re like cuz I’m right. Well, it’s almost like, you know, it’s it’s uh when people say like this just kind of how you see the world. Like you see it this way. That’s kind of how it is with Keegan Murray. What I disagree with because the question was asked, I don’t know if it was in the chatty house or you guys just asked yourself, but it was just like what’s his ceiling? What at the best Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Yeah. And it wasn’t just you. I think I I disagree with James, too, but I think you had said I I get what you’re saying. You didn’t say Kawhai, but like that type of player, defender, three and D guy and all this other stuff could get up to like 20 points per game. First or second option offensively, probably second. First or second option offensively and a lock down defender. I completely disagree. Okay. And this is where me and the people who think I hate Keegan Murray, we like you’re not, you guys aren’t hearing me. I love Keegan Murray. I think he’s a good basketball player. I want him on this team. He is a winning type of player. Like, you need a Keegan Murray if you’re going to win. So, I don’t want him going anywhere. I just think Keegan is about where he’s gonna be at. I think others see Keegan. I accept Keegan for who he is and what he is and I embrace that and I think others look at and James talks about and others talk about too he’s being held back and he can do so much more. I don’t think he can do so much more. Interesting. Okay. I I don’t and this this was what I brought up the other day. So you talk about a Kawawaii like player or we even go like Mike Bridges or something like that’s probably a better comp. Yeah, I I do think he can be closer to Mike Hill. I do, but I still think Mike’s a little better. This is why I brought up the Nick Clifford and that move and some of the things we’ve seen at summer league. To me, it’s not about Keegan necessarily being held back. There are things that I just don’t believe he can do. He can’t do it. Like the the little half spin step back that Nick Clifford did in a basketball game. Keegan doesn’t have that. They just can’t do that. You look at somebody like um like Kaminga for instance, and I’m not here to say one is better than the other. But if I told you if I don’t know if you guys remember the move I’m talking about, but if I told you, hey, can Kaminga can he can he execute that move? Can you see Kaminga averaging 20 a night? Yeah, I can see it. You’re talking about in the semi-final just below the the left elbow. I think left elbow. I think it was against the Cavs, so it was like still pool play or whatever. Okay. But he does like the little I’ll show you when the show’s over. Okay. But, uh, he does that move and I was just like, I ain’t never seen Keegan do anything remotely close to that because I don’t think he can’t. Now, once again, that doesn’t mean he can’t be a good player. Talking about Keegan Mur. Sure. That doesn’t mean he can’t be effective. I just don’t think he has that in his game. And if you talk about a guy that can be a second option, you got to me, you got to have that in your game. Got to create. Yeah. You got to be able to do that. Okay. So, my rebuttal would be this. Um, Mikuel Bridges rookie season 8.3 points per game. Uh, second season, 9.9 9.1 points per game. Third season, uh, got a little bit more burned, 13.5. Uh, fourth season, 14.2 points per game. In his fifth NBA season, he was averaging 17 points per game for Phoenix. Uh, got traded to Brooklyn. Went from 17 to 26 points per game. Um, how many points? My bad. He went from 17 to 26 points per game. Nang. Uh then dropped back down to 19.6 the next season when his team was horrible and they had no like they weren’t going anywhere and then 17.6 playing as what the fifth option fourth option. The fourth option on the Knicks, right? Like I I I think that Keegan can be that player. The I don’t think he can be the 26 because And I also don’t think Muel Bridges is a 26.4 per game guy, but I can see Keegan being a 20. I can see him being a 19.6 or 17.6. Uh I can see him being like one of the best fourth options in in the game like Miguel Bridges. Um because the defense is where he’s going to sort of make his money. So I don’t disagree with you completely that, you know, like we talked about this the other day that Meek Clifford has certain things in his bag that it doesn’t look like he and Murray has. Yeah. But then we just have to rewind to the California Classic two years ago and Keegan looked like the same. Actually, Keegan was a much better player than than Nick Clifford was now. It was his second season versus, you know, Nick’s rookie season. But I mean, the dude average put up 30 a game for a couple of games and then bowed out. Like there is more there. It’s just the opportunity isn’t. But even real quick, even in those California Classic games that like this is this is the crux of what I’m saying. If you go back, look at how he scored. It was catch the ball, one dribble, pull up. It was curl off of this one dribble layup. It was never get the ball, swing, twost, get into the like he he can’t do that in my opinion. He can’t do that. He doesn’t have that ability. the the question I have and this might this might be where uh where I’ll lean on on you a little bit having having played at any kind of level much less in the in college. Um that’s where I think when I was talking ceiling I think every year that Keegan’s been in the league his ceiling’s come down a little bit because of just kind of his age and and that development curve and like at some point you just kind of are who you are. Um, but I took that as what would his ceiling have been from from the jump if he had gotten these different opportunities. If he had come into a different scenario, if he had been drafted to the Wizards where it’s just like, “Hey, it’s your show, dude. You’re the fourth pick. You go get it.” Yeah. I do think that we might have seen that improve, that handle improve a little bit. But I also think there’s probably something innate to it, right? Yeah. When it comes to shocker issues, even at Iowa, like he wasn’t Yeah. Like that’s a lot of posters. And once again, doesn’t mean he can’t be a good player or an effective player or we’re just talking his ceiling. Yeah. It’s it it would for him to get to he doesn’t get to the line. He doesn’t create, you know, so like him to get to 18 20 points per game. Yeah. It would have to be damn near on him just making like shooting like 58% from the field. It’s like, you know what I mean? Because even three-pointers like is he gonna has he pull up from beyond the arc? He don’t really have that. He kind of got the ball in his right hand, side step, but that’s off a pump fake. Pump fake, side step, create space, and hit it that way. But if he’s asked to like create in an isolation thing, that’s just that’s just not his his game and and not his ability. And then when you talk about like second option and stuff like that, second option, sec second option got to carry the offense at times. Think about second off second options that we seen in the the final four of the NBA. Yeah. We talking about JDub. We’re talking about Julius Randall. We’re talking about Cat Pascal Seak. Pascal Seakum or Tyrese, whoever you think is one or two. That’s no I love him. No, Keegan Murray is not that player. Sure. He So that’s where you talk about ah he’s a fourth option. That’s a probably that’s probably where he’s at. That’s You think that’s his ceiling? His ceiling is probably third option. And then you gota tertiary option. Yeah. And then you and then you got to ask yourself like what kind of kind of team are you? Like are you are you a championship contender with Keegan Murray is your third option. I don’t know. Well, it just depends on who the number one option is because I’ll tell you the player that he still comps as he still comps as a player who could easily be Chris Middleton. And Chris Middleton he don’t dribble he don’t dribble well enough or create off the bounce enough. Chris Middleton. It’s because he doesn’t have the ball. It’s because he can’t. Uh I’ve never seen Have you seen Keegan dribble for more than three times and make a move and shift somebody? That’s what That’s what Chris would do. Yeah. I don’t I just like watching assist numbers change in players over over years. It really is about them getting opportunities and then all of a sudden their numbers start jumping. Well, we talk about Cam Johnson. Cam Johnson averaged like 1.4 assists first five years of his career and all a sudden last year he’s at four something. Mhm. Like it it’s because he has a ball in his hands and he’s being asked to create. And as you create more for yourself, it opens opportunities to create more for others. Which is why you see a guy like Demar D Rozan average four and a half assists for the Kings last year. 4.4 and five and a half the year before just because he draws a crowd and all a sudden they’re wide open dudes. It’s just Keegan isn’t given the usage rate that that it would take to get to those assist numbers or to create for others. I don’t think we’ve seen who Keegan is on the court. Like I don’t I I think we’ve seen who he is on the defensive end and we saw who like the stripped down version was as a rookie. Like you’re just going to shoot from the corner. And he was great at that, but what we haven’t been able to see is the next step and the next step. And it’s because to be honest, the Kings were good. Like in his first and second seasons, the Kings were a good team. and year three, they weren’t nearly as good, but you added pieces that did not help foster like his growth. And and that’s why I I really am surprised that you’re going to walk into this season with a run it back for the most part because the main pieces the main like the shot distribution is not going to be all that much different than it was last year if you just look at the pieces that are in place. you’re gonna lose a few because Dear Fox isn’t there and Dennis Shruder is, but I’d also, you know, Malik Monk took a huge step in in shots per game last year. And I like unless they they fully commit to giving him the opportunity to grow into that player, it’s going to be really tough to do. So, James, you asked the question and we hadn’t answered this yet, so we can do this all as a as a family here. What is that worth on the Oh, go ahead. ID we need to do. Yeah. You know what? That’s good. That’s good producing by you. Where’s my Where’s my I got the new ID. I got it from Charlie. Here we go. You’re listening to KFM West Sacramento, KRXQ HD2 Sacramento, ESPN 1320, Sacramento’s sports leader, always on the free Odyssey app. Anyways, I’m getting used to this. I’m getting used to this extended handoff. If you’re listening right now and you’re like, “Oh, wow. The the there’s going to they’re going to go away and then do DLO and Casey are going to come back at some point.” No, no, no, no. The way we do this now is we just yap for a while and then DO and Casey starts talk today. So, we I might keep these guys here till about 1:15. Hey, are they paying for that? No. Well, no, I didn’t say I know you got it. No. Um, what’s that worth when you’re talking extension for Keegan? Is it is it 25 million? Is it 4 and 100? I is it 4 and 80? Five and 100? I mean, me me personally, I’d probably I’d probably go 4 and 80, you know. I’d probably be somewhere around there. Um, the market might dictate, you know, who who knows how people feel about Jabari Smith Jr. in the in the contract he was able to get. So that might change some things a little bit. But if if all things are equal and we’re doing this like what’s right, I think 4 and 80 is good. Like it it’d be kind of be kind of tough to give a guy that you look at who is a really good defender. Mhm. But he’s your fourth option $25 million a year. That’s that’s a lot. And then and and like and here’s what I would say about the opportunity for K. And once again, I’m not I’m not saying he he has gotten the opportunity. I understand that argument, but I’ll ask both you guys this. Let’s just go with u and and this isn’t the end all beall, but let’s just go with like Middleton. Middleton with TW crosses from 17 pull up. Jonathan Kaminga doesn’t get the opportunity. doesn’t get to play. But can you envision Jonathan Kaminga making that move and hitting that shot? Yes. Yes. Watch him do it. Yes. Can you envision Keegan Murray doing that? And after three years of watching, have you ever have you ever looked at Keegan Murray and be like, man, he got a lot more in his bag. They just not giving him an opportunity. Um, I feel like there’s been, and this might be, Zack Low talked about this, how flashes don’t really matter because he was talking about Shaden Sharp and we watched all of Shaden Sharp’s drives and there’s flashes of of him as a pick and roll creator, but not it’s 30 plays out of 500 or whatever. There’s definitely been flashes where you watch Keegan attack a closeout and finish through contact, it’s like, oo, okay. There’s been some stuff in the in the mid post where like, man, they should get him the ball there more. But to that point, I cannot think of a time where I was like, “Wow, Keegan put the ball on the deck and handled.” Okay. And just blew by somebody and created his own space. I don’t He just doesn’t have that. Once again, that doesn’t mean he’s bad. I think but I do think there’s more in his bag. I just don’t know if it’s as a creator off the dribble like that. What do you think Kaminga’s usage was last year? It’s hilarious. It’s an It’s a comically high number. 32.7 or something insane. 27.4. 27.4. Okay. So, usage is how much you have the ball in during the time you’re on the court, right? Mhm. Okay. What do you think Keegan was? 18. 15. 15. Basically, Kaminga had the ball. Just so to put it in, Kaminga had the ball as much as Keon Keon Ellis and Keigan Murray combined. But once again, these are two different arguments. I I I would agree with you. Opportunity and the ability to do something are two different things I’m talking about. Like you can if you so Keon got the ball that many times, you think he’s going to start dribbling and doing all this other stuff? Well, if he was allowed to to go do that and not be in an offense that was catching and let’s be honest, let’s be honest, nobody wanted Kaminga to do that in Golden State. He just did it and it’s why they don’t want to bring him back because he won’t play within a system. I want to take the Kaminga thing out of this because I don’t think it matters to be to be totally frank. I and and I think the argument what Kenny’s trying to get at is could does Keegan Murray have the skill set? Do you believe he has the skill set to do that? I believe we don’t know if he has the skill set or not. Have we ever have you ever was he at Iowa where he probably had a higher usage and was doing all this was shifty and then he got to Sacramento and they changed his role? Is that what like never even started Iowa? It was catch and shoot. It was in the post. It was in the postet two dribbles. It was like that’s his skill set. Once again, it doesn’t mean he’s bad. But that’s Jonathan Kamingo back in play. By the way, I just wanted to get that ironed out because it felt like it was going the wrong way. But that’s his that’s his skill set. He does not I’ve never seen now watching five, four, five years of Keegan Murray him have the skill set to be able to create in an isolation situation. Yeah. I want to see I’ve never seen it. I want to see it because again the Kings they took a player who was in the 98th percentile in postups in college and didn’t let him post up at all in his first two years at all. I would like to see you you want to know that’s that is what I agree with. I think there’s more in Keegan’s bag and it may not be I might be way off saying he could be a secondary option. I might be off on that but I do think what James said is spot on in that there are more ways he can score that they don’t take enough advantage of in my opinion. Do you want to know? I don’t know if you guys are like like this. I don’t know if you guys are ready for this. Oh man. You want to know what Keegan where Keegan really needs to be and who he really needs to be looking at and who I really think he has a skill set that kind of resembles or could potentially when you talk about a ceiling. This is a fun game. Okay. Active player. Active player. Okay. Is it Western Conference? Yes. Okay. Kings Division. Yes. Nick Batum. No. Dang. Bradley Beal. No. Ah, Bradley Beal’s too good. Um, Kamar. Oh, Tumani Kamar is a good one. No. Who is it? Dear De Rozan. You’re right. I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready. This is why I say that because what D Rozan does, and this would be an argument as to like stunting Keegan’s growth or something like that. Sure. What he’s going to be on our side, J. What Demar does is he gets the ball 15 to 17 feet away. He’s in a triple threat position. One, two dribbles, I’mma pull up on you. Yes. One, two dribbles, I’mma rip through and get to the bucket. Dear doesn’t do all the TWW. He don’t do all that a whole lot. Mhm. He gets the This is what I’m talking about with Keegan. Get that ball in a triple threat situation. Be able to face up and it and if you can get by somebody, get by them on one dribble. If you can’t, pump fake. Pump fake. You’re 15 feet away. You’re 68, 69. Shoot over the top of these guys. I think that that would be where I think, and I agree with James as well, get him on the block as well. Get him posting up. What is Who else post up? Demar De Rozan from time to time. If you could incorporate that type of game, like if he could study Demar De Rozan’s game and when Demar leaves, incorporate those those spots into his game. I think that’s where you could see some of the best of Keegan Murray and you incorporate that with the fact they can already shoot the three. He’s a catch and shoot guy because that doesn’t require a whole lot of shiftiness. That doesn’t require a whole lot of um super ball handling ability. That requires precision. That requires being able to pull up over somebody 15 17 feet away. So we’ve now circled back to you being on mine and James side of this argument where he could be a primary or secondary offensive option. No, he just has to be Demar Roen while doing it. No, but that I think I think that might be that that type of um game those type Yeah, those type of areas where he’s he’s getting his offense. I think that’s where you can maximize Keegan Murray. What I would love is for Keegan Murray to have a 25% usage rate and for us to see that’s and that’s I think I think that’s where we both kind of land in this big picture thing with Keegan is he’s going to have the role he’s going to have. But to your point, there are more ways he can be effective I I believe than the role he has right now. And you just went over some of them. Yeah. And I think that’s kind of what we’re what we’re talking about is the shots just aren’t going to be there. I don’t think that’s a Keegan problem. I don’t think that’s a Demar problem. I don’t think that’s a Zack Lavine problem. I think it’s just hey, this is the roster. So, we could want Keegan to post up more. We could want Keegan to to operate out of the mid-range more. But like that’s just that’s not on their list of offensive priorities. Let me ask both of you guys this one. James, you talk about his usage rate and everything else like that. We compare it to Mike El Bridges. We compare it to Cam Johnson when their usage rate was was upped when they were in Brooklyn. Was that a good team? Well, no, but I mean, let’s be honest, the Kings aren’t really a good team either. I know. So So we’re cool with that. Up his usage. They won’t be any good. That’s that’s that’s good. Yeah, but we don’t know because let’s be honest, I mean, Brooklyn has no other talent to go with that. Like the Kings don’t either really if you up his usage. What I’m saying is, and this is what I’ve said. Yeah, sure. You want him to be a third option? Brooklyn didn’t have Dear. Brooklyn didn’t have Zack Lavine. Cool. I’m They had Dennis Rutder. They didn’t even have a Malik Monk. I’m gonna ask you the question. Is Keegan is your third option. How good is that team going to be? We don’t know. Yeah, I would be interested. I And I know that’s his second season. When Monk was out, they are a 46- win team and he was a third leading scorer. No, no, no. When Monk was out, it was Fox Deontis and me and Kyle had these discussions. We want to see Keegan up his FGAAS a lot. He did that. I think they went three and nine in that stretch. Three and they struggled down the stretch. That is I think my bigger question with Keegan than skill set because I think James is right. We don’t like maybe he if they went into the offseason said, “Hey, work on your handle. You’re going to create a little more for us.” Mhm. Maybe he does that and maybe he he gets to a point where he’s able to create a little more. We don’t we don’t know. I I I think the the problem is uh I lost my train of thought. That’s a significant problem right now. Um no, I think I think the I There we go. I’m back. Here we go. We’re back on track. I think the bigger problem is is if they said, “Hey, Keegan, uh Malik’s out tonight. Demar’s out tonight. Uh, Zack Lavine, he’s going to play, but he’s a little hobbled. Uh, he’s he’s just got a he’s got a little tight hamstring or something. So, so he’s going to be 50%. We need you to we need you to go. I don’t know that that’s his mindset as a player where I think if you went, hey, you’re the third option on this team. You might be right. That might not be a very good team, but I don’t think it’s because of Keegan skill set. I think it’s because of the way he approaches the game. He was the third leading scoreer in the starting lineup in not last season, the season before. He averaged 152 a game. Monk coming off the bench averaged 15.4. Um, and just like in all honesty, you can attest to this. You have said multiple times Malik Monk was the most important player on that team. So when Monk steps off the floor, I’m not going to ding Keegan Murray for a three and N record. I’m not going to ding him for it either. But I’m I’m Yeah, I’m saying that creates a problem. Remember we remember that time where nobody could create outside of Dear and Fox. They were shooting 49 threes a night that allowed them to blow 20 leads because they couldn’t. This is part of the reason why Demar Demard de Rozan got here because they looked at that stretch where they like we got nobody outside of Fox that can get to the foul line or can score inside the paint. We were shooting 45 threes a night because that was our only chance. And they said we needed something different. We needed more. We needed something to help Fox and Sabonis out in those situations. That’s not Keegan Murray’s fault. But we were all having those conversations at that time with Keegan Murray as the third option. And Keegan was aggressive. Keegan, we me and K talked about it regularly. He upped his FGAAS during that time. He got to about uh 15 to 18 shots a night and he probably averaged about 17 18 points per game. So he played he played well. he played. I don’t have no issues with how he played during that time. What I’m saying is it at that time we all said it clearly wasn’t enough. They need they need more that and that’s all I’m saying. They needed another creator without any question and and they also they needed another starting level forward because that’s when again Harrison Barnes decided that he just wasn’t going to engage and that was a problem. So, I mean, hey, look, things could have been much different. You know, again, if they would have pulled off the Cam Johnson trade that they allegedly had set up on draft night, um, that would have been different. If they would have taken a different route other than Demar De Rozan, we wouldn’t have seen Keegan Murray go from 15.2 in year two to 12 in year three. 12 at night, man. We we probably would have seen him go from 15 to 18 and be a legitimate third score on this team. And that’s tough, but like the NBA is is a game of opportunity. And hey, that opportunity may never come back around for him. Mhm. And and that’s tough. And like what you mentioned, he might have to wait two years to see if he can be that player again. And now we’re looking at like a 27y old Keegan Murray like huh now he’s got that in his back like but that’s that’s what the league is. It’s about it’s about opportunity about taking advantage of your opportunity and about again owning a role and I think Keegan Murray’s been asked to own a very specific role and he’s done pretty much the best he can in that role when you’re the fifth option in the starting lineup. real quick on the Keegan Murray front because I think we this this needs to to end on this note because I think we’re all in agreement on this. The role Keegan Murray plays is valuable. What he does on the court let’s let’s remove ceiling for a second. What he does on the court matters. Absolutely. If the Kings in in 2029 are competing for a title and Keegan Murray is the starting three or four and just kind of being Keegan Murray that we know now, you can win with that. He had better players around him. But I just want to make it clear, nobody thinks Keegan Murray’s bad. No. Once again, it’s just we’re talking ceiling and additional things to add to his game. Once again, the basis of this conversation that I routinely have with people about Keegan Murray is and and nobody wants to hear this. They’d be like, “KC thinks Keegan sucks. I think Keegan Murray is fine. I think he’s fine. Valuable NBA player.” I I Last year he struggled early. He bounced back. He got his numbers up where they were supposed to be. He’s cool. Like that’s good. And this is where we differ. People say, “Oh man, Keegan being stunt, he could do more.” I said, “I don’t think he can do more.” And I like where he’s at. I like where he’s at. I think the pieces around him need to get better. Keegan Murray and what he brings to the table is cool. Like he’s doing his job for what I think his skill set is. The Kings need to get a point guard or they need to figure out something. Sabonis needs to play better. All this other like the people around him need to step their game up. I think he can Murray is perfectly fine. But that’s where we that’s where we disagree cuz people say, “Hey, he he he he need to be doing more. He getting he getting stunned.” I said, “No, he’s fine. He’s doing perfectly fine.” Anything else? No, I’m good. Good on this. All right. Very good. Uh DL and Casey coming. Hey, where the hell you going? Where y’all going? We still got another hour. Drag this out as long as possible. We’ll just do this for every player on the roster. Uh what’s Oh, he’s not there no more. was uh h it don’t matter. It was a one of a random Kings. I forgot his name. Poo Jeder. Shout out P Jeder. I used to see him all the time in at hacks. He’s got a shoe store now. You know what? Yeah, let’s just name random Kings players in the next 45 minutes. We’re Who who is uh on the coaching staff with the Portland Trailblazers? Oh, he’s on he’s on the staff now. Yeah, he was he was their G-League coach. Yeah. Every time uh he comes in town like comes up, gives you a big hug. He’s a He’s a good people. One of the nicest people ever. Really really skilled at basketball. He’s really really Yeah, that and his sister was one of the fastest women alive. Yeah, man. He’s he’s one of those Carmeletta Jeder. I think that was her name. Poo Jeder is a really good example of like NBA players are so good. NBA players are so much better than everyone else at basketball. He was so Poo Jeder could walk into any open gym right now and drop 50 on like Brian Scalabbrini said once that he’s closer to Michael Jordan than we are to him. Yes. Which is facts. That’s facts. It’s fabul used to come into the training facility I used to work at and work out and man he he was so good. Salt of the earth. One of the best dudes ever. Just a nice guy. Uh we’re some of the best dudes ever as well. Uh for James Ham and Jesse Topy who helped produce the show today. I’m Kads and we’re the insiders back tomorrow at 10. But don’t go anywhere because DLO and Casey is starting right now on ESPN 1320 in Sacramento Sports. Drink water, be nice to people, but also don’t go anywhere because DLO and Casey is happening now. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got them screaming d. We got them screaming doc. We your number one spy. We number one spot for some sports. Huh. Got the city going crazy when we work. Huh. We but we ain’t two. We in first and when you need the real we is who you search on low KCO. [Music] We your number one spot. Hey hey heyo [Music] and KC in the building. Appreciate my guy. Um yeah Jesse I was about to say something smart. God, I was about to say something smart there. You know, we had the open game. Smart about what? No, just I ain’t gonna do nothing, man. Because I said No, I was just gonna say, you know, you hear the open. You know what I’m saying? You hear the intro. I Yeah, now I get it. I get it. I ain’t saying it. I know. You just hear the intro. Call the subliminal, kids. You know the vibes. You know what we’ve been doing out here for years now. Shout out to everyone. Whatever. know what it is. Yeah. No, I’m not gonna say because those those are my people. Yeah. No, it’s all jokes. Yeah, those are my people. Um DO and Casey on this July 23rd edition. The 23rd. Such a such a boring day. Such a let down of a day, you know? It’s just it is 23rd just another day, bro. July 23rd is just kind of whatever, you know? It’s actually um my brother’s birthday tomorrow. Okay. Yeah, it’s on July birthday now. I realized um Barry Bonds birthday July 24th. Shout out Barry Bonds. I fought so long the last couple years like no Otan’s better, Otan’s better. And eventually like let me throw in a couple Barry Bonds highlights these stats. Let me get reintroduced or whatever. It’s just nah. I just been stuck on like Barry Bonds is like there you go. I don’t care if you steroids this and that. Like it’s insane. I’ve I’ve never I’ve never And the way he talks about just hitting and stuff like that, it’s like this is the me he’s like got that Michael Jordan mentality which just no. He he um he had a I was watching something of his talking about hitting like you said and he was like yeah the way I approached it was you know hitting is easy. It’s just like catching. You got a guy back there a catcher who has a catcher mitt and he catches the ball every time. Every time. No matter how fast it is, no matter how much it curves, whatever, he catches it every time. I could do the same thing. My utensil just isn’t a glove. It’s a bat. So I just would catch the ball with my bat. He makes it sound so easy. Like just like, “Ah, yeah, just catch the ball with your bat.” Like, “Yeah.” All right, Barry. All right, bro. Everyone else, oh, I went three for 10 this week. Yeah, whatever, man. Just catch the ball with your bat. Um, but yeah, that’s the goal. It’d be I’d be hardressed ever. I would even I would even push back when people were talking about Trout and Trout’s numbers got crazy for a sec. Trout Trout was crazy with what he was doing, but I was like, “No, he gonna have to do that for another decade to be bomb.” real quick. PSA cuz I’m seeing it all over the chatty house now. All right. Just going to pick Tyler’s no message. Look it. I have no issues with Raphael Devers. I’m happy he hit two home runs today. Fine. Whatever. That’s cool. He wants to play first base now. Great. Whatever. Well, look, I mean, look, uh, shout out to the Giants. Shout out Rafie. Shout out Shout out to the Giants for allowing him to be a baseball player. You know, that’s all he wanted. That’s all he wanted. He just wanted to be a baseball player. Could have played first base at Fenway. Well, after they tried to throw him in there and say, “No, you’re never what they tell him. You ain’t never gonna touch a glove. You don’t need that. Don’t bring Alex Cor told him in spring training. Yeah, leave your glove at home. After that, I’m like, “Oh, then now you want me to play first base?” Nah, I’m I’m good. I’ll go I’ll go in the batting cage. No, like he’s playing first. Like Joe Brazil came into the studio yesterday like you see Raf is playing first. Like how do you feel? Like honestly, I don’t It’s fine. Whatever. Like I get why it didn’t work out. I get I don’t know. That situation I get it. like the GM like it was it was on both sides but I get why Rafie felt so I guess that situation became about the principality of the as big worm would say on Friday and and Rafie was at the point of no no return he was he wasn’t answering uh David Ortiz phone call text and all this other I tell you what when the the when team A or whatever brings out star A like to kind of do PR it works David Ortiz was out there hey guys he didn’t text me he had the screenshots What do you guys want me to do? He didn’t text him. Like I guess Rafie was this bad person. That’s what Hey, they had to do what he had to do. They had to go get him. But um yeah, by the way, Giants win 93, I think it is today. They’ve won two in a row. Rafael Devers, I think he played yesterday at first. I want to say he got two hits. Ah, I don’t have my computer in front of me. But in the last two games, I think he’s something like something like five for eight in the first two games at at first base, man, with two home runs. Had a mammoth shot for the second home run. I just seen that right now. Yeah, the second one he hit today was the first one was crazy cuz that the way he swung at it, it felt like it should have been a pop up to short right and it finds a way out uh into right field. So, the Giants get two in a row. The Giants are just going to do this. I’m fully mentally and emotionally prepared and I don’t know where this ends up, but they’re going to do this thing where they lose six in a row or five of six and then they’re going to win four of six, five in a row, something like that. And they’re going to do this all the way into September. We yesterday we had a plan to talk about it. We didn’t get to it. I I just don’t I don’t know if they can get into the postseason playing that way. The three teams ahead of them in the wild card, obviously the Dodgers who lost again. The Dodgers are the Dodgers got some I think they’re still the favorite. Damn near turned into the Los Angeles Angels with Otani brothers in four home runs or um a home run in the last four days or whatever and it’s like yeah no results the Lamos they they beat the uh Twins the other night to stop their no they didn’t have a losing streak because they beat the Giants twice but they had lost a lot of games in the last 10 or something like that. They had lost something like seven of their last nine or something like that and they beat the Twins but they almost blew that one. Carlos Koreah almost tied it up in the ninth. Um, got weight room. Yeah. Well, warning track power, you know. Shout out shout out Carlos K should have been a giant if Forhan would have done what he was supposed to do. You know what I mean? But I say all that to say the Dodgers are struggling, but I still think they’re going to win the NL West. Worst case scenario, they’re a wild card and the Padres’s win it. But when you talk about the Giants and their ability to get into the postseason as things stand right now, they got to be better than the Cubs, the Padres’s, and the Mets and playing the way the Giants play. I just I don’t know. So, the good old baseball thing, trade deadline coming up. Are they buyers or sellers then? Are you going for it or is this wait? I don’t know who you selling. I don’t know who you’re selling. You know, I I’m not I’m not sure if you should be a buyer in your pocket at that point. Yeah. I’m not sure if you should be a buyer. I don’t want to say that, but I I don’t What? You selling Wilmer Flores, who had a monster home run last night? Maybe you’re selling him. Um anyone you get team control over for the next few years, Dan, you’re keeping Yeah. I’m not sure what Wilmer’s contract situation’s looking like, but I feel like Wilmer has a year or two left. Um and he’s been good. He’s up there a little bit. But but then you got this situation like all right, they win today. They won two in a row. They look they were D O for the last week and a half. Wilmer Flores is on the last year of his deal. He had a player option this year. Okay. Yeah, maybe that’s maybe and Wilmer’s also a guy that you don’t really have a position for. So maybe, you know, you can you can use him to bring you back somebody else. But here’s the here’s the thing, though. Here’s the killer. We talk about buyers or sellers. Jess Oh my goodness. Almost broke this armchair. Um Jesse Jesse brought this up on Monday after the Giants got swept in Toronto and said, “Buyers or sellers?” I said, “Nah, not yet.” Because you still got the wild card. They lose the first two games in or excuse me the first game in Atlanta. And I write in the rundown. Yeah, I think it’s about it’s about done. They’re not gonna move past the the three teams that’s ahead of them in the wild card. Now they’ve won two in a row and they’re a game and a half out of the wild card. And the Mets come to town this weekend. Yeah. The Mets come to town this weekend. You take two out of three from the Mets who have a Francisco Lindor who I I was struggling right now mightily. Now all of a sudden you’re you’re in the wild card. I think Lindor is 0 for his last 31. Yeah. I didn’t want to get I didn’t want to get Chatty house so I didn’t Well, now I’m hoping I didn’t get Chatty House because you’re hoping No, I think I think that’s legit. Yeah, that’s legit. That’s his worst hitless streak in his career. We’re That’s We’re standing on that stat. Okay. All right. It was sounding so crazy. I was like, man, I didn’t get a chance I saw that. I didn’t get a chance to double check. So, I was like, I’m just gonna If I saw it and you saw it, I think that’s two sources were good. I’m saying I’m saying that just hey, it’s tough, but he’s coming to San Francisco this weekend struggling. You get two out of three from the Mets, all of a sudden you are in the wild card. So, I don’t know if you can sell. I don’t know if you can sell. And this is the frustrating thing about the Giants. this is what they’re going to do, I think, for the majority of the rest of the season till we get to midepptember and then it’s going to be about winning. You have to win to get in. So, um, they win today, beat the Braves 93. Uh, Des, he may be cooking again. He may be back. So, we’ll keep our eye on that. I think they got a travel day today and then they start the three-game series on Friday with the Mets. And the Dodgers are playing this afternoon, too. Dodger, Giants, after all that’s said and done, I know it’s not like two games away, but after all that’s gone on, they might find themselves five games back of the Dodgers at the end of today, one game back, maybe one and a half games back of the final wild card spot. So, keep playing baseball, fellas. Let’s go. Let’s see what we got. Um, we got a lot more. Usually, you know, it’s Casey and Friends. That’s how we got to do it. But, you know, some people, you know, they sick. You know, it’s it’s dicey out here with the with the weather changing and all this other stuff. So, we had to fill some things up. It’s just going to be me. We rocking. We talking. We going to talk some football today. 49ers training camp going on. I see there’s already a little bit of issue in the wide receiver room again with an injury. And Jesse, it looks like it doesn’t matter if they play summer league in the NFL or they go to training camp that’s quote unquote more controlled. Yeah, I saw that. Just just do the summer league. No, that’s the whole point. That’s the whole No, it’s the whole point. I’m more right. I’m more right. We’ll talk about it. We’ll break it all down. I’ll tell you what we’re talking about. Is DLO and Casey is ESPN 1320. For sure. For sure. Uh, let me get my computer. I want to do a spike this week. I’m gonna figure out exactly how we set this. People need to see these bodies. They need to see what’s going on around here. Dam was just lining them up behind him today. What about what about KC. What KC going to do? I ain’t got no table behind me. I don’t know what you could do over there. Can you see that thing? I mean, I’m kind of in the way. Where is There you go. There you go. What’s up with y’all, man? How y’all doing? Y’all good today? Building’s pretty empty today. Oh, no. No, no. We’ll talk Yeah. No, we’ll talk about that. I’m saving that for the show. We’re saving that for the show. Daily segment where I complain about the place that I actually love working. Daily segment. Why does work hate us? Where I complain about the place that I actually love working at. I like it here a lot. Chris, I think so. If if anyone’s going to trade yet, I think it’s Durant. They’re really looking for starting pitch. And I think um there’s a lot of teams out there that want him. They didn’t they didn’t work themselves back into little playoff situation. We’re in the third wild card spot right now. I It was It was good. It was good. I popped it after we had dinner. Shout out to my wife. Actually, we’ll just we’ll hold off because I want to I’ll talk talk about my night. Hold tight. Filthy me. Tyler, appreciate you, big dog. Thank you, brother. had his best start of the of TripleA yesterday. You laughed, but we just wait. Don’t make that face. You, Kyle Ranata, any other Giants fan in the chatty house, whoever, I don’t care. All right. Kyle Harrison will be the truth. Kyle Harrison will be Mark my words. Done Casey. ESPN 1320. I’m rocking solo for most of the show today. I did I for I forgot to mention this though. I forgot to mention this. I don’t even Well, I put in the rundown, but I gotta tell my boy Jesse. I’m not solo the entire time. James Ham coming up at 3 p.m. I saw I saw we got another guest today. We do have another guest, Daryl Guru Johnson. My guy, he’s gonna pull up on me, man. We gonna pull up. We got him on the stream. We gonna talk to my guy. So, uh, the only thing the only thing bad about about Guru and I’m about to text this to you, Jesse, is I was like, “Yo, can you do the stream?” He’s like, “Yeah, yeah, absolutely.” Like, “All right, what’s the email? You remember his email?” Cuz I when he I might have it saved if Gmail has it saved, I guess. When he shot it to me, I was like, “Oh, yeah. I remember this.” Like, I’m showing you right now. It’s like, “Come on, man. What’s this guy doing, bro? What’s this guy doing?” Okay. Oh, okay. Hey, that’s how it is sometimes. I ain’t going to say I don’t want to put the man’s email out there, but nothing crazy, by the way. Come on, man. No, it’s nothing crazy. Yeah, nothing nothing crazy. It’s just It’s nothing crazy. It’s just ridiculous. That’s what it is. It’s ridiculous. Man’s just loyal. We’ll get But look, we’ll give him an opportunity to talk about that. He probably don’t get a chance to talk about that so much being in the Bay Area. We gonna give him a chance to talk about that a little bit. So, we’ll have a good time with my man uh Guru at about 2:15. I wonder if he’ll defend Jerry Jones. I wonder where Cowboys fans are at with that guy now. I think I don’t think Cowboy fans like Jerry Jones. Yeah, cuz I feel like if you’ve like Stanley swears by him. I feel like Stanley’s been around for a while watching this Cowboys. I feel like if you’ve been around for a while, like it’s just I’m stuck with Jerry Jones like hey the 90s, right? Like if you’re just those new age Cowboys fans like oh my gosh, put him at a home already. Like like I said, we can ask Google that and all that stuff. I’m Yeah. I I think I think I think the the old school I think the old school fans are tired of Jerry, too. I think they treat him the way Raider fans treated treat Mark Davis and treated Al Davis. Yeah, I was tough at the end, too. Yeah, they were they were kind of done with Al. They liked him for what he brought to the table, but they was like, “Yo, we ain’t never winning with this dude.” So, um we’ll see what’s going on with that. two things that I want to talk about real quick before we get into the sports situations and, you know, talking about training camp, talking about football and everything that’s going on there. Um, appreciate everybody who gave the well wishes yesterday for for your boy’s birthday, man. Had a great great birthday, man. I appreciate you guys for that. Went home last night, had some Baker family wines wine. I had the the white wine. I had that one right there. But that was I should have had it with dinner, but I end up having it after dinner because I had I had a nice little steak last night. Steak and potatoes. Caesar salad. Wife hooked it up. She steak and potatoes is undefeated. It it it absolutely is. She cooked she cooked up a steak that you’d probably pay $150 for. Something you can’t get at Morren’s Ruth Chris. Shout out Dana. Well, maybe you can’t stay. We we The steak at those places are good. Yeah. Well, yeah. Whose side are you on? Yeah. Yeah. N Ruth Ruth Chris Ruth Chris did me kind of dirty last time. Well, what steak did you get? Well, the steak was fine, but it’s just my sides. N Well, I I’m not vouching for that. Not vouching for the sides. Morton’s Morton is Morton treated us as well that one time. Morton treated us good, man. I just think Well, I don’t know if Damian’s ever gotten a steak from there, but I think he’s gotten the wrong set. I’m telling you, the Cajun ribeye is the joint or the Cajun I think that’s what it’s called. Yeah, the Cajun riby. That’s the one. That’s that one. They let that thing marinate and everything. We’ll get back to your night yesterday. But it’s like also D had a bad night that one time we went. Maybe he hadn’t been back since. So, I get it. But how was your steak though? Steak was fantastic. Steak was fantastic at Morton’s and last night. But I capped it all off with some Baker family wines. My guy Filthy Mcnasty was asking me earlier like how was the how was the wine that I had? Absolutely fantastic. I got I and and see look I got the white wine because that’s the one I usually go with. That’s the one I rock with. I think people say red wine goes with steak a little bit. I like the red wine too. Like I’m not I’m not really picky. Like I’ll I’ll have whatever wine is there for the most part. Like if you like, “Oh, we don’t have no white wine. We just got red.” All right, put it in the glass. It’s good. I’m good. It’s all good. But I had the white wine last night. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And that was the second or third time I’ve had Baker family wines. It gets for me at least. It gets better each time I have some. Smoother, smooth taste, all this other good stuff. I might I might double back. I might double back. Have have another bottle tonight. This is getting dangerous. Why not have another bottle tonight? So yeah, that’s that’s how uh that’s how that went down. I got to get on my w vibe, I guess, or whatever. I haven’t really got into wine yet. It be like LeBron. LeBron and Steve sophisticated. Yeah. Circle it around in the glass. All that other Have you been seeing Kyrie and not even the spaces, but I guess him and KD talking about the time in Brooklyn? KD. So, KD mentioned something about Steve Nash than Kyrie was just talking more about that. Yeah. So, I I’ve I’ve vaguely seen it. I vaguely saw it. Um, I know KD and Nash were talking pretty openly on the podcast with LeBron and Nash. KD was a guest and they were talking a little openly about just the time in Brooklyn and and Steve Nash was talking about it. Feel like I feel like Kyrie responded to that and I don’t know do you know like what how he was saying it like No, I mean I think it was just like I said no I haven’t even like really got into it but I was just like I think it’s just more telling his side. I don’t think there’s like drama or anything like that, but there just players don’t really do that. I’m g have to tap into it. Yeah. Yeah. I’m definitely I want to hear that whole episode because I’ve seen that episode came out maybe two weeks ago and it’s still got clips circulating. So, uh I I got to check that out for sure. Um I did want to say this. I did want to talk about the place that I love. I love Odyssey. I do. I love it here. But two things. Number one, I mean, look, they’re trying. I think they’re trying. I mean, and whoever is putting stuff in there, whether it’s Joe, whether it’s uh whe whether it’s Jonathan, you know, maybe Seth, maybe Vanessa. I think that’s been passed off from the engineers. I don’t think they’re doing that anymore. Yeah. They probably said, “I’m done with this crap. You guys have me building a whole another stage somewhere.” Like, I don’t know. Bro, they’re building a room now. Did you see Seth was on Seth? Um Seth and Seth was on a ladder the other day just drilling just doing whatever the engineers do here. Like they did you guys know how to do this going? He’s like no we just kind of learn on the fly. Well did you did you see what’s what’s my my guys I’m sorry the Yeah. Isn’t he a salesman? Isn’t he on the sales team? No. No he’s he’s he’s engineer too. Oh okay. Cuz I saw him like putting together a bench and I thought he was on the sales team. I was like that’d be hilarious if we had sales. Oh, hey. Hey, might be might be time. What’s going on here? That’s crazy. But whoever is in control of Snack Shack and I mean it’s literally the most random group of snacks, drinks, or whatever I’ve ever seen. And it’s it’s fallen. It’s sad. It’s over with. It’s done. It’s done. Just call it is done. Shout out to whoever still tries. We appreciate you. But it’s over with. Just get the old snacks back. I’ll get my debit card and we’ll just go back to that. Whatever. Bring back. Fine. You guys won. Vending machine, bro. Bring it back. I was spending like $70. Yeah, it was horrible. Awful. Yeah, I was going back three times a day. Look, bring it back cuz that that little refrigerator situation. My goodness. They got they got like two regular Dr. Peppers, three diet Dr. peppers, two Sprites, and a bubbly sparkling water. Yeah, that’s with some with some fruit cups, like four fruit cups, two peaches, and a banana, maybe. And that’s the thing, too. Like, let’s just let’s all keep it real. All right, the fruit is there because I’m sure people like, “Oh, yeah, we need to be healthier.” yada yada yada. All that nonsense. Okay. What’s gone, Kenny? The candy. The chips are gone. All right. Keeps going. All the juice and the sodas is gone. What’s there? The sparkling water. The fruit. All of the fruit is still there. It’s literally just there for you to look at. Don’t they have like kiwi in there or something like that? They used to be. And then you know what? It went bad. Jesus. Let’s not talk about the the oranges. We’re a health hazard. Oh my gosh. It’s just bring back the bad snacks. That’s like enough from the whole Oh, yeah. We need fruit. We need healthy stuff. No, you guys aren’t going to eat it cuz it’s riding in the fridge right now. Bring back the the the vending machine so I can get the Snickers and I can get the Twix. Exactly. Yeah. Fine. Take my take our money. You guys want just do this cuz this this isn’t going to get it done. This How you going to How you going to have no snacks and no vending machine? What are we supposed to do? We’re here nine hours. No, Friday’s gone. Fridays and Wednesdays are gone. Okay. Now, yeah. At least at least they try to do something on Thursday. Although I get here and all the the good donuts are gone. What was the name of the hot dog Wednesday thing? You tell me. I know. I have my I forgot face right now. So, you have to tell us. No, I think you remember what it was called, bro. No, I’m confused. Don’t remember. It was called Wiener Wednesday. Show so stupid. Hey, bring back the chili dogs for real though. No, they can keep the chili dogs. Oh, chili dogs are fine. They keep the chili dogs. No, no, that’s I don’t Just regular hot dogs. I don’t need a chili dog. Or give me an option. Get five chili dogs. Get five regular hot dogs. Don’t force me to have the chili dog. This also came up because I said there was two things and you said, “Ah, building’s pretty empty today.” Oh, yeah. No, no, this was the company day at the baseball game. Yeah. Odyssey at the ballpark. Yeah. Odyssey at the ballpark. And you know, I got the emails from from our guy Bill. He’s like, “Hey, everybody meet at this entrance. Hey, we’re going to be at this suite. It’s going to be hot.” Yeah. Good time. No, sports shows here. Sports show’s here while everybody else at the baseball game. The weather’s great, by the way. No, it’s great. One of the great uh day baseball games you could you could ever have in Sacramento. Is Bryce Eldridge playing? I think so. Luciano might be playing too. And what are we just two just two guys just doing a stupid sports show right now? We’re just here. So it’s good though. I love my people. It’s cool. This is like like going to like a pop culture event or some pop concert, not inviting the wakeup call, right? We looking we looking like the hell is 1320 doing at the Ariana Grande concert? We out here looking like uh Squidward looking out the window looking at Spongebob and Patrick having a good time. Yeah, man. We’ll come back though. We here to work. We here for you guys, man. We got you guys. And we going to dive into football. We going to dive into training camp. 49ers, they got underway. I’m right about having the seven on seven summer league. And we’ll explain why I’m right. Because these injuries could happen at any time. Why not make it a little bit more entertaining? We’ll break it all down. It’s DLO and KC ESPN 1320 Sacramento’s number one sports station let’s come was one of my favorite literally one of my favorite Giants of all time. What is it? Big time Timmy Jim. Big time Timmy Jim. He was he was um a pretty big deal. A two-time Sai Young award winner. Won a championship. Was better him or Matt Kane? Winsum. Okay. Lindum, what do you what do you guys think though? And we got some Giants fans in here. Who was a better Who was better, Lindum or Matt Kane? Matt Kane’s um situation was always the run support was crazy. So like his record and all this other stuff is is just absolute absolutely non-existent because he would get like one run a game. But I say I say Timmy. Timmy was Timmy was that that dude. [Music] All right. Winner go home in the World Series. Who are you taking a start though? Lindicum Kane or Bum Garner? All in their in their It has to be on their prime. All in the Giants primes. This is game seven of the World Series. Timmy. Timmy. Timmy was Damn. That’s tough though cuz Bum Garner went crazy. Yeah. Like Cousin Pete says Bum Garner. Uh Ellie James says Bumgner. Rody says bum easily. There’s a lot of mad bum in there. Yeah. And I mean I think a lot of that is um we actually saw it from from Apple like the question that you asked. Yeah. Well that’s the thing there stats because he’s not necessarily someone you put in like the conversations with them I guess just all around regular season everything encompasses or whatever but you throw all right like money time or whatever in that situation. Not saying he was a bum or anything like that but those guys Yeah. Nah, he he he literally did the situation you’re talking about. But people really quick to say mad bum. Game five 2010 in Texas World Series right there for the taking. I think Tim Winsum went eight innings. He went seven or eight innings with like 14 strikeouts, a hit or two. He was dominant. They did not touch that man. I just like to see what fans say, too. Mad Bum is like like you said, we we we saw it. We saw it. Mad Bum was crazy in 2010, too. He was a young boy at that time. Hey, shout out Luno Messi skipping the MLS Allstar game. Said you guys aren’t going to make me play five games in a row. Make me play this meaning meaningless soccer game. Hey man, is that is that is that phenomenon kind of over? Not messy, but like him being in MLS. I mean, he’s No, he’s still drawing. Yeah, it’s going to end with him retiring and we’re going to go back to what we used to. Okay. DLO and KC ESPN 1320. There’s some some interesting things going on in a positive way at 49ers camp. We’re getting into that. But I do want to address something that kind of had the chatty house buzzing uh during the break. Um in the studio, there’s something playing about the Giants. I think this is maybe the 2012 team or something like that. uh maybe 2014, I don’t know, maybe even 2010, but um Tim Linsk is up there and I was just like, yo, that’s one of my favorite Giants of all time, of absolutely all time. And Jesse asked the question in their in their prime, you got game seven, you got uh a championship on the line, who do you want to take the mound, Lindsea McCain or or Bumgardner? Almost everybody said Bumgardner. I said Lindicum. I said Lindicum, but I’m not gonna argue anybody that says Bumgum Gardner. And part of that is we saw Mad Bum in that exact scenario. He was It’s one of the great performances in sports history what he did in game seven against the Royals on the road. I just always remind people Tim Lindingham in his prime of 2010 and to be honest with you 2010 wasn’t even his prime like 20 20 Mad Bum I know he’s a playoff performer and what he did in the playoff he elevated his game and all this other stuff. Mad Bum ain’t never won one Sai Young let alone two. I think Linds was back to back. That’s literally saying for two years straight you were the best pitcher in base in in the National League at least. He was unhitable in his prime. I’m I would I don’t I’m not gonna argue anybody that says Mad Bum. I’m just going to say let’s not be so quick to dismiss Tim Lindsky and what he was able to do. Yeah. You look at Bumgardner’s like accolades on baseball reference and like he’s got the four Allstars or whatever, but all of his other ones are all postseason stuff. Yeah. NLCS MVP, World Series MVP, three time World Series um winner. Two time silver slugger if you’re into that. Now, shout out to him. Shout out Otani before Otani. you know, he just didn’t get the opportunity. All right, relax. Keegan Murray, you know, he’s like Keegan Murray. He just didn’t get the opportunity. He could have been Otani. But they tell me um Tim Tim Lindum, that boy was nasty. 0809, that boy was something else. And in and Bumgardner, he elevated his game in the playoffs, but in the in the in the regular season, he he was never he was never on the level of Tim Litzo as far as being the best player. Just an interesting interesting question. Good job by Jesse. But one of the people that answered the question. He says Timmy won backto back scions young for a reason. He also said uh Mad Bum is one of the greatest World Series pitchers of all time. Erra under one. All this other stuff is from our guy Drew the Local Guy who will be on DLO and KC tomorrow afternoon. Drew the Local Guy pulling up on us. It’s something that I wanted to do. It’s a 1320 debut, right? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. It’s something that I wanted to do because a lot of these people that we have and we love on King’s Twitter, you know, sometimes I want to hear from them. Sometimes they may disagree with what I say or what DLO says or anything else like that and I say, “Yo, we don’t have to tweet about it. Come talk. Come talk. Let’s have a conversation.” Going to pull up like, “Yeah, I don’t agree with nothing that goes on here.” Right. [Music] So So Drew, the local guy, man, he gonna pull up on us. I got another one coming up on Friday that I haven’t been able to confirm and I’m trying to make that happen. So, you know, I’m just trying to get some of the some of my people from from King’s Twitter, man, to pull up on on the show, man, and and sit down and have a conversation. It’s the time of the year to do something like that. So, we’re going to have a good time tomorrow. We’re gonna have a good time right now as we go to the phone lines, the Elkrove Kia talk line, 91691320. Got my guy Buddha. Buddha, what’s up, baby? You know what I’m saying? Delaware, stand up, man. Shout out Jersey, man. Shout out Philly. You know what it is. What’s up, Brody man? It was good to talk to you, man. Yes, sir. Man, what’s good with you, bro? Hey, happy birthday to you, family. Thank you, brother. I appreciate hope enjoyed yourself, man. Had the time of your life. Hey, man. I’m I’m I’m here. I’m breathing. I got my family. I got my health, man. I’m blessed. In a good state, man. You can’t beat that, bro. What’s up? Straight up, man. Straight up. What’s on your mind, bro? Shoot, man. Yeah, it’s windowing down. So, let me hurry up and get get my quick little taste. And I don’t know what’s going on with free agency in the trades. I heard trade season over, but let me hurry up and try to get one more trade. You good? You good? So, yeah. I mean, James always said, “We you you don’t trade Keegan Murray because you always need more Keegan Murray’s, right?” Uhhuh. So, why not go ahead and get Chris, man? Chris who? Murray. Chris Murray. Oh, Chris Murray. He he got he got defense just like Keegan. The body is the same. For real. For real. The shooting the shooting a little off, but I feel like he got he got lost in the mix over there in Portland. They got a lot of guard. Well, a lot of wings over there. We got a lot of guards. I mean, so I feel like it’ll be a good little switch off. It It could be. It could be that he got lost in the mix. I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think that’s the case. Like if you want to go get Chris Murray and you trade him, you trade Saridge for Chris Murray, like sure. That that is literally taking a flyer. Sure, I’ll take a flyer on Chris Murray. Like cool. But I ain’t giving up anything of significance for Chris Murray. Going off of that, Chris Murray, but just more so bringing in a young player. I saw something the other day on NBA Central. Um was one of the Lakers be riders, I believe. I have to go back and double check it. Um, I can pull it up, but they’re not too hot on Dalton Connect over there. It seems like he doesn’t have too much value around the league. Somebody else was talking about that. I got some texts about, yo, can we go get Dalton Connect? Like, I saw Yeah, you’re not necessarily going to be able to get a freshman pick for Don Connect anymore. Maybe maybe it’s time for the rivals to go work real quick. Maybe maybe you offer them Devin Carter. I don’t know if it’s straight up or how that even works. I don’t know how the Lakers exactly feel about Connect, too. like if JJ Ready thinks he can work with him. I’m only just familiar with over here and stuff. But yeah, maybe maybe maybe that’s something where it’s like because the Lakers need a guard too as well. I think I’ve heard I seen Drew Holiday linked to them. I’m sure they’re probably looking for guys who are um like can help more now cuz like obviously with the LeBron stuff and all that, but I mean if not and you can’t find anything for connect, maybe you could find something here. I’m I’m thinking about it from the King’s side from the King. Rody says, “Give me Ruy Hur instead.” Sure. But that’s not happening. Yeah. Yeah. Give me Luca instead. Yes. We don’t like I would love Rui Hajimura as well, but yes. Give Give me that guy instead. No, you’re not getting that for a second rounder. But don’t connect. It’s kind of the change I was talking about too the other day was like it’s not working for him over here. It’s not working for our guy over here. Let’s switch him. I I take and and Rody talking about for Malik for Dalton. I’m talking you just said laid it out uh Jesse. I’m talking like second rounder or Devin Carter. Yeah, my my idea is Devin Carter. Like Devin Carter doesn’t fit here. We Kings need wings. So you go and see if they want to take Devin Carter for Don Connect. Yeah, I’d absolutely maybe fit better over there than he does here. Now looking on the on the Lakers aspect of it, they just got Marcus Smart. So true. I don’t know if there’s any place for for Deon Carter right now. Their backup point guard is Gabe Vincent, who they don’t even like Gabe Vincent because he can’t stay healthy. Yeah, he’s he’s had a rough couple years as far as trying to stay stay healthy out there. I don’t know. I mean, I I try it. I try I think you at least make the call, you know. Okay, don’t connect. Yes, that’s who I would like, but I’m going to help somebody out right here as I look at the roster. I’m going help people out. I know people might be saying this and all this other. All right, cool, cool, cool. You guys know how I feel about this guy. What if what if you you um offered to take Jared Vanderbilt back for Deon Carter? That’s a guy that kind of fits a need here for the Kings. Now, you guys know how I feel about Jared Vanderbilt. The guy can’t shoot. He’s a liability on the offensive end. He’s top flight, you know, as a defender on the wing. I don’t take that away from him at all. But at at some point you’ve got to you’re going to be playing four on five on the offensive end. I would do that. You would? Yeah. I I just there’s you can try to make it work with Vanderbilt. He’s 68. Like you need size and all that stuff. He’s a great defender. I think Yeah, I think I think so. Yeah, I do that. Will Z in the chat says he did a SAR for Vanderbilt trade. Basically a salary dump for the Lakers. Say, that might even be even better. that might even be even better because now you still have that piece of Deon Carter that you can use in another trade. Um, Vanderbilt like he he’s he’s cool. Like I’m just not I’m not You guys know how I am. I’m not crazy about guys that bring zero to the offensive end. I’m not saying he got to be uh Trey Young on the offensive end, but you you can’t be a liability on the offensive end because once again, now you’re playing four on five. You have guys that already can’t create their own shot. when you talk about Sabonis and Keegan Murray, like guys just gonna be sitting in their lap when when they have the ball in the post or, you know, or Keegan’s got it on the perimeter because they’re not guarding Jared Vanderbilt. And look, we’re also talking when we talk about Jared Vanderbilt, we’re not talking about 40 minutes a night. We’re talking about we’re talking about 15 minutes. So maybe you can get by in those situations with him. You definitely can in the regular season. I’m thinking about a potential postseason situation, but maybe that’s the cart before the horse when you talk about the Sacramento Kings. Yeah, I mean either one I like like Jared Vander like the Kings need defense and all that. So, I think you could take a fly on him, but I just ultimately it’s kind of just looking around the league to see what is out there for Devin Carter. That’s all that thing with the Lakers like, all right, maybe there’s something where they can work together. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like that. I like that. You cooking on that one. Uh reminder, like I said, we’ve got we’ve got Guru coming up at about 2:15. We’re open the whole rest of the time, man. As as Damian likes to say, you are part of the show. Call into the Elgrove Kid talk line, 91691320. Want to hear from you on anything we’re talking about or in this situation on the Elgrove Kia talk line, 91691320. Once again, or in the chatty house. Come on, man. Ask KC anything, man. Hit me up. what you what you want to know, what you want to talk to old good old KC about, man. What you what questions you have, man? I’mma answer almost anything. So, call in, text, whatever you want to do. I also want to give a shout out to my guy Mitch. Mitch, if you’re listening, I saw the happy birthday. Why’d you leave him hanging, man? No. Well, it So, look, Mitch. All right. This is going to sound some type of way, man. I don’t want it to, man. I don’t want We’ll let you know if it does. Don’t worry. We got you back. I don’t want it to sound some type of way. No, go ahead. Say it. because I’m I’m appreciative, man. I was I was flooded with with happy birthday wishes yesterday, man. It was it was a lot. It was overwhelming. I didn’t even get to Facebook yet. You know what I’m saying? I got to I got to respond I responded back to as many people as I could yesterday while still trying to enjoy the day, you know? So, Mitch, it just kind of got lost in the shuffle. I saw you. I was doing something on 1025. I was like, “Oh, man. I gotta I gotta tell my man thank you.” Man. Nah, Mitch. When he gets to it, he’ll get to it. All right. Stop complaining. When he gets to it, he’ll get to it. Yeah, man. Look, Drew talking about Facebook with question marks. Yes. Yeah. I still got the Facebook and they was hitting your boy up. It’s crazy. My mom posted. She had about uh 95 comments of happy birthday. I gotta, you know, let the people appreciate that. And then you get the notification of like, yo, it’s your birthday. People, hey, happy birthday, Casey. Happy birthday, Kenny. All this other stuff. Lisa, you know, our girl Lisa here, she hit it hit me up. I just It’s It I appreciate it. It was a lot. It was a lot. And I’m trying to get back to everybody. So, Mitch, I’m try I I saw you yesterday, Mitch. I apologize, big dog. I appreciate you. Shout out to my guy Mitch. You know, it’s always love, man. Take a ticket. Get in line. Mitch, I heard Mitch uh call me out on the insiders like, “Oh, man. I wish him happy birthday.” He didn’t even hit me up. It was the stride. Sorry, Mitch. I apologize. Mitch, you can call in right now if you want to. I know it’d be the second time in about an hour and a half, but look, that’s my peace offering for not being able to respond. I apologize to you, but um yeah, the 49ers second day of camp. Second day of camp. They’re back at it. They’re on the field. You see who else is on the field? That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m saying. Jawan Jennings on the field involved, taking reps, part of the action on the first onfield day of 49ers training camp. And look, if I’m John Lynch, if I’m Parag Morate, this how you do it, Jawan. Come on, man. Hey, when you’re done with practice, Jawan, let’s talk, man. I got $15 million for you right here. Yeah, let’s talk. You know, let’s have a conversation. Matter of fact, you don’t even worry about that. I’m going to call your agent and we’re going to talk. This is how we get it done. This is how we get it done. We ain’t doing no hold outs. We’re not doing the hold in. You come in good faith part participant in training camp. We’re going to be a good faith negotiator right here. We going to get this deal done. I heard Jacob Cowan uh left with a hamstring injury. So that that’s scary because those hamstrings I don’t think ever really get better. No. Well, that’s what they’re dealing with. Ricky Pearson. Yeah. Ricky Pieraw still dealing with the hamstring situation. So, I’m Jawan Jennings. I’m going to start grabbing my hamstring as well. Oh, we’ll see now. Well, all right. I don’t know. Like, I’m not I’m not sitting out, but hey. Ah, I feel kind of weird, John. Hey, it feels kind of weird. I I don’t know. I might have to hang up now. I might have to hang up. I like the way Jawan Jennings is doing this. I know it’s risky. I know it’s risky because if he gets hurt or something happens, he don’t get his money. But I think this is he’s 28 years old. But he’s got to play this about as perfectly as he can with his agent because there’s an opportunity, I think, after this season where if Jawan Jennings has another big season as the number one receiver and maybe he’s able to eclipse 1,000 yards because I don’t think he did last year, did he? Uh, no. No, he I did. You see it? What happened with that one? I think he got ejected, right? Yeah, he got ejected when he was like at 982 or something. Yes, we missed that last year. But if he’s able to just have another year where it’s like, okay, Jawan Jennings stepped up again as a number one receiver. I’m not saying he’s gonna get 30 million a year next year, but maybe you can get like a three year, $60 million deal from some team out there where it’s like, “All right, Joan Jennings finally got his back.” Yeah, he’s got an opportunity with with a a big time season this year to establish himself in this league as like a one or two type receiver. He was at 975. He got ejected like in the first quarter of that game. Uh that’s crazy. Bonuses and everything would have come into play and all that other stuff. Yeah, maybe he can get like a Gabe Davis type of deal. I think when Gabe Davis went to Jacksonville, um where it’s like he’s not you’re not going to pay him to be your number one, but it’s like you give him a decent chunk and change to be like a productive player on this offense. Yeah. Like maybe he goes that he’s able to go that route if he’s productive this year. Yeah, absolutely, man. So, um and on the flip side, RIP, if I’m the 49ers, like this is just like you did with KD, just like you did with Fred Warner, just like you did with uh McCaffrey and all these other guys. They handled the situation that was best for everybody involved and you took care of them. I would remember that if I was talking about this deal with Jawan Jennings. He handled it like we want to handle it here. He showed up. He participated. He even I think I don’t know if he said it or I know John Lynch said it, but I don’t know if Jennings came out and said or his representation said and he’s like I I have not requested a trade. Shanahan said that um Jawan Jennings hasn’t requested a trade I think yesterday. Okay. Yeah. So they had a conversation and all this other stuff. Hey. All right. He’s handling it the way you would want to. 49ers. Take care of them. Take care of if that’s if that’s something that’s on the table and you you are are faced with him wanting a new deal and you understand the dynamics. And I think with the way it’s set up right now with what he wants and the guarantees and all this other stuff, they can get it done. The party money hasn’t even taken effect this year. You know what I mean? So you can you can get that done. Yeah. If it’s not something where he’s like, “Oh, I see how bad a wide receiver in a room is and he’s trying to hold you hostage for like 25 million this year or whatever, like Yeah, that’s crazy. But if he’s looking for 14 to$18 million or whatever just on guarantees this year, like yeah, you give him that.” Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, man. So, I love to see that. Um, real quick before we talk more about uh the 49ers and their training camp and some of the aspirations they may have, let’s get to I really hope this is a TC cuz I didn’t screen it. So, we’ll see. I really hope this is TC. Let’s see. Oh, caller. Who are you? Yeah, that’s TC. Hey, you never know. Yeah. What’s up, TC? Your boy. Hey, what’s up, bro? Hey, look. So, hey, I’m calling in, right? I’m calling in. Hey, what was the homie talking about with that trade with LA before I throw mine out there? Uh, Buddha. Buddha wasn’t Buddha. Yeah, the homie Buddha. No, he was talking about um trading for Chris Murray. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I been said that about Chris Murray. Hey everybody, don’t don’t get caught up on a twin and trying to have a brother, bro. I think that’ be a beautiful move. He’d be another wing, but my trade is I’m going back to Miami. I know the boy is over there crazy, right? But we keep trying to find spots for Devon. If we ain’t going to keep him, right? I believe we can keep him. If we can’t find a trade partner, we going to need his Listen, we going to need what he bring the rebounding, his hustle, his tenacity. We going to need that. But if we move him, bro. Hey, what’s up with Haimey, man? Hey, listen. Pat, you’re not doing nothing with Haimey. We got Devin right here. Y’all like the combo guards defense. We could swap the guys and they work, bro. It wouldn’t when would nobody lose. It’s like a win-win for both situations. We get our wink help. We also get the playmaking that Haimey got. His upside on defense could be good, bro. So, I think that’ll be a smooth move. All right. And I’m also with you on the Dalton Connect, Jesse. And uh uh my boy, what you think? Oh, yeah. No, I’m with it, TC. I’m with it. We was like I thought I thought you had another point. Yeah, we was letting you cook. Yeah, I thought you had another point. TC’s out of there, but Okay. Yeah. I mean, so look, I don’t have anything snarky to say about that. TC Dre says it works. I just ran it through right now. Says it works. You can uh I was going to say something. It was going to sound a little harsh. I don’t want to say that. You can um let’s just say you can you can sell Devin Carter on the Miami Heat. Well, it’s a Miami Heat type of player, right? Yeah, that’s what I’m Exactly. like you know like like TC said hey Pat this is the kind of guy that you like you got that kind of guy in DaVon he did well for you can get that same type of guy in Devin Carter and this is a guy that you like you’re not using Hz you don’t like him like also about that they’re not liking Jaime Hawkins do we know why he fell out of the rotation there’s rumors yeah do we know there’s there’s rumors remember I’m calling like hey not going to name names but hey person hey redacted how true are those rumors I mean like is that why he wasn’t playing like and again we’re half joking but like he did he did have a good rookie year and it was just was unplayable for them I feel like at the end of the year that was crazy that a team kind of felt like it happened at the same time too you know I mean kind like no that’s crazy I would never have wait Hawkins is not playing basketball for the Heat anymore those rumors are rumors I I don’t know like you said a phone call needs to be made and is this really how it went down or do you not like his um the way he closed out on defense? Yeah. What is it here? What’s What’s the real deal? So, uh yeah, I mean I I like that TC. I like that. I like I said, I don’t have nothing snarky to say about that. Shout out to him for that. Yeah, it’s the same thing. Just kind of like like we’ve been talking about, which is Haris maybe fell out a favor in Miami for defense or whatever. It’s just all right. Yeah, maybe it’ll work here. I like him. I think he’s a good player. I do too, man. Plus, it’s a it’s a type of when you look at Devin Carter, it’s a situation where man, I feel bad cuz I don’t want to I don’t want to just give up on a kid or a young man. It’s not giving up. It’s just being real with what the situation is. Like he got drafted to a team that didn’t need him at the that position and like he you needed a guy who can come in and help game one or whatever. At least try to as a rookie. He was hurt most of the year and now you’re trying to get him to play in a position he’s not comfortable at. It’s not about Devin Carter the basketball player. It’s about the fact that the last guy drafted someone who just didn’t work and now it’s like all right why don’t we just try to make the best of a bad situation. Yeah. I don’t know if Devin Carter is going to be able to develop the way you’d like him to behind Malik Monk or Keon Ellis. Yeah. I mean yeah that’s exactly it’s not about Deon Carter the way he plays more. So it just doesn’t work right now. It doesn’t work here and I’m not sure it’s going to this season either. you’re going to waste another year and maybe Malik’s gone or something else happens or whatever. It’s like, all right, now we’re going to see if Devin Carter can play in year three. I think it’s best to just move on now if you’re able to. I I I agree 100%. I think Devin Carter, I’ve said it before, I’ll continue to say it. I think he’s an NBA player. Like, I think he he’s on a roster, but I don’t know how good he actually is. is like I said, I wasn’t impressed with much of anything that he did in summer league or Yeah. in summer league. And now you’re looking at him as a 6’2 guard who is just the defender. Yeah. Doesn’t really have a shot that we’ve seen yet. Like he’s kind of, oh, he can shoot the ball. It’s like, we have yet to see it. He can’t consistently get by uh people off the bounce. You kind of said it yesterday, too. What you’re kind of hoping he’ll be is what Keon Ellis is right now. And Keon Ellis is right now for sure he’s a better version of Devin Carter. He’s just so so that goes back to what we um have said a number of different times. How does Devin get on the floor? How does he play when in a different jersey? Yeah, that’s my that’s just where I’m at with it. Malik is better. Keon is better. And I once again I’m not going to disrespect Devin. I’ I’ll just say I’d rather see Nick. Well, Nick Clifford is about 66 68 I think. Um he’s he can handle the basketball. So he’s versatile enough where it’s like, “All right, Nick, handle the basketball with us. We’re going to play a little bit bigger right here.” And like Devin Carter’s kind of left out because you got more versatility with Nick Clifford now. Yeah. Yeah. So which they’ve been lacking for a little while. Yeah. And and I I I think that at the very least you should open up those conversations. And Scott Perry every time he talks about Deon Carter, he’s done a good job of kind of, you know, making sure that people feel like he still believes in him. But you have holes on this roster specifically at the wing position. You have too many guards. Why not move on from to be honest with you, you can move on from from Devin for for picks if you can’t get a player back for picks assets. So, you can use those assets and maybe acquire somebody else that will better fit the roster, but I guess you can say I’m I’m I’m ready to move on from Devin Carter. Yeah, like I’ve seen some people on Kings like, “Oh, now you got to give him a chance to develop and stuff.” But it’s just I don’t see that avenue for him here. I just I don’t see how it’s beneficial for Deon Carter to be on the Kings anymore. I I agree 100%. We going to take a quick break. Um, when we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about the 49ers and what they’ve got going on going into camp. Some of the questions that they have and where are they at as an organization right now as a football team, this roster? The question was asked this morning. Are they rebuilding or are they contenders? There ain’t no in between. Pick one. Are they rebuilding or are they contenders? We’ll talk about that. And we’ll also talk about the Raiders, man. They open up training camp as well. They made a made a big time signing. I ain’t going to lie to y’all. I ain’t going to do that to you. In in uh what are we in 2025? In 2017, it might have been a big time signing, but they just made a signing yesterday. We’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about what we feel about the Raiders going into their training camp. And like I said, you’re part of the show today. Elgrove Kid Talkline 91691320. Hit me up. You want to talk about what we’re talking about right now? Cool. You want to ask me a question? Anything that you want to ask me, cool. You want to ask Jesse a question? He might say I’m not answering it. Yeah, we’ll see to be honest. Yeah, I don’t know. But we going to have a good time. We got Guru coming up at 2:15. We got James Ham coming up at 3. It’s ESPN 1320. Is DLO and KC, not Sacramento’s number one sports station. I ask this question. I ask this question often, but I guess I’m just going to always ask the question. Why do Raider fans hate the NerS? So, no, you can’t do that. You know why? It’s a Bay Area thing. It’s not like That’s why it’s a Bay Area thing. It’s kind of and it’s probably one of the it’s probably the biggest rivalry out of all the barrier ones too. I’d say like between just the cities. You could even throw I’m not going to throw Kings Warriors in there, but just kind of like just the local regional type stuff. Well, the maybe the reason why I’m so perplexed is I don’t You’re not from the Bay either. Maybe that’s just why. Yeah. Like maybe you never got I know Raider fans like from like San Jose that hate Niner fans, stuff like that. There’s a there’s a lot of it here. air trickles down into Sacramento and I’ve been around Raider fans my whole life as a Niner fan. I don’t feel that passionately about the Raiders the way Raider fans do about the Niners. I know some that do. I know Niner and really I think it stems from we talking then let’s talk Like that’s where it come from. There’s the little brother syndrome too. the Raiders haven’t really been too successful and like, oh no, I hate this person, but like the Niners, what am I worried about the Raiders for? Went to the playoffs every year, yada yada y not every year, just more times than not. Maybe it’s kind of like rude, but just kind of how you guys feel about the Lakers. Maybe the Lakers I don’t think Laker fans really like Sarah Haj said it last whenever she was on. Like I don’t really she don’t really think about you guys. Yeah, she did. And that that may be that may be the situation. Uh, Filthy Mcnasty, I think that was him who said it. Sorry if I lost it, but he’s like, you know, a lot of Niner fans that be talking great. There you go. Niner fans always talking. I think it’s more of a situation where we’re only talking because we being talked to. Like I may I may take take a jab at the Raiders and Raider fans. You sneak this a little bit where it’s kind of like you run away like what did I do? That’s what you do. It’s literally because they be talking crazy. If they would if they wouldn’t I wouldn’t have nothing to say about the Raiders. Filthy Mcnasty says Raider fans don’t care about the Niners. I don’t know about that one. Like hey Filthy like I love talking at the live shows this and that. I don’t know about that one though bro. Hell no. Hell no. Like I can’t do that one. Hell no, man. J says, “I don’t hate the Niners. I hate the bandwagon fans.” Yeah, I think it’s more of like a fan rivalry. Shout out to my guy J2 Nice. I mean All right, man. Who’s really who’s really I’ll put it to you like this. Football and and and the ners and everybody is who do you really know that’s a bandwagon fan of a football team? Like I feel like people are kind of locked in and have been locked in for for a long time now with who they like. I mean I figure when the team is bad stadium’s always going to be empty. But that don’t even mean bandwagon fans. That means okay we good. We going to show up to the game like we’ll just bring conversation from the break. Is bandwagon fan the same as a fair weather fan? Um cuz Miami sports fans are fair weather where they’ll just show up if the team’s doing well and they’re they don’t really care if not. No, it’s not. To me, a bandwagon fan is is it like probably be someone jumping on the Chiefs bandwagon the last couple years, right? Like and and before before that you were rocking with somebody else or maybe you did I’m not even going to say a bandwagon is somebody like if you didn’t have a team and you start rocking with the Chiefs because the real question is what are you gonna do afterward? Yeah. Right. Like are you if you if you didn’t have a team going into the Mahomes era and you’re like, “Oh man, I like this. They winning and everything. I’m rocking with the Chiefs.” Cool. 10 years from now, if you still with the Chiefs, cool. But if you like, oh, back with the Niners 10 years from now, like, no, we ain’t. That’s a bandwagon fan. I got you. Yeah, that’s a band. The question all stem from a conversation we’re having over the break. We were talking about um the NFL and Whoa, whoa, whoa. This feels like a shot from Drew down. I don’t know. This hasn’t happened here. Yeah. What’s this guy talking about, bro? Said bandwagon is Casey jumping on the Aces when they started winning. What? No. See, Drew, when did you when did you start being an Aces fan? Do we need to bring the committee up for you? No, because what did I just say? Drew Down is 100% false. He’s 100% wrong in this situation because I didn’t have a team. This is true. This is I didn’t have a WBA team cuz the Monarchs weren’t here. Yeah, I didn’t have an WNBA team. And then I saw my girl Chelsea Gray. I saw my girl Asia Wilson and you know I was like, “Yo, I rock with South Carolina fan.” South Carolina and they were winning. They were good. So I was like, “Yo, I like Las Vegas. I like Las Vegas.” I’m like, “I’m rocking with the Aces.” I’m with the Aces for life now. The Aces are struggling. I’m still here. I’m still standing. I’m still strong. Got a good win last night against the Atlanta Dream. Shout out to the Aces. Hey, second half we about to turn up. But no, no, no. It would be a bandwagon would be I’m an Aces fan and then all of a sudden, oh, you know, I like the Liberty though. I’m down with the Liberty. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. See, Drew Down just Drew Down just be a They hating on your boy. A little bit of an instigating thing right there. But I feel like we cleared some things up. But this all this all came about because we were talking about we’re going football and we’re talking about some football training camp and all this other stuff and the Raiders and the Niners. And I just asked the question that I ask once a year, maybe even twice a year. I know I’ve saved, oh yeah, it comes up a few times at least. Why do Raider fans hate the 49ers so much? I don’t understand it. And I and I don’t understand it because I don’t feel that way about the NerS. I think there are 49er fans that feel that way about the Raiders. Excuse me. I said I don’t feel that way about the Raiders. I think there are 49er fans who feel that way about the Raiders, but it comes from the fact that Raider fans are always talking crazy. They’re always talking crazy and then we got to spank them real quick. Hey, settle down. Settle down. We wouldn’t even talking to you. Spank them real quick. You know what I mean? But in my heart of hearts, I don’t have no problem with the Raiders. I want to see them succeed. I will say this. I will say this. I was the biggest hater in 2002. I did not want the Raiders winning that Super Bowl. Okay, hold on. We need to talk about that then. Why? Because then that you just been kind of hibernating with the Raiders hate that. Well, no, because they was talking crazy. That that Raiders were good. Raiders were they was talking crazy. They was talking crazy about to crazy about Jeff Garcia and all my boys over there. Julian Peterson. They were talking crazy. Brown Jerry Rice, Raiders legend. That one hurt me. That one hurt me. I’m not going to lie. And I don’t have a problem with the Raiders, but that one did hurt me. I didn’t want to see him go there. It it it didn’t hurt. It was about as It was about equal to when he went to the Seahawks. That was tough. That was disgusting. Yeah, that was tough. That was tough. But outside of that moment, honestly, outside of that moment, I ain’t been tripping on the Raiders. Like, I want to see them succeed. I want to see the Raiders succeed. I say it all the time. I When the Raiders were coming back, I think it was 94, 95, when the Raiders were coming back to Oakland from Los Angeles. I remember I was in Oakland, not living there. But I remember when I got the news and I was out there and I’d see the billboards and they talking about Raiders are back. Coors Light, you know what I’m saying? I was like, “Yeah, yeah, this is gonna be dope.” Like, “Welcome back, Raiders. Let’s go. Let’s go.” I was I wanted to see them do well and it was just met with people talking crazy. See, I think that’s I think that’s backhanded, though. I think Oh, yeah. Look at the little guy trying to do well. Look at little brother. Look at little brother. Look at Oh, yeah. Look at everyone cheer him on. His controller’s unplugged, but cheer him all on. That’s That’s kind of the vibes that you’re on. And you act like you’re not, but I see it. I see it. Computers unplugged. I look, I’mma tell you right now, I hope the Raiders do well this year. I don’t have no problem with the Raiders. I don’t know. But see, what happens is you see where I stand, and this why we have this conversation yearly. You see where I stand. I hope they do well. And then I I bring up Brock Party and John Poles or Uncle Lon start talking crazy about every 49. It’s like, “Yo, relax. You got relax.” Donovan in the chat says, “I don’t hate the 49ers. I just pray on their downfall.” See what I’m saying? And that’s when I got to that’s when I got to be like, “All right, man. Relax.” See, I think you got the worst winning percentage of of any team in professional sports. See, no. That’s hate. That’s hate. That’s hate. See what I’m saying? That’s where That’s where I had to go there. I had to go there. I wasn’t trying to. I think that it’s just you haven’t had a reason to hate them since 2002. Like they were good back then. They had There was just reasons to hate and since then it’s like what am I going to hate the Raiders for? And now like now they’ve been so bad or it’s like oh yeah like come on finally. Like look at you like finally. I think that’s what it is. The Raiders have been good for like just or just normal. I think you hate them a lot more. I think that’s what it is. Now, this is I think the Raider fans hate the Niner fans because the Niner fans have like just they’ve had it well. And I mean, it’s a fan versus fan type of thing, too. But, well, see, this is also what I say, and I I talk about this all the time. I say it, you guys have heard me say it because when people be like, “Oh, you just hate soand so.” I said a number of different time. We talking about sports hate, too. I said it a number of different times. If I don’t like somebody, I’ll tell you. What? You think I’m afraid to tell you I don’t like somebody or I don’t like a team? You think I’m I’m trying to hide? Yeah. You hate the Dallas Mavericks. I don’t like the Dallas Mavericks. I don’t like Seattle, the city. You know, I didn’t forget what happened, you know, a couple years ago. I’ll tell you, if I don’t like somebody, I’m not hiding behind that. Don’t feel that way about the Raiders. You just haven’t had a reason to, though. I’m at the point now where if the Raiders are good, I want to see them continue to be good. Did you dislike the Warriors before that King series? Um, was there any hate there? Yes, before round one. I mean, not the play stuff like recently, just before that when it really got like really heated. Yeah, I didn’t like the I didn’t like the Warriors uh since 2015. Okay. Yeah, I didn’t like them. Then it just turned up, you know, in 20 What was that? 2022, 2020. See, that’s what I’m saying. You had a reason to hate them. They’re starting to win now. Like before then, you had no reason to hate the Warriors, right? No. No. And I, you know, I had I had love for the Warriors, you know, I had love, like I say all the time. People talk about, and I’m not saying Oracle, people have been there. People talk about it. Oracle was dope. Oracle was dope. They had it popping in Oracle, you know, and this is what this what I always talk about with the Warrior fans. And I feel like I can talk about it because I lived it. I was at Oracle as a struggling college student at Cal State Hayward, now Cal State East Bay, given tickets. You got them at the local library, too. Anywhere you get I was given tickets number of different times to take my girlfriend now, my wife on a date. We were sitting in section like 103, 104, not row um SS, like row H. I was there. I could The tickets were there. I was looking around the arena. Yeah, they had people there. They have people there, but it I was there. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like how you guys are trying to romanticize and say Warrior fans have always been here. We always been We always been dedicated, bro. I was there. You guys have not always been there. Some of you maybe, but I was there in 0607 0506 07 getting them free tickets cuz they were readily available. Come on, man. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. I’m not just I’m not just saying anything. And what’s And that’s the difference between to your question bandwagon and fair weather fan. Once Steph got there, and understandably it’s Steph Curry. Once Steph got there, oh yeah, now we popping. Now you got a great team. You’re going to sell it out. It’s gonna be popping. I don’t That’s just That’s just common nature. That’s common knowledge. It’s all good. But once again, I was there 05 06 07. I was there for the thunder years. And I’m not talking about thunder in OKC. I’m talking about thunder. Drew down. You know what I’m talking about when I say thunder. I was there when Thunder was running up and down the aisles. I was there for Speedy Claxton. I was there for Troy Murphy. I was there for Mike Dunley Jr. playing and I was in section 103 104 row H easily available. Not too many people around me. I was there. Come on. I was there. There’s also a sneaky no one talks about Kobe Bryant fan to warrior fan pipeline during that time. Well, the Lakers weren’t doing too hot. Yeah. Yeah. I They’re sneaky. Yeah, that’s like I said that that one those ones those ones get get off pretty easy. They are sneaky. I can tell you that. I know a few of those. I was a Kobe fan. That’s all it was. They were sneaky. Um but yeah, I just and I’m sure you know it’s this is this is training camp, so I’m sure there’ll be another opportunity when I’m going to ask the question. I just don’t know why you hit me up if you got an answer. If you got a film Raider fan, I’d like to hear from you. I want to hear from you, Raiders. Yeah. Why do you hate the opposing fan? Yeah. Why do you hate the 49ers? Why are the 49ers look that you look to you as the ops? Oh, Grove Kid talk line 9169 1320. I want to know from you guys how you feel about that. Now, here’s the thing about it. As a 49er fan, at least for me, like I said, now we’ve had years of talking and going back and forth. There are 49er fans that despise the Raiders because we just been talking for a generation now. So yeah, you want you pray for the downfall, too. I don’t want to act like Niner fans. There aren’t Niner fans who are there, but it’s more about the Seahawks for us. It’s more about the Cowboys for us. It’s more about the Packers for us. It’s more about even maybe the Rams right now for us. That’s what we That’s what we worried about. I think that’s for Raider fans, too. I don’t think you guys are top three. No, we’re top three. You think so? I I agree. I agree. I know the Chiefs are top two, if not one for Raider fans. No. You know, no. Maybe out there, too. No. Hell no. Hell no. I’m going to tell you why. And and and I’m I’m express right now why we might be number one. Oh gosh. I’mma express right now. And Raider fans, if you’re listening right now, call in and tell me I’m wrong. I don’t think you’ll be able to, but call in and tell me I’m wrong. No, Marcus, you’re lying. You’re not telling the truth. No, Patrick, who says all three division teams are ahead of Raider fans, by the way, stay in their thoughts. No, no, no. They’re lying. They are lying. I’mma tell you why. Yeah. Let Kenny tell what you Raider fan why you’re wrong. I’mma tell you why. Because what was it? Four or five years ago when the Chiefs were playing the 49ers in the Super Bowl, there was not one Raider fan, not one Raider fan that wanted the Niners to win. Not one. They were all rooting for the Chiefs to win. Not one. I didn’t run in one Raider fan that said, “Yo, I want the Niners to win cuz I hate the Chiefs more.” Not one. So, don’t give me that. Don’t try and act we don’t even think about the Niners. Don’t Don’t play that. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Even Jason Jones. Yeah, I was talking to him at the time. Yeah, he was not going for the Niners to beat the Look, hold on, Patrick. Haha. That’s how you know. That’s how you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we had the test. We had the ultimate test. The Niners are number one on the Raiders hit list. Damn. I can’t argue against that. Raider fans, you guys. I don’t know. You guys deal with that. I can’t like He’s right, too. I remember. He’s right. I didn’t run into not one Niner fan because I was I was trying to figure out. I was trying to know. I was like, “Yo, I know the Chiefs are the ops.” I know you guys don’t like the Niners. You don’t want to see them win. But in this situation, come on, man. Who you rolling with? You got to roll with the Niners, man. Cuz I know the Chiefs are your number one team that you hate. Hell. Oh, hell no. Hell no. I’ I’d rather see the Chiefs before I see the the 49ers win. Real quick, real quick. Guilty Mcnasty tries to hit a rebuttal. So, just like Casey didn’t want the Raiders to beat Tampa, that one doesn’t count because Tampa is not in the same division of the Niners. If it was like N or if it was like Raiders versus Seahawks or something like that, he’s like, “Yeah, go uh Seahawks or something like that, that’s what works.” But I’m going tell you right now, if the Niners or excuse me, if the Raiders played the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, if the Raiders played the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, I’m going tell you right now, I’m going for the Raiders. Ain’t no question. I think you won. right now. Thank you. Low key like I don’t I I can’t even argue that. I remember I was there. Chris Oo in the chat house asks Jesse who’s a Dolphins’s biggest rival me being a Dolphins fan. Competence. That’s the biggest competence. Oh no. Tua sliding. Well, Tua Tua said he uh Tyreek Hill got a uh Yeah. Who would have thought? The guy who quit on his team to end the season last year still has to rebuild his relationship with the guys, the brotherhood and all that stuff this year. Who would have thought? Maybe you would have thought to trade that guy or something. Hey, let me ask you a question, man. Where where we at, man? Where we at with the Dol is this it? Is this it? Like this incarnation of the Dolphins. Is this it? Like, if something doesn’t happen this year, which I mean, yeah. Fire Mike, if they don’t make the playoffs, fire Mike McDaniel, I don’t want to give I still I still believe in Tua. I do. I believe in Tua. Well, if they don’t make the playoffs, Tua got to go. Yeah, we’ll talk about it after the year. We’ll see. We’ll see what the realistic options are after this season and we will discuss moving on from Tua if they don’t make playoffs. But Mike Manno’s got to go. Like, that’s cool, bro. like you run this cool offense. They put two safeties 20 yards back and now nothing happens. Maybe it’d be nice too if you ran the ball in December rather than trying to throw the football and all that stuff. But I think this one I think this one’s over. I think this one’s over. I’m not even fighting you on it. Like I think they’re go like eight and nine. What are we doing? Why are we talking Dolphins? Why are you making me sad? I got a stupid hoodie on right now. I don’t know if you go 89. You might compete for My dad’s Oh, son. What do you think? How you dad? Don’t talk to me about no stupid dolphins. You’re right. You’re right. This was This segment was focused on Raider fan and their hates. Yeah, I think they go eight nine. I don’t know. Ta was good. We’ll see. We’ll see. Prove me wrong. So So you So we got we got Tua Wadd Tyreek. Tyreek. Devon Achan’s really good. A Chan is the truth. No corners no more though, huh? No, he’s he’s somewhere. Yeah. Shout over him. He was pretty mad about how the Dolphins did him, but No, you’re a little older now. Didn’t when Raheem hurt last year, too or did he play the whole year? I don’t know if he was hurt, but he was a little bit slower as a team and just two key fumbles in two games that they could have won. I was like, Raheem, if you didn’t fumble, maybe we would have won those games. Mostly on the Raiders. Oh, he’s on the Raiders. Ah, yikes. All right. That’s cool, too. That’s cool, too. Um, we just had a quarterback tear his ACL today during OTAAS. Oh, during Was was this during summer league? Did they he tear his ACL on summer? OTAA, but I said this happened. No, you controlled an OTAA, though. That that’s not what happened there. All right, listen. Listen, that’s not the point. The whole point is like not that. Let me figure out my point real quick cuz that kind of threw a wrench at 2. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. Well, no, you’re not. Cuz like you’d rather it like OTAAS is for something though. Like OTAAS is essentially what like rookie mini um mini camp rookie mini camp and all that stuff. Like that’s what essentially your summer league would be for. You just want to put it on TV so you can sell it. Yeah, I’m saying you don’t need to do all that. You can and you can go up against other teams. No, you can go up against other teams. Like there’s a purpose to OTAAS. That’s that that’s my point. There’s a purpose to OTAAS and all that stuff. Like if you tell yourself like that’s tough and obviously unfortunate, but it’s like there was a purpose to why you were there. If you’re there at summer league, that’s cuz the NFL wanted to make an extra buck. I’ll ask you I’ll ask you this. But it’s it’s it’s better entertainment. It’s fine. Like let’s That’s the thing, though. You’re getting hurt for no for money rather than working out. You can get But there’s a purpose to that. not getting hurt, but just more so you’re there to learn the playbook. You’re there to get familiar with your all your teammates and things like that, coaches and stuff like that. It’s not about making money. It’s just more so you’re there to work. That’s the same thing you’re doing at Summer League. No, come on, bro. Summer League brought to you by KIA. That’s what we’re doing. Well, the NFL could do the same thing. That’s what I’m saying. Summer League, NFL summer league brought to you by So and so company. Like, that’s what it’s for. NFL, it would be NFL spring league, I guess, cuz I I want them to do it a little bit after the draft. Just do my idea. Yeah. April, end of April, do my idea. All right. For the washed out NFL players, you can’t make the practice squad anymore. That’s too dangerous, Jesse. No. No. Throwing big three version a seven on seven. D too much running. No, just do half the field then or something. That’s too much running. Like imagine Tio instead of like going on the Bills at the end. He was playing big three football. This No, that that’s dangerous. What do you mean it’s dangerous to have the actual NFL players play? Big three basketball is flag football. Seven on seven. They’re not even running. They got to run routes in seven on seven. How are we more worried about the old guys and not the guys playing right now? Because the guys playing right now, they have more they’re healthier, they’re younger, they’re more spry, they’re less, they’re less um No, you’re still playing for contracts and careers and stuff. They one you you get hurt one year and one guy takes your spot and that’s cooked. The chance of injury is is less with the young guys. I’m not saying we need full-fledged football here with Michael Vic and them, but I think that’d be a lot more. It’s a little bit compromised here if you want entertainment and just spring league type stuff. Here’s another Okay, and I know you’re going to say this is control, but bro, they have these guys at the combine. Yeah, but there’s a like I said, the whole thing is there’s a purpose to it. You’re evaluating, developing, um, interviewing things like that. There’s just a purpose to it. NFL need to holler at me, man. I got I got the right idea. I’m 2 and0 here. You’re corporate carowway. You know that you’re corporate carowway. I’m trying to save these players and just get them healthy and just make sure they get their money. And you’re like, “No, throw them out there.” Springley. They’re already But they’re already doing something. They’re already out there working something meaningful. I even think they do like inner squad like um you know, scrimmages, controlled scrimmages during the rookie OTAAS. So, why not just do it against another team? You can control it that way, too. Like, you don’t have to go up and down the field. You could you could have like they have these joint practices. You could have spring league joint rookie practices controlled. Okay, brother. No one’s going to want to watch OTAAS. Okay, let me All right. No one’s going to want Hey, he’s doing the three cone drill. Hey, everyone. Three cone drill 3:30. Tap in. No, no. It’s it’s the it’s the uh not the three cone, but it’s it’s the um the joint practices. So, you got discrimin. Yeah. Throw it on the Niners versus Raiders. Niners versus Raiders. Spring League. Niners versus Raiders. 10. You tell me a gonna do do some numbers. No, it’s not. No, it’s not, bro. People are crazy about the NFL. It I think it’ll do It ain’t going to go crazy. It’s not going to do like historic numbers, but people will watch. I think I think more people I think people more people will watch that. Well, I don’t know. I guess I Tyler Jennings messing up my point. Says I’d watch. Well, thanks a lot, Tyler. It’s a second it’s a second shot Tyler was taking at me for des earlier. I’m on fire. I’m on fire. You um and and it’s it’s not nec Well, actually I would tune in. I would watch this, but I love baseball too, but you think more people are going to watch spring league flag spring league seven on seven rookie football or Giants Astros on a Tuesday? They watching this for you. Well, not everyone has NBC Bay Area, Kenny. A lot of people have NFL networks. Look, locally, we’ll just go locally. Locally, no. Watch the Giants game over that. Locally. Locally. 49ers versus Raiders in the sales. I don’t know. 49ers versus Raiders in spring. I’ll go with I’ll go with the Giants cuz Yeah, cuz the the what you’re talking about it’ll have a combine feel to it. It’ll feel like practice-ish. It’ll feel It’ll have a combine feel to it. It won’t work. I’m not I’m not giving you the win. N shout out Tony Holdm. Union Jesse versus Corporate Casey. I’m with the people. JTO, can you imagine price picks on the three cone drill? Oh, bro. You know, I got to get back. I ain’t done I ain’t done price picks in a while. You know, I have I have seasonl long um season long tickets out there with with good old prize picks. Let me see where it stands right now. I’m with Rody, too. People don’t even watch preseason. Why are they going to watch practice? They do watch preseason. Watch that stupid Hall of Fame game. I’m not a fan. People talk about watching. I don’t think anyone ever ends up watching it. All good, Tyler. All good. Yeah. So, I’m I’ve got I have WNBA seasonl long um ticket for prize picks. It’s only $5 to win 50 bucks. But Camila Cardardoso 10 and a half points per game. She’s at 12.8. I think she’s going to get that. Angel Reese at 14.1 points per game. I went more. She’s at 13.6 right now. I think she gets over 14. I think I get that. Asia Wilson, she needs to pick it up. Shout out to my aces. 10.6 rebounds a night. She’s at 9.1. I don’t know if she’s going to make it. And Britney Grryer at 17.2 points per game. I went less. She’s at 10. That’s a That’s a lock. This is real, by the way. I don’t think anyone’s going to pay for this. Yeah. No, this is just this is just this love of the game right here. Yeah, we just did love love of the game. I’m like Jordan playing pickup right now. Just let me play, you know. Jordan Jordan running quarters against the wall or whatever that game he was playing. But um yeah, man. Yeah, I I just I’m curious about Raider fans and why they don’t like the 49ers. Um and we’ll talk about that more throughout the season because more hate will come. I promise. I don’t know what we got next coming up, but I’m We going to stay with football. We We We haven’t talked about the the training camp. Yeah, I got I got my eyes on the Raiders. Oh, what? I’m watching them this year. I mean, what what you you uh what? You got a lazy eye? What’s going on? No, not a lazy eye. This is Damn. You got a lazy eye on the Raiders. I guess you got an eye on the Raiders. I got an eye. I don’t know if it’s a good eye, Side eye or whatever, but there’s a eye. There’s an eye. I ain’t g I wasn’t gonna say that. I ain’t gonna say I’m gonna say that on the break because that’s that’s fair enough. Usually when you do it’s like oh yeah Kenny was right. I should have saved it for the break when you tell the stories but when you got something to say it’s like I don’t know if this is good enough for radio. Well it is but you know you know the show we’re on. You know the audience. Oh I got you. So yeah man. No you can’t do that if it’s a flag. It’s a flag. Hey no we’re going to talk more about the Raiders and the Niners when we return. We’re here on we talk about training camp. you know, we going to talk about. So, I did see something that’s interesting about the 49ers, and I think I know where you’re going to stay, and I think I know where everybody else is. Yeah. They asked the question on first take. Are the Niners rebuilding or are they contenders? I got an interesting take for that. Okay, we’ll talk about that and we’ll talk about the Raiders. Jesse says he has his his lazy eye. He doesn’t have a lazy eye to be honest. Got AI. Yeah, he’s got AI. Could be a good eye, could be a glass eye. I don’t know. There’s an eye on that on the Raiders. And look, you may not be alone. I got some thoughts on the Raiders as well, man. So, we’ll talk about all that, man. It’s Don Casey, Jesse Tapia rocking with your boy right now. We got Guru, he’s coming up at 2:15. James Ham coming up at 3. ESPN 1320, Sacramento’s number one sports station. G, that’s tough. Shout out Forest Whitaker, though. Godfather of Harlem. Have you seen that show? No, I have not. I’m looking for a show right now. I just me and Crystal just started Untamed on Netflix yesterday. It’s a limited series. Untamed. Untamed. Untamed. It’s based in Yoseite. Yes. I just saw the end of just saw the first episode right now. Wifey was watching that. She just went through the se the season um in one day and I saw like the last three episodes. It’s cool. It’s cool. It’s cool. What’s wrong? [Music] Gregor Blanco almost gave me a heart attack. They’re showing game seven right now when Gregor misplayed that ball out in left center field and it went to the wall. Oh man, are you kidding me? [Music] Who was that? Mustakis who hit that. If he wasn’t so damn slow, that would have been inside the Parker. That’s crazy. That was crazy. That’s good knowledge. Zone AR is from deep third. Got him. And it’s a perfect game. Oh, it was it was Gordon. I thought it was Makas. It was Gordon. Rhaegor Blanco Aldren. Appreciate you, big dog. Thank you. You’re right. I did enjoy my 30th birthday. Yo, Steven Brown, what the hell? I know. I saw that. I don’t know. I still We’re still able to do it, but I don’t know. I hate him. Tyler, people do watch the combine. They’re a little ridiculous for that. And I’m not watching the combine. Ste Brown a fool man. Come on man. Let’s see. D Rozan is okay to come off the bench. Would you be okay starting 500 minutes max or back here on DLO and KC. Uh we’re talking footballs training camp gets underway. I do want to address this though because Russ dog asked No, you know what? I’mma hold off. I’mma hold off when we talk more about basketball because I just I got a thought I got a thought about that. We’ll talk about it. Um I want to make sure we talk about football, man, and talk about the prospects of some of these teams. Let’s start with the 49ers. Um training camp got underway. Well, they reported yesterday they actually had reps and everything today. Jawan Jennings on the field, active participant with the first team. Love seeing that. Uh, love having him out there. I think it’s time for the 49ers front office to, you know, make sure he’s taken care of. He’s handling things the right way. Make sure he’s good. Um, but they have they got some issues. They got some real issues with that wide receiver room. I heard Jacob Cowing um left practice today with a hamstring situation. We don’t know how serious it is, but I mean that’s a guy that I look at. That’s a guy that I’m looking at as like, hey, this guy can can can potentially be productive. And if he’s already gone down after Ricky Pieraw’s already gone down, that that wide receiver room is getting pretty thin. So, the question that I’ll ask Jesse, I’ll ask um you guys out there in the chatty house and the Elgrove Kid talk line 916 9091320. Are the 49ers rebuilding or are they contenders? What do you think? They’re rebuilding right now, but it’s not like there’s much that needs to happen for them to jump into that other side. The way I see it is like Super Bowl windows closed, but they could sneak out if some things kind of roll their way because you look at like you have Brock Pury. He’s got his deal as far as like I’m I feel like people are like a out on Brock, not out on Brock Pur, just less less have faith in him than I guess I do. I think Brock is a near top 10 quarterback, kind of 10 to 12, maybe 8 to 12 type quarterback on his best day or whatever. Like now I’m expecting the ners no matter the how bad the wide receiver room is to at least be an eight- win team like as your floor like at bare minimum things go wrong like you still need to be an eight- win team with Brock party there. I think you got a guy like CMC if he’s able to stay healthy. We all know what George KD is Hall of Famer and all that stuff. Fred Warner man in the defense. Nick Bos probably needs to get back to what he was. But I think they have things where it’s like some things go their way. Yeah, maybe they could find themselves back into being contenders. They’re in an interesting situation and and I really look down south to what the Rams kind of just did. Like I wouldn’t call them contenders right now, by the way. Like like I said, rebuild, but like I see I see I see a path again. Yeah. No, look, what the Rams just did was after their Super Bowl and Aaron Donald and Jaylen Ramsey and all this other stuff, you would say they were in a rebuilding mode. Yep. But they drafted well. They made some some savvy moves. drafted damn near perfect. Yeah. And they flipped that on its head real quick. Like within a year, they flipped that. And I I think the off the top of my head, I think the Rams had a really bad year, one year. I think they won like I could be wrong. I’m I’mma double check this, but I thought they they won like maybe five or six games one year, which actually is what the Niners did last year, but they they did that and then they they were right back. And that could be what the Niners are doing this year. 2021 they went 12 and five. 2022 they went five and 12 and then back toback 10 and seven seasons. There we go. Last year won the division. There there we go. And and the Rams five and 12 in what? 2022 you said at 5 and 12 that could have been what the Niners had last year in that 6 and 11 season and now you bounce back you’re a 10 11 win team after that so technically to answer the question I agree with you they are rebuilding but they could be ascending right now they be on their way back up real quick more context on that Ram stat like 2021 was there they won the Super Bowl and then they have a down year and then like I said like you said they’re back back to it now but yeah same I agree with it too like I don’t think the Niners are at this point was like, “Ah, probably going to have to rebuild a little bit more. Take another step back to go forward this, this, and that.” Like, no, they’re they’ve got their foundation still. Now, you want to figure out what to do at wide receiver because I’m not. We’ll see how Brandon Aayuk looks as the wide receiver one when he’s back, but I’m not really holding my breath there. You’re going to need to find another. I don’t know if Ricky Pierce is ever going to become that for you just given he can’t even stay on the field right now. Um, Judge Juan Jennings is 28. So, that’s not someone you’re building your wide receiver room around. you’re probably going to need to add to that whether it be in the draft next year. I don’t think you can do it through a trade. So, yeah, you kind of stuck with this this year. But that’s kind of what gives me pause as far as them being like a Super Bowl contender. I don’t think you can really be in that level right now just given what that’s looking like. And to be honest with you, you guys know I’m a lot of the times I I’ll even give a sneak preview. You guys can can remember this and if I do something different, you can be like, “Okay, see I remember you said something different before.” You guys know since this show has started, I have picked the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl out of NFC. It’s been basically Ravens versus 49ers three out of the four of the last five years. It really has. Today, as things stand, I don’t have to my put my official prediction out there just yet. We’ll do that in September. But today, no, the Niners aren’t going to the Super Bowl. That’s not how I look at them. That’s not the type of team I think they have. I think they’re a good team. And I think when you talk about the team and the roster that they have combined with potentially, and I always say potentially because you never know what it’s looking like. It can look 100% different in August than it actually is once you get into November, but the schedule looks very favorable. Yeah, it’s looking pretty pretty weak for them where they can get some get a lot of games if they play the way we’ve seen them. Yeah, it looks very favorable. So, you combine those two things. I think that I don’t have them as a championship contender, but I will say right now and I want to I’ll dive into it a little bit more moving forward, but today I got them winning the division. That’s where I’ll fight you on then. I guess I I’ll give that one to the Rams. I I see the Niners as a wild card team right now. A team I think they’re still in this season as a wild card and could miss the playoffs if like you go nine and eight or whatever. But I think they’re a wild card team right now. I think that like the Rams are back right now. I’ll give that to him. I that that’s 100% fair. The Rams have earned that and they deserve that. Um but they’re playing a first place schedule, you know, and it could come down to a game or two. If we think that the Niners are playing a soft schedule and they’re going to get 10 or 11 wins, some of the some of the X factor games, like I know they both play the AFC South, they both play NFC South as well being part of that division, but one of the, you know, X factors is the Niners play the Browns, right? Yeah, they got the Browns. the Niners play the Bears as opposed to the Rams playing the Lions maybe or the or the Packers or something like that. So, it could come down to one of those two games. I’m looking at it right now like we can all agree the Niners’s toughest game this year is going to come against the Rams both of those games. After that, you can argue whether you think it’s the Texans. It probably is the Texans, but maybe the Jags. Who knows how you feel about Yeah, the Falcons maybe. But there’s an argument who the second best team that they’re facing all season is. That’s kind of indicative on their schedule is pretty weak. I haven’t really tapped into this schedule since it it came out. This is one of my first time this schedule. They open on the road. Yeah, they open on the road in Seattle um in New Orleans week two and then you got Cardinals and Jags first four weeks of the season. I think the toughest team there is probably the Jags. And and and look, one of the things that I’m looking at and this is how I used to always look at the the 49ers going up against the 49ers and what they may be able to do when they had a super top flight defense. And I think they’re going to work on getting back to that. Robert Salah is back in a role that he’s more comfortable in. Is who are the quarterbacks you’re going up against? And I look at the first four or five games. Sam Darnold, who’s cool? Sam Darnold, then the Saints quarterback. Is that Ricky? Who is the Saints quarterback? Honestly, I have no clue who’s in line to be their starter right now. I have no idea. Then you’ve got Kyler who he gives he gives Niners fits. He’s he’s always a guy that you got to worry about. I think he but he’s cool. He’s cool. And then you got Marvin him and Marvin Harrison Jr. That’s that’s gonna be something that you got to watch out for. Then it’s Trevor still eating off Clemson Lawrence. Light him up. Then you got Baker. Baker Travis Hunter coming to town. I’m going to that game. Are you? Yeah, I’m going to that game. I want to go see uh Travis Hunter plus almost like a homecoming game. I want to make sure I’m there for a 49ers win. That’s that’s how I’m looking at that. That’s how I’m looking at that. Um, but they’re not they’re not going up against like a bunch of great quarterbacks this year. Yeah. And then you get to after that for four week stretch, then you go to the tough game Thursday night against the Rams and that’s probably a no right there. I’ll take Yeah, for sure. Given it’s on the road against the Rams. I’ll take that. Then you got to go to Tampa Bay after that. But you’re going to have 10 days rest going to Tampa Bay. So I say all that in the context of them winning the division potentially. They may have a situation where their schedule allows them to get 10 11 or let’s see the the the the common part of the schedule, the common part of the Rams and 49er schedule, the the AFC South, the NFC South allows them to both have eight, nine wins, but then you’ve got the first place verse fourth place aspect to it. And that’s where the Niners can get the game or two to end up winning that division. What do we do if they don’t handle business with this schedule this year? What if it looks like we’ve talked about them being a wild card team. You’ve talked talked about them winning the division and all stuff. What if it’s kind of just just kind of meddling meddling and like they kind of just got eight wins or they got to seven wins with that schedule? That that would be that would be what are we talking about after that after that season? Do you think we’re talking about if they get to seven or eight wins with this roster? Because I still think the roster is good. Yeah. that with the roster and with the schedule and you get to seven eight wins, Kyle Shanahan’s got to be on the hot seat. The clock is ticking. I’m not going to say he gets fired right then and there, although TC probably would say that. But if they’re not able to be for sure, if they’re not able to be above 500, I would even say, yeah, man, you got to have more than nine wins with this roster and this schedule. And if Kyle Shanahan is who I believe he is, a double digit win total is Mando. This is Mando. It’s a team with Hall of Fame pillars still. Mhm. Um some KD’s a Hall of Famer. H might be a little bit tough. Two Hall of Fame pillars. You got Warner I think will eventually get in there and then KD and all that. Rock’s really good. CMC has Hall of Fame talent. Who’s a little Well, rewind that. Rewind that. Who’s on Who’s the Fringe Hall of Famer? Well, I guess CMC would be Fringe. He’s got Hall of Fame talent, but it’s just he’s just he’s not going to get in. He just doesn’t have the numbers or the accolades to get in. Now you got me. There’s nothing to argue. We’ve done this before. There’s nothing to argue. There’s nothing. He’s not Hall of Fame talent, but he’s Yeah, this is not happening. Oh, okay. Well, we’ll Trent Williams. Tren Williams retired, right? No, he’s still there. He’s still there. Or you still got Tren Williams there. Three of them. He said he’s rejuvenated. He wants to play football. I always forget with that guy, but yeah, you got three Hall of Fame pillars are still or whatever. So, it’s not like you got junk this season. Well, you’re talking about you’re talking about just on the offensive end. I mean, you’ve got I threw Fred Warner in there, too. Oh, you said Fred Warner. Yeah, Fred Warner. I think Nick Bos has got the talent, but Hall of Fame trajectory. Yeah, he’s really eating off that one season still. He He Well, look, he is, but him a little bit. He had like a 10 and a half sack season the next year and we were like, yo, that was terrible. 10 and a half sack season. like is still really good. Yeah. But if you’ve been in conversations with the Miles Garretts of the world and all that stuff, that’s not good enough. Understandable. And if that’s the standard we’re going to try to hold you to or just kind of hope you like hover around, then it’s got to be better. Understandable. But I I agree. I agree. Um and he absolutely has to be better. Hell, I was the one that said make think about trading him this offseason getting getting him off the books. Um, but yeah, man. If if if it goes left, if it goes bad, yeah, Kyle Shanahan got to be on the hot seat. He’s absolutely got to be on the hot seat. I agree with that. And I don’t expect I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t expect anything less than 10 wins this year. Don’t expect anything less than 10 and seven. 10 and seven floor for for for once again the roster and the schedule and who I think Kyle Shanahan is. I’ve always talked about Mike Tomlin and how regardless of the roster, I know we talk about the the 500 record and all this other stuff, but his his teams are they clear 500 by two or three games more times than not because usually of his coach. Yeah. Usually the only reason why the Niners have these catastrophic years because like everyone was injured that year. At least from how it seemed the last few seasons. Everyone was injured and last year they went six and uh 11. They had h let me pull up the schedule to make sure I know four games last year that they just blew. They just gave the game away. Yeah. They had it as a win. And I mean even if you I’ll just play devil’s advocate and say you take two of those games. No, now you’re looking at a 89 team. You know the the Rams game, the first one they should have won. They had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Arizona Cardinals game, which I was at, I thought that was going to be a homecoming game. They had a 13-point lead, 10 13-point lead in the fourth quarter, ended up losing that one. Um the second Seattle game, Reino Smith runs it in uh with under a minute to go in the fourth quarter. They should have had that one. Um the Rams game 12-6 at home, Brock Birdie throws an interception in the end zone with an opportunity uh to to win that game. Detroit was a game that they could have won. So, they had they had a number of different opportunities last year with everything going wrong. You get a little bit better health this year. Plus, the talent level is at a as a certain level and you’ve got a schedule that’s favorable. Favorable. Yeah. 10 10 wins. I’m expecting nothing less than that from this group. Yeah. I’m I’m going go I’mma go I’m gonna go with a eight- win floor this season. I don’t know what I expect them to reach. I’m go eight win floor. just that wide receiver room scares me and I think Brock party if he’s able to be as good as he is and if that receivers if they don’t like really step up or whatever now he’s not him I think he can get him to take wins but after that we’ll see and that’s the other thing too you brought him up Brock party I agree with you now you’re getting paid like one of the big boys I need you to yeah there’s no excuses at this point like I know coming off the ACL and just we don’t really know what Persaw is and Jennings is a wide receiver three to one on whatever given day you got to make them better and you got to get wins here like you’re the quarterback you’re paid to do that unfair or not, that’s just what the game is now. And I believe in Brock. I believe that Brock can be that type of quarterback where he helps elevate others around him. I know they were talking earlier today on um on on the morning roast to my guys over there on the morning. Shout out to Spadoni. Shout out to to Butcher Boy. Um and they were asking, you know, at the end of the season, will Brock Pury be the unquestioned best quarterback in the division? And a lot of people were like, “No, Brock isn’t that good.” I know somebody was like, “Yeah, Brock, outside of pre- snap reads, what does he do really well?” Like just kind of like he’s the second best quarterback in the division for me right now. Yeah, Brock probably I love Kyler, but Kyler’s just been been a lot of our imagination at this point. Kyler like he’s good, but it just hasn’t amounted at anything yet. He’s Kyler is he’s super talented. He’s a good quarterback, but I would say best case scenario, he’s even with Brock Party right now. And Brock Party, they talk about what does he do? I’ve said a number of different times, his his accuracy, his pinpoint accuracy with where his ball placement is on some of these throws, you can’t walk it up any better. what he lacks in arm strength and physical abilities, he makes up for with his anticipation and his ball placement and this pre- snap read. Yeah, there’s other ways to play the quarterback position. I’m sorry. Not everyone needs to be a 610 throw it 90 yards down the field type quarterback like Josh Allen and those guys that can do it. Yes, that’s why they lead of the elite, but it doesn’t always work for everyone else. And for the Brock Persies of the world, yeah, you need to be more accurate and stuff because you’re not arm strength isn’t great or whatever. Like that’s a plus. Yeah. Drew down. Um, you know, he he I think I think he got hacked by TC. Drew Down’s uh YouTube got hacked by TC. He says Kyle needs to just stay out of the way. Stay out of Brock’s way this year. Yeah. TC actually called in and he might have been I think it was this show last week with DLO and he’s like, “Oh yeah, Kings this. Kings that.” Oh, I’m so excited. Yeah. Yeah. 49ers. Yeah. Blah blah blah. Kyle sucks. Blah blah blah. And we were kind of like like what’s going on? like why are you so optimistic about the Kings who have done nothing and the so down the ners who have won a lot or whatever but he called back the next day he’s like yeah it’s this Kyle he’s out on Kyle Shanahan he’s not a Kyle Shannon doesn’t matter what happens just out on Kyle he’s out on Kyle I saw something the other day or yesterday excuse me that and I think um Bonte had tweeted it out and he responded the same way that I’m about to say but they were there was some NFL question you know on one of those shows and they were like yeah Kyle Shanahan has to prove that he can win the big game. He’s lost in the overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s lost them twice in the Super Bowl. He lost to the Patriots when he blew a 28-3 lead against the when he was with the Falcons. Was Chris Bard, I believe. And that tells you all you need to know. Why? Why is this I I this is I don’t understand how that goes on his permanent record. The funniest part he was not the head coach. Well, the funniest part about the Falcons thing is that Cal Shannon’s an offensive guy. Dan Quinn’s a defensive guy. The Falcons put up 28 points on Bill Bich. That should be good enough to win. The defense gave up 31 or however many it was after they gave up that three. I think it was like 3428 the final score. Like Dan Quinn should catch the heat. Like the defense lost that game. Dan Quinn, don’t nobody say nothing. They just ah he’s a great coach here in Washington. This is great. This is great guy. He’s got Washington cooking. and asking, and maybe I’m being too nice about it or whatever, but asking an NFL team to go, “Oh, go go go score 40 points in the Super Bowl against one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time, like you don’t think the Patriots are going to figure some things out. It’s just don’t be historically bad or catastrophically bad on defense. You already got the 28, bro. Get one stop.” Exactly. Get one stop and you win. Yeah, that one that one always gets me. Um, Aldrin in the chat, he asked a question in the chatty house. Is Brock better better than Dak Prescott? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Now, I don’t say that to say Dak is a bum. Dak is cool, but Brock is better is better than Dak. Are we sure? Yes. Like Dak was in MVP conversations until that was last season, right? When they lost to Miami, I think up until that game, the same year Brock was in it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like Dak’s Dak’s really good. It’s just playoffs. He just fumbles. I’ll say this. Actually, but just when it’s go time, he just does not show up. I’ll say this. He’s got all the talent in the world. just down like Carrie Jones said. Well, we have the clip. He said, “Well, we paid we paid him and he only played twothirds of the season.” Also, I’m disappointed too that Stanley has not called him once. Every time you do that voice, I look at the caller ID to wait and see if it’ll be him. Like, Stanley is a pretty big guest. Well, look, Stanley knows. I’ve talked to Stanley. I’ve had conversations with him and he knows I’ve got this handled just like he requested a couple of months back. I’m in the talks to buy KFM and buy ESPN 1320 and make sure DLO and KC work for me. And when DLO comes back, we’re going to have a celebratory dinner at Martins. That’s for sure. That stinks. I’ll say this about Dak and Brock Party. I think they’re on the same tier. That’s fair enough. So, it’s not like Brock is like just all leaps and bounds better than him. I think the same type of quarterback for sure. Um I didn’t want to let this time go by without talking about this Raiders, man. You said you had the You said you had your eye on the Raiders. I think they might be good. I think they might be a playoff maybe. I’m not going to say win. I’m not going to say they’re going to win division. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s week 18 or whatever the NFL has us watching at this point. The Raiders are in the hunt and not even in the hunt where it’s like, “Oh, they need four teams to lose today and win by 30 or whatever.” Like, they’re going to have a high I don’t even love this because it’s the Raiders, but I think they could have a high floor this year with like Gino is going to keep the offense just a little bit at bay. And like Perry, I guess I believe in coaching more than you do. Prol’s one of the greatest coaches of all time. I think that counts for something. I’m a believer. Like I think that’s going to get you wins. You look at the Chargers last year with Jim Harbaugh. I think a lot of us were talking about, oh yeah, cover’s kind of bare, running backs don’t look great, wide receivers don’t look great, but he just had them playing sound football, just fundamental football, got them into the playoffs. They got waxed when they got there. But I think I could see that type of year for the Raiders potentially. I’m not willing to guarantee it or anything like that, but like maybe Christian Wilkins stays healthy on the defensive line. You got Max Crosby. Linebackers look a little solid. I like Landon Roberts in the run game and all that run defensive game, but I I got my eye on them. I’m going to say some things. Wide receivers’s wide receiver wide receiver room is also not great there. You got Brock Bowers, but Jacobe Myers as your wide receiver one I don’t love. Let me ask you two things real quick. Let me ask you two things. So, were you on the fence and then yesterday when they signed Jamal Adams, did that one take you over the top? See? No, that kind of that kind of sent me the other way. We’re signing linebackers again at safety. Like, all right. But see, that’s why people thinkers Well, Jamal Adams, that’s a universal joke. That’s a linebacker playing safety. What are you doing, bro? And if anything, that’s an edge rusher playing safety. But like you like Tyler Jenny throws in rookie running back. I like Ashton Genty. I think he’s got superstar potential. I think he can be a guy where like he’ll have an impact just all season for the Raiders. If he’s able to do that, then it’s going to make things a lot easier for Gino. Um I see I see the vision at least. I see a lot of the things that you’re talking about with this with this Raiders team. Yeah. I’m not willing to guarantee anything or just put it on waxes yet or anything, but I see it. I’m kind, like I said, I’m watching with an eye. This is This is why my expectations for the Raiders never reach potentially a certain height this season. For them to even think about the playoffs, I’d have to say that they’re going to be better than one of the Broncos, Chargers, or Chiefs. And I just don’t see that right now if I don’t see it. I don’t and I don’t think four teams get into the playoffs from the AFC West. Like I said, I think they’ll be in the hunt in the mix. I think they can be. I don’t know if they will be. I can see them being better than the Chargers. It’s a lot of I I’m not going to go out and say the the Raiders are the second best team in the division right now. Put them at four, that’s fine. It’s just a lot of we need to see it happen. Like I said, I just with the parts that they got, I see the vision low key. I can see them eight and nine this year or something like that. Nine and eight. I’m not even necessarily saying they’ll be the ners 10 wins or anything like that, but I think they’re going to surprise some people this year. I do like some of the pieces that they they’ve been able to put together. They had so much that they had to do with that roster. I don’t think you can do the majority of it in one off season. So, going out and getting an okay quarterback. Uh he had he has some really good moments with Seattle, but when when when it started to get a little tight, like when people started to get a little bit more of a book on what was going on with Gino in Seattle, they it started to shut all that down. It started to shut all that down. So I wonder if that’s going to be what potentially happens with the Raiders. Um yeah, I like Genty. I like Bowers. Obviously, I like Pete Carol. I’m a believer in Pete Carol. You see Chip Chip Kelly telling Gins not to do his stance in the back field. No. Yeah, that’s not even a story, but just a little note. He wants him, I guess, just not doing his little signature thing or whatever, which I hate. I don’t know why Chip Kelly is trying to switch things up, but Huh. more traditional running back stance, I guess. But Chip Kelly hasn’t done much of anything since Oregon. Yeah, Chip just called the plays, bro. Yeah, that’s it. You’re lucky you’re getting the reason why you drafted me here. Yeah, you’re lucky. Yeah, not a story, just a note I saw. Yeah, you’re you’re lucky we didn’t leave your ass in Columbus, you know that where you should have been. Uh so settle down. Settle down, Chip. But I think the Raiders, and I’m interested to see them in training camp, see if there’s some other rookies, some other young guys that jump out and leap off the page and see if they can be somebody that can help this team immediately because they do need some help at the wide receiver position. They do need some help uh in the secondary. So, if there’s some rookies, some young players, some guys that they found that might be able to help them immediately that we’re not taking account for, I could up that floor a little bit more. But that division is just a little too tough for me. Yeah, I get it. Like I said, it’s just an eye right now. I’m going to say it’s a good eye or anything like that. Could be a lazy eye at the end of the season. Like, oh yeah, look at the Raiders falling off again. It’s a I forgot I was supposed to say nerd. Yeah, don’t even say it right now. We’re going to break. We’re good. Don’t even mess it up. I don’t even know what you were going to say. Could be fine. But like I said, we’re just Let’s just go to break. We’ll go to break. We got my man Daryl Guru Johnson of 957 the game. He’s gonna rock in with us, man. And we gonna have a good time talking about the Cowboys, talking about the Warriors, talking about the 49ers, and maybe talking about R&B. Maybe we’ll talk about a little R&B with my man Guru. It’s coming up next on DLO and KC on ESPN 1320. I was gonna say, is it a cockeye that that they’re looking at the Raiders? That would have that would have been fun on the radio, but we would have had some fun with that one. Yeah, Chris, that’s Guru. Shout out Guru is funny. Zomb down. Jags are pretty irrelevant. Honestly, we need to get rid of the AFC South and just throw the Texans in someone else’s division. Oh my gosh. We’re just We’re combining the uh Yeah, we’re not even moving teams. We’re just taking those teams away from those people in those cities. It’s like Tennessee Titans. Sorry, no team for you. Jacksonville about to get uh little stadium though. Still in Jacksonville though. That’s the problem. Yeah. Yeah. Like Jacksonville lowkey probably feels now that we talk about same about Cleveland. Oh my gosh. It’s like what is what is Jacksonville? What is Duval? Like what is that? Jacksonville. It is it is criminal that Jacksonville hosted a Super Bowl one time. That was that’s ridiculous. That is ridiculous. They had no business hosting a Super Bowl. Like your mascot’s name is Jacksonville the stupid. Back here on DLO and KC ESPN 1320. Having a good time on this Wednesday afternoon. We’ve been talking about the weather and stuff the last couple days. How it’s a little cooler and stuff. I think next week it’s about to it’s about to get back up there. get back up there the way it’s supposed to be on a on a on a summer day. Oh, that also reminds me too, Jesse. I I don’t know if you uh saw the email or I’m looking at him right now. I’m literally looking at him right now. Yeah. Yeah. Just it’s great time. Odyssey had a great time at the game today. This was, you know, I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad to see everybody enjoyed themselves. It was a rousing success. It’s good stuff. 22 of our co I just counted the damn picture. 22 of our co-workers there. Not us. Come on, man. Oh, we got Look at that. I didn’t even see pictures. Look at this. Yeah, there’s pictures. They got pictures out there. Had a great time. Champaging and campaigning. Is that Jonathan? Yeah, Jonathan Engineers was out there. He was here. Yo, this is I’m glad everybody had a great time, man. Look at Okay. Looks like a beautiful day. Nobody looks hot. Anything. Just No. Everyone like what do you want? You want me to be sad? Odyssey? Should I be Should I be a jerk and take a picture of myself in the studio and say having the greatest day of my life? Because I don’t know if they understand. I hope they understand when like we’re joking and I’m having a good good time. Are we joking? Oh, I forget the camera can’t even see me. Yeah, we’re joking. Oh, well, I talked about I talked about Guru coming on to the show. Oh, not happening. All right, let me jump back out the bullpen then. YouTube can wait. Hopefully, we get running back up later. I text guru. Here we go. I text guru earlier. I was like, “Yo, man, why don’t you come on the show, man? Come out. at me for a second. He goes, “Yeah, I got you, big dog.” He said, “Can you do the stream?” I said, “Can you do the stream?” He goes, “Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing. It’s nothing.” I said, “All right, man. My dog. Appreciate you.” So, you know, it’s about 3:15 or so. You know, don’t see him backstage. I said, “Hey, cool. Uh, what’s up, big dog? You you get the you get the link?” And he goes, “Uh, he goes, “Yeah, it’s tomorrow, right? I’m on my way to LA. Well, what do you want to talk about, Casey? I don’t know. We can talk about anything at this point. We can talk Oh, okay. I do know what I want to want to talk about. Shout out to Guru. He just got our our our signals crossed a little bit. We got our signals crossed, but it’s all good. Uh, tomorrow probably not going to work for Guru, so I’ll have him on at some point in the near future. That’s my dog, man. I got to talk to Guru. It’s been a minute. Um, Russ Dog asked a question during one of the breaks and he said, “KC, if D Rozan was okay coming off the bench, would you be okay starting with the starting five of Dennis Rutder, Zack Lavine, Keegan at the three, Max at the four, and Domas at the five?” And I and Russ Dog is, no pun intended, that’s my dog. That’s my guy. That’s my guy. We rock and he always shows love. You know what I mean? So, this isn’t directed towards him. This is more in general. Why is everyone so eager to put Demard Rosen on the bench? So, you can play Max, I guess, but that’s another thing. Demard Rosen is and that’s not happening too. It’s not happening. People we talk about like, oh, it’s not happening because of vets and all this other stuff and people don’t like that. It’s also not happening because he’s probably their second best player. I could make the argument he’s your best player. He’s going to be your leading scoreer. I think maybe Lavine steps it up, but I could make the argument that’s your best player and everybody looks at him like he’s the problem. Can I say something as well? Sure. I think we got to dial it down on Max a bit. M I don’t think he doesn’t need to be in your starting lineups, nothing like that. He there’s potential there, but also like all right, fine. Like maybe he wanted to go to the Kings, yada yada. It’s still a second round pick. I think we got to let him develop a little bit more and see what it’s looking like before it’s like, oh yeah, throw Max, Max, Max, Max. Like, I don’t not even saying it’s be bad or anything like that, but I don’t think he’s going to have an immediate impact or anything like that. I think like like me Clifford might. Yeah, I guess I don’t see I I I don’t see it like Drew Eubanks. I know people don’t want to see him play and all that. That’s fine, but if Maxine’s better and all that, play him. But I just think it’s more about like starting Max at the four. I just that’s dial it back. I think I hear you. I definitely hear you on the starting aspect like he’s I wonder defensively he’s going to be able to stay on the court like how raw he is there and stuff like that. He’s going up against actual like NBA players now instead of these summer league guys. He um he actually defended a little bit better than maybe I had heard or thought of. Actually, one of the things that was talked about pre-draft was he was pretty good at protecting the rim for being, you know, 7 foot, 72, whatever. And he was a little bit of a problem um guarding on the perimeter pick and rolls and things of that nature. And what I saw in the summer league was actually the exact opposite. I thought he did a better job than advertised at guarding people on the perimeter and doing that type of stuff. And there was damn near no rim protection from him. And I was like, that’s odd. I didn’t expect to see that. But I’m with you. Like I don’t see him starting or should be in the starting in a conversation about starting. Oh yeah. Like I’m not even sure how much of like how many minutes he should play. He played like I just don’t know how like how how much we’ll see of him start. He’s the rotation. He’s in the rotation for me and I don’t I I would not have Eubanks over him in the rotation where Eubanks might get some tick is backup center situation or flip it. If Rain is the backup center, Eubanks is backup four or something like that. that may be like I don’t I’m not just throwing Eubanks out completely as a play but yeah starting no I’m I’m not with that like I said we rest Russ dog that’s that’s the homie that’s my guy but I agree with you on that one Max I wouldn’t even consider him starting at the four right now and and Demard Rosen he’s not going to bench going to the bench and he shouldn’t go to the bench special ed in the chat says cuz bro is old and not going to be here also the Kings are already lightweight tanking He’s going to win them a few games. They probably should lose. They’re not tanky. Yeah. They’re not lightweight tanking. They’re not super tanking. None of that. No. Like tanking is if they’re if they’re just bad, then they’re just bad. It’s not um it’s at least at the start of the season. Who knows what happens down the stretch, but at the start of the season, if they’re bad, they’re just they’re just a bad team. It’s not on purpose. It’s not because that’s what the plan was or what they’re trying to do. Um, real quick with Let’s because I want to talk about this. Let’s Let’s flip this just a little bit. Do you have the uh clip of Zack Low? Yeah. Let me pull that up. Talking about the Kings. Um, a couple things on the Kings. Yeah. Yeah. He He been talking about the Kings a little bit lately. Um, we’ll play it for you so you guys can hear it. Get the gist of what he’s talking about. And also, you know, I look, I got feelings about it. I got feelings about what he’s got to say. But when you talk about Demar De Rozan, going back to that situation, the guy’s arguably your best player, one of your top two players, he’s not going to the bench. I continue to ask this question um often, and I’ll ask it with James, too, because I know James has been a detractor of Demar, not necessarily the basketball player, but um Demar on this team. Um, the offense wasn’t a problem. Offensively, I don’t think the Kings were an issue. It may not look exactly how you want it to look or it could be better for sure. Like, you want to you want to improve all the time, but offense wasn’t a problem. They were top 10 in scoring last year. Um the offensive rating, I don’t remember that off the top of my head, but it wasn’t in the dumps. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was they weren’t very good on the defensive end. I think they turned the ball over a lot once the uh dear Fox trade happened and that was the lack of the point guard situation. But yeah, I don’t they talk about the ball stopping and the way he plays on the offensive end and all this other stuff. the top 10 offense, least points per game in the league. So, here’s Zach Low. Shout out to the local guy for this clip. Yeah, shout out to the local guy, man. Uh, see him tomorrow. But here’s Zack Low talking about the Kings. Is this the one when he said talking about summer league Dallas andor Minnesota, they have a 2031 swap with the freaking Kings. Any draft? And by the way, one of the talks of Vegas, we’re going to get to another depressing team in a second, is just like what happened to the Kings? just a complete disaster across the board. And they have a top they have an unprotected swap with the Kings that they got for facilitating the Demar De Rozan trade from Chicago to Sacramento. And I think they were very smart. Pretty much it right there. Who was he talking about again that got the the pick from the Demar De Roen trade? Was it the Was it San Antonio? San Antonio’s got this. Yeah, the Spurs the Spurs got that pick cuz we’re making fun of that for however long, but they don’t. The 2031 the pick swap. Yeah, I think that’s the whole point though. They got the Kings pick swap. I think he’s just expecting the Kings to just be horrible by then or something. Well, I also No, I’m not going to let him off the hook. And I I’m not I’m not trying to But he was wrong. Like he’s he’s dead wrong. I don’t think that’s a slip up or And that doesn’t make the Kings situation better or nothing like that, but he’s wrong. He says the Kings gave up an unprotected pick swap or excuse me an unprotected pick to to the Spurs. That’s not what they gave up. They gave up uh um they gave up a pick swap I believe in that deal. Yeah, it’s a pick swap. Yeah. Yeah. And he’s talking about to facilitate the Marta Rosen Tree. Yeah, that’s what he’s talking about. He’s wrong about that. But all right, whatever. Um, I’m of the belief that whatever executives say about the Kings and they’re trying to figure out what went wrong and they’re laughing at the Kings, they talk about they’re a disaster. What Zack Low says about the Kings, he talked about they’re a disaster and all this other stuff. It’s all perfectly fair. It’s all perfectly fair. It is what they’ve earned. It’s where they’re at. Now you have a situation where Monty McNair um kind of put them in a in a in a tough spot. You don’t have him here making the decisions. You got a guy like Scott Perry who’s making the decisions where I’m not saying he’s the second coming, but he’s better and he I believe he’s better than what they’ve had over the last decade. and we’re going to see if he can work out of all this stuff. But whatever Zack Low is talking about outside of just the false information about the unprotected pick, but what the circles in the NBA are saying and all this other stuff, it’s fair. It’s warranted. That’s that’s what they get. That’s what they deserve. Yeah. I’m not going to sit here like we’re going to lie to you about like, oh yeah, the Kings are in a good spot. Like no, they’re not. But also, I’m not sure how much of this is like Scott Perry’s doing going into the season with this roster. I think Dennis Shutter is kind of like a make good of what we have here right now. But I mean, how long do we talk about there being no market for these guys, right? You can want to trade whoever. But if you’re not if you’re just getting pennies on the dollars, there’s nothing. Then what do you what are you doing then? I don’t even know if people are picking up the phone anymore. Exactly. Right now for for anybody, not just Stephan Carter or Malik Monk or anybody like they’re closed for business. It feels like right now. Maybe they’ll maybe it’s a situation where a lot of these guys, they’ll start talking about it and revisiting these potential trade scenarios once training camp gets closer and you see, okay, well, this is what the team looks like on on the court. Maybe it’s something like that. But right now, it doesn’t even feel like phones are ringing or calls are being picked up. Um, but yeah, man, it’s it’s like this is this is the situation that they’re in. I know a lot of people look at it as a doom and gloom situation with the Kings, I don’t necessarily look at it like that. I mean, situations and fortunes change in a heartbeat in this league. And while people aren’t seeing a direction for this team right now or seeing a future for this team right now or a path for them to be successful, that could all change in one off season. That could all change in in in one year. So, one thing that I’ve learned about the NBA, especially this current NBA, is you got to make sure you you give things time to develop. And when you talk about a Scott Perry and him inheriting the situation he did here in Sacramento, that wasn’t his doing. You got to give him a little opportunity to work out of that. So, this the thing too because there was an um ESPN article was like every team’s worst decision the last five years. And I thought it was Zach was actually Zack Cra or how you pronounce his last name. and had the Kings at number five out of all the teams. They had he put like having Tyrese Halleurn and Darren Fox and then losing both of them within three years like last regime did a lot of damage here that Scott Perry is essentially not going to be able to fix right now. Yeah. Like you said they they got set back a lot cuz like when you think about it that way just having those two guys and just more so like you just they did nothing for five years or whatever besides beam team one and and now you have nothing. you’re kind of stuck with Zack Lavine where it’s like he doesn’t have trade value now and now you’re hoping maybe he builds it up otherwise you let him play out final years final year of his deal and now you got flexibility and stuff like that waiting to see what happens with the Rose and they’re in a tough spot you’re in a tough spot and there was a few different times when um I would genuinely it wasn’t trying to be u a contrarian or nothing like that genu genuinely look at what that previous front office did and say hey you know they did do some good things Um, and also looking back at the situation when it was like, “Hey, you got to do something. Move on from, you know, go get Pascal or OG.” And just being honest with that conversation, it was at the time the things we were hearing, it was going to cost you uh Keegan Murray. Would you still be rather to do that? So, there were certain situations where they didn’t make moves and I attempted to look at the other side of it or look at the whole situation. Um, but they they did horrible. They did horrible. where I think they did a really bad job is in the draft. You know, that that that draft, the trade for Herder, um messing up your your potential for trading with with having to pick protections and all that other stuff. It was just it was bad. It was supposed to be bag, too. It was awful. I don’t mean to pile on, but like like I said, it was just really bad. It was awful. will set this team back uh a few years and put them in a hole and in a deficit that they’re trying to work out of to that they didn’t even need to be in either like this all this all could have been avoidable I feel like if you went to Darren Fox or I’ll trade Tyrese that’s fine whether we think Darren Fox is a number one or two is one thing but I do think there was playoff wins to be had with Fox and Sabonis if you built around them the right way how many times do we talk about he keeps drafting guards they keep drafting guards why are they not bringing in wings Why are they not signing wings? Like the team was just never built to the standard of what a normal successful NBA team is now. I It brings up a question. That’s why you just left a lot of you left a lot of meat on the bone. Pause. Well, all right. I don’t have whatever. Yeah, you don’t have a flag. I said pause. Throw my hat. It’s a sad moment. Throw my hat. That’s what they do when they’re out of flags. They throw the hat. Um I’ll ask you this question. It’s been asked before. I I’ll continue to ask it and I’ll ask it to James when he comes on at 3:00. At least that’s what I hope James James, please. We’re really counting on you, right? I got to cut videos. I got to I got to do work. That’s what I hope was going to happen at 3:00. But and I know what James may say and I know what others are going to say like, well, if you would have done your job before, you would have handled business before, uh, you wouldn’t have been in this situation. But the reality of the situation is last summer, apparently there are players that were done with Mike Brown. They were not full on Mike Brown. And I think some coaches were done with Mike Brown. And you had a situation where you could do a couple of different things. You could stick with Mike Brown, bring him back because De’ar Fox wanted Mike Brown around and you would have kept De’ar Fox and said, “Hey, um, you know, this is Fox’s guy. We’ll keep him around. We’ll do whatever.” But you potentially, if you aren’t able to handle it in a correct way, you Deont Sabonis is still upset. Malik Monk is still upset with with Mike Brown. What do you do in that situation if you’re Monty McNair? We’ve talked about it before. I would have just moved on from a both in the offseason. I think you would have moved on from Sabon from from Monty and Fox. I mean from from so from Mike from Mike and Fox. If my money, I’m moving on from Mike and Fox. Like we’ve talked about before, like I just if half my locker room is out and I got one guy like I’m going to keep like if if that was the situation, then it was over right then and there before you traded, before you fired anyone. Like it was over right then and there and it wasn’t going to be salvaged then. Like like I think you have to be real with real real with yourself. It’s like yeah, it was over then. There was no going back from that, right? I don’t think like you can try to trade whoever whatever player but ultimately it was supposed to be Mike Fox and Sabonis. Once it wasn’t and it was one or the other or just two or the three or just whatever you want to throw out it was done. You were not going to make this successful without those guys. And I and I wonder man because then that’s where you find yourself kind of just falling down like oh no like get Zack Lavine or like doing like these little things like oh no try to fix it on the fly meanwhile like no it’s just it’s done it’s cooked. I wonder what happened in that situation. I wonder and this is where like I said it always feels like I’m defending VC run a DV but and maybe you could keep Fox and Mike but also then fine trade whatever players aren’t with Mike and all that stuff and start the rebuild that way but ultimately there was no oh yeah we’re going to still accomplish the same goals. It was over at that point. So because of that, what man, they made the wrong decision, you know, whatever, however they chose to go about it. Yeah. But everybody talked about, man, you had so much going on and and you you were you were moving in such a a good way. What happened? It feels like none of this was going to none of it was going to work. None of it was going to work. It feels like Beam Team one was a mirage. It was a flu. It’s like I said, it seemed like the Kings like just they were out of the dysfunction that one year because they were winning and then time passes and we see what’s happened. It’s like no, they were still dysfunctional. It’s just that team worked that year. Were they dysfunction? Okay, so this I’m trying dysfunctional. Not in the sense where it’s like, oh, it’s so bad, but more so like I don’t we talked about Mike Brown and Monty McNair like, hey, this seems like they’re not on the same page as far as the teams they’re trying to build and all that. Like I mean that like you were they were never on the same page. I don’t think there was ever a cohesive unit where they were able to build off of something and they couldn’t get past it to work together. Yeah. And one of the things and this is where I will blame for background dbe that that that that group lacked leadership. And I know people don’t want to hear this. I know people are always like, “Hey, get out the way and and let these guys, you know, do the basketball stuff.” And if I’m reading it correctly, that seems to be what VC did. And he did too much of that. There should have been somebody in that situation once you got to the summer after being team one where the front office and Mike weren’t on the same page with getting Sasha, with playing Sasha, with getting Dwarte, with Kevin Herder starting and all this other stuff. And people were just doing like weird stuff here and there. There had to be somebody that said, “Hey, everybody cut this out. Get together on the same page so we can get back to winning or else all you guys can leave.” That seems to be the pro. Well, they maybe not fired. Got that in them? Maybe not. Maybe not. which is which is actually which is actually contradictory to what all the reports always are about him. They say he meddles too much and he does too much. And I’m not the people who may be a little closer to the situation may feel that way and may that I’m not challenging that. But to me two things can’t be equally true. He can’t be meddling. What was he meddling in in that off season? Yeah. I’m not I I don’t know. I Yeah. Yeah, I don’t buy into the VC meddling stuff too. I don’t know about before or whatever, but as far as Monty and stuff like recently, like I don’t think that was happening. I think the issue is that VC created this dynamic though if you want to put some heat on him like he created the dynamic where it’s Monty and Wes and just that was a like that was an absolute that I think is all part of VC’s creation and what he saw for this front office. I think it all kind of connects in one way. But I mean, I don’t like you brought up the whole like the basketball guys didn’t do their job and then he steps in and trades for Zack Lavine. Like I don’t necessarily fault him for stepping in, but just more so he made a bad situation just like worse. Just infinitely worse things stepping in and if he wanted Zack Lavine or whoever. Well, even with that one Zack Lavine I don’t think is a problem. Like people always talk about that like it’s a problem and like Zack Lavine set this whole thing back. I disagree with that. the the trade package. I think it cut off your flexibility, but I would have took lesser players, role players, and I think you could have got picks and all that stuff. Or is um Darren Fox just so I can have the opportunity to make more moves this year, just not be so handcuffed to where it’s like, oh yeah, 2027. 2027 cuz they can I think they’ll be a playing team this year and they’ll be competitive and all that, but we’re just like I said, there’s no light at the end of this tunnel. was just 2027 or if they’re able to just make something happen out of nothing. The thing with Lavine and maybe maybe you could have maybe you could have gotten um different role players and stuff like that. Maybe you could have got like like what you what you would have gotten in my opinion. I would have took them being worse with like lesser players than what this season looks like it’s going to be. But this this is what I see. And maybe there’s, you know, we go through it and there’s different contracts and stuff like that, but I’m looking at like Kelvin Johnson and Deon Vel. De Vel is like on the second year of a four or fiveyear deal. He wasn’t going nowhere. He making $28 million a year. Like because you also got to get the if you’re going to trade Fox, which probably the mistake was if you weren’t going to keep Monty McNair around having him execute the trade. Yeah, that was a mistake as well because you should have I don’t know what you would have done in that situation, but he he executed a poor trade. He got a situation where you couldn’t even get no picks from Chicago. You didn’t get no picks from San Antonio. You didn’t get nothing back. Like he did a terrible job. You had he did a he did a terrible job of orchestrating that trade with things that didn’t even have to do with the cap. Like Zack Lavine getting him back and all this. Okay, you need you need the salaries to match up. There ain’t nothing salarywise with saying getting a second rounder or getting a firstrounder or getting um a pick swap or something like that. That’s just you not negotiating. Well, yeah. Like I don’t know who was in there, but also also you look at it and um it’s kind of like um damn, I just lost my point. Oh, hold on. Talk for a second. I’m g get it back right now. I literally just lost my point. But so what my thought with with the De’ar and Fox situation is I don’t know how much you are really going to get back in that situation. And if you are going to trade him, which now you’re dealing with a person who um you you fired Mike Brown and De Fox doesn’t even want to talk through it and wants out. Okay. No, my point is I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt for the Lavine stuff if that was the only deal you looked for. Like we can talk about you couldn’t get Vel and Kell Johnson and those guys. But did you even look for that or was it just tunnel vision on Zack Lavine and that’s it? Because if that’s the case then yeah I can’t give you the benefit of the doubt of nothing else being there. If you didn’t look for it like yeah we want Zack Lavine then yeah like that’s that’s pretty bad. That’s fair. But that that’s where the issue stands for me. Like if you looked around and the Spurs weren’t giving you nothing, the Rockets didn’t want to give you nothing because he wasn’t going to sign a long-term deal this this and that. Oh now we’re just stuck with Zack Lavine. This is what we can do. Then fine. I didn’t love the idea of holding on to Fox through the end of the season at that time. Hindsight may be a little bit different, but I’m going to stick to that take. So, if like Zack Lavine was the last option, fine. But if he was the first and only option for you, that’s a mistake. And whoever was leading that has to wear that. I guess that’s that’s where the problem comes for me. I guess that’s fair. We’ll we’ll talk a little bit more about this, man. Um, we got James Ham coming up at three o’clock. We’ll ask him the situation and and just kind of rehash this thing again, man. Because um ESPN opening up Old Wounds and where did this actually start? I know a lot of people think it started with uh Zack Lavine and asking for Zack Lavine, but I feel like it started way before that with the decision that was made or a decision that was not made um with Monty McNair, Mike Brown, and everything that went on that summer. So, we’ll get into all that, man. and it’s DLO and KC on Sacramento’s number one sports station, ESPN 1320. Yeah, I was going to bring up that point right there. I just immediately slipped my mind. I was like, what the hell was I going to say right now? Then it comes back like a legit lib. Um Morgan, they got uh Minnesota’s first round pick, I think, in 2031 and I think a San Antonio’s second rounder. I think they got that in the deal. Casey, I don’t think we need to stay on topic. We’ll talk about VC’s best routes. That’s what he do. Is VC a run route player? Can he play the rest of the field? Is he a possession receiver? Appreciation, bro. I didn’t watch this fight, but shout out Tim. Go ahead and retire. Ah, yeah. I missed it, too, man. I heard about it. Damn. Yeah. Fondor though. for he he back after after getting knocked out a few years ago. He back. Oh, look. I’m just in time for the Denvers home run. The first one. I don’t know if that was a shot. Like, good for Denvers. Like, good for him. What do you want me like? What do you want me to do? Red Sox have the Phillies up four. I need a win. I’m I’m tapping in. I’m tapping in. I want to see that. Um here’s the other thing. How do we put this? This is just just a thought by me. Did Did the Kings firing Mike Brown give De’arren Fox an out to something he already wanted to do? I don’t I wouldn’t know. I guess he need more of into the mind of Darren and his team and stuff. But And what I mean by that is he he already wanted to leave. He already No. Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I get what you’re saying. I mean, I’m not going to act like, “Oh, things were roses and stuff or like the Kings like they missed the playoffs the year after and all that stuff.” I don’t know. It just I don’t know. You’d have to be more just in tune with what they were thinking. Yeah, it’s Yeah, it is impossible to know cuz if you’re here for like eight years like he was or whatever, like he’s seen some things where it’s like, “All right, like like this is a d blah blah blah.” And then maybe he gets to a point where it’s like, “All right, we’re back to it. I’m not dealing with this anymore. Mike’s here or I’m gone.” And like that was just his final straw. like it wasn’t like he wasn’t just here for three years or anything like he’s been here for a while too. So when but I wouldn’t and I would add I was like okay well if he maybe both things are true but like yeah he was ready to go and that was also like just the final straw that broke the camel’s back or whatever if he if he was ready to have a conversation with somebody which it seems like he wasn’t I’d ask be like okay what do you even before you fire Mike what do you suggest we do like obviously you see this isn’t working these people don’t like each other they do not want to work with each other do we trade Damonte Sabonis do we trade Malik Monk Well, that’s the thing though. Like it was just over as soon as you had those conversations or thought about it. Like there was no fixing this. But I mean it doesn’t make sense also that like fire Mike Brown. A team’s playing well now and he’s still one out. Yeah, that’s it. So like this is a team game as well and it’s like if team is responding and everyone’s playing a little bit better, I figure that’s a good thing. I said, “I don’t know.” So, that’s a great point because it wasn’t like, “Oh, the Kings are so awful now.” Like, no, they started winning some ball games after that. Yeah, they played really well and it was like, yeah, I forgot about that part. It was like, that always didn’t make sense to me. I’ll say that. They’re playing well, DM. Okay. So, back here on DLO and KC ESPN 1320, we got James Ham coming up in a little bit and what we do from time to time and especially on a day like July 23rd. Okay, but the Giants have already played. We talked about the Giants training camp started. 49ers are back at it. Jawan Jennings is on the field. Raiders Raiders training camp started. Uh, we talked about them a little bit. We rehash some of the old disasters of the Kings and we’ve been trying to figure out like get into the minutia of the situation a little bit more. And I asked during the break I I asked a question, did De’Arren Fox use the Mike Brown firing as an excuse to do something he wanted to do anyway, which was leave Sacramento? And it’s impossible without actually talking to Fox. And even if you talk to Fox, who knows if he’s going to be completely honest with you. Um, not that I’m not calling him a liar or nothing like that, but maybe you have to know be in his team to know. Yeah. Like I wasn’t I wasn’t with him, Rich Paul, and the rest of his team and, you know, months before to figure out, hey, this is what you really want to do, and this we need to look at. But it was two things that we do know, three things that we know. The Aaron Fox told them told the Kings during that off seasonason when I think there was an issue with Mike Brown uh wanting a contract extension somehow someway. I don’t know if they talked to him. I don’t know how that word got back, but De’Arren Fox, let it be known, you don’t want to play for another coach. If Mike Brown is fired, he’s going to want out. So, they fire Mike Brown in the middle of the season when things are going all bad. I gave him an extension once a while there. Gave him an extension. Yeah, he didn’t want to do that either. So, they try to, from my understanding, they try to have a conversation with Fox and his team after Mike Brown is fired. This is something that I’ve said a number of different times. I said, once Mike Brown is fired, you got to have a conversation with Fox and be like, “Hey, I know this is the situation. I know what you said, but let’s revisit this. This was the thought process behind it. We still want you here all this other stuff.” From my understanding, they reached out to have that conversation and Fox said, “No, I don’t even want to have this conversation.” Okay. All right. For me personally, I want to be and there’s nothing wrong if he wants to leave Sacramento. I want to be perfectly clear with that. There’s nothing wrong. That’s his prerogative. He’s been here for a while. Maybe he’s got other things that he wants to do. Maybe he doesn’t believe in in the organization or what. That is perfectly fine. He could have felt that way a year and a half before. But if they’re saying, “Hey, we weren’t winning. Um, you know, we had to make a move, but we want you. Let’s sit down and talk and figure out if there’s something that we can work through. I know what you said in the summer, but we really want you here. Let’s talk about this.” And he’s like, “No, we don’t we don’t even need to I don’t even need to hear from you. I don’t even need to hear from you.” Yeah. All right. Well, That’s kind of odd. Yeah, but also I understand being fed up at work and just sometimes you just get to a point where it’s like, “All right, let’s just I’m over it.” Blah, blah, blah. Like trying to make like I said, he was there for eight, seven years or however long it was. He wasn’t just there for a short time. Like he’s been there for Vlad and all that stuff or whatever. And it’s kind of like maybe he just got to a point where he finally reaches breaking points. Like I’m with Mike, that’s fine. The rest of the team don’t like it, but just we need to stick with the guy finally. Mhm. then do that. He’s like, “All right, I’m cool. Like, you guys do what you’re going to do, but I’m pretty fed up and just done with what that what what this is.” Like, I get that, too. I guess that’s And maybe that’s what it is. I don’t think I I don’t necessarily think he was on his way out or just had his mind out before Mike got fired. Well, and and I mean before like this like before there was like before I guess people realized that Mike didn’t necessarily have the locker room. Like I don’t think Fox was aiming his way out before that. like once the stuff was going down like minds changed things like that but that’s ultimately what I think. So then you brought up a good point of they start and and here’s where the whole aspect of he used he potentially used the Mike Brown situation as a way out to do something that he wanted to do anyway. And that’s not what I’m saying. And this is I’m just saying the potential. Yeah, I’m trying to hypothetical. Um, Kings start winning. Kings win like 10 of 11 games and the the the guy that you um that you wanted to express that, hey, we still want you here. Can we talk about what’s going down because we still want to make this work. and he says, “No, I don’t want to talk to you.” Some, “All right, he doesn’t want to talk to us.” All right, man. Let’s I don’t know who initiated the call or whatever, but let’s take the phone call and let’s see. Okay. Well, I’m just throwing out a team. All right, Milwaukee. Are are you interested in De’Arra Fox? And that that’s like the tenor of the conversation. And then all of a sudden, oh, what? Hey. Hey. Yeah, it got messy. It got messy. I didn’t say I didn’t say it didn’t get messy. Get me the hell out of here then. Get me the hell out of here if you going to trade me. I don’t want to be here. Fine. Get me out of here. Wait, I didn’t say all that. I I I didn’t say all that. I It has It has vibes of um Look, bro. Players were ran here. All right, we know that players were ran here. I don’t know whatever, but players were ran here. Obviously, it and I’m not I’m just giving a scenario as I’m not giving a scenario. I’m not saying this is Dear Fox. I’m just we’re we’re on the conversation. I’ve been talking for four hours straight. We’re going to continue to talk. You know, hypotheticals and stuff. It has the vibes of somebody who um who’s in a relationship and they’re like, “Um, I’m kind of over this relationship. I’m going to look like a jerk if I break up with this person, though.” Um just kind of for no reason. Like, they’re really trying. They’re they’re they’re trying to be um a good partner and they want to I’m going to look like a jerk. Well, yeah. That’s what I mean. Like, well, look, check this out. I’mma look like a jerk. And I don’t know how to get out of this. And then the partner comes in and says, “Hey, look, you know, it’s been three days and you’ve le left the sink full of dishes.” Like, are you going to you going to wash the dishes? Like, I’d like for you to wash the dishes. Oh. Oh. So, you think I’m a slob? You think you think I’m a slob? Why don’t you just break up with me then? Why don’t we just break up? All right. Why don’t we just end this? If you think I’m such a slob, why are you with me? Let’s just end this right now. I just asked you to the dishes. This is the Kings versus Darren Fox on Lifetime. [Laughter] But that’s that’s how that’s how this kind of came off. Like I already wanted to leave. You just gave me a reason and I just kind of magnified and like catapulted off that reason to do what I wanted to do anyway. Well, like I said, it’s just that’s that’s just the game of it though. Like Giannis doing the little things like, “Oh, if we don’t win, you’re going to have to trade me stuff.” Like there’s just there’s little plays you run and stuff like that. And that’s just that’s just the way it goes. I feel I don’t follow anyone for it. So I Yeah, and like I said, there’s like like we talked about they fired Mike and started winning after that. Everything should be fine. But if there’s also the aspect of, yeah, Darren’s just fed up with everything that’s going on with the Sacramento Kings and just anyone who runs and just everything going on, there’s not really much that’s going to fix it. Also for him, it could be, yeah, we’re winning games seeing eye single for me. Like maybe he just wasn’t bought into what was happening. Maybe it was just fool’s gold for him. Yeah, potentially. The whole the whole reason we got on this on this conversation was, you know, because um the ESPN article talking about, you know, them trading Fox and Hallebertton and I had that as one of the top five worst moves um the last five years. The reason why I we went down this road is like hallebertton you had to do what you had to do because you wanted to get better. How salvageable was the Fox thing like at whole point after Beam Team won? Oh, pretty salvageable. What Monty had to do was make some moves. I I think but half the roster and I’m being I’m exaggerating. Well, I I don’t I don’t know exactly. Half the roster didn’t like the coach no more. Yeah, but I don’t know when that’s the whole thing. We don’t have like a timeline in front of us of when they turned on Mike or just soued on Mike and stuff. But after beam team one, maybe if you get some wings in here and just you build off of that and everyone’s just kind of you’re winning after that, too. That’s the thing. You’re winning. Mike’s got the guys he wants. Fox is happy because there’s stability and stuff like that. Yeah. I think it could have been fixed that way. I think I I don’t know. But I think I don’t know if they like things just got cooked after BMT one was like, “Oh yeah, I I don’t know truly.” I would judging I’m just I’m just hypothesizing here just off some of the quotes and thinking back Sabonis was at the very least agitated with Mike Brown the summer after being team one after they lost to the Warriors in round one. Yes. Okay. Yes. He was agitated with it then. This is before we’re talking about hey make a deal and you know get better. like we’re already seeds have already began to sprout that at least one of your best players does not like the coach. Okay. Well, I will say this. I don’t think like the moment a problem arises just cooked. Like I think there are ways to fix things or whatever, but I just don’t think they ever did that. It got to a point where it’s just now it’s just beyond fixing where it’s just now you’ve gone another year with Mike didn’t make the playoffs. I’m sure guys that weren’t fond of him or whatever like see look what happened or whatever blah blah blah. And I was like, are you going to give him a contract extension? So like like I like I see both sides of it, I guess. So So let me ask you this and and like I said is I don’t I don’t want to criticize him a little bit, but what if what if Mike Brown let it be known he wanted to move on from Damonte Sabonis after being team one and Sabon Sabonis found out and that relationship is done. that summer. Well, if that’s the case, then yeah, you gotta you gotta probably move off of Mike Brown. Mike Brown. That’s what I’m then. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know when it became an ultimatum for Fox where it’s like, yeah, I’m only playing for Mike Brown or nobody else. If that if that was the whole thing or whatever, but if Mike was out on Sabonis or whatever after that first round series, like, look what Kavon Looney did to him. We did something better. that yeah, maybe it was just cooked after that. Like we I’ve talked about over the last couple weeks how Mike Brown has not had a good head coaching job since he left LeBron the first time. He’s lost locker rooms. He’s had one and done jobs and all that stuff. Maybe it just came down to it. Hey, Mike Brown wasn’t the right guy here as well. I think both things can be true where like the front office, the GMs didn’t do their job either and build the best team and maybe Mike didn’t do his best coaching job or whatever. Like now that we talked like we’ve been talking through this for months, it’s just it was just a big mess that just the dynamic wasn’t going to work and it just seems it was never going to work. And because if Monty believes in Fox and Sabonis and Mike doesn’t, then you’re just fighting the whole time. And I would I would also say basketball-wise, I’m not even here to say Mike Brown was wrong. Yeah. Like he he could have seen like what was on the horizon. Like this ain’t this ain’t enough. Saw the playing game against the Mavericks. Like we can talk truthful about what we see. He could have easily been like, “This ain’t enough. We we we gota that’s that’s the position where we get we got to get better.” You know what I mean? But when Sabonis finds out about that and that relationship is cooked, you’re in a tough spot. Yeah. If if that’s the case, then that’s the case. If and all that stuff, but also there needed to be more give and take with everyone in this organization. Well, I agree. And we’ll bring James Ham in right now of the insiders of the Kings Beat. And James, guess what we’re doing? We We are rehashing where things went wrong with the Kings. Again, every time we try to talk about the current situation, we always just find ourselves talking about the last one and how we got here. This this is this is where we’re at. A lot of it stem from um Zack Low talking about how the the rest of the league is, you know, just bewildered with what the Kings are doing or not doing. Don’t know what’s going on. Um ESPN had an article said that one of the top five worst moves in the last five years was it Jesse was they had they they did an article every team’s worst move over the last five years. The Kings were ranked fifth um out of all the teams with having Tyrese and Fox on the team and losing them both within three years. And all of it is fair and correct. Like I’m not I’m not disparaging that. But what we’re trying to figure out is where where did this stuff where could it have been salvaged and that’s what we’re trying to figure out like when it started when was an issue. Now I know I have an idea of what a lot of people are saying. What you might say is like yeah you make the right move then you know the team’s better and winning cures all maybe that’s the case. But I threw out the situation and the scenario where it could have been accurate. It could be hypothetical. After the first round series loss to the Warriors, Mike Brown looks at this team and says Sabonis is not it. Like that is not how we’re going to advance. That is where we need to upgrade and we may need to trade him. And that’s his outlook on it. Sabonis finds out that that is what’s going on and he’s finished with Mike. I don’t rock with that dude no more. At that point there is a This is before we talk about hey you should have made this trade all this other stuff. There is a distinct fracture in that team. Do you think that’s realistic? That’s a possibility and that could have been salvaged. Okay. So we’re doing a hypothetical here. Hypothetical or it’s real? I mean I mean it’s no it’s no secret that Sabonis wasn’t feeling Mike Brown. We’re trying to figure out when the origins of that took place and if the origins were at a certain time could have everything been salvaged. Um I like first of all I’ve never heard that there was any sort of issue at that point between the two of those guys. Um, after year two, there certainly Okay, so after year one, I will say like Sabonis wasn’t on board with with the two-hour practices and practicing like every single available day to practice practicing. And he wasn’t the only one. Like there were plenty of players who were like like what are we doing? You know, we got to the playoffs and we started to run out of gas. And and part of that is because like look, as players, you didn’t come in good enough shape to make it through that season and to continue on. And that’s where you build up during the summer and you get ready for another year. But there weren’t fractions fractures in and everything that was happening after the the first year uh that I know of. And to be honest with you, I think that’s the summer where Sabonis renegotiated and extended his contract. Um, so there wasn’t an issue going into that season. The next season, again, uh, they started having, uh, a tough go. Mike definitely reigned in the practices. He cut back on the amount of practice. He’s, he cut, uh, back on the length of practices in year two, uh, which I thought was totally noticeable. And like look that that team was um you know we’ve talked about it so many times the the second year of this team. They went out and they they lost to the five worst teams in the NBA and and they also lost another five games because they couldn’t hit free throws at the end of a game. Like there was enough there where that team could have won 50 could have won 52 53 games. And I I don’t think they really took a step back. Uh as much as you just realized that like rolling it back and doing the same thing again wasn’t going to be good enough. You needed to go out and get the players that you should have got at the first trade deadline. You should have, you know, when they acquired Kesler Edwards and a second round pick and that was the only thing they did. The second trade deadline, they went out and they got Robin Lopez and waved him and that’s all they did. like we kept getting to these moments where you could have improved this team and kept pushing forward and then you know if you’re dealing with the same group of guys the same exact coaching staff the same exact voices all around that does get tiresome and you know just by not mixing it up they probably you know allowing things to get stagnant they hurt themselves and so like I don’t think that like I there was a like there was an alleged incident before the start of last season where um you know where there was a falling out or a confrontation um that we’ve heard like some murmurss about between uh Mike and and Sabonis’s general party like his his people and and I’m going to say that like there’s more I’m not going to get into specifics because some of the specifics are like outlandish and and weird and so I I don’t want to dig into that. But um there definitely was like some going into last season some trepidation between uh like Sabonis’ side and Mike Brown’s side, but nothing that couldn’t be like worked through that I could tell. Um the problem was that, you know, there were players on that team that went to management and wanted to go in a different direction before the start of last season. And I don’t think that that, you know, like again, Mike practices people hard. He works too hard. Um, but Sabonis is a warrior and he goes out there and he plays every minute that he can. And so I I don’t know. Uh there are definitely ways in which this thing went sideways, but I don’t think that there was some moment after, you know, the the loss a game seven loss to to a team that was coming off a championship in the Golden State Warriors. I don’t think that there was some massive falling out. If anything, go ahead. No, no, you’re good. You’re good. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, if anything, there was like a falling out over a couple of years where, you know, certain players didn’t they just didn’t want to practice that much. Not not that they don’t want to practice, they don’t want to practice as much as Mike wanted to practice and as long as Mike wanted to practice. I mean, again, um Malik Monk was extremely vocal about it all the time. And and you know, again, for media members, I I said it during that the first season, the first Bean Team season. I’ve covered this team forever and I’ve never had to go to so many practices. Like that’s all we did was go to practice every single day. And there was, you know, anytime you have practice, uh, by league rules, you’re supposed to have media availability. And so they end up talking to us every day. And then they get sick of us because they don’t want to talk to us anymore and get asked the same questions every single day. But certainly as we we get to the next season and then we get to this last season, there was enough, you know, meat on the bones going into last season u where we knew that there were certain players that that would have liked to have gone in different direction than Mike. Um and instead Mike got a two-year contract extension and a pay raise and then he got paid out on that. So, um, yeah, it’s, uh, I I wish the cooler heads would have prevailed, but also, you know, like I kind of wish that there weren’t ultimatums by everybody by different uh, groups of people around the team. Like, there weren’t ultimatums by team people looking to maybe switch the head coach or there weren’t ultimatums by people who clearly wanted Mike Brown to be the head coach and told the team they wouldn’t play for another head coach. And so, yeah, there became certainly fractures, but again, I think a lot of this it came down to complacency. It came down to the fact that no one mixed anything up that you’re literally with the same 10 or 12 guys for for, you know, two and a half years, three years before things really started to unwind. Um, just kind of a weird way. Like to be honest, it was very immature of a of a group to have that kind of take that early. It’s one thing if a guy can’t get you over the hump and get you to win a championship or something, but Mike Brown’s a hell of a coach. I mean, he is. He He was a a very good coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was part of what, five championships? Uh, no, not five, three championships with the um the Golden State Warriors. Like, he’s a very, very good coach. Uh, he came in with a 613 win percentage and left with like a 600 win percentage. And now he’s running a team that very well could be the favorite to to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. So, I just think it’s it’s weird that we get to a point where a team just kind of splintered so quickly. Um, but you know that happens sometimes and it also happens when that’s kind of what some of those players were trained to do. You know, when you sit there and you switch coaches every two years or you switch coaches every every year or you go through a year where you have two coaches or three coaches, you’re kind of trained to like be like, “Okay, what’s next?” And that’s not a good way to sort of handle your business. Um, man, lot of different things there, man. A lot of good stuff, James. A lot of different things. Number one, the reason one of the reasons why I equate potentially right after um game seven as in sometime during that summer or something like that to a possible splintering with him and Sabonis is we’re just going through the timeline and I know you remember this. I think you were there. I know you were on the air but I think you were there. It was like four, five games into this season. They had got beat up by Houston and Sabonis got pissed off at one of the media thing. It came out that Sabonis was pissed off. Like we had all this stuff that we ran yesterday last year that worked. We’re not doing none of it anymore. I don’t know why we’re not doing this. And he was a little grouchy and all this other stuff. I think that might have been around the same time he snapped at Jake Jake Gaden at one of the practices. And my thought was, all right, if he’s got and then you hear things later on about him having an issue with Mike Brown, it if it seems a little zero to 100ish, like we’re only four or five games into the season. So all of a sudden you’re that upset or you’re you’re that frustrated five games into the season after everything was all good. Like we’re all good and we’re we’re friends. We’re working together, you know, we’re we got great um camaraderie and everything. and then five games into the season, you’re upset, you’re frustrated, you’re that frustrated. That’s why I said it feels like maybe it was something even before that moment that had things brewing. That’s the only reason why I bring up that summer. No, I’m with you. I mean, like, look, things went wrong here uh all over the place. Uh that’s that’s for sure. Um, I’ll tell you this, like watching opening night last year and with they lost to Minnesota by two. Um, like VC was was not happy at that point. Like VC sat at in his seat at half court while the arena emptied out and had his hands in his uh his head in his hands and his daughter was sitting there consoling him after game one. And it’s like, man, I get expectations. I do, but you have to also like be patient and realistic and and all that stuff. Like, I think so many people wanted so much so quickly. And what they didn’t do is, you know, like the me the necessary tweaks. And I know we get to certain points in this story where, you know, it gets out that, you know, Mike Brown didn’t want um a player like John Collins. um or that uh you know somebody didn’t want Brandon Ingram. Um like we we’ve seen those points where it’s like hey you know why didn’t this happen or why didn’t this happen? But but at the same time Mike Brown has never been someone who would say hey I don’t want John John Collins and if you trade for him I’m going to quit or I’m just not going to play him. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re we’re saying there’s general conversation where they said, “Hey, what do you think about this player? What do you think about that player?” And as a coach who’s been in the league, who has ties all around the league, who knows half of the coaches in the league, you know, you do you should go to your head coach and say, “Hey, what do you think about this player and how do you think he’d fit?” and that coach is going to have in his head or by making three phone calls like a little dossier in his head about a specific player. And it’s okay for a coach to say, “Hey, I like I’ve done my research and that’s not the type of player that I’m really hoping that we add.” That’s okay. Coaches do it all the time. We just don’t always hear about it. And so, I’m going to say two things. Number one, that’s not the only time that happened. And number two, like why are we finding that out? Why are we finding that out? And it’s like people trying to put blame after the fact. It’s like look, you had Demonus Sabonis walked into that season not happy. I I can guarantee you because we went to his basketball camp during the season and during the summer and he was so clear that they had better deal that they had deals worked out that they just couldn’t get done. And yeah, thanks. We’re really glad we got the Demar Rosen situation taken care of because they’d already missed out on two other players. And it was like, whoa, whoa. Like, what is going on here? And that team wanted to improve. They wanted to take the next step. They wanted to be a championship contender. And when they clearly realize that that’s not the direction that this franchise was going, whether it was the Aaron Fox or it’s De Manis Sabonis or it’s other players that were in that in that locker room, that’s when you start to see fractures and that’s when you start to see things fall apart very quickly and sort of a disconnect between what should be an ultimate goal of everybody pulling the right way and trying to get to the championship or trying to get to Western Conference Finals or trying to better yourself in the playoffs to like, hey, like this is just a mess and like I don’t think I want to be a part of this anymore. And you know, Whezzy brings up here in the chat, King’s almost making a deal. You know how much pressure that puts on players when your name is mentioned on day one that you’re going to get traded at any time and then you don’t get traded and then you don’t get traded for another season and then all of a sudden you do get traded and like it’s just like there’s so much pressure that goes on. Uh, and like the instability, the the stress that these guys are under, like to be honest with you, they didn’t deal with it well. Yeah. I I look at the the situation and I don’t know if we’ll agree on this one at all, but the the the factions and the ultimatums that were given um from multiple different camps, you know, the the opinions, the u ego to a certain degree from multiple different camps. And I know what a lot of people like to believe, and I’m not trying to go against um the reporting or because people, you know, maybe know more than than what I do in these situations, but the the thought process that VC is too involved and needs to let the basketball people do basketball things. I think in this situation, he was too lax. I think this situation talking about from from I I don’t I don’t know a time period, but let’s just say the middle of Beam Team 2 year, the second year. There needed to be somebody in there to show some leadership and calm everything down because to me it was clear multiple people were not on the same page. Whether it was Monti in the front office and Mike Brown, Mike Brown and some of those players, Dear Fox in the front office, Dear Fox, it was all over the place. It was all-encompassing. And they needed some leadership there to say, “Hey, Monty, you got an idea of how you want this this team, this roster to be. Mike Brown, you have an idea of it. Maybe it doesn’t always see eye to eye, but you guys better figure it out. Whatever players are here, figure it out. Period. Darren Fox, you talking about you don’t want to play for a different coach or Damonte Sabonis or Malik Monk, you got a problem with practice and all this other stuff. Figure it out because the way that we’re playing right now, the record, the cohesion, it’s not good enough. And just sitting back there, this is how I feel it went down. This is just my personal opinion. It’s like, oh well, you know, um, Mike and Monty, they don’t see eye to eye. Monty and Wes, you guys deal with it. you’ve got final say on it. Go ahead. That didn’t help nothing out. That didn’t help anything out. I think there was a lack of leadership. And this is where I will point the the finger at the owner. This is this is your team. This is this is your operation. I think he was a little too lax when things were going haywire with all these players, front office, and the coach. Okay. I mean, it’s possible, but I’ll just say this. Just because you don’t hear his name all the time does not mean that VC run a DV stepped back and took like a lesser role. So, real quick, I’ll pause you right there real quick. Let’s I’m going to lay out a specific scenario. Last summer, the players there are players Sabonis Monk and maybe others who don’t want Mike Brown. Mike Brown wants an extension. Dear Fox says, I won’t play for another coach outside of Mike Brown. Like somebody should Hey, stop all this. Cut it out. Cut it out. Damonte Sabonis, I’mma ask you straight up. This is This is Make a decision, VC. Make a decision. Stop listening to everybody. I want Mike Brown to be the coach. Damonte Sabonis, he’s going to be the coach. Malik Monk, he’s going to be the coach. You have a problem with that? If you do, you will leave. I will get you somewhere else. Or Malik Monk, Damonte Sabonis, I understand what you’re saying. Mike Brown, you’re not going to be the coach anymore. Dear Fox, do you have a problem with that? Do you not want to be here? If not, I will make that move right now. There was a bunch of indecision. Like they signed him knowing people didn’t want him here and they they brought him back knowing one guy said, “If you fire him, I’m going to leave.” That should have all been handled right there and we just let No, we just let it happen and then we signed them and we hope for the best. That’s what I’m talking about. I agree with you. Like there should have been a coming coming to Jesus moment with this team where they got everybody in the in the room and like tried to clear the air and tried to get everybody on the same page. And if they couldn’t, people would leave. Well, and you know what? They may have got guys together and they may have said, “Yeah, we’re in. We’re in.” But they weren’t really in. Because that’s what we know now. They weren’t really in. And that’s a problem. And it’s a problem that’s going to resonate with this franchise until you do have a group of people who are in that’s that are all in. And you know, I think the first year Beam Team won, it was the t-shirt said allin, right? They signed a contract. Year two, they signed a contract. There were clearly early in in season 3, there were people that were half in and half out. And Mike talked about it. Mike talked about it openly in front of the media that everybody has to be all in. And if you’re not, the thing’s going to fall apart. And that’s exactly what happened. The thing fell apart. And and again, you got to get on the same page. And and not only that, but you have to make a definitive statement that Mike Brown is a coach, that Monty McNair is the GM, that you guys, first of all, as GM and coach, you need to get on the same page. And I think for a lot of time, they were on the same page. But again, it’s the the inactivity. It’s the coach asking for like not even names, not even putting names on it, just saying you got to get me someone 6’8. You got to get me someone 6’9 that can play defense. And then, you know, coming back with like guys like Kazak Paula, you know, like the the generation before Mo Harkas, like go get me the better version of that. And it’s really difficult. But here we are like years later and they’re still asking the same questions. You know, Isaac Jones is the only other real player 68 69 on this team outside of Keegan Murray. You know, I don’t know what Dario Sarge has left in the tank. I mean, he played 16 games last year. Um I I don’t know what he’s got left in the tank, but and I’m not talking about centers, and even for that matter, Dario Sarge at this point in his career is probably a center anyways. So, like when are you going to address like the elephant in the room? And and you know, I’ll even say like last year one of the other blows that that we just ignore because everybody had kind of had their fill of it and because the you know, for two or three years he was on the trade block, but losing Harrison Barnes, it mattered. Not only did it matter on the court where you went from having a 6’8 guy who could play the three and the four, but it mattered in the locker room and it mattered in in these moments where we’re talking about, hey, let’s pull everybody together cuz and this isn’t a slight on on Demard Rosen at all, but like Demardo Rosen walked in the door and the guy who walks in the door, doesn’t matter how many years he’s played in the league, he doesn’t just instantly walk in the door and start saying, “Hey, you’re all following me right now all get in line behind me. That’s not the way this works. You know, it’s you’re walking into somebody else’s locker room and trying to figure out where you fit. And so I I’ll add that to the list of of reasons why um this team this season, this last season was emotionally fragile and and it played out like from start to finish. Like you felt it right away like, “Oh, this is not it.” And you know, but even before that season started, like what are you doing walking back into the season into a a year with Kevin Herder on the roster, you know? What are you doing walking into the season with with players that you don’t think are all in that that have shown you that they’re struggling or that they they’re no longer they no longer fit the bill. And and I get it like you might not be able to trade those players and and it’s difficult to move on from some of those guys, but at the same time like man, you just let this thing, you know, we we talk about like lowhanging fruit, right? Um like lowhanging fruit, you know what it turns into? It turns into fruit that’s rotting on the ground. Oh, and that’s what it felt like. It it literally felt like just fruit like rotting on the ground everywhere. And it’s like, man, this is it it sucks. But like the inactivity of this group and their inability to move uh to to take the step from a a good team to a really good team to a great team that’s a competitive that’s competing for a championship. Those little windows were there and they flat out missed them. They they were there. and Pascal Syakam just went to the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row and that window was there to acquire him and to go out and make that move. The OG Anobi move was sitting there. The Cam Johnson move was sitting there and at some point you can’t just hold on to your your draft picks or whatever it is you’re holding on to um hoping that you know it’s going to turn into something great because in the end it turned into dust and that’s it. It’s really tough, but you know, way too many mistakes were made here. Not just one or two or it’s not just, you know, some splintering that happened. Like the way that you sometimes impact the splintering is to mix up the roster, is to come back with something different that gives you an opportunity to be better. And I think the one thing I saw from this group was year one and year two, they wanted it so bad to be good and they never got the support from the outside to take that next step. And I we can say, well, you got to be better at this or you got to improve and all that stuff. There’s only so much each of these individual players can do to impact winning. And then you get to a point where it’s like, hey, we got to give get over the hump. I mean, look at what the Boston Celtics did. They kept losing, right? They couldn’t get over the hump. So instead of just going, “Hey, we’re going to go out there with the same exact group and try to get over the hump.” They went out and they got Porzingis. They went out and they got Drew Holiday and they won a championship. And that’s where like you just can’t think that running it back again and again is going to be something that’s impactful. And like now Scott Perry like he doesn’t have much of an option but to run most of this back, you know? I I I think like it’s unfortunate, but like if you got players that that other teams won’t trade for and their contracts they won’t trade for, you’re kind of stuck. And that’s why we keep hearing the idea of 2027 because in the end, you know, that might be their only option is to let some of these contracts expire and to move on in in a way that feels a little more uncomfortable. James, you said a lot a lot of really great stuff right there, but you said one thing in particular that I want to ask you about. I want to talk to you about. It may be uncomfortable for some Kings fans to hear. It may not be what some fans see Kings fans want to hear, but I you said something to me and I just I said this I’ll put it to you like this. This thing never had a chance. It never had a chance. I’ll tell you what that is. We’ll come back with James Ham here on DLO and KC on ESPN 1320. Damn. I leave for three hours. I come back and you’re blowing this thing up, Kenny. Here, let me sit down. Oh, wow. My seat at home is hot. What is happening? when you actually talked nonstop for four hours. Yes, things happen. Yes. Shout out to my man. ESPN didn’t write that article. We got to get Kenny to like get a fidget spinner or something. If ESPN didn’t write that article about Fox and Tyrese, yeah, blame them. Blame Blame uh Kevin Pelton or Yeah. Yeah, mistakes were made. And like look, I it sucks because nobody wants wanted things to to die like that. And I I think one of the things that always stood out to me, Monty McNair said this to me early on. He said, “One of the biggest things I learned from the uh the Daryl Mor experience is to never overpay your own free agents. Sometimes letting someone go like is the is what you have to do.” And I just feel like like I’m taking crazy pills. Like why would you go into an off season knowing that you have like a very short punch list to take your team to another level and never address it, you know? And I I just like for the life of me, I do not understand. Um let’s see. Michael, you’re asking how much of the MLE is left. The Kings have their entire MLE, but the only way to use the MLE is to at this point would be to go in the luxury tax. Um, and and I’ll also tell you that they’re closer to the luxury tax than you think. Um, and so I I have them probably within a million of the luxury tax at this point. They have a couple of un non-G guaranteed deals that would change that a little bit, but um the only way that you can the Kings are hardcapped at the um at the first apron, right? And the difference between the luxury tax and the first apron is about 10 million bucks. And so there’s a problem there. If the Kings, they can use the MLE to go above the luxury tax, but what they can’t do is use the MLE to go above the uh the first apron because they’re hardcapped. So, as of right now, they might have like 10 or 11 million of the MLE. Um, but they’re not going into the into the luxury tax uh for a team that may not be very good. And that’s like I know that to be the case. they are not going in the luxury tax unless um they think that it takes them from a good team uh to a really really great team and or even a marginal team to a great team and there’s not a deal out there that’s sitting on the table that would do that for the Kings at this point. Um, uh, Tyler, there might be there there’s not really enough left for Westbrook. Although, again, they can buy out Sich. They can they can wave Terrence Davis. There are things that they can do to get low enough to sign Westbrook. But where would Russell Westbrook play if he went out and signed him right now? I mean, like I I know people are like fighting me on the fact that Malik Monk is a is a point guard or whatever. But Malik Monk is your primary ball handler off the bench. We all know that to be the case. So like there is no space to sign a a third like heavy usage expectation type point guard like Westbrook. Shout out Justin Verlander today by the way. Hey, it happened. It happened. First win in 17 starts JV. Was that 263? I think I I’m not sure. Yeah, I’m not sure. Yeah, I think it’s his. I think that’s what it is. We were looking up, Jesse. Here we go. Justin Blander. Let’s go, baby. He got that win. I told you he still got it. Let’s go. Nice single, Kenny. We’re back, by the way. How you got to do that to Justin Blander? Shout out little big league. Justin Berlander. Let’s go, boy. I knew you had it. And you see I told you Jesse, you were down. I told you he still got it. He’s good. Let’s go. Shout out JB, man. Got the win today. His first win of the season for the Giants as they beat the Braves nine to three, I think. I believe I believe it was. Um, and they’ve won two in a row. What did they say in major league? Is it two in a row or is it one in a row? Where he goes, you won a game. If you win tomorrow, that’s two in a row. If you win the day after that, that’s what we call a winning streak. That sounds like Major League. It does. We were eight. Never seen Major League. No. You might have to watch that. What? I’ve never like watched it start to finish. You’ll I think you’ll like it. and all the funny jokes and stuffers that people say. I couldn’t remember if they said one, two wins or three wins. I can’t remember. You’re gonna watch it and you’re gonna go, wait, this is the Oakland A story without the turn. Without the turnound of a good team. Yeah. Good job you guys today uh talking to Lawrence Butler. That was a good interview. Lawrence seemed like a good dude, man. So that that was dope. That was dope. He does. He really seems like a good dude. And to be honest with you, every player that we’ve had on has been really like smart, like good teammate, good conversation. Like we’ve like it’s been non-stop. Like anytime we So we’ve had Rooker, we’ve had Se uh Sears, um we’ve had Soderstrom, we’ve had Jacob Wilson, like we’ve had like this is our fifth or sixth A’s interview. Um, they’re all they’ve all been great. And you know, like being a young player on that team right now has to be wild because you’re watching all of a sudden they have two guys that are competing for the AL rookie of the year in Jacob Wilson and now Nick Curts is like what Curts has done is is crazy, man. We we looked up the stats earlier. He had one home run in his first 23 games and he’s only played in 63 games. So he has 18 home runs in his last 40 games and he’s got something like 43 RBI in his last 40 games. Like that is cooking. Yeah. Yeah. I mean he flipped the ball over the fence uh in in left field. He he just went oppo with a ball uh that was like a a curve on the outside corner the other night. It was just crazy to watch his power. rather the two home runs that I feel like I know Tatis hit a bomb that I think they shorted him on some of the the the distance. Um but two the two home runs I seen that are the furthest in Sutter Health Park this year. Nick Curts at the the walk-off against the Astros I think it was that was a bomb to left left or right field that that that went almost to the playground area. It felt like that. That was a monster shot. And then he hit one a couple weeks later, I think against the Blue Jays that went like 80% up the batter’s eye in center field. Oh yeah. Yeah, that was smoked. A monster. Like he’s hit two of the furthest ones I feel like I’ve seen in that ballpark, man. So, um, yeah, good for him. Lawrence Butler. I felt like I remember we were talking about it a couple weeks ago and I felt like he he had let the circumstances of the Sacramento A’s playing in the AAA park. I felt like he had let that affect his game play this year and I felt I I think I even said it on the radar. I felt like he was pouting a little bit about the situation. Um he ended up starting to play really well a little bit after that. Uh, but the interview with you guys, he’s he’s a I didn’t think anything different, but he was a he’s a really good guy, man. And I’m sure the situation is tough. Um, but I expect him to play a little bit better as time goes along. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Butler is uh he finished last season so strong that you you almost wonder if he’s not more of a second half guy. And if that’s the case and he starts rolling here, um yeah, the A’s could make a little bit of noise, but man, they’ve got they’ve got so many young talented uh batters, you know, like they can really hit and they just need to find some more pitching and they need to improve on defense and they have to have guys who find their natural positions because they got a bunch of dudes that, you know, again, Tyler Sodstrom, Lawrence Butler talked about today, the first time he’d ever played left field was at the major league level. That’s just great. The outfield at all. He’d never played the outfield before and the first time he does it at the major league level. And watching him and Maxy who’s a second baseman who’s playing at third, uh even he he came up through their system as a shortstop second baseman. Uh all of a sudden he shifts to third. So, you have all these mistakes being made between a third baseman and a left fielder that have never played the positions where they’re almost running into each other or they’re letting balls fall in the outfield that that just can’t you can’t let that happen. Um, but it’s just because they don’t have the familiarity uh to really figure it all out. Yeah, I’m I’m interested to see what they can do next year. I mean, this year seems pretty cooked, but with those guys, the Sodor Strumm, Wilson, Butler, Curts, um, like you said, those bats, they’re going to be cooking. Bren Rooker still there and everything. So, that the bats are going to be that’s going to be must TV for sure. Um, James, before we went to break, we were talking about the Kings situation. rehashing. You said it earlier and it was perfect like this part of the story like it’s a it’s a story that we read or a show or a movie that we watch all the time and this part of the story is when we figure out um you know what move when it went wrong and everything else like that. It’s just a story of rerun that we always watch talking about this Kings team and what happened to the beam team. But you said something that struck a chord with me and you talked about how when they lost Harrison Barnes, they lost him on they lost him on the court with what he was able to do at a guy 68, 69 could play the three and the four and they lost him in that locker room with his leadership and all this other stuff. and D. Rozan comes in here and, you know, maybe he has his imprint on the on the locker room a little too much or whatever the case may be. I say I say if the culture and the identity of your team in that locker room gets to the point where it’s an emotionally fragile situation like you had said earlier then you never had the people to begin with like if Sabonis or Dear Fox isn’t able to stabilize that locker room and to stabilize that that this franchise from being emotionally unstable. There is no Pascal Seakum or OG Anobi that’s going to get it done because they’re not franchise players. What that tells me is you need a franchise guy, a franchise pillar and Sabonis and Fox were never that because of the slight uh hint of adversity or things not going their way, they’re not going to hold this thing together. That’s what it says to me. Tell me if maybe I’m reading too much into it or misinterpreting what you’re saying, but I think there’s a real possibility that as much as people love the B team, love Sabonis, Fox, oh, we had these guys and we had something going, these guys weren’t built to be pillars of a franchise. It doesn’t mean they’re not good players or can’t be vital to a team success, but you’re always going to need better players around them or a better player at least. Okay, so here would be my response. Um, like first of all, like a locker room is is a delicate balance of a lot of things, right? Um, but like who who’s the dynasty that we’ve been dealing with for the last decade and a half? The Warriors. The Warriors. And what happened when um Draymond Green decided to punch uh Jordan Pool in the face when went bad? They get to the second round of the playoffs, but it went bad. the entire thing crumbled, right? Like that season crumbled. Well, that season they didn’t have And they still had Steph there, right? Clay still there. Draymond’s still there. Like like look, an NBA locker room is delicate. Like it it can be like a momentary thing where things go south. And just because like things got out of control in one season doesn’t mean things were going to get out of control and stay out of control. Like again, you brought in a new voice and the team started winning. The the team started playing well in Doug Christie. Sometimes that’s what it is. You need a new voice. You need something that changes the temperature and changes everything, right? And I think Doug has been that voice and you hope that that carries over, right? Because it’s one thing to be a leader of men. It’s another thing to to carry the the job for 82 games for four or five years or or three years or or eight years or 10 years. Like like that sometimes that that idea of the fresh voice but also that connector voice sometimes it runs out of gas and you got to deal with that when it comes. But like look, I I think that they in my opinion, they just panicked midway through the season and and I don’t know if that’s because Monty and Wes saw the writing on the wall and figured, oh, if we don’t make changes, we’re going to we’re going to lose this thing. Um, but they went out and they made mistakes and they made egregious mistakes and and it started in the offseason before they even got to the regular season when they let like one deal after another slip through their fingers. Uh, then they made what looks more and more like a panic move to sign and trade for Demar De Rozan. A and then on top of that, then they made a series of like small blunders that really hurt them. Like I I’ve mentioned this so many times, but how much different does that team look if they’ve got three second round picks early in the season and can go out and try to get a Jonas Valenunis or Jake Larabia in in December versus in February? And that it’s just a totally different look. It’s a different team. What does that team look like if they have Cam Johnson instead of Demar De Rozan? And like it’s it’s I’ve said this too many times, but it’s death by a thousand paper cuts. Like they just hurt themselves. And not only that, but the final move to move on from De’aran Fox and to take back Zack Lavine is a move that cripples a franchise. And it’s why we keep hearing about 2027. Like this is a like a ship with the mass snapped in half. and you got to figure out how to get to, you know, your next port. And that next port is 2027, unless somehow somebody figures out a way to to put the thing back together at mid-flight. And so they just really really hurt themselves by by a series of of moves that looked, you know, like haphazard and like knee-jerk. And so you’re hoping that that again Scott Perry, he’s got a tall task, man. This isn’t easy. And I think everyone’s excited about guys like Nick Clifford. Everyone’s excited. Uh oh. Is this a ham freeze? This a ham freeze. This a ham freeze, ladies and gents. We have a ham freeze. I feel like this might be my first solo ham freeze. Wow. Wow, this is a moment right here. Shout out to back. There he is. He’s back. He’s back. It was my first solo ham freeze at 346. Yeah, my bad. Yeah, I think everyone’s so excited about some of the young players and all that’s going on right now. And and that’s fine, but they have to remember that those young players aren’t players that can come in and change the entire direction of a franchise on day one. And you know, like almost every move that we’ve seen this off season is is a player is an acquisition that doesn’t block maybe a younger player from playing. And you know, it adds depth. We’ve seen the depth. You know, the the Drew Eubanks acquisition, Dario Sarich, uh Doug McDermott, like these are acquisitions. Even a Dennis Shruder, they don’t block what could be next. and and that’s kind of the way that Scott Perry has to, you know, rebuild this thing over the next year or two. So, here’s what I’ll say, James. We we wind it a little bit back here to your original point of and what I talked about at least about not having the right leaderships, right? Not having the right pillars of franchise players. We talked about that year where Draymond Green punches Jordan Pool in the face and how you said how things fell apart. That was the same year their leader, their pillar found a way to stay out of the plan. He found a way. And that’s what I’m talking about. I’m not saying everything going good and you’re a great leader. Then what do you do when things are disastrous? That year they found a way to stay out of the plan. That year they found a way to beat those other two leaders that we’re talking about or that we thought were leaders and franchise players in Sacramento and win in the first round and move on to the second round. That year there was adversity in that series. They were down 20 to that Kings team. They won four of the next five to win that series. That’s because when things get rocky, when Draymond gets suspended, when Draymond punches somebody, when they’re down 20, they have somebody that will not let the team emotionally fall apart and emotionally be fragile. And that’s my point. in their worst moment, they had the leader, and I’m I understand he’s just a better player overall, but they had the leadership to not let them completely fall apart the way we’ve seen the last two years with the Sacramento Kings with Sabonis and Fox supposeding to be those guys. No, I I get that Steph is incredible, right? But that team also won the championship the year before and got bounced in the second round of the playoffs and barely made the playoffs and had to fight. They had to fight tooth and nail to become the six seed in the last like week and a half of the season. Yeah. And the Kings had to fight tooth and nail a couple a couple years ago to avoid the playin or get into the playoffs and they couldn’t do it because the second something goes wrong, they don’t have the leadership to navigate through that. And I’m talking and I’m also talking about net leadership. This is what I talked about earlier from top to bottom. They don’t have leadership up at the top that when things get fragile, when things went get a little dicey, somebody to come in here and and make sure everybody stays on focus on the task at hand. And I don’t think they have it at the top. I don’t think they have it in the locker room. I don’t think they had it in the locker room because when everything was perfect in 2022 23, it was good. That’s not real leadership to me. Real leadership to me is when when things are getting tough, when things are getting a light, a little dicey, how do you handle it? Now, all of a sudden, when things are getting a little dicey, we want to blame the coach for having extra practices. Now, when things are getting a little dicey, we’re going to talk about, well, I don’t want to play for nobody but this coach because, well, we don’t have this. Now, when things are a little dicey, we’re going on podcast and we’re talking about, well, we just don’t have enough. They never had the true leadership that we’re talking about. Oh, I I don’t like I mean I you’re probably right. Like I mean in all honesty, you have a bunch of quiet guys in that locker room. You always have. And and even now like who’s going to be the leader this year? Like I don’t know. I don’t know who that is. I mean again like this isn’t this don’t take this as a shot, but I mean your main acquisition is a guy who just played for five teams in the last two years. he’s on his 16 and to start the third year like again that’s you’re not expecting Dennis Shruder to walk in the door and take control of the team you know it’s going to have to come from Doug Christie it’s going to have to come from some of the players that are in that locker room and you know sometimes it does mean that somebody’s got to step up that isn’t comfortable because I’ll tell you one of the leaders on this team the last two years Trey Lyles and you let him go in free agency and saying he’s not coming back. At least it doesn’t look like right now. So, like this is tough. Um, you got to figure out, you know, how it is that you self-regulate, how it is that it doesn’t look like it did at the end of last season because I got to be honest, the end of last season there was there was no self self-regulation. And if and if there was, it was Trey Lyles who was who was, you know, making an impact by saying, “Hey, that’s not okay. That’s not acceptable.” So, I’m intrigued to see how this thing plays out. Um, and again, I I feel bad uh for for a guy like Scott Perry who’s walking into a situation that’s like it’s tough. Like, this is there are so many minefields hiding in this place. Um, but also, you know, Doug Christie, like this is his opportunity to come back and and be the guy for his team. Maybe they’re able to catch lightning in a bottle. Maybe they’re able, you know, maybe these conversations that Doug has during the off season or coming into training camp is what matters. But I also know it’s going to be very very difficult that if he doesn’t have 100% buyin from one from one of his very very expensive players. Sitting those guys is not going to be easy for Doug. You know, if you don’t get 100% buyin from Zack Lavine, from Demanis Simonas, from Demar De Rozan, and and you’ve got to sit one of those guys, do you can you do it? and and that’s tough. Yeah. Just just move on from him because like I said at this point, I don’t look at uh Zack Lavine as a locker room leader. I do look at D Rozan that way. I think D Rozan um actually like it’s almost like the the the playing game was a little bit of microcosm what it is. I don’t know if Demar D Rozan wants to shoot a bunch of times or not, but he looks around he said nobody else is doing it so I’ll do it. May that may be how he looks at the leadership thing. Nobody else is stepping up in this locker room so I’ll do it. So if they don’t have that guy on the roster, everybody need to be fair game because it the the beam team year is looking more like an admiration like was the big beginning that should have been the beginning for a long sustained time of winning. It looks like more of a fluke and an admiration than anything cuz once again if you didn’t have the pillars and the stability for the people to get you through the tough times it was never going to last. No matter no matter what the tough time was, whether it’s not getting a player, whether it’s not liking a coach, whether it’s a losing streak, if if you’re not if you don’t have the the the foundation, the true solid foundation, it’s not going to make it through any of that stuff. And it didn’t. Well, yeah. I I agree. I agree with that. Like, look, um we talked about this in the past, like the old biblical verse, you know, build your house on rock, don’t build your house on sand. Um, you know, and and I do feel like the Kings built their house on sand here. Uh, and and I didn’t feel that way year one, year two. Um, I thought they were building something, but they just didn’t take the necessary, you know, steps to make sure that their foundation was secure and now we’re dealing with the repercussions. And more specifically, Scott Perry’s dealing with the repercussions. So, at least you have a guy who, you know, has contacts all over the league that might be able to swing a deal here or there that makes sense to make this roster better. Um, but at the same time, like you’re you’re just walking the tight rope at all times because the right thing to do at this point probably was to hit the reset button and start over completely and and to purge this team. And that’s what you’re hearing right now from national media all over the place. Like, what are the Kings doing? But that’s just not the reality of of of where this this franchise is. You know, again, we talked about this before. You just brought Major League Baseball into Sacramento. And whether that’s going great or not, whether the A’s are winning or not, you just brought in another product that that people are paying money to. And you know, there’s only so much money going around. And you know, the I I just don’t see the Kings doing something crazy like slashing ticket prices and saying, “Hey, we’re going to drop back and we’re we’re going to try our best to make this thing work, but we also understand that the product on the court might not be the what it what we hope that it would be.” And and then the tough thing is that two years from now, three years from now, you’re going to be rebuilding your fan base again. And then that’s some that’s some place nobody wants to go to. But we appreciate James Ham pulling up on us like he always does at 3:00. Casey and Friends is going to be back maybe tomorrow, but DLO and Casey is always here and the insiders are as well. Starts at 10:00 a.m. right here on ESPN 1320, Sacramento’s number one sports station. Vomosantes. There we go. My bad, Ham. I should have I asked you a question a little late. That was I saw it at the last second like oh he needs me to rap. I asked you a question at like 5430. I was like, “That’s not good job.” Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sweet. All right, guys. You guys know the deal, man. I got to go get this other station taken care of. Appreciate you. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, man. We got a We got a fun day going on tomorrow, man. So, y’all be good.
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0:00 Stream starts
1:30 The Insiders
19:00 break
22:00 slow down on the training camp overreactions
43:30 break
50:00 Lawrence Butler
59:30 break
1:05:00 Not expecting Keegan Murray to hit another level
1:19:00 break
1:22:00 Kings backup big depth
1:42:20 break
1:48:00 The Handoff with KC
2:20:00 D-Lo & KC
2:30:00 break
2:34:00 Life at Audacy
2:46:00 break
2:51:00 Jauan Jennings at niners camp
3:06:00 Kings decisions with Devin Carter
3:14:00 break
3:19:00 49ers-Raiders fan rivalry
3:44:30 break
3:50:00 49ers & Raiders expectations
4:15:00 break
4:20:00 How did the Kings get here?
4:46:55 break
5:02:00 James Ham
5:29:30 break
5:34:00 More Ham
5:57:30 See you guys tomorrow
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2 Comments
This is the 9865th time that quitter, fraud and failure franchise player fox has been mentioned on this program.
Fox was always the problem. He was never a LEADER. Never THE GUY.
Fox was just the default ball hog ball chucker on the kings that was allowed to chuck up 25 shots. Someone had to shoot the bball 25 times. If you're mad that keegan hasn't DEVELOP. Or that weird stretch of games when HB just didn't want to shoot. Yes. It was fox's fault. Why was fox shooting the bball 12-13 threes per game, by himself.
The nba world is an open book. You just have to dig in there and find things about players.
Ham and D-Lo mentioned it every once in a while, these nba coaches talks to each other. All of the front office people on other teams TALK with each other.
Fox is NOT THAT VALUABLE as most of you fox fans think.
Coach pop was running team usa for a few years. Now it's Grant Hill and Steve kerr. All of them don't WANT FOX on team usa.
The nba coaching on every team didn't even select fox to an allstar reserve.
The past 8-9 months, it was proven that fox ISN'T THE GUY.
Heck, Mike Brown (the only coach fox will play for, that coach) doesn't even like fox. Remember Mike Brown "encouraging" fox to PLAY HARDER in his media interviews, about feeling slighted by others. Use it as motivation to prove other wrong.
But knowing fox, he is who is is, HE'S TOO COOL and doesn't care.
I actually can see Keegan ceiling be Kris Middleton. I absolutely can see that and didnt even think of it.
That actually should give the fanbase hope as far in regard to Keegan.
He seems somewhat stuck to Me in his role in Sacramento so like Middleton it might take Keegan being traded.
Middleton blossomed after being traded from Detroit to Milwaukee.
Out of all the 2nd tier scorers in the NBA Middleton would be literally THE one i could see Keegan becoming.
When He was drafted i thought Hed be more Danny Granger type. Gramger's ppg increased every season until it peaked out at around 27ppg two seasons in A row.
Granger is another former NBA player i could see Keegan becoming but Granger had a bag and could create off the dribble but He worked on his Game ALOT