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What is krakaalakin hardwa Knox listeners,
I am Damp Valley killing out you without

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my fantabulous co host Adam frommel I
am, however, and as always,

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super pleased to be joined by longtime
colleague, longtime friend Grant Hughes, who

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is it covers the MBA on a
league wide scale for Bleacher Report. You

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can follow him on Twitter at gt
Underscore Hughes to get his monthly dose of

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half dozen or so tweets every thirty
days. Whatever it amounts to at this

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point, still great follow and a
fantastic writer. Check out his work at

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Bleacher Report. I have brought him
on. He has heroically agreed to do

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the report cards with me for both
the Eastern and Western Conference. We waited

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a little bit, or at least
I did before asking him, because I

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wanted to see if we could get
this Ben Simmons stuff like shoehorned into here

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because I didn't want to, you
know, go through the sixers and other

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teams. It's like this big you
know, eight team trade go through with

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the landscape of the league completely shifted. But I'll ask. We're in September.

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Training camp is inside three weeks away. Basically, at this point,

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it's time to go over the offseason, analyze it, give report cards because

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the team previews are going to start
rolling out pretty soon before we dive into

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our Eastern Conference grades. The most
important question of all tonight is Grant.

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How are you doing. I'm very
well, Dan. Thank you for having

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me back on this, although I
should probably wait to thank you until after

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we finish session two of this at
some point tomorrow, because I think we're

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in for it. There's a lot
that happened this offseason, but I think

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the East is a good place to
start because I think looking at what you

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and I both did, a lot
of favorable grades, a lot of average

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and better. So excited to do
that, and I do promise to submit

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an average or better performance on this
podcast. Yeah, and I don't know

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how you did it, but my
rubric for grading was basically, I think

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people look at seas as like this
disaster and B minus C Like, to

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me, that's just met expectations.
They didn't materially get substantially better. And

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I'm not you know, penalizing teams
necessarily for things that they didn't do,

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unless the things that they didn't do
were eminently doable, So I looked at

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it that way. I did also
consider, as you did, the coaching

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hires. I tried to take everything
into account. The draft is a part

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of this trades, free agency.
We are grading this from the team's perspective.

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So if we start insulting contracts,
congratulations to the players for getting paid,

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we're crapping all over the teams for
the way they went about those contracts.

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And there weren't like a ton of
bad deals to go over. But

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I think one team in particular had
very controversial if maybe uneven is the best

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way to call it off season.
So she wanted to throw that out just

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for the criteria is that people should
not be offended by by seas. That

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meant basically that you didn't you know, you didn't screw yourselves. If you're

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a fan of that team, but
you didn't do anything where we look at

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you and say, oh, that
team is noticeably better, or they had

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one hell of an off season based
on what was available to them. Yeah,

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I would just totally co sign on
all that. And I would add

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to that, you know, I
think a lot of the time we'll get

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into this more with specific teams,
especially the one I think that you're referring

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to, you know, in addition
to we well, let me back up.

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We sort of fall into this trap
of we evaluate every team on well,

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did this move? Was this move
an optimal move that a team that's

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trying to win a championship would make? You know, like, was this

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did this dollar go as far as
it possibly could have? On a team

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whose goal is a title? And
like, I think you sort of have

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to adhere to that to a large
extent because otherwise you have a scale that

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slides too much. You sort of
have to have some basic foundation of how

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you're grading these teams to keep it
fair. But I do think at least,

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you know, whether I really intended
to or not, during this I

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found myself kind of trying to look
at least a little bit at where the

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team and question is and where it's
trying to get and how successful it was

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in trying to reach that goal.
And the goal is not the same for

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all thirty or all fifteen teams in
this case in the East that we're going

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to cover. So yeah, we'll
get into that more specifically, I think

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with certain teams. But that was
sort of just a wrinkle I wanted to

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highlight. As we get going on
the actual grades, Yeah, one percent.

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You have to grade Miami on a
different arc than you would Orlando at

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this point, like you just have
to. Yeah, without further delay,

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though, let's get to this first
team. We will be alternating how we

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go through the transactions. I guess
I'll start with the Atlanta Hawks. They

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had an offseason that was like sort
of busy, but they didn't do anything

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seismic. They drafted Jilen Johnson number
twenty, Shreeve Cooper at number forty eight.

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They signed John Collins to a five
year, one hundred and twenty five

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million dollars deal, fully guaranteed player
option. In the final season, we

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signed Lou Will for one year,
five million dollars. Trey Young got the

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five year max extension with the early
termination option. On final season, they

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traded for Delon Wright by giving him
Chris Dunn, Bruno Fernando and a twenty

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twenty three second rounder. They signed
Gorgi Jang, They resigned Solomon Hill,

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and then they extended Quin Cappela.
That was their most recent transaction. I

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believed to a two year, forty
five point nine million dollars deal. He

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has now signed for the next four
seasons for a total of seventy eight point

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two million dollars. If you care
about noticeable losses, and I'll go through

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you know, teams that actually have
them. Their biggest loss was Chris Dunn

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or Tony Snell or Bruno Fernando,
which is to say that they did not

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have any big losses. So can
you start us off here, grant what

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grade did you give in Atlanta?
So I gave him a B plus and

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that was before the Pelics tension.
I mean that extension to me is is

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fine? I think is you know, I don't know if there are a

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whole lot of non stretch, non
switch centers that are worth around twenty millions

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later a year, but he's in
the neighborhood, so that that's fine.

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I don't think that meaningly moves it
from the B plus, possibly an A

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minus if you really are big on
that. The main the main reasons I

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was, you know, pretty pretty
bullish on their off season was they did

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the big stuff right. They extended
Trey Young. I mean, maybe a

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no brainer, but like you still
got to do it, and they did

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it. So they've locked in,
you know, their guy that assures them

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a top ten offense indefinitely and maybe
more. They got John Collins locked up

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for maybe a little too much,
but you know, I'm still okay with

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that. I guess I don't want
to just go down the list of everything

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that I think that the reason I
wouldn't go all the way to an A

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or at least didn't go a minus
before the Capella extension was I just don't

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think they addressed their biggest problem,
which is how they managed to score enough

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when Trey Young sits. You know, Chris Dunn was never the answer for

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that. And really, this could
be something that they solve internally if if

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DeAndre Hunter continues last year's breakout doesn't
get hurt, If if Kevin Hrder,

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who played really well in the playoffs, continues to be much more of a

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playmaker, if Bogan Bogdanovitch stays healthy. There's lots of ways for them to

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do this, but they didn't go
sign a guy that was going to address

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that. I don't think the answer
is Lou Williams. So that's that's the

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only reason. That's the only like
knock I can really put on on Atlanta's

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off season is that they had this
glaring need. You've got the numbers I

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know of the on off stuff.
Uh, it's it's double it's a double

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digit. You know, offensive rating
decline with young off the floor both regular

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season and playoffs, and they didn't
really do enough to touch that at least

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externally. Again, might not matter, but but that's my that's my knit

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to pick. I went with an
A minus for them, and I actually

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almost only went lower because of the
Capella extension. I don't understand why you

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do that now unless you just really
don't. You don't believe it on yek

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Kongu long term. And the contract
is not astronomical when you look at it

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in some clink cappella at four years, seventy eight million dollars is whatever.

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But just knowing what the direction that
the league is headed in and now you

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have one hundred and twenty five millions
tied up in John Collins over the next

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half decade, which is a fine
deal. And I think you can view

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the backdrop of their entire offseason against
People are pretty sure the cap is going

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to explode in three or four years, or at least the TV deal is

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going to be so huge that you
get to a cap smoothing process where it's

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going to continue to climb more than
incrementally, and that will make some of

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these deals look better, or that'll
start happening as they expire. So there's

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just a ton of wiggle room.
I'm still just curious because you have Kevin

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Herder, who's extension knowlsible right now, DeAndre Hunter and Cam Reddish are coming

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up. You're not going to pay
all these guys. And I'm not saying

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that they should have gotten rid of
somebody. I just question why did the

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Capella extension have to happen now?
They could have happened next season. Maybe

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at that point he would have wanted
a longer extension, and you don't want

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to sign him through his age thirty
two season. So I get that.

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It just seemed like a not unnecessary, but it calculated risk that I don't

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feel like he necessarily had the leverage
to put the fear of God into them

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to make this deal now. And
I'm not saying that's where they were,

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and I think Clink Cappello could have
been all defense this year. But it's

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just that's a lot of money invested
in your front court. Again, like

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you said, for one of the
guys who's a non stretch center and two

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year point about the no trade minutes, it's definitely a problem. I still

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think in the playoffs, I skew
more towards they might be able to address

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this Internally. I like the de
Lan Right pick up. He's just proven

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more durable than Chris Dunn, and
they have kind of the same positional defensive

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range, even though Chris Dunn at
full strength is just way more lockdown,

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way more disruptive than the lawn Right. We've also seen that Delaan Right can

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run some bench units that was dating
back to his days in Toronto, though

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we really haven't seen it since.
I really just like having Lou Williams.

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If Daniel Gallinari is healthy all year
or most of the year, Bogdan mcdonovitch

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is going to help. And the
numbers I've looked up is that when Lou

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will and Bogdan mcdonovitch played without Trey
Young last year, the Hawks had an

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offensive rating in the ninety fourth percentile
and they were actually treading water on defense

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sub three hundred possessions. But that's
still something to work off, and so

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I think they're more likely to be
able to address it internally and maybe we

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see sharif Cooper helped him there.
That's just sort of the one of the

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things that is over all this so
I would call it a near perfect offseason.

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What I also like about it is
that, yes, they took care

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of their own I'm not necessarily crazy
about the clink of Heela extension from a

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team building perspective. At the same
time, they didn't like triple down on

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a team that made the conference finals. But did they really belong there in

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a normal season. I don't know. They have just a good chance.

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I think as anyone outside of the
Brooklyn tier, if you're going with a

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you know, i'd put them in
the same level as in Miami, not

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as Milwaukee. So Milwaukee Brooklyn or
are their own probably separate two tiers.

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But with Miami, if you want
to throw New York in their Boston Indiana

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like, they're looped in together with
all those teams Toronto, and there's a

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chance that they just get better because
as you mentioned, if DeAndre Hunter,

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he's the can't ride it to the
swing piece too. But you're looking at

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some of the swings they took with
their rookies, and then just the healthy

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DeAndre Hunter, who showed some extra
shot creation before he went down initially last

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year. That ends up being huge
for them. So I really really like

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their offseason and the clink of Heela
thing is really the only transaction that I

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currently find myself nit picking over.
Yeah, that's fair. I just close

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with this team by saying, I
don't know there are a lot of other

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organizations that have more sort of avenues
towards meaningful organic internal growth, just because

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all those wings, one of them
pops and suddenly, like if Hunter,

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if Hunters pop had sustained this team
is I mean I have them currently in

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you know, in Tier two in
the East with the Sixers pending what happens

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with Simmons and the Heat, and
then I have like, you know,

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your Celtics, Knicks, Raptors,
Pacers, just a notch below that.

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So I'm pretty pretty high on the
Hawks. You know, I think we're

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in accord there moving to a team
that is, I have a notch below

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that the Boston Celtics, who unless
you have any more thoughts on the Hawks,

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you're ready to go to Boston.
Yeah. The only thing I could

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really after the Hawks that they are
also I don't think this could be part

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of their trade, but they're also
built to make a blockbuster trade if they

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want, just because of right,
all those wings that we mentioned, plus

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all their own draft picks and some
of the salary matching that they have on

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their team, they could do if
the right player becomes available, they can

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make a special move. And if
the Capella extension creates a cap crunch,

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where as all those guys extensions become
you know, bigger, more pressing issues,

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I mean, you could, yeah, exactly, you could package a

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couple of those guys and really blow
it out and throw a veteran in there,

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throw a pick. They've got some
tantalizing options there. The Boston Celtics

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the big kind of surprising, but
maybe in hindsight not so surprising, because

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it seemed like his voice wasn't carrying
in the locker room as much as it

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used to. Emmiodoka is in as
head coach. Brad Stevens, former Celtics

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head coaches, moved to the front
office, and one of the first things

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he did was trade Kevin Walker,
which is kind of interesting. So he

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went to Okay See for a package
of Val Horford, Moses Brown and a

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twenty three second round pick, also
number sixteen and twenty five second The other

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semi significant move Josh Richardson in and
then quickly given a one year, twelve

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point two million dollar extension. Then
we bring on Chris Dunn as part of

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a package from part of a three
way trade. This is all getting to

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be very complicated. Who then done
moves on to Memphis. I think for

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want of Hernan Gomez and Carson Edwards
all goes along with him and a twenty

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six second round pick swap. We've
got Dennis Shrewder coming in at one year,

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five point nine million. I think
we would agree with however you feel

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about Dennis Shrewder. That's probably one
of the better value signings of the entire

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off season. Nis Canner comes back
Sam Houser on a two way, Marcus

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Smart gets his extension four year,
seventy six and a half million. Robert

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Williams time Lord gets his four year
extension between forty eight and fifty five depending

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on I don't know what the are
there not partial guarantees or incentives in there,

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but anyway, he's getting paid.
Yeah, he's getting paid now like

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a basically top half you know,
of the league's starting center, possibly a

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little better than that. Some trade
exceptions coming in seventeen point one million for

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Evan fourtyer nine point seven and the
Tristan Thompson deal six point nine for Kema

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Walker, and then your notable subtractions. We've already kind of covered Walker,

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Fournier, Semi, ojelt Is gone, Carson Edwards gone, Tristan Thompson gone.

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So let's throw it to you.
Very busy. Having read all that

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offseason for the Celtics, what's your
grade for them? Yeah, I guess

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I should have. Do you include
Morrises Brown under notable subtractions? They never

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really had them. They just moved
him back to Dallas. I guess they

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have enough a few biggs. You
can put them wherever you want. Dan,

224
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I gave them a b and I
was really low on their offseason to

225
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begin with, just because this was
before the extensions were Smart Emily it was,

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which I think are both. I
think Smart is the one that people

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were most no reactionary to four years
and almost seventy seven million seems like a

228
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lot for him, but this is
someone who's shot thirty seven plus percent.

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I'm pull up threes over the past
two seasons and he is just a defensive

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workhorse. He is one of their
Yeah right, I mean right now,

231
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without question, he's one of the
three most important players. You keep him

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at that number. I think if
you needed to, you could move him.

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What I thought was interesting the Josh
Richardson extension. I still believe in

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Jay rich but that just seemed like, Okay, what are we doing here.

235
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I do feel like what Blostom has
done, and this is what intrigues

236
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me is they've said some people thought
they were going to try and carve out

237
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cap space next year. It was
never gonna happen, just based off Tatum

238
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and Brown. This was before the
extensions of a Smart and Williams, but

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just with the partial guarantee for Horford, it was never gonna happen. But

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now you kind of have Josh Richardson
the one year deal. If you keep

241
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him through to the next offseason,
you've now extended Marked as Smart, you

242
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extended Robert Williams the third. These
are guys that can be repackaged if you

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want to go after a star.
Let's say it's Bradley Beal wants to team

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up with childhood friend Jason Tatum.
I think that they've actively made that decision

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of saying, we want to make
sure that we have deals that can be

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moved where we can match money in
addition to sending draft equity. Their package

247
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won't look as good unless one of
their youngsters hits. That's not part of

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their off season. I think the
thinking there, though, clearly is I

249
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will say that I still think there's
a dearth of shot creation on this team

250
00:16:06,799 --> 00:16:10,440
that they did not address address and
that they needed to have given more critical

251
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:14,240
thought too before they just dumped Kemba
Walker. I get why they did it

252
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to be more financially flexible. I
like that they got the trade exception for

253
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Evan Fournier because that kind of looked
like they didn't give up a lot to

254
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get him. But if you gave
up Kemba Walker and then Evan Fournier,

255
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your best shot creators now are Shrewder, Peyton Pritchard, and Jason Tatum.

256
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Like that's never really been Jalen Brown's
game. Marcus Smart can give you some

257
00:16:32,919 --> 00:16:36,759
table setting, but not a ton
and I feel like this offense could still

258
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really be bogged down for stretches.
With the way the team is built,

259
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they do have the potential to be
a defensive terror. When you look at

260
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having Horford, who's still kind of
switchable for a big you have Josh Richardson

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now, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum. I am curious to see are they

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gonna play al Horford some minutes at
the four because you do have Robert Williams

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there, and you also have and
as Canner. Are you out on Grant

264
00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:00,399
Williams. I'm just very curiously how
the big man rotation shakes out overall.

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And this is just me, It's
only ten gentially related, But I can't

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believe Robert Williams got forty eight million
guaranteed and Rashawn Holmes only got forty six

267
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and a half million guarantee from Sacramento. I know there's an age discrepancy there.

268
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Rashawn Holmes is much better than Robert
Williams the third and I think Robert

269
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Williams there would be really good.
If his one on one defense holds like

270
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he kind of showed at points during
last season, that's absolutely huge for the

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Celtics. I just maybe Rashaun Holmes
really likes it in Sacramento. This is

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not related to the Celtics, but
and I don't criticize the deal they gave

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Robert Williams. I just that number
was not surprising for Robert Williams. It

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just reinforces how much of a bargain
for Shawn Holmes was for Sacramento. So

275
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I don't know that Boston got a
lot better. I think they're definitely more

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flexible. There's probably a higher ceiling
on their defense. But I don't think

277
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that they did anything spectacular this season. I might even downgrade them to A

278
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:52,480
to a B minus just because of
all they kind of gave up in the

279
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:56,480
Kemba Walker trade. But then maybe
his knees were worse than me expected because

280
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Okac, who never buys out players, bought him out and saved yes some

281
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money. But now they have this
dead money on their books for two years

282
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that they just they can't move.
The flip side of that argument is maybe

283
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they're just afraid Kema would help them
win two many games. But I think

284
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Boston is firmly in that B or
B minus range. For me, yeah,

285
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I give him a B as well, and I can totally see.

286
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I mean, there's real downside risk. You know, hor Horford's at an

287
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age where the gentle decline could get
steep, and I think actually and Josh

288
00:18:25,279 --> 00:18:29,279
Richardson may just never be Miami Josh
Richardson again, I think that's you know,

289
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if he's close to that, then
man, that's a value signing,

290
00:18:32,759 --> 00:18:36,119
like on par with getting Shrewder for
six million bucks. I think you know

291
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that that's that's a transformative sign is
a huge value, but the downside risk

292
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is there. I think I think
the shot creation is an absolute issue when

293
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you just look at their losses as
Kemba Walker and Fourtier, like maybe the

294
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two. You know, Jason Tatum's
a great player, Jalen Brown's a great

295
00:18:51,599 --> 00:18:55,200
player, But you're putting a lot
of shock creation onus on them, especially

296
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if you're you're expecting them to be
more pick and roll operators like the two

297
00:18:57,599 --> 00:19:02,559
guys that they lost. I think
you're putting a lot of onus on Horford

298
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to move the ball and sort of
reinvigorate an offense that you know used to

299
00:19:07,279 --> 00:19:11,000
run pretty smoothly but last year stagnated
a lot. And I think you're actually

300
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asking a lot of Robert Williams too, because I think one of the tantalizing

301
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:17,680
things about him is, you know, he's ambitious as a pastor, but

302
00:19:17,759 --> 00:19:19,839
for centers like he can make a
lot of passes that big guys can't make.

303
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But that's complicated by the fact of
are you going to play him now

304
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that you've extended him with Horford as
you alluded to, I don't know,

305
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:32,160
that's hard for me to imagine Horford
holding up against a lot of force as

306
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:36,480
he gets older. So yeah,
the shot creation thing is an issue just

307
00:19:36,599 --> 00:19:41,640
on balance, though there's you know, the extensions I thought were reasonable within

308
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,359
the reasonable range. The Williams one
I think is a little scary potentially,

309
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But yeah, the Shrewder signing is
just such a I mean, that's such

310
00:19:49,559 --> 00:19:53,119
a no brainer for almost any team. I think. I just that's so

311
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,680
cheap for a guy that I think
is a low end starter. But he's

312
00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,240
a low end starter who does kind
of do the downhill stuff that they need,

313
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,920
So you know, I'm good with
that. So I think that's a

314
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,559
bee there. They desperately still need
wings help. They have Jaalen Brown,

315
00:20:08,799 --> 00:20:11,720
Jason Tatum, and Josh Richardson.
It feels like they need a fourth or

316
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,799
n fifth wing. Really like this
should be a James Ennis team. To

317
00:20:15,839 --> 00:20:19,680
me, he remains unsigned. Is
it this recording every teams the James Nis

318
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:23,680
team. Everybody needs the idea of
James Nis on the team. Who's going

319
00:20:23,759 --> 00:20:27,519
to suppoint James Ennis eventually? As
like you know who would fit because he

320
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:36,920
Frankie, it's how much did he
signed for? He remains unsigned unfortunately,

321
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,640
but he is shooting over forty percent
from three over the past season and a

322
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,640
half, so it gives you defense
three and d wing in the waiting.

323
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,160
The other thing I think you mentioned
it and I do think this was you

324
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:48,319
know, can definitely nudge up their
grade is that they still have, just

325
00:20:48,599 --> 00:20:52,359
from this off season alone, three
trade exceptions worth five plus million dollars.

326
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,440
They used part of the one that
they got the Kevia Walker trade, but

327
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,279
they're still five point one million left, a huge one from Evan Fournier and

328
00:20:59,279 --> 00:21:02,400
then another nine plus million dollars one
from Thompson. So they do have avenues

329
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:06,160
to improve the team mid season.
If there's another you know, Fournier situation

330
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,519
approaches like it did last year,
are they willing to go, you know,

331
00:21:08,599 --> 00:21:12,960
cannonball into the tax to do that. They didn't use their full mid

332
00:21:14,039 --> 00:21:17,200
level exception, so they they're not
hardcaps, so they can you know,

333
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,559
they can do that without really worrying, but is this the team that they

334
00:21:19,559 --> 00:21:22,480
want to do that on. But
again, having those is certainly you know,

335
00:21:22,559 --> 00:21:26,319
it's it's definitely a plus. It's
not a minus or even a net

336
00:21:26,319 --> 00:21:30,839
neutral move that that's big for them. You know, last thing before you

337
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,640
run down Brooklyn. We can't know
this yet, but this offseason grade goes

338
00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,319
up for me if it turns out
and this, I hope this isn't the

339
00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:42,880
case that Kemba just can't play anymore
like that he's just not healthy enough to

340
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:47,759
be a meaningful contributor. And you
got off that contract and you got someone

341
00:21:47,839 --> 00:21:51,839
that you know, we don't know
because Al Horford got shut down for months

342
00:21:51,839 --> 00:21:55,279
and months last year, but uh, you know someone that at least is

343
00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:57,200
mobile, you know, on a
nights and night basis. That we don't

344
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,839
know that yet. But but if
that's something Boston didn't know and they made

345
00:22:00,839 --> 00:22:04,160
that decision, makes the offseason look
a little better. We move on to

346
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:10,559
Brooklyn, a team that is decidedly
anti wing apparently, but they drafted Cameron

347
00:22:10,559 --> 00:22:14,039
Thomas at number twenty seven, and
I'm wanting to call him Cam Stewart or

348
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:17,759
Cam Johnson for some reason. So
I apologize to Cameron Thomas. They acquired

349
00:22:17,799 --> 00:22:21,400
Javon Carter and Dayron Sharpe, who
was the number twenty nine pick for Landry

350
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:25,960
Shammitt. They obtained an eleven point
five million dollars trade exception the draft rights

351
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:32,400
to Nicola Matol multituitive. I probably
mispronounce that. I apologies a twenty twenty

352
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,039
four second rounder in a twenty twenty
five second round swap. I believe for

353
00:22:34,559 --> 00:22:37,720
the Spencer Dinwood he signed and trade. They signed James Johnson to a one

354
00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:41,200
year deal at the minimum. They
signed DeAndre Benbery to a one year Parsley

355
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:45,000
guaranteed deal. They signed Bruce Brown
to his one year four point seven million

356
00:22:45,039 --> 00:22:48,519
dollars qualifying offer, resigned Blake Griffin
to a one year deal at the minimum.

357
00:22:48,559 --> 00:22:52,440
They picked up Patty Mills. They
won the Patty Mill sweep Stakes two

358
00:22:52,519 --> 00:22:55,920
years twelve point one million dollars player
option on that second season. That was

359
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,400
their miniml They also won the Paul
millsap sweep Stakes. He was looking for

360
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:00,920
more than the mid. I don't
know the terms of this deal. I

361
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,319
was trying to find it. It
has to be for the minimum. We

362
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,960
just don't know the length. I'm
assuming maybe it could be a one plus

363
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,559
one if he wants to stay there. I have no idea. They signed

364
00:23:10,599 --> 00:23:14,160
by Marcus Aldridge, who retired and
then came out of retirement because the doctors

365
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,519
cleared him. So I'm assuming that's
good for him. I'm glad that he's

366
00:23:17,559 --> 00:23:19,839
healthy enough to play. That's a
one year deal at the minimum. And

367
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:25,799
then they just recently acquired say Kudin
Boya, julil Oka four and plus created

368
00:23:25,799 --> 00:23:30,880
a six point three million dollar trade
exception, four DeAndre Jordan and four second

369
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,319
round picks two of their own.
One is Golden States. And then I

370
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,799
think they're giving up the more favorable
of Washington Memphis in twenty twenty four.

371
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:41,640
That was quite the deal. They
saved the buttload of money in luxury tax

372
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,920
payments over this season and next because
DeAndre Jordan had two years left on his

373
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,599
deal. He owes Kevin Durant and
Kyrie a Ving a major thank you for

374
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:52,839
getting him that four year, forty
million dollar contract two years ago. Notable

375
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:57,000
subtractions they have. They have one
it's Jeff Green who's now with them or

376
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,839
and they've course lost Landry Shammitt,
but they lost Tyler Johnson. They waived.

377
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,319
How is a Johnson, Timothylly and
Lowell Cabreau remains unsigned and Chris jo

378
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,319
has assigned a two way contract with
Golden State. What grade do you give

379
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:14,440
a very busy Brooklyn Nets off season, Yeah, another busy one in the

380
00:24:14,519 --> 00:24:18,480
East. I had it as a
B and that was before millsap and Aldred's.

381
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,960
So I have to bump that up
just because it didn't cost them.

382
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,240
It cost them next to nothing.
And you've got two more sort of shots

383
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,279
along with Blake Griffin and James Johnson
to figure out who's going to close at

384
00:24:29,319 --> 00:24:32,000
center or who's gonna play a lot
of center minutes? I guess throw a

385
00:24:32,039 --> 00:24:37,160
Bruis and there who they resigned as
well. Do not forget you know,

386
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,839
it's a volume approach. So oh
yeah, Nick Clexson, who I was

387
00:24:41,839 --> 00:24:45,640
clamoring for to start at the end
of game start last year. If anything

388
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,559
you should down was an offseason,
I was gonna say you should downgrade them,

389
00:24:48,519 --> 00:24:53,440
be more guys and Clackson's way right
right, Yeah? No, I

390
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,359
think I go to B plus possibly, Yeah, but I can't go to

391
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,839
an A minus because you know,
it's it's hard with a team like this

392
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:07,079
that very clearly has a lot of
advantages in getting veterans for minimums, and

393
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,799
even not the minimum because Patty Mills, I'm sure had offers at this number

394
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,799
from a lot of other teams and
he picked this one. So but I

395
00:25:15,799 --> 00:25:18,480
mean we start there. You know, I love Patty Mills more than anything,

396
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,799
so getting him he's like such a
such a luxury on a team,

397
00:25:22,799 --> 00:25:25,400
like, you know what we need. We need a guy who's just going

398
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,000
to sprints around and get buckets and
I guess maybe defend a little bit,

399
00:25:29,039 --> 00:25:30,880
not so much lately, but you
know, throw Cam Thomas in there too,

400
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:34,480
like led the Summer League in scoring
the highest scoring freshman and d one

401
00:25:34,559 --> 00:25:37,960
last year. Don't need don't need
scoring on this team, but it's just

402
00:25:38,039 --> 00:25:41,279
kind of fun. So yeah,
I think, you know, they didn't

403
00:25:41,319 --> 00:25:45,119
really have a lot of holes to
fill obviously other than get healthy. So

404
00:25:45,279 --> 00:25:49,279
just having you know, this grab
bag of veterans on minimums to eat up

405
00:25:49,319 --> 00:25:56,200
these undersized center minutes was really kind
of all they needed to do. Because

406
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,759
the green loss does kind of matter. So you just got a bunch of

407
00:25:59,759 --> 00:26:04,640
shot at addressing that. Assuming Claxton
continues to be buried behind a bunch of

408
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,799
guys you know that used to be
All Stars. It gave him a B

409
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,119
plus as well, and I think, look, Patty Mills is just an

410
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:17,480
embarrassment of riches. Offensively, you
already mentioned that the Cam Thomas they also

411
00:26:17,519 --> 00:26:19,160
I like that they can get a
different look at backup point guard, where

412
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,119
like Javan Carter didn't really play as
much last season, definitely came down from

413
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:27,519
that bubble high he was in.
But that guy will hound you the entire

414
00:26:27,559 --> 00:26:30,319
court, and he can hit set
threes and doesn't need to have the ball

415
00:26:30,319 --> 00:26:33,079
in his hands. So if you
need someone to provide that defensive punch,

416
00:26:33,279 --> 00:26:36,880
he might be able to play next
to a Kyrie irving Worth James Hardens your

417
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:40,160
point guard there, like, you
can definitely run out those lineups. I

418
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:41,519
think, like you said, they
have given themselves a ton of options in

419
00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:45,839
the front court. The reason I
didn't give them a higher grade and even

420
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,720
considered going lower is I alluded to
this. Just let Nick Claxton Cook already,

421
00:26:49,799 --> 00:26:52,920
like, let's go there. You
don't need to put this many bodies

422
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,079
in front of him. I objectively
love the Plummell stap edition though, and

423
00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:59,000
that's someone who can play the four
of the five. I just don't know,

424
00:26:59,559 --> 00:27:03,599
and I actually kind of you Patty
Mills is a necessity given how James

425
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,279
Harden has been an iron Man since
he left Oklahoma City. But that just

426
00:27:07,319 --> 00:27:11,359
means that like half a hamstring or
a full hamstring is operating on borrow time

427
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:12,640
at this point. And we saw
that kind of crop up last season.

428
00:27:12,839 --> 00:27:17,960
And Kyrie Irving is always dealing with
stuff. It's never necessarily a chronic injury,

429
00:27:18,079 --> 00:27:21,559
but he's always just an injury risk. So I think having Patty Mills

430
00:27:21,599 --> 00:27:23,559
is a huge help there. Could
they not have? Like you know,

431
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:27,640
and I'm gonna be generous and stretch
the wing definition here, but you have

432
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:33,680
Kevin Durant, Joe Harris, DeAndre
Benbury if you keep him, and let's

433
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,440
throw James Harden in there, like
who are your wings on this team?

434
00:27:37,519 --> 00:27:40,880
Is Cameron Thomas going to actually have
to play? And that's not going to

435
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:42,440
give you anything? Defensively, I
know Bruce Brown can defend a bunch of

436
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:47,519
different positions. I just find it
weird, especially coming off a season in

437
00:27:47,519 --> 00:27:49,960
which Kevin Durant missed more than half
the regular season, that there wasn't more

438
00:27:51,079 --> 00:27:55,240
urgency to just get another body or
two, who can soak up minutes at

439
00:27:55,319 --> 00:27:57,440
that three at the two spot.
And I know Kevin Durant can play four.

440
00:27:57,519 --> 00:28:00,119
Kevin Durant can play five at this
point, but they're just isn't that

441
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,599
like go to wing defender right now? Who's who's their go to wing defender?

442
00:28:06,079 --> 00:28:08,880
It's is it Bruce Brown? Yeah? It's which is fine, but

443
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,599
like that's one. So I thought
it would have been nice to have seen

444
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,160
them try to address that. And
I know that their resources were limited,

445
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,559
but I will point you to the
two point two trillion moves they made in

446
00:28:19,599 --> 00:28:22,240
the front court. They figured out
ways to do things. Maybe they make

447
00:28:22,319 --> 00:28:26,000
they'll definitely be players in the buyout
market. They could make a mid season

448
00:28:26,039 --> 00:28:29,720
deal. But they just look a
little thin when it comes to pure wings

449
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,640
to me, And that's why I
couldn't give them that that A minus or

450
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,920
even an A or let alone an
A plus. Yeah, it would have

451
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,319
been an A minus if they'd signed
James Ennis. I think so they can

452
00:28:40,319 --> 00:28:42,920
still get an A minus is basically
what we're Hey, if they signed to

453
00:28:44,039 --> 00:28:47,799
play the three as their three in
new wing, A plus done book,

454
00:28:47,799 --> 00:28:52,960
It no doubt the Charlotte Hornets come
in next and it's my turn to read

455
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,599
their list of transactions. They got
Mason Plumbley to play center in a salary

456
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,400
dump from the Pistons, which also
included the number thirty seven pick, which

457
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:06,400
became JT. Thor. The Pistons
got number fifty seven player whose name I

458
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:07,920
will not try to announce, but
you know, and I am going to

459
00:29:08,119 --> 00:29:14,160
pronounce Balsa Coper Vika. I'm gonna
say. I don't see him coming over

460
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:18,400
anytime soon. They drafted James book
Knight, who slipped to them at eleven.

461
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:23,359
I think, uh, they reason. I know, I'm reading off

462
00:29:23,359 --> 00:29:27,799
your sheet, and you see that
seamlessly ignored, ignored that mistake. I

463
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,920
told you it was a risky proposition
to go off my I know now I

464
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,119
want to look at mine instead.
No, I'm gonna stick with yours,

465
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,680
uh, because you have more detail. They acquired Kaya Jones at number twenty

466
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,680
one for a twenty twenty two first
rounder protected top eighteen in twenty two,

467
00:29:42,759 --> 00:29:47,960
top sixteen, and twenty three lottery
protected twenty four twenty five. U signed

468
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,279
Scotty Luke Scotty Lewis. I don't
know who that is. I'll be honest.

469
00:29:51,279 --> 00:29:53,680
That's a two a deal. Also
signed our old SCHOOLBUCA to another two

470
00:29:53,720 --> 00:30:00,279
A deal. Another slightly more meaningful
move was a DeVante Graham sign in trade.

471
00:30:00,279 --> 00:30:04,039
He has gone went to the Pelicans
for a twenty twenty two first rounder,

472
00:30:04,039 --> 00:30:07,880
which is lottery protected for a year. I don't know the conversions on

473
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:12,640
that, but it doesn't seem like
I don't recall that being a hugely favorable

474
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:17,680
pick for the Hornets. Wesley Window
and the rights to Tyler Harvey and Cash

475
00:30:17,799 --> 00:30:22,559
also come over and signed a Smith
for two years nine point two million.

476
00:30:22,839 --> 00:30:26,200
About half of that is guaranteed.
The second year is non guaranteed. Signed

477
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:32,200
Kelly Ubre two years twenty four point
six only seventeen million of that is guaranteed.

478
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:37,519
Only five total is guaranteed in twenty
two twenty three, and extended Terry

479
00:30:37,559 --> 00:30:41,599
Rozier, who quietly had a phenomenal
offensive season, four years ninety six point

480
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:47,440
three million. This is fully guaranteed, with some interesting caveats on there.

481
00:30:48,079 --> 00:30:51,559
If Charlotte plays in the second round
of the playoffs and Rosier plays seventy games

482
00:30:51,599 --> 00:30:56,200
in any of the last three years
of that deal, that's kind of that's

483
00:30:56,279 --> 00:30:59,000
kind of fun. I like,
I like weird guarantees. I was like,

484
00:30:59,039 --> 00:31:02,359
the remember that Eric Gordon, that
the guarantee that's on the final year

485
00:31:02,359 --> 00:31:03,559
of his contract right now, if
he makes an All Star game where the

486
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:11,920
Rockets win the championship becomes to guaranteed. I don't think that's getting guaranteed day.

487
00:31:11,039 --> 00:31:15,599
I don't think so either, you
know, unless alpren Sangun is really

488
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:19,799
really good. Notable subtractions, Just
to summarize again, DeVante Graham gone,

489
00:31:21,359 --> 00:31:23,960
which makes sense, he was probably
ticketed. We definitely ticketed for no more

490
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,440
than a third guard spot. Caleb
Barton, Wade, Cody Zeller is gone.

491
00:31:29,279 --> 00:31:32,160
End of an era. Bis mac
Biambo also gone. The league monk

492
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:36,720
might matter because both he and Graham
left. So the backcourt's a little thinner

493
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,720
than it used to be. But
book nights should help there. So what's

494
00:31:40,759 --> 00:31:42,920
your grade for the Charlotte Hornets and
can remember too, this is one of

495
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:47,400
the teams that had some cap space. It's one of the few that had

496
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:49,759
a little bit of money to spend. I wanted to be crueler to them

497
00:31:49,759 --> 00:31:52,119
because I felt like I was being
too generous with grades. I ended up

498
00:31:52,119 --> 00:31:56,319
giving them a bee because I that
Kelly Ubrad junior deal is a I just

499
00:31:56,359 --> 00:31:59,960
thought it was a great move for
them. He fits with how it seems

500
00:32:00,079 --> 00:32:02,039
like they want to play where they
went really small a lot last year and

501
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,519
they didn't go after a big money
center this year. And so if you

502
00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:07,599
weren't going to do that, which
I still think they should be, find

503
00:32:07,599 --> 00:32:12,079
a draft pick for letting Rashawn Holmes
remain in Sacramento at that price, Like,

504
00:32:12,119 --> 00:32:15,200
just find Charlotte a draft pick.
But if you were going to play

505
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,119
small, get players that are gonna
fit that mold. And so now you

506
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,759
have this Miles Bridges, PJ.
Washington, Kelly Bridge Junior, Gordon Hayward

507
00:32:22,799 --> 00:32:24,680
set up to where you can mix
and match all these guys at the three,

508
00:32:24,799 --> 00:32:28,480
four, five. I obviously don't
want to see PJ. Washington played

509
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,160
the three. I'm just saying you
can. It seems more easily get away

510
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:34,680
with him at the five and just
Kelly Bridge Junior running the floor with LaMelo

511
00:32:34,759 --> 00:32:38,200
ball. That should be tons of
fun. I don't why I might go

512
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:42,000
to like a B minus or a
C plus for them. I don't fully

513
00:32:42,079 --> 00:32:45,839
understand the Tartoro's year extension. Maybe
they're scared shitless that twenty twenty two free

514
00:32:45,839 --> 00:32:49,720
agencies gonna be barren of talent because
it will be, and that a team

515
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,680
was going to come over the top
with an offer. He did just have

516
00:32:52,759 --> 00:32:57,079
a fantastic season. He also cooled
off a lot down the stress down the

517
00:32:57,119 --> 00:33:00,279
latter half of the year. That
was also I guess overlapped with Gordon Heyward

518
00:33:00,279 --> 00:33:04,640
and the mellow ball being injured for
a deep spell. Just that's a lot

519
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:06,960
of money. And if you're viewing
this as okay, well they're not going

520
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:08,039
to get out of the second they're
not going to make the second round of

521
00:33:08,039 --> 00:33:13,039
the playoffs anyway, then maybe it's
really only a three year deal worth about

522
00:33:13,079 --> 00:33:15,559
seventy five million, seventy million dollars
seventy two million, and that's that's more

523
00:33:15,599 --> 00:33:19,240
so fine. I thought that was
a little rich. I don't I think

524
00:33:19,279 --> 00:33:22,119
they could have let him go into
the market and kept him for cheaper and

525
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,920
maybe they wanted to build up some
good will. I just don't I get

526
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,559
it. He had a great year. I don't understand the extension there.

527
00:33:28,599 --> 00:33:32,039
I also I would have kept DeVante
Graham rather than get And here's the thing.

528
00:33:32,359 --> 00:33:36,640
The Pelicans twenty twenty two first round
pick, we talk about fake second

529
00:33:36,759 --> 00:33:39,480
rounders, this is a fake first
rounder. It's a lottery protected for one

530
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:44,279
year. And unless I'm mistaken there, but that's the best of my research.

531
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,720
It's a lottery protected for one year
before it's no longer a first round

532
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:51,079
pick. That's not going to be
a first round pick. The Pelicans,

533
00:33:51,119 --> 00:33:53,519
I think the kindest thing you can
say about their off season is maybe they're

534
00:33:54,039 --> 00:33:58,519
not worse than they were last season, and so I don't look at them

535
00:33:58,559 --> 00:34:01,680
as a playoff team. So you
gotta fakes first round or for DeVante Graham

536
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,680
when he signed for I know he
was your third guard, but hey,

537
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,639
maybe you don't have to pay Tyrose
a year one hundred million dollars almost.

538
00:34:08,039 --> 00:34:12,239
I know we had an off year
DeVante Graham, and a part of that

539
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,719
was probably because he was relegated to
like this third or fourth gar role at

540
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,480
some points. I just you couldn't
get like a little bit more for him

541
00:34:19,599 --> 00:34:22,039
on that front, and so there
were things about this offseason that made me

542
00:34:22,119 --> 00:34:24,480
uneasy. Even the Kai Jones,
I think that was a great You know,

543
00:34:24,519 --> 00:34:28,119
normally you have to overpay when you're
moving up in the draft at that

544
00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:32,480
spot they are going to send a
pick outside the lottery, and it could

545
00:34:32,519 --> 00:34:36,079
be you know, if it's if
it conveys next year. Charlotte had a

546
00:34:36,079 --> 00:34:37,239
hell of a season, But like, why are we all of a sudden

547
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:42,320
we're protecting picks for four to seven
years because you're allowed to, like those

548
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,119
commitments to stretched so long. So
I don't necessarily love that. I like

549
00:34:45,199 --> 00:34:49,000
it better for them than I do
the Knicks. I absolutely love James book

550
00:34:49,079 --> 00:34:52,400
Night. I think Mason Plumley was
the sort of safe play here. He

551
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:57,000
doesn't help you defensively. It just
it wasn't a lateral offseason because I think

552
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,440
they got a little bit better.
I just feel like they had the potential

553
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:00,599
to do so much more. And
if you kind of look at the raw

554
00:35:00,679 --> 00:35:05,880
season through the lens of like what
if they didn't extend Terry Rosier, Like

555
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:07,559
how much better would this aw season
look? Or had they found a way

556
00:35:07,559 --> 00:35:09,880
to keep Devonte Graham, But then
that kind of takes them out of the

557
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,800
Kelly Ubrid Junior sweepstakes, so you
do have to consider that. I just

558
00:35:15,039 --> 00:35:17,599
feel like they had the bandwidth to
be a little bit more creative, especially

559
00:35:17,639 --> 00:35:22,159
when it came to at least the
center position or what they did with Devonte

560
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,119
Graham at the very least. Yeah, I'm not as hard on the DeVante

561
00:35:25,199 --> 00:35:30,079
Graham thing because you know, when
you're in a position where he can just

562
00:35:30,119 --> 00:35:32,960
sign somewhere else and you're not going
to match it, you know your returns

563
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:37,239
aren't going to be that great.
I think, and this is another thing

564
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,920
maybe we should have mentioned at the
topic just as you're talking made me think

565
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:44,679
of it. The Rosier signing did
strike me initially as like, man,

566
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:46,840
that's that's a lot of money for
Terry Rosier. Great season and all.

567
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,360
But I also think we got to
consider and this is why, you know,

568
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,000
I started at a B plus,
but now I've done some work in

569
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,760
another project thinking about the Hornets and
some of their weaknesses, I'm gonna knock

570
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:00,320
it down to a B. But
the thing I'm trying to get to is

571
00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:04,639
not every team's free agent dollars go
as far as every other teams, and

572
00:36:04,679 --> 00:36:07,760
I think Charlotte is not a destination. So if you've got somebody you view

573
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,880
as a starter and you can lock
him up for you know, somewhere in

574
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:15,440
the load of mid twenty million per
season range, I think, you know,

575
00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:17,840
I think the math is just a
little different. I'm making excuses for

576
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,760
the Hornets, obviously to justify I
mean, we gave him roughly the same

577
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,840
grade. But the thing that if
you're looking at this kind of holistically,

578
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:30,719
you lose Monk, you lose Graham, and I think you know imperfect players

579
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:34,719
for sure. Graham is one of
the worst finishers inside the arc in the

580
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,639
league. It's like incomprehensible how inefficient
he is when he's not shooting threes.

581
00:36:38,199 --> 00:36:43,639
But those two guys, Monk forty
point one percent from deep last year,

582
00:36:43,679 --> 00:36:45,480
Graham thirty seven and a half percent. I think he was thirty seven point

583
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:50,360
three the year before. And you
got Is Smith in your guard rotation.

584
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:54,400
Now you got Kelly Ubrey on the
wing and not those guys are not shooters.

585
00:36:54,440 --> 00:37:00,519
And when you also theoretically, I
think Mason, I think Plumbley's best

586
00:37:00,559 --> 00:37:04,760
skill might be his passing, and
that gets a little bit muted if you

587
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,920
don't have the spacing or the shooting
threats around him to hit guys as he

588
00:37:07,039 --> 00:37:13,159
rolls. So it's kind of the
overall vision of this offseason, there are

589
00:37:13,199 --> 00:37:17,119
some some pieces that don't I'm making
the fingers fitting together gesture because this is

590
00:37:17,119 --> 00:37:21,519
an audio medium and it's really helpful, but there are some pieces that just

591
00:37:21,519 --> 00:37:25,400
don't quite fit. All that said, you know, book Nights slipping to

592
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:30,400
them was huge. I like Kai
Jones and the ubre thing non shooting issue

593
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:35,639
aside. I think the Hornets led
by Lamel LaMelo Ball, who we haven't

594
00:37:35,679 --> 00:37:38,159
even talked about yet because he had
nothing to do with the offseason, but

595
00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:45,559
I think they Yeah, I wonder
why. I mean, they're gonna run

596
00:37:45,599 --> 00:37:50,199
and I think they're gonna thrive him
like scattered chaotic situations. And Kelly Hubra

597
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,440
lives there like that if you if
you just want him to run up and

598
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:58,199
down and dunk and like create havoc
with live wire defense, like that's your

599
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:00,360
guy, and so he's gonna fit
really well there. I think the shooting

600
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,960
is a question. So so yeah, I good values generally, but I

601
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,480
can't go any higher than a B. And I get your point about their

602
00:38:07,519 --> 00:38:10,400
free agency dollars not going as far, but I think it also means that

603
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:14,320
you need to be more shrewd with
how much you're paying your own players.

604
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,400
At the same time, and if
you're asking me whether I'd have rather have

605
00:38:17,519 --> 00:38:22,280
Terrier's here at five years about one
hundred and fifteen million, or DeVante Graham

606
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,039
at four years and sub forty eight
million. I'd probably still lean Devanta Graham

607
00:38:25,079 --> 00:38:28,960
And look, Terror's here at a
hell of a season last year. I

608
00:38:29,079 --> 00:38:32,519
just I don't know why that extension
needed to be given. What team was

609
00:38:32,559 --> 00:38:37,679
gonna spend on him next year to
that extent and he would if he did

610
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:39,880
follow it up to earn that money, then you're probably still okay with paying

611
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:44,199
him then. So I don't think
this is a crippling deal, which is

612
00:38:44,199 --> 00:38:46,039
why I didn't give them a B
minus or C plus. I just thought

613
00:38:46,079 --> 00:38:50,400
it was kind of a I don't
know, it felt like a slap dash

614
00:38:50,519 --> 00:38:53,159
extension to me more so than not, and just viewed against like I would

615
00:38:53,159 --> 00:38:55,599
have rather seen them take a bigger
swing this, you know, and Terrors

616
00:38:55,599 --> 00:38:59,239
here was extension didn't impact this,
But if they were going to do that,

617
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,800
like, could you take a bigger
swing on like a center other than

618
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:06,760
a than a Mason Plumlee just because
as you mentioned, like the shooting is

619
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,119
is weird on the wing rotation is
like not super deep. Your wings are

620
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:15,719
like Gordon Hayward and James book Night
and yeah, like who uh that kellyber

621
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:17,960
Jr. Of course. So it's
just like, I don't know, you

622
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:20,960
have West of one due is there? Is he not? Is he still

623
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:22,159
there? I don't know. I'm
losing track of all these offseason stuff,

624
00:39:22,199 --> 00:39:28,760
but so yeah, I just I
think the solid B for them is fair.

625
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:30,320
But unless you have anything to add, we can move on to Chicago.

626
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:36,199
I just that I'm learning you hate
extensions. Your extensions are over two

627
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,960
in your score books so far.
I don't hate extensions. I just don't.

628
00:39:39,559 --> 00:39:43,639
Terry Rosier four years and ninety six
point three is a touch. It's

629
00:39:43,639 --> 00:39:46,280
a touch too far. I think
that's just That's where I'm at with right

630
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:52,159
Rosier to the Bulls, though they
drafted I would just soon knew at number

631
00:39:52,199 --> 00:39:53,679
thirty eight who I couldn't believe fellow
that low. I thought that was great

632
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,800
for them. They acquired Lonzo Ball
in a sign and trade on a four

633
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,440
year, eighty million dollars deal.
It can get up to eighty f million

634
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,480
with player incentives. He's a player
option on the final year, so that

635
00:40:02,519 --> 00:40:08,159
deal is technically fully guaranteed. They
sent New Orleans Thomas Sadranski Garrett Temple in

636
00:40:08,559 --> 00:40:13,320
a duel sign and trade, and
they sent a twenty twenty four second round

637
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,239
pick and cash also to New Orleans. They also signed Alex Caruso for four

638
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:20,599
years thirty seven million. Thirty point
one million is guaranteed. He only has

639
00:40:20,599 --> 00:40:23,840
a three million guarantee in that final
season. Everything sounds spectacular there. They

640
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:28,119
also signed Tony Bradley to a two
year deal the player option on that second

641
00:40:28,159 --> 00:40:30,880
year. They signed Matt Thomas to
a one year deal at the minimum.

642
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:35,440
They got a five million dollars trade
exception for sending Daniel Tye to Houston.

643
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:37,519
They signed Javonte Green to a two
year deal, non guaranteed. In that

644
00:40:37,519 --> 00:40:40,639
second year. All that fine.
This is where shit starts to go off

645
00:40:40,679 --> 00:40:45,280
the rails for me, though.
They acquired Damarda Rosen on a three year,

646
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:49,079
eighty one point nine million dollar deal, and they also got back their

647
00:40:49,119 --> 00:40:52,039
own twenty twenty five second round pick. That three year, eighty one point

648
00:40:52,119 --> 00:40:55,199
nine million dollars deal for Damarta Rosen
is fully guaranteed. That is one level

649
00:40:55,239 --> 00:41:00,840
to this. To earn the right
to pay Demarda Rose and that much money,

650
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:05,320
they gave up Thaddeus Young, Alfre
Rukaminu a twenty twenty five first round

651
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,559
pick. It is top ten protected
in twenty five, top eight in twenty

652
00:41:07,559 --> 00:41:12,559
six and twenty seven, and they
also sent out a twenty twenty five second

653
00:41:12,639 --> 00:41:19,639
round pick. Then they acquired Derek
Jones Junior and Portlands twenty twenty two first

654
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:22,639
round pick lottery protection through two twenty
eight. These protections, man, they

655
00:41:22,639 --> 00:41:27,400
are extending all the way out.
That feels like a new trend. They

656
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:30,000
also got twenty twenty three second.
It's from Cleveland, but it's Denver twenty

657
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:37,079
twenty Denverse twenty twenty three second.
Excuse me for Lowry marketing in another sign

658
00:41:37,079 --> 00:41:40,239
in trade. I'm just curious as
to what you think about their off season.

659
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:44,800
As a brief recap, their notable
subtractions include they lost that young Daniel

660
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:49,079
Tis, Lowry Marketing, Garrett Temple, Alfre Rukaminu, and Thomas Saturanski.

661
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,280
So this is the team I was
referring to at the top when it talks

662
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:59,679
about you know you you got a
grade, Yeah, you got a grade.

663
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:04,079
These teams on you know, what
are their goals? And not every

664
00:42:04,119 --> 00:42:07,480
team's trying to win a championship And
we knew this, but we knew that

665
00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:10,239
was the case for the Bulls because
you don't trade two future firsts for Vukovich,

666
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:15,440
whose career highlight is a forty two
and forty magic team that like got

667
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,639
balanced in five games in the first
round. You don't prize Zach Lavine as

668
00:42:20,679 --> 00:42:25,400
a super duper star, which I
think they do. So having said all

669
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:30,079
that, it's the DeRos, so
I think the Bulls are better. I

670
00:42:30,119 --> 00:42:32,079
think the Bulls are better on the
court this coming season than they were last

671
00:42:32,119 --> 00:42:36,920
year. I think they could win
forty five games, maybe more. I

672
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,760
don't know how they're going to stop
anybody, but I think just as a

673
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:45,159
fan that's going to the arena and
you want to see a better basketball product,

674
00:42:45,199 --> 00:42:47,280
I think they've achieved that. A
Lonzo ball goes a long way towards

675
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,199
that, while also sort of ticking
the you know type of box that we

676
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:54,840
tend to like more generally of the
goods good expenditure on a young player,

677
00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:04,719
I just can't I've later all that
out as a run one way to say,

678
00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:07,960
I'm giving them a D plus and
I'd like to be harsher just because

679
00:43:08,199 --> 00:43:15,320
I can't see anything worth celebrating in
when you're when you're you set your sights

680
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:21,119
so low like the way that the
Bulls have acted is we're really close to

681
00:43:21,159 --> 00:43:23,039
getting over the top. We have
to make some win now moves and spend

682
00:43:23,079 --> 00:43:29,440
a little wildly and sacrifice some youth. And they're not at that stage.

683
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,320
They're at a stage where they're trying
to make the playoffs. Zach Laban hasn't

684
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:37,440
played a playoff minute yet. So
the Derosian signing, I just they're signing

685
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:40,480
trade, whatever you want to call
it. I just I just don't know

686
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:45,039
where the market was that necessitated the
outlay that they had to make. I

687
00:43:45,199 --> 00:43:49,800
don't think it was realistic to say
san Antonio was going to pony up and

688
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:52,840
come anywhere close to that. I
just don't know where he was going to

689
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:58,599
sign that they needed to go this
high. Exclude from that the fact that

690
00:43:58,639 --> 00:44:01,840
he doesn't really make a lot of
sense as a fit as an offense.

691
00:44:02,119 --> 00:44:07,280
Really only player that doesn't stretch the
floor. Great passer, Everyone's going to

692
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,440
talk about that, but Buchevitch can
pass, Lavine can pass. He just

693
00:44:09,519 --> 00:44:15,000
feels like overkill in an area that
they don't need at great cost. So

694
00:44:15,159 --> 00:44:19,440
he, to me offsets what I
think was a pretty good signing in Lonzo

695
00:44:19,519 --> 00:44:23,679
Ball and another decent one in Alex
Carusou to such a degree that I just

696
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:27,840
and you lose Daddy as Young,
who I think, you know, maybe

697
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:30,840
even in a vacuum, is an
objectively more helpful player when you're trying to

698
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,559
win games than Derosen. So this
is I think my worst grade in the

699
00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:42,039
conference, just because I think the
Bulls they went big at at at a

700
00:44:42,119 --> 00:44:45,880
small or at a kind of unimpressive
target, Like I just don't think you

701
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:50,679
do this to try to win forty
some odd games. So that's that's my

702
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,159
screed, or where are you on
their grade? Your outrage convinced me to

703
00:44:54,199 --> 00:44:58,199
go down to a C minus because
I thought I was being too hard on

704
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:00,960
them since there were things about their
office and I liked that being said,

705
00:45:02,159 --> 00:45:06,119
Look, I think the Lonzo Ball
pickup was great. He's just a look,

706
00:45:06,159 --> 00:45:07,239
he's not going to give you the
half court creation. You do have

707
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:10,400
that in zach Lavine Bouche is going
to give you some of that. Demartin

708
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,960
Rosen obviously gives you some of that. And I do think there's a pathway

709
00:45:14,039 --> 00:45:16,960
to this team being really good offensively, but you are all of a sudden,

710
00:45:17,039 --> 00:45:22,199
I think asking Lonzo Ball zach Lavine
and Voos to all have the ball

711
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,000
even less, and that is a
combustible cocktail. I also don't know you're

712
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,800
not going to look to play super
fast with Demartin Rosen on the court,

713
00:45:29,119 --> 00:45:30,920
and that's what you should be doing
when Lonzo Ball and Zach Lavine are both

714
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:36,360
playing together. To me, still, I see the pathway and I'm making

715
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,880
it work offensively. They really compromise
their defense with this. They put an

716
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:43,159
awful lot of pressure on Patrick Williams
and even Alex Caruso, who's not going

717
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:45,760
to have the safety net that is
Anthony Davis and Lebron James around him like

718
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,159
he had in Los Angeles. I
still leave that deal is fine. I

719
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,320
liked that for them. What the
hell does this mean about Kobe White's development?

720
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,400
By having de Rosen and Lavine and
Lonzo Ball, now you've nuked his

721
00:45:55,480 --> 00:46:00,440
trade value even if you want to
make another trade. You spend enough time

722
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:02,320
on the De Rosan thing. I
think I agree with everything you basically said.

723
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,159
I really do think this could be
a great offensive team. A struggle

724
00:46:06,199 --> 00:46:08,400
to see how they're going to succeed
defensively. Daddy is Young would have helped

725
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,800
them there. That's where I really
had a problem, And maybe you won't

726
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:15,039
have to give up as much if
you're not also including a mean who's essentially

727
00:46:15,079 --> 00:46:17,880
dead money at this point in the
deal, and so that hurts them.

728
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,320
You've mortgaged too much of your future
now for me, and I know the

729
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:24,119
Thad Young Voodge minutes weren't great last
year defensively for Chicago, that was a

730
00:46:24,159 --> 00:46:29,000
small sample size, like seeing that
with Patrick Williams together, they might have

731
00:46:29,039 --> 00:46:32,039
had a better shot at coming closer
to a league average defense. If that

732
00:46:32,079 --> 00:46:36,960
happens this year, I'll be flabbergasted. But what was really overkilled for me

733
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:43,280
is can you at least incorrectly chase
winning correctly? Why did you get Derek

734
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:46,800
Jones Jr. In the Larry Nance
Junior trade? Who is Larry Nance Jr.

735
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:50,840
Is a way better fit for your
team. He's on the same timeline

736
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:52,960
as that Booge contract too, with
two years sub twenty million dollars left.

737
00:46:53,119 --> 00:46:57,159
He can play next to fooch You
could probably get some small ball five minutes

738
00:46:57,159 --> 00:47:00,400
out of him. Imagine the defensive
malleability in a line up with both Patrick

739
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:05,480
Williams and Larry Nance Junior. And
hey also Alex Caruso, maybe even Lonzo

740
00:47:05,559 --> 00:47:07,559
Ball. There's no I'm not gonna
say they're gonna be a great defensive team,

741
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:13,159
But wtf You went after the draft
pick in that trade, Like,

742
00:47:13,199 --> 00:47:15,760
I know that gives you the flexibility
to then trade said draft pick in another

743
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:21,039
deal this summer. But Larry nance
Juior was the best player in that deal.

744
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:22,480
You didn't need Portland to come in
and do this at all. You

745
00:47:22,599 --> 00:47:27,920
just decided that you wanted Portland's pick
that is either going to convey this season

746
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,119
or not at all. Because Dame
was gone after this year. I'll be

747
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:32,960
shocked if he's still in Portland.
So I'm just can you at least be

748
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:37,239
consistent with the mode of thought here, Like if you're going to acquire and

749
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:42,199
mortgage your future for winning now talent, hey continue to accumulate this wind now

750
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:45,360
talent. I know Derek Jones Junior
will help them defensively. He's going to

751
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:49,039
shrink the floor. He can't play
with the Marty Rozen that will be a

752
00:47:49,079 --> 00:47:52,199
disaster. And look if you try
to play him even with Caruso, who's

753
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:55,199
like an average shooter at best.
So I just don't and I'm not saying

754
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:59,000
Larry Nance Junior is a light out
shooter, but he's shooting thirty five plus

755
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,039
percent from three over the past two
seasons and can just be moved around a

756
00:48:01,079 --> 00:48:05,480
ton on defense just as much,
if not more so, than Derrick Jones

757
00:48:05,559 --> 00:48:07,960
Junior. So I'm going to spend
time harpening on that trade because it just

758
00:48:08,039 --> 00:48:13,480
felt like it was counterintuitive relative to
everything else they did. Is they took

759
00:48:13,679 --> 00:48:17,280
the longer term play or like the
mystery box play with that pick plus Derrick

760
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:22,559
Jones Junior's expiring contract. I just
I don't understand why you don't take lyar

761
00:48:22,639 --> 00:48:24,400
NaN's Jr. As part of that
signing trade. So I like to bits

762
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:28,960
in parts of their offseason. I
can't give them lower than a C minus.

763
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,440
I definitely understand why you went as
low as as a D just because

764
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:35,519
that Joe they negated a lot of
what they did, and like you said,

765
00:48:35,679 --> 00:48:38,920
they'd already hamstrung themselves long term for
what was a pretty middling present in

766
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:43,440
that Voots trade, and they fucked
up because they didn't make the plan.

767
00:48:43,639 --> 00:48:46,840
You don't make that Voots trade unless
you want to make the postseason last year

768
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,039
as well, they didn't. They
didn't even make the plan. I know

769
00:48:50,119 --> 00:48:52,800
Zach Levine ended up being in health
and safety protocols for a beat. You

770
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:57,599
still that ends up being the screw
up to make that trade then, because

771
00:48:57,599 --> 00:49:00,960
you gave up the number eight pick
and you in this and so what,

772
00:49:00,119 --> 00:49:04,119
I just don't know where they were
going. Then you now doubled down on

773
00:49:04,199 --> 00:49:07,119
that, but then didn't continue to
triple down. You just decided to take

774
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,960
that Portland pick. I'm just they're
confusing the hell out of me. And

775
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,119
I don't want to say I hated
their off season because I love Lonzo ball

776
00:49:14,159 --> 00:49:16,840
here. I really like iotatuon move
maybe they actually try and play him,

777
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:20,920
and I really do think that Alex
Caruso's a solid fit. But like,

778
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:23,440
even what is the backup five situation
right now? Are you really relying on

779
00:49:23,519 --> 00:49:27,599
Tony Bradley or are we going to
see Patrick Williams place in five or Derrick

780
00:49:27,639 --> 00:49:30,599
Jones Junior place in five? That
might actually be fairly inventive, but there

781
00:49:30,639 --> 00:49:35,400
probably needs to be another big type
on this roster behind which as well,

782
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:42,159
which they just don't have right now. Two closing thoughts. One, Stanley

783
00:49:42,199 --> 00:49:44,559
Johnson's swayed this for you at all, by the way, I think I

784
00:49:44,639 --> 00:49:47,960
forgot to add him. I forgot. They also have Stanley Johnson, let

785
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:55,679
me check the Nope, needles not
moving, Patrick Williams so and Kobe White

786
00:49:55,679 --> 00:50:00,719
too, sort of a lesser extent
because I don't think he's a rolepiece in

787
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:05,199
what should be the Bulls long term
outlook, presuming they have one. One

788
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:09,559
of the things that made Williams frustrating
last year is he has significant offensive talent.

789
00:50:09,639 --> 00:50:13,559
That's not his bag yet. He's
kind of a gap filler still at

790
00:50:13,559 --> 00:50:16,079
this stage, defender, you know, the little things guy. But what

791
00:50:16,119 --> 00:50:19,960
the Bulls wanted was for him to
be more aggressive. Like there are all

792
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:22,639
these quotes from throughout throughout last year
of you know him saying that you know

793
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,599
the coaching staff, they want me
the first thing I do when I get

794
00:50:25,599 --> 00:50:29,000
a touch is look at the basket, because he has a habit of not

795
00:50:29,079 --> 00:50:31,679
doing that. And if one of
your franchise goals, which it should be

796
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:36,519
for a team in Chicago's position,
whatever they think their position is, their

797
00:50:36,519 --> 00:50:40,159
actual position should be. We want
our best young prospect to develop in the

798
00:50:40,159 --> 00:50:45,119
ways that will be helpful to us
if you stick him on a team that's

799
00:50:45,119 --> 00:50:47,559
just chock full of guys that can
get their own shots and that like to

800
00:50:47,599 --> 00:50:51,760
do that, you're not going to
see a lot of offensive growth. Maybe

801
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,159
he gets great at the other stuff. Maybe he goes Kawhi Leonard and just

802
00:50:54,599 --> 00:50:58,679
you know, becomes a great defensive
player and rebounds and does you know,

803
00:50:59,119 --> 00:51:00,840
lives off other guys setting him up
for a while before he takes that next

804
00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:05,360
step. That'd be a great outcome, but you're not exactly helping that happen.

805
00:51:05,840 --> 00:51:08,360
The second thing is, this is
a smaller point. We need teams

806
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:13,199
to stop valuing players on how they
looked in their last season with the Heat

807
00:51:13,199 --> 00:51:16,320
because Derrick Jones Junior is another guy
now, right, and Josh Richardson was

808
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,880
the last one before this. This
is a trend. The teams need to

809
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:22,480
not value the guy that gets in
the best shape of his life because he's

810
00:51:22,599 --> 00:51:27,559
terrified of his own of his of
his team whatever. Pat Riley as team

811
00:51:27,559 --> 00:51:30,880
president, I guess, and they
treat the operation like a military, you

812
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:36,039
know, regime, like we're done. We need to just whatever a guy

813
00:51:36,119 --> 00:51:37,480
did in his last year with the
Heat, you need a knock twenty five

814
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:40,639
percent off of it for your expectations
going forward. That's all. That's all.

815
00:51:40,639 --> 00:51:44,920
I'll say about the Derrick Jones deal, we also need to stop.

816
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:46,679
Yeah, I'm ready about to say
we can get into that with MIAI we

817
00:51:46,679 --> 00:51:50,719
also need to I saw stuff going
around that people think Kyle Lowry's gonna get

818
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:52,480
in like the best shape of his
life now that he's with Miami. Kyle

819
00:51:52,559 --> 00:51:54,840
Lowry's been in pretty good shape for
a while, and one of the best

820
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:58,719
point guards in the league. So
like, there's not magic sauce for the

821
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:02,119
heat to make an aging superstar better
than an It just bizarre, but please

822
00:52:02,159 --> 00:52:07,599
carry on to Cleveland. The Cavaliers
drafted Evan Mobley third overall, acquired Rickey

823
00:52:07,679 --> 00:52:14,280
Rubio for Torrian Prince a twenty twenty
two second from Washington as a cash gave

824
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:19,199
Jared Allen five years and one hundred
million dollars fully guaranteed, no options,

825
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:22,519
and then we just sort of touched
on it. Got Lauri Marking in on

826
00:52:22,599 --> 00:52:25,000
a four year, sixty seven and
a half million deal million dollars deal,

827
00:52:25,159 --> 00:52:29,960
fifty five point four of which is
guaranteed, only six is guaranteed. In

828
00:52:30,039 --> 00:52:34,239
twenty four twenty five, Larry Nance
Junior went out, as did Denver's twenty

829
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:37,199
twenty three second rounder, and just
recently, I think today maybe signed or

830
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:40,960
on wolf Scho'll call it Wednesday signed
Kevin Pangos to a two year, three

831
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,280
point six million dollars deal. Second
year is non guaranteed. The notable subtractions

832
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:51,760
again, Larry Nance Junior, Torrian
Prince and your grade, Dan is I

833
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:53,960
gave him a D plus and I
might even just go straight D or D

834
00:52:54,039 --> 00:53:00,199
minus. I don't understand what the
Calves are doing at this point. I

835
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:04,119
get taking Evan Mobley if you consider
him the best player available. I'm even

836
00:53:04,199 --> 00:53:07,119
kind of on board with the Ricky
Rubio trade because they need just a steady

837
00:53:07,199 --> 00:53:13,199
captain in that backup point guard slot. But like, what the fuck are

838
00:53:13,199 --> 00:53:16,199
you doing upfront? Like you it's
fine to pay Jared Allen if there were

839
00:53:16,239 --> 00:53:20,719
no sign and trade avenues there,
what was his leverage for five years one

840
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:23,039
hundred million dollars? It was if
Charlotte wasn't given it to him. And

841
00:53:23,079 --> 00:53:25,199
first of all, they can't even
give him that fifth year, So how

842
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:30,000
the hell that happened is beyond me. Kudos to Jared Allen though, by

843
00:53:30,039 --> 00:53:32,199
the way, and now you want
to play him alongside Evan Mobley so that

844
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:37,840
you can you know cap the ceiling
on Evan Mobley both on defense and offense.

845
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:40,280
We just watched Evan Mobley thrive and
as a point center in Summer League.

846
00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:45,000
I don't see how he's going to
make a huge defensive impact at the

847
00:53:45,039 --> 00:53:47,800
four playing a ton of minutes there, I don't. I think he's much

848
00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:51,320
less of an offensive mismatch at the
four, if he is even a mismatch

849
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,199
at all. He dribbled into some
jumpers during Summer League, Like this isn't

850
00:53:54,199 --> 00:54:00,159
someone who's operating at full tilt when
he's working off the dribble. So maybe

851
00:54:00,199 --> 00:54:02,079
they'll find ways to play him at
the five. But hey, you know

852
00:54:02,119 --> 00:54:06,079
that gets a lot more difficult when
you also decide to give Larry markt him

853
00:54:06,119 --> 00:54:09,920
fifty five plus million dollars guaranteed.
WTF there Again, this team needed wings

854
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:15,119
and they decided to get another power
forward, another big man, and I

855
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:20,559
understand it from the timeline of this
team where Larry market And is younger and

856
00:54:20,679 --> 00:54:24,679
Larry Nanns Jr. That is where
the fit just kind of Peter's out for

857
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:28,320
me. Larry Marketing is a better
shooter. He doesn't do anything else.

858
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:30,400
He's not gonna help you on defense. He's not like some great rebounder.

859
00:54:30,679 --> 00:54:34,480
Maybe there's more to him putting the
ball on the floor that we didn't see

860
00:54:34,559 --> 00:54:37,079
in Chicago except when Jim Boylan would
give him those like four seconds left on

861
00:54:37,119 --> 00:54:40,920
the shot clock bombs from the post
that the Chicago is feeding him two years

862
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:45,079
ago. But if you're doing that, so we're gonna take the ball out

863
00:54:45,079 --> 00:54:49,119
of Darius Garland's hands, or Colin
Sexton's hands, or hey, Evan Mobley's

864
00:54:49,119 --> 00:54:52,920
hands, the guy you just drafted
at number three, I am not about

865
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:54,880
it. And you could have kept
Jared Allen if you couldn't, if there

866
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:59,079
wasn't a sign and trade oction out
there. Just what were the terms of

867
00:54:59,079 --> 00:55:00,719
this deal? And then to get
Larry market and move on top of that?

868
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:02,920
No ah, no, no,
no, no, no, not

869
00:55:04,039 --> 00:55:07,639
for me. And I'll accept the
Larry Nance junior trade. Maybe if marketing

870
00:55:07,719 --> 00:55:09,599
was cheaper, and maybe, like
I said, there's another level of marketing

871
00:55:09,599 --> 00:55:15,400
that we haven't seen. This team
was scared of paying Colin Sexton, so

872
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:17,480
he was made available per the Athletic. Maybe that was from Sexton's camp,

873
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:22,840
But you're just totally okay with giving
Jared Allen one hundred million dollars in a

874
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:28,679
league that's gravitating increasingly more frequently towards
centers who are not like Jared Allen,

875
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:31,800
where his ceiling is like Clint Capella. It's not Rudy Gobert, like that

876
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:36,119
ship is sale. Jared Allen is
not going to get to Rudy Gobert's level.

877
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,400
So I am just miffed at what
this team is doing. And if

878
00:55:39,440 --> 00:55:44,320
they end up eventually trading Colin Sexton
or not paying him, but they've paid

879
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:47,599
Jared Allen and also Larry Marketing,
I'm just I'm not about it. And

880
00:55:47,639 --> 00:55:51,679
I'm not saying they shouldn't have taken
Evan Mobley. If you think he's the

881
00:55:51,679 --> 00:55:53,679
best player available, fine, but
maybe put him in a better situation to

882
00:55:53,719 --> 00:55:58,159
succeed. And hey, Kevin Love
is just still he can't penalize them for

883
00:55:58,199 --> 00:56:00,119
not trading him because he's essentially dead
money at this point, But like,

884
00:56:00,199 --> 00:56:04,079
what are we doing here? Seriously? Just what are we doing here?

885
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:07,880
And your wings on this team are
just so now Finn Like, Okay,

886
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,840
maybe Isaaco Coro breaks out. I
think the Jetty osmanship has sailed. Maybe

887
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:14,760
you really like Lamar Stevens, Dan
Windler hasn't shown that he can stay healthy.

888
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:19,760
I'm just I honestly, I hated
their off season in general, and

889
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:22,280
it was I'm still again. I
think the word I'm right now with Cleveland

890
00:56:22,599 --> 00:56:25,559
is mythed and I like the young
talent in a vacuum, to have Jared

891
00:56:25,599 --> 00:56:29,440
Allen, to have Evan Mobile,
to have Isaaco Coro, to have Sexton,

892
00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:34,320
to have Darrenus Garland. But you've
done very little to optimize this hodgepodge

893
00:56:34,519 --> 00:56:37,159
of solid talent that you've now amassed
and the Larry market and just pushed it

894
00:56:37,159 --> 00:56:39,440
over the top three. They might
have been able to pull out like a

895
00:56:39,519 --> 00:56:44,599
C minus for me, but that
was just an abysmal transaction for them in

896
00:56:44,639 --> 00:56:50,679
my opinion. Yeah, I had
him initially as a C and as I'm

897
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:53,199
thinking back over it, I don't
know how was that high. I think

898
00:56:53,239 --> 00:56:57,880
it had a lot to do with
like marking in at least, and you

899
00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:01,239
alluded to this is kind of the
type of guy that a team in Cleveland's

900
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:06,559
position should be interested in. But
ya as, but as like a by

901
00:57:06,679 --> 00:57:12,880
low distressed asset type of thing,
and not someone you pay sixty seven million

902
00:57:12,960 --> 00:57:15,960
potentially. I guess they probably would
be happy if they ended up paying him

903
00:57:15,960 --> 00:57:19,519
the sixty seven million, because it
means he was good enough to guarantee that

904
00:57:19,599 --> 00:57:22,159
for them to pick up the guarantee
in the fourth year of that deal,

905
00:57:22,519 --> 00:57:29,280
but to pay fifty five and change
guaranteed regardless. But like, that's just

906
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,920
that that doesn't square to me.
I think I like the Mobili pick.

907
00:57:34,079 --> 00:57:38,000
I like the upside the ceiling he
has. God knows if he's gonna be

908
00:57:38,079 --> 00:57:42,960
this version of like Bam auto bio
that also gets his own looks off the

909
00:57:43,039 --> 00:57:46,639
dribble and you know, is even
bigger, good, good lottery ticket.

910
00:57:46,639 --> 00:57:49,760
I'm fine with that at three,
But like, do we really give the

911
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:53,079
Cavs credit for taking someone that,
you know, I think most people had

912
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,719
mocked at in the top three anyway, that's a good point. But yeah,

913
00:57:57,719 --> 00:58:01,079
the Jared Allen signing, I just
like, I'm sure we did a

914
00:58:01,119 --> 00:58:05,079
pre agency recap and that was my
least favorite deal of the whole thing.

915
00:58:05,119 --> 00:58:08,119
I do remember for that. I
have nothing to add to that. You've

916
00:58:08,159 --> 00:58:13,679
said it. You can't pay a
center that much money. The fifth year

917
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:16,760
is like just reeks of like a
promise they made when they got him initially

918
00:58:16,880 --> 00:58:20,199
is like we've got this in the
bag, you know, I just I

919
00:58:20,199 --> 00:58:22,480
don't. I don't know. And
then the Ricky Rubio thing. I love

920
00:58:22,519 --> 00:58:27,599
the adults in the room idea,
but Ricky Rubio does not tend to play

921
00:58:27,639 --> 00:58:31,599
his best basketball when he's on bad
teams. Like he he's like the Utah

922
00:58:31,719 --> 00:58:36,559
Jazz, the good Jazz. Ricky
Rubio was something good Sons Rubio was something

923
00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:40,480
he just I don't know. I
like him a lot, but I it

924
00:58:40,639 --> 00:58:44,559
just he doesn't tend to perform that
well when there's not a lot to play

925
00:58:44,599 --> 00:58:47,119
for, and the Cavs don't have
a lot to play for, so going

926
00:58:47,159 --> 00:58:50,880
down to a D plus or D
or whatever. I don't know if you're

927
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:53,679
actually keeping track of these, but
the Kavas off season sucked and I hated

928
00:58:53,719 --> 00:58:58,880
it. Yeah, I'm gonna stick
with my I'm gonna give him a D.

929
00:58:59,239 --> 00:59:01,159
I don't I'm like tempted to give
them an F, but I reserved

930
00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:05,159
that for one team this offseason that
we will knock get to on this podcast

931
00:59:05,159 --> 00:59:08,519
spoiler alert. And the other thing
is the other thing is like why did

932
00:59:08,599 --> 00:59:13,039
they have to give up the pick
in the Ricky Ruby o'deal? I guess

933
00:59:13,039 --> 00:59:15,880
he's a better player than Torri and
Prince, but they were saving the Timberwolves

934
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:19,639
money and giving a player that is, like, you know, man's a

935
00:59:19,679 --> 00:59:23,199
more desirable position position technically, especially
for them were so thin on on the

936
00:59:23,199 --> 00:59:27,280
wings. I just thought that was
and it was Washington's twenty twenty two.

937
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:29,639
Second, we don't know where Washington's
gonna be at the end of next season,

938
00:59:29,719 --> 00:59:31,840
so I thought that was a little
bizarre. Are you ready for me

939
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:37,480
to go through the Detroit Pistons because
it's a mouthful and a half. Oh

940
00:59:37,559 --> 00:59:38,440
good, I thought I was gonna
have to do this one. I'm glad

941
00:59:38,519 --> 00:59:42,960
to go ahead. I'm I'm very
ready. Wait is it me? No?

942
00:59:43,079 --> 00:59:45,559
I think it is me? Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's

943
00:59:45,599 --> 00:59:49,440
definitely you. They drafted kay County
Hammett number one, which I mean,

944
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:51,760
the one thing I'll add here is
like that was the no brainer, Like

945
00:59:51,800 --> 00:59:55,599
all those rumors leading up to that
was just yeah. They obtained they obtained

946
00:59:55,599 --> 00:59:59,960
the trade exception in the Mason Plumbley
trade, but they also needed to get

947
01:00:00,239 --> 01:00:01,920
up number thirty seven to get him
off, which became JT. Thor.

948
01:00:01,960 --> 01:00:06,039
As you mentioned before, Charlotte,
they acquired DeAndre Jordan, who They have

949
01:00:06,079 --> 01:00:08,039
since waved, and he has joined
the Los Angeles Lakers. A twenty twenty

950
01:00:08,079 --> 01:00:12,360
two second round pick Brooklyn, a
twenty twenty four second round pick I think

951
01:00:12,360 --> 01:00:15,559
it will be coming from Memphis or
Washington, a twenty twenty five second round

952
01:00:15,559 --> 01:00:19,079
pick via Golden State, a twenty
twenty seven second round pick via Brooklyn,

953
01:00:19,079 --> 01:00:22,400
and cash for Sekudaboya and Julia Okafour. They signed Kelly Olynno to a three

954
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:25,599
year thirty seven point two million dollars
deal. Twenty eight million is guaranteed,

955
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:30,039
three million is only guaranteed. In
that final season, they resigned Homadu Diallo

956
01:00:30,079 --> 01:00:32,800
too a two year ten point four
million dollar deal. The second year as

957
01:00:32,800 --> 01:00:36,599
a team option, they signed Isaiah
Livers to a three year four point five

958
01:00:36,599 --> 01:00:39,800
million dollar deal team option. On
that final season, Sabin Lee was signed

959
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,800
to a five point one million dollar
deal team option. A three year five

960
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:45,119
point one million dollars deal excuse me, a team option. On that final

961
01:00:45,159 --> 01:00:49,360
season, they signed Trey Lyles to
a two year five point one million dollar

962
01:00:49,440 --> 01:00:52,679
deal team option. On that second
season, they signed resigned Corey Joseph after

963
01:00:52,719 --> 01:00:55,760
waiving him for two point four million, to a two year ten point one

964
01:00:55,800 --> 01:01:00,280
million dollar deal that includes a player
option. On the second season, they

965
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:04,800
signed Rodney McGruder to a resigned Roddy
McGruder to a one year deal at minimum

966
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:07,320
after waving him, signed Frank Jackson
to a two year, six point two

967
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:10,280
million dollar deal team option. On
the final season, Luke Garza and Chris

968
01:01:10,280 --> 01:01:15,639
Smith were each given two way contracts. Just as a quick recap, notable

969
01:01:15,679 --> 01:01:20,440
subtractions include Mason Palmley, Say Kudaboya, Wayne Ellington, Julio okafor, and

970
01:01:20,519 --> 01:01:23,679
Dennis Smith Junior. What did grade
did you give the Detroit Pistons grant?

971
01:01:25,559 --> 01:01:32,639
I gave the Pistons a ce A, just the most average milktoast boring grade

972
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:38,079
I could give a team whose off
season other than Cunningham was basically could be

973
01:01:38,119 --> 01:01:45,000
summarized by saying they gave reasonable short
contracts to a bunch of warm bodies,

974
01:01:45,199 --> 01:01:51,239
like because just this is a team
that is clearly the tank is the tank

975
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,519
has begun rolling, but it's gonna
be a long journey. And this is

976
01:01:53,519 --> 01:02:00,760
the kind of offseason you put together
when you're just you're just to really hunker

977
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:05,000
down and be in it for another
year or two. The only like I

978
01:02:05,079 --> 01:02:07,800
guess. So the theory of this
team for me is if you're gonna make

979
01:02:07,880 --> 01:02:12,559
kid Cunningham and Killing and Hayes work
together, Hayes is shot is suspect they

980
01:02:12,639 --> 01:02:15,320
tried him off the ball a lot
more towards the end of last year.

981
01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:20,280
It's kind of a bummer if the
guy you thought maybe was a franchise level

982
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:24,199
point guard at least combo guard is
already you know, moved to a diminished

983
01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:29,039
role, which I get because Cunningham
is you know, everybody's obvious number one.

984
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:32,440
But to get back to their offseason
helly Link makes some sense as a

985
01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:37,480
spacer for that lineup if Hayes is
not a great space or off the ball

986
01:02:37,559 --> 01:02:39,679
potentially don't know, We've seen so
little of him, we can't be sure.

987
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:44,280
Just thinking from you know, a
theory of the team perspective, what

988
01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:47,559
I guess you would say is their
biggest offseason commitment, A Link like makes

989
01:02:47,559 --> 01:02:52,559
sense, but it's not a It's
not anything for me that gets them out

990
01:02:52,559 --> 01:02:58,440
of just kind of met like se
Grange. I just don't see anything spectacular

991
01:02:58,559 --> 01:03:01,559
or anytime you make a salary dumb, which really was what the Plumbley trade

992
01:03:01,760 --> 01:03:07,280
was. It's just you know,
not that exciting, especially when like who

993
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:10,000
cares man? Just just pay him
or to the Pistons aren't doing anything.

994
01:03:10,119 --> 01:03:14,000
I guess Isaiah Stewart's got to play. But sit looking at my notes.

995
01:03:14,119 --> 01:03:19,960
That was that was a justification,
but see not interesting. I am considering

996
01:03:20,039 --> 01:03:22,199
going with a ded but I have
a Semidus right now. I don't know

997
01:03:22,239 --> 01:03:25,519
how to credit them for taking Kid
Cunningham. That was the no brainer pick

998
01:03:25,599 --> 01:03:30,079
to me, and you got to
a point where you needed to use the

999
01:03:30,159 --> 01:03:32,440
number thirty seven picked the get riv
Mason Plumbley. I did not like that

1000
01:03:32,880 --> 01:03:37,760
you automatically get downgraded a few notches
because you gave Corey Joseph a player option

1001
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:44,000
in the year two and twenty one. It's like ryding Corey Josephs need a

1002
01:03:44,000 --> 01:03:46,320
player option. Seriously. I get
what they're doing with the other contracts.

1003
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:49,880
They loaded it with team options.
I think that sets them up if they

1004
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:52,039
want to make a trade where this
season teams can view those A lot of

1005
01:03:52,079 --> 01:03:57,079
those contracts after December fifteens as expiring
deals, or you can pick them up

1006
01:03:57,119 --> 01:04:00,519
to facilitate trades leading into next season. I get that, thoughts. Here's

1007
01:04:00,519 --> 01:04:03,760
what I don't get I would rather
have, say, Kudin Boya than freaking

1008
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:08,880
Trey Lyles. I don't get that. I know they got four second rounders

1009
01:04:09,119 --> 01:04:12,800
in that DeAndre Jordan deal, but
now you have another basically two years and

1010
01:04:12,880 --> 01:04:15,480
twenty million dollars in dead money since
they waved him. He gave up on

1011
01:04:15,519 --> 01:04:19,079
sake Kudin boy It felt like really
quickly, and yeah, I guess you

1012
01:04:19,079 --> 01:04:21,679
look at it and say, all
right, like two of those second rounders

1013
01:04:21,719 --> 01:04:26,840
could be sort of nice, But
was that enough to give up on stay

1014
01:04:26,920 --> 01:04:30,800
Coup and then just again the dead
money for DeAndre. I know we're talking

1015
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:32,480
about this isn't a team that's gonna
look to be a major player in free

1016
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:35,440
agency, but you can't do anything
with that money now, which is dead

1017
01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:39,440
money. The best thing I can
say about it is apparently they're not going

1018
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:43,320
to stretch it, which has been
like the PISTONSMO for a while. So

1019
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:46,559
I guess you're over it in two
years a reasonable price, I guess,

1020
01:04:46,599 --> 01:04:50,679
But it felt like, I don't
know, just having Trey Lyles giving up

1021
01:04:50,679 --> 01:04:54,320
on stay Coup like that. I
do like Kelly on Lennox for this roster,

1022
01:04:54,360 --> 01:04:56,840
I think gives them that forced basic
element in the front court. I

1023
01:04:56,840 --> 01:04:59,679
don't have a problem with displacing Jeremy
Grant more from the ball. I think

1024
01:04:59,679 --> 01:05:01,559
that's he's best suited. I think
that was also proven where he's best suited

1025
01:05:01,599 --> 01:05:04,880
towards the end of last year.
I like Kay Cunningham's fit a lot more

1026
01:05:05,199 --> 01:05:09,320
with Killian Hayes than others do.
I think Hayes showed more flashes than people

1027
01:05:09,360 --> 01:05:12,119
gave him credit for. So,
I think the Pistons have assembled a nicer

1028
01:05:12,199 --> 01:05:15,800
crop of young talent. But this
off season was absent any sort of bigger

1029
01:05:15,800 --> 01:05:20,199
swings because Kay Cunningham wasn't a swing. I don't there just wasn't a lot

1030
01:05:20,199 --> 01:05:25,400
of you know, beside aside from
Kelly Olynnock some of the smaller deals and

1031
01:05:25,440 --> 01:05:29,960
then drafting Kay Cunningham like this wasn't
an off season I think unequivocally made a

1032
01:05:29,960 --> 01:05:31,840
ton of sense for them, and
I'm probably like, yeah, I'm probably

1033
01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:35,000
being too hard on them for this. You paid Corey Joseph two point four

1034
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:38,679
million dollars to get off your books
and then sign him to a two year

1035
01:05:38,679 --> 01:05:43,000
deal with a player option that is
unforgivable. I just what did he show

1036
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:46,360
you last year? To have that
sort of leverage. I'm probably overreacting that,

1037
01:05:46,440 --> 01:05:49,760
but you don't find that blasphemous that
Corey Joseph has a player option on

1038
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:54,840
the second year of that contract.
I can't. I can't get over it.

1039
01:05:56,719 --> 01:06:00,639
I don't know. If I goes
as far as the givable, it

1040
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:04,400
is hard to explain. I'll leave
it there. So yeah, I think

1041
01:06:04,599 --> 01:06:08,960
I don't know that I'm like and
they might, but they might not even

1042
01:06:09,039 --> 01:06:11,840
tank because what if Kate cunning him
is good? Right away? You have

1043
01:06:11,920 --> 01:06:15,079
Jeremy Grant. Isaiah Stewart was really
good last year. There were some Pistons

1044
01:06:15,119 --> 01:06:17,960
fan or YouTube comments that were claiming
that he's a future All Star. I

1045
01:06:18,000 --> 01:06:23,199
would fall miles short of going that
far, but he was impressive. Saban

1046
01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:26,880
Lee was even kind of frisky for
them. You have Sadiq Bay who clearly

1047
01:06:26,920 --> 01:06:29,400
has a lot more ball skills than
I think he was credited with coming out

1048
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:32,679
of school. If Killy and Hayes
gets better, you're not necessarily guaranteed to

1049
01:06:32,679 --> 01:06:36,000
be the worst team in the East. I just it's it's the little things

1050
01:06:36,039 --> 01:06:39,880
and they start to add up.
The Corey Joseph player option. Did you

1051
01:06:39,960 --> 01:06:44,119
really need to like grease the wheels
of a Mason Plumley salary dump. Was

1052
01:06:44,159 --> 01:06:46,639
that something you needed to do?
I just don't think it was. So

1053
01:06:46,920 --> 01:06:51,559
their offseason viewed in some I think
was a major block outside of Kate Cunningham.

1054
01:06:51,679 --> 01:06:56,920
And again to your point you mentioned
at the top of this what how

1055
01:06:56,920 --> 01:07:00,760
do you give teams credit for kind
of selecting no brainers in their draft spots,

1056
01:07:00,800 --> 01:07:03,000
especially when we're dealing with you on
the top three picks in this year's

1057
01:07:03,039 --> 01:07:08,559
draft. Yeah, no, I
don't know. I think you give them.

1058
01:07:08,559 --> 01:07:10,679
You give them the grades in the
C and D range. I guess

1059
01:07:10,760 --> 01:07:15,920
is what you do and gift mistiness
fans. You're welcome for the C minus

1060
01:07:15,920 --> 01:07:20,320
instead of a day. What do
you hate more, Corey Joseph's player option

1061
01:07:20,440 --> 01:07:25,599
or extend? Yes, I just
want to keep tabs on. I will

1062
01:07:25,639 --> 01:07:30,639
forever always. Indiana Pacers note please
carry on. Sorry there might be some

1063
01:07:30,679 --> 01:07:33,639
delay in our audio because we're talking
over each other, but but we're powering

1064
01:07:33,679 --> 01:07:40,480
through. Uh. Indiana Pacers notable
editions hired Rick Carlisle to be their head

1065
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:44,760
coach. I think his ten uere
will go more smoothly than Nate Bjorkrins did.

1066
01:07:45,079 --> 01:07:50,159
Got the thirty first pick Isaiah Todd
for Georgios Kalate Sakas. Oh God,

1067
01:07:50,199 --> 01:07:55,280
we'll look at these names. I've
drawn Sandro Mamo Kelashvili and a twenty

1068
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:58,599
twenty four second round pick and a
twenty twenty six second round pick. They

1069
01:07:58,960 --> 01:08:02,239
snagged Chris Duarts, one of the
oldest players ever drafted. He's like in

1070
01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:09,320
the top five I think had number
thirteen or at least in recent memory.

1071
01:08:09,800 --> 01:08:14,280
Senior acquired Isaiah Jackson, who was
a number twenty two, and a four

1072
01:08:14,320 --> 01:08:16,960
million dollars trade exception for Aaron Holiday
and Isaiah Todd. So they clipped that

1073
01:08:17,039 --> 01:08:20,960
Todd pick, got Tory Craig for
two years ten million. Like it.

1074
01:08:21,000 --> 01:08:25,760
I'm just gonna tip my hand.
There got a seven point three million dollar

1075
01:08:25,800 --> 01:08:30,239
trade exception for Doug McDermott, who
ended up with the San Antonio Spurs.

1076
01:08:30,920 --> 01:08:34,720
Some smaller signings Terry Taylor, Keifer
Sykes, Dwayne Washington, Junior Jean Jarrow.

1077
01:08:35,159 --> 01:08:38,439
The last two are on two ways. The first two are on one

1078
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:44,520
year deals and notable subtractions Neave Yokren
no longer employed. Doug McDermott, Dan,

1079
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:47,680
what do you think of the Indiana
Pacers offseason. Well, I think

1080
01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:49,880
that they and this is my fault. This is why you shouldn't read my

1081
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:54,960
sheet. They also did resign TJ
McConnell to a four year thirty three point

1082
01:08:55,000 --> 01:08:59,239
six million dollars deal. Twenty nine
point three is guaranteed. I'm looking right

1083
01:08:59,279 --> 01:09:00,680
at my sheet. I should read
my shoet on this one. Only five

1084
01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:04,119
million guaranteed in the final year.
That's great. Yeah, I thought that

1085
01:09:04,239 --> 01:09:08,439
was a little rich for TJ McConnell
and it contributes to my B minus.

1086
01:09:08,520 --> 01:09:11,039
I also think the news that TJ. Warren isn't going to be ready for

1087
01:09:11,079 --> 01:09:15,159
the season shifted their grade a little
bit for me, because now losing Doug

1088
01:09:15,239 --> 01:09:17,880
McDermott feels like it becomes even more
huge. Not that TJ. Warren was

1089
01:09:17,920 --> 01:09:21,680
this motion shooter, but he was
very key two year shooting. And now

1090
01:09:21,720 --> 01:09:25,760
you've lost Doug McDermott, who is
a motion shooter and was really good as

1091
01:09:25,800 --> 01:09:28,880
a cutter last year, one of
the most efficient two point scorers in the

1092
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:30,439
league. I know he doesn't give
you anything on defense, and TJ.

1093
01:09:30,560 --> 01:09:34,600
Warren was defending basically the other team's
best wing for all of twenty nineteen,

1094
01:09:34,600 --> 01:09:39,600
twenty twenty still I think you lose
an offensive punch there, unless you think

1095
01:09:39,640 --> 01:09:45,479
that Chris Duarte is just ready to
pay Tory TJ McConnell that much though,

1096
01:09:45,960 --> 01:09:47,399
when you're all ready, at least
for a little bit, gonna play with

1097
01:09:47,439 --> 01:09:50,880
two bigs, which will crimp your
spacing a little bit. I just find

1098
01:09:50,920 --> 01:09:56,600
Matt a little odd. I guess
the value play for Isaiah Jackson at number

1099
01:09:56,600 --> 01:09:59,960
twenty two is fine, but like, what does that say about Gogo Patad's

1100
01:10:00,119 --> 01:10:01,720
Are we just were over? Are
we over him? Is that what's happening

1101
01:10:01,720 --> 01:10:06,039
here? So I'm their off season
felt a little bit all over the place.

1102
01:10:06,119 --> 01:10:10,520
I still do like the fact that
mc carlisle's there instead of Nate Yorkin.

1103
01:10:10,880 --> 01:10:15,000
I liked the Tory Craig gill overall, someone who's gonna replace a lot

1104
01:10:15,039 --> 01:10:16,720
of what you needed TJ. Warren
to do defensively, and he shot the

1105
01:10:16,760 --> 01:10:20,439
three ball pretty well with Phoenix.
Last year's slot's a reasonable price. I

1106
01:10:20,439 --> 01:10:25,199
settled on a B minus for them. I just thought that was more than

1107
01:10:25,319 --> 01:10:28,920
fair. I went into the off
season thinking that Doug McDermott needed to be

1108
01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:31,600
the priority for them over t J
McConnell, and I didn't leave the off

1109
01:10:31,640 --> 01:10:34,800
season, at least to this point
thinking any differently. I don't know how

1110
01:10:34,840 --> 01:10:39,800
you feel on that front. No, I mean it's hard to know how

1111
01:10:39,840 --> 01:10:43,479
the Warren, what the Pacers knew
about Warren and when they knew it,

1112
01:10:43,520 --> 01:10:45,239
and how that would have affected their
decision on McDermot, because you're right,

1113
01:10:45,279 --> 01:10:48,279
it should have been a factor.
I mean, like, I don't know,

1114
01:10:48,359 --> 01:10:51,800
I went into this season thinking,
man, if they get twenty nineteen

1115
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:55,720
twenty TJ. Warren, who like
some measures, might have been the best

1116
01:10:55,720 --> 01:11:00,399
player on that team, just considering
positional value and two way play, the

1117
01:11:00,439 --> 01:11:01,880
Pacers are really going to be something, and now there's just a hole at

1118
01:11:01,880 --> 01:11:06,920
that position. I'm okay with the
McConnell deal, especially because the you know,

1119
01:11:08,039 --> 01:11:13,079
the last year is partially guaranteed.
It basically basically amounts to somewhere in

1120
01:11:13,119 --> 01:11:15,079
the neighborhood of mL E money,
a little rich. But he was very

1121
01:11:15,079 --> 01:11:17,640
good for them last year. And
you know, Malcolm Brogden and Carousel Hurt

1122
01:11:17,640 --> 01:11:21,119
are going to miss time just because
historically that's what's happened. Particularly with Brogden.

1123
01:11:21,840 --> 01:11:27,439
I gave him a beat and a
lot of that's just Carlisle. I

1124
01:11:27,479 --> 01:11:31,359
think it's you know, it's not
rocket science. Their coaching situation was a

1125
01:11:31,399 --> 01:11:38,640
total debacle last year, and Carlisle
has a title and is regarded by pretty

1126
01:11:38,720 --> 01:11:43,960
much everybody as as someone who just
wins and gets teams to play the right

1127
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:47,520
way, gets teams to maximize their
talent. So you know, if you're

1128
01:11:47,560 --> 01:11:51,319
talking about you know what you're getting, what you're spending your resources on.

1129
01:11:51,760 --> 01:11:57,000
You know, the Pacers already have
a lot of good to very good players.

1130
01:11:57,560 --> 01:11:59,920
Uh, you know, there there
are some positional holes on the wing,

1131
01:12:00,119 --> 01:12:02,159
as you mentioned now, But I
know, I think if you're looking

1132
01:12:02,199 --> 01:12:05,079
for the best way to improve this
team and to sort of figure out some

1133
01:12:05,119 --> 01:12:11,279
of the intricacies that just seem to
always be there with particularly the Miles Turner

1134
01:12:11,279 --> 01:12:15,760
and Demonis Sabonis interplay, Carlisle is
the guy, or at least maybe the

1135
01:12:15,760 --> 01:12:20,159
best guy that was realistically available.
So I gave him be I'm okay with

1136
01:12:20,199 --> 01:12:26,079
everything they did, just I guess
I just am generally okay with losing McDermott

1137
01:12:26,119 --> 01:12:30,079
at the number that they ended up
deciding he wasn't worth and Duarte look like,

1138
01:12:30,560 --> 01:12:33,119
if Duarte is not ready now,
he's not going to get ready like,

1139
01:12:33,199 --> 01:12:36,760
the whole appeal of him is that
this guy like his prime is right

1140
01:12:36,760 --> 01:12:40,600
now because he's gonna pain in his
late twenties, you know, before his

1141
01:12:40,640 --> 01:12:45,279
rookie feels over. So that's exaggeration, but dude is like he's old.

1142
01:12:45,319 --> 01:12:47,920
This is a finished product. This
is your old school four years, the

1143
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:54,640
whole deal. So for a Pacers
team that is always just kind of hitching

1144
01:12:54,720 --> 01:12:58,239
to be a playoff team and seems
to have been satisfied with that for a

1145
01:12:58,319 --> 01:13:00,239
very long time, he makes a
lot of sense. Uh So, yeah,

1146
01:13:00,319 --> 01:13:03,600
just to be uh you know,
not like a ringing endorsement, but

1147
01:13:03,600 --> 01:13:06,600
but I was. I was good
with everything they did and thought Carlisle was,

1148
01:13:08,199 --> 01:13:11,000
uh, you know, the best
thing they did. And I think

1149
01:13:11,239 --> 01:13:15,680
the TEJMC contract looks even more fine
when you when you look at them trading

1150
01:13:15,800 --> 01:13:19,479
Aaron Holiday as well, just because
as you mentioned, Brogdonliver are gonna miss

1151
01:13:19,479 --> 01:13:23,560
time and so you do need that
other ball handler. But he's just more

1152
01:13:23,640 --> 01:13:28,520
valuable on defense and really makes your
spacing a little bit skimpy on offense to

1153
01:13:28,520 --> 01:13:30,279
me. But yeah, the big
German number was high, So I totally

1154
01:13:30,359 --> 01:13:33,000
hear you there. Are you ready
to move on? To the Miami Heat.

1155
01:13:34,600 --> 01:13:39,880
Yes, sir. They acquired Kyle
Lowry on a three year, eighty

1156
01:13:39,880 --> 01:13:44,479
five million dollars deal, fully guaranteed
for Goren Drag and precious a Chewa NFT.

1157
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:46,159
As I asked what a precious to
chewa was, you said, it's

1158
01:13:46,159 --> 01:13:50,439
an NFT. He's an NFT.
Excuse me. They signed Duncan resign Duncan

1159
01:13:50,479 --> 01:13:54,920
robson a five year eighty nine point
nine million dollars deal, an early termination

1160
01:13:54,920 --> 01:13:59,359
option in the final season seventy nine
point nine million dollars or guaranteed overall nine

1161
01:13:59,359 --> 01:14:01,359
point nine million, and is also
guaranteed in that final season. That's a

1162
01:14:01,439 --> 01:14:05,319
very weird there's an early termination option, but it's also only partially guaranteed.

1163
01:14:05,920 --> 01:14:11,359
They signed PJ. Tucker to ETO
not a lot of ETOs anymore, right.

1164
01:14:11,800 --> 01:14:14,640
Signed PJ. Tucker to a two
year, fourteen point four million dollar

1165
01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:17,880
deal player option on that second season. Signed Victor Oladipo to a one year

1166
01:14:17,920 --> 01:14:21,319
deal at the minimum. Signed Max
Strus to a two year, three point

1167
01:14:21,359 --> 01:14:26,600
four million dollar deal non guaranteed in
the second season. Signed Gave Vincent to

1168
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:29,720
a two year at three point five
million dollar deal non guaranteed in that second

1169
01:14:29,720 --> 01:14:31,279
season, signed away In Deadman to
a one year deal at the minimum,

1170
01:14:31,359 --> 01:14:34,800
signed Mark Keith Morris to a one
year deal at the minimum. Signed Omere

1171
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:40,000
You're seven to a two year at
three point two million dollar deal non guaranteed

1172
01:14:40,039 --> 01:14:42,920
in that second season, signed DJ
Stewart to a one year deal at the

1173
01:14:42,960 --> 01:14:46,199
minimum, signed your Donus Haslam to
a wasted roster spot at the minimum,

1174
01:14:46,520 --> 01:14:50,239
signed up Marcus Garrett to a to
a two way contract, and as you

1175
01:14:50,279 --> 01:14:54,359
were nice enough to pencil in for
me because I'm always going to forget the

1176
01:14:54,439 --> 01:14:58,399
extensions because I hate them. They
signed Jimmy Butler to a four year,

1177
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:01,880
one hundred and eighty four million dollar
extension. He will be earning fifty point

1178
01:15:01,960 --> 01:15:05,399
seven million dollars in his age thirty
six season, which is the final year

1179
01:15:05,479 --> 01:15:11,239
of that contract. Notable subtractions to
recap Goran Dragic pressures A Chuwa, who

1180
01:15:11,279 --> 01:15:13,640
is a solid prospect, by the
way, even though we were joking about

1181
01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:17,079
him being an NFT Kendricks Nod who's
with the Lakers, Trevor Riza who's also

1182
01:15:17,119 --> 01:15:21,279
with the Lakers, Demania be Eliza, and you also wrote in Andrea Godala

1183
01:15:21,319 --> 01:15:25,920
as a notable subtraction as well,
even though you know, maybe stretching the

1184
01:15:25,960 --> 01:15:30,159
boundaries of notable there. But what
grade did you give them for the offseason

1185
01:15:30,000 --> 01:15:38,439
hurts? I gave him an A
because I just respect an effort. Let's

1186
01:15:38,479 --> 01:15:43,840
light this money on fire. We're
going for it in this situation, you

1187
01:15:43,880 --> 01:15:48,399
know that you can, like,
look, it's terrifying that Lowry has three

1188
01:15:48,479 --> 01:15:53,800
for eighty five going into his mid
and late thirties. It's terrifying that Butler

1189
01:15:53,880 --> 01:15:59,760
has a four eighty four extension,
Like that's wild to me. Tucker could

1190
01:16:00,159 --> 01:16:04,920
Tuckers Is Tucker thirty six or thirty
five? Whatever it is, that's scary

1191
01:16:05,000 --> 01:16:10,800
to pay anyone decent money there.
I just and Duncan Robinson, that's a

1192
01:16:10,800 --> 01:16:13,880
lot of them, I think.
I think that's just what you pay elite

1193
01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:17,239
shooters maybe who can kind of transform
an offense just because of the attention they

1194
01:16:17,319 --> 01:16:20,920
draw. If you're gonna really splurge
on a shooter, I'm okay with it

1195
01:16:20,960 --> 01:16:25,239
being Duncan Robinson and maybe like three
or four other guys in the whole league

1196
01:16:25,319 --> 01:16:29,319
in terms of like specialists, and
you know, based on what Joe Harris

1197
01:16:29,319 --> 01:16:34,159
got last season offseason, I think
not not crazy all that's terrifying if you

1198
01:16:34,239 --> 01:16:38,439
pick it apart. But like the
heat, they got older, they got

1199
01:16:38,439 --> 01:16:42,199
tougher. They have to be taken
seriously. They would be, and they're

1200
01:16:42,199 --> 01:16:46,479
gonna be a nightmare to play against
assuming decent health. I just I just

1201
01:16:46,680 --> 01:16:51,439
like that there's no question about this
team's ambition, and there's no question about

1202
01:16:51,479 --> 01:16:57,520
their commitment to doing whatever it takes, spending whatever it takes, sacrificing whatever

1203
01:16:57,600 --> 01:17:02,720
future flexibility and like whatever outs they
would have had to pursue that ambition.

1204
01:17:03,279 --> 01:17:08,840
So I don't know, I kind
of just it just it just feels like

1205
01:17:08,880 --> 01:17:12,279
this is kind of what I want
to see from a team that's just pretty

1206
01:17:12,359 --> 01:17:15,359
good, you know, better than
that two years ago obviously made the finals

1207
01:17:15,520 --> 01:17:18,399
and it's like f and man,
let's go like we don't have forever,

1208
01:17:18,960 --> 01:17:21,920
let's just try to win this way. So so it's one. I think

1209
01:17:21,920 --> 01:17:27,039
it's probably my highest grade in the
East. I gave him a B plus

1210
01:17:27,159 --> 01:17:30,479
and I didn't I don't hate anything
they did, and I echo everything that

1211
01:17:30,520 --> 01:17:33,680
you already said. I'm not I
don't care about the I'm fine with the

1212
01:17:33,760 --> 01:17:38,840
Jimmy Butler extension, even with his
limitations. The limitation being that he just

1213
01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:43,640
won't shoot threes basically anymore. He
was borderline top ten player last year,

1214
01:17:43,840 --> 01:17:45,439
and so yeah, you were you
already signed like you were. If you

1215
01:17:45,520 --> 01:17:48,199
want to go for it for the
next two years and then figure it out

1216
01:17:48,279 --> 01:17:51,319
later, I'm all for that.
We've also seen the Heat already digged themselves

1217
01:17:51,359 --> 01:17:56,000
out of It's not the same because
these are stars, but we all thought

1218
01:17:56,039 --> 01:17:59,159
those James Johnson Dion Waiders deals were
going to cripple them, and they ended

1219
01:17:59,199 --> 01:18:00,479
up figuring out a way to get
out of that. So I actually you

1220
01:18:00,479 --> 01:18:03,800
don't care about that. And even
look, the Victor Oladipo flyer is just

1221
01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:06,319
nice. You were attaining his bird
right to the event that he comes back

1222
01:18:06,399 --> 01:18:11,159
and is really good next season.
Some of the things I just question about

1223
01:18:11,159 --> 01:18:14,439
this team isn't they go a little
bit too old because there's just not a

1224
01:18:14,439 --> 01:18:20,359
lot of sustainable role players or let's
say known quantities around the Kyle Lowry,

1225
01:18:20,399 --> 01:18:25,600
bam Ata Baio, Jimmy Butler trio. You have Duncan Robinson, great Tyler,

1226
01:18:25,680 --> 01:18:27,960
hero is still unknown reads at least
younger, and I think he had

1227
01:18:27,960 --> 01:18:30,560
a better year or at least as
the season went on showed more than people

1228
01:18:30,600 --> 01:18:34,199
gave him credit for. That's like
kind of it right now, and so

1229
01:18:34,279 --> 01:18:40,720
this feels like a very transient supporting
cast. And when you put that together

1230
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:45,399
while also not having enough shooting on
the roster teams right now because Bamata Bio

1231
01:18:45,439 --> 01:18:48,800
and Jimmy Butler your top two players, they don't space the floor at this

1232
01:18:48,840 --> 01:18:51,720
point. Kyle Lowry will help you. There is off the people shooting,

1233
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:55,279
even though they're sort of a dip
there from him. I think he'll be

1234
01:18:55,319 --> 01:18:58,399
fine. PJ. Tucker shot under
thirty two percent on corner threes. I

1235
01:18:58,399 --> 01:19:01,119
don't think that you can just guarantee
that he's going to knock down those set

1236
01:19:01,159 --> 01:19:05,560
looks anymore. Just where are the
shooters? It's it's Robinson, Max Strus.

1237
01:19:05,680 --> 01:19:09,640
And then I guess do we consider
Tyler hero a shooter right now?

1238
01:19:09,800 --> 01:19:13,119
Even Victor Oladipo, if he's fully
healthy, it's just never been this lights

1239
01:19:13,119 --> 01:19:15,119
out shooter. And so I take
issue with that, And I also take

1240
01:19:15,199 --> 01:19:18,239
issue with just give you a don'tus
has them a coaching spot and pay him

1241
01:19:18,279 --> 01:19:21,680
more than it gets for the league's
But I'm sorry, it's a waste of

1242
01:19:21,680 --> 01:19:25,479
a roster spot. I know he's
valuable in the locker room. Can't this

1243
01:19:25,600 --> 01:19:28,560
be like, you know, when
it was a Javan Howard situation when he

1244
01:19:28,600 --> 01:19:30,439
did the same thing for the Heat
but he wasn't actually on the roster.

1245
01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:34,439
I don't you know, he's a
Heat legend. I get it. Why

1246
01:19:34,479 --> 01:19:38,800
are we using a roster spot on
your don'tus has them when this could become

1247
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:43,359
a clear need, like to use
an extra roster spot down the line.

1248
01:19:43,399 --> 01:19:46,119
All small things, and I think
in an offseason where it was very hard

1249
01:19:46,600 --> 01:19:53,119
to make substantive improvements because the market
was so limited and teams were competing for

1250
01:19:53,159 --> 01:19:56,479
the same players, they were the
team. They might be the only team

1251
01:19:56,600 --> 01:20:00,600
that you look at this offseason and
say they moved up a tier and they're

1252
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:03,199
still below Brooklyn in the East,
but after that tier, like you can

1253
01:20:03,279 --> 01:20:08,960
at least talk yourself into a pathway
to them beating Philly with whatever happens with

1254
01:20:08,960 --> 01:20:12,399
Ben Simmons, to maybe beating Milwaukee
even though it's still pick Milwaukee in that

1255
01:20:12,439 --> 01:20:16,399
series, to being better or on
the same level as Atlanta. So I

1256
01:20:16,399 --> 01:20:20,199
think that's great and I'm totally all
for the We're going for it these next

1257
01:20:20,239 --> 01:20:25,079
two years and if it doesn't look
great on that final year of Kyle Lowry's

1258
01:20:25,079 --> 01:20:27,279
contract, we'll deal with it.
Then if Jimmy Butler the back end of

1259
01:20:27,319 --> 01:20:30,560
his extension doesn't look great, we'll
deal with it. Then it's the other

1260
01:20:30,920 --> 01:20:32,520
it's the supporting cast. I don't
know if they did enough this season,

1261
01:20:32,600 --> 01:20:36,520
but specifically looking a little bit more
down the line, it just feels like

1262
01:20:36,560 --> 01:20:44,239
there's a lot of stop gaps here
and unfilled holes at the moment. Yeah,

1263
01:20:44,279 --> 01:20:48,399
I think I think that's all fair. I would say that just like

1264
01:20:48,439 --> 01:20:53,359
there aren't a lot of teams that
have more, you know, the Heat,

1265
01:20:53,560 --> 01:20:57,760
depending on how you feel about Hero, Autobio clearly is like he's like

1266
01:20:57,840 --> 01:21:00,640
your bridge to whatever next era you
want to get you assuming this goes sideways

1267
01:21:00,680 --> 01:21:04,640
after a couple of years and you
have to you know, really the pitot,

1268
01:21:05,760 --> 01:21:09,159
But like, learn a lot of
teams that have, you know,

1269
01:21:09,399 --> 01:21:14,319
more than you know an Autobio Hero
kind of way out. I guess that

1270
01:21:14,359 --> 01:21:15,640
are this good certainly, Like if
you're going to be this good, you're

1271
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:19,000
just kind of going to be old
generally, And I just reiterate what you

1272
01:21:19,039 --> 01:21:21,439
said, like the Heat kind of
know how to do this. They kind

1273
01:21:21,439 --> 01:21:25,760
of know how to they used to
do it with first rounders. They just

1274
01:21:25,840 --> 01:21:29,359
not didn't care, Like they never
had a first round pick for years and

1275
01:21:29,439 --> 01:21:33,560
years and years earlier this this past
this past decade, I guess mostly and

1276
01:21:33,600 --> 01:21:36,760
they just kind of figure it out
and and like, I don't know,

1277
01:21:36,840 --> 01:21:40,840
that's not a strategy I would recommend
to a lot of teams. But the

1278
01:21:40,880 --> 01:21:43,479
Heat just kind of know how.
Part of it's the market. I guess

1279
01:21:43,479 --> 01:21:45,640
they know that they're an attractive market
and that gives them some advantages to sort

1280
01:21:45,640 --> 01:21:49,640
of figure things out and get the
guys that they want. But they're better

1281
01:21:49,680 --> 01:21:54,960
at getting out of tight spots than
than most. So yeah, I don't

1282
01:21:55,000 --> 01:21:57,399
know. I just kind of loved
it, and I totally agree they did

1283
01:21:57,439 --> 01:22:00,399
move up a notch and this I
don't know if there's anyone else the East

1284
01:22:00,399 --> 01:22:05,239
that's so obviously true for let's see
Milwaukee Bucks. You're NBA chant Milwaukee Bucks.

1285
01:22:08,119 --> 01:22:11,880
The big move, I guess,
the big acquisition Grayson Allen and cash

1286
01:22:11,920 --> 01:22:15,439
for Sam Merrill kind of like it. Signed Bobby Portis to a two year,

1287
01:22:15,520 --> 01:22:17,319
eight point nine million dollars deal,
got a player option on the second.

1288
01:22:17,920 --> 01:22:21,960
George Hill to your eight million dollar
deal. Rodney Hood signed for a

1289
01:22:21,960 --> 01:22:27,840
one year deal at the minimum same
for Semioglu signed thanasis Anara Kumpo. Do

1290
01:22:27,880 --> 01:22:30,840
you think he's really? I wonder
how he possibly got a deal two years,

1291
01:22:30,880 --> 01:22:36,239
three point six million player option nsist
in the second year. I'm gonna

1292
01:22:36,279 --> 01:22:43,079
tell you what. That's a more
ridiculous player option named Corey Joseph signed to

1293
01:22:43,199 --> 01:22:45,840
Sandro. But this is I've had
to read this name twice. What happened

1294
01:22:45,840 --> 01:22:51,319
to this guy? Sandro Mamo calash
really to a two way and acquired Georgios

1295
01:22:51,399 --> 01:22:56,560
Kaltzakis. And that name I just
read who signed to a two way at

1296
01:22:56,560 --> 01:23:00,520
twenty twenty four second twenty twenty six
second from the Pacers four number thirty one,

1297
01:23:00,680 --> 01:23:03,239
which was Isaiah Todd. They lost
PJ. Tucker. I'm sure we'll

1298
01:23:03,239 --> 01:23:08,760
discuss that. Jeff Te remains unsigned. Brent Forbes went back to San Antonio,

1299
01:23:08,840 --> 01:23:15,199
and Sam Merril was outgoing in the
Grayson Allen acquisition. What are your

1300
01:23:15,199 --> 01:23:19,039
thoughts Dan on the NBA champion Milwaukee
Bucks off season? I hate them a

1301
01:23:19,159 --> 01:23:23,279
CE plus. I won't fight anyone
who wants to give them a B minus

1302
01:23:23,399 --> 01:23:26,720
or something. I think I really
like the Grayson Allen move for them.

1303
01:23:27,039 --> 01:23:29,640
He's going to provide some more shooting, can do a little bit with the

1304
01:23:29,680 --> 01:23:31,880
ball in his hands, holds up
better defensively. You don't want him to

1305
01:23:31,880 --> 01:23:34,640
defend up than people think, and
you don't want him to defend up like

1306
01:23:34,720 --> 01:23:39,680
Donte Devincenzo can, But he's sort
of insurance against one, what does Donte

1307
01:23:39,720 --> 01:23:42,239
Devincenzo look like? Or when does
he come back from his injury? And

1308
01:23:42,359 --> 01:23:44,960
two both of them are free agents
at the same time. I would guess

1309
01:23:45,000 --> 01:23:46,640
Grayson Allen is substantially cheaper. And
so if you don't want to pay Donte

1310
01:23:46,680 --> 01:23:50,920
Devincenzo, or if you'd like to
move Donte Devincenzo in a deal in the

1311
01:23:50,960 --> 01:23:55,119
middle of the season to make an
upgrade, maybe Grayson Allen gives you a

1312
01:23:55,119 --> 01:23:58,640
little bit of the flexibility to do
that. Bobby portersty was obviously a home

1313
01:23:58,720 --> 01:24:00,319
run, and I like the other
moves they made. Maybe George h will

1314
01:24:00,359 --> 01:24:04,439
play like a good basketball player.
Again, I don't understand why he had

1315
01:24:04,439 --> 01:24:09,760
the leverage to get two years and
that eight million dollar contract, which was

1316
01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:14,680
fully guaranteed. So I wasn't in
love with that, and I really only

1317
01:24:14,680 --> 01:24:16,439
gave him a C plus for two
reasons. Why does Tanasis have a player

1318
01:24:16,479 --> 01:24:19,880
option? I get it, I
actually were just I would say that this

1319
01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:23,840
makes more sense than the cords the
player option because you have a two time

1320
01:24:23,920 --> 01:24:27,960
MVP on your roster who's related to
Tanasis. Yeah, that being said,

1321
01:24:28,800 --> 01:24:30,960
you should have resigned to PJ.
Tucker. I just I won't stand for

1322
01:24:31,000 --> 01:24:34,239
the excuses of the cost of what
they were trying to do for their tax

1323
01:24:34,279 --> 01:24:39,600
bill. Congratulations for getting Shemmy,
Ojola and Rodney Hood. Maybe they help

1324
01:24:39,640 --> 01:24:43,560
you replace PJ. Tucker. And
the minutes with PJ. Tucker weren't exactly

1325
01:24:44,119 --> 01:24:46,560
They weren't slaughtering guys, but like
he was the body you threw with Kevin

1326
01:24:46,640 --> 01:24:49,359
Durant a lot of the time,
and he did, Okay, you don't

1327
01:24:49,399 --> 01:24:54,039
just have you know, Shemy Ojolay
and Rodney Hood just can't do that.

1328
01:24:54,479 --> 01:24:57,560
And the other thing is is it's
just extra depth. Where you were at

1329
01:24:57,560 --> 01:25:00,880
a point where we criticized Blood for
not playing his top play enough. They

1330
01:25:00,880 --> 01:25:04,319
almost needed to lean on them too
hard because there wasn't enough bodies around them,

1331
01:25:04,359 --> 01:25:09,439
and they won the championship anyway,
and their deserve champions hat tip Kevin

1332
01:25:09,479 --> 01:25:13,640
Durant's big toe. I just don't
understand. I'm not a fan. I'm

1333
01:25:13,640 --> 01:25:15,840
never gonna cape for the billionaire team
governors, and I know I think they

1334
01:25:15,880 --> 01:25:20,279
rebounded nicely, which is why I'm
not hitting them harder. But I still

1335
01:25:20,319 --> 01:25:25,479
think based off how their best lineups
are going to fair or what's going to

1336
01:25:25,520 --> 01:25:30,319
become most important for them in the
playoffs, I would rather have PJA Tucker

1337
01:25:30,439 --> 01:25:33,239
on his two year, fourteen point
five million dollars deal than this Bobby Portis

1338
01:25:33,279 --> 01:25:36,840
two year eight point nine million dollars
deal, and Bobby Portis played fantastic basketball

1339
01:25:38,119 --> 01:25:42,199
for Milwaukee. I even recognized that
PJ Tucker wasn't even providing enough defense at

1340
01:25:42,199 --> 01:25:45,479
points to sort of offset what he
wasn't giving you offensively. I just think

1341
01:25:45,640 --> 01:25:49,359
based off how they're going to need
to play when it matters most against certain

1342
01:25:49,359 --> 01:25:56,039
tougher matchups against healthier teams, PJA
Tucker was really important to them and to

1343
01:25:56,119 --> 01:25:59,920
not keep him, and it seems
to that, according to that Instagram post

1344
01:26:00,079 --> 01:26:02,039
that he threw up there, he
wanted to go back to Milwaukee. If

1345
01:26:02,039 --> 01:26:04,680
this was a dollar and sense thing, I don't respect it. I'm just

1346
01:26:04,760 --> 01:26:08,439
I'm never you didn't buy yourself goodwill
because you want a title. As an

1347
01:26:08,479 --> 01:26:11,800
organization, you have Yannis, you
have Drew, you have Chris Middleton.

1348
01:26:12,119 --> 01:26:15,119
Your window to win is is now, and you look, you also could

1349
01:26:15,159 --> 01:26:17,159
have kept everybody, So you get
a C plus for that. I think

1350
01:26:17,159 --> 01:26:20,720
you probably did a little bit more
than people were expecting, especially if you

1351
01:26:20,720 --> 01:26:24,000
would have said, oh, they
didn't bring back PJ. Tucker, So

1352
01:26:24,000 --> 01:26:26,359
that's why you get the C plus. Again, that's an above average grade.

1353
01:26:26,359 --> 01:26:29,359
I want to make that clear.
I just they didn't bowl me over

1354
01:26:29,760 --> 01:26:34,239
this offseason. Yeah, I was
lower on this than you were, which

1355
01:26:34,239 --> 01:26:38,600
is surprising to me when I started
great because I remember the Tucker thing bothered

1356
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:42,439
you more than me in the moment. But just I went C minus just

1357
01:26:42,479 --> 01:26:46,840
thinking about it. It's so it's
not like it was Rodney Hood and Semi

1358
01:26:46,880 --> 01:26:51,239
Ojele or PJ. Tucker, like
you said, if it was if you

1359
01:26:51,239 --> 01:26:56,239
were willing to spend, which god
damn. If you just want a title

1360
01:26:56,279 --> 01:26:59,359
and you're not willing to spend now, like when are you? You could

1361
01:26:59,359 --> 01:27:02,159
have just had Tuck back at a
reasonable deal. Maybe he's washed and maybe

1362
01:27:02,239 --> 01:27:05,840
whatever, But like it's not a
significant amount of money. Or it shouldn't

1363
01:27:05,840 --> 01:27:11,439
be for for a championship team and
the so so just on the principle of

1364
01:27:11,479 --> 01:27:14,920
that, because I do think it
was a dollars thing. Maybe I'm wrong,

1365
01:27:14,960 --> 01:27:18,560
but the on the principle of if
you are there and your windows open

1366
01:27:19,199 --> 01:27:25,720
and the outlay is not crippling,
just bring the guy back and he wants

1367
01:27:25,760 --> 01:27:28,680
to come back, just just bring
him back. And then if he's not

1368
01:27:28,840 --> 01:27:31,800
better a better option than Ojal or
whatever, if things go that direction,

1369
01:27:32,159 --> 01:27:35,119
then you don't. Then you play
out and you're you're stuck. Yeah,

1370
01:27:35,239 --> 01:27:39,640
you know, we missed on that. Whatever, at least we you know,

1371
01:27:40,159 --> 01:27:43,039
did the right thing, I guess
in our position. The other thing,

1372
01:27:43,640 --> 01:27:46,000
and I'm just thinking of now,
is I don't know, if you're

1373
01:27:46,079 --> 01:27:51,000
if you're a if you're a title
winner, shouldn't your minimums go a little

1374
01:27:51,039 --> 01:27:56,760
farther? I mean, Ojuly and
Hood I guess are Okay, Milwaukee's never

1375
01:27:56,760 --> 01:28:00,199
going to be the kind of draw
that like Brooklyn is with their minimums or

1376
01:28:00,199 --> 01:28:02,199
even you know, a Miami or
the LA teams for Golden State, for

1377
01:28:02,279 --> 01:28:05,079
example, I think did better with
their minimums just to kind of run down

1378
01:28:05,159 --> 01:28:12,119
the marquee destination list, like it
just would have been a little better.

1379
01:28:12,880 --> 01:28:15,319
But so, yeah, this isn't
a C minus. If Tucker's back,

1380
01:28:15,399 --> 01:28:18,399
it's probably a C plus, maybe
a B minus because the Allen acquisition,

1381
01:28:18,399 --> 01:28:23,560
I like, Fortis is fine,
Hill is a good flyer or not gonna,

1382
01:28:23,600 --> 01:28:27,239
you know whatever, moderate money.
But yeah, I just didn't.

1383
01:28:27,279 --> 01:28:30,560
I just didn't like the sense I
got from from not being willing to spend

1384
01:28:30,560 --> 01:28:34,039
money having just won a title.
So yeah, C minus for me.

1385
01:28:35,359 --> 01:28:39,600
I thought their minimums went okay.
I guess really I like Rodney Hood.

1386
01:28:39,600 --> 01:28:41,600
To get him at the minimum I
thought was good. But that's a fair

1387
01:28:41,640 --> 01:28:44,720
point. But I really think you
answered your own sort of quam there in

1388
01:28:44,800 --> 01:28:47,600
previous sections of this podcast, where
free agency money is only going to go

1389
01:28:47,640 --> 01:28:50,920
so far in certain places, that
Milwaukee is one of those locales, and

1390
01:28:50,960 --> 01:28:55,840
I think that makes it even more
important to keep players who are important to

1391
01:28:55,920 --> 01:29:00,600
what you do that want to come
back. Yeah, right, great point.

1392
01:29:00,359 --> 01:29:05,560
The Knicks acquired Charlotte's twenty twenty two
first round pick, protected top eighteen

1393
01:29:05,560 --> 01:29:09,159
in two thousand and twenty two,
top sixteen, and twenty three, and

1394
01:29:09,199 --> 01:29:12,039
lottery protected in two thousand and twenty
four and twenty five for Kai Jones,

1395
01:29:12,039 --> 01:29:15,720
who was the nineteenth pick. They
acquired Quentin Grimes and Detroit's two thousand and

1396
01:29:15,720 --> 01:29:18,439
twenty four second round pick from the
Clippers for Keyon Johnson the number twenty one

1397
01:29:18,479 --> 01:29:24,399
pick. They acquired Rocas Joku Benis, who I have not I know very

1398
01:29:24,399 --> 01:29:29,039
little about, and Deuce McBride that
was the number thirty four, number thirty

1399
01:29:29,039 --> 01:29:32,079
six picks for Jeremiah Robinson Earl the
number thirty two picks, so they basically

1400
01:29:32,520 --> 01:29:36,720
flipped number thirty two from number thirty
four number thirty six. They acquired via

1401
01:29:36,800 --> 01:29:41,600
trade, sign and trade Evan Fourier
on a four year seventy three million dollars

1402
01:29:41,640 --> 01:29:45,079
deal nineteen million dollars salary. In
that fourth and final year as a team

1403
01:29:45,079 --> 01:29:48,800
option from the Celtics, they signed
Kemba Walker to a two year seventeen point

1404
01:29:48,880 --> 01:29:51,920
nine million dollars deal. They signed
Alec Burks to a three year, thirty

1405
01:29:51,920 --> 01:29:56,560
million dollars deal the ten point five
million dollars salary In that final season as

1406
01:29:56,600 --> 01:29:59,960
a team option, they signed Nerland's
Noel to a three year twenty seven points

1407
01:30:00,039 --> 01:30:02,960
seven million dollar deal. His nine
point seven million dollars salary in the final

1408
01:30:03,000 --> 01:30:05,920
season is a team option. They
signed Derek Rose to a three year,

1409
01:30:05,960 --> 01:30:11,079
forty three point six million dollar deal. His fifteen point six million dollars salary

1410
01:30:11,079 --> 01:30:14,479
in twenty twenty three two twenty four
is a team option. They signed Todz

1411
01:30:14,560 --> 01:30:16,560
Gibson to a two year, ten
point one million dollar deal. The final

1412
01:30:16,600 --> 01:30:21,479
season is non guaranteed. They extended
Julius Randall at four years and one seventeen

1413
01:30:21,520 --> 01:30:26,760
point one million dollars. The final
season on that twenty twenty five twenty twenty

1414
01:30:26,800 --> 01:30:30,840
six is a player option. There's
also ten point seven million dollars kicked in

1415
01:30:30,880 --> 01:30:33,119
to that extension as likely incentives,
so there's a chance that this ends up

1416
01:30:33,159 --> 01:30:38,239
being a sub one ten million dollars
extension, depending on how many games Randall

1417
01:30:38,279 --> 01:30:41,720
plays in and whether he makes another
All Star Game. They signed Dwayne Bacon

1418
01:30:41,840 --> 01:30:44,439
for some reason, to a one
year deal at the minimum. They signed

1419
01:30:44,439 --> 01:30:46,039
at me yor Simms to a non
guaranteed one year deal at the minimum.

1420
01:30:46,199 --> 01:30:48,960
They signed to M Jay Walker to
a one year, non guaranteed deal at

1421
01:30:48,960 --> 01:30:53,520
the minimum, and they signed a
Jericho Sims to a two way contract.

1422
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:58,479
Notable subtractions include Norvall Pel who was
waived, Elfred Peyton with the Sons,

1423
01:30:58,720 --> 01:31:02,000
Frank Nilkeena remains on signed, and
Reggie Bullock, who landed with the Dallas

1424
01:31:02,000 --> 01:31:05,960
Mavericks. Grant, what is your
grade for the Nix offseason? It's a

1425
01:31:06,000 --> 01:31:11,439
B plus. Uh, it's a
strong one and it borders on a minus

1426
01:31:11,479 --> 01:31:15,760
maybe just because, yeah, it's
hard to get in the A range unless

1427
01:31:15,760 --> 01:31:17,840
you're making a major star acquisition.
The Knicks didn't do that. What they

1428
01:31:17,840 --> 01:31:21,720
did do was the roster today is
better than it was at the end of

1429
01:31:21,720 --> 01:31:27,159
the season, and they had a
very successful season by any standard, not

1430
01:31:27,199 --> 01:31:31,319
just you know, recent Knicks standards. And they protected themselves on the back

1431
01:31:31,399 --> 01:31:34,800
ends of almost all these deals.
So you get into a situation where like

1432
01:31:34,880 --> 01:31:40,399
the worst case on Fournier or you
know, Rows or just go down the

1433
01:31:40,439 --> 01:31:43,600
list is they've got all these team
options, They've got all these partial and

1434
01:31:43,640 --> 01:31:46,680
non guarantees. Is you know,
if it's an overpay or if if you've

1435
01:31:46,680 --> 01:31:51,199
just botched one or all of these
they're expiring in a year, or they're

1436
01:31:51,239 --> 01:31:55,399
you know, you've got all these
protections, and you know, the flip

1437
01:31:55,399 --> 01:31:59,840
side is the best cases these trying
out to be market value deals that are

1438
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:02,319
slippable with your picks, all of
which the Knicks owned. They have all

1439
01:32:02,359 --> 01:32:05,920
their own picks going forward first rounders
anyway, and they have a bunch of

1440
01:32:05,960 --> 01:32:10,159
young talent that like, if you
want to make that superstar trade, if

1441
01:32:10,159 --> 01:32:14,319
one shakes loose and you've now proven
yourself to be a functional enough franchise to

1442
01:32:14,520 --> 01:32:18,800
like to be a destination, you
can go that route too. So the

1443
01:32:18,880 --> 01:32:23,399
Knicks have really done well the last
couple of years with kind of protecting themselves

1444
01:32:23,479 --> 01:32:28,880
with team options and just other team
friendly ways to manage the length of their

1445
01:32:28,960 --> 01:32:33,079
contracts and the financial commitments of those
contracts. So the highlights really are I

1446
01:32:33,079 --> 01:32:38,439
think the Randall extensions great, especially
if those incentives don't hit. I think

1447
01:32:38,479 --> 01:32:41,640
the Walker signing, I've already said, like what if he's washed, But

1448
01:32:41,680 --> 01:32:45,239
then like if he's not, you're
getting a guy for nine million dollars a

1449
01:32:45,319 --> 01:32:47,279
year that can be a pick and
roll engine of your offense. Like that's

1450
01:32:48,000 --> 01:32:53,359
and the homecoming angle is great for
that for him. I think when we

1451
01:32:53,399 --> 01:32:58,399
talked last we might have done the
like, well why not Reggie Bullock instead

1452
01:32:58,399 --> 01:33:00,199
of Burks? But now I've come
around to Berks is much more of a

1453
01:33:00,199 --> 01:33:05,159
shock creator, and like as much
as Walker might help, that's not a

1454
01:33:05,199 --> 01:33:09,479
given, and as much creation as
Randall can do and Fournier, I guess

1455
01:33:09,520 --> 01:33:14,439
I still just value the Shock creation
more Bullock being the better shooter, better

1456
01:33:14,479 --> 01:33:17,680
defender. So I'm okay with them
sort of choosing if it was a choice,

1457
01:33:18,479 --> 01:33:23,039
him to keep over Bullock. So
yeah, it's a B plus.

1458
01:33:23,199 --> 01:33:26,159
It's a strong one. I think
the Knicks had one of the best off

1459
01:33:26,199 --> 01:33:30,560
seasons in the league. Yeah,
and just to correct myself, because I

1460
01:33:30,560 --> 01:33:33,720
had the pronunciation pulled up and I
was scrambling to find it amongst the many

1461
01:33:33,760 --> 01:33:36,840
tabs that I had and couldn't in
the moment. That's yoku baitis who the

1462
01:33:36,880 --> 01:33:41,479
Knicks got hat as the number thirty
six pick a part of that trade where

1463
01:33:41,479 --> 01:33:44,960
they sent number thirty two to Okay
see who, by the way, must

1464
01:33:44,960 --> 01:33:47,479
have really wanted Jeremiah Robinson Earl.
I also get a Knicks of B plus.

1465
01:33:47,479 --> 01:33:53,279
Overall, though there were loombs,
I think a lot of these deals,

1466
01:33:53,880 --> 01:33:56,600
the outlook on them change when you
find out that the third year is

1467
01:33:56,640 --> 01:33:59,760
a team option. People were still
sort of up in arms about the Nerylands

1468
01:33:59,760 --> 01:34:02,680
no contract. I just don't see
it. He was the best backup center

1469
01:34:02,680 --> 01:34:06,079
in the league last year for much
of the season, and you know there

1470
01:34:06,159 --> 01:34:10,520
was obviously he you know, there
was the Mitchell Robinson injury, so he

1471
01:34:10,600 --> 01:34:14,199
played a huge role for them.
Overall, You're not investing big money in

1472
01:34:14,239 --> 01:34:17,840
the center position still because Mitchell Robinson
is super cheap this season. So there's

1473
01:34:17,880 --> 01:34:21,319
one year if you're looking at that
third year non guarante Underlands Nowell's contract plus

1474
01:34:21,319 --> 01:34:25,399
Mitchell Robinson getting a raised next season, where they're going to be paying those

1475
01:34:25,439 --> 01:34:29,800
two real money at the same time. That's fine to me. I hate

1476
01:34:29,840 --> 01:34:32,079
the Derek Rose deal. I just
yes, it's cool that the final season

1477
01:34:32,119 --> 01:34:36,520
is non guaranteed. What about I
get how important he was your offense last

1478
01:34:36,520 --> 01:34:41,720
season, improved it by double digit
points permane hundred possessions. The dude is

1479
01:34:41,760 --> 01:34:45,159
just still always banged up. I
do think that sort of speaks to them

1480
01:34:45,199 --> 01:34:48,640
not necessarily knowing about the Kema Walker
buy out in advance like many people expected,

1481
01:34:48,960 --> 01:34:53,239
although they might have. It would
have been nice though, to see

1482
01:34:53,239 --> 01:34:57,920
them let Rose walk to me so
that Emmanuel quickly could just get more guaranteed

1483
01:34:57,920 --> 01:35:01,000
development and maybe he still gets it. Be because Derek Rose and Kema Walker

1484
01:35:01,000 --> 01:35:04,399
are both gonna miss games. The
Kema Walker contract I think, really,

1485
01:35:04,800 --> 01:35:08,000
I don't want to say made their
off season, but that's the move that

1486
01:35:08,039 --> 01:35:12,359
actually made them better because they basically
reinvested in this roster plus Evan Fournier and

1487
01:35:12,439 --> 01:35:15,600
then lucked into what could still be
an all star point guard, and that's

1488
01:35:15,640 --> 01:35:17,880
absolutely huge for them. What I
do not my qualms are this, and

1489
01:35:17,960 --> 01:35:21,479
I think the jet One of the
general sentiments have been that they've somehow made

1490
01:35:21,520 --> 01:35:26,119
it easier for themselves to make that
star trade. They have not. They've

1491
01:35:26,520 --> 01:35:30,600
just decided that they're going to get
a star via trade rather than free agency,

1492
01:35:30,840 --> 01:35:32,640
which is fine, but it doesn't
make it easier to trade for a

1493
01:35:32,680 --> 01:35:36,159
star because you can take stars into
cap space. It's not just because you

1494
01:35:36,279 --> 01:35:41,680
have these digestible contracts, some of
which, by the way, I'm talking

1495
01:35:41,720 --> 01:35:45,960
about Derek Rosnefornia other teams aren't necessarily
going to want to digest. I would

1496
01:35:45,960 --> 01:35:47,159
have also liked to have seen them. I don't have a problem with the

1497
01:35:47,199 --> 01:35:51,520
business they did in the draft overall, and I based off what Deuce McBride

1498
01:35:51,560 --> 01:35:56,239
did in Summer League. I'm already
in love with him. I just would

1499
01:35:56,279 --> 01:35:59,880
have liked to have seen them take
a bigger swing somewhere. It felt like

1500
01:36:00,000 --> 01:36:02,319
they made one transaction too many.
The organization was never going to do this.

1501
01:36:02,479 --> 01:36:04,199
I know this for a fact,
but I would have liked you've seen

1502
01:36:04,199 --> 01:36:09,600
the Knicks take the flyer on keyon
Johnson, just something to be more future

1503
01:36:09,680 --> 01:36:13,119
oriented there. To me. The
other question, well, there's a couple

1504
01:36:13,199 --> 01:36:16,760
here. You have now decided that
Julius Randall is more second team All NBA

1505
01:36:16,960 --> 01:36:20,000
than the player in twenty nineteen who
couldn't even get three yearanty years on this

1506
01:36:20,079 --> 01:36:24,720
contract. That's fine, It's still
a gamble. There's a chance this extension

1507
01:36:24,800 --> 01:36:27,319
ends up looking like a bargain,
and if push comes to shove, I'm

1508
01:36:27,319 --> 01:36:29,960
actually fine with it. Because his
year was out of this world. You

1509
01:36:30,039 --> 01:36:33,560
are still taking a risk there.
You've also I get what they were doing

1510
01:36:33,600 --> 01:36:39,039
by investing heavily in shot creation,
given what happened in that Atlanta series.

1511
01:36:39,800 --> 01:36:44,680
Your best defensive wing right now is
RJ. Barrett, unless you want to

1512
01:36:44,720 --> 01:36:47,479
throw Duce McBride into that. I
don't know how I feel about that.

1513
01:36:47,800 --> 01:36:50,960
Who's going to guard the best wing
for the Knicks on a night to night

1514
01:36:51,000 --> 01:36:55,520
basis right now? I think it's
RJ. Barrett. I don't know that

1515
01:36:55,640 --> 01:36:58,880
Quentin Grimes isn't super big. Maybe
you loop him into there. It shouldn't

1516
01:36:58,920 --> 01:37:02,520
be Evan Fournier, who knows how
they feel about Kevin Knox. There are

1517
01:37:03,000 --> 01:37:05,640
there were a lot more hiccups to
this off season, and I think people

1518
01:37:05,680 --> 01:37:10,279
credited and if anyone has a problem
with this skepticism, that not happening out

1519
01:37:10,359 --> 01:37:13,159
one. I wanted you to know
that I am more plugged in too like

1520
01:37:13,239 --> 01:37:15,960
the Knicks than are gonna be a
lot of other teams in the league.

1521
01:37:15,000 --> 01:37:18,039
And I think their off season was
solid. But if you have a problem

1522
01:37:18,079 --> 01:37:21,680
with the skepticism of this team is
still entering approver year, I want you

1523
01:37:23,159 --> 01:37:26,800
to show me the receipt from last
summer on which that you wrote RJ.

1524
01:37:26,960 --> 01:37:30,000
Barrett was going to turn into a
three and D wing, and that Julius

1525
01:37:30,079 --> 01:37:32,159
Rannod was going to make second team
All NBA, that Alec Burks was going

1526
01:37:32,239 --> 01:37:35,840
to be one of the most efficient
crunch time players in all of basketball.

1527
01:37:36,159 --> 01:37:41,520
I want to see those receipts because
the Knicks don't get the blind faith.

1528
01:37:41,640 --> 01:37:44,239
They haven't earned it. I think
this was a great offseason for them.

1529
01:37:44,600 --> 01:37:47,840
Again, the Kema Walker move is
huge because I think it also informs where

1530
01:37:47,920 --> 01:37:51,359
they are as a franchise that players
actually want to come here. Kema Walker

1531
01:37:51,399 --> 01:37:55,079
can talk about how he wanted to
team up in New York and twenty nineteen

1532
01:37:55,119 --> 01:37:59,279
with Kevin Durant and no, he
didn't like the Knicks. It just Kevin

1533
01:37:59,359 --> 01:38:02,600
Durant made fun of Knicks back then. I don't think they were realistic destination

1534
01:38:02,640 --> 01:38:06,079
for ken Walker then either. So
the fact that they were in the mix

1535
01:38:06,199 --> 01:38:09,880
for Kemba now, even what he's
sort of at a lower point than he

1536
01:38:10,039 --> 01:38:13,359
was there, that matters. And
I think that they've shown that they've established

1537
01:38:13,359 --> 01:38:17,479
a culture. You've kind of though
flexed on this defensive system that Tom Thibotau

1538
01:38:17,560 --> 01:38:21,600
was installed, because you're set down
low with Neroland's Noel and Mitchell Robinson if

1539
01:38:21,600 --> 01:38:26,199
he's healthy, but like, you
don't have a ton of defensive talent on

1540
01:38:26,319 --> 01:38:28,760
the wings right now, you have. I think r J. Barrett is

1541
01:38:28,760 --> 01:38:31,079
gonna end up being a really good
defender, so I might actually be higher

1542
01:38:31,159 --> 01:38:33,760
on him based off what he did
as a team defender last year. I

1543
01:38:33,800 --> 01:38:38,920
think I'm probably higher on him if
he has to tackle even tougher assignments than

1544
01:38:39,039 --> 01:38:43,199
others would be. Like Reggie Bullock
was covering your toughest wing assignments on most

1545
01:38:43,239 --> 01:38:45,399
of those nights, and you just
let him go to Dallas. And had

1546
01:38:45,439 --> 01:38:48,960
you had moved Kevin Knox you could
have done You could have still carried Reggie

1547
01:38:48,960 --> 01:38:53,560
Bullocks caphold and retained him. So
that was something you could have looked at.

1548
01:38:53,960 --> 01:38:56,880
I just think this off season was
far from perfect, even though it

1549
01:38:57,039 --> 01:39:00,640
was really good, and if you
look at it, I think the only

1550
01:39:00,720 --> 01:39:04,840
thing you're guaranteed is that you added
Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker, and there

1551
01:39:04,880 --> 01:39:09,239
are question marks for both about what
is Evan Fornia going to do in the

1552
01:39:09,279 --> 01:39:13,239
playoffs, and then there's Kemba Walker's
knee. Obviously, again, a really

1553
01:39:13,319 --> 01:39:15,159
good offseason, but I do think
we need to acknowledge the reality of the

1554
01:39:15,239 --> 01:39:18,600
next situation, which is they are
still rolling the dice. It's a very

1555
01:39:18,720 --> 01:39:24,640
defensible, justified roll of the dice, but they're still stepping out on a

1556
01:39:24,680 --> 01:39:29,039
few limbs here. I think that's
fair. I think a couple of things.

1557
01:39:30,359 --> 01:39:32,640
You know, One of the things
I liked and that I think everybody

1558
01:39:32,960 --> 01:39:36,479
most people liked, is the risk
mitigation of all those team options and stuff.

1559
01:39:36,479 --> 01:39:41,359
We've talked about that, and you
can say that's certainly rolling the dice

1560
01:39:41,399 --> 01:39:45,239
to some extent because you're banking on
guys that really surprised, as you alluded

1561
01:39:45,279 --> 01:39:48,560
to, sustaining those surprising levels of
play. But it'd be a bigger role

1562
01:39:48,600 --> 01:39:51,800
in the dice to have gone bonkers
and paid to Mardureros and a bunch of

1563
01:39:51,800 --> 01:39:55,960
money, which is like something that
would not have been outside the realm of

1564
01:39:56,000 --> 01:40:01,159
possibility for this franchise two years ago. So they didn't roll that, you

1565
01:40:01,239 --> 01:40:06,039
know, those dice which call it
progress. But I take your point because

1566
01:40:06,520 --> 01:40:11,680
in addition to these individual surprising performances, you know, I think one of

1567
01:40:11,720 --> 01:40:14,520
the narratives all year last year was
the Knicks have been a little bit lucky,

1568
01:40:14,720 --> 01:40:16,680
right like they had the lowest opponent
three point percentage in the league.

1569
01:40:17,279 --> 01:40:23,359
That's not necessarily That's one of those
murky things like how much are you influencing

1570
01:40:23,399 --> 01:40:28,039
it as a defense. You might
credit a tipatea defense and how hard Knicks

1571
01:40:28,079 --> 01:40:31,159
played last year as influencing that,
but historically, year over year, that

1572
01:40:31,239 --> 01:40:34,880
sort of stuff does not necessarily stick. So I think one of the things

1573
01:40:34,920 --> 01:40:41,119
they've done is you know, they're
probably not expecting or hoping that number to

1574
01:40:41,239 --> 01:40:44,119
change. They'd love it to stay
the same and have opponents shoot the worst

1575
01:40:44,359 --> 01:40:47,000
in the league against them from three. But now maybe with Fournier, with

1576
01:40:47,239 --> 01:40:51,000
Walker, with another step from Barrett, with another step from Obi Toppin,

1577
01:40:51,039 --> 01:40:55,159
which would be like just helping at
all, your offense is better and it

1578
01:40:55,239 --> 01:41:00,159
offsets what probably is regression in your
defensive numbers. So you know, there's

1579
01:41:00,640 --> 01:41:05,279
call that risk mitigation, I guess, or compensation or whatever. But yeah,

1580
01:41:05,319 --> 01:41:08,960
I don't know. We ended up
giving them the same grade. But

1581
01:41:09,000 --> 01:41:11,359
I feel like I like the off
season better than you did. That's kind

1582
01:41:11,359 --> 01:41:15,960
of funny. I and I totally
get your point about they didn't go out

1583
01:41:15,000 --> 01:41:19,720
and do something stupid, but at
some point the baseline for them has to

1584
01:41:19,880 --> 01:41:24,960
change there. And I'm not even
saying they shouldn't their moves that they shouldn't

1585
01:41:24,960 --> 01:41:29,560
have done. It's what was Derrick
Rose's leverage to get that average annual value?

1586
01:41:29,680 --> 01:41:32,359
What was Evan Fournier's leverage to get
the fourth guarantee year? And maybe

1587
01:41:32,399 --> 01:41:35,319
they had it, but like one
on top of the other, it just

1588
01:41:35,399 --> 01:41:39,319
starts to add up where it's okay, and then you lost Reggie Bullock.

1589
01:41:39,399 --> 01:41:41,920
Did that mean that because it seems
like you probably Let's just say, it

1590
01:41:41,960 --> 01:41:45,600
seems like they prioritized Alec Brooks.
They could have, let's say, could

1591
01:41:45,600 --> 01:41:47,439
have kept two of Derek Rose,
Reggie Block and Alec Brooks. They picked

1592
01:41:47,479 --> 01:41:51,439
the two offense first guys. And
did they not know about the Kemba move

1593
01:41:51,560 --> 01:41:56,319
or they just decide we're gonna lean
so far into shock creation. And you

1594
01:41:56,359 --> 01:41:58,039
do have to view this through the
lens of, well, what does this

1595
01:41:58,159 --> 01:42:00,600
even mean for the youngsters that they
draft, but already in their roster you

1596
01:42:00,680 --> 01:42:04,760
mentioned Obi toppin how much are they
actually going to play them? Because they

1597
01:42:04,760 --> 01:42:09,199
did bring Toaj Gibson and Newland's nowell
back and Mitchell Robinson's going to be healthy.

1598
01:42:09,359 --> 01:42:12,279
How much is Immanuel Quickly going to
play if Kemba Walker and Derek Rose

1599
01:42:12,680 --> 01:42:15,920
are both healthy and you have Alec
Burke's there who you just paid, so

1600
01:42:15,079 --> 01:42:18,319
they're not married to any one direction. But I also we need to move

1601
01:42:18,359 --> 01:42:21,119
beyond the point of, oh,
the Knicks didn't fuck up the off season,

1602
01:42:21,159 --> 01:42:26,039
so it was a great offseason objectively, even by tougher standards, they

1603
01:42:26,159 --> 01:42:30,399
had a good offseason. They're just
I just don't like how a lot of

1604
01:42:30,439 --> 01:42:34,239
people seem to be glossing over one
how far off a leap they made last

1605
01:42:34,319 --> 01:42:36,800
year. Because I want to see
the receipts where you thought the Knicks were

1606
01:42:36,840 --> 01:42:40,079
going to be a top four team
in the East. I want to see

1607
01:42:40,079 --> 01:42:44,720
the receipts. They don't exist.
No nobody has those unless they also have

1608
01:42:44,840 --> 01:42:49,159
receipts for a set of additional crazy
beliefs like across the Yeah, nobody thought,

1609
01:42:49,239 --> 01:42:54,840
nobody predicted that I do. I
will. The last thing I'll says,

1610
01:42:54,880 --> 01:42:56,760
I hate. I felt like I
was ranting on the parade of an

1611
01:42:56,760 --> 01:42:58,880
off season that I gave a B
plus, so I'd just like to reiterate,

1612
01:42:58,960 --> 01:43:03,279
I gave them a B, but
please take us. But I hate

1613
01:43:03,319 --> 01:43:08,399
it. I have the Orlando Magic. Jamal Moseley is the new head coach.

1614
01:43:08,520 --> 01:43:11,680
Long rumored to be getting to be
in line for a head job,

1615
01:43:11,720 --> 01:43:16,119
and finally got it. Jalen Suggs
drafted fifth, Bronz Wagner drafted eight.

1616
01:43:17,479 --> 01:43:21,880
They got Detroit's twenty twenty six second
rounder and cash from the Clippers for Jason

1617
01:43:21,960 --> 01:43:26,159
Preston, the number thirty three pick, you're doing something to the sheep,

1618
01:43:26,199 --> 01:43:29,960
and I want to trust that's not
a big deal. Not a lot else

1619
01:43:30,039 --> 01:43:32,439
significant. Robin Lopez in on a
one year, five million dollar deal so

1620
01:43:32,520 --> 01:43:35,600
we can be close to Disney World, almost assuredly. I don't know why

1621
01:43:35,640 --> 01:43:42,479
else that marriage would have happened.
Yet another, is it nepotism if it's

1622
01:43:42,520 --> 01:43:45,359
brothers or does it have to be
fathers and sons because we've got the ondo.

1623
01:43:45,399 --> 01:43:48,920
The Coupo's Moe Wagner signed to a
two year deal at the minimum,

1624
01:43:49,319 --> 01:43:56,680
non guaranteed in the second year to
play with his brother Ignas pres Yakis former

1625
01:43:56,760 --> 01:44:00,359
Nick Yeah, yes, maybe,
I don't know. Is on a two

1626
01:44:00,439 --> 01:44:05,880
way and each one more one year
at the minimum. The subtraction Steve Clifford

1627
01:44:06,680 --> 01:44:12,760
pretty well regarded but probably not interested
in a rebuild out as head coach.

1628
01:44:13,119 --> 01:44:17,479
James Ennis mentioned several times remains on
signed, Auto Porter Junior and Dwayne Bacon

1629
01:44:17,640 --> 01:44:21,880
also out the door. Dan,
what do you got for the Orlando Magic

1630
01:44:23,119 --> 01:44:27,279
In one of the quieter off seasons
in the league. I want to make

1631
01:44:27,359 --> 01:44:30,319
this clear, this would be an
a had they resigned James Ennis. Yet

1632
01:44:30,680 --> 01:44:32,319
just like the mix would have been
an A plus. They've been the team

1633
01:44:32,960 --> 01:44:38,720
James sentence, but I gave them
a C just because I and the coaching

1634
01:44:38,800 --> 01:44:42,239
hired factor into this for me because
I don't know enough about we don't know

1635
01:44:42,359 --> 01:44:45,000
enough about Jamal Mosley, just because
we haven't seen them before. I do

1636
01:44:45,279 --> 01:44:46,720
like what it says that they're kind
of thinking, I don't want to say

1637
01:44:46,720 --> 01:44:49,560
outside the box. But they didn't
try and go with experience where it might

1638
01:44:49,560 --> 01:44:54,359
suggest that we are going to try
and accelerate this rebuild at some point.

1639
01:44:54,680 --> 01:44:57,640
I don't think any coach necessarily could
have done that. The Jail and Sugs

1640
01:44:57,720 --> 01:45:00,680
pick was fantastic. He fell into
their lap. So it's just like,

1641
01:45:00,840 --> 01:45:03,159
and he looked so good in summer. I am jel and sums better have

1642
01:45:03,199 --> 01:45:05,560
a game where he takes fifty shots
this year. That's all I'm going to

1643
01:45:05,640 --> 01:45:10,399
say. At the same time,
it's like, Okay, there was no

1644
01:45:10,520 --> 01:45:14,479
decision there for them. Franz Wagner
kind of a rough summer league. I

1645
01:45:14,520 --> 01:45:19,000
actually saw a lot that I liked
there, But again, just could you

1646
01:45:19,039 --> 01:45:23,720
have gone a different route there and
maybe try to load up on more shot

1647
01:45:23,760 --> 01:45:26,920
creation rather than a dude who doesn't
profile. Is that they're just supposing to

1648
01:45:27,000 --> 01:45:29,920
move. That blew me off the
page. I want to know what it

1649
01:45:30,039 --> 01:45:34,880
says about their faith in the incumbent
bigs though Wendell Carter Junior and Mobama specifically,

1650
01:45:34,960 --> 01:45:40,359
that you signed Robin Lopez and Moe
Wagner, There's also going to come

1651
01:45:40,359 --> 01:45:43,479
a time when Jonathan Isaac is healthy
enough to factor into that big man rotation.

1652
01:45:43,640 --> 01:45:45,119
I assume they didn't need to do
a lot. Though I don't have

1653
01:45:45,199 --> 01:45:48,039
a problem with what they did this
offseason. I think some might rankle at

1654
01:45:48,039 --> 01:45:51,880
the fact they didn't move Terrence Ross
or Gary Harris. I think the time

1655
01:45:51,920 --> 01:45:55,760
to do that is just going to
be at the trade deadline, when you

1656
01:45:55,800 --> 01:45:58,840
have a better idea of what you
are, maybe where Gary Harris specifically has

1657
01:45:58,840 --> 01:46:01,720
had time to actually build up some
trade value. I am a little bit

1658
01:46:01,720 --> 01:46:04,279
surprised that there weren't more rumors about
Terrence Ross, because I would have thought

1659
01:46:04,319 --> 01:46:08,199
that for teams that were jilted in
free agency, he might have been just

1660
01:46:08,319 --> 01:46:12,720
the apple of someone's eye at that
point. Just zero issue with their off

1661
01:46:12,760 --> 01:46:15,720
season, it was I don't know
that they did anything that I would view

1662
01:46:15,000 --> 01:46:21,399
as surprisingly good. I think everything
was solid and no the Robin Lopez Delta

1663
01:46:21,399 --> 01:46:25,520
don't cripple you, and his sweeping
hook is fun to watch, and we

1664
01:46:25,600 --> 01:46:29,119
can watch and beat up on mascots
as well. I just that's the one

1665
01:46:29,159 --> 01:46:30,479
where it's like, all right,
so do you just not believe in Mobamba

1666
01:46:30,560 --> 01:46:33,760
or Wendell Carter Junior at all because
you signed two other other bigs. But

1667
01:46:33,840 --> 01:46:36,880
that's even just you know, I'm
becoming a stickler there. So I think

1668
01:46:38,119 --> 01:46:41,199
I think a C is solid.
I will say Jale and Suffis is gonna

1669
01:46:41,239 --> 01:46:44,119
end up being huge for them.
I just that wasn't a decision for them

1670
01:46:44,159 --> 01:46:46,520
at that point, not at number
five. Yeah, and I gave him

1671
01:46:46,520 --> 01:46:49,960
a B And it's kind of be
inconsistent with the way we viewed a lot

1672
01:46:50,000 --> 01:46:54,319
of other teams lottery picks. It's
just because like Sugs at five was there's

1673
01:46:54,399 --> 01:46:58,319
no way they expected that, and
it was the easiest pick of the first

1674
01:46:58,399 --> 01:47:00,279
round, I'm sure, because he
was supposed to go for or and the

1675
01:47:00,359 --> 01:47:02,680
Raptors didn't take them. So and
Wagner, I think, you know,

1676
01:47:02,800 --> 01:47:06,960
at the time, I'm a little
skeptical just because like if the model of

1677
01:47:08,079 --> 01:47:11,119
him is a three and D wing, like he didn't really shoot a lot

1678
01:47:11,159 --> 01:47:16,399
of threes in college and let's we'll
see about the d defense. But at

1679
01:47:16,439 --> 01:47:20,159
the time, and with only Summer
League judge, those seem like the right

1680
01:47:20,239 --> 01:47:24,199
picks. And Lopez actually you're talking
about the centers, like, how could

1681
01:47:24,199 --> 01:47:26,600
you have any faith in the young
centers they have at this point, like

1682
01:47:26,680 --> 01:47:30,479
they've they've all been inconsistent or hurt
or both or whatever. So if Lopez

1683
01:47:30,600 --> 01:47:33,960
is there to sort of teach the
dirty tricks for a year and get guys

1684
01:47:34,000 --> 01:47:38,920
to box out for a year and
then he's gone, then whatever five million

1685
01:47:38,960 --> 01:47:42,359
dollars it ald be. It could
be a C because it's very like,

1686
01:47:42,520 --> 01:47:45,279
sort of unremarkable. But but yeah, they didn't have a lot of options

1687
01:47:45,319 --> 01:47:48,399
and for flexibility, and I think
the Magic just sort of did well with

1688
01:47:48,760 --> 01:47:55,920
their very limited, uh you know
options. I guess this summer so I

1689
01:47:55,960 --> 01:47:59,199
don't know, kind of right up
there with Detroit in the not that interesting

1690
01:47:59,239 --> 01:48:01,720
offseasons in the East. That's a
great point about Robin Lobos in the locker

1691
01:48:01,800 --> 01:48:06,319
room. I'll bump them up to
a C plus for that considered. Onto

1692
01:48:06,319 --> 01:48:12,079
the Philadelphia seventy six ers, who
have simultaneously had an uneventful offseason that feels

1693
01:48:12,079 --> 01:48:15,960
like it's been too eventful based on
the Ben Simmons stuff. They drafted Jaden

1694
01:48:15,000 --> 01:48:18,000
Springer at number twenty eight. They
extended Jowell emb at four years, one

1695
01:48:18,159 --> 01:48:21,680
hundred and ninety six million. He
is fully guaranteed now through twenty twenty six.

1696
01:48:21,960 --> 01:48:26,760
Two twenty seven. They waived George
Hill for one million dollars. They

1697
01:48:26,920 --> 01:48:29,920
re signed Danny Green to a two
year twenty million dollar deal. His ten

1698
01:48:29,960 --> 01:48:33,840
million dollars salary in twenty two twenty
twenty three is non guaranteed. They signed

1699
01:48:33,880 --> 01:48:38,000
for a CONCORKMST with three year,
fifteen million dollars deal fully guaranteed with no

1700
01:48:38,119 --> 01:48:40,479
options. How about that for him
after it looked like he was kind of

1701
01:48:40,560 --> 01:48:44,640
on the fringes of the MBA to
now parlay into this and basically a year

1702
01:48:44,640 --> 01:48:46,159
and a half, they signed George
and Yang to a two year six point

1703
01:48:46,159 --> 01:48:50,319
eight million dollars deal fully guaranteed with
no options. They signed Andre Drummond to

1704
01:48:50,399 --> 01:48:54,159
a one year deal at the minimum. They signed Grant Riller to a two

1705
01:48:54,199 --> 01:48:56,960
way contract. Adam Fromo, my
co host, was super happy about that,

1706
01:48:57,039 --> 01:49:00,399
and they signed Aaron Henry to a
two way contract as well. Notable

1707
01:49:00,439 --> 01:49:05,159
subtractions include George hill, Anthy Tolliver, Dwight Howard and inevitably Ben Simmons.

1708
01:49:05,319 --> 01:49:09,039
I'm not sure if that's going to
happen with the off season. Different conversation.

1709
01:49:09,960 --> 01:49:12,920
I want to preface before I ask
you about your grade. Did the

1710
01:49:13,039 --> 01:49:15,840
fact that they haven't moved Ben Simmons
at all factor into your grade for the

1711
01:49:15,920 --> 01:49:21,840
sixers only insofar as like the range
of how much the grade could change if

1712
01:49:21,880 --> 01:49:25,520
it were to happen in the offseason, as he Norman's, just depending on

1713
01:49:25,600 --> 01:49:31,119
the package they get. I did
not. I didn't factor their inability or

1714
01:49:31,399 --> 01:49:36,039
unwillingness to trade him in my grade, which which is a B minus,

1715
01:49:36,760 --> 01:49:41,520
which sounds bad, I guess.
But again we said c's average, so

1716
01:49:41,600 --> 01:49:45,960
it's a couple of steps up from
average. The only like I mean,

1717
01:49:45,039 --> 01:49:50,279
the MBID extension to me is the
most significant thing they did obviously, and

1718
01:49:50,399 --> 01:49:54,600
maybe there was no scenario where he
was going to take anything less than what

1719
01:49:54,760 --> 01:50:00,359
we got. I have concerns about
giving him a fully guaranteed multi year deal.

1720
01:50:00,880 --> 01:50:02,840
It would have been nice to have
had some of the injury based protections

1721
01:50:03,600 --> 01:50:10,239
that were on the last one.
Just something because it's every year, it's

1722
01:50:10,319 --> 01:50:15,039
every year, and like as he
ages, I just think, you know,

1723
01:50:15,199 --> 01:50:17,359
these nagging things, it's always gonna
be something, and the older you

1724
01:50:17,479 --> 01:50:20,800
get and the more they accumulate,
especially with his history of severe injuries,

1725
01:50:20,840 --> 01:50:27,720
it's it's concerning. But he may
have just said, like fully guaranteed and

1726
01:50:28,000 --> 01:50:30,319
I'm going to walk out of the
room now if we don't have a deal.

1727
01:50:30,840 --> 01:50:33,880
So hard to know. Danny Green's
fine, two for twenty, non

1728
01:50:33,920 --> 01:50:38,960
guarantee on the second year, pork
Males I'm okay with. So yeah,

1729
01:50:39,119 --> 01:50:43,079
just a B minus because they did
lock up their you know, per minute

1730
01:50:43,319 --> 01:50:47,520
last year MVP of the league to
a multi year extension, and depending on

1731
01:50:47,520 --> 01:50:49,880
what happens with Simmons, there's a
lot of latitude with his grade. But

1732
01:50:50,760 --> 01:50:57,479
we shall see if that's an offseason
consideration or not. I share your concerns

1733
01:50:57,760 --> 01:51:01,760
about Joel. It's just they have
ever had less leverage when it comes to

1734
01:51:01,880 --> 01:51:05,760
him, especially because of the Ben
Simmons stuff. I gave him a bee

1735
01:51:06,199 --> 01:51:10,960
in part because they have and this
could change. Maybe they're pressured into accepting

1736
01:51:11,119 --> 01:51:15,000
just this mismash return for Ben Simmons. The fact that they haven't I actually

1737
01:51:15,079 --> 01:51:17,479
sort of liked and I tend to
lean very pro player, and I do

1738
01:51:17,640 --> 01:51:20,800
recognize that the Sixers try to trade
him for James Harden. There's in a

1739
01:51:20,840 --> 01:51:24,640
team in the league that wouldn't have
traded Ben Simmons for James Harden last year

1740
01:51:24,720 --> 01:51:29,479
if that was the opportunity they were
given. And Ben Simmons has just failed

1741
01:51:29,560 --> 01:51:32,439
to fundamentally expand his game and to
the point where he regressed at points in

1742
01:51:32,479 --> 01:51:35,359
the semi finals. That has to
matter, and he has four years left

1743
01:51:35,399 --> 01:51:41,960
on his deal. I applaud the
Sixers so far for not caving to his

1744
01:51:42,079 --> 01:51:45,479
training demand and sending him out for
a you know, CJ McCollum, if

1745
01:51:45,520 --> 01:51:46,920
that's the centerpiece of your return,
is fine, but it has to be

1746
01:51:47,000 --> 01:51:50,319
CJ McCullum and stuff. And there
are Blazers people that I really respect,

1747
01:51:50,359 --> 01:51:56,079
who think that that is an astronomical
asking price Seji McCullum and stuff for Ben

1748
01:51:56,119 --> 01:51:59,239
Simmons right now. And I get
it from their perspective of look at what

1749
01:51:59,399 --> 01:52:03,159
Ben Simmons just did with his offensive
vanishing act. That is like, no,

1750
01:52:03,520 --> 01:52:08,159
it's not an astronomical asking price,
though in reality, because CJ McComb

1751
01:52:08,239 --> 01:52:11,960
is not as good as Ben Simmons
short term or long term is valuable because

1752
01:52:11,960 --> 01:52:15,239
when you look at Ben Simmons is
playmaking his defense, the offense is a

1753
01:52:15,279 --> 01:52:17,279
big deal. But you have to
look at their contracts and who's going to

1754
01:52:17,359 --> 01:52:21,239
age better financially. So I'm giving
the Sixers a little bit of a bump

1755
01:52:21,279 --> 01:52:25,159
for that. I also am fine
with the Joel Embie deal because he's so

1756
01:52:25,319 --> 01:52:29,000
good. I think that you need
to build your roster under the guys that

1757
01:52:29,000 --> 01:52:31,920
he's gonna miss between twenty one and
eighty two games every single year. Have

1758
01:52:32,119 --> 01:52:35,840
they done that? Not necessarily,
but he was arguably the permanent MVP of

1759
01:52:35,920 --> 01:52:41,880
the league last season, even given
what Nicole Yokis did. So I don't

1760
01:52:42,199 --> 01:52:45,119
and I don't know what their other
options were, and everything else they did

1761
01:52:45,239 --> 01:52:47,199
was fine. I'm not crazy about
Andre Drummond as the backup. It's either

1762
01:52:47,279 --> 01:52:50,680
going to end up being like this
Ace move or just explode in the Sixers

1763
01:52:50,760 --> 01:52:54,880
face. But I really did like
I thought the Georgia Yang edition kind of

1764
01:52:54,880 --> 01:52:59,319
flowed under the radar for them,
and I also I really enjoyed the Jaden

1765
01:52:59,359 --> 01:53:04,199
Springer pig just someone else six four
guy who can really score, got to

1766
01:53:04,319 --> 01:53:09,000
line at a very good clip during
his lone year at college. I would

1767
01:53:09,000 --> 01:53:13,199
have liked to have seen them done
more to add a secondary ball handler.

1768
01:53:13,319 --> 01:53:15,640
And I know that they were limited
in what they could do, but now

1769
01:53:15,680 --> 01:53:17,920
you're going into a point where it's
like, Okay, we have Tyres Maxey,

1770
01:53:18,000 --> 01:53:20,960
Seth Curry, Shake Milton, and
Ben Simmons, and then James Bringer,

1771
01:53:20,960 --> 01:53:24,640
who we drafted, is really the
only addition. You're actually down one

1772
01:53:24,680 --> 01:53:28,159
if you want a factor in waiving
George Hill. And it feels like there

1773
01:53:28,199 --> 01:53:30,720
had to be something that they could
do on the margins just to juice up

1774
01:53:31,039 --> 01:53:35,039
their ball handling. Yep, especially
with the not the even the specter of

1775
01:53:35,079 --> 01:53:38,880
a Ben Simmons trade. Maybe you
think you recoup some ball handling in that

1776
01:53:39,079 --> 01:53:42,439
which you better, but now it
looks a little bit worse because of the

1777
01:53:42,479 --> 01:53:45,720
Ben Simmons trade demand, and what
if he really doesn't report to training camp

1778
01:53:45,800 --> 01:53:48,199
and he's on your team but not
on your roster. He's not that conventional

1779
01:53:48,239 --> 01:53:51,880
ball handler in the half court,
but he is your most important playmaker with

1780
01:53:53,039 --> 01:53:55,239
the ball in his hands. And
so it would have been nice to have

1781
01:53:55,359 --> 01:53:59,159
seen them get a lower level guy
there, or just be the team that

1782
01:53:59,239 --> 01:54:02,439
had signed James This that they could
get a plus. We should just stamp

1783
01:54:02,600 --> 01:54:11,239
every team with a little parenthetical about
if if James comes aboard, move great

1784
01:54:11,279 --> 01:54:15,520
automatically to a plus. I'm gonna
do the Toronto Raptors now, if you're

1785
01:54:15,520 --> 01:54:18,960
ready, I'm ready. The big
move. I guess there's two big moves.

1786
01:54:19,000 --> 01:54:23,800
Really. The big new move in
the front office Massau Jerry will be

1787
01:54:23,840 --> 01:54:28,680
staying on a new contract around reportedly
fifteen million dollars a year. That's got

1788
01:54:28,840 --> 01:54:32,439
to be If that's not the most
lofty executive salary in the league, it's

1789
01:54:32,439 --> 01:54:36,159
got to be close. The other
big move, Kyle Lowry is gone.

1790
01:54:38,000 --> 01:54:44,279
He will return in statue form eventually
in Toronto to the Miami Heat for precious

1791
01:54:44,319 --> 01:54:49,279
a Chewa Gore drag and a four
million dollars tree exception. Kim Birch played

1792
01:54:49,279 --> 01:54:54,800
pretty well down the stretch. Three
years twenty million, fully guaranteed, no

1793
01:54:54,880 --> 01:54:57,520
options. That's a little surprising,
but I think we all like Keim Birch.

1794
01:54:57,560 --> 01:55:00,479
Here. Gary Trent Jr. They
or pot stuck on him after the

1795
01:55:00,560 --> 01:55:04,439
norm Pal trade. Three years fifty
one point eight million, fully guaranteed player

1796
01:55:04,520 --> 01:55:10,079
option, Gary Trent twenty twenty three, twenty four, Isaac Bonga got a

1797
01:55:10,159 --> 01:55:14,560
non guaranteed one year deal at the
minimum, Decker Sam Decker, partially guaranteed

1798
01:55:14,640 --> 01:55:16,960
one year deal, Ishmael Wayne Wright
two year deal at the minimum, partial

1799
01:55:17,039 --> 01:55:23,720
guarantee this year, non guaranteed next
year. And then Dolin Oh, I

1800
01:55:23,760 --> 01:55:27,199
don't even know who this is.
Delan o'banton two year deal at the minimum,

1801
01:55:27,239 --> 01:55:30,720
non guaranteed twenty two, twenty three, David Johnson and Justin Shama.

1802
01:55:30,920 --> 01:55:35,359
Who is it? Champagne Champagney Champagney
two way contract. I'm just I'm not

1803
01:55:35,399 --> 01:55:39,560
going to pretend that I know who
these guys are. I'm sorry, I'm

1804
01:55:39,760 --> 01:55:44,920
beyond that. Been in the business
too long again. The notable subtractions to

1805
01:55:45,000 --> 01:55:47,600
reiterate, Kyle Lowry gone, but
also Paul Watson, Rodney Hood, DeAndre

1806
01:55:47,760 --> 01:55:53,359
Bembry, Aaron Bain, Stanley Johnson, and Alex lenn Dan. We differ

1807
01:55:53,479 --> 01:55:57,760
more on this grade than any other
in the East. Anyway, What do

1808
01:55:57,800 --> 01:56:01,840
you got for the Toronto Raptors?
Him a C minus? And I will

1809
01:56:01,920 --> 01:56:04,520
begin with this. If you asked
me, who's going to have the better

1810
01:56:04,600 --> 01:56:09,199
record next regular season? Assuming no
major changes from here on out, the

1811
01:56:09,319 --> 01:56:12,359
Raptors of the Knicks. I'm going
to take the Raptors because I'm actually that

1812
01:56:12,560 --> 01:56:15,880
high on their roster. It says
a lot about Siakam, Fred Vanfleet,

1813
01:56:15,920 --> 01:56:17,800
og And and Noby of course,
and I even liked the players they kept,

1814
01:56:18,039 --> 01:56:23,199
Ken Birch and Gary Trent Jr.
Are What in the actual hell are

1815
01:56:23,239 --> 01:56:26,520
those deals? Ken Birch had the
levers that late in the offseason to get

1816
01:56:26,560 --> 01:56:30,439
twenty million guaranteed. And I don't
want to hear the Toronto they're searched for

1817
01:56:30,560 --> 01:56:33,920
size turned into like this desperate thing
last year. So hey, let's go

1818
01:56:34,000 --> 01:56:38,800
with another six foot nine big where
og And and Nooby might still defend fives

1819
01:56:38,840 --> 01:56:42,520
when he's on the court, though
probably not. I'm overstating that I don't

1820
01:56:42,520 --> 01:56:45,359
want to hear that they need to
go after a big now when they decided

1821
01:56:45,399 --> 01:56:47,199
to go this route, and again, I really like Ken Burch, Gary

1822
01:56:47,239 --> 01:56:53,760
Trent Junior fantastic fit. Why was
this three year deal? Like? How

1823
01:56:53,920 --> 01:56:55,800
was their a player option on it? It's basically what I want to know.

1824
01:56:55,960 --> 01:56:58,439
The number. Fine, why did
you give him a player option?

1825
01:56:58,520 --> 01:57:00,640
Because if he outplays it or meets
his value, you're just gonna have to

1826
01:57:00,680 --> 01:57:03,359
double down on it. In two
years and that's a very short window with

1827
01:57:03,439 --> 01:57:08,920
which to work. That confused me. Why even though it's Parsley guaranteed,

1828
01:57:08,960 --> 01:57:12,239
even though he might not make the
roster, why is Sam all lives matter

1829
01:57:12,359 --> 01:57:15,439
Decker on the Toronto Raptors. I
am just no, I'm not about that.

1830
01:57:16,560 --> 01:57:18,840
Thank you j R. Smith for
learning us to that years ago.

1831
01:57:19,760 --> 01:57:23,920
The Kyle Lowry return was black.
It's fine if you like Presisachua. I

1832
01:57:23,960 --> 01:57:27,119
think Gorn Droggers could help them in
so far as he's still with the team

1833
01:57:27,319 --> 01:57:30,720
when the season starts. But they
clearly should have moved him at the trade

1834
01:57:30,720 --> 01:57:33,039
deadline. I thought the fact that
they didn't at least implied he was more

1835
01:57:33,119 --> 01:57:36,720
likely to return than we initially expected. It doesn't even seem like he was

1836
01:57:36,880 --> 01:57:41,800
kind of likely to return. How
did you not extract something anything out of

1837
01:57:41,880 --> 01:57:45,520
Philly or the Lakers in that scenario, based on the rumor deal that was

1838
01:57:45,600 --> 01:57:46,520
there. And so I think that's
a little bit. I don't want to

1839
01:57:46,520 --> 01:57:50,800
say it's a failure because this team
is still really good, but those just

1840
01:57:51,119 --> 01:57:55,199
minor missus, let's call them.
And then I'm just I don't like Sam

1841
01:57:55,279 --> 01:58:00,319
Decker. I just don't understand it, and I think the Messiah Jerry turn

1842
01:58:00,560 --> 01:58:03,520
sort of saves their offseason. Right
if he had left or if this was

1843
01:58:03,600 --> 01:58:08,159
just like he still wasn't signed at
this point, I could have lambasted their

1844
01:58:08,159 --> 01:58:10,760
offseason the fact that he's back.
They had the best front office in the

1845
01:58:10,800 --> 01:58:15,239
league between he and Bobby Webster.
I just this was a very uncharacteristically unimpressive

1846
01:58:15,359 --> 01:58:20,880
offseason for them. And I don't
know you're never gonna be better after losing

1847
01:58:20,920 --> 01:58:26,479
Kyle Lowry, but based but when
looking at everything they did, I feel

1848
01:58:26,479 --> 01:58:29,840
like they still had the chance to
be in a better position than they actually

1849
01:58:29,960 --> 01:58:33,039
are. And we didn't even mention
they drafted Scotty Barnes at number four.

1850
01:58:33,119 --> 01:58:38,359
That's my mistate for not putting it
there. I'm fine with that pick.

1851
01:58:38,720 --> 01:58:41,560
That's a risk, and I kind
of respect it. It doesn't necessarily factor

1852
01:58:41,600 --> 01:58:45,479
into their grade, except that I
look at this roster and the idea of

1853
01:58:45,600 --> 01:58:48,319
Jail and Suggs just tantalizes. Maybe
you're worried about the overlap with he and

1854
01:58:48,359 --> 01:58:53,680
Fred van Fleet, Gary Trent Junior, Malakai Flynn just being similar in size,

1855
01:58:54,720 --> 01:58:58,159
just another shot creator, though group
of pressure on defenses like it feels

1856
01:58:58,199 --> 01:59:02,199
like you needed that more than whatever
Barnes might be and this is a conversation

1857
01:59:02,279 --> 01:59:04,159
we need to have four or five
years down the line, and so it

1858
01:59:04,199 --> 01:59:09,720
didn't factor into their grade. However, if you were going to take Scottie

1859
01:59:09,760 --> 01:59:14,239
Barnes, I would have liked.
You've seen you prioritize adding additional shot creation

1860
01:59:14,760 --> 01:59:16,560
somewhere over the offseason, and you
did not, And so they get a

1861
01:59:16,640 --> 01:59:20,600
C minus. That's with the caveat. I think people are sleeping on them

1862
01:59:20,640 --> 01:59:25,640
as a real threat in the Eastern
Conference. It's a very weird trajectory.

1863
01:59:25,760 --> 01:59:28,960
I just traveled in the past two
minutes. But it's it's one that I'm

1864
01:59:29,000 --> 01:59:33,600
owning. It's been a journey.
I was glad to take it with you.

1865
01:59:33,840 --> 01:59:39,479
I gave him an A and like, I could show you my arm

1866
01:59:39,600 --> 01:59:43,600
and you can see the Toronto Raptors
kool Aid ivy drift just in there,

1867
01:59:43,760 --> 01:59:49,600
and I've just been drinking it forever. And not unrelated, a lot of

1868
01:59:49,680 --> 01:59:54,880
this grade is for keeping ujeri and
spending to do it because but like,

1869
01:59:55,000 --> 01:59:58,199
at the same time, if you're
a smart organization, and like, sure

1870
01:59:58,239 --> 02:00:00,600
we're getting a little bit far afield, but we're all most done here,

1871
02:00:01,319 --> 02:00:06,119
fifteen million dollars for maybe the best
overall executive in the league. Like,

1872
02:00:06,239 --> 02:00:10,159
fifteen million dollars is like a seventh
man on the court, Like if you're

1873
02:00:10,239 --> 02:00:13,920
allocating resources, same thing I said
with the coaching, Like, man,

1874
02:00:14,000 --> 02:00:16,479
that's a bargain, right. It
sounds crazy because just that's not what executives

1875
02:00:16,520 --> 02:00:20,399
make that we know of. But
like all of the good things about Toronto

1876
02:00:20,520 --> 02:00:24,640
and give him some of the bad
two I guess, like the Gary Trent

1877
02:00:25,359 --> 02:00:28,840
deal is a little rich for sure, the kem Birch one meant, you

1878
02:00:28,920 --> 02:00:31,720
know, kind of throw that in
there. But all the player development success,

1879
02:00:31,800 --> 02:00:36,359
all the draft success like your Siakam's
and Antonobi's and Van Bleets and you

1880
02:00:36,439 --> 02:00:41,520
know, just I mean even I
believe Scotty Barnes is the right pick now

1881
02:00:41,600 --> 02:00:44,600
because Ujii's made it. Like I
just, I don't know, I'm a

1882
02:00:44,680 --> 02:00:49,319
sucker, but like all that aside, I just I think on the barn

1883
02:00:49,439 --> 02:00:56,000
specifically, like, yeah, Suggs
made so much sense, he made all

1884
02:00:56,039 --> 02:00:59,520
the sense in the world. But
I do, like you said, I

1885
02:00:59,600 --> 02:01:04,520
respect the Barnes move because if what
you're trying to do is get a guy

1886
02:01:04,600 --> 02:01:09,680
who's going to make plays for you
can't shoot yet. Maybe ever, based

1887
02:01:09,720 --> 02:01:13,840
on his form, get a guy
that can guard four positions. You know,

1888
02:01:14,079 --> 02:01:16,119
that's fun because now you've got like
three of those guys. If you're

1889
02:01:16,159 --> 02:01:19,079
really trying to be on the forefront
of what basketball is going to look like,

1890
02:01:20,399 --> 02:01:24,479
there's a case to be made that
the Raptors are very much like a

1891
02:01:24,560 --> 02:01:28,560
good an example of that. If
you're gonna be playing Siaka and Ananobi and

1892
02:01:28,880 --> 02:01:34,680
Barns together, that's that's interesting.
And with rookies, who knows, right,

1893
02:01:34,760 --> 02:01:36,800
Like, at least there seems to
be kind of a theory here.

1894
02:01:36,840 --> 02:01:42,039
It might leave a hole in shot
creation and shot making, but I'm interested.

1895
02:01:42,159 --> 02:01:46,760
I'm interested. So I think Dragitch
is a nice piece to dangle or

1896
02:01:47,239 --> 02:01:50,319
use. I don't know. Maybe
if he kind of comes around presses a

1897
02:01:50,399 --> 02:01:56,319
Chua NFT value, there is only
skyrocketing. Like, I actually think he's

1898
02:01:56,359 --> 02:01:59,840
good it just in general. I
think, you know, he could.

1899
02:02:00,039 --> 02:02:03,560
He might play over Birch. I
guess probably he should. I don't know.

1900
02:02:04,039 --> 02:02:08,600
It sucks to lose Lowry. I'm
just kind of throwing my last thoughts

1901
02:02:08,640 --> 02:02:12,399
in here. But if you're going
to give up on the guy like his

1902
02:02:12,840 --> 02:02:15,399
age, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven seasons, or might even

1903
02:02:15,399 --> 02:02:17,840
be thirty six, thirty seven,
thirty eight probably the time to do it.

1904
02:02:19,119 --> 02:02:23,279
Yeah, I just like the Raptors. I think you Jerry staying is

1905
02:02:23,760 --> 02:02:27,399
one of the biggest moves in the
league for the off season in general,

1906
02:02:28,039 --> 02:02:30,359
So it's enough for me to give
him, I think my second highest grade

1907
02:02:30,560 --> 02:02:34,560
after the Heat. The best way
to spit it is that massa Hu Jerry

1908
02:02:34,920 --> 02:02:38,960
is making less per year than Tim
Hardaway Jr. You're not gonna say that

1909
02:02:39,079 --> 02:02:44,039
that that that's fair. I just
look, and I didn't. I viewed

1910
02:02:44,079 --> 02:02:46,000
Scottie Barnes as net neutral for them. I didn't move there great in either

1911
02:02:46,039 --> 02:02:50,479
direction based off them taking him because
of what came next again, how they

1912
02:02:50,520 --> 02:02:55,199
added another shot creator slash maker.
I probably would have felt better about that

1913
02:02:55,279 --> 02:02:58,119
pick. But I'm at a point
where I feel really good about what the

1914
02:02:58,199 --> 02:03:01,479
Raptors have built. But I just
I don't know what they've done like to

1915
02:03:01,680 --> 02:03:06,439
really to elevate their team both in
the short and long term. I just

1916
02:03:06,520 --> 02:03:10,880
don't think they did. Scottie Barnes
is it to me? And that's going

1917
02:03:10,920 --> 02:03:13,359
to be something that maybe pays off. Three four or five years domber Line,

1918
02:03:13,479 --> 02:03:15,159
which again it's fine, but you
are still a team that has to

1919
02:03:15,199 --> 02:03:19,479
care about the immediacy of next season
because you have Siakam, you have Van

1920
02:03:19,560 --> 02:03:21,520
Fleet, you have o Gann and
will be super young, but he's so

1921
02:03:21,640 --> 02:03:25,920
damn good already. And so maybe
this is a matter of me holding this

1922
02:03:26,039 --> 02:03:30,079
front office to a higher standard.
And perhaps it was harder to go through

1923
02:03:30,479 --> 02:03:33,640
a lot of this process before Ujeri
actually agreed to his next contract, But

1924
02:03:34,720 --> 02:03:38,960
it just felt like, again,
why does Garret tren jor have a player

1925
02:03:39,000 --> 02:03:42,920
options stuff like that. It just
it added up for me. Yeah,

1926
02:03:43,279 --> 02:03:46,920
that's fair. Washington Wizards are my
team to read off. They hired west

1927
02:03:46,960 --> 02:03:49,760
Ansell junior, which means that they
got rid of Scott Brooks. They drafted

1928
02:03:49,840 --> 02:03:54,720
Corey Kissbert at number fifteen, so
I'm trying to distill the five team trade

1929
02:03:54,800 --> 02:03:59,479
down to this. Washington acquired Spencer
Dinwoodie, Aaron Holliday, Isaiah Todd,

1930
02:03:59,560 --> 02:04:02,439
the number thirty one pick, Contavious
called up Hope Montras, Harrold, Kyle

1931
02:04:02,520 --> 02:04:06,840
Kuzma, and a twenty twenty two
second round swap with San Antonio for Chandler

1932
02:04:06,920 --> 02:04:12,159
Hutcherson, Russell Westbrook and five second
round commitments. That's how I tried to

1933
02:04:12,199 --> 02:04:15,079
shorten it up there. They signed
Halletto to a one year deal at the

1934
02:04:15,079 --> 02:04:18,279
minimum, signed Jay Huff to a
non guaranteed one year deal at the minimum,

1935
02:04:18,520 --> 02:04:21,199
signed Jordan Goodwin to a non guaranteed
one year deal at the minimum,

1936
02:04:21,239 --> 02:04:27,239
and signed Cassius Winston too a two
way contract. Notable substractions include Scott Brooks,

1937
02:04:27,520 --> 02:04:30,760
Russell Westbrook, Robin Lopez, Is
Schmith, Garrison Matthews who remains unsigned,

1938
02:04:31,199 --> 02:04:36,399
Esack Bonga, Chandler Hutchinson, and
Caleb Holmesley. What grade did you

1939
02:04:36,439 --> 02:04:41,239
give the Wizards Grant? I was
surprised when I scrolled down to see this,

1940
02:04:41,439 --> 02:04:45,479
but I've talked myself back into it. I gave them an A and

1941
02:04:45,960 --> 02:04:47,800
I'm prepared to be made's fun on
for that, although your grade's not that

1942
02:04:47,920 --> 02:04:55,720
much worse. Basics got off the
Westbrook contract, added talent on reasonable deals.

1943
02:04:57,079 --> 02:04:59,760
They got din with the on another
fair deal. I think a little

1944
02:04:59,760 --> 02:05:02,800
bit of risk there maybe, and
they didn't piss off or lose Bradley Beale.

1945
02:05:02,800 --> 02:05:08,359
And so now the state of the
Washington Wizards is they have no bad

1946
02:05:08,439 --> 02:05:12,359
contracts on the books, really feels
the only guy next year that that's going

1947
02:05:12,399 --> 02:05:17,159
to make more than eighteen million dollars
devis Bertan's fringe ee bad contract but maybe

1948
02:05:17,239 --> 02:05:23,800
not shooting still plays, which if
you rewound a year man, that's a

1949
02:05:23,880 --> 02:05:30,359
better position. Like they're they're flexible. They have like several like at least

1950
02:05:30,600 --> 02:05:34,359
good to very good useful NBA players
on the roster, and almost none of

1951
02:05:34,399 --> 02:05:40,359
them are grossly overpaid. So and
they made a coaching upgrade. I think

1952
02:05:40,359 --> 02:05:44,920
almost by default a lot of people
would say, yeah, I just I

1953
02:05:45,000 --> 02:05:46,760
mean it was it's it's just really
hard for me to give a team of

1954
02:05:46,880 --> 02:05:50,319
anything but a very high grade when
you moved Russell Westbrook in that contract,

1955
02:05:50,520 --> 02:05:57,399
so and for for not for not
a crippling asset in return. So great

1956
02:05:57,520 --> 02:06:00,880
opportunism by them, And I think
they're just in a much better position overall,

1957
02:06:01,039 --> 02:06:04,680
and surprisingly so based on kind of
what they had to work with going

1958
02:06:04,760 --> 02:06:10,279
in. I mostly agree with you. I thought they based off what the

1959
02:06:10,439 --> 02:06:12,800
net price was for them. I
don't understand why they're so in love with

1960
02:06:12,840 --> 02:06:15,920
Aaron Holiday. That was questionable me. I would have liked to have seen

1961
02:06:15,960 --> 02:06:19,359
them gone the Trey Murphy or Usman
Gruba Route in the draft over Corey Crispert,

1962
02:06:20,000 --> 02:06:24,840
just looking at what their team really
needs. I echo everything else that

1963
02:06:24,920 --> 02:06:27,079
you just said, though, and
so it's really tough to hate this.

1964
02:06:27,119 --> 02:06:29,760
Obviously I gave them a bat plus. I just think it could have been

1965
02:06:29,840 --> 02:06:31,319
better based off what they're doing,
and I don't have a problem. Look,

1966
02:06:31,319 --> 02:06:33,720
if they end up trading Bradley Beale, my stance is that they already

1967
02:06:33,760 --> 02:06:36,800
should have moved him. I'm not
harshing. They're great for that because they've

1968
02:06:36,800 --> 02:06:41,560
given themselves an, you know,
an outlook to where they can do whatever,

1969
02:06:41,880 --> 02:06:45,079
and they're just not bogged down by
anything. And that includes if they

1970
02:06:45,640 --> 02:06:47,640
know Bradley Beale sign an extension or
stays there a long term, Like they

1971
02:06:47,720 --> 02:06:50,880
have a bunch of different paths they
could travel to where they at least seem

1972
02:06:50,960 --> 02:06:56,119
like they're not going to accept total
mediocrity anymore. Maybe the Spencer did what

1973
02:06:56,199 --> 02:06:58,760
the deal goes against that, But
as you said, I think the biggest

1974
02:06:58,800 --> 02:07:00,600
thing here is they have no bad
deals in the books anymore. Davis Burton

1975
02:07:00,760 --> 02:07:03,960
is probably the closest they get to
at that point, but shooting is always

1976
02:07:04,000 --> 02:07:06,800
going to be able to be moved, So it was just a matter of

1977
02:07:08,319 --> 02:07:11,119
you know, maybe Aeron Holliday ends
up being really good for them, but

1978
02:07:11,319 --> 02:07:14,359
they gave up the number twenty two
pick is part of getting him. I'm

1979
02:07:14,359 --> 02:07:15,720
not sure how much I love that. And then I would have liked to

1980
02:07:15,760 --> 02:07:19,520
have seen them mostly have gone with
Trey Murphy over Kissberg at that spot in

1981
02:07:19,560 --> 02:07:23,680
the draft. But that's just not
you know, that's not a huge deal

1982
02:07:23,720 --> 02:07:26,039
to me. They had a very
good off season, and it seems while

1983
02:07:26,039 --> 02:07:30,760
they say that because Russell Westbrook did
play very well for them basically over their

1984
02:07:30,800 --> 02:07:33,720
second half of last season, But
when you look at the complexion of that

1985
02:07:33,880 --> 02:07:36,960
contract, how hard knew it was
going to be to move and just look

1986
02:07:38,000 --> 02:07:41,600
at where they were with John Wall, they ended up basically net neutral and

1987
02:07:41,680 --> 02:07:44,760
picks while still getting rid of John
Wall and have all these other guys on

1988
02:07:45,079 --> 02:07:47,800
digestible salaries, but who could also
maybe help them if they keep Bradley Beal

1989
02:07:47,880 --> 02:07:51,600
and want to make some immediate ruckus
in the in the Eastern Conference. Just

1990
02:07:51,760 --> 02:07:57,880
an overall, I would say shrewd
offseason for them. I will say I

1991
02:07:57,920 --> 02:08:03,319
don't know that anything they did necessar
necessarily instructs where I think they're going to

1992
02:08:03,479 --> 02:08:07,199
go. I know a lot of
people believe that because they still have Bill

1993
02:08:07,560 --> 02:08:09,720
and because of what has come out
of the organization, what he said that

1994
02:08:09,840 --> 02:08:15,079
he's going to remain their long term. I just don't remain entirely convinced because

1995
02:08:15,119 --> 02:08:20,479
they haven't exactly they've mapped out a
path, or they've mapped out a path

1996
02:08:20,680 --> 02:08:24,039
to a bunch of different paths,
and now they have to narrow that down.

1997
02:08:24,880 --> 02:08:28,399
Yeah. Just having the options though, was like inconceivable a year ago.

1998
02:08:28,560 --> 02:08:31,640
You know, I think I think
that's just it. You know,

1999
02:08:31,199 --> 02:08:35,960
they have they don't have what appeared
to be fantastic options other than like I

2000
02:08:35,960 --> 02:08:41,920
don't know, Bill re ups and
then you can package KCP and Kuzman and

2001
02:08:41,439 --> 02:08:45,880
whatever, kiss Burd and whatever else
for like a second star with picks attach

2002
02:08:46,000 --> 02:08:48,520
whatever. But that's like that they
could They could do that now, and

2003
02:08:48,600 --> 02:08:52,960
you're not just looking at it like
there was a very real scenario where they

2004
02:08:54,000 --> 02:08:56,079
would have traded Bill gotten a bunch
of picks back, I guess, But

2005
02:08:56,159 --> 02:09:00,840
then you got Russell Westbrook on a
terrible contract and like a lot of actual

2006
02:09:00,960 --> 02:09:05,119
NBA players and some picks, Like
that's not a great outcome. So now

2007
02:09:05,279 --> 02:09:07,239
if you do trade bill. At
least what you're getting back is going to

2008
02:09:07,279 --> 02:09:11,279
get integrated into a team that like
has some shit. Like look just between

2009
02:09:11,680 --> 02:09:18,000
Kyle Kuzma and KCP and Denny Avdija
and who am I forgetting Rude Hatchamura,

2010
02:09:18,319 --> 02:09:22,720
there's like there's some wings and forwards, Like you can do some stuff with

2011
02:09:22,800 --> 02:09:26,319
this roster. And I think this
is a team that probably isn't like,

2012
02:09:26,520 --> 02:09:28,199
you know, top six or seven
in the East, but they're in the

2013
02:09:28,399 --> 02:09:31,079
they're in the playoff and play and
mix maybe more of some of the young

2014
02:09:31,119 --> 02:09:37,319
guys pop and again just bottom line, the flexibility is there, and that's

2015
02:09:37,520 --> 02:09:43,960
like a monumental achievement based on what
they had going in. I will say

2016
02:09:43,000 --> 02:09:46,439
I'm I will say I'm still a
big fan of Denny Avya. That did

2017
02:09:46,479 --> 02:09:50,279
not factor into their grade obviously,
but he looked really good before he got

2018
02:09:50,319 --> 02:09:54,399
injured. This was fantastic. This
was long. Grant, thank you for

2019
02:09:54,560 --> 02:10:00,199
undertaking the Eastern Conference creates with me. We hope that everyone agrees on with

2020
02:10:00,279 --> 02:10:03,920
what we said because we believe it
is gospel and there's no room for anyone

2021
02:10:03,960 --> 02:10:07,319
else to think otherwise. I'm just
kidding there follow Grant on Twitter at gt

2022
02:10:07,520 --> 02:10:11,399
Underscore Hughes. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Hardwoodknox.

2023
02:10:11,439 --> 02:10:16,600
Wherever you get your podcasts, download
every episode we're on YouTube search, go

2024
02:10:16,680 --> 02:10:20,199
to YouTube dot com, or Chardwooknox
subscribe to our channel. Until next time.

2025
02:10:20,359 --> 02:10:22,640
I leave you all with a shout
out to the one, the only,

2026
02:10:22,920 --> 02:10:26,199
the guy who could have given any
single MB every single NBA team and

2027
02:10:26,279 --> 02:10:31,359
eight plus offseason grade. Have they
simply signed him? James Ennis, but

2028
02:10:31,479 --> 02:10:31,520
also Frankie Lakina,