What is krak a lacing fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am at Dana Valley,
back from vacation, and we're ready to podcast, going to do some
news and rumored catch up, trying to get to a mailbag at the end
so that Grant and I can focus when we start recording again, I think
it's probably time for like an awards check in on our part, that we
don't need to focus on some of the stuff that happened since we last recorded.
I hope everybody enjoyed our positional Ranking series. If you haven't already checked
it out, go check it out. The response was actually pretty positive,
I would say for the most part, some good debates, good discussions.
Wasn't really surprised by any of the maybe some of the compliments. Wasn't really
surprised by any of the It wasn't a lot of vitrol did find it.
The only thing that kind of surprised me is the number of people that even
though we noted, yes, we know positions are kind of obsolete, they're
thorny now, that people still kind of complained about that, or you know,
noted on Twitter, my DMS or in the YouTube comments about that.
Or noted. Why would you just do bigs wings guards again? Open for
We knew all this going in Grant and I, as much as anyone,
understand how positions have changed. We thought it was a fun exercise and it
made for a good discussion. We might shift it when we do it again
next time. I think we're gonna do some crowdsourcing at some point if we
do it over the off season or same time next year. But go check
it out if you've not done so already. So let's get into some news
and notes. I'll do what I can for the news and notes, and
then get into some as many mail bag questions as I as I can after
that. In the time allotted, let's start with where do we want to
start here? Let's just begin with Mitch Kupcheck leaving. Well, he didn't
leave. He is transitioning into a consultant's role with the Charlotte Hornets. Long
time coming. It felt like this was sort of inevitable. Letting him go
through the trade deadline not so problematic. There's other people in place, and
the Charlotte Hornets had a really, really good trade season just because Terry Rozier
was moved before the trade deadline to get to very loosely protected post twenty twenty
five first round picks for moving PJ. Washington, for moving Terry Rogier,
that's a big deal. I thought the value on Gordon Hayward was perfectly fine.
I think based off how you've seen some of these people, some of
the new faces playing kind of shows you how bare bones they were at the
time they've been. They looked they've been. The Ross have been pretty banged
up as well, not just LaMelo Ball, but like Mark Williams, is
he gonna play again this season? So I liked their the actual business,
the value they got was good, and cup Check leaving I think is also
another signal in a line of many, which is what the bigger deal was
to me, Even more so than the value, is that this team is
thinking bigger picture under new owners Rick Nall and Gay Plockin. Who Gay Plockin,
you know he was part of that Melvin Capital business with game Stop.
I actually just recently watched Dumb Money because we had to cut our vacation,
our trip short by like four days. Nothing was terribly wrong, but we
didn't need to cut it short. So I had a little bit of extra
time on my hands. Rest ashured I was working again. As soon as
we got home. My wife was just so angry. She knew it was
gonna happen. But hey, we try to unplug. I can't do it.
I think we're all kind of the same in this day and age.
But yeah, so Gayplokin in Dumb Money, he's not No, he's not
a he's not a protagonist. I would say in that, in that movie,
or in that whole game, stop business. But the direction of this
franchise, I think you can appreciate where it's headed and you kind of look
at the bones now in place, you have some extra first round equity,
you have LaMelo Ball. Hopefully Mark Williams is going to be healthier moving forward.
Brandon Miller, he's comfortably I think at this point, given some of
the slippage from Jaime Hawks, he's just moved into the Rookie of the Year
pull. I haven't gone through it, but we know there's wemb and chat
on one level. Brandon Miller to me, you have to pencil him in
his number three. They are probably still cases to be made, and we
have a whole quarter of the season to go through, but you have this
asset base. You have some extra first round picks, so you're gonna get
another high lottery pick this year. They're actually projected to have the number one
pick as of as of right now, but they will they will land in
the top three, top four. That's a big deal, and you can
have a ton of cap space this summer. And I'm not saying they should
go out and try and sign free agents. A lot's gonna have to do
with the Miles Bridges free agency sweepstakes, or even gonna call it that.
Do they keep him? But if you get rid of his hole to renounce
him, you could be working with thirty million dollars about in room. And
that's not money. I would say, hey, go spend. Yeah,
you want to take a shot on a younger guy or restricted free agent that's
going to intrigue you, sure go ahead do that. Otherwise, that's money
that can be used to facilitate other moves, taking on some unwanted money.
They can also go that route sort of leading into the draft. If teams
are looking to kind of cut last minute tax money. You have that Davis
Berton, you can fuck around with the he's I think partially guaranteed like five
million or whatever it is next year. You can fuck around with that so
that you can accept more inbound money for him and help alleviate in other team's
bill. There are a lot of things that they can do, and I
think the bigger thing here is that they appear willing to do them, to
be a little bit more creative, to not think outside the box, but
to take the more gradual approach understanding that, Yeah, there'll be rumblings about
La Melo Ball's future because that's how it works with small markets, which really
sucks. But you have him, he signed his extension. You don't need
to rush this, you don't need to show undue urgency. And so I
appreciate, you know, Mitch kupcheck him transitioning into a consult role. That's
just another proof of concept that things feel like they're going to be different.
I don't know if the end result will be different, but it feels like
the end game, the planned endgame, is different than it was under Michael
Jordan, and that's a good thing. Let's see who they wind up filling
filling that role with full time moving forward this offseason. Let's see what happens
the head coaching situation. I think for where they're at, unless he's completely
miserable or just not resonating with the players, and you're gonna have so many
new faces in there that I don't even think you can use this season as
evidence one way or the other. I'm fine with Steve Clifford being in Charlotte.
I love Steve Clifford, and he does generally in the past, has
gotten guys to defend hard and we'll gobble up a lot of the low hanging
fruit on the defensive end. So if you need him as a placeholder for
another year or so, given where you're at, I don't think that's the
end of the world. If you want to go out and get somebody different,
fine, totally understand that. But Mitch Kupchak transitioning into that consultant's role,
which is just basically like a save face type of thing for both both
parties in general, I just feel like that's, you know, forget about
cup Check's body where Look, he had a good trade deadline. You have
to give him at least some credit for that. So I'm more about just
the overall bigger picture of Charlotte. I don't know that I felt this good
about the franchise's direction since they kind of had like and it was you kind
of knew it was fleeting a fremerle at the moment with you know, Al
Jefferson, Kemba Walker, that team that really pushed Miami to the brink in
the first round. That was a teamas high on the halcyon days of Marvin
Williams and even when Nicholas Batoum was still good and not maybe trying to get
his way to LA Although was that pre Nicholas Batom It might have been I
can't remember. It was so long ago, but I haven't felt this good
about the Charlotte Hornets over arching direction in over a half decade, closer to
a decade at least. Another personnel note, the Brooklyn Nets fired jacque Vaughn
dismissed Jaquvaughan whatever immediately after the All Star Game. Not surprising based off the
results you've seen from this season. You've had mchel Bridges kind of bristling publicly.
Even Cam Thomas has had like not the most flattering comments about it,
and he's had more agency under jaqu Vaughn, but they've butted heads in the
past because of his role the lack of consistency, the lack of volume behind
it not as much of an issue this season, but it didn't seem like
everything was hunky dory there. You look at the personnel, you look at
their record, where they are in the standings. I don't know what jacqu
Vaughn was supposed to do differently. If he really was trying to plan around
Ben Simmons for the offense, that's something that's just a flaw at this point,
that that's a bug that's not even close to a feature because you can't
bank on Ben Simmons being healthy enough, sitting twelve games under five hundred and
outside of the play though, I think you can argue that they have underachieved
and even their defense is just their offense. It always felt like it could
be weird with the lack of patented primary creators where it's okay, like Michal
Bridges can do stuff, Cam Thomas can do something, and you had Spencer
Dinwiti at one point, but there's no one that can do everything be the
primary score and also primary playmaker. That person does not exist on this team.
Even Cam Thomas has gotten a little bit better as a passer in recent
stretches. That's just not like the offense. It just felt like there was
no true I don't want to use the word coherence, but or even philosophy,
but maybe I like identity underlying identity. It felt sort of empty and
hollow. And then just the defense, when you look at their personnel,
it feels like they should be just a lot better in that category. I
know they've had some injuries, but mostly on the front line, so I
don't have an issue with them making this move now. People were maybe taken
aback by the timing. There are a variety of reasons you do it now,
and I think the primary one is you want to see You want to
give Kevin Alie a real tryout, like an extensive sample, without really committing
to him long term, and so this allows you to do that for a
little bit more than the quarter of the season. So that's something that will
make a lot of sense. As my lights are flickering behind me, there
might be a ghost in my office right now for anyone who's watching on YouTube.
The other reason you do this is I don't know if it kind of
signals that Sean Marks is on the hot seat now, because you would argue
well, why would you let him go through the trade deadline and then this
make the coaching change now rather than make everything at once. Maybe you want
to because there's not progress he can make with this roster like transactionally, if
there's anything that they do on the buyout market, it's just nothing he is
going to do that Sean Mark can do right now is going to sway you
on whether he alongs in Brooklyn long term. Now there are reports that he
still has the trust of Josi. I still believe that. I'm not sure
how married he was the idea of bringing in all those superstars to Brooklyn,
but that's not to display he was culpable and once they came there, just
not handling things and turning over way too much the franchise to them. So
not absolving him of any blame. But you put Kevin Allie in this position
because you want to evaluate him. And I also think you make this move
now because it shows that maybe you do don't hold me do this. Maybe
they get rid of Sean Marks over the off season, but I think you
almost do it now to prove or it shows that you have faith in Seawan
Mars to make this higher. He's gonna go about the evaluation process with Kevin
Alie see what he has in this roster as well to where well, maybe
it wasn't just a Jacques long Von thing. It was more about the faults
and foibles of the roster. And then you not only build out your coaching
search from there, but then you build out how you're gonna handle yourself over
the off season when it comes to not just addressing needs in free agency and
as part of trade acquisitions, but well do we can selling doesn't need to
be a bigger move, you know, in parlay some of this Dallas draft
equity Phoenix draft equity into getting a someone who is better than McHale Bridges.
At the bare minimum, I would argue, you need probably two someone's that
are better than McHale Bridges. I'd probably one someone is fine as long as
they're like top ten, top fifteen material. But mckel Bridges I would still
think I'm holding out hope for him to be a number two, but he
might be closer to a two point five or a three. So that's going
to inform all of this. And so I understand why you make this move,
and you're it's sort of it's not low stakes. It's getting out in
front of something that was kind of deemed inevitable. I think Jock von though
he had quite a bit of guaranteed money left on his deal, like in
terms of years and money, so good for him. He should still he
should still get paid and he's performed well and just in Brooklyn, like in
various, I know that they didn't close the season that it was everyone was
caught up in look at what Michal Bridges is doing, and the nets still
kind of slipped put the body of work beforehand fueled their their place, cemented
them into that sixth spot. But he's he, you know, I think
he handled just some less than ideal circumstances during his time in Brooklyn. This
season was just unimpressive. I don't fault him specifically for it. If players
were unhappy with how the offense is being run, or just what's going on
with the lineups, of the direction or the identifying philosophies, then yeah,
that's a big that's a big issue for sure, and this is just a
team to monitor moving forward. They're super interesting except when you really watch them
play, like there are just moments. This is not a team that I've
enjoyed watching this season. It'd be cool if Ben Simmons was healthier. You've
seen kind of flickers and flashes of what they could be, especially in the
open floor, and Cam Thomas has been fun. Everyone knows how I feel
about Nick Claxton. I still really like mchal Bridges, even though his defense
has slipped and we haven't seen him make the offensive leap or even really take
on the same offensive role that he had for half of last year. Just
a team to watch now, though, because of the situation that they're in
of well, Houston owens our draft rights, but we have a ton of
our own Phoenix picks. Could we make a consolidation train of our own could
be look at selling and maybe get some of our own picks back from Chuston
itself. They're approaching it feels like a variety of potential pivot points over the
next six months or so. Other news here before we get to the mailbag.
What else did we miss? Well while I was gone, I'm sure,
I'm sure it'll spring to me. Well, look, we should wait
into the All Star discourse. I'll give my two cents very quickly. I'll
try and limit it to five minutes. I know people don't want to hear
more about this, and I am recording this. You'll get a previews snippet
of it. I'm going to talk a little bit about Timberwolves shortly, but
I am recording this before I now have a string of family obligations, including
a wedding. So this is being recorded on a Friday and it will be
released on The full episode will be released on a Monday. But the All
Star stuff clearly outdated by then. I'm just I'm not really I understand that
the game needs to be more competitive, and I didn't watch it. It's
one as soon as they move the All Star Game to after the trade deadline,
under the trade deadline before the All Star Game. That freed people like
myself up to maybe take some time off the middle of the season. I've
always done a really bad job of doing that. This year I did it.
I didn't watch any of the I didn't watch any of the you know
All Star Saturday Night. I missed the dunk contest. I didn't see Sabrina
versus Steph. Did see in retrospect that that was great. I didn't watch
any of the game. I saw the score clearing two hundred points for the
ease. Congratulations to them. I saw Adam Silver get big mad than people
were complaining about it. How do we get players invested? I saw some
people talking about will give them more money? They get paid already for more
money, and just like it has to be commeasure it with you know,
the n season tournament. They got paid more, but that like included more
obligations. And then Dan Feldman of dunked On kind of noted in his Daily
Dunks that when you pro rate it that the All Star Game is actually kind
of worth more like in a vacuum, than it was to go through the
play in tournament. These guys are making so much money, especially when you're
dealing with running about entire teams. Now we're dealing with the cream of the
crop. I don't know that money's ever going to be an incentive. And
you have players, media members, the league itself worried about it being competitive.
You have we've heard that there have been conversations Andre Gadala talk to players.
I think Joe Dumars was worried about it and they thought there was going
to be buying. Then you talk about players or players talk about how it
needs to be competitive, and then they come out after and say, yeah,
it wasn't competitive, we wish it was, but we're happy that nobody
got injured, and like, I get it. And so it's just you
don't want to see someone suffer an injury. You don't want to see,
you know, granted Paul George was playing from tm USA at the time,
but something catastrophic like that leg injury or even something is you know, like
when we had the broken Nos fiasco, like how many years ago. As
a ten plus at this point, you don't want to see that happen in
the All Star Game. And I do. I honestly think the demands on
the players during the weekend make it so that it's never even a rest for
them, and so then they're trying to squeeze in their rest and they're going
to travel immediately after. And we're even seeing it now where Lebron's going to
miss the Lakers first game back, and you know it's because it's, yes,
he's listed he has an injury, but it's actually because they're going to
extend as All Star break is basically how I'm viewing it. And we've seen
that happen before. I believe, so I don't know how to fix it.
I think there are things you could do to make Saturday night more interesting.
Let's see more of the Steph versus Sabrina stuff. That was really cool.
I am among the throng of people that want to see the Shooting Stars
come back. I always really enjoyed that. I really liked the three point
contest in general. I think that's still good. You could take it or
leave me with the skills challenge. Maybe we could adjust it to speed it
up a little bit would be nice. When it comes to the game itself,
I'm not a fan of I've seen people also proposed, well, the
winning team the winning conference gets home court advantage in the NBA Finals. We
have people complaining enough that the regular season doesn't matter, and so we're gonna
kneecap it even further by taking away the importance of having the top seed or
the better record among the two remaining teams when it comes to the finals.
I just can't get there. I've wondered, like, can we just extend
me All Star break? And I guess that would increase the back to backs,
or you have to extend the season a little bit more like let's make
sure even the players participating get like a real week off or something and there's
more of a mid season break in there. Would that leave them more inclined
to try harder? Maybe not the other thing you could do and it would
be in the same vein as the nd season tournament. And this is the
one I haven't I've thought a lot about it. The logistics of it would
probably be hell, but like, can you leave vacuums in the schedule when
you're coming back to where one conference is going to have to return sooner and
you have these days bookmarks, so it's gonna be a day or two where
all these teams are just playing each other, And it's like that needs to
be baked into the schedule where the winning team, like of the All Star
game that conference, those teams get x amount of days extra off to where
it does them ount to a full week for even the guys who participate,
where it's like an extra three or four days off where games are returning on
on Thursday February twenty second. Now, let's say, okay, the East
one, Like would there have been a way to push it until Monday?
At that point, like you'd have to bake it into the schedule and there'll
be a lot of nuanced then I'm wondering if that would incentivize the players,
because then you're not just kind of fighting for extra rest yourself, but you're
gonna have to deal with your teammates and like just the rest of the conference
in general. So could you do that? I just this is not something
the NBA alone is dealing with. And I do remember when I was younger
that the NBA All Star Game used to mean something. Even when I first
started covering this league, I never would have dreamed of skipping it. Part
of that was because you had the trade deadline coming up, and so that
was like a big rumor season. We even saw Boogie get traded mid mid
All Star Game once to New Orleans. That was that was actually honestly riveting
and funny. I remember writing about that good times, so I remember it
mattering. For the NBA and Major League Baseball more, it's always been kind
of a I don't really know what where hockey lands on it to I'm so
und you know, plugged from that. Football. The Pro Bowl has just
been an issue since like the dawn of time, it feels like, and
they haven't even pretended like to care about it, and because they have a
scarcity of product during the regular season in playoffs, they don't need to worry
about it as much. I don't know what you do with with the NBA.
I don't have any answers, and I think that's kind of the bigger
problem here is people claiming to have the answers are complaining about it without providing
solutions. I'm not going to complain about it. I'll welcome the time off
that I'm going to take from moving forward. I also recognized that that might
be part of the problem, is I should view this as an event that
maybe I should be asking whatcher report, Hey can you send me this year,
rather than be like, yeah, I'm gonna take some time off.
I'm tired. But like, that's how players are probably viewing it as well.
I do also realize that's a big fuck you to the fan experience,
which is really important to prioritize. And I don't know how you make that
resonate with the players like in real time. I do think to their credit,
they're dealing with burdens that players of era's past did not have to.
When you're just looking at the twenty four to seven three sixty five exposure to
social media and the access there, and just like the criticisms of that's why
players like a Jaylen Brown normally wouldn't participate in the dunk contest. Yeah,
it'd be cool to get better names, but you're gonna hip or meme or
criticize them for not jumping over someone who's who's taller, and that has to
be mentally exhausting, and on some level that then becomes physically exhausting. And
so I believe me, I understand where they're coming from. But I understand
that the fans want to see a better product. And for those that are
kind of just choppering in and you know, the NBA season begins for them
at the All Star break, they might be like, oh, so this
is what people are talking about when they're complaining that there's no defense in today's
league, And it's like, well no, but if this is your first
exposure to the NBA, you understand it. I don't know that there is
fixing it though, just because I think and Zach low had made this point
too, I had always thought of it as too many of these players and
this isn't a bad thing, but so many I should say so many,
not too many. They just know each other from these AAU programs, and
just like you have easier access to players now, and it feels like the
NBA is more of there's more camaraderie and more of a brotherhood even when you're
on the court where it's not as adversarial. And then I think the AAU
circuits probably a big part of that. And even just like the the international
stars, because there are so many, do they relate to one another?
And then it's also just like you still kind of face these guys in one
vein or another, or you've been exposed to them since they were younger,
even when you're again you're not coming up in AAU but a zach Low also
pointed out players move around so much that you're not kind of like the experience
is not the same, and so these guys were there are a lot more
former teammates. And also there's just like the if you're switching conferences fairly fre
not frequently, but if it's happened, like you're not going to necessarily feel
a loyalty or returning sort of head to head matchups, and so it all
just kind of coalates into exacerbating this issue of well, how do we make
the game matter? And I do think that there should be a sense of
responsibility among the players more than there is. I get wanting to protect themselves
as an asset, protect their team's future by not wanting to get injured.
But like the All Star events drive revenue, and that's going to be part
of the collective bargaining agreement's basketball related income, and that in turn is going
to be part of well, this is how the salary cap gets. Calculating
this how it This is how it helps increase the top end salaries, specifically
the salaries of these players who are you know, most of them, they're
gonna be max contract guys. And the fact that they have that there is
a max contract that might rankle some, but to me, in order to
keep that value, the percentage of it is of the cap as high as
possible, or to keep the cap as high as possible, like the All
Star events matter, and so like the revenue that's being that's being driven there,
that matters, and so players should feel more of a sense of obligation.
But I also understand that it's not a rest for a lot of these
guys and the obligations they have there leaning into it and the constant exposure of
social media, and you can't tell them to ignore it. It's I get
a kick out of when I see people saying, oh, so and so
really starts their name on Twitter, And it's like human curiosity gets the best
of you at points. If you know people are talking about you, you're
having a really bad day, Like it's it's normally another thing that you do
out of little I want to see what people say about me. That's nice.
You could just be having to bad day and you know, kind of
doom scrolling or sinking further into your pit, and you're just gonna search your
name to see like it's self harm, sure, but it's done. It's
it's like that's human nature at that scale. Like if I search my name
right now on Twitter, I'm sure i'd find a bunch of shit about people
criticizing me. I can't imagine dealing with it on a meaningful, larger scale.
So I don't have any of the answers. Here is all to say.
And I think that we need to acknowledge more of that that this this
is hard, and so Adam Silver can be cranky. All he wants is
handing out the awards. You come up with a fucking way to fix it,
then, Adam Silver and it can't just be able to players promised,
like everyone here is going to be responsible in doing it. And again,
I don't know what the answers are here the next thing that might be worth
talking about, and I don't know how many people actually care about this,
but sort of the discourse where I'm not gonna talk about Doc Rivers, I
missed that whole thing. I mean, aside from just dude, like some
of these unsolicited responses, my god, like everyone like you don't need to
deflect that degree or come off as I didn't really want the job for me
and Griffin we like, this is just there's thirty of these NBA head coaching
jobs. You're gonna invariably step on someone's toes. And I don't really think
just because the Bucks usually as a consult no one was attributing Doc is you
know, scheming and plotting behind the scenes to get Adrian Riffin out of Milwaukee.
But JJ Reddick talking about you know, not just Doc Rivers and calling
him out but then using it as he had effectively said, I had this
breakdown of the Pelicans how they've been using Zion that got fifty four thousand views
on YouTube for my podcast, I say something on ESPN about Doc Rivers calling
my former head coach, and it gets millions of views and engagements, and
ESPN uses it across his programming for for days. At this point it becomes
a subject, and then he questioned whether fans want to be educated. JJ's
not wrong about what cells where it comes to yes, if we look,
we do it on this podcast all the time. If I post a video
like even our our long form podcast, I'm sorry, they're taking off my
humility hat, which I'm not wearing anyway. The minute we're granted really fucking
good at what we do, and the long episodes we put out, our
commitment to putting out content well not having it. Look, there's the dunked
on guys or on a different level with the amount of content they turn out,
most of it's behind a paywall. I don't know of another independent podcast
with the same host that is putting out more content than us, or is
more committed to try and covering the entire league. Our long form stuff just
doesn't that doesn't sell. But if I throw up a short like that might
go viral, and that's gonna get us fifteen subscribers per thirty second video,
sometimes even shorter than that. That's the stuff that gets shared the most.
That is the climate we live in. And now there are a bunch of
different ways to look at it to say that there's just no hope. Now,
how much of that falls on media outlets, content creators like Grant and
myself to get people engaged. We've seen look the dunked on excuse me,
the Dunker Spot, guys nikaias Duncan, Steve Jones like they're huge, and
JJ Reddick's podcast they're huge and they're really going into the weeds. So there
is a market for it. So is it on the responsibility of the esp
of the Bleacher Reports to have this higher brow, educational stuff. I think
the league could do a better job of marketing it, that's absolutely for sure,
having you know everything blacks in our discord, plug join our discord to
have those discussions pointed out. ESPN could do a better job of putting together
shows where the hosts have actual chemistry and knowledge of the sport. But there's
also and look when you look at the way programming works ESPN specifically, there
also needs to be and this is another layer to it. I'm gonna jump
around here a bunch. The other layer to it is we need to adjust
our expectations based off what we're watching and if it's not or consuming or listening
to, if it's not our cup of tea, then let's not consume it,
and I go different places. For me specifically, there are things that
are not my cup of tea. I also go different places for different things,
like I'm not necessarily going to Steve Jones and the Kayus Duncan for collective
bargaining agreement talk or trades. I want to go into the basketball weeds when
I'm listening to them, I'm gonna go listen to Brian to Pork or I'm
gonna go listen to Keith Smith or Reed Keith Smith. When it comes to
the CBA and the trade stuff, you want to serve as many different It's
okay to dabble too, which is the other thing this podcast. We specifically,
maybe we're trying to do too many things, but we consider ourselves versatile,
and versatility is good to where you want to talk about some of the
more nuanced stuff, but you also want to do things like player rankings or
have mail bags, or be light, lighthearted and not get into the nitty
gritty x as and no's because I do think that there are people who don't
view the educational or into the weed stuff as a form of entertainment or escapism,
and that's an important part of sports in general, pro sports in general,
or even playing sports like you don't necessarily want to get bogged down all
the time in why like what are these plays called? What are they running?
So you have to service that part of fandom. And this is where
I take issy with what JJ said, not all like, not all fandom
needs to be the same, don't And I'm sure I've done this, probably
when I was going on my joyt on b Rant a few weeks ago.
I've probably told people they should be rooting or following the game, and that's
not necessarily okay, as long as like rooting or following. I think some
of the stuff with Joelle embiid was actively toxic. As long as it's not
toxic stuff that's happening, let people fan how they want to fan, and
don't discount something else. Just because you believe this needs to be this way.
Yes, there are elements of NBA coverage right now that are absolutely toxic
and bad and they need to be improved upon, regardless of what walk of
coverage you're talking about, whether it's you want the drama human element of it,
whether you want the trades. I mean, like the reporting, the
way we do on trades needs to just change, Like let's get actual details,
Let's be better about the way news and rumors are disseminated there, whether
you're talking about the x's and o's, and can you also if you want
to, if you want to try and tap into more of the nuance,
more of the nitty gritty x's and o stuff presented in a way where it
can be entertainment and be prepared to invest in it even when it's maybe not
drawing as many eyeballs. So those are things that can be improved upon.
But we also need to recognize that we don't just exist in our Hardwood Knox
bubble or our NBA Twitter bubble. That is not representative of the larger population
of sports fans. I think a lot of them, especially if you're just
a casual NBA fan and you're trying to root for the NFL, M the
NBA, and MLB all at once, you're not going to go or if
you want to even cover the entire league, you're not good or excuse me,
follow the entire league. You're maybe not gonna want to care about play
breakdowns of the Charlotte Hornets. You're gonna want more of a of a general
snapshot, or you're gonna be attracted to more of the transactional aspect or just
the the macro human elements, some of some of the dramatics. And if
that's why you follow the league, I like, that's fine. Like I'm
not gonna criticize you for doing it that way. And we also need to
adjust. It's not just accepting all different types of fandoms and different types of
covers that are again not I don't want to like misogynistic coverage and all that
shit. There's toxic coverage. I don't I don't want to see any of
it. And that's the stuff you call out, But it's you also have
to adjust your expectations based off what you're consuming. Yes, you might not
like what Steven A. Smith has to say about the NBA or what these
halftime shows have to say, and that's look the NBA halftime show for ESPN.
If you take issue with them saying so and so just wants it more,
that's something to take issue with. If you're mad that steven a is
not going on first take and doing a play by play breakdown of the Chicago
Bulls' half court sets. When Demarta Rosen is on the bench, when you're
cast with and will use steven A Smith's level responding or commenting on everything in
sports, the level of nuance is going to be diluted and you need to
adjust expectations accordingly. Whether you should ever have someone commenting on all sports that's
a separate discussion altogether. But let's use this podcast as an example. And
I get into this when I'm having debates. Sometimes it's happened in discord,
Sometimes it happens on Twitter, It definitely happens on YouTube all the time.
As someone who covers and follows all thirty teams, I'm not going to have
the same level of insight into the Charlotte Hornets as someone who covers and watches
all evy two of their games. And that's something you just need to accept
so you can accept that you know more about the Charlotte Hornets than me.
You in turn should accept that I know more about the entire NBA at large
than you do. And that's just not There are people who know more about
the NBA than I do. I'm not saying that I'm the barometer for that,
but we need to get to that level. And also there's when it
comes to JJ Reddick. Kind we need to accept that JJ Redick knows more
about the game of basketball and is more him specifically too, because he is
a good podcaster. He is more apt, more adept at explaining those things,
breaking them down, just like with Kaitln Cooper, there's no one better
in the game, and not only recognizing these things in real time, but
distilling these very what I would consider complicated sets that I can't recognize in real
time, distilling them down to a form of content, to a form of
knowledge that is entertaining and that you can understand, making it accessible. JJ
Reddick, I think is really good at doing that. You know what,
JJ Redick needs to recognize He's not the best interviewer. I just don't.
I mean, when you look at some of the players and interviews, like
I don't. I don't necessarily to, Like there have been clips that come
on Instagram. He's a great editing team and I have all the respect in
the world for what he's doing. A lot of the conversations are just vanilla,
and like when you want to get to beyond the stuff of a player's
shooting form or why they're doing this, like as a former player, providing
some insight into not what this play is called or how they're being used,
but why are they doing this? Like what goes into the Eric Freeman had
a great thread on this I posted in our discord. You go google Eric
Freeman on Twitter or probably google Eric Freeman on Twitter. Wow, search Eric
Freeman on Twitter and it might come up. But like, can you get
behind, like provide a peak behind more of the curtain as to why this
is happening or why it didn't happen, and not just pointing this out,
Well, look what they just did, Like let's get into like not so
much diagnosis but more prognostication. And I look, he's had some very good
conversations with players. There was I think he was it Cam Johnson. The
interview he did was really good, But like the one he did with Christops
porzingis that's bad? I thought not bad. It wasn't good. Let's get
to the heart of like, like, don't give him the softball questions about
him and Luka Dontrich And if you're going to be an interviewer and have him
on that podcast as a former player, can you ask about the stuff that
went on in New York where he was apparently credibly accused of rape and have
those allegations and we just don't hear anything about them. Now, JJ's not
the only one who didn't ask him about those So it's not to call him
out specifically, but I'm not a fan of people and this is when I
do it, call me out on it. I'm not a fan of people
telling other people how to fan or even cover the league, especially when it's
not toxic and the state to where we just can't recognize that there are all
these different balls in the air. And yes, there's a problem with coverage,
there's a problem with the media industry, but like a lot of these
companies are responding to what gets the most engagement, and so that is like
that's going to be more representative of interest trade articles that you're like, yeah,
you could think they're just farming those for empty engagement. Well, you
know what, They're farming those out because they work and because people are interested
in that shit, and so you need to accept that and build it out
from there. Is there a way to incorporate more of these ex's of and
trade stuff. Yeah, there is. When there's a rumor dissect how player
X might fit on that new team or go into what's not working with his
current team and why, and there's not enough of that, they're just like
kind of regurgitating the rumors. Or again, you do I understand that you
get on first take and you're seeing some surface level analysis on the NBA specifically,
if you don't have JJ Reddick or on any any TV programming, if
you're not gonna have you know, Tim Legler on there, or there are
some podcasts that might do it that way, you are able to curate your
own content and consume what you want. I'm not saying that that excuses a
lot of these other people, but it's okay that there are different types of
fandoms and different forms of content, and I don't think it's fair to put
the onus on fans if they don't want to be super educated about the x's
and o's of the games because they like, Look, I don't find a
lot of educator like I like documentaries, and I do like reading certain books.
I'm like, you know, like I was big into the I won't
even get well, Like I went into the whole. It was the the
painkiller I don't want to call epidemic. Let's say of kind of started in
the nineties and it's still really out there. So like I read books and
researched on that. I read books and watched documentaries on the housing crisis.
That stuff. It wasn't escapism. It was a form of entertainment. But
I wanted to educate myself on more of this. I found it compelling.
Not everyone's gonna find that stuff compelling when it comes to just you know,
elevant like the Spain pick and roll, just to do something basic like no
or scram switches and so not everyone's gonna want to be interested in that.
That's okay, And you don't put the onus on the fan that they don't
want to be educated when your outlet specifically is not even attempting to do that
on a regular basis or even in a mainstream capacity. That's where I land
on it. I'm probably wrong on a bunch of stuff. I don't have
solutions to it. I just don't know that the media industry is broken.
I'm just not sure if the level of coverage is as broken as people lead
to believe. And maybe it comes from sort of warring where have national programs,
podcasts been reticent or hesitant to accept like the more localized content as being
super valuable and not recognizing more of the independent creators. Maybe that's where some
of the disconnect comes from. And I think a big part of is a
lot of fans are creators. Even if you cover the entire league, you
might identify as a fan of one team, and so there's gonna be stuff
that you're just inherently more passionate about which will then incite like a different level
degree of response. And so that to me doesn't mean that anything is necessarily
broken. I just think that the inability for all the different types of content,
content like in different ways to follow cover fan over the game. They
should be able to coll lace better, harmonize better, synchronize better than they
have currently. And that's the aspect of covers that I think is probably broken
the most aside from if I get to a mailbag question on it, it's
does the league not market like are re marketing players too much rather than teams?
And is that? How does this fuel all of that to where people
aren't a fan of teams? It feels like general NBA fans aren't a fan
of They've kind of recognized, Oh, I'd rather root for a person than
root for laundry type deal, which I can't fall again. I'm not going
to tell you how to fan the game, but could you market it a
little bit differently? So all sorts of just nonsense there, but I felt
compelled to get my I guess that was more than two cents. It might
have been like fifty cents or something, So let's get into we'll call it
a quasi mailbag question. But someone had said something in Discord to me about
the Timberwolves and how I guess I said something on the podcast with Brian to
Pork where I said they're gonna break it up. I don't remember being that
definitive, but I say so many things. I probably was that definitive,
and I can't remember who. I remember the name of Discord, but I've
had a lot of conversations with Timberwolves lately, and the coverage does kew that,
oh, this is impost Mike comedy extension, which was a bargain two
years. That's the other news we missed. Were kind of hitting that now,
well we are hitting that where oh two years, twenty two million.
Basically, there was some weird reporting about him having a no trade clause.
That's allegal. That can't happen unless the details the contract are different and he's
signing just like a one year deal rather than the two. But he hasn't
been with the Timberwolves long enough to get a no trade clause, and if
it was a under the table no trade clause, the fact that that got
put out there probably not great for the Timberwolves as that actually happened. But
his extension is a bargain, and people have still said, though, Okay,
well let's look at the finances. This team is going to need to
break up. Now. The Timberwolves do not like let's preface it with this
whatever I title this might be the preview one, whatever I end up titling
it as the hook. The Timberwolves they can be here to stay. They're
not going to be disbanded over the offseason. You have until the end of
next year to get out of or not get well, to get out of
the luxury tax, or just cut your taxi bill. So this isn't a
matter of what they have to move downs. They have to move Jane and
McDaniels. We know they're not going to move Anthony Edwards. That's a decision
that can be punted until the deadline, until around the twenty twenty five draft.
They can wait on that. I also think we need to wait and
see the playoffs before we decide what this team does. And I mean that
on both sides of the fence. To me, the Mike Conley extension doesn't
mean well, yeah, they're prepared to pay like a you know, nine
figure tax bill. I mean maybe or they just saw, well, this
is a good deal. It can be moved if we needed to. He's
super valuable to our team as connective tissue. Someone who's faces the floor,
who can play make for someone his age who's just like could be so much
worse defensively, Like, this is a good deal for that type of a
player, and they it affords them optionality to know, Okay, well this
is the number we're at right now, We're gonna get in the numbers.
Folks. Don't you worry that it was just good business to do that extension,
whether you think that you're gonna eventually need to cut costs after this year
or not. So I view it as, let's look, this team is
really good. I think when you look at and for anyone who's oh,
another conversation about how the Timberlves need to be broken up rather than what's happening
on the court. We have talked a lot about what the Timberwolves have done
on the court this season. I did a segment with Brian Taporak on who
we trust between them and the Thunder. We've talked about them. Grant and
I consider them a Caps contender. They're a very good team, and I
would say i'd probably predict they keep them one seed. Just when you look
at the number of home games they have remaining this year, I would be
most I could see Denver probably won't put its foot on the gas to catch
them, but like, okay, see he might catch them. That is
something that could actually happen. This team's a contender. Let's see how the
playoffs unfold. Though, when I'm not getting into just the dual big stuff.
There's all sorts of different concerns. I'm just more concerned in general than
about the dual bigs on defense. I'm just more concerned about the offense in
general. Whereas, yeah, I'm happy with the way Karl Anthony Towns is
being used overall for the most part, But can we get him to space
out more? Or can you get more dependable space outs from your wings?
Like that's probably been an even bigger issue for the Wolves this year than anything
to do with Karl Anthony Towns is three point volume now. But whatever happens
in the playoffs is gonna inform, I think and instruct a lot of what
they do over the offseason. Is it, well, we don't want to
pay as large as a tax bill, or we're willing to pay a tax
bill, or is something more wholesale. But if you go into the first
round and you get waxed by just the Lakers, let's say they get the
eighth seed. Maybe if it goes to seven games, or if it's the
Warriors, they end up coming out of the plane in the eight seed,
but you lose to them, Like, yeah, you're gonna take a look
in the mirror and decide some stuff and expenses are going to be a part
of that. But I can't. I don't know why we would assume that
they're just going to disband if I had to guess, I want to make
this clear. Of their top six players, just because I love NAZRII is
gonna be in there. I don't They're gonna trade at least one of them
before the twenty twenty five draft. That's where I land. I honestly think
that's gonna happen. When you get into the numbers. There's been some discrepancies
over people said, well, look, I mean Alex Charriguez and Mark war
they've had to go out and raise more money. Part of that was to
kind of not to capitalize on the rising value of the franchise that maybe they
could foot a steep luxury tax bill. They bought it at an evaluation of
whatever it was. It was under two billion, and now it's over two
billions. So you've been able to sell stakes in the team at evaluation of
that was higher than when you first than when you first agreed to purchase a
majority stake. So that is just could just be good business overall. Could
be you gearing up to swallow the pill for at least one year, and
I'm not ruling out that they just see it all through and they're gonna pay
whatever next year, because this team is really fucking good. And at the
Edwards. We're looking at the Edwards and I know Jane McDaniels has been uneven,
but you have two of your core six players you'd throw Nasriez young enough
to be in there. They're only gonna get better, and so maybe that
mitigates any drop off you see from Rudy Gobert, who is of now is
still a lockdo win Defensive Player of the Year and is moving as well as
I've ever seen him on defense. The team is really good, so you
could make a case that, well, if the playoffs go well, you
win a series and you're convincing in the second round, then hell yeah,
you keep this team together. The problem with the finances comes down to the
limitations you will incur as you get into the second apron And so next year,
the salary cap right now projected to be one hundred and forty one million
dollars, the tax lines at one hundred and seventy two million, dollars.
The first apron is one hundred and seventy nine million dollars, and the second
apron is at one hundred and ninety million dollars. Following the commy extent,
and I had this wrong. I set it off the cuff and discord.
The Wolves are above that second apron. Now when you look at there,
that's not including anything for Kyle Anderson or Montey Moors. They are projected to
be above the second apron. And so their tax bill really if they spend
let's just say they add like kind of another minimum. Guy, they're looking
at a tax bill like of about forty five million dollars. I'm just gonna
I'm estimating, I will lower some other estimates to try and give you like
an accurate number here of what they could be facing. So you're just at
a forty five million dollar tax bill on top of having one hundred and ninety
two million dollars one hundred and ninety plus million dollars in salary. So you've
like kind of skyrocketed pass that apron. Now forty five million dollar tax bill.
Okay, let's just say that's where they end up. That's not including
like if you make any other additions. And there's the other thing looming over
this, Andy Edwards. If he makes all NBA, his max salary is
going to go up by a little bit more than seven million dollars next season.
If you think he's not gonna make first team, they could be hard
pressed to make second team. He probably is a pretty good shot at making
third team. Again, I haven't gone through it just yet. If you
tack that on now, you're looking at a point you're basically in like the
last tax band, and I do believe the new tax bands don't kick in
until twenty five, twenty six, and so the Timberwolves have that going for
them. But if his salary goes up by seven million dollars for next season,
okay, well, now all of a sudden, you're going to see
your tax bill kind of explode here, because that's gonna be like it's basically
almost four dollars you're in that tax ban for every one dollar that they're spending
on Anthy Edwards. And so you get to a point where this team is
going blowing past two hundred and twenty five million dollars total. When it comes
to salary and tax bills, it's it's a it's a lot like you're just
looking at like you're looking at maybe one hundred million dollar tax bill if you
decide to keep Monte Morris or Kyle Anderson or even one of those guys.
So like all this that we're calculating right now where your tax bill just goes
through the roof is before even considering bringing back Monte Morris or Kyle Anderson.
That's like, that's really prohibitive. And the issue here, though, is
why you might see them make a move, is that if you decide you
need something more significant once you're in this this isn't about ducking the tax entilery.
It might just be about covering inside that first apron one because it's it's
cheaper, Like your tax bill just comes down, but you have more flexibility
to where if you're gonna be a second apron team, like you just can't
use exceptions beginning next year. It just becomes so punitive. Your your draft
pick seven years out becomes becomes frozen. And also you're kind of starting the
repeater clock where if you're in the second apron three out of five seasons,
your first round pick will automatically move to the end of the round beginning next
season. And so no, you don't have to worry about that imminately,
But do you want to start the clock on that. You can't use your
trade exceptions that you created up in the prior year. You can't use cash
in trades, you can't use even the taxpayer mid level exception. You've become
so limited that you can't improve your team. And that's what this issue is
with the Timberwolves actually, is that you're going to lock yourself into that second
apron. You've decided, well, this team is done, it's finished.
We will fuz and fiddle with minimums on the margins and we're going to be
fine or good enough to win the title. You might be. That is
absolutely something that could happen. But that's why the second apron is a concern.
And so it's not about This is where I think the big misconception comes
in among people who are covering the league, not even necessarily the team.
It's not about moving Karl Anthony Towns like. He just seems like the He
seems like the piece because he makes so much and because the whole dual bigs
thing, and because Nasrid is cheaper. But if you want to figure out
a way to stay out of the second apron, just to have as many,
not as many options as possible, because the way to have that is
to stay out of the first apron altogether, but to give yourself flexibility to
maneuver you do it like that's why you would drop down from the second apron
to the first apron. It's not just about they need the ducks, the
tax and tilery. They can't afford it. Maybe they can't afford it.
This is not I know it's a new ownership group, but this is not
a team that is just you've been spending out the wazoo like a Golden State
Warriors team. Now they can look at it as an investment of we're gonna
drive in more fans, get more nationally televised games that will drive revenue.
Again. I'm not I do think there is something I think to Mark Lars
and Ale Trariguez the ownership group, that's something that we do need to consider.
Just because they're new, we don't know how they're gonna react. Just
because they've given out these contracts, co signed to these other transactions extensions,
that doesn't mean they're gonna pay it. That is something to monitor. The
bigger thing is it's not about being able to afford this team or biting the
bolt for one year. It's that by going that deep into the second apron
now more than ever, because this season, teams can still aggregate salaries and
trades like the Clippers if they wanted to can't do that anymore. You can't
even you're enough to take back dollar as well in treys moving forward, like
you can't take back more money than you're sending out that. The extent of
those limitations can be crippling if you're not a cap slot contender. And so
it's not about cutting the tax bill. It's about keeping as many options open
as possible in the event that you don't win the title this year, which
statistically speaking, you're not going to. And that's when it comes down to
the Timberwolves. With all that being said, I do think they're largely here
to stay. If they move someone I would kind of be. The playoffs
would have to go very poorly for it to be Towns. I really don't
think it's gonna be go bare because of how important he is the defense and
what you gave up to get him. It's not gonna be Anthony Edwards.
It's probably too early to say. Jaden McDaniel's uneven season, Maybe you think
you can approximate his value with a player you're getting back as well as some
first round equity. It feels like it would be a nosebreed situation, Like
that's the guy I'm circling, where if you can get a good first round
pick or just two whatever picks and maybe a cheaper like rotation player and a
pick, that's something they could look at if it's going to help help them
either get you know, are they gonna get to a point where they can
duck that second apron and stay you know within the first apron, or where
it's well, we decided that we need to pay it's not gonna be coylin
Aarers, but we need to pay Monte Morris instead, and like we're gonna
replace that, like or is it just you want cheaper labor because you are
trying to cut cost. It's if we get a rotation player and a first
round pick for nas Reed, which I think you could, like you look
at Okac san Antonio. They've got some extra first that they'd be willing to
part with. And then maybe just a player that can help you. San
Antonio doesn't have as many of those guys. Okay, see certainly does.
Other teams could get involved. They might just be saying, Okay, we
can get more bang for our buck by splitting nas read up into two salary
slots. Let's say one of whom is cost controlled because he's a first round
pick, or a trade asset because they're a future first round pick. That
is a scenario I could see happening. I wouldn't predict it at this point,
at least not before the trade deadline. So there are two big misconceptions
here. The Timberlves don't need to bust it up this summer. They don't
even need to bust it up before the twenty twenty five trade deadline. But
the bigger misconception is if they busted up or trade one of their top six
guys, it's not necessarily because they want to cut costs or they can afford
it. It might be it's more about keeping other doors open that are otherwise
going to be closed. Should they stay in that second aprit territory. That's
where I'm at on the Wolves. And if I said differently in the past
that they were definitely gonna blow it up. I will have a more definitive
take on what happens after we watch the playoffs, and I think everyone involved.
Whether you think that they should keep it together, that this team has
constructed is worth paying what could be one hundred million dollar tax bill, or
whether you think they need to break it up. I honestly think that we
should watch the playoffs and then we can go from there. How's that first
plaice? Take the Wolves the man's small