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What is Krakolakian fellow Thermo nuclear a
effort. I am a dam to Valley

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coming at you with a solo podcast, the first solo podcast in quite sometime.

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Lots to talk about, and we
obviously have to start with the trade

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between the Chicago Bulls and the Oklahoma
City thunder Woes was the first to report

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it. It's just a straight up
swap. The Thunder sending Josh Giddy to

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Chicago and the Bulls are sending Alex
Caruso to the Thunder. We'll try and

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break this down by team. I
will start with let's go with the Bulls

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here. This is disastrous for them. And I wrote a piece immediately after

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it's up, a Bleach report.
You go check it out. I'll play

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step in the toes of some here
of much of what I said there.

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I we don't necessarily take out the
stick of dynamite too often, Like I

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try to approach things from a level
headed perspective. I eviscerated them because this

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is just a catastrophic example of asset
mismanagement. When you look at a team

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that we know reportedly had offers of
multiple first round picks for multiple suitors at

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the trade deadline, and there was
even this is per Will Gottlieb of Chicago

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Sports, I believe recently reported that
they could have had a top ten pick

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in this year's draft. Now,
you could break this down as do you

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want a top ten picker Josh Gidty
in like Josh Getty or top ten picky

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in this draft when not a lot
of people are high on this draft class.

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That's something to get into. But
I think there's sort of three layers

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to this. Now, the idea
of the Bulls trading Alex Caruso's that's actually

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good. It implies some semblance of
foresight. Maybe they checked in and saw

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he wasn't going to sign a four
year extension, which it's estimated we figure

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out what the league's average salary ends
up being, but that could have been

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around four seventy eight. Four eighty
was the number that I saw Woj throw

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out there. So, assuming he
talks to Bobby Marks, are they knew

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he wouldn't sign at that number,
or that if he is willing to sign

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at that number, he didn't want
it to be in Chicago, and so

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moving that player who we all knew
was not part of their long term program.

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If the Bulls were ever going to
be great again, even though he

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is an all world defender himself.
Moving that player is perfectly fine. I

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would argue that it's the right move, and it sort of hints at a

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level of foresight of self awareness that
the Bulls have not typically shown. So

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I have no issue with moving Alice
Caruso, nor with what it implies that

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the Bulls might be doing. But
we will get to that. The actual

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return here, you have to look
at it. Josh Giddy, he doesn't

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turn twenty two until just before the
start. Might think it's August. He'll

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be twenty two next season. Tips
off, you're getting younger here. And

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the Bulls said that they were looking
to replace Lonzo Ball as part of this.

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I find that hysterical because Lonzo BA
hasn't played more than two years,

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and so now you're looking to replace
him in what efforts did you actually put

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into looking to replace him over the
course of those two years, And between

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Lonzo shooting, defense and playmaking,
Josh Gitty is going to place exactly one

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of those things in the playmaking.
I'm open to the idea though, that

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Giddy can be much better than what
we've seen in Okac and he's had moments.

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This isn't to paint the picture of
Josh Gidty sucks as a basketball player.

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You can get into you have to
have your own questions about the stuff

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that's going that went on off the
court. The issue here is you are

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acquiring someone who's about to be paid
again and well probably because of his agenc

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paid more than Alex Caruso. Now
if you think that Josh Giddy really has

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more to offer, because we saw
that Jalen Williams, we saw that Shay

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Giliges Alexander, you served him in
kind of the feature the ball handler pecking

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order. There's been talk that the
thunder one expand ch at Holmgrids on ball

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roll next year. You do have
Cason Wallace, so you probably want to

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develop a little bit more on ball
because he can be a little he could

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be too hesitant. He's just much
better than Josh Giddy ever was on defense

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so far. So yes, he's
slid down the pecking order. You now

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go to a team that I guess
is going to feature you prominently prominently,

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but it becomes a mega issue in
the sense that you again look at what

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you could have had. So two
first round picks at least or a top

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ten pick that would have been under
cost control. You're now getting this player

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as you have to decide whether he's
worth paying, and you might have to

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make that call before he's ever on
the court. He's rookie extension eligible.

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You don't need to know his max
salary. He's not getting it. I

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would imagine they make this wait until
restricted free agency, so you kind of

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have a year to let this play
out. But there are a number of

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things that could happen here. Either
Josh Giddy underperforms and it doesn't cost a

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shit ton to keep him, in
which case the trade's going to look like

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a dud, or he overperforms and
you have to pay him a boltload of

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money at a time when you're still
not good enough to justify just shelling out

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these massive deals. And I think
the bigger issue for me here than the

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fact that they prioritized well. And
also if you want to be in a

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situation where you're prioritizing, forget about
it being Josh Giddy, it could be

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another player, and most of the
players that unless you had the opportunity to

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get a caps locked cornerstone, or
if you like to prioritize players over picks

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in this situation is bizarre to me. And so you look at if this

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was their version of the Raptors trade. Is the example I brought up in

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my piece for Bleacher Report, the
Ojannobi trade, where they prioritize the manual

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quickly they got a second round pick
and Rjie Barrett, but they clearly prioritize

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the players over draft picks. There
had more of a couple of things going

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for them. Is one that O
Jannobe was good enough, Like, if

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Alex Caruzzo hits the open market,
yeah, he'll have offers. He's not

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gonna have a max offer this summer. O Jannobe can probably get the max

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if he wants to. So if
he had leverage to want to go to

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New York, where had they've gotten
multiple picks from the Kings, Let's say

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maybe he was able to shut it
down or teams weren't going to give that

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much if they couldn't guarantee he'd resign. There's still level of risk there.

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With Alex Caruso, it's just at
a different scale because I love Alex Caruso,

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but he's Alex Caruso, where it's
you have to ask the question,

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Yeah, he might be one of
the five best just overall defenders, most

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valuable defenders in the game, which
you could also make the case fro Jianenobi

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can he play as many minutes he
and again you could get into oh Jane,

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he's not the perfect analog because he
has a ton of injury issues,

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but with his size, like he
can defend all five positions versus Alex Caruso

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is like a three point seventy five
defender. There are gonna be some force

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he can't hold up agains where there're
gonna be some force that he I mean,

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we saw him defend. He's defended
Lebron James, he defended Palo Banko,

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the whole nine. So my point
being though, is that when you

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were trading old Gianoby for players,
you were getting more of a certified asset

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in a manual quickly who will cost
a ton of money. Certain, he's

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he's entering your stricts to free agency
himself, but you already knew what he

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was and you look at him and
said, well, imagine what that guy

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could do in a more expansive role, or look at how his skill set

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can scale to all these different versions
of a team. Josh Giddy doesn't do

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that because of the shooting liability.
He shot thirty four point seven percent on

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catching shoot threes during the regular season. That's just not good enough. And

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he's gone through stretches where he can
leverage his floater and where the threes are

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going in, they invariably kind of
pull back. And that was in mind.

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You a system that was almost exclusively
four or five out, depending on

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I mean, if Josh Getty's on
the floor, you're playing five out.

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But how much of a threat is
he? We saw how defenses ended up

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treating him in the playoffs. The
Maverick series specifically was not a good look

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on him, and we even saw
before that. This is long before the

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playoffs. If you go, if
you didn't watch a ton of Thunder basketball,

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that's fine. But like mar Head
coach Mark Dagnol, like he was,

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Josh Getty spot in their most important
lineups has not been guaranteed for quite

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some time, basically all of last
season at the absolute minimum. Basically,

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so you're getting this massive maybe and
you're bringing him into a situation where,

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yes, it'll look different, but
as of now, you're not opening up

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the floor for him anymore. The
Bulls were twenty sixth in three point attempt

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rate the share of their shots coming
from beyond the arc, and they were

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twenty ninth in three point percent.
So your bottom five in three point accuracy

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and volume, that's not gonna open
up the floor a ton for him.

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You have the personnel to maybe get
out to utilize Josh Giddy in transition,

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but what is that gonna look like
when you're talking about the guys that are

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running out and how our defense is
going to guard them. He's just not

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gonna have the same level of operating
room or even the same level proven shot

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making around him. Again to Josh
Gritty's wow, to Josh Gitty's to Josh

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Giddy's credit on the basket before.
He has made adjustments and adaptations specifically over

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the past two seasons, but it
was never enough to make you think that

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this is someone who is plug and
play or someone who is more scalable.

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And so if you want to optimize
him while also insulating him against his weaknesses,

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but optimizing his strengths insulating his weaknesses, this roster almost demands a ton

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of turnover here, and so that
gets it, but I'm not finished with

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My example is if you're going to
prioritize players in this trade specifically, and

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let's say that player was Josh Giddy. Okay, I don't know which team

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could say that about one of their
top You know, if the Wizards prioritized

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Josh Giddy and Denny Abdia trade,
I kill them too. They weren't getting

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first round picks, but you needed
to have. But let's say you wanted

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to, you need to have somebody
else because as part of this rebuild that

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they this might signal, which is
technically a good thing. He'd have somebody

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else that is gonna then help you
get a first round bounty. The Bulls

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do not have that, assuming that
they're not gonna trade Kobe White, which

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to acquire Josh Giddy and then trade
Kobe Wright would be fucking stupid. And

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I'm not saying they would do it. I mean it's the bull so I'm

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not saying they wouldn't do it either. But so you don't have Demart Rosie

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could just leave in free agency,
or you sign and trade him for less

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than you will would have probably gotten
for him, and you trade him with

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time left on his contract not even
less. It's necessarily it last year's deadline,

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but last offseason or the twenty twenty
three trade deadline. So and zach

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Lavine, his value is cretered.
And if you want to look at well,

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them trying to recoo assets elsewhere they
were trading Alex Caruso at or near

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the peak of his value, they
will be trading zach Lavine. And if

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they want to look to move Lonzo
balls expiring, those will represent the nader

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of their values. Just Lonzo hasn't
played in more than two years. He's

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in expiring contracts, and maybe that's
value. Ditto for Vouch. If you're

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trying to recoup stuff there there are
teams that could be interested in theory,

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but you also just like, well, you know, we don't really have

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a big man namorybe we get one
in the draft, we trade for another

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one where we bring back Drummond.
Vouch is slightly critical in theory to making

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Josh Getty work, just because there
could be a pick and pop, a

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perimeter two man game between the two
and they're just I mean, Vouch's like

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can be. He's a pretty good
floor navigator too, So having that kind

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of a smart big man where it's
not just relying on a spacing but all

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also as like que that might be
important to streamlining Josh Gitty. You don't

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have, though, the other player
to go out and get enough assets to

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say, well, like this is
where I launching pet is from the rebuild.

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I mean even bigger issue is are
we sure that's what this signals?

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Because teams that are going to rebuild, And by the way, if you

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wanted to go with the Josh Getty
er to you also the Raptors what they

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also had was a number one type
cornerstone in place, which, as I'm

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saying this, and I don't know
that I realized this while I was writing

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it. When we did our Central
excuse me, our Atlantic Division. Look,

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hey, go check it out.
We didn't go into this Scotty Warren's

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extension eligibility. I don't think for
the Raptors, we have them Grant and

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I boll Havm just penciled in for
a five year max. I think the

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only thing to quibble over be does
he get a player option does he not?

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So there's a Raptors analysis from this
podcast because we missed it in their

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off season. Lookhead again, go
check those out fifteen of thirty are done.

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We'd already recorded the Bulls in the
Hunter, of course, so this

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is an amending that. So you
don't you weren't in a situation where this

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is the package you get to prioritize
then sell it as a rebuild. So

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the fact that the Bulls now might
turn around and rebuild, which I've seen

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fans point out and entertain, Okay, that's great. This is still asset

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mismanagement of the highest level, and
it's it's gross. It's grotesque that this

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organization keeps doing this. And also, are we sure that that's what they're

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doing? Are we just? They
have Andre Drummond to Mart Rosen our free

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agent, So if Patrick Williams as
a restricted free agent, are they just

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are they out on those guys?
And if they're not, so, now

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you're in a situation where you're about
to pay tomorrow. Drummond will get a

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raise. They've early bird rise and
probably shouldn't be anything backbreaking. How much

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does Patrick Williams cost the Bulls.
They only took on about a million and

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a half, but we'll say sub
two million dollars is part of this deal.

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They're now about forty million dollars away
from the tax. That's before paying

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Damar, before paying Patrick Williams,
and before paying Andre Drummond. I'm not

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gonna count. I'd like, I
don't care about the money that the a

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tax payment could cost ownership, Like, we know that this team is not

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good enough. If you're gonna go
into the tax, the team should be

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better than what it's gonna be on
paper. And you could say, all

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right, they're gonna save money as
part of a zach Lavine trade. Sure,

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but are you just at that point
are you strictly dumping him for cap

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relief. That would come back to
the point of if you're not even gonna

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get first round equity for zach Lavine, Like, how are you recouping some

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of this equity? It's okay if
the plan is to try and keep their

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pick top ten protected. It's oh
to San Antonio next year and that they're

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gonna tank and they're rebuilding. Put
yourself in a better starting point, especially

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when you're trading their most valuable trade
asset aside from Kobe White. I would

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argue, I don't think, I
mean, maybe I don't assume he gets

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more at this point relative to what
the Bulls just accepted for him. But

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you're taking a distressed asset for someone
who, yes, is basically a decade

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older, but is at the peak
of his value and does more desirable things

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as guarding one through four and entering
the first team all defense discussion every year.

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Are you concerned about how much he
can play per game? Oh?

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Sure? You concerned about his offensive
volume? Sure he did to shoot over

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forty percent from three on career high
volume. There can be some playmaking,

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especially in actual space. That's all
tough to talk about with the thunder,

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so I don't want to spoil that
too much. But you had the opportunity

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to put yourself in a better launching
point for this rebuild, and the fact

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that you want with someone who's about
to get paid, I question whether you're

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fully committed to entering said rebuild.
And so the fact if they're actually going

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to quote unquote start over, that
doesn't excuse what they did not only here,

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but turned down in run leading up
to that. And it's even worse.

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Look, you could say, if
this was the best offer now,

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okay, fine, and they had
to take it, that just proves that

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they should have moved. Aux Crusoe
already if there were I don't want to

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say better offers and the but if
you deemed this a better offer then other

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packages that were on the table where
you could have gotten multiple first round picks,

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that's even worse of a look because
now you've actively chosen this path of

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bottom of the middle. That's just
what perpetually the Bulls seem to be addicted

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to, and this, to me
is an advancement of that. The line

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of thought behind it. I don't
see a scenario where, even if Josh

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Getty plays well that I look back
on this. I mean that it ends

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up being the right he would have
to turn into sort of a guiding force

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for your entire rebuild, which I
just don't see happening. And then what

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does this do, by the way, you know, when you're talking about

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the fit of the players that we
know his fit is horrendous. With the

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Marty Rosen that is just a plus
like awful, like a negative awful.

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It's so if those two on the
court, you really can't play them together

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and you're not gonna have the requisite
shooters around them. I guess if Lonzo

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plays and Kobe White's playing, that's
helpful. That was a lineup of Kobe

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White, Lonzo Ball, Demart Rosen, and Josh Giddy doing defensively. At

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that point, I mean, insert
whoever you want as kind of your fifth.

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So they're if you're bringing back certain
players, this roster doesn't and you're

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not moving others you're it's Giddy's even
more horrendous fit. Now if you're moving

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some things around to Mar's not back, that'll be asset mismanagement if you uves

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or nothing. By the way,
okay, that kind of thins out the

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pecking order a little bit. But
part of what would appeal to this trade

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is, oh, like Kobe White
can play off the ball. That's that's

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fine, Like this will work out. So your most promising player. This

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is how we're gonna justify the trade
for the balls that their most promising player

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will now spend less time on the
ball and part of what made him special

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last year. Yeah, there was
progress as a passer, but there's real

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progress as an off the dribble shooter. You're gonna dilute that element of his

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game. I just don't get it. And now you've traded for someone who

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will probably not be better or more
valuable than him. Anyway. But I

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bet you he ends up commanding more
in his next deal. If he doesn't

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and the contract's not damaging, I
guess that changes the context of this trade

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a little bit, so we should
wait and see. But if he's getting

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three years and thirty six million dollars, that doesn't say enough good things about

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his outlook for you to feel good. So the deal isn't backbreaking, but

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it's because Josh Giddy still is kind
of not a valuable best super valuable basketball

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player, or is only super useful
in certain situations. That's a disastrous outcome

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here as well. So I don't
know necessarily what this is a precursor to,

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but it's nothing inspiring. And while
that's par for the course, this

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is like unspectacular even by their maddeningly
historically unremarkable standards. Is where this comes

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in at. And you cannot frame
this in a way that is gonna make

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me like the trade or see the
logic behind it. I even so some

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people complain like, well, now
you can't use Alex Crusa to help grease

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the wheels of a Zack Lavine trade. That's the one thing I'll say is

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I don't really think that matters.
I mean, one, if you have

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to grease the wheels of Zack Lavine
trade and you're not playing on being good

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anyway, I know you're trying to
save money, but I'm just eating that.

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I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give
a team a first round pick to

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take on Zach. I'm just not
gonna do it because that implies what do

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you need that flexibility for. Are
you that cheap or are you looking to

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do something else that's mine meltingly dumb? Uh? And then also, just

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Zacklvine's making forty three plus million,
you had Caruso is basically ten million dollar

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salary to that, moving fifty plus
million dollars in salaries a lot in a

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deal, and so I don't know
that they would come out of that looking

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rosy. So that might be the
one thing I'll say is, oh,

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this team like they didn't. I
don't think they worsened their chances of completing

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a Zach Lavine trader. Again,
I just wouldn't grease the wheels of a

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Zack Lavine trade. If you're not
gonna even just take him and send back

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expiring contracts at minimum, then they
should just eat the Zachlovine cost here,

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but now you're for the time being, we do have to this plays out.

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You have Zach Lavine, you have
Lonzo Ball, you have Io Desumu,

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you have Kobe White, you have
Josh Giddy. You could have Demarto

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Rosenbach, who's not a guard anymore, but he's just their best player and

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primary playmaker who's best off on the
ball, which is just like Giddy,

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who Yeah, he can shoot it
better than Lamar's sort of this standstill shooter

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and look even up his volume in
the playoffs. But someone shooting thirty five

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percent during the regular season on spot
up threes on fewer than three attempts per

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game, that's not going to move
me to say that he is scalable through

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this situation. This is an absolutely
horrendous trade for the Chicago Bulls, and

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it shows that they have learned absolutely
nothing. They have not evolved as an

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organization. And I think the silver
lining is this could signal that they're about

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to rebuild. Why the actual fuck
would you trust this organization to rebuild properly?

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This again, is less about Josh
Giddy the player and more about the

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logic that went into not just this
deal but the point that led up to

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it and what we now have to
watch, wait and look for in Chicago,

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and it's just they're good for throwing
curveballs. Even by their standards,

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per I thought they couldn't do anything
that would absolutely shock me. But hearing

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I thought it wasn't worse that they
were. You're telling teams that you want

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this godfather off of Ralex Cruso,
and then you settle for someone who's trade

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value relative to where he was drafted, relative to being on a rookie scale,

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relative to the theory of him is
just at its absolute rock bottom.

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And that is so mind numbingly uninspiring
that I feel bad for Bulls fans.

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They deserve better, They've been waiting
for better. They're willing to go through

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these competitive I mean they're going through
competitive stops right now, but they are.

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This is the same thing with the
Knicks way back when, where they

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thought that their fans wouldn't sit through
a rebuild. If you can sell a

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direction, a coherent, distinct fully
formed direction scaling forward, your fans will

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accept it. I promise you.
The Bulls are more formless than before when

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you're just looking at throughout like you
just couldn't this all you say, we

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00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,480
say that, does this signal that
they're most like, isn't there a scenario

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where they don't that the Martin Rosen's
back, that Andre Drummond is back,

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that Patrick Williams is back, and
they're just they're trying to do what at

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that point, race to the to
the nine seed to the eight seed.

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I just it's it's a terrible trade
for the Bulls. I gave them a

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D minus, and only because I
still think Josh Giddy can have value.

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I just don't, especially as they're
currently constructed. I don't see how the

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Bulls are gonna bring it out in
him. They would not be the team

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that I would have thought could help
reboot, rehab his his on court utility.

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And I will be prepared to eat
crow if I am wrong. But

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even if I'm wrong about Josh Giddy, I still don't think the peak of

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00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:48,559
his powers is enough to shift the
Chicago Bulls's entire direction. And that's what

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they remain at this point, is
they are directionless. They do not if

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they have a vision, Someone explain
it to me, because they could have

329
00:20:56,559 --> 00:21:00,759
fooled me. This looks like visionless
it's just look, it's drek. It's

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complete and utter bullshit that they've been
peddling for so long. I wrote it

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shoveling down the throats to their fan
base that just they deserve better and you

332
00:21:07,279 --> 00:21:10,720
should be frustrated as a Bulls fan. It seems like the Bulls fans of

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my mentions, a lot of them
are are frustrated too. Hopefully they hit

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on some of these other moves here, but they have not earned the benefit

335
00:21:17,599 --> 00:21:18,039
of the doubt. They're not going
to get it from me, and they

336
00:21:18,039 --> 00:21:22,279
certainly should not get it from you. The other side of this trade is

337
00:21:22,319 --> 00:21:27,759
equally fascinating, but for many different
reasons. I saw people ask whether Oklahoma

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00:21:27,799 --> 00:21:32,640
City needs to be the title favorite
after this move. I'm not putting them

339
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,480
ahead of the Boston Celtics, but
the fact that getting a thirty year old

340
00:21:36,519 --> 00:21:40,160
Alex Caruso puts them in that conversation. I mean, they are just coming

341
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:45,319
off finishing with the best regular season
record in the seed in the Western Conference,

342
00:21:45,319 --> 00:21:47,960
so it's not a huge leap,
like that's the level they were at.

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And this is encouraging for a few
reasons. One because of what I

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think it hints forget about Crucio's fit
for a minute. What it just sort

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of suggests about what the Thunder are
prepared to do this offseason. We saw

346
00:21:57,759 --> 00:22:03,000
them get a little bit more aggress
by their fairly conservative standards. I would

347
00:22:03,039 --> 00:22:04,759
say when they acquired Gordon Hayward.
It just didn't pan out, But that

348
00:22:04,799 --> 00:22:08,599
was just that was an opportunistic move
that was virtually no risk for them,

349
00:22:08,599 --> 00:22:11,519
but didn't cost them a ton of
anything. They sent out guys that weren't

350
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part of their long term program,
even their immediate program. Quite frankly,

351
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:18,000
that hurts me to say, knowing
who went out in that deal, you

352
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:23,559
would shout out Poku. But the
fact that they make this move and yes,

353
00:22:23,599 --> 00:22:26,200
they end up be give a dread. This is a kind of move

354
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,200
where even you weren't being aggressive.
It's yeah, okay, like we did

355
00:22:29,279 --> 00:22:30,480
use the top seven pick on this
guy in twents than twenty one. But

356
00:22:32,039 --> 00:22:34,319
Alice Crusoe is maybe one of the
five best defenders in the game, five

357
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:37,400
to ten best defenders in the game. Every morning for even he's one of

358
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:41,039
the fifteen best defenders in the game. You can't pass this up. But

359
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:45,359
it shows that they're willing to one
make moves and take some risk. Now,

360
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,839
this isn't an organization that would acquire
Cruso without any intel on his salary

361
00:22:49,839 --> 00:22:53,200
demands or whether he'd be interested in
signing that extension I mentioned earlier. I'll

362
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:57,119
have to wait six months to do
it to stay in Oklahoma City long term.

363
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,079
But even if they were going into
this blind, Oklahoma City was giving

364
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,640
up no picks, and they have
the depth, the talent, the flexibility

365
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,960
to just kind of roll with it, and they're good enough to justify,

366
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,079
well, look what this guy does
for our defense and a little bit of

367
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:15,039
our offense. But this suggests that
they're going to continue to be even more

368
00:23:15,039 --> 00:23:18,960
aggressive this summer. In addressing this, By the way, this is not

369
00:23:18,039 --> 00:23:22,480
address I would argue any of their
biggest needs, but I still love it,

370
00:23:22,519 --> 00:23:25,400
is my point, And so let's
before we get into kind of the

371
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,119
fallout, where do the thunder go
from here? The fit of Alex Caruso

372
00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,039
is largely fantastic. Like I had
already mentioned, he is not high volume

373
00:23:33,079 --> 00:23:36,200
on offense, and it's to the
point where it can frustrate the hell out

374
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:40,240
of you. But he did just
shoot over forty percent from three on a

375
00:23:40,279 --> 00:23:42,799
career high I think was five point
nine attempts per thirty six minutes. That

376
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,279
volume or per minute, right,
that could come up in Oklahoma City with

377
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,599
the types of looks that he'll probably
be be getting. Also, I think

378
00:23:51,599 --> 00:23:53,279
that you can coax more volume out
of his driving game. He's pretty good

379
00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:56,400
when he gets inside the arc.
He'll he'll pick up his dribble before he

380
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,920
gets inside the arc and he'll dump
it off. You can throw a nice

381
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,160
pass from the stands stuble when he
gets moving, he will kind of maintain

382
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,000
his dribble. Now, all of
a sudden, you're gonna have more unobstructed

383
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:11,839
paths to the basket just by virtue
of the level of shooting and spacing with

384
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,599
which the thunder play. That's massive
for his offensive value. And even if

385
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:21,400
it's he's the same exact player,
uh, he's someone right now who's gonna

386
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,640
generate more defensive attention without the ball
than a Josh Giddy. That's just a

387
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,359
fact. And so that is a
win for your offense. Even if he

388
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:33,920
wanted a more dynamic, uh,
an offensive player who can maybe put defenses

389
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,759
in rotation from that dead stop.
That's not something he's necessarily gonna do.

390
00:24:37,039 --> 00:24:41,279
But now you're getting someone who just
fits on. He's an easier fit on

391
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,200
offense than Josh Gitty, even if
you don't want him to run units on

392
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,680
his own. The fact that now
though Cason Wallace is kind of like his

393
00:24:48,799 --> 00:24:52,440
understudy, that should scare the shit
out of twenty nine other teams. Uh,

394
00:24:52,599 --> 00:24:56,000
Cason Wallace is already a really good
defender, had him first team All

395
00:24:56,039 --> 00:24:59,759
Rookie. No regrets for me there
the offense, he's like he's Caruso esquing

396
00:24:59,759 --> 00:25:03,200
the same that he's so hesitant,
but you'd kind of trust him to take

397
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,720
the right shots where he's either gonna
you know, pass like pass dribble,

398
00:25:07,759 --> 00:25:11,759
make a quick decision. Your quibble
would be could he be more aggressive and

399
00:25:11,799 --> 00:25:14,519
looking for his own shoppy on the
ark or firing up those threes. CRUs

400
00:25:14,599 --> 00:25:17,160
was not going to teach him that, but just being the understudy to Caruso

401
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:21,279
on defense, And now what you've
done defensively. This is a team that

402
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,799
was already I think they were third
in points allowed per possession last year.

403
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:29,000
You have Chet Holmgren, you have
Jay Dubb, Shay Gilgess, Alexander and

404
00:25:29,079 --> 00:25:33,039
of course Lou dort All well above
average defenders. Especially last year, Shay

405
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:37,440
was kind of a question markleting in
the last season, maybe net neutral on

406
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,680
some nights, a liability on others. It felt like there are some people

407
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:41,839
that made an all defense case for
him last year. I did not.

408
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,880
But the fact that you could sit
there and make one and I would listen

409
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,400
to it, that's huge. And
so you have those four high caliber defenders.

410
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,079
No, wait, Cason Wallace is
still there, and you have the

411
00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:55,000
switch ability of Candrick Williams if they
kind of if he kind of has a

412
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,400
renaissance next season. But so you
have those five I would argue, again

413
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,039
based off last season specific we're talking
about well above average defenders, and you

414
00:26:03,079 --> 00:26:10,200
have I would say three before Alex
Cruzo comes in, three all defense caliber

415
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:14,480
defenders. Now you're ready Alex Caruso
w into the fold. Who might be

416
00:26:14,559 --> 00:26:17,799
the best defender of them all?
I think chet hoolmgro will have a case

417
00:26:17,839 --> 00:26:21,400
just because of what we know about
rim production. But also Ludor of course

418
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:22,400
has a case, but aw of
a sudden, it's just debatable, but

419
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:27,839
he's gonna come in. He makes
everyone's job so much easier. Chet Holmgren

420
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,839
can take more risks on the back
line or floating around the perimeter. Lou

421
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:34,960
Dort maybe just doesn't have to spend
as much time on the absolute tough as

422
00:26:36,039 --> 00:26:37,920
covers, or if he still does. Now if him and Alex Caruso are

423
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,279
playing together, or even if they're
not, when you're gonna stagger their minutes,

424
00:26:41,279 --> 00:26:44,920
Now, Alex Caruso takes the best
guy, and that makes Jay Dubb's

425
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,279
job a lot easier, makes Shay
Gillis Alexander's job a lot easier, makes

426
00:26:48,319 --> 00:26:52,200
Casey Wallace's job a lot easier here, And so what you've essentially done is

427
00:26:52,240 --> 00:27:00,799
you've increased the ceiling of your defense
by diminishing the importance basically of any singular

428
00:27:00,839 --> 00:27:03,200
player on your roster in the best
possible way to where like there just might

429
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,960
be nice if you're gonna play Cruise
on Dort together, like Doort's job could

430
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,240
get easier. He might be the
only one that could be spared most of

431
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,599
the benefits because I think that they'll
look to stagger his minutes in part because

432
00:27:12,599 --> 00:27:15,839
it freeze Caruso. Just there's so
few guys in the league that, if

433
00:27:15,839 --> 00:27:19,440
they're healthy, you could say one
through four best player doesn't matter what they're

434
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,519
what they're doing and just go get
I mean like, yeah, you don't

435
00:27:23,559 --> 00:27:26,200
want Cruise necessarily, he's not true
holiday when you're gonna put him in the

436
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,599
post. But if you're talking about
somebod who attacked from the outside end,

437
00:27:29,599 --> 00:27:33,759
there's just he's suffocating basically all of
those spots. And to get him now

438
00:27:36,279 --> 00:27:38,200
for the cost that they did for
what it was a distressed asset in Josh

439
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,960
Getty, someone who's coming off the
bench, not playing in crunch time by

440
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,839
the end of the nothing just again
on and off all season, just not

441
00:27:45,319 --> 00:27:49,039
a crunch time staple. And I
think what you could say is, Okay,

442
00:27:49,039 --> 00:27:52,480
well the thunder still have needs here, so let's let's just get into

443
00:27:52,519 --> 00:27:53,319
that. Well, if they're gonna
keep Cruise on long term. By the

444
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,960
way, this is also someone you
acquire where if he signs that extension.

445
00:27:57,559 --> 00:28:00,279
Again we're all working with estimates.
Let's say he ends up with four years

446
00:28:00,319 --> 00:28:04,319
seventy eight, four years eighty.
That's a contract that's going to age even

447
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:08,039
as he gets into his you know, early to goes through his early thirties

448
00:28:08,079 --> 00:28:11,519
into his mid thirties. His next
deal, I think he'll take him to

449
00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:12,960
his age thirty one, thirty two, thirty three, thirty four seasons.

450
00:28:14,039 --> 00:28:17,119
If it's a four year contract,
Buck, Yeah, that's fine. His

451
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:18,680
game should age fairly well. It's
not like his shoulders a heavy lift on

452
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:22,160
offense, especially for this team.
But you're getting someone like that to where

453
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:26,440
there's a just because of what Getey
can do as a passer and his youth.

454
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,240
So you're still beending on the upside. I will be shocked if he

455
00:28:29,319 --> 00:28:32,039
ends up again. If he gets
less than twenty million a year in his

456
00:28:32,079 --> 00:28:36,240
extension one, I think something has
gone terrible or his restart to free agency

457
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,279
contract, I would say something is
gone terribly wrong for him in Chicago.

458
00:28:38,359 --> 00:28:42,039
So you get someone who's cheaper and
an easier fit at a time whin Okay,

459
00:28:42,039 --> 00:28:45,200
we have to start planning around the
rookie scale maxes for j Dubb and

460
00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:48,359
Chet Holmgren, and then you also
you're gonna have SHAKEE. Gillis Alexander on

461
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,400
his Supermax soon. So like that's
a good piece of business where it's okay,

462
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,039
everyone wanted them to acquire an expensive
player and they still can. I'm

463
00:28:56,039 --> 00:28:57,880
about to get it to that,
I promise. But this is someone who

464
00:28:59,319 --> 00:29:03,240
fits more snugly into your long term
salary structure, and now he opens up

465
00:29:03,279 --> 00:29:08,440
more possibilities for you. Let's get
into Let's get into that is Oklahoma City

466
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:12,920
takes on less than two million dollars
in this trade. Excuse me, the

467
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,559
Bulls had shed money. I said
that they took on money. I apologize

468
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,920
for that. But Oklahoma City takes
on less than two million dollars in this

469
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,240
trade. They still have more that
could have. They could have less depending

470
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,480
on what they want to do.
But they're projected to have more than thirty

471
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,079
million dollars in cap space. Still, it's actually over thirty three million.

472
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,759
I think the two players that could
redefine that is the team options on Aaron

473
00:29:33,759 --> 00:29:37,720
Wiggins and Isaiah Joe is to do
the thunder. Want to give those guys

474
00:29:37,759 --> 00:29:41,000
an immediate bump. They could renegotiate
and extend. They could decline conteen options

475
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,200
and resign them. I would consider
that with Isaiah Joe based off your uses

476
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,559
for other cap space, but just
cost you no first round picks. So

477
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:52,839
your best offers of just cap relief
and picks, and you do have some

478
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,799
tangible players if team want. If
teams are interested in Aaron Wiggins when you

479
00:29:56,839 --> 00:29:59,720
have case and Mollison, Nows,
Crusso and Shay Gills Alexander. Yeah,

480
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,599
that's a when you could send out
as a sweetener that's not making So they

481
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:06,720
have the balance of they can offer
cap relief, they can offer actual players.

482
00:30:06,799 --> 00:30:07,839
Ushman Jang is still my guy,
can believe in him. There will

483
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:11,440
be teams that have a lot of
interest in Kenrick Williams or even Big Jawill.

484
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:17,759
That's like they still have those non
core prospects that know they can't anchor

485
00:30:17,799 --> 00:30:21,400
trades on their own. Maybe Cason
Wallace could, but I don't know why

486
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:22,599
you want to move him or be
won to move him and depend on the

487
00:30:22,599 --> 00:30:26,039
return obviously, but they have those
players. They have all these picks,

488
00:30:26,079 --> 00:30:30,319
and they still have all this cap
space. Maybe they use it in free

489
00:30:30,319 --> 00:30:33,480
agency, but maybe they look to
address stuff on a trade. And what

490
00:30:33,559 --> 00:30:37,000
Cruso specifically does, and I've seen
some people banding this about already is well,

491
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,279
couldn't he and theory make lou Dort
expendable to where if you wanted to

492
00:30:41,279 --> 00:30:44,720
include lou Dort in a trade for
a higher end player, you have Alex

493
00:30:44,759 --> 00:30:48,599
Crusso soak up those minutes. Maybe
he ends up making about the same as

494
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,319
lou Dort moving forward, who continues
to be on just one of the better

495
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:56,920
contracts in the NBA. He's still
under team control through one is his contract

496
00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,319
in so next year's at sixteen and
a half million, and then he another

497
00:31:00,319 --> 00:31:04,079
two guarantee years after that, so
through six twenty seven, and we're talking

498
00:31:04,079 --> 00:31:07,680
about someone who will never make eighteen
million dollars a year over that time.

499
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,359
That's a really good deal. I
wouldn't actively look to move off him.

500
00:31:12,359 --> 00:31:15,880
I don't you know, he's younger. I think we also it feels like

501
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:19,079
lou Dort has been around for eighty
years for some reason. Then you look

502
00:31:19,119 --> 00:31:22,640
at it's, okay, well this
barely he just turned twenty five. Basically,

503
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,400
I mean, wow, so to
have him on that contract. But

504
00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:30,640
if it's for the right player,
if you're saying giving up lou Dort gets

505
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,720
you McHale Bridges, if it got
you lowry market, and should the Jazz

506
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:37,599
be want to move him up,
yeah yeah, now you it's more it's

507
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,160
easier to now say, well,
yeah, we'd be willing to include loud

508
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,240
Dort. I don't think that's just
the main point of this trade. I

509
00:31:42,279 --> 00:31:47,000
honestly think it wouldn't shock me if
this isn't the meat and potatoes of their

510
00:31:47,039 --> 00:31:48,480
off season, if this was just
a way for them to reorient the roster

511
00:31:48,599 --> 00:31:52,200
because of a guy who they had
draft equally invested in with sort of just

512
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:56,759
higher profile because of his draft stock. So they're recalibrating, But it was

513
00:31:56,799 --> 00:32:00,000
also just a matter of pure opportunism
where you just look at the level of

514
00:32:00,039 --> 00:32:02,960
player that Josh Giddy is, how
he fits with this roster and where the

515
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:07,160
thunder at their competitive window versus what
Alex Caruso is, how he fits into

516
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,000
both their roster and their competitive window, and it becomes a no brainer.

517
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,240
I don't know if this is you
don't go out there, and maybe again,

518
00:32:14,279 --> 00:32:15,960
if they have plans to move lou
Dort, this becomes a priority.

519
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,200
But I can't imagine based off what
we want to see from them, that

520
00:32:20,279 --> 00:32:24,559
more dynamic player who could put defenses
in rotation on the ball. Maybe well

521
00:32:24,599 --> 00:32:29,079
not maybe they could use some more
just I guess, girth up front,

522
00:32:29,119 --> 00:32:31,039
but you don't want to do it
to the point where Chad Holmgren is playing

523
00:32:31,039 --> 00:32:36,680
so many minutes as the second big
so like that would have those were the

524
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:37,720
top two needs for them, and
you could also look at, well,

525
00:32:37,759 --> 00:32:42,799
do you want like a different type
of a shooter where Okay, Isaiah Joe

526
00:32:42,839 --> 00:32:45,279
is great and he works his ass
off defensively, but could we maybe get

527
00:32:45,319 --> 00:32:49,200
somebody who's who's going to be better, stronger defensively. Now that player is

528
00:32:49,279 --> 00:32:52,359
just those are hard to find.
Every team wants them, and the Thunder

529
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:53,279
already have a couple of them.
To be honest with you, well,

530
00:32:53,319 --> 00:32:57,000
they have JDub who can operate on
ball and he's not like this super off

531
00:32:57,039 --> 00:33:00,400
ball, highvlume three point shooter.
But you get my point. The the

532
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,240
players who don't compromise your spacing or
your three point volume or your defense,

533
00:33:04,559 --> 00:33:07,960
those types, this just seems like
a matter of just pure golden opportunity for

534
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,599
them, which is perfectly fine.
But now you're scaling ahead of the rest

535
00:33:10,599 --> 00:33:15,880
of their their off season, and
the same doors that were open before they're

536
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,759
all still open now. And yeah, except for the fact that you're probably

537
00:33:19,839 --> 00:33:22,359
less likely to you know, one
of the names that I've seen kind of

538
00:33:22,359 --> 00:33:24,559
manny about was to go after a
Collin Sexton from Utah. I would have

539
00:33:24,559 --> 00:33:29,119
been fine fit before, but I
just higher volume offensively, but now with

540
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,400
Cason Wallace, Shay J. Dub
and Alex Caruso, it just doesn't make

541
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:36,799
sense even that trade. If you
would have kept it giddy, I wouldn't

542
00:33:36,799 --> 00:33:39,039
have been a fan of it.
There do you look at someone who gives

543
00:33:39,039 --> 00:33:43,759
you maybe a little bit more ball
handling or strength or rebounding than Alex Caruso

544
00:33:43,759 --> 00:33:46,279
would, but still a perimeter player
any obvious the name I've mentioned for to

545
00:33:46,319 --> 00:33:50,640
be fair, pretty much every team
there will be people that still like John

546
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,839
Collins here I or love John Collins
here. I think I could see it,

547
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,279
and that'd be another well we didn't
What did you give up to get

548
00:33:55,279 --> 00:33:59,200
that? I'd like, if you're
giving up a first round pick for John

549
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,599
Collins, I'd be absolute shocked.
So you could address it that way and

550
00:34:01,759 --> 00:34:05,319
view it as more of a stop
gap. After next season he'll be expiring.

551
00:34:05,359 --> 00:34:08,039
It's another trade anchor they could they
could roll over. But again,

552
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:13,320
just the fact that this is Alex
Caruso and how good he is, it

553
00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:15,679
does make me think a little bit
like, are they going to aim bigger?

554
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:21,840
Will they try to coax teams into
trading players who aren't necessarily available,

555
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,920
and that matters more than even identifying
these certain name, should they be a

556
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,800
Nick Claxon or does this make it
more or less likely they go after Isaiah

557
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:32,519
Hartenstein? Honestly, I don't know. It doesn't have to impact any of

558
00:34:32,519 --> 00:34:37,440
those pursuits because they still have all
their cap space. I will still quibble

559
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,800
over how aggressive and how they should
be in chasing another big, and how

560
00:34:43,199 --> 00:34:45,840
much equity they should be prepared to
give up to get one, whether we're

561
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:49,360
talking about draft picks and players or
just actual cap space. I think I'd

562
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:53,039
ultimately be fine with Isaiah Hartenstein because
his best role might be playing fewer minutes

563
00:34:53,079 --> 00:34:55,360
than he did at points for the
next last year. I don't know how

564
00:34:55,360 --> 00:35:00,559
you necessarily sell him keep your role
a little bit more finite, just because

565
00:35:00,559 --> 00:35:02,400
you don't want to see like Chet
as the primary big just works and it's

566
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:06,920
so intriguing that you don't want to
even like, how much do you want

567
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,760
to really diminish those minutes by?
If you you know it's fifteen minutes a

568
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,880
game, you want to just slice
that and say, okay, the rest

569
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:15,800
of Chets, you know, ten
to twenty minutes a get well, not

570
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:20,440
ten, but like twenty minutes a
game fifteen to twenty minutes a game he'll

571
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:22,639
play with another big and then the
other fifteen to twenty he won't. It's

572
00:35:22,679 --> 00:35:27,559
probably like fine for assuming he plays
let's say like thirty to thirty five minutes,

573
00:35:27,599 --> 00:35:29,840
to split that in half or skew
a little bit more towards the five

574
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,559
out okay, And I mean Isaiah
Hertenstein is failing young. I don't hate

575
00:35:32,639 --> 00:35:35,920
Nick Claxton here either, just because
you know he's always going to have four

576
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,559
shooters around him at any given point. But they can do anything now.

577
00:35:38,639 --> 00:35:44,679
And I think what this does more
than not more than anything, but what

578
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:52,119
this really does is it kind of
proves that Okac is acting like the contender

579
00:35:52,159 --> 00:35:55,719
that it actually is. Like there's
I think part of that might be the

580
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,320
framing level. Is this a little
bit risky because of what's going on with

581
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,960
Cruso. He's not restricted free agent
like Josh Giddy would have been. Again

582
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,440
I mentioned I don't think the thunder
are going in blind, but they're good

583
00:36:05,519 --> 00:36:07,760
enough to withstand the risk and the
fact that that's technically on the table that

584
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:13,000
doesn'tmply they're going to act like a
contender is as well, And I would

585
00:36:13,079 --> 00:36:15,079
argue, I mean, I wouldn't
know. This is just a fact.

586
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:20,199
Approaching the offseason in that way is
earned. I would argue that it's probably

587
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:22,519
overdue, even when you're looking back
to what they did at the deadline,

588
00:36:22,519 --> 00:36:29,400
and it's kind of a departure from
their usual mode of operation and that should

589
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:34,199
utterly terrify the rest of the time. It's a scary living hell out of

590
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,480
them because they're not I know,
people like to mention the bigger name is

591
00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:39,360
lotry Market and mckel bridges with them. Should they try to open up more

592
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:43,880
cap space and go after Ogiana and
Obe if he's really unhappy with the Knicks's

593
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:49,400
offer. They don't need that level
of player to win the championship next year.

594
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:52,079
There is a chance, I don't
know that I would predict it when

595
00:36:52,159 --> 00:36:53,679
I want to let the rest of
the off season play out. There's a

596
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:58,960
chance that the thunder do nothing else
other than use the number twelve pick and

597
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,719
they could win the title next year. That might have been possible even with

598
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:07,320
Josh Gitty, it is now more
likely without Josh Gitty and the fact that

599
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,199
you're bringing Caruso in and so if
you want to go check out more targets.

600
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,159
We went into a bunch I believe
for the Thunder when we did their

601
00:37:13,199 --> 00:37:15,119
look ahead. A lot of the
stuff we said is is already Germane.

602
00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:19,119
But this is a hell of a
trade by the Thunder, and it was

603
00:37:19,119 --> 00:37:22,159
a matter of a great opportunity.
But I think what it proves about what

604
00:37:22,199 --> 00:37:28,039
they're willing to do at this point, it just reinforces that they understand.

605
00:37:28,079 --> 00:37:30,880
You know that Sam Presty's not going
to be talking about they had borrow wins

606
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:32,840
from their future anymore. I understand
that we all think they had reached that

607
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,360
point, there was still a question
of how aggressive they were going to be.

608
00:37:36,599 --> 00:37:39,639
This makes me more excited and intrigued
for their offseason and their future,

609
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,480
quite frankly, than I was before, which was pretty fucking hard to do

610
00:37:43,519 --> 00:37:45,119
because if you go back, I'm
not right about a lot of things.

611
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:50,480
But like I've been pretty in on
the Thunder before they were even this version

612
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,119
of the Thunder, and I even
I defended what they did at the trade

613
00:37:53,119 --> 00:37:57,320
deadline, like you have to show
me the opportunity they passed on for me

614
00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:59,840
to just be mad that, you
know, people coming out that Maveriserre's talking

615
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:04,559
abot they really Daniel Gafford would have
been the difference, Like, I yeah,

616
00:38:04,559 --> 00:38:06,840
it might have made the MAVs better
in that series, because that was

617
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:08,559
not the series for him. So
if you're passing on that, it's different.

618
00:38:08,599 --> 00:38:13,599
They were setting themselves up for higher
end opportunities like this, and they're

619
00:38:13,599 --> 00:38:15,039
never even when you think they might
be biding their time a little bit too

620
00:38:15,079 --> 00:38:19,320
long, Josh Getty being a perfect
example. Clearly they're not. Whether it's

621
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:22,519
they played this perfectly or they're just
taking advantage of a shit show of an

622
00:38:22,599 --> 00:38:27,119
organization in Chicago. It works out
for them. It's not my accident that

623
00:38:27,199 --> 00:38:30,199
this happens so many times, So
they are, they're not. Maybe they're

624
00:38:30,199 --> 00:38:34,599
not the team to watch just because
there's whatever the fuck is going on in

625
00:38:34,599 --> 00:38:37,119
Philly and there are teams that could
get more chaotic. There's just so much

626
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:43,360
different avenues for them to explore,
and I think so much I doubt about

627
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:45,599
their cap space, maybe going after
a guy like John Collins and capitalizing that

628
00:38:45,679 --> 00:38:47,840
route where you're not giving up a
ton of assets, and again, I

629
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:51,199
know they can give up a ton
of assets here. I think maybe more

630
00:38:51,199 --> 00:38:53,280
than anything, this is a harbinger
of what they're willing to do on the

631
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:57,880
trademarket, like, because when it's
cap space, even if it's a thunder,

632
00:38:57,880 --> 00:38:59,559
you kind of understand, right,
it's just cap space. We could

633
00:38:59,559 --> 00:39:02,119
move off at like eight create more
later. We're getting these players for nothing,

634
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,800
like in most cases, they're not
going to be a sign in trade.

635
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:08,639
But now the fact that they made
a move of this caliber, where

636
00:39:08,639 --> 00:39:12,880
you again, it probably took some
a little bit of an iron stomach to

637
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:16,079
get off Giddy. This team,
it's set up really well. And the

638
00:39:16,159 --> 00:39:20,679
fact that I'm saying this and they
didn't even address what I would view is

639
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,119
one of their two biggest needs with
this trade. I guess if you considered

640
00:39:23,159 --> 00:39:25,920
one of their biggest needs, which
I would agree with getting rid of Josh

641
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:30,119
Giddy for someone who's just a better
fit. So you checked one of your

642
00:39:30,119 --> 00:39:32,079
top three needs. But I would
argue too that we're a little bit more

643
00:39:32,079 --> 00:39:35,920
pressing, at least in my view. And yet I'm still sitting here and

644
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:40,079
all I can do is sing their
praises. A couple of news items to

645
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:44,480
catch up on three, So we'll
start with, let's go to the league

646
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,239
monk who is agreeing to re sign
on that four year, seventy eight million

647
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:52,719
dollar early bird rights deal with the
Kings can't become official to the July six

648
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:57,199
when the moratorium is lifted. But
he's going back to Sacramento, that is,

649
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,920
I don't know. We didn't record
the King's outlook yet. Actually,

650
00:40:00,079 --> 00:40:04,000
so my point was going to be
when we were talking about Malik Monk,

651
00:40:04,159 --> 00:40:07,559
I didn't see the team. I
know that he in theory, maybe could

652
00:40:07,599 --> 00:40:12,360
have worked in Detroit, could have
been planned d efg whatever for Philly.

653
00:40:13,039 --> 00:40:15,199
Orlando was a team that was mentioned
a ton. I still didn't really see

654
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:19,079
that team that was going to go
out and give him twenty million dollars a

655
00:40:19,159 --> 00:40:22,760
year over a four year span.
It's like, that's what the Kings basically

656
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:24,719
comes out to. So close to
that on the average, I would have

657
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:28,679
predicted he went back to the Kings. And also what this does for you

658
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:30,280
as a Kings fan, by the
way, what it gets you back a

659
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,719
player who was incredibly valuable and having
that injury. I think it was a

660
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,320
knee injury to end the season that
really hurt their chances of getting into the

661
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:42,000
playoffs, but just their Kevin Hurder
rezealing with stuff as well. But this

662
00:40:42,159 --> 00:40:45,960
is just he his playmaking. There's
a lot of stuff he does, but

663
00:40:45,079 --> 00:40:51,360
his playmaking going downhill might still be
one of the more understated gems in the

664
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:53,880
league. He finished I think he
was eighteenth in total drives this year,

665
00:40:54,239 --> 00:41:00,519
but second in assists on drives,
behind only Shay Gilgess Alexander. So he's

666
00:41:00,519 --> 00:41:02,119
someone who can also play off the
balls and get a compromise or spacing.

667
00:41:04,039 --> 00:41:07,320
He can run your point, you
can run your offense, just not to

668
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:12,559
the degree again that if I were
I know Philly didn't need this, but

669
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,119
not to the degree that Orlando.
Let's say, if you're looking for a

670
00:41:15,199 --> 00:41:19,679
league guard, I don't view him
as that. He's a starring caliber guard

671
00:41:20,119 --> 00:41:22,079
and he can definitely do a lot
of work on the ball. If you're

672
00:41:22,079 --> 00:41:27,480
looking for him to run your offense
and you know, second unit situations,

673
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:30,639
I still think you kind of he
needs more of a buffer, whether it's

674
00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:34,639
having that big who might be running
handoff stuffs or can facilitate from the post,

675
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,039
or if he's gonna play alongside just
another lead playmaker. I think this

676
00:41:37,079 --> 00:41:39,320
is a great deal for the Kings. The other thing it does for them

677
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:44,119
too, and the pathway to getting
him was always a little bit fraud.

678
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,639
They were suddenly mentioned in the zach
Lavine trade sweepstakes again. And while I

679
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,440
get, especially if you're losing a
League Monk, the idea of wanting another

680
00:41:52,519 --> 00:41:57,320
dynamic creator and a more dynamic shooter
than Malik Monk is just the money to

681
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,559
get there, just to match his
salary. So it's you know, okay,

682
00:42:00,559 --> 00:42:01,880
you're not gonna have to give up
assets, So I guess from just

683
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:07,400
a pure talent play, I get
it. But just immediately it's Harrison Barnes

684
00:42:07,639 --> 00:42:13,320
gone, Kevin Herder gone, Like
that's just how you're getting to like to

685
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:15,760
the start of zach Lvine's number,
By the way, that would have been

686
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,599
thirty four million dollars. He's on
a forty three million dollar salary, So

687
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,239
would you've what else, like Trey
Lyles's money is sitting there if you wanted

688
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:25,679
to go almost dollar for dollar,
you know such of a zankof is not

689
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:28,960
happy there, so that could have
been money they threw in. But so

690
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,719
you have been rolling that into Levine
and then creating you know, you're losing.

691
00:42:32,079 --> 00:42:36,440
Barnes is not the initial Barnes who
came to the Kings, but like

692
00:42:36,519 --> 00:42:39,920
he's logging minutes at forward spots.
Kevin Herder is someone that you can play

693
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:44,079
and has played up to the three, and hopefully he's shooting more rebound following

694
00:42:44,079 --> 00:42:47,480
the shoulder injury. U you got
to me, You just get like you

695
00:42:47,639 --> 00:42:52,599
still consolidated and veered way too much
towards the guard spots. And now I

696
00:42:52,639 --> 00:42:55,400
would assume, maybe I'm wrong that
they will not be mentioned in the Zach

697
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,519
Levie's We've six anymore, so you
can focus on going after Maybe it's a

698
00:42:59,519 --> 00:43:04,280
different front line partner for for domas
a bonus or just continuing to target.

699
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:07,599
I would just call them two way
wings, and you have you have two

700
00:43:07,639 --> 00:43:10,039
of them in Keigan Murray. That's
absolutely what he is now. I just

701
00:43:10,199 --> 00:43:13,599
the strides. He may forget about
what he did on the strides he made

702
00:43:13,599 --> 00:43:16,840
defensively, just not something I ever
would have I'm not even talking that I

703
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:20,280
was looking at him coming out of
the draft. It's like, even after

704
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,280
watching him as a rookie and having
those moments, I wouldn't have projected him

705
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:24,960
to be able to handle the level
of assignments that he did. It was

706
00:43:25,239 --> 00:43:29,639
out of necessity, I think more
than maybe the Kings believed in him,

707
00:43:29,639 --> 00:43:31,239
but I do think it was kind
of more born from necessity that they were

708
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,559
trying him out in those situations.
It worked out, and so to have

709
00:43:35,639 --> 00:43:37,639
him to also have the emergence of
Keon Ellis, that's a really good starting

710
00:43:37,639 --> 00:43:40,400
point and they would have been a
fun Alis Cruise home team. Even with

711
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:45,199
Elik Monk coming back. They can
now shift their focus though to filling those

712
00:43:45,199 --> 00:43:46,599
spots, and you know, you
get to a point where we're you know,

713
00:43:46,599 --> 00:43:51,920
you're putting a leak Monk for he's
at seventeen point four million this coming

714
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,360
season. What that does. They're
basically over the cap with that money when

715
00:43:55,360 --> 00:44:00,000
you're entering the excuse me, they're
basically over the tax line. If you're

716
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,000
penciling Malik Monkin. There's things they
could do to duck it a little bit,

717
00:44:04,039 --> 00:44:06,199
but like you need to fill out
your roster, you would have to

718
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,199
dump I guess if you wanted to
dump for Zenkov, or if you want

719
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:13,119
to dump Chris Duarte, if you
want to dump Davion Mitchell, So you

720
00:44:13,159 --> 00:44:16,440
could dump these sort of they're not
middle tier. They're like not bottom of

721
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,519
the barrel, but they're in between. They're not minimums, but they're worth

722
00:44:19,519 --> 00:44:22,519
a little bit more. She could
give yourself wiggle room under the tax I'm

723
00:44:22,519 --> 00:44:23,840
sure there are teams. I mean, I don't know, honestly, I

724
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:27,559
don't know about Christwarte. Would someone
just take him into cap space? I

725
00:44:27,559 --> 00:44:30,519
guess you're including seconds there. I
think a team would definitely take a shot

726
00:44:30,519 --> 00:44:32,519
on Davion Mitchell's defense. The Kings
might not want to punt on that just

727
00:44:32,639 --> 00:44:37,760
yet either. And then I don't
know about Pazenkov. That might be something

728
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:39,920
just because teams haven't seen enough of
him. You could also go the nuclear

729
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,079
out. Well, could we trade
Kevin Herder for an even cheaper player there?

730
00:44:44,079 --> 00:44:45,920
And news open I'm saying if they
want to duck the tax, I

731
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:50,119
think this team can envision itself being
good enough to where they continue to be

732
00:44:50,119 --> 00:44:53,039
aggressive, But as of right now, like that would impact. They don't

733
00:44:53,079 --> 00:44:58,400
have enough wiggle room beneath the first
aprons. Let's even forget about the tax.

734
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,920
If you want to use the full
mid level option twelve point nine million,

735
00:45:01,159 --> 00:45:06,719
you're gonna have to jett us in
some salaries. If you're okay with

736
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:08,039
the mini mid level, which is
worth a little over five million. I

737
00:45:08,079 --> 00:45:10,840
don't know what type of a difference
maker you're gonna get. This is all

738
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:15,400
to say any move they make is
kind of gonna be that. I think

739
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:17,840
meaningful move from here on is kind
of going to be happening via trade.

740
00:45:19,039 --> 00:45:22,599
And I don't know if they have
the acid firepower to get in on the

741
00:45:22,599 --> 00:45:27,159
theoretical mckail bridges sweepstakes as far as
those exist. Could they get in on

742
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,599
We don't know if any obvio is
available, but is that someone else that

743
00:45:30,639 --> 00:45:32,639
they could go after? This is
something I think on my outline, I

744
00:45:32,639 --> 00:45:36,599
should brought it up to where we're
going to do the King's offseason. Lookheads,

745
00:45:36,599 --> 00:45:38,440
there'll be more targets in that when
we get to it. But to

746
00:45:38,519 --> 00:45:43,039
open more doors, if you on
free agency, you would have to dump

747
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:45,599
more salarly. But I think right
now this was probably the singular most important

748
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:50,400
part of their off season because you
have a higher ceiling even in a tougher

749
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,000
Western conference next year, just by
making no changes and ensuring that Malif Monk

750
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:58,880
is there and he's healthy and so
to keep him on the early bird rights

751
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,800
deal again, I don't know who
else would have actively matched this deal.

752
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:05,960
I don't personally for the Kings I'm
an advocate of it because of who they

753
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,760
already have in place. For a
team like Orlando, if it was four

754
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:13,960
and seventy eight, I would like
it less for them, but I wouldn't

755
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:15,599
hate it. I wouldn't love it
for Philly quite frankly, with Tyres,

756
00:46:15,639 --> 00:46:19,480
Max and Joel and Beid there,
but I wouldn't hate it either. This

757
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,360
is the type of deal that,
no matter what team gave it, you

758
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:23,320
wouldn't hate. But I like it
more for the Kings because of I guess

759
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:28,800
that entrenched importance to what they're doing, and so I'm fascinated by their offseason

760
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:30,840
as well to see how aggressive they
will be on the trade market. They

761
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:35,800
do have this year's first round pick, which I don't know if that helps

762
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:38,119
or complicate their offerings, because do
you prefer getting number three as just a

763
00:46:38,159 --> 00:46:40,960
team in a vacuum? Do you
want number thirteen in this draft? Or

764
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:45,119
would you have preferred being able to
get a twenty twenty five first which is

765
00:46:45,119 --> 00:46:50,360
technically headed to Atlanta with top twelve
protection I believe, and then it shifts

766
00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,000
to the top ten. So I
probably would prefer to have opened up that

767
00:46:53,039 --> 00:46:58,360
pick from Sacramento. But you still
can trade multiple first swaps, you have

768
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:01,440
the salary matching to go out and
do some pretty spicy things if they emerge.

769
00:47:01,679 --> 00:47:06,239
I don't know. Again, I
can't I don't know who that I

770
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:07,400
mean. I can cite players that
I would love to have on this team.

771
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:12,199
Denni Abi would be absolutely fantastic for
the Kings. He's fantastic for a

772
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,920
lot of teams. But even just
like adding a contracting obligated mens, like

773
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,280
adding a Naji Marshall, if you're
able to open up a non tax payermid

774
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,000
level and give him that money,
that's an addition that goes a long way

775
00:47:22,039 --> 00:47:25,599
for this team. I really think, you know, I understood one.

776
00:47:25,639 --> 00:47:29,199
Progress isn't linear, so we shouldn't
look at the way last season ended as

777
00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:35,000
sort of this massive red flag.
But the emergence is defensively specifically of Kig

778
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,760
and Murray and Keyon allis. They
really just opened up a bunch of different

779
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:39,760
doors for this team too. I
guess where if you wanted to kind of

780
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:45,280
replace the Herder Barnes minutes with not
Zach Lavine, but someone who's going to

781
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:49,440
break down, who can shoot,
and maybe he's more willing to try stuff

782
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,320
off the ball, but can shoot
and then dribble like breakdown defenses off the

783
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:57,920
dribble. Who's just bigger than Malik
Monk if you wanted to go that route,

784
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,000
I like I maybe Ellis and k
Murray have opened up the doors.

785
00:48:01,039 --> 00:48:06,599
Ideally, you'd still want to bring
in another top line defender for me,

786
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:10,639
but you have to the market's going
to dictate who's actively available to you there.

787
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:15,400
So I really think that is kind
of something that's been underplayed. It's

788
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:19,760
like we all want the Kings to
be aggressive just because they're they're good,

789
00:48:20,119 --> 00:48:22,480
and the way last season ended,
it does leave this weird taste in your

790
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:28,800
mouth. But I do think that
they have more pathways to getting substantially better

791
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:31,199
without going a nuclear route because of
two things. Now you have them leave

792
00:48:31,239 --> 00:48:37,440
Mounk back, so you just know
that's happening, and again the defensive emergens

793
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:42,400
of Keon Allison Keegan Murray specifically for
them. There have two other news notes

794
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,920
to get to. The Lakers have
hired JJ Reddick. I don't really know

795
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:46,760
what to add to the discussion at
this point that we haven't already said.

796
00:48:47,039 --> 00:48:51,840
It's a very interesting move, a
four year deal. I have not seen

797
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:54,079
any reporting on what the actual numbers
are. They went up to six years

798
00:48:54,119 --> 00:48:58,480
and was it seventy million for Dan
Hurley? I would imagine he's not getting

799
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,760
the same average annual rate. You
could say that this shout out to Anthony

800
00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:05,920
Irwin, who's been on top of
this all along, even when people were

801
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,519
trolling him because of what happened with
Dan Hurley. And I look, I'm

802
00:49:08,519 --> 00:49:12,000
gonna be honest, I don you
even fully understand what happened with Dan Hurley

803
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:15,239
to offer that. First of all, I'm not saying you should have given

804
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:16,159
him more. Someone doesn't proved himself
in the NBA. But if you're in

805
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:21,000
a target at college coach like that, be Dan well sure that this like

806
00:49:21,039 --> 00:49:24,719
this, it's like someone proposing marriage
and not being sure whether the answer is

807
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:29,599
yes. Like you don't do what
the Lakers did without knowing what the answer

808
00:49:29,679 --> 00:49:32,199
is going to be, especially letting
him unfold that publicly, and even if

809
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:37,360
it was Dan Hurley kind of driving
the exposure there for leverage with Yukon or

810
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,679
just his future. The Lakers' front
office has been in the business, especially

811
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:45,599
Rob Blaker is a former agent long
enough to know that that's how this works.

812
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,239
That was a megamss on their part. I'm fascinated to see what JJ

813
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:50,639
Reddick does. And look, it
comes down to the jokes too. Just

814
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,280
he hosted a podcast with Lebron James
and now he's Lebron James's head coach.

815
00:49:53,679 --> 00:49:58,880
They've just hired another head coach who
doesn't have previous NBA head coaching experience.

816
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,800
JJ Reddick, sure he's worked with
players, does not have any coaching experience

817
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:06,599
at the at the NBA level,
But based off what he has said on

818
00:50:06,639 --> 00:50:09,559
his podcast, what we've heard him
on broadcast, I'm intrigued to see what

819
00:50:09,599 --> 00:50:14,320
his basketball philosophy is. I find
myself more like there's we just have to

820
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:16,360
wait and see. I don't want
anyone to tell me why this is going

821
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:20,199
to be a good move. You
need to show me the track record of

822
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:22,920
JJ Reddick coaching and tell me why
it's going to be a good move to

823
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:27,360
guarantee it could be a great move, could be a terrible move. All

824
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:32,000
more fascinated. But just like the
spin on this, they're the degree to

825
00:50:32,079 --> 00:50:37,880
which Max Christie was mentioned when the
Lakers were looking for a new head coach

826
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:42,840
is just so ridiculously uncomfortable, to
the point where I'm not sure what they

827
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:45,119
were trying to accomplish, because yeah, he's twenty one and they're probably going

828
00:50:45,199 --> 00:50:49,760
to resign him. He's a free
agent. But like you're the reporting that

829
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:52,639
kept coming in Woja's pieces was they
wanted a coach not only that could work

830
00:50:52,639 --> 00:50:55,519
with him the names of Lebron,
but they needed to prioritize the development of

831
00:50:55,920 --> 00:51:01,239
twenty six year old Austin Reeves,
twenty six year old ruy Hachimra and fucking

832
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:07,639
mat Max Christie. That's just like
one of the most egregious spins, especially

833
00:51:07,679 --> 00:51:10,880
on a recurring basis in NBA history, that it's just funny. We're like

834
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:15,519
Austin, they're not necessarily done getting
better, but like they're twenty six,

835
00:51:15,039 --> 00:51:19,400
they're on their second deals already,
Like these are got they're veterans. Like

836
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:22,079
if you want, if you want
to factor them into why you want a

837
00:51:22,079 --> 00:51:23,960
certain coach, But are you looking
at ruy Ha Chi Moore or Austin Rings

838
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:29,000
or mac Chris Max Christie and saying
like yeah, like that that's our version

839
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:30,760
of like this this person's gonna come
out of nowhere and maybe almost make an

840
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:35,639
All Star, Like you're not looking
at those and thinking they're even I don't

841
00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:37,000
even want to say, like,
let's look at Larry market and do you

842
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:40,639
look at these guys and say they
have that type of like Ruy Hachimore has

843
00:51:40,639 --> 00:51:45,440
the Larry marketing leap in it where
he's gonna go from solid rotation player who's

844
00:51:45,599 --> 00:51:49,320
you know, kind of Wax and
Waynes depending on the season and the matchup.

845
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:52,320
And now he's just in the All
NBA conversation. I guess Tredi Reddick

846
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:53,679
comes in and does that. I
hope we've wins coach the year. I

847
00:51:53,719 --> 00:51:59,840
found that spin fascinating. I found
Clutch Sports Group, specifically Rich Paul trying

848
00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:04,639
to put distance between Lebron and the
decision fucking hysterical. And what was the

849
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,760
quote he had said where it was
basically like, if we were trying to

850
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:12,039
exert leverage over the Lakers, we
would tell them to draft Bronni James at

851
00:52:12,079 --> 00:52:15,079
seventeen. And my first thought was, just like the fact that that's even

852
00:52:15,159 --> 00:52:19,719
on your mind. You can't tell
me that you have not tried to like

853
00:52:20,159 --> 00:52:24,280
leverage the Lakers into doing something specific. I'm not saying Lebron drove this decision.

854
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:29,159
And do you know what I don't
care if he did. He's Lebron

855
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:31,760
James. Like That's what makes also
the spin super hysterical is that you have

856
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:37,239
Lebron James going to his age forty
season and we're harping on the fact that,

857
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:38,440
like man, Max Christy, you
really figure out this, dude,

858
00:52:38,559 --> 00:52:42,639
is we need someone who can get
in here just you have aged forty Lebron

859
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:45,800
James. I'm not saying that the
future shouldn't be part of the equation,

860
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:47,719
that Anthony David shouldn't have a say, you don't need to frame it.

861
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:52,719
Lebron is to me, he's the
best greatest player in NBA history. He

862
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:55,119
was no worse than the second greatest
player in NBA history still playing, mind

863
00:52:55,199 --> 00:52:59,920
you, at an all NBA level. It's okay to say, like Lebron

864
00:53:00,159 --> 00:53:04,360
helped with this decision. I know
the optics are pretty poor because people went

865
00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:06,599
Afterrom Lebron for the Westbrook trade,
as they should have, but that's still

866
00:53:06,599 --> 00:53:08,400
in the front office to make the
call. Like it ultimately should just come

867
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:12,960
down to, like Lebron supported it, maybe he even advocated for it,

868
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,840
but this was ultimately the Lakers decision
because of X they have Anthony Davis.

869
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:21,559
They have Max Christi their franchise cornerstone
in the post Lebron era, apparently to

870
00:53:21,599 --> 00:53:24,159
say that they were trying to think
long term because Lebron is technically a free

871
00:53:24,159 --> 00:53:27,280
agent. He's also had during his
age four, Like, this doesn't have

872
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:30,159
to be that hard and I don't
care who, Like the water is being

873
00:53:30,159 --> 00:53:34,000
carried on behalf? Is it clutch? I know, wos repair the relationship

874
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,719
with them? Just trying to reinforce
put distance between Lebron and the decision?

875
00:53:37,119 --> 00:53:43,559
Is it not vu decision from twenty
eleven, folks, the decision from twenty

876
00:53:43,639 --> 00:53:46,039
ten, whatever it was, the
decision of the head coaching hire. Like,

877
00:53:46,119 --> 00:53:49,840
if it's the organization trying to do
that on his behalf, that's like,

878
00:53:50,199 --> 00:53:52,960
it's just funny that framing to me. But the rich Paul saying that

879
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:54,920
if we really wanted to like exert
a leverage, it wouldn't be trying to

880
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,719
get Bronni James at in the fifties, the beginning of at number seventeen.

881
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,800
Fact that you saw about that,
the fact that you thought about that,

882
00:54:04,039 --> 00:54:07,599
I'll say it again, the fact
that you thought about that makes like you're

883
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:12,960
kind of proving everyone's point for them. So I'm not saying that you think

884
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,920
they've issued the Lakers or that there
was a mandate for them to hire JJ

885
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:20,199
Reddick. But man, you talk
about doing the opposite of what you set

886
00:54:20,199 --> 00:54:23,039
out to do in that situation.
I think the ridiculousness whoever is trying to

887
00:54:23,039 --> 00:54:27,599
do it this way of Ruy,
Roger Moore, and Max Christie, I

888
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,599
just it's not Again, if anything
gets them as players, I'm super intrigued

889
00:54:30,639 --> 00:54:35,519
if Max Christy could get rotation minutes
with someone in Redtick who I can assume.

890
00:54:35,559 --> 00:54:37,280
But again, I'm not going to
him say I don't know what his

891
00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:42,920
coaching philosophy is gonna translate to on
the court. I do envision the Lakers

892
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,960
just having more offensive creativity and movement
away from the ball. Max Christy intrigues

893
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:50,360
me there. He's not the reason
that I'm hiring any head coach, and

894
00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:53,199
that's you're not shock or surprise anybody. So this will be in treating.

895
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:55,119
See how it plays out. They
now have a coach, then go about

896
00:54:55,119 --> 00:54:58,880
the rest of their offseason. The
next biggest thing to tackle is, you

897
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:01,119
know, before you get into are
they going to trade for Trey Young,

898
00:55:01,199 --> 00:55:06,119
it's what's Lebron doing so he's opting
out and getting a deal that has no

899
00:55:06,199 --> 00:55:09,519
trade clause. He's just opting in. But could he actually leave. I

900
00:55:09,559 --> 00:55:13,400
think he'll just be back. That's
not really It's more fascinating than me to

901
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,159
see what D'Angelo Russell does with his
player option. I expect him to op

902
00:55:15,199 --> 00:55:17,639
out, that's been the reporting,
and then he'll look for either a bigger

903
00:55:17,719 --> 00:55:21,639
number or maybe a deal that could
be slightly less maybe at the clients,

904
00:55:21,639 --> 00:55:24,599
but it's going out over more years
and guarante him more money. That impacts

905
00:55:24,639 --> 00:55:28,039
what they could do via trades though, because then you're not moving him in

906
00:55:28,079 --> 00:55:31,039
the salary filler in a big trade
would become one of them would be ruehatch

907
00:55:31,079 --> 00:55:36,800
More or Austin Reeves, two players
who really dictated how the Lakers went about

908
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,159
their head coaching search apparently. So
I'm I'm more open to this idea than

909
00:55:39,199 --> 00:55:43,719
I think some people because I've kind
of come around the skipping the line stuff.

910
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,760
To me is it's a tough conversation
to have, and I'll absolutely listen

911
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:51,159
to it. But I am a
big advocate of and I know this is

912
00:55:51,199 --> 00:55:53,480
different. I'm just a big advocate
of we tell people there's no set path

913
00:55:53,519 --> 00:55:58,639
to getting somewhere, so I don't
necessarily need to believe that these head coaches

914
00:55:59,159 --> 00:56:02,079
need to follow aways that path to
get there. Now, did JJ Reddick's

915
00:56:02,079 --> 00:56:08,000
status or relationship with Lebron James bring
him to a front of a line that

916
00:56:08,039 --> 00:56:10,760
should have included others, maybe a
more expansive search, and there are still

917
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:15,599
worthy people looking for their first opportunity, and parind of the Lakers will want

918
00:56:15,599 --> 00:56:19,719
to give a first opportunity because two
of the three head coaches that they predominantly

919
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:23,840
targeted in Dan Hurley and JJ Redick, you have not pun NBA coaches before.

920
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:28,840
Again, it's a discussion, and
I think they're probably just it comes

921
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:30,199
down to there are only thirty jobs
in this league, and I think that

922
00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:35,719
there are probably more than thirty deserving
head coaches out there. People have paid

923
00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:38,079
their dues for X amount of time. We definitely need to see a female

924
00:56:38,119 --> 00:56:42,559
head coach at a certain point,
and I think we will, But it's

925
00:56:42,639 --> 00:56:46,360
just it should get to you know, it'll happen. And I like they

926
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:50,079
didn't interview as far as I know, Like we didn't see the usual kind

927
00:56:50,119 --> 00:56:52,400
of names and suspects linked to that, and it is a nuanced discussion.

928
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:55,440
I won't say that I'm the perfect
person to have it, especially fucking alone

929
00:56:55,559 --> 00:56:59,199
right here. If there's no one
who could push back against me, I'm

930
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:04,199
willing to have it. I didn't
view this as just some sort of I

931
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:07,119
didn't view it as a moral in
any way I should say, And that's

932
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:10,719
I'm open minded to how he will
fare as a head coach, and I

933
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:14,960
would have given the same benefit of
the doubt to any first time head coach,

934
00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:16,239
at least from my perspective. There's
other people who won't. Again,

935
00:57:16,239 --> 00:57:21,559
that's definitely further discussion we have to
have. The other piece of news here

936
00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:28,039
would be that the Detroit Pistons.
Have we mentioned that they've dismissed Manti Williams

937
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:30,440
all jokes by the way, with
the Manti Williams title, I actually I

938
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:34,079
didn't realize his second wife had cancer. Now he's had a tough go of

939
00:57:34,119 --> 00:57:36,679
it off the court. I hope
everything's well with his family. Doesn't seem

940
00:57:36,719 --> 00:57:38,920
like his heart was in it at
the beginning. I actually kind of think

941
00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:40,960
at this point they kind of should
have just let him coach out next season.

942
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:45,360
There's value in saying if this isn't
the head coach that Trajan Langdon wants

943
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:49,199
like he was already there. But
what like you're like, now you're shoehorning.

944
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:51,559
I don't think the next coach will
a problem, but you're shoeharning preed

945
00:57:51,639 --> 00:57:53,880
Vincent onto their staff. I can't
I can't imagine that's an issue, but

946
00:57:54,320 --> 00:57:57,519
I could see it both ways.
I probably just kept him to see and

947
00:57:57,559 --> 00:58:00,239
then you can make that like you're
not squat what are you doing? Year?

948
00:58:00,239 --> 00:58:02,639
Whose development? Did he ruin?
You give Killian Hayes a chance?

949
00:58:02,679 --> 00:58:06,800
Do you think that Jade and Ivy
broke under him and you're so invested in

950
00:58:06,880 --> 00:58:10,719
him? Okay, it's I don't
think it was the wrong decision. I'm

951
00:58:10,719 --> 00:58:15,639
framing his ownership's decision. It's it's
you could be skeptical because if Tom Gors

952
00:58:15,679 --> 00:58:17,480
drove that bus the first time and
it didn't pan out and he's driving it

953
00:58:17,519 --> 00:58:21,679
again. But the head coaching,
the timing of it was just terrible.

954
00:58:21,719 --> 00:58:24,400
You had candidates coming off the board
and now they are linked to that's the

955
00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:29,280
news. They'll be interviewing Dallas assistant
Sewan Sweeney. If he doesn't get the

956
00:58:30,039 --> 00:58:31,880
If he doesn't get the gig.
I'm assuming it'll come with a nice little

957
00:58:31,920 --> 00:58:35,800
race because he's very close with Lugan
and just loves him, and that are

958
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:39,320
we gaming. This is Detroit thinking
eight steps ahead around Lugians next contract,

959
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:44,119
We're gonna hire Sean Sweeney. I'll
absolutely have that take if they end up

960
00:58:44,119 --> 00:58:46,760
settling on him. I believe they
also were going to interview Jamie Bickerstaff and

961
00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:51,159
they receive permission to get Mike and
Nory from Minnesota. Who I think is

962
00:58:51,199 --> 00:58:53,960
he might have always been. He's
known like he's a sicko throughout basketball circles,

963
00:58:54,639 --> 00:58:59,519
but I think that the job he
did in Chris Finch's stead and just

964
00:58:59,599 --> 00:59:04,360
him elevating, like becoming more front
facing during that time, it probably helped

965
00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:07,639
him in these sorts of discussions.
I think we'll see more names. This

966
00:59:07,679 --> 00:59:09,599
is a situation where you look at
the point they're at in their competitive window

967
00:59:09,679 --> 00:59:14,920
and development they're rebuild that we'll see
a bunch of more names linked to them.

968
00:59:15,119 --> 00:59:16,679
I don't know if they've been linked
to James Barrego. I guess I

969
00:59:16,679 --> 00:59:21,239
haven't been monitoring that closely, but
he's been most closely tied to the to

970
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:23,960
the Cleveland Cavaliers, So that is
something to monitor. That'd be an interesting

971
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:27,440
question as to which job you would
prefer, because there might be a level

972
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:30,039
of job security in Detroit that you
don't have in Cleveland because of the expectations

973
00:59:30,039 --> 00:59:34,880
and the looming threat of well donin
Mitchell signed the extension, and even if

974
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:37,119
he does, is this just sort
of what if we fail next year?

975
00:59:37,119 --> 00:59:39,159
And if he signs the extension,
is Darius Garland going to request down And

976
00:59:39,199 --> 00:59:42,559
at what point do we have to
look at moving Jared Allen once we're paying

977
00:59:42,599 --> 00:59:45,960
everyone le max money. In Detroit, Clevelan's roster is better. It's gonna

978
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:50,119
be way better next season. But
like in Detroit, you have some jobs

979
00:59:50,199 --> 00:59:52,840
through It's like, all right,
this thing is three to five years from

980
00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:55,719
turning around. If you take the
Detroit job, my guess would be that

981
00:59:55,800 --> 01:00:00,000
you have at least three years of
job security. You cannot say you're certain.

982
01:00:00,039 --> 01:00:02,480
I cannot say that about taking the
Lakers gig as Jiji Redick, and

983
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:07,320
you cannot say that with the Cleveland
gig. So I'll be fascinating to see

984
01:00:07,320 --> 01:00:10,079
who. I'm fascinated by everything,
but I want to see who Detroit ends

985
01:00:10,119 --> 01:00:15,079
up choosing. This is the silly
season. There might be more solo podcast

986
01:00:15,119 --> 01:00:16,639
because I don't want to waste,
especially when I'm not gonna waste. I

987
01:00:16,639 --> 01:00:20,639
thought about bringing on a guest,
which is why this isn't releasing earlier,

988
01:00:20,639 --> 01:00:22,760
but then it was just kind of
like, I don't want to waste emergency

989
01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:25,519
pods that aren't even good. They're
not going to age that well because other

990
01:00:25,559 --> 01:00:29,559
shit's gonna happen that you guys care
about. I don't want to waste guest

991
01:00:29,559 --> 01:00:35,159
appearances on something that's I view.
I sometimes forget that I'm in this silo

992
01:00:35,239 --> 01:00:37,239
and join our discord. You could
be in that silo too, of basketball

993
01:00:37,239 --> 01:00:40,639
sichoism, because it's my full time
job, but also because of being exposed

994
01:00:40,639 --> 01:00:44,880
to our discord members, all the
fantastic people that listen to this podcast and

995
01:00:44,880 --> 01:00:49,960
comment on YouTube that like like Alex
Caruso want it fucked up my night because

996
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:52,400
like I'm working on something else,
I have to pivot to this and you

997
01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:54,639
have to do all this other stuff
that's being an adult. Apparently, as

998
01:00:54,679 --> 01:00:58,519
I cover a game about guys making
millions of dollars to put a ball through

999
01:00:58,559 --> 01:01:00,599
a tiny hoop, and I love
it can be stressful points. But this

1000
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:06,039
is like the trade where it's for
the people who really follow this content,

1001
01:01:06,079 --> 01:01:08,559
they're gonna love it. But there
are probably people they're just like, oh,

1002
01:01:08,760 --> 01:01:13,599
like that, like bald dude in
his thirties who is like kind of

1003
01:01:13,599 --> 01:01:16,960
not really a pointquarre. He got
traded to Oklahoma City for someone who wasn't

1004
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:21,480
really playing for them when it when
it mattered most, So you're looking at

1005
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:22,599
that. I looked at that level
of trade and it was just like,

1006
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:27,119
where is this fall If you're rating
them on just the it doesn't warrant an

1007
01:01:27,119 --> 01:01:30,360
emergency podcast. If you don't cover
the team, you cover the entire NBA.

1008
01:01:30,760 --> 01:01:34,920
And look, it was big enough
to fuck up my evening. But

1009
01:01:35,079 --> 01:01:37,280
I also it's funny to think about
it in terms of there are probably people

1010
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:42,280
who just don't view it in the
like avid basketball fans who were kind of

1011
01:01:42,360 --> 01:01:44,719
just like, all right, like
let's move on, what's happening with Trey

1012
01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:49,280
Young and what's happening with Donovan Mitchell. But that'll do. It went suck

1013
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:51,440
to almost under an hour, So
this is a short podcast. I guess

1014
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,000
I should apologize since we normally go
for at least eighty minutes but please remember,

1015
01:01:54,039 --> 01:01:57,320
if you've made it this far,
you've not a ray subscribed to us.

1016
01:01:57,960 --> 01:02:00,440
I know this is the time of
year where we get more of audience

1017
01:02:00,480 --> 01:02:04,760
because people do tend to appreciate the
stuff that we do around these transactions and

1018
01:02:04,800 --> 01:02:07,880
when content's probably sparse, but because
we do such a great job covering the

1019
01:02:07,039 --> 01:02:12,000
entire league, consider sticking around or
recommending us to your friends, sharing the

1020
01:02:12,079 --> 01:02:15,599
content on Twitter and linking them to
it on YouTube, or sending them the

1021
01:02:15,639 --> 01:02:19,159
podcast link. Bumping us on Twitter, Shouting us out on Twitter goes a

1022
01:02:19,159 --> 01:02:22,599
long way toward building the community,
helping us get more subscribers. Subscribe on

1023
01:02:22,639 --> 01:02:25,239
YouTube, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Word

1024
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:29,280
of mouth recommendations are huge at this
point, though, as our go to

1025
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:32,039
the YouTube comments flood them with positivity
or takes. Maybe we need to start

1026
01:02:32,039 --> 01:02:35,719
doing like a crowd poll to the
beginning of every episode so that you could

1027
01:02:35,719 --> 01:02:37,320
respond to it and discord the link
to that to the podcast and YouTube description.

1028
01:02:37,519 --> 01:02:40,119
But also on YouTube, flood the
comments of our shorts too, which

1029
01:02:40,159 --> 01:02:44,719
are just like only negative comments.
I mean, I see rome in there

1030
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:46,599
has always thrown out some fun ones
and positive ones every once in a while,

1031
01:02:46,599 --> 01:02:50,199
but go flutter our comments with positivity. Doesn't have to be about us.

1032
01:02:50,199 --> 01:02:52,440
Tell us about a win that you
had in life. Help the algorithm

1033
01:02:52,519 --> 01:02:55,480
of us back. But also just
let's spread some positivity and continue to build

1034
01:02:55,599 --> 01:03:00,559
the podcast. You can find our
Twitter handles in the youth the YouTube and

1035
01:03:00,559 --> 01:03:04,679
podcast descriptions, but I will just
echo any word of mouth recommendations or shout

1036
01:03:04,679 --> 01:03:07,280
outs that you can give us.
I'm gonna alert us to them. Show

1037
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:09,239
us if you helped someone subscribe to
this podcast, fucking tell us. I

1038
01:03:09,239 --> 01:03:13,119
will give you a metaphorical pat on
the back. Or maybe I'll even send

1039
01:03:13,119 --> 01:03:15,960
you if you told me you tell
me that you converted someone to being a

1040
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:20,840
Hardwoodknox listener. If you tell me
in the YouTube comments in my DMS and

1041
01:03:20,880 --> 01:03:23,519
discord how you found us, I
will send you. We've got hardwood knocks

1042
01:03:23,559 --> 01:03:27,079
magnets, I will mail them to
you, or we have some stickers,

1043
01:03:27,079 --> 01:03:29,360
but I'm running low on them.
I'll send you. I just want to

1044
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:31,199
hear how did you find us?
But I appreciate everything I want to use.

1045
01:03:31,239 --> 01:03:34,679
Thanks for all the support. As
always, shout out to the One,

1046
01:03:35,039 --> 01:03:38,360
the Only, the King, the
person whose Instagram hype videos you can

1047
01:03:38,360 --> 01:03:44,280
believe even in an emptkid unlike Ben
Simmons, the one. It don't frank you