2024 NBA Offseason Re-Grades: The Western Conference

2024 NBA Offseason Re-Grades: The Western Conference

What is up fellow sickos? I am Dan Favlli coming at you with the one, the only, the certified fantabulous Mr. Grant Hughes as members of team hashtagaccountability. We are here today. We are gathered here today to regrade the 2024 NBA offseason for every Western Conference team. We already did the East. Go back and check it out. The link will be in the pod and YouTube description, I believe. So, we went through that. We’re going to go through the West. Now, we have not done our report cards for the 2025 offseason yet. We refuse to, at least as of now, until those four restricted free agents, you know, wrap up their damn business. That’s what we’re waiting for, everybody. Grant, before we get started, how the heck are you? Uh, I’m just waiting for Cam Thomas to end the off seasonason. That’s I really We’ve talked about four guys, but it’s really just him, right? Like, is he going to take the qualifying offer? No. You know what? I like Are you waiting around and like hoping that just like, “Oh, I just need closure.” Like I I have sort of I have wondered a little bit why like Utah or even Brooklyn hasn’t maybe tried like Brooklyn saying, “Well, let’s just renounce Thomas and go give an offer sheet to Quenton Grimes.” I’ve thought about that a little bit, but that’s about it. But that’s on brand for you cuz that’s like your favorite thing like the the [ __ ] with other teams with offer sheets. You really you really love it and I respect We used to be a proper country where NBA general managers would give out offer sheets to other teams as RFAS to [ __ ] with. I mean, you know who was the team that used to be the captain of it? The Nets themselves. Yes. Sean Marx is still by same guy by the way. I mean I guess maybe he’s evolved or maybe we’ve all realized that like actually he drafted four guards. Maybe that’s too I don’t know. He’s evolved into some very different thinking. We’ll see how that plays out. Yeah. Uh no I I do miss the days I do miss the days of the Allen Crab shenanigans and uh so on and so forth. But uh that’ll end when it ends. We’re talking We’re going further back though because we’re going to talk about uh regrading our grades from last offseason. And I kind of wanted to put a finer point on what we’re doing here. Um which is to say like it’s really just reemphasizing kind of some things we touched on, but let’s like really hit the a couple things in terms of the criteria. One, every team has different goals and we’re doing our best to I don’t know guess what those goals are. Sometimes it’s obvious, right? like contenders are trying to contend, rebuilders are rebuilding. It’s the mushy middle that gets like trickier. And so as we’re grading how moves worked out, what we’re really kind of doing is is answering the question of how closely did this team’s moves align with its goals as nearly as we can tell what those goals are. And then if we don’t agree with like what a team was trying to do just on a base level, it’s probably going to hurt the grade. Because if we think you should be rebuilding and you’re making short-sighted moves, even if those short-sighted moves are like, okay, well that was a decent value, like you’re going to top out at a pretty low grade because we just don’t agree that that’s what you should have been doing on a macro level. Um, so that’s one. And then two, like I think maybe we can discuss this, but I think the main focus of this is more process than result. Uh, so like that made last edition’s Sixers grade really tricky because we like the ironically talking process. Like we like the process of what the Sixers did in the moment. The results were terrible and we really had an issue like trying to I didn’t I just gave him an F because I guess I fixated on the results. But, you know, we are more processoriented, I guess. Like, was this a good move in theory in light of what this team was trying to do at the time, right? And if a guy suffers a catastrophic injury that ruins that transaction, like, well, I don’t know, bad result, but I at least am going to try to be more process focused, I don’t know how you feel about it. But, uh, you can weigh in on that or let me know. Is there any other sort of criteria that we need to lay out more clearly before we start? Well, I think the process is important. I think it’s also we have to acknowledge what would the alternative route have looked like and I think this is going to apply a lot to the current Denver Nuggets off seasonason for me where I’ve been fairly critical or I should say skeptical of the MPJ for Cam Johnson trade and like I still have sticking points with it like you could have negotiated to get Zeke Naji in there would be one of my sticking points but when you start to go through the list of like what else could Denver have done with it 2032 first round pick sure I it doesn’t seem like what the Bulls weren’t going to give you Kobe White and that just kind of that fixes one problem but then creates another when he’s headed to free agency. So after this year um and then the other thing is I do kind of focus a little bit on well like what happened they did this what but you mentioned you’re not too focused on the results but like it kind of matters that in this instance we talked about with the Lakers the Max Christie deal that ends up being used to acquire Luca Donuch. I don’t know how to and the Lakers off seasonason in general. I don’t want to get too deep into it because this is part of it, but like we were pretty critical of them not being more aggressive. They ended up like had they traded some first round picks maybe they wouldn’t have been able to get Luca Donic. Now I don’t think that they were sitting there waiting for Luca Donuch. They even seemed surprised by that. But I do think that matters too as to like maybe what did the or if the Warriors they signed some of these guys and then Kyle Anderson’s able to be put into the Jimmy Butler trade or we we ironically criticize them for not being more aggressive going after Paul George right by not doing that it turned into the helped him turn into the Jimmy Butler trade. So that’s not everything but I do because they’re not sitting there saying well we’re not going to go after Paul George because we know he’s going to be injured and we know we’re going to get Jimmy Butler for much less. Right. So, it’s it’s a tough balance, but I think it’s important to at least discuss. I’m I I agree with that. I’m a little less comfortable like assuming I know what the roads not taken might have been. I I think that is absolutely a factor and there are some cases like Denver like you brought up where it’s like I think it is fair to consider like opportunity cost things and like other options that you decided to forego in favor of the the thing you did. Um, I I will weigh that a little bit, but I’m going to try harder to just kind of look at assuming they canvased all their options at the time and or were aware of like what else they might have been able to do reasonably. Uh, I’m going to assume that like they decided this was the best choice and from a processbased perspective, do I ag do I agree with that, you know, in the moment? and then maybe factor in the results of like how did this turn out? But it I’m not going to assign a percentage to it, but it’s like 9010 or 8020 process versus result and somewhere sprinkled in there. By the way, these are subjective like we don’t have a rubric for this like but the rubric is a C is average people get or met expectations. People always get mad that their team got a C and in some instances we’re here for the debate. I just don’t like the rage over like how like C has met expectations and so if you expected them to do less than that and they were able to do more outline it in the comments or our discord go link to the podcast YouTube description we’ll read it maybe respond to it but like it’s not like a C isn’t really an insult now if they’re being downgraded from like an A to a C like then we have the discussion and I think the the final note here would be uh we didn’t we great we did these graves I think in September it was September 5th 2024. So, we will note the moves that weren’t part of the grid. We’re going to throw the transactions that we reacted to last year and then at the end of it going through the big stuff if there was anything notable like in the Timberwolves’ case. Shocker, the Carnathy Towns trade had not gone down yet um when we were grading. So, that will be a part of it. I think that’s it on my notes. How about yourself? I I I’ll call it there. I think I think that’s a sufficient preamble. Um also though, no, sorry, just kidding. Last thing, we’re going to like work big to small. Um, we are focusing the grades mainly on the the big moves have the biggest influence. I feel like that’s intuitive, but want to try to lay that out up front. All right, we begin not alphabetically. It’s separated by division. I have no idea who’s first. The Dallas Mavericks. I can take us through some of the big stuff. They traded Ariel Huckporty. I think that’s an F right there. Uh, so they did the Tim Hardway Jr. trade that ended up they had to give up seconds. They got Quinton Grimes back, the best player in the deal. Then used him to get Caleb Martin. That’s a weird transactions of events. Naji Marshall for part of the mid-level. We loved that deal in real time. We both really liked the Klay Thompson deal. Um they signed him for three years and $50 million. They had Spencer Denwitty on a one-year minimum as well. Um and then getting Brandon Williams on a two-way ends up being pretty big when you looked at what he did last season and how they needed him to kind of fill those holes after the Luca Donic trade. So, we will reveal what our grades were and are going from towards the end. Um, but Grant, like how do you square away all of this knowing what the Mavericks then did during the season just by blowing it all to hell? I mean, the the the [ __ ] analysis is basically like these are incredible moves because they’re all pretty good and we know that they’re capable of really stupid decision-making, which they did later. Uh, that’s not really going to factor in. I I don’t know. I I think this team and the Lakers are both kind of like, what do we do with them? because the Luca trade just like wasn’t foreseeable coming down the pike and just totally redefined their seasons. And so I I I kind of have to divorce the Luca. I I think I’m viewing these moves like the Mavericks did at the time, which I think was how does this build a good supporting cast around Luca who took us to the finals like two two months ago or like what you know at the time basically. Um, so we I’ll be honest, like I listened back to this and I was kind of surprised we were as high on it as we were. We love the Naji Marshall sign. I think maybe that had a big a big uh part to play because there was like, oh, you’re losing Hardway and you’re losing Derrick Jones Jr. Can Naji Marshall just replace both of those guys potentially for part of the mid-level? Um, I think I think that’s still like a smart signing. Um, I I also think that the Klay Thompson deal like looks a little worse from a results standpoint cuz he did basically just have like his worst season since he was a rookie. Um, but he was still like a good he shot it fine. Like shot it great for anybody else. Shot it fine for him and filled the role they they needed him to fill uh at three years 50. That’s totally fine. And then Josh Green, who you know you know my stance on Josh Green, uh, hated to lose him, but like he was a zero for, you know, he didn’t do anything. So, it didn’t cost them much. Um, overall, this is still a very good off season, I think. Uh, if we can just divorce the whole like, well, Luca’s not in the middle of it anymore. Do you agree with that? Like, are you still pretty high on it? Yeah, I I am still very high on it. I think Clay, you could make the case, is arguably more important now because of just their need for spacing when it looks like how they’re going to use Cooper flag, the Kyrie Irving injury. That’s I just think the deal is fine. Like, it’s not a moveable. What I also liked about that trade, which you were either indifferent to or skeptical of, I thought they did great to get off of Josh Green’s contract. Yeah. Well, you know, one of these days I’m going to I’m going to give up the ghost on Josh Green. I it that day was not September whatever 2024. I was still very much in on Josh Green at the time. I don’t The thing that I’m getting tripped up on is just the order of operations with Tim Hardaway Jr. and seconds becoming Quentyn Grimes becoming Cayla Martin is just so bizarre. but looks like a disastrous acquisition/ that contract isn’t great. We loved remember when he didn’t he went to the Sixers and we applauded them for that. This isn’t Cody Martin where it’s been a few years since he’s been available. So that could still they have a lot of rangy defenders on this team right now and so whether or not you agree with the direction now I think matters but their off season that they had last summer doesn’t actually look worse. Even if you want to figure out what are they doing right now, there’s nothing that hamstrings them long term. You look at Klay Thompson and say, “Well, if your window is Cooper flag, yeah, that’s weird.” But the Mavs still f right there. The Mavs also right now still fancy their window as right now. Like the Nico Harrison still cringey that oh, I think Mavs fans are understanding the plan now as as if the plan was to get lucky in the lottery. So even if you want to take into account what happened with Luca, I don’t think that changes how you view this off this last off seasonason at all. I just don’t think I just don’t think you can factor in anything about the Luca trade. I think I it just it’s too there’s too many like that introduces too many variables and it complicates things too much. I think maybe we could jump to to how we’ve changed their grades. So you had them at an A+. I had them at an A. I I should say too part of that was like the Mavericks didn’t exactly go into the offseason looking like a team with a lot of flexibility or options, right? Like so, so that is a huge we should have maybe mentioned that earlier. That’s a huge component. Often times we’re grading a team on the basis of like what it did with the resources available and it looked like the Mavs did not have much in the way of resources at the time. So that’s part of it. Um you’ve gone down to an A minus. I went from uh down to a B+. Still highly favorable grades. Um, I think if anything I’m knocking it down because Thompson was a little worse and because the Grimes thing was just a weird series of transactions that honestly if they just kept Quentyn Grimes and like he’d been Sixers Quinton Grimes, this would the grade wouldn’t have changed for me. No, it wouldn’t have. But I think he he would have been more useful on this team than Kayla Martin. Kayla Mar’s just redundant in a bunch of ways. Uh, I did I didn’t ding them for this, but we were high on the fact that they extended Nico Harrison last summer. I would like to point out that’s maybe maybe that’s an F. Maybe we need to scrap everything we just said. Would you like to take us through the Houston Rockets off season? Yep. Drafted a pod favorite Reed Shepard at number three. That was a big one. Uh they traded number four. This may seem small, but they traded number 44 who became Pella Larson for AJ Griffin who became not an NBA player anymore. Um we like Pella Larson. AJ Griffin. Wish him the best, but he’s out of the league. Uh brought back Jeff Green picked up Jan Tate’s option. Um Aaron Holiday, no no big deal there. Jonathan Williams, uh, Nfali, Dante, and Jack McVey. A bunch of two ways there. So, uh, this really kind of comes down to Shephard. And then there were some transactions we did not grade that, uh, I think probably need to be, uh, heavily factored in. And I will address my regrade when we get to it because I actually forgot. I didn’t think about the offseason signings that were not factors. Alprin Shenun and Jaylen Green both got their extensions. Uh, so maybe we can talk about those individually as we get to them. But we loved their off season. Uh, we were both high on them. I I’ll just spoiler it. I’m we’re still high on them and I’m going to have to amend my grade to reflect that. Uh, you had we both had A minuses. You moved up to an A. I moved to a B+. I think in light of ShenGun and Jaylen Green who again we’re getting too far into the results but the the process of that Jaylen Green contract which was from the moment it was signed everyone agreed designed to be traded got traded and got you Kevin Durant. So I if I were rereggrading my regrade uh I would be up there with with you at an A instead of a B+ ultimately. I think in this case though the results would be important because had we graded the Jail and Green extension we would have said that’s an overpay in a vacuum and they turned it around and helped it helped get Kevin Durant and it didn’t drum up your opportunity cost much because the number 10 pick you would have had a hard time fitting they had to get rid of Cam Whitmore afterwards because they didn’t think they had playing time. They ended up selling low on him but like it almost when you look at well they had to send out other salary to make the money work anyway and Brooks makes sense. it. The Jaylen Green contract ended up not costing them at all. So that’s big. But what I would point out is so five years 185 million for Alper and Shangon. The scale the way that they gamed it perfect. They are like the only team that seems to negotiate with their high-profile. They’re doing it right now with Kevin Durant. They did it with Jabari Smith Jr. Alpern Shenun la honestly last summer more than this summer had a case to be considered a max player. Oh yeah. And this extension, even with him kind of having a down efficiency year, it doesn’t look any worse. If anything, just kind of knowing what we expect from other guys or seeing what other guys money are getting, it makes you feel better about it. So, I just home run off season by them. And by the way, part of this for me, and I’m not kidding, is just the Reed Shepard pick. There’s nothing that has happened that makes me like they should have taken player X. No, I think Reed Shepard was the pick. I think he’s going to be the best player from that draft class and I think he proved a lot of that at least moments in summer league and maybe I’ll have egg on my face there, but that also contributed to me. That’s what’s fun about the regrades, too, is it’s tough to grade the pick of rookies in the moment. Even if you think there were alternatives, we don’t have a real NBA sample size. Now, with Reed Shepard, we still kind of don’t. But that’s also what’s a little bit fun about re-rades is you’re taking a look back at, oh, this is who they selected where, what what were their alternative avenues. Yeah. No, I I agree with all that. Um, it I really liked the the the reputation of the Rockets getting established last summer as a team that is not going to rubber stamp maxes. I think is in is really interesting. I don’t know how it factors into a grade, but like I think it’s good in the sense that it did probably give them the ability to tell Jabari Smith Jr. like, “Hey man, like Alpurn Shenun didn’t get it. Like you this is this is a good deal for you relative to that. So take and it’s like we love the Jabar Smith uh extension this summer. I wonder if that becomes a potential negative down the line where teams are or players are like well if I go to Houston I’m going to have to fight for every dollar. Like that’s that’s not ideal long term. But I think for purposes of the grade like you just can’t view a I don’t know if it’s below market but it’s certainly a below max uh signing for Shingun and and Green really like I think there are a lot of teams that would have just yeah here you go five years max just you got you know you’re both you’re both good young players you could get this somewhere else maybe and they just rubber stamp it. So kudos to the Rockets for I don’t know holding strong I guess. Yeah there’s a lot of masterclass team building going on for them over here. We move on to the Memphis Grizzlies. This is this is was this was tough. Regrades normally aren’t that hard for me, Grant. This one was hard for me. So, taking taking us through the major business, drafted Zack Edi at number nine, drafted Jaylen Wells at number 39. They traded number 57. This matters, I promise. Olrich Shamshay for Cam Spencer. Um, he signed a two-way. He’s actually someone I would just keep an eye on whether you’re a Grizzlies fan or not. Yeah. Um they traded Zier Williams in Dallas’s 232nd to Brooklyn for Dit. He was waved. Um Luke Canard one year $9.3 million after having 14.8 million team option declined and they signed Jay Huff to a two-way who now we know has been traded to Indiana. It looked like he was going to have they had injuries. It looked like he was going to have a moment and then he like kind of didn’t sort of faded. We weren’t fans of the offseason. It was and I think you in retrospect this was a team that still won 48 games. They didn’t use their non-tax premium level exception. They made a deal at the trade deadline. That, by the way, sorry, not using the mid-level was a huge factor in in us. Yeah. Ding them. That was like a because of what you just said. Yeah. They still won 48 games, but like this was a team that was coming off the season from hell and was supposed to be like I don’t know, are they going to be top three, four in the West? And you didn’t use the mid level. We at US you were went in on them for it and I I was with you. But like that that is the I think m if you had to boil it down to one reason that we were so hard on him like that was it. They did not use the mid level to improve a roster that like you guys are going for it right like that Jaw’s healthy whatever. uh like you know we we thought uh surely he can’t you know like that was that’s so that speaks to like kind of the criteria we laid out like if you have if you’re in a certain position as a team and you don’t use all the available resources to like get to the goal that you should be going for that’s going to hurt that so anyway that that was the reason mainly that we were so low on them and I it’s well and I think that becomes the question now did they take the correct approach in not caps slot going forward when one you look at what happened to their season, two what happened in the rest of the Western Conference and then three what they ended up doing this again that’s too resultsbased but it’s look at what even their off seasonason became to where it’s we weren’t sure about Zack Edy and we know he’s injured but he was good Jaylen Wells we probably had no priors on ex he was my rookie of the year like he that’s a I mean as much as almost anything else here probably more so the fact that he was a starter on a good team all year and had a huge is a role player role but it was an important one at 39 like that’s I I mean they saw something nobody else did and they have to be credited for that and even look the Cam Spencer thing again that’s not something that we would have had strong prior on but this is just like it’s it’s a potential hidden gem for them just when you look at what he’s able to do and he shot 46.5% on 7.2 2 three-point attempts per game. Um when he was was that the summer league numbers that I had? Yeah, during summer league. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I have those jotted down. And just the type of volume and the way he was firing off of it and the things that maybe he could even do as a playmaker um made me want to tighten his hand a bit. But like I’m just saying like they got mind really excellent value out of trading Shamche. And but now I look at this team and it’s okay. Like I guess that it’s easy to say it looks like they got good value for what they did, but does that excuse them for not doing more is the thing that I struggled to grapple with. Yeah. No, I think that’s right. I mean, ultimately we both moved their grade up quite a bit, but that is partly because it started very low. Um, you went from an F to a B minus. I went D plus to C plus. And if you’re watching, it’s really the guys on the screen. Uh, it’s really Wells and Edy. Like they essentially got two starters in the draft, one of which was the 39th pick. Uh, I mean, you know, the we we go back and we struggle with like how heavily do we wait the draft, especially last year since it’s like such a crapshoot and everyone agreed that like I don’t know, there’s like 15 guys that are probably about equal at the top of this thing after the first couple picks. Um, so maybe this is results based, but I they identified two guys that could play major roles and they did that. So, I mean, from a process perspective, I think that still is pretty loudable. They I still just and the reason I think they don’t like well why isn’t an A then when you’re looking at the value they min it’s just they were a team that was supposed to do more could have done more and even something like you should have explored the Marcus trade market probably sooner because could you that you’ve gotten away with maybe not giving off a first round pick in a straight salary dump? Sure. Yeah. So we move on to our next team is Grant the New Orleans Pelicans. You want to take us through their greatest hits? Yeah. the team that we we and everyone else spent the whole summer saying, “Ah, they don’t have a center. They don’t have a center.” They drafted Eve Mei at 21 and he became a center for them. Uh they let’s see don’t care about the second round swaps. If you’re watching this, you can follow along. We’re just trying for the listening audience to hit the hit the big numbers. Picked up Jose Alvarado’s $2 million team option. The biggest item of all traded Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance, EJ Liddell, Cody Zeller, Lakers 25 first, 27 first, the le which is the least favorable of Milwaukee, New Orleans, top four protected. Uh, Ferdante Murray, uh, Daniel Ty was the other center they kind of snagged later. Uh, nothing else of huge. Oh, sorry, Dan, for you. Javvante Green got a one-year minimum deal. Uh, so A+. He’s still in the NBA, by the way. So, still playing. Um, so I don’t really I mean we were pretty down on this and that’s before while being high sorry I was down on them while being way too high even for in the moment on the Dejonte Murray. Well, right. So to have been down on them and like I guess yeah from a pro here’s here’s where the process based thinking gets tricky is it’s like I don’t know on P just at the at the moment the trade was okay. um the fact that you’re you know you just who’s going to have foreseen that Dyson Daniels was going to turn into what he did like I I don’t know like it that’s that’s such a such a an out it feels like an outlier result that like you can’t you just can’t have expected that I don’t think I I can’t claim to have expected Daniels to be like number two in defensive player of the year. So, uh, I didn’t like the trade so much, but like the fact that it worked out so poorly, we are just like I don’t know. I guess you just have to factor that in somehow. I’m not sure really what to what to do with that exactly. And there’s also the other thing here is that the whole Brandon Ingram situation probably the resolution it reached like we gave them praise for not just relenting and paying him but then it took way too long for it to end and if you were a team it’s just they constantly seem caught between TW trying to win now without properly or fully committing to it and last year was an extension of that. I think the Dejante Murray trade might have signaled that oh they were kind of leading in one direction and injuries throw that arai but even then it’s just the center position needed more proven depth than like let’s go out there with a Daniel Tyson we’re going to rely on Eves Mei who ends up panning out so it’s fine this offseason was just all over the place and it’s tough to look back on I think you remove the DeJonte Murray injury from the equation the Dyson Daniels breakout coupled with the value of what those picks look like now is just or the one pick I should say. the other one’s like, “Okay, whatever.” Like that’s that’s rough stuff. That’s like it just to sort of say the least there. And so I I and one of the players I liked, they just didn’t play enough. And I’m curious now they have so many centers. Will Makovich even get minutes this year? The answer is probably no. Who knows there? But uh we were not surprisingly Grant, we we killed them a little bit. And I don’t know if there’s reason to pull back. D pluses then, D pluses now. uh for both of us. We did not factor in the Trey Murphy extension, which is a like I I like that deal 4 for 112. Um but I think just in light in light of how badly the Murray trade turned out, I think that more than offsets it, the Murphy signing like and and Mei is probably the other big hit. Um but like how big of a deal is that really? Um, so they just ended up having to stay stay put at the D+ because this, you know, the couple good things did not counterweigh the the disaster of the Murray trade. Mei seems like he was an excellent find in that spot. And then I love the Murphy extension, too. I think that was great piece of business, but that’s good enough for a lateral grade there. Then we move on to I think this the San Antonio Spurs are up and they are my team. So I will take us through their big business. They this was their off seasonason was fascinating in the sense that I think people wanted them to do more. Um they traded number 26, number 56 um and two other second rounders to uh this is the Denver Nut. What am I on Grant? Oh my god, I’m on the wrong team. I’m reading the wrong team as I see San Antonio on the screen. I don’t know. Yeah, I have the wrong team on my screen that I’m looking at. I apologize everybody. They drafted Steph K at number four. They traded number eight who was Rob Dillingham to Minnesota for a 2030 swap. top one protected in a 2031 firstrounder. Um, other big business here, they traded Devonte Graham in a second um to Charlotte. They signed Chris Paul one year 10.5 million had Mamu on a one-year minimum deal uh and they had guaranteed uh Champenny salary, we love him around these parts. They did not have any major pieces of business uh correctly that we missed out on. So we were like I think the discussion at that point was kind of should they have done more given how good Victor Webyama was. It was nice to have Chris Paul as a veteran but were they too future focused at the moment and it turns out I don’t know if they were saving part of their powder specifically for a dear Fox trade but they made the right call by taking the more measured approach which we had agreed with in real time. Yeah. I think I a lot of the a lot of the uncertainty about like the the whole when when when are we going to go type of thing around it that persists. Um I think even even now because clearly he’s great. He was incred he was a top five MVP guy for me before he got hurt last year. So it’s like green light, right? And and the Spurs haven’t completely gone that way. But I mean, if you just look at these moves in isolation, I think Castle at four, that’s a win. Uh, you identified the guy that won rookie of the year and you picked him after three other players came off the board. So, from a process perspective, like I think you clearly get a little bit of a bump there. The Dillingham that well, it wasn’t really Dillingham, but the trading number eight to Minnesota for a swap and a 2031 first rounder. Do you agree that like kind of whatever you think about when the Spurs should be going for it, like that’s just a good decision just to get two first round assets based off everything we know about Rob Dillingham right now. Yeah. The it’s an unequivocal yes. Yeah. It just that that has to look better and and and maybe Dillingham becomes good enough to where that’s an interesting discussion, but at the moment a 2030 swap and a 2031 firstrounder, like that’s just worth more than than a number eight pick. I think even if even if that number eight pick had been like in a rotation for most of the year. So that’s another win. Um the rest of the stuff feels like small. By the way, they used one of those picks. They used the 2031 first rounder as part of that De’Aran Fox trade. There you go. So I mean well that makes it even more interesting because you’re you’re using that asset for like okay there’s our win now bump. Uh but I feel like everything the Spurs do is just based on I don’t know they almost kind of take everything case by case. like is this a good enough? You know, they’re just going to be opportunistic. Like, yeah, yeah, we’ll take Fox for this price. I don’t know. It doesn’t really fit into like a we’re going for it in 2029 kind of, you know, they’re not that tied to any particular approach. I don’t It seems like to me, which is I don’t know. I guess there’s room to criticize that as like, well, you’re not being, you know, goal oriented enough, but like I like the the optionality it gives them and how opportunistic they can be. Um, so we, let’s see, I’m looking back. Yeah, we were both like pretty high on this. It was a B for you and a B for me. We’ve both moved up. You went to A minus. I went to B+. I think I would say too that the Chris Paul decision was was a smart one. He played every game last year. Like I mean that and and he was I think he was helpful to the young guys. So correct thought process there and it worked out probably better than you can’t expect Chris Paul to play 82 games. Are you kidding me? Like that’s just that that’s a huge win. That’s the most like Spurs development is having an age 90 or Chris Paul come in and just play in every game. I also I know this couldn’t have factored in because had they kept number eight, I don’t think we assume Rob Dillingham wouldn’t have been their pick, but like that decision knowing what player went there, it makes the decision look better because of what ends up happening in this draft lottery where now we’re what with Fox and Harper and Steph Castle. So, it makes that trade look even better from that perspective. I agree. Next up is now we have the Denver Nuggets whose transactions I was bravely reading during the San Antonio Spurs section. They’re your team if you care to. Okay, I’ll read them then. You I mean you had so much practice at him I thought you’d want to take another pass at it. Uh let’s see. So yeah, this is fairly relevant. They traded number 26 which was Ryan Dunn uh for and number 56 which was Kevin McCuller Jr. a 26 second and a 2031 second for Don Holmes a second. This is a very much resultsbased thing because he got hurt immediately and missed the season. Um I think that’s a Well, that’s an interesting one. If if this isn’t part of the grade, but I just want to ask like if you had known that Ryan Dunn was going to have exactly the season that Ryan Dunn had last year, would you rather have had him than Holmes? Forget all the other assets. No. On this I don’t No. I guess you could say, well, then it would insulate them against really feeling like they had to pay, I won’t say Aaron Gordon, but let’s say Payton Watson, but he doesn’t do what this team needs, which is they would need more of an offensive punch, I think, from that position. And I like the idea of what still, even following the Achilles injury, and of course, he was good in summer league. I like the idea of what Holmes could provide, but that’s still a TBD. And it if you’re doing it right now, it’s well, we know what Ryan done. And I I even like Kevin McCuller Jr., But it’s just like these are two non-shooters and the Nuggets need shooting and they have shooting now and potentially in a in a big Yeah. Sorry to get us on a tangent there, but I just think that’s So anyway, like I think that what we land on is it we almost can’t grade that yet just because Holmes hasn’t played and from a process perspective it like it made sense. Um ma only mostly small time moves otherwise. They traded Reggie Jackson. They signed Russell Westbrook uh to a minimum deal. he did opt out uh or he didn’t pick up his player option for for this season. So, they got a one-year rental there. Dario Sarge got two years, 10.6 million. Uh atrocious then, atrocious now, uh even though he’s not on the team anymore. Well, that you can’t but they hold on. I know where you’re going, but you can’t have known that was going to get you Jonas Valenunis. You can’t. You don’t get to say that. I just like to point out it didn’t take a second round pick or more. I think they only would have had one to trade anyway. Like, it didn’t they didn’t have to use that to wipe him off. So I What’s that meme? I see this as an absolute win. They played the long game, Grant. A plus two timelines. They were thinking they’re thinking they’re like the third eye timeline. Uh DeAndre Jordan got a vet minimum. Vlaco Chonchar got a minimum. Uh some two ways happened. What we did not take into account because it hadn’t happened yet. Uh Jamal Murray 4 for 208 and Aaron Gordon three for 104. Uh, that kind of cancels out. I guess one one we don’t love and one we I mean Aaron Gordon is worth that. I think I think he’s probably worth that. But do you you think it was either smart or not smart? I guess I don’t want to say stupid of them not to have him decline his play because they’ve kind of kicked the can down the road of being expensive. And I guess you could argue that I get it would have enabled them to do things this off seasonason. It would have been more complicated. Maybe you’re not looking to get Cam Johnson back in a Michael Porter Jr. just how do you square away all that because now he’s just expensive where all right this makes you cheaper in the short term but you’ve just made yourself more expensive over the longer term I I think the other thing is they let KCP go for nothing that we haven’t really we haven’t fixated too much on like who got away um but for Denver so just to get back to the the core of what we’re talking about Denver’s trying to win a championship it the moves it made and the decisions and the moves It chose not to make KCP leaving even though he sucked in Orlando. Just from a process perspective, we hated this because like what are you doing? Like how are you not just this needs to be a full go for it situation? You need to be thinking boldly like I just so we gave them an F both of us. Um because these moves all feel just inconsequential, unambitious. Uh, I think probably because I wasn’t factoring in the Murray and Gordon stuff, I think I probably should come up from an F, but I don’t know. I could I might be able to get there with you on the D minus that you came up to because you’re coming up from an F minus. So, that’s a big jump for you. Um, so maybe you should be talking about how much we hated their process. But it’s hard for me to get much higher than like a a D minus if I even get there. just cuz I don’t know like none of this none of this looked to me like a team that was like we’re okay let’s get it we’ve got the best player in the world we have to do everything like this team should be operating like the Bucks have with Giannis where it’s just like wow that was insane that they tried to do that it may or may not work but credit them for trying and Denver just has never operated that way I think you also can make the case that KCP because he was fine on defense last year would have been better he stayed in Denver and even regardless it is about asset management to an extent. You didn’t turn it into a signin trade. If you thought you weren’t going to keep him should there have been explorations of trading with the deadline that probably would have been reacted too poorly because you’re trying to win a championship. I find myself I probably could have bumped them up higher knowing the sh which is a low bar. The charge steel didn’t kill them. I like Don Holmes, but the Russell Westbrook edition, I know that he played a lot of minutes and people believe he played relatively well, but there were just moments where it was, why did you subject yourself to this experience? And it happened a bunch in the playoffs. And the other thing I’m having a really tough time with, I ultimately, just to circle back to my comments on the Aaron Gordon extension, it probably ends up being netneutral. I think there would have been something in hindsight to maybe redistributing some of the cost like it would have been higher this year but lower in some of like the out years would have made this off seasonason tougher. So the Jamal Murray extension, why couldn’t they have negotiated harder? I’ve come at it from the perspective of they couldn’t spend that money on anybody else. You know what though, Grant? We’ve seen it this summer. No one else was giving Jamal Murray that money. That’s the thing. And and it’s like that. So I that was predictable by the way. That’s not them. Yeah. It’s not a like, well, we don’t know what we don’t know type of thing or like what would have been out there. I think I think it’s very fair to say there were not like there weren’t teams there’s one team this offseason that was capable of giving Jamal Murray an annual value that he got on that extension. And like the Nets wouldn’t have done that. Like so just because they had Michael Porter Junior’s money on the board. Yeah. Right. They got the other guy that’s overpaid. But you know what I mean? Like it is it is fair to say what you just said like they didn’t need to go this high this soon. Maybe it pisses off Joic. Maybe there’s a behind the scenes thing where he’s like you you give him what he wants like this is the second best player I played with. In which case gladly in which case do it. But we don’t know that. And like I Joic if anything has just been up and down forever saying like I don’t I don’t that’s not like something I think about or have influence over. Believe that or not. But like Murray wasn’t getting anything close to this. He just he just wasn’t like the injuries and are one thing, but the der of money elsewhere in the league is the biggest one. Like you didn’t have to do this. Yeah, it’s I don’t think it was a great off seasonason. It doesn’t look as bad in hindsight, I think, because of what they were able to do with Charich and Yonas Valunis and then uh what we know KCP looked like in Orlando. But I do think team context had a lot to do with that. As we already said, we’ll skip right past the great image because I left a Cam Thompson Cam Johnson graphic in there and he was not a part of uh the Denver Nuggets last year. Grant, did you know that? But we move on to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Uh Tim Connelly, he came back for 24-25 with an opt out for 2526. That was big at the time because of the ownership fluctuation. We weren’t sure what was going to happen. Chris Finch, head coach, got a four-year extension. They made they were the other side of the Rob Dillingham trade. The 2030 swap with top one protection and 2031 first for Rob Dillingham at number eight. Um they drafted Terren Shannon Jr. at number 27 which looks like it might have been a freaking steal. Uh we did have So I want to note this, the Rudy Gobear extension happened at the start of the regular season, so it can’t be part of these grades technically. Um, but we did not grade the cat trade which was just functionally speaking Dante Dvenenzo, Julius Randall, first round pick that turned into Beringier uh for Carl Anthony Towns. Man, wrapping my head around this off seasonason in hindsight. I think the one thing I feel confident in saying is there are some moves that I might like a little better. I’m probably I’m definitely higher on the Towns trade than I was because I skewered them for it when we reacted to it. Um, but also I’m much lower on the Rob Dillingham trade because our defining question, our central question while we were talking about them was, you don’t make this move if you aren’t planning or believing that he’s immediately ready, right? And they didn’t treat him like that. Maybe because he wasn’t ready. He didn’t really show enough to assume he was. That was predictable. I There was a lot of people that were like, well, they it’s obviously like this is what he’s going to do. He didn’t do that. and the Wolves, it took them a while to find their footing. I’m not saying as a result, but that’s something that absolutely matters in the context of all this. I think if you’re gonna be charitable to the Dillingham decision, it’s to say the Wolves knew that he wasn’t going to be ready, but liked the package of skills he had enough to sort of view him as like, okay, Connley has like another year or two and in, you know, like talk like in 2627, Dillingham’s going to be our starting point guard and he’s going to be awesome. Even that I feel like is flawed logic and a bad process because who knows what any team is going to look like in two or three years and you’re ready now and you have a glaring need at this position that you think this rookie is going to fill. I think it’s just it was just a mistake to assume that Dillingham was going to be capable of that. And you can’t give up two first round assets for a guy that just like I just realistically can’t be ready to fill the role that you need him to fill to justify that trade. So that drops them for me. That was a bad process. The cat trade I think kind of to me felt like iffy and I hemmed and hawed and went back and forth on who I liked it better for at the time and I still kind of feel that way. So I’m just going to call that like a neutral, you know? Uh, and the Dillingham grade is the Dillingham move is what actually hurts them. I think it drops their grade for me a little, which is actually, isn’t that wild? They traded Carl Anthony Towns. I think the the move that impacts their grade the most is Regrade the most is not that. Yeah, bizarre. It’s just it’s it’s Randall kind of gave them the secondary creation that Cat kind of didn’t and Dillingham couldn’t. So, in a way, they addressed kind of that that need a little bit. I know this isn’t a perfect analog, but when you look at the Gobear extension, the new Nause Reed deal, the current Julius Randall deal and then or the new Randall deal and then the current Dvenenzo deal. It kind of seems like we could boil this down to the Wolves saying and throw bearing a in there if you want. Bearing Jay, sorry. They decided that instead they could have had two of Caran Towns, Rudy, and Nas Reed or this route where they have Nas Reed, Rudy, Dante, Dvenenzo, and Julius Randall. Just financially speaking, when you look at how the money lines up a little bit. Mhm. I don’t know if that’s like I think I’d probably prefer the former to where where I would rather have like the four guys than maybe just the two or what whatever it may be. I But at the same time, I still think Carthy Towns is like clearly the best player of that bunch. Yeah, it’s agree. It’s so bizarre. Yeah, I I I get it. Like I think there’s logic to we’d like multiple smaller salaries as opposed to this giant one for cat and and I do think it’s fair to credit the Wolves with understanding if we get this giant number off our books it just gives us like a little more maneuverability and maybe that’s how we keep Nasreed because we know his free agency is coming up and maybe that’s how we add you know there’s definitely defenses for it but again if you are a Timberwolves team that is trying to do better than the conference final finals. Do you really want to give up the best player in the deal? Like I So I don’t know. It’s It’s again I don’t know that I’ve landed any more firmly on one side or the other a year on. Yeah, that trade we might have to revisit it like next year again too because I think people have painted it as a win-win when right now I’m more of like No, it’s like more TBD versus TBD kind of feels like. Yeah, I think that’s right. Would you like to take Oh, so I had we both had B’s. Oh, no. I had a B. You had a B minus. Uh, I moved them down to a C++. Just the Dillingham thing is what is what drove it for me. And you you bumped them down to a C++ as well. So, same page there. Ter although like are we giving enough weight? I think it’s just Terren Shannon Jr. ended up playing fewer minutes than Jaylen Clark last year. So, it’s I know he had a great summer league again, but we need to see what he still does. I think it’s going to end up being good, but I don’t know he’s not enough of getting him at number 27 isn’t enough. you those were your last best trade chips that you forked over for Dillingham and he hasn’t shown that he is worth them yet, right? I think that’s fair. And like I don’t know how we’re trying to not weigh the draft too heavily. So it’s like a 27th pick even a good one is kind of like I don’t know you’re just rolling the dice. Will be different if he’s coming if he won rookie of the year last year. Like yeah that definitely changes the complexion of the grade. Yeah, we did credit Memphis for Jaylen Wells so got to stay consistent. Would you like to take us through the Thunderous transaction sir? Yeah, let’s start with drafted Nicole Topic, who do not play at number 12. We like him, but uh I don’t know from perspective. Love it because we’re good enough that we don’t need the guy to actually play. So, let’s He simplified their rotation. They didn’t have to worry about playing him. That’s top notch. Good move. Uh traded Josh Giddy for Alex Caruso. Uh stellar results there. Uh just process was just as good. You needed someone that could play in a finals and Giddy probably couldn’t have. Um gave up five seconds for Dylan Jones. Got Isaiah Hartenstein for three years and 87 million. There’s a team option on the third year of that. Just the hits keep coming. Isaiah Joe four years and 48. Aaron Wiggins five for 47. Basically turned Lindy Waters the third into AJ Mitchell who was [ __ ] awesome until he got hurt. Uh I just and then and then signed Mitchell to the to a two-way. I think they later converted him. Uh so we loved it at the time. It’s like what? No notes. Everything worked right. Like what didn’t work is any anything it’s I think you could say did Aaron Wiggins andor Isaiah Joe wind up playing smaller rose roles excuse me than you would have preferred and it’s those contracts are just so digestible and both of those players would be I would argue in 20 teams’s top seven or eight rotations of the league. Sometimes they’re in this team’s top seven or eight, you know, depending on the week. Like they’re It just depends. AJ Mitchell like Yeah. Like I there’s So we had them as A+es. You added some extra pluses. I I don’t believe in that. I feel like I don’t I don’t believe I don’t You don’t have any grading integrity because A++ isn’t a grade. So I just left it as an A+. Do you know what’s funny? Well, we’re going to move on here a second. We were just This offseason was just so certifiably great that we spent most of that Thunder segment last year. That was a three-hour podcast, by the way. And so just go back and and listen to drum up the algorithm juice for us. We just argued over who would close more games whether it was Russo or Hartenstein. Like that was the only thing we talked about basically. Well, there wasn’t there was no there was nothing to to criticize like and there still isn’t. So I I mean one of the best offseasons we’ve seen. If you have an argument against OKC’s offseason last year, I I would love to hear it slashread it. These are all going to come in from Australian IPs. All the criticism will will be from down under. We move on to the Portland Trail BL. Man, last offseason was so much more interesting than this offseason. I’m realizing that now. Um but the Portland Trailblazers, they drafted Donovan Klingan at number seven. Um they traded number 14, which became Bub Carrington, Malcolm Brogden at the 2029 first. It’ll be the second most favorable from Portland, Boston, or Milwaukee to Washington for Denny Avdia. They traded number 40 which was Oso Igadaro for number 52 which was Quinton Post which they then traded for cash. So that’s an F minus minus move. Yeah. Yeah. Are you willing to include extra minuses on that? Yeah, I am. In special circumstances I am. Picked up Delano Banton’s team option. They had Devonte Graham at the minimum and we did not miss any major transactions on their end. Correct. Uh double checking. No we did not. So we were most of this was spent and rightfully so. There were some Donovan Klingan questions and so I actually want to start there because I know you said we shouldn’t factor too much of the draft picks. I was so out on Donovan Klingan. This was not unpredictable. He came in and was fantastic defensively for them. There’s a lot of questions offensively. He did he end up making all rookie? I know we had him on an all rookie team. Doesn’t matter. He was in the conversation. He played that well. Um, and then the other thing too is we were trying to wrap our heads around the Denny Afia trade because you see a team give up a 2029 first round pick and they’re the Blazers and they’re still in the middle of a rebuild in the early middle of a rebuild and you start to Okay, Abby is young. He’s on a nice contract but that contract might not be extendable Grant. So like is that a trade that matters? It ends up looking that move in hindsight. I also think because clearly Malcolm Brogden, we wondered, oh, did he have like any second round picks, multiple value? No, he didn’t. Washington just let him come off the books. Y um so and I like Bub Carrington, but Denny Aia is by far and away the best asset in this deal and was fantastic for 67% of the season last year. No, I I think Klingan did make the all rookie team by the way. Um I I think Klingan is still tricky just I mean from a process perspective they had 47 centers on the team and we flagged this at the time just like is he going to play? That was a big thing. Um and like okay maybe this portends they’re going to trade all these guys to clear room for him. I I don’t know. So I I I don’t think the the questions we had were unfair. It just turned out that he delivered on like literally everything that you could have hoped that he would given the type of player he is. So, I mean, it just turned out it turned out to be the right pick. You know, that’s fine. The Obia trade is still I think I think I’m with you. I love Obia. I think he’s a really good player. Super underrated. Not enough people know about him. Um, and he was a star like you said basically for the entire second half and maybe more than that. from a process perspective, you’re giving up a a really late lottery pick and a first even though it’s not like a super useful asset. Like I think maybe this is where it gets foggy because Portland was pretty good last year. So like I don’t know should does this make sense because Avia was part of the reason for that? But also like the reason they were good is cuz their young guys got good and and drove the winning down the stretch. And Avdia is kind of like in the middle of the veteran versus super young scoot shade and sharp kind of group. But so I I think ultimately I land where you do which is that Avdia is just the best player in this deal, the best asset in this deal by a lot. And even if you may not be able to extend him, like he really matters for a Blazers team now that I think even even a year ago was like we’re going to be pretty good because if you don’t think that you don’t make the Carrington trade. So I think they get credit for like seeing what was maybe possible and and getting AIA on board. So we I mean we were high on them, you know, anyway, relatively speaking. We both had them at a B minus. Um you went to a B+, I went to a B. Just clinging worked out in the Obia trade. That’s that I mean those are the the main things, right? Yeah. And the one thing I just wanted to add about clinging because you mentioned about them having a trillion rosters uh centers on the roster but oh man we have a trade to report Grant but well we’re going to finish our Blazers talk first. It must not be a big one. Uh it’s Haywood Highmith sir. Okay. Are you okay? I mean I thought he got hurt. Uh he did but so really quickly I think it almost shows like kind of like how they took Yam Hansen anyway even though they had Cllingon. there’s a level of respect to be had like if you identify that you think is either the best player or someone that can really impact your team and you took Cllingan anyway. I think that there’s merit to be had there. But yeah, it’s the it’s the AIA trade and maybe there’s some questions about it down the line. But we also talked about in that segment, Grant, we said, couldn’t you just see this team being like a league average or better defense? They finished 17th and we’re like top 10 for a good chunk. So we called their depth, we called their defense, A+ stuff from us is all I’m saying. That doesn’t change. Breaking news on a trade that we could just talk about since we’re here. Uh the Miami Heat Pan Serani have traded Haywood Heismith and a 2032 second round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for a 2026 second round pick. Now my reaction to this I like Haywood Highmith. I’m just sort of wondering like is his injury worse than we He’s not the type of player that I would have thought his deal is so cheap that you have to include a distant second round pick. I know you’re getting one back but this just like why didn’t they get the second round pick without including is his injury that bad? I thought he was only out for 8 to 12 weeks. Well, what’s he making? 6 or 7 million, something like that. It was because he signed two for 11. Do the Heat need to move exactly that much money off the books to do something bigger? Like, is that I I don’t have the cap sheet up in front of me. That’s my first thought is like, oh, what’s Well, this gets them out of the tax. Okay, there it is. That’s actually what it is, I think. But that’s like a useful who. So I guess you’re really saying when you’re looking at Miami’s roster, you really trust I mean you have looking defensively, you have Wiggins, DaVon Mitchell, although he’s not really a wing. Maybe this means that they really have faith in Pelle Larson. Yeah. Mhm. So maybe Hakez. Yeah. Okay. I I would say and maybe Brooklyn thinks they can flip him because he’s the type of player that a contender might want once he’s healthy at the deadline. I would have thought I would have thought that you could have gotten I I guess he’s injured so it’s rough but I would have thought you could have gotten a finished like a plus one in the second round pick department for Hayward Highmith. That’s what I would have thought. I would have too. Uh we can continue regrading though. Just so there’s there’s the offseason bomb everyone was waiting for. Do you want to take us through the Utah Jazz? Speaking of bombs, uh drafted Cody Williams at number 10. Sorry. Uh also drafted Isaiah. I believe summer league made me believe we’re back. We are so back. We are so bad. I You know what? You kind of have to dig in because you were so high on him. I I think I think you can’t You’d be a fraud if you gave up this early, even as bad as he was last year. I know that I say I think Reed Shepard’s going to be the best player in the draft. And I came to that conclusion partly because Cody Williams was number one on my big board and it just wasn’t working out. He quickly proved that he would not take on that title. Uh that’s the that’s the final bad thing I’m going to say about Jaylen Williams brother. Uh so I only good things from now on. Uh the Jazz also kind of offset that because they got Isaiah Coller at 29 and he I mean took over a starting job basically by the end of the season. Put as much stock in that as you want to given where Utah was competitively but still. And then got Kyle Kyle Filipowski at number 32 like even better. He was the best of it the Jazzes rookie. He was the best offensive rookie right I guess Jared McCain had he stayed healthy but who else was a better offensive rookie than Kyle? Yeah. just from I don’t know if like ceiling wise if I just based on last year it was him I think I it just so to get him in the second round great talent identification and great willingness to take on a guy who everybody was like weirded out by his offc court story uh got Drew Eubanks two years 9.8 8 million traded Chris Dunn. That was a signing trade for Russ who they bought out. Um losing Chris Dunn doesn’t really matter to them, but the upside he provided for another team will affect their grade. Uh Lori Markin, this is kind of the big one. Didn’t trade him even though that was kind of one of the big subplots of the off seasonason is where’s he going to go? How long are they going to wait to resign him if they do? So they renegotiated and extended his deal. Uh his salary went up to 40 point 42.2 2 million last season and then got 4195 on top of that. Uh was not tradable based on the timing of when he signed it last season. Is tradable now for whatever that’s worth. Uh got Sim Kylick for four years, 15 million. Um that I think covers the bulk of Johnny Juang four years 11 million. One of those is guaranteed. Interesting structure there. But that’s about it for Utah. Um I don’t know. Like I think most of our grade here was the markin and stuff and the the draft which we definitely liked uh just because Kier was a guy that was a super highly ranked prospect until he had a rough college season. So I’m I was in on that. Um you liked Cody Williams a lot. I liked him just fine. Thanks for reminding me. Yeah. Dan, did you do you remember Cody Williams and what you thought about him? Just anything in particular? Um, so you gave them a C++, I went B minus. Uh, we have both dropped those grades. I did it mainly because the Markin thing just doesn’t look better today. And I think there were foreseeable reasons why that would be the case. But I’ll turn it over to you to to explain what you thought about it. I think that’s part of it. Um, I’m ultimately just because I think they got good value out of Kier and Philip Leowski, I’m ultimately okay with it. And they also made like one of the things that we harped on rightfully so was they need to be bad enough. And it’s funny we went through we Grant and I both relisted to this by the way. It’s three-hour podcast and we talked about well this is how many teams we know are going to be better. They’re going to end up being like fifth in the lottery. That’s what we said. Well, I think stuff again from us. But we said they needed to be bad to get that top level prospect. They ended No, you couldn’t have predicted Ace Bailey would still be there. You couldn’t have even predicted their spot. They did that. They took the steps to do that. And so now, did that have anything to do with their transaction process? Maybe not. But like one of the things that people hemmed and haunt over was did renegotiating and extending marketing imply something else or would he do too much for them to maybe not play someone like Philip Powski at points or I think that deal does look worse though in hindsight is the trade value they could have gotten for him even as an expiring contract exceeds what they could probably get for him right now. but it’s not so far below water that he can’t come out of it. And so this almost feels like I’m dinging them for it. But I also it doesn’t sound like the offers for him were like I would need to see it’s like the offers with the I hate to continue bringing this up. They’re like a piñata for us. But the Bulls, we know that there were two first round picks on the table at some point for Alex Caruso. They didn’t take that. We don’t know like there wasn’t some four first round pick offer that we heard about for Larry Markin. But there’s I can’t sit here and argue, oh that contract looks a lot better now than it did this time last year. And I think again trying to stick with like what was knowable or like what could you have surmised at the time it like Markin was coming off just I mean actually he’s not coming off his best season but it was like I don’t know if he’s going to stay at that level. Like isn’t he maybe more valuable with a smaller number that you could kind of work into any kind of deal? And then also like again they did end up being bad enough but the the deal for him assuming you thought he was going to play all year which maybe they were like we’re just going to shut him down and get fined for it whatever. like this deal doesn’t make sense in the context of we’re trying to get as bad as we can because he’s your best player and you just brought him back and then you bumped his salary up to this crazy number that now is like probably tradable for I don’t know even value but you’re not like you’re not getting the Godfather offer anymore for Markin at this rate and all of that I think was like something you could have seen potentially or as like a likelihood even so I dropped them down. I I do think like overall I don’t I feel like mission accomplished their record was terrible. Uh but but like the market and deal just doesn’t square and looks worse now in a way that like yeah not surprised. We move on to our next team is the Golden State your Golden State Warriors. Here we go. Flip it around. Flip the cap around. Get it done. All right. Here we go. Golden State Warriors. They traded Quinton Post for Lindy Waters the third but they got Quinton Post back. So it’s But they got him back. A+. Whoa. What a roller coaster. Signed to Anthony Melton for one year, $12.8 million. That was the non-T taxpayer mid-level. Um Kyle Anderson they got for three years 27 million. It was a signin trade. It was part of the fold into the Klay Thompson going to Dallas. Um and they ended up shipping him out. Of course, Buddy Heield acquired via signing trade um for Dallas’s 2031 second. He had only two years of his four-year deal guaranteed. That was nifty. Steph Curry signed a one-year extension. Um, so he’s now on the books for through 2006 2027. Do we miss any other big pieces of business? Oh, the Moses Moody extension was not on here. And then post Quinton Post signed his two-way after we did the grades just for just for Grant, you know, being okay. Just to keep as much Quinton Post content in the in the loop as possible. So, uh, how you feel about this now, Grant? We gave it We were pretty favorable on what they did. We talked a lot about because the the mumblings going around was they tried to get marketing. They tried to get George. We campaigned for them to go harder after Paul George at the time. That did not age well, but they kept themselves flexible and they made their roster better. We talked a lot about the defense one year later. How are you feeling about this? I think it was I think you can go down the list and view now look like this is not the roster that ended the season, but I think I think you can argue that it was kind of by not by design. Like I don’t I wouldn’t say that like they had the crosshairs on Jimmy Butler all they oh they knew they were going to flip a bunch of guys in Wiggins for for Butler. Like that was that was the plan. I think they liked this roster. They liked the depth. They liked the defense and they got great results with it early in the season. Remember all we talked about was the depth and Buddy Heield can’t miss. Like he’s like dramatically outperforming Klay Thompson in a similar role. Like all the like it looked very good. Melton got hurt. He cooled off. Anderson just kind of generally wasn’t helpful. And then they they packaged up some contracts and turned it into Jimmy Butler. So like I think it worked pretty well as like a strategy for the full season until injuries and and like some regression and then they pivoted because they left themsel that out by not going and doing a Paul George thing or a marketing thing. They had all these movable deals. They didn’t give up a bunch of picks in a superstar trade and they do go get Jimmy Butler. So I think it looks pretty good from like a just preserving optionality standpoint. like they they didn’t overcommit to risky stuff. Maybe they maybe that was for, you know, not for lack of trying, but they didn’t make that crazy deal. And then they ended up getting Butler, I think, for a good price and he turned them into like a very like capable like dangerous playoff team until Steph got hurt. So like I don’t know how you move this grade down. Not not saying we are, but I don’t know what the argument would be for moving it down. Well, I think you could just say, well, it’s could they have predicted any of this? And I think to some extent saying that George and Markin had a down season even though we didn’t predict it. It wasn’t unpredictable. And so they deserve credit for that. And by the way, it’s also remember when the Pacers signed Bruce Brown in that contract, they were able to use him in the Pascal Seakum deal. They wind up using they couldn’t have predicted Dan Anthony Melton would get injured, but he wound up being on a deal that they moved to get Dennis Shruder and they also ended up moving Kyle Anderson in addition to Dennis Shruder, but like as part of getting their like their Jimmy Butler transaction tree there. That’s those are deals that they signed that remained immovable or at least digestible enough to to get things done. And the whole thing is is if you’re the Warriors, it’s not in that case identifying necessarily a specific opportunity, but remaining flexible enough to capitalize on whatever opportunity should arise and picking the right one. They apparently either passed or didn’t go hard enough after, again, we were wrong or I was wrong, I should say. I think I was a little bit more critical of them than you were. We were wrong on that. Like they waited and that proved out to be the the smart move. Well, I moved my grade up and it was a pretty easy decision for me. I went to uh I had them at a B. We both had a B. Um I put them at an A. You put them at an A minus cuz you’re a hater. That’s right. Yeah. Uh no, I it’s I think you have they just have to be moved up. I I I don’t I I think also we joke turning the number 52 pick in some variation into Quentyn Post. Like that’s he’s he might start for them next year or something. My my my affinity for Quinton Post is only like 10% a bit. Like the other the other 90% is sincere and I mean it and I’m thinking about getting a tattoo. No, I I just think I Yeah, like we’re we’re not going to overweight the draft, but like I I mean that’s just a a home that’s a home run. Like just to get someone that does anything in the 50s, although even though they traded him and traded him back, like that’s kind of funny, but they knew that’s a factor. They knew they saw it. They know greatness. We continue our jaunt through the Pacific Division Grant. We’re gonna have to eat some crow on this one. Take us through Los Angeles Clippers, please. All right, so the Clippers uh signed Tailoo uh 5 years 70 million. That’s uh probably that’s right around the going rate for coaches now. Drafted Cam Christie at 46. James Harden, big news. Two years 70 million. He has since uh opted out and signed another uh two-year deal. Uh they got Derrick Jones, three years for 30. They traded Russ uh and a bunch of stuff for Chris Dunn. win. Uh Kevin Porter Jr. two years 4.8 he’s on the Bucks now. Batum two years 9.6. Bomba on a minimum. Ivita Zubots three years 58.6 million. I don’t know if this was done at the time. I don’t think it was. I think we recorded like Yeah. Yeah, it was. And then let Paul I mean maybe the the thing that’s not on the screen if you’re watching uh did not bring back Paul George. And we we absolutely destroyed them for that. We were both equally guilty. I made the preserve the asset. I made argument. I made the uh if you know that multiple teams, the Warriors and the Sixers, are willing to pay him this, by definition, you should pay him that and then trade him for for something because you’ve got an you understand what his market value is because other teams have established it. You brought up the like if you’re willing to do this with Kawhai, why aren’t you willing to do it with Paul George? The same deal was on the table. We just from every angle, we just absolutely murdered him. Uh, and we gave we both gave the Clippers an F and they uh did not uh turn out to perform like a team that had an F offseason. And it was nothing they did was dumb luck. I think you can still make to preserve the asset. Like the whole extension negotiation process to me, knowing the information they had on Paul George, were they going to guess that his season would look like what it did in Philly? I don’t think so. But they seem pretty adamant about going their short-term route. And we were saying, why even trade for James Horn if there was a chance that you were going to let Paul George walk? You apparently had a very specific timeline in mind. It was risky. Make no mistake, but you ended up making it work. And I think the merits of the Zubots and everyone who’s watching on YouTube, ignore. I forgot to change the graphic on a clip or slide. Bradley Beal is in there. It’s fine. I mean, they wouldn’t have been in position to get Bradley Beal if they all roads lead to Bradley Beal. So, a home run off season for them. And like that Zubots extension. I actually was just writing about the most underrated players over the half decade. And this is it’s some like you take into account stats, but I honestly believe like Zubots was number one for me. He just last year he got some defensive recognition, but last year felt like the first season at any point in his career that he ever got even close to the amount of spec that he reserves. And to have him on that extension where you’re paying your starting center, what is that in terms of the salary cap like 10% 9% 8%? It’s nothing. Do you think so? We both You went to an A+, I went to an A. Do you think What else would you like them to do, Grant? Well, here’s what here’s here’s the thing. My my hesitance hesitation, I guess. Uh, how much of what happened with the Clippers last year was like like I don’t know like James Harden was an all-star again for the first time in like four or five seasons and like Kawi Kawawaii kind of had a pretty standard Kawaii season, but Zubat’s it’s not a late career leap, but it’s a leap at a time in his career that’s kind of like well that’s we were surprised that he I was surprised that he reached the level that he did. The defense was incredible. Like I it’s just the only reason I don’t go A+ is I think some of this was just like such like a high like a 99th percentile outcome from like a luck perspective. So there just enough of that in there to where the process was great. They’re getting an A, but I can’t go all the way to A+ just like first of all because the Thunder exists and I don’t want to cheapen the A+ by giving a similar grade to the Clippers. But do you know what I mean? Like I think some of this some some of this was a little lucky like again like they were in a position to know what Paul George’s health future might look like better than anybody and so maybe they would just they just bet right. But also like Paul George had the season from hell and like I don’t know like if he’d had a if he had had a fringe all-star season is this is you know I I don’t know. I just there’s some amount of of results-based luck involved here to the point that I’m not ready to get there with you on the A+. It’s it’s funny about the how to wait results versus process. What I just don’t the results matter. Of course, we have that’s the thing. It just makes this tricky because this is it’s a bottom line league, right? Like your record is what matters. That is the definitive result. But I just think if we’re grading like their thinking, it’s was great. It’s get a getting an A, but there’s just a like Harden really like I did not like I can’t believe he had the season he had last year. I I was like pay Paul George, let Harden go. Like don’t that’s I mean I was wrong. I was very wrong. Well, that that’s a weird take to have when they clearly didn’t have like another floor general. I didn’t care. I was just that low on Harden. Wasn’t a lot of thought that you I think you just like made the strongest argument of you moving up to an A+. I should probably move on before I keep continue arguing with myself. We’re on to the Los Angeles Lakers and they fired Darvin Ham. They hired JJ Reic uh four years 32 million was the estimate on his contract. They drafted Dalton Connect at number 17. They drafted Bronny James at number 55 and gave him a three-year guaranteed deal. Max Christie four years $32 million deal with a player option on the final season. We were not happy about that. LeBron signed a two-year uh M101.35 million deal. had a player option that he did not use because the Lakers uh don’t [ __ ] want him anymore apparently. Uh that’s the that they did not do any major piece of business after that. And look, that was part of why we didn’t love their off seasonason. Uh we thought that they could stand to be more aggressive. They were on LeBron James’ and Anthony Davis’s timeline. The center position was a wreck aside from Anthony Davis, who we all know doesn’t want. Like just the backup five thing was a mess. Um, it felt like they needed two more wings, but they were patient and it paid off for and it wasn’t just a Luca trade. Like they traded for Dorian Finny Smith fairly early on. So if they had given up other stuff or made other moves, would they have been able to do that? This was a tough one for me because we were not fans in real time, Grant. No, we were not. Uh, I think it’s it’s easy to forget now, but I think like one of the defining narratives of last offseason was the discussion and we had this discussion on that pod, I think, of of the Warriors and Lakers, who deserves the most criticism for not going all in for it. And we actually landed on the Lakers, which is part of the reason we gave them an F. They they just you’ve got Anthony Davis, you’ve got LeBron. We also I at least I constantly pointed out like there’s no way they both play as often as they did the year before. So you need now maybe you’re drawing dead if they if one or the other gets hurt anyway. So there’s some I don’t know you could counter with that but like you got to go now because these guys are old and injuryprone and and just like what are you doing if LeBron’s on your team and you’re not going for it. So I stand by the F because they really didn’t go for it. I I I think even if the Luca thing you’re right like had they gone for it you don’t get Luca. They didn’t know they were going to get Luca. like there’s just there’s no way that’s a factor in their uh I don’t know in them being kind of circumspect in their spending and their their trading. I just I’m not I’m going to need to see like a a report that proves they knew that was a possibility down the line before I credit them for keeping the powder dry. So that said, the Reic uh hire looks good and and and on the lesser scale, you mentioned the Finny Smith move like that being patient got them that guy that maybe they you know that that was a smart one. They weren’t going to sign anybody as good as Dorian Finny Smith I guess was more so my point like that wasn’t so um and also the Max Christie deal ended up like being really really good when you look at I think even if you don’t trade him I think he’s just he’s better than that money given if you believe in his upside which I which I do. So Fs to start for both of us. You moved him to a C. I went to a D. So we both moved up. Um I still just am like I don’t know from a process perspective I don’t understand being like super careful. They got LeBron at a discount. He took like two million bucks less. You know what? A+. Good job, guys. It was They made You’re right about that. It easily could be lower, but I go back and there’s moves I liked and then there are moves that when you look at the results, they could not have predicted the Luca Donuch thing. So, you don’t know how to wait that. And there are moves that are just bad or non-m moves that look questionable or I I think the the secondary big rotation, let’s say, is the most egregious thing of it all. But like it just felt you look back it’s I don’t think the off season stood out particularly for the reasons that we were expecting it to. They still came in they won almost 58 g uh 58 almost 50 games. This was a tough one for me. I see where you’re coming from to where it’s you didn’t know you were going to be on the Luca timeline. So you should have done more to go all in on LeBron and AD. I also don’t know what opportunity they passed on. Like when we were talking, we identified some, but when they go and get Dorian Finny Smith after that, that seemed like a more appealing road to travel down than any of the things that we we were talking about Zack Lavine. We were talking about Trey Young. I forgot about the I was really trying to get Zack Lavine to the Lakers. I don’t know why. So, it’s just like we were talking about, oh, could they do something while keeping Austin Reeves and end up not only they do something, they got Dorian Dorian Finny Smith and Luca and Austin Reeves is still on the team. You would have told me that happened. Uh, so it’s the process definitely questionable though. I’m not denying like the they stumbled into that because you could easily say, “Hey, they didn’t do anything and had they traded that both of their picks, they wouldn’t have been able to get Luca.” There was just that was the single most surprising trade in NBA history, right? It’s an A+ result and it’s just like you lucked into it because Nico Harrison only talked to Rob Pelinka. Like I don’t know how you that’s not a process thing. We are going to wrap up this exercise. Grant, not yet because we have two teams left and I can’t count. You want to take us through the Phoenix Suns? All right, so the Suns, uh, boy, this feels like a million years ago. They fired Frank Vogel and then they hired Mike Benhoer who paid him $10 million a year and he is not the coach anymore. Um, so they also traded, this is the flip side of the Denver trade. They get Ryan Dunn and Kevin McCall for Don Holmes and they also got a a second two seconds. Um, trying to Royce O’Neal got four years and 42. Taius Jones got a minimum. Bull Bull got a minimum. Plumley a minimum. Morris Monte Morris a minimum. Damen Lee a minimum. Ai two years 16 million. Uh that’s all the big stuff, right? Am I forgetting anything? Um so we this is an instructive thing. Uh a lot of lot of minimum signings we were good with. We liked Royce O’Neal getting sort of an inflated number because oh that’s tradable. Um they’re creating assets. Also, they got Igodaro in a trade uh for a couple like late second rounders basically. We like Igodaro. Could not have known he was going to be something at the time. So, we were fairly high on them. You gave them an A. I gave him a B+. And uh the lesson is don’t pay attention to minimums. Uh don’t hire Mike Benhoer. And uh that’s kind of it, right? Like it’s just the minimums didn’t work out. the chemistry of the stars, which is not an offseason grade thing, just never made any sense. I don’t know. Like we’ve I went to a D, you went to a D+. What if you had to fixate on one thing, what was the biggest reason we you dropped their grade? But Benhoer, that’s a that’s a really bad move. the fact like we liked the move at the time, but if there was like to hire someone even if you can’t say it was totally unpredictable because we’ve seen stuff go ary in Phoenix and on Kevin Durant’s teams before. But the other thing here is we liked that they it seemed like they were able to get so much done when they just did not have the tools to do it. And I think you could even look at the Taius Jones of it all. It’s just well then what was the point of getting him? like what was this the point the way you used him or what the type of sense he made on your team. What was the point of getting him? So they did they didn’t make but none of those moves are detrimental because of just the low opportunity cost of them. I think you could also Ryan Dunn was a find and so maybe they could go down to like a C minus or something but I really think there’s honestly I don’t know that you could overstate just how bad it is that you hired a new head coach and had to get rid of him immediately. Whether that was predictable or not, that is cataclysmically awful. And and I mean I we didn’t or I didn’t predict it because I I remember saying look like at at the very least what we know about Benhoer like the playoff track record is what it is, but like he’s going to install systems on both ends. This thing is going to be organized. Like that’s kind of what he does is like he he’ll get things functioning on both ends during the regular season. And that did not happen at all. It was highly dysfunctional. And in hindsight, given the way things fell apart in Milwaukee, I mean, like it was kind of like the Suns didn’t have a ton of great options. I can’t even remember who I would have preferred they had hired, but like there was a little more risk in the Benood Holes or higher, I think, even in the regular season, than maybe we thought. And maybe the Sun and the Suns maybe should have foreseen some of that because like the Milwaukee thing ended as badly as it can end and and just like well no he’s he’s he’s gonna be great. Like I don’t know that that feels like pretty flawed logic in hindsight. Yeah. And it’s just again even if you couldn’t like the whole theory of this team just never even came close to coal lacing and you you effectively took this shouldn’t be part of the grade but you took two shots at with Frank Vogle and Mike Bunoser. You missed both times. Yep. Insane. Now, we’re going to wrap things up with your Sacra Mento Kings. Uh, they did some stuff. Mike Brown got a three-year and $30 million extension. He now coaches the Knicks. They drafted Deon Carter at number 13. They traded Sasha Vzenkov wanted out of the NBA. D’von Mitchell, number 45, who was Jamal Shed, and Portland’s 2025 second for Jaylen McDaniels. Just one of like the under the radar god-awwful trades that really bad. Any one of those assets for McDaniels would have been a miss, right? Let alone all of them. Malik Monk for they did it for financial reasons, but spare me. Uh Malik Monk, four years, $78 million as a player option on the final season when he’ll be age 29. Demar D Rozan got three years 73.9 million only a $10 million partial guarantee on year year three. That was a signing trade that cost them Harrison Barnes, Chris Dearte, a 2031 first round swap, a 2025 second rounder, a 2028 second rounder, and Cash signed Alex Lynn. They had Jordan Mclofflin. Um Isaac Jones, they signed they signed as well, and he is still on the roster. We there was we were okay with this off season, but we had questions about D Rozan’s fit, whether he checked enough of the boxes that they have problems with. We lamented the backup center situation. They did go and address that at the trade deadline only to undo it this season where you just you’re looking back at this and here’s before I throw it to you. The two things that I think really stand out to me. I don’t think we can grade the Devin Carter pick just yet. There’s no one there were some players drafted after was like, “Oh, that would have been better. Look what they’ve done now. It’s too soon. He was injured for last year.” But like Mike Brown, that negotiation, we noted it was awful in real time. the way it was leaked, how it was, they were at a stalemate. This is all we’re offering. Um, and I like Vivec and the way he negotiates with coaches and just the way he views this roster and even the people he puts in place, it feels like he’s pulling puppet strings and then he all of a sudden dislikes them. It’s just it’s a mess. Like top to bottom, just a a mess in the front office structure there, the leadership structure off the court. If you had any inkling as Vivec that you were going to get rid of Mike Brown or you could envision a point, I know coaches don’t count against the cap, you do it in the off season when you were negotiating the contract rather than upheaving your entire team in the middle of the year and then allowing too much of the blame to fall on De’Arren Fox vis the rumor mill. The other thing that just stands out here, and this is more of a macro thing, the Demar De Rozan deal looked fine. Yeah. When you were doing this in No, but when you were doing this in real time and now there is no move that they inarguably won. You can make the case they lost basically every single decision that they made last summer. That is bonkers ineptitude. I just that’s like I they’re poor fans. You went from this light the beam era to now you then shot that beam right in your fans’ eyes and which good for them they won’t have to watch these games anymore. This is just like I it was the Demar Rosen thing like yeah they kind of needed a player who did that but they needed so much to just triple down on this look and then like Deion Fox that trade doesn’t come out of nowhere. There was something going on behind it to not address that over the off season. That’s another loss here to me. Anyway, I know I think I think the Brown I don’t know mishandling um I does Darren Fox ask for a trade if if Mike Brown uh one stays on as coach or if he moves in the offseason in like a ser you know like more functional like like like a normal franchise might do like you said. I don’t know. Um do follow up. Do the Kings are the Kings better off without Fox as he ages and gets more expensive? I don’t know. Uh but you certainly had to trade him from a position of weakness. And I think that’s kind of the key, right? Like all of this led to in one way or another you losing your best player, a player that like everybody liked uh in Sacramento, and you had to deal him following a trade demand that like wrecked your potential return. Um, D Rozan is like I we we agree like I we neither of us I think are huge fans of what D Rozan does especially like in terms of contributing to a winning team especially to this team this type of team. Yeah. It doesn’t doesn’t fit wrong play but like the price was fine like that that’s okay. I think I think maybe the lesson going forward to learn is even if the price is pretty good, you have to focus on the player type and just like does he is he going to be helpful here? And I think the Kings totally like he’s adding D Rozan and later Lavine who’s not an offseason acquisition but like just to further the point like the Kings just like have the market cornered or like are I don’t know elite at targeting the wrong kinds of players to to like get where they think they want to go. They just and D Rozan is a perfect example of that. Here’s the other thing too. The price for D Rozan officially wasn’t fine. You don’t give up control of a distant first round pick. If you have any inkling that the De’Arren Fox situation is going to go south. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. I agree. And then maybe another failing we can attribute to them is not knowing that Fox was kind of like clearly at a point where he was at least thinking about his future, right? You don’t just suddenly wake up in January and decide, you know what, things are kind of messy here. like like certainly you should have known that Fox had his antenna up way before this. So yeah, it it’s I don’t know. Let’s do you have anything else to add? We should just jump to we we go ahead. We kind of now just have proof and I know this is delving into this offseason a little bit, but like they don’t when they need to carve out money and I have to imagine it’s VC like he was owning the team when they did that all that [ __ ] to get Rondo, right? He was still team owner at that point. I think so. the the Kenny like Kenny Thomas and Sixers and like gave up two firsts so they could sign Rond and now smaller scale here but like the Visenkov Davian Mitchell number 45 pick thing just to get Jaylen McDaniels and like save money that way and then this summer all for Dennis Shruder another just like I just to then go from Val again smaller scale but we now kind of just have evidence that when they need to create flexibility they have no idea what the [ __ ] they’re doing. I I look and like we can just grade ownership. We can just grade VC because like the Kings have been a disaster with like a tiny blip of success for his entire tenure and he’s the only constant now because they’ve changed executives and coaches a hundred times. Like it’s just he’s he’s the reason the Kings are the way they are. So B minus for you, C++ for me last summer. You bumped them to an F. I went down to a D. Uh, and maybe I’m being generous just to offset my typical uh overly critical nature towards the Kings, but just like a pretty big failure. And and now looking at where they are today, like in terms of what their outlook is for the next five years, good l like I don’t know there’s there’s not many teams that maybe the Sixers like that have fallen as much as the Kings have in in that sense, right? Like it’s just it’s bleak as hell now. And like a year ago, there was still some hope that I don’t know, maybe they’ll be eighth or ninth in the West. Now it’s just like this team’s going nowhere for a long time. And it was it’s just they made me yell. I was trying to keep a measured approach when I always yell about one team when we do some type of grades. I get I get all yell and screamy. But I just the Marty Rosen thing is just what can you get value for him when you I don’t think his deal looks terrible, but it’s not like teams are going to be barreling down the door to go out and get him right now. I just this was ends up being that it really it all comes back to the De’Arren Fox thing. Like I know the Mike Brown stuff is weird there, but if there was just if you didn’t know that you had De’Arren Fox locked down, basically most of these offseason moves should not have taken place. You know, the other thing too, just to be consistent, like we’re trying to evaluate what a team’s goals were, um, and how did, you know, one, was that the right goal, and two, did they like act in a way that furthered that goal? The Kings goal last off seasonason was what? Uh they they thought they were going to improve. They thought they were gonna be more dangerous as a playoff team. That’s why we need D Rozan. We need we need a mid-range scorer to offset our non-spacing center and point guard who can shoot once every three years. Like from a process persp it’s it’s just another way of saying D Rozan is the absolute wrong guy for this team and they specialize in getting Does it feel do you think that we got a case of group think? We saw so many people like insisting it was fine that we should have harsh like more harshly critiqued it in real time. I’ll be honest like I’m sensitive to believe it or not I try not to be overly critical of the Kings because I know I have a reputation of just burying them no matter what they do. And so I think I was probably subject to that where I was like I don’t like the D Rozan thing. I’ll just it’s it’s the price is fine. And I I think maybe I’ve went the other way where it was just like yeah like kind of what you’re saying like I I’m trying I’m trying not to seem like I’m biased against the Kings and so like I’ll error I’ll be too charitable sometimes I think I I don’t know maybe that doesn’t come across but I I that’s part of my thought process and shouldn’t be. What would you have said about the price paid for Oh look at that Grant take the victory lap. You want to get up and the only chat I’ll put up on screen the entire thing. What would you have said about the Demar D Rozan trade had you known Dearon Fox was gonna leave just knowing that that swap was in there? Would you have just like colossal mistake because you should reset you should start over if Fox is leaving. They should have traded Sabonis if they could have like I like you this team is this is it’s it’s sorry we haven’t brought this up yet. This is Bulls West. Like this is the same kind of thing. Almost literally once the trade will be there. That’s a problem. That’s a problem. I think it’s fine. Everything’s fine. It’s fine. Meme. Everything’s fine. Do you have anything else? Are you ready to take us out? Under an hour and a half. Look at us. We could do another tight 90 on the Kings if you want. Tight. Stay on brand. Um, thanks everybody for listening, for watching. Let us know what you thought. uh how much your opinions of the grades changed. Uh you know, give leave us a a comment. Comment on YouTube. Uh you know, thanks for thanks every Thanks Tom especially very active in the comments uh as we’re live recording. Um as always rate, review, subscribe, tell your friends, tell your enemies. Uh if you’re not following us on socials, please do that. Please subscribe on YouTube and es especially uh like the videos there. Help the algorithm love us back. Leave us some comments. We’ll talk to you about our grades there. Um, I think that’s going to cover it. We’ll be back at some point with an interesting project. I’m not sure when that’s going to drop, but it involves Mount Rushmore. So, just just a little tease there. So, we are going to be releasing that then. Am I surprising you by mentioning that a little bit? Who knows? Maybe we won’t deliver. Uh, thanks everybody. Shouts someone needs to comment about it now. If you watch to the end, we’re not going to publish it unless someone mentions in the comment they want to see the mountain gauntlet thrown. Who listens to the end of the 90-minute regrade? Uh, shouts Frankino. Apologies, Jared Allen.

“To make a mistake is human, but to blame it on someone else, make excuses or entirely pretend you didn’t make a mistake is even more human.”

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CHAPTERS⬇️
0:00 – INTRO/CRITERIA
8:04 – Dallas Mavericks
13:45 – Houston Rockets
18:21 – Memphis Grizzlies
23:01 – New Orleans Pelicans
27:29 – San Antonio Spurs
31:30 – Denver Nuggets
45:07 – Oklahoma City Thunder
47:24 – Portland Trail Blazers
52:20 – Miami Heat trade Haywood Highsmith!
53:52 – Utah Jazz
59:44 – Golden State Warriors
1:04:38 – Los Angeles Clippers
1:09:52 – Los Angeles Lakers
1:14:43 – Phoenix Suns
1:18:36 – Sacramento Kings

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