What is crack lacking Hardwoo Knox listeners, I am Damp Valley coming at you
without my fantabulous co host Adam Framo. I am, however, ecstatic as
always, end as ever, can be joined by my longtime colleague, longtime
friend Bleacher Reports Grant Hughes. Follow him on Twitter at gt underscore Hughes.
He's back, which can mean only one thing. At this point, We're
gonna finish up our off season report cards heading over to the Western Conference.
Were already did the Eastern Conference, so if you have not checked that out,
please do so immediately before we cannon ball in here. Just my friendly
quick reminder, slash please to rate, review and subscribe to us wherever you
are getting your podcast. We are on YouTube as Hardwood Knox, we are
on iTunes, Spotify, the whole nine, the whole ten, everything,
So please pretty please with sugar on top, rate review and subscribe the hardwa
Knocks. That is the message here, Grant. How are you feeling tonight?
I'm feeling good. We're doing the West, which is the conference I
tend to pay more attention to. I'll just be upfront with your listeners about
that. But now I've probably set myself up to miss a lot of obvious
things. So there's that. I'm doing great. I'm excited to be back,
and I'm ready to you hit your grades from me, which you just
mentioned before we started recording. So I don't know what you think about any
of this. My grades are revealed to you because I'm an open book and
I don't I don't withhold things from my friends, So yeah, I just
want to make sure before we start to insult you somehow. So there,
so we're good. We're covered now. Uh. You know, I'm just
trying to add a sense of mystery to this entire podcast, and there's nothing
to do with the barrage of flying some things that we're I'm being pelted with
as we're trying to record. So maybe it was Yeah coming at me that
derailed my grading process. The steners don't know You're it's not You're not playing
hurt, but it's kind of like you're playing under duress right now. There's
like a some kind of infestation. Can we call it an infestation? You
have some bug issues? I guess in my office there's like I've just been
attacked by three monstrous like fly things. I don't know what they are,
but I feel I feel very much attacked at the moment. And it's just
so everywhere we're clear, I can't see them even though I'm looking at you.
So it's from my perspective, it's like a forty percent chance that you're
hallucinating, which is even more fun to watch as you duck out of the
way of stuff that's maybe not even there. I'm actually tripping on acid just
for this fun. So that's the that's the big reveal. Yeah, But
anyway, the listeners presumably aren't here to talk about listen to meat being scared
by whatever these like I said, these mutant bugs that are coming at me
right now. You told me about some sort of hybrid fly to Thoma Island
apparently that has eight heads and is super lethal. So I'm so committed to
this podcast that I'm trying to brave those circumstances. But let's begin here.
So the first team, as always when we're going on alphabetical order, and
is the Dallas Mavericks, so I'll begin with them. They hired Jason Kidd
after parting ways with Rick Carlisle. They gave Luka don Chich five year Max
They signed Reggie Block to a three year at thirty point one million dollar deal.
Twenty five million is guaranteed. Five point five million is guaranteed in that
final season. They signed Sterling Brown to a two year six million dollar deal,
resigned Boban Marjaranovitch to a two year seven million dollar deal, signed him
Hardaway to a four year, seventy two million dollars deal. It can get
up to there are some incentives there where I believe it can be raised,
and it is on a declining scale for anyone that cares about that stuff.
And they acquired Moses Brown from the Celtics for Josh Richardson and created a ten
point nine million dollar trade exception in the process. They signed Frank neil Kina.
Their grade is obviously an A plus to a one year deal at the
minimum. They signed Nate Hint into a two way contract. They signed Eugene
Omory to a two way contract, signed Jaquori McLaughlin to a two way contract.
So I'm clearly missing someone that they waived. I'll update that immediately.
But grant, what grade did you give the and did I miss anything?
First of all, but what grade did you give a Dallas Mavericks for their
off season. I think you did well. You JJ Reddick has gone,
but he was never really there. So other than that, I think we're
good. I gave Dallas a D plus. I think it's I think it's
one of my lowest grades, and it was higher at first because, like
we talked about it with the East a little bit. I guess I was
giving credit for Hey, they got Luca locked up to the max extension,
so that's good. But that's one of those things where now my opinion is
more like, well, that was never not going to happen, even though
there was some very you know, in substantial rumblings that maybe he was upset
at the end of last year. So with that kind of a side as
a given and the Tim Hardaway deal, I'm fine with. The declining thing
does kind of matter to me. I always kind of like those deals and
everything else they did was fine, you know. On the margins, Boban
coming back to for seven's fine. Reggie Bullock with the third year on that
MLE deal partially guaranteed Frank Nelakina obviously, but the so the big things are
they replaced Rick Carlisle with Jason Kidd, and like, you know, maybe
this is a situation. We'll talk about this with Portland, or at least
I will. Sometimes you just you know, coach runs his course with a
team. No matter how good that coaches, nobody lasts forever, and maybe
that's a situation. But to replace him with Jason Kidd, I think,
whatever you think about Dallas's intentions to be a free agent destination and hook up
with with I'm going to get the guy's name wrong. Nick Harrison maybe is
the executive they signed to run basketball off seem like a package deal potentially with
Kid. Not sure, that's just my speculation. So you're plugged in with
Nike, which maybe helps you with some free agents at some point. They're
trying to correct what has been a big problem not getting free agents. I
just think the downgrade tactically and personally from Carlisle to Kid is as big as
you can you know, reasonably expect to see in an NBA team structure.
And then I also think you just have to knock the MAVs for yet again
they didn't go get the third star, and the jokes can come in now
because they don't have a second because Chris Epporzingis is is iffy in that role,
and Luca don Chich's max extension kicks in in twenty two twenty three,
and you're kind of they just they aren't meaningfully better, I don't think,
and certainly not in the way that they keep trying to be, which is
by adding a third star. So they failed in that effort, and I
think the coaching situation just the vibes are real bad to me on that front.
So, uh, yeah, I just didn't like their offseason at all.
What did you think? Yeah, So to correct myself, Nate Hinton
is out in Dallas. So that was a two way contract that was extra
the perils of doing thinking I could do this like a couple of weeks in
advance before we hopped on apparently. And then the Hardaway deal is four years
and seventy five million, fully guaranteed. I thought there was something else there,
but it's four years, seventy five million, and it's fully guaranteed.
I didn't go through the notable subtractions, which include JJ Reddick, like you
said, James Johnson, West of One Dude, Nicole Melly, and then
of course Donnie Nelson, Rick Carlisle, I shouldn't mention Nelson at the top.
I was not as hard as them on them as you because so the
Jason Kidd hired to me is objectively terrible in addition to it being an actual
downgrade. It's just they failed to answer for his past that included domestic abuse
allegations, and like it was just another It wasn't as bad as the Port
Trailbraisers introductory press conference for Chauncey Billups, where that could not have gone any
worse if Neil O'Shea was talking out of his literal actual ass, and so
I just docked them for that. I didn't think that that should have been
the press conference should have been more informative. And then I don't like the
coaching hire in itself, so that hurts them. At the same time,
when you look at the on court product here and I don't know, you
know, the front office changes, that's just tough to grade. Right now.
We have to see if those connections are gonna go anywhere on the court.
Though they could have functionally had a ton of cap space signed someone huge,
this wasn't the summer to do that though, And we can make jokes
about the Mavericks being the king of almost especially now that Danny Ainge is out
of Boston. I just this summer wasn't gonna happen, and if it did
happen, like you were in a position to where you probably gave Mike Conley
or Kyle Lowry a semi risky deal. And maybe that's okay because you have
Luca Dantrich, but you already I have a semi risky deal in Christaps porzingis
on the books, and so to rebound with you know, he kept Tim
Hardaway Jr. The deal is it's declining, So I think it works for
them that it's going to decline. Is Luca really starts to get more expensive,
that's fine. I love the Sterling Brown deal, the Reggie Bullock deal.
Sterling Brown played some point guard for the Houston Rockets last year. Shot
you know, eight jillion percent from three gives you some real defense. It's
the same thing with Reggie Bullock. Camp with the ball on the floor nearly
as much, but he was routinely covering the toughest guy for the Knicks last
year. And so to just have those guys who are plug and play,
like even Frankie Lakina look all I'm saying, is he shot, you know,
over forty five percent from three last year, but he's actually shown he
can defend at an NBA level. I think with him, I like the
flyer and we all know I'm frank whoever listens to this podcast, I'm a
big Frankie Lakina guy. I'm not trying to oversell the like what he means,
but it's a nice flyer because I thought he's always should have been treated
as a three in d wing, someone who you don't want to dribble or
make these difficult decisions with the ball in his hands. He should now get
to do that in Dallas if they play him at all, and he's shown
that he can defend at a very high level in the NBA. There was
a real reason that Tom Thibodeau went to him in the final seconds of what
I can't remember what game it was against the Hawks in the playoffs, to
try and defend Trey Young. It was. It was a fucking stupid when
you thought abou him, because Frankie Lakeen would play like fifteen seconds the entire
game. But there's a reason why you go to that because he has that
capability, and so I like these types of moves that they made on the
margins. I don't know if Bobon needed to get a two year, seven
million dollars deal, that's something I could question. So I gave them a
C plus just because I think they should have done better with the head coaching
higher. But that to me was really their one major with and it sounded
like they and Rick Carlile we're gonna part ways no matter what. So C
C plus area, that's where I'm at for them. But you look,
you crucified them. Indeed, I'm here for it. I could be tucked
up to a C minus because really like a lot of it, like you
went through stuff, you know, the mid level stuff and mid tier you
know, Hardaway was probably a little better than that, but that type of
stuff went fine. I just think, I think, you know, and
maybe I'll be wrong, but Jason Kidd has been sort of a magnet or
a cause of palace intrigue everywhere he's been. I've never seen anything tactically from
him that was impressive relative to his peers. So yeah, I don't want
to just keep, you know, dragging this back and forth, but yeah,
I just that's just a brutal downgrade, even if Carlisle had to go,
even if even if that was being the complete just like not this guy.
You know, yeah, I think that, And it really just depends
on I think they're all season or it should come down to it to me
in a vacuum, how stark is the downgrade or how poor of a decision
was it to hire Jason Kidd. And when you look at the on court
implications specifically, I think you could penalize them a great deal. And if
you're gonna factor in the off court stuff as well, Uh yeah, I'm
I totally get where you're coming from. I'm actually surprised though, that you
were that on them. I love to surprise you. The Denver Nuggets are
next up. They drafted Bones Highland at number twenty six. Everybody seems to
like him. We'll see. They extended Aaron Gordon. This is the most
recent thing they did basically four years ninety two isis and it's four million and
incentives. I suspect it's probably that's a pr you know, framing of it.
As we see more and more now the agent side always leaks the max
possible number. How he gets to ninety two million. Oh, I would
love to because I don't know every single season for each of the four years,
five hundred thousand dollars if he makes an All Star team, two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars if he makes an All NBA team, and two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars if he makes All defense. I would argue all defense
is probably his best bet of those three. Yeah, so he's really and
that's a quarter million for all defense for over the four years. Yeah,
so that that's a million total. He's not getting a fear All Star Game.
My god, let a team, which is funny, that is a
smaller bonus than the All Star team. Yeah, that is weird. So
anyway, I kind of think of it as four for eighty eight, but
maybe it's four eighty nine. Anyway. Will Barton is back two years thirty
million, fully guaranteed. Jamichael Green the first of two Greens that they well
well kept one and brought one on two years sixteen point four million. There's
a player option on the second year. Jeff Green two years nine million,
got some unlikely incentives that can bring that up to ten. Austin Rivers is
back at the minimum and Marcus Howard to a two year or two way.
Dan, I'm looking at your at your sheet. Two year. That's two
year because he was up last year. Notable subtractions other than Jamal Murray being
hurt, which is not an offseason move. Not a lot, not a
lot. Paul Millsap would be one. Trying to make sure I didn't miss
anything from my sheet. Jamal McGee has also gone, and I think that's
it in terms of the bigger names. So that is Denver's offseason not quite
as consequential as Dallas's. What are your thoughts on how the Nuggets did I
gave them? You know, looking at I think that Aaron Gordon extension might
change it a little bit for some people. I guess you can look at
that as an overpay. He did average like six points per game to close
out the Western Conference semifinals. I still think, given what this team could
have done, there's where you're just gonna let him walk in free agency and
the cap is expected to go up, and so if you look at this
as like counting, like you know, as the cap increases like a twenty
percent of the cap or twenty two point five percent of the cap, I
don't really think it's that detrimental. And you know, he didn't have a
real training camp with them, and there might even be some weird motions this
season if Jamal Murray comes back and he doesn't played with him before. He
can be a connective tissue type on offense to me, and when you're not
going to ask him to do a ton as long as he's willing to fulfill
that role. And I think if you can get Michael Porter Junior to buy
into being like your number four option at one point as he was coming along,
you can get Aaron Gordon to play within the flow of the offense,
especially with Nikolaokas. Just dropping dimes to him. What he gives you on
defense means so much. He was guarding point guards for them in the playoffs.
I'm fine with this deal. So I had them at a B plus
before the extension and I'm going to leave them there just because I like everything
they did. You know, I love Ja Michael Green. The Jeff Green
deal was a sneaky good signing. You lose Paul millsapp, you lose ja
Val McGee whatever to that. I actually liked that. They you know,
they still have Zeke Nagy to try out at the five, but they can
also play like just different ways now, and they didn't really lean on it
like they had this option with Paul millsapp there, but Jeff Green and Jamichael
Green could make up a nice second unit front court. And if you have
Aaron Gordon on the floor in those minutes when Nakoly Yokich isn't, you can
actually do something with your defense there. So I thought they had just a
really solid offseason, exceeded expectations relative to the lack of flexibility that they're working
with. And I think I don't know how much of a look he's actually
gonna get in Denver. I'm hoping he can get some minutes with while Jamal
Murray's out. I really think that Bones Highland is going to be a very
useful, very impactful NBA player. I've said this on this podcast before.
His contortionist finishing around the rim is a big deal, and he can take
difficult deep threes. He has to get them off a little quicker from what
I've seen of him, but that's like, if you have someone who can
do that, you can live with the fact that, oh, this dude
isn't really going to table set a ton and maybe that just comes with time
and experience. So I thought they had just a great offseason again relative to
how limited they were with what they could do before you go. I guess
the one thing that could change this, or maybe it doesn't is a Michael
Porter junior extension if they just max him out. Though, Like that's like
going with the expected route, right, Like, there's in what way could
Achael Porter junior extension harsh? Whatever? Great you're about to give them?
Yeah, I'll just say I gave him a B plus two. I think
we're just in lockstep on on their off season. I agree with everything you
said. I think if you know what would you what would you ideally want?
I guess, as the Nuggets is, you wouldn't want to have to
give the player option on the last year because you like that extra control.
And I feel like with him, that's sort of where the negotiation is going
to be. I don't foresee there being a negotiation of we want you to
take less than the max. I just think it's going to be what what
concessions, if any, uh do need to be made in terms of like
a player option that I like. I just otherwise I don't think he's gonna
like, I think that's it. I think that's all it is. So
I if the Nuggets managed to get every year locked in and maybe even get
some crazy like Exhibit three Joel embiid, like you know, back related injury
protections, partial guarantees, or something that moves it to an a if they
can retain some control you know over over porter or you know, protect themselves
from potential recurring of injury. But I don't think there's a scenario where a
Porter extension would lower their grade. I think it would only has potential to
go up because I think, look, if you've shown you're willing to pay
Gordon a reasonable rate, but sort of the high side of reasonable, maybe
I think you've got to just shell out. So other than that, the
only other comment I'd make is I think this feels like the offseason of a
team that really understands itself, because, like you mentioned, Highland, I
think fills a need with Murray out, and I think Will Barton maybe people
will worry about his health or whatever, but two for thirty for him and
the shot creation that he brings in just some of the instant offense that he
brings all that matters with Murray out, and you've given yourself in both of
the greens, like Yokich plays forty minutes a night or you know he never
misses games, but you do. You've got that option. Now you've got
sort of a more athletic, undersized look if you ever had to go with
that or wanted to for some reason. So the Nuggets really seem to know
who they are, and I just think it felt like a very like a
unified there's a lot of very clear understanding of what of what this team needs
and how it wants to operate. So B plus and if there's a good,
you know, team friendly side of that porter extension if one happens,
moving to the A range for me. And the thing with Will Barton two,
as you mentioned, is it's almost like a one year extension for him.
His salary next year goes to the player option. He turned down that
you're basically just adding a year on top of that and his salaries on a
slightly declining scale. So I'm with you there. He's so important while Jamal
Murray's out, and you just hope that there's a fac simile of a full
time playmaker beyond Nicole Yokich, between Barton, whatever Jamal Murray does next season,
does Austin Rivers, Monte Morris, Vacuno Compazo all that? So yeah,
I really liked their off season. Are you ready for me to run
through the Warriors? Who? Since I did the first five teams of these
like weeks in advance, I did double check to make sure I have everything
this time, go for it. So they drafted Jonathan coming Get number seven.
They drafted Moses Moody at number fourteen. They signed Iggy Andre Gadala to
a one year deal at the minimum, signed out A Porter Junior to a
one year deal at the minimum, signed Amania be Elitza to a one year
deal at the minimum, signed Chris Chioza to a two way contract, and
obtained a one point eight million dollars trade exception for sending Eric Pascal to Utah.
Their notable subtractions include obviously Eric Paschkal Alan Smiley, each made his NBA
career Rest in peace, Kemp bays Moore, Kemp pays Moore, and Kelly
Ubray Junior. I saw your grade on this. I peeked at it already.
We we diverge here a lot I gave the war So the Warriors minimums,
I think that I think they made nice work of their minimums, specifically
looking at Otto Porter Junior, whose offensive stock is just in the toilet,
and if you can reboot that with his shooting, and then you can even
look at I don't view Igodala or be Elitza as really any more than minimum
players at this point. That being said, maybe Igodalla shows you some more
ball handling with Golden State because he's so familiar with their system. You would
think also be Elita, you you have to believe he'll shoot better from three,
and so I think they got good runway, good bandwidth out of their
minimums. I also am not penalizing because I think some people are gonna be
mad about this grade. I'm not saying they should have traded for a star.
The star market needs to develop. The only star that's realistically available right
now seems like it's Ben Simmons. If you want them to trade for Ben
Simmons, fine, it's a questionable fit. I think they could probably get.
The defense would be terrifying with him and Draymond on the same team.
I'm not penalizing them for not you know, trading their draft picks. I
just don't think the right deal was out there. If they could have gotten
Siakam and you told me that that was on the table, then I would
be living as just someone looking at this. Here's my thing. I want
to know how they looked last year as their offense died a slow, painful,
eminently predictable death without Stephen Curry on the floor, saw that lack of
secondary shock creation, and then decided, Hey, we're not going to add
a single secondary shot creator over the offseason. Don't tell me it's iggy.
I don't want to hear that. Jordan Pool is the answer. They brought
Isaiah thomasin, or they're bringing Isaiah thomasin to work out for them soon if
they haven't done that already. Okay, cool, you didn't use your mini
mid level. I'm still going to hit you for not doing you for not
doing anything with Kelly Uber Jr. How did you not flip him at the
trade deadline for whatever you could get. How did you not try and wedge
your way into the Charlotte talks with him? I know he signed a two
year deal signed and trades need to be three years. Only the first year
needs to be guaranteed, so there wasn't something more active they could have done
there, And yes, you lost the Patty mills sweepstakes. Patty mills was
low key but towards the end of last season. Maybe that was just a
referendum on the Spurs roster around him. But he's never been like this typical
a one backup shock treader. He really spaces the floor. It can do
a lot more with the ball in his hands, and than plenty of other
players on Golden State's roster. But if your excuse is we lost the Patty
Millsbury Stakes so we didn't spend the Mini mL come the fuck on. That
aggravates the hell out of me. And you have Stephen Curry here just and
he, like you just said, what are we bidding farewell to his title
window for a third year? It's fun. I don't have a problem with
the Jonathan comingo pick. I like the Moses Moody pick Klay Thompson coming back.
Maybe you put that under the notable additions of this. It's just not
going to move the needle enough. Their offense was so bad without Stephen Curry.
They didn't add a single secondary shock creator and so for that, and
they should consider this a gift because I feel like I'm very much waiting how
far their minimums went and the fact that, oh and lest we forget,
they did max out Stephen Curry in his extension. I'm really bad at listing
extensions on this. I don't know what it is. You hate extensions.
We established that time you hate them and ty mills and extensions two things you
hate the most. The fact that you were able to lock down Stephen Curry.
Great grand wonderful. You're getting a D plus for me for the offseason
should have been. You have one of the ten best players, ten to
fifteen best players of all time, maybe certainly one of the five best offensive
players in NBA history, and you've just collectively decided like we're gonna slow play
whatever, like whatever window this is, and there's no merit to it anymore.
You have Clay Thompson coming back from two devastating injuries, two of the
most devastating injuries that you could suffer in this sport, really, or you
know that you're most likely to suffer in this sport. I just I don't
get what feels like a real lack of urgency to optimize the window, the
prime window, not someone who's on the downswing, but the prime window for
one of the greatest players of all time. And it's to me, it's
disgraceful. Clearly, Stephen Kerry. They have built in loyalty from Steath.
They won three titles. I don't care. He is so good that he
belongs on a team that's actually going to contend for something. I do hope
they make me eat my words. You could talk me into a path where
they win the West, but a lot of things are going wrong for four
to five other teams in the conference if that happens. And so kudos to
them for I think getting good mileage out of their minimums despite to me not
being a team that's going to be a real contender. That's all they did
that was great, and like the draft was fine. Again, I'm not
if you had told me that they could have gotten Pascal Siakam within reason.
I'm not saying for everything and anything, but if there was a deal on
the table and they just didn't do it, I might have given them an
F and so D plus if you if you can talk me into a C
minus C you're a conversational Wizard because I'm just so fed up with the non
chalance with which they sort of carried themselves these past three, well two plus
years at this point. Well so I gave them an A minus, which
is a huge divergence, but in parentheses, I have a reasonable person would
probably be in the B or B plus range. I'm not always the most
reasonable about the Warriors. So what I'd say is, first of all,
I think I think what happens a lot is and I understand the argument that
you have Stephen Curry, you owe it to him, or at least even
not even so much that you owe it to him. It's it's logical to
try to capitalize on, like you said, and I agree, one of
the greatest offensive players of all time, really one of the greatest players of
all time full stop, because he's thirty four. This is his age thirty
fourth season, and your time's running out. I think it gets I think
everyone sort of agrees on that. I think where the disconnect is is how
easy it is to do that. Is you're trying to do that after the
better part of a decade being the best team in the league and paying what
it costs to be that and inherently winding up with guys that are overpaid,
and in Thompson's case, that broke down that you can't move and so your
financial situation is what it is and you don't have a lot of trade chips.
Now, there's no argument against there. They did not add a secondary
shot creator, and that was clearly their biggest problem the on off splits.
With Curry out of the game, they couldn't score when he's in there.
It's fine. I well, they think Jordan Pool is that guy. And
if you took the Jordan Pool that came back from the G League last year
and was very good, I think that's a reasonable expectation to have for him.
And in fact, I think the only reason that might not be the
best the best course for your secondary shot creator is I think he's going to
be good enough to play a lot with the first unit, especially with Thompson
out. I think he's the answer there. I'm very high on Jordan Pool.
I think he has the ability to be a pick and roll set up
guy. I think he's really sharp. I think he's improved a ton.
They like they think so they think he's the guy. Now you can disagree
whether that's the correct assessment or not. And I also think so. And
I'll just go kind of through the justification that that's not a justification for my
grade, except in so far as it mitigates their failure to get a point
guard and why they're looking at the Isaiah Thomas's of the world now, not
a great spot to be. I think their draft picks were better than better
than decent. I think cominga from what I watched in Summer League. I
watched every minute. He's very flawed, he's very raw, but he has
the athletic ability and the knowledge of how to use his frame, which is
like six eight two thirty. He has as good of a sense of how
to go through guys at the rim and how to create contact and succeed that
way as ten year vets, as like superstar ten year vets. It is
a skill that you don't teach. I don't think I think he has it
now. He had the ball in his hands a ton in Summer League,
basically got to play a superstar role. I think he has superstar upside.
I think there's a scenario where he's the best player in this draft class.
It's like five or ten percent, but it's there and if you're taking that
at number seven, I'm good. I'm good with that. Moody is the
complete opposite. He's like a plug and play three and d take charges,
make open threes. I think he's gonna be able to play. Not primary
shot creators again, I think they're minimum guys. Iguadala will be better here
than he was in Miami. He's familiar with the system. He's not a
primary shot creator, but he will keep the ball moving better than anything.
Like Kelly Yubre is the anti Andre Iguadala. Kelly Ubre has never thought more
than one step ahead on a possession ever, and I think he sometimes didn't
think that step last year, like with being in the same place as other
players. Iguodala is the opposite. He will move the ball, get guys
in the right places, tell them when they're in the wrong place, and
that's a value add I think the Elitza is a similar guy. He's going
to have to play center, he's going to only play against backups. He
can shoot and he can pass two. There's not a break you down point
guard. Totally fair. Patty Mills even wouldn't have been that guy. I
think though of their and auto porter. Who knows if he plays forty games
like that, that's a win, but he does feel a need. You
can make open threes and you know he's the right size for how they like
to play on the wing. I think based on the options they had,
like Patty Mills didn't want to go there, they didn't find anyone who want
who made sense or plus with the tax implications to spend the mini mL E
on, they still have that you can still use that. I just think
like, look, if you're going to criticize them and say, don't tell
me that billionaire owners need to save money, who's spending more than Joe Laco
nobody. So like there's a cat, there's at some point it becomes unreasonable
to just say we'll take a pile of dog shit and pay at five point
nine million and forty fifty million dollars and tax penalties just because we have a
roster spot. I think you might as well wait and see if there's a
buyout guy or there's something you can use that on because it doesn't go away
and still keep it. So, based on the options they had, I
thought they hit the draft. Both of their first rounders were like optimal.
I don't think they could have done any better with either of those two picks.
I don't think there was a trade that made sense. And I think
they're minimum salary slots. They fit so a lot. As I'm talking about
this hinges on Jordan Pool and my belief in him and your lack of it.
But I think they had a really good offseason, and I just I'm
not persuaded by they have they should have or you know, have to have
been all along finding ways to swing a big trade to get Curry another star,
just because I don't. I just don't think there is one. So
I'm not going to hold that against them for their off season. I don't
hold that against them either. Already said. The other thing is, I'm
not low on Jordan Pool. He played really well down the stretch of last
year and really some flash, some nifty finishing around the rim has shown that
you can hit him off the dribble jumpers. The Golden State Warriors offense ranked
in the sixth percentile when he played without Stephen Curry last year. What did
they else did they do to this roster that's going to ensure those minutes can
change? Yeah, they just have to hope that he's his best, the
best version of himself, because I'm sure that sample's not very big and it
doesn't price in how it prices in how terrible he was before he went down.
I think they hope that he's better, that Iguidala plays a significant role
and matters. I think they hope that they hit on one of these,
you know, fifteenth fan point guard spots. I think they hope that when
Klay Thompson comes back, he just makes life easier on everyone with the spacing
a lot of flimsy hopes that age eighty four and Tregadalla is going to be
this big of a lift, that Clay Thompson is going to come back from
two devastating injuries and be eighty percent of Klay Thompson like any time before the
playoffs, to help those minutes out, assuming they even allow him to play
without Steph Yo, because they so, I just I don't know. I
don't think they should have. The star market wasn't out there, So again
I want to make it clear I'm not hitting them for that. I would
have and maybe some people are going to disagree. But Brent Forbes led the
NBA in points per Touch last year signed with the Spurs for cheaper than the
Warriors could have offered. Even Sterling Brown signed a two year deal with Alice
for cheaperan the Warriors could offer. He played some point guard with Houston last
year. Probably would rather have Jordan Pool as a shock creator, but just
another option there. George Hill signed for less than that. Didn't have a
great time in Philly. But if you're such a believer in what you can
extract out of age one hundred and nine, Andre Cadala, why can't you
believe a little bit in George Hill, who I guess was good. You
know, last time he was good was with Milwaukee. So I'm I understand
the options wearing thin, but there's there wasn't at least publicly and not even
just like somewhat quietly or suddenly. Didn't seem like there was enough aggression from
their part this offseason. And I do think their draft was solid. I
think that their draft was I don't think it was spectacular. You know,
there were you know, I think you could have gone in different directions at
either spot. I definitely think Moses Moody was the pick at number fourteen for
them. That just makes so much sense. This was just a very uninspiring
off season for me. And maybe Clay comes back and is really good.
Maybe Andre Goodalla's return really helps you out. Maybe Jordan Pool pops. Maybe
James Wiseman comes back from injury after not playing in Summer League, after being
probably limited in training camp, after not having an entire offseason work out,
and he's somehow better. Maybe Jonathan Cominga is able to get rotation minutes on
a good team. Maybe Moses Moody really is plug and play as a rookie
on what wants to be a good team. That's just too many fucking Maybies
for a team that has Steph Curry right now. And the other question I
have here is they didn't do anything to sort of clarify what is Moody going
to do this season or what is coming? How much are they going to
rely on those guys? How much are they going to rely on Wiseman?
It teams fain to complete that he'll be coming off the bench and that Loonie
will start, And so then you're who are you relying on to help team
Wiseman? And you don't think you think Wiseman's gonna stay? No, I
think Wiseman's gonna start, I think, and at least he's gonna have the
opportunity, and he may be like a like a ceremonial guys. You know,
he may start and play eighteen minutes or twenty minutes or whatever. I
think the answer to all those young guys is they'll let them, you know,
it'll be apparent whether they can play or not. And I think the
veteran guys that they brought in, I think I think the Warriors would prefer
that Comingo or Moody like demand you know, with their play fifteen twenty minutes
a night, or Wiseman the same certainly, probably more so for Wiseman because
this is the second year. But I think they're okay with like, yeah,
maybe Cominga spends time in the G League, like that's that's totally on
the tables. Players that aren't going to spend time in the G League over
the off season then would be just I you know, I think, well
because they're because ownership is completely cool with this being like a bridge. We
want our bridge guys. You know, that's that's the messaging now, and
it you know, it's it's it might be just because like well, shit,
like, we're clearly not going to contend, so we might as well
start talking up this this other situation we have as if we intended it all
along. Whether that's true or not, Yeah, I don't know. I
think, where do you think? So I put it this way, I
think I think last year with Curry on the floor, they had like a
top ten level offense. With him off, it was just like twenty nine
barely better, you know, equivalent. I think they'll be top five with
Curry on the floor offensively, which is like maybe the most conservative thing you
could say about someone like him, because there's a little more talent, and
I think they can be like a mid pack offense like fifteen, you know,
the thirteen to eighteen range in the league when he doesn't play. And
I think that'll be enough because their defense will be very good because they were
a great defense last year and I don't see a reason for to for that
to change with the personnel that they brought on. So I think the offense
will be improved enough. But this is one of those situations where like,
as you said, if this goes bad because they just never score with Curry
off the floor, this will be so foreseeable. It will be, it
will be, it will be like, yeah, of course that's what happened,
you know, in hindsight, because this is all this is, this
is the fair avenue of criticism which you've you've brought up. So I guess
I'm just more generally optimistic about the pieces they've got making the offense better enough,
I guess to get that, you know, to sort of address the
biggest weakness the team had, right, And I guess what's also tough for
me to sort of then we'll definitely have to move on from the Warriors here
at some point. But so much of just the upswing and the wars were
in the seventy fourth percentile of offensive efficiency with Steph last year, third percentile
without him. They were in the eighty third percentile of offensive efficiency with Draymond
and Steph on the court, but they were they did most of their damage
without James Wiseman on the court. When Wiseman played with Curry, the Warriors
were in the ninth percentile of offensive efficiency. To be in the ninth percentile
of offensive efficiency in line ups for Steph and Curry was on the on the
floor, that's that's actually impressively bad, so like it was tough. Wiseman,
James Wiseman did not know how to play NBA best. My question would
be, what happens if, now of a sudden he's back. Why Why
should we bank on him being better after the injury. You're just betting on
talent. You're betting on talent because that's that's all it is, and just
a teenager getting better, that's that's all it is, because there's not any
there was no evidence on the floor last year that that was going to happen.
Should we Houston move on to Houston? No, that we had to
do that because we were so far apart. I think that was the one
to go along on. Okay, the Houston Rockets, I'll bet you we're
gonna be much closer on this one. Drafted Jalen Green at number two.
Drafted Usman Garuba at number twenty three, Drafted Josh Christopher at twenty four.
Acquired Alpern Sangun from Oklahoma City, the number sixteen pick for Detroit's twenty twenty
two second Let's say first, I think top sixteen protection in twenty twenty two.
Basically these two picks, they got a twenty two from first from Detroit
and a twenty three first from Washington have such ridiculous and lengthy protections that there's
a good chance these turn into seconds or don't convey or do We're gonna get
into this on okay see slide of section. But anyway, got sangun basically
for a couple of future firsts that aren't gonna amount to very much. Signed
Daniel Tye sign and trade technically four years, thirty five point six million.
There's a team option on the worth year. He's got a fifteen percent trade
kicker twenty six million of that is guaranteed. David Nwaba three years, fifteen
million. There is a team option on that third year as well. Signed
Dashon Nicks to a one year deal at the minimum, that's not guaranteed.
Same for Tyler. Bay signed Matthew Hurt to a two way, signed Anthony
Lamb to a two way. They lost Sterling Brown, Kelly Olynik and Avery
Bradley and the other thing. It's not really a transaction necessarily, but basically
agreed amicably with John wall that we're going to try to trade you. We
know we can't trade you because nobody will take that salary, so you're just
not going to play, but he's gonna be cool about it, which actually,
you know, pretty solid handling of that, because that doesn't always go
that well. If we're going to give credit or a credit or a demerit
one way or the other, I'd say that's a positive. So that's the
Houston Rockets offseason, mostly draft based, but not totally. What were your
thoughts on how the Rockets did. I gave them a bee, came close
to a B plus. I'm just you know, it felt like they maybe
went a year too far on Daniel Tye's deal and why did he need a
trade kicker. I guess it's to sign with a team like Houston, but
who was giving him three and twenty six twenty seven in the first place?
And I also, I'm just a little bit confused by not confused. I
get why he would like Shane goun here, I'm not his biggest fan overall,
and looking at his game, the fact that he would go at number
sixteen, but Usman Garuba dropped all the way to twenty three, and he's
supposed he's a defensive monster based off what I've read about him and just watched
some film on him. I also love Josh Christopher. I love the Jail
and Green pick. I think it was the only pick, but the way
he looked in Summer League, it's like they have that, dude, and
now they have these two years before they owe anything to okay, see where
they can kind of slow play this. They have their own draft picks,
but I'm just like, I know those picks are heavily protected until Kingdom come.
But you gave up two first as a team. That's yes, you
still have plenty of picks because of that. The Brooklyn Nets trade for James
Harden, but like I would argue, at least one of those picks is
probably gonna convey, if not both, Like they get as low as top
nine and top eight protection, respectively, and so I like, you really
need to believe in Shane Gun and I don't know that you're at that point
where you should have made that type of a consolidation trade. So those are
moves that and I think that one, more so than the Tye, made
me uneasy. But then you just look at their off season and it's like,
Okay, I basically love their draft. I even like the idea of
seeing what can Shangun play with Daniel Tys or can you play with Christian Wood?
Can you even use him as a lone big What kind of quirky lineups
can you build with Usman Garuba in there playing alongside a Jay Shawn Tate and
even a David Nawaba who is fantastic defensively. If he hits his threes at
even at thirty three thirty four percent clip, you have a very good rotation
player there. Daniel Tys is just gonna be so good for their lineup flexibility.
Someone else who could play with Christian Wood or just be your only big.
I'm I'm more confident and since future than I was at the time of
the James Harden trade. Maybe that part of that is John Green, but
it's the rest of their body of work. And I also think this is
something that more recently takes into account, the fact that they're able to sort
of handle the John Wall situation right now so gracefully, where they were upfront
to him and were at least made it. You know, maybe there's some
sort of wink wink agreement between them where it's when we inevitably can't trade you,
maybe that will be sort of generous in a buyout because sort of like,
okay, see with Kema Walker, that's a lot of dead money for
two years, but you also don't need it to spend for real because you're
not going to be good in those two years, and it sort of takes
you right to the end of Okay, we have our own picks now,
our commitments to our okay, see, commitment in two twenty four is going
to be up. That's when you have a ton of flexibility. Maybe some
of these youngsters have hit by then. And So I thought this was a
really good offseason from Houston, probably slightly better, if not a lot better
than expected, And so B B plus stranger again, I ended up settling
on a B because I don't particularly lie Shanggun that much, and I'm just
that that transaction was just mega curious to me. Yeah, I I think
so I gave him an a minus and I think that the only differences are
I think I do think of Shangoon as as potentially very very good play.
I mean, like he's too he's oh yeah, the way he fails is
very foreseeable. He's just not athletic enough, he's not center sized, but
he has to play center. He doesn't impact the game defensively, but his
skill level is like off the charts, and then you marry that with he
was the MVP of the Turkish League get eighteen and all of his translatable stats
like you know Kevin Pelton. You know, based on his numbers, Schangun
should have been the number one prospect in this draft. And there are a
lot of people that you know had him at least top five just based on
guys that are this good as teenagers in really good European leagues. Just don't
fail that Like, that's that's the that's the you know, the the mystic
view of him, which was persuasive to me, and just watching him play
like he I mean, if he slims down whatever, Like his skill level
is super high. So I think at sixteen for a couple of picks that
you know way down the line may not be that great great. I love
the rest of their drafts. I like Grubelot, Dylan Green no brain or
Josh Christopher a great pick. The other difference I have, I think that
bumped my little bit from mirrors. We're not that far apart, but I
think Dan is someone even winning a first for him someone you know, protective
whatever. At the trade denalist teams are gonna you know, who doesn't need
a playoff tested guy who can play center and move a little bit. And
if he's not a star, you know, sometimes the matchups not right for
him. But he is a guy that's gonna be a fit and fill a
need on a lot of teams that are looking at what they've got going into
the playoffs are going into the second half of the season and saying, you
know, we really get a guy like that and at you know, basically
mL E level money, uh with with the kicker, but that you know
that play a team option on the last year. I think he might be
like a positive asset if they trade him, because it doesn't make sense for
him to be on this team. It doesn't like it. Just why why
is the Rockets when you're tanking again, why do you want him? So
I view that as sort of a cagey potential, you know, trade ship.
But so I bumped them up to an A minus for those reasons.
Love their draft. I think they just the Rockets kind of know what they're
doing, which was sort of in doubt. I feel like at least a
lot of people were skeptical after Darryl Morrila. Yeah, and you know I'm
going to bump up to a B plus you talk me into it. I
think the reason you have ticed on this rosters you don't really have another like
center, Like you don't know if if you want to play Shane goud or
Garuba there or how many minutes you can get out of them at center you
have Christian would and so Tys really does serve a purpose and he's gonna give
you more defense than Kelly Olynic. I just think age twenty nine at that
price, given the way the direction Biggs are going, is he take how
many threes he taking for you? But you you talk me into it.
I'm Royn B plus for the Rockets and I'm they and look they haven't even
like I still think that they could probably get if Daniel House is healthy and
hitting his threes, just because of what he gives you on defense positionally.
And then even Eric Gordon, who before he was injured last year was one
of the most efficient players in the league on drives. They can still get
stuff for those guys and at the same time keeping them. And I think
you more so look at Eric Gordon because he's expensive and commands more touches on
offense. They don't do like they're not a detriment to you developing others.
Eric Gordon isn't someone he's stood around, watched James Harden dribble for eighty years.
He can stand in the ultra deep spot while Jalen Green goes to work
while you're trying out, you know, Josh Christopher, Kevin Porter Junior,
all all those guys there. They did. Also, Houston brought Dante ExM
back, is something I should have added, and so like that's even I
like that. I don't think Dante Exum is gonna ever be healthy enough to
stay in like turn in anything. But they have like the the outline,
the skeleton of what kind of could be a defensive monster. So I very
much like what they did. And you just you just talking. I bumped
them up to a B plus automatically, because that's how I guess how how
much I wasn't confident in the grade that I actually gave them. But yeah,
anyway, so you convinced me to bump them up to a B plus.
Love it, love it. So the Clippers they acquired Keyon Johnson at
number twenty one from the Knicks for Quentin Grimes at number twenty five and the
Detroit pistons twenty twenty four second rounder they acquired. They acquired Jason President at
number thirty three from the Magic for Detroit's twenty twenty six second rounder and cash.
They acquired Brandon Boston Junior at number fifty one from the Pelicans for sacramentos
twenty twenty two second rounder. It's it's essentially fake. It's it's top twenty
four protected, a top fifty four protected. Excuse me. They resigned Quiet
Leonard to a four year, one hundred seventy six point three million dollar deal
a player option on that final season. They signed Justice's Winslow to a two
year eight million dollars deal that's fully guaranteed. They resigned Reggie Jackson to a
two year twenty one point six million dollars deal that's fully guaranteed fifteen percent trade
bonus. They resigned Nicholas between to a two year, six point five million
dollar deal. This is a non bird deal that has a player option on
that second season. They traded Patrick Beverley, Daniel Elturo, and Rgian Rondo
to Memphis for Eric Butzo. They signed as Aa Hartnerstein to a training camp
deal, signed Moses Wright and Harry Giles to training camp deals as well.
Notable subtractions obviously Daniel Elturo Orjan Rondo, Patrick Beverley, DeMarcus Cousins who remains
unsigned, and they waived Jogi Farrell. One did I miss anything there?
Or Two? What grade did you give the Clippers grant? I don't think
you miss anything. And this is I think my only straight A in the
West. And I was sort of surprised by it because I think initially I
was a little like, oh, were we really I mean, this is
how how neurotic I think I sometimes he was like, oh, we really
gave Kawhi that player option on year four with his health, you know,
concerns and all this Stuff's like, yeah, you gave Kawhi the player option
on year four. Of course she did. That's fine. But other than
that, like, I mean, you know you brought back Kawai. Sure.
The Reggie Jackson deal I think is fantastic, and the Battom deal same
thing. I think Winslow is as we're talking about flyers on the last team,
I think Winslow is absolutely someone you take a flyer on he's twenty five
and his you know, he's had two years where he's shot it really well
from three and he's proved he can essentially play a point guard role. But
he's wing size, which is perfect for how the Clippers really excelled playing small
ball in the playoffs last year. It's just like, yeah, it's out
the cash outlay for the chance that he's going to be a guy that you
know what he was when he you know, averaging twelve five and four and
shooting thirty eight percent from deep. And he's even when he's been injured and
played these tiny seasons, his defense has always been good. So I think,
yeah, eight million bucks over a couple of years, that's that's fantastic.
I think Bledsoe is undervalued now because he was so pilloried for you know,
he failed in a big stage for the Bucks and he just didn't care
in New Orleans. But now he's basically an expiring deal because twenty two twenty
three's non guaranteed. He's a great defender still, I think, I mean,
he's I think he's so much better than Patrick Beverly just all told,
even if he's not the shooter that Beverly is bled, so at least isn't
going to foul himself out of the game and put the opponent in the bonus
after like four minutes in the first quarter. Beverly is the biggest hack in
the league, Like that's a statistical fact per minute, and that hurts his
team. I don't care how hard he tries. So I just thought that
they did the big things with Kawai, they did the medium things with you
know, Jackson and Betune coming back. I think even Keian Johnson, I
think, just let's get the most athletic guy on the planet and maybe he'll
learn maybe you can play basketball. Like what a luxury for team that has
all these stars and big names and deep rotation. So I don't really have
anything bad to say about the Clippers off season. So they get a flat
A from me, and I didn't really think very hard about you know,
any other grade. Yeah, and look I gave them an A as well.
Their offseason was just And so you talk about the Kawai deal, I
almost view it as a positive that they weren't in this one plus one situation
with him, because then there would have always run the risk. However,
unlikely that you were paying him to rehab on your dime and then he would
just leave. So now that you have him sort of locked down long term,
you can more constantly go about building your roster and you can sort of
do what you did this summer, where it's, hey, we're gonna probably
invest and take some flyers and maybe they'll actually play key on Johnson this year.
I love that move for them, by the way. I thought it
was what the Knicks should have done, even though I knew they like take
a bigger swing, and they did that on multiple front. Even with Brandon
Boston Junior. I think if he wanted to go a minus like that,
you did give up two seconds from Detroit. That could be nice. But
Detroit also has Kid Cunningham now and they've proven that they can make some nice
moves, so it doesn't look like they overpaid for anything. Nicholas Bettum led
them in regular season minutes last year, and you got to keep him on
the non bird deal, the biggest, one of the biggest bargains, if
not the biggest bargaining free agency when you look at production bang for his buck.
Does that come back to bite them next summer when he could be an
early Birds free agent where there's sort of that, like I said before,
wink wink agreement under the table. Who knows as of right now, that
looks fantastic the only move and Reggie Jackson based on how he played for you
to keep him, and it's it's a short term commitment too, and it's
really just not even that much from the team's perspective. That's big the thing
I'm most and also I like the heart Mistine add like, I'm just surprised
that he remained on side based off what he showed in Cleveland towards the end
of last season. However, the only movie I would have some lack of
confidence in is is the Beverly for basically Eric Pletzo swap. That's that's just
how I viewed it because Rondo was just a net negative for them. I'm
not as confident and Bletso being that big and upgrade over Beverly because he does
if he Beverly can at least hit his set threes, Bletso isn't going to
guarantee you that if you need to give him the ball. I do think
the Clippers can provide him with enough spacing to go to work. But he
slipped offensively last year, he slipped defensively last year, and so you're banking
on that needing to come back. Maybe he's more competitive, more engaged,
just better overall on an actually good team that's not the Pelicans. There's still
a slight roll of the dice there. However, you did consolidate roster spots
as part of that trade, and in a year without Kauai, you lowered
your tax bill as a result of the incoming salary. That's not something I
necessarily care about, but I understand what they're thinking. And Bletso has the
higher ceiling than Beverly, even if there's more of a question mark on what
he might give you on a game to game basis right now. And so
this was just under the circumstances I thought was great. Was a great offseason
for the Clippers. Yeah, I And look, you know bloed Cell gets
Bledsoe is not a good shooter. Shot thirty four point one percent last year
from the thirty four point four the year before. Like, you can live
with that. I'm sure it's higher on catching shoots. I was trying to,
look, how are you doing the Playoffking? Yeah, well, that's
the thing. That's what you got Reagie Jackson for. Yeah, he was
a little bit better than that. It's just about everybody is on catching shoots
and pull ups. But yeah, you know, he's not there. I
think I think blood Cell is objectively a better defender than Beverly too. It's
just, yeah, he's not gonna he's not gonna shoot it quite as well.
But it's not like if he's gonna play a reserve role. I don't
know. Yeah, I don't think you maybe is he gonna start. We
haven't even talked about that. That would be interesting. Maybe he will,
but you know, his shots should all be very high quality. I would
assume in this offense, I'm good with Arry Bledsoe. I would think.
I'm I'm assuming they're starting five. Is gonna be Reggie Paul, George Terrence
Man, Marcus Morris, and then a Zubots. I'm assuming maybe Nicholas Patuma
has worked in there. I think I think but Tum would be more like
to start Dan Blaso at this point, Man, I got some options.
That's a good team. That was easy. A couple of Flat A's Los
Angeles Lakers. That's my turn to read the big move. As part of
the bazillion team ever expanding sign and trade, they acquired Russell Westbrook, who've
probably heard of, also coming in that deal second rounder in twenty twenty three
from Chicago, a twenty four second, which is the least favorable out of
Washington and Memphis, and Washington's twenty eight second going out for Russ and those
picks was Montrese, Harold KCP, Kyle Kuzma, and the number twenty two
pick, which became Isaiah Jackson. So that's the big one. And then
a million veterans signings starting with not in chronological order necessarily, but DeAndre Jordan,
Dwight Howard, Malik Monk, Kent Baysmore, Wayne Ellington, Rajon Rondo,
Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Theresa all to one year minimum deals, Taylor Horton,
Tucker Back three years, thirty point eight million, it's fully guaranteed.
He's got a player option on the third year. Kendrick Nunn two for ten
point three. He has a player option on the second year of that.
Mark Gasoul they essentially sent him to Memphis so that he could go play in
Spain or stay in Spain. I don't know if he's gonna play there for
the rights to Wang Julien, and signed Austin Reeves to a two way,
signed one a Yaye Gonzaga player to a two way and outgoing. In addition
to the guys in the Westbrook trade, Dennis Shrewder is gone, Alex Caruso
is gone, Markith Morris has gone west Matthews remains unsigned. We mentioned desoul
Ben Maclamore has gone, Alphonso McKinney waved. So the Lakers very busy,
signed a million veterans, traded for Russ. How do you see their offseason?
I think they did an acceptionable job, exceptional job of getting a ton
of moms from their minimums. I just I know my league. Monk is,
you know, a hot and cold type player, but just from what
he can give you on offense. To get him at the minimum is big.
To get Wayne Ellington with the shooting gear that he had last season and
knowing what he can give you off motion, even though that's not necessarily haw
Lebron James's team's play at the minimum. Big Carmelo Anthony, he's so,
he's still so divisive. I think as someone who's gonna shoot very well from
three point range, and it's more comfortable spotting up off the catch in the
NBA than he ever has been before. The minimum is big. Yeah,
he's probably gonna take some shots that you're not gonna like. But the Lakers
actually sort of need secondary shot creation still because Russell Westbrook is one of the
least efficient jump shooters in NBA history. So just look, I mean,
Trevor Reza, it's all. You know, DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard,
like, they're not great players, but and I don't necessarily like DeAndre Jordan
or Rondo here, but I think they got talent out of their minimums.
And even with Kendrick Nunn, who didn't sign from minimum, they got him
a two years Samway three million. Like you already mentioned, I think he
gives you some He gives you a offensive variants, some of whom might give
you some of that just sort of North South burst can hit some off the
dribble jumpers. Maybe you trust him to run a little bit of pick and
roll just to get that type of flyer on what is otherwise an older team.
But maybe someone who really gives you some pizzazz off the bench. I
think that was fine value Kellent Horton Tucker, I don't know what to make
of that deal. I do wonder, and this is not I'm not even
trying to troll. I just legitimately wonder if he gets the full three years
guaranteed with the player option, if Rich Paul is not as agent, I
don't I honestly don't know. But he gives you a lot positionally on defense,
has shown he has sort of that just like herky jerky angular offensive game.
If he hits and the videos of him knocking down corner threes, if
he turns that into a shot, they have a ridiculously versatile and impactful player
on their hands. So I'm fine with that type of gambo when you're looking
at someone that young, and it implies a commitment to maybe playing him and
developing him more. And there were spurts last season where he you know,
it took a while, he needed to be wide open, but he was
hitting some jumpers. I like everything they did, with the exception of I
don't like Rondo and what getting DeAndre Jordan's sort of informs about their rotation and
having Anthony Davis play center, and when it's not crunch time, doesn't seem
like that's going to be much of a thing, even with the absence of
Marc Gasol there, even though I think Bleacher reports Jake Fisher reported that Lebron
and ad plan on playing a ton more four and five this year, which
if that's true, you line me up to even bump up their grid in
the offseason. I can't go higher than a B plus here because I don't
think anyone who thinks the Lakers are going to be a bad team or just
a spectacular disaster they're snorting clicks like that, they snort clicks with rolled up
one dollar bills because they're still going to be very good provided their main players
are healthy. And I think what you do, at minimum with Russell Westbrook
is you probably do nudge up your ceiling in the minutes and regular season games
that Lebron doesn't play, because Russell Westbrook is very much the type of player
you want if there's not much else around you. And those lineups without Lebron
last year they ended up being pretty rough once again. Their half court offense,
which wasn't spectacular with him on the court to begin with, it was
pretty bad. And I don't think Russ necessarily solves everything. But if he's
in these lineups that are just like that, don't even have Lebron or a
D. And you want to rest Lebron a little bit more this season because
he is getting up there in age. I think he does give you that
option. I'm just not comfortable with the fit when he, Lebron and a
D are on the court, and if you're also going to have one of
the bigs, whether it's Howard or DeAndre Jordan in those minutes, you're really
shrinking the floor. And what you also did here to get him is you
traded your two top three point makers in Kyle Kuzma and Kentabia's call. Well,
Pope, when you look at Dennis Shrewder leaving by the way, three
of your four leading three point makers are just gone. And that's sort of
the other thing to look at this is that Dennis Shrewder isn't addition by subtraction.
It's good that they didn't have to pay him a ton, but you
gave up Danny Green in a first round pick for a year of Dennis Shrewder,
which it's just looking at it in some is not great. Still a
B plus given how and I think I might even be able to be talked
to an as just given how uneasy to fit is between their you know their
three best players now, and I don't want to hear there are two things
I don't want to hear or and I don't think it's unfair to say this
until proven otherwise at this point, One that Russell Westbrook can all of a
sudden play without the ball. We have evidence from Oklahoma City, Houston,
and Washington that he either can't play without the ball or at least isn't going
to play without the ball. And also, if you think the solution is
to take the bottle Lebron's hands and have him be off the ball more,
I feel like less of Lebron has so far never been the answer, So
why is it the answer now? And those are two things I'm comfortable saying
until they prove it's proven Otherwise there's still that shaky element there. I also
would have liked to have seen them just you'll pay up to keep Alex Caruso.
They're risking a lot defensively by giving up Alex Caruso, Contavious Calopope and
Kyle Cruzmo, who turned and quietly turned into a solid, just positional defender
that they could throw at certain guys that would help them buy time. You
you know, it just feels like now you're banking a lot on Anthony Davis,
which is of course fine. But Lebron's been defending at a high level
basically since he arrived in LA, or at least since Anthony Davis arrived in
LA. Does that continue? I don't think you're gonna get a ton of
you know, DeAndre Jordan isn't a really good defender anymore. You're relying a
lot probably on Trevor Reeser and Kent Baysmore to do some lifting defensively. Maybe
you're just very confident in talent. Horton Tucker are doing things on defense.
But you look at just one of the scariest defensive teams last season and now
all they've sacrificed on that front, combined with the iffy offensive fit, I
would say, if nothing else during the postseason between Russell Westbrook and Lebron,
there the combustibility fact they're here exist. I think any team with Lebron and
Ad healthy is going to talent their way out of that and figure out different
methods by which to win and win at a very high level. That being
said, I can't just go the A route when there there is that degree
of uncertainty baked in here. So I think the Lakers are a team that
should only be concerned with what does our playoff lineup look like? Or playoff
rotation? How are we going to play in the playoffs? And while I
think Westbrook and I'm just going to start with the big move because the minimums
are all great. It's hard to criticize a minimum signing if they give you
anything. And the vast majority of these guys they signed for the minimum will
give them something, right. I mean, you know, they've got some
shooting, they've got some youth, they've got some size. Fine. The
Westbrook thing, there's a case to be made that he'll be like your innings
eater during during the regular se that's that's maybe that's true. And he'll you
know, second units, he'll you know, hold the four down. He'll
be a ball dominant guy in that role. I'll I like, you see
no scenario where he you know, embraces an off ball role, tries hard
on defense, does the little things that like, that's just Russell Westbrook doesn't
compromise. It's his defining characteristic. He plays one way. He always like,
that's just it. So if you think he's the innings eater and he
preserves Lebron and ad By, you know, they get some nights off and
he runs wild here and there, or he makes the backups function, well,
that's cool. He's also a completely athleticism based player that showed significant signs
of decline last year. Basically quit getting to the rim, didn't finish very
well. There has never been able to shoot. So even that argument in
favor of the Westbrook trade making sense is kind of iffy because I don't know.
I don't know if he's going to help them in the regular season,
certainly a big name in the playoffs. I think he's a massive negative because
you've got a plan playoff defense is destroy him because he can't shoot and they
don't guard him, so you're basically, unless you can play him at center,
which is kind of what has been the move, can't really do that.
So if you're looking at the Lakers through the prism of how much better
are we for a title pursuit, which is the only way that they should
be thinking, because Lebron is a thousand years old and like every second of
his prime is borrowed time at this point, and Davis is always injury Iffy.
I think they failed. I think Westbrook makes them worse in the games
that they need to care about. I'm not giving them an F. I'm
giving them a C minus because I think almost everything else they did was good.
But it does come down to me to the fact that I think if
they had just kept say Caruso, KCP and Kuzma, I like those guys
better for the games that matter to the Lakers more than having Westbrook. Because
you mentioned they lost all their three point shooting. I think Caruso and KCP
are their best perimeter defenders and they're both on So now you're really counting on
Horton Tucker being your shutdown stopper, because unless you think Ariza has got that
for thirty five minutes in a playoff game or Baysmore, I don't know who
you're putting on the Paul George's or you know, even you know, Devin
Booker's, Donovan Mitchell's whatever, Like, I don't know who's doing that.
So I think there's a case to be made that they're they're worst defensively,
and I think in the games that matter they're going to be worse offensively.
They might still win the title because they have Lebron and a D. I
just think this offseason was by definition, I'm giving it a C minus.
I think it's below average. I'm prepared to be wrong, like but I
just I think the Westbrook thing, it's not a cut and drive for sure
disaster, but I think the chances of it being a failure are higher than
not. So that's I'm being as conservative as I can. By just it's
as it's as marginally below average as you can get. Because again, everything
else they did, you know, made made sense there and I thought about
dropping so I have more faith in what Westbrook can do for them during the
regular season as sort of a guy running in the solo minutes. Maybe they
don't have enough spacing, but maybe I'm wrong there. I share your concerns
with the postseason, and this would be This was one of the reasons that
I consider dropping them down to A B or B minus. There have been
one hundred and twenty four players to attempt at least two hundred shots in the
postseason since two thousand and sixteen. Russell Westbrook's effective field goal percentage among that
bunch ranks one hundred and twenty third. So yeah, that's like, you
know, that's problematic for them. And I also the thing here and Zach
Loll mentioned this on one of his podcasts this offseason. By the way,
can you guess who ranks dead last in that category? I bet you can.
It's effective field goal percentage in the playoffs? Yeah, is it Eric
Bledsoe? No, it's Damar So. The other thing is Zach Will mentioned
is they have a lot of guys on their roster who are going to expect
to play. And it's you know, if you sign a minimum as a
Wayne Ellington and a Molik Monk, even even though he's younger, you probably
don't expect to play. But like if you're talent Horton Tucker and you just
signed that deal, if you're Mellow, if you're Dwight Howard and or DeAndre
Jordan, you're gonna expect to play. If you're Kendrick Nunn, I would
think that you would expect to play. So how do they sort of juggle
this that? I mean, Rondo expects to play just because of how important
he was during their twenty twenty title run. I don't know that's gonna be
an interesting thing to juggle there. I just couldn't hurt. I couldn't penalize
them for that just yet because I need to. You know, I'm assuming
there's more because Lebron is very much involved in at least the team building process.
I'm assuming there's at least some awareness of how this is going to shake
out for players. But the Wetbrook stuff is real, and I think you
could probably go as low as you want, not an F and not a
D. But I think C minus you if you and I you wanted to
go a plus just because you look at they didn't really have a ton of
assets. But hey, they have Russell Westbrook, who's still in a vacuum,
a fringe all NBA player. What he does is not scalable, but
look at what he did for Washington after his quad injury healed like that was
Look what he did for Houston when they tailored the roster around him. More
So, there are there's a huge just range and how you can grade the
Lakers here. I tend to just be more optimistic for them during the regular
season. I would be very much worried about them in the playoffs, not
only because of Westbrook and the offensive fit, but as we both mentioned now,
they at least on paper, they look a lot worse defensively, and
if they're not, Anthony Davis is probably a defensive the Year candidate, Defensive
Player of the Year candidate. Yeah, if you're going to be a potentially
bad perimeter defense, it helps to have a healthy Anthony Davis just cleaning every
mess up. So yeah, again, could be wrong, just you know,
pretty pretty scary relying on Westbrook in that capacity. We got a Memphis
next. I think it's your turn. Yes. The Memphis Grizzlies acquired Steven
Adams, Eric Bledsoe, the number ten pick, which they used on Zayer
Williams, the number forty pick, which turned into Jared Butler, and the
Lakers twenty twenty two first rounder. It's top ten protected for them, otherwise
they'll stay in New Orleans and then it turns into two seconds thereafter. They
gave up in that trade, Jonis Valancunis, the number seventeen pick, which
turned to the Tray Murphy the third, and the number fifty one pick,
which turned into Brandon Boston Junior and then also Tyler Harvey. They acquired Patrick
Beverley, Rondo and Daniel o'tourou for Eric Bledsoe. They then acquired Jared Cover
and Juan hernan Gomez for Patrick Beverley. They then traded Juan Hernan Gomez to
Boston for Chris Dunn, Carson Edwards and a twenty six second round swap.
They acquired Sam Merrill from Milwaukee and created a four point one million dollars trade
exception for Grayson Allen and cash. They acquired the number thirty pick, which
they which was used on Sante Aldama from Utah for Jared Butler. Of that
number forty pick, a twenty twenty two second round pick unprotected, and a
twenty six second round pick which four Utah specifically is protected from selections forty three
to sixty, And they signed Killy and Tilly to a two way contract.
Their notable subtractions sort of rehash years. They waved Jonathay Porter, they waved
Sean McDermott, Justice Winslow was gone after they declined his team option, Grayson
Allen and then Jonnis Valanciunas. What how did you grade the Grizzlies offseason This
was one of the most difficult ones for me to go with or to grade.
Ex Yeah, I agree, I gave him. I gave him a
B minus and just sort of on the macro thinking that I guess I would
frame it around the trade they swung with New Orleans, which I think,
as everybody said at the time, it sort of felt like the type of
trade that should have happened the other way, because Memphis was at her team
than New Orleans last year, and so if one of the two were making
the more like win now movies should have been Memphis and not New Orleans.
Are just the exhibits of New Orleans desperation. I think they did well in
that trade, and you know, they flipped a million pieces around. I
think it's just kind of fun that they now have Chris Donne to go with
the Anthony Melton and Dylan Brooks and just this like complete monster of backcourt defenders.
That's kind of fun. Try I might even be forgetting somebody. Yeah,
I just it feels like a little bit of a consolidation. It feels
like Memphis is cool looking around the West and saying like there's a lot of
real contending teams that are old and if we just hang out for a year
or two and just keep the powder dry and just pick up a pick here
and there, take somebody's bad money, we can sort of position ourselves for
a run. Now. Granted, like in a market like that, you
just may not have alternatives. It's not like free agents are kicking the door
down or you have all these options. But I thought it was, you
know, an above average off season kind of you could say they just spun
their wheels and didn't really end up in very much of a different place.
But I do think, you know, they were careful, they got a
couple of extra picks, they took on some bad money, which is sort
of what you ought to be doing in that position. So yeah, it
was hard to kind of land on that. I could be convinced it was
a B plus or C minus, but just kind of in that range.
I landed on the B minus. I went with a B up. I
like the thought behind what they're doing, like the concept, and you sort
of outlined it, which I think is why I graded them so highly.
I'm also loved with Zayer Williams after watching him in Summer League, and even
just like the swing at Jared Culver where it's okay, Yeah, he clearly
doesn't have like the raw tools to create the type of separation he needs to
be a really good shot creator and or maker. But how does he do
on a team that has like other guys that can do that, or playing
alongside at John Morant as appost like where there's more variants and pace, whereas
with the D'Angelo Russell it's always going to be a little bit more methodical.
Or if it's a and Anthony Edwards, who's not much of a playmaker right
now and he was last season was it was bad for him and his role
declined. But towards the end of his first season, there were lineups that
were working where he was the point guard. He was hitting they were super
wide open, but he was hitting some set threes. So I like the
concept behind that the question I have and they've flipped, like it's hard to
look at this when you when you zoomed out, it's just they flipped so
many guys that they acquired, so it's tough to get this a nutshell.
But I thought the two things that set out to me is just if you're
going this route, like was Jared Culver, like that was the biggest swing
that you were able to take, I guess because it's for a player and
Patrick Beverley didn't need so that's fine. But with the blood Zoe and Adams
trade specifically, I know that you had Jonnis now and Tunis on the books
this year too, but Janus now and Tunis is a really good player,
and his contract is a bargain at fourteen million, and so you sort of
juxtaposed that with the fifty seven million and guaranteed money that blood Zoe and Adams
were making combined at the time to only move up seven spots in a draft.
Wherefore, all we know is that year Williams could have dropped that far
anyway, a lot of people were surprisedly landed at number ten. My guests,
my guess is that he wouldn't have gone past San Antonio at number twelve.
That's just my guest based off what I just based off some TVs reading
to there and speaking with people who are you know, not very plugged in,
but just that's my guest. But to move up seven spots and they
get the Lakers first to take on that much guaranteed money, and yeah,
you were able to then move Eric Bledsoe and tournament to two different players,
and just like and then you're able to trade Patch Beverlyn and a drag coach.
So there's there's layers to that deal. It felt like, yes,
the deal I was made with New Orleans, it felt like New Orleans shouldn't
have been making it. But if a team was going to dump that much
salary, I thought the compensation from Memphis should have been a bit higher there,
and that that's part of the reason why I couldn't go any higher.
The other thing is just that, like this team is still after all this
time, and perhaps it's Zaire Williams a little bit, or maybe it's Desmond
Baine, maybe it's Jared Colver. They certainly have a lot of bites at
the apple. When it comes to just a long term building block wing,
I feel like if they're gonna take all these swings, it should amount to
something more. Then again, you just look at like the draft picks that
they have now stockpiled, Like they have Utah's pick next year, they have
a Lakers pick next year, they have all their own picks moving forward.
They have that Golden State Warriors top four protected pick in twenty twenty four,
which is a sneaky good asset, I would argue at this point, so
they have these extra firsts and they're built to do something. If they want
to consolidate, they're clearly not at that point. I think more than anything,
I do like a lot of the moves they made individually. Again,
just the concept of a swing on Jarret Culver Zaire Williams if you thought he
was going to be gone and you believe that he's the guy and someone who's
going to create their own shot from a perimeter spot at the two three more
efficiently and with more versatility than a Dylan Brooks, and I vibe it.
I just like their thinking as you outlaid with they are looking at the Western
Conference. Yes, it's wide open, but they're clearly so far away from
being in that upper echelan. Let's try and find or let's acquire as many
bites or avenues to get the co star apple for John Morand as we can
while he's still on his rookie scale deal when maybe there's not that much urgency
to win, and there's also just the element of well, what is Jared
Jackson junior? Now? He still seems like he might have all NBA potential,
but he was so banged up last season. I assume he'll be fine
on quirking threes next year. But what is he defensively? Can it give
you minutes to the five? Can he stop failing so much? Is there
more that he can do on offense if you put the ball in his hands
And I'm not even talking you know, post ups. I'm saying, can
he make quicker decisions or move more quickly with the ball in his hands if
he's putting it on the floor from from the face up position? And sort
of with those questions in mind, yes, he could be your number two,
but he also at this point, I think you're less confident that he
is than you were when he was a rookie, which is sort of a
weird thing to say. So, yes, I know he was in the
league before John Morand, but like he looked just when he came in and
was like, Oh, that's going to be a future All Star type player,
I think that's more of a mystery box now. And so I really
do respect what Memphis has done, even if I'm not so sure about everything
that they've done. Yeah, I would just add that, you know,
I think looking at the deal they swung with the Pelicans, I think Valentinist
is fairly indisputably the best player in that deal, and the Grizzlies lost him.
I think a motivator was they weren't interested in paying his next contract.
I think, you know, especially because Jaren Jackson, you meant, I
think it's all tied together because he's he's due for an extension, or he's
going to be due for an extension, So who knows what that's going to
be. I don't know that they'll you know, agree to that at anytime
this offseason. I think he's eligible this offseason, but I don't think they
wanted any part of having to deal with possibly paying Valentcunists like what twenty million
a year or something. So I think, you know, that was a
factor as well, which again it should be for a small market team unless
you're in New Orleans and you don't care. I guess we have the minister
a Grizzly from Minnesota. Minnesota Timberwolves. Next they moved so Patrick Beverley,
who just bounced around. Like the last three teams we talked to, UH
talked about. The Wolves acquired him for watch of Hernan Gomez and Jared Culver
just to really I don't want to editorialize on all these, but what a
tough look to give up on Culver for nothing, So like, just man,
what a what a blow? And pick Acquiredtorian Prince Washington's twenty two second
round pick in cash from Cleveland for Ricky Rubio. That one why may Why
was Minnesota the team getting the pick in that deal? And it's Washington's twenty
twenty two second rounder. That's not that might not be a late second rounder.
And I know that maybe Ricky Rubio is he would certainly carry a heavier
offensive wolde and we've seen him play great defensively in the past, But is
he gonna, you know, gonna be that locked in on the Calves?
I just I don't know the the Cavs saved the Timberwolves some money there and
one of the team that's sent out the pick. I just felt I'm just
curious as to why they needed to send it a pick good for Minnesota,
But that's that's my That's gotta be Cleveland saying, hey, we need this
guy. What's it gonna take? The Wolves are like this guy, all
right, Leandrew Bowmarrow is coming over. He was at the two number twenty
three pick in twenty twenty. He was in Spain last season. Jared Vanderbilt
got a three year thirteen point eight million million dollars deal fully guaranteed. Jordan
McLaughlin got three years at six point five million. That's also fully guaranteed.
H McKinley, Wright and Nathan Wright no relation, probably signed two way contracts.
And as we mentioned, Ricky Rubio has gone, watch O Hernan Gomez
has gone, Jarrett Culver has gone, and Ed Davis remains unsigned and probably
will continue to be pretty quiet for the Wolves. What what do you have?
What do you Minnesota at? I gave him a B minus. I
thought about actually going a little higher because I like Patrick Beverley's fit on the
team. I do think you have to weigh sort of the cost concession with
giving up on Jared Colver after two years. However, after the Anthy Edwards
break out towards the second half of last year, just there was no path
to Jared Colver being what you want him to be. And I do think
there's value in admitting that you screwed up rather than trying to stick it out
and Patrick Beverley. This is part of the reason when you go back to
the Clippers why I wasn't as confident with the Bledsoe spop. Beverley was really
valuable for them at points in the playoffs, and just he's going to bring
a lot of what I think Minnesota needs, sort of that FU factor on
the perimeter in the backcourt. In general. I thought keeping Jared Vanderbilt on
that deal was a home run for them. He is really good. He's
a human energy drink. He's gonna rebound for you. They probably are gonna
play You could play him with Karl Anthony Towns and I know you have nas
read here. And I also really liked the Nathan Knight to a contract.
By the way, he showed some flashes last year really brief playing stints with
Atlanta. I think he could probably get away with him playing some of the
five just because of his activity level. I really just you look at their
perimeter, like secondary perimeter rotation, and it's like, oh, you couldn't
find a way to upgrade that, Like the two, three, four spots.
Where does Jalen Noel factor into this equation? How many minutes is Joctor
Cody playing or you two relying on Jake Layman. It's clear that they also
don't view Jade McDaniels as a four, and even though he played a lot
of that last year, but the way they were using him in Summer League,
I know some of league's different circumstances. Given that, and then also
their interest in literally everyone who's potentially valuable and available who could be a power
forward proxy for them, it leads you to believe that they really wanted to
upgrade the four spot. Now they could still go and trade for Ben Simmons
and this all looks different. They need to get a little bit deeper in
the front court or on the wing spots, and they failed to do that
over the off season. But I don't think they had a bad offseason.
It wasn't like they were super had all this flexibility in what they could do.
They're not a free agents destination, so they weren't going to, you
know, hit a home run with a veteran using their mid level exception,
which they did not use, by the way, so like you could penalize
them for that too. If they want to fancy themselves a playoff team.
I'm very interesting to see what Ballermo looks like, because he's just known as
someone who's gonna guard people in their jersey and that's something else that they need,
that defensive talent. And so between Matt and Patrick Beverley like you could
really run some very tantalizing lineups at this point. I'm also a huge fan
of Jade McDaniels. I would like to see him play the four of them.
I think they get away with it. I just thought, and maybe
again, maybe they're waiting on the bigger swing or they've decided to you know
what, if we couldn't get a Ben Simmons or John Collins, we're just
gonna settle for this is what we have, and we'll buy our time until
something better comes along. I think that's fine. I just still they're not
I don't even think you could punch them as a bona fide playing team at
this point. And I'm not saying necessarily that one move was out there,
but could they have maybe done a little bit more And there's still some off
season left to go, and if they're waiting to see how Ben Simmons stuff
shakes out, I actually don't have a problem with that, and That's also
why I didn't hit them harder for not really upgrading the perimeter rotation. If
you're gonna say, we're not gonna make a smaller move until we find out
what's going on Ben Simmons. He's such a perfect fit there. I think
he's the team that I actually want Ben Simmons to go to most. That
makes a ton of sense. And so I think the most curious thing to
me was their interest in Larry Marketing this offseason. I just didn't, you
know, he and talents can play together just because they both placed the floor
right what that would be just a defensive disaster and so that but that's a
move they didn't make, and we don't know how high their interest actually was
in that. I think their off season was was fine, I will say
marginally. Active off seasons are probably for teams that were winning it better than
a twenty seven win pace last year, though it was right. I had
him at a C minus, So I think I'm going to bump into a
C. I think, I you know, because I was sort of factoring
in, like how bad of a look it is to lose Culver for nothing
after you picked him, and then they lost their first of the Warriors,
which is like the I mean that was sort of more like last season instead
of the off season that they messed up there, and I guess like I
will just say, yeah, I'm fine with the CE. It was pretty
uneventful and it's all fine if they do end up getting Ben Simmons, because
I hate that we agree about them being the best destination for him because that's
boring, but it just is. I have some reservations about how Patrick Beverly's
whole deal is going to work there because Jimmy Butler was kind of the last
hyper intense, like every minute is the last minute of your life, level
competitor to be there, and like he just wasn't having it. And I
think at that point, though yeahs are delos vibes are positive to someone like
Jimmy Butler or Patrick Beverley, I would argue, know what about Anthy ed
words as comedic relief, Well, everybody likes everyone loves Anthony Edwards. I'm
in the Anthony Anthony Edwards Press Conference fan club. There's no there's no doubt
about that. I think get to see Beverly is in theory if he's on
board with playing for a team like this that probably isn't going to be very
good. That works, but yeah, hopefully this is all just the calm
before the storm and Ben Simmons ends up there for I don't know what it's
going to take or how they do it, but that would be ideal.
That would bump them way up if they pulled that off. Rono the New
Orleans Pelicans, and so if you guys might want to sit tight for a
couple hours, will work through this list of of transactions. They hired Wily
agreeing to be their next head coach after getting rid of Standing Nundi. They
acquired DeVante Graham on a four year, forty seven point three million dollar contract,
thirty seven point five million of which is guaranteed. He has just a
two point five million guarantee in that fourth and final year. Jonas valanci Unis,
the number seventeen pick, which which they used on Trey Murphy. The
third a number fifty one pick, which became Brandon Boston Junior. They got
all that for Eric Bzo. He has one year and twenty two million guaranteed
left on his deal. I'm projecting he gets waived in year two. Otherwise
he's gonna get paid ninety one four million Steven Adams at two years and thirty
five million dollars, which is the exact extension they signed him too, after
acquiring him for some reason last offseason. Weston one d the number ten pick,
which became Zeer Williams, the number forty pick, which became Jared Butler,
their own twenty and twenty two first round pick that is lottery protected and
then turns into two seconds if not conveyed, and then the Lakers is twenty
twenty two first round pick, which is top ten protected and turns into two
seconds for the other team if not conveyed. New Orleans would actually keep that
pick if it lands between it's protected for New Orleans with eleven whatever it is
thirty and then they sent out cash. They also created a seventeen point one
million dollars trade exception for Steven Adams, and I tripped over my own words.
There, New Orleans will keep it if it's top ten protected, that
Lakers pick, it goes to my God, whereas it goes to Charlotte,
I believe, or no Memphis. If it finishes eleven and thirty, there
we go. They acquired Sacramentos twenty twenty two second round or protected thirty one
to fifty four and cash from the Clippers for that number fifty one pick,
which is Brandon Boston Junior. They drafted herb Jones at number thirty five and
then signed them to a three year, five point three million dollars deal.
Two years of that is guaranteed. They then acquired Thomas Satoranski Garrett Temple,
who as signed to a three year fifteen point five million dollars deal. Two
of those years are guaranteed at ten point one million, non guaranteed in year
three. They also got Chicago's twenty twenty four second round pick and cash for
a Lonzo Ball on a four year, eighty million dollars deal that's fully guaranteed,
can get up to eighty four million dollars with incentives, and has a
player option on the final season. They acquired Portland's twenty twenty six second round
pick and cash for the number to forty three pick, Greg Brown the third.
I thought that was an oddly ambitious player from Portland. By the way,
I don't know how you thought about that. They then signed Josh Hart
to a three year thirty seven point nine million dollars deal. Only one year
is guaranteed at twelve million. The second season, the final two seasons at
twelve point seven million dollars a pop are non guarantees. They signed Willie Hernan
Gomez to a three year, seven point three million dollar deal fully guaranteed.
They signed resigned d d Lozada to a four year seven point seven million dollars
deal. Two years is guaranteed, and then each of the final two years
of that is non guaranteed. On that four year contract, they signed Jose
Alvarado to a two way contract, and they signed Dalton Holmes to a two
way contract. Some notable subtractions just to recap if you didn't get all that,
Stammon Gundy's gone, Lonzo Ball's gone, Stephen Adams are Butzelo were gone.
Also, James Johnson and Wes a one new that was and I probably
lost people on just the description of what they gave up in some of the
DeVante Graham deal. But what grade did you give the Pelicans for their off
season? So this is a C minus and just that was, I mean,
they did a ton and so the big there's kind of just a handful
of big items for my decision and kind of an overall feel of the organization
that dropped it below average but not but you know, by the smallest amount
you could. I think, like again, in a trade, if you
get the best player, which they did in Valentcunis, okay, that's potentially
a positive. And I like Trey Murphy at number seventeen, so I'm okay
with sort of what came out of that. I like Devonte Graham at his
number. I really liked the Josh Hart contract. That's I can't remember the
last contract I saw that. It was three years in the last two were
essentially consecutive non guarantees. It's really as a really interesting structure for a guy
who's team good play right. How did I know his rebounding can be overrated
and he shoots worse from three than most people would expect or realize. How
did no one come in with like a more aggressive maybe New Orleans like somehow
deterre it and made everyone believe they were gonna match whatever. I honestly don't
know how you can get more guaranteed money. Yeah, he's a good player
on it. I mean, that's a crazy amount of team control for a
guy that would think uh deserved more player control. So I mean there were
some good things and even even the losing Wanzo Ball and just deciding that,
look, we sort of have three max level or big salary slots. Ingram
Already's got one taking up Zion's going to definitely have one is Ball. The
third guy, like or we see the third guy, we're going to commit
big money too. I'm I'm sort of okay with them saying no. I
would have been fine with them saying yes at that number, So I can't,
like, I understand both sides. I just I'm not gonna knock them
way down or pump them up. I wouldn't have pumped them way up if
they kept him, because that would have been, I don't know, potentially
risky with with finite resources. The coaching change, insofar as it's reflective of
like you really botched it on hiring Van Gundi and who knows what Willie Green
is, it feels like a negative. The thing that really kind of got
me and knocked this below average was it sort of seemed like New Orleans thought
it was going to be a player for Kyle Lowry and then even Chris Paul.
Remember there were like little rumblings of like New Orleans. Interesting, It's
like no scenario where either of those guys ever going there, And it just
felt like either the Pelicans were deluded or they got played as like a leverage
thing. I just I just don't know. There was no scenario that where
that was real. And so their failure to like do to make a big
move or do something significant, even if that would have been like trading Ingram
for something, just something too. Because look, I think I don't know
what you think, but I think all this stuff about Zion being unhappy is
very legit. I think there's only one way this story ends unless the Pelicans
get way better very fast, and that's with him asking out before anyone's ever
asked out. Really, in terms of I do I think that's where it's
going, I don't. I wouldn't say like, oh, this year it's
going to happen, But I just I think there's an smoking for there to
be fire, and I think we're getting a field. But but look,
I just think I don't think he is going to just be happy with what
has happened this offseason because I don't think they're meaningfully better. Maybe he's Glad
van Gundy has gone and Willie Green's in, but they didn't do a ton,
So the messaging for him is kind of like, man, I kind
of I let some stuff leak that I wasn't super happy, and this is
what you did, Like, okay, so maybe I need to crank it
up a little bit. I don't know, so that's just that's speculative,
but that's kind of what I where I'm at. So it's a C minus
someone was okay. The sort of big picture stuff is getting a little more
ominous. I would say for the Pelicans, what did you think? So
the Zion stuff doesn't bug me too much. I do think it's real.
I just don't know how much it matters because no one has turned down that
first deal coming through the scale, And maybe that speaks to more about how
the draft is and should there even be in a draft, or what happens
after, should should restrict the free agency be changed? I just until someone
it's one of those when I was talking about the Lakers, until you Russ
proves that he could play off the ball, I'm just gonna assume that they
can't, and until Zion actually turns down that money and asks her out.
I'm going to assume that that's not going to happen. I think, sorry,
I think I think what I don't I do? I agree like no
one's gonna say no to that money. I think what you might get is
him just saying at some point still on his rookie deal, like you guys
gotta trade me, or I'm just not going to play like it's an Anthony
Davis, like I'm just sitting down and so figure it out like that.
That's the That's the form I think it would take if it gets, you
know, as bad as it good, if that's where it started and this
is and they know that's happening, and this is the off season they turned
in, they get can you get it? An affmatus, but it's I
actually gave him a D plus though, and I'm going to be I'm going
to be actually complimentary first because I think people are going to assume that it's
just another person who covers the league in the national level gonna give surface level
analysis, and maybe that's what this is. You look at this team,
and I think one of the bigger things that they've done that I actually don't
think people are really talking about at least, I haven't heard it. When
Zion was off the court last year, your point guard for in most lineups
with either Eric Bletsoe, Kyra Lewis Junior or Alonzo Ball, depending on how
you want to view those two while you're centers were Steven Adams, Willie her
Nagomez, Jackson Hayes. Now those minutes without Zion can be given to Davante
Graham as your point guard, Thomas said Ransky, who gives you some secondary
playmaking. And then Jonas found Judas is not only just a better offensive player
in generals than Steven Adams, he can generate his own shot off the block
and use his shoulder and kind of so you have more pathways to surviving the
minutes that Zion is off the court, which I think is important. The
Josh Hard deal you mentioned that was good. I love Trey Murphy for this
team. I think if you look at their wing rotation overall for a team
that just didn't have a ton of wings, I really like I already like
Trey Murphy. We said that. I obviously love Brandon Ingram. I think
Josh Hart really helps you there. Maybe Herbert Jones can play some immediately I'm
a big Naji Marshall guy, like someone who could play basically three positions at
this point, but certainly the three and the four. They still feel like
they're one injury away from disaster at every single position, if that makes any
sense. Where it's like, if you lose Zion, you're just backup four
rotation? Is who's the backup for? Is it Naji Marshall? That's who
you're gonna consider it at that point? Or do we go to the is
it Jackson Hayes? Damon? Gunny's not there anymore? So I'm gonnasso know
is it? You know? Do they try and get away with Josh Hard?
It's the four brand Ingram there. If Brandon Ingram gets injured on the
wing, okay, like you have Trey Murphy, you have Josh Hart.
It's like, I don't know if and then point guard is just if Devonte
Graham gets injured or how about this? If Devonte Graham has the season that
he had last year. And this is someone who a big believer in Devonte
Graham, I think in this situation he'll be better off than he wasn't Charlotte.
The dynamics changed there so much. He was a little banged up last
year, but this is someone who historically cannot finish at the rim, even
though he can toss assist. There has shown he can hit pull up threes,
but he also missed a bunch of them last season. He's definitely gonna
shoot. You know, he can carry over the Lonzo Ball catch a supercentage.
Now you get to the Alonzo Ball aspect of all this, what you
said, I guess I can see both sides. Why did Garrett Temple need
to guaranteed years in that sign and trade if you're New Orleans just because you
have to overpay for leadership or else. He could have gone somewhere else,
I guess for five million dollars. And I know that's not backbreaking, but
you're giving up the best player in that deal, a Lonzo Ball who was
really good. And if you, as you said, can say, you
know what, we're fine with paying Lonzo Ball this as an outsider, then
you should have paid Alonzo Ball that. To me figured it out later,
you probably could have moved him to a different team. I just and I
know some people you look at some of Alonzo Ball's numbers and he looks like
this really great player, and he's officially a quality floor spacer, and he's
gonna bring value in transition. I think he gives you some value defensively,
maybe not necessarily as like this lockdown individual guy, but just someone who's big
and looking at the scope of guys that he can guard or that you can
put him in certain situations. He's not going to save a defense that had
Zion Williamson playing a bunch of minutes with er Nerik Bletsoe who wasn't really trying
and there so I he's a flawed player because he can't create off the dribble,
hasn't shown that he can really run a half court offense. I just
and I'm like, you couldn't get more for him, or at least not
get to a point where, oh, we're still paying Garrett Temple beyond next
season. I have to find a taker for him, and I the other
way I looked at this was when you're looking at the DeVante Graham deal.
One of the biggest confidence I could put is that it's a fake first rounder
because I don't think they're going to make the playoffs, and so lotto protection
innoculate you against disaster. Okay, that's fine. Why are you making like,
yeah, I guess there's value in on doing moves that you did rather
than trying to stick them out. So I don't want to be hypocritical there
since I said I didn't hit the timber was too hard for giving up on
Culver, But you had to undo the Van Gundi hiring, and now you
had to undo the Steven Adams extension and acquisition in the first place, when
people were still puzzled why that, why that happens? I'm just this offseason
to me, I think you can look at them and say, maybe they're
a little bit better and getting better at the Zion William in the non Zion,
and it is going to be huge for them. I don't know that
they're that much deeper. And I think what they've ultimately done is giving up
a lot or wait, invested a lot in being as good or only negligibly
better than they were last season. And if they're you know, even if
they are noticeably better, how much credit do you give them If it's because
Okay, Zion is just ridiculous, he makes first team All NBA or something,
Brandon Ingram is an All Star again, and they get a either Nikiel,
Alexander Walker or Kyle Lewis junior sort of pops. None of those guys
are involved in the off season moves that they made would be my tribute to
that. So I don't think that there's a chance the Pelicans are worse to
me, by the way, But if you're going to jump through all these
hoops, all the transactions they did, giving up two protected first round picks,
I would say only one of them is going to convey. But to
a team that is not contending to do that and to not wind up substantially
better beyond a shadow of a doubt, to me, that's really problematic,
and this will bear out in the season. Maybe I'm being maybe I should
give them more props for actually undoing some of the moves that they did last
offseason. Stan Van Gundy, Steven Adams, just getting Eric Bletzo out of
here. He was so bad for them last year. I can't understate that
I get I get all that, but it just none of this stuff adds
up to me to qualitatively this noticeable, appreciable upgrade. So I'm very I'm
gonna fascinated to see what they do this season and how much their off season
maneuverings have anything to do with it, because I do think there's a chance
that they've basically made a lateral move when all said and done in the standings,
and again when we just went through that entire body of work. You
need to be better than you were last season. It's just where I'm at,
and so I'm actually gonna get grade them pretty harshly there. And that's
after I did go into this thinking I might be able to pull out a
C minus or a C for them, just because I love the Josh Hart
deal. I love Trey Murphy for them, and that also makes the salary
dumps look better because I might have wanted them to draft that type of player
had they stayed at number ten, but maybe you don't want to go plug
and play that low. So to still wind up with Trey Murphy at number
seventeen, that's really good. So if you want me to bump it up
to a C minus because you think I'm being like an asshole here, fine
I will go. I can't give them higher than a C minus though,
after trying to go through everything that they did well, I'm gonna bump down
to a D plus just to keep people mad that. How about that it's
only fair because I upgraded the Rockets based off what you said, so if
I can sell you on a rant the downgrade Telicans JO got, I got
another bad grade coming up. This is at the risk of spoiling. We
got the Oklahoma City Thunder coming up next, the Big move, I guess
yet again, another one of these. It was always going to happen.
Shakil just Alexander got his MAX extension well deserved. One of my favorite young
guys in the league, Kemba Walker number sixteen, which became Alpa and Shingun
and a twenty five second round pick whichever is more favorable from Boston or Memphis,
came over for al Horford, Moses Brown and a twenty three second round
pick. Subsequently, Kemball Walker got his buyout and he ended up with the
Knicks, Derek Favors and a first just a classic. This is what the
thunder of Done Forever came over because the Jazz one of de ducts some tax
payment. That first that came with Derek Favors is a twenty twenty four selection
Top ten protected that year and twenty five Top eight protection in twenty twenty six
becomes becomes a twenty twenty eight second if it's not conveyed. They also gave
a twenty seven second least favorable of the Thunder rockets, pacers and heats and
cash to send something back to Utah. Josh Giddy was the pick at number
six. Pretty surprising. Then that will factor into my grade. They drafted
tray Man at number eighteen. Then we've got Detroit's twenty twenty. This is
gonna be a mouthful. It's a lot of picks. The Thunder acquired Detroit's
twenty two first rounder, which has top sixteen protection that year, top eighteen,
the next two and top thirteen and twenty twenty five and top top eleven
and twenty six, top nine and twenty seven. These are the Detroit and
Washington picks in the Singoon deal. I'm just now realizing the protection on the
Washington twenty three first rounder is top fourteen and twenty three, top twelve and
twenty four, top ten and twenty five, and top eight and twenty six
for basically alfren chingun They got number thirty two in the draft, which was
Jeremiah Robinson Earl for number thirty four, which is Raucus Jacobitis and number thirty
six, which was Duce McBride. A couple of Knicks signed Mike Muscala to
a two year, seven million dollars deal with a team option for twenty two.
Twenty three signed Viet Krachi to a four year six point four million dollars
deal, and the first year is the minimum and it's the only one that's
fully guaranteed. Less of that in year two, the final two are non
guaranteed. Finally signed Aaron Wiggins to a two way. Your notable subtractions are
few. Al Horford obviously went back to Boston, Josh Hall was waived after
signing a two way, and SphI mckaylach also no longer on the Thunder.
Dan, that was a lot. Most of it was explaining the pick protections
and the Sagoon deal. What are your thoughts on the thunders offseason grade?
I gave them This is the closest I came to giving an F and I
didn't get there. They got a D. They got a D minus.
Did you give him an fay, No, I give him a D.
But I'm glad to hear we were in the same same area. I just
I can still be high on their future because of all these picks that they
have. And I extending shake guilty Salsander. The whole trade rumor thing leading
up to the draft, it always smelled weird just because the thunder like,
don't leak stuff out along those lines. And he is your timeline, Sha
Ganders so young that he is your timeline. You but you went through all
this and I get you're not trying to win now, but you went through
all this, and you still who do they have on the roster that might
be the long term number two running mate? For saying guilt as Alexander,
I just Josh Kiddy because he was drafted so high. Maybe you say him
this is just someone who doesn't look to score. On the fact that his
first few seconds in Summer League before he got injured included him scoring up is
actually kind of funny because that's just not what he's known for. I don't
understand it. And then unless we don't know something about Kemba Walker's knees,
and I've gone back to the fourth on this. Given how much cap space
the Knicks left before they signed Kema Walker, it seems like they knew it
was headed down that path, which I can't imagine that they would do if
Kemba's knee was just completely putty at this point. And everything okay Ce has
done has suggested that they're at least going to rehabilitate the value of that veteran
or treat them nicely while they're there, and then they're going to flip them
later on to a better team and get some value in the process. There
are two two schools of thought to this. Either you really just didn't believe
that Kema Walker was going to do that because his knee was so far gone,
or you were worried about winning too many games because you can't shut down
a shake Yo, just Axander again unless plan or fashion I injury crops up
what you know, knock on wood. I hope it does not, So
I just don't. I don't get what they're doing here. And then the
trade for those two. I didn't like that move Houston, but I'm just
even more puzzled by it with OKAC because eventually, like you need to start,
like stop divesting things. Now you've turned number sixteen into two future first,
which you know maybe both of them will convey, but are they gonna
be perhaps they put them over the top in a trade. And that's why
this grade could tactually be incomplete because so many of these have to be evaluated
years down the line. Even looking at their draft picks. I was fine
with Trey Man at number eighteen. I guess you know, Kema Walker fifty
three point seven million over two years, he gave back like seventeen million.
Was that enough to just have that much dead money on your roster for the
next two seasons? And I know you're not planning on going anywhere, but
like again, I just that was very surprising to me that they went that
route with him. The other thing, I don't get the let's give up
thirty four and thirty six for Jeremiah Robinson Earl, another wing type player who
can't shoot. He was did not shoot at three bar well in college.
He was under thirty nine percent. I think he was at thirty nine point
four percent on two point jumpers in college last season, So like, what
are what are what are you doing here? And I just again this is
coming. I'm actually high on their future. And look, the Derrick Favors
move is fine because that Utah pick. The Jazz really feel like they're going
like a boom or bust route right now, I know that they just Rudy
Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are signed until forever. Basically, like something just feels
untenable there if they fall short again. The fact that they couldn't and I
know Donovan Mitchell was banged up. My comedies banged up too. You couldn't
beat the Clippers without Kauai. You couldn't even get them to a Game seven.
There's I'm not and I'm this is from someone who's super high on the
Jazz, but they're just you know more, you know, hedge against their
future for the Thunder and you do technically need center minutes at this point because
you did trade away Al Horford. I'm totally fine with what they did with
Derrick Favors, but like, there's nothing about this offseason I loved for them,
save their extending shade Gil just Alexander, and so this is me grading
them in the moment and not their future. I still think has the potential
to be bright, but after all they did this offseason, they just acted
like sellers so much. They're nowhere closer to finding that second top tier building
block. It's not that's not an insult to lue Dort. It's not an
insult to Tail Malodon. It's not an insult to Alexey Pokashevski, who I
think he's probably the highest upside guy they have after shay Am. I forgetting
about someone I don't, I don't think I am that. Maybe it depends
on how you feel about Josh Diddy obviously, so perhaps I end up being
wrong there. But and the other thing is just like I want a roster
that and I know he didn't shoot the three ball two well last season,
but he has size, he can defend hard and a show, and he
can hit threes at the NBA level. I'm like Jeremiah Robinson Earl, who
couldn't even hit threes of the college level. Why couldn't they have gone after
like feet Why didn't they want him back? I just this is just they
are so I understand what they're doing, but like this is too much,
Like you've got to touch too far because you do have Shane Now he's gonna
kick in on that MAX extension after this season. You just I'm not saying
you need to be in a position to win, but you need to at
least have someone who is your second guiding light behind him, and I just
don't think that they have it. And I would have liked to have seen,
you know, of all the moves that they made, they either one
couldn't have taken the bigger swing at number six when you're looking at who was
fell on the board, or maybe even traded down who's taking Josh Diddy in
the top ten, who was taking Josh Giddy in the top ten. So
I'm sure they did their due diligence. Again, I think the Thunder is
going to be fine long term. I also think they could be in a
much more favorable position than they are. Yeah, I don't think there's any
doubt that they're still position great. I mean, all those picks are gonna
theoretically become something. They're they're you know, clean books basically, like all
all that stuff is still true. Their overall trajectory is fine. I just
I mean, I didn't like the Giddy pick. I think for a franchise
that has just made a habit out of taking long athletic guys that they hope
they can figure out how to teach to play basketball like that, ain't Giddy
now, Not that that strategy is yielded time like Terrence Ferguson and Hamadugiallo both.
You know, that's kind of an example of their type over the last
few years. It's different, you know, high on the lottery obviously,
but Kamingo was right there. Kamingo seemed like the pick to me. Everybody
was shocked that it was Giddy, So that's one. And then flipping the
pick that became Shangoon, who we've talked about several times already for a couple
of future firsts. That like, yeah, I mean, I guess that's
more volume to their you know, their stockpile. But those are the two
reasons. I just they needed offense, especially they hadn't done this yet,
but they went and waved or bought out Kemba Walker. They need offense,
so like a score, how could roll the dice on Shane Goun there?
And that's coming from someone who isn't necessarily in love with him. I mean,
they do if they were trying to win games, which they aren't.
It's just it's just like the it's just the asset that you know that I
think, like just just take post summerly where the league saw Shangun. Look
really tantalizing, like, do you think anyone else in the league would take
those two shitty super protected future first now for that guy? Like, of
course not and everybody I think are they even shitty though? Is like there's
at some points that don't you have too many? Well that too, I
mean, yeah, however you want to say it, they're certainly less valuable
to the thunder than they are to somebody else whereas sangun like he might have
been the answer to your question of who's the other guy besides SGA that you
like see as a building block, he might be that he might have been
that guy just based on the Summer League. I don't know, so,
yeah, I wasn't. It's a d for me. I just I just
those two those are their big things that they did, and they didn't make
a lot of sense to me. We are onto the Phoenix Suns, which
they are my team. Yes, they are my team. They acquired Landry
Shammitt for Javon Carter the number twenty nine pick, which was Dayron Sharp,
who's now on the Nets. They signed Chris Paul a four year, one
hundred and twenty million dollars deal, which was the pinnacle of agent friendly,
reporting seventy five million of that one hundred and twenty million dollars deal is guaranteed.
He gets paid thirty point eight million next season, twenty eight point four
million in year two. Fifteen point eight million of his thirty point eight million
dollars salary is guaranteed in year three, and then his thirty million dollars salary
and year flower is fully non guaranteed. They signed Cameron Payne to a three
year nineteen million dollar deal, Only fourteen point five million is guaranteed. That
final season is fully non guaranteed for him. They resigned abdel Nater to a
two year, four point two million dollar deal with a team option on that
second season. They signed to Found McGee to a one year, five million
dollar deal. They signed Alfred Peyton and Frank Kamiskey to minimum one year contracts,
and they scooped up Chandler Hutchinson on a two way contract. Spoiler alert,
Chandler Hutchinson is not on the Spurs. Notable subtractions include Javon Carter,
each On More Tory Craig Langston Galloway who remains unsigned, and they waived Tyshon
Alexander. I'm very curious to know which grade you gave the Phoenix Suns,
because you're smirking right now, so I need to know it. It's an
A minus. And I was only smirking because I was trying to remember why
I didn't give it an A. And that's just because I left the little
TVD section depending on what Eton and Bridges get in their extensions, presuming that
they both get them. You know, by the way, Yeah, if
Aaron Gordon got four and eighty eight, the number that was being thrown around
Bridges towards the end of last year was like four and eighty I is he
signing for anything under like four one oh two at this point? No.
Yeah, he's got to go in saying give me a hundred. It's got
to be a hundred, because I like, that's just yeah, I totally
agree and eight and I don't know what you do with that because he's gonna
go in and say I'm the number one overall pick and I was just a
big deal, a starter that really mattered that you needed on a team that
made the finals. So let's start at the max. And you have to
talk me down. That's gonna be tough, but yeah, I mean,
the Chris Paul deal, it's so good, it's so good for the team.
Like, I just I'm totally fine a front loading it like that and
just protecting yourself like crazy on the back end. I just, yeah,
I like to me, to me, it's really hard to sign a bad
two year deal, which for a very good player, which is sort of
what this is. I mean, it's you know, the third years of
decent amount of money guaranteed. But I mean that's about as good as you
could have come out of that. And then smaller scale the Campaign deal,
it might even be better because I think he could start for a lot of
teams. I think he matters a ton for them. He was so good
for them. And like, if your concern is, which it should be,
that Paul's going to break down, I'm fine with Campaign starting, you
know, thirty five games, Like, I'm totally good with that. So
for you know, basically six and a half million of a year million a
year and not even all of it's guaranteed. Man, I like that,
even even the smaller scale stuff. I think JaVale McGee addresses a real need,
especially with Dario Sarich gonna miss a bunch of time because backup center really
sucked, Like you just can't. They brought Kaminsky back, but like you
can't trust him as a rotation guy. If Eiden missed his time or just
doesn't play forty eight minutes. Everything else was Everything else looks fine him even
it's hard to be a bad minimum contract. I think Alfred Peyton is going
to test that theory. But it's a minimum, so that's fine. I
just don't really have any criticism. I guess. I guess you could talk
me up to an a if we just say, like, we shouldn't really
care about what happens with the extensions for Eton and Bridges because otherwise the Sun's
I think just nailed all the big stuff. So I don't really have any
any criticisms of what they did. That's great because I have plenty. I
gave him a B minus. I don't think there's anything wrong with their off
season. It was a lot of maintenance and all the their talent retention deals.
I loved the Chris Paul contracts for the team, absolutely fantastic. The
campaign and deal fantastic, even the Nator deal, like just he was out
for two months or whatever it was, came back in the playoffs and was
defending his ass off. That's a great option. I don't have a problem
with the Javal McGee addition, I expected something more inventive from this team for
a few reasons. They had easy access to the full mid level, which
they did not use its entirety. They gave a little bit more than half
to Javal McGee. And then you also mentioned it like what if Chris Paul
breaks down. You have Cameron Payne. That's awesome. And there's also the
Devin Booker, a point guard route which Monty Williams doesn't necessarily seen in love
with. And maybe it's a mcal Bridges is going to handle a ball more
because he does have pretty good vision. Even Landry Shammont in the past has
shown some ball handling flash. But that's like Landry Shammont's career ar because just
been so wild. When you look at how much he's been moved, that
the teammates he's had, all these future Hall of famers that he's played with,
there's I don't I wouldn't call a risk, but it's just like I
don't know how much he's actually going to elevate them. I just expected unless
they think that Jalen Smith is going to pop, and he did have some
really nice moments in Summer League. I wanted to see them be more inventive
in the front court. And look, I could even you could say,
well, losing Tory Craig is kind of a big deal because he was playing
important minutes for them in the postseason. I just think with Bridges, Cameron
Johnson, Nader Crowder, you you're fine there. Ultimately, Devin Booker factors
into the wing rotation too, so that doesn't really skeeve me. But like
I think, you without Dariel Schartz, who was kind of on the maybe
he was banged up before he was actually towards ACL but like the Dariel Schartz
at the five minutes weren't as impactful as they were for the first you know,
half or three quarters, two thirds of the season whatever. They needed
to do something more than get a developmentgee in the front court. For me,
why weren't they a team that was more in on the Larry Nance junior
deal? And I get that after trading for Landry Shammitt, the equity probably
wasn't there. Like having whoever you're drafted at number twenty nine, plus a
future pick or maybe number twenty nine and Jalen Smith would have looked a lot
better for Larry Name then Oh, Jalen Smith and Landry Shammitt. You know
when you can reaggregate Landry Shammant. I don't know if that day passed already,
So I'm I just I expected more and it did not even use your
full mid level when there were players out there, and I guess they could
technically still spend it, but like there were there were upgrades or at least
depth pieces to be had, and you're not going to be a team that's
paying through the teeth this year, even with that frontloaded Chris Paul contract.
You just made the finals. The Western Conference is wide open. Jamal Murray
isn't gonna return from his torn as hel probably until I would guess sometime in
twenty twenty two. I know a lot of people think he's just gonna come
back because he has that maniacal work ethic. It wouldn't shock me if he's
out basically until the playoffs. It's not all season. Kawhi isn't gonna play
next year. You saw that version of the Western Conference landscape. The Lakers
are stepping out on a limb and they're trying to hold Russell Westbrooks pile of
bricks while they're out on that limb. You looked at that Western Conference landscape
and didn't kind of think to be more aggressive. And I guess they still
have some flexibility if they want to make moves towards the trade deadline, and
it'd be better or you could, in theory, get more value for Jayleen
Smith if he's actually playing for you, and boost his value from the net
zero net negative that it was through last season. I get all that,
and I also, you know, you have to look if you're asking me
for an alternative, like what did you want them to do? You know,
I could look at it as a I might have been more intrigued by
a Jared Vanderbilt on this team than a JaVale McGee, and so just something
where it was either a bigger swing or you were more aggressive to upgrade the
roster, or just to get a little bit more depth. Because it feels
like they enjoyed, for the most part, really good health last year and
they're not like they're not inoculated against any one disaster. I'm not saying any
team should be, but like you're so dependent offensively on Chris Paul and Devin
Booker. To me, I do think Michael Bridges has another level. They
won the minutes Cameron Payne played without both Booker and Chris Paul last season.
That's big. I'm just Chris Paul's getting up there in age. I would
have if you're gonna get rid of Tory Craig, and even though you're bringing
back abdel Nador, I might have liked to have seen them get another lowish
end to mid end type wing in there. And then the front court depth
they do have it in Fury because Jale and Smith and a Pinch can play
back up five. You have eight, and you have Deval McGee, you
have Frank Kimsky. I just I would have liked to have seen something more
inventive or aggressive there. And you're not even going to talk me into Alfred
Payton, not even at the minimum, not even as your third point of
card. No no, no, no no no. So not a bad
offseason, totally justifiable. And if you ask me to pick right now,
I might pick Phoenix to come out of the West again. It really hinges
on the Chris Paul availability for me, I think I lean towards Phoenix as
my pick to come out of the West right now. So this is me
admitting that. And they were my title pick last year, so I was
wrong there. Still, I just take this feeling that it was a very
It wasn't uninspiring, It just it lacked some flare or a level of aggression
that I think they needed to show. Yeah, I think that's fair.
I just I just think like I sort of look at it as when you're
that good and you've got that much money, you know, just that needs
to be spent to stay that way by bringing back key guys. It's just
it's just hard to get better. I take your point, though, they
could have certainly been more creative with their you know, because now they sort
of if Aiden doesn't play, they don't really have another look like sorry,
you know, it isn't perfect, but he gave them another kind of form
to take, you know, just by being an undersized five. So yeah,
it could have gotten more creative. I don't know if the options aren't
necessarily there. I'm also Landry Shammon is more than a rental for them,
because you're getting to the pot where you're already have to pay Bridges and eight
next season, which is why if you want to defend how they allocated their
money this year, you can, because they're about if they're keeping Paul Booker,
Bridges and eighten, which there's no reason to assume that they're not.
They're for that core. Yeah, but like to get I think cost control
of assets for Landry Shammitt, who kind of feels like a rental unless you
think he's gonna get you know, Tory is he he'll get more than five
million a year unless I guess he could have a terrible season. But I
don't know. Yeah, I think Shammitt, I mean, I don't even
know how much he's gonna play. Honestly, you may he said his career
arc has been like wild. I think his career arc has just angled down
basically like the he you know, his best year was his rookie year,
I think, if memory serves, But yeah, I don't know. I
am very curious what you did with this next team, which alphabetically is the
Portland Trailblazers, and I think it's mine to read. So they replaced head
coach Terry Stotts with Chauncey Billups messily that press conference was rough and the whole
situation not great. We don't know how good of a coach Chauncey Billips is
again, kind of like Carlisle and Dallas. It may just have been the
case that Stots or that Stots's voice sort of had stopped carrying, as it
often happens with coaches have been there for a long time. Norman Powell is
back. Everybody knew it had to had to happen because they traded for him
ninety million over five years, fully guaranteed a little bit of sticker shock there.
The big trade, this Swan, which I think everybody likes. I
like, I hope you'll like Larry Nance Junior for Derek Jones Jr. A
twenty two first rounder which is lottery protected through twenty twenty eight, becomes a
second if it's not conveyed, and Denver's twenty four second round pick protected thirty
one to forty six. Some low end signings include Cody Zeller, Ben McLamore,
and Tony Snell. Pretty solid one year minimum. There want him for
more than the minimum. When's the last time you missed a shot or free
throw? Literally? I mean it's like been years so I'm free throws.
Acquired number forty three, Greg Brown the third for twenty six second rounder and
cash. Signed Marquis Chris to an un guaranteed one year deal. Signed Patrick
Patterson to the same, signed Dennis Smith junior man we're just going for it
on a non guaranteed one year deal. Signed Trent Waterford to a two year
already mentioned the outgoing guys in addition to Stutts and Jones Junior in his cancer
is gone, and Ronde Hollis Jefferson remains unsigned. What you know, kind
of interesting. You got a signing, you got a trade, you got
a new coach, got some minimums. What do you think about the Blazers?
The Larry Natz junior trade was a home run for them that you know.
I think for next season, it's clear that they're not going to trade
Dame. He would really have to agitate for a move, and they're innoculated
against disaster. The fact that it's protected it for twenty twenty eight is just
I said this on the last podcast we did again, the pick protection seemed
to be stretching further and further out. But Larry yet Junior is just a
fantastic fit for their roster. They might be able to play him at the
five Sun a little bit. I thought they got fairly good mileage out of
their minimums when you look at Tony Snell and Cody Zeller if he stays healthy.
Specifically, I actually think one of their you know, three training camp
deals. When you look at DSJ, Patrick Patterson, Marky's Chris, those
are fine gambles to me, based off with Marki's Chris Show before he was
injured to Golden State, Patrick Patterson has had like we're years removed from it,
but the idea of Patrick Patterson is still really fun. I'm I'm like,
not necessarily in on Dennis Smith Junior, but the fact that they're taking
a look at any kind of backup point guard is probably encouraging the Norman Powell
deal sticker shock, like you said, because no one else could give him
five years? Was that what it needed to get him at this And now
you just have so much money tied up in dudes that are under six five.
When you look at Damian Lillard, CJ. McCollum, and Norman Powell,
it's just that's a lot of money. I'm just I don't hate it,
though, because it's like if he was gonna get four years and like
the same average annual value and that's what you needed to do to keep him
there. I don't know that deal. I don't think it ages into a
disaster. That being said, we do have evidence beyond the past two seasons
or past season and a half where Norman Powell can be one of the wildest
roller coaster rides in the NBA. So some risk there, but I respect
them paying to retain that talent just because he gives. He gives like their
offense that element from the perimeter that they don't really have otherwise where it's the
it's not just North South juice, but it's like actually the entire line of
the North South to get going downhill, where unless if it was Derrik Jones
jun you're in transition, you probably don't really have that. So that's all
great. I think the Chauncey bills Hire was a disaster to I don't.
It's tough for me, and it goes back to the Jason kids stuff.
I don't know how much to really take from that because it's my main problem
with it is because I don't know anything about how he's going to be as
a coach on the court in the NBA. We've yet to see it,
but the fact that they couldn't like address any of the concerns expressed about the
sexual assault allegations he faced in nineteen ninety seven, and it wasn't really that,
but they were like pay imtronizing or they Nilo Sha was patronizing and condescending
about Becky hammonds candidacy in that press conference and then was playing the trust me
card when you don't get to play that card when you've kind of failed,
like your tephl on job security is not what you've earned. So I have
to wait that to some extent. What I will not hold against them is
you could look at this offseason and say they didn't do anything to ensure that
Damian Lillard won't leave after next season. This comes back to the Warriors discussion.
What were they supposed to do? It's if you're not going to get
Ben Simmons from Philly. And I do think that he's worth CJ. McCullum
and stuff. He's not worth season McCullum and the kitchen sink, though not
after what we've seen. So I think the Larry Nance Junior swung this to
an above average grade from me, I ended up settling on a B.
I was a lot lower on them prior to that move, but I think
he is such a quintessential fit. They did it without mortgaging a ton of
the future. I don't think they've done anything that's going to keep him long
Dame long term. I leaned towards Dame being out of Portland's after this season.
If he starts twenty two twenty twenty three with the Blazers, I'll be
mildly surprised where things stand now. I just don't know if there's anything they
could they could have done to change that in the first place. Yeah,
I agree, I had it as a C plus. I think I kind
of want to bump it up into the low B range because I'm pretty sure
I made that before the larry Nance maybe Anyway, the larry Nance trade is
like just it's fantastic for them and the Powell The power signing is like,
it's the high end of reasonable to me, but it's not out of it's
not off that spectrum. That's and like I think too, there's if if
as the cap goes up, you know, essentially you're you know, fifteen
million a year sort of becomes mL E level ish if you start to think
of it in those terms. Towards the end, it becomes a little more
palatable where he's sort of making a little more than the mL E in the
last couple of years of that deal. Like that's you know, you're you're,
I'm doing some gymnastics to get there, but like it's okay, and
and he did. He's played well for them, and they had a bunch
of lineups last year that he was involved in that were very good, So
I get it. And they were kind of pot stuff because they gave up
Trent and a pick I think two went to Toronto if I don't if I
have that right, So they didn't have a choice. And like their minimums
uh, Like you said, Snell, where was the market for Tony Snell?
Like he's got to be a five million dollars a year guy, I
would where's the market for? Yeah, Tony Snell just proved there in the
one. I guess if he's only getting the minimum, weih I I also
just house cleaning. Carmelo and Anthony and Zach Collins and Harry Giles also gone
in their subtractions, But yeah, C plus. Initially I'm gonna go be
minus. I just I think the name. I think, like you said,
they did what they could right if the if the if the Simmons ask
was just way too big, which it sounds like it was, this was
sort of about as well as they could have done under the circumstances. Let's
compromise and we'll both go be minus. How about that. I'll agree.
We are on to the Sacramento Kings, which they are my team. They
drafted Davion Mitchell at number nine, which had people riled up before summer League
for all the wrong reasons, and now everyone's riled up for all the right
reasons. After summer league. They resigned Rashaun Holmes with a four year,
forty six point five million dollar deal fully guaranteed that I still don't know how
Rashaun Holmes accepted or couldn't find an offer that would beat that, resigned Mill
Harkless to a two year a point nine million dollars deal fully guaranteed, resigned
Terrence Davis to a two year eight million dollar deal fully guaranteed, signed Out
Filling to a two year seven point six million dollar deal fully guaranteed, which
I thought was a typo when I saw that. But can we not acquired
Tristan Thompson a three team trade in which they gave up Delawn Right, They
signed the Mushketa to a two way contract, and they signed a Manuel Terry
to a training camp deal. Notable subtractions for them sound whiteside, Delaan right,
Justin James is the only one I have. I don't know if I'm
missing anything there. What drade did you give them? And are you holding
the fact that Luke Walton is still their head coach against them all? Yeah?
That was my first bullet point on my outline is that did not fire
Luke Walton's That hurts him a little, but I get it. You don't
want to keep paying coaches that aren't working for you anymore. The Kings have
a habit of that. I am a C plus. It would have been
a lot higher because the Holmes deal great. Like you know, we talk
all the time like don't pay centers, don't pay centers, but the Kings
didn't really pay I mean, this is this is I think the most that
they were able to give him using what do they have partial bird or Whatever's
like, it was the kind of deal that it didn't seem possible they'd be
able to retain him for this much, especially with Charlotte having some space or
just the Knicks or whoever, like surely he was going to get more.
So really good value. I'm fine with mo Herkless because they are real short
on wing defenders and in theory he can still do that. So two years
it just under nine million is fine. They they just that's kind of Davion
Mitchell. If he can guard wings, which to look like maybe he could
in Summer League, then I have no problem with that pick because now he
works with Haliburton and Fox. If he can guard threes, then awesome.
You have three point guard ball handlers that can play together and you can get
away with, you know, being undersized. Because Mitchell is that good defensively
remains to be seen. I have no problem with that pick. They have
too many freaking centers. It's ridiculous. Why are we paying Alex lenn seven
point six million? What like Tristan what? I way rather have Dalen Wright
than Tristan Thompson, just in a vacuum, and especially on this team because
behind homes you've got now Len, you've got Thompson. I think Damian Jones
they guaranteed, which is like why Marvin Bagley is a center. I don't
care what position they think he is. He has to play center too.
Timis he met too. I don't know he's a four or five like he
play center. I just the positional thing is insane. But so that it's
still a C plus. But I just I don't understand how they've divvied up
their roster. It's hard for me to understand that. Yeah, they it
was your grade again for them C plus. Yeah, I gave them a
C minus. I wanted to go D plus, but I love for Sean
Holmes and I think that deals an absolute steal. And then just watching the
way Davy on Mitchell defense in Summer League, just like he is just all
up and everyone ship and he is so good. He even showed some level
of shot creation there too. I agree with you that I think they try
it away and not just get away but thrive in minutes where he plays with
Haliburton and Daron Fox. But like, how did you not pick a direction
this offseason? And I'm not saying that they needed to blow it up.
They could still and they couldn't technically still do this gone the route of asset
consolidation if they wanted to try and be this year's version of the Suns.
The star market needs to develop there. But like the center, like you
mentioned, they have all these centers, I don't necessarily even know like Alex
Lynn getting two years why, I don't even know that Terrence, Terrence Davis
and Mo Hartles need to be fully guaranteed through those stretches. I don't have
problems with them, but like, you didn't do anything to clarify your direction
here, and that really bugs me. I know part of that is probably
on the Buddy Heel deal to Lakers that fell through. I was gonna say,
yeah, and so I get that aspect of it, But like,
what would Kyle Kuzman Cantavia's called the Pope have said about the King's direction aside
from breaking up Buddy Heeled and two more digestible contracts and then giving them,
Yeah, I think what it would have done is given them like actual wings
on this team, which they just don't have. There is I know you
don't look at we don't look at teams in terms of positions anymore, like
who's the actual pure wing on this roster and people maybe their first guest will
be Moe Harkless or Harrison Barnes. I view those guys as more like either
call them a bigger wing or they both should be playing the four. Yeah,
And so is it Lewis King like or Robert Woodard awesome? That's not
that's also not very awesome to say. So I need to see something and
I'm I like the davy On Mitchell pick now, like if that if he's
going to be that good at the level, but you also maybe didn't necessarily
put him in the situation where you need to succeed, or maybe you did
because you took all this pressure off of him with you know, Darian Fox
and Tyrese well Balanced Breakfast Haliburton. So I'm weird. I like the Ras
Shawn Holmes deal for them they could get. I think they can get real
value for that. They look to move it later or they just have a
really good center. But now they're still sort of stuck in the sub middle
of the Western Conference. They did nothing to change that. I'm I'm not
a Luke Walton fan either. I just what they preserved nothing. It's just
like this weird direction heading into avoid and maybe like, what is this team
top out as right now? And I love the Aaron Fox, I love
Haliburton, We've talked about Mitchell already, we love Shaun Holmes. They are
good players. This team doesn't have a great ceiling though, And I think
Sacramento, either one way or the other, whatever it was needed to choose
which side of defense they were going to be on, their failure to do
that is it's a C minus for me. Maybe I think that's all fair.
I agree, like, well, if you're going to criticize the Kings
for not having like clarity of purpose in their decision making, you could just
slap a blow average right on them for you know, twenty years. Basically,
I think I'm tempted to move down because obviously, yeah, they the
roster's very imbalanced, and you know just where the wings and what's the direction.
But I think I think I'm gonna stay slightly above average because the two
biggest things they did, which were drafting Mitchell and getting homes back on that
deal, we're positives, I think, although Mitchell, who knows right like,
we're just we're totally guessing at this point we've never seen him play an
NBA minute, but that's you know, we're still We're still in the ballpark
there. It really should the Kings be happy that they're in the neighborhood of
average in both our estimations. That feels like a win, and because the
off season wasn't bad, it's just there's there's also a market inefficiency on teams
trying to rebuild in the West right now feels like where yes, it's easy
to say take a ticket, dyea might blow it up. I'm not saying
they should have done that, but like there's an opportunity in the West right
now, and the King's like, you're just not good? Are they?
What is their best case scenario this season? Can they even be a top
six team? Best case top No? No, I was gonna say,
I wish people could see your face I ask that question. I was like,
a, oh damn, oh damn no, no, no, yeah,
I mean eight maybe, like if Fox is a is a legit,
no questions asked, all star Haliburton, step forward Holmes is the same.
Yeah. Maybe, but I think the play in again is probably their most
realistic, like hope they want to, you know, get in there and
real honestly, I just I'm I'm out here very close to Sacramento. I
think that's the vibe, Like that's that would be cool that like that's what
they would that's what they're going for. So as sad as that is,
I think that's kind of where we are. We want to take us through
the Spurs. I would love to the Spurs. So they acquired Doug McDermott
via sign and trade inked hm do a three year, forty three point two
million dollars deal. I have forty one point three non important fully guaranteed either
way. Sign Zach Collins three years twenty two point one. Only ten point
seven million of that is guaranteed three point seven million guaranteed in twenty two twenty
three, and totally non guaranteed in twenty three twenty four. Brent Forbes is
back on a one year, four point five million dollars deal. In the
biggest move that the Spurs made, they sent Demardros into the Bulls as part
of a sign and trade that brought back Thaddeus Young Alfre Rukamino, a twenty
twenty five first round pick, which is top ten protected top eight in twenty
six and twenty seven and a twenty twenty five second round pick, and they
also sent their own twenty five second rounder. They acquired channel On Hutch's in
who They waived Nicola malatinof. I don't know if he's still on the roster
or not. Maybe drafted Josh Primo at twelve, which was a point of
some discussion at the time. That seemed like a big reach, but who
knows. Signed a Key Debates d Up to a two year, three point
six million dollars deal. The second year is non guaranteed. Signed Jock Landale
to a two year, four and a half million dollars deal, second year
also non guaranteed, and Joe weez Camp got a two way. In addition
to DeMar Derozen heading out of town, Patty Mills, the last remnant of
the last first title team is gone. Rudy Gay and Trey Lyles also out
of town. I think that's everything. Goregy Jang also gone, but he
was sort of a part timer there. So, Dan, what are your
thoughts? Did I miss anything? Number one? And what are your thoughts
on the San Antonio Spurs off season? Well, you missed the dougment derby
contract because I had it wrong and you were right though when you said you
were forty one point two million, which forty one point three Excuse me.
I didn't have as big of a problem as other people did with it.
Zach Collins deal looks a lot better when you get into the details of it.
And they got a capslock Hall for Damarta Rozen that is, you know.
And I think the Josh Primo as sort of an unknown I went back
and I mean I talked to his agent on this podcast, and I also
I was watching a lot of film for Josh Primo from it. I appreciate
the swing because it seems like when you look at their prospects, if they
need like someone who might sort of explode or have a volcanic ceiling as a
ball handler, shot creator, I'm just looking at his physical tools of what
he does, and then of course the youth aspect of it. It's possible
that it's just higher than it is for Jejanta, Murray, Derek White,
Kelvin Johnson, those guys. So I kind of and where it seemed like
in a territory it became very clear once you got past a certain point in
the draft, there were not a lot of givens and so just take your
guy if it's five spots early. Who cares that? That's kind of the
thing. And I was told that there was a team that was going to
take Josh Primo before the Spurs if the Spurs were to trade back, which
is why they took them at twelve. I don't know how true that is,
but so I think because they kind of they're not all the way there.
But I don't know what else they're supposed to do to get there.
It seems like they've inferred that they're going to rebuild or at least open to
it, and now they've given themselves easier access to it because they don't have
these like super fat salaries on the books that can't be moved if they want
to turn into sellers. Jane Murray's their most expensive player next season. It's
at fifteen point two million dollars fifteen point three. However, you want a
round, So they have like a lot of They just have a lot of
stuff that they could do. I think the biggest gripe you could have is
there's really a chance that if they go for it, they get stuck,
like in that playing Chase sub just below the play in chase where they're not
bad enough to sort of outrank teams in the lottery from the East, and
then of course certain teams in the Western Conference if they want to go that
route, though it's fairly they don't have a they can't move Thaddy as Young
should probably met them value either before the season or during it. Yeah,
and look, if they want to go for it, just the fact that
they're going to do so, while accentuating I would assume based off how their
roster is built, Jontay Murray, Derek White, giving a shot to Zach
Collins once he's healthy. You're probably gonna find out more about Devin Missel and
Lonnie Walker, who's extension eligible right now. Lucas Amonic should probably get more
play time. Kelvin Johnson. Of course, I'm curious to see if they
use Josh Primo this year. We know how the Spurs have typically operated with
rookies. I like what they're off season says about how it feels like they're
finally prioritizing this the super big picture and not just trying to tread water or
fagne treading water because Greg Popovich is so old, and like they actually do
have these good players. I gave them a B. I could probably talking
to a little bit lower, just because if you were going to go into
the rebuild, you should say we'll lead fully into it. At the same
time, it's like, just because you're rebuilding, does that mean that you
should be moving Derek White right now? I know he's not young, but
it's why would you move Derek White? He's still sort of a swing piece
on your team. And it's the same story with the Jeante Murray who's a
little younger. So I'm just like, I don't know how they could have
leaned further into it. I guess don't pay Doug McDermott is one of those
things. But if you're gonna overpay someone overpaying the guy who can shoot threes
off motion and also was one of the league's most efficient cutters last year.
So I think B maybe a B minus, just because like, if you're
still I think you could still talk yourself into saying, are they kind of
there yet? But I don't know if it's it's not because they kept DeMar
Derozen, which would have been I think more of a concerning move for them
than whatever they did this offseason. Yeah, that would have been so disheartening
because that would have just signaled like now we're going to try to you know,
be seventh or eighth or whatever, and it's just no. I gave
him a B plus. I think getting anything for Derozen, who like they
had no business getting anything for, really get it. I like, this
is maybe hyperbolic, but I think that young might just be a better player,
Like might just be more helpful to a winning effort than Derosin is at
this point. I think that's at least debatable. And to get you know,
picks thrown in and others like phenomenal, Like that's one of the better
moves of the offseason. And to your point on McDermott, like, I
think if so they lost, Patty meals right. And I think if if
you need someone to replicate him running all over the place and making life easier
for everyone else, he's on the poor with offensively because he's setting little fires
all over the place that need to be put out just by moving around,
like McDermott can kind of do that. So if you're trying to preserve you
know, spacing, or if you're trying to give like de Jonte Murray and
Derek White and even Josh Premo if he gets minutes you're trying to give these
guards, you know, just an easier time of it. McDermott is a
helpful guy in that regard, and kind of on the Daniel Tye thing,
which minus the trade kicker. Both McDermott and Dad Young I think are guys
that you could absolutely trade that kind of fit almost anywhere. Both of them
are pretty scalable. If you're again, if you're a playoff team and it's
a deadline, you're like, God, damn, we gotta free up this
offense. Doug McDermott forty one point three over three years, awesome, let's
do it, like, let's throw a first in whatever. So the Spurs
are kind of having it both ways if if that's what they decide to do,
and even just like to fill out the pot pourri of like different types
of deals they swung Zach Collins, great flyer, Like I don't I don't
think it's likely that he's gonna stay healthy just because he never has. But
you've just protected yourself against all the downside risk and maybe he's a stretch five
that starts for you in two years, like I don't know. That's stranger
things have happened, So I think I think the Spurs really kind of ticked
off everything they needed to and did better than they had a right to really
overall, so it's a firm B plus part. I guess what's also this
is in favor of them. But I don't know necessarily who you're now bestowing
the responsibility onto. But you both Patty Mails and the martoos and are gone.
You didn't functionally replace either of them. I know, Bryn Forbes,
like you, you've decided your primary playmakers now are Murray and White, I
guess, and I just I actually like that. There's probably more to plumb
with both of them. And then maybe what it says about well, they're
gonna try and give Kelton Johnson Lonnie Walker more responsibility. I think Devin Vassel
should play more. I don't think he's gonna be given more on more responsibility
though that would be a real shock. You'll even bringing even having a Katabate's
job on this team. Just take those type of flyers. Shorty mentions Jack
Collins, and I guess you get some playmaking from daddy as young. But
I do like and maybe even Trey Jones gets run now. So I do
like what this suggests about what they can do. I just don't necessarily know
if they have the talent in place to maximize not having the derosan petty milk
where there's not that clear pecking order. You have to be pretty high on
Jontay Murray's feel, and I'm not. I'm not there yet in half court,
but I liked it. The Spurs seem prepared to plumb I guess everything.
Yeah, no, that's a great point. I think they kind of
took the safety net out right because now it's it's been several years for Murray.
Now pose you know, he's had the ACL that interrupted his progress,
but like, now let's find out. Let's find out if he can be
the primary ball handler on an offense that doesn't have, you know, the
Mills and Duros and elements kind of taking they can the heat off. I
think I think if this is a rebuild, or if it's like a soft
rebuild, or it's a let's feel out how this rebuild might go, and
you're gonna I think we'll know after this year what Murray can do, right,
because I think he's deep enough into his career where if he's not ready
now, then he's just not the guy that you build around, which I
think they probably still believe that he is, and maybe maybe maybe that's what
this is about. As much as any do you want to take us through?
Oh no am I the final team? I am the final team,
the Utah Jazz. They acquire twenty twenty seven second round pick. It's at
least favorable okay see Houston, Indian Miami cash and created an nine point three
million dollars trade exception. Only seven point five million is remaining from that because
they took Eric pasch Gall into it. They acquired all that for Derek Favers
and a twenty twenty four first round pick. They sent that to Oklahoma City.
It's top ten protected in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five, top
eight protected in two thousand and twenty six, turns into a twenty twenty eight
second if not conveyed. They acquired the number forty pick, which they used
on Jared Butler memphisis twenty twenty two second rounder, no protections on that,
and a twenty twenty six second round pick for number thirty which they sent out
to Memphis, and that They got pesch Gal from Golden State for memphisis twenty
twenty six second rounder protected thirty one to forty two. They signed Mike Conley
to a three year sixty eight million dollars deal. Fifty eight million is guaranteed,
fourteen point three million is guaranteed in twenty three twenty four. The total
deal can get up to about seventy two point five and unlikely incentives. They
signed Rudy Gay to a three year eighteen point six million dollars deal a twenty
twenty three twenty twenty four player option on that. Signed as On Whiteside to
a one year deal at the minimum. Signed Drew Brantley to a one year
Parsley guaranteed deal. Notable subtractions on this team Derrick favors, George Niang's now
in Philly, and they waived Matt Thomas, who actually thought it could have
been a useful player in Utah. Did I forget anything there, Grant,
I think you're good. I think you're good. I gave it a B
minus and that's based mainly on the Mike Conley deal. I'm totally fine with.
It's sort of like a Chris Paul light where you protect yourself on the
back end with some you know, not fully guaranteed stuff. I thought that
that's perfectly reasonable for him. I think he can outplay that for sure,
at least in the first year, and then after that who knows. But
the Jazz are win now team, So what you care about is right now
as much as anything. Rudy Gayze, okay, three years, eighteen and
a half, you know that's fine. Eric Pascal for nothing. Basically,
I think he can be like a ninth guy on a good team and he
can score off the bench. He can you know, he did that for
stretches with the Warriors when I mean granted they were really bad and had no
one else to turn to do this, but he's a hard guy to handle
one on one. If that's how you need to play your second unit minutes,
he can get you five six, you know, good possessions in a
row where you get a decent look. So there's some value there. I
guess I was also sort of generally encouraged that. So this was a team
that I think everybody thought, or the rumble was that, oh, you
know, one of favors Ingles or Bogdanovitch or maybe Clarkson is probably gonna have
to go because they're gonna want to trim that tax bill. And first of
all, they picked the right guy out of those to dump, which was
Favors because he was the least valuable. But then they actually brought Gay on
for a decent salary. So it just sort of indicates to me that maybe
there's a willingness to spend more than maybe I thought and a lot of people
thought. So that's a positive. I don't know. I know what their
tax bill is right now. I don't thirty eight point nine million entering the
season. They're eighteen point one million over the tax is what I have them
at. Okay, that's yeah. I don't know. I think maybe that
was that was not a sure a certainty it ought to be for a team
that's good. I think they're right up there with probably the Lakers and Sons
on teams you put in that top tier. I guess. So it's a
B minus. I had knocked him down a little bit because it seemed like
the biggest problem they had not seemed like it was clear that the biggest problem
they had was perimeter defense. The Clippers kind of cut him up Rudy Gobert
got heat for that because do you blame the big guy for not being able
to move around in that playoff series? But it was hard to do that
when you're every guy that's supposed to guard someone all the perimeter is getting smoked
and you know, just ping ping ball movement and you know the guys are
in the lane. They did not address that. Rudy Gay is not that
guy. If Donovan Mitchell's healthy, maybe that's less of a problem. Saying
for Mike Comley, that's the only thing I would have liked to have seen
is just go just go find find a wing, find a guard who doesn't
matter that is just gonna stay in front of somebody. They didn't do that.
Yeah, I'm with you on all fronts. I just went with a
B for them, and I thought not going to B plus because, like
you, I really like the willingness to spend That. Being said, they
could still get out of that, you know, just because they have Buddanovitch,
Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles. There could be other stuff afoot as we
get closer to the trade deadline, if they're not as good as they think,
or maybe if they are as good as they think, they just don't
want to pay it. So I sort of reserve judgment for that a little
bit, and I'm with you. I just probably would have liked. I
liked that they gave themselves the option to downsize. With that in mind,
Rudy Gay is thirty five as a player option for that third season. I
though the number isn't huge, it's just like a player option for Rudy Gay,
who's going to be entering his age thirty seven season at that point.
It's only six point five million, But Rudy Gay at age thirty seven,
that's all I keep coming back to. Still do have the option of running
some weirdo stuff in the front court that I liked during the non gobear minutes
with Gay with Eric pash Gal, who I thought was just because he's also
close with Donovan Mitchell. And so that's keep Donovan Mitchell happy at this point
because he's your champions lifeline as good as Rudy Gobert is right now. But
I would have liked to have seen them just done something additional on the wings.
And yes, these guys, by normal standards, they are athletic,
they are specimens at the by the NBA level, you know, they're most
They're most effective wing defender at this point is still going to be Royce O'Neill,
which is fine, but they need another one. And it's like,
you know, they gotten and I'm not saying they could have, but had
they gotten even a David Nahwaba or like just someone along those lines, to
have just a defensive specialist they could have thrown on the court in certain situations
throughout the regular season, of course, because you don't just want to bust
up, bust out guys for playoff minutes. It would have made me feel
better about their chances still there if you told me they were the number one
seed in the West, if you told me they were the team that came
out of the West. They're built for it. And I think as of
right now, their payroll and the way they acted for the most part over
the off season really just sort of reflects that. And it even could have
been as simple as had they traded for like a Dane will House was just
on this team, I would be like I might be B plus A minus
territory. So a good off season from them, it's just their most glaring
void because I don't think having the option of downsizing is great. Rudy Gobert
is so good. You need that option against what one to three teams.
Yeah, that's just where I'm at with them. I like it. I
think we I think we agree on that one. I do wonder it's just
it's they it's such a cliche to say this, but and we don't need
to go along on this, but it does feel like I think you're alluding
to they feel like they've got a move to make. Don't you think like
that's it just seems like, you know, the Ingles and Bogdanovich could turn
into something else or or I don't know, I just because I don't understand
the like Rudy Gay doesn't feel like someone that really addresses much. So so
yeah, I don't know. I could I could see them being well,
that's this is the other thing there. I think they're gonna be the number
one seed in the West. I think it's more likely than not. But
if they get to a point where it's clear they really need something, I
think they've got enough mid tier salary guys to really put something together and maybe
make our criticism of their lack of a wing defender. Uh, you know,
go away. Hey, we're not We're not grading what might happen in
the middle of the season. We're grading they did over the Auseton. But
yeah, I mean, and I don't know if you could say they're super
fluish just because Mike Conley isn't doesn't have like the most pristine bill of health
behind them. But when you look at just their secondary guys beyond Mitchell and
Conley, I think you could argue that at least one of Bogdanovitch, Joe
Angles, and Jordan Clarkson offensively is super fluish or redundant. Joe Angles is
the most plug and play among those guys, and I just love Joe ingles
so and he's clearly comfortable in Utah, and all those guys are so valuable.
But if Mike Conley and Donot and Mitchell are both healthy, your offense,
even if you want to load it up with shot creation, does not
need all three of those guys. And so it does feel I mean,
it's probably Captain IV, but it does feel like if there is a move
to be made, at least one of those three guys would be involved.
I don't know if you have an Inkling or a preference. If you're the
Jazz and you're gonna make a move in the season, who do view is
the least expendable or who's the player you'd move mine. I'll throw it out
there. I know he's coming off a great season, it would be Jordan
Clarkson for me. I think that's right because if you're a team again that's
trying to win playoff games, I think Clarkson has the least value of any
of those guys, especially if Pascal can give you like ten or twelve points
on reasonable efficiency, because that's sort of just you know, Clarkson's better than
that, but that role just means less. The other thing I didn't mention,
by the way, is I love the Jared Butler swing. I don't
know if he'll get any playing time with them, but I thought he was
like a lottery caliber talent. And there's obviously the concerns about his health.
I'm assuming that's what dragged him down. But to get that type of value
at number forty and maybe you know, I think the criticism would be if
you pick Clarkson over Madonovitch r Ingles, you're not going to trust one of
those guys to run the offense necessarily in non Mitchell and Conley minutes, I
would argue you just shouldn't have minutes where both those guys are off the court.
But I really Jordan Carson will give you the creation there. But Joe
Angles is a better passer than Jordan Clarson is at this point, and maybe
Jared Butler just gives you something there. Yeah, this has nothing to do
with this, but everybody stopped listening now. You made me remember that I
was on the Joe Angles should have won sixth man over Jordan Clarkson train all
year. Didn't didn't come out to see. Well for me, I think
there's a case there to be made if jazz fans are mad. You can
just look at it like you could just look at it as it should have
belonged to a jazz player either way, if you want to go on a
round. But this was great. It was also long again, but Grant,
thank you as always for undertaking the report cards with me. If you
are not following Grant on Twitter, remedy that post taste at GT underscore Hugh's
great follow covers the NBA Pleach Report. Fantastic writer. Please please if you
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so much for listening, and as always, as ever, shout out too
New Mavericks co star for Luca don Chich, Frankie Laquina,