July 1, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon are joined by NBA Insiders Ric Bucher and Mark Medina for all the latest signings in Day 1 of Free Agency.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this if you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome inside our three of the Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
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Speaker 1 (00:35):
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Speaker 3 (00:47):
The way tire buying should be well. A big day
one in NBA.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Free agencies to tell us some big names out there,
some big names now off the market, joining us now.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
On the hotline to break it off down.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You can follow on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina,
longtime NBA insider friend of the show.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It is Mark Madeina. Mark. Can you help us out here?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
We need the names of all seventeen players the Lakers
signed today.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Can you just give us that seventeen so we can begin.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Well, I think it's substantially left, but yeah, it's Rui
Hachimura and gave Vincent and tarn Prince their their jobs
still not done. So there's there's three of them right there.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
For I didn't they they extended Chris mim and they
brought back Andrew Bindham.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They did that as well.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
You know what I hear they might be doing. I
hear maybe a sign and tray in the works regarding
D'Angel Russell in return, Jalen Brunson, what do you think
of that?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Whoa whoa? Whoa?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Whoa whoa?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
You want to fight? We can fight right after this.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Now, I thought for a second you had whoa, But
I was talking about the sign and trade with D'Angelo Russell.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Whoa whoa? Like Brunson?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Who whoa?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Whoa?
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Whoa?
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Whoa? Whoa?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Whoa whoa? Whoa whoa whoa?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
No, so look so far I like what the Lakers
have done. Look, gave Vincent's a great signing, right. Who knows,
maybe the Lakers can get the cam Reddish out of
cam Reddish.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But so far.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I like what they've done, but I feel like, if
you really want to be that that team that says, hey,
revaulting to the top of the West, I think you
need that one more big movie, that that big you know, playmate,
And maybe something is is happening where they have a
lot of flexibility right now because they've extended the offer
to Reeves and they bring back Hotchamore and they could
be russ all this stuff. I feel like they need
(02:35):
that one more They need to throw that one more
punch to suddenly say, hey, now we are not last
year wasn't just a fluke.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We are now legit back at the top of the list.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's a good point, and I think in fairness, you know,
clearly free agency hasn't ended yet, and so I think
the order of things is eventually they're going to resign
Austin Reeves. So that's a given. D'Angel Russell. I was
joking about the whole sign in church in New York.
You can relax, Jalen. Jalen Brunson isn't going to go
(03:03):
anywhere unless it's the unless it's the Philadelphia for James Harden, right.
But I think that they're probably lean more toward keeping
D'Angelo than letting them walk, and then, uh, you know,
if they get a backup center, I think that their
job is mostly done. Like clearly they showed that if
(03:24):
we're going to pick winners and losers in free agency here,
which I did as many other NBA writers did, the
better route is to maximize and prioritize depth than to
I just resign a star for the sake of doing it.
Allah the Dallas Mavericks with Kyrie Irving, and so I
(03:45):
think that one of the things that we have to
keep in mind when you know, there's all this talk about, oh,
the Lakers are really going to run it back when they,
you know, looked overwhelmed against the Denver Nuggets. Well, first
of all, the Nuggets are a legit team. But secondly,
you have to look at it through the lens of
the second half of the season. The Lakers are one
of the best teams in the NBA, third best record overall,
(04:08):
and they ran out of gas partly because they were
expending so much energy treating every game like it's a
game seven to second half of the season, because they
were got awful the first half of the season because
of Russell Westbrook. And so what that means next season
is they're going to have that same core, better continuity,
(04:28):
more chemistry, as well as kind of a reset of
having the batteries recharged a little bit. So if they
complete this as far as Reeves, D'Angel, Russell and then
another backup big, they are in the mix to get
back another championship.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
So reading into that answer there mark on your Biggest
Losers tag not to be confused with the old reality
show they don't do anymore, is that the Mavericks shed
a lot of money for no value here.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, without a doubt. And look, the reason why I'm
critiquing the Dallas Mavericks isn't necessarily that they gave Kyrie
Irving a three year, one hundred and twenty six million
dollar deal. I think it's more of they got into
this predicament between choosing two bad options of either retaining
Kyrie or relying on trying to get mid tier guys
(05:24):
in the open market to compliment Luka Dacis. And that
all traces back to the original Kyrie deal acquisition before
the trade deadline, where they got rid of some of
their depth, and clearly this past season they couldn't make
the play in tournament with Kyrie. So the idea that, oh,
if we just run it back with Luke and Kyrie,
(05:45):
they can carry us. No, they can't. And the ironic
part is, while I'm always going to leave the Kyrie
Irving Bingo card open for any Shenanigans that he pulls
that makes them suddenly unavailable, at least in his time
in Dalla, he was seen as a positive locker room presence.
He did, for the most part, coexists well with Luka
(06:07):
Doctrich offensively, and I think that those two things very
well could stay intact. But it's not going to mean
anything if they can't defend and they don't have any
supporting cast around them. So here is where the Dallas
Mavericks are. They technically have seven free agents on the
rest of the roster. They can make moves like hey,
(06:27):
Seth Curry signings nice, but I'm very skeptical that they
would be able to draw, you know, those kind of
valuable role players to make enough you know, I mean,
Bruce Brown's already off the table, Kevin loves off the table.
I don't think that they're going to have the elite
croppings of you know, all those middle tier guys at
their disposal.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Mark, let me ask, let me let me throw this
at you, because this is this is where I came to you,
because I'm trying to make sense to Kyrie Irving, knowing
full well that no other team in the NBA is
going to say we're a Kyrie Irving away from winning
because they couldn't this last three teams couldn't get rid
of him fast enough. How much of this in Dallas
is they really can't find someone to come play with
Luca that boy. Getting someone to come and be that
(07:10):
other guy is really really difficult, whether it's from a
fitting standpoint or from playing alongside Luca is not as
easy as people thinks it.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Maybe, well, look, it's a fair question because for all,
if we're all over brilliant, Luka Doncic is as a player,
he is ball dominant, He does a lot of things
on his own. He can get frustrated with guys. But
I think at the end of the day, if the
Mavericks had a complete roster, they would be able to
(07:40):
convince other team or other players to team up with
Luka Doncic. Just the problem is they don't have enough
cap space to be able to do that, and you
know they have a mid level exception, you know, around
twelve million dollars. But I don't think it's really enough
when you're comparing that against you know, other teams that
(08:01):
could be in the mix, like a Lakers for example,
that you know there are only a few pieces away
of being in contention. And I think the bigger point
is this. There were I think some talks earlier, you know,
before free agency about possible trades going down, whether it's
you know, with DeAndre and with Phoenix. I know Mark
(08:22):
Stein was reporting that, and they shied away from that
because they didn't have enough valuable pieces to entice them
with them to pull the trigger. So I think that's
the larger part. It's not to say that Luca is
not blameless because of those qualities outlined. He also has
to show up in training camp in better shape than
he has in the past seasons. But you know, if
(08:44):
I had to rank all the problems that are plaguing
the Mavericks, Luca's kind of toward the bottom where it's
more of you know, the roster constructions number one, and
then everything else kind of filters down from that.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
Mark Madena alongside NBA journal list.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
All right, journalist, I was gonna say journal but I
hate that. You hear him on the network here.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
Fox Sports Radio joined us each week here is Jason
Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
You find him on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina
for all his musings, insights and everything around the NBA.
And Mark in Golden State with the Warriors. We uh
with not surprise Draymond got his one hundred million? What
do they do to actually get better?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Uh? So you're not in savor of the Draymond Green signing.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I gather no, no, no, I got no problem with it.
I can't, I need.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I think it's terrible. I think I think it. Look, look, Mark,
how are you going to all the.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Warriors of my question? But but but I'm but I'm
the one that doesn't like it. You're the one that
doesn't always like it. So I'm gonna tell you why
I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Look, all they've done is get older.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They brought in Chris Paul, who, yeah, is gonna be
great getting them into their sets for a little bit,
until suddenly Chris Paul hits the wall because he's thirty
seven thirty eight years old, and you're paying Draymond to
come back now for four more years when he's not.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
The same player.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You don't pay players pass their prime and bring him
in and win championships. If anything, they need to reload
on the fly around Steph, And all they decide to
do is say, well, Bob Myers has gone.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
What do we do? I don't know. Let's keep everybody together.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Let's just keep the band together because we love everybody here,
and we'll still sell jerseys. There'll be one franchise players
their entire career. The fans will love it. That's what
we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I really I don't get the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
There moves the combination of bringing in Chris Paul and
not getting a great value in return for Jordan Poole
because they should have got way more for him, and
getting Chris Paul and training a first round pick, and
then bringing in Draymond.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I just don't get it.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, how about this. I'm ready to throw down with
you guys, So don't worry. It won't be Jordan Poole style.
It's just the points here. Look, with Draymond, you know
the punch is there's no excuse for it, but for
better and for worse, you know, when you're looking at
the connecting the dots, they trade Jordan Poole, but they
valued Draymond and shouldn't be the other around. For better
(11:01):
and for worse, they weren't calculating the punch like they
were calculating from an on court perspective, who can we
rely on more? And yes, Draymond Green's getting older, but
I would argue this past season he mostly played up
to what he showed in his prime years, especially defensively.
And while you know Father Time is always going to
(11:23):
be undefeated, I trust that, at least for the next
two years that he's going to be the Draymonds. That's
a good version of Draymond on the court. So that's
number one. Number two. I do have the concerns that
you guys have about Chris Paul's durability because the reality is,
even though he's training the right way, eating the right way,
(11:44):
competing the right way, his body still breaks down. But
there's two things here to unpack. The Warriors, I think,
have more roster balance than the Suns do, so there's
not going to be as much of a workload on
Chris Paul. That's number one. Number two too. You have
to look at the Jordan Pool trade through the lens
of a lot of it was salary related, and it
(12:07):
wasn't so much of Oh I'm billionaire Joe lakeup and
I'm crying poverty because I have to pay all these
salary cap or all these luxury taxes. It is because
they're past the second apron suddenly they don't have that
mid level exception that's non taxpayer that they can use
to round out the rest of their rosters. So they
traded Jordan Poole mostly because of that. Secondly, because he
(12:32):
was inconsistent as a younger player, and they've decided philosophically,
you know what, We're going to lean more toward, you know,
the championship star players that got us here, rather than
try to do the whole two timeline thing and develop
on the fly. And so with that, they do have
an avenue to round out their roster because they have
(12:52):
more spending tools, partly because they shed Jordan Poole's contract.
Hasn't happened yet, but this is the first stay a
free agency. So stay tuned tonight, tomorrow and onward.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You can follow on Twitter at Mark G Underscore Medina.
That's at Mark G Underscore Medina. Longtime NBA insider, Uh,
Mark has always appreciate your time and make sure people
know that the sign and trade D'Angelo Russell for Jalen
Brunson is not a real story.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay, not a real news news.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I will, I will say it's fake news. But who knows.
Maybe James Harder for Jalen Brunson. What do you say?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Okay, Okay, hang up on hang up on Mark Medina
right now, hang up buddy. Oh my goodness, always great
with Mark Medina again, he's on Twitter at Mark G
Underscore Medina.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Potential for you.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
Having a uh an arrhythmia there for a second, Oh.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
James, is he deadpanding?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I was kind of dangerous on day one Free.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Agency Nick fan Nick fans would burn their tickets in
front of Madison Square Garden in a big BoNT fire.
They would all show up and just drop their seat
and tickets and burden.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Then you don't know what the hell you're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That was how very good. Franka Stanza, that.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
BA insider like that who's well connected, had James Harden
in it.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Stop Stop Frostburg. Just stop, Okay, just stop, you know what,
Go back to figuring out. I think the Lakers just
signed three more guys.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Go figure out your.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
Sports life doesn't suck enough. You need James Harden.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I think I think you got Travis Knight back again.
Go make sure and see you see.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
If that happened Travis. I'll just take Travis at this point,
just a guy named Travis.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I'll just take Randy Travis.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah live.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Yeah, We're deeper than the Holler Now.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And the Holler Live from thetirag dot com studios where
we have big news coming out of the NBA right now.
Tyrese Halliburt, You talk about getting paid. He has agreed
on a five year max deal with the Pacers that
could be worth up to two hundred and sixty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I am, he could be making fifty million a year. Yeah,
talk about corner start of the franchise. That's where it is, Hey, Halliburton.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Bruce Brown, look out here come the Pacers joining us
now the hot line Fox Sports one NBA Insider extraordinaire,
no one better than Rick Buker. Rick, did you negotiate
this deal for Haliburton? It's a lot of money?
Speaker 6 (15:40):
I wish I said, well, you know what, it's an
easy deal though. I mean, you knew that Haliburton was
going to be one of their cornerstone players. So it's
just where the money is these days. It is a
crazy amount of money. There's some guys that I would
worry they get the money and they're not going to
be the same player. I'm not. I'm not as worried.
I'm not worried about that. When it comes to uh
(16:01):
Tyrese Haliburton. I think he's He's about the right things.
I'm trying to think about. I'm trying to remember the
conversation he had though about what was a good shot
and a bad shot, and he may need to upgrade
his idea of what a good shot. Other than that,
Other than that, I'm a big I'm a big Tyree's
(16:24):
fan and totally understandable and and adding Bruce Brown to
that equation as well. I I like where the I
like where the Pacers are going. I think they are.
They're certainly in the mix to be a playoff team
next year.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
Well at least they chose a direction, which is good.
We've been laughing a lot waiting on the ticker rick
of the next Lakers signing.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
What do you expect the next shoe to drop?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Air?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Well, I mean, the number one thing is I haven't
seen anything on on Austin Reeves yet unless I missed something,
And to me, that's the that's the that's the big question.
Is is he going to sign with them or is
he going to sign an offer sheet. If he signs
(17:13):
an offer sheet, then chances are it's going to be
an amount that is going to be really difficult for
the Lakers. They may not put him in a buy now.
They said they're going to match anything, but the way
they're there, the salary cap is structured and what they
can pay him, they need it. They need a lot
(17:36):
of it backloaded. If I'm not mistaken, they can't pay
him a whole lot up front. So that's the tricky thing.
I know that they were they've been talking to Austin
trying to get him to sort of say, hey, like
I'll just sign direct with I'll re up with you
guys without uh, without breaking the bank. And I would
(17:57):
be a little bit concerned at this point that that
hasn't happened because they locked up Ruie. I like the
additions of cam Briddish and Gabe Vincent, but if they
lose Austin Reeves, then that I think it's almost like
you you're breaking even as opposed to getting ahead just
(18:20):
because he was he was, he was so meaningful. The
tricky the other tricky part was Austin is. The question
for me is how much better can he get? Because
you're when when the deal that he was on, you're like, Wow,
we're we're we're in gravy, like we're we're getting so
much bang for our bucks with him on on the
(18:40):
deal that he was on. But now when you're talking
about paying a guy like nineteen twenty million dollars, Now
he can't occasionally be you're a third best player. He
has to always be you're a third best player. And
I just don't he's already such a solid player and crafty.
I just I don't know how high his feeling is
(19:03):
beyond what we've already seen.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
All right, Rick, let's go here now, We've had a
big day in NBA free agency and we saw a
lot of still some players still on the board, but
we saw a lot of big signings. If I said,
complete the sentence, my favorite free agent signing of today
was who would you tell me?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
That's a tough one. I mean my first honestly, my
kind of think through all that you you would ask
me that, like, of of all of the so much
of it has to do with money versus what they need.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean, let's go, let's go with what they need.
You know, you're right, I should have given you. I
should have given you a non next question. Right, So
if what as far as what team?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
What team?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
The favorite signing you had because the team improved the
most or or this this signing means the most to
a team. Forget about the money where it is because
it's not our money. We're not spending it, You're not
spending it. Uh, what you like the most? What team
improved the most with with what you saw today?
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Honestly not sure? You know, looking around, I'm not sure
that I that I see one.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
That wow wow.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
That that move I mean, honestly, that moves the needle.
You know, I could say that I I like, I
like the Grizzly signing signing Derrick Rose, but I mean, look,
he's he's going to be a backup off the bench.
I still I think he could have helped the Knicks.
(20:49):
I like a sneaky A sneaky move is Miami Heat
moving Victor Oladipo for a for a trade exception, which
gives them almost ten million dollars to kind of to
play with to try to bolster, to try to bolster
their team. That's not going to be what they're going
to use in the Damian Lillard equation obviously, But honestly,
(21:10):
I'm just you know, looking around signing Jeremy Grant s
Portland does that that that gives them a little bit
of a glimmer of hope that Damien isn't. At some
point after free agency is over, is going to say,
I gave you a shot to make this into a
championship contending team, and it obviously isn't. So can I
(21:32):
get my walking papers? I just I don't know.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
The Dallas Mavericks picking up Beth Curry help. But I
don't see one where I feel.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Like the the the trajectory or the power rankings of
the league shifted dramatically. Honestly, if the Lakers re sign
Austin Reeves and find a way to get that done,
and they're adding Gabe Vincent and Cam b Reddish, that
(22:10):
gives them some athleticism and some potential two way players
on the wings, that should make them at least as
good as they were this past year. The question is
still going to be, you know what's Lebron going to
be able to give you at age thirty nine and
Anthony Davis remain healthy, I mean, the age old questions
(22:31):
about their core, but I would feel a lot better
about their supporting cast if they're able to add all
those three. And I'd say, just looking across the board,
I can't think of another team that I would look
at and said that, say they did as much as
an in free agency as the Lakers did.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Log view, how much does the addition of Red van
Lead help to accelerate things in Houston?
Speaker 6 (23:00):
Amount of money they needed a point guard. Was so
good on them for doing that, And I'm a big
Fred Van Vliet fan, but physically I have some concerns
size wise playing with those young guys. Has he done
enough that those young guys are going to listen to
(23:21):
him and and they're going to move the needle that way. Obviously,
have an Emaiodoka there certainly helped. It's just it's a
lot of money for a guy who I think is
has been a nice surprize as a starting point guard.
I would say he's proved that he is a starting
(23:43):
point guard. Is he a all star caliber starting point guard?
I wouldn't quite. I wouldn't quite go that far.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
So I don't know.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Man, It's I mean, three years, one hundred and thirty
million calp.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Is it better than Kyrie's deal?
Speaker 6 (24:08):
We're talking to forty If my maddin is correct, We're
like talking forty three million a year.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I have that, yep.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
I mean that is that's like superstar money. That's superstar money. Well,
I'm a big I'm a big bread Van's Leaf fan.
But one, is he a superstar?
Speaker 9 (24:30):
And two? How much can he do for a team.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
That is still as young as the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It's a.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
It's a head scratcher for me. I gonna tell you,
I feel like I feel like Rockets weren't. This says
to me the Rockets weren't getting a whole lot done.
Anyplace else, and they needed to show improvement and they
needed to find a point guard, and they decided to
break the bank in order to get it. You know,
the other part is is you give him, you give
him that much money, and you got a couple of
(24:59):
young guys that are co up and looking for extensions.
They're certainly going to be looking for equal amount of pay.
So I'm a big fan of their GM Rafael Stone.
I think he's an out of the box thinker. But man,
it's a lot of money for a guy who I
(25:19):
do not see making an All Star team anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
All right, Rick, Now, we were on opposite sides of
this debate last week and we talked about the Warriors
and Draymond Green, and I'm telling you, you know, they
bring him back four years and one hundred million, and
it's not so much about the money. And but this
is a Warriors team that watched Bob Myers walk out
the door. And what did they do. They traded away
Jordan Poole, which fine, you need to move them, that's great,
(25:44):
But they trade away Pool. They trade a first round
pick and a second round pick and get Chris Paul,
who's going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Getting them into sets and everything else.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
But when it comes time, when it's late in the
season or in the playoffs, how effective is he really
going to be? And now they've decided let's bring Aimon
back for four more years when he's not really as effective,
like his player efficiency rating keeps going down year to year.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I don't understand the Warriors'.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Philosophy of hey, this is the NBA, let's get older
and we can maybe win another championship.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I don't understand that. Rick.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Well, let's consider their options. Jordan Poole's contract was considered
one of the worst contracts out there. There was not
a great market for Jordan Poole, and more than anything,
they needed to get him out of the building and
they needed to get off of that money. And Chris
Paul at least puts another adult in the room. And
(26:37):
if you're going, if you're if you're looking at and saying,
how can we how can we potentially improve while also
being more efficient fiscally and uh, and still have the
potential of moving that contract, you know who, whatever we're
(26:59):
getting back. There's more flexibility in being able to move
Chris Paul again than there would have been for Jordan Poole.
I think the reason they made that move they were like,
we got to get off the money, and the fact
that they added a first round pick lsu like the
only way they were going to get off of that
is if they sweetened the deal. That's how That's how
low Jordan Poole's value was. And honestly, I can make
(27:26):
a case where the Warriors they led the league in
turnovers and Jordan Poole per minute led them in turnovers.
Chris Paul is still one of the top five assists
to turnover ratio guys in the team in the league.
And with the young guys that you're putting with him
(27:49):
in the second unit, you know, people are gonna say, well,
he's gonna play, he's gonna play slower. Okay, Actually that's
not a bad thing if it's going if he's going
to get shot for Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody, which
I would expect that he's able to do, not necessarily
playing the Warriors kind of off the ball style, but
(28:11):
more pick and roll, and which is what Chris likes
to play, in which the younger guys are more adept
at playing because they've just more familiar with it, and
it's a simpler, simpler style than the way the Warriors
don't normally play. So I can make a case where
they've gotten better and certainly even defensively. As much as
Chris Paul has fallen off or is diminished, he was
(28:36):
still night and day better than Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole
guys were shooting over fifty percent against him in the playoffs.
They were shooting under forty percent against Chris Paul. Did
they attack him, yes, but were they as efficient attacking
him as they were attacking Jordan Poole. No, So I can.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Make I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
I'm not mad at that that deal, and the reality
is they're only going to be as good as They're
only going to be take contenders as long as Steps
and Dre are there. What I really want to see
is I want to see the particulars when it comes
to Drey's contract, because it may be four years. I
am hard pressed to believe that all four years are guaranteed.
(29:23):
I feel like this might be a Chris Paul type
contract where the first two years are guaranteed, third years
partially guaranteed, fourth year is not guaranteed. At all and
then considering the amount and what he means to the Warriors,
I can live with it. I mean, here's here's the reality. There,
the harsh reality, like they they drafted Coming, and they
(29:46):
drafted Moody, they drafted Wiseman, like those were their assets
to get younger and develop the next iteration and it
didn't pan out. So now they're like, well, that didn't work,
so let's just try to make the best of this
and get veterans and see if we can squeeze one
more championship out of Steph Krek Clay Strey and now
(30:09):
CP three is.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
On Twitter at Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker.
Check him out. Fox Sports won the On the Ball
podcast as well. Rick, Thanks so much, buddy, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
If the Knicks trade for MBI before the show is over,
we'll call you back.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Please please, And I'm gonna go ahead and go to bed,
all right.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Nick show.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
See, but how about that.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I don't see a move that moved the move that's
moved the needles like that, just moving through it.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
You can hear the scanner in his head. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
There was not a single bleep.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Fox Sports Radio. Somehow we're turned into a Randy Travis Knight.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Little dig it up bones, let's go celebrate the legend.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now, if it was an Andy Travis Knight, we'd be
playing the theme song at WKRP in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
That is pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
This is Randy Travis.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
This is how it turned into The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Carmen, Life the tyrack dot
Com Studios and Speaking of the day, Yes, it's NBA
Free Agency. It's all kinds of things. And today, of course,
the New York Mets finished their worst June in franchise history.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yea, hey, worse June five wins and what happens next?
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It is July first, which means happy Bobby Benini. Yeah,
we made it to another Bobby Benia day. Let's go
cut that check, ah boy.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
We had to get rid of ped A Lonzo to
pay Bobby Benia.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Sorry, we really good advice.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You can't pay this contract anymore?
Speaker 6 (32:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
We got to get rid of some guys. All right,
let's get rid of some guys. That's kind of how
it works.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Now, I spent it all this year. I'm done. I
can't afford that extra million plus.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know, it's I'm kind of bummed when Bobby Benita
Day kind of falls on the weekend, you know, like
we it should it should get its time to be
publicized and celebrated because it is a big day.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's a huge day on the baseball calendar every July.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
First, the Mets are paying Bobby Beanie at one point
nine three million dollars. Ay every uh, you know it's
it's a big day. They're making hats for it. Now,
you send me the link to the they're making hats
to buy for Bobby.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
It took that long.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Oh man, did.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
You get us the hats?
Speaker 5 (32:39):
No?
Speaker 8 (32:40):
What they didn't have Smith's size.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
No, I'm only I was only gonna buy it if
it was one of those giant big head.
Speaker 8 (32:49):
You tell them Jason needs the bouchie.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Seven eighths and the next one is the boachie.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
No, no, no, I need no. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
For first of all, it's a snap back. It's not
even a fitted hat. And secondly, it's seventy five dollars
like it's been seven lolls to.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Come on, that's almost as much as they're paying Bobby Benie.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I'm not gonna do it. That's too much money. It's
way too much celebrating your way too much money.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I will say this.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
I mean, look again, it's mocked incessantly. It's not the
only contract of its kind, So folks need to go
research your own team. You've probably paid someone years longer
than you thought they were on the books.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Go and do that.
Speaker 7 (33:36):
Benia would just happen to be the Mets. They made
a push and and ultimately fiscally probably not the worst.
They got to keep the principal and grow it themselves.
Speaker 8 (33:46):
How are you going to go out and celebrate this Smith?
Speaker 7 (33:48):
And for him, he's got a revenue stream forever, so
he couldn't have made a bad financial move and.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Blown at all.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I'm celebrating right now with ice cream? Are you kidd
Why am I waiting? I'm celebrating, celebrating right now.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
The day is here.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
No like if you had to look up, hey you
or someone said hey, I don't understand what people say
by by when they say bad optic.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I said, what do you mean to go? Well, what
does bad optic mean?
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Ago?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It means where the optic and the image of something
is worse than the actual.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Impact of it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
You know what, Bobby Benia day, that's that is the
That is the dictionary definition of bad optic, right, horrible optic.
That you're paying a guy that last played for you
twenty some odd years ago. They're making commercials now last
year Ryan Reynolds made a commercial with him for Midt
Mobile and all.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Kinds of crazy ass stuff. That is a definition of
bad optic, bad optic.
Speaker 7 (34:37):
Well, and that's just it, right, You just run with it,
and now you create your own Look, you got plenty
of other things that are bad optics, now lean into those. No,
sure your current owners made some mistakes of his own.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So yeah, like with the roster, you mean, like everybody
on the team. Yeah, big mistakes there.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Coming up next, we got all the latest and NBA
free agency. The biggest headshot scratching moves of the day
are clear.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
That's next. Knox m
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this if you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome inside our three of the Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hobo.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We're live from the tirag dot com studios tyrec dot com.
I'll help you get there. An unmatched selection, fast free shipping.
Free road has a protection over ten thousand recommended installers
tirack dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
The way tire buying should be well. A big day
one in NBA.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Free agencies to tell us some big names out there,
some big names now off the market, joining us now.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
On the hotline to break it off down.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You can follow on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina,
longtime NBA insider friend of the show.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It is Mark Madeina. Mark. Can you help us out here?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
We need the names of all seventeen players the Lakers
signed today.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Can you just give us that seventeen so we can begin.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Well, I think it's substantially left, but yeah, it's Rui
Hachimura and gave Vincent and tarn Prince their their jobs
still not done. So there's there's three of them right there.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
For I didn't they they extended Chris mim and they
brought back Andrew Bindham.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They did that as well.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
You know what I hear they might be doing. I
hear maybe a sign and tray in the works regarding
D'Angel Russell in return, Jalen Brunson, what do you think
of that?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Whoa whoa? Whoa?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Whoa?
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Whoa whoa?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
You want to fight? We can fight right after this.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Now, I thought for a second you had whoa, But
I was talking about the sign and trade with D'Angelo Russell.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Whoa whoa? Like Brunson?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Who whoa?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Whoa?
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Whoa?
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Whoa? Whoa?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Whoa whoa? Whoa whoa whoa?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
No, so look so far I like what the Lakers
have done. Look, gave Vincent's a great signing, right. Who knows,
maybe the Lakers can get the cam Reddish out of
cam Reddish.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But so far.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I like what they've done, but I feel like, if
you really want to be that that team that says, hey,
revaulting to the top of the West, I think you
need that one more big movie, that that big you know, playmate,
And maybe something is is happening where they have a
lot of flexibility right now because they've extended the offer
to Reeves and they bring back Hotchamore and they could
be russ all this stuff. I feel like they need
(02:35):
that one more They need to throw that one more
punch to suddenly say, hey, now we are not last
year wasn't just a fluke.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We are now legit back at the top of the list.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's a good point, and I think in fairness, you know,
clearly free agency hasn't ended yet, and so I think
the order of things is eventually they're going to resign
Austin Reeves. So that's a given. D'Angel Russell. I was
joking about the whole sign in church in New York.
You can relax, Jalen. Jalen Brunson isn't going to go
(03:03):
anywhere unless it's the unless it's the Philadelphia for James Harden, right.
But I think that they're probably lean more toward keeping
D'Angelo than letting them walk, and then, uh, you know,
if they get a backup center, I think that their
job is mostly done. Like clearly they showed that if
(03:24):
we're going to pick winners and losers in free agency here,
which I did as many other NBA writers did, the
better route is to maximize and prioritize depth than to
I just resign a star for the sake of doing it.
Allah the Dallas Mavericks with Kyrie Irving, and so I
(03:45):
think that one of the things that we have to
keep in mind when you know, there's all this talk about, oh,
the Lakers are really going to run it back when they,
you know, looked overwhelmed against the Denver Nuggets. Well, first
of all, the Nuggets are a legit team. But secondly,
you have to look at it through the lens of
the second half of the season. The Lakers are one
of the best teams in the NBA, third best record overall,
(04:08):
and they ran out of gas partly because they were
expending so much energy treating every game like it's a
game seven to second half of the season, because they
were got awful the first half of the season because
of Russell Westbrook. And so what that means next season
is they're going to have that same core, better continuity,
(04:28):
more chemistry, as well as kind of a reset of
having the batteries recharged a little bit. So if they
complete this as far as Reeves, D'Angel, Russell and then
another backup big, they are in the mix to get
back another championship.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
So reading into that answer there mark on your Biggest
Losers tag not to be confused with the old reality
show they don't do anymore, is that the Mavericks shed
a lot of money for no value here.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, without a doubt. And look, the reason why I'm
critiquing the Dallas Mavericks isn't necessarily that they gave Kyrie
Irving a three year, one hundred and twenty six million
dollar deal. I think it's more of they got into
this predicament between choosing two bad options of either retaining
Kyrie or relying on trying to get mid tier guys
(05:24):
in the open market to compliment Luka Dacis. And that
all traces back to the original Kyrie deal acquisition before
the trade deadline, where they got rid of some of
their depth, and clearly this past season they couldn't make
the play in tournament with Kyrie. So the idea that, oh,
if we just run it back with Luke and Kyrie,
(05:45):
they can carry us. No, they can't. And the ironic
part is, while I'm always going to leave the Kyrie
Irving Bingo card open for any Shenanigans that he pulls
that makes them suddenly unavailable, at least in his time
in Dalla, he was seen as a positive locker room presence.
He did, for the most part, coexists well with Luka
(06:07):
Doctrich offensively, and I think that those two things very
well could stay intact. But it's not going to mean
anything if they can't defend and they don't have any
supporting cast around them. So here is where the Dallas
Mavericks are. They technically have seven free agents on the
rest of the roster. They can make moves like hey,
(06:27):
Seth Curry signings nice, but I'm very skeptical that they
would be able to draw, you know, those kind of
valuable role players to make enough you know, I mean,
Bruce Brown's already off the table, Kevin loves off the table.
I don't think that they're going to have the elite
croppings of you know, all those middle tier guys at
their disposal.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Mark, let me ask, let me let me throw this
at you, because this is this is where I came to you,
because I'm trying to make sense to Kyrie Irving, knowing
full well that no other team in the NBA is
going to say we're a Kyrie Irving away from winning
because they couldn't this last three teams couldn't get rid
of him fast enough. How much of this in Dallas
is they really can't find someone to come play with
Luca that boy. Getting someone to come and be that
(07:10):
other guy is really really difficult, whether it's from a
fitting standpoint or from playing alongside Luca is not as
easy as people thinks it.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Maybe, well, look, it's a fair question because for all,
if we're all over brilliant, Luka Doncic is as a player,
he is ball dominant, He does a lot of things
on his own. He can get frustrated with guys. But
I think at the end of the day, if the
Mavericks had a complete roster, they would be able to
(07:40):
convince other team or other players to team up with
Luka Doncic. Just the problem is they don't have enough
cap space to be able to do that, and you
know they have a mid level exception, you know, around
twelve million dollars. But I don't think it's really enough
when you're comparing that against you know, other teams that
(08:01):
could be in the mix, like a Lakers for example,
that you know there are only a few pieces away
of being in contention. And I think the bigger point
is this. There were I think some talks earlier, you know,
before free agency about possible trades going down, whether it's
you know, with DeAndre and with Phoenix. I know Mark
(08:22):
Stein was reporting that, and they shied away from that
because they didn't have enough valuable pieces to entice them
with them to pull the trigger. So I think that's
the larger part. It's not to say that Luca is
not blameless because of those qualities outlined. He also has
to show up in training camp in better shape than
he has in the past seasons. But you know, if
(08:44):
I had to rank all the problems that are plaguing
the Mavericks, Luca's kind of toward the bottom where it's
more of you know, the roster constructions number one, and
then everything else kind of filters down from that.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
Mark Madena alongside NBA journal list.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
All right, journalist, I was gonna say journal but I
hate that. You hear him on the network here.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
Fox Sports Radio joined us each week here is Jason
Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
You find him on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina
for all his musings, insights and everything around the NBA.
And Mark in Golden State with the Warriors. We uh
with not surprise Draymond got his one hundred million? What
do they do to actually get better?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Uh? So you're not in savor of the Draymond Green signing.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I gather no, no, no, I got no problem with it.
I can't, I need.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I think it's terrible. I think I think it. Look, look, Mark,
how are you going to all the.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Warriors of my question? But but but I'm but I'm
the one that doesn't like it. You're the one that
doesn't always like it. So I'm gonna tell you why
I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Look, all they've done is get older.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They brought in Chris Paul, who, yeah, is gonna be
great getting them into their sets for a little bit,
until suddenly Chris Paul hits the wall because he's thirty
seven thirty eight years old, and you're paying Draymond to
come back now for four more years when he's not.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
The same player.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You don't pay players pass their prime and bring him
in and win championships. If anything, they need to reload
on the fly around Steph, And all they decide to
do is say, well, Bob Myers has gone.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
What do we do? I don't know. Let's keep everybody together.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Let's just keep the band together because we love everybody here,
and we'll still sell jerseys. There'll be one franchise players
their entire career. The fans will love it. That's what
we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I really I don't get the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
There moves the combination of bringing in Chris Paul and
not getting a great value in return for Jordan Poole
because they should have got way more for him, and
getting Chris Paul and training a first round pick, and
then bringing in Draymond.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I just don't get it.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, how about this. I'm ready to throw down with
you guys, So don't worry. It won't be Jordan Poole style.
It's just the points here. Look, with Draymond, you know
the punch is there's no excuse for it, but for
better and for worse, you know, when you're looking at
the connecting the dots, they trade Jordan Poole, but they
valued Draymond and shouldn't be the other around. For better
(11:01):
and for worse, they weren't calculating the punch like they
were calculating from an on court perspective, who can we
rely on more? And yes, Draymond Green's getting older, but
I would argue this past season he mostly played up
to what he showed in his prime years, especially defensively.
And while you know Father Time is always going to
(11:23):
be undefeated, I trust that, at least for the next
two years that he's going to be the Draymonds. That's
a good version of Draymond on the court. So that's
number one. Number two. I do have the concerns that
you guys have about Chris Paul's durability because the reality is,
even though he's training the right way, eating the right way,
(11:44):
competing the right way, his body still breaks down. But
there's two things here to unpack. The Warriors, I think,
have more roster balance than the Suns do, so there's
not going to be as much of a workload on
Chris Paul. That's number one. Number two too. You have
to look at the Jordan Pool trade through the lens
of a lot of it was salary related, and it
(12:07):
wasn't so much of Oh I'm billionaire Joe lakeup and
I'm crying poverty because I have to pay all these
salary cap or all these luxury taxes. It is because
they're past the second apron suddenly they don't have that
mid level exception that's non taxpayer that they can use
to round out the rest of their rosters. So they
traded Jordan Poole mostly because of that. Secondly, because he
(12:32):
was inconsistent as a younger player, and they've decided philosophically,
you know what, We're going to lean more toward, you know,
the championship star players that got us here, rather than
try to do the whole two timeline thing and develop
on the fly. And so with that, they do have
an avenue to round out their roster because they have
(12:52):
more spending tools, partly because they shed Jordan Poole's contract.
Hasn't happened yet, but this is the first stay a
free agency. So stay tuned tonight, tomorrow and onward.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You can follow on Twitter at Mark G Underscore Medina.
That's at Mark G Underscore Medina. Longtime NBA insider, Uh,
Mark has always appreciate your time and make sure people
know that the sign and trade D'Angelo Russell for Jalen
Brunson is not a real story.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay, not a real news news.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I will, I will say it's fake news. But who knows.
Maybe James Harder for Jalen Brunson. What do you say?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Okay, Okay, hang up on hang up on Mark Medina
right now, hang up buddy. Oh my goodness, always great
with Mark Medina again, he's on Twitter at Mark G
Underscore Medina.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Potential for you.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
Having a uh an arrhythmia there for a second, Oh.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
James, is he deadpanding?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I was kind of dangerous on day one Free.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Agency Nick fan Nick fans would burn their tickets in
front of Madison Square Garden in a big BoNT fire.
They would all show up and just drop their seat
and tickets and burden.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Then you don't know what the hell you're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
That was how very good. Franka Stanza, that.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
BA insider like that who's well connected, had James Harden
in it.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Stop Stop Frostburg. Just stop, Okay, just stop, you know what,
Go back to figuring out. I think the Lakers just
signed three more guys.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Go figure out your.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
Sports life doesn't suck enough. You need James Harden.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I think I think you got Travis Knight back again.
Go make sure and see you see.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
If that happened Travis. I'll just take Travis at this point,
just a guy named Travis.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I'll just take Randy Travis.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah live.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Yeah, We're deeper than the Holler Now.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And the Holler Live from thetirag dot com studios where
we have big news coming out of the NBA right now.
Tyrese Halliburt, You talk about getting paid. He has agreed
on a five year max deal with the Pacers that
could be worth up to two hundred and sixty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I am, he could be making fifty million a year. Yeah,
talk about corner start of the franchise. That's where it is, Hey, Halliburton.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Bruce Brown, look out here come the Pacers joining us
now the hot line Fox Sports one NBA Insider extraordinaire,
no one better than Rick Buker. Rick, did you negotiate
this deal for Haliburton? It's a lot of money?
Speaker 6 (15:40):
I wish I said, well, you know what, it's an
easy deal though. I mean, you knew that Haliburton was
going to be one of their cornerstone players. So it's
just where the money is these days. It is a
crazy amount of money. There's some guys that I would
worry they get the money and they're not going to
be the same player. I'm not. I'm not as worried.
I'm not worried about that. When it comes to uh
(16:01):
Tyrese Haliburton. I think he's He's about the right things.
I'm trying to think about. I'm trying to remember the
conversation he had though about what was a good shot
and a bad shot, and he may need to upgrade
his idea of what a good shot. Other than that,
Other than that, I'm a big I'm a big Tyree's
(16:24):
fan and totally understandable and and adding Bruce Brown to
that equation as well. I I like where the I
like where the Pacers are going. I think they are.
They're certainly in the mix to be a playoff team
next year.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
Well at least they chose a direction, which is good.
We've been laughing a lot waiting on the ticker rick
of the next Lakers signing.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
What do you expect the next shoe to drop?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Air?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Well, I mean, the number one thing is I haven't
seen anything on on Austin Reeves yet unless I missed something,
And to me, that's the that's the that's the big question.
Is is he going to sign with them or is
he going to sign an offer sheet. If he signs
(17:13):
an offer sheet, then chances are it's going to be
an amount that is going to be really difficult for
the Lakers. They may not put him in a buy now.
They said they're going to match anything, but the way
they're there, the salary cap is structured and what they
can pay him, they need it. They need a lot
(17:36):
of it backloaded. If I'm not mistaken, they can't pay
him a whole lot up front. So that's the tricky thing.
I know that they were they've been talking to Austin
trying to get him to sort of say, hey, like
I'll just sign direct with I'll re up with you
guys without uh, without breaking the bank. And I would
(17:57):
be a little bit concerned at this point that that
hasn't happened because they locked up Ruie. I like the
additions of cam Briddish and Gabe Vincent, but if they
lose Austin Reeves, then that I think it's almost like
you you're breaking even as opposed to getting ahead just
(18:20):
because he was he was, he was so meaningful. The
tricky the other tricky part was Austin is. The question
for me is how much better can he get? Because
you're when when the deal that he was on, you're like, Wow,
we're we're we're in gravy, like we're we're getting so
much bang for our bucks with him on on the
(18:40):
deal that he was on. But now when you're talking
about paying a guy like nineteen twenty million dollars, Now
he can't occasionally be you're a third best player. He
has to always be you're a third best player. And
I just don't he's already such a solid player and crafty.
I just I don't know how high his feeling is
(19:03):
beyond what we've already seen.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
All right, Rick, let's go here now, We've had a
big day in NBA free agency and we saw a
lot of still some players still on the board, but
we saw a lot of big signings. If I said,
complete the sentence, my favorite free agent signing of today
was who would you tell me?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
That's a tough one. I mean my first honestly, my
kind of think through all that you you would ask
me that, like, of of all of the so much
of it has to do with money versus what they need.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean, let's go, let's go with what they need.
You know, you're right, I should have given you. I
should have given you a non next question. Right, So
if what as far as what team?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
What team?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
The favorite signing you had because the team improved the
most or or this this signing means the most to
a team. Forget about the money where it is because
it's not our money. We're not spending it, You're not
spending it. Uh, what you like the most? What team
improved the most with with what you saw today?
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Honestly not sure? You know, looking around, I'm not sure
that I that I see one.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
That wow wow.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
That that move I mean, honestly, that moves the needle.
You know, I could say that I I like, I
like the Grizzly signing signing Derrick Rose, but I mean, look,
he's he's going to be a backup off the bench.
I still I think he could have helped the Knicks.
(20:49):
I like a sneaky A sneaky move is Miami Heat
moving Victor Oladipo for a for a trade exception, which
gives them almost ten million dollars to kind of to
play with to try to bolster, to try to bolster
their team. That's not going to be what they're going
to use in the Damian Lillard equation obviously, But honestly,
(21:10):
I'm just you know, looking around signing Jeremy Grant s
Portland does that that that gives them a little bit
of a glimmer of hope that Damien isn't. At some
point after free agency is over, is going to say,
I gave you a shot to make this into a
championship contending team, and it obviously isn't. So can I
(21:32):
get my walking papers? I just I don't know.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
The Dallas Mavericks picking up Beth Curry help. But I
don't see one where I feel.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Like the the the trajectory or the power rankings of
the league shifted dramatically. Honestly, if the Lakers re sign
Austin Reeves and find a way to get that done,
and they're adding Gabe Vincent and Cam b Reddish, that
(22:10):
gives them some athleticism and some potential two way players
on the wings, that should make them at least as
good as they were this past year. The question is
still going to be, you know what's Lebron going to
be able to give you at age thirty nine and
Anthony Davis remain healthy, I mean, the age old questions
(22:31):
about their core, but I would feel a lot better
about their supporting cast if they're able to add all
those three. And I'd say, just looking across the board,
I can't think of another team that I would look
at and said that, say they did as much as
an in free agency as the Lakers did.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Log view, how much does the addition of Red van
Lead help to accelerate things in Houston?
Speaker 6 (23:00):
Amount of money they needed a point guard. Was so
good on them for doing that, And I'm a big
Fred Van Vliet fan, but physically I have some concerns
size wise playing with those young guys. Has he done
enough that those young guys are going to listen to
(23:21):
him and and they're going to move the needle that way. Obviously,
have an Emaiodoka there certainly helped. It's just it's a
lot of money for a guy who I think is
has been a nice surprize as a starting point guard.
I would say he's proved that he is a starting
(23:43):
point guard. Is he a all star caliber starting point guard?
I wouldn't quite. I wouldn't quite go that far.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
So I don't know.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Man, It's I mean, three years, one hundred and thirty
million calp.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Is it better than Kyrie's deal?
Speaker 6 (24:08):
We're talking to forty If my maddin is correct, We're
like talking forty three million a year.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I have that, yep.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
I mean that is that's like superstar money. That's superstar money. Well,
I'm a big I'm a big bread Van's Leaf fan.
But one, is he a superstar?
Speaker 9 (24:30):
And two? How much can he do for a team.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
That is still as young as the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It's a.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
It's a head scratcher for me. I gonna tell you,
I feel like I feel like Rockets weren't. This says
to me the Rockets weren't getting a whole lot done.
Anyplace else, and they needed to show improvement and they
needed to find a point guard, and they decided to
break the bank in order to get it. You know,
the other part is is you give him, you give
him that much money, and you got a couple of
(24:59):
young guys that are co up and looking for extensions.
They're certainly going to be looking for equal amount of pay.
So I'm a big fan of their GM Rafael Stone.
I think he's an out of the box thinker. But man,
it's a lot of money for a guy who I
(25:19):
do not see making an All Star team anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
All right, Rick, Now, we were on opposite sides of
this debate last week and we talked about the Warriors
and Draymond Green, and I'm telling you, you know, they
bring him back four years and one hundred million, and
it's not so much about the money. And but this
is a Warriors team that watched Bob Myers walk out
the door. And what did they do. They traded away
Jordan Poole, which fine, you need to move them, that's great,
(25:44):
But they trade away Pool. They trade a first round
pick and a second round pick and get Chris Paul,
who's going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Getting them into sets and everything else.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
But when it comes time, when it's late in the
season or in the playoffs, how effective is he really
going to be? And now they've decided let's bring Aimon
back for four more years when he's not really as effective,
like his player efficiency rating keeps going down year to year.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I don't understand the Warriors'.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Philosophy of hey, this is the NBA, let's get older
and we can maybe win another championship.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I don't understand that. Rick.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Well, let's consider their options. Jordan Poole's contract was considered
one of the worst contracts out there. There was not
a great market for Jordan Poole, and more than anything,
they needed to get him out of the building and
they needed to get off of that money. And Chris
Paul at least puts another adult in the room. And
(26:37):
if you're going, if you're if you're looking at and saying,
how can we how can we potentially improve while also
being more efficient fiscally and uh, and still have the
potential of moving that contract, you know who, whatever we're
(26:59):
getting back. There's more flexibility in being able to move
Chris Paul again than there would have been for Jordan Poole.
I think the reason they made that move they were like,
we got to get off the money, and the fact
that they added a first round pick lsu like the
only way they were going to get off of that
is if they sweetened the deal. That's how That's how
low Jordan Poole's value was. And honestly, I can make
(27:26):
a case where the Warriors they led the league in
turnovers and Jordan Poole per minute led them in turnovers.
Chris Paul is still one of the top five assists
to turnover ratio guys in the team in the league.
And with the young guys that you're putting with him
(27:49):
in the second unit, you know, people are gonna say, well,
he's gonna play, he's gonna play slower. Okay, Actually that's
not a bad thing if it's going if he's going
to get shot for Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody, which
I would expect that he's able to do, not necessarily
playing the Warriors kind of off the ball style, but
(28:11):
more pick and roll, and which is what Chris likes
to play, in which the younger guys are more adept
at playing because they've just more familiar with it, and
it's a simpler, simpler style than the way the Warriors
don't normally play. So I can make a case where
they've gotten better and certainly even defensively. As much as
Chris Paul has fallen off or is diminished, he was
(28:36):
still night and day better than Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole
guys were shooting over fifty percent against him in the playoffs.
They were shooting under forty percent against Chris Paul. Did
they attack him, yes, but were they as efficient attacking
him as they were attacking Jordan Poole. No, So I can.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Make I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
I'm not mad at that that deal, and the reality
is they're only going to be as good as They're
only going to be take contenders as long as Steps
and Dre are there. What I really want to see
is I want to see the particulars when it comes
to Drey's contract, because it may be four years. I
am hard pressed to believe that all four years are guaranteed.
(29:23):
I feel like this might be a Chris Paul type
contract where the first two years are guaranteed, third years
partially guaranteed, fourth year is not guaranteed. At all and
then considering the amount and what he means to the Warriors,
I can live with it. I mean, here's here's the reality. There,
the harsh reality, like they they drafted Coming, and they
(29:46):
drafted Moody, they drafted Wiseman, like those were their assets
to get younger and develop the next iteration and it
didn't pan out. So now they're like, well, that didn't work,
so let's just try to make the best of this
and get veterans and see if we can squeeze one
more championship out of Steph Krek Clay Strey and now
(30:09):
CP three is.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
On Twitter at Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker.
Check him out. Fox Sports won the On the Ball
podcast as well. Rick, Thanks so much, buddy, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
If the Knicks trade for MBI before the show is over,
we'll call you back.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Please please, And I'm gonna go ahead and go to bed,
all right.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Nick show.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
See, but how about that.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I don't see a move that moved the move that's
moved the needles like that, just moving through it.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
You can hear the scanner in his head. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
There was not a single bleep.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Fox Sports Radio. Somehow we're turned into a Randy Travis Knight.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
Little dig it up bones, let's go celebrate the legend.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now, if it was an Andy Travis Knight, we'd be
playing the theme song at WKRP in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
That is pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
This is Randy Travis.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
This is how it turned into The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Carmen, Life the tyrack dot
Com Studios and Speaking of the day, Yes, it's NBA
Free Agency. It's all kinds of things. And today, of course,
the New York Mets finished their worst June in franchise history.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yea, hey, worse June five wins and what happens next?
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It is July first, which means happy Bobby Benini. Yeah,
we made it to another Bobby Benia day. Let's go
cut that check, ah boy.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
We had to get rid of ped A Lonzo to
pay Bobby Benia.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Sorry, we really good advice.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You can't pay this contract anymore?
Speaker 6 (32:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
We got to get rid of some guys. All right,
let's get rid of some guys. That's kind of how
it works.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Now, I spent it all this year. I'm done. I
can't afford that extra million plus.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know, it's I'm kind of bummed when Bobby Benita
Day kind of falls on the weekend, you know, like
we it should it should get its time to be
publicized and celebrated because it is a big day.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
It's a huge day on the baseball calendar every July.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
First, the Mets are paying Bobby Beanie at one point
nine three million dollars. Ay every uh, you know it's
it's a big day. They're making hats for it. Now,
you send me the link to the they're making hats
to buy for Bobby.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
It took that long.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Oh man, did.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
You get us the hats?
Speaker 5 (32:39):
No?
Speaker 8 (32:40):
What they didn't have Smith's size.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
No, I'm only I was only gonna buy it if
it was one of those giant big head.
Speaker 8 (32:49):
You tell them Jason needs the bouchie.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Seven eighths and the next one is the boachie.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
No, no, no, I need no. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
For first of all, it's a snap back. It's not
even a fitted hat. And secondly, it's seventy five dollars
like it's been seven lolls to.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Come on, that's almost as much as they're paying Bobby Benie.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I'm not gonna do it. That's too much money. It's
way too much celebrating your way too much money.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I will say this.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
I mean, look again, it's mocked incessantly. It's not the
only contract of its kind, So folks need to go
research your own team. You've probably paid someone years longer
than you thought they were on the books.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Go and do that.
Speaker 7 (33:36):
Benia would just happen to be the Mets. They made
a push and and ultimately fiscally probably not the worst.
They got to keep the principal and grow it themselves.
Speaker 8 (33:46):
How are you going to go out and celebrate this Smith?
Speaker 7 (33:48):
And for him, he's got a revenue stream forever, so
he couldn't have made a bad financial move and.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Blown at all.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I'm celebrating right now with ice cream? Are you kidd
Why am I waiting? I'm celebrating, celebrating right now.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
The day is here.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
No like if you had to look up, hey you
or someone said hey, I don't understand what people say
by by when they say bad optic.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I said, what do you mean to go? Well, what
does bad optic mean?
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Ago?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It means where the optic and the image of something
is worse than the actual.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Impact of it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
You know what, Bobby Benia day, that's that is the
That is the dictionary definition of bad optic, right, horrible optic.
That you're paying a guy that last played for you
twenty some odd years ago. They're making commercials now last
year Ryan Reynolds made a commercial with him for Midt
Mobile and all.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Kinds of crazy ass stuff. That is a definition of
bad optic, bad optic.
Speaker 7 (34:37):
Well, and that's just it, right, You just run with it,
and now you create your own Look, you got plenty
of other things that are bad optics, now lean into those. No,
sure your current owners made some mistakes of his own.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So yeah, like with the roster, you mean, like everybody
on the team. Yeah, big mistakes there.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Coming up next, we got all the latest and NBA
free agency. The biggest headshot scratching moves of the day
are clear.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
That's next. Knox m
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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