What is up, fellow thermonuclear A efforts. I am M Valley. Let
me at you with another loaded hardware knockmail bag is our first one in a
while. Have a bunch of questions that built up in our discord, so
we're gonna focus on those. But now for the quick plug, join our
discord. The link is in the YouTube and the podcast descriptions. That's where
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Those are also in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Quick schedule programming note for
anyone who cares about this before we really dive in and only take about thirty
seconds, I'll be doing this mail bag. We'll be closing out this week
with two NBA team look aheads. We're going to roll out that train.
That's a fantastic series where I bring on guests who cover follow route for every
single team and we go forty five minutes to an hour plus normally on their
prospects for the upcoming season, really dig deep. I'm very proud of how
that series turns out every year. We're gonna be rolling it out again fast
and furiously. It's already up and running. We have sixers up as of
this recording and I will have I guess I could spoil it. Thunder and
Rockets are going to round out this week. I am, however, traveling,
during which time I have a project that's coming out where I get into
I had. It's something I've done for Bleacher Report, and I've been approved
by Bleacher Reports to release an audio and video version of it where I talk
about it and read back the biggest what if moments for every franchise. I
pulled experts again, people who cover follow every single team about their biggest what
if for the franchise. They gave me responses, So that is going to
be released while I'm traveling. Then when I come back, I will get
back on the team look Ahead, Grind, and those will be just spit
out, spit out, spit out, spit out. So if you don't
see them up for like, you know, two weeks, This is my
usual September attempt to abscond and hope that there's nothing that breaks that mandates I
immediately work, but it could. I'll be bringing my podcast equipment, my
laptops, my cameras, my lighting, and we'll hope that the you know,
the house that I'm staying in will have that the internet connection holds up.
That took longer than thirty seconds, But I just wanted to give people
heads up that I'm starting the team look aheads now to sort of get out
in front of it. But I thought it was best to not try and
get too many in the bank and then hope to release them mom away,
since the sixers one was already a little bit dated by the signing of Mantras
Harrel And so we'll do sort of those the evergreen what if content and that'll
be fun to see. You guys should respond when we get to your team
what your biggest what if is for them. But we can now dive into
this mailback had a ton of great questions, and we will begin with the
one from where does it actually? I have so many that are in here,
but I think let's start with Fool asked with Chet out for the season.
If the Thunder somehow tank well enough to get their pick again, who
would win the Rookie of the ear race between Chet and Wemby. I don't
know. I mean, I'd probably pick Victor women Yanna. He's just like
this, like seven footer with an eight to nine foot wingspa end that plays
like a guard or a wing. If they're on the same team, that
would just be absolutely mine. Mounting Chet does when he's gonna be healthy just
such a bummer. We haven't gotten in a lot to that on the podcast.
I will get into it more when we do the Thunder Look Ahead,
which is coming out very shortly. It just sucks. I was really looking
forward to seeing him play with che glibs Axander, the way his spacing was
going to open up things for Shay and Josh Giddy. But he should be
if he's you know, I'm not too concerned long term about this foot injury.
Again, it wasn't him just being pummeled by someone because he's too skinny.
It was non contact, which is always sort of a red flag.
If this leads to permanent foot issues, then yeah, that's going to be
certainly concerning. But I'm hopeful that he's able to come back, and if
he's healthy next year, I absolutely would put him in. Even if Scoot
Henderson and Weban Yama or one of those two are on the Thunder or another
team, I would still have Chet right there because he could be potentially transcendent
in his versatility at both ends. I would love to see him in Weben
Yama together, I having Shay on that team with them, and some people
still really like Josh Giddy, but lu Dortz would also be there. That
man this is I wouldn't call this a blessing in disguise for the Thunder.
I do think this is going to be sort of not the final season of
their rebuild, but they were still going to look at this as a transition
year regardless another transition year, or shouldn't say transition because they're in the middle
of the rebuild, but they were always going to look at this as a
rebuilding year for them. It probably gets to the point we're don't have to
worry about them shutting down as many people now, and maybe they don't even
do that. They could be bad enough. I still think that the defensive
company we've seen under Mark agnolds up there. If you want to ensure that
you're one of the bottom three teams in the not just the West, but
the League, you probably do need to get to a point where you know
ken Rich Williams and lu dort and Chequila Slexander aren't playing. I don't know
what they're gonna do with that. I don't want to see it happened.
I won't campaign for it. I don't call this a blessing in disguise,
though I think the thunder they might have been too good. If you wanted
them to get Victor One, Women Yam or Scoot Henderson with Chet, they
still might have. Again, I feel like this would be the last year
they would do this, and I'm not advocating for but this still feels like
a year that they were going to really decide, Hey, we're going to
if we have to shut players down towards the end of year, once we're
out of the playoff picture. That's before we start making really more aggressive goes
of it during the regular season or maybe tinkering with the roster to be more
of a win now proposition. But sucks for Chet. I cannot wait to
watch him next season, and I would not be opposed to seeing him go
ahead to head with women Yama, you know, on a separate team,
but if they're on the same team, like if SGA is still there and
it's him Chet women Yama, I don't even like I'm my mind can't wrap
my head around that core. This one comes from Asriel Underscore. PC can
Westbrook, Cary up and get traded already, and best case scenarios for the
Lakers to get off his deal. So I don't buy into Russ and Patrick
Beverley sharing a one point two five eight four second hug as evidence that everything's
hunky dory and that they want to play together and that this is going to
work out. Maybe it does. I still can't shake the fact that Beverley
might have cost like the Russ the Russ kd Era Thunder a title when he
dove into Russ Russ injurs his meniscus and that started. You know, they
weren't all related, but that was the first of just injuries derailing all these
Thunder playoff campaigns. I just find it hard to believe that. Being said,
if it happens like it time not time heals everything, but enough time
has passed where maybe Russ doesn't care. But like Beverly's talked shit about him
in the semi recent past as well as has Russ, So I would just
be shocked if this ends well for the Lakers. I do think they need
to move Russ. It's not even just he's a terrible fit, but it's
just his salary number, you're better off divesting into deepening your rotation. The
trick is, though, can you find a deal where it makes sense to
give up bult your first round picks? And really the only one that's if
you want to be honest, what I give up two first round picks?
Four? And these are some of the scenarios to get heals in Turner.
I would would I do it for the jazz package where it's like if you're
getting Bowyon and Conley, or is it boyon Bydonovich and Molik Beasley or more
like a boy bydonas Jordan Clarkson. I'm probably not doing that at Miles Turner's
young enough to where if you're going to get him, that could be a
very long term marriage for you. I understand why LA would do either.
I also get it doesn't mean that, let's say Miles Turner isn't worth a
Laker's this in first round pick. I think he is. It would just
mean that the Lakers don't want to go that direction, which is fine if
that's what they're admitting to. But them not making such a deal doesn't mean
that Miles Turner isn't worth it. But when we're getting into those scenarios.
The only one that's really come up where I think it's been a no brainer
is if they got Kyrie and with that sort of looming over the specter of
everything, there might be asking themselves, well, do we need these picks
to maybe facilitate a sign and trade for Kyrie when he reached his free agency.
Is it even feasible to do that and work underneath the hardcap and actually
feel the competitive roster or they maybe even waiting for this to collapse in the
middle of the season to where they're gonna want those picks. The Nets are
just so combustible in that regard. So that's why I'm like not entirely convinced
that they're going to move us, because they want to keep other scenarios open.
I also think if you can stick it out until the middle of the
season, it's going to be cheaper to actually get off his deal. I
don't want to just you know, regurgitate. Though the same trade scenarios went
through Indie, we know the one with Utah. There's also the ki respector
Looms. Even though it's off the table right now, people have talked about
the Knicks one. I've seen Knicks fans, or listen to Red Knicks fans,
Knicks writers, listen to Knicks podcasters who think that New York would be
able to get a first round pick if they take on Russ and while sending
out Julius Randall, I don't think that's possible if the Knicks are including maybe
some of the other picks that they have where it's like, hey, we'll
give you this Washington twenty twenty three pick. It's probably not going to convey
in two thousand and twenty three, but let's just say this Washington pick.
You either lust your twenty and twenty seven pick, and we're building you know,
Randall and Fournier, and then we're taking back Russ. Like, maybe
that's possible, because then the Lakers are getting an imminent first round pick that
they could trade. Then. I don't like, I just don't feel this
possible. I feel the Lakers when you're looking to get out of the Russell
Westbrook contract without giving up like any draft equity at all. I would view
the Knicks a viable trade partner. You have. Fourier's a good basketball fit.
Randall's not the cleanest basketball fit, but I think he helps you in
second units more than Russ could at this point, and then if you've kept
your draft equity, you can worry about if you want cap space or you
need to move those guys. I mean, look, Julius Randall's contract,
I don't I think it's probably one of the worst in the NBA. But
the Westbrook number is just so massive that teams, even for a year,
are going to just get twitchy about it and be hesitant to take it on.
And so if I'm the Knicks, just by virtue of creating the extra
cap space, and if you're gonna buy out Russell Westbrook anyway, you give
up less, say Fournier and Randall for Russell Westbrook, you're getting rid of
him. Now you're opening up minutes for more of the kids. You're not
getting a first round pick. But you've gotten out of Julius Randall's contract and
he has four years left on it at one hundred and six million guaranteed.
You've gotten out of the final two years of Evan Fourier's deal. He's two
years and thirty six point nine million guaranteed, and then a nineteen million dollar
team option, which I'd be shocked if any team is picking that up in
twenty four twenty five. So you've now gotten out of those deals, no
extradraft equity, but you have just cleared the runway for players this season when
looking at you know, certainly the offensive pecking order for RJ. Barrett if
Julius Randall isn't there, but also just ensuring that without Randall there, you're
you have a reason to play Obie Topping. And then that's even by extension,
like, yeah, there should be more minutes available for Jericho Sims even
with Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson in the fold. So if you need to
expand the deal and you want a first round pick, maybe you're sending Cam
Reddish out as part of that. If I'm the Lakers and it's one first
round pick for Randall, Fournier and Reddish in exchange for us, I'm honestly
probably not doing that. I'm the Lakers. But if you can get the
Knicks to pull the trigger on that deal without giving up a draft pick,
and if I'm the Kicks, I would do it. I'm just flat out
I care more about opening up minutes this season by getting rid of Russ and
then they're gonna have more cat flexibility moving forward or sooner, I should say
as well, I would absolutely do that. It would just be what's the
Lakers appetite for taking on long term money. The other one that I've kind
of identified is I'm just surprised we haven't heard more about it is the Spurs
they have, Like as I'm recording this, I have them at like just
still over a truckload of cap space and so like between thirty and thirty three
million dollars just somewhere in between there. And so you could almost just do
Josh Richardson and like, are they giving up Zach Collins in that deal?
Would they give you Romeo Langford maybe? Or are they actually high on him?
But you could do Richardson plus another salary for Russ, and it's gonna
be a smaller salary because Doug mc dermot is the highest paid player around the
Spurs right now. Look, Josh Richardson and Doug McK dermott saves the Lakers
like twenty something million dollars. Those two combined make about like a little under
twenty six million. Russ is slated to make forty seven point one, and
so you're looking at over twenty million in savings just off the top there,
and we know LA does sort of run itself like a like a like a
small market team on uncertain instances. How much you have to give up to
actually make that pack work. I don't know what a twenty twenty six swap
get it done. Just because Doug McDermott is kind of a No, it's
not because the Spurs are taking on so much money. But if they would
do that for one pick, I'm the Lakers, I might consider it.
Doug McDermott has money on the books for next season, it's thirteen point eight
million, it's expiring. They could probably just jettison him, and while including
a second round pick would be my guest, Josh Richerson actually helps them by
actually giving them a three Indie wing. When you look at their roster right
now, they do not have a three indie wing. The closest they get
is want Toscano Anderson or maybe even Beverly himself. I just like, it's
not Troy Brown Junior. Uh, it's not. If you wanted to go
Austin Reeves, I don't know if he's like three enough. There is he
wing enough there either, so you would get a three Indie Wing, who
had quietly a good season splitting time between Boston and San Antonio last year.
I would do that deal if I were the Lakers as well. And if
you're gonna then you know, hold onto rust or see what other opportunities evolves
the season goes on. Maybe Charlotte becomes one if they're just looking to get
off Gordon Hayward's deal, or maybe even Terry Rosier's deal because they're sort of
looking to start a new It's very it's very unclear what's happening there. So
those are some I think San Antonio and the Knicks one I laid out specifically,
or just some different ones that I haven't heard a lot talked about.
No name for god. Do you know of any all in one metric that
empirically indicates the value of young players? Well? The issue I find with
lebron, EPN, darko PPM, et cetera is that they these are based
on product juction, and since young ones usually have to carve out their spot
in the rotation on good teams are on bad teams with good minutes, their
production sucks, making the aforementioned stats usual to describe their production but useless for
extrapolating their potential so flat out. I've heard of, I guess, not
actual names, but I have heard that there are teams that either have or
been looking to develop these metrics that focus less on production without context really by
the way, and are more about projecting. And I have no doubt there
are a proprietary one within organizations. I don't know of names specifically, and
even if I did, I wouldn't you know, if I did know them,
I wouldn't be able to release them because I feel like that's the only
way that I would be able to know them. I will say, when
you're sort of looking at I think that there is a movement or not a
movement, but its sentiment around the league that they do need to do a
better job where there is there a focus I should say on having these context
dependent projection based stats eventually out there, so maybe they will be public.
I think something that's useful right now is if you can get a subscription to
be ball Index or backpicks dot com. I'm paying for both. They do
have certain you know, I would call them context dependent stats that are out
there, and I'll use be ball Index like being able to look at the
the lot the spacing of certain lineups, and then you can see how that
translates to how a player is faring. You can look at the level of
shot difficulty on all of their their fuel goal attempts, so you could see,
okay, well, doctor Mitchell's true shooting percentage might have been lower than
Seth Curries, but look at the shots Curry was taking versus Donovan Mitchell when
you're talking about off the dribble and self creation and so I think those stats
are very important and are the best that we have. They're publicly available,
they will be behind submodels, and they're definitely not like all, they're not
these catchall metrics, but those are just inherently flawed. I think that they
are very useful, including NBA maths total points added when trying to gauge the
value of a player, especially established ones, and when they're all sort of
agreeing on a player. I do think that absolutely matters. But like they're
just inherently flawed, and we can't boil down the production to any player,
whether we're talking about not even production but the future of a player down to
one metrics. I think that you need to look at the ones that are
out there that can be context dependent, like that's baked in or can you
can you provide the context yourself where it's okay, Donovan Mitchell true shooting percentage
lower than Seth Curry, just as an example last season, But I'm going
back, I'm looking, Oh, Donovan Mitchell took like I'm just I don't
even know the number. Seventy percent of his shots makes one on assistant,
where Seth Curry, you know only thirty percent of a shot makes went unassisted.
I do think that can help, but that doesn't Sorry, No Name
for God. That doesn't answer your question on young players specifically. But I
do throw a lot of metrics out the window anyway with young players. And
so if you can find one that's, oh, he's shooting a very high
percentage despite taking a bunch of like having one of the highest shot difficulties among
rookies or among you know, players with fewer than three or fewer years of
experience, I think that stuff can still be telltale. No Name for God
also asked which teams can make an offer to the Nets for Ben Simmons and
who could he benefit the most. I low key of Boston, Atlanta and
the Nuggets. So Boston, I probably hate with Ben Simmons because they need
like if they need anything, it's just like the shot creator and maker,
and Ben is not that he's a great passer, which is in terms of
being a higher level shot creator. And I don't know that they even have
the spacing infrastructure to make that work, especially because who are you moving there
for Ben Simmons, Even if it's Derek White and Malcolm Brogden still hurt your
spacing, like getting rid of Malcolm Brogden, and certainly if Jalon Brown is
inclusive in there, I wouldn't mind Atlanta Stowe, but the fit with the
Jante Murray is pretty poor, even if you like it with Trey Young,
I wouldn't mind the Nuggets. Would you give up Michael Porter junior for Ben
Simmons right now? That's really a flex on just how much you trust your
mom Murray and Nicole Yokitch to adapt playing him with Eric Aaron Gordon that could
get a little clumpy Bruce Brown juniors now on that team, but there'd be
something to the Nuggets. I'd be curious if, just like, would one
of these rebuilding teams still want to take a chance on him or I wouldn't
mind seeing Ben Simmons and Charlotte At this point, what do they have to
give up aside from using Gordon Hayward Terry ros Year as a salary anchor?
Like do you like do you like James book Knight, do you like Ky
Jones? Would they be willing to move Mark Williams in that deal you can
maybe get if you're the net specifically, like, oh, Kelly Ubridge Junior
and Kelly Bridge Junior and Gordon Hayward, does that do it for you as
a return? And then maybe are even getting a pick out of that.
Charlotte's pretty encumbered with the picks they can offer. Given how protected twenty twenty
three first day Owe New York is, that just projects very far out,
I think to the twenty twenty six if I'm not mistaken, So that's like,
you know, Charlotte's pick, it's not over the nixt anymore. So
I think it ended up in Denver, So my apologies there. Like Charlotte,
I wouldn't mind to see, Like I said, I think you're onto
something with Denver. Nobody else really springs to mind, like I wouldn't mind
seeing him on one of the rebuilding squads. If it was a Houston maybe,
but they just like you have Jabari Smith Junior there, you have Jalen
Green and Alparen Shane Gun. I don't know where Ben Simon's fits into that.
Maybe wouldn't mind seeing him in San Antonio, but I'm more interested in
seeing if they can get their offensive identity through a Josh Primo and Devin Vassel
combination. And what's it like with Malkai Brandam and Jeremy Sowin and do we
give Kelvin Johnson more creation. I still would not mind Portland if you're just
looking for I don't know what they would be able to send back to you
there. At this point, I'm not giving up Jeremy Grant for him.
He's just an easier fit. But like if the Nets were for some reason
when he's trade eligible interested in Nurkitch. You have Josh Hart there as well,
and there's Justice's Winslow, like you could get to the salaries the Nets
want Gary Payton the second. I still wouldn't mind Portland. I'm not if
it's Anthony Simon's, Damian Lillard, Jeremy Grant, that's a and Ben Simmons
excuse you, Like, that's a really interesting core. I'm not giving up
Shade and Sharpe for Ben Simmons' values falling too low there. And I don't
think the Nets are gonna be looking to move him at least until they see
whether he can play and remain healthy. And if he can and they want
to move him, I would very much question what type of value they'd be
able to get back for him. But so I'll say Denver, Portland,
and I would be like really interested, I think to see him in Charlotte.
Those are just my three. I don't like Dallas is a no.
I don't see him in Detroit or Golden State. If you really wanted to
throw him an indie, that seems like maybe a gamble they could make,
because are the Spurs interested in Miles Turner and up the Nets like moving like
on a Miles Turner and Buddy Heel. It's like that even enough, you're
not gonna get Bennedic Mathrin for him or Tyree's Alibert. And so yeah,
my three would be Charlotte, Portland, and I think Denver's just interesting.
I wouldn't necessarily advocate for them trading MPJ for Ben Simmons if that was just
the framework of a deal, but that would be sort of a fun challenge
trade. Both of them have back issues, so perhaps very apropos. I
don't think you could also just like woof, Ben Simmons was floating around in
Utah at this point, he doesn't really have to give their rebuild a direction,
or maybe even Washington him and Bradley Beale is your back court. That
could be kind of fun, So I just add some other teams. I
actually really like the Utah and Washington idea. I don't think Ben Simmons ruins
your tank single handedly, so Utah and could very much slow play his back
and have him play like every like once a week or something like that this
season. Again, it just comes down that the Jazz aren't going to give
up future assets to get him. You'd be more likely to get that from
a Washington or a Charlotte Denver. With Michael Porter j you're having the challenge
trade. I don't even know if Portland would give up a pick for him.
To be honest, would you trade Anthony Simmons for Ben Simmons, Mike,
I just not without knowing Ben Simmons is back like if that was the
straight up trade, it can't be. Money would need to exchange hands there,
but food for odd I probably wouldn't, just because then you're really you're
on aging up your team, but it's you just got Anfrey Simons on that
four year dealing. If the Nets are willing to do that trade, it's
probably because Anthony Simons is balling out. We'll have to see. The Nets
are just so combustible. I don't know what's going to happen with them this
year. Real Seerr of twenty two nineteen, I was having a discussion with
a friend about how the NBA can better promote its international stars and would love
to get your thoughts. The basic line of thinking being the NBA seems to
want to move from the Lebron Steph Durant era straight to guys like Tatum,
Job Booker, ant Man's eye on, etc. And is praying those guys
Poppets have embraced the international stars who are already proven to be generational talents like
Jannie Yokichen Embiid, who've dominated MVP voting the last few seasons and already and
in Jannat's case, already won a championship Luca is the exception. Of course,
the NBA loves him. Seems like the NBA almost begrudgingly promotes these guys
because of the success they've had, not because they truly want them to be
the face of the league. I could list a dozen examples, but this
question is already long, so I'll wrap it up. Do you agree the
NBA can do better with his international stars, and if so, any thoughts
on how. I don't know what the thoughts would be other than leaning into
it. And I think, look, we've just seen this might be a
good example. We've just got word that Scoot Henderson and Victor women Yama are
gonna square off in a game I think October fourth and sixth. It's just
an exhibition game. Can you just expose NBA fans to these players when you
know that they're coming down the NBA draft pipeline before they get there. Yeah,
there's a case like Janis where not there was no way to know about
him, but like Luca was very much he was still harold as his unknown
prospect, but everyone knew he was making the jump of the NBA. He
was in the number one pick. Conversation like, can you somehow expose fans
to his games before he's getting there. The other thing that I think they
could do, and I know that this is like happened in the past,
even if you're not going to play games like in you know, We're the
Kookich isn't gonna play in Serbia. They're not gonna have an NBA game in
Serbia. I mean, that'd be fucking cool that maybe have more preseason games
there. I don't know how COVID and traveling now changes that though, like
post like post pandemic world. We're not even post pandemic but post quarantine,
so that would be something they consider. But can you maybe run like exhibition
games where it's yeah, teams will have off afterwards, but you're catering to
the timeline that's in Serbia to draw in those fans a little bit more.
Maybe that's stupid. Can you have like, if you know you have these
transcendent stars from these countries, can you have like and maybe some teams have
done this already, but can you have like a Slovenian national night if if
you're the Mavericks, so Luca's They've done a good job promoting Luca obviously,
so I think it starts maybe before they get to the MBA though, where
and Joel Epide was different because he was a Kansas and the hype train was
up on him, Like you weren't over exposed to him. You were more
exposed to Andrew Wiggins, which I guess could still be considered an international prospect
being from Canada if they're not going to NBA colleges, and even like,
look if they're in the G League, if they go that route too,
I feel like we're not as exposed as we need to be to those types
of prospects. But I think you could definitely just like why can't we play
a if insofar as it's feasible, Why can't we play preseason games in Serbia
or something? Or like I said, have like these is there, Like
can we have an international week? We have these rivalry weeks? Can we
have International Star week where there's like homage being paid to these players where they
come from, looking at their backgrounds, talking about their countries so that people
aren't confusing like EuroBasket with FIBA basketball. That's happening. And I look among
the casual NBA fans like like or NBA fans in general, like I get
the confusion, but when you have media outlets even mixing those up, that
that's probably not great. So I don't think honestly, I don't have a
good answer to this. I hope at least that thought was semi coher and
some of them work. We did have no name for God responded to this
in discord. I've been operating under better. Yeah, I think the NBA
is a market and the product is fun. Current fraction that dominates is domestic
or U US fraction, while Asia, Europe Africa slowly coming up. The
marketing strategy NBA takes is looking at the max revenue and in the short term
that seems to be US. But the fact, as you pointed out,
that international players are dominating will certainly expand the national interests give NBA motivation to
push new young international prospects like Victor w Just my two cents worth, this
was a great question from real Syrope. I would just say, like some
of the like revenue potential will just be tied to well, can we give
these stars the exposure? And I would say, like Janice Is Jannis had
more than adequate exposure before he won his title. But even just having this
is a symptom of the rest of NBA coverage, the fact that we're waiting
for him to leave Milwaukee to end up in a bigger market. You can
absolutely do a better job to support players when they're on these these teams,
Like can you on the smaller market, non glamorous mid market teams, which
is to say, you can't dictate what ESPN and what Bleacher Report is going
to talk about. And I work for Bleacher Report. That being said,
like when we have a broadcast and we're talking about Janice's free agency, but
it's actually like Celtics Lakers that's on the Like that's a problem, Like or
if it's Bucks versus whoever, and you're still talking about Janie's free agency.
Part of that coverags needs to change. I love transactions, but I also
love basketball, and I'd be open to, you know, like being able
to dive deeper into these players backgrounds during the broadcast, like having these segments.
Can you do a better job of having that just on NBA TV,
which you have direct control over. So I think it just certainly starts with
the best way to better promote them is to promote them more and maybe at
different points. And like I said, maybe it could be like an International
Prospect or Star Week or both at this point, like we're doing with Rivalry
Week. I think do think a bigger thing could be And I use this
as an example for Lucas specifically the fact that so little was known about him
heading into the NBA draft. For yeah, the analysts that cover the NBA
Draft, but just like his name was just out there, but there just
wasn't enough information flowing about him in my opinion, like you could also make
a better effort to do that. And is there a way to showcase these
games on MBA TV or just somehow like through segments or something where you're tackling
these not as es Piano just bleacher ported on MBA TV or just on the
NBA dot com website, having more articles on them when you're looking at ahead
and trying to project forward. That would be my two cents there, or
hopefully it was at least a one cent worth one cent on that. Those
are those are my thoughts. HP Bergie asked what if Tim Connolly, the
team president for the Minnesota team, was maybe the smartest move the off season
by purposely overpaying for Gobert so that other teams couldn't get a KD deal done
and he stayed in the East. I know that's not true, but honestly,
what if he felt like he had to get the deal done before Katie
was traded, that the trade didn't end up at the price on Golbert basically
the opposite of what happened. Interesting to think about. Look, I'm all
for the pettiness. I like to think that Jannis held up his extension decision
just to let teams who really wanted him go through their free agency process in
twenty twenty. I think it was apologies if I have a year wrong,
only to them be like, oh no, I'm staying Milwaukee, And there
were teams that sort of planned around him maybe hitting the free agency market.
I will say, like whether it's Danny Ainge or's Tim Connolly, asked Timberwolves,
both them like they done fucked up the superstar the trademarket value. I
know we've seen Look any games went for a Ton in the final year of
his contract, and I think that should have been more of a flash point
for all of us where there was a there actually was a market of one
team negotiating on that. Maybe one would have come out of left field that
Cleveland did with Donovan Mitchell, but he still went for a king's ransom despite
you know, going into the last year of his deal, because we knew
the Lakers were going to resign him. But like they could have also tried
to play that for their advantage like they did with Paul George and that ended
up blowing up in their face. Worked out quite well for the Clippers,
and even the thunder they were able to trade Paul George and Kwai without ever
actually having Kawai. But you're looking at the scale that these deals are now
taking place on where it's two teams and the Timberwolves and the Cavaliers who go
there. We didn't know that he had a preference on any one team outside
of Utah. We knew Mitchell wanted to go to New York. Cleveland's coming
anyway, and just throwing the equivalent of like growing control six of their draft
picks when you're looking at Acbaji drafting lottery this year and then three unprotected first
plus two unprotected swaps to go after Mitchell. Yes, the contract terms matter.
He has three guaranteed years left on his deal before he can hit free
agency, and he's also just young enough to where you feel confident making mac
gamble. But I do think the superstar trade market has changed forever in part
because you have these mid to small market teams who are I don't want to
say barren of playoffs success, but there's pressure for them to succeed independent of
certain eras Cleveland without Lebron, Minnesota, you know, since KG not having
a ton of success and even like you can argue had very minimal success with
him and would also you have the pressure on those two teams specifically, Well,
we have these talented young cores. We have karl anthy Towns under contract.
We have Anthony Edwards, who's a megastar in the making or about to
just be one this season, could be an NBA player already, Like,
we just need to maximize this window because stars are requesting out or getting disgruntled,
or we're seeing a point in Utah where Donovan Mitchell is only one year
into his actual MAX extension and getting moved already. He did not ask for
this one. But we're seeing that these m MEA windows are more fickle,
they're tighter, and so I do think there's an incentive for teams of from
all like market types to just go for it harder, and so that's going
to drum up the cost of stars that you are not drafting or signing in
free agency outright, obviously, I think what that does flipping it on as
ted and this isn't necessarily related to Kevin Durant, but you're a team like
the Knicks who built up all this equity to trade for a star, all
of a sudden, you're going to be more hesitant to do that because you
can't, like within a couple of years of each other, feasibly trade for
two stars anymore. It feels like I'm sure that will change at some point
or there will be exceptions. But how the Knicks match the Calves offer.
That's what's lost in all this is people who think that two unprotected first and
RJ were by far and away better than what the Calves were actually ended up
giving Utah. That's arguable at best. I think rebuilding teams like the Jazz
just prefer the unknown of draft picks rather than even if you think RJ.
Barretts extension is fine, and by the way, it is like you just
prefer the anonymity associated to these draft picks. That mystery up side to what
you can do not only after you use them, but if you wanted to
flip them. And there's also just that tied to the unknownness of down the
line with these teams. If you're sending Dovid Mitchell to Cleveland, or you're
sending Rudy Gobert, who's in his thirties to Minnesota, you're like, well,
they're just in future. Might not be promising. Mitchell could leave Cleveland,
Rudy Gobert could regress extreme, like in an extreme fashion. So I
do think in part because of Tim Connolly, this was like this. I
really do think it goes back a lot to the KD trade up the ad
trade, but like the trade market for stars has ostensibly changed forever, and
it might change the way then that I don't really think any team was actually
thinking that they could trade for two stars and that's how they're going to rebuild.
Most of them know that you need to get that first one in there
via the draft. The Knicks have yet to grasp that that's just that much
is clear, even though they held under their youngsters. The result of what
happened for them now is fine. It doesn't you know, the fact that
they were in it at all, offered as much as they did, including
RJ. Barrett, doesn't necessarily imply that they get that. And that does
pertain to the KD Trade sweepstakes, because that's why if you're the Nets,
you were asking for the moon. But his case was even harder to grapple
with because he's older than Gobert. Katie's going to his age thirty four season.
He's not been as healthy as Gobert over the past three years, and
so what are you actually supposed to get for him? Is it acceptable to
get as much for Gobert when it's Kevin Durant who's a top ten, top
five player versus Rudy Gobert, who at his best is he's an all NBA
player, but he's between top fifteen and top twenty five at his peak.
So this is just like stuff that I think is really going to change,
and maybe it'll be sort of addressed in the next CBA. But I also
don't know how you aside from creating an avenue to there being a renaissance and
free agency, which maybe the cap spike, even by virtue of smoothing,
can help with that because the cap is still gonna go up certain players,
it's not gonna be worth it for them to extend. Think of Donovan Mitchell,
He's all likely going to get to free agency in twenty twenty five because
if he extends off this number, it won't hit his max max salary.
So yeah, this is it's fascinating. I think that the star trade market,
though, has changed forever and HP Bergie that's definitely at least in part
because of Tim Connelly and of course Danny Ainge. I do hope that he
did that negotiations unfold the way that they did to sabotage the Kevin Trade sweepstakes.
I'm all for those conspiracy theories. They also ask who would win a
one on one Kevin Durant or Isaiah Thomas with a BB gun. It would
still be Kevin Durant. He could just get the shot off over the top
of everything, including BB pellets, I would think. Fool asked, what
are the chance that Anthy Edwards can make the lead needed to give the Wolves
the perimeter threat and scoring punch needed for a championship run. They seem to
be aiming for that with the Gobert deal, and if that kind of leap
is out of the question this earlier. Are there other areas of improvement on
the roster where they can be legit contender by the end of the season.
Look, I don't think they need Anthy Edwards to be an All NBA player
for them this year. For them to be a title contender, or at
least a title contender in the image of the regular season, they could be
a top four, top three, top two team in the West, even
if he's not an All NBA player. But when you watch Anthony Edwards,
there's room for him to grow as a passer, and he's already made some
really complicated passes. And I think when you look at his off the dribble
shop making showed them even more flashes of that after the All Star Break specifically
could break them down. I was looking at like specific dates actually earlier,
but let's just use the post All Star break. Is Cleaner shoots nearly thirty
five percent on his off the dribble threes during that span. That is the
pathway. Do you need him to be your lead playmaker? And I think
he's capable of that down the line. Do I think he would be better
than Jayson Tatum as a passer this season. He might be able to get
up to the Jayson Tatum level this season, which perhaps that's enough if you're
looking at other areas of improvement. It's just what is sort of the you
know, if the defense I think is going to be wind up being spectacular
unless we see Rudy Gobert just implode. But can you get enough three point
volume and shot making out of this group that you have? And maybe you
have enough of it with Towns and Jail and Noel, But like I don't
know about dead eye accurate shooters outside of those two, and a lot of
that could come down to, well, Anthony Edwards on set jumpers, is
D'Angel Russell gonna shoot better than he did last year and pull up threes?
How many minutes? And what type of accuracy accuracy can you get out of
Tony and Prince well Kyle and Anderson go back to hitting his corner threees at
a high clip. I think he dropped a little bit last year. What
about McDaniels. Can he up his percentages and the volume with which he's taking
those threes? And so that would be just looking at this roster. If
you were to say Anthy Edwards is let's say lateral compared to last year.
Maybe he makes takes more strides on the defensive end, which I would probably
bet on given the infrastructure that's around him. Now let's just say he's buying
large or close to you with the same offensive player. I think your quickest
path to playing above your expected level if you don't have Anty Edwards making all
NBA leap would just be this roster gets collective improvement on there. I don't
know call necessarily floor spacing, but just there are other non elite shooters,
and like we have towns and I think at this point you're gonna trust Jael
and Noel there. Maybe you try. You know, if you're a dude,
you trust Jordan McLaughlin. How much is he actually gonna play? Do
you trust is Austin Rivers? And so far he's gonna be part of the
rocation. Do you trust him to really knock down his shots? I'd probably
bet Austin Rivers. Fine. McLaughlin sub thirty two percent last year on threes,
and it wasn't on a high enough volume. Did shoot thirty eight point
two? Is a rookie thirty five point nine? His sophomore seasons like it's
there, but never on absurdly high volume. That would be just the their
quickest path to improvement. I think you're probably most likely to get that.
I'm talking outside of Anthony Edwards would be I look at D'Angelo Russell thirty four
percent on threes eight attempts. That's someone who can have a season, whether
he's taking most of them off the dribble, off the catch, where he's
shooting eight nine ten attempts per game, and he's right there with Karl Anthony
Towns and not maybe not shooting forty one percent, but shooting thirty seven,
thirty eight, thirty nine percent. And I do think, again, independent
of Anthy Edwards, if he's mostly the same player, only incrementally better rather
than monumentally better, I see like that is their path to really being a
threat in the West, just because I have such a big belief in their
defense and the structure that they have there now with Gobert, with Jade McDaniels,
with Kyle Anderson, with with Anthony Edwards as well. Next question comes
from jt Alexander. Bleacher Report wrote a team of five overrated NBA players of
the past ten years, which has listed some interesting response on Twitter. I'm
almost sorry to ask, Dan, but who are your top Who are your
five overrated players of the last ten years? So I'm just going to tease.
I did a YouTube exclusive on this that I published on Labor Day.
Go check that out. I will say demardar Rosen made that list. I
am vehemently against that decision with respect to my employer. I think there's a
difference between overrated and a very good player who needs specific circumstances under which to
be optimized, and demardar Rosen, to me, I would argue it's probably
more so underrated because did you ever really expect him to get through Lebron James.
He was never mentioned in the same tier as Lebron to where he thought
that he was going to be able to lead the Raptors with Kyle Lowry past
those Those Cavs teams actually think he's probably like the single most underrated passer of
the last half decade. Maybe the single most might be like a little bit
too too far, but he's certainly up there. I would say my most
I'm gonna only give you one because I concluded some other ones. I'll give
you two and in the last ten years Rondo specifically, I just don't I
go back and I look and the teams for Boston and some a lot of
them date back pre ten years now, So maybe I am going too far
back, but I just I don't know. I just feel like we sort
of all overhyped the way that he would drib the air out of the ball
just because yeah, he would move with it, and like his passes were
pretty and he did set up guys, but the Celtics were just like once
he lost top shelf talent around him, dealt with injuries, but just never
elevated the play of noticeably inferior players, like never got them to that next
level, and like he was at all these different stops. So I would
say Rondo is probably one of the most overrated players for me. I also
think currently, and maybe I'm reading too much into I got YouTube comments recently
that said Mitchell Robinson multiple not one person, Mister Robinson's a better defender than
Evan Mobley. And I just feel like, having discussed with people wondering why,
well, if Robert Williams the third can be what he is, why
can't Mitchell Robinson be viewed as this asset and then if he also seen him
compared to Gobet, like Mitchell, Robinson has never shown the passing that RW
three has shown. I think it is switching is like the defense in space.
Maybe not switching is just not as dynamic as what we've seen from RW
three. He's clearly no Gobert. He's one of the least dynamic offensive players.
He can't put the ball on the floor. He can't make a pass
out of the like out of the post on the short role. This is
not someone who's gonna have a bunch of like head or updakes around the basket
to adjust his shot, just like and he got four years and sixty million
dollars. Good for him. It's on the declining scale. You want to
bet on him staying healthy getting better. Fine, but he just feels overrated
to me the rest of my players. I'm teasing our YouTube exclusive jt Alexander
go check out that list. Demos quol RJ batter is not a bad score.
So how are his extremely inefficient splits explained? Are they related with general
dysfunction of the team, lack of true point guard, general decrease in three
point percentages in the NBA or combination of all the previous points or something else.
In addition, maybe so two things stand out to me. One is
role in constancy for him, where he has been very much asked to at
points to be a complementary score and to dot the three point r And he's
shooting thirty seven plus percent on catch and shoot threes for his career. That's
a fine number. But then last season he's sort of tasked towards the end
with running the entire show, and we saw a lot of flashes, some
really nice passes from him, some really nice sort of movement in cadence once
he got into the lane, took a bunch of shots at the rim,
still struggled to finish as efficiently as you should. But he's not having these
consistent opportunities to work on his game at that level. Well, he get
that this season with Jalen Brunts in there, all question it if Julius Randall
is still in the lineup. The other thing is I think a player like
him who is to me never even going to be the level of off the
dribble jump shooter that Damar is from the mid range, but he can bring
his percentages up just like, yeah, I could see him like dribbling into
pull ups. That's fine, but never going to be sort of these you
know, quick fire three point shots off the dribble or mid range jumpers off
the dribble. You need this around him with a bunch of spacing, and
like, yeah, I do believe that RJ could like have a nifty floater
and you're gonna trust him like using his right hand more on the perimeter.
There are things that I think he will improve. But if someone who's not
super reliant on athleticism, it's even just like you know, Jimmy Butler is
someone who's been very effective with his downhill pressure, not relying on his jumper,
but he just has a level of explosion. I'd argue that RJ Barrett
does not. The spacing around him needs to be better. And that's not
an indictment of RJ Barrett really, that's just an indictment of if the Knicks
want him to be the guy, you need to maximize the roster fit around
him. And I don't think I would even say that this could be the
case for Jawn Brunson, is that so much of what he does best happens
inside the arc and putting defenses on tilt. I don't know if the Knicks
are gonna have enough shooting around him, enough three point volume, or enough
three point efficiency, or just enough players standing where they need to be.
When you look at Tibbs's propensity for wanting to play a traditional center, is
he gonna let Isaiah Hartenstein camp beyond the arc or on the perimeter like the
Clippers would do a lot last year. I don't know, so that would
that would be my concern. I'm not trying to say it's not all on
r J. But I think he is probably underrated on a national level while
being overrated amongst Knicks fans in general, and there's a happy medium. I
think that that happy medium hasn't been reached because the context of his role has
been so inconsistent, and then the Knicks have not been built for us to
even see what a higher volume, high usage best version of RJ Barrett looks
like. We saw the higher volume, high uses version of him towards the
end of last year, and Fred Katz has been on this at the Athletic
did a bunch of fantastic pieces about his performance post New year, but like
the roster still just didn't fit what I think you need if you want RJ.
Barrett to be your primary ball handler, and so that would be something
to watch for moving forward. Adding on with this is from unbiased Pistons fan,
ending on with no name for God. There was one vote for the
oh I already did so. We had questions about the ESPN NBA survey.
Did a podcast on that already. That was its own podcast. Check it
out. It's also on YouTube as well. Petsy cash Money, what do
you think Jay Crowder's trade value is and what makes sense as a landing spot.
Suns fans are convinced Jordan Clarkson is a feasible trade return, but I
don't see how that makes any sense for Utah since Jay is early thirties and
more valuable to a contender, not a rebuilding team. Chicago or Brooklyn have
some needs in the front court. I assume Phoenix is targeting more playmaking,
shock creating in return. Kobe White, question mark LLL, Betsy cash Money.
I do not wish Kobe White upon the Phoenix Suns as someone who has
been bullish that the Suns are still going to be really good. I also
so what's interesting about Jay I agree everything with that. Betsy cash Money says,
I agree with everything there that the Suns, if they're going to level
up, it's I don't even want to say they need a third best offensive
player because that could be eighten, but they need like a third best ball
handler who's not mckail Bridges or if you think Aidan's gonna get more outside in
work this year or Cameron Payne, Jordan Clarkson would be that he doesn't.
If you're going to go that route where it's really all offense too, I
need more rim pressure and free throw frequency than I'm going to get from Jordan
Clarkson. I'd also like someone who I'd be more comfortable playing with both Booker
and Chris Paul and quite frankly, Jordan Clarkson defensively is not going to be
that for me. If you're losing Jay Crowder at the four, it's Michael
Bridges an Eton that puts an awful lot of pressure on the other four players
on the court. Maybe it works, but you're like small ish in a
bet, like, yeah, Jordan Clarkson is what is he six? I
don't even is he six five or something? But like Devin Booker, in
that six five six six territory, Jordan Clarkson six fours, and just like
Chris Paul, we know we he's small, So I don't necessarily love that,
And I would argue that I think Jay Crowder is worth a first round
pick to a contender, like I think Miami would give up a first round
pick for Jay Crowder right now. And maybe that's in part because they would
need to get off Duncan Robinson as part of that deal. If I were
the Jazz, just because I have so many guards and not enough like wings
or forwards at this point, I would do The money does work, straight
up, I believe because Jay Crowder is making in the tens this season.
I'll double check that as I'm speaking right now, but he's at ten point
two million, and so you have Jordan Clarkson at He's at thirteen point three
this year with the player option for fourteen point three. So yes, that
that would work. I would probably do it if I'm Utah, to be
honest, if the Suns were gonna include an asset, even a tiny one,
all the better for me, So like, yeah, hell yeah,
I would do that. If I'm Utah, I wouldn't do it if I
was Phoenix. Betty cash Money mentioned other teams like yeah, Brooklyn care really
use Jay Crowder. They did sign Utah wants an Abby and that's where Mark
Kith Morris went as well. I believe I don't really know what they have
to give up, Like you want, you're not gonna get Cam Thomas from
them, and like you're not and they have TJ. Warren there now too,
they're not gonna get and they have Roys O'Neil. So I don't know
that they would give you and like neither of those guys give you what you
need. Like Seth Curry would be interesting in Phoenix, but he's not enough
of a ball hand or I think to give the Sun what they need.
Other teams that's bring to mind, like Cleveland. I think Jay Crowd would
be a good fit there, But again what is Cleveland sending? Like do
you want Caris Lavert on the Suns? There might be something you can work
out there if they're willing to take uh, you know, like do you
still like Tory Craig for instance in Phoenix? Do you I don't know how
to you Landry Shammitt's contract. I don't think it's as bad as it's painted
out to be. It's two years barely guaranteed. Over it's about two years,
twenty one million dollars. And they could use like someone who can get
up a high volume of threes. But if it was Landry Shammont and Landry
Shammont and Jay Crowder for Carros Lavert, are you considering that if you're Phoenix,
like in theory, Lavert gives you a lot of what you need is
a ball. Henry he's a little bit bigger, so you could play it
with Chris Paul and Devin Booker. The problem there then becomes Chris Paul and
Devin Booker are very much the one ones that are talented at playing off the
ball, while Caros Lavert is not. And so that's what's so tough about
Phoenix's situations. They're almost better built to wait and see if just a bigger
name becomes available, because then you have, yeah, Jay Crowder won't be
super valuable to these younger rebuilding teams, but like he can easily be routed
to third and fourth facilitating parties who I think would give you, you know,
not a great first round pick, but would give you a first round
pick if you're a contender, like identifying the Heat as one that would be
a good call for them. I'm trying to think of like another team that
where I could really see it, like like Boston's not gonna do it,
would would at Land I do it? Like, Yeah, their picks are
all all over the place there, Dallas doesn't really have one. Denver doesn't
have a lot of pick equity. So the teams that would give up first
round picks, a lot of them just don't have first round picks to give.
And you're not gonna get like the Lakers. You're not gonna get take
on the Lakers bad money, which would be Russ Like, is there a
third and fourth team deal where that comes up? But I could see for
sure a team like would Toronto even consider it later in the season at the
deadline? That's maybe a decision they make around then then excuse me, would
Memphis consider it? That's a team Miami as well. Milwaukee doesn't have like
first round pick assets, but if you wanted Marjehan bow Champ, like,
is that something they could do? Again, then you get into the issue
of well, what is Phoenix getting back in this? And so that is
why the carous Lavert stuff is a little interesting, and if you're getting off,
I would say Cleveland would need to take back well. And I mean,
like part of what's difficult for them is they have a ton of room.
Oh they know, they do have more room under the attacks than I
think than I thought. So if you wanted to go Lavert for Jay Crowder
plus Salary X, I don't know, Like, do you think that's campaign?
Do the Sun's not want to pay him a six million dollars? Or
is it more likely to be Tory Craig or is it Landry Shammitt, Like
those are deals that could work. It could be Darius Arts as well,
but I kind of think Phoenix needs him and he's more valuable to Phoenix than
he would be for Cleveland. So something like that. I don't know if
it's perfect, but could keep an eye on. And I wouldn't hate Lavert
in Phoenix. Betsy cas Money asked where do I think Watchers Harrell will end
up? He's in Philly, and I'm so mad because it's after I at
least the Sixers look ahead. The Pickens were pretty slim on that. So
let's talk about the Montres. How to filling move very quickly. I guess
I like it for the regular season. I wanted to see more Paul Reid
with the Sixers, and now you're giving Doc Rivers another former big of his
from the Clippers, just like you did with DeAndre Jordan. But he's probably
gonna play ahead of Paul Reid. Now I get it. Joelbid's gonna miss
games. You need innings eaters for the regular season, and if I trusted
Doc Rivers to still balance the development of even Charles Basset or Paul Reid,
go ahead. But I also think like Philly's better off running lineups with PJ.
Tucker at the five when it beads off the court and Paul read together
like that at your front court. I guess what makes Montreshwal appealing here is
if you're playing him in minutes with PJ. Tucker or Tobias Harris is the
four. When he's the five, it makes it easier to prioritize the spacing
and get him really rampaging downhill. It's a minimum signing. I don't think
it makes or breaks them. I do. I lament the fact that it's
going to hurt the development of Paul Reid. Matt Chan. The Hawks and
DeAndre Hunter do to discuss an extension, but haven't come to an agreement as
of now. My question is, if he has a similar year to last
year, do you see any teams that would go out and give him a
big offer sheet next season? Hawktron office has made it clear they are invested
in his development, but I could see a world where the price is just
too high if he can't show some upward trajectory. Yeah. I mean,
look, I'm with you if he has the season he did last year,
where I think the kindest way to put it is there was just it was
stagnant to regression on the office, stagnancy to regression from him on the offensive
end, and I was just like not super impressed with him defensively. Defensively,
but he's just still when you look at his size and the way that
he used his space to his advantage, he's rock solid. There is this
someone like in Fury he's not worth Let's use Ogana Nobi money here. Where
he's O January he's at seventeen point four million. I wouldn't give DeAndre Hunter
that right now, even with the cap going up like that could be money
that he gets. Would the Pistons look at him? They're gonna have a
ton of cap space next season. The Cavs particularly of cap space is Justin
Rohan pointed out to me when we were talking post Doman Mitchell. I wouldn't
if they really want to just keep leaning young and they're gonna pay him as
sort of a flyer wing. But the Pistons would be interesting because they could
still sort of use wings. There would indeed be invested in his develop elopment.
They they're slated to have a ton of cap space next season, Orlando
still needs a three and d wings, So would they be comfortable And I'm
not saying like there's Franz Wagner there. They have Jan Suggs and Pala Bank,
Caro Chumokeke there too, Gary Harris. But like I think you're looking
at teams, there are a lot more teams with cap space, and even
Utah, like if they're just gonna have money and they veew hunters a nice
developmental project, could we see them sign him to an inflated like two year
deal when we're talking specifically about you know, Detroit or Utah as an example,
So those would be two teams right off the bat. I keep an
eye on like if Charlotte like has money, but that depends on what's happening
with Miles Bridges. Not Orlando for me, No, okay, see,
maybe like if they just want to throw some money around, but they'll run
into roster spot issues. So I'm just gonna say, keep an eye on
Detroit and Utah things get weird with DeAndre Hunter. I don't think the Spurs
would do it, but if things get weird between DeAndre Hunter and the Hawks
this season and they don't agree to an extension, I'd probably expect him to
see see him on the trade block because if he's not playing well, if
you're not getting to them from him, the Hawks are going to be substantially
weaker. We did talk about this on the Cavs podcast, but very quickly
fool, how much more important is Isaaco Core's development to this Cavs team.
Now? If he can become a reliable playoffs starter, what's the ceiling of
this team? The ceiling would be championship, because I think that that's what
they're ceiling is, if not next season, the season after with Isaaco Core,
I think it's just very important that you want to see him continue to
hit corner three's improve his above the break three point percentage as well off the
catch. You don't even do anything else now, and that might be a
problem. Like, yeah, he's he's had some nice moments where he's moving
away like without the ball towards the basket. So if you can get more
of that with Mitchell and and Darius Garland, But like you need him or
Mobley, I will say, like you need that third guy who's going to
hit three pointers reliably as part of that starting five. Can it be o'cro
because they don't necessarily need him defensively as much anymore. Maybe you think that
they do because he can defend at the point of attack, so that's even
going to be important. Then if you don't want to put Mitchell or Garland
on certain of those assignments. But I think offensively, and I talked about
this with Justin Rowan as well. It was just from the Chasetown Pod.
I need the ball in his hands to really be maximized more. But like
it's not gonna happen now, like there's just no pathway to it. You
want to see MOBILEI Mitchell Garland with the ball in their hands more and so
even in the second unit, like you have Caros LeVert, Ricky will eventually
be healthy. You don't want to see. Ask Core we get those reps,
So can he become like dominant getting out in transition? Let's say for
those Kevin Love outlet passes, cutting more towards the basket, just general off
ball movement. Or I think what would what will be a swing skill for
him is just hitting that set three pointer from the corner and also above the
break at let's say overall a thirty six thirty seven percent clip on reasonable volume.
I'm talking five attempts a game that would put the Calves just in a
very enviable situation, more so than they already are. Israel and score PC.
Now that Mitchell has been traded as a Miles buddy Westbrook deal get done.
We did answer version of this question before. I will say if I
had depict the team that's most likely to get involved in a Westbrook trade right
now, it is in. I just don't know that I have faith in
it getting done at all, for reasons I outlined before. I'm good at
say I want to say no, but I just I'm tired of saying no,
and then having those moves go down. I will say that's probably the
feels like would be the most likely trade. I'm just gonna say no.
Just something about the messaging Los Angeles is putting out there, and now you're
you're punting all of a sudden on the Kyrie Irving sweepstakes. Muckle would love
to hear your ranking of a top five or ten backcourt on an upcoming pod.
Oh wow, here's a good teaser. I recorded a podcast with Adam
frommel where we ranked the backcourts of every single team in the NBA. We
separated into two six tiers that will be dropping Monday or Tuesday of next week,
So keep an eye out for that. Dark Wing Duck tell me,
as a national media NT, why should watch my favorite team this year minus
our top two from last year? So he's Darkwing Duck is a Utah Jazz
fan. I will say they need to clear up the pipeline having Jordan Clarkson
there. I'm fine Beasley being there, but Jordan Carkson Mike Conley specifically,
I'm very excited to see, like what Jared Vanderbilt can do with some consistent
playing time. There's just a lot of wiggle to his game. I loved
him in Oh my God, was it summer League or like preseason exhibition of
twenty twenty one. I can't remember if he played in Summer League or not.
My brains all scrambled, but I remember clipping and watching moments of him.
There's a lot of just off the dribble flare to his game, Like
it's not super explosive, but he can get defense sort of just keep them
spinning and turn them around and hit some like off the dribble jumpers get a
little going down hill, and I think teammates would benefit from the way defense
has collapsed. That's why I would watch the Jazz. Also, I have
heard spectacular things. Also watch Jared Vanderbilt because he is caffeine and poddily form.
If he's still in Utah. Walker Kessler, a lot of people have
tons of faith in his defensive ability. I don't think he's gonna be quick
enough to be like this dominant All NBA defender, but when you sort of
look at his length and his presence around the basket, or the ability to
swallow shots or disrupt them a little bit away from the basket, because he
knows how to use his size and length. That would be another reason to
watch. The Jazz do not have that poll star cornerstone prospect right now,
but there are still reasons to like. There are players that could be a
part of their their next era of good basketball. And I'd also say I've
been given up fully on Nikill Alexander Walker just yet. There is like someone
who can pull back into jumpers like that and get them off. It'd be
nice see him do it more efficiently. Can he put it together as more
of a consistent decision maker as a passer when he gets going downhills, a
finisher around the basket. I'd like to see him get a bunch of reps
too, So him and Jared Butler both those would be my reasons to tune
into Utah and it would be part of why I do turn into Utah this
season. Can you Romeo a rome eight one eight zero. Can you talk
about what Colin Sexton was valued solo on the marketplace? Ultimately, I don't
feel like his injury concerns are that worries something. In the twenty twenty one
season, he ever was twenty four points per game on forty eight thirty seven
eighty two splits. There can have been many player his age in history of
the league to hit those shooting splits on that volume. What am I missing
here? Are the passing and the defense really enough to drag one of the
young scores down to a sub twenty million dollars contract. When I compare a
stats to RJ. Barrett's to pick another recent sudden contract, I feel like
Barrett would have to be the best defender in the history of basketball to justify
the extra fifty million. Well, so Barrett didn't get anti or fifty million,
he got an extra thirty five million. I've talked about contexts and a
lot. We did the whole pot on that. I'm sure Raoul who's row
eighty one eighty listened to that one, given how much he listens to this
podcast. I will say that I just think there's a stigma more so against
smaller guards who either are not a plus passers or they're not hitting a ton
off the dribble jumpers. I think Colin Sexton can be, you know,
a solid like a very good to fringe star off guard when you're looking at
a starting lineup or just come off the bench, and I think give you
enough playmaking to where he can run those units. You get him going downhill,
he can make good passes off those defenses collapse. I just don't think
he's ever going to have the in between game off the dribble or hit a
ton off the dribble threes. His three point volume is also suspect in general,
even though he shoots it really well off the catch. But it's like
I said before, he's at twenty four points per game score for the twenty
one season, and like the efficiency he had them on where he hit better
than fifty percent of his two's and thirty seven plus percent of his threes.
There's only a couple of players in NBA history have done that at his age.
It's fewer than five. I can't remember the names. Again, I
spoke about it on a previous pod, so I don't want to go too
deep into it. I think when you look at RJ. Barrett, there's
also just people who are going to favor size RJ. Barrett six seven,
and he profiles at worst as someone who could be like his worst best case
outcome, let's say, is a three ind wing because he's been rock solid
defensively. I don't think he needs to be the best defender in the history
of basketball. I still don't think you want him covering your toughest wing assignments,
to be quite frank there, but he's shooting thirty seven plus percent on
catches shoot threes while defending at a position wing spots that are just more valuable
than a lot of people consider guard defense, which Sexon is also not good
at. And so there's that push and pull there. Do I think Context
has been the better offensive player to date? I would say Contex has also
been the more valuable player projecting ahead, though I understand why you might be
more intrigued buy an RJ. Barrett as opposed to a Colin Sexton. Yeah,
so like that. That's where I'm at with with Sexton there. And
that is it for this mailbag. I answered a ton more questions. This
spent longer I was on a deadline. I'm going to miss it now,
but this was great. Please if this is your first time checking us,
out rate reviews, subscribe where you're getting your podcast Hitten on YouTube, Blake
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Download every episode to help Hardward not to climb up the charts, follow
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of that are in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Until next time, and
as always, maybe the shout out till one, the only, the indelible,
the legendary, the one who's actually more valuable than RJ. Barrett and
Colin Sexton combined. Frank Nila Keina