On today’s episode, Jason discusses what’s next for the USMNT after their unceremonious flameout of the Copa America, how the Los Angeles Lakers can rebound after striking out on Klay Thompson in free agency, why the addition of Thompson makes the Dallas Mavericks the team to beat in the Western Conference, why the Golden State Warriors deserve to be ridiculed for the way they’ve botched the last few years after winning a championship and why Paul George may come to regret signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Wednesday, July third, a couple days off for
good behavior. My old man likes to say herd was dark.
So we took a couple of days off the podcast
to regroup, recharge the batteries, well, digital therapy, and unfortunately,
(00:32):
just a lot of craziness happened in the sports world.
NBA chaotic soccer. Oh my gosh, I'm just crestfalling over USA.
I don't know we could start anywhere. Obviously, we'll do
a lot of NBA on this, but I feel like
I should just get the soccer out of the way.
Because the US was unceremoniously ejected from the Copa America tournament,
(00:56):
did not get out of group play one nothing lost
to Uruguay. On Monday night. It was weird. We were
at a restaurant, a little business dinner, and I had
to ask them can I get on your Wi Fi
because then I could access my cable so that I
could access USA Uruguay. And I'll just say that the
(01:16):
technology now is incredible. You got like a dinner planned
and you're like well, I can't miss this game. Okay, good,
I got my phone and I could watch the game.
It was just devastation after devastation. The referen Let's just
get this out of the way. I'm not blaming the
referee guy. The refs were horrible against the US for
two straight matches. Obviously, this all goes back to the
Tim Way a red card against Panama that really that
(01:39):
knew the US chances, you know, the red card killed him.
You go down to man a couple questionable moves by
Greg Burhalter, and next thing, you know, give up a
goal in the final like seven eight minutes and boom,
you're fighting for your life against Uruguay, who's really good.
And we knew that going in. We knew they were good,
they were better than us. But again it's Uruguay. This
is not like you know, this is not Brazil or
(02:01):
Argentina's Orguay. And we fought them hard, We played real tough,
gave up an unfortunate goal, didn't really quite have the
offense we needed, which was disappointing. At a couple good chances,
but ultimately we're done and all the attention turns to
Greg Burrhalter should he come back should they fire him.
Let me just first read the statement from US Soccer Federation.
(02:23):
Our tournament performance fell short of expectations. We must do better.
We will be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance
in COOPA and how best to improve the team and
results as we look towards the twenty twenty six World Cup.
So in short, I'll just help my read. We will
be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance. Yeah, I
(02:45):
think it's more of We will be conducting extensive research
into potential coaches who could maybe come our way. We're
gonna be reviewing the co performance for the USA. We'll
get back to you on how that was. Give us
a week or two. That week or two, everybody watched
the games. We know what went on. What the real
story is is what's happening behind the scenes. Who are
(03:07):
they reaching out to to come in And again, I
know some people are like Jay, this is not a
coach issue. We just don't have talent. I don't know, guys.
We have as much challeng as we've ever had. We
got guys playing all over the world, a lot of
impressive players. It hasn't quite come together. I'm not gonna
draw the parallel to the Golden State Warriors with Mark
(03:27):
Jackson as coach, and they were good and butting up
against it, and then Steve Kerr comes in, makes a
tweak with Draymond and they make the jump to light
speed and next thing you know, they're what I think
is the greatest dynasty in NBA history. I'm not going
back to the sixties. Sorry, when there's eleven and twelve
teams in the league and off duty firefighters were starting
at shooting guard. I'm not doing that. You know, guys
who are in the Hall of Fame now and it's
pretty clear from the videos they couldn't dribble with their
(03:48):
left hand. We're not doing that. These Warriors where they
won before Durant, with Durant, after Durant, the number of
finals they went to, I mean, it's just it's extraordinary.
They top Jordan's bulls and we're not going to do
that now. But bottom line is the coach mattered in
the NBA. Coach matters immensely in soccer. I thought our
(04:10):
players were playing hard for bur Halter. I'm not saying
they quit, obviously, that would never go there. But my
issue is I would I think you need to replace Burhlter.
You've got about a twenty month window right now. You're
automatically qualified for the World Cup, so you don't got
to worry about that. You just got to worry about
getting the right pieces in place. Maybe it's a starter here,
a starter there, a formation, tweak, whatever it is. But
(04:32):
I asked it. Ask my buddy, who is plugged in.
He was the one who gave me the Geo Rena
versus Burholter stuff at the World Cup, which proved to
be true. I know a lot of people were upset,
but this person is not convinced they're going to make
a change, and you know that troubles me. This guy's
(04:52):
as plugged in as anybody I know on soccer, and
the idea of not making a change is like, are
we better than we were at the last World Cup
with largely the same players? I know Baligan's in there now,
but largely the same players. Are we better now than
we were? And I don't see that improvement. If this
is an alleged golden generation, which I do believe we
(05:14):
are in that and you can look up other golden
generations around that. I mean, Spain had an incredible one.
Every country has their golden generation of talent, four or
five six guys who are together and win a lot.
And I feel like we've got those guys, we just
haven't harnessed them all together. So overall, extremely disappointing. I
(05:34):
would move on for Burhalter. I'm not gonna sit here
and try to float names for you guys. I don't
know if a guy like Klop is attainable. I mean,
there's a lot of dudes out there who you can
make a run at. We're just gonna say I don't
need this. What do I need this? Now? You could
look at it the opposite way and say, oh, man, dude,
you get to come to America from your country, a
two year not vacation, but a break, you know, a
(05:54):
nice little reset in life and come a new experience,
and you know, guess what, if you're able to make
a run too, I don't know, the final four of
the World Cup here on American soil, you become a
legend forever.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I know a lot of guys don't think that way,
but in reality, you look at Bruce Arena, supposedly by many,
and when I grew up, he was a dominant force
at the University of Virginia, but Bruce Arena is largely
considered the best US coach we've had. I'm sure some
people would argue that don't lose your mind. Arena is
certainly up there. If not number one, whoever comes in.
(06:30):
If in two years you can transform this awesome group
to a bit of a juggernaut. They can make the
knockouts and then a quarter finals and then semifinals, like,
oh my gosh, we found our guy, and you know
that's I think where we are. The problem is can
you identify that guy and then can you land him.
I'm not gonna dig too much into it because we
don't have a resolution as we record this here right
(06:52):
before July fourth, but us something has to be done,
like just trotting it out there. What is that The
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over over
and expected different results. I feel like we're approaching that
with US men soccer all right now to the NBA,
where there's just so much that has gone down in
the last week. It's been a dizzying pace trying to
keep up. I tried my best to stay offline, but
(07:13):
it's very difficult when the news is hot and heavy.
I'll back up to this. So obviously I am doing
Herd again Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week. As I then
headed a vacation next week, the podcast takes a break
as I actually powered out. I will not be on
social media Twitter, I will not be doing podcasts. Heard, nothing,
no radio hits. Regardless of what happens with the Jets,
(07:34):
I'm not doing it. But I went on Heard last
week and I thought I had a really good take.
I said, what if Lebron actually takes less? Hey, you
guys gave me the head coach I wanted in Reddick,
and you guys gave me my son drafted fifty fifth overall. Boy,
thanks so much. You know what, I'll take a little less.
We only got a couple of years. Let me take
(07:55):
a little less. Let's go get let's go big game hunting.
And that happened, and I felt like a I got
so many texts and responses. It was awesome. It felt great.
And then you wait and you're like, oh uh, Clay
goes to the Mavericks and Lebron allegedly had a few
guys on the list, and I believe, as of right now,
all of them are off the list except for Demart Rosen. Now,
(08:17):
depending on who you believe, what you want to read
about the list that Lebron said, Hey, I'll take less
than for these guys. Otherwise, give me the max. We'll
see what happens. And I felt great about it. And
then Clay picked the Maths. Now, I think the biggest
story here is the demise of the warriors and how
badly they butchered this, And we'll get to that shortly,
but quickly. On Clay and the mass. First of all,
(08:39):
major shout out to the Dallas Mavericks coming in enemy
territory and securing Clay Thompson. Pretty damn impressive. It all
went to, I told you guys, Clay has been here
in the South Bay, Los Angeles all summer. He lives
close to my buddy, and they've ever people seen him everywhere. Right,
(09:00):
Dallas Mavericks came in, had took Clay to a restaurant
in Hermosa Beach that I've been to with the family.
It's not that far from me, and they basically locked
him down in Laker terror. I mean, the Lakers facility
is like seven miles maybe maybe less from where this
restaurant is so shout out to the Maps, and the
Maps have done some work. I think they're the clear
(09:20):
favorites in the West. I don't want to hear Okay
see yet, Okay se he's up there. Minnesota's in great hip.
I think the mass Clay Thompson certainly makes them the
favorites in the West. They just went to the finals.
They upgrade with Clay. They got another guy, Naji Marshall,
who's a solid pick up, kind of like a Derek
Jones Tide player. But why would Clay pick the MAVs
(09:40):
over the Lakers? And I've been trying to wrap my
head around this. I know the money. A lot of
people are and again the reports. You got to be
careful who you read here. A lot of people are saying, oh,
Clay Clay took less to play for the MAVs. Not
technically true as I understand it, Clay could could have
(10:00):
gotten more from the Lakers. They came to him and
said we can do four for eighty and then Clay
and I don't know that he said this, but could
have easily countered. Oh is that is that available right now?
Well know, we've got to make some moves to get there.
But if you tell us yes on four for eighty,
we'll do it. We'll move d' angela, Russell, Ruijji, Mora, whoever, whatever,
We'll get to four eighty. They thought they could do that.
(10:23):
Clay was like, m I don't know. I think I'm
gonna go ahead and take bird in hand. The MAVs
had their ish together, and I've got my deal from Dallas,
three year deal, and it's not quite for eighty four
for eighty, but it's you know, I know it's not
tax free because basketball players have this dumb thing where
you got to pay tax in every everywhere you play
(10:44):
a game, because you're in Indiana and you're in Los
Angeles and everywhere. Blah blah blah blah. Bottom line is
he saved some money obviously staying in Texas, and he
gets to play for a team that's on the cusp
of a championship. The Lakers. Sadly, they're not a player away.
Lakers probably thought they were, were Clay Away probably not.
(11:06):
Were they closer with Clay certainly, remember two years ago
they're in the conference finals. Okay, I know they got
bounced in the first round. Denver basically, Jamal Murray beat
him in two super close games and the Lakers one
another one like that. I don't want to say it
was a coin flip series. You can't say that on
four to one. But the Lakers put up a fight,
and the year before they were in the conference finals.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
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Speaker 2 (11:37):
I maintain as good as OKC is. There's a lot
of good teams out there in the West. We've seen
now the Warriors drop back. We're losing Clay and Chris Paul.
I'll get to the Warriors. Don't worry. We've now seen
the Clippers losing Paul George. They dropped back, and so
now you're looking at a lot of Oh, Okay, so
he's good, Minnesota's good. I don't know, are we really
(12:01):
terrified of Denver now losing KCP and that's a big loss.
The best starting lineup in the league loses their shooting guard,
Like that's a significant loss, not easily replaceable. So I
can't say for certain the Lakers aren't a player away
I will say the West is kind of jumbled. I
think it's clear though Dallas is the cream of the
crop there. But it leads me to the Clay Thompson
(12:21):
leaving the Warriors, and I tried to map out a
little outline of how bad this has gone for Golden
State since winning the title, you know, like you could say,
like meeting this person was the best thing to happen
to me and the worst thing to happen to me.
Winning the title in twenty twenty two was incredible for
the Warriors. Obviously, Curry gets his Finals MVP, they win
(12:44):
it without Durant beating the Celtics. Awesome, impressive, just unbelievable stuff.
It was also the beginning of the end because after that,
I don't know if you guys are ready for this,
but after that thing snowballed so quickly and so ugly
that they've never recovered. Because June of twenty two they
(13:06):
win the title. Right October of twenty two is when
Draymond Green punches out Jordan Poole, and that moment they
just it was just so bad and people wanted to
dust it under the rug, like Jordan Poole was the problem.
When so what he was making fun of dre He
was making fun of Draymond for allegedly not getting the bag.
(13:30):
Remember that was one of the Again this is I
think it was a rapper who is from the Bay
Area who heard about what Jordan Poole was saying, and
Jordan Pool runs his mouth. We know he was a talker,
and he was running his mouth with Draymond about not
getting paid. You ain't getting any bag. Sorry, it's not happening.
And everybody knows they're paying Wiggans. You didn't get your money.
(13:50):
And then Draymond punches him out and everything goes sideways.
But right after the punch, the Warriors extended Wiggins because
he was remembered incredible in the finals against Boston. He
was probably their second best player. So they give Wiggins
a four year extension. After the season, which was a disaster,
they trade Jordan Poole for Chris Paul and you think, oh,
(14:10):
we got the veteran Chris Paul I did not like
that move at all. Within a week, right, they move
off Pool in his contract because Pool had gotten paid.
They extend Draymond another four year deal. So just remember,
you win the title and then you extend Wiggins for
four years? Do you extend Raymond for four And now
here we are a year later, and Clay's like, Yo,
where's my four year deal that you gave the other guys.
(14:32):
I'm as integral as Draymond, and I'm certainly more integral
than Wiggins, even though he's younger and had a better
Finals than me, and the Warriors just refused to do it.
And so Clay, in my opinion, took that as a
slap in the face. And this all goes back to
if you remember, Bob Myers was facing one of those
tricky moments where he's like, what do we do after
they won the championship? Do I tear it down? What
(14:56):
do we do trade Raymond after he punched about as
values load? Do we trape Clay? I don't? What do
we do? And nobody wants to be the guy who
ends up tearing down the dynasty? So they decide, Well,
Bob Myers decides, I'm out, I'm stepping down. I had
a good run. I'm gonna go do TV. I don't
want to be the guy like Kraus in Chicago who
(15:17):
tore down the Bulls and they just they bow the
guy his corpse. He's dead. Of course, they booed him
when they were honoring him the season in Chicago. He's
still a hated figure because he's the one who allegedly
didn't want to keep Jordan, Pippen, Phil of the gang
back together. And you guys, remember what happened to the
(15:37):
Bulls by the way, quick fallout. A decade after Jordan,
Pip and everybody left. They were a disaster, couldn't get anywhere.
Eddie Curry failure as a number one pick actually shades
of James Wiseman, right, Eddie Curry. Tyson Chandler did not.
Tyson Chandler was good but not incredible. Ended up better
(15:59):
with the man later in his career. But the Bulls
basically won a decade after drafting or after losing Jordan
and Pippin and Phil, and they won nothing. Then they
get Derrick Rose, they think they're back. They make the
conference finals against the Heat. Rose obviously keeps getting injured.
So now we're on twenty five years of largely irrelevant
(16:20):
Chicago Bulls basketball post Jordan tearing it down and then
no game plan. And I feel like we're getting close
to that territory with the Golden State Warriors. I'm not kidding.
They are approaching post Bulls. Jordan Wasteland. Folks, I don't
know how you quickly solve this. You're telling me they
(16:42):
were in the play in last year. They lose Chris Paul,
they lose Klay Thompson, two Hall of famers, obviously not
playing at a Hall of Fame level, the most expensive
lottery team in the history of the NBA last season,
and your moves are to add Kyle Anderson and the
Anthony Melton. What what? It's pretty cool. I saw a
(17:04):
brutal article just dismembering Joe Lacum for all the bad moves.
And the Jordan Poole trade for Chris Paul looks so
bad because they tried to peddle Chris Paul this week.
They couldn't get anything from him, so they just got
to let him go for nothing, which in hindsight makes
that Pool for Chris Paul deal looked like Jordan Poole
(17:27):
was just a salary dump. And remember, as much as
you guys hated Jordan Poole, he had his moments. Remember
Klay Thompson didn't start that season or maybe twenty one
or twenty two, whichever season it was, Clay was injured
and Jordan Poole and company they start out eighteen and
two and Jordan Poole's like looking like a player and
he gets his big money. Folks like, the Warriors have
(17:48):
botched this so badly. The pr hit they take obviously
for losing Clay's brutal but also are they a better
team than they were now? I know they're chasing Lowry
market in good luck with that. They allegedly chase Paul Pierce.
But it's also if depending on who you read, it
sounds like the Clippers did not even entertain trading Paul
George to the Warriors. They don't want to give up
(18:10):
Paul George in the West where he's going to play
against him and maybe in the playoffs. They don't want
to do that, so they ship him east or will
not ship him. But they're fine with Paul George going
east and the Sixers now get Paul George and we'll
get to that in a moment. I just I cannot
believe how poorly the Warriors have botched all this. Now,
(18:31):
you could also argue hate Jay Warriors dodged a bullet
with this Clay deal Man. He's kind of washed. And
I get that. He owed for ten in his final
game with the Warriors in that play in game against
the Kings. I get that, but look where he's landing now.
Clay Lands alongside what was dubbed by Stan Van Guddy
is the best backcourt in NBA history last month. Clearly
not true. But you're telling me Kyrie Luca and Klay
(18:55):
Thompson isn't going to be a major problem when Luca's
driving and kicking out. It's not Derek can I hit
this three. It's not PJ. Washington. I'm only a corner
three guy. It's not Josh Green, who had a really
nice game in his final game for the mass It's
Clay Frickin Thompson, who was one of the I think
he was fourth in the league and made threes last
year when we would call him washed all we want.
He's not the defender we once was. I get it.
(19:16):
You know they lose something defensively that they had in
Derreck Jones. But you're telling me the Slovenian Stallion doesn't
love this move. Luka Doncic adding one of the great
shooters the sport has ever seen, and folks. There was
pressure on Clay to be the number two guy in
Golden State when there was no number two for Wiggins
or for Curry, because Wiggins didn't really show up as
(19:38):
the number two after the finals. He had some off
court stuff that still has not really come out. Clay
now goes, oh, okay, we've got let's see here. Luca
is the one, Kyrie the two. Okay, sure, I'll slot
in as the three. Like does Clay start? Probably, but
maybe not all the time. I think this is just
an amazing fit for him, and I really can't him
(20:00):
for picking the MAVs over the Lakers. I know when
we get Rob g in here tomorrow, he's probably gonna
be a little upset, But overall, I can't fault Clay
at all for taking this deal. Now, let me just
quickly finish up the maps before we get to Paul
George and the Sixers. So let's just look at the maths.
(20:21):
They lose Derrick Jones, Josh Green rerouted to Charlotte, and
they dumped Tim Hardaway, so the Lakers. Remember I said
the Lakers needed to do some dumping so that they
could afford the four for eighty for Clay. The MAVs
went ahead and did it. They just dumped hard away
and they were able to add Clay Marshall and then
Quentin Grimes, who is a prospect but he's been hurt.
(20:43):
I think the Maths are the clear leaders. I would
I would put OKC two in the West, maybe two
or three Minnesota, minnesot actually probably Minnesota two, and then
OKAC three. Okay, see Ads Hartenstein, they add Alex Caruso,
they they extend Wiggins and Joe. I mean, they got
a good team. I just I don't know. I just
(21:06):
don't know how they're gonna look in the in the
conference finals if they have enough top end talent to
hang with the likes of say A Celtics, and Minnesota's
got more top end talent. mAbs we saw MAVs do.
It was a close series, but Okase, he's very very good.
Stealing Hartenstein from the Nicks hurts. I think Nick's clearly
second best in the East, Yes, ahead of the Sixers,
behind Boston, which I'll wrap up now with the Sixers.
(21:30):
So this Paul George situation, I don't know if you
guys read the story. I think it was Ramona Shelbourne
did a long story. So when Darryl Morian Companies showed
up for their meeting with Paul George, Paul George was
ringing an Allen iverson Jersey. They're like, oh, we got
this in the bag, but let me just quickly back up,
like and I got to ask this, this is a
legitimate question. Did Paul George pick the seventy six ers
(21:53):
or did he just have no other options? Because the
Clippers essentially said, like you, but don't love you. Thank
you for your service. That's it. That's really what happened.
The Clippers essentially said, no, thanks, Paul George, We're not
doing it, so you take the Clippers off the table.
There were allegedly Warriors making moves, but the Clippers didn't
want to do that deal. So the Warriors forget that.
(22:15):
So then it comes down to Orlando or Philly the
only two teams with cap space. And you guys saw
the news. One of the first big signings was KCP
to Orlando three years, something like sixty seven mil something
like that, and it's like, well, wait a minute, wait
a minute, could they still afford Paul George after giving
(22:35):
sixty six mil to KCP, and the answer from some
of these capologists on social media is maybe not. Maybe
they didn't want to get used by Clay and they thought,
you know what, we're closer than that. We think, let's
just give the money to KCP. And remember the last
team to give KCP money after he won a title.
Drum roll, please, Denver Nuggets worked out pretty well for them.
Orlando's not quite there, but it's still a savvy good
(22:57):
move by them.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
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Speaker 2 (23:10):
Which brings me back to Paul George. Is like, he
didn't really have any other options. Where was Paul George
gonna go? So it essentially came down to the Sixers.
Then I know, Daryl Morey is getting lauded. Oh he
cleared up the Caps face and now he gets Paul
George and they've got the best big three in the league.
And I'm just like, can we just slow the roll. Yes,
it's a great fit. You got Maxi, you got Paul George,
(23:33):
and you got Embiid. But let's just remember the big
three means you're kind of thin with the rest of
your roster. And we just saw the Phoenix Suns with
Booker Beale and Durant completely flame out. Now I know
this is a slightly different allocation of resources because they
(23:54):
don't Phoenix doesn't have a big They went with two
guards and the wing and KD this tree is guard
forward center, which is really nice. And I agree, but
I don't think. I'm not gonna say I don't think.
I know they're not better than the New York Knicks.
I think the mckel bridges No Time All Star is
a much better pickup for them. Remember the Knicks could
(24:14):
have gone after Paul George. Why didn't they? They said, no, no, no,
no no, We're gonna bet on chemistry. We're betting that
mckl bridges with other, with three other Villanova guys is
gonna work like magic, and we are gonna be looking
at you know, basically the Villanova Knicks plus ogn and
Ob and a couple other guys and all of a
(24:37):
sudden boom, we are right in the mix. Now they
are missing a center, which is a problem, especially if
you're going against Joel Embiid. But the Knicks they should be.
Finding a backup center shouldn't be hard. Obviously, you need
Mitchell Robbinson's stay healthy. That's been a problem for him.
I'm of the belief that this Knicks team very well
equipped to handle Maxie, who did cook them in the
(24:57):
In the series, Maxie was great at times, but he's
a young guy. He also had a no show I
think in Game five, or maybe it was Game six,
one of those two Embiid. I mean, you go look
at the last five years, who have been the most
injured players in the postseason. It's Kawhi, it's Embiid, it's
Paul George, and now the Sixers have two of them. Now,
(25:20):
obviously you're rolling the dice saying, hey, we're gonna take
our best chance. We should be okay, hopefully they'll be healthy.
We'll manage the minutes all season. But I don't know.
It's just tough for me to believe that I should
have faith in this Sixers team with two perpetually injured stars,
and they are stars. Paul George is the top twenty
(25:41):
player in the league. Embiid, former MVP MAXI big time
ascending talent. It's just tough for me to believe that
this team is suddenly better than Nicks and Celtics. And
this is my other aspect to this that is troubling. Historically,
if you look at teams that had a Big three,
someone has to be the fall guy. Someone's got to
sacrifice their game for their stats and their game for
(26:06):
the better of the team. You can go through them,
Chris Bosh in Miami, you had Kevin Love. In Cleveland,
you had was it James I guess it would have
been James Harden in in Uh with the Clippers last year.
Last year you had Bradley Beale essentially become a sacrificial
(26:29):
lamb for the Suns after they got destroyed by Minnesota.
And now it didn't help. The Bill played like ass.
But somebody's always got to be the guy who is
like the odd man out and viewed as the problem,
and why is he sacrificing more? Blah blah blah. Well,
who do you think that is? In Philly? I'm gonna
go ahead and guess it's not gonna be Tyrese Maxey,
who's a homegrown talent. I'm gonna go ahead and guess
(26:50):
it's not gonna be Joel Embiid who's the leader of
the franchise, the most probably probably the biggest athlete in Philadelphia.
But he's right there with her. He's right there with Kelsey, like, oh,
Kelsey's retired now, but you get it and beat his beloved,
it's gonna be Paul George. And that's why I don't
know that he fully thought this through, because let's be real,
(27:12):
when things go sideways, and they will, is Paul George
built to take the complaints? Is he built to take
the heat? You know, Paul didn't get it done. Paul's
defense was not what it should have been, Like he's
gonna be the guy they're coming after. They're not the
Philly is not gonna go after embeat. He's protected. We
covered this with Ben Simmons. There were games where Simmons
(27:33):
was better than Embiid and the media always blamed Simmons.
I mean, where was embid again? And beat did not
have the greatest series against the Knicks did not. He
was great in a couple games, but it's a seven
game series. He was not great the year prior against
the Celtics. He just has these empty playoff performances. But
he's bulletproof because the media loves him. He's a good SoundBite,
he's good on social media. You know, he's a seven
(27:54):
footer who puts up dominant stats in the regular season.
I'm just telling you, I hope Paul George is ready
when the heat comes and the Sixers underperform, because, folks,
the Clippers woefully underperformed, but they're sheltered out here in
the West because it's the friggin Clippers. Nobody really cares
that much. The Lakers are the NBA team in town.
(28:16):
When the Clippers failed, it was, oh, we got to
get rid of we got to get rid of the coach.
When the Clippers so well, everybody's hurt. There was really
nobody to outwardly blame the way. Paul George is going
to get the heat. And I'm just telling you he's
gonna get the heat when things go sideways for the Sixers.
So currently, and again not everything's completely done in the
West or East. I would go top four in the East.
(28:37):
I'm still extremely bullish on Indiana. We'll talk about that
more probably after vacation. I just I like the roster
won through nine. Go look at the who played the
Celtics the toughest in the playoffs. Wasn't Dallas, it was
the Pacers. They had Game one one one until the
Jaylen Brown three goes over time. Two other games Pacers
(28:57):
let in the fourth quarter just choked them away. They played.
I think they play the Celtics tougher than anybody. You're
telling me the Pacers aren't a top fourteen in the East.
I'm sorry, we got problems. I know Donovan Mitchell staying
in Cleveland, but I would go Pacers four six or three,
Knicks two and Boston one. I'm sorry, Milwaukee Bucks fans,
(29:18):
I I don't know what I mean. Did you guys
do anything? You have your big three stars in Middleton,
Damon Giannis, and now you're capped out. They got they can't.
They have no moves. I don't know if they made
any moves just the draft. So I would I guess
I would have the Bucks five. I'm bullish on the Pacers,
I know, and then we could wrap up with the West.
(29:43):
West is tougher because there's about thirteen teams. I'll say this.
Let me reserve judgment on the West big picture, because
Lowry Marketing sounds like he could be on the move.
It appears as I'm recording this that the Spurs are
in play and a lowry market and Chris Paul Wemby
trio and that's probably thirty five plus wins. Guys, Chris Paul,
anywhere he goes, you know that he's gonna win games.
(30:05):
I think the Sons have fallen. What's weird is this
is crazy. The Lakers, despite this extremely exciting offseason, have
signed one guy, Max Christy. That's it. So Warriors have
taken a step back, Clippers have taken a step back,
and I don't know that the Lakers have made a
step forward quite yet. So I'll still stick at the
(30:28):
top of the West. Dallas, Minnesota, ok see, okay see
probably ends up with the number one seed because man,
they try hard in the regular season and they're young
and deep. But geez, that West is an absolute I mean,
the Suns are not a top five team in the West.
I think Lakers are in I think Memphis is coming hard.
This is just an absolutely loaded Western conference. I mean,
(30:51):
with the etcetera, are like Portland, Utah. I mean, if
the Pelicans are really good, adding to John Ta Murray,
we did get to that Pelicans are really good. West
is stacked. NBA free agency's been popped and we are back. Well,
I don't know we're gonna do one more pod. I
think we will probably have it on. We'll take probably
take July fourth off, enjoy the fireworks, and then we'll
come out Friday with a pod to take us into
a little vacation time. Glad to be back, I love
(31:15):
the NBA. Disappointed for US soccer, and we'll talk to
you tomorrow
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Wednesday, July third, a couple days off for
good behavior. My old man likes to say herd was dark.
So we took a couple of days off the podcast
to regroup, recharge the batteries, well, digital therapy, and unfortunately,
(00:32):
just a lot of craziness happened in the sports world.
NBA chaotic soccer. Oh my gosh, I'm just crestfalling over USA.
I don't know we could start anywhere. Obviously, we'll do
a lot of NBA on this, but I feel like
I should just get the soccer out of the way.
Because the US was unceremoniously ejected from the Copa America tournament,
(00:56):
did not get out of group play one nothing lost
to Uruguay. On Monday night. It was weird. We were
at a restaurant, a little business dinner, and I had
to ask them can I get on your Wi Fi
because then I could access my cable so that I
could access USA Uruguay. And I'll just say that the
(01:16):
technology now is incredible. You got like a dinner planned
and you're like well, I can't miss this game. Okay, good,
I got my phone and I could watch the game.
It was just devastation after devastation. The referen Let's just
get this out of the way. I'm not blaming the
referee guy. The refs were horrible against the US for
two straight matches. Obviously, this all goes back to the
Tim Way a red card against Panama that really that
(01:39):
knew the US chances, you know, the red card killed him.
You go down to man a couple questionable moves by
Greg Burhalter, and next thing, you know, give up a
goal in the final like seven eight minutes and boom,
you're fighting for your life against Uruguay, who's really good.
And we knew that going in. We knew they were good,
they were better than us. But again it's Uruguay. This
is not like you know, this is not Brazil or
(02:01):
Argentina's Orguay. And we fought them hard, We played real tough,
gave up an unfortunate goal, didn't really quite have the
offense we needed, which was disappointing. At a couple good chances,
but ultimately we're done and all the attention turns to
Greg Burrhalter should he come back should they fire him.
Let me just first read the statement from US Soccer Federation.
(02:23):
Our tournament performance fell short of expectations. We must do better.
We will be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance
in COOPA and how best to improve the team and
results as we look towards the twenty twenty six World Cup.
So in short, I'll just help my read. We will
be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance. Yeah, I
(02:45):
think it's more of We will be conducting extensive research
into potential coaches who could maybe come our way. We're
gonna be reviewing the co performance for the USA. We'll
get back to you on how that was. Give us
a week or two. That week or two, everybody watched
the games. We know what went on. What the real
story is is what's happening behind the scenes. Who are
(03:07):
they reaching out to to come in And again, I
know some people are like Jay, this is not a
coach issue. We just don't have talent. I don't know, guys.
We have as much challeng as we've ever had. We
got guys playing all over the world, a lot of
impressive players. It hasn't quite come together. I'm not gonna
draw the parallel to the Golden State Warriors with Mark
(03:27):
Jackson as coach, and they were good and butting up
against it, and then Steve Kerr comes in, makes a
tweak with Draymond and they make the jump to light
speed and next thing you know, they're what I think
is the greatest dynasty in NBA history. I'm not going
back to the sixties. Sorry, when there's eleven and twelve
teams in the league and off duty firefighters were starting
at shooting guard. I'm not doing that. You know, guys
who are in the Hall of Fame now and it's
pretty clear from the videos they couldn't dribble with their
(03:48):
left hand. We're not doing that. These Warriors where they
won before Durant, with Durant, after Durant, the number of
finals they went to, I mean, it's just it's extraordinary.
They top Jordan's bulls and we're not going to do
that now. But bottom line is the coach mattered in
the NBA. Coach matters immensely in soccer. I thought our
(04:10):
players were playing hard for bur Halter. I'm not saying
they quit, obviously, that would never go there. But my
issue is I would I think you need to replace Burhlter.
You've got about a twenty month window right now. You're
automatically qualified for the World Cup, so you don't got
to worry about that. You just got to worry about
getting the right pieces in place. Maybe it's a starter here,
a starter there, a formation, tweak, whatever it is. But
(04:32):
I asked it. Ask my buddy, who is plugged in.
He was the one who gave me the Geo Rena
versus Burholter stuff at the World Cup, which proved to
be true. I know a lot of people were upset,
but this person is not convinced they're going to make
a change, and you know that troubles me. This guy's
(04:52):
as plugged in as anybody I know on soccer, and
the idea of not making a change is like, are
we better than we were at the last World Cup
with largely the same players? I know Baligan's in there now,
but largely the same players. Are we better now than
we were? And I don't see that improvement. If this
is an alleged golden generation, which I do believe we
(05:14):
are in that and you can look up other golden
generations around that. I mean, Spain had an incredible one.
Every country has their golden generation of talent, four or
five six guys who are together and win a lot.
And I feel like we've got those guys, we just
haven't harnessed them all together. So overall, extremely disappointing. I
(05:34):
would move on for Burhalter. I'm not gonna sit here
and try to float names for you guys. I don't
know if a guy like Klop is attainable. I mean,
there's a lot of dudes out there who you can
make a run at. We're just gonna say I don't
need this. What do I need this? Now? You could
look at it the opposite way and say, oh, man, dude,
you get to come to America from your country, a
two year not vacation, but a break, you know, a
(05:54):
nice little reset in life and come a new experience,
and you know, guess what, if you're able to make
a run too, I don't know, the final four of
the World Cup here on American soil, you become a
legend forever.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I know a lot of guys don't think that way,
but in reality, you look at Bruce Arena, supposedly by many,
and when I grew up, he was a dominant force
at the University of Virginia, but Bruce Arena is largely
considered the best US coach we've had. I'm sure some
people would argue that don't lose your mind. Arena is
certainly up there. If not number one, whoever comes in.
(06:30):
If in two years you can transform this awesome group
to a bit of a juggernaut. They can make the
knockouts and then a quarter finals and then semifinals, like,
oh my gosh, we found our guy, and you know
that's I think where we are. The problem is can
you identify that guy and then can you land him.
I'm not gonna dig too much into it because we
don't have a resolution as we record this here right
(06:52):
before July fourth, but us something has to be done,
like just trotting it out there. What is that The
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over over
and expected different results. I feel like we're approaching that
with US men soccer all right now to the NBA,
where there's just so much that has gone down in
the last week. It's been a dizzying pace trying to
keep up. I tried my best to stay offline, but
(07:13):
it's very difficult when the news is hot and heavy.
I'll back up to this. So obviously I am doing
Herd again Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week. As I then
headed a vacation next week, the podcast takes a break
as I actually powered out. I will not be on
social media Twitter, I will not be doing podcasts. Heard, nothing,
no radio hits. Regardless of what happens with the Jets,
(07:34):
I'm not doing it. But I went on Heard last
week and I thought I had a really good take.
I said, what if Lebron actually takes less? Hey, you
guys gave me the head coach I wanted in Reddick,
and you guys gave me my son drafted fifty fifth overall. Boy,
thanks so much. You know what, I'll take a little less.
We only got a couple of years. Let me take
(07:55):
a little less. Let's go get let's go big game hunting.
And that happened, and I felt like a I got
so many texts and responses. It was awesome. It felt great.
And then you wait and you're like, oh uh, Clay
goes to the Mavericks and Lebron allegedly had a few
guys on the list, and I believe, as of right now,
all of them are off the list except for Demart Rosen. Now,
(08:17):
depending on who you believe, what you want to read
about the list that Lebron said, Hey, I'll take less
than for these guys. Otherwise, give me the max. We'll
see what happens. And I felt great about it. And
then Clay picked the Maths. Now, I think the biggest
story here is the demise of the warriors and how
badly they butchered this, And we'll get to that shortly,
but quickly. On Clay and the mass. First of all,
(08:39):
major shout out to the Dallas Mavericks coming in enemy
territory and securing Clay Thompson. Pretty damn impressive. It all
went to, I told you guys, Clay has been here
in the South Bay, Los Angeles all summer. He lives
close to my buddy, and they've ever people seen him everywhere. Right,
(09:00):
Dallas Mavericks came in, had took Clay to a restaurant
in Hermosa Beach that I've been to with the family.
It's not that far from me, and they basically locked
him down in Laker terror. I mean, the Lakers facility
is like seven miles maybe maybe less from where this
restaurant is so shout out to the Maps, and the
Maps have done some work. I think they're the clear
(09:20):
favorites in the West. I don't want to hear Okay
see yet, Okay se he's up there. Minnesota's in great hip.
I think the mass Clay Thompson certainly makes them the
favorites in the West. They just went to the finals.
They upgrade with Clay. They got another guy, Naji Marshall,
who's a solid pick up, kind of like a Derek
Jones Tide player. But why would Clay pick the MAVs
(09:40):
over the Lakers? And I've been trying to wrap my
head around this. I know the money. A lot of
people are and again the reports. You got to be
careful who you read here. A lot of people are saying, oh,
Clay Clay took less to play for the MAVs. Not
technically true as I understand it, Clay could could have
(10:00):
gotten more from the Lakers. They came to him and
said we can do four for eighty and then Clay
and I don't know that he said this, but could
have easily countered. Oh is that is that available right now?
Well know, we've got to make some moves to get there.
But if you tell us yes on four for eighty,
we'll do it. We'll move d' angela, Russell, Ruijji, Mora, whoever, whatever,
We'll get to four eighty. They thought they could do that.
(10:23):
Clay was like, m I don't know. I think I'm
gonna go ahead and take bird in hand. The MAVs
had their ish together, and I've got my deal from Dallas,
three year deal, and it's not quite for eighty four
for eighty, but it's you know, I know it's not
tax free because basketball players have this dumb thing where
you got to pay tax in every everywhere you play
(10:44):
a game, because you're in Indiana and you're in Los
Angeles and everywhere. Blah blah blah blah. Bottom line is
he saved some money obviously staying in Texas, and he
gets to play for a team that's on the cusp
of a championship. The Lakers. Sadly, they're not a player away.
Lakers probably thought they were, were Clay Away probably not.
(11:06):
Were they closer with Clay certainly, remember two years ago
they're in the conference finals. Okay, I know they got
bounced in the first round. Denver basically, Jamal Murray beat
him in two super close games and the Lakers one
another one like that. I don't want to say it
was a coin flip series. You can't say that on
four to one. But the Lakers put up a fight,
and the year before they were in the conference finals.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (11:37):
I maintain as good as OKC is. There's a lot
of good teams out there in the West. We've seen
now the Warriors drop back. We're losing Clay and Chris Paul.
I'll get to the Warriors. Don't worry. We've now seen
the Clippers losing Paul George. They dropped back, and so
now you're looking at a lot of Oh, Okay, so
he's good, Minnesota's good. I don't know, are we really
(12:01):
terrified of Denver now losing KCP and that's a big loss.
The best starting lineup in the league loses their shooting guard,
Like that's a significant loss, not easily replaceable. So I
can't say for certain the Lakers aren't a player away
I will say the West is kind of jumbled. I
think it's clear though Dallas is the cream of the
crop there. But it leads me to the Clay Thompson
(12:21):
leaving the Warriors, and I tried to map out a
little outline of how bad this has gone for Golden
State since winning the title, you know, like you could say,
like meeting this person was the best thing to happen
to me and the worst thing to happen to me.
Winning the title in twenty twenty two was incredible for
the Warriors. Obviously, Curry gets his Finals MVP, they win
(12:44):
it without Durant beating the Celtics. Awesome, impressive, just unbelievable stuff.
It was also the beginning of the end because after that,
I don't know if you guys are ready for this,
but after that thing snowballed so quickly and so ugly
that they've never recovered. Because June of twenty two they
(13:06):
win the title. Right October of twenty two is when
Draymond Green punches out Jordan Poole, and that moment they
just it was just so bad and people wanted to
dust it under the rug, like Jordan Poole was the problem.
When so what he was making fun of dre He
was making fun of Draymond for allegedly not getting the bag.
(13:30):
Remember that was one of the Again this is I
think it was a rapper who is from the Bay
Area who heard about what Jordan Poole was saying, and
Jordan Pool runs his mouth. We know he was a talker,
and he was running his mouth with Draymond about not
getting paid. You ain't getting any bag. Sorry, it's not happening.
And everybody knows they're paying Wiggans. You didn't get your money.
(13:50):
And then Draymond punches him out and everything goes sideways.
But right after the punch, the Warriors extended Wiggins because
he was remembered incredible in the finals against Boston. He
was probably their second best player. So they give Wiggins
a four year extension. After the season, which was a disaster,
they trade Jordan Poole for Chris Paul and you think, oh,
(14:10):
we got the veteran Chris Paul I did not like
that move at all. Within a week, right, they move
off Pool in his contract because Pool had gotten paid.
They extend Draymond another four year deal. So just remember,
you win the title and then you extend Wiggins for
four years? Do you extend Raymond for four And now
here we are a year later, and Clay's like, Yo,
where's my four year deal that you gave the other guys.
(14:32):
I'm as integral as Draymond, and I'm certainly more integral
than Wiggins, even though he's younger and had a better
Finals than me, and the Warriors just refused to do it.
And so Clay, in my opinion, took that as a
slap in the face. And this all goes back to
if you remember, Bob Myers was facing one of those
tricky moments where he's like, what do we do after
they won the championship? Do I tear it down? What
(14:56):
do we do trade Raymond after he punched about as
values load? Do we trape Clay? I don't? What do
we do? And nobody wants to be the guy who
ends up tearing down the dynasty? So they decide, Well,
Bob Myers decides, I'm out, I'm stepping down. I had
a good run. I'm gonna go do TV. I don't
want to be the guy like Kraus in Chicago who
(15:17):
tore down the Bulls and they just they bow the
guy his corpse. He's dead. Of course, they booed him
when they were honoring him the season in Chicago. He's
still a hated figure because he's the one who allegedly
didn't want to keep Jordan, Pippen, Phil of the gang
back together. And you guys, remember what happened to the
(15:37):
Bulls by the way, quick fallout. A decade after Jordan,
Pip and everybody left. They were a disaster, couldn't get anywhere.
Eddie Curry failure as a number one pick actually shades
of James Wiseman, right, Eddie Curry. Tyson Chandler did not.
Tyson Chandler was good but not incredible. Ended up better
(15:59):
with the man later in his career. But the Bulls
basically won a decade after drafting or after losing Jordan
and Pippin and Phil, and they won nothing. Then they
get Derrick Rose, they think they're back. They make the
conference finals against the Heat. Rose obviously keeps getting injured.
So now we're on twenty five years of largely irrelevant
(16:20):
Chicago Bulls basketball post Jordan tearing it down and then
no game plan. And I feel like we're getting close
to that territory with the Golden State Warriors. I'm not kidding.
They are approaching post Bulls. Jordan Wasteland. Folks, I don't
know how you quickly solve this. You're telling me they
(16:42):
were in the play in last year. They lose Chris Paul,
they lose Klay Thompson, two Hall of famers, obviously not
playing at a Hall of Fame level, the most expensive
lottery team in the history of the NBA last season,
and your moves are to add Kyle Anderson and the
Anthony Melton. What what? It's pretty cool. I saw a
(17:04):
brutal article just dismembering Joe Lacum for all the bad moves.
And the Jordan Poole trade for Chris Paul looks so
bad because they tried to peddle Chris Paul this week.
They couldn't get anything from him, so they just got
to let him go for nothing, which in hindsight makes
that Pool for Chris Paul deal looked like Jordan Poole
(17:27):
was just a salary dump. And remember, as much as
you guys hated Jordan Poole, he had his moments. Remember
Klay Thompson didn't start that season or maybe twenty one
or twenty two, whichever season it was, Clay was injured
and Jordan Poole and company they start out eighteen and
two and Jordan Poole's like looking like a player and
he gets his big money. Folks like, the Warriors have
(17:48):
botched this so badly. The pr hit they take obviously
for losing Clay's brutal but also are they a better
team than they were now? I know they're chasing Lowry
market in good luck with that. They allegedly chase Paul Pierce.
But it's also if depending on who you read, it
sounds like the Clippers did not even entertain trading Paul
George to the Warriors. They don't want to give up
(18:10):
Paul George in the West where he's going to play
against him and maybe in the playoffs. They don't want
to do that, so they ship him east or will
not ship him. But they're fine with Paul George going
east and the Sixers now get Paul George and we'll
get to that in a moment. I just I cannot
believe how poorly the Warriors have botched all this. Now,
(18:31):
you could also argue hate Jay Warriors dodged a bullet
with this Clay deal Man. He's kind of washed. And
I get that. He owed for ten in his final
game with the Warriors in that play in game against
the Kings. I get that, but look where he's landing now.
Clay Lands alongside what was dubbed by Stan Van Guddy
is the best backcourt in NBA history last month. Clearly
not true. But you're telling me Kyrie Luca and Klay
(18:55):
Thompson isn't going to be a major problem when Luca's
driving and kicking out. It's not Derek can I hit
this three. It's not PJ. Washington. I'm only a corner
three guy. It's not Josh Green, who had a really
nice game in his final game for the mass It's
Clay Frickin Thompson, who was one of the I think
he was fourth in the league and made threes last
year when we would call him washed all we want.
He's not the defender we once was. I get it.
(19:16):
You know they lose something defensively that they had in
Derreck Jones. But you're telling me the Slovenian Stallion doesn't
love this move. Luka Doncic adding one of the great
shooters the sport has ever seen, and folks. There was
pressure on Clay to be the number two guy in
Golden State when there was no number two for Wiggins
or for Curry, because Wiggins didn't really show up as
(19:38):
the number two after the finals. He had some off
court stuff that still has not really come out. Clay
now goes, oh, okay, we've got let's see here. Luca
is the one, Kyrie the two. Okay, sure, I'll slot
in as the three. Like does Clay start? Probably, but
maybe not all the time. I think this is just
an amazing fit for him, and I really can't him
(20:00):
for picking the MAVs over the Lakers. I know when
we get Rob g in here tomorrow, he's probably gonna
be a little upset, But overall, I can't fault Clay
at all for taking this deal. Now, let me just
quickly finish up the maps before we get to Paul
George and the Sixers. So let's just look at the maths.
(20:21):
They lose Derrick Jones, Josh Green rerouted to Charlotte, and
they dumped Tim Hardaway, so the Lakers. Remember I said
the Lakers needed to do some dumping so that they
could afford the four for eighty for Clay. The MAVs
went ahead and did it. They just dumped hard away
and they were able to add Clay Marshall and then
Quentin Grimes, who is a prospect but he's been hurt.
(20:43):
I think the Maths are the clear leaders. I would
I would put OKC two in the West, maybe two
or three Minnesota, minnesot actually probably Minnesota two, and then
OKAC three. Okay, see Ads Hartenstein, they add Alex Caruso,
they they extend Wiggins and Joe. I mean, they got
a good team. I just I don't know. I just
(21:06):
don't know how they're gonna look in the in the
conference finals if they have enough top end talent to
hang with the likes of say A Celtics, and Minnesota's
got more top end talent. mAbs we saw MAVs do.
It was a close series, but Okase, he's very very good.
Stealing Hartenstein from the Nicks hurts. I think Nick's clearly
second best in the East, Yes, ahead of the Sixers,
behind Boston, which I'll wrap up now with the Sixers.
(21:30):
So this Paul George situation, I don't know if you
guys read the story. I think it was Ramona Shelbourne
did a long story. So when Darryl Morian Companies showed
up for their meeting with Paul George, Paul George was
ringing an Allen iverson Jersey. They're like, oh, we got
this in the bag, but let me just quickly back up,
like and I got to ask this, this is a
legitimate question. Did Paul George pick the seventy six ers
(21:53):
or did he just have no other options? Because the
Clippers essentially said, like you, but don't love you. Thank
you for your service. That's it. That's really what happened.
The Clippers essentially said, no, thanks, Paul George, We're not
doing it, so you take the Clippers off the table.
There were allegedly Warriors making moves, but the Clippers didn't
want to do that deal. So the Warriors forget that.
(22:15):
So then it comes down to Orlando or Philly the
only two teams with cap space. And you guys saw
the news. One of the first big signings was KCP
to Orlando three years, something like sixty seven mil something
like that, and it's like, well, wait a minute, wait
a minute, could they still afford Paul George after giving
(22:35):
sixty six mil to KCP, and the answer from some
of these capologists on social media is maybe not. Maybe
they didn't want to get used by Clay and they thought,
you know what, we're closer than that. We think, let's
just give the money to KCP. And remember the last
team to give KCP money after he won a title.
Drum roll, please, Denver Nuggets worked out pretty well for them.
Orlando's not quite there, but it's still a savvy good
(22:57):
move by them.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
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Speaker 2 (23:10):
Which brings me back to Paul George. Is like, he
didn't really have any other options. Where was Paul George
gonna go? So it essentially came down to the Sixers.
Then I know, Daryl Morey is getting lauded. Oh he
cleared up the Caps face and now he gets Paul
George and they've got the best big three in the league.
And I'm just like, can we just slow the roll. Yes,
it's a great fit. You got Maxi, you got Paul George,
(23:33):
and you got Embiid. But let's just remember the big
three means you're kind of thin with the rest of
your roster. And we just saw the Phoenix Suns with
Booker Beale and Durant completely flame out. Now I know
this is a slightly different allocation of resources because they
(23:54):
don't Phoenix doesn't have a big They went with two
guards and the wing and KD this tree is guard
forward center, which is really nice. And I agree, but
I don't think. I'm not gonna say I don't think.
I know they're not better than the New York Knicks.
I think the mckel bridges No Time All Star is
a much better pickup for them. Remember the Knicks could
(24:14):
have gone after Paul George. Why didn't they? They said, no, no, no,
no no, We're gonna bet on chemistry. We're betting that
mckl bridges with other, with three other Villanova guys is
gonna work like magic, and we are gonna be looking
at you know, basically the Villanova Knicks plus ogn and
Ob and a couple other guys and all of a
(24:37):
sudden boom, we are right in the mix. Now they
are missing a center, which is a problem, especially if
you're going against Joel Embiid. But the Knicks they should be.
Finding a backup center shouldn't be hard. Obviously, you need
Mitchell Robbinson's stay healthy. That's been a problem for him.
I'm of the belief that this Knicks team very well
equipped to handle Maxie, who did cook them in the
(24:57):
In the series, Maxie was great at times, but he's
a young guy. He also had a no show I
think in Game five, or maybe it was Game six,
one of those two Embiid. I mean, you go look
at the last five years, who have been the most
injured players in the postseason. It's Kawhi, it's Embiid, it's
Paul George, and now the Sixers have two of them. Now,
(25:20):
obviously you're rolling the dice saying, hey, we're gonna take
our best chance. We should be okay, hopefully they'll be healthy.
We'll manage the minutes all season. But I don't know.
It's just tough for me to believe that I should
have faith in this Sixers team with two perpetually injured stars,
and they are stars. Paul George is the top twenty
(25:41):
player in the league. Embiid, former MVP MAXI big time
ascending talent. It's just tough for me to believe that
this team is suddenly better than Nicks and Celtics. And
this is my other aspect to this that is troubling. Historically,
if you look at teams that had a Big three,
someone has to be the fall guy. Someone's got to
sacrifice their game for their stats and their game for
(26:06):
the better of the team. You can go through them,
Chris Bosh in Miami, you had Kevin Love. In Cleveland,
you had was it James I guess it would have
been James Harden in in Uh with the Clippers last year.
Last year you had Bradley Beale essentially become a sacrificial
(26:29):
lamb for the Suns after they got destroyed by Minnesota.
And now it didn't help. The Bill played like ass.
But somebody's always got to be the guy who is
like the odd man out and viewed as the problem,
and why is he sacrificing more? Blah blah blah. Well,
who do you think that is? In Philly? I'm gonna
go ahead and guess it's not gonna be Tyrese Maxey,
who's a homegrown talent. I'm gonna go ahead and guess
(26:50):
it's not gonna be Joel Embiid who's the leader of
the franchise, the most probably probably the biggest athlete in Philadelphia.
But he's right there with her. He's right there with Kelsey, like, oh,
Kelsey's retired now, but you get it and beat his beloved,
it's gonna be Paul George. And that's why I don't
know that he fully thought this through, because let's be real,
(27:12):
when things go sideways, and they will, is Paul George
built to take the complaints? Is he built to take
the heat? You know, Paul didn't get it done. Paul's
defense was not what it should have been, Like he's
gonna be the guy they're coming after. They're not the
Philly is not gonna go after embeat. He's protected. We
covered this with Ben Simmons. There were games where Simmons
(27:33):
was better than Embiid and the media always blamed Simmons.
I mean, where was embid again? And beat did not
have the greatest series against the Knicks did not. He
was great in a couple games, but it's a seven
game series. He was not great the year prior against
the Celtics. He just has these empty playoff performances. But
he's bulletproof because the media loves him. He's a good SoundBite,
he's good on social media. You know, he's a seven
(27:54):
footer who puts up dominant stats in the regular season.
I'm just telling you, I hope Paul George is ready
when the heat comes and the Sixers underperform, because, folks,
the Clippers woefully underperformed, but they're sheltered out here in
the West because it's the friggin Clippers. Nobody really cares
that much. The Lakers are the NBA team in town.
(28:16):
When the Clippers failed, it was, oh, we got to
get rid of we got to get rid of the coach.
When the Clippers so well, everybody's hurt. There was really
nobody to outwardly blame the way. Paul George is going
to get the heat. And I'm just telling you he's
gonna get the heat when things go sideways for the Sixers.
So currently, and again not everything's completely done in the
West or East. I would go top four in the East.
(28:37):
I'm still extremely bullish on Indiana. We'll talk about that
more probably after vacation. I just I like the roster
won through nine. Go look at the who played the
Celtics the toughest in the playoffs. Wasn't Dallas, it was
the Pacers. They had Game one one one until the
Jaylen Brown three goes over time. Two other games Pacers
(28:57):
let in the fourth quarter just choked them away. They played.
I think they play the Celtics tougher than anybody. You're
telling me the Pacers aren't a top fourteen in the East.
I'm sorry, we got problems. I know Donovan Mitchell staying
in Cleveland, but I would go Pacers four six or three,
Knicks two and Boston one. I'm sorry, Milwaukee Bucks fans,
(29:18):
I I don't know what I mean. Did you guys
do anything? You have your big three stars in Middleton,
Damon Giannis, and now you're capped out. They got they can't.
They have no moves. I don't know if they made
any moves just the draft. So I would I guess
I would have the Bucks five. I'm bullish on the Pacers,
I know, and then we could wrap up with the West.
(29:43):
West is tougher because there's about thirteen teams. I'll say this.
Let me reserve judgment on the West big picture, because
Lowry Marketing sounds like he could be on the move.
It appears as I'm recording this that the Spurs are
in play and a lowry market and Chris Paul Wemby
trio and that's probably thirty five plus wins. Guys, Chris Paul,
anywhere he goes, you know that he's gonna win games.
(30:05):
I think the Sons have fallen. What's weird is this
is crazy. The Lakers, despite this extremely exciting offseason, have
signed one guy, Max Christy. That's it. So Warriors have
taken a step back, Clippers have taken a step back,
and I don't know that the Lakers have made a
step forward quite yet. So I'll still stick at the
(30:28):
top of the West. Dallas, Minnesota, ok see, okay see
probably ends up with the number one seed because man,
they try hard in the regular season and they're young
and deep. But geez, that West is an absolute I mean,
the Suns are not a top five team in the West.
I think Lakers are in I think Memphis is coming hard.
This is just an absolutely loaded Western conference. I mean,
(30:51):
with the etcetera, are like Portland, Utah. I mean, if
the Pelicans are really good, adding to John Ta Murray,
we did get to that Pelicans are really good. West
is stacked. NBA free agency's been popped and we are back. Well,
I don't know we're gonna do one more pod. I
think we will probably have it on. We'll take probably
take July fourth off, enjoy the fireworks, and then we'll
come out Friday with a pod to take us into
a little vacation time. Glad to be back, I love
(31:15):
the NBA. Disappointed for US soccer, and we'll talk to
you tomorrow
Fox Sports Radio News
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Jonas Knox
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