On today’s episode, Jason discusses the blatant jealousy of Caitlin Clark that exists across the WNBA, why it's starting to feel like that Houston Rockets are the team to beat in the Western Conference next season, how a flurry of moves on the first day of NBA Free Agency helped propel the Denver Nuggets back into championship contention, why the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are easily the biggest losers of the free agency period thus far, what makes the new-look Atlanta Hawks so dangerous coming out of the Eastern Conference, and why the Pittsburgh Steelers should consider trading away stud pass rusher TJ Watt after acquiring Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What he's up Straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntire,
Straight Flawyer for Tuesday, July the first we got a
holiday weekend coming up. Public service announcement to everybody be
careful with fireworks. I tell my fireworks story all the time.
It doesn't need to be rehashed. Just being a young guy.
(00:31):
Everybody likes fireworks, and man, there has some sketchy moments
and everybody knows Jason, Pierre Paul be safe out there.
People got a fun podcast today, listen. I totally forgot
that the NBA off season, you know, July usually kicks
off the crazy time, but they pushed it up to
three o'clock on Monday, so everybody's waiting for a flurry
(00:53):
of moves. And of course a bunch of stuff happened.
We'll get to but they seem to have really pushed
it up. And remember you used to be like July fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
big moves were happening, nobody was really doing anything huge
out of the gate, waiting for the large dominos to fall.
I guess the Kevin Durant move last week expedited the process.
And you know, outside of Giannis, there isn't a major
(01:15):
superstar that many people expect to go anywhere. We'll see
maybe there's some small potatoes here or there. Before I
get to that, I saw something on Monday night that
was absolutely crazy. Okay. So I touched on the mL
sorry WNBA All Star voting, right, and Caitlin Clark obviously
blew away the fields. He was number one. But they
(01:37):
have three different categories and then they give the players
a weighted score. So they have the fan rank, where
Kaitlin Clark was one, Page Beckers was two at guard,
and then they do it for the front court as well.
(01:57):
Collier was one, Aliah Boss was one. It was two
in the front court and right, so they do guards
and they do front court. So in the media rank
for guards, Caitlin Clark came third. It was Alicia Gray
and then it was Sabrina Ionescu and then it was
(02:20):
Caitlin Clark third, okay, which you know, okay, fans say one,
Medius's Clark is three. So then it comes to the players,
and I guess the players having an anonymous voting, the
players said Caitlin Clark was ninth best among guards. In
the All Star voting. Ninth. Now I know you want
(02:43):
to ask, well, Jay, who are the people ahead of her? Okay,
here we go. Alicia Gray for Atlanta was one. According
to the player, she's the best guard in the league. Ionescu.
Two They said Skyler Diggins was the third best guard
this season. Now she is, she's kind of a big deal.
She went to Notre Dame. She I think she dated
(03:05):
or married a football player, somebody famous. She's extremely attractive
as a huge social media following. She's the third best
Garden League. I did not know that. Number four they
said Page Beckers was the fourth best Garden League. Page
Beckers a rookie. Five. Now here's where it gets crazy.
So they only did the top ten guards, right, those
(03:28):
were the highest that made the All Star Game. Whoever
the fifth player was from the guards voted by the
players did not even register here. Sixth was Kelsey Mitchell
of Indiana. Seven Britney Psykes of Washington eight also did
not even crack the top ten, and then nine Caitlin Clark. Folks,
(03:53):
I know you guys don't like what I say. It's jealousy.
You could call it jealousy. You can call it haters,
whatever you want, but this is definitely a thousand percent
of thing and don't I will not stand for anything
you think otherwise. The players think kate LecRK is the
ninth best guard in the league. She is, I believe,
the favorite to win the MVP or she's second in
(04:17):
terms of odds. The fans love, the media loves her,
the league needs her, but the players don't think she's
in a league guard. Just let that sink and you
tell me what is it? Is it jealousy, is it hate?
It's just staggering and sad. Anyways, all right, let's go
to the NBA folks. Listen. I don't want to go
off on any two hot takes with the dust is
(04:39):
barely settling. We don't totally know everybody going everywhere. So
as I record this late Monday night, I think it's
pretty clear to everybody that the biggest takeaway so far
the Kevin Durant trade last week and everything that went
down on Monday, that the Houston Rockets are the best
(05:00):
team in the NBA. I think that's I don't. I
think it's a arguable. The Rocket's depth is insane, and
their owner decided, you know what, let's just go all in.
Let's just go all in. Why the hell not. They
targeted two guys that the Lakers had been going after.
Everybody knew the Lakers had obviously Dorian Finney Smith, and
(05:23):
they wanted Dorian Finney Smith to return. Houston said, uh uh,
we're gonna overpay him. Four years, fifty three million dollars
for Dorian Finney Smith and he's going to Houston, where
he's instead of being like on the court in crunch
time for the Lakers as like the fifth best guy,
maybe the fourth best guy, depending on what you think
of ruly. Duran Finny said, like the eighth best guy
(05:44):
on this team. It's unclear. I mean, they're so loaded
the Rockets are. I know, you're scoffing. They also brought
back Clint Capella, who would have been a perfect wingman
for Luka Doncics, the rim running center who could catch
lobs and block shots. He's not what he was seven
years ago, but he's still a factor. He got three years,
(06:05):
twenty one million dollars. So that's too Lakers targets off
the table. So this is the Rocket's depth chart right now.
And again, I'm not like a Houston fan, but I
do absolutely love what they've done here their starting lineup.
You got Fred van Vliet who took a twenty five
million dollar haircut. Yes, Fred van Vliet actually said I
(06:30):
will take less money, and it's about twenty five million
dollars right. I'm in Thompson, who is emerging as a stud.
I mean, listen. If you guys don't see it, I'm sorry.
This guy is a big time baller and he's one
of the best young players in the league. Then you've
got Kevin Durant. Then you've got Sheng Goon at center.
And then you've got Jabari Smith who got a new
(06:51):
deal just now but doesn't kick in yet. Folks, that
is formidable. Jamari Smith long, I'm in Thompson, the best
defender in that group. Van Vleet's just gonna have to
hit some big shots and defend. And then you've got
Kevin Durant and Shen Goon is an all star center.
That's really good. But that's not even the best part.
Remember they didn't give up in the in the uh
(07:12):
the k D trade. They didn't give up Reed Shepherd,
who was a top five pick last year for them.
They didn't give up Cam Whitmore, who's a good young player.
They didn't give up Tarry Eason, who's another good young wing.
And oh, by the way, they also have you know,
professional basketball player Aaron Holliday who's just been around the
league forever, Vet Smart, Steven Adams who they re signed. Folks,
(07:33):
they are at least twelve deep. That ensures that, hey,
you know what, we don't have to wear down kde
and haven't played seventy seventy five keys. We don't need that.
We've got enough weapons. I mean, this has been an
outstanding off season so far for the Houston Rockets. To me,
they are now the team to beat in the West.
(07:53):
And I know, Jay, what about Okac? What was the
last time we saw a defending champ get out of
the second round? Guys, it's a real thing for a reason, now,
I know. Okay, she's built different. As the kids like
to say, well, hey, you know, we got the young roster,
we got all these draft picks. We're straight, we're great shape,
they are undeniably. We'll see, we'll see if they could
(08:13):
duplicate it again next year. I'm gonna go ahead and
guess no, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
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Speaker 2 (08:33):
So for me, it's pretty clear Houston is the team
to beat. They have the deepest roster in the league.
It's it's pretty awesome that this is happening. To Kevin Durant.
I know I've been critical of him and I said
he's slowed down a little bit, but he got himself
to an incredible spot. And this Houston team drove a
hard bargain, didn't really give up anything. Jalen Green, Dyllan Brooks,
give me a break. I mean, I love everything about Houston,
(08:55):
and when I do go to Vegas for NFL the
NFL contest here, either this month or next month, I'm
gonna definitely be putting something on Houston to win the title.
I just think that roster, man, I mean, they are very,
very and I know they lost to the first round,
but you have to remember second seed last year in
the West. So after the Rockets, I think the Denver
(09:17):
Nuggets are attempting wisely of course, to see if they
can kind of rebuild on the fly. You knew after
that loss to OKC, after the loss of the year
before to Minnesota, like there was some pressure to do something,
and Denver has done did it. They have shipped Michael
Porter Junior. He is going to Brooklyn with his fat
(09:37):
ass contract and he's gonna play for the Nets. He's
not gonna be surrounded by a lot but Brooklyn. In
the trade Michael Porter Junior, they give up Cam Johnson. Now.
Cam Johnson obviously a very good wing, not as good
as Michael Porter Junior, but probably an overall much better
player because of his defense. So he's slides into the three.
(10:02):
You know, I don't think Cam can be a twenty
twenty point scorer like Porter, so they'll have to manufacture
some points with Murray. But they also added a big
bench piece with Russell Westbrook obviously not coming back. I
don't know what Russell Westbrook's gonna do. Maybe he ends
up back in Denver. I don't know, he's got options.
But they secured Bruce Brown, who was on the title
(10:24):
winning team a few years ago. They bring back Bruce
Brown and he will, I guess be their sixth man
as they kind of usher in a new era. Listen, man,
I know Michael Malone didn't want to play the young guys.
You have to force feed a lot of Zeke Nazi
during the regular season because it's all about the playoffs
for Yo Kitchen Murray, and they haven't always been healthy.
Aaron Gordon like, they've got a great nucleus. I think
(10:46):
Denver's excellent. Little Julian Strather. Next year maybe we'll see
some picket. Hopefully Deron Holmes can rebound after he had
the Achilles injury. So I think Denver did a really
good job. Again, it's early, this stuff is subject to change,
but I would say right now Houston one, OKC two,
Denver at three. Now the Lakers, who were third, they
(11:08):
made one move, and Laker fans, of course, spent Monday
just irate about what was happening, and namely nothing and
Rob Polinka, you know, catching heat because Laker fans are crazy,
and it's possible that I'm out here in La so
I'm hearing more Laker anger from fans than you know,
you guys wherever you are. I'll say, the first move
(11:34):
didn't really get anybody excited, and they they went and
grabbed wake Forest legend Jake la Ravia, who was in
Memphis last year. Jake Laavia, Yeah, I know you're not familiar.
Others work. I mean, two years, twelve million bucks. It's
just peanuts. You know, they're not paying him a lot.
The guy listen, man, he's one of those dudes. So
(11:57):
you know, six seven, two thirty is kind of a
big I don't think he can play a four in
your small ball lineup. But he's a young guy and
he was excellent at wake Forest, turned himself into a
first round pick. It was very good at Indiana State,
I should say first. Then he goes to wake Forest
and then he goes to Memphis and he was like,
not bad. He had an incident with Dalton connect which
(12:19):
should make things interesting with the Lakers, and then he
was on the Sacramento Kings as well. Last season didn't
do much, but this is a guy who listen. Here
are his three point shooting percentages with Sacramento thirty eight percent,
with Memphis forty four percent. Those are the last that
(12:44):
was last season, in between his two stints with each team.
I don't think anybody's expecting him to be a superstar.
I think if you can make him your your eighth
or ninth guy and you can reliably counter him to
hit some big shots, play hard nosed defense, and just
basically be, you know, a shock to the system. You know,
(13:06):
you know how kind of Ben Shephard of the Pacers
and TJ McConnell that these guys would come in and
bring massive energy and just be huge factors. Can Jake
la Ravia give you twelve of those minutes a night
off the bench? Twelve to fifteen and he's being an
energy guy, and he's providing hustles, stocks, as they like
(13:27):
to say, steals, and blocks, and he's just doing a
little bit of everything while hitting a few threes. I
don't see why he can't provide that. Now, he's a
little older than well, actually, uh, la Ravia's no, he's
only twenty three Dalton Connect because he had the long route.
He let's see here, he might actually be older than
la Ravia. Yeah, Dalton Connect is twenty four, so he's
(13:49):
older than Laavia and he's probably not nearly as good
as a defender, better shooter. I don't know if that
you can play both those guys. I'm not sure how
that's gonna work. But the Lakers really haven't done anything yet,
which is kind of disappointing another team that I thought
had a big hit and this one was a surprise.
(14:11):
But folks, I don't know if you've seen what's going
on with the Boston Celtics here. Obviously the last two weeks,
a couple of trades have been significant. We know, they
had to get out of the luxury tax, they got
out of the second apron and it's like, what are
we doing here? Are we getting? Are we getting cheap?
And you know, Luke Cornett had one I think he
had one game against the Knicks. We had like seven
(14:32):
blocks in that series. And you're like, oh, this guy's something.
And then when Porzingis gets traded, You're like, all right,
well it sounds like Horford's going to go elsewhere. You know,
is there a world where Luke Cornett is your starting center?
And it was like, all right, sure, why not? He can?
He can? He can block shots and defend and be
(14:53):
a rim runner. And why not, folks, Luke Cornett, Yes,
the that tall white guy from Vanderbilt signed a forty
one million dollar deal with the San Antonio Spurs. I
mean that was stunning to me. That is a big
(15:13):
time loss for the Celtics. I mean, I can't even
put that into words, how bad they are going to
be depleted at center. Currently, their only center is Luke Garza,
the kid from Iowa, who ain't a center in the NBA,
and he cannot defend anybody. You know, Luke car is
a good offensive guy, but man, that is a huge
(15:34):
hit four years, forty one million dollars to the San
Antonio Spurs where he will Let's be honest, guys, He's
going to provide some rim protection either with Wemby as
a backup to Wemby. But that is good. You know,
I have two sleepers that I'm working on this Spurs
aren't much of a sleeper. But if you have Fox, Castle, Wemby, Harper,
(16:02):
Cornett's gonna be in the rotation. Guys, I know you
don't want to hear you got Vassal. Let's see what
else they've got, any moves they've they've got to make here.
But I think the Spurs for sure are a top
eight team in the West next season. Somebody's gonna have
to drop out, which makes it difficult. But for me, yeah,
I think the Spurs have to be in there. I
(16:23):
don't know that they have, you know, the highest end
talent like I'm you know, Keldon Johnson and Harrison Bars
they're good, solid role players. They will need a third
reliable scorer. I don't exactly know who that is yet.
Can it be Vassal? I don't think you can expect
Harper to come out of the gate and be an
instant offense kind of guy. I don't know that Castle's
(16:44):
there yet. He's very good, but it just it seems
like it could be an offense is gonna be a problem,
but the defense will keep them in games. And yeah,
I think the Spurs are a top eight team, my
team that I like, really closing in on them as
a team that holy held is the team to watch.
And I already said Orlando could be a sneaky team
(17:05):
to somehow find its way in the conference finals. Well,
I would keep an eye on the Atlanta Hawks. Every
move they've done has hit. You know, they added Nikhil
Alexander Walker. Apparently Trey Young was running point on that
recruiting mission for Alexander Walker. But they didn't stop there.
(17:25):
They also got Luke Cannard, So now all of a sudden,
you've got great shooting with Canard and obviously Alexander Walker,
who was excellent. You've got Jalen Johnson coming back off
the injury, Dyson Daniels, a lockdown defender. You've got the
young kid Buffkin who is a He's a bit of
a project, but he's very highly thought of. And I
(17:48):
just wonder is there enough there that this team could
be a surprising top top five seed in the East?
Okongwu porzingis Resa che Asa Newell like, they got a
lot of guys, a lot of guys. I don't know
how it's gonna all work for them because there is
a lot of newness. And are they gonna pivot from
(18:09):
being a Trey Young centric team to a Jalen Johnson
team now he's coming off the injury. It's just a
really spicy Hawks team. They were forty and forty two
last year. I think it's back to get on board
the Hawks as well as Orlando. They they I think
they will clearly be better than Atlanta, and they picked
up a really good backup point guard, Tias Jones. You
(18:32):
know you got the JA. I mean Orlando is another team. Man.
They they're not really paying anybody other than Paolo and Franz,
and they're not even on huge fifty sixty million dollar deals.
Yet Bain Suggs, Wendell Carter, Jonathan Isaac still out there.
Tristan da Silva. I like Anthony Black, it's he's still young.
He may not be ready to contribute. Jace Richardson, I
(18:54):
like him as a pick. Tias Jones adds veteran leadership
in the backcourt, Like this is this is a forty
Last year they won forty one. I think they're a
forty eight or fifty win team. So a lot of good,
a lot of positive. On the first day of NBA
free agency. I'm trying to keep it positive because it's
so easy to be negative. Oh, by the way, Brook
(19:16):
Lopez leaves Milwaukee as expected, no surprise, He's going to
the paper clips. But this is where it gets interesting.
You know, you see all these silly reports whoa well.
Giannis is monitoring the draft and free agency to see
what the Bucks plan is. I could tell you what
they're playing is we got to keep Bobby portis they
(19:37):
re signed Kevin Porter junior, They resigned Gary Trent Junior.
For now they have Kuzma Folks, Kevin Porter junior, Gary
Trent Junior in the backcourt. Oh my gosh, that's terrible.
I'm sorry, Kuzma, Geez Giannis, Bobby Portis coming off the
bench with Jericho Sims, former Nick and Prince still banging
(20:01):
around the league. AJ Green the three point shooter, Like
that is not a good basketball team and they're not.
Remember they love that kid Andre Jackson from Yukon. I
don't know how he even fits in the rotation. Like
this is just not a good Bucks team at all.
And I do wonder if anybody out there is keeping
their powder dry for Yiannis, Like what team would that be?
(20:24):
I think that's the real interesting discussion. I just I mean,
unless you know Golden State, you know you need a
bunch of picks. You need picks and players for Yannis,
And I just don't know who has that. Remember we
had Henry Abbott on I think a couple of weeks ago,
and he said, the one team that makes sense is okay.
(20:46):
See but is okay? Is he gonna do it? They
would have to break up J dub and Chet. One
of those two would have to be shipped. Not a
great look to ship one of those guys. You put them.
We work together for all the for years to get
the title, and you know, all of a sudden, you
win the championship and like two months later you ship
him out of town. You know. It is sort of
(21:07):
somewhat similar to when the OKC thunder Last went to
the championship. They had, you know, premature fears that they
couldn't afford hard and so they traded and that worked
out horribly, absolutely horribly. So we will see who the
big big movers are here for Giannis once the dust clears.
(21:29):
I mean, I get I'm definitely trade Giannis before you know,
the All Star break because the price is gonna go down.
You guys know that historically, the longer you wait to
trade somebody, the more the price goes down.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
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Speaker 2 (21:56):
Obviously, there was a big trade in the NFL on Monday,
and it happened early in the morning, like I don't know,
like eight thirty Pacific times, so obviously we couldn't get
on the podcast. But the way I described it on
the Herd when it broke was it feels like Miami
is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They just
(22:18):
are at a loss for how to handle these strong personalities.
They're really struggling with Tyreek Hill. They must be fed
up with Jalen Ramsey. They ship him out. Then you
got john Us Smith. I don't want to say am malcontent,
but he wanted to get back with his guy, Arthur Smith,
who's now in Pittsburgh as the OC. And it's like
(22:40):
they go to Pittsburgh and Miami gets Minka Fitzpatrick, a
playmaker on the back end of the defense. But like,
do you really need that if you're Miami. I mean,
it just doesn't really make sense why you do that
move other than Jayleen is just a human, not a
(23:02):
nice human, and you just want to get him out
of there. But you know, Javon Holland is a really
good safety, so they've got one. I guess you can
try the two safety play and maybe that works out
for you. Ask for the Steelers, geez. The bigger news is, well,
what are you gonna do with everybody's favorite defensive end?
TJ Watt and I said back in April, you should
(23:24):
actually I said it last year, you should trade TJ
Watt get a haul and start the rebuild that was
last year. Steelers fans laughed at me, you can't do that, Jay, Okay, fine,
they don't want a playoff game. So now here it
is this summer. TJ Watt didn't go to the camp
and he's like, I want to raise because Miles Garrett
got a raise, and they're like, well, I don't know
(23:46):
that you are worth it because we're not close to
winning a Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers doesn't get us close.
But now you're trading TJ Watt and they're fielding calls.
They said a corner schefter, a lot of people called
about TJ Watt. So it's like, wait a minute. People
are calling about TJ Watt and you're now answering the
(24:09):
phone and talking to about it when his price is
gone down from what it was last year. It's just
bad GMing guys, any way you slice it. I keep
saying this, the best time to rebuild was last year.
Got to make those decisions early. I don't think the
Steelers did it. I don't think Miami did it. This
doesn't feel like a significant move that's going to help
either of these teams out. I don't have either of
these in the playoffs next year, and certainly if I
(24:31):
did a Super Bowl bubble, neither of them is in it.
So a big start to the week, Holiday week. We
got NFL trade, you got NBA free agency. It's all crazy.
We are back tomorrow. Talk to you then
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What he's up Straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntire,
Straight Flawyer for Tuesday, July the first we got a
holiday weekend coming up. Public service announcement to everybody be
careful with fireworks. I tell my fireworks story all the time.
It doesn't need to be rehashed. Just being a young guy.
(00:31):
Everybody likes fireworks, and man, there has some sketchy moments
and everybody knows Jason, Pierre Paul be safe out there.
People got a fun podcast today, listen. I totally forgot
that the NBA off season, you know, July usually kicks
off the crazy time, but they pushed it up to
three o'clock on Monday, so everybody's waiting for a flurry
(00:53):
of moves. And of course a bunch of stuff happened.
We'll get to but they seem to have really pushed
it up. And remember you used to be like July fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
big moves were happening, nobody was really doing anything huge
out of the gate, waiting for the large dominos to fall.
I guess the Kevin Durant move last week expedited the process.
And you know, outside of Giannis, there isn't a major
(01:15):
superstar that many people expect to go anywhere. We'll see
maybe there's some small potatoes here or there. Before I
get to that, I saw something on Monday night that
was absolutely crazy. Okay. So I touched on the mL
sorry WNBA All Star voting, right, and Caitlin Clark obviously
blew away the fields. He was number one. But they
(01:37):
have three different categories and then they give the players
a weighted score. So they have the fan rank, where
Kaitlin Clark was one, Page Beckers was two at guard,
and then they do it for the front court as well.
(01:57):
Collier was one, Aliah Boss was one. It was two
in the front court and right, so they do guards
and they do front court. So in the media rank
for guards, Caitlin Clark came third. It was Alicia Gray
and then it was Sabrina Ionescu and then it was
(02:20):
Caitlin Clark third, okay, which you know, okay, fans say one,
Medius's Clark is three. So then it comes to the players,
and I guess the players having an anonymous voting, the
players said Caitlin Clark was ninth best among guards. In
the All Star voting. Ninth. Now I know you want
(02:43):
to ask, well, Jay, who are the people ahead of her? Okay,
here we go. Alicia Gray for Atlanta was one. According
to the player, she's the best guard in the league. Ionescu.
Two They said Skyler Diggins was the third best guard
this season. Now she is, she's kind of a big deal.
She went to Notre Dame. She I think she dated
(03:05):
or married a football player, somebody famous. She's extremely attractive
as a huge social media following. She's the third best
Garden League. I did not know that. Number four they
said Page Beckers was the fourth best Garden League. Page
Beckers a rookie. Five. Now here's where it gets crazy.
So they only did the top ten guards, right, those
(03:28):
were the highest that made the All Star Game. Whoever
the fifth player was from the guards voted by the
players did not even register here. Sixth was Kelsey Mitchell
of Indiana. Seven Britney Psykes of Washington eight also did
not even crack the top ten, and then nine Caitlin Clark. Folks,
(03:53):
I know you guys don't like what I say. It's jealousy.
You could call it jealousy. You can call it haters,
whatever you want, but this is definitely a thousand percent
of thing and don't I will not stand for anything
you think otherwise. The players think kate LecRK is the
ninth best guard in the league. She is, I believe,
the favorite to win the MVP or she's second in
(04:17):
terms of odds. The fans love, the media loves her,
the league needs her, but the players don't think she's
in a league guard. Just let that sink and you
tell me what is it? Is it jealousy, is it hate?
It's just staggering and sad. Anyways, all right, let's go
to the NBA folks. Listen. I don't want to go
off on any two hot takes with the dust is
(04:39):
barely settling. We don't totally know everybody going everywhere. So
as I record this late Monday night, I think it's
pretty clear to everybody that the biggest takeaway so far
the Kevin Durant trade last week and everything that went
down on Monday, that the Houston Rockets are the best
(05:00):
team in the NBA. I think that's I don't. I
think it's a arguable. The Rocket's depth is insane, and
their owner decided, you know what, let's just go all in.
Let's just go all in. Why the hell not. They
targeted two guys that the Lakers had been going after.
Everybody knew the Lakers had obviously Dorian Finney Smith, and
(05:23):
they wanted Dorian Finney Smith to return. Houston said, uh uh,
we're gonna overpay him. Four years, fifty three million dollars
for Dorian Finney Smith and he's going to Houston, where
he's instead of being like on the court in crunch
time for the Lakers as like the fifth best guy,
maybe the fourth best guy, depending on what you think
of ruly. Duran Finny said, like the eighth best guy
(05:44):
on this team. It's unclear. I mean, they're so loaded
the Rockets are. I know, you're scoffing. They also brought
back Clint Capella, who would have been a perfect wingman
for Luka Doncics, the rim running center who could catch
lobs and block shots. He's not what he was seven
years ago, but he's still a factor. He got three years,
(06:05):
twenty one million dollars. So that's too Lakers targets off
the table. So this is the Rocket's depth chart right now.
And again, I'm not like a Houston fan, but I
do absolutely love what they've done here their starting lineup.
You got Fred van Vliet who took a twenty five
million dollar haircut. Yes, Fred van Vliet actually said I
(06:30):
will take less money, and it's about twenty five million
dollars right. I'm in Thompson, who is emerging as a stud.
I mean, listen. If you guys don't see it, I'm sorry.
This guy is a big time baller and he's one
of the best young players in the league. Then you've
got Kevin Durant. Then you've got Sheng Goon at center.
And then you've got Jabari Smith who got a new
(06:51):
deal just now but doesn't kick in yet. Folks, that
is formidable. Jamari Smith long, I'm in Thompson, the best
defender in that group. Van Vleet's just gonna have to
hit some big shots and defend. And then you've got
Kevin Durant and Shen Goon is an all star center.
That's really good. But that's not even the best part.
Remember they didn't give up in the in the uh
(07:12):
the k D trade. They didn't give up Reed Shepherd,
who was a top five pick last year for them.
They didn't give up Cam Whitmore, who's a good young player.
They didn't give up Tarry Eason, who's another good young wing.
And oh, by the way, they also have you know,
professional basketball player Aaron Holliday who's just been around the
league forever, Vet Smart, Steven Adams who they re signed. Folks,
(07:33):
they are at least twelve deep. That ensures that, hey,
you know what, we don't have to wear down kde
and haven't played seventy seventy five keys. We don't need that.
We've got enough weapons. I mean, this has been an
outstanding off season so far for the Houston Rockets. To me,
they are now the team to beat in the West.
(07:53):
And I know, Jay, what about Okac? What was the
last time we saw a defending champ get out of
the second round? Guys, it's a real thing for a reason, now,
I know. Okay, she's built different. As the kids like
to say, well, hey, you know, we got the young roster,
we got all these draft picks. We're straight, we're great shape,
they are undeniably. We'll see, we'll see if they could
(08:13):
duplicate it again next year. I'm gonna go ahead and
guess no, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
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Speaker 2 (08:33):
So for me, it's pretty clear Houston is the team
to beat. They have the deepest roster in the league.
It's it's pretty awesome that this is happening. To Kevin Durant.
I know I've been critical of him and I said
he's slowed down a little bit, but he got himself
to an incredible spot. And this Houston team drove a
hard bargain, didn't really give up anything. Jalen Green, Dyllan Brooks,
give me a break. I mean, I love everything about Houston,
(08:55):
and when I do go to Vegas for NFL the
NFL contest here, either this month or next month, I'm
gonna definitely be putting something on Houston to win the title.
I just think that roster, man, I mean, they are very,
very and I know they lost to the first round,
but you have to remember second seed last year in
the West. So after the Rockets, I think the Denver
(09:17):
Nuggets are attempting wisely of course, to see if they
can kind of rebuild on the fly. You knew after
that loss to OKC, after the loss of the year
before to Minnesota, like there was some pressure to do something,
and Denver has done did it. They have shipped Michael
Porter Junior. He is going to Brooklyn with his fat
(09:37):
ass contract and he's gonna play for the Nets. He's
not gonna be surrounded by a lot but Brooklyn. In
the trade Michael Porter Junior, they give up Cam Johnson. Now.
Cam Johnson obviously a very good wing, not as good
as Michael Porter Junior, but probably an overall much better
player because of his defense. So he's slides into the three.
(10:02):
You know, I don't think Cam can be a twenty
twenty point scorer like Porter, so they'll have to manufacture
some points with Murray. But they also added a big
bench piece with Russell Westbrook obviously not coming back. I
don't know what Russell Westbrook's gonna do. Maybe he ends
up back in Denver. I don't know, he's got options.
But they secured Bruce Brown, who was on the title
(10:24):
winning team a few years ago. They bring back Bruce
Brown and he will, I guess be their sixth man
as they kind of usher in a new era. Listen, man,
I know Michael Malone didn't want to play the young guys.
You have to force feed a lot of Zeke Nazi
during the regular season because it's all about the playoffs
for Yo Kitchen Murray, and they haven't always been healthy.
Aaron Gordon like, they've got a great nucleus. I think
(10:46):
Denver's excellent. Little Julian Strather. Next year maybe we'll see
some picket. Hopefully Deron Holmes can rebound after he had
the Achilles injury. So I think Denver did a really
good job. Again, it's early, this stuff is subject to change,
but I would say right now Houston one, OKC two,
Denver at three. Now the Lakers, who were third, they
(11:08):
made one move, and Laker fans, of course, spent Monday
just irate about what was happening, and namely nothing and
Rob Polinka, you know, catching heat because Laker fans are crazy,
and it's possible that I'm out here in La so
I'm hearing more Laker anger from fans than you know,
you guys wherever you are. I'll say, the first move
(11:34):
didn't really get anybody excited, and they they went and
grabbed wake Forest legend Jake la Ravia, who was in
Memphis last year. Jake Laavia, Yeah, I know you're not familiar.
Others work. I mean, two years, twelve million bucks. It's
just peanuts. You know, they're not paying him a lot.
The guy listen, man, he's one of those dudes. So
(11:57):
you know, six seven, two thirty is kind of a
big I don't think he can play a four in
your small ball lineup. But he's a young guy and
he was excellent at wake Forest, turned himself into a
first round pick. It was very good at Indiana State,
I should say first. Then he goes to wake Forest
and then he goes to Memphis and he was like,
not bad. He had an incident with Dalton connect which
(12:19):
should make things interesting with the Lakers, and then he
was on the Sacramento Kings as well. Last season didn't
do much, but this is a guy who listen. Here
are his three point shooting percentages with Sacramento thirty eight percent,
with Memphis forty four percent. Those are the last that
(12:44):
was last season, in between his two stints with each team.
I don't think anybody's expecting him to be a superstar.
I think if you can make him your your eighth
or ninth guy and you can reliably counter him to
hit some big shots, play hard nosed defense, and just
basically be, you know, a shock to the system. You know,
(13:06):
you know how kind of Ben Shephard of the Pacers
and TJ McConnell that these guys would come in and
bring massive energy and just be huge factors. Can Jake
la Ravia give you twelve of those minutes a night
off the bench? Twelve to fifteen and he's being an
energy guy, and he's providing hustles, stocks, as they like
(13:27):
to say, steals, and blocks, and he's just doing a
little bit of everything while hitting a few threes. I
don't see why he can't provide that. Now, he's a
little older than well, actually, uh, la Ravia's no, he's
only twenty three Dalton Connect because he had the long route.
He let's see here, he might actually be older than
la Ravia. Yeah, Dalton Connect is twenty four, so he's
(13:49):
older than Laavia and he's probably not nearly as good
as a defender, better shooter. I don't know if that
you can play both those guys. I'm not sure how
that's gonna work. But the Lakers really haven't done anything yet,
which is kind of disappointing another team that I thought
had a big hit and this one was a surprise.
(14:11):
But folks, I don't know if you've seen what's going
on with the Boston Celtics here. Obviously the last two weeks,
a couple of trades have been significant. We know, they
had to get out of the luxury tax, they got
out of the second apron and it's like, what are
we doing here? Are we getting? Are we getting cheap?
And you know, Luke Cornett had one I think he
had one game against the Knicks. We had like seven
(14:32):
blocks in that series. And you're like, oh, this guy's something.
And then when Porzingis gets traded, You're like, all right,
well it sounds like Horford's going to go elsewhere. You know,
is there a world where Luke Cornett is your starting center?
And it was like, all right, sure, why not? He can?
He can? He can block shots and defend and be
(14:53):
a rim runner. And why not, folks, Luke Cornett, Yes,
the that tall white guy from Vanderbilt signed a forty
one million dollar deal with the San Antonio Spurs. I
mean that was stunning to me. That is a big
(15:13):
time loss for the Celtics. I mean, I can't even
put that into words, how bad they are going to
be depleted at center. Currently, their only center is Luke Garza,
the kid from Iowa, who ain't a center in the NBA,
and he cannot defend anybody. You know, Luke car is
a good offensive guy, but man, that is a huge
(15:34):
hit four years, forty one million dollars to the San
Antonio Spurs where he will Let's be honest, guys, He's
going to provide some rim protection either with Wemby as
a backup to Wemby. But that is good. You know,
I have two sleepers that I'm working on this Spurs
aren't much of a sleeper. But if you have Fox, Castle, Wemby, Harper,
(16:02):
Cornett's gonna be in the rotation. Guys, I know you
don't want to hear you got Vassal. Let's see what
else they've got, any moves they've they've got to make here.
But I think the Spurs for sure are a top
eight team in the West next season. Somebody's gonna have
to drop out, which makes it difficult. But for me, yeah,
I think the Spurs have to be in there. I
(16:23):
don't know that they have, you know, the highest end
talent like I'm you know, Keldon Johnson and Harrison Bars
they're good, solid role players. They will need a third
reliable scorer. I don't exactly know who that is yet.
Can it be Vassal? I don't think you can expect
Harper to come out of the gate and be an
instant offense kind of guy. I don't know that Castle's
(16:44):
there yet. He's very good, but it just it seems
like it could be an offense is gonna be a problem,
but the defense will keep them in games. And yeah,
I think the Spurs are a top eight team, my
team that I like, really closing in on them as
a team that holy held is the team to watch.
And I already said Orlando could be a sneaky team
(17:05):
to somehow find its way in the conference finals. Well,
I would keep an eye on the Atlanta Hawks. Every
move they've done has hit. You know, they added Nikhil
Alexander Walker. Apparently Trey Young was running point on that
recruiting mission for Alexander Walker. But they didn't stop there.
(17:25):
They also got Luke Cannard, So now all of a sudden,
you've got great shooting with Canard and obviously Alexander Walker,
who was excellent. You've got Jalen Johnson coming back off
the injury, Dyson Daniels, a lockdown defender. You've got the
young kid Buffkin who is a He's a bit of
a project, but he's very highly thought of. And I
(17:48):
just wonder is there enough there that this team could
be a surprising top top five seed in the East?
Okongwu porzingis Resa che Asa Newell like, they got a
lot of guys, a lot of guys. I don't know
how it's gonna all work for them because there is
a lot of newness. And are they gonna pivot from
(18:09):
being a Trey Young centric team to a Jalen Johnson
team now he's coming off the injury. It's just a
really spicy Hawks team. They were forty and forty two
last year. I think it's back to get on board
the Hawks as well as Orlando. They they I think
they will clearly be better than Atlanta, and they picked
up a really good backup point guard, Tias Jones. You
(18:32):
know you got the JA. I mean Orlando is another team. Man.
They they're not really paying anybody other than Paolo and Franz,
and they're not even on huge fifty sixty million dollar deals.
Yet Bain Suggs, Wendell Carter, Jonathan Isaac still out there.
Tristan da Silva. I like Anthony Black, it's he's still young.
He may not be ready to contribute. Jace Richardson, I
(18:54):
like him as a pick. Tias Jones adds veteran leadership
in the backcourt, Like this is this is a forty
Last year they won forty one. I think they're a
forty eight or fifty win team. So a lot of good,
a lot of positive. On the first day of NBA
free agency. I'm trying to keep it positive because it's
so easy to be negative. Oh, by the way, Brook
(19:16):
Lopez leaves Milwaukee as expected, no surprise, He's going to
the paper clips. But this is where it gets interesting.
You know, you see all these silly reports whoa well.
Giannis is monitoring the draft and free agency to see
what the Bucks plan is. I could tell you what
they're playing is we got to keep Bobby portis they
(19:37):
re signed Kevin Porter junior, They resigned Gary Trent Junior.
For now they have Kuzma Folks, Kevin Porter junior, Gary
Trent Junior in the backcourt. Oh my gosh, that's terrible.
I'm sorry, Kuzma, Geez Giannis, Bobby Portis coming off the
bench with Jericho Sims, former Nick and Prince still banging
(20:01):
around the league. AJ Green the three point shooter, Like
that is not a good basketball team and they're not.
Remember they love that kid Andre Jackson from Yukon. I
don't know how he even fits in the rotation. Like
this is just not a good Bucks team at all.
And I do wonder if anybody out there is keeping
their powder dry for Yiannis, Like what team would that be?
(20:24):
I think that's the real interesting discussion. I just I mean,
unless you know Golden State, you know you need a
bunch of picks. You need picks and players for Yannis,
And I just don't know who has that. Remember we
had Henry Abbott on I think a couple of weeks ago,
and he said, the one team that makes sense is okay.
(20:46):
See but is okay? Is he gonna do it? They
would have to break up J dub and Chet. One
of those two would have to be shipped. Not a
great look to ship one of those guys. You put them.
We work together for all the for years to get
the title, and you know, all of a sudden, you
win the championship and like two months later you ship
him out of town. You know. It is sort of
(21:07):
somewhat similar to when the OKC thunder Last went to
the championship. They had, you know, premature fears that they
couldn't afford hard and so they traded and that worked
out horribly, absolutely horribly. So we will see who the
big big movers are here for Giannis once the dust clears.
(21:29):
I mean, I get I'm definitely trade Giannis before you know,
the All Star break because the price is gonna go down.
You guys know that historically, the longer you wait to
trade somebody, the more the price goes down.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
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the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (21:56):
Obviously, there was a big trade in the NFL on Monday,
and it happened early in the morning, like I don't know,
like eight thirty Pacific times, so obviously we couldn't get
on the podcast. But the way I described it on
the Herd when it broke was it feels like Miami
is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They just
(22:18):
are at a loss for how to handle these strong personalities.
They're really struggling with Tyreek Hill. They must be fed
up with Jalen Ramsey. They ship him out. Then you
got john Us Smith. I don't want to say am malcontent,
but he wanted to get back with his guy, Arthur Smith,
who's now in Pittsburgh as the OC. And it's like
(22:40):
they go to Pittsburgh and Miami gets Minka Fitzpatrick, a
playmaker on the back end of the defense. But like,
do you really need that if you're Miami. I mean,
it just doesn't really make sense why you do that
move other than Jayleen is just a human, not a
(23:02):
nice human, and you just want to get him out
of there. But you know, Javon Holland is a really
good safety, so they've got one. I guess you can
try the two safety play and maybe that works out
for you. Ask for the Steelers, geez. The bigger news is, well,
what are you gonna do with everybody's favorite defensive end?
TJ Watt and I said back in April, you should
(23:24):
actually I said it last year, you should trade TJ
Watt get a haul and start the rebuild that was
last year. Steelers fans laughed at me, you can't do that, Jay, Okay, fine,
they don't want a playoff game. So now here it
is this summer. TJ Watt didn't go to the camp
and he's like, I want to raise because Miles Garrett
got a raise, and they're like, well, I don't know
(23:46):
that you are worth it because we're not close to
winning a Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers doesn't get us close.
But now you're trading TJ Watt and they're fielding calls.
They said a corner schefter, a lot of people called
about TJ Watt. So it's like, wait a minute. People
are calling about TJ Watt and you're now answering the
(24:09):
phone and talking to about it when his price is
gone down from what it was last year. It's just
bad GMing guys, any way you slice it. I keep
saying this, the best time to rebuild was last year.
Got to make those decisions early. I don't think the
Steelers did it. I don't think Miami did it. This
doesn't feel like a significant move that's going to help
either of these teams out. I don't have either of
these in the playoffs next year, and certainly if I
(24:31):
did a Super Bowl bubble, neither of them is in it.
So a big start to the week, Holiday week. We
got NFL trade, you got NBA free agency. It's all crazy.
We are back tomorrow. Talk to you then
Host
Jason McIntyre
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