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What is up, fellow thermonuclear afers. I am Dan Valley coming at you

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with another twenty twenty three, twenty
twenty four MBA look ahead, not preview,

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not outlook, not whatever, fancy
schmanshy look aheads. We are joined

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by Matt Maderno, host of the
Believing Wizards podcast, and he has also

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does stuff at Bullets Forever. We're
gonna talk about if you didn't catch it

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yet, and he's been on the
show a few times already, the Washington

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Wizards. But first, remember to
follow Matt on Twitter. I'm still gonna

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call it Twitter at Matt Maderno.
That's at m A double T m O,

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double D E r n O.
Great follow on Twitter. Does great

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work covering the Wizards. And if
you're not following them already, remedy that,

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Matt. How the hell are you
doing? I'm great, Dane.

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I think for anybody who heard us
do this last year, this will be

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a totally different vibe. I think
at least I'm going to try to keep

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it that way. So yeah,
I'm excited to actually talk about the Wizards,

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which, despite doing it all the
time, is not always the case.

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I do not remember you saying that
last year. So I feel like

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we've already made progress. Agreed,
it's been cathartic at least, So I

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think we went we did like a
home at home basically earlier this year,

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after the Tommy Shepherd dismissial I believe, So we don't really need to get

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into that. And then throwing out
the actual execution of this churn roster turned

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tear down. Whatever, were you
surprised that they actually did it? Where

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you relieved that they actually went distrusion? What are the what are your just

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thoughts and feelings on it? And
as well as just like the fan bases

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general, you know, inklings towards
what's happening in Washington right now. You

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know, I think calling a dream
come true would not be an exaggeration,

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Like I actually feel that way because
I I really didn't expect it. You

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have an owner that like bang dis
fist on the table and said we will

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never ever tank and then they let
him tear it like they let the new

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front office tear down like right away
essentially, And I just really didn't expect

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that. I thought we would see
this kind of like forced soft retooling kind

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of thing, But this is as
close to tearing it down to the studs

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as you can get. Like,
obviously we'll talk about Kuzma being back,

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but you know that that doesn't really
change much for you and your long term

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out look. Like this, this
is a drastically different roster with a drastically

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you know, different ceiling and objective, and I think it's a more positive

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one because at least you're not sort
of that like lower middle and you know,

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that's where nobody wants to be in
sports, and that's where they've you

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know, perpetually been. So I
think no matter what, they're already just

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doing better. And that always surprises
me as a Wizards fan. It is,

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you know, we're going from ten
Leans is kind of you know,

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really complimenting himself and the Wizards for
giving out a no trade clause last year.

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So now they've just ripped it down
to like the bare bones. Basically,

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that's just like a really big organizational
one eighty And I'm almost fascinated by,

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like what took ted the Aces to
get to this point to Okay,

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it like I just don't like,
how do you go from that? Is

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it just because Bradley Beale decided he
didn't want to be there anymore, so

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they were kind of forcing this.
It's just from Ted the ances his perspective,

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because that's the constant here. Yeah, you bring in a new front

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office, they want to leave their
mark. I'm sure any new front office

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would have wanted to have torn this
down, Like how do you go from

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that to this? Be honest with
you, I'm gonna give a lot of

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credit to just like one single person, which isn't probably fair, but like

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David Aldridge is just sort of my
avatar for this, because it took like

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some amount of like negative media,
national media for him to like seem to

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recognize this. He said, like
I heard fans, I heard, you

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know, the way people were talking
about the team. And if you're a

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billionaire, you probably have some kind
of an ego. You typically don't get

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that rich by not being you know, somewhat self import and things like that.

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And when you've only been talked about
nationally because you're a laughing stock,

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I think at some point you have
to say, like, all right,

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this isn't working, and you know
that's been the change. Like the Wizards

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fan base was. I've always been
kind of snarky, but I think they're

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like the collective outrage at the end
of last season was pretty extreme. And

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you have Bill Simmons going on his
podcast and things like that and just like

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openly laughing about where the Wizards are
and talking about how they're not even worth

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talking about it. Just at some
point that has to get to you and

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you have to say, look,
Okay, maybe we need to do something

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different. That That's what I'm attributing
it to. But I don't know,

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could could have nothing to do with
any of those things. Shout out David

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Aldrige said, I like that.
I like taking that slay. So what

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did you make of the actual execution
of it all? Because there are many

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steps involved here, and I think
when you look at when you zoom out

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and kind of look at who and
what they ended up with, a lot

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of people are going to be underwhelmed. And I personally we did grades on

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this. I think that's the wrong
way to look at it. I'm just

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curious how you view the actual execution
of this tear down at the moment so

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far. Yeah, when you talked
about it, I think I was like

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sort of on the same boat,
right. It was just when you see,

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like, oh Bradley, Bill got
this return, it doesn't sound that

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great, or christap Sports and just
got this return, it doesn't sound that

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great. But you can't really look
at those things in a vacuum. You

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have to look at the context of
the situation. You know, their exact

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circumstances, their contract, just where
they are as assets in the league right

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now, And I honestly think it
was probably about the best they could have

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done. Like you could maybe nitpick
that, maybe another second round pick or

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another pick swap or twenty five protected
first round pick in there would have been

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nice. Like it doesn't really matter. I chose to get salty about Jordan

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Goodwin being thrown in the Bradley Beal
trade because I really like Jordan Goodwin and

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we could use a good young guard. But at the end of the day,

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like that's not a deal breaker,
and it gets him off your books

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and you get to start fresh.
And I think that's really what the most

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important thing that came out of that
is just like the clean slate, like

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you're not tied to these anchor contracts, like Tommy Shephard would have resigned Chris

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app Sporzingis to a huge deal and
we'd be hearing about the planner for schitis,

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and you know, he like it
would have been an immediate thing where

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we'd be saddled with his contract,
whereas like Kuzma keeping him up the three,

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he's probably the one that has the
most immediate flippability, if you want

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to go into that. So I
think that's it's kind of inspired thinking.

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In my opinion. I think they've
like hit it out of the park so

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far. And granted's the tear down
is sometimes always easier than the build up.

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So we'll see where they go from
here, but so far, so

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good. In my opinion, I
love flippability. I feel like that all

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the time. Now that's a new
it's a new verb that I'm gonna want

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to use. Yeah, and I'm
with you on it. And I think

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to kind of compare it to a
different situation, it's when people took issue

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of the other side of Bradley Beal
trade. Whereas, man, how could

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the Suns do this and give up
all their depth the value they gave up

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for Bradley Beal in a vacuum.
You do that eleven times out of ten.

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If your issue is the depth that
they're left with or the assets they're

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left with, your original, your
issue is the original trade for Kevin Durant.

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It's not the Bradley Beal trade.
And so when the Wizards circumstances,

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your issue is not what you got
for Bradley Beals, that bradleybal had a

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no trade clause the contract. Your
issue is not when you got for Porzingis.

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It's that you traded him when he
could have just become a free agent

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and left anyway, that's what were
you supposed to get. Also, but

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the Porzingis deal, This is probably
unpopular or minority take. I think they

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did the best out of that three
team scenario. I didn't like it for

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Memphis or Boston all that much.
So like I can quibble over things like

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I've like, oh, I know
how you felt about Monte Morris. I

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was like that felt like they selled
a little low when it's my callous perspective

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is but I'd rather have the flexibility
or Jordan Pool is something I still sort

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of grapple over. But like,
free agency is dead. We've seen it,

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like, and you're in Washington rebuilding
at the moment anyway, so cast

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phase is only going to get you
more bad contracts. So it could would

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have been nice they would have gotten
more than a fake first round pick whatever,

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So I thought they did. You
use the word inspired, and I

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think that's the right way to frame
it. I also think it's the benefit

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of having fresh perspective in here where
Michael Winger Will Dawkins are not attached or

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viewing these players this organization the same
way that Tommy Shepard is, who's responsible

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for so many of these moves.
And there's the two elements of Okay,

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well, your internal valuation of these
players might just be higher because you put

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them together, then it's two.
Even if it's not, you kind of

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have to make it so it's higher
because you need to win the press conference

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and you're now undoing things that you've
already done. So I think that's the

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benefit in any case of sort of
changing regimes at least, like if you

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squint hard enough, now you can
see like sort of the makings of a

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modern basketball team, Like we won't
be putting two drop coverage centers into the

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starting lineup. We could use probably
another center on this roster, but like,

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yeah, you go from playing two
of them, like uh yeah,

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exactly, Like we might need to
bring Tash Gibson back if we had the

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roster spot to do it, which
is wild, but yeah, like it's

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it's at least looking toward where like
the teams that you've seen seen Winger and

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Dawkins and Schlank like want to build. I think Shlank is the one that

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gets mentioned the least, but that
Hawks team like it obviously didn't work out

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with him as well as they probably
would have liked, but he tried to

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build a modern basketball team, and
building around Trey Young is like, you

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know, maybe you could argue with
whether that's the guy to do that around,

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but the pieces around that, they
drafted the right blueprint of guys,

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and not all of them worked out, but I think you're starting to see

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like the makings of that team around, you know, where this Washington group

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is already starting to go. So
I'm cool with that. At least we're

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going to be in the year twenty
twenty three and not the year two thousand

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and three, and that's even a
big step forward. I think my favorite

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thing he might have done this offseason
was just trading up one spot to get

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Cool Vali because it was just it
felt like such a Sam Presty thing.

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And then Sam Presty basically did the
same thing, but I think leez yeah,

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way too much a caps face to
move up two spots. What are

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your first general impressions of balla Coolabali
so far. I don't even actually care

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if he works out. I mean, I care if he works out,

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but like, just the pick is
such a big change over the last several

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draft picks. And the first thing
Tommy Sheppard said when he got, you

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know, promoted to that job,
was we're going to draft like athletic,

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switchable wings that can shoot. And
then they didn't. Like I mean,

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if you want to call Ruby a
wing and say he's like pretty athletic and

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switchable who could shoot, not didn't
really shoot it that well at the time,

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Like Danny doesn't really shoot it.
He's brought here to be an offensive

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player, doesn't really provide much on
that end. So they've gotten kind of

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lucky that he's been as good defensibly
as he has. I wouldn't say Johnny

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Davis is an athletic wing who could
shoot like it just they didn't do what

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they said. And now whether Coolabally
ultimately ends up being able to shoot it

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or not at the end of the
day, like that's what a modern wing

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looks like he's long, he's athletic, he's got a ton of up side.

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The form looks good on the jump
shot, like you can see a

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world where Coolbally does like a Trey
Murphy impression in two years, like that

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kind of thing, or Mikhail Bridges
like that mold of player that everybody in

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the league seems to value. They
finally went after that kind of guy,

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and I'm sure Jar's Walker ended up
being a great player. I'm sure Taylor

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Hendricks wind up being a really good
player, but those would have been like

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the Tommy Shephard kind of picks.
I feel like of just like limited,

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Like the cap for them is probably
like the fourth best player on a good

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team. If Coolbally pops, I
mean, I think the ceiling is higher

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than that. It's risk gear,
But I'm okay with a bigger swing,

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especially when you're jump starting a rebuild, because you've got to hit on those

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kinds of guys, and if you're
trying to hit singles, like that's a

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common Wizards fan exception or expression,
as they always try to hit singles,

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like at least you went for the
triple here, and it could screw you

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in the long run, but at
least like the effort and the attempt and

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he's just it was interesting to watch
him kind of develop quickly on the fly

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last year for Metropolitan. Metropolitan signed
too, like he meant from not playing

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at all, not even being on
the big club, being brought up and

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not playing slowly in the rotation.
Then he's the fifth starter, just kind

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of a switchable wing and by the
end of the year he's like running pick

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and roll with Victor wemen Yama in
the French League Championship. Like that learning

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curve is incredible and it's going to
be a huge jump up into the NBA,

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but you've already seen him kind of
like learn and evolve on the fly,

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and like that's the kind of player
that's exciting as a fan. So

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at the very least if he just
brings some excitement, you know, we'll

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take that around here. And I'm
with you that you swing in that spot

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more, I should say, you
swing in the spot that you're in right

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now, which is sort of just
starting from this blank slad even though that's

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not would necessarily roster suggests, and
there's no other player that really would have

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fit that bill, like maybe Cam
Whitmore, but the medicals must have been

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I would assume abysmal on him since
he slid so far, and I will

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say just based off like his defensive
package in Summer League's great. I'm sold,

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and then they're just I mean,
like he hit a couple escape dribble

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jumpers and it's like, okay,
like I'm told, I'm like, this

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is the pick, Like I'm excited
to see what he can do, and

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I am curious though in that regard, what do you kind of expect his

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year run year one excuse me role
to be? Is he gonna be given

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a lot of runway or just kind
of given I guess there's not a glut

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there, but just all these other
maybe on ball options on offense. Is

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he gonna get lost a little bit
in the shuffle? They're like, what

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do you expect his year one role
to be? I think that really comes

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down to like where the front office
is at with West Unsell Junior these days,

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like he was kind of like forced
upon them to some extent. It

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feels like like ted leonsas said like
West will be back before they even hired

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the Soul front office. So I
don't know how in sync they're going to

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be, and I think we're going
to see that a lot early. I

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think he'd been really reluctant to play
some of these younger guys and let them

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play through mistakes now given maybe that
was the mandate of the team, like

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we're trying to win now like okay, fine. So I think we'll see

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a lot about like what his mindset
is, because there were times last year

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we're like Daniel gaffer would like make
a mistake and he'd be benched for Tash

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Gibson, the ghost of Tash Gibson
for like three quarters, and you're like,

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hey, I wasn't Gafford still on
this team. So if Cool Bali

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comes out and just gets like beat
backdoor on the first play, is he

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gonna sit for the next half?
So I think that'll be really kind of

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the interesting thing here is if he
just like lets him stretch his wing,

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you know, stretch his legs a
little bit, and Cool Bali I think

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can come in day one and be
like an energy defender, a transition weapon,

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and that's like probably it. I
don't think you'll see him doing like

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the ball handling he was doing in
Summer League right away, but could you

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see that by the end of the
season. I think if last year's trajectory

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or a progression is any indicator,
like, he's probably somebody that will like

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scale up as the season goes on. And I'm okay with that. Like

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there's some Wizards fans that want to
start him day one. I wouldn't do

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that to him personally, Like,
let's just let him build slowly. And

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there was a reason nobody talked about
him in the top ten of this draft.

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It's everybody thought he'd be a twenty
twenty four guy. He made a

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huge leap really quickly. Like let's
not throw too much at him at once.

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That's at least how I would approach
it. Yeah, And it's also

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if you're coming off the bench in
theory like he, then should I know,

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there's a lot of guards on this
team push you should have more of

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an opportunity to do things on offense
then, And so there's value not starting

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right away in that regard too.
You brought this up is west On South

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Junior like sort of coaching for his
job here and looking at the context of

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this roster and where it's headed,
what does coaching for your job even actually

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look like? I think, like
I don't know the man, Like I've

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posted podcasts with players that have played
for him and stuff, and they all

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speak highly about West, like the
person and the relationship builder. But last

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year's team seemed to struggle with like
motivation and buy in and things like that.

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And you'd see some guys like kind
of chirping at him, you know,

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in the huddle and things like that. And not that that doesn't happen

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on other NBA teams, but when
Scott Brooks was about to get fired,

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you heard multiple people like Westbrook and
feel especially go to bat for him.

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At the end of the last season, I think a lot of the Wizards

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seemed to throw a West under the
bus to some extent, Like you had

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Monte Morris and Corey kiss Berts specifically
talking about, like we need to play

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faster next year and the coaching staff
was reluctant to do that, or hey,

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you know, finally they started to
listen to us later in the season,

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like Monte threw a little shade,
which was surprising that West was kind

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of his guy, and I don't
think he did it like disrespectfully or anything,

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but it was clear that like they
weren't kind of bought in and it'll

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be interesting to see, like if
that happens. And I think if you

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see this team like come out and
play hard shit like from day one and

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like guys are into it, maybe
that's what coaching for your job looks like.

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It's just consistent buy in and that
when they only have like fifteen wins

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and march like, are they are
they still playing hard and that kind of

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thing. If you can get that
from West un selled and he can keep

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these guys like into it and engaged, I think that to win and enough

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that they'll probably bring him back for
another year. I would think if these

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guys are out and Pool and Kuzma
are fighting over who gets more touches and

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things like that, I don't know
if Wes Unselda is the guy that you

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know kind of falls on the sword
there a little bit, but you've got

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a staff right now that he's gonna
have to be. He's gonna have to

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bring it. Like David Vanderpool will
be an NBA head coach soon. He

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could be the next one here if
West doesn't work out. Brian Keith got

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interviewed for multiple head coach jobs,
and you know he's the next guy down

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the bench, whereas like last year's
staff, when West had picked his own

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guys, there was no one that
was really going to push him. Like

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they brought in people to be around
him and support him, but they're also

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there as like break in case of
emergency, like if he's not getting the

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job done, bring in these player
development guys that get people to buy in

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right away and you know, maybe
you see what you look like with them

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the last twenty games of the year
or something like that. I think his

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contract runs through twenty four twenty five, right, So it's just like I

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don't know the timing of that.
And it's always there's it's not a red

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flag, but you always get the
sense that there's going to be a change

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in the sidelines coming when you switch
front office regimes, Like I feel like

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it's very rare that when a front
officers inherits a coach that it works out

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for more than like a year,
year and a half or something. Yeah,

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I'm totally with you, Denny Avia. Big season for my guy coming

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up? Is he going to be
given and I'll use the word again,

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the agency to really get to work
on offense, and I think we saw

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a little bit of it after the
Bradley Beale's trade last year, But is

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he gonna get that type of control
or is he in danger sort of getting

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lost in the shuffle of Okay,
well, we have Blah Kolabali here,

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we have Kyle Kuzma, we have
Corey Kissber, we have a bunch of

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other guards and Delon Wright and Jordan
Poole and Tyas Jones who can handle the

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ball. Like, what is what
is the immediate future hold for Denny Avia

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on this team? There was like
an eight game stretch last year, I

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want to say, post trade deadline
where like we got to see Turbo Denny

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and that like half the Wizards in
base like erupted about, like, yes,

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finally we've seen the guy we wanted
to see. And he looked confident

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and he was just like kind of
like balling out there right like there was

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flow and he just seemed to have
really taken a step forward. And it

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just kind of fizzled out over the
course of the year. And then when

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they shut Bradley Beal down and Borzingis
finally sat a little bit, you started

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to see a little bit more of
that again of just like here have the

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ball, try to do good things. And I think that's what he would

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have most benefited from the last couple
of years, to be on this kind

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of team and be given the opportunity
to just like feel his way out.

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Like Denny needs the ball to provide
some value on offense, but he's not

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good enough with it that you're going
to take the ball away from some of

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the other guys that they've had the
last couple of years on this team,

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Like you probably want that. Like
I don't think Pool wants to be a

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00:19:48,519 --> 00:19:52,359
point guard. I don't think Kuzma
wants to have to be a point guard.

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Not that they can't create some for
themselves and others, but other than

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like Taias Jones, like, they
probably need other guys in this rotation that

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like can make other things happen,
and I think Denny can do that.

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To me, this roster being kind
of undersized is actually probably better for him.

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I think he's best as like a
small ball four, maybe even some

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small ball five from til. He's
a strong enough dude, but he's not

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like crazy quick, so he's not
beating threes off the dribble a lot.

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He can't really dribble with his left
hand still, but you could beat a

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slower four or five. Like could
he take Isaiah Stewart off the dribble,

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Yeah, sure, like something like
that. So I'd like to see that

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more. It still comes down to
the shooting, Like if he can't shoot

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it, you can't see enough of
the other things he does well. If

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no one closes out on him,
he can't attack a close out, you

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00:20:42,559 --> 00:20:45,839
know, like so you can't use
the ball handling and the reasonable speed that

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he has. So I think that's
still the swing skills, a swing skill

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00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:52,000
for a lot of NBA guys,
But for him to provide offensive value,

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he just has to shoot it at
a reasonable enough clip that people can't guard

335
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,640
him like he's Draymond or Russell Westbrook. And that happened at times last year.

336
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So if he's thirty five percent,
is that enough to like be respectable

337
00:21:04,279 --> 00:21:07,839
that he can you know, put
the ball on the floor a little bit

338
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,000
more. Sure, he started to
finish around the rim a little bit better.

339
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:12,880
That was great to see. That
had been like kind of the biggest

340
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:18,359
problem I'd had with him offensively.
The defense is really good. So if

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00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:22,559
you want him to be on the
court and like Tyas Jones isn't. He

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00:21:22,599 --> 00:21:26,960
tries on defense, but he's not
a great defender just given the size and

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00:21:26,039 --> 00:21:33,519
athleticism. Jordan Poole hasn't guarded anybody
since middle school, probably like they need

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00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:37,759
somebody else that's gonna want to do
that. Like Kisspert will try, but

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00:21:37,799 --> 00:21:40,799
he's not ever going to be a
stopper. So some of these guys on

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00:21:40,799 --> 00:21:42,880
the perimeter like they have to bring
a little bit of intensity, and I

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00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:47,599
think you'll see Denny do that.
Also think he guards bigs better than he

348
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:51,160
does quick guards. So maybe if
you're playing him more at the four or

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00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,279
five, you can actually best utilize
him. And so I don't know.

350
00:21:53,319 --> 00:21:57,200
I think he'll be better this year. It's will he shoot it well enough

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00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,279
to unlock these things that I think
this for offices are gonna want to invest

352
00:22:00,319 --> 00:22:04,480
in longer term is the question.
Yeah. His And if people who are

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00:22:04,559 --> 00:22:07,799
not wizards trans listening to his podcast, I feel like, and everyone knows

354
00:22:07,839 --> 00:22:11,759
them a Denny Aftia like fanatic basically, And are you impressed? I waited

355
00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:15,240
like what like four questions? It
was nice. Yeah, you buried the

356
00:22:15,279 --> 00:22:18,400
lead here a little bit. It
was restraint. But he's a capslock defender.

357
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,880
Now you said he's not like great
against quick guards, but like he

358
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,559
can guard, he can't nobody guards
drama rant that well, So that's kind

359
00:22:26,559 --> 00:22:27,880
of a nit pick, you know. It's more so just like if you

360
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,680
had to, I'm not saying build
the ideal defender for these guys, Like

361
00:22:30,759 --> 00:22:34,519
almost the ideal matchup for him is
like you see him on James Harden or

362
00:22:34,559 --> 00:22:37,759
a Luca where it's like those guys
are really tough, but they're not operating

363
00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:44,640
at blazing fast speeds and yeah I
am, you know, and shooting.

364
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,759
When we mentioned shooting, it becomes
a cliche for him. It's really a

365
00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:51,160
big deal because like if there's not
really the in between game, You're right,

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00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:52,359
he was finishing around the rim better, and I think he knows how

367
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:56,519
to use his shoulders and be physical
with the ball. Actually don't really have

368
00:22:56,599 --> 00:23:00,119
a problem with his ball handling,
except he doesn't. You already mentioned that

369
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,680
he's not gonna be able to use
his left hand, and then it feels

370
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:07,000
like when he's going into traffic,
like there aren't enough counters for him.

371
00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:10,240
And now I'm a little bit concerned, where is he gonna You know,

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00:23:10,279 --> 00:23:12,559
you can still throw Mike Muscal on
the floor. Danielle Gallanari's on this roster

373
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:17,799
for anyone who who cares, is
there gonna be like enough spacing around him?

374
00:23:17,799 --> 00:23:21,440
Because losing Chris Stops is like kind
of a big loss there, and

375
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,119
so like that would be my concern. I still just I believe. But

376
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:27,839
it's gonna come down to the shooting. Is there anything else though, aside

377
00:23:27,839 --> 00:23:32,079
specifically from the shooting that you're gonna
be watching when it comes to him?

378
00:23:32,279 --> 00:23:34,240
I think you mentioned the spacing there
right like that. That's really interesting and

379
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,079
that's probably why he won't start.
I would have said, the only open

380
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,200
competition for one of the starting positions, and I'm sure we'll get this is

381
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:45,839
between him and Corey Kissbert at the
three, And I think Kissberg gets it

382
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,359
just because it's so hard to have
two non shooters and Gafford's not going to

383
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,440
stretch the floor. So if you're
already playing him, I think Kuzma,

384
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,880
like whether he shoots a great percentage
or not, teams guard him like he's

385
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,000
a good shooter. I think the
same thing is kind of true for George

386
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,880
Pool, like the percentage may not
always be as good as you want and

387
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,759
he can be a little streaky,
but teams guard him like he can shoot.

388
00:24:06,799 --> 00:24:10,920
So can you put Gafford and Denny
out there together for long stretches of

389
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:12,759
a game and not have things to
clog up is really going to be the

390
00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:15,119
question. But yeah, you put
him next to kiss Bird and some of

391
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,880
these other guys. I think that'll
help a little bit there. I mentioned

392
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,960
the defense just on the guard thing, like there were a lot of times

393
00:24:23,039 --> 00:24:27,200
last year where they had to put
Kuzma on some of these like quicker guards,

394
00:24:27,279 --> 00:24:30,160
like he would guard Trey Young when
they played the Hawks, or he

395
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,400
would guard Dame when they guarded Portland. I'd like to see Denny do that

396
00:24:34,519 --> 00:24:38,680
a little bit more. You know, there's not a ton of other options,

397
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,559
Like I don't know how much Delon
Wright plays on this roster just given

398
00:24:41,599 --> 00:24:45,920
where they're trying to go. I
hope he plays a decent amount. But

399
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,559
he's probably the only other really good
perimeter defender. So just just seeing Denny

400
00:24:49,599 --> 00:24:53,039
be able to be that guy for
them would unlock a lot. And then

401
00:24:53,079 --> 00:24:56,680
you can then you can be switchable
one through four at the very least,

402
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,319
if if you can do those kinds
of things and have him take on those

403
00:25:00,319 --> 00:25:03,920
primary matchups with really anyone they need
him to. I think that versatility would

404
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:08,640
be would be the best problem.
Is there like any chance that he would

405
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,200
sign an extension or is it just
sort of off the table just because the

406
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,039
new front office is in here?
And I'll even frame it this way,

407
00:25:15,079 --> 00:25:18,000
like what would be the And I've
thrown this in the outline, like what

408
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,839
would be the like if you had
to rank these in terms of most likely

409
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:26,480
outcomes, There's signed extension, get
traded by the deadline, resigns as a

410
00:25:26,519 --> 00:25:30,400
restricted free agent, or just leaves
in free agency next year. Yeah,

411
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:37,079
I think traded at the deadline is
probably the most realistic. And I get

412
00:25:37,079 --> 00:25:40,839
classified as like a Denny hater.
I actually think he's like not far from

413
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:44,839
being like a really really productive player, which is like why I want more

414
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,680
for him, Like if he actually
shoots hit. He's the kind of guy

415
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,720
that every roster in the NBA wants
to have. So that's why the like

416
00:25:52,759 --> 00:25:56,680
I've changed my form for the fifth
time since I've been here. Stuff is

417
00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,960
a little frustrating, like just wrap
it out at some point, But I

418
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,200
don't know, I can't imagine that, like he's going to be there kind

419
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:07,960
of guy, and they're going to
offer the kind of extension that is going

420
00:26:07,039 --> 00:26:11,880
to make him and his team happy, unless he struggles enough this year that

421
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,480
I don't know. I just think
there's always some team out there that's going

422
00:26:15,559 --> 00:26:17,960
to take a chance on a six
foot seven, six foot eight guy that

423
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,240
defends and is still young enough that
if he figures the other stuff out,

424
00:26:21,279 --> 00:26:25,480
like he's still twenty two, If
three years from now he's a shooter,

425
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,759
that wouldn't shock me. So somebody
will probably continue to take a bet on

426
00:26:30,799 --> 00:26:33,599
that. It's I think this next
contract will probably be for a reasonable number.

427
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,319
It's if this next contract doesn't go
well, he might be a vet

428
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:40,960
minimum kind of guy by then,
Like he might be Derek Jones Jr.

429
00:26:41,039 --> 00:26:44,799
Or somebody that's like a switchable wing
and does nothing else for you offensively,

430
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:49,519
So it's gonna be tough. Like
I think he probably either gets traded or

431
00:26:49,559 --> 00:26:53,519
walks. If I were them,
like what kind of deal would make sense

432
00:26:53,519 --> 00:26:59,160
to me? Like a three for
mid to low thirties as probably as like

433
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,319
much as I'd be willing to do. I'm kind of terrible at the cap

434
00:27:02,319 --> 00:27:06,799
contract stuff, so I don't even
know if that's like insanely low or insanely

435
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,160
high or whatever. But I think
it'll really depend on the team, because

436
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,640
I think there are some teams that
are probably all the way out and some

437
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,920
teams that are still willing to take
a shot. Yeah that I mean,

438
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:19,079
like that's mid level money, which
I guess would seem fair. I'd be

439
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,319
curious what he was saying here what
he would get on the open market.

440
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,200
But if he could get if you
could get him for like three and fourteen

441
00:27:26,279 --> 00:27:30,519
per year, it's like three and
fifty was at fifty or forty two,

442
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,480
I think I would probably do it. I don't expect that the Wizards would

443
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:37,559
do it. So I'm excited to
grade whatever team gives Denny Abbia an offer

444
00:27:37,599 --> 00:27:40,920
sheheet or trace him at the deadline
very very highly when they do, so

445
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:45,400
I'll look forward to that. If
you're him and like you have an okay

446
00:27:45,519 --> 00:27:48,599
year, maybe it's worth coming back
here because you would get more opportunity here

447
00:27:48,799 --> 00:27:51,880
to prove it. I don't know. I guess maybe it depends on what

448
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,920
your role is, and if they
trust you enough to do things and they

449
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,759
see a fit for you longer term, maybe you see a shorter prove it

450
00:27:56,799 --> 00:28:02,160
deal to come back. It's probably
like the only situation where I could see

451
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,039
that. But yeah, I don't
know. I think he's probably not a

452
00:28:04,079 --> 00:28:07,839
wizard next year. I've had to
guess, what did you make of the

453
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,359
Jordan Pool flyer. I think that's
the kind of guy you take a flyer

454
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:17,559
on, Like, I don't necessarily
love Jordan Pool, the player, you

455
00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:21,000
know, in a vacuum. I
think he'll come in. He'll imediately score

456
00:28:21,039 --> 00:28:23,880
it from day one. Worst case
scenario, he's the player we saw for

457
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,480
large stretches last year, and that's
probably not worth the money over the life

458
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:33,319
of the contract, but he still
becomes tradeable probably on the back end of

459
00:28:33,319 --> 00:28:34,400
that. And he also, you
know, you have to have a certain

460
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,279
amount of salary to hit the floor
anyway. So that's that's okay, Like

461
00:28:38,319 --> 00:28:42,160
I'd rather it be for a guy
like that that has some higher upside.

462
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:47,480
If he can be even like close
to the guy we saw when he played

463
00:28:47,519 --> 00:28:51,319
and Steph Curry didn't now all of
a sudden like that's an exciting player.

464
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,759
If he can scale up and be
even more of a facilitator. Can he

465
00:28:53,839 --> 00:28:59,839
defend even a little bit like that? That all of a sudden becomes this

466
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,440
intriguing guy that he either is your
long term piece that you've that you've gotten

467
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,960
on like for almost nothing essentially,
or he's a flippable guy that you turn

468
00:29:08,039 --> 00:29:12,039
into other longer term pieces for you. So this is like a win win

469
00:29:12,079 --> 00:29:15,240
win for me. Like the worst
case isn't that bad? And the best

470
00:29:15,279 --> 00:29:19,720
case, like, I think it's
pretty high upside. Do you expect him

471
00:29:19,799 --> 00:29:23,039
to run a lot of point here? Are they going to try and sort

472
00:29:23,079 --> 00:29:29,160
of dissuade him from that type of
stuff? The Wizard's offense in the final

473
00:29:29,279 --> 00:29:34,119
five minutes of games last year was
here Brad do things. So letting Jordan

474
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,319
Poole be the guy to do that
or fill that role maybe wouldn't surprise me.

475
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,599
I don't know, do you need
Tis Jones out there to run offense

476
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:47,160
for you if they're both gonna get
hunted down the stretch of games? Ah,

477
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,599
you know that that becomes a little
dicey to me. I think maybe

478
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:55,640
you can get enough like playmaking from
Kuzma and Pool out there that you don't

479
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,279
need like a pure point guard kind
of guy down the stretch of a game,

480
00:29:59,279 --> 00:30:02,039
And especially if like Denny's playing well
enough that he can be in there

481
00:30:02,039 --> 00:30:06,599
as a kind of your third creator. That might be enough for you.

482
00:30:07,039 --> 00:30:11,200
And then like it's a little easier
for me to envision Pool like guarding you

483
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,640
know, the worst offensive player on
the other team down the stretch than it

484
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:18,119
is like now he's got a guard, like somebody's somebody's decent offensive, you

485
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:23,160
know guard. So I don't think
he'll like run the offense for large stretches

486
00:30:23,279 --> 00:30:26,799
just because there are so many other
guards that they're going to have to give

487
00:30:26,839 --> 00:30:30,160
minutes to and figure out what to
do with them. But to close games,

488
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:36,039
it wouldn't surprise me. I'm almost
wondering if his like a partnership with

489
00:30:36,079 --> 00:30:37,960
Denny Avy would beneficial to him,
because I feel like even when Steph was

490
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,279
out, a lot of his best
moments where hey we can it came alongside

491
00:30:41,359 --> 00:30:47,519
Draymond Green to where someone who had
like the basketball IQ and like the passing

492
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,160
and Denny Avy is not Draymond Green, clearly, Like, is that sort

493
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,680
of a marriage that could help because
I don't think Jordan Pool is your primary

494
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,599
shot creator for both himself and others. I actually think is a pretty like

495
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:03,680
big whiff and I've disagreed with Warriors
fans on that for years, and it's

496
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,720
I think that he's always been at
his best insulated in some level, And

497
00:31:07,759 --> 00:31:11,480
so I'm just curious how they'll like
what. I'm curious what the best lineups

498
00:31:11,599 --> 00:31:15,279
that include Jordan Pool will end up
looking like on this team, a dribble

499
00:31:15,359 --> 00:31:18,920
hand off with Denny, like,
I think, is a really interesting thing

500
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,279
that I hope we see a good
amount of. Like, I don't know

501
00:31:21,319 --> 00:31:25,559
how it'll actually work, but like
maybe Pool has the ability to scale up

502
00:31:25,599 --> 00:31:27,799
more as like a self creator,
Like he has the handle and things like

503
00:31:27,839 --> 00:31:32,440
that to do it, you know, can he do it consistently enough?

504
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,039
I don't know. So if you
have a few of those guys that take

505
00:31:34,079 --> 00:31:38,640
some pressure off him, Like is
there a big enough discrepancy in who guards

506
00:31:38,839 --> 00:31:41,599
Jordan Pool and Kyle Kuzma that you
can run a pickle, like a pick

507
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:45,759
and roll between those two guys,
Like, if you're switching the same kind

508
00:31:45,759 --> 00:31:48,599
of defender, it doesn't really do
you any good, But especially if they're

509
00:31:48,599 --> 00:31:52,839
playing small and a bigger guys on
Kuzma and you can run some pick and

510
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,839
roll between those two guys. Now, I think that's really interesting but you

511
00:31:56,839 --> 00:32:00,799
know it's just gonna be it's all
on Jordan Pool, right like this is

512
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:06,559
this is what does he do kind
of like determines how the rest of the

513
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,839
roster and the people around him really
fit. Like there are certain guys I

514
00:32:08,839 --> 00:32:13,119
think he'll make sense playing with,
Like I think Thyas Jones is really good

515
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,880
for him offensively for the majority of
these games, because he'll he'll go out

516
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,480
of his way to try to spoon
feed some easy baskets for some of these

517
00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:24,200
guys like as maybe more talented as
some of the guys the Wizards lost were,

518
00:32:24,839 --> 00:32:30,480
you know from last season, Like
Kyle Kuzma never had anybody create like

519
00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:35,680
an easy shot for him on last
year's roster, Like it was always him

520
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:37,759
like breaking the play and trying to
do something for himself. They didn't run

521
00:32:37,799 --> 00:32:40,880
plays for him. Tyas Jones,
I think is a guy that can like

522
00:32:42,039 --> 00:32:45,559
get a few easy baskets for Pool
and Kuzma and then in turn maybe they

523
00:32:45,599 --> 00:32:49,799
can get it for others. So
I'm actually excited about Jones on that front.

524
00:32:49,799 --> 00:32:54,480
At least. Were you surprised that
they ended up keeping Kyle Kuzma and

525
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:59,920
would you expect him to still be
on the roster past the trade deadline,

526
00:33:00,079 --> 00:33:04,359
because the contract is four for ninety
on a declining scale, is basically just

527
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,359
like the cliff notes of it.
That's like a team like a very fair

528
00:33:07,839 --> 00:33:08,240
deal. And it made me sort
of wonder, like, oh, I

529
00:33:08,279 --> 00:33:12,799
guess Kuzma didn't really have that strong
of an open market, but where did

530
00:33:12,839 --> 00:33:15,640
you sort of land on one him
coming back? And what do you how

531
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,200
do you actually expect this to play
out? The way you feel about Denny

532
00:33:19,319 --> 00:33:22,519
is the way I feel about Kyle
Kuzma, Like I'm not I'm an irrational

533
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:27,440
Kyle Kuzma guy. So I think
he might be like one of the most

534
00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:32,000
easily tradable people in the NBA this
upcoming year, and almost any team that's

535
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:38,119
trying to win something could convince themselves
that this guy on a declining contract can

536
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:43,319
come in and fit with almost any
team. Like he's six four, six

537
00:33:43,359 --> 00:33:45,960
four, you can play one through
four at six ten depending on what you

538
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:50,599
need, or guard one through four
at the very least. That's huge.

539
00:33:51,119 --> 00:33:54,039
I think no matter who has somebody
go down with an injury that's trying to

540
00:33:54,039 --> 00:33:58,160
win a championship, like he could
come and plug some hole for you.

541
00:33:58,279 --> 00:34:01,079
So that's intriguing, and he probably
wouldn't take like a ton to get back,

542
00:34:01,279 --> 00:34:05,799
Like I can't imagine the Wizards are
expecting like a king's ransom for Kuzma

543
00:34:05,799 --> 00:34:08,880
if they ever decided to trade him. I do think they probably just given

544
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:14,119
the types of guys that these three
front office guys have all seemed to prioritize.

545
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:16,000
I do think he fits with the
kind of mold of player that they

546
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,599
look for, like this positional versatility
in size and things like that, and

547
00:34:20,679 --> 00:34:23,840
playmaking for a big So I don't
think they're going to be in a hurry

548
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:28,039
to trade him. I think if
there is a situation where they can get

549
00:34:28,039 --> 00:34:30,679
a ton for him, they're not
going to be afraid to do it.

550
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:35,519
He's probably not like a long term
piece for you, so why hold on

551
00:34:35,519 --> 00:34:37,039
to him longer than you needed to? That was one thing the front office

552
00:34:37,159 --> 00:34:42,559
previously was always afraid to do,
is like, Okay, we flipped Davis

553
00:34:42,559 --> 00:34:45,880
Burton's from you know, we traded
him for Aaron White, not to the

554
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:49,320
Spurs, and nobody knows who Aaron
White was unless they're a Big ten basketball

555
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,320
fan, like and then they wouldn't
trade him for two first round picks.

556
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:54,960
And then resign him to a terrible
deal. Like I don't think these guys

557
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:59,119
are going to be afraid to flip
him at peak value. So if he

558
00:34:59,159 --> 00:35:02,199
comes out and he like lighting the
league on fire because he's got this insane

559
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:07,719
usage or something, I think they
would be willing to pull the trigger for

560
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,199
any deal that makes sense, but
also not be in a rush to do

561
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:13,440
it. He's like the best leader
and mentor on the team by all accounts,

562
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,199
Like you always hear about he and
Denny playing one on one and after

563
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,239
games and things like that, Like
this is the guy that kind of took

564
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,599
on that, like I want to
help everybody else on this team be better,

565
00:35:22,639 --> 00:35:25,400
and that seems something that honestly,
like Beal and maybe to some extent

566
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:30,280
Porzingis were reluctant to do. And
I can't imagine that that's an inconsequential thing

567
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,639
in the fact that he's the guy
that's still here. Yeah, I would

568
00:35:35,639 --> 00:35:38,320
say even if you said I think
the people would normally set the over under

569
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:43,000
of point five seasons left in Washington
based off this deal, actually take the

570
00:35:43,119 --> 00:35:45,920
over would because I just feel everything
that you just sort of outlaid here,

571
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:50,719
and there's a chance that contract only
becomes more valuable as it goes on.

572
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,360
I think in the final year it's
projected to be less than twelve percent of

573
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,519
the cat It's like that'll be his
age. It was a thirty one season

574
00:35:57,599 --> 00:36:00,519
that takes him through, So like
that's just perfect timing. And I think

575
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:07,239
that he might be heatly seemed content
in Washington with his role. And you

576
00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:08,760
know that would be my other questions. Do you see his role changing from

577
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,079
last season if at all, with
the makeup of this roster, But even

578
00:36:12,119 --> 00:36:15,079
if it moves, if it doesn't, there's like a level of prominence in

579
00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:17,519
Washington right now where if he got
traded to a contender, he's probably not

580
00:36:17,519 --> 00:36:22,159
gonna have it. So maybe he's
okay being sort of the not the old

581
00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:24,199
head, but the mentor here.
And then maybe a go to guy on

582
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:28,440
a roster that's not that great.
Maybe they hit lightning in a bottle with

583
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,400
Bala Kulavali in their next pick and
they're just fun and they're a little bit

584
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:35,760
better than expected. And so this
is almost one of those contracts where it's

585
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:37,079
not mandatory. Like you said,
if an offer comes and you have to

586
00:36:37,119 --> 00:36:39,880
take it, you take it.
You pull the trigger, but where it's

587
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:44,719
I look at Tyas Jones expiring deal, Delon Wright expiring deal, even Denny

588
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,400
Avia going into his contract here,
like those all feel like guys. Maybe

589
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:52,039
even Daniel Gafford like that could just
be traded before Kyle Kuzma because of what

590
00:36:52,119 --> 00:36:57,199
he brings both on and off the
court to this roster. It seems like

591
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,440
everybody that's been good for the Wizards
the last couple of years was when they

592
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:02,519
were good, there was always this
ticking clock of like what the next contract

593
00:37:02,519 --> 00:37:06,280
look like and do you flip them
now? Like there was always this immediate

594
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,360
decision that had to be made,
And I think the nice thing about what

595
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:12,719
this front office is doing is like
now with somebody like Kuzma or even with

596
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,800
Pool, these aren't guys you have
to decide on right away, and given

597
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,719
where you are, you can just
afford to see where you're at in two

598
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:22,800
years. The other thing that you
could do here is if you do want

599
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:28,480
to flip this for like, let's
say you're better quickly than you think,

600
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,599
and Coolabali by year two is like, you know, insane or something like

601
00:37:31,639 --> 00:37:37,559
that. Like Kuzma also becomes like
a really intriguing piece to throw into a

602
00:37:37,599 --> 00:37:39,800
trade to help you hit a large
portion of the salary, you need to

603
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:45,639
match with somebody too, So like
that's intriguing. Like you mentioned, the

604
00:37:45,679 --> 00:37:49,719
cap probably goes up. I think
from that perspective, his deal like is

605
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,360
going to look really good to somebody
two years down the line. So maybe

606
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:54,079
you even get more for him in
two years than you could get now.

607
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:58,320
So why rush to do it?
So I just don't think they have to

608
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:01,280
hurry. And that kind of like
ability is a luxury that the Wizards haven't

609
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:06,280
had in a really long time,
and I'm excited to see what these guys

610
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,480
can actually do with it. They're
they're not going to have to act desperate

611
00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:13,480
like the Wizards. All the contracts
they've given out have been desperation moves for

612
00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:16,599
the most part that their hands were
forced into doing them. Now, probably

613
00:38:16,639 --> 00:38:21,320
the two most impactful players on the
roster, you're not in any hurry to

614
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,679
decide things with. I can't see
Kuzma being the guy that like immediately rocks

615
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:28,559
the boat if they're only going to
be a twenty four win team, Like,

616
00:38:28,599 --> 00:38:30,920
I don't think he's going to be
the dude there's like I demand out

617
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:32,760
of here, he doesn't. He
got a ring already. I think he

618
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:37,039
likes being in a reasonably decent market. He's close to New York, like,

619
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:39,760
he can do the things he seems
to like to do off the court

620
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:45,639
reasonably well from Washington. I think
he likes having national relevance. So being

621
00:38:45,639 --> 00:38:49,119
the second, first or second best
player in the Wizards, isn't that better

622
00:38:49,159 --> 00:38:52,639
than being the fourth best player on
the Bucks? Like, you know,

623
00:38:52,039 --> 00:38:55,320
I think this might fit where he
wants to be, at least for the

624
00:38:55,320 --> 00:39:00,079
next year or two. Will his
role do you see it changing at all

625
00:39:00,079 --> 00:39:04,920
based on the current makeup of the
roster? I totally just ignored that part

626
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,480
of the question. Sorry about that. No, no, don't don't apologize

627
00:39:07,519 --> 00:39:09,280
that was that was like more of
like throwing it aside. I'm just curious

628
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:14,159
because of all the type of control
he had over the offense out of really

629
00:39:14,159 --> 00:39:16,159
necessity a lot of the times last
year. I'm just wondering if we sort

630
00:39:16,199 --> 00:39:20,760
of specifically on offense, like if
we see his usage change at all.

631
00:39:21,679 --> 00:39:25,719
They talked a lot about how most
of their offense was geared toward running things

632
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:30,880
through bal or person gifts, and
they didn't actually ever run plays like straight

633
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,400
up plays to feature Kyle Kuzma.
I think you'll see more in that this

634
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:39,000
year. I think maybe he gets
easier looks next to somebody like Attias Jones.

635
00:39:39,639 --> 00:39:43,880
That'll be interesting. Could you even
see a situation where like he had

636
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:45,679
Daniel Gafford run some pick and roll
like I don't know if that makes any

637
00:39:45,679 --> 00:39:49,880
sense. Like, I think they'll
experiment a little bit more with him.

638
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,320
I think you'll see him in these
different lineups. And that was kind of

639
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,320
the thing he brought to this team
in the last couple of years, was

640
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:59,960
just that positional versatility that like a
lot of these guys that they couldn't go

641
00:40:00,119 --> 00:40:02,360
up or down, like Monte Morris
is a one before that, you know,

642
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:07,679
like every other small point guard that
had Ish and Howel Netto and all

643
00:40:07,679 --> 00:40:09,719
these other guys, like they were
locked into one position. Although we did

644
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:14,800
somehow play Netto at small forward in
the playoffs one year, which is another

645
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:19,840
amazing fat But there are other people
now that are switchable with him, and

646
00:40:20,039 --> 00:40:23,360
I think that's interesting. So you
could do a lot of really intriguing things.

647
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,119
At the end of the day,
he's going to be pretty high usage.

648
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,960
He's probably gonna be fairly ball dominant, I would imagine, but he's

649
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:34,679
a willing passer and things like that, so maybe you see him wanting to

650
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:37,519
get some of these younger guys more
involved and then picking his spots a little

651
00:40:37,519 --> 00:40:40,199
bit better on offense. So I
don't know, like one hundred and ten

652
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:45,679
percent version of the guy we saw
last year would probably be my guests of

653
00:40:45,119 --> 00:40:50,840
players we have not mentioned yet Corey
Kisspers floating around or at least haven't gone

654
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,159
into detailed Corey Kissers floating around out
there, your guy, Johnny Davis,

655
00:40:53,199 --> 00:41:00,599
your your favorite who intrigues you the
most long term on this roster is?

656
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,199
And it's a tough question, right, because that's why I asked it.

657
00:41:04,199 --> 00:41:08,039
It was just like getting it because
there's in such the infancy of their rebuild

658
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:12,800
and they're not working from a point
where they had a lot of players that

659
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:15,119
you bill as, oh, we
have to attain them that once you throw

660
00:41:15,199 --> 00:41:17,840
we went through ballab Clabali and Denny
Avdya, it's like, well, like

661
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:23,440
this question gets super tough. It's
it's both super tough in like a negative

662
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:27,760
way because there's like no immediate stand
out, but also not in the worst

663
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,920
way because there's like a few guys
that kind of could be potentially I think

664
00:41:32,199 --> 00:41:37,400
kiss Words one of those guys where
like he's just young enough and just good

665
00:41:37,519 --> 00:41:40,840
enough that you could see him being
here longer term and you could help fit

666
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:44,400
him into the makeup of your team
and where you want to go with it.

667
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:49,599
But he's also old enough and productive
enough that like a veteran team trying

668
00:41:49,599 --> 00:41:52,639
to win something now might be intrigued
to buy a guy like him to come

669
00:41:52,679 --> 00:41:54,519
in and you know, provide some
spacing. And I don't know, I

670
00:41:54,559 --> 00:41:59,119
think he's more than just a shooter, at least offensively. He tries defensively.

671
00:41:59,159 --> 00:42:02,599
I don't think he's partic really good, but he's not like a total

672
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:07,400
like Turnstile, So that's that's a
win. I think any team in the

673
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:12,320
league could be intrigued by somebody like
Corey Kissbert, the Wizards included, So

674
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,880
it's nice for from that perspective of
you could go either way with him.

675
00:42:15,199 --> 00:42:21,360
I think Johnny Davis, I really
think there's a world where like he's like

676
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:27,159
a really serviceable rotation wing defender.
And we know what position Donnie Davis is

677
00:42:27,199 --> 00:42:29,480
now. I know that was up
for debate last year. Where the front

678
00:42:29,519 --> 00:42:32,599
office didn't even seem to know who
he was, quite frankly, but definitely

679
00:42:32,679 --> 00:42:37,480
what he was. The GM and
the coach and the player themselves weren't on

680
00:42:37,519 --> 00:42:40,719
the same page about what he was
and what he can do and what he

681
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:45,559
can be. So we saw him
be kind of more of a focal point

682
00:42:45,559 --> 00:42:49,920
offensively on summer league team. That's
really our first look at him with any

683
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:52,719
of these other guys. He wasn't
particularly efficient in Summer League, but he

684
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:58,000
was a lot more aggressive and confident. I think you probably throw him in

685
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,400
there to be like a less athletic
Gary Peyton, the second kind of guy

686
00:43:00,599 --> 00:43:06,320
like he's Can he guard other people's
best perimeter players or something like that.

687
00:43:06,559 --> 00:43:09,400
I really have liked the defense from
John Davis day one. Can he shoot

688
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:15,840
it well enough? He's already not
like his knees aren't touching when he shoots

689
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,840
now, So that's probably a step
in the right direction for building a longer

690
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,760
term shot. There's just like a
lot of guys like that that could make

691
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,360
some sense. Could Ryan Rollins turn
into something? Could Patrick Baldwin Junior turn

692
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,920
into something? Warrior fans believe the
answer to the ladder is hell yea,

693
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:34,639
oh hell, yes, okay,
I didn't are they they were in on

694
00:43:34,679 --> 00:43:37,800
PBJA. Yeah, I didn't see
it personally, Like I don't, I

695
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:42,599
didn't see it, but they were
the way you felt about different type of

696
00:43:42,599 --> 00:43:45,559
player. But the way you felt
about Jordan Goodwin is how I feel like

697
00:43:45,599 --> 00:43:52,000
Warrior fans reacted to PBJA being thrown
into the Chris Paul trade. I see,

698
00:43:52,039 --> 00:43:54,239
like I never really got it with
him personally. I never watched him

699
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:58,639
play in high school where that's imagined
like apparently where all this stuff popped and

700
00:43:58,679 --> 00:44:04,079
playmaking. And you know, my
co host Johadie White has sons that are

701
00:44:04,119 --> 00:44:07,400
in the AU circuit, and he
said when they'd see Patrick Baldwin Junior on

702
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,719
that like he looked like lamar Odom
with a jump shot and he was like

703
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,559
doing all this creating and playmaking and
things like that. So maybe if you

704
00:44:14,599 --> 00:44:19,440
can unlock some of those things in
this situation, like that's great. It's

705
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,679
another kind of guy. It's the
right kind of guy to take a flyer

706
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,559
on. Whether I see it or
not, and you gave up the fifty

707
00:44:24,599 --> 00:44:30,039
seventh pick to do it. That
seems worthwhile to me. Whether it I

708
00:44:30,039 --> 00:44:31,760
don't know if he were any good, would someone like the Warriors give up

709
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:37,440
on him for the second to last
pick in the draft. Probably not.

710
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:40,760
That would be a bad sign in
my opinion. But I'm rambling, but

711
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:45,880
like, there's a few guys here
that could be intriguing enough that you want

712
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,239
to see if they could be anything
for you longer term. At least I

713
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:53,840
forgot that the PBJ trade was separate
from the Chris Paul Washington did too much

714
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:57,760
stuff this offseason. They still sort
of they like, I don't know if

715
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,760
it got like lumped in there after
the fact, but it is essentially him

716
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,920
for Trace Jackson Davis is how it
worked out. And I have in my

717
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:08,239
note it's saying Trace Jackson Davis for
cash. I'm assuming that's just a mistake

718
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:10,000
though, because now that you're mentioning
it, I was like, I think

719
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:14,039
that might have been separate. But
he's wet. I got the team right,

720
00:45:14,039 --> 00:45:16,400
that's all. It's on the Wizards. You're good. As we're recording

721
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:19,599
this, this leads into sort of
a nice segue with it. They have

722
00:45:19,639 --> 00:45:24,880
sixteen players under contract. Do you've
any would you guess or having preferences on

723
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,559
Okay, well, who are they
going to get rid of from here?

724
00:45:28,599 --> 00:45:31,119
Do you look at Xavier Cook,
Do you look at Ryan Rollins, Patrick

725
00:45:31,159 --> 00:45:37,079
Paulwin Jr. Anthony gill Is players
that you actually want on the roster moving

726
00:45:37,079 --> 00:45:40,079
forward, like just sort of that
jumble towards the bottom. Do you expect

727
00:45:40,079 --> 00:45:43,559
that they could go the route of, well, it doesn't see Mike Daniel

728
00:45:43,599 --> 00:45:45,079
Gallinari wants to buy out. He
just doesn't want to be a minimum guy.

729
00:45:45,079 --> 00:45:47,800
Like, do they go that route? Ultimately? Just what are short

730
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:52,679
of your thoughts or feelings there?
I think we've seen enough to know at

731
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:57,639
this point that Anthony gill is probably
never anything more than like the last guy

732
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:00,039
or two on the bench of an
NBA team. They're probably projecting him to

733
00:46:00,039 --> 00:46:05,639
be like their third center this year, which is insane to me personally.

734
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:10,039
I don't no, I'm just not
a big fan of him and his ability

735
00:46:10,119 --> 00:46:15,079
to provide any real value for them
as like an un athletic six foot eight

736
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:20,119
small ball center who doesn't actually shoot
if he were, like, I don't

737
00:46:20,159 --> 00:46:24,000
know. They got intrigued by him
shooting forty percent on two three pointers a

738
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,840
game overseas when they brought him over
and he was going to be their next.

739
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:32,480
Davis Burton's as this like six foot
eight stretch four and I don't have

740
00:46:32,559 --> 00:46:35,280
it in front of me, but
if I had to guess, he was

741
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,719
well below thirty percent from three last
year. So if you don't shoot it,

742
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,960
you're not like a great defender.
He's not particularly athletic. He's just

743
00:46:43,039 --> 00:46:45,760
like a guy essentially. To me, there's a world where at least Baldwin

744
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:50,239
Jr. Or Ryan Rollins are more
than just the last man on the bench.

745
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:52,960
So I would absolutely get rid of
Gill before I get rid of them.

746
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:57,159
They all love Gil in the locker
room and what a great duty is

747
00:46:57,199 --> 00:47:00,840
and how he tries to help the
young guys. That's valuable. But you've

748
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:05,159
got Mascala, You've got you've got
Gallinari, Like, how many you've got

749
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:07,559
Dalan right, Like, how many
these older veteran mentor leader guys do we

750
00:47:07,599 --> 00:47:12,800
really need? And Gil can't help
you on the court. I don't really

751
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,920
know what Cooks does for you.
Despite him playing really well in FIBA.

752
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:20,679
I know everybody's like convinced themselves that
that means he'll like magically be an impact

753
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,320
player for the Wizards, But how
many guys play well for their country and

754
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:27,280
then don't do shit in the NBA. So that's kind of what I expect

755
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:30,079
from Cooks. I'd love to be
proven wrong. But he's another guy.

756
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:32,679
I think he's twenty seven already.
Like, is there some world where he

757
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:37,119
morphs into a drastically better player.
I doubt it. So if you're going

758
00:47:37,199 --> 00:47:40,480
to fill the bench out with these
kind of if he contributors, I'd rather

759
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:45,559
than be young. If he contributors, I don't. I guess I don't

760
00:47:45,559 --> 00:47:47,960
mind the idea of having an Anthony
Gill as a small ball five, just

761
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:53,440
based off like the physicality that's packed
into a sort of miniature package. But

762
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,639
you're right, like not having the
athleticism and not being a proven shooter definitely

763
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:00,360
hurts if you're playing the five.
I'm wonder if it doesn't hurt as much.

764
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,639
But that's not the way to evaluate. Oh, it's like he's not

765
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:07,280
as damaging as I thought he was
exact. I think we could do better.

766
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:10,119
There's probably some young guy in the
G League right now that I'd rather

767
00:48:10,119 --> 00:48:15,679
give that last third big spot too. I'd rather take Michael Foster Junior or

768
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:21,440
John tay Porter or one of these
kind of guys. That are like twenty

769
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:25,760
three years old and big and potentially
have some skills. Then someone like Gil

770
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:30,559
where we've kind of seen what he
is and there's just not a lot of

771
00:48:30,559 --> 00:48:36,320
ceiling left there is there for me
anyway, when I look at this roster,

772
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:39,000
a struggle to see, not in
a bad way, but just the

773
00:48:39,079 --> 00:48:44,960
identifying principles of how they will play. Is there anything stylistically that you want

774
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,079
to see them door that you're looking
forward to seeing them do with the current

775
00:48:47,199 --> 00:48:51,760
core that is in place. If
they're not one of the five fastest teams

776
00:48:52,079 --> 00:48:54,039
in terms of pace in the league
this year, like I'll be actively pissed

777
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:59,679
because I think that's kind of the
one thread I'm starting to see here.

778
00:49:00,079 --> 00:49:05,119
Little bit like Gafford is probably a
bottom five starting center in the NBA,

779
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:08,320
but he runs the floor pretty hard
and he's athletic and he's not going to

780
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:12,000
like beat you up in the post
or anything like that, But could he

781
00:49:12,039 --> 00:49:15,199
beat some guys down the floor,
that'd be interesting. Kuzma can grab and

782
00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:19,360
go, and it's been a pretty
good defensive rebounder for the Wizards. Then

783
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,760
he can grab and go like Corey
can put the ball on the floor a

784
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:28,239
little bit. Jordan Pool, I
think can grab and go like that's kind

785
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,320
of the throughput I think for the
team. Coolabali will be good in transition.

786
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:34,599
I think that's where Xavier Cooks probably
provides his most value if you play

787
00:49:34,639 --> 00:49:38,320
someone like that. So that's what
I'd try to do personally, is just

788
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:46,199
be really active and aggressive and switchable
defensively as much as humanly possible and just

789
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:51,039
run everything. And when you're a
younger team and you've got fresh legs,

790
00:49:51,679 --> 00:49:54,159
like this is the team I think
other teams wouldn't want to play in like

791
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:58,239
December, you know, like when
they're all kind of banged up a little

792
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:01,119
bit already, or you know,
it's like the third game of of a

793
00:50:01,159 --> 00:50:06,199
four game stretch or a couple of
days like I don't know. I think

794
00:50:06,239 --> 00:50:08,000
you get to the dull drums of
the NBA season and you're like, shit,

795
00:50:08,079 --> 00:50:10,239
I gotta play these young dudes that
are going to run on everything,

796
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:14,960
Like I'd like to see them be
that kind of team. When they made

797
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:16,360
West until Junior the head coach,
the first thing he said was like,

798
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:20,400
we're gonna play like we're gonna slow
it down because you can't play fast and

799
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:24,159
play defense, which it's crazy to
think that anybody thinks in two thousand and

800
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:29,679
twenty three, but you know,
that's that's fine. But that's what I

801
00:50:29,679 --> 00:50:32,159
would do with this team, and
I think that's maybe what this personnel is

802
00:50:32,159 --> 00:50:35,920
shooted for. Like you've got a
lot of guys in the same kind of

803
00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:39,159
like height range. So if you
if you put a lineup out there where

804
00:50:39,199 --> 00:50:44,840
like Jordan Poole is your smallest guy
and Daniel Gaffard is your biggest guy,

805
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:46,440
there's a lot of like cool things
you can do to switch that. And

806
00:50:47,599 --> 00:50:52,159
I would just be as annoying to
play as you could possibly be with this

807
00:50:52,199 --> 00:50:55,599
particular group. Yeah, and they
were not a vast team last year.

808
00:50:55,679 --> 00:50:58,760
They were just when you look at
all like the metrics of like, oh,

809
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:00,800
they're average possession to time after a
made shot, after a turn they

810
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,639
were even after a turnover, they're
like, let's just slow it down,

811
00:51:05,159 --> 00:51:07,880
just kind of And that's just I
think with this roster, your right,

812
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:10,239
you should definitely play that way.
I'm also wondering this has also not really

813
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:14,480
been like a hallmark under west On
South. It's like, can they be

814
00:51:14,599 --> 00:51:19,480
ultra aggressive on the defensive end?
They were, They were twenty ninth in

815
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:22,199
opponent turnover rate last year. And
I'm just looking at Blah Kolabali. You

816
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:25,079
have Daniel Gaffer there, Delon Wright, It's like he's a good player.

817
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:29,639
I just I can't believe what they
get him from Atlanta. He signed from

818
00:51:29,639 --> 00:51:34,760
Atlanta steal. I think I didn't
understand. I know they got to John

819
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:36,719
Day Murray that some one, but
I didn't understand that's a good player.

820
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:39,280
Uh. You have Denny Avda like
there. I don't expect this to be

821
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:43,559
a good defensive team, but it
feels like they have enough, maybe like

822
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:47,280
chaos creators on the even Kyle Kuzma. Yeah, so I would love to

823
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:51,440
see them, like, I don't
care if you foul too much. If

824
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:52,400
your defense ends up being bad,
who cares, Like, let's just j

825
00:51:53,519 --> 00:51:58,519
the transition offense that way. That
just want to stay with that for one

826
00:51:58,519 --> 00:52:02,000
second day because I think one of
my generation of Wizards fans favorite teams was

827
00:52:02,079 --> 00:52:08,920
the first couple year Gilbert Arenas Larry
Hughes Wizards team, and they weren't good

828
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:14,719
defensively, but Eddie Jordan just told
them, like, gamble on everything and

829
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,760
steal everything you can, and you
know, Larry led the league and steals,

830
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:21,119
and Gill was third in the league
and steals that year. I think

831
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:27,199
so like they weren't good defensively,
but they created opportunities for themselves just by

832
00:52:27,239 --> 00:52:31,159
being, like you said, insanely
aggressive. And I think that's like maybe

833
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:35,559
like Jordan Pool is never going to
lock in on somebody defensively, but he

834
00:52:35,679 --> 00:52:37,639
might get excited about playing some defense
if he gets to shoot the gap every

835
00:52:37,679 --> 00:52:40,840
time and try to get a run
out. So that's the kind of stuff

836
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,000
I would be trying to position them
to do. You're now veteran of this

837
00:52:45,039 --> 00:52:47,519
podcast, so you're ready for the
cookie cutter portion. I love it.

838
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:52,320
Look Ahead, what is the ten
man rotation look like for this team?

839
00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:55,800
And I think it's even probably even
beginning with the starting five. Normally feel

840
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,800
like a lot of teams have an
edgeton stone, but you even kind of

841
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:01,480
mentioned it feels like there's four locks
there for sure. But so we're getting

842
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:05,039
with the starting five. What's the
ten man rotation look like? For this

843
00:53:05,079 --> 00:53:07,400
team? If I were a betting
man, I think the guaranteed starting to

844
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:12,840
five is probably Tis Jones, Jordan
Pool, Corey Kissbert, Kyle Kuzma,

845
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,840
Daniel Gafford. The only one I
think that maybe is potentially up for debate.

846
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:20,480
There is the Denny Corey one,
and that's maybe just to like try

847
00:53:20,519 --> 00:53:22,360
to make the lineup fit a certain
way based on what they want to do.

848
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:27,480
But it's probably Corey at this point. But then Denny comes off the

849
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:30,280
bench. I think you got to
get Dlan right in there somehow. It

850
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:35,360
would be a disservice to not play
Coolabali at least some going into the year.

851
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:38,639
We haven't talked about Mike Mscala really
at all, but Sham it's on

852
00:53:38,679 --> 00:53:43,559
this team too. Yeah, like
that, I think what this, like

853
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:45,920
the ten man rotation looks like to
start the year is probably really different than

854
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:49,920
what it looks like by the middle
of the season. Do you play Sham

855
00:53:50,039 --> 00:53:52,960
at some now and see if you
can flip him for something? Do you

856
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:57,800
have to feature Gallinari now some to
see if you can flip him for anything?

857
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:00,960
Does Delon Wright play more now to
see if you can turn him into

858
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,400
something like? There are a lot
of those kinds of guys that would be

859
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:07,519
nice to get something for. I
don't know if you can do it,

860
00:54:07,599 --> 00:54:12,039
but I would at least try,
And I think that makes predicting the ten

861
00:54:12,039 --> 00:54:15,400
main rotation like really tough. Like
Johnny Davis, you can afford to wait

862
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:17,159
on a little bit here, So
maybe if he doesn't play until the back

863
00:54:17,159 --> 00:54:21,000
half of the year a little bit
more, that's fine. But at some

864
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:22,599
point you have to see him in
NBA minutes and see if he can give

865
00:54:22,639 --> 00:54:27,719
you anything. So like, he
probably needs to be in the rotation if

866
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,199
you're gonna keep Xavier Cooks, does
he have to get some minutes? And

867
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:35,960
because you're so small, he or
Gil probably have to play. Where's Gallinari

868
00:54:36,079 --> 00:54:38,440
your bat? Like your third big
Like I don't know how this works.

869
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:45,679
So it's just there's so many of
those kind of question mark guys of like

870
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:50,440
peripherally peripheral people. I personally don't
give a shit about Landry Shamitt. I

871
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:52,639
don't think you're going to turn him
into a lot. If you trade him,

872
00:54:52,679 --> 00:54:55,800
it's maybe you get a second round
pick for him, and he doesn't

873
00:54:55,840 --> 00:55:00,119
really help you much in the long
term because he's basically an expire deal because

874
00:55:00,199 --> 00:55:04,960
the money's not guaranteed I think beyond
this year. So to me, he's

875
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,840
a guy I wouldn't put in the
rotation at the expense of seeing if Johnny

876
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:09,800
Davis can give you anything. So
like those are kind of the ones,

877
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:14,000
like that's what I would do,
but I don't know if they'll do it.

878
00:55:14,079 --> 00:55:16,039
So it feels like there are eight
locks. The starting lineup you outlaid,

879
00:55:16,079 --> 00:55:20,440
plus Denny, Blog Kolabali, and
the long right would be like the

880
00:55:20,719 --> 00:55:23,000
sort of locked out. Their playoff
rotation will probably locked too, like you

881
00:55:23,119 --> 00:55:27,119
have. I wouldn't say their lack
of bigs probably needs to make it with

882
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:30,239
goal unless they're really invested in Xavier
Cooks. Maybe play that bottle a little

883
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:37,440
bit. Yeah, So this is
to some extent matchup dependent and how much

884
00:55:37,440 --> 00:55:39,400
of the Wizard's going to be trying
to win close games? But what's their

885
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,000
best crunch time unit? To you? Is it just they're starting five or

886
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,760
would you fuss and fiddle with it
a little bit? Yeah, I think

887
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:52,000
it's that's one of the situations where
you could maybe shuffle between Denny and Corey

888
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:57,960
given the situation. And I don't
know, like, if you've got playmaking

889
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,039
on the court with Pool and Kuzma
and Denny, do you need tie us

890
00:56:00,079 --> 00:56:02,960
out there to close games too?
Like would that be where you put a

891
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:07,360
Delaan right in, Like he's I
think a better catch and shoot guy than

892
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:08,760
we've seen. He's not going to
create a ton of offense for you,

893
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:13,519
but to lock somebody down and help
you as a team defender. So he's

894
00:56:13,559 --> 00:56:16,079
not gonna get hunted at the very
least. So I think it'll really depend

895
00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:21,159
on, you know, just kind
of what the other teams do. Like,

896
00:56:21,199 --> 00:56:23,119
I think the nice thing about this
rosters they could be somewhat reactive.

897
00:56:23,559 --> 00:56:27,320
It's not like a here's our group
and this is the only thing we can

898
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:31,159
roll with or were screwed. It's
a little bit like the kind of football

899
00:56:31,199 --> 00:56:35,119
analogy where like, if you have
two quarterbacks, you don't have any quarterbacks.

900
00:56:35,159 --> 00:56:37,920
That's kind of how I feel about
this team to some extent, where

901
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:42,440
like you could play any of these
guys, but it's probably not a good

902
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:45,960
thing that you don't have like a
bunch of no brainers to fill out the

903
00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:51,480
rest of the rotation. Here is
there a quirky, weirdo unconventional lineup you

904
00:56:51,519 --> 00:56:55,119
want to see this team try.
I would like to see some combination of

905
00:56:55,599 --> 00:57:04,800
Delan pool kissper Denny Kuzma and just
going small and switching everything that would be

906
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:07,400
interesting to me, I think,
or maybe you go pool kissper Danny Kuzma,

907
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:12,519
Mascala and try to play fast and
spread the floor Lon, and again

908
00:57:12,519 --> 00:57:15,119
if you're just going to run on
people, like do you really need a

909
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:20,239
pure point guard in those situations?
The way NBA basketball is played right now

910
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:23,639
anyway, So I would just try
to have as many switchable guys on the

911
00:57:23,679 --> 00:57:28,920
court as you can and whoever allows
you play the fastest, and especially to

912
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,360
close these games, like just make
everybody be guardable. There are so many

913
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:35,320
situations last year where the Wizards would
have two guys out there that teams didn't

914
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:37,559
have to guard, and it's like, hmm, I wonder why Bradley Beale

915
00:57:37,559 --> 00:57:43,199
can't trouble through three people without turning
the ball over. So it just I

916
00:57:43,199 --> 00:57:46,519
would try to avoid those things.
But we'll see the lineup I have,

917
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:50,440
And I still don't have the fifth
thought finalized. I want to make it

918
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:54,400
like defensive anarchy basically, and so
give me balla Coolabali, give me Denny

919
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:58,960
Avia, give me the Lon right, and I have Xavier Cooks in there

920
00:57:59,159 --> 00:58:00,519
just as like I don't really know
what to do with the five, Like

921
00:58:00,559 --> 00:58:04,400
I think he's probably the best if
you're to look at trying to switch right

922
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:07,840
now, and then it's you could
throw like do you want Taia's Jones for

923
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,280
his game management? Do you want
Jordan Poole for his offensive chaos? I

924
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:13,960
might even just settle on Kyle Kuzma
and say, like, we're just not

925
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:17,000
gonna go with any We'll just have
Kuzma and deny Afa Blah Kolabali runs some

926
00:58:17,039 --> 00:58:21,119
stuff. I just want to see
what that lineup would look like at both

927
00:58:21,199 --> 00:58:22,440
ends of the fork. I don't
know if they'd be particularly good, but

928
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:25,199
I feel like they'd be entertaining.
It'd be fun. And again, like

929
00:58:25,239 --> 00:58:30,239
I said, I've been kind of
like the Kuzma truther, but the defensive

930
00:58:30,280 --> 00:58:32,480
metrics are kind of sketchy on him, Like some favor him, some don't.

931
00:58:32,519 --> 00:58:36,800
It really kind of depends on what
you look at. But I listened

932
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,039
to a lot of these postgame press
conferences when other teams come in and play

933
00:58:39,079 --> 00:58:43,119
the Wizards, and there were a
lot of times last year where like really

934
00:58:43,159 --> 00:58:46,119
good NBA players, like star NBA
players singled out like, man, it

935
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:51,280
is tough a shit to shoot over
Kyle Kuzma, Like I remember Dame specifically

936
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:53,480
saying that after a game of just
like that is just a long dude who

937
00:58:53,519 --> 00:58:57,840
can keep his feet in front of
you. So whether like he gets graded

938
00:58:57,880 --> 00:59:01,079
out as a great defender or not, I think you know, he still

939
00:59:01,079 --> 00:59:04,840
makes life tough enough for you that
if you're going to do this like chaos

940
00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:07,679
defensive lineup, he's somebody I would
want out there, because again, at

941
00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:09,280
least you could switch him through a
lot of different guys. All right,

942
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:13,880
book it, We'll go Cooks,
Kuzma, Avdia right and black Coolabali.

943
00:59:14,039 --> 00:59:16,519
I don't think that all. I
feel like they're probably better on defense than

944
00:59:16,599 --> 00:59:20,480
offense. Right, Yeah, it
seems like a reasonably safe bet at this

945
00:59:20,519 --> 00:59:24,559
point. The Wizards over under as
we currently record this is set at twenty

946
00:59:24,559 --> 00:59:29,039
four and a half. Yeah,
are you taking me over under on that?

947
00:59:29,079 --> 00:59:30,719
And where do you see them?
I don't even I can't even frame

948
00:59:30,719 --> 00:59:34,719
it this way? Are they the
worst team in the Eastern Conference? I

949
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:38,239
would hammer the over like, okay, I really would. I don't think

950
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:43,920
by a lot. But if this
team won twenty eight games, it wouldn't

951
00:59:43,960 --> 00:59:46,159
really shock me. Like, are
they drastically worse than last year's team that

952
00:59:46,199 --> 00:59:51,239
won thirty five games, Like,
yes, they're less talented, but like

953
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:53,400
the give a shit level might be
a lot higher with this year's group.

954
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:57,920
And there's a world where it's like
just total chaos and Jordan Poole doesn't get

955
00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:00,000
along with anybody and someone wants to
punch him by the third day of training

956
01:00:00,039 --> 01:00:04,920
camp, or Kuzma wants out of
town right away, or some of these

957
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:09,159
older veteran guys are cooked and Kolabali
is three years away, Like it could

958
01:00:09,239 --> 01:00:14,079
be bad. I just think there's
enough here where, like I kind of

959
01:00:14,119 --> 01:00:19,119
have like that weird good feeling and
I'm like the eternal like pessimist with this

960
01:00:19,159 --> 01:00:21,760
team. So this is not a
mean thing, Like I do typically take

961
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:23,920
the over, but barely, and
I don't expect them to do anything the

962
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:29,039
playoffs this year. There's no way
there's a playoff team. But I think

963
01:00:29,079 --> 01:00:31,480
the league is like really scrunched together
a lot more now and you're going to

964
01:00:31,559 --> 01:00:36,199
see a lot less six do you
win teams, but a lot less below

965
01:00:36,239 --> 01:00:42,079
twenty win team, so twenty six
twenty something like that. Like I would

966
01:00:42,079 --> 01:00:45,239
take the over but by a very
little and I don't know if they'll be

967
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:47,480
the worst team in the East,
Like there could be somebody else that where

968
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:52,679
they get banged up. If if
Kaid Cunningham suddenly not better for Detroit this

969
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:55,480
year, Like could they be just
as bad if they have an injury or

970
01:00:55,519 --> 01:01:00,519
two? Like could somebody decide to
blow it up midway through the year?

971
01:01:00,880 --> 01:01:04,280
You know, does Atlanta get like
KG and decide like this isn't gonna work,

972
01:01:04,360 --> 01:01:07,679
Let's tear it all down, Like
I'm saying Atlanta is going to do

973
01:01:07,679 --> 01:01:08,320
that. But you know what I
mean, Like, to me, they're

974
01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:12,719
better than Charlotte. I don't.
I have no love for that Charlotte roster

975
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:16,400
whatsoever. That's like the island of
misfit toys to me. I don't think

976
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:21,519
they are going to have good vibes
and good chemistry and things like that.

977
01:01:21,559 --> 01:01:23,519
You need Lamello to stay healthy.
That's been a little tougher to do.

978
01:01:24,239 --> 01:01:29,360
Terror Ors you're going to be there
long term. Maybe his contractor shitty enough

979
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:31,920
that he is. I don't know
that Miles Bridges is enough of a needle

980
01:01:31,920 --> 01:01:35,599
mover to me that that really helps. So I don't want to turn that

981
01:01:35,639 --> 01:01:42,039
into your hornet's preview, But it's
they're worse to me. That's but but

982
01:01:42,119 --> 01:01:45,480
I could be a biased homer.
I guess my twenty four it's so low.

983
01:01:45,760 --> 01:01:49,800
So there are three teams that won
fewer than twenty five games last year,

984
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:52,440
so it's so low, and I
get that. I'm also just based

985
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:55,039
off what they've already done. If
they're like winning at a pace that's better

986
01:01:55,079 --> 01:01:58,920
than bottom of the East, yeah, I'm like, oh, like tis

987
01:01:58,960 --> 01:02:04,119
Jones gone on right, gone right, and so that would be like,

988
01:02:04,199 --> 01:02:06,679
I don't know where I would settle
on that just yet. We haven't done

989
01:02:06,719 --> 01:02:10,559
me over Underpod. Yeah, but
I'm struggling to identify which teams I would

990
01:02:10,559 --> 01:02:13,960
say they could definitely be better than
in the East. I think there is

991
01:02:14,039 --> 01:02:16,840
I'm very high on Detroit, but
if they're married to playing the wrong front

992
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:22,239
court lineups, they're very combustible.
Charlotte's interesting because I don't believe in them,

993
01:02:22,400 --> 01:02:27,000
but they're very well coached. They
won twenty seven last year with Lamello

994
01:02:27,119 --> 01:02:30,760
being injured. And is Brandon Miller
good? Does Miles Bridges help you?

995
01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:36,519
So it's just I guess my belief
is that Michael Winger wants this to be

996
01:02:36,599 --> 01:02:38,159
the worst team in the East,
and so they will be the worst team

997
01:02:38,159 --> 01:02:42,280
in the East is just where I
sort of land on that. I really

998
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:45,320
hope that that's the case, and
I think I'm a little bit scarred by

999
01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:49,119
like they will never tank under ted
leonsis thing, even though last year they

1000
01:02:49,159 --> 01:02:52,320
finally shut it down, they just
waited too late to do it. I

1001
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:54,599
hope this front office is empowered to
be like, Okay, it's February and

1002
01:02:54,599 --> 01:03:01,920
we're actually like competitive. Everyone over
twenty seven has to go. But that's

1003
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:05,760
what I would like to see happen. I don't know that they'll actually do

1004
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:08,440
it. I do think that they'll
be empowered enough to shut it down at

1005
01:03:08,480 --> 01:03:13,719
some point to keep them from like
being better. If that even is possible,

1006
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:16,480
I could just be being crazy here
and it wouldn't be the first time.

1007
01:03:16,519 --> 01:03:20,199
But yeah, I don't know.
It just it's just twenty four and

1008
01:03:20,199 --> 01:03:22,719
a half is too low to me. If you said twenty six was the

1009
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:23,880
number, I'd be like, no, okay, that I can do.

1010
01:03:24,679 --> 01:03:29,119
Like they're as good as last year's
Charlotte team in my opinion. And then

1011
01:03:29,199 --> 01:03:31,360
you said there's a twenty seven win
team, like they wouldn't shock me if

1012
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:36,400
this Wizard's team did that. There's
in the East specifically, the West is

1013
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:39,079
going to be I think more of
a bear than the East. There's some

1014
01:03:39,159 --> 01:03:44,199
teams that have the implosive potential to
just Chicago. I don't know what the

1015
01:03:44,239 --> 01:03:45,280
fuck is going on in Toronto.
I don't even want to do their look

1016
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:49,599
ahead because they're confusing to shit out
of me. It's like there are those

1017
01:03:49,639 --> 01:03:51,679
sort of teams right there, and
then there's just like I don't even know

1018
01:03:51,719 --> 01:03:53,760
what to do about the nets where
it's like Michael Bridges is a stud but

1019
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:59,519
kind of lost in the shuffle of
Michael Bridges breaking out. Plus they did

1020
01:03:59,599 --> 01:04:02,920
play like I thought they defended Jowell
and bead Well for how small they were,

1021
01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:06,960
but lost in that shuffle was oh
like they kind of sucked after the

1022
01:04:08,159 --> 01:04:10,320
like they got rid of all their
stars, like they weren't a good team.

1023
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:13,880
So yeah, I could I could
talk myself into this team hitting me

1024
01:04:14,079 --> 01:04:17,000
over and the numbers so low that
I might eventually pick it. I just

1025
01:04:17,119 --> 01:04:21,519
kind of if they're like better than
fourteen in the East, I'll be floored

1026
01:04:21,559 --> 01:04:25,719
because I just don't think the front
office is gonna let it happen. Bottom

1027
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:30,800
three is like guaranteed, like guaranteed. Bottom two probably pretty darn likely.

1028
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:33,039
If someone was worse than them,
it wouldn't shock me, That's all I'm

1029
01:04:33,079 --> 01:04:39,039
saying. And I think like to
really just believe in me under. Again,

1030
01:04:39,079 --> 01:04:42,400
it could be under like injuries have, but you really have to believe

1031
01:04:43,079 --> 01:04:46,320
that they're getting rid of guys or
shutting them down and they're not doing what

1032
01:04:46,960 --> 01:04:49,519
like Utah did last season. I'm
not saying they'd be as good out of

1033
01:04:49,519 --> 01:04:53,760
the gate, but it's everyone I
think picked the under with Utah because Okay,

1034
01:04:53,760 --> 01:04:56,320
the roster was better than I don't
even remember what they're over under was,

1035
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:58,719
but it was better than let's say
the twenty seven wins or whatever they

1036
01:04:58,719 --> 01:05:01,800
added at. But you just believe
that Danny Angels gonna make those moves early,

1037
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:05,079
and he didn't. He made them
later. So to really believe in

1038
01:05:05,119 --> 01:05:10,519
this under, you have to believe
that Michael Winger Will Dawkins are gonna make

1039
01:05:10,559 --> 01:05:15,440
the moves early, like Kyle Kuzma
is traded like way before the deadline or

1040
01:05:15,519 --> 01:05:18,000
even the lawn right and Tias Jones
didn't really talk about him. He's like

1041
01:05:18,079 --> 01:05:20,719
kind of sneaky important if you want
to run your half court offense. He

1042
01:05:20,760 --> 01:05:24,880
doesn't turn the ball over. He's
great at making those pocket passes. He

1043
01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:29,159
showed some better shooting last year in
Memphis, especially when Jah was out.

1044
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:31,960
Like, you really have to believe
that these guys will not be playing by

1045
01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:36,000
like January, like to think that, oh yeah, they're not going to

1046
01:05:36,039 --> 01:05:39,880
reach twenty five for sure, And
why would you do that? Like their

1047
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:44,079
value a month into the season isn't
gonna be any different than it is right

1048
01:05:44,079 --> 01:05:46,639
now. Even if they start out
like a supernova. People are gonna want

1049
01:05:46,639 --> 01:05:50,719
to see Tis Jones starting point guard
for longer to believe he's worth trading for

1050
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:56,079
more than he would have gotten you
just this offseason. So that's why I

1051
01:05:56,079 --> 01:06:00,559
think they're the That's just someone who
doesn't infringe upon the development anybody. If

1052
01:06:00,559 --> 01:06:03,239
you're the Wizards, yours burd right, which want to keep? I agree,

1053
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:05,760
I wouldn't be in any hurry to
do it. I also don't know

1054
01:06:05,840 --> 01:06:10,320
that you can have him in Pool
as your backcourt together long term and ever

1055
01:06:10,440 --> 01:06:15,000
guard anybody, But on Jordan Pool, I would keep Ties Jones over him

1056
01:06:15,039 --> 01:06:18,239
and just saw like I just can't
I get it of what the aesthetics of

1057
01:06:18,280 --> 01:06:23,920
Jordan Pool's games sometimes look amazing.
He's an underrated finisher at the basket.

1058
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:26,440
For the most part, I think
he's gotten better as a passer. I

1059
01:06:26,519 --> 01:06:29,119
just don't see it. I think
he was so insulated in Golden State,

1060
01:06:29,199 --> 01:06:32,039
but maybe I'll be wrong. I
don't even really care which one looks better

1061
01:06:32,119 --> 01:06:34,679
or longer term. I just think
that even if they both look good longer

1062
01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:38,719
term, that's probably just like not
a good fitting backcourt. You're right,

1063
01:06:39,119 --> 01:06:42,320
but for that reason, so you
can make the decision either way. I

1064
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:45,239
think Jones is really intriguing. He
could be a longer term guy, or

1065
01:06:45,239 --> 01:06:47,719
he could be a short term sell
high guy if you need to. That's

1066
01:06:47,880 --> 01:06:53,880
another decent way for them to go
about it with somebody like that. So,

1067
01:06:54,159 --> 01:06:57,360
yeah, he gives you some options. But yeah, to buy into

1068
01:06:57,400 --> 01:07:00,039
the under of that number, you
also have to believe that the Jordan Pool

1069
01:07:00,079 --> 01:07:03,239
we saw last year is Jordan Pool, if not even maybe like worse.

1070
01:07:04,079 --> 01:07:11,440
I do believe that, really,
Okay, I just think that there's just

1071
01:07:11,920 --> 01:07:14,239
I don't want to get caught because
I picked the under for Utah. So

1072
01:07:14,280 --> 01:07:17,840
I'm trying to be more cognizant this
year. And it's there's talent on this

1073
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:20,519
roster. It's not they've torn it
down, but like there's real like and

1074
01:07:20,559 --> 01:07:25,559
if Gallo is healthy and plays like
that's a useful guy as well. So

1075
01:07:26,519 --> 01:07:29,360
yeah, I don't. I don't
have a feel for it. Even if

1076
01:07:29,360 --> 01:07:31,280
you think, and I do believe
Michael Winger will make sure they're bad,

1077
01:07:31,920 --> 01:07:34,840
it's when did those moves happen?
Because even if you want to move these

1078
01:07:34,880 --> 01:07:40,079
guys, I think you get caught
in the thinking of, well, like

1079
01:07:40,119 --> 01:07:42,880
we might be able to get more
around the deadline when more teams are willing

1080
01:07:42,880 --> 01:07:45,119
to move around their players, because
certain teams are just ready to make moves

1081
01:07:45,159 --> 01:07:49,079
before others are. So I don't
like, and I would be shocked if

1082
01:07:49,119 --> 01:07:55,679
they made any sort of notable trade
before January. I don't think there anything,

1083
01:07:56,760 --> 01:07:59,719
Matt, this was great as always. There any one or anything about

1084
01:07:59,800 --> 01:08:02,079
this team. I didn't ask you
that you think we need to discuss.

1085
01:08:03,079 --> 01:08:06,880
No, I mean I think hopefully
anybody listened to last year's pod versus this

1086
01:08:06,960 --> 01:08:11,960
year notices that I'm somewhat more upbeat
as a Wizards fan, which is kind

1087
01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:14,480
of hard to do, but I
guess Dan. My question for you is,

1088
01:08:14,519 --> 01:08:17,119
like, do you feel better about
their long term future now versus the

1089
01:08:17,199 --> 01:08:21,960
last time we talked, sorry as
I plug in my light going out at

1090
01:08:21,960 --> 01:08:27,039
the buzzer of the podcast. Yeah, I think, look, there's value

1091
01:08:27,079 --> 01:08:30,159
in making the decision, and I
know that they're not left with a ton

1092
01:08:30,199 --> 01:08:34,079
of these just a plus assets to
go and turn around and trade for a

1093
01:08:34,199 --> 01:08:38,520
star or blow coolbal. He's not
your typical all right, Well, they

1094
01:08:38,600 --> 01:08:43,439
just had this really high draft pick. They were starting from a very restrictive

1095
01:08:43,520 --> 01:08:46,039
baseline, beginning with that Bradley Beal, no trade clause, the timing of

1096
01:08:46,159 --> 01:08:49,920
moving Christops Fors it like you might
have been able to get more than Tias

1097
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:53,720
Jones, the headliner if you move
porzingis at the deadline. I mean,

1098
01:08:53,960 --> 01:08:56,720
I'm not even sure that you would
have just given his you know, he

1099
01:08:56,880 --> 01:09:00,359
was so healthy last year. That
was just an nonvious best case and there's

1100
01:09:00,399 --> 01:09:04,079
just there's nothing now encumbering you.
And it's yeah, you owe the I

1101
01:09:04,159 --> 01:09:08,119
know Knicks fans will be obsessed with
where the Wizards are because that pick is

1102
01:09:08,159 --> 01:09:13,560
protected through at this point. Yeah, but like it's protected enough to where

1103
01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:15,039
it's well, we decide our destiny
and like, yeah, maybe they're good

1104
01:09:15,079 --> 01:09:18,600
by twenty twenty six and it's top
eight protected and it conveys that's fine.

1105
01:09:19,239 --> 01:09:23,960
There is I know a lot of
fans like to point out, especially to

1106
01:09:24,079 --> 01:09:28,720
people who cover the league, like
the entire league, that there's more than

1107
01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:31,680
just about winning a title. And
I totally get that the Wizards have been

1108
01:09:31,760 --> 01:09:36,520
stuck in this submittal shit hole for
so long that to say, hey,

1109
01:09:36,920 --> 01:09:43,560
we're gonna take this step back deliberately
and we're gonna angle for something better than

1110
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:47,600
a first round exit essentially, like
it's just I find that you use it

1111
01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,479
at the top of this podcast.
I find it inspiring as a fan to

1112
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:55,600
say, finally, even if it
doesn't work out, like, finally,

1113
01:09:55,720 --> 01:10:00,119
we're trying something different, and I
think that matters. Yea, No,

1114
01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:03,800
I think that that perfectly sums up
where the vast majority of us probably are

1115
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:09,079
with this team. It's just if
best case scenario, you were capped out

1116
01:10:09,159 --> 01:10:12,319
with old guys and you could maybe
make the play in like that was the

1117
01:10:12,399 --> 01:10:15,600
ceiling. That's just not an intriguing
place to be, Whereas like, if

1118
01:10:15,640 --> 01:10:18,359
this team was on pace to make
the play in halfway through the year,

1119
01:10:19,119 --> 01:10:23,520
we would be ecstatic and you might
get more butts and seats if you're this

1120
01:10:23,640 --> 01:10:27,359
ownership group, like so that's great. The only the guy we didn't mention

1121
01:10:27,479 --> 01:10:31,359
their second round pick Tristan Vuksovic this
year, so he's probably not going to

1122
01:10:31,439 --> 01:10:34,399
come over. And I think that's
a mistake to make. If I've got

1123
01:10:34,439 --> 01:10:38,720
a seven foot stretch big and I
needed a big, I would want him

1124
01:10:38,800 --> 01:10:43,319
to learn under Gallinari and Mascala and
other they're not all the same player,

1125
01:10:43,399 --> 01:10:47,399
but like stretch of year bigs,
and he's going to play for partisan and

1126
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:51,479
that's like a loaded EuroLeague team that
he barely played fourteen minutes a game on

1127
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:55,439
last year and doesn't look primed for
a ton of minutes on this year,

1128
01:10:56,159 --> 01:10:59,279
even if he just came over and
played on the G League team all year.

1129
01:10:59,359 --> 01:11:01,800
To me, that's better because at
least you control that and he learns

1130
01:11:01,840 --> 01:11:05,119
your system and he can be in
the same practice jim as all your NBA

1131
01:11:05,199 --> 01:11:10,119
guys. So that is one move
I haven't liked that You can't clear like

1132
01:11:10,119 --> 01:11:12,479
I would get rid of Landry sham
At now if it meant I could bring

1133
01:11:12,520 --> 01:11:15,479
books of which over keep forgetting?
Why is it Landry shamm At the guy

1134
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:19,079
I'm forgetting is on this roster?
Him and Gallow like snuck up on me

1135
01:11:19,159 --> 01:11:21,279
too, is like, that's right, gallows here. It's so random.

1136
01:11:21,359 --> 01:11:25,199
It just doesn't seem to make any
sense for them to be here very long.

1137
01:11:25,239 --> 01:11:27,760
If anyone gets traded early, it
should be one of those two guys.

1138
01:11:29,039 --> 01:11:30,920
Matt, this was great as always. Are you able to tell our

1139
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,800
listeners where they can find you and
all the great work that you do?

1140
01:11:34,520 --> 01:11:39,800
Yeah? Sure. If anybody is
interested in more Wizards content or just sort

1141
01:11:39,840 --> 01:11:44,640
of player perspective, I coast my
show of the Believing Wizards podcast with former

1142
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:48,159
Wizard Jehadi White. Johatti's like a
great dude, and we'll answer any question

1143
01:11:48,239 --> 01:11:51,840
anybody has about playing in the NBA. And I just ask him random shit,

1144
01:11:51,960 --> 01:11:55,640
some questions some weeks about just like
hey, what's it like to take

1145
01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:58,479
an elbow from shack? Like?
Things like that are always interesting to me

1146
01:11:59,359 --> 01:12:01,159
as a fan. So we just
had Chris Whitney, a former Wizard,

1147
01:12:01,239 --> 01:12:05,239
on and talked a lot about playing
high low and playing out of the post

1148
01:12:05,319 --> 01:12:08,439
and things like that more a little
bit. So just if you want to

1149
01:12:08,479 --> 01:12:11,960
hear just kind of a different perspective
on how to play basketball and today's NBA,

1150
01:12:12,520 --> 01:12:15,199
check us out. It's b L
E A v and Wizards. We're

1151
01:12:15,239 --> 01:12:19,119
part of the Belief podcast network and
then over it Bolts Forever. Check us

1152
01:12:19,119 --> 01:12:24,039
out and yeah, see the twitter
handle if you're watching this online at Mamadurno.

1153
01:12:24,399 --> 01:12:27,960
I'm happy to engage with anybody about
anything, so just hit me up.

1154
01:12:28,479 --> 01:12:30,880
He will. I'll speak whenever I
went on your podcast once and the

1155
01:12:30,960 --> 01:12:34,960
engagement that you get on your tweets
and you respond to pretty much everybody.

1156
01:12:35,039 --> 01:12:39,640
So the links to all that stuff
will be in our podcast on YouTube description

1157
01:12:39,680 --> 01:12:42,720
as well. So we'll go subscribe
to Believe In whether it's follow that.

1158
01:12:43,239 --> 01:12:45,079
Thank you so much as you know
by now, I will be fusturing you

1159
01:12:45,279 --> 01:12:48,960
get in. If you ditto,
I'm playing on doing another home at home

1160
01:12:49,039 --> 01:12:51,439
and they'll come back absolutely