Speaker 1: What is up? Fellas it goes on? Dana Valley coming
Speaker 1: at you with mister Brian Taporrek of Bleach Report, longtime
Speaker 1: friend and colleague of mine. Over there, he's also writing
Speaker 1: for Liberty Ballers, Silver Screen and Roll Forbes. What else
Speaker 1: have I fan sided? I forget anything else.
Speaker 2: Yet I think that is it for now. Don't tep me.
Speaker 1: Do a lot. You do a lot, you do it
Speaker 1: incredibly well. There's a lot of NBA salary cap CBA
Speaker 1: minutia stuff floating around now, so I figured who better
Speaker 1: to talk about it with? Then? I consider myself a
Speaker 1: CBA in cap dork, but you're on like another level.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the level above dork is. I
Speaker 1: mean that as a compliment, but you are above it
Speaker 1: degrees above me. So I wanted to bring you on
Speaker 1: to pick your brain about some of the latest developments, contracts,
Speaker 1: then some overarching topics. But the one question I have
Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone wants to know the answer to, mister,
Speaker 1: how the heck are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am good, Dan, I'm repaying you because you did
Speaker 2: me a solid this week. You have a fun thing
Speaker 2: coming out later this week at Bleacher Report that everyone
Speaker 2: should check out. When it's live and we got something.
Speaker 2: By the time this goes out live, my My Baby
Speaker 2: will be published, something I've been trying to get through
Speaker 2: for a while now. So we've got Wednesday at Bleacher Report,
Speaker 2: come check out. We got a big project that will
Speaker 2: spark some nice water cooler debates to say the least, is.
Speaker 1: That the right way to phrase it? Or is it
Speaker 1: going to be angry arguments?
Speaker 2: I honestly, I like when we came up with the
Speaker 2: idea and we like did the exercise ourselves, it was
Speaker 2: more like, oh my god, this is agonizing, which I
Speaker 2: think is a fun way to do it. Like I
Speaker 2: think the reaction will be angry and then you'll, you know,
Speaker 2: my My one piece of advice would be, I think
Speaker 2: everyone should follow the zach Low rule for really a
Speaker 2: lot of things, but no hill. If you're mad about
Speaker 2: you say this person got snubbed or belongs on this
Speaker 2: who is he replacing or who is she replacing? That
Speaker 2: would be my best piece of advice for And that's
Speaker 2: applies to the thing that you've got coming out later
Speaker 2: this week as well.
Speaker 1: It's that was fun with the project that I just did,
Speaker 1: and I will say it's always fun and then I
Speaker 1: finish it, and I just remember, like, this is only
Speaker 1: gonna I think about it from the through the lens
Speaker 1: of Oh, I have no idea if this is right,
Speaker 1: but I think this is what I'm gonna go with.
Speaker 1: But it's just so difficult. You can go a bunch
Speaker 1: of different directions. And then I try and talk that
Speaker 1: out when I'm writing, and then I just remember at
Speaker 1: the end of it all, when I files like, people
Speaker 1: are gonna fucking hate.
Speaker 2: This no matter what.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is just such a bummer. Not that it
Speaker 1: needs to be well received by everybody, but I miss
Speaker 1: like it doesn't feel like there's any more genuine debates.
Speaker 1: It's always got to be like hostile or mean spirited
Speaker 1: or everyone just agrees, which everyone should just agree with
Speaker 1: everything I say. All right, personally would be preferable. But
Speaker 1: you go through this and you think like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: would be like a fun debate to havelf and I'm
Speaker 1: having it with myself, and then you just remember, yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna hate this, or most people are like or
Speaker 1: the only reactions I'm gonna see, or that are gonna
Speaker 1: get looped to me, or that I'll get message about
Speaker 1: of the people that are met.
Speaker 2: Sure, but you know, I will say Reddit has been
Speaker 2: very kind with some of our big projects as of late.
Speaker 2: So thank you to everyone on Reddit for proving that
Speaker 2: civil discourse again still exists on the internet.
Speaker 1: I've heard good things about I'm not on Reddit a lot,
Speaker 1: but I've heard good things about Reddit over the past
Speaker 1: like year or two.
Speaker 2: So it seems like the one place where normal people
Speaker 2: can exist and not be overrun by AI bots.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of ai bots, shall we talk about the
Speaker 1: Pelicans or not? At Yeah, let's start there. DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: in demand got a two year veteran's minimum contract. I
Speaker 1: did not know was for two years when it first
Speaker 1: came out. I don't know if that was not part
Speaker 1: of the release. But as you know, as many of
Speaker 1: our listeners probably know, that you were not going to
Speaker 1: get reimbursed the difference between the two year veteran minimum
Speaker 1: and then anyone thereafter if it's for longer than a year.
Speaker 1: So the question was, why would the Pelicans do this?
Speaker 1: Why didn't they just sign them to a one year
Speaker 1: contract and then resign them again next summer. They have
Speaker 1: since come out with the explanation. They believe that he
Speaker 1: was going to sign basically with a better team if
Speaker 1: they didn't give him a second character year and they
Speaker 1: valued his locker room presence too much. Sure do you
Speaker 1: one buy that? And two? Is it an acceptable excuse
Speaker 1: as a team that doesn't have a ton of room
Speaker 1: they're inside ten million of the tax right now, not
Speaker 1: known as big spenders, maybe they wouldn't have taken on
Speaker 1: money anyway. But what have you made of the whole?
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm starting here, but what have
Speaker 1: you made of the whole? DeAndre Jordan in demand situation with.
Speaker 2: New Orleans definitely an eyebrow razor is made for me
Speaker 2: as well. You know, I will say, like this stuff
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter unless you are close to the tax
Speaker 2: closer than they are to the tax or you know,
Speaker 2: you're hardcapped at one of the aprons and you're like
Speaker 2: a million dollars away from it. That's when you need
Speaker 2: to be really concerned about it. Like this will be
Speaker 2: relatively inconsequential for them this year, But the fact that
Speaker 2: he's on to guaranteed four point one million dollar salary
Speaker 2: salary in twenty seven to twenty eight, that's where it
Speaker 2: just feels like, you know, this is again a minor
Speaker 2: thing in the grand scheme of the Pelicans cap sheet
Speaker 2: and their long term strategy. But he's taking up a
Speaker 2: roster spot. He is taking up a salary slot as well.
Speaker 2: So if the intention is just like, we want to have,
Speaker 2: you know, another four million dollar contract that we can
Speaker 2: attach to Jordan Poole or Dejonte Murray or even you
Speaker 2: know a Trey Murphy Herb Jones that we're considering trading
Speaker 2: at some point, Okay, maybe maybe I understand it from
Speaker 2: that perspective. I felt the same way with Zach Collins'
Speaker 2: contract when it came out. It's like, why less unless
Speaker 2: you are planning on trading him that you know, fine,
Speaker 2: But this is one of those moves where it's like,
Speaker 2: if this guy finishes this current contract on the Pelicans
Speaker 2: in two years, I can't say I totally understand it,
Speaker 2: especially when you trade up for Derek Queen last year
Speaker 2: and give what could have been a very valuable pick
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 1: It did turn into after the trade went through, When
Speaker 1: you see what it turns into, the trade actually doesn't
Speaker 1: look as egregious anymore. But I do think the problem
Speaker 1: here is that this makes you wonder more about new
Speaker 1: Orleans's over arching processes because I mean, but you could
Speaker 1: go back to that trade about was that the best
Speaker 1: use of resources to go out and get Derek Queen
Speaker 1: who wasn't even starting by the end of last season,
Speaker 1: and then you have something like this. You also have
Speaker 1: the reports around last year's trade deadline, and then just
Speaker 1: relative to their off season activity now it's they're just
Speaker 1: cool with where they're at, like they're not trying to
Speaker 1: shuffle any decks. And I think that's why this is notable.
Speaker 1: It's just because it's another it's another strike against I
Speaker 1: would say a front office for a lack of creativity
Speaker 1: or innovation or however you want to frame it. And
Speaker 1: they did overhaul their medical staff within the past few months,
Speaker 1: so I mean maybe that should count for something. But
Speaker 1: the Joe Dumars era in New Orleans has been I
Speaker 1: think the most childble way to put it, wildly on inspiring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think our mutual friend schmid Dua does a
Speaker 2: great job kind of covering the behind the scenes of this.
Speaker 2: And you know, he had a threat about this the
Speaker 2: other day that basically said, like all of these things
Speaker 2: are you know, none of them are like franchise crippling
Speaker 2: mistakes by any means, but they just add up, and
Speaker 2: you need to hit on the margins, especially in this
Speaker 2: era where you know, teams are being much more mindful
Speaker 2: about every single dollar that they spend, as we've seen
Speaker 2: a couple of very notable examples throughout the rest of
Speaker 2: the league this offseason. So you know, these things add
Speaker 2: up over time. You need to continue to hit, like
Speaker 2: you know, them getting Sadik Bay last year in the
Speaker 2: Jordan Poole CJ McCollum deal, like that was a home
Speaker 2: run for them. He was fantastic last year. He's only
Speaker 2: earning six point six million dollars this coming season, But
Speaker 2: you know what, like it's still just hard to understand
Speaker 2: the Pelicans long term strategy. You know, like, Okay, they
Speaker 2: were taking calls on Trey Murphy but asking for you know,
Speaker 2: however many first round picks they wanted, Like it sounded
Speaker 2: like two first round picks was not enough for Trey Murphy, which, okay,
Speaker 2: you know, under previous cbas or under previous lotteries, maybe
Speaker 2: that was fair. But valuations tend to change very quickly
Speaker 2: in the NBA, and I still don't have a clear
Speaker 2: understanding of like what the Pelicans' long term plan is, Like,
Speaker 2: how how are you getting this group from lottery beyond
Speaker 2: just like pray they stay healthy to even like a
Speaker 2: forty five win team. I mean they're not even close
Speaker 2: to that right now.
Speaker 1: No, I don't. And it goes beyond can Zion play
Speaker 1: in sixty five plus games? There's like that's not even
Speaker 1: just the lone pathway And I don't I don't even
Speaker 1: understand the vision of the roster, the way that it's built.
Speaker 1: And they just won what do you play last year's
Speaker 1: was played what sixty plus at least only won twenty
Speaker 1: six games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they looked a lot better, I'll say,
Speaker 2: once Dejonte came back, like they.
Speaker 1: Were having the organizer goes a long way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So like I think they you know, maybe they
Speaker 2: win thirty five or forty games this year, but it's
Speaker 2: still you know, I don't know, are you are you
Speaker 2: okay with that? Are you striving for just like let's
Speaker 2: get back into the play in mix, let's get into
Speaker 2: the first round of the playoffs and we're satisfied with that,
Speaker 2: or you know, are you ostensibly trying to build a
Speaker 2: championship contender? Because if that's the case, then, you know,
Speaker 2: I think, like we'll talk about Boston. I'm sure you
Speaker 2: know they were brutally honest about where they were and
Speaker 2: the chances of them building a championship contender around those
Speaker 2: two and made the decision that they did. The Pelicans
Speaker 2: are much more in like the Chicago Bulls camp of
Speaker 2: being two years too late on being brutally honest about
Speaker 2: where you are and what that means.
Speaker 1: Really quickly, who would you rather have Kingston Flemings and
Speaker 1: Asa Newell or Derrek Queen?
Speaker 2: I mean I would I would think the former. I mean,
Speaker 2: Queen looked really good last year. I'll give him that.
Speaker 2: But just the process of that trade in general is
Speaker 2: still just.
Speaker 1: It's bad process. But I think what it ended up culminating,
Speaker 1: I'm not like super high on Kingston Flemings and so
Speaker 1: I look at him. Well, maybe they won't come out
Speaker 1: as poorly as I thought. But yeah, you're right about
Speaker 1: the process comment. Speaking of process, No, boy, Gary Trent
Speaker 1: Junior four years sixty four million dollars from the Bucks
Speaker 1: fully guaranteed. They explored some sign and trade scenarios, but
Speaker 1: I guess those just didn't materialize. Sure, maybe maybe the
Speaker 1: same team that was interested in him was also the
Speaker 1: team that was lurking to give Trey Young the max
Speaker 1: that he could have got had he left the Wizards.
Speaker 1: This is clear salary caps or convention. Whether they agreed
Speaker 1: to this deal when he first went to Milwaukee two
Speaker 1: years ago or whether it was last summer when maybe
Speaker 1: his market was a little bit more robust, this is
Speaker 1: just there was a wink wink in place where going
Speaker 1: to pay you more or if you stay when we
Speaker 1: have your early bird rights, if you stay through X
Speaker 1: And I guess to the Bucks's credit they held up
Speaker 1: their end of the bargain. And for Gary trans Junior
Speaker 1: had like couldn't be a consistent part of Doc Rivers's
Speaker 1: rotation when they were trying to win games. I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of well why should we care. The Bucks's
Speaker 1: punishment will be they have to pay Gary trans Junior millions,
Speaker 1: which is funny, and I guess it's to somebody extent,
Speaker 1: it's kind of true they did. And you can say, well,
Speaker 1: why does this matter for them? They're not. They're they're
Speaker 1: building from the ground up basically, but like this is
Speaker 1: a slot they could have gotten how many picks to
Speaker 1: take on a salary in this slot. What did Charlotte
Speaker 1: get to take on Dorian Phinney Smith like three seconds
Speaker 1: or whatever it was? So why should my question to you,
Speaker 1: why should we care about something like this happening?
Speaker 2: I mean it goes back to the Kawhi investigation too, right,
Speaker 2: If if these rules are only in place selectively, then
Speaker 2: what's stopping every team in the league from doing this?
Speaker 2: And maybe some of them get punished some of them don't.
Speaker 2: I mean that we ran into that with the tanking
Speaker 2: stuff over the last couple of years, where Adam Silver
Speaker 2: selectively doled out punishments, but not to every single team
Speaker 2: that was participating or doing what you know, the Utah
Speaker 2: Jazz got fined for doing, or what the Indiana Pacers
Speaker 2: got fined for doing. Same deal here. I mean, if
Speaker 2: you say this is okay, if you say the Qui
Speaker 2: thing is okay, you know what's stopping the Miami Heat
Speaker 2: from saying, all right, Lebron, come sign with us for
Speaker 2: the minimum and we've got fifty million dollars in a
Speaker 2: bag for you over here? You just got to you know,
Speaker 2: endorse Calshi without actually doing anything for them.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that can't that be has it. Gianni
Speaker 1: is investing Calshie already, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah he can hook him up. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: See. Is there any difference, because we'll get I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you, is that it's not even it's not
Speaker 1: about Gary Trent Junior situation specifically, it's this opens the
Speaker 1: door for if there isn't some type of punishment for it,
Speaker 1: is other teams using this in a more egregious fashion
Speaker 1: or for something that is more consequential than giving Gallery
Speaker 1: Trent Junior this quasi non tax player mid level deal
Speaker 1: for a team that isn't really necessarily operating with the
Speaker 1: utmost urgency after treating honesty sent to Kumpo. I wonder
Speaker 1: if it raises the stakes of like what happens with
Speaker 1: the Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration investigation, which Mike Vorkanov of
Speaker 1: The Athletic just published a terrific piece today where he
Speaker 1: just went into detail of all the stuff that a
Speaker 1: lot of it hasn't been public knowledge yet, and the
Speaker 1: more you just read everything that's going on, I get
Speaker 1: that so much of it is circumstantial in the sense
Speaker 1: that there doesn't appear to be the smoking gun in
Speaker 1: the sense of what happened with Joe Smith where it
Speaker 1: was in writing this is that. But I don't know
Speaker 1: how you look at this and come to any other
Speaker 1: conclusion than no, like they tried to circumvent the salary,
Speaker 1: And the other conclusion would be thank god that Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard Marvel action figure was never released. That thing was
Speaker 1: scary looking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the most horrifying NBA thing I've seen since the
Speaker 2: original Pierre the Pelican.
Speaker 1: Right, right, So do you think it raises does not that,
Speaker 1: I guess you couldn't raise the stakes any higher, But
Speaker 1: does it kind of increase the importance of the NBA
Speaker 1: getting this KWHI level investigation right? Because if it's this
Speaker 1: stuff is now happening at the Gary Trent Junior level,
Speaker 1: like you really need to run a point where it's
Speaker 1: all right, is this more rampant then we thought? We
Speaker 1: thought like tampering, We've just decided teams are going to
Speaker 1: tamper and that's fine. And now this is approaching a
Speaker 1: different level to where if this is as common the
Speaker 1: Gary Trent Junior stuff or the Kawhi Leoner stuff being
Speaker 1: a bigger example, if this is as common as people think,
Speaker 1: it erodes trust in the NBA. It brings into questions
Speaker 1: about like how are like, how do you go bout
Speaker 1: team building? You implement the second apron or these restrictions
Speaker 1: in theory because you want to increase parody, but you're
Speaker 1: still giving certain teams an edge if they're willing to
Speaker 1: do things like the Clippers did with Kauai. This is
Speaker 1: just I kind of understand looking at a Garrett Trent
Speaker 1: junior contract and saying like, well, what is it? What
Speaker 1: does it matter? And I saw a lot of Bucks
Speaker 1: fans taking that stance. I was like, no, like this
Speaker 1: stuff matters because it's just the benchmark against which other
Speaker 1: teams are going to operate, and if nothing is done
Speaker 1: for this or the Kauhi stuff, like this is probably
Speaker 1: is the Garrett Trent Junior thing easier to prove than
Speaker 1: the Kauai thing, just because nobody can rationally argue that
Speaker 1: this is an amount that it like, because it's not
Speaker 1: even a one plus like a one minus one where
Speaker 1: the next season is get like, this is four guarantee years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like you look at you know, the
Speaker 2: early twenty twenties, Gary Trent Junior averaged like upwards of
Speaker 2: eighteen points of games, so maybe they think he's going
Speaker 2: to have this massive bounce back year and then we're
Speaker 2: all going to be eating our words by December. And
Speaker 2: if that's the case, more power to them. Or maybe
Speaker 2: they just think, like we have this vacuum. You know,
Speaker 2: Giannis isn't here. We obviously added Tyler Hero and a
Speaker 2: couple other guys, but like we have this vacuum for
Speaker 2: shots and touches, and Gary Junior can just stat pad
Speaker 2: on a bad team and we'll, you know, hope. And also,
Speaker 2: like to your point, you know, if your plan is
Speaker 2: like he's gonna stat pad on a bad team, then
Speaker 2: we're gonna flip him. Who's trading for him for three
Speaker 2: and a half more guaranteed years. So I think your
Speaker 2: point overall about like how this impacts competitive parody in
Speaker 2: this overall scheme of the NBA implemented this system to
Speaker 2: forced teams into making difficult choices, and if this is
Speaker 2: their way around that, you know, we're seeing Okac having
Speaker 2: to effectively salary dump Isaiah Joe Aaron Wiggins. You know,
Speaker 2: they got second round picks back for those guys, but
Speaker 2: like they are losing talent. They are a weaker roster
Speaker 2: with those two guys off than what they were last year,
Speaker 2: although obviously they added a couple draft picks as well. Uh,
Speaker 2: if this is the way around that, then that threatens
Speaker 2: the entire integrity of the system. And then you're just
Speaker 2: back to square one, where you know, we haven't seen
Speaker 2: anything quite like this yet. But what's stopping a star,
Speaker 2: you know, not from doing like what Wemby did where
Speaker 2: you just bypass the escalators, but like, what's stopping a
Speaker 2: star from just taking one hundred million dollars less than
Speaker 2: his max and not from a like Jalen Brunson. This
Speaker 2: was the most he could sign, but he could be
Speaker 2: a free agent next year. But like you know, say
Speaker 2: Nicola Jokic next year is gonna you know, on pace
Speaker 2: to be a free agent, could earn you know, five year.
Speaker 2: I think like three hundred and fifty million dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 2: three fifty three is the current projection. What if he
Speaker 2: says like, I'm good with one hundred and fifty million,
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, you know, like these are
Speaker 2: all of this is why this stuff matters. It's because
Speaker 2: if certain teams are playing by the rules and others
Speaker 2: are not, they are going to have such a clear
Speaker 2: advantage over the ones that are And so if you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying the Nuggets and Jokich have a two
Speaker 2: hundred million dollar horse farm waiting for him back. But
Speaker 2: if they are somehow able to reduce the cap hit
Speaker 2: of someone like that, that just gives them such a
Speaker 2: huge advantage over every other team. And you know that
Speaker 2: was with the Bucks for the last two years. They've
Speaker 2: been trying to build around Giannis, trying to convince Giannis
Speaker 2: to say again and again and again, and if you're
Speaker 2: getting Gary Trent junior autominimum deal as part of that
Speaker 2: pitch with the understanding that you are going to pay
Speaker 2: him a lot more later than you know that Like
Speaker 2: what if Jannis had stayed because they got Gary Tron Jr.
Speaker 2: At a minimum because they potentially circummended the cap to
Speaker 2: get character on Jr. At the minimum?
Speaker 1: What is upos? You're listening to this episode right now
Speaker 1: thinking Wow, would be so cool if there were no
Speaker 1: ads on it.
Speaker 3: We have the power to make this the last ad
Speaker 3: you ever hear. And that's not a threat, it's more
Speaker 3: of a promise. The best way to support the podcast
Speaker 3: is to join our Patreon, which you can do at
Speaker 3: patreon dot com. Slash Hardwood knocks NBA tons of perks
Speaker 3: there in addition to the promise of and not threat.
Speaker 3: Can't emphasize that enough of no more ads, which is
Speaker 3: a huge bonus. We're going to do a couple of
Speaker 3: Patreon subscriber only pods every month. You get access to
Speaker 3: our discord. You just get to be a bigger part
Speaker 3: of this community. You get our sincerest appreciation, which really
Speaker 3: can you put a price on it? If you want
Speaker 3: to support the pod, that is the best way to
Speaker 3: do it. Thank you again as always for listening and
Speaker 3: for watching.
Speaker 1: And now back to the show. So you mentioned wemb
Speaker 1: He agrees to the twenty five percent max with no
Speaker 1: escalator language. And this is it's a different discussion because
Speaker 1: now we're talking about hypothetical money for the most part.
Speaker 1: But so he signs projected to be what would be
Speaker 1: a five year and two hundred and fifty two point
Speaker 1: three million dollar deal. What he gave up was the
Speaker 1: ability for that to be a five year, three hundred
Speaker 1: and two point eight million dollar deal had he made
Speaker 1: all NBA one Defensive Player of the Year or one MVP.
Speaker 1: If he's playing in sixty five games, he is checking
Speaker 1: probably more than one of those boxers. We're being honest, right,
Speaker 1: where do you land?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: The NBAPA is already not doesn't seem happy about it?
Speaker 1: Where do you land?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: This is different from the Gary Trent Junior situation in
Speaker 1: the sense it's hypothetical money and he's already with the team.
Speaker 1: But isn't it a like is it a slippery slope
Speaker 1: to travel down if a player of his caliber is
Speaker 1: willing to, in theory, take less than he could get,
Speaker 1: that gives the Spurs a competitive edgend retaining talent or
Speaker 1: maybe going out and acquiring talent or is that is this?
Speaker 1: Is this totally a one? Actually? I guess the real
Speaker 1: question is could you see this becoming a trend? And
Speaker 1: two is the is it ikey? Is it the same
Speaker 1: level of ikey as or is it ikey at all?
Speaker 1: Relatives to how many times can I say ikey? But
Speaker 1: is it going to be the same genre of ikey
Speaker 1: when we're talking about Yes, it's nowhere near the level
Speaker 1: of what the Clippers did allegedly did with Kawhi, It's
Speaker 1: nowhere near the level what's happening with Garret Trn Junior
Speaker 1: in the Bucks. But you are talking about someone who
Speaker 1: if he was just an unrestricted free agent or any
Speaker 1: team had the ability to give him a contract that
Speaker 1: was had the escalator language, all of them would have
Speaker 1: been willing to give it. Sure, and I'm sure the
Speaker 1: Spurs were willing to give it. That was pro reporting.
Speaker 1: I've struggled to make sense of this other than I'm
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with the idea that clear max players, even by
Speaker 1: the murky definition of well, what is a max player anymore?
Speaker 1: But clear max players who haven't really even entered their
Speaker 1: prime yet, are feeling an obligation to take less to
Speaker 1: make it easier on the team to spend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I understand that instinct. In that perspective,
Speaker 2: I am personally completely fine with it. I actually think
Speaker 2: it's very smart of him to do it. I think
Speaker 2: he's reading the system well and he's seeing what's happening
Speaker 2: to all of these other teams. He sees that he's
Speaker 2: on a team with Steph Castle and Dylan Harper, and
Speaker 2: that these guys are also going to be you know,
Speaker 2: they they look like they will be either Max or
Speaker 2: near max players in the near future. And you know,
Speaker 2: he's seeing what's happening in Okay, see, right now, he's
Speaker 2: seeing what's happening in Boston. Right now, he's seeing what's
Speaker 2: happening with a bunch of these other teams, and he realizes,
Speaker 2: this is my way to sacrifice to increase the chances
Speaker 2: that I get to play with Steph Castle and Dylan
Speaker 2: Harper for the next half decade or more. You know,
Speaker 2: I think it's it's just a byproduct of the system
Speaker 2: that both sides agreed to. And if you know, if
Speaker 2: the players aren't happy with it, you agreed to the system,
Speaker 2: like I, you know, fight harder against this system, or
Speaker 2: fight harder to change certain aspects of the system in
Speaker 2: the next collective bargaining agreement. But like this also isn't new.
Speaker 2: I mean, the extent to which he gave up, you know,
Speaker 2: the potential of fifty million dollars. I don't think we've
Speaker 2: seen something like that in the way back when. But
Speaker 2: I was doing research for something recently and came across
Speaker 2: there was an article from ESPN in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: When I try to find it if I can, it
Speaker 2: was about Gilbert Arenas signing his deal, and we're going
Speaker 2: to just ignore everything that happened after he did this
Speaker 2: July third, two thousand and eight, and the lead was
Speaker 2: that Gilbert Arenas is accepting less money from the Washington Wizards,
Speaker 2: invoking an attitude far far removed from the world of
Speaker 2: his working class fans. And his quote was, what can
Speaker 2: I do for my family with one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: seven million that I can't do with one hundred and
Speaker 2: eleven million, and then added, I'm basically giving back sixteen million.
Speaker 2: This is in line with what I've been saying the
Speaker 2: whole time. You see that you see players take max
Speaker 2: deals and they financially bind their teams. I don't want
Speaker 2: to be one of those and three years down the
Speaker 2: road your team is strapped and can't do anything about it. Again,
Speaker 2: this was two thousand and eight, so the CBA was,
Speaker 2: you know, restrictive in a different way back then, But
Speaker 2: like the Second Apron didn't exist back then, So I
Speaker 2: would argue that it's more restrictive now in terms of
Speaker 2: like what happens to the teams with these bloated payrolls. Also,
Speaker 2: the money has more than doubled, right like Wemby's making
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty million. Gill said he gave up
Speaker 2: eleven million, so especially having seen this just payoff with
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson in the Knicks and then winning a championship. Like,
Speaker 2: I do think it could be a trend moving forward.
Speaker 2: And I'm I don't know, I'm not It's hard for
Speaker 2: me to cry poor for someone making two Like what
Speaker 2: is Wemby gonna do with three hundred million dollars that
Speaker 2: he can't do with two hundred and fifty million dollars,
Speaker 2: you know, like at a certain point, this is just
Speaker 2: monopoly money for all these guys.
Speaker 1: I do agree with that point that the the fact
Speaker 1: that this was all collectively bargained is really important because
Speaker 1: I think that's when if you want to shift the
Speaker 1: onus onto the players and say, like, this is what
Speaker 1: you have to do to win, because the owners aren't
Speaker 1: gonna just pay and they were never gonna pay to
Speaker 1: the moon and back like pre second Apron either, but
Speaker 1: it has given them. I do think it's like this,
Speaker 1: this this cap climate has put more pressure on the players,
Speaker 1: like to do what when we did in the sense
Speaker 1: of look who at Donovan Mitchell by signing his extension
Speaker 1: and getting the max was almost and look I had
Speaker 1: to do worse contracts in the league while that news
Speaker 1: was coming out, and I do it relative to trade
Speaker 1: value in team friendliness, that's just the approach of it.
Speaker 1: He automatically made the list. He wasn't in the top
Speaker 1: two or three. But you look at Donovan Mitchell. Yes
Speaker 1: he can't be the lead playmaker, it seems like on
Speaker 1: a title team. But you go through his credentials, like
Speaker 1: recent credentials, and it's now you're at the point where
Speaker 1: are these these players almost gonna be criticized if they
Speaker 1: take the maximum allowed to them. I think I would
Speaker 1: feel differently about this entire thing if there was no
Speaker 1: max salary, because then it's a little bit different, and
Speaker 1: it's like you're already if you're gonna cap what these
Speaker 1: players can make. I don't I find it cringey that
Speaker 1: if they accept, especially when like a don of Mitchell
Speaker 1: is a good case he might be worth that contract
Speaker 1: for I don't know, three or maybe the entire three
Speaker 1: years of it, or maybe the entire thing of it.
Speaker 1: We don't know, but we're at a point we're looking
Speaker 1: at it and say like, well, the Caves are screwed
Speaker 1: because they gave a max player max money. And if
Speaker 1: you want to say that, well, there's really only like
Speaker 1: three to seven guys who are worth max money. Then
Speaker 1: to me, it's almost like, well, then why do we
Speaker 1: have max salaries. It's just so I think I feel
Speaker 1: differently about what Wemby was doing, or just the entire
Speaker 1: analysis around it, if maybe there were no max salaries.
Speaker 1: I just I'm uncomfortable with the idea that this needs
Speaker 1: to what Jalen Brunson did, and even what he did
Speaker 1: was different because that was the maximum he could sign
Speaker 1: for then, right, and this was not technically the maximum.
Speaker 1: Victor womb Yamakin's for now, and I give him props
Speaker 1: for recognizing the cap climate and seeing what's happening around
Speaker 1: the league and wanting he He claims he wants to
Speaker 1: be about winning, and I think that's where that's where
Speaker 1: you can run far Afield is if players are saying
Speaker 1: all I care about is winning, but then they're acting
Speaker 1: in direct opposition to that by signing for the maximum
Speaker 1: allowed all the time when their team is entering a
Speaker 1: crunch that you know, the owners not willing to bank roll.
Speaker 1: I can't fault the player for doing so. But Wenby
Speaker 1: is kind of He's talked about all he wants to
Speaker 1: do is win. And yes, to your point, the money's
Speaker 1: just so absurd right now that what does it actually matter?
Speaker 1: And there are some people they'll point out that money
Speaker 1: was hypothetical that he gave up. He barely played in
Speaker 1: sixty five games this year, And there have been some
Speaker 1: people that have pointed out, well, now they don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about forcing him to play in sixty five
Speaker 1: games to get to these awards thresholds. My counter that
Speaker 1: would be wemby making taking this quote unquote pay cutter,
Speaker 1: accepting less than he could have gotten is kind of
Speaker 1: proof of the competitor that he is. So he's gonna
Speaker 1: want to win Defensive Player of the Year anyway, sure,
Speaker 1: MVP anyway. So he's gonna strive to play in as
Speaker 1: many games as possible regardless. I just again, the word
Speaker 1: I keep using is uncomfortable. I don't think he's wrong
Speaker 1: for doing it. I actually think that within the constraints
Speaker 1: of what team building appears to be, he made the
Speaker 1: right call. I'm just I guess I was waiting for
Speaker 1: it to happen with question Mark Max's when it was
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson Junior and his renegotiating extend with Memphis Daron
Speaker 1: Fox with the Spurs last summer, Trey Young this summer.
Speaker 1: I was waiting for negotiations to happen with that level
Speaker 1: of player. But to see a consensus top five guy
Speaker 1: in the league do something like this and I saw Thunder.
Speaker 1: Fans were quick to point out that chet Holmgrin didn't
Speaker 1: take escalator language and his extension cool Chenalwards is a
Speaker 1: fantastic player. He just made all NBA, so the escalator
Speaker 1: language would have mattered. He's not Victor woman Yama. This
Speaker 1: is not Jalen Brunton, isn't Victor Wimbanyama, and I love
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson. So this is I guess the first instance
Speaker 1: of this happening being Victor Webman Yama. Maybe that's what
Speaker 1: floored me a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it puts it puts to your point, like
Speaker 2: puts guys like Donovan Mitchell in a tough spot because
Speaker 2: now other owners will point to Victor Webban Yama and say,
Speaker 2: you are not as good as this guy, and this
Speaker 2: guy just sacrificed. Do you actually care about winning or
Speaker 2: do you just care about money?
Speaker 1: Like I mean his own draft class right now, Wemby's
Speaker 1: the only extension that's been signed. If you're Ama Thompson
Speaker 1: or Brandon Miller, who were question mark guys to begin with,
Speaker 1: even though you're clear cornerstones of your team, how do
Speaker 1: you it's not even about Victor Wimanyama's fellow superstars. How
Speaker 1: do you like he's under he's undercut negotiations for all
Speaker 1: these just guys that might be a tier or three
Speaker 1: below him.
Speaker 2: Well, even Castle and Harper, like those guys cannot possibly
Speaker 2: go to the Spurs and say I want the escalator
Speaker 2: language now, right, I mean I or maybe they can,
Speaker 2: but I would take some real footspot right yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: So I mean I that I think is a fair concern.
Speaker 2: I think that is the players Association concern as well,
Speaker 2: is that owners are going to like look to leverage this.
Speaker 2: But you know this is this is again the system
Speaker 2: they agree to. I think this is what the NBA
Speaker 2: designed this to be, is to force team into tough
Speaker 2: choices and try to spread the superstar talent around and
Speaker 2: if guys want to continue playing on big twos and
Speaker 2: big threes and even big fours, this is the way
Speaker 2: around it until they come up with the new CBA
Speaker 2: and we'll see what. You know, what that looks like
Speaker 2: in a couple of years, but like it really is
Speaker 2: kind of a binary choice now of do you take
Speaker 2: the most money available to you at any point or
Speaker 2: do you take slightly less and therefore help your team win.
Speaker 2: And I you know, I think the the other concern
Speaker 2: about players doing this is like, Okay, it's nice, it's
Speaker 2: great that they do this. What proof do we have
Speaker 2: that the owners aren't just going to pocket the money
Speaker 2: like you need? You know, if Victim wemen Yamin is
Speaker 2: doing this and the Spurs at any point over the
Speaker 2: next couple of years do some disgusting tax dump at
Speaker 2: the trade deadline that makes their team worse just so
Speaker 2: they can get under the luxury tax, they should be
Speaker 2: fullaid for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, even couldn't you argue that this needs to
Speaker 1: go beyond just talent retention. They're not they made it
Speaker 1: to the NBA Finals, but they're not working off a
Speaker 1: championship and they're big. Granted, the money doesn't kick in
Speaker 1: for Victim yamunittil next season, but like the Spurs' grand
Speaker 1: move of the summer was signing Tobias Harris.
Speaker 2: Yep, well that's all. I guess they have the bi annuals.
Speaker 1: So right and like again, like the Julian Champenne contract
Speaker 1: a good piece of business. The Tobias Harris like does help.
Speaker 1: But if Wemby is already making what again, I know
Speaker 1: what's hypothetical money, but it just it's it's as close
Speaker 1: to as get guaranteed money as you could get in
Speaker 1: this situation because it's Victor women Yama, just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that dude is going to be an all NBA player perennially.
Speaker 1: So he did punt on about ten million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: a little bit more than that on average, and maybe
Speaker 1: the Spurs didn't know he was going to do that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's future off seasons we need to judge
Speaker 1: it against. But you're right, it should raise the bar
Speaker 1: and that's something that transactionally over what they can do
Speaker 1: with not to me, not just talent retention, but no,
Speaker 1: like do other things be more aggressive to actually upgrade
Speaker 1: the roster. It's not like Wemby made it easier for
Speaker 1: us to keep dearon Fox for the next couple of years.
Speaker 1: That move's already been made, and Wemby taking less should
Speaker 1: not be part of a calculus of the move that's
Speaker 1: already been made. Understand the retention aspect of it, but
Speaker 1: he's just to see someone so young. I know the
Speaker 1: money is like bonkers here, but do you know who
Speaker 1: the money is even more bonkers for the billionaire owners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like I could understand why
Speaker 2: anyone is like grossed out by bus And I think
Speaker 2: it's fair to point out, especially for a player of
Speaker 2: Wemby's caliber, to make this kind of a sacrifice is notable,
Speaker 2: like which.
Speaker 1: I don't criticize him for I know that, which again
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm not anti Victor wembanyat he what
Speaker 1: you said, he read, He's read the tea leaves or
Speaker 1: he studied what's happening in the moment, and he made
Speaker 1: what was a smart decision like that, if he wants
Speaker 1: this team to be together or continue to be able
Speaker 1: to improve, he made I wouldn't even call it like
Speaker 1: a good decision. It was the correct decision, maybe even
Speaker 1: the only. If you want this to be your core
Speaker 1: two years from now, this might have been the only decision, really.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean I wonder how much of it
Speaker 2: is because they have these two other up and coming stars,
Speaker 2: Like if they only had one of Castle and Harper,
Speaker 2: Does he make the same choice. I don't know, but
Speaker 2: I think, you know, seeing that, like it's not just
Speaker 2: me that we're gonna have to pay, you gotta pay
Speaker 2: these two other guys. We you know, Fox, I can't
Speaker 2: imagine as part of the long term picture there, like
Speaker 2: once Harper and Castle are off their rookie scale deals,
Speaker 2: I would be surprised if Dearon Fox is still on
Speaker 2: the team, but they are paying him as well for now.
Speaker 2: I mean even Devin Vessel, you know, in the mid
Speaker 2: twenties for the next couple of years, Champagne now fifteen
Speaker 2: ish for the next three years, Like they're gonna start
Speaker 2: to get expensive too. And I think Wemby, I would
Speaker 2: think what's happening in Okay See right now should be
Speaker 2: eye opening to him, especially since you know, the Thunder
Speaker 2: position to be the Spurs' biggest rivals for the near future.
Speaker 2: But really for any superstar, it's like it's just really
Speaker 2: impossibly hard to build around a big three when all
Speaker 2: three guys are on max contracts under the CBA. And
Speaker 2: maybe that changes under the next system, but we've still
Speaker 2: got at least I believe three more years guaranteed that
Speaker 2: we're under this one, so I think that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So you know, I think guys need to be planning accordingly.
Speaker 2: And you know, I I know the players union is
Speaker 2: not happy with how things have been going lately, but
Speaker 2: you know, every round of collective bargaining negotiations is always
Speaker 2: starts the same way as the owner is asking for
Speaker 2: an actual hard gap. And if you think they're going
Speaker 2: to change, that stands this time around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the second Apron's not going anywhere. That's because that's
Speaker 1: basically functionally a hard gap. We've seen teams go over it,
Speaker 1: so it's not and they have the option to go
Speaker 1: over it, but that's functionally speaking. It seems like they're
Speaker 1: that's we're going to reach a point where it's no
Speaker 1: one goes over the second ape, or if they do,
Speaker 1: it's for a year and then they pull back.
Speaker 2: Right, they're treating it as a hardcap. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it like the the frozen draft pick, and like
Speaker 2: the draft pick going down to the bottom of the
Speaker 2: first round, no team is gonna willingly do that, especially
Speaker 2: given like if the Lattery reform holds true beyond twenty
Speaker 2: twenty nine as well, like that, I.
Speaker 1: Would argue the frozen draft pick could actually be a
Speaker 1: good thing because it would save teams. Moving it to
Speaker 1: the back of the first round is problematic, but you
Speaker 1: need to be in the second aprin for three of
Speaker 1: five years, right or three of four for that to
Speaker 1: go through. So I'd argue the frozen draft pick. It'll
Speaker 1: hurt you in some trades and stuff, but it also
Speaker 1: might save you from yourself because you're not you're forced
Speaker 1: to not give up what could be this valuable roster
Speaker 1: building ship.
Speaker 2: Sure that's fair. Yeah, I mean, I think, like with
Speaker 2: all things NBA, that you need to consider how each
Speaker 2: piece of the puzzle fits together, and I don't think
Speaker 2: the NBA has been doing a great job of that
Speaker 2: as of late. So you know, with the draft picks
Speaker 2: stuff like this lattery, you just changed, how allegedly changed
Speaker 2: how teams were gonna value draft picks for the next years.
Speaker 2: And like, you know, the frozen draft pick stuff is
Speaker 2: seven years in the future, so it's gonna be under
Speaker 2: a new CBA. You know, teams don't necessarily need to
Speaker 2: worry about that. But we also don't know what the
Speaker 2: lottery is going to look like beyond twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Feels like it's going to be the credit system.
Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, that's seems to be one of the
Speaker 2: popular ideas floating out there, But you know, it's just
Speaker 2: I don't know how teams, like your job as a
Speaker 2: general manager, as a team president or whatever is to
Speaker 2: you know, you're trying to win a championship now, if
Speaker 2: you're going to win that window, but you also need
Speaker 2: to plan for the future. And I just have no
Speaker 2: freaking clue how teams are supposed to plan for the
Speaker 2: future with just all of this uncertainty, you know, lottery
Speaker 2: potential new CBA in three years, Like, what does the
Speaker 2: NBA look like in twenty twenty nine? How do I
Speaker 2: plan ahead? Because we're starting to you know, you're starting
Speaker 2: to sign guys to contracts that are going to beyond
Speaker 2: go beyond twenty twenty nine, and like, what does that mean?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I think Jalen Brown's a really good example of that.
Speaker 2: Like he's eligible for an extension in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: but if he signs the extension, that's going beyond where
Speaker 2: the new CBA could go to. In fact, like, is
Speaker 2: any team willing to make that risk for any guy
Speaker 2: who isn't like Wemby level.
Speaker 1: I had thought for this exact reason why we might
Speaker 1: see fewer like high end draft picks exchange hands this summer.
Speaker 1: And then it's like, No, the Wolves traded a twenty
Speaker 1: thirty three pick. No, the Sun's traded a twenty thirty
Speaker 1: three pick for some reason, the Sixers gave up some
Speaker 1: premo draft equity to get John Brown. The Heat went
Speaker 1: all in Ony honest, and Yannest was the guy where
Speaker 1: it was someone will always trade for gianness without knowing
Speaker 1: what the draft rules are gonna be or the contract
Speaker 1: rules moving forward. But like Jalen Brown and LaMelo Ball and.
Speaker 2: Miles of Bridge.
Speaker 1: So that was I guess there will always be a
Speaker 1: level of teams. If they're already pot committed to the present,
Speaker 1: they'll mortgage the future, regardless of how uncertain it is.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean that's a that's a fair question.
Speaker 1: You did mention though the three max model mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Philadelphia doesn't think it's dead. And I haven't spoken to
Speaker 1: you in an official capacity since the John Brown trade,
Speaker 1: and I want to ask you a question about what's
Speaker 1: more in line with the discussion we're having right now
Speaker 1: is what Brad Steven said about trading John Brown in
Speaker 1: the first place. But from a Sixers perspective, as someone
Speaker 1: who intimately covers and follows this team, how do you
Speaker 1: feel about the John Brown trade? Two weeks ish.
Speaker 2: Later, I'm at peace with it because, like I understand,
Speaker 2: like I actually can respect what Brad Stevens is saying,
Speaker 2: and I you know, I listened to that whole press
Speaker 2: conference and he was just getting absolutely proasted by the media. Uh,
Speaker 2: but he just kept doubling back on like we just
Speaker 2: it was more beyond like you know, he said, we
Speaker 2: don't want to pay seventy percent of our cap and
Speaker 2: like tie up so much of our usage in these
Speaker 2: two players. So I'm wondering if they saw like the
Speaker 2: overlap or them being somewhat duplicative as part of the problem,
Speaker 2: Like would they have done this move if Jalen Brown
Speaker 2: was a seven foot center, and you know, they they
Speaker 2: him and Tatum were different, more different stylistically, because he
Speaker 2: kept saying, like, we need to figure out ways to
Speaker 2: diversify our attack, and he was saying that even at
Speaker 2: the end of the playoffs after they lost in the
Speaker 2: first round, he was like, that's our focus this summer,
Speaker 2: I mean, and more or less sounded like he thought
Speaker 2: they were basically three point merchants, and then when the
Speaker 2: threes weren't falling, they didn't have another way to attack,
Speaker 2: which I think is.
Speaker 1: If they proceeded to make a trade that addressed absolutely none.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, if anything, doubled down on that model. So
Speaker 2: you know, I think it's impossible to judge this trade
Speaker 2: from Boston's perspective. Right now. We'll have to see what
Speaker 2: they do with the Paul George contract. Presumably they look
Speaker 2: to flip him either at the trade deadline or next summer,
Speaker 2: whether it's for no he kept Stevens kept mentioning depth
Speaker 2: in particular, So I'm not convinced that they flip OPG
Speaker 2: for another guy earning fifty plus million, like I think
Speaker 2: do they?
Speaker 1: That would run in stark contrast to the reason he
Speaker 1: claims they traded Jalen Brown.
Speaker 2: Right, So I'm thinking they'd probably try to break him
Speaker 2: up into a couple of smaller deals, which is what
Speaker 2: I assumed the Sixers were going to do in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty seven as well. But from the Sixers side of things,
Speaker 2: like that money was spent either way, youpot committed to
Speaker 2: the big three model. In July of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: I did not think there was any realistic way they
Speaker 2: were getting off of Paul George this summer without I mean,
Speaker 2: I assumed it would cost two first round picks to
Speaker 2: get off of him, and just you know, for like
Speaker 2: a zach Lavine type like getting a much younger, much
Speaker 2: healthier Jalen Brown. I don't know. I think it's it's
Speaker 2: a gamble worth taking, and I reserve the right to
Speaker 2: take back all of this if they give him a
Speaker 2: massive extension, either in the next two weeks or well,
Speaker 2: they can only add one year if they do it now,
Speaker 2: but you know they could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so couldn't you argue that that would be the
Speaker 1: safer out because then you're into him for fewer years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, instead of because next year you can get a
Speaker 2: three year extension. Yeah, you know, I I I understand
Speaker 2: why they did it, because they just you can't go
Speaker 2: through another system another year where you're playing the will
Speaker 2: he and won't he play game with both embiid and
Speaker 2: Paul George and you're making Tyre's Maxie play forty minutes
Speaker 2: a game. And you know, I honestly, like we know
Speaker 2: how the NBA works. You're always on the clock with
Speaker 2: your stars. Tyres Maxie only has three years left on
Speaker 2: his deal, and I'm not saying Tyre's Maxie is like
Speaker 2: starting to eye at his exit from Philly or that
Speaker 2: he's unhappy, and you know, by all accounts he is
Speaker 2: still very happy there. I would imagine the addition of
Speaker 2: VJ edgecumb last year, you know, makes it easier to
Speaker 2: see a path forward past Joel Embiid and Paul George.
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown to me feels like kind of the bridge
Speaker 2: between those two eras, like beyond the MBID era, but
Speaker 2: like Jalen Brown's going on thirty. You know, he's not
Speaker 2: him and VJ are not aligned age wise either, So
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know that Jalen Brown is going
Speaker 2: to spend the rest of his career in Philadelphia. In fact,
Speaker 2: I would bet pretty heavily against it. But I think
Speaker 2: they just saw this as a clear opportunity to upgrade
Speaker 2: at a fairly reasonable price given what it would have
Speaker 2: cost just a dump PG in general, and that he's
Speaker 2: gonna be on paper like, there are some fit questions,
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say with how he'll mix
Speaker 2: with with the MBID MAXI Edgecumbe. But I mean the guy,
Speaker 2: he's gonna play hard. He stays healthy, or he has
Speaker 2: at least historically stayed healthy, and you know, I think
Speaker 2: there's value in not burning out Maxi and Edgecombe during
Speaker 2: the regular season so they're not running on fumes in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. I think Brown will be a big help
Speaker 2: in that regard. And I mean, honestly, with how pissed
Speaker 2: off he seems to be in the wake of this trade. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they're also probably assuming that Boston might have
Speaker 2: created a monster here and that he's gonna, Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: gonna look to like prove, you know, all of the
Speaker 2: you're the seventh best player on your team. Like. There's
Speaker 2: been a lot of insane discourse about Jalen Brown this summer,
Speaker 2: and I think he's gonna be on a mission to
Speaker 2: shut everyone up once the season starts.
Speaker 1: Do you have like a biggest on court concern or
Speaker 1: question about how this will fit together?
Speaker 2: I think just the floor spacing in general. I mean,
Speaker 2: we'll see. Obviously there's a big free agent who's still
Speaker 2: lingering out there that the Sixers are allegedly pursuing. But well,
Speaker 2: if he if.
Speaker 1: He that highly about Nick Richards.
Speaker 2: I do. I would love Nick Richards. That's that's my
Speaker 2: other concern about this roster is are you really look forty?
Speaker 1: And you know my rationale behind that one. They undermined
Speaker 1: the Knicks rum within. They forced the Knicks to sign
Speaker 1: Andres Rummond so well.
Speaker 2: When they're starting hook porty for fifty games because Joel
Speaker 2: Embiid's knees implode, We'll see who gets the last laught there.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think floor spacing general. I mean, Max,
Speaker 2: he's obviously a great three point shooter and bid can
Speaker 2: hit it, but was not a very good three point
Speaker 2: shooter at all. It's just not very high volume edgecomb.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he's going to be working on that shot
Speaker 2: all summer. We'll see where he stands once the season begins.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think that's going.
Speaker 1: To be.
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be more of a like
Speaker 2: running gun team. I think they want to just run
Speaker 2: up and down the floor, and I think they're going
Speaker 2: to lean into that. I think Nick Nurses wanted to
Speaker 2: play that way for a while. They've got the athletes now.
Speaker 2: I think Jalen Brown is actually going to fit in
Speaker 2: really well with that. How Joel Embiid fits into a
Speaker 2: system like that less clear. Yeah, I think there's gonna
Speaker 2: be and they started to do this last year really
Speaker 2: kind of leaned into it more that there is a
Speaker 2: style that you play when Embid's on the floor, and
Speaker 2: that there's a different style that you play when he's
Speaker 2: off the floor. But you have you basically work on
Speaker 2: both of these in tandem, rather than we are building
Speaker 2: our entire offense around with Joel Embiid. Those days are done.
Speaker 2: They're even more done now. You know, there's gonna be
Speaker 2: the natural question of like who gets the last shot
Speaker 2: in a close game. I don't think there's gonna be
Speaker 2: a go to guy there necessarily. I think it will
Speaker 2: vary by opponent and by situation. So I'm less concerned
Speaker 2: with that, but just kind of how flourish basing in general.
Speaker 2: Since Maxi is really their only like good high volume
Speaker 2: three point shooter, We'll see if Dean Wade increases his
Speaker 2: volume there. And you know, he's fine, but he's not
Speaker 2: like a forty point shooter or anything. So Simons, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean he's but like, is he playing in three
Speaker 2: guard lineups at the end of the game? Are you doing,
Speaker 2: like Simons VJ, Maxi, Brown, Embiid, why not would rather?
Speaker 1: I guess you'd rather have Dean Wade in that spot for.
Speaker 2: The defense, I would think, But.
Speaker 1: Let's get some LeBaron Filon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah. Like I think
Speaker 2: Simons was a big addition, especially at the price they
Speaker 2: got him. But you know, there there are some kinks
Speaker 2: that they're going to have to work out early in
Speaker 2: the season. Like I don't if they had Lebron, it's
Speaker 2: a different story right now. I don't think they are
Speaker 2: quite on the next tier, don't.
Speaker 1: I don't understand the Lebron fit other than positionally where
Speaker 1: though we need a four and Lebron slots into that.
Speaker 1: Because you look at my biggest concern for them would
Speaker 1: be and I actually don't think it's gonna end up
Speaker 1: being a huge concern, but what is just the on
Speaker 1: ball share of the offense look like? Because we saw
Speaker 1: Embiid had twenty five point four percent of the team's
Speaker 1: on ball offensive possessions when he was on the court
Speaker 1: last year. That was a career low. I believe Tyrese
Speaker 1: Maxi was at fifty one point three percent, and then
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown in Boston was at forty seven point seven percent.
Speaker 1: We've seen Jalen Brown use quite a bit less though
Speaker 1: in the past, when Jason Tatum has been healthy, So
Speaker 1: there's that. But if you're trying to scale up vj Edgecombe,
Speaker 1: who had fewer on ball looks than even Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see just how that dynamic plays out.
Speaker 1: I'm confident enough that between what they can do and transition,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, then just coupled with we've seen Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown play off the ball more in the past, and
Speaker 1: then we know Tyre's MAXI could toggle between multiple existences
Speaker 1: because you look at how many different just like co
Speaker 1: Run before he was their best player, like all the
Speaker 1: different running Ben Simmons, James Harden, like Joel Embiid at
Speaker 1: the peak of his powers. So he's just toggled between
Speaker 1: so many existences. I'm confident it, but I'm still kind
Speaker 1: of curious to see what the setup of the offense
Speaker 1: looks like when all four of those guys are in
Speaker 1: the game. Now you have Lebron James into that equation,
Speaker 1: and I don't like, Yeah, Lebron James can space a
Speaker 1: little bit and like catch and drive. Sure is that
Speaker 1: really the role Lebron James is going to be playing.
Speaker 1: So I would be so curious as to what this
Speaker 1: team looks like if now he needs to be integrated
Speaker 1: into the mix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the thing that would give me optimism is how
Speaker 2: willing he was to take a step back for the
Speaker 2: Lakers late in the year and kind of play more
Speaker 2: of that off ball.
Speaker 1: You'll let us all know about it too.
Speaker 2: He sure did. Yeah, well, there was a big sacrifice,
Speaker 2: but you know the fact that he was willing to
Speaker 2: do that and kind of seemed to enjoy that. Like
Speaker 2: I'm I'm not sure that Lebron, at age forty one,
Speaker 2: wants to continue playing the same like, high usage, high
Speaker 2: volume style that he has played for twenty three plus years.
Speaker 2: Like I would imagine after all that time, maybe dude
Speaker 2: just wants to coast a little bit and doesn't want
Speaker 2: to have to carry the team, in which case, you know,
Speaker 2: he's got a couple of horses in Philly who could
Speaker 2: help him do that in the regular season and then
Speaker 2: when the playoffs come then we could start to ramp
Speaker 2: up a little bit.
Speaker 1: The Boston side of this, I wanted to get into
Speaker 1: a little bit more just because you had mentioned Brad
Speaker 1: Stevens's comments about why the trade was made and so
Speaker 1: in a vacuum, I understand it, but this, if this
Speaker 1: is all as you mentioned, we're gonna need to evaluate
Speaker 1: this against the years to come, the next moves to come.
Speaker 1: I understand that aspect of it too, But then does
Speaker 1: this augur a trend where he's sitting there saying we
Speaker 1: didn't feel comfortable paying seventy percent of the salary cap
Speaker 1: for these two guys. You were willing to, in theory,
Speaker 1: punt on at least one season then of championship contention
Speaker 1: with those two to get out of Jalen Brown's deal sooner,
Speaker 1: which is like, that's the thing that I'm struggling to
Speaker 1: wrap my head around. Is I understand where you're coming from,
Speaker 1: but you're still paying out this money to two players.
Speaker 1: It's just inferior in the aggregate between those two players
Speaker 1: because you've gone from Jalen Brown to Paul George And
Speaker 1: so does portend thinking of, well, this might need we
Speaker 1: need to take a step back, because then we're eventually
Speaker 1: going to need to make other moves to diversify our roster,
Speaker 1: deepen our roster, redistribute the salary structure. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: having trouble squaring away is that for them to sit
Speaker 1: here and say, we didn't want to pay this much
Speaker 1: to these two players. Are they operating under the assumption
Speaker 1: that will Jaylen Brown's trade value was about to implode
Speaker 1: because other teams were thinking the same way. I like,
Speaker 1: what was your read just on that, because they haven't really,
Speaker 1: they haven't done nothing to redistribute to redistribute the cap now.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah. I mean they you know, did not say outright,
Speaker 2: we are planning on trading Paul George within the next year,
Speaker 2: but they were not as effusive about the addition of
Speaker 2: Paul George. You know, they said the right things, but
Speaker 2: they were not like, yes, this guy is a long
Speaker 2: term part of our future, so yes, it does nothing
Speaker 2: for them financially right now. Or Paul George waived his
Speaker 2: trade kicker, so it's like three million dollars off there
Speaker 2: cap sheet right now. I think they're clearly trying to
Speaker 2: duck the tax again this year. That will reset the
Speaker 2: repeater tax for them, then they can go over.
Speaker 1: It, which I think they did by waving Delanobanton. There
Speaker 1: might be some more futzing and fiddling they do if
Speaker 1: they want to fill that roster spot. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: clearly a priority.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you know it's funny go to your favorite
Speaker 2: sports book of choice right now and you pull up
Speaker 2: the title odds and the Celtics are still above the
Speaker 2: sixers right now. So everyone's like freaking out about like,
Speaker 2: how could the Celtics punt on this team? And it's
Speaker 2: like the odds makers don't think they did. The odds
Speaker 2: makers still think they're one of the best teams in
Speaker 2: the East. And you know, you could make the case
Speaker 2: that if Tatum is healthy and back to being Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum and Paul George, you know, is a really good
Speaker 2: three point shooter, like he will actually fit when healthy,
Speaker 2: he will fit well with that system too. I don't
Speaker 2: necessarily see it as they punted on championship chances are
Speaker 2: you know what they thought, Like Brad Stevens really came
Speaker 2: out and said, like, we lost in the first round.
Speaker 2: We are far removed from being a championship level team.
Speaker 2: And I don't know that the addition of Mitch Robinson,
Speaker 2: you know, he's going to help obviously, especially on the
Speaker 2: glass and defensively, but he's useless outside of three feet
Speaker 2: from the basket, So he's not going to diversify the
Speaker 2: offensive attack either. I think that's just kind of a
Speaker 2: work in progress. And they they saw this as you know,
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown is extension eligible in a couple of weeks here.
Speaker 2: I don't know that they would have had to give
Speaker 2: him the extension this summer, or that he would have
Speaker 2: demanded it this summer, but if they thought it was
Speaker 2: trending in that direction, you know, that's when you start
Speaker 2: to lose leverage. Is Jalen Brown wants an extension, we're
Speaker 2: not giving it to him. If that news breaks, they're
Speaker 2: trading him for even potentially they're trading him for even
Speaker 2: less than they did right now, So I think might
Speaker 2: have been their attempt to get ahead of that. You know,
Speaker 2: I think it's completely reasonable for Celtics fans to be
Speaker 2: mad about this trade right now, to not understand the
Speaker 2: vision right now, especially you know, I think them trading
Speaker 2: him to a division rival in particular, it was a
Speaker 2: bitter pill to swallow, and I totally get that. I
Speaker 2: will say when the like gut reaction when the news
Speaker 2: broke was like this sounds too good to be true.
Speaker 2: This is going to blow up in the Sixers face somehow,
Speaker 2: And maybe this is just markl Foltz PTSD talking, maybe
Speaker 2: this is Al Horford PTSD talking. But we've we've seen
Speaker 2: a couple big transactions involving the Sixers and the Celtics
Speaker 2: in recent years and historically has not gone the Sixers way,
Speaker 2: even when it seems like the Sixers were the clear
Speaker 2: winners at the time. So I'm I'm really trying not
Speaker 2: to dance on the Celtics graves here, Like I think
Speaker 2: they have something in mind. What it is is unclear
Speaker 2: to me at the moment, but you know, in a
Speaker 2: year's time, in two years time, I think we look
Speaker 2: back at this trade very differently than we do right now.
Speaker 2: And I'm because of that, I am like reticent to
Speaker 2: kill Brad Stevens and kill the Celtics for what they did.
Speaker 1: Well right, and I it will look different. There's a
Speaker 1: difference though, between saying that the Celtics got worse and
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be dog shit next season, because as
Speaker 1: from a regular season perspective, if Paul George is healthy,
Speaker 1: he might be the cleaner fit. You do have some
Speaker 1: questions about who's gonna kind of shoulder some of that,
Speaker 1: like Jalen Brown's biggest value to me is that when
Speaker 1: you looked at his true shooting percentage against top five
Speaker 1: defense or top five defenses or top ten defenses, it
Speaker 1: was virtually unchanged and it was still it was around
Speaker 1: like fifty six, so not super high. But to have
Speaker 1: someone who can do that, and when you're looking at
Speaker 1: Paul George not as much rim pressure, he saw his
Speaker 1: efficiency decline a little bit more when you were going
Speaker 1: up against top tier defenses. It's the year that I'm
Speaker 1: focused on, though, because it's in my belief it's or
Speaker 1: I would even look at it this way, is do
Speaker 1: I think Boston would have a better chance of winning
Speaker 1: a title with Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum over the
Speaker 1: next three years or this package of Paul George and
Speaker 1: the two picks and then whatever they do with it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the Jallen Brown Jason Tatum route,
Speaker 1: in large part because you are kind of saying unless
Speaker 1: you think that this trade somehow improved Boston's twenty twenty
Speaker 1: seven title equity, which I just don't see the vision for.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the pathway to that would be.
Speaker 1: It's probably they made a move at the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: That's what I can't get on board with, and so
Speaker 1: it made me wonder even venturing outside Boston. And the
Speaker 1: other part that's tough to square away with this is
Speaker 1: there are front offices and organizations that I am totally
Speaker 1: comfortable of viscerating, disemboweling. The Celtics under Brad Stevens are
Speaker 1: not one of them. This is a super smart organization
Speaker 1: and so you're inclined to take a step back. I
Speaker 1: still hate the trade, but it did make you. It
Speaker 1: did make me pause a little bit more before saying
Speaker 1: I didn't like the trade, because well, what are my
Speaker 1: miss here? And that question still bumbling throughout the back
Speaker 1: and front of my mind. I'm just wondering now if
Speaker 1: they were worried about losing leverage with Jaylen Brown, Who's
Speaker 1: a player that I think in the current climate, people
Speaker 1: agree is a really good basketball player, not worth the
Speaker 1: not worth thirty five percent of the salary cap the
Speaker 1: deal that he was on. Do we start to have
Speaker 1: questions about players who fall into the same boat where
Speaker 1: you're we're seeing teams trying to move those deals two
Speaker 1: or three years before they could, like this is taboo,
Speaker 1: Like do we find that this might be a bad
Speaker 1: example because they might salary dump him anyway. But the
Speaker 1: Sixers with Tyres MAXI is that he's coming up on
Speaker 1: his next deal that's two years away. We don't think
Speaker 1: he's the top ten guy, top seven guys, and we
Speaker 1: don't want to pay him his next deal. Is that
Speaker 1: a thinking that can now permeate the rest of the league,
Speaker 1: because to me, that's what that's what Boston is saying
Speaker 1: here to me, because this trade was not about this year,
Speaker 1: and you could say, yeah, we lost in the first round,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum was injured. He was coming back from an
Speaker 1: achilles injury before he finished the season on the shelf.
Speaker 1: This season wasn't supposed to be about contending for a title.
Speaker 1: So I find that I don't find that argument from him,
Speaker 1: or that point from him particularly convincing. Just because you
Speaker 1: weren't supposed to be everyone thought, which was my read
Speaker 1: on the Jallen Brown comments, and maybe I was wrong.
Speaker 1: He thought he said this was his favorite season of
Speaker 1: his career. People took that as a shot at I
Speaker 1: want to be the number one guy over Tatum. I
Speaker 1: also looked at it as idiots like me declared the
Speaker 1: Celtics doa during the season. They were going to tank
Speaker 1: and prioritize where their draft pick landed, and so them
Speaker 1: undermining those opinions, I thought, is what made it enjoyable.
Speaker 1: So that's why the Brad Stevens hole what we lost
Speaker 1: in the first round. We're not title contenders right now.
Speaker 1: You weren't supposed to be this past year. So that's
Speaker 1: why I clocked this in the sense of I'm wondering
Speaker 1: if it's the type of thinking that we see permeate
Speaker 1: the rest of the league, especially given some of the
Speaker 1: other things we just talked about, the Wemby extension being
Speaker 1: the main one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think we're already starting to see
Speaker 2: it to some extent. Like what was the commentary about
Speaker 2: the Spurs after the NBA Finals. It was they need
Speaker 2: to get off of Daron Fox, right, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, Charloie Trayla Melo Ball that were sitting right there totally.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, And I think it's just you know, teams,
Speaker 2: some teams are being brutally honest, and like I think Boston.
Speaker 2: Boston is just such a unique situation because they took
Speaker 2: advantage there was that one year phasing window like the
Speaker 2: CBA went to effect in twenty three, and then there
Speaker 2: was a one year phasing window twenty three to the
Speaker 2: twenty three twenty four season, which is when they won
Speaker 2: the title. Of like not all of the second Apron
Speaker 2: stuff was fully in effect yet, so like that's how
Speaker 2: they got Christops, That's how they got Drew. They took
Speaker 2: advantage of that one year window. It paid off in
Speaker 2: a championship, paid off handsomely, and like maybe if Tatum
Speaker 2: doesn't tear his achilles, they don't tear this thing down
Speaker 2: quite as quickly. But this core was never built to last.
Speaker 2: This was just a flash in the pan of Welt.
Speaker 2: We're pot committed to this massive payroll either way, we
Speaker 2: might as well, you know, figure out a way to
Speaker 2: maximize our odds before we're like locked into this specific
Speaker 2: core because we can't aggregate contracts after this year. Blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. So you know, I think that's kind
Speaker 2: of fueling some of the like recoil in Boston. It's
Speaker 2: not just that they broke up the J's, it's that,
Speaker 2: you know, you look at the top six of their
Speaker 2: championship team that they won two years ago, and four
Speaker 2: of those guys are no longer on the team, and
Speaker 2: I think that's a larger problem for the NBA, which
Speaker 2: we can get into. But yeah, I mean like when
Speaker 2: the Sun signed Devin Booker to his they gave him
Speaker 2: the two year extension, I believe, Yeah, a two year
Speaker 2: thirty five percent extension. A lot of the commentary at
Speaker 2: the time was like, great player, why are you doing
Speaker 2: this right now? And even you know you brought up
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell earlier, like as soon as he's signed that contract,
Speaker 2: I had the same reaction that you did. This is
Speaker 2: just immediately one of the worst contracts in the league.
Speaker 2: And would I be surprised if in two or three
Speaker 2: years time the Cabs with Mitchell are in the same
Speaker 2: spot that the Boston Celtics just were with Jalen Brown. No,
Speaker 2: And I think that's it speaks to a larger problem
Speaker 2: with the system, And you know, maybe it's one you know,
Speaker 2: that team the players will need to get more aggressive
Speaker 2: about fixing in the next CBA. Is that like, And
Speaker 2: our mutual friend Morton Jensen and I have been on
Speaker 2: this for years. Like the current setup of you know,
Speaker 2: twenty five percent max for your first six years in
Speaker 2: the league, thirty percent max for years seven through nine,
Speaker 2: thirty five percent for ten plus that doesn't make since
Speaker 2: with ho an NBA player's career tends to go. Or
Speaker 2: maybe if you want to do that, then you need
Speaker 2: to include a lower the maximum on the back end
Speaker 2: of you know, once your past year fifteen, you can't
Speaker 2: get the thirty five percent max anymore because you're just
Speaker 2: committing so much money to these guys on the back
Speaker 2: ends of their career. You know, like Donovan Mitchell right now,
Speaker 2: you could tell me, I you know, he's been all NBA,
Speaker 2: I think for the second team or third team. He's
Speaker 2: like finished in the MVP race, Like I think top
Speaker 2: seven in each of the last three years. That guy
Speaker 2: right now, you could convince me is worth a thirty
Speaker 2: five percent max. Is he going to be worth a
Speaker 2: thirty five percent max in his age thirty four season?
Speaker 2: Probably not, but that'll.
Speaker 1: Be a thirty seven and a half percent max.
Speaker 2: Right yeah. So like that I think is the big
Speaker 2: problem is that just the current system doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: because we are setting teams up to pay players exorbitant
Speaker 2: amounts of money past their prime, like more money than
Speaker 2: they could earn during their primes. They're being paid past
Speaker 2: their primes and now you're just forced to give these
Speaker 2: giant toxic contracts or I mean the alternative is that
Speaker 2: you start to play hardball with these guys. But these
Speaker 2: teams also know there are twenty nine other teams in
Speaker 2: the league, and all it takes is one idiot to
Speaker 2: throw a thirty five percent max and you're screwed. So
Speaker 2: it's it's just like you're in a no win situation,
Speaker 2: especially for Cleveland's, you know, being what seems like pole
Speaker 2: position for Lebron. Is Lebron gonna want to sign there
Speaker 2: if Donovan Mitchell has not signed an extension, And the
Speaker 2: entire story all year is Donovan Mitchell is about to
Speaker 2: become a free agent twenty twenty seven. Where's he going
Speaker 2: to go? Like Lebron doesn't want to deal with that drama, presumably,
Speaker 2: so like Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Wants to create his own drama for us, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe he'll teach Donovan Mitchell about like, if you're
Speaker 2: gonna do the decision, do it on Netflix this time
Speaker 2: at least get some money.
Speaker 1: For it, or do it via voice notes And.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, I I don't I don't have
Speaker 2: a good answer here, Like I can completely understand why
Speaker 2: there is skepticism about what the Celtics did and like
Speaker 2: whether this is going to be a trend moving forward.
Speaker 2: I think yeah. I mean, Jamal Murray found himself in
Speaker 2: trade rumors this offseason, or at least to some extent.
Speaker 2: I mean, Zach Lavine is like a radioactive contract right now.
Speaker 2: I mean give him away John Morant even, I mean,
Speaker 2: like imagine going back two or three years ago and
Speaker 2: telling yourself that's what John Morant would get traded for,
Speaker 2: even Tree.
Speaker 1: Young and then get maxed out right quasi max out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's a The system
Speaker 2: itself is just broken right now, and I don't I
Speaker 2: don't know how to fix it beyond like I think
Speaker 2: what Houston has quietly done a pretty good job of. No,
Speaker 2: they have not. They've been playing hardball with all of
Speaker 2: their players, including I mean KD took thirty or thirty
Speaker 2: million dollars less than his max. I think Shan Gun
Speaker 2: was like forty less than his max. Jalen Green wasn't
Speaker 2: even close. Even Tarry Easton getting him basically, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: and they I want to say, they offered him one
Speaker 2: hundred million.
Speaker 1: I think it was it wasn't fully guaranteed, but yeah,
Speaker 1: there was more there was a potential for more guaranteed
Speaker 1: money in the preseason deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like I think teams you either go that
Speaker 2: route and you just kind of set that standard across
Speaker 2: the roster. And I think Houston has kind of set
Speaker 2: themselves up quietly pretty well. I mean, we'll see what
Speaker 2: happens with im and Thompson obviously, but like, because they
Speaker 2: have negotiated what I would consent to be actual market
Speaker 2: value contracts for these guys, you know, I think they're
Speaker 2: they're in much better shape than a lot of other
Speaker 2: teams around the league.
Speaker 1: Brian, Can you just tell everyone where they can find
Speaker 1: you and all the fantastic work that you do.
Speaker 2: Sure you find me on Blue Sky at B T O,
Speaker 2: P O R e K salary cap stuff, a lot
Speaker 2: at Forbes and Fan Sided as well, Sixers at Liberty
Speaker 2: Ballers and Lakers at Silver Screen Role do a lot
Speaker 2: of cap stuff for both of those teams, So check
Speaker 2: those out as well, and then obviously bleach your report.
Speaker 2: Please check out Dan's work because we got a fun
Speaker 2: project coming out in the next couple of days. I'm
Speaker 2: very excited. I'm sorry for breaking your brain to the
Speaker 2: extent that I loved it.
Speaker 1: I told you before we hopped for recording, it was
Speaker 1: actually my favorite one that you've had me that you've
Speaker 1: asked me to do, but non non five year redraft related,
Speaker 1: because that's always a favorite, which everyone should be on
Speaker 1: the lookout for. That too, might be coming later this time.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Yeah, now I'm taking that as
Speaker 2: a personal challenge. So now I'm going to cook up
Speaker 2: something even.
Speaker 1: More switch just I don't know how long you need
Speaker 1: to brainstorm the idea that you gave me, but I
Speaker 1: loved it. I was just like, this is great.
Speaker 2: I've got a couple others that I'm keeping in the
Speaker 2: back pocket. So now that was my mission to just
Speaker 2: hand you the most fun and brain breaking things that
Speaker 2: could possibly.
Speaker 1: Think of anything that I have fun with. And at
Speaker 1: the end I get super disappointed that, well, everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: hate us anyway, even though I really enjoyed putting it together.
Speaker 2: Perfect. Yeah, that's really my mission.
Speaker 1: Until next time, and as always, shout out to mister
Speaker 1: Frank Nilikina