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INSTATCRT Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. Welcome to another
episode of the Hard One Knox podcast. Is a live locker room. Addition,
we are going to be getting into for people who are just entering the
room. We're going to be getting into some NBA trade ideas. Who says
no since we have the deadline coming up on March twenty five, and then
they will be in to ask me anything. We already have questions lined up
a bunch came in from Twitter. But if you're in the room and listening
and you're rolling with us, we hope you all stay. We're gonna answer
your questions. You can ask us anything basketball, no showstock brands that you
need recommendations for. We're all game for it. But first, Adam,
my fantabulous co host, how are you doing. I'm doing well. I'm
just hoping we have fewer technical difficulties this time around, since we were struggling
to figure out the locker room map on our first live episode last week.
But now there's just a new source of havocs since I have over a foot
of snow in my backyard right now, and the power is flickering and you
could be on your own before too long. Here. Let's hope it doesn't
come to that, because I would feel terrible for our listeners. But look,
I came up with a few NBA trade ideas, many of which were
focused on the Rockets because they seem like they are the only team that's like
very much selling at the moment. So can I throw them at you and
see what you think before we get into our ask me anything? Absolutely,
though I do want to follow up and the only team that feels like it's
going to be selling. Do you expect to stay that way or do we
think that, like the Thunder are going to enter that mix with like George
Hill and Trevor Ariza who hasn't yet played this season, or anyone else,
So there's their death. The Thunder are already definitely selling, But the problem
with them is, like beyond George Hill, who hasn't played after having right
thumb surgery, I think it was right sub surgery, I don't know who
wants Trevor Ariza at twelve point eight million when he hasn't played this year,
unless you're taking back a bad deal, which I'm sure they're also willing to
do. At the same time, they just don't have, like the Rockets
just have a bunch of players to sell that are interesting, which is also
weird to say, because if these players are so good, why do the
Rockets absolutely suck? Right, let's just say it injured. But it feels
like such a weird deadline in general too, both because we have ten teams
who are going to be competing for those play in spots and just even those
teams at the bottom of the standings. It's hard to actually pinpoint explicit sellers
because it's it's like the Kings don't really want to. The Timberwolves are doing
the opposite, Like we heard the rumors the other day that they were interested
in adding John Collins. The Pistons don't really have anyone of interest left.
The Wizards are more competitive now, the Calves are more competitive now. The
Magic are never going to sell because they're the Magic. So yeah, I
mean like it does feel like it's only the only the Rockets right now.
I'm just and they're going to be the team that just makes it a ton
of moves. Like that's also the team that you look at because they have
so many different pieces and so and the contenders are going to be the one
that's are like sort of vulturing on them and trying to pick up those players.
So the first one want to throw to you involves the Nets and the
Rockets. I have the Nets getting Daniel House and PJ. Tucker. The
Rockets receive Spencer Dinwoodie, and the play there is he will opt out and
he will own his bird rights. Now before that you could try and reground
him to another team, but they also get twenty twenty one second round pick
which comes via Atlanta, which you know, surprise surprise, could be mid
mid thirties low forties at this point, and then at twenty twenty five second
round pick from Golden State. It seems realistic to me. I can see
why the Nets would want both House and Tucker. I can definitely see why
the Rockets would be intrigued by acquiring Dinwoodie's bird rights, even if he's not
going to make an impact this season, which kind of goes without saying.
I don't want it to happen though, Like I feel like the Nets should
just lean so fully into this offense first model because it's gonna work. Like
we've we've seen how quickly James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant have
managed to coalesce around on one another on the few opportunities they've even been on
the court together to this point, and like, yeah, Tucker kind of
fills that void as the small ball five who can guard every position on the
floor, even if his three point shot is no longer as reliable at this
stage of his career. But I just I don't know that I want it
to happen because I'd rather just see them just lean all the way into this
offense over everything mindset. You are currently sharing that mindset with someone who was
in the Bleacherport comments section said he would rather them lean into offense and trade
for Wayne Ellington, who would play more than PJ Tucker. And I think
PJ. Tucker brings just so much more of what they need. And even
if Kevin Durant not going to be healthy, I don't like, I just
don't know why you would focus on offense if you're if you're Brooklyn at this
point, I mean, yeah, I don't know that they can really go
wrong if Jen Witty is being used as to trade piece, because ultimately,
like they're probably not going to resign him this offseason. I would think if
he's not traded just because there's so much money allocated toward the Big three and
you don't need that like redundant luxury piece as good as didn't what he is,
that's that's what he would be on this team. So like, whether
they're acquiring wore offensive firepower or a defensive versatile wing slash forward, slash small
ball big man like Tucker, Like, I don't know that there's a bad
decision if they do want to move Dinwity. It's tough because Dimity is so
good that the idea of getting a thirty five year old PJ Tucker and then
Daniel House, who does have a year left on his deal and can guard
bigger wings, is not necessarily ideal. But at the same time, he's
injured and I don't know, you can't pay him? Would be my you
know, no you can't. But yeah, so that's why it's like,
I think, from Brooklyn's perspective, I'm probably just gonna say yes, like,
regardless of what they're getting back for Dinwity, just given the situation.
But I think, like, I don't know that I would prefer Ellington to
Tucker for this team, but I like the idea of just leaning even more
into the offensive exploits. I definitely disagree, but yeah, let's get to
the next one. So this one involves the Nuggets. I have them getting
Aaron Gordon from the Magic for Will Barton, PJ Dozer and a twenty twenty
three second round pick. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm in if the
stock on Gordon has fallen to that extent, like, can't you still get
this this super exciting high upside do all sorts of things, just none of
them extremely well forward and Aaron Gordon and I would love to see like the
two man Big Game with him and Yokis together, Like that still sounds so
fun. Well, two things, Is it really that low? Because Will
Barton has not been as prolific as he was las season, but he can
still generate his own offense help table set for others. And I guess I
would view him as a value, not a value, but good value.
If he picks up his it's like a fourteen seven million dollar player option where
he gets less valuable to the Magic because look, the Magic need that that
guy I just described. They need as many of those guys as they can
get right now. And so I didn't think I actually wasn't trying to undervalue
Gordon here, even though he's been dealing with that sprained ankle for I think
since the beginning of February. Basically they need a guy like Barton. If
they don't want to resign him, then it becomes a matter of yes,
Dozer is good shooting like thirty eight thirty nine percent from three this year,
and he's taking on some really good defensive responsibilities. My question is, let's
say Barton is going to opt out. The Magic realize that and they say,
we want your twenty twenty one first instead of the twenty twenty three second.
Are you if you're Denver, Are you're still doing this? I don't
think so. For the exact reason that Jeremy Brenner and I apologize if I
am mispronouncing. That just set in our discussion on the locker room map,
which is that Gordon might be two injury prone. For a contender to take
that kind of risk, like at the price of a second round pick,
and will Barton and p J Dojer, I think that's a risk I'm willing
to take just because the fit does look so good on both ends of the
floor. But if we're talking about a first round pick, then that might
be where I draw the line and start looking at other targets who I know
that I can count on a little bit more Like, ultimately the floor is
going to be a little low for Gordon. I kind of agree if you
can still work it where maybe you're keeping Dozer and then you're giving up your
first round pick instead. If the Magic don't want him, which I think
they should absolutely want him, and I agree with Jeremy sentiments too that he
might be a little injury prone. Also, some of the questions that I
received on Twitter was, how does that work because you have Millsap and Jamichael
Green and then Yokich. I think Gordon is not a three to me,
but in Denver he could be. And there's also Michael Porter Junior there.
Those two could be interchangeable. But if Gordon's playing off the ball, he
can be a three because it doesn't matter what he's doing off the ball,
and we know he can defend three through five. I would say definitely three
and four. I know he's not a lockdown defender when you're looking at one
on one situations, but I do think he helps and I think it also
allows you to downsize further in those non Yokis minutes where you know, I
don't know if you want Millsap and Green or Green as the only big.
I don't know if you want them as the two bigs. But with Gordon
there things get interesting and so look, and Denver's defense has been hot lately,
by the way, they're top seven in defense over their past fourteen games.
Opponents aren't shooting well from three sub thirty three percent so that's going to
normalize. I like the Gordon pick up for them. He has a year
left on his deal too, and it's still relatively young, so the fact
that he kind of aligns with the Yokich Murray timeline too. I actually would
if if Orlando came back and said we want the first Endosier, I actually
might consider it, especially if Wilbarton is going to opt out. Now,
I think that's on the custom of that. Yeah, I think my only
outstanding concern there would just be the fit within Denver's defensive system, just because
Mike Malloe never has that defense gamble too much. It tends to be a
try to stay between your man and the basket instead of like selling out for
those steals and transition opportunities, which isn't always how Gordon has liked to play
on the defensive end. So it might not be like a super ideal fit,
but the value could still supersede that. I'm going to respond to Jeremy
to see or if he's listening. Jeremy says the Rockets might outbid the Nuggets
of that's the offer intriguing. If you want to drop in the chat,
what you think the Rocket's offer would be that would beat it. I would
be fascinated. Oh I didn't consider Houston acting as like a quasi buyer here.
But I'll move on to the next one really quick. Let's alternate.
Let's go back to a Rockets trade. This one is going to break people's
brains because it's such a blockbuster. The Clippers receive Sterling Brown, the Rockets
receive Fiandukab and Jelly, and twenty twenty three second round pick comes via Portland.
Now, the justification here is Sterling Brown has been really good this year.
He is shooting. I think he's at thirty nine point seven percent from
three. But the bigger thing here for me is that the Clippers need someone
who's not Patrick Beverly to kind of check point guards, and Sterling Brown can
do that. And he's also run a little point guard. He's not getting
the playmaking that the Clippers might necessarily want, but they're saving like a you
know, a million bucks here or something like that, which gives a more
wiggle room under the hardcap to use on the buyout market. And if you're
Houston, you're getting the second round pick for sign a player that you're not
going to keep who you picked up for free, essentially in free agency.
So this was when I looked at the comments section of where I published this
trade, people were kind of making fun of it, but I actually really
like it as sort of a look. The Clippers are hardcap, they don't
have a ton of assets, and I think this really at least it improves
their depth for sure, and I think gives them options at how they're defending
point guards, which has been a problem for them this season. I like
it if for no other reason than giving Fiandukab and Jelly a chance to actually
plays like he was the first round I'm sorry. We never see first round
guys have their third year team option declined when they're that cheap, right,
right, But I mean, this guy was a first round pick in twenty
nineteen. He has like three and D upside as a six nine big man
like he is a very intriguing mold in today's NBA. But he played five
point three minutes per game and twelve appearances as a rookie and has played eighty
six total minutes this season, And I again like I like it if for
no other reason then getting him some sort of opportunity to play minutes for an
NBA team. I do think you can get more for Sterling Brown given how
he's playing right now, but I was gonna That's what Jeremy pointed out.
And the Clippers do have three Detroit Pistons second rounders in twenty twenty, twenty
twenty five, and twenty twenty six, And if I was Houston, I
would absolutely I think I would accept twenty twenty four because are the Pistons.
I mean, you could go deeper and expect the Pistons to be bad,
but take the closest one and there's a chance the pistons aren't good. And
that's like mid thirties. I think for Sterling Brown, I don't know that
you're going to get better than that. Yeah, I think I'm with you
there, Sterling Brown. For Troy Brown, that'd be interest. That's from
Jeremy Brenner as well. The Wizards could use someone like Sterling Brown two,
or basically anyone who plays consistent defense for them. Sugar Ray, Leonard,
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premiering Sunday, June sixth, only on Showtime. Non I'm gonna try and
alternate here, Non Rockets trade because I have so many Lakers receive Garrett Temple.
Bulls receive West Matthews, Alphonso McKinney, and two second round picks twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four. Yeah, I'm good with that one as
well. I like the idea of Temple in La. I feel like his
season has flown a little bit under the radar just because he's playing for the
Bulls, but he's been a pretty steady option, and ultimately like the more
depth the Lakers can acquire, the better for them. Yeah. West Masters
have been bad for them, by the way, to twenty seven percent from
three since January fifteenth. And if you're Chicago, they just moved veterans into
the starting lineup, So I don't know that they should sell. I'm not
saying they need to trade Zach Lavine, but Daddy is young, Garrett Temple.
I'm gonna look at Larry Market and trades if i'm them, you see
what to see what you can get because you're this isn't the season, is
my point. And Garrett Temple especially, you don't have bird rights on him.
You don't really need them at as four point seven million dollars salary.
Still, maybe you keep West Matthews, who's not going to give you the
same positional optionality on defense or the same ball handling on offense. But if
you want to plug him into your lineup, he can take Temple's minutes,
or you can maybe try and move him for another second round pick, because
I do think that, you know, it seem like Boston just needs wing
depth in general beyond Jason Tatum and John Brown. Right now, it does
feel like Chicago should sell all the pieces. I just don't know if it's
going to happen, which is such a weird situation because you would think that
r RS Cardosovis would like want to move forward into getting towards his guys rather
than these holdovers from the previous regime. But it does feel like, as
as obvious as it seems, a thaddious young trade should be in particular that
I just I don't know if it's going to happen. It's so easy,
it's so easy for these lower to your teams this season to convince themselves that
they're still in the off picture because of that play in situation. I'm gonna
go to a chat question because it's related as Jack Kennedy. Ask any potential
Warriors trades at the trade deadline with them, and I'll be the first one
to answer it. This is very much to me. I don't want to
say all or nothing, but unless they can get a Bradley Beal or a
Karl Anthony Towns, which they can't, I want to make that clear,
or maybe a Zach Lavine, and I don't even think they would do it
for zach Lavine. They're just not going to move they don't have. You
know, you can use Kelly Woodbridge junior, but Kellyhooberd junior and what to
get who improves your team. I think you're looking at James Wiseman. You're
looking at that Minnesota pick top three protected this year, and they currently have
the worst record in the league. I believe I think they're still behind the
Pistons in that regard. I don't know that they have a medium sized move
in them, and so I don't know that I think they should go all
in. If they could get Zach Lavine, if they could get Bradley Beal,
I'm throwing Minnesota's pick on the table. If it's Bradley, I'm not
gonna blink twice about giving up James Wiseman as well. But I my gut
says they're not going to do anything, and I think part of it is
because they overestimate their own ability to like get production or develop guys, and
they missed on a lot of Look. Late first round picks are hard.
All first round picks are hard. But while they were really good, they
weren't really hitting on these you know, the Jordan Pools of the world.
And now they're in this weird position where the offense is just absolute. It's
terrible when steps off the floor there they're shot. Selection with Stephen Curry off
the court would make people from nineteen ninety three blush. It's bad. I
agree with you on the star level trades, unless it's Beal or Lavine or
someone who we just haven't even heard floated at this point who surprisingly becomes available
just before the deadline. I don't think that there's a move out there that's
going to involve the Minnesota pick and or James Wiseman, I do still think
we're going to see some sort of periphery move, just deal a second round
pick for a fringe rotation guy who can give Steve Kerr someone new to work
with, who can inject a little bit of fresh air into the rotation.
I don't think it's going to be like this playoff altering acquisition or anything.
And I don't really know even what kind of move it's going to be.
But just given the way Steve Kerr has talked about the need for help,
given the way that Steph in particular has reacted to his teammates shortcomings lately,
I think that we're going to see something. I would be pretty surprised if
there's no move whatsoever by the deadline, But because there's no blockbuster just teed
up and waiting for them. I don't think it's going to be a mid
level movie either, because that wouldn't make sense today. If all days we're
recording this, Stephen Curry turns thirty three underscores how I think they're blowing,
and look, they won three titles with him. I get it, But
you have a top five player still in his prime, and you decided at
least to you know, poorly build the supporting cast around him, and I
know they didn't have a ton of options, and I thought the Wanta Maker
pickup was actually good. But you know, the Ubre thing was always questionable
because it's like, oh, let's just surround you know, do you already
have Wiggins and Dre, Let's surround them with more sub sub average shooters.
Never made sense to me, and Ubre's played pretty well since his a Troch's
beginning. I'm with you in every sense, I guess, except for the
fact that I'm not convinced that they'll make him over the time because I don't
know what it is. But I'll close on this. Anyone who can handle
the ball or at least run the offense for a little bit without step would
be huge. Can you guess where their offensive rating ranks when Steph isn't is?
When Steph is on the bench, Oh terribly. So it's gonna be
like third percentile, zero with percentile and I'm not even sure if it's zero
with percentiles a thing, but that's how it's listed on Cleaning the Glass.
I do think Jeremy's question is intriguing, though, If Clay was there,
where would they be in the standings. So, like I assume that we're
just inserting him into the mix with the current rotation. So the Warriors are
already nineteen and nineteen at the time we're recording this, which puts them in
a tie with the Memphis Grizzlies, who have admittedly played four fewer games,
for ninth place in the Western Conference. I think with a healthy Clay,
even if it's like post Achilles injury, post acl injury, that we're still
looking at a top four team in the West. Probably. I feel like
he makes that much of a difference. Just the spacing that creates so much
easier paths to the basket for Wiggins, that creates more space on the interior
for Wiseman, that takes more defensive pressure away from Steph. And the stat
that Dan just mentioned with the zero percentile when Steph is off the floor,
that doesn't happen because you can at least mitigate that decline somewhat by having Clay
and his gravity still on the floor. I think that I think his presence
can easily be worth five plus wins at the stage of the season already.
I'd probably agree with you, and maybe you're incentivized to play Draymond a little
bit more without Steph because you have more spacing around him, because right now
they just mirror those two minutes together, which is fine because you want to
maximize the minutes that you're playing with your stars. I would probably say,
look there, I think they're gonna be eight, nine or ten in the
West would be my gut, they're gonna be in the play in. I
don't know that Clay gets them out of that territory. Like I still think
they'd be seven, eight nine ten with him. Maybe they're just more likely
to be seven than they are ten. This one was interesting and I ran
it by Suns people. FYI, Phoenix Suns PJ. Tucker for Javon Carter
each one more at a twenty twenty three second round pick. And the one
thing I'll say that I think the Rockets would haggle over is why not abdel
Nador? He's playing too well, and I think Houston has lost all sort
of leverage with Pja Tucker because he's not with the team anymore. He also
has not played well, and so in this scenario, you're getting Javon Carter,
who is not playing for the Suns. But he's a defensive bulldog.
You play him and Jashn Tate at the same time. He even play him
next to John Wall If you want to two with those three, you might
be able to do some real things defensively. I believe if he plays more,
his three point shot will round into form, because he was lights out
last year, even before he went to the bubble. And I don't know
if each want more helps you, but you're just not. You know,
Nader would be good, and if you could get him, if it's Jevon
Carter and Nader, I don't know if you would need to include second round
pick. But the twenty twenty three second is interesting if you're Houston because that's
the first year that Chris Paul won't be on this contract. Is he's still
in Phoenix? Maybe, but he might not be. And do you have
confidence in the Suns to rebuild in the absence of Chris Paul to sort of
retool on the fly? There would I would take this deal if I was
Houston. I actually like it a little bit better for them than I do
for Phoenix. But for Phoenix's rationale. Dario Sarge at the five lineups are
destroying opponents at both ends, and Dario is defending really well. He's closed
some games at the five because Aton's been so inconsistent. You know, I'm
a big DeAndre Atan fan, but if you have to deal with his inconsistency,
and now you're a point where you might want to close games with Dario,
I don't know if that works against every team. A Lakers team with
Anthony Davis, a Jazz team with Rudy Gobert, Nuggets with Jokis for sure,
and PJ Tucker. I don't know that he's a much better match for
Gobert, or he's definitely a match for Davis, then Sarich, Dario Sharitz,
I don't know. You know, when you get into the Gobets and
Yokich, I still think he's going to be better than Sharts in those scenarios.
And so now you've allowed yourself to sort of diversify your your closing unit
option. So that's where I was coming from with this. All I really
have to add there, because I can hear you again is as soon as
you mentioned that trade idea, my head just started thinking about a potential lineup
with Javon Carter Chris, Paul mckhill, Bridges, PJ. Tucker, and
Dario Sharitch. And I don't know how you score on that. I would
just that would be so much fun and so rangey and so switchable, and
I want to see it now. Yeah, So the Suns are good.
I can. I will still make the case that I think they're the biggest
threat to the the LA teams in the least. And maybe people don't even
think the Clippers belong in that conversation at this point themselves. I am.
I'm just fascinated by it. And Jeremy Brenner says he proposed that exact trade
on dream Shake on Spnation. Jeremy, I can promise you that I did
not steal it, because I did propose it in an earlier variation where they
were getting abdiel Nader. But that is I guess, great minds like minded.
But I think that that's an interesting one for both teams to consider a
non Rockets trade. Now is what we're doing for this one is so Joel
Embid and we have a question about him later and we're wrapping up here on
the trades out for at least two weeks. It's probably gonna be closer to
a month because he's gonna be re evaluating two weeks with the bone bruise in
his left me and I don't think you know, the Sixers have Dwhite Howard,
they have Tony Bradley, they have Mike Scott. I think that they
could use just they need another big and if he can shoot. You know,
they've already been linked Tonmania be Elitza and no, I'm not talking about
twenty eighteen when he signed with them, only to Reneague and then signed with
the Kings. Of all teams, but they Sham Shrannia said they have been
interested in him this year and he's not shooting well in Sacramento, but he's
a career thirty nine percent shooter since entering the NBA. I think in Philly
he'll get better shots, more consistent playing time. The trade here as Philly
gets Nomania Beelitza for Terrence Ferguson, Vincent Poier and a twenty twenty three second
round pick. It's the more favorable between Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte and Philadelphia.
I'm gonna let you continue to justify this because I'm only hearing every other
word. It's fine by me. So look, if you're the Kings,
you're not getting anything of real value for Beelitza in at least in my opinion,
and who I don't run an NBA team, so I'll have to see
how that goes. That being said, that second, you know, even
if they top thirty two protected or something. You know, Atlanta Charlotte are
those teams that you think are going to be good in twenty twenty three.
Maybe in Atlanta, but Charlotte, yes, they have LaMelo Ball and look
there's also Brooklyn here. I would short their futures just now. I'm not
saying they will be bad, but one of those three teams could be sending
you a second round pick in the thirties. And if it's for a player
that you're not really playing now, you don't really need. He's not gonna
be with you after next season. And the other thing is you don't need
Poier. But Terrence Ferguson, you don't really have wings. You waived Gwyn
Robinson. He's worth stabbing the dark minutes. To me, he was a
first round pick for a reason. An athletic dude, I really can't shoot.
But the Kings, if I were them, you could at least try
them out and if Adam is still Jeremy Brenner says, and or Jeremy Brenner
says, Daryl Morey Monty McNair have the report to make a trade like that
happened for Beelita. I definitely agree there, Logan Logan Alton says, was
it Belly that almost signed with Philly and pulled out the last second? Was
that a bridge burner? It was Belly got did that and then he signed
with the Kings of all teams, and might point out, so I feel
like he's been punished enough because he's been on the Kings for the last two
plus seasons. But I mentioned this earlier. Logan maybe didn't hear it.
Philly has reportedly been interested in this season, and it's a different front office
regime because Darren Moorey's running it. So I don't think that they're going to
hold a grudge, but you know, if they are, I mean,
look, he left Philly for the Kings, like you know, maybe that's
unforgivable, and that and that unforgivability, if you will, is ingrained into
the organization or something. I have two more trade as to throw out here
while we're waiting for Adam to get back up and row. He is back
up and running. So what did you think of my blockbuster be elites a
deal? What little I heard of it sounded great. All right, We're
just gonna comes back for a fence sitting answer, because I had no idea
what the details were. So this trade is for the is for the nerds
out there, and it is the Milwaukee Bucks receive Austin Rivers from the New
York Knicks in exchange for DJ Wilson and a twenty three second twenty twenty three
second round pick. The rationale here, and this is not sexy, but
the Bucks are saving a little over a million bucks. That'll give them more
wiggle room under the hardcap to use on the buyout market, because they are
I think they're sub will sub one million dollars under the hardcap when you factor
in Drew Holidays on his incentives, which are like clost to four million this
year. But if you're the Bucks and you're also cheap, you could if
Drew Holiday's incentives don't hit, you're very close then the ducking the tacks entirely
after making this deal. That's something you can consider beyond that, however,
I think Rivers actually helps the Bucks. He's fallowing completely on the nixt rotation,
but he was knocking down forty two point six percent of his threes through
his first thirteen games. And he gives you someone with better size than DJ
Augustine or Bryn Forbes who can create off the dribble. And we also saw
Houston get away defensively using him on some bigger guards and wings rolling the dice
on him too. It's not just zero risks for me, it's also high
reward because he has two fully non guaranteed years after this two years I think
six point seven million dollars or six six point five million. Actually, you
can if it works out now you have a cheap player that's helping you.
If it doesn't, you can say goodbye, no no cost, no foul
there. And the other thing is, I don't this would be a question
for you, Adam, if you have Austin Rivers and just knowing how I
know what Dj Augustine can infury do on the ball, but knowing how poorly
he shot does it at all? In Bolden, you too, maybe look
at Augustine plus seconds to try and get PJ. Tucker then on the Bucks,
it would be a fantastic fit. It does. I think that he
would be a good fit. But I like this deal, the one that
you originally proposed here, just because the self creating ability that Rivers brings is
important, even if it hasn't been enough for him to stay in Tom Thibodeau's
rotation in New York. Like, he can create shots off the bounce,
whether he's attacking the rim, whether he's taking three pointers. They don't always
go in, of course, but in the playoffs we've seen each last two
years how Malaga's offense has stalled, and I think that the ability to have
that extra ball handler, especially in lineups where you have to have both Jannis
and Chris Middleton off the floor, does matter. Yeah, And look,
I don't think he's going to be the difference between them winning a title or
not. But if you can save salary and get you know, I don't
know, I honestly don't even know why as Rivers isn't the next rotation.
He was playing so bad. But at the same time, it's like they
have rows, they have MVP Frankie Lakina, so I kind of get it.
But I'm surprised that that starter Neil Keena. Now, yeah, well
at least for at least for a game. There the last trade here,
and this is just this is just another barn Burner over trade. It's really
not. But it's actually might be my favorite one. And it's our final
Rockets trade. So congratulations, we've made it. The Jazz received Daniel House
and then the Rockets receive Udoka as a bookie and Elijah Hughes. And just
for anyone who doesn't know, as a book he was at number twenty seven
pick in the twenty twenty draft, and Elijah Hughes, a RANGEI wing,
was number thirty nine. The Jazz can include a second but if you're getting
someone who was a first round pick to maybe give some center minutes to in
Houston, I don't know that you would necessarily needed it. And Elijah Hughes
is even interesting because he's on a really cheap salary for next year. But
you can throw a second round pick in for in this to give up Daniel
House. I don't know if Houston wants a move Daniel House just because his
value has probably never been lower. He's dealing with a knee. Andrea at
the moment not shot well from three. He'll shoot better from three in the
Jazz system because everyone shoots better from three in the Jazz off sense the system.
But this seems like the I know they signed orson Aliasova, but they
like a house type defender is what they need. We've seen him guard some
fives, but a lot of fours and threes in Houston over the past couple
of years. I look, the season is not taking place in the bubble,
so he's probably gonna help your team instead of hurting. Yeah, I'll
take it from the opposite perspective here, and I feel similar to this one
as I did about the Cab and Jelly trade. You proposed where I would
like to see as a bookie get a chance in a rotation on with a
team that's really going to play him, which which Houston would be in a
position to do. I still don't think that the Jazz were just blowing smoke
when they said how high they had as a bookie on their board. I
wish I remembered the exact number coming out of the twenty twenty draft, but
I feel like it was it was something like they had him like top five
on their board. Or something. And in a lot of the ways though
they were taking like you know, right, so right maybe, and they
never really specified that. But I do think like the the idea that he
could be like a Rudy Gobert simulacrum, just another rangey guy who's good at
protecting the basket, who's good at showing and recovering when he's defending the pick
and roll, like he can be a legitimate difference maker on the defensive end
at the five, and just giving him the opportunity to do that makes sense.
And they the Jazz don't need him because they signed Derek Favors and they
extended Rudy Gobert. The other thing I'll say the move would be if the
Jazz wanted to do something, I don't know what it is, but you
move Derek Favors because he's playing like seventeen minutes a game, and do you
downsize or something like that if you want it. But I think what they
need is like in theory, a guy like House. If Jazz don't need
who as a bookie that was Quay Wavy. So let's get into if if
anyone actually wants to speak and Adam is managing it, We're will a lot
thirty seconds worth of questions or statements that will respond to, but we also
have a bunch of pent up questions will will answer as well that I'll go
through. So if you have questions, want to speak, please do that
now I'm ping and we'll get to you. I will say Logan Alton and
the chat said, would you tah be able to keep one of the rooks
and swap Nay George Yang in. I think they would want to keep him
because right now he might be one of the guys that has to go up
if they don't make changes, it's gonna be him or O'Neill or I guess
Ingles. They might even throw Ony in there, like those are the and
Yang I'm George and Yang Sorry I always mispronounce his name. Those are gonna
be the guys that they use against the bigger Wings right now. And if
I was Houston actually and I can get as a bookie and Yang, I
might prefer that. Even though Yang's about to be a free agent. N
Yang has played pretty well lately too. I feel like they're just consistently winning
the minutes that he's on the court, no matter who he's playing. With
lately, just the defensive activity, the ability to move the ball, he's
knocking down his threes, like, I've been pretty impressed with how he's been
performing lately. We have a question from the chat, so why don't we
go from that quay Wavy. I hope I'm not mispronouncing as a q wavy.
You could let me know in the chat, who do you guys have
winning MVP? Now that Inmbied most likely won't get it due to missing many
games. I will combine that with the other Imbied question that we had,
which came from longtime listener Mioslav Shook. Does Joe Ellenbid's injury stop his MVP
candidacy? I will let you answer, but I will say two weeks is
going to be about eight games, and that's when he's reevaluated. He's already
seventy ninth in the league in total minutes played, where Yokich is number two
and lebron Age thirty six year eighteen coming off the shortest sports season sports offseason
in history is tenth. So what do you think? I do think that
it's going to make it awfully difficult for Embid to win. This was not
just from purely from a narrative perspective, this is not great timing for him
to miss a minimum of two weeks just because the focus is shifting to that
MVP conversation. I feel like on Twitter we're seeing daily debates about it,
whether Lebron is ascended to the top, the Yoki vers MB debate, etc.
Etc. So missing two weeks right now, I don't think it's an
absolute death knell for his MVP candidacy. If he comes back and the Sixers
absolutely take off and he continues playing like he was prior to the injury,
it is going to be a significant hurdle. The only thing I'm really certain
of in the MVP race right now is that no one should be certain like
Yoki I think should be the front runner right now if you're okay with an
MVP coming from a sixth seed in the West, which is what the Nuggets
are right now, everyone has differing opinions on that, and without a pre
ordained, defined set of criteria for MVP candidacy, there's no way to say
that definitively, Like if you want to put Lebron up there for the work
that he's doing in this age thirty six eighteenth season in the NBA. Like
all means, I don't think that he would be at the top of mine
right now, given how much the Lakers have struggled to remain on that same
level without Anthony Davis in the lineup. If you're moving James Harden backup,
given how well he's played with the nets, if you're right now, you
can't shore circuit a team season for like nine games. And I'm with you.
This is not my personal ballot. I'm just laying out the options here,
you know. I think that that Jannis should be gaining a little bit
of momentum right now. He's arguably playing better right now than he did at
any point last season. The Bucks are climbing towards that number one seed in
the East. It might be easier for them to get it now that Embiat
is out for two weeks. And if we're not considering the voter fatigue that
is surely to play a part in this conversation, Like Jannis deserves a lot
of a lot of credit as well. So there are so many options,
and I don't think that there's enough of a clear cut front runner that we
should have any definitive opinions because so much is going to depend on the second
half of the season. A couple of comments on this before we get to
a question from Fred, and then after Fred we'll get to yours and Nilio
Silfa. Thank you both for asking them. Jeremy Brenner ports out the Sixers
are bad over the two weeks that might help his campaign a little bit.
I'd probably agree. I just don't know how many voters look at the quality
of a player's minutes when they're missing that much time versus a Lebron or a
Yogis who's going to play so much more often? And the other thing is
if it was only going to be two weeks, I might agree, But
we also know the Sixers are dogshit without him already, and if he misses
a month like that probably ends up. And I think it's going to be
closer to a month and at least three weeks because he's being reevaluated in two
weeks. I would think that this is going to end up hurting his case
more than anything. Yeah, if the Sixers could play poorly and still end
up in the number one seed in the East, I think I would agree
more. But because part of his candidacy is going to depend on the Sixers
having the best record in the East. If they fall out of that spot,
I'm not sure that taking away that is going to be negated by how
bad they've looked without that. And in response to another comment in the chat
where the last player to win MVP three years in a row was Bird,
Yeah, like, I think that that does end up playing a part in
the MVP conversation, the voter fatigue element. It's why we saw Lebron win
fewer MVPs during the true prime of his career as opposed to the s extended
prime. I guess then he probably should have Personally, I don't like to
take that into account because MVP should be a single season award, not like
a legacy thing or not depending on what happened in the past or what might
happen in the future. Like if we're evaluating seasons independently, I think that
Jannis is developing more and more of a legitimate case for the twenty twenty twenty
one season in particular. But yeah, that probably will have an impact in
the actual race. Before I move on to the RJ. Barrett question from
Fred Jeremy Pretterson has made me laugh. Christian, what is the real MP
the Rockets have it once since he went down nearly six weeks ago. I
mean those that's an actual fact. So look, Adam, I think this
question was for you and only you. Fred As is RJ. Barrett's recent
play simply a good streak or more indicative of significant progress in year two?
I want to say significant progress. I've been impressed with the turn he's taken
recently. We're recording this a day after he had thirty one points, a
career high thirty one points during their their Saturday afternoon game. Throughout this season,
the quality of shots he's been taking have been significantly better than the ones
he took during his rookie season. They just haven't all been falling, and
it feels like something has clicked for him lately, Like not only is he
playing smarter offensive basketball, but his teammates have looked more willing to get him
the ball. They've shown that they have more confidence in him. We're actually
finding the net instead instead of the side of the rim. Like I want
to buy in, I'm hesitant because I was bought in before the season started.
Dan is still making fun of me for having him at number three on
my most improved player ballot priory season starting not anymore. I'm not. I'll
let you know that right now. I appreciate that that's the first time I'm
hearing that, and I love it. I want more of the Maya culpas.
But yeah, like I think maybe I'm a little biased here because I
want it to fulfill that preseason prediction. But it feels like this is more
of a legit upswing and than just some flash in the pan. Yeah,
and look, he's shooting. At some point, we're gonna have to accept
his three point shooting, his fact forty eight point one percent since January fifteenth,
which is more than half the season at that point. And the one
thing I think that's probably not being talked about enough is his defense has been
solid, and I don't know that people also credit that he's I think he's
listened at six six. I'm pretty sure I've seen somewhere that he was six
seven, and that's really going to help him cover certain matchups, and they
have Tom Thibodeau hasn't been shy about putting him on, you know, tough
assignments. You know he's not normally covering. That's gonna be bullock a lot
of the time. But he you know, he's had to get reps against
When they were playing the Jazz, he defended on Boyo Bodanovitch a bunch,
so he's he's he defended Kwaie Leonard a little bit, I think when they
were playing the Clippers, and so I think he can be more disruptive as
time goes on. There. My concerns for him are still this. I
don't know. I'd like to see the free throw a temph rate tick up.
The percentage is headed in the right direction, but to do that,
he probably needs to operate on the ball a little bit more. And his
feel out of the pick and roll it seems off, but I think it's
because he's not running them enough, only about five per game, and it's
working right now. So you don't want to you know, if it's not
broke, don't necessarily fix it. But if if the Knicks want him to
be, you know, when you look at the Knicks, I think the
question is and I think some Knicks fans do take this as an insult.
It's do they have the blue chip cornerstone who can be the best player on
a really good team. Julius rynolds A fantastic story. I just long,
long term. I don't know if he's that player, it's RJ Barrett or
nothing to me at this point because Mitchell Robinson's really good. You don't want
to put quickly in that conversation. What's I don't know if I look,
he's only a rookie, so maybe his offensive game is tantalizing, the floater,
the three point shooting, and he's gonna be able to hit some stuff
off the dribbles. So maybe him. But I think RJ. Barrett your
best chance at getting there. I think it's worth a reminder too that RJ.
Barrett turns twenty one in June. In the middle of June, like
he is still a twenty year old player adjusting to the NBA and coming from
a situation at Duke where he played a lot more ISO basketball than he's going
to on the next Like, he is still figuring out how to operate in
the pick and roll. He's still figuring out how to thrive in these off
ball situations when Julius Randall's handling out of the post. This is this is
a constant learning experience for him, which makes me even more willing to buy
into the improvements that we're seeing really quickly, and you don't even have to
elaborate. RJ. Barrett, Is he gonna end up having a better career
than DeMar Derozen? No, okay, No, that's speak very highly of
Demard Rosen, because I think Arja Bart's a chance of being an actually good
defender. I do too, but I think that the body of work for
Derozen at this point, Like, you can say what you want to about
the on off splits throughout his career, but that guy is a proven scorer.
He has consistently made positive changes to his game, like even if it's
not resulting in an inordinate number of wins with the Spurs right now, like
he's having the best facilitation facilitating season of his career in his thirties, Like
he has been an offensive powerhouse for a long time. I think Barrett could
have a higher apex than Derozen has had, But in general, like I'm
going to bet on the guy who's had multiple All Star seasons and even more
All Star caliber ones. This question is from Annio Silfa, and I apologize
if I pushered the pronunciation there, but he asks, what do you guys
think about Oklahoma City's moves lately, I'm assuming he unless I missed one.
It's just a trade. They trade Habitu Diallo for twenty twenty seven second round
pick from Detroit, which is just that's just interesting whenever you get a second
round pick from a perennial not great team that far in the distance, and
then she may Luke spi Is. He's a better shooter than he's shown this
year, and he can he can shoot like he's functional shooting. So I
think he's gonna have great functional shooting in EuroLeague. That was wow. It's
almost mean, but he's I think he's at least someone they could test out.
I also thought he was a better defender last season than people were giving
him credit for. I think that's a nice flyer. If you're intend to
to keep him. He is only twenty three and he's six seven. That's
another guy. I don't think people realize how big he is, and then
getting the secon round pick is a nice piece of business. Diallo. It
was probably smart to move him because he might have gotten like one of those
flyer contracts in free agency this summer just because he was running some point for
Oklahoma City. People love guys who can really just smash the hell out of
the rim. And if you didn't want to give him money, you're probably
gonna have to max out Shay on an extension this year that will kick in
during his fifth season. I totally get it. So a nice piece of
business there. I'm interested to see what they do at the deadline, and
we talked about this briefly, but Areza, George Hill and even Al Horford.
Look, if I was a team, I would trade for Al Horford.
And my spiciest take is that the Blazers would be better off, a
better team if they traded Yusef Nurki and Rodney Hood for Al Horford. There
might need to be another salary in there, but that is pretty spicy.
I think how good Nurk has looked between injuries. I'm trying, but Al
Horford is really good. It's the conc Look if throw the Conford has been
fantastic lately, Like throwing aside the fact that he is not permitted to play
in the second half of back to backs. When he's been on the court
lately, he's looked way better than anything we could have expected coming off that
disaster with the seventy six ers. I'm gonna stand by it, and I
hope Tarra Bone Biggs isn't listening to this and I hate me. You're burning
some bridges here. Our editor at least report BK. Knox, my boss
at least report was was no, let's say he just wasn't a fan of
the take when I when I approached, we did have a question from Logan
Alton who asked, what about r J. Barrett or Anthony Edwards? And
Dan, do you want to give my answer for me? Yeah, I
mean it's RJ. Barrett. I don't know, like, I'm not out
on Anthony Edwards just yet. And we had another question which was why is
Anthy Edwards last in the league in total points added? And is that a
bad harbinger for his future? Can can we plead he's a rookie? I
know you're not exactly. No, no, no, no, no,
That's what I was gonna say, the same thing Colin Sexton was last in
TPA during his rookie season, because that's just what we see when we have
inexperienced players who are suddenly tasked with filling monumentally large offensive roles. Ultimately,
Anthony Edwards is a nineteen year old who's taking fifteen point two shots per game.
He doesn't get to the free throw line much, he isn't an advanced
passer. He's playing poor defense on one of the worst, if not the
worst defensive teams in basketball. Like, that's just not a recipe for statistical
success. I think that if you're watching Anthony Edwards during his rookie season,
regardless of whether you were super high on him and thought he should be the
number one pick, or like me, thought that he was going to veer
further into bus territory, which remains painful as a University of Georgia alum,
you want to be watching for what he can do, not what he is
doing. Like, ultimately, view whatever is happening this season as necessary speedbumps,
as necessary roadblocks that he's going to have to get by at some point,
and he's working his way through them. Right now. You can already
see that his feel for the game is improving on both ends of the floor,
Like he's making sharper, quicker rotations on defense. They're not always correct,
but he looks more confident. He looks like he knows what the play
calls are. He has a better sense for where to be off the ball
and when to cut and when to move into space and how to anticipate space.
Like you can very easily watch a couple of minutes of Anthony Edwards playing
right now, compare it to his first few games in the league and see
noticeable improvement, even if he's still going to be trending down in metrics because
of the situation he's in, Like that is by no means a harbinger of
a one hundred percent bust career as a number one pick. I still have
questions about his upside, but like, I'm not discouraged by what he's done
as a rookie. I'm gonna throw this back at Logan, assuming he's still
listening. Would you have Anthy Edwards over r J? Barrett? I know
you cover the Timberwolves, That's why I'm asking, And you know, are
you higher on Anthy Edwards? Like I want to know what the Timberwolves fan's
perception is of Anthony Edwards at this point, because there are I get asked
more about Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid at this point than I do about Anthony
Edwards. So that's just been something that's interesting, and that was I mentioned
that we had another anti Edwards question. I think that was from Andrew Blake
was one who asked it. And now we have two Nets questions. This
one comes from q Wavy. Is there a team that can truly compete with
Brooklyn and all the talent they have? But Meyer roth Bomb also asked could
the Nets still win the East Slash title without Kevin Durant? I think QUS
one is a good place to start. Do you think that the Nets should
be prohibitive title favorites with a healthy Kevin Durant Adam, I don't think so,
just because when you're building a one way team in the playoffs, one
cold spell when you're done, Like, the Nets are not going to win
games on the defensive end. That's just a fact. At this point,
their offense is so ridiculously potent that they could very easily still win a title
in spite of that weakness. But I don't think it's by any means a
guarantee, especially during the season where it feels like there are so many teams
that are capable of winning that title. I mean, Dan, would you
be would you be surprised if the Utah Jazz has what it takes this season?
Just one word answers for me? Now, yeah, I mean,
would you be surprised if Chris Paul finally gets over the hump and wins a
title with this Sun's team? There's gonna be more than one word answer.
I'm angry didn't start with the Suns, but no, it wouldn't surprise me.
I'm just going down the standings right now. Would you be surprised when
Anthony Davis is healthy if he and Lebron James could go back to back?
That wouldn't surprise me. They could definitely go back to back? All right?
What about if Kawhi Leonard and Paul George just catch fire? Can they
carry the Clippers to a title this season? They can? Do you think
the Nuggets are good enough to win one? I do not. I'm just
kidding they are. They are. I was going to follow up on that
one, but all right, So now Sixers they're healthy, with him beating
Ben Simmons, is it possible? For sure? Can Yannis get get over
the hump this year? For sure? The real question is do you think
the Bucks or the Sixers or another team that these are good enough to beat?
The Nets, because that's the first that's the first roadblock, is getting
out of the East. Yeah, I think so. I think that what
we're seeing right now, I think the Bucks might be my pick in the
East just because they're they're flying, they do, they have the defensive pieces
to counter Brooklyn's best offensive scores, and they're finally doing what we wanted them
to do throughout the regular season, which is not just proved that they can
win more games than anyone else in the East. It's experimenting. It's trying
new rotations, it's trying new ways of getting honest the ball and getting other
players involved that are eventually going to pan out in the postseason. This feels
like a very different team from the ones that have flamed out the last two
years because they ran into you know, a Heat team and a Raptors team
or a six or seam and I'm trying to remember who who beat them in
twenty nineteen and blanking. But yeah, this is this is not the same
team. Just a note, A Christian will be getting to your question after
we finish this Nets question up. I'm totally with everything you said. I
might like the Sixers better than against the Nets. Than I do the Bucks,
because you have Ben Simmons can defend any one of Brooklyn's three stars,
and then you have Fatis Siebel who can probably do the same. Maybe I
don't want him going up against James Harden just because he's so strong. You
also have Danny Green, so those are three, and then you have you
have Joel Embid if he's healthy, just on the back line, messing up
floaters and stuff. There's no way to absolutely. Here's my follow up on
that. You said that Ben Simmons can reasonably defend any of Brooklyn's three stars,
and I agree, can Yannis? Will Yannis? Look at how the
Bucks defend They've been switching more so maybe they would, But we yo Yannis.
I feel like he's seeing more individual tough reps. But he's best when
he's able to just kind of like break up plays from everywhere. I don't
know that Brooklyn will give him the opportunity to do that. Oh really,
So I had opposite take where I think that that kind of defensive ability is
more important against Brooklyn because you don't know where the offense is going to come
from on any given possession, especially how unselfishly hardened is playing like even when
he's operating in these ISOs, like we saw the beautiful example of the two
man game with him and DeAndre Jordan the other night, where he's breaking down
defenders with these through the legs dribbles at the top of the key, gets
past him, throws it, gets it back, throws an alley oub like.
I think that with the unselfishness with which the Nets have been playing lately,
that I think I would rather have that like free safety element in my
defense. All right, So then here would be my counter. I don't
know that Chris Middleton is a good matchup for any of those guys. He
is okay defensively, He's not great. Drew Holliday can defend, probably,
I don't think you want him against Kevin Durant. We've seen him to defend
Kevin Urant in the past. I don't know if you want him. Brook
Lopez is getting played off the floor in that series this season with the way
that he's been moving, and Joe Ellenbid if he's healthy, is not but
this would be This was the second part of that. The Nets question was
can they still win the title of the East if Kevin Durant is unhealthy,
which I don't want to assume that, but this hamstring stuff is, you
know, it's getting to the point where it's like, oh, this is
a little concerning. Maybe I think it's I think it plays into the first
part of my answer to the first question, which is that yes, they
would still be good enough to do so, but you're already working with a
smaller margin for error, and if you're now taking Durant out of that equation,
it's not like taking Durant out as improving the defense. You're still attempting
to overcome that weakness. And I think that it's that much harder to string
together good offensive performance after good offensive performance when you're relying on the two stars
rather than the three. So I think that yes, it's still possible,
but it is significantly more unlikely. How's that for an obvious answer that I
backed my way into a can the Nets win without Kevin Durant question? Yeah,
that was the biggest age that the answer is going to be no to
me. They need the way that they built their roster. Maybe they make
an acquisition where I've floated, does how much does Orlando liked in Witty Because
we know they've been issued him in the past, and if they want to
keep competing after the season, A healthy didn't what He's exactly who they need.
They don't have calf space, so as bird rights are valuable, you
throw Shammitt in there with dim Witty all the seconds that you can. At
this point, I guess you could throw Nick Claxon in there, but Orlando
doesn't need him, even though Nick Laxson's interesting. So I would say,
all the seconds and you get an Aaron Gordon, then come talk to me.
You trade for PJ. Tucker and Kevin Durand's unhealthy. Maybe without Kevin
Durant, I would just say no, because he's actually important to what they
want to accomplish defensively. Forget they're gonna be fine on offense. You take
you take Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant off the nets. Hey guess what,
They're still gonna be a top ten offensive team At this point. The defense
really does concern me, even when they have the Knights where it looks like
they're getting stops, and I'll say I will say this, we know what
James Hardon can do in the post. James Harden's one on one defense in
Brooklyn has not been bad. I'm just that's it wasn't always bad in Houston.
I'm talking about outside the post. James Harden's one on one defense has
not been bad. I just like that. Maybe I'm not watching enough nets,
but that's that's where I'm at. Logan said a great response to uh
and I turned the tables on him. He had Maxie as his highest rated
shooting guard in the draft. I love it with you. Hey, the
Sixers feel good about that take. Although it, let's be real, like
Grant Riller was probably my number one. How's that working out? Still still
hasn't missed a shot in the NBA. Oh so, Jeremy says, to
the hard stuff and James Harden's defense hasn't been bad for three years. It's
a tire narrative. I do not a I'm not gonna say I disagree with
someone who's gonna watch the Rockets more than me. This is that type of
podcast. I cover the NBA at national level. Someone who covers the Rockets
is going to see more of James Harden. I think they went to greater
lengths to stash him and go after favorable matchups for him. I've seen less
of that happen in Brooklyn. There's still of switching, and it feels like
he's done the switching a little bit better in Brooklyn too. Maybe also the
first whatever games of this season aren't grained into my brain. Logan added on
the front of the draft, by the way, that ants he's been excited
to see how much more improves more on ball when you have Delo and Malik
Beasley out, And he does say that he's seen flashes of playmaking from him
and look, he's scary when he gets going downhill. It's it's not always
going to end well, but it's gonna be exciting. And if he ever
gets more composed when he's doing that. And I do think the jumper will
be a swing skill for him, though. Can he hit it off the
dribble? Can he hit set jumpers? But we'll see. I'm not I
was higher on him than Adam was, and Adams said a lot of kind
things with him earlier in the podcast. So I think that's a win on
the hardened defensive front. I, Jeremy, I do ultimately agree with you
that he hasn't been bad for a few years now, and it's a tired
narrative. I'd just definitely be hesitant to site site the steel stats just because
I'm looking at Monte Ellis, who was seven time top ten steels guy.
But again, James Hart has been a very good post defender, and when
Houston was switching, it made him more serviceable. So when not forget that
rebounding is part of defense and he's really good at that, and true and
the other thing, I'll say, it didn't help that Tilman for Tito went
on first take or whatever. It was like, James Harden's one of the
best like defenders in the NBA, and it was like, all right,
we know what you need to shill, but no one likes you already,
and you had to say that, And I think that causes this incandescent response
and then people harp on it. Are you really getting to a Hornets question?
Though, Adam, absolutely this one comes from Christian Bowen. I hope
I'm pronouncing that at least semi correctly. I'm a huge Hornets fan. I
want Boismack Bimbo gone so that they could resign him again this summer. That
would be my response. But do you think even after seeing him attempt to
isolate on offense recently. Do you think we could potentially snag Marvin Bagley from
the Kings for Bismack and a first rounder. Yes, and I would caution
you against doing something. Yes, Please don't please don't give up a first
rounder in that deal. That sounds like a bad idea. I think the
goal should be and I know he's played really well. If you want to
protect the hell out of that first round pick because you think that the Hornets
are gonna make the playoffs and you want to say top twenty for a few
years and then it's two second rounders or top it has to be top twenty
two for me. But are you gonna pay Molik Monk this summer? And
it's not. I think if you had to choose between the League Monk and
DeVante Graham at this point, it's it's Molik Monk And I'm a huge DeVante
Grampan will That hurts, But he can't finish around the basket even when his
three point shooting is has picked up, and he has like low key injury
concerns too. Anyway, I digress. If you don't want to pay the
League Monk, because you're still kind of like, yeah, you have Lamello,
But is this like an immediate timeline. Maybe your word, he's going
to be more than mid level exception money, and once you get into that
territory, the books get iffy. I would consider doing Molik Monk and then
Bismack Bimbo. I think maybe the Hornets have enough cap space to get it
done. But I think Monk and Bismack Bimbo for Marvin Badley might be more
intriguing to me. I like that idea a lot more. If you're that
high on Malik Monk, because you want the proven commodity now one hundred percent
get it, and I would if you could get time, I wouldn't.
I'm like talking to myself out of a top twenty two protected first rounding for
Marvin Bagley right now, it's hard to evaluate him, as it is with
basically anyone on the Kings at this stage. Logan said in our chat,
wait the horn Cats are running bizios. I'm here for that, and I
would say that it's more Bismack Biambo ran a biz the Hornets did, and
it wasn't this a while ago. I don't know that I saw it.
I think there was. I feel like I saw one the other day.
I have not seen in the past two Hornets games I have watched, I've
not seen a Bismac Bionbo iso to my recollection. If the next the next
evolution of the Hornets is going to be reverse pick and rolls with Bismack Bionbo
and LaMelo Ball. We do have questions about Meloball. But I want to
throw this too. If Christian is still listening. If they're gonna go after
a King's big and they're gonna give up a first round pick, Rashon Holmes
would be the guy for me. I know he's gonna be a free agent,
but imagine him running the floor with LaMelo Ball. I like, I
have goosebumps just talking about it. That sounds really fun. I'm in on
that one too. We do have two LaMelo Ball questions. I got DM
this one. We have questions all over the place. I love when people.
I'm still I'm still waiting for my first d M question. At from
All zero nine on Twitter, guys go DM him Patrick asked how unsustainable or
how sustainable did you think LaMelo's three point percentages? They're flying in, but
the form looks a little uncomfortable. We also had this question from at Well,
I'll just go with the name Vaish. Why is Lonzo so bad?
That always the wrong ball brother? So excuse me, church all A,
Lonzo's not bad. I'll cover that one very quickly. Lonzo ball has been
on fire. Not a guy you can count on to half court create that
is LaMelo who three point shooting. By the way, I understand the concerns
about the form. This is where. This is just where I'm at on
it. Since he's been inserted into the Hornets starting lineup for good forty nine
point three percent on catch and shoot threes, forty percent on off the dribble
threes. I don't care how the sausage is being made when it's that damn
good. I don't. I don't care, and I'm not you know,
I'm not. I can't be the super technical guy when it comes to basketball
on the way. So maybe you have more thoughts on that. I'm gonna
push back on that one when you're done. I have one more thing to
say is that they're not a lot of them are wide open, and so
that's something he's gonna have to adjust to. And I think it's more if
he can finish better around the rim. That's gonna like defenses aren't gonna be
able to eventually play him up beyond the arc that like they're going to eventually
play him when they have deeper scouting reports on him, and so that would
be my concern. I do think it's sustainable where No, I don't think
he's gonna hit forty plus percent of his off the dribble threes. I think
we're looking at someone who can shoot thirty seven percent off the dribblety percent off
the catch. Yeah, I agree that he can get there. In general,
he's making thirty eight point seven percent of his three so far this season
on five point four attempts per game, which is really impressive. His free
throw percentage seems to back up the idea that he is a good shooter as
well, And I think what I would take away from that this rookie season
is that the baseline for his shooting ability is better than I would have thought
coming in. But I'm not going to bet on him repeating that and not
going through some prolonged cold spell until his form is more replicable, because ultimately,
like yes, it's going in, it looks pretty uncomfortable for him.
It looks very uncomfortable for viewers, and like we've seen unorthodox shooting for him
succeed in the past, Like I'm thinking Sean Marian with his catapult release,
I'm thinking Kevin Martin with his quick, short armed delivery. But all of
those were consistent and the same mechanics were repeated time and again, which is
what matters more than anything else. So with LaMelo Ball, where he's kind
of like twisting his feet in some willy nilly fashion and it's not consistent,
that's what concerns me. Like, yeah, it's still working, but when
you don't know which way he's going to twist the lower half of his body
or how much it's going to rotate, like, that's when it gets hard
to bet on it being sustainable. But I think that he's showed enough this
season and has proved that he has the touch necessary to become a consistent shooter.
Just with that offseason of work. It wouldn't surprise me at all.
I Mean, we saw a Lonzo Ball retool his chumper in the past,
and he's shot better this year, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to
see something similar happen with LaMelo where he comes back for the twenty two season
with a revamped jumper and it immediately works because he does have the touch.
He just needs to be coached up. So you think there needs to be
a change, basically, yeah, I do. I do, But I
think that like he's he's proven to me that the baseline for his shooting is
high enough that he's not gonna he's not gonna risk just messing everything up by
tinkering with it, because like he's making it work with atrocious shooting. For
I'm gonna go one last question here that we already have. If anyone who
remains in the room. I know a lot of people just left, and
once I get a question in now would be the time because we are going
to wrap up. But I'll cover this one actually quickly. It'll be two.
Do my beloved Nuggets need to make any trades? And if so,
who would they target? This is from of the Painter of the Painter I'm
gonna I'll just refer you to the beginning of this podcast. I suggested Will
Barton, PJ. Dozer and a second round pick, maybe this year's first
round pick, if Orlando Delant demands it. For Aaron Gordon the final question.
We have bank that I'll get to because we have a ton more bank.
Actually, twenty twenty three Hornets NBA Champions asked who's the most electric team
in the NBA and why is it? The Hornets? I now challenge you
to pick a non Hornets team. Yeah, I mean I would go with
the twenty twenty three Charlotte Hornets. Oh, the twenty twenty three Charlotte Hornets.
Absolutely with that retool jumper. Do you have an actual other pick?
It should have been the Hawks? It's not the Hawks should have been I
think the Hornets are Greek pick just because LaMelo Ball has suddenly transformed like a
franchise that no one really wanted to watch and too musty television most nights.
But I mean it's Is it bad if I pick the Nets right now?
Just because what they're doing on offense is so scintillating? No, I don't
think it is. Is that a cop out answer? Like? Can I
say that? Uh? No, I think you can. And I don't
know if this is electric. I am endlessly fascinated by watching the Phoenix Suns,
just the poise with which Chris Paul and Devin Booker operate forcing teams to
play at their own pace. They're they're recent loss. Not notwithstanding, Micaal
Bridges is a defensive monster. He is on mile and be all defense team
this year. It is happening that dude is going to get paid in his
extension. Jay Crowder is just a force of nature. Dario Starch has been
We mentioned this already too, annihilating people, just annihilating people this year.
They're a fun team and I think they're a serious team. They're second in
the West, and I do feel like people still look at it as,
oh, this is quaint, this is cool, it's real, and I
think they're probably gonna pee because they had closer to the postseason. The one
question I would have though, is is there something to all these guys don't
have playoff experience aside from CP three, Really, you know Aighton Booker,
mcal Bridges, Cameron Johnson who's been defending. He's been defending better than he's
shooting this year, which is just wild to me. I think it helps
to have CP three. Jay Crowder, sorry's has probably been to the playoffs
for a minute. I don't know if he made the playoffs, and he
definitely didn't make them a Minnesota. We can we can know that, so,
but he's not like rich with experience there. That's where you're gonna lean
on Crowder. That's where Tucker might help you if you trade for a Tucker.
So that's the team. The Nets, I think are the ones that
I'm gravitated towards. And they're not even at full strength yet though, and
it's probably too popular for a pick. And Phoenix might be too popular at
this point because their second in the West, but still I still feel like
they're being slept on somehow. I feel like Utah is a fun pick too,
just because that Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell offensive combination has been so electric
to watch. And I really enjoy watching Gobert play defense like it's a different
kind of exciting, but just watching a true master at the craft. We
have our final question from Logan, going back to trade ideas. If you
had to bet on a top fifty player being traded at the deadline, who
would it be and what does that trade look like? Wow, I just
we're gonna assume that Victor Oladipo is no longer considered a top fifty player.
I don't know that I have any that really come to mind, like Oladipo's
outside, that Aaron Gordon's outside, that Bradley Bill and Zach Lavine aren't going
to get moved. Kyle Lowry, he would be the most likely one.
I just don't see a viable trade partner aside from Philly. Philly. Yeah,
that's the only thing to make sense that if I had to bet on
it, that's probably my pick is betting on Lowry going to Philly for draft
picks and matching cap and Toronto selling really low Yeah, and I think,
yeah, it's it's Maxie a pick, Danny Green and then other salary to
make it work. So I'll throw this out there though, just to get
off the beaten path in the name to Lonzo Ball because he's going to be
in restrict the free. Agnzo Ball isn't a top fifty player. He's been
close. No, No, I strongly disagree with that. I'd have him
more in that like ninety two hundred range. So has Shawn Hull has been
a top fifty player this year? Closer Damar de Rosen. Yeah, but
he's is he gonna get moved? I don't think he will. I'm just
the best top fifty player with the best chance of getting moving. You think
outside of the box here at him, Logan says John Collins, which is
another interesting answer. I don't. I don't know that he's been in that
top fifty this year based on track record. Probably, I'm still not convinced
to lenn actually trades him, especially because it's it's four ano since Nate McMillan
took over. I will say he's not top fifty, but a fascinating name
that I would at least look at if I'm this team. Based off talking
with people who cover the Suns, if they don't seem to have as much
faith in DeAndre Ayten as it seems now's the time to move them, it's
I know his value isn't superhibe. He still kind of has like the sheen
of the number one pick who people think is really good on defense, because
I do think he can be better if you to pick the biggest name,
though, the biggest name, let's throw the top fifty out. Who is
the best chance of being traded. I think it's still Lowry. Yeah,
that's I think I'm with you, and I hate saying that just because it's
it's frustrating anytime the best player in franchise history gets traded, and which is
what he is. Yeah, he is. But what's tough with John Collins,
and I'm throwing Linson in there because he's been really good, is how
do you value having someone's bird rights and restricted free agency because what you're doing
is paying for the right to pay them, and that's weird. I still,
I still push back on the idea that John Collins is going to get
moves just because Atlanta knows that it bet on this core. To some extented
least, it has performed better since McMillan took over. The talent is there.
They're in a playoff position right there as they got healthier. Shocking,
right right, So I think that there's still enough realistic faith in what was
done over the off season to avoid having to make that decision. Now,
Adam, how about you do the close? Since I hijacked your opening without
it's still all yours. I just I enjoy sitting back and listening to who
the shout out it's going to be for. Thank you for everyone who joined
us, and for the people Jeremy and Logan. I think you were with
us the entire hour plus here this was fun. We'll probably do another one
of these exact types of trade idea things before the deadline next week. Please
please, if you have not already, remember to rate, review, and
subscribe to Hardwoo Knox wherever you're getting your podcasts. Until next time, we
leave you with the shout out to the one, the only. He is
a top fifty player in this season, A Lonzo Ball. What is up,
Hardwoodknox listeners? I am Dan Favalley super pleased this time as I am
always to be joined by Salmon A. Lee. He covers the Houston Rockets
for ESPN ninety seven point five and he's also the host of the Red Nation
Hoops podcast. Follow him on Twitter at s A L M A n A
l I N b A. As you can tell, we're probably going to
talk some Rockets right now, because I don't know if anyone's been paying attention,
but they've been super boring this season and we haven't talked about them at
all, and I figured it was just long overdue to have Salomon back on
for clearly the first time and at least, you know, two years,
I guess at this point to talk about Houston. So how are you doing
today, Salmon, I'm doing all right. I think I still cover an
NBA team. I don't know, like has the NBA considered relegation, like
really put some thought behind that, because it'd be a nice time to just
look around the league. I feel like there's some candidates for that right now
there. I would be curious to know how many podcasts you and I specifically
have recorded about the Rockets since, like, you know, let's say since
it close like everything shut down like March, or let's say since the end
of last season. I think I might set the over under at seven right
now because of everything that was just going on. This team never fails.
In the Tilman Fatida er specifically, it feels like it never fails to break
news, and it always feels like it might be the wrong kind of news.
You think it's you know, maybe they'll start selling on their own terms.
Then PJ. Tucker leaves the team. So what has it been like,
Like, what is just the you like, what has it been like
covering this team where everything feels just so transient? Well for me, it's
like, yeah, you expected this to be a little bumpy, but it
feels like every possible possible, you know, area where it could be bumpy.
It was like the maximum level of bumpy. Like we go in,
we go into training camp, obviously it's gonna be a little awkward between James
and the Rockets, right, But for James to just not show up at
training camp and then to find out, oh, not only is he not
at training camp, he's actually in Atlanta, in Las Vegas in and just
partying without a mask, and it's like it'd be every and this PJ Tucker
thing. This did not have to be this messy, Like this could have
been just PJ. Tucker plays out his contract until the trade deadline, the
Rockets find you home for him, Bam, We're done. That's it.
It could be just that easy. But every single step of the way,
it's been maximum levels of messiness. Yeah, and it's look before we even
get into the trade stuff, which I'm sure is what on a national level,
I'm sure fans really want to hear. Do you look at this team
and see anyone that you and I think there are two obvious answers, but
is there anyone that intrigues you long term for the team that you look at
and say, there's a reason to watch this player on the Rockets right now
because he will still be or should still be on the Rockets next season or
even beyond next season, because that's what this team lacks. And you and
I were talking about it before the podcast, is if I think even Rockets
fans you said, might not want to tune in for every game or at
least pay that much attention because how attached are you going to get to these
players or how much are you going to take away from a team that feels
like it's just going to overhaul itself in a couple of weeks, right And
I think the diehard fans are still watching every game, but but as you
said, there's really only two players to really watch right now, and that's
obviously Christian Would and he's injured, so you can't really watch that. They
can't get without Christian Would though that's a fact that's been proven. Yeah,
yeah, it's uh, the Christian Wood is definitely the only problem on this
team. It is and Kevin Porter Jr. Who just came up from the
G League, which just shows how dire it is like that fans have gotten
themselves so excited to see Kevin Porter Junior. Not to say that he hasn't
been impressive in the G League and his NBA debut, obviously, he's he's
he's definitely turned some heads. But like we're talking about a twenty year old
and a twenty five year old who you know aren't cornerstone pieces on a championship
team right now, or at least haven't shown themselves to be that. So
yeah, it's it's it's pretty ugly. And I think I think right now,
as as someone covering the team, I have shifted my my attention to
covering the big the broad strokes, right the trade deadline, free agency,
draft lottery. I think that's where your average Rockets fan is paying attention.
Just recently, we did a trade deadline podcast for Nation Oops, and that's
probably gonna get like a bunch of downloads. And that's that's because Rockets fans
are really tuned into the transactional game right now, and I think that's probably
the right move. If I were a fan, I'd i'd paid each of
that stuff too, because the encore product is uh not not pretty. Yeah,
it's amazing how you slap trades on anything and it feels like it does
numbers. And this season, I love the Transactional Game. I do think
it's you know, there's a lot of media that or you know, writers,
bloggers that and I among them, that complains that there's like focus taken
away, it's too much on the transaction game, and there's all this surface
level analysis on TV, which I all completely agree with. But even in
a season like this where I feel like there's the rockets or the only there's
let's say there's there's sub three teams right now that you look at and say,
okay, you know what, they're gonna really overturn the roster by the
trade deadlines, like the Transactional Game post James Harton really shouldn't be taking center
stage to that extent, and yet you put trades on anything still when there's
nothing going on, and even someone like myself who loves trades, it's tough
to talk about them, to write about them this year because there's so few
scenarios going on where it's, hey, let's look at what moves contenders could
make, And then I find that I'm just like coming up with all these
hypothetical rockets players trades, because like that's just how stagnant it feels like the
trade market might be and maybe more stuff and materialize as we get closer,
teams can make different decisions. Trades always catch us off guard as well.
But it's it's still amazing that the transaction game hits so hard as it does.
Yeah, and as you're painting that picture about that fan who hates talking
about the transactions and and and hates the surface level analysis on TV, I
just found myself relating so much because that is me, especially covering or a
contender. I feel like so many people pay attention to these, you know,
these marginal moves at the deadline where you know, sometimes don't matter,
but most of the time they're you know, they're just marginal moves. They
help you one maybe two percent on the margins, and they you know,
you can get better at the trade daylight. That's not it's not, don't
get me wrong, That's definitely possible. We've seen general managers UH really overhaul
their teams of the deadline. Darryl Moray is an example of that, right
former Rockets GM. But I feel like for teams like this, right,
like teams that aren't in the contendership conversation are far from it. This is
where it gets interesting because every transaction they make is actually magnified because all the
assets that they get back are super important towards their cause in rebuilding, whereas
every transaction or contender makes you know, those assets that they're giving away really
aren't aren't worth much to them. They don't care. And I think that
that's why I think there's gonna be a lot of focused on this stuff.
And I think, you know, I think it's justified. Like I would
not blame I would not blame anyone for tuning into only the transactions. Yeah,
look, even if it's a contender, I'm still I'm going to get
lost in the whirlwind, like the week leading up to it. But this
season is specifically where it's like there's and the rockets are different because there's been
something happening every day. But it's even you know, when we do mailbags
on this podcast and we get so many questions and we do one in you
know, this season, Let's say we did one in the post James Harden
trade or something, and there's not really a lot of rumors in the ether,
we still get so many questions about trades. It's just amazing how fascinated
people aren't. I don't know, if that's you know, I wouldn't say
it's I don't know if I could say it's damaging to the game. Maybe
there's too much of a focus on it. But for the Rockets specifically,
you have to focus on it like that's just been even before the James Harden
trade, even before the Russell Westbrook trade, just when you sort of sense
the undercurrent of this team might be coming apart at the seams, that's been
the sole focus. And so let's let's dive into it and let's throw it
here. Are they going to find a trade for PJ. Tucker or is
this a team's try and push them to the edgine? Is this is this
a potential buyout situation? Oh? I think I think a PJ. Tucker
trade was going to happen as far back as like two months ago. I
mean, as soon as James Harden was doubt PJ. Tucker was going to
follow suit. It was just a matter of when, not if. And
I think there are going to be teams that are interested in trading for him.
I don't think it's going to result in a buy out. I think
his market value is probably less than what the Rockets are asking for. But
they get What we're really looking at is if you're a content, if you're
a contender trading for PJ Tucker, you are probably bargain hunting, right You
are not trading for the premium assets on the market. But you can find
someone here in PJA Tucker where you can snack for like two second round picks,
which really isn't much considering you can buy into second round picks every year,
right, So I think that's kind of the price you're looking at for
PJ Tucker. Perhaps an expiring contract. Who knows, Well, what's really
interesting is the stuff that they could do alongside PJA Tucker, Right, Like,
if the Rockets really wanted to shake stuff up, they could combine PJA
Tucker's contract with other contracts on the rosters. Perhaps you know Eric Gordon was
a candidate before you got hurt, right, right, Eric Gordon? If
you if you combine pg Tucker and Eric Gordon, you know you could get
back a serious player, right for for your long term rebuilding plan. I
don't think they can do that anymore, but that was where I was really
starting to pay attention to. Now, I think you're probably gonna get more
of a conventional trade deadline. You're probably gonna get your two second round picks
back for PJA Tucker or maybe one in a protected second, who knows.
Yeah, the their ask of a young and there's been reports of ass all
over the place. First it was they wanted three seconds or a young player.
I saw something that said they just want someone who could play for them
now. But it seems like the common denominator has been they want a young
player, and I just don't see them getting at least not a good young
player for PJ Tucker at age thirty five, and given the way he's played,
he's not helped his trade value with you know, the defense just doesn't
feel the same, and then the shooting on wide open threes this year has
been pretty abysmal for him. By his head, it's funny. One aspect,
you know, everything has changed for the Rockets, but one aspect that
hasn't changed is the sorry, excuse me? Is the posturing that hasn't changed.
Like like everything, the front office has changed, the coaching staff has
changed, the players have changed, but the posturing still exist. And it's
funny. It's existed all all season, going back to the James Harden trade.
They're asking for a blue chip prospect. They ever got it back.
They're asking for a treasure trove of picks. They did get that back,
But they've say consistently continue to posture in the media, and I think they
understand that they're not probably not going to get what they're asking for in the
media. But I think this is just part of the game, and it's
going to be interesting to see if they do other stuff around the margins,
because I think PJ. Tucker mentally, I've already just just shipped them out
of Houston. I think he's probably already gonna like, like there are probably
already three or four teams. I mean, it's already been reported. You
know, there are already teams that were in serious conversations for Tucker. But
I think the players on the margins, you know, you're Sterling Browns,
you're David Nawabas. I think it's gonna be interesting to see if those kinds
of players are also you know, doubt at the deadline and what it's gonna
be a fire sale, fire sale, but it's really how broad is a
fire sale going to get? How much of how much of their current roster
is going to turn over. I think that's what's gonna be interesting about this
trade deadline. I'm wondering too if because the teams that have been predominantly interested
in Tucker, you look at them and it's some of them, most of
them, it's really tough to find like salary matching, so you're most in
most cases looking at Okay, you're gonna have to take two contracts back,
which when they're aspiring is fine, but it creates a bit of a roster
crunch. But then that couldn't necessitate other moves on the margins. And I
think you know, Sterling Brown was a name that that interests me, just
someone was shot fairly well from three and been defending all different sorts of you
know players this year. And you know, a team like I identified as
like the Clippers, like if you can get him for a second round pick,
and you're gonna have to send out com measure its salary at that point,
I think they have super small deals like that feels like one of as
you already mentioned, one of the under radar names I could actually help a
contender where it's I'm not sure Nuwaba would be in everyone's rotation because of the
shooting, how much can you stay on the floor. But if Brown's going
to shoot like he has for most of the season from deep, uh,
he feels like someone that could actually nudge the needle in the right direction for
for a good team that maybe has finite spots already in its rotation. Yeah,
and considering that you got him for free basically in Freden see, right,
you only paid for his contract. That's a good deal of business for
Houston just to just get an asset back for a minimum salary player. And
and that's a consistent trend with our entire roster. They were gearing up before
the season for a title chase, right, And a lot of these players
because of that are on bargain basement deals, right. Daniel House is another
example of that great contract, getting paid dirt cheap, not having the best
season, right. And but I could easily see a team deciding, you
know, we think there's more here. We've seen Daniel House be a playoff
player before, so you know, I could see players like that getting dealt
as well. Right, Like, because just there's if you're a team,
if you're a contender, that's going bargain basement shopping, right Like the Rockets
are in art for sale right now. I mean, you look at the
roster, so many of these players are making almost nothing, right. There's
the only bad contract on the books right now, it's probably John Wall.
Everyone else is making a reasonable sum of money, even Victoria Deepo expiring contract,
right So it's it's one of those things where, like you can if
you're Houston has gotten calls on pretty much every single one of these players,
and it's a matter of how broad do they want to make this sale.
I think I think there are gonna be players on this team that are moved
that you know, Rockets fans weren't expecting to get moved. And it's just
it's one of those things where it's this is truly a tear down, and
I think it's gonna get I think it's gonna be really interesting. Well we'll
see. So what excuse me, let's shop coughing now too. It's apparently
infectious and we're recording over a computer, so how's that happening? But so
let's try and go through some of these names, and I'm gonna ask you
whether you think they're gonna still be with the Rockets, whether they'll get dealt
or won't get del pas trade deadline. Maybe we can get into what ass
would be there. So PJ. Tuck, we've already covered. We both
agree that he's just gone right, Yeah, Sterling Brown, I'll say I'll
say no right now, I think I think there's a possibility. But I'll
say I'll say for right now, I think they keep him. And so
you don't think a second round pick then would be enough to just get that
done? Like if a contender comes in with a second round pick in the
future, well, I don't know how how many teams are going to come
in like that. Well we'll see it would it would? I would,
It would not surprise me if he gets doubt. I just got to get
the feeling that he's not going to command a second round pick, and if
he does, I think it'd probably be protected. Yeah. The idea,
like I was thinking, like a team like the Clippers with you know,
they could come in with BEYONDU cap and Jelly where the salaries basically line up
and then at twenty twenty three second round pick which comes via Portland's that you
do. That's the that's the type of team that you profile. That'd be
perfect, right, because they are out a lot of second a lot of
first round picks, and they could definitely go bargain basement shopping another team.
The Brooken Nets, I think are going to be I think there's going to
be a deal here. Specifically, I think PJ. Tucker is a is
a great target for them because again you're out of first round picks until twenty
twenty eight, I think, and I think PJ. Tucker can be got
for second round picks, as we said, and they need defense, they
need rotational players that can play at the end of big game, and I
think PJ. Tucker is definitely, you know, a perfect fit for them.
And he's played alongside James Harden before. There's a connection there. I
think, you know, Mike D'Antoni obviously assistant coach in Brooklyn, played played
coming coach PJ. Tucker. Obviously a connection there, so it'd be a
natural fit there. I think PJ. Tucker in Brooklyn is something I'd watch
for. The thing with that is so he makes what is it seven in
change this season, he's at seven nine around just about eight year he said
eight million. They like, you have to take Spencer Dinwoodie back in that
deal. Which I guess Houston wouldn't care about. But I'm wondering if if
I'm Brooklyn, I might prefer to have the bird rights on Spencer Dinwoody just
because he's younger and what he does obviously he's excessive there. I'd be wondering
if that a situation where you can because Spencer Dinwity also makes more money.
Like, is that a PJ. Tucker and like Daniel House situation that they
could justify doing. Wouldn't surprise me. And if that's the case, I
think you probably get, you know, be a third second round pick out
of it. And I here's the thing with the annual House. The reason
I am skeptical that they will get get a deal done for Danuel House is
because his value is just at rock bottom right now. I don't think this
is the type of front office that likes selling when when they're when they're players
are at rock bottom price value. We'll see, but combining contracts like that
could be a clever way to kind of for Brooklyn to retain the bird rights
of dim Woody and also get that deal done for Tucker and get two players
that can actually help you for a long playoff run. I think I think
both those guys would be rotation players for Brooklyn. Yeah, I think.
Look, if they it really depends on what Houston would think of Dinwoody because
you need his bird rights to be an asset or a third team. Like
the team I've always come back to was just Orlando because we know we've intersted
them in the past. They won't have cap space and they always seem like
they want to live in the middle. But you know, the Nets do
have Atlanta's second round pick this year, which doesn't isn't necessarily going to be
terrible. They have a a reverse protected Indiana pick in the second round this
year, which is you know, it conveys if it's in the top fifteen
of the second round as opposed to the bottom fifteen. Where wouldn't they have.
And then they have a Golden State twenty twenty five second round pick,
which if you want a short Golden State's future at this point and you're a
different team, like, that's totally fine. They even have they have a
Phoenix second round pick this year, but that's not going to convey so something
like you know, Spencer Dinwoody, the Atlanta second rounder, and the Golden
State second rounder for PJ. Tucker and Daniel House. That seems like it
might be a justifiable deal for both sides. Yeah, that sounds like a
logical deal, which is wild to say about Spencer Dinwitty by the way,
just because it's like the trading him with an injury is just so difficult.
But he has a player option anyway, and so he could just leave for
nothing, is how you have to view it. But he was a fringe
All Star and then all of a sudden you're trading him for Daniel House and
PJ. Tucker. This is just like a whirlwind of a year. I
guess. Look, Daniel House would be the next logical place to start.
Then you said your skeptical they they get a deal done because you know,
specifically he just hasn't shot the ball that well this year, but we've seen
like they've toyed in the past, like he's even guarded some fives for them,
So like he has real defensive portability for you, and with that second
year left on his deal, if I'm a contender, like I'm trying to
get him just as a bigger wing defender and then you bank on hopefully the
jump shot just ends up panning out because we've seen him hit you know,
higher clips for longer stretches before and so, but your guests would be that
he's still in Houston. My guess is, especially because there's years remaining on
that contract, you know, you can trade him next year if you really
want to, and I think you can probably get better value back. And
my guess is that he probably remains. But if they combine contracts with Pja
Tucker like that, it would not surprise me if he does get shipped out.
But I'm probably more I'm more likely to believe that he gets chipped out
than Stirling Brown. I'll say that that's interesting. I'd be so curious to
see what he just goes for on his own because he's cheap. But he
has that second year, and so it's like, do you maybe get you
know, one of the prospects that were drafted at the end of the last
round of the twenty twenty draft, and then a second with that, like
because that's probably a good like a good enough haul, I would think where
it's yeah, I don't, I don't even know. I'm trying to think
of who was drafted at the end of you know, the Jazz could come
in with you know, Duka as a bookie and then a second round pick,
and it's like, okay, well we still have the cachet of as
a bookie was drafted number twenty seven overall, and you know the Jazz do
need up with the Jazz excuse me, The Rockets do have room on their
front line, especially if they end up trading PJ. Tucker eventually. So
I would just be curious on his own what he would net, because I
do agree that if you combined him with PJ. Tucker like that's how maybe
you up the return a little bit. But on his own I would be
fascinated to see what he commands. Yeah, and if I could make a
quick addendum, I change my mind. I think Sterling Brown's gonna get traded.
I think I think because you're not going to get an opportunity back to
trade him, like you you will get another opportunity to trade Daniel House.
I think Sterling Brown, it just makes a lot of sense for a team
to just you know, as you said that the Clippers would be a nice
spot, right, And I think I think Stirling Brown gets traded. Yeah,
that would be my prediction for him as well. I don't think Daniel
House is gonna get traded. I think he should, but because I think
just having a season, let's go a season and a half, a season
and a quarter of Daniel House, like, there's a little bit extra value
I think that you could glean. Whereas if you move him over the off
season or in the middle of next season, like you're probably getting a not
so sexy second round pick. And that's it right where Oh Ben Maclamore,
Sorry, I was trying to scroll over my fingers. What ends up happening
with him? Do you think he's still with Houston or no? No,
I think he gets started too. I mean again, like a lot of
these guys are vet guys who would probably help a playoff contender, and you
can get them for fairly cheap. I don't think Ben maclamore is going to
demand a first round pick by any means. And if you're Houston, like
you just want as many bites at the apple as you can, even if
they're second round picks. You know, second round picks are are cheap contracts
down the road for you know, fairly good players that we've seen, like
Brooklyn has done a really good job at you know, taking you know,
taking advantage of second round picks in the draft. And I think Houston,
you know, you have a very limited young player pool right now. It's
pretty much Kevin Porter junior and like Christian Wood and Jayshawn Tate, like that's
it. You need to refill these coffers. So I think second round picks
could be valuable for them. I just don't know who's going to give up
that anything for Mett mckimore. At this point, he's shooting over his past
twenty games, he's shooting twenty three point five percent from three, and so
it could be a bad second I guess. I'm just trying to figure out
the team that would because he's shooting in theory, I guess. But if
you're worried about how his season has unfolded, I don't know what you necessarily
give up for him. Yeah. It's one of those things where like you're
banking on what you saw from him last season, right where he fit in
that Gerald Green roll for Houston like a glove. Right, he was just
not a spot up shooter for Houston off the bench. They weren't depending on
him for defense. He probably's probably not going to play much in the playoffs.
If you're trading for him, you're probably trading for him for a regular
season stretch run. You know, you could see a lot of these eight
seed teams or like a team trying to make a play in tournament try trading
for Ben McLamore because usually those teams aren't really you know, eyeing defense as
a priority. Right, So, so that could be a nice an icelanding
spot for him, a team that's just on the edge of the playoffs or
right you know, right there, because again, like he can contribute.
I think he can just be a nice spot up shooter that can play fifteen
to twenty minutes a game for you and knock down like three three pointners.
Eric Gordon, so he's injured and I think we both I actually wrote about
how I thought he would be an interesting trade candidate. There's people probably over
analyze his three point clip this year, but he also takes them from a
distance far enough where that's just going to help. And then he's been absurd
inside the arc this year, sixty point two percent on drives. So do
you think there's still a chance that a team might take a gamble on him
knowing that well, he's supposed to come back in four to six weeks or
is that completely out of the question. Or let's say, you know,
if you can just get off of his money right now, is that something
that Houston's even willing to do, because I doubt, particularly why he's while
he's injured, that there's gonna be a team that's going to also give you
value for Gordon, because that was probably an iffy proposition to begin with.
I actually don't think his contract is that bad because if you look at the
incent it was on the deal, it's like, okay, so he has
to make an All Star team, or you have to win the championship if
for that last year to get guaranteed, and that's not like if any of
those things happen, you're really happy with the contract at that boat right You're
you're more than happy paying it. And really you're looking at like after this
season, two more seasons for Eric Gordon, so and if you look at
the value, it's it's really not that bad. I think I think if
they traded him this year, they actually might have gotten pretty decent value for
him. But I don't think I think the injury complicates it. I think
as at this moment, I don't think he's going to be traded anymore.
If you ask me this question literally a week ago, I think he would
have gotten traded, I thought, because he would have been the surprise player
I think. I don't think a lot of people would have expected Eric Gordon
to be on the market, But I think he definitely is off the market
now because I don't think Houston wants to capitalize on this trading him at his
lowest moment. Yeah, I will say even when he was playing well two
years and thirty seven point eight million for him in the two years coming,
and obviously we can throw out the basically the third year just because as you
said, those incentives, it still felt steep for him. Just looking at
his injury history, how his three point percentage has dipped over the past few
years and then but mostly the injury stuffed for me. But he's just a
guy you can play in crunch time moments and you feel comfortable on both ends
of the floor right like he is not. He's going to be a positive
defender for you in playoff games like we've seen that from Eric Gordon, excuse
me, and he will help you spacing the floor even if he's not shooting
the ball at a high clip, teams still defend him out there, which
is crazy, but they do. And I think, I think that's the
kind of player where like you don't mind having him for the next two or
three seasons. I think he would help a lot of teams deep in their
guard rotation. The problem is again the injury, and I don't think a
lot of teams. I think at this moment a team would rather trade for
a low depot than him. The other problem is, too, when you're
looking at the actual contenders, there's just so few of them have like the
mid end too, Like in an Eric Gordon trade, there's very few contenders
that can do it with one or two contracts. It would be all these
three for one scenarios, and those are really tricky to pull off in the
middle of the year. And then obviously can be you know, one for
one or two for one if they're a contender is going to give up a
key player where you know, like let's use the Lakers as an example,
like if they wanted to use Dennish Shrewder's expiring salary as the anchor and that
deal and part of the return is oh Houston is like the books are just
getting cleared after this season, or maybe they like Dennis Shrewder, who knows
whatever, there's other stuff attached. But then it's like, well, Dennis
Hreuwder's actually really important to what they're doing right now. And so as you
go down that list, it just gets really hard to find teams that can
cobble something together, especially when so many of them are hardcapped this year and
just working with finite resources to find a deal that's workable mid season, where
it feels like a lot of these destinations might make more sense over the off
season when everyone has more roster flexibility. I think an off season Eric Gordon
trade definitely makes more sense. But again, like I think, I think
he is a long term hold kind of player, like he will help you
for the years years to come, right. I don't think he's one of
those players where like you trade him for the stretch run and that's it.
He can help you for the next coming years. I think he's he's a
good enough player where like I don't think the numbers are that bad. I
mean, you know, you may have a different opinion on this. I
actually think it's not a matter of if Eric Gordon gets traded, it's a
matter of when. He's probably not going to get traded at this deadline,
but I think, you know, the coming off season or the or the
following deadline, I would definitely keep my keep my eyes out for Eric Gordon
trades. I would probably have still said no before his injury, but now
I'm just like a I would be shocked if he was moved because of his
injury. Just I don't even know, you know, four to six weeks,
what does that turn into? And then it's like the phrasing was moderate
groin strain, which was just weird. And so yeah, you're you're acquiring
him for long term, but if you're a contender, you do have to
worry about now. So I definitely agree that if anything happens, it'll probably
be over the offseason. The name that I think gets bandied about the most
on this team is Victor Oladipo, and I think they would be out of
that. They would be foolish not to move him by the trade deadline.
So here's my question for you, what is Victor Elodipo's value right now?
I'm sorry, this is my podcast, and that was my question for you,
Yeah, because I actually don't think he has much of a market because
he shot the ball so poorly and ever since he got hurt, Like,
have you seen a really impressive stretch of Victor Oladipo games, Like maybe you
could say at the beginning of this season, like like, but like ever
since, he has not had a long consistent stretch of like really impressive games
to where you feel comfortable trading for him, and not only comfortable trading from
comfortable that he will fit into a new role because he is definitely not going
to shoot twenty shots a game as his new team if he gets traded,
and I don't if I'm Houston, Like, first of all, it's really
hard to construct deals for twenty million dollar players, right, And second of
all, you're probably gonna have to take back deals that extend beyond this season
because you're probably trading for a bad contract. Right it's at this moment because
of his value, if you're trading Victor Odepo, you're probably gonna get you're
probably gonna have to pay for the following seasons in addition to maybe a draft
pick. And if I'm Houston, the calculation I do is like, would
I rather have that space or would I rather have that draft pick? I
would rather have that space. Honestly, they haven't had space in a long
time to play with. You know, a twenty million dollars is not has
nothing to sneeze at. I mean, look at what they did with the
Christian would right, like they they can get really creative with that kind of
space. And for a rebuilding team, like, you don't want cumbersome contracts
bocking down your books, you just don't. I think this is closer to
a toss up at the deadline than most people say. Most people think the
other thing, and this doesn't. I don't It could matter to them though,
if they're, like, maybe they consider resigning him anyway, if he's
just coming back for the best dollar available, do they view it at all
as well? We could have had Caris Lavert and our twenty twenty three second
round pick. I think it was, and now we're gonna end up with
nothing. We're just gonna end up with cap space instead. And I think
you can objectively say that Carris Lavert is a even you know, we haven't
seen him play since they found the mass on his tumor, and I think
he's coming back. We're recording this on a Saturday. It won't go live
until Monday, so he's coming back, I think the night that we're recording
this. But Caris Lavert taking him on seems like it would have been the
better decision right now. But I think this is kind of why I think
that there's a possibility that they just let his contract expire, because why otherwise,
why would they not just take on Lavert? Like where when you look
at that trade in the moment, like, what was your initial reasoning as
to why they didn't just take back Lavert? Because like I thought, like
Lavert was probably like as good or possibly even a better player though, but
even at that moment, so the only reason I could I could concoct was
like, Okay, so they they see that as a malluable contract, right
they can they think that they can get space back in free agency or that
they can get him back to a reasonable deal. And I don't think they're
going to get him back for a reason video It seems like Oladipo wants a
lot of money and he's probably going to get that because you know, there's
a lot of space out there and you just never know would free agency,
like, look at what Gordon Hayward got paid the summer, right Like,
I never I've given up on predicting contracts like this, And if I'm Houston
like, I think that's probably why they didn't do it. I think they
probably did this trade for the space. My gut reaction was that they thought,
because I do think a peak Victor Oladipo has a higher apex then Caris
Lavert. Sure, I thought that maybe they were barking that they could get
more than Carris Lavert and a second for Victor Oladipo at the trade deadline,
which if that was the thinking, imploded that that blew up in their faces.
Well, as you mentioned, you know, we've done like seven podcasts
this season this year, right like, and a lot of these podcasts have
been speculating what the Rockets were going to get back for James Harden right,
and I believe we talked a lot about Brooklyn as a possible landing space.
And what I kept saying throughout those podcasts is that deal was never going to
be about the players that come back in the deal. Rockets fans that were
panicking about the players coming back on that deal really need to focus the draft
picks because that is where that is the only insective for Houston to get a
deal Odell in Brooklyn. Right, they thought they can get a king's ransom
from Brooklyn back on a deal, and they did. And I think that's
that's when you when you analyze the James Harden trade, you really have to
pay attention to the picks because it's it's never it was never going to be
about the players, even if you got Lavert back, Like Lavert was going
to be at the most an extra pick down the line, right, I
think I don't think you was going to be a part of their long term
future. And I think it's probably more reasonable to view this as like,
Okay, they wanted to clear space and they wanted draft picks. Yeah,
it's tough. I could understand a fans perspective, because you would like to
see your team have something tangible in return, and the best value that's going
to come from this Brooklyn trade is so far off too. It's going to
be on those later picks and swaps, and so now you don't if you
let Victoriality but waf walk for nothing, you just don't have anything. You
know, they didn't even take on Jared Allen like that was they just opted
basically like we're not going to take any players if they get older. And
I'm not saying that that was necessarily the wrong approach. We have to wait
and see this bear out for the next you know, six seven years and
even longer than that, when you're looking at the picks turning into actual players
and seeing how those players careers fan out. Still, I can understand why
that's tough to grapple. I'm just curious, if you know, so,
are you at the point where, like if teams just through expiring contracts still
where you're still going to get that money and they're attached to seconds or the
one that I've thought about and I've been like scared to say it because I
don't want to get destroyed, is like what if the Lakers just decided to
piece like step ladder it with expiring contracts and gave you talent Horton Tucker,
who's also an expiring contract themselves. Like, is that a deal that you
just do at this point? If Houston really wants that space, yeah,
I guess. I mean, like I really do think that if they get
a deal done, I think I think the reason they trade for Ladipo was
they wanted the flexibility of having that cap space. So I think if they
were to get a trade done with Ladipo, I think they probably want expirings
back. That's my best guess, right, Like, I could be wrong
on this. I could they could trade back for a really bad full contract
in a first round pick, who knows, right, But my suspicion is
that they want expirings back. So if they can get an asset back along
with expirings, yeah, maybe. My question is, like, do the
Lakers really value all the depots bird rights like that? Because you are you
are essentially, in addition to trading for him to help you in the stretch
run, you're also trading for his bird rights and the right to resign him.
I'm not sure a team like the Lakers wants to pay Oladipot what he's
going to get this summer. I mean, when you watch the minutes they
play without Lebron James, you could probably pretty easily talk yourself individual depot Perhaps,
Yeah, I mean maybe, I guess. I guess the logic in
that is, like we view him as a long term core piece that along
with just being someone who can help us in the stretch run. And maybe
maybe teams view him like that as at this moment because of how poorly he's
played, I'd be hesitant to view him like that because I just don't I'm
not sure how he can fit into a different role when he's so used to
taking this many shots, Like he is literally taking possessions for Houston like it
is, it is insanely. He's doing that for the Pacers in the bubble
too. It felt like, yeah, it is, he's just chucking and
and you know, credit to him, Like there is a part of me
that just that finds this hilarious, right, Like he's just taking every opportunity
he can to show that he's worth whatever contract he's gonna get this summer.
And the poor guy just can't hit a shot, just can. You just
cannot. He cannot, especially his three pointers, which he's always been pretty
good at those, and he just can't hit them this season. It's very
strange and if our a team might be very you know, alarmed by that.
But again, like I still think it's a it's a coin flip,
Like if you're if you were asking me, like, do I think Ohadebo
gets traded, I don't know. I I probably would would assume that because
because they traded for him instead of Kara's LeVert that he probably doesn't and I
have a hard time finding his market. But at the same time, I
could easily see a team selling themselves on the depot. My question is what
team is that going to be? Because like I was actually looking at a
team like Boston and the question what I kept running into is like what minutes
is he gonna take away from? Right, Like because when Marcus Smirk comes
back, like where is he going to play in the rotation? There?
You know, Miami is another logical option, but like, again, you're
playing at that point. If you're Miami, you're playing really small, right,
You're you're your lineup is going to be like what Jimmy Butler at power
forward? Right, Like, like it's it's it's tough. It's tough to
find a logical landing spot for him. So I would probably say, gun
to my head, I don't think a Victor Oladibo deal gets done, But
and you don't think he's back with Houston next season? Yeah, that's just
I guess it's that's I guess if you don't want to have the money on
your books, then that's the smart scenario for them. I would just see
then, is there, like will teams give us expiring with something anything,
a second round pick just to let him walk after what you gave up essentially
to get him, or at least what you could have had in Lavert.
It's just mind melting to me again, Like, this is not me.
This is not saying this is what I would do, right, This is
just me trying to find their logic from taking back Oladipo over Lavert and tracing
it back to the present day, right, Like this is just me,
you know, putting the puzzle pieces together and assuming that's what they're thinking.
I don't know if I would I would do that. I might be someone
who just take back bad years on a contract and try to get a first
round pick. But if they really like that space enough to where they took
Lavert over him, it follows logically that they might continue that thinking into Mark
twenty fifth. If that was there thinking, there's got to be like the
Mavericks have to be willing to do James Johnson and then like Josh Green or
Tyrol Arry for him and those are both cheap players who are will be intriguing
to monitor in the next couple of years. And you haven't, you know,
added anything to your long term payroll, but you've at least gotten someone
for the you know, for housing Oladipo, for for leasing letting letting him
lease space, Like on your caption, I don't I don't even know how
to phrase that. I can't. I don't necessarily disagree with you that that's
what they're gonna do. I just can't talk myself into that being a good
piece of business for the team. And the thing here's old people, is
going to be an unrestricted free agent, so he could Houston could want to
keep him. He already turned down an extension, but that was kind of
fade to complete from the beginning. He could go wherever he wants, And
so I don't know what a team is gonna Maybe that'd be really like Oladipo
and are willing to pay Alladipo, but he just still goes and signs in
Miami anyway. Yeah, I mean again, like it's it's I don't think
Houston intends to give him the contracts you wants this summer. I just like,
why like like why if they do that, are just openly telling the
world that we are not a good front office anymore, And like it makes
no sense. He doesn't stand in their timeline. You don't want that tape
of money on your books, so the only other option is just let him
walk. And letting him walk it seems like a really stupid thing to do,
right, But if you look at the guys that have graduated from the
Rockets front office, they do that a lot. Like Darryl Moorey let Chandler
Parsons walk, Monty McNair at the Kings he let Buddy not Buddy Hill.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry whom I think Danovitch walk right, And a lot
of people criticized him at the time, And like this is just something that
they do, Like they really value the flexibility and cap room, and they
they when they're in rebuilding mode specifically, like the way they look at dollars
and cents is like, we only want to spend big money, is it
if that is a franchise cornerstone type of player, like even Christian Wood they
didn't give that type of money to, right, Like they seem to kind
of look at players like if they if they aren't a cornerstone piece, we
aren't giving them that cornerstone money. And Alodipo I don't view in twenty twenty
one as a cornerstone piece. So my assumption is they don't want to give
him cornerstone money, which that part of it makes sense, which I just
don't understand why you acquire him then in the first place. The cap space
to me, isn't that important because I don't know who's gonna want to go
there. And I also just you look at salaries now around the league.
Unless you're gonna take back a Westbrook or a wall who you already have,
these contracts are so short that it don't that whole salary dumping game. Yeah,
it might exist, but you know, are you going to get a
first round pick for taking on Dwight Powell over the summer? And if you
are, you know you didn't need all the cap space in the world to
do that anyway, because he's making twelve million dollars or whatever it is.
Well, maybe they don't even see themselves as a place to salary dump,
right, Maybe they just like to Maybe they just want to use the space
like which is like I agree, like who are you going to spend money
on? I don't know, but like this, I just you know from
studying this front office over the last ten years, they really like when they're
in rebuilding mode, right, Like, when they're a contender, they seem
to spend money. I'm as in, like they tend to give up,
you know, a worst contract, right. Like I'm not saying they're they
go crazy when they're contended, right, It's obviously not the case, but
we've seen them give out bad contracts as contenders, right Like Ryan Anderson,
right, is a great example of that. Like they just gave him eighty
million dollars over four years. Eric Gordon right, another good example that did
they gave him a huge sum of cash over the past six seasons. Right.
It is one of those things where like once they get to that point,
they are willing to spend, once they have that cornerstone piece in office,
they will spend. But once when they're in rebuilding mode, they don't
team, they don't tend to spend that much, and they tend to value
the space like crazy, which is I don't know, We'll see, we'll
see what they do with it. I am surprised that you that up that
Daryl Morey didn't extend PJ. Tucker and then bounce. I was convinced that's
how everything was always gonna gonna end. So here's a name that I don't
think it's being tough enough because I assume they want to keep him. But
I also don't know that you can look him and be like, well,
we have to keep him. But I'm sure they're getting calls on Jay Shawn
Tate, who is can just be a monster. Defensively. We don't know
if he's gonna be able to hit threes long term, but he can do
some physical stuff. I'm with the ball in his hands too. On offense.
Do you think they'd be open to moving him or is this You look
at him and it's like, okay, well he has two more team controlled
years at under three point five million total, he's not going anywhere. Yeah,
I think they'd be open to trading or trading him like again, like
that, he is not a he. I don't think anyone on this franchise
is untouchable, even even Christian would I think he's gonna be My next question.
I saw that they weren't willing to entertain offers on Christian Wood, and
I was like, oh, are they planning on being good in one of
the next two years? Like yeah, Like I think I think everybody has
a it's just just a matter of like what that price is for Jayshawn Tate.
I imagine they want a first rounder back right like, and it probably
a good first rounder. I don't think he gets moved at this deadline,
but I don't think he's untouchable. No, for sure. For sure,
He's definitely someone to watch over the next couple of years. Do you what
do you have you enjoyed like watching Hims? You view him as someone who
can contribute at a fairly high level to a really good team. And I
think, look, I think you've talked about this with Jonathan Fagan on your
podcast, which I listened to before we do this, was that if the
Rockets have all these like kind of good players, why aren't they better?
And it was sort of a fair question. I know they've been banged up,
but I look at this roster. I'm like, yeah, he can
help, and yeah you could, he could help, and it's like,
oh, the Rockets have lost one trillion games in a row. But for
jay Shawn Tate, specifically, do you see him being someone who can contribute
at a high level and you know, a semi significant role to a really
good team, perhaps off the bench. The problem is, like these coaches
do not like playing young players in big playoff games, right like. And
I'm not just talking about like a specific kind of coach, this is the
extends to all kinds of all coaches. They don't like playing twenty year olds
in the playoffs. Right But I do think that he can play fifteen to
twenty minutes at this stage of his career in a big playoff game because he's
shown that kind of I don't want to say intensity, but that type of
those type of smarts defensively, right Like, he is really intelligent for a
twenty year old. He knows where to be on the floor, and I
think, I think that kind of stuff is valuable. But I would if
I were a contender, I'd be more likely to trade a first round pick
for him. Uh, if he's a year or two older than as of
right now. It's just I just it's trading up, trading a first round
over Jason right now, even with the team controlled years. It's just it
seems like a lot it seems like especially because this guy was playing in Australia
last year, right like this is uh he he is shown that he's probably
worthy of an NBA rotation spot on a good team. But I would be
really really scared about giving up the first round pick I've bandied about where it's
like, you know what if it's the Nuggets, like who really and maybe
takes a little bit too small for them, but he could defend really big.
But like, if they're giving up their first round pick, that's a
team. But you talk about not wanting to play twenty year olds in the
playoffs. I don't think Mike Mullen wants to play twenty year olds ever.
So that's where that's sort of that's where that sort of falls apart. But
that was like a team where I thought like, yeah, you guys will
just roll the dice or maybe not because you do bring up some good points.
You want someone who's gonna help you in the playoffs and do you trust
a twenty year old to do that for you? I honestly don't know.
And him specifically, again, he's really good, a defensive monster, I
would call him, but at six four, it's do you trust him?
Guarding like the biggest of the big wings. Yeah, and at some point
Denver is going to need to find their Paul Miller stop replacement, right like,
they just they cannot they cannot expect him to play as much, which
is that they've had him play over the past few years. But yeah,
he is. He is really impressive. You're right, uh, and I
it's one of those things where like, uh, it's it's just I'd want
to see more of a resume before I trade for him, you know,
because this could just be like a one off type of year, even though
he was really impressive in Australia. It's one of those things where I just
I still would want to see more of a resume for I trade first round
pick for him. Yeah, that's that's definitely fair, I would say Christian
would then what would it take to even get the Rockets to consider it at
this point? Is it like he's in two first round pick range? Yeah,
two to three, and I think one of those first round picks have
to be really good, I think, yeah, I mean, because he
is his production is crazy, man, Like he was putting up twenty in
tens pretty regularly for the Rockets and like that kind of player is like really
valuable, And I don't think he's like the second best players Championship t but
it's possibly he could be the third best player of championship team. Like he's
he's that talented. Like he defensively, he has a long way to go,
I should say that. Like defensively, you know, he's shown some
strides. He can really move, but it's it's like incoherent movement where there's
like not a necessarily always a rhyme or reason to what he's but he can
cover a lot of grounds. Yeah, and specifically in an era we're we're
really going back to a drop back defense, like switching is it's it's still
prevalent, right, Like the Bucks are doing a lot more switching the season,
but like we're as the NBA overall, like there seems to be a
trend back to more traditional drop back defenses, and he is just not good
as a try to drop back defense. Like he you know, he showed
some moments before he got hurt, but up until that that week or still
playing like he was not, he couldnt seem to grasp that concept. But
yeah, to two first round picks is definitely what what I would say if
I were rafel Stone, that would be my asking price. For sure,
that'd be like the floor, But I would I would want to hold on
to him a little bit longer to see what he could become. You're at
the issue of two that I think the teams that should be most interested in
him, I'm not sure they're not very good now, and I don't know
that you can justify giving up that type of equity for Christian would. And
then yeah, there are teams that are good now where you could say,
hey, yeah, give two first round picks or a pick and a young
player. But whatever picks or young players that they have because they're so good
just might not be good. You know, Boston could maybe use Christian would
or they maybe they want more of a defensive backbone. But that would just
be an example. Like a team that yeah, has all the draft picks,
has some young guys, but like, who are you actually getting from
them that's going or what even when looking at the picks that's actually going to
excite you. It would have to be first round picks. And but the
problem is, like their first round picks aren't that good, right, Like,
so you'd have to ask for probably three at that point, right,
I think you would have to be like a young player, like can you
get Naysmith and two first round picks something like that? Smith might be yeah,
if you if you throw on a young player like that and two first
round picks, maybe yeah, I don't know. I don't think he's necessarily
the big man that Boston needs, but he would certainly be be interesting.
There would be more likely than this season that Christian would gets traded or that
John Wall gets traded. That you're exacting that question when you jumped on this
podcast. Yeah, I don't think it's likely either of them gets traded up.
I guess would because there's more of a market for him right now,
right, Yeah, what have you thought about John Wall so far this season?
He's fine, He's listen, like like, he's coming off a pretty
significant injury, so I want to give him some slack, but like,
yeah, he's he is still a starting point guard in this league, and
I think a good starting point guard in this league. I just he's coming
off a pretty significant injury. Defensively, he still has his moments, but
this is just a tough spot for him. He's having to carry a really,
really bad basketball teams. He can still move really well with the ball
in his hands. I don't know what I was necessarily expecting because we haven't
seen him play basketball in like two decades or whatever. It's been in pandemic
time. But he's moved a lot better than I thought. But his contract
is still from a team's perspective, is obviously not going to look that great.
But yeah, look, the Rockets are going to be fascinating. I
think we're both in agreement, and it matters your opinion matters more that this
team is going to be the single busiest team at the trade deadline this year.
Yeah, it's certainly possible. It's certainly possible. He's fascinating is a
word. It's definitely a word. But uh, like here's my problem.
When you say fascinating, it's like, okay, so fascinating in the transaction
game. I agree, But I have to watch this team every night.
It's it's not fascinating for me at all. I do have a feeling that
the end product is not going to be fascinating to watch, even less than
it is now, because like we went over with a lot of these players,
You're probably mean, you're doing this just to you know, move guys
that are going to leave this year anyway, and so you're not even necessarily
getting guys that you want to see back uh to on the court. You're
doing this for second rounders or if you can, you know, for Spencer
Jimmie's bird rights. But like that type of thing, those are the moves
that you're making, and so that could make the product. They're more of
an adventure, I guess would be to call it and imagine just it's like
John Walla, Victor Ladipo, and I guess they still have Christian would if
those three are going to stick around and Gordon will be healthy again, so
they won't be like totally barren. But I don't I don't think it's gonna
be pretty. No, it's it's not. It's it hasn't been pretty now.
To be fair, they've had injuries, so I want to give them
some some slack there, but it's it's been a pretty dreadful product for the
most part. By the way, we haven't even talked about their pick situation.
Like the reason they're tearing it down is because they pretty much have no
other option but to go for the top four spot, right, and you
know, even just as as far as last year, right, like Cleveland
and Atlanta both fell out of the top five of the top four, right,
and like, there's a pretty good chance that they're doing all of this
losing for nothing. They might end up with Miami's pick. And if you're
a Rockets fan watching that on lottery day, oh my god, Like,
like I just I would feel so bad. It would be such a punch
to the gut to do what was it, fourteen games in a row they've
lost right now, And there's gonna be stretches like this throughout the season.
Maybe not this big, but they're gonna lose like like nine games in a
row at another point this season, and they're doing all this losing for possibly
nothing. If they don't, if they don't keep that pick, it could
be really pretty ugly. Yeah, Because so if you finish with a it's
safe to assume that they're going to finish with a bottom three record. There's
really only as of now, Detroit at Minnesota that's going to compete with them.
It looks like, so if you finish with a bottom three record,
you have less than a fifty percent chance of landing in the top four.
Yeah, Like listen, if I'm raphel Stone, like I'm trading or getting
rid of anybody that helps me win basketball games, because it seems like there's
no way I can be good. Like if if if I see someone make
a layup in practice, he's getting traded the next business day. If I
see I see Stephen Silas crumple up a piece of paper and thrown to the
trash can, he's fired too. Anybody who's trying any he's making any effort
to be good, they're gone. They're gone. And my math was off.
You have a fifty two point one percent chance of landing in the top
four if you have a BOT four coin toss. A coin toss like that
is nuts. You have to do it, though, What is their other
avenue? No, there isn't, There isn't. It's it's just it's it's
remarkable how screwed they are this. Yeah, and but and this is the
season to do it. I think, Well, they own their own twenty
twenty two pick correct, So yeah, they could do it the next two
seasons, Like there's this two year window for them. Oh, they owned
twenty twenty three as well, don't they. Yes, they own twenty twenty
three, twenty twenty, and so's it's almost like you need to get the
gut punches over with now, because when you start conveying picks to Oklahoma City
in twenty twenty four, you know, that's like you're knock. You don't
know, it's just in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty six you just don't
have You can't tank in twenty twenty five. That's so far down and it's
only one year. So you need like it's now like this is your window
because you actually have a multiple year window to be bad and hopefully accumulate your
own draft equity, you know, draft high, and then develop a player
because in all likelihood, like when you're looking at the nets picks and swaps
that they're getting, I would say like twenty twenty five is the first one
that I pinpoint as, hey, maybe that could be really good. I
guess twenty twenty four, but you need Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kevin
Durant. I'm two of them to fall off a cliff or I'm two of
them to leave, and so I just don't know at that And so this
is the so I think they're doing what's necessary, but I'm with you.
If you're watching that and you know you have a fifty two point one percent
chance of getting a top four pick and you get fifth or something, that's
gonna sting. The lottery is going to be so fun. It's gonna be
so fun for me. I don't think it's gonna be fun for everybody,
but it's gonna be definitely really fun to see if they if they pulled this
off, and if they can actually keep their pick again. Two teams that
had bottom four records last year fell out of the bottom four. Right.
The lottery has flattened to it to an extent to where even if you have
a dreadful record, you may not keep a top four pick. And yeah,
if you just look at the teams and the fans that are gonna be
enthralled by the lottery this year. You have Oklahoma City is clearly going to
be watching it, maybe for their own reasons, but also because of the
Houston pick. Houston obviously Minnesota, but then also Golden States fan because of
Minnesota. Maybe. Yeah, very high States lottery this year. Yeah,
it's because you didn't expect this many teams to you didn't a three team swap
like it's wow, it's it's it's it's it's Grand entertainment. Salmon, thank
you as always for doing this and coming on give me so much of your
time. Once more. If you guys aren't following him on Twitter, Twitter
remedied at immediately, he's at Salmon Ali NBA. That's at s A L
M A n A l I n BA. He covers the Rockets for ESPN
ninety seven point five and hosts the Red Nation Hoops podcasts as well. Once
more, Thanks against Salmon, and I'm sure, as you know, and
it might be soon I'm gonna be pestering you again. Yeah. Sure,
Just don't watch the Rockets on League Past Preece. Just just just just don't
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