Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode of Hardwoo Knocks. This is Adam from We'll here with my fantastic co host Dan for Value, and it is a mail back day. We're gonna be going through NBA Draft, NBA Free agency questions that we've received, questions about the upcoming twenty one twenty two season. We have some historical questions thrown in as well, and whatever you'll have for us live on green Room as we get going here. But before we hop into any of the mail bag questions, I have a question for you, Dan, and it's how's it going. I'm just laughing at Noah Who's podcast I will be appearing on soon Stick to Sports podcast. It's three sixteen, not three o'clock. It's funny because I just said that to add it before we went live. It was worth it though, for the questions that we're coming, I'm doing fantastic. I'm in the middle of a forty eight hour fast and I have like only a few hours before I break it, so I'm excited. How are you doing, I've been eating on your behalf. I appreciate I been doing. Yeah, I appreciate it's been a struggle, but you know, it's also a good one. Do you want to get started here? We had some really good sixteen minutes late, so I feel like we should just dive right in. Yeah, let's start with let's get some of the let's get one of the historical ones out of the way. This one was fascinating from Tony and one hundred and forty eight others. It sounds like a lot of people are running that account, but it's actually Anthony Morlachi. I believe who's the youngest team to win an NBA championship? And will the Hornets get it? Let me answer the latter question, no, at least not next season. But please carry on after that, Adam, this is all you. I mean, the Hornets are gonna be pretty fun. You're just gonna rule them out out right like that so fast, Like they had some good offseason moves. LaMelo Ball could make another jump in his sophomore season, and they probably still won't win a title. But you know, look, we have a question about the Hornets, and I'm about to shower them with praise, but they're not winning a title next That's not happening. So I to research this. When I turned to some get Hub databases using Slaw's information. Here he calculated weighted ages of teams that have won an NBA championship, so basically not just weighing everyone equally, but determining it by how much time they actually spent on the court. You know, obviously, when we're calculating an age for an overall team, if somebody plays five minutes and somebody plays two thousand minutes, those should not be considered equivalent, and they aren't. Here. The answer surprised me. I think it surprised you as well, because it's the nineteen seventy six seventy seven Portland Trailblazers, who had a weighted age of twenty four point one nine nine. I think I was a little bit surprised here because we just picture Bill Walton as an older guy no matter what. But this was his age twenty four season, it was Maurice Lucas's age twenty four season. Lionel Hollins was twenty three. The only thirty year old on this roster was Herm Gilliam, who was thirty. So this was a really young team, a year and a half younger than the nineteen fifty five fifty six Philadelphia Warriors, who are in second place. The only modern team in the top ten, and by modern I mean like beyond the seventies, is the twenty fourteen fifteen Golden State Warriors, who were at twenty six point three nine three. I was a little bit surprised that we haven't had any other in the last three decades that have knocked out the plethora of teams from the fifties. I'm also a little surprised the Warriors are on that list. But now that I'm thinking back, twenty fifteen was quite a bit ago, and so I'm just remembering the Warriors getting old in real time right now, So maybe that's not so surprising. On the flip side, do you want to guess s which the oldest title winning team by weighted averages in NBA history? Oh? Damn, it's got Is it? The nineties seven? Ninety eight Bulls nailed it? Can you get number two? No? Come on, don't do that to me. Is that the ninety six ninety seven Balls? It's not their number four? Number five is the two thousand and six seven Spurs. Number four is the ninety seven Bulls. Number three is the nineteen sixty nine Boston Celtics, and number two is the twenty eleven Dallas Mavericks, which makes sense. Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler Jurknovski playing such big minutes that one was not surprising, and this might all be good news for the Lakers, who were getting dragged because they were too old, which I like, I got the jokes, you know, jokes first, facts later, But they did sign they resigned town Horton Tucker the Monks, not that the league Monk's not old at all. Kendrick Nunn's even fairly young. But I think that's good news for the Lakers. Speaking of the Lakers, which means speaking of Lebron, which means speaking of this question from Glenn, how many of Lebron's teammates all time have had a higher one seasons one season usage rate than he has in the same season. Yeah, we love this question, and it is the reason that we're sixteen minutes late because we went through might Glenn. Yeah, I mean the question came in a little late, so like we didn't have much prep time here. But there are a handful. I'll start with the cursory mentions because they're kind of ridiculous. In two thousand and four two thousand and five on the Cleveland Cavaliers, Luke Jackson op him and usage rate in a grand total of forty three minutes that season. And the other ridiculous ones are twenty ten Cleveland Cavaliers Kobe carl had a higher usage rate in five minutes, twenty fourteen Miami Heat, DeAndre Liggins and one minute also had a one twenty four point one per that season. That's whatever pr is worth. And then in twenty seventeen on the Calves, Dante Jones topped him in twelve minutes. But there are two legitimate answers here. The first one is on the twenty ten twenty eleven Miami Heat where Dwyane Wade had a thirty one point six usage percentage and Lebron had a thirty one point five. So Wade just ahead by a tick there. But then if you look at a sist percentage, because usage rate doesn't incorporate passes into the equation, Lebron was at thirty four point nine and Wade was at twenty three point five. And we saw a similar story unfold on the twenty seventeen Cavaliers where Kyrie topped him thirty point eight to thirty point zero and usage rate, but was behind twenty nine point seven to forty one point three in assist rate. So basically, I think what all of this means in some is that if you want to be more involved than Lebron James and a Lebron James led offense, you can't play more than fifty minutes. That's fair enough. Look, I mean, look, Liggans is clearly the best teammate he's ever had. We're just going by pr right, if we're going I mean, he had like a forty five point something box plus minus. He had like two point two win shares for forty eight minutes, which is objectively ridiculous. So Liagans might be the best player of all time, and he should have gotten more minutes on a permitutent basis, Yeah, he might be. He might be the good Let's get to these like last two since people earned here, We'll get to these last two non free agency questions before we dive into these macro off season outlooks. This question came from Jim Doyle. Are Michael Beasley, Kenneth Faried, and Brandon Knight the oldest players rostered in summer League. The answer is yes and no. Michael Beasley is in fact, and yes, I did go through all the Summer League rosters for this. If played another reason, we were sixteen minutes late. If players were added after this fact, and I'm wrong, I apologize. But Michael Beasley, age thirty two, is the oldest player in Summer League. The second oldest is Kenneth Freid, age thirty one. The third oldest, also aged thirty one, is Jordan Crawford, Not to be confused with Jordan Crawford. This is with an O and Jordan Crawford played in France last year. I believe I did go through this, and I used nineteen ninety two. It's just like sort of an empty benchmark here. But there are fewer than a dozen players in Summer League who were born in nineteen ninety two or earlier. So good Beasley and Kenneth free were born in eighty nine. Crawford Kyle Fogg were born in nineteen ninety. Austin Hollins, Tarik Black, and Brandon Knight were born in ninety one. Joseph Young, Jannis Tima, Gary Payton the Second and Samash Kristen were all born in nineteen ninety two. Does that surprise you, because I think like Summer League is definitely the showcase event for these younger guys who are trying to get a two way contract, trying to earn a roster spot. But there are also so many players who have developed their games substantially in international leagues and then are attempting to come back. So I'm always a little bit surprised the teams aren't taking flyers on more over thirty guys. You know, like we saw Mike James come in for the Brooklyn Nets and make like a legitimate impact after developing overseas for a few years, and it feels like that might be a market inefficiency for the NBA. There's such a there's such a proclivity to give these minutes to the youngest guys without giving the older players who have homed their craft overseas a chance to thrive. Yeah, I think it's one. I definitely think it's an optics thing where guys don't necessarily want to be in some like JR. Smith, like if he had a chance again at MBA rosterbar, if he went to something, maybe just wouldn't want to go to Summer League. The other thing is, I think for a lot of these teams, like let's look at the Lakers, and I'm forgetting their summer league roster already, maybe there is a bunch of old dudes on there. I don't think there were, though if I remember correctly, this is like their best chance to get real looks at the young guys because they're not going to play them in the regular season, so probably something to do with that. The other thing is, I do think guys, older guys might be more inclined to maybe roll through the G League than they are the Vegas Summer League, just because it's a the competition level is going to be higher, just based off the players that are playing in the G League, and there's a larger sample size to go with. I will be an advocate of you know, well not post pandemic at the moment or mid pandemic. I should say you Vegas is like a fun place to go, like before now and hopefully if things ever get back to normal. So I don't know why other guys, like older guys wouldn't want to want to go there versus Summer League, but I think that all those contributing factors enter into it. Let's go, sir, I've still just a dozen. I'm surprised it's not higher. Yeah, I was. I was a little bit shocked too. And there's like, there's only three players older than the age of or four players older than the age of thirty, which I thought. I thought that number would be a scoach higher. Right. This next question comes from Atlanta Hawks fan page. So that's Adam's burner account. Trey Young or Steph Curry at age twenty two? Who's better? Now? I tweeked this and went with just their third seasons because Steph's age twenty two season he was a sophomore and Trey was in his third season, so I feel I'd rather more align it with their experience in the NBA. That's maybe not ideal because Steph only played in twenty six games during his third season, so perhaps I should just slip it back to Steph Curry. Do you want to go with Steph Curry's age twenty two or age twenty four season? Now, Adam, if we're gonna write off, I mean, I kind of feel like the answer is the same either way, and that it's Trey came in hotter and was at a slightly higher level at that stage of their respective careers, because it wasn't really until twenty thirteen fourteen, where Steph like had put the ankle problems behind him and had blossomed into that flat out superstar. The shooting numbers were there early in his career, but he hadn't developed in the same playmaker, the same adequate defender, the same game warping force as an off ball relocation weapon. I think that just because the NBA has evolved to a point where someone like Trey can come in and make such an immediate impact, he definitely has a little bit of a head start in this particular competition. And it doesn't mean that he's going to reach similar heights to the ones that Steph has reached and is continuing to reach. But just in terms of that early career comparison, Steph got off to a slow start. It's hard to remember that now, but between the ankle injuries and you know, trying to work his way into a rotation with Monte Ellis and the coaching changes and all that, Like, he wasn't winning MVPs right out of the gate. Yeah, I would say the monte Ellis factor is the bigger one is that Trey Young has had an opportunity that early career Steph Curry never did, aside from the health. So if you look at their third season specifically, Trey Young had a thirty three usage, Steph Curry had twenty four point three, So that's like nine points higher essentially, and he still looks Steph was more efficient. He So Trey Young average six point seven three point a tempts for thirty six minutes third year, Steph Curry average six hit them at a forty five point five percent clip compared to trace thirty four point three. Now, I'm sure the level of difficulty on treys, just given how common ultra deep threes off the dribble now are, we're a little bit higher. Step also hit fifty one point four percent of his twos, Tray was at forty nine point one. I think what Trey has done that has never really been this huge part of Steph's game is Trey got to the line free throw tenth raight of points in year three. So they're like they're not natural comps. But I think more than anything, you would expect Trey Young's numbers to be more glitzy because he just came in and the Hawks were his and Steph for a variety of reasons. I would say the most notable of which is mante Ellis being there, and then injuries. Again we're talking he only played in twenty six games this season. That did kind of slow his progress relative to what Trey Young is doing at the moment. This is terrible math and nobody should ever do it, and I'm gonna do it anyway. But if you add up the per thirty six free throw attempts for Steph's first three seasons, that number is still lower than Trey Young's in his third season alone. Again, like, there's no mathematical validity to just adding per thirty six numbers like that. It's more just this interesting anecdote. Thank god, we don't brand ourselves as like a math specific podcast. You know. Let's get to that Hornet's question. Then we're getting into the stuff that actually happened. Now. So Jake g asked, did the Hornets improve this offseason and did they make the correct moved not trying to overpay for a center. My take is, yes, we improved, and that Mitch knows what he's doing, So trust in Mitch. So I'll take the lead on the free agency stuff here. I do think Charlotte got better, but Kelly Ubery junior signing, I really liked. He's gonna They needed wings like you have Gordon Hayward, and that's kind of it. I don't really consider Miles Bridge is a wing, even though we could kind of play the three in the four. Going from DeVante Graham to ishm is definitely a down grade. But you did get a first round pick in the DeVante Graham sign and trade. You have targ Rosier, you have LaMelo Ball. Devonte Graham isn't coming off the best or the healthiest season, so I think they got good value there. I didn't like the Mason Plumley addition, as I liked the trade for that got them Kai Jones because they gave up I don't even don't get me started on the Knick's accepting this heavily protected pick for that spot. So I like their business in some and I do think they are better teams, but just bake in a second year LaMelo Ball. And I think Mason Plumley is solid on offense. He's going to force you to play a very specific way on defense, and if you try and move them away from the basket, it's going to get dicey, but you're not really built to defend anyway. You were playing so small that the last season that maybe this is just an upgrade by virtue of having more size or more operable size in heavier minutes. At the same time, to the center point, could they not have gotten Cody Zeller back for more than the minimum that he signed with Portland and he was like okay in switching schemes for them last year. And the other thing I'll say, I it had Rashaun Holmes gotten like eighteen million dollars, I might have been, Oh, they didn't have to overpay for a center. He resigned just for early bird rights in Sacramento. I was floored that just averages out. You know, it was like four years and forty six. It was misreported at fifty five at first everyone caught it. It was illegal because the Kings didn't have cap space at that number. So if Reshawn Holmes was just going to follow the bag, then yeah, I would have liked to have seen in the Hornets had been like, hey, here's four fifty six or something, because that's not overpaying for Reshawn Holmes in my book overall though, and look the James book Night pick, I think that was you know, they needed wings, and I liked the idea of having him there as well. So I do think they're a better team. They're still unsettled at center, and I don't think they have like a really good defensive wing at this point, Kelly of re Junior's player, or maybe maybe it's Miles Bridges, if you want to say that he's going to defend a bunch of wings, I just don't know. When you don't have the best defensive centers behind you at the moment, Like Kai Jones is not going to be contributing from day one. Vernon Carey if they play him this year with the with the big league team, like, he's not going to give you a ton defensively either, So you probably want to be sturdier on the perimeter defensively than you actually are. But I don't know why you would. I think they've sneakily had a rock solid off season. I would say I think the best thing about their offense their off season is that they didn't try to do too much. It would have been nice to see them make that big play for Rashaun Holmes, for Jared Allen, even though he signed a pretty expensive price point to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. But they didn't do anything wrong. You know, DeVante Graham is is a significant loss. But you you replace him with Ish Smith, you can give more minutes to Grant Riller. And I say that, you know, without a hint of bias there to do something. Didn't they cut to Grant Riller? Didn't they waive him? I thought I sat you. If they happened, I don't think so, unless I've just totally missed something. But he no longer. Remember he's gonna be freed somewhere, yep. Maxwell Millington says that as well. I apologie, this is gutting. I had a terrible as this is. I have changed my tune here. Charlotte fucked up. Really, that's all I got. I need. I need a moment here. Clearly, I didn't know that. I can't believe I'm finding this out on a live episode. I thought I could have sworn. I texted you to like condolences, but you're probably on vacation. I didn't want to bother you. Maybe that's what happened but that's the issue, is that I was on vacation for some of these moves and just totally missed it. I think, look, I think I will say I need like a minute to recover my composure here. It's okay, I'll vamp to the kids for a second, if you're again, I think the Hornets had a rock soide offseason overall, even if there were things I would change, and like maybe Rashawn just wanted to stay in Sacramento because he hit like ninety nine percent of his floaters and he's just he's a really good rim and I think he's better on defense than people give him credit for. But overall, I think you could say that the Hornets with cap space are one of the most terrifying propositions if you're a Hornets fan or even a Hornet's fan adjacent, just based off some of the past decisions they did, including the Gordon Hayward contract, which I think looks a lot better now, but it was killed in the moment. The fact that this is what they did where they just kind of, you know, they picked up some assets for DeVante Graham. They did letting the weak monk walk outright was a little bit curious, but he ended up signing for the minimum, so clearly people were lower on him than after this season. I expect them to be. I don't know if there was I think get an ankle injured in the year, so maybe that was part of it. But his career trajectory has been all over the place. But I think they didn't do anything damaging and so you have to credit them for that. And I do think they just made some nice moves. So the Grant Riller decision aside, I think they're off season has been better than fine. Yeah, and you can count on so much internal improvement here too. Just I mean, we saw how much the LaMelo Ball Miles Bridges connection developed during the second half of the season. Year two of that should be incredibly exciting. They seem to be in a better rhythm with how to deploy Terry Rosier next to LaMelo Ball and in his stead. That should be exciting in year two. If Gordon Hayward can stay healthy. This is still an immensely talented team. It's probably not going to be the youngest team to win an NBA championship. You know, how to cycle back to the very first question, not without Grant Roller. Without Grant Roller on the roster, we have a question from Karagan, how much better did Utah get upgrading from Derek Favors to Sun white Side, George n Yang to Rudy Gay and adding Eric Paschkal and Jared Butler not to mention they didn't really have to give up anything huge, look I am, I will say anytime teams have to trade away first round picks that are that far into the future to lop off money, I think it's a concern. And so the Jazz right now they trade away number thirty, which at that point, given where Jared Butler fell, I probably had Jared Butler in the top fifteen to my big Board, teams must be mega concerned about his health. I think he's going to be a fantastic player. I'm interested to see which kind of opportunity he gets in in Utah. I sort of. I think he's just someone who can be maybe he'll give you like a good amount of shock creation at some point, but someone who could be like a smaller three in D type player, and if he's healthy, so I think that's a great pick up for them, which I think he was at number forty I couldn't believe how how much he fell. I think Eric Paschal is interesting. I'll be curious see how they kind of use him. I'm assuming he'll play a bunch at the four, but if he someone else, you could slide to the small ball five. And to wrap up the my tangent about the picks, they have their twenty twenty two pick is over to Memphis top sixteen, top six or top eight protected, whatever it is, and then they now have twenty twenty four pick was sent out as well, I believe as part of the favorite salary dump in Oklahoma City. So I'm I'm ultimately fine with that because they still paid Mike Conley and they're still very much as of now, we'll see how the office the rest of the off season. So I actually have the entire regular season to Duckett. But their tax bill is going to be pretty damn pricey, and you know, you look at yeah, last season they were in the tax sort of like it was a sub five million dollar tax bill. This year, their tax bill is going to be closer to thirty million at the moment, And so I commend a team like Utah in that market for as of right now, you still make Yes, you locked off salary, but you made some buy now plays. And I love the idea of Rudy Gay as a small ball five because I still think this team lacks athleticism on the wings and that could come back to bite them because there are certain matchups where it's not that Rudy goo bar is a liability, it's at everyone in front of him is such a liability in that matchup that you're asking him to do too much at that point, and that's how he gets into trouble. So Rudy Gay is a five. I think if you go up against the Clippers again, won't be at full strength, probably without Kauai, and you need to downsize for a little bit. I think he and to a lesser extent, Eric Pascal give you that option. So I very much think that their off season so far as flown under the radar, and look as up right now they have not traded Boyan Bogdanovitch, six Men of the Year, Jordan Clarkson or Joe Ingles as part of a move to cut their tax bill. Maybe that's to come. I hope it's not, but just looking at there, what everything else that they've done on the margins. I think this is a team even though Kasan white Side is a better fit for them than Derek Favors will stop. It's just it's the same archetype of player on offense as Rudy Gobert, nowhere near as well as good, I want to make that clear. But it's easier for probably a Mike Conley or Jordan Clarks, even Donovan Mitchell like to just get used to playing with that same type of screen set or lab catcher type player. So I think they had a really good off season and I'm very curious to see how I don't think it'll be often, but I am curious to see, like will they go to maybe is Rudy is Rudy Cobert, is Rudy Gay at points like just their primary backup five. I think it's an interesting proposition, and I think they did well to get him. They're really they're glaring void is still just the athleticism on the wings. They need that bigger, quicker wing defender that they just don't have, and that comes with the caveat of every single team either needs that guy or wants more of those guys. I'm excited to see what Pascal can do as another offensive initiator creator on the second unit. If you have him with his ability to break down bigger defenders with the spin moves and the quickness, and you have Jordan Clarkson who can create a shot at the drop of a hat, and you have Rudy Rudy Gay floating on the wings ready to crash towards the board on a cut like this is an exciting second unit and we know how strong Utah starters are. I'm also excited to see what Hassan Whiteside can do with a little bit of defensive development. He has not really played alongside or behind a dominant defensive big basically forever, and we know that he has the natural physical talent to be a game changing force on that end. We've seen him do it in spurts where he can challenge for a triple double with blocks, but he's always been prone to chase rebounds at the expense of making the right box out player to chase blocks and set it up for an easy dump off and lay up while he's in the air. But practicing with Rudy Gobert a generational defensive presence every day, like if he is able to pick up a few little pieces, a few little nuggets that give him more discipline on that end. That could be a terrifying one two defensive punch. Yeah, and it's interesting how far I don't think they necessarily needed it, but it's just interesting how far Utah has leaned into shock creation because even Rudy Gay it's slow though at this point, but he can give you some of that. And then Eric hash Gal is a guy who wants to get to a spot in the mid range or post up. And remember, you know two years ago the biggest thing was the Jazz need extra shock creators, and now they just have them for no man of I'm not saying pash gallan Rutique are going to win them a playoff series. But it's just interesting how the dynamics of the froster has changed. I will say, would you argue there is I guess it's equal, not more, But there's like they haven't done anything to alleviate the pressure on Ruby Gobert correct defensively, No, they've not. I mean I think that you can more reasonably play White Side as like a ridiculously poor man Similochrum of his defensive impact and they didn't necessarily have that in the past, because even if Favors is a good interior defender, he's never been as comfortable switching out onto the perimeter providing those chase down blocks within the half court set that Gobert is so good at. So even if Whiteside is remarkably inferior on that end of the court, he at least offers them a chance to like play a somewhat similar style, and they haven't had that they really, I thought, and he's not the Josh Richardson that he was in Miami two years ago, but they had been able to pick up Josh Richardson or I thought this, I think this has more trade value at the moment. Maxi Kleiba or Josh Richardson both well, Maxi kle was still a Maverick, both Mavericks last year. Those are just two players where I'm like, I know you could do this with any player, but I was just looking at like mid end type players who could make a huge difference. And I'll do this a lot with all the teams with Utah's Like, if you put Maxi Kleiba or Josh Richardson on this team, I might be inclined to make them the West favorite next year, so it's just something to watch. I'm loving these questions about like we have some flagship market questions, but I'm loving these like non glamour market questions. And anyone who's here in the room wants to ask questions, We're not. We have questions for days here. Tee it up, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to get at us. Dustin asked, did Sacramento get better by trading the lawn Wright for Tristan Thompson? So, okay, your backup center minutes with Tristan Thompson and Alex lenn instead of us on Whiteside this year? Basically yes, but Delon Right is the better player then Tristan Thompson. Overall, it gives you more optionality my favorite word on defense, and he gives you more of a studying presence if you want to have him run the second unit. We saw it. Maybe not so much, you know, towards his talent of his time in Toronto, and maybe not a ton while he was in a Detroit, but like he can captain certain units against second stringers, and now you have davey On Mitchell there I get the move because you just had so many guards, Terrence Davis, davy On Mitchell, Daron Fox, and Tyrese Haliberton and Buddy Held by the way, who was not traded to the Lakers, like Buddy Heeled is a wing at this point for you because your only other, I would say real wing is actually Robert Wood the second. I mean they're gonna play Moharkless at the three or Harrison Barnes at the three. I like both those guys way better at the four. Maybe I'm not giving Kyle Guy enough credit here, but I it made sense for a fit and what their rotation needed based off their guard long jam. But I don't think they're a better team because they traded Delan Wright for Tristan Thompson, if that makes any sense. Yeah, I'm in a similar boat where I think it's mostly just a lateral moves in a vacuum. Delon Wright is a better player than Tristan Thompson. I'm not sure it's that close, but you do fill a bigger position of need with Thompson, and especially with Davion Mitchell coming into the fold, you open up more minutes for him and for Haliburton. This King's team, maybe it's ready to chase a playoff spot, a play in spot in the Western Conference. It's not a contender yet, so it's more beneficial for the Kings to open up the minutes for those younger guards to test themselves, to learn on the fly than it is to have the veteran backup point guard who's going to be a steadying force on a team that might not really need anything to be steadied quite yet. Can I ask a King's question absolutely, would you be in favor Tyri's Alibert and Daron Fox are not moved, keeping them not moved? Would you be in favor of them making one of the hypothetical traits for Ben Simmons or Pascal Siakam. I would not want to see Simmons on this team, I don't think, because taking the ball out of Fox's hands doesn't really make much sense. Siakam, though, yes, I think that that would be a nice move that expedites the timeline but still extends your window, especially if you're not giving Rashaun Holmes up in that deal, Like you could look Barns and Bagley as your salary to get Siakham and then flush it out with picks and Damian Mitchell probably so yes, I'm actually kind of with you. I wouldn't be if the price on Ben Simmons is right where it's like, you know, Harrison Barnes because the Sixers could use them, or Buddy Heeled is like your primary salary filler. You're not giving up a shit ton of picks. You could probably talk me into it, but I like sakham Here way better. The other name I thought of is if this team wants to be good but not making all in swing. I have no idea what the fox an antoniolways doing, but if they don't want to hold on if Thaddy is young, like yeah, what it's doing. I think it does because it got a bunch of stuff from the Bulls for Demarda Rosen while getting Demarda Rosen paid, So kudos to Maarda Rosen, one of the big winners of free agency. But if you could put Thaddy is Young on this team instead of Tristan Thompson as your primary backup five, I would be Farmers and Kings. But it doesn't matter because I'm not. I wanted Rashawn Holmes to get paid more. I think he's worth way more. But the Kings, the Kings themselves won the off season because they got Rashawn Holmes at just an absolute cut rate work. Look, I know he was gonna go for like eighteen to twenty million per year. Yeah, I said he was gonna get more than fifteen fifteen or more. And the fact that he didn't, I set the over under an eighteen like. And look, here's my other thing. I know he's older, he's twenty seven. I believe Jared Allen is twenty three. Jared On got five and one hundred. Rashaun Holmes gets four and forty six. That's just different circums. And he's a young We talked about this on a previous episode two where he's a young twenty seven, Like, he doesn't have the wear and tear that you'd find from a typical twenty seven year old getting paid for the first time. And look, if you asked me, and I know that Rashawn couldn't get a five year deal obviously, but if you asked me, if I wanted the next four years of Rashaun Holmes the next four years of Garrett Allen, I'm probably taking Rashawn Holmes. It's closer for me, but you know, I I am on alan skill set. That's enough about the Kings though. Tyson Mollusk MLISK asked, the Raptors now have like ten guys who are six nine with a seven foot plus wingspan. What does the math tell us about this type of roster construction. I think it's let's ask about what this says about their direction. I think the math says that they have a lot of guys who are six nine with a seven foot plus wingspan. There's not there's not a mathematical way to look at this. Beyond that, I would assume they're trying to be disruptive and ultra stingy on defense. Is just what this look the last time. The last time we saw a team pose with players showing off their wingspans across the entire length of the court, it was the Milwaukee Bucks. And you can check my notes here, but I believe the Milwaukee Bucks are the reigning champions, so like to me, this means that Toronto is going to win a title in like five years. I think that's what the math says. I that's foolproof, and that's idiot proof. That's a fantastic way of look at it I never did, so congratulations to the Raptors. More seriously, though, this seems right in line with just how they've always kind of wanted to build their Like you just look at having o Gianna Noby, you don't want to Nabe like taking a flyer and a guy like that. They've always liked these guys around that size and like not viewing Pascal Siakam as a center. So I'm very interesting what they wind up defense looked like. Defensively, I still think they're off season was just bizarre because they definitely could have gotten more for Kyle Lowry at the trade deadline. I just assumed that they kept him either meant he was they might keep him, that he wanted to come back, clearly he did not, or they were going to line up a better sign and trade option, which which they did not. This team is still going to be really good unless they busted up, which I don't think they should because you know, Scotty Barnes is a project. But Adam, I mean the minutes with I loved him as a prospect. Freddie Fred Freddie like like we're friends, Fred van Fleet, Scotty Barnes, O Gianna Nobi Pascal Siakam just Chris Bouche is gonna be just look Vic exactly I was gonna go, I was gonna I was gonna name the exact same quintet and say that Dan Vleet, I think is one of the most underrated defensive presences in the NBA. Barnes is ready to make an immediate impact on the defensive end, which is typically easier to do than to make an immediate offensive impact for a lot of these wing guys Ananobi and Siaka Bouche and like you can still throw fleet. That dude is an energizer. Another yeah, another switchable big like this, this roster is fun. Don't know how much upside it has in terms of like star power. You know, this guy is going to be a number one option. But this feels very much like two thousand and four Pistons kind of basketball where the pieces are so good and so malleable that they could be a legitimate title contender without a true star. That is a very apt comparison Like two thousand. They're just gonna be very smash mouth. It feels like I do wonder what they're shooting is gonna look like what kind of leads me to my question about the Raptors, which also leads into the question we have about the Dallas Mavericks. What are you doing with Goran Drag If you're the Raptors, and I want to make it clear that unless it's post trade deadline and you don't want him, weren't able to find a deal for him, you're not buying him out. It just doesn't make any sense. But as of right now, if you were Toronto, would you rather keep him or would you rather try and find a new home for him? I would keep him. I think he's actually a really good fit for this roster construction. Now I have serious worries about his long term ethic. See, because the decline seems so obvious. The explosiveness isn't quite there, the finishing at the rim has been diminished a little bit, the injuries have started to take a hold. But because he's going to be, in all likelihood a backup point guard on this team, you can deploy him in smaller bursts, get that explosiveness out of him because he isn't shouldering as large a burden and you're surrounding him regardless of who is on the court, with quality defenders who make sure that he doesn't have to expend too much energy on the side of the court he's less comfortable playing. It feels like a really good fit to me. It's an overpaid fit. But that's neither for a year there because he's on the roster. The I still think it's ridiculous that the Mavericks this is per reports. I think Tim McMahon said it on the Hoop Collective podcast that they don't want to give up Dwight Powell in a trade for God because Goring Drysh is overpaid, making almost as much as Dwight Powell or the next this season and next. Dwight Powell must have very good connections within the Mavericks organization if that's just the thought process there. I think is a good player. But yeah, I think gives them some North South jet fuel, which they need, like replaces that from Lowry, and I really think they need his in fury, his shooting. Just looking at the roster of this team, who are you counting on to shoot at a noticeably above average mark from three? Fred Van Fleet, j Gary Trent Junior and maybe og At this point it has deserved that type of credit. But like but even then, like those are just the corner of threes, Like you're not counting his hit him on him as a wingspacer, no, And like he can do more with the ball in his hands, but he's not hitting pull up jumpers yet. That's Van Fleet and Dragas at this point. Maybe Gary Trent Junior a little bit, but that's not really his forte. So I like his fit. But this is question comes from Miguel Zara. Who is your dream get for the Mavericks? Now, if we were talking about if we want to do like really pipe dreamy, if the Raptors decide to tear it down, Fred van Fleet makes too much sense for the Mavericks. Before we answer this question, can we stay with the actors for one second, because I actually want to ask you a van lead question. He has increased his scoring average every year in the NBA from two point nine to eight point six, to eleven point out to seventeen point six to nineteen point six. All of a sudden he finds himself on a roster where he is the unquestioned go to score. What is where do you set the over under this year? I mean, like, is twenty five points per game? Unreasonable here unreasonable, no a place to set the over under that seems a little high, just because you still do have Siakam there, who is probably just gonna get a higher usage or use more of the possessions as a passer. If not, like, if he's not taking more shots, that's a good, that's a you know, it's it's certainly possible. I'm curious. I don't know what Toronto aspires to be this season. So is this gonna be like minutes Shenanigans where him and Pascal Siakam if they stay there averagely, like twenty seven minutes a game or something like that. So if he played, I have no idea to expect zero. Kyle Lowry left, and I still have no idea what the Raptors are doing. Not in a way that I hate it. Again, I don't necessarily like the return on Lowry, but they're still a good team on paper. You kept as sigh that you know, I can't fail them for the off season if you kept MASSI so, and this seems like if you're picking a team in the NBA that no one is going to want to play, it's them or Miami. Yeah, not necessarily, I mean they're not. Those aren't the two best teams, but those are the teams on your schedule where you're like, wow, I better schedule some ice bass sessions after this game with you. And I don't think they should tear it down. I just mentioned that if you were the Mavericks, they probably don't have the assets to get Van Fleet if people became available, but the Mavericks have been at least interested in drawing it. They're apparently not interested in them at his current price point, but like it's for a season and they still need that type of player. I thought the Dallas fans have been so low on their off season. I love the Sterling Brown signing. They absolutely stole Reggie Bullock from the Knicks, who, by the way, my one quant here is and maybe you feel differently, but had the Knicks found a team to take on Kevin Knox's salary, they could have just carried Reggie Bullocks cap hold, done everything else that they did, and still resigned Reggie Bullock to the super reasonable contract he signed with the Mavericks. If you're not you're not gonna play Kevin Knox. Stop pretending that would have been a more palatable route. I'll get into that a little bit more. We have an RJ. Barrett question. But I like the Bullocks signing. He's just a perfect thing for Dallas. Moses Brown is the fun upside play and talked about playing in slow motion though, but he's he's actually monstrous. They should play him KP and Boban at the same time, just because if it's garbage. Also, yeah, good old organizational north star Dwight Powell apparently, So if I was trying to think of like a reasonable player that they could get, Draggage seems like the one who's the most gettable and I think works for them. I don't know if you just mentioned with the Raptors, where you have van Fleet, you have Siakam, you have you know, even having Gary Trent Junior, Malachai Flynn, it seems like they're built a little bit better to alleviate the pressure on Draggage better than Dallas is. But just because of how high usage Luca is, I don't think Drage would be like really big for them. Do you think of like any potential gettable player which it would have to happen via trade at this point, that could really alleviate I actually don't know that that fundamental assumption is true. I kind of like, given how much the price point seems to have fallen, here, a cheap layer on Dennis Shrewder. All Right, I actually really like that fit. If this team has struggled to have that creator behind Luca Jalen Brunson is a good, steady, low ceiling, high floor player, but it doesn't have that guy on the second unit who's going to take over offensively. Shrewder is not a perfect player. He's an extraordinarily flawed player who drastically misplayed his market this offseason. But that might work to Dallas's advantage if it can, you know, just throw out a flyer on him. From purely basketball standpoint, I really like that fit. It can't. I don't think it's gonna be them because they already use their mid level on block, so we're looking at him going there. I don't think they have their biannual, and if they do, at most he's gonna get there. It looks like it's certainly Brown get the biannual. Maybe he didn't, but at most he's not signing for the veterans minimum or the biannual. I don't know why. I don't have this mark down where they have in their spreadsheet, that's a that's a fucking I mean, unless there are just no chances left. He wants a chance where he knows that he's going to get minutes to showcase his offensive ability and part lay that into a bigger contract next year. At this point, it's a reasonable route for him to take if he if he's gonna get minutes and wants to sign a minimum by all means, if he's going to do that, go to the Boston Celtics. We just still have their mid level flowing around out there. Yeah, and that's totally fair too. But I don't think it's some like totally unrealistic option for this team. They could broke or a sign in trade. I just don't know who. I don't know who they have that the Lakers would want, especially when they do seem at least a little bit concerned I'm out there. Yeah, especially they seem at least a little b concerned about their tax bill, given that they did not resign Alex Carusoe, which was just that was a very interesting decision. You have Tim Hardily junior back, so sort of chasing a buddy heel trade like that, just I like that they've leaned into shooting, but I wouldn't go that route. There's like not a lot of players that spring to mind. Someone like a a danthy Melton or t Tias Jones doesn't really help you, even if Eric Bletso could be had for free, but you won't give up to hight Pal Also, never mind, that was a terrible suggestion by me. So like I just I don't know they need another shot creator still though, because that pressure is on. I thought one name I thought about was and this was before indianimated other moves to duct the tax, but like Jeremy Lamb just as someone who could get to his spots and shot really well from three last year when he was healthy. And they still sort of have this log jam of you know, guys who were good, not great, and he's going into the final year of his deal. So maybe something could be worked out there, but if you're trying to look at like realistic trade targets. And I think one of the issues here is that Dallas fans really he wanted more this offseason. What I'm gonna say, I'm here for the jokes because the Mavericks always missing free agency. It just there. What the options weren't out there? What did you want them to do? Only one team was gonna win the Kyle Lowry's Sweepstakes, And as far as I'm concerned, they remind me Heat won it four months ago, five months ago, in March, no long ago. That was. So I'm not gonna you know, I don't think the Mavericks did anything bad. They didn't. I don't think they necessarily strengthen their position in the West. But who did? Who in the Western Conference got noticeably by far and away better did the Warriors, even just by virtue of the rookies. And Kai will be back by January or whatever it is. Maybe, I mean Auto Porter is a good fit there, and you know that Clay is coming back. But no, yeah, so the name, I'll say this has been controversial whenever I bring him up. But he was one. He was shot fifty eight percent on drives before he was injured. Eric Gordon two years left on his deal, a little under I think thirty nine million if I'm the Mavericks. Oh wait, it's probably gonna cost to Powell's never mind. But look, in all seriousness, if you can get if Dwight Powell and really call hesteine is the cost for maybe a small asset for Eric Gordon just because Powell has that second year left on this deal. I'm doing it. I like it. You're not gonna have cap space moving forward anyway unless you're you know, clearing the deck in a huge amount of way, and you just need somebody like Eric Gordon at least he'll open up the floor more even if the ball is not his hands, but just someone else other than Jalen Brunton to put some real pressure on the defense outside of Luca obviously. And that's no knock on bruntson again, Like it's just he's the low ceiling, high floor guy and you need more than that with this team. Yeah. So my dream get for the Mavericks, like I said, would be Van Fleet, but they can't get my dream. So I would say pony up for dragets at this point, or can you look at an Eric Gordon type player? No one cheap comes in mind. You mentioned Shrewder, which I think is if you really wanted to say fuck the money, I'm going to try and build up my stock, and the Mavericks are like, we will guarantee you twenty eight to thirty two minutes a game or whatever. Then yeah, maybe he considers it, which they very well could do. They could guarantee him. That's a reasonable guarantee given this roster control. But look, and I have no problem trolling him for this. Normally I wouldn't for NBA players because I wanted the vernon as much money as possible. But Dennis shrewder Anti vactor turning down an eighty four million dollar extension and then ending up with what would be the minimum or something would be objectively hilarious. So and I'm assuming it was his decision to turn down that extension. I can't imagine. Maybe I'm assigning too much credit to his agent, but I'm assuming that that was a you know, kind of a Nerlist Noel situation circle. What was that twenty seventeen whatever it was where he turned down that from the Mavericks. Let's get these last couple of questions here. This one's interesting. Do you predict any breakout players for the Orlando Magic this season? M I really liked what I saw from Cole Anthony towards the end of the season. It seemed like he gained a lot of confidence in his shot creation ability, Chumo Peki is better than people realize. Wendell Carter Junior is going to be an obvious name because there's not really any biggs to take away minutes from him Jonathan Healthy except for Isaac Mobamba Robin Lopez, there are no high upside biggs to take away minutes from him. I mean, this roster has so many pieces who could answer that question. You know, we still haven't mentioned RJ Hampton or Marquel Foltz. I haven't mentioned the number five pick well because it's I feel like it's hard for it to be a breakout when they're entering as the number five pick. All right, that's fair. I wasn't to ask you. The open was very intentional, that's fair. The over under on Jalen Sucks's points per game was set the last I saw at sixteen. How are you not who is taking the shots for this team? Like, they have a lot of guys who are better with the ball in their hands, but no one who's going to actively take it out of Jalen Sucks's hands. But I please continue, I apologize for interrupting you on the non number five pick. Guys. No, I mean, there are just so many different options, and it feels like this magic team is not going to be good, but it's going to be fun and feisty. This it doesn't have that established star who's going to carry it into postseason contention. But you know, looking up and down this roster that it's just one guy after another who's fighting for minutes, who's fighting for a chance to stay in an NBA rotation, and that matters. This is going to be one of those classic plays hard, every single night teams that is going to make it tougher for you to beat them than your typical lottery bound Eastern Conference squad should. Yeah, I'm hoping. I'm hoping it's RJ. Hampton just for my selfish agenda purposes. I could also see it being you already mentioned Humo Kiki. I feel like there's a chance they might explore plumb the depth of his ball skills, just based off how this roster is built. So those would be my two picks. I would love for it to be Wendel Carter Junior, but I'm just curious, or even Mo Bamba. I'm just curious, like, what does the signing of Robin Lopez about their faith in their bigs. Maybe they just don't think Isaac is going to be healthy, so they wanted a third, you know, true center on the roster. And I know Isaac's not a true center, but he could definitely play the five. Now, yeah, I mean Carter is dealt with injury issues too. Isaac has obviously dealt with a lot of injury issues, So I don't mind that just from a minute's management perspective to Let's get to these last two questions. Which team, Oh, I'm sorry this question comes from Andres Oh, no, excuse me, this question comes from Juwan. What team with high expectation is going to have the most disappointing season this year. I'll let you answer that one. First. I think I have to go right to the top of the ladder, and the two odds on favorites on basically every Vegas betting market are the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers, And it feels like they're the deserving favorites at this stage, even though the Bucks are coming off a title and the Suns are coming off the NBA Finals appearance. But I still have major question marks about the sustainability of this Brooklyn rotation where there's so much talent, but you're relying on increasingly older pieces. There wasn't enough done to remedy the defensive holes on this team. I mean, if you give more minutes to Nicholas Claxton, sure that helps. Is James Johnson going to be a difference maker for the defense here? Now you're going to be giving minutes to Patty Mills as well, who's another offense first, definitely not going to do much on the defensive end. So there's so much talent, just an overwhelmingly ridiculous amount of offensive production, but it all has injury concerns, as we saw with Kevin Durant and James Harden and Tyrie Irving all getting hurt at separate portions or having to be worked in to the rotation and try to piece together chemistry in these vitally important playoff series. So the Nets, I think they should have the at odds, but there is a potential for a lot to go wrong here. The Lakers case, I think is even easier to make, where it's another team that has so much talent that it's overwhelming just for again, from a sheer talent perspective, is Russell Westbrook a good fit alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. We don't really know. It doesn't seem ideal. I would lean strongly toward no. Anthony Davis hasn't stayed healthy in a long time. Lebron had the most significant injury of his career and wasn't necessarily able to reach that same ridiculously lofty level in the postseason that felt inevitable in years past. There isn't that much depth, and the depth that it does have again has those age concerns, like for all the trolling that's done, for all the jokes that are being made enough to prompt Lebron to tweet about it and then subsequently delete the tweet. This is an old team and it should be concerned about the ages throughout the roster because that does matter coming off yet another wordened off season. So yeah, it feels like those two have to be the answers. It's interesting because it's tough for me to imagine them being bad, and I can't view any teams season through title or bust terms where the Lakers to me are just going to be really good and so of the nets. But it is interesting and I agree with you that as far as title favorites go. Both of them are combustible in very different ways. If the Nets are healthy, I do think they're they are inevitable if they're healthy, but that's kind of a big and it's even an if with James Harden just because of how many miles around his treads at this point, because you've been an iron man for so long. Is this hamstring stuff gonna linger? Is at a harbinger or something else. Kevin Drat has half the games last season. I imagine that was more out of precaution, but he hasn't achilles injury. In his review, he's fantastic. He basically just won the United States and gold medal. So and then Kyrie River, He's always just dealing with stuff. It's like never a chronic injury. It's just injuries, plural all over the place. Son sometimes not even injuries. And the Lakers, I would argue, the Lakers that would argue, are more combustible because even if they're healthy, there's that fit with Russ where it's okay, you'll be good, but your level of good or your level of great is capped because if that's not the perfect fit, if he doesn't start doing more stuff, off the ball, you have issues there, and then there's also just the injury concerns. He by the way he dealt he was playing through a torn quad last year and was not good until he healed. It's like he's not just looking at the miles on his treads. Lebron is going into his age thirty seven season like that sounds like a typo? Can you sound like a typo? That sounds like a typo? And then Anthony Davis is just I don't know if he's injury prone because like when he sat out his final season with the Pelicans, a lot of the time it was that was shenanigans we can call. But he seems just parentally banged up. Even when he's playing, he's always on the ground. It scares the shit out of me. So I agree with you that those two teams are combustible. I looked at as the team that tried to improve the most this season that might be disappointed, and I think it's the Bulls. I wouldn't say they're losers of the offseason because I love Alonzo balls fit, I love out the Alex Caruso signing. I don't even hate the idea of Demarda rosen as someone who and this is what Kobe White and Lonzo Ball aren't gonna do. They're not steadying the offensive ship without Zach Lavine on the court. But Demardar rosen Ken, just how do you fit all your best players together? Demarda rosen Vooch Levine. I think Lavine has gotten better on defense, mostly on ball though that when you look at those three guys, it is a wealth of really bad off ball defense that puts an awful lot of pressure on Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso. If you're rounding out that five they are when you look at their top six or seven players, they're they're mega interesting. But I think, can you say, and this is where this is. This is the problem in the East is the middle class is so deep. If you say Philly, Miami, Milwaukee and Brooklyn are the top four, do you think in Lanta belongs in that lock tiers for the playoffs? Okay, those five teams are locked. Now let's go. There are probably three teams that are definitely worse than the Bulls Detroit, Cleveland and Orlando. That's seven teams are left. Six others than the Bulls, which of those teams. Are the Bulls definitely sure going to be better than I can't? If you want to, I'll go through the Pacers, No, the Nick the Knicks, probably not, the Celtics, probably not. The I would put the Wizards in that category. I think I just I Spencer Dimwitty with Bradley Beale, Kuzma KCP. I could say, look, they would probably be the team with like the best chance, but like, okay, fine, that's one Charlotte. Are you throwing Charlotte in there same situation? I think so, Toronto. You're you could convince me the Bulls are better than Toronto, but if they keep it together, I'm probably picking the Raptors over the Bulls. And I think, look, there's there's risk here because you chose not to renegotiate and extend Zach Levine, even though he was clearly open to it. I get that decision. You match the contract team went and signed on the open market. It's not your responsibility to just give him more money. Now you wouldn't have been able to add players, but he's going to be a free agent now in twenty twenty two. You've traded the number eight pick in this year's draft. Your two twenty two pick and your two twenty four pick, that's like, those are excuse me, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty five. I'm getting my years mixed up here. Those are real issues. And if you miss out on the play like, you could convince me that they don't even make the playoffs. There's a path to them not making the playoffs without them dealing with any real absences or injuries. I think there's also a chance that they could be the sixth seed. I don't think that they're gonna better than any of the five teams we just mentioned, and I'd argue they finished lower than six, but they're the team that just feels like they have high expectations and they're very high risk and this season could end up imploding all over their faces. Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I'm probably a little bit higher on the fits than you are, but it's a totally reasonable take. I would argue, though, that if we're looking at the team that expects to improve and might not buy as much as it expects, it might be Miami. I would not want to play the heat. They're going to be brutally difficult to score against but the shooting is really questionable. How much are you banking on Kyle Lowry as he moves deeper into his thirties in a new location for the first time in forever, learning a new system without much point guard depth behind him Like that has to be a legitimate nagging fear in the back of Miami's mind. As much as we all love Kyle Lowry and respect the hell out of what he's been able to do in Toronto, that is not a guaranteed star for this team, especially without a lot of shooting to space things out for him. Beyond that, build the best second unit for me. Assuming that Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, PJ Tucker and bam Adebayo are the starters, which is objectively a great tough starting lineup without much shooting. But build a second unit for me, well, so am I allowed to use when he comes back in the middle of the season. Victor Ladipo, Sure, Victor Ladipo, Tyler, Hero, Mark, Keith Morris, Dwayne Deadman, and probably Gave Vincent or Max Strus or Opaula maybe, But still like that is this There is not a lot of depth here. For an older team because aside from dam and Duncan Robinson, like you're counting on mid thirties, Kyle Lowry mid thirties, Jimmy Butler mid thirties, PJ. Tucker, and then some older backups as well. There there is a lot of potential for things to go south quickly in South Beach. Wow Toche. Would you put them though, in the same category as the Bulls that feel excuse more to no, I would like it, but I don't think the Bulls have as much expectations either. Like I do think that Miami feels like a playoff lock. But if we're evaluating this team in terms of championship potential, which is the only way that we can evaluate it after making an all in play for Kyle Lowry like this, I don't know that they're close to that. Yeah, So I might put them in like they're not in the same tier. But like we were talking about the Lakers and the Nets problems, they're kind of the same because we were talking about hell yeah, and then it's similar to the Lakers where I think they have enough shoo yars now, but Miami shooting is extreme. If you place a bet on Miami winning a title this season. That's somewhat reasonable. There's enough talent and there's great coaching on the sidelines that like it could happen. I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't either. Yeah, I totally get what you're saying there. Let's get to this last question, which is the question I've been waiting for Nick's for life, asked based on RJ. Barrett's leap in his second year, what will his numbers most likely look like in year three? Historically do players take another leap in their third year. The latter question I didn't even look into. You could go into year over year improvements, but growth, to me isn't year. There's not a recipe for player development. What I do find interesting with RJ. Barrett is he did improve at both ends of the floor by a demonstrative margin from year one to year two, where he shot better than forty percent from three. I know he wasn't hitting off the dribble jumpers, but he was just a spacing liability. In year one thirty two percent from beyond the arc. He went from forty point one percent in year two. And the other thing I don't know that I've ever seen well all right, I don't want to overstate that he was really good defensively for a sophomore. And what's gonna be interesting? I'm wondering. I've tried to talk myself into the rationale between preferring, and I get the logic behind. Oh, Alec Burks is more shot creation than Reggie Bullock. No, one's no, well, more defense by the rim than Reggie Bullock, obviously, and you don't know what's going on with Mitchell Robinson whatever. Reggie Bullock was their best perimeter defender last year, and he routinely covered the toughest, highest hugs assignments outside of point guards because by default that was Alfred Payton a lot which was a disaster, and Reggie Bullock took on some of those players. You've now decided that RJ. Barrett is going to take on the toughest wing, have you not? Who's the other player on this roster that is guarding the toughest wing. I don't have an answer. Is it? Is it Alec Burks? It's not. It's not even fortier like, so is it Quentin Grimes. I don't think he's gonna be ready for that. So to me, they've decided that RJ. Barretts basically a three, which is, you know, maybe that's fine. Now, I'm curious to see whether he can hold up there. I think we need to see more improvement from him on the ball. He's really good off the ball already. I think he's fine on the ball, but it's different if you have to cover stars and a more regular basis. Now when you're looking at his improvement on offense, here's what I'm curious to see. They are two different players because Jason Tatum in his first two years was taking pull up jumpers at a higher rate, But during his first two seasons he shot very poorly on pull up threes and they accounted for fewer than eleven percent of his shot in each season. RJ. Barrett is at an even lower frequency five percent in his rookie year, and then pull up three's accounted for just one point nine percent of his looks in his sophomore year. He did have sixteen point four percent of his overall looks come as pull up jumpers. That is the pathway to RJ. Barrett becoming a superstar. Does he have a pull up jumper and whether he becomes a damar Derosen with defense or an actual Jason Tatum compares him, comp whatever, and it's probably not the best camp is does the off the dribble range extend to beyond the arc because we've never seen tomar be able to hit threes in general. R J. Barrett's like kind of in between where I think you can see he gets to his spots in the mid range. Sometimes can be aggressive attacking the rim, but he's not taking off the dribble threes. I don't know if I love the license to do that this year, because I think less of the offensive onus is now on him, following the additions of Kemba Evan Fournier, bringing out Burke's back, bringing Derek Rows back, Whereas Jason Tatum in his year three he shot the lights out on pull up threes and they accounted for a crap ton how many times we're gonna say a crapton on this podcast. But they were a huge share of his off Yeah, they were a huge shair of his offense. I don't know that that's going to be the case for Barrett, but I do think based off what we saw last season, there is a path to start them, and it's almost a fairly obvious one. It's does RJ. Barrett have a pull up jumper? That's really what feels like is set. We want to see that the defensive improvement is for real. I get that, but that feels like the one barrier separating him from that star trajectory. Right now. I'll go quickly here because I do want to accommodate the speaker request we just received. But I do think this has the potential to be one of those situations where declining or stagnating per game numbers might give a misleading impression, because I don't think that he's going to score more than seventeen point six points per game this season given the additions and resignings that were made. Kemba Walker is going to need touches, Derrick Rose is going to need touches. Emmanuel Quickly is going to need more touches. Evan Fournier is a score first player. Julius Randall is back. You're probably gonna want to see more from Sha Robinson on the offensive end, but we're probably going to see a better We're probably I think I mentioned him right, Oh, but I think sorry, I think we're going to see a better version of Barrett, because there's more defensive responsibility, because he's getting smarter operating as an off the ball score, because he's developing as a willing passer. It just might not necessarily be reflected in the per game numbers. So more useful player. But I don't know that we're going to see that star turn this season, just given the newfound depth of the offensive options in New York. I do that was gonna say really quickly. That's a great point, and you could argue that if RJ. Barrett is averaging seventeen eighteen, nineteen twenty points a game next season, that's something has actually gone wrong in New York. I agree. I agree. I am gonna bring you on now, Alex Edwards. Welcome to the show. How's it going today, Hi, thank you for having me on. Yeah. Absolutely, I'm going to assume that you want to weigh in on the Knicks stuff here a little bit. Yeah, all right. I thought it was interesting because, well, at the time when the Clippers resigned Nick the twomb, I was just of the assumption that Reggie Jackson was going to get let go. So I thought that offers would be coming in from the Knicks, and I didn't know that they had the money at the time to resign Reggie Jackson. So I thought that the Knicks should make a play at Reggie Jackson. And it might be more of a hot take, but I feel like he's a better player. Thank him a Walker. That might be a little bit of recency bias or whatever you would want to call it, but I'm just surprised that they didn't really make an offer or at least, you know, try to get him. Then I'll let you take this one. No, no, thank you for weighing in there. Yeah, I think I wouldn't call. Look, if Kim was left knee is just shot, which it might be, then yes, Reggie Jackson's a better player. Although Keim's baseline nineteen points, five assists, thirty six percent three point shooting, that's pretty high. I think you could argue Reggie Jackson might be a better fit off the ball than a Kemba Walker, and that could have been maybe more interesting for this team. I would argue that, and I'm assuming this is how they didn't know that the Kemba Walker stuff was happening. I would rather have signed Reggie Jackson for this team than Derrick Rose, especially after the Kemba Walker signing and knowing you want to develop quickly and RJ Barrett just because I think he is better off the ball, they didn't have the money to do it. After resigning Derrick Rose, the Clippers gave him more using early bird rights, and I'm just again, I'm assuming because of what they gave Derrick Rose. I know it's only to guarantee years, but you know, three years forty three million dollars in some it's pretty big cost for Derrick Rose right now. I think my guess is that they even even if they knew it was in the ether, that they were even fairly surprised that Okase ended up buying out Kemba Walker. That didn't seem like something that came together until, like you know, within forty eight hours. Just from my outside perspective, also knowing how Okayse operates, I agree with you, and I would just add the reason I don't think Rose is necessarily as good a fit for this team as Reggie Jackson. As much as he revitalized this offense down the stretch last season, you know you and I both were elevating him towards the top of our six man of the year conversation, do you want to count on the shooting being sustainable? Because he's a career thirty one point one percent three point shooter, he had never before topped the forty percent mark. So yeah, he shot forty one point one percent on threes on two point six per game over the thirty five game stretch that he spent in New York, and then followed that up by shooting forty seven point one percent in the playoffs, albeit in an even grief or stretch. Do you want to count on that given all of the history, And I don't think that you do. I just don't think that you can reasonably rely on that type of production. Once again, you can count on the basket attacking, you can count on them breaking down defenses, But in terms of pull up jumpers and floor spacing ability, that's probably where you should be focusing more for this Knicks team, right And look, it's it's easy to look back on it. I still wouldn't have given Derek Rose that deal, just to be clear, but it's easy to look back. After the Kemba Walker signing, I think he's much less of a great fit with the Knicks Following the Kimba Walker signing, but we'll see how their minist distribution goes. And look just between the injuries that both Kemba and Derek Rose have in their rearview, maybe this is sort of just a give and take tuck of war type thing where between them you can get eighty two games of point guard play. Like, maybe that's the situation that Nicks are entering. This was great though, Thank you for everyone who strolled through in the room and asking questions. This was a rough podcast for Adam. We appreciate him soldiering through despite the breaking news a week later that Grant Roller was no longer two days later. Two days later. Let's give me a little bit more credit there. It was only two days. It feels like it was for whatever it was reported on August six, because I immediately looked it up that they were waiving the free agency rights. Well, and we're recording on August eight, so let's math is way off. If you guys are new to the fold, we are Hardwood Knox. Check us out wherever you get your podcast, just search Hardwood Knox ratings, reviews, download every episode. We really appreciate it all, especially on iTunes. If you leave us a rating and write a review. We will love you eternally. We'll probably love you eternally anyway, just for the fact that you're listening. Follow us on Twitter at Hardwood Knox. Follow us on Instagram at Hardwood Underscore Knox. We're also on TikTok at Hardwood Knox. Believe it or not, we are everywhere. Thank you, Alex, great podcast in the chats, that was just worth it. For that, We appreciate everyone listening. Until next time, well if everyone with the shout out to two players who should absolutely be on NBA teams right now, Grant Riller, Frank Nielkina and then Grant Riller again because this is Adam Show. Condolences, you have my sympathies. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I thought I thought I texted you my condolences. I'm a bad, bad friend slash co host. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll catch you next time out.