What is Krack Oak In Hardwood Knocks listeners, I am Dampa Valley, coming
at you without my fan tabulous co host Adam Frommel this time doing a little
bit of an impromptu news and rumor catchup because we have a ton to get
to. Figured i'd do it on Spotify's Green Room because I'm by myself,
and why the hell not? I want to talk to people in the chats
and Eli's already talking what is up? Eli? A lot of things have
passed us by, a lot of news have dropped. We've got extensions to
talk about some rumors as well. Anyone who's in here and wants to talk
about anything, I will of course oblige for that as well. For our
regular listeners, there will be no Monday mailback, which has been being published
on Tuesday for scheduling reasons. That will be moved till Tuesday of next week
for anyone who cares, which is why I'm also here tonight, because I
figure why they he'll not come talk to y'all on locker room and record it
this way, I'm gonna start with I'm gonna go in order of recency first,
and Terry Rose Year is Noah's in the chat, screaming eleven, I
said, it's an impromptu late night thing. No, I'm here, I'm
talking hoops. How about your welcome geez man, I'm about to get off
these Terry rose Year takes and Marcus Smart takes from ELI. So yeah,
this is a good it's a good place to start. Terry rosy Year got
a four year, ninety six point two million dollars extension. Is what it
roughly comes out to. Its report is ninety seven. Because that's how agents
really just get there, you know, get their players. Look at the
wording, pay attention to the wording on CRYD trust with everything. Marcus Smart,
in turn, signed a four year, seventy seven million dollars max extension.
These are both considered max extensions because you're only allowed to give them a
percentage raise based off their current salary, so that percentage is the same.
And since Tarry Rosie was making more than Marcus Smart, his extension could be
marger. And when you sort of look at the net sum of these two,
Marcus Smart, yeah, one hundred twenty five percent Eli it is it's
I think it's it's twenty or twenty five. I can't remember what it is.
It's around that. It's around that number, but Marcus Smart. So
if you look at these in the totality of the next five years, because
each of these players are under contracts for another season, Marcus Smart comes out
to like five years and one ninety two million, and now Terry Rosier comes
out to five years, one hundred and fifteen ish million. It's a little
bit less than that. That is sort of wild to think about. And
so with the Rosier extension, I think people had sticker shock when they looked
at it. Dan Devine wrote a great piece at The Ringer where he pointed
out that it's really barely even a top twenty deal among guards right now.
I don't think most people view Terry Rosier's a top twenty guards. So I
think it's fine to have that initial sticker shock. For the Hornets specifically,
there are two things I'm looking at. Is one, I need to see
the fully, the full details of this deal because this year, specifically the
guarantees, whether they're partial, whether they're team options, player options, earlier
termination options, they've been sort of trickling out even behind the scenes, later
than normal, and so I'm just curious to see if there's like a partial
guarantee in that final year. Is there a team option involved here or something,
because that will change the context the way we look at it. I
will, though, note that I think Terryer's years incredibly, incredibly valuable because
of how plug and play he is on the offensive end. He does have
some off the dribble juice that fell off over the course of last year as
he went forward, but there was a time where he was knocking down a
huge portion of his pull up jumpers. But I think it's more important that
this is someone who, on incredibly high volume, knocked down forty three point
three percent of his catch and shoot tripples last year. When you're playing beside
Mamelo Ball, when you're playing beside Gordon Hayward, you want someone like that.
He's going to compete on defense too. I don't think he's a great
defender, but he's gonna go up against He'll defend up to the two even
though he's I think he's six one, So there's value in that. And
again you might get a little bit more off the dribble juice from him,
and the volume at which he does it at again is absolutely monstrous. Last
season there are only eight other players who cleared twenty points a game while shooting
as well on two's fifty one point two percent and threes thirty eight point nine
percent as Jalen As excuse me as Arrero's year. Those eight players were Jalen
Brown, Steph Curry, Kyrie, Nicola Yokich, Zach Levine, Kawhi Leonard,
Damian Lillard, and nikolavout Rich. Now, Tarro's years not on the
same level as any of those players. He is not the same level of
an off the bounce threat, but he still hit a higher effective field goal
percentage honest pull up jumpers than Devin Booker. I'm not making the case the
Tarro's years a star. I'm looking at it from the hornet's perspective of I
think they view this as a player who is useful to them. They were
probably scared of what he was going to get in free agency next summer,
which is kind of shaping up to be like a not too spicy summer.
And I'll get to that point with the Marcus Smart deal, and so you
were probably gonna get there was probably gonna be like a four year, eighty
million dollars offer coming at him anyway or something in that realm, if not
greater, just based off who else projects to be available. And the other
thing is, I think they're looking at this and saying, Okay, because
of the way he plays, this deal is never going to become impossibly difficult
to move. We know there's no such thing as in a movable deal on
the NBA, but this shouldn't age into a John Wall conundrum here. As
ELI did point out with Terry Rozier in the chat, the value seems high
and because last season was the first at that efficiency, and I do agree
that was also kind of his first season in that role. They saddled him
with a little bit more on ball responsibility at times during his first year in
Charlotte, so and they were still trying to figure out things in their offense
in the first year that Kema Walker wasn't there good Devonte Graham basically as the
primary ball handle for you, and he was fantastic that year. But that's
different from having LaMelo ball Gordon Hayward, and I do think to Eli's point,
it will. Rosier's value sort of dropped off after that Hayward injury followed
by the LaMelo ball injury. He needs those primary creators around him. That's
fine. Though I think this is a deal, I don't know how it's
going to look from a team's perspective in years three and four. I think
for the next two or three years, when Lamello was still on his rookie
scale deal, when the Hornets still have that grace period of trying to figure
themselves out, I think it's fine. Can you build a contender with that
deal on your books, just knowing the limitations the Hornet's will inherently face.
I honestly don't know, but I don't think it's going to I don't think
it necessarily helps them pull off a trade. I don't think it's going to
be completely immovable. Now you sort of juxtapose that with the Marcus Smart deal,
which I thought was fantastic value just for the Celtics here because had you
let him get into two twenty two free agency. This is someone who can
defend basically four positions even though he's under six four, and he's improved.
I don't think this gets talked about enough. He's improved his three point shot,
and it's not just to the point where he is hitting these wide open
catch and shoot triples he has, and look, it does take them a
little while to get into them, and defenses are giving him this shot.
So I will recognize that he is not, you know, at the same
level as a Damian Lillard here, but he's shot thirty seven point eight percent
off the dribble over the past two seasons. Is that is huge because it
makes him less of a limitation on offense. I still don't think you want
him running the pick and roll, even though he can do that. There
is some surgicality to his drives, but they have Dennis Shrewder now. I
also think Peyton Pritchard will help them here. Had you seen that dude's handles
in Summer League? Please, though, can we stop calling him the Caucasian
Kyrie. That is just flat out embarrassing and his handles are not even close
to that good. That that nickname that started cropping up in those social media
sphere made me made me cringe a little bit too much. So I you
look at that and this Celtics deal, I'm honestly shocked. That maybe not
shocked, but I am a little bit surprised that Marcus Smart signed it.
I think some fans, analysts were surprised that the Celtics offered it because everyone
was under the not everyone, there were people under the guys that the Celtics
were going to go out and try and chase Bradley be able to pair with
Jayson Tatum because those who are tight, it was just impossible with Al Horford's
money on the books and this deal. If you have four years and seventy
seven million left at Marcus Smart after this season, that is a deal that
could be traded in in a snap over the off season. There are teams
that will give you assets for that. The Warriors are always linked to him,
so when the Warriors invariably finish in the lottery, they'll probably be touting
that lottery pick to try and get Marcus Mart from the Celtics as Boston looks
a clear cap space for Bradley Beale. I don't. I don't actually think
anything like that goes into it. I think this was Boston looking at he
is without question to me, there's Jason Tatum, there's John Brown, and
then Marcus Smart is your third most important player. I know people might want
to cite Al Horford. Maybe someone want to try and be trendy and go
the the al Al Horford route, excuse me, the Robert Williams the third
route. It's not like, don't even bother making a case for Josh Richerson
is definitely not Dennis Shrewder, and so I just think that's great value for
the Celtics from a team's perspective. You lock him up and then think about
the rest later. Brett Juele has said, I really like Scary Terry,
but hopefully he plays like twenty seventeen if they make the playoff, not twenty
and eighteen, twenty nineteen against Milwaukee. You know that two thousand and eighteen
playoff run, right, It was good from him, and that's two eighteen
playff one n looping two years into it. But he wasn't as efficient as
people really thought there. So I yeah, you know, you want to
see improve it in the playoffs, and we just saw Charlotte get absolutely annihilated
in the playing game. This year, I think they're set up to be
better. Give me a full year of LaMelo starting and healthy. Hopefully Heyward's
able to stay healthy. I would have liked to see them sure up their
center rotation a little bit more, but I love PJ Washington line that's with
him at the five. I think Mason Plumby helps them. Miles Bridges was
great last year. I'm actually, you know, after watching James book Knight
get his soul just obliterated by Davion Mitchell in the Summer League, I actually
liked what I saw from him, So I'm hoping he gets some burned in
Charlotte as well, who also picked up Kelly Looobery Junior gives them some length
and size on defense. It does seem like with him, they're gonna lean
into the smaller lineups where you're gonna see PJ. Washington more at the five.
So Charlotte's team to watch. I think. I think Terry Rosier is
fine there for there. I think he's fine there right now. I do
think that's the deal to look at and see how is it going to age
With Marcus Smart, It's more of a no brainer to me. I just
if he was willing to take that money. Looking at the twenty two free
agency class, which I do think starts a different type of discussion, we're
seeing teams and players sign extensions. I think, for one, if you're
a Terry Rosier, maybe you looked at what happened at Dennis Shrewder this year
and saw his market crater, and I don't I think you've put together enough
of sample size where you're not going to be settling for the mini mid level
exception type money. But if you're getting this much guaranteed cash, even if
it's only a three year guarantee, right now, he's taking it, securing
that financial future. Maybe Marcus Smart feels the same way, especially where I
do think teams look at what the Knicks did the summers free agency. I
think that organization among others, even Chicago who acquired Lonzo Vias sign and Trade,
who acquired to Marta Rosen via Sign and Trade a lot. I feel
like these teams are starting to look at the star market and saying stars are
going to be traded, Stars are going to be signed and traded, They're
not just going to be outright poached in free agency. And I think teams
are now maybe letting that approach leak over to the non stars, where maybe
you wouldn't have given Marcus Smart or an extension because you want to keep the
illusion of, hey, if we got rid of Al Horford's money, or
maybe we could work out a sign and trade for Bradley Beal. I think
that teams are now understanding it's going to take real assets to maybe get stars.
Almost at every turn, where're gonna see very few of them leave for
nothing unless they're age thirty five Kyle Howry, and you can get them for
gore and drag and precious hichiwa. So I think that's something to watch.
And I think twenty twenty two freec the overall is just going to be another
you know, off season where I don't know if we'll be as disappointed,
but we need to keep an eye on which restricted free agents are gonna or
restricted free agents to be are going to sign extensions before the start of the
season, and just look at what that market's going to look like. We
saw this past year where not just guys restricted free agents to be, we're
signing extensions like a Jason Tatum or a band out of Bio. It was
the Lebron, it was a Rudy Gold there. We saw Paul George sign
an extension. There are players who it seems like the more popular route right
now is going the you know, they know they can be extended after two
years, and so they're going with three plus ones and then they're hoping to
extend off the top of that number. That's just a guest by me.
I don't know if that's you know, I haven't had any NBA agents tell
me that, but just looking at what Paul George did, even what Kawai
did this summer, it feels like that might be becoming the more popular thing
Brooklyn nets Stars. By the way, Kevin Durant is already sign an extension.
Kyrie is expected to sign an extension. I wonder if James harm will
wait another year before he does it, but that's going to be something to
monitor there. Before I move on to I want to talk about Joel and
Bead's extension. Would you ever speak her quests from Brian Langford? Brian,
how are you doing? Hey man? You hear me? Yes, I
can hear you. Oh no, you know, I like to hear what
you were just talking about. I've been preaching us around the world the last
three years. It's all about getting the money and now, like from examples
like Carmelo, He's got so much money for his career. Now he's about
winning a championship and I'm fair with that. Everybody goes, oh, win
a championship first, No, secure the bag first, get the money first.
A championship, to me, my opinion, only is a bonus.
If you get a championship, it's a bonus rather than that this is a
job, this is your career, and real quick, I know a couple
of guys I'm not name dropping that retired from the NBA and I know him
personally, and they said, I wish I would have taken that deal in
two thousand and blank. And I'm like, and I said, why didn't
you take it? They said I was trying to win. And I was
like, well, but most of you guys say your championship RINGSI will be
your retires he big, get your money. That's just my opinion. Thank
you for weighing in there, Brian. That's you know. I don't disagree
with him, and I know what you Li's in the chat saying it's not
about the money. Competitors don't think like that. I do think once you
get to a certa point. But I do think part of being a competitor,
and Brian brought this up with Mellow is that you think you're so good
that you don't that you can have both, that you can have the max
contract, let's say your max extension if we're going off the twenty percent raises
here and also win And Brett Jules says in the chat Bobby Portis has just
exited the chat that actually made me laugh. Thank you, Thank you,
Brett. And so when you're dealing with actual star players, I think you're
less likely to go after take a pay cut to win a championship. I
also think that players in general aren't gonna want to take these pay cuts because
all they're doing is giving discounts to billionaire team governors. And if you have
enough cashier, if you're a star, you can sign a deal and you
can force yourself to get traded later you have. Look, if Janice went
to the Bucks tomorrow with five years left on his extension that I want out,
Milwaukee's probably gonna facilitated. It's the same thing with Dame in Portland.
And so I think, as always, stars are sort of up against a
different type of window for guys along the lines of Terry Rozier. Look,
I think we see that a little bit more where those mid tier guys might
be taking pay cuts. Yeah, there there are some of them, like
you know, Trevor Ariza has been until recently a mercenary his entire career,
just taking the money from wherever it's from, and then he'll just get traded
mid season because that's like a right of passage now. But I think those
guys have the more limited earnings windows because if they get an injury or if
their stock goes downhill like a Dennis Shrewder. We just saw how much a
few monch can change everything for him. He goes from betting on himself turning
down. I think it was four years and eighty four million, if I'm
not mistaken on his extension, but some sort of number. It might have
been seventy three guaranteed. Whatever it was, he bet on himself in the
market cratered and we're we're seeing I think if you look at these other guys
and say, well, what if that happens to me, you know,
I don't think of Marcus Martin needed to take an extension to make sure he
got paid again. My bet would be that he would have gotten more on
the open market next year. But if you like where you're at, if
you're on a team that you think even has a pathway to contention, like
a smart and he's a non star. You can easily talk yourself into prioritizing
the bag then, and then a guy like Terry Rosier, I don't think
he looks at the Horders team realistically and thinks I'm going to win a championship
there. I just don't think he looks like that. I think money matters
to these guys, but that it's an also a case by case basis,
and that's where I sort of land on this is I don't think there's really
a blanketed thought here. I think different things are going to matter to different
guys. The one that we've seen that's almost you know, fail proof,
is as they get older, as they get into the latter parts of their
career, they're going to prioritize winning a title at some point and maybe take
pay cuts. I know Brian and the chat mentioned David Wesley did that,
but David Westley used me David Leslie. Wow, but again it was after
you know, his primary earning days he did. He signed an extension with
the Pacers at one point. I believe so these guys have a limited earning
windows. And I would side if I had to with Brian and say if
I'm an NBA player, I'm prioritizing the I'm not taking a pay cut for
anything, not to play with my homies. Nothing. I don't want to
give these billionaires discounts. But I also understand where Eli is coming from,
where I don't think they're competitors wired like that. We've seen, you know,
even guys earlier in their careers where they're their non stars, but they're
maybe going to go to teams where they think that they have a better chance
of winning. Do you think that Otto Porter could have gotten more than the
minimum of someone this year? That's another issue of someone's stock who's plummeted.
But he's going with a Warriors team where he's gonna get playing time and they
might have a chance to win. So he's probably not like the perfect example
there. But there are guys who before their primary earning windows Rover will go
to more so winning teams. I did want to get to this Joel Embiid
extension. I think I don't think anyone was, or at least in my
opinion, they should not have been surprised by it. But Joel Embiid signed
a four year, one hundred ninety six million dollar extension. What I thought
was most interesting about it is that it is fully guaranteed and that there is
nothing inoculating this six through sixers against yeah, a disaster, where right now
a lot his primary extension, his last extension, excuse me there was it
was incentive based. It was the sixers were protected in the event that he
was injured. Missed a ton of games. He's had a clear threshold in
certain seasons. The fact that this doesn't have it matters to them because if
you look at him bead last season, misses twenty one games. This season
before that, misses twenty one games in two eighteen nineteen, he misses eighteen
games in two thousand and seventeen eighteen, he misses, he misses nineteen games
in two thousand and sixteen, twenty and seventeen his quote unquote rookie season,
he misses fifty one games. And then we all know that he missed the
first two years in full of his career. He's had foot issues, he's
had back issues. He played on a Parsley tour meniscus this year in the
postseason and was still dominant. There's risk here, There's real risk. He
has not looked the timeline on a normal player, he is about to enter
his age twenty seven season. You have Joel Embiid for another half decade six
years. That's fine and aligns right with the meat and potatoes of his prime.
But he does seem like someone who you could pencil out for at least
fifteen games every single year, and he might not be fully healthy when the
playoffs rules around that matters. At the same time, he was probably the
permanent MVP this year. I had him as a leader until he suffered his
was it a knee injury? I can't remember what mid season injury he had,
but before he missed time, I had him as the MVP over Yokich.
Had he played in more games or as many games as Yokich, I
might have had him as the MVP. Anyway, I think he is the
Sixers most valuable defender there is. It is a symbiotic relationship between he and
Ben Simmons. I think if you removed Ben Simmons from the Sixers, there'll
be a lot more pressure on Joel Embiid on the back line, and the
Sixers defense wouldn't be as good. But part of the reason why I wouldn't
vote Ben Simmons defensive Player of the Year, at least looking at last year
specifically, I think a lot of what he does is aided by the fact
that you have Joel Embiid behind you, so again, symbiotic relationship there.
Jolobie was so dominant though, and it's become so great on the defensive end
while also just honing his offense to where the past two seasons, No,
he's not been the most efficient from three. This year he was thirty seven
point seven percent. Don't get me wrong, but we've kind of seen him
take these off. The general Jumpers tortuned a bunch of different ways. I
still think he needs a player like I don't know, Jimmy Butler. Only
the Sixers could have someone like him, the face up wing or guard or
just playmaker who you can milk in crunch time. And as Brett said in
the chat, yeah, it was a partially torn meniscus I think he had
in the hyper extended knee. That was the injury he had mid season.
Eli Ads indeed needs the perimeter star or wing on one hundred percent with him
there. As I was just saying that. Being said, he can be
the best overall player on the championship team, or if you want to go
the one A, one B route or even just co one a's I think
you know, it's a situation where let's look at it this way. In
Milwaukee, Joannice is clearly the best player on that team and was during their
title run. But they ran a lot of the primary offense through Middleton in
the crunch time of the playoffs, and he initiated the two man game with
Jannis And so that's Joel Ebie need that needs that player. Ben Simmons is
not it because Ben Simmons, despite what that video showed from his trainer,
you don't have guys playing up on him on screens like there's not a lot
that you can do with a Ben Simmons. Joel Embiid pick and roll.
That was objectively one of the funniest videos ever. By the way, I
don't really like taunting players because they deal with so much shit. But I
don't know why anyone would have posted that that video anyway. It puts the
Sixers they didn't have leverage. Here is my point is Joel Biad has become
great enough to where he gets he has the leverage to get this deal.
But There is risk involved there, and I do think that it increases the
urgency with which the Sixers need to go out and find him the player he
needs. It's invariably going to have to come at the expense of Ben Simmons.
But that sort of leads us through the next thing I want to talk
about. There was an update from Bleacher Reports Jake Fisher, who and yes
they aren't my employer, so there's bias there. But he's absolutely been killing
it this offseason with his reporting. When you look at what came out before
free agency, he had so much shit right on the money. But it
does seem that despite interest this is perject Fisher from Minnesota, gol and State,
Sacramento, San Antonio, other teams that and this is quote, league
insiders continue to believe that Simmons for now is expected to remain a six or
once training camp opens on September twenty eight, barring a change of temperature with
Damian Lillard in Portland's I kind of came to expect this a few weeks into
the off season, when it became clear how low Simmons's value was around the
league. There were if you talk to people from Portland and Float the idea
of CJ. McCullum and stuff for Ben Simmons. They get reticent about the
end stuff portion of this, and we have a speaker request from NOA.
I'm going to get to you very shortly as I finished this thought that to
me is just I get it because of his offensive vanishing athlete act in the
semi finals this year. At the same time, I've view Simmons as the
positive in that trade because of his youth, because of what he can do
on defense if you surround him with enough shooting. No, I don't think
you can build a team around him like the Bucks did with Jannis, where
he can be that guy. But he is a predatnatural passer and he can
really set up guys for threes based off his dribble penetration. If that's what
his value is. If you can't even get CJ. McCollum and stuff like,
let's just keep moving and wait see if you can build back up his
value close to the trade deadline. The catch twenty two here also is for
CJ. McCollums. Specifically, there's a debate whether in a vacuum, let's
say Damian Lillards staying in Portland for the next two to three years. Let's
just say that you would have to debate internally if you're the Sixers whether you
want to make that deal anyway. But now that the Damian Lillard stuff is
filling around in the ether, why are you going to do something that ostensibly
helps the Blazers keep Damian Lillard, who should be one of your primary trade
targets if you aren't giving up this mid twenties all defense type player who has
the potential, again surrounded by enough spacing to be a really impact full offensive
player. So that puts them in a tough position. And then when you
look at the rest of the market, because of where the Sixers are on
their timeline now, specifically after extending Jowell embiid, you can't just do business
with teams that are going to offer you picks as the primary asset incentive.
Here where I think the Spurs might be the best example of this. They
might be able to straddle two lines where if they're using Dejanta Murray and or
Derek White as sort of the main attraction, and then including Devin Vassell and
however many picks it takes whatever that's not picks, prospects they're not going to
mean as much to Philly, a team that's trying to win now. So
then you get into a scenario where there are certain trade partners. I would
probably throw a Golden State in there at this point, because what does Philly
want with Andrew Wiggins? What do they want with Jonathan Comingo or Moses Moody
or James Wassman, especially when when Jowell Ebiad's there. Now you need a
third team to start facilitating. And now this leaves you in this weird area
where if Bradley Beale doesn't want out to wash Ington right now, which doesn't
seem like he he does, you can wait on that or you pull the
trigger on a deal now where you're getting like role tired, role player type
guys maybe attached to picks and prospects, and you're trying to straddle those two
different types of packages. And that's I think, you know we just mentioned
or San Antonio. That's a team that could do it, Sacramento. If
the Sixers like Buddy Healed and Harrison Barnes, maybe you could get a Haliburton
or a Davion Mitchell out of that plus other picks. But if you're trading
Ben Simmons, I don't think you can justify having the main acquisition the meat
and potatoes. Second time I've used that phrase in this podcast. I don't
think you can have that be a Buddy Heal, a Harrison Barnes. I'm
maybe a Desjaante Murray, just he would be really good in Philly. By
the way he's showed a little bit more in his jumper. He's just one
of the best, you know, wing defenders, flat out, not even
just guard defenders out there, So maybe him, but even then, like
you are punting on someone who's just an all defense given with Defensive Player of
the Year Chops, we've shown that he's a great passer and for me and
I'll throw the talking stick to Noah in a second after this, I just
don't see the rush when and Beat and Simmons aligns with them on the court.
Last year obliterated opponents by sixteen points per one hundred possessions in the regular
season. So you have a little bit of a cushion. If Ben Simmons
doesn't report to training camp, if he tries to hold out, then things
can get iffy awkward. We saw it with James Harden in Houston. Ben
Simmons doesn't have that same type of leverage though, because he's he's not as
good. And unless there's a team that's gonna bowl over the Sixers right now,
I would advocate where, yeah, you're gonna have to just lean into
the awkwardness. And that's not me complimenting Darryn Morrier the Sixers Trown office.
I just think it's a matter of fact because the returns right now don't necessarily
make a ton of sense. But Noah, you now have the talking stick.
Noah, are you there? Yes, Hey, Dan, what's up?
How's it going? Noah, it's going good. So just to echo
what you were saying about, you know, Ben Simmons. Obviously, we
talked earlier last week about how probably c J. McCollum isn't going to be
traded from the Blazers. But I think the definitely the extension for Joe well
embid and given the fact that I'm actually very surprised that they gave him such
a you know, lucrative deal considering his injury history. He hasn't had a
full healthy season is even his entire career, especially last year was his MVP
type season. He did even played, and he was playing injured and still
was managing to dominate. But I agree with you in the sense that I
feel like Ben Simmons right now we already know how badest trade value is,
but it doesn't seem like the Sixers are in any type of rush to trade
him, especially given the off season that they had bringing Andre Drummond. They
are obviously they're obviously thinking that, you know, do I have They just
brought a younger Dwight Howard in it all honesty, but no offense Germmon of
course, bringing Andrew Germmon and also not doing much on the offensive end in
the off season. I don't think. I don't think they're basically in a
situation where they can trade Ben Simmons and he doesn't have any sort of leverage
at all. If Ben Simmons were to walk into training camp come September and
say I want out, he would be he'd want out for the wrong reasons,
because he's already he already has this extension from his rookie extension. It's
not a sense of him, not of the organization not treating him well,
but rather him not improving enough for the organ for the organization's standard. So
in all, honestly, I don't see Ben Simmons. I see Ben Simmons
being a sixer by the end of the next season. Wow. Yeah,
I honestly think so, because you just you just finished this season as the
number one the number one seed in the in the East. Yes, the
Hawks completely obliterated you unexpectedly because of Ben Simmons' offensive woes, but I'm inclined
to believe that. I don't think they're gonna make that the end all be
all for him if he doesn't have an improvement, If he doesn't have improvement
over the season, I do agree with you that they're probably going to trade
him at the end of the season, but it makes no sense to trade
in mid season, especially since even during the regular season last year we knew
he wasn't offensively. He wasn't doing anything offensively either. There were nights where
he was putting up less than fifteen a game. So it's just in the
playoffs that becomes way more exploitable. So I definitely think that Ben Simmons is
going to be a sixer. I don't know if the city of Philly wants
that, but for sure, I think the organization. There's no rush to
trade him, and I don't think any other team if you're adding Ben Simmons,
you're adding him to a team that has championship or contention in contention aspirations,
and if you're the Sixers, which you want back from him, for
him is an all Star caliber player, and if you're gonna get picks,
you're not going to get picts from It's not a bad team that you're going
to get a player for him. I don't I don't know what player you
would trade for Ben Simmons. If it's not Bradley Beal who doesn't play defense,
if it's not two people call him who doesn't play defense, if it's
Buddy Heels, who is just a defensive liability, And like this, you're
losing a lot. So I don't really see the Elton brand and the Sixers
take making a move to get rid of him any any types. I think
he's gonna become twenty twenty two. He's gonna be a in Philly. Still,
No, I thank you for those thoughts. I'm gonna remove you as
speaker. I agree with everything you said there. The one thing I guess
our question is whether Simmons will still be there by the end of the season.
My shopping the one I think actual disagreement I would have. I don't
know that you need to be a team with contention aspirations to get Ben Simmons.
I think if you're Portland and you're rebooting even a little bit with Toronto,
even with san Antonio, he's twenty five, So if you believe in
him, I think you can view him as part of your longer term or
maybe the central hub of that. The one thing I definitely agree with you
on is the leverage isn't there, And I know that clutch Boards is great
at manufacturing leverage. However, with four years in one hundred forty plus million
left on this deal that's not viewed lead wide right now, isn't that positive.
He could refuse to show up to training camp. That's fine. I
don't know that that's going to force the Sixers his hand there, because they
would have to accept bottom dollar at that point. This isn't a James Harden
situation where he was still viewed as this great star, this huge asset.
On his current deal, they could still turn if they wanted to Philly turn
him around and get maybe one of the packages that we were discussing. That
being said, I just I'm with nowhere. I don't think he has the
leverage to force his way out of Philly. We do have another speaker request,
so I'm gonna hand the talking stick to Rob Hillman in a second.
But I want to pose this through the room and to our listeners we're hearing
this as a podcast. Let's say Ben Timmins is still on the Sixers in
a year. There was a school thought before this season that the Sixers should
trade Joel Embiid and rebuild around Ben Simmons, or retool, not rebuild because
they were still expect to be really good, surround him with a bunch of
shooting another creator, win creator, and go that route. Is there any
path, anything, realistically that could happen this season? If Ben Simmons finishes
it in Philly, that would reignite those types of talks and full disclosure,
I was actually one of those people leading into last season. I'm no longer
one of those people with even with the Joel embiead injury risk caked in.
Simmons has not been a beacon of health himself, by the way, but
just seeing everything that Joel Embiid did. I don't know how he would ever
revert to that route, but I'm just curious. Does anyone see a feasible
path or what would need to happen over the next year. Let's non catastrophe
division. Yeah, Joel Embiid having both his legs amputated, that would definitely
be an issue. But for now, I'm going to hand the microphone to
Rob Hillman. Rob, can you hear me? Yeah? Dan, I
love that. Yeah. You gotta get rid of Drummond. You gotta sign
JJ Raddick. You got to bring back Roco. They had a great team
five years ago. I'm a Timberwolves fan. I live in Minnesota. We
would love to have Simmons because he would fit great with Cat. But the
problem with Philly is elden Brand. They had a great they had spacing four
or five years ago. Then they brought Jimmy Butler, then they brought Al
Horford, then they Richardson. Like the roster construction in Philly has been awful
in the playoffs, and when we think, when I think about Simmons,
he needs to be paired with a spacer five who can shoot like Cat.
Maybe Yoki trade him like Simmons for Porter, would be my something I could
see happening in Philly if you just spaced hand. Let Simmons play the small
ball five. When and Beat is on the bench, he is a wrecking
crew. When the lane is open, he is. He's so awesome,
And I think we'll figure the free throws out. Yeah, honest did in
the playoffs seventeen for nineteen and so I I from Minnesota perspective. We would
love to have him, but we'll be okay without him. Maybe maybe we
are always optimistic because we have to be. But I think Philly could work
it out and they just have to have spacing and shooting and open lane because
when he is a driving ten times a game, he is awesome. Thank
you for those thoughts, Rob, And so let me start with the one
disagreement I have with you. I think Jimmy Butler was fantastic for Philly and
he was initiating a lot of their offense by the end of their postseason.
On whatever happened there, you could definitely put some of this on Elton Brand.
There was something I think Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, I think it
effectively came down to that iteration of the Sixers chose Ben Simmons over Jimmy Butler
because Ben Simmons wasn't content with his role beside Jimmy Butler when it mattered most.
And you probably weren't going to keep Jimmy Butler if you had that sort
of Ben Simmons stuff in the in the offing, and it didn't sound like
Philly was willing to go for five years with Jimmy at the time, which
you absolutely should have done. So that's on Philly dal Horford stuff. That's
on whoever wasn't charged that Elton Brand, whether it was you know, Josh
Harris pushing for that, that was just, oh my god. That was
an experiment where I was morbidly curious about it, and I wasn't just like
so down on it, but you were looking at it like I only want
to not take my eyes away from this because it makes no fucking sense.
So Brand deserves a lot of criticism there. I think you're also right where
Simmons needs to be surrounded by a ton of spacing. I don't think Philly
has given him enough looks as a de facto small ball five to say that
that can't work. I'd like to see more of Ben Simmons as a screener
without the ball. We staw Yannis lean into that role recently. Again,
he's a different type of offensive threat, a better one than Ben Simmons is.
But we've seen him kind of acqui acclimate himself too somewhere off ball stuff,
and I think that's important. I think, you know, Ben Simmons
can mirror some of that. What he really needs to play beside is I
think, because where you have Jannis is probably just one of the best help
defenders of all time at this point when you look at the ground he could
cover, he probably needs to play beside like a big who's not really a
big and can be a great help defender because Ben Simmons is not like he's
this awesome one on one guy. And I think he's fine. It's a
help defender, But I do think that sort of separates him from the yannestier
of defense right now. Is the havoc that Jannis can wreak away from the
ball, I don't see doing the same. I don't see Ben Simmons doing
the same. So if you had, you know, you know, I
think big man wise karl Anthy Towns would be a great fit for Ben Simmons
is not defensively, I think he'd helped karl Anthy tow a ton there.
But if you put him beside a Maxi Kleiba, that's someone who could help
those minutes. But then it comes back to this point of well, then
you know Maxi Kleib is not Joel and bad Connety Towns is not Joel Embiid.
That's the pairing that's really awkward right now. It works in the regular
season, but unless Ben Simmons is going to develop any sort of extra range,
it's going to be awkward come playoff time, unless Joel Embiid wants to
take a step back and be just more of a picking pop guy, which
you can't do that, Joel to Joel Embiid, especially now when you know
you don't have that other win creator to even justify displacing him from the ball,
so Eli said, he cringes when people compare Johannest and Simmons. I'm
kind of there with him. I still would like to see that experiment that
Rob was alluding to, where it's just Simmons and a bunch of shooting,
And I do think you need like a wherewith Janice he can kind of be
the lone big. I don't think Simmons is built to be that way.
So you need a complimentary floor spacing big who's gonna give you a lot of
help. Defense and MAXI cleveand type is the first one that comes to mind.
I'm not saying he would be the guy that changes everything for Ben Simmons,
but that feels like the ideal construct within which Ben Simmons would would need
to operate. I'm gonna be fascinated to see where he winds up next,
because I don't think he's going to be there long term in Philly. Like
I said before, I don't see a pathway to them ever choosing him over
Joel Embiid at this point. I think the Supermax is proof of that.
They could definitely move that when he's aligible to be traded again, but I
just after the season he had. I don't know how you would even get
to that point unless something happens that would make other teams not want Joel Embiid.
Another thing I wanted to talk about that was just in the news,
But Kevin Durrett Draymond Green interview on Draymond Green Show Chips. I thought it
was a very interesting conversation. I think the big pull everyone's taking from it
is they said that Bob Meyers and Steve kirk kind of fucked everything up because
the way they handled the Draymond Green Kevin Durant kerfuffle, yelling match, whatever
you want to call it against the Clippers. One, I can't believe we're
still talking about this when I was like three years ago or whatever it was.
And two, the other thing that really gets me is does it matter
what Steve Kerr and Bob Meyers were doing. I don't think they handled it
properly. I want to make that clear. Pandering to Kevin Durant. That's
effectively how they handled the situation. They suspended Draymond Green, they wanted him
to apologize. They were more concerned about Kevin Durant staying or making it so
that they weren't the reason Kevin Durant left than trying to actually fix things that
had been festering clearly within the team. That is one percent on them.
But were they physically restraining Draymond Green and Kevin Durant from hashing it out like
they wanted to? If they just needed to have an aired out cathartic conversation,
like Draymond Green said, that could have happened, you know, outside
the arena and could have happened whatever. No one was stopping them from from
doing that. So I don't understand how you can let all the blame fault
the feet of Bob Meyers and Steve Kerr. I think that was just a
situation that Kevin Durray didn't want to be there anymore. And that's okay.
It seems like these are two guys and Draymond and Kevin Durant we're friends now
and that's great. But as Marcus Thompson, I believe it was said on
an athletic podcast recently that just probably weren't friends then and that's part of the
reason why its deteriorated. I'm not placing all the blame on them, but
that was just talk about deflection from that conversation is just the one thing I
didn't get and you're not gonna find. I'm not defending the way Bob Meyers
and Steve Grandlin's the Draymond Green suspension was was so dumb in the moment.
We have a question in the chat where someone asked what rookie stenches at rookie
stenches, what rookie extensions do you think we're going to see from the rest
of the twenty eighteen class. So we've already seen an extension for Luca don
Chich, Trey Young, and Shake Gilgis Alexander. We're eventually going to do
a podcast on this probably, so I don't want to get like super deep
into it. There aren't a lot of locks after that because of there are
these guys that you could maybe argue or like near max or very expensive players,
who is there a point in locking them up now? I think you
look at you know, the two guys in Phoenix, Mchael Bridges and DeAndre
Ayton are either one of them signing for less than twenty million dollars a year.
No, I don't know that either of them has a leverage to get
a max. DeAndre Ayton put together the best stretch of basketball of his career
when it mattered most for Phoenix in the playoffs, so he has some leverage
in negotiations now. But if they sign an extension, I'll be very curious
to see what the numbers are for them. I would think if I had
to estimate. If I'm Michael Bridges, I'm not taking less than like four
and eighty eight. I mean, even you look at with Terror Rozier just
got there are two different players. But if I'm Michael bridge is knowing how
valuable I am on defense, I want that type of money. So if
he's not getting twenty one twenty two million dollars per year, I doubt he
would sign. DeAndre Atan is more complicated. I would still say he's the
less valuable player compared to Michael Bridges. That being said, I think he
has to get at these twenty million dollars year an extension for him to sign
because there will be a market for him next year. Amongst teams are cap
space. Other names that stand out to me. I don't think Jared Jackson
Junior will sign one just because he's coming off a year he missed most of
it with injury and then didn't shoot all that well from three. It's clear
that he's really important to their offense because those ultra deep threes open up things
for Memphis like crazy, But coming off that type of the season when he
still fouls a ton on defense, you don't necessarily know if he'd defend the
five consistently. At this point, are you even playing him at the five
consistently? That something Memphis has been reticent to do. They still have a
lot of finding out with him, discovery to go with Jared Jackson Junior,
and so unless he's just signing to get some security and the number is super
team friendly, I'd be a little bit shocked if he ends up signing an
extension. Colin Sexton's the other another tough one. There was a report from
Jason Lloyd of the Athletic Leading in the free agency that con Sexton was very
much available, in part because the Cavs like Darius Garland and of con Sexton's
extension eligibility. I don't know what you pay con Sexton. I do think
that con Sexton has become underrated. People are still harping on the fact that
he can't be the primary playmaker of an offense. That's you know, I
think it's true. He's also not a point guard. They're harping on the
fact that he doesn't have like the super efficient off the dribble game, which
is true. He hadn't affective field goal percentage sub forty five. I'm Paula
jumpers last year. I totally one hundred percent get it. But he's like
a souped up, younger version of Terry Rozier on offense, someone who has
some surgicality to his game when he gets in the lane and he hits a
lot of threes and doesn't need to have the ball in his hands to hit
them. He is just the second player in NBA history to average more than
twenty four points per game while knocking down more than fifty percent of his two's
and thirty seven percent of his threes. Before we're turning twenty three. The
only other player to do that is Jason Tatum. Different players, Jason Tatum's
way more valuable. Contexton is good. That's just really what I'm getting at.
And when you see the terror Ros year extension as a baseline, not
as rookie extension obviously, but if he got four years and ninety ninety six
point two million, whatever it is, and if that's all guaranteed, which
I'm hoping this podcast I was ane super poorly. I gave it the entire
day to see if there would be any further reporting that trickled out. You're
a Colin Sexton. You're seeing that, why would you ever sign for less
than like four and one ten if that's the going rate for guards who can
shoot and score. I honestly just I don't know why you would. So,
yeah, there's like that's just I'm gonna be fascinated to see what he
gets. I doubt he signs an extension though, because if you sign him
to an extension, then you can't really trade him this season because the poison
pill provision. Do have a couple of questions in the chat. I would
get to both of you in a second. We're just gonna wrap up this
segment. The other one that I'm really watching here is Michael Porter Jr.
I think he's a no brainer Max, and just based off what he did
last season, he's a perfect hit beside Murray and Yokich. And even after
Murray was injured, Michael Porter Juniors a lot of his buckets still came off
assist, but he had the ball in his hands more, was taking more
dribbles per touch, and his efficiency was still pretty damn good. I think
he's proven that he's just going to get that money if he let him reach
the open market. Now, if you're Denver, you probably want to make
sure he doesn't get injured. And if you think you have the good will
built up with him to just wait because you can match whatever offer he gets
in free agency, maybe you want to make sure that back stuff still isn't
an issue because that trepped up towards the end of the playoffs last year.
That's kind of the last guy I'm interested in. Kevin Hurder, some guy.
Some guy. Kevin Hurder gives you a little bit more off the dribble
pizzas that I think people credit him for on offense, and he's a good
shooter. I just when you have Cam Reddish DeAndre Hunter, when you've signed
Bardanovitch under contract for three more years, two more years after this upcoming season,
they got a look at and figure out who they're paying, what's going
to move forward long term, because I don't think they pay all those guys.
Miles Bridges is another one. He had a spectacular season last year.
Charlotte's been given out extensions like crazy, and I'm just they extended Terry ros
here so they're not afraid of sort of locking themselves into guy's longer term.
I kind of almost expect him to get one now unless he's asking for an
astronomical amount of money, that's probably it. I'd be curious to see if
Donte DiVincenzo signs an extension, But after having that injury and on him,
I might better myself based off what Milwaukee's offering, And Milwaukee probably wants to
cheap out just based off how concerned they've been with their tax bill. Landry
Shammitt probably isn't getting one from Phoenix. Robert Williams might be interesting in Boston,
but they do have Horford under contract for another year after this weren't even
though it was partially guaranteed. So if Williams wants real money, and maybe
he's looking at Jared Allen and thinking I could play well enough to get that
one. I don't think Jared Allen played well enough to get that, but
you probably maybe you're gonna make that weight. And although I don't know,
like if they extended Marcus Smart, so, I don't think they're as concerned
about twenty twenty two caps based or flexibility, let's say, as people think.
So those are just sort of the names that bandying about. Of all
of them, I don't know that I expect any of them to get an
extension. I think my best guest might be Mile with Bridges and Michael Porter.
Junia comes close, just because you know what his market is going to
be, and so Denver could also look at it as well. Why wait
if he's gonna get max money? Anyway, Rob Hillman asked, is Memphis
taking tanking? And that is something I wanted to talk about because Memphis has
been trading all over the place. They acquired Rondo and Patrick Beverley at one
point from the Clippers to get off of Eric Bletsoe, and then Daniel Turrow
was involved than that one as well, and then sent Patrick Beverley the Timberwolves
to take a flyer on I guess they're technically taking a fire on war On
Hearn and Gomez, but to take a flyer on Jarrett Culver. If you're
a Minnesota that's interesting just because you traded Cam Johnson. What was the pick
that Cam Johnson and Dario starts to get Jared Colver then he kind of flamed
out. I think the best flashes he showed was as a rookie when you
were using him at point guard, and there's obviously not the flexibility to do
that, even though they had backup point gardment it's available. I'm fine with
them sort of selling their losses there. I think Patrick Beverley is a great
fit for what they're trying to do. Can play off of everyone Malik Beasley,
D'Angelo Russell, and Anthony Edwards, and then is still he's gonna compete
on defense, and we saw that he could be effective during the playoffs.
Still on the defensive end for Memphis though, Yeah, Rob, I don't
know if they're tanking. They're clearly not concerned about winning right now. When
you look at taking Brett Yeltson's twenty four percent from three for Culver, Yeah,
that was difficult. He did shoot better on catch and shoot threes at
one point. I think it was his rookie year. It might have been
last season, so I still sort of believe. But yeah, this isn't
I don't begrudge Minnesota for doing this, even though given how great Cam Johnson
is now and how well Dario Starts played for much of last year before his
injury, that trade does not look so for Memphis though, taking on Bletso
who's no longer than obviously Steven Adams, getting rid of Yannis Valancotis. They're
a worst team overall. I do find it interesting that they've decided Jarret Culver
is a better wing prospect or wing flyer than Justice Winslow. They obviously had
to get rid of him as part of the Clients team option as part of
the deal that brought them Bletso and draft compensation, which put them in position
to move up and get Zeyer Williams along with getting another future first round pick.
I mean, I like Zayyer Williams. By the way, he might
be more ready than we thought based off how he played in Summer League.
I'm trying not to take too much away from Summer League, though dude didn't
really score from what I saw there. Though they're clearly not prioritizing it now,
and I think that's okay. A lot of people were up in arms,
I guess because you look at how good John Morant is already and you're
sort of wondering, well, you made the playoffs the past two years,
exceeded expectations, Why wouldn't you be sort of going more for now? And
look, you can fall into a trap that way. We saw it with
the Phoenix Suns years ago. We might see it with some teams now where
they think that they're better than expected. Let's look at what the Hawks didn't
do. They made the conference finals and then didn't go out and try and
pull off this blockbuster trade or do anything aside from talent retention with John Collins
and you know, making moves on the margins, the ln Wright getting Gorgie
Jang after the Nika Kungu injury. You don't want to overreact to success.
And I think you look at Memphis, they were not close to title contention.
It was cool that they made the playoffs two years in a row.
Great, they were a first round they were first round stepping stone. That's
essentially what they became. They're trying to angle for something bigger here. If
they believe that Vier Williams is going to be off the board at number ten,
or maybe they had their eye on someone else in that spot who's taking
you know, maybe they thought Jane excuse me, maybe they thought that baby
On Mitchell was still going to be there or something. I don't know.
But you're taking these big swings and hoping you hit. And Desmond Baine is
another guy who they acquired around the draft last year. He ran a lot
of pick and roll in summer League. Maybe they're hoping to kind of catch
fire and a bottle with him. The wings, they're clearly on the hunt
for a star wing. When you look at them draftings, I your Williams
taking Jared Culver, having Desmond Baine, and they're trying to find it,
and I kind of I kind of dig it. We'll have to see how
these moves pan out, but I think they've given themselves more bites at the
apple and more room to experiment, because now I think when you look at
the players on the roster, you're not gonna care about playing Jared Jackson junior
at the five over Steven Adams as opposed to yours. Valn Tunis. Valon
Tunis was clearly their second best player last year, was probably their most consistent
player last year as well, and so it's a little tougher, especially with
him in a contract year. Probably not the greatest optics or player relations to
experiment with an Xavier Tillman, Brandon Clark even still in the roster there and
a Jared Jackson junior over him. So and I again, I like they
have a mass, like a tidy well of picks they have the Jazz pick.
In twenty twenty two, they've got Warriors pick loosely protected. In twenty
twenty four, they have all their own first round picks. But if they
want to go out and make a trade, they can maybe one of these
dice rolls sort of pays off, and I look, now is the time
to me to sort of take these risks. Even if John Morant maybe he's
not overwhelmingly excited about the direction that they've gone in after what happened in the
past two seasons, but he's still on his rookie scale contracts for another year's
another two years. Now is the time when you need to take these risks,
go through these paths of you know, discovery, find if you can
get that co star, because that look, that's what they're still looking for.
It's not Dylan Brooks. Jaren Jackson Junior hasn't put together enough two way
consistent play to be that guy. So they're still very much in the hunt
for a co star for John rant. I don't know if they're any closer
to getting him, but they're taking swings to try and get that type of
a player, and there's still positioned to be flexible in the years moving forward.
I'm not saying I love this, but I kind of understand the logic
here, and the alternative is kind of being like the New Orleans Pelicans,
like they're trying to rush this rebuild around Zion, and I think they had
the single worst off season in the NBA this year. Unless something changes,
maybe they use that trade exception, you know, to land someone this year
and it really helps. But to give up all they did, you know,
they're down two first round picks. I believe you have DeVante Graham,
but you lost Lonzo Ball and you've got Thomas header Ransky and Garrett Temple back
for him. Just a bunch of weird stuff. So and to not to
grease the wheels of a salary dump and then not really put that flexibility to
create use. I respect what Memphis did this offseason a lot more than I
did with what is happening in New Orleans. Another question we had from Brett
is what about the twenty seventeen draft class. Are guys like Harry Giles and
DJ Wilson just going to have to take two ways or go overseas. I
wish I could kind of tell you there. I think Harry Giles belongs in
the NBA, kind of really understated passer, really mobile on the offensive end.
You can kind of get away with playing him alongside another big, So
I would like to see another team give him a chance. DJ Wilson,
I was just never really enthralled by the Bucks. Tried camping him out in
the corner for stretches previously before he was before they moved him obviously, and
he just never really spaced the floor too consistently. I don't really know what
he was on defense. You know the player that I'm interested in. Anyone
who listens to this podcast religiously will know this well. Speaking of the twenty
seventeen draft class, that deal that Josh Hart signed, holy crap, the
fact that it's one fully guaranteed season with the two years after that, I
was shocked, and I can't believe he didn't get more. I think his
rebounding is overrated as good as it is there, so that's fine, and
I know his three point clip has not been super high for his career and
spoiler Brett knows where I'm going with this, by the way, So I
just I can't believe he can didn't get more guaranteed seasons. This was like
a it was a three year, thirty eight million dollar deal reported, but
like only next season is wholly guaranteed is what essentially breaks down too. So
I'm I'm shocked. I just from the twenty seventeen draft class was just pretty
wild though that was happening. Because he competes on the defensive, Van can
basically go after positions one through four. So he shoots well enough from three
where I think you can say, oh, look this three and D guy
we have. And as Brett said, are you just going to go Frankie
Lakina, You're damn right, I'm going frank Nielickina. Someone sign this man.
Don't use him as a point guard. He is shooting a fair weather
clip from three dating back to essentially the end of the twenty nineteen twenty season.
Yeah, they're all catch and shoot. Looks great, streamlined his role.
Don't put the ball in his hands of Ton and then have him defend
his ass off because he does that. You can't just be like, oh,
Frankie Lakina, go guard Trey Young for five seconds after you were sat
the entire game essentially, even though you played like eight seconds in the first
half or whatever it was. Use this guy as a three in D wing.
Use him as a three and D wing. He has the size to
guard up to the three the size and length. I am just I'm not
flabbergasid he's not signed because I kind of understand like where this is going.
But man, you some some smart he needs to sign him and use him
in that fashion. And if the Knicks were smart, because the Knicks don't
have wings by the way, I like they have RJ. Barrett, they
have Quentin Grimes, Argie barrettson winn I'll give you that. Argie Barrett six
seven, Quentin Grimes is six four. I believe people think he could defend
a bigger great for him. I'm not even knocking that pick, so to
speak. I'm not even knocking their off season. And I know Frankie Lakeena
is not the size of a traditional wing, but you need wings. After
letting Reggie Bullock go Evan fourne is not a wing. Like just I didn't
think that Frankie Lokeena was this no rainer for them to get rid of him.
And in theoretically he could still come back. I want to make that
clear. But the fact that you prioritize paying Taj Gibson over as your look,
he's like he's if all goes according to plan, Taj Gibson is your
fifth big You Randall, Mitchell Robinson, Noel, then Obie Topping and as
Toash Gibson, I know Gibson did good stuff for the Knicks last year,
but come on, someone signed Frankie Ookeena. That's the moral of this of
this story. Rob asked, will the offensive player rule changes limiting plays where
driving players viewer to create thousan or create space and end up tearing the racl
I e qaua Jamal Murray. I'm not sure if there's a question here,
am I missing some part of that? I do think those rule changes were
good. I know they're going to be enforcing those unnatural motions by shooters this
year as well, so I'm hoping that's addressed. The last thing actually did
want to get to in this podcast is because I found it funny. Maybe
it was two things, but the Christmas schedule we have Hawks, Knicks at
twelve, Celtics, Bucks at two thirty, Warrior Sons at five, Nets,
Lakers at eight, Mavericks, Jazz at ten thirty. Now I have
gripes because I'm a nerd, and I will have grapes, But I want
to say that people need to remember the Christmas Day slate is about catering to
the more casual basketball fan, drawing them in fans that are still thinking about
football and the playoffs coming up, more so than the NBA at that point.
So you need to kind of you matches match up through those lenses,
even wearing those goggles. Come on, they missed a chance, in my
opinion, to go Sons Bucks. I just thought that Matt that could have
been a little bit of a budding rivalry. I don't need to see Sons
Warriors. If you guarantee me that claim is gonna be back Shore, put
the Warriors on on television, I would have even Bucks nets that could be
the rivalry. So maybe even go that route if you're trying to keep it
to two East Coast teams. I don't think Boston needed to be on this
late I don't even think that. Look, if we're being honest, I
don't think the Knicks needed to be on this lag. Yeah, they have
Kemba and they have Julius Randall and they're good, so it don't get me
wrong, but I probably would prefer to see Hawks Sixers. That's another budding
rivalry that could have been fun. I also think that so I think imbat
Is snubs from here. They're obvious snubs, but I actually think that embiads
team should fit into one of the Celtics or Nick slots there. I would
have loved to have seen. I think if I had my druthers based off
the current schedule, I would have went Hawks Sixers, Nets Bucks, And
then could you've gone like Lakers Nuggets, like let's put the MVP Yokis on
this stage, or even Damian Lillard. But I definitely think it bad was
probably the biggest nup here. When you're looking at players, Yokich is right
after him. I'm trying to you have to go through the fact where I
don't think that Yokich appeals necessarily to the casual NBA fan as much as a
Luca don Chich does, And so Yokich was my MVP by the end of
flesh. You're not trying to take anything away from him, but I think
that that was part of this. I still think they've missed just some cool
opportunities here. I'm glad the Suns are on, but I think I think
the Sixers and yes, I would have me I would have liked to have
seen and Bad and Yokich be a part of this at the expense of maybe,
let's say Celtics Knicks. So yeah, but I understand why not both
those guys would have made it. I really do think you missed an opportunity
of you know, Hawks Sixers to me would be more interesting than the Hawks
Knicks. I know people think that there's a rivalry there. The final final
thing I want to talk about is Lebron tweeting Washed King after zero executives voted
for him as the best player in the league. I don't really have a
problem with it. I think if he thinks that this was, you know,
he's responding to something that's someone of legitimacy said years ago. There might
be an issue there because no one who's actually a legitimate MBA analyst that I've
ever seen said it, and I believe that someone did the research on that.
But Lebron is probably the greatest player of all time. He's one of
the two greatest players of all time. You need to find motivation from somewhere.
He is six months removed from being maybe the MVP favorite. I still
had him being at that point, but maybe being the MVP favorite there he
was just a finals MVP a year ago. Essentially, if he has to
do this to find motivation, fine, it's not an insult. You're honest
or Kevin Durant probably might pick at this point too. I have a zero
issue with it. I promise you. I'm really only mentioning this and jest.
We're in the point of the NBA offseason where people are arguing about stuff
that really, actually, I promise you, doesn't actually matter. So let's
try and focus on things that are more important, come up with more creative
ideas, or let's at least be realistic about what we're responding to. You
want to talk about the Lebron James thing, the tweet, the Wash King,
I'm one hundred percent here for it. But can you really get mad
at him for doing that? Because I'm not. I'm not gonna I'm not
going to thank you everyone in locker room who rolled with me. This was
fun talking to y'all. We are hardwa Knox. If you've not checked out
our actual podcast, it's a pretty good podcast. In my opinion, sub
pleasantly sub mediocre is what I would say. We're on iTunes, Spotify,
Stitcher, Google Play, find us all over just search Hartmwox. We're on
your two too, Search hardw Knox. Twitter at hardware Knox. I'm at
dan Fa Valley on Twitter. We are here weekly, normally on Sundays at
four pm. We will not be here this Sunday at four pm. Maybe
do a Monday night mail bag if people are interested. It seems like we
get a lot of stragglers in here for these midweek nighttime one so perhaps that's
something to consider. Thank you everyone for listening. Until next time. I
leave everyone with the shout out to the one, the Only, Frank fucking
Neila Keena. Someone signed this man soon, please,